Garshasp: Temple of the Dragon

The prequel to Garshasp: The Monster Slayer. Temple of the Dragon is effectively a stand-alone expansion of the original

Overview

Garshasp: Temple of the Dragon is a stand-alone expansion pack which serves as a prequel to the original Garshasp. The game is centered around the titular dragon temple which houses the ancient mace Garshasp's brother dies defending in the original.

Comparisons to the original

As a stand-alone expansion, Temple of the Dragon re-uses many of the assets from the original. As such, while many enemies return, Temple of the Dragon does introduce a number of new enemy types- such as sorcerers and archers. Some of the old enemies have been at least subtly changed in some way as well. Some have noticably more aggressive AI, while others have brand new or re-balanced animations and attack options (Including a surprisingly high number of unblockable attacks).

For example, the tiger-like enemies of the game all have a new stand-alone unblockable attack. Another example is that the red goblin soldiers can occasionally sink into the ground and use their counter-spin attack at will, rather than only being able to use it when the player knocks them down.

Compared to the original, Temple of the Dragon has a much higher number of puzzles to be solved. As a trade-off though, the wall-sliding mechanic of the original is never used outside of very brief transitions. Temple of the Dragon also has several more lightly-puzzle based combat arenas than the original: where spiked floors either have to be avoided, or can be triggered to hamper waves of enemies.

Most likely the most noticable change for those who played the original is how the narrative is handled. Unlike the original, where periodically the narrator would chime in during scripted camera pans introducing a new area, Temple of the Dragon has a few cutscenes with direct voice acting for Garshasp himself, a human soldier acompanying him, and the leader of the monsters. The narrator's voice actor does seem to return in Temple of the Dragon, but he now only speaks when the player finds various parchments scattered throughout the game.