KING'S QUEST VII:
THE PRINCELESS BRIDE
​
​
YEAR: 1994
SIZE: 268 MB
​
PLATFORMS: Windows
​
​
+ Lovely music
+ Some hilarious moments
​
​
- Easy to die
- Cartoon style doesn’t fit with the other King’s Quest games
- Slow walking speed
​
​
​
STORY
​
Queen Valanice is spending some time with her daughter, Princess
Rosella. Valanice thinks it’s about time Rosella settled down got
married - after all, she’s almost 20 years old now, and she should take
her royal status as a princess seriously! But Rosella doesn’t feel ready
to get married. She’s still young, and would much rather have fun and
adventure. So when a strange dragonfly creature jumps out of the
river and shows the rebellious princess a castle from another world…
Rosella realises the river is a portal to another world, and can’t resist
jumping into the river to find this beautiful castle.
​
Of course, as soon as Queen Valanice sees Rosella jump into the river,
she jumps in after her daughter, desperate to save her. And that’s
when things get REALLY interesting!
​
In the portal, a troll arm reaches out from the abyss, and grabs Rosella,
dragging her into the unknown. And that’s how Rosella finds herself in
the troll king’s kingdom. But it quickly becomes apparent that all is not
right with this world - The Troll King is not acting like himself, and the
evil Malicia is trying to take over the kingdom and destroy all of
Eldritch.
Meanwhile, Valanice finds herself in the desert, desperate to save her
daughter, unaware of the troubles of Eldritch.
​
Will mother and daughter ever be re-united? Or will Malicia succeed in
her evil plan of destroying the entire kingdom?
　
　
​
　
GAMEPLAY
​
King’s Quest VII: The Princeless Bride is vastly different from the
previous King’s Quest games, and in my opinion, this is the weakest
one.
​
Right from the start, you are hit by the Disney-style cartoon graphics.
The game even opens with Rosella singing a Disney-style song. It just
doesn’t seems to sit right with the previous games in the series.
​
After the intro, you make a profile, before beginning the game, which
is split up into 6 chapters. In Chapter 1, you play as Queen Valanice
(you alternate each chapter, playing as Valanice or Rosella). This is the
first game in which the queen is a playable character, and I kind of
enjoyed playing as her. Having said that, her walking speed is slow,
sometimes painfully slow, and there is no way to altar that. The game
has the usual deaths, which are sometimes unavoidable, especially if
you linger for too long in one area. However, unlike the previous
games, you can go back to just before you died, and try again.
​
While playing the game, you collect a lot of inventory items. You can
click an inventory item on the big eye to the right, to get a better look
at it. You can also rotate inventory items and manipulate them (for
example, to see an item from a different angle, or opening a box), and
sometimes you can combine two items together to create another
item. This is essential in order solve some of the puzzles and progress
forward. Inventory items turns white, when held over a part of the
screen that you can use that item on, which is handy, as it saves you
clicking everything on everything.
​
The big red oval is actually the control panel. From here, you can turn
Scrolling on or off (I actually liked the scrolling screen), or see how far
along in a chapter you are. You can save the game at anytime, and this
is referred to as a ‘Bookmark’. Unfortunately, you are only allowed one
Bookmark\Saved Game slot. The reason for this, is that since Death
scenes, while frustrating at times, no longer spell the end of the game,
there is no need for multiple Save Game Slots. However, I thought was
a huge step backwards - I liked having multiple slots to save into, at
different points in the game.
​
When you finally reach Chapter 2, you take control of Rosella (as
mentioned above). However, the same problems of slow walking
speed, many death scenes, and only one ‘Bookmark’\Saved Game are
still here. Having said that, I DID like the fact that I could play as both
Valanice and as Rosella. And that, at first, their quests were
completely different (Rosella has to save the land of Eldritch, while
Valanice has to find Rosella), but gradually come together, some-
times even travelling through the same area just minutes after each
other.
　
　
​
　
GRAPHICS
​
The graphics are very bright, colourful, cartoony, and clearly inspired
by Disney. I found this rather off-putting, as it just didn’t feel like a
King’s Quest game. However, if you look past the Disney-influence,
there are some nice touches.
​
Animation is incredibly smooth, and Valanice and Rosella can pull the
most impressive facial expressions. A magic wand acts as your cursor,
and it sparkles when you hover over something you can interact with.
​
Inventory items are shown as small icons at bottom of the screen, and
you can click them on the big eye to get a better view of them, as will
as rotating them 3D style, which is useful for things like finding a
small corn kernel which is not visible at first glance.
​
There is a wonderful rippling effect in Chapter 1, when Queen Valanice
looks into the pool and sees the room down below. Seeing the 2 troll
kings fighting each other made me giggle.
​
　
　
　
SOUNG AND MUSIC
​
The game is fully voiced, and each character sounds just right - as I
would imagine them to. I think my favourite voice was Dr Cadaver, but
there are so many to choose from. Other sound effects are equally
effective. A little ‘tinkle is heard, when you pick up an item, or perform
a correct action. The giant scorpion in Chapter 1 sounds VERY creepy -
imagine if you actually saw that! I also liked the squeaky bucket-lifts,
horse neighing, and shadow-dog barking.
​
Gorgeous music is played throughout the game, and changes
frequently, depending on which scene you are currently in. It also
changes for each chapter.
​
​
​
​
​
​
​
​