Dragon View

A game which was marketed as a sequel to Drakkhen (literally called "Super Drakkhen" in Japan, and even its copyright screen in the US refers to it as "Drakkhen II"), though it bears very little resemblance to its predecessor in terms of overall design.  While it does retain a similar side-view perspective in key areas and the pseudo-3D view for its overworld, it plays much differently, having you control a single character who can leap, cast spells via magic rings, use items and fend off enemies with two main weapons - your sword and a "hauza", a bladed boomerang that can attack at range.  Because of this, combat is based on skill rather than simple luck - how effectively you can avoid damage and land hits on enemies utilizing your own twitch skills, which makes the overall experience much more fun.  As you defeat enemies you'll earn experience points, which go toward leveling up and giving you a general boost to your stats, and as you venture through the game you'll also find upgrades in chests for your weapons, armor and rings.  Perhaps taking some cues from Zelda, you'll even earn a lot of magical artifacts throughout, which get put to use solving puzzles - from gloves that let you push statues to a magic mirror that lets you bypass barriers or block a single attack.  The presentation is phenomenal too, with some gorgeous backgrounds, gruesome enemy designs and finely polished animation throughout, and even some pretty clever and funny dialog to progress the story.  I, like probably many others, passed this one up because of its ties to Drakkhen, but upon actually playing it, I see that was a big mistake - it's a wonderfully-crafted action RPG with a lot to offer, and a definite hidden gem in the SNES's library.  And while it is a pretty scarce game these days (with bloated prices on the secondary market to match), it has gotten a re-release on Steam, so you can check it out at an affordable price.  Which you definitely should.

Developer: Kotobuki System Co. Ltd. (Kemco)
Publisher: Kemco, Piko Interactive LLC, Bleem!

Released: 1994, 2019

Platform: SNES, Windows

Drakkhen

Drakkhen was noted in its time for being a relatively innovative game; it was among the first to utilize paper dolls to show the party's currently-equipped gear and have a pseudo-3D perspective for its overworld, with sprite-scaling to indicate distant objects and vector-animated ground paths to aid in navigation.  Nowadays, though, it's mostly known for being a surreal and profoundly bizarre experience, with numerous unexplainable enemy encounters throughout - bumping into urns in the road pits you against a giant jackal's head that fires lasers from its eyes, constellations in the sky will randomly attack you during the night hours (pictured: a bird constellation bombarding the party with fireballs), and one particularly deranged random encounter involves a dancing silhouetted woman repeatedly chanting "I love you" in a constantly fluctuating pitch.  All told, though, it's rather light on actual role-playing elements - while there are four playable classes to pick from, you must make a party comprised of at least one of each, so you really get no choice at all in your team's composition.  There are relatively few NPCs to interact with, and nearly all just dispense bits of dialog before sending you off to the next plot point, or just serve as generic shops and Araks (houses of healing); the latter operate for free, though, which is quite handy as the early game is brutally difficult.  Surviving long enough to get to one and heal your injured and dead is a task in itself, though, as enemy encounters are irritatingly frequent and your equipment breaks frequently, necessitating that you carry several backups as you travel (which aren't cheap to purchase, but are frequently found as random drops).  You also have disappointingly little control over combat itself - your characters move and act without any direct input from you, though you can direct them to attack, defend or cast spells (which they will continue to cast until they deplete their MP, or you change their command).   All of these were probably conscious decisions made to lengthen the experience, too, as the overall plot is quite short and can be finished in only a few hours once you know what you're doing. A pretty interesting game for its time (as well as one of the very first SNES games ever released), but its punishing difficulty, simplistic plot and overall limited gameplay ensure its appeal is pretty restricted nowadays, save for those who enjoy games that unapologetically bask in their own impenetrable weirdness.

Developer: Infogrames, Kemco (SNES)
Publisher: Infogrames, Classic Digital (Windows)

Released: 1989, 1990, 1991

Platforms: Amiga, Atari ST, MS-DOS, SNES, PC-98, FM Towns Marty, Sharp X68000, Windows, Linux, Evercade