For me, it goes 1>4>>>>>>>>5>2>3

1 is my favorite, though that might be nostalgia kicking in. I played QFG1 back when it was called "Hero's Quest". Where as the other 4 games, I only got around to playing recently.

4 is second because it is the most similar to 1 in terms of set up, so it felt more familiar, plus I liked the darker setting.

There is a big gap for me between those two games and the rest.

5 didn't feel like it should even be in the series in terms of style... Didn't feel like a QFG game to me. I enjoy RPG's but if I wanted to play an RPG, I wouldn't be playing a Quest for Glory game. But I did like that they FINALLY made the armor you used change the character's appearance (I didn't like all all 3 classes looked the same in the other games). I liked the arena, and that you could wear a helmet. I also liked how they didn't force fighters to use a shield and let all classes use swords (since i tend to favor hybrid characters rather than pure ones, and this helped enhance that experience).

2 felt too forced having major events happen on certain days and having to do stuff by certain days or game over... I also couldn't stand wondering around the city before being able to buy a map and how so much of the desert looked the same.

3 was my least favorite because it felt forced (I now know why given that 3 was not in the original plan like the other 4 games were). Plus, as a fan of hybrid characters, I hated how you somehow forgot how to use the thief sign if your class was a fighter, even if you knew all of the thief skills. There were barely any locks to pick anyway. This was the least hybrid character friendly game in the series, so I did not like that.

In number of hours put into the games, it would be 1, 2, 4, 5, 3. I played games to death when I was younger. If it was for the overall game, I'd have to change it to 2, 4, 1, 5, 3.

So You Want to Be a Hero: One of the games that introduced me to roleplaying. I spent countless hours trying to learn every secret that game had to give, the last being the Antwerp population explosion :)

Trial by Fire: gave me the urgency that the city was in danger. So I had to actively quest for what was needed to do to be the hero Shapeir needed me to be. The combat system for this was also my favorite.

Wages of War: This one never felt like a true QFG game to me. It came out when I was in high school, and I brought it into computer class for others to enjoy. As I also enjoy playing hybrid characters, the fact that there wasn't much geared specific for Thief characters bummed me out. The game just felt very plain until you got to the Leapordmen, and then it felt rushed towards the end.

Shadows of Darkness: Storyline was this was my favorite. Katrina, a Cthulu type cult, Katrina, the return of your nemesis, Katrina, some more backstory on Erana, etc. The weakest portion of the game for me was the combat system (except for the music).

Dragon Fire: The thing that detracted me the most from this game was the 3D system. The controls took a while to get used to, but was still a bit strange. The setting was on par with Trial by Fire though. At least you have the chance to become ruler though, rather than an old man sitting in a book store writing books about his past adventures.

I'm probably gonna have an unpopular opinion in this regard

3 is my favorite because Africa is such an underused setting for fantasy gaming, and I love the Liontaurs, the Simbani, and the Leopardmen. In addition, this is also the first game you can play as a paladin, and for paladins and wizards, my two favorite classes, this is easily the moment where you start to feel like you're "coming of age". Thieves suffer the most here, but I never felt particularly bad about playing as a thief here - I still got to do things, just not as in-depth as the first or second game.

1-VGA is my second favorite because nostalgia. It was the first point and click adventure I ever played. I was in love with the sprite-work even as a kid, especially in regards to the shimmering fruit of Erana's Peace. This is the game that defined DOS gaming for me. I mostly played as a Fighter with Magic, because I had a hard time playing a pure Magic User, and the Thief felt morally wrong to play, but I got over that eventually. I never grinded so I died a lot, lol.

(1-EGA is tied because despite the fact that it was a "downgrade", it's still a great game and there's a lot of retro charm to it that more than makes up for things.)

2-EGA and 2-VGA are tied as well because they both do things I love but in different ways. The EGA version has some charm that just isn't the same in the VGA version, but that's just the nature of the beast - in fact, a lot of nostalgia has to do with remembering imperfections fondly. But I digress. I think this one had music that stuck in my memory the most - particularly, the Astrologer's theme, of all thing.

4 is unfortunately trailing low but is not an actual indication of its quality. First of all, I was never a big fan of Street Fighter, so the transition to the sideview was difficult. Secondly, by the time we got the game, our computer was so advanced that it was impossible to play, and this was before DOSBox or the NewRisingSun patches were a thing. So basically, this game left a very bad first impression - it was impossible to beat. Hell, it was impossible to get past the first part, for awhile. Even after that, the combat style I feel very "meh" about. Controlling it manually is a pain in the butt, and the automatic AI is really simple and stupid. I wasn't a big fan of the full-body portraits for the talk scenes, it just felt really jarring. That's not to say they were *bad*, it just feels like getting smacked in the face each time.

That being said, the game did a lot right, and despite the darker atmosphere, I think it was somehow *goofier* than the previous games. Or maybe it was BECAUSE of the darker atmosphere.

5 is dead last, unfortunately. I had no idea this game existed until years after its release, and when I did, it just seemed unobtainable somehow without dropping more money than I could spare. When I finally did get it, it was such a drastic change from the series with incredibly blurry backgrounds, a spinning camera view for a good number of scenes, a combat system that made ranged attacks (especially with throwing weapons!) almost impossible to use except in the very final battle, because if an enemy moved a centimeter from the moment you began your animation, it would miss... even if the enemy was point-blank, because the character was obsessed with arcing them. Wizards are hilariously overpowered because they can just Hide + Dazzle + Frostbite everything that isn't immune to frost.

I will give the fifth game credit though - it took the already awesome paladins and made them even BETTER.

However, I would much rather have the game as it is than not at all.

Hmm this thread reminded me I have to play though these again, its one of my favorite series of games.

My order is 4>2>3>1>5 but that is a hard order to make because I do love them all.

4 - Oh man, By the time I got this game I was already a fan of the series and I remeber loving the atmosphere of the starting cave and John Rhys-Davis narration, so cool. But then the game crashed as you slid down the ramp near the beginning of the game. Now I would stop playing as the game is clearly broken, but not back then this was my game and I was going to play it! I played with the settings and after much trial and error(I think it was moving the speed slider all the way up) I got down the hill. The atmosphere, the story, the voiced characters, I loved it all. There were other errors that crashed the game too, but I wokred through them even if it meant starting over. I think I had to give my fighters athletics or magic becasue walking through the swamp would cause a crash. This is the only game that was not hard to rank, far and away my favorite.

2 - This one is interesting becasue I started with QFG3 and by then I could not play 2 until the anthology came out. Even then I had played all the VGA versions and going back to EGA seemed like a huge step back (with typing instead of point and click) so I usually skipped 2 in my playthoughs. It was not until much later that I started playing it, I feel like this game gave the most variety for the different classes and hybrids to do. Even though I did not like it at first its grown to be one of my favorites though I'll probably play the fan made VGA version when I play through it again.

3 - This was my first introduction to QFG and nostalgia may be raising this more than it deserves but I loved the setting and the characters in this one as well. It also introduced me to paladin which I thought were awesome and was disappointed when other media paladin are not as cool as QFG made them in my mind. Though multiple plays I've realized its a bit bare compared to others in the series. I love it anyway.

1 - I played the VGA version of this one before the EGA one. Really I think 1, 2, and 3 could all swap places in various orders in the list. I like the characters better in future games so I bumped this one down but its still a great game and it leads into so much more.

5 - I've played this one the least (but still more than a few times) and its my least favorite but it gives a good conclusion to the story, and I like that they brought back so many characters.

Thanks for the responses! I enjoyed reading all of your opinions. I was able to enjoy all of them in some way or another even i they weren't nearly as good to me as 1 and 4 were.

After I saw the ending of 5, I thought it would have been cool if they had started a King's Quest game from that point with the same hero. But maybe that would have been overkill...

1. QFG4. This game is just... Amazing! Incredible! Awesome! Stupendous! The artwork, music, and voice acting are some of the best you will ever find in any game. The story, the characters, the humor,... everything is amazing in this game. The only downside is the bugs, but most of those have been patched in GOG. I don't really care about the side view in combat because you can make the computer do the fighting for you if you want, which is another plus.

2. QFG5. Yeah I know this is an unpopular opinion. But I love it. It was the longest, most challenging game, I soon noticed that this game has a maximum of 1000 points instead of the normal maximum of 500. The game felt like a bear when I first played it, but when I finally beat it, BOY did that make me feel good! It's also the most replayable game in the series because there are so many things you can do. There are 4 different character classes, most of whom have multiple ways to get through the game. You can choose to marry women as an optional sidequest. As a thief you can also force you way into places or learn about all the secret. As a wizard there are many spells you can experiement with along with optional thing like being able to solve the bank robbery. You can also get the blackbird, or choose not to get it. You can try for the blackmail ending. You can be king or refuse it. You can use the ring of truth or not. There are so many things you can do and this game will give you many hours of enjoyment, many months of enjoyment before you get tired of it

3. QFG2. This was the first game in the series that I played, so there is some bias. That said, I like the Katta. I love cats and making them a group of people who befriend you and you have to help was a great idea. I like the characters. There'a a wide variety of characters from Aziza to Shema to Issur to the Dervish to Julanar. I like that you can Shapeir muliple times and get rewarded for it every time. The music in this game is 2nd to QFG4 in this series. I love the part from when you travel to Raseir to the end, the game just grabs a hold on you and doesn't let go. I like the variety of endings (you can choose to or not to become a paladin and different characters may or may not speak up for you at the end). This game has the best villain in the series and probably the best villain Sierra ever created. The fact that everything is fixed in this game (the elements appear on certain days, you go to Raseir on a certain day, you only have limited time to take care of these things and you have to wait for them to happen) is a downer, but it's still a great game

4. QFG3. This game is viewed as lesser than the rest because it was forced into the series at the last minute. Me personally: I don't care! Would you rather have 5 QFG games or just 4? You can guess my answer. An Africa-themed game was a great idea. This game helps you learn a little bit about African culture. Some slight downers would be that there aren't many interesting characters compared to other games, the music is hit and miss, and this is mainly a fighter-paladin game, with not much for the wizard and even less for the thief. But there are enough interesting characters (Harami, Manu, Rakeesh, Kreesha, the survivor, Salim, Uhura, the Laibon) and there's enough good music to make this game worthwhile, and it's worth playing as a wizard and a thief anyway as they do have something to offer. This is one of the most underrated games ever. It's great!

5. QFG1. It's not that this game isn't great (it is). It's just that the other 4 games are even greater. That's good. It means that Lori and Corey got better and better with each game they made. That's the way it should be. It's a lot of little things that put this game at the bottom. It's the easiest quickest and least replayable. And there are things like the fact that you can accidentally dump out a potion if you misclick (which can range for annoying to disastrous), the fact that it's the only game where running out of stamina is an instant death in combat (in the other games, losing stamina means you lose health faster but it's not an instant death), and having to watch Shema go in and out of the kitchen multiple times every time you get a meal at the inn. But despite those things, it's a great game and was a great start to a great series.

I would say that all games are great but it would be completely different if they will all be remakes with beautiful graphics.
I rank them in this order qfg5, qfg4, qfg3, qfg1, qfg2. I prefer a lot of ocean and relaxed atmosphere with beautiful music. It would be nice if there will be improvement for QFG5 to be available in 1080p resolution.

So You Want To Be A Hero
Shadows of Darkness
Trial by Fire
Wages of War
Dragon Fire

Really hard to do.

I think 1 deserves extra credit for starting from scratch, and laying the foundation of this world. 4 and 2 really bring their settings to life in an interesting way and have great stories. 3 seemed a little more buggy, also a little more tone-deaf and 'paint-by-numbers' writing. 5 had its heart in the right place but the gameplay wasn't right.

Hero-U (fair to call it 6?) is right up there, though. I'm loving it!

Best to least is like this for me:
4 - 2 - 1 - 5 - 3

Four is the nostalgia trip and the storytelling at it's finest.
Two is the best fleshed out and tightest representation, with the least amount of bugs, and with Fighters who don't need to be Paladin Minus.
One is the original and benefits from a remake to bring it in line with the other VGAs.
Five is continuation I literally submitted a letter to Sierra to get made.
Three is a buggy mess, with thieves shoved in as an afterthought. 8) (Sorry, Zachski, but I will grant you that Africa is criminally underused as a locale :D)

1 > 2 > 3 pretty much just for nostalgia reasons. 4 is next, but will always be marred by the buggy release that left me unable to play it as a kid, while 5 is the black sheep of the family and its only claim to fame is providing closure to a game series of otherwise better games. It wasn't bad, it just doesn't stand out on its own.

4 > 1 > 5 > 3 > 2

Shadows of Darkness was the highwater mark in the series, even though over the years I've probably spent more time researching bugfixes and work-arounds than actually playing it.

So You Want To Be a Hero? is just maximum-tier comfy. Sparring with the Weapon Master, throwing knives in the Thief's Guild, playing Mage's Maze with Erasmus. Rarely do I run a character through the entire series but I'm always down for a full clear of the first.

Dragonfire gets a lot of hate for how it plays, but I think storywise, it was close to perfect. Bringing back all the old characters from every game was a great send-off.

Wages of War was pretty meh. Easy to forget but nothing explicitly wrong with it.

Trial By Fire. Egh. That horrible, horrible maze. And the game quests being on a timer to limit you grinding in a game series built around grinding up skills. No wonder it was the only title in the series without an official VGA upgrade.

3>4>5>1>2, mainly on a combination of the setting themes and the degree to which the protagonist had developed relationships.

This is one reason why #3 comes way ahead of #2 in my book. Notwithstanding the usual complaints about it (the timing, the maze-streets, etc), there was a constant feeling of everyone patting you on the head and telling you to run off and be a good little hero. By the time of #3, the condescending undercurrent had disappeared* and the character was being trusted to take things fully into their own hands.

* With the obvious exception of characters like Rajah, who was obnoxious on general principle.

I don't see why it matters whether or not the VGA upgrade is "official."

You don't mark a difference between a fan mod and an official release?

That's right. I don't. I care only about how good the update is.