Many King's Quest fans disapproved of this game, due to the inclusion of combat and action into the game-play, in contrast to the previous seven games in which the player had to explore lands and solve puzzles, but not put up physical fight against opponents.
This is the only "King's Quest" game to feature a magic map whose main character was not Prince Alexander (Prince Alexander was by then married to Cassima, princess of the Green Isles and had therefore retired from adventuring).
This game's release was delayed owing to the difficulty Sierra's programming division was having creating the new engine the game was supposed to run on. Eventually, the decision was made to use the engine created for King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride (1994), the previous King's Quest game.
It is the only game in the series where the main character is neither King Graham nor any other member of the royal family.
In the console mode, typing "oscar" shows the programmer David Wenger's Bassett hound Oscar floating around Connor in circles; typing "ruth" shows the artist William Todd Bryan's wedding photo floating around Connor; typing "welch-piel" produces a painting in Connor's house of the Art Director Jason Piel's wife; typing "rocket" shows the type of rockets that one of the programmers had worked on as a researcher.