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ドラゴンナイト アンド グラフィティー
©1995 NEC Avenue, Ltd.
Licensed by Elf
Release : 1995-03-31 (¥7800)
SuperCDRom² NAPR-1046
Role Playing Game
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Dragon Knight and Graffiti is a semi-erotic dungeon crawler by
Elf and is an exclusive enhanced remake of the first Dragon Knight
originally released in 1989. The game tells the story of Yamato Takeru,
a wandering knight, whose adventures lead to the land of Strawberry Fields
only ruled by women. Terrible events have unfolded in the nearby town and the
Goddess Tower that used to protect the inhabitants of the province has been
overtaken by an army of Dragon Knights and their pet dragons. Queen
Luna bids Takeru to investigate the situation and to descend into
the doomed tower to retrieve the six stolen gems of Adriana.
Dragon Knight and Graffiti is played in first-person perspective and
fights are turn-based and occur randomly. The player is however free to leave
the tower at anytime (as long as he can survive and reach the exit safely)
to pay a visit to the local store (to purchase new weapons and armors), talk to
the queen at the palace, save the game in progress, visit the church to refill
his health and magic or talk to the prophetess Obaba to gather important
information or essential items. Although Takeru's main weapon is his sword,
he can also use a short selection of magic spells to restore health or damage a
group of enemies at once. After each battle experience points and gold are earned
in order to evolve Takeru to the next level. Enemies become more and more
relentless as time goes by and it takes the player quite a bit of time to catch up
and eventually reach a comfortable level. Dragon Knight and Graffiti also
includes a special picture gallery (hence the "graffiti" suffix) directly
accessed from the game's main menu.
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This PC Engine remake, despite showing a fair amount of flesh, is still
a toned down version of the original Dragon Knight game. The NEC PC-98
version from 1989 is a bit more naughtier and you see even less clothing on
the girls in distress when you rescue them (picture on the right). And this doesn't only applies to the
damsels, even the large golem who keeps the jail secure on the first floor has more
"manly" features on display.
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The original Dragon Knight was first released for the Japanese
MSX (picture on the left), Sharp X68000 and NEC PC-98 in 1989. The shape of the
plot itself is pure heroic fantasy, but Elf's popular (in Japan) series
got most certainly noticed for its trademark semi-herotic content and a Japanese
anime was even released in 1991 based on it. The game was later enhanced and
released for the PC Engine as Dragon Knight & Graffiti (version
tested here). After the success of the first game, Elf released
Dragon Knight II in 1991 for the MSX, NEC PC-98 and
PC Engine. Dragon Knight III followed the same year for
PC Computers, NEC PC-98, Sharp X68000 and PC Engine.
The game departed from the first person/dongeon crawler formula and used a more
traditional top-down Role Playing gameplay instead. This sequel was the only
Dragon Knight game to be released in English outside of Japan by
Mega Tech - it is known as Knights of Xentar and was only
available for PC Computers (DOS). The game was of course localized for
the release and the main characted was renamed Desmond. Interestingly,
it was available in two versions - the full game and an edited/censored version
labelled 'NR 13'. Dragon Knight 4 was the last game (so far) in
the series and was released in 1994 for the PC-FX, NEC PC-98,
Playstation, Saturn and Super Famicom. Unlike other games
in the series, this last episode is a strategy/Role Playing game where players
control units rather than single characters. Obviously, the adult content was
dramatically toned down from the Playstation, Saturn
and Super Famicom ports.
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Japanese Soundtrack
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Click on picture to enlarge |
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Here are some hints to get through the beginning of the game:
The beginning of the game is really difficult and I advise you enter the tower and fight
monsters many times in order to reach a comfortable level and to buy more powerful weapons and
armors. This can take a couple of hours. When ready, you can start the adventure. The first task
is to rescue Ann imprisoned in the east side of the first floor. However, a massive Golem
(16,0) keeps the entrance. The way around him is to keep visiting the prophetess Obaba,
after a while she will give you a sleeping pill that you can use on the giant. You can now
go to Ann's cell (16,6) and rescue her. The next damsel is Annie, she is located in
(13,17). She mentions that a secret staircase is located north/west of the first floor - go around
(1,16) and walk through the wall to find it (1,15). As you get to the second floor, you'll find Mel
threatened by a monster that you must defeat (1,16). It is now time to fight the Dragon Knight from
the first floor and retrieve the first gem. Go back to the first floor and walk to (13,1). Open the
door and be ready to defeat the red dragon. You can now go back and start exploring the second floor.
I now leave the rest to you...
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LK
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Add your Pov here !
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P
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This remake is actually pretty sweet and gives players an opportunity to enjoy
the original (and perverted) Dragon Knight in its best form, plus the extra
"graffiti" section and its awesome picture gallery. But I must warn you, the game
is hard as hell to delve into and the first hour of play is really frustrating and
annoying. The problem is that enemies level up as you do, so you don't progress
very far into the game until you reach level 8 or so - it is only when you hit
this difficulty 'plateau' that the game reveals itself and becomes an enjoyable
experience. The game is graphically stunning and rather brilliant. Some could argue
that the army of pretty distressed damsels without much clothing on certainly bias
the overall picture here (well... maybe a bit) but Dragon Knight & Graffiti
has other qualities you simply can't ignore and the game is incredibly fun to play.
Battles tend to lag as the game progresses and slow down the pace of the adventure
but this is by no means a show stopper. All in all, Dragon Knight & Graffiti
is really well made and is a lot of fun to play. as long as you can read Japanese
well enough (some of the puzzles will be tricky to solve if you don't).
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