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Day 7: Dragon Kingdoms VII

SEVEN: Dragon Kingdoms VII: Return of the Great Chill (2015?)

There’s not a lot of details about this game, but it takes place during a particularly severe Great Chill (analogous to an Ice Age), that freezes the world nearly to the equator, from both north and south. If something isn’t done soon, the world will freeze completely and all life will cease.

Some concepts were made for it in 2009, mainly for its interface and also the world map.

The hero, Seth, and his sister, Amanda, live in this world that has nearly been frozen over, the third inhabitable planet in the Dracos System. While this world knows plenty of cold, being the farthest from Solis (their sun), it hasn’t been quite this bad in a very long time. Worse, their friend, William, hasn’t been seen since he went into the woods to the north of Paradise Valley. Hopefully he didn’t freeze solid.

Day 6: Dragon Kingdoms VI: Heroes of the Past

I know what you’re saying. “But this game hasn’t been released yet!” 

SIX: Dragon Kingdoms VI: Heroes of the Past (2013)

Believe it or not, Dragon Kingdoms V wasn’t the last original one, despite being released nearly as long ago as Breath of Fire V and Suikoden V (an ugly pattern, isn’t it). Besides, Dragon Kingdoms VI has had a couple of demos released (one in 2006 and another in 2008).

Four of the six heroes appear in this shot. Don’t believe me? The one with green hair is Kevin, hero of Dragon Kingdoms VI. The character south-east of him is Thomas, hero of Dragon Kingdoms III. South-west of Thomas there is Akahr from Dragon Kingdoms I, and directly behind him is Joshua from Dragon Kingdoms V.

Just a bit before that demo was released, RPG Maker XP was released outside Japan. Dragon Kingdoms VI skipped RPG Maker XP, but came back for RPG Maker VX.

That’s the same restaurant in RPG Maker VX. Note that there are no experience points and no levels in Dragon Kingdoms VI.

This is clearly based off the original town from 2005.

Day 5: Dragon Kingdoms V: Shards of Creation and Celestial Descent

This next entry is a little strange, because it covers two games.

FIVE: Dragon Kingdoms V: Shards of Creation (2004/2014)/Celestial Descent (2002)

Why are there two games listed? Well, there’s an interesting story there. Originally, what we got of Dragon Kingdoms V was to be the dark side of a two-part story, with Celestial Descent being the light side. Celestial Descent ended up being cancelled due to poor reviews and lack of interest. And both games are on RPG Maker 2000, the last to do so before moving on to RPG Maker 2003, XP and VX.

Attack of the Killer Slimes.

Now, Dragon Kingdoms V, on the other hand, has had quite a bit of success in the community, especially compared to previous entries in the series.

Those rocks are blocking Joshua’s way. What is he going to do? Also note the custom menu and the map to the lower right.

Day 4: Dragon Kingdoms IV: Trouble with the Elements

And to think it almost ended here.

FOUR: Dragon Kingdoms IV (2001) / Dragon Kingdoms IV: Trouble with the Elements (TBA)

Dragon Kingdoms made its way to RPG Maker 2000 with Dragon Kingdoms IV, and the results weren’t exactly pretty. Originally, the game was on RPG Maker 95, with touches like the town’s lights coming on at night. But, then RPG Maker 2000 was unofficially released in June 2000, and after a demo that was released, DK4 moved to RPG Maker 2000, using default graphics.

Then, things changed, for the worse. The creator of the Tyrant God Saga series and co-creator of Wilfred the Hero, Brandon Abley, reviewed the game, and it wasn’t pretty. He even said what was the point of continuing an invisible series. Instead of scrapping the game, I changed much of it from RTP graphics to a new set of graphics that had just been released, which eventually became the “new RTP”.

That was the dark town interior, basically a palette swap of the normal town interior. In fact, the whole Underground was a palette swap of normal chipsets.

Eventually, Dragon Kingdoms IV was completed, in October 2001, or just a month after Celestial Descent started, and five months after Dragon Kingdoms V, a much better game than either, IMO, started.