Dragon Slayer (video game)

Dragon Slayer (ドラゴンスレイヤー, Doragon Sureiyā) is an action role-playing game,[2][3] developed by Nihon Falcom and designed by Yoshio Kiya.[4] It was originally released in 1984 for the PC-8801, PC-9801, X1[1] and FM-7,[5] and became a major success in Japan.[6] It was followed by an MSX port published by Square in 1985 (making it one of the first titles to be published by Square),[7] a Super Cassette Vision by Epoch in 1986 and a Game Boy port by the same company in 1990 under the name Dragon Slayer I (ドラゴンスレイヤーI, Doragon Sureiyā Wan). A version for PC-6001mkII was in development but was never released.[8] A remake of Dragon Slayer is included in the Falcom Classics collection for the Sega Saturn.[9]

This article is about the video game. For the series, see Dragon Slayer (series). For other uses, see Dragon slayer (disambiguation).
Dragon Slayer
Developer(s)Nihon Falcom
Publisher(s)
Designer(s)Yoshio Kiya
SeriesDragon Slayer
Platform(s)FM-7, NEC PC-8801, MSX, X1, Super Cassette Vision, Game Boy, Sega Saturn
ReleasePC-8801
  • JP: September 10, 1984
PC-9801 & FM-7
  • JP: October 18, 1984
X1
MSX
  • JP: July 15, 1985
Super Cassette Vision
Game Boy
  • JP: August 12, 1990
Sega Saturn
Falcom Classics
  • JP: November 6, 1997
Genre(s)Action role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

Dragon Slayer began the Dragon Slayer series, a banner which encompasses a number of popular Falcom titles, such as Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu, Sorcerian, and Legacy of the Wizard. It also includes Dragon Slayer: The Legend of Heroes, which would later spawn over a dozen entries across multiple subseries.

Gameplay

Dragon Slayer is an early example of the action role-playing game genre, which it laid the foundations for.[2] Building on the prototypical action role-playing elements of Panorama Toh (1983), created by Yoshio Kiya and Nihon Falcom,[10] as well as Namco's The Tower of Druaga (1984),[11] Dragon Slayer is often considered the first true action role-playing game.[2][3] In contrast to earlier turn-based roguelikes, Dragon Slayer was a dungeon crawl role-playing game that was entirely real-time with action-oriented combat,[3] combining arcade style action mechanics with traditional role-playing mechanics.[11]

Dragon Slayer featured an in-game map to help with the dungeon-crawling, required item management due to the inventory being limited to one item at a time,[7] and featured item-based puzzles similar to The Legend of Zelda.[2] Dragon Slayer's overhead action-RPG formula was used in many later games.[6] Along with its competitor, Hydlide, Dragon Slayer laid the foundations for the action RPG genre, including franchises such as Ys and The Legend of Zelda.[7][12]

References
  1. Falcom Chronicle, Nihon Falcom
  2. Kamada Shigeaki, レトロゲーム配信サイトと配信タイトルのピックアップ紹介記事「懐かし (Retro) (Translation), 4Gamer.net
  3. "Falcom Classics". GameSetWatch. July 12, 2006. Retrieved 2011-05-18.
  4. John Szczepaniak. "Retro Japanese Computers: Gaming's Final Frontier Retro Japanese Computers". Hardcore Gaming 101. p. 3. Retrieved 2011-03-29. Reprinted from Retro Gamer, 2009
  5. "Dragon Slayer". Oh!FM7. Retrieved 2015-01-14.
  6. Kurt Kalata, Xanadu, Hardcore Gaming 101
  7. Kurt Kalata, Dragon Slayer Archived 2011-07-23 at the Wayback Machine, Hardcore Gaming 101
  8. Szczepaniak, John (21 October 2022). "Poor Pay, Underage Staff And No Credits - Digging Into Falcom's Dark Past". Time Extension. Hookshot Media Ltd. Retrieved 18 December 2022.
  9. "Falcom Classics". Electronic Gaming Monthly. No. 102. Ziff Davis. January 1998. p. 58.
  10. Sam Derboo (June 2, 2013), Dark Age of JRPGs (7): Panorama Toh ぱのらま島 - PC-88 (1983), Hardcore Gaming 101
  11. Jeremy Parish (2012). "What Happened to the Action RPG?". 1UP. Archived from the original on 2015-01-12. Retrieved 2015-01-14.
  12. John Szczepaniak (2016), The Untold History Of Japanese Game Developers, Volume 2, pages 42-49
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