Game 168: The Legend of Kyrandia, Book 3: Malcolm’s Revenge (1994) - Introduction

Written by Michael

In the first Kyrandia game, we played young Brandon, a self-entitled prince who needed to save the land of Kyrandia from a psychopathic court jester named Malcolm.  In the second game, we played a mystic named Zantha that Brandon briefly meets during the first game, and she saves the world from a maniacal giant hand that wants complete control.

In the third game, we’re going to be playing Malcom, in his version of an O.J. Simpson tall tale.  The premise of this game is that Malcom was innocent; he was framed by mystic leader Kallak, Brandon’s grandfather. 

The manual sets most of the stage for what could be a Jerry Springer-esque tale.  It turns out that Malcolm was the product of a liaison between the king’s aunt and a court jester.  That is, the King William that he was imprisoned for killing, along with his wife.  William was probably the product of an encounter with the village blacksmith.

With a bunch of untimely, royal-inspired deaths, William inherited the throne, although by blood, Malcolm also could have been a contender.  It was Kallak who pushed for William.

When William and his wife Katherine were killed, it was with the same enchanted knife as King Gregor and Victor had been slain with.  Kallak blamed Malcolm, and then took over control of the government himself.  He had Malcolm imprisoned and hid away William’s son, Brandon, for safety.

Quoting the manual: “With Malcolm safely confined, Kallak ruled unopposed as Regent of Kyrandia for eighteen years. Malcolm, locked in the castle, turned sour during his imprisonment, and spent his lonely hours nursing his hatred for Kallak, and plotting his revenge upon the country which had believed the lies of Kallak and turned its back on the Royal Jester.”

Some odd notes before we begin: I’m playing the DOS CD version of the game, and it’s still only 320x200 resolution.  Huh?  The last game I played was double that.  For 1994, I’m a little shocked.  Also, there’s no more MT-32 support, so it’s going to be SoundBlaster music for this trip.

There’s still some common names in the game design, including teenage sensation Frank Klepacki doing the music again.

The low-res video intro to the game tells us about Malcolm after his birth, specifically about how he is ruled by his two consciences, the good one Stewart and his evil one Gunther.  

It seems they go at it like cats and dogs.  When his good one is on top, we get the good headlines:

But then, the events from the manual bring us the other type:

And soon, a lightning strike to the statue of Malcolm (remember when we did that in the first game?) brings him back to life.

Notice anything different?  They moved the controls!  Bring the mouse to the bottom of the screen, and then you’ll see the stuff that took up valuable screen real-estate in the first two games.

According to the manual, the empty slot this time around is for our jester’s staff.  The dial to the right is the Moodometer, where we can adjust it to one of three settings, Nice, Normal, or Lying.  That will change our dialog choices in the game.

According to the back of the box, there are several alternate endings.  Also... that quote makes me want to dedicate this post to our blog’s founder, although he was much more than just a small Trickster to our world.

Wait, this game has a laugh track?

On to the betting.  The first Kyrandia game was one of my childhood favorites; the second I barely remembered.  Even though I own this on CD, I don’t remember playing this one at all.  So, I have no clue where this will go.  Past commenters have said that the second game was the pinnacle of the series, and that game is currently tied for tenth in our game rankings at 68.  The first game also had a healthy 62 as a score.