Twelve rings to rule 'em all...
- Once upon a moment in time, there was kingdom known to all as Mythgard.
Mythgard prospered in peace until the first coming of the Demon King, Jardine the Mad.
Leading his Dark Legion, Jardine was but a step away from obliterating the kingdom...
It was then that the Twelve Masters of the Elements rose up to put an end to the Demon King's evil designs.
A fierce battle ensued until there remained but four masters opposing Jardine.
Pooling their powers into a Holy Blade, the Four Masters prepared for the Final Battle...The opening Info Dump
Jewel Master is a 1991 Sega action game made for the Sega Genesis.
A High Fantasy adventure with elements of Metroidvania and some Run-and-Gun style of gameplay (after getting the titular artifacts), you are the Jewel Master, a Magic Knight in the land of Mythgard.
As elaborated in the backstory above, a powerful demon lord named Jardine rules over the land, and only the magic jewels of the Twelve Masters of the Elements, embedded in rings, can put a stop to Jardine's reign. You set off on a quest to retrieve all twelve of those rings for a final confrontation.
The game is notable for the assorted combination of power-ups available through a combination of rings, which can be customized in a separate menu and implemented during gameplay.
The First Ring contains the Jewel of Tropes...
- Airborne Mooks: Jardine has a flock of human-pterosaur-hybrid monsters, which appears frequently in outdoor levels to menace you from above.
- All Deserts Have Cacti: The second stage is set in a desert, where landscape is filled with assorted cacti that can hurt you on contact. You'll need to blast them apart from a distance to proceed (you've obtained at least 1 magic ring granting you projectile-shooting abilities at this point). Getting hit by cacti debris can still hurt you, by the way.
- Always Chaotic Evil: Jardine's forces consists entirely of orcs, beastmen, and some chaotic warriors clad in armor, like all fantasy-themed media out there.
- Animated Armor: Suits of living armor guards the interiors of Jardine's castle as you infiltrate the place, swinging Epic Flails at your direction.
- Big Bad: The Demon King, Jardine the Mad, whose reign threatens the destruction of Mythgard, and your quest is to overthrow his rule and restore peace to the land.
- Dishing Out Dirt: The Earth Ring and Earthquake Ring. Handy for crushing mooks with soil.
- Double Jump: Combining two rings based on Levitation allows you this ability. It's useful for you to leap over Lava Pits.
- Elemental Powers:
- What the rings you collected grants you with. Shooting fireballs, ice shards, creating earthquakes, you name it.
- On the enemy's side, there are four statue sub-bosses, each of them having an elemental power of their own, that you must defeat before you reach Jardine.
- Flying Seafood Special: One of your enemies are flying jellyfishes, appearing - oddly enough - in the ice caves.
- Foul Flower: The very first stage is set in a jungle, where besides orcs, you'll also battle plants capable of spewing projectile attacks at you.
- Free-Sample Plot Coupon: You start off the adventure already having two rings. And the first ring is dropped by the first enemy in the ruins area, after fifteen seconds of gameplay (excluding some easily-killed orcs outside).
- The Greatest Story Never Told: What the film's ending pretty much implies: you have defeated Jardine and restored peace to Mythgard, but nobody will ever know of your deeds.
- Hand Blast: Shortly after obtaining your third ring, you then gain abilities to shoot projectiles from your fingers. According to the cover art on the console, it comes from the ring's jewels
◊. - An Ice Person: The Ice Ring grants you ice-related powers, while the Ice Dagger allows you to fling blades of ice as projectiles.
- Living Statue: More than one of these:
- The first boss is a white tiger statue that comes to life. It jumps more than it attacks.
- Before facing Jardine the Mad, you'll need to prove your mastery of the elements by defeating four statues charged with Elemental Powers. Each of the statues looks normal until approached, at which point they become the associated element's color, in order, fire, water, earth and wind.
- Mini-Boss: How you obtain most of the rings, by defeating a stronger-than-average, mid-level enemy. The hovering cyclops skeleton for instance gives you the Fire Wall Ring, the Yeti drops an Earth Ring, the Lesser Demon gives you a Wind Ring, and so on.
- One Bullet at a Time: You're allowed to raise different aspects of your spells (such as how many projectiles could be on-screen at once) by varying the levels of the rings that created them.
- Our Dragons Are Different: Jardine has a purple-skinned dragon pet that he will sic on you, as one of the game's last bosses. If you defeat it, the dragon loses it's skin... and instead turns into a Dracolich to continue fighting. And oddly enough while it's original form is distinctively European (walking in a bipedal stance, having arms and legs) in it's skeletal form the dragon looks more Oriental (an elongated serpentine form).
- Panthera Awesome: The first boss is a statue of an exotic white tiger, brought to life by Jardine's magic.
- The Phoenix: The second boss is a hostile phoenix-like bird monster, made entirely of flames. Later on you'll fight an ice phoenix (which is a Palette Swap of the first, with orange replaced with blue).
- Playing with Fire: More than one of those rings can grant you abilities to shoot fireballs. The Fire Viper Ring, in particular, summons a long, twisting serpentine missile of flames that works especially well against large groups of enemies.
- Ring of Power: The jewels crafted by the Twelve Masters of Elements are embedded on twelve magic rings, and your quest have you collecting them to grant you abilities of casting various spells, mostly projectile-based. By the end of the game you would've obtained all twelve available rings, in order to face Demon King Jardine.
- Rock Monster: You encounter them as early as the first stage, appearing either in a humanoid, golem style or as a sentient, legless pile of rocks and dirt with a vaguely humanoid face on it's tip.
- Sand Worm: Giant desert worms are minor enemies in the desert stage, where they'll periodically pounce from beneath the sands to ambush you. These worms are depicted in a Segmented Serpent fashion, and blows up in chunks after they're defeated.
- Skippable Boss: The second form of Jardine's dragon pet, in it's Dracolich form, can actually be avoided. If you collect the Blade Ring it dropped to create the "Blade Weapon", and then use it as soon as the monster is formed, the Dracolich is down before the battle even begins.
- Spread Shot: Combining two projectile-based rings in your arsenal grants you the ability to fire in arcs of three shots at a time.
- Stationary Boss:
- There's a bronze tortoise monster serving as the boss in the ice caves, which doesn't move around but can shoot projectiles from where it stood. It can also periodically stomp a foot on the ground, causing icicles to fall on you.
- The four elemental statues in Jardine's castle are fixed to their pedestals, though that doesn't make them any easier because of their numerous projectile attacks.
- Sword of Plot Advancement: The Holy Blade Sword, which you obtain at the final stage once you've collected all twelve rings, allowing you to slay Jardine in a Final Boss battle.
- There is no mention in history of the battle waged between the Jewel Master and the forces of evil.
But legends do speak of twelve magical gems and an ancient kingdom tha tflourished in peace.
Such is the stuff of legends...
