Scorpia of "Computer Gaming World" reviewed "King's Quest IV", noting the beautiful graphics, but also mentioning the game ran slowly if the screen contained animations. She described the game's puzzles as "uneven", but considered the presentation as cinematic in quality. David Stanton of "Compute!" praised the graphics and sound of the IBM PC version, including its support of VGA and sound cards such as AdLib and Roland MT-32, and concluded that ""King's Quest IV" sets a gaming standard others will be hard-pressed to match, much less surpass," describing the game's soundtrack as "40 minutes of the best sound available on any computer disk anywhere." "Page 6"s John Sweeney wrote the game was "undoubtedly excellent", but personally he preferred "King's Quest III".