Oh wow, I guess I had managed to completely block out this next stupid-ass puzzle, but now I have — unfortunately — remembered it. This is from King’s Quest II, which is perhaps the weakest in the series, for reasons which will shortly become apparent.
So you arrive at this highly contrived geography with cliffs on either side and boulders blocking all but a narrow path guarded by a poisonous snake:
Nothing works that you think to try — like maybe just scrambling over the low rocks and circling around the snake — until you realize that you’re carrying a … a … oh god I’m embarrassed to even write this down … a bridle. Yeah, that kind of bridle, the kind you put on a horse, and so of course you type “put bridle on snake.” Makes sense, right?
And then the snake turns into Pegasus, who explains that he was transformed into a snake by an evil wizard, and that this magic bridle is the only thing that could restore him to his proper form, and then he offers you a lift to your next destination.
No, I am not making this up.
Has there been any indication up to this point that the bridle is magic, or that Pegasus exists, or that the snake is anything besides just a normal snake? None whatsoever.
Puzzle design, YOU’RE DOING IT WRONG!
[…] someone just asked me why I had griped about the stupid puzzles in King’s Quest II, King’s Quest IV, and King’s Quest V, but not in King’s Quest III. The answer […]