Kaor (sword) and Igor (ax)
- Beldor the Magnificient Reigned as a despot over the Kingdom of Sellech for One Thousand Years.All was chaos and destruction.Many knights went on a crusade to destroy Beldor, but none returned.The people united, built energized heroes and imprisoned Beldor's soul.Now Clovis, corrupt son of the King of Sellech, wants to harness Beldor's power and conquer the kingdom.
Legend is a 1994 arcade Beat 'em Up / Hack and Slash video game developed by Arcade Zone and developed for the SNES.
It's worth noting that this game is produced by just two French game developers, Carlo Perconti and Lyes Belaidouni, who handled the animation, art, and most major aspects of the game pre-release.
Loosely inspired by the High Fantasy craze started by games like Rastan, Golden Axe and The King of Dragons years ago, Legend, like so many games before it, is set in a standard Medieval European Fantasy world, this time in the fictional kingdom of Sellech ruled by an evil tyrant.
Prince Clovis, the power-hungry heir to the throne of Sellech, had sold his soul to the demon tyrant, Beldor, in exchange for ultimate power and to conquer and enslave entire lands. It's up to two heroic knights, Kaor and Igor (player one and two), to battle Prince Clovis' minions, overthrow the prince, and defeat the all-powerful demon, Beldor.
A sequel and quasi-remake, Legend (1998), was released four years later.
Legend (1994) contains examples of:
- 1-Up: Sometimes the game will dispense extra lives (a pyramid with the words "1-UP" on it) from destroyed objects, which you can pick up.
- Arboreal Abode: After defeating the giant tree-man boss at the edge of the swamp, the tree trunk then rises to reveal a hidden door underground, built in the surface of the trunk, where an imprisoned old man will walk out and thank you for releasing him (by defeating said tree-man) and giving you the map that leads to the next town.
- Airborne Mook: Flying bats and huge ravens constantly show up to harass you from both sides of the screen. They die in just one hit, however, given their size.
- All Trolls Are Different: One troll shows up as a boss, but this troll is a fur-covered, shaggy brute several times larger than you, whose features look suspiciously ape-like; and attacks by jumping up and down the arena and slashing with its claws.
- Angry Guard Dog: The bandits frequently have guard dogs flanking them, sending them on you at the stage after the swamp level. Later on you will encounter dogs constantly in their hideout, but these canines die in a single hit.
- Battle in the Rain: The second level has you fighting enemies in rain-drenched streets as you make your way to a tavern.
- Big Bad: Clovis, leader of the bandit army and Final Boss who fights you at the end of The Sanctuary.
- Bonus Stage: In between levels, there are stages without enemies, with you either collecting as much respawning gold as you can, or finding keys and using them to open various treasure chests for points, until the onscreen timer runs out.
- Crystal Ball: A weaponized version, the Cultist enemies will attack you by flinging exploding crystal balls at your direction. They seem to have an unlimited supply of these crystal balls, somehow.
- Cutscene Incompetence: During the fight against the net-crossbow bandit, regardless of your performance, you will get caught in his net and taken to the dungeon, despite having a sword that can slay monsters and dragons and easily slice up said net, but the game needs you in the dungeon, so there you go.
- Dem Bones: Fittingly enough for a medieval-themed game, skeleton enemies are a recurring threat. They attack you by clawing their way out from underground where they're buried.
- Evil Prince: Prince Clovis, the corrupted, power-hungry son of the King of Sellech, who took over the throne and attempts to harness the ultimate power for himself by unleashing the demon Beldor.
- Evil Wizard: A powerful unnamed wizard serves as the boss of The Black Temple stage. Said wizard can float all over the boss arena making him hard to hit, periodically shoot thunderbolts at you, and sometimes summon gargoyles to back him up.
- The Executioner: The boss of the dungeon stage (how appropriate) is a huge, burly executioner clad in a black mask who swings a powerful spiked mace on you. There are also lesser enemies dressed like stereotypical medieval executioners, but smaller in size and wielding axes.
- Fragile Flyer: Giant ravens and bats are the fastest, but also weakest, enemy varieties. They swoop all over the place during battle, but die in just one hit.
- Free-Fall Fight: The battle against the troll is on a circular platform in a cavern, which starts breaking and dropping down a chasm within you and the troll on it. Because of the conditions a simple jump will automatically launch you to the top of the screen, and you still need to get close to the troll while in mid-fall to fight it.
- The Goomba: The lowest-ranking bandit enemies, mooks clad in hoods and armed with spears. They appear right at the start of the first stage and are pushovers that die easily.
- Impossible Item Drop: Enemies drop roasted chicken drumsticks on a regular basis, even when it doesn't make any sense.
- Flying bats will regularly drop drumsticks after being cut out of the air. The sprites for said drumsticks are as large as the bats themselves, so how they are carrying these foods around is a mystery.
- Guard dogs will drop similar drumsticks as well, so apparently the dogs are so preoccupied with attacking you they simply ignore that tasty drumstick they're already carrying in their mouths. Also there are guard dogs who can drop sacks of gold.
- And also, skeletons who leave behind drumsticks after their defeat (what, do skeletons need to eat?).
- In the Hood: The basic bandit enemies and the cultists all wear hoods, which stay on even after they're hacked to their deaths. The latter's hoods hide their heads entirely, turning them into The Faceless.
- Net Gun: A medieval version, but there's a scene where a bandit captures you with a net-shooting crossbow, taking you to the dungeon.
- Our Dragons Are Different: A powerful Red Dragon guards the top of The Mill, as the stage's boss, who attacks by clawing at you and blasts you with fireballs. You'll need to jump to hit it, or cast a spell. Oddly enough said dragon seems to have avian-looking clawed feet.
- Palette Swap: While plenty of games uses recycled sprites for mooks (this one included), Legend notably recycled sprites for both the playable characters, Kaor and Igor, who looks exactly identical to each other, save for the fact that Kaor uses a sword while Igor uses a battleax. They might be twin brothers, but the game doesn't confirm it.
- Shield-Bearing Mook: Occasionally there are bandit mooks armed with shields alongside the recurring spearmen, but they still go down quite easily.
- Smart Bomb: Your spells, which fill the screen with magical projectiles, dealing damage to all enemies in the area or leaving severe damage on the boss.
- Swamps Are Evil: The second part of the first stage is set in a swamp full of Muck Monster enemies, who slither around in puddles before taking on humanoid forms to attack you.
- Throw a Barrel at It: The boss of the tavern stage is a burly, muscular bandit armed with an indestructible barrel, which he will either smash you with it or roll it along the screen to crush you. He will do this repeatedly whenever he picks up his barrel until he's slain.
- Unique Enemy:
- Gargoyles are fought in precisely one area, being summoned by the Evil Wizard boss to back him up. And they're not common either, said wizard prefers using his thunderbolts instead of creating his own mooks.
- There's also the bandit armed with a net-crossbow. You can fight and damage him, but he'll web you nonetheless and have you hauled to the dungeons.
- When Trees Attack: The boss of the swamp level is a giant tree-man taller than the screen, who extends gigantic branches shaped like hands to claw at you. You can hurt it by slashing his branch-hands and the human face on the bark. Defeating it reveals an old man trapped inside who will gratefully reward you with an ancient map.
