King's Bounty: The Legend was not a game I expected to enjoy because it's so different from what I was expecting. I have an appreciation for turn based games, mainly because I am slow and boring, but the first few times I tried King's Bounty's battle system I was left feeling put off. Easily the biggest annoyance comes in learning your limits; it's far too easy for enemies to absolutely decimate your forces, and you'll spend a lot of time running back to places to buy more. The game is extremely unforgiving if you enter battle unprepared with the wrong types of forces, and developing the habit to save before every encounter should be a top priority. It's true that a little cunning will get you far, but battles can be won or lost in a single turn, and that can be hard to swallow.
But over time, you get the hang of things. You know what spells work best in any situation, you learn how to work the battlefield, and before long, you're running towards fights rather than away. Not only is there a tremendous variety of creatures to be discovered and destroyed, but there's also a big, satisfying expanse of treasure to find and upgrade. (By fighting inside the item, of course. How else?) Oh, and if you want, you can marry a frog princess. Or a zombie queen. Or... well, you'll see.
In fact, if you can handle the combat, really the only other issue with King's Bounty is its dialogue, which tends to be either painfully dull or unintentionally hysterical, and is delivered by characters that are weird and bland at best. It feels like it was lifted straight out of a twelve-year-old kid's Dungeon and Dragons fanfiction, and if you can handle your stalwart hero of the land proclaiming "OK I am ready!!" before he plunges into battle with a necromancer lord, or even crack a smile at it, you'll do just fine.
For your patience, you're granted a massive world teeming with interesting creatures, and quests that generally revolve around slaying them. The visuals are big, bright, and cartoonishly enjoyable, and it's impossible to not enjoy trampling around the overworld with your big, stampy-hoof'ed horse, running down brigands and chasing shiny treasure. It definitely is a game that takes a while to become adept at, but once you do, you'll find it's got a lot of charm and potential. You'll never call the characters memorable with a straight face, and it's never going to inspire any poetry, but King's Bounty: The Legend is tremendously fun and addictive, as long as you don't try to take it seriously.