WHEN TWO GENRES MARRY
Ancient though Quest for Glory I: So You Want to Be a Hero may be, it is in fact a remake. The original 1989 release was titled Hero’s Quest, aligning it with Sierra On-Line’s catalogue of the time — King’s Quest, Space Quest, Police Quest, and so on. However, since Milton Bradley already owned the HeroQuest board game license, Sierra was forced to rebrand the series under the name it would ultimately keep: Quest for Glory.
On the surface, Quest for Glory appears almost indistinguishable from traditional adventure games like King’s Quest. Beneath the point-and-click facade, however, lurks a rudimentary RPG system. Before entering the fantasy world, you create a blonde, cape-wearing hero using a bona fide character creator. Choosing between three classes — fighter, mage, or thief — you distribute skill points across combat, defense, magic, lockpicking, and more, freely specializing or multiclassing as you see fit. In theory, the appeal lies in how these choices affect the game ahead. Not dramatically, perhaps, but certain puzzle solutions and side quests do change depending on your class.
Structurally, the game clearly draws inspiration from King’s Quest. You begin in the modest town of Spielburg, where you can register with the adventurers’ guild, pick up quests, and equip yourself before venturing into the surrounding wilderness. The world draws heavily from Central and Eastern European folklore — Baba Yaga even makes an appearance — with names like Baron von Spielburg, Heinrich Pferdefedern, and Schultz Meistersson evoking a vaguely Bavarian flavor (I say this having never actually been there).
Though small, the world is densely packed. I enjoy what little there is: the fairytale atmosphere, the magical creatures, the sun-drenched town and forests. As night falls, the mood shifts. Tougher monsters awaken, spirits haunt the graveyard, and falling asleep in an unsafe area may result in a visit from the night gaunt — and your demise. The emptiness of the wilderness feels more justified here than in traditional point-and-click adventures, as frequent random encounters lead to battles that reward you with loot, money, and incremental combat progression.
This remake upgrades the original EGA visuals to VGA, which looks pleasant enough if you squint, and replaces the text parser with Sierra’s point-and-click interface. While this lowers the barrier to entry, the controls remain clunky. Action commands and inventory are hidden in a pop-up window at the top of the screen, and right-clicking merely cycles through commands — a solution that feels more like a workaround than an improvement.
Playing as a fighter, as I did, is straightforward and forgiving. Unfortunately, it also meant missing out on several quests and locations. Exactly how many I can’t say, but locked doors in town hinted at opportunities for a thief, and the magic shopkeeper spoke of a trial maze accessible only to spellcasters. I can’t fault the game too harshly for this — a single playthrough lasts only a few hours, making it highly replayable.
As a child, I would have loved the idea of blending these genres. Both adventure games and RPGs were emerging as my favorites at the time. But genre hybrids often result in two underdeveloped systems rather than one cohesive whole, and Quest for Glory doesn’t entirely escape that fate. Neither its puzzles nor its combat feel particularly engaging.
The puzzles fall into two extremes: either trivially simple or so opaque that an NPC must explain the solution outright. For instance, if an item glints in the sunlight atop a tree branch, the solution depends on your class — a fighter throws a rock, a thief climbs the tree, and a mage casts a fetch spell. I appreciate the multiple-solution approach, but none of them pose any real challenge, resulting in a somewhat underwhelming adventure-game experience.
Conversely, more complex puzzles are solved through explicit instructions. If you need a potion to lift a curse, the healer will list the ingredients, and your only task is to collect them. Acquiring those ingredients is rarely more demanding than the aforementioned tree puzzle. Most inventory items function as resources — food, money, weapons, armor — and the few puzzle-related objects are simply handed to the correct NPC.
Combat follows a similarly simplistic pattern. While it offers defensive maneuvers, a heavy slash, and a quick stab, I found little reason to do anything but stab repeatedly. Waiting for an enemy’s sluggish attack animation, I would strike before they could recover. Enemy animations are unclear and jerky, making it difficult to tell when to dodge or block. Fortunately, encounters are brief.
One quest involves infiltrating a brigand camp, resulting in a series of awkward pseudo-action scenes. You’re required to navigate through guards and arrows in a manner ill-suited to the point-and-click interface. Progress often requires trial and error, dying to trigger vague “Game Over” hints, and meticulously timing commands whose logic is anything but obvious. Constant save-scumming becomes mandatory. I didn’t sign up for Dragon’s Lair inside a point-and-click adventure.
By modern standards, this gameplay doesn’t hold up particularly well. Still, I retain a fondness for the game’s matinée spirit, conveyed through its boisterous main theme and colorful world. Easter eggs abound, rewarding curious players with humorous descriptions, and the dialogue leans heavily into comedy and wordplay. The reclusive wizard Erasmus, along with his rat familiar Fenrus, steals every scene — easily the game’s standout character.
Quest for Glory I: So You Want to Be a Hero feels like a proof of concept: a short, approachable experience designed to ease players into what was, at the time, a novel genre fusion. Perhaps because it was such a risk, the execution feels cautious and basic. Even so, despite its minimalist mechanics and puzzle design, it establishes a distinct identity. Beneath its simplicity lies a free-spirited adventure — a world that rewards curiosity and experimentation with warmth and humor.
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