Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara

Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara, also simplified to Shadow of Mystara or known as Dungeons & Dragons 2, was developed and published by Capcom as an arcade game, as a sequel to Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom in 1996. The game was also released on the Sega Saturn, packaged with Tower of Doom, under the title Dungeons & Dragons Collection, although the Saturn version limited the gameplay to only 2 players. The game is set in the Mystara campaign setting.

Overview
Combining the side scrolling gameplay of a beat 'em up with some aspects found in a computer RPG, Shadow over Mystara has many game mechanics not commonly found in arcade games. While things as simple as item collection, finding and equipping new gear and earning new spells as you gain experience is and old idea in console games, it is a rare find at the arcades. Players can wield a large variety of weapons and armor, although this selection is limited by the character you choose (thieves and magic-users, for example, can not use shields). There is also a huge assortment of magical and hidden items in the game, many of which are completely unknown to exist to the typical arcade gamer. This, along with the addition of multiple endings and forking paths, gives the game an extreme amount of re-playability and has led to its cult following.

Plot
After defeating the Arch Lich Deimos, the heroes continued on their journey through the Broken Lands of Glantri after realising that Deimos is only part of a greater evil plan.

Deimos was in fact being used by a mysterious evil sorceress. Synn appears to be a young woman, but she commands incredibly powerful magical abilities. She was scheming to control the Kingdom of Glantri and conquer the humanoids of the Republic of Darokin, and the original plan was having Deimos controlling the Republic of Darokin and Synn controlling the Kingdom of Glantri, and then through Deimos Synn can indirectly control Darokin. But now that Deimos has been defeated, Synn vowed to punish the land that she desired for...

Controls
There are four buttons: Attack, Jump, Select and Use. Pressing Select brings up a small inventory ring around the character allowing the player to choose what item is set in the Use slot. Pressing the Use button will activate what ever item is currently set in this Use slot. The Cleric, Elf and Magic-User also have two extra rings for their spells, with the Jump button used to switch from ring to ring.

Shadow over Mystara also introduced a selection of special moves which are executed by moving the joystick and tapping the buttons in certain combinations, in a way similar to the Street Fighter series. The characters (except for the Magic-User) have a Dashing Attack as well as a Rising Attack which can be used to combo monsters or even juggle them in the air. Most characters (again, with the exception of the Magic-User and also Cleric, who has turning undead) also have a Megacrush, a move common to nearly all of Capcom side-scrollers, which damages all enemies standing close enough to the character but in turn also damaging the player themselves.

Treasure on the ground is picked up by standing near it and pressing the Attack button. Due to this feature, characters that stand too close to loot while fighting will instead bend down and retrieve the nearby item. It was very difficult to fight monsters in room full of treasure in the original Tower of Doom, and Capcom addressed these complaints with the addition of Sliding. The maneuver allows players to automatically pick up any treasure and equipment a hero slides over, quickly clearing the area of items.

While the game uses the same kick harness as the first Dungeons & Dragons arcade game, the Select and Use buttons are reversed.

Visiting Villages
In between many stages the players find themselves inside small town stores where they can restock on common items such as arrows, burning oils, throwing daggers and healing potions. Players can sell items for gold and also trade special items found during boss battles with shopkeepers (by clicking on the shopkeepers head) to earn unique magical items).

For example, during the fight with a large Displacer Beast you can pick up a chunk of his skin. Turning this in to a shopkeeper gets you the Displacer Cloak, an item that sits in the players armor slot and makes all non-magical projectiles pass right through him.

The players can also come across a special gnome village where the townfolk beg to be saved from a Chimera. The gnomes, unlike tradition Dungeons & Dragons gnomes, are very minuscule, standing about a foot tall. If the players choose to fight the beast and are successful, they are given the option to purchase a shrinking potion to visit the villagers (although, due to a strange error in the program, the potion actually costs no gold.)

Treasure and Equipment
Players, as they fight their way through each level, will come across a huge assortment of treasure. Treasure is found in chests, stolen from monsters, dropped from dead enemies and bosses, or even found simply laying on the ground. Most treasure is gold and silver, which is used to buy simple items in shops (see below), or precious gems, which add to a heroes experience points. Other treasure include weapons and equipment.

Every character starts with their armor (the second slot) already filled, specific to their character, and remains unchanged the entire game. The character's helmet (the first slot) and shield (the fifth slot) are the other two items that lend to a character's defensive ability. Most characters also begin with a shield, except the Magic-User and Thief, who cannot use shields.

While magical items in traditional Dungeons & Dragons rules are practically invulnerable or tough, the magical items in Shadow over Mystara are very fragile. Magical boots (slot three), gauntlets (slot four), and rings (slot six) are all destroyed after the player is damaged a few times.

The eighth slot is used for miscellaneous items such as the "Skin of the Displacer Beast" or the "Eye of the Beholder". Many bosses drop rare items such as these and they either grant special abilities or can be traded in for special magical equipment.

There are also many rare and unique hidden items. The game includes two cursed swords, one which the Cleric must attempt to pick up (since he cannot actually pick up a bladed weapon) 8 times before it will become the Holy Avenger and a second which must be swung over 30 times, with each swing randomly causing damage to the sword holder, before it is uncursed and transformed into the Sword of Legends.

Hidden near the end of the game is a treasure chest, that if the Magic-User opens it, contains the Staff of Wizardry. If the Magic-User wields the staff during the last boss Synn and there are at least 3 players with a combined total of over 1 million experience points, the Staff will glow and the team will be able to use Final Strike. This secret attack requires that all players press all of their buttons (except the inventory button) at the same time which causes the Magic-User to leap to the center of the screen, screaming out the words "Final strike!" and snapping the Staff in half, over his knee, causing all four elementals and the Djinni to be summoned in succession. This does a considerable amount of damage to Synn and leaves all of the players at 1 hit point.

Completion of the Game
After the characters destroy the final boss, each member of the group is treated to a short epilogue detailing his or her future exploits. Endings are titled with a simple code: the first letter of the character class followed by the number of the ending. Therefore the Cleric's second ending is called "C-2", the Fighter's best ending is named "F-1", and so on. There are four separate endings per character class and the hero earns an ending based on two facts: total Experience Points earned and rank in the group based on those points.

For example, if two characters, a Fighter and an Magic User, both had the enough experience points to earn their best endings, the one who earned more would win their first ending and the other character would see his second. Or, if a Thief has the second highest amount of experience points in the group but still doesn't end up having enough points to see ending T-2, she would be given ending T-3. The amount of experience to needed to earn each ending varies depending on the difficulty that the machine is set at. The Dwarf endings D-2 and D-3 are erroneously identical.

Characters
In addition to the original four characters found in Tower of Doom, the Cleric, Dwarf, Elf and Fighter, Shadow of Mystara adds a Thief and a Magic-User to the selection. Furthermore, with the inclusion of two separate version of each character's sprite set, the game allows up to two players to select the same character (in Tower of Doom each of the characters could only be selected once), effectively giving the game twelve "different" characters to choose from. The two Clerics and two Magic Users also have subtle differences within their spell books.

Players, upon completion of their first stage, are prompted to enter a character name. Unlike most arcade games which only allow a person to enter 3 letters, Shadow over Mystara has space for six. For the unimaginative, the game provides a default name for each of the characters. The default name is also automatically used if the player tries to submit a blank name or use vulgarity.

The Cleric's main role is to be the party's healer. He also has the ability turn undead (which is his Desperation Attack) and can cast from a large library of Clerical spells including Continual Light, Bless and Cure Wounds. In line with classic Dungeons & Dragons rules he cannot wield any weapon that is bladed. The two Clerics also have subtle differences within their spell books.
 * Cleric

More hardy than the Fighter, the Dwarf has the most hit points in the game as well as being slightly more forceful than the other characters. He can also pick up treasure chests that have already been opened to reveal extra gold and treasure.
 * Dwarf

The Elf is a fighter-mage, combining the weapon skills of the Fighter as well as utilizing a small selection of magic spells. The spell books for the two Elves are the same. She also has unlimited arrows in her inventory and can bounce up to three times on the enemy's head with her jumping attack.
 * Elf

The Fighter is, as expected, an attack-focused character and, as the game describes him, the "war expert". He can wield nearly every weapon in the game (except for the wizardly staves and wands) and is also the only character that can double wield with a short sword (although this leaves him without a shield). The Fighter also has a kick attack that will push the enemy away.
 * Fighter

The Magic-User has a large selection of powerful mage spells. Since he cannot wear armor or use a shield and he has a low amount of hit points, the Magic-User is quick to die (and quick to eat through a players tokens). The Magic-User has a weak teleportation move which can allow him to dodge attacks and while his normal attacks are mostly useless, he can use his Charging Attack to inflict severe damage. The Magic-User can stab enemies with a poison dagger that has a random chance of causing a critical hit. These criticals remove huge chunks of life out of monster and boss life bars. Like the Cleric, each of the two Magic-Users have a slightly varied spell selection.
 * Magic-User

Although not as physically strong as most of the characters, the Thief makes up for it in skills. Due to her high dexterity she can double jump, wall jump and back-flip. She also has lock picking, which allows her to open up any treasure chest, and the ability to detect traps (which are marked on screen by a red skull and crossbones symbol). By running into monsters she can pick their pockets causing them to drop random treasure. The thief can back stab enemies, causing critical damage. Like the Elf with her unlimited arrows, the thief always has an unlimited supply of rocks to sling. The thief cannot use a shield or armor.
 * Thief

Spell Use
The game offers a small selection of arcane magic, available for the Magic-User and Elf, and Divine magic, available to the Cleric. Instead of an MP system, characters use D&D's Vancian magic system where a certain amount of each spell ready to cast. Extra uses of the spells can be picked up off the ground, represented graphically as scrolls of paper, or occasionally recharged after certain boss fights.

When a spell is cast the entire game is momentarily paused during which the spell effect is played out. Two spells can be controlled during this time; Lightning Bolt can be aimed up and down and Wall of Fire can be spun in a circle if the joystick is rotated in that fashion.

Choose Initial Equipment
There are numerous secrets within the game. The first is the ability to choose your initial equipment when entering your name. After naming the character, s/he is awarded a piece of equipment based on a formula applied to the letters in his/her name. It is a good idea for a magic-user or thief to try different names in order to get a magical hat or thief's hood (see "Highlander Mode" below).

Releasing the Sword of Legends
The Cursed Sword I (found in the first room in the cave of Rafael the Immortal) is released from its curse by swinging it a few dozen times. Although the cursed sword harms the user occasionally, damage can be avoided by first jumping, and then swing the sword when the character is just about to land. Done properly, the red sign representing damage will appear, but the character will not be harmed. This is easiest to perform with a Fighter.

Releasing the Holy Avenger
Once found, the Cursed Sword II is released by the Cleric. Though he cannot use bladed weapons, he can still attempt to pick one up&mdash;doing so eight times with the Cursed Sword II will purify it.

Walk through pillars of fire/ice
Walls of fire or ice can be passed through if the character is slightly above a single pillar. By moving carefully, it is possible to walk through without taking any damage. Even if a character is hit, he has a moment of opportunity to slide through the pillar without harm.

Destroy dragons with one bolt
The Red dragon and Synn can be destroyed by a single powerful lightning bolt. To do this, a character must have very high XP. Strike the dragon until it closes its eyes, then cast a lightning bolt directly at the closed eye. (This can also be done with a lightning bolt ring) If done correctly, it will inflict incredible damage to the dragon.

Quick mace kills
Any character wielding a mace, war hammer, or morning star may inflict extra damage while standing above a prone enemy.

Item Hacking
Shadow over Mystara contains a system which allows you to name your character. Abusing this system in a specific way causes the game to become incredibly glitched, giving the players powerful items in the beginning of the game. This exploit also has a nasty side effect of causing the game to have an incredible amount of visual bugs (flickering sprites, missing sprites and mistakes in the text) and often causes the game to reboot, or worse, to freeze up. Arcade owners, unaware that the players themselves were the cause of the troubles, would often shut down the machine for repair or simply remove the game completely. Gamers on the Internet, aware of these consequences, would often refuse to post instructions on how to activate the glitch.

Revision 2 of the game prevented the use of this bug.

Highlander Mode
A less dangerous glitch, known commonly as Highlander Mode, allows the Magic-User and Thief to become more or less immune to all damage. Players must simply swap their default headgear to use the exploit&mdash;any Magic-User wearing a Hood (the Thief's default hat) or any Thief that wears a Magicians Hat (the Magic-User's starting hat) cannot be killed from any standard damage in the game (the character will be reduced to 1 hit point but will not be killed). Some examples of non-standard damage that can still drop the player below 1 hit point are bite attacks, breath weapons, treasure chests thrown by allies, and spells.

This bug was never addressed in the arcade.

Legacy
The game is preceded by Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom (1993) and is one of the last 2-D arcade side scrollers that Capcom created. Only Battle Circuit, in 1997, came after.

Other side scrollers beat 'em up games released before Shadow over Mystara include Final Fight (1989), Cadillacs & Dinosaurs (1992) and Alien vs. Predator (1994).

Ports
In 1999, Capcom released both D&D arcade games as a 2-disc compilation on the Sega Saturn called Dungeons & Dragons Collection in Japan. Dungeons & Dragons Collection was never released in the United States and Europe due to the Saturn's failure in both regions.

Although the games are basically identical to their arcade counterparts, due to the limitations of the Saturn there is a maximum of two players instead of the original four. As there are some doors and events which require the game to have more than two people playing the game (such as the special ability Final Strike), there may have been changes to the game rules to allow these events to happen with only 1 or 2 players.

Sometime around January 3, 2003, MCB Interactive released a PC port. Due to "insert coin" appearing in screenshots it is to be assumed that the game is running under an in-house emulator rather than actually being redesigned for the new platform as the Saturn port was, where coin-insertion was replaced with console-style continues. This elusive port is currently out of stock.

Fansites

 * Shadow over Mystara Shrine - guide under construction at RPGClassics
 * JonC's Shadow over Mystara page - this fansite has a full guide as well as pages discussing and extolling the game's features
 * FantasyAnime's D&D section - covers both D&D arcade games with full character bios, multimedia downloads, and an interview with one of the developers
 * The Art of Being Yuri - Shadow over Mystara! - guides, hints, and critiques of the two D&D games

Information sites

 * officially-licensed Korean PC port