Shadow of the Beast - The Universe

Perhaps a very unusual topic as it is regarding an in-game universe/reality

I was looking at walkthroughs of Shadow of the Beast today and was taking note of the looks of everything, the beings themselves, the scenery, architecture, and technology, and I started to wonder; on what kind of world does the SotB series actually take place?

Its inhabited by humans but we also see lots of humanoid creatures as well as the creations of the Beast lord, and lots of bizarre and non humanoid creatures, perhaps even demons and ghosts.

I take it some of the worst creatures are the Beast Lord and his mages' creations such as the still animated headless bodies and cyborgs (there are a few creatures that have mechanical parts), other creatures that should technically be dead as they are missing body parts, flying eyeballs, living skeletons and so on.

The lands make me thing of a fantasy novel, with loads of strange geographical features like that arch spanning between two mountains, or that could be man or beast made.

The architecture is also an interesting amalgamation of various styles but which in general seems to stick to a mix of dark ages/renaissance era with large elaborate structures and fortresses.

I think there must have been a series of civilizations or cultures on the world as we see statues and carvings throughout the lands, most likely remnants of those mentioned cultures that are long gone

Technology like the architecture also seems to be a mish mash of various ages as well as fantasy, it ranges from the more basic of ages such as swords and spears which are still very common place to the most high tech such as jet packs and laser weapons.
Between that there are things such as cranes, flamethrowers, rocket thrusters, mechanical spikes, and propeller airplanes.

There seems also to a be degree of knowledge on the concept of genetic engineering as the beast lord and his mages were able to modify humans and creatures such as the main protagonist into forms the beast lord desired.

And there is magic, from summoning fireballs and lightning, to teleportation and even animating objects and dead creatures like the earlier mentioned decaying beings and skeletons/skeleton chimeras (creatures made of bones but that do not resemble any kind of existing animal or human/humanoid)

I got the impression that the beast lord and his followers in general do not rely on science and mechanical creations, instead relying on basic technology, magic and their knowledge on genetic engineering which is probably also misunderstood as magic.

The few exceptions are the zeppelins we see in SotB1, and mechanical systems and traps some of the creatures and beast lord followers use.


I know I am perhaps looking to much into it but when something looks interesting than that is what I do.

It would have been nice if there had been some kind of 'bible' behind the SotB series but I think the developers pretty much went with what they liked on the moment and thought would look good.

I do hope others would like to discuss this subject as well.

The SOTB universe is definitely a mixture of historical styles of architecture and location, and its inhabitants also a mix of styles and origin.

I think the developers just added things as they developed the series. Borrowing ideas from many other games, rpg elements and location ideas.

My favourite is the third game, as it has more of a feel of a fully developed game with proper logical puzzles and much more of a platforming focus. Out of the 3 games this was the one that kept you wanting to progress and get to the next part. Whilst the first 2 games were technically amazing for the time, with brilliant parallax scrolling graphics and great sound track, I found the actual gameplay got boring too quickly and I lost interest. They were more a technical demo for the Amiga than a fully realised game. The first 2 also felt a bit disjointed, with the enemies you encountered feeling a bit too random in their nature, style and design.

Hello Harrison

I agree on your opinion that the first two SotB titles were more tech demos than games, with the third finally getting the concept straight.

The critters, I like the variety and themes of critters you encounter in one such as the suggested 'manufactured' ones by the beast lord and his mages, it sort of threw you off in what is natural and what isn't.

Some of those things were also really disgusting IMO such as the mentioned animated decapitated corpses.

This all combined with the strange landscape and various architectural styles gives the impression of a very imaginative world, bordering between fantasy and science fiction.

Makes me wonder if the setting would work for an RPG