Although it is branded a gaiden ("side story"), this game is actually a direct sequel to the first D'ark. The anti-hero of the previous game, the mysterious Dulldeek, has released the four Dragon Knights in order to help the Darkness to defeat the Light in the upcoming battle. After the light warrior Felnous was defeated by Dulldeek, it looked like the Light has lost... D'ark Gaiden allows the player to play through two scenarios, one continuing the adventures of Dulldeek and the Dragon Knights (starting as the Black Dragon Knight Zarsch, one of Dulldeek's companions), the other casting Felnous as a protagonist, recovering after the battle with Dulldeek and swearing to exact revenge. The gameplay is essentially the same as in the previous game: basic solo dungeon crawl through pseudo-3D mazes, turn-based combat against random enemies. It is now possible to cast defensive support magic. The animations in combat are improved, and there are more different textures in the dungeons. As in the first game, there is the possibility to turn random encounters off; in this game, there is an additional "MAX" option, which cranks the encounter rate up.