Dungeon Magic

Dungeon Magic is a first-person RPG (similar in vein to Bard's Tale and the various SSI D&D games) produced by Taito in 1989, and programmed by Natsume for the Nintendo Entertainment System.

The story is as follows:

500 years ago, the Kingdom of Granville fought a terrible war with Darces the Dark Overlord. A great hero, the warrior "Magi", rose to challenge Darces. He owned six magical swords and a powerful suit of armor that was impervious to all but the most powerful of magic. Five of his six swords were Elemental blades, each created from the rarest metals on earth. The sixth blade, "Tores", used an even more powerful metal.

Using his powers, Magi defeated Darces, and exiled him to a far away land. After defeating Darces, Magi grew old and passed away.

Now, on a dark, stormy night in the Kingdom of Granville, Darces the Dark Overlord returns to the land.

According to an old saying,

"When the shadowed veil returns to mask the midday sun

The Fire of Serpents will rise again; Five shall become the One.

The elements now heed his call, and hope is born alive;

We will have our peace once more when One becomes the Five."

One of the interesting aspects of the game was a magic system where a caster could combine runes from various elements to form new magic spells.

Each element had three unique runes, which allowed for 125 different spells. Unfortunately, many of those "different spells" are actually just fireball spells or curative effects. This game had no "magic point" system, so instead some spells drained the player's hit points instead.