Lennus series (aka Paladin's Quest aka bizarro sci-fi Dragon Quest)

RainbowDespair

Back in 1993, Asmik released an RPG for the Super Famicom entitled Lennus. It was a very unusual game featuring a bizarre sci-fi world, primarily pastel-based graphics, excellent level design, a sophisticated magic system, and 30 playable characters. It felt a little like bizzaro sci-fi Dragon Quest. It was later released in 1994 in the US by Enix America under the name of Paladin's Quest. Yeah, I can see that meeting:

Enix Guy #1: So we're localizing this game called Lennus?
Enix Guy #2: Lennus? What's that? Some hot girl's retarted little brother?
Enix Guy #1: No, it's actually the name of the planet where this weird and well designed RPG takes place.
Enix Guy #2: Nobody is going to buy a game named Lennus. Let's change it to something else so people can instantly know it's an RPG. You know, like take a D&D term and add Quest to it.
Enix Guy #1: You mean like Paladin's Quest?
Enix Guy #2: Exactly! Fantastic! Let's use that!
Enix Guy #1: But there aren't any paladins in the game. In fact, the hero & heroine are both wizards.
Enix Guy #2: Who cares!? Paladin's Quest it is!
Enix Guy #1: *grumble, grumble*



Awful name aside, it was really a great game. Sadly, very few people played it and many of those who did play it were scared off by the weird graphics, bad music, and weak localization (the spells & items were very limited in the length of their names with the result that most of the names were almost completely unintelligible). Those who pressed on discovered one of the true unappreciated classics of the era. Some of the highlights:

The magic system - Rather than having 1 magic stat, characters had separate stats for each of the 8 spirits of magic. The more you used spells of a certain spirit, the more that particular stat would increase. Oh and there was no MP; all spells used HP. Because of this, there were no basic heal spells; instead, you would find heal bottles in dungeons (each with 9 doses that could be refilled at towns) and would use those for your healing purposes. As a result of all this, magic played a much bigger part in the game than it does in most RPGs. Oh and if I remember correctly, support & debilitating magic actually was useful in this game, shock of all shocks.

Mercenary system - 4 character party. For the vast majority of the game, you had your 2 main characters, the hero and heroine, both of which could be customized with equipment & gain access to additional spirits. In addition to those main characters, you could also recruit various mercenaries (28 total) that you found throughout the game who weren't as customizable (they couldn't gain new spirits or change their equipment). One neat thing about this was that some mercenaries had their own personality quirks. For example, there was one powerful warrior who would only join your party if you let his wimpy little brother come with you. Another mercenary was desperate for companionship and refused to let you force him out of the party (there were other ways that he'd end up leaving though).

Control system - Rather than use a standard menu system, it used a system where you the D-Pad appeared in the middle of the screen with various selections around it. Rather than have to select an option and press A, you'd simply move the D-Pad in the direction of the choice you wanted.

Good level design - I remember the game having some neat levels for the time like one with a rising and lowering lava flow.

Here are some screenshots.



Yes, the main character's default name in the US version was Chezni.

====Lennus 2====

A sequel to Lennus came out in 1996 in Japan, but due to a poor reception of the first game and the fact that the popularity of the SNES was waning, the game never officially made it to the US. FAQs, walkthroughs, and other assistance for the English-speaking fan can be found online though. I can't comment much on the game's quality since I just started playing it, but so far it seems promising. Story sounds like it'll be more interesting than the first game (which was fairly mediocre in the story department) and among other things, there's a new Save Anywhere feature (you can't save in an impossible spot since it gives you the option of escaping dungeons at the cost of half your gold when you load up). Music seems to be much improved (I remember it being pretty bad in the first game). Here's a few screenshots:

Schide

I did not know that a second game existed until I read about the patch release today. I will have to play it...eventually. At a time when my backlog of RPGs isn't so large, especially with a certain other patch due out by the end of the week.

I played Paladin's Quest. I remember getting it from, er, that one trade in store that was one of the first places you could do that which doesn't exist anymore. It was...not really that good, but I did like the visual style, full of pastels and muted colors, quite unlike other games. The story and gameplay were all right, nothing to write home about I suppose. The OP covers its decent features, I recall liking the mercenary system, except I probably picked crappy mercs because I couldn't quite beat the last boss, which had a semi-annoying gimmick.

Hopefully the sequel is similar but better implemented is what I guess I'm saying.

Oh, and there exists a Let's Play of this for anyone who wants to see it without playing it. It contains a surprising amount of fanart from one of the original thread's posters. I enjoyed it.

Sir Figs of Yore

This was one of the few games that could give me "chills" and draw me in like no other, almost at the level of Link to the Past, Super Metroid, Metroid Prime 1/2, System Shock 2

I always found the graphics, music, story, combat, everything about the game to be technically (and even artistically) terrible. But yet, the game as a whole was extremely atmospheric (though I did actually love the music), the graphics were ultra-creepy at times. I always felt extremely isolated and lonely, and for that was one of my most memorable gaming moments.

Even the story, I loved the minimalism (somewhat similar to how it's presented in CRPGS, Metroid Prime) which left a lot to the imagination and helped me feel part of the world because some omniscient narrator wasn't spoon-feeding me everything. Plus,

when Gabnid goes nuts and the other two friends are trying to stop him, and you find out the main characters are reincarnations (might be wrong, can't remember exactly) but that part moved me more than a lot of cinematics in recent games. And because of their past life romance I like how it was just left to your imagination instead of some typical "He said she said" high school JRPG crap.

I doubt anyone would complain about spoilers for this game anyway, haha. With all that said, if I went to play this again I would hate it, the second time around just wouldn't be the same especially since the game basically sucks. Atmospheric but not a classic like Metroid.

Also I just realized how gay I sound.

Arcus

I bought this game as a whim when I was looking for a cool game for the snes. I was a little kid that adored Final Fantasy II, and recognized the term paladin in it. Plus, it cost like $80, so it had to be good, right? Imagine my surprise to find out that all of my hard saved cash was put to a game that had nothing to do with paladins. It would have been a tragedy had it not been the fact that I actually liked the game, despite the weirdness all around.
The uniqueness of that game compared to most of the other rpgs of the time really drew me in, I guess. Plus it came with a map that had every single monster on the other side (a la Dragon Warrior/Quest). I remember there being 1 monster that was incredibly strong that I never found, despite beating the game more than a couple times.

IdolNinja

Great OP. I completely missed this when it came out. I probably dismissed it just based on the title alone. Paladin's Quest just sounds so darn... generic. Anyways, I need something to hold me over until the DS release of DQ V, and this just might do the trick. "Bizarro sci-fi Dragon's Quest," indeed.