Quest for Glory V: Dragon Fire/Trivia

Everything About Fiction You Never Wanted to Know.


  • Executive Meddling: The amount of creative control by Lori Cole was severely curtailed in this installment, while Corey was relegated to the role of "consultant". Whole sections of the script were vetoed by higher-ups, and the FPS-style controls for the combat system were the result of demands made at the executive level.
  • Fandom Nod: As the fans were instrumental in keeping this game afloat, the Adventurer's Guild has several references to prominent Quest for Glory forum members.
  • Hey, It's That Voice!: Salim and Kokeeno are voiced by none other than Steven Jay Blum. Rakeesh and his son are voiced by Beau Billingslea.
  • Troubled Production: The game switched engines midway through development because the planned voxel engine suffered severe performance issues. This caused delays as a new 3D engine had to be built from scratch. Additionally, extensive Executive Meddling led numerous features (such as multiplayer, and being able to play as Elsa and Magnum) to be cut. See What Could Have Been below.
  • Uncanceled: Fan support for the games resulted in the decision to resurrect the series for its Grand Finale. A special text file specifically thanking all the fans is included in the game's installed directory.
  • What Could Have Been: Quest for Glory V may as well be the patron saint of the trope, with a lot of content planned that was ultimately cut or fell by the wayside.
    • Perhaps the biggest was that the game was originally designed to use voxel characters against the prerendered backgrounds. A substantial amount of the work was completed; however, the state of personal computing technology of the time led to severe performance issues, ultimately necessitating a switch to a more conventional 3D engine.
      • This itself was subject to the trope, as the decision was made to develop the engine in-house rather than licensing one of the currently available commercial engines, which contributed to some of the game's issues. Corey Cole ultimately acknowledged this as a mistake.
    • A much advertised multiplayer component was cut from the final release of the game. Players would have been able to compete as the Hero, Elsa and Magnum Opus. It was also suppose to have been available as a downloadable patch a few months later, but it never saw the light.
    • Additionally, the bow and arrow were to be among the list of usable weapons but the bow was left out; the masses of arrows you can loot from human enemies and sell are The Artifact of this.
    • In a session chat, the Coles talked about a possible expansion pack, had the game sold well. It would have featured pirates and demons. The three gnomes from previous games (Yorick, Keapon Laffin and Punny Bones) would have shown up at Gnome Ann Land Inn for a comedy show.
    • The Wizard was supposed to get a familiar. The Thief's acrobatics could have be used to perform cartwheels and backflips. None of these made it to the final cut.