Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire

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Our Hero reflects upon his enemies.

Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire is the fifth and last game in the Quest for Glory series, a 3D revival of the franchise brought about by fan request. After the events of the last game, the Hero finds himself teleported to Silmaria to discover the truth behind the murder of Silmaria's King. Many characters from previous installments are Back for the Finale, a mysterious assassin roams unchecked, a Prophecy of Doom lurches toward its inevitable fulfillment, all while the Hero competes with other characters in the rites to determine the next King of a land modeled after ancient Greek myths and legends.

Tropes used in Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire include:
  • Actionized Sequel: Combat is a much larger part of this game. Especially if you are neither a Fighter nor a Paladin. Previous games of the series made it a point that thieves and magic users could complete the game with very little to no fighting... simply running away from random encounters and defeating potential bosses through puzzles and guile rather than brute force. Here, several mission objectives require one to fight, no matter what class they are.
  • And the Adventure Continues...: A possible ending. If you refuse to become King, you can say that you want to keep adventuring.
  • Ascended Extra:
    • Nawar, who does not even have a face (although she was easily the most memorable of the faceless concubines in the Emir's harem) in Quest for Glory II, returns as a love interest.
    • The owner of the Bank of Silmaria is the beggar who was in the street of Spielburg... having since wisely invested the money he was given (he considers begging and banking to be surprisingly similar jobs).
    • Toro. He was just a minotaur dude in the first game, a particularly tough fight for the fighter, but otherwise an enemy to bypass for the mage and thief. A foot note in the game pretty much, where as here, he's a big character and an important source of exposition.
  • Asskicking Equals Authority: Some of the Rites of Rulership boil down to killing a particular bad guy or monster. Asskicking might not equal authority on its own, but it's certainly a prerequisite.
  • Awesome Moment of Crowning: Either you or Elsa gets crowned King of Silmaria.
  • Back for the Finale: The game's full of characters from previous installments.
  • Back from the Dead: Depending how you play it: Katrina or Erana.
  • Bi the Way: If you offer an engagement ring to Rakeesh, he'll mention that if he were not already happily married, he'd consider it.
  • Devil in Plain Sight: The Assassin. You can find him hanging out in the Dead Parrot Inn and the Thieves' Guild. You can't kill him in these places, unfortunately.
  • Failure Is the Only Option: You can't actually do anything to prevent the plot that would unleash the dragon.
  • Genre Shift: The first four Quest for Glory games were adventure with RPG elements, while Dragon Fire is the other way around. Since the elements were always a part of the series, the shift is less jarring than with King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, and thus Dragon Fire is better-liked than King's Quest's infamous Franchise Killer.
  • Gladiator Subquest: The Coliseum.
  • Heroic Sacrifice: In the endgame, you and several others can do this.
  • Heroic Self-Deprecation: Combined with a bit of Broken Pedestal. For four games, Erana was built up to be this incredible Archmage of surpassing power, grace and beauty. When you finally get a chance to meet and talk with her, she feels she's somewhat ineffectual in the crunch and can only really be useful in healing and making her gardens. Also, she feels a supreme sense of loneliness due to being so vaunted, not to mention being half-human and half Faery-Folk.
  • His Name Is--: Ugarte has the opportunity to sell out the assassin, and gets poisoned right in front of you for his troubles.
  • Homoerotic Subtext: Try offering the Ring of Hera in the fifth game to Rakeesh. He'd consider it, if he weren't already married to Kreesha. Note that he's half-lion too.
  • Idle Animation: Multiple characters have these. Perhaps the most perplexing is one where the Hero "checks his watch".
  • Jekyll and Hyde: The kindly Dr. Pretorious and the Jerkass Dr. Mobius are one and the same, swapping over at sunrise and sunset. The unpolished 3D graphics made it kind of hard to spot even during The Reveal.
  • Love Interest: Any one of four different women who can be wooed in the last game as a Romance Sidequest. Not all of them can be married by every character class.
    • Elsa von Spielburg: Hot Amazon and First Girl Wins (even though she appears all of five seconds in the first game, where you can't speak to her, and not at all in the three other games). Can marry any character class.
    • Erana: The Betty and Broken Bird. The kind of girl who objects to being given flowers because oh, it killed those poor flowers! Also an uber powerful sorceress. Can marry a Paladin or Wizard.
    • Katrina: Broken Bird and The Veronica. Also, a vampire, until her resurrection at least, but still uncomfortable in the light. Big Bad of the previous game, and prone to summoning Eldritch Abominations. She has been reformed due to learning her lessons from the previous game, although for some reason despite the fact that the ONLY reason she wants to be revived is because she's in love with the Hero and BRINGS HER BACK TO LIFE, she doesn't start off in love with said hero once alive again. Can marry a Fighter or Wizard.
    • Nawar: Hello, Nurse! and Shallow Love Interest. Can marry any character class. Seen in the second game, but only if you played a thief.
  • Magic Versus Science: The scientist at the Silmarian academy wants science to gain prominence, so he enters his Frankenstein's Monster Gort in the Rites and poisons Erasmus.
  • Mauve Shirt: Magnum Opus and Kokeeno. The latter's name is a joke on the related trope.
  • Mentor Occupational Hazard:
    • Rakeesh gets poisoned, and can potentially die if you don't obtain the black lotus Salim needs to make the antidote.
    • Erasmus, though the poison he was struck with wont kill him, but may keep him asleep forever.
  • Multiple Head Case: Doesn't apply to the Hydra, but done straight with Cerberus.
  • Nietzsche Wannabe: The Big Bad initially wants to rule Silmaria, by killing the king and using one of the contenders in the Rites of Rulership as a puppet to be the next king. At the same time, he strives to cause chaos around the island so people will gather around their new king and said king's "advisor". When it dawns upon him that he can't win, he settles for trying to destroy the country instead, via the titular dragon that is way too strong for him to control.
  • Pet Rat: Ugarte for Ferrari.
  • Punny Name: Gnome-Anne's Land Inn, Kokeeno Pookameeso. Let's just say that, being a Quest for Glory game, if we listed every example, we'd be here all night.
  • Red Herring: Erasmus' poisoning has nothing at all to do with the main plot; his attackers were the scientists behind Gort, who are tired of magic getting all the attention.
  • Red Shirt: Kokeeno Pookameeso. The name even means red shirt.
  • Romance Sidequest: As mentioned above.
  • The Sadistic Choice: The Hero makes a brief venture into Hades, where two of his aforementioned love interests currently reside... and he can bring back one of them. Or, if you so choose, neither. You jerk.
  • Shout-Out: If you die by drowning, the Have a Nice Death message is "This is the lesson you've been taught — Guybrush Threepwood you are not. When by water you are surrounded -- Get to shore before you're drowned."
  • Super Not-Drowning Skills: You'd be amazed how long your character can hold his breath once he learns how to swim. On the other hand, the other four games carefully avoid underwater scenes.
  • Tenchi Solution: A bug actually allows you to do this, though only one will be acknowledged as your bride.
  • Theme Naming: Rakeesh's family.
  • Useless Useful Spell: Most utility spells from the earlier game have little or no use in this game; you'll mostly rely on blasting spells.