EDIT: This is my first time reviewing here so sorry for the lack of indentation I copied this over from word to here so cut me some slack please. Oh and sorry if it seems a little long, I'm a bit of a motor mouth.
Strategy RPG?s are among one of my favorite genres in the realm of gaming, and there has always been a fair amount out there that have kept me occupied and entertained for dozens of hours with their deep customization, engaging stories, massive casts, and decently paced game play. There are many popular SRPG games out there that are known and loved far and wide, but then there are those overlooked that should have been up there with the big shots. This is where Bahamut Lagoon comes in as a classic jewel of a game that unfortunately not many people to my knowledge know or have played.
A few years back I and my good friend were talking games as usual and he mentioned a game neither of us had heard of before that he found for his SNES emulator, this game was none other than Bahamut Lagoon, a strategy RPG that unfortunately never saw release outside of Japan. Later that day I headed home and found a fan site with a translated ROM of the game, so I downloaded it and began to play and see if it was as good as my friend made it out to be. I was far from disappointed to say the least as I just stumbled onto an incredibly fun, deep, and engaging game from one of my favorite RPG developers none other than Squaresoft themselves. An overlooked classic that I hope many SRPG players will be encouraged to try after reading this review, so without further a dew let?s get on with show.
The first thing you will no doubted think when you start to play this game is wow this game looks great! This is one of the finest looking games the SNES has ever released up there with games like Chrono Trigger, Zelda, FF6 and others. The game has no shortage of vibrant color and fine animations. The skies look beautiful with this peculiar aura that makes them so mesmerizing and easy on the eyes. Environments are well detailed are have a good amount of variety to them ranging from green plains, arid deserts, drank caves, to the very sky itself, ensuring that there is always enough eye candy and new scenery to entertain to player and keep things fresh. The character sprites and dragons (yea I?ll get to that later) are well detailed and to a degree are almost on par to that of Final Fantasy Tactics sprites, but that is only the map sprites. The battle sprites on the other hand look fantastic with immense detail, crisp and fluid battle animations that really show off characters well in higher resolution glory. With various dragons, a multitude of enemies, huge cast of characters, smooth battle animations, and elaborate summons this game is teeming with visual flare and has a pleasant art style to it that is comparable to even some early 2d PS1 games.
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OK so now that your done gawking at this splendid looking game let?s give your ears a treat shall we? Yes this game has some superb sound to it with a nice extensive track of music that you will be bound to hum to yourself to, but then again this is Square we are talking about. The music makes good use of the SNES hardware and delivers some incredible tracks from the heartwarming music of two characters sharing an intimate moment, enthusiastic battlefield music, to the intense boss music. For the most part the music gets the job done well and fits the tone of the scenario you are currently in and all fits together quite well. There are a few songs though that may prove a little too monotonous or even annoying at times and there is sometimes a feeling of inconsistency when you go from field battle to a direct confrontation thus changing the music for the duration of that battle and then switching back to field music as battle move along very quickly. It is a tad irksome but is not too much of a major issue as you will get used to it in no time and the amount of good tracks and its presentation outweighs the few that may not sit well with some.
Since this game is fan translated, I have to say that they did a splendid job at translating the game to English with few spelling errors and it?s clear of many translation inconsistencies that you may find in other fan translated games or even commercially translated ones.
I got to say the story is great and had some real length and depth to it that is still good even today. A story that will easily last you 30 hours with its many chapters, each consisting of a major battle and decent portions of dialogue between each battle. The story has a wide cast of characters, with roughly 30+ troops to level and command, many meaningful plot important characters each with their own distinctive personalities and a silent protagonist that is so awesome he commands a squad of dragons and heads an army. The main cast of characters has their share of a few clichés but they are fun to say the least and are not at all annoying?ok well the lead female start off rather annoying but she develops better as the story progresses. The villains are also pretty text book but the critical ones change over time and develop some depth to them.
?The one who reads the minds of the Holy Dragons shall open the door to a new era?
The story takes place in the worlds of Orelus, a world where people live among the skies on massive floating continents and where dragons are peoples primary battle steeds. In this world exist 7 great dragons that have been laying dormant for centuries and are revered by Orelus? inhabitants. The story kicks off in the middle of a battle to protect the homeland of Byuu, the protagonist, and his crew from the onslaught of the invading Granbelose Empire ruled by Sauzer and his top generals which will come to know and hate. Byuu is leader of a squad of Dragons which he and his allies command to help fend off the invasion. So the story throws you right into this conflict as the kingdom of kahna tries desperately to awaken Bahamut from his sleep and use him to stop the inevitable downfall of kahna. To the dismay of the king, his daughter, princess YoYo (yea stupid name I know), is unable to see into Bahamuts mind and awaken him. Sauzer ends up defeating Byuu and his allies, kidnaps the princess (how typical) and conquers Kahna with little trouble. Fast forward 2 or 3 years and we see that Granbelos has conquered much of Orelus and Byuu and his companions has escaped and has gone into hiding secretly raising a rebellion in order to take back their kingdom, save the princess and stop Sauzers reign and whatever plans he has for the princess and the Holy Dragons. So your band gathers up what remaining dragons are left of the squad and go on a number of missions to take back Kahnas flying fortress, their kingdom and also to liberate other nations under occupation. As the story progresses you come to find out that the princess and some others have to ability to communicate with the 7 holy dragons and are able to control their fierce power. Now the problem with this is the Empire desires to use these dragons to bring about ?a new era?, whatever that may be. Many more secrets and events unfold that add greater depth to the story as most of this is only to beginning to an adventure that will encounter some interesting plot twists along the way.
Overall the characterization and story are done well and the pacing doesn?t seem to falter over this 30+ hour adventure. The characters are charming, the event?s fold out nicely and it?s both a pleasant nostalgic experience and a moderately original story that packs some nice emotional moments and a love story arc that doesn?t seem too tacked on or forced.
Alright now that I?ve given you a taste of the story without revealing or spoiling too much lets delve into the game play. Now here is where the fun begins, with a solid and rather polished game play experience that will please both veteran and beginner SRPG players. The deep game play experience is split in two ways as its battle system is a mix of SRPG and regular RPG game play.
Your army is vast comprising is many job classes and abilities that all serve their uses in battle. The good thing about this game is you earn characters as the story progress and there is none of that going to a store and hiring as only a few characters are ?secret?. Hell you start off with 20 party characters from the get go, each of different classes, it?s pretty impressive. Characters cannot deviate outside their profession so that priest stays a priest and that warrior stays a warrior. It?s a little disappointing but it works well and as your characters level up they learn and strengthen their abilities making them ever stronger. Now here is the neat part, you get to bring in any 24 characters into the battle as each unite is comprised of 4 characters that form their own little party. You can mix and match characters in the battle menu before you start allowing you to have a heavy hitting party full of warriors, a nuker party full of wizards and priests or a mix of both. Each class has their special abilities such as magic, javelin, sword techs and such and you can use these abilities as you move that unit and cause various terrain affects or long range attacks on enemies. The party customization is very flexible allowing you to have 4 party abilities at a given time. The only downer to all this is maybe the equipment as it?s pretty standard equipment system with nothing like item enhancements or the likes of what you would see in FFT.
Your parties though are further enhanced by the Dragon system. A splendid, unique, and simplistic system that is your trump card in battle. Each one of your 6 units is in control of a dragon that they command in battle which will cast spells, go in for direct attacks, or even support that unit or other fellow units on the map. The dragons are actually very smart and are not prone to stupid decisions as unfortunately you do not control them in major depth There are three basic commands that control them. This may seem rather disappointing at first but you see later that it is rather balanced and prevent you from winning battles in no time at all as dragons have unlimited movement range. These 3 basic commands are:
? Go!- Dragons will go on an assault directly or at a distance from an enemy and attack them with their powerful attacks. A good command for strong dragons and allows you to weaken enemies before going in and finishing off the enemy.
? Follow- Dragons will stick close to their unit and attack nearby enemies as well as even healing your fellow units if need be. Just like a loyal dog and it?s master
? Wait- Keep your dragons on hold as they stay back and bide their time if you don?t need them right away and are saving that dragon for a later assault.
So while seeming simplistic, it works well and the dragons are rare to make stupid decisions and act as great support. Oh but that?s not all, as dragons can be further strengthened not just through leveling up in combat as you can feed them too. Dragons are your personal garbage disposal as you can feed them ANYTHING. Any and all equipment and items can be fed to dragons which will up various stats, and even allow them to transform into much stronger and fearsome versions that their physical appearance will differ. If you?re not strapped for cash you can feed your old equipment to dragons and they will happily take it. You NEED to do this too as a badly fed dragon will not fight well as much as a well fed one so it is important to feed to before battles. Big fearsome pets they are but your loyalty to them will pay off.
Now to Battle!!
You have your battle field that is comprised of a big terrain map littered with enemies, buildings, water bodies and more as you fight your way to victory and entire continents, countries, and inside fortresses. This battlefield is the main bulk of your game play as you move your units in your typical grid like system from one place to other attacking enemies in direct and indirect combat. Now terrain plays a big role in your strategy as it can be slightly manipulated to work in your favor. Using abilities like black magic spells can actually affect the terrain as casting different spells do things such as:
? Ice spells casted on water with freeze water allowing you to make ice bridges hence making shortcuts.
? Fire will burn forests and enemies caught on these panels with receive burn damage if they remain on these tiles
? Buildings with recover HP to anyone stationed at it but be warned as lightning attacks will destroy buildings. A double edged sword as you hampers your enemy?s recovery but also miss out on free health.
? Enemies will have elemental affinities so casting that fire spell on those ice mages is pretty important.
So as you can see using the terrain to your advantage is key in winning against your foes. This is the gist of open map combat, but there is another form of combat mixed into this which is the classic turn based party combat.
When you are adjacent to an enemy either you or them, depending on the turn, can go into direct combat. The screen will flash over to an all too familiar turn based style combat screen where it will display all the members in that unit and the enemies and you go about traditional turn based combat procedure and it all plays like clockwork. That units dragon may also sometimes appear and deal an extra dose of damage lending a helping hand in taking down your foes.
The game does a good job at keeping the difficulty moderate and never being too overbearing. If some of your characters are faltering and are having troubles with the latest battle being tough don?t worry there is a quest mode where you can go and fight, gain items and level up characters. For the most part though, the main story does a good job at keeping your allies up to speed and at the right strength for the next battle. The combat mechanics and game play is solid and polished, offering an enjoyable experience with very little tedium to it.
So all in all I have to say Bahamut Lagoon is a solid game with a great deal of fun, and depth to it that any SRPG player will enjoy. It has story that knows when not to take itself too seriously with a strong cast of characters, and will last you a good 30 hours of game play or more. The Dragon system is simple but fun with good AI attached to it thus preventing what may have been a tedious mechanic. Stunning visuals and great music ease you right into the experience with a moderate difficulty and learning curve that makes the game flow quite well. If you have not heard of this game or played it then I strongly recommend you boot up the old ZNES emulator and go find this game. It is a forgotten jewel of Square that never made it outside Japan and it?s a shame too as it demonstrates a level of polish that is satisfactory. I hope one day to see a DS, PSP remake or even a port to the Virtual console, but until then your only choice is the emulator so don?t be too stingy about the whole ROM issue and show square some appreciation by playing one of their many overshadowed gems.
Strategy RPG?s are among one of my favorite genres in the realm of gaming, and there has always been a fair amount out there that have kept me occupied and entertained for dozens of hours with their deep customization, engaging stories, massive casts, and decently paced game play. There are many popular SRPG games out there that are known and loved far and wide, but then there are those overlooked that should have been up there with the big shots. This is where Bahamut Lagoon comes in as a classic jewel of a game that unfortunately not many people to my knowledge know or have played.
A few years back I and my good friend were talking games as usual and he mentioned a game neither of us had heard of before that he found for his SNES emulator, this game was none other than Bahamut Lagoon, a strategy RPG that unfortunately never saw release outside of Japan. Later that day I headed home and found a fan site with a translated ROM of the game, so I downloaded it and began to play and see if it was as good as my friend made it out to be. I was far from disappointed to say the least as I just stumbled onto an incredibly fun, deep, and engaging game from one of my favorite RPG developers none other than Squaresoft themselves. An overlooked classic that I hope many SRPG players will be encouraged to try after reading this review, so without further a dew let?s get on with show.
The first thing you will no doubted think when you start to play this game is wow this game looks great! This is one of the finest looking games the SNES has ever released up there with games like Chrono Trigger, Zelda, FF6 and others. The game has no shortage of vibrant color and fine animations. The skies look beautiful with this peculiar aura that makes them so mesmerizing and easy on the eyes. Environments are well detailed are have a good amount of variety to them ranging from green plains, arid deserts, drank caves, to the very sky itself, ensuring that there is always enough eye candy and new scenery to entertain to player and keep things fresh. The character sprites and dragons (yea I?ll get to that later) are well detailed and to a degree are almost on par to that of Final Fantasy Tactics sprites, but that is only the map sprites. The battle sprites on the other hand look fantastic with immense detail, crisp and fluid battle animations that really show off characters well in higher resolution glory. With various dragons, a multitude of enemies, huge cast of characters, smooth battle animations, and elaborate summons this game is teeming with visual flare and has a pleasant art style to it that is comparable to even some early 2d PS1 games.
OK so now that your done gawking at this splendid looking game let?s give your ears a treat shall we? Yes this game has some superb sound to it with a nice extensive track of music that you will be bound to hum to yourself to, but then again this is Square we are talking about. The music makes good use of the SNES hardware and delivers some incredible tracks from the heartwarming music of two characters sharing an intimate moment, enthusiastic battlefield music, to the intense boss music. For the most part the music gets the job done well and fits the tone of the scenario you are currently in and all fits together quite well. There are a few songs though that may prove a little too monotonous or even annoying at times and there is sometimes a feeling of inconsistency when you go from field battle to a direct confrontation thus changing the music for the duration of that battle and then switching back to field music as battle move along very quickly. It is a tad irksome but is not too much of a major issue as you will get used to it in no time and the amount of good tracks and its presentation outweighs the few that may not sit well with some.
Since this game is fan translated, I have to say that they did a splendid job at translating the game to English with few spelling errors and it?s clear of many translation inconsistencies that you may find in other fan translated games or even commercially translated ones.
I got to say the story is great and had some real length and depth to it that is still good even today. A story that will easily last you 30 hours with its many chapters, each consisting of a major battle and decent portions of dialogue between each battle. The story has a wide cast of characters, with roughly 30+ troops to level and command, many meaningful plot important characters each with their own distinctive personalities and a silent protagonist that is so awesome he commands a squad of dragons and heads an army. The main cast of characters has their share of a few clichés but they are fun to say the least and are not at all annoying?ok well the lead female start off rather annoying but she develops better as the story progresses. The villains are also pretty text book but the critical ones change over time and develop some depth to them.
?The one who reads the minds of the Holy Dragons shall open the door to a new era?
The story takes place in the worlds of Orelus, a world where people live among the skies on massive floating continents and where dragons are peoples primary battle steeds. In this world exist 7 great dragons that have been laying dormant for centuries and are revered by Orelus? inhabitants. The story kicks off in the middle of a battle to protect the homeland of Byuu, the protagonist, and his crew from the onslaught of the invading Granbelose Empire ruled by Sauzer and his top generals which will come to know and hate. Byuu is leader of a squad of Dragons which he and his allies command to help fend off the invasion. So the story throws you right into this conflict as the kingdom of kahna tries desperately to awaken Bahamut from his sleep and use him to stop the inevitable downfall of kahna. To the dismay of the king, his daughter, princess YoYo (yea stupid name I know), is unable to see into Bahamuts mind and awaken him. Sauzer ends up defeating Byuu and his allies, kidnaps the princess (how typical) and conquers Kahna with little trouble. Fast forward 2 or 3 years and we see that Granbelos has conquered much of Orelus and Byuu and his companions has escaped and has gone into hiding secretly raising a rebellion in order to take back their kingdom, save the princess and stop Sauzers reign and whatever plans he has for the princess and the Holy Dragons. So your band gathers up what remaining dragons are left of the squad and go on a number of missions to take back Kahnas flying fortress, their kingdom and also to liberate other nations under occupation. As the story progresses you come to find out that the princess and some others have to ability to communicate with the 7 holy dragons and are able to control their fierce power. Now the problem with this is the Empire desires to use these dragons to bring about ?a new era?, whatever that may be. Many more secrets and events unfold that add greater depth to the story as most of this is only to beginning to an adventure that will encounter some interesting plot twists along the way.
Overall the characterization and story are done well and the pacing doesn?t seem to falter over this 30+ hour adventure. The characters are charming, the event?s fold out nicely and it?s both a pleasant nostalgic experience and a moderately original story that packs some nice emotional moments and a love story arc that doesn?t seem too tacked on or forced.
Alright now that I?ve given you a taste of the story without revealing or spoiling too much lets delve into the game play. Now here is where the fun begins, with a solid and rather polished game play experience that will please both veteran and beginner SRPG players. The deep game play experience is split in two ways as its battle system is a mix of SRPG and regular RPG game play.
Your army is vast comprising is many job classes and abilities that all serve their uses in battle. The good thing about this game is you earn characters as the story progress and there is none of that going to a store and hiring as only a few characters are ?secret?. Hell you start off with 20 party characters from the get go, each of different classes, it?s pretty impressive. Characters cannot deviate outside their profession so that priest stays a priest and that warrior stays a warrior. It?s a little disappointing but it works well and as your characters level up they learn and strengthen their abilities making them ever stronger. Now here is the neat part, you get to bring in any 24 characters into the battle as each unite is comprised of 4 characters that form their own little party. You can mix and match characters in the battle menu before you start allowing you to have a heavy hitting party full of warriors, a nuker party full of wizards and priests or a mix of both. Each class has their special abilities such as magic, javelin, sword techs and such and you can use these abilities as you move that unit and cause various terrain affects or long range attacks on enemies. The party customization is very flexible allowing you to have 4 party abilities at a given time. The only downer to all this is maybe the equipment as it?s pretty standard equipment system with nothing like item enhancements or the likes of what you would see in FFT.
Your parties though are further enhanced by the Dragon system. A splendid, unique, and simplistic system that is your trump card in battle. Each one of your 6 units is in control of a dragon that they command in battle which will cast spells, go in for direct attacks, or even support that unit or other fellow units on the map. The dragons are actually very smart and are not prone to stupid decisions as unfortunately you do not control them in major depth There are three basic commands that control them. This may seem rather disappointing at first but you see later that it is rather balanced and prevent you from winning battles in no time at all as dragons have unlimited movement range. These 3 basic commands are:
? Go!- Dragons will go on an assault directly or at a distance from an enemy and attack them with their powerful attacks. A good command for strong dragons and allows you to weaken enemies before going in and finishing off the enemy.
? Follow- Dragons will stick close to their unit and attack nearby enemies as well as even healing your fellow units if need be. Just like a loyal dog and it?s master
? Wait- Keep your dragons on hold as they stay back and bide their time if you don?t need them right away and are saving that dragon for a later assault.
So while seeming simplistic, it works well and the dragons are rare to make stupid decisions and act as great support. Oh but that?s not all, as dragons can be further strengthened not just through leveling up in combat as you can feed them too. Dragons are your personal garbage disposal as you can feed them ANYTHING. Any and all equipment and items can be fed to dragons which will up various stats, and even allow them to transform into much stronger and fearsome versions that their physical appearance will differ. If you?re not strapped for cash you can feed your old equipment to dragons and they will happily take it. You NEED to do this too as a badly fed dragon will not fight well as much as a well fed one so it is important to feed to before battles. Big fearsome pets they are but your loyalty to them will pay off.
Now to Battle!!
You have your battle field that is comprised of a big terrain map littered with enemies, buildings, water bodies and more as you fight your way to victory and entire continents, countries, and inside fortresses. This battlefield is the main bulk of your game play as you move your units in your typical grid like system from one place to other attacking enemies in direct and indirect combat. Now terrain plays a big role in your strategy as it can be slightly manipulated to work in your favor. Using abilities like black magic spells can actually affect the terrain as casting different spells do things such as:
? Ice spells casted on water with freeze water allowing you to make ice bridges hence making shortcuts.
? Fire will burn forests and enemies caught on these panels with receive burn damage if they remain on these tiles
? Buildings with recover HP to anyone stationed at it but be warned as lightning attacks will destroy buildings. A double edged sword as you hampers your enemy?s recovery but also miss out on free health.
? Enemies will have elemental affinities so casting that fire spell on those ice mages is pretty important.
So as you can see using the terrain to your advantage is key in winning against your foes. This is the gist of open map combat, but there is another form of combat mixed into this which is the classic turn based party combat.
When you are adjacent to an enemy either you or them, depending on the turn, can go into direct combat. The screen will flash over to an all too familiar turn based style combat screen where it will display all the members in that unit and the enemies and you go about traditional turn based combat procedure and it all plays like clockwork. That units dragon may also sometimes appear and deal an extra dose of damage lending a helping hand in taking down your foes.
The game does a good job at keeping the difficulty moderate and never being too overbearing. If some of your characters are faltering and are having troubles with the latest battle being tough don?t worry there is a quest mode where you can go and fight, gain items and level up characters. For the most part though, the main story does a good job at keeping your allies up to speed and at the right strength for the next battle. The combat mechanics and game play is solid and polished, offering an enjoyable experience with very little tedium to it.
So all in all I have to say Bahamut Lagoon is a solid game with a great deal of fun, and depth to it that any SRPG player will enjoy. It has story that knows when not to take itself too seriously with a strong cast of characters, and will last you a good 30 hours of game play or more. The Dragon system is simple but fun with good AI attached to it thus preventing what may have been a tedious mechanic. Stunning visuals and great music ease you right into the experience with a moderate difficulty and learning curve that makes the game flow quite well. If you have not heard of this game or played it then I strongly recommend you boot up the old ZNES emulator and go find this game. It is a forgotten jewel of Square that never made it outside Japan and it?s a shame too as it demonstrates a level of polish that is satisfactory. I hope one day to see a DS, PSP remake or even a port to the Virtual console, but until then your only choice is the emulator so don?t be too stingy about the whole ROM issue and show square some appreciation by playing one of their many overshadowed gems.
