Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader
An action RPG using SPECIAL in an alternate-history medieval world.
Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader is an action role-playing game for Windows, released in August 2003. It was developed by Reflexive Entertainment and published by Black Isle Studios, a subsidiary of Interplay Entertainment. The game uses a 3/4 isometric camera perspective. Players control a single protagonist on a central quest. The story is set in an alternate history where a rift in reality allowed demons and similar beings to enter the mortal world, drastically altering medieval history. Throughout the game, the protagonist meets and interacts with non-player characters based on historical figures such as Joan of Arc, Leonardo da Vinci, and Galileo Galilei.
The game employs the SPECIAL role-playing system, originally from the Fallout series. Here, it is used primarily to allocate points into specific skill trees to enhance a character's "Spiritkind," a spirit with a personality and nature chosen by the player at the start.
**Gameplay** Character creation in Lionheart follows the SPECIAL system, similar to Fallout. Players set values for strength, perception, endurance, charisma, intelligence, agility, and luck, and select "traits" that modify a character's abilities for better or worse throughout the game. Points are also distributed to "skills," which produce various effects. For example, the "diplomacy" skill allows players to talk their way out of trouble, while "sneak" lets them move undetected. Unlike Fallout, Lionheart includes magical skills, such as "discord," which turns hostile enemies against each other. During the game, players also select "perks," abilities similar to traits that affect a character's capabilities. The "Superior Senses" perk, for instance, grants a +1 bonus to perception and 15 extra skill points in the "find traps/secret doors" skill.
A new element introduced in Lionheart is the "Spiritkind," chosen during character creation. This spirit, which can be demonic, elemental, or bestial, resides in the player character and occasionally awakens to explain events, gameplay mechanics, or advance the plot. The player character is the only one directly controlled; any party members that join are always AI-controlled.
**Plot** The game's setting is an alternate history caused by the Disjunction, a tear in time that brought magic into the world.
Quick Facts
- Title
- Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader
- Developer
- Reflexive Entertainment
- Publisher
- Black Isle Studios
- Producer
- Lars Brubaker
- Designer
- Ion Hardie
- Programmer
- James C. Smith
- Artist
- Jeff McAteer
- Writer
- Eric Dallaire
- Composer
- Inon Zur
- Platforms
- Windows
- Released
- NA · 12 August 2003 · AU · 26 August 2003 · UK · 12 September 2003
- Genre
- Action role-playing
Facts from the source article.
Lore & Background
Development was strained, with Reflexive Entertainment nearly shutting down before receiving the contract, and Interplay facing financial issues that delayed milestone payments. The game went gold on 16 July 2003 and was distributed in North America by Vivendi Universal Games and in Europe by Avalon Interactive. Reception was mixed, with praise for its musical score and voice-acting but criticism for forcing combat-oriented play despite promoting diverse character creation.
Reader's Guide
Lionheart: Legacy of the Crusader is significant as an attempt to merge the SPECIAL role-playing system from the Fallout series with a Diablo-style action RPG in a historical fantasy setting. Its alternate history premise, featuring figures like Joan of Arc, Leonardo da Vinci, and Galileo Galilei, offered a unique narrative backdrop. However, the game received mixed reviews, with critics noting a disconnect between its early dialogue-driven approach and later hack-and-slash gameplay. The financial struggles of both developer and publisher likely contributed to its uneven execution. Despite this, the game is remembered for its ambitious use of the SPECIAL system, including magical skills and the Spiritkind mechanic, and for its attempt to leverage Fallout fan interest. Its legacy lies in being a flawed but interesting experiment in blending deep role-playing mechanics with real-time action, and it remains a point of discussion among RPG enthusiasts for its unrealized potential.
Did You Know?
- The game uses the SPECIAL role-playing system, first used in the Fallout series.
- Players select a Spiritkind (demonic, elemental, or bestial) at character creation that occasionally rouses to explain events.
- The plot involves a rift in reality caused by Richard the Lionheart's massacre at the Siege of Acre.
- Reflexive Entertainment was nearly shut down before receiving the contract for Lionheart.
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