Legend of Kyrandia

STORY / GAMEPLAY
The ruler of this land was King William, a noble and just man who cared for his people and was respected by them. Kyrandia derived its beauty from the Kyragem, a powerful gemstone whose magical spell held away over the territory it protected. While the magic of the Kyragem prevailed, no harm could come to Kyrandia. During his reign, William had cause to order the imprisonment of Malcolm, the evil jester, for murdering the parents of Brandon (that's you). Malcolm has escaped incarceration and stolen the Kyragem, placing Kyrandia under an evil spell whereby the beauty has been replaced by a withered, desolate and barren landscape. On a visit to his grandfather Kallak, who just happens to live in a tree, Brandon arrives only to find that to his grandfather turned into stone! This is where the adventure begins. You will move through forest, caves, fountains and a Dragon Tooth Path to name but a few. On every screen you will find something to see or pick up, usually gems, but are they of any use?
Only being able to hold 10 objects means you must decide what appears the most useful. You will also meet many characters who you must barter with for information, and as you become more powerful you'll be able to cast and use spells, some of which you will able to buy.
The interface is very basic just point-and-click, and when you select an item from your inventory the items will become text based in order to manipulate items together or use them in certain places. If your actions are correct, an animated sequence will ensue, if nothing happens then you are not using the object correctly.
The game is divided into four chapters. You begin, as mentioned, in the Dark Forest, and continue through on the second chapter, trekking through the labyrinth of caves before winding up among the trees again for the grand finale.
The Legend of Kyrandia is a nice adventure game, with plenty of puzzles not that difficult but do require some degree of head scratching and will undoubtedly take time to work out.

GRAPHICS / SOUND
Visually the game is very polished for its time offering up to 128 colors on screen on the PC version running only in VGA graphics hardware. Action is pretty fast here (compared to the slower Amiga version) and you can choose a fast gameplay speed in the options menu (actually it does offer a more speedy action). The character and background animations are absolutely superb. Every screen is full to busting with detail and color, and the way in which the characters move enhances things.
Soundwise the PC version supports AdLib and Soundblaster sound hardware, and especially on its CD-Rom version, offers more samples during gameplay mainly when magic takes place or when picking up an item, as well as more tunes accompanying the scenes.