Video Game / Drakan

Drakan is a duology of Action-Adventure games from the defunct Surreal Software, consisting of Drakan: Order of the Flame for PC in 1999 and Drakan: The Ancients' Gates PlayStation 2 in 2002. Given how Surreal moved on to develop The Lord of the Rings: The Fellowship of the Ring and The Suffering duology, was bought out by Warner Bros., then merged into Monolith Productions, it's safe to assume that the series will never be continued.

In the first game, we are introduced to the main character Rynn, the resident Action Girl with a talent to use any weapon that falls into her hands. However, when Rynn's brother Delon gets kidnapped by the Big Bad Navaros' Legions of Hell, she realizes the need for More Dakka and seeks out the ancient petrified dragon Arokh, who already fought Navaros centuries ago. In fact, Arokh was part of the Order of the Flame, a fraternity of dragon-riding knights, which dissolved after Navaros was (seemingly) defeated. Hearing the latest news, Arokh (reluctantly) agrees to perform a Bond with Rynn, allowing her to ride him and thus resurrecting the Order. From there on, they proceed to kick much ass all over the world, defeating Navaros' minions to fight their way to him and Delon.

Gameplay-wise, Drakan consists of Wide-Open Sandbox-like exploration, though you are limited to a particular (fairly huge) stage of the game before you can advance to the next one. Each such stage is a large outdoors landscape, which can only be reasonably traversed on Arokh's back. The area, however, is dotted with ruins and dungeon entrances, which Rynn is often compelled to explore on her own because the entrance is too narrow for Arokh. Needless to say, the dungeons crawl with enemies. Rynn is aided against them by a vast assortment of weaponry, most of which break all too quickly, so you are forced to adopt new ones. Some enemies are found in the air, as well, particularly the enemy dragons who chose to serve Navaros. These have to be defeated in High Altitude Battles, and Arokh acquires their fancy breath weapons afterwards (one dragon, for example, breathes lightning).

The sequel starts a new storyline (after Delon died offscreen between both games): Rynn and Arokh arrive to the southern city of Surdana, which is currently under attack by an evil race of Desert Lords. It is revealed that although Arokh is now the Last of His Kind, there are more dragons hibernating in Another Dimension and only an ancient dragon like himself can open the eponymous Ancients' Gates to access it. He and Rynn are sent on a quest to find said Gates, awaken the dragons, truly resurrect the Order of the Flame, and fight back the Desert Lords.

The games contain examples of following tropes:

• Action-Adventure: Both games qualify, but the first one more so due to being more linear while the sequel is an open world instead.
• Action Girl: Rynn is a very athletic and nimble woman that's capable of using both melee weapons and long-ranged bows. However she is still a mortal human being so unless she wears protective body armor, she will die quickly therefore she needs to rely on her dragon companion Arokh.
• Adjustable Censorship: The first game had 3 options for its gore and violence- one for none at all (which causes enemies to vanish instead), one that is a realistic middle ground and finally Gorn-heavy Ludicrous Gibs. The second game toned down the gore due to ESRB censorship and PS2 limitations reasons. However there are still some areas with mutilated corpses like the Trogs' houses, the Brotherhood monastery's catacombs, Daemog's cave and the Flesh Mage character.
• Aerith and Bob: Most of the characters (regardless if they are human or not) have fictional fantasy names but some minor NPCs have mundane realistic ones like Andre and Perry in the second game.
• Alchemy Is Magic: Downplayed, Quaalus the alchemist of Surdana will sell you healing and mana potions but other than that he acts more like a chemistry-focused Mad Scientist than an outright sorcerer. It's implied he can make potions from Insubstantial Ingredients considering he gives you a sidequest which involves gathering crow dragon eggs and then selling them back to him.
• Alien Blood: Some creatures produce blood that isn't red. Arthropods like the the spiders bleed yellow puss, the black knight enemies produce blue sparkles when hit and the human slave miners in the first game have green ooze from the grimstones poisoning them instead of regular blood.
• All for Nothing: Rynn and Arokh fail to save Delon, but they remain together as friends.
• All There in the Manual: Some websites and supplementary materials give more backstory and lore for the series. According to one source, Rynn and Delon's parents were both killed by Wartoks when they were very young which causes Rynn to despise the beastmen. It's also the only way for players to know the planet's geography because apparently there are 6 continents but we only ever get to see just parts from 3 of them (read more here).
• Ambiguously Brown: Tuiri from the Alwarren in the first game is noticeably more dark-skinned compared to other characters. She lives in the tropical eastern continent so that may have something to do with it, although her skin color is hard to tell due to her being transparent by virtue of being a ghost. The human slaves and the Flesh Mage's brides in Stratos also have darker skin (interestingly, the male slaves are just reskinned Surdana monks). The Northmen in Ravenshold and the monks from the Brotherhood of the Eternal Word in Surdana look East Asian instead. Jade the Sorceress has a slight tan and looks Middle Eastern.
• Ambiguously Human: The Black Knight enemies from the first game. They resemble human warriors in scary and spiky armor. However their powers, glowing eyes and the fact they only emit blue sparkles when hit implies they aren't human. It's never explained what they are but it's possible they are human souls bound in magical suits of armor of human mages and warriors that defected to the Dark Union.
  • The Soulless mooks from the second game as well. They are stated to be the Desert Lords' corpse soldiers, resembling humans in medieval Arabian clothes and visibly bleed in one cutscene. However like the black knights above they are creations of the Big Bad so it's safe to assume they are former humans.
  • Yutaji the Flesh Mage. It's never explained if he's a human sorcerer kidnapped by the Desert Lords and turned into an abomination, or if he like them is also a demon originating from the planet Sessool.
• An Economy Is You: You as Rynn can amass tens of thousands of gold, seemingly nobody else cares about the money and they will all gladly give it to you... provided you sell them something or do their quest first.
• Another Dimension: Where Mala-Shae and her spirit dragon brood hibernate.
• Annoying Arrows: You can snipe enemies with nearly polygon-perfect accuracy in the sequel (and your arrows even remain visible exactly where they hit), but this certainly doesn't impair your enemies' fighting ability any.
• Armor-Piercing Attack: Weapons made of mithril and most magic weapons will ignore armour. Weapons that go through armour are extremely important in the game as enemies in armour, especially the knight-type enemies, take only scratch damage from regular weapons. Also be aware that enemies can use armor-piercing weapons themselves, such as the knights with their magical swords.
• Armor Is Useless: Played straight with the starting leathers, but subverted with later armors. Even the humble chainmail reduces a significant amount of damage, and the Dragon Armor is practically Armor of Invincibility, with plate mail not too far behind.
• Art Evolution: Inevitable given that the first game was released for PC in the late 90s with graphics resembling Serious Sam. The second game was released 3 years later, having better graphics and models. Several characters and creatures get visual redesigns— for example Arokh in the first game is black and red with Monochromatic Eyes, while in the second game he's more orange/yellow (although you can make him more red if you change the graphics in the options menu) with visible pupils in his eyes and has 4 small spikes on his tail similar to a Stegosaurus.
• Attack Its Weak Point: Some enemies and bosses can only be killed with specific ways. Example from the first game Navaros in the form of Kaeros can be killed way faster if you shoot the mouths of his heads when they are exposed during his attacks given his skin is almost impervious to damage. Granted, the secondary attack of Arokh's default fire breath can pass through solid objects and is overpowered so that can destroy the Final Boss in record time. Also the second game the Pain Golem is immune to Arokh's attacks but Jasaad isn't. You have to fly close enough to the golem and bait it into using its melee attacks, which briefly exposes the vulnerable Big Bad.
• Back Stab: Rynn does extra damage if she hits an unsuspecting enemy from behind. Whenever possible, try to do this with her most powerful attack - a leaping twirl that hits twice.
• Badass in Distress: Arokh is a large frickin' dragon that can fly and shoot death from his mouth. However in the last 1/3 of the original game, he's kidnapped by the succubi and Rynn has to spend more than 3 levels to find and rescue him from his cage. Thankfully after that you can once again play as him in the last 2 levels.
• Bag of Spilling: The second game starts Rynn off with naught but the clothes on her back, her humble dagger, and Arokh. There's also the fact that Arokh loses all 4 of his previous breath weapons, only keeping his default fire breath (although he can re-acquire the ice and lightning elements).
• Bald of Authority: General Dehrimon in the second game looks intimidating with his bald head and big eyebrows, however he's one of the more heroic and nicer characters in the series. Interestingly, the barmaid in the local tavern says he used to be a troublemaker and womaniser in his youth but is now Older and Wiser.
  • Ranwulf and all of the other Northmen also have bald heads, despite living in the cold tundra. The Northmen are a tribe which exemplifies the Proud Warrior Race Guy archetype.
  • Brekk the blacksmith in Surdana downplays this, however he's still an important member of the city.
• Beast Man: The Grulls, Wartoks, Goblins and Trogs all qualify but the aptly named Half-men from the second game take the cake. They sorta resemble tailless black-skinned minotaurs with loincloths and boots. ^note One variant also have mohawk-like spikes on their head. According to the Northmen in Ravenshold they are so ugly that one is "enough to put you off your food". Half-men don't use magic but instead build primitive technology for combat. Interestingly, they are religious as their leader Maulgak claims he has "spirits of earth and steel" on his side.
• Big Bad: Navaros in the first game, Jasaad in the second game.
• Big Creepy-Crawlies: There are a few large arthropods which serve as enemies.
  • Both games have giant spiders (having elongated front limbs and tails make them also resemble scorpions) which live in swarms inside caves. Interestingly they lack poison and the ability to shoot web from their mouths, instead just either crawling on ceilings or hitting you with their front limbs. The first game has a spider in the infested mine from the Wartok Canyons' very beginning that is longer than Rynn is taller. Subverted in that it's just a static model prop and is never actually fought. You kill it and the lair's cocoons by solving a puzzle with an explosive barrel and causing the ceiling to cave in.
  • The first game has Ticks which are yellow with black stripes and appear only in the tropical islands levels. They lack any special powers but if you are far away enough and infront of them, they use a leap attack which sucks out your blood and instantly kills you.
  • There are also literal dragonflies in the first game, also in the same areas. They lack any special moves and just fly towards the player (albeit fast), damaging you with the stingers on their tails. Given they die in one hit and most of the time avoid your attacks, they just serve as nuisance-type enemies.
• Bigfoot, Sasquatch, and Yeti: The second game has Yeti enemies which are [[white-colored versions]] of the primitive giants living in the northern continent tundra. Unlike their southern relatives, the yetis can create projectiles for throwing at you (meaning they have infinite "ammunition") from the snow that covers the ground beneath them. Yetis also have limited ice powers given they will breathe freezing vapors if Arokh is flying close enough, which causes him to fall down immobilized and shatter.
• Bigger on the Inside: Averted; buildings are as big on the outside as their interiors make them appear, although the long corridors that lead to the inside of Surdana's houses and shops might feel out of place.
• Black Knight: These are the most dangerous non-dragon enemies in the first game. There's the Crimson Knight and the superior Ebon Knight, both are dual-wielding, magic-using heavily armored warriors that can easily kill Rynn with their enchanted swords. They have deadly melee attacks, long-ranged magical projectiles and either fiery area-of-effect spells or can temporarily become intangible.
• Blackout Basement: The Ancients' Gates has the Forgotten Tomb in the northern tundra. Inside you need to find, collect and place on pedestals four emblems to gain access to a sarcophagus with a dead warrior's ashes. Problem is you can't see anything besides the skeleton enemies' glowing eyes in the darkness unless you carry and equip with you a torch from Ravenshold's blacksmith. There are various traps inside this Ancient Tomb and no other light sources, therefore unless you wanna die it's highly recommended to use a torch. While it only deals 1 point of damage, it has 400 durability which makes it an useful tool.
• The Blacksmith: Brekk in the second game, he's the first blacksmith and shopkeeper you meet. Depending on who you asks, he's also the best one especially considering he's the only one that will sell you the Mournbringer sword.
• Blocking Stops All Damage: In the first game, blocking reduces a large amount of damage with the caveat of Rynn being forced to stand still. In the second game, blocking is only temporary (it lasts just a brief second or two) so you have to time the parry exactly right when the enemy attack connects but it nullifies all damage. The animation even changes depending on whether or not you have a shield equipped.
• Bond Creatures: The two protagonists with each other.
• Bonus Dungeon: There a few of these in both games. In the first, the Grotto level has a small side area high in the mountainside with a secret Ice Sword. The second game has multiple more due to its open-world nature. Among the more important ones are the City of the Damned, the Inquisitor's Cave, the Surdana monastery and Kragmor. The last one will give you the Lightning Blade which is required to unlock the Mournbringer.
• Boss in Mook Clothing: The war giants in the first game have more Hit Points than most bosses (450) and wield huge axes that usually One-Hit KO Rynn unless she has some pretty good armor. Fortunately, you are almost always riding Arokh when you fight them, and the only time you encounter them on foot, you are expected to sneak by, rather than actually fight them.
• Bottomless Pits: Lots of them. Generally replaced by mile-high drops in The Ancients' Gates. There's a funny animation of Rynn when she falls down one of these.
• Breakable Weapons: Nearly all weapons and armor have a durability after which they are rendered useless, so you will be forced to start using the various weapons you collect. Not to mention your limited inventory space....
  • The second game allows you to repair weapons and armor at the blacksmith's, although this costs the weapon 10% of its original durability in the process, so after two or three repairs you're probably better off replacing it altogether. Reloading a bow's arrows counts as repairing too. (Maybe there's some restringing involved?)
  • The three subversions in the first game are Atimar's Blade, your first weapon (though very short ranged and weak in terms of damage inflicted); the Mournbringer, which is not just indestructible, but also vampiric (i.e. charges your health when it lands a hit); and the Runeblade, which is so story-relevant, they made it indestructible, so you wouldn't break it before facing the Big Bad.
• Breath Weapon: Arokh starts off with the classic fire breathing and goes on to acquire ice breathing, acid breathing, lightning breathing, magma breathing, and so on, and so on. Incidentally, the strongest breath weapon in the first game? Short-range fire, alternate mode for the very first attack. It can literally fry any dragon boss without needing recharge. But be prepared to take some hits. Notable for defeating Werokh (the ice dragon boss) within 5 seconds of the start of the battle.
• Bridge Logic: In Drakan: Order of the Flame, after getting Arokh's Soul Crystal from Heron's crypt and returning outside, there's an old rotting tree that protagonist Rynn can push to make a makeshift bridge across a gap (and as a bonus, kill an unfortunate Grull who's patrolling the other side). Later, a wooden support beam in the Spider-infested mines is used as one as well.
• Bubblegloop Swamp: Drakan: The Ancients' Gates has Shadowmire, infested with Trogs and other types of monsters. The only thing separating it from Surdana is a wooden door, it's a tropical swamp in what appears to be dark underground cavern. Makes you wonder how the plants grow there without any sunlight, however the Tree of Mourning is a memorial site of the Order that grows in a clearing.
• The Cameo: Navaros in his human form (wearing a Crimson Knight armor) and Kaeros appear in the second game's intro cutscene. The former is also mentioned once by Gothraul the desert skeleton boss. There is also a tiny goblin locked up in a suspended cage inside Tull the Hermit's round hut when you visit Shadowmire.
• Can't Live Without You: Once the Bond is established, if the dragon dies so does the rider, but not vice-versa. In fact, Arokh has already outlived at least one rider (Heron). To clarify, if the rider dies, the dragon turns to stone (Arokh escaped that fate with Heron's death because the latter was in a dimensional rift when he died, but then later Arokh went to stone-sleep voluntarily after Heron's burial), whereas if the dragon dies, the rider becomes a Soul Shadow who wanders for eternity. Both cases can be remedied by finding the dragon's Soul Crystal. The second game seems to show this as "if one dies, so does the other".
• Cap: In the second game you need to level up your 3 skills branches in order to use more powerful weapons and spells. You obtain 1 skill point for every level you gain and then can spend that point on 1 of the 3 skill branches. All 3 branches start at level 1 and the maximum is level 10 (meaning you need 27 levels and skill points), however the highest level you can achieve is 12 (even if you use cheat codes). This means you need to really carefully pick what to spend your skill points on as it's impossible to max out everything. Word of God says this was done to increase the game's replay value.
• Casting a Shadow: Jasaad appears wreathed in shadows when appearing in Surdana, but looks relatively "normal" for a Desert Lord when met in person.
• Celibate Hero: Neither Rynn or Arokh ever get love interests and end up being in a relationship (though several fans pair them with each other instead). Some characters do try to flirt with Rynn but it goes nowhere. This isn't a bad thing and it's probably for the best.
• Chainmail Bikini: Plenty of Rynn's armor choices expose certain parts of her body (the midriff, shoulders, throat and upper cleavage) for obvious fanservice reasons, despite being made to protect her as much as possible from damage. Also none of them come with any helmets.
• Chuck Cunningham Syndrome: The Dark Knight, Goblin, War Giant, Succubi, Dragonfly and Tick enemies from the first game don't appear in the sequel. The dark knights and goblins do get a cameo, however. Possibly justified since these (barring the succubi) are local fauna of the tropical eastern continent which is never visited in the second game.
• Cold-Blooded Torture: The Wartoks love this. All their prisoners seem to end up either worked to death, tortured horribly to death... or both.
• Colour-Coded for Your Convenience: The first game lacks a health indicator for enemies and bosses, while the second game introduced a targeting reticle which appears when you lock-on to any foe. Red means they are close to dying, orange means the have little health remaining, yellow means, half of their health is lost, pale green means they have most of their health remaining, dark green means they are at full health and lastly blue/purple means they are invincible. The only method to kill the last ones is by finding out their weaknesses.
• Comic-Book Fantasy Casting: Rynn's appearance in the series was based on a real life model named Myrna Blankenstein.
• Constructed World: Drakan is a planet with unique geography and multiple biomes. The flora resembles our real world plants, but the fauna is definitely unique for the most part. ^note There are normal animals like chickens, owls, birds, fish, bats and insects visible in some areas. The history and civilizations have some resemblances to real-world ones but are mostly distinct. There are also at least 3 separate worlds as well: the Rift World (where Navaros' disembodied soul was banished in the Dark Wars' end), the Dragon Dimension (where Mala-Shae and the Spirit dragons retreated to sleep after the Dark Wars ended) and Sessool (the harsh and inhospitable demon world from which the Desert Lords and other twisted beings originate).
• Cool Big Sis: Rynn to Delon, before he died. This is a sister who was willing to awaken a dragon and bond with him just to save him. But sadly it didn't work out in the end.
• Cool Gate: The eponymous Ancients' Gates in the second game. They are large round portals decorate with 2 serpentine dragons on the sides. They serve as fast travel teleporters between the various locations.
• Corridor Cubbyhole Run: One section of the ruins where Rynn must find an amulet has a corridor with a spinning blade moving back and forth along it, and a section where she can duck in to avoid it (and she must be crouched while there, because that section also has spikes that pop out at waist level).
• Crate Expectations: Wooden crates are scattered throughout areas in both games, some of them can be destroyed but most of the time they are empty. Instead barrels contain goodies while crates are used either as platforms or solving puzzles.
• Creator Cameo: In the first game's Alwarren level, there is a secret Lightning Axe behind a door with steel bars. If you find a key, then you can get this axe called "Vykruta's Axe". The second game also has a male minstrel in the Surdana tavern who is also named Vykruta. Both are named after one of Surreal Software's employees. The Acnients' Gates also has Clineschmidt's Sword hidden inside a cave in the Northern Tundra, named after another employee.
• Cutscene Power to the Max: In the first game's climax Rynn can use a sword while riding Arokh and later she makes a very big jump over a chasm. Both of these cannot be replicated ingame. Also in the second game, the sorceress Jade kills a Desert Lord with a single spell shot. Humorously, she shortly after states they are harder to be slain despite what Rynn just saw.
• Deadpan Snarker:
  • Both Rynn and Arokh takes turns at this, although Arokh is probably more so.
  Arokh: (after a boss battle) Ah, there you are.
  Rynn: Barely. You should have seen the giant I just had to fight.
  Arokh: Yes, I'm sure it was... horrible.
  Rynn: No, really, it was HUGE!
  Arokh: Yes, of course it was.
  • There's also the moment listed on the CMOF page. Upon encountering yet another old enemy of Arokh's that has been brought back to life and is looking for revenge, Rynn asks "Didn't you have any friends?"
• Death Mountain: The first 4 levels of the original game (Ruined Village, Wartok Canyons, Grimstone Mines and the Grotto). They are even called "Mountain World" in the game's files.
• Dem Bones: Besides the bone dragons there are also human skeleton mooks in the second game which use short axes instead of stereotypical swords. The Bone Lord and Gothraul bosses are larger versions of regular skeletons. ^note Curiously, Gothraul is called the "prince of Ghouls" which implies that skeletons and ghouls are interchangeable words in this series. The Death Magi subvert this because they lack legs and are covered in bandages like an Egyptian mummy.
• Devil in Plain Sight: Zola Dane from Drakan: The Ancient Gates. Bad foreshadowing, gesticulations, and voice acting (not to mention if you actually talk to him before going to the Shadowmire) make it an Un Reveal when you have to kick his butt the first time.
• Did You Just Flip Off Cthulhu?: At first, Arokh was not pleased at having been awoken by Rynn, especially just to rescue her brother. Rynn, obviously not amused at having her brother spoken so poorly of, talks him down for it. Only then was he willing to listen to what she had to say, because he was legitimately impressed at how she was willing to stand up to him, a dragon who could have toasted her right then and there.
• Difficult, but Awesome: The ice breath can be used to immobilize enemies and when they hit anything (Arokh, another projectile, the ground, etc) their corpses shatter into several pieces and then melt. This can be used to keep the areas clean from corpses because they take up space on the ground which could block your path. Thankfully, the ice breath has limited homing capabilities.
  • The lightning breath as well. It can spread between multiple enemies and cause additional damage, but getting a proper hit with it is extremely tricky to a point it feels almost like it's RNG instead.
• Difficulty Levels: The first game has these alongside a multiplayer mode, while the second game ditches both in favor of being more of an open-world RPG. The difficulty levels are "Easy", "Normal" and "Hard". There is also a fourth one added in a later version patch called simply "Very Hard".
• Doomed Hometown: Rynn's village in the first game.
• Downer Ending: The ending of the first game has this in spades. Delon, Rynn's younger brother that you are trying to save the whole time ends up being possessed by the spirit of Navaros, and she has to fight him in order to snap him out of it. She succeeds, but he falls off the edge of the area, and into the abyss of the Rift, screaming his sister's name. What we see after that is Rynn, who is laying on the ground and looking over the edge, muttering about how sorry she was for failing to save him. It is then that we get the actual final boss fight with Navaros in his true form. After he is defeated, we get the final cutscene with Rynn and Arokh trying to find Delon. We never know his fate until the second game, though, where he is revealed to be dead.
• Dracolich: Both games feature undead zombie skeletal dragons as enemies.
• The Dragon: Pun aside, in the second game, Zola Dane, Myschala's royal seer, is revealed to be one for the Big Bad Jasaad Duthane.
• Dragon Hoard: The games play with this: while dragons don't hoard treasures per se, they are often associated with powerful magic crystals and gems which could awaken them from their slumber while turning the human into a dragon rider. The protagonist Rynn finds and uses one such crystal to awaken the dragon Arokh and perform the Bond ritual which allows them to join forces and embark together on adventure.
• Dragon Rider: The main gameplay of the series revolves around this. In the backstory, the Order of the Flame was an entire faction of human sorcerer-warriors that are spiritually bonded with and ride dragons.
• The Dragons Come Back: The second game's plot basically revolves around this. Drakan: The Ancients' Gates sees Rynn and Arokh bringing back the dragons Trapped in Another World in order to re-establish the ancient Order of the Flame, pushing back the forces of evil that have almost subjugated humanity in the meanwhile.
• Dramatic Irony: In the Andrellian Isles one of the many reasons why the sailor crew cannot continue is because their healer Sevoth has been poisoned. You need to find his medicine pouch so that he can be healed back.
• Dual Boss: Shaza and Tora, the traitorous dragon siblings fought in the Desert of Tears close to the end of the second game. Funnily enough, they had a brother that was killed by Arokh due to being an eater of children.
• Dungeon Crawling: Rynn is often forced to leave the much bigger Arokh who can't fit inside small areas, then traverse them on her own. As you can expect, all dungeons and ruins are filled to the brim with enemies and/or deadly traps.
• Durable Deathtrap: Lots of them in the dungeons. Ancient ruins feature fully functional traps. It seems that whirling blades are much more durable than stationary stone walls.
• Einstein Hair: Quaalus the alchemist of Surdana has such a hairstyle. He's a good guy, but has shades of Mad Scientist and Scatterbrained Senior.
• Eldritch Location: The Rift World in the end of the first game is this. It resembles an organic cavern with pulsating walls akin to a ribcage and undulating spikes on the ground, eyelid like portals in the four corners from which enemies spawn and fleshy doors. If Rynn touches the purple scale textures on the floor, her health will quickly deplete as if she is standing in lava instead. The walls are supported by spiky bone-like pillars and there is a vortex of darkness at the end. This place is a rip in the fabric of time-space where Navaros' soul was banished after his body was pierced and destroyed from the Runeblade in the Dark Wars' end. The demon world Sessool is also described as one, although it's never seen or visited.
• Elemental Powers: A good portion of the magic abilities for both characters and creatures in the series is this trope, in particular the dragons' breath weapons. Besides the standard ones (fire, ice, lightning, magma, poison, etc) there are also some exotic ones as well such as Sound/Sonic which Arokh can acquire in the second game. The first game's trials of the Flame Fortress Ebon Tower and Rift Crystal also include passing through a gauntlet of elemental-based traps like tornadoes, icy blasts, earthquakes, fire geysers, lightning bolts and so on.
• Emergency Weapon: Atimar's Blade in the first game and Rynn's Dagger in the second game. Both starting weapons are weak damage-wise and have short range, but make up for it with their high attack speed and infinite durability. And of course you have them from the very beginning.
• Energy Bow: The Energy Bow in the first game, doesn't have a lot of durability but it creates its own ammo and those energy arrows hit hard!
• Escort Mission: Near the end of the second game, when you enter the Valley of the Fallen there will be one instance of this. The local human farmers beg you to save their son Perry from the Wartoks' nearby cave. After doing so, Rynn must escort him back to his windmill house while also killing all enemies which have spawned on the way back home.
• Essence Drop: A downplayed example, but in both games airborne monsters will sometimes leave behind a glowing red orb when killed. Collecting such a glowing sphere of magical soul essence using Arokh will restore a significant amount of your health.
• Even Evil Has Standards: Subverted in the second game. It's suggested that the Desert Lords trapped Yutaji the Flesh Mage in his own palace because he was too evil even for them. Turns out that Jasaad is the one who drove him to madness in the first place.
• Everything Fades: Averted in the sequel. Anything you kill will remain where it fell throughout the entire game unless you kill it with specific attacks like Arokh's Ice breath or his Sound/Sonic blast projectiles.
• Evil Chancellor: Although this plot twist could be seen coming a mile away Zola Dane in the second game is the royal advisor of Surdana, however he allies himself with the Desert Lords instead.
• Evil Sorcerer: Plenty of the villains and bosses qualify for this.
• Evil Overlord: Both games' Big Bads are examples, since they are also powerful mages they also double as examples of Sorcerous Overlord.
• Exploding Barrels: Both games feature wooden barrels as hazards for the player. They are differentiated from regular barrel by having a different shape and red/black symbols written on them. Savvy players can lure enemies close to these and use ranged attacks to blow them up.
• Face–Heel Turn: Several villains are former members of the Order which defected to the Dark Union, with Navaros being a Fallen Hero who became the Union's leader and sorta literally devoured his Dragon Kaeros. However the biggest example is Werokh, an old friend of Arokh who was awakened by the Dark Union and became its servant. Arokh is very saddened for having to kill his former ally, but at least he gets to take and keep Werokh's ice breath power for himself.
• Falling Damage: Rynn will groan in pain and lose some health if she falls on hard ground from high enough. The higher the altitude, the higher the damage. Obviously big enough heights will outright kill her.
• Fashionable Asymmetry: Realistic example in Order of the Flame - two of Rynn's armor sets, the Chainmail and the Plate Mail, had the left arm armored while the right (sword) arm was unprotected.
• Fat Bastard: The Succubus Queen Shilla in the first game, unlike her lithe subjects, is enormously fat and will try to squish you under her bulk. She's also every bit as evil as your typical succubus.
• Feathered Fiend: Besides the crow dragons, there is also the secret carnivorous giant chicken enemy in the second game. If you find its corpse-filled cave within Surdana and kill it you get 2 rewards: a golden egg worth 1000 points and unlocking the rubber chicken weapon.
• Female Monster Surprise: The sea serpent Mezzidrel in the second game despite having a deep voice is referred to by Bonegrinder as a "she".
• Fire, Ice, Lightning: Various weapons, crystals (first game only) and spells (second game only) used by Rynn are based around this. Also both games have Arokh start out with only his basic fire breath, however he can later obtain also ice and lightning.
• Flaming Weapon: Flame Swords live up to their name and are some of the best weapons in both games.
• Floating Continent: The Desert Lords' headquarters in the second game is the final area— a bunch of islands called "Stratos" high up in the sky. The 2 undead bosses Khossa Vole and Gothraul have their lairs in Pocket Dimension versions of this as well.
  Rynn: (after entering the City of the Damned) What is this place? It's like he's created his very own little world!
• Fluffy the Terrible: Order of the Flame leaves this one to the player's imagination — while you never get to encounter its owner, there's a weapon hidden in a cave in the Wartok Canyons level called "John the Monster's Axe". Given the kind of world Drakan is and what kinds of enemies are encountered, there's no telling what kind of monster this John is, though at least they could have two arms to wield said axe with.
• Friendly Fireproof: Rynn is impervious to Arokh's firebreath, even though Arokh generally won't use it if there's a risk of hitting her anyway. On the other hand, spells and projectile weapons are not friendly-fireproof: You can get caught in the blast radius of your own spells if you're not careful, but you can also position yourself so that tha arrows or spells from one enemy will strike an enemy in front of you.
• Frog Men: The Trogs (a Portmanteau on "frog" and "troglodyte") in the second game. Their culture is inspired by indigenous American tribes like Aztecs and Incas, with some Pacific Islands tribes flavor thrown in for good measure. Trogs decorate their houses with human remains and have tiki totem poles placed around as traps. They either shoot blow darts or use shamanistic staffs for basic elemental attacks, but most Trogs just use Wolverine Claws for melee attacks because they lack sharp nails.
• Fungus Humongous: Downplayed example but in Surdana's valley there are caves with large fungi, including the aptly named "Mushroom Cave". The fungi's models range between either big enough to be used as a chair by people or as tall as an adult human being.
• Fusion Dance: It's possible to use a variant of the Bonding ritual to fuse together both the human rider and their dragon mount, which results in them turning into a Draconic Humanoid Abomination. Navaros did so with Kaeros in the backstory, thus betraying his loyal steed to achieve more power and pseudo-immortality just for himself.
• Gangplank Galleon: The first game has pirate ships of the Dark Union in the tropical islands levels and the beginning of the volcano level. While Rynn can climb on and walk on the ships, they are just static props. Interestingly their sails are made from bone dragon wings and a dragon skull is placed on the front. in the second game the Andrellian Isles also have large wooden ships, albeit with giant sea turtle shells as roofs and you can find actual loot on them. Thankfully the latter ones don't pose a threat since they belong to Captain Fandrill and his crew of sailor merchant explorers which are your allies.
• Genuine Human Hide: Yutaji the Flesh Mage from the second game is made from the severed skin of his "brides". Considering that bones and other body parts are also visible on him, it could be an example of Body of Bodies as well. Strangely the flesh on his body is white despite his brides being dark-skinned.
• Giant Mook: Both games have the aptly-named primitive giants (also the war giants in the first game and the Yetis in the second game). Besides the typical Smash Mook attacks, they were large enough to potentially fall onto the player and crush them at death, thus forcing them to be careful.
• Godzilla Threshold: Your introduction to the giant tribes in the first game always involve this. The first primitive giant you face is locked away behind a giant boulder, and the enemy mooks unleash it, knowing full well that it will see them as ammunition because you've torn through so many of them that they feel they have to stop you, no matter the cost.
• Golem: Powerful enemies used by the Desert Lords and the Flesh Mage in the second game. Come in 3 variants- Ice golems, Rock golems and the Pain Golem which can One-Hit KO Rynn with their melee attacks even if she's wearing the best armor. They have a single eye on their blank heads which fire a long-ranged laser beam that can kill both Rynn and Arokh in mere seconds upon contact.
• Grand Theft Me: In the original game Delon (Rynn's younger brother) is used by the Dark Union to resurrect their master, performing a ritual to place Navaros' spirit inside Delon. They briefly succeed, but Rynn quickly uses the Runeblade to drive back the Big Bad into the vortex and then Arokh kills him in his four-headed Kaeros form. Sadly they lose Delon in the process but at least they managed to save the world from a great evil.
• Great Offscreen War: The Dark Wars have come and passed away in the games' backstory. They are recorded in some books and apparently the devastation caused by a combination of physical warfare and magic resulted in the planet's geography being permanently altered. The narration states that "seas boiled away to deserts and mountains laid shattered to dust".
• Green Hill Zone: The valley and city of Surdana in the second game. It's an easy area to explore with basic things like grassy meadows and few outdoor enemies.
• Grid Inventory: Rynn's inventory in both games consists of 24 squares (3 rows with 8 columns). Items can take up from one up to four squares.
• Grievous Harm with a Body: Both Drakan games have primitive giants, which pick up and hurl any large movable object they can find — usually boulders and explosive barrels — at Rynn, but they're so mindless and feral that their projectiles of choice also include normal sized (and living) Wartoks and Grulls (the latter two of course always end up getting killed upon impact; thus these guys actually fear those lumbering giants as if they're their enemies too).
• Grim Up North: The northern continent visited in the second game is a barren tundra with some caves and monsters around but it's mostly just wilderness. There are Northmen living in the city of Ravenshold which is located in the southern point of the continent. Also an example of Slippy-Slidey Ice World.
• Guide Dang It!: Some of the best weapons in the second game, including the swords you need to find to unlock the Mournbringer, are hidden in out of the way areas you'd never think to look in unless you knew beforehand that they were there. The Earth Blade, in particular, requires you to save Nichols the Bold from being electrocuted by some Trogs while you're in the Shadowmire. Nichols can die, and if he does, you can forget the Earth Blade and the powerful Mournbringer vampiric sword by proxy as well.
• Hair-Trigger Temper: For the first game, a cheat code does exist that allows you to alter enemy aggression to 100%. If you do this, enemies will turn and attack each other in the case of friendly fire. The most amusing of this is when it applies to the primitive giants, they will pick up and throw their enemies, and a Big "NO!" always ensues. Even without doing that, there is always a chance that the enemy troops will turn on their fellows in the case of a friendly fire incident.
• Healing Potion: Both games feature magical potions which replenish both Rynn and Arokh's health— red cheaper ones restore only 25% of their health, while more expensive blue ones replenish all of it.
• Here There Be Dragons: The ingame map for the islands levels in the first game (both day and night versions) have a giant Sea Monster drawn on them which never appears ingame. That's most likely a remnant of a planned enemy/boss idea which got scrapped mid-production.
• High-Altitude Battle: And between dragons with various elemental projectiles to boot.
• High Fantasy: With some added flair of dark and heroic genres thrown in as well. Rynn and Arokh wouldn't look out of place in something created in a Frank Frazetta or Boris Vallejo painting.
• The High Queen: Lady Myschala is the benevolent female ruler of Surdana in the second game, a medieval European-looking city with a royal castle and one of the last bastions of humanity. There is no king seen anywhere.
• Hoist by His Own Petard: During the final boss in the second game, after Jasaad is knocked off the hand of the Pain Golem by Rynn and Arokh's attacks, he is too weak to get away on time when he hits the ground, and it falls on him, crushing him.
• Hollywood Darkness: The Catacombs and the Forgotten Tomb in Drakan: The Ancients' Gates were dark to the point all you could see were the glowing eyes of your enemies, leaving you quite helpless to aim your killing blows. You can carry a torch, but you must put it out in order to use your weapon. Most other caves or interiors had ample lighting with or without torches, glowing mushrooms, etc.
• Homing Projectile: Magic arrows in the first game, will home in on enemies and do better damage than an ordinary arrow. These are great to have against the flying succubi enemies.
• Human Sacrifice: Some creatures like Grulls and Trogs have pagan altars where they use human corpses and blood to appease whatever barbaric deities they worship.
• Hyper Space Arsenal: Subverted, the games really give you limited space for your possessions, although you can obtain as much gold as you want. Granted, it's still a mystery where Rynn keeps her belongings on her skimpy default clothes and her character model is lacking any kind of bag to carry them around.
• Inexplicable Treasure Chests: Both games have treasure chests in various areas (presumably left there by Grulls, Wartoks and other monsters) full of pickable items which open their lids when you get close enough.
• Infinity +1 Sword: The Runeblade, which belonged to Arokh's original rider Heron, in the original game; and the Mournbringer in the sequel.
• Informing the Fourth Wall: In both games, Rynn has several responses to impossible actions when the player tries to make her do them:
  • Try to get Rynn to pick up items she cannot use (such as standard dark union weapons dropped by grulls/wartoks when they are killed), and she'll respond with "I can't use that." (she can however pick up normal human use weapons like axes, battle hammers, and swords dropped by them if they wield such weapons).
  • Try to make her open a locked door without the necessary key, and she goes "It's locked." or "Hmm, I need a key".
  • If she's equipped with a bow, try to make her fire an arrow when she has no such ammo: "I don't have any arrows!"; conversely, if she has arrows of any type but doesn't have a bow and you try to equip her with the former: "I don't have any bows".
  • Lastly, try to pick up any item when her inventory is full or has no necessary contiguous space for the item: "I don't have any room."
• "Instant Death" Radius: The primitive and war giants have devastating melee attacks which can instantly kill Rynn if she is close enough. However the opposite is also true— if an enemy gets within Arokh's range, he can perform a melee attack which deals massive damage or even outright kills them.
• Instant Expert:
  • In the first game, Rynn is immediately proficient with all weapons she finds, from daggers, through maces, to claymores.
  • Averted in the second game: In order to equip more powerful weapons and armor, you have to posess the matching Melee or Archery skill (which you gain from Level Grinding).
• Instantly Proven Wrong: In the first game, Rynn and Arokh are forced to search for the Bellhammer of Alwarren but Tuiri warns them of the war giant chief Tultal. When Rynn and Arokh finally meet up in the hammer's chamber, Arokh advises Rynn to be wary of Tultal and avoid him at all cost. Rynn scoffs at him, claiming that nothing could survive that long so the only thing remaining of Tultal now are his dust and bones. Guess who is sleeping close by and wakes up from hearing their conversation?
• Inventory Management Puzzle: Of the Grid Inventory variety, with weapons and armor requiring the most space to hold. Thankfully potions and some other items stack while taking only a single grid.
• Inverse Dialogue/Death Rule: Atimar (the old village priest guy who dies at the first game's beginning) performs an infodump that lasts forever while gasping and struggling the whole way, as though on his last breath.
• Invincibility Power-Up: Both games have potions (green in the first, dark blue/purple in the second) which temporarily turn Rynn invisible upon consumption. To prevent them for being game-breaking, they are very rare and found only in specific areas so think carefully before using one.
• Invisibility: Both games have yellow potions which temporarily turn both Rynn and Arokh invisible upon consumption. To prevent them for being game-breaking like the invulnerability potions above, they are very rare and found only in specific areas so think carefully before using one.
• Invisible Wall:
  • The first game limits Arokh's flying abilities in two ways: an altitude ceiling so he can't just fly over very high mountains to go past them (and interestingly, it prevents him from flying out of a volcano crater), and at one level, a wall of wind that blows hard enough to counter his forward flight so he can't proceed.
  • The second game, although one is technically visible... even though it's supposed to be over after a certain point. The storms over the Andrellian Isles.
• Kaizo Trap: Stand too close when landing the finishing blow against a giant opponent and you will die from its corpse falling on top of you. Ouch!
• Kill It with Fire: Even with the best magical artifacts and weapons, the warrior Rynn will easily get her ass kicked by the more elite enemies she faces (which is pretty much anything tougher than a Grull). Those same creatures that gave Rynn so much trouble will die in flames whenever they confront her partner, the ancient dragon Arokh.
• King Mook: Plenty of the bosses are just bigger versions of regular enemies but with a unique look and moveset. In the first game, Rynn at one point fights a giant Scavenger as a miniboss in the volcano level. Also, the end of the Wartok Canyons has a bigger green-colored crow dragon as the first proper boss which gives Arokh the poison breath weapon upon death.
• Kleptomaniac Hero: In the second game, you as Rynn can steal innocent people's riches from their houses without any repercussions.
• Large and in Charge: In The Ancients' Gates, Arokh lampshades this on the way to optional boss Snotmaw's territory: "Since he's a chieftain, I'm guessing he's a very large Wartok. Their system of government isn't particularly complex."
• Last of His Kind: Arokh is apparently the only remaining Dragon of the Elder Breed in the world. The sequel puts emphasis on "in this world", as the plot revolves around trying to reawaken the Dragon Mother and her children, the rest of the Elder Breed. There's also a pair of dragon antagonists in the second game called Shaza and Tora who are traitors to the Order (who only briefly stick around for one fight).
• Last-Second Chance: Rynn offers Jasaad one at the climax of the second game, encouraging him to cut his losses and depart with the rest of his people while they still can. Unsurprisingly, he is offended at her presumption that her actions will amount to anything in the long term and engages in some Cultural Posturing before committing to the final battle.
• Left Hanging: What happened to Delon after the end of the first game?
  • He died between the first and second games. Presumably the Rift did him in.
• Legendary Weapon: The Runeblade from Drakan: Order of the Flame belonged to Heron, the last great dragonrider, and is also the best weapon in the game.
• The Legions of Hell: The Dark Union has beastmen, devolved/mutated dragons, regular animals genetically engineered into monsters, former humans corrupted by magic, undead, and even demons from other worlds in their armies. The Desert Lords and their forces in the second game are a literal example since they come from the demon world of Sessool.
• Lethal Joke Item: The rubber chicken weapon in The Ancients' Gates.
• Lethal Lava Land: The penultimate level of the first game is a volcano. In a subversion, it's not a natural example but rather the remains of the battlefield from the Dark Wars' end many years ago.
• Level Grinding: You need to find every enemy and kill them (mercifully it doesn't matter how, but keep in mind the game mostly averts Respawning Enemies) to reach level 12 and get enough skill points to level up your abilities in the second game. The developers thankfully made sure you can reach level 12 before entering the final area of Stratos. By the way, you don't earn any XP from completing quests.
• Level-Up Fill-Up: In the second game, Rynn and Arokh both return to full health when the player gains a skill level.
• Life Drain: Several weapons can do this, with the second game having a bigger selection. Standalone examples include Lestat's Blade, Clineschmidt's Sword, the Mournbringer and Arokh's Darkness elemental breath.
• Literally Shattered Lives: Ironically combined with Harmless Freezing, at least in the first game. Any foe reduced to zero hitpoints or less by a weapon with a freezing effect becomes a solid statue of ice. If hit with a non-freezing weapon while in that state, the creature shatters, which is often the only way to be rid of giant enemies, since some giant corpses can't be hacked into Ludicrous Gibs, and this trick only works while the creature is alive. On the other hand, if the player waits too long, the ice statue thaws, and the enemy goes right back to atacking you like nothing's wrong despite being at zero hit points.
• Lord Error-Prone: Sir Nichols the Bold in Shadowmire is a Fearless Fool who claims that he is fear itself and the Trogs are scared from him. But he ends up getting captured by said Trogs on three occasions. If you do manage to save him all three times, he will reward you with a magic book. You can use it on the nearby ruins and get a powerful weapon.
• Luckily, My Shield Will Protect Me: The second game introduces shields for Rynn to use in self-defense. However if one thinks about it, shields are not worth your money and inventory space so just use body armor instead.
• Ludicrous Gibs: The fate of almost any creature thrown by a primitive giant, including Rynn. The only known creatures that defy this are the armored knights for some reason, although they are vulnerable by the Literally Shattered Lives entry above. To balance that, the armored knights take less damage per blow from freezing weapons. So it's very easy to see a landscape littered with armored knight corpses, in unusual positions.
• Mama Bear: In the second game, there is an elderly woman living in a house just outside the city of Surdana. She will insult Rynn while tending after her flowers and overall acting like a jerkass. However she just wants to protect her young boy Gurkin ^note It's unknown if she is his biological mother, grandmother, aunt, or Parental Substitute. and will call general Dehrimon for help if anyone harms her beloved boy.
• Mana Potion: Since the second game introduces magic spells for Rynn, she can replenish her mana with potions— cheaper ones restore only half her gauge, while more expensive ones replenish all of it. Curiously, Rynn's mana recharges slowly by itself (likely because it's connected with Arokh's breath meter) so you can just stand somewhere safe and wait for it to automatically replenish.
• Man in a Kilt: The Grulls are male orc-like humanoid pigs which wear green and red Scottish kilts. The first game also has several male humans with kilts and loincloths, however they are all just mutilated corpses placed in torture devices.
• Master Race: Jasaad Duthane considers his ancient people, the Desert Lords to be this, and is determined to see the humans submit to their stewardship.
• Mega Manning: Arokh acquires the breath weapons of the boss dragons after killing them.
• Mind Manipulation: This is what happened to the women in the Bridal Hall in Stratos. They are described by the guard outside to be under a spell that 'sedates the mind and destroys the will.' The whole place is under an enchantment that causes those to enter to become this way, and the only way to bypass it is through the use of a special potion. Sure, you can go in there without it, but it is very ill-advised.
• Mithril: Likely a Shout-Out towards Tolkien's Legendarium, there are weapons and shields/armor made of this substance. Mithril weapons are visually more colorful and can bypass enemy armor, dealing full damage (instead of reduced). However Like Cannot Cut Like so it doesn't work on shields/armor which are also made of mithril.
• Money Spider: Subverted, only humanoid enemies drop gold in the second game. Most treasure is found in wooden boxes instead or by selling items you found on your journeys. Curiously besides archetypical bags of gold you can also convert other items (chalices, gems, jewelry, etc) into money points.
• Monster and the Maiden: Rynn is a human woman and Arokh is a talking sentient male dragon. Their souls are linked together via the Bond magic and they are the playable heroic protagonists.
• More Dakka: Arokh is able to reduce even the toughest non-aerial enemies to ash in mere seconds... provided, of course, you can lure them into his breathing range.
• Nerf Arm: In Drakan: The Ancient Gates, if you find and defeat a secret giant chicken, you unlock the lethal joke weapon, The Chicken, which is, well, a rubber chicken that is tied for dealing the most damage of any weapon in the second game.
• Nice Day, Deadly Night: Order of the Flame has the Eastern Archipelago Islands. The player first visits them during the day time and it's much easier due to having Arokh. However the second visit is during night time instead, when Arokh has been kidnapped and Rynn is left alone to fend off various hostile creatures. Alongside the first level (Ruined Village) this is one of the very few cases where you see the same area, but set in different times of the day/night cycle.
• Night of the Living Mooks: Downplayed in the first game since it only has 2 undead enemy types (the Bone Dragons and Death Mages), but the second game puts more emphasis on the undead. The death magi and bone dragons return, there are also human skeleton as enemies in multiple areas, there are also four boss characters which are larger and more powerful variants of these regular enemies.
• No-Gear Level: In the second game, Rynn is knocked out cold (pun intended) by the Half-men when traversing Shiverbane. Her equipment is taken away and she is locked inside a prison cell. Rynn must use a magic spell to kill the guard outside, take his key and escape the prison. When exploring the compound, you can regain your possessions and this is the only part in the whole game when you can ditch your weak starting dagger.
• No Hero Discount: One has to wonder why Jade, the sorceress in Surdana who summoned Rynn and Arokh to save them in the first place, charges Rynn so much to teach her magic. This is especially apparent with the purchase of higher spell levels.
• Non-Indicative Name: The scavenger enemies ^note Resembling squat reptile/mammal hybrids with short legs and tails, 3 pairs of eyes and long skinny arms/hands. occasionally can be seen feasting from corpses however most of the time they prefer to kill and eat living prey (including Rynn), which makes them more outright predators.
• Non-Player Companion: The games contain one of the rare examples of a non-human Non-Player Companion who is actually much more powerful than the Player Character: Arokh is an ancient dragon who accompanies the Action Girl Rynn on adventures. However, he is too large to squeeze into most dungeons, so Rynn has to clear them out on her on. Still, his help is invaluable for defeating outdoors enemies and pretty much the only way to defeat other dragons.
• Non-Standard Game Over: In Drakan: The Ancients' Gates, near the end of the game, you need to get into a castle run by someone known as the Flesh Mage. The only way in involves passing through a pacification spell. You are warned about this several times and told to go get a potion to protect yourself. However, nothing stops you from simply walking in, whereupon you fall unconscious. A cutscene follows where you are a prisoner of the Flesh Mage and get a face to face meeting with him, then the screen goes black along with a brief scream as he begins skinning you alive. This curiously is the only ever single instance of the trope in either games.
• Nothing Is Scarier: Rynn can optionally speak with Jade in the second game and learn more about the Desert Lords. They fled their home world of Sessool because the living conditions there are too harsh and seek to colonize Drakan instead. It's implied (since this otherworldly location is never seen and/or visited) that the other denizens of the demon world are so terrifying and powerful that the Desert Lords gave up on trying to live there and chose running away instead.
• Notice This: In The Ancients' Gates collectible items (weapons, armor, treasure, potions, etc) have bright colorful sparkles to make them visible for the player.
• Obviously Evil: The Desert Lords appear to have detached heads with three faces, one of them being a skull.
• Oddly Shaped Sword: The "Tempest" blade from the second game resembles a lightning bolt (ironically it doesn't have any electrical powers). The second game also has 4 elemental blades which resemble the Covenant swords but with a proper handle. Collecting them all, then bringing them to Brekk the blacksmith in Surdana will get you the Mournbringer sword.
• Oh, Crap!: We get a pretty good one from Jasaad in the second game before the Pain Golem falls on him.
• Ominous Owl: Subverted, a creepy owl appears in the first game's intro sequence (after booting up the game) but is harmless and infact it's briefly startled by Rynn and Arok instead. ^note They just fly by the screen and disappear, while the owl resumes minding its business on the tree and the main menu appears. Said owl is a Company Cameo and Logo Joke of Psygnosis which helped with the publishing of the first game. The owl also has a cameo inside the swamp Shadowmire in the second game, considering that between the productions of both games Psygnosis got merged into Sony Interactive Entertainment which are the reason why the sequel is an exclusive for the PlayStation 2.
• On-Ride/On-Foot Combat: You play between Rynn on-foot, and on-dragon atop Arokh, who has much greater firepower and can fly. Due to his size, however, Arokh cannot enter buildings or caves, forcing Rynn to dismount multiple times per level.
• One-Gender Race: Alot of the enemy creatures (Grulls, Wartoks, Trogs, Half-men, etc) have only male individuals encountered and seen. The Grulls and Wartoks raid Rynn's village in the first game's beginning, kidnapping all villagers and turning them into slaves for the mines. The village men are encountered in the mines, but the women are nowhere to be seen which raises some disturbing implications... On the other hand, in the second game a (male) human tries negotiating with a Wartok for both species to co-exist peacefully but the Wartok says they will not rest until they have ALL humans dead before killing the poor fool which implies it's more a case of game resource limitations. Interestingly, the Grulls and Wartoks are close allies with the Succubi which are the female version of this trope (with no male Incubi seen anywhere) which raises weirder implications...
• One-Hit Kill: If Rynn can lead an enemy to a landed Arokh, it's a death sentence for that foe. Arokh will either roast them with a stream of fire or he'll bite them.
• One-Winged Angel: In the first game when Rynn and Arokh enter the Rift World and after a brief battle with her possessed brother, Navaros' soul is removed from Delon's body but he falls in the portal and dies (as revealed in the sequel). However in a last ditch attempt to kill our heroes, Navaros assumes the form of his former dragon steed Kaeros, growing 4 heads and shooting various magical projectiles. Rynn (with Arokh's help) manages to destroy the evil wizard once and for all but the game ends on a cliffhanger and the sequel reveals they failed to save Delon. At least they managed to save the world.
• Only a Flesh Wound: Some enemies... really take their time to die. Though this does not stop you from, say, hacking an arm off an enemy in the first game, which causes them to bleed to death even if you do nothing else.
• The Order: The Order of the Flame obviously, though it's more of an Order Reborn, since Arokh is the only living dragon throughout both games who can be considered a member.
• Order Reborn: The eponymous Order of the Flame in the second game's ending.
• Orphaned Series: No new releases or, indeed, news since 2002.
• Our Demons Are Different: Demons are hostile otherworldly beings that are invasive species to Drakan. They introduce bizarre magic and technology with themselves, which also makes them a fantasy version of an Alien Invasion. The known species of demons are Succubi, Bone Lords (aka "devils of bone", one is an optional flaming red-eyed horned boss in the second game's monk catacombs level), Desert Lords and Jinn.
• Our Dragons Are Different: This series has several types.
  • The Spirit dragons with their mother Mala-Shae are elemental spirits which existed since time immemorial. They are considered divine, but after the Dark Wars they locked themselves up in Another Dimension. The second game's plot revolves around summoning them back.
  • The dragons of the Order are from the Elder Breed- meaning they are sapient, intelligent, and capable of speech. There are very few members remaining by the time of both games, with Arokh himself being the most prominent individual.
  • The dragons living in the tundra lack any spikes/horns and look more mammalian (even having fur). They use ice elemental breaths.
  • The dragons living in the desert have multiple spikes and horns. They use dark shadowy elemental breaths which have Life Drain properties.
  • Modern-day dragons are just feral devolved beasts to be slain, and come in a few varieties: Crow dragons have feathers, Bat dragons resemble wyvern/gargoyle hybrids and Bone dragons are animated skeletons. The first game also has literal dragonflies as enemies.
  • Drakan's dragons have crocodile-esque mouths (with teeth growing directly from their lips) instead of separate gums like in most other media. Some breeds (like Kaeros, Navaros' former steed) also have 3 pairs of eyes.
• Our Genies Are Different: Storm Djinn lack feet and instead float around within a thundercloud. They don't grant wishes but instead are demons from Sessool working for the Desert Lords, killing any intruders using their four arms with a scimitar in each hand.
• Our Ghosts Are Different: Ghosts are mentioned in passing a few times, but the afterlife of Drakan is never fully explored. The only exception is Tuiri from the first game who is a "soul shadow" due to her bonded dragon being killed. The player must obtain her dragon's Soul Crystal and place it on her corpse so that Tuiri can finally pass on to the "great beyond".
• Our Giants Are Different: The primitive giants resemble bipedal gorillas with large tusks and the head of a theropod dinosaur with a hump on their backs. Daemog and the other yetis in the second game are white-colored relatives of the primitive giants. Lastly, Tultal and the war giant resemble humanoid rhinos that wield long spiky battleaxes. War giants can also throw spinning blades at Arokh, thankfully there's only a handful of them in the game and they are found only in the tropical eastern continent.
• Our Goblins Are Different: Goblins appear as hairy anorexic green tailless Lizard Folk in the first game, alligned with the Dark Union. They appear only on the tropical islands levels, being able to wield bayonets which shoot either regular arrows or explosive cluster projectiles. They have short legs and long arms, with spiderweb-like hair growing from their chins and skinny arms.
• Our Gryphons Are Different: Gryphons appear as late game enemies in the sequel. They are found only in the Desert of Tears and Stratos, attacking you with a fast homing yellow projectile. It's unknown if they serve the Desert Lords or are just hostile local wildlife.
• Our Orcs Are Different: The Grull are of the Pig Man variety and are sometimes referred to as "orcs". They are apparently good builders and blacksmiths, though of course they are also Always Chaotic Evil.
• Our Spirits Are Different: Spirits are mysterious beings, appearing as orbs of light. They operate on Blue-and-Orange Morality— the ones that Zeggoro summons and speaks with angrily demand payment in exchange for their help. There are some unnamed gods mentioned in passing but the religion and cosmology of Drakan is never explored in full detail.
• Our Trolls Are Different: The Wartoks are taller than either humans or Grulls and (as their name should imply) resemble warthogs or wild boars with huge tusks. They are sometimes referred to as "trolls" and share traits with the above Grulls (including being Always Chaotic Evil), however they are often seen living inside caves to the point where they have become expert miners and slavers.
• Palette Swap: Most of the time same creatures having different colorations is just a visual change. However there are some exceptions like the Crimson and Ebon Knights or the primitive giants and yetis, which also have different behavior and/or abilities.
• Palmtree Panic: The eastern continent in the first game (Islands Day, Alwarren, Rift Crystal, Islands Night and Succubus Lair) are tropical islands with palm trees on the beach coasts.
• Player Character Calculus: A rare example with a non-humanoid Non-Player Companion: while you control the Lone Heroine Rynn throughout the game, she is accompanied by a dragon named Arokh who is essential to beating the game but cannot follow Rynn into dungeons.
• Point of No Return: In the second game- Depending on who you are, the flavor of P.O.N.R. in this game can be anywhere from polite to nasty. After the first battle with Zola Dane, Lady Myschala advises you to be sure you have everything you need before heading into the Desert, implying that there is a P.O.N.R. ahead. If you also speak to Dehrimon afterwards, like she suggested as well, he will further imply that the Desert is the P.O.N.R. He will also tell you that you should avoid Stratos, the land of the Desert Lords. HOWEVER, once you hit the Desert, there is another Gate that you open that allows you to travel back to Surdana. As it turns out, the actual P.O.N.R. comes right after the second battle with Zola Dane. After the battle, you let Arokh into the cave by opening a nearby entrance. This triggers the cutscene where Rynn and Arokh head into Stratos. At this point, there really is no going back.
• Power Crystal: The Rift Crystal in the first game is what gives the Runeblade its power to cut open rips in the space-time continuum and kills Navaros in the backstory. Currently the Runeblade and the Rift Crystal are separated from each other, with both the Dark Union and the heroes trying to obtain and reassemble them. The second game also has multiple crystal-related quest items.
  • The Grimstones in the first game qualify since they are used as a power source for the Dark Union's machinery and magic. Problem is that humans turn into zombies after prolonged exposure to grimstone crystals.
• Power Floats: The more powerful characters and creatures levitate, often serving as bosses. Examples include the Death Magi, Navaros (when possessing Delon), all Desert Lords, Yutaji the Flesh Mage, the Jinn and Zola Dane.
• Previously on…: The second game's intro cutscene is basically a shortened recap of the backstory and the first game's plot.
• Primal Fear: The huge spiders for some players.
• Promotion to Parent: This seems to have been the case with Rynn and Delon, seeing how Rynn appears to be significantly older than Delon and their parents are never seen or mentioned.
• Puzzle Boss: Some bosses require cleverness instead of just brute force to go down. An example in the second game is the shaman Bonegrinder, he's invincible until you destroy all crystals on the 3 pillars in his arena. When that is done, Bonegrinder will become killable.
• Random Drops: Averted, what item(s) drop (including their quantity) from what individual enemy is predetermined and cannot be changed in any way.
• Regenerating Mana: Arokh's breath meter depletes whenever you shoot his elemental projectile attacks, to avoid spamming. However it also slowly recharges on its own if left unused for a while. This is justified since Arokh being a magical creature (a dragon), his powers are part of his inherent nature. Rynn's mana gauge used for her various magic spells in the second game also does this.
• Respawning Enemies: Averted mostly, however some new mooks will appear out of nowhere if you manage to trigger the right conditions.
• Resurrect the Villain: The Dark Union's plan in the first game is to revive their leader, the former warrior mage Navaros (whose body was destroyed by the Runeblade in the backstory and currently his disembodied soul is banished in the Rift World). To do that, they capture and use Delon (Rynn's younger brother), performing a ritual to place Navaros' spirit inside Delon. They briefly succeed, but Rynn quickly uses the Runeblade to drive back the Big Bad into the vortex and then Arokh kills him in his four-headed Kaeros form. Sadly they lose Delon in the process but at least they managed to save the world from a great evil.
• Ruins for Ruins' Sake: There are plenty of dungeons and ruins around, remnants from past civilizations when the Order of the Flame still ruled the world. Some have signs of being human settlements while others are just visual decorations for the sake of Scenery Porn (or Scenery Gorn given the context).
• Sapient Steed: Arokh is Rynn's mount but he's an intelligent dragon capable of human speech due to belonging to the Elder Breed.
• Schrödinger's Canon: There is an unlicensed comic book prequel made to promote the first game that was only made and released in Germany. This comic is a case of Broad Strokes, as it has multiple continuity errors— among others, Rynn and Arokh have already met and know each other despite this comic taking place before the first game's events. Here are (untranslated) scans of the comic saved by fans and here's a video posted about it on YouTube. Have in mind that Rynn is drawn here to resemble Angelina Jolie when she portrayed Lara Croft.
• Sea Serpent: Mezzidrel in the second game is a boss on the Andrellian Isles level. She has two heads like a hydra, is sapient and capable of speech while also having electric powers. Mezzidrel is another old enemy of Arokh defeated by him years ago that is currently itching for revenge. Despite being called a sea serpent, Mezzidrel has heads like anglerfish, fins and body like a moray eel, spikes on her neck, even with visible octopus tentacles on her submerged torso.
• Secondary Fire: All of Arokh's breath weapons have a second more powerful attack which costs more of his mana gauge, activated by pressing the block button from Rynn's gameplay. They either are a single massive burst of damage or continuous rapid fire.
• Sequel Hook: The second game's ending narration states that "For the first time in centuries the people knew peace, a new age has dawned", but also ominously says that "But with it come new challenges and new uncertainties. New bonds were yet to be formed and great evils still lurked in the world", finally capping off with "The Order of the Flame had been restored but the battle was far from over". Assuming there is ever a third Drakan game, it's unknown who or what the Big Bad and Final Boss could be. Sadly as the top of this very page reveals, Drakan is an Orphaned Series with its developers long closed and the IP being in purgatory therefore unless a miracle happens the chances of any continuation are close to zero.
• Sequential Boss: The final bosses of both games have 2 phases: the first one is fought on ground with Rynn, and the second one is fought while airborne with Arokh.
• Shared Life-Meter: Rynn and Arokh share a single life meter, though this seems to only work one way (if Arokh dies, so does Rynn, but if Rynn dies, Arokh seems to survive). This is justified in-story by the nature of their Bond, which magically links the lives of the dragon and his rider, and Arokh has already survived the death of his previous rider in the backstory.
• Shifting Sand Land: The Desert of Tears in the second game. Like the volcano in the first game, it's not a natural example but a result from the Dark Wars. Curiously the desert itself is actually quite small and most of the area is actually the Valley of the Fallen which has a flowing river and live palm trees.
• Shout-Out: There's a pure black sword called Mournbringer in the first game, which howls with distant screams of many voices, and it gives you health back every time you hurt something with it. Stormbringer + Mournblade = Mournbringer? It also exists in The Ancients' Gates though if you miss picking up even one of the Swords of the Order of the Flame, Brekk will not have it in stock.
  • There's also Lestat's Blade in the second game if you know where to look.
  • The first game has a secret area inside the Goblin Base on the tropical islands level in daytime. If you activate 2 certain switches on the walls, a door will open to a water-filled cave with a small island in the middle. After you kill the single weaponless goblin there, you will see a small sword and invisibility potion on top of a wooden crate. The sword is called "Sting" and the invisibility vial is called "Gollum's potion". Supposedly, the characters and creatures are also inspired by the ones in Tolkien's famous works.
  • A human joins their soul or life force with a dragon, and so if one dies then so does the other as well? It sounds alot like a certain movie which released 3 years prior to the first game.
• Sidequest: The first game has only 2 and they are both connected. In the second level's (Wartok Canyons) beginning, there is an elderly farmer in a house. You can speak with him and he will give you a key to the mines behind his house. Kill all of them and return to his house, after which he gives you a magic rune and marks the location of a secret cave on your map. You can then enter this dungeon and get a powerful fire sword. The second game being more open-world RPG has alot more optional side content.
• Significant Green-Eyed Redhead: Rynn (one of the the 2 playable protagonists) and her brother Delon have red hair and green eyes, the only characters in the series with such physical features.
• Sinister Scimitar: Some of the enemies wield these, however the heroine Rynn can also obtain and wield scimitars.
• Smash Mook: Both games have the primitive giants which use their brute strength to crush Rynn up close. Killing them is easier with either long-ranged weapons and spells or Arokh's elemental breath projectile attacks (be warned however, the giants also have ranged attacks which means you are not safe even when flying on a dragon). There's a twist with them, though: when killed, they fall forward, instantly crushing you if you don't get out of the way in time.
• Soul Jar: Literal example with Yutaji the Flesh Mage who akin to a lich placed his soul inside a jar. However at least Yutaji was clever enough to hide his weakness and his lair is filled with empty fake jars. The real jar is hidden inside the operating table on which he skins his brides. Khossa Vole the Necromancer also keeps his mortal body hidden somewhere inside his lair, until said body is found and destroyed he's practically immortal.
• Stripperiffic: Rynn's default clothes don't leave much to the imagination and only serve to keep her from going around completely naked.
• Succubi and Incubi: The former appears in the first game, living in a hive-like society. The latter are nowhere to be seen, likely because succubi are more visually appealing. Succubi resemble blonde human women with bat wings in place of arms (with clawed hands), having scale-like membrane flesh covering parts of their body including conveniently their breasts and private parts. Being a demonic species, they are (barring one) deceitful and murderous, with the first encountered ones trying to manipulate our heroes.
• Super Drowning Skills: Averted with Rynn who can swim in any body of water (just remember to surface for air before your Oxygen Meter runs out), but played straight with Arokh. While he won't get damaged and die from water per se, he's incapable of entering any pool and swimming unless the player exploits some glitches.
• Suspiciously Similar Substitute: The Soulless mooks and Trogs from the second game are this for the Dark Knights and Goblins from the first game.
• Synchronization: The Bond ritual between humans and dragons, with Rynn and Arokh being the most prominent example.
• Take Your Time: Zig-zagged. Some objectives can be completed whenever the player feels like it (such as finding the poisoned Sevoth's medicine pouch), however others will be failed if you take too long (such as rescuing Nichols the Bold from the Trogs).
• Technically Living Zombie: Proper undead zombies are never seen, but the first game has zombified humans being forced to work in the Grimstone Mines. Apparently prolonged exposure to this crystal makes humans lose their minds, having green glowing eyes and bleeding green ooze.
• Teeth-Clenched Teamwork: At least in the first game, the enemy may be one army, but they don't get along. Primitive giants view their supposed comrades like ammunition. The armored knights look down on the orcs and goblins. Even without tampering, a friendly fire incident between any two enemy units could easily lead them to attacking each other with wild abandon until one or both are dead.
• Third-Person Seductress: Rynn. Bonus points for being modeled after a hot girl in Real Life (Myrna Blankenstein, who appeared later on the promotional posters for the first game, google them).
• The Time of Myths: Back when the original Order of the Flame existed.
• Title Drop: Both games' subtitles appear as Back Story elements in the respective installments. The word "Drakan" apparently is the name of the planet where the games take place.
• Toilet Humor:
  • In the original game's first level, there is a secret area behind your village. There is a wooden outhouse and a Grull comes out of it after finished with doing his business.
  • The succubus queen Shilla attacks you by stomping you with her fat butt and she farts while doing so.
  • Fart sounds can occasionally also be heard in the dungeons of Kragmor.
• Token Heroic Orc. In the first game when Arokh is captured by the Dark Union and Rynn is forced to walk through the succubus' lair, one helps her find the way to her dragon companion. However it's from vanity rather than altruism because Rynn must first pass through enemy and trap-filled corridors and get a mirror from the bathing chamber to return it to the helpful succubus who was banished from said chamber by queen Shilla for some reason. Like the other succubi, her fate after the first game remains unknown.
• Treasure Room: Surdana's castle has one that can only be accessed if you find and pull the 4 hidden switches in the city. Said room will give you multiple bags of gold worth a total of 10,000 points.
• 20 Bear Asses: Be prepared to go on a few of these: An elderly hermit in the Shadowmire asks you to retrieve four bags of black powder from his mine to build a bomb with, and Sevoth in the Andrellian Isles asks you to get, oh, "about twenty" crystal shards from a nearby crystal mine (fortunately, in the latter case, the mine is very large and you can collect over one hundred shards).
• Underwater Ruins: Downplayed. In the first game there is the dead city of Alwarren which is inside underground caves with rivers and waterfalls flowing through them. Alwarren is possibly inspired by Atlantis, its ingame map even has meander-like ancient Greek patterns. The second game also has the dead city of Meridia's dungeon ruins in the northern continent which is inside a cave behind a locked metal gate requiring a puzzle to be solved before entering. You spend half the time swimming through this area given it's partially submerged underwater.
• The Unfought: The penultimate level of the first game (the volcano) introduces a named character Death Mage called Seerak. ^note The correct spelling is unknown as the game lacks subtitles and the character is mentioned nowhere in supplementary materials. He prepares the resurrection ritual for his master and goes (offscreen) into the Rift World. While there are several Death Magi seen in a cutscene in the final level, none of them have his unique character model but they all end up dead. Curiously, the sequel features 2 optional bosses who both are named Death Magi characters.
• Unique Enemy: The Succubus Lair in the first game has an unique Grull who is taller, pink, with multiple belts and piercings on his body. Possibly a miniboss, however this Grull is called Grungle and guards the mirror for a certain succubus. Killing him also gives you a rare mithril warhammer.
• Universal Ammunition: The various types of bows and arrows in the first game are independent from each other, so you can use any bow type with any arrow type. The only exception being the Energy Bow (which also has a fixed ammo count of 50). The second game however made all bows like the Energy bow in the first game, which means their arrow type is tied to the bow itself and cannot be swapped with others.
• Video Game Cruelty Potential: The original game is very gory, with things like dismemberment, decapitation, and reducing the humanoid monsters into halves being very common. In The Ancients' Gates you can slaughter chickens or other animals with Rynn's weapons, magic, or of course Arokh's breath. Though there is one character who deserves to have her livestock slaughtered. Hint: she's in the first town.
• Villainous Crush: A few human NPCs do hit on Rynn but the ones who actually lust after her are both non-human bosses. Gothraul is the undead boss in the desert and he wants to kill Rynn, then turn her skeleton into his queen. Subverted with Yutaji the Flesh Mage who doesn't want actually marrying Rynn or anyone but instead skins them and uses their remains like clothes due to being driven insane.
• Villainous Respect: Unlike most enemies, Jassad in the second game views Rynn and Arokh as formidable adversaries to the point he actually offers them a place among the Desert Lords' stock after she kills Maulgak in Shiverbane. Obviously it doesn't work but hey, Jasaad still gets points for effort.
• Villain's Dying Grace: Yutaji the Flesh Mage regains his lost sanity after his defeat and gives Rynn the knowledge and power needed to defeat the Big Bad.
• Virtual Paper Doll: Rynn can be dressed several different types of armor to help shield her from enemy attacks. But like most weapons, they get damaged from hits and eventually break, so searching for new ones along the way is a good idea. And unlike weapons, if the armor actually breaks then it's gone, it cannot be repaired.
• Waif-Fu: At the time the first game was made, Tomb Raider I was the biggest game featuring a female protagonist, with Lara's acrobatics being especially lauded. Drakan took influence from it and had Rynn be very nimble, capable of flipping in various directions and her most devastating attack being a two-hit twirling leap.
• Weather Manipulation: The grull shaman Bonegrinder in the second game uses a large machine inside a cave on the Andrellian Isles which resembles a spinal cord with a ribcage to create the storm that prevents anyone from passing through the islands. Bonegrinder himself also has electric magic at his disposal.
• We Hardly Knew Ye: Plenty of the NPCs in the first game are never given proper names appear only for 1 or 2 scenes to give you a quest and later disappear or die. The second game downplays this, with most NPCs having names and surviving after their quest is completed.
• What the Hell, Player?: If you hit Arokh with one of your weapons, he'll fly into the air and yell at you to, "Watch where you swing that!" He will not come back down until you call him if you do this. Also, injuring him does damage to your health as well.
• Wide-Open Sandbox: The Ancient's Gates is this compared to the more linear Order of the Flame. Although it still has loading screens when transitioning in-between areas which doesn't make it quite a properly seamless open world like in Grand Theft Auto, also the final area is a Point of No Return.
• Wizards Live Longer:
  • This is implied to be true by the wizard, Zeggoro in Ravenshold.
  Zeggoro: The Half-Men are wretched creatures, and I like them less with each century.
  • The first game also had this when meeting Rimril for the first time.
  Arokh: Our wizard I presume? Forgive us wise one but...
  Rimril: Arokh? It is you. I couldn't be certain until you spoke.
  Arokh: Do I... do I know you? Forgive me but I have slept long.
  Rimril: You once knew me as Rimril, though you may not remember.
  Arokh: Theoret's apprentice? Yes of course, but... that was ages past. Even a wizard should be long dead.