Roaring Dragon Psynergy series

Roaring Dragon being cast in Dark Dawn

Roaring Dragon (ホロウ, Horō), Slaying Dragon (ガイサイ, Gaisai), and Reigning Dragon (ボウテンコウ, Bōtenkō) make up a series of Venus based attack Psynergy introduced in Golden Sun: Dark Dawn. The Roaring Dragon series features what is considered to be the most powerful Venus-based Psynergies in the series.

Basic Description

Roaring Dragon, Slaying Dragon, and Reigning Dragon are offensive, ranged Psynergies. The overall power of each stage is determined by comparing the user's Venus Power and the target's Venus Resistance, and multiplying the resultant ratio by the base power of the Psynergy being used.

Roaring Dragon

Venus

16 PP

"Conjure a dragon whose roar brings doom." (DD-present)

Strikes up to 3 enemies with a base power of 120.

Slaying Dragon

Venus

32 PP

"Conjure a dragon's image to annihilate foes." (DD-present)

Strikes up to 5 enemies with a base power of 200.

Reigning Dragon

Venus

39 PP

"Conjure a mighty dragon to bring ruination." (DD-present)

Strikes up to three enemies with a base power of 280.

Visually, each stage of the series features a large dragon being summoned to attack the targets. Roaring Dragon has a dragon releasing a damaging sound wave, while Slaying Dragon summons rock needles to perforate the enemies, and Reigning Dragon shows a dragon blasting the targets with a massive shockwave.

Damage calculation example

Elemental Power attacks such as the Roaring Dragon series use a set base power as the base damage to be modified. For example, the base power of Reigning Dragon is 280. Thus, an unmodified Reigning Dragon would deal around 280 points of damage. Reigning Dragon's attack takes this base damage value and uses it in the following equation: final damage = (base damage) * (1 + (User's Venus Power - Enemy's Venus Resistance) / 200) To word this in prose, the Roaring Dragon series takes the base damage of the particular attack, and then modifies this by how much higher or lower the user's Venus Power is than the target's Venus Resistance. The difference between the user's Venus Power and the target's Venus Resistance is then divided by 200, then 1 is added to this, resulting in what can be called the "elemental damage multiplier". This number is what the Psynergies' damage is multiplied by. For example, if an Adept with a Venus Power of 150 casts Reigning Dragon on a monster with a Venus Resistance of 50: damage = (base damage) * (1 + (Power - Resistance) / 200) damage = (280) * (1 + (150 - 50) / 200) damage = (280) * (1 + 100 / 200) damage = (280) * (1 + 0.5) damage = 280 * 1.50 damage = 420 Therefore, a Reigning Dragon cast under these circumstances would deal approximately 420 points of damage to the main target. Since Reigning Dragon is a ranged Psynergy, adjacent targets would take a percentage of the total damage, with the percentage decreasing as the distance from the main target increases.

Availability

Slaying Dragon being cast in Dark Dawn

As of Dark Dawn, the Roaring Dragon series is unique to the Miko class series, a mono-elemental class that serves as the base class for the Venus Adept Himi. The series is available to Himi when she has no or only Venus Djinn Set to her. Roaring Dragon is learned at Level 31, while Slaying Dragon is learned at Level 39, and Reigning Dragon is learned at Level 50.

Analysis

Reigning Dragon being cast in Dark Dawn

General: The Roaring Dragon series possesses a great deal of raw power, making it one of the few Power-based Psynergies useful for boss battles. Reigning Dragon is the heaviest area-of-effect Psynergy out of all the Venus Psynergies to date, beating even Grand Gaia. While Grand Gaia has a larger range, few enemies come in groups larger than three, making the Roaring Dragon series a more efficient choice.

By Game

Golden Sun: Dark Dawn: Himi's naturally high Venus Power means that the already high power of the series is increased even more. The series serves as Himi's most powerful offensive option in her base class, and contributes heavily to her abilities as a supporting party member. Despite the high PP of the series, Himi can still get multiple castings due to the Miko class having one of the highest PP multipliers of any class.

Etymology

The Japanese names of the Roaring Dragon Psynergy series are based on three of the more popular members of the Yang Xing or Nine Offspring of the Dragon King from Chinese Mythology:

• Horou is the Japanese reading of 蒲牢Púláo. This four-legged, land-dwelling Dragon is often depicted atop Chinese bells because its known to roar when attacked by its sworn enemy, the whale (the traditional bell-strikers are similarly designed to look like whales), hence the English translation as Roaring Dragon.

• Gaisei is the Japanese reading of 睚眦 Yázì, a hybrid of Dragons and Dholes, aka Asian Wild Dogs, hence the coat of fur and the dog-shaped face. This Dragon is particularly aggressive, likes to kill, and is commonly depicted on cross-guards of Chinese swords, as reflected in its English translation as Slaying Dragon.

• Bōtenkō is the Japanese reading of 望天吼 Wàngtiānhǒu, also known as Dēnglóng, a mythical beast and dragon hybrid often included in lists of the Yang Xing, but not in the two most prominent lists (unlike Púláo or Yázì). Wàngtiānhǒu often plays a role similar to Stone Lion or Tiger guardian statues (and shares some physical characteristics with them), and is a messenger delivering the Will of Heaven to the people and the conditions of the people to the Gods in Heaven. This Dragon was worshiped by many Reigning Emperors, and the Chinese Character for Wàng- can be read in Japanese to mean Reign, hence the English translation as Reigning Dragon.

Trivia

• The mirror shown in the sequences of these Psynergies could most likely resemble the Yata Mirror, one of the three Imperial Regalia of Japan in its mythology.
• As of Dark Dawn, Reigning Dragon holds the distinction of being the most powerful Power-based Psynergy in the series.