MediEvil: Resurrection

MediEvil: Resurrection
European cover art.
Tagline(s)	The realm of Gallowmere needs a hero.
Developer(s)	SCEE Cambridge Studio Implicit Conversions (2024 re-release)
Publishers	Sony Computer Entertainment
Platform(s)	PlayStation Portable, PlayStation Network
Release date(s)	September 1, 2005 Playstation Portable: EU September 1, 2005 NA September 13, 2005 EU June 1, 2006 (Platinum) EU June 2, 2010 (Essentials) PlayStation Network: EU May 2, 2008 NA June 26, 2008 EU June 9, 2010 (Essentials) WW August 15, 2023 (PS+ Premium)
Ratings	PEGI: 7+ ESRB: Teen OFLC: G8+ USK: 12
Mode(s)	Single-player, multiplayer
Serials	UCES-00006 (Europe) UCUS-98620 (America)
Previous game	MediEvil 2 April 21, 2000
Next game	MediEvil October 25, 2019

MediEvil: Resurrection is the third installment in the MediEvil series. It is a reimagining of the original MediEvil developed by SCEE Cambridge Studio. It was released as a launch title for the PSP on September 1, 2005, in Europe, and on September 13, 2005, in the United States.

The game was re-released as a platinum title in Europe on June 1, 2006. It was made available for download from the PlayStation Store on May 29, 2008 in Europe, and on June 26, 2008 in the United States.

On August 15, 2023, MediEvil: Resurrection was re-released on PS4 and PS5 via the PlayStation Plus Premium service. This emulated version of the game was developed by Implicit Conversions who enhanced it with up-rendering, rewind, quick save, custom video filters and trophy support.

Differences from MediEvil

The game features many alterations to the original structure and content, such as:

• The addition of the "Anubis Stone" sub-plot, which never appeared in the original game. The Anubis Stone replaces the power of the Chalices used to summon the undead army to help Dan at the end of the game.
• The Chalices can be collected as soon as they are found, rather than requiring Dan to kill enough enemies to pick them up. However, Dan still has to fill the Chalice with the souls of his enemies in order to be taken to the Hall of Heroes.
• The green target indicator that was only used for ranged weapons in the original game is now present at all times, even while Dan is using melee weapons or only his arm. This also allows Dan to lock-on when fighting enemies.
• The game now includes two-handed weapons that prevent Dan from using a shield. The Warhammer is one of these weapons.
• Many things such as level design and characters were changed drastically, and some levels from the original were removed altogether.
  • Dan's Crypt features books with extensive in-game tutorials, as well as a room that showcases all the weapons that the player has collected. There are also illustrated books with enemy data, which include hints on how to defeat each enemy.
  • Some levels were merged in order to make them longer, such as the Pumpkin Gorge and The Pumpkin Serpent levels from the original. The Pumpkin King is fought in the Pumpkin Gorge, rather than in a seperate stage.
• New levels and characters were introduced, the cutscenes are completely original, and the game was given a much more comical, cartoon-like style as opposed to the Gothic horror of the original.
  • In order to make the game even more comical, the narrator cracks jokes about the game world during loading screens.
• The soundtrack is also completely orchestrated, and many of the themes from the original were removed while new themes were created to fit with the new levels.
• Unlike in the original game, there is no alternate ending; Dan still goes to the Hall of Heroes regardless of whether he collects all of the chalices.
• Kul Katura the Serpent Lord no longer appears in Scarecrow Fields. The Serpent of Gallowmere no longer appears since The Gallows Gauntlet level was removed.
• Many of the characters have had their personalities and backstories altered to fit inline with the more comedic tone that game takes.

Gameplay

Gameplay is similar to that of the original game. Dan can utilise a variety of weapons, including melee weapons such as swords and axes and ranged weapons like throwing daggers and crossbows. If Dan defeats enough enemies to collect the Chalice of Souls hidden throughout each level, he will be able to travel to the Hall of Heroes where a legendary hero will reward him with a new weapon or other helpful items. Dan possesses a single life bar throughout the game, which can be sustained by collecting Life Bottles throughout the game which can be replenished by energy vials and Life Fountains. The PSP version also includes some exclusive minigames which can also be played using local multiplayer.

Synopsis

Setting

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Characters

• Sir Daniel Fortesque - The captain of the guard who fell in the first wave of arrows at the Battle of Gallowmere. He was resurrected by Zarok 100 years later and has been given a chance in death to prove himself to be the hero he never was in life. He is voiced by Jason Wilson.

• Zarok the Sorcerer - Evil sorcerer who was once part of King Peregrine's retinue and was banished for meddling with the dead. Defeated at the battle of Gallowmere, he returned 100 years later to plague Gallowmere once again. He is voiced by Paul Darrow.

• Al-Zalam - 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. He seems to be a mix of Winston and Morten.

• 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 mentor to him. He also narrates the game and makes witty commentary. He is voiced by Tom Baker in the English version of the game.

• The Heroes - Canny Tim, Stanyer Iron Hewer, Bloodmonath Skull Cleaver, Woden the Mighty, Karl Sturnguard, Dirk Steadfast, Prince Ravenhooves the Archer, Imanzi Shongoma and Megwynne Stormbringer, all aid Dan in his quest by giving him their weapons and other useful items.

Plot

The game starts out as a narrative, telling the player about the Kingdom of Gallowmere. The game puts the player in control of Sir Daniel Fortesque: a brave (according to him) knight who, despite his tales of gallantry, was the first to die during the battle against the evil wizard Zarok; he was hit in the eye by an arrow in the first charge of a battle with Zarok's undead armies back in 1286. However, his story was warped to make it that he is a hero.

One century later, in 1386, Zarok returns, casts a spell which curses an eternal night upon Gallowmere, robs the citizens in a nearby village of their souls and awakens his undead army. Sir Dan is then woken up by Al-Zalam, a genie who Zarok robbed of his powers and cursed to reside in Dan’s skull (which shall never be lifted until Zarok dies). Unable to go to the Hall of Heroes in death due to his failures in life, Sir Fortesque sets out from his crypt to exact his revenge upon Zarok, free Al-Zalam from his head and "prove himself a true hero" now that he has been given a second chance.

After finding a way out of the cemetery, Dan comes across Death. After talking, Death tells Dan about how to defeat Zarok. He must collect all four pieces of the Anubis Stone, an artefact that was used in the battle a century ago. The first piece is buried in the same cemetery where Death was encountered. The second piece is held by the Mayor of the Sleeping Village, who gets captured by Zarok and his Boiler Guards and is later released by Dan. He tells Dan to find the Shadow Demon Claw (used to wake up the Shadow demons). The third piece is in the possession of the witch of Pumpkin Gorge. She wants Dan to defeat the Pumpkin King, a large Jack-O-Lantern-like monster. The last piece is in the castle of King Peregrin. Soon, after finding all four pieces, getting through the rest of Gallowmere and making his way to the entrance of Zarok's lair, Dan goes inside, where Zarok is waiting. There, Zarok sends out his regular minions, then his champion Lord Kardok, a zombie centaur wielding a bow. Once the minions and Kardok have been beaten, he sends out his fleet of Fazgul warriors and then states that they are all immune to mortal weapons. While doing this, Dan fixes the pieces of the Stone, then holds it up to the sky. This summons the souls belonging to the soldiers who fought in the war. Seeing that they are all ghosts, their weapons will affect Zarok's warriors, so they charge straight towards them and start fighting while Dan keeps his side alive by zapping them with some of the Stone’s energy (if the player fails to do this, Zarok's side will gang up on Dan and finish him off, resulting in an immediate game over).

Once Zarok's side loses, Dan's warriors cheer while turning into health vials that Dan collects to get as much energy back as possible (he loses it while using the energy on his side). After the Fazguls fall, Zarok has nothing else left to fight Dan with. Then, Zarok taunts Dan by asking him about creatures that slither. He soon finds out that snakes scare Dan, so he transforms into a giant cobra in a last-ditch effort to defeat Dan. The two fight, with Dan ending up victorious. Zarok then melts into his normal form while admitting defeat.

Zarok then states that if he is to fail, then all shall perish and Sir Dan will never leave his lair. He then emits a shockwave with the last amount of magic he has, which makes the lair cave in and the volcano that its built over start melting everything in its path. Dan runs for his life but trips and is knocked out. Afterwards, a giant statue resembling Zarok falls on top of him.

Al-Zalam then finds out that he is finally free and powerful again, so he flies off. Dan wakes up and tries to get away, but is soon trapped on a piece of debris, slowly getting eaten away by the lava. Luckily, Al-Zalam spots Dan, grabs his hand and takes him back to his crypt while daylight returns and the stolen souls return to the people. Once inside, Al-Zalam drops Dan and the two wave goodbye, with Dan returning to his eternal rest.

Ending

Dan then gets taken to the Hall of Heroes. When he arrives, the rest of the heroes have come to life and have prepared a feast, ready for Dan’s arrival. Once Dan sits down in the chair prepared for him, one of the heroes fills up a goblet with wine; Dan then unsuccessfully drinks it, shrugging his shoulders as the wine falls through his skeletal body and lands on the floor. His transparent statue then becomes solid, and the other heroes cheer and applaud him for finally having the courage to defeat Zarok once and for all. The game then returns to the narrative, which states the epilogue and also hints towards Zarok returning in a sequel, and then the credits roll.

Development

Development of MediEvil: Resurrection began in 2003. The senior management team at Sony Europe wanted a launch game for the PlayStation Portable and it was decided that a remake or “remix” of the original MediEvil was the way to go. Part of the reason for this was a very short predicted development time – the development team was given only a year to get the game ready, while an original title would likely have taken considerably longer.

Despite the success of the original, and despite having been developed within SCEE Cambridge Studio, MediEvil: Resurrection was not created by Chris Sorrell or the original PS1 team. Sorrell had stressed to his studio management that he would love to direct the PSP game and bring MediEvil up to date, but the license to the 24 TV series had become available to Sony and he was instead instructed to direct the video-game adaptation, 24: The Game. Since the release of MediEvil: Resurrection, Sorrell has expressed disappointment with the changes to the game and the fact that his superiors did not allow him to direct it.

Piers Jackson was instead appointed as the producer for MediEvil: Resurrection. He directed development and project managed the title, working closely with a new design team led by Dominic Cahalin. Mitch Phillips, who was the character animator for the previous two installments, was appointed as lead artist for the game. He and Bob and Barn, the soundtrack composers, were the only people from the original team to return.

The game was originally developed on a PS2 and then ported to the PSP - lead designer Dominic Cahalin lamented that the PS2 version was never made available as it was more playable on PS2 than the PSP version, benefiting greatly from the precision of the dedicated PS2 controller.

According to Piers Jackson, the thrust of the design was to produce a title that could showcase the full abilities of the PSP, including its built-in Wi-Fi capabilities. He also said that everything about the game was different from the original MediEvil. Whilst they had taken the basic story and some of the locations from the original game, all the code, graphics and voices were different and they expanded the plot, added mini-games, multiplayer facilities and a PSP-friendly save anywhere function. He also said that they had tried to preserve ideas that they thought worked well in the original, though their use was altered or repositioned to keep the game fresh even to those who had played the original. The addition of the Anubis Stone sub-plot was to strengthen the story arc and the creation of Al-Zalam was to act as Dan's internal monologue and the player's guide.

Soundtrack

Main article: MediEvil: Resurrection Original Soundtrack

The music in the soundtrack is split into two halves. The cues from the first half are largely reminiscent of a select number of cues from the original game (1 track from the second game was also used), 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.^{[citation needed]}

Tracklist

#	Track title	Composed by	Length
1	Welcome to Gallowmere	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	6:07
2	The Spell	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	4:37
3	Home of the Dead	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	6:32
4	A Fiery Confrontation	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	4:15
5	Comedy Corpses	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	2:21
6	Gallowmere Waltz	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	4:07
7	Hall of Heroes	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	2:15
8	Village of Madness	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	4:09
9	Hilltop Mausoleum	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	3:34
10	Scurvy Docks	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	2:16
11	George the Pumpkin	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	4:15
12	Wheat Demons	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	4:09
13	Zarok's Lair	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	1:49
14	A Hero Returns	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	3:36
15	End Titles	Andrew Barnabas, Paul Arnold	3:14

Promotion

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Release

MediEvil: Resurrection was released as a launch title for the PSP on September 1, 2005, in Europe and on September 13, 2005, in the United States. It retailed at £34.99 in the United Kingdom.

Reception

Reception
Aggregate scores
Aggregator	Score
GameRankings	68.96%
Metacritic	66/100
Review scores
Publication	Score
Edge	5/10
Electronic Gaming Monthly	6.2/10
Eurogamer	4/10
GameSpot	6.1/10
GameSpy	3.5/5
GameZone	8.7/10
IGN	7.3/10
PSX Extreme	7.3/10

MediEvil: Resurrection received mixed reviews upon release. The game holds an average ranking of 66 on Metacritic and held a rating of 68.96% on the now defunct Game Rankings. General complaints from reviewers were directed at the camera control, which was cited as being particularly poor during combat sequences, as well as occasional frame rate drops. The combat was also criticized for its awkward hit detection. IGN gave the game a 7.3, praising the graphics, soundtrack, and content but said that the fighting mechanics needed work. GameSpot gave the game a 6.1, stating "The game hasn't aged well, and although it has plenty of personality, the maddening camera control and broken combat mechanics quickly spoil the fun". GameCritics was one of the harshest reviewers, giving the game a score of 4/10 and stating "I honestly do think that Sir Daniel Fortesque is a good character with potential, but I would have much rather seen an all-new game with a nod towards current methodology than a rehash of something that honestly wasn't all that great in the first place".

Chris Sorrell and Jason Wilson, co-creators of MediEvil, have also expressed disappointment with the game. Neither of them had any involvement with MediEvil: Resurrection, and when they were asked about the game during an interview with RetroGamer, Jason Wilson said, “It was a strange feeling to see something you loved being remade by others. I now know what all those directors feel like when their movies are remade.” Chris Sorrell said that he was disappointed by the redesign of the game and how there were a number of aspects to MediEvil PSP that weren't really what he would have chosen. He did say, though, that the development team did an impressive job creating the game considering the time constraints they were up against.

The game did receive a more positive reception and higher review scores from several sites. Critics unanimously praised the game’s graphics, soundtrack, voice-acting, and over-all content for the PSP. Game Over Online countered arguments by many critics, stating that although the camera issues and combat problems complicated several things, the game itself was still more than adequate as a basic platformer and awarded it a 7.7/10. Gaming Illustrated gave it an 8.2, saying that it was a solid title whose best features include the humor, story, and amount of modes the game had to offer. Game Chronicles gave the game a score of 86% stating that the game "Offers a quality presentation of a sometimes-awkward game, but for the most part you can overcome the quirky camera and really get into the melee and ranged combat. And the collection of mini-games rivals a handheld version of 'Mario Party'." Game Zone website added that the title is "Really easy to pick up and play. The controls are very easy and responsive. The mini puzzles that are presented to the gamers are easy enough to understand yet still provide a nice challenge."

Sales

Despite mixed reviews, MediEvil: Resurrection was a commercial success. The game was reported to have sold over 1 million copies worldwide, which was far more than originally predicted.

Re-releases

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Credits

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Gallery

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Trivia

• The game was one of the very first to support the gamesharing feature.
• MediEvil: Resurrection is the first and only MediEvil game with a single ending.

In other languages

Language	Name	Meaning
German	MediEvil: Die Rückkehr	MediEvil: The Return
Spanish (Spain)	MediEvil: Resurrección	-

See also

• MediEvil fan comic.
• MediEvil fan film.
• MediEvil: Hero of Gallowmere, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim mod.
• MediEvil: Undead Again fan game.

External links

• MediEvil: Resurrection on the UVL.
• MediEvil: Resurrection at Wikipedia.