Part 2: Riding the wave of success into the Game Boy era
On the previous chapter of this retrospective, we covered the founding of Square of Japan and their development history up until the release of the second game in the Final Fantasy franchise. Final Fantasy II proved to be another success for the company, selling even more copies than the original (about 800,000 in Japan). For more details, the previous article can be read here. This article continues the history of Squaresoft from that point on.
An advertisment including the North American FF1, FF Legend and the soon to be cancelled NA FFII and FFIII box art design. Sign me up for this alternate timeline.
After the release of Final Fantasy II, Square wanted to continue expanding their success to other platforms while also supporting the Famicom. Sakaguchi and his development team were hard at work on the follow up to Final Fantasy II. In the meanwhile, Nintendo released the Game Boy handheld console in Japan during the spring of 1989. The Game Boy proved to be a worldwide hit and Square’s president wanted to make a game for the new handheld console. He tasked Akitoshi Kawazu, who had worked as a battle designer on Final Fantasy II, to come up with an idea similar to Tetris. Kawazu, however, pushed for a role playing game as he figured it would be more in line with the Japanese gaming audience's preference. He collaborated with Koichi Ishii on the design and Nobuo Uematsu provided his talents for the soundtrack. He completed his project within 6 months and his game would be titled “Makai Toushi SaGa” (Tower of the Spirit World Saga). It was the first in the long running SaGa series, which continues to this day.
MAKAI TOUSHI SAGA/THE FINAL FANTASY LEGEND
Makai Toushi SaGa was released in Japan in December 1989 to critical and commercial success, selling 1.15 million copies. It was the first RPG on the Game Boy and proof that games of that type could be successful on a handheld console. Satoshi Tajiri, the developer and creator of the Pokémon franchise, cites it as an influence for his Game Boy games. There are also many thematical and gameplay similarities with another monster/demon summoning franchise, Shin Megami Tensei. For example, both series share the focus on playable monsters that can evolve into other types, a story with religious undertones and post apocalyptic imagery.
Box art for Makai Toushi SaGa, first game in the long running SaGa series.
Box art of "The Final Fantasy Legend" aka Makai Toushi SaGa in Japan. It is curious that this is the only Final Fantasy game with a "The" prefix in the title.
Religious undertones and post apocalyptic imagery abound in the manuals of both versions of the game.
After re-experiencing the game recently, I can confidently say that this game holds up well. It’s not without its flaws, but it was impressive distillation of the JRPG experience in handheld form. The gameplay and graphics are comparable to other Gameboy JRPGs that came out much later like Pokémon Red/Blue. The Final Fantasy II influence in this game is clear with its alternative leveling system and open world exploration. The amount of options and builds for party members is impressive. At the start of the game the player selects between Humans, Mutants and Monsters for their 4 party members. Humans are the strongest at the start and can use the most items/have the most equip slots, but cannot improve their stats without spending vast amounts of money on booster items. There are dozens of weapon types for humans with different stat requirements and properties. Mutants evolve over time to gain skills and stats but their gains on evolution are random and unpredictable. They can also equip gear/weapons like humans but with fewer options. Furthermore, they are the only race that can use magic. Monsters are fixed in their power level and skills but can eat meat of fallen enemies to change into other monster types. There are about a dozen monster species with subtypes of varying power levels. The meat eating feature is comparable to demon fusion in the Shin Megami Tensei series.
Concept art of the playable races in The FF Legend. From left to right, Male Human, Male Mutant, Female Mutant, Eye Monster.
Left: Character creation screen. Right: Meat dropped by a monster. A monster character that eats the meat may transform into a different species.
There are several issues with the game design that become apparent after playing the game for a while. One criticism I have is that it is difficult to understand the pros and cons between many of these races, weapon types and stat builds without experimenting for a while. The game is not very transparent about the inner workings of the mechanics. On top of that, the monster race is extremely underpowered, to the point that it would be an impressive achievement for a party of them to beat the first boss. Younger players might be inclined to start a party with a heavy monster presence given their interesting designs and that decision will lead to frustration. At least the manual points out that some parties aren’t recommended for normal playthroughs. Finally, like many JRPGs of the era, it is easy to get lost or miss an important hint if you don’t explore every town or talk to every NPC. The open ended nature of the game means that there isn’t a lot of guidance of funneling of the player towards goals, so it can be frustrating for certain players. Players with a willingness to explore or willing to use guides won’t find these to be major issues.
Overworld exploration and combat screens of The Final Fantasy Legend.
FINAL FANTASY III
While Makai Toushi Saga was being localized, Final Fantasy III was released in Japan to even bigger success than the previous titles. It sold 1.4 million copies in Japan and was held in high regard by critics. The plans to localize this game were eventually scrapped as game development for the impending Super Famicom was consuming most the bandwidth of the team. Final Fantasy II’s localization was still in the works at this time and would eventually get cancelled for similar reasons. For many years, the game was unavailable to North America except through fan translation patches and emulation. I'll always share my admiration for Neill Corlett, SOM2Freak and all of the unnamed heroes who teamed together to translate many of the unreleased Squaresoft titles for the North American audience. I played it for the first time around the same time that I discovered the translation projects for FFII and FFV. While it is a bit difficult to fully appreciate the impact of FFIII after playing the Super Famicom Final Fantasy games, I enjoyed a lot more than its predecessor, FFII.
FFIII Japan's box art, by Yoshitaka Amano. Presumably, the design of this unnamed warrior served as the inspiration for Luneth in the 2006 remake.
Final Fantasy III throws out many of the changes made in the second game of the series. It went back to blank slate characters with no backgrounds or personalities. They acquire jobs that give them powers as the story progresses. The party is occasionally joined temporarily by non-combat NPC companions who serve as quest givers and provide personal stakes to the story beats. It is also the first game to include Moogles, a race of furry critters that would reappear in many games of the series. On the game design side, it goes back to basics in many ways. It went back to the experience points based leveling system and classes of the original game. The most notable mechanical innovation in this game was the addition of the Job system, which allows players to assign classes to characters at any time outside of battle. Each Job also requires points to switch over to and gains proficiency levels of their own. The Job system is a feature that would reappear in many games in the series and is generally beloved by the fanbase.
The main characters are 4 nameless knights in training. They acquire new professions as they meet the 4 crystals.
Left: The character status screen. The player can change their jobs and view their guest NPC character here. Cid has a cameo role in FFIII as guest NPC.
Right: The first appearance of Moogles in the series.
One of the most impressive moments in FFIII is when the player acquires the ability to fly off the edge of the known world only to discover an even larger one.
Left: Box Art for FFIII for the Nintendo DS. Right: The four main characters of the FFIII DS Remake. From left to right: Arc, Luneth, Refia and Ignus.
Combat scenes are impressive, with a rotating camera and fully animated 3D characters.
Akihiko Yoshida's concept art of the main characters of FFIII Remake. From left to right, Arc, Refia, Luneth, Ignus.
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