Cadash / カダッシュ / Kadasshu
0Cadash / カダッシュ / Kadasshu
Cadash (カダッシュ, Kadasshu) is an action-adventure video game which combines elements of the platform game and role-playing video game genres. The game was originally an arcade video game released by Taito in 1989, then published for the TurboGrafx-16 in 1991 and the Mega Drive/Genesis in 1992. It is included in Taito Memories Volume 2 released for the PlayStation 2 in 2005 and the Xbox and Microsoft Windows versions of Taito Legends 2 released in 2007.
Plot
The game's setting is a medieval fantasy world similar to that of sword-and-sorcery high fantasy such as The Lord of the Rings. The demons and abominations of nature who reside in the underground kingdom of Cadash have not forgotten that, thousands of years previously, they once shared the light with humans. Then one rose among them who was especially powerful, a demonic wizard born of a human woman – the Balrog (Baarogue or Baalogue in the arcade version, and Barlog in the TurboGrafx version). The Balrog promised his followers they could, in time, emerge from their subterranean prison and rule the world of men, taking revenge on humans for their prior defeat in battle and subsequent exile, if the Balrog could mingle his blood with that of a human king. The Balrog and his demonic armies gathered in force over the centuries, and are now powerful enough to emerge to the surface and make war with the unprepared human kingdoms which had not known war for millennia, all of which quickly fall to the Balrog. The human world is almost entirely laid to waste by the Balrog. However, this was not enough for the Balrog, whose prize is the mightiest of all human kingdoms, the Kingdom of Dirzir. One night, the beautiful Princess Salassa is kidnapped by the Balrog from the Keep of Deerzar, the capital city of Dirzir, and taken underground to the dreaded Castle Cadash. There the Balrog plans to initiate the ritual which would magically bind himself to the human princess, becoming all-powerful and invincible. Dilsarl, the distraught and helpless elderly King of Dirzir, has vowed to give his entire kingdom to the one who would rescue his beloved only daughter, and many brave heroes have disappeared into the depths of Cadash on this quest.
Gameplay
Screenshot from arcade version
Cadash is an early example of what would become a fairly common trend in Japanese-made arcade games of the early 1990s: the "platform-RPG", combining side-scrolling platform action with an RPG system of statistics, levels, money and magic.
The characters are:
Fighter: identified as "Toru" in some game manuals, the otherwise unnamed fighter is a Conan the Barbarian-style warrior who lives by his muscle and his sword. The fighter has powerful melee attacks, the highest defense and the highest agility in the game when using a particular weapon. However, compared to the other characters, he is unable to use any magic spells.
Mage: the silver-haired, bearded and green-robed, unnamed mage, with a slightly hunched back, is the court wizard of Dirzir and chief advisor to the king. The mage draws on the wisdom and magic of the ancients who were able to banish the demons to Cadash in the distant past, and can also rely on his magic staff when his magic reserves need to replenish themselves. He has the most powerful offensive capability in the game through his spells, but is also physically the weakest and slowest character.
Priestess: the young warrior-priestess is the most appropriate character for beginners, who have yet to learn the game's differences and enemy arrangement, thanks to her defensive spells which allow her to heal and negate damage. Offensively, she is competent against normal enemies due to the long reach and penetration of her final weapon. However, her weapons are the slowest among all the characters in both attack and recovery, making her the weakest boss killer in the game. Defensively, she is able to cast a highly useful protection spell that absorbs 32 damage and removes the knockback from getting hit.
Ninja: the mysterious ninja is a master of ranged combat who has excellent agility, the highest natural defense, and exclusively uses concealed projectiles (shurikens and throwing knives) to attack with. He is the only true long range character in the game, being able to kill enemies as soon as they appear on screen. The priestess eventually gains a weapon that travels a long distance, but the ninja outclasses her in terms of attack recovery, projectile speed, and raw damage.
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Developer(s) Taito
Publisher(s) Taito
Composer(s) Toshiko Tasaki (Genesis)
Platform(s) Arcade, TurboGrafx-16, Genesis
Release Arcade
September 4, 1989
TurboGrafx-16
JP: January 18, 1991
NA: 1991
Genesis
NA: 1992
Genre(s) Platform, action-adventure
Mode(s) Single-player, multiplayer
#cadash #tatio #arcade