IN 1989, a little known PC developer in Japan released a game that, when judged on its story, could arguably be one of the best RPGs of all time. At that time, it slid by in obscurity.

Not until a 1994 remake by NEC Interchannel and a 1995 hack-job by Right Stuff, a company formed by disgruntled Glodia staff who left early on, would the game reach mainstream recognition.

The game was Emerald Dragon; that developer was Glodia.

The FM-TOWNS remake of Emerald Dragon was one of the last games Glodia ever published before its death, and it was the last version of the game that would ever be faithful to Glodia’s original game.

If you’re not familiar with Fujitsu’s FM-TOWNS system, it was a Japanese computer line used in the early 90s. Since so many games came out for it, Fujitsu later released the Marty, a standalone video game system for playing FM-TOWNS computer games.

Hundreds of years ago, a massive battle was waged between the dragons and the hours, the two races that lives within the main continent, Ishuban. The Emerald Dragon was their champion. After the war, the Emerald Dragon died and a curse fell over the land, instantly killing every last dragon in it.

Now, the last dragons live in Dragulia, an island beyond the reach of the curse. A shipwreck took the island by surprise, but even more shocking was a human child was in the wreckage. The emerald haired child is taken before the White Dragon elder, who names her Tamryn, an ancient dragon word meaning “Purity.”

She and a blue dragon child, Atrushan grow up together, but 15 years later, she becomes restless and wants to return to Ishuban and be with her own people. She an Atrushan make a pact: if she is ever in danger, all she has to do is blow a horn made out of one of his horns, and he will come to her aid.

Tamryn returns to the continent to find it drenched in blood. A race of demons has come to power and is crushing every human city in the continent. Ervad is the last of the remaining human kingdoms, though it has already been targeted by Ostracon, a corrupt human who has become one of the greatest generals in the demon army.

With the land in disaster, Tamryn blows the horn to call Atrushan for help. But because of the curse, he cannot go to Ishuban as he is. The elder dragon gives him a Silver Scale, a relic of the great Silver Dragon, which will allow Atrushan to transform into a human.

Now a weak being in a new body, Atrushan heads for Ishuban to find Tamryn and help her however he can–though the elder has given him a second mission: to find the cause of the curse and destroy it. Atrushan will have to track down the Emerald Graces, relics of the Emerald Dragon’s body.

The story is full of dramatic twists, as Atrushan has to learn what it means to be a human, and the greatest secret of all, Tamryn’s true identity–something even she doesn’t know.

Gameplay is somewhat similar to standard RPGs but with a few twists. First, unlike most Japanese RPGs, the world map is one gigantic unified piece. This means there are no town icons to flip you to a new map. Towns are just as much a part of the physical world map as the forest mazes and roadways. A comparison would be Ultima VI: The False Prophet, though Emerald Dragon predated it.

Battles are unique of any other non-Glodia produced RPG. Upon a random encounter, a battle screen opens showing your heroes at the bottom of the map and enemies at the top. Your default formation can be configured in the options menu.

Characters are free to roam all over the battle map. Movement takes away move points in a character’s turn. Pressing in the direction of the enemy when near them will allow your character to attack. Attacks can be made as long as you partially touch the enemy on some site. Each attack will consume a fixed number of movement points.

The catch is–since you play the role of Atrushan, you can only move Atrushan. Tamryn and all the friends you make in Ishuban will be controlled by the computer.

While I understand how annoying this may seem, especially if you’re reminded of Dragon Warrior IV, there’s a reason for it. It’s part of the way the player fully assume Atrushan’s role. Instead of total control of everything, you are forced to rely on your friends in battle. Sometimes they will come through–sometimes they will not. Save often.

Atrushan cannot cast magic, so it is not an accessible option for players. However Tamryn and some other characters who have studied sorcery can and will cast various levels of spells on their own. The spell animations are not always the greatest, but they are fairly clear.

Speaking of levels, aside from Atrushan and Tamryn, nobody can ever level up. While characters may leave and return later with higher stats, it is impossible for them to level up through fighting. Meaning 3/5 of your party for the last boss will be at fixed levels, substantially lower than your own.

If that wasn’t challenging enough, the death of any friend in battle spells game over.

Maps are extremely important to find. If you cannot find one, draw it as you go. Every dungeon in the game is constructed like a highly complex maze with dozens of dead ends to fool you. It’s very important to keep a pen and paper handy to map out the mazes as you go along. Otherwise, you can get and will get lost.

A fair warning–there are lots of false walls, and they will not be marked by a friendly crack in the block like you get from easy, mainstream RPGs. If there seems to be absolutely no way to the end of a maze, start checking every wall.

The game is voiced by different, considerably less famous, actors than the later remake by NEC Interchannel.

Tobita Nobuo, Tekkaman Dagger in Tekkaman Blade and Domon in Rekka no Honou, did the voice of Atrushan surprisingly well. I was shocked he also voiced Domon, since they sound almost nothing alike.

Yuri Amano, probably most famous for her roles as Keiko in Yu Yu Hakusho and Lorelei in Saber Marionette J, voiced the role of Tamryn. While she does well in her own right, she doesn’t compare to Kasahara Hiroko’s performance in the TurboGrax-16 remake.

Lastly, Ostracon was voiced by Daiki Nakamura, who I only know because he was Kim and Haoumaru in the SNK OAVs. His voice isn’t terrible, but compared to his competition, he sounds awful.

Who was his competition? Shiozawa Kaneto: the ultimate voice of evil. The man who voiced Böser in all Langrisser games, Dhaos in Tales of Phantasia and D in Vampire Hunter D.

There’s no question that NEC Interchannel had a higher budget for voice actors. Unfortunately, their remake flushed other parts of the game down the toilet: namely the soundtrack.

The FM-TOWNS version of Emerald Dragon is the final mix of the original soundtrack done by Glodia. It takes full advantage of the FM synthesis capabilities of Fujitsu’s FM-TOWNS hardware, which is far superior to any other system Emerald Dragon was released on, even the X68000.

Compared to later takes on the soundtrack by Hudson and Right Stuff, this one kicks. There are more actual songs in the game, and they tend to flow much better.

My favourite songs were Active, a driving beat with great synthesized guitar, Anguish, a far stronger theme of sorrow than was heard in later remakes, After the Battle and the ending theme. The original ending music was more beautiful than the synth medley of the TurboGrafx-16 remake.

Other songs worth mentioning are Dawn, Candle and Ordeal.

Overall, the FM-TOWNS game is incredibly faithful to the original PC-88 title, just with an extreme upgrade to graphics and sound. If you want to experience Goldia’s original game, this is the best choice of all ports.

With how difficult Emerald Dragon is, the game is certainly not for everyone. But I believe its story is so endearing and has a broad appeal that anyone who can should try it.

The story transports very real conflicts in our lives today and the human experience into a fantasy world, seen through the eyes of someone experiencing it all for the first time.

Being able to come back to this view again and again, and perhaps take something away as a part of you, is Emerald Dragon’s real magic.

Pictures

Originally published at The Second Dimension.