King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride

"The beginning of the end."

King Quest was one of the best graphic adventure series long ago, but since this nauseating seventh installment and that disgusting eighth part that it wasn’t even a graphic adventure, the King Quest series is not what it used to be, and this game is even worst when we come to remember King Quest VI, one of the best graphics adventures of all time.

One of the main reasons why King Quest VIII is such a disgrace is the terrible gameplay, and not only because of the boring and uninspired puzzles. First of all, you can choose whatever chapter you want to start playing, so if you choose the last one the game ends in five minutes exactly, of course a serious person would never choose the last chapter at the very beginning of the game but hey!, now that I come to think, maybe Sierra decided to separate the game in chapters you can select any time you want because they realized how boring the game is and if people can select a new chapter when they get bored of the previous one everything would be better. So maybe this one of the game’s few neat ideas, which by the way it is something very sad.

The graphics were somehow innovative when it was released, the game looks like a cartoon, with lots of cut scenes. There is some 3D also, in the inventory we have a 3D model of each item (like if I care). I am not going to say that they are bad because they aren’t, but I have to say that for me they stink. So I didn’t like them, but I admit they are quite good.

The music is of course almost non-existent during the whole game, excepting for the classical King Quest little opening theme, I just mention it, because I can’t complaint about that in a graphic adventure game. But if the music wasn’t really important in a game like this the voice are very important. You see, I have played the Spanish version of the game, I’m not Spanish, but I have been living almost all my life in that country, and something I just can’t tolerate is the way they sub their games, don’t get me wrong they aren’t that bad subbing, but they sound mighty stupid, the characters make me blush every time they open their mouths, they voices are extremely overdone. Probably the English sub is better, I don’t know.

The story involves King Graham’s wife and little daughter (whose names I can’t remember). One day they argue and the young girl escapes to some kind of lagoon where she falls and ends in a new world inhabited by estrange characters. In some chapters you’ll have to command Graham’s wife and in others his daughter, this is probably the only good thing about the game. Sadly, like if the crappy gameplay weren’t enough, the plot is very boring and cliché, nothing like the previous King Quests, and the story is the most important thing a graphic adventure. Childish and uninteresting, the plot is really bad.

Among the genre and specifically among the other King Quests, King Quest VII SUCKS, it is junk, go get the previous games if you really wan to enjoy a good old school graphic adventure, or go to the park with your girlfriend/boyfriend, that is much more adventurous than playing this crap, really, I have played tons of graphic adventures, I know what I am saying.

”My lack of vocabulary and grammatical errors (if there’s any) are because I’m not from an English speaking country, sorry about that.”

Reviewer's Score: 3/10, Originally Posted: 11/18/03, Updated 02/16/04