by Russell Cohrs

Created on: October 05, 2009

Originally titled Dragon Slayer IV: Drasle Family, this was re-titled for the US release since most people were unfamiliar with the Dragon Slayer saga.

Story

The evil dragon Keela has been trapped in a painting for years, but he's still controlling a gigantic underground labyrinth full of nasty monsters. Your job is to navigate through the labyrinth to defeat four bosses and recover four crowns. Once you find the crowns and the Dragon Slayer sword, you must reawaken Keela in order to force him into a final confrontation.

Gameplay

There are seven members of the Drasle family, with five playable characters. You can play as Xemn the father, Mayna the mother, Roas the brother, Lyll the sister, and the pet Pochi. Each member of the family has unique attributes, and must be used in a corresponding labyrinth, such as Pochi's invulnerability or Mayna's ability to fly. Jiela the grandmother gives you passwords, while Douel the grandfather is used to input passwords. Douel was also a former great wizard who originally locked Keela in the painting.

The game takes place entirely underground in a giant non-linear labyrinth. It's an action adventure platformer, which also involves a lot of puzzle solving. There's a large main section of the labyrinth, which must be traversed to get to the four areas where the crowns are hidden. While the game is non-linear, certain items have to be found in order to advance, such as a mattock to break blocks. It is possible to find crowns in various orders though.

One of the toughest challenges of the game is walking through the large map. There is a crystal item that will send you back to the beginning, which is necessary to change characters and get your password, but there's no easy way to get to the levels besides walking, which can add a lot of tedium. You can only carry three items at a time, but you can change items by entering an inn.

You have a limited supply of gold, magic, health, and keys in the game. It's possible to restock by opening treasure chests or killing monsters. Unique in this game is that your weapons drain magic with each shot, so you must be really careful when destroying enemies not to waste your magic. Some of the labyrinths have a wide amount of doors to unlock, but luckily you can buy a magic key that unlocks everything. Unfortunately you must use a certain character to equip it.

The game can be very confusing, as it's not really clear who to select when looking for a particular crown. Eventually this can be

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