MediEvil Resurrection

Infobox VG| title = MediEvil Resurrection
title = MediEvil Resurrection


developer = SCE Studio Cambridge
publisher = Sony Computer Entertainment
designer =
engine =
released = vgrelease|EU=September 1, 2005|NA=September 13, 2005
genre = Action adventure
modes = Single-player, multi player
ratings = vgratings|ESRB=Teen|PEGI=7+|OFLCA=G8+
platforms = PlayStation Portable
media = UMD
requirements =
input =

"MediEvil Resurrection" is a video game for the Sony PSP entertainment system. It is based on the same story of the original PlayStation game "MediEvil". "MediEvil Resurrection" is a remake storywise to "MediEvil", but many things, such as level layout, characters, and minigames, have changed drastically. It was released on September 1, 2005, in Europe and on September 13, 2005 in the United States.

Plot

"MediEvil: Resurrection"'s background story is identical to that of the original Playstation "MediEvil". Long ago, in the peaceful kingdom of Gallowmere, the good king Peregrine ruled justly and fairly over a populace who were quite content with life. However, Peregrine had in his royal retinue a sorcerer, a brilliant but unscrupulous man named Zarok. Rather than confine himself to the horoscopes and balloon animals for which he had been employed, he conducted horrific experiments with the bodies of the dead. Since people tend to get touchy about their deceased loved ones, Peregrine dismissed Zarok from the court.

Zarok skulked away to construct his own evil lair, continue his evil experiments, and practice his evil villain laugh. Eventually, Zarok mustered an army of demons and undead horrors and unleashed them upon Gallowmere. There was a great battle, called, simply enough, the Battle of Gallowmere, in which the forces of the kingdom clashed with Zarok's dark army.

The royal forces were led by a knight named Sir Daniel Fortesque. Sir Dan, as he is called in-game, had become captain of the guard through tall tales of his brave exploits. In reality, Sir Dan was a bit of a coward, and had never been in a proper battle. He died at the beginning of the battle when he was hit in the eye by a stray arrow.

However, the royal forces were successful in defeating Zarok, and Sir Dan went down in history as a great hero. For a hundred years, peace reigned in Gallowmere and the peasants lived life honoring the memory of the "brave" Sir Daniel Fortesque.

One hundred years later, Zarok has returned and has once again amassed an army of doom. However, he has unknowingly awoken Sir Dan as well. Sir Dan awakes suddenly as if from sleep to find that he has been dead for a hundred years and that a being who calls himself Al-Zalam, and also claims to have once been a powerful genie, has been squatting inside his skull all this time.

Sir Dan attempts to tell him to get lost, only to find that his lower jaw is missing and that he cannot speak properly. When he does, it sounds muffled, however some convenient subtitles appear so that the player can see what he is saying. Al-Zalam's powers, he says, were stripped by Zarok, therefore Al-Zalam has a personal grudge against Zarok. Sir Dan and Al-Zalam have a common enemy in Zarok, so Al-Zalam decides to remain in Sir Dan's skull and offer his genie advice—Sir Dan has little choice in the matter. So, Sir Dan sets off from his crypt to defeat Zarok and prove himself to Gallowmere's true heroes.

Characters

Sir Daniel Fortesque aka Sir Dan: The captain of the guard who fell in the first wave of arrows at the Battle of Gallowmere. He was unknowingly resurrected by Zarok a hundred years later, and has been given a chance in death to prove himself the hero he never was in life.

Zarok: Evil sorcerer who was once part of King Peregrines retinue and was banished for meddling with the dead. Defeated at the battle of Gallowmere. He returned a hundred years later to plague Gallowmere once again.

Al-Zalam: Supposedly a powerful Genie from the east whose powers were stripped by Zarok, now a bothersome squatter in Sir Dan's skull. He offers advice to Sir Dan and tries to pull off jokes when he gets the chance.

Death: The Grim Reaper himself appears in the game. He is extremely frustrated with Zarok's raising the dead all over, making his job quite difficult. He is fond of Sir Dan and is sort of a father figure to him.

Stone Gargoyles: These normally lifeless statues come to life when approached or struck with one of Dan's weapons. The green gargoyles offer advice but generally make abusive comments towards Dan. The red gargoyles act as vendors for ammunition and repairs. Also the gargoyles do not much resemble those found in Gothic architecture, looking rather more like cartoon characters.

Enemies

Zombie: Typical brain-hungry monsters.

Zombie Guards: Bulky, stronger zombies.

Skeleton Warriors: Fast, skinny, intelligent and well-armed.

Headless Zombies: The lack of head does not prevent them from charging.

Boiler Guards: Armed with flame throwers.

Armored Knights: Armed with Fist's sometimes Short Swords and a Shield.

Fairies: They are baby faced gangster folk.

Ghouls: .

Hay Monsters: .

Dragon Toads: .

Head Bangers: There mad lunatic's from gallowmere's asylum that have skin straight jackets and a big metal plateswith six metal nails implanted in there big head's.

Pumpkin Plants: .

Mecha Imps: .

Undead Warriors: .

Bosses

Bosses are often fairly obvious to spot and have a red health bar at the bottom center of the screen when encountered.

Stained-Glass Demon: An evil spirit locked inside of a stained-glass body. Located at the hilltop mausoleum. Can only be defeated by pelting its heart with ranged-weapons when it is exposed.

Stone Wolves: These guardians were crafted in an attempt to lower the rate of grave robberies. They have the uncanny ability to solidify and un-solidify themselves during combat. They can only be damaged when they are translucent.

Mad Axeman: Uses the line "Here's Mr. Axy!", an obvious parody of the infamous "Here's Johnny!" from The Shining. The Mad Axeman strikes a balance between the temperament of a derranged four-year-old and the body of a pro wrestler with a fetish for axe murder. The Mad Axeman can only be damaged when his axe is stuck in the ground and is unable to attack. However, at about half health, he'll ditch his axe and use ramming attacks instead. Just trick him into ramming support columns and he'll eventually die.

Pumpkin King: An evil pumpkin the size of a small planet. The easiest way to kill him is to slash his throat when he exposes it to deploy 'pumpkin-minions'.

Demonettes: These little fairy-like creatures fly around the platform Sir Dan stands on, and sometimes stop to fire some bolts of electricity. This is the only time you can hit them, and you have to use ranged weapons such as throwing daggers. They frequently tip the platform Dan stands on.

The Dragon King: This dragon is needed to be defeated to advance to Haunted Ruins. At first you will start off in a cave with four holes in the wall. The dragon will poke its head out of one of the holes and breathes fire and Dan will need to whack the sections of platform he stands on and bring a rock down on the dragon's head. The rocks will eventually fall out of the holes after time, so Dan must be quick! After no holes are open and the dragons has been hit in every hole, the Dragon King will burst through the cave wall. His new attack is to beat his wings and breath fire. It is recommended that Dan hide behind one of the large floor crystals when the dragon is beating its wings and run in, dodging the fire, to hit it when breathing fire. After you defeat the Dragon King he will surrender his 'mother' to you - The Dragon Armour

Pirate Captain: The captain of the Ghost Ship. The only way to harm him is to light the cannon when you have a lined-up shot. Repeat quite a few times and you'll eventually defeat him.

Lord Kardok: The champion warrior of Zarok's horde. Unlike in MediEvil, where he is a knight riding a horse resembling that of Ghost Rider's, Kardok is an undead Centaur. He is constantly Firing magical arrows and charging around, however, his attack patterns are very easy to read, so dodging him isn't TOO hard, but killing him takes a long time. He will only expose his weak spot (underbelly) early on in the battle, then his tactics and the arena itself will change.

Zarok: The Sorcerer behind these macabre events. In this battle, he transforms himself into a gigantic cobra. The only way to harm him is to slice at the cage-looking rattle at the end of his tail.

ir Dan's weapons

Most of Dan's weapons are indestructible, apart from shields and the club.

Melee weapons

Dan's arm: If all else fails, Dan can pull off his own bony arm and hit his enemies with it. He can also throw it and it will return to him like a boomerang. However, Dan's arm does minimal damage and is the game's worst and weakest weapon.

Wooden Sword: Dan acquires this weapon in the first level, his Crypt, and never actually fights enemies with it. It does cause more damage then Dan's arm, but only marginally.

Short Sword: Dan wields it one-handed. Its moves are identical to the wooden sword but being made of metal it does a good bit more damage to enemies. It's found near the beginning of the 'Graveyard' level.

Long Sword: Given to Dan in a trip to "The Hall of Heroes". It has a much greater range than the short sword and also much has a lot more damage. Dan wields it with both hands and therefore cannot equip a shield while using it.

Club: One of the first weapons Dan finds, this is a rather hefty wooden club with spikes on its end, used for hitting enemies. It can be used to smash rocks that are blocking Sir Dan's way and can also be lit on fire in order to light torches.

Bronze Shield: While not a weapon "per se", Dan can charge enemies and deal damage to them with a shield equipped. The bronze shield is small and round, and can be equipped in Dan's other hand when he is using a single-handed weapon such as the Short Sword.

Silver Shield: This is a more durable version of the Bronze shield. It's also larger and made of silver. While less common than the Bronze shield, it can be found in chests hidden in various levels.

Golden Shield: Normally, only an idiot would make a shield out of gold because of how flimsy it is. But this shield is magical and therefore a lot more durable than any other shield found in this game. It is found in the Hall of Heroes.

Hero's Sword: Dan found it in "The Hall of Heroes". It is a sword like the Short Sword, but not completely. It is golden and slightly larger, in relation to Short Sword, and is about 30% more effective. This sword is not found in the original MediEvil.

Woden's Brand: The Woden's Brand is the most powerful sword in the game, the player can kill a Shadow Demon with only a mere two hits with this weapon. You need all eight carnival tokens to unlock it, unfortunately.

Magic Sword: It's larger than Long Sword, has a spear in the top, and is very heavy. Dan receives this in the Hall of Heroes (the hero on the right of the Great Gate, on the second floor).

War Hammer: pretty much had the same destructive abilities as the club (breaking certain rocks and walls), but it is not destructible and cannot be lighted. It is gained in the 2nd trip to the hall of heroes.

Ranged Weapons

Daggers: These rather large daggers can be thrown one at a time or in groups of two at enemies. Useful for dealing with groups of weaker enemies.

Crossbow: Shoots crossbow bolts one at a time or in groups. The player can hold the X or Square buttons down for continuous fire. 2 crossbows exist: the normal Crossbow and the Heroes Crossbow (This is golden, like the Heroes Sword).

Bows: A standard longbow. The bow can fire three forms of arrows: Normal, Fire (which ignites stuff), and Magic(which usually fatally electrifies opponents).

Axe: Obtained in the "Hall Of Heroes", Dan can throw this thing around as many times as he wants and never has to worry about re-stocking it, unless some imp steals it from him but what goof ball of a skeleton would he be to lose this baby. It also has a melee attack and two forms of charge attack: Charge 1 allows him to put more power into his throw so that the axe deals more damage and can travel farther. Charge 2 allows him to use the melee attack with a "twist".

Chicken Drumstick: The villagers say it's very fast, and economically powerful. To get it, the player needs the Dragon's Armor item. Once the armor is obtained, it can be found at the end of the lava in Dan's Crypt. When thrown at an enemy, it turns into a large piece of cooked chicken, which Dan can eat for health.

Spear: An Amazonian war-spear. Found in "The Hall of Heroes".

Lightning: A lightning blast that attacks multiple enemies within range. Given to Dan by Megwynne.

Anubis Stone: The stone used by Zarok to gain a better understanding of Necromancy. Dan uses it to raise his own 'counter-army'.

The map

The realm of Gallowmere is a fascinating place to a dead man like poor old Sir Daniel Fortesque even after his last sight of its landscape which by the way was 100 years ago. Each place in this fictional realm has its own individual puzzles and enemies.

Dan's Crypt: Home sweet home. The very first level in the game is Dan's Crypt and its name basically tells everything about it: it is a crypt that happens to belong to Dan. This crypt was constructed after Dan's unfortunate death. The king, knowing what really happened to Dan, wanted to keep his cowardice a secret to the populace of Gallowmere so he gave Dan the grave of a hero—his own personal crypt. Here Dan meets up with Al-Zalam and a not so friendly gargoyle. Through out the level are books on weapons, artifacts, and the creatures of Gallowmere, and there is even a training room for Dan to catch up on his ancient sword fighting skills. There is a room full of lava here too, but a part of it is not accessible until the player obtains the dragon's armor. This part of the room contains the all mighty chicken drumsticks. Another room holds the chalice and a "mommy" according to Al-Zalam (mummy), that can not be accessed until the player obtains a club or the war hammer. The player must also have the spade to obtain the chalice here.

The Graveyard: The second level in the game, Sir Daniel will get new weapons and a shield and will start fighting garden zombies and brute zombies. Dan will need to get through to catch up with Zarok however...

Cemetery Hill: In this level Dan gets closer to meeting Zarok, the evil sorcerer. Skeleton enemies are introduced as well as headless zombies. He can also collect the Witches Talisman, which, when used near a full cauldron, can summon a witch. After braving a huge hill with lots of big rolling rocks, Dan finally advances.

oundtrack

The music is split into two halves. The cues from the first half are largely reminiscent of a select number of cues from the original game, with the addition of extra thematic elements to strengthen and tie them together. The other half of the music is totally original, and written exclusively for this iteration of the franchise. All the music was performed live. The orchestra consisted of around 80 players and was made up of members of the Prague Philharmonic and recorded in Prague on the Barrandov Recording Stage. In addition the score benefits from a 32 piece choir, also recorded in the same venue. This follows in the tradition of Sony Cambridge's previous orchestral game "Primal" which was also recorded there by the same performers.

External links

* [http://www.us.playstation.com/PSP/Games/UCUS-98620/OGS Official "MediEvil Resurrection" website]