A true classic that keeps evading North America
The game completely deserves its title as missed classic. The story revolves around the life of an adventurer on his quest to find the Legendary Hero, who is destined to destroy a great and impending evil. It's a nice change from the typical RPG where the main character is the cliche'd "hero of destiny." The game follows the adventurer's life as a boy travelling with his father, to a difficult life as a teenager, and eventually as an adult with children of his own. One might go so far as to call it Dragon Quest Generations.
If for some reason the main storyline slows down you for there are plenty of side distractions in the game. A casino offers slots, betting on monster battles, and slime races. You can also go hunting for monsters who will join your party and make your team that much more formidable.
While the story is quite original for a 16 bit game, the gameplay is much more typical. It is the standard turnbased RPG combat. Nothing new or remarkable about it. It is done well, however, and the ability to recruit monsters to join your party helps to keep combat interesting. Also, don't be expecting a visual 16 bit masterpiece either. Even for a SNES/Super Famicom game the graphics are hardly spectacular, and were even criticized by many at the time of the game's release. It's not unforgivable though, and once you become engrossed in the story it's something you won't even think about.
Overall the game is an absolute pleasure to play. It fully deserves all the attention it has received over the years. Whether or not Square-Enix will ever make the game available for North America is in question, but if they do make sure to grab it as soon as it becomes available.