History VideoGame / TheLegendOfKyrandia

** In Book III, Malcolm is unable to [[spoiler:click two eels together to teleport out of Kyrandia]] until Brandywine informs him this is possible.

* ComicBookFantasyCasting: In the third game, Malcolm now has a strange resemblance to similarly-named actor Creator/MalcolmMcDowell.

** In the second game, Zanthia's first four outfits are identical in style (blouse with long skirt), but each one has different color combinations. It isn't until she reaches the centre of the world that she begins wearing other styles.
* PaperThinDisguise: Malcolm can dress up with just a leather coat or a squirrel hat, and some characters like Dwayne, Darm and Vince will not recognize him. Zanthia is harder to fool, as both the coat and squirrel hat are required for her to mistake Malcolm as Farmer Brown. Some characters, notably Herman and Brandywine, will never be fooled. In the case of Vince, no disguise is actually needed. Malcolm can simply ''lie'' about not being Malcolm and Vince will believe him!

** The third game falls into this hard by most chapters requiring you to do repetitive tasks. Repeatedly fishing, growing sesame and feeding sprouts to cows to get milk in the first section isn't so bad. It gets mind-numbing on the Isle of Cats, as you need to keep wandering around the jungle to collect bones which you then give to a dog so he'll go hide them and at the same time dig up gems you need to progress. Then in Limbo, you are forcibly summoned every few screens to the Queen to entertain her by playing tic-tac-toe. At least that one can be slightly ameliorated by bribing one of her guards to do it instead, but again you need to do that every time, which requires you to wander around collecting the items to bribe him with. Perhaps the worst offender occurs during Malcolm’s return visit to Kyrandia; as there’s now an embargo on sesame seeds, you have to trade exactly the right item to Herman in order to proceed, which grows very tedious.

* PlayerNudge: In ''The Hand of Fate'', upon reaching the stegosaurus screen in centre of the world, Zanthia will verbally draw attention to the black pebbles on the ceiling, and muse that she has a funny feeling she’ll have to make a teddy bear to use for bait. Of course, she’s absolutely right.

** The third game falls into this hard by most chapters requiring you to do repetitive tasks. Repeatedly fishing, growing sesame and feeding sprouts to cows to get milk in the first section isn't so bad. It gets mind-numbing on the Isle of Cats, though, as you need to keep wandering around the jungle to collect bones which you then give to a dog so he'll go hide them and at the same time dig up gems you need to progress. Then in Limbo, you are forcibly summoned every few screens to the Queen to entertain her by playing tic-tac-toe. At least that one can be slightly ameliorated by bribing one of her guards to do it instead, but again you need to do that every time, which requires you to wander around collecting the items to bribe him with. Perhaps the worst offender occurs during Malcolm’s return visit to Kyrandia; as there’s now an embargo on sesame seeds, you have to trade exactly the right item to Herman in order to proceed, which grows very tedious.

* DartboardOfHate: In the third game, there's a dartboard in Malcolm's room. Clicking on it will make Malcolm demand, "Where's Kallak's picture?", implying that he used to throw darts at a picture of Kallak.

** The third game has a minor time-saving mechanic on the Isle of Cats which is never hinted at: When you give a bone to the dog, he will go bury it in a random spot on the screen, potentially digging up one of several gems you need to progress. Whether he does dig up a gem is dependent on the spot he digs up, leaving the player to the mercy of the RandomNumberGod. However, instead of giving the bone directly to the dog you can instead drop it on the ground yourself, which will cause the dog to go over and bury it on that spot.

* GuideDangIt: The games don't give you clues for several tasks. Sometimes you receive just enough information to get started, but must figure out what to do with that information on your own.

** The third game falls into this hard by most chapters requiring you to do repetitive tasks. Repeatedly fishing, growing sesame and feeding sprouts to cows to get milk in the first section isn't so bad. It gets mind-numbing on the Isle of Cats, though, as you need to keep wandering around the jungle to collect bones which you then give to a dog so he'll go hide them and at the same time dig up gems you need to progress. Then in Limbo, you are forcibly summoned every new screen to the Queen to entertain her by playing tic-tac-toe. At least that one can be slightly ameliorated by bribing one of her guards to do it instead, but again you need to do that every time, which requires you to wander around collecting the items to bribe him with. Perhaps the worst offender occurs during Malcolm’s return visit to Kyrandia; as there’s now an embargo on sesame seeds, you have to trade exactly the right item to Herman in order to proceed, which grows very tedious.

* SpringtimeForHitler:: In ''Book 3'', the protagonist Malcolm is summoned by the Fish Queen for a game of Tic-Tac-Toe. Despite her enthusiasm for the game, she is exceptionally bad at it, and will always demand a rematch if Malcolm wins. Thus, you have to go out of your way to lose.

* PlotHole: The third game offering an unusual degree of non-linearity for adventure games and multiple different solutions to puzzles is a noble effort, but the narrative doesn't manage to hold all its threads together with this. The game will bring up characters and events with the assumption that you encountered them earlier, when it is in fact possible to completely miss them. Particularly glaring are the three coins that Malcolm had "earned in jail", when veteran players might prefer to either avoid the boring jail tasks or do a jailbreak without any work.

** Books I and II, like most ''Sierra'' games, require reloading a saved game should the player die. Book III retains this options, but also includes a “second chance” button which allows you to pick up right where you left off, thus granting more freedom of exploration without constantly having to save.

* FetchQuest: Seemingly parodied in ''Malcom's Revenge''. If Malcolm wears a jerkin and squirrel as a disguise, Zanthia mistakes him as Farmer Brown and asks him to bring 12 large sprouts -- a very awkward number given Malcolm's 10-item inventory (plus one held in-hand). Carry out this task and Zanthia will... ask for 12 more large sprouts. Infinitely.

** The third game had a number of repetitive tasks which weren’t very popular. Repeatedly fishing, growing sesame and feeding sprouts to cows to get milk in the first section isn't so bad. It gets mind-numbing on the Isle of Cats, though, as you need to keep wandering around the jungle to collect bones which you then give to a dog so he'll go hide them and at the same time dig up gems you need to progress. Then in Limbo, you are forcibly summoned every new screen to the Queen to entertain her by playing tic-tac-toe. At least that one can be slightly ameliorated by bribing one of her guards to do it instead, but again you need to do that every time, which requires you to wander around collecting the items to bribe him with. Perhaps the worst offender occurs during Malcolm’s return visit to Kyrandia; as there’s now an embargo on sesame seeds, you have to trade exactly the right item to Herman in order to proceed, which grows very tedious.

* CoversAlwaysLie: The cover of ''Fables and Fiends'' shows Malcolm spying on Brandon, who reads a scroll while being accompanied by a small winged fairy. This latter character does NOT appear in the game (although a sprite for a similar looking fairy is buried within the resource files).

* CutAndPasteEnvironments: The "Dark forest" areas in ''Fables and Fiends''. Even lampshaded by Brandon.

* DenserAndWackier: The sequels. Books II and III shift considerably in tone from Book I, featuring more outlandish locations and characters, broader comedy, plus many anachronisms and meta references. While ''The Hand of Fate'' only experiences this to a degree, ''Malcolm's Revenge'' [[UptoEleven takes the cake]].[[note]]This was largely due to Rick Gush assuming more creative control for the sequels and filling them with his style of humour.[[/note]]

* DenserAndWackier: The sequels. Books II and III shift considerably in tone from Book I, featuring more outlandish locations and characters plus many anachronisms and meta references. While ''The Hand of Fate'' only experiences this to a degree, ''Malcolm's Revenge'' [[UptoEleven takes the cake]].

* VoiceoverLetter: In the talkie version of Book I, Kalakaua narrates the letter he wrote to Brynn while Brandon reads it.

* ChasteHero: Brandon has no love interests in either the first or third game and never is it implied he’s even seeking a potential mate. Apart from Jessica briefly gossiping with Zanthia that he’s an eligible bachelor in the second game, his romantic pursuits are a non-entity.

* AsYouKnow: After receiving the silver rose from Brynn, she tells him “you must find Darm. He lives in the Timbermist Woods.” This dialogue is clearly only for the benefit of the players, as following events make it quite clear that Brandon not only knows Darm and Brandywine, but he’s visited the Timbermist Woods before, too.

* FakeLongevity: The third game had a number of repetitive tasks which weren’t very popular. Repeatedly fishing, growing sesame and feeding sprouts to cows to get milk in the first section isn't so bad. It gets mind-numbing on the Isle of Cats, though, as you need to keep wandering around the jungle to collect bones which you then give to a dog so he'll go hide them and at the same time dig up gems you need to progress. Then in Limbo, you are forcibly summoned every new screen to the Queen to entertain her by playing tic-tac-toe. At least that one can be slightly ameliorated by bribing one of her guards to do it instead, but again you need to do that every time, which requires you to wander around collecting the items to bribe him with. Perhaps the worst offender occurs during Malcolm’s return visit to Kyrandia; as there’s now an embargo on sesame seeds, you have to trade exactly the right item to Herman in order to proceed, which grows very tedious.