Gaiapolis

Gaiapolis is an action role-playing game played from a overhead view. The story follows prince Gerard Himerce, whose country of Avalon was destroyed by Mordred, an evil god summoned by the king Darkness of the Zah Harc empire. Determined to exact revenge, Gerard embarks on a journey accompanied by Elaine Shee, a half-fairy and last survivor of the Shee fairy clan, and Galahad, a wingless dragon archduke exiled from the dragon kingdom. The party meets a fire warrior, who tells them about three keys to open the path that leads to Gaiapolis, the tower where Darkness resides.

The player can choose one of three characters, each with their own unique weapon, advantages and disadvantages: Gerard and Galahad are sword-wielding warriors, while Elaine is a tonfa-wielding martial artist. Gerard is average but has high attack power; Elaine is weak but fast in close combat; and Galahad is slow but has great durability. The player fights enemies by performing normal or consecutive attacks with the weapon. Using consecutive attacks can potentially land a critical hit on the enemy.

Gaiapolis was developed by the arcade division at Konami. D." Ashida, who previously worked on Gradius II and Detana!! TwinBee.

Both the plot and story were written by Tadasu "Tadasuke" Kitae, who also served as co-programmer along with Hideo "Hides" Shiozaki and Tomohiro "Tom" Ishimoto. Ha) served as planner and character designer under the direction of Yasuhiro "Idaten" Noguchi. Hamakawa had previously worked on Konami titles such as Crime Fighters and Detana!! TwinBee.

In Japan, Game Machine listed Gaiapolis on their June 1, 1993 issue as being the tenth most-popular arcade game for the previous two weeks. Monthly Coin Journal ranked the game as the twelfth highest-grossing arcade machine in Japan, based on a June 1993 arcade operator survey.

French publication Joypad found the inclusion of a password system innovative for the arcade scene, but noted that the game's mix of action and adventure playstyles was more reserved for consoles. Ação Games considered it an odd game from Konami, but commended its password feature and multiplayer mode. Gamest praised the game's audiovisual presentation but criticized its uninteresting story and direction, noting that fighting enemies with the same combat actions felt monotonous. Famitsu highlighted the game's graphics, particularly the backgrounds and player characters, and well-crafted worldview.

A one-shot manga adaptation, written and illustrated by Shūjirō Hamakawa, was published in the August 1993 issue of Shinseisha's Comic Gamest manga anthology. The character of Elaine Shee would later make appearances outside of Gaiapolis in other Konami titles; Elaine appears as an unlockable playable character in the fighting game Battle Tryst (1998).