King’s Quest has been a non-stop pleasant surprise. While Chapter 2 may have stumbled after a great Chapter 1, the series has come back strong with Chapter 3, Once Upon A Climb. Mixing humor and heart, Once Upon A Climb could be the best entry in the rebooted franchise yet.
The plot this time revolves around our now muscular and slightly more mature King Graham as he looks to grow his family. Thanks to the help of his magic mirror, Graham is off in search of a tall tower after the magic mirror tells him it's where his true love awaits.
While the majority of the plot does revolve around Graham courting his future wife, I would be remiss not to mention the imaginative and extremely cool opening sequence. Here, Graham must solve a puzzle by jumping between three timelines of the same scene. It’s hilarious to hear the narrator, performed by the masterful Christopher Lloyd, as he back-tracks again and again to “make sure he gets the story right.” Doing everything correctly ensures you save the life of a baby Cedric the owl, a call-back to King’s Quest V, and perhaps a future episode of the new series.
After the opening sequence, Graham sets out to find his bride. Once at the top of the tower, he runs into two major hiccups: he is now trapped inside thanks to an old magical spell and there are two princesses in the tower, not one. The rest of the episode sees Graham simultaneously trying to break out of the tower and decide which woman is going to be his queen.
Instead of simply having the player pick a wife, Graham finds himself talking, playing games and going on adventures with both women. Depending on how you interact with the women over the course of the chapter, Graham will naturally start levitating towards one over the other. There isn’t even a time where the player must make an overt choice, things just flow naturally with the decisions you made.
The Odd Gentlemen have brought some much needed humor back to King’s Quest in Once Upon A Climb. Chapter 2 was heavy and dark, so the chance of pace to a more romantic comedy feel better suits the series. That’s not to say everything is for a laugh here, as there are still some great dramatic moments. These moments add the needed weight to give Graham the motivation to finish his quest.
Outside of the “finding a queen” storyline, Chapter 3 also continues the overall story with Manny, the short knight from the first two chapters. It’s really cool to see an overarching plot flowing between the narratives of the chapters, and allows for some foreshadowing leading up to what I assume will be the final encounter of the series.
Like the previous chapters, the voice acting never fails to impress. Every line feels like it is delivered with care, and casting decisions are made perfectly.
While it’s easy to say that Chapter 3 is better than Chapter 2, it’s hard to pick a favorite so far between Chapters 1 and 3. The first had better and more engaging gameplay while the third had the more engaging story, with limited gameplay. The fact is, both are good fun and everyone should give them a try if interested.
We still don’t know when Chapter 4 is coming out, or even what it will be called yet. Based on the image found at the very end of Chapter 3, it’s likely the next entry will revolve around the events of King’s Quest V, with Graham having to save his family from the grasps of an evil wizard. Be sure to keep your eyes on iDigitalTimes for all things King’s Quest.
So what do you think? Are you excited to try out the latest chapter of King’s Quest? What princess did you eventually marry? Let us know your thoughts in the comments section below.
