Cidolfas's RPG Reviews: Bahamut Lagoon (SNES)
You Are: Byuu, silent protagonist and leader of the Kahna Dragon Squad.
Your Goal Is: To get rid of the evil Emperor Sauzer and take back Kahna... at least for starters.
General System: There are three separate modes in the game. Each chapter (there are 27) starts with you walking around (usually on the Fahrenheit, your airship), talking to people, collecting items, buying and equipping your parties, feeding your dragons. After that you get menu access, where you set up stuff and can go off on "side quests" (basically just random battles). It's kind of annoying that you have no menu in the walking-around stage, but you get used to it. Finally you start the actual story battle. Winning it brings you to the next chapter. This is far more linear than most RPGs, and there are a few things you can miss and can't get back to (plus you'll get sick of the Fahrenheit after a while). Still, it's not as annoying as you'd think. Also, you get an "Ex-Play" game after you finish it, allowing you to play with all your souped-up characters and dragons, which is kinda neat.
Battle System: Battles are a mix of RPG and strategy RPG. You have six parties of four each, and each party has a dragon. Parties can attack from afar or go in close; if they do that, you get exactly one round of RPG-style menu battle. You have to bring up your dragon so he can be useful in battle (attacking or healing); dragons can be fickle creatures, but they'll usually listen to you. If your dragon dies, all your good abilities go out the window. Battles typically take up to 20 minutes each, so you can save in the middle and come back later.
Graphics: Nice and detailed, for an SNES game.
Music: Quite good. There are some tunes that are a bit too overbearing for their own good, but there are a lot of goodies.
Story: There isn't much of one, but in your walking-around phase you get to interact with all your allies (there are over 30 of them), and while they're all one-sided, they make for entertaining conversation. Overall, the story is charming if a little bland. There's an interesting twist in the story near the end, but you're really not playing this for the story; it's the challenging battles that make this interesting.
Challenge: Medium
Length: About 30 hours
My Thoughts: Definitely worth a playthrough. It's pretty fun and not too easy, and it makes you think. I don't think you'll get bored with this one.
Overall Rating: 7.5/10
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