King’s Quest 4 Curiosities

WARNING: Spoilers!

If you have played King’s Quest 4, you may have noticed some strange and interesting things that may not have much to do with the main plot. We definitely have noticed some and decided to post them here, and would love your comments, remarks, or even neat stories concerning these curiosities.

  • The three witches in the skull cave are blind. The one with the eye is the only witch who can see. Yet, she is not the one running after Rosella. The witch that chases Rosella did not have the eye. Therefore she should be blind. How come she can run and chase Rosella as if she can see normally?
    • While one witch chased Rosella, the other two witches hand the eye to each other, and each (in her turn) gives directions to the chasing witch. — Templeton (4-13-1999)
    • When you are blind, your other senses become enhanced, so most likely the witch could hear Rosella moving. — Monica (2-16-2003)
  • The frog prince is wearing a golden crown. He has to remain a frog until a princess kisses him. Only then can he transform back into a prince — even a very snotty one. Rosella takes the crown and wears it to become a frog. Then she just simply takes it off to become human again. No problem!
    • Rosella was not under the enchantment the prince had to live with. Therefore, the crown works for her in a similar way, but the change is fortunately not permanent for her. — Akril (2-12-2000)
  • Rosella has to find Pandora’s box because it contains evilness that Lolotte desires. We know that Pandora had opened the box and released all the evil within it, so how come the box still has evilness inside it? — Templeton (4-14-1999)
    • Pandora closed the box before all the evil could get out. — Outdorzgal (4-24-1999)

    • Pandora had closed the box too late. All the evil had managed to escape, but she had also released hope. My theory is that the box was made to contain evil. Such a box could have been used by heroes to capture demons within it. — Agent 56 (4-11-2003)
  • The scarab is supposed to protect Rosella from undead creatures, right? Why does the scarab not protect Rosella from the demons coming out of Pandora’s box? — Templeton (4-17-1999)
  • Several players have wondered about this: In Genesta’s white fairy castle, there are some locked doors. You never find a key or anything in the game to unlock those doors, so what exactly is behind those doors? — Templeton (7-9-1999)
    • Probably just some common stuff you would normally find in a castle: spare chamber pots, pantries for storing food, sleeping chambers for the other fairies … basically a lot of boring stuff that the game designers did not want Rosella wasting her time examining when she had to save Genesta’s life. — Akril (2-12-2000)
  • There are so many people in that graveyard, but there is only that one mansion! Did they all live there? — Dini (8-10-1999)
    • The mansion is very old, so it is possible that all those people lived there once. The baby (Hiram Bennet) most likely lived there, and also Lord Coningsby (the soldier ghost) and his wife. — Templeton (8-14-1999)
    • According to the King’s Quest Companion, the mansion teleported to Tamir from our world magically. Maybe in our world it had neighbors. Also, check the dates, they did not all live at the same time. — Kat2 (8-14-1999)
  • Rosella is on an urgent quest to save her father’s and Genesta’s lives, yet she stops to take the time to clean the dwarves house twice?! — Dini (8-10-1999)
    • Sometimes what seems to be a waste of time is the best way to save time and to survive. Had Rosella not cleaned the house, she would not have gotten the diamonds and the lantern. If she had not cleared the table after the dwarves left the house, it is possible she would not have noticed the pouch. Subsequently, she could not have possibly made it through the cave and would not survive in the sea without “wasting” time to clean the house. — Templeton (8-14-1999)
  • How did the hen get in the ogre’s house? It couldn’t have strayed off there alone and was found be the ogre later, considering it lived on an island that was separated from Tamir’s mainland. — Mako Thunderbird (10-24-2001)
    • I am not sure whether it was on the island or in Tamir, but I know the ogre kidnapped the hen from Genesta. — PrincessCutie (10-24-2001)
    • Genesta goes on her daily stroll through the forest, and brings her beloved hen. Then, somehow the little hen strays off, and Genesta doesn’t seem to notice (or care) that the hen is missing because of Lolotte stealing her talisman. Then, while the little animal is wandering off alone in the wilderness, the ogre (or ogress) sees it and takes it home to the ogre’s house. — Mako Thunderbird (10-28-2001)
    • The hen laid its golden eggs and then the reflection of the sun hitting the egg blinded the hen until she wandered aimlessly about trying to find her way back into her coop, and then the Ogre who needed a peacock feather knew he could find one at Genesta’s place and as he went there looking for it he ran smack into the hen. — Naytural (11-16-2001)
  • On the back of the game box, there is a screenshot of Rosella outside the skull cave with the three witches. The three witches never actually leave the cave in the game. The screenshot has better graphics than the AGI version of the game, but is not the same as the SCI version. — Templeton (10-20-2001)
    Witches Outside Cave

    Witches Outside Cave

  • Considering the fact that the spirits of the old miser and the soldier can pass through walls and furniture, these ghosts do not seem to have any effect on material items. Rosella can walk right through them. Yet, how did the baby ghost make the cradle rock, and how did the boy ghost open the trapdoor, pull the ladder down, and prevent Rosella from opening the chest by sitting on it? – Templeton (2-16-2003)
    • In the movie “Ghost”, it is said that a ghost can manipulate material items if they use the power of their mind. While a baby and a young child aren’t likely to have the mental power to do this, it could be that they chose to move the objects and therefore could. — Agent 56 (4-11-2003)
  • Why are there so many zombies in the house graveyard? There aren’t even that many graves! — Agent 56 (4-11-2003)
    • Those zombies probably come from ruined graves of which the tombstones were destroyed or had disintegrated over time. — Hannibal Fan (4-11-2003)
  • There is a zombie that will attack Rosella if she tries to enter the house without the scarab. However, it seems to disappear when she does have the scarab! The other zombies do not seem to notice it until they touch Rosella so why is this one different?! — Agent 56 (4-11-2003)
    • This zombie is not as decomposed as the others and is more intelligent. That’s why it chose to wait for Rosella to come close enough, rather than clumsily lumbering towards her and giving her enough warning to know to escape. Assuming that Rosella was wearing the scarab, he might have seen it on her at the last moment and realized that attempting to grab her would be a foolish mistake. -Tim D (12-26-2008)
  • Strangely, if you run out of time the game says that evil will rule Tamir, this occurs even if you destroyed Lollote, returned Pandora’s box, and freed the unicorn! What evil is left?! — Agent 56 (4-11-2003)
  • Lolotte had put a spell on Edgar and made him green, ugly, and deformed. Genesta saw that his heroism and said that he had a beautiful soul. She told Edgar, “You should look like what you are”, before he was transformed into a handsome prince. That seems to imply that she merely changed his appearance to what she herself felt he should look like, which may not necessarily be his original appearance before Lolotte cursed him. Therefore, what was Edgar’s original appearance? — Templeton (2-16-2003)