Play Dragon Scroll - Yomigaerishi Maryuu (Japan) Online

Game Overview

Ever stumble onto an NES game that feels like it was made just for you? Dragon Scroll: Yomigaerishi Maryuu is one of those—a Japan-only action RPG where you start as some sword-swinging hero and end up turning into an absolute unit of a dragon. The first ten minutes go like this: you’re hacking through these weird frog knights, then suddenly your character starts glowing, and boom—full-on fire breath. It’s ridiculous in the best way.

The pixel art pops with these deep blues and reds, and the music has that crunchy FM synth sound old games do so well. Boss fights are the highlight—each one’s this screen-filling monster that actually makes you think instead of just button-mashing. Found myself grinding a bit for spells early on, but once you get the hang of switching between human and dragon forms mid-fight, it clicks.

It’s got that Castlevania vibe but with more chaos, like if someone took Dragon Spirit and gave it a proper story mode. Shame it never left Japan, but if you’re into digging up obscure NES gems, this one’s a blast with a surprisingly mean difficulty curve. Just don’t expect the dragon form to make things easy—those late-game enemies don’t care how much fire you spit.