Has a lot of charm and some good humour, a forgotten classic, despite imprecise controls.
Story
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In 1286, a great battle were fought in the Kingdom of Gallowmere, against the evil wizard Zaork, led by Sir Daniel Fortesque, who fell at the battle, and went down in history, as a hero, due to killing Zaork, while being mortally wounded, hence granted the title of "Hero of Gallowmere"... or at least, that's the official version. In reality, Dan was the very first to be killed in the battle, while leading the charge, while the battle was still won, by Dan's troops.
100 years later, Zaork is supposedly back, steals the souls of a nearby village, and resurrects the dead, to get an army of undead. Of course, this means that Dan get's resurrected (which Zaork must have forgotten all about, but you can't expect him to remember every single event, over the course of a 100 years), so Dan gets another chance, at redeeming his (secret) reputation and defeat Zaork.
The story is small, and doesn't really make any effort to set itself apart from other games, but it does have some good humor, and Dan is actually a charming fellow. It's one of those stories that doesn't' t really need big revealing moments, because the story rather want to be humorous, and while it works, some more humor could have made the story even better.
7.5
Gameplay
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Medievil is mainly a third person action adventure, though some might consider it to have slight horror elements... or perhaps it's just me. Playing the game when I was around 7-8 years old, the game did scare me a lot, though I suppose I was easily scared at the time, that is, until I played the hell out of Resident Evil and Silent Hill.
Anyway, the main goal in each level is generally to reach the goal, by just getting there. Sometimes, this requires collecting certain runes, or collecting certain items, and sometimes resolves small puzzles and riddles. The objectives always remains the same, but the level design, while nothing spectacular, it never gets boring. The levels comes in different varieties, and though you may have to go through some levels with the same theme (cemeteries, fields), they never outstay their welcome. Along with getting through each level, there's also Chalices to collect. Chalices can only be obtained after killing a certain amount of enemies, though once collected, they open up free gifts at the Hall of Heroes.
The game is fun, mainly for its level design, and there is some charm to the environments, and the game does have some funny moments. The combat is a bit weird though. For swords and hammers, you just have to go at them and hope you can hit them. At first, it's a bit too easy to get hit, and while you can defend yourself with a shield, they don't last forever. However, eventually, you do get used to it, and can take on several enemies without getting hit, and at least, weapons like throwing knives and crossbows has automatic aiming, though figuring out what your aiming at can be a bit hard, because it's all decided by a small colored indicator, that flies around the target, it's so small that it can be hard to see, and there's no control over it either.
That's not the only problem. The controls are a bit imprecise, regarding the platforming moments. Though there isn't a lot of them (including a level that almost focuses on platforming only), it can still lead to moments of frustration, because jumping isn't as precise as you'd want it to be, and it's not easy to run either (press one of the buttons on the d-pad twice to run), and it's less precise than just walking. Some of the levels also doesn't do a good job of telling you what to do either, like in the final level, where you need something called "Good Lightning", and it can be obtained by some chests, but the game doesn't tell you this, so it requires some guess work, or walkthrough searching at some points. Boss fights are generally good, but there is one or two bosses, that could do better with some explanations, or hints.
The game is pretty short too. Yea, I used to play it a lot when I was kid, but that was ages ago, but if your like me, and good at games, it shouldn't take you more than 6 hours to complete. There is an alternate ending, if you get all of the chalices, but it's not really worth getting, as it doesn't really provide anything special, and the chalices are easy to find anyway.
7.5
Graphics
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For a PS1 game, circa 1998, Medievil looks good, the characters looks pretty good and the environments looks like something Tim Burton could have designed, it's all really good and has a charm to it. While things do run smooth, there are times, where there are some minor clipping issues, and from some angles, some objects have a tendency to disappear, making some parts look really weird. Overall though, for a PS1 game, it looks pretty good.
9.5
Sound
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While I do miss some ambience from the different levels, the music is excellent, and helps provide to (maybe some) small horrorific moments, and while the voice acting have a tendency to sound a bit odd (sometimes, it just sounds like they don't bother changing tone in their voices), but there's a good British charm to it, and the lines actually are well written.
9.5
Overall
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Imprecise controls aside, Medievil are, what I consider, a classic. The premise is actually pretty cool, and the little humor there is, is actually pretty funny. The whole game has a nostalgic, charming feeling to it, so while you might not think anything special about the game at first, the game's charm will eventually start hooking you in. It's a forgotten classic among the PS library, and though it's short, the, at least, only costs around $5.