Voodoo have never been so much fun!
"From my childhood, I'd been told that only the strong survive. That the strong will rule. That power is the reward of a virtuous life. I led a virtuous life. I'd mastered the art of life. My weapons were an extension of my will. For spiritual power, I studied the ways of voodoo. The rituals of blood sacrifice. To channel the gods and unleash their wrath upon my enemies. I was to wed Kesho, the eldest daughter of the Tanko tribe. The marriage of our tribes would have secured my family's control over the ruling class of Mamora. The wedding rites were interrupted by my sudden murder. Though my life was taken by bitter treachery, my struggles did not end. Sometimes death is just the beginning..."
— Akuji, in the game's opening
Akuji the Heartless is an action-adventure video game developed by Crystal Dynamics and published by Eidos Interactive.
The voodoo priest and warrior, Akuji (voiced by Richard Roundtree) was murdered during his wedding. Having his heart forcefully ripped out by his brother, Akuji is doomed to wander the gates of hell, until an encounter with Baron Samedi grants Akuji a chance to resurrect himself. By travelling the underworld, collecting the souls of his ancestors, Akuji can redeem a second life and return to the plane of living. And thus begins Akuji's mission of revenge, although things aren't what they seemed...
Notably one of the last video game released by Eidos Interactive at the tail-end of the 1990s. It was released for the PlayStation on December 31, 1998, in North America and February 1999 in Europe. The game received mixed reviews from critics upon its release.
See also Ninja: Shadow of Darkness, released around the same time by the same creators.
Akuji the Heartless Contains Examples of:
- Acid Pool: Several of these shows up in hell as well, and will drain Akuji of his health of he doesn't get out in time. Woe betide if Akuji ends up dropping into one of these pools without a platform... and the players can only fling their controllers in frustration as they watch Akuji get his health chewed up without any way to get out (Or, you know, exit and respawn from the last checkpoint).
- Airborne Mooks: Flying beetles, stingrays, and winged monsters are enemies that attacks Akuji regularly.
- Attack of the Monster Appendage
- The most you'll see of the sandworms are their heads, sticking out of the soil and extending themselves to chew at Akuji. Once defeated, the head detaches, the bodies shrinks back to the soil, and the rest of the monster remains unseen.
- One of the earlier levels have Akuji travelling on the back of a giant snake, which is alive and can occasionally attack with its tail if provoked. Akuji does battle the snake's head later in a boss fight, but at no point does Akuji or the player see how the monster looks like completely.
- Big Bad Duumvirate: Sure, Orad who is Akuji's brother is The Heavy who arranged for Akuji's murder in order to initiate a clan war, but Baron Samedi is the main villain who had ulterior motives using Akuji as an Unwitting Pawn.
- Big Creepy-Crawlies: The shores of hell are filled with giant beetles, which are easy to defeat and serves as a warm-up for players in the earlier levels. And later in the jungle levels there are giant green beetles.
- Bizarrchitecture: One of the last levels, set on a floating ship sailing forever in the abyss, that is constantly tilting.
- Blade Below the Shoulder: Akuji's main weapon is his bone shiv, attached to his wrist and can slice up enemies in hell.
- Borrowin' Samedi: Baron Samedi himself is the overseer of hell and the reason why Akuji was able to continue his quest for revenge as a spirit.
- Cain and Abel: The main villain responsible for Akuji's predicament is Orad, his evil brother, who arranged for Akuji's murder and is instigating a clan war with Akuji's abscence. Subverted with The Reveal that it was all arranged by Baron Samedi, and that Orad is just a worshipper and pawn.
- Feathered Fiend: Giant ostriches are among the animal-based enemies showing up in the starting levels, and later on in the jungles.
- Giant Mook: The half-Minotaur enemies and zombie rhinos, much larger than Akuji and absorb plenty of hits before dying.
- The Grim Reaper:
- Enemies called "Cultists" utilise this design.
- Baron Samedi fulfills this purpose in the game until in the later levels he turns out to be the true villain.
- Gotta Catch Them All: Even after completing a level, if Akuji failed to collect all the ancestral souls available, he will NOT be allowed to proceed, and must restart all over again.
- Hidden Villain: Baron Samedi, initially appearing to be Akuji's benefactor, turns out to be behind Akuji's murder and is manipulating Akuji into collecting his ancestor's souls for him so that he may escape the Underworld and enter the land of mortals.
- Half the Man He Used to Be:
- Tall zombies will split into half by the waist after they're killed.
- One of the numerous enemies Akuji will encounter are half-zombies, whose body ends at their lower torso. They move by crawling around with their hands, lashes out with their exposed spine functioning like a scorpion's tail, and are surprisingly agile despite their predicament.
- And much later into the game, Akuji can encounter half-Minotaurs, who floats with nothing underneath their waist while trying to rough up the hero with axes.
- Harping on About Harpies: Harpies, winged women capable of launching fireballs, shows up in later levels.
- Hollywood Voodoo: Just like so many misrepresentations, this game's representation of Voodoo incorporates elements of Obia.
- Homing Projectile: One of Akuji's starter weapons, the Soul Seeker spell, can fire blasts of blue energy that homes in on nearby enemies.
- In the Hood: The reoccuring cultist enemies armed with scythes as weapons are dressed in brown, face-concealing robes.
- Living Gasbag: The final stage is set on a flying ship guarded by floating octopoid mmonsters, including jellyfishes whose stingers can sting Akuji and green, one-eyed tentacled monsters who shoots green energy balls.
- Love Makes You Dumb: How Baron Samedi takes advantage of Akuji.
- Magic Knight: Akuji is both a warrior and a voodoo magician, being as good as kicking ass as he is in casting spells.
- Mix-and-Match Critters: The second boss, Okal, is a giant spider with a dragon's head.
- Monstrous Scenery: In one level, Akuji travels on the back of a giant snake and battles enemies, but the snake itself won't injure Akuji in any way.
- Mook Maker: In the forest levels, one of the enemies are Queen gnats, who breeds flying insects to attack Akuji. The spawned insects can be killed in one hit, but most of the times their queens are located in hard-to-reach areas and can only be destroyed by projectile weapons.
- My Death Is Just the Beginning: Akuji dies before the story even starts, with the rest of the game revolving around his attempts to return to the land of the living. Lampshaded by Akuji himself in the game's opening.
- Playing with Fire: The Hellblast spell allows Akuji to release a powerful fireball, stronger and faster than the Soul-Seeker, although without homing abilities. Enemies killed by this spell would visibly burn up as they collapse and die.
- Power Floats: Messengers of Hell are horned Elite Mook enemies who tends to float around Akuji while throwing energy bolts at him. They're among the tougher enemies Akuji can encounter in the game.
- Revealing Reflection: Every now and then, Akuji will need to jump from one area to another on invisible platforms. Luckily, these platforms are located near mirrored walls, which can reveal the floating platform's locations for Akuji.
- Rhino Rampage: Among the animal-based enemies, Akuji will also face zombie rhinos, serving as Giant Mook-varieties of foes.
- Sacrificial Lamb: Well, goat, but same rule applies. In the cinematic after defeating Purity, Akuji sacrifices a goat to replenish his strength, while insisting he is doing it for Kesho.
- Sand Worm: Giant worms are reoccurring foes in the shores of hell, where they attack by sticking their heads out of the sand and lashing out at Akuji.
- Say My Name: Upon losing a life, Akuji will yell out Kesho's name as he dies... Again.
- Sinister Scythe: The most basic humanoid mooks in hell, the hooded reapers, use scythes as their default weapon.
- Super Mode: One of the rarer power-ups, that transforms Akuji into a panther-like Beast Man. In this form, Akuji's weapons are his talons instead of shivs, and can even kill Giant Mook enemies in just a handful of hits.
- The Unreveal: Akuji's face is never clearly seen in the game, as he's always wearing his mask. Said mask finally comes off in the final cutscene... But we still don't get to see Akuji's face anyway.
- Vengeful Ghost: Akuji is a Revenant who is unfairly murdered by his own brother. Making a pact with Baron Samedi, Akuji spends the entire game travelling through the depths of hell to collect souls for the Baron so that he may return to the land off living and avenge his own demise.
- Waddling Head: Late in the game's second half, another recurring enemy type comes in the form of giant skulls on spider-legs, and attacks by crawling towards Akuji and biting.
- Warrior Monk: Akuji is a priest and he can kick plenty of ass.
- Widowed at the Wedding: Akuji's bride, Kesho, after Akuji is murdered by his own brother, Orad. But she is a voodoo sorceress herself, and can communicate with Akuji's soul during gameplay. Turns out, this was Baron Samedi speaking to Akuji through Kesho's voice.
