King’s Quest Chapter 3: Once Upon A Climb Review

<p>After a somewhat disappointing second episode&comma; the third brings back the fun lighthearted nature that I loved in <em>A Knight To Remember<&sol;em>&period; It&&num;8217&semi;s funny&comma; clever&comma; and brings me back to why I love to play games with this episode&&num;8217&semi;s irresistible charm&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><amp-youtube layout&equals;"responsive" width&equals;"500" height&equals;"281" data-videoid&equals;"3eQUNWFhnzo" data-param-feature&equals;"youtu&period;be" title&equals;"King&&num;039&semi;s Quest Chapter 3&colon; Once Upon A Climb Launch Trailer"><a placeholder href&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;www&period;youtube&period;com&sol;watch&quest;v&equals;3eQUNWFhnzo&amp&semi;feature&equals;youtu&period;be"><img src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;i&period;ytimg&period;com&sol;vi&sol;3eQUNWFhnzo&sol;hqdefault&period;jpg" layout&equals;"fill" object-fit&equals;"cover" alt&equals;"King&&num;039&semi;s Quest Chapter 3&colon; Once Upon A Climb Launch Trailer"><&sol;a><&sol;amp-youtube><&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Years have passed since the last episode&period; Now grown up and built up with abs&comma; our hero Graham&comma; now King of Daventry&comma; is lonely with no one to share a dinner with&period; However&comma; the mirror he acquired in the first episode has called out to him with a new adventure&colon; an adventure to save the princess in the tower&excl; There is a twist&comma; however &&num;8211&semi; there are two princesses&comma; and it is up to you to choose who Graham falls in love with&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The bumbling Graham is hilarious in this episode as he fumbles his way into either princesses&&num;8217&semi; heart&period; The characters are as charming as ever with callbacks to the first episode&&num;8217&semi;s cast&period; These inclusions lead towards funny scenes&period; At this point&comma; I felt a twinge of nostalgia towards the first episode and attachment to <em>King&&num;8217&semi;s Quest&&num;8217&semi;s<&sol;em> characters&semi; if any of them die in future episodes&comma; it would be heartbreaking&period; This is also apparent in the overlaying arch of the story between Graham and his granddaughter&comma; Gwendolyn&period; The bond between the two characters is so heartwarming in this episode as the threat of losing him is looming over the castle&period; There is a real gravitas to the story&comma; and the plot behind the goblins thickens further in an interesting way&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;105535" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-105535" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"wp-image-105535 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;03183258&sol;Kings-Quest-2&period;jpg" alt&equals;"King's Quest &lpar;2&rpar;" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-105535" class&equals;"wp-caption-text">&lpar;<em>King&&num;8217&semi;s Quest&comma;<&sol;em> Sierra&sol;Activision&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The puzzles are easier in this episode than the previous two&comma; and that&&num;8217&semi;s a plus&period; Rather than aimlessly wandering around the town trying to find where to go&comma; the game is more direct and less expansive than previous episodes when it comes to finding items&period; This could be good or bad depending on your preference&comma; but I enjoyed this game a lot more because it relied on my puzzle solving ability rather than eyesight&period; I remember how&comma; in the first episode&comma; I couldn&&num;8217&semi;t find a parchment paper in a dark forest&semi; I was stuck with the game for hours&comma; trying to find this one item I needed&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>Nevertheless&comma; the puzzles are still relatively difficult to figure out&comma; and it&&num;8217&semi;s still satisfying to solve them&period; I felt like a genius throughout a majority of it as I figured out most of the puzzles easily&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<figure id&equals;"attachment&lowbar;105536" aria-describedby&equals;"caption-attachment-105536" style&equals;"width&colon; 1920px" class&equals;"wp-caption alignnone"><img class&equals;"wp-image-105536 size-full" src&equals;"https&colon;&sol;&sol;cdn&period;bagogames&period;com&sol;wp-content&sol;uploads&sol;2016&sol;05&sol;03183239&sol;Kings-Quest-3&period;jpg" alt&equals;"King's Quest &lpar;3&rpar;" width&equals;"1920" height&equals;"1080" &sol;><figcaption id&equals;"caption-attachment-105536" class&equals;"wp-caption-text"><em>&lpar;King&&num;8217&semi;s Quest<&sol;em>&comma; Sierra&sol;Activision&rpar;<&sol;figcaption><&sol;figure>&NewLine;<p>The playtime is shorter than previous episodes&comma; as it takes approximately 2 hours to finish&comma; but this episode is where replayability comes into play&period; Your decisions in Episode 2 deeply affect who you can talk to for advice&comma; and there are some scenes and details you miss if you only play it once&period; This is a cool aspect of the game design&comma; as your decisions really do affect the outcome of certain relationships within the narrative&period; There is also one choice in the first episode that the third episode seems to be foreshadowing to have grand implications&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The production values are still there&period; The watercolor look of the series is still stunning&comma; and the tower that is moving by itself looks huge as it stumbles across the fields of The Odd Gentleman&&num;8217&semi;s fantastical version of England&period; While on the tower&comma; you can also see it move across the area in the background&comma; which draws me ever further into the world that the developers have reimagined from the old IBM PCjr era&period; The emotions on the characters&&num;8217&semi; faces add to the laugh out loud comedic effect of each line as Graham awkwardly proposes to each of the two princesses and tries to act suave&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>The soundtrack&comma; sound effects&comma; and voice acting are &lpar;for the most part&rpar; on point&comma; and that overarching theme still gives me chills&period; The soundtrack is still stellar&comma; and while there aren&&num;8217&semi;t any standout themes in this episode &lpar;except for one theme at the end that I won&&num;8217&semi;t spoil&rpar;&comma; it still is spellbinding with its melody&period; Each sound effect&comma; from the earth shaking to the sound of grabbing an item&comma; is perfect and is in tune with the game that the developers are creating&period; However&comma; some of the voice acting by the two princesses is annoying in parts&period; While the characters themselves are engaging to interact with&comma; the voices can sometimes become arduous when you have to go through a cutscene over and over again to solve a puzzle the right way&period; Other than that&comma; this episode delivers an outstanding voice cast who portray their characters in the best way possible&comma; and impeccable comedic timing to boot&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p><em>King&&num;8217&semi;s Quest<&sol;em> Chapters 1 and 3 hold some of my favorite memories from the PS4 generation so far&period; The characters are likable&comma; and the comedy from their relationships and personalities is unmatched&period; The puzzles are so satisfying to solve as well&comma; and The Odd Gentlemen always find a way to make each gameplay mechanic feel fresh each episode&period; Plus it&&num;8217&semi;s nice to finally have something quirky with great production values&period; If you haven&&num;8217&semi;t checked out <em>King&&num;8217&semi;s Ques<&sol;em>t yet&comma; do yourself a favor and give the Kingdom of Daventry a visit&period; You might not want to leave&comma; just like how I felt when the credits roll at the end of each episode and at this point&comma; I hope there is a second season&period;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<p>And now&&num;8230&semi;the long wait for the next adventure&&num;8230&semi;<&sol;p>&NewLine;<hr &sol;>&NewLine;<p style&equals;"text-align&colon; center&semi;"><strong><em>A PS4 code was provided by Sierra for the purpose of this review&period;<&sol;em><&sol;strong><&sol;p>&NewLine;