Подземелья и Магия: Меч Элементов

the Arcade game

Dungeon Magic: Sword of the Elements (ダンジョン&マジック) is a real time first person RPG (akin to Dungeon Master and Eye of the Beholder) produced by Taito in 1989, and programmed by Natsume for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

Players explore towns looking for work and through dungeons looking for monsters to defeat. Players can also be apprenticed in elemental magic like wind, fire, water, and earth. The mighty castle of the realm can be found in north of Granville, the capital town. The task of the game is explained by the elder at the start of the game. Food and water can be purchased and is used every time the player stops to rest at either a camp site or at an inn. Levels can only be gained by visiting the "wise men" at the villages at the right number of experience points and receiving a baptism from them. Players can choose to either save or not to save their game after staying for a night at an inn.

One of the interesting aspects of the game was a magic system where a caster could combine runes from various elements to form new magic spells based on the elements: earth, water, wind, fire, and fairy magic. Each element has three unique runes, which can be combined to cast 243 different spells. The spells are incredibly imaginative and each magic has different purposes. Fairy magic can reveal a world map and location of treasures; fire magic can cast powerful damaging firewalls; earth magic can cast protective or curative spells. There are even rare spells that when discovered can let players walk underneath the water and find underwater temples; or even teleport themselves to the world of the fairies, or fly to the clouds. This game had no "magic point" system, so some spells drained the player's hit points instead.