Dragon Money [ドラゴンマネー] Game Sample - Playstation
You like money? Slay dragons son.
Dragon Money is just another random Japanese board game in the sea of Japanese board games out there... or is it? Actually, yeah, it is, heh... but that doesn't mean it's not interesting. Developed by the little-known development studio over at "E.O. Imagination" and published by the fine folks at Micro Cabin in 1999, it is the second of two games released by the developers before they went bankrupt (their only other known works are "Asuncia" and the unfinished Sega Saturn game, "Lightning Gunner", a prototype released for the demo version of Game Basic). The game doesn't have flashy cutscenes. The game doesn't have overly sophisticated mechanics (there is depth, but the basic loop is very simple). The game doesn't even have any voice-acting and the animations and music is quite limited. That said, the game is incredibly charming from an aesthetic standpoint with vibrant sprites and 3D working in unison with some interesting ideas. It's more along the lines of what the Keio board game (Keiō Yūgekitai Gaiden) should've been, at least performance-wise.
The aim of the game is like most board / sugoroku games: complete conquest and abundant asset acquisition. Assuming the role of one of six heroes, you travel around the "Money-Money Kingdom" (I kid you not) to locate and slay dragons before they wreck havoc on the local denizens. These dragons, regardless of what stage of growth they are in, are pretty clever and generally won't appear right away (it's random when they show up, though they generally show up before you're halfway through your turn limit), so you have to occupy your time with other tasks: adventuring around the game's various boards, wiping out lesser enemies and small fry, finishing events and quests, building funds to pay the town's guild (the main way to build up your assets), buying cards to help you or hinder a foe, gamble at the casino, get blessings from the local church, pay donations to the temple (if you land directly on this space, you get all the accumulated donations as an offering), gaining items, finding Santa Claus, adding friends to your quest, and more. Outcomes of events are pre-determined and icons are clear and concise, so you have a lot of control over how things will impact you, but the A.I. is very competitive and won't go easy on you... some events are also really OP in the sense that they can give an overwhelming advantage or disadvantage depending on the outcome.
Each main character mainly functions the same, but there are dozens of friends who have a bunch of unique effects. Their basic initial function typically improves your stats, offers money, increases your assets, and raises your max HP, but most friends have a secondary, useful function. For example, one friend will give you a discount when you check out of shops while another goes through the list of opponents and may snatch an item while also showing their position relative to your own. One friend will automatically kill an enemy at the start of the battle to improve your odds of victory while another improves critical hits. One friend is a dog who sometimes wanders off and comes back with money or goods while another friend even looks like an interpretation of Jesus who brings you great fortune at irregular intervals. The point is, there is a lot of experimentation, friends carry over to different boards, they are your main force to help improve your adventure, and you can have many with you at once.
When a dragon does appear though, the goal is to defeat it; each turn, they typically cause all kinds of miserable things to happen (damaging allies, inverting their stats, warping them, stealing money, or even sending players to the underworld which is a terrible place with a lot of misfortune squares). They are also powerful when you encounter them, so you need to keep your HP up when you encounter them and they change colors and expressions to denote their physical condition. When a dragon is defeated, the winner gets a HUGE asset boost (it doesn't guarantee you'll win, but if you slay one, it's unlikely that you won't).
We've talked a lot about the game's scope, but let's quickly talk about combat: It's mainly a game of chance. Basic battles involve a mob of enemies who attack with a random (low) threshold of 0-3 strength. Their numbers are a reflection of their HP and your job is to roll higher than them or activate an ability that amplifies your roll-- anything higher than the enemies' roll will be the difference in damage (EX: 6-3=3 Damage to the enemy). If your roll is high enough, you will wipe out the mob and get a small reward. If not, you will take 1 HP for each remaining enemy and gain nothing. Dying has a small penalty of one missed turn, so it's more of a minor annoyance than anything.
The game has many other secrets, but I'll stop here. The biggest question is: is it fun? The answer is yes. This is a video of the game in action. Enjoy.