Bahamut Lagoon
A dragon's gotta do what a dragon's gotta doGenre: strategy - turn-based tactics
Publisher: Square
Year: 1996
System: SFC
Gameplay Score: 3
Gameplay Notes:
Movement is like Fire Emblem, but battles play out like Final Fantasy, with multiple characters per unit. You've got all the standard attacks, and then some, including a bunch of different magic options. They don't ease you into it at all. You begin with four parties, each with four characters plus a dragon that acts as a distinct unit. You can issue vague commands to the dragon but can't help it by casting Heal magic on it or anything. this dynamic is confusing and rather annoying. The AI dragons do whatever they feel like doing. Main complaint is that the battle HUD doesn't show your HP and stats, making it extremely difficult to tell how close you or your enemies are to being killed, an therefore which enemies to focus your attacks on or when to heal your party members. The battles have a lot of randomness and very long animations which make them last longer than I'd like. All that said, it's got a lot going for it, but these annoyances are inexplicable given the other games that Square had released prior. A few QoL features would make this a solid 4 in the gameplay department.
Level Design Score: 3
Level Design Notes:
I don't like how much this game drops on you all at once. It's got no learning curve - only the very experienced gamer need apply. I am, but I still feel overwhelmed by all the mechanics I need to take into account. And the randomness of my dragons' movement makes it nearly impossible to move strategically to draw enemies into a bottleneck and whatnot. The devs should've gotten rid of the dragons, in my opinion.
Theme Score: 2
Theme Notes:
The story has a lot of unearned moments. They skip all the characterization and launch directly into exposition and supposedly heady story beats. For example, they give you a single scene showing the princess (named Yoyo) and the main guy Byuu talking about being in love. It's unconvincing and doesn't do what they want it to. Show, don't tell guys. The other story problem is that they drop about 15 characters on you right at the outset ratehr than slowly introducing them, like Chrono Trigger or Final Fantasy IV and VI did. Also, the dragons are initially a cool idea, but soon become an annoyance. They're not proper characters so they don't really add anything to the theme. The setting is also kind of weird. Are we on sky islands? Is there a world underneath us? Who are these people and what exactly are we fighting against? Who are the bad guys and what is there deal? I feel like I've been started reading the fourteenth chapter of the 3rd book in 10 part a fantasy novel series.
Art Style Score: 5
Art Style Notes:
Incredible graphics. This is what Final Fantasy VII would've looked like had it been a true follow-up to FFVI and had released on the SNES. That said, even with as beautiful as the pixel artwork is, I'm not sure how much I like it. The character designs are fantastic, but the battle animations look wonky to me. And in the overhead grid sections there's a foreground layer which I think it meant to look like a light cloud cover, but man is it distracting. It looks like I'm squinting at the screen. I wish they had removed that.
Audio Score: 5
Audio Notes:
Wow, one of the best 16-bit soundtracks ever. Not as iconic as Chrono Trigger, FFVI, Zelda, etc, but absolutely chock full of amazing tracks. I REALLY wish they had included a sound test!!
Overall Score: 67
Review ID: 1536
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