Part III: Gameboy era part 2
On the previous chapter we discussed Squaresoft’s first forays into the handheld market. We covered their first Game Boy game, Final Fantasy Legend (Makai Toushi SaGa in Japan). We also covered the third Final Fantasy title for the NES, Final Fantasy 3, released exclusively in Japan. As we left it, the main Final Fantasy team was working hard on figuring out the plans for the next Final Fantasy game and also learning about the capabilities of Nintendo’s next console, the Super Famicom. There were also plans to localize Final Fantasy 2 and potentially 3 that would eventually get scrapped due to delays. We continue the story from this point on.
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MAKAI TOUSHI SAGA 2/FINAL FANTASY LEGEND 2
As development on the next Final Fantasy title ramped up, some of the members of the Final Fantasy team were tasked with leading or continuing their own spinoff projects for the Game Boy. There was an interest in continuing the success of the first SaGa game. Akitoshi Kawazu would follow up his directorial debut with a sequel, Makai Toushi Saga 2. This title would be released in North America as Final Fantasy Legend 2 and it would follow the formula set by the earlier game, but with more polish and improvements.Japanese box art vs North American box art for Makai Toushi SaGa2/FF Legend 2. As usual, the JP box art is a lot more fun.
Like most of the Squaresoft Gameboy games, this one went under my radar in my youth. As far as I can remember, these games only got cursory mentions on Nintendo Power and didn't really capture my attention as a grade schooler. My recent experience with Final Fantasy Legend 2 is quite positive. It has the standard improvements you’d expect from a sequel. Better graphics, more elaborate story, guest NPCs and new types of playable races. The player selects a group of 4 from a set of distinct races: Humans, Mutants, Monsters, and Robots. The monsters still evolve by consuming meat from other monsters. Robots are the new race, and they behave mostly like humans, in that they slowly gain stats. They can fully repair their weapons upon resting and start out stronger than Humans, but are much weaker to magic.
Concept art of some of the playable races. From left to right: Human male (with a robot by its feet), male and female mutants, and imp monster.
Concept art of some of the guest characters with their stats. The woman shown above is Ki, and she is a important figure early in the story.
Starting party selection screen (left) and status screen with guest NPC character (right).
The story is pretty basic JRPG fare. The 4 party members are mostly blank slates without personalities, similar to the orphans in Final Fantasy III. The story revolves around helping your father in his mission to collect the missing MAGI stones scattered across various dimensions. There are special NPC characters who join your party temporarily and assist you in this quest. They advance the storyline and leave the party once their subplot is done, another feature borrowed from Final Fantasy III. Overall, it’s a decent upgrade on the original FF Legend but doesn’t provide too many surprises when it comes to mechanics or story.
Showcase of the improved graphics for Final Fantasy Legend 2. The dungeons have more detailed backgrounds and tiles.
The enemy sprites are also more detailed when compared to the previous title.
SEIKEN DENSETSU/FINAL FANTASY ADVENTURE
Another Final Fantasy designer would get his opportunity to start his own spinoff franchise during this era. Koichi Ishii, game designer on the first 3 Final Fantasy games, was tasked with creating a new title for the Gameboy. His vision was more of an action orientated RPG, heavily influenced by the Legend of Zelda series. He also infused it with a more fairy tale, whimsical art style to separate it even more from the traditional Dungeons and Dragons inspired fantasy aesthetic of Final Fantasy. Kazuko Shibuya, the pixel artist who designed most of the chibi characters in the Final Fantasy series, would create the unique look of the characters and creatures in this game. This series would be known in Japan as Seiken Densetsu. Seiken Densetsu would get localized in the west as Final Fantasy Adventure, but later iterations of the series would get the “Mana” subtitle, and the series as a whole would be informally known as the Mana series.Seiken Densetsu Box art vs Final Fantasy Adventure box art. Similar sword based concepts.
Concept art for Seiken Densetsu/Final Fantasy Adventure. The top part displays the hero (left), with some of the potential allies next to him
(The GIrl, Chocobo, Bogard and Watts). Below the hero, is the Dark Lord (the main antagonist), next to an assortment of enemies.
A scene showing the hero with the chocobo sidekick fighting a variety of enemies. To the right, one of the main boss enemies with the sidekick shooting fireballs.
An explanation of the usage of tools (left), and the whip tool in use (right)
The story is a strange contrast with the lighthearted style suggested by the artwork. The main character is a slave gladiator of the Empire of Glaive who fights for the amusement of the Dark Lord, the main antagonist. One of the other slaves reveals that the Dark Lord is trying to take the power of the Mana Tree, the source of all life in the world. He implores you to find Bogard, one of the Gemma knights (an order tasked with protecting the Tree). Afterwards the player escapes the gladiator ring, he meets with The Girl who is also looking for Bogard and the story progresses from there. The Mana Tree would become a recurring element in the Mana series and often figures as the main plot device of the story. Protecting the mana tree from destruction is the main objective of these games.
FFA features a dark story with various tragic deaths. On the right, the Dark Lord plans to toss you down a waterfall (a common situation in the series).
It is worth mentioning that Square Enix released a remake of Seiken Densetsu/Final Fantasy Adventure for the Game Boy Advance. It was titled “Sword of Mana” and it was released in 2003. It is drastically different from FFA from a gameplay perspective as it is built on an engine based upon the SNES Seiken Densetsu/Mana games. The story follows most of the beats of the Game Boy game, but the characters and backgrounds are vastly expanded. I haven’t played through it fully but it seems like a decent enough game if you enjoy the SNES Secret of Mana/Seiken Densetsu.
Sword of Mana is a remake of FFA with drastically different gameplay and greatly expands upon the story. Worth a try for those who enjoy the SNES Mana series.
Final Fantasy Legend 2 and Final Fantasy Adventure proved to be decent titles in the Square catalog and modest successes. However, the breakout title for the Final Fantasy series had not come yet. They still hadn’t matched the success of other competitors in the Japanese RPG market, such as Enix with their ultra successful Dragon Quest franchise. Squaresoft was hoping to be the developer to bring the first JRPG to market on the Super Famicom ahead of competitors. The Game Boy games served as starting points for a few of the more iconic franchises created by Squaresoft, but were mostly footnotes when compared to the games that would come after on the 16 bit Super Famicom. But that is a story for another episode.
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