After almost two decades, MediEvil is back on home consoles, and longtime fans of the cult series couldn't be happier. Other Ocean's fantastic remake keeps all the charm and mechanical snappiness of the original, while sprucing it up and modernizing it for a whole new generation of players. All this time later, it's a wonderful little game, brimming with charm and personality.
But if you grew up playing the mess out of the original, you might be quick to pick up on a few key differences as this is much more than a simple retread. Let's take a look at some of the biggest changes in this ambitious overhaul.
An Entirely New Post-Game
Perhaps the biggest addition to MediEvil is the presence of Lost Souls. Lost Souls are a new form of collectible that players unlock close to the end of the game. By opening a chest in The Entrance Hall, the game's twentieth level, a whole gaggle of souls are dispersed throughout the entire map. It's up to the player to hunt them down and put them back in their final resting places.
This is an elaborate process that handily adds a few hours of content onto the short game. The souls dissipate among the levels, and once found, offer hints in the form of riddles on where to lay them to rest. What this translates to for the player are one or two additional playthroughs of each level, as the souls aren't properly put to bed if Sir Dan doesn't finish the map they appear on.
While this hunt might seem like a bunch of brushwork, it actually gives players additional challenges to tackle in the form of trickier platforming sections or enemy rushes. It's a fun way to milk the game for extra content, and the player is handsomely rewarded with two trophies - along with a special retro surprise we won't spoil here.
Improved Camera
MediEvil is a bone-a fide classic, but like most PlayStation One titles, it hasn't aged particularly well in many respects. Most notably, its camera is the literal worst - something contemporary critics even came down hard back in the '90s.
But Other Ocean wisely chose to overhaul the entire camera system, and the result is splendid. Players have complete control over the camera outside of special instances (such as certain boss encounters, like the Stained Glass Demon,) which makes for a smoother and more streamlined experience when it comes to looking around. Players even have access to a Dan Cam - an over-the-shoulder the view in the vein of Resident Evil 4, which makes ranged combat and looking for secrets a great deal easier.
One of the biggest caveats of recommending the old game was the finicky, imprecise, and unwieldy camera. Now, players don't have to contend with that one bit, which makes it way easier to just sit back and enjoy the game without having to fight it.
New Narration & Score
Aside from the visual spit-and-shine, done in a totally new engine with truly stunning 4K visuals, MediEvil has also had an entire musical overhaul. Andrew Barnabas and Paul Arnold, the composers for the original, have come back to rerecord the entirety of the original score with modern equipment. The results speak for themselves - the wonderful score is crisper and cleaner than ever, without any of the compression of the original game.
On top of that, Jason Wilson came back to do all his dialogue as Sir Dan, although no word on whether or not he recorded the lines inside of a bucket this time around. A wry and charming new narration was also recorded by pedigreed voice actress Lani Minella, known for her beloved turns as Rouge The Bat and Luke of the Professor Layton franchise. The rest of the dialogue has been recycled from the original.
Something Old, Something New
The MediEvil remake manages to walk that delicate tightrope of playing how you remember the original feeling while skillfully avoiding its pitfalls. This is something so many remakes and reboots fail at doing, and something Other Ocean has pulled off with great aplomb. For all intents and purposes, this isn't MediEvil actually was, but rather how players likely remember it being from its heyday. All of the charm found in the art direction and tactile fun found in the mechanics have been refined and their rough edges have been smoothed off to make the game more palatable to a modern audience.
Truthfully, most of us didn't expect Sony to give this much love to this underappreciated gem, but it rightly deserves it. MediEvil is a great game, and all of the new additions - on top of the wonderful visual and mechanical overhaul - only serve to serve to remind fans why they fell in love with this quirky little franchise in the first place.
Now, where's MediEvil II? Princess Kiya deserves some of this love.