Video Game / Kings Quest III Redux

King's Quest III Redux: To Heir Is Human is a Fan Remake of Sierra's King's Quest III: To Heir Is Human created by AGD Interactive and released for free in 2011.

The young baby Gwydion is kidnapped by the evil Wizard Manannan, to grow up as his slave. As is the tradition of the evil wizard, he will kill the boy upon his eighteenth birthday. That date is fast approaching, and Gwydion must now escape the wizard, and find his way home.

While not as extensive an overhaul of the original game's story as the team's previous effort in Romancing the Stones, the game features a couple of new scenes, some of which tie it into the Myth Arc that started with that game.

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This Fan Remake provides examples of:

• AcCENT upon the Wrong SylLABle: The game pronounces his name as a dactyl ("MAN-an-an") yet King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder! had Mordack pronounce it as an amphibrach ("ma-NAN-an").
• Anti-Frustration Features:
  • The original version ran on a timer that couldn't be advanced in any way other than by standing around and waiting. This made waiting around for the wizard to return so you could feed him tedious and the pirate ship (where you had to wait like 15 to 25 minutes for the ship to reach Daventry) horribly boring. This version allows you to sleep on your bed to skip time to the wizard's next appearance and the pirate section is completely event-based rather than time-based.
  • The original had several mountain path screens both on the path to Manannan's house and the Abominable Snowman's Mountain where the path was extremely narrow and curvy and a single step caused you to fall to your death. Here, the paths are straight and generally a lot less narrow so you're less likely to die if you click on the wrong pixel.
  • In the original game, the game became unwinnable if you gave the wizard the normal porridge and if you ran out of food items, you would eventually die because you had nothing to feed him. But here, one of the food items respawns.
  • In the original, the only way to find out the wizard's schedule was to die and take note of the time. Here, the game's timer is color-coded with red font meaning Manannan was about to return. This eliminated the Jump Scare factor somewhat, but the exact time of return was randomized and you never knew exactly when your master would return, so it could create some very tense moments if the timer turned red sooner than you expected and you still had lots of tracks to cover.
  • In the original, using the magic map to warp to the wizard's house teleported you to the foot of the mountain, forcing you to traverse the narrow mountain path every single time. Here, you are teleported to the middle of the mountain path instead, just past the most treacherous part.
  • Quite a few dead ends were eliminated like boarding the ship without the items necessary to finish the game, overusing the Magic Rose Essence and thus losing it before entering the cave, feeding the porridge to the wizard or wasting all your money on booze.
  • There’s also a few spots where the game gives you a warning that continuing will result in death rather than instantly doing it, such as trying to fly out to sea as an eagle or fly, or approaching the crow's nest on the pirate ship.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: You have to evade a ravenous (and, in the remake, proud of puns) one in the icy mountains surrounding Daventry. The Remake adds a Mythology Gag after you evade him one last time, by implying that it's the same Yeti encountered by Graham in King's Quest V.
• Black Cloak: Manannan wears one. He's also linked via later games to the Black Cloak Society (he personally is not linked, but his brother is indirectly linked to Abdul Alhazred), which may or may not be a Legion of Doom. This game links him directly.
• The Cameo:
  • Picking the mandrake root will cause the sound of a child's scream - the same sound that the Quest for Glory hero hears, upon picking one in the cemetery.
  • Talk to the yeti, after outsmarting him, and he says, "I'm going back to Serenia."
  • When you're crossing the stone bridge in the mountains you can see Cedric the Owl watching over you. If you try to talk with him, the narrator insists that "obviously he can't talk".
  • Near the end, you can meet The Father just outside Daventry's castle and even talk to him.
  • Die from drinking the spilt booze in the tavern and the game will have you note writing on the barrel's underside: "Brewed in Spielburg".
• Can't Get Away with Nuthin': The wizard has the nasty habit of punishing you for arbitrary reasons. More importantly, if you happen to carry any magical components, including such innocuous items as a fly's wings or a cat's fur, or have misplaced the magic wand, he will kill you instead. ZAP!
  • The innocuous items punishment is justified, however: Manannan might have raised you from childhood, but he's not been nice about it, and he's absolutely paranoid that you might learn to do something about that before he can find another child to raise (at which point he'll kill you).
  • And Gwydion is far from Manannan's first child slave, and according to a diary, also not the first to attempt using the wizard's own spells against him either. No doubt he's become pretty cunning over the years.
• Continuity Nod: The teleport effect you get when using the magic map is the exact same as with the magic map in King's Quest VI. Even the same line "Alexander feels a strange pulling sensation" is used.
  • It's heavily implied that the bard in the AGD remake is the same one from King's Quest IV.
• Copy Protection: In this version, there is no need for the copy protection spellcasting from the original game, so spellcasting is heavily simplified by having the instructions on screen instead of requiring a manual.
• Creepy Changing Painting: If you try to talk to the painting of Manannan.
  Narrator: He's probably politer than the real thing.
  Manannan Painting: Don't count on it!
  • Keep in mind the painting is talking to the player, not Gwydion.
  • The painting turns completely black when Alexander turns the real Manannan into a cat.
• Distinguishing Mark: Gwydion has one that shows he's Prince Alexander of Daventry. That's on his backside, mind. Which his sister Rosella asks he reveal as proof. He Deadpan Snark at one point that he hopes the entire kingdom won't ask him to prove himself the same way. (Possibly a reference to The Court Jester wherein the true heir to the throne also has a royal birthmark in the same place; which is shown to many people who all respectfully bow and acknowledge him as their true king upon seeing it.)
• Does Not Like Men: Smaude, due to having little experience with anyone other than the bandits and pirates that frequent the nearby city. Gwydion can change her mind if he passes her tests.
• Dreadful Musician: The minstrel in the remake if given a lute. The Narrator points out that it's a pity you didn't have another of those potions of enhancing the musical talent.
• Easter Eggs: If you search Manannan's desk 4 times. You find a very interesting letter to Manannan from Lolotte

• Even Evil Has Loved Ones: As evil as he is, Manannan is very protective of his cat. Grabbing or kicking it while the wizard is at home will cause him to appear and kill you immediately, while assuring that he will not tolerate his pet to be mistreated.
• Forced Transformation:
  • If you mess up even once while casting the spells, you can turn into some horrible creature as some of the possible backfires. Also, this is what the cat cookie does to Manannan.
  • One of Manannan's mostly non-lethal punishments involves turning you into a snail for a brief time. You'll turn back into a human after a little while, but in this version it is possible to die if Manannan's black cat gets a hold of you in snail form.
• For the Evulz: Manannan's motivation for kidnapping and punishing Gwydion. This version even adds more to it, as you can happen upon a interesting conversation between two hens about a rooster whom Manannan transformed into a fox. As a fox he wants to continue being their friend, while at the same time resisting the urge to devour them, there is literally nothing Manannan would gain from this, aside from this trope.
• From Bad to Worse: Graham's paralyzed by grief. His son was kidnapped from his cradle and enslaved by his enemies somewhere, his kingdom has been burnt to cinders by a dragon that his best efforts cannot defeat with innocents suffering and dying on his watch...and then his only remaining child offers herself up as a Human Sacrifice. The canonical game didn't play it up, but the remake does, showing a side of Graham the official games did not.
• Glowing Eyes of Doom: In The Stinger, The Father does this after finding out that the priceless unique artifact of power he was looking for for over a millenium was destroyed.
• History Repeats: It turns out Alexander was not the first Gwydion. In fact, it's heavily implied through his predecessor's journal and talking to NPC's, that the last Gwydion went on the same adventure, doing most of the same things, with the same goal. The difference? The last Gwydion ran out of time before he could find the final Cat Cookie ingredient.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: The only way to defeat Manannan is to make him have a taste of his own remedy.
• Jump Scare:
  • Depending on how desensitized you are to the format. Manannan will appear the hell out of nowhere. In this version, he appears instantly (where it was slower in the original) with more subtle music, yet the game warns you beforehand when he'll be arriving.
  • Talking to the portrait of Manannan will probably take many a player by surprise.
• Magical Mystery Doors: In a section of the mountain path, you have to follow the right path through five connected caverns in order to avoid the pursuing Yeti and get to Daventry. Hilariously at one point the Yeti will come out on the path to Daventry (which isn't even connected to the caves), amazing both Gwydion and himself.
• Meaningful Name: Smaude is an obvious anagram of Medusa. Which begs the question why they didn't just call her Medusa to begin with.
• Nostalgia Level: The last part of the game takes place in several areas from King's Quest I: Quest For The Crown.
• Only the Worthy May Pass: Smaude/Medusa makes Gwydion answer questions to test his personality to see if he's worthy of not being turned to stone. Later on the ghost of the Pirate Captain who buried the treasure then makes you pick up items according to their true value in order to deserve the booty.
• Point-and-Click Map: Unique in that the map is an (optional) actual item that must be found, rather than just a feature of the interface like most other examples of this trope.
  • A gag added in this remake has a pirate going through your belongings, finding the map, then pointing out Llewdor to the captain, upon which he promptly gets whisked away back to the town.
• Reset Button: The Green Orb from Saren's treasure restores Daventry to its former glory in the finale.
• Reverse Escort Mission: In one part, Rosella escorts Alexander back into the palace. While she is able to handle the stairs and the crevices, he on the other hand is susceptible to falling to his death. In this version, fire pits and an unstable rock bridge are added.
• Shout-Out:
  • The music that plays when you die by falling sounds like the end of the Inspector Gadget theme song.
  • There is also a reference to the "A Pirate I Was Meant to Be" song from The Curse of Monkey Island if Alexander tries to "talk" to a Jolly Roger flag.
• Spanner in the Works: If you retrieved the odd statuette from the pirate's treasure it's revealed that it was the artefact The Father was looking for mentioned in the second game, and King Graham immediately takes care of it by tossing it from the castle's walls, shattering it. Cue to a very pissed Father in the Stinger...
• Staircase Tumble: Careful on those stairs leading down to the wizard's secret workshop in the basement. Sometimes the wizard's cat will sit above the steps and pounce on you.
• Wizard Workshop: Manannan's study hides a secret door to the basement, where his work room is. A spell book lies open on a large table, a pile of tomes is on the other side of it, and, on the other side of the room are shelves with bottles of ingredients.
• World-Healing Wave: How the magic orb fixes the land of Daventry at the end, reversing all of the destruction caused by the three-headed dragon.
• Wrong Genre Savvy: You can show the mirror to Smaude immediately, turning herself to stone, which seems the obvious thing to do at first. But not only will you not get full points, but it's also a Downer Ending if you do that instead of turning her back to the joyful, beautiful woman she once was.

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