Which Quest For Glory game is your favorite? And why?

[woutercox]

I'm interested to learn about your favorite Quest For Glory game. And, more specifically: why is it your favorite?

And of course, I'm also happy to share my favorite QFG game and the reasons why I enjoyed it so much:

Quest For Glory III - Wages of War
Why do I like this so much, and why is it my favorite? A large number of reasons (summed up in no particular order of importance):

Minor spoilers might follow:

The graphics
For that time, the graphics were really impressive. This was the first game in the series to make use of VGA graphics, giving it a 'painted' look.

The setting
The 'African' setting felt really fresh and I really felt like exploring new territory. The city, the Savannah, the 'wilderness' and the 'Savannah Village' gave the game a feeling of 'expansiveness', made it feel like the explorable area was bigger than it actually was.

The story
The story is a nice departure from the usual "Evil archvillain wants to take over the world", and is set in a background of conflict between two 'tribes'. It has an interesting story, with some nice plot twists.

The characters
The characters are believable, you can talk with them a lot and feel like you are building a real relation with them. This is also helped by certain events in the game. You can even get romantic with some of them - or try to.

Rakeesh, Ferrari, Ugarte, Salim, Uhura, Johari, Manu & friends

The quests
A lot of the quests are really interesting and well done. Especially if you like playing a mage (which I do 90% of the time), QFGIII is a treat: you get to create a wizard's staff and the duel at the end of the game was one of the most fun magic duels I ever played (even though it's all scripted). Outsmarting your opponent with spells, is there anything better?

Although I must admit, if you like playing thieves, there's not a lot to do here.

Paladin
Unless I am very much mistaken, this is the first game in which you can play a Paladin and make use of his spells.

Eat and sleep
The necessity to eat and sleep was -I think- really well done in this game and really made you feel like you're a human being who needs his rest and food. At the same time, it wasn't so punishing that you were crippled if you skipped a meal or a night of sleep.

Most memorable moments
- Exploring the wilderness
- Eating at the inn and 'talking' (ahem) with the innkeepster
- Creating the Wizard's Staff
- The magic duel near the end
- Getting romantic with Johari
- The encounter with the 'comic duo' in the desert (that cracked me up so much)
- The plot twist near the end
- The final fight at the very end (that was such fun!)

General
The game world felt alive and interesting, there was always something to do or someone to talk with. And, playing a wizard, the magic 'quests' and 'duels' were creative and interesting.

[Nidoking]

I think II was by far my favorite, simply because it was the one that I felt best integrated the different character types into the game. There are unique things for each of the three character types to do (although, admittedly, the Fighter still gets short-changed in the sidequest department, but at least there's one set of Fighter-unique events, which is one more than any other game), unique solutions for most of the puzzles depending on which class you are (most notably, most of the elementals as well as the final sequence), and a timer that generally doesn't restrict your activities while keeping the plot on target. It's the most fun to mix abilities in, as well - did you know that even as a Fighter, you can cast spells in combat if you DROP SHIELD before being attacked, then GET SHIELD when you're done? Most of the other games restricted the class-specific sidequests to collecting spells, breaking into a few houses (and III didn't even do that much for the Thief), and a Paladin quest or two in the last few games. III advanced the series' technology a fair bit, but removed most of the fun in the bargain - I agree with the list of good parts, but I argue that those are almost the only good parts. IV tore down most of the walls between classes, since Fighters and Paladins got Climbing and the buggy interface forced the Paladin to gain Magic as well, which results in collecting some spells you can't really avoid (and definitely want to, in at least one case). I hope I don't need to go into V's flaws, although the things it managed to do well were a treat.