King's Bounty - Retrospective

PC Gamer looked back at the classic King's Bounty: The Legend.

…
The most memorable feature of King's Bounty: The Legend was the ability get married. Romance and marriage isn't exactly a novel concept in RPGs, but these marriages matched the game's goofy, sometimes darkly humorous tone. That pirate princess I mentioned earlier was one of the more normal brides-to-be. I could also rescue the frog princesses from the Earl and make one my wife, and there was the potential for her to transform back into a frog if our love ended.

Then there's the unforgettable side quest where a man admits to zombifying his wife, leaving me with the option to purchase said wife, and then the further option to leave her a zombie or cure her. Either way we can have kids together, though in King's Bounty: The Legend children were rarely worth their paltry stat boosts compared to loot, and starting a family paled compared to playing the wandering womanizer. Game of Thrones has nothing on the world of King's Bounty.

[…]

More information.

My not humble opinion:
First two games - musthaves.
The third one - still fun, but musthave it is not.
The fourth (last) one - avoidware.

Well I think dark side is rather good but the third one - warriors of the north i strongly disliked. Also I'm not sure why this is a retrospective as these games are relative new (2008+); wouldn't the original one be the retro

I like and enjoy them all, yeah the Dark one could have been better but it did do some interesting things. Maybe some point in the future the format for this will be changed and we'll see a brand new version of a very interesting world.

I liked them all, but I feel the last two were one island too long.

great and addictive game !!
man i DO looking forward to a new edition

One of the greatest TB games out there

I loved the original King's Bounty on the Amiga and I was thrilled with the remake (King's Bounty: The Legend), but after the second iteration of what was basically the same game I became increasingly bored with it.

I played and enjoyed all of them, but I'd say AP:CW is the best one and WotN the worst (extremely grindy).

Originally Posted by you
Also I'm not sure why this is a retrospective as these games are relative new (2008+); wouldn't the original one be the retro

Ten years is retro by gaming standards nowadays. Anyway I agree about the later expansions not being retro, but they use the same engine from the first game.

Originally Posted by abharsair
I loved the original King's Bounty on the Amiga and I was thrilled with the remake (King's Bounty: The Legend), but after the second iteration of what was basically the same game I became increasingly bored with it.

Same here. I had the Sega Genesis version of the original game when I was a kid and played the hell out of it. I enjoyed The Legend and Armored Princess, but I was burned-out by the time they rolled out Warriors of the North.

Played KB:TL non stop for about a year, culminating in my impossible, zero creature loss triumph. Still got the screenshot of my 209 round battle against Master Dizi. Still using the same PC too.

Would love a NEW version.

I have finished all four. Enjoyed AP the most but Dark side wasn't that bad. The first couple of hours where you are in first 4 "intro" zones are bad but then it actually gets pretty good once you arrive at the first real main island.

Warriors of the North did bring a few things to the table and all these games are pretty heavy on the grind.

Still, the first one is something special.

Personally I never cared much for Armoured Princess.

Impressive. I've done no loss with crossroad/ap many times but found kb:tl too annoying (for no loss). You have several big fights I would find no loss very painful (the last one with dragons; the one to obtain queen soul; …) btw who was 'master dizi'.

Originally Posted by Ryder
Played KB:TL non stop for about a year, culminating in my impossible, zero creature loss triumph. Still got the screenshot of my 209 round battle against Master Dizi. Still using the same PC too.

Would love a NEW version.

Colorful, uplifting, adventurous, superb King's Bounty series is way better than any western sequels of this genre. Disciples 1 had world-class art, HOMM 1-3 were amazing, but their later sequels - concurrent with the Kings Bounty line were ridiculously badly botched heaps of stinking pile of bore.

Originally Posted by mercy
Colorful, uplifting, adventurous, superb King's Bounty series is way better than any western sequels of this genre. Disciples 1 had world-class art, HOMM 1-3 were amazing, but their later sequels - concurrent with the Kings Bounty line were ridiculously badly botched heaps of stinking pile of bore.

I hated HOMM4 but 5, 6 and even 7 were enjoyable.

That is a major accomplishment, playing the Legend version completely and not losing a single creature. I call that impressive!

@Ryder Damn. That is dedication.
OT. Have KB and AP. Never finished one. Ah, well.. modern life.

Originally Posted by mercy
Colorful, uplifting, adventurous, superb King's Bounty series is way better than any western sequels of this genre. Disciples 1 had world-class art, HOMM 1-3 were amazing, but their later sequels - concurrent with the Kings Bounty line were ridiculously badly botched heaps of stinking pile of bore.

True. Have waited so, so long for true Disciples sequel/update but alas…, guess its true about lightning and bottles..

Agreed!!! The Bounty games have stayed consistently good and worth playing, the Heroes games have totally sucked since the third one.