Despite its flaws, A decent little old-school action/RPG!
Lagoon was originally a Zoom title for the Sharp x68000 home computer released only in Japan, that shortly after its release, was ported to the Super Famicom by Kemco. That port is what we got with this North American (and later European) localization, and was one of the earliest RPG-type games released for the then-fledging SNES.
Sort of a sleeper-hit, it would've had more of a small cult following if not for its sometimes frustrating gameplay.
Story:
Lakeland has a little water problem...it has become too muddy for the population to safely use. Believed to be caused by the uprising of demons that now roam the countryside, it is up to Nasir, Champion of the Light, to go forth, rid the lands of this darkness and restore the waters to their original purity.
While parts of the story bear the common cliches of good vs. evil and saving a damsel in distress, Lagoon throws a few curveballs to keep things interesting enough. There could have been more depth thrown in, but for an early action-RPG, things roll along pretty smoothly.
Gameplay:
Ask any player of this game, even the very few die-hard followers like myself "What is the most frustrating aspect of this game?" Answer: Nasir's little toothpick-sized sword (. While controls are responsive enough, and the game moves along without any slowdown, the thing that dogs battles down is Nasir's ridiculously short attack range. All monsters have a 'sweet spot' you must connect with or else your sword will just go right through them. Boss monsters can be a particular challenge not only due to the whole 'sweet spot' idea......many also throw out cheap shots that knock you backwards and/or kill you with just a few hits.
Jumping can be a bit of a nuisance, but once you figure out how far Nasir can go, you can time your jumps, thus they become easier. There's a few areas in the game where this skill is essential to progress.
Lagoon's best combat feature is its magic system. Throughout the game you'll get up to four staves and four crystals. With these, you mix and match the elements of Fire, Wind, Water, and Thunder to gain spells that give you long-range attacks to work with.
Graphics:
Character sprites look clean and crisp and are easy to discern from the scenery. The scenery itself is done in sort of a pseudo-3d manner with shadowing, and there's some nice parallax backdrops when you're high up in the mountaintops or clouds. The game contains a few cinematic cut scenes that unashamedly bear that 'anime' style that is so popular today, though the character designs are highly exaggerated (ie: rounder faces, large eyes, etc) so at times they can look childish. To some though this could be a positive, and a part of the game's charm factor.
Sound:
(SFX): Your standard set of roars and grunts from the the bosses as you defeat them, and the magic spells have some nifty little effects. The sword gives off this rather annoying 'ping' sound though.
(Soundtrack): Easily the game's pinnacle is its music. Zoom took a page from Falcom's musical canon (particularly their famed and also highly underrated Ys series) and dumped the usual orchestrated approach often heard on Square-Enix titles like Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, going with more of a synth/MIDI and hard-rock (drums/distorted guitars) approach. The end product is a mixture of hard driving rock music as you battle the big guys, and more standard fare for exploration of towns, surrounding countryside, caverns and castles. These range from the downright moody and somber, to haunting, to more upbeat 'rock' styled pieces. Some tunes are a little too brief and repetitious, but overall a very solid thought-out soundtrack.
Runtime / Replay:
If you're playing this game outright without any FAQs, cheats and the like, you should get a good 25-30 hours out of it. The only trouble is, this game has a linear path to follow, so the replayability level based on freedom of exploration is kind of low. No side-quests, no changes to the story. There's several points in the game where if you go past them, you can't return to previous areas ever again.
This isn't to say you can't play it multiple times and give yourself new challenges (ie: try beating a boss monster at the lowest level where you'll register hits). I've played through it at least 6 times, and I'm doing so again.
Closing:
If one sticks with it, figures out the tricks to battle and sees the game to the end, the story leads one to think it could be deserving of a better-executed sequel, and the sound and graphics are definitely a highlight for their era. Despite its obvious flaws, Lagoon is an enjoyable and challenging title that should keep one busy for a while.