#babylonian castle saga

[kerbrobro]

TONIGHT AT 5 PM CST (so in one hour lol): Im going to check out the PC Engine remake of Namco's classic and foundational (but divisive!) arcade rpg, The Tower of Druaga! We'll be killin slimes and finding secret treasure in a game that helped inspire Zelda!

[mitzirockerextendeduniverse]

[Hi! For... god, years now, I've had this massive Spreadsheet (yes, it requires a capital letter) of retro JRPGs I've wanted to (1) play my way through and (2) blog about. (1) was fairly easy after I stopped trying to play on original hardware, but I found it surprisingly hard to do (2) without it devouring all my free time. So instead of a dedicated blog, I'm just gonna do these short summary posts here whenever I beat a game. There's two in the backlog right now, starting with...]

What it is: The Tower of Druaga (ドルアーガの塔 Druaga no Tō) for Famicom, released on the 6th of August, 1985, developed and published by Namco. Based on the arcade game of the same name from June 1984, also published by Namco and chiefly designed by Masanobu Endō, creator of early scrolling shmup Xevious, it's the first game in - the Spreadsheet as a whole, yes, but also the Babylonian Castle Saga, a collection of (for the most part) vaguely RPG-like action games that tell the story of a prince named Gil, his lover, the priestess Ki, and their quest to restore peace to their loosely-Babylonian fantasy world.

What it's about:

I think the attract screen puts it pretty well! There's some more wrinkles to the backstory, which I mostly got from a strategy guide released at the time - an invading empire, the goddess Ishtar, the precise mechanics behind why, exactly, this is our heroes' last chance to save their kingdom - quite a lot for a mid-80s arcade game. It's pretty thin by RPG standards, but as a setup, it works, and I found it surprisingly engrossing.

How it plays: How do you make an RPG work in the arcade? Apparently, you turn it into a Pac-Man clone. Okay, that's a little flippant; Druaga may be a maze chase game, but there's a lot more going on in it than in most arcade games of its day. On the surface, it's a game about running around mazes, killing monsters, and grabbing keys to get to the next floor, until you defeat Druaga and rescue Ki on the top of the tower. All you have to do is fight your way to the sixtieth floor, right?

In any other arcade game of its era, maybe, but not here. Almost every floor of the tower also contains a hidden treasure that can only be revealed by performing a specific action unique to that floor. The higher Gil gets up the tower, the more he'll need them, from books to reveal the layout of darkened floors to a series of items that turn the increasingly common dragons from the most dangerous enemies in the game to an easily ignored afterthought. Pretty much every useful item in the game (there's several duds and a few traps) is needed to defeat Druaga, so knowing where they are and how to reveal them is absolutely key to beating the game.

The catch - because of course there's a catch - is that neither the treasures' locations nor their revealing methods are signposted at all. Every single one has to be trial-and-error brute-forced out, and they can get pretty arcane - entering a fairly long cheat code, defeating several enemies in a specific order, walking over a particular tile in a particular direction... The intent was for arcade-goers to 'solve' the game together, figuring out all its secrets over the course of weeks or months, but when you don't have a friendly mid-80s Japanese arcade crowd to help you out all you're left with is a mountain of guesswork. Or a walkthrough, which has been a standard bonus feature on its Namco Museum rereleases since the mid-90s.

What I thought: I had a lot of fun with this game! Admittedly I was using a walkthrough (in Japanese, because part of the purpose of the Spreadsheet is to practice my language skills) to bypass about half of the Intended Experience™, but the other half, the straightforward arcade action Pac-Man-with-a-sword gameplay loop, was engaging enough in its own right. Gil controls really well, you never feel like you're fighting the programming instead of the monsters, you can always tell why you died even if the game took a cheap shot, and its insanely generous continue system lets you jump right back to the level you were on with all your items intact when you run out of lives. It's still tough, but it's tough in a fair way, breaking up its fast-paced action into discrete digestible chunks with a chance to breathe between every floor. And frankly, though it is 1980s quarter-muncher hard, I've played indie puzzle platformers that were much worse.

And I do think it succeeds at distilling the RPG into an arcade format, though the result is only an RPG by the loosest possible definition. Despite the lack of numbers and exploration (well, in a sense) there's a distinct feeling of progression to Gil's journey up the tower, a kind of character growth uncommon to - basically any genre outside the RPG in 1984. As Gil collects treasures, he grows faster, stronger, better at navigating the labyrinths, to the point that, despite the increasingly tougher challenges the game throws at you, it almost gets easier the further along you get. With the continue system I mentioned, you can even jump back to floors you've already cleared (mostly to replace a particular item that occasionally breaks) and breeze through the monsters that once gave you so much trouble. It's this kind of thoughtful design that makes me really appreciate Druaga, more than I honestly expected to when I first booted it up. Give it a try, it's pretty good!

[vgprintads]

Druaga Online: The Story of Aon (AM Show 2005 Version)

[ARC] [JAPAN] [VIDEO, TRAILER] [2004]

“The biggest focus of Namco's JAMMA booth was Druaga Online: The Story of Aon. Continuing the unexpected revival of the company's classic NES Tower of Druaga franchise (the revival started, you may remember, as a bonus disk that was included with the GameCube Baten Kaitos), Druaga's trip into Online arcade gaming takes the form of a team-based action RPG. You start off your Druaga Online play session by selecting from one of four characters. Each character has different abilities and a different set of over fifty chapters that you can play through in the game's story mode. As you work through the story, you'll end up coming upon side quests which can be accessed in quest mode. Gameplay takes place from a 3/4 overhead view, looking somewhat like a modern-day Gauntlet. The game includes special skills and magic spells for each character. Multiplayer is stressed over single player, as you'll find that two players are required in order to open some switches. Giant bosses are, of course, best left to team battles. Druaga Online features many of the most recent arcade trends. Controls are handled primarily via a touch-panel screen, although there is a physical attack button which you press in order to make your character attack. The game also uses an IC card system, allowing you to build up a character and save your progress. Given that the Druaga name does have some recognition in America, there's the possibility that you might find one of these Druaga Online units at a larger arcade some day.” ~ Anoop Gantayat, IGN (”JAMMA 2005: Druaga Goes Online”)

Source: YouTube; DragonHunterG

[eludum]

they aren't that well equipped to give presents to someone like nanami, but they do want to make an effort, handing her a small black box, with a few games inside from the babylonian castle saga. ' er. game mechanics wise, i must say i have no idea if this is good or not, but their basis in sumerian mythology is at least somewhat accurate. happy birthday. ' - caunosfell

@caunosfell

“oh, this is…!” she recognizes them immediately, peering into the box with bright eyes. “this is a really good choice, shinguuji-kun! it’s a really notable classic for the way it inspired the notebook-carrying tradition in JRPGS and such… and it’s also a direct inspiration for the legend of zelda, which i’m sure even you have heard of!” she… didn’t mean that to be vaguely insulting. “i actually haven’t played these in a long time. this is really cool… thank you!”

as usual, her typical drowsiness has been replaced by boundless excitement now that video games are in the mix. it seems shinguuji hit the jackpot here.

[quadrantexamples54]

https://en.m.wikipedia.org/wiki/Babylonian_Castle_Saga

quadrant

[diversegaminglists]

Middle Eastern Protagonists

Women:

Ancient Persian:

Civilisation II (Scheherazade)

Eternal Darkness: Sanity’s Requiem (Karim)

Arabic (when not given a more specific background):

Arabian Fight (Ramaya)

Arabian Magic (Princess Lisa)

Babylonian:

Civilisation II (Ishtar)

Saudi Arabian:

Street Fighter (Pullum Purna)

Scythian:

Civilisation VI (Queen Tomyris)

Other:

Trine Franchise (The Thief Zoya is white-washed but is clearly based on a hodgepodge of ideas about Middle Eastern women)

Men:

Afghani:

Rulers of Nations (President Hamid Karzai)

Ancient Persian:

Age of Heroes

Age of Empires

Age of Empires II

Ancient Wars: Sparta

Civilisation II (Xerxes)

Civilisation III (Xerxes)

Civilisation IV (Darius I & Cyrus)

Civilisation V (Darius I)

Civilisation VI DLC (Cyrus)

Field of Glory: Immortal Fire

Garshasp: The Monster Slayer

Prince of Persia: The Sands of Time Franchise

Quarish

Seven Kingdoms: Ancient Adversaries

Seven Kingdoms 2

Soulcalibur (Astaroth)

Arabic (when not given a more specific background):

Arabian Fight

Arabian Magic

Civilisation III (Abu Bakr)

Civilisation IV (Saladin)

Civilisation V (Harun al-Rashid)

Civilisation VI (Saladin)

Civilisation Revolution (Saladin)

Field of Glory: Decline and Fall

Field of Glory - Swords and Scimitars

Mace: The Dark Age (Al-Rashid)

Osman aka Cannon Dancer

Unearthed: Trail of Ibn Battuta

Assyrian:

Age of Empires

Chariots of War

Civilization: Call to Power 1 & 2

Civilisation V: Brave New World (Ashurbanipal)

Babylonian:

Age of Empires

Babylonian Castle Saga Franchise

Babylonian Twins

Chariots of War

Civilisation I (Hammurabi)

Civilisation 2 (Hammurabi)

Discover Babylon

Bedouin:

Chariots of War

Field of Glory: Decline and Fall

Field of Glory - Swords and Scimitars

Berber:

Age of Empires II: The African Kingdoms

Field of Glory - Oath of Fealty

Medieval: Total War (Almohads)

Dailamites:

Field of Glory: Decline and Fall

Ghaznavids:

Field of Glory: Rise and Decline

Greco-Bactrian (Greek Kingdom in what is now Afghanistan):

Field of Glory: Immortal Fires

Hittite:

Age of Empires

Chariots of War

Civilisation III (Mursilis)

Iranian:

1979 Revolution: Black Friday

Mir-Mahna

Quest of Persia Franchise

Rulers of Nations (President Mahmoud Ahmadinejad)

Special Operation 85: Hostage Rescue

Iraqi:

Campaign Series: Middle East 1948 -1985

The Dark Pictures Anthology: House of Ashes

Israeli:

Campaign Series: Middle East 1948 -1985

Rulers of Nations (Prime Minister Benjamin Netanyahu)

Jordanian:

Campaign Series: Middle East 1948 -1985

Khorasanian:

Field of Glory: Decline and Fall

Khwarazmian Empire:

Field of Glory – Swords and Scimitars

Lebanese:

Campaign Series: Middle East 1948 -1985

Libyan:

Campaign Series: Middle East 1948 -1985

Rulers of Nations (Muammar Gaddafi)

Mitanni:

Chariots of War

Moorish:

Field of Glory: Decline and Fall

Medieval II: Total War

Ottoman:

Age of Empires III

Civilisation III (Osman)

Civilisation IV (Mehmed II & Suleiman

Civilisation V (Suleiman)

Field of Glory - Eternal Empire

Palestinian:

Under Ash & Under Siege

Palmyran (Ancient civilisation in what is now Syria):

Age of Empires: Rise of Rome

Field of Glory - Legions Triumphant

Parthian:

Alea Jacta Est: The Parthian Wars

Field of Glory - Rise of Rome

Phoenician:

Age of Empires

Sasanian Empire:

Field of Glory - Legions Triumphant

Saracen:

Age of Empires II

Sarmatian:

Field of Glory: Immortal Fire

Field of Glory - Legions Triumphant

Saudi Arabian:

Tekken (Shaheen)

Scythians:

Chariots of War

Field of Glory: Immortal Fire

Seleucid Empire:

Field of Glory - Rise of Rome

Sumerian:

Age of Empires

Chariots of War

Civilisation VI (Gilgamesh)

Syrian:

21 Days (Mohammed Shenu)

Assassin’s Creed (Altaïr Ibn-La'Ahad)

Assassin’s Creed: Altaïr’s Chronicles (ditto)

Campaign Series: Middle East 1948 -1985

Chariots of War

Field of Glory - Swords and Scimitars

XZR Franchise aka Exile Franchise (Sadler)

Turkish:

Age of Empires II

Civilisation 3 (Ottoman Empire - Osman)

Civilisation IV: Warlords (Ottoman Empire - Mehmed II

Civilisation IV: Beyond the Sword ( Ottoman Empire - Suleiman I)

Civilisation V (Ottoman Empire - Suleiman)

Field of Glory: Decline and Fall (Pecheneg Nomads)

Field of Glory - Swords and Scimitars (Seljuk & Cuman)

Medieval: Total War

Medieval II: Total War

Rise of Nations

Street Fighter (Hakan)

[favoritevideogames71]

Tower of Druaga (1984 Arcade By Namco). The Tower of Druaga is a maze-based action role-playing arcade game released by Namco in 1984. It is the first game in the Babylonian Castle Saga series, inspired by Sumerian and Babylonian mythology, including the Epic of Gilgamesh and Tower of Babel. #towerofdruaga #maze #action #roleplaying #rpg #babyloniancastlesaga #mythology #sumer #gilgamesh #towerofbabel #namco #1984 #arcade #arcadegames #arcadegaming #arcadegamer #arcades #retro #retrogames #retrogaming #retrocollector #retrogamer #retrogamers #retrogaminglife #retrogame #retrocollective #retrocommunity #videogame #videogames

[video-game-heroines]

アニメ版「ドルアーガの塔」詰め合わせ  by 藤井 敏

[quadrantexamples54]

Babylonian Castle Saga four games

[video-game-heroines]

30周年記念のカイ尽くし！  by 藤井 敏

[video-game-heroines]

ドルアーガの塔30周年企画予告！  by 藤井 敏