Dragons of Flame (video game)

Dragons of Flame (ドラゴン・オブ・フレイム, Doragon obu Fureimu) is a video game released in 1989 for various home computer systems and consoles. It is a sequel to Heroes of the Lance.[1]

Dragons of Flame
NES cover art by Jeff Easley
Developer(s)U.S. Gold
Atelier Double (Famicom)
Publisher(s)Strategic Simulations
U.S. Gold
Composer(s)Hitoshi Sakimoto, Takeshi Yasuda (FM Towns/Famicom/PC-9801)
SeriesDragonlance
Platform(s)Amiga, Amstrad CPC, Atari ST, Commodore 64, FM Towns, Famicom, MS-DOS, PC-9801, ZX Spectrum
Release1989
Genre(s)Action adventure
Mode(s)Single-player

Gameplay edit

Like Heroes of the Lance it is arcade oriented, with few RPG elements.[1] The style of the game is very much like its predecessor, horizontally scrolling fighting controlling one character at a time.

Plot edit

It is based on the second Dragonlance campaign module, Dragons of Flame, and the second half of the first Dragonlance novel Dragons of Autumn Twilight. The plot is a faithful representation of the books it is based on.

Development edit

Dragons of Flame was adapted from the Dragons of Flame printed adventure module.[2][3] The game Shadow Sorcerer is a sequel to this game's storyline, but has quite different gameplay.

Reception edit

Dragons of Flame was successful for SSI, selling 55,711 copies.[4] According to GameSpy, "while the number of characters was increased to 10, the gameplay remained the same moderately competent, hack-'n-slash, side-scrolling action, marking this as another less than stellar entry on SSI's resume".[5]

ST Action magazine reviewed the Atari ST version, giving it an overall score of 73%: "When U.S. Gold announced they were going to produce an Advanced Dungeons and Dragons range I thought we were going to be in for the usual graphic-lacking role-playing games. ... I've been proven very wrong. This latest game seems to offer more of a challenge than its predecessor, Heroes of the Lance. ... The thing I noticed about Dragons of Flame was the playability. Although the game uses complex menus, they have all been set out in a friendly, easy-to-use manner". ST Action also praised the variety of monsters, graphics, and "well implemented" gameplay.[6]

References edit

  1. ^ a b "Dragons of Flame". Zzap!. No. 59. March 1990. p. 23. ISSN 0954-867X. Archived from the original on 2007-12-24. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
  2. ^ "Dragons of Flame". MobyGames. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
  3. ^ "Dragons of Flame". World of Spectrum. Retrieved 2007-03-26.
  4. ^ Maher, Jimmy (2017-03-31). "Opening the Gold Box, Part 5: All That Glitters is Not Gold". The Digital Antiquarian.
  5. ^ Rausch, Allen (August 15, 2004). "A History of D&D Video Games". GameSpy. Retrieved November 15, 2012.
  6. ^ "Dragons of Flame Review". ST Action. No. 21. Gollner Publishing. January 1990. pp. 58–59.

Reviews edit

External links edit