Released on August 18th, 1999, Drakan: Order of the Flame was developed by Surreal software and published by Psygnosis.
The game follows Rynn, a young woman with extraordinary martial skills, and an ancient dragon Arokh on their quest to free Rynn's younger brother from the evil sorcerer Navaros.
The gameplay alternates between dungeon exploration and monster fighting when Rynn is alone and aerial dogfights when she mounts Arokh.
Best time, medium difficulty: 0:57:07, by David 'atomicJo' Joassard on 2008-10-22, done in 21 segments appended to one file.
Get Flash to see this player.
Author's comments:
First I'd like to clarify one important point : due to its old age (9 years) the game suffered of multiples crashing problems on both PC i played it. Those crashes freeze the
game and make me return on the desktop, this happen at very specific places in the game that's why some of my quicksaves are very close each other. Here are the places where the game crashes:
- at the launching of a new game, that's why I launch Drakan in developper mode and choose the first level (ruined village) to start the game.
- at the cinematic for the first upgrade weapon for the dragon (poison)
- at the final battle in grotto level
- at the cinematic for the electrical upgrade weapon (alwarren level)
- at the changing level between alwarren and island
Since i launch the game in developper mode, the diffculty level is automatically set to medium.
About half of the cinematics are skippable.
Moves used :
- fast jump : jumping a very few tenth of second make you go forward faster, need a good synchronization
- skullsplitter : that's a special hit that can decrease damages taken when falling from a high place, it has to be performed during the fall, jump + crouch + attack separated
by 0.3s to do it
- fast fly : to move faster with your dragon you have to hold jump, left/right and forward keys
- go through surroundings : to go through surroundings like mountains when your with your dragon, hold jump key and directions keys to bang into a part of the surrounding then
suddenly head for another part of the surrounding (in the same direction the surrounding pushed you), this hardly at some places of the game which can provide good short cuts.
Run comments on each level :
- ruined vilage : you have to find atimar's book in order to activate a mechanism which make you go to the next level. First I take the key of atimar's house in the cave of the
tavern and my first heal potions then i run to atimar's house, take the book and go use it on the mechanism in the sort of church. Nothing more than running !
- ruined book : you have to go down by using lots of steps, I've directly jump at the bottom trying to limitate taken damages then i run through some traps, in the room where
you have to take a crystal by resolving an enigma I perform a fast jump to reach it directly, then I use again a fast jump over some rocks to take a short cut which avoid an
important part of the level. Then running until arok's room.
- wartock canyons: using fast fly I go take the key at the other side of the map and then use it to gain access to inside of the mountain. Then i have to run to reach a lever
which open the gate blocking my dragon, take some potions and arows and flying to another mountain. After some running and opening gates there's the first great dragon fight
which give me the poison weapon.
- grimstone mines : the goal is to activate a lever that open a door which free the access to an open fly area. I discovered a collision bug which let me go trough a wall by
rolling forward so i can gain access to the lever twice faster than if i had used the classical way. Then with my dragon i use the move to go trough mountain and go to the next
level without having disabled the force field.
- grotto : a lot of fly and air fights in this level, i use the go trough mountains move twice to avoid disabling fields force. Once to gain access to the final battle area and
once to go to the next level avoiding field force AND new weapon upgrade cinematic -> few minutes saved here. I don't take this upgrade but it's not a problem, the game works
fine and the default breath fire weapon is enough powerful for every air fights.
- island : just fast fly until the Rimril fortress cinematic checkpoint and then another fly until the next level where i've to find a hammer.
- alwarren : i could access to the hammer room by going through some surroundings, then i d'ont take the weapon upgrade that appear and go to the next level by going trough
mountains again
- island : i return to the Rimril fortress, go through the mountain, skip lots of full of traps rooms but lose time by doing some just to take a good armor and weapon, i think
maybe it's possible to finish the game without taking them and save few more minutes there.
- rift crystal : a very long level, a large distance to run and lots of fights if you want to open the gates blocking your way. But that's nNOT the only way! i use almost the
same bug than in grimstone mines, rolling back to the right of blocking gates to go through the wall! I save both time and health by doing because i don't to kill the dangerous
and resistant knights. I use this bug 4 or 5 times in the level, quite funny and amazing to perform fast jump inside the walls ^^
- island night : in this level you must go at the other side of the map to access the next level, but you don't have your dragon anymore! You have to run here, moreover there
are lots of ennemies and even 4 giants! I use fast jump and invisible potion at the hottest point. I make a detour to take the energy bow which is a very powerful weapon that
help me to make every kills until the end.
- succubus lair : after having killed the two naked flying sirens (^^) i hardly perform a rolling forward move to cross the closed gate, i save lot of time here cause the
classical way imply lots of fights and a large distance. Then fast jump help me find a way until a little knight boss that i kill with my bow, a few time after an armored giant
taste my energic arrows! finally fast jump to the last level
- volcano : I directly go the bridge where i can finally beat Succubus, a few energic arrows are enough. Then i free Arok and fast fly until the place where i can find lava
rune. This has to performed with Rynn alone, after some fast jumping i arrive to the place with air stars way, i activate the lever to direct the stars way and jump immediatly
on it to save time. Then i use invisible potion to avoid the to numerous ghosts who spawn, take the rune trough the chest, fast jump on the stars way (you can use short cuts in
the air here, the important thing is just to fall on the stars way before jumping again ) and go back to arok. Then i go take the lava rune and go back on my steps by
desactivating the field force i cross before, surprising thing here, Arok teleport on the other side of the field and came to me like if it was the first time i cross the field ^^
- final fight : the final fight is against Rynn's own brother in a first time, it can be win fastly by using invincible potion and performing skullsplitter (+175% damages). Then
you just must kill 4 big dragons head and enjoy the weird end of the game!
Return to the Game List, the FAQ, or the Home Page.