King's Quest 5: Absence makes the heart go yonder

It was the first King's Quest installment to replace the typing user interface with a point-and-click user interface. It was also the last King's Quest to have a stand alone EGA release at 320x200. Dual VGA/EGA versions of the game turned the 256 colour graphics into 16 colour at 640x400 resolution.

The title is a spoof on the proverb, "Absence makes the heart grow fonder."

Whereas most of the other games in the series tend to build on the basic story elements of the previous games, with new characters that are introduced in one game becoming important in later games, King's Quest V is one of the few where the plot itself is directly connected to events in both previous and future games.

Sierra displayed their acknowledgement at the criticisms of King's Quest V through references to the game in several of their releases, especially in their Space Quest series. Usually by poking fun at Cedric the owl.

King's Quest V also inspired a text based remake, King's Quest V - The Text Aventure, and also another parody fan-game Owl's Quest: Every Owl has it's Day starring Cedric which pokes fun of many of the situations and mannerisms of Cedric.