Gaiapolis (ガイアポリス 黄金鷹の剣,Gaiaporisu: Ōgon Taka no Tsurugi?, lit. "Gaiapolis: Sword of the Golden Hawk") is an overhead fantasy action role-playing game by Konami released for the arcades in 1993.
Prince Gerard Himerce seeks vengeance against the Zar Harc Empire for the destruction of his homeland, the Kingdom of Avalon. Joined by the half-human fairy Elein Shee (mistranslated as Elain),[1] last survivor of her clan, and Galahad, an exiled duke from the land of the dragons, the Prince goes on a journey to prevent the King Darkness (formerly known as Albert Himerce, Gerard's older brother), the leader of Zar Harc, from reviving an ancient demon. Along the way, they are guided by a mysterious spirit known as the Warrior of Flame, who tells them to seek three keys that have been scattered around the world in order to enter the floating citadel of Gaiapolis.
Gameplay[]
Gaiapolis can be played by up to two players simultaneously. The objective of the game is to fight against every enemy in each stage in order to progress and defeat a boss at the end before time runs out. The player can choose to play either as the Prince, the Fairy or the Dragon. The Prince and the Dragon are both swordsmen, while the Fairy is a martial artist who wields twin tonfas (referred to as "clubs" in the game). Along the way, the player can pick up items such as food to replenish health, weapon and equipment upgrades, eggs that carry guardian beasts inside, jewels with magic powers, and treasures that give out more points. Items and secret rooms filled with treasures can be revealed by interacting with (hitting) certain environmental objects, such as crates, doors, weak walls, graves, etc. The game employs an experience point system which allows the player to level up (up to 30 levels) and increase their strength and maximum health as they defeat enemies. There are a total of 17 stages in the game, although some can be skipped depending on in-game decisions taken by the player.
The controls consist of an eight-way joystick for moving the character and three action buttons. The first button serves as the primary attack and performs consecutive attacks against enemies. If the player character is in possession of a shield, the attack button can be held down to guard themself against enemy attacks (unless controlling the Fairy, who uses her tonfas to block instead). Rotating the joystick clockwise (or counterclockwise in the case of Elein) will cause the player character to perform a spinning attack. Pushing the joystick up, down, left or right twice will cause the player character to perform a running attack (this move is limited only as an attack and cannot be used to advance faster through a level, as the screen won't scroll along with the player character during its performance).
When accompanied by a guardian beast, the player can press the second action button to send it to attack nearby enemies or pick up items. The beast has its own life gauge, though, and will die if it takes too much damage. To avoid this, the player can press the button again to call it back to their side and allow it to regenerate health (the beast cannot regenerate health while in attack mode, but is invulnerable while not attacking). If the beast was in attacking mode after finishing a batch of enemies, it will automatically return to passive mode and be ready to be sent back to fight again. There are three guardians available:
Goblin: Obtained from blue eggs. A small armored humanoid-reptilian warrior. He charges at enemies and smacks them with a warhammer. Has medium durability.
Rollin: Obtained from brown eggs. An armored armadillo that can turn into a ball with spikes and knock down enemies. It is the most durable of the three guardians.
Garuda: Obtained from purple eggs. A flying baby dragon that breathes fire. Deals high damage but gets killed very easily.
Collecting each egg found, regardless of its color, will increase by one point the guardian beast's common HP bar, which is shared between all companions. As such, it's advisable to pick up all the eggs found at the beginning of the game in order to quickly build up the guardian beast's HP bar and make them more durable during battle, even if that means having to temporarily recruit different types of companions than those preferred by the player. The HP bar can be increased up to five points, after which it won't increase anymore if collecting more eggs. At this point, the player can opt not to pick up any more eggs in order to retain their preferred companion, as eggs don't give experience points on pickup.
If the player is in possession of a jewel, a powerful magic spell attack can be cast with the third action button. The more jewels the player possesses, the more powerful the magic spell will be. However, this attack consumes all the jewels in the player's collection and they'll need to gather at least one more to perform another spell. There are seven magic spells in the game, with the most powerful (fire dragon) requiring ten jewels.
In addition to the standard continuation feature, the player can also use passwords to continue the game where they left off at a later point, a feature rarely seen in an arcade game. The game over screen gives a nine letter password (six kana characters in the Japanese version), which the player can write down and enter it on a later playing session. If entered correctly, they will be taken to the last stage they were at, retaining their same character, weapon, equipment and experience level.
Battle Tryst - A 3D competitive fighting game by Konami released exclusively for the arcades in 1998. Elein appears as an unlockable playable fighter.
Trivia[]
At the very beginning of the game, hitting the puddle of water on the right will spawn a fish which can be picked up for bonus points.
The two final magic spells the player can cast are based on the smart bombs from Lightning Fighters: the "Lightning Sword" and the "Dragon Laser".
In the "High•Way" stage, the player has to travel an obstacle course at high speed while riding on a hovering platform. Many items can be collected along the way, one of them appears to be a Garfield plush.
Further supporting this possible reference, Konami made a Garfield LCD handheld game back in 1991.
The character Wonder Shogun from TwinBee Yahho!: Fushigi no Kuni de Ōabare!! seems to be inspired by the Goblin guardian beast from Gaiapolis. Both characters are short in stature, have a reptile-like tail (the Goblin appears to be entirely reptilian), and wear a similar armor that has the exact same face guard (although the Goblin's covers his face).
Further supporting this possible reference, the character designer for both games was SHUZILOW.HA.
↑Her name appears mistranslated as Elain Shee in Gaiapolis. She also appears as an unlockable fighter in Battle Tryst, where her name has been rectified as "Elein", and even appears as such in printed promotional material.
