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, a single dragon egg was left in the middle of the kingdom streets. But a fellow monk, known to many Yarlinians as Father Armand, decided to keep the egg for himself. After months of raising the egg, it hatched, and out came a dragon with red scales. Armand chose to teach the young dragon how to live among and like humans, therefore he named him after the color of his scales: Red. 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. But despite this, the setbacks he encountered in his past-time 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 there 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 their 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 and final game in the classic 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, as well as the classic series.

Red the Dragon: A Hero's Reawakening
The sixth game of the series serves as a reboot for the franchise. This game changes a few things, including Red's backstory (where instead of being raised by Father Armand, he is taken under the care of a yellow dragon named Terra) and an expansion of Karin's backstory (where she is automatically chosen to marry a prince from another kingdom, which she refuses to do.) It was released only for the Playstation 3.

This game still takes place in Yarlin, where an attack from dragons took place years ago. All of the dragons were erased thanks to the efforts of Yarlinian knights and soldiers, all except for Terra, a yellow dragon, and an unharmed dragon egg. Terra took care of the egg until it later hatched into a red dragon, ironically named Red. The yellow dragon then raises Red. Throughout the years, Terra has trained Red to fight like the Yarlinian soldiers that almost killed their entire race, and now he is ready to take them on. During his mission, he came across Karin, the princess of Yarlin who was about to marry a prince from another kingdom, which she is against. After meeting her, Red wants to reconsider the mission, until evil forces appeared in Yarlin, taking the lives of many people. Seeing the kingdom in this state, Red fights against the monsters, including the giant Cyclops. All was well until the king, Karin's father, appeared and announced that his daughter was kidnapped. The red dragon refused to let this stand, and decided to save her despite going against Terra's wishes.

After passing nine stages, Red made it to a dark castle, where he comes across his master Terra, who was disappointed at his pupil for ignoring his order. Red apologized and revealed that not all humans are as bad as Terra would consider them to be. The yellow dragon thought that his pupil's meeting with the humans made him soft and leaves to fight against the one who kidnapped Karin, despite not truly trusting the humans. Red caught up to him, only to see that his master has been injured by a giant hydra. The hydra is called Obscuro and he has the princess in his grasp. 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, ran to his master's side. Terra apologized to his pupil for being overprotective of him and making him kill the humans. Red tells Terra to go back to his cave while the former flies in to save Karin. 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 continues to find Karin and then sees her cage on a pillar. She is freed and thanks Red for saving him as they fly out of Obscuro's dimension (reminiscent to the ending of the first Red game), but at the moment they were leaving, a black hand grabs Red's leg, making him toss Karin out of the dimension before being taken by multiple hands 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.