Alcahest was released in 1993 for the Super Nintendo, developed by HAL Laboratory and published by Square, two names that carried real weight on that console in the first half of the nineties. HAL was known for technically polished work, Square for a large slice of Japan's role-playing output.

This is an action game with a story rather than a turn-based one. You control a single character, swing a blade, dodge and push through landscapes and dungeons; the record lists it as single-player. Fantasy settings were standard for Japanese production of the period, but handling one as a real-time action game was less common, since most of the big brands stayed with menu-driven combat.

The Super Nintendo gave such games a strong foundation: plenty of colours on screen at once, smooth sprite movement, and a sound chip with sampled instruments that made music far richer than on the competing platform. Japanese action titles of 1993 leaned on all of it.

The game stayed in Japan and never received an official Western release, which kept it out of reach for European players for years. Its reputation grew afterwards, among people who found older Japanese titles through emulation.

Our entry collects the year, the developer, the publisher, the platform and screenshots for this cartridge, and it is not one you can start from the browser.