#I would make some minor changes but overall if I was to color one.. it'd be that one

[turtlemurmurs]

Some older sketches (October 2021, to be exact) of Wilson that I probably won’t be messing with coloring, but they deserve to be posted I think :3 Mostly relating to the headcanon that he’s trans; I was gonna make a post about it but ehh, it’s a pretty popular headcanon so I’m sure you get the gist xD

[gwydionae]

King's Quest Fan Remakes

After talking about them a bit recently, I felt compelled to play through the old KQ fan remakes (1-3 from AGDI and 3 from IA), and I wanted to share my more in depth thoughts for anyone interested in these love letters to the original games.

King's Quest I: Quest for the Crown Remake from AGD Interactive

A lovely update to the original! While clearly the least polished of AGDI's offerings, it's nice to be able to play KQ1 with KQ5-style graphics and voice acting (the original voice of Graham, Josh Mandel, voices him in all four of the games in this post, ftr). There is an option to turn off any chance of softlocking yourself before you even start the game, which is a welcome feature. Puzzle-wise, this one stays the most faithful to the original out of the three from AGDI with a few updates here and there (like that stupid name puzzle! lol). The vocal performances and sound effects can be a bit fuzzy, but I found them enjoyable nonetheless.

Overall a solid fan remake with limited extra bells and whistles!

King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones from AGDI

Easily the most ambitious of the three from AGDI. Pretty much all of the core elements from KQ1 are further polished here - artwork, acting, music, and sound effects. The story and puzzles, however, have been changed enough that the end product is sizably different from the original. In some cases, this is fun and interesting (more lore and character interactions! new and unique puzzles!), but not everyone will enjoy all the changes. I, for example, find the underwater section kind of fun, but the new content around the count... not so much (for reasons I'll avoid due to spoilers, but know they're more mechanical than anything). There's less freedom in when you can do things, the added story making the game far more linear than it originally was. But then I'm sure many would agree that if any KQ game could do with extra content, it'd be 2, so I can't fault them swinging for the fences, even if not every hit was a home run.

All in all, this version of KQ2 doesn't really work if you're simply looking to experience the original game with updated graphics, but it's a fun playthrough nonetheless, and newcomers might enjoy the added lore/story bits. Just be aware that I could probably sum up the original game's story in about two sentences while this one would take far longer. XD

King's Quest III: To Heir is Human Redux from AGDI

If KQ1 wasn't fully polished and KQ2 was a little overworked, then KQ3 is juuuuuust right! (For anyone who knows the game, yes, this is a purposeful pun. XD) The graphics, sounds, music, vocal performances - all are the best yet (though still with some minor hiccups as any fan game is wont to have - the music was sadly cutting out during the climactic sequence for me). It even has a neat little feature where the timer changes color depending on how close you are to being zapped into oblivion that is not only useful but adds a sense of urgency in it's own way (especially if you forgot the item that makes travel a lot easier for like 2 meals I mean what lol). While it does carry over some of the story threads from AGDI's second entry, this game still works well enough on it's own, with the majority of the new content being added in naturally rather than supplanting whole sections of the original. In fact, personally speaking, I think the added content only enhances the game, your encounters with Medusa and the yeti especially getting a nice boost. And the extra lore only helps you feel for the protagonists plight all the more. The ending is a bit drawn out, perhaps, and I may not agree with the order you're supposed to choose the four items in to get the treasure (insert rant here XD), but those are minor nitpicks at best.

This is easily the best of the three, AGDI having perfected their KQ formula at this point. It works as a remake of the original while still adding in a bit of new content that doesn't feel unwelcome. I would highly recommend it to anyone interested in giving the King's Quest series a try.

King's Quest III: To Heir is Human Remake from Infamous Adventures

Look. I know that it's not as impressive as AGDI's version. The time limit is laughably long, the spells are impossible to mess up, and some of the clickable areas can be a bit wonky. But I really like this version, ok?? I like the design and voice of Gwydion, I like the storybook quality that the cutscene art has, I like that it feels lonely when it should. And as much as some of the changes in AGDI's version were really nice, I like that it's basically just the original game without extra stuff added in.

This is like AGDI's KQ1 - a really solid remake of a game that gives you the feel of the original but with an updated interface and graphics. It's not as impressive as the one above, but it doesn't have to be. The original KQ3 is an awesome game, so an update of just that can't be bad. It can easily be played as a standalone game, and I will continue recommending this version 'til I die, lol.

[egg-emperor]

This might sound weird or bad, but I think I'd like Eggman to take a backseat as the main villain for a little bit.

Hear me out, tho, he has been the main villain for... A while. But in the majority of modern games, he ends up getting screwed over by a bigger bad that he worked with and that reduces his threat level, kinda making him out to be a joke. And even when he IS the main villain, he's still kinda treated like a joke (like how in forces he says "I decided to learn from my mistakes" as if it never occurred to him as a 300iq genius).

I want him to step back for a moment, regroup himself, let Sonic blast through other threats like Sage, maybe infinite, etc, and when we least expect it, he has the world by the balls and isn't fucking around anymore. I want him to finally find a way to bring Sonic to his knees and solidify his place as the top dog of the villains. Even if he fails at the end, he'll still reclaim his threat level, and Sonic will at least have to actually struggle against him probably for the first time in years.

I think it'd do good for his development. But feel free to share your thoughts, I'd like to know what you think.

The whole Eggman being betrayed thing hasn't been that prominent in a while because they broke the cycle. The only main games from Unleashed to Forces where he was betrayed was Unleashed and Lost World, but they surpassed the expectations with the latter by having him fight to take back control of his plan and still be the final boss and it was a brilliant and refreshing change from the times he was just screwed over last second. Aside from that, there was just Free Riders with him being betrayed by Metal again but that's minor.

Colors, Generations, and Forces had him as the final boss without betrayal and Lost World handled it a good way with a clever twist. And I don't think it's always so bad whenever he is betrayed, though I'd really prefer for him not to be, as long as they still give him time to shine and great moments that still show he is indeed a great threat, like the Adventure games and Lost World, for some examples. But the games in the past 12 years prove that not using him isn't required for this to change.

I'm the last person that feels like he's looked like a big joke in the modern games. The entire story tone and focus on the humor affects all of the characters, not just him, and removing him doesn't change that. It's about the tone and presentation of the stories overall, he's humorous but still evil as ever and he still has serious and threatening moments when scenes require it. If the entire story tone shifted to serious and darker again like Frontiers seems to be, the presentation of Eggman's humor and villainy would follow suit.

Forces especially is one of the games in the "meta" era where he wasn't a joke at all. It may not have been as executed as well as it could've been but he was insanely successful and smart with his tricks and backup plans. He's already been clever with them before so he had actually already learned from his mistakes prior, but seeing him acknowledge it and doing something about it actually shows intelligence. And bringing multiple more tricks from his sleeves and the grand finale was delightfully impressive.

I don't think Eggman being the final boss is ever the problem. I have no issues with him being the main villain for years in a row because he's the main villain of the series and they were already doing that well in the classic games too. And in the modern games, he's never stopped being a great threat to the planet with his great evil and schemes that cause catastrophic global destruction and fear and he's still a huge challenge for Sonic, it's not like he easily gets defeated and doesn't put up a great fight against him.

I don't have any issues with there being other villains as long as they don't have to write Eggman OOC, shit on him constantly, or betray him to make the other villain seem like a bigger threat. And I'd prefer if Eggman still gets to be involved with a good amount of significance, rather than being tossed aside or teaming up with Sonic and friends over and over. And I don't mind these other villains being the final boss as long as they don't do any of that but I'm not specifically hoping that Eggman will stop being the main villain and final boss.

I really don't think those that have any issues with the focus on humor in the later games should blame Eggman because it clearly affects the presentation of all the other characters too. Just not using him won't fix that, it can just as easily change when the entire tone of the story changes from humorous and light-hearted to serious and darker as much as it does for all the other characters too. And honestly even in a good majority of the games where he is betrayed, he isn't just treated like a joke the whole way through and still has good serious moments.

I think Eggman is one of the best and most consistently well written characters in the series, especially out of all of them in more recent games from Colors to Forces. He's still the exact same character he's always been at core, there's just been more focus on his humorous side in some games but he still has great serious and darker moments too, people just tend to overlook it because they don't like the humor focus. But it's definitely there and Eggman doesn't look like nothing but a big joke like a large portion of the fanbase treat him.

I don't think he needs to go away for a while and come back much later in order for him to not have as much focus on the humor and more focus and screentime of the evil, especially because it never actually went away entirely. I'd love for there to be more again but all it takes is the overall story tone shift and Eggman being written and presented well. I don't think that time away is what's needed for that to happen and be capable of having a great impact that reminds people that he's a serious threat that's not to be messed with.

I might sound biased with all this heavy praise and loving when he's the final boss no matter how many times but he's my favorite for a reason and many others that aren't as crazy about him tend to agree lol. I really love and want more of the focus and screentime of his evil too but I also love the humor that's just as important and I'm happy as long as I can see a good balance of them. And while maybe some games don't balance it quite as much as they should, it's still enough to make me happy and would only needs small tweaks to reach perfection.