Quest for Glory II: Trial by Fire



Quest For Glory II: Trial by Fire is the second game in the Quest for Glory series. Following his victory in the first game, our hero travels with the Katta innkeepers Shema and Shameen and the traveling merchant Abdulla Doo to the desert land of Shapeir. At first glance all seems well: Shapeir is a thriving city-state in the midst of the desert ruled by a wise and generous Sultan.

However, a year before the Hero's arrival Shapeir's sister-city Raseir was taken over, and a cruel new regime imposed, supposedly led by Ali al-Din, the brother of the former Emir. Rumors of a Man Behind the Man circulate, yet a magical force serves to keep even the powerful enchantress Aziza from seeing what is really going on in the city, and also repels forces sent by Shapeir to reclaim it. And even though the old Emir is supposed to be dead, no one has ever seen his body...

Between the fate of Raseir, the dark omens that warn about something terrible coming, and the strange magical beings that start attacking the city, it soon becomes clear that Shapeir needs a hero just as much as Spielburg did. The hero must rise to fulfill an ancient prophecy by mastering the elements themselves and saving the world from possible doom.

The game is set in a land inspired by the Arabian Nights and similar myths, and later received a Fan Remake with VGA graphics.

This game contains examples of:

 * Zero Percent Approval Rating - The Emir of Raseir's brother, who has deposed his brother under Ad Avis' orders and is his puppet while Ad Avis is The Man Behind the Man. Most people hold him accountable for the going ons in Raseir, not knowing Ad Avis' part in the plot. Which makes Ad Avis' sudden appearance and particularly effective.
 * Adam Smith Hates Your Guts - Surprisingly averted. If you tell various merchants that you need their goods to stop the elementals currently destroying their city, they will give you what you need for free. The only exception is the Weapon Store owner. You'll need to either beat him in arm wrestling, or steal the item from him. Justified in that, well, he's a Jerk Jock. Or, if you're a wizard and use Calm with a high enough communication skill, he'll agree to give it to you.
 * Animorphism - Ad Avis' preferred curse in the second game turns whoever it hits into whatever creature their inner selves resembles.
 * Atop a Mountain of Corpses - After the offscreen battle during your journey to Raseir.
 * Awesome Moment of Crowning -
 * The Blacksmith - Issur. He makes quality daggers and swords, but he's also a bit of a prick (and a sore loser when you best him at arm wrestling).
 * Back Stab - In the remake, thieves who sneak around in the desert sometimes encounter enemies who are unaware of their presence. Throw a dagger in their back For Massive Damage (often fatal). It's not honorable, but it's dreadfully effective.
 * Bonus Boss: The fanmade VGA remake has the Pizza Elemental. Between his huge defences, his ability to heal, his huge damage output, his continuously ranged pizza drop attack, and his autokill attack, he is easily the cheesiest boss in the game.
 * Character Witness: Done quite movingly at the ending, where everyone praises the good deeds that you performed.
 * Combat Pragmatist: The Fighter's final challenge at the end of the game is a duel with Khaveen, and the guy is no slouch when it comes to swordplay. It is possible to disarm him by parrying, and if you use the slash attack immediately afterwards, you can slit his throat and he goes down instantly. If you're feeling charitable, you can let him pick up his sword and the fight continues. Keep in mind that he won't do this for you if you refuse to yield if he disarms you (though you can grab your sword as he makes his swing), but killing him when he's unarmed will disqualify you from becoming a Paladin.
 * Convection Schmonvection: Either averted or taken Up to Eleven in the fire chamber of Iblis' tomb. On one hand, just being in the room saps your health unless you douse yourself with water, and stepping in the lava doesn't do much more than make you hop in place for a few seconds (on top of the damage you take from being in the room). On the other hand, you can protect yourself from the heat just by pouring scalding water on yourself.
 * Copy Protection: In a weird sense, the location of the Money Changer was a form of this. She was purposely made difficult to find so that players would use the in box map to track her down. Whether it was truly effective is a different story, as many characters, when asked, will give you her location, but you'll still have to remember those directions.
 * Cutscene Power to The Max: Your character single-handedly defeats a whole army of brigands with not a single scratch. It happens off screen and you only see the results.
 * Dem Bones: The ghouls.
 * Disney Villain Death:
 * Eat Me - Part of the approach necessary to take down the Bonus Boss.
 * Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Literally: Fire beats earth, earth beats air, air beats water, and water beats fire.
 * Eternal Sexual Freedom: For a medieval Arabian city, it seems odd that nobody in Shapeir would make a big deal out of whether or not Uhura was married to Simba's father.
 * Eunuchs Are Evil: Near the ending of Quest For Glory II, the hero must sneak past several eunuchs to get into the palace at Raseir - while they're not explicitly stated to be evil, they're Mooks of the very evil dictator who you're trying to overthrow, and if they see you it's game over.
 * Evil Chancellor: Ad Avis, to the emir Ali al-Din Hasan.
 * The Good Chancellor: Grand Vizier Ja'Afar, to the sultan Harun al-Rashid.
 * Half-Human Hybrid: The jackalmen.
 * Hurricane of Puns: Hooboy, where to start. Try looking at Dinarzad's guard. Or ask Keapon Laffin about fish. Actually, just about anything Keapon says fits this trope.
 * I Am Not Left Handed: In the remake, you can find a villainous example in Khaveen if you're a Fighter. In the beginning, you exchange blows and he seems rather simplistic in his combat style. Then, he knocks your sword out of your hands, which you can retrieve with some dodging. After doing the same to him, you have the opportunity of killing an unarmed man, or giving him the opportunity to retrieve his sword. If you do the latter, Khaveen will get serious and the combat will be seriously difficult.
 * Jerk Jock: Issur the blacksmith acts like this. He'll always call you a wimp, even though you may have slain dozens of monsters and brigands single-handedly. Due in part to the limitations of the day, in the original, he would continue being a jerk to you even after you became a member of EOF. In the fan remake, he'll be nicer after you become part of EOF, or he will be slightly more reasonable if you cast a Calm spell before talking to him.
 * Joe Sent Me: To meet Aziza, she will ask you who sent you to her. There are various good answers (Keapon Laffin, Rakeesh, WIT, Erasmus, or Omar), but she will then ask you a question relating to that person to make sure you've actually met said person.
 * Kill It With Fire: The way to beat the Earth Elemental.
 * Kill It With Water: The way to beat the Fire Elemental, although first you have to actually corner it.
 * King Incognito:
 * La Résistance: In Raseir,
 * Light and Mirrors Puzzle: Keapon Laffin's "Force Bolt Flurry" game (only in the remake) is essentially this, though with you casting Force Bolts instead of a light source, and with the added challenge of preventing Keapon from reflecting his force bolts into your territory.
 * Mercy Rewarded: When being initiated into the Eternal Order of Fighters, refusing to kill your opponent results in you attaining only the rank of Brother Saurus, though it allows you to become a Paladin at the end of the game (where killing your opponent would prevent it, but the EOF would award you with the rank of Brother Scorpion.) Similarly, killing Khaveen when he is disarmed during your battle near the end of the game prevents you from later attaining Paladin status, though it spares you the headache of a very tough battle.
 * It should be noted that there is no real in-game advantage to having a higher rank in the EOF, and the later games don't do anything with it at all.
 * Mook Chivalry: Played straight in the original, where groups of jackalmen and palace guards attacked you one at a time. Subverted in the remake where you have to kick additional mooks away in order to prevent them from flanking you while you're dealing with the main attacker.
 * No Fair Cheating: In the original, typing "Suck Blue Frog" into the parser unlocked a cheat mode that allowed you to edit your stats at will, add money/items, and jump to specific days/locations at will. Typing the code into the parser in the VGA remake will first give you a warning, and sets all your stats to 5 if you try it a second time while also disqualifying you from paladinhood.
 * Nonstandard Game Over: Taking the oath to be accepted into the Wizards' Institute of Technocery. You get the best education imaginable and become a knowledgeable and accomplished Wizard, but you spend about twenty years doing so, dooming the land of Shapeir you left behind.
 * Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Played hilariously straight. Your caravan is accosted by hundreds of brigands and looks to be overwhelmed. Following an intermission, you find yourself on top of a mountain of corpses, the brigands vanquished.
 * What makes it even more awesome is that a mere five guards could overwhelm and subdue you without much effort in the first game. Clearly, you've been doing a lot of training since you saved Spielburg.
 * Pet Rat: Ugarte to Ferrari.
 * Punny Name: Roget the Saurus. Keapon Laffin
 * Rape As Drama: What the brigands presumably did to Julanar. When relating the story, Aziza makes a note that she "will not say" what they did to her.
 * Rick Roll: The rarest easter egg in the remake. Word of God says it has a 1:75 chance of appearing at certain points.
 * Scary Scorpions: Giant, larger-than-a-man scorpions.
 * Scenery Censor: In Raseir, you meet Zayishah, a woman who wishes to escape the city dressed as you. You offer her a spare set of clothes and she steps behind a gauzy veil to change. It provides just enough obscurity, unless you use a certain Easter Egg.
 * Significant Anagram: Raseir -> Sierra.
 * Something Else Also Rises: In the second game, when Zayishah is stripping herself to put on your spare clothes, a long note that slowly rises in volume is played (it's more easily heard in the AGDI remake).
 * The Dev Team Loves Horrible Puns: Typing "put down lamp" nets the same result as "use lamp," but a funnier message, in which your character insults the lamp thoroughly. Typing "drop lamp" plays it if as if you're breaking off your relationship with the lamp, with several fire-based puns.
 * The Maze: Shapeir is a sprawling city, with numerous side-streets, dead-ends, and important locations hidden within. The game provides you with a map that shows the streets themselves, but doesn't show the important locations. If you ask for directions, you'll be told the names of the streets you need to follow to get where you're going. You can also buy a (non-magical) map that shows all the locations you've been to, and allows fast travel to any of them within the city.
 * Raseir, being a mirror of Shapeir, has exactly the same layout,
 * The Shapeirian Desert averts this, however, as it has only four important locations throughout the course of the story, and the directions to find them are straightforward.
 * Thirsty Desert
 * Translator Buddy: Poet Omar's aide translates his poetry.
 * Ungrateful Bastard: The beast left in the desert (Ad Avis's apprentice) is not very grateful for your help and, y'know, saving his life.
 * Victory Pose:
 * In the remake, your character does one whenever he wins a battle. The exact animation depends on your class. Rakeesh and Uhura have one too if they beat you in training.
 * The fighter has a unique one when winning the EOF battle with the two-handed sword. The sword twirl and pose afterwards were a rough imitation of Cloud's victory pose.
 * Wizarding School: The Wizard's Institute of Technocery. Characters capable of using magic can go there, pass their tests, and gain acceptance into the school. However, actually choosing to attend the school is a Nonstandard Game Over, since the four masters that administer the tests all insist that you remain at W.I.T. and study for about 20 years before rejoining the rest of the world, and they want you to start immediately (and of course, if you choose to stay, Shapeir is destroyed because you weren't there to save it). Refuse and the masters get miffed, but Erasmus congratulates you on making the better choice, because how are you going to make a difference in the world when you're stuck at W.I.T. and not putting your magic to good use?