Bahamut Lagoon was developed and published by Square, released for the SNES in 1996 as a tactical RPG combining grid-based strategy battles with dragon-taming mechanics, released late in the console’s life just as Square was shifting its major RPG output toward the PlayStation. Players command a squad of soldiers each paired with a tamed dragon that can be fed and leveled to grow stronger over the course of the campaign, fighting battles on a grid where unit positioning, dragon breath attacks, and terrain all factor into strategy. Its pairing of Fire Emblem-style tactical combat with a dragon-raising system uncommon in strategy RPGs gave it a distinct identity, backed by Square’s typically strong production values and a fully voiced anime-style opening rare for a 16-bit cartridge game. Never officially released outside Japan during its original run, Bahamut Lagoon remained known to Western fans largely through fan translation for years, and it is now recognized as one of the more overlooked and mechanically distinctive tactical RPGs to close out the SNES’s commercial life.