Home
Bought this for my brother for Christmas and I'm going to hand it over tomorrow so I'm having a quick jam first.
This game is another good example of an early action game, and while pretty basic, it features a few interesting mechanics you don't see often in action games.
While I played the original quite a bit on release, I can't remember that much for comparisons, so I'll just talk about the remake on its own.
First, the interesting mechanics I referred to are properties of the jump attacks, and running while attacking.
Jumping attacks
Jumping attacks don't stop you in the air, same as how they work on Chaos Legion. A big difference in Medievil is if you jump during and attack, you don't cancel it, but rather actually carry it into the air. I don't recall ever seeing something like that before.
For example, when you do the sword's charge attack where he spins a few times, you could jump during the first spin but it will keep going into the next while rising.
Mobile attacking
The second is attacking while moving.
This is not any kind of dash attack extension; I mean the regular attacks can be done while running, as if you were doing them on the spot.
There's no dodge move (basing that on the original) in this game, but being able to move and jump freely while attacking gives you a lot of mobility.
There are some exceptions which I'll mention as they come up.
Mobile guard
When you have a shield, you can run while blocking. Blocking is 360 degrees but the shield has durability. You can also attack while blocking from complete safety.
Here's what we start with. Note that these attacks can all be done while running and jumping as described above, so I'm not going to list those variations unless there are exceptions.
You get the sword, shield and throwing daggers immediately, but you start with nothing except your arm which can be used as a weapon. If you use your arm, you can't use the shield at the same time because he tears off his shield arm.
Arm
This has two attacks; a basic swing and a throw. The throw is pretty much a boomerang and has decent range. Nice as a completely free ranged attack. Note that if you switch to your sub-weapon, your arm will materialize back on and you'll have to do the tearing off animation again. Doesn't have a charge attack.
Sword
When you repeatedly press the attack button, he does continuously left and right quick slashes. This starts with an initial slash or double slash that only ever appear as the starter to the rapid one. So can start the rapid slash after either.
There is a somewhat hidden combo, where you press attack twice to do that initial double slash, then just as the second one ends, press attack again and he'll do a stab. From there you can mash the button to go into the rapid slashes.
I'll mention the jumping attacks because they're different. He does the stab instead of the double slash, and if you're doing the rapid slashes, he will stop them.
If you do the jumping stab, when he lands and you try to mash into the rapid slash, he won't go into it immediately as normal. Instead, he'll do the initial regular slash, but twice and not go into the double slash. No idea why this happens. If you just land from a jump it behaves as normal.
>Charge attack
Has a short and long version. You can move freely while charging, but it doesn't seem to be able to hit enemies behind even though you can see the sword pass through them. At the end of the spin it will hit them behind though, so it must be at a certain point.
Throwing daggers
Great range, decent firing rate, and have a charged version. Uses ammo though, and the charge attack costs 3, because that's how many it throws. Seems that the charged version only targets one enemy, but if that enemy dies during it, it can hit others nearby.
On basic, first level zombies, it takes 3 normal throws to kill one anyway, so you may as well just charge. Single throws only stop them for half a second meaning they'll always be advancing, where a charged throw will drop them instantly. This in only the first stage though, so might wind up useless later.
That's all I have for now, and probably won't be getting much further. I know you get a crossbow after the first boss, and a hammer at some point. There's also a torch, which might only be available in areas that require it to burn something down, but can still be used to attack. Maybe a possible burn status?
Maybe when my brother is done I'll borrow this and look more into it. I'll keep playing for now and post anything of interest later.
This game is another good example of an early action game, and while pretty basic, it features a few interesting mechanics you don't see often in action games.
While I played the original quite a bit on release, I can't remember that much for comparisons, so I'll just talk about the remake on its own.
First, the interesting mechanics I referred to are properties of the jump attacks, and running while attacking.
Jumping attacks
Jumping attacks don't stop you in the air, same as how they work on Chaos Legion. A big difference in Medievil is if you jump during and attack, you don't cancel it, but rather actually carry it into the air. I don't recall ever seeing something like that before.
For example, when you do the sword's charge attack where he spins a few times, you could jump during the first spin but it will keep going into the next while rising.
Mobile attacking
The second is attacking while moving.
This is not any kind of dash attack extension; I mean the regular attacks can be done while running, as if you were doing them on the spot.
There's no dodge move (basing that on the original) in this game, but being able to move and jump freely while attacking gives you a lot of mobility.
There are some exceptions which I'll mention as they come up.
Mobile guard
When you have a shield, you can run while blocking. Blocking is 360 degrees but the shield has durability. You can also attack while blocking from complete safety.
Here's what we start with. Note that these attacks can all be done while running and jumping as described above, so I'm not going to list those variations unless there are exceptions.
You get the sword, shield and throwing daggers immediately, but you start with nothing except your arm which can be used as a weapon. If you use your arm, you can't use the shield at the same time because he tears off his shield arm.
Arm
This has two attacks; a basic swing and a throw. The throw is pretty much a boomerang and has decent range. Nice as a completely free ranged attack. Note that if you switch to your sub-weapon, your arm will materialize back on and you'll have to do the tearing off animation again. Doesn't have a charge attack.
Sword
When you repeatedly press the attack button, he does continuously left and right quick slashes. This starts with an initial slash or double slash that only ever appear as the starter to the rapid one. So can start the rapid slash after either.
There is a somewhat hidden combo, where you press attack twice to do that initial double slash, then just as the second one ends, press attack again and he'll do a stab. From there you can mash the button to go into the rapid slashes.
I'll mention the jumping attacks because they're different. He does the stab instead of the double slash, and if you're doing the rapid slashes, he will stop them.
If you do the jumping stab, when he lands and you try to mash into the rapid slash, he won't go into it immediately as normal. Instead, he'll do the initial regular slash, but twice and not go into the double slash. No idea why this happens. If you just land from a jump it behaves as normal.
>Charge attack
Has a short and long version. You can move freely while charging, but it doesn't seem to be able to hit enemies behind even though you can see the sword pass through them. At the end of the spin it will hit them behind though, so it must be at a certain point.
Throwing daggers
Great range, decent firing rate, and have a charged version. Uses ammo though, and the charge attack costs 3, because that's how many it throws. Seems that the charged version only targets one enemy, but if that enemy dies during it, it can hit others nearby.
On basic, first level zombies, it takes 3 normal throws to kill one anyway, so you may as well just charge. Single throws only stop them for half a second meaning they'll always be advancing, where a charged throw will drop them instantly. This in only the first stage though, so might wind up useless later.
That's all I have for now, and probably won't be getting much further. I know you get a crossbow after the first boss, and a hammer at some point. There's also a torch, which might only be available in areas that require it to burn something down, but can still be used to attack. Maybe a possible burn status?
Maybe when my brother is done I'll borrow this and look more into it. I'll keep playing for now and post anything of interest later.