Quest For Glory 1: So You Want to be a Hero - So You Want to be a Fighter

If this game had a difficulty settings, then fighter is 'Easy'. If you don't want to give much thought to your actions beyond 'mash the attack button', then choose the fighter. If you just want to get through the game without a lot of side quests, then choose the fighter.

EGA graphics in all their glory!

While Magic-users have spells to gather and train, and thieves have loot to gather and sell, the fighter has the special skill of parry, which really doesn't add much benefit to combat. During my battles I found the best defense was a good offense.

Parry or just stab madly?

More often than not, holding the attack key won battles with less loss of life than trying to wrangle the controls to time parry or dodge. Even so, I did train those abilities to a respectable level in order to try to give them their due. In the end, I just spammed stab.

Parry did allow me to take out the Weapon Master though.

The fighter, or I should say the parry skill, allows the hero to train with the Weapon Master. My early days consisted of clearing out the stables, training with the Weapon Master, and fighting off waves of goblins. At 1 gold per day, it was a costly venture, but my skills at his hands raised considerably more than either of the other options.

Hey, just because I soundly trounced you doesn't mean you're a pathetic has-been.

Now that I lacked a quick way to build up stats, I was forced to train against endless waves of goblins. The training grounds there offered a slower progression, but greater rewards in gold. So much gold I was quickly weighed down, and ended up throwing much of it away.

After some time I gauged my skills advanced enough to take on the ogre outside the cave. I was correct in my assessment and found myself facing off with the bear.

Being a fighter and not turning back from a fight, I engaged the bear. I wasn't skilled enough to take him out, but I don't think it's possible to win in this case. I didn't try with max skills as I saw that fruitless. Without a calming spell I racked my brain for another means to satiate the bear; I offered him one of my food rations after he turned down the vegetables. I never did find a use for those, even the horses at the stables refused.

I also failed to use brute strength against the frost giant, even with max skills.

For the kobold, I found I didn't enter the normal combat screen when I typed 'fight', instead I pulled out my sword and sparred with him using the controls I had come accustomed to while facing the Weapon Master. Due to his constant teleporting, I found it easiest to throw rocks when he teleported away, which caused him to teleport back to directly in front of me. After a few rounds of stab and throw he disappeared and left a key behind.

So far the solutions to puzzles for a fighter have been narrowly focused on throwing (healer's ring, spitting plants), and I found Erasmus had little to offer a hero of my stature as well. I had little reason to visit 'enry, so I avoided even meeting him.

I slaughtered countless goblins.

In order to advance my skills I looked for fights at every corner, and after buying the chain mail armor I had little use for all the gold I began carrying around. Due to the weight of it all (I was carrying around massive amounts of fruit), I could only carry a small number of potions. I found the fighter added points to his score for each new creature bested in combat.

Corey, if you happen to read this, why wasn't mounting the head of a Saurus Rex in the guild hall an option? I'd love to see little details like this in Hero-U, which I'm looking forward to playing along with Trickster (or sooner).

I was trying to think of all manner of creature I could face off against. Even though the butcher dreamed of feasting on the white stag, I couldn't kill it. The dryad was equally immune to attacks, and the meeps wouldn't come out of their hidey-holes when faced with aggression. I never tried facing off with that fox in the trap though... probably wouldn't have worked anyway.

I even tried fighting the frost giant multiple ways, but even throwing rocks was a dead end.

I collected what I needed to finish the game, mandrake root, dispel potion, and the key to the secret passage. I never discovered the second note (at least I don't remember getting it), but I still managed to run across the meeting between Brutus and a random henchman brigand. Good thing too because brute strength couldn't open the door. I saw it's possible to just charge in and climb over the logs while stifling the pain of hundreds of arrows. I'd rather fight the troll in the cave though.

In-fighting brigands, who would have guessed.

I read, and spoiled myself, about the antwerp on Chet's blog. In the VGA version, you can just kind of maneuver around him and still operate the door; however, in the EGA version it didn't seem possible. So, I ended up attempting to face off with him.

Of course I'm cocky, I'm a fighter!

Well, the antwerp either got in the way or I had to fight him, which caused him to leap high in the air like a dragoon from Final Fantasy. I'm not sure I would have figured to type 'use sword' on my own, but because I read it in the recent blogs, I couldn't exactly wipe that from memory.

I think this animation was meant for a dagger. It looks like he is grabbing the sword blade. Don't try this at home kids.

Even with the foreknowledge of the password, I did the stupid fighter thing and entered headstrong in my ability to face off against the troll. It still took a couple of fights before I got the rhythm down to strike solid blows. I yanked off his beard for later and strode proudly outside where I met the minotaur.

Only two 'A's, I think you underestimate my baaadness.

Not big on small talk, the minotaur was a tough battle. I actually took him out easily the first time I faced him, but walked out towards the beginning area and died quickly since I didn't heal up. The next few fights were more difficult. Searching his body revealed some more money, which by this point is rather useless.

I found the same puzzles inside the fortress, which had slightly different timing in this version. After getting through them, I decided to try my hand against actually fighting the brigand leader. I didn't stand a chance.

In fact, I wasn't even given a chance.

Without throwing the dispel potion, a message appears that the brigand leader quickly dispatches me. Not much of a fight for a fighter. I guess the point here is that the potion is necessary.

After rescuing Elsa I made my way over to Baba Yaga. I gave the gem to the skull without learning the rhyme, but was able to type it out anyway with the text parser. There are some good things to say about not being dead ended in this way. Then again, I found that Baba Yaga greeted me in such a way as if I'd seen her before.

I'm guessing this was due to having the mirror in my possession, even though I also had the mandrake root and never met her before, so the game assumed I was at a point where I had encountered her already. My only option was to use the mirror, and I missed out on points in delivering the mandrake.

This ending isn't interactive like the VGA version, but it's also more timely.

In the end, I'm not sure which version I prefer. The added ease of use in the VGA is welcomed, but the EGA also has some charm in the control over dialogue. I'm not sure I can say one is distinctly better over the other. Another difference I noted was an empty stamina in this version didn't mean an automatic death in combat, which falls in line with the instructions, as it did in the VGA version. I wonder if that was a bug or a design decision.

Fighting it out with 0 stamina, each action now costs HP.

Well, now I've truly become the hero of Spielburg (once more), and I'm ready to start my adventure again as a thief.

All quests completed! Where did I miss those points?

The fighter was much easier to grind for stats, and I ended up maxing out most of them through basic meandering and mischief.

Bah! Who needs intelligence stuff? I crush things!

I do prefer the ending in this version, as it adds much more detail and charm to the world as we exit and set off for the next adventure.

What is Yogic?

I'm looking forward to joining Trickster for the next game in the series, which I have much less experience with. Honestly, I hated that game, but I'm ready to approach it with a fresh mind.

Oh yeah, I'm hyped!

But! First, I need to grind out a thief, and report on all the interesting things I can pick up, collect, and sell. I'm sure Hero-U has a lot of loot to not only sell, but a place to show off a collection of goodies.