The first thing that you might ask is...Why a shrine to this game? Doesn't it suck? Wasn't it based on a cartoon no one really cared about?
Well, yes and no. I'd hesitate to say that Knights of Justice is a good game. It's glitchy. It has a very barebones story. It's mostly fetch quests. The AI of your party members is about the worst I've ever seen. The password system is awkward. The level design of the dungeons leaves something to be desired and the boss fights are less-than-stellar (for the most part). But there are a few things that I still liked about it:
1. First of all, I'm a sucker for 16-bit graphics, especially those with lush forest overworlds and color layering effects. This game has plenty of that kind of scenery to go around. I kept going because I kept wanting to see more and the game constantly surprised me with new and unusual stuff like swamps, scarred wastelands, rocky mountains, a creepy pitch-dark forest, and well...there's a really big surprise near the end of the game that I'll get to in a moment.
2. The game does contain a few interesting puzzles and mazes. Blinder's Way is one of the most confounding warp mazes known to games (with a very clever trick for getting through it.)
3. The soundtrack is okay, but I do really like the "Blinder's Way" and "Gates of the Fortress" themes.
4. The final boss is a real bitch.
5. The endgame scenario (which I mentioned in #1), right before the approach to the final boss, is one of the most screwed-up things I've ever seen.
6. I'm not particularly bothered by the fact that it's based on an obscure cartoon. It adds an ominous overtone to the game. Sometimes, it's amusing in the same kind of way that bad NES games were often unintentionally hilarious. Othertimes, it's sort of mysterious. Like pieces of a puzzle that don't quite fit, yet still form a picture when you look at them side-by-side anyway.
I actually didn't know at the time I purchased the game that it was based on an existing cartoon. All I knew is that it was a Zelda-style adventure game, made by Enix, that was based on the King Arthur legend. Only it had this weird twist where a football team led by a captain named Arthur King is sent back in time to rescue the real King Arthur. I do remember thinking that seemed like a really bizarre idea, even for an RPG/adventure game, and when I found out it was based on a cartoon, it somehow made more sense to me. I've since seen a few episodes of the cartoon and I can say it was rather inoffensive, but relatively dull, Saturday morning kids' fare...which is one of the reasons I found the endgame scenario so particularly strange. In a modern game...it...might not seem as odd. But for something based on such squeaky-clean, G-rated kiddie schmuck, it was really out of left field (and I think that if the people who rated this game "K-A" had actually gotten that far, they would have bumped it up to a "T").
For that matter, even before you get to that point, the game contains some rather depressing and grotesque imagery. Piles of skulls in the woods. Skeletons of slain knights littering the roads. A huge pile of frozen skulls (screaming corpses?) in the ice area. Creepy burnt-out wastelands with trees that have lava flowing through them (and if you look carefully, I could swear it looks like a burned corpse is crucified to some of them - see the above screenshot). A menacing swamp with some of the most haunting sound effects in the 16-bit world. And when you shoot the dragon boss, a bloody wound actually appears on its chest. It's as though the developers were taking the source material much more seriously than it actually was. It was probably for the better. It gives the game a very, very strange atmosphere. Despite how cartoony the character designs are, it doesn't feel "lighthearted" at all.
So what exactly happens at the end? Visit Part 8 of the Guide to find out.
Finally, I made a shrine for this game because, well dammit, someone had to!
The book of ciphering that you get from the Blacksmith is called the "Book of Eld". In Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, the character Arthur Eld is based on the legendary King Arthur and he wielded the sword Excalibur. However, I believe this to be entirely coincidence. According to my sources, Arthur Eld was not mentioned until Wizard and Glass, which was published after Knights of Justice. In KOJ I believe the use of the word "Eld" is simply another way of saying "Old" (as in "elder"), since the book is a book of old runes. Still interesting to note, though.
The Book of Eld itself contains a list of all the runes you find while wandering along Blinder's Way. Many of them appear to have been based on commonly-known symbols. The ones I have figured out so far are:
Special thanks to site reader Monkey Slapper for information on ;, D, !, G, *, Q, O, <, Z, X, {, F, >, W, &, and Y.
If anyone knows if there's any significance to any of the other symbols, I'd appreciate any information you might have.
The name of the motel in Welton Village is "Bates No Tell Motel". The "Bates" part of it certainly seems like a reference to the Alfred Hitchcock movie, Psycho. This one I don't believe to be coincidence because it's too well-known of a reference, and the name even appears to be underscored in dripping blood on the sign. ("No Tell Motel" is a rather risqué joke if you think about it too hard.)
In the forest Northeast of Welton Village, there is a locked cellar door that leads to Gruesome Keep. The item needed to unlock the door is called "La Bijou du Porte", a jewel with an odd French name. It directly translates to "The Jewel of the Door".
Despite the negative press this game often gets, Blinder's Way is actually quite an ingenious little bit of Warp Maze design. However, the in-game map is very strange. It shows quite a few warps that don't actually exist. I've circled all the ones I could not find. I've noticed a mistake, too. There are two "Z" warps (neither of which actually exist) marked, but no destination. I think the one that's outside the ring of trees in the middle of the path was supposed to be its destination point, but someone colored it red instead of purple. I've traced a route through the map and I think I've pinpointed the problem: The "X" warp does not take you where the map says it should. Neither does warp "S". It looks as though what was originally planned was for you to take the "X" warp to that ring of trees. From there take warp "BB" and then go south to "CC", which would put you in that ring where a lot of warps would have led you. From there, take "II", then "JJ". "JJ" would lead you to "W", and then "W" to "A". In the actual game, you do not have to take warp "W" to get to "A" because someone left out (or removed?) a tree in the ring. I'm wondering now if that tree was removed because a huge portion of steps were taken out (or never put in). There is also a strange warp marked "TZ" near the final "Y" warp to Castle Sanguine that has no marked destination and does not exist in the game. Finally, someone colored the direct warps to and from Castle Sanguine wrong, too. The "NN" near the castle should be red, and the "MM" near the castle should be purple. Otherwise, the way it looks now is that there are two warps with no destination and two destination points with no warps.
Where is Brick in this group picture from the opening cinema? And who is that big guy with the long blonde hair that's laughing in the back row behind Tone? His nose looks like Brick's and his face is shaped kind of like Brick's, but his hair is the wrong length and color!
Blaise, the old Wizard that lives in the Swamp of Zagar, is clearly a reference to Yoda from the Star Wars movies. His cryptic, "reverse" way of talking is nearly identical to Yoda's manner of speaking. (Just try reading his dialogue without hearing Frank Oz's voice in your head.) He was also once Merlin's teacher, in much the same way as Yoda was Obi-Wan's teacher. Finally, he lives in a swamp, like how Yoda lives on the swamp planet, Dagobah.
When Blaise chants the spell to turn your party into birds, he is saying "Blaise commands, turn you into birds. Eyes of another. Fly strong" backwards. (Although there is a grammatical error that actually causes him to say "Eyes of a another".) I can think of at least three other examples of backwards speech in games:
After Blaise agrees to turn you into birds one last time so that you can get the Air Elemental Key, he asks you to visit the baker in Crownhorn Village and bring him the Staff of Life. I have no idea what this means. There is a bakery in Crownhorn, but no one is inside, and there is no Staff of Life, or any other object that you can pick up in here (although there is a lot of bread lying around). I am guessing this was meant to be a step in a later quest that did not make it into the finished version of the game. My theory is that it might have been related to Lug's Key of Truth - it is rather odd that you find it simply lying around in one of the empty houses in Crownhorn. A more elaborate sequence of events may have originally been planned for you to complete in order to acquire that key, but for whatever reasons, it was excised.
UPDATE: Thanks to an Achewood comic (of all things) that was posted on the forums at Sweetbee's Game Hive, I came to the realization that "Staff of Life" is synonymous with "bread". THAT'S why Blaise tells you to go to a bakery to get it. However, the fact still remains that there is no way to actually do this. But since the designers went through all the trouble of putting a bakery in Crownhorn Village, I'm standing by my theory that it was a planned quest that didn't make it into the final cut of the game.
In the Nintendo Power Interview with the Programmers, one of them mentions Blackwing as being his favorite boss in the game. Blackwing was a character from the cartoon series and he is mentioned as being the Warlord who dropped the Tears of Gorjus on Squire Everett, but you never actually fight him. A list of the bosses can be found in the game's ROM, and Blackwing is indeed amongst them. All evidence points to him having definitely been planned as a boss, but for some reason he did not make it into the final cut of the game. Unfortunately, I do not know how to hack into Super NES ROMs to find if any visual aspect of Blackwing still exists.
I can think of two possible places Blackwing may have intended to be stationed as a boss. One could possibly have been in Blackroot Keep, where you find no boss, but Zeke's Key of Truth simply lying on the floor in an otherwise empty room at the end. The other might have been somewhere in the Dark Forest, perhaps as the guardian of Lancelot's Key of Truth (which you also find just lying around in a room.) The Dark Forest is such a huge area that I wouldn't be surprised if it was originally intended to be a separate quest from the final area, Morgana's Castle. But as it is, you have to complete all of the Dark Forest and all of Morgana's Castle in one quest to reach the end of the game.
Towards the end of the game, there are several huge caverns with strange eagle head statues lining the walls. One set of them leads to Morgana's castle, but the others have no apparent purpose whatsoever. No items or enemies in them at all. Could this have been where Blackwing was meant to be fought? I don't know. Wish I could interview someone who worked on this game...
According to the Wikipedia Entry for Knights of Justice, there were other Warlords in the cartoon series that are not present in the game, such as Warlord Axe, Warlord Blight, and Lord Chang. However, unlike Blackwing, there is no evidence to suggest they were ever intended to be bosses in the game.
The Knights of Justice ROM contains a lot of unused dialogue. Here is all that I could find:
Tone: "This Key is mine. A confused note is me, if you rearrange the letters in my name." This is obviously dialogue meant for the scene where Tone gets his Key of Truth from the Gnome Woods. However, it's never actually spoken. If you have Tone in your party, he automatically runs over to the key and grabs it without saying a word, and then Merlin appears to send you back to Camelot.
Merlin: "You've found Tone's Magical Shield."
Uh, this dialogue doesn't occur either because you never "find" Tone's shield. You get it automatically when he reassembles the Staff of Rhiothamus.
"Welcome, King Arthur, to my home. Feel free to come here whenever you need healing.
The herb patch at the back of the cave can heal wounds you have received.
It is little enough to do for one who is fighting to save the whole kingdom.
You may find more patches in your journeys. After you harvest the herbs, others will begin to grow.
If you return to a patch after a long absence, you will find more herbs to heal your wounds." This certainly sounds like dialogue for Erek of Tintagel, but I've never gotten him to say any of this to me. Perhaps the programmers felt such a lengthy explanation of the healing herbs was not necessary and excised it?
Erek: King Arthur, my liege! I am Erek of Tintagel. When Warlord Spike laid siege and won my castle, I was forced to flee. I know this castle well and can show you a secret way in if you can bring me something in return.
It sounds like the developers had a hard time deciding on the exact scenario for Erek of Tintagel. This is obviously alternate dialogue for the scene where he asks you to get the Book of Eld from the Blacksmith. There are two really weird things about it: First of all, it sounds like you were originally supposed to FIGHT the Blacksmith for the book, as some (unidentifiable) knight actually has pre-fight dialogue for him! The other odd thing is that it appears his hiding spot and the cave with the secret passage into Tintagel Castle were originally two different places. In the game, they are one and the same. And what is with these two references to a "quarterback from Miami"? Did someone have something against Dan Marino?
Gnome King: No Arthur, he is certainly not within our own lair. You must go back out the passage and find him. This is right with all the other dialogue for the Gnome King, Kazak, so I'm positive it's his. It sounds like you were originally supposed to talk to him by actually going into the Gnome Woods, as opposed to having Kazak just pop out of the ground when you stand in the right spot.
Arthur: What is casting this shadow? It's obvious where this dialogue was intended (when you find the flying island's shadow in that hidden meadow), but it's never actually spoken.
How does a mortal man collect the clouds or gather the stars? An act of craft it is to be able to look down on your lowly brothers from on high. Sounds like alternate dialogue for when Blaise turns you into birds to get to the flying island. Or it could possibly be an unused clue from Merlin about that part of the game. What's strange is that the tone and dialect it's written in doesn't really match the way either of those characters talk, but I don't know who else it would've been intended for.
Morgana: You have been lucky enough to defeat my dragon, but I'll be back, and I'll have my revenge! This one's interesting. The way it looks in the game is that Morgana turns into the dragon, and is thus defeated when you kill it. But this dialogue suggests that Morgana only summons the dragon and escapes once it's defeated. I'm glad they took this line out because I like that the game has a definitive ending. Since the whole game is a build-up to the defeat of Morgana, I would feel cheated if you didn't actually destroy her once and for all. (And the only purpose this dialogue could serve is to set up a sequel - a sequel which would never be.)
Arthur: I guess the map doesn't work from the Plain of the Dead.
The map is still not working. All the magic in this area must be, like, shorting it out. It's true that the map doesn't work from the Plain of the Dead, but it just doesn't do anything if you try to use it. Arthur doesn't say any of this dialogue as a result of trying to use it.
Well, here comes the pretender to the throne! Dare you meet me in single combat, worm?
I thought you lacked the courage to face me. Run back to Camelot, false King Arthur!
Back again, weakling? You shall fare no better this time! Dare you try again? This sounds like dialogue for a boss fight, but it's very unusual for several reasons. It sounds as though you were given a "YES" or "NO" choice for fighting this boss. It is also spoken by the boss itself when usually any pre-fight dialogue that occurs is only spoken by the knight whose key the boss holds. The only exception is Morgana. It's possible this could be alternate dialogue for the battle with Morgana. Or perhaps it's dialogue for that missing Blackwing fight. If the latter is true, then it seems odd to me that he'd be directly challenging Arthur when he probably would have been the boss for either Zeke's or Lancelot's key. This is why I'm more inclined to believe it's alternate Morgana dialogue.
Here are some more unused messages buried within the ROM. They appear to be three separate items:
"A puzzle has become corrupted!"
"Too many things unpacked!"
"A foe has an health error!" They look like system messages left over from development. Perhaps if one of these problems occurred during playtesting, the corresponding message would appear and the developers could work to fix it.
This is where the list of items is located in the ROM. Several of them do not exist in the final cut of the game. They are:
Copper, Platinum - Since these are right alongside the Pitch Blend, I'm guessing it was originally intended for you to find all three of these things for the alchemist, Druas, but the scenario was shortened so that you only have to find the Pitch Blend.
Red Mushroom - Have no idea what this could possibly have been for. There are Red Mushroom enemies, but you never get one as an item. It might have been another ingredient required for Merlin's and/or Blaise's spells, but I don't really know.
Sapphire of Truth - Since this is right alongside the Emerald of Reason and Ruby of Compassion and has a similar name, it is logical to assume that it was meant to be another item you needed to get to break the curse on Welton Village. I wouldn't be surprised if it was supposed to have been located where the Nightshade is. It's very odd that the Nightshade, which you won't need until two quests later, is hidden in that spot...
Cup of Life - Since this is listed with all the other items you find in the Dark Forest, it may have been something you needed to get in that area - perhaps it was necessary to bring your friends back to life after they were sent to the Plain of the Dead? Another possibility is that it may have been a planned requested item for one of the villagers in the Town of the Dead. There are two villagers who request that you bring a Flower O'Innocent to his physical form on the Plain of the Dead, and it's a little odd that you only need to pluck one flower for both people. Maybe, originally, one was going to request the flower while the other requested the Cup of Life. If that's the case, it's probably a good thing they cut this item out because you really don't need help from either of these losers to progress in the game.
While looking at the ROM in Notepad, I found where all the game's songs are listed. I've approximated the titles in the ROM with the song titles given in the SPC set I downloaded (which I also attributed to the MP3s on the Downloads Page):
It doesn't look as though the game has any unused music. It's kind of hard to figure out exactly what overworld themes are what because the game has a rather schizophrenic soundtrack - walking off one screen of forest to another changes the music with little rhyme nor reason as to why.
Most of the names on the tombstones in the Dark Forest's graveyard are those of the game's developers (even though some appear to be spelled wrong if you compare them to the end credits). For example, M. Breault is one of the designers and R. Ridihalgh is the game's music composer.
Some of the others appear to be jokes, like Cuddles the Porcupine of Death. There is no one in the credits by the name of "G. Bush", so I am guessing this is some sort of reference to the former President.
Some of the game's most grotesque imagery can be found in the Dark Forest. There is the remains of a hanged knight in the tree at the southern end of the graveyard. Later, in the Plain of the Dead, you will walk along catwalks made of twisted, bloody, rotting corpses.
This screenshot is pictured on the back of the game's box, but it's impossible to duplicate it through normal gameplay since there's no way to get to that particular ledge in the Stone Gardens.
Thanks again to Helder from TheGSHI.org and his amazing codebreaking skills, I was able to get into the area of that screenshot and duplicate it:
Helder's Area Mod Code is 7E1155:38. Go into your inventory screen and when you leave, you'll warp to the area designated by the modifying digits. You might need to adjust your position on the screen so that you can freely explore when you reappear in the new area. Anyway, this section of the Stone Gardens is clearly an unfinished area:
During normal gameplay, that big blue pile of whatever is completely incomprehensible. I thought the box screenshot made it look like a giant with veins running through it. But now that I've seen the entire object with this code, I still have no idea what it is.
It's reasonable to assume that something was planned for this area. There's a ramp leading down into it, but it's been blocked off at the bottom by a row of ill-fitting tiles. (I was still able to fully explore the area by using Helder's code.)
How incomplete is this area? Some of the boundaries aren't in place and you can walk right through walls onto "higher" land elevations. What was planned to be here? What is that blue thing? What are you hiding, Manley & Associates? Is this where Blackwing was supposed to be fought? Hmmm...
Helder's code can be used to access other areas that you wouldn't normally be able to. Here I am walking around inside the Cave of Glass in which the real King Arthur and his knights have been imprisoned. This area is normally only used in the opening and ending cinemas. You can leave the room via the south exit, but the game will crash.
The sealed off area of the Stone Gardens has unfinished wall boundaries and I guess it's understandable that if the developers knew the area would be cut that they wouldn't bother to finish putting them all in. However, they missed at least one barrier in a finished, legally-accessible area. Find the spot in the Stone Gardens depicted in my screenshots and walk towards the edge of the cliff to the left.
You'll go right through it! Could possibly be an intentional walkthrough-wall, but since there's nothing over here but a group of dead trees, and Arthur looks a little "glitchy" as he walks through it (he doesn't cleanly disappear and reappear as when walking through the normal walkthrough walls elsewhere in the game), I doubt it. I guess it's just an "oops".
I was also able to use Helder's code to walk around the opening cinema scene. This allowed me to get a good look at the banners around the football stadium. The first one is an Enix logo. The second one says "Mr. Cow" and has a cow face. The others are a sneaker, a duck, a happy face, an apple, a letter "M" (which could stand for Manley & Associates, the game's developer), and a skull & crossbones. (The same images appear on the other end of the stadium, but mirrored so they're all backwards.) The weird thing about the "Mr. Cow" one is...
"Mr. Cow" is also written all over the wall inside the house in Crownhorn Village where you get Lug's key. Who is Mr. Cow?? The Manley & Associates mascot?
I was using a sprite and tile viewer on the Knights of Justice ROM in a desperate attempt to see if any of Blackwing's sprites exist and while my search was fruitless, I did find something else of interest: The villagers/hermits have unused frames of animation for walking around. There are a bunch of different characters who all use this same sprite, but none of them ever move from the spots on which they're standing. They always look like this (or facing the other way around), but they never ever move.
I couldn't find Blackwing but it's possible he might still be in there as I couldn't find the sprites/tiles for any of the bosses. Much of this game's graphics are compressed and unless I can find a way to decompress them, we'll never know for sure. I'd also like to know if there are unique sprites for any of those unused items but I couldn't find the item sprites, either.
The real King Arthur in the ending sequence so closely resembles an older version of Arthur King, that I wonder if it's a subtle implication that they are in fact related. As if the game's premise didn't rely on enough coincidences as it is, this would be like the ultimate irony.
Switched at Birth? This was pointed out to me by Crawl and 1000. On the left is the Lady of the Lake. On the right is She-Ra, Princess of Power. I do not know if this is coincidence or if the cartoons shared any character designers.
Is it just me, or does Darren look like David Bowie? Not that it's all that unusual to find David Bowie look-a-likes in games. But this might be the first I found one that originated from a cartoon...
Crawl and 1000 submitted this one. Phil looks amazingly similar to Andy Richter.
The Gem Cutter looks kinda similar to Ben Franklin.
Even weirder. He looks nearly identical to Cid from Final Fantasy 8.
In the Knights of Justice cartoon series, Merlin was voiced by actor/blues singer, Jim Byrnes. (Jim Byrnes was also the lifeguard on Wiseguy, as well as the voice of Inferno on Beast Wars, Dr. Light on the Mega Man cartoon, Shadow Master on the Double Dragon cartoon, and many others.) The weird thing is...I think Merlin actually looks like Jim Byrnes. I don't know if it's coincidence or if the show was casted before it was drawn.
This is SO weird...It definitely works better if you actually see Arthur's sprite animated in the game, but anyway...From a front view ONLY, Arthur's sprite oddly resembles Cheetor from Beast Wars. They're about the same color. Arthur's chest armor is shaped almost exactly like the cheetah head that becomes Cheetor's chest plate in robot form (and I swear it looks like it even has eyes and ears). They both have a helmet with a pointy crown. Arthur's legs are shaped like Cheetor's legs. They both have that armor that goes over their shoulders. Cheetor even had a sword, too. It's obviously completely coincidence (although both the Knights of Justice and Beast Wars cartoon series shared a lot of the same voice actors), but it's just so funny how uncanny it is.
Submitted by Will Keaton, "After viewing the Knights of Justice Shrine I noticed
some similarites between the New York Knights and the
Northridge High Varsity Football Team from the
well-known Captain N. The members of Northridge High are, from left to
right, [In "Game masters"] Kevin Keene, Mike Vincent, [In Varsity Football] Julius, Rick, Romeo and Stacey. Not only are the football uniforms virtually identical
but some of the players look the same as well. Note
Romeo and Lancelot, Julius and Sir Lug, Rick and Sir
Breeze, (minus the mustache.) and Mike Vincent's
similar appearance to the unknown laughing guy in the
back with the blond hair. Most disconcerting is the resemblence between Sir
Arthur and Captain N. Did the Knights share some
character designers with Captain N or did Merlin
accidentally return some of the knights to the wrong
school?"
FO's Comment: That's pretty damn bizarre. It appears the cartoons were produced by two different animation companies, but I'm wondering if they shared any staff...perhaps animators and/or character designers from one company eventually went to work for the other. Another possiblity might be a common point-of-reference - a source that both pulled from. Or maybe it's just one friggin' huge coincidence, but there's no way to know unless someone who worked on either shows comes forward.
NOTE: The similarity between the football teams was also pointed out by site reader Alan Bates, who also provided me with these pictures for comparison:
Merlin's head and a compact disc. Too funny to be left out.
Submitted by Codie Martin. Arthur King wearing his helmet looks remarkably like Empoleon from Pokemon Diamond/Pearl.
Welcome to the Cave of Glass. Here we'll examine the stranger side of Camelot as well as some other interesting things.
BACK TO KNIGHTS OF JUSTICE SHRINE
Arthur: "Good play, Tone. One more key down. Now, we're about half way through this mess."
Arthur: Sounds good. What do you want us to bring you?
Erek: A book of ciphering stolen from me by the Blacksmith. He lives on the high road to Shield Heights.
Arthur: A book thief! This will be as easy as sacking that quarterback from Miami. Let's go guys!
???: He's a thief?! Let's take him, Arthur. I'll crush him like I did to that quarterback from Miami.
Erek: Leave here and take the south road to my cave. In the back of the cave, you will find the secret entrance to the castle underground.
Main - Main Theme ~ Knights of Justice
New - Overworld ~ The Kingdom of Camelot
Harmony - Hadrian's Wall (?)
Dark - Swamp of Zagar
Frter - Gates of the Fortress
Play - Unsettling Terrain (?)
Slow - Cliffs by the Ocean (?)
Battle - Theme of the Warlords
Camelot - Camelot Castle
Siege - Danger! Warlord Territory!
Caves - Underground Cavern
Wander - Blinder's Way (?)
Giant - Ogre's Lair
Harp - Quiet Forest Trail (?)
Stn Hng - Mysterious Stonehenge
IMPOSSIBLE SCREENSHOT
UNUSED VILLAGER ANIMATON FRAMES!!
