Secret Place: a Lagoon fansite

Lagoon for the SHARPx68000

Most people (in the English-speaking world) know Lagoon by the SNES title, but it was actually a remake. The first Lagoon was for the Sharp x68k, a vintage computer. It was only released in Japan. The game's characters and mechanics are mostly the same, but there are enough differences for it not to be a straight port.


Differences from the SNES game:

  • Changes in graphics for the environment and enemies (especially bosses)
  • Additional cutscenes
  • Different music tracks for the Voloh and the Secret Place
  • More and different 'quests' involved before leaving Atland
  • Nasir's sister Reia is a character, and his house in Atland can be visited
  • Ella doesn't exist, Thor captures Felicia instead
  • There are elves scattered throughout Philips castle that Nasir needs to rescue
  • There are no crystals, all spells are cast using a staff and equipped sword.

    • Once nice benefit of the SHARP platform is its ability to output a slightly higher resolution than the SNES (in typical cases). The SHARP version renders at 256x256, while the SNES version renders at 256x224. This is more obvious when you compare the sprites. For this reason, the SHARP version is nice to experience for the slight graphical improvement if nothing else. However, despite the higher resolution, some of the sprites in the SHARP version somehow look more cartoony. It's hit or miss.

    The SHARP version makes the shield more effective in blocking attacks and enemies than the SNES version.

    There is also a difference between versions in the purpose of staves. In the SHARP version, the staff determines the element and the sword determines the power level of the spell. In the SNES version, a crystal determines the element and a staff determines the power level. This was probably the reason why staves were color-coded in the SHARP original.

    That being said, the mapping of equipped items-to-spells is also different between the SNES version and the SHARP version. The below table shows the mapping of spells unique to the SHARP version. (Thanks to Kuro-chan for the providing the graphics)

    List of Spells

    Short
    Sword

    Silver
    Sword

    Magic
    Sword

    Force
    Sword

    Moon
    Sword

    Earth Staff

    Sky Staff

    Star Staff

    Moon Staff