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Xena: Warrior Princess for PlayStation 1
Xena: Warrior Princess for PlayStation 1 is a three-dimensional action adventure in which you try to rescue Gabrielle from Kalabrax and her allies. You guide Xena through villages, castles and dangerous places in a fantasy version of antiquity. Along the way, you defeat warriors and monsters with sword attacks, kicks and combinations. Blocking and dodging help when enemies get close. Not every task ends with a fight: sometimes you also have to let hostages escape safely to open the exit.
The chakram gives you a ranged attack. After throwing this sharp ring, you can steer it in flight, for example towards an enemy or a mechanism. Since this draws your attention away from Xena, where you choose to stand matters. You search for keys, read clues on scrolls and negotiate jumps and traps. The training arena lets you practise her movements first. With some bosses, you need to work out which action will break through their defences.
You play this adventure alone with a PlayStation controller. The directional buttons move Xena; separate buttons and combinations handle jumping, blocking and attacking. You can also rotate the camera. Once you have completed a level, you can save manually from the results screen. This requires a PlayStation memory card in slot 1 with one free block. Load your game through the main menu. This provides saving between completed levels, not a save function at any arbitrary point.
Region and language
Our PlayStation 1 games are PAL editions and come with a Dutch or English box, unless stated otherwise. By default, you receive the version for the European market. We note it in the product details if the region is different or the box is in another language. In almost all cases, the game is playable at least in English, and often in the other five common European languages too.
Manual
Xena: Warrior Princess for PlayStation 1 includes the manual unless the product title states otherwise. If the booklet is missing, the title says “No Manual”. This lets you see before ordering whether the game comes with a manual.
The manuals included with our games usually contain at least English and often around six European languages. The exact languages vary by edition, so Dutch is not always included. The booklet explains the controls and the main rules. You can use it to check how to control the game, which actions are available and how its different features work.
The history of Xena: Warrior Princess
Xena: Warrior Princess was released on PlayStation in 1999 by Electronic Arts and Universal Interactive Studios. Universal Studios Digital Arts developed the adventure from the television series about the warrior heroine and Gabrielle. The creators chose a new journey with Kalabrax as the antagonist. This gave the game familiar lead characters and weapons, while allowing its tasks and environments to be built around a story created specifically for this interactive version.
The design translated Xena's movements from the series into separate sword attacks, kicks, evasive moves and controller combinations. Her throwable chakram also became a steerable tool for ranged attacks and operating mechanisms. The original manual divides the journey into seven worlds with twenty-one sub-areas. Villages, a castle and underworld locations give the adventure different settings, while the mix of rescue tasks, combat and obstacles determines the structure of its levels.
The PlayStation game is separate from Xena: Warrior Princess: The Talisman of Fate for Nintendo 64. That game uses the same television world for a fighting game, whereas this release is a single-player adventure. Game Boy Color later received its own Xena game with a different presentation and story. The first PlayStation version shows how a television licence was turned into a three-dimensional action game at the time: the heroine remains recognisable through her weapons and movements, while you find your own way through the fights and puzzles.
Similar games for PlayStation 1
MediEvil and Xena combine sword fighting, keys and imaginative three-dimensional areas. In Gallowmere, Sir Daniel Fortesque gathers different weapons and seeks the chalice by defeating enemies. Xena has a different core set of tools: her sword, kicks and steerable chakram. Both adventures have you seek solutions between fights, but MediEvil places more emphasis on its changing weapon collection and macabre humour; Xena uses rescue tasks and movements from her television world.
Tomb Raider shares the examination of a three-dimensional environment, searching for keys and overcoming jumps and traps. Lara Croft explores large structures with plenty of climbing and carefully measured jumping distances. Xena more frequently uses close-range combat and hostage-related tasks. Her chakram combines a ranged attack with hitting mechanisms. Lara's journey requires relatively more route planning through a space; in Xena, that exploration alternates more quickly with direct encounters.
Soul Reaver likewise takes a hero through a dark three-dimensional fantasy world, fighting enemies up close. Raziel shifts between the material and spectral realms to change routes and puzzles. Xena uses separate levels, keys and specific rescue tasks. They share spatial exploration and combat, but Soul Reaver builds its puzzles around two versions of the same environment, while Xena more often focuses on an attack or mechanism within a single area.
Deathtrap Dungeon and Xena send you through three-dimensional areas with weapons, monsters and dangerous obstacles. Deathtrap Dungeon uses a deadly labyrinth with traps and various items of equipment. Xena builds its journey around a heroine with a familiar set of movements and the steerable chakram. In both games, you need to look carefully before entering a space, but in Xena, rescuing hostages and following Gabrielle's trail are prominent parts of the tasks.
Hercules shares the mythological setting, a sword-wielding hero and encounters with large opponents. The PlayStation game follows Disney's animated film and uses many side-scrolling platform routes, interspersed with other action scenes. Xena moves through three-dimensional areas where you can circle enemies and rotate the camera. They share direct combat and learning attack patterns; the difference is most noticeable in how you negotiate the route and steer Xena's chakram.
