PEASANT'S QUEST REVIEW
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YEAR: 2004
SIZE: N\A - BROWSER BASED
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PLATFORMS: Browser
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+ Funny parody story
+ Humorous death scenes
+ Good animation
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- Rather short
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STORY
Long ago, in a faraway land, lies a place called Peasantry. It is a good
land. A simple land. And like all lands from long ago, there is a dragon.
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Peasantry’s dragon is called Trogdor, and he is a big, mean, fire-
breathing dragon.
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You are Rather Dashing. You return home after an enjoyable holiday…
only to find your cottage (with the thatched roof)… BURNINATED!
Gone up in smoke! Along with all your worldly possessions! Only one
thing could have done this. Trogdor! Understandably, you are rather
ticked off about this, and want revenge on the evil dragon.
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However, as you reach the mountain path that leads to Trogdor‘s lair,
the Knight guarding the path thwarts your plans. He tells you that you
cannot pass, because only peasants are allowed past, and he doesn’t
believe you are truly a peasant. You don’t smell like a peasant. You
don’t dress like a peasant. You’re not on fire like a peasant. Therefore,
you are not a peasant.
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Thus begins your 3 quests to convince the Knight that you are, in fact,
a peasant. And you want revenge on Trogdor the dragon.
　
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GAMEPLAY
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Peasant’s Quest is a short game made by the Homestar Runner team
(better known for the Strong Bad franchise). It is an online game,
playable in your browser. Thankfully, despite it being a browser game,
you are able to save your progress.
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The game is a parody of King’s Quest (amongst other things), and the
3 quests to prove you are a peasant is in reference to the 3 King’s
Quest quests you must undertake in KQ1 to become King of Daventry.
(Peasantry… Daventry… get it?). There is a map of Peasantry to help
you on your way… but can you find it?
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Just like the early King’s Quest games, Peasant’s Quest uses a text
parser to control Mr Dashing’s actions. Type in simple commands,
such as ‘Talk Knight’, ‘Look Tree’, ‘Talk Man’, ’Take Map’ etc. But since
this is a parody game, some of the commands are rather… unusual. I
strongly urge you to ‘Look’ at everything, because you will likely get a
funny comment about whatever you are looking at.
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Like I said earlier, despite this being a browser game, you are able to
Save your progress. Which is just as well, since many actions will result
in your death (the death scenes will make you chuckle though). You
can do this simply by typing ‘Save’ - you have 3 Save Slots plus 1
Autosave Slot, and you can use them as many times as you wish.
Restore your game by typing ‘Load’, and then select which game you
would like to restore.
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Walking around Peasantry is done by using the Arrow keys. You can
adjust Rather Dashing’s walking speed by pressing ‘+’ and ‘-’ to speed
up or slow down. You can also see your inventory by typing ‘Inv’.
　
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GRAPHICS
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Graphics are intentionally very pixelated, just as the early King’s Quest
games were, and animation is very smooth. I especially like the
animation of Rather Dashing’s head being on fire. I also like Kerrek the
monster, which reminds me of the ogre from King’s Quest 1.
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Commands are typed in a bottom of the screen, and your score is
shown at top of the screen. Unfortunately, I can never seem to get full
points - I’m always 1 point short, and I don’t know why.
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Your Inventory items are shown as a list, by typing ‘Inv’. Use the arrow
keys to navigate the Inventory window to see a picture of each item,
and press Enter to get a fuller description. Simply press Esc to return
to the game.
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Peasantry uses a simplified ‘scrolling’ technique. If you start walking
up or down, and continue in that direction, you’ll end up back where
you started.
　
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SOUND AND MUSIC
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Sound consists mainly of beeps & boops, which fits in perfectly with
the style of the game. But I was pleasantly surprised at end of
the game, when Trogdor spoke with a digitised voice.
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