She is a rarity even amongst Disney films – a sympathetic villain. Her story is told through flashbacks in-between the chapters, which reveal she actually rescued Torin from being killed as well, and she was simply used as a scapegoat for the death of the royal family. However, Lycentia isn’t quite as evil as her initial appearance may suggest. Purportedly, their deaths took place at the hands of Lycentia, who was their nanny, and her banishment to the planet’s core was a result of these misdeeds. What Torin doesn’t know is that he’s actually the son of the King and Queen, who were murdered when he was just a baby. He can’t talk, but instead can shapeshift into various items that he comes across. As is typical of these types, he walks the thin line between “cute” and “obnoxious”. Torin is joined by Boogle, the requisite goofy sidekick. Each trip brings him closer to Lycentia, who has been banished to the core of the planet in a place known as the Null Void. As you go further underground you venture through new realms, each with its own theme, and its own group of strange denizens. Torin’s unique world consists of several realms nested within the planet’s crust – he lives on the surface, known as “The Lands Above”. His life is tossed into disarray when his caring parents are whisked away by the evil sorceress Lycentia, causing him to set off on an adventure to find them. The story focuses on a young farm boy named Torin, who lives on the world of Strata. It’s not entirely without precedent – Lowe began his game development career working on Disney titles, including The Black Cauldron for Sierra, and in many ways he’s simply to returning to his roots. In a departure from his usual adult-oriented games like Leisure Suit Larry and (to a lesser extent) Freddy Pharkas, Torin’s Passage was developed to be a game that Lowe could play with his daughter, and thus a title that the whole family could enjoy.
The packaging has Al Lowe’s name on the cover, but it’s not quite what you’d expect.
But Torin’s Passage is not merely a stopgap title – it’s quite an excellent game that has the tragedy of being somewhat overlooked, or at least misunderstood by the gaming community. Their solution was to create a similar series and release each on alternating years. Due to the increased time and effort to create cinematic CD-ROM games, Sierra realized they couldn’t keep churning out King’s Quest titles at a yearly rate.
Torin’s Passage, a cartoonish fantasy adventure released late in Sierra’s adventure gaming life, was conceived as a counterpart to the King’s Quest series.
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