Part 2: Wherein Brandon has a Conversation with a Wall

Music: Brandon's House

Like most point-and-click adventure games, you get things done in Legend of Kyrandia by clicking on them. But unlike most other adventure games, there is no long list of verbs you can apply to objects. Everything is distilled down to left-clicking on things, which will perform some context-dependent function. Clicking on the ground moves Brandon around, and the cursor changes to an arrow when you can leave to another location. Clicking on objects picks them up or operates them if possible, or examines them otherwise. Items can be placed in one of our ten inventory slots at the bottom of the screen. You're not likely to run out of space, but if you want to get rid of something for whatever reason, you can just drop it on the ground pretty much anywhere.

To the right of our inventory is a mysterious empty space of uncertain purpose. Right now, it does nothing for us. On the left, we can access our options and save/load our game.



It's highly recommended to go to the game options and change walk speed to "fastest" ASAP, because Brandon's normal walking pace is about as fast as a snail on valium. You can also turn subtitles on - I will do so for obvious reasons. With that done, let's have a look around Brandon's treehouse. The place is a little confusing. It seems to be grown rather than built, although it has a stone tile floor. The only furniture is a desk, some pots, a hanging metal plate stacked with rocks for no apparent reason, and a single bed. Presumably Brandon and grandpa Kallak share it.

You might also have noticed that the room now contains a number of objects that mysteriously weren't there in the cutscene. Brandon goes straight for the shiny red sphere on Kallak's desk.



It's a garnet. Items that can be picked up attach to your cursor when you pick them up, and we could drop it into our inventory now. But first, with the garnet in hand, we'll click on Brandon to get his opinion on the item.



Most items can be examined this way. Sometimes, Brandon has several things to say about the same item, so keep using the item until all his lines are exhausted. Using items on other things in the world works the same way; pick the item up from your inventory, and with it in hand, click on whatever you want to use the item on. Let's check out that note Kallak was writing.

A note. Hmm? Blank, except it has Brynn's name on it! I'd better go to the temple. Brynn will know what to do!

Temple, huh. That's where we're going next. But first, let's finish looting our own home for valuables. In the pot to the left is...



This is where the game starts screwing with you. The Kyrandia series is generally better at not randomly and irrevocably screwing the player over, unlike e.g. King's Quest, but this is one of the few places where taking the intuitive action has an unintended result that can come back and bite you. Let's examine the apple by using it on Brandon.



Oh look, it's got half a worm in it.

There is no way to know for sure whether Brandon will decide to describe an item used on him, or just consume it outright. Most food-type items will generally result in the latter, though. In this case, the apple is actually an item we need to be intact for a puzzle later. You can get a new one if you accidentally eat the first one you find, but to save time I'm just going to reload and just stash the apple in our inventory.

The final item we need from here is sitting in the shadows underneath Kallak's desk; note that unlike the garnet, this item looks like it's just part of the decor. It helps to pay attention and click everything, even if it doesn't look like an item you can pick up at first.



Having Brandon examine it results in...

Ow!

Nice going, dumbass. All right, let's ditch grandpa for now and see if we can locate this Brynn characte--





Video: Treeface (Youtube)

Music: Treeface

What? Who said that?
Are you Brandon, grandson of Kallak?
I am. What are you?
We are of the Other Kingdom. We speak for the Land.
Why would the Land speak to me?
We are dying, Brandon. Magic spells of an evil intent have upset the balance of nature.
Can't you use your magic to fight this evil?
Evil exists only in the Kingdom of Man. The Land has no evil, and thus, no defense against it.
But-- why is this happening now?
The magic Kyragem, symbol of the trust between our kingdoms, has been corrupted. Now, it can no longer protect us. You, Brandon, must oppose on our behalf.
What? Why me?
You have been chosen, Grandson of Kallak. Your destiny was forged before your birth.
But I wouldn't know where to start.
Let your faith guide you, Brandon. Prepare for your journey.
Wait! What about-- what happened to my grandfather?

So to recap: One of the walls in our house is alive, and wants us to kill the evil jester that's going around exploding all the trees and squirrels, presumably so he will stop exploding all the trees and squirrels. It also throws in a good old-fashioned fantasy cliché about being the chosen one, destiny forged before birth, et cetera, to seal the deal. That kind of thing is going to be a recurring trend in the land of Kyrandia. Brandon seems to be completely unfazed by the experience. At least we can actually leave our house now.



Music: Forest

We can examine some of the stuff around here, like the sign and planter, but none of it is particularly useful to us. We can descend via the same means we saw Brandon use to get up here in the cutscene, the enchanted tree branch.



The bottom of our treehouse is another location with nothing of any use in it, so we head left.



This willow looks half dead! Ugh. Even the trunk is rotten. Boy, this willow needs help.

The Land is not doing so well after all, then. That teardrop depression in the middle of the tree looks mighty conspicuous, but there's nothing we can do to help the tree right now, so we'll continue heading left.



Another filler location. Nothing to see here.



This awkward-looking brick teetering on the precipice of a cliff is the Temple of Kyrandia.



Music: Temple of Kyrandia

Pretty. Let's have a look around.









Eesh, Brandon. Let's just talk to her.

Video: Brynn (Youtube)

Brynn, grandfather is hurt!
What happened, Brandon?
He's been turned to stone! I found a note on his bench. It's marked with your name, but the rest is blank!
May I see it?

We use the letter on Brynn.

This is an enchanted message. I will remove the spell. Brandon, you should read this.


Amulet? Lavender rose? What does this mean?
If Malcolm has escaped, he'll use his spiteful magic to destroy Kyrandia.
Can't your magic stop him?
It will take all that we can gather to match Malcolm.
What about grandfather?
I am sorry, Brandon. Noble Kallak can only be saved by defeating Malcolm.
What can we do?
We are not helpless. Find a lavender rose for me, and I shall create an enchantment to help you.
What about--
Hurry, Brandon. Each passing minute dilutes our strength.

I think the game is trying to tell us we should defeat Malcolm. By now you might have noticed that we haven't really had much of a choice of what to talk to characters about so far. Just like the Kyrandia games simplified point-and-click down to, well, pointing and clicking, they also simplified all the dialogue. There are no Lucasarts style dialogue trees. Clicking a character will initiate a pre-scripted conversation. If you want to ask a character about a certain item, use it on them. Of course, the same action is used for giving items to characters, but I can't recall any instances where you can get permanently screwed by giving a character an item you didn't intend to.

In general, if you were to compare Legend of Kyrandia to its genre predecessors, one word comes to mind: Simple. The interface is simple, the story is simple, the puzzles are simple. This is especially true of the first game in the series; it plays all the fantasy tropes completely straight, with what little humor there is being derived mostly from Brandon's reactions to various things. The plot is as clichéd as it gets. Its sequels, Hand of Fate and Malcolm's Revenge, remedied this somewhat and are in my opinion better games for it. Unfortunately, we're still stuck with Brandon, dork prince of Kyrandia.



Grandfather is a rock! He needs help, not sympathy!

Brandon promptly forgets everything about the part where defeating Malcolm would, in fact, help grandpa Kallak. Next time, we'll go hunting for a lavender rose for Brynn.