Throughout the King’s Quest series, it had some minor changes with each series however the overall feeling to the saga is still kept intact. The highly anticipated King’s Quest VII arrived in November 1994 brought a lot of new features that somewhat may stun the veterans to the series. For me, it was my third taste to the series yet this time, I was drawn in by the simplistic user interface and bright and colourful graphics, akin to the cartoons that Disney can produce. As I believe, this was one of their influences so while it surprised some fans with its cartoon, Disney like approach, the game didn’t break much new grounds to be called as revolutionary.
The plot surrounds King’s Quest VII revolves around two playable characters being Princess Rosella of Daventry (Princess Rosella) and Queen Valanice of Daventry (Valanice). The opening cut scene depicts Valanice and Rosella taking a stroll in the forest. Valanice decides to lecture Rosella about getting married as, after all, Rosella is 20 (or thereabouts). Rosella, instilled with her rebellious nature, see a seahorse jumps out then in the pond, leaving an image of a castle amidst the pond’s reflection. Naturally, like we all do, Rosella jumps in the pond to locate this castle. In shock seeing her daughter jumping in the pond, Valanice follows suit and thus the adventure starts as Rosella suddenly gets taken by a troll’s hand during their ‘whirlpool / vortex’ like travel within this evil pond.
To those who has played King’s Quest before, will notice that the entire game’s tone is not like the previous series. It’s more of a Disney family entertainment movie-like experience. Heck, during the opening cut scene, Rosella hits a tune and starts singing because she can. That felt out of place for a King’s Quest game however it seems ‘mandatory’ to have some kind of ‘sing-along’ part, just like Disney’s animated films I guess.
There are also other features in this game that didn’t appear in any of the other six (or seven if you include ‘Wizard and the Princess’ (1980)) games. It seems that developers Sierra On-Line wanted to reimage the game to target the younger audience. So straight off the bat, the first thing you’ll notice is that the user interface has changed. It’s now a point and click adventure game where you aim the wand (cursor) anywhere on the screen and if the tip flashes, indicates a hotspot, or requires some kind of action. And because of this has made the game a lot easier than the previous ones.
Another new addition is the ability to play two protagonists at once and the first game you get to control Queen Valanice. This feature worked out extremely well as eventually both characters will pass through the same areas, in separate occasions however performing different tasks (or course). So as you expect, there will be some backtracking therefore my suggestion here is to take careful notes of what action cannot be performed by one character as it’s almost a guarantee that the other character will be able to do.
The visuals improved quite extensively as Sierra On-Line looks like they’re trying to mimic Disney’s animated films and have done a remarkable job at it. All beautifully rendered with hand drawn backdrops, great choice of colours considering it’s using the proprietary Sierra’s Creative Interpreter 2 (SCI2 or SCI32 as in 32Bits. Of course SCI can do a lot more than just graphics being the game’s engine). This engine can render high resolution graphics at 640 x 480. Also the sound quality is pretty decent with acceptable voice acting with beautifully composed musical scores.
The game itself is divided into six chapters acting like a novel. Each chapter alternates between the two protagonists therefore, and as mentioned before, take note what each character cannot do as most likely, the other character can at a later stage. This will save a lot of scratching head moments especially near the end. And once you have explored an area, you can go back to it at any time. Yet there’s a couple of oddities lying about (all I can say is firecracker) and death is quite common. Some are actually quite gruesome considering the general theme is meant to attract the younger audience. Thankfully, at each death scene, the ‘dead’ character will have something to say, assisting you what needs to be done for that encounter next time round.
The completion time is difficult to gauge as it really depends upon how clever you are and if you prefer to explore every nook and cranny. Some puzzles have multiple solutions and even sports two endings. In addition to this, the world is ever changing so completing an event will almost guarantee different dialogues from the characters you previously met. That said, it took me around fifteen hours to complete as I need to witness all death scenes (yeah I’m quite morbid).
Overall King’s Quest VII had made some substantial improvements over its predecessors with its user interface, graphics and two playable characters yet the general tone doesn’t feel like a King’s Quest game, even though there are characters from the previous installments. Also the many, many references of other tales like ‘Alice in Wonderland’, ‘Nightmare before Christmas’, ‘Chicken Little’ and the list goes on and on, places some confusion of what this game is trying to be. Is it another King’s Quest game? A collection of Sierra’s favorite picks? I get it that references to other works is fine however there is a thing of a little too much references and this game strikes this cord. That’s not to say it’s an inferior game as technically it is not, some will view it as too easy or too whimsical. As the old saying goes ‘A change is as good as a holiday’ and yet this game strikes right on the border of this.