King Arthur & the Knights of Justice

Overview

King Arthur and the Knights of Justice is an action-adventure game published exclusively in North America by Manley & Associates and Enix Corporation in 1995 to capitalize on the 1992/93 cartoon series of the same name and premise.

King Arthur and his knights has been trapped in a prison of ice by the sorceress Morgana and, faced with Morgana's warlords causing trouble across the Kingdom of Britain, Merlin is forced to search through time and space to find a suitable replacement. In the present day he discovers Arthur King, quarterback for the New York Knights, and his team and brings them back through time to save the King and foil Morgana's plans.

The game follows the basic plot of the show: in order to save King Arthur, each of the knights has to find a "Key of Truth" that only they can hold. With all twelve, the present-day Knights can save the King and his original knights from their imprisonment. Each of these are presented as a different challenge in game, often requiring that the player visit different parts of the world. The game provides closure for the show, which was cancelled before it could complete the story, with Arthur King and the New York Knights returning home after Morgana is defeated.

Gameplay

In King Arthur and the Knights of Justice, the player can control any one of the dozen characters available at the start, all of which have different stats and fighting abilities. The player can then recruit another two to follow behind them, which are controlled by the CPU and fight enemies on their own. The player controls the knights from a top-down perspective and explores a large world, finding and defeating twelve bosses to get the twelve Keys of Truth which are needed to access the game's final sequence, unlocking different areas of the map as progress is made.

The game is structurally similar to the Legend of Zelda, with its big open-world map and a number of different dungeons and bosses to pursue. The player is given direction from Merlin back at Camelot (where the player can switch their knights) before each of these bosses, with the first task being to recover Excalibur from the Lady of the Lake after gaining her trust. Combat is in real-time, with the strength of each swing dependent on letting the stamina bar recharge after each swing (similar to Secret of Mana).

Playable Knights

• Arthur King
• Lance
• Trunk
• Breeze
• Tone
• Wally
• Gallop
• Darren
• Lug
• Zeke
• Brick
• Phil