Dungeon Magic: Sword of the Elements is a first-person RPG

Role-playing game

A role-playing game is a game in which players assume the roles of characters in a fictional setting. Players take responsibility for acting out these roles within a narrative, either through literal acting, or through a process of structured decision-making or character development...

 (similar in vein to Bard's Tale

Bard's Tale

Bard's Tale may refer to:* The Bard's Tale , a video game created by Michael Cranford and Interplay Productions in 1985*more generally, the entire Bard's Tale trilogy started by the aforementioned game and continued with The Bard's Tale II: The Destiny Knight and The Bard's Tale III: Thief of...

 and the various SSI

Strategic Simulations, Inc.

Strategic Simulations, Inc. was a video game developer and publisher with over 100 titles to its credit since its founding in 1979. It was especially noted for its numerous wargames, its official computer game adaptations of Dungeons & Dragons, and for the groundbreaking Panzer General...

 D&D

Dungeons & Dragons

Dungeons & Dragons is a fantasy role-playing game originally designed by Gary Gygax and Dave Arneson, and first published in 1974 by Tactical Studies Rules, Inc. . The game has been published by Wizards of the Coast since 1997...

 games) produced by Taito

Taito Corporation

The is a Japanese publisher of video game software and arcade hardware wholly owned by publisher Square Enix. Taito has their headquarters in the Shinjuku Bunka Quint Building in Yoyogi, Shibuya, Tokyo, sharing the facility with its parent company....

 in 1989, and programmed by Natsume

Natsume Co., Ltd

is a Japanese video game developer and publisher in Shinjuku, Tokyo, Japan founded on October 20, 1987. Its American branch, Natsume Inc., is located in Burlingame, California...

 for the Nintendo Entertainment System

Nintendo Entertainment System

The Nintendo Entertainment System is an 8-bit video game console that was released by Nintendo in North America during 1985, in Europe during 1986 and Australia in 1987...

.

Story

500 years ago, the Kingdom of Granville fought a terrible war with Darces the Dark Overlord. A great hero, the warrior "Magi", rose to challenge Darces. He owned six magical swords and a powerful suit of armor that was impervious to all but the most powerful of magic. Five of his six swords were Elemental blades, each created from the rarest metals on earth. The sixth blade, "Tores", used an even more powerful metal.

Using his powers, Magi defeated Darces, and exiled him to a far away land. After defeating Darces, Magi grew old and passed away.

Now, on a dark, stormy night in the Kingdom of Granville, Darces the Dark Overlord returns to the land.

According to an old saying,

"When the shadowed veil returns to mask the midday sun

The Fire of Serpents will rise again; Five shall become the One.

The elements now heed his call, and hope is born alive;

We will have our peace once more when One becomes the Five."

Miscellany

One of the interesting aspects of the game was a magic system where a caster could combine runes from various elements to form new magic spells.

Each element had three unique runes, which allowed for 125 different spells. Unfortunately, many of those "different spells" are actually just fireball spells or curative effects. This game had no "magic point" system, so some spells drained the player's hit points instead.