Drakkhen is a nearly incomprehensuble, French-made RPG from 1989. Good aspects of the game include: one of the earliest games to have a real-time day/night cycle. Surprisingly deep loot table. Impressive mob variety. Minimalist, but effectively moody musical score. Bad aspects of the game include: -nearly imprehensible plot -illogical story progression that sometimes doesn't tell, or even hint at what you're supposed to do next -no discernable structure to character leveling (seems to occur at random) -Party members situated in 2nd and 3rd position tend to gain vastly more xp than charcters in 1st and 4th positions -spells and potions have no in game descriptions, and use a series of symbols which must be cross-referenced with game manual -no in game map or compass = you have to guess your way around -combat is fully automated which reduces gameplay to traversing the map and equipping gear Despite these myriad problems, Drakkhen is a fascinating footnote in the annals of RPG history. While most early RPG developers zigged in the direction of Chunsoft's "Dragon Warrior" (1986), Infogrames dared to zag in their own direction, creating an early 3D map that is traversed in 1st person view, instead of the gridded 2D maps of other RPGs of the era. It is equal parts utterly baffling and genuinely intriguing game design that make Drakkhen worth checking out. The sheer number of different mobs in the game will absolutely blow your mind. As will most of the rest of the game.
King's Quest V burst onto the scene with all new 256 color VGA graphics just one year after Sierra released a bunch of games with its new 16-color EGA SCI platform. Though the visuals were revolutionary at the time, many of these games have not aged well. While nostalgia-seeking players might revel in the old school visual style, it's difficult to defend King's Quest 5's THREE guess-and-check labyrinths -- the desert, the sea, and the... well, the actual labyrinth. These types of puzzles are intensely frustrating owing to a lack of in-game clues pointing you in any kind of direction. You literally have to guess your way through them, or simply run to the internet to look up the solutions. That being said, many of the item collecting puzzles in KQ5 are an improvement over KQ4 which often had lapses in logic, and just outright nonsensical gameplay (trying to climb the whale's tongue is... just... come on!) This series is very quaint by today's standards, and likely won't find many new fans. It lacks the stronger narratives and more engaging gameplay of the Quest for Glory series, but there are some fond memories for those of us who were between the ages of 8-12 in 1990.
The Quest for Glory series should be heralded as one of the most influential and groundbreaking in the history of gaming. In the final chapter, the protagonist embarks on a series of epic adventures, the scope of which easily outstrips anything the player has previously done in the series. Dragonfire gives the player greater agency than ever before, including pursuing their choice of romantic partner among four options. Additionally, it features one of the best fully-orcchestrated scores ever composed for a game. The shortcomings of the game are fairly outstanding, however. Coming off the heels of Shadows of Darkness, which featured some of gaming's best-ever voice acting, the VA here is substandard, and in some cases, outright poor. QfG was always endeavoring to evolve its combat interface from game to game, and while Dragonfire does not hit the lows of QfG3 in that department, it ultimately delivers an awkward and unintuitive free-roam system that -- while not totally unplayable -- will never be considered one of the game's strengths. The environments and sense of immersion are rather exquisite, even given the limitations of the technology. Though an uneven product, overall, QfGV provides longtime fans of the series a pleasant sense of closure, and it's a great final adventure as we bid our hero a fond farewell.
