Soul Blazer, aka Soul Blader was the first in a trilogy of games created by Quintet and released by Enix for the SNES. All three of the games were RPG's with real time combat, much like Zelda. The other two games in the trilogy were Illusions of Gaia and Terrangima.
Soul Blazer, although not very interesting in gameplay, had an interesting plot where the hero would arrive in a bleak, destroyed area, and by defeating monsters, free the souls of those who had been trapped. Thus, he could bring dead areas back to life and communicate with the characters there. Turning a dead area into a thriving town was the biggest thrill of this game.
Unfortunatly, this thrill was a little bit too subtle for most players, and in the face of such competition as Zelda: A Link to the Past, the game was commercialy underwhelming. It's sequel, Illusion of Gaia was even less succesful, which led to the decision not to release Terranigma in the United States.