The Legend of Kyrandia

Gameplay

The Legend of Kyrandia became known for its extremely simple interface, a feature present in all three games in the series. Though vaguely reminiscent of point-and-click adventure games of the period, the primary detail that distinguished Westwood's trilogy was the use of a single "use" action, as opposed to multi-action interfaces.

All three games are characterized by a quite innovative inventory system. It is notable for the variety of allowed physical actions you could subject the items to, especially the great freedom of dropping and picking up objects, which was used for some of the puzzles. In general, the puzzles in the series are based on experimenting with inventory items, combining them or depositing them in the correct places.

Book One - Fables and Fiends

In the fantasy kingdom of Kyrandia, King William and his wife, Queen Katherine, have been murdered by the evil court jester Malcolm, a madman who possesses vast magical powers. Brandon, the prince, has been hidden in the forest by his grandfather (Queen Katherine's father) Kallak, who is also chief of the Mystics.

Malcolm has fun destroying trees of the country, and faces Kallak, turning him into stone. Brandon, oblivious of his past, soon discovers the truth about his origins. He finds out that Malcolm has stolen the Kyragem, a mystic stone that contains the kingdom's energy. Brandon has to recover the Kyragem and defeat Malcolm.

After many adventures, also including the king's chalice along the way (not to mention learning four different magical spells), Brandon heads to the king's castle, which Malcolm now occupies. Here he finds most of his former friends and allies turned to stone by Malcolm as well as a magical sceptre and king's crown. Putting these together he unlocks the way to Malcolm's personal chamber, where the Kyragem lies. He confronts Malcolm and heads into the Kyragem chamber. After becoming invisible (one of his magic powers) he walks up to a giant mirror, where Malcolm casts a magic orb, which bounces off the mirror, turning Malcolm to stone. Brandon becomes King, his friends are freed, and the Kyragem is returned to its proper place.

Book Two - The Hand of Fate

Years later, Zanthia, a young female alchemist and wizard encountered in the first game, discovers that the kingdom of Kyrandia is in great danger, disappearing piece by piece. The Mystics hold a meeting, and The Hand (a giant glove serving as an assistant to Marko, one of the Mystics) formulates a plan, which requires a magic anchor stone from the center of the world. He chooses Zanthia to be the one who shall recover the stone. As it turns out, however, the quest for the anchor stone is a snipe hunt, used by The Hand to distract Zanthia and the other Mystics while it enacts its evil deeds. The Hand, supposedly a fragment of a long-deceased gigantic evil sorcerer, is the game's true villain, and Zanthia must defeat him by the end. This game was characterized by far more whimsical humor than its predecessor.

Also in this game Marko, who actually loves Zanthia, must be rescued several times by the player (if s/he so chooses; they can otherwise leave Marko to escape on his own). This game also features many more non-optional side quests. Rather, it is not as straightforward as the predecessor, which was intent on finding and defeating Malcolm. In this game the player must go to several different locations and perform various tasks to eventually be able to reach the main destination. For example, one major plot point is to reach a volcanic island named "Volcania," which involves an extensive side quest with many different objectives, to reach the center of the Earth (where more tasks await Zanthia, such as playing fetch with a Stegosaurus or riding a T-Rex, retrieving items to be used to make potions — a major part of the game — before she can advance). For different destinations, Zanthia always magically changes her attire.

But after Zanthia retrieves an anchor stone, Marko opens a portal and tells her to meet with him at the "Wheels of Fate." After many other extensive quests, Zanthia reaches a floating island and uses an old rainbow machine to reach her destination. There, after retrieving several important items including a gear (through a difficult Tower of Hanoi puzzle), she is able to go to the "control room" of sorts. There it turns out that the machine controlling Kyrandia has had a gear removed (thus causing everything to disappear). After she fixes it, the Hand appears again with a tied-up Marko. After a "battle" (mostly which includes Zanthia dodging the Hand's attacks until Marko is able to free himself), Marko throws the hand over the edge and it is ripped up by the massive gears and other machines outside of the control room. Marko then tells Zanthia that they should leave and that he has magic parachutes, calling her "sweetheart," which she repeats questioningly (shocked to hear the word).

In a final scene after the credits, the still-stone Malcolm is seen in a junkyard not far from the castle. He is struck by lightning and the camera focuses on his hand, as his fingers slowly move and off-screen screams are heard. The story is then continued in Book Three: Malcolm's Revenge.

Book Three - Malcolm's Revenge

After Malcolm's defeat against Brandon in the first game, Malcolm had been turned into a statue, but after having been struck by lightning, he was liberated from the spell. Malcolm then decides to take his revenge upon Brandon and Kallak, helped by his evil conscience, Gunther. Even though he lost his powerful magic, Malcolm decides to use his malicious wit and cunning to go through with his revenge. He eventually proves his innocence of the murder of Brandon's parents.

Characters

Game design

Westwood Studios developed the .VQA file format for video encoding in Malcolm's Revenge. All three installments of the series are compatible with ScummVM.

Reception

Computer Gaming World in 1992 described The Legend of Kyrandia "as a cross between Loom, King's Quest V and Secret of Monkey Island 2", praising the "beautifully drawn" VGA graphics and humor. The magazine concluded that the "storyline is hardly original ... but the presentation of the game, the general quality and the feel, make this a promising debut and a welcome addition to the world of graphic adventures".

The first installment in the series received 5/5 in Dragon magazine, while The Hand of Fate received 4/5.

Name confusion

Originally the name of the series was known as Fables & Fiends, with the first installment titled Fables & Fiends - Book One: The Legend of Kyrandia. When the first sequel Fables & Fiends - The Hand of Fate arrived, Book Two was omitted from the title, however, alternative versions of the game's cover art showed that it was also called The Legend of Kyrandia - Book Two, while the The Hand of Fate title was omitted instead. The Hand of Fate title however, was still present from within the game's menu.

When the second sequel Fables & Fiends - Malcolm's Revenge arrived, confusingly once again, alternative cover art showed it was also called The Legend of Kyrandia - Book 3: Malcolm's Revenge. Yet another error of continuity, was the display of a numerical 3 in the Book Three title, instead of the alphabetical word. Within the game itself however, the introduction video showed its alphabetical form instead.

Finally, a compilation of all three games, albeit only the box art being new, was released. The box art named the trilogy The Legend of Kyrandia, with all three installments unified underneath as Book One - Fables and Fiends, Book Two - The Hand of Fate and Book Three - Malcolm's Revenge. Also, the ampersand symbol in the Fables and Fiends title was changed to its alphabetical form.