I played This through Falcom Classics for Saturn (A 20 meg image!) running SSF. It took me a long time to get working, but I finally did. It's my first Sega Saturn game. What a strange choice indeed! I'll write a review since i'm one of the few to play this game.

Dragon Slayer is a lot different than most games i've played. At some point I considered reverting back to the MSX version just because the saturn version doesnt seem to really add that much to it. You can feel the underlying game is older while playing it anyway. While on the surface this is a bit like the OverWorld Zero minigame from System Shock 2 (I have not played ultima games that old, which is what OW:Z is supposedly based on) This game has some interesting design bits in it. Also, the Saturn Version is arguably the more accessible version (it's natively in English through Falcom Classics, despite the rest of of the games on it not being in English) and it really does look and sound nice. This is the only PC-88 game i've yet to see that had a modern 'remake' (although Saturn isnt really modern, you get the idea)

First of all the first thing one will notice is the way this game looks and sounds. To me, this game looks and sounds like a SNES era game, while i'm not an expert (yet) I feel it looks and sounds a bit beyond most game on the TG-16, though it very much reminds me of this system. It in no way looks or sounds like a genesis game, which is the main thing i want to record someplace. This video gives a great idea of what to expect of the game. After watching, I knew i had to play it just on the basis of look and sound.

There isnt that much info on this game anywhere. Apparently there was a gameboy 'version' of the idea, as well. Some compare it to zelda but I dont really see that. It's very much like old games like ultima, or even 2600's adventure. In some ways this reminds me of Minecraft in the way the mechanics work, but I wont get into all that in case someone reading this does play it. At times it feels very puzzle oriented the way you move through stalwart dungeons and Adventures of LoLo comes to mind (lacking a better comparison) The last half of the game feels a bit like a action-puzzle game. This was one of the few puzzle games i enjoyed.

At first, I wasn't sure if i would like the game, I figured i'd just play the first map and call it (there are five in saturn, supposedly) but when i saw the second map, my interest grew. By the end of the game I really did enjoy it.The game developers designed each of the maps with it's own little twists in how you proceed to go about playing it. The last level is very mazey.

This is a good game to pick up and put down in 30 minute or less chunks due to the native save and load system. It's also fun to plow through a level as fast as you can, since your saves record the time.

Historically this game is amazing. I have seen a lot of games that have this UI look from japanese games in this period. However, It wraps many elments together and allows the player quite a bit of freedom in how to go about things. The magic in this design is how more things slowly unlock as you make progress in the dungeon. most of your progress is heavily gated but eventually you will just bust through these gates. (In this way, it's MAYBE a bit like zelda as i've seen some comparison) I would describe it as the minecraft 1985 version, as it has a simliar stumbling around feel and you make progress by essentially hoarding things, and moving your house to where you want to harvest, while trying to dodge and control monsters. It's very mechanical and simple, but has enough elemeents to feel chaotic and complex. It's a shame that the saturn is what the 'remake' was released on, as this is a time capsule kind of release and the saturn is a poor choice for archival...

Not many these days would find this a fun game or worth playing probably, but it really is worth looking into if you are curious about old stuff (like PC-88 games) it's loosely related to the Ys series (something i know nothing about)

I didnt play the other two games on the comp (Ys 1 and Xanadu) but loaded them. They looked and sounded really good, too bad these saturn versions are NOT in english and will NOT be translated. (But perhaps there are other options for those two)

The Ending(?) This was one of the things, the few things I did not like about this game, (it loses a star for it. It's one of the WORST endings ever in a game. lol) This game esssntially will not let you win the supposedly final phase 5 map. This is because of the way the damage dealing mechanics work. There isnt enough Power Stone in this map to actually deal damage to the dragon. Even if you grind enemeis to max level and receive 9999999 health (which i did) you can only deal same amount o damage to the dragon, however the dragon will also deal same amount of damage to you. Technically you can beat the dragon... But it would be a battle that would literally last a few days since dragon has about ~650,000 x3 and you deal 10 damage to each other every half second. To beat Dragon Slayer requires you to hold the movement button down and let it run in the background. for a few days. Considering the ending (if it exists) like the intro, is probably not in english, i will pass and just pretend i won this game.