The evil emperor Death Shadow rose from his grave to rule the world once and for all. In response, a sword-wielding goddess called upon the souls of four ancient beasts, whose corresponding powers lie within the four men who are able to defeat Death Shadow.
This game has examples of:
- Acrofatic: Ban, though somewhat subverted by his slightly slimmer Minotaur form.
- Aerith and Bob: Duh, since the manual says that the protagonists come from different countries & cultures.
- Agent Peacock: Claude is this. Still classy & good-looking when fighting.
- Animesque: Inverted. Even though they're not based on any Western cartoon or fantasy comic, this game is quite heavily influenced by them.
- Big Good: The sword-wielding goddess that summons the four players, assigning them the mission to stop the evil forces of Death Shadow.
- Boss Rush: Stage 5 in the American version, where you'll fight the first four of five bosses in Dual Boss format. In the Japanese version, the whole stage is just a fight with the fifth one.
- Captain Ersatz: Stage 3 has
a boss resembling a Sentinel. - Color-Coded Multiplayer:
- Ban wears red and is a Lightning Bruiser.
- Claude wears yellow and is the Jack of All Stats .
- Ivan wears green and is a Mighty Glacier.
- Max wears blue and is a Fragile Speedster .
- Cool Sword: Claude (only when he's not in his werewolf form) and the second stage boss, the Flaming Chicken-Man.
- Difficulty by Region: The Japanese version of the game uses lives and a life bar, while the American version replaced this with health points that would go down by one every ten seconds. You can restore your health points with whatever health item you picked up or every token you inserted in.
- The Dragon: The Skeleton Knight who is the semi-final boss, or the She-Devil of the Coliseum who is the penultimate main boss and is shown to be the strongest, most loyal and most trusted follower of the Big Bad.
- Elevator Action Sequence: The second part of stage 6 has you ride an elevator and beat up hordes of Death Shadow's guards.
- Evil Laugh: The fifth boss, the semi-final boss and the first form of the final boss laugh maliciously if they knock you down. This allows you to repay the favor with one of your own combos.
- Extreme Omni-Goat: Caprios, the stage 1 boss, is a goatman.
- Extremity Extremist: Max is most likely a boxer, although his werepanther form subverts this.
- Final Boss, New Dimension: The final battle isn't in the throne room, but in an arena implied to be in space or another dimension, where you are teleported in by the main villain.
- Hair Flip: Claude does this in his Idle Animation (human form only).
- Helpful Mook: The weremice similar in function to the Golden Axe elves. They occasionally show up, carrying golden statues and other items that can be dropped when you hit them.
- Improbable Weapon User: Ivan's log. However, he will remain unarmed when in his werebear form.
- Lizard Folk: Green, iguana-like lizard men are the first enemy encountered, easy enough to count as The Goomba before the player fights stronger opponents. Some of them can be a threat when armed and assisting other foes, though.
- Magic Pants: All the player characters have their outfits destroyed when they transform (in different ways — Max and Ivan lose their shirts, Claude's pants are reduced to torn shorts, and Ban's gi and shoes are destroyed), but their clothes are restored when they transform back to human form.
- Ms. Fanservice: The She-Devil of the Coliseum wears a very revealing Leotard of Power which seems to be nothing more than a few strips of fabric, and most of her animations tend to focus on her thong-clad ass, even in her death throes, where she screams "My lord!" as if she has an orgasm.
- Names to Run Away from Really Fast: The evil king is called Death Shadow.
- Our Orcs Are Different: The two mid-bosses in Stage 4, who even proceed to fuse themselves together and form a two-headed boss, Ganoo, at the end.
- Our Werebeasts Are Different: Picking up a golden statue (which doubles as a Limit Breaknote if you're already transformed) puts you in a mutated state that turns you into a specific one:
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: Ban
- Our Werewolves Are Different: Claude
- Bears Are Bad News: Ivan
- Panthera Awesome: Max
- Our Dragons Are Different: Death Shadow in his second form, and it's his real strength, as he says.
- Palette Swap:
- Lizard-like mooks are color-coded to indicate their weapons of choice.
- A "Konami seizure time" variant of this comes to bosses running low on life, thanks to their alternate palettes.
- The Phoenix: Stage 2 boss is an evil phoenix.
- Playing with Fire: Again, the stage 2 boss, being a phoenix, can cast fire. So can the Final Boss, who can shoot fireballs and breathe fire as a dragon.
- Pre-Asskicking One-Liner: Almost every boss starts with one of these.
- Rapid-Fire Fisticuffs: Death Shadow does a variation of this with short-ranged energy blasts when in his first form, along with a more normal version at melee range.
- Sequential Boss: The last boss has three phases. His human form, his dragon form, and his soul form.
- Sinister Scythe: Wielded by the first boss, which can slice chunks of life from the player.
- Shoryuken: Death Shadow in his first form.
- Slasher Smile: Claude flashes one if doing the Side Kick.
- Sleeves Are for Wimps: Ban, obviously.
- Space Zone: The Final Boss will be fought IN SPACE!
- Statuesque Stunner: The She-Devil of the Coliseum is a tall Stripperific demon woman.
- Sword Beam: Phoenix can use his sword to fling a bolt of fire at you.
- You Get Knocked Down, You Get Back Up Again: Once again, like most other Konami beat 'em ups, averted. You can attack enemies that are knocked down, even in human form.
