King's Quest V: Absence Makes The Heart Go Yonder! VGA

King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder was the most innovative King's Quest since King's Quest I: Quest For The Crown in 1984. Released in November of 1990, its graphics were amazing and it became the best-selling computer game in history at that time. It was later released as a "talkie" CD-ROM.

The Story
The evil wizard Mordack, brother of Manannan, shrinks Daventry's castle and its inhabitants and imprisons them in a bottle. Mordack threatens to feed the royal family to Manannan, transformed into a cat during the events of KQIII, unless Prince Alexander can restore him to his human form. King Graham, out for a walk when Mordack shrank the castle, is the only one unaffected by the spell. With the help of the wizard Crispin and his familiar, Cedric the owl, Graham travels to Mordack's castle to free his family.

The Game
The owl Cedric accompanies Graham through the entire game to provide commentary and advice. He has to be rescued from danger at several points, but the owl rarely says or does anything useful.

The game KQV is infamous for its large amount of dead ends and difficult puzzles. Late in the game Graham must navigate a frustrating maze where each room is rotated according to the character's perspective rather than being shown with north always at the top of the screen. There are several actions the player can take that render the game impossible to finish if they are not careful. This makes KQV difficult to complete without resorting to hints if the gamer does not save often or uses items carelessly.

The name of the wizard Manannan (named after a figure from Celtic mythology) is consistently spelled Mannanan in this game. This is likely a typo, albeit a pervasive one.

Puzzles
The game (and the entire series to some degree) is noted for sometimes strange puzzles, which not only have unusual solutions, but there is also no hint for them in the narration (but may require outside knowledge from myths or fairy tales they are based on).


 * The yeti must be killed with the custard pie (a reference to a common gag popularized in 1909 in the film, Mr. Flip ).
 * Graham scares the snake away with a tambourine. Snakes, like most creatures will start, then flee, at sudden and unexpected noises. Snakes are actually more perceptive to the vibration caused by noises, rather than the noise itself as they do not have external ear canals.
 * Mordack's wand recharger must be activated with the moldy cheese.
 * Graham melts Queen Icebella's heart using his harp, she then prevents her wolves from attacking Graham (which may be a reference to the idiom "music tames the savage beast"), such as in the biblical story of David attempting to sooth Saul's hardened heart with his harp music. Icebella and the idea of her frozen heart is based off of the Snow Queen by Hans Christian Anderson.
 * Graham uses a crystal to reflect energy back towards statues, this is inspired by similar sphinx statues found in the Never Ending Story, and the black Watchers in the Lord of the Rings: Return of the King. The solution to hold up the crystal is similar solution made by Sam Gamgee, holding up a crystal flask to dispel the energy of the Watchers.
 * Since the inn appears to be a deathtrap, it would seem illogical to go back in there at any time. Graham must, however, get tied up in the cellar after getting the hammer and saving the rat. Granted if one looks carefully, they can see the rat hole in the wall, which offers a slight visual clue.
 * As in many of the earlier KQ games, there are several ways to make the game unwinnable (in general forcing the player into a death situation). In the floppy version if you fail to cast spells properly (such as the sleep spell on the bandit, or strength spell on the boat) you cannot proceed further, and further attempts to move on may lead to death. Waiting to long to enter the desert temple and picking up the two items, will prevent you from solving later puzzles. If you enter the forest with amulet, but lack items needed to defeat the witch or escape the forest you will cause the player to become lost forever, or be eaten by a giant spider or man-eating plants. If you eat the custard pie at any time, you will be unable to replace it, thus rendering yourself defenseless against the yeti. If you miss out on saving the rat, he will be unable to rescue you from the cellar. If you rescue the rat but forget to help the cobbler, you will be rescued in the cellar but with no way to destroy the padlock. In the giant bird's nest, you have only a few seconds to grab the locket, required to befriend Cassima. Not getting the locket will result in Graham trapped in the cell forever. The golden needle or the gold coin can be traded for other items, but it may prevent you from trading for the items specifically needed using those items. If Graham does not examine the tome in Mordack's library before the end battle, he cannot change himself into anything. Its possible to miss getting the cheese (or the hook needed to get the cheese) which will prevent activation of the machine later in the game. Failing to rescue Cedric, will cause Graham to be hit by magic and die shortly before the final battle.

Deaths

 * In the desert near the temple, bandits come out of nowhere to kill you quickly (unless you hide behind a nearby rock). You are warned ahead of time that they are on their way.
 * Also in the desert, Graham cannot go for more than five screens or about 20 seconds without water.
 * In the bandit camp, if you walk in front of the larger tent, you will be killed quickly.
 * In the cliffs, there is a gap you must cross using protruding steps. One of them will send you falling to your death. However, this step is not distinguishable from the others.
 * You will sink from a hole in the sailboat if you try using it out at sea (unless you examined the boat previously & patched it). Otherwise, Cedric will inform you about the hole far too late to do anything about it.

Version Differences
The DOS version had a slightly different menu system and an extra walk icon. The game also had a copy protection measure involving using the magic wand to cast spells at various points throughout the games. The character portraits were slightly different between the two games, with the CD-ROM version removing subtitles.

References to Wizard and the Princess and references in other games
King's Quest V makes many references to material from The Wizard and the Princess, and is later referenced in other games. This game has been referenced and satired in other Sierra games.
 * From Wizard & the Princess, the game takes place in Serenia.
 * The game includes the Endless Desert of Serenia, it includes a version of the village of Serenia, all from Wizard and the Princess.
 * Like in Wizard and the Princess, Graham travels through Serenia and across the sea to reach an island where an evil wizard resides.
 * The rattlesnake is a reference to the rattlesnakes found throughout Serenia in Wizard and the Princess.
 * The ship hole puzzle was a reference to similar puzzle found in The Wizard and the Princess, where a rowboat has a hole that must be patched in order to safely cross the ocean.
 * Both wizards in both games are both defeated through magical shape-shifting battle.
 * King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow &mdash; one of the items in the Pawn Shoppe is a "hull hole detector", which is a joke at the expense of the boat hole puzzles in both Wizard and the Princess and King's Quest V.
 * The shop also has "owl courage potion", referencing Cedric's annoying cowardice.
 * Cedric's "if you're going in there, Graham, I'm staying out here" quote is referenced in the Space Quest series as well as Freddy Pharkas.
 * Graham can be seen being carried by an eagle in Space Quest X era in Space Quest IV.
 * In Ms. Astro Chicken in the Space Quest series, one of the targets is Cedric.
 * Cedric can be seen being eaten by vultures in Freddy Pharkas.

Reception
"...Unfortunately it took some time to realize all the possibilities the new format offered; some players felt icon-based games were less challenging. I kept thinking about this as I wrote King's Quest VI."-Roberta Williams