Game 82 : Legend of Kyrandia - Introduction (1992)

Written by Alfred n’ the Fettuc

Aaaaah, Legend of Kyrandia. One of my all-time favorites! I don’t know why but the first game has always evoked images of my childhood, be it the wonderful music, the lush colours, the zany characters, the thoughtful puzzles… Needless to say I’ll be wearing huge rose-tinted glasses on this one, or I’ll find some detail point that annoys me and isn’t as good as I remember (fireberries, anyone?) and I’ll flay this piece of crap. Only the next few weeks will tell, but I’m certainly curious about playing through this one again all these years after.

That’s what I call a cover that screams adventure and danger. There is even Tinkerbell in it!

Westwood Studios has always been one of my favorite game development studios. As a young player, I was looking forward for their logo, knowing that nothing would go wrong for me if I played their games (until around the end of the millennium when things started to go sour). I’d compare Westwood in the 90’s to Blizzard nowadays. Their games were not original necessarily very original but they were polished way more than the usual product. Beautiful graphics, excellent animation and sound design…

With Dune II, Westwood hit all the right notes and almost single-handedly created the template for modern Real-Time Strategy games, which would be taken later by Blizzard for Warcraft (and we come full circle with my comparison). With Command & Conquer, their major hit which basically printed money for them during the next few years, Westwood evolved mainly into a sequel factory, spawning game after game with the same template.

But before that, Westwood tried its hand at several genres, hitting huge successes in the RPG and adventure subgenres. Eye of the Beholder, Lands of Lore, Blade Runner… and the aforementioned Legend of Kyrandia series.

The Land of Kyrandia, so peaceful and green…

The name of Kyrandia would famously come from a MUD Brett Sperry (Westwood co-creator) was playing with his friends called Kyrandia : Fantasy World of Legends. Apart from the name and the general heroic-fantasy setting, the game Legend of Kyrandia is totally unrelated to said MUD. The label “Fables and Fiends” that appeared on the cover of the game was supposed to helm a new series of possibly unrelated games, but only the three Kyrandia games were released under this label, probably because of the tremendous success of the first installment (it made more sense to make a sequel to the first game than take risks by changing a working formula).

The first game tells the tale of Brandon, innocent orphan still unaware of his royal lineage, while his grandfather Kallak has been turned to stone by the psychopath court buffoon, Malcolm. Malcolm is the archetypal bastard (in this game at least) without any humanity or sympathy, while being dressed as a joker. Clearly inspired by the Batman’s Joker (and might have been or not inspiration for Kefka in Final Fantasy VI two years later, but that’s only my opinion). He is the perfect embodiment of monstrosity and is surprisingly violent for an adventure game in this day and age. Comparatively, Brandon, your own character appears a bit as a whiner (might be his voice actor though).

Malcolm, showing random cruelty towards animals

Besides turning Kallak into stone, Malcolm has killed the royal couple and is basically blowing random stuff up for his own enjoyment. Brandon will seek revenge and try to stop the evil jester to wreck any more havoc in the realm. His adventure will take him through several maze-like Kyrandian forests and the dreaded fireberries caves, to finish in the Royal Castle that’s been taken over by the buffoon. He’ll find some help in the Mystics of the realm, who can’t face Malcolm themselves because of their magic slowly disappearing. As usual, Brandon will reveal himself as the chosen one, and the only one that can face the terrifying clown.

A classy cutscene with focus-pulling shows the encounter between Malcolm and Kallak

Legend of Kyrandia would later spawn two sequels, Hand of Fate, where you play as Zanthia, a pretty magician with a taste for clothes and Malcolm’s Revenge, where you play as Malcolm himself, even if a bit retconned in order to show him more as a victim than the crazed monster he clearly is in the first game. All these games show the beautiful graphics, sounds and animation that’s been Westwood’s speciality. The land of Kyrandia itself would also evolve quite a bit during the series, starting as an almost classical heroic fantasy setting in the first game, to a completely zany universe by the third one, more akin to Monty Pythons than Lord of the Rings. The trilogy has been released back-to-back with only one year apart each installment and is considered today as one of the few classics that didn’t came out of Sierra or Lucasarts offices.

We’ll see together if the game actually holds up to my cherished childhood memories or if its flaws overcome the rose-tinted glasses. It’s time to explore the fabulous land of Kyrandia, to save Kallak and the realm!

Malcolm, what have you done? Vengeance will be mine!