If there's something that absolutely all of us can agree on, it's that dragons are awesome. Their depiction throughout folklore have evolved massively from the several thousands of years that people have been telling stories about them, and they've become their own media icon found everywhere for the sole reason that dragons are just really cool. Of course when dragons are really cool, people will adapt them into their own works.
As of the time of writing this article, today is Appreciate a Dragon Day, and we're celebrating that by looking at some of the most iconic dragon characters throughout the gaming world.
Alduin - The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim
Alduin's card art from Elder Scrolls: Legends.
If you believe what Wikipedia tells you, The Elder Scrolls V: Skyrim is the 31st most sold video game of all time... which incidentally is also exactly where G4 placed the game on their list of The Top 100 Video Games of all time in 2012 (if anyone here remembers watching that when it was being televised, comment down below).
But I'm losing myself there. The point being that when a video game has become as much of a cultural icon as Skyrim, if the game features a dragon, then that dragon will also become a cultural icon. Alduin is of course, arguably the most famous part of the entire game, if not the entirety of the Elder Scrolls series. Between Dagoth Ur, Mehrunes Dagon, and Alduin, I would give my favorite of those three to Alduin. He has the coolest and most menacing looking design, and arguably the most prominence and direct impact on your character than all of the other final bosses from the other Elder Scrolls games.
The first time watching the opening cutscene of Skyim, seeing Alduin ironically saving The Dragonborn's life at Helgen is a sign that this game means serious business. Alduin is constantly a factor across The Dragonborn's journey throughout the entire game, resurrecting other dragons, fighting him on top of High Hrothgar, and then travelling to Sovngarde alive to fight him with old Nordic warriors of the past. There's truly no other moment within the Elder Scrolls franchise with as much spectacle as every moment with Alduin, and his role in the game is definitely a huge factor as to why Skyrim continues to remain popular to this day.
Bahamut - Final Fantasy
"Summon: Bahamut" art from the MTG x Final Fantasy crossover set.
Dungeons & Dragons fans may be sulking in their sorrows over their identically named reptilian icon not making the spot on the list, but in the video game world, the Final Fantasy dragon of the same name wins the crown over its tabletop game cousin. Final Fantasy is one of the longest running and most successful video game franchises of all time. With Bahamut appearing in nearly every single game and serving an important role in the overarching plot, Bahamut has naturally became a video game icon in his own right.
And why wouldn't he be? It's been humbling seeing him evolve from a mish-mash of tiny pixels on the original game all the way back in 1987 to his giant, brooding, fully-modelled appearances in the modern games. Bahamut has flexibly served a number of different roles all across his time in the franchise, being a supporting character, a boss fight, and a summonable creature in multiple instances. That's right. You get to summon this thing to fight for you (sometimes), and it's not every day that video games let you use use dragons for good.
Few video game characters have had as long of a life as Bahamut, and his impact in one of the largest gaming franchises ever had solidly earned him an eternity in the hearts of gamers everywhere, even if you've never even played the games before.
Charizard - Pokemon
Official artwork by Ken Sugimori.
Alright, I can see all of the "well, actually" comments already. I know this one will be a bit contentious because Charizard isn't actually a Dragon-Type, but let's be real here. It's still a dragon! Whether the game calls it one or not, you can't look at that thing and say that it's not a dragon.
The starter trio from the first generation are probably still the most iconic starter trio in all of Pokemon. Whether that's up to their design, their prominence in promotional material, or simple nostalgia bias is up to you, but everyone knows the first-generation starters and what they evolve into. From the moment you pick your starter Pokemon in the first game, you have a third of people picking Charmander and another third needing to fight against it as their rival's choice, so he instantly stuck into the minds of every new Pokemon fan when the first game came out. The fact that he's on the cover of Red version certainly helped too. It's a dragon that can breath fire. What's not to love about that?
Charizard is not just popular as a nostalgia pick though. The original Charizard card from the first set of the Pokemon TCG also had the most HP of any card in the game at that point, tied with Chansey. But what Charizard could do that Chansey couldn't was deal 100 damage with a single attack. If you've watched the Pokemon anime, you'd also know that Charizard played a significant role in it, particularly when it took out that Magmar. Naturally it makes sense that Game Freak would focus a lot on Charizard over the other two since, let's face it, dragons are cooler than turtles and frogs.
The Dragonflight Aspects - Warcraft
"Battle of the Aspects" art from the WoW Trading Card Game
We wouldn't just pick one of the Dragonflight Aspects to be on this list, as I think all of them justify their inclusion. Given that Hearthstone is our most popular game on this website that we cover, we're inclined to believe that most of our readers here would agree with that. I know that we've all had at least one experience of interacting with these characters in the game. As soon as either of them dropped onto the boards, we knew things were getting real.
In lore, the Aspects are some of the most popular and powerful characters in all of Warcraft. Effectively created by titans to be the masters of whatever element they control, they instantly captivate players wherever they are, whenever they appear. And because there's so many different elements represented by them, you're bound to have a favorite one. Their design, their stories, and their presence in all Warcraft media have made them what they are.
Naturally, Hearthstone gives them some of the biggest spectacle of any cards in the game at the time. Most cards that depict them being quite powerful, grandiose in presentation, and giving them unique effects that stand out among anything else in the game. Warcraft (and by extension, Hearthstone) is full of dragons, but the Aspects are always given the most spectacle in their presentation and their lore. It's with this, and their impact on the games since the beginning, that has made them some of the most iconic characters. In recent years, a new Dragonflight Aspect was added (Aspect of Storms), and we may see that in Hearthstone one day.
The Ender Dragon - Minecraft
Image from minecraft.wiki
A little bit less properly-proportioned, the Ender Dragon is one of the most popular dragons of all time. A given as Minecraft is the single most popular video game of all time, and the Ender Dragon just looks cool. He essentially has the same look as the other black dragons we've looked at like Alduin, Deathwing, and another dragon we'll talk about later, but in the traditional Minecraft block design. Nearly every Minecraft enemy from Creepers and Zombies to Skeletons have cemented their place into gaming culture, but the Ender Dragon is put into a league of its own. His black and purple color scheme, I think, also does wonders for him.
The Ender Dragon's popularity isn't just stemmed from the worldwide acclaim of Minecraft or the faithful representation of the typical black dragon in the game's art style, but also in his boss fight and what he represents in the game. The Ender Dragon is the endgame boss. You've crafted a base, you've gathered millions (perhaps literally) of blocks and items, killed thousands of monsters, and grabbed enough Eyes of Ender to finish the End Portal. You're now at The End and it's all come down to fighting the Ender Dragon.
The Ender Dragon is unlike any other enemy in the game for one because... you're fighting a dragon. It's likely to be the first boss mob you encounter in the game. Its boss fight is also a culmination of everything you've learned in the game up to this point, requiring masterful arts of building and combat to take out the End Crystals and finish off that dragon. From here, you've now completed the "endgame" task of the game, but your journey isn't over yet because now you can go find yourself some elytra and gain the ability to fly, and use The End as yet another base of operations.
Spyro - Spyro the Dragon
Official pose art from the Reignited Trilogy, referencing the box art design of the original Spyro the Dragon.
If you had a PlayStation 1 growing up, your childhood platforming mascot was either Crash Bandicoot or Spyro... or both, if you have parents that are worth being proud of. The orange marsupial and the purple dragon had a fantastic connection with each other, with employees from both companies regularly interacting and being friends with each other, and games from each series having games from the other franchise as hidden demos. Crash Bandicoot and Spyro were basically a set of brothers on the PlayStation.
Spyro naturally stands out among all of the other dragons on this list, which are large, frightening looking things that look like they would take no time and devour you whole. Spyro instead is an adorable little creature with a slightly goofy, but very adventurous and courageous spirit, and a soft and emblematic purple color scheme. Naturally, you still had the ability to breathe fire and ram through enemies with your horns. He was a perfect combination of being both a lovable dork and a real badass, and it's that combination that helped him become what he is. He could basically be your heroic, faithful, slightly silly best friend who would die for you.
There's already not a lot of games that let you be on the same side as a dragon, so a game that lets you play as one is naturally noteworthy. Although fans lament at the mistreatment of the series over the past two decades, the original games still carry on his legacy forward forever. The three original PlayStation 1 games received an HD remake in 2018. People have been clamoring for a Spyro 4 after multiple Spyro easter eggs were found in Crash Bandicoot 4, and everyone's been going back and forth on whether or not we'll see one. No matter what happens though, its status as a video game icon is timeless.
Lord of Lightning - Super Mario Odyssey
Lord of Lightning as depicted in the Super Mario Odyssey Prima eGuide.
Super Mario Odyssey is a special game for me. Given that I was never much of a Nintendo kid in my childhood, it was hard for me to see Mario the same everyone else did. Didn't really need him when I had Crash, Spyro, and Sonic to a lesser extent, satisfying my desire for platformers to play. After only playing a few of his game ever, Super Mario Odyssey was the game that finally gave me my "Oh my god, I get it" moment for the franchise. Cue the Danny DeVito memes now.
Undoubtedly one of the most notable parts of the entire experience through the game was the boss fight with the dragon. He stands out so much because he doesn't look anything like a regular Mario enemy would. We've battled with Koopas, Goombas, Piranha Plants, and various incarnations of them for decades, but out of nowhere comes this giant realistic looking dragon (as realistic as a dragon can be anyway) that breaths lightning and resides at the top of a ruined tower. The first level, Cap Kingdom, is a radical departure from the norm of the franchise by not starting out in a grassy forest, communicating that this isn't a "normal" adventure, and that mood is amplified when you get to the boss fight against this dragon, and things get real!
The dragon's design, while looking like it comes right from another video game, takes a page out of the Ender Dragon's notebook by copying his black and purple design, and gives him a crown that somehow manages to always stay on top of his head (what's a lord without a crown?). The actual fight is not that long or that hard and he unfortunately doesn't really do much after that, but the initial moment of him hitting the Odyssey down to the ground and fighting him was the biggest moment in this game where everything got really serious. I'd love to see him incorporated in more Mario games somehow.
Dragonlord Placidusax - Elden Ring
Image from eldenring.wiki.gg
I've never been one for the souls-like genre. I tried Dark Souls 3 one time and ended dying to the first boss about 10 times before I quit playing it when it was hard to figure out what I was doing wrong. I knew I was doing something wrong, but I couldn't quite see what it was. I can't deny its appeal though. The genre has permanently evolved the entirety of gaming culture by itself, and one day I will have to go back to give it another try.
Elden Ring has a fair number of dragons in its arsenal, and Dragonlord Placidusax stands out among all of them. His design is unlike any other draconic creature I've seen elsewhere. He's a crumbling, virtually dead, two-headed dragon with several stumps where his other heads used to be. Every part of his boss fight from his design, to his arena, and all of his attacks, are beaming with spectacle. I say beaming because his laser breath attack definitely counts as one the best visual marvels of his fight. Just like the Lord of Lightning, he is a lightning-focused dragon with a ton of attacks that call shocks from the sky, though this time they're red instead of purple.
In a game (and genre as a whole) that is often heralded for its lore and its visuals, Dragonlord Placidusax proves why Elden Ring has a lasting legacy with gamers everywhere.
Who are your favorite video game dragons? Let us know in the comments below.
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