Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara

 PC
User Score
6.9

Mixed or average reviews- based on 39 Ratings

User score distribution:
  1. Positive: 18 out of 39
  2. Mixed: 14 out of 39
  3. Negative: 7 out of 39

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  1. kuehnau
    Jun 19, 2013
    5
    Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara is a side scrolling, beat em up arcade port of one of the most classic 90's arcade games around. Think 'Streets of Rage' with Dungeons and Dragons and some very, very lite RPG elements and you have Chronicles of Mystara in a nut shell.

    Don't get me wrong, back in the day, this game was fun, I had a blast playing it and it's one of the games in    Dungeons & Dragons: Chronicles of Mystara is a side scrolling, beat em up arcade port of one of the most classic 90's arcade games around. Think 'Streets of Rage' with Dungeons and Dragons and some very, very lite RPG elements and you have Chronicles of Mystara in a nut shell.

    Don't get me wrong, back in the day, this game was fun, I had a blast playing it and it's one of the games in my MAME arcade archive I have in the arcade cabinet I built. If you are a fan of classic arcade games you simply can't go wrong.

    With that being said, I find it hard to bring myself to pay their steep price of $15.00 for a game nearly two decades old (and showing it). Besides some tacked on features, you aren't getting anything more. Apparently the developer couldn't even be bothered to add full screen support, HD support or remaster the games graphics. Anything the game doesn't cover is filled in with some tacked on art work, which just makes the game look bad. There are some half-hearted attempts to add in some video filters, but it doesn't look very well. Quite frankly it looks better on the MAME emulator.

    Does anyone else remember TMNT: Turtles in Time Reshelled? It was a arcade port of the classic Turtles in Time arcade game, but had two modes on it, classic and "HD" where all of the graphics had been re-mastered in 3D HD character models and texures and it cost roughly the same Chronicles of Mystara does on STEAM.

    So what do you get for $15.00 then? A emulated version of Chronicles of Mystara with online support tacked on, which you can already get for free from the dozens of online emulator and rom websites. If the developers cared at all about selling this title, they would have put fourth more effort.    … Expand
  2. Fahmy-Thor
    Jun 24, 2013
    9
    this game always have a good and bad reasons to play, but tht's all just about POV you took. But for me it's just good for everyone who want to play the one of classic mode like this. Love it
  3. Chloroform
    Jun 21, 2013
    3
    Took the effort to make an account on metacritic, because I felt cheated by the current reviews. I guess most of the reviews of the so-called "critics" are written by fan boys. Although the overlay interface is very well finished I can't see the fun in this outdated side-scrolling beat 'm up. After two hours of playing these are the things that annoy me the most:
    - If one player uses    Took the effort to make an account on metacritic, because I felt cheated by the current reviews. I guess most of the reviews of the so-called "critics" are written by fan boys. Although the overlay interface is very well finished I can't see the fun in this outdated side-scrolling beat 'm up. After two hours of playing these are the things that annoy me the most:
    - If one player uses magic, all the others stay locked in place for 2 seconds
    - Item selection is dreadful Magic user have a limited number of [ranged] attacks
    - You can use a slide attack which is annoyingly hard to pull of with my xbox controller, but otherwise there is a very low variety in attacks. Just bash the a-button.
    - You feel like a turtle when playing this game after you enjoyed Castle Crashers

    Summary:
    Pick up a copy of Castle Crashers and don't pay for this dust. If you're bored with CC, look for a copy of Streets of Rage Remake    … Expand
  4. darthstatto
    Jun 22, 2013
    9
    If you have any love for the classic side scrolling Beat-em-Up's of Capcom's glorious back catalog then this is for you. Boasting a perfect version of the arcade game you find yourself picking a classic D & D archetype and battling wave after wave of classic enemies before a boss. Wash, rinse, repeat. Throw in some light RPG mechanics and loot and you have a game that is a little bit moreIf you have any love for the classic side scrolling Beat-em-Up's of Capcom's glorious back catalog then this is for you. Boasting a perfect version of the arcade game you find yourself picking a classic D & D archetype and battling wave after wave of classic enemies before a boss. Wash, rinse, repeat. Throw in some light RPG mechanics and loot and you have a game that is a little bit more then Final Fight with Magic.

    Speaking of Magic, it is marginally annoying as a melee player to constantly have the action frozen by the spell-casters, but it's little more than a mild inconvenience.

    The online features bring 4 player drop and drop out action, much like playing in an arcade back in the day. Achievements and challenge goals add to the feature set. For your £12 you get a lot of old school fun in a nice package.

    Your mileage with this game will probably vary wildly with your age. If you have never set foot in an arcade then skip it, but if you spent your formative years feeding Final Fight, Double Dragon and others with coins then this is money well spent.

    Remember to turn off the filters though, they make the core game look hideous. Stick with the classic sprites.    … Expand
  5. Whatsupnik
    Jun 25, 2013
    6
    Not bad, pretty much like a remember it. One of the deeper side scrollers for its day, especially in the arcade. Still looks beautiful, great for nostalgia.
  6. Perigorn
    Sep 5, 2013
    1
    NOthing against this game but it's ANOTHER old tired game that was released in 1980 in the arcades and someone is now making a ton of money on it simply by running a MAME or similiar emulator on it. No REAL things have been added here, just stupid pics and extras we don't care about. I'm tired of seeing this stuff being released when the M.A.M.E. community has had this and its partner gameNOthing against this game but it's ANOTHER old tired game that was released in 1980 in the arcades and someone is now making a ton of money on it simply by running a MAME or similiar emulator on it. No REAL things have been added here, just stupid pics and extras we don't care about. I'm tired of seeing this stuff being released when the M.A.M.E. community has had this and its partner game out there for FREE for YEARS!… Expand
  7. dorelas
    Jun 26, 2013
    0
    OK before i start with the rant, here is a short disclaimer for anybody in new generations of gamers who have not been blessed with seeing and playing this game on Arcade Machines at the time of its release. This title has been EPiC among all gamers and Arcades in the world, a fight against a necromancer withstanding a trial of time, a game offering a great visceral gameplay and beautifulOK before i start with the rant, here is a short disclaimer for anybody in new generations of gamers who have not been blessed with seeing and playing this game on Arcade Machines at the time of its release. This title has been EPiC among all gamers and Arcades in the world, a fight against a necromancer withstanding a trial of time, a game offering a great visceral gameplay and beautiful hand drawn sprite graphics. D&D unmatched by name, by TSR brand and definitely unmatched by all "new xbox-live indie games" (i own xbox and buy all the titles on marketplace as well as PS3 so i have an easily comarable cross-platform experience). if it has not been, it would not have been re-released by CAPCOM right? right?

    Well, not really. This release is one more out of countless examples that show how little thought the corporations give to "porting" the old games. This blatant outrageously sloppy release (many thought to be Capcom's reaction to coming soon Dragon's Crown) has not even minimum but absolutely NO effort being put into it.
    Capcom is already renown among ios users for hideous ports of his games while at the same time demanding for them prices high above itunes average. These games have worse joystick emulation EVER (coming from the arcade games corporation of long standing history mind you) and look hideous on ipads and iphones alike absent of any filters and special effects.
    The temerity of Capcom is incomprehensive as they release afterwards a "vip" versions of the previous failures at even higher prices supposedly promising a better performance and looks (the most important thing in such a game namely controls is still pitiful, take example from CAVE or TAiTO who put great effort into creating a home brew touch controls system which perfectly emulaties joystick controls).
    Needles to say, after witnessing years after years of games which clearly only purpose is to MiLK the audience and suck a few more out of their pocket with NO effort from the corporate machine whatsoever, still i think that Capcom's "D&D" is the one which so brutally showcases these shady dealings.

    Back to the subject i brooded about in the disclamier. I had hUUUUUge expectations toward this game, but don't misunderstand me i would be happy with anything if properly done. My expectations were rather coming from my belief that in spite of witnessing a sh!tstorm of blatant ports this one will be special, MUST be special and will not be mistreated by Capcom. There were also 2 more facts behind my reasoning:
    1. this incredibly expensive retail special edition of the game http://www.play-asia.com/Dungeons_Dragons_Mystara_Eiyuu_Senki_Limited_Edition-paOS-13-49-en-70-6ml3.html
    2. the name of the games itself being a mix of names from two original games: "chonicles of mystara". i had some wild hope of Capcom creating a special "black label" of D&D combining two games into one monstrous mashup version...

    Nothing of that sort. We receive the original two games looking hideously bad on nowadays screens, devoured of any filtering available on MAME which would make a world of difference to this release. Whould it be so hard to add some reasonable graphic filters?! MAME can run this game on old Pentium 200 with shadowmask and make it looks great, lets customize controls and be amazingly playable. Whats hard in letting players SET CONTROLS instead forcing me to use arrow keys?! It's worse port EVER!
    The game looks indigestable on Playstation 3 and Steam alike. The final straw are the FiXED controls and the player being forced to play with ARROW KEYS. (for fvkcs sake!!!!)
    This is a sad day but also important one marking my awakening to the realisation of corporate greed. The recipe for success taking the old game and branding it as a remake after slapping some "achievements" on it has just stopped working in my case. And hopefully also in yours. Thats also a reason why i give this "port" a zero, because of zero effort put into creating it and "innovating" the release in a blandest way imaginable achievements.

    vote with your wallet and let capcom rot in hell     … Expand
  8. AlienSpaceBats
    Jul 1, 2013
    7
    Recommended only for nostalgia-chasers or side-scroller fanatics; Golden Axe meets Dungeons & Dragons, lots of fun with 2 or more players. Suddenly, it's 20 years ago again.

Awards & Rankings

63
#63 Best PC Game of 2013

Critic Reviews

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Metascore
80

Generally favorable reviews - based on 9 Critic Reviews

Critic score distribution:
  1. Positive: 7 out of 9
  2. Mixed: 2 out of 9
  3. Negative: 0 out of 9
  1. GameStar
    Jul 8, 2013
    64
    Quotation forthcoming.
    Read full review
  2. RPG Fan
    Jul 2, 2013
    85
    I had never played these games before, and it's possible that those darn kids we all hear about these days might not enjoy the decidedly retro gameplay and so-bad-it's-good translation. On the other hand, if you've got an eye for classics that have aged better than fine wine and been given the premium porting treatment, I see no way you could go wrong picking this one up.
    Read full review
  3. Gaming Nexus
    Jul 2, 2013
    74
    Chronicles of Mystara is a must-have for any fan of the original arcade releases, or D&D fans in general. However, the charm of this package is going to be lost on anyone who wasn’t already sold on these games in the past.
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