What better way to start off an ongoing segment about role-playing games than with a buried treasure from the company who has built an entire empire off of them?
Yes, that says "Temporally Play". Square had 4D down before the rest of us even had 3D!
Bahamut Lagoon
Platform: Super Famicom (SNES)
Original Release Date: February 9, 1996
Developer: Square (now Square Enix)
Bahamut Lagoon was, and still is, a game that stands as a testament to the idea that Square was never really a one-trick pony. In the mid-90′s, Square was the heavyweight in the RPG community, having championed Final Fantasy, the game that is likely synonymous in every gamer’s mind as what a role-playing game was supposed to be at the time. That colossal success allowed them to branch off into a number of projects, most of which turned out to be critically successful (Chrono Trigger, Secret of Mana, and Romancing SaGa among those). However, Bahamut Lagoon was one of those few pet projects that more or less flew under the radar.
In Bahamut Lagoon, you’ll find yourself in control of Byuu, a young knight in the service of the army of the country of Kahna, which in the game’s opening sequence finds itself at the mercy of the Granbelos Empire, kidnapping Kahna’s princess Yoyo in the ensuing chaos. In the typical fashion, Byuu and his contingent of knights form a resistance with which to strike back at the Empire. The plot, while on the surface seeming like nothing special, contains a number of twists and turns to the standard “save the princess” fare.
Character development, both in-game and in-story, are entertaining and more than worth following. Outside of battle, every ally (and most of the enemies) you take up arms with has their own unique personality and quirks that make their side-stories worth following; of particular note are the old sorcerer who seems to have an almost creepy obsession with you, a pair of spear-wielding warriors who turn against each other, and a gaggle of devils who see fit to antagonize everyone else in your army.
Battles are turn-based and played on a grid, featuring similar mechanics to most other strategy RPGs out there. Your army is organized into smaller, miniature squads which can move about the grid, fighting and healing along the way. What makes this unique is that every squad is attached to a dragon, a character that can be given simple commands such as “Go!” and “Wait!” but otherwise will generally act autonomously. Attacks can be focused on specific enemy squads or can be map-based, which will diminish the rewards given but cause generally more damage. Specific elemental attacks will also change the terrain around you (such as lightning destroying bridges or ice freezing rivers) and in doing so can hinder or even drown your enemies (or yourself!).
The dragon mechanic is arguably the main meat of Bahamut Lagoon. Any item you get (no, seriously, any item) can be fed to your dragons between battles, altering their statistics and mutating them into different dragon forms. This will make their specific elemental attacks stronger, which in turn will enhance the abilities of the squad of warriors attached. Those elemental attacks will yield specific items when used to defeat enemies, which can then be fed back to your dragons. Never before has the phrase “rinse, lather, repeat” been so relevant in a roleplaying game.
Bahamut Lagoon was originally planned to have a stateside release sometime in late 1996 (along with sleeper hit Front Mission), but the quickly-emerging Playstation market becoming the object of focus in the USA coupled with Square’s somewhat tumultuous relationship with Nintendo at the time made this an impossibility. However, for those so inclined, translations do exist on the internet out there. (Of course, we here at Wrath of Con would never advocate software piracy… –Ed.)
All in all, if you can find it, Bahamut Lagoon is an amazing game well worth the 40+ hours you can put into it. It’s a splendid mix of Final Fantasy Tactics, Ogre Battle, and Monster Rancher that, while the casual RPG fan may not be heavily invested in, is absolutely worth your consideration.
RPGs You Should Probably Play is an ongoing chronology of lost gems of sword and sorcery from across the epochs of gaming. If you have an idea of a game you’d like to see featured here, please comment!
Dave
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