Emerald Dragon (エメラルドドラゴン, Emerarudo Doragon) is a role-playing video game developed by Glodia that was released for multiple platforms in Japan.
It was released for NEC Corporation‘s PC-8801 and PC-9801 home computers on December 22, 1989, followed by conversions for the X68000 (released on December 6, 1990), MSX2 (released on December 26 of the same year) and FM Towns (released on May 28, 1992). Developer Alfa System later produced console versions of the game for the PC Engine in Super CD-ROM² format (released on January 28, 1994) and the Super Famicom (released on July 28, 1995). The game features characters and locations based on Zoroastrian mythology.
Gameplay – Emerald Dragon
The game utilises a top-down overhead perspective, where players move the controllable character in two dimensions. As players move around in a world map, they may encounter battles, which are turn-based with a time point system: both movements and attacks sap a bar on the top of the screen, and the character’s turn ends when the bar is depleted. Experience points, which are used to level up playable characters, are collected for defeating enemies. Emerald Dragon
Stronger attacks for the main protagonist, Atorushan, are made available through collecting key items called the Emerald Graces. These transform him into a dragon to unleash a powerful attack, at the cost of reducing his HP when used. Emerald Dragon
Plot
A long time ago, dragons and humans lived in peace in the land of Ishbahn. Lord Tiridates, believing the existence of dragons among humans defiles Ishbahn, places a curse that kills dragons in the area. .Some of the dragons (now collectively called the Dragon Tribe) manage to escape and find refuge in Draguria, where a dimensional rift prevents humans from crossing it. Emerald Dragon
At the start of the game, a ship wrecks on the coast of Draguria. The protagonist, a Dragon Tribe youth named Atorushan seeks the friendship of the sole survivor, a human girl named Tamryn by the White Dragon, leader of the tribe. The girl is nurtured by the dragons of the land, but 12 years later she leaves as she wants to find happiness with those of her own kind. Atorushan breaks off his left horn and gives it to her as a means of summoning him should she need assistance. Emerald Dragon
Three years after this incident, Atorushan is called by the White Dragon as the aforementioned horn was blown. Granting him a silver scale to keep him from perishing under the curse of Ishbahn, the White Dragon sends him there to tend to Tamryn.
Upon arriving, Atorushan learns that the entirety of Ishbahn is under attack by evil armies controlled by Tiridates. To stop him and remove the land’s curse, he needs to find the five Emerald Graces, dragon-based treasures scattered around the land, and resurrect the Emerald Dragon, the greatest of all dragons destined to bring about a miracle.
