Mystic Ark is one of those SNES RPGs that slipped under the radar back in the day, which is a shame because it’s got this weird, dreamlike charm to it. You wake up on a beach with no memory, and before you know it, you’re hopping between surreal worlds—each with its own bizarre rules and inhabitants. One minute you’re in a desert kingdom where people worship a giant egg, the next you’re in a floating city run by cats. Yeah, it’s like that.

The puzzles are the real star here. Some are straightforward, but others make you stop and actually think, like rearranging statues based on cryptic murals or figuring out why that one NPC keeps turning into a frog. Combat’s standard turn-based stuff, but the monster designs are wild—half of them look like they escaped from a Salvador Dalí painting.

It’s not perfect—the translation’s a little rough in spots, and good luck finding a physical copy—but if you’re into offbeat 16-bit RPGs, this one’s worth dusting off an emulator for. Just don’t expect it to hold your hand.