YMMV / Queen's Wish

• Broken Base: This game has been quite controversial amongst Vogel's small but passionate base.
  • First, the switch from the isometric 2D graphics that was his mainstay from Avernum and Geneforge to Nethergate and Avadon to flat 2D perspective hasn't sat well with some of the players from the start, although others have welcomed the change. The controversy was fuelled by a blog post Vogel wrote before release, where he outright stated that his graphics were always considered crap by many players regardless of their style, but he's been in business so long, and outlasted so many games with seemingly better graphics, that there's no longer a reason for him to change. As expected, that invited a lot of outside attention and controversy once it went viral in the gamedev community.
  • Then, once the game was actually released, its mechanical changes have attracted further controversy. For some longtime players, things like auto-levelling, respawning enemies who provide no experience, inability to pick up items outside of chests, and lack of stats with the progression handled through equipment constituted outright dumbing down: others welcomed that it shifted attention towards the storytelling and the fort-building system.
• Genius Bonus: Elixir being a Fantastic Drug made from quicksilver is based on Ancient Chinese alchemists believing mercury was the key to the Elixir of Life, which may have killed Emperor Qin Shi Huang. In addition, the side effects of Elixir usage correspond to the symptoms of mercury poisoning to an extent.

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