August 17, 2004 - Sony Computer Entertainment's mysterious dragon-raising RPG, first announced a few weeks back, is no longer a mystery. As a first marketing step as Waga Ryuu wo Miyo: Pride of the Dragon Peace approaches its October Japanese release, SCE has shared pages of details on the game with the most recent batch of Japanese PlayStation 2 magazines. Being fans both of RPGs and dragons, we sorted through the details to bring you English info on what you can expect from the title.

Pride of the Dragon Peace is a simulation RPG in which you raise a dragon and ride it into battle. Spirits throughout the world have gone mad and are causing great damage. Humans can't fight directly against spirits, so they instead turn to dragons, who use spirits as food. You play as a character who comes to a holy island to join Dragon Peace, a band of dragon riders who hope to make a move on the spirits' tower located on the island.

As a Dragon Peace dragon user, you're considered a hero by commoners and are given a swank little home on the island. Your home is called House Heaven (as it's the "seventh" house, it's actually supposed to be called "House Seven"). At the end of every day, you return home to save your progress, eat dinner and sleep. Three characters reside with you in House Heaven and provide support for your adventures.

Your goal is to take out spirits and make your way to the spirit tower. The tower is enclosed at a series of gates which must be conquered in turn in order to progress through the game. Each gate leads to a large field of play located in an alternate dimension. While in the fields, you fight and capture spirits and collect items.

You and your dragon aren't alone in your adventures. Dragon Peace members go out in pairs. You're free to select your partner, who then fights along side you under control of the computer.

Battles begin once you've spotted a spirit on the field and locked onto it. The game switches to a battle scene and gives you forty seconds to take out the spirit. You guide your dragon, selecting commands which include direct attacks as well as magic-based attacks. The battle ends with the dragon gobbling up the spirit.

You yourself can perform three special moves while in battle, although these don't serve as attacks against the spirits. One special move allows you to build items out of spirits that you've caught (you'll apparently have to decide when to let you dragon eat a spirit and when to turn the spirit into an item). Another lets you raise your dragon's stats during battle.

Raising dragons is a big part of the game. To raise your dragon, you must feed it spirits. Once your dragon has consumed enough spirits, it changes form depending on the type of spirits that you've fed it. Taking into account just physical differences, such as differences in color, shape and markings, and there are over 20,000 dragon variations in the game. Add in all the various parameter changes that come about as you play through battles, and you get a practically infinite number of possibilities. Thankfully, the game lets you raise eight dragon at a time so you can play around with various settings; and if you want to get rid of a dragon, you can turn it into card form so you'll be able to remember it forever.

Judging by the lighthearted visual nature of the game, Pride of the Dragon Peace seems to be more family oriented than other dragon-based RPGs like Panzer Dragoon and Drag On Dragoon. With a huge variety of dragons on offer, this game could be the ultimate RPG for anyone who wanted to create a dragon all their own.

SCE has yet to announce an American release for the title.