King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder (1990) (VG)

Writer:

Roberta Williams (writer)

Genre:

Adventure | Family | Fantasy

Plot:

King Graham must travel from his kingdom of Daventry to Serenia and save both his family and castle from an evil wizard bent on revenge!

Plot Keywords:

Wizard | King | Woods | Kingdom | Surrealism

Cast

Art Lewicki	...	Narrator (voice)
Josh Mandel	...	King Graham / Inkeeper's Pal / Harpy (voice)
Leonard 'Ray' Bergeron	...	Crispin / Toymaker / Inkeeper (voice)
Andy Hoyos	...	Mordack (voice)
Barry T. Smith	...	Alexander / Eagle / Toymaker's Son (voice)
Dianah Pressley	...	Cassima (voice)
Diana Wilson	...	Rosella / Alicia / Queen Beetrice / Willow (voice)
D.J. Williams	...	Tailor (voice)
Nancy Zdenek	...	Elf / Harpy (voice)
Lori Cole	...	Queen Icebella (voice)
Mark Seibert	...	The Genie / The Snake / Man in Town / Singing Ants (voice)
Roberta Williams	...	The Rat / Amanda / Woman in Town / Harpy (voice)
Kenny Long	...	Gypsy Man (voice)
Dick Roberts	...	Baker / Baker's Brother (voice)
Gregory James Thomas	...	Herbert / Gnome (voice)

Country:

USA

Language:

English

Color:

Color

Company:

Sierra On-Line

Goofs:

Audio/visual unsynchronized: If the player forgets to use the beeswax to patch the hole in the boat, which Graham uses to find Mordack's island, the boat will sink. As it sinks, Graham starts calling for help and he still does it as soon as he's underwater.

Movie Connections:

Remade as King's Quest V (1992) (VG)

Probably represents the height of the King's Quest games ...

The story: You're King Graham (hero from King's Quest 1 and 2) the ruler of the kingdom of Daventry. Whilst on a walk your castle gets stolen with the rest of your family by an evil wizard named Mordac. It turns out that Mordac is the brother of Mannanan (evil wizard from King's Quest 3) who was turned into a cat by your son Prince Alexander (Gwydion the hero from King's Quest 3) and wants Alexander to return his brother to his original form. Fortunately with the help of the old wizard Crispin and his pet owl Cedric, Graham is transported to the kingdowm of Serenia where he must overcome great challenges to locate Mordac and free his family.

The 5th game in the now legendary King's Quest saga was probably its greatest in terms of graphical achievement and storyline. It saw the return of the original King's Quest hero Graham (who had taken a back seat to his children Alexander/Gwydion in King's Quest 3 and Rosella in King's Quest 4) and featured a great variety of locations - deserts, mountains, towns, forests, seas etc. The graphics were the most advanced of any King's Quest game thus far and the new icon control system replaced the old text based command system of the previous 4 games.

The biggest downside to the game however (and it has been already mentioned) was the lack of any real fairy tale inspired quests, with the writers instead favouring their own inventions. Although this may have leant some originality to the game it somewhat hampered the puzzle-solving as there was often a lack of order and logic in solving some of the problems (this existed in earlier games as well, but by those being primarily based on fairy tales it helped lend an idea to players on how to go about solving the puzzles).

Still it was a thoroughly game for its time and probably represented the series at its height (though it would quickly come crashing down). Definitely recommended for old adventure game fans.