I just finished a small "retrospective" of the Kyrandia trilogy. I find it interesting to see the differing opinions here, but my opinons follow the majority:
# Kyrandia 1 is OK. It falls into some of the basic pitfalls of bad adventure game design, but since it isn't a long game to begin with it's not much of a problem. Its biggest problems are the aforementioned maze (ARGH!) the randomness of item locations and the bloated feel I get from playing the game - even without touching the maze, the game can be reduced by two dozen "screens" without impacting gameplay at all.
My biggest gripe with the game is the "trial and error" puzzle design in the second half - brewing the potions, to be precise. Yes, the game teaches the player early on that there is a big colour theme going on, but I couldn't find (or recall) a single clue anywhere about what colours the player is supposed to be aiming for. And there are a LOT of possibilites in that puzzle alone.
As for the plot and characters? Brandon comes off as a moron, Malcolm as a decent antagonist and Zanthia as the only character with some sense. Of the others, only the talking flower makes a lasting impression, with everyone else either being underdeveloped or done-to-death stereotypes. More on that later.
# Kyrandia 2 is the best one of them all, but I'm on the fence whether it should be considered a "classic" or just "a decent adventure game". Kyrandia 2 does away with the mazes and reduces item mismanagement problems by dividing the game into chapters, but it botches up by introducing two different puzzles instead that will cause problems throughout.
The first one is the recipes. Every "episode" requires at least one recipe, and not all of the recipes are easy to understand. In fact, the recipes are a gigantic puzzle of synonyms, puns and vocabulary - an instant detractor for people not good enough with the English language. I was pretty decent with English when I played the game back when it was new, but I had serious trouble with the first recipe. But once I got the hang of them, the game became easier as I progressed. That's right - Kyrandia 2 starts out hard then gets easier, unlike most other games.
The other puzzle is Simon's Fireflies. 7 fireflies of different colours are sitting in a tree in the swamp. Start clicking on them, and it soon becomes apparent that they must be clicked in order to complete a sequence, which is needed to unlock a treasure chest a few screens away. Fair enough. Except the puzzle is used AGAIN in the next chapter (and you can't go back and re-visit the fireflies, so hopefully you wrote down that sequence) and then it pops up again with a twist at the end of the penultimate chapter, where the POSITIONS of the fireflies in that tree also becomes a factor. If it weren't for the fact that there IS an obscure way to find a hint for that puzzle at the relevant position (use the rainbow stone on Zanthia) that puzzle would singehandedly kill the entire game. Sadly that's not the last puzzle of the game - they squeezed in a Tower of Hanoi puzzle (aptly named Tower of Anoi) right at the very end, but once past that the last sequence (which has been slammed here for being "too much action") is actually pretty simple - because by that time people are fucking fed up with complex time-wasting puzzles and want this all over with.
Another gripe I have with Kyrandia 2 (and Kyrandia 1 as well) is Westwood's practice of crudely cutting out content from the games (This is apparent in games like Eye of the Beholder 1 & 2, Lands of Lore 1 & 2 and probably a few others, but I digress.) which leaves them sorely missing "something". In Kyrandia 1 it was not only character depth, but most characters just come and go - no time spent trying to introduce them or give them a proper exit from scenes. Only by exploring the castle at the end can most of the supporting cast be found - stoned out of their minds, sadly. But in Kyrandia 2 this becomes even worse, and is best exemplified by Marco. Marco never gets a proper introduction, except that he dresses like a pimp and has a giant gloved hand for an assistant. It isn't until shortly into the next chapter that we're given a short cutscene that shows that Marco is a stage-act magician. Worse yet, he keeps popping in and out of the story without little to no explanation - and he's the third-most important character in the game!
# Kyrandia 3 is a total disaster. The amount of bad calls made in designing this game - the atrocious CGI cutscenes, the rendered backgrounds instead of the hand-drawn pixel art that Westwood is famous for, the ret-conning of the story to try to give Malcolm some depth of character, the first chapter of the game, the title song, the re-introduction of a maze, the incessant grinding and crafting to get the proper items needed, that fucking timed Tic-Tac-Toe puzzle. I'm not saying Kyrandia 3 is the worst adventure game I've ever played, but it's certainly the most frustrating one.
The first chapter alone could win some Raspberry awards. Malcolm is free, a wanted man and constantly being told to leave Kyrandia. Many will have trouble with this part, which is understandable - it's actually SIX puzzles active at the same time. That's right - there are six possible ways for Malcolm to get away, and since one is never certain which action contributes to what puzzle, the game comes close to dying right there. It's one thing to have multiple solutions to a puzzle, but this is absolute overkill. The "choice & consequences" faggots can shut the fuck up right now, because this is an adventure game, not an RPG. Those players that actually managed to solve one of these puzzles and reach the next section are immediately greeted by a maze - pointless filler that does little else but make players rage, but now with added QTEs (whack those snakes before they get you!) and grinding through jungles for bones, while constantly clicking yourself to get rid of fleas. Wünderbar.
It's not that Kyrandia 3 doesn't have any redeeming qualities - it's just that they're crushed by all the bad ones. It doesn't even feel like a Kyrandia game, which is a shame.