King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones

aka: King's Quest 2 VGA remake, King's Quest II+
Moby ID: 8028
Windows Specs

Description official description

King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones is a remake of King's Quest II: Romancing the Throne and a follow-up to AGD Interactive's (formerly Tierra Entertainment) earlier remake of the first game. Similar to its predecessor, it has VGA graphics reminiscent of Sierra's adventure games of the early 1990's and a new musical score. The remake retains the general outlines of the original story and the gameplay system, however contains additional locations, expanded dialogue, and new characters. Some of these characters are original, while others are taken from various installments of the series to present a more cohesive view of its overarching story.

In 2009, AGD Interactive released King's Quest II VGA 3.0, which can be considered a remake of their original 2002 remake. It contains the following enhancements:

  • Newly enhanced game visuals featuring hand-painted game backgrounds and character dialog portraits.
  • Full narrator speech and lip-syncing for all characters.
  • Windows Vista support.
  • Native Ogg Theora movies, which means in-game cutscenes and movies will now play in Linux and PC emulations under Macs.
  • Full digital speech and music tracks are now included as part of the download rather than being separate downloads.

Groups +

Screenshots

Credits (Windows version)

16 People

Game Design
Art
Music
Writing
Adventure Game Studio Engine
King Graham
King Neptune, King Edward, Trident, Hagatha, Golden Fish
Boatman, Disciple of the Cloud, Cloud Spirit, Connor, Elderly Man, Lion Statues, Door of Destiny
Anastasia, Baby Pumpkin, Librarian, Possum
Minister Gervain, Merchant
Countess Lavidia
  • Angelle
Count Caldaur, Cedric
The Father
Angelina
The Sharkee King
Yong King Edward
Haystack Creature, Ghost Father
The Dwarf, Mama Pumpkin

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 91% (based on 7 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 36 ratings with 5 reviews)

A great new adventure in the spirit of the early 90's Sierra games

The Good
KQ2 has great, hand-drawn graphics, is filled with animations, and has a great musical score worthy of a true Sierra release. The dialogue is intelligent, witty at times, and often immersive, which is surprising for a fan-creation. The designers (who decided to remain anonymous so the focus would be on the game itself) use the Adventure Gaming System (AGS) to its limits with this release, and the results are quite professional.

The Bad
Perhaps KQ2 is shorter than most gamers are used to, and some people have gripes about the whole "point and click" interface of AGS.

The Bottom Line
If you've been pining for a classic Sierra game for years, this offering will more than satisfy.

Windows · by uclafalcon (279) · 2002

A valiant attempt to resurrect an unplayable classic

The Good
Tierra (now AGD Interactive) enlisted some talented artists, musicians, designers and scripters for this pleasant remake of an almost 25 year-old classic. Combining elements from the original with new subplots and characters, Tierra helps breath new life into the ailing franchise, which, despite its landmark status as one of the most revered series of all time, hasn't seen a new entry in a decade. The visual style is an at-times charming re-creation of the 1990s SCIV style from King's Quests 5 and 6, providing added sentimental value. It's also a delight to hear original King Graham voice actor Josh Mandel reprising his role once more.

The Bad
The new King's Quest 2 was hyped as an answer to King's Quest 6, widely considered to be the best entry in the series. Despite plot additions, graphical revisions, and an elaborate 3D intro sequence, KQ2 fails to live up to KQ6's dialog and story depth. Interactivity is sparse, and the source material is still a bit too weak to even base a contemporary game on.

While the new entry is certainly a graphical improvement over the decades-old original, the graphics are perplexingly stuck in the early 90s. The game runs optimally in 320x240, a resolution that's not even supported on some video card/monitor setups. Yes, I understand the limitations of the engine, but I also understand that they weren't pushed.

Given that King's Quest is one of my favorite series, that I can practically play through each one in my head, and that I played this entry again only a couple months ago, I can say with certainty now that the puzzles and subplots are quite unmemorable.

The Bottom Line
King's Quest enthusiasts have been clamoring for a new entry in the series, and this will undoubtedly hit the spot for 99% of those who are still nostalgic all these years later. Those still hoping for something to push the series into the new generation won't find anything particularly exciting here. That said, this is a painstaking work of nostalgic art that any classic adventure enthusiast would thoroughly enjoy.

Windows · by jTrippy (58) · 2008

Fun, intelligent, and at times brilliant: in my eyes better than the original King's Quest II

The Good
Beautifully crafted scenes and characters, much longer then the original King's Quest II, beautiful music and top-notch voice-acting, and everything else is so beautifully crafted, so intelligent and so fun that its nearly a crime not to be impressed!

The Bad
No complaints here.

The Bottom Line
King's Quest II: Romancing the Stones is not only, in my opinion, better than the original KQ II, but it's also much longer with more characters, more story, more puzzles, beautiful music and top-notch voice-acting, and much , much, much more.

This project has gone beyond and above the call of duty of re-creating this classic, Tierra delivers a game which likes I have never seen since LucasArt's and Sierra dominated the adventure-genre in the early 90's (the graphics of KQ II VGA remains true to this period - and so it creates a touch of nostalgia with us who remember it). "KQ II: Romancing the Stones" never falls below a certain degree of excellence.

This is quite possibly the best thing to have come by in the adventure-genre since "The Longest Journey" was released a few years ago - Its almost impossible not to become totally immersed within the atmosphere of this uniquely re-created classic, and it's likewise almost impossible not to feel awe as you explore a King's Quest II in a way you have never imagined it before. I warmly and heartly recommend this product, especially if you ever played the original King's Quest II, and felt it missed out at many points.

Where the original failed, this re-creation succeeds in every way imaginable, and does so in style.

Windows · by Stargazer (99) · 2003

[ View all 5 player reviews ]

Discussion

Subject By Date
Version 3.0 Enhanced edition. jlebel (2190) Mar 23, 2009
My Vista doesn't want to play :-( DJP Mom (11333) Aug 25, 2007

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  • MobyGames ID: 8028
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by uclafalcon.

Macintosh added by POMAH. Linux added by Zack Green.

Additional contributors: Jeanne, Zack Green, tarmo888, jlebel.

Game added December 30, 2002. Last modified December 29, 2023.