Medievil is a beautiful, creative, wacky romp through one of Playstation's best games.
The only drawback to playing Medievil is that you will like it so much, you’ll scour the video game universe looking for another videogame with similar game play, levels, and witty humor—only to come up empty handed.
With the exception of Medievil II (also released on PS1) there are no other games that come even close to resembling this brilliant Sony original title: Medievil. So, unfortunately for fans, these 2 games are the only things that can deliver what you’re looking for. Trust me, I love these 2 games and have searched high and low for a game that plays similarly—don’t bother – these are one of a kind!
STORYLINE:
You are Sir Dan… a legendary war leader in Medievil Europe. You are defender of a town called Gallowmere. In a battle against an evil warlock Zarok, you take a lethal hit from a random bow & arrow during your army’s initial charge. You have passed away without a true chance to be your town’s savior.
You now rest in a cemetery, (somewhat humorously) still remembered for your call to duty. However, Zarok has recently gotten his grubby hands on an evil spell book, one that will raise an undead army to take over the quaint town of Gallowmere! However, the spell has raised ALL deceased, including you, the hero of the game: Sir Dan!
You awaken to find you’re just a bony skeleton, with no lower jaw, so your speech is humorously impaired. Luckily you have at least one eyeball remaining, this adds to the character of Sir Dan. You still have your army clothing on, and start the game with your trusty short sword. At first you are confused and a little ticked off… Why were you awakened? You are briefed on Zarok’s latest evil escapades, and once again raise your sword to lead the fight against Zarok and his new undead army. This is your chance at redemption! In an attempt to reclaim your honor, and save your dear home of Gallowmere while you’re at it, you begin your pursuit of Zarok across numerous towns and villages. This is a solo mission, and you are the last hope to stop Zarok.
GRAPHICS:
The 3D graphics are very good for a PS1 game. You can compare the graphics to Crash Bandicoot. Most of the environments are solid colors, for example, the grass is all colored lime green—no real detail is paid to outline every single blade of grass. However, this is acceptable because the graphics overall are meant to be humorous and playful, yet NOT cartoony.
Sir Dan is pretty well detailed and is a joy to play. He runs quite fast, and most enemies are fast as well. There are usually times when a lot of enemies show up on screen. None of this results in slow down. The pace of the game never struggles due to the amount of action on screen. This is key to Medievil’s success.
Every color in the Crayola arsenal is used. From pumpkin orange, lime green and eggplant purple, to midnight blue, jungle green, and eggshell white. The colors are brilliant and never repetitious (except in the case of the ground, such as the grass we just talked about.) A perfect balance of ground, foreground, horizon, stage, and sky is applied to Medievil. This means there is always a perfect balance and harmony--- the sky is never filling all of the screen, leaving only a tiny fraction of the screen left to show the ground.
The ground is proportioned well. The foreground (the amount of ground area shown behind you) is decent. This is important because otherwise you will never be able to see what’s behind you. The horizon (the ability to see what is coming up ahead) is always clearly provided. The main stage of action is perfectly designated, as it is just the right amount you need to see. The sky is never overbearing on the screen. This ability to proportion the different layers on screen is critical to Medievil’s success as well.
GAMEPLAY:
This is the department that no other game can replicate. Sir Dan bobbles around at a very quick pace, but can walk is he desires. He runs comically as his knees kick up high around his chest level and his large feet flail through the scenery looking for traction. When you want to suddenly change directions, he skids to a halt and immediately starts running full speed in the newly assigned direction. He runs from danger somewhat cowardly and full of excited adrenaline. You also have a speed burst, which can be used an infinite amount of times. This helps A) when you are backtracking, and B) when you are avoiding an enemy’s attacks.
Uh oh! Did I say a bad word… “Backtracking”??? Don’t panic! Backtracking in Medievil is a blast because there are always humorous enemies (note: this doesn’t mean they’re easy) in your path and new puzzles (usually difficult) to get started on. Sir Dan can jump—he jumps kind of like a frog would (it’s more of an Olympic leap) and this is essential to completing the plat forming of Medievil. Imagine how much you have to jump, climb, and otherwise vertically navigate in Castlevania 64, and you will have a good expectation of what you’ll see in Medievil.
The innovation of “Dan Hand” is when Sir Dan tugs his skull away from his body, and affixes it to these strange green hands frolicking around the alleys of Gallowmere. You then navigate your way through otherwise inaccessible areas to complete puzzles or open doors. Then go back, put your head back on your body, and charge through the door you just unlocked with Dan Hand!!!
You swing swords, axes, and hammers around amazingly efficiently. Sir Dan effortlessly whirls these heavy weapons around in a comical circle or overhead tomahawks at his enemies. When you hold the attack button for a couple seconds, you build a power shot. Release the button to do a slightly better attack. For example, charge up the short sword, and Sir Dan’s torso actually comes loose from his hips while he spins in a circle with his blade outstretched. Or you can charge the war hammer and you will strike the ground, which causes a seismic wave to hit enemies within a certain distance. These are all cool ideas.
You also use ranged weapons, such as throwing daggers, a blunderbuss (an old OLD fashioned pistol) and a bow with flaming arrows. These are critical to defeating certain enemies, and are in limited supply. To get more, you will have to exchange the bags of gold you collect to pay off the Gargoyle Merchant. He will help you for a price. Sometimes the price is good, sometimes not.
Your health is limited to a power bar. When you get hit, a certain amount of “green” is depleted from your health meter. You can replenish this by scouring the land for Green Old Faithful springs. These areas are basically cracks in the ground that have “green” spewing out of them. You can soak up the green to replenish your health, but the green springs are quickly exhausted and soon run dry. If you die, and you have a life “vial” in your inventory, it will automatically re-fill your health meter and you will hop right back and continue with the action.
Medievil has different levels to complete, each with a boss and an identical quest to collect the Chalice of Souls. Every enemy you kill will release a spirit, which is magically sucked into a Chalice of Souls. The game will tell you when the Chalice is 100 percent filled (meaning it can be collected by Sir Dan). However, the trick is FINDING the chalice. Sometimes it is easy to find, other times it is frustratingly well hidden and hard to find! However, once you collect the chalice, you then exchange the cup of souls for a new weapon. So needless to say, collecting the Chalice is essential—and gives a good incentive for combat against some of the games more difficult enemies.
Is Medievil scary? No, but it is in a somewhat spooky and takes place in an isolated environment. Try to imagine the overwhelming influence of “A Nightmare Before Christmas” combined with the levels of “Devil May Cry”, the game progression of Crash Bandicoot, and then sprinkle in the game play and enemies of the SNES title “Super Ghouls and Ghosts” and you have Medievil!
Medievil is meant to be 4 things: humorous, witty, intriguing, and overall “slick.” It is rated T for Teen, but I think it is intended for a more mature audience. An audience like the 18+ crowd that can pick up on and appreciate the 4 aspects of this game. It has amazingly accomplished all of these goals. This is one “slick” game!
SOUND:
Music is one of a kind. Imagine a small bit of Resident Evil’s spooky music mixed with a couple of Castlevania’s mid-level tracks. If I had to pick ONE thing that Medievil sounds like, I would have to pick Super Ghouls n Ghosts. No matter how you try to describe Medievil’s music or sound effects, one thing is for sure, they are all truly unique to this game (and subsequently Medievil II).
Hearing Sir Dan try to talk is great because all of the characters in the game will be like “What did you say?” and then Sir Dan gets all frustrated because it sure is hard to speak clearly with your lower jaw missing! Again, this is a tribute to the great humor that is injected into this game.
BOSSES:
Medievil’s bosses evolve from “relatively easy” to “tediously difficult” to “strategy-necessitating difficult.” This means that some of the bosses are ridiculously easy, some of them are easy- but require a certain amount of patience to conquer, and lastly, some of the bosses cannot be beaten by brute force alone--- they require thought on how best to attack and possibly inflict the killing blow.
Try to imagine the second Conan movie, where the wizard transformed into a beast and was fighting Arnold Schwarzenegger in the arena with mirrors all over the walls. Conan tried to beat the beast head-to-head, but was losing. So then he decided to start breaking the mirrors around him—this was the only thing that brought pain to the beast. This is how Conan beat the beast: by implementing an alternate, but still feasible, strategy to attack the enemy.
The game’s difficulty is moderate to above average. I think Medievil II is definitely harder, but for the most part Medievil 1 will leave you satisfied with how challenging it was. If you really want a challenge, try to beat the game without using the magical blue sword.
GOOD DECISION:
To use the chalice of souls to encourage fighting enemies. This essentially “levels up” Sir Dan because you get more powerful weapons along the way by trading in the filled chalices. The “Hall of Heroes” usually pokes fun at Sir Dan whenever they can, which again, is humor that young teens and kids might not fully appreciate. It’s kind of like some parts of the movie “Toy Story.” Most kids and young teens enjoy the movie, but in all honesty, it’s the ADULTS who love the movie because we noticed all the subtle humor! This is the same way Medievil was meant to play out.
RE-PLAY ABILITY:
There is really no reason to play through again because there are no alternate missions, scenarios, or characters. However, Medievil is an “enjoyable” game. It is by no means a “5 star game,” but that’s not the point. ENJOYABLE games are those games you continuously want to play, you continuously want to soak it all in, and you enjoy it every time through, not just the first time.
I recommend trying to replay the game without using some of the higher-powered weapons, such as the magical blue sword. This will surely raise the difficulty and force you to have more of a battle strategy and rely more on your health and skills instead of the brute-strength of the magical blue sword.
There is no strategy guide (that I know about) for Medievil (there IS one for Medievil II) This puts the ownes on you, and you alone, to complete this game and figure out all the nooks and crannies. I like that.
CONCLUSION:
This is a game that never gets old. Even as the XBOX 360 comes out and PS3 is on the way, the graphics of this PS1 title never make the game feel dated.
The game play is what you will enjoy the most about this game. Along with the witty humor and jokes about Sir Dan’s inept speech. As was said before, Medievil set out to accomplish 4 things: be humorous, witty, intriguing, and overall “slick.”
Should you buy this game? YES. Problem is, you will hardly ever see one of these on store shelves, even at used video game stores. A good price for a used copy would be $20 bucks or so. Don’t pay more than that. If you can get it new and sealed, I’d be willing to pay upwards of $40. There were no greatest hits versions of Medievil issued by Sony, so all you will find are originals… which more than likely have been played for countless hours. This is the advantage of buying a “new” copy that is un-used.
Medievil is a MUST OWN for any PS1 library. It also plays on the PS2, but you will need a PS1 formatted memory card to save your progress throughout the game.
This game earns a 9/10. Initially I gave it an 8/10 because it was somewhat short (takes about 4 or 5 hours to beat, possibly 6) and the magical blue sword sliced through everything like butter and made it too easy close to the end (even though the last boss fight was still difficult.) But then I bumped it back up to a 9 because this game’s success and fan base is what inspired Sony to create an offspring: Medievil II, which continues right where Medievil 1 left off. Hooray Hoorah!
Get both of the Medievil games, you will be happy forever more.