The Prince of the Kingdom of Avalon, Gerard Himerce, seeks out the fabled land of Gaiapolis after the invading Zar Harc Empire lays waste to his governed lands in preparation of the conquering of the known free world. He is joined in his quest by the half-human fairy martial artist Elaine Shee, and the dragon knight Galahad, the exiled duke from the land of the dragons. The party is directed in their quest by a mysterious ethereal Warrior of Flame, who tells Gerard to seek out the legendary Sword of the Golden Hawk.
The Zar Harc's leader, the King of Darkness, also holds a vested interest in finding Gaiapolis, wanting to claim its immeasurable power and further utilize it to call down an ancient demonic horror.
The arcade had an extremely rare and limited release among three regions, but its solid gameplay, excellent graphics and soundtrack, and story have made it a Cult Classic amongst those who have discovered it.
This game contains examples of:
- After the End: It is revealed near the final stages of the game that the game's events are taking place in the far future, after a massive world war blew humanity back to medieval levels of technology. It is also implied that all of the game's non-human creatures are actually the descendants of mutated people.
- Assist Character: Eggs collectibles provide access to familiars called Guardian Beasts that can aid you in battle. The familiars are an armadillo-like creature, an armored goblin with a hammer, and a small dragon.
- Auto-Scrolling Level: One of the last levels, where Flap grants you a flying platform that keeps speeding ahead. You control it to move left and right to collect power-ups and dodge obstacles, and occasionally mooks on platforms of their own will get in your way.
- Boss Bonanza: Prior to obtaining the second key, you face a trio of bosses who attack you one at a time - the stage's general, a giant tortoise-monster and a demon with Extendable Arms ending in barbs which it'll whip you with. Defeat all three and you may proceed to the next level.
- Cat Girl: Elaine is described as being a Fairy, but with her long ears and lack of wings, resembles these more.
- Degraded Boss: The first stage's boss actually becomes the most common enemy in the game. Weaker versions of the second boss also show up later.
- Disney Villain Death: Multiple:
- The final fight against the three generals ends with the last one sent flying off Gaiapolis' edge.
- The Big Bad also appears to die this way, only for his Dragon to catch his corpse, which it immediately dumps anyway.
- Draconic Abomination: After the King of Darkness is slain, he then reveals the game's True Final Boss - a dragon-demon hybrid creature summoned from the depths of hell to continue battling.
- Evil Counterpart: Zar Harc's three generals parallel the heroes in build and armament.
- Exposed to the Elements: Lampshaded before the Dark Corridor stage, set in a frozen wasteland, with Galahad commenting on Elaine's attire.Elaine: It looks rather cold inside.
Galahad: You should put on more clothes.
Elaine: ...it's none of your business. - Expy: Gerard resembles Adol Christian.
- Fairy Sexy: Elaine goes light on the clothing, which is lampshaded by Galahad during a cutscene.
- Fantasy Counterpart Culture: Many lands and bosses in the game are modeled after real-world cultures possibly due to the fact that the game takes place on Earth long after a massive war has devastated it.
- Gameplay and Story Segregation:
- The cutscene after completing Aleista shows Gerard threatening a Mook with a sword he only gets in the very next level.
- Lader and the Angels appear at the beginning of the "Highway" level regardless of whether you met them earlier. And given how obscure the method to do so is, most players won't.
- Floating Continent: The titular Gaiapolis is a floating city consisting of multiple platforms in the clouds.
- Guest Fighter: Elaine shows up as a hidden unlockable character (alongside fellow Konami heroine Pastel) in the 1998 Fighting Game Battle Tryst.
- Guide Dang It!:
- Completing Maharishi gets you one of three items. The one that lets you go to Koben requires you to destroy an out-of-the-way monument that doesn't look destructible at first glance. With the other two, it seems to be purely luck-based.
- Getting the Infinity +1 Sword is rather counter-intuitive, you have to destroy the Big Bad's throne while in the middle of fighting him.
- Half the Man He Used to Be: Zombie enemies will have their upper bodies melting into green gunk upon being slain. And somehow that's not enough to kill them - they continue attacking as a pair of legs with nothing above the waist.
- Light Is Good: The mysterious Fire Warrior, clad in fiery armor greets you early in the game and guides you through levels, and provides you assistance throughout before revealing himself to be a sacred phoenix. He remains an ally all the way throughout the game.
- Marathon Boss: The Draconic Abomination boss, last one you'll face in the game, has 60 layers of lives. And you're unable to harm it half the time when it's spamming its fiery breath all over the place (you'll need to wait until the monster pauses, where it's vulnerable). Make yourself comfortable, this battle is going to be a long one.
- Me's a Crowd: One of the enemy Generals have the ability to divide himself into multiple copies to overwhelm you through numbers. The copies all have the same health, with the boss' health meter being a cumulative total of all the copies.
- Never Smile at a Crocodile: This game has crocodile-men enemies larger than the players, who regularly pounces out of areas with water to attack.
- Night of the Living Mooks: Areista is set in a massive graveyard. You encounter zombie enemies here for the first time, and they populate at least two-thirds of the whole stage.
- Oculothorax: Clusters of floating eyeballs, all fused into a single entity, are a recurring enemy throughout the game.
- Our Minotaurs Are Different: The Minotaur boss, who has bright orange skin, four arms and a Shockwave Stomp ability, serves as a difficult boss halfway through.
- Password Save: The game is fairly long, so if players lose, they are given a password to restore their progress in future playthroughs. This may be the only arcade game in its genre (besides Gauntlet Legends) that does this.
- Peninsula of Power Leveling: Interestingly enough, this game contains one.
- Plot Coupon: Most of the story concerns itself with the heroes' quest to find three keys that will open the path to Gaiapolis.
- RPG Elements: Characters can level up to increase their damage and receive a small health boost, as well as equip new weapons and shields found in secret chests, similarly to Shadow Over Mystara.
- Related in the Adaptation: A rare one-shot manga that was published in Comic Gamest magazine, drawn by none other than Shujiro Hamakawa himself, establishes that the King of Darkness is none other than Albert Himerce, Prince Gerard's older brother.
- Rouge Angles of Satin: As per most 90s arcade games, the English translation is lacking. The most obvious error is the heroes' guide being called the "Fire Worrior"
- Ruins of the Modern Age: The party is directed by the Warrior of Flame to what is essentially the bombed out ruins of Los Angeles and are told of Gaiapolis' true purpose by a robotic guardian.
- Schizo Tech: Though the first stage puts on a pretense of a typical medieval fantasy, the Empire brings in tanks and a mech as early as the second, there's a reason for this.
- Shout-Out: The graphics for the lightning and dragon sword magics are taken directly from Lightning Fighters, a Konami Shoot 'Em Up. In addition, one bonus level is directly inspired by a stage from Konami's earlier Beat 'em Up, Teenage Mutant Ninja Turtles: Turtles in Time.
- Story Branching: Some stages can be skipped based on where you go or what buildings or scenery you destroy or enter, which affect the plot in a small way (and can also result in missing a weapon upgrade).
- Transforming Mecha: Garmegas, the boss guarding the first key, is a gigantic robot that starts off as a tank, before suddenly standing upright into a bipedal form, and then crouching again turning into a robotic dragon. What's even more impressive is that you assume it's mechanical for the entire first phase - but then its second phase shows that there's a pulsating heart inside.
- Unwilling Suspension: A Damsel in Distress you need to rescue in Turan is held captive this way, being tied up and hanging with her wrists overhead.
- Winged Humanoid: Of three different kinds: The people of Koben are humans with feathered wings on their backs akin to angels, Lader is a Draconic Humanoid similar to Galahad, only with feathered wings attached to his arms, and Flap is a Devil-looking man whose wings replace his arms entirely.
