Slayers was not based on D&D but a TTRPG that was made in Japan in reaction to D&D. Though it has a very similar feel to D&D anyways. Lodoss totally was Ryo Mizuno's campaign that he ran for friends. Fun Fact: Ghim only dies because the player who was playing him had to leave the game due to his work schedule, he got a promotion apparently so they let him die off distracting a dragon for his last session so he would be remembered in an epic fashion.
@@comradestannis Yes, and it’s quite good. Would highly recommend. It also takes a lot of inspiration from Symphony of the Night but in the best way possible.
George Kamitani who was the lead designer of the chronicles of mystara went on to found vanillaware and made the spiritual successor which was Dragons Crown. George took many devs an sprite employees and the other half of the developers/employees stayed at capcom to work on dragons dogma.
yeah, watching this video I was missing the mention that Dragon's Crown is basically the remake of Shadow over Mystara, it features many of the same enemies, player characters inspired by the original cast (plus the sorcerer which is the "witchy" version of the magic caster), a similar idea with the branching paths (although implemented differently probably because it was a console game and not an arcade)... and even a Monty Python parody! Plus the anime style and elements turned up to eleven now that WotC didn't have a word on it
@@WilliamSRD Slayers certainly captures the spirit of tabletop more than most high fantasy anime. You can practically hear the players behind the scenes arguing over loot or getting pissed at Lina for showboating.
Did anyone ever notice that the opening of Lodoss War seems to depict a recreation of that Clyde Caldwell Dragonlance painting where Laurana is chained up before Takhisis? Also, did anyone ever notice that the box art for Castlevania 2 seems to be ripping off the cover of the original Ravenloft module?
There is a bit of an answer to "What would a 3rd D&D arcade game be like?" One of the directors of the first game, George Kamitani, left the company and would eventually form the company Vanillaware. After making games like Odin Sphere and Grim Grimoire under Vanillaware, he went to Capcom in the late 2000s with a request - "Let me make a new D&D action game." Capcom promptly laughed him out of the room. He eventually decided to make his own -Dragon's Crown. Dragon's Crown wears it's 70s/Early 80s TTRPG influence on its sleeve - characters look like if Boris Vallejo drew through a warped manga kaleidoscope, the story is told through a constant narrator who provides all voices to the NPCs, and there's even Monty Python references. And it plays exactly like an evolved version of the D&D arcade titles. When it released in 2013, it was a huge hit in Japan. So much so, Capcom decided to ride its coat tails by finally releasing the D&D arcade collection. So right now, the closest thing we have to a spiritual sequel is Dragon's Crown/Dragon's Crown Pro. Keep up the great work!
Ah, Odin Sphere, what an incredible idea for a game. I love that more people recognize it nowadays. I'd heard his other projects were also of great quality.
The Devs didn't dream up the Elf as a Fighter/Magic User combination. That was part of Basic D&D. Only Humans had classes, all other races were classes. Dwarves were Fighter with extra features. Elves were Fighter/Mages. Hobbits... Halflings were thieves with extra features. Only humans could be clerics, or straight class wizards. And there was no multi-class options, other than what was built into the Elf race/class.
@@freelancerthe2561 while they do distort, choosing both race and class, as well as some multiclassing, was in AD&D (which ran concurrently with the basic D&D line)
That is correct; Mystara was originally the setting for Basic D&D, where the "races" were essentially classes (e.g. elf = ftr / mu). So the elf was "canon" for Basic / Expert / etc. D&D. Mystara was later adapted into AD&D (I had the Karameikos and Glantri box sets). As for the video games, I loved Tower of Doom at the arcade--it was a lot of fun. My RPG friends and I would spend an afternoon on the game--completed it a couple times. Hated it when the baddies started dropping meteor swarm...) Good memories.
One of the interesting facts regarding Sword World and its popularity deals with the dice. The polyhedral dice we're used to in the US for different TTRPG weren't easy to find in Japan so Sword World was created as an alternative using a d66 system as d6 were just about everywhere. Because of this, when "Record of Lodoss War" completed and the second half, "Chronicles of the Heroic Knight" started, it was based off of Sword World instead. There's also a sequel to Lodoss War ("Legend of Crystanna") and "Rune Caster Louie," that takes place in the same setting, just on the mainland, thus expanding the universe even more. Thank you for reading my tangent.
Well, if they haven't gone mad, they're probably pretty self-absorbed (trying to get more powerful, trying to stay ahead of the competition which is literally every other magic user). Just kind of goes with the territory, no? 😂 Edit: not a dnd player so someone could always play different. But in terms of dnd related media and dnd adjacent media the only wizards that were usually different were clerics.
I remember playing this on an emulator in the early 2000s, then snapping up the collection as soon as it released. It is definitely a comfort food type of game for me, and it's good to know the story behind it is so heartwarming as well.
Funny, this game is kind of legendary among fans of Capcom and/or classic arcade games, so it's always talked about within the context of 90s brawlers. (And how these are quite possibly the greatest ever made.) So it was interesting hearing someone analyze it from the perspective of being a D&D game instead. Nice!
True, as someone more into videogaming than tabletop I wasn't prepared for the TTRPG history lesson here... but it was all interesting, so I don't really mind the new perspective!
I've spent YEARS trying to remember this game. So many quarters dumped into it at the local Fun Factory. Also started a long tradition of hogging the girl characters in the character select. Elf was my favorite pick.
This game was one of my first exposures to D&D. I remember being like 10, walking into an arcade in the mall in Sacramento and staring in absolute awe at the attract screen. I still remember the mist on the stone floor, the detail of the animation when the skeletons rise up out of the ground. The Deedlit clone Elf casts lightning bolt and electricity courses through the mist for several seconds after its cast. I was ASTOUNDED!
...oh god, I remember our 4 player stream of this years ago and all I hear is "sticks to snakes" "Magic Missile" "Sticks to Snakes" "FIREBALL" "Magic Missile" on an endless mental loop.
Oh yeah. I remember back in the day one game I played in had one thief (for the 1.0 glitch), two Magic users and an Elf. Synn was stuck in a infinite loop of Ice Storms, Conjure elementals, Cloud Kills and so forth. And in the end, the Thief was the one who got the final kill with a lightning bolt ring glitch. Good times.
This is why playing the game without the "1 credit clear" goal of arcades makes it lose a lot of appeal. Normally, the Magic Users have limited spell slots that are only replenished at set points in the playthrough, so you have to be thoughtful with each casting or you end up having to face bosses with your limited melee capabilities. Whereas when you creditfeed, you just spam magic, die, spam magic, die, etc. and it gets old quickly especially if you are playing with friends.
I’m glad Itsuno used Dragon’s Dogma as a way to send a love letter to these games. looking forward to DD2, and Itsuno having more creative freedom and budget to work with.
Those early days of RPGs in Japan are fascinating. Especially when you hit the early 90s when RPGs on consoles had a proven audience and a lot of people tried to figure out how to make tabletop games. The person who translated D&D to Japanese, Masayuki Onuki, and was the public face of RPGs died tragically young in 1993 and his own system, Double Moon Densetsu has a strange history that was stopped by his passing.
For me, Shadow Over Mystara is the very best D&D video game, with the character designs in particular being a highlight. The secrets and run variations based on what party members you have (in a beat 'em up no less) is what makes it so special.
I remember playing Shadow Over Mystara at Game Camp '99, at Wizards Central in Seattle. (I was the one Human Cleric of Torm in the "Elf Party" that banished Tiamat, if anyone else was there.)
These games were so fun to play in the arcades. I remember using the name glitch in Shadow Over Mystara. A shame that Capcom left it out of their Beat ‘em Up Bundle.
There are some pretty interesting quirks in translations that happened with the DnD books going over to Japan that kind of forever changed how some monsters are thought of. To my understanding one of the earliest Monster Manuals had a mix up when it went to the printers. It had the description of the Kobold with the picture of the Gnoll and vice verse. After the launch rather than pull the books and reissue them corrected they just ran with it. Which is why in most Japanese media you'll see Kobolds as dog men.
But up to AD&D 2e, kobold were in fact "little dog men". They are literally described like that in the Monster Manual. Only when 3e came out, they were turned into "little dragon men" for unknown reasons. I call BS your comment, unless you can point me to a source.
@@MedievalFantasyTV I just Googled an ADnD 1e monster manual (Gary Gygax, 1979) and the depiction of a kobold in there is scaled, explicitly described as having no hair.
@@RialuCaos From the moldvay basic rulebook's 1st two sentences on kobolds: "These small, evil dog-like men usually live underground. They have scaly rust-brown skin and no hair." The AD&D monster manual does precede this but it's a bit light on description. The only 'dog-like' indication possibly being the nose.
This is however blatantly wrong. Kobolds didn't look like little dragon men until 3rd edition, by which point DnD had largely been surpased by it's inspirations in Japan. In the earliest versions (Up to Holmes Basic iirc) Kobolds were just described as being similar to goblins. Then they were described as looking like rats and/or dog people with maybe some lizard features (this is why they look like rats or moles or something in Warcraft). The first and most important edition of D&D in Japan was BECMI, which a) didn't even have images for the Gnolls and Kobolds and b) described Kobolds primarily as "doglike humanoids" sometimes adding that they have no fur or have scales instead. By the time 3rd edition rolled around and changed Kobolds in the west, a) the depiction of them as like sleak, maybe-furless-but-you-often-couldn't-tell-because-of-the-artstyle, dog people had already cemented in Japanese fantasy and RPG culture thanks to Lodoss, Wizardry, (Shin) Megami Tensei and probably others, b) D&D as said before had been far surpased in popularity by that point and c) since RuneQuest was proportionally more popular and influencial in the early days of Japanese RPGs than in the US, it's Dragonewts had already entered the Japanese list of stock RPG races as the dragon-oriented lizard-people, making the changes D&D was doing to Kobolds redundant. Also you can see in this video that they had Gnolls and they looked like hyena-men.
I know it's not officially a D&D product, but it's mind-blowing to me that you didn't even mention the 2013 spiritual successor "Dragons Crown" helmed by one of the artists of the Mystara games, George Kamitami. That game is well worth bringing up as it plays very similarly to the Mystara titles with loads of added replayability. It might not be an official D&D title, but the callbacks to Mystara, general D&D, and loads of other fantasy pop-culture are frankly to numerous to lay out in a comment.
Thrse games were my first introduction the Dungeons & Dragons. Saw some guys playing it in a local arcade and it just blew me away so much that i just had to tell my best friend about it. That is whenhe pulled out the 2E AD&D Players Handbook, and ive been hooked ever since.
I miss the days when you could just walk by and watch the demo screen, and within just a few seconds understand exactly what a game was like to play, and absolutely looking forward to going nuts playing it. A lot of games lost that sense of presentation in the move to home consoles, as there wasn't a need to show off anymore.
Dunno about Being entirely based on Lodoss War, The Elf is commonly known as Lucia or Fiera seems her design is roughly based on Dragon Slayers and Proud of it painting. From the AD&D2e PHB; Darokin city is mentioned in the Mystara maps from the D&D Rules Cyclopedia
Mystera (if you have the source books) is easily my favorite d&d campaign setting. I sold them for at least 50 bucks a piece on eBay. Kind of regretting that now. I would even give Grand wizards of the Left Coast money for a reprint, and I haven't given those scumbags money in at least 15 years.
I both played these games back in the early 2000's thanks to a CD containing A LOT of Capcom games i got from my uncle AND watched the Record of Lodoss War anime, and only now did i realize how connected they were. Great video, got to learn some more details i would have never discovered!
RoLW and CoM stand as my two biggest inspirations for what dnd looks like in my brain. Also love that one of the biggest success stories from dnd comes from a country where its not even the 2nd biggest trpg lol
I thought you were going to mention D&D was the inspiration behind final fantasy (WOTC i believe said no so they had to change some of the names) and how Wizardry was also what popularized DD in japan.
@@csmead209 thanks I didn’t know what their name was. Just that square soft made the game first then went and asked for a license but the people in charge said no. Since they had a completed game they changed the name of things to be legally distinct and the rest is as they say… history. Also I forgot to add a comma after they said no
William SRD has officially reached the video essaying milestone of "showing his face in front of a mic more often during his videos". Next step? Joining Nebula.
This game was my childhood, I used to play it with my siblings on the NeoGeo collection. Imagine 4 kids/teens around one keyboard trying to play on a tiny 800 by 600 screen. Man life was good
@@The_Gallowglass They most definitely do, but that's alright. Those are clearly a subspecies of owlbear native to Mystara. *nod nod* I'm joking, but despite looking more eagle than owl, they still look pretty good I think.
These are legit two of the best beat um up games ever made so many fun spells, you got good combos, magic items you can use, each character has different abilities and your characters actually level up and awesome boss fights.
Thing about Mystara is, you don't need massive lore dumps because of the way the setting is presented. That's why it was the perfect setting for an arcade game.
Such an excellent game back in the good ol' days of arcade gaming. Seeing a skilled player in a single-coin playthrough was like watching a movie or an anime for every little kid gawking around.
I can confirm, it drank coins like water. I don't think I ever beat it before going to one of those arcades that started showing up in the late 90s where you had a flat cost to play, but they set all the machines to infinite lives.
*Listening to this while I try to sleep* "...Lodoss War...." *Intensely chanting Kiseki no Umi* ~'kaze yo watashi wa osorenai ai koso mitsukedashita kiseki yo'~
I played the arcade games back when they first came out. When I saw the Steam sale, I made sure to buy Chronicles. Best purchase I've ever made. Besides this, King of Dragons might be my all-time favourite D&D style video game. I played the heck out of it on my SNES, and recently got the arcade version through a sale.
When my wife and I lived in Japan, we bought a Kinu Nishimura Capcom art book from Tsutaya. Wonderful illustrations, and Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom and Shadow Over Mystara being two of my favorite arcade games back in the day (right up there with Street Fighter II). Great retrospective video!
I admit these 2 games were my only exposure to DnD, was even more amazed when I learned Mystara is an actual setting in the DnD lore, that Capcom didn't just create a fictional plot but stayed true to the lore (and we have Alex to thank for that) Kinu's artwork is definitely iconic among the industry, but even the most famous illustrator has their humble beginnings, and it's a privilege to see them. 90's artwork has a special magic to them that just can't be easily replicated in the present Frankly, I'm surprised that players in Japanese arcades would have that "please don't join in" mentality when playing a co-op game. I get it, sometimes you get someone who's skill level isn't on par with your own, and their lack of skills ends up dragging you down and ruin the experience, but that can't be reason enough to deny other players from joining a co-op game, skill level shouldn't be such a huge factor, it's the experience that counts When Chronicles was first released to steam, there were quite a bit of players, it was easy to find players and create a session. I remember playing it for roughly a month, with the same group of people, everyone knew what they needed to do, it was like clockwork. Sadly, nowadays there's hardly anyone playing anymore, even though beat-em-ups have seen a resurgence in recent years
The creator of Record of Lodoss Wars actually went to TSR to see if they wanted Lodoss and they turned him down, so then came Sword World.WoTC came back to them when 3.0 was the system looking to get Lodoss and he had them kick rocks.
It's crazy to think how much Wizardry and Ultima influenced game dev and console RPGs/JRPGs in 80s/90s, with most not knowing about Dungeons and Dragons.
There was a D&D Branded, Japanese Language, replay set in Mystara, but it wouldn't be published until 1995, so too late for any of the devs to have learned about Mystara by reading it. It hadn't occurred to me before watching this video that Japan got its own localized D&D Rules Cyclopedia, and a Mystara Replay, until after Mystara was ported to AD&D 2e in the west.
Japan got translations of Basic D&D that were pretty popular. The start of Japan's love for western RPGs goes back to localizations of blobbers and early dungeon crawlers like Wizardry. Even today, Wizardry among Japanese people who grew up in the late 80's is remembered on the same level as D&D itself.
To this very day, D&D has not once made better player character art than what 90's Capcom did here. The Chronicles of Mystara digital release version's new art pales to the original as well. Absolute peak.
10:20 TSR had licensed the AD&D Mystara setting over to another gaming company, SSI, which was used in their Gold Box games like Pools of Radiance, and the Online AOL MMO Neverwinter Nights which ran until the late 90s. I can only assume that either some from of exclusivity with SSI, or wanting to avoid souring their relationship with them, prevented them from making any other kind of video game project with the AD&D license.
@@wpasieczny Minor Mistake, it wasn't a Gold Box game, but Mystara was licensed to SSI for the PC Strategy wargame Fantasy Empires. It was also licensed to Westwood for their Warriors of the Eternal Sun RPG on the Genesis, which does kind of undermine my point about not wanting to license the AD&D setting to multiple companies now that I'm thinking about it.
@@WilliamSRD One of my favorite events at an anime convention was actually a D&D 3.5 dungeon building workshop. They made three groups make a dungeon each on the first day and the second day, they shuffled the dungeons so we had to play one made by another group.
You want to talk forgotten, King of Dragons and Knights of the Round are forgotten Capcom beat 'em ups. And I suspect they were used as templates for the D&D games. In fact, Capcom had been well practiced at the genre by then. Konamii may have had some wonderful licensed beat 'em ups (TMNT, Simpsons), but other than Bare Knuckle/Streets of Rage, I think Capcom had the best.
What a look back! Loved these games in the arcade, my friend and I (both massive 2e-era D&D nerds) sunk a lot of quarters into these two. I was really happy when they were re-released on the PlayStation Network. Thanks for filling in the history!
I don't even want to think about how much money I spent on these games back in the nineties...there was a pizza place downtown, right by the movie theater, that had both cabinets side by side. You couldn't make a better weekend spot if you tried! I had no idea they'd been released for home play in english, I'll have to pick that set up to support. My sister and I were both also super into Lodoss back in the day, I still have bootleg VHS tapes with fansubs of the entire series. I remember ordering them one at a time as they came out! Just a great nostalgia trip of a video all around.
And they say that the suggested videos algorithm is broken....I say thee NAY! Love this video and can hardly wait to check out the rest of your library man. Love the editing and the obvious research/knowledge you display. Keep up the great work, man!
The Cabinets had glitches people would exploit by unplugging it and restarting the machine which caused the game to make you immortal, spike pits wouldn’t kill you but you were stuck there till the machine was reset. Record of Lodoss War had an awesome game on the Dreamcast in which Parn and Deedlit could be found and join your team 😊
these games were actually playable in PC in the philippines in the early 2000s. we played it on our windows XP, my brothers and i. i loved playing these games over and over again as a kid. this was so good and i really loved the gameplay. it's so simple, yet can be complex, and it's still so playable as a kid.
The Black Onyx released in 1984 and is the very first JRPG. It is a grid-based dungeon crawler that very closely emulates the dungeon grids we all know in tabletop gaming and the genre has stayed very much alive demonstrated by recent entries like Etrian Odyssey. Shin Megami Tensei and Persona also come from this tradition and they keep the crunchy gameplay that characterizes the genre even if they've mostly done away with the grid based dungeons. From the fever that The Black Onyx created and from those early roleplayers you mentioned, Dragon Quest was born. The Lodoss War serialization actually happened a few months after the release of Dragon Quest. The early history of japanese RPG's is quite busy and passionate, it really happened from different angles.
So glad you made this video; The D&D arcade games are so good that they're actually timeless. Literal perfection. I love the fighting game-esque combos and mechanical "exploits" you can perform to truly set apart skilled players from quarter-muncher victims. The more bite-sized game length is a great alternative to the Gauntlet Legends series of games. (Or games like Guardian Heroes/Code of Princess, Dragon's Crown) I used to play these with friends via MAME back in the day! (Highly recommend King of Dragons as well!) Gonna brush the dust off my PS3 to play these with my fiance the next chance I get, because she plays in two different D&D groups weekly. Hopefully she enjoys them at least a bit, despite probably not being interested in the depth they offer. The atmosphere, artwork, and branching paths should entertain her for at least a handful of playthroughs. Gonna have to rock the Cleric just to help out as much as possible, while she presumptively picks Elf & Thief. The information on Record of Lodoss War is very welcome. Been a huge fan of the series for a long time, but had no idea that it was actually tied to D&D aside from the Elf's artwork. Just enjoyed the anime and Dreamcast game for many years.
some of the old D&D Gazetteers (The Principalities of Glantri, The Elves of Alfheim, The Republic of Darokin and The Shadow Elves) which are kind of lore heavy books with no particular set adventure hooks were used by Alex "Raven" Jimenez (sadly, no, no relation) to flesh out the Mystara setting in the arcade games. The last mid-boss on the second game (Nagpa) is exclusive to this setting. Also, the Dark Warriors (1 and 2) were based on Tolkien's *Balrog* but their estate sued TSR and they were forced to rename the creature to "Balor" in later monster manuals. Since Capcom wanted to avoid legal issues, they renamed them again
I remember it was the artstyle that drew me in with this game. I'm pretty sure it was the 2nd arcade game I first played, but it was so long ago I can't quite remember. What I do remember was I was a very young teenager when I stood before that arcade cabinet and just fell head over heels for that Elf girl. I wouldn't discover Record of Lodoss War until years later in the late 90s when I got fully into anime. Even to this day, my favorite D&D class in 5e is a Bladesinger Wizard who is a pretty blonde elf girl.
Chronicles of Mystara has been on my Steam Wishlist for nearly 10 years. It's often on sale for $3 to $4. I never bought it because I don't have time to play it. The art of arcade games like Golden Axe was very influential on me as a DM because fantasy artists are just so much better at capturing a look for a character or monster than regular mortals like myself. I can come up with stuff like, "He was a knight, wearing black armor covered in spikes." but it needs an artist to make it more than some iron cactus dude.
That was a very nice video about a game that meant a lot to me and my friends. Great job! Found out about those games in my teens when I was really into tabletop RPGs and anime. They were everything I wanted. Another game with that "D&D meets anime" vibe is Guardian Heroes, with an amazing cast of characters and intense and satisfying gameplay mechanics. Those were my drugs in the late '90s and early 2000s.
I absolutely love these games. Played them all the time on arcades when I was a kid. Rumor is Dragons Dogma was actually a sequel to these games but they couldn't get the DnD license so they named it dragons dogma. Fun fact there are some menu sounds from the arcade games that made it to dragons dogma.
Because tabletop games need communities, there's a huge advantage to getting there first. Switching games based on the relative quality of the games won't help you if you can't find anyone to play the new game with. That's why so many countries outside the US have a different game occupying D&D's niche: because it got good marketing in that country and a good localization before D&D did (or it was locally made, like Sword World in Japan or The Dark Eye in Germany.)
Oh, cool, Mr. Welch commented on this video; from what I can recall from his videos and about these games (well Shadow Over Mystara in particular) in term of lore accuracy (though Mystara doesn't see to have incredibly consistent lore): -The party was working of Glantri but no one tried to arrest the cleric(s) nor vivisect the Dwarf(Dwarves) -Shadow Elves were just sort of made Drow; Shadow Elves are just sort of supposed to be pale and can actually pass for Sea Elves; plus they have the odd situation of having evil/chaotic royalty, an overall neutral population, and a good/lawful patron immortal (that was a nuclear physicist in his mortal life) -Synn was a red dragon and not a night dragon At least the devs remembered Mystara has immortals instead of gods.
I've played sword world! Its very fun it feels like playing an old school ff or DQ game as a tabletop. I wish that campaign continued but its a very fun system
Mystara actually had a fair bit of its Basic material translated, actually. Basic DnD was the flagship over there, especially early in; and Mystara was the default setting for Basic and bits of its influence can even be seen in Lodoss. The whole reason Basic and DnD in general kinda fell apart over there is a mix of differences in play style caused by lifestyle differences (you're much less likely to have long, sprawling campaigns because of scheduling issues- even compared to Western scheduling issues) and, perhaps even more damning? Getting the myriad of funky dice needed to play DnD was difficult. You were more likely to find D6's easily, which is why Tunnels and Trolls managed to get more grounding over there and why Sword World (among other Japanese TTRPGs of the era, including an edition of RuneQuest specifically aimed at Japanese players) use D6-based systems as the go to. Now, why they only had the rights to the the ADnD version is beyond me- Mystara's Advanced run was super short lived, starting in 94 and ending in 95- but TSR was.... TSR, so it may've been an attempt at market synergy that didn't work out considering Tower dropped the same year as the first 2e book for Mystara.
I can remember playing both of these in the arcade a LONG time ago. There would always be people wanting to join in on a game. Those were some great times.
Yeah, these games are so good. Thanks for covering its development. I also quite like the soundtrack. When Chronicles of Mystara was released like 8 years ago, they even did orchestrations of 5 songs for the Playstation physical special edition. I wish I could have gotten something like that in America, but at least I nabbed the music. ;-) I'd love another game like this. Vanillaware made good beat-'em-ups last I checked, but I doubt WotC would work with them.
I remember Lodoss War in the early and mid 90's, I was exposed to it much later being in the US. This still has a massive influence event on stuff coming out even today.
This game and it's Japanese origins really speaks to me. Shadow over Mystara was my arcade obsession at the student center during college. Being a broke student, I mastered it to the point where I could single credit beat the entire game. There was another player I kept trading the high scores with, but never played at the machine at the same time. By sheer coincidence we finally met in a Japanese language course. Been friends ever since, and we play tabletop Dungeons and Dragons on the regular to this day.
21:26: That's actually based on how non-human races worked in Basic D&D. Elves, dwarves, and halflings were their own classes, *not* a separate thing from the usual fighter/cleric/mage/thief class structure. As for why the elf was a blonde girl in a green minidress...yeah, I can't actually refute the "they wanted to make a Lodoss game" thing.
Man takes me back i played this on Xbox with friends sonnets hours trying to acquire every epic item like the cursed sword and turned it into blessed sword it was fun
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Please review Dragon's Crown.
Your income is YOUR problem. 🤮
Whats the music at 13:50? Sounds really familiar
Slayers was not based on D&D but a TTRPG that was made in Japan in reaction to D&D. Though it has a very similar feel to D&D anyways. Lodoss totally was Ryo Mizuno's campaign that he ran for friends. Fun Fact: Ghim only dies because the player who was playing him had to leave the game due to his work schedule, he got a promotion apparently so they let him die off distracting a dragon for his last session so he would be remembered in an epic fashion.
Lodoss also has that video game, right? "Deedlit in Wonder Labyrinth" or something?
@@comradestannis Yes, and it’s quite good. Would highly recommend. It also takes a lot of inspiration from Symphony of the Night but in the best way possible.
@@wanderingslacker Yeah, haven't played it, but I heard great things.
@@comradestannis Multiple games. There's a diablo-like for the Sega Dreamcast.
@@Minnan1 Nice. I'll look into it all.
George Kamitani who was the lead designer of the chronicles of mystara went on to found vanillaware and made the spiritual successor which was Dragons Crown. George took many devs an sprite employees and the other half of the developers/employees stayed at capcom to work on dragons dogma.
yeah, watching this video I was missing the mention that Dragon's Crown is basically the remake of Shadow over Mystara, it features many of the same enemies, player characters inspired by the original cast (plus the sorcerer which is the "witchy" version of the magic caster), a similar idea with the branching paths (although implemented differently probably because it was a console game and not an arcade)... and even a Monty Python parody! Plus the anime style and elements turned up to eleven now that WotC didn't have a word on it
George Kamitani only worked on the first game.
I didn't know Lodoss war was based on real DND sessions.
Yep! Reportedly the anime 'Slayers' is too, but that one is harder to verify!
@@WilliamSRD Slayers certainly captures the spirit of tabletop more than most high fantasy anime. You can practically hear the players behind the scenes arguing over loot or getting pissed at Lina for showboating.
Lodoss crawled so Legend of Vox Machina could run.
@@WilliamSRD Slayers was adapted into two tabletop games though.
Did anyone ever notice that the opening of Lodoss War seems to depict a recreation of that Clyde Caldwell Dragonlance painting where Laurana is chained up before Takhisis?
Also, did anyone ever notice that the box art for Castlevania 2 seems to be ripping off the cover of the original Ravenloft module?
There is a bit of an answer to "What would a 3rd D&D arcade game be like?"
One of the directors of the first game, George Kamitani, left the company and would eventually form the company Vanillaware. After making games like Odin Sphere and Grim Grimoire under Vanillaware, he went to Capcom in the late 2000s with a request - "Let me make a new D&D action game." Capcom promptly laughed him out of the room. He eventually decided to make his own -Dragon's Crown. Dragon's Crown wears it's 70s/Early 80s TTRPG influence on its sleeve - characters look like if Boris Vallejo drew through a warped manga kaleidoscope, the story is told through a constant narrator who provides all voices to the NPCs, and there's even Monty Python references. And it plays exactly like an evolved version of the D&D arcade titles. When it released in 2013, it was a huge hit in Japan. So much so, Capcom decided to ride its coat tails by finally releasing the D&D arcade collection. So right now, the closest thing we have to a spiritual sequel is Dragon's Crown/Dragon's Crown Pro.
Keep up the great work!
came here to say this as well. Dragons Crown is an excellent game!
I do find it funny when I noticed Capcom released that after Dragon's Crown. It's not the first time they've done it, either.
Dragons crown is so fucking good, Probably my favourite game that year.
Ah, Odin Sphere, what an incredible idea for a game. I love that more people recognize it nowadays. I'd heard his other projects were also of great quality.
Now Dragon's Dogma is Capcom's D&D
The Devs didn't dream up the Elf as a Fighter/Magic User combination. That was part of Basic D&D. Only Humans had classes, all other races were classes. Dwarves were Fighter with extra features. Elves were Fighter/Mages. Hobbits... Halflings were thieves with extra features. Only humans could be clerics, or straight class wizards. And there was no multi-class options, other than what was built into the Elf race/class.
Its amazing how much 3e and 5e Mandela effect has over the game's historical perception.
@@freelancerthe2561 while they do distort, choosing both race and class, as well as some multiclassing, was in AD&D (which ran concurrently with the basic D&D line)
@OtakuNoShitpost This game has the Dungeons & Dragons license, not the AD&D license.
That is correct; Mystara was originally the setting for Basic D&D, where the "races" were essentially classes (e.g. elf = ftr / mu). So the elf was "canon" for Basic / Expert / etc. D&D. Mystara was later adapted into AD&D (I had the Karameikos and Glantri box sets). As for the video games, I loved Tower of Doom at the arcade--it was a lot of fun. My RPG friends and I would spend an afternoon on the game--completed it a couple times. Hated it when the baddies started dropping meteor swarm...) Good memories.
Soory, both halflings and dwarves were fighters.
One of the interesting facts regarding Sword World and its popularity deals with the dice. The polyhedral dice we're used to in the US for different TTRPG weren't easy to find in Japan so Sword World was created as an alternative using a d66 system as d6 were just about everywhere. Because of this, when "Record of Lodoss War" completed and the second half, "Chronicles of the Heroic Knight" started, it was based off of Sword World instead. There's also a sequel to Lodoss War ("Legend of Crystanna") and "Rune Caster Louie," that takes place in the same setting, just on the mainland, thus expanding the universe even more. Thank you for reading my tangent.
Going edgelord for the spellcaster characters seems pretty true to the D&D experience
Well, if they haven't gone mad, they're probably pretty self-absorbed (trying to get more powerful, trying to stay ahead of the competition which is literally every other magic user). Just kind of goes with the territory, no? 😂
Edit: not a dnd player so someone could always play different. But in terms of dnd related media and dnd adjacent media the only wizards that were usually different were clerics.
I remember playing this on an emulator in the early 2000s, then snapping up the collection as soon as it released. It is definitely a comfort food type of game for me, and it's good to know the story behind it is so heartwarming as well.
noice
The Elf is a class in basic which is what they had the right to. It is a fighter /magic user.
Was going to post this.
Funny, this game is kind of legendary among fans of Capcom and/or classic arcade games, so it's always talked about within the context of 90s brawlers. (And how these are quite possibly the greatest ever made.) So it was interesting hearing someone analyze it from the perspective of being a D&D game instead. Nice!
True, as someone more into videogaming than tabletop I wasn't prepared for the TTRPG history lesson here... but it was all interesting, so I don't really mind the new perspective!
I've spent YEARS trying to remember this game. So many quarters dumped into it at the local Fun Factory. Also started a long tradition of hogging the girl characters in the character select. Elf was my favorite pick.
@@freelancerthe2561your first waifu? 😂
This game was one of my first exposures to D&D. I remember being like 10, walking into an arcade in the mall in Sacramento and staring in absolute awe at the attract screen. I still remember the mist on the stone floor, the detail of the animation when the skeletons rise up out of the ground. The Deedlit clone Elf casts lightning bolt and electricity courses through the mist for several seconds after its cast. I was ASTOUNDED!
The best part of Chronicles of Mystara is getting to make an attack before your mages proceed to lock you out of movement for the next 2 hours 🙃
...oh god, I remember our 4 player stream of this years ago and all I hear is "sticks to snakes" "Magic Missile" "Sticks to Snakes" "FIREBALL" "Magic Missile" on an endless mental loop.
Oh yeah. I remember back in the day one game I played in had one thief (for the 1.0 glitch), two Magic users and an Elf. Synn was stuck in a infinite loop of Ice Storms, Conjure elementals, Cloud Kills and so forth. And in the end, the Thief was the one who got the final kill with a lightning bolt ring glitch. Good times.
This is why playing the game without the "1 credit clear" goal of arcades makes it lose a lot of appeal. Normally, the Magic Users have limited spell slots that are only replenished at set points in the playthrough, so you have to be thoughtful with each casting or you end up having to face bosses with your limited melee capabilities.
Whereas when you creditfeed, you just spam magic, die, spam magic, die, etc. and it gets old quickly especially if you are playing with friends.
I’m glad Itsuno used Dragon’s Dogma as a way to send a love letter to these games.
looking forward to DD2, and Itsuno having more creative freedom and budget to work with.
I never knew this about Record of Lodoss War. As a huge DnD nerd this is so neat to me!
Those early days of RPGs in Japan are fascinating. Especially when you hit the early 90s when RPGs on consoles had a proven audience and a lot of people tried to figure out how to make tabletop games. The person who translated D&D to Japanese, Masayuki Onuki, and was the public face of RPGs died tragically young in 1993 and his own system, Double Moon Densetsu has a strange history that was stopped by his passing.
I mean, its also why orcs being pig men and kobolds being dog people in Japanese media to this day.
Kinu Nishimura is indeed GOAT. Her work is so energetic and playful. A true inspiration.
For me, Shadow Over Mystara is the very best D&D video game, with the character designs in particular being a highlight. The secrets and run variations based on what party members you have (in a beat 'em up no less) is what makes it so special.
I never thought there would be a Beat'em up/Dungeon Crawler hybrid. But now I'm all here for it.
Baldur’s Gate 2 has entered the chat.
I remember playing Shadow Over Mystara at Game Camp '99, at Wizards Central in Seattle. (I was the one Human Cleric of Torm in the "Elf Party" that banished Tiamat, if anyone else was there.)
These games were so fun to play in the arcades. I remember using the name glitch in Shadow Over Mystara. A shame that Capcom left it out of their Beat ‘em Up Bundle.
There are some pretty interesting quirks in translations that happened with the DnD books going over to Japan that kind of forever changed how some monsters are thought of. To my understanding one of the earliest Monster Manuals had a mix up when it went to the printers. It had the description of the Kobold with the picture of the Gnoll and vice verse. After the launch rather than pull the books and reissue them corrected they just ran with it. Which is why in most Japanese media you'll see Kobolds as dog men.
I never knew that, I had always wondered why representations of "kobolds" have been so varied.
But up to AD&D 2e, kobold were in fact "little dog men". They are literally described like that in the Monster Manual. Only when 3e came out, they were turned into "little dragon men" for unknown reasons. I call BS your comment, unless you can point me to a source.
@@MedievalFantasyTV I just Googled an ADnD 1e monster manual (Gary Gygax, 1979) and the depiction of a kobold in there is scaled, explicitly described as having no hair.
@@RialuCaos From the moldvay basic rulebook's 1st two sentences on kobolds: "These small, evil dog-like men usually live underground. They have scaly rust-brown skin and no hair." The AD&D monster manual does precede this but it's a bit light on description. The only 'dog-like' indication possibly being the nose.
This is however blatantly wrong. Kobolds didn't look like little dragon men until 3rd edition, by which point DnD had largely been surpased by it's inspirations in Japan.
In the earliest versions (Up to Holmes Basic iirc) Kobolds were just described as being similar to goblins. Then they were described as looking like rats and/or dog people with maybe some lizard features (this is why they look like rats or moles or something in Warcraft).
The first and most important edition of D&D in Japan was BECMI, which a) didn't even have images for the Gnolls and Kobolds and b) described Kobolds primarily as "doglike humanoids" sometimes adding that they have no fur or have scales instead.
By the time 3rd edition rolled around and changed Kobolds in the west, a) the depiction of them as like sleak, maybe-furless-but-you-often-couldn't-tell-because-of-the-artstyle, dog people had already cemented in Japanese fantasy and RPG culture thanks to Lodoss, Wizardry, (Shin) Megami Tensei and probably others, b) D&D as said before had been far surpased in popularity by that point and c) since RuneQuest was proportionally more popular and influencial in the early days of Japanese RPGs than in the US, it's Dragonewts had already entered the Japanese list of stock RPG races as the dragon-oriented lizard-people, making the changes D&D was doing to Kobolds redundant.
Also you can see in this video that they had Gnolls and they looked like hyena-men.
That takes me back. I used to play those at the arcade.They were like a D&D-skinned Final Fight clone.
My first ever character was a half-elf named Tellarin, after the game's shadow elf villain. Though only inspired in name.
I know it's not officially a D&D product, but it's mind-blowing to me that you didn't even mention the 2013 spiritual successor "Dragons Crown" helmed by one of the artists of the Mystara games, George Kamitami. That game is well worth bringing up as it plays very similarly to the Mystara titles with loads of added replayability. It might not be an official D&D title, but the callbacks to Mystara, general D&D, and loads of other fantasy pop-culture are frankly to numerous to lay out in a comment.
Wait, Lodoss War was based off IRL tabletop sessions?
Ok, now I REALLY want to see an All Guardsman Party adaptation
Thrse games were my first introduction the Dungeons & Dragons. Saw some guys playing it in a local arcade and it just blew me away so much that i just had to tell my best friend about it. That is whenhe pulled out the 2E AD&D Players Handbook, and ive been hooked ever since.
I miss the days when you could just walk by and watch the demo screen, and within just a few seconds understand exactly what a game was like to play, and absolutely looking forward to going nuts playing it. A lot of games lost that sense of presentation in the move to home consoles, as there wasn't a need to show off anymore.
Dunno about Being entirely based on Lodoss War, The Elf is commonly known as Lucia or Fiera seems her design is roughly based on Dragon Slayers and Proud of it painting. From the AD&D2e PHB; Darokin city is mentioned in the Mystara maps from the D&D Rules Cyclopedia
Mystera (if you have the source books) is easily my favorite d&d campaign setting. I sold them for at least 50 bucks a piece on eBay. Kind of regretting that now. I would even give Grand wizards of the Left Coast money for a reprint, and I haven't given those scumbags money in at least 15 years.
I both played these games back in the early 2000's thanks to a CD containing A LOT of Capcom games i got from my uncle AND watched the Record of Lodoss War anime, and only now did i realize how connected they were. Great video, got to learn some more details i would have never discovered!
RoLW and CoM stand as my two biggest inspirations for what dnd looks like in my brain. Also love that one of the biggest success stories from dnd comes from a country where its not even the 2nd biggest trpg lol
I thought you were going to mention D&D was the inspiration behind final fantasy (WOTC i believe said no so they had to change some of the names) and how Wizardry was also what popularized DD in japan.
Wizards Of The Coast didn't exist yet, it would have been TSR that said no.
@@csmead209 thanks I didn’t know what their name was. Just that square soft made the game first then went and asked for a license but the people in charge said no. Since they had a completed game they changed the name of things to be legally distinct and the rest is as they say… history. Also I forgot to add a comma after they said no
These were such fun games, and impressively deep too - I remember delving into the inventory system and getting lost. ;)
Ah, Mystara, the most beautiful, wonderful, and the best of all D&D settings. That last one is a scientific fact, by the way!
William SRD has officially reached the video essaying milestone of "showing his face in front of a mic more often during his videos". Next step? Joining Nebula.
This game was my childhood, I used to play it with my siblings on the NeoGeo collection. Imagine 4 kids/teens around one keyboard trying to play on a tiny 800 by 600 screen. Man life was good
Love these games. Me and the boys still hop on the steam version now and again.
Is it just me or do the owlbears look more like...eagle bears? ( :
@@The_Gallowglass They most definitely do, but that's alright. Those are clearly a subspecies of owlbear native to Mystara. *nod nod*
I'm joking, but despite looking more eagle than owl, they still look pretty good I think.
@@Syenthros I wonder if they have super sexy anime-harpy uwus
These are legit two of the best beat um up games ever made so many fun spells, you got good combos, magic items you can use, each character has different abilities and your characters actually level up and awesome boss fights.
Thing about Mystara is, you don't need massive lore dumps because of the way the setting is presented. That's why it was the perfect setting for an arcade game.
Such an excellent game back in the good ol' days of arcade gaming. Seeing a skilled player in a single-coin playthrough was like watching a movie or an anime for every little kid gawking around.
I can confirm, it drank coins like water. I don't think I ever beat it before going to one of those arcades that started showing up in the late 90s where you had a flat cost to play, but they set all the machines to infinite lives.
*Listening to this while I try to sleep*
"...Lodoss War...."
*Intensely chanting Kiseki no Umi*
~'kaze yo watashi wa osorenai
ai koso mitsukedashita kiseki yo'~
I played the arcade games back when they first came out. When I saw the Steam sale, I made sure to buy Chronicles. Best purchase I've ever made.
Besides this, King of Dragons might be my all-time favourite D&D style video game. I played the heck out of it on my SNES, and recently got the arcade version through a sale.
Mystara, the greatest D&D setting of them all.
I played that one in the arcades! That was the glory days for side-scrolling Beat ‘em Ups .
I most certainly have not forgotton these
When my wife and I lived in Japan, we bought a Kinu Nishimura Capcom art book from Tsutaya. Wonderful illustrations, and Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom and Shadow Over Mystara being two of my favorite arcade games back in the day (right up there with Street Fighter II). Great retrospective video!
One of my all-time favorites games CAPCOM AT ITS PRIME
Played this last year and had a lot of fun with it. Beat-em-up with D&D elements basically.
Side-scolling beat 'em up games, player vs player fighting games, role playing games; Capcom was just KING of the arcade.
_"Blessings of Mystara upon ye."_
- Beggars, TES IV: Oblivion
I admit these 2 games were my only exposure to DnD, was even more amazed when I learned Mystara is an actual setting in the DnD lore, that Capcom didn't just create a fictional plot but stayed true to the lore (and we have Alex to thank for that)
Kinu's artwork is definitely iconic among the industry, but even the most famous illustrator has their humble beginnings, and it's a privilege to see them. 90's artwork has a special magic to them that just can't be easily replicated in the present
Frankly, I'm surprised that players in Japanese arcades would have that "please don't join in" mentality when playing a co-op game. I get it, sometimes you get someone who's skill level isn't on par with your own, and their lack of skills ends up dragging you down and ruin the experience, but that can't be reason enough to deny other players from joining a co-op game, skill level shouldn't be such a huge factor, it's the experience that counts
When Chronicles was first released to steam, there were quite a bit of players, it was easy to find players and create a session. I remember playing it for roughly a month, with the same group of people, everyone knew what they needed to do, it was like clockwork. Sadly, nowadays there's hardly anyone playing anymore, even though beat-em-ups have seen a resurgence in recent years
The creator of Record of Lodoss Wars actually went to TSR to see if they wanted Lodoss and they turned him down, so then came Sword World.WoTC came back to them when 3.0 was the system looking to get Lodoss and he had them kick rocks.
Ah the good old days. No idea how many of my quarters were lost to both D&D games back in the day!
I loved these arcade games as a kid!!!
It's crazy to think how much Wizardry and Ultima influenced game dev and console RPGs/JRPGs in 80s/90s, with most not knowing about Dungeons and Dragons.
Shadow over Mystara is literally what gets me into RPG series both JRPG and Western when I encountered this game on Arcade as 8 years old kid
"Take a shot whenever you die..." So When you die in the game, you really can die in real life...
There was a D&D Branded, Japanese Language, replay set in Mystara, but it wouldn't be published until 1995, so too late for any of the devs to have learned about Mystara by reading it. It hadn't occurred to me before watching this video that Japan got its own localized D&D Rules Cyclopedia, and a Mystara Replay, until after Mystara was ported to AD&D 2e in the west.
Japan got translations of Basic D&D that were pretty popular. The start of Japan's love for western RPGs goes back to localizations of blobbers and early dungeon crawlers like Wizardry. Even today, Wizardry among Japanese people who grew up in the late 80's is remembered on the same level as D&D itself.
To this very day, D&D has not once made better player character art than what 90's Capcom did here. The Chronicles of Mystara digital release version's new art pales to the original as well. Absolute peak.
10:20 TSR had licensed the AD&D Mystara setting over to another gaming company, SSI, which was used in their Gold Box games like Pools of Radiance, and the Online AOL MMO Neverwinter Nights which ran until the late 90s. I can only assume that either some from of exclusivity with SSI, or wanting to avoid souring their relationship with them, prevented them from making any other kind of video game project with the AD&D license.
Which SSI gold box games were set in Mystara? I though they were mostly Forgotten Realms with a few Dark Sun and Krynn - and Al-Qadim - games.
@@wpasieczny Minor Mistake, it wasn't a Gold Box game, but Mystara was licensed to SSI for the PC Strategy wargame Fantasy Empires. It was also licensed to Westwood for their Warriors of the Eternal Sun RPG on the Genesis, which does kind of undermine my point about not wanting to license the AD&D setting to multiple companies now that I'm thinking about it.
Cool!
Fantasy Empires used Rules Cyclopedia/BECMI rules *not* Advanced.
I mean it's not like a whole...whole lot of D&D players aren't anime nerds or anything.
Exactly! It's really quite a natural pairing!
@@WilliamSRD One of my favorite events at an anime convention was actually a D&D 3.5 dungeon building workshop. They made three groups make a dungeon each on the first day and the second day, they shuffled the dungeons so we had to play one made by another group.
You want to talk forgotten, King of Dragons and Knights of the Round are forgotten Capcom beat 'em ups. And I suspect they were used as templates for the D&D games. In fact, Capcom had been well practiced at the genre by then. Konamii may have had some wonderful licensed beat 'em ups (TMNT, Simpsons), but other than Bare Knuckle/Streets of Rage, I think Capcom had the best.
I love these kinds of deep dives, into the histories of two hobbies I very much enjoy. A very well presented and informative video, good job.
The art is so beautiful
What a look back! Loved these games in the arcade, my friend and I (both massive 2e-era D&D nerds) sunk a lot of quarters into these two. I was really happy when they were re-released on the PlayStation Network. Thanks for filling in the history!
Nothing forgotten about them in my house - those games, along with AvP, are my most played Beat 'em Ups of all time. Classic stuff.
I don't even want to think about how much money I spent on these games back in the nineties...there was a pizza place downtown, right by the movie theater, that had both cabinets side by side. You couldn't make a better weekend spot if you tried! I had no idea they'd been released for home play in english, I'll have to pick that set up to support. My sister and I were both also super into Lodoss back in the day, I still have bootleg VHS tapes with fansubs of the entire series. I remember ordering them one at a time as they came out! Just a great nostalgia trip of a video all around.
Damn man, you're cranking out some comfy retro videos. Cant wait to see this one. Keep it up!
And they say that the suggested videos algorithm is broken....I say thee NAY! Love this video and can hardly wait to check out the rest of your library man. Love the editing and the obvious research/knowledge you display. Keep up the great work, man!
The Cabinets had glitches people would exploit by unplugging it and restarting the machine which caused the game to make you immortal, spike pits wouldn’t kill you but you were stuck there till the machine was reset. Record of Lodoss War had an awesome game on the Dreamcast in which Parn and Deedlit could be found and join your team 😊
these games were actually playable in PC in the philippines in the early 2000s. we played it on our windows XP, my brothers and i. i loved playing these games over and over again as a kid. this was so good and i really loved the gameplay. it's so simple, yet can be complex, and it's still so playable as a kid.
Chronicles of Mystara even captures the rage that is waiting for the magic user to pick their spell and just BE DONE CASTING.
Shadow Over Mystara, Dragon's Dogma, and Dragons Crown are 3 of my favorite games ever.
Loved this retrospective! Thanks, so many nostalgic memories and recalls!!!
Regards from Tabasco, México [Land of The Olmecs]!
The Black Onyx released in 1984 and is the very first JRPG. It is a grid-based dungeon crawler that very closely emulates the dungeon grids we all know in tabletop gaming and the genre has stayed very much alive demonstrated by recent entries like Etrian Odyssey. Shin Megami Tensei and Persona also come from this tradition and they keep the crunchy gameplay that characterizes the genre even if they've mostly done away with the grid based dungeons.
From the fever that The Black Onyx created and from those early roleplayers you mentioned, Dragon Quest was born. The Lodoss War serialization actually happened a few months after the release of Dragon Quest. The early history of japanese RPG's is quite busy and passionate, it really happened from different angles.
So glad you made this video; The D&D arcade games are so good that they're actually timeless. Literal perfection. I love the fighting game-esque combos and mechanical "exploits" you can perform to truly set apart skilled players from quarter-muncher victims. The more bite-sized game length is a great alternative to the Gauntlet Legends series of games. (Or games like Guardian Heroes/Code of Princess, Dragon's Crown) I used to play these with friends via MAME back in the day! (Highly recommend King of Dragons as well!)
Gonna brush the dust off my PS3 to play these with my fiance the next chance I get, because she plays in two different D&D groups weekly. Hopefully she enjoys them at least a bit, despite probably not being interested in the depth they offer. The atmosphere, artwork, and branching paths should entertain her for at least a handful of playthroughs. Gonna have to rock the Cleric just to help out as much as possible, while she presumptively picks Elf & Thief.
The information on Record of Lodoss War is very welcome. Been a huge fan of the series for a long time, but had no idea that it was actually tied to D&D aside from the Elf's artwork. Just enjoyed the anime and Dreamcast game for many years.
some of the old D&D Gazetteers (The Principalities of Glantri, The Elves of Alfheim, The Republic of Darokin and The Shadow Elves) which are kind of lore heavy books with no particular set adventure hooks were used by Alex "Raven" Jimenez (sadly, no, no relation) to flesh out the Mystara setting in the arcade games. The last mid-boss on the second game (Nagpa) is exclusive to this setting. Also, the Dark Warriors (1 and 2) were based on Tolkien's *Balrog* but their estate sued TSR and they were forced to rename the creature to "Balor" in later monster manuals. Since Capcom wanted to avoid legal issues, they renamed them again
Great game. I use to play in college after dinner - it taught me lessons in team work and loss
I remember it was the artstyle that drew me in with this game. I'm pretty sure it was the 2nd arcade game I first played, but it was so long ago I can't quite remember. What I do remember was I was a very young teenager when I stood before that arcade cabinet and just fell head over heels for that Elf girl. I wouldn't discover Record of Lodoss War until years later in the late 90s when I got fully into anime. Even to this day, my favorite D&D class in 5e is a Bladesinger Wizard who is a pretty blonde elf girl.
I swear this game have the most beautiful sprites ever.
Chronicles of Mystara has been on my Steam Wishlist for nearly 10 years. It's often on sale for $3 to $4. I never bought it because I don't have time to play it. The art of arcade games like Golden Axe was very influential on me as a DM because fantasy artists are just so much better at capturing a look for a character or monster than regular mortals like myself. I can come up with stuff like, "He was a knight, wearing black armor covered in spikes." but it needs an artist to make it more than some iron cactus dude.
That was a very nice video about a game that meant a lot to me and my friends. Great job!
Found out about those games in my teens when I was really into tabletop RPGs and anime. They were everything I wanted. Another game with that "D&D meets anime" vibe is Guardian Heroes, with an amazing cast of characters and intense and satisfying gameplay mechanics. Those were my drugs in the late '90s and early 2000s.
It's so rare for a dev team adapting existing material to "get it" nowadays.
These games look fun as hell. I'm getting right now hell yeah. What a fun video man!
I absolutely love these games. Played them all the time on arcades when I was a kid. Rumor is Dragons Dogma was actually a sequel to these games but they couldn't get the DnD license so they named it dragons dogma. Fun fact there are some menu sounds from the arcade games that made it to dragons dogma.
I didn't know I wanted this video soo much, Thank You!
Because tabletop games need communities, there's a huge advantage to getting there first. Switching games based on the relative quality of the games won't help you if you can't find anyone to play the new game with. That's why so many countries outside the US have a different game occupying D&D's niche: because it got good marketing in that country and a good localization before D&D did (or it was locally made, like Sword World in Japan or The Dark Eye in Germany.)
Oh, cool, Mr. Welch commented on this video; from what I can recall from his videos and about these games (well Shadow Over Mystara in particular) in term of lore accuracy (though Mystara doesn't see to have incredibly consistent lore):
-The party was working of Glantri but no one tried to arrest the cleric(s) nor vivisect the Dwarf(Dwarves)
-Shadow Elves were just sort of made Drow; Shadow Elves are just sort of supposed to be pale and can actually pass for Sea Elves; plus they have the odd situation of having evil/chaotic royalty, an overall neutral population, and a good/lawful patron immortal (that was a nuclear physicist in his mortal life)
-Synn was a red dragon and not a night dragon
At least the devs remembered Mystara has immortals instead of gods.
Wow, excellent research! I was always wondering how and why DnD crossed over to Japan, this is a really interesting retrospective!
I've played sword world! Its very fun it feels like playing an old school ff or DQ game as a tabletop. I wish that campaign continued but its a very fun system
After my one game friend showed me about D&D stuff it has inevitably been shown over on the internet inevitably.
"We're her Discord mods now," ended me! 😂💀
Mystara actually had a fair bit of its Basic material translated, actually. Basic DnD was the flagship over there, especially early in; and Mystara was the default setting for Basic and bits of its influence can even be seen in Lodoss. The whole reason Basic and DnD in general kinda fell apart over there is a mix of differences in play style caused by lifestyle differences (you're much less likely to have long, sprawling campaigns because of scheduling issues- even compared to Western scheduling issues) and, perhaps even more damning? Getting the myriad of funky dice needed to play DnD was difficult. You were more likely to find D6's easily, which is why Tunnels and Trolls managed to get more grounding over there and why Sword World (among other Japanese TTRPGs of the era, including an edition of RuneQuest specifically aimed at Japanese players) use D6-based systems as the go to.
Now, why they only had the rights to the the ADnD version is beyond me- Mystara's Advanced run was super short lived, starting in 94 and ending in 95- but TSR was.... TSR, so it may've been an attempt at market synergy that didn't work out considering Tower dropped the same year as the first 2e book for Mystara.
I can remember playing both of these in the arcade a LONG time ago. There would always be people wanting to join in on a game. Those were some great times.
Yeah, these games are so good. Thanks for covering its development. I also quite like the soundtrack. When Chronicles of Mystara was released like 8 years ago, they even did orchestrations of 5 songs for the Playstation physical special edition. I wish I could have gotten something like that in America, but at least I nabbed the music. ;-)
I'd love another game like this. Vanillaware made good beat-'em-ups last I checked, but I doubt WotC would work with them.
I remember Lodoss War in the early and mid 90's, I was exposed to it much later being in the US. This still has a massive influence event on stuff coming out even today.
This game and it's Japanese origins really speaks to me. Shadow over Mystara was my arcade obsession at the student center during college. Being a broke student, I mastered it to the point where I could single credit beat the entire game. There was another player I kept trading the high scores with, but never played at the machine at the same time. By sheer coincidence we finally met in a Japanese language course. Been friends ever since, and we play tabletop Dungeons and Dragons on the regular to this day.
Forgotten? Forgotten!?
It lives in my heart since it came to the light! *cries*
❤
21:26: That's actually based on how non-human races worked in Basic D&D. Elves, dwarves, and halflings were their own classes, *not* a separate thing from the usual fighter/cleric/mage/thief class structure. As for why the elf was a blonde girl in a green minidress...yeah, I can't actually refute the "they wanted to make a Lodoss game" thing.
Man takes me back i played this on Xbox with friends sonnets hours trying to acquire every epic item like the cursed sword and turned it into blessed sword it was fun