Thayer's Quest

"The fantasy is yours."

Thayer's Quest was a 1984 fully-animated laserdisc game in the style of Dragon's Lair or Space Ace, but with much more interactivity.

The player controls Thayer Alcanred, an apprentice magician and last of a magically-blessed bloodline. His mentor tasks him with finding the pieces of the almighty Hand of Quoid before the evil wizard Sorsabal. The game's main goal, however, is to deal with Sorsabal's pawn, Torlock, who killed the rightful king and queen and now sits on their throne. Under his despotic reign the land has become a place of chaos where where evil lurks around every corner.

A sequel incorporating the second half of Thayer's quest was planned, but the developers went bankrupt before it could be completed (probably owing to the system it was created for going for something in the ballpark of $2500). When CD-based consoles and computers made the format more accessible in the 1990s, Thayer's Quest was given a facelift (creator Rick Dyer thought the original game was "too 70's") and rereleased as Kingdom: The Far Reaches. The second game completing the story, Kingdom: Shadoan, was also finally completed and released not long after.

Unlike games such as Dragon's Lair and Space Ace, which only required the player to tell their character where to move or when to attack in accordance with the animation, Thayer's Quest was a full-on Adventure Game. The player had complete control over Thayer's movement from area to area, accumulating items to let him defeat enemies and escape traps.

"Druce: The relics! The relics are important!"
 * All There in the Manual: The game has a very elaborate backstory which is barely contextually mentioned during the game.
 * Also, listen carefully to every NPC. If you get stuck, thank your impatience.
 * Dumb Muscle: The guard of the bridge which will lead us to the endspiel, according to his body proportions, voice and... oh hell, his face.
 * On the other side, he knows every law of The Elder Kings.
 * Failure Is the Only Option: Can't find the healing point and your pouch is overfilled? No worries! Make Thayer die and he will respawn with not even a single scratch.
 * Sometimes, it's clearly averted, though...
 * First Installment Wins: Thanks to Dyer who thought the original Thayer's Quest was 'too 70s' and also rehashed it into Kingdom: The Far Reaches, with more cheesy audio, more cheesy name replacements (including Thayer, who became prince Lathan), even more cheesy intro which sets you not to fight against Sorsabal Torlock, but rather with the greedy ruler of Kingdom of Iscar, as well as more cheesy navigation method.
 * No wonder why this wasn't released in the arcades... Even DVD version tries to mock the original cut...
 * On the other hand, Shadoan is a straight sequel to this rehashment... where you finally fight Torlock, yay!
 * Have a Nice Death: Pay Pentacle Coins to the bridge guy
 * Alternately, use The Spell of Seeing in the Hedge Maze
 * Karma Meter: Doesn't really influence the gameplay but rather shows your rank after you beat the game or lose all your lives.
 * McGuffin: The Hand of Quoid, split onto five relics.

"Torloc: Saw, yunn pop, yuffound mah chambers. Gods, dreow him to tze bists! It wille emmuse mah cohrtiars! GWEEE!! har har!"
 * Narm: Some in Thayer's Quest, loads in The Far Reaches.
 * Instant example: when you visit Torloc's throne room (no, not ex-Sorsabal's):

"Thayer: I'm sorry, I have no choice. Guard: (definitely something that would fit Shaggy) For ten years I've been waiting to see this, thank you freind!"
 * And when you kill him...


 * Nightmare Fuel: One of the more violent death scenes include
 * Obvious Beta: The game itself is actually playable, but it ends only when you approach The Far Reaches (ironically, because the rerelease of Thayer's Quest got a name of Kingdom: The Far Reaches and this kingdom never makes appearance till Shadoan). Rumor has it that animation for all five kingdoms was drawn... which never made it to the game.
 * One-Hit-Point Wonder: Two, actually, but if you lost one, there was only one way to actually restore it and it was kind of hard to find.
 * Although you can't say it's Nintendo Hard. Perhaps, there are TWO places where you can heal during the entire game.
 * At the waterfall, and the monk in Illes.
 * The Many Deaths of You