The Legacy of the Skull King

The Legacy of the Skull King

The Legacy of the Skull King is a 1994 role playing horror game developed by Team NeXT and published by Team NeXT as well. It was released for the SNES and PC-9802 in August 1994, using the RPG Maker software, and using a similar engine to Alone in the Dark as well. The SNES version is similar to Final Fantasy and Alone in the Dark.

The SNES version was released near the end of it's life cycle, and was poorly received by critics due to it's story not being similar to the original.

The PC-9802 version was the preferred version, and even getting patches every month from it's release to 2004, when it was changed to yearly patches for bugs.

Plot
The game starts out as a cut scene when the King orders two of his guards to run out to see what's making the noise outside his castle. When the guards leave, the King get's stabbed in the heart and dies. When the guards return, the man who killed the King rips out his skull and places it on the throne. He demands that everyone calls him the Skull King. He then banishes all guards to the wilderness.

One year later after that event, a lone lad named Hugh was resting up at a camp when his friend, Cecily came back from hunting. Hugh then made dinner as Cecily changed into her nightgown and laid down on the cloth that they sleep on. They ate dinner and slept.

The cut scene ends and the game starts with Hugh waking up to find out that Cecily has been taken hostage by the Skull King. Hugh then grabs her sword and runs off to find her. After a long time traveling, Hugh approaches Athelardus, a fencing master. Hugh battled with him, and after a few slices he dies.

The next cut scene plays and Hugh arrives at the next town, which many people know Hugh. Including his ex-girlfriend, Isabella. She approached him and tried to seduce him but Hugh wasn't having any of it. He went in the hotel and slept, and the cut scene ends.

Hugh wakes up and walked back into the countryside, where he walked in the forest. Hugh was met by a friendly female ghost, Alice. He warns Hugh that you might not leave the forest alive. Hugh scoffs and says "That won't stop me." He walked in and he should've regretted it. Ghosts roamed the forest and haunted Hugh, one even stabbed in the leg. After walking through the forest, he sleeps.

When he wakes up, he arrives at the castle and faces against the Skull King. He rescues his friend, Cecily, who kisses him on the lips and then he slayed the Skull King once and for all.

Reception
The game was met with mixed reviews, people praised it for it's story, it's use of suspense and for not rushing horror in the game. Critics criticized the game for it's short time, running up to 2 hours of game-play.

IGN gave the SNES version a 5.5/10 and the PC-9802 version a 7.5/10.

GamePro gave it a positive review, saying that the game runs well, it has a good story, but it doesn't last long. It does have a lot of replay value.

Legacy, sequels, adaption, and reboot
The game has gained a cult following and by the power of the internet, the first sequel was released in 2003, titled Skull King Legacy: Part II. It was developed by Troika Games and published by Atari.

In 2007, AIC was approached to make a 13 episode anime of the game, titled Legacy of the Skull King - The Animation.

In 2005, after Troika Games closed their doors, the rights of the game were sold to Pandemic Games and they started developing the second sequel, changing from the role-playing genre to the survival horror genre. The game was titled Skull King III. After the game was released, Pandemic Games sold the rights to BioWare.

BioWare started working on a reboot of the game series, titled Skull King - Death Brings All, it will be continuing the trend of survival horror. The game was released in 2008, using Unreal Engine 3.