Final Fantasy Adventure

Final Fantasy Adventure (NA) Mystic Quest (EUR)
Developer(s)	Square Co.
Publisher(s)	Square Co. Sunsoft (re-release)
Designer(s)	Koichi Ishii
Artist(s)	Kamui Fujiwara (character design)
Composer(s)	Kenji Itō
Series	Final Fantasy Mana
Platform(s)	Game Boy, mobile phone
Release date(s)	JP June 8, 1991 NA November 1, 1991 EU 1993 NA April 1998 (re-release) [1]
Genre(s)	Action role-playing game
Mode(s)	Single-player
Media	2 megabit cartridge

Final Fantasy Adventure, known in Europe as Mystic Quest and originally released in Japan as Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden,^[2] is a Final Fantasy spinoff and the first game in the Mana series. Released in 1991 on the original Game Boy, its gameplay is roughly similar to that of the original The Legend of Zelda game, but with the addition of role-playing statistical elements.

The story follows the hero and the young heroine as they attempt to thwart the Dark Lord of Glaive (Shadow Knight in the Japanese version) and his sorcerer assistant Julius from destroying the Tree of Mana and dooming their world. The game was met with generally positive reviews, noting its strong story but faulting its shaky dialogue, possibly due to the English translation.

Gameplay

Overhead perspective noted for similarity to The Legend of Zelda

The gameplay is similar to the original Legend of Zelda for the NES: the world is viewed from a top-down camera angle, it is divided up into many different squares that can fit on the screen, and the main character can move up, down, left, and right across the screen. The player can interact with individuals within towns by gathering information and buying or selling items and equipment. A variety of enemies can be battled on a field screen to gain experience, GP, or items. Within dungeon areas a number of puzzles may be present and required to be solved in order for the player to advance. The player can also save at any point.

In standard role-playing game fare the main character possesses several statistics, including hit points, power, and stamina, which can all increase upon gaining an experience level. Magic spells, which expend the character's MP, can be used to heal oneself or damage enemies. These spells can only be found in certain locations or obtained from other characters at specific plot intervals. In addition the protagonist has a power gauge that affects his attack strength—the higher the gauge, the stronger his attack will be. The speed at which it fills is directly affected by the character's will level.^[3] The gauge will slowly fill up over time but once the main character attacks the gauge is emptied. When the gauge is completely filled up and the main character attacks with a weapon he will perform a special attack. This system is used in many other later Mana titles.

One additional, non-controllable character may occasionally accompany the main character in the story and can perform different activities to aid the main character in his quest. The game also introduced the ability to kill townspeople, something that most RPGs still lack today.^[4]

Plot and setting

The world is threatened by a "Dark Lord" who conquests for mana to rule supreme over the land. At his side is a mysterious wizard named Julius, who has secret motives. The hero, a gladiator whose parents were killed by the Dark Lord, is imprisoned by him and forced to fight daily for the Dark Lord's personal entertainment. One day, the hero escapes and by chance overhears the Dark Lord and Julius in their plans to seize the power of mana. When they discover his escape, they chase and throw him over a waterfall to what they thought was his death.

Having survived the fall, the hero then saves a mysterious young woman from monsters, and attempts to find the magical objects needed to defeat the evil massing against the Mana Tree, the world's source of mana. After defeating Julius and the Dark Lord, the Mana Tree dies. The heroine sacrifices herself to become the Mana Tree and preserve the world. The hero then becomes her Gemma knight and guardian.^[5]

Development

Square trademarked the title Seiken Densetsu: The Emergence of Excalibur in 1987, intending to use it for a game project led by Kazuhiko Aoki for the Famicom Disk System. According to early advertisements, the game would consist of an unprecedented five floppy disks, making it one of the largest titles developed for the Famicom up until that point. Although Square solicited pre-orders for the game, Kaoru Moriyama, a former Square employee, affirms that management canceled the ambitious project before it advanced beyond the early planning stages. In October 1987, customers who had placed orders were sent a letter informing them of the cancellation and had their purchases refunded. The letter also suggested to consider placing an order on another upcoming Square role-playing game in a similar vein: Final Fantasy.^[6]

Four years later, Squaresoft developed the Game Boy game under the working title Gemma Knights, and then revived the trademarked name and released the game as Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden.^[6] It was later released in Europe as Mystic Quest.

In 1998, Sunsoft obtained the license for it and re-released it along with the Final Fantasy Legend games, only replacing the title screen.^[7] The game later received a remake for the Game Boy Advance called Sword of Mana. Finally, revealed during Square Enix's E3 2006 press conference, the game received an updated port for mobile phones in Japan.^[8] The gameplay of the port is more like the original game, but it does feature updated graphics and sound, an improved world map, and other minor changes.^[9]

Merchandise

Two guidebooks have been released in Japan: Seiken Densetsu Basic Knowledge Guide and Seiken Densetsu Advanced Knowledge Guide, each of which contains character illustrations and manga. At least two novels have been released based on the game as well.^[10]

Audio

The Seiken Densetsu Original Sound Version was released in Japan alongside the game. Most of the tracks were composed by Kenji Itō, while track 16, "Chocobo Tanjou (Chocobo's Birth)," is credited to noted Squaresoft composer Nobuo Uematsu. Seiken Densetsu: Omoi wa Shirabe ni Nosete (Let Thoughts Ride On Knowledge), a set of arranged tracks was also released the same year. Both albums were compiled into Final Fantasy Gaiden: Seiken Densetsu Sound Collections, originally released in 1995.^[11]

Reception

Even with its release several years previous, several prominent video game websites still praise the game in retro-reviews.^[12] IGN gave the game a score of 9.0/10, noting its strong story, graphics, and music, but cited weak dialogue. They additionally praised the game's puzzle elements as innovative and drew comparisons to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, though noted that its role-playing gameplay did not blend well with its action oriented nature.^[13]

GameDaily named it alongside the related Game Boy Final Fantasy titles as definitive games for the system, describing it as providing "hours of role-playing excitement, whether you were waiting in a dentist's office or on the way to Grandma's house."^[14] The sentiment was shared by gaming magazine Pocket Games, which ranked the titles together 8th out of the Top 50 games for the Game Boy, stating "every game in the series is a sprawling classic with well written scripts and solid characters."^[15]

RPGamer reported in July 2004 that Square was polling die-hard customers, testing the feasibility of porting Final Fantasy Adventure to the Nintendo DS.^[16]

References

External links

• Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Adventure official site