Once upon a time in the Deerzar kingdom, an evil villain named Baarogue (or Baalogue, the game names him both ways) kidnapped princess Sarasa and brought her to his gigantic castle surrounded by burning, white-hot lava. The king, outraged and desperate, sought out a hero for help...

This is the beginning of Cadash, an unproper kind of arcade game since it's partially a role-playing game. It was released by Taito in 1989 and it's pretty similar to games like Wonderboy in Monsterland. In fact, the game looks like Wonderboy gone serious. Graphics remind player of such classics as Rastan Saga.

When you start up the game, you are presented with some short in-game demos and a brief intro showing princess Sasara being abducted by Baarogue in the form of a giant, two-headed, red dragon. You can also watch at the four heroes standing on a tower, ready to rescue the princess. In this game, you take the role of one of those heroes. After you throw in a coin or two and start the game, you're introduced to the character selection screen. This game can actually be played by four players simultaneously: there are four different characters one can choose from:

After selecting one hero, you find yourself in the throne room of the Deerzar king. In a short monologue he bestows upon you, the noble hero, the task of finding princess Sasara. Then you set out into the world, where you'll visit five connected continents via some teleport portals.

Graphics are quite standard for the time, but the game is not really very colorful and style might become monotonous after a while. Sound includes a few very fine, atmospheric melodies. The game itself is very well designed: as you travel the world, you find small cities, or villages, in which you can rest, buy new equipment or simply talk to the inhabitants.

Outside of that, there is the normal level, in which you battle against zombies, small dragons, chimeras and the like. The designers also build in some nice hazards, for example the forest level, where you have to swing yourself from one liana to the next one and avoid columns of fire. As you advance, your char gets experience points for killing enemies. Your hero takes advantage of those points and progresses through levels: this means his stats become better. For example, you get more hit points, thus making you less short-lived (and the game is one in which you are VERY short-lived), or your strength grows, making your attacks more powerful.

The story of Cadash was designed to keep player's interest wide. As you travel, you meet such wondrous things as a gnome village, a beautiful mermaid or fulfil the wish of a mourning widow. The different levels (there are five of them) include a dark cave, a magical forest, a castle and a tombyard. Each level has some kind of quest item which you have to find in order to advance to the next portal and thus, to the next level. Those quest items can be different things like, for example, an elixir that makes your hero shrink, thus you can enter the small houses of gnomes (nice idea).

The idea of letting player buy new equipment is also challenging. The heroes' outlook changes everytime you buy something new. The fighter, for example, looks like a barbarian wearing a red dress in the beginning, and at the end of the game he looks like a noble warrior in golden mail and holding a glimmering battle sword.

Each level also has one boss: they differ widely, both in graphics and difficulty. For example, there's a giant blob which doesn't look very good and is not really hard to kill. Then you'll find a wonderfully drawn fire elemental. The last of the bosses is Baarogue himself: when you first meet him, he looks like a dark wizard, but after a short fight, he transforms (looks great) into a dragon. After another brief fight he flees and you are able to rescue the princess. But as your hero returns to Deerzar, you find out that the dragon has assaulted the king's palace. You find out that Baarogue has taken the guise of the king himself! That's where the showdown begins in which you (hopefully!) smash down the dragon, who transforms yet once more (I won't tell you though how he transforms... some surprise! :-)) At the end, the noble hero leaves the princess and she tells him as a goodbye the legendary words: "Thank you, for the important thing"... Now, whatever might that mean?