Anyway, thanks again for all the Lagoon information! I’ll be transferring over my Mystic Quest review at some point in 2019 for sure

Ah, another fan of Mystic Quest. I feel as a starter kit of an RPG (for a lack of a better term), it was pretty darn solid. Especially since it was basically advertised as such. Plus, the music was stellar in that one. A fun little RPG that I intend to fully revisit one of these days. Since you like Lennus, you should check out Lennus II on the Super Famicom. I personally enjoyed part II more than I did Paladin’s Quest. Although Lennus II loses the unique pastel look of the original.

As for why Lagoon was chosen as one of the early SNES games, I suppose it makes sense. Since it was made only the year before it was still a fairly new game and performed well on the X68K. That leaves you with an established story, concept, graphics, etc. Rather than a port, they simply used resources from the original game and built their own engine, mechanics and other various specs. I imagine part of the problem would have also been the size of the game; had to keep it small so the size of ROM chips would not make it cost-prohibitive.

A couple other things I forgot to mention:
Music:
– The music is very different in the X68K version. The original has a fair number of unused music tracks; some of them ended up used as tracks in the SNES version. Many rooms were changed:
– Elf’s Field and Voloh
– Dwarf Cave (Used the Gold Mine theme in the original)
– Secret Place
– All boss rooms keep their music intact even after the boss has been defeated (Possibly an oversight by the developers). Fixed for the SNES version.
In addition to the tracks themselves, the sound fonts used in the original sound MUCH better (in my opinion) and stronger, especially in the bass. I think there are some youtube videos of the X68K music kicking around. The game itself includes a ‘Music Room’ where you can listen to the various effects and music tracks, including the ones not used in the game. Information on how to access it can be found at TCRF and GameFAQs.

Resolution:
SNES: 256 x 224. X68K: 256 x 256, 512 x 512 for end credits.

End Credits:
– Far more detailed in the SNES version. They include a list of enemies and bosses with their full names.

There are a few games I am partial to on the SNES. The ones I keep going back to include: Bust A Move, Drakkhen, Dragon View (I think you would like), Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, Lagoon, Lennus(Paladin’s Quest), Secret of Mana, Super Mario World. There are others I know I go back to, but I cannot think of them off the top of my head. While I like Final Fantasy VI and Chrono Trigger, I sometimes wonder if they are given ‘too much’ praise. Super Metroid, while I like, I find it’s rather easy-ish, at least compared to the first two which I played and beat long before I ever played Super. Ogre Battle is amazing, but I doubt I could ever sit through long enough to actually play it from start to end.

BTW, out of curiosity, what are some of your favorite Super Nintendo games?

Different direction in the art style:
– X68K’s art style was very consistent between the sprites, small animations, cutscenes, even the manual (which is amazing in the sense of how plentiful the art is). Maybe it can be argued it is not the ‘best’ style around and I can agree, but I like that it IS consistent. With the SNES version, they redid all the cutscenes, many of the bosses, other close-up shots and stuff, with an end result that looks like a mismatch of art styles. Maybe no one really noticed, but I certainly did and it kinda leaves the SNES looking more sloppy and amateurish. I figure it was probably done to cut down on the overall size of the game, with the 1990 version being 3x floppy disks (Keeping in mind, ROM chips in 1991 of a specific size would cost a lot more than in 94/95, leaving it more economical to make bigger games later in the console’s run). There was also the usual censorship applied to the SNES version, given Nintendo’s policy regarding religious references.

Re-write of the plot/story; KEMCO changed a LOT of stuff:
– Altand was made a much shorter visit + you were unable to return to it once you bet SAMSON.
– Nassel’s family + bakery shop were removed + bread sub-quest was removed.
– Thor was changed to being a supporting character who was eventually controlled by Zerah, rather than all-out evil. This added Ella to the mix. This allowed them to add the tablet sub-quest to get into Philips Castle.
– Removed an early-game meeting with Zerah in Voloh where you could actually talk to him.
– Felicia is kidnapped by Ella, instead of Thor.
– The town of Popoe was originally a lost cause you could do nothing about. They added a sub-quest so you could save the town from the plague.
– A much bigger reference to why the Evil Spirit should NEVER be resurrected was removed, making it sound more of a casual issue.
– Truth Fire was removed, making it easier to get the fur mantle.
– The final battle had Zerah and a 2nd round of the Evil Spirit added.

I have no doubt there is stuff I missed along the way, but that was what I could come up without digging through the game.

Combat mechanics, oh where to start… :
– X68K’s version of the game was more or less an Ys-clone/wanna-be/ripoff/etc. Combat was bump action with magic support, though you had to draw your sword first before you could do any damage. On the plus side, you could recover HP anywhere (except a boss room) by standing still while your sword was sheathed. KEMCO changed that with introducing a swinging sword while not really paying attention to the weapon’s range. I suppose they wanted to disassociate the game from coming across as an Ys-clone/wanna-be/ripoff/etc.
– X68K’s magic system combined your equipped sword and equipped staff to use a spell. There were 12 spells and you also had to have the appropriate magic crystal. SNES’s version combined the magic crystal and staff to give the player 16 different spells.
– Both versions of the game have drastically different enemy stats., ways to calculate weapon & spell damage.
– X68K enemies have resistance levels to magic elements and some of them can even have weaknesses. The SNES version’s monsters are either affected by a specific spell or not. Bosses being damaged by magic was also removed in the SNES version.

In a way, it’s kinda too bad what KEMCO did to Lagoon for the SNES version. They polished up a few of the game’s weakness, most in magic category and how damage was calculated, but they ruined a LOT of other things, leaving the original game to be the far superior version.

It’s strange too, because over the last week or two I’ve found myself drawn to Lagoon again, which has always stood as a paragon for me of that special first run SNES feel you mentioned. I’ve tried it before and didn’t get far, but I don’t hate it. I want to like it.

In the last couple of days I’ve watched two different speedruns, an Awesome Games Done Quickly and a Tool-Assisted. Now here I am still investigating, and it’s lead me here. Clearly Lagoon still holds some appeal for me.

Thanks for covering it. Your style complements the SNES era magic.