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Oh, which way to Shapeir? Thanks, Hero.
Quest For Glory II: Trial by Fire is the second game in the Quest for Glory series. Following his victory in the first game, our hero travels with the Katta innkeepers Shema and Shameen and the traveling merchant Abdulla Doo to the desert land of Shapeir. At first glance all seems well: Shapeir is a thriving city-state in the midst of the desert ruled by a wise and generous Sultan.

However, a year before the Hero's arrival Shapeir's sister-city Raseir was taken over, and a cruel new regime imposed, supposedly led by Ali al-Din, the brother of the former Emir. Rumors of a Man Behind the Man circulate, and a magical force serves to both keep the powerful enchantress Aziza from seeing what is really going on in the city and also repels armies sent by Shapeir to reclaim it. And even though the old Emir is supposed to be dead, no one has ever seen his body...

Between the fate of Raseir, the dark omens that warn about something terrible coming, and the strange magical beings that start attacking the city, it soon becomes clear that Shapeir needs a hero just as much as Spielburg did. The hero must rise to fulfill an ancient prophecy by mastering the elements themselves and saving the world from possible doom.

The game is set in a land inspired by the Arabian Nights and similar myths, and later received a Fan Remake with VGA graphics.


This game contains examples of:

  • 0% Approval Rating: The Emir of Raseir's brother, who has deposed his brother under Ad Avis' orders and is his puppet, while Ad Avis is The Man Behind the Man. Most people hold him accountable for the going ons in Raseir, not knowing Ad Avis' part in the plot. (Only his daughter, Zayishah, knows the truth.) Which makes Ad Avis' sudden appearance and brainwashing of the hero particularly effective. Somewhat ironically, (since he's supposed to be the front man) the Emir's brother is never seen in game, and is only mentioned in a few conversations with other characters and a text box of narration at the end.
  • Adaptation Expansion: Wizard's Whirl was a wizard game only mentioned in a throwaway line in Dragon Fire. Years later, AGD took it upon themselves to make it into a full playable minigame in the Fan Remake.
  • Adaptation-Induced Plot Hole: In the original game, after noticing that his spells bounce off your reversal spell, Ad Avis will set the floor on fire. In the remake, he uses the Dragon Fire spell, which is still a direct attack. Even if we assume that it can overcome the reversal spell, the "You're dead"-message still advises you to take a tip from Ad Avis and find another target.
  • Anachronism Stew: You sometimes see a jet plane flying over the desert. The game assures you that it is just a Mirage note 
  • Animorphism: Ad Avis uses a curse that turns its victims into a creature symbolizing their inner selves. Apparently, good-natured people are sauruses, Khaveen is a snake, and Ad Avis' apprentice is a snake/scorpion/panther... thing.
  • An Interior Decorator Is You: The developers of the Fan Remake seemed aware that the player will end up with way more money they could conceivably need, yet won't be able to carry over to the next game. One partial answer to this they gave is allowing the player to buy cosmetic decorations for their room at the inn.
  • Anti-Frustration Features: The Fan Remake added several.
    • First off, there's an option to simplify the street maze by blocking off extraneous areas.
    • They also allow the Hero to sleep at Blue Parrot's Inn before sundown to skip time faster.
    • And, if the hero qualifies to become a Paladin in the end, Rakeesh now gives the hero a choice to accept or decline - rather than automatically dub him one. (Mechanically this was never an issue, mind. When importing a character who's been promoted to Paladin into Wages of War, the game gives the player the option of keeping their original class instead.)
  • "Arabian Nights" Days: The game takes place in a desert kingdom of genies and Bedlah Babes.
  • Artistic License – History: Naturally, for a fantasy game. Nonetheless, the backstory says that a sultan named Suleiman bin Daoud ruled Shapeir 1,001 years before the reign of Harun al-Rashid. The reign of the real-life Suleiman bin Daoud was closer to 2,000 years before the reign of the real-life Harun al-Rashid, and neither held the title of "Sultan".
  • Art-Style Clash: In the fan remake, the hall in W.I.T. with portraits of wizards uses dialogue animation art of characters from different games and across different eras of gaming, and the styles contrast heavily. Zara's portrait is from the remake of the first game, Erasmus's is his from the fifth game, and Erana's is from the fourth game. What's particularly jarring is that the description of Erasmus' portrait still says it looks just like his portrait in Zauberberg, even though it clearly doesn't.
  • Ask a Stupid Question...: When you ask Mayzun about the weather, she reminds you that there are other worries at the moment.
  • Astrologer: Abu al-Njun. Of course, this being a videogame, his predictions are 100% accurate.
  • Atop a Mountain of Corpses: After the offscreen battle during your journey to Raseir.
  • Awesome Moment of Crowning: In the end, the sultan adopts you as his son, making you a prince.
  • The Blacksmith: Issur. He makes quality daggers and swords, but he's also a bit of a prick (and a sore loser when you best him at arm wrestling).
  • Back Stab: In the remake, thieves who sneak around in the desert sometimes encounter enemies who are unaware of their presence. Throw a dagger in their back for big damage (often fatal). It's not honorable, but it's dreadfully effective.
  • Beethoven Was an Alien Spy / Historical In-Joke: Harry Houdini appears as one of the potential sponsors at WIT. In real life, Houdini was accused at least once (by Sir Arthur Conan Doyle) of secretly possessing real supernatural powers. Which is ironic because the real Houdini was a zealous debunker of people who claimed actual supernatural power.
    • Shapeir's sultan, Haroun al-Rashid, Ja'afar and Suleiman bin Daoud who turn up in the game proper or its backstory are all historical figures from the real world who are famous in folklore: see Public Domain Character, below.
  • Beware the Silly Ones: In the remake, when the player meets the Optional Boss in the middle of the desert, the latter is utterly lost and is actually crawling away from the city he was supposed to destroy. Its first reaction upon seeing the player is wondering out loud (in a silly accent) if he's just another one of those annoying mirages. If you trick him into continuing in the direction he was going, he'll stupidly crawl onwards into the endless desert never to be seen again. If you challenge him, the silly creature suddenly morphs into a hulking monstrosity and a VERY difficult fight ensues.
  • Biting-the-Hand Humor: Raseir, the seedy run-down sister city to Shapeir, is an anagram of Sierra. Ad Avis and Khaveen, the Big Bad Duumvirate, were named after creative director Bill Davis and general manager Rick Cavin respectively.
  • Breaking the Fourth Wall: Attacking Julanar breaks the fourth wall in the literal sense - your weapon or spell bounces off her and cracks the screen, leading to a Game Over message about needing a new monitor.
  • Cast from Hit Points: Ghouls in the AGD remake can slowly regenerate MP at the cost of some of their health. This actually works in the player's favor, since the HP is drained all at once, so the hero can just rush in and stab it to interrupt the regeneration before it gains too much MP.
  • Character Witness: Done quite movingly at the ending, where everyone praises the good deeds that you performed. If you've done the right things in the game, this culminates in you being granted the title of Paladin.
  • Chekhov's Gun:
    • The Reversal spell. It was hinted to in the first game, and you get to learn it from Erasmus. It comes in very handy at the end of the game.
    • The sapphire pin, in the Thief's path, where it's mentioned when you get it how it reminds you of the tools you learned to pick locks with. Handy when all the rest of your inventory gets confiscated and you're thrown in jail.
  • The Chosen One: Played straight and averted. The Hero is the only one that can fulfill a 1,001 year-old prophecy and gain access to the city in which Iblis was sealed, but that's actually a bad thing. Averted in the sense of Julanar: you must do the quest to restore her humanity, but on successfully completing it...she's still a tree. You can't do anything further to help her, because you are not the one that will love her. That's the apothecary in the next game.
  • Combat Pragmatist: The Fighter's final challenge at the end of the game is a duel with Khaveen, and the guy is no slouch when it comes to swordplay. The beginning of the battle has him disarming you, at which point he'll demand that you grovel for mercy and try to kill you if you refuse. If you dodge his attempt to finish you, then shortly afterwards you will disarm him. You can take the easy way out and kill him immediately with a slash attack, which is also helpful for the strict time limit that you're under. Or you can tell him to retrieve his sword and continue the fight honorably, which is required to become a paladin. In the remake, this is the point at which he'll pull out the stops and seriously tries to kick your ass.
  • Common Place Rare: There's only one bellows in the city and it belongs to Issur who use it for his shop's emblem.
  • Convection, Schmonvection: Either averted or exaggerated in the fire chamber of Iblis' tomb. On one hand, just being in the room saps your health unless you douse yourself with water, and stepping in the lava doesn't do much more than make you hop in place for a few seconds (on top of the damage you take from being in the room). On the other hand, you can protect yourself from the heat just by pouring scalding water on yourself.
  • Copy Protection: In a weird sense, the location of the Money Changer was a form of this. She was purposely made difficult to find so that players would use the in box map to track her down. Whether it was truly effective is a different story, as many characters, when asked, will give you her location, but you'll still have to remember those directions.
    • The "word of power" in the Forbidden City, too. Without the manual, the only time that word is mentioned at all is in the final line of the prophecy that Ad Avis recites, and there is nothing to indicate that that is the word of power. Only the manual talks about how Suleiman bin Daoud defeated and imprisoned Iblis, providing a hint that the name Suleiman is the word of power.
  • Cutscene Power to the Max: Your character single-handedly defeats a whole army of brigands with not a single scratch. It happens off screen and you only see the results. But then, that's the joke.
    • Also seen on the character select screen, which show quick cartoons of ridiculous feats of power like the fighter smashing through a stone wall with brute strength, and the mage teleporting in and out. Even at the end of the last game, you'll never be that powerful in the gameplay segments.
  • Cycle of Hurting: It's very, very easy for the Pizza Elemental in the AGD remake to knock you over and then just keep dropping pizzas on you so you can't get up.
  • Damage Sponge Enemy: Terrorsauruses can't block, but have a ton of HP to make up for it. It's not unusual for an untrained Fighter character to die from stamina loss even if they fight perfectly.
  • Dance Battler: Shema remarks on this if the Hero watches her dancing. In the past, Katta females did such dances to prepare for battle and for fertility. But in the present day, it's just for enjoyment.
  • Death by Materialism: Try to take any of the treasure in the Forbidden City and you'll be zapped to oblivion.
  • Dem Bones: The ghouls.
  • Desert Bandits: You'll fight them only during the day. They carry scimitars and they throw daggers in the VGA remake. They're also responsible for Julanar losing her faith in humanity.
  • Developer's Foresight: Typing "put down lamp" nets the same result as "use lamp," but with a funnier message, in which your character insults the lamp thoroughly. Typing "drop lamp" plays it as if you're breaking off your relationship with the lamp, with several fire-based puns.
  • Devious Daggers: Throw a dagger anywhere near a guard (not necessarily at him) and you'll get an instant game over.
  • Disappeared Dad: Simba's father is one of the Shapeiran guards at the palace. He is mentioned by Uhura, but never seen (or at least, never pointed out).
  • Disney Villain Death: Ad Avis falls out of his tower when the hero defeats him. In later games, we learn that Ad Avis had been bitten by Katrina and would therefore rise again as a vampire upon his natural death.
  • Earth/Wind Juxtaposition: To defeat the Air Elemental you have to place dirt into its funnel. How one does this depends on one's character class.
  • Eat Me: Part of the approach necessary to take down the Pizza Elemental. It will try to eat you, which is an instant kill attack if it succeeds, however if you can wound it in time before it can actually swallow you, not only will you break free, but it'll also prevent it from healing itself.
  • Elemental Embodiment: Ad Avis summons four Elementals to attack Shapeir: Fire, Air, Earth, and Water. The Hero cannot kill them, but must instead weaken and capture them so he may use them later.
    • A fifth elemental, Pizza, was hinted at as a joke in the manual and mentioned in a few places if you know where to look or who to ask, but doesn't show up in the game, unless, of course, you play the Fan Remake, where it is all too real, and a Super Boss.
  • Elemental Rock-Paper-Scissors: Fire beats earth, earth beats air, air beats water, and water beats fire. Pizza beats you.
  • Epic Poem: Like its predecessor, the Hero came to Shapeir to fulfill a prophecy in this form. There are two variations, one known to Ad Avis and one to the djinni who was tasked with guarding Iblis:
    • Ad Avis' version:
    For one thousand years and a year, Iblis will be bound
    Beneath the tombstones of the city that he once did found.
    Then comes a Hero from the Northland, led unto despair
    Passing through the door unopened that he will find there
    When the moonlight shines between the Dragon's jaws
    And is caught and held there by the Scorpion's claws.
    And at last the Hero, "He Who Waits Behind," shall see
    While Iblis rises by the Dark One and the light shall flee.
    By the name of Suleiman, so shall this be!
    • The Djinni's version:
    One thousand years and a year, so shall Iblis be caught
    In the tombstones of the city where he and I once fought
    Until moonlight has been captured 'twixt the Scorpion and the Drake.
    Then comes a Hero from the North, and ancient powers wake.
    Led and followed by a Dark One, guide to deceit and despair,
    Passing through the Trial by Fire, Trials of Water, Earth, and Air.
    Passing through the door unopened, barrier that yields to none.
    By the name of Suleiman, so shall this be done!
    Come at last unto betrayal, and to "He Who Waits Behind,"
    Seek ye then to capture Iblis ere he rises unconfined.
    Else shall come the night eternal. Darkness overshadows light
    Unless a Hero seeks the darkness and restores the wrongs to right.
  • Eternal Sexual Freedom: For a medieval Arabian city, it seems odd that nobody in Shapeir would make a big deal out of whether or not Uhura was married to Simba's father. Possibly justified in that she's powerful enough to serve as the Weaponsmaster in the Fighter's Guild.
  • Eunuchs Are Evil: Near the ending of Quest For Glory II, the Thief hero must sneak past several eunuchs to get into the palace at Raseir - they are more Punch Clock Villains than evil and probably had their jobs when the emir was still in power, still, if they see you it's game over.
  • Evil Cannot Comprehend Good: Rakeesh discusses this trope if you spar with him on the last day before your journey to Raseir: "Sometimes the Way of Honor will seem foolish to those that have none. Nevertheless, without Honor there is no victory. With Honor there is no real defeat."
  • Evil Chancellor: Ad Avis, to the emir Ali al-Din Hasan. Averted by Jaffar, who is as loyal as his namesake Ja'far ibn Yahya.
  • Evil Is Not a Toy: Should you fail in the final showdown, your one consolation is the look on the Big Bad's face when he realizes the utter terror he has just unleashed.
  • Faceless Goons: All the guards in Raseir have their face consealed and wear black.
  • Fanservice: A hidden item allows you to see EGA, pixellated breasts in one scene.
  • Fantasy Character Classes: The game manual detail advanced classes for successful and less successful adventurers. Those classes don't appear in the game (except for the Wizard and Paladin), they are just Played for Laughs.
    • Fighter:
      • Warlord.
      • Hero.
      • Paladin.
      • Combat Instructor.
      • Security Guard.
      • Babysitter.
    • Mage:
      • Royal Magician.
      • Wizard.
      • Archmage.
      • Court Jester.
      • Computer Programmer.
      • Corporate Manager.
    • Thief:
  • Fantasy Gun Control: The Apothecary has invented or discovered gunpowder (or as he calls it, "powder of burning"), and he'll give a pouch of it to a Thief character to use against the Earth Elemental when it attacks Shapeir. But the powder is extremely rare, and no weapons have been invented to make use of it.
  • Failure Gambit: Ad Avis summoned the elementals to Shapeir with the expectation that a hero would defeat them.
  • Fish out of Temporal Water: Most of He-Who-Waits-Behind's answers are way outdated. When he last got out of the ring, Shapeir was a small town and Raseir was the happy home of the Katta.
  • Gameplay and Story Segregation: In the original, sauruses are described as fiercely loyal steeds who will fight to protect their owners. While Roget's cowardice is a plot point, your replacement (identical to Roget in all respects) still runs from battle if you decide to hunt around Raseir.
    • Gameplay and Story Integration: In the remake, you can ride the Saurus you brought to Raseir into battle, and it's pretty badass, though if he's injured enough, he will still throw you off.
  • Gang Initiation Fight: In essence, the EOF has you do this in order to join.
  • Gargle Blaster: Ferrari will offer you a drink when he first meets you, as a toast to your new friendship, and gives you the choice of coffee or a Djinn Sling. Both are drugged, and without sufficient stats, drinking either one will result in you telling him very secret things. The stat requirements to remain guarded are higher for the Djinn Sling.
  • "Get Back Here!" Boss: The Earth Elemental. If you take him on as a fighter, you'll have to chase him all over Shapeir as you fight him.
  • The Ghost: The Emir's brother who rule Raseir, Ali al-Din. He is mentioned many times and the player even get to meet him off-screen, but he is never seen.
  • Guide Dang It!: Finding the Pizza Elemental in the AGD remake. First you have to find a pizza box sitting in one of the many random alleyways in Shapeir, pick it up (ignoring the fact that the game tells you that it isn't important the first time you try), read the various graffiti on the walls until it tells you something vague about "The Doom from the East," and then wander out far, far into the desert until you stumble on it.
  • The Good Chancellor: Grand Vizier Ja'Afar, to the sultan Harun al-Rashid. While several 20th century works (e.g. Disney's Aladdin) have made viziers named Jaffar villains, both the real life Jaffar and the Arabian Nights version were good and loyal. (Hades feels your pain, Jaff.)
  • Half-Human Hybrid: The jackalmen.
  • The Hermit: The Dervish lives all by himself in the oasis.
  • Holding Out for a Hero: Despite taking place in a sprawling metropolis with a large force of guards, powerful warriors like Uhura and Rakeesh living there, as well as powerful mages like Aziza and Keapon Laffin, nobody lifts a finger when the city's endangered. Rakeesh could possibly be excused owing to his injuries (and in the Fighter's path Rakeesh attempts to fight the Earth Elemental offscreen and hurts it, but his own lingering wounds and bad leg force him to give up), but otherwise it's all up to a guy with a single quest under his belt to deal with everything that happens.
  • Honor Before Reason: If you want a chance at paladinhood, you have to let Khaveen pick his sword back up after you disarm him instead of killing him. You could've done anything else that didn't involve killing him, like kicking his sword away and knocking him out with the flat of the blade, but instead you have to let him have a second go at you. What makes this act of honor particularly unreasonable, though, is that you don't have much time to interrupt Ad Avis' ritual, and it takes precious minutes to prolong your battle with Khaveen. But then, that's why Paladins are an exclusive group: they are expected to be honorable enough that they would view this action as a must, and powerful enough that they can succeed anyway.
  • Horse of a Different Color: Sauruses (Saurii?) are used as mounts and beasts of burden.
  • Hurricane of Puns: It's a Quest For Glory game, so it'd be odd for you to not be constantly assaulted by silly puns. Try looking at Dinarzad's guard. Or ask Keapon Laffin about fish. Actually, just about anything Keapon says fits this trope.
  • I Am Not Left-Handed: In the remake, you can find a villainous example in Khaveen if you're a Fighter. In the beginning, you exchange blows and he seems rather simplistic in his combat style. Then, he knocks your sword out of your hands, which you can retrieve with some dodging. After doing the same to him, you have the option of either killing an unarmed man, or giving him the opportunity to retrieve his sword. If you do the latter, Khaveen will get serious and the combat will be seriously difficult.
  • Initiation Ceremony: If you have had enough Paladin points, Rakeesh will offer you to become a Paladin, bestowing upon you his flaming sword.
  • Insane Troll Logic: One of the random signs in Raseir says: "Suicide is punishable by death."
  • Insistent Terminology: Erasmus always refer the Wizard's Institute of Technocery as the "W.I.T.", but the other exasperated wizards keep correcting him.
  • It's a Wonderful Failure: If you don't capture the Elementals quickly enough, they destroy Shapeir and it's Game Over. (Incidentally, this would also turn Ad Avis' aforementioned Failure Gambit into a Springtime for Hitler.) Also, if you die at any point after Ad Avis steals Iblis' statue, you are treated to a cutscene where Iblis appears and starts wreaking havoc on the world.
  • Jerk Jock: Issur the blacksmith acts like this. He'll always call you a wimp, even though you may have slain dozens of monsters and brigands single-handedly. Due in part to the limitations of the day, in the original, he would continue being a jerk to you even after you became a member of EOF. In the fan remake, he'll be nicer after you become part of EOF, or he will be slightly more reasonable if you cast a Calm spell before talking to him.
  • Joe Sent Me: To meet Aziza, she will ask you who sent you to her. There are various valid answers (Keapon Laffin, Rakeesh, WIT, Erasmus, or Omar), but she will then ask you a question relating to that person to make sure you've actually met said person.
  • Karma Houdini: At the climax, Khaveen either gets killed in battle with the Fighter or turned into a snake during the Wizard's confrontation with Ad Avis. However, he never seems to face any sort of punishment for his actions, during the Thief's story. (Unless you count having his house broken into and his blackbird replica stolen.) The remake changes this, by making Khaveen fall to his death, when the Thief's magic rope vanishes, while Khaveen tries to climb across it in pursuit of the Thief.
  • Karma Meter: This game introduces the "Honor" stat. Primarily it's used to track the hero's worthiness for promotion to Paladin.
  • Kill It with Fire: The way to beat the Earth Elemental.
  • Kill It with Water: The way to beat the Fire Elemental, although first you have to actually corner it.
  • King Incognito: The Sultan Harun al-Rashid walks among the people of Shapeir as the poet Omar.
  • La Résistance: In Raseir, led by Shema's cousin, Sharaf, the last remaining katta in the city.
  • Leaning on the Fourth Wall: Be stubborn and refuse to buy a saurus from Ali Fakir by walking off and on the screen repeatedly. Ali Fakir then get fed up and says he's been trying to throw you hints that you need the saurus to finish the game. He warns you he'll have the last laugh when you refuse once more to buy his saurus.
  • Light and Mirrors Puzzle: Twice in the remake, once in the original.
    • Keapon Laffin's "Force Bolt Flurry" game (only in the remake) is essentially this, though with you casting Force Bolts instead of a light source, and with the added challenge of preventing Keapon from reflecting his force bolts into your territory.
    • Near the end of the game, a door opens when moonlight shines on it, but the moon is in the wrong place. You need to use a mirror to reflect the moonlight onto the door.
  • Literal-Minded: In the EGA-version: After returning to Ferrari with the statue, typing "give bird" gives you this gem: "You give Signor Ferrari the bird, then you realize he was probably talking about the black falcon." (You have to type "give black falcon.")
  • Loves the Sound of Screaming: The Raseirian Captain of the Guard, Khaveen, once took Zayishah, the girl he intends to marry mind you, and her father with him to the dungeons as the prisoners were being "rehabilitated". It was then that she realized he eyed the cruel spectacle with the same expression he had for her.
  • Marathon Boss: The Pizza Elemental in the AGD remake has only 100 hit points, but such a high defense that the player can only do 1 point of damage at a time.
  • The Maze: Shapeir is a sprawling city, with numerous side-streets, dead-ends, and important locations hidden within. The game provides you with a map that shows the streets themselves, but doesn't show the important locations. If you ask for directions, you'll be told the names of the streets you need to follow to get where you're going. You can also buy a (non-magical) map that shows all the locations you've been to, and allows fast travel to any of them within the city.
    • Raseir, being a mirror of Shapeir, has exactly the same layout, but you have to turn the map upside down for it to make sense.
    • The Shapeirian Desert averts this, however, as it has only four important locations throughout the course of the story, all of which are fairly close to the city and the directions to find them are straightforward.
  • The McCoy: The rightful Emir of Raseir is considered by many to be a very kind-hearted and well-meaning man, but lacking in wisdom.
  • Mercy Rewarded: When being initiated into the Eternal Order of Fighters, refusing to "kill" Walid (you are fighting with a training sword) results in both Issur and Walid criticizing your weakness and merely making you a Brother Saurus. At the ceremony at the palace, however, Walid will praise your mercy, which is one requirement for becoming a paladin. "Killing" Walid gets you a higher rank within the EOF ("Brother Scorpion" as opposed to "Borther Saurus"), but it is useless (the EOF is not mentioned in the other games) and it locks you out of becoming a paladin.
  • Miles Gloriosus: Abdulla shows some shades of this, taking partial credit for the Hero solving Spielburg's brigand problem by claiming that he softened them up for him before he arrived (when in the previous game, he's only ever seen moping around at the Inn after they robbed him blind.)
  • Mini-Game:
    • Arm-wrestling with Issur.
    • Walking the tightrope against Agi the Agile.
    • The fan remake add two mini-games for mages: Force Bolt Flurry with Keapon Laffin and Wizard's Whirl with Aziza.
  • Mook Chivalry: Played straight in the original, where groups of jackalmen and palace guards attacked you one at a time. Subverted in the remake where you have to kick additional mooks away in order to prevent them from flanking you while you're dealing with the main attacker.
  • No OSHA Compliance: Ad Avis probably wouldn't had fallen to his doom if his tower had closed windows instead of wide opening spaces.
  • No Fair Cheating: In the original, typing "Suck Blue Frog" into the parser unlocked a cheat mode that allowed you to edit your stats at will, add money/items, and jump to specific days/locations at will. Typing the code into the parser in the VGA remake will first give you a warning, and sets all your stats to 5 if you try it a second time while also disqualifying you from paladinhood. If you want to be able to cheat without receiving the penalty, there is a side quest you must complete, which does involve "sucking" a "blue frog"...
  • No Hero Discount: Surprisingly averted. If you tell various merchants that you need their goods to stop the elementals currently destroying their city, they will give you what you need for free. The only exception is the Weapon Store owner, who's a Jerk Jock. Each class has a method of getting the item from him: Fighters have to beat him at arm wrestling, Thieves steal it, and Wizards use the Calm spell and high Communications skill to persuade him. (Or come back at night and use the levitate or fetch spell to steal it.)
  • Non-Standard Game Over:
    • Taking the oath to be accepted into the Wizards' Institute of Technocery. You get the best education imaginable and become a knowledgeable and accomplished Wizard, but you spend about twenty years doing so, dooming the city of Shapeir you left behind and ensuring that Ad Avis never frees Iblis.
    • In the Fan Remake, picking the black screen (aka the Dark Master) will get the wizards to land you in the Mordavian swamps for your impertinence, but you would be two games too early, and have no way of surviving it. Also counts as a Mythology Gag since the death message states "Now you know why Quest for Glory III didn't take place here", since the developers had decided to throw another game inbetween as they didn't feel like the hero was ready (even though the ending of this game advertises Shadows of Darkness as the next one).
    • When the Genie grants you three wishes, you get one if your third wish isn't to escape or the equivalent.
    • If you ignore the Saurus-seller too often, he will give you a final warning, and you will get one for not buying the Saurus.
    • Attacking Julanar gets you one, and an apparently cracked screen.
    • If after day 16 you spend all your time outside of town and miss the caravan, the "go home" destination for your Saurus gets changed to Raseir, even though you can't get in since you did not get your visa from Khaveen, at which point you are screwed.
    • And if past that point you wait until day 30, you will STILL get the It's a Wonderful Failure with Iblis destroying the city... Even though you could NOT have been here to get the statue for Ad Avis. Arguably the reason why the Fan Remake forces you to join up with the caravan when your time is up.
  • Offscreen Moment of Awesome: Played hilariously straight. Your caravan is accosted by hundreds of brigands and looks to be overwhelmed. Following an intermission, you find yourself on top of a mountain of corpses, the brigands vanquished.
  • One-Hit Kill: The scorpions' stinger will kill the hero in one hit if it connects with it, unless the player takes a poison pill before hand (and even then, it only works once.) The Pizza Elemental in the AGD remake also has a One-Hit Kill attack, but it's possible to escape from it if the player is caught in it (in fact, escaping from it prevents the boss from healing itself.)
  • Optional Boss:
    • The fanmade VGA remake has the Pizza Elemental. Between his huge defense, his ability to heal, his huge damage output, his continuously ranged pizza drop attack, and his autokill attack, he is easily the cheesiest boss in the game.
    • In addition, there's Sweeping Sir James, a hero turned bandit with all abilities. Beating him gives you the Warrior's Diary.
  • Our Ghouls Are Creepier: In the AGD Fan Remake they can cast spells, making them closer to liches.
    • Al-Ghuls in arabian folklore were always closer to demonic spirits/djinns rather than mindless zombies, so in a way making them spellcasters makes sense.
  • Pet Rat: Ugarte to Ferrari. (At the WIT you can hear the voice of literal pet rat Fenrus, but he's a good guy.)
  • Pilfering Proprietor: you are given a free place to stay in Rasier, but while you are asleep you will have money stolen from you. There is text should you have no money on you regarding the grumbling the would be thieves have that you had no money. As you start the next game with the same amount of money regardless of what happens to you, one is wise to spend all ones money of pills at the Shapier apothecary before one leaves for Rasier anyway (as you keep all the pills in your inventory between games).
  • Public Domain Character: Haroun Al-Rashid, the sultan of Shapeir, was the real-world caliph of Baghdad who is remembered in folklore such as the Arabian Nights as being a wise and just ruler and one who would frequently disguise himself to travel among his people. Jaffar (Ja'far ibn Yahya) was likewise a real person and vizir to the real Al-Rashid. Suleiman bin Daoud, a mighty magician-king in the backstory of the game, is the Arabian name of King Solomon (son of David) from the Bible, who was also known in folklore for being a powerful sorcerer adept at capturing and binding spirits. Iblis is a leader of devils from Arabian mythology, sometimes equated with Satan.
  • Punny Name: Roget the Saurus (your faithful saurian steed) and Keapon Laffin (proprietor of Shapeir's magic shop).
  • Qurac: Shapeir is a type 1 variant; Raseir is type 3 without any explicitly religious trappings.
  • Rape as Drama: What the brigands presumably did to Julanar. When relating the story, Aziza makes a note that she "will not say" what they did to her.
  • Remixed Level: In-universe, Raseir is this to Shapeir, as its twin sister city. The Hero gets to experience it as a very jarring dark mirror to Shapeir, complete with dilapidation (that poor fountain!) and despair, and the gap between both is very effective. Bonus points for it actually re-using exactly the same data in-game, with mainly a tweaked color palette and rewritten street signs (laws).
  • Rock Monster: The Earth Elemental.
  • Scary Scorpions: Giant, larger-than-a-man scorpions that can One-Hit Kill you with a stinger to the chest if they grab you in their pincers, though this can be avoided by taking pills bought from the apothecary. If you're protected by a pill, the stinger will use up the protection. You have to know when to take a new pill every time.
    • A bug or design element in the original VGA version of the game resulted in your poison pill protection wearing off just as the stinger tail started to shake, making the pill worthless: you would get the message about the pill wearing off, and then have just a couple of seconds to dodge the fatal attack. Failure would kill you, just as if you never took the pill at all.
  • Scenery Censor: In Raseir, you meet Zayishah, a woman who wishes to escape the city dressed as you. You offer her a spare set of clothes and she steps behind a gauzy veil to change. It provides just enough obscurity, unless you use a certain Easter Egg.
  • Shout-Out:
    • All three Marx Brothers appear in person. Groucho as a saurus dealer, Chico as a map seller and Harpo as a silly clown who will occasionally appear in the streets of Shapeir. A katta will eventually tell you that they moved to Fredonia.
    • Raseir has several references to Casablanca. Ferrari and Ugarte are named after a couple of criminals from that movie (the AGD remake gives them their likeness in their portraits as well). Then there are these quotes:
      Narrator: Of all the Djinn joints in all the world, you had to walk into this one.
      Ferrari: Everybody goes to the Blue Parrot.
    • The black falcon statue refers to The Maltese Falcon (1941), also a Humphrey Bogart film. Here, it is worth a Sultan's (rather than King's) ransom, and the Famous Adventurer decides that that it is not the stuff that dreams are made of.
    • The blue parrot which is pining for the fjords references a Monty Python sketch.
    • King Arthur from Sierra's Conquests of Camelot game can sometimes be seen as a mirage in the desert.
    • The AGD remake adds a few more, like one of the Sharkees from AGD's remake of King's Quest II and the original Prince of Persia.
    • Merv the Griffin references Merv Griffin, which is why it is not spelled gryphon.
    • Some of the Raseir street "names" (they're named after the rules posted there) include "All men are equal" and "Some men are more equal than others."
    • The second time you visit the astrologer, he is in the middle of some work and mutters to himself "When the Moon is in the second house, and Jupiter aligns with Mars..."
    • Ask the astrologer about the orrery, and he'll mention the names of planets like Xenon, Ortega, Pestulon, Phleebhut and Uranus.
    • Also from the astrologer, he mentions the sign of the Shadow. When you ask more about this sign, his explanation includes the phrase "Who knows what evil lurks?"
    • Issur won arm-wrestling trophies in Petalumeir (Petaluma, CA is the self-declared arm-wrestling capital of the world).
    • Looking at the picture of Erana in WIT, Hero will comment that she looks like Genesta, a fairy he once knew.
    • The cave sequence has more than a passing resemblance to Aladdin: The hero gets trapped in a cave by an evil wizard. It is full of treasure that he must not touch. He finds a ring with a djinni that can get him out.
  • Significant Anagram: Raseir -> Sierra.
  • Slipping a Mickey: When meeting Ferrari for the first time, he has the bartender do this to your drink in an effort to get information out of you. With high enough stats and the right drink choice, you can resist, but it has no effect on the story at that point anyway.
  • Something Else Also Rises: When Zayishah is changing into your spare set of clothes, a long note that slowly rises in volume is played (it's more easily heard in the AGDI remake).
  • Stamina Burn: Ghouls' attacks deplete the Hero's stamina rather than health. If his stamina is 0, a ghoul's attack will kill him regardless of his health.
  • Silliness Switch: The "Silly Clowns" option in the menu. Leaving it turned on occasionally causes the player to have strange random encounters when out in the desert or wandering in the alleys in Shapeir.
  • Sudden Gameplay Change: In the original game the EOF initiation fight uses the same mechanics as any other fight in the rest of the game. In the fan remake it was changed up so the fighters are wielding two-handed swords, and fight in a way unique to that one battle.
  • Superboss: The Pizza Elemental from the remake is an optional boss that is incredibly difficult to find, especially since there is only a very indirect clue to its location. It's also by far the most difficult combat challenge in the game, especially since the QFG games normally focus on figuring out the puzzles and the correct series of actions to take or tools to use in a situation, rather than about being really good at combat.
  • They Call Me MISTER Tibbs!: Type "ask about ferrari" when talking to Wilmer and he'll insist that it's "Signor Ferrari".
  • Thirsty Desert: It is possible to die of thirst while wandering the desert. You need to carry several water skins, and to fill them all.
  • Three Wishes: "He Who Waits Behind" gives these to you near the end of the game; you can use the first two to raise two of your stats (other than Honor) by 50 each, potentially going over the game's Cap of 200note . Using the third wish for anything other than "escape" or "teleport to Iblis" results in a Non-Standard Game Over.
  • Timed Mission: The player has 17 days before the caravan to Raseir arrives, and whenever an elemental appears they have 2-3 days to stop it before it destroys the city. Fortunately, time passes slowly enough that you'd have to be seriously dragging your feet to feel the pressure. The cheat mode allows you to change what day it is using the 'Time Warp' function, which means you can invoke Take Your Time.
    • Once you've escaped the Forbidden City, you must stop Ad Avis before he releases Iblis.
    • It should also be noted there is an automatic Iblis game over trigger if you miss the caravan by staying at the oasis and screw around until day 30. Since it does not make sense, the Fan Remake prevented this possibility.
  • Translator Buddy: Poet Omar's aide interprets his poetry.
  • Truck Driver's Gear Change: The background music at the end of the game after escaping from Iblis' tomb has this effect for the Fighter and the Wizard: Outside of the palace, it plays a suspenseful tune in D minor, which changes to F minor (and adds a more suspenseful countermelody) when you enter the palace.
  • Ungrateful Bastard: The beast left in the desert (Ad Avis's apprentice) is not very grateful for your help and, y'know, saving his life. He does, however, give the hero a warning about Ad Avis waiting for him in Raseir. And, after teleporting away, comes back to thank him for the food and/or water he was given, then teleports away again.
  • Unwinnable by Design: As in the EGA version of the first game, it is possible for a Fighter to drop his shield. However, Khaveen will not fight the Hero if he doesn't have a shield, instead calling the guards and causing an instant Game Over. If your fighter does not have any magical or thieving abilities to get past Khaveen some other way (or avoid him altogether), dropping your shield makes the game Unwinnable. Because it is possible to drop your shield on day 1 and not know that that has made the game unwinnable until day 30, this particular instance counts as Cruel.note  The remake adds in another way to get past Khaveen, if you have a dagger. When he eventually moves below the hero, clicking the dagger on him will make the hero jump down and kill him instantly, with a fatal stab. This will negatively affect your honor, however.
    • If you are a really good fighter, you may kill him so quickly that he never drops his sword. This locks you out of the promotion to Paladin.
  • Victory Pose:
    • In the remake, your character does one whenever he wins a battle. The exact animation depends on your class. Rakeesh and Uhura have one too if they beat you in training.
    • The fighter has a unique one when winning the EOF battle with the two-handed sword. The sword twirl and pose afterwards were a rough imitation of Cloud's victory pose.
    • You also pull one when taking out Ad Avis. And once more when the Sultan crowns you, or when Rakeesh makes you a Paladin.
  • Video Game Cruelty Potential:
    • Attacking the griffin who was just sleeping peacefully in its nest.
    • In the fan remake, selling the inn's key to Dinarzad. This will cause the inn to be robbed later. Considering you just betrayed your friends who let you stay for free, that's really low.
  • Video Game Cruelty Punishment:
    • Attacking Julanar will cause your monitor to break down.
    • A variety of acts (stealing, killing helpless opponents, etc.) reduce your Honor stat, and most of them also disqualify you from becoming a Paladin at the end of the game.
  • Weapons That Suck: How to defeat the air elemental.
  • Wizarding School: The Wizard's Institute of Technocery. Characters capable of using magic can go there, pass their tests, and gain acceptance into the school. However, actually choosing to attend the school is a Non-Standard Game Over, since the four masters that administer the tests all insist that you remain at W.I.T. and study for about 20 years before rejoining the rest of the world, and they want you to start immediately (and of course, if you choose to stay, Shapeir is destroyed because you weren't there to save it. On the other hand, you also ensure that Ad Avis can't free Iblis). Refuse and the masters get miffed, but Erasmus congratulates you on making the better choice (presenting you with the Reversal spell too!), because how are you going to make a difference in the world when you're stuck at W.I.T. and not putting your magic to good use? Notably, you still get to use the title "Wizard" for the rest of the series, implying that practical experience is just as effective as scholarly dedication.
  • Wretched Hive: Raseir.
  • "You!" Exclamation: Ad Avis utters this when you knock out his candle. Followed up by "You will pay!" for Wizards or "My spell is broken! You will die!" for Fighters without magical skill. For Thieves, he says it 'after' saying, "No! After 70 years! NO!"
  • You Shouldn't Know This Already: In the original game, the player can do most of the prep work for battling the various elementals right away if they know what they need to get. In the fan remake, the options to get the required items only open up as the elementals appear, forcing you to talk to NPCs about how to defeat them and then gather the required items.
  • Zerg Rush: The jackalmen's preferred strategy. In the AGD Remake they even avert Mook Chivalry and gang up on the hero.

Alternative Title(s): Quest For Glory 2

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