Dragon View

Dragon View, is a side-scrolling role-playing video game released for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System in November 1994. Released in Japan as Super Drakkhen (スーパードラッケン) and otherwise known as Drakkhen II, it is meant to be a sequel to Drakkhen although it bears little resemblance to its predecessor. It uses the same pseudo-3D overworld system for which the series is most famous. Other features of Dragon View are its side-view action role-playing game (RPG) hybrid gameplay (used when exploring more detailed areas such as towns and dungeons), its well translated first person storyline, and its emphasis on player-driven undirected exploration. The Drakkhen series' most recognizable feature is its custom overworld engine. First used by the original Amiga version of Drakkhen, it was later used in the PC and SNES ports. The Dragon View version sports basic terrain shading and mountainlike "boundaries" that enclose areas of the continent. While not "True 3D", the overworld engine simulates depth on its own (without the aid of supplementary hardware such as the Super FX chip) using sprite scaling and rudimentary rendering. This system is able to run smoothly on standard SNES hardware because little more than half of the total screen area is ever in use. Since the top and bottom panels are completely static during overworld navigation, all hardware power is focused on rendering the first person view. Even so, framerates can suffer as many sprites are sometimes present on a single screen.