One of the most truly impressive things about The Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos is just how much total content is crammed into the game, with a lot of it being really high quality and entertaining. Despite being "just" a free fan mod for Gothic 2, it feels professionally well-done and actually delivers a more compelling gaming experience than many big-budget AAA RPGs to have come out over the last two decades since the original Gothic 2. The quests are a big contributor in this, generally speaking, with them feeling very well-grounded and believable, thus contributing to a highly immersive atmosphere, and with many of them having interesting stories, fun character interactions, and frequently a good deal of role-playing options with branching outcomes. As with every game, however, not all quests are created equally, since some will naturally get more attention in development given that they're meant to be a major focus while others will receive less attention by virtue of being merely optional side content. Sometimes those seemingly lesser quests can wind up being good, however, and likewise sometimes the more important quests can prove a little disappointing.
For this video, I just want to talk about some of my favorite quests and what makes them enjoyable to me, with some attempt at ranking them, and also talk a little about some quests that I didn't like as much that I wish could have been better. Please note that this is not meant to be an objective list of the best or worst quests in the game, it is merely my personal opinion based on what I liked or disliked about some of them. And of course, I'm going to be spoiling the plot-lines and outcomes for some of these entries, as well as many details surrounding the main story, so bear that in mind and just treat the entire article as spoilers. And so without further ado, here are my favorite quests from the Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos, in some loose attempt at a ranked order.
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Honorable Mention #1: An Unforgettable Lesson
This quest happens later in the game as a followup to an earlier quest you had in the Scoundrel's Haven, when the pirate Saul tasks you with helping him to pull a prank on his bunk mate, Berter. Apparently this is a game the two play, always trying to one-up each other with some new trick, and so Saul wants your help in adding something to Berter's stew while he's away. You have a few options, and I'm not sure if it really matters which you go with, but you can put hot peppers in to ruin the flavor since Berter doesn't like spice, or something "hard" that will crack his teeth when he bites into it. Seems these pranks might be a little more serious than just playful ribbing. There's also a fun little line of dialogue where you can offer to drop a severed human head in the pot and Saul is incredulous at the suggestion, asking instead if you have any "normal" solutions to offer.
Anyway, you do that, and then the next chapter you can return to find Berter scheming to get back against Saul, and so he wants your assistance prepping a cannon so that he can fire it directly into the hut and above Saul, who's sleeping in bed, to startle him awake. It's such a ridiculous overreaction and escalation to putting hot peppers in his food that I was completely on board with playing along with this stupid plan. And of course it turns out Berter doesn't know how to aim a cannon properly and winds up obliterating Saul into a pile of giblets, before trying to skedaddle and lay the blame on Saul, as if Saul had somehow shot himself with a cannon, as one of his pranks literally backfiring on him. There's really no deeper significance to this quest -- it's incredibly simple and straightforward, and even kind of annoying honestly with the pointless need to send you back to grab a cannonball if you didn't already have one, just for him to say "Oh there was one already loaded" -- but I always enjoy wacky absurdity, and this one was particularly funny with just how quickly a simple prank escalates into a guy getting accidentally annihilated with a cannon.
Honorable Mention #2: A Reluctant Student
This quest happens at Bermar's Farm, when you're tasked with giving his son, Kyle, something productive and less annoying to do, and if you can teach something useful in the process then so much the better. It would seem that Kyle is awfully inept, basically failing at every endeavor he sets himself out to, which as of late includes building a granary that he forgot to put a door in. Which is a concept that may come back to haunt him later in another similar sort of situation. As you may remember from Gothic 1, this is the same Kyle who built his hut too close to the ditch in the Old Camp where it obstructed the walking path, who later returned from the mines to discover that a second door had been put into his hut so people could continue walking the path. Kyle wasn't very important in Gothic 1, basically only existing for that one dialogue exchange to be an amusing bit of world-building, but now thanks to Archolos we get to see a small origin story for him. Kyle, it would seem, has been annoying his father Bermar with his constant sawing, and has no interest in learning useful skills like hunting or blacksmithing, but does have a strange obsession with climbing things, although he's apparently not very good.
The actual quest is fairly simple, basically just running around the farm while Kyle gets into various failed shenanigans, culminating with an objective to teach him how to climb a tree. So you climb up it to demonstrate how it's done, but he wasn't paying attention when you climbed down and gets stuck, so you have the option to fetch a ladder for him. And that's basically it. I could see this quest possibly being annoying to some people, given how utterly incompetent Kyle is and the fact that it's basically just a glorified babysitting quest, but the reason I like it is because it shows some of the creativity in the quest design and what fun little things can be done with this engine, where just simply climbing a tree is an objective in and of itself. Of course, they had to model the tree in a very specific way to make it climbable with the normal climbing mechanics, which does look a little odd, but it does take a minor amount of user skill to position yourself correctly and not fall off, and works better for the sake of gameplay than coding the tree to be like a ladder and then just climbing straight up the trunk. Plus, Kyle himself was a fun character in Gothic 1 so it's nice to see more of him, and I think they did a tasteful job with expanding on what little we know of Kyle to create this backstory.
Honorable Mention #3: Eternal Rest
This quest takes place in the Misty Marshes, a spooky, haunted swamp, where you discover an animated skeleton named Fane lying in a shallow grave begging you to kill him because he's bored with his undying existence. As an immortal undead, he can't be harmed by physical means, but there's no readily apparent solution that either Fane or Marvin can guess. The normal solution, which you might guess if you remember how certain spells worked in the original games, is to use some type of holy magic spell like Destroy Undead -- if you have such a spell scroll on you, then that's all it takes, and you can finish the quest quite easily for a good chunk of experience and a few special items. If you don't kill him right away, however, then you can recruit him to join you on the expedition into the Vardhal Underground, which he finds poetic on account a cursed undead trying to find a way to die in a place full of undead. Anyway, this plan doesn't go too well -- or maybe it does, in a twisted sort of way, since the water mage Riordian kills Fane on sight once he arrives, because Riordian mistook him for a common undead which had attacked you and the party earlier.
Again, as with my other honorable mentions, this quest is really short and simple, although the solution can be quite delayed if you opt to bring him to Vardhal -- but the reason I like it so much is just how unusual this scenario is for a Gothic game. It's one thing to have a non-aggressive talking Skeleton giving you a quest, since you do in fact interact with a fair number of undead spirits throughout the Gothic games, as well as Archolos itself, but the writing and voice acting for Fane is what does it for me, since I just love how jaded and fed up he his with his whole situation, like he's mildly annoyed by still being alive while also being content to just lie in a grave for the rest of eternity because nothing else he's tried has worked to let him die and move on. It's really not a special quest by any means, but it was unique and memorable to me, and I felt amused by the whole premise, hence it making its way into my honorable mentions.
Honorable Mention #4: Vengard Dresses
This quest happens later in the game if and only if you've joined the city guard, when the royal envoy of King Rhobar arrives on the island with orders to instill a new uniform across the kingdom, which it turns out, is actually the goofy-looking Light Militia armor that you see used on Khorinis in Gothic 2. The Commander of the City Guard, Roderich, is against this idea from the start because of the special circumstances he's cultivated on Archolos with specialized units that require different types of armor, so he doesn't believe that a single uniform would be suitable for both units, but the matter is made worse when the armor is put to a trial-run in the streets and everyone starts laughing at the silly dresses they're expected to wear. The guards are ashamed to wear such silly attire and Roderich fears the guards' ability to enforce the law if people aren't taking them seriously, so he launches a cloak and dagger rebellion to sabotage the new uniforms to delay them being put into effect. The rest of the quest is a simple matter of running errands to gather materials to make it look like the new uniforms have rapidly rusted, thus rendering them ineffective and delaying their enforced usage.
Much like the quest with Kyle, this quest earns a special mention mainly because it's an amusing reference to something that I've always felt about that armor set, even going back to the original Light Guard armor in Gothic 1, with it seemingly just being a long tunic and a set of boots with no trousers. I didn't like it much in Gothic 1, and I like it even less in Gothic 2 with those white and red checkered squares across it and the lack of studded leather going down the sides. This quest is basically a meta reflection of the community sentiment at large being made quasi-canonical through actual in-world characters echoing those feelings; the fact that Roderich, who's all about upholding law and order and fulfilling his duty to the King, is so dissatisfied with these uniforms that even he wants to find a way out of having to use them, is what really sells the atrocity of those uniforms. The quest is pretty mundane otherwise, but the cute premise is enough to earn a spot in my honorable mentions.
And now with the honorable mentions out of the way, we can move on to my actual top-ranked favorite quests, with...
Favorite Quest #4: Golden Innoses
This might be a controversial selection because I actually kind of hate how this quest ends, but I think it's still a fun and entertaining quest up until that point, and even though I don't like the ending it still has some decent narrative implications. This quest takes place in the city, and it's initiated outside the cathedral of Innos where the fire mages preach their gospel, when a paladin by the name of Candac approaches you because he's getting fed up with the sleazy merchants peddling cheap knock-off golden statues of Innos right outside the cathedral. Or as the game likes to call them, "Golden Innoses." One merchant has been stationed outside the cathedral since the beginning of the game, but later on a second one appears, and this is when Candac begins to really take issue with what he perceives to be blatant exploitation of his god for commercial profit. Unfortunately when he tried to approach one of the stalls to confront the merchant, the scene was turned against him when the merchant exploited his presence by loudly claiming that a paladin of Innos was interested in his Golden Innoses, which just created more public demand for these cheap knock-offs. Hence why he needs your assistance in rooting out this plague of blasphemy.
The rest of the quest involves investigating the source of these Golden Innoses -- where they come from, do the merchants have legal permits, are they themselves believers of the faith, and so on, while the two merchants tell different stories about them being made locally or imported from far-off lands that make it hard to discern which story is true, if either of them is true at all. You can go to the city registrar to check on the status of their permits, which seem to be legit although one of them is somewhat suspect because it's much older and has only been put to use recently, but then neither of them is forthcoming with details about where they actually get their Golden Innoses from, with them claiming different origins despite appearing to be the exact same product.
And so you start to follow a trail of clues from different suppliers and handlers along the chain until you eventually discover that they're actually made from wood in a local sweat shop, with a thin gilding of gold applied on top. And then suddenly a third merchant stand appears outside the cathedral, and this time you can discover that there is actually illegal contraband and other valuables hidden inside these Golden Innoses. But when you finally bring all this evidence to Candac and Tengral, one of the lead fire mages, all your concerns are shut down because the fire mages have decided that these Golden Innoses are a good way for symbols of worship and comfort to make it into the hands of the poor, and that the only real problem is that they hadn't been blessed, and thus were not officially sanctioned by the church. But now for a small donation to the church, they will bless the Golden Innoses and allow them to continue being sold in the cathedral square.
So. That ending is pretty damn frustrating considering that you uncover some serious issues with these Golden Innoses, and yet there is seemingly nothing you can do to change the situation and make the fire mages rethink their decision, or come to a better compromise that can fulfill their ultimate goals without all the bad consequences associated with these Golden Innoses. Because while I do agree with the sentiment of allowing cheaper versions to be accessible to the poor, I absolutely do not support people's labor being exploited to produce them, and am not thrilled about all the false advertising and misleading marketing that goes into their sale -- not to mention some of them apparently being used for smuggling. After getting that ending, I reloaded my save and spent a lot of time running around trying to figure out if there was something I missed that might have led to a better ending, even going so far as to scour the entire sewer system after the third merchant went on his random tirade about his father designing the sewers and how their purpose has been corrupted and so on and so on. And yet, you're seemingly just stuck with the fire mages being willfully ignorant of the whole situation, to the point that they don't even want to listen to your concerns, while they contentedly choose to reap their own profits from these Golden Innoses.
So why do I still like this quest enough to have it at #4? Well for one, I really enjoy the mystery that this quest presents, because it's just interesting to me trying to figure out what the real story is in real time as you go through the investigation, since everyone tells you different pieces of information and some of them are lies and others are half-truths where things don't quite line up right until you reach the end. I also like what this quest does for the world-building, since it depicts a more practical side of what goes on in the city with relation to religion, economics, and bureaucracy while still having a compelling conflict and mystery to it. It also shows progressive changes with more and more of these merchant stands opening up and remaining permanently in place, and Candac having lasting effects that linger until Chapter Five with him becoming disillusioned in his faith in the church of Innos and later seeking counsel from the monastery of Adanos.
The big thing, though, is just that the subject matter is interesting to me, with a lot of debatable points and allegorical reflections on modern society. There's merit in Candac not wanting to permit cheap knockoffs because then that symbolically devalues the purity of their god, but by the same token I think it's reasonable to produce gilded idols instead of ones made of solid gold like he prefers so that the image of Innos can be spread further. I likewise think it's fair to have a free market where people can buy and sell whatever they want, and if there is in fact demand for these things then people should be free to sell them, but on the other hand the sales tactics are scummy and I don't appreciate people being taken advantage of to produce and sell these goods. There's also interesting debates about the value of locally-made goods versus foreign imports and how that affects the perceived value of things, which is especially relevant in today's world with ongoing trade wars, with yet further questions as to why there's been this sudden spike in demand for these Golden Innoses, like whether it's a natural reaction to the times what with people's concerns about the orc war and the stability of the kingdom of Myrtana that's turning them to seek comfort in symbols of faith, or whether it's been fabricated by these merchants with the medieval equivalent of using bot accounts and paid actors to make it SEEM like these are a hot item to drum up interest.
Ultimately, it's a quest that had me deeply engaged from beginning to end, questioning a lot of things and thinking a little more deeply about certain subjects, and that's why I like it enough to have it in an officially-ranked slot. The ending is super frustrating, of course, but I guess it's par for the course in showing how much corruption is rampant on this island that even the fire mages are willing to turn a blind eye to social injustices if it benefits their end goals. Plus, I just like saying Golden Innoses, because I never once in my life thought there would be a plural form of "Innos" and "Innoses" just sounds kind of funny to me.
Favorite Quest #3: From Bad to Worse
This quest happens at the start of chapter five, after you learn that Volker is the one responsible for taking Jorn, and that he's now planning a coup against the city's ruling class, with you having been mortally wounded while valiantly trying to escape from an overly restrictive scripted action sequence full of nonsensical one-hit kills. Anyway, you wake up in the monastery of the water mages and find your health permanently capped at a very low value, and barely able to walk as Marvin now has a slow stagger while clutching at his wounds. As you limp around the infirmary, you meet up with a few characters from the very beginning of the game -- Ana, one of the refugees who landed on the shore with you in chapter one, and the newly-promoted water mage Riordian, who was just a novice when you met him in Silbach. From there, your ultimate goal is to work with them to find a cure so that you can recover more quickly to stop Volker before he can do any more damage, which involves trying to discover a secret formula for a special potion and procure the necessary tools and ingredients. Along the way you interact with other water mages and learn more about their order and their role on the island, with a few optional side quests to get involved with during your exploration and recovery in the monastery.
This is a main quest so it will be mandatory for every playthrough, and it's one of the few main quest arcs that I actually really like. It's not necessarily a good quest in terms of RPG mechanics, since it's so heavily scripted with story moments and not a lot of meaningful choices to make -- there are tons of non-interactive doors that appear and disappear to arbitrarily restrict your access to places until the game explicitly wants you to be there, and almost every task you get involved with has but one, single solution that you must perform exactly as the designers envisioned. The only time your input *might* actually matter is when you're tasked with preparing the potion recipe from memory, but I don't think that even does anything significant, either, since you get the same cutscene and narrative outcome no matter whether you get every step right or every step wrong -- you just get less experience for each mistake. That's a bit of a bummer, so for those reasons I could see people not liking this quest, because frankly it is such a stark departure from the typical gameplay systems that you experience throughout the entire rest of the game with being so heavy-handed with the linear scripting, but I actually really enjoy these quests *because* they're a little different, because it offers a refreshing change of pace that I find welcoming after 100+ hours of the usual gameplay formula.
These tasks in the monastery instead play out more like a straight up adventure game, with you needing to find a specific item and use it in a specific way to solve a puzzle of sorts, with some degree of logical deduction involved. Like when you're tasked with sorting books in the library by reading them to know which shelf each book goes on, which is not as simple as just reading the titles themselves. Most of the time, however, the puzzles involve using spell scrolls, like searching a room for the potion recipe and trying to find a way into a locked chest, which ultimately involves finding an Open Lock scroll in a book, or casting a Slow spell on one novice to help the other win a contest of picking grapes so he'll give you his mortar, or casting an Enlarge spell on a harmless rat to scare away a novice chef so you can take his cauldron, among other things. You find these spell scrolls as you explore the monastery and are rewarded them as you complete other tasks, and so the puzzle is solved by connecting the dots between each scroll and each task, while making sure you don't inadvertently use one on the wrong task and waste it. The solutions become pretty obvious once you start getting enough scrolls to realize that each one has but the one intended use, but I still enjoy that deductive process of figuring out their intended uses. Really, this type of situational spell-use reminds me of gathering the focus stones in Gothic 1, which is one of my favorite quests in that game, since each task gave you a special scroll to use in situations you may not have bothered with until then, so I enjoy experiencing similar feelings as that in Archolos.
This segment also features one of my absolute favorite moments, when one of the mages shrinks you down and you have to run along the bookshelves carefully jumping and navigating tightropes and dodging maggots and rats that are now larger than you, as you try to find a safe way down to ground level. It's such a creative scenario for a Gothic game that got me real excited once it started, and then I enjoyed the idea of the gameplay turning into a platformer for this one quest. Again, because I like that sort of variety, and this scenario showed a lot of creativity.
Otherwise, the story elements work surprisingly well for me with this quest. While I ordinarily wouldn't care for such heavily scripted storyboarding in a Gothic game, in this case I feel it's a good instance of telling the story through actual gameplay mechanics, with you getting to feel physically impacted by the story implications of the previous chapter's ending with Marvin being left so heavily wounded, now forced to slowly limp around and being unable to rest in bed to recover lost health and mana. Losing all of your equipment and having your stats capped real low also helps to explain why you're stuck in some of these restrictive scenarios, since even though your character may be a highly dexterous thief you can't pick a lock without the right tools, and even if you're supposed to be a strong, burly warrior, you can't really survive a fight against others when your vitality is so low, and even if you're a powerful mage you can't cast much magic without your runes and only limited means to replenish spent mana. Bringing Ana and Riordian back is a nice touch as well, since in my case that instills the quest with a slightly nostalgic feeling by reminding me of simpler times at the start of the game before all the chaos in the main story hits, and shows some character growth for both of them with Riordian having achieved full mage status since your first meeting, and Ana going from being an entitled, stuck-up brat in the beginning to developing some charitable selflessness after seeing and experiencing more of the world. I also just like the atmosphere of this place, with the new soundtrack being one my favorites from all the new songs, so I just like being here in the monastery just in general.
Favorite Quest #2: The Vardhal Undergound
The Vardhal Underground takes place in chapter five, after recovering in the monastery, when you, Kessel, and Riordian set out to explore the Vardhal Ruins in search of a mystical artifact of Adanos called the "Peacemaker" so that you can convince the water mages to intervene and put a stop to Volker's plans. For the sake of this section, I'm also going to lump in "The Coming Storm" which is the preparatory quest before you actually delve into the ruins, since the two go together in my mind as a sort of "setup" and "payoff" for one over-arching task. But essentially, this quest arc is highly reminiscent of the Halls of Irdorath in Gothic 2, where you spend much of Chapter Five planning your expedition to sea by first learning about the Halls themselves and where they are, securing a ship to take you there, and assembling your crew from a selection of various friends and allies you'd made across the game previously, and then you go into Chapter Six where you face the Halls themselves as the final dungeon to conclude the game. Archolos does pretty similar with the Vardhal Ruins, wherein you spend the bulk of chapter five just preparing for the expedition by learning about the Ruins through consulting library books and talking to people, gathering enough supplies to help you survive the long and arduous trip by going back to cash in favors from all the people you'd helped previously, and picking whom you want to bring with you to serve different roles, be they carpenters, miners, or fighters. And the Ruins are an extended dungeon sequence with an assortment of puzzles and challenging combat encounters as you attempt to work your way to the end to claim the legendary Peacemaker.
The big thing to note, here, is that the Vardhal Ruins are basically the Halls of Irdorath on steroids, with hints of the Sleeper Temple from Gothic 1 mixed in as well. And I think it actually works better than either one of them as a Final Dungeon, even though Vardhal is not the game's actual finale, since you have resolution to handle afterward and then potentially the sixth chapter in the city as well. I've always enjoyed the Temple of the Sleeper for its emphasis on puzzles and its sprawling layout that offers more of a gameplay challenge with just navigating and keeping track of the various paths and cambers, but its actual execution does feel admittedly rough around the edges in some ways, and the whole thing is a little disjointed with how separated some of the areas are from each other, and then having to go part way in, then backtrack all the way out, then come back later. And the Halls of Irdorath have always been somewhat underwhelming to me with how comparably short and simple it is, what with the whole dungeon being basically just one linear path to the final boss and only having one major environmental puzzle to solve. In both cases, it also gets pretty annoying with how much time is spent just running back and forth from wherever you are in the dungeon to the entrance, such as when you have to leave the Temple in Gothic 1 or any time you need to go back to the ship in Gothic 2.
The Vardhal Ruins combines the best aspects of these two Final Dungeons -- the extended preparation and anticipation of setting out on a journey from which you may not return as was the case in Gothic 2, and the more elaborate, complex dungeon-delving design of Gothic 1 with actual puzzles and exploratory level design -- and then addresses all of the issues I have with each one, and then some. The dungeon's level design is much tighter and more visually coherent than the Temple of the Sleeper, so it doesn't feel so disjointed, and getting back to your hub area isn't quite so tedious as in Gothic 2 because there are more branching side paths that stem off from a central corridor, so you don't have to backtrack through every single room and every single feature every time you return to the starting area. With several branching side paths, you get the opportunity to actually explore and feel like you're getting a little lost as you start to map out the ruins in your mind, which is something you didn't get to experience in the Halls of Irdorath. There might not be quite as many puzzles as in the Temple of the Sleeper, but the ones we do get here feel a little more elaborate so they balance out in that way, and there's more puzzles than we got in the Halls of Irdorath, so I'm pretty happy with this department all around. I particularly like the one where you have to use levers to activate doors in different combinations in order to form a straight path through to the next chamber, because there's a degree of visual spacing and memory involved to keep track of what doors will open or close each time you pull a lever. I wish the solution for the pressure plates were a little less obvious, but there is at least SOME degree of trial and error involved since I at least questioned what the perspective was meant to be, like whether you needed to translate those marks directly or mirror them. And then you get a unique boss fight, which is cool even if it can be incredibly easy.
The atmosphere in this dungeon is pretty strong, too, with it being realistically bathed in pitch black darkness everywhere, until you light torches to cast a dim, moody light across that one area. Even with everything lit, there's still a heavy gradient of shadow everywhere, which combined with the soundtrack and the spectral skeletons, particularly those creepy assassins that try to sneak up on you, makes this place feel appropriately spooky.
The setup that happens in chapter five, and even well before it, also helps to sell this as a dark and mysterious place. The Vardhal Ruins are a long-storied part of this island's history, with it being the place where the indigenous people's leader, Volfzack, was entombed, and the site of the last battle between the Wolf's Den and the invading Myrtanian army, where the rain of fire spell debuted. There's even an entire horror story about the catastrophic effects of a fire rain spell gone out of control and turning into a never ending fire storm that started melting the actual fortress. You get to learn all about this history through various means, from multiple perspectives, including dialogue with NPCs during different quests and assorted journals and books that you uncover, so by the time you get around to exploring it, it's been well-established in the world-building and feels like a more significant endeavor. It's not just a cliche video game dungeon, it's a legit part of this world's lore. As opposed to something like the Halls of Irdorath in Gothic 2 that just got sort of tacked-on to the end of the game after you defeat the dragons.
The buildup does feel a little overblown, however, like the gameplay doesn't quite live up to the story implications when the characters are talking about how you need to gather this huge team of people and enough supplies to last several days in the deep dark depths of the underground ruins, when even before going in I was like "What do you want to bet I'll be in an out of this place in two hours of real time, handle most of it all by myself, and won't use 90% of these supplies I've gone out of my way to gather." Which turned out to be the case. Still, I appreciate going around to cash in those favors for extra supplies, because it's nice to see those type of friendships, acquaintances, and business relations come back again and be relevant so late in the game, some of whom are folks who helped you at the very beginning, while also providing practical rewards for having done so much optional side content. Picking your crew is likewise a nice little touch since you can only pick four warriors to bring with you, so it leads to tough choices as to which personalities or assets you value more. The workers are less consequential, but they're still established characters you've had previous adventures with so you may feel a greater sense of attachment to one group over another which might motivate your decision for extra personal reasons. So overall, I really like the Vardhal Ruins, and may now consider this to be my favorite final dungeon of any of these games.
Favorite Quest #1: The Beast of Archolos
This entry is not necessarily for one singular quest, but rather a specific sub-plot that spans the entire game, pertaining to the alleged Beast of Archolos. When you first arrive on the island, you start hearing rumors about some mysterious beast prowling the woods and killing the local farmers. The latest victim is one of the local guards, and so by the time you arrive everyone is extremely cautious and worried about their own safety. You hear conversations and read notices warning you about the Beast; someone dies in the woods and later comes back as a zombie; then other characters go missing and some of the guards get spooked; and it keeps coming up over and over again while never giving you a chance to encounter this Beast yourself. For the first four chapters, The Beast is literally just world-building, a background detail that you hear referenced from time to time. This was one of the most alluring subplots of the entire game for me, because I just loved how well the game built up this mythos and the mystery of what the Beast actually is -- is it a wild animal, a dangerous predator, a supernatural being? It's pretty ominous and foreboding, and made me very eager to get a chance to finally resolve the mystery.
Eventually, you get the chance to go on a quest dedicated to hunting the Beast, in which the Lord of Silbach arranges a group of elite hunters to track and execute it in a competition. This leads to a whole elaborate setup where you meet up with everyone to receive the mission briefing, then hang out at the inn where you're unfortunately FORCED into getting drunk so that your character can oversleep and wake up late, with the hunt already underway. That forced pretext bothers me, but you move past it, and then you're running around the woods looking for clues, and soon start running into other members of the hunting party who are being picked off one by one, with a few dramatic moments like hearing the distress horn blowing across the forest and running to find the latest victim already eviscerated. And then eventually you find your way into a previously inaccessible cave on a high ledge, where you discover a strange-looking Razor clad in armor, which you defeat and haul back to town for a celebratory feast, complete with a full debriefing of what happened and getting to hear commentary from a bunch of important characters who've been invited to the feast.
That, ostensibly, is the end of the whole Beast of Archolos questline -- you find the Beast and kill it, and all is well in the world, until you reach the end-game slideshow which mysteriously tells you that people are STILL disappearing, and the locals believe that the beast is STILL somehow at large. Because in actuality, the Razor you caught WASN'T the Beast, but was a red herring planted there to draw attention away from the REAL Beast, Detlow -- the other hunter who survived, and who helped you take down the Armored Razor. It turns out he had apparently become so bored with regular hunting that he wanted a new thrill to further test and hone his hunting abilities, and thus sought to go hunting as a beast himself by using transformation scrolls.
You only discover this fact if you ask enough of the right questions and are actually thorough in your search of the woods; there are plenty of small clues to stumble upon, like spent mana potions and spell scrolls lying about on the periphery of the woods, and questionable details about some people's wounds that you might not notice depending on what you choose to search. Way off on the other side of the island you can even find the cage where the orcs had been keeping the armored Razor, before Detlow appropriated it. And it's all surprisingly easy to miss -- the quest journal doesn't even pop up to summarize what you see, at most you just get a vocal line of Marvin saying "hmm" or something, and it's up to you find these little details in the first place and then mentally connect the dots on what it all means, and express doubt at the appropriate moments instead of just taking everything at face value. I mean, the clues themselves are so subtle that you might find enough of them to unlock the true ending, and still not even realize you supposedly solved the mystery, as was the case for me, because I had missed a few pieces of critical evidence that would've implicated Detlow more directly. So even though I was highly skeptical that the Armored Razor was the supposed Beast I didn't personally pin it on Detlow, which made the big reveal even more surprising and made me very pleased to know there was in fact more to this story than the game was letting on.
If you've found the majority of available clues, you're able to visit Detlow in his home in the city after the quest is complete and ask him about everything, and then he reveals the truth and you're able to defeat the ACTUAL beast. At which point, you get a Steam Achievement and unlock the "good" slideshow in the ending, in which peace and prosperity are able to return to the farmlands now that the mysterious deaths and disappearances have finally stopped.
And that's the quest. I don't have much deep analytical insight to offer on this one; I just really like the mystery and the world-building with how long this sub-plot gets drawn-out with new developments before it's finally resolved near the end of the game, and how the quest design allows you to fail to find the real culprit until it's too late, without even informing you that there was another option you missed. It's nice how much personal responsibility is on the player to find the evidence, connect the dots, and follow through with everything, without the game explicitly leading you to the correct ending, which makes finding the real ending so much more satisfying, especially if you can do so on your first try without having it spoiled for you. And I can imagine the shock and surprise one might experience at seeing the ending where the Beast remains at large if you THOUGHT you'd solved everything by completing that quest, but didn't make enough connections or think to followup on things with Detlow. So even the "bad" ending is interesting to me just for that extra degree of mystery it adds to the equation.
With my favorite quests now out of the way, I'd like to take a moment to talk about some other notable quests that I didn't like as much. That's not to say these are necessarily bad quests, but they each had some kind of issue that bothered me, that I wish could've been better in some way.
Dishonorable Mention #1: There Will Be No Peace
This quest happens in chapter four, and involves putting a guilty spirit to rest who's been trapped in a sort of undying purgatory for a really long time. In that time, he's forgotten who he is or what he did to deserve his punishment, and so the quest involves tracking down pages from his diary to learn his backstory, and finding a way to put his soul to rest once and for all. The actual quest plays out a lot like the Chromanin side quest in Gothic 1, where each page describes some kind of location and it's up to you to deduce where that next location might be and then hunt down the next page. This part of the quest is interesting, because I always enjoy that degree of deductive reasoning in figuring solutions out on my own, and this one also includes a good bit of exploration, too. Plus, the story that the diary pages tell is interesting and contributes greatly to an important bit of lore and world-building, with regards to the Vardhal Ruins, so I do actually like this quest in general.
The reason it ends up in this section is because the actual process of doing everything is pure tedium. For one, Tonan's pathfinding gets consistently glitched out when going up the steps which adds extra hassle trying to fix his path until you realize that he thankfully teleports to where he needs to be if you just ignore him, and then the ghost talks reeaaalllly slowly if you choose to listen to the whole thing instead of just skipping past everything. But mainly, there's just a TON of running back and forth between major locations, which is exacerbated by the game's disjointed teleport systems where you can't just warp directly to the nearest fast travel point, but instead have to run to a fast travel point then warp somewhere else then run to another one, and then retrace your steps back again and so on and so on. Some of it is just excessive and unnecessary, like how the game makes you run aaalll the way out to the secluded tower to start the quest, then run aaalll the way back to use the fast travel system, then run aaalll the way back to the secluded tower to talk to the ghost again, then run aaalll the way back to the fast travel point to grab Tonan again, then run aaalll the way back to the tower to resolve the quest, and then run aaalll the way back to the fast travel point to get on with something else. That stuff gets real annoying, real fast, and so I wish there could've been a closer fast travel point to the tower or if they'd have at least left Tonan at the tower to cut the need for an entire extra round-trip.
Dishonorable Mention #2: This Fish Doesn't Stink
This quest is triggered in the city, in which a merchant tasks you with securing a trade deal with a group of fishermen at the Sailor's Retreat. It's a fairly simple and straightforward quest, but the destination is inconveniently far away and so it's not one you can resolve quickly without feeling like you're ignoring a ton of stuff in the world to focus solely on resolving that one quest, unless you take the quest-giver's advice just swim the entire long-ass way over there, which is, uh, not a very fun prospect either. You could just warp directly there by hiring a sailor, but I didn't even know this system existed when I first got this quest and the quest-giver didn't mention this as a possibility, either, nor does he ever mention the specific name of the place, so I probably wouldn't have even known where to have the sailor take me even if I knew about this. I didn't buy the map with the named locations on it either to save money, so there's that. So in my case, it wound up sitting on the back-burner for so long I forgot the whole setup, and it just became Yet Another Task in the Quest List to check off, thereby making it feel somewhat like irrelevant busy work. Anyway, once you get to where you need to be, the fisherman needs you to find his missing fishing net before he'll agree to cooperate, which involves yet more swimming, and then he needs you to get it repaired, which you can have done by another guy at the beach, who'll do so for free if you tell him an interesting story.
And then he proceeds to get upset at you and refuses to work if you attempt to tell any sort of remotely interesting story. Because apparently this guy lied to you and actually wants you to tell him the most mundane and boring story possible, or else has a very different definition of what constitutes an interesting story. There are multiple starting points, branching mid-points, and further-branching end-points that you can choose from to tell your supposedly interesting story, which means there are tons of different combinations and tons of fail states to encounter along the way, and the guy's reactions just don't make any kind of sense to me, and so it turns into this huge trial-and-error festival if you want to find one combination of story events that he won't get upset at. Oh, and there's also a game-breaking glitch you can trigger quite easily where you get stuck with the controls locked in a dialogue screen with no way to get out of it short of force-quitting the entire game. That doesn't help things, but the logic of this storytelling is so utterly baffling to me that I found the whole ordeal quite annoying.
Dishonorable Mention #3: Extreme Home Makeover
This quest happens in chapter four once you gain access to the Upper Quarter. There you find an auctioneer prepping a house to go on sale, and tasks you with helping to spread the word in hopes of getting a lot of attention on it so it'll sell for a high value. This will eventually net you a Player Home which you can customize with furniture, workshops, bookshelves, storage chests, and decorations, of all sorts of different choosings, with various paid upgrades you can apply like hiring a Runner so you can have a fast-travel point right outside your home. You can even put a Shrine to Beliar in your yard, and adopt a sweet adorable puppy, whom you actually get to name. It's kind of a neat little hub if you want to make something fancy of it, but I personally do no care about any of that, except maybe the dog and having a safe place to store all my crap, and so I didn't get much use out of this Player Home.
The reason the quest is this section is because I hate how linear and convenient the quest to get it is. There are multiple points along the way where things just happen automatically with no chance for you to come to your own solutions or even figure out what to do on your own. Your first task, for instance, is to get more copies of the notice made, and the journal suggests you can ensure less competition for you to buy the house if the date on the notices is wrong, but you don't get the chance to say anything about this when taking them to the copier -- the guy just CONVENIENTLY makes a mistake and writes the wrong date. And then the journal says you need to get someone else to go to the auction and bid for you, so as not to arouse suspicion, and then your old pal Kazeem just CONVENIENTLY shows up in the harbor as you're placing the notice there, and he's your dedicated option for this quest. And so I became annoyed with just how convenient and coincidental everything in this quest was, when the journal was setting up more open-ended scenarios that I had hoped would involve some degree of exploration, problem-solving, and creativity on my part to figure out. Instead, the quest basically played itself and I felt like my input didn't matter whatsoever, which was pretty disappointing.
Dishonorable Mention #4: The Entire Main Quest*
*At least, Chapters 1 - 4
I have already put two major main quests from chapter five in my list of favorite quests, and I also enjoy what happens in chapter six, even though it's incredibly short, so obviously I don't hate the entire main quest, but the first four chapters are admittedly extremely unappealing to me. The bulk of these chapters comprise a singular search to find Jorn, after he goes missing at the end of chapter one, and I just do not enjoy any aspect of the main quest that has to do with Jorn. Jorn himself gets very little characterization and screen time before he goes missing so it's hard to really care about him in the first place, and he's depicted as distinctly unlikable to me with all of his rash behavior and poor decision-making. So finding Jorn was never a compelling motivation for me from the get-go, and then chapters two, three, and four drag this search out through endless wild goose chases and unrelated side tasks as you run in circles doing favors for other people, while the game seems to forget about Jorn almost completely.
The stuff you do in the Scoundrel's Haven is kind of fun when taken on its own, but its inclusion in the main quest feels like pointless filler because it doesn't really contribute anything of value to the story. Getting into there is kind of frustrating too with how big a deal is made of this being some super secret hidden location that you have to sail to reach, and how you won't be able to return from there, and then it turns out it's just that one cave in the swamp you passed dozens of times earlier in the game but couldn't enter due to Death By Cutscene, and you can in fact easily leave there whenever you want. Then the stuff with Volker's assassination attempt comes up and I'm just like "why should I care about this," and then after a bunch of run-around to figure out the suspect didn't do it, you're sent to the Wolf's Den to try to find the real assassin and you're met with such exceptional quests as "go kill X amount of easily defeated, common enemies to prove yourself," and "go fetch X amount of people to guard a gate from these creatures you've already easily dispatched and can easily handle yourself, by fetching a pillow for one guy and a hang-over cure for another guy."
The longer this all went on, the more and more fed up I became with feeling like the story just wasn't going anywhere, which was exacerbated by the fact that this was all supposedly being done in the interest of finding Jorn, which I didn't care about to begin with. The main quest eventually turns into something else at the end of chapter four, and that's when it finally got interesting for me, but I just feel like it just takes the game way too long to get to that point, and wish that the earlier stages in chapters two, three, and four could've dealt with the central conflict that becomes the actual main story a little more directly. As it is, it makes the entire main quest until chapter five feel like a red herring at worst, and merely groundwork exposition at best. I could go on for much longer on this subject, but I want to keep my thoughts pretty short and simple here, and save the heavier critiques for my full review, but suffice it to say for this video, the main quest just did not appeal to me in general, and that's a bummer considering the main quest is not exactly optional in these games.
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So, those are my thoughts on some of The Chronicles of Myrtana: Archolos's more notable quests that I liked or disliked for various reasons. Remember, this was not an objective ranking of quality or the ones I necessarily consider to be the "best" or "worst" quests in the game -- they're just the ones that interested me most based on my own personal tastes and preferences, or ones that I took personal issue with. Still, there are a lot more quests in the game that might deserve special mention that I didn't cover in this video, so I'd be interested to hear what other quests resonated strongly for you, especially any of the smaller, less-popular ones that don't get as much love from the community or gaming press. And remember, if you want to hear more of my thoughts on the game as a whole, I'd recommend watching my various impressions pieces, or sticking around for the full review which will go into much more comprehensive detail once it's ready.
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