Soul Blazer

Soul Blazer, known in Japan as Soul Blader (ソウルブレイダー), is a Super Nintendo Entertainment System console role-playing game developed by Quintet and published by Enix (now Square Enix). Soul Blazer was released on January 31, 1992 in Japan, on November 27, 1992 in North America, and on January 27, 1994 in Europe. Similar to the company's previous game ActRaiser, the player takes the role of a divine angel, deity or lesser-deity, or avatar, sent by a divinity, called The Master (Gaia), to destroy monsters and release the captured souls of a world's inhabitants. Soul Blazer was scored by Yukihide Takekawa.

Gameplay
The player frees a series of towns by fighting monsters in traditional dungeon-crawl battles. Destroying monster lairs in the dungeons causes a soul belonging to a former town occupant to be liberated and reincarnated. This is often a human, but it could be anything from a dolphin to a talking tulip. As souls are freed, the town is reconstructed around the people. The new town occupants give the player advice and items. When the player defeats the boss monster imprisoning the soul of the head of each town, the area is cleared and the player can continue. After the hero frees the first six villages, he is granted access to the "World of Evil", where the final villain awaits.

Plot
The scenario of Soul Blazer was written by Tomoyoshi Miyazaki under assistance of Tatsuo Hashimoto.

Setting
The Master sends one of his heavenly divine companions in the form of a human warrior to the Freil Empire, where the evil spirit, Deathtoll (Dark Gaia) has destroyed all villages and incarcerated the souls of all living creatures in his monster lairs, leaving the world empty. The warrior must defeat the monsters and liberate the inhabitants from the lairs, gradually repopulating the kingdom.

The warrior travels throughout the kingdom, defeating monsters in each of six regions to gather six magic stones, each a different color, in order to open the path to Deathtoll, who now resides in the World of Evil. The warrior must also find three sacred artifacts to call upon the power of the phoenix to defeat Deathtoll.

On the way, the warrior falls in love with Lisa, the daughter of a brilliant inventor named Dr. Leo. The warrior learns that the world's devastation came about after King Magridd imprisoned Dr. Leo and forced him to make a machine to contact Deathtoll. After being summoned, Deathtoll offered the king a gold piece for each soul from his kingdom, and under the counsel of his wife, Magridd agreed, but was eventually imprisoned himself. Dr. Leo is still in Magridd Castle's prison after the warrior frees him, and Leo later sacrifices his life to kill the queen, who still wanted to bargain with Deathtoll.

After reaching the World of Evil and defeating Deathtoll, the warrior is returned to heaven. However, one year later, the Master realizes that the warrior misses his life as a human, and agrees to send him back to the Freil Empire, but under the condition that the hero would not have any memory of his past. The hero wakes up in Grass Valley, where Lisa recognizes him. Though he does not remember her, they leave together and renew their friendship.

Characters

 * The Hero (Blazer) is the protagonist, a divine angel, deity or lesser-deity, or avatar, sent by The Master (Gaia) to restore the world's creatures to life. Skilled with a sword and possessing the ability to speak with any living thing and be understood, he battles the hordes of Deathtoll with the assistance of his Soul helpers. In Illusion of Gaia, he is referred to as "Blazer" by the hidden boss, Solid Arm (Soul Blazer's Metal Mantis).
 * The Master (Gaia) is the chief deity in the Soul Blazer world. Townspeople close to death often report that they hear The Master "calling" them. The Master transports the hero between the regions on the overworld map. He also will save the game progress, and entering his temple will also restore the hero's health to full capacity.
 * Dr. Leo is a scientist who created the machinery by which King Magridd's pact with Deathtoll was executed. He also created a series of paintings and models so realistic that one could be drawn into them by touching them. He possesses an empath's level of closeness to nature despite his technological background.
 * Lisa is Leo's daughter and a resident of Grass Valley, where she lives alone on the edge of town. When the hero saves her, she harbors a gratefulness to him that gradually transforms into romantic interest.
 * Turbo the Dog, Lue the Dolphin, Nome the Snail, and Marie the Doll are pets of Dr. Leo and Lisa. A dog named Turbo also appears in the Enix games The Illusion of Gaia, Terranigma, and Robotrek.
 * King Magridd is a misguided, easily manipulated king who felt a disconnection from his subjects. This dissatisfaction led him to coerce Dr. Leo into designing a machine to summon Deathtoll, bringing about the fall of the world and himself.
 * Queen Magridd was seduced by the potential that lurked underneath Dr. Leo's skills, and is the primary catalyst for causing the deal with Deathtoll to occur. She will do anything for power, even after she is betrayed by Deathtoll.

Music
The soundtrack of the game was composed by Yukihide Takekawa. It was published in Japan by the record label Apollon on February 21, 1992.

Reception
The game was reviewed in 1993 in Dragon #200 by Sandy Petersen in the "Eye of the Monitor" column. Petersen gave the game 3 out of 5 stars.

Quintet reported that Soul Blazer sold 200,000 copies in Japan, 70,000 copies in North America, and 25,000 copies in Europe.

The online magazine Hardcore Gaming 101 (published by GameSpy) has referred to Soul Blazer and a few other Quintet games as the Soul Blazer series, pointing out a few common themes between the different titles.