Rise of the Dragon
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
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Screenshots
Promos
Credits (DOS version)
19 People (17 developers, 2 thanks) · View all
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Conceptual Art and Characters | |
Game Development System | |
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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 39 ratings)
Players
Average score: 3.8 out of 5 (based on 90 ratings with 12 reviews)
An immersive world that completely captures your interest without frustrating your intellect.
The Good
Rise of the Dragon was Dynamix's first attempt at a purely graphical adventure, and it was largely succesful. While some people dismissed it as too easy, I found it quite immersive. Gameplay is achieved best with the mouse, where you use the pointer to examine elements of your location, manipulate objects, and throw switches. Its easy to learn, but it doesn't cheat--you have to equip your gun before you can fire it, for example, and if you leave your gun eqipped all the time, you run the risk of scaring the people you run into (because they can see your gun brandished).
The music is great, not because it reaches out and grabs you, but because it doesn't try to. The music is always underneath the scenes, and in some places, does a fantastic job of representing what the character is supposed to be feeling. A particular favorite section of mine is the very first scene where you're in your apartment; even with a simple Adlib card, the music you hear while exploring your surroundings not only does an excellent job of describing how you feel, but almost attempts to describe how your environment feels, if such a thing is possible.
The graphics are very good; each screen was illustrated traditionally on canvas and then digitized. While many of the themes are borrowed liberally from Blade Runner, some areas of the game manage to find their own vision.
The Bad
You would think that graphics digitized from original art would look really great, but some screens are not dithered as well as they could be, which is annoying if you're nitpicky about those kinds of things. (To judge for yourself, take a look at the many ROTD screenshots here on MobyGames.)
ROTD runs in realtime, which is normally a good thing; you can't just sit around poking at everything. But this can get frustrating as well--at one point you have to save your girlfriend while a timer is ticking down to zero in the background. This is unnecessarily manipulative.
Worst, though, is the inclusion of a weak action sequence thrown in at the very end of the game, which is completely inappropriate (and also very hard to win!). Thankfully, if you die too much in the endgame arcade sequence, the game offers to let you skip it to see the ending.
The Bottom Line
Rise of the Dragon is one of my all-time favorite games. If you haven't played it, you owe it to yourself to give it a try.
DOS · by Trixter (8952) · 1999
The Good
The year is 2053 and the setting is dirty Los Angeles. Former private investigator, William “Blade” Hunter, is asked by Mayor Vincenzi to find out who or what killed his daughter, Chandra. It happens to be an election year, so Vincenzi doesn't want the investigation to be leaked to the press. He gives Blade several leads to get started: Chandra was last seen in the Pleasure Dome, hanging out with some guy known as “The Jake”. Blade should talk to The Jake and show him a “vid-transmission hardcopy” of Chandra.
There are at least three versions of Rise of the Dragon, and each of them has their own advantages and disadvantages. The Sega CD version has full speech, which is what the other two versions lack. The different characters are voiced by professional actors, including Cam Clarke, who plays the part of Blade. Like in other versions, you are likely to choose some responses when you are talking to someone. Whether you choose the right responses will determine if they are kind afterwards, or are angry at you. I enjoyed getting an angry reaction from them. Having completed the Sega CD version, I have to say that the speech very much adds to the game's atmosphere. The voices that I like include those belonging to all the Chinese characters, especially Jonny Qwong and Deng Hwang.
Another advantage over the DOS/Amiga versions is the use of great sound effects. These can be heard in scenes when lightning strikes, when someone fires a gun, or when a bomb is exploded. And you can hear machines doing their shit when you spy into the enemy's warehouse. I mostly heard them from playing the arcade sequences, dealing with the different hazards that block your way.
The Bad
There is one scene where Karyn and Blade go out for dinner, but that scene is censored. This is despite the game given a MA-17 rating by the VRC. Anyone who has played the DOS or Amiga version will surely know that both characters don't just go out for dinner, they sleep together as well.
Due to the Sega CD's limited color palette, the graphics have a green tint to them. Although that is bad, I like to think that the game deserves it due to its “MTZ” drug theme. Before Dynamix went ahead of the game, they should have waited one more year when the Saturn came out. By then, they would have incorporated graphics that have more colors than the other versions, making it look more like a futuristic thriller. As well this, they would have made further enhancements to the game.
The Bottom Line
Despite the censorship and the green graphics, the Sega CD version of Rise of the Dragon has one notable advantage over other versions before it: full speech. This adds to the atmosphere of the game. Other advantages include great sound effects, that can be best enjoyed during the arcade sequences. So if you have already played either of the other versions, I would recommend getting hold of the Sega CD version and see how good it is.
SEGA CD · by Katakis | カタキス (43091) · 2007
Better and Worse than the DOS version
The Good
This is the same game others have talked about with the DOS version so I won't echo their comments. The SegaCD version's main advantage is that it has pretty good voice acting added in. This ads more depth to the game than I got from the DOS version. If it weren't for a few things, this would be my favorite version.
The Bad
There is no way out of the arcade sequences. Why put it in the DOS version, but not the Sega CD one. The date scene gets cut off after the toast. Aparently Sega thinks we're allowed to see all kinds of violence, but not a french kiss and implied sex.
And the largest problem. Visualy it does not look as clean as the DOS version. The Sega CD has a very limited color pallete and it shows. However the changes they had to make, do do something interesting with the atmosphere once you get used to it. Take a look at the screenshots
The Bottom Line
If you've played the DOS version and loved it, get this version if you can and compare the two.
SEGA CD · by Jessie Cook (24) · 2002
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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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.
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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.