Dragon Drive

Dragon Drive (ドラゴンドライブ, Doragon Doraibu) is a Japanese manga by Kenichi Sakura (佐倉 ケンイチ Sakura Ken'ichi), was published by Shueisha and serialized in the manga magazine Monthly Shōnen Jump. Publication ended on January 5, 2006, with a total of 14 volumes. Viz Media, leading publisher in Weekly Shōnen Jump (Shueisha) and Shōnen Sunday (Shogukukan), acquired the rights to distribute the Dragon Drive manga in North America.

Dragon Drive follows lazy junior high school student Reiji Ozora who routinely gives up on everything he starts and is terrible at his school work. Tired of seeing him give up at everything and continue to perform so poorly at school, his childhood friend Maiko Yukino shows Reiji the virtual reality game called Dragon Drive. It is a fighting game in which players and their dragon partners face off within a virtual reality city. Reiji's general lazy personality and lackluster school performances lead him to gain a seemingly equally lazy small dragon whom he calls Chibi. Only later do both of their true strengths show as Chibi, despite being small and sleeping in his first appearance, turns out to be the rarest dragon in the game, a discovery which leads Reiji and his friends to another world called Rikyu.

Dragon Drive: D-Masters Shot

Dragon Drive: D-Masters Shot is a third-person shooter video game released in 2003 by Treasure Co. Ltd. The game is based on the Dragon Drive series and was only released in Japan.

Gameplay

Dragon Drive was an aerial combat game, set primarily in large, outdoor arenas where players had to face several waves of enemies. With multi-directional dash and lock on abilities, the game has sometimes drawn comparisons to the Zone of the Enders series.

The game also has a handful of rail shooter levels, drawing frequent comparisons to Sega's Panzer Dragoon series, but these comprise only a very small portion of the game.

Legacy

Dragon Drive received largely negative reviews, drawing criticism for its poor graphics and repetitive nature. It remains the only game developed by Treasure never to be acknowledged on its own website, an intentional omission spanning several site redesigns, suggesting the developer was not satisfied with the release.

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