A fair bit has happened in King’s Bounty lately, starting with the Freedom Islands, where I cleared out most of the first island and did a few quests.

I still have a bunch of stuff to do on the islands, but after a bit of wandering, I discovered a cave near the back of one of the starting areas and it turned out to be a connection to the dwarven areas. I decided to work on that for a while since that’s where the unlocks are for the remaining Chest of Rage monsters, and after taking care of a traitor in the caves, I unlocked Lina soon after arriving in the dwarven lands. There I also found a quest for discovering all of the obelisks I’ve been seeing, and I only have three more to go now.

I cleared out large chunks of the various underground areas (Dwarves? Underground? Gasp!), completed a few quests along the way, and found the area where I can unlock the final Chest of Rage member. I need to do some more work to clear out that area though, and I also found connections to the demon and Mehgard areas, but they’re way too tough for me right now.

It was about time to actually advance in King’s Bounty, so I went and fought the turtle to advance the main quest. For that I got a promotion, a whack of leadership points, and there’s now an infinite supply of some other types of troops at the castle.

Next, I was sent off to the Freedom Islands. The enemies there are much tougher, of course, so I didn’t actually do much fighting there. I just wandered around, finding some new quests and picking up loose rewards on the map. I inadvertently solved the quest that I’d been sent there for (to find some James guy) and headed back to the starting island, with over double the leadership points I had when I started the session.

Back on the main island, I proceeded to clean up as much as I could, and completed a bunch of lingering quests and cleared out enemies that had been too tough before, though there’s still a small handful that are still way too strong. Along the way I finally found a wife, albeit a bit of a froggy one, and had a kid as well.

Next up, back to the Freedom Islands…

I think I’m getting close to finishing off the initial island in King’s Bounty. A couple of the areas are almost completely clear now, and I spent tonight working on the quests for the griffins on their island and clearing out more of the swamps. There are still some quests and monsters left, but I think some of them are going to have to wait until I come back when I’m stronger.

I also finally got the upgrade to level 2 Order spells, and I can now do 525 damage in one hit. That should help a lot when I finally take on the king’s quest, as I snuck a peek at it earlier and I have to defeat a giant turtle with over 2000 health.

Not much to report recently, as I’ve been either busy or just grinding along in King’s Bounty. I’ve finished up nearly all of the quests and monsters in the starting area, though a few are still too tough for now. I’ve moved on to the surrounding forest and swamp areas and am still working on clearing out monsters and quests there. The difficulty varies a lot, so I have to run around looking for appropriate-level fights and being a bit careful, since the numbers of reinforcements I can hire are dwindling.

Along the way I had the opportunity to buy back the zombie wife of a robber I helped out, but I think I’ll pass on her for now… I also almost forgot about the Chest of Rage, and unlocked two of the monsters in it, though the other two will apparently still take some work.

I’m level 6 now, and the main things still left to do are to clear out the crypts in the swamps, a large island full of griffins, and the king’s main mission to another island.

In King’s Bounty tonight, I actually first went and redid the tutorial quests quickly, just so I could make a better choice for my first level-up bonus (minor Leadership bumps won’t be that useful in the long run). I then immediately did the king’s main quests to get the Chest of Rage, which contains four demons, and now I have to do quests for them in order to ‘activate’ them and get their assistance. Fortunately I’d heard ahead of time that it’s best to do this part right away, since the demons level up with you.

Their quests are a bit tougher than I can handle right now though, so I spent the rest of the evening cleaning up easier fights and minor quests in the starting area of Greenwort, including a trip into a cave to defeat some werewolves that resulted in my first defeat. Fortunately the enemies retain their losses, so I recruited another army and went back to clean up the rest of them.

And tonight I finally got around to starting King’s Bounty. It’s a modern remake of an old game of the same name, but I wasn’t familiar with it, so to me it’s mostly similar to how the Heroes of Might and Magic games work. (Which isn’t surprising, since HoMM was influenced by the original King’s Bounty…)

It’s mainly a tactical battle game, pitting your recruited units and hero against various enemies that you encounter as you wander around exploring and completing quests, with some RPGish elements in how you upgrade your own character and perform quests for people. Unlike the HoMM games, you only control your one hero and his ‘stack’ of units.

I’ve gone with a mage character, and so far, all I’ve had time for is the tutorial quests, and I will start in earnest tomorrow.