A strange little side quest
There is a neat bit of history hiding behind the kind of play you find in Anima Saga. By 1987, fantasy role-playing had become a major computer-game direction, with Zelda, licensed Dungeons & Dragons games and other story-led adventures expanding the form. Another piece of context lands nicely beside it: Street Fighter II, released in 1991, turned head-to-head arcade fighting into a worldwide phenomenon and helped define the modern fighting-game genre. The screen is modern; the urge to test skill, pattern and timing definitely is not.