Everything I like about KQ7 is eclipsed by things that bother me. I liked the different areas and lands that were presented. Ooga Booga successfully juggled somewhat disturbing imagery and child-friendly lightness that King's Quest was known for. The desert was very spare and had an appropriately desolate feel. I just really did like the locations a lot. Except Falderal. That was a bit over the top. Still fairly King's Questy, though.
That said, I thought the cartoony style detracted from the game. Suddenly these characters we'd grown up with were cartoons without the right number of fingers. Rosella sounded like a goofy valley girl and was certainly not the same character type that we saw in KQ4. Valanice also came across as fairly whiny to me. I also found it weird that I was supposed to be happy that Edger won over Rosella in the end. The guy kidnapped Rosella twice and has twice worked for evil fairies. He needs professional help, not a pity date.
The main thing I really disliked about the game, though was the design. The interface was completely idiot proof, which detracted from the challenge. I want to explore my surroundings, not wave a wand over hotspots. I have also never been a fan of chapters or the retry function. Part of the fun of these games was constantly saving and staying on your toes. The retry function removes part of the challenge. And the fact that you can just pick up at any chapter you want is pointless to me. It only exists for someone to jump to the final chapter and give themselves a pat on the back for "beating" the game. I guess it also exists as a means of picking up at a particular part of the game because there are no saves either. Still, it fragments the game in my opinion.
Also, some of the puzzles and story in the game seemed confused and poorly thought out. A perfect example would be Valanice's inability to reach a foot in front of her and pick up a wheel of cheese. No, you need a crook. She barely even reached for the thing! It also bothered me when Rosella had to disguise herself in Ooga Booga. A cloak just appears by magic. No explanation. Nothing. The writers created a need for Rosella to disguise herself, but then didn't know how to do it. They either should have found a more organic way of managing that, or just not made Rosella need to disguise herself. She was walking around Ooga Booga already. Why suddenly change things? And how did Edger get on Tsepish's horse to rescue Valanice? It didn't make sense, but they needed to get Valanice off that mountain somehow. Or, rather, they could have had one of the winds take her, but then they wouldn't have had a lame cliffhanger of Valanice being left alone. Again, the writers wrote themselves into a corner for no reason and didn't even attempt to get out of it. This all seems petty to me as I write it, but it just gave the game a sloppier feel than past games.
By and large it was still an enjoyable play for me, but nowhere in the same ballpark of previous games. Well, except for KQ1, which I've just never enjoyed all that much, but that's a post for the other topic.
