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This article is about the video game. For the series, see Dragon Slayer (series).

Dragon Slayer 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 NEC PC-88 computer,[5] and became a major success in Japan.[6] It was followed by an MSX port published by Square in 1986 (making it one of the first titles to be published by Square),[5] and a Game Boy port by Epoch in 1990. A remake of Dragon Slayer was also included in the Falcom Classics collection for the Sega Saturn.

Dragon Slayer began the Dragon Slayer series, a banner which encompasses a number of popular Falcom titles, such as Xanadu, Sorcerian, Legacy of the Wizard, and The Legend of Heroes.

Gameplay[ | ]

Dragon Slayer is regarded as the progenitor of the action RPG genre,[2] and is considered to be the first action-RPG. In contrast to earlier turn-based roguelikes, Dragon Slayer was a dungeon crawl RPG that was entirely real-time with action-oriented combat.[3]

The game 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,[5] and introduced the use of item-based puzzles which later influenced The Legend of Zelda.[2] Dragon Slayer's overhead action-RPG formula was used in many later games,[6] laying the foundations for future action RPG series such as Hydlide, Ys, and The Legend of Zelda.[5]

References[ | ]

  1. Falcom Chronicle, Nihon Falcom
  2. 2.0 2.1 2.2 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. 3.0 3.1 Falcom Classics, GameSetWatch, July 12, 2006
  4. John Szczepaniak. Retro Japanese Computers: Gaming's Final Frontier Retro Japanese Computers. Hardcore Gaming 101. Retrieved on 2011-03-29 Reprinted from Retro Gamer, 2009 
  5. 5.0 5.1 5.2 5.3 Kurt Kalata, Dragon Slayer, Hardcore Gaming 101
  6. 6.0 6.1 Kurt Kalata, Xanadu, Hardcore Gaming 101


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