Everybody knows or has heard about Dungeons & Dragons whether it be the tabletop game or video games. I, myself, have never gotten into the series that much but that’s not from a lack of trying. While I have no interest in the tabletop games I have attempted to play the BioWare series of D&D video games (Baldur’s Gate, Icewind Dale, etc.) and I suck at them. Chronicles of Mystara is a side-scrolling beat-em-up published by Capcom containing both arcade games, Tower of Doom released in 1993 and Shadow over Mystara released in 1996.
In the Tower of Doom, you can select one of four heroes to play as, a fighter, elf, cleric, and dwarf, each with their own skill set. The fighter has the most health and is proficient in both melee and ranged attacks. The elf specializes in arcane spells as does the cleric but the cleric specializes in blocking attacks that the heroes cannot. The dwarf is the best character for close combat. You can play solo or team up with three of your buddies for four-player co-op can and slay classic D&D enemies on a quest to defeat Archlich Deimos. He’s this evil dude responsible for the attack on The Republic of Darokin which is the basis for the story. Shadow over Mystara takes place after Tower of Doom and it’s revealed Deimos is only a small part of a much larger evil conspiracy with a new antagonist, Synn. A very powerful sorceress. Shadow over Mystara also adds another playable hero to play as, a thief with magic abilities. The stories are what they are and don’t get in the way of the gameplay, which is a good thing.
Throughout both games you’ll slay trolls, dragons, hellhounds, and other D&D creatures all while gaining XP and treasure. Treasure can be obtained from fallen enemies and chests and then used to purchase items like health and weapons in the shop. A neat feature of both games is the branching paths. Every now and again you’ll be asked to make a decision and depending on what you decide will determine the path you take and is just another way to increase replay value. Now Chronicles of Mystara is a beat-em-up so there will be a lot of mashing the attack button. Holding the attack button and moving back allows you to block and each hero can also obtain secondary weapons like daggers, bows, and various magic attacks adding a bit of depth to the combat which is pretty cool. You can also jump and perform jump attacks. Jeremy and I played both games cooperatively on the hardest difficulty and both games definitely pack a challenge. However, even if you die, you can continue where you left off. The only consequence you’ll suffer is the loss of all XP gained which can suck if you took down a boss since their death rewards you significant XP. But if you don’t care about obtaining the highest score or the most XP, you’ll be able to breeze through the game on any difficulty. Along with treasure drops, enemies and bosses will drop special items like the gauntlets of power which increase strength or a necklace that makes your character resistant to magic attacks. However, many of the items can break so they won’t last forever. After dying you can choose your same character or a different character to respawn as on the fly but beware that each character levels up independently. The game does include the GGPO netcode with drop-in and out co-op play but we didn’t get the chance to check this out since we were playing locally.
Not only do you have to fight against tons of enemies but you’ll need to avoid environmental traps like trick chests that can cause rocks to fall on your heads, fire shooting up from the ground, doorways blocked by electricity, and other dangers to cause your demise. You’ll traverse through towns, dungeons, and caves, among others typical fantasy locations but they all look unique and diverse. Due to the branching paths, you will have to play through the games multiple times to see everything. On the audio side of things, the music isn’t too bad with some catchy tunes but some of the character sound effects can get annoying. They tend to scream all of the time and repeat the same lines. Chronicles of Mystara looks awesome. The sprite work is really well done and the animations are fluid and graceful. The environments all look good, animate well, and contain a lot of detail. The backgrounds and little effects like fire and explosions, fog in the swamps, dragon breath, all will catch your eye and has a certain charm about it.
Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara is a fun beat-em-up that’s easy to pick up and play. Both games are rather short and can be completed in an afternoon but there’s plenty of reasons to replay. The combat is somewhat deep and you can level up each character separately and there’s plenty of characters to choose from so finding one that fits your play style should not be a problem. You get two arcade games, each with branching paths, and you can team up with three other players to take down evil. If you’re a fan of D&D or beat-em-ups buying this game should be a no-brainer.