Soul Blazer

Soul Blazer is one of the action RPGs from studio Quintet, which created several similarly themed titles for Enix on the SNES, all linked by a shared theme of restoring a devastated world. The player takes on the role of a warrior sent down from the heavens, whose task is to free a world conquered by the demon Deathtoll — he has imprisoned the souls of all inhabitants and animals inside stone monsters hidden in dungeons, caves, and towers. As enemies are gradually defeated, inhabitants, buildings, and nature return to towns and villages, so the player literally watches the desolate world reawaken to life under their hands, and in return the inhabitants give new quests, items, and clues for further progress.

Gameplay combines a top-down view, a simple sword-based combat system with various magical add-ons (hammer, boomerang, flying disc), light puzzle elements, and the unlocking of new abilities using gems found in dungeons. The character improves by gathering experience as well as special stones that increase strength, defense, or amount of mana, giving the player a sense of freedom in how they equip their character. Technically it's one of the less flashy titles of the generation, but the color palette, smooth animation, and inventive level design make it an above-average good-looking game; the music was composed by Yukihide Takekawa and managed to evoke a melancholic yet hopeful atmosphere accompanying the world's gradual rebirth.

At release the game didn't achieve the fame of the later Chrono Trigger, yet it earned a reputation among genre fans as a hidden gem thanks to its inventive structure and pleasant pace of exploration. Its concept of gradually restoring the world influenced Quintet's later work (Terranigma, Illusion of Gaia) as well as other action RPGs that experimented with linking environment and player progress. Today Soul Blazer is valued above all for its original mechanics and atmosphere, even though its pace and simplicity may seem archaic to today's players compared to more elaborate successors of the genre.

Why play: Fans of action RPGs with an inventive structure and a pleasant pace of exploration will enjoy Soul Blazer, even though its simplicity may feel archaic to today's players compared to Quintet's later works.