I actually didn't know at the time I purchased the game that it was based on an existing cartoon. All I knew is that it was a Zelda-style adventure game, made by Enix, that was based on the King Arthur legend. Only it had this weird twist where a football team led by a captain named Arthur King is sent back in time to rescue the real King Arthur. I do remember thinking that seemed like a really bizarre idea, even for an RPG/adventure game, and when I found out it was based on a cartoon, it somehow made more sense to me. I've since seen a few episodes of the cartoon and I can say it was rather inoffensive, but relatively dull, Saturday morning kids' fare...which is one of the reasons I found the endgame scenario so particularly strange. In a modern game...it...might not seem as odd. But for something based on such squeaky-clean, G-rated kiddie schmuck, it was really out of left field (and I think that if the people who rated this game "K-A" had actually gotten that far, they would have bumped it up to a "T").
For that matter, even before you get to that point, the game contains some rather depressing and grotesque imagery. Piles of skulls in the woods. Skeletons of slain knights littering the roads. A huge pile of frozen skulls (screaming corpses?) in the ice area. Creepy burnt-out wastelands with trees that have lava flowing through them (and if you look carefully, I could swear it looks like a burned corpse is crucified to some of them - see the above screenshot). A menacing swamp with some of the most haunting sound effects in the 16-bit world. And when you shoot the dragon boss, a bloody wound actually appears on its chest. It's as though the developers were taking the source material much more seriously than it actually was. It was probably for the better. It gives the game a very, very strange atmosphere. Despite how cartoony the character designs are, it doesn't feel "lighthearted" at all.
The book of ciphering that you get from the Blacksmith is called the "Book of Eld". In Stephen King's The Dark Tower series, the character Arthur Eld is based on the legendary King Arthur and he wielded the sword Excalibur. However, I believe this to be entirely coincidence. According to my sources, Arthur Eld was not mentioned until Wizard and Glass, which was published after Knights of Justice. In KOJ I believe the use of the word "Eld" is simply another way of saying "Old" (as in "elder"), since the book is a book of old runes. Still interesting to note, though.
The Book of Eld itself contains a list of all the runes you find while wandering along Blinder's Way. Many of them appear to have been based on commonly-known symbols. The ones I have figured out so far are:
Y = This has appeared in the videogame Diablo II on their in-game
"Runes", but that's not a reflection of it being from an actual Runic alphabet
Special thanks to site reader Monkey Slapper for information on ;, D, !, G, *, Q, O, <, Z, X, {, F, >, W, &, and Y.
If anyone knows if there's any significance to any of the other symbols, I'd appreciate any information you might have.
The name of the motel in Welton Village is "Bates No Tell Motel". The "Bates" part of it certainly seems like a reference to the 1960 Alfred Hitchcock movie, Psycho. This one I don't believe to be coincidence because it's too well-known of a reference, and the name even appears to be underscored in dripping blood on the sign.
"No Tell Motel" is a rather risqué joke, considering the implications of the phrase and the fact that there exists a 1990 porno film by the same name.
Blaise, the old Wizard that lives in the Swamp of Zagar, is clearly a reference to Yoda from the Star Wars movies. His cryptic, "reverse" way of talking is nearly identical to Yoda's manner of speaking. (Just try reading his dialogue without hearing Frank Oz's voice in your head.) He was also once Merlin's teacher, in much the same way as Yoda was Obi-Wan's teacher. Finally, he lives in a swamp, like how Yoda lives on the swamp planet, Dagobah.
Most of the names on the tombstones in the Dark Forest's graveyard are those of the game's developers (even though some appear to be spelled wrong if you compare them to the end credits). For example, M. Breault is one of the designers and R. Ridihalgh is the game's music composer.
Some of the others appear to be jokes, like Cuddles the Porcupine of Death. There is no one in the credits by the name of "G. Bush", so I am guessing this is some sort of reference to the former President.
There are various banners around the football stadium in the game's opening cinema. The first one is an Enix logo. The second one says "Mr. Cow" and has a cow face. The others are a sneaker, a duck, a happy face, an apple, a letter "M" (which could stand for Manley & Associates, the game's developer), and a skull & crossbones. (The same images appear on the other end of the stadium, but mirrored so they're all backwards.) The weird thing about the "Mr. Cow" one is...
"Mr. Cow" is also written all over the wall inside the house in Crownhorn Village where you get Lug's key. Who is Mr. Cow? The Manley & Associates mascot? Artist Kevin Pun confirms that he is the one responsible for putting the Mr. Cow references into the game, but there is still no explanation for who Mr. Cow exactly is.
Submitted by Erikat
Do those look familiar? To those of you who have played King Arthur and the Knights of Justice, they should. You have to gather a couple near the end of the game for a few dead guys. In the game they were called Flower O'Innocent, in real life they're called lilies. Whilst the game never specifies what exactly they are, I have a few reasons why I believe this is so.
Firstly, like the rose, lilies have been strongly associated with the Blessed Mother Mary. They are often seen in depictions of her, dating back even as far as the dark ages. The mother has always been strongly associated with the dead, and passing the flower onto the lost souls might be a KOJ version of salvation. This however would mean that the Plane of the Dead was not a ghostly overlay to the Earth like is supposed in the game, but Hell itself.
Secondly, lilies are one of the most popular funeral flowers, ranking number two behind roses. The tradition of giving lilies can also be dated back to the dark ages, probably because of the previous reasons stated. So, in a way the lilies were needed for them to pass on, which works quite well with the story behind those two travelers.
Considering the close relation that the Flower O'Innocent has to the lily, this was clearly well researched.
In the forest Northeast of Welton Village, there is a locked cellar door that leads to Gruesome Keep. The item needed to unlock the door is called "La Bijou du Porte", a jewel with an odd French name. It directly translates to "The Jewel of the Door".
This Debug Menu was found by Flying Omelette via a corrupted save state created by YK. PAR code 7E0F1F:01 allows you to bring up this menu by pressing Select on Controller #2.
Along with the menu, several numbers are shown around the screen. The bottom left numbers are your character's X/Y coordinates. The top right numbers are a map ID and the bottom right numbers are the temporary flag bank. This number will change as you complete events, and it can be altered with Controller #2's D-pad.
The menu items are as follows:
Teleports - If set to "No" this will turn off all warp points.
Battle Triggers - If set to "No", there will be no enemy encounters.
Unlimited Special - This will give you unlimited shield attacks without the use of orbs.
Special Kill - This makes certain bosses invincible if toggled to "Yes", but if they are hit with one shield attack, they will die after two fully charged weapon swings/shield attacks. This even causes Warlord Viper's human form to register hits from shield attacks, which he normally doesn't do.
Ping Triggers - When toggled to "Yes", this causes a low tone to play when a trigger is on-screen. For example, it plays constantly after beating a boss on up until someone starts talking about the key it dropped. If you have Teleports toggled off, it will also start beeping when you stand on top of a warp.
BG Attr. (Kn) - When toggled to "No", this turns off clipping so that you can walk through any background objects.
Song - Allows you to play any of the game's 15 songs. They match up to the titles of the songs on the
Downloads Page as follows:
BMF54123 for the PAR code to access the menu, information on the Dump Memory function, and general information on the Debug Menu.
Found by Flying Omelette. Graphics ripped and animated by Ragey.
The villagers/hermits have unused frames of animation for walking around. There are a bunch of different characters who all use this same sprite, but none of them ever move from the spots on which they're standing. They always look like this (or facing the other way around), but they never ever move.
Merlin has an unused walking animation. Whenever Merlin appears in the game, he teleports in, motions with his hands while talking, and then teleports away. But he never walks around.
Though you can talk to the women in the game who use this sprite, they don't animate when they converse with Arthur. This talking/hand clapping animation was left unused in the ROM.
Just like with the generic woman sprite, the generic villager man sprite also has an unused talking animation.
This is probably an unused portrait for Erek of Tintagel. That seems to make the most sense, and I believe it's a result of Erek getting combined with a no-name hermit character that was supposed to teach you about healing herbs during development. Because these two characters were combined into one, Erek took on the hermit's portrait instead of the one intended for him. (See the Unused Dialogue section below for more information on this.)
This animation of a Warlord Castle drawbridge opening up was also omitted from the final game. When you approach a castle for the first time, the drawbridge is always up. After finding the secret passageway into the castle and leaving through the main gate, the drawbridge will then always be in the down position. The frames in-between are never used.
These are four sprites for the Healing Herbs. The last sprite is what the Healing Herbs look like when you find them on the ground. The first sprite is what they look like after you pick them up. However, the two sprites in-between are never used. Along with some excised dialogue (see below), it's apparent that the Healing Herbs were supposed to gradually regrow over time, as opposed to immediately respawning when you exit and re-enter an area.
These three sprites are always loaded into memory whenever a key or shield is needed to be onscreen. However, the sword icon in this set is unused. Since the keys and shields are collected for each knight, was it planned at one time for you to find their weapons as well? Holy smokes, thank goodness that was axed!
This is a list of the game's items that can be seen by opening up the ROM in Notepad. Some of them are not used in the final game. They are:
Copper, 
Platinum - Since these are right alongside the Pitch Blend, I'm guessing it was originally intended for you to find all three of these things for the alchemist, Druas, but the scenario was shortened so that you only have to find the Pitch Blend.
Red Mushroom - Although there are Red Mushroom enemies, you never get one as an item. It might have been another ingredient required for Merlin's and/or Blaise's spells, but I don't really know.
Sapphire of Truth - Since this is right alongside the Emerald of Reason and Ruby of Compassion and has a similar name, it is logical to assume that it was meant to be another item you needed to get to break the curse on Welton Village. I wouldn't be surprised if it was supposed to have been located where the Nightshade is. It's very odd that the Nightshade, which you won't need until two quests later, is hidden in that spot.
Cup of Life - Since this is listed with all the other items you find in the Dark Forest, it may have been something you needed to get in that area - perhaps it was necessary to bring your friends back to life after they were sent to the Plain of the Dead? Another possibility is that it may have been a planned item for use in the excised quest to break the curse on the Town of the Dead. A character tells you how to break the curse, but it cannot actually be done.
This screenshot shows what the inventory screen would look like if all of the items in the game, including the unused ones, were in it at the same time.
Special credit for the ripped images and the inventory screenshot in this section goes to YK.
There is another group of item sprites that are loaded into memory upon viewing the inventory screen that are not actually used for anything and aren't even defined in the item list. They are:
- A couple of unused Warlord helmets. They may have been alternate designs for the one you get for the Blacksmith. The one on the left looks exactly like Warlord Slasher's helmet, but the one on the right does not match any of the bosses in the game.
- A white palette swap of the Pixie Dust and Saltmoss, but this one isn't used or named.
- This is probably a sprite for Excalibur, but weapons are not displayed on the inventory screen.
- Three unused flower sprites. These were probably components you'd find in the woods for making more magical potions that got cut.
- And these are probably the potions that would have been made with those cut components. The only potion bottle you ever receive is the Fire Protection Spell, but these sprites are completely different from that one.
- Appears to be an alternate sprite for the Staff of Rhiothamus. The one that's actually used in the game is thicker and the same width throughout. It's possible this could have been intended to show the completed staff, but it would have been impossible to show them combined with the way the inventory system is set up.
The sprite used for the Iron Scraps in the inventory screen seems to have been originally intended for the top part of the Staff of Rhiothamus. It clearly looks as though it would fit with the staff piece that's actually used in the game and the piece that is unused. This picture shows all three pieces together. You can clearly see how they line up and how they all have that telltale green glow on the bottom. The bottom part is the unused sprite, the middle part is the actual Staff Piece, and the top is the Iron Scraps sprite.
This is what the assembled staff may have looked like.
In the Nintendo Power interview with the programmers, Sam Deasy mentions Blackwing as being his favorite boss in the game. Blackwing was a character from the cartoon series and he is mentioned in the game as being the Warlord who dropped the Tears of Gorjus on Squire Everett, but you never actually fight him. A list of the bosses can be found in the game's ROM via a Hex Editor or Notepad, and Blackwing is indeed amongst them. All evidence points to him having definitely been planned as a boss, but for some reason he did not make it into the final cut of the game. Unfortunately, no visual aspect of Blackwing has yet been discovered in the ROM.
There are several possible places where Blackwing may have intended to be stationed as a boss. One could possibly have been in Blackroot Keep, where you find no boss, but Zeke's Key of Truth simply lying on the floor in an otherwise empty room at the end. The other might have been somewhere in the Dark Forest, perhaps as the guardian of Lancelot's Key of Truth (which you also find just lying around in a room.) The Dark Forest is such a huge area that I wouldn't be surprised if it was originally intended to be a separate quest from the final area, the Stone Gardens. But as it is, you have to complete all of the Dark Forest and all of the Stone Gardens in one quest to reach the end of the game.
Towards the end of the game, there are several huge caverns with strange eagle head statues lining the walls. One set of them leads to Morgana's Castle, but the others have no apparent purpose whatsoever. No items or enemies in them at all. Could this have been where Blackwing was meant to be fought?
According to the Wikipedia Entry for Knights of Justice, there were other Warlords in the cartoon series that are not present in the game, such as Warlord Axe, Warlord Blight, and Lord Chang. However, unlike Blackwing, there is no evidence to suggest they were ever intended to be bosses in the game.
NOTE: To use the codes in the following section, you must go into either your inventory subscreen or the map subscreen, and then cancel out. The screen will go dark and when it comes back, instead of being where you originally were, you will have warped to the location designated by the code.
PAR Warp Code developed by Helder from TheGSHI.org.
CLICK HERE FOR A MAP OF THE UNUSED DARK FOREST AREA
Using the code 7E1155:AC will warp you to a section of the Dark Forest that is inaccessible during normal game play. It's a winding forest path that has six northern exits that all warp you right back to this same winding path, and a southern exit that leads to a mysterious and spacious unused cliff. Far south of the cliff is another small section of land with a southern exit. Taking the exit warps you back to this same piece of land.
CLICK HERE FOR A MAP OF THE UNUSED CASTLE SANGUINE AREA
Code 7E1155:61 warps you to an unused winding hallway in Castle Sanguine that eventually connects to a small room. The room has one eastern exit that warps to the room before the boss room. (Code 7E1155:5F warps you directly into the unused room.) There is no way to gain entry into either the hallway or the room during normal game play.
This map is crude and not to scale, but it shows roughly what the original layout of Castle Sanguine was supposed to look like. The blue part represents the areas of the castle that you can access in the final game. The red part represents the unused hallway and room. This would explain why exiting through the east wall of the unused room puts you right in front of the boss room door (top).
CLICK HERE FOR A MAP OF THE UNUSED STONE GARDENS AREA
In the Town of the Dead, behind the double doors in John Black's Crypt, there is a hidden unused hallway. To get to it, first use the code 7E1155:FF to warp to Castle Blackroot. Move one screen north and then one screen east. Then use the code 7E1155:23 to warp again. (Alternately, you can set "BG Attr" to "No" in the Debug Menu to turn off clipping, and just walk straight up from the double doors in the crypt.) This hallway was meant to connect the doorway from John Black's Crypt to the Stone Gardens. Instead, in the final game, you go instantly from the doors to the gardens. The hallway's floor tiles are set as impassable barriers, so you cannot walk across them unless you have clipping turned off.
Code 7E1155:E3 warps you to a single-screen unused room in Castle Vilor with no apparent exits, although you can go through a hidden door in the north wall. There is no way back into it.
CLICK HERE FOR A MAP OF THE UNUSED DEAD FOREST AREA
Map ripped by YK.
During the quest to retrieve the four elemental keys to access Castle Vilor, you will find the Fire Key on a charred cliff to the north of the screen with the castle's dungeon door. There is a weird blue object on this screen resembling the parasitic cone of a volcano. Beyond that is an unfinished area that was supposed to be a trail to connect the Vilor forest area to the forest south of the Dark Citadel. (It is possible to access the upper portion of the trail by taking a road south of the Dark Citadel forest area, but large rocks were placed at both the north and south trailheads to block access to the middle portion of this map.) The bottom left corner of the map is unfinished. Some suggest the tiles placed there are a map ID number "1".
Strangely enough, a screenshot was included on the back of the game's box that showed Arthur on the ledge behind the blue cone. It is impossible to get to that ledge during normal game play, so you can only duplicate this scene via hacking.
Thanks to Helder from TheGSHI.org and his amazing codebreaking skills, I was able to get into the area of that screenshot and duplicate it:
Helder's Area Mod Code is 7E1155:38. Go into your inventory screen and when you leave, you'll warp to the area designated by the modifying digits. You might need to adjust your position on the screen so that you can freely explore when you reappear in the new area. (Alternately, you can turn off "BG Attr" in the Debug Menu to disable clipping and walk through the walls in this section.) Anyway, this area of the Stone Gardens is clearly unfinished:
During normal gameplay, you can only see the bottom half of the parastic cone. Hacking your way into this area will allow you to see the top portion of it, too.
There's a ramp leading down into the area with the blue cone, but it's been blocked off at the bottom by a row of ill-fitting tiles. I am not certain if the blue cone would have been the entrance to a new area or if you'd get an item from it, but it's clear that something was planned for it.
How incomplete is this area? Some of the boundaries aren't in place and you can walk right through walls onto "higher" and "lower" land elevations. What was planned to be here? What is that blue thing? What are you hiding, Manley & Associates? Is this where Blackwing was supposed to be fought? Hmmm...
PAR Codes 7E1155:09 and 7E1155:10 warp you to a blacked-out room where data for an unused cutscene is stored. (You will need a tile viewer such as vSNES to see it.) The scene shows Arthur from behind kneeling down in a forest, picking up healing herbs, and it's marked with a mysterious letter "D".
The in-game map of Blinder's Way is very strange. It looks like it's broken into five different pieces and it shows quite a few warps that don't actually exist. I've circled all the warps that cannot actually be found in purple. I've noticed a mistake, too. There are two "Z" warps (neither of which actually exist) marked, but no destination. I think the one that's outside the ring of trees in the middle of the path was supposed to be its destination point, but someone colored it red instead of purple.
I've traced a route through the map and I think I've pinpointed the problem: The "X" warp does not take you where the map says it should. Neither does warp "S". It looks as though what was originally planned was for you to take the "X" warp to that ring of trees. From there take warp "BB" and then go south to "CC", which would put you in that ring where a lot of warps would have led you. From there, take "II", then "JJ". "JJ" would lead you to "W", and then "W" to "A". In the actual game, you do not have to take warp "W" to get to "A" because someone left out (or removed?) a tree in the ring. I'm wondering now if that tree was removed because a huge portion of steps were taken out (or never put in). There is also a strange warp marked "TZ" near the final "Y" warp to Castle Sanguine that has no marked destination and does not exist in the game.
Finally, someone colored the direct warps to and from Castle Sanguine wrong, too. The "NN" near the castle should be red, and the "MM" near the castle should be purple. Otherwise, the way it looks now is that there are two warps with no destination and two destination points with no warps.
CLICK HERE FOR A COMPLETE MAP OF THE BLINDER'S WAY AREA
This is a complete map of Blinder's Way as it appears in the final game with all of the warp points marked with the corresponding letters from the in-game map (shown above). You can compare the two to see the differences and see how many warps had been taken out. Notice the large circular meadows with nothing in them that were probably supposed to contain some of those missing warps.
The Book of Eld deciphers the symbols used for the Blinder's Way warps. None of the symbols in the last three columns of the book's second page are used anywhere in the maze except for the - and the ? symbols. It is possible that some of them were intended to be used for the missing warps.
Though it may not necessarily be related to the missing warps, the trees in the bottom right area of Blinder's Way are hiding a number of invisible warps that send you back to Camelot Castle, but you'll be stuck inside a wall. You can get to these warps by turning off clipping in the Debug Menu. By disabling Background Layer 1 in an emulator, you can also see a hidden path going through these trees, as in the screenshot above.
There is also strong evidence to suggest that the map to Blinder's Way was originally going to be in five pieces and you'd have to find all five and assemble it before you could use it.
King Arthur, what an honor. Do you have need of my map making abilities?
Yes, I do. I need any maps you may have of the surrounding area.
Warlord Bash has destroyed all of my maps. I only have a scrap of a map
of the forest to the north of Gruesome Keep. I would let you have it if
you bring me some flowers that breathe deeply of the sea air. Their
pigment is a useful dye.
Deal.
This is the conversation between Arthur and the Mapmaker. Notice the Mapmaker says he only has "a scrap of a map", even though he gives you the whole map in return for the Sea Flowers.
Find the missing piece of the map. Study the map closely and it will show
you the Way.
This is the clue Merlin gives you about Blinder's Way. He tells you to "find the missing piece of the map", even though you are given the whole map at once and never look for missing pieces of it. This would explain why the image of the map in the game looks like it is broken in five pieces. With the map being worthless due to the shortening of the Blinder's Way scenario, it is not surprising this sidequest was taken out.
After Blaise agrees to turn you into birds one last time so that you can get the Air Elemental Key, he asks you to visit the baker in Crownhorn Village and bring him the Staff of Life. "Staff of Life", in this case, is synonymous with "bread" (there's an old idiom that says "Bread is the Staff of Life").
While there is a bakery in Crownhorn Village with plenty of bread lying around, there is no one inside, and you cannot interact with any of the objects in here. I am guessing this was meant to be a step in a later quest that did not make it into the finished version of the game. My theory is that the bread you find in the northern forest area that you end up giving to the Hungry Traveler is what became of the bread you were supposed to get for Blaise. What Blaise was meant to do for you in return for the bread remains a mystery.
The Knights of Justice ROM contains a lot of unused dialogue. Here is all that I could find:
This Key is mine. A confused note is me, if you rearrange the letters in my name.
Good play, Tone. One more key down. Now, we're about half way through this mess.
This is obviously dialogue meant for the scene where Tone gets his Key of Truth from the Gnome Woods. However, it's never actually spoken. If you have Tone in your party, he automatically runs over to the key and grabs it without saying a word, and then Merlin appears to send you back to Camelot.
You've found Tone's Magical Shield.
This dialogue doesn't occur because you don't "find" Tone's shield. You get it automatically when he reassembles the Staff of Rhiothamus.
Welcome, King Arthur, to my home. Feel free to come here whenever you need healing.
The herb patch at the back of the cave can heal wounds you have received.
It is little enough to do for one who is fighting to save the whole kingdom.
You may find more patches in your journeys. After you harvest the herbs, others will begin to grow.
If you return to a patch after a long absence, you will find more herbs to heal your wounds.
I originally thought this was alternate dialogue for Erek of Tintagel, but I've never gotten him to say any of this to me, and I no longer believe it was intended for him. In the final game, Erek does have an herb patch in the back of his cave, but the excised dialogue below suggests that originally the hermit in this cave and Erek of Tintagel were supposed to be two different characters.
The reason I believe this is because Erek is in hiding, and yet the character who speaks this dialogue is welcoming Arthur to his "home", not his "hiding place", and he makes no mention of who he is. My best guess is that the programmers felt such a lengthy explanation of the healing herbs was not necessary and excised it, then combined Erek and this unnamed hermit into one character. That would explain why Erek has a hermit's portrait instead of the unused portrait that was most likely intended for him.
Another reason this text may have been cut is because the last line heavily suggests that herbs would gradually regrow over time, and the rom contains unused sprites of the herbs in various stages of growth to back up this theory. In the finished game, however, these herbs regrow immediately when you leave and return to an area. (This dialogue may have also been related to that unused cutscene of Arthur picking up the healing herbs.)
King Arthur, my liege! I am Erek of Tintagel. When Warlord Spike laid siege and won my castle, I was forced to flee. I know this castle well and can show you a secret way in if you can bring me something in return.
Sounds good. What do you want us to bring you?
A book of ciphering stolen from me by the Blacksmith. He lives on the high road to Shield Heights.
A book thief! This will be as easy as sacking that quarterback from Miami. Let's go guys!
He's a thief?! Let's take him, Arthur. I'll crush him like I did to that quarterback from Miami.
Leave here and take the south road to my cave. In the back of the cave, you will find the secret entrance to the castle underground.
This is obviously alternate dialogue for the scene where Erek of Tintagel asks you to get the Book of Eld from the Blacksmith. There are two really weird things about it: First of all, it sounds like you were originally supposed to fight the Blacksmith for the book, as some (unidentifiable) knight actually has pre-fight dialogue for him! The other odd thing is that it appears Erek's hiding spot and the cave with the secret passage into Tintagel Castle were originally two different places. In the final game, they are one and the same. As I stated above, I believe that cave was supposed to have a no-name hermit who taught you about the healing herbs, but Erek and the hermit were combined into one character and the cave was made into Erek's hiding place.
Also, what is with these two references to a "quarterback from Miami"? Did someone have something against Dan Marino?
No Arthur, he is certainly not within our own lair. You must go back out the passage and find him.
This is right with all the other dialogue for the Gnome King, Kazak, so I'm positive it's his. It sounds like you were originally supposed to talk to him by actually going into the Gnome Woods, as opposed to having Kazak just pop out of the ground when you stand in the right spot.
What is casting this shadow?
It's obvious where this dialogue was intended (when you find the flying island's shadow in that hidden meadow), but it's never actually spoken.
How does a mortal man collect the clouds or gather the stars? An act of craft it is to be able to look down on your lowly brothers from on high.
Sounds like a clue intended for when Blaise turns your party into birds to get to the flying island. What's strange is that the tone and dialect it's written in doesn't really match the way any of the game's characters talk (it kind of sounds like something an eloquently-spoken priest would say, doesn't it?) The dialogue's header points to the Hungry Traveler, suggesting that he may have once had a bigger role planned that was eventually scrapped.
You have been lucky enough to defeat my dragon, but I'll be back, and I'll have my revenge!
This one's interesting. The way it looks in the game is that Morgana turns into the dragon, and is thus defeated when you kill it. But this dialogue suggests that Morgana only summons the dragon and escapes once it's defeated. I'm glad they took this line out because I like that the game has a definitive ending. Since the whole game is a build-up to the defeat of Morgana, I would feel cheated if you didn't actually destroy her once and for all. (And the only purpose this dialogue could serve is to set up a sequel - a sequel which would never be.)
I guess the map doesn't work from the Plain of the Dead.
The map is still not working. All the magic in this area must be, like, shorting it out.
It's true that the map doesn't work from the Plain of the Dead, but it just doesn't do anything if you try to use it. Arthur doesn't say any of this dialogue as a result of trying to use it.
Well, here comes the pretender to the throne! Dare you meet me in single combat, worm?
I thought you lacked the courage to face me. Run back to Camelot, false King Arthur!
Back again, weakling? You shall fare no better this time! Dare you try again?
This sounds like dialogue for a boss fight, but it's very unusual for several reasons. It sounds as though you were given a "YES" or "NO" choice for fighting this boss, but no such clause was ever built into the structure. It is also spoken by the boss itself when usually any pre-fight dialogue that occurs is only spoken by the knight whose key the boss holds. The dialogue's header points to the Lady of the Lake, but it's completely out of character for her.
Let's get going Arthur!
This was supposed to have been spoken after you choose two knights to go with you at Camelot Castle. Thank goodness it was removed because choosing knights takes long enough as it is.
A puzzle has become corrupted!
Too many things unpacked!
A foe has an health error!
These are system error messages left over from development. Perhaps if one of these problems occurred during playtesting, the corresponding message would appear and the developers could work to fix it.
The sealed off area of the Dead Forest has unfinished wall boundaries and I guess it's understandable that if the developers knew the area would be cut that they wouldn't bother to finish putting them all in. However, they missed at least one barrier in a finished, legally-accessible area. Find the spot in the Stone Gardens depicted in my screenshots and walk towards the edge of the cliff to the left.
You'll go right through it! Could possibly be an intentional walkthrough-wall, but since there's nothing over here but a group of dead trees, and Arthur looks a little "glitchy" as he walks through it (he doesn't cleanly disappear and reappear as when walking through the normal walkthrough walls elsewhere in the game), I doubt it. I guess it's just an "oops".
In the Plain of the Dead, go out onto the catwalks and look for a group of Ghost Knights. Allow them to kill Arthur (this could take awhile since they do little damage and tend to wander off).
When you die, you won't get sent back to Camelot Castle as usual. Instead, you reappear on the screen in front of the double doors in John Black's Crypt. Then Arthur is immediately reloaded there, only to die again. This continues in an infinite loop with no way out.
I had this glitch happen to me the very first time I played this game. During the part where you have to break the curse on Welton Village, go into the woods and find the Goblet of Loyalty, but do not pick up the Ruby of Compassion. Instead, return to Welton and place the Goblet of Loyalty on the altar in the church. The Ruby of Compassion will vanish and you will never be able to break the curse on Welton. It's still possible to get La Bijou du Porte, but you won't be able to get the Scroll from the Old Woman, and therefore, you won't be able to get Tone's Key from the Gnome Woods far later in the game because the Scroll is required for it.
Where is Brick in this group picture from the opening cinema? And who is that big guy with the long blonde hair that's laughing in the back row behind Tone? His nose looks like Brick's and his face is shaped kind of like Brick's, but his hair is the wrong length and color!
When Blaise chants the spell to turn your party into birds, he is saying "Blaise commands, turn you into birds. Eyes of another. Fly strong" backwards. (Although there is a grammatical error that actually causes him to say "Eyes of a another".) I can think of at least three other examples of backwards speech in games:
In Final Fantasy, the broom in Matoya's cave told you "TCELES B HSUP", which is "Push B Select" backwards. It is the code to bring up the world map on the overworld.
In Dragon View, when the wandering sorcerer would power up one of your items, he'd say, "AZIG TAEFED!" This is "Defeat Giza!" backwards. Giza was the main villain of the game.
In Aidyn Chronicles: The First Mage, the shadow double of Alaron spoke all of his sentences backwards.
Some of the game's most grotesque imagery can be found in the Dark Forest. There is the remains of a hanged knight in the tree at the southern end of the graveyard. Later, in the Plain of the Dead, you will walk along catwalks made of twisted, bloody, rotting corpses.
Wally has a different palette in the manual (left) than he does in the game (right). The manual palette matches the cartoon version. It's unknown why it was changed in the game.
Helder's warp code and the Debug Menu can be used to access other areas that you wouldn't normally be able to. Here I am walking around inside the Cave of Glass in which the real King Arthur and his knights have been imprisoned. This area is normally only used in the opening and ending cinemas. You can leave the room via the south exit, but the game will crash.
It's also possible to walk around on the overworld map screen using the Debug Menu and no clipping, but there are invisible warps all over the place, most of which make the game crash.
There's a misplaced warp in the Town of the Dead just above one used to enter a house. You will need to have no clipping enabled in the Debug Menu to access it. It's just south of Arthur's position in the first screenshot above and takes him to the point in Welton Village in the second.
By warping to the floating island where Arthur and his friends are turned into birds, and then going in and out of the status/inventory screens, you can force the game to load Warlord Hammer, who can then be "transported" into other areas of the game by warping again. This causes many interesting glitches and effects.
The real King Arthur in the ending sequence so closely resembles an older version of Arthur King, that I wonder if it's a subtle implication that they are in fact related. As if the game's premise didn't rely on enough coincidences as it is, this would be like the ultimate irony.
Submitted by Codie Martin. Arthur King wearing his helmet looks remarkably like Empoleon from Pokemon Diamond/Pearl.
This is SO weird...It definitely works better if you actually see Arthur's sprite animated in the game, but anyway...From a front view ONLY, Arthur's sprite oddly resembles Cheetor from Beast Wars. They're about the same color. Arthur's chest armor is shaped almost exactly like the cheetah head that becomes Cheetor's chest plate in robot form (and I swear it looks like it even has eyes and ears). They both have a helmet with a pointy crown. Arthur's legs are shaped like Cheetor's legs. They both have that armor that goes over their shoulders. Cheetor even had a sword, too. It's obviously completely coincidence (although both the Knights of Justice and Beast Wars cartoon series shared a lot of the same voice actors), but it's just so funny how uncanny it is.
Switched at Birth? This was pointed out to me by Crawl and 1000. On the left is the Lady of the Lake. On the right is She-Ra, Princess of Power. I do not know if this is coincidence or if the cartoons shared any character designers.
Is it just me, or does Darren look like David Bowie? Not that it's all that unusual to find David Bowie look-a-likes in games. But this might be the first I found one that originated from a cartoon.
Crawl and 1000 submitted this one. Phil looks amazingly similar to Andy Richter.
Submitted by MaskedSheik. Phil has another lookalike in MSNBC talk show host, Chris Matthews.
Submitted by MaskedSheik. Zagan from Fire Emblem also bears an uncanny resemblance to Phil. Maybe that's what Phil decided to do after the Knights of Justice cartoon was canceled.
The Gem Cutter looks kinda similar to Ben Franklin.
Even weirder. He looks nearly identical to Cid from Final Fantasy 8.
In the Knights of Justice cartoon series, Merlin was voiced by actor/blues singer, Jim Byrnes. (Jim Byrnes was also the lifeguard on Wiseguy, as well as the voice of Inferno on Beast Wars, Dr. Light on the Mega Man cartoon, Shadow Master on the Double Dragon cartoon, and many others.) The weird thing is...I think Merlin actually looks like Jim Byrnes. I don't know if it's coincidence or if the show was casted before it was drawn.
Merlin's head and a compact disc. Too funny to be left out.
Merlin's head and my cat, Hermes. You have to admit, the resemblance is there.
The hungry traveler = Nick Nolte. I'm not even sure if this is coincidence.
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| Captain N: Game Masters & Varsity Football Characters |
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| King Arthur & the Knights of Justice |
Submitted by Will Keaton, "After viewing the Knights of Justice Shrine I noticed
some similarites between the New York Knights and the
Northridge High Varsity Football Team from the
well-known Captain N. The members of Northridge High are, from left to
right, [In "Game masters"] Kevin Keene, Mike Vincent, [In Varsity Football] Julius, Rick, Romeo and Stacey. Not only are the football uniforms virtually identical
but some of the players look the same as well. Note
Romeo and Lancelot, Julius and Sir Lug, Rick and Sir
Breeze, (minus the mustache.) and Mike Vincent's
similar appearance to the unknown laughing guy in the
back with the blond hair. Most disconcerting is the resemblence between Sir
Arthur and Captain N. Did the Knights share some
character designers with Captain N or did Merlin
accidentally return some of the knights to the wrong
school?"
FO's Comment: That's pretty damn bizarre. It appears the cartoons were produced by two different animation companies, but I'm wondering if they shared any staff...perhaps animators and/or character designers from one company eventually went to work for the other. Another possiblity might be a common point-of-reference - a source that both pulled from. Or maybe it's just one friggin' huge coincidence, but there's no way to know unless someone who worked on either shows comes forward.
NOTE: The similarity between the football teams was also pointed out by site reader Alan Bates, who also provided me with these pictures for comparison:
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