Tag Archives: fantasy

Falcom, MSX

Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II, MSX

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Xanadu: Dragon Slayer II (aka just “Xanadu“) is the 1987 sequel to 1984’s Dragon Slayer. It was developed and published by Falcom in Japan only, but the game is entirely in English so is playable by non-Japanese speakers/readers.

Xanadu is an action RPG that looks and plays similarly to Falcom‘s own Ys series, with side-scrolling town and dungeon sections and overhead, real-time combat taking place on a separate screen. Xanadu was a much bigger hit than its predecessor and was released in MSX and MSX2 versions.

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Epoch, Falcom, Game Boy

Dragon Slayer, Game Boy

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A Game Boy port of Falcom‘s maze-based fantasy action game, Dragon Slayer, was developed by Epoch Co., Ltd. and published by Falcom – in Japan only – in 1990. While Dragon Slayer is an ideal match for Nintendo‘s monochrome handheld marvel, this conversion does leave a bit to be desired.

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Falcom, MSX, Square

Dragon Slayer, MSX

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Although it may look extremely basic, Dragon Slayer is an important game in the development of Japanese Role-Playing Games. It is a real-time action/exploration game where you control a fighter who must collect gold, orbs, potions, and various other useful items, inside a scrolling maze that is crawling with deadly monsters.

Dragon Slayer was initially released in 1984 for the PC-8801, PC-9801, X1 and FM-7, and the MSX version followed in 1985, being ported and published by Square. It was, in fact, one of the earliest releases from Square.

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3DO, Delphine Software, Electronic Arts Victor, Tiertex, US Gold

Flashback, 3DO

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The 3DO version of Delphine Software‘s futuristic platform adventure, Flashback, was ported by Tiertex Design Studios and published by US Gold in North America and Europe in 1993. Flashback on the 3DO was also released by Electronic Arts Victor in Japan in 1995.

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Arcade, Tecmo

Rygar, Arcade

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Rygar is a side-scrolling fantasy action game first released into arcades by Tecmo in 1986. In the original Japanese version of the game (called “Argos no Senshi“) the protagonist was called “The Legendary Warrior” and the main villain was called Rygar, but Western versions of the game switched that to make the player character be called Rygar instead. Which subsequently stuck.

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Eidos Interactive, Enix, Game Boy Color, Tose Co. Ltd.

Dragon Warrior Monsters 2, Game Boy Color

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Dragon Warrior Monsters 2 is the second game in the Dragon Quest spin-off series, which is a monster-collecting, training, breeding and combat style game in the tradition of Pokémon. It was developed by TOSE Co., Ltd. and was published exclusively for the Game Boy Color by Enix (Eidos in North America and Europe) in 2001.

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Eidos Interactive, Enix, Game Boy Color, Tose Co. Ltd.

Dragon Warrior Monsters, Game Boy Color

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Dragon Warrior Monsters (aka Dragon Quest Monsters in Japan) is a spin-off from the famous Dragon Quest series, and this is the first game in the DWM series. It was developed by TOSE Co., Ltd. and published exclusively for the Game Boy Color by Enix (Eidos in North America and Europe), in 1998.

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Konami, NES/Famicom

Lagrange Point, NES/Famicom

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Released in Japan only by Konami in 1991, Lagrange Point is a science fantasy JRPG set on a human colony ship in space (located at the Lagrangian points between Earth and the Sun). Communications are lost between colonies, so a search team is sent in to investigate.

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Game Boy Advance, Saffire, Inc., Sierra On-line

The Hobbit, Game Boy Advance

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The Game Boy Advance version of The Hobbit was developed by Saffire, Inc. and first released by Sierra Entertainment in 2003. This game is based on Tolkien‘s famous book, and not the Peter Jackson films (the first Hobbit film was released in 2012, and this game actually came out the same year as The Lord of the Rings: The Return of the King).

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Masaya Games, NCS Corporation, NEC, PC Engine, TurboGrafx-16

Double Dungeons, PC Engine

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Developed by NCS Corporation and published by Masaya Games in Japan and NEC in North America in 1990, Double Dungeons is a one or two-player, first-person, dungeon-crawling JRPG with real-time combat. The game’s unique selling point is that it features two-player split-screen cooperative play, which is unusual for a game like this, and which makes it simultaneously playable with a friend.

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