The Legend of Kyrandia (Book One)

I first played this at the Oregon Museum of Science and Industry when I was very young, and the game has stuck with me ever since. From the opening music, the game strikes exactly the right chord, and sets a great tone. This is Kyrandia, a land of wonder. The game is fully voice-acted, and quite well in my opinion. There is a great deal of humor, a great story, and good puzzles to be found. Westwood Studios' Kyrandia series is highly under-rated, and I feel that this series stands up to the best that Lucasarts and Sierra had to offer.

I never got to play this trilogy back in the day, I only got my hands on the sequel Hand of Fate. I remember that game fondly and figured I'd start with this one. Now that I've completed it I must say it was a really good experience, at times frustating as it should but mostly just plain entertaining. Good story and acting, great music and general atmosphere. Highly recommended for fans of the genre. I can't wait to continue with Hand of Fate!

I love this game, but frustration reminds me very quickly ... no tips, trying solutions through save and load. Noteworthy is the extra guide to download, really worth reading for the for the walkthrough, which is quite specific and reflects the character of the series.

First Kyrandia is on my top 10 list for several reasons. First is obviously its nostalgic value. (This Good old Games after all) It was one of the first adventure game we played as a kids together, trying to solve puzzles and drawing maps etc. Second is beautiful graphic and music, that gives it nice and almost zen-like atmosphere. Puzzles are probably not that great, granted and some of the Lucas Arts or Sierra games were much better at this. But they somehow fit with rest of the game. All in all, this is very decent adventure game that is worth playing even today.

A classic that has aged pretty decently. The first scene with the tree talking mumbo-jumbo about mother earth got me worried that Kyrandia would be in the same writing style as Loom. Fortunately it wasn't, as Kyrandia has a good amount of humorous dialogue. There are also several funny death scenes, so if you're playing for the first time, make sure to save often. I also enjoyed the music very much. It was very soothing without becoming monotonous or boring. The puzzles were good through most of the game. I liked the caverns labyrinth with the required map-making. However, there were quite a few puzzles that either required brute-forcing, or making wild guesses, especially in the castle part. This was acceptable in early 90s games but 30 years later it's a turnoff. Fortunately, the game includes a hintbook in the extras, so you won't be left scratching your head when the solution is to just brute-force.