Disturbing Video Game Music 206: Manannan's Study - King's Quest 3 Remake
13King's Quest 3 was the first game where you did not play as good King Graham, instead you play as his long lost song Alexander who was kidnapped as a baby and forced to work for the wicked wizard Manannan for many years. Now about to be an adult, Alexander realizes from an oracle he has a greater destiny than just being an errand boy for a wizard and works to find his lost past and beat Manannan... Easier said than done as King's Quest 3 is easily the hardest King's Quest due to the whole game being timed alongside having the usual obtuse puzzles.
Manannan will leave his house to go on short journeys, if he comes back and Alexander is either having items he shouldn't or has not done the chores Manannan wants him to do it is game over. Even after beating the foul wizard, the timeer still goes as Alexander needs to catch a boat, then finally save his sister from being eaten by a dragon. King's Quest 3 was definitely in need of an update, which it was going to due to Sierra working on VGA updates for each King's Quest game but sadly stopped after the first remake sold horrible... Good news is years later the fans were ready to do it for Sierra. AGD Interactive began to work on VGA remakes for the original trilogy of King's Quest and in 2010 released a remake of 1, then going on to tackle 2 and 3. All these remakes are of very high quality and impressed the creators so much they replaced the original games as canon! In the remake for 3, things have been streamlined making the game much more enjoyable, including putting in sections where you don't need to worry about time.
A whole soundtrack was also made for the game by Brandon Blume, who did a fantastic job. All the theme's associated with the dark wizard Manannan are quite creepy, though the theme of his study is the one that unnerved me the most. It is the most calm and ambient, though carries considerable malice like the rest and has an anxious feel to it reminding you you only have so much time before the wizard comes back and potentially catches you snooping where you shouldn't.