Originally released in November 1990, it featured a significant improvement in graphics (achieved through the introduction of VGA into the series).

[1] In the introduction to the game, a view of Castle Daventry is shown, when suddenly, a mysterious cloaked figure appears.

Cedric witnessed the cloaked figure's attack, and tells Graham that it was a powerful, evil wizard named Mordack who stole the castle.

Mordack has imprisoned the castle and royal family of Daventry out of revenge, and threatens to feed the royal family to Manannan unless Prince Alexander agrees to restore him to his true form as the spell's nature means that only Prince Alexander as the caster can reverse it.

King Graham travels through the land of Serenia, gathering helpful items and information, and eventually makes his way to Mordack's island, and to his castle lair, to save his family from their impending doom.

The owl Cedric accompanies the protagonist King Graham through the entire game to provide commentary and advice.

Though still largely standalone, King's Quest V is one of the few where the elements of the plot itself are directly connected to events or individuals in both previous and future games.

Before she is sent home at the end, Alexander mentions wanting to visit her in the Land of the Green Isles, which happens at the beginning of KQVI.

Released in 1992, the CD-ROM version is mastered in the High Sierra Format, unrelated to the publisher's name.

In order to make the Nintendo Entertainment System adaptation more family-friendly and release it to stores everywhere, Nintendo of America had to follow its Video Game Content Guidelines requiring it to tone down violence, nudity, language, alcohol reference, and religious themes in the games it released and it was published by Konami, rather than Sierra On-Line.

Graham can now feel strength and renewal flowing through him" in the PC version; in the NES adaptation, it says, "Ah!

The cool water felt wonderful on Graham's parched lips and his body now feels rejuvenated".

For the CD version, a voice-sampling technique was used for the speech as well as removal of many text boxes in order to make the game fit on disc.

[7] According to Sierra On-Line, combined sales of the King's Quest series surpassed 3.8 million units by the end of March 1996.

[9] Computer Gaming World's Scorpia in 1991 praised the "tour de force" VGA graphics, sound card audio, non-typing parser and user interface, but criticized the gigantic, yet almost pointless, desert map.

The editors wrote that "Roberta Williams horrified Sierra traditionalists by getting the parser out of the way of some of the most beautiful graphics ever".