
After he wonders why, an owl called Cedric speaks to him about it and transports him to the land of Serenia, where his boss Crispin helps him get ready to face up to Mordack. Soon after, Graham came back, only to realize that the castle is gone. However, while he was gone, an evil wizard called Mordack uses a spell to warp his castle out of Daventry, along with the royal family.

While it was a beautiful sunny day, King Graham decided to go out for a walk in the woods and hope that everything is normal when he got back. In here, players can look at or interact with objects, combine them with other objects, or pick them up to use them in the game environment as another cursor. By clicking on the bag, this opens up a sub-window that displays all the inventory that Graham currently has. Inventory that Graham picks up now gets placed into a bag. Players can also right-click to cycle through the different available cursors. The "Head" cursor is used to talk to people (and in the strange world of King's Quest, often objects and animals, too). The "Hand" cursor is a multipurpose cursor that can be used to push, pull, interact with and pick up objects.

Clicking the "Eye" cursor on items will provide a description, the same as typing "Look at".

By clicking the "Walk" cursor on the screen, Graham will walk as close as he can to the appropriate area. To access the different cursors, the player can move the mouse to the top of the screen, revealing a hidden menu with each of the different actions, as well as game options and the inventory bag. Rather than typing commands on a keyboard to interact with the game world and use the arrow keys to walk around, King's Quest V instead simplifies all actions down to base commands.

King's Quest V: Absence Makes the Heart Go Yonder is an adventure game, and the first from Sierra to use a point-and-click mouse interface.
