Game:

Dragon Buster (1985)

Duration: 24:59

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21

Dragon Buster II: Yami no Fūin (Or as it was translated already, "Dragon Buster II: Seal of Darkness") is the "sequel" to the original Dragon Buster, which had a couple of ports...however, Dragon Buster II is actually an exclusive to the Famicom and the game takes place centuries before the first game, which dealt with Clovis and Celia. You control a young, skilled archer named Carl, who is looking for the "Sword of Truth", spoken of by a fairy (from my understanding), that can finally and truly rid the land of the current monsters and bad dragons. More of the story is in the intro...and even without the rom translation, most things are already in English!

It is an odd departure from the more left/right movement of the first arcade (and other) game, and instead, adopts a more over-the-top view, similar to games like the first Zelda, etc...naturally, playing with an archer, your play style is going to be a little different too. You can fire arrows from a distance and fire in 8 directions, but more often than not, your best strategy to deal with a lot of enemies is to lure them into a narrow passage and fire straight at them, because firing arrows at moving targets can be a bit of a pain and you cannot exactly "rapid fire" --- You can only fire one arrow at a time until that arrow either hits the enemy, or disappears. That said though, the sooner the arrow hits the target, the sooner you can fire another arrow, so in a certain sense, you "can" rapid fire, but not in the conventional sense of firing rapid rounds consecutively right away.

The game is a bit odd too in the way the sound was presented...the game has very little music, but interestingly enough, in battle areas, enemies will make noises when you are "near" and if you go in the opposite direction, they will stop making noises. Sound is an integral element to doing your best in DBII, because areas are covered in darkness, until you "discover" them by way of traveling through the dark areas. Listening to the noise will tell you to travel lightly and be prepared to go in the opposite direction, to create distance from you and a potential foe. If you know a thing or two about "angles", you have a technique where you can fire arrows into walls to hit enemies when the arrows bounce off the walls. However, it is better to just create distance and lure them into narrow areas, or just create distance and attack in general. Still, arrows come in limited supply, so it is most important to land as many proper shots as possible...also though, if you play and go through several areas, it "is" a bit of a challenge to actually run out of arrows.

Carl has a few items he can get...though unlike DB, he doesn't really get magic. He can get tomahawks that can be used to cut down trees to access other areas, the Hammer (to break fences), the rope ladder (to climb small hills) and more...some battle items include "flaming arrows", of which you get a couple...think of "Fireball Special", from the first DB. You get a shield that makes you temporarily invincible (music will actually play when you get it), and fairies that do two things...the first thing, which I see mentioned everywhere, is that they heal Carl when he is damaged. Carl doesn't have normal "HP" --- Instead, his tunic changes different colors, with "RED" being him in critical condition (one more hit to defeat). The second thing...if Carl is already at maximum health and you grab 4 fairies, you will gain an extra life.

All of that said, the game has 6 general "maps" and you go through caves and such over and over and over...areas, have "looping" maps, that can be easy enough to travel when you figure them out, but it is still a bit easy to lose your way, which is why there are transitions in this video (got myself lost a bit in the final area of the first map, so I cut that out and did another cut to shorten the vid). It looks okay enough, and what little sound there is, is okay. Not a great game...a time waster though, with short passwords.

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NOTE: Hmmmm...this video turned out a bit "jumpy"...for the most part, it seems fine enough, and if it were another game, I would redo, but eh. There were only a couple of instances that gave me a bit of pause.