The Good Knight, King’s Quest Chapter 5 Review [PC]
This was like give your dog one last day of pure joy before putting them down, a beautifully sad end – King’s Quest Chapter 5 Review
I’m not going to worry much about spoilers, this chapter got me emotional and therefore I take no responsibility for make words. So, this is your only warning.
WOW! This chapter starts by punching you in the heart, flatlines it with a JCVD spinning kick, then lets it come back to life. It’s depressing but beautiful, and a hell of a way to end a game. The story beings with old Graham in his bed, begging the mirror for one last adventure. It’s heartbreaking to see a king grovel so desperately for what is essentially a glorified death. A few moments later, Gwendolyn arrives and Graham begins to tell her stories. However, this time it was about the stuff he left out of the previous stories. These stories are frantic and sloppy, Graham desperately attempts to improve on the stories told in previous chapters, but really he’s ruining the memory and comes off as even more desperate. It’s sad and Gwendolyn does her best to reassure Graham that her stories are perfect. Eventually, Graham settles for telling the story of what he now accepts was his final adventure, his final face off with Manny.
This is where it really begins to tug on the heartstrings, as you play through the familiar kingdom of Daventry, you realize some things are different. Part of it is because the kingdom has changed, but the reality is Graham’s memory is going. He can’t remember certain things so you wind up playing through his fading memories. While strolling through the kingdom, you run into a huge fire threatening to destroy Graham’s trophies and achievements. Graham painfully risks his old and breaking body to save these treasures. Even Gwendolyn asks why he would carelessly risk his life like that for trinkets, but Graham claimed they were dire to the kingdom and his legacy. After saving the final item, Graham passes out in his story and soon in the present time.
In the present, his wife gives him a bell to call for her if he needs anything. As soon as she leaves, Graham gets dressed for an adventure, only to immediately fall hard and away from the bell. He then regains consciousness in his story and the adventure continues there. You come to in Daventry, and discover Manny is behind it all and has locked you out of the castle. He challenges you to one final game to prove his superiority over you. The next portion involves you running around Daventry collecting things as you did in Chapter 1, eventually returning to the Dragon’s cave. Where you have to complete one final objective in order to face Manny.You fall unconscious again right before completing the task and go a mental trip that pays homage to the original incarnations of King’s Quest, and also subtly learn that many of your friends from the previous chapters are dead.
Graham wakes up in the present time surrounded by his family. Finally accepting his fate, Graham shares his greatest adventure and greatest accomplishments are all in the room with him. He gives Gwendolyn the honor of finishing his story with for him. Graham comes to in the story, finishing the final task then takes on Manny in the final challenge. The final challenge is a series of puzzles, culminating the appropriate two goblet challenge from the Princess Bride. Well no matter what you win, Manny decides to drop the poison goblet on a voodoo mirror of Daventry, Graham sacrifices himself to save the kingdom, and Mordack has a change of heart, saving Graham and destroying manny.
This is why Graham is sick throughout the entire game and never gets better. Now with his story told, he says his final good-byes to his family, promising them pancakes in the morning, and says hello to his old friend, Achaka. The next morning, you play as Gwendolyn, and make your way to Graham’s room where the crown and a note has been left. You read it, grab Graham’s Adventure cap, and blow out Graham’s bedside candle, signifying the end of his quest and the beginning of Gwendolyn’s.
The final chapter of King’s Quest was heart-breaking. It was pretty much all sad but in a good way. Watching Graham joyously explore Daventry, but painfully retrace his steps was brutal. You can see the toll his body has taken from time, as he hobbles up ledges or struggles to recover from landings. Then the parts where his memory disappears, it’s tragic! It is beautifully rendered in-game by pieces of scenery over a blank white nothingness. Something about running and trotting along the beautiful kingdom, then all of a sudden winding up in a patchy rendering of scenery and nothingness, really hits the mark of amazing and sadness. The story’s eventual ending is perfectly fit for a king, and resolves much more pleasantly than the chapter’s beginning starts.
King’s Quest Chapter 5 – The Good Knight is a beautiful tragedy. It is like taking your dog on one last amazing day full of going to their favorite park and eating all the foods you give him scraps of when you’re not supposed to. Then eventually, you know, you have to put them down. The game somehow gives you nostalgia for itself and really utilizes the investment of time and emotions you have put into the game and the characters. Despite how painfully tragic a lot of this final chapter was, I loved every minute of it. The one big qualm I have with the series is not having any resolution to what happened to the Dragon I freed in Chapter 1. I mean I really thought freeing that thing would pay off somewhere, now I kind of wish I shot it. THAT THING KILLED ACHAKA! Aside from that, King’s Quest is an incredible story and perfect reimagination of the Adventure/Questing game genre. It is full of heart, wit, humor, and also valuable life lessons. My King’s Quest Chapter 5 Review, as well as entire game as a whole, gets a 10/10.
King's Quest [PC]
- Ch. 5 - The Good Knight - 10/1010/10
The Verdict
King’s Quest Chapter 5 – The Good Knight is a beautiful tragedy. It is like taking your dog on one last amazing day full of going to their favorite park and eating all the foods you give him scraps of when you’re not supposed to. Then eventually, you know, you have to put them down. The game somehow gives you nostalgia for itself and really utilizes the investment of time and emotions you have put into the game and the characters. Despite how painfully tragic a lot of this final chapter was, I loved every minute of it. The one big qualm I have with the series is not having any resolution to what happened to the Dragon I freed in Chapter 1. I mean I really thought freeing that thing would pay off somewhere, now I kind of wish I shot it. THAT THING KILLED ACHAKA! Aside from that, King’s Quest is an incredible story and perfect reimagination of the Adventure/Questing game genre. It is full of heart, wit, humor, and also valuable life lessons.