Lunatic Dawn

01.10.1993

Genre: Role-playing (RPG)

The first title in the Lunatic Dawn series from Artdink, released in 1993 for PC-98 and FM-Towns. The game is dedicated to character creation, RPG-style character development, and exploration. In the beginning, the player creates the playable character, choosing age, gender, and even weaknesses - all of which affect the character's parameters such as stamina, weapon technique, charisma, etc. Afterwards, the player allocates points into the remaining parameters. The player starts in a city and is absolutely free to go wherever he/she wants. There is a day/night cycle in the game. It is necessary to keep an eye on the character's stamina and buy food rations - the character can die of exhaustion and hunger. Random enemies appear on the world map and in dungeons. Battle screen is isometric and allows free movement. It is not necessary to choose a command for each turn: the battles evolve automatically until the player interrupts them with a new command.

A long time ago, humans possessed unique power, that allowed them to create wonderful things and to build a highly advanced civilization. But it all ended when the chariots of the terrifying Death God attacked and destroyed the beautiful cities beyond the skies. Humans have lost their memories. And the magical powers from before started serving evil intentions... Although a Japanese game, Lunatic Dawn is much more similar to "old-school" Western RPGs than to its compatriots. For once, it is not a story-driven game. There are almost no scripted events, very few dialogues, etc. The overall theme of the game is quite abstract: the cities serve as places to buy equipment and learn combat techniques, but have no real locations (everything is accessed via a menu).