One of Squaresoft's hidden beauties.
The story takes place in the sky world of Orelus. It's been consumed with war by the Granbelos Empire, headed by Emperor Sauzer who wants to claim the lands for his own evil plans. The game starts off with the Kahna Kingdom being invaded by the Granbelos Empire, which ultimately gets taken over with the King murdered and the Princess kidnapped. The remaining soldiers including the main party escape and retreat away on their dragons. They later join other surviving heroes from other kingdoms (lagoons) and stage a plan to unite and strike a take back of the skies.
The games plot allies itself in chapters. Each is lengthy although the story is incredibly fascinating to follow through so you wont grow tiresome after the long winded scenario. The battle system works on turn-based battles fought on a 2D grid. Characters are assembled into parties of four and the player's maximum is six parties, which are usually well outnumbered. The two opposing sides act in alternating turns so that each party can move once and or attack once a turn. Similar to the Final Fantasy SNES, battles they can attack an enemy, use an item or a special ability or defend.
The main character consists of the cross knight Byuu, with a huge support cast from other lagoons. Dragons play the accompany role with the party. They have their own stats and gain experience like normal characters would. The player can change the characters in each of the parties, and their formation as well as what dragon represents them at will.
Visually noticeable are the amount of colors and detail gone into the world and characters, which look stunning. The soundtrack plays great in between the action and dialog. The music changes for each active turn in the turn phase and in battle. Never a moment does the music sound dull while the sound effects are just plain awesome and never an annoyance.
Due to its exclusivity in Japan it’s presence outside isn’t far known, which is shame since all the hard work and effort created should’ve been shown worldwide, its a great game. To those who have played it though know it for its excellent story, great cast of characters and customized gameplay. One of the great games of the SNES Role-Play era.