King’s Quest VII - Final Rating

Just how deep is my despair for having played this game?

Written by Michael

I was thinking of taking some time off between my last post and writing this scoring post, but I didn’t want my memories to fade.  This isn’t a bad game, but certainly not the best Sierra has to offer.  One could argue that they hit their peak with Gabriel Knight, although they certainly have a couple more well-done stories to come, mostly from Al Lowe with Larry 7 and Torin’s Passage, and a Space Quest game that almost reaches the luster of the earlier titles.  The FMV titles to come have their fans, but they aren’t perfect either.  The rest of Sierra’s output from this point on is a collection of arcade, action, and WalMart-friendly shovelware.

Yes, I know that those last few sentences are bound to start some arguments and paint a target on my back from some, but the good news is that, while the glory days of Sierra are largely over, other publishers will be picking up the slack for the next few gaming years.  The genre itself doesn’t “die” just yet, and some quality titles from other houses are yet to come.  I often mention Sanitarium as such an example, but there’s also Syberia, The Longest Journey, and Discworld Noir, all from publishers that have not had any real impact on our blog so far.

I bring all this up because we are about to score the final true adventure entry in Sierra’s original animated adventure series.  Before 1984’s King’s Quest: Quest for the Crown, they only made text adventures with accompanying pictures.  Mind you, they were the first to do that as well, and they did it successfully.  This is the end of an era for Sierra, and after 1995’s Phantasmagoria and limited input on the action King’s Quest 8 title, Roberta Williams will avoid adventure game design for almost 30 years, enjoying the riches of her success yachting with her husband.

But I digress; back to the title in front of us.

King’s Quest VII - Won!

Written by Michael

Unfortunately, the game fizzles out along with the volcano at the end.

We’ve reached the end, and there’s not much to it.  So, this will be a rather short entry.

When the scene begins, we return to the underground lair where the two troll kings are fighting each other.  While I can’t tell which is which from the animation, the voice of the real one tells me to turn the imposter back into his true self.

Which witch is which?

Unfortunately, the animation is so fast, I can’t tell who to click the wand on, but I manage to get off a shot and hit the one on the right.  He turns into something resembling the scarab of the past posts, and hops away.

Oops.  It seems I turned the real King Otar into a creature, instead of the imposter.

King’s Quest VII - Why Don't You Come with Me, Little Girl, On a Magic Carpet Ride

Written by Michael

Now, onto the most tedious part of the game so far.  More tedious than a lazy George Harrison song (although it DID inspire a great parody by Weird Al).  

We use a lute, rather than a whistle, but the concept holds.

We landed on what ends up being the Grand Central Station of Etheria, a floating island with four rainbows positioned around it at the corners.  If you click on one of them, it will transport you to various places we've already been to, like the desert and the haunted forest, and we can get back by playing the lute we were given by the count.  It brings the horse back to us, and the horse re-deposits us back at this travel hub.

King’s Quest VII - Rainbows are Visions, But Only Illusions

 Written by Michael

Don’t blog angry.

Welcome back to Falderol, and back to Queen Valanice’s side of the story.  

First, I feel the need to note:  this is, by far, the most boring chapter of the story so far.  “Nightmare in Etheria” is the title, but if this is a nightmare, it’s on the level of Groundhog Day, because we are going to be going back and forth, repeating actions, and really just running down the clock, hoping the other team doesn’t make a basket.

Of course, I won't get to most of these complaints until the next post -- but since I hadn't originally planned on splitting this post in two, I can't resist leaving this opening in place.

King’s Quest VII - In-A-Gadda-Da-Vida

Written by Michael

Seriously?

Part 2 of our post-Halloween post.  Or pre-Halloween post, depending on your level of optimism, I suppose.

When we last were here, I was making my way to the swamp creature from the blue lagoon, armed with a potion from the local sawbones.  So, through the main gates to what I think of as a garden.  A garden of evil, mind you.

In my last game for the blog, a flower gave me perfume. Now, the tables are turned.

On to the swamp creature.  As he comes after me, I whip out my trusty spray bottle, and poof!  Since he's entirely plant life, he disappears completely. The trusty scarab in my pocket tells me I did a good job. Again, I'm reminded about how the defoliant stinks. This ends up being a clue for something later.

King’s Quest VII - Tales from the Crypt

Written by Michael

We will be avoiding this creature today.

Good morning!  The sun is rising on my country cottage as I prepare to enter the midnight black woods of Ooga Booga.  This is truly the Halloween chapter of this game, but sadly, I wasn’t able to time my gameplay to the real-world calendar.

When we last left Rosella, she was hopping in the bucket elevator from the troll kingdom, repaired by a magical rope.  Here, we get nearly to the top...

King’s Quest VII - If You Believe They Put a Man on the Moon

Written by Michael

Guess I picked the wrong week to stop sniffing glue...

Welcome back to the saga of the Ladies of Daventry!  This installment is rather short compared to the last two, so let us get to it.

What does a newt say when you catch it in a lie?  I amphibian.

When we last were with the queen, she had entered the cave behind the Aztec-looking door, and was confronted with a large lizard of some type blocking her in the passageway.

King’s Quest VII - The Saga of Mimi and Drew

Written by Michael

I haven’t had lasagna since last Christmas.  It’s been too long.

Remember when we first started this game, and mother and daughter were separated?  Rosella was stolen away by a hand that looks like it belongs to a cartoon dog named Spike.

So we head off to chapter 2.  Something about trolls.

King’s Quest VII - Eh, What's Up, Doc?

Written by Michael

More links in this post than you can swing a stick at.

Well, last time we landed in the middle of a desert with the Queen of Daventry, a character we’ve never played before.  In previous games, we’ve controlled King Graham (3 times), his son Alexander (twice), and his daughter Rosella (just once).  No expectations yet about how she will behave.  Will she be as stuffy as Alexander was in the previous game?  Or as easy-going as undercover peasant girl Rosella was in the fourth installment?  Let’s find out.

So, we’ve just been nearly run over by the Daventry equivalent of Wile E. Coyote and the Road Runner, or whatever world we’re in right now.  We’re deposited on a desert screen, and as I walk to the east, my dress gets caught on a cactus, ripping off a swatch.  I’ll pick that up, and I already have a comb in my inventory.  If I try to use the comb on myself, I break down into tears, because it belongs to Rosella (“My daughter!”) who got separated from us during the trip to this world.  

Game 162: King’s Quest VII: The Princeless Bride (1994) - Introduction

Written by Michael

The story of Roberta Williams and King’s Quest is a well-known one.  Over more than a decade, King Graham and his family have entertained many a gamer.  The series started out academic, with plots and characters ripped from classic literature, and an awful puzzle involving the spelling of one of their names.  While the references to the classics never went away, more modern sensibilities made their way into the games.  With new people helping steer the boat, the references started getting a little more modern.  Alice in Wonderland.  Beauty and the Beast.

But it’s, um, inconceivable that the title of the seventh game references the works of William Goldman and the (recently taken from us, too soon) Rob Reiner. 

Perhaps it’s because Roberta started to share the top role.  Both to be a mentor, and also for possible selfish reasons (like, say, working less or having more time for other projects), Roberta started letting other writers and producers take charge.  In King’s Quest VI, for example, former Hewlett-Packard employee Jane Jensen co-designed the game, bringing a fresh breath of air and a lot of positive reviews, especially after the venomous reviews they sometimes received for the fifth game in the franchise.