Dragon Force

You stand on the battlefield and two armies surge against each other — dozens of little figures clash in real time while you, as commander, decide the fate of an entire kingdom. Dragon Force from 1996 is a strategy game the likes of which the consoles of its time had no equal, and to this day it ranks among the most frequently remembered treasures of the Saturn library.

The game's magic lies in its scale. Instead of abstract tokens you command armies numbering up to a hundred soldiers and watch as they clash directly on screen in hectic battles. This visual spectacle — dozens of fighters at a single moment — was impressive for the hardware of the day and gave the clashes the feeling of a real war melee, not just dry calculation.

Between battles the game turns into a sprawling turn-based strategy in which you manage one of eight kingdoms, move your warlords, form alliances and gradually conquer the continent. Each commander has their own units and abilities, so the composition of the army and the choice of whom to send against whom decides victory as much as the course of the battle itself. This combination of grand battles and thoughtful empire management creates an extraordinarily addictive „one more campaign“ loop.

Thanks to the fact that the story can be experienced from the perspective of different rulers, Dragon Force offers solid replayability too — each faction has its own motivations and path across the war to unify the land. For strategy fans the game thus represents hours upon hours of content.

The unique scale of battles and the dense strategic layer made Dragon Force a cult title that Sega fans remember as one of the most distinctive games of the whole generation.

Why play: For grand battles of hundreds of soldiers in real time combined with addictive kingdom management — a strategy game that both looks and plays differently from anything around it.