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Dragon Slayer | |
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Developer(s) | Nihon Falcom |
Publisher(s) | |
Designer(s) | Yoshio Kiya |
Series | Dragon Slayer |
Platform(s) | FM-7, NEC PC-8801, MSX, X1, Super Cassette Vision, Game Boy, Sega Saturn |
Release | PC-8801
Falcom Classics
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Genre(s) | Action role-playing |
Mode(s) | Single-player |
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]
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.
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]