Cat's Cute & Thorough King's Quest IV: The Perils of Rosella Review

Cat's Cute and Thorough Review
We left King Graham passing on his blue adventurer's cap to his two children, Alexander and Rosella. Just as the children reach for the cap, Graham has a pain in his chest. He falls to the ground and is quickly transported to the royal chambers.

Rosella, in a state of shock, is sitting in the throne room, bawling her eyes out, wishing there is something she could do to help. All of a sudden, the queen of all fairies, Genesta appears in Merlin's Mirror, telling Rosella of a magical tree in the land of Tamir that bears only one fruit every hundred years... and that fruite cures all ills and gives perfect health for many years to the one who eats it. However, should Rosella choose to come to Tamir, she must make the choice quickly, and then Genesta will explain all.

Rosella, playing the heroine (and wanting to save her father - I've been told she is pretty self-absorbed), agrees to go to Tamir. Once there, Genesta explains that while she was walking in the woods, an evil fairy, Lolotte attacked her and stole a magic talisman. The talisman is the source of most of Genesta's magic and she will die soon if Rosella doesn't recover it in the next twenty-four hours. She explains how to find both the magical fruit and Lolotte's castle and how Rosella will be unable to return home unless the talisman is recovered. Rosella begins her journey through the countryside of Tamir, and very quickly she sees a unicorn. Unfortunately, she scares it away (contrary to popular belief, it was just skittish), so Rosella continues her journey.

Soon, she comes to a large oak tree with a house built into it (what is it with people building homes in the trunks of trees??). She walks in, after knocking of course, and sees that the place is an absolute mess! Being the prickly princess that she is, she spends the next couple of minutes speed-cleaning the house. Just as she finishes, seven dwarfs walk into the house. They are extremely thankful to her for cleaning and fix her a bowl of soup. After they leave, Rosella cleans up the dishes and sees a bag of diamonds on the table. She goes to the diamond mine and talks to one of the dwarfs, who tells her to keep them... and gives her an extra lantern also. She continues her walk through Tamir and comes to a huge graveyard. She also spots a huge house in the distance. Of course she's curious and walks into the house, and realizes that the house has not been inhabited for at least decades. She discovers a secret room in the house, but is unable to do much there yet. She also decides to take a book "The Compleat Works of Shakespeare," from the library and then she leaves. Rosella comes to a small pond with a frog sitting on a lily pad wearing a smal crown. She accidentally drops a golden ball into the pond and the frog fishes it out for her. Remembering her fairy tales, and hoping for a handsome prince, she kisses him. And he DOES turn into a handsome prince. However, since Genesta transformed her clothes to those of a peasant, the stuck-up prince doesn't realize who is standing in front of him and walks off in a huff... leaving the crown. Eventually, after meeting several other people and helping them out, Rosella comes to a waterfall. Her curiosity is getting the best of her, and so she puts on the crown and turns into a frog! But because of this, she's able to go behind the waterfall. There is an opening to a cave, so she lights the lantern and enters. She dodges the inhabitant of the cave (no one knows exactly what it is), crosses a chasm, and exits on the other side of the mountain. She hops from mound to mound of grass in the poisoned swamp and reaches the tree with the fruit. She hypnotizes the cobra guarding the fruit (good thing that as a princess, she's given music lessons) and takes the fruit and hops back to the cave, dodges the inhabitant again and exits back at the waterfall. The problem now is that she has to get the talisman from Lolotte. She figures that she must go to Lolotte's castle and plead for it. Thus, she walks up to the mountain and is captured by Lolotte's henchmen and brought to her throne. After trying to convince Lolotte that she's not sent by Genesta, Rosella is told that she must bring the unicorn to the castle. Rosella leaves and decides to refresh herself with a swim. While swimming, she sees a whale in the distance, but is unable to outswim it. She quickly finds herself in the belly of the whale!

What do you do in the belly of a whale? You tickle the uvula to escape! So Rosella pulls out a feather she's collected and climbs the tongue to reach the uvula. The whale sneezes her out and she ends up on an island. While there, she finds a silver whistle and a bridle. She blows on the whistle and soon a dolphin comes to her rescue. Very quickly, Rosella finds herself back on the beach of Tamir. Rosella continues to walk around Tamir and finds Cupid's bow and arrow. Well, if she's that desperate for the prince she saw earlier, she might as well make him fall in love with her, right? So she decides to take them.

And then she comes up on the unicorn. What can she do to keep from making it run away from her? She grabs the bow and arrow and shoots it. And then the unicorn stays still long enough for Rosella to bridle it and ride it back to Lolotte's castle. Unfortunately, Lolotte isn't convinced just yet of Rosella's innocence and demands that Rosella bring her the hen that lays the golden egg that's located in the Ogre's house.

So, Rosella sneaks into the Ogre's house, goes upstairs to steal *cough* take the ax and then hides in the downstairs closet. She sees the Ogre telling the hen to lay. Then he eats his supper and falls asleep at the table. Rosella sneaks out of the closet and grabs the hen and runs out the door to safety. That was nice and easy! And back to Lolotte's castle she heads.

Even after this, Lolotte isn't convinced of Rosella's innocence and tells her to go fetch x]]. Rosella decides to travel to the woods to see what she can find. The trees try to attack her, but she quickly raises the ax and they leave her alone. She comes to a witch's cave and walks in to see three witches... all without eyes. As they begin to chase her, she grabs the eye from the shelf and they plead for it back. They toss an amulet to protect her from zombies, and she, being the nice girl she is, returns the eye.

Rosella makes it back to the graveyard and house... and soon discovers that the house is haunted. She helps five different ghosts find the treasures they were looking for and is rewarded with a sheet of music. She takes it up to the tower in the secret room where an organ stands. She plays the music and a small drawer opens which contains a key. Rosella takes the key to the crypt in the cemetery. On the floor is Pandora's Box, which she grabs and takes back to Lolotte.

What does Lolotte want with Rosella now? Her son Edgar (a little green hunchback man) has fallen in love with Rosella and now they will be forced to marry. Rosella is locked in a room, but Edgar doesn't want Rosella to be forced into the marriage. He gives her a key so she can free herself. She finds all of her items that were taken from her and goes to Lolotte's bedroom. She shoots Lolotte with Cupid's arrow, but since Lolotte is so full of hate, the love in the arrow kills her.

Rosella grabs the talisman and swims to Genesta's island. She gives Genesta the talisman, who is healed instantly. Genesta transports them to her beach and brings Edgar over. She determines that he needs a body that will match his heart, and transforms him into a HUNK (Rosella's words). He proposes then and there.

Rosella's heart is torn... he is an extremely handsome man, but she has to save her father. Being the good daughter she is, she chooses her father's life over that of marriage. Genesta transports Rosella home, where Graham eats the fruit and is magically healed.

The kingdom is completely restored!