Dragon Gunners are two protagonists from Earth who are transported to another dimension to fight monsters in Data East arcade FPS gun game Dragon Gun: Firebrand, Gun of the Ark-Magi.
Summary[]
Anne Rochelle, the queen of a fantasy kingdom called Plaitoria with an ability to summon the chosen Dragon Gunners from other realms, sends out distress signal to two people from Earth:
| “ | "Dragon Gunners! I call on you to save us from a horrible fate! I am Anne, ruler of Plaitoria. Two years ago a great rift in the earth opened up, releasing all manners of beasts and goblins who tore our world asunder. Suddenly, we were visited by a messenger from a Dragon Kingdom. The messenger instructed me to see out two heroes who would save our world. These heroes would wield the legendary Dragon Guns. Dragon Gunners, I call on you to save our world." | „ |
| ~ Anne Rochelle at the intro |
two people who are chosen to wield Dragon Guns are Anthony and Samantha from Earth. Travelling through dimensions and armed with mystical organic guns, the two chosen heroes fight to save Plaitoria fromevil monsters led by an evil being named Dramass.
Characters[]
Anthony[]
Anthony is one of the two chosen Dragon Gunners whose age and nationality is unknown. When in Earth he gained a reputation for his expert marksmanship. Anthony's occupation involved being assigned to protect extremely high-profiled personnel such as billionaires, presidents, kings, PMs and other big shots who are intimately involved in sovereign affairs.
Samantha[]
Samantha is another one of chosen Dragon Gunners. Born in the Canadian wilderness, shooting a gun to her was as natural as breathing. Her marksmanship was astounding which soon earned her a top-class sharpshooter. With her skills she received numerous medals and honors. But tragedy struck Samantha when she lost parents in a senseless crime involving an armed robbery. Deeply traumatized, Samantha gave up her talent and vowed never to pick up a gun in her life ever again. But Samantha must grab Dragon Gun and use her marksmanship skills once more at the behest of Queen Anne Rochelle and the people of Plaitoria to save the innocents of Plaitoria from destruction.
Dragon Guns[]
These guns are extra-dimensional living and sentient organic firearms. They are dragon transformed into sentient guns and are the only weapons that are capable of stopping monsters that plague Plaitoria. Dragons Guns are capable of shooting Dragon Bombs of varying levels (up to five levels: Fire, Thunder, Atomic and Saint Dragons) that can hold up to 9 stocks. Dragon Guns have charging capabilities that enable their shooters to fire powered bullets for more and wider damages. When keep pulling their triggers Dragon Guns shoot continuous, faster rapid-firing bullets but with lesser firepower.
Dragon Guns also enable their wielders to possess superhuman durability, stamina, protect gunners from lava heats, allowing wielders to fly and go out on outer space for certain period of time.
Stages[]
Dimension[]
Immediately upon arriving, Dragon Gunners are tasked to free surviving people of Plaitorian capital which was in murderous control of Quatra and monsters under its orders. People who died turned undead and had to die again. After going in and out of the capital, taking out Quatra's minions, Dragon Gunners reach the top of the palace where Quatra ambushed Dragon Gunners, grabbing them with its claw, flying high to the sky and attempted to burn them with its fire breath up close and personal. The most talkative of boss monsters, Quatra kept taunting Dragon Gunners as it tried to kill them. Even as grabbed Dragon Gunners' arms were free so they could still shoot at Quatra's head. After a long battle Quatra was destroyed. As it fell to its death, Quatra asked Dragon Gunners "Who are you...?" But his last question went unanswered.
Rondo[]
After freeing Plaitorian palace and its people from Quatra's monster forces, Dragon Gunners are dispatched to the northwest of the Plaitoria where the region is plagued by a massive, destructive tornado manipulated by a Thunder Centipede named Torpod. It is in this stage Dragon Gunners discover their Dragon Guns enable them to fly. Dragon Gunners fly into the tornado and encounter aerial monsters commanded by the Thunder Centipede. After taking on monsters in the sky, Torpod lures the pair of gunners onto the peak of Plaitorian atmosphere and there Dragon Gunners wage an aerial duel with Torpod in outer space. With the death agony of "Oh, the pain!" Torpod was destroyed.
With the death of Torpod, tornado dissipated, and sky of Plaitoria was freed.
Airing[]
No sooner Dragon Gunners returned to Plaitoria palace, Queen Anne informed them of another leader monster emerging from its underground imprisonment: Flagog, an amphibian dragon with hydrokinetic ability, caused a severe drought upon Plaitorians by having Plaitorian lake dried and in the process exposed an ancient, sunken ruin which had been dormant under the dried lake for unknown periods of time. Dragon Gunners are dispatched to destroy Flagog and monster army led by the creature. When Dragon Gunners encounter Flagog who proceeds to entrap them with all the lake waters it can manipulate, it turns out to be a homely, disgusting toad-like dragon with a massive hunger for meats. Flagog attacks Dragon Gunners by spitting demon crustaceans and amoebas while using waters as shields but it too was ultimately destroyed. Before it doed, it screamed, "I'm melting!"
With Flagog died, Plaitorian lake was refilled and ancient ruin was sunken back to its dormancy.
Giga[]
From the southeast of Plaitorian palace there come a floating forest named Diesler surrounded by a violent whirlpool. The forest is controlled by a monster named Glokk, who is known as 'The Bringer of Death and Destruction'. The battle of Diesler takes three phases: one an aerial shootout against flying monsters sent by Glokk and the battle taking place inside Diesler with Glokk and monsters it produces out of its own body. After destroying Glokk's body the third battle takes place at the dark bottom of Diesler against Glokk's head which is its only true body. Glokk head attacks with fireballs and projectile mandibles in its attempt to kill Dragon Gunners but it found itself defeated by the gunners instead.
With Glokk's destruction the whirlpool that surrounding Diesler vanished, and with it, Diesler too.
Obstructor[]
From the arid southwestern region of Plaitoria a massive portal to netherworld exists, and from the portal come various kinds of bloodthirsty demons. This is the portal that caused the rift two years ago prior to the story of the game, caused monsters to come out onto the Plaitoria and turned once peaceful world into a nightmarish hell. Dragon Gunners are sent to close the portal. To close the portal Dragon Gunners must kill Bishuna, the emissary of netherworld. In this stage majority of battles take place in hell where Dragon Gunners shoot their way to Bishuna. Eventually they encounter him in the deep bottom of hell's fortress. After initial and brief duel was fought, Dragon Gunners and Bishuna have their all-out fight on the sea of hellfire. Bishuna attacks with sending multiple clones of himself to hurl at Dragon Gunners but he was no match for Dragon Gunners and died. But even in death, Bishuna was impressed with Dragon Gunners and saluted them that he would never forget them.
As Bishuna died, the portal to the netherworld closed, the rift hole that caused great misery for Plaitoria was no more.
Need[]
The final battle. Dragon Gunners are told that magic circle that enable them to be transported to their own homeworld is located in a tower which situates in an interstice between dimensions. They must hurry and make it to the circle before the circle completely disappears. While Queen Anne opens and holds out the circle as long as she can, the heroes are to rush to the tower and use circle to return home.
One problem: Dramass, the supreme leader of monster army, goes with all his remaining army to the tower, fully intending to ensure that Dragon Gunners meet their demises there. Dramass gets to the tower first before the Dragon Gunners, so Gunners must fight their way through the tower. When Dragon Gunners reach the tower they are greeted by Dramass who has no intention of sending heroes back home. So they fight.
Dramass has to be defeated by three time. His first form is an extremely agile winged humanoid dragon form that attacks with thunder blade boomerangs and undulation wave (inescapable attack). When that form is defeated, he transform into three-headed fire-formed dragon that teleports around and attack with streams of fires from its three heads. When the second form is defeated Dramass transforms into doppelgangers of Dragon Gunners. Doppelgangers possess nearly (Doppelgangers do not possess flight ability and Dragon Bombs) all abilities Dragon Gunners possess and are capable of almost everything Dragon Gunners are capable of.
when Dramass is defeated, his doppelganger images are split onto top and bottom, explodes in a chain reaction. As he dies, he utters a defiant last shout: "My soul will live... FOREVER!"
Endings[]
There are three endings to this game: normal, special and not-so-good.
Normal - After defeating Dramass and his army of monsters, Queen Anne and her people of Plaitoria thank Dragon Gunners thank them profoundly and send them back to their own homeworld, Earth. And as Dragon Gunners are transported back they remember Queen Anne's words: "Thank you Dragon Gunners. Thank you for bringing us peace."
Special - same as normal ending but extended: Queen Anne makes a slight mistake in the recitation of her portal spell which should take Dragon Gunners back to their own homeworld, so Anthony and Samantha, instead of going back to Earth end up being transported to parallel Earth / alternate Earth where they venture on new journey.
Not-so-good - After Dramass and his monster army are defeated, Plaitoria Kingdom is restored to peace. But Queen Anne tell Dragon Gunners that she tried to hold off dimensional portal as long as she could, but she no longer has the power to transport Dragon Gunners back to their homeworld. Undaunted, Anthony and Samantha set out on a new adventure in the new world they now make themselves home.