Roy and Arnold against an army of chaos.
- When a dark cloud dipped down to the ground, phantom soldiers sprung from there, captured Princess Emina and coerced her to set their king free from the world of darkness.Only she knew the spells to release and lock up the beast.There, the freed king of darkness transformed Emina into the same figure as his incarnation, a woman with a snake body, and deceived her into attacking her own rescuers, Roy and Arnold...
Blade Master is a 1991 Hack and Slash arcade game produced by Irem.
Set in an unnamed fantasy kingdom where a once-defeated, hibernating King of Demons is to be awakened by his followers, the forces of darkness had kidnapped Princess Emina, a young sorceress who is the only person in the kingdom capable of unlocking the seal holding the Demon in place.
Two heroes - the warrior Roy whom is Princess Emina's lover, and the barbarian fighter Arnold whom is her brother - sets off on a quest to rescue the princess and prevent the Demon's return, in seven levels absolutely brimming with the forces of chaos. Awesome.
Unrelated to the Miles O'Keefe film with the same name, the only thing they have in common being their High Fantasy setting.
Time to slice up some minions of chaotics:
- Airborne Mook: Lizard men on hovering platforms shows up near the bridge areas. Later on there are gryphons.
- Animated Armor: The second boss is a giant suit of armor armed with two massive axes. Like the first boss, it comes back later on in different incarnations (see Degraded Boss).
- Aquatic Mook: The river stage has seahorse-men as enemies who will pounce out of the water to ambush Roy and Arnold as they attempt to cross.
- Back-to-Back Badasses: In two-player mode, Roy and Arnold against a seemingly endless legion of enemies. Watch each other's back!
- Barbarian Hero: Arnold the Barbarian, the Mighty Glacier lancer to Roy.
- Big Brother Instinct: Arnold is Princess Emina's brother, and he'll happily tag along with Roy in slaughtering his way through monsters to ensure her safety.
- Brutish Character, Brutish Weapon:
- Arnold the barbarian's preferred weapon is a heavy poleax which can swat entire groups of lesser enemies aside with ease. There's also a special attack for Arnold to perform a downward skewer attack pinning mooks to the floor with the ax which deals massive damage.
- The giant living armors all use dual axes as weapons.
- Combat Tentacles: The main weapon of the giant octopus boss at the moat.
- Damsel in Distress: Princess Emina has been kidnapped by the King of Darkness and his phantom army, and it's up to Roy and Arnold to save her.
- David Versus Goliath: From the second boss onwards, each and every boss battle is against an enemy several times larger than Arnold, the bigger of the two heroes.
- Degraded Boss:
- The first boss (some eldritch fish-human-demon hybrid) isn't that tough when fought at the end of the first level, but from the fourth stage onwards they return as Elite Mook enemies.
- The second boss (the Animated Armor) doesn't get degraded as much as the first, but when it's fought again it's treated as lackeys of greater bosses. Two of them serves as a Dual Boss at the end of a later level, and towards the end of the game three of them forms a Wolfpack Boss.
- Dem Bones: Skeleton archers, another member of the chaotic races serving the Demon King.
- Die, Chair, Die!: No arcade hack 'n slash would be complete if the player couldn't destroy literally everything in the foreground and background, right?
- Dual Boss:
- Later in the game, the living armour will appear, two at once, attacking Roy and Arnold together. And then three more before the final encounter, although they're a better fit as Wolfpack Boss at that point.
- The two Gorgons (one of which is Princess Emina as result of a curse) serving as the Final Boss.
- Dual Wield: Both playable heroes wield two weapons at once, which makes slicing up the minions of darkness twice as fast. Roy notably uses two swords, while Arnold occasionally whips out a pair of spiked balls as he uses his heavy ax single-handedly.
- Epic Flail: Some of the enemies are flail-swinging orcs. For the heroes, Arnold's secondary weapon that he uses in conjunction with his trusty ax is a pair of spiked balls on chains, though he prefers relying on his trusty ax.
- Fat and Skinny: Arnold and Roy, in that order, though Arnold is definitely more on the "muscular" side.
- Forced Transformation: As Roy and Arnold made it to the chamber where Princess Emina is kept, the princess suddenly starts transforming before her would-be saviours — turns out she has been cursed by the King of Demons into becoming two gorgons, both of which must be defeated to complete the game.
- Giant Spider: Oversized arachnids are another type of enemy for Roy and Arnold to slice up. Beware their Rolling Attack!
- Gorgeous Gorgon: The last two bosses, one of which is Princess Emina being subjected to the King of Demon's curse. They belong to the Snake People variety, their lower torso being a massive snake while having a nude woman's upper body part.
- Lizard Folk: The first variety of enemies encountered, and among the most common throughout the entire game.
- Mecha-Mooks: The forces of evil aren't limited to just orcs and lizard people. There are automatons as well which can set themselves alight and charge at Roy and Arnold burning their health off. Take them out before they ignite!
- Monster Brother, Cutie Sister: Downplayed — Emina is a very cute and defenseless young woman, and while her brother Arnold is also heroic and rather good-looking himself, he's clearly a lot more grizzled and prone to violence in comparison.
- No-Holds-Barred Beatdown: Or No Holds Barred Stab Down, both Roy and Arnold have a special move where after knocking over an enemy, they then sat on their opponent and repeatedly thrushes their sword / ax downwards, causing plenty of damage on their target. It works even on bosses that towers over both heroes.
- Our Gryphons Are Different: The Hippogriff variety of gryphons serves as steeds for the forces of chaos. There's also a type of gryphon which is just a giant winged lion's head, complete with mane.
- Rewarding Vandalism: Destroy every background object, including barrels, crates, pots, everything for health bonuses and extra points.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Lizard men armed with shields are another enemy type, which gives them slightly better defense when Roy and Arnold tries slashing at them. Still useless when the heroes use grappling moves, though.
- Shout-Out: The second playable character is the mighty barbarian, Arnold. Arnold Schwarzenegger's Conan would be proud.
- Stationary Boss: The fish monster boss and the giant squid in the moat is incapable of moving to the surface to attack Roy and Arnold, but they're still difficult to beat despite being stationary — the fish monster can further extend its neck to bite the heroes, while the squid has Combat Tentacles spanning all over the area.
- Stripped to the Bone: The final Gorgon boss shrivels into a skeleton after being slain.
- Tentacled Terror: One of the later bosses is a giant octopus sticking its head and three massive tentacles out from the moat at the King of Darkness' fortress. Roy and Arnold will have to battle all its limbs simultaneously while making their way towards its head, its sole weak point.
- The Unfought: The King of Demons, despite being mentioned in the narration and being the driving force of behind the army of chaotics repeatedly plaguing the land, never shows up even once during the game. In fact, after the final level, the Demon King is quickly re-sealed by Princess Emina, an event informed to the audience via scrolling text.
- Warmup Boss: The first boss, an eldritch orange fish-human-hybrid monster-thing, who despite looking scary really isn't much of a challenge. Players using either Roy or Arnold can easily take it down by spamming their attack buttons with minimal (or zero) health loss. Later on, several copies of the first boss will return, but they're hardly challenging even then.
- Wolfpack Boss:
- The fourth level ends with a boss fight against four purple Cyclops demons which attacks the heroes together, all must be defeated to complete the stage.
- Late into the Demon's fortress, one of the last encounters is against "three" variants of the second boss (the Animated Armor), each in different colours, all which must be destroyed.
- Zerg Rush: The enemies shows up in entire legions, especially in the later levels which throws lizard men, orcs, automatons and other lesser mooks filling up the screen.
- After a fierce fight, Roy and Arnold finally defeated himnote and saved Emina, who then chanted a spell and shut him up again.When he was made powerless, his vicious army turned into a huge flame and appeared to have disappeared, leaving only grey ashes behind.Before his castle also collapsed and vanished, like a mirage, Emina, Roy and Arnold had narrowly escaped and returned to the peaceful world of white light.END
