To kill a demon, you must be one.
Majyuo, also known as The Demon King, is a 1995 supernatural-themed Run-and-Gun action game produced for the Super Famicom.
Abel, a Hunter of Monsters in a land infested by demons, had his peaceful life shattered when his friend, Bayer, sold his soul to the Demon King in exchange for supernatural powers. In order to awaken his new master, Bayer kidnaps Abel's family — consisting of his wife Maria and his young daughter Iria — for a deadly ritual, nearly killing Abel if not for the intervention of a fairy who decided to save Abel because she knew Abel may be the only hope to defeat the forces of evil - and because he was her husband.
In order to defeat his former friend, face the Demon King and save his family, Abel must travel across various monster-infested levels, take down each bosses, and consume the soul of different demons to empower himself, turning Abel into various supernatural forms including a Winged Humanoid, a dragonfly-human, a were-dragon man before unlocking an all-powerful human-demon hybrid to confront Bayer and the Demon King.
Consuming the Souls of Demons will Provide Tropes Like...
- Advancing Wall of Doom: In at least two instances, the first happening early in the game where the wall is a giant Sand Worm pursuing Abel (which he couldn't defeat yet), forcing him to run to the end of a tunnel and jump into a hole. Later in the fire stage Abel must escape an advancing lava wall.
- Amphibian at Large: Giant frogs appears in the first level as enemies in the sewers.
- Antagonist Title: Majyuo, or "Demon King" in Japanese. Guess who's the story's main villain?
- Attack Its Weak Point: Most bosses and demons have a weak spot that Abel can target to defeat. If the boss towers over Abel, then go for the head.
- Attack of the Monster Appendage: The dragon boss in the fire stage shows up as a single stationary head, which Abel (who's also a dragon at that point) defeats and kills. Then in the next area immediately after the dragon-head boss, Abel uncovers a cavern containing the skeleton of a dragon, sans head.
- Auto-Revive: Maria as a fairy can heal Abel if he falls in battle, but she loses her physical form and he'll have to find her soul again to have her rejoin him.
- Battle Couple: Abel and Maria.
- Big Bad: The titular Demon King who rules over demonkind, and kickstarts the plot by sending Bayer to abduct Abel's family.
- Breath Weapon: Most of the bosses, including the Demon King, attacks by breathing projectiles. Abel can do this himself as a weredragon, except he blasts "blue fireballs" from his mouth.
- Bittersweet Ending: The good ending. Abel managed to kill Bayer and the Demon King, but his pet cat Elia is presumed dead, his wife Maria lost her human body and his daughter Iria has been transformed into a succubus. And the process of transforming from human to demons are irreversible. Nevertheless, Abel takes the demonic throne so he can establish peace between demons and humanity.
- Boss Rush: Before entering the Demon King's chamber, Abel will need to re-fight the first three bosses, one at a time, in separate rooms.
- Came Back Strong: Twice in level 1. When Bayer kills Abel, the latter sees a vision of his family cheering him on, and then he rises up, strong enough to make his former friend retreat. And his wife Maria dies attempting to protect Iria, but her soul transforms into a fairy and helps her husband out in slaying demons.
- Cats Are Mean: Iria's succubus form has distinctive catlike traits. And keep in mind that her pet cat Elia only shows up once and is never seen again...
- Charged Attack: Can be achieved by holding down the fire button, and releasing it. This works even when Abel is just a human.
- Dark Is Not Evil: Abel's final, demon-human hybrid form, who is clad in black armour, and flashes even darker when he performs his Flash Step move. But he's still a hero and a demon hunter trying to save his daughter.
- Demon of Human Origin: Abel, the hero of the game, must consume the souls of slain demons to transform himself into one of them in order to save his family, and if he fully commits to it there's no turning back for him. Also Iria gets transformed into a succubus by the Demon King. Downplayed with Maria, who becomes a fairy.
- Draconic Humanoid: Abel's blue orb transformation is a human-sized dragon monster.
- Dual Boss: Two horse-headed demon executioners serves as a double-boss after killing some unfortunate young woman.
- Elemental Embodiment: Elementals are another recurring threat. The snow level has living snowballs that bounces all over the place, while during the hell stage the lava can come to life like a giant snake made of flames and attack Abel.
- Empowered Badass Normal: Abel, the gunslinging hero essentially becomes this at the end of each level, after consuming the souls of demons to gain their powers.
- Evil Former Friend: Bayer, Abel's former partner in the demon-slaying business, but eventually sold his soul to the Demon King out of sheer envy of his friend's strength, earning a powerful demon form no mortals can harm in the process, and proceed to kidnap his ex-friend's family for his new boss.
- Evil Is Visceral: Everywhere in the game, infested by demons. The chamber outside the Demon King's lair has the walls and pillars being made out of flesh, with gigantic eyeballs growing in the background observing everything. Also some of those walls have faces.
- Fairy Companion: Shortly after Bayer retreats in level 1, Maria resurrects into a fairy who helps Abel in his quest for rescue.
- Forced Transformation: Iria at the end of the game gets transformed into a succubus by the Demon King.
- Foul Flower: Demonic flowers with human faces are an enemy in the garden stages. There's also a flower elemental boss which is a single giant blossom with a nude purple demon lady on it's top that hurls projectiles on Abel.
- Giant Spider: The first mini-boss, which ambushes Abel as he's in an elevator and repeatedly drops in and out of the screen.
- Hand Blast: After gaining his first transformation, Abel then ditches his pistol, now that he can shoot energy blasts from his hands. In fact, all of Abel's forms (except the were-dragon) has this ability.
- I Have Your Wife: And your daughter. Bayer, under the orders of the Demon King, kidnapped Abel's wife Maria and his daughter Iria to be sacrificed, which drives Abel's Roaring Rampage of Rescue throughout the game.
- Horned Humanoid: Seems to be an instant effect whenever humans transform into demons, whether they want to or not. Bayer has horns after his betrayal, as does Abel's final form, and Werecat Succubus Iria.
- Huge Guy, Tiny Girl: Abel and Maria after the latter resurrects as a fairy.
- "I Know You're in There Somewhere" Fight: What the final battle basically boils down into, because Abel by then is fighting his own daughter, Iria, who had been transformed by the Demon King into a succubus. It works, with the following cutscene having succubi!Iria calling Abel, "Papa?"
- Lethal Lava Land: The Fire and Brimstone Hell level before the final confrontation, where Abel must cross a cavern filled with burning lava, some which can come to life and lash out on him. Thankfully Abel at that point of the game has consumed enough demon souls to become a fire-breathing weredragon.
- Mole Monster: The garden stages has plant-enemies that shoots out from the ground under Abel's feet to ambush him.
- Morphic Resonance: Abel's first demon form still resembles his human form somewhat, but has uncannily red skin, a lack of shirt or shoes, and two giant wings sprouting out of his back. The more souls he consumes the less human Abel becomes.
- Multiple Endings: Merely two, depending on if you obtain the final transformation or not:
- Bad Ending: Fail in obtaining the final transformation. Any transformation Abel had wears off, leaving him a normal human once more. Unable to accept the fact that Iria is now a demon, screaming for her to be given back, he raises his gun and pulls the trigger.
- Good Ending: Succeed in obtaining the final transformation. Abel, having fully completed his own demonic transformation himself, ruefully embraces his daughter. He is now the new King of Demons, but promises to use his power to create a world in which both humans and demons can live in peace.
- Oculothorax: One of the freakier-looking bosses - a disembodied giant eyeball which takes up more than half the screen, and repeatedly tries to blast Abel with Eye Beams.
- One-Winged Angel: Bayer uses a frozen human sacrifice to transform into a larger form during his rematch with Abel.
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: This game has hunchbacked, three-horned mutant minotaurs as one of the Giant Mook type of enemies.
- Post-Final Boss: After defeating the Demon King, Abel still have one last boss battle - Iria, his own daughter, having been transformed by the demon into a succubi. Thankfully she didn't die after her defeat, merely regaining her consciousness, but there's NO turning back now.
- Pro-Human Transhuman: Even as Abel consumes more and more demonic souls, he never once thinks about turning his back upon humanity. In the good ending, a fully-realized Abel vows to create a world for peace and harmony between humans and demons.
- Roaring Rampage of Rescue: Do not fuck with Abel's family. Every single demon in his path will learn this lesson the hard way.
- Sacrificial Lamb: More than halfway into the game, a poor unfortunate young woman gets killed by a pair of horse-headed demons as Abel arrived too late to save her. The game then continues with Abel fighting the two demons and his rescue mission continues as normal.
- Sand Worm: One of the first bosses of the game is a giant worm in an underground tunnel. Abel doesn't stand a chance at first and must either Run or Die, but later on...
- Shaping Your Attacks: Abel, in dragon form, can breath flames in the shape of draconian heads.
- Smart Bomb: A red orb in the fourth stage can cast a spell that wipes out all lower-tier enemies, such as imps or zombies, onscreen, as well as harming larger demons and doing quite some damage to bosses. It has limited use however and is best saved for dire situations.
- Stationary Boss:
- The guardian at the end of the fire level doesn't really move around, but it does teleport occasionally, and sics fiery projectiles all over Abel.
- The Demon King's penultimate form in the final level, which is a horned head and claws growing out of a wall. Said form can't move at all, but the Demon can extend his head to chew at Abel and breath fireballs.
- Title Drop: In the good ending.
- Would Hurt a Child: Bayer and the Demon King would sacrifice Abel's young daughter, Iria, with the latter putting Iria through extreme suffering to mutate her into a succubi.
- You Can't Thwart Stage One:
- The game starts with Abel battling Bayer, but as Bayer is now a demon he's immune to conventional human weapons, and will defeat Abel in a Hopeless Boss Fight. Then Maria, now a friendly fairy, comes to Abel's rescue.
- You'll always be too late to prevent your wife from getting killed. And your daughter getting demonized.
