Bahamut Lagoon

Bahamut Lagoon is a video game for Super Famicom was created by Square Co., Ltd..
While the game is not part of the Final Fantasy series, it incorporates several staples from the series, most prominently the use of summons. The game's development staff also included many key members from the Final Fantasy series, including Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi, as a supervisor, Kazushige Nojima as director, and Motomu Toriyama as a story planner.
==Gameplay==
The game is a turn-based strategy game. It combines classic RPG battles with tactical turn-based strategy, much like Final Fantasy Tactics. Characters have typical RPG statistics such as HP, MP (for mages), SP (for fighters), and EXP. The player can equip equipment and use consumable items. Dragons also fight alongside the player's party as separate units. With the player having minimum control over them, the dragons will randomly use one of their abilities to assist/help the player.
The battle system consists of turn-based 2D map movement and possible engagement in RPG battles typical of the Final Fantasy series. The player and enemy each take their turns, once all units from either the player or enemy all took an action, the phase ends for them and the opposing party will have their turn. The player can move their squad (a maximum of four characters) while on the field in a similar fashion to the Tactics series, then choose from the main commands: Move/Attack (which replaces Move when right next to enemy party), Field, Dragon (dragon settings), Party (opens the main menu), and End Turn. The Field option will open a sub menu where the player will find the party's abilities such as: Swordtech, White Magic, Black Magic, Red Magic, Summon, Dance, Destroy, and Javelin. Abilities used on the field can cause effects to the surrounding environment. For instance, Fire abilities can set forests and grass on fire and deal damage to units standing on these tiles, Water abilities can freeze water and create ice bridges, while Thunder abilities can destroy buildings and bridges.
Once the player enters a battle, the player's party will face the enemy party in a similar fashion to the Final Fantasy series, with the commands Attack, Item, Defend, and the specific unit's special abilities such as White Magic will be present for those characters. Both parties will act once before the engagement ends. Every action taken will yield EXP as well as items and GP.
When the player is not within the field of battle, they can interact with their characters and NPC and move around a limited area, buy/sell items and equipment. They will also be able to feed the dragons. Dragons will eat anything found within the player's inventory, such as weapons, armor, and consumable items. Raising the dragons by feeding them items is an important part of the game as it will improve their stats as well as affect their behavior on the battlefield, and will also transform into new more powerful forms as they grow. Dragons have their own stats and they also gain experience when they take actions within the battlefield just like the player's parties. Each party has a dragon assign to it, and if a party's dragon is defeated. The party will lose the ability to use their abilities for the remainder of the current battle.
==Story==
In the land of Orelus, the Granbelos Empire, under the lead of Emperor Sauzer, is slowly taking over. The Kingdom of Kahna has long survived, thanks to their guardian, the dragon Bahamut, which the royal family of Kahna can commune with. However, one day, Bahamut fell into a deep sleep, and the Granbelos Empire attacked the Kingdom of Kahna.
Some survivors of Kahna, together with some mercenaries, create a resistance group. Flying the skies of Orelus with their airship, the Fahrenheit, they try to liberate the lands. However, they stumble onto an even larger plot that might prove to be the end of the world.
==Characters==
thumb|right|The main casts of Bahamut Lagoon.
Bahamut Lagoon has several playable characters with the traits of Final Fantasy job classes.
===Main characters===
*Byuu - The silent protagonist of the story and childhood friend of Yoyo, the Princess of Kahna.
*Yoyo - The princess of Kahna and descendant of the Dragnar, a summoner who can speak to the Holy Dragons.
*Sendak - An old man who can summon the Holy Dragons and tends to ramble on about things. He has a crush on Byuu.
*Matelite - Captain of the Guards of Kahna, he tends to be very overprotective of Yoyo.
*Taicho - Knight of Mahal, who lost his wife to the Granbelos Empire.
*General Palpaleos - An imperial general, who defects and falls in love with Yoyo.
===Minor characters===
*Rush - Byuu's friend, although they tend to fight about a lot of things.
*Truce - Another member of Byuu's party, he is the thinker.
*Bikkebakke - A nervous and heavyset friend of Byuu's. He struggles to earn money by selling mushrooms.
*Gunso - A Heavy Knight of Mahal, who complains about his itchy armor at all times. He came from his land along with Taicho.
*Barclay - A Heavy Knight of Kahna, who seems to have fallen for Anastasia.
*Donfan - A ladies' man, who does not luck out too much, but is very persistent. Often he is turned into a toad by the female magicians aboard the Fahrenheit.
*Frenze - A Lancer, who is first friends with Reeve, but seems to grow apart from him. Tends to execute evil schemes on Reeve.
*Reeve - A "lan-lan-lancer!" and former friend of Frenze's. He spends a lot of time in bed due to food poisoning caused by Frenze.
*Mini-devils - Mini-devils are small devils that dance in battle, and do not talk much.
===Dragons===
*Salamander , Salmando in DeJap translation: The Fire affinity dragon. Its Holy form is Phoenix, and its Dark form is Effex. In both the Phoenix and Master forms, it has infinite HP. Found in the prologue.
*Ice-Dragon , Icedrake in DeJap translation: The Ice affinity dragon. Its Holy form is Saint Weapon, and its Dark form is Black Buster. Found in the prologue.
*Molten : The Holy affinity dragon. Its Holy form is Raiden , and its Dark form is Helmoot. Found in the prologue.
*Thunderhawk , Thunderh in DeJap translation: The Thunder affinity dragon. Its Holy form is D. Chimera, and its Dark form is Black Chimera. Found in chapter one.
*Twinhead : Begins with an affinity to both Fire and Ice. Its Holy form is Last Gigantes, and its Dark from is Belzebub (possibly from Beelzebub). Found in chapter two.
*Muni-Muni : Begins without an affinity. Its Holy form is Odin, and its Dark form is Dark Dragoon. Found in chapter seven.
*Puppy : Affinity (and appearance) depends on the dragon's two parents. Its Holy form is Lexus, and its Dark form is Hidon. Found in chapter twenty.
*Uni-Uni : A form of dragon common to all dragons. Attained by raising the dragon's Loyalty to 100 and changes as Fidelity is raised. Results in a Black Dragon.
*Unknown : A form of dragon common to all dragons. Attained by feeding the dragon Princess's ???. Once a dragon is fed five of these, it turns into a Behemoth.
===Holy Dragons===
*Valitora (possible corruption of Vritra) )
*Leviathan 
*Garuda 
*Jormungand 
*Hyperion 
*Bahamut 
*Alexander 
===Enemies===
*Emperor Sauzer - The Emperor of Granbelos, he has an ambition to control the skies of Orelus.
*Lestat - An imperial general whose speech is peppered with profanity.
*Alexander - King of Altair, land of the dragons. He took advantage of the Holy Dragons' war and sealed them in Orelus so that he may rule over Altair unopposed.
==Character gallery==
Byuu.png|Byuu.
BLYoyo.png|Yoyo.
Sendak.png|Sendak.
Matelite.png|Matelite.
Palpaleos.png|General Palpaleos.
BLMinidevil.png|A Mini-devil.
Sauzer.png|Emperor Sauzer.
==Behind the scenes==
A few sprites for various dragons and enemies in Bahamut Lagoon borrow liberally from Final Fantasy VI. For example, the General Dragon resembles the sprite for the Holy Dragon, and the enemy Presenter uses a virtually identical sprite to the Angler Whelk. Other similar sprites include those for Devoahan, Gigantos, Ultima Weapon, and Earth Dragon. Rather than being recycled, these sprites are redrawn, likely from Yoshitaka Amano's original artwork, and are animated unlike their Final Fantasy VI counterparts. 
Later Final Fantasy titles also reference Bahamut Lagoon in some fashion. One of the bosses, Soul Cage, would make a return appearance in Final Fantasy IX as a boss. The Fahrenheit airship from Final Fantasy X is named after the airship of the same name from the Super Famicom title. Additionally, Mobius Final Fantasy would feature an event based on game, along with releasing a summon card based on the Bahamut from Bahamut Lagoon. The Bahamut from Bahamut Lagoon also makes an appearance as the Verth Bahamut summon in Final Fantasy Dimensions II. 
Due to the title never officially releasing outside Japan, several fan translations have been made for the project.
==See also==
*Blood of Bahamut
==External links==
*Wikipedia article
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Category:Japan-exclusive games