Bahamut Lagoon

"A good mix of RPG and Strategy from Squaresoft."

Bahamut Lagoon is an excellent RPG+Strategy game made by Square, unfortunately, Square decided not to release it stateside, so if you want to play it, you will have to get it imported for your Super Nintendo, or download it on your computer, the only other problem is that, obviously, the game is all in Japanese. (I have heard of a French translation of it for download on the computer, and that a English translation is on its way too.)

Any ways, on with the review...

Graphics-9-The graphics are all nicely designed, quite similar to Final Fantasy 3/6's, most of the characters have a similar design to them as well.The graphics in battle are pretty good as well, what I really liked was the amazing work on some of the attacks you will be able to use later on in the game, I am certain that you would like them as much as I do.

Sound Effects-8-The sound Effects are neat too, all the burning and cracking sounds all fit nicely with each attack, in fact,I think this game has some of the best sounds effects for a Super Famicom Game (The Japanese version of the Super Nintendo, in case if you were wondering.).

Music-10-I really like the game's music, each sound track is done incredibly well, such as the music for Fahrenheit, you airship, and a lot of the battle music is pretty cool too (The only one that I don't like is the music that plays in the later chapters, you'll know...),again I think this game has one of the best soundtracks in a game.

Controls-10-The controls should not present any difficulty at all, at least I didn't have any trouble...considering it is a strategy game and all.Down goes down,left goes left,etc,etc...

Game Play-10-The game play is really good too, like I said, this is a strategy game combined with Role-Playing-Game elements, you level up and all that stuff.But this game also has it set like this-Your party has four people in it which created one battle unit,each battle unit has one dragon by their side, in between battle you feed your dragon certain bombs,weapons,items,or pieces of armor,this makes the dragons stronger,and also makes them go up to their next level of evolution,until they become a Behemoth,which is the dragon's ultimate level of evolution.

Story-Sorry,I can't say much about this category,I think there is a translation for this game, up to chapter 24 at www.rpgclassics.com,sorry if I'm wrong,but I'm pretty sure on this.

Challenge-The challenge seems to increase as you get further into the game.For me,it started off REALLY easy,now the battles have gotten tricky,I'm around chapter 30....I'm not too sure what chapter I'm at,but it's gotten a lot harder, it might just be me though...

Replay Value-Not Bad-As far as I have heard, there is an EX-Play option after you beat the game,this option should be familiar to some of you.For those who have not heard of it,it lets you start the game over with what level/items/etc you had when you beat the game,there is also something else you get,which I won't spoil.

Buy Or Rent-You will NOT find this game for rental ANYWHERE, so go to some site,like www.ebay.com and win one off there,you must also have your Super Nintendo modified to fit the Super Famicom games,go to a FAQ for further information on that.

Overall Score-9 out of 10.

Reviewer's Score: 9/10, Originally Posted: 09/17/01, Updated 09/17/01