Gaiapolis

Gaiapolis is a 1993 action role-playing video game developed and released for arcades by Konami. The plot follows prince Gerard Himerce, whose country was destroyed by Mordred, an evil god summoned by the king Darkness of the Zah Harc empire. Gerard embarks on an adventure joined by the half-fairy Elaine Shee and the dragon archduke Galahad to exact revenge. Throughout the journey, the player explores searching for keys and items, fighting enemies and bosses to increase the character's attributes.

Gaiapolis was created by the arcade division at Konami, in conjunction with Lethal Enforcers and Mystic Warriors. It was directed by Hiroyuki Ashida, who previously worked on Gradius II and Detana!! TwinBee. Animator Shūjirō Hamakawa, who also worked on Detana!! TwinBee, served as planner and character designer. Music and sound were produced by Satoko Miyawaki, Seiichi Fukami, and Yuji Takenouchi. The game was supplemented with a manga adaptation by Hamakawa and a two-CD album from King Records.

Gaiapolis proved popular among Japanese arcade players, receiving several awards from Gamest and Micom BASIC Magazine. Gaming publications praised the game for its audiovisual presentation, multiplayer, worldview, and password feature. Some publications considered its playstyle was more reserved for consoles, while criticism focused on the story and direction. It never received an official home conversion, however, Sachen developed and published an unlicensed port for the Famicom in 1994. The character of Elaine would later appear in other Konami titles. Retrospective commentary for the game has been generally favorable.