is an

action role-playing game An action role-playing game (often abbreviated action RPG or ARPG) is a subgenre of video games that combines core elements from both the action game and role-playing genre. Definition The games emphasize real-time combat where the player h ...

, developed by

Nihon Falcom is a Japanese video game developer, best known for their '' Ys'', '' The Legend of Heroes'', and ''Trails'' series. The company was founded in March 1981, making them one of the oldest active video game companies. They are credited with pioneer ...

and designed by Yoshio Kiya. Reprinted from It was originally released in 1984 for the

PC-8801 The , commonly shortened to PC-88, are a brand of Zilog Z80-based 8-bit home computers released by Nippon Electric Company (NEC) in 1981 and primarily sold in Japan. The PC-8800 series sold extremely well and became one of the three major Japane ...

PC-9801 The , commonly shortened to PC-98 or , is a lineup of Japanese 16-bit and 32-bit personal computers manufactured by NEC from 1982 to 2000. The platform established NEC's dominance in the Japanese personal computer market, and, by 1999, more th ...

, X1 and

FM-7 The FM-7 ("Fujitsu Micro 7") is a home computer created by Fujitsu. It was first released in 1982 and was sold in Japan and Spain. It is a stripped-down version of Fujitsu's earlier FM-8 computer, and during development it was referred to as the ...

, and became a major success in Japan. It was followed by an MSX port published by

Square In Euclidean geometry, a square is a regular quadrilateral, which means that it has four equal sides and four equal angles (90-degree angles, π/2 radian angles, or right angles). It can also be defined as a rectangle with two equal-length adj ...

in 1985 (making it one of the first titles to be published by Square), a

Super Cassette Vision The is a home video game console made by Epoch Co. and released in Japan on July 17, 1984, and in Europe, specifically France, later in 1984. A successor to the Cassette Vision, it competed with Nintendo's Family Computer and Sega's SG-100 ...

Epoch In chronology and periodization, an epoch or reference epoch is an instant in time chosen as the origin of a particular calendar era. The "epoch" serves as a reference point from which time is measured. The moment of epoch is usually decided by ...

in 1986 and a

Game Boy The is an 8-bit fourth generation handheld game console developed and manufactured by Nintendo. It was first released in Japan on April 21, 1989, in North America later the same year, and in Europe in late 1990. It was designed by the same ...

port by the same company in 1990 under the name . A version for

PC-6001mkII The Pilatus PC-6 Porter is a single-engined STOL utility aircraft designed by Pilatus Aircraft of Switzerland. First flown in 1959, the PC-6 was produced at Pilatus Flugzeugwerke in Stans, Switzerland. It has been built in both piston engine- an ...

was in development but was never released. A remake of ''Dragon Slayer'' is included in the ''Falcom Classics'' collection for the

Sega Saturn The is a home video game console developed by Sega and released on November 22, 1994, in Japan, May 11, 1995, in North America, and July 8, 1995, in Europe. Part of the fifth generation of video game consoles, it was the successor to the succ ...

. ''Dragon Slayer'' began the ''Dragon Slayer'' series, a banner which encompasses a number of popular Falcom titles, such as '' Dragon Slayer II: Xanadu'', ''

Sorcerian is a 1987 action role-playing game developed by Nihon Falcom as the fifth installment in the ''Dragon Slayer'' line of games. Originally released for the PC-8801 Personal Computer, it has since been released on a wide variety of platforms. Game ...

'', and ''

Legacy of the Wizard ''Legacy of the Wizard'', originally released in Japan as is a fantasy-themed action role-playing platform game released for the MSX, MSX2 and Famicom in Japan and for the Nintendo Entertainment System in the United States. ''Legacy of the Wizar ...

''.

Gameplay

''Dragon Slayer'' is an early example of the

genre, which it laid the foundations for.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)
, 4Gamer.net Building on the prototypical action role-playing elements of ''Panorama Toh'' (1983), created by Yoshio Kiya and Nihon Falcom,Sam Derboo (June 2, 2013)

Hardcore Gaming 101 as well as

Namco was a Japanese multinational corporation, multinational video game and entertainment company, headquartered in Ōta, Tokyo. It held several international branches, including Namco America in Santa Clara, California, Namco Europe in London, Na ...

's ''

The Tower of Druaga is a 1984 Arcade game, arcade action role-playing maze game developed and published in Japan by Namco. Controlling the golden-armored knight Gilgamesh, the player is tasked with scaling 60 floors of the titular tower in an effort to rescue the ...

'' (1984), ''Dragon Slayer'' is often considered the first true action role-playing game. In contrast to earlier turn-based

roguelike Roguelike (or rogue-like) is a subgenre of role-playing computer games traditionally characterized by a dungeon crawl through procedurally generated levels, turn-based gameplay, grid-based movement, and permanent death of the player characte ...

s, ''Dragon Slayer'' was a

dungeon crawl A dungeon crawl is a type of scenario in fantasy role-playing games in which heroes navigate a labyrinth environment (a "dungeon"), battling various monsters, avoiding traps, solving puzzles, and looting any treasure they may find. Video games an ...

role-playing game that was entirely

real-time Real-time or real time describes various operations in computing or other processes that must guarantee response times within a specified time (deadline), usually a relatively short time. A real-time process is generally one that happens in defined ...

with action-oriented combat, combining

arcade Arcade most often refers to: * Arcade game, a coin-operated game machine ** Arcade cabinet, housing which holds an arcade game's hardware ** Arcade system board, a standardized printed circuit board * Amusement arcade, a place with arcade games * ...

style

action Action may refer to: * Action (narrative), a literary mode * Action fiction, a type of genre fiction * Action game, a genre of video game Film * Action film, a genre of film * ''Action'' (1921 film), a film by John Ford * ''Action'' (1980 fil ...

mechanics with traditional role-playing mechanics. ''Dragon Slayer'' featured an in-game map to help with the dungeon-crawling, required

item Item may refer to: Organizations * ''Instituto del Tercer Mundo'' (ITeM), the Third World Institute * ITEM club, an economic forecasting group based in the United Kingdom Newspapers * ''The Item'', an American independent, morning newspaper ...

management due to the inventory being limited to one item at a time,Kurt Kalata
Dragon Slayer
, Hardcore Gaming 101 and featured item-based

puzzles A puzzle is a game, problem, or toy that tests a person's ingenuity or knowledge. In a puzzle, the solver is expected to put pieces together ( or take them apart) in a logical way, in order to arrive at the correct or fun solution of the puzzle ...

similar to ''

The Legend of Zelda ''The Legend of Zelda'' is an action-adventure game franchise created by the Japanese game designers Shigeru Miyamoto and Takashi Tezuka. It is primarily developed and published by Nintendo, although some portable installments and re-rele ...

''. ''Dragon Slayer's'' overhead action-RPG formula was used in many later games.Kurt Kalata
Xanadu
Hardcore Gaming 101 Along with its competitor, ''

Hydlide is an action role-playing game developed and published by T&E Soft. It was originally released for the NEC PC-6001 and PC-8801 computers in 1984, in Japan only; ports for the MSX, MSX2, FM-7 and NEC PC-9801 were released the following year. ...

'', ''Dragon Slayer'' laid the foundations for the action RPG genre, including franchises such as '' Ys'' and ''The Legend of Zelda''.John Szczepaniak (2016), ''The Untold History Of Japanese Game Developers, Volume 2'', pages 42-49

References

External links

* {{Dragon Slayer series Role-playing video games Dragon Slayer (series) FM-7 games Game Boy games MSX games NEC PC-8001 games NEC PC-8801 games NEC PC-9801 games Sega Saturn games Sharp X1 games Action role-playing video games 1984 video games Video games developed in Japan Single-player video games Nihon Falcom games Square Enix games Japan-exclusive video games