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DRAGON SCROLL YOMIGAERISHI MARYŪ
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ドラゴンスクロール 甦りし魔竜
©Konami 1987
Release: 1987-12-04 (¥5300)
Cartdridge RC823
Action/Role Playing game
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Dragon Scroll is an action/adventure game by Konami. Eight magic books
have kept the three headed Chrome Dragon sealed away for centuries. These
books were locked away in a tower located at the heart of the Zarik desert.
But one day, three thieves entered the sacred building and stole the eight magical
artifacts. Hence the spell was broken, the Chrome Dragon awoke from its eternal
sleep and started to wreak havoc across the world. A hero named Feram is summoned
to counter the beast and return peace to the land. Feram starts his journey with
a weak magic staff with a high rate of fire but extremely limited range. More staffs
become available later in the game - the firestaff throws deadly flames and the
Madan staff is the most powerful of all but the slowest. Experience points are
awarded after battling and defeating enemies who are predominantly encountered on the
overworld map or inside dungeons. These points allow Feram to level up and grow
stronger - this also gives him access to the more advanced staffs (as our hero much read
level 5 to use the fire staff and to level 8 for the Madan staff!). Magic
items are buried and hidden from sight and gives Feram access to powerful spells,
such as the Rain Bell capable of unleashing violent storms. Dragon Scroll
is non linear adventure game and features a large world to explore. A password system
(using Japanese kanas) allows the player to continue an earlier game.
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Dragon Scroll Konami Cards
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Like several other early Konami games released in the 1980s/1990s, Dragon Scroll
included a numbered collector card also known in Japan as コナミ キャラカード (aka 'Konami Chara Cards' or 'Konami Character Cards').
Each card featured an illustration or a snapshot
from the game (picture on the right), and the back of each card showed a serial number as well as the
game's title. They were randomly included with the games and Konami
produced several variations of each card. That's it, each game included a
card from a series related to the game, it is however not known
how many different card variations were made for each game.
Apparently six cards (on average) were produced for each game, except
for Doremikko (1 card), Exciting Boxing (1 card) and Meikyujin Dababa
(which, curiously, only seem to feature five cards).
The list of
Konami games to include such cards are believed to be :
Ai Senshi Nicol (FDS),
Dracula II Noroi no Fuin (FDS),
Arumana no Kiseki (FDS),
Contra (FC),
Doremikko (FDS),
Dragon Scroll (FC),
Exciting Baseball (FDS),
Exciting Basketball (FDS),
Exciting Billard (FDS),
Exciting Boxing (FDS),
Exciting Soccer (FDS),
Falsion (FDS),
Getsu Fūma Den (FC),
Majō Densetsu II Daimashikyō Galious(FC),
Meikyū Jiin Dababa (FDS),
Metal Gear (FC),
Salamander (FC),
Tetsuwan Atom (FC),
Top Gun (FC)
and Wai Wai World (FC).
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Japanese Guidebook
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Japanese Game Book
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Click on picture to enlarge |
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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P
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While its influences are quite evident - Zelda is probably the most
obvious - Dragon Scroll just doesn't hit the right spot. I mean, the
game can't be accused to postulate its own ideas such as the little creatures
that enables you to bet money for potential additional health or the non-linear
story. Graphics are also more than correct for a game released back in 1987
and the visited world is fairly large. But the gameplay is what makes this game
so terrible. The first weapon you receive is just useless and even the firestaff
doesn't really hit the mark. But worst of all, Dragon Scroll is non-linear
to the point where you just have no idea on what you're supposed to do next, and
some of the puzzles are just plain impossible to figure out. Here's a crazy
example - in the desert you're supposed to summon a storm to reveal a hidden door.
"reveal" is a big word as the door appears but stays invisible until you walk through
it. How are you supposed to know that ? All in all, Dragon Scroll is
technically accomplished and looks great but the gameplay didn't quite gel for me.
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