The Legend of Kyrandia

The Legend of Kyrandia
Genres Adventure game
Developer(s) Westwood Studios
Publisher(s) Virgin Interactive
Composer(s) Frank Klepacki
Platform of origin DOS
Year of inception 1992
Latest release 1994

The Legend of Kyrandia (formerly Fables & Fiends) is a point-and-click graphic adventure game series, developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Games.

It primarily takes place in the fantasy land of Kyrandia, where the player assumes the role of the young hero Brandon (Book One), the royal mystic Zanthia (Book Two) and the evil court jester Malcolm (Book Three); the antagonist of the first game. Played in a 2D format from a third-person perspective, each game uses a point-and-click interface to guide said characters throughout the game's world; solving puzzles and quests, while interacting with the in-game characters and environment.

The series began in 1992 with the release of Fables and Fiends (changed from The Legend of Kyrandia), and spawned two sequels The Hand of Fate (1993) and Malcolm's Revenge (1994). The series is now owned by Electronic Arts and is available digitally on GOG.com.

Gameplay

The Legend of Kyrandia became known for its extremely simple interface, a feature present in all three games in the series. Though vaguely reminiscent of point-and-click adventure games of the period, the primary detail that distinguished Westwood's trilogy was the use of a single "use" action, as opposed to multi-action interfaces.

All three games are characterized by a quite innovative inventory system. It is notable for the variety of allowed physical actions you could subject the items to, especially the great freedom of dropping and picking up objects, which was used for some of the puzzles. In general, the puzzles in the series are based on experimenting with inventory items, combining them or depositing them in the correct places.

Plot

Book One - Fables and Fiends

In the fantasy kingdom of Kyrandia, King William and his wife, Queen Katherine, have been murdered by the evil court jester Malcolm, a madman who possesses vast magical powers. Brandon, the prince, has been hidden in the forest by his grandfather (Queen Katherine's father) Kallak, who is also chief of the Mystics.

Book Two - The Hand of Fate

Years later, Zanthia, a young beautiful female alchemist and wizard encountered in the first game, discovers that the kingdom of Kyrandia is in great danger, disappearing piece by piece. The Mystics hold a meeting, and The Hand (a giant glove serving as an assistant to Marko, one of the Mystics) formulates a plan, which requires a magic anchor stone from the center of the world. He chooses Zanthia to be the one who shall recover the stone. As it turns out, however, the quest for the anchor stone is a snipe hunt, used by The Hand to distract Zanthia and the other Mystics while it enacts its evil deeds. The Hand, supposedly a fragment of a long-deceased gigantic evil sorcerer, is the game's true villain, and Zanthia must defeat him by the end. This game was characterized by far more whimsical humor than its predecessor.

Book Three - Malcolm's Revenge

After Malcolm's defeat against Brandon in the first game, Malcolm had been turned into a statue, but after having been struck by lightning, he was liberated from the spell. Malcolm then decides to take his revenge upon Brandon and Kallak, helped by his evil conscience, Gunther. Even though he lost his powerful magic, Malcolm decides to use his malicious wit and cunning to go through with his revenge. He eventually proves his innocence of the murder of Brandon's parents.

Characters

  • Brandon Voiced by Joseph D. Kucan:[1] The protagonist of the first game in the series. A humble young woodsman in the forest of Kyrandia, Brandon is in fact the Prince of Kyrandia and heir to the throne. When he was just a baby, his parents, King William and Queen Katherine, were murdered. Soon afterward, his grandfather Kallak, chief of the Mystics, fled beyond the Timbermist woods and raised him in the forest. When Malcolm attacks Kyrandia and turns Kallak into stone, Brandon sets out to defeat the evil jester. In the tradition of adventure game heroes like Roger Wilco and Guybrush Threepwood, Brandon is depicted as well-meaning, but not particularly bright. By the third game in the series, Brandon has inherited the throne and becomes King of Kyrandia, but his grandfather Kallak (Queen Katherine's father) holds the real power due to Brandon's somewhat dim-witted nature.
  • Zanthia Voiced by Bonnie Lynn Toups[2] (voiced by Ginalyn Torrecilla in Book One):[1] The protagonist of the second game in the series. Zanthia is a member of the Counsel of Mystics and a powerful magic-user, although she is highly dependent on the use of reagents in order to cast spells. Perhaps the sanest of Kyrandia's inhabitants, Zanthia's personality is witty, confident, and level-headed.
  • Malcolm Voiced by Eric Randall[3] (voiced by Gary W. Hyatt in Book One):[1] The main antagonist of the series, and the protagonist of the third and final game. Malcolm is a mean-spirited, sarcastic, and slightly deranged jester who commands incredibly powerful magic. He is also the cousin of the late King of Kyrandia, and widely believed to be the murderer of the royal family (although this is revealed to be untrue at the very end of the last game). At the end of the first game, Malcolm is defeated by Brandon, who reflects his own magic back at him and turns him into stone. In the third game, Malcolm is freed by a bolt of lightning, but loses his magical powers, forcing him to rely on his wits to survive, get his revenge and ultimately clear his name.

Game design

Westwood Studios developed the .VQA file format for video encoding in Malcolm's Revenge. All three installments of the series are compatible with ScummVM.

Reception

According to Westwood Studios, the Legend of Kyrandia series sold above 250,000 units by August 1996.[4]

The first installment in the series received 5/5 in Dragon[5] magazine, while The Hand of Fate received 4/5.[6]

Name confusion

Originally the series was known as the Fables & Fiends series with the first installment titled: Fables & Fiends - Book One: The Legend of Kyrandia. When the first sequel Fables & Fiends - The Hand of Fate was released, "Book Two" was omitted from the title, yet alternative versions of the game's cover art showed it was also called The Legend of Kyrandia - Book Two, with "The Hand of Fate" omitted instead. The Hand of Fate name was still present from within the game itself however.

When the next sequel Fables & Fiends - Malcolm's Revenge arrived, confusingly again, alternative cover art showed it was also called The Legend of Kyrandia - Book 3: Malcolm's Revenge. In yet another error of continuity was the display of a numerical 3 instead of the alphabetical Three, but within the game the alphabetical form was still used.

Finally, a compilation of the series was released despite only the box art being new. This new artwork officially named the trilogy as The Legend of Kyrandia series, with all three installments unified underneath as Book One - Fables and Fiends, Book Two - The Hand of Fate and Book Three - Malcolm's Revenge. Also, the ampersand symbol within the Fables and Fiends title was changed to an alphabetical one.

References

  1. 1 2 3 Moby Games: The Legend of Kyrandia: credits Archived 2011-03-20 at the Wayback Machine.
  2. ↑ Moby Games: The Legend of Kyrandia: Hand of Fate: credits Archived 2012-03-10 at the Wayback Machine.
  3. ↑ Moby Games: The Legend of Kyrandia: Malcolm's Revenge: credits Archived 2012-03-10 at the Wayback Machine.
  4. ↑ "Westwood hits GENCON 96" (Press release). Westwood Studios. August 28, 1996. Archived from the original on June 5, 1997.
  5. ↑ Lesser, Hartley; Lesser, Patricia & Lesser, Kirk (March 1993). "The Role of Computers". Dragon (191): 57–62.
  6. ↑ Petersen, Sandy (May 1994). "Eye of the Monitor". Dragon (205): 59–62.
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