YMMV / The Legend of Kyrandia

• Adaptation Displacement: Few today know that the first game was loosely based on a Major BBS text adventure.
• Badass Decay: Happens to Malcolm in the third game. He loses all of his magical powers due to no longer having control over the Kyragem. While he was clearly a psychopath in the first game, he is reduced here to a mischievous guy who wants revenge and wants to clear his name from the death of Brandon's parents. As if those were the only bad things he did in the first place...
• Catharsis Factor: Punching out the people who make you go all around Volcania collecting sand dollars, sea shells, and starfish is entirely optional. But damned if you won't do it anyway...
• Contested Sequel: Depending on who you ask, Malcolm's Revenge is either the franchise going out with a whimper, or a hidden gem that just needed more polish. The game's humor, however, is almost universally considered extremely good.
• Even Better Sequel: The first game is generally well regarded, but the sequel is widely considered a step up. Reasons include a more complex plot, a lot more characters who are generally likable and memorable, the puzzles rely much less on scavenger hunts and the game overall is much larger and longer without feeling padded.
• Harsher in Hindsight: The photo album shows that Queen Katherine bears an uncanny resemblance to Princess Diana, right down to her being a commoner who married a royal and then died under tragic, suspicious circumstances. A few years later, Princess Diana also died under tragic circumstances. Creepy...
• Hilarious in Hindsight: The King and Queen are named William and Katherine. 20 years later, Britain would have a royal couple named William and Catherine.
• Nightmare Fuel:
  • The Shadowland Labyrinth maze in Fables & Fiends. Also the brainwashed Herman in Castle Kyrandia, complete with green skin, red eyes and Slasher Smile. For extra fun (skip to around 5:35)...
  Herman: Brandon. I have your saw.
  Brandon: That's okay, Herman. You can keep it.
  Herman: But I sharpened it, just for you..
  • Malcolm getting killed by the Enchanted Knife in Malcolm's Revenge. It is so graphic that, before picking up the knife, you get a full-screen ominous red warning screen that gives you the option to skip the overly-violent part and just have Malcolm die off-screen. If not, you get the extended scene of Malcolm desperately trying to avoid the flying knife that keeps plunging at him, until he grabs it... and ends up stabbing himself repeatedly, and ending up dead in a pool of his own blood.
• Retroactive Recognition: Joseph D. Kucan (Kane from Command & Conquer) as Brandon.
• Take That, Scrappy!:
  • The fans who disliked Brandon for being such a generic protagonist, especially in comparison to Zanthia and Malcolm, were most pleased with how much abuse he took in Malcom's Revenge.
  • The people on Volcania who make Zanthia pay a bunch of Sand Dollars, Star Fish, and Seashells for pointless information and wasting your time. After you finally get what you need from them, it's very tempting for Zanthia to interact with them where she just punches them, pokes them, or knocks them out.
• That One Level:
  • Many players dislike greatly the Shadowland Labyrinth in Fables & Fiends. You have no clue which direction to go and must experience much trial and error to find the right path. All the while dropping fire-berries along the way because if you find yourself in the dark, you get killed by shadow wraiths.
  • Volcania in The Hand of Fate where you have to pick up loads of repetitive items, run around the island until they respawn, and then get told to pay more. What's more, you can't pay in bulk so you are constantly told "You only lack x items."
  • Detractors of “Tower of Hanoi” puzzles tend not to be fond of The Hand of Fate’s ending.
  • The jungle maze in Malcolm's Revenge is just as hated for pretty much the same reasons. You'd think they'd have learned. At least you don't get automatically killed by snakes if you have a machete. You will, however, need to remove fleas once in a while.
• Underused Game Mechanic:
  • Book I’s amulet. Despite being established early on as an important artifact of great power (which it is), Brandon only uses each gem a few times throughout the whole game.
  • Book III’s jester’s staff. It’s sole power is to make people laugh, which mostly results in accumulating more “pointless points”. Only twice is it required to advance the story, but those particular moments can be skipped if alternate paths are chosen.
• Viewer Gender Confusion: Many players who played the original release without voice-acting couldn't tell that Brandywine (a dragon) was female.

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