CHŌ EIYŪ DENSETSU DYNASTIC HERO
( The Dynastic Hero )
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超英雄伝説ダイナスティックヒーロー
©1994 Hudson Soft
©1989 Westone
Release : 1994-05-20 (¥6800)
SuperCDRom² HCD4032
Adventure / Action game
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Released in America as THE DYSNATIC HERO
( - )
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Dynastic Hero is a side scrolling action/adventure game by
Hudson Soft and is the PC Engine port of
Wonder Boy V Monster World III (aka Wonder Boy in Monster World in the west).
The player character and protagonist of the game, Dyna, is a young boy who embarks
on a long journey to save the world from the monsters that seek to destroy it. No one
in the country knows where they come from and who controls them. Dyna starts
his journey with a short sword and his first task is to expand his arsenal of weapons
and fighting techniques. The sword is good for close combat and allows him to hold a
shield at the same time whereas the spear comes with a greater range but prevents him
to use the shield. Our hero can also find magic spells scattered all
over the visited worlds. There is a grand total of six magic spells including the
powerful Earthquake or the Thunder Fireballs. Spells, and also items,
can be assigned to the directional pad and activated by pressing the Run button.
Wonder Boy 5 offers a fair deal of adventure and discussions with villagers
often give Dyna precious clues and help him take his next step - such information can help him enter
nearby dungeons and to defeat the fierce bosses within their walls. The game's progress
can be saved inside the numerous Inns that adorn each town.
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Wonder Boy V Monster World III (aka Wonder Boy in Monster World in the west)
was originally released for the Sega Megadrive in 1991. Hudson Soft finally
completed the PC Engine port three years later and felt free to modify some of
the game's original character design. The Megadrive version is a lot more faithful
to the fantasy world of Wonder Boy - Hudson Soft slightly redesigned the main
characters and made them live in an insectoid world. The game's protagonist now wears a
beetle shaped armor and the various bosses are now batrachians and lizards. The game's
soundtracks is also completely different and offers CD quality audio. Finally, and sadly,
the PC Engine version lost the nice parallax scrolling. Interestingly a
Master System port of the game was released in 1993 but only in Europe - the
game was named Wonder Boy in Monster World. A special collection was released in
Japan in 2007 for Sony's Playstation 2 called Sega Ages 2500 Vol. 29: Monster
World Complete Collection - the game includes all six games of the wonderworld series
and the Megadrive version of Wonderboy V.
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Interestingly, a short version of Wonderboy 5 was featured
in the Hyper Catalogue Volume 2 from spring 1993. The introduction sequence
found in this catalogue actually features a totally different song with
English lyrics.
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Here is a quick walkthrough for the first part of the game. This will probably help
you to get a grasp on the game's mechanics. First you need to get to the nearby village.
There you will meet fairies too scared to wonder outside their houses because of all the
monsters that have recently appeared. You will have to defeat the giant frog hidden inside the
nearby dungeon and bring peace back to the fairy village. Before jumping into action,
go through the path between the two statues in the village, and press up.
You will be warped to a
pink and flowery world. There, go to the right and talk to the fairy. A little sprite
will accompany you and throw little hearts when your life gets too low. Now you need
to go back to the village and get to the dungeon to the right (you may want to buy the
spear now though). In there you will find an Ocarina. Take it and walk back to the
village. Enter the house with no shopping signs and talk to the fairy living inside. She will
teach you three different songs, each one of them open the blue, red and green doors.
Return to the dungeon, equip the Ocarina and play the songs you just learned in front
of the corresponding doors. You will soon encounter, and hopefully defeat, the
giant frog boss. Return to the village and get warped back to the flowery level.
There, an entrance in the tree to the left is now opened and you can carry on your
journey. Deep in the sewage (if you only walk left), you will affront an armored
warrior. The only way to defeat him is to hit his feet. When defeated, you will
get to the princess and go through the door that leads to her village. I leave
the rest to you now.
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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P
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Dynastic Hero is an excellent and fun game. It can also be easily
enjoyed without much knowledge of the Japanese language (some stages can get
rather tricky though). The American version is extremely hard to find and
remains well sought after by collectors, so don't expect to pick up a cheap
copy anytime soon. My only gripe about the game is the general creative direction
taken by Hudson Soft - I feel that the Megadrive version is more
faithful to the original Wonderboy franchise with traditional looking
armors, monsters and so forth. The insectoid/batrachian theme is kind of a let
down I think. Nevertheless, despite this fairly subjective feeling,
Dynastic Hero is beautifully crafted, crazy addictive and features
a wicked soundtrack. Any Wonderboy fan shouldn't miss out on this one !
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