Ok so I'm playing Treasure in the Royal Tower, which is one of the first games I ever played, and I love it, but oh my god the controls? It's been a couple of years and I forgot how difficult the navigation is on this game!
Like you, Treasure in the Royal Tower was my first game and I tend to look through it with nostalgia-tinted glasses. When I replay it, I definitely do have the same feeling as you. For some reason the winding passageways (especially the vents!) combined with the annoying backwards u-turn arrow makes this a difficult game to navigate. The first time I played it, the part was so confusing, and it’s still somewhat hard even though I’ve played it countless times. This game has a lot of scenarios that require you to turn around, and for some reason it seems to be more difficult in this game and definitely takes some adjustment. I can’t quite pinpoint why it is, but it’s definitely that u-turn arrow.