Red the Dragon (series)

Red the Dragon (レッド・ザ・ドラゴン) is a series of fantasy-styled horizontal shoot 'em ups developed by Multisoft. It is centered around Red, an anthropomorphic dragon who lives with humans, and his conflicts against many sorts of evils. The first game of the series was released in 1991 for the arcades and then for the Game Boy. It was one of Multisoft's "Gamesoft Classics" during their Gamesoft years.

Gameplay
Red the Dragon uses most elements from other horizontal shoot 'em ups (Gradius, Darius, etc.). The player controls Red the anthropomorphic dragon (and, in later games, other characters) across different horizontal-scrolling levels. A new feature, however, is the use of a weapon to defeat enemies (ex: Red uses his sword). Like in other shoot 'em ups, enemies will sometimes drop power-ups upon being shot. These power-ups can strengthen the players' shot and/or weapon, increase their agility, or upgrade their defenses. Later introduced in Red Heroes, an item shop will appear upon completing each level. With all of the gold they have collected, players have the opportunity to purchase an item to use for the next level. They are free to quit anytime. The item shop feature was removed in Red: The Finale, but returned in A Hero's Reawakening.

Red the Dragon
The first game in the series. The game, and the rest of the series at this point, takes place in the medieval kingdom of Yarlin. The kingdom was once the victim of a severe dragon attack. Although Yarlin's greatest knights, hunters, and heroes managed to rid their kingdom of them, the kingdom was not without any casualties. The main protagonist, Red, lost his family and was taken in by the dragons. He has been infused with their blood, turning him into a humanoid dragon. Fearing his appearance, Red flew away from the dragons and returned to Yarlin, only to receive death threats from the townspeople. But a fellow priest, known by many Yarlinians as Father Armand, decided to take Red in himself. Since then, Yarlin has never heard of another dragon-related crisis, until now...

Since living with Father Armand and the other humans, Red grew up as a citizen of the kingdom of Yarlin while growing adjusted to his dragon form. But despite this, the threats he has encountered since his transformation led him to question if he is truly fit for living in this kingdom. His life changed, however, when he met a beautiful princess named Karin. Karin did not care about Red's looks; she simply loved him. Red became fond of Karin, as well as her younger brother Tomas. But an evil warlord known as Elvin appeared in the kingdom of Yarlin and fought against the king's soldiers. Elvin also kidnapped Karin during that. Witnessing this, Tomas explains what he saw to Red. The dragon was frightened to hear that Karin was kidnapped, but was too reluctant to do something about it. Still, Red grabbed a sword and, with his own draconic abilities (flying and shooting fire balls), set off to rescue Karin.

After fighting against Elvin's henchmen, Red has made it to Elvin's castle. Just as he made it to Karin's cell, Elvin appears on his flying dragon only known as Frasier. Elvin claims that with Frasier, everyone in Yarlin shall learn to worship him. Red managed to kill Frasier and Elvin and rescue Karin, flying her to safety back to Yarlin. She has been reunited with her father, the king, and Tomas. Meanwhile, Red has returned to Father Armand. The game ends there.

Red the Dragon featuring Chill & Square
The second game serves as a crossover with the puzzle game Chill the Jester, as well as the sequel to both games. It was released in the arcades in 1996 before being released to the Game Boy Color 2 years later. A month has passed since the first game. Red, Karin, and Tomas have been invited to Chill's Puzzle Palace as guests. They humbly accept the invitations and went to visit. But as they entered the Puzzle Palace, they saw some puzzle monsters invading the palace. Chill appears and says that the puzzle monsters have been "chewing all of his puzzles" since he sent the invitations. Red volunteered to stop these monsters and save Chill's castle.

It appears that Sludge, the black blob that tried to destroy Chill's castle before, has returned for revenge. Red managed to stop Sludge from destroying anymore puzzles (to his chagrin) and slew him. Chill thanked Red for saving his castle and said that he, Karin, and Tomas are all welcome to come anytime.

Red Heroes: The Astral Dragon's Awakening
The third game in the classic series, released for the arcades in 1999, and then for the Sega Dreamcast. Legend says that a powerful dragon, more powerful than the dragons that once threatened Yarlin, will appear once every 100 years to destroy the kingdom. Red, Father Armand, Karin, and Tomas realize that this is the hundredth year since this dragon's previous appearance and soon, everyone became horrified. Red planned to stop this dragon from destroying Yarlin again. Karin, however, stopped him and tells him that she will enlist 3 bounty hunters; Ragnar the Dwarf, Tawna the Sorceress, and Hiroki the Ninja. Red, Ragnar, Tawna, and Hiroki joined forces to defeat the Astral Dragon before it destroys Yarlin as it did 100 years ago.

After defeating 7 monsters, Red and the bounty hunters made it to where the Astral Dragon's hiding spot; a void. They all found the Astral Dragon, which is named Mundi, and it emerged before another void before the final battle began. With their combined forces, Red and the bounty hunters defeated Mundi before crawling into a void which leads to what would be outer space. Thanks to their heroics, they have been praised by the Yarlinians and have been invited by the king for a hearty feast. At the end of the credits, a purple egg falls from the sky and safely lands between the mountains. This marks the first game in the series to have a cliffhanger.

Red Heroes 2: Purple's Birth
The fourth game in the classic series was only released for the PlayStation 2 in 2001. Continuing where the first Red Heroes left off, Red and the bounty hunters parted ways after the feast. Three years later, Red proposes to Karin, and a marriage is in order. However, a crystalline castle grew out of the mountains of Yarlin, and the townspeople began to fear that a force stronger than Mundi could be lurking in that castle. Red, curious as to what the castle could be doing on those mountains, decided to travel to the castle. On the way, he met the three bounty hunters from before, and once again they teamed up to head to the crystal castle.

Throughout completing the 7 levels, cutscenes will play showing the young purple dragon and his caretaker, an evil wizard named Zach, who is creating a giant hole that will summon a threat greater than Mundi. Before the eighth level starts, the dragon kills Zach before his plan comes to fruition. Meanwhile, the heroes make their way inside the crystal castle. As they got inside, they see the young purple dragon boy, simply named Purple, but once he saw the heroes he quickly ran to the top of the castle. The heroes followed him up to the top until Purple was stuck. But the heroes failed to notice the giant rift Zach made slowly forming in he sky, similar to the rift Mundi came from. Purple says that a greater evil will fall out of that void, so he challenged the heroes to a one-on-one duel and the winner will close the void. After a heated battle, one of the heroes (canonically Red) won against Purple and went to close the rift. However, a chaotic blast soon shot out of said rift, targeted towards the kingdom of Yarlin, where the wedding of Red and Karin is about to take place. Red and the others, including Purple, hurry to the kingdom, but they were too late as the blast already destroyed the kingdom.

Red: The Finale
The fifth game in the series, released in the arcades in 2002, as well as the Nintendo Gamecube and Xbox. This takes place after Red Heroes 2, where the rift above Purple's castle shot a blast towards Yarlin. The heroes were too late, as the blast killed most of the Yarlinians, some had already escaped. They notice Tomas, one of the survivors of Zach's attack, who is about to be attacked by a monster that was formed from the rift. The heroes stop it and rescue Tomas, and he announces that the blast that came from the attack killed the Yarlinians, including his sister Karin. This made Red sad, and he decides that he will avenge Karin and the other deceased by entering the rift. He knew it was risky, but he still plans on doing it. So he, as well as the other heroes (who was, at first, against his idea), fly into the rift to stop whoever destroyed Yarlin.

After they entered the rift, they came across six strange monsters, which they were able to beat. As they reached to the end of the rift, the heroes notice a castle, with a giant cannon that could be what caused the rift. Some time during their exploration in the castle, it began to move, as well as deform. The heroes then notice that the castle was actually a giant wyvern known as Thanatos. The heroes fought as hard as they could against Thanatos, but before they had the finishing blow, he ate them. If they were to completely defeat him, the heroes have to find the source of Thanatos, which is a yellow orb that illuminates when he is ready to fire another blast. Granted, they found the core and destroy it. Thanatos, feeling that his core has been destroyed, starts glowing, as if he was about to explode. The heroes all hurried out of the rift, except Red, who wishes to hold Thanatos back, even if it means his life. The other heroes finally made it out of the rift before Thanatos exploded, taking his and Red's lives. Soon, the rift closed and the remaining Yarlinians congratulated the heroes. However, Tomas began to wonder if there was something amiss, before he later realized that Red is dead.

A few years later, what was left of the heroes departed one last time. Meanwhile, Tomas stood in front of the graves of Karin and Red. He thanked Red for saving Yarlin many times, and wishes that he will avenge him and his sister in the future. After the credits, a silhouette of a certain dragon appears in front of the two tombstones Tomas was looking at, then flies away into the skies, ending the game.

Red the Dragon: A Hero's Reawakening
The sixth game, released only for the PlayStation 3. It symbolized Multisoft's return to the franchise, similar to Aegis and Alien Killer. This game continues from the ending of the previous game, where Red was revealed to be alive after the battle against Thanatos. Since the destruction of Yarlin, Tomas, now an adult, has been protecting the new kingdom of Eclesia from crime. One day, he saw a group of cloaked men approaching the castle of Eclesia. They were meeting with the queen of the kingdom, Aeshia, about offering her kingdom to them or else they will have to destroy everything in the kingdom. Overhearing this, Tomas appears to attack them, only for the cloaked men to summon a giant monster to attack him. Tomas fears this would be the end of his life before Red flies in and fights the monster.

After defeating the monster (which would be the prologue boss of the game), Red reunites with Tomas, the latter asking him where he has been since the final battle, and begins to fight the cloaked men. They are revealed to be the Cult of Obscuro and have declared war on all kingdoms that will oppose them. Queen Aeshia requests Red that he stops the Cult of Obscuro and save all of the kingdoms. Accepting this request, Red flies off to stop the cult while Tomas stays behind to protect Eclesia.

After passing nine stages, Red made it to a dark castle, where he comes across the Cult of Hydra, where they were beginning to perform a ritual. Red tried to stop them, but was overweighed by the Cult's forces. Because he was unable to defeat them all in time, the Cult has successfully summoned a giant hydra. The hydra is called Obscuro and he has his sights on all of the kingdoms. After a heated battle, Obscuro said that his castle is not a suitable place for a final battle and tells Red to meet him in his "dimension." Red, however, finds Tomas, who caught up with him, and he tells him that if Red does not defeat Obscuro, then the entire world will be doomed. This made him reminisce about the time Thanatos destroyed Yarlin and some of the victims in the kingdom, including Karin, and that was when he flew inside the portal in anger. He made it to the dimension where Obscuro said they would be fighting in, but when he saw the hydra, he took on a different appearance. Nonetheless, Red fights against Obscuro and then wins. Obscuro shouted that there are more beings that will be after him before plunging to his doom. Red, seeing his duty has been done, tries to find an exit out of Obscuro's dimension to return to Eclesia, but at the moment he found one, a black hand grabs Red's leg before being taken by multiple hands, possibly those of the Cult, which pull him down to where Obscuro could be. This cliffhanger could symbolize a sequel for this game, yet there is no announcement of it.