Before talking about Dragon Knight, let's talk about Elf a little.
Elf was founded by writer and designer Masato Hiruta, programmer Atsushi Kanao (also known for having another "legit" company called TamTam), and artist Toshihiro Abiru. It was originally an offshoot of another eroge developer, Fairytale (which was part of Kirara, which... yeah let's leave it at that, I'm getting a headache), best-known nowadays for cult classic Dead of the Brain. Elf started making games in late 1988, before gaining its full independence in 1989. The same year they released their first success Dragon Knight (here it is). They'll end up being the most important eroge company of the 90s', culminating with very well-received releases on Sega Saturn, before progressively fading into irrelevance in the mid 00s' and ultimately closing in 2015.
Dragon Knight came at an auspicious time. Dragon Quest mania was in full swing with the third episode breaking records, while the fantasy genre was exploding in anime/manga (the Lodoss novelizations, Dragon Magazine's creation, series like Bastard, Berserk, or Ozanari Dungeon,...) Since Japan was thirsting for fantasy, a computer RPG for adult made complete sense. And Dragon Knight was the first!
Actually, not really. It came four months after Alice Soft's Rance, and five months after Dragoon Armor, a game developed by Fairytale (hmm, what a coincidence). Oh well.
Story is simple. Young and brave adventurer Yamato Takeru stumbles upon the kingdom of Strawberry Fields (yeah, really). That land was blessed by a goddess until the evil dragon knights came to her tower, sealed her and stole six jewels of immense power (I know, the game is named after the bad guys, probably because it sounds cool). Recognized as the hero of a prophecy, Takeru is tasked by the queen to climb the tower, kick the dragon knights' ass, take the jewels back, and revive the goddess. Easy.
Also everyone in Strawberry Fields is a woman, for some reason.
This is a simple dungeon crawler, clearly inspired by Wizardry. Combat is incredibly basic, with only four options: fighting, offensive magic, health magic, and fleeing. No items beyond the equipment you can buy in town or the quest-related stuff you automatically pick-up. Most of the fun in the game is found in exploring and mapping (preferably with pen and paper for the original experience) the dungeons. You'll need to find and save various girls lost in the dungeon, who will then give you hints on puzzles or how to find the floor's boss (generally hidden behind a password). Some floors also have gimmicks, like the one where you need to disguise yourself as a monster, or the demon town.
If you can look pass the combat, it's a pretty good dungeon crawler for beginners. It's not very well-balanced, but grinding is also minimal if you take your time to explore, and gaining money and experience is pretty painless.
Let's finish with the erotic element: I found it surprisingly tame (or maybe I just have a dirty mind). There's a bunch of half-naked ladies put in dangerous situations, but no sex scenes. So it's still eroge but probably less lewd than your average European arthouse film.
Honestly not bad.
Elf was founded by writer and designer Masato Hiruta, programmer Atsushi Kanao (also known for having another "legit" company called TamTam), and artist Toshihiro Abiru. It was originally an offshoot of another eroge developer, Fairytale (which was part of Kirara, which... yeah let's leave it at that, I'm getting a headache), best-known nowadays for cult classic Dead of the Brain. Elf started making games in late 1988, before gaining its full independence in 1989. The same year they released their first success Dragon Knight (here it is). They'll end up being the most important eroge company of the 90s', culminating with very well-received releases on Sega Saturn, before progressively fading into irrelevance in the mid 00s' and ultimately closing in 2015.
Dragon Knight came at an auspicious time. Dragon Quest mania was in full swing with the third episode breaking records, while the fantasy genre was exploding in anime/manga (the Lodoss novelizations, Dragon Magazine's creation, series like Bastard, Berserk, or Ozanari Dungeon,...) Since Japan was thirsting for fantasy, a computer RPG for adult made complete sense. And Dragon Knight was the first!
Actually, not really. It came four months after Alice Soft's Rance, and five months after Dragoon Armor, a game developed by Fairytale (hmm, what a coincidence). Oh well.
Story is simple. Young and brave adventurer Yamato Takeru stumbles upon the kingdom of Strawberry Fields (yeah, really). That land was blessed by a goddess until the evil dragon knights came to her tower, sealed her and stole six jewels of immense power (I know, the game is named after the bad guys, probably because it sounds cool). Recognized as the hero of a prophecy, Takeru is tasked by the queen to climb the tower, kick the dragon knights' ass, take the jewels back, and revive the goddess. Easy.
Also everyone in Strawberry Fields is a woman, for some reason.
This is a simple dungeon crawler, clearly inspired by Wizardry. Combat is incredibly basic, with only four options: fighting, offensive magic, health magic, and fleeing. No items beyond the equipment you can buy in town or the quest-related stuff you automatically pick-up. Most of the fun in the game is found in exploring and mapping (preferably with pen and paper for the original experience) the dungeons. You'll need to find and save various girls lost in the dungeon, who will then give you hints on puzzles or how to find the floor's boss (generally hidden behind a password). Some floors also have gimmicks, like the one where you need to disguise yourself as a monster, or the demon town.
If you can look pass the combat, it's a pretty good dungeon crawler for beginners. It's not very well-balanced, but grinding is also minimal if you take your time to explore, and gaining money and experience is pretty painless.
Let's finish with the erotic element: I found it surprisingly tame (or maybe I just have a dirty mind). There's a bunch of half-naked ladies put in dangerous situations, but no sex scenes. So it's still eroge but probably less lewd than your average European arthouse film.
Honestly not bad.