It was a difficult choice but I voted for SQ3. It's the quintessential SQ, I would love if the staples from the later games like cameos, taste and smell were added to it like you did with SQ2, and if the plot and game length were improved, and I don't think there's anybody out there who are better suited to do that and understand SQ better than IA. Also, remaking KQ4 and concluding the Father plot seems like a big deal to AGDI and a goal they are working on behind the curtains, let's avoid having this situation once again where 2 teams are working on the same remake. It turned out great with KQ3 because we have a 1:1 and a KQ3+ remake, but didn't AGDI stress a year ago that, were they to remake KQ4 they would add the option to switch between classic 1:1 and Father mode?

I would rather the whole "father" thing go away. I did enjoy the AGDI KQ2 and applaud them for the effort and hard work, but that part of it left me cold. Let it die the death it deserves.

AGD2 continues to stress that if they had ever gotten, or ever will get a license to make remakes to sell that they would preserve the classic gameplay.

The Father plot leaves me cold too but there's a part of the fanbase that liked it and that wants to see some kind of closure to that plotline and to not do that would feels like a waste, especially after 2 remakes and all the years spend working on them and when it would be so easy to please everyone but the haters by giving the option to switch between classic and Father mode.

To some degree I really enjoyed the "father" character. The problem that I later had with it was, that it tied the series together.. and I realized that would affect how I originally perceived characters of the series. I didn't like the implications.

I do think that AGDIs KQ2 remake is a great game.

I think the concept of an overall thread tying the games together is fan wankery and AGDI have enough talent to have done a lot better. But different strokes for different folks.

Yeah, I hate the tying everything together idea - but, you know, if it's just for fun - I'd say go with it.  AGD2 has been really specific lately in his posts about how KQ2+ is really just a fun, alternate story.  And, you know, I've had a full decade to think about it - they made it in 2002, and that was really kind of a new idea at the time.... to remake a Sierra game with an "enhanced" storyline.  It was a great idea!  At the time, too, we'd all been thirsting for new adventure games.   I was enthralled when I first played it - it's kind of a shame, because then every wanna-be fan group, or fan-fiction author glommed onto the idea and then everyone was saying "We're making a Plus version of a classic" and they'd release two screens, and then have pages of dribble and bad ideas about how to "enhance" a game.  In the scheme of things, KQ2+ is pretty mild! 

In the ensuing years since it's release, it's kind of become a bad cliche to offer plus versions or for people to completely mis-interpret the visions of the games.  I think AGDI kept it really subtle with their KQ3 remake, and sometimes I feel like they only had ANY Father stuff in there is because people expected it because of KQ2+.  You could easily excise anything tied to The Father, and that game wouldn't suffer in any quality - all the additional stuff and puzzles they added in their version really kept with the tone, and I enjoyed them.  Especially the library.

Also, AGDI is where I met Klytos and Broomie, and we spun IA off from our time there, hanging out in the forums.  We were just a couple of dudes who were like "Let's do this!"  And, lo and behold, we did.  And if we can do it, others can too.  It's been pretty cool to see other groups actually making and completing games.... The two other recent Space Quest releases really made me smile, cause I remember what it was like to go from a fan hanging out on forums, to actually making games.  Other groups like Crystal Shard are also very prolific, and they have a few games in their pipeline that look interesting......

I'm rambling.  The point is, I guess, that "plus" remakes had their time and place, but now it's a cliche that doesn't really need to be explored in depth at all!


Bt

Yeah, it was. And that game is still great.. In fact it's so toned down, that if you remove a few lines and one letter.. the Father, would not tie into all the games.

I think KQ2 was masterfully executed, .. before I got into designing KOS.. I took a hard long look at KQV and KQ6.. because I wanted to be very clear on the style that I wanted. I also took a deep look into KQ2+ because I wanted to learn what really worked in their remake, and what didn't. I came to the conclusion that a great deal of what they did was wonderful and very apt for the series. After that I had a better appreciation of that game, and how great they managed to make it.

I agree wtih everybody else here about the Father storyline.  I like a ton of stuff about KQ2+, some of it feels like classic King's Quest.  And as mentioned, of any of the main series King's Quest II and Space Quest II are the ones in most need of "enhancing".  In both cases, the original had the great idea and lots of cool places to go and do relative to the time.  Then the sequels came and they were good, but they weren't a step forward in terms of storyline or locations or anything... if anything they were a small step backward.  I would have preferred something closer to what you guys did with Space Quest II- filling out things that definitely needed filling without messing with the feel or the basic history of the series.

In general I "hate" attempts to pull everything together, especially when fans do it.  So recognizing the good points of TSL and King's Quest II+ took me a while, but I got the hang of it.  King's Quest III Retro was better in that regard, Quest for Glory II was more like it (for the most part, I know people have their problems with it too).

Overall my perception of AGDI and their work is very positive, but my point in general is that I have a lot of respect for those fan groups that manage to show restraint and balance.  The natural tendency seems to be to try to make everything more "epic", "dramatic, and "bigger", while simplicity and balance have their places too.

There's certainly nothing epic about KQ3 Redux. I can confirm that there were only elements of The Father in KQ3Redux to please fans of that storyline. We largely wanted to leave it alone. Indeed, in KQ4 there would be EVEN LESS added if we ever got to it. Of course, we wouldn't be doing it unless we were paid this time around, and if we were paid then we wouldn't be messing with it.

KQ2+ was a novel idea, an achievement and an important game no doubt about it, if it's receiving some flak now it's because we had all these discussions following the release of TSL and now we have a much different and precise vision of what KQ is or should be about than we used to 10 years ago, a vision KQ2+ does not fit in entirely anymore, it's certainly not because it's a bad game because it isn't. Personally I have a bigger problem with the thinly veiled stance on religion and how the red riding hood, grandma, Dracula and the monk were handled in the remake than I have with the Father himself.

That's good to hear.

Now what is this about people having problems with QFG2VGA?

My only problem with QFGII by AGDI was that there was no voice pack!  That's it!  It was great..... it's a huge game, and trying to voice it would have been tough for sure.  Still, I can only imagine that voices on that would increase it's awesomeness by 200%!


Bt

KQ2+ changes were good because the writing, It can be nice if someone would do it for another game but only if the writing is at least on par with that.

QFG2 was a good remake, very minor good changes. Small rant I had was that the corridors were not scrolling so they felt less "corridorish".

You know when playing the game that's my least favorite part as well, since the Father only really shows up in cut scenes.  That darker storyline with Dracula, it did seem kind of... weird.  Not my type of thing, although we're probably more aware of it now that the whole world has been on Twilight overload (even if the vampires in KQII aren't exactly "sparkly").  But no, that whole sequence seems very far from the "established King's Quest tone".  King's Quest has some dark and scary stuff, but

Spoiler (hover to show)

 little kids being turned into vampires and that being seen as a good thing (basically, or at least not such a bad thing)?

  That seemed like a bit much to me.  But the quest for the first and second gems, to me that pretty much is "King's Quest".



Most of it is minor stuff, some complained about no (or limited, rather) typing but that was going to happen no matter what.  I loved that one myself.

Yeah, I remember spending whole days just typing random stuff in QfG2. Did you know that if you type 'boobs' during the dialog with moneychanger, the narrator responds: 'Nice!'?