Trivia / The Legend of Kyrandia

• Acting for Two: In Malcolm's Revenge, Eric Randall provides the voices for Malcolm, Gunther and Stewart.
• Creator Backlash: Though writer Rick Gush was overall happy with Malcolm’s Revenge and its sense of humour, he revealed the story design process was more rushed compared to the previous titles and felt certain parts didn’t fit well with overall gameplay. He was also very disappointed that Virgin didn’t do much to promote the game, and felt even Westwood executives ultimately didn’t treat the series with the respect it deserved, essentially abandoning it in favour of putting all their eggs in the Command & Conquer basket.
• Divorced Installment: The game Young Merlin was developed out of a canceled SNES version of Fables & Fiends.
• Dummied Out: Present for all three titles, but the first game's resource files in particular contain artwork for many things cut from the final release.
  • A number of inventory items went unused, such as the magic mirror pictured in the original manual, a lodestone, a shooting star, several differently colored keys and scrolls, an egg, a leaf, plus several magestones, whose color and appearance vary from the gems seen in the final release.
  • At one stage during development, Kallak's note (or a different note using the same sprite) was to be found pinned to a rock by a dagger, next to the weeping willow.
  • Unused animation of the Sunstone materializing on Darm's desk is present, suggesting that Darm was originally going to summon the stone for Brandon rather than telling him to search for its hiding place nearby.
  • A bearded man in a white robe, materializing out of a ball of green light, was going to appear at the Chasm of Everfall. Who this character was or what his purpose would be remains unknown.
  • The shooting star, one of the cut inventory items, would've been found in the Cavern of Twilight, as animation exists showing it falling out of the sky and landing in the cavern.
  • Animations for different types of birds were created to appear in the various forest scenes, either perched on trees or bushes. There are also unused "carvings" that would've appeared on trees and rocks.
  • The "Marble Arch" location, where four gemstones must be placed to solve the birthstones quest, alternates the middle two gems for each playthrough. The file features artwork for every gemstone appearing in the game, including those Brandon cannot obtain at the time, rendering some of the art files unused.
  • Zanthia originally had a Siamese cat who would've been sitting on the green cushion in the corner of her laboratory.
  • A small faerie, similar to the one on the box cover, was at one point going to appear in the location featuring the hollow stump.
  • A Bedsheet Ghost can be seen coming out of the tree hollow above Queen Katherine's grave. Though dropped from the first game, this concept was reused in Malcolm's Revenge.
  • Not nearly as many examples exist for The Hand of Fate but there are a few. Most notably, Zanthia would've collected her knapsack off the laboratory floor instead of having it from the start, and her missing spellbook and cauldron would've been lying in plain sight rather than hidden away: the spellbook would've been found lying in front of the dock rather than in the stump, while the cauldron would've been sitting at the crossroads instead of tucked into the hollow tree.
• Executive Meddling: Nobody at Westwood liked the original “nuclear explosion” artwork created for The Hand of Fate, which was mandated by a marketing executive at Virgin. Though the CD-ROM re-release would feature a more appropriately Kyrandian theme, writer Rick Gush blames this initial decision for the reason the second game was the weakest-selling entry in the trilogy.
• Fan Translation: In the early '90s, Russian and Ukrainian programmers translated many games into Russian.^note before you ask, there was no widespread Ukrainian font at the time The Legend of Kyrandia series was among them.
• Keep Circulating the Tapes: While the voiced CD-ROM versions for all three games are legally available on GOG, the original floppy disk releases for the first two entries have never been officially re-released. Neither have certain foreign language editions or ports made for other platforms, including the FM-Towns and Amiga.
• Missing Trailer Scene: Downloadable preview packs that were distributed by Westwood Studios show promotional screenshots not always matching the games as they were finally released:
  • Fables & Fiends
    • None of the shots from this pack feature the amulet, despite many of them showcasing scenes where Brandon would’ve already acquired it. Additionally, the interface border is marginally different, missing the small beveled accents in the upper right and left corners.
  • The Hand of Fate
    • One screenshot, which was also printed in the manual, shows Zanthia clinging to the rainbow bridge in her red dress while wearing the flying shoes, as the hand poses triumphantly behind her. In the released game, this scene never occurs, and Zanthia only briefly passes over the bridge in her Rambo costume en route to The Wheels of Fate. Whether this was merely a mock-up or a gameplay aspect which was cut remains unknown.
    • Three screenshots show an earlier design for the interface, featuring a wooden theme, an orange gem instead of yellow, only ten inventory slots, the spellbook lying flat and no flush handle or base on the cauldron. As well, the flask inventory items in these shots come from the first game.
    • A few shots show a dark red potion in the cauldron which never appears in the game. The closest match is the flying shoes potion, which is a much brighter red in the final release.
  • Malcolm’s Revenge
    • One screenshot shows Zanthia confronting Malcolm in the City Hall at daylight, while Malcom waves his Jester Staff at her. In the final game, she never makes that pose, and is only found in the City Hall at night, preparing her potion. And Malcolm doesn't have an animation for whenever he uses his Jester Staff. Not only that, but the inventory in the screenshot contains objects Malcolm cannot have at this point of the game, such as Fluffy's tuna can, the green crystal mouse, the Enchanted Dagger, the apple, the diamond, a Limbo coin and the cheese-making machine. Plus, the Jester Staff spot in his inventory is empty as the screen shows him using it!
    • One screenshot shows Malcolm in his mime outfit inside the Fish Cream parlor at daytime, with nobody else inside and the fish cream machine standing normally. The only time Malcolm is in the parlor on his own is during nighttime, with the fish cream machine having fallen down. Also, Malcolm does a "touch invisible wall" pose that he cannot do in the final game.
    • One screenshot shows Malcolm interacting with both Gunther and Stewart in the Isle of Cat's jungle at daytime. In the game, he can only interact with them in the jungle at night time.
    • One screenshot shows the Public Baths with the temperature dial being all green without any hand or temperature indicated. In the final game, the dial has three colors for temperature and a red hand that Malcolm can turn.^note This screenshot uses the raw artwork; the dial and colors were inserted via animation.
• The Other Darrin: Several voice actors changed as the series progressed:
  • Bonnie Lynn Toups replaced Ginalyn Torrecilla as Zanthia for II and III.
  • Eric Randall replaced Gary Hyatt as Malcolm for III (though Hyatt did reprise his role as Herman).
  • Eric Martin replaced Richard Smith as Darm for III.
  • Barbara Costa replaced Gloria Hoffman as Brandywine for III.
• Screwed by the Lawyers:
  • Because Virgin Games insisted on comparing the first game to King's Quest in print ads and on the box art (a move Westwood did not support), they had to subsequently place a disclaimer sticker on early releases clarifying the game had no connection to the King’s Quest series, in order to avoid legal action from Sierra On-Line.
  • More recently, ScummVM attempted to secure permission from Electronic Arts (the current rights holders) to release the Redbook audio soundtrack from the rare FM-Towns port as a patch file, but were denied the right to do so. Their efforts to negotiate a freeware release for the entire series also went nowhere.
• Technology Marches On: In Malcolm's Revenge, clicking on a Tic-Tac-Toe board causes Malcolm to state his idea of a 1994-era premium computer system. With the exception of VR (which took much longer to become mainstream), most of the list is laughably outdated today.
  Malcolm: Too bad she doesn't have a 90 MHz Pentium with a quad-speed CD-ROM drive, a MIDI music card coupled with a 16 bit digitized sound effects system, with Super-VGA and a 17 inch .26 dot pitch monitor, and a cordless mouse and flightstick for exceptional handling, and at least two other Pentiums connected via ethernet for multi-player action. And where are the virtual reality headgear sets?
• What Could Have Been:
  • The Westwood team previewed the game to Ken Williams, head of Sierra On-Line, who was impressed and wanted to buy the distribution rights. However, Sierra ultimately lost the bidding war to Virgin Games (later renamed Virgin Interactive Entertainment). So, had history played out differently, Kyrandia would technically have been a Sierra game.
  • For the first game, the exterior of Kallak’s treehouse initially featured an organic staircase growing out of the trunk. This was later painted out and replaced with the elevator tree branch seen in the final release.
  • For the second game, the pirate cave with the giant skull was originally painted with a large torch on the wall, rendering fireberries unnecessary for illumination. As a result, the exterior of Herb the toad’s house didn’t initially feature a fireberry bush for this reason. This change was likely made to provide an additional connection to the first game.
  • Early mock-ups for Malcolm’s Revenge showed Zanthia in her Darkmoor Swamp ensemble (purple knapsack with green skirt) instead of the gold knapsack and blue skirt she’s seen wearing in the released game.

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