Dragon Buster [Missing sounds]

Dragon Buster is the title with which Namco, in 1985, laid much of the groundwork for the action-RPG genre in arcades: a knight travels through dungeons fighting monsters with a sword, levels up, manages magic, and roams a map more open than was usual for the time. This particular version retains a known incomplete-audio issue relative to the original release. Its influence was felt for years in Japanese action-RPG design, and it remains a mandatory reference for understanding how arcades, before consoles, first experimented with the fusion of real-time combat and character progression.