King's Quest IV: Creepy

[Sir Perceval of Daventry]

I posted a few thoughts on this before, but I've better calibrated my thoughts, if you will, and would love to re-discuss this point:


I don't know why, but KQ4 always seemed to be a bit spooky to me. Something about the emptiness of Tamir, the risk of death everywhere you turned and even the music seemed very eerie and melancholy. Does anyone else feel this way?

It isn't truly SCARY--like in truly horror story sense--but it's very subtly spooky. It isn't blood and gore, or any of that, yet it still manages to be very creepy. I'll explain why if you care to read, please tell me your feelings later on and whether you agree--your thoughts and anything you'd like to add:.

To start off, the land you walk around in, Tamir, is very empty. There's not even any music that accompanies you from screen to screen--The land is empty; silent; seemingly for the most part, deserted. You're alone, and each minute you waste is precious time lost. It somehow feels very desolate; abandoned--like if you were to explore a ghost town or a long abandoned building. That in itself is kind of eerie--picture wandering around a long dead, mostly ghost town, filled with not much more than some impoverished people and a creepy, downtrodden and forgotten little cemetery with crumbling graves, and a mysterious, spooky, deteriorating house--and an ominous network of caves.

And also...it seems like death awaits around every corner. You have the Ogre, who can pop up out of the blue, chase you, and you don't know why he's chasing you, and the music which accompanies him is pounding and intense. He's almost like a real life psychopath or serial killer chasing you. Think of the show Unsolved Mysteries--which debuted the same year as production on KQ4 started--and the many stories on that show of missing and abducted women, creepy, vicious serial killers on the prowl and the like. This is what you're dealing with, only transplanted to a fantasy realm.

Or the Troll, the entrance to whose lair is littered with bones...You never see anything but his green, eerily shining eyes and you hear nothing but an ominous "Grr" in the blackness of the cave. He, like the Ogre, pops up anywhere and once he does, you're doomed no matter what you do, and-- again in a psychopathic way, he just wants to kill you. You don't even see him, but it's those glowing eyes and that sudden jumping out of the dense blackness--at any moment- to pull you away to a terrifying, unknown fate which makes it scary. The game's death message inforces the horror of your plight by telling you: "Fate be what it may, you are dragged off to meet it."

And the whole ghost sequence. You have to help wailing, frightened, unhappy ghosts--You're greeted in the midst of a dark, creepy night, having narrowly avoided the clutches re-animated, rotting corpses known as zombies which hunger for your flesh--and in the middle of a long abandoned, falling down house--By strange, frightening sights and soughts: Ghostly captains lost at sea, a grieving lady spirit.

Perhaps most disturbing about your night in Whaley Manor is the wailing cries of an unseen, dead baby. You're greeted in the midst of night by the sounds of his violent wailing from beyond the grave, and you see a rocking cradle with no baby inside. Imagine just this moment if the game had had voices--imagine hearing the baby's cry, the zombie's hungry growls and grunts, the ghost's wails and moans. You have to dig up these ghosts' graves, feeling amongst their rotting corpses, and reach into their very coffins to get items to pacify their restless souls, all while smelly, putrid zombies surround you, hoping you'll take off the Scarab so that they may enjoy their dinner.

You have to narrowly avoid as well three ravenous, treacherous, foul and ugly witches, who share but an eye (meaning one's eye socket is eyeless; just picture that); and you have to carry this witche's eye in your hand, and dart as they throw themselves at you, trying desperately to catch you so as to eat you--A dangerous game of cat and mouse around a boiling cauldron. Once wrong step, and you're dead meat for the three witches later to eat. Notice a pattern here? Or how about the little forest of trees who only wish to embrace you--so as to crush the life out of you in their twisted arms.

And beyond the horror, there's a great sense of melancholy, even the happy moments; For example, the cleaning of the Dwarves' house. The music which plays when you clean the Dwarves' house somehow comes off creepy, melancholy--with an apprehensive undertone to it, a bittersweet sort of sadness to it. Almost a nostalgic sort of sound--a gleaming bit of very dim light amidst the darkness. Even the "points" sound sounds nothing like the point sound in the other games. It too sounds almost a little desperate, like, "Yeah, you got a point. Try and survive the rest of this now." It's not a rewarding sound.

The game actually kind of reminds me of like an early version of Resident Evil in some ways, less blood and gore though  But a similar concept--a very basic psychological form of horror underpins this game.  Death lies at the turn of every corner. Creatures seek to reach out, grab and devour you, and you must either move fast or succumb to fate. Never again in any King's Quest game do you have so many creepy creatures out to get you; never again in KQ do you confront the nighttime; never again in King's Quest is death and fear handled quite seriously--Even in KQ6, you have a campy moment with the skeletons dancing. Nothing like that here. I just think there's a very heavy, desperate sense of urgency, a feeling that you're in this alone, or eerie sort of sadness to it. Never before and never again is your mission as urgent.

Never before or again do you feel so alone--You are but a lonesome, defenseless princess (usually, in fairy tales, the swooning damsel in distress) who just has been saved from what seemed like certain death at the hands of ravenous dragon, only to watch your father succumb to a strange, very possibly fatal illness, and within only hours of being in the despair of the dragon's lair and meeting your brother for the first time in 17 years, you're thrust into a strange, very hostile land; Any misstep could lead to death, and you have many creepy, violent beings wandering the land who crave to eat your flesh. No friend accompanies you on your mission; No aid is truly given, except at the end of the game. And at the end of 24 hours of fear, panic, and horror, you're forced to kill in order to survive.

Even so, the horror is played very subtly under the surface of it being "just another KQ game", and I wonder if Roberta might've been subconsiously driven by her well known love of horror stories while designing it--Remember she designed the first Laura Bow game around the same time as KQ4. Perhaps somewhere in the back of her mind, the idea of doing a scary story was brewing--and this was a subconscious outlet for it. Roberta is well known as a fan of horror stories, Steven King and the like--She has professed to like them about as much as she loves fairy tales and fantasy.

The game is scary in the same way that the show Unsolved Mysteries was scary--No blood and guts or gore, but enough to keep you awake if playing it's darker moments on a dark and lonely night. Note once more they both came out around the same time--Perhaps she had been watching show while developing KQIV. There was a lot of crime and creepy stories gripping the country in that period--Quite a few of modern history's most famous serial killers active, years from being caught.

To cap off these thoughts, consider this moment of the game:

Tamir suddenly drops to night--a time even more perilous and scary than daylight there, and as little, eerie piece of organ music drones, a moon, pale as death, rises up in an ocean blue sky, hovering over a mountain landscape which you know already is full of danger, and a line of trees, and the game informs you:

"Like a heavy blanket, darkness enfolds you."

[Baggins]

The troll has green eyes last I checked?

[Sir Perceval of Daventry]

The troll has green eyes last I checked?

Fixed.

[Arkillian]

Apparently KQ4 has alot of Lovecraft referances which would be why it's creepy. It DOES entertain me that Rosella grave digs in all her games though

[Blackthorne]

There is certainly a dangerous and creepy air to KQIV!!  I remember playing that one, late at night, on my old IBM PC... I was 12, and I felt the hairs on the back of my neck stick up more than once.

I dig the vibe of KQIV - it's really more "uneasy" than horriffic - and I kinda like that sense of unease.  It makes playing the game an experience.


Bt

[drusain]

I agree. I feel that KQ4 was a lot creepier than the others, mostly because of the sound. The sound of the troll's approach and the "you are dead, restore?" sounds were just terrifying for me when I was a kid! And everything wanted to make me dead 

[Sagoon]

I have to agree. I was confronted with that game when I was six years old. As I didn't know any English at that time, I couldn't play the game on my own und had to watch my siblings and make them translate the texts (my first English expressions that I learned were "take ..." and "open door" ).

Before King's Quest IV I didn't even know that zombies "existed". It gave me so many nightmares  

And the "you hear a baby crying" used to give me goosebumps.

Sometimes I would even not get the magic fruit because I was too scared to wander through the caves, always in danger of meeting the troll   When I finally found the courage to get it, I turned down the speakers so I would not hear that creepy music

[Big C from Cauney island]

Dude, I thought I was the only one! Kq4 was WAY creepy.  Probably the creepiest out of all of them. [spoiler]The Ghosts in the mansion, zombies, tomb, forest, ogre, sharks, dying in whales mouth, lollotte's, [/spoiler]

THE CAVE! AAHHH! Oh Man, I couldn't play it alone. And when I tried, I put all the lights on plus a radio playing, and those eyes STILL freak me out.

[Ravager]

Sir Perceval of Daventry : I didn't thought the was game that scary until I read your post. When I rethink about, you're right. It is scary and disturbing:

- You end on a deserted island, alone, with no food, no shelter, no water, no fire, nothing.
- You use the crown to turn into a frog. How did you know you won't change back into a human?
- You turn into a frog and swim only to be eaten alive by the swamp monster.
- The ogre's dog swallow you alive if he caught you.

And yes, the creepy troll is the scariest of them all.

[Ultima992]

nicely written Sir Perceval of Daventry, caught my attention, i felt like i was there.

[newcombm7]

KQIV was the 1st KQ game I fully played through - and has always been my favorite.  Being in Lolotte's castle was always pretty creepy... until you went in the room where she was storing some of your possessions and found the hen that lays golden eggs.  I can still remember the first time my best friend and I came across that.  We were both expecting either to get caught by a goon, find another cell with bones in it, or something creepy, both on the edge of our seats, and then we heard the music playing and about fell out of our chairs laughing so hard.  I think that's the only non-creepy music in the entire game! 

[Enchantermon]

In case you are not aware, that music is the Astro Chicken music from Space Quest III.

[Blackthorne]

In case you are not aware, that music is the Astro Chicken music from Space Quest III.

Yes, it's actually an old dance tune called "Chicken Reel".... it's an old standard.


http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Chicken_reel


Bt

[Enchantermon]

Ah, that would explain why it appeared there a year before SQIII. I wondered why they would throw in a reference to a game that wasn't out yet.

[dark-daventry]

King's Quest IV WAS creepy. The mansion ALWAYS scared the crud out of me. I'm still afraid to go in there to this day. I can't even begin to imagine how creepy the remake is going to make the mansion. If KQ was ever turned into a horror series (god forbid), KQ4 is where you'd draw the inspiration from. That, or MoE.

[MusicallyInspired]

Ah, that would explain why it appeared there a year before SQIII. I wondered why they would throw in a reference to a game that wasn't out yet.

It was also in the original Police Quest which predates both of those.

[Enchantermon]

It was also in the original Police Quest which predates both of those.

Really? Where? I don't recall hearing it; I must have missed it.

[Big C from Cauney island]

It was also in the original Police Quest which predates both of those.

Really? Where? I don't recall hearing it; I must have missed it.

In Chief's office when the chicken is on his desk. It said "The gremlin strikes again".

[mystictechwizard]

The troll caves always creeped me out too when I was younger.  I remember the first time I played it when I was 11, I made my dad go through the caves for me.  I also noticed unlike the earlier games when a monster appeared on the screen, no warning message appears with the game paused.  The troll or the ogre would appear out from nowhere and startle you with the music.

[Haids1987]

Duuuuuuuude, I remember this thread from the red boards and I totally know what you mean!  King's Quest 4 is totally creepy!  It's unsettling...the haunted house, the zombies, the feeling that you're alone in the whole world, but are being watched...ugh!  I always feel a little uneasy when I play the fourth game.