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Using the L and R buttons, the dog can "sniff" out items you need to
cast a spell. I.E. ash, crystal, water. Then, to cast a spell, you need
like 2 ash and 1 water.


* 3.3.5 - Front Mission (not released in the USA)

Front Mission is a turn based strategy game set in the near future.
Similar in format to such strategy games as Tactics Ogre, Ogre Battle,
and Final Fantasy Tactics, Front Mission places you at the head of a
small team of mobile suit clad mercenaries fighting for control of the
disputed Huffman Island.

Each battle takes place in one of many small but well-realised isometric
landscapes, ranging from wastelands to cityscapes. In combat the game
zooms in to give a more detailed view of the character and opponent who
fight using a wide variety of short, mid range and long range weapons.

Between levels, players have the opportunity to customize and upgrade
mobile suits using an impressive number of add-ons, weapons and body
parts, as well as gamble or fight in a coliseum.

Although Front Mission's excellent menu system and user interface are in
English, making the game perfectly playable to English speakers, the
storyline is entirely in Japanese. Despite this, the linear nature of
the story and the lack of any story based decision making means that the
game can be played from start to finish without too many problems.

Gameplay wise, Front mission is well balanced and easy to master thanks
to its clear interface. Some may find the game a little short, but this
does not detract from what must be one of the most playable and visually
appealing strategy games on the SNES.


* 3.3.6 - Breath of Fire (USA: Breath of Fire)

In times of peace, the discovery of a wish-granting goddess has caused
the rebirth of the Dark Dragons. Now they are amassing armies and
seizing towns, it is only a matter of time before the world bows before
them. The time has come for the Light Dragons to strike back, but they
have all been wiped out or are powerless. One young man will rise to the
challenge. He will have to travel the world and gain the powers of the
dragon, but he will not be alone. Seven other warriors from clans
throughout the world will go with him, and together they will somehow
stop the Dark Dragons, and the fanatical goddess that guides them.


* 3.3.7 - Romancing SaGa (not released in the USA)

Players can select one out of 8 characters as their main character, and
they'll get to meet all the other characters in the middle of the game.
(And more, of course). Players don't get level up, but they get
individual Power, HP, etc up after normal fights, randomly. (Kinda like
FF II - the Japanese version, that is.) The stories differ from
character to character. The player gets to know pieces of the story by
playing each character, but they form a big picture. Basically, there
are 3 bosses, two of which were beaten a long time ago by a hero. Maybe
a few heroes... They leave 12 pieces of jewelry, and two of them are
lost.  As the last boss is being reincarnated, the world became messed
up. So the eight people, for different reasons, start on their journies.


* 3.3.8 - Romancing SaGa II (not released in the USA)

A long time ago, seven heroes saved the world. Before they went away,
they said they would be back when there's a crisis. Recently, monsters
start to harm the innocent people. People were hoping for the seven
heroes to return. Indeed, finally, the seven heroes have returned, but
this time, they are monsters killing the innocent people. The main
character of the story starts on a quest to save the world. Players get
to play different generations of the royal family. They can develop a
country of their own, and can allocate resources in your country to
invent things. They can pass on techniques and skills to any
descendants, and save weapons for them.


* 3.3.9 - Romancing SaGa III (not released in the USA)

600 years ago, an event known as the "Shishoku" occurred when "Shisei,"
the Death Planet, eclipsed the sun, and all new infant life died on
Earth. All infants, baby animals, and new plants died. However, one baby
survived the "Shishoku," and when he grew up, he became the "Maou"
(Demon King) and conquered the earth. He opened the "Abyss Gates" to a
dimension where four races of evil Abyss beings lived. These beings
flooded the earth. However, suddenly the Maou disappeared, and the
attacks of the Abyss Gate monsters decreased.

300 years later, after the earth began to rebuild from the Maou's
domination, and another "Shishoku" occurred. Again, one baby managed to
survive the event, and the Maou's memory began to come back to the baby.
Fearing another world domination, the people tried to kill the infant,
but as fate would have it, the baby was not killed. However, when this
baby grew up, he became the "Seiou," (Holy King) and united the world in
peace and harmony. In addition, the Seiou sealed the Abyss Gates
completely.

Now, 300 years after the second "Shishoku," just as the peace that the
Seiou installed began to fall apart, yet another "Shishoku" occurred,
and yet another baby survived. However, having not yet fully grown,
nobody knows how this baby will turn out.

Romancing Saga 3 takes place more than a decade after the third
"Shishoku." The player picks a main character out of eight characters:
Julian, a member of the Shinon group of pioneers; Ellen, a childhood
friend of Julian's and fellow member of Shinon; Harid, a world-famous
mercenary; Sara, Ellen's younger sister; Monica, the princess of the
country of Roanu; Katarina, Monica's personal guard and surrogate older
sister; Thomas, a childhood friend of Julian, Ellen, and Sara, and
president of a trading company; and Mikhail, Ellen's older brother and
young king of Roanu. Through a random storm, all these characters get
tied together and go on a single quest in the beginning, splitting into
different parties. Afterwards, the story splits and focuses on the main
character's point of view. Later on, the main characters learn that
there are four Abyss Gates still open and go out to seal them off. And
of course, the baby that survived the "Shishoku" plays no small part in
all of this...

In terms of gameplay, RS3 shares some similarities with RS2 in that
there are no experience levels and character advancement depends solely
upon what each character practices. At the beginning of the game, in
addition to picking a main character, the player must also pick a
homeworld and weapon for your character. These choices will affect what
areas of the game the player will do well in. A large part of the combat
system depends on weapon techniques learned randomly in battles.
Although the techniques are learned randomly, weapon skill and primary
weapon also affect this as well. Like the other RS games, there are no
random battles; the monsters you fight are determined randomly, but
fights will not start until you run into an enemy icon on the map. 
Being an almost completely non-linear game, the plot of RS3 will depend
slightly upon various choices the player makes throughout the game, and
what characters are in the party. Unlike most RPGs, though, instead of
having one continuous plot, RS3 consists almost entirely of many small
subplots. Most of these subplots can be taken in any order, and it is
not necessary to complete all of them. Also, some subplots are only open
to certain characters, like the company management event for Thomas, and
the "country ruling" event for Mikhail.


* 3.3.10 - Bahamut Lagoon (not released in the USA)

In a strange world (name?) where lands float in the air (ala realm of
air from deathgate), an emperor launched an attack on the other
countries. The hero is the leader of the "Dragon riders" of the last
country to be attacked. The emperor attacked this country the last
because of the legend that the greatest and most powerful dragon will
come when the country is in crisis. The dragon riders attack, and lost,
and the country was taken over, along with the princess. She and the
hero are lovers. Well, after some time, the hero returns from his
dissapearence (he dissapeared after the battle) and forms the rebellion,
and tries to rescue the princess.

This game is actually a strategy game with RPG elements. Characters form
groups of 4 and each group has a dragon. This game's unique feature is
how the player "feeds" different things to the dragons, ie. used armor,
potions, weapons, items etc. and they add or decrease the dragons'
attributes. Another is the dragons cannot be controlled by the player.
The player controls the dragons buy 3 commands: Follow and do not
attack, follow and attack enemies in range, and free attack. The dragons
react according to their attributes, like if it's intelligence is good,
it would avoid poisonous areas on the map when moving and hit the enemy
at where they're weakest (hate it when the enemy is of element lightning
and the dragon cast lightning and HEALS it). Other attributes are like
elements, which controls what type of attack the dragon uses, and normal
attacks(claws and teeth!) and defense etc. Oh, BTW, the dragons change
appearance too.


* 3.3.11 - Super Mario RPG (USA: Super Mario RPG)

The plot to this game (which was co-produced by Square and Nintendo)
seems simple at first. In fact, the plot is almost exactly the same as
the plots in many of the previous Super Mario Bros. games: The Princess
has been kidnapped by Bowser (again!), and Mario (Luigi makes his only
appearances in the game's manual this time around) goes after her. This
time, Mario travels straight to Bowser's castle, and while the two are
fighting, a strange thing happens: A giant sword falls from the sky and
into the castle; sending Mario, Bowser, and the Princess flying out of
the castle. Mario fortunately lands right into his small house, but the
Princess is missing and Mario can't get back into the castle. As the
plot thickens, however, it's revealed to Mario that the Star Road has
been shattered by the Smithies (the same forces guiding the sword), and
without it, wishes can never be answered. In order to fix the Star Road,
Mario needs to find seven stars, and then drive the Smithies out of the
Mushroom World.

Super Mario RPG not only enhances on the Mario theme by keeping classic
Mario elements (like the ?-mark blocks everyone's familiar with,
Starman, etc.) and adding in a new semi-3D world, but it's also the
first of the many Mario games over the years to have a role-playing
style to it. Mario punches, hammers, jumps, kicks shells at enemies; and
also fights with a group of up to two other characters. There's plenty
of tiny bites of humor throughout the game, puzzles to solve, places to
visit, and various sub-games to play. Some of the puzzles and sub-games
in Super Mario RPG, however, may only be easy for people who can
maintain a solid rhythem and have an understanding of the C major scale
in sol-fesh, because non-musicians may have a hard time trying to race
Boshi or helping Toadofsky with his songs. Otherwise, this is a very
solid game.


* 3.3.12 - Rudora no Hihou/Rudra's Secret Treasure (not released in the
USA)

After 4000 years of prosperity of the one race of life, there will be
one who brings the end to that race... one's name is known as Rudora.
Rudora will bring an end to one race and also brings creation of the
next race to prosper. Almost 4000 years have past since the race begin
to flourish... air was polluted, and there was a sign of the end of
human race worldwide. Will there be a way to escape from Rudora's
routine of destruction and creation? "Rudora no Hihou" vividly describes
the human race that fought against destiny in the last 16 days before
Rudora's destruction began...

In "Rudora no Hihou," the player searches for the strongest magic by
themselves. With different combinations of the specific word (Japanese
characters), magic attribute, strength and MP consumption will change.
Explore around to making magic and create your own ultimate magic!


* 3.3.13 - Treasure Hunter G (not released in the USA)

The FAQ maintainer has never played this game before, so could someone
help him fill this space here? Thanks.


* 3.3.14 - Hanjyuku Hero (not released in the USA)

Hanjyuku Hero was a "simulation game" produced by Square around the time
of FF V (FF5), for the SFC. There was a predecessor on the Famicom, but
I have no information about it. The game contains lots of Japanese puns,
and was not translated to any foreign language.

The player, "hanjyuku hero," was the leader of an Arumamuun nation. But
over a long period of peace, he becomes sloppy, so the nation is on the
verge of destruction. Just then, the "kanjyuku army" invades, and the
player is to fight a war against them.

The game is a simple real-time simulation, where the objective in each
stage is to capture all the castles on the map, then defeat the stage
boss. Each unit consists of a leader and a bunch of nameless soldiers.
The characteristic of this game is the "egg monsters": some leaders (on
either side) are equipped with an "egg," which allows them to summon an
egg monster in battle. However, that which monster would appear is
random, and the power of the egg monster varies greatly, though in most
cases it would have no problem squashing enemy human troops.

The story is a comedy, with a hero who is kind of sloppy. The highlight
is on the egg monsters, many of whom are parodies or puns of FFIV (FF4)
characters and objects.


* 3.3.15 - Breath of Fire II (not usually considered a Square game, but
discussed in this newsgroup anyway)

When only a young boy, after a disturbing dream and a mysterious
encounter with a dragon, the hero's family has disappeared and no one
recognizes him. He runs from the town with a young thief named Bow, only
to be challenged by a horrific demon that calls him the destined child.
It easily renders him unconscious and throws him from the cave. Ten
years later, he and Bow have become junior Rangers at a town, and in the
events that follow he begins to realize that he is, indeed, the destined
child. And he has a mission.


* 3.4 - Square Games for the Sony PlayStation (PSX)


* 3.4.1 - Tobal #1 (USA: Tobal #1)

Tobal #1 was Square's first experiment with the fighting game genre.
They mixed fighting and role playing in a mode called "Quest mode,"
which will be very familiar to you if you've played Double Dragon V
before.

Originally, the main selling point behind this game was that it included
a demo disc for an upcoming Square game, Final Fantasy VII.


* 3.4.2 - Tobal II (not released in the USA)

The FAQ maintainer has never played this game before, so could someone
help him fill this space here? Thanks.


* 3.4.3 - Bushido Blade (USA: Bushido Blade)

Bushido Blade is a fighting game with Japanese swords - "Bushido" is a
samurai sword fighting style. Characters in this game don't have energy,
as in traditional fighting games, but are instead defeated by any
bone-crunching katana slash. Little else can be said about the game...


* 3.4.4 - Xenogears (USA: Xenogears)

The destruction of an intergalactic space ship lead to the population of
the previously uninhabited continent of Ignas. The north nation, Kislev,
has been at war with Aveh, the south nation. It was then that the Church
(aka "Ethos") discovered ancient fighting robots known as "gears," and
so, armies on both sides dug up & deployed these gears to aid their war
efforts. Later, the government of Aveh was taken over by a mysterious
high-tech force known as "Gebler," who continued to fight against
Kislev.

Xenogears tells a story about Fei Fong Wong, a small-town young adult
with a gift for visual and martial arts. Fei's two best friends, Timothy
and Alice, are marrying each other. On the day before their wedding,
though, their village is mysteriously attacked by gears. Unable to
resist, Fei climbs into an empty gear, unaware of the cruel destiny
which awaits him...

The most unique feature of the game is the actual battles with robots.
During the course of the game, each character acquires one gear which
they can call during combat to use against larger & stronger enemies.
Gears do not actually "level up" but acquire their power by purchasing
better parts for them to use.

This is also the first Square game to have hand-drawn anime movie
sequencies instead of having pre-rendered movies exclusively.


* 3.4.5 - Front Mission Alternative (not released in the USA)

See 3.4.2.


* 3.4.6 - SaGa Frontier (USA: SaGa Frontier)

Just like Romancing SaGa I, this game has no central storyline. Players
can select a character, and then guide that character through their
life. Along the way, the character may encounter other lead characters,
as well as a number of supporting characters.


* 3.4.7 - Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon (not released in the USA)

A chocobo from a chocobo village found a magic crystal which made him
become evil, and now resides in a mysterious dungeon. Now, another
chocobo from the town is going to brave the dungeon and find him.

The best way to describe the game would be that it is a Rogue-like game,
complete with magic and summoned monsters. There's also a "forge
system," where weapons can be combined to become more powerful. The
village also grows as the player gets deeper into the dungeon.

This game came packed with a "mysterious data disc" which included cheat
saves for existing Square games and preview videos of some of Square's
other games - Xenogears, Parasite Eve, Soukagai, and more. (A variation
on this disc, without the saved games, was published with Parasite Eve
in the USA.)


* 3.4.8 - Einhander (USA: Einhander)

Earth has declared war on Selene, a prosperous moon colony first settled
in the 21st century. Although Earth is still likely to win the war with
its vast resources, Selene has a new hope: Fighter ships by Endymion and
Astraea, known collectively as "Einhander," are being used successfully
to thwart Earth's progress in the war.

The player controls one of three ships: The Endymion FRS Mks. II and
III, as well as the Astraea FGA Mk. I. Each ship can be equipped with
special weapons stolen from enemy ships in battle. Weapons can be
mounted on the top or bottom of the Einhander, and behave differently
depending on the side they're on.

Einhander is at heart a two-dimensional futuristic shooting game,
similar to the Gradius and R-Type series. However, unlike the
traditional shooters, everything in the game is animated in 3D.


* 3.4.9 - Parasite Eve (USA: Parasite Eve)

Based on a Japanese novel of the same name, Parasite Eve casts the
player as Aya Brea, a 23 year-old rookie cop with the New York Police
Department. As Christmas approaches, she is invited to an opera at
Carnegie Hall with her boyfriend. While watching the show, however, the
lead female singer, Melissa Gilbert, gives Aya a strange look, then
proceeds to cause most of the audience to spontaneously combust.
Unscathed, Aya runs to the stage to confront Melissa, who now insists on
being called "Eve" and begins to drop hints about the "liberation of the
mitochondria" to come...

Produced by Square USA, Parasite Eve contains many breathtaking CGI
visuals and spans 2 CDs. Some of its unique features include the
Parasite Energy system (a bar not unlike a Magic Points system which
only regenerates in battle), which represents the activity of the
mitochondria within Aya's body, and the Weapons Graft system, which
enables the player to customize their weapons and armor with features
from other armaments.

The USA version of the game also packed in a demo disc containing a demo
of Xenogears; plus previews of Brave Fencer Musashi(den), Final Fantasy
VIII, and Bushido Blade II. The disc was the rough equivilant of the
"mysterious data disc" which came with Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon in
Japan.


* 3.4.10 - Brave Fencer Musashiden (USA: Brave Fencer Musashi)

When the Thirstquencher Empire kidnaps the princess of the Allucaneet
Kingdom while her parents are on vacation, who's she gonna call? Brave
Fencer Musashi! After an opening quest where Musashi finds the long
sword named Regent ("Lumina" in the USA release), he departs on a quest
to save the princess and 35 of her missing servants. Along the way,
he'll collect scrolls which unlock powers of his sword; as well as
dueling with fearsome crest guardians and his arch-rival, Kojiro.

This game came packed with a demo disc containing a playable preview of
Final Fantasy VIII.


* 3.4.11 - Ehrgeiz (USA: Ehrgeiz)

This game, co-developed by Square and Namco, is sort of like a cross
between Tekken and Tobal, with a few characters from Final Fantasy VII
thrown in.


* 3.4.12 - SaGa Frontier II (USA: SaGa Frontier II)

In the Kingdom of Finney, an heir is born to the throne. The heir,
Gustave XIII, enjoys a nice life as being the future king of Finney -
until it is discovered that Gustave has no Anima, the element which
gives people magical powers, making Gustave by default unfit to rule. He
and his mother, Sophie, are exiled to a faraway kingdom where they
became treated like nobles. Gustave's story begins after he learns about
smithery from a master blacksmith...

SaGa Frontier II builds on the first game by reducing the amount of
quests in the game while adding to the plot/storyline of Gustave and one
other character, a digger named Wil Knights. The game brings back a
variation of SaGa Frontier's battle system, as well as an all-new "duel"
one-on-one battle system, and reintroduces the breakable weapons from
the first SaGa games.


* 3.4.13 - Chocobo Racing (USA: Chocobo Racing)

This go-cart-style racing game features a diverse cast of Final Fantasy
characters. In addition to characters such as the chocobo and goblin
(imp), there is the white and black mages from the original Final
Fantasy, Cid Pollendina from Final Fantasy IV, Mog from Final Fantasy
VI, and a few secret characters from Final Fantasy VII and VIII.


* 3.4.14 - Chrono Cross (USA: Chrono Cross)

Twenty years after Crono and friends returned from defeating Lavos in
Chrono Trigger, time and space are once again distorted. Serge, a kid
living in the small village of Arni, is asked by his friend, Leena, to
hunt down some Komodo scales. Upon presenting the scales to Leena at the
nearby Opassa Beach, however, Serge is suddenly surrounded by a blue
light, and he collapses. Upon awakening, he finds himself in an
alternate reality where he drowned ten years ago...

Chrono Cross, despite having a different producer and character designer
for the game, is a worthy successor to its predecessor. While most of
the gameplay and some of the characters from the first game are back,
the game features an overwhelmingly large cast of characters, who become
available depending on some of the decisions the player makes while
playing the game. Also, the game does away with time meters in battles,
and the intensity of attacks in battles can be determined by the player,
sort of like in Xenogears. The game uses 3D characters on pre-rendered
backgrounds, and has a small amount of full motion video clips.


* 3.4.15 - Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon II (USA: Chocobo Dungeon II)

See 3.4.5.


* 3.4.16 - Vagrant Story (USA: Vagrant Story)

Vagrant Story is set in a world which resembles mainland Europe during
medieval times. As the story opens, Duke Barbadoa's manor has been
sacked by Mullenkamp, a group of religious fanatics led by Sydney
Losstarot. Meanwhile, Ashley Riot, an elite knight called a
"riskbreaker," enters the ghost town of Lea Monde. During Ashley's
visit, he encounters dark powers like the world had never seen before.
And Sydney seems to be controlling them...

Vagrant Story combines the best features of action, adventure, puzzle,
and role-playing games to provide a gaming experience like no other.
Ashley acquires a variety of weapons which possess strengths and
weaknesses over various elements and character classes. Weapons and
armor can be combined together, and weapons can be attached to a variety
of grips and jewels, allowing players to make their own customized
weapons. There's also an in-depth magic system with four varieties of
spells.

The game also has one of the largest storylines in a Square game since
Xenogears, as well as one of the best in-game graphics engines ever seen
in a PlayStation game.


* 3.4.17 - Seiken Densetsu: The Legend of Mana (USA: Legend of Mana)

There isn't much backstory to this game. Basically, players take control
of a character set in a Secret of Mana-like world and complete various
quests for the various characters in the world. Each location can only
be reached by placing an everyday item on a world map, causing the new
location to be revealed.


* 3.4.18 - Front Mission III (USA: Front Mission III)

See 3.4.15.


* 3.4.19 - DewPrism (USA: Threads of Fate)

See 3.4.18.


* 3.4.20 - Parasite Eve II (USA: Parasite Eve II)

See 3.4.19.


* 3.5 - Square Games for the Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2)


* 3.5.1 - Driving Emotion Type-S (USA: Driving Emotion Type-S)

See 3.4.18.


* 3.5.2 - The Bouncer (USA: The Bouncer)

See 3.5.1.


* 3.5.3 - Gekikuukan Pro Baseball (not released in the USA)

See 3.5.2.


* 3.5.4 - All-Star Pro Wrestling (not released in the USA)

See 3.5.3.


* * * To Be Continued in Part 2 * * *
-- 
Nick Zitzmann
ICQ: 22305512

To see my real signature, finger my E-Mail address.

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