Adaptation April 2021: Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara

“Join the Party, Split Your Enemies”

Sometimes, I forget that Capcom used to make lots of licensed games. CoM collects both of their D&D beat ‘em ups. Both games boast multiplayer for up to four participants, and each player has to choose a class. Each class has distinct abilities.

Fighter: The balanced guy, who also has the highest amount of health

Elf: Has short range and less power, but has seven spells at her command

Cleric: The best character at using shields to block. He also has five spells

Dwarf: Has short range, but the quickest combos

This is a bit more involved than I expected.

Unlocked Marksman, Warming Up, “Get out of the kitchen”, and Oil and Steel. 4/24

This game has a much faster pace than Streets of Rage. It doesn’t take a million years to kill bosses!

You can continue from any of the chapters that you’ve played through, so we easily reached the Sable Tower and slew the Arch-Lich Deimos.

Unlocked Just the Beginning and Level Up. 6/24

Treasures Found: 62%

Chronicles of Mystara: Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow Over Mystara

Originally Played From: December 24, 2018 – December 31, 2018

SoM boasts two new classes to choose from:

Magic User: Has great spells, but low constitution and melee strength. To compensate, he also has a teleportation move

I love Capcom art from the ’90s. It has so much swag

Thief: She too has low constitution, but tremendous mobility; she can double jump and jump off of walls. She also has the ability to pick locks, detect traps, backstab enemies for more damage, or pickpocket them

This game feels even zippier than the first.

There are little things that annoy me about the Gallery. Why is the scrolling for zoomed-in pictures herky-jerky instead of smooth?

The drow have it out for us. One of them sent a harpy after us while we were riding an airship. Then, a drow named Tel Arin attacked us. He almost defeated us when an elf attacked him. But then, our airship crashed, leading to all sorts of shenanigans that pitted us against the sorceress Synn. Suddenly, the Air Castle appeared before us. Even if the Thief isn’t in the party, she still suggests that you use a magical crystal that she swiped from the Tower of Doom after the first game to reach the Castle.

Unlocked Stomptastic, Getting Stronger, and Apprentice. 9/24

We found Synn, and she turned into a dragon. It’s just like the deadly optional dragon from SoM. Also, the final area feels like a rehash of the last level from the first game, which is a bit of a letdown.

Treasures Found: 37%

Unlocked The Final Chapter. 10/24

These games are good, but lack the raw, iconic power of SoR. Then again, the gameplay in CoM is much zippier than in Sega’s beat ‘em ups. Nostalgia is a heck of a drug.

CoM came out on Wii U? Wow.

The multiple paths give it more replay value than your average brawler, and I kind of want to check them out.

Unlocked Gold Digger. 11/24

What’s with the Fighter’s ugly face in the ending?

Unlocked Plunderer. 12/24, 50%

Unlocked this after taking the annoying river route in the second game. I took a lower route and found a lot of loot!

LOOT ROUTE LOOT ROUTE

A MAN-SCORPION

Unlocked Sorcerer. 13/24

I love the Magic User’s spells.

Unlocked Freeze Fest, Monster Party, and Slayer. 16/24

Now I have to grind out challenges.

Unlocking Slayer took about five hours overall. I play SoM more because it’s clearly superior to ToD.

Unlocked Skilled. 17/24

Beholders look so nasty. I love it.

Why is the music from the title screen in my head? I don’t even like it.

CoM is a pretty cool collection of two brawlers that, in my opinion, get overlooked in discussions of the genre, other Capcom games at the time, and licensed games that don’t suck. If I was a fan of D&D, I would be even more pleased with them, even though the genre and license seem like an odd fit. Aside from this, Guardian Heroes, and maybe Golden Axe III with its alternate paths, the brawler genre doesn’t see many ambitious entries that shake things up.

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