King's Quest IV

King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella is the fourth game in the King's Quest series. Release in 1988, it was one of the first games to implement beyond-PC sound, improving overall sound quality, and the first Sierra game with high(er) resolution graphics. It also has a largely-unknown version with the graphics and (lack of) music of the previous three games.

In this game, you play as Rosella, the twin sister of Alexander and daughter of King Graham. Your father has fallen deathly ill, and his only hope is a magical fruit that grows in the island of Tamir. A good fairy named Genesta sends Rosella to this land, but her powers are weakened by the evil sorceress Lolotte, meaning the trip is one-way. To win the game, you must find the fruit, defeat Lolotte, and return Genesta's powers to her-- all in the span of a single day.

Tropes used in King's Quest IV include:

• Always Check Behind the Chair: There's an island where you have to check behind a ship's detached front, which is lying in the sand. Rearward of the wreckage is a golden bridle that: 1) has no business being there; 2) is completely necessary to win the game. The island is only accessible at one point during play, and after leaving, you can't go back. Oh, and using “look” on the shipwreck only works when you're standing in exactly the right spot.
  • There is some justification behind this: you're put on the island after a complicated series of events, and the only other object you can find there does nothing but get you back to the mainland from the island. As per standard adventure game mind-think, there has to be something else there.
• Badass Pacifist: Rosella; typing in "kill (thing/person here)" give you the message, "You are NOT a violent person, Rosella!" While Rosella does use lethal force against Lolotte, she dd not know Cupid's arrow would be lethal to her.
• Beautiful All Along: Edgar, if you know about King's Quest VII the Princeless Bride.
• Best Served Cold: Pacifist, yes, but Rosella does seem a little satisfied with herself from killing Lolotte.
• But Thou Must!: All your dealings with Lolotte, except for the last one.
• Care Bear Stare / Good Hurts Evil: How to slay Lolotte.
• Cave Behind the Falls: That you can only access in the form of a frog.
• Cutscene: That damn unskippable Cutscene with the dwarves...
• Delicious Distraction: The ogre keeps a mean bulldog in his house; you need to throw it the bone you find in a cave to get past it.
• Developer's Room: At one point, if you type "Beam Me Up, Scotty!" you get sent to a secret room full of Sierra's game developers.
• Dreadful Musician : The stupid minstrel.
• Easter Egg: Aside from the aforementioned Developer's Room, there's "rap kq".
• Everything's Better with Princesses: Subverted-- Rosella is a princess, but must dress like a commoner to avoid raising suspicion.
• Everything's Even Worse with Sharks: There's a shark to dodge off Tamir's coast, and a whale that you'll also have to escape.
• Evil Sorcerer: Lolotte.
• Failure Is the Only Option: Rosella's many meetings with Lolotte.
• Fairy Tale: Standard for the series. Unless you know your Grimm, you have no reason to start cleaning the Dwarf house you come across.
• Far Side Island: A far side island becomes an actual walkable terrain and part of the story.
• Grave Humor: In the graveyard, natch.
• Gorgeous Garment Generation: Inverted at first when Genesta changes Rosella's gown into peasant clothing. Played straight with Rosella and Edgar at the end.
• The Guards Must Be Crazy: After Lolotte decides to force Rosella to marry Edgar, Rosella is able to escape partially with Edgar's help, and partially because all three of Lolotte's goons are sleeping on the job!
• Have a Nice Death: Standard practice for a King's Quest game, but there are a few unique situations. You can open Pandora's box, fail to sneak through Lolotte's castle, and many more.
• Haunted House: Whatley Manor (Yes, It's named for what you think), complete with zombies running about the grounds and ghosts a-plenty at night.
• Harmless Villain: The zombies in the graveyard and the mummy in the tomb; the presence of both is almost redundant, as they can't even appear until Rosella gains the Scarab that repels them.
• I'm a Humanitarian: The ogres and their dog.
• In-Universe Game Clock: You only have a day to get the fruit and save Genesta, plus some tasks have to be completed at night.
  • Fortunately, night normally won't fall until you need it to fall, and dawn won't come until you reach the end of the game. Night will fall on its own if you wait long enough, at which point you end up getting killed by zombies pretty quick. Fortunately, the time it takes is literally hours of real-time, and if you do the event that causes night to fall earlier then the zombies aren't a problem.
• I Want My Beloved to Be Happy: Edgar...poor Edgar.
• Jacob Marley Apparel: The manor ghosts. The miser is a very literal case.
• King Incognito: Rosella is a princess in disguise, dressed that way to avoid the suspicion of the evil Lolotte. It doesn't really work, as Lolotte nonetheless suspects that Rosella is something more than she seems because she's just too beautiful for a simple peasant girl.
• Literal Metaphor: Rosella uses a Skeleton Key to get inside a crypt.
• Luck-Based Mission: Navigating the damn cave and avoiding the troll. The troll can appear from any of the room entrances, at any time, and kills you instantly if it touches you. And it moves faster than you. And it will always show up. You have no defense other than running away, and you can't even do that. And you have to navigate the cave twice.
• The Maze: The maze of caverns behind the waterfall, which you have to navigate in the dark. Well, you do have a lantern, but it doesn't give off any light ^[1]. Oh, and there's a troll in the cave trying to eat you.
  • It's not really a maze: it is four rooms arranged in a square.
• Mercy Rewarded: You should be nice to Edgar. Not that you have much of a choice...
• Message in a Bottle: Rosella finds one containing ads for the previous games.
• Modest Royalty: Justified - Rosella is intentionally disguised as a peasant girl.
• Multiple Endings: It's quite easy to get through the game and forget to look for the Magic Fruit - which is the main reason you traveled to Tamir in the first place!
  • Fortunately, you can do that particular quest at almost any point of the game (after you get the crown, the lantern, and the flute). Even the ending, when you really should be getting to Genesta as quickly as possible.
• Mummy: There's one in the crypt, but he won't hurt Rosella if she has the Obsidian Scarab.
• Music Soothes the Savage Beast: To get past the snake guarding the tree with the magical fruit, Rosella must her Pan's panpipes (done by trading him the minstrel's lute, which in turn, is traded from the minstrel for a book of Shakespearean plays), play the pipes, and lull it to sleep.
• One-Hit-Point Wonder: Played with a bit-- you can fall from small heights and just feel dazed, but if you're attacked at all you still die.
• Prince Charmless: The unnamed obnoxious prince you save from being a frog. Also, Edgar at least until he meets Genesta.
• The Power of Love: With which Rosella kills the fairy witch Lolotte.
• Red Herring: Turns out neither of Graham's kids gets his Cool Hat.
• Snakes Are Evil: A nasty cobra guards the tree holding the fruit that Rosella needs to cure her father.
• Standard Hero Reward: Nastily subverted, in that after bringing her three treasures, the evil witch Lolotte offers to marry you to her ugly son. And promptly locks you up to have this carried out. That's a Nonstandard Game Over if you don't escape in time.
  • Edgar manages to subvert it, invert it, double subvert it, and later gender flip it! Here's the explanation (pardon the spoiler space):
    • Yes, he has a crush on Rosella, but that leads to him pleading with Lolotte to spare her and let her go after the treasures. Rosella gets the treasures, and Lolotte pulls Standard Hero Reward in forcing a marriage between Rosella and Edgar. Edgar, however, smuggles Rosella a key attached to a single red rose so that she can free herself. Rosella breaks out, fatally shoots Lolotte with a love arrow, and makes off with the talisman. After Rosella's saved Genesta, Genesta teleports Edgar to her island, and transforms him into a handsome young man (we find out later that she was restoring him to his true form). Edgar then inverts it by offering himself as Standard Hero Reward, and Rosella turns him down ("Sorry, Eddie. My dad's dying of heart failure, and I've gotta cure him...."). The end of the seventh game has them meeting again, and Edgar wisely asking to court her instead of rushing into anything.
• Suddenly-Suitable Suitor: Rosella's suddenly a lot more interested in Edgar after Genesta transforms him.
• Swallowed Whole: Rosella is swallowed by a whale when swimming through the sea; {{spoiler|if she has the feather, she can tickle it until it coughs her up onto a Far Side Island.
• Timed Mission: Although you'll never notice it in actual gameplay, you really do have exactly twenty-four hours to save Genesta and Graham.
• Unfinished Business: The ghosts at the manor.
• Unwinnable: See the pages.
• Wandering Minstrel: Rosella meets one who is absolutely terrible at his job. She gives him a copy of "The Compleat Works of William Shakespeare" [sic], so he can go off and become an absolutely terrible actor.
  • His official name is Frankie of Avalon.^[2]
• When Trees Attack: There are two areas full of nasty-looking trees that will grab and crush Rosella if she comes near them; if she has the ogre's axe, she can scare them into leaving her be.
• Zombie Apocalypse: The cemetery and manor house after dark. One touch should result in Rosella turning into a zombie, but this is unlikely to happen: zombies don't show up until night falls, and night won't fall for 12 hours of real-life time or once you get both the fruit for Graham and the item that protects Rosella from zombies. The zombies end up being a little pointless, even. The final Fetch Quest of the game even requires Rosella to venture into a tomb where a mummy tries to attack her, but it's repelled by the protective item! What a waste of a puzzle!

1. ↑ the "sprite" for the lanterns light hovers directly behind Rosella, and there's only a few pixels around that allowing you to glimpse the path, or lack thereof
2. ↑ A reference to Frankie Avalon, Teen Idol singer of the late 50s turned actor of the 60s and 70s