The three playable characters from the first Golden Axe, Ax Battler, Tyris Flare, and Gilius Thunderhead, return in Golden Axe II to save the people of the land by defeating the new evil clan, led by Dark Guld, and reclaim the Golden Axe, which is in his possession. The game features a total of seven levels: six scrolling levels and a final end of game boss battle against Dark Guld.
Gameplay
Golden Axe II is a side-scrollingarcade-stylehack 'n' slash game, very similar to the first Golden Axe. The player is given a choice of three fighters: an axe-wielding dwarf, Gilius Thunderhead; a barbarian; Ax Battler, wielding a two-handed sword; and long-sword–wielding amazon Tyris Flare. Each of the fighters has a unique magic which can be used at any time in the game to inflict damage upon enemies. Each player is given a set of life bars which are lost one by one if the player is hit. Though the characters and gameplay were virtually unchanged from the first game, there were a few improvements. The "back attack" for each character was changed to a more useful attack that hit enemies on all sides. Enemies could now be thrown in either direction by pressing right or left on the D-pad immediately after picking them up, making it easier to hit other enemies with them or throw them off cliffs. Most importantly, the magic system was overhauled. Whereas in the first game, pressing the magic button used all of a player's magic pots, one could now use part or all of one's magic by holding the button and releasing it when the meter had reached the desired level. The magic was also changed – Ax Battler's exploding magic from the first game was replaced with wind magic, and Gilius Thunderhead now used rock magic instead of lightning. Tyris Flare retained her fire magic, but was still given entirely new animations for it. Ax Battler now has longer reach with his weapon than Tyris, and can throw enemies higher and farther. Finally, there were small cosmetic changes in the form of a shoulder guard for Ax Battler and black gauntlets for Gilius Thunderhead. There are two types of game modes. One is "The Duel", where players are pitted against enemies in one arena, battling one after the other and gradually getting more difficult. The other is normal mode, where players must navigate through different areas battling various enemies. Between each level a rating is awarded to the player based on their performance, with a final rating awarded at the end of the game. A small exposition of the main story is also given.
Normal mode
Normal mode puts the player into the story of the game, where they must recover the golden axe from Dark Guld. The player must navigate through multiple areas until eventually they reach Dark Guld's castle. There are seven stages in total, including Ravaged Village, Ruins, Tower, Dragon's Throat Cave, Castle Gates, Castle, and Dark Guld's Chamber. Each area ends with a boss where the player must battle a large group of enemies at once. Magic books are also gathered along the way allowing the player to increase their magic meter. There are also three Bizarrians that can be mounted and used against enemy characters, including Chicken Legs, Green Dragons, and Fire Dragons.
Duel mode
The duel mode consists of multiple rounds where the player must defeat an enemy, or a group of enemies. Every round is set in the same scenery and the player must be victorious over 15 levels in order to complete the duel.
