Lagoon

"Average, Yet Very Fun"

Now this game was pretty fun for it's time. I recently bought the cart for $5 =)

Storyline 6/10
Ok,.. so this isn't the most interesting storyline but it is somewhat original for its time. You are Nasir, champion of light who is sent out to investigate the strange appearance of the ''muddy water'' plaguing the shores making it undrinkable. You must travel and try to find a way to restore the water (or something), on your travels you will meet alot of people who you must help in order to continue your quest including a very intresting character named Thor who helps you out as well. Eventually you find the cause, and then find a damsel in distress. Your mentor and some evil guy dukes it out, and then you go to finish it off against your brother the champion of darkness (speculation!).

Graphics 9/10
So this might not look like much now or anything compared to Chrono Trigger and so forth, but for it's time this was a splendid and cool looking game. Having an interesting anime intro as well as outro (even though they might not make too much sense at first), and nice big sprites and detailed character models (how many times do you see a SNES game in which you change your armor and you see your character change?). Bosses were always just the right size and style (i've noticed in some rpgs, even final fantasy whenever you fight a normal person they end up being HUGE in battle, Lagoon gets it just right). My favorite boss is the nearly impossible one before the last.

Music 10/10
Maybe i'm going overboard with this rating, or maybe I just really like the music that much and it is my call and my opinion. The music in this game is great, filled with beautiful tunes through out the whole game. I just had to review the music on it's own

FX 6/10
Decent at best, no Zelda style FX. Just a nice PING sound every time you hit something, as well as some interesting magic sounds. Not bad, but could be better.

Control 7/10
No problems here =)

Game Play 6/10
I will admit this IS a Ys rip off and is simply no Ys. Only difference is you don't use the whole ''push'' attack style, you have to actually hit a button in order to attack. I myself has no problem with the sword's size being use to Ys but I can tell other people don't like this. Although some nice things about this game (which are in Ys) is the fact you can easily refill your life meter by staying in place (you won't get cure spells and you will rarely get items that heal you as well), as well as being able to save ANYWHERE as long as it's not where a boss is at (which keeps the challenge intact especially towards the end with the whole boss gauntlet).

Also the game's challenge is more like a flip of a coin. Sometimes bosses can be really easy if you get in the right position, you can just tap the attack button over and over as fast as you can and it'll be gone in seconds, or if you can't find yourself in the right position you will just have to fight them as you would fight any other boss in any other game which to some of these bosses can prove to be difficult. Another really good thing as well as a original thing not mentioned earlier is the ability to jump over fireballs. If this wasn't in the game, then I don't think it would be possible to get through it.

Overall 7/10
Buy or Rent? I got this cart for $5, which is easily worth it for a SNES rpg. If you decide to rent it (which most likely you can't now) or buy it will only take a matter of 3 to 5 hours straight to beat it. I'm hoping one day they'll rerelease this game for GBA or make a sequel for GameCube.

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 05/19/03, Updated 05/19/03