Medievil Review

 Sir Daniel Fortesque, the greatest hero Gallowmere has ever known*

A true standout on the original Playstation. Medievil is a lighthearted gothic adventure starring the infamous, and still delightfully well remembered, Sir Daniel Fortesque. A skeleton who's charming, jawless smile is as iconic to the console as Crash Bandicoots goofy dances or Spyro's flightless romps.

Medievil itself is not a particularly complex game, in fact on the base level it's extremely straightforward. You play as the resurrected Daniel in his quest to defeat the evil wizard Zarok, saving the land of Gallowmere from an endless, haunting night. It fits very much in the role of hack and slash platformer. Giving you a wide array of fun to use, if samey weapons to beat up all the zombies, ghouls, ghosts, and/or goblins that may stand in your way. Dan himself has some heft to his movements, as well as a noticeable turning circle and momentum that reminds me of a slightly less fluid Mario 64. But in this context it works well, allowing you to feel like a knight on a quest as opposed to your usual hyper-controllable platformer protagonist. Aside from a few levels that skirt the boundaries of what is and isn't okay regarding precision jumps. 

The combat is extremely barebones, most enemies are beaten easily enough with either a wide charged swing, or spamming melee and projectile attacks. But the speed of encounters means that rather than being lacking, it just allows the game to flow from one setpiece or interesting environment to the next. 100% completion is reached both by collecting the odd max health upgrade scattered around the land, and by chalices. One in each level that can only be collected after successfully slaying a certain amount of monsters. It's nothing to write home about, but it's as good a checkmark for completion as any. Requiring you to deal with everything in your way while allowing some wiggle room to avoid softlocks. Again, aside from the odd level that can force a reset without you realizing.

The true reason this game is remembered though is the atmosphere and notably british humour. Rare fans will definitely feel right at home with an extreme level of snark, satire, and the odd subtle parody or reference. Including a dragon that they just straightup made sound like Sean Connery I mean come on it's not eve-

The environments are gorgeous too, feeling very much like a childrens halloween special with eery castles, swamps, graveyards and haunted battlefields aplenty. That's not to disregard the horror, rather it allows it to embody the true strength of the term "family friendly." I could see myself recommending this almost instantly to any child who showed an interest in the macabre or horrific, as kids are want to do. It's bloodless, and has a good sense of fun and adventure, but still has the creepiness of zombies falling apart, ghostly atmospheres and danger and death around every corner without actually being offputting at all. As an adult it even still has an appeal simply in being so palatable and pleasant of a horror comedy experience.

All in all, I don't know what suit at Sony loves Sir Daniel Fortesque enough to keep giving him cameos and chances at remakes and remasters. But I thank them for it, he really does deserve it. For his is a toothy grin I doubt I'll ever forget.

*They don't know all that much

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