The Legend of Kyrandia

The Legend of Kyrandia is a point-and-click graphic adventure game series, developed by Westwood Studios and published by Virgin Interactive (previously 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. Each game is played in a 2D format from a third-person perspective and involves using the point-and-click interface to guide said characters throughout the game's world, solving puzzles, quests and interacting with the environment. The original game spawned two sequels; The Hand of Fate and Malcolm's Revenge. The series is now owned by Electronic Arts.

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.

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. Malcolm has fun destroying trees of the country, and faces Kallak, turning him into stone. Brandon, oblivious of his past, soon discovers the truth about his origins. He finds out that Malcolm has stolen the Kyragem, a mystic stone that contains the kingdom's energy. Brandon has to recover the Kyragem and defeat Malcolm. After many adventures, also including the king's chalice along the way (not to mention learning four different magical spells), Brandon heads to the king's castle, which Malcolm now occupies. Here he finds most of his former friends and allies turned to stone by Malcolm as well as a magical sceptre and king's crown. Putting these together he unlocks the way to Malcolm's personal chamber, where the Kyragem lies. He confronts Malcolm and heads into the Kyragem chamber. After becoming invisible (one of his magic powers) he walks up to a giant mirror, where Malcolm casts a magic orb, which bounces off the mirror, turning Malcolm to stone. Brandon becomes King, his friends are freed, and the Kyragem is returned to its proper place.