Video Game / Legend of Heroes

Let's get down to business, to rip off, Disney...
[Huh!]
Did they sent me, Falan,
When we want, Mulan?

Legend of Heroes is a 2000 arcade Beat 'em Up action game made by Korean software developer, Limenko, with some "inspiration" borrowed from Chinese history and, uh, Disney.

No, really, and we're using the term "borrowed" rather sparingly here.

China, during the Northern Wei Dynasty - after winning a war against an invading Hun army with the Hun leader, Commander Chenyu slain in battle, the remnants of the enemies, led by the ruthless Prince Lei, regroups and attempts a second invasion a year later. The warrior-princess of China, Fa-lan, received news of the impending attack and decides to strike first with her allies - the army general Liang and her loyal sidekicks, Jili and Cheng.

Generic backstory aside, a quick glance of the characters (on the bottom image) with the cast looking awfully familiar is what makes the game really, really stick out. Because yes, Limenko pretty much nicked the setting, aesthetics, and designs for all the playable characters from Disney's then-recent animated film, Mulan (from 2 years earlier) in a blatant act of plagiarism that managed to sneak past Disney's censors due to the game's obscurity. Which results in as big a copyright infringement nightmare of a game as you can imagine, one which Disney probably decided to ignore since it's not really worth the effort to sue over.

Here's a playthrough for those interested, but feel free to have "I'll Make a Man Out of You" playing in the background instead of the game's soundtrack. And try to pretend that's actually Fa Mulan from the Disney movie kicking ass and not her Ersatz clone, Princess Falan.

Not to be confused with the Trails Series which is also called Legend of Heroes in certain territories.

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They're not going to make a man out of Princess Falan so she could kick ass.

• Acrofatic: Overweight Hun mooks are a recurring enemy, and they can move surprisingly fast despite their bulging guts. Also the bosses of the first two stages, the Chao brothers.
• Airborne Mooks: Giant eagles are trained by the Huns to attack Falan and her allies.
• Anachronism Stew:
  • At one point in the cave, you can get hit by a random, bouncing basketball. In ancient China?
  • Falan also comments about her enemy soldiers being part of the "Quartermaster Corps", though that could be brushed off as Translation Convention.
• Assist Character: There's a scroll power-up that summons a small, red dragon to assist Falan and her allies in attacking enemies. Said dragon is invincible throughout the game (it can be hit by enemy attacks, and ironically set on fire, but it'll just get up none the worse) and lasts until the next area or until the player loses a life.
• Brutish Bulls: The Huns have bulls in their army, used for running into the players. These beasts of burden usually leaves after a while though (and seems to be borrowed from a certain enemy in Knights of Valour).
• Captain Ersatz: All of them. ALL OF THEM.
  • Princess Falan is practically Fa Mulan from Mulan, right down to her green outfit that she wears the entire game lifted from her Disney counterpart. Meanwhile, General Liang is General Shang, including the red Badass Cape, while Falan's sidekicks Jili and Cheng are Yao and Chien-po (the former even having Yao's swollen eye incorporated into his design!).
  • The Hun general, Chen-yu, is Shan-yu. They barely even disguise the name for this one.
  • As well as the game's bosses: the tubby Chao brothers are based on the two overweight Huns from the cartoon, while Fuchin, the archer boss is based on the archer who killed a messenger in the same movie. Meanwhile, the long-haired Prince Lei is a redesigned model of the long-haired Hun soldier.
  • The dragon Assist Character mentioned above is a CE of Mushu. There's also a power-up that summons your "ancestor" to fight for you, for just a few seconds, one who looks like the First Ancestor in the movie.
  • And finally, when the game runs out of ideas to steal from the Disney movie, they then decide to plagiarize from Fatal Fury with Zhaomei, the Hun women lieutenant whose appearance is copied directly from Mai Shiranui. Right down to her attack animations, red ninja attire and having a running move with her holding her weapon in her mouth (much like Mai holding her fan).
• Carry a Big Stick: Overweight Hun brutes are armed with massive spiked cudgels as weapons.
• Dark Action Girl:
  • The Swallow sisters, three Hun fighters who can perfectly kick ass, the trio forming a Wolfpack Boss halfway through. They're degraded into common enemies later on.
  • There's also Zhaomei from the bosses, the only one who's a woman.
• Evil Prince: Prince Lei of the Huns lead the army in another conquest, though it's subverted when Lei turns out to be possessed by Chen-Yu's ghost.
• Exposed to the Elements: Zhaomei, the Mai Shiranui-knockoff boss, fights you in the snowy mountains in her sleeveless robes (with Navel-Deep Neckline included) and her legs exposed.
• Flunky Boss: All the bosses have multiple mooks flanking them, with the first Chao brother even having a catapult for backup.
• Fur and Loathing: Prince Lei's throne is draped with furs skinned from a white tiger, already a rare breed even back when the game was set, just to emphasize his villainy.
• Giant Space Flea from Nowhere: The final level. After defeating Prince Lei, the players fight the ghost of Chen-yu. What?
• Gratuitous Ninja: Ninja enemies will sometime appear to menace the players (finally, something that isn't plagiarized) despite the game being set in China.
• Grenade Launcher: Rockets can be collected and used on the Huns, with a resulting explosion that covers quite some proximity. And yes, the rocket is depicted as a bamboo tube with a stone dragon head as it's tip, yet another trait stolen from the Disney film.
• I Lied: Falan really isn't the nicest protagonist, especially compared to Mulan which she's based upon. As Fuchin the archer commander begs for mercy and agrees to reveal the Hun camp's location to Falan after she agreed to spare his life, she then replies that she hates anyone who spills military secrets... and kills him.
• Lame Comeback: While arcade action games aren't expected to have top-notch dialogue, the ones used in this game somehow managed to drop even lower than possible.
  Falan: [challenged by a boss] Would you like to kick your ass out of here?
• Land Mine Goes "Click!": The underground level have rather obvious-looking mines hidden all over the place, though you're likely to trigger them by accident because of the large number of mooks you're fighting. Incidentally, landmines DO exist in ancient China (though they're used by the Chinese, not their enemies).
• Leaning on the Fourth Wall: One of the very few moments in the game that's actually clever; Falan comments halfway through "What a game I'm in!" after an assorted collections of boss battles.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: The game's Final Boss turns out to be the ghost of Chen-yu, who somehow returned from the dead by possessing Prince Lei, and once Lei is defeated Chen-Yu then rises as a spectre to attack. He can be hurt by kicks, punches, arrows and other regular attacks, somehow.
• Posthumous Character: The former Hun general, Chen-Yu, dies in the backstory after his failed conquest of China, but his army's loyalty and devotion to him is the driving force behind a second invasion which kicks off the game's plot. Subverted in the last stage, when it turns out Chen-Yu's ghost is possessing the Hun Prince, Lei, and pulling the strings behind the attack.
• Precision F-Strike: Sometimes the player characters will let out random profanities during cutscenes, usually before a boss fight. Which feels jarring to say the least, considering the source material the game's stealing from is a G-rated Disney movie.
  Falan: [addressing Zhaomei] Now I got bitches who thinks they're a princess of beauty! ^note  yeah, imagine Fa Mulan saying that
• Royals Who Actually Do Something: Princess Falan decides to strike down the enemy army first, on her own, stopping the war before it could begin.
• Scary Scorpions: Scorpions show up in the cavern and underground levels. They can be hard to hit without a sliding attack, but they can also be ignored, since these enemies only attack when provoked.
• Shield-Bearing Mook: Hun swordsmen wields a shield in tandem with their curved swords.
• Shock and Awe: By summoning your ancestors into battle, where they will blast onscreen enemies with lightning bolts.
• Siege Engines: Occasionally the players can come across catapults which repeatedly hurls exploding projectiles at them. These catapults can be destroyed for points.
• Smart Bomb: All the characters have a power level that charges up when performing enough combos, and once it reaches it's maximum they can execute a devastating move that blasts apart all mooks within a wide radius around them. Falan's manifests as a raging Phoenix, while Liang's summons a rain of dragon-headed rockets.
• Throne Room Throwdown: Prince Lei is confronted in his throne room in the final battle, seated as you approach him. He then gets up and starts attacking.
• Timed Mission: Five minutes are allowed per stage, at maximum, and it will turn red when there's 90 seconds left. With a timer that couldn't be missed, because for some reason the game's developers feel the need to place the timer in the center of the screen.
• Unusually Uninteresting Sight: Falan is visibly aghast after defeating Prince Lei that Lei turns out to be possessed by Chan-yu's ghost. But the mooks doesn't even look surprised to see their ex-commander coming back in spectral form and continues backing him up. Although maybe they're just that loyal.
• Warrior Princess: Princess Falan who takes on the Hun army. The game deserves at least some credit here, because unlike Mulan from the Disney cartoon or history, this Mulan-knockoff is an actual princess.

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