The Legend of Kyrandia (Book One)

Loved this game as a student and played the whole series. I even loved the caves that are frequently refered to as frustrating. I spend hours of drawing maps. I was thrilled to find this game on GOG. I was wondering how I would look upon it now. And what my kids (9 and 11 years old) would think of it. They were a bit hesitant at first because it doesn't quite look like fortnite. But they are completely hooked now and we are walking Brendan through Kyrandia together. And they are picking up the english language along the way (we turned on the subtitles, so they can read as well as hear the conversations and that's a big help). Kyrandia is a lovely lighthearted adventure with often funny dialogs and great graphics if you like pixely. But if you hate backtracking, you better skip this game, because that's part of the deal.

I remember playing this on the Amiga back in the day, and though it was quite sluggish and I didn't get anywhere I just thought it was because my english wasn't that good. I had breezed through Monkey Island 1&2 and some King's Quest games without any greater problems, and learned a second language through those and other adventure games. Now that I finished it I know that it wasn't the language barrier that made me lose interest, it is simply a bad game. The graphics in this game is mostly varnish on a really bad game, where 50% is walking between screens without any content where absolutely nothing happens, and backtracking, oh the extreme amount of backtracking. It could have been fixed by giving Brandon a bigger inventory space than 10 slots, But then the game would be over in no time since the backtracking would disappear, and I believe that makes up about half the game time. The other 50% consists of labyrinths with trial-and-error navigation, and they wouldn't have been so bad if they weren't sooo long and many, and one of the worst backtracking portions is through the longest labyrinth. In the litte space left after that they crammed in an unengaging story and very little dialogue with the few characters you meet, which makes the tries to be humorous falls flat, seem very forced, or both. I mean, there are thirteen characters to meet, and it's a duo, where if you talk to one of them you talk to both. One is completely optional and most of them has only one or two line and might as well be optional too. At least there's no moon logic here, but that is mostly because you don't get any clues whatsoever to what you are supposed to do or how to do it. With a walkthrough it took me nearly three hours to finish the game, and more than half of it was spent backtracking or walking around at random to make more gems appear so i might finish the altar puzzle. This makes me more hesitant to try the remaining games in the saga, but I will give them an honest try.

I love this game because it is a childhood memory. It has a nice soundtrack, beautiful drawn and a little cheesy sceneries, a lot of magic and some well placed jokes. But most of the puzzles are a disapointing and frustrating. Actually its all about trial and error (save early, save often) when you have to find out random stone combinations or ingredients for potions - even after all this years I´m unable to find any logic behind it. The second frustrating thing are the gigantic mazes and labyrinths you have to overcome - so keep pen and paper ready to draw some maps.

The Legend of Kyrandia tells a relatively generic fantasy story: a seemingly normal guy is beset with a quest to defeat a nefarious villain who has overthrown a fantasy kingdom and restore balance to the world. However, where the game really shines is in its characters and dialogue. The villain, Malcolm, is super fun and memorable, and a lot of the dialogue is humorous, witty, and enjoyable. The hero, Brandon, comes across somewhat dull and dimwitted to great comedic effect as the cast of supporting characters rag on him during his journey. Early on, the puzzles feel pretty clear and logical. However, things take a turn for the worse and never really recover for the second half of the game: - Randomized item placement makes it a pain to find an item when you need it - Puzzle solutions are sometimes not logical or deducible. The only way to solve is trial and error. - Multiple large maze-like areas, one of which causes instant death if you go the wrong way - Lack of direction later in the game...a seemingly important character disappears and you're on your own until the credits role. - Puzzles later in the game may require you to backtrack all the way to the beginning. - Totally possible to dead-end and require a game restart. The artwork is pretty good, but there's also just a ton of forest imagery, to the point that it becomes a bit exhausting. UI, SFX, and VO are all great as well. I particularly appreciated an autosave feature, which seems rare for older games. If you're an adventure game fan, there's no doubt you ought to play through this game (and the sequels). It's worth experiencing, but there were a lot of painpoints that made it a struggle.

The Legend of Kyrandia (Book One) is a nice adventure game. The story is nothing groundbreaking, but it’s not bad either. Evil clown wants to take over the world. Nothing to be afraid of. Our main protagonist is Hanson, member of the royal family. The evil jester (who killed Brynton’s parents a long time ago) has escaped, and only he can stop it. It occupies a middle ground between being serious and comedic. The presentation of the game is great, the pixelart is good looking and the music is catchy. The voice acting is ok, you will hear Brindon most of the time of course. There are some unique gameplay mechanics that are not present in average adventure games. The inventory space is limited to 10. Because of this you have to swap old items to pick up new ones after some time. The items bounce on the floor. Nice. Interactions are limited, there aren’t individual commands for actions. You also have an amulet, that throughout the game gets filled up with 4 gems, each of them representing a spell. You have to use these spells to solve puzzles. The puzzles themselves are alright most of the time. There are no inventory puzzles, but mazes. You can also die, but most of the deaths are logical conclusions of the player’s actions, and you can save anytime. While the game is generally enjoyable, there are some negatives. While the backgrounds are nice, they can be samey, and a lot of rooms lack interactivity. Some puzzles can be really cryptic, others straight up impossible to solve without trial and error. Furthermore, the unique spell abilities are underutilized. I’ve also read you can softlock yourself at a point in the game, but I can’t confirm that, since I have not tried to do that. The game is also a bit short. Not too short, but it’s not that long. To sum up: this is a good game with great presentation, but it can be frustrating and it’s a bit short.