Rise of the Dragon

aka: Blade Hunter: Rise of the Dragon, Rise of the Dragon: A Blade Hunter Mystery, RoTD
Moby ID: 98
DOS Specs
Included in

Description official descriptions

The year is 2053, and Los Angeles has turned into a grim place ruled by crime and corruption. William 'Blade' Hunter is a private detective who once was a police officer. He is asked to investigate a horrible murder of the mayor's daughter, whose body was mutilated. As Hunter begins to search for clues that would help him solve the crime, he uncovers a conspiracy involving a deadly drug and a powerful criminal syndicate behind it.

Rise of the Dragon is a futuristic first-person adventure game. The game's visuals are reminiscent of a comic book, with digitized photos of actors and hand-painted backgrounds. Unlike most other adventure games of the time, it relies less on inventory puzzles and more on specific choices made by the player. The game has an internal clock and requires the player to plan the protagonist's moves ahead in order to be in the right place at the right time. Dialogues with multiple choices are utilized as a gameplay tool; a wrong choice will often lead to a premature end of the adventure.

There are two side-scrolling action sequences in the game; both can be bypassed without penalty if the player character dies several times in a row. The Sega CD version does not allow the player to skip these sequences. In addition, it uses a different color palette with a greenish tint, and has voice-overs for the dialogues.

Spellings

  • ライズ オブ ザ ドラゴン ~ブレイド・ハンター・ミステリー~ - Japanese spelling

Groups +

Screenshots

Promos

Credits (DOS version)

19 People (17 developers, 2 thanks) · View all

Designer and Director
Art Director
Conceptual Art and Characters
Game Development System
Artists
Programmers
Arcade Programming
Audio Director
Music and Sounds
Original Score
Dialogue and Text
Original Story
Quality Assurance Manager
Documentation Design, Layout and Writing by
Special Thanks to
[ full credits ]

Reviews

Critics

Average score: 77% (based on 38 ratings)

Players

Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 90 ratings with 12 reviews)

One interactive Sci-Fi novel that wont leave you untouched

The Good
The first thing that struck me where the great looking graphics in Blades small but futuristic apartment. The greatly seductive sound of drops hitting a metal sink together with that distant pixel skyline outside the window drags you right into the screen and universe, a mystical and depressive such. The game is built on hand painted still images and is played in real time, witch means that if you have an appointment at 5 and the time is 3 you just have to wait. The storyline was strongly plotted out for you and there where no such thing as dynamic gameplay, but still they manage to deliver the feeling of accomplishment to the player. Throughout the game you encounter several puzzles that are directly tied to the story. The sequence where you sneak down the sewer to redirect some electrical weiring are a master piece. In short this game with its graphics, sound and music absolutely kidnaps you for a couple of hours and holds you helplessly hostage in they Blade Hunters future universe, you get to live a part of his life.

The Bad
There are a couple of shoot'm up segments in the game that are a total catastrophe. Its blocky steering and inexact shooting gets you extremely frustrated when all you want is to know how the adventure continues. Further more its very short and just as you are about to log on to Ebay to get your self the Blade outfit you´v saved the day and the game is over.

The Bottom Line
An interactive Sci-Fi novel in the Blade runner universe. There are 3 different game types bundled in one. The lined out RPG, the puzzles and the, from the side, shoot 'em up type. Its a typical Hollywood story with a strong atmosphere but a short lifespan. You even play the love life.

Amiga · by Birjer Rosenkrantz (3) · 2005

Blade Runner, meets the Matrix and Big Trouble In Little China

The Good
Rise of the Dragon features a cool science fiction story line that mixes in elements seen with such 1980's films as Blade Runner and Big Trouble in Little China. If you love graphic adventure gaming, set in a dark cyberpunk world, this will be a most enjoyable Sega CD game.

The Bad
First off all, for some reason, certain sexual themes from the computer game did not make it in the Sega CD version. One of the exotic dancers in the bar has been removed and the other one has been toned down. You cannot speak with the punk in the bar and the French kiss and suggested sex scene have been eliminated. It seems odd that such modifications took place, given that the game was rated MA-17. Second, the Sega CD hardware was not up to par with DOS IBM computers of the day, so the graphics looked slightly washed out, with a Matrix-like green tint. Last, but not least, you cannot avoid the few arcade sequences in the game.

The Bottom Line
Rise of the Dragon was one of the few graphic adventure games released for the Sega CD and fans of the genre, especially if they are unfamiliar with the DOS version, should enjoy it. The addition of voice actors greatly adds to the game, but the censorship is simply inexcusable for a game given a MA-17 rating, especially when everything else -- content wise -- from the DOS game seems to be uncensored.

SEGA CD · by ETJB (428) · 2010

Dark Sci-Fi Crime thriller with some mature content

The Good
Rise of the Dragon for the Sega CD takes advantage of the CD storage capacity by having most of characters dialogue read by actors. Where as the original DOS version of the game had to rely strictly on-screen text.

The acting is actually quite good -especially the voice actor for Blade - and its probably some of the best example of voice acting in a classic point and click graphic adventure game.

The port over to the Sega CD did mean having fewer on-screens colors to work with in comparison to the PC. To address this hardware limitstions, the designers choose to give the game an green tint to the futuristic city.

It actuallys makes the game's environment seem a bit more mysterious. It is hard to describe, but the look and feel of the game reminds me of the first Matrix film.

The designers of this game did an excellent job in creating a dark sci-fi world that you want to explore and learn eveything about.

This game is an excellent story in the adventure game genre and one of the best games ported over to the Sega CD. It is a shame that this game was not ported over to a newer game system.

The Bad
Rise of the Dragon maintains most of the mature themes from the original DOS game, i.e. profanity, drug use (albeit a fictious one) and the many death sequences and bad alternative endings.

The Sega CD game certainly earned its MA-17 label by Sega's own short lived video game rating council.

It's alll rather tame compared to the content seen in Grand Theft Auto, but in the early 1990s home console systems tended to be much more leery about mature or taboo content in a game.

The censorship seen in the Sega CD port is mostly concerned about sexuality. Mild Some of the DOS violence was toned down, although the biggest censorship issue seems to have been all about s-e-x.

Sexual jokes and innuendos are left in tact, but French kissing and implied sex scenes were cut. Their is also a dancer in a night club who was much more "visible" in the DOS game.

Apparently, some things in the video game were just too mature for a CD game given a MA17 label. It is unclear whether or not Sega ordered the content changes or maybe the designer thought did so "voluntarily".

The censorship does not alter the story line significantly. However, given how the game was already classified as being for older games, it seems silly that the original content was censored.

The Bottom Line
Rise of the Dragon is a DOS classic adventure game that is well designed for the CD format. The futuristic setting is diverse and technologically advanced, but also ripe with corruption, urban decay, vice and a serious drug problem. Its a littke bit film noir, and a little bit Blade Runner.

SEGA CD · by Edward TJ Brown (118) · 2015

[ View all 12 player reviews ]

Trivia

Development

Rise of the Dragon appears to have been coded in Turbo C++.

Messages

Messages hidden in the main executable:

Boy, am I tired. Better get some sleep in about an hour. You have chosen to run the game with only %s bytes of memory! You are on your own! (this is presumably when the user has decided to run the game without enough free DOS memory available)

References

  • One of the patrons in the Pleasure dome is named "FU BAR".
  • David Wolf makes an appearance outside the Pleasure Dome--he strolls past in a tuxedo if you wait long enough. (David Wolf was the main hero of Dynamix's earlier game David Wolf: Secret Agent.)
  • In Heart of China, another game from Dynamix, if you talk to some people in Ho's bar, some people will say "Bahumat lives!". A reference to the main villain in Rise of the Dragon.

SEGA CD version

The Sega CD has automatically-converted graphics from the 256-color originals, but (probably due to the Sega's limited color palette and palette restrictions) everything has a green cast. Check screenshots for comparison. Also some things were cut from the game: an ammo clip besides a telephone, all but one strippers in the bar and a sequence in which the protagonist has sex.

Versions

Rise of the Dragon was released in two separate packages for the PC: A 256-color VGA/MCGA version that took up about 7 megabytes, and an EGA/CGA version that, understandably, took up half that size. The 16-color EGA version, on the other hand, has mostly redrawn graphics based on the 256-color originals.

Awards

  • Computer Gaming World
    • November 1991 (Issue #88) – Special Award for Artistic Achievement
    • November 1996 (15th Anniversary Issue) - #83 in the “150 Best Games of All Time” list
    • November 1996 (15th anniversary issue) – #12 Most Innovative Computer Game

Information also contributed by PCGamer77

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Related Sites +

  • Game Nostalgia
    Provides extensive background info for Rise of the Dragon, pictures of the cast, full credits with shots and info about the design team, specific details about the game, various goodies, all musical themes, shots of every location in the game, saved games, a list of reviews, including a "nostalgic "review and tech specs.

Identifiers +

  • MobyGames ID: 98
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Contributors to this Entry

Game added by Trixter.

SEGA CD, Amiga added by POMAH. Windows added by Cavalary. Macintosh added by Terok Nor.

Additional contributors: Shoddyan, Sciere, martin jurgens, Patrick Bregger, Starbuck the Third, ZeTomes, Shankao, Kayburt.

Game added March 20, 1999. Last modified January 27, 2024.