I am sure the fireberry thing is intended otherwise the caverns become an almost impossible maze. so much fun when that transformation happesn that makes it easier, wont spoil anyone who hasnt played it.

I love Zanthai too, looking forward to her next. a lovely lady and lots of fun to adventure with. So glad you like the games too. I agree abot eye of the Beholder and Lands of Lore great stuff!!

Chris

Shoutout to Zanthia! Greatly admired her when I was young. Bold, witty, stylish, lived in a swamp. Would've been cool to get another game with her as the protagonist.

I think I like the third game better than most people did. The attitude dial was clever (maybe a little underused). The soundtrack was full of bangers and incorporated styles that you wouldn't hear in other adventure games for a while. And the subversion of Malcolm as a scapegoat was great, especially since they didn't make him "good, actually" - just.. slightly damaged and on the fringe of respectable society. The institutions, those in power and the general population were not as good and deserving as they pretended to be. That's a good setup for both comedy and some serious reflections on power, conformity and why we judge certain people while failing to be as critical of others, often based on our own interests, biases and not making things too difficult for ourselves.

Shoutout to Zanthia! Greatly admired her when I was young. Bold, witty, stylish, lived in a swamp. Would've been cool to get another game with her as the protagonist.

I think I like the third game better than most people did. The attitude dial was clever (maybe a little underused). The soundtrack was full of bangers and incorporated styles that you wouldn't hear in other adventure games for a while. And the subversion of Malcolm as a scapegoat was great, especially since they didn't make him "good, actually" - just.. slightly damaged and on the fringe of respectable society. The institutions, those in power and the general population were not as good and deserving as they pretended to be. That's a good setup for both comedy and some serious reflections on power, conformity and why we judge certain people while failing to be as critical of others, often based on our own interests, biases and not making things too difficult for ourselves.

That's what i thought playing the game,  also seeing the whole Kyrandia world through a different perspective kicked its lore, structure and believability even more. In the end the attitude meter is more of a personality meter than an ethical compass which Malcolm uses to navigate the intricate bureaucracy and social fabric of this world. Good or bad are just subjective socially and philosophically and the player is left to contemplate on this. Also I must say the designers tried something different in all games and not only superficially, from a classic kingsquestian first book to the Zanthias cute overload magic potion quest to the final book with the interconnected areas and multi paths to approaching and solving problems. And i really loved the daedalian design of K3, also it has the advantage of not being stuck finding the one solution and the game is chock full of little details and shortcuts to make your adventure easier, it encourages experimentation with Malcolm giving all sort of answers when you try things

You guys have given me some good food for thought about Book 3, i will take a new look at it when i get there, still in the Castle in Book 1 so will be a while but thanks for the thoughtful thoughts. Weswood was a remarkable studio and tried a lot of new and interesting things. I guess after then Cryso (or is it Cyro?) anyway, the Atlantis etc studio was my next discover of interest when i first ventured into Adventure gaming many years ago. Glad the Westwood classics have survived to enjoy to this day, for the discerning AG player. thanks again for the thoughts.

Chris