Bahamut Lagoons gameplay blends 2D RPG grid-based combat with turn based combat. Players have the ability to raise and battle dragons to fight alongside a player's other characters. A player has a squadron of four characters in combat, and players have six different squadron leaders they can choose from. Each squad leader has a dragon which can be evolved into different types by feeding it weapons, armor, accessories, and items. Feeding dragons foods they like will increase their loyalty, and food they don’t like will decrease loyalty, but players can still use foods dragons do not like to make a dragon more powerful. Dragons are not controlled by the player, but are given general guidelines such as “Go!” Or “Wait!”.
Plot
In the world of Orelus, continents called “lagoons” float in the sky, and war is threatened when the kingdom of Kahna is invaded by the Granbelos Empire. This leads Captain Byuu of the Dragon Squad to fight to repel this invasion, but after the initial victory, Kahna is overrun, and Byuu, the games silent protagonist, leads a continued campaign against the Granbelos Empire. In dialogue, players can choose between earnest and sarcastic responses when speaking as Byuu.
Development
The game's development staff included many key members from the Final Fantasy series of video games, including Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, as a supervisor, Kazushige Nojima as director, and Motomu Toriyama as story event planner. In an interview, Motomu Toriyama stated that when he was first hired by SquareSoft to work on a new Bahamut Lagoon title that was eventually cancelled.
Release
Bahamut Lagoon was released in Japan toward the end of the Super Famicom's lifespan. It was released on February 9, 1996. Bahamut Lagoon sold 474,680 copies in Japan in 1996, making it the 17thbest sellinggame of the year. The game was re-released on Nintendo's Virtual Console; in 2009 for the Wii, and again in 2014, for the Wii U.
Reception
Upon release, four reviewers from Famitsu gave it a score of 29/40. In a retro review, Hardcore Gaming 101 praised the game highly, calling it a part of Squares “renaissance” in the mid-1990's, with charming characters, a cohesive plot, and details graphics that are “a real treat”. Nintendo Life also called the game a “lost treasure”, and bemoaned that there has never been an official English language localization. Siliconera has noted that an unofficial English fan translation was done years later for the game. 1Up.com called the game one of the top six “must play” titles to import, citing its nuanced story, lush graphics and extensive amounts of gameplay.
