Arcade games with D&D DNA

Anything from run & guns to modern RPGs, what else do you play?
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God
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Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by God »

I'm looking for arcade games that are D&D knockoffs. Bonus points if D&D signature elements are slipped in, like how Dark Seal has alignments and a beholder knockoff boss or cadash calls its armor stat "A C".

This is what I have so far:

King of Dragons
Gauntlet Series
Magic Sword
Cadash
Dark Seal 1 & 2
Dungeon Magic
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Vanguard
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by Vanguard »

Tower of Doom and Shadow over Mystara are two obvious ones. Or does being official D&D games disqualify them?
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by PerishedFraud ឵឵ »

The Rastan series is a sure bet, as well as the actual Conan games.
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Vanguard
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by Vanguard »

Dragon Buster maybe? Fantasy theme, you've got a big pool of health instead of a set number of hits, and when you cast a spell you use up a charge of that specific spell instead of using MP.
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kitten
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by kitten »

do these need to be arcade games, or can they be console games with some arcade ethos? several of these listed were more successful for their home ports and console-exclusive gauntlet 4 is often seen as the best of its series.

before getting permission, i'm at least linking this portion of square's ancient shmup, king's knight lol

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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by Stevens »

My lord, I have come for you.
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Jeneki
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by Jeneki »

If you like the exp/leveling in King of Dragons, also see Knights of the Round which has a similar system.

If you want gold/shop equipment upgrades, try Black Tiger or Crossed Swords. Black Tiger is awesome, in fact, just go play Black Tiger. :P
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BIL
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by BIL »

Immediately thought of Knights/Round, but I still don't quite understand what this thread's looking for. :/ So I'll suggest E.D.F. and Batsugun. Image

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Mischief Maker
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by Mischief Maker »

Do you mean fantasy games in general or specifically the Tolkienesque fantasy setting of D&D's Forgotten Realms/Greyhawk/Dragonlance campaigns?

Because there are a lot of non-tolkien campaigns in D&D that have influenced games.

For example Castlevania is so influcenced by the Ravenloft campaign, Castlevania 2 just straight up stole the art!
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What I wanna know is if there are any arcade games inspired by the Spelljammer campaign!
Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

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BIL
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by BIL »

kitten wrote:before getting permission, i'm at least linking this portion of square's ancient shmup, king's knight lol
Haha, I never noticed this! Despite being an ardent King's Knight fan! Einhander? More like NEINhander! BWAAA (It had NO HAND in establishing Square as a shumping powerhouse, do you see :cool:)

But oh god, that stage. Where the pretense of "Doods, build up the strongest party you can, then challenge the Dark Lord in this shumping ARPG!" falls away, to reveal the cruel "DID YOU GET ALL FOUR OF THE SECRET TILES? 'NO?!' THEN FUCK YOU ASSHOLE" reality. :O

On a happier note, KID THIEF TOBY (he's a spunky young kleptomaniac, not a child-stealing monster :shock:) has the best walk animation in topdown action gaming. I'll fight ten guys with shivs to the death for it. I was dying when I saw it and am now dying as I recall it. That boy ain't right!
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kitten
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by kitten »

BIL wrote:Haha, I never noticed this! Despite being an ardent King's Knight fan! Einhander? More like NEINhander! BWAAA (It had NO HAND in establishing Square as a shumping powerhouse, do you see :cool:)

But oh god, that stage. Where the pretense of "Doods, build up the strongest party you can, then challenge the Dark Lord in this shumping ARPG!" falls away, to reveal the cruel "DID YOU GET ALL FOUR OF THE SECRET TILES? 'NO?!' THEN FUCK YOU ASSHOLE" reality. :O
i had a good laugh the first time i saw it!! i've tried selling a good number of people on king's knight and then just checking the strategywiki map for secret locations so they can get through it. i really think it's a surprisingly competent game, it's just that catch is such a brutal one and almost everyone figures it out quickly or knows it pulls some bullshit before they even go into it ; __ ;
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BIL
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by BIL »

I imagine autofire might be make/break for many. I play with it on, which makes systematically razing stage after stage (and pointblanking heavies) for dem tiles a breeze. OTOH, I don't think I'd indulge the game nearly as much otherwise (that jump arc - KID THIEF TOBY, are your balls as bent as your walk cycle suggests?! :shock:).

I want to change my sn to KID THIEF BIRU. I'd make a custom HUNK sprite edit, strolling along with his balls flapping and everything.

Still one of my absolute favourite little treasures to have around, the boxart is unironically bloodening. :mrgreen:
God
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by God »

Might as well include ToD and Mystara for completeness. 

@Vanguard
Kind of on topic, I actually discovered Cadash very recently and have been using your youtube videos as a reference without realizing they came from a shmups member.  It's a neat game.

Rastan is definitely a nod to Conan, but I haven't yet noticed anything that's very D&D specific.  Black Tiger, Rastan, Astyanax, Golden Axe, Ghouls & Ghosts, Magician Lord are all on my radar but haven't noticed anything D&D in them beyond being fantasy themed. 

Dungeon Buster, sounds a little like vancian casting.  Is there any chance the item he picks up to get a new spell is a scroll?  I can't tell what it's supposed to be.

I'm looking primarily for arcade games but I wouldn't kick a console game out of bed for getting crumbs in it, as long as it's an action game, I already know RPGs are basically all D&D clones.  I have heard good things about Gauntlet 4.  Which of these have the more successful home ports?

Knights of the Round has a boss called "Iron Golem" and that name is definitely from D&D but other than that it doesn't strike me as a D&D game with the serial numbers filed off.  But The king of Dragons is right on the money.  It's all D&D critters and classes.

Definitely not excluding Ravenloft, Spelljammer, Darksun, etc.  There's a spelljammer DOS game btw, and I completely forgot there's a boss in gradius 4 that looks like a messed up Tiamat.

Castlevania, I know D&D specific things show up in SotN.  There's the Vorpal Sword, the Gorgon as a bull with stone breath, an elven cloak and the way demons are always gating in more demons.  I'm not so sure about before SotN.
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by BIL »

God wrote:I have heard good things about Gauntlet 4. Which of these have the more successful home ports?
Gauntlet 4 is somewhat misleadingly-named. It's actually an (excellent) conversion of the OG Gauntlet, by none other than M2, and is titled as such in JP. They made it for the X68000 as a fan project, and did such impressive work Tengen bought and published it on MD (with a ton of bonus material, like the almost action/puzzler Quest mode, and Hitoshi Sakimoto's staggeringly good OST). Naturally it supports multi-tap for 4P play. Incidentally, the JP cart supports full English text, very nice touch.
Castlevania, I know D&D specific things show up in SotN.  There's the Vorpal Sword, the Gorgon as a bull with stone breath, an elven cloak and the way demons are always gating in more demons.  I'm not so sure about before SotN.
AFAIK, a lot of SOTN's pop-lit references were translation liberties. Apparently "Cube of Zoe" was named after a localisation member's kid. Either way, it's just a Materialisation Cube in JP. "Vorpal Sword" is Sonic Blade. "Cthulhu" is Devil, while his (actually Cthulhu-referencing) tentacle-faced headswap "Malachi" is simply Evil. Granfalloon is "Legion" (I find the Vonnegut reference far cooler and creepier, given the monster's design, and always use it when talking SOTN).

If you wish to examine a Granfalloon, just remove the skin of a toy balloon.

However, there's stuff like "Crissaegrim"/Valmanway, which is argued by some to be a two-in-one Tolkien reference.

Prior to SOTN, nope, nothing as specific as that, AFAIK. Just the stock Universal Movie Monsters plus generic bats, zombies and skeletons, with Medusa joined further in by more world horror folklore, like Golems, Gargoyles, Poltergeists, Dullahans, Harpies, etc.
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BrianC
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by BrianC »

Dragon Buster 2 for Famicom plays very similar to the first AD&D game for the Intellivision, Cloudy Mountain. Not sure of any D&D relation aside from that, though.
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Stevens
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by Stevens »

Damn. I haven't thought about that game in years. I loved counting arrows..I thought it sounded cool.
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by Squire Grooktook »

Surprised no one mentioned the Mahou Daissakusen series before. Might even be close to the Spelljammers adaptation that MischiefMakers longs for, given how you take to the stars at some point in the first two games.

Knights of The Round is a homage to Boreman's Excalibur film, not D&D. Interestingly, a recent statement from an old Capcom pixel artist says that Japanese art was enormously influenced by that film. Besides Miura using it as inspiration for his world early on in Berserk, apparently "all big shoulder" armor designs (see any GIANT PAULDRON character designs you'd see in old jrpg's) "owes itself to this movie whether people realize or not".
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Mischief Maker
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Re: Arcade games with D&D DNA

Post by Mischief Maker »

Squire Grooktook wrote:Knights of The Round is a homage to Boreman's Excalibur film, not D&D. Interestingly, a recent statement from an old Capcom pixel artist says that Japanese art was enormously influenced by that film. Besides Miura using it as inspiration for his world early on in Berserk, apparently "all big shoulder" armor designs (see any GIANT PAULDRON character designs you'd see in old jrpg's) "owes itself to this movie whether people realize or not".
Man, imagine if Zardoz was the enormously influential Boorman film instead:
Spoiler
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Two working class dudes, one black one white, just baked a tray of ten cookies together.

An oligarch walks in and grabs nine cookies for himself.

Then he says to the white dude "Watch out for that black dude, he wants a piece of your cookie!"
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