King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow

From King's Quest Omnipedia

King's Quest VI is thought of by some fans as the high point of the King's Quest series for its in-depth plot, landmark 3D graphic introduction movie, and professional voice acting. Hollywood actor Robby Benson provides the voice for Prince Alexander, the game's protagonist. KQVI was the last King's Quest game to be released on floppy disk. The floppy disk version does not include the character voices found on the CD-ROM. The opening movie is also slightly different on the floppy disk version of the game, and some of the art and animation is less detailed.

[edit] The Story

Prince Alexander can't get Princess Cassima out of his mind. They met at the end of KQV when Alexander's father King Graham freed his family and the kidnapped princess from the wizard Mordack, but have not seen each other since. The Magic Mirror sends Alexander a vision of Cassima at home in the far-off Land of the Green Isles. Alexander sets sail for the Green Isles, but is shipwrecked in a storm. Alexander washes up onshore alone with nothing but the clothes on his back.

He soon learns that Cassima is being held prisoner in her castle by Abdul Alhazred, the evil Vizier of the Green Isles. Abdul Alhazred has murdered the King and Queen and plans to force Cassima to marry him so that he can rule the Land of the Green Isles himself. Alexander must expose the Vizier's plot, stop the wedding, and free Cassima. Alexander also discovers that the islands of the kingdom are on the verge of war. Precious artifacts from each island have been stolen, and the different leaders all blame each other. Can he solve the mystery and restore peace to the kingdom?

[edit] The Game

Early in KQVI, Alexander discovers that the ferry between the islands of the kingdom is no longer running. To progress in the game the player must obtain a magic map. This map allows Alexander to teleport instantly from one island to another. The major islands are the Isle of the Crown (with an Arabian Nights theme), the Isle of Wonder (reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland), the Isle of the Beast (Beauty and the Beast), and the Isle of the Sacred Mountain (Classical mythology). Later in the game Alexander will discover information that allows him to travel to one or two other hidden areas.

A booklet titled "Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles" (written by Jane Jensen) is included in the KQVI package. Aside from providing additional background to the game's setting, this booklet serves as part of the game's copy protection. The player will not be able to pass the puzzles on the Cliffs of Logic that guard the Isle of the Sacred Mountain without information from the booklet. The booklet also includes a map to the labyrinth on the Isle of the Sacred Mountain.

KQVI was designed with replayability in mind. The last portion of the game splits into two separate branches, leading to two different major endings. The "short branch" is easier to complete, but the more difficult "long branch" includes puzzles, locations, characters, and information that cannot be found in the short branch. In order to win full points and reach the best possible ending the player must take the long branch, but it is possible to defeat Abdul Alhazred and rescue Cassima at the end of both branches. There are minor variations on the endings of each branch, depending upon which optional tasks the player performs.

KQVI is plagued by several plot inconsistencies that did not appear in other 'King's Quest' adventures such as KQV. One such inconsistency is how Alexander knew which bottle to choose to use in place of the genie's bottle, when the hint that shows which bottle to choose takes place in a cutscene when Alexander is not present. Also, some items seem to appear in some places at random, and this can be quite irritating when you have completed everything else, and much search the lands for one item, or when an item will not appear due to not speaking to someone and so forth.

[edit] Version information

The menus and icons in the disk version are different than the cd-version. The windows version has enhanced character portaits over the dos version.

The introduction cutscene is different in each version of the game: between the dos ega, dos vga, cd-rom, amiga, and mac are each different. Sometimes the script is different. Other times the scenes are different. The dos version has a longer flyby sequence in the castle showing off more of the throne room. The cd-rom version has an enhanced version of the boat sequence.

The Windows version is also enhanced with higher resolution character portraits. For information on how to get KQ6 Enhanced to work see [here and here.