Throughout the years, Armalion became nothing more than a footnote in gaming history, joining the ranks of many other unfortunately canceled DSA video games. For SACRED fans, it remained a curiosity that continued to be discussed from time to time, as it is an integral part of the game’s history. In fact, fans quickly discovered that Armalion is still referenced in SACRED through a clever gravestone inscription.
Besides the game obviously reusing assets from the canceled video game, one of the most well-known examples of Armalion content that still made its way into SACRED is the village to the left of Mystdale. The village was retained almost 1:1, with only minor modifications. The ice region is another notable example, where some of Armalion’s most recognizable areas become evident.
The former Armalion classes were repurposed as NPC types that can be found throughout the game world. The heroes in SACRED that replaced them were, in fact, built upon the original Armalion hero models. The Witch became the Vampire, the Elven Sorcerer turned into the Dark Elf, the Warrior was reworked into the Gladiator, and the Amazon was transformed into the Seraphim. Meanwhile, the Battle Mage and the Elven Sorceress received almost no visual changes at all.
As the years passed, much of the information – along with its accuracy – and various media related to Armalion were lost to time. Some people were left wondering what the game would have actually been like. In 2018, I found myself asking the same question, which led me to start building what would eventually become the Sacred Tribute – an archive dedicated to collecting all media ever created for the SACRED series.
I had always been a fan of SACRED, but learning that the game was originally based on a canceled video game was completely new to me! So, I began researching and collecting every bit of information I could find. I quickly realized that details about the project were scattered everywhere—contradictory statements, dead links, and missing sources made it difficult to piece together.
Despite all this, I became fascinated by this “what could have been” video game, and I was determined to uncover whatever was still left of it. This remained a side project for several years, but in late 2020, I met someone equally passionate about SACRED. That meeting ultimately gave birth to the Sacred Tribute project, as mentioned earlier.
Not long after, he also became interested in Armalion, and together, we dived deeper than ever before into researching every aspect of the project. We started building a more structured archive, and slowly, a clearer picture began to emerge of everything that was still available. We uncovered never-before-seen screenshots, rediscovered lost interviews, and gathered other valuable information.
On the side, I had also begun piecing together all available screenshots and other materials with a friend to get a clearer picture of how the areas in Armalion looked. At the same time, we dug deeper into SACRED, which revealed previously unknown connections to areas beyond just the village, as mentioned earlier.
After extensive outreach, it sadly became clear that no one had held onto anything from the game, and it seemed to have been lost forever. Despite this, we refused to give up. Even material from the official website had been lost, with the Wayback Machine having only partially archived its content.
But then, in what felt like a near-miracle, we found someone who had archived the website (excluding the forum) back in 2002, before it was shut down. We managed to get a hold of these files, marking one of our first major breakthroughs in uncovering new information about the game. Additionally, we also recovered the work-in-progress soundtrack composed for Armalion, making it possible – for the first time ever – to listen to the game’s music.
These breakthroughs only motivated us even more to continue our search, and today, I can finally present materials whose very existence should be considered a miracle.
Not only will I be showcasing one prototype version of Armalion, but two – including the last-ever version to have been made! But that’s not all. In addition to this, we also managed to recover artwork, videos, sketches, and even complete story documents from around 1999!
So, without further ado – let’s dive right in!
The first time I started Armalion, I was honestly in sheer awe – I could not believe that I’m finally seeing it with my own eyes after all these years. I had already resigned myself to the fact that it might be lost to time, yet here it was – in front of my very eyes.
Looking at the files, I quickly realized that this version was created just a week before the company was officially shut down for good, which means it might have been the final version ever compiled. After a bit of fiddling, I got it to work, and I was even more amazed. Right off the bat, I witnessed a never-before-seen version of the Armalion intro with full sound, which was quickly followed by the beautifully drawn title screen.
So, I started examining the prototype and exploring what it had to offer, but I quickly came to a halt as everything seemed empty. The village from the preview video was there, but nothing was happening in it. Despite that, it still felt amazing to witness everything they had created firsthand. Many systems and menus already seemed to be in place at the time of the cancellation, and the game looked and sounded quite amazing.
As nothing else was happening, I decided to check out the game files. After some time, I discovered that, for some reason, most of the content had been removed from the game world. Thankfully, all the missing content was contained in a backup folder that was also included. After feeding the game those files, everything quickly started coming together. The village was populated, and I was able to play the very scenario seen in the video. However, this is where the first signs of trouble began…
The game threw endless errors at me, characters didn’t move properly, and the longer I played, the more problems started occurring. It turns out that the final version of Armalion is unfortunately exceptionally broken, as the developers were in the middle of reworking many systems at the time of its cancellation.
While it was very broken, it was also simply exceptional to be able to explore this lost piece of history – especially since, after years of research, I had become extremely invested in the topic. By the time of its cancellation, the game already featured a vast (but mostly empty) world, multiple quests, a decent chunk of its early story beats, and many NPCs, monsters, items, potions, and other objects that could be found or spawned in using the console. All the character classes – though mostly broken – were already implemented, with mages able to cast a wide variety of spells, many of which had never been shown before!
Several world features had also been implemented, including weather effects, a day-and-night cycle, and animated tiles. The game’s menus and interfaces were largely in place, with even an unfinished save menu present. However, more advanced features – such as different game modes (like multiplayer), the unit system, branching story paths, and similar mechanics – had not even been started by the time the game was shelved. That said, the idea of puzzles was already well-integrated into the existing content! Branching dialogue choices with different outcomes were also present, and the first part of the game was fully voice-acted in both German and English.
Although a significant amount had been developed, it was clear that the game still had a long way to go before being completed. So, the completion percentages that had been thrown around were clearly inaccurate.
However, this is where I will stop, because I want to give everyone the chance to experience all of this for themselves – and hopefully be just as excited about it as I am! Whether by playing the prototype yourself (yes, WE ARE RELEASING IT!) or by checking out the videos I’ve recorded, which cover most of the notable content, I hope you’ll enjoy discovering it as much as I have.
Instead, I’d like to switch topics to something else… fixing the prototype.
I’ve already hinted at this above, but the issues present in the prototype are severe – so much so that they make it nearly impossible to properly play most of the content, if at all. To give everyone an idea of the challenges ahead, here’s a rough list of the issues currently present:
This is not the full list, but it covers most of the major issues present. While this might sound like a hopeless situation, I’m happy to report that, after spending an exorbitant amount of time diagnosing the issues and identifying their causes… I managed to fix almost all of them!
By carefully studying how the game works and reverse-engineering many of its files, I was able to almost completely restore it. While I couldn’t fix the missing character animations for the other heroes (since no data for them exists), it is now possible to play the entire prototype — including all its content — with almost no issues at all! Once again, Armalion shines in its former glory.
Now, before we get into downloads and all that other stuff – didn’t I mention two prototypes? Yes, yes I did!
This version was created before the major system reworks began, meaning that most of the issues plaguing the final prototype don’t exist here. Areas seen in earlier screenshots along with some unseen ones which have been deleted in the final prototype – are still present in this build, along with numerous other differences. Even an unfinished, rendered version of the intro is included!
But that’s still not everything — we have even more to share today! Here are the other highlights:
If you’re now excited to check everything out, look no further. If you are now looking to check out the game, I highly recommend to play both versions as they both provide different experiences:
Or check out our videos which go through most of the content — the rest of the videos can also be found on our channel:
In addition to all of this, I’ve also provided extra articles on the main page of this article series. These dive into various topics, such as unearthing unused and cut content from the game’s data. Unfortunately, I wasn’t able to write everything I wanted in time for SACRED’s 21st birthday, so please stay tuned for more in the future!
Lastly, thank you to everyone who has taken the time to read everything I’ve shared. It truly means a lot to me to finally be able to bring all of this to the world.
Until next time!
