Bahamut Lagoon was one of many late era Super Famicom RPGs by Square that came out just a bit too late to be considered for localization; the Saturn, Nintendo 64 and PlayStation were all out by then and steadily building up their audience, so putting in the time and effort to localize a game in a still-niche genre for a soon-to-be-retired console didn't make much sense from a business standpoint. Still, the game got attention from fans in subsequent years, getting a fan translation and numerous requests for a remake that have thus far gone unanswered. Gameplay-wise it feels a bit like a mashup of Fire Emblem and Ogre Battle, with each protagonist leading a squad of up to four units that can engage the enemy from afar with spells, or in turn-based battles in close quarters. Each squad also commands a dragon; you cannot control it directly, but rather give vague commands to engage, retreat or stay alongside the squad and assist with attacks. Dragons can also be fed between battles to boost their stats, change their elemental resistances or even alter them into different forms, granting advantages in future battles. The game is quite impressive visually with its detailed backgrounds, smoothly-animated segmented characters and elaborate spell animations; in fact, it might just be the best looking Square RPG on the Super Famicom, which is no small feat from the company that previously brought us Final Fantasy VI, Chrono Trigger and Super Mario RPG. It all adds up to a game with Square's usual blend of depth and presentation and a few clever gameplay quirks (like freezing water with ice attacks so land units can cross over it), but the slow pace of it all gets to be a bit annoying - battles can easily take upwards of 30 minutes in the early chapters and only get larger (and longer) from there. The overall plot is largely formulaic and the characters fall into the usual fantasy tropes, so it's nothing too spectacular there either. Still, it is at least worth a visit as a mostly-overlooked curio of a legendary company, and I still hope it may one day get a polished-up and rebalanced remake as Live a Live did in 2022.
Developer: Squaresoft
Publisher: Squaresoft
Released: 1996
Platforms: Super Famicom