Quest for Glory

Lore & Background

Lori Cole pitched Quest for Glory to Sierra as a 'rich, narrative-driven, role-playing experience.' The series consists of five games, each following directly upon the events of the last, with recurring characters and non-linear quests that transform the player character from an average adventurer to a hero. The series was revolutionary for its character import system, allowing players to carry their character's skills and wealth from one game to the next. The games feature serious stories leavened with humor, including frequent wordplay, and the second game's ending refers to itself as the hero's 'latest set of adventures and miserable puns.' Recurring story elements include the requirement to create a dispel potion in most installments.

Reader's Guide

The Quest for Glory series is noted for blending adventure game mechanics with role-playing elements, including real-time combat in the first four games and a switch to action RPG in the fifth. Players choose from fighter, magic-user, or thief classes, with the option to become a Paladin through honorable actions. The games feature non-linearity, with puzzles having up to four different solutions depending on character class. Many CRPG enthusiasts consider the series among the best in the genre, lauded for its non-linearity, day-night cycles, NPC schedules, and skill-based puzzle checks. Rowan Kaizer of Engadget credited the hybrid systems for the series' success, noting that skill checks allowed players to succeed through practice rather than being stuck on bizarre item-combination puzzles. The website Polygon and Kotaku blog have characterized the game as a precursor to modern RPGs.

Did You Know?

• The series was originally titled Hero's Quest but was renamed due to a trademark conflict with Milton Bradley's board game HeroQuest.
• Each game draws inspiration from a different culture and mythology: Germanic/fairy tale, Middle Eastern/Arabian Nights, Egyptian/African, Slavic folklore, and Greco-Mediterranean.
• If a player types 'pick nose' in the first game with high lock-picking skill, the game responds 'Success! You now have an open nose'; with low skill, the player can kill himself.
• The series includes intentional anachronisms, such as pizza-loving mad scientists in later games.