King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella
Description official descriptions
King Graham and Queen Valanice were glad to have their children back. Graham thinks that it is time to pass onto them his old adventurers' hat. When he throws it across the room, he suffers a heart attack and collapses on the floor, and he is carried off to bed. The only way that Graham's health can be restored is by retrieving the magic fruit in the faraway land of Tamir. A beautiful fairy called Genesta offers Rosella the chance to be transported to the land, and find the fruit. But once she gets transported, she cannot be sent back unless she helps the fairy regain her talisman that was stolen by the evil witch, Lolotte.
King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella is the first game in the series to have a female protagonist. Rosella will meet characters that will either help or hinder her. The player moves Rosella around with arrow keys, and have her perform actions by typing commands. Unlike the previous King's Quest games, which used the AGI engine, this installment uses the new SCI engine with more detailed graphics; the most visible effect is that the game is paused while the player is typing, giving unlimited time to complete even the longest commands. An AGI version of the game, however, was released as well.
Gameplay-wise, the game is similar to the first two installments of the series, with a large interconnected world open for exploration and no time limit imposed. The game is the first in the series to have a day and night cycle; certain actions can be performed only during a specific time.
Spellings
- King's Quest IV: ×××ץת×ר×× ×Š× ×¨××××× - Hebrew spelling
Groups +
- Animals: Dolphins / Whales
- Fantasy creatures: Dwarves
- Fantasy creatures: Trolls
- Fantasy creatures: Unicorns
- Game Engine: Adventure Game Interpreter (AGI)
- Game Engine: Sierra's Creative Interpreter (SCI)
- Gameplay feature: Day / night cycle
- Gameplay feature: Fishing
- Games with manual lookup copy protection
- King's Quest series
- Protagonist: Female
- Protagonist: Royalty
- Setting: Inside a giant creature
- Theme: Haunted house
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Credits (DOS version)
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Reviews
Critics
Average score: 77% (based on 23 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.9 out of 5 (based on 92 ratings with 8 reviews)
Possibly my personal favourite of the Kingâs Quest series
The Good
Remember when you where a child, tucked up all cosy in your bed, and your mother / father would read you a bed-time fairy-tale story? Well, this game brings the atmosphere of all those cosy fairy tales to life.
Seven dwarfs, an ogreâs house, a hen that lays golden eggs, witches⌠itâs all there.
From the rather plain original, the series had really evolved, and in this instalment things really start to come alive and find their stride.
Each of the Kingâs Quest games were traditionally bigger than itâs predecessor, but KQ4 is much, MUCH bigger than any of the previous games, by far the largest and most complex game in the series up to this point.
The thing that really stands out with this adventure is purely the great atmosphere it has to it, really sucking the player in, and having a lot of good ideas and various areas to explore.
Itâs also much more intelligent than the first couple of games, with the magical land of Tamir feeling much more like a âlivingâ world.
One of the notable things about this game was itâs having a female lead, Princess Rosella. Not only a first for the Kingâs Quest series, but one of the firsts for PC gaming in general. (There are a couple of sections where this is used dubiously, though. For example, at one stage, to you have to wash and tidy the seven dwarfs house!!)
One of the best elements of the game - and once again, a first for the series - is that it has a day/night-time cycle, with night-time arriving after youâve completed certain puzzles and mini-quests.
The night has a great effect as it makes everything look creepy, and it revolves mostly around a run-down haunted house, where you have to help some restless ghosts by retrieving various things from their grave, avoiding zombies in the cemetery along the way. Itâs much spookier than anything previously seen in any of the previous KQ games, and quite probably stands out as my personal favourite sequence of play within any of the Kingâs Quest games.
It is the last game in the KQ series to have EGA graphics, and undoubtedly contains some of the best EGA graphics ever seen in a game, in my opinion. Far sharper and better looking than anything seen in any of the previous KQs (or for any other Sierra game of the time, for that matter), the game looks stunning considering itâs EGA limitations.
Itâs also the first game in the series to support sound cards. Originally when I played it, I only had the standard PC speaker â and even on that it sounded good, but when I re-played the adventure recently, I heard the sound card-driven effects for the first time, and, considering their age, they sound great.
Also, the last KQ entry to have text interface â Iâm one of those who feel the series really lost some of itâs involvement when it was replaced by point-and-click.
This was actually the first Kingâs Quest game I played (though I dutifully filled in playing the previous instalments afterwards), as it stands as one of my favourite Sierra adventures.
**The Bad**
There's little I didnât like about this one; a few nit-picky points at most.
It uses Sierraâs (then) new updated text interface. On the whole itâs good, and the way it pauses the action as you type is handy, not meaning you don't have to frantically finish typing before something fatal happens as in previous adventures. But the way it automatically pops up a window in the centre of the screen is a little distracting â bottom of the screen (as in some other adventures to use the engine) would have been better.
But more annoying is that, is how it stops dead any sound as soon as you enter a single letter, spoiling any background tunes that are playing at the time.
As with the previous KQ games, things are somewhat random driven at times â for example, at one stage, you need to deliberately get swallowed by a whale, but itâs appearance is very random, and as you look for it youâre just as likely to get eaten by a shark
Itâs also easy to miss something important, leaving the game unfinishable as a result. For example, at one stage, you find yourself washed up on a small island. A bridal that you need to harness a unicorn elsewhere is actually on the island, but it is actually obscurely located in the âVâ of a ship-wreck, and the game gives you no hint that itâs there. You wouldnât know if you missed it, and worse, it's impossible to return back to this island once youâve left it.
And of course, as with just about all Sierra adventures of the era, there are several screens that that will see you plummeting to your death if you step one pixel out of place - and thereâs plenty of them in this game. Twisty paths, dark caves (with a deep chasm that appears with warning from nowhere)âŚ
And as with most Sierra games of the era, saving your game regularly is vital.
Sierra obviously seemed to think such screens were âfunâ to play; I guess no-one had the heart to tell them that they werenât!
Oh, one more thing â the ending just seemed to stop dead. On the closing scene, after King Grahamâs life has been saved, the animated picture and music just loop around and around, not having the usual closing credits as with most Sierra games.
**The Bottom Line**
One of the very best of the âKingâs Questâ games, and quite possibly my personal favourite of the series (Kingâs Quest V being itâs closest rival, though Iâve never managed to get hold of KQ6 to date).
Much bigger, thereâs much more to explore than do than the previous entries, with the night-time section of game-play particularly standing out.
In my opinion, if you only ever play one Kingâs Quest game, this should be the one. It has a real nostalgic feel to it, being a reminder of both Sierra adventures and Kingâs Quest games in their heyday, at their very best.
DOS · by Jayson Firestorm (143) · 2002
Similar to KQ3, technically excellent, letdown by difficulty
The Good
This review can be like copy of my KQ3 review.
From good points, what stands out is that KQ4 is another notable step in technological execution. Moreover, step from KQ3 to KQ4 is way bigger than step from KQ2 to KQ3. New engine (SCI vs AGI), much sharper graphics (full 320x200, 16 colors), Adlib sound, big world, day and night cycle, etc..
The game has also very good writing, good story (compared to KQ1/2), admirable protagonist, very nice locations and generally playing KQ4 after first three installments is refreshing. Sierra made sure that you'll not have dĂŠja-vu feeling when playing this title.
The Bad
And similar as to KQ3, my main negative point is difficulty. Although, I must admit, it's a bit better than overly frustrating KQ3, it's still the game from hardcore-games times, when it was ok to play one adventure game for two-three months, talk about it with your friends, exchange experiences and ideas, move a little forward, then finally purchase some magazine with walkthrough in it, to finally beat the game. Apropos difficulty, I'm not talking just about adventure puzzles. Those adventure puzzles, even if some of them are really difficult, are still manageable. But game has action sequences, where one misstep cost you life. I remember passing through dark cave, even when double-checking against walkthrough that I made everything right, it took me maybe like 50-100 attempts to pass it. And "inside whale" screen is just atrocious taking into account today's standards. Literally pixel walking over invisible pixels. I thought that game is buggy, but nope, it was a feature. What game brought you with new fancy graphics and sound, it took you back with some frustrating parts.
But just to be clear, my review is solely from the point of view from new 'modern times' gamer who wants to play the game for the first time. Of course, people playing this game back in 80's and early 90's will probably disagree with me, because back then, it was totally different world. Nostalgia is a strong thing.
The Bottom Line
It's a pity I can't give score 3.5/5 now in Moby review, so I'm resorting to same 3/5 as for KQ3, albeit I think KQ4 is a notch better. If you don't mind higher difficulty and resorting to walkthrough from time to time, I consider KQ4 better play for new-gamer than KQ3.
DOS · by Vladimir Dienes · 2023
Excellent classic adventure game from Sierra - My all time favorite classic PC game
The Good
First of all, the game weighed in about a whopping 3 megs and at the time it was one of the largest games ever produced (aside from games that are non-games like Dragon's Lair). With those 3 megs included some of the best sound and graphics ever developed at the time. Both of which helped bring to life this almost Alice In Wonderland meets Snow White kind of adventure game. The game is full of beautifully drawn backgrounds and interesting characters ranging from ordinary people to mythological creatures. The plot basically leaves you open to explore in a very non-linear path. There is a game clock within the game but only advances after certain events are triggered. I just loved the atmosphere Roberta Williams created... I remember my heart racing and was on the edge of my seat while peeping through the key lock in the ogre's house... This is my all-time favorite game ever created and no game stuck with me as strongly as this one.
The Bad
One thing I didn't like is some of the puzzles were too difficult to solve and some objects to difficult to find or know what to do with. It took me so long to know to drop the gold ball to lure the frog over. Other than that, the game is flawless in my opinion.
The Bottom Line
Was an instant classic and should be locked in a time capsule :) Its a wonderfully entertaining fantasy adventure game that set standards in adventure gaming for the years and years that followed. A must play!
DOS · by OlSkool_Gamer (88) · 2004
Discussion
Subject | By | Date |
---|---|---|
KQ4 issues, KQ and Roberta Williams in general | Andrew Fisher (697) | May 21, 2023 |
It's not possible to visit the island at night, or is it? | Nowhere Girl (8680) | Jan 29, 2017 |
An unconventional credit source | Lain Crowley (6629) | Feb 26, 2012 |
Trivia
Development
King's Quest IV began development right around the time Sierra wanted to go with a new game engine, so it was developed simultaneously in both game engines--the new one (SCI) so that they could work the kinks out, and the old one (AGI) so that they could still release a product if any major setbacks occurred with SCI. No such problems occurred, and King's Quest IV was released in two versions: The AGI version which traditional 160x200 graphics and only requiring 256k of RAM, and the new SCI version with 320x200 graphics, but requiring 512K of RAM. The older version is extremely hard to come by--it had a very limited release.
Gags
If you asked Rosella to "undress", she refused by replying that children might be playing the game.
Graphics
At the time of its release (and according to the box) this was the largest game ever made. Over 3 megabytes of code! The new graphics started a trend with the Sierra games of the late 80s and early 90s that would test the limits of how many disks can be crammed into a box... until CD-ROM became standard.
References
If you type in some vulgar words, the game will respond "Perhaps you should purchase a copy of Leisure Suit Larry instead?" For example, try "shit".
References to the game
Rosella makes a cameo appearance in Leisure Suit Larry Goes Looking for Love (In Several Wrong Places). She can be found tending the barbershop in the airport. In game when you type "look girl" it responds with:
"You find Daventry Women Sexy. (But then you find any woman sexy!)" followed up with the question, "By the way, have you played 'King's Quest IV' yet?
"Why no, I haven't " Larry replies, "is it good?"
"Well I certainly think so," she concludes, "maybe it's just me!"
Indeed, it is you Rosella. It is you. :)
Sound
The big deal with this game when it came out was that it incorporated stereo music support for sound cards. The composer, William Goldstein, also wrote the music for the musical Fame. Another big deal back then was the inclusion of a female protagonist.
Information also contributed by Adam Baratz, Brolin Empey, Michael Palomino, Olivier Masse and woods01
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Related Sites +
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DJvu Browser Plug-in
Website containing plug-in needed to view the Spring '89 issue of The Sierra Newsletter. -
Hints for KQ4
Wonderful hints nudge you along to help you solve the many puzzles in KQ4. -
ScummVM
supports the DOS and Apple IIgs versions of King's Quest IV under Windows, Linux, Macintosh and other platforms. -
The Sierra Newsletter - Spring '89
The Spring '89 issue contains an interesting article about "The Making of King's Quest IV". Worth a look. You must have the DJVu Browser plug-in in order to access the magazine.
Identifiers +
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Contributors to this Entry
Game added by Andy Roark.
Amiga added by POMAH. Apple II added by Guy Chapman. Atari ST added by Terok Nor. Apple IIgs added by Servo.
Additional contributors: Katakis | ăŤăżăăš, Jeanne, Crawly, Macs Black, Patrick Bregger.
Game added May 23, 1999. Last modified February 13, 2024.