| Gauntlet Dark Legacy |
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| game boy advance games | |
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Gauntlet Dark Legacy, released in arcades in 1999 and in 2001 for Playstation 2 and the following year for Game Boy Advance , GameCube and Xbox , is an expansion of the previous title in the series, Gauntlet Legends . The expansion adds four new character classes (Dwarf, Knight, Jester, and Sorceress), and four new levels (Dream World, Desert, Forest, and Forsaken Provice). It also adds a large number of secret characters, some of which can be unlocked in the game, most only accessible by entering specific Cheat Codes . STORY "In an ancient time, the evil mage Garm, using the power of the Runestones, released a great evil upon the land. This demon, Skorne, broke free of Garm's control, crushing him and imprisoning his soul in the underworld. Skorne then released his minions upon the land, and scattered the Runestones across the Eight Realms, so that they might never again be assembled and used against him. No one has dared try. . . Until now." (From the game's introductory cinematic) The manual included with the game elaborates on the story farther, stating that Sumner is the good king of the 8 realms and presides over them from his tower. The tower contained portals to all the realms for his easy access to them. It also stated that Garm, his younger brother, jealous of his power and status, searched for years for the 13 Runestones. Upon finding 12 after much toil of searching, he became impatient, and released Skorne then and there. Unfortunatley, he was not able to control the demon without the 13th Runestone. Skorne summoned his minions and sent them through the portals in the tower to conquer the realms. Sumner, who was away at the time, returned to the tower, only to see the demon Skorne using it for his own evil gain. This infuriated Sumner, and he angrily engaged in battle with Skorne after sealing all the portals. Skorne was "no match" for Sumner's power, according to the manual, and he retreated into the Temple through Sumner's tower. Skorne shattered the enchanted stained glass window that was the only gateway to the temple, and gave one shard to each of his most powerful minions (the bosses of the game). He also scattered the 12 assembled Runestones across the various worlds. The temple from that point on is referred to as the Desecrated Temple. The game is divided up into worlds, each containing a number of levels, all accessible from Sumner's tower. The player's first objective is to beat all the levels, vanquishing the bosses of the 8 originally available worlds. The player must collect crystals scattered about the levels to deactivate Sumner's protective sheilding and gain access to new worlds and more levels. Upon defeating the bosses, the stained-glass window is slowly restored, and the light pouring from it reveals a special portal in the tower. This portal takes the player to the 9th world, the Desecrated Temple. The player must fight his or her way through a single level packed with enemies. Upon exiting the player is automatically transported to Skorne's chamber, with no stop for break in between. Here the player has to defeat the demon Skorne. After defeating him, he retreats into the Underworld. The player must then collect 12 Runestones from the previous 8 worlds. Once that is accomplished, their power reveals another special portal in the tower, leading the player into the 10th world, the Underworld. There, after beating a single level, the player is automatically transported to the battle with True Skorne (a stronger version of Skorne). The player defeats True Skorne, banishing him from the eight realms forever. But the war is not over. Garm absorbs the fading remnants of Skorne's power, becoming a huge, immensely powerful statue of Skorne. He forms an army and unleashes an assault upon Sumner's tower. The player's final goal is to beat the 11th and final world, the Battlegrounds. After beating the third level of this world and collecting the 13th Runestone that is hidden within it, the third and final special portal is revealed in the tower. This portal takes the player to Garm's Citadel, where the final battle of the game takes place. CHARACTERS Player Characters Each character has unmatched abilities in certain areas; specifically ''magic'', ''strength'', ''speed'', and ''armor''.
Each playable character also has a corresponding unlockable character that wields the same weapon and uses the same moves, but has higher initial stats. For instance, Archer, a character available at the beginning of the game with superior speed, has a corresponding unlockable of Tigress. Tigress is essentially the same as Archer except for her appearance and the fact that she has higher initial stats than Archer (but her predominant stat is still speed.) Non-Player Characters Sumner - A dark-skinned wizard dressed in yellow robes with a white beard.. The brother of Garm, he is the one who initially summoned the player(s) to his tower, which serves as the hub to all other worlds of the game. He narrates the game, and also gives the player helpful hints using scrolls placed throughout the levels and holograms after each boss battle. Though he is not playable in the beginning, he can be unlocked in the last level of the Battlefields, the very last level of the game before the final boss battle. His level, stats, and HP are all at maximum (99, 999, and 9999 respectively) upon unlocking him, as opposed to other unlockables, which still need to be leveled up upon obtaining them. He has the same moveset as the Wizard, making him the only second unlockable alternative for a class in the game, the Wizard's first being the Jackal . When playing as him, the game is already beaten, thus all worlds are accessible, and he begins with nine keys and potions as well as 5000 gold (the money for the game). Skorne - The evil demon, unleashed by Garm. He overpowered Garm without the control of the 13th Runestone, draining him of his magical abilities. He is one of the main antagonists of the game. Garm - Sumner's evil brother who gathered 12 of the 13 Runestones and released Skorne from the Underworld, ultimately beginning the main plotline of the game. Upon inheriting Skorne's remaining power after his defeat, he became a large statue of Skorne and assumed his place as the true and final antagonist of the game. There are also 11 bosses in Gauntlet Dark Legacy. The bosses in this game are of two types: mobile, and immobile (which stay rooted at the rear of the 'arena'). Mobile bosses walk around the 'arena', usually hitting the player with melee attacks. Immobile bosses do not move, and instead stay rooted at the rear of the arena, firing projectiles to attack. All of the bosses are immobile with the exception of the Spider Queen and the Lich. LEGENDARY WEAPONS Each boss has a special Legendary Weapon to which they are vulnerable. It is not necessary to find these weapons to defeat the bosses, they only make the boss battles significantly less difficult. Often these weapons are hidden in another realm, and are typically not found until much later in the game. For instance, the Lich is the boss of the first realm the player can enter, the Forsaken Province. However, the Legendary Weapon to which he is vulnerable, the Good Book, isn't found until the Sky Domain, the fourth realm the player can enter. The console version of the game allows players to skip fighting boss characters on their first playthrough of a realm, thus allowing them to progress into the game and find the boss' corresponding Legendary Weapon before having to fight them. The Legendary Weapon will use itself upon entering the its respective boss battle, implementing its effects, usually cutting the boss' health or lowering its accuracy for a short time. GAMEPLAY Gauntlet Dark Legacy, although an expansion to Gauntlet Legends, is played much differently. In addition to the new characters, players can now fire both slow and fast attacks. The player has an option of performing a slow, strong attack, or a quick, weaker attack, as opposed to Legends, where there is only one type of attack. In Gauntlet Dark Legacy, the player can perform combos by using slow attacks and quick attacks in sequence. Combos are much stronger than normal attacks, and are usually capable of taking out several enemies at once. In Legends, each player had a turbo gauge that refilled itself slowly and automatically. This turbo gauge allowed the player to use turbo attacks, attacks that are stronger than the normal ones. When the turbo gauge was empty, no turbo attacks could have been used until it filled up again. Dark Legacy keeps the turbo gauge, but expands on it, allows two players standing adjacent to each other to perform a combination turbo attack together, usually packing a lot of force (and draining half of the turbo gauge of the player that initiated the combination turbo). The way a player uses items is also different. In the first game, the player could gather items, and then activate them when they please. The items would provide benefits and disappear within a set time. In Dark Legacy, items (with the exception of Magic Potions, items that allow the player to use magic) are used the moment they are obtained with the same duration. The shop, where the player can purchase items in between levels, is also different. More items are available in the shop in Dark Legacy (with very high prices) and the old items' prices were changed. This places more emphasis on the decision of what item to buy, as usually the player can only afford one or two. With the absence of the ability to use collected items at will, the buttons required to scroll through the player's list of items were made available for the second game. In Dark Legacy, the player has the added abilities of blocking, charging, and strafing. Strafing allows the player to constantly face one direction and fire medium-speed attacks (a speed lying somewhere in between the slow and fast attacks that can normally be performed). Blocking causes the player's character to stand still in a defensive position for a second or two. Any melee attacks made against the player are negated or do significantly less damage. Charging consumes a bit of the turbo gauge, but it makes the player run forward with his weapon functioning like a Lance while simultaneously blocking. However, the game still has identifiable roots with the original Gauntlet games. The way to go about most levels is to simply run along a designated path, decimating enemies before they can kill you. Like Gauntlet and Gauntlet II, enemies spawn from Generators. Only when the Generator is destroyed will the enemies stop spawning. Some Generators will take multiple hits to destroy; as the Generator is weakened, it will spawn less powerful enemies, until it is destroyed completley. There are some, but very few, levels that have a maze-like aspect to them, and are thus hard to navigate to the exit. Most levels however have the path to the end easily in sight, with separate side paths that are harder to access. Usually these side paths lead to important items (a lot of treasure, a Legendary Weapon, or a Runestone). Food still recovers health in Dark Legacy as it did in Gauntlet II, with the type of food restoring different amounts of health. Treasure is also a rarity in Dark Legacy, as it is used to purchase items at the store. This is a difference from the earlier Gauntlet games, as in their levels treasure was everywhere, and it gave extra points, but it did not serve any other purpose. EXTERNAL LINKS |
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