Quest for Glory: Shadows of Darkness/YMMV


 * Demonic Spiders: Wraiths. Just being near one drains your health without magical protection, and they constantly fling projectiles at you even when not in active combat. If you have magic spells of your own, you can easily stunlock them to death on the combat screen, but without it you'll need well-timed jumps and ducks get anywhere close to them.
 * Necrotaurs are also fond of standing on the other side of the screen and then rushing you. You can hit them before they reach you, but the timing is deceptively tricky, and they'll take a huge chunk of your health if you fail (especially if they start tossing you around afterwards).
 * Wyverns have the most long-lasting poison in the game, combined with another annoying projectile attack.
 * Subverted, however, if you can make it to Erana's Garden. Drinking from the pond will instantly cure the poison.
 * Ensemble Darkhorse: The three villagers at the inn are pretty popular, especially in the voice-acted version, where it's clear that the VAs are having a lot of fun doing goofy impressions and ad-libbing their lines.
 * Game-Breaker: Spamming flame darts is a great way to win most fights by stun-locking the enemy and keeping them at a distance, so long as you have the MP to keep up the assault.
 * Goddamned Bats: Badders are tricky to hit, attack in groups, and can poison you (though not for very long).
 * Idiot Plot: OF COURSE the woman we meet at the beginning of the game is not a vampire, and certainly not the same woman who (as a vampire) we meet quite a while later. Her aversion of garlic and sunlight has to stem from a different source, for sure.
 * To be fair, we are led to believe . Other than that, the game doesn't really try to cover anything up.
 * This really only works for an impartial third party (i.e. the player at the computer) because when the Hero meets said woman, he's instantly entranced, and unable to question her effectively, due to magic. When she leaves, he's stuck for a few moments after she's out of sight before he comes back to himself by shaking off the magic. Considering said woman, it's not all that unheard of for the Hero to be spellbound. And it's not like it's the first time either.
 * Nevertheless, it is clear from the writing that the authors never considered giving the player the option to point out her vampirism.
 * The Hero never considers pointing out her vampirism because he is literally prevented from recognizing her vampirism by her magic.
 * There's also the fact that, if you're playing as a Paladin, the Hero's Spider Sense (which is usually pretty good about picking up potential threats) pointedly doesn't identify her as evil or dangerous the first few times they meet. It does, however, give a sense of unspecific warning whenever she's around. And then her magic entrances him, and he ignores it completely.
 * Which could be explained by the fact that, at the time, she really wasn't a danger to the Hero, and that she only became a danger to him after . Or walked in on her while she was discussing things with Ad Avis.
 * "You sense curiosity and no immediate danger."
 * That's because . Paladin senses warn of dangerous situations and give a warning when those things are directed towards the Paladin himself. In this case, Katrina certainly, but doesn't intend him harm (reference the end sequence). However, the Paladin sense still kicks in, which never occurs in situations with normal people, which should be an obvious, but easily misunderstood clue that Katrina is not what she appears to be.
 * Actually, there is no reason to believe that the protagonist have ever even heard of vampires when he comes to Mordavia and first meet Katrina. While some townspeople and some books do mention vampires, these anecdotes are not nearly enough to call the Hero an idiot for not being Genre Savvy.
 * Narm: If you're playing the voiced version of the game, be sure to ask the fortuneteller her name the first time you meet her. Apparently, her normal voice actress either couldn't or wouldn't record all of her lines.
 * You can also hear the other actress when you end conversations with Magda. The exact line is, "Journey safely, Hero". And again when you ask her about wraiths.
 * The Scrappy: The Gnome jester/comedian Punny Bones wasn't a big hit with the fans. Probably why he didn't appear in the fifth game despite saying that he was headed to Silmaria, the setting of game five. He's referenced a couple of times though, once under a table, and once by Gnome Ann, who was smitten with him.
 * IIRC, he carved a message in one of the tables. That's the extent to his appearance.
 * Well that and the gnome who runs the inn says the two of them are a couple if you try to propose to her. So, guess he has at least one fan.
 * Superlative Dubbing: The CD-ROM voice-acted version was made 2 years after King's Quest VI, when Sierra learned their lesson from the previous game about hiring voice actors with actual talent instead of just using Sierra staff to do the job. It may not be anything special nowadays, but it was still phenomenal back in it's day.
 * Unwinnable by Insanity: Attacking Tanya or Toby does not kill you instantly (since Toby just kicks you out), but it does make the game unwinnable (since Tanya kills you if you come back). And it's an extremely stupid thing to do.
 * The Woobie: Lots. You can't even throw a rock in Mordavia without hitting someone with a tragic backstory.