Of course, this isn't meant as a criticism. It’s just a lesser known part of the series’ history that I personally think is really cool. In the words of Akitoshi Kawazu, who designed the game's battle system: “I tried to make it as close to Dungeons & Dragons as possible. That was my goal.”

The North American version filed a lot of the serial numbers off, but the evidence is still pretty damning: Vancian magic; otyughs, rakshasas, and mind flayers; the Sun Blade and the Defender; and even the idea of black, white, and red mages probably came from Dragonlance.