King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow

King's Quest VI is thought of by some fans as the high point of the King's Quest series for its in-depth plot, landmark 3D graphic introduction movie, and professional voice acting. Hollywood actor Robby Benson provides the voice for Prince Alexander, the game's protagonist. KQVI was the last King's Quest game to be released on floppy disk. The floppy disk version does not include the character voices found on the CD-ROM. The opening movie is also slightly different on the floppy disk version of the game, and some of the art and animation is less detailed.

The Story
Prince Alexander can't get Princess Cassima out of his mind. They met at the end of KQV when Alexander's father King Graham freed his family and the kidnapped princess from the wizard Mordack, but have not seen each other since. The Magic Mirror sends Alexander a vision of Cassima at home in the far-off Land of the Green Isles. Alexander sets sail for the Green Isles, but is shipwrecked in a storm. Alexander washes up onshore alone with nothing but the clothes on his back.

He soon learns that Cassima is being held prisoner in her castle by Abdul Alhazred, the evil Vizier of the Green Isles. Abdul Alhazred has murdered the King and Queen and plans to force Cassima to marry him so that he can rule the Land of the Green Isles himself. Alexander must expose the Vizier's plot, stop the wedding, and free Cassima. Alexander also discovers that the islands of the kingdom are on the verge of war. Precious artifacts from each island have been stolen, and the different leaders all blame each other. Can he solve the mystery and restore peace to the kingdom?

The Game
Early in KQVI, Alexander discovers that the ferry between the islands of the kingdom is no longer running. To progress in the game the player must obtain a magic map. This map allows Alexander to teleport instantly from one island to another. The major islands are the Isle of the Crown (with an Arabian Nights theme), the Isle of Wonder (reminiscent of Alice in Wonderland), the Isle of the Beast (Beauty and the Beast), and the Isle of the Sacred Mountain (Classical mythology). Later in the game Alexander will discover information that allows him to travel to one or two other hidden areas.

A booklet titled "Guidebook to the Land of the Green Isles" (written by Jane Jensen) is included in the KQVI package. Aside from providing additional background to the game's setting, this booklet serves as part of the game's copy protection. The player will not be able to pass the puzzles on the Cliffs of Logic that guard the Isle of the Sacred Mountain without information from the booklet. The booklet also includes a map to the labyrinth on the Isle of the Sacred Mountain.

KQVI was designed with replayability in mind. The last portion of the game splits into two separate branches, leading to two different major endings. The "short branch" is easier to complete, but the more difficult "long branch" includes puzzles, locations, characters, and information that cannot be found in the short branch. In order to win full points and reach the best possible ending the player must take the long branch, but it is possible to defeat Abdul Alhazred and rescue Cassima at the end of both branches. There are minor variations on the endings of each branch, depending upon which optional tasks the player performs.

KQVI is plagued by several plot inconsistencies that did not appear in other 'King's Quest' adventures such as KQV. One such inconsistency is how Alexander knew which bottle to choose to use in place of the genie's bottle, when the hint that shows which bottle to choose takes place in a cutscene when Alexander is not present. Also, some items seem to appear in some places at random, and this can be quite irritating when you have completed everything else, and much search the lands for one item, or when an item will not appear due to not speaking to someone and so forth.

Version information
The menus and icons in the disk version of the game are different than in the CD version. The Windows version of the CD release has enhanced high-resolution character portraits, interface icons, and inventory graphics, compared with the DOS version.

The introduction cutscene is different in each version of the game: specifically, the DOS 16-color, DOS VGA disk, DOS VGA CD, Windows CD, Amiga, and Mac version intros are all different. Sometimes the script is different. Other times the scenes are different. The DOS VGA disk version has a longer flyby sequence in the castle showing off more of the throne room. The CD-ROM version has an enhanced version of the boat sequence.

The Windows version is also enhanced with higher resolution character portraits and inventory artwork. For information on how to get KQ6 Enhanced to work see here and here.

The DOS disk version does not have the character voices (except in the introduction video), which were introduced in the CD version, and instead uses text boxes (which, like the icon bar and inventory graphics, are colored differently than those of the CD release). The introduction video has a different set of actors than in the Cd-Rom version.

Amiga port
The Amiga port represents a vastly different version of the game, including puzzle and story changes. For more information, see King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow (Amiga)

Long and Short Quests
The game has two quests: Long Path ('main-path', "Magic Paint" Path, All Puzzles Path ) and Short Path (aka Easiest Path , or "Beauty's Clothes" Path).

For the short quest, Alexander must disguise himself as a serving girl as a way to enter the castle. This will skip the revival of the King and Queen and the discovery of the sacred items, resulting in the bad ending (especially if the genie is killed).

For the long quest, Alexander must go to every island. The slave clothes must be used on the Isle of Mists to put out the fire in the cage. Alexander must go to the Realm of the Dead to revive the King and Queen. He must also find the sacred items. For full points, Alexander must send the following items (in order) to Cassima via Sing Sing: his ring, the poem, and the rose. Also, the only way to get the good ending is to capture Shamir. Giving him a mint will kill him, preventing him from transporting everyone to the castle.

Reception
"This game is proof positive that the era of CD Gaming is upon us. Kill your harddrive!"-Peter Spear, Questbusters Magazine.

"I'm pleased to say it also won the Software Publisher's Association's "Best Adventure Game" award in 1991."-Roberta Williams

Trivia
The name Ali is used three times in the game. The first is the bookshop owner, the second is the ghost child, and finally the magic words ALI ZEBU.