Atlas, The - Renaissance Voyager is one of those obscure SNES JRPGs that never made it outside Japan, which is a shame because it’s got this weird, dreamy vibe going on. You play as this kid who gets sucked into a book (classic '90s RPG logic) and ends up hopping between different historical eras—ancient Greece, medieval Europe, you name it. The pixel art’s surprisingly lush for an early SNES title, and the soundtrack? Absolute banger.

Combat’s your standard turn-based stuff, but the real draw is the time-travel gimmick. Some choices actually change how later eras play out, which was pretty ambitious for '92. First time I played, I accidentally messed up a trade route in the Renaissance and wound up with a busted economy two chapters later. Whoops.

It’s janky in places—translation patches help but don’t fix everything—but there’s something charming about its ambition. If you’re into retro JRPGs with more atmosphere than polish, this one’s a weird little time capsule.