Episode 785: Capcom's Barbarian Legacy (Patreon)

Jeremy: (No, this time I mean it. )

The Capcom journey continues as we look at a loosely defined subset of that company's history: their barbarian games. What exactly does that constitute, you ask? And well you might. As you'll hear here, the definition that we've invented ourselves is a little loosey-goosey, encompassing obvious works (Black Tiger), thematically similar but not quite on-point works (Tiger Road), and games that really aren't barbarian-themed at all but involve large dudes hitting things with blades in pre-industrial settings (Knights of the Round) and therefore ended up being included just for the heck of it. The back half (well, third) of the episode ties all of this to Capcom's more modern-day output and games that you rarely see talking about, like Shadow of Rome, so be sure to stick around to enjoy the "grand unifying theory" nature of it all.

Oh, it's me and Stuart and Patrick again. Yeah. I think this may be enough of the Capcom overviews for 2026, but we'll resume our journey down the road to talk about stuff like horizontal shooters, RPGs, and, I dunno, puzzlers or something.

Edits by Greg Leahy; art by Nick Wanserski.

09:11 - Trojan (Arcade): Stage 1

21:53 - Legendary Wings (Arcade): Area 1 | Black Tiger (Arcade): Ancient Cave

30:22 - Tiger Road (Arcade): Genma-Kan (Stage 2)

41:13 - SonSon II: Stage 3 | Magic Sword: Heroic Fantasy (Arcade): The Dragon's Tower

54:49 - The King of Dragons (Arcade): Hard Long (Stage 2/9)

1:01:57 - Knights of the Round (Arcade): Coastline (Round 5)

1:13:43 - Dungeons & Dragons: Tower of Doom: Wilderness

1:22:34 - Dungeons & Dragons: Shadow over Mystara: Old Enemy | Monster Hunter: To Those Departing

1:30:18 - Shadow of Rome: Main Theme

1:39:42 - Asura's Wrath: Unleashed

1:50:58 - Dragon's Dogma: Dragon Battle

• • Closing - B'z: "Into Free -Dangan-"