Gaiapolis

is a 1993 action role-playing video game developed and released for arcades by Konami. The plot follows prince Gerard Himerce, whose country was destroyed by Mordred, an evil god summoned by the king Darkness of the Zah Harc empire. Gerard embarks on an adventure joined by the half-fairy Elaine Shee and the dragon archduke Galahad to exact revenge. Throughout the journey, the player explores searching for keys and items, fighting enemies and bosses to increase the character's attributes.

''Gaiapolis'' was created by the arcade division at Konami, in conjunction with ''Lethal Enforcers'' and '' Mystic Warriors''. It was directed by Hiroyuki Ashida, who previously worked on '' Gradius II'' and '' Detana!! TwinBee''. Animator Shūjirō Hamakawa, who also worked on ''Detana!! TwinBee'', served as planner and character designer. Music and sound were produced by Satoko Miyawaki, Seiichi Fukami, and Yuji Takenouchi. The game was supplemented with a manga adaptation by Hamakawa and a two-CD album from King Records.

''Gaiapolis'' proved popular among Japanese arcade players, receiving several awards from ''Gamest'' and ''Micom BASIC Magazine''. Gaming publications praised the game for its audiovisual presentation, multiplayer, worldview, and password feature. Some publications considered its playstyle was more reserved for consoles, while criticism focused on the story and direction. It never received an official home conversion, however, Sachen developed and published an unlicensed port for the Famicom in 1994. The character of Elaine would later appear in other Konami titles. Retrospective commentary for the game has been generally favorable.

Gameplay

''Gaiapolis'' is an action role-playing game played from a overhead view. The story follows prince Gerard Himerce, whose country of Avalon was destroyed by Mordred, an evil god summoned by the king Darkness of the Zah Harc empire. Determined to exact revenge, Gerard embarks on a journey accompanied by Elaine Shee, a half-fairy and last survivor of the Shee fairy clan, and Galahad, a wingless dragon archduke exiled from the dragon kingdom. The party meets a fire warrior, who tells them about three keys to open the path that leads to Gaiapolis, the tower where Darkness resides.

The player can choose one of three characters, each with their own unique weapon, advantages and disadvantages: Gerard and Galahad are sword-wielding warriors, while Elaine is a tonfa-wielding martial artist. Gerard is average but has high attack power; Elaine is weak but fast in close combat; and Galahad is slow but has great durability. The player fights enemies by performing normal or consecutive attacks with the weapon. Using consecutive attacks can potentially land a critical hit on the enemy. Characters can also perform a spin attack, a dash attack, and block enemy projectiles. Defeating enemies grants experience to fill a level gauge. When filled, the player character levels up and receives a health boost. Characters can reach a maximum level of 30.

Breaking crates and other objects reveals various items. These include weapons and shields that increase the player's offensive and defensive attributes, treasures and books that grant experience, food that replenishes health, eggs, and crystals. Picking up an egg spawns one of three mercenary beasts, one for each character: Goblin the soldier (blue), Rollin the armadillo (brown), and Garuda the dragon (purple). The beasts follow the character and can be ordered to attack enemies, but they take damage and eventually die. Each beast can be recalled to automatically restore its own health. Obtaining crystals allows the player to use one-time magic attack spells, and collecting more increases the magic level.

The player can take damage from an enemy attack and the game is over when they lose all health or the stage boss is not defeated in time. The game features a continue option and a password function: a password is displayed when the game is over. Entering the password correctly allows the player to resume from the last stage reached. The player goes through 16 stages, some of which consist solely of a boss fight for the three keys. Completing a stage grants the player additional experience depending on the time limit. In Maharishi, a path to Koben opens if the player reaches level 12 or higher, obtains three statues hidden in certain spots, and destroys a shrine to obtain an item. If the conditions are not met, the player goes to Neomosc to obtain a weapon, or to Blancmute if their level is below 12.

Development

''Gaiapolis'' was developed by the arcade division at Konami. The game was directed by Hiroyuki "A.C.D." Ashida, who previously worked on '' Gradius II'' and '' Detana!! TwinBee''.
Ending screens
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by Gaming-History. ).
Translation
by Shmuplations. ). Both the plot and story were written by Tadasu "Tadasuke" Kitae, who also served as co-programmer along with Hideo "Hides" Shiozaki and Tomohiro "Tom" Ishimoto. Animator Shūjirō Hamakawa (credited under the pseudonym Shuzilow.Ha) served as planner and character designer under the direction of Yasuhiro "Idaten" Noguchi.
Translation
by Shmuplations. ). Hamakawa had previously worked on Konami titles such as '' Crime Fighters'' and ''Detana!! TwinBee''.
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by It's Fantastic!. ).

Hamakawa was responsible for eighty percent of the graphic design for ''Gaiapolis'', including in-game and ending illustrations. He revealed that Darkness was inspired by The Kurgan from '' Highlander''. A second quest was planned to begin after defeating Darkness and reaching the throne. It would involve facing a fallen character, whose strength would depend on the player's previous level. According to Hamakawa, it was discarded due to its prolonged playtime. Light and dark weapons were also planned: light weapons would reform enemies, while dark weapons, with their high attack power, would corrode them. Hamakawa stated that these weapons were scrapped due to the difficulty of explaining their system in an arcade game. The promotional flyer was illustrated by Akihiro Yamada.

Music

The game's music and sound were produced by Satoko "Fairy" Miyawaki, Seiichi "Prophet" Fukami and Yuji Takenouchi (under the alias "Technouchi") respectively. Fukami was responsible for the music in '' Gradius III'', while Takenouchi had participated in ''X-Men'' (1992). Miyawaki stated that ''Gaiapolis'' was created in conjunction with ''Lethal Enforcers'' and '' Mystic Warriors'', with all their desks and instruments lined up to each other. Fukami was responsible for the game's soundtrack, which included orchestral, ethnic, and cinematic music. He commented that development proved to be long and found it difficult managing the number of compositions he was working on, losing track of details as he approached the total of 40 songs. Miyawaki said she would look at her co-workers' drawings and songs when having a writer's block. She mentioned that Kenichiro Fukui would request their help with tracks for ''Lethal Enforcers'', when Takenouichi was occasionally humming a tune when thinking over new ideas during lunchtime.

A two-CD album titled ''Konami Amusement Sounds '93...Natsu'' was distributed in Japan by King Records on August 21, 1993. It contained the original soundtracks for ''Gaiapolis'', ''Lethal Enforcers'', and ''Mystic Warriors'', as well as arrangements by Fukami and Tappi Iwase. In 1998, the tracks arranged by Fukami were later included as part of ''Kukeiha Club & Konami Kukeiha Club Best Vol.2'', a compilation album distributed by King Records. In 2024, a two-CD album titled ''Gaiapolis Game Sound Digital Collection'' was released under City Connection's Clarice Disk label, containing the game's original soundtrack and arrangements by Takenouchi.

Release

''Gaiapolis'' was first showcased at the 1993 AOU Show. The game was also shown at the 1993 American Coin Machine Exposition (ACME). It was released for arcades by Konami in Japan in April 1993. The game remains exclusive to arcades and never received a contemporary official conversion for a home console. An unlicensed port for the Famicom was developed and published by Sachen in 1994.

Reception

In Japan, ''Game Machine'' listed ''Gaiapolis'' on their June 1, 1993 issue as being the tenth most-popular arcade game for the previous two weeks. ''Monthly Coin Journal'' ranked the game as the twelfth highest-grossing arcade machine in Japan, based on a June 1993 arcade operator survey.

French publication ''Joypad'' found the inclusion of a password system innovative for the arcade scene, but noted that the game's mix of action and adventure playstyles was more reserved for consoles. '' Ação Games'' considered it an odd game from Konami, but commended its password feature and multiplayer mode. ''Gamest'' praised the game's audiovisual presentation but criticized its uninteresting story and direction, noting that fighting enemies with the same combat actions felt monotonous. ''Famitsu'' highlighted the game's graphics, particularly the backgrounds and player characters, and well-crafted worldview.

''Gamest'' gave ''Gaiapolis'' multiple awards at the seventh annual "Gamest Awards", placing 9th in the "Grand Prize", 4th in the "Best Action Award", 8th in the "Best Graphic Award", 7th in the "Best VGM Award", 3rd in the "Best Production Award", and 38th in the "Annual Hit Game". Japanese publication ''Micom BASIC Magazine'' also gave the game several awards at the 1993 "Video Game Grand Prix", placing 8th in "Best Action", 9th in "Best Graphics" and "Best Sound Effects", and 2nd in "Best Production".

Retrospective commentary for ''Gaiapolis'' has been generally favorable. ''Sega-16''s Ken Horowitz praised the game's ''Dungeons & Dragons''-style hack and slash gameplay, character designs, and colorful visuals, but expressed disappointment at the lack of a home release, writing that "this one would have been right at home on the 32X". ''MeriStation''s José Manuel Fernández described it as a novel action role-playing game. ''Retro Gamer'' commended the game's high-quality production, remarking that its graphics were among the best of its time, but questioned the lack of a home port, stating that it would have made a good release for the PlayStation and Sega Saturn. ''Revista PlayReplay''s Eidy Tasaka was surprised by its vertical-oriented display, commenting that it was a risky and "successful" move by Konami to make the game more interesting. ''Hardcore Gaming 101''s Robert Naytor regarded it as "the most original of Konami's arcade brawlers", but compared it unfavorably to Capcom's ''Dungeons & Dragons'' games.

Legacy

A one-shot manga adaptation, written and illustrated by Hamakawa, was published in the August 1993 issue of Shinseisha's '' Comic Gamest'' manga anthology. The character of Elaine Shee would later make appearances outside of ''Gaiapolis'' in other Konami titles; Elaine appears as an unlockable playable character in the fighting game ''Battle Tryst'' (1998).

Notes

References

External links

''Gaiapolis''
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{{DEFAULTSORT:Gaiapolis
1993 video games
Action role-playing video games
Arcade video games
Cooperative video games
Fantasy video games
Japan-exclusive video games
Konami arcade games
Konami games
Multiplayer and single-player video games
Nintendo Entertainment System games
Top-down video games
Unauthorized video games
Video games featuring female protagonists
Video games scored by Yuji Takenouchi
Video games developed in Japan