Fantasy RPG, late 80s-90s

[RobC]

Here is what I remember about the game, late 80's-90's time frame, believe it was an RPG type game and here are the specifics. You would begin say with a serpent, you can upgrade to a two headed serpent and then I believe a Dragon. Depending the serpent would depend what dragon it would become (color wise). You also had angels, golums, skeletons and others. I believe you could only uograde three times for max level. I remmeber that if you could get your thing to a dragon, angel or Valkarie, it was almost unstopable. I have looked at Ogre Battle thinking it was that but don't believe so or at least haven't found the right version. I hope someone, anyone, can help with this. I do believe it is in that realm of a Ogre Battle type game. Thanks.

[Rwolf]

So, was the serpent/dragon a party member, or an army resource type? I assume you did not play as the dragon alone?

[RobC]

It was a creature you could use just like the angel, Valkyrie, golum. I can picture it but hard to out into words, not forming. With "x" exp you could level them up.

[Rwolf]

Would it be a 'familiar' constantly with your main character, or a summoned magic creature used in battles by your main character (possibly to be re-summoned if it died)? A suume the game had a party, since this is similar to the Ogre Battle you mentioned; that game also has strategy elements.

Some of the HoMM games have various creatures you can recruit, but I'm not sure about the details on upgrades. Some are individual 'Heroes' but most are less detailed troops from other species.

[RobC]

First off I truly appreciate this help Rwolf. As far as I can remember they were not familiars, they were actual monsters you controlled. It wasn't like FF with Shiva and the such where you summon them. These were lvl 1's and through victories using them, they upgraded. Again, the one thing I truly remember is you were devastated if you were one step away from a fully lvl'd dragon for it to die before you could BUT if you got it fully lvl'd, you were almost unbeatable. Again, I do remember some of the other creatures: valkyries, angels, golems, dragons, serpents.

[RobC]

It was either for the NES, SNES or Playstation if that helps.

[Rwolf]

I'm starting to lean towards something like the Archon series; they look like chess boardgames, but have a lot of strange pieces and rules.

https://www.mobygames.com/game-group/archon-series

[RobC]

Not it but do remember that game as well. Just looked at videos of it. I will have to keep looking and try to remember more of it. Not sure why this game popped into my brain but was a great game, now just need to remember it. Thanks for the help though.