The Legend of Kyrandia (Book One)

The first in a trilogy of adventure games, Book One is the hardest of the three and the most broken. Most of the solutions to the puzzles in the game are hinted at, but at least one is a guessing game and another turns into trial and error. There is a big instant-death cave segment in the middle of the game that can be frustrating and time consuming if you don't draw a map as you go along. The last forest area of the game reuses backgrounds quite a bit so it feels somewhat rushed with copy-pasted areas. Some items in the game are not used at all, as if the there wasn't time to finish new segments of the game but they kept the items in. When you accidentally or purposefully destroy an important item, it is meant to reappear somewhere in the world on the ground, but very rarely never returns at all. Despite all that, the game is fun and clever. At times it can be funny and properly challenging. Just keep multiple save game files and have fun.

My fascination and love of adventure games began with Kyrandia! One of the most enjoyable games I have every played! These colourful 2-dimensional games are still more appealing to me than 3D craziness. Its beauty lies in its simplicity of giving you a story, unique characters and a beautiful, magical world where you just have to put it all together. No need for gimmicks, just pure imagination. I will still, from time to time, play this game and the other 2 in the series even though I can now easily finish them in a few hours. I try to forget the solutions but once the opening sequence starts, its hard to forget! If only the younger generations cared for these games, they might make more! So enjoyable!

This series was and still is a favourite out of all the games I have played in the classical adventure style. The game for the most part is pretty lighthearted with lots of gentle humour, the graphics for a 256 colour game are beautiful. The characters are also likable, from the gentle and kind Brynn, to the forgetful and scatter-brained Darm, to the helpful but slightly feisty and impatient Zanthia Brandon is a bit immature and can get whiny "why do I have to do everything", but then I guess not everyone would throw themselves into a quest to defeat an evil jester with the enthusiasm and zeal of King Graham (another series I enjoy) and unless you keep clicking on Brandon to make him comment it doesn't get too annoying, You can die in this game although its not as unforgiving as most of the Sierra games, Be warned though that there are one or two dead ends if you forget or lose/destroy certain objects, so save often and have more than one save at a time. Also the guide that GOG has supplied as a download, I recommend you do download. While most of the game can be solved without, it there are two mazes in this game. The second one can be navigated easily by trial and error and is nothing to worry about,, but the first (Serpents Grotto) is a nightmare unless you know where to go and the guide has a map which is vital for this area. On the whole this is a beautiful and fun fantasy adventure that fans of traditional point and click games should enjoy.

I LOVE this game! It was given to my kids for Christmas probably 20 years ago, but I am the one who became hooked on it. No other computer game has ever quite measured up. Its graphics and fairy tale quality appeal to me so much more than the "darkness" of most adventure games. Once you learn how to work the system and save the game every time you make progress, it's not too frustrating. I also made a map of the cave so I could get through it. Thanks for bringing back this game!

When released this was praised for its lavish production values, and the CD-Rom version here does not disappoint. The strength of the game is the vibrant fairy-tale world it portrays, but as most here note, the puzzles are more guesswork than anything else, and the maze in the middle of the game is a lot of busywork. Back in the day I bounced hard on the maze and abandoned the game. Going forward with the help of the strategy guide provided (which is nicely written), I am tempted to think that I did not miss much. I suggest a quick playthrough (around 4 hours) using the strategy guide, however I should note that the maze was a bit different in the game I played.