Our Dragons Are Different/Video Games



It's no surprise that dragons show up in many video games, now is it?

-- "Holy Dragon: I look like a dog, but I am a dragon! Don't get it confused. Woof!"
 * Lineage 2 usually (read: nearly always) follows the western style of dragons, despite this being a Korean game. Hey, it is a medieval European setting... Within this though are somewhat large variety of them, sometimes taken to extremes verging on Beyond the Impossible. This goes all the way up to the terrible twosome, Antharas the green earth dragon, and Valakas, the four-winged red fire dragon. Both of them are, from the player's perspective, probably as big as oil tankers. And I'm talking about SHIPS, not trucks.
 * Lunar dragons resemble Western dragons (though with feathers rather than scales), but it's notable that young dragons look like small, winged cats. And apparently, they shit diamonds (At least the White one does. You might get Rubies/Sapphires/Onyx from the other three.).
 * The Dragon, Bone Dragon, and Great Wyrm/Entei in the Disgaea series are nothing out of the ordinary as far as dragons go appearance wise (The fact that they, among other things, go to high school and run for office, though...). But then there's the Serpent class of Disgaea Hour of Darkness, a shark dragon (Which is what the class was called in the Japanese version), as well as the fluffy, angelic, dog-faced Holy Dragon, first introduced in Disgaea 2, whom most probably wouldn't call a dragon until they saw its class name.
 * Lampshaded in Disgaea 3 by its introduction lines to your other characters upon creating one:


 * Final Fantasy VI had eight legendary dragons in the World of Ruin (which were simply Palette Swapped versions of other enemy sprites). Beating all eight would unlock a powerful summon that deals a lot of unblockable damage to everyone on the battlefield, your party members included, which was otherwise unobtainable. Of course, you had to be near the very end of the game to beat all eight dragons anyway.
 * Final Fantasy XI has several distinct types. There's the small baby wyvern that Dragoons get as a pet (that have arms), much larger wyverns (that apparently shed their arms as they grew) that are often encountered as high level normal enemies, and dragons that often have some magic and are only ever bosses (and are ugly as sin). Finally, there are wyrms, which are huge western-looking dragons that wield magic and are highly intelligent, and mostly represent one of the game's basic elements. Wyrms can take anywhere from 18-36 people to kill. Bahamut, incidentally, is also known as the Wyrmking who, as the name implies, rules over the rest of the wyrms. There's a battlefield where you have to face him and other wyrms simultaneously.
 * Dragoon's wyverns are actually baby wyrms, SE just added them before they had added the wyrms to the game. According to the game, the dragoon's wyvern "is marked with the holy crest" that makes them good, while shadow dragons and wyverns don't have the crest and are either evil or animalistic. The wyrms are benevolent and work for Bahamut, and one of the wyrms mentioned above was actually the wyvern of the last dragoon. (before the player characters, anyway) You fight them for convoluted plot reasons, this being Square after all.
 * Final Fantasy XII, meanwhile, classified all large reptiles as dragons, including the expected wyrms and wyverns, but also dinosaurs.
 * Almost all Final Fantasy games have Bahamut, one of the most reoccurring and strongest summons in the games. He's more western style. Also a longrunner is Leviathan, with an Eastern serpentine look, but just as powerful.
 * Compliation of Final Fantasy VII ups the ante with five Bahamut variations: Bahamut, Neo Bahamut, Bahamut Zero, Bahamut Fury, and Bahamut SIN, in order from weakest to strongest. They're all western style dragons, of course.
 * Istaria: Chronicles of the gifted: they are split into two factions, one faction (the Lunas)which wishes to dominate the Naka-duskael (the scaleless ones-any inteligent race who arent dragons) and one (the Helians) who wishe to benevolently lead the world into a golden age through example.(allthough personalitys vary greatly form individual to indvidual. many humanoid-friendly dragons are in facut Lunas...) uniquely for a MMO (as far as This trooper knows,, istaria's dragons are a PLAYABLE RACE! western in anatomy and attachment to shinys. which is an actualy gameplay element by way of the hoard stat, which effects several abiliys and serves as a requirement for quite a few racial quests.
 * Jade Empire is a Western game, but its world is a fantasy version of ancient China, so the Water Dragon is wholly Eastern- she's and
 * Various ingame Encyclopedia Exposita also mention a 'Great Dragon', the local Creator and (apparently on sabbatical) head of the Celestial Bureaucracy.
 * Pokémon considers "Dragon" to be one of the many elemental types that a Pokémon can have, but also features a few non-Dragon Pokémon who definitely fit the classical mold, namely Charizard (Western) and Gyarados (Eastern, albeit with the behavior of a Western dragon). And there's also some Dragon-type Pokémon who are very different (Altaria).
 * Dragon is also the Infinity+1 Element of sorts, as its only weaknesses are to Ice and itself. (the latter of which was meaningless in the first generation.
 * What are the iconic dragons of Pokémon, Dratini-Dragonite? Eastern for Dratini and Dragonair, but Western for Dragonite?
 * Not necessarily, dragons and sea serpents have a long history of overlap.
 * There's also Aerodactyl. While it's obviously based on a Pterosaur, it looks more like a Wyvern. Lance owns one.
 * Likewise, several Legendary Pokémon are of the dragon-type. Namely Rayquaza (who is based somewhat on the appearance of a Chinese dragon and on the dragon of Hebrew myth known as Ziz.), Latios & Latias (Loosely based off of wyverns), and three of the "God Pokémon" from Diamond/Pearl/Platinum as well...Dialga, Palkia, and Giratina.
 * Heck, Arceus itself can become a dragon-type if holding the "draco plate".
 * Other Dragon type Pokémon include Altaria, a flying cotton cloud bird, Garchomp, a Game Breaker LAND SHARK (with hammerhead), and Kingdra, a gigantic seahorse which, according to it's Pokédex, has the ability to CAUSE WHIRLPOOLS BY SIMPLY YAWNING. Our Dragons Are Different indeed.
 * Don't forget Vibrava and Flygon, which appear more insectoid then dragon-like.
 * Dragon-types are a pretty big deal in the game universe, being rare and powerful. The most powerful Gym Leaders and Champions (Lance, Clair, Drake, Drayden, and Iris) often specialise in them, and there's an entire subset of 'Dragon Tamer' type trainers. (who all seem to be emulating Lance)
 * The Dragon craze isn't over. What are the cover legendaries to Pokémon Black and White? Not just Dragons, but Yin and Yang Dragons, being Zekrom and Reshiram, respectively (both Western in appearance but Eastern in behavior and motifs). Not only that, but the fifth generation also has:
 * an extra dragon (Kyurem) to make a Fire, Ice, Lightning legendary Dragon trio,
 * a pure Dragon-type evolutionary line (Axew, Fraxure, and Haxorus) based on dinosaurs,
 * a Dark/Dragon evolutionary line (Deino, Zweilous, and Hydreigon) (seemingly Western at first but based on the Yamata no Orochi),
 * and finally, Druddigon, one last non-evovling dragon just for the heck of it.
 * The Draic Kin of The Longest Journey. They resemble the Western variety physically (although they can disguise themselves as humans) but have the nature-spirit culture of the Eastern dragons. In fact, they are actually aliens with powers akin to God who lived on Earth for over twelve millenia and helped humans to split the planet in two.
 * Those who know about the Draic Kin dislike the word "dragon", as dragons aren't real.
 * They also greatly vary in size. The Green, Red, and White Kin are all about the same size, maybe 3-4 times the size of a human. The Blue Kin, on the other hand, is truly gigantic and, apparently, the oldest. This would imply the Draic Kin keep on growing until they die.
 * War Craft dragons look Western, and are primarily represented by five differently-colored groups of called dragonflights. The leader of each dragonflight is called an Aspect. Each Aspect is charged by the Titans with protecting a specific domain: Life (red), earth (black), nature (green), magic (Blue), and time (bronze). Some of the Dragonflights have become corrupted or mad over time. In War Craft II all dragons were green and were your average fantasy dragons, only their leaders had actual sentience. They take on their current form after the novel Day of the Dragon in which they were based off the dragons in Dragonlance.
 * Red dragons are generally benign but are still predators (they have a burning hatred for Orcs after forced into their service in Warcraft 2). Green are usually benign but rarely seen (some have gone insane). Blue and bronze dragons are neutral. Black dragons used to be good, but that changed after their aspect, Neltharion (now known as Deathwing), was driven insane from the whisperings of the Old Gods.
 * Naturally, there is plenty of opportunity to fight dragons in World of Warcraft, from whelps that are barely more than a annoying common enemy up to 40-man raid encounters.
 * An interesting variation are the dragonkin, which look more like lizards. They don't have wings but instead an extra set of limbs, exept a few that have 6 limbs and a pair of wings. According to the official RPGs, they are former mortals who served the dragons so long that they took on their traits. They are usually found together with the whelp variety (adult dragons are fairly rare).
 * There are also drakonids, which are half-man, half-dragon creatures created in the laboratories of Blackwing Lair.
 * Though there are also drakonids that serve the other dragonflights and could not have possibly been created in Nefarion's laboratories. They have been stated to have naturally come about. Try not to think too hard about that one
 * Maybe not, just look at Alextrasza's humanoid form and you will change your mind almost immediately.
 * There's also wyverns, but they don't appear to be related to dragons in any way. They look like lions with batlike wings and a scorpion-like tail (your encyclopedia of mythology would identify these as traits more befitting a Manticore). They are apparently quite intelligent and used by the Horde as flying mounts. As of Wrath of the Lich King, they can be tamed as exotic pets by high-level hunters who are specced in the Beast Mastery talent tree.
 * Players can use some dragons as mounts: There are Nether Dragons in Outland, introduced in the Burning Crusade expansion. These dragons descended from Black Dragonflight eggs that were caught up in the storm of energy that broke Draenor, and ended up with a strange physiology (almost shark-like heads, one-fingered wings like a pterodactyl, and a fin on the end of the tail). They are a faction that players can befriend, and after a lot of work, they can earn the right to ride one as a flying mount. As of Wrath of the Lich King players can win an Albino Drake mount after completing the achievement "Leading the Cavalry", which is given for owning a total of 50 mounts.
 * Dragons of other colors are also available as mounts in Wrath of the Lich King from several sources, usually as rare drops from various dragon raid bosses, though one is acquired by completing a timed event in a heroic 5-man, and another can simply be purchased from the Wyrmrest Accord rep faction at the maximum reputation rank. Strangely, Greens are the only dragons that cannot currently be obtained as a mount (even blue, black, twilight, and undead drakes, all of which the players are canonically at war with, can be obtained as mounts).
 * Proto-drakes also appear in Wrath of the Lich King; they are said to be the primitive ancestors of modern intelligent dragons and resemble the traditional depiction of wyverns, being the less intelligent cousins of dragons. They are obtainable as mounts via completing certain achievements, from a single rare spawn in Northrend that will always give the mount when killed, or as rare drops from certain bosses.
 * Which is odd, given that according to the lore the Titans created the dragons directly, to help battle the Old Gods. Which is made odder still by the fact that apparently all titan creations are made of metal, and the aspects, who were supposedly made by the titans, are flesh and blood. Except Deathwing, who is evil.
 * Er, even Deathwing started out as flesh and blood. He got the metal makeover during the Second War, when goblins attached metal plates to his natural scales.
 * Actually, it has not been stated that the Titans created the dragons. The background seems to suggest they already existed when the Titans came, as the Aspects are described as being created by the Titans empowering already existing dragons. However this seems to have been retconned in Wrath of the Lich King, where it is stated that the Titans created the Aspects using the giant protodrake Galakrond as their progenitor. Presumably they then created the dragonflights after the Aspects.
 * Then there are frost wyrms.
 * Wild Arms dragons are very different. How different? Well for one thing, they're sentient robots that transform into jet fighters when they fly.
 * Runescape uses Western dragons. There are green, blue, red and black dragons, the three-headed king black dragon (which has been shown to be sentient), frost dragons, animated wyvern skeletons and... dragons made entirely out of metal.
 * In The Elder Scrolls universe, the Dragon is the symbol of the Tamrielic Empire. Interestingly, although the Empire itself is styled after the historical Roman one, the dragons are definitely of Eastern variety, to the point that the Imperial Throne of Tamriel is called "The Dragon Throne", just like the one in Imperial China. There are also western style dragons in the earlier games, Daggerfall featured baby dragons as high-level enemies, while Redguard had you fight a fully grown one. There's also a story featuring western dragons, but they're fictional.
 * YMMV, the statue in Ebonhart in Morrowind is pretty clearly a western dragon.
 * Dragons in The Elder Scrolls series are considered extinct by the end of Tamriel's Third Age, though it is impossible to tell if that is absolutely true in any region except for Morrowind where it is known that Cliff Racers drove them to extinction. Even the baby dragons of Daggerfall's Illaic Bay region aren't relate-able to the one time a true dragon was seen in an The Elder Scrolls game - the one you killed in Redguard. Notably, however, one Daedric Princes often appears in the form of a dragon, and the lead deity of the Nine Divines is Akatosh, the Dragon God of Time.
 * In Morrowind, you had some items of dragonscale armour. M'aiq the Liar claimed that you can't see any dragons because they fly above the clouds, and those that fly lower are invisible.
 * They're back in Skyrim, thanks to the efforts of  It turns out that these dragons aren't your typical dragons, and are actually sort-of angelic entities that cannot truly be killed unless there's a Dragonborn (One who is a Dragon soul in a mortal body) to absorb their soul upon death. Dragons also do not breathe fire or ice, but rather act as a sort of Reality Warper using shouted words in their language. Instead of breathing fire, for example, the dragon shouts fire-related words in its language and commands fire to appear.
 * Dragons were also technically never extinct, as a few of them were still around. The first dragon you actually fight in the game, for example, was hiding in Skyrim's mountains until Alduin returned, and another named Parthurnaax has been
 * One of the simplest potential theories about them is that Dragons are all fragments or shadows of Akatosh, the God of Time.
 * Nethack's dragons are kind of western -- huge (as defined by the game's size logic), flying, and equipped with a different breath depending on their colour... and they look like capital Ds.
 * The Might and Magic series does the Western variation almost by the book. In the Heroes of Might and Magic games, they tend to be among the most powerful creatures, and many factions have some sort of Dragon as their strongest (tier 7) creature, such as Green/Gold Dragons for Rampart, Red/Black Dragons for Dungeon, and Bone/Ghost Dragons for Necropolis. Some of the games had even stronger neutral dragons.
 * In Might and Magic VIII there were playable dragon characters and were a major race in the game.
 * Might and Magic VI had a "promotion" quest for the paladin class whereby a dragon must be slain. It didn't do any good to go to the area that was swarming with dragons, though. You had to specifically kill a "named" dragon, of which there was, of course, just one in the game.
 * Also in Might and Magic VII, where it was the first stage promotion quest for paladins. Again, there was just the one of him. Later, candidates for the evil Druid stage II promotion, Warlock, had to find a dragon egg and get it hatched into a Baby Dragon. This time you did have to make your way through an area crawling with dragons and titans, and that was after you'd forged your way through a tunnel system infested with scores of some of the meanest monsters in the game.
 * In Dragon Rage the protagonist, Cael Cyndar, is a dragon.
 * Heroes of Might and Magic V, the latest in the series, features a pantheon of Dragon Gods. There's Asha, the Dragon of Order and creator of Ashan as well as the 8 Elemental Dragons, and her counterpart Urgash, Dragon of Chaos and creator of the demons. The Elemental Dragons are mainly worshiped by one of the remaining races each, and are likely the reason for the (lesser) Dragons being a rather common tier 7 creature for most of the races.
 * Legend of Dragoon has some of the strangest variations of dragons imaginable, neither fitting Western or Eastern examples. These dragons vary from looking like giant insects, to giant catfish, to floating tanks. The only dragon that remotely resembles any more typical dragon at all would be the Divine Dragon, who is a massive, absolutely terrifying looking flying abomination that sacrifices traditional breath attacks for an extremely destructive cannon and missile like attacks.
 * Except the Divine Dragon has seven wings and an upside down head. Yeah, its mouth is on its forehead and its single giant eye is on its chin.
 * Apparently having a cannon as part of your body is normal for at least a couple dragons, e.g., Michael's Black Burst belly cannon.
 * And none of these descriptions even touch the dragon's counterparts, the Virage. They're...well...just look. And that's the normal-looking kind.
 * Dragons in Tales of Vesperia are members of the Entelixia race, who have developed a thorough dislike of humanity by the time the game begins.
 * Dragons in the Breath of Fire series are shape-shifters who spend most of their time in human form, sometime unaware of their true nature. In the fourth game, they're also "Endless", the physical gods of that verse.
 * Just to make things confusing, Breath of Fire can't seem to decide what type of dragons they want. The first two games feature exclusively Western types (though the Agni/Infinity dragon of the first game looks more like a lizard-centaur). The third game has mostly Western dragons, but a few special transformations (namely the fire/ice/thunder gene mix) are explicitly Eastern. The fourth game has mostly Eastern dragons, but the protagonist changes into exclusively Western dragons. Dragon Quarter goes all the way back to Western dragons exclusively (though, since there's only two dragons in the game, it's not that big a leap).
 * In Dragon Quarter the "D-Constructs" are apparently some kind of artificial life form that are able to fuse with humans and give them vast amounts of power at a cost of slowly taking over the body of their host, although the estimated chance to successfully complete the fusion is only 1/4 at very best. While they do look like normal Western dragons in their natural state (accomplished by either fully taking over their host's body either via repeated use of their powers or when the host dies in another manner), they appear as featureless black humanoids with Tron Lines running through them in their dormant state. It's also possible to forcibly implant parts of their dormant form into humans for a moderate power increase, but this also leads them into looking like a combination of a zombie and a battle-damaged Terminator. The successfully fused form, on the other hand, looks similliar to the Warrior form in the previous games of the series: humanoid in size and overall design, with scaled hands and feet and a pair of small wings engulfed in flames.
 * Ridley from Metroid is a space pirate dragon (and The Dragon in almost every game) that fits the Western definition on almost all points -- he flies, he breathes fire, he seems to show up at least once per game regardless of how many times he's apparently been killed (the series has a chronology and no Reset Button), follows the six-limbs morphology, is fairly large, possesses weak points on his chest and in his mouth, and is generally guarding or hoarding something, be it a new route or a new weapon.
 * Ridley only has a weak point in his chest in the 3d games. In 2d games he's actually the only boss without a weak spot (hit him anywhere but the tail and it harms him). He's still a very difficult boss, especially in Super Metroid, where he took an absurd amount of punishment, was very fast and flew around more or less randomly.
 * The prequel manga explains Ridley's tenacity as the result of a powerful Healing Factor which lets him absorb the biomass of creatures he eats... including Samus's parents.
 * The games never really show this (with the exception of Other M), but Ridley is also noted to be extremely intelligent, and holds a high military rank in the Space Pirate hierarchy.
 * Well, Authority Equals Asskicking, and Asskicking Equals Authority and Dragons of all ilks have both in spades, so it makes sense. Add that they are Space Pirates and it makes complete sense.
 * In Puzzle Quest: Challenge of The Warlords, you're led through a realm populated by Western-style dragons. One of whom you can optionally add to your party. You can also capture a wyvern for a mount.
 * There are also dragon spiders. The only thing they have in common with normal dragons is the ability to breathe fire.
 * Bowser, The King of Koopas. Though shaped more like a turtle, he displays all sorts of dragony characteristics, down to the fiery breath.
 * Though, instead of being a dragon turtle, he is actually an ox-turtle. Shigeru Miyamoto first envisioned him to be an ox, but one of the other devs instead suggested making him a turtle. He still retains his ox-like features in his current design, making him look dragon-like.
 * There is also Yoshi, although he's more like a dinosaur horse at first glance. However, under certain conditions, he can spit fire and grow wings to fly. There are also other breeds of Yoshi, sporting different colors, that present different abilities, though the green is the most versatile.
 * He's a dragon, he calls himself as such at one point.
 * They're all equally versatile, actually-colored Yoshis get all the same powers as the consumer model under the same conditions, but each color automatically presents a particular power no matter what color shell they're carrying, meaning the green Yoshi is actually less versatile since he can only use one at a time (and green shells don't give him a power at all).
 * Super Mario Bros also has lots of actual dragons, both of the Western and Eastern varieties (and nearly all try to kill Mario). Hooktail and Gloomtail from Paper Mario are Western Dragons (evil), Bonetail is a skeletal Western Dragon, Fracktail is a malfunctioning robot Eastern Dragon, Wracktail is an evil robot Eastern Dragon, Bonechill looks like a skeletal version of Satan crossed over with a dragon and a giant cannon, Dragohoho from Mario & Luigi: Superstar Saga is Prince Peasley changed into a dragon.
 * The Super Mario Galaxy 2 Boss, Gobblegut is an Eastern style dragon with pretty much the behaviour of a Western style one, and is fought as a boss under the control of Bowser Jr in Bowser Jr's Fiery Flotilla, as well as a fiery version fought as a secret boss in the Battle Belt Galaxy.
 * The Legend of Zelda has a handful of dragons as bosses. Both variants, no less. And some hybrids--Volvagia breathes fire and is a dangerous monster, and has a head like a Western dragon--but his body type and the way he flies suggest an Eastern dragon, Valoo has a more Eastern face but a Western body type, Argarok is more a Wyvern than anything and so is the One-Winged Angel version of.
 * Skyward Sword features three dragons that have hominid faces and wear kimonos.
 * The dragons of Panzer Dragoon tend to have the shape of dragons combined with an utterly alien physiology; the dragons are all bio-engineered weapons of war, and they breathe homing laser beams. All of the dragons in the games have odd, rock-like formations on their skin.
 * There's also Spyro the Dragon. In the original Spyro the Dragon game, there are five dragon breeds named after what job that dragon breed does: Artisan, Peace Keeper, Magic Crafter, Beast Maker, and Dream Weaver. The different dragon breeds all live in different realms and have different body types and horn shapes. For example, the large, stout Beast Maker dragons have thick curled horns and live in swamps while the spotted, muscular Peace Keeper dragons have straight horns and live in a desert region. All the dragons lay their eggs during the Year of the Dragon, and every dragon is granted a dragonfly, which in turn grants the dragons some of their magical power, when he comes of age.
 * In the Legend of Spyro trilogy, different colours tend to be representative of a dragon's element and they are usually only privy to one. Spyro himself is an exception, as he is a purple dragon, which in themselves are extremely rare (there's only been two in that world's history, Malefor (AKA, the Big Bad) being the other one, though he claims that there have been many). Cynder is an exception due to being exposed to dark magic throughout her life. Her appearance is rather unique among dragons as well, though this may be just a gender thing, since she's the only female dragon seen in the trilogy.
 * But not the only one in the game's history; previously we had Ember, a pink and girly-voiced dragon who crushed hard on Spyro and didn't play into the story in any real way, acting as just a one stop NPC who said where to go next. Yeah, Ember wasn't exactly a fan favorite, even before she "dumped" Spyro for an armidillo (it makes sense in context I guess).
 * Sword of the Stars: You know the myth of feathered serpents on Earth? Big, intelligent, powerful, proud? Those are Morrigi females. Concendentally, their males are angels, but thats due to their Glamour making them appear as winged Bishonen of the onlooker's race.
 * Dragons are a staple of the Fire Emblem series and have appeared in every game. They're generally sentient western-type dragons who choose to remain in a human form most of the time for varying reasons. They also have smaller, non-sentient relatives who are used as mounts by the Dragon Knight class, usually called wyverns to distinguish them from the intelligent dragons, and may or may not be bipedal depending on the game.
 * In the Monster Hunter franchise, most of the monsters one fights are Wyverns, bipedal with a long tail and claws on both wings. The dragons of the series are quite varied, but extremely powerful; in-game they are referred to as Elder Dragons. All but two monsters titled as Elder Dragons have four legs, wings, and can deal dragon-based damage (which is also the element they are weakest to). This means the more traditional fire-breathing dragons such as Teostra and Lunsatra, and the god-like Fatalis and Alatreon, are in the same category as the sand-swimming giant, Jhen Mohran. The classification is also used for monsters that share certain characteristics as dragons, but do not fall into any specific category. The way it is used in-game, an Elder Dragon is best described as a UMA. The main examples of this are Kirin, basically a thunder-horse, Ceadeus, a horned whale, and Yamatsukami, a gigantic octopus-like monster, as they are considered Elder Dragons.
 * "Wyvern" in Monster Hunter is almost that world's term for "Monster". Nearly every main monster in the series is classified as a Wyvern of some kind.
 * "Bird Wyverns" are either small Wyverns with bird-like features (like beaks and feathers) or Dromaeosaurs the size of shipping containers,
 * "Flying Wyverns" are larger, more dragon-like Wyverns.
 * "Pseudo-Wyverns" tend to use their wings as forelegs, and often resemble real-live animals like panthers and Tyrannosaurses.
 * "Piscene Wyverns" are amphibious monsters that often resemble fish.
 * "Leviathans" are also amphibious, but built more like crocodilians.
 * "Brute Wyverns" are more Tyrannosaur-like Theropods.
 * "Elder Dragons" come in all sorts of sizes and shapes, but they're all extremely powerful.
 * In Heart of Winter, the expansion of Icewind Dale, the source of all the trouble turns out to be
 * Chrono Cross features six elemental dragon gods, who are all pretty standard Western dragons (except for one, who is . They fuse together to form a protoplasmic WMD created by dinosaurs in another dimension.
 * The Sky Dragons in Cave Story are unintelligent winged reptilian fire-breathers. They're also a bit on the Super-Deformed side.
 * Dragons in Dragonseeds were cloned from fossils discovered in ruins, and come in a wide variety. Apart from the traditional Saurian and Winged varieties, there are such oddities as crabs, bees, one-eyed golems and animated coffins.
 * The "Super" forms of these dragons all resemble humans.
 * Monster Rancher has Dragons of all sorts of varieties.
 * The first No More Heroes has . I repeat, a  . In the sequel, there's Ryuji, with a full dragon theme to complement Travis's tiger motif.
 * The Battle for Wesnoth had normal western dragons along with the Drakes. The Drakes basically can be described as "Magical Samurai Dragon(Western) Blacksmiths". They are a sentient race of dragons that have a warlike way of life that follows a strict heirarchy code of honor (you have to be the strongest warrior to be the leader, and dirty tricks such as poison and stealth are disonorable for them). They are powered by an internal magical flame that would consume them when they die. They are also famed for their craft in creating Armour.
 * One of the expansions for The Sims, the original, Makin' Magic, let you hatch your own small dragon for a pet and they come in three colors, Red, Gold and Purple. The Red ones...well, hope you have a fire alarm handy.
 * The RyuOhKi (Dragon God Machine) of Super Robot Wars, one of the few Choukijins (Super Machine Gods) built by humans to protect the Earth and resembles the Eastern variety. What's unique is this machine is also the KoOhKi (Tiger God Machine) and can combine with a Super Robot and absorb its characteristics to become the RyuKoOh (Dragon Tiger King) and KoRyuOh (Tiger Dragon King), respectively.
 * Dragon Age has dragons of various stages in life. Dragonlings are hatchlings, and relatively easy to kill. Drakes are older and a bit tougher, and are about the size of a van. They're flightless, and the final stage of maturity for the males. Females grow wings and become much larger, becoming a typical western dragon, and there's one more stage where they become even stronger. They have the intelligence of a dolphin, and the fully grown females are on par with boss battles.
 * Also, Flemeth has the ability to turn herself into a dragon.
 * The Old Gods of the Tevinter Imperium, according to the Chantry and other sources, are deities that appeared to the Tevinter as full grown dragons. Unusual in that they were apparently male and sapient -- the Tevinter mages claim that the Old Gods were the ones who taught them the secrets of magic. They were Dumat the Dragon of Silence, Zazikel the Dragon of Chaos, Toth the Dragon of Fire, Andoral the Dragon of Chains, Urthemiel the Dragon of Beauty, Razikale the Dragon of Mystery, and Lusacan the Dragon of Night. One Tevinter archon claimed that Dumat, the most powerful Old God, taught him Blood Magic. According to the Chantry, The Maker sealed the Old Gods deep within the earth for all eternity. Unfortunately, the Darkspawn are drawn to the Old Gods' song and work tirelessly to find them. When they do, the Taint immediately corrupts the Old God and turns it into an Archdemon. It is the twisted will of the Archdemon that unites all of the Darkspawn hordes in a Blight, and slaying the corrupted dragon god is the only way to end it.
 * Trivia: The series gets its name from the fact that dragons were believed extinct for the longest time, then reappeared at the beginning of the current age.
 * Guild Wars gives us the sapient dragons Glint and Kuunavang and not-so-sapient Saltspray Dragon Hatchlings. Of the first two, the former is a European Dragon with sort of an Eastern disposition and the former is an Eastern dragon with wyvern wings. The sequel gives us the Ancient Dragons, who are truly enormous. No, really.
 * For a good reference, one of the awakened dragons was mistaken for a mountain range in the original Guild Wars.
 * The dragons in the sequel are very different from most other dragons. Rather than just being giant, winged lizards, they're more like incredibly powerful EldritchAbominations. For example, one of them turned a huge stretch of land into a crystal wasteland while simultaneously mutating its inhabitants. How did it do this? Through some powerful spell? Some elaborate ritual? No. By flying over it.
 * Mega Man 2 has a Western-styled robot dragon, who breathes fire (and is weak to boomerangs upside the head).
 * Dragons haven't yet made an official appearance in Gensokyo but the lore makes them out to be something fantastic. They're essentially known as dragon gods and Rinnosuke says that when a god's body dies its bones swell with power and grow into what the Outside World have called dinosaur fossils. Backstory indicates that just before the Great Hakurei Border was established, a dragon made one final appearance to its denizens before normal contact with the Outside World was severed.
 * There's a statue of a dragon in the Human Village that predicts the weather - thanks to kappa technology - and there's a palace in one of the regions of the Heavens called the Dragon Palace, though it seems to be in name only; noble Celestials and Tenshi l
 * Not so much, apparently, the "Highest God Of Illusions" (AKA, Gensokyo's God) is simply called "The Dragon" and in fact was the dragon that helped in the creation of the Hakurei Barrier, the "Dragon Palace" in Bhava-Agra makes much more sense, since Bhava-Agra is essentially Gensokyo's Heaven, they'd be pretty much the ones to hold the Palace towards Gensokyo's God.
 * There are only six dragons in Rift, and each one is only a manifestation of the leaders of the Elemental Planes.
 * The second Tomb Raider game has this in form of the power granted by the Dagger of Xian, which can turn people into dragons. However, the result is a clumsy, fire-breathing dinosaur-like chinese dragon.
 * Sacrifice's dragons are the highest-level creature available to Persephone, the goddess of life and nature. They look like a green and short-necked dinosaur with feathered wings. They are sentient, intelligent, and good-aligned, and their Breath Weapon breathes life that is able to resurrect dead beings. They attack with their powerful bite.
 * The first boss of Kirbys Epic Yarn is a green dragon named Fangora who blows flames, flaps his wings to blow Kirby backwards, and sticks out his tongue in the form of a spear and shoots it at Kirby. His tongue can be used against him when he tires himself out. He is later brought back by Yin-Yarn in the final boss battle.
 * In Magic Carpet, dragons are fairly low-level enemies that look like flying caterpillars and shoot fireballs. On the other hand, the wyverns that you encounter much later look like traditional dragons.
 * In the Disciples games, the dragons are of your typical Western variety, although there are multiple kinds with different types of Breath Weapon: Black with acid breath (Death), Blue with steam breath (Water), Green and Red with fire breath (Fire), and White with vapor breath (Air). The Undead Hordes also have reanimated dragons in the form of Deathdragon, Doomdrake, Dreadwyrm, and Wyvern. All the dragons (except for the undead ones) are ancient and intelligent creates and are one of the first created in Nevendaar. Also, it is claimed that the Greenskins were created by a dragon deity.
 * Dragon Quest IX features several dragon-like monsters one can fight. The most prominent dragons, though, are two Eastern-style dragons. The first is Graygnarl, a large white dragon who guards a town. He acts noble and tough, but that goes away when he gets drunk. The other dragon is just a black Palette Swap of Graygnarl, who rivals him and also serves as the mount for one of the bosses.
 * Dwarf Fortress features the western type of dragon. They can breathe fire, hoard gold, and are the largest beings in the game. Only one thing is missing : as of the current version, they cannot fly.
 * Academagia's dragons are a mixture of Eastern and Western in appearance and mostly Western style in personality, with a healthy dose of Abusive Precursors. They are probably extinct on the surface of the world and not very numerous in the floating islands of Elumia (much to the relief of the human population).
 * The dragons of Dark Souls have stone scales and four wings, and were overthrown by the gods to establish the Age of Fire. And the dragons in-game have plenty of variety on their own.
 * Minecraft has an enderdragon. It's a western-type dragon who doesn't breathe fire, but can fly and phase through terrain as it is nothing. It evaporates any material not native to The End realm.
 * In Shining the Holy Ark one of the main characters is a dragonman. Half dragon half human, best not to think how that came about.
 * Whereas Shining Force III has many different types of dragons. Your army will often be fighting wyverns you do at one point fight a baby dragon. If you avoid the fight with the baby dragon you'll be able to recruit a friendly dragon in the second game, kill the baby and you've got to fight an adult dragon to get past.
 * The iPhone-game Dragonvale has you running a dragon-zoo/conservatory, so needless to say, it contains an enormous number of very different dragons, divided into 8 elements with various hybrids, seasonal variants, and a couple of 'special' types. The sheer variety indicates a lot of brainstorming-session along the lines of "What would a Plant/Cold dragon be? What about a Lightning/Plant? Or a Water/Metal?" ...the results being a Lichen Dragon, a Cactus Dragon and a Rust Dragon, respectively.
 * One interesting detail: While the majority of the dragons are either some variety of Western, or completely unique, there is only a couple of dragons that fit the 'Eastern' pattern - and those are some of the rarest and most valuable dragons around, specifically the Luck-Based Mission Rainbow Dragon, and the golden Leap Year Dragon which was only breedable for about a week around leap-day... and won't be available again for another 4 years.