Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders Review
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- Опубліковано 7 чер 2024
- The Crusaders is actually the second entry in the Kingdom Under Fire series, but debuted as a standalone Xbox exclusive and got a PC port in 2020. Smite heretics in the name of the p*pe.
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00:00 - Intro
00:52 - Kingdom Under Fire Series
03:11 - Game Premise
04:08 - Visuals
05:57 - Music & Sound Design
11:00 - Gameplay Mechanics
17:55 - Story
20:10 - Story (SPOILERS)
25:22 - Conclusions
26:53 - Credits
28:14 - County carnival
#kingdomunderfire #gaming #games - Ігри
KUF Crusaders on GOG - gog.la/BaywatchSAURON
THE LIST - docs.google.com/spreadsheets/d/1_K3ziSxT9zcUUGCddS4sF1uNJTWHSbOwB1CQX2Rx4Uo
For metalheads the soundtrack is completely free on both GOG and Steam!
ayyy
Baywatch Sauron? xD
"Yes daddy."
~ Dilldo Faggins
I just had a moment of genuine joy in discovering a game that I'm sure I'll love and that somehow I had no idea existed, thank you very much! I am very happy to follow this channel.
I'm one of those people who every once in awhile think about this game in memory like it's a weird fever dream that no one else seems to remember.
*Ahh my repressed crusading memories have all come back*
me too
You're that dude that got metoo'd!!?
You and Mandalore need to have a love-child together already ❤
Crusading seemed to be super popular in the 2000s😂
SPIFF
"Every single song in the game is metal"
Don't threaten me with a good time!
Warhammer be like
God I wish we had a Warhammer game with Bolt Thrower OST
Right? It's like complaining about too much Rob Zombie in Twisted Metal. :)
Mom: We got Wathammer March of Chaos at home
@@Intestine_Ballin-ism OH GOD I FUCKING WANT IT SO GODDAMN MUCH OH GOD OH FUCK JUST LET ME FUCKING SLAUGHTER TO REALM OF CHAOS AND CENOTAPH
"OH my *God* , he's *RIPPED* !"
FUCKING GOLD
fucking horny elf women
Orcs being agricultural enthusiasts is something that I wish would be replicated more often.
Doesn’t the orcs in the Eberron DND setting really like nature and are farmers?
@MegaProudAlbanian Honestly sounds badass
*nod* Barumand.
I mean, that's basically what Roman soldiers dreamed of. The Romans had a big thing about retiring to farm barley or whatever. More fantasy settings should draw on the parts of history that sound goofy out of context.
@@timothymclean Dude you are everywhere I go
This game has such levels of edgy mid-2000s badassery that it smashes straight through the cringe barrier and right back into looking really fun
"Sir! We've hit the Cringe Barrier!"
"Give it MORE METAL!"
"More METAL, captain?! We're giving it 100% already!"
"ONE-HUNDRED-AND-TEN PERCENT METAL, THEN!"
Its the sincerity of it that allows it to work; its not like those modern day games or movies trying to be "so bad its good" just reusing every trope they can remember about old B-movies, everything it does it does seriously in an effort to impress and excite and comes off as a genuine "cool and badass" feel to it even when flawed rather than a cringe attempt at disguising the product just for attention.
@@arforafro5523 This. It's like Deadliest Prey, a contemporary sequel to a B movie called Deadly Prey from the '80s; not a hint of irony about being the sequel to a B movie, and all the more enjoyable for it. Samurai Cop 2 on the other hand went the ironic route and was straight up lame.
@@danghostman2814 kylo ren: "MORE"
I absolutely love it when something is 100% stupid and edgy and the people making it know that and keep going because they love it. That’s some Devil May Cry and John Wick HorsevMotorbike stuff.
‘Rick Blood and the Dark Legion’ sounds like a band made up for a movie that only has one song, but it’s unexpectedly a complete banger.
And now I want to listen to Power of the Night again.
i guess they go on a world tour huh?
You're the devil's son!
And the guest band playing the fictional one happens to be W.A.S.P.
Let’s be honest; ”Rick Blood and the Dark Legion” sounds like it’s the next rung down from ”Timmy and the Lords of the Underworld”.
After hearing all the English dialogue be so flat and lifeless the whole video, I was absolutely not prepared for that one guy begging to surrender. You could really hear the desperation in his voice.
Its very realistic. What are you supposed to do when the rules everyone agreed on suddenly arent adhered to, and the people you care about that have come to depend on you to guide them are dying because of it?
Certainly a good voice actor.
I hated they changed the voice actors for all of the characters between the two games given how jarring it is, but I think the overall quality went up in the sequel Heroes (the voice clip you're referencing) compared to Crusaders.
Yea that's actually kinda chilling
"I will wring your intestines across my mantel and spike your filthy heads upon my gate! You will rue the day you dared attack my country! Fiends! Animals! Bastards! I am Gerald, and you will all die by my hand!"
I've played this game more than 10 years ago in Korean. The voice acting wasn't too bad in Korean, and I remember regnair's voice actor being quite good. But they definitely cheapscated on the English voice actors for sure. Some of them sounded Russian, which is quite common in Korea especially back then. They just took some white looking people and hired to speak English.
"We surrender! For God's sake, we surrender! What are you doing?"
that's...pretty chilling for a Godsmack concert playing on the same lot as an SCA meetup.
"Remember. No Villagespeak."
timestamp?
@@dwightschrute2822 20:45
I mean considering the title and how common sacking was in the Medieval Period its kind of appropriate
@@forickgrimaldus8301 not when it was your own people lol
"If you don't want spoilers go to here" - Video immediately transitions to ad for luxury hotels in the Maldives.
Yeah, don't think I can go that far to avoid spoilers.
"Which God did this vision come from?" is such a simple but chilling statement and so perfect to highlight what happens I love it.
Well in the Lore there are 2 Gods one is the God of light the other is the God of Dark they basically take turns on who would rule but fantasy Satan tricked everyone by prematurely strating his age
@@forickgrimaldus8301 this is literally what he's saying
When you go into a pub and listen to the chatter some of the dialogue is actually really intriguing.
Khorne...it was Khorne
The great Encablossa ! The one that will restore balance between Good and Evil in the universe !
"Which god did this vision come from" has to be one of the best taglines to a dramatic twist known to modern man.
Apparently, the Elder eldritch kind.
No god had a hand in what happens, that's for sure.
This game had the Warhammer treatment of "put so many silly things in it until it loops back into being awesome" and I'm HERE for it
Ehhhh I wouldn't exactly say that, this game is honestly a lot more "realistic" compared to Warhammer if you think about it.
SOUL
@@The-Black-Deathwhat
This game is basically exactly as I remembered it. Cool gameplay that requires quick thinking and sound judgement, fun unit building, and some bizarrely bad voice acting sprinkled with a story that's sometimes fun and often bizarre.
Your assumption that this was a teenagers "Yo this game is everything and it's awesome" is spot on.
literally me
I bought this game when I was in Middle School, and it was my first experience with RTS games. It was such an interesting game to me as a kid, because there hadn't really been any RTS style games on Consoles up to that point. It was amazing.
The bad voice acting is a feature not a bug. More than a decade later and I still remember the voice of every named character and their delicious lines. Also, mandalore is right on the money about playing this as a kid and thinking it's the coolest shit ever. Regnier set the bar of cool antiheroes for me and remains one of my favoured video game characters. Shame another game like crusaders and heroes never came out and instead we got circle of doom and some shitty mmo.
Exactly this. KOF Crusaders was my #1 game when I only had my original xbox.
can confirm
Can we talk about how somebody ACTUALLY LIGHTS THE FIRE ARROWS?!? So many games just have a simple texture switch. What a nice detail.
Reminds me a lot of Stronghold having the fire barrels you could place on towers so your archers fired fire arrows.
I love attention to detail like this
That just sounds stupid actually.
Fire arrows are 100% fantasy.
Actually lighting the fire arrow is an attempt at realism.
This obvious contrast would just pull me out of the game every time I see it happen.
A more acceptable method, if they insisted on including this detail, would be to have them cast a spell on the arrow to light it on fire before firing. Like you could even have battlemage units that bless weapons to set them on fire, instead of a random archer being able to cast a spell to light their arrows
@@bensosnowski1128 That's what the elves do. They're the ones using magic for... Well, not everything, but a lot more liberally. It's an aesthetic choice, I don't think anything about this game was ever very concerned with realism.
@@miracletortoise6224 I'll take "what is suspension of disbelief?" For $1000
Rick Blood materializing out of the fire with his orcs, looking like Sephiroth just tagged him in as the drums and snare slowly rise, is un-ironically a badass seal of approval moment
He also turns out to be the real hero of it all. A dark lord who is actually the good guy, you don't see to many of those.
BY GOD THAT'S RICK BLOOD'S MUSIC
I mean its super crazy common in alot of korean stuff, just not usually games. Certainly not this kind of game. @@alonesometravler9343
"It's like the cast of Jersey Shore is trying to do a table reading of The Council of Elrond". That was golden.
"Oh my god... He's ripped!(?)"
Kinda like the super fans who reviewed the new lord of the rings show
How did they see it?
i'm more and more convinced that Mandalore chooses wich games to review based on whether it is possible to make a Marv electrocuted joke or not
Can't wait for the Armed Blue Gunvolt review!
@@awkwardcultism .i hope he tries the 2nd on a 3ds just to hear him say "yes, you have to sing this one yourself"
or IT"S QUIET
has to be one of the most 2004 games i've ever seen
magical
Best year in gaming, Best year for OG Xbox too
11 year old me got this game because weeee cool hack and slash metal big epic guy with a sword. I was NOT expecting what it would turn into
@@samtemdo8 1998 was also pretty damn good for games, imo. And 2007.
It’s a fantastic RTMESS title.
At first I thought you were joking about "Rick Blood" but no, he's actually called RICK BLOOD.
Holy shit....is Sea Dogs and this game universe connected!?
The dark lord... Richard
His friends call him Ricky.
The original warcraft wannabe kingdom under fire game had Rick blood, and you Kinga knew it was him when playing crusader.
Also the Germans had some interesting names like Wolfgang, and angermann, while Blood Isa Welsh name.
7:04 This is the moment that convinced me to buy. Any game that can unironically present their villain like this is worthy of my respect.
So how was it?
Oh my god, this game actually existed. For the longest while I was convinced I had a fever dream as a kid and that spawned this game haunting my dreams and telling me it was real. But it’s a legit thing apparently. Yet again Mandalore, you’ve helped me find a game I’ve been looking for inadvertently.
It's the long lost game i played at some best buy when I was younger. In trying to find it i found total war spartan warrior and the total war franchise.
Hope you're having fun playing it.
I had forgotten I'd even played it, and had combined the experience into other games
This is how i felt about the red dead series, but now its my absolute favorite
'Ever hurt this bad before..?"
I kept hearing that in my mind, and I thought I had just made up some weird gothic flying lady for the longest time.
"The next adventure game is gonna be darker than Druids!"
Oh cool, Harvester is coming.
Fuck, I never thought about that one!
Can't wait for the surreal adventures of an IRL kiddie diddler and the best sheriff in any game ever
@@M30W3R um... yeah!
"you always were a diddler, Steve"
Its all about the meat!
"if your soundwave becomes a solid wall its time to start over again" had me almost crying in laughter for no reason lol
Saaaaame xD
I remember playing this game and accidently creating a cutscene worthy gameplay moment. I charged into a squad of enemies that I had hit with fire arrows. As Gerault is yelling angrily with the red glow of fire in the background. Then as he is calmed down the fire also dies down. That was my first experience with the level so that became another level of why I loved this game as a child.
as an edgy teenager who was just getting into heavy metal and Warhammer i absolutely loved this game. as an adult with far more refined taste in music, gameplay, and design, i still fucking love this oddball gem and wish there were more combo action rts games like this and bladestorm.
I'm really happy to see other people that played bladestorm.
Hell yeah bladestorm.
MERTHENARY
Bladestorm was a miss imo. Even the "empire" spinoffs for both dynasty and samurai warriors do the strategy/action mashup better imo.
play mount & blade and replace the music.
@@Dja05 Yeah. I'll still be playing bladestorm till the day I die. It's the hundred years war animed to hell and back. I fucking love it.
And I'm still finding otu how to unlock shit in that game.
Ah man, that mid-2000's metal music really takes me back. Remember when everything was rock music, even when it didn't fit? God I have so much nostalgia for that era of media.
Prince of Persia: Warrior Within
Breaking Benjamin and Incubus in Halo 2
Same. Some games have music selections that really blow, though. Was playing one of the Burnout games after 3 and just about the entire soundtrack was trash pop-punk type stuff and one Avenged Sevenfold song.
I can’t remember the full title but I think it was Total War: Spartan Warrior or something like that, it was good game with full early 2000s metal soundtrack
@@dbayles3677 I loved that game as a kid! Never seen anyone mention it before.
14:06 - omg when you yourself censored the word "pope" i died laughing. amazing review man. this was and probably still is my favourite video game franchise and im glad you shed some light onto this hidden gem
self-censorship is important
I liked that detail too 😂 great game, I would love a remastered version
Yup, my sense of humor has been destroyed cause I laughed too!
"Pope" is censored in the UA-cam subtitles as well
You know what, I give them credit for having the archers say "Loose" rather than "Fire", if only they also said nock first it would have been perfect. But big marks for that.
This game blew my mind when I first played it at a sleep over. I couldn’t stop thinking about it. Scott is if you are watching this, thanks for letting me come over everyday for a month so I could beat the hard campaign.
Haha that's awesome. I used to play heroes of might and magic 2, 3 and 4 with my best friend at sleepovers. Good times.
A buddy of mine and me used to play this game all the time as kids. We used to play online and compete with others as well, it was super fun to play. Truly one of my favorite games growing up
Thanks man , i remember fondly the happy time we spend together
the medieval apocalypse slant is probably one of my favourite genre gimmicks, honestly. I really like how it's done in drakengard, and little bit in dragon's dogma
Id love to play drakenguard but I don’t have a ps2 and probably never will.
@@voidtremor6329 it's a really repetitive game, but the ace combat dragon sections were pretty solid. i played it on emu but i watched cutscenes and listened to the ost way before every playing it
Oh my god Mandalore covering Drakengard 1 and 2 would be amazing. 3 is too much of a good game.
having played drakengard 1 as a kid/early teen i now hate all the doomsday plots in every media and generally hate anime :D
@@EdGeLV That's unfortunate I am still able to enjoy them. I generally love soft world building. I like realism to but you very rarely get that in media especially in anime and I can see how that might turn someone off but it doesn't bother me for the most part.
For how prominent Gerald is in the advertising and artwork, including the cover, I'm surprised he actually has a relatively minor role in the story. I wonder why he and Lucretia were absent in the final mission. Maybe one day someone will make a sequel without a monkey's paw like the guy who wished for KuF 2.
Gerald did take part at the end fulfilling an important role. When Encablossa awakened, the Hironeiden army got pushed back into the east and Gerald's troops got almost anhihilated. Regnier rescued him and used him as a messenger, then Gerald went to Ecclesia and delivered the message to Kendal which caused Kendal to later ally with Regnier. Gerald also helped by defending Ecclesia and basically was the only character that got a good ending along with Ellen.
Lucretia on the other side had nothing to do with that situation as she was now part of Kaedes atm, moving around Hexter. In fact, in Morene's campaign we see what happened with Lucretia as she killed Valdemar's impostor and forces Morene into fighting her.
Fun fact: In the first mission where you encounter Regnier and you're playing as Gerald, you can actually defeat Regnier. It doesn't change the story, but you get a ton of EXP.
It was so sad how this game got absolutely demolished by the reviews at the time purely for the metal soundtrack. I remember seeing 1/5's and 2/10 ratings all saying that the gameplay was awesome, but they hated the music. It was probably my biggest hint back in the day that game journalism was such a joke and it has only gotten worse since.
Erm, being _constantly bombarded_ by the audio is a pretty valid problem. I think most of this game sounds interesting, but I _know_ I would sick to death of it because of this.
@@BimpytheWimpyShrimpy To be fair, music volume can be changed in options.
@@user-ks5xd4xh9r well, that _is_ fortunate. Still, bit of a pointless hassle if you have to tune it up and down every mission and cutscene or so
Hey I remember doing that, just let the archers fire away for a little while and get a fat stack of xp
I literally still listen to the OST pretty frequently. The lack of lyrics makes it great background music. The band is called Crash btw
Once the review really started there was not a single minute where i didn't unironically say "holy shit that's fucking sick"
Mid 2000s edge has aged like a fine wine.
It was glorious, I miss it so much...
Lighting Arrows on Fire manually while Metal plays all the time? DOOMER EDGELORD CAMPAIGN REVEREALING THE TRUE ENDING???
... DARK ELF BOOTY!?!??!
@@hiiambarney4489 I think High Elf booty is better but yes. *DARK ELF BOOTYYYY!*
Adolescence is thinking that people hitting each other with swords while metal blares out in the background and people explode into blood chunks is the coolest shit ever.
Adulthood is realising that that stuff is for children.
Maturity is realising that no, it was actually the coolest shit ever.
Someone else who understands. It's why Stranger of Paradise is cool. Enthusiastic edge is always cool
14:03 of all things I expected today hearing a dark elf call someone a gigolo with a pretty sick metal track in the background was not on the list. The music seriously reminds me of Prince of Persia Warrior Within
Now I am waiting for that Lionheart and Saladin Metal Concert
Man, I fell in love with this series hard, growing up. Even downloaded the older PC RTS and everything. I was heartbroken both when it took them YEARS to bring KuF2 to the west, and then like a year later (a few days ago) they announced it was shutting down, without ever releasing any updates or additional content.
Feels bad man. The series deserves so much better.
Yeah, kuf 2 was a huge letdown, too much time in the single unit action mode, without an army, stripped down unit management with little to no guides, Lack of multiple factions. I think the core combat was good, but lots of the other stuff needed improvement. The rpg grind of item gathering is quite annoying for a game like it.
I really did miss the leveling up of troops and picking specific skills to master, and the ability to swap them back and forth between types.
@@timthorson52 I think they tried too hard to combine Circle of Doom with the RTS elements. The RTS parts were what made it awesome in the first place, and to this day I have yet to see a game blend RTS and first person action combat seamlessly like Crusaders and Heroes did.
It was weird coming back to this game after so many years and hearing the english voices as the default ones for the first time. The spanish cast went for a really passionate medieval reading, which plays a lot better with how stiff the dialogue can be at times. Still, this game remains a lot of fun, and every now and then I decide to jump back in to experience the glory days again.
Love how the Orcs just want to farm ahahah, it humanises them!
Asian fantasy Orcs are pig-like and like to farm. It's kinda weird.
All the P--- says is "Ancient Heart, Holy Land, Encablossa"... I just wanna farm for the god's sake!
Orcsanizes*
@@mickethegoblin7167 Apparently that comes from a miss translation in the first DnD set for the Japanese market. The pig like look comes from the bestiary illustration that also wasn't the best.
@@Execuor There are actually some theories about this. Dragon Quest solidified orcs as pig creatures early on, but the exact reason why Akira Toriyama decided to do this is unclear. One suggestion is due to the Old Irish meaning of the word orc, which means little pig (c.f. Orkney Islands). Probably some translators picked this up about the word and made the connection.
What speaks for the metal soundtrack is that it might be somewhat fitting to the tinkling sounds of armoured troops on the move.
And as for the ex-girlfriends in the credits, it might be because they left the crunching developers during the production.
I think the soundtrack for the most part, fits the mood of what's going on in the game. I think that's really impressive cuz every game I played with metal in it always ruined the moment. I was surprised when I heard quiet parts in the review and still heard metal lol
The dark elf char's whole deal ex hating is a lot funnier and more depressing in light of that list.
Metal and medieval fantasy, it just reeks of Sabaton
@@WingMaster562 Sabaton didn't even have their first album out by the time this game was released lol.
"Oh my god he's RIPPED." Me too Lucy, me too. (I spent the whole video fanning myself everytime The Dark LordTM showed up because DAMN SIR.
I mean he's objectively less evil than most male romance leads
@@marley7868 Pish posh, mans saved the damn world. . .after trying to end it to be fair but I digress.
@@bubbly_ghost he's complicated but in this game at least he comes up positive
Honestly same. After Lucretia's campaign i had my fill, but remembering regnier got me to play his campaign too. At least right up to the last mission. Is suprising how much i love his character design even though he's just Arnold 'the dark lord' Schwarzenegger.
I will never forget the kingdom under fire 2 announcement BEFORE it was an mmo.
It was the coolest looking game at the time.
Thhat fucking high elf, man.
"Rick rolls one of his friends into oblivion"
I see what you did there.
I remember renting this game so much I walked in one day and they just gave me it and Heroes. They said I was the only one who showed interest and the 360 games were needing space, good memories.
Nice!
I also remember creaming my pants when I managed to spec into the Dirigibles and swamp mammoths. I also loved the elemental weakness system.
@@bradensmith8682 I also remember creaming my pants when I saw those dark elves.
the same thing happened to me. I rented this game at least 8 times (not once was it rented out) before my mum finally bought it for me hahaha
If you're wondering why the Dark Elves sometimes call themselves "High Elves", it's because they see THEMSELVES as the true "High Elves" of their people.
They're that prideful.
they seem to have a better fashion sense
In Heroes the regular elves also call themselves high elves. Elves are just egotistical like that.
LOVED the Strategy + Tactical format of this game. Keeps the player in a constant state of moving, planning, coordinating, researching...punctuated by stress-releasing hack & slash. Lots of clocks on the levels where you need to get to your objective within time limits.
Why this hasn't been explored further is a mystery. Would love a remake with better graphics, refined controls, and better voice acting.
But don't dare touch the heavy metal. Absolutely signature!!
10:23 Ah yes. Because the type of person who decides to play a game called *Kingdom Under Fire: The Crusaders* is _definitely_ the type of person to be *shocked and appalled* at the mere _mention_ of the Pope.
You take that back and apologize for mentioning… You know. The P-Word.
Dirty ol‘ P
I am Roman Catholic and I'm kinda bummed that they censored the word Pope in a Fantasy version of the Crusades its like censoring the word Templar, Hospitalier and Holy Land in a movie about the Crusades.
jesus and here I am thinking youtube fell to censoring patriarch.I was like wtf srsly?
@@tatfly5779 I assumed the game's voice files just had some odd glitch - though to be honest, they should have gone with Patriarch instead of Pope in the worst place. Patriarch does sound more awesome (see Balthasar Gelt).
I guess the reason why they censored the P-word was because of the twist. I mean, very Popeish thing to do and still following God.. But the holy scriptures in the game's universe needed some small prints or extra details fo' sure.
Rick Blood sounds like an Image Comics character from the early 90’s. He even has MAXIMUM SHOULDERPADS.
Or the real name of Captain Blood lol
To be fair his true name was Rick Miner before his death and resurrection. His full name after was the Immortal Rick Blood. He also has a really messed up back story where his daughter is born with out a soul leading to his wife trying to kill her. He then has his wife sent away to a sanatarium. He leaves his daughter with a old woman who gets her killed. He crushed said old woman's head later.
@@kinggundragon3728 but does he have a morty?
I spent SO much time playing this game. I fell in love with it the first time I lit my arrows on fire. The animation of the torchbearer going down the line, lighting each arrow, then flying off to light the woods on fire. This game was so before it's time! This tried to be what Warhammer Total War is today.
I actually played Warhammer Fantasy Battle with painted miniatures and tabletop landscapes. So this game was the first real attempt to turn tabletop miniature battles into a videogame, at least the first attempt that made it to Xbox.
Yeah it was a wild ride!
I've watched this video twice nearly in disbelief this vague memory from my childhood is more than a fever dream since no one I have talked to remembers it besides me.
I love that mandalore highlights all these weird games that I have literally never heard of. I hope that I can enjoy his work for a long time to come.
Yeah. I can’t wait to see which adventure he’s tackling for Halloween. And it’s going to be a long-form like Droods? This will be fun.
Same. Some people love these reviews because of nostalgia. I don't have nostalgia for any of these games, because most of them I've never heard of, and the rest I probably would never play (with a few exceptions). I just love listening to him talk about games.
If you've played all the games that Mandalore plays then you have the weirdest taste in games
This game looks and sounds more like a proper Berserk game adaptation, than the actual Berserk official game was
That's actually more accurate than you can really know until you've played this and the Berserk musou game.
Which one? I've heard that the PS2 one was quite good.
The tactics in Berserk were just "Guts kills guys" so I don't think so.
The Dreamcast and PS2 ones were solid. It was the Warriors one that was bland.
@@NSFSponsor the musou is shit (I couldn't last 15 minutes), the one on PS2 is amazing even if can become repetitive (I finished it twice) but the one on Dreamcast can go fuck itself, one of the most annoying hack 'n' slash game I ever played.
I remember seeing a gameplay of it and this guy said "Wow they implemented your weapon bouncing off walls in an old ass Dreamcast game! Way ahead of its time!" and he was right, in fact the developers (that strangely produced the good PS2 game too) must have been so proud of that mechanic that every time you swing your 2+ meters long dragons-slaying-huge-ass-sword bounces back every - single - time. It's like playing Dark Souls but you can only use an ultragreatsword and the whole game is set in 1 meter wide corridors and dungeons.
This is an exceptional review Mandalore, thanks for giving this such a thorough and entertaining review.
I'm gonna drop a couple notes and minor corrections just in case anyone is interested. But I highly recommend playing at least Crusaders if you're even a little interested after seeing this video. I did a partial review of the game on my channel but haven't finished it yet.
*You don't need to have played War of Heroes to understand or enjoy Crusaders.
*There isn't much of a lore dump. The holy book at the beginning eludes to some ominous historic events from the perspective of the humans, but that's about it.
*The prequel is one step forward and one step back. The path finding in that one is horrendous.
*You will almost always use the map for movement instead of the target, keep that in mind if you're playing for the first time.
*This game has a lot of min maxing that pays off big. In a lot of missions you can be rewarded with bonus EXP for thinking outside the box. There is even a bonus cut scene if you complete one of Gerald's missions in a way you wouldn't even think is possible at first glance.
*Healing is literally everything in this game, for Humans get Curatio pronto. For Elves and Orcs, rely on Tree of Healing and Berserk.
*I'm pretty sure the Dark Elves and Elves call themselves High Elves because it's like arguing who the "real best" elves are. Morene calling Lucretia a Dark Elf after she said that was meant as an insult.
*There's a lot of humor woven throughout, especially within Pub dialogue and the pictures for skills in the barracks. You'll find some lore at the Pub too if you're willing to dig. But the translation for the text later in the game is really, really bad.
*Darks doesn't just mean Dark Elves, it's referring to Dark Legion. Dark Legion = Orcs, Ogres, Vampires, Liches, Dark Elves, Etc.
*Encablossa was the voice talking to the Patriarch, not god. It tricked him and Walter into believing it was the voice of god. The longer the Age of Light occurs without changing over the Age of Darkness, the stronger the Age of Darkness becomes and the more it can influence the world.
*The Mini-Games you unlock are only available on Xbox, I don't know why they aren't on the PC port but they aren't fun so I wouldn't worry about it.
20:00
ate elves
ate humies
luv me eats
luv me tavern
luv me furtalizer
luv me farm
simple as
"Wow, are you really winning this battle all alone?"
"Nah I'm with the boys--OOHHHHHHHHHHHH"
"The music is Metal. ALL Metal" - You make it sound as if this was an issue xD
The "WE SURRENDER" bit was some good voice acting 20:45
I unironically want a comedy high fantasy game where everything is played dead serious but they just talk like normal modern day people and have super normal names like Fred and Lucy.
"My God he's ripped!"
"No thanks to you, dumbass!"
"Oh, fuck off dude"
"Shut up Derrick I'm sick of your shit".
That plot twist is straight out of Kentaro Miura's "Berserk" and I love it
The entire game gave me heavy berserk vibes. its really like someone wanted to do a berserk game but couldn't get the license
God damnit, this plot twist just sold the game for me
@@lior414 You know what, i am glad that failed, because at least this game ended. Berserk is in limbo and might not end. It was a great twist and most of us at the time the game came out were unware of berserk. Anime was becoming mainstream thanks to the sci fi channel. It was a weird time.
Gave me more vibes in the way of Drakengard.
rest in peace miura
6:00 "With the exception of the main menu every song in this game is metal [...]" Sounds like the main is the weakest point of the game by far.
I love when my favorite creators watch each other’s stuff. Love the recent Japanese sailor video (y)
Metal makes everything cooler
Agreed. The songs are all bangers.
@@Juliusstarcraft thank you, glad you liked it!
Had to do a double take when I read your name, good to see your taste in youtubers is as good as your videos are. Keep up the good shit man.
seeing the way the squads move is activating some part of my brain that remembers a combination RTS/pinball game that came out on the gamecube, where you just chuck ancient japanese cannonballs at fortifications and towers to get armies to march on objectives. It was a widget, weird japanese import title, but bounced between the playstyles with a similar fluidity
Ah yes "Odama," really strange stand alone series by Vivarium Inc., the same guys who made Seaman. The 2000's were full of experimentation in vidya, but unfortunately a lot of the studios, including Vivarium, didn't survive.
ua-cam.com/video/tMbAXyUm-4w/v-deo.html
This game was my childhood.
The constant metal music, melodramatic feel, the medieval setting, I fucking love it.
Wish I could more easily play this game these days, and by God I would love a more modern take or installment to this series.
There is so much mid 2000's spirit, that my Pentuim IV just booted up himself
I hope that we get a video covering Kingdom Under Fire: Heroes later on since it did fix some of the problems with The Crusades and added so many fun campaigns
Some of the real highlights are in heroes. Orcs are fun.
19:12 The only male dark elf in the entire game gets to wear something that almost looks like armour. Coincidence?
And what's wrong with that?
This is what Haze would play
For a good portion of the video I couldn't tell if this was some sort of parody. That music is both amazing and bewildering
The music reminds me of old WoW PvP videos
I fucking adored the edginess of this game as a young'n. Still do tbh.. I had no idea what I was doing strategically but the metal and the cool action was all I needed to enjoy it and recommend it to all my friends.
Keep up these awesome videos! Every time you release a review its just another great cult classic game done in the best review style.
Love this mandalore, keep it up!
OMFG YES! I NEVER THOUGHT YOU'D DO THIS GAME HONESTLY DUE TO IT BEING EXTREMELY UNDERRATED! So happy someone gives some attention and love to this old classic, as well as knowing it's on PC at last. :D
Lucretia’s script and delivery is fucking amazing.
I love these videos... HOW HAVE I NOT SUBSCRIBED!? Fixed it , subbed. Look forward to more reviews
Mandalore: "unfortunately for us all, another adventure game video is in the works"
Me: "yes!"
Ah i remember this game! I thought Gerald was the coolest dude ever. And speaking of fever dream hybrid games Bladestorm: the hundred years war. Now that's a real nightmare world game
I love that game so much. I bought bladestorm nightmare and I still play it every once in a while. I don't know why, it's not that good in all honesty but I just love it so much.
So it is an actual game.
Whenever I looked at my copy, I would think it must be some alien relic bestowed upon me for reasons unknown.
Damn, I really gotta play it again.
I remember this game, I had it on a demo disc I got in a gaming magazine so I rented it from blockbuster...jeez I feel old.
I was looking FOR YEARS for KUF:Circle of Doom because I remembered everything about it, including how to break it by getting developer items and I could never remember the title. Thanks Mandalore, I have some downright strange memories of that game, like the batshit insane evil mansion that turns into some giant worldtree thing that's almost like a maze.
You N'wah!
The fact that you always find games I have never ever heard of amazes me every time. Your reviews are top-tier, keep up the good work !
The closed captions for this video were a welcome treat
That metal mission briefing really had me laughing. Ah, DW3 memories... 😄
(21:34) Dude! That cutscene is actually freaking awesome! After watching you talk about what looked like a clunky but pretty interesting game, THAT just came out of nowhere! Metal indeed! 😎
You can't have Metal without including DEATH METAL in the mix afterall
@@johnyu4436 indeed! 😉
Gave me berserk vibes
This game is one of my favorites for sure. Really happy to see you cover it.
"He's a loyal servant of the p-"
Genius.
Loved this game when I was younger. I was never able to get far on the hard campaigns though. Thanks for showing me what awaited at the end. Bless his holiness the P***.
I never got past the first few levels and never knew they're other factions. They look badass. I'd love to play this game again
I would have never remembered this game, but the cutscene of them running to the ruined town hit me with a huge wave of nostalgia. Thank you for this lol
I saw Gerald and remembered everything. Haven't played it since I was 10. I remember it being a lot of fun
i cannot believe i missed two uploads by the reviewing knight man
Dang, the fact that I've decided to finally read through Berserk and then this video pops up... Certainly, this is the work of causality.
I feel Spellforce would be a good franchise for you to cover. Its big enough that it's known and has its fanbase but niche enough that maybe not everyone has tried it or even seen it and is missing out. Also, Its fairly unique.
I've only played the first game (and the expansions). The voice acting was something else.
Gameplay-wise it was spetacular though.
@@Constanza235 Should we still call it a voice acting when most of the "cast" simply reads their lines without any "acting" involved, though?
Man, this game is like the Dragon's Dogma version of Warcraft, where the generic beginning still has its own charm and then when you get to the end, it shows its own crazy spin on the genre that stands out.
KOF and Dragon's Dogma will always stand out in my memory if only because they were bog standard at first glance and then BOOM half way through they pull some crazy crap that makes you realize it's possible to use clichés and be interesting with them.
@@dragoneye6229 hey so i placed a turret orb that shoots at 2 other turret orbs so you can shoot more orbs from your bullet orbs.
This is unironically one of my favorite video games. Im replaying this and heroes now and found your video. Love it, all valid and perfectly explained short comings and excellence. Im really sad this style of game never caught on. It hit my love of rts, hack n slash and RPGs all in one lol but seriously being able to control an army then zoom in and actually take part of the fights is like the coolest thing and i love it. And im actually a pretty big fan of the story and characters, even now. The lies and deception throughout the game to the twist of reignier being like a good guy in the end like... All phenomenal, with some whack moments along the way lol
Just watched this again, its probably my favorite of yours. So funny/funny game and hilarious edit/narration!
*Funny/silly
I'm literally shaking and crying rn, I can't believe they said the P-word
?
@@darkmantlestudios The Pope.
@@LtZetarn NO! YOU CAN'T SAY THE P-WORD!
@@LtZetarn Hope you like the oubliette.
If I recall the German dub didn't censor the P-word as one can clearly hear characters saying 'papst'.
After playing Pathfinder Kingmaker and Pathfinder Wrath of the righteous back to back for past two weeks, the title name has thrown me off a couple of times x)
How is wrath? I'm currently suffering through the house at the end of time, wondering if the sequel has uh less bullshit at the end
@@aether9461 oh I understand… apparatuses I didn’t save?¿ and had to do it twice .-.
Wrath is MUCH more concise, I never caught myself thinking- “welp, that was useless and boring.” Unlike a couple dozen pathfinder quests. And the mystery aspect of the story is nice. With Nyressa you basically know how the game will go and what is going to be at the end. But wrath feels like endless possibilities in relation to the paths story could take.
@@peaceprinceshaxi5978 + It has a way better tutorial I legit played through the entirety of kingmaker and played wrath only to find out that you cant stack armor and bracers of armor it told in wrath lol
@@aether9461 wrath is much more harder on core rules, holy fuck. 1st boss on lvl2 hit my tank who had 34ac...and critted him for 40. while he had like 25 health. And his weapon on crit instantly applied fear to my whole group. Don't make my mistake and don't play wotr on core/unfair unless you want to min max and make everything multiclass monk hybrid.
On other hand, difficulty can be adjusted so i can't really blame devs.
@@skdeathxlife yuppp
And those small tips on loading screens are way more useful, for example
“A sleeping or helpless enemy is a coup de grace away from death” i never even used it in kingmaker, now it’s my go to way to murdering those who regenerate.
I just got around to watching this, Got this game when it was out on the Original Xbox. I loved every second of it. I am at the part in the video where you cut of the P___ and that just made my day.
So thank you.
I appreciate the fact that you put the a ads right at the beginning of the spoilers section, I only alt+ tab once during the entirety of your video, because the ad pop-up immediatelly after I alt+tab , if this is on purpose, you´re a lv200 thinker, very big brain.
I literally thought this morning that Mandalore hasn’t released a video in awhile. I was hoping one would come soon and lo and behold.
Literally same
Now for his alternate personality to resurface
Guess you got the Midas Touch after all
@@winkydinkable You got the touch, you’ve got the powaaaa!
"Don't be afraid!!!" had three exclamation points. That dude is super chill for three exclamation points.
_Dumbledore said calmly_
jesus this soundtrack is nuts. some guilty gear “we made a metal album first and made the game based on that album after” energy here.
the bad voice acting is just icing on the badass cake.
Playing this blew Dynasty Warriors out of the water for me. Wish there were hybrid RTS RPG games like this one.
22:52
Soldiers: *"OH MY GOD, THERE ARE DEMONS EVERYWHERE, WE ARE DEAD!"*
Civilian Kislevite: "First time?"
Crusaders and Heroes was some of the best memories I had back on the Xbox classic, I still have both games and had to set the old box back up whenever I wanted to play it.
Seeing Regnier walk through the fire with the Orcs in Gerald's mission has still stuck with me to this day, what a badass scene.
OMG THIS INTRO WAS SO TRUU! I'VE BEEN TRYING TO FIND THIS!