Arslan Senki

n/a

Arslan Senki
System(s): Sega Mega-CD
Publisher: Sega Enterprises, Ltd.
Developer: BEC, Cube, Layup
Licensor: Yoshiki Tanaka, Kadokawa Shoten, Movic, Sony Music Entertainment
Genre: Simulation
Number of players: 1
Release Date RRP Code JP 1993-11-19 ¥7,8007,800 G-6028

Arslan Senki (アルスラーン戦記, "The Heroic Legend of Arslan") is a game for the Sega Mega-CD. It is based upon the Arslan Senki novels and anime. It was released in Japan in 1993.

Story

Introduction

Arslan (アルスラーン) is the crown prince of the Kingdom of Pars (パルス王国, another name for ancient Persia). He rides into the Battle of Atropatene (アトロパテネ) with his father, King Andragoras (アンドラゴラス), against the army of the neighboring nation Lusitania (ルシタニア). However, the battle is a trap set by some of the king's most trusted retainers and results in the Parsian army being almost completely annihilated and the king being captured.

After barely escaping with his life, Arslan rejoins his loyal servant, Daryun (ダリューン). Arslan must gather more allies and assemble an army strong enough to liberate his nation from the Lusitanian army, which is led by the elusive warrior known as "Silvermask" (銀仮面).

Gameplay

Battle map and scene

The game is a tactical war game, similar to Sega's Shining Force series but without the role-playing elements (such as leveling or equipment). There are 14 scenarios, and each scenario is preceded by an animated sequence that tells the story. The objectives vary for each battle, but the overarching goal is to protect Prince Arslan while leading his forces to victory. Battlefields are shown from a bird's eye view and use square tiles. Each unit takes up a single tile. Friendly units always face right and enemy units always face left when stationary. The player cannot directly order Prince Arslan but can decide his general disposition. Other units can be ordered to move or attack. After each scenario, the player can save the game to the console's internal memory in one of three slots.

Battles are turn-based. A message box appears announcing the start of each turn, which consists of a player phase and an enemy phase. During the player phase, the player can order friendly units to move or attack. The D-Pad moves the cursor around the map; moving the cursor to the side of the screen scrolls in that direction (if not on the edge of the map). Holding while moving the cursor moves faster. A unit can be selected by highlighting it with the cursor and pressing . Pressing selects each friendly unit in order that has not yet been given an order for the current turn. Pressing when a friendly unit is selected raises a command window with several options. Pressing when an enemy unit is selected shows its status. Pressing  START  gives the player the option to end the turn; it is not necessary to give an order to every unit before ending the turn. Arslan performs his own actions after the player phase ends. Then during the enemy phase, the computer can move its units and may choose to attack the player's units. Holding speeds up the animation of units moving (including during the enemy phase).

When a tile is highlighted by the cursor, the game shows the coordinates of the cursor and the terrain effect of the highlighted tile. Rougher terrain has a higher terrain effect, which reduces the distance that a unit standing on the tile can move on its next turn by one square for every 10%. Squares with a terrain effect of 40% or 50% cannot be traversed. However, a higher terrain effect value also gives units on it a higher chance of avoiding damage when attacked.

When two units engage in combat, a full-screen battle scene ensues. These scenes are not interactive (and can be disabled for faster battles, replacing them with an overlay that shows the health lost by each unit instead). Each unit has a health bar on the bottom of the screen that shows how much health it has remaining, and a unit is killed when its health bar is emptied. Either unit has a chance to attack during these scenes (not only the unit that initiated the attack), and attacks might miss and do no damage. If Arslan is killed, the battle is lost and must be attempted again. Other units can die in battle without the scenario ending; there is no permanent death for named characters.

Command windows

Pressing or makes a selection, and pressing cancels.

Arslan

Arslan's commands

Arslan cannot directly be given orders, but the player can guide his actions. Therefore, he has a unique command window where the player can specify his behavior:

• 状態 (Status): Opens a status window showing Arslan's portrait and name and his statistics.
• 通常 (Normal): Sets Arslan to behave normally. In this mode, he decides for himself whether to stay, engage, or retreat. This is his default behavior if the player does not specify another.
• 交戦 (Engage): Sets Arslan to behave aggressively and engage enemies more willingly.
• 防御 (Defend): Sets Arslan to behave defensively and retreat away from enemy units.
• 侍機 (Wait for Opportunity): Sets Arslan to stand his ground, neither advancing nor retreating. He will avoid confronting enemy units but fight them if they come into his range.

Other units

Normal unit commands

A unit can only be given one order per turn, and an order cannot be undone. Most units have the following options in their command window:

• 移動 (Move): Orders the unit to move. The squares that are within the unit's movement range blink when this command is selected. Units cannot move through impassable terrain or other units (even friendly units). If the unit moves close enough to attack an enemy unit, the unit's attack range is highlighted in green squares and the unit can attack in the same turn.
• 攻撃 (Attack): Orders the unit to attack an enemy unit. The squares that are within the unit's attack range are highlighted in green when this command is selected. Units armed with melee weapons can only attack enemies in adjacent squares, but units with ranged weapons (such as archers) can attack from longer range.
• 状態 (Status): Opens a status window showing the unit's portrait and name and its statistics.
• 助言 (Advice): Opens a message window with advice for the current battle. The advice is the same for the scenario regardless of which unit is selected.
• 機能 (Function): Opens an options window to toggle background music (BGM) or sound effects (効果音), change the battle scenes between the normal view (通常) or the simplified view (簡易), or exit the game (ゲーム中断) and return to the title screen.

Unit statistics

Unit status

Units have the following statistics:

• 体力 (Health): Represents the health that the unit has remaining. Every unit starts with 10 hit points. When the unit loses all of its hit points, it is killed and removed from the map.
• 攻撃力 (Attack Power): Represents the damage that the unit can inflict on enemy units. The damage done by an attack is randomized and affected by the attack power, unit type, terrain effect, and experience.
• 防御力 (Defense): Represents the unit's ability to withstand enemy attacks.
• 移動力 (Movement): Represents the range that the unit can move in a turn. Movement is also affected by terrain.
• 会戦数 (Experience): Represents the accuracy of the unit's attacks and thus its chance of doing full damage in combat. This value increases for characters after each scenario that they survive (though some characters, such as Daryun, start at full experience).

Unit types

There are three standard unit types and two special unit types that are sometimes fielded by enemy forces. Enemy units are marked with letters in the corner of their tiles that indicate their unit type. Arslan's forces are primarily composed of named characters whose units are based on the standard unit types, but the characters are sometimes supported by generic units as well.

	Infantry (I)
	These units fight on foot and carry shields and spears. They can attack units that are adjacent to them as well as units that are in diagonal directions around them. They are strong against archers.
	Archer (A)
	These units fight on foot and carry bows and arrows. They can attack units in close range or units that are further away. They are strong against cavalry.
	Cavalry (H)
	These units are mounted on horseback and have high movement. They can attack units that are adjacent to them. They are strong against infantry.
	War Elephant (E)
	A large unit that takes up four squares on the map. It can attack units that are adjacent to it.
	Captain (L)
	An elite unit, usually riding a horse. Killing the Captain (or Captains) is often the win condition for a scenario.

Characters

Friendly

	アルスラーン (Arslan)
	Unit type: Cavalry, Infantry
	The crown prince of Pars and the son of Andragoras III. He is kind-hearted and soft-spoken, but he has an iron will and a strong sense of justice. Though he is young and inexperienced, he wants to become a king fit for his people. He possesses a mysterious charisma that attracts capable subordinates. He is the only friendly that cannot be moved at will by the player, and the scenario ends in defeat if he should fall in battle. He must be protected by the other units.
	ダリューン (Daryun)
	Unit type: Cavalry, Infantry
	A brave knight nicknamed the "Warrior Among Warriors" (戦士のなかの戦士). He was promoted to Marzban (マルズバーン), a commander of 10,000 cavalry, at the young age of 27, and he is said to be second only to royalty in military rank. However, he was relieved of his duties as commander after admonishing the king during Battle of Atropatene and advising him to retreat, reducing him to a mere cavalryman. Nevertheless, he has sworn his loyalty to Prince Arslan and become his aide and protector. He is the first unit that the player has control over and the strongest unit overall. He has a chance to kill enemy units in a single blow.
	ナルサス (Narsus)
	Unit type: Cavalry, Infantry
	A former court advisor to King Andragoras who became a painter after becoming frustrated with the king's hardheadedness and disregard for strategy. He is narcissistic and sardonic, but he is a cunning tactician and a master swordsman.
	エラム (Elam)
	Unit type: Archer
	A young boy who is the ward of Narsus. He and his parents were freed from slavery by Narsus, so he is fiercely loyal to Narsus. He fights with a bow and arrows.
	ファランギース (Farangis)
	Unit type: Cavalry, Infantry
	A beautiful young woman who is adept at both academics and martial arts. She was a priestess serving in the Temple of the Ten Gods (十ラ神の神殿), but she was sent to protect Arslan by the high priestess. She is stoic and aloof and takes her duty to Arslan very seriously. She fights with a sword for adjacent enemies and a bow for distant enemies. With her bow, she can sometimes defeat enemies with a single blow.
	ギーヴ (Gieve)
	Unit type: Cavalry, Infantry
	A traveling musician who is skilled in embroidery and plays the lyre. Despite his frail appearance, he is a skilled combatant. He joins the party out of his infatuation for Farangis. He fights with a sword for adjacent enemies and a bow for distant enemies.
	アルフリード (Alfarid)
	Unit type: Archer
	A teenage girl who is the daughter of the Chief of the Zott (ゾット) tribe. She tries to kill Silvermask after he kills her father, but she ends up needing to be rescued by Narsus, subsequently declaring herself the future wife of Narsus. She is hot-tempered and often overestimates her own abilities, but she is proficient with a bow.
	ジャスワント (Jaswant)
	Unit type: Cavalry, Infantry
	An agent who once accompanied Arslan as an interpreter and guide when he marched towards the capital of Sindhura (シンドゥラ). He turned out to be a spy sent by one of the two warring factions within Sindhura, and he was identified and captured by Gieve. However, Arslan decided to spare his life, having sympathy for his situation. Because of this, he believes he owes a debt to Arslan and pledges his loyalty to him. He fights with a sword.
	アンドラゴラス (Andragoras)
	The King of Pars and Arslan's father. After his defeat at the Battle of Atropatene and the fall of his kingdom, he is kept alive as a prisoner but escapes.
	キシュワード (Kishward)
	Unit type: Cavalry
	A Marzban who is responsible for the defense of Peshawar Castle (ペシャワール城). He is known as the "Twin-Sword General" (双刀将軍) because he commands with a sword in each hand. He trained the hawk Azrael (告死天使), which is very fond of Arslan. He fights on horseback with a sword.
	クバード (Kubard)
	Unit type: Cavalry
	A Marzban who calls himself the "One-Eyed Lion" (隻眼の狮子) because of the eye that he lost in battle, but others call him "Kubard the Braggart" (ほらふきクバード) because of his tendency to exaggerate his exploits. He served Silvermask but became displeased and joined Arslan. He fights on horseback with a sword.

Enemy

	ヒルメス (Hilmes)
	The leader of the Lusitanian army and the main antagonist. He is also known as Silvermask (銀仮面) because of the mask he wears to conceal the scars on his face from an assassination attempt in which he was almost burned to death. He leads the invasion of Pars to reclaim the throne as he believes he is the rightful heir.
	ギスカール (Guiscard)
	Unit type: Cavalry
	The brother of the current King of Lusitania and his advisor, who is believed to be the true ruler of Lusitania since his brother is lazy and disinterested in ruling.

Scenarios

	Scenario 1
	Map: 1️⃣
	The player starts the scenario with Arslan and Daryun, but they are separated, with enemy forces in between them. The scenario ends when the player brings Daryun to Arslan.
	Scenario 2
	Map: 1️⃣
	The player starts the scenario with Arslan, Daryun, and Narsus. Arslan is again separated from the others. Farangis and Gieve join on the 5th turn. The scenario ends when Arslan's forces kill the enemy Captain.
	Scenario 3
	Map: 1️⃣
	The player starts the scenario with Arslan, Gieve, and Elam (on foot rather than on horseback). The scenario ends when Arslan's forces kill the three enemy Captains.
	Scenario 4
	Map: 1️⃣
	The player starts the scenario with Arslan, Daryun, Narsus, Farangis, Gieve, Alfarid, and Elam. The scenario ends on the 10th turn.
	Scenario 5
	Map: 1️⃣
	Arslan's forces are split between two sides of the battlefield: Arslan, Daryun, Narsus, and 4 Cavalry are on one side, and Farangis, Gieve, Alfarid, and 3 Cavalry are on the other side. The scenario ends when Arslan's forces kill the enemy Captain.
	Scenario 6
	Map: 1️⃣
	The player starts the scenario with Arslan, Daryun, Narsus, Farangis, Gieve, and 8 Cavalry. Narsus is on foot on the high ground with the ballistae, separated from the others. The scenario ends on the 12th turn.
	Scenario 7
	Map: 1️⃣
	The player starts the scenario with Arslan, Daryun, Narsus, Farangis, Jaswant, and 8 Cavalry. The archers on the high ground overlooking the valley have extended range. The scenario ends when Arslan's forces kill the enemy Captain.
	Scenario 8
	Map: 1️⃣
	The player starts the scenario with Arslan, Farangis, Jaswant, Daryun, Alfarid, Narsus, and 8 Cavalry. The scenario ends when Arslan's forces kill the enemy Captain.
	Scenario 9
	Map: 1️⃣
	The player starts the scenario with Farangis, Kishward, Kubard, 4 Cavalry, and 7 Infantry. The scenario ends on the 10th turn.
	Scenario 10
	Map: 1️⃣
	The player starts the scenario with Arslan, Daryun, Narsus, Farangis, Jaswant, Kishward, Kubard, 6 Cavalry, and 6 Infantry. Arslan is initially surrounded by enemy forces. Gieve joins on the 3rd turn. The scenario ends when Arslan's forces kill all of the enemy units aside from the Captain and his retinue, who are watching the battle from a distance.
	Scenario 11
	Map: 1️⃣
	The player starts the scenario with Daryun, Farangis, Gieve, and Jaswant (on foot rather than on horseback). The scenario ends when Arslan's forces kill every enemy unit.
	Scenario 12
	Map: 1️⃣
	Arslan's forces are divided into multiple groups surrounding the courtyard: Arslan and 4 Infantry in one group; Daryun, Farangis, and 2 Infantry in another group; Gieve and 2 Infantry in another group; Jaswant and 2 Infantry in another group; and Narsus by himself on the balcony (with no one on horseback). The scenario ends when Arslan's forces kill every enemy unit.
	Scenario 13
	Map: 1️⃣
	The player starts the scenario with Arslan, Daryun, Narsus, Farangis, Gieve, Jaswant, 9 Cavalry, and 6 Infantry. The scenario ends when Arslan's forces defeat Guiscard (the Captain unit).
	Scenario 14
	The final scenario is a non-interactive duel between Arslan and Hilmes.

Production credits

キャスト

• アルスラーン: 山口 勝平
• ダリューン: 井上 和彦
• ナルサス: 塩沢 兼人
• ギーヴ: 矢尾 一樹
• ファランギース: 勝生 真沙子
• エラム: 佐々木 望
• アルフリード: 渡辺 久美子
• 銀仮面 (ヒルメス): 池田 秀一
• カーラーン: 納谷 六朗
• アンドラゴラス: 大塚 明夫
• ナレーション: 大木 民夫

ゲームパートスタッフ

• システムプログラム / ゲームデザイン / ゲームプログラム: 須田 有亮
• CG監修: 中尾 政樹, 中川内 由浩
• サウンド制作 / SE: 株式会社キューブ

アニメーションパートスタッフ

• アニメーションプログラム: 鈴木 永康
• CG監修: 中尾 政樹, 中川内 由浩
• 脚本: 杉原 恵
• 絵コンテ: 阿部 紀之
• キャラクタデザイン: 神村 幸子
• 作画監督: 楠本 祐子
• 美術設定 / 美術監督: 池田 祐二
• 色彩設定: いわみ みか
• 音響監督: 藤山 房伸
• 原画: 樋口 香里, 梅谷 敏久, 原 博, 楠本 祐子
• 動画チェック: 豊島 光子
• 動画: スタジオぴえろ作画室, スタジオぴえろ福岡分室
• 音響制作: ザック・プロモーション
• 効果: 野口 透 (アニメサウンドプロ)
• 調整: 平野 延平
• 録音スタジオ: セントラル録音
• 制作デスク: 三上 孝一
• 制作進行: 藤井 達二, 松沢 尚彦
• 制作プロデューサー: 加藤 長輝, 本間 道幸
• 制作プロデューサー補: 佐藤 奈都子
• 監督: 阿部 紀之
• 制作協力: スタジオぴえろ
• 制作: アニメイトフィルム
• CGサポート: 池下 宗繁, 荒木 貴志, 笠浪 慎二, 寺田 一洋, 相原 高幸, 森 孝司, 内堀 利広, 江崎 稔, 土肥 正和, 横地 一頼, 真野 仁志, 株式会社レイアップ
• プログラムサポート: 加藤 紀久
• スペシャルサンクス: 浅沼 誠, 熊谷 一幸, 鈴木 広時, 尾形 和正, 堀向 直之
• 原作: 田中 芳樹 (角川書店刊)

Sega 1993

Source:

In-game credits (JP)

File:Arslan Senki MCD credits.pdf

Magazine articles

Main article: Arslan Senki/Magazine articles.

Promotional material

Print advert in Beep! MegaDrive (JP) #1993-11: "November 1993" (1993-10-08)

Physical scans

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ExpandSega Retro Average
Publication Version Score Beep! MegaDrive (JP) NTSC-J 60 Famitsu (JP) NTSC-J 60 Hippon Super (JP) NTSC-J 40 Mega Drive Fan (JP) NTSC-J 66 Sega Saturn Magazine (JP) NTSC-J 62

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Arslan Senki

Mega-CD, JP
Cover
Spinecard Disc Manual

Technical information

Main article: Arslan Senki/Technical information.