The Legend of Kyrandia: Book One
DOS/W95/W98
Westwood Studios
Date is around 1993 or 1994
3rd person point and click fantasy cartoon adventure
This is the first game in a trilogy. The second one is Kyrandia Book 2:
Hand of Fate, the third one is Kyrandia Book 3: Malcolm's Revenge.
The best introduction I could come up with for this game is the history
that is found in the manual and if you're like me, you rarely read the
manual so this is a good opportunity to do so. And I quote:
The History of Kyrandia
Deep within the ancient forests, the enchanted world of Kyrandia has long
been known as the most magical of the ancient Kingdoms. Many centuries
before our story, King William the First created a covenant with the
Natural kingdom. The residents of Kyrandia and the Natural world were made
partners in a plan of mutual care and protection.
An enormous gem, now known as the Kyragem, emerged from the ground on the
spot where King William stood. The gem was given to the people of Kyrandia
by the Land as a symbol of this sacred alliance. It was the responsibility
of the Royal family to ensure the safety of the Kyragem.
Before the Kyragem, magic only existed as unconnected fragments of a
temporary nature. The Kyragem has concentrated the magic powers and
produced stronger magic in Kyrandia than anywhere else in the kingdoms of
man. The simple stone masons faced with the difficult task of building a
vault to house the magical artifact developed the first uses of the
Kyragem's powers.
Originally used as the source of magic for the protective covering about
the gem itself, the powers were later also used during the construction of
the wondrous Castle Kyrandia.
The descendants of these early craftsmen passed on knowledge of the magic
to the following generations. Each generation added to the knowledge, and
expanded the applications to various sites throughout Kyrandia.
Many years later, abuse of the magical powers became common and the magic
was used daily for even simple tasks. As a result, Queen Thelia the Strict
created the Order of Royal Mystics to organize and control all magic from
the Kyragem.
Choosing from among those stone masons possessing knowledge of the various
forms of magic, Queen Thelia established the four mystical disciplines of
Alchemy, Spirituality, Scrolls, and Gem Lore.
The Royal Mystics celebrate their humble origins each year with the
Festival of Mortar, which is believed to be the luckiest week of the year.
During the reign of King Bernard the Fourth, nearby nations became jealous
of Kyrandia's prosperity and declared war. Several long years of brutal
attacks almost ruined Kyrandia. Reluctant to use magic as an offensive
weapon, King Bernard eventually employed the magic of the Kyragem to turn
the invading armies against the evil of their own commanders. Thus began
the friendly alliances that endure today with Kyrandia's neighboring
lands.
Benjamin the Gardener, nephew of King Bernard, and first king of the
modern lineage, spent his lengthy tenure occupied with the complete
re-creation of the forests and natural wonders that had been so horribly
destroyed by the invading armies during his childhood.
The Royal Mystics assisted Benjamin in his work, and installed many of the
magical natural wonders that exist to this day. Many historians also
credit Pantos, a tailor to the court of Kyrandia, with the invention of
trousers during this period.
Recent history has not been kind to Kyrandia. The enlightened reign of
King William the Generous ended tragically not long ago when Malcolm, a
friend of the family and jester to the court, murdered both King and
Queen, and seized the Kyragem. For a brief and terrifying moment, Kyrandia
was at the mercy of Malcolm.
Fortunately, Kallak, chief of the Mystics and father of the slain queen,
was able to create a magical seal that prevented Malcolm from leaving the
castle. Fearing for the safety of his grandson, Kallak chose to leave the
palace and raise young Brandon in a rural area beyond the Timbermist woods
and far away from the castle now inhabited by the captive usurper Malcolm.
Orphaned as an infant, and sole heir to the throne of Kyrandia, Brandon
has been kept ignorant of his royal status by his protective grandfather.
Despite its long and glorious history, all is not well in Kyrandia today.
Denied further access to the Kyragem, the Royal Mystics are unable to
replenish their magical stores. Reserves are scarce, and the Mystics have
been forced to disassemble more protective enchantments every year in an
effort to maintain power for the spell which restrains Malcolm.
Now grown to adulthood, Brandon will soon be drawn into the madness of
Malcolm. Alone in his confinement, and unable to escape, Malcolm has
carefully planned his revenge. He has worked against the bonds that hold
him and plotted against all Kyrandia, as none would crown him king.
At this very moment the shackles which held Malcolm have failed! Malcolm
has broken free, and his vengeful spite has already begun to destroy the
land. Brandon is Kyrandia's only hope.
The game opens up with Malcolm turning your grandfather Kallak into a
stone statue. But before he does so, Kallak writes a note to Brynn asking
Brynn to help Brandon. Your task is to find Brynn and figure out how to
turn your grandfather back into his flesh and blood self and somehow find
Malcolm and get the Kryagem back.
The puzzles are all inventory based. There are also some spells you can
cast but that's only after you find the magic amulet and activate the
stones in it (each stone is a different spell). You also need to save
because you can die in this game. And I hate to say it but there's a maze
- and a nasty one at that, because in addition to it being a maze you need
to keep replenishing your "light" source. If you've played the game you
know what I'm talking about, if you haven't - you'll find out.
Inventory doesn't disappear after it's used and there are only 10 slots so
you have to physically drop some items. Make sure if you do drop them you
know where they are in case you need them again.
Because this is essentially a DOS game you have to set up your sound card.
I had a devil of a time getting the digitized speech to work. I have a
SB16 in my P133 and had to change the IRQ from 5 to 7 in the autoexec.bat
file and then set up the sound in setup to use #2 (SoundBlaster) for
music/sounds and #3 (SoundBlaster Pro) for digitized speech. Otherwise I
would get screeching or the sound would lock up and I'd have to re-boot.
You can play the game with no speech as there is a text option which I
turned on anyway. I don't know whether you can get speech with the newer
sound cards or not. You may have luck with a boot disk. I did play it
originally with W95. I've loaded it in W98 and other than I haven't
tinkered with getting the sound to work it runs just fine.
All in all it's quite a fun little game - I enjoyed it very much (other
than that maze). The puzzles were not all that difficult and it had an
enjoyable story. Plus it's rated from Ages 6+.
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GameBoomers
