Dragon Slayer I

Dragon Slayer I

Aka: ドラゴンスレイヤーI
Console: Nintendo Game Boy
TV Standard: NTSC-J
Country: Japan
Developer(s): Falcom
Publisher(s): Epoch Co., Ltd.
Release Date: 1990-08-12
Players: 1
Co-op: No
ESRB: Not Rated
Type: Role-Playing

Dragon Slayer is an action RPG designed by Yoshio Kiya and developed by Nihon Falcom. It became a success in Japan, and is credited for pioneering the action RPG genre.

Dragon Slayer is regarded as the progenitor of the action RPG genre, and is considered to be the first action-RPG. In contrast to earlier turn-based roguelikes, Dragon Slayer was a dungeon crawl RPG that was entirely real-time, with action-oriented, hack & slash, real-time combat. In some ways, the foundations of Dragon Slayer's action RPG gameplay can already be seen in Yoshio Kiya's previous 1983 game Panorama Toh.

Dragon Slayer featured an in-game map to help with the dungeon-crawling, required item management due to the inventory being limited to one item at a time, and introduced the use of item-based puzzles which later influenced The Legend of Zelda. Dragon Slayer's overhead action-RPG formula was used in many later games, laying the foundations for future action RPG series such as Hydlide, Ys, and The Legend of Zelda.

Game Player of Dragon Slayer I on Nintendo Game Boy
Controls - How to Play Dragon Slayer I on Nintendo Game Boy

Generally, you can review the controls (keyboard) setting during each game in the screen before it starts. Use the arrow keys and “Z”, “X”, “A”, “S”, “Q”, “E” buttons to play, or customize yourself with your gamepad or keyboard.

KeyboardControls
← → ↑ ↓Directions for LEFT, RIGHT, UP, DOWN
Enter ↵START
ShiftSELECT
ZA
XB
AX
SY
QL
ER