YMMV / King's Quest VII: The Princeless Bride

• All Animation Is Disney: Despite being 2-D animated, the game itself has been bashed on by gamers as well as the reviewers for criticizing it for its art style mimicking Disney. It seems to be heading towards Don Bluth and Richard Rich's work.
• Animation Age Ghetto: The game's art style is one possible reason the game isn't as beloved as its predecessor.
• Awesome Art: JUST LOOK AT IT! It combines the best of Silver Age Disney (particularly films with Mary Blair concept art), Don Bluth, Richard Rich, and the best of early 90's Animation Renaissance. The developers even used real cel animation, which they used as a base for their pixel art!
• Big-Lipped Alligator Moment: Shortly after Rosella becomes a troll there's a loop of Mathilde wiping one hand while saying "Troll, huh?". The looped animation is very short and looks out of place, it adds nothing to the plot and is never mentioned again. It's anyone's guess why it's even in the game.
• Bizarro Episode: Though the game itself may be viewed as such in comparison to the previous entries in the series, Chapter 2 counts in-game. While important in establishing Rosella's story (not to mention Rosella actually BEING a troll for most of it), most of the troll kingdom and nearly all of its residents never appear or are mentioned again in any other chapter. This is especially different from the Valanice chapters, which require going back and forth between almost all previously visited areas and new ones.
• Contested Sequel: Nowhere near as much as the universally-reviled King's Quest: Mask of Eternity, but it still has a large number of detractors who don't like, among other things, the changes made to the King's Quest (and early-to-mid Sierra adventure games in general) formula, like the lack of Have a Nice Death, a point system, and the addition of chapters, which can be played out of order.
• Critical Dissonance: Whatever the negative reviews or word-of-mouth, this game sold over 3.5 million copies, which was HUGE for an early 90's computer adventure game.
• Disappointing Last Level: The short length and sheer abruptness of the last chapter can feel somewhat anti-climactic compared to everything that preceded it, especially given how successful Chapter 5 was at building up tension to the impending volcanic eruption. With rushed cutscenes, few returning characters from earlier chapters, and hasty exposition to explain a major plot-twist, there’s little time to truly bask in your success before the credits roll.
• Fan-Preferred Couple: Rosella and Oppy Goldsworth the troll jeweler to some, given how surprisingly polite and charming he is, what great chemistry they share during their brief time together, and how he too feels confined by his hum-drum life and longs to see the world like she does. Some feel they would have made a far more interesting couple than the handsome but otherwise generic Edgar that Rosella possibly ends up with.
  Rosella: Excuse me? I didn't mean to startle you, sir. I am Rosella of Daventry.
  Oppy: Oh, that's all right. I don't mind being interrupted by someone as charming as yourself. What can I do for you?
• Genius Bonus:
  • Lord Tsepish's name is a phonetic spelling of the Romanian word tepes, or impaler.
  • And Elspeth is a variant of Elizabeth. They're Vlad the Impaler and Elizabeth Báthory!
• Girl-Show Ghetto: This being the first King's Quest game with two female leads and a large young female fanbase probably doesn't help its reputation.
• Hilarious in Hindsight: At the end of Chapter 3, Valanice is arrested for stealing the moon.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • If you take a long time finding a way out of the coffin, the skeletons around it will start trying to force their way inside. If you take too long, a skull will poke through the wall eagerly. Cue the "You Have Died" screen.
  • The Boogeyman's theme is this for some people, but others find it to be just an upbeat, catchy tune.
  • Take your time on any one screen in Ooga Booga and the Boogeyman will pop out and jump you seconds later. He also speaks in a distorted voice that's also being played backwards. here.
  • The desert music can be this as well. It conveys a true sense of despair at being lost in an endless dead sea of sand. The atmosphere is amplified by the ambiguity of the place and not knowing anything about where you are, what purpose any of the structures serve, or what caused the land's demise.
• Retroactive Recognition: David Gilbert, a comic strip cartoonist, worked as a key animator on the game as part of the Animotion staff in Syracuse.
• Tear Jerker: There is a suboptimal ending where you stop Malicia but don't give Edgar the extra life, resulting in his death. Instead of a triumphant ending sequence, you get Titania audibly sobbing as she promises to raise Malicia right this time, followed by a shot of Oberon and Titania flying Valanice and Rosella home on a black swan.
• They Changed It, Now It Sucks!: Sierra changing the art style, tone, and mechanics was pretty divisive with many King's Quest fans.
• They Wasted a Perfectly Good Character: Oppy Goldsworth, the troll jewelry smith. He shares surprisingly great chemistry with Rosella, and a longing to see the world like her. After Rosella gives him the means to do so, he hints he'll go to Etheria. But while Rosella and Valanice both go there later, Oppy is never seen again. Some fans hoped he'd return as an ally, friend, or even Love Interest.
• Tough Act to Follow: The game seems to have been hit with this, seeing as King's Quest VI: Heir Today, Gone Tomorrow is largely considered the best game in the series.
• Ugly Cute: Troll!Rosella◊, heck, most of the trolls qualify.
• Values Resonance: Rosella is introduced as a Rebellious Princess who doesn't want to get married right away like her mother wants, but to have adventures and see the world before she settles down. At the end of the game, if she resurrects Edgar, rather than marrying the person she rescued right away like her father and brother did, the two share a kiss but agree to travel together before getting married, IF they get married at all. In the decades since the game's release, society has increasingly questioned marrying someone you just met (to the point that every major Disney Princess movie in The New '10s defies the Love at First Sight and Fourth-Date Marriage tropes), so the game's ending holds up better than its predecessors.
• Vindicated by History: The game received mostly negative reviews from both fans and critics on release (partly because of how buggy early versions were), but today the game is looked upon far more favorably. It remains something of a Contested Sequel for its stark changes to the King’s Quest formula, but several fans still find it to be a well-made point-and-click game with some of the most memorable locales in the franchise, loving the game despite (or in some cases because of) its differences.
• Visual Effects of Awesome: The backgrounds are quite gorgeous, as are the moments when the characters do interact with them. Keyword is when they do interact with them. The stills look great, but in motion they look very rough.

---