Having never felt the desire to play King's Quest VIII when it was on store shelves before, I can only speak of KQ VII. King's Quest VII is by far the friendliest game in the series for players, as it is impossible to miss an item and have to restart or load an early save due to the bookmark saving and smarter (or at least kinder) game design than the previous games. While billed as a Disney style animation made into a game, I often found it more Looney Tunes and occasionally even Ren and Stimpy, lacking much of the grace of the previous two games. The two lead characters are beautifully designed, and the hand painted backgrounds are great, but much of the game lacks the grace and majesty of the more realistic King's Quest V and VI and the story pales in comparison to the more dramatic VI as well. I would recommend the KQ IV-VI collection first, as I believe that each of those is a stronger game. Still, it is a highly enjoyable, polished classic with the most modern graphics of the series and it follows up on a plot line from the wonderful King's Quest IV.