* SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic: From the AGD remake ("VideoGame/KingsQuestIIIRedux"), the music "Coming Home". It's even better when one considers that it fits a freed slave perfectly.
* EnsembleDarkHorse: Kenny the dog you meet in the town store. Few players can resist petting him, and he was briefly thought to be the first dog you could pet in any video game (with the title eventually going to ''[[VideoGame/{{Zork}} Zork II]]'').
* EventObscuringCamera: When walking down the mountain, your view is obscured by rocks and you have to guess where the path is.
* GrowingTheBeard: This is the first game in the series to have a coherent plot as opposed to a random collection of fairy tales. The game also features much improved graphics over the first two games, even if they are still AGI.
* ItWasHisSled: Gwydion's true identity. The title does kind of give it away all by itself, though.
* NintendoHard: Even compared to the other games in the series with the overabundance of {{Moon Logic Puzzle}}s and [[YetAnotherStupidDeath stupid deaths]], the addition of a time limit in the first half of the game forces the player to keep a very strict schedule in gathering everything they need to thwart Manannan, not to mention the CopyProtection puzzle listed above.
* ParanoiaFuel: The first half of the game runs on it, with Manannan breathing down your neck at every opportunity. Even when he's off on a trip or napping, you'll be finding yourself eyeing the timer constantly, ready to make a mad dash back to the house and hide everything before he gets back/wakes up.
* ThatOneLevel: In the original release, climbing down the mountain. Not only are you on a timer, the path is narrow, dangerous and [[EventObscuringCamera there's a rock blocking your view]]. The magic map will help you teleport down, but only after you climbed down once. You still need to navigate the path when climbing back up, [[ScrappyMechanic as the magic map will always teleport you at the base of the mountain]]. It's much less bad in the fan remakes, which alter the magic map so the player only has to get through the treacherous trail once.
* ThatOnePuzzle:
** Making the the ''Fly like an eagle'' spell. Finding the eagle's feather is nothing short of a nightmare. [[RandomNumberGod The bird randomly shows up in a couple of screens]] and sometimes, it won't even drop that bloody feather! When it finally does, pray that you don't accidentally leave the screen or that a bandit won't show up.
** Stealing the purse from the bandits. When you enter their hideout, [[RandomNumberGod there's a strong chance that someone is awake and will angrily go after you]]. This is easily dealt with by looking into the hut from the outside, and if you see somebody moving, climb down and back up.
* UnfortunateCharacterDesign: Because of the limitations of the graphics, Gwydion's sprite has a solid line of red pixels for eyes, making him look like [[Characters/MarvelComicsCyclops Cyclops]].
** Ironically he more or less has this same look in ''King's Quest VI'', albeit the line isn't red.
----