The best Zelda game yet!
Finished the game at Max Level and with Best Equipment (not a particularly challenging feat in this game)
What I enjoyed
- i actually do enjoy it more than the first two Zelda games
- adding RPG elements to Zelda's field and dungeon gameplay is a fun innovation that blends the two genres in both good and bad ways
- A pretty good world and story for an early Game Boy game
- The leveling happens at a perfect rate where you'll never be too long between level ups, I never felt underleveled in my playthrough and was pretty much maxed by the time I was finishing the last dungeon
- Early example of a flexible leveling system in a JRPG
-Chocoboat
What I didn't like
- I know it's an old JRPG but oh my god the menuing is bad here. You have to open a menu whenever you want to switch weapons, choose a different spell or item (you can only have one of either equipped on the B-button), or ask your companion to use their ability and it just takes a lot out of the action combat.
- Map is kinda useless in most cases unfortunately
- Dungeons are pretty dull both in gameplay and theme, much like The Legend of Zelda
- I have a personal vendetta against breakable walls in games where the only way to find them is to attack every single wall in a dungeon with your weapon
Despite my complaints, it's still mostly what you'd expect of a very early action-RPG on the Game Boy and is worth playing if you want to see that type of game at its most simplistic
Finished the game at Max Level and with Best Equipment (not a particularly challenging feat in this game)
What I enjoyed
- i actually do enjoy it more than the first two Zelda games
- adding RPG elements to Zelda's field and dungeon gameplay is a fun innovation that blends the two genres in both good and bad ways
- A pretty good world and story for an early Game Boy game
- The leveling happens at a perfect rate where you'll never be too long between level ups, I never felt underleveled in my playthrough and was pretty much maxed by the time I was finishing the last dungeon
- Early example of a flexible leveling system in a JRPG
-Chocoboat
What I didn't like
- I know it's an old JRPG but oh my god the menuing is bad here. You have to open a menu whenever you want to switch weapons, choose a different spell or item (you can only have one of either equipped on the B-button), or ask your companion to use their ability and it just takes a lot out of the action combat.
- Map is kinda useless in most cases unfortunately
- Dungeons are pretty dull both in gameplay and theme, much like The Legend of Zelda
- I have a personal vendetta against breakable walls in games where the only way to find them is to attack every single wall in a dungeon with your weapon
Despite my complaints, it's still mostly what you'd expect of a very early action-RPG on the Game Boy and is worth playing if you want to see that type of game at its most simplistic
It doesn't take an eagle eye to spot the problems with a Mana game, but Final Fantasy Adventure's flair for the melodramatic - dare I say romantic? - lingers beyond any quibbles with hit detection or inventory management. Between babies abandoned in caves, mysterious lost girls, teardrops with magic powers, and frequent acts of absolute sacrifice, Yoshinori Kitase's first step up to the plate is pulpy and grandiose in a way that hardly seems possible for the Game Boy. The purity of imagination here is almost touching.
Pretty incredible for original Gameboy, like Link's Awakening with stats. Wish party members were less chaotic, but overall it's a fun base for what the Mana series would go on to do
I honestly don't have much to say about this game. The story seems fine, though I was not very engaged with it or the lore of the world itself. Gameplay felt like Zelda but far more unpolished. All the bosses were pretty piss easy, and I could say the same about the game in general. It's really just finding where to go and what to do, and there's barely any difficulty in getting from A to B otherwise. It's not a bad game but it's not really that fun. It's just kinda ok.
6/10
6/10
Although some obtuse puzzles and constant menu fiddling, very enjoyable game with a surpring amount of content with a fun but rather generic story. Can defintely see why this spawned it's own franchise.
Where all of the beauty began…
….only it’s on the original Gameboy.
This makes playing Final Fantasy Adventure (a.k.a. Seiken Densestsu 1), as a fan of the later Mana games, akin to a lover of Fantasia watching Steamboat Willy. It’s quite easy to appreciate, and even fun! Those parts aren’t an issue. Once you’ve been spoiled by Fantasia, however, experiencing even the most charming mouse (or, in this case, rabite)’s roots is always going to sadly feel primitive, basic, and bare bones.
Had I not been under a year old upon Seiken Densestsu 1’s release, though…Oh yeah. I’d have adored its eschewing of turn-based battles and its fusion of Squaresoft magic and Zelda elements. Playing it in 2023 may be doing this important game (Koichi Ishii’s first try at a Mana game!) a disservice, but hey, here we are.
Worth sampling to see familiar aspects in an embryonic state. Just don’t expect the same magic of later entries. They were just getting started here, and that’s okay.
….only it’s on the original Gameboy.
This makes playing Final Fantasy Adventure (a.k.a. Seiken Densestsu 1), as a fan of the later Mana games, akin to a lover of Fantasia watching Steamboat Willy. It’s quite easy to appreciate, and even fun! Those parts aren’t an issue. Once you’ve been spoiled by Fantasia, however, experiencing even the most charming mouse (or, in this case, rabite)’s roots is always going to sadly feel primitive, basic, and bare bones.
Had I not been under a year old upon Seiken Densestsu 1’s release, though…Oh yeah. I’d have adored its eschewing of turn-based battles and its fusion of Squaresoft magic and Zelda elements. Playing it in 2023 may be doing this important game (Koichi Ishii’s first try at a Mana game!) a disservice, but hey, here we are.
Worth sampling to see familiar aspects in an embryonic state. Just don’t expect the same magic of later entries. They were just getting started here, and that’s okay.
A Zelda-like for the Gameboy, I thought the game holds up very well. Highlights include a catchy and surprisingly rich soundtrack; there's something I've always enjoyed about the echo-laden music on the Gameboy and it's put to good use here (the title music is great). Creative and often challenging boss fights and a pretty sprawling quest given the platform round out a fun old-school action-RPG.
On the downside, some of the puzzles are rather opaque, the kind of thing Nintendo would add to games from the era to send people seeking out Nintendo Power issues (that figure eight clue in the desert made NO sense). And there are a few times when I felt the controls and overall maneuverability were not up to the task of dealing with the enemies being thrown at me.
All in all, there's not many surprises if you go in expecting an adventure heavily inspired by Zelda, but it has its own charms and is still worth playing. (It also, apparently, has nothing to do with Final Fantasy, outside of marketing.)
Played on the Collection of Mana on Switch.
On the downside, some of the puzzles are rather opaque, the kind of thing Nintendo would add to games from the era to send people seeking out Nintendo Power issues (that figure eight clue in the desert made NO sense). And there are a few times when I felt the controls and overall maneuverability were not up to the task of dealing with the enemies being thrown at me.
All in all, there's not many surprises if you go in expecting an adventure heavily inspired by Zelda, but it has its own charms and is still worth playing. (It also, apparently, has nothing to do with Final Fantasy, outside of marketing.)
Played on the Collection of Mana on Switch.
Feels like a prototype for Secret of Mana, which I wasn't very fond of.
This title gets a lot of credit for introducing many of the mechanics that I love about the Mana series, however, I would suggest avoiding this title unless you want a game that is old-school hard, both in its difficulty and with its obtuse way of figuring out where to go.
I have played many versions of this game. I prefer the Vita version, but their is something really charming about the OG Gameboy version.
"Zelda 1 with experience points" seemed like it could make for a pretty fun game, and there's definitely glimmers of that here. The world map is big, but relatively memorable... there are some interesting story beats spread throughout, and the music isn't too bad either. It's really the dungeons themselves that make the game 3-4 hours longer than it should be.
Aside from that one ice-themed dungeon that had the sliding tiles, so many of them are utterly forgettable. Screens upon screens of enemies that I eventually just don't feel like wanting to fight.
Zelda 1's combat kept things interesting by forcing you to get upclose to enemies, sometimes behind them. This risk-based gameplay was tough, but very deliberate in its intent, and most importantly, was fast-paced and smooth to play.
Final Fantasy Adventure's idea of combat is to make you constantly head into the sluggish inventory system to swap out your weapons depending on which enemy is weak to what. A good chunk of your weapons have fairly good range, so there's no need for risk, and every enemy moves at a choppy 5 frames per second compared to your smooth movement. Sometimes, it's difficult to even tell if you landed a hit, the feedback on that is poor and unsatisfying.
Every now and then, you get a puzzle, and for my baby brain that struggles with those, Adventure's puzzles were actually pretty alright. I had a few "ah-ha" moments with these, and I've somehow found them to be the best part of the game. There's something here. Whenever you're not fighting, you can feel something special in this game. It's just a shame that the combat is such a major part of it, when it's too awkward, slow and clunky to deserve that much spotlight.
Aside from that one ice-themed dungeon that had the sliding tiles, so many of them are utterly forgettable. Screens upon screens of enemies that I eventually just don't feel like wanting to fight.
Zelda 1's combat kept things interesting by forcing you to get upclose to enemies, sometimes behind them. This risk-based gameplay was tough, but very deliberate in its intent, and most importantly, was fast-paced and smooth to play.
Final Fantasy Adventure's idea of combat is to make you constantly head into the sluggish inventory system to swap out your weapons depending on which enemy is weak to what. A good chunk of your weapons have fairly good range, so there's no need for risk, and every enemy moves at a choppy 5 frames per second compared to your smooth movement. Sometimes, it's difficult to even tell if you landed a hit, the feedback on that is poor and unsatisfying.
Every now and then, you get a puzzle, and for my baby brain that struggles with those, Adventure's puzzles were actually pretty alright. I had a few "ah-ha" moments with these, and I've somehow found them to be the best part of the game. There's something here. Whenever you're not fighting, you can feel something special in this game. It's just a shame that the combat is such a major part of it, when it's too awkward, slow and clunky to deserve that much spotlight.
Pretty fun, but nothing special action RPG.
This is a pretty good game boy game, I think the dungeon design, especially early on is pretty nice. It is obtuse at times, and you will certainly need a guide to solve a puzzle or 2, but it's generally a great little game. I played a lot of it when I was a kid, and have just gotten back into it. I will update this review once I complete it.
unironically the mana game which has aged the most gracefully
Considering this came out on the Game Boy and was the start of the Mana series, I was pleasantly surprised with how solid it was overall. It doesn’t do anything amazing by today’s standards, but it doesn’t stumble very often either. Most of the time, I figured out where I needed to go. The combat also felt good and I was not expecting the ending to be so bittersweet. The music was surprisingly charming given the sound limitations. If you get the Mana collection on Switch, I recommend playing this first so you can appreciate the improvements made in the later games.
Franchement j’étais assez emballé au début mais j’ai vite déchanté. Je lui mets cette note pour le contexte de l’époque et parce qu’il reste très ambitieux pour un jeux gameboy et c’est honorable, le fait qu’on ait un divers choix d’arme également, mais il a beaucoup trop de défauts pour être un temps soit peu agréable à jouer.
Les hitbox sont atroces, il suffit qu’on ait à affronter un ennemi volant (qui sont nombreux) pour que le combat soit illisible, parfois on touche, parfois pas, parfois il nous touche, parfois non, c’est très approximatif. Ensuite les donjons qui sont eux aussi une assez bonne blague, les objets ont un usage unique (même dans le vide) donc il suffit que vous vous trouvez devant une énigme ou une porte fermée à clé les mains vide, sans pioche ni clé ou que sais-je encore, et vous êtes bon pour retourner dans les salles précédentes salles pour espérer qu’un mob vous le loot pendant votre farm, dans le pire des cas il va falloir entièrement sortir du donjon, ce qui m’est déjà arrivé.
Ajouté à ça des énigmes extrêmement peu intuitive (j’ai dû tricher pour une ou deux d’entre elles, je confesse). Il y a encore d’autres problèmes à souligner comme les pnj qui marchent sur les sprites des maisons en ville par exemple mais ceux cité plus haut sont les principaux et à eux 3 réunis, ils font que ce Mystic Quest, pourtant jugé très bon, en fait un mauvais zelda-like (oui j’ose le dire) ça reste un jeux correct pour un jeux gameboy mais force est d’avouer qu’il fait vraiment pâle figure face à Link’s Awakening qui sortira quelques temps après.
Les hitbox sont atroces, il suffit qu’on ait à affronter un ennemi volant (qui sont nombreux) pour que le combat soit illisible, parfois on touche, parfois pas, parfois il nous touche, parfois non, c’est très approximatif. Ensuite les donjons qui sont eux aussi une assez bonne blague, les objets ont un usage unique (même dans le vide) donc il suffit que vous vous trouvez devant une énigme ou une porte fermée à clé les mains vide, sans pioche ni clé ou que sais-je encore, et vous êtes bon pour retourner dans les salles précédentes salles pour espérer qu’un mob vous le loot pendant votre farm, dans le pire des cas il va falloir entièrement sortir du donjon, ce qui m’est déjà arrivé.
Ajouté à ça des énigmes extrêmement peu intuitive (j’ai dû tricher pour une ou deux d’entre elles, je confesse). Il y a encore d’autres problèmes à souligner comme les pnj qui marchent sur les sprites des maisons en ville par exemple mais ceux cité plus haut sont les principaux et à eux 3 réunis, ils font que ce Mystic Quest, pourtant jugé très bon, en fait un mauvais zelda-like (oui j’ose le dire) ça reste un jeux correct pour un jeux gameboy mais force est d’avouer qu’il fait vraiment pâle figure face à Link’s Awakening qui sortira quelques temps après.
Better than Secret of Mana.
Time has a way of making all things small.
I remember playing Final Fantasy Adventure when I was a kid. I was new to RPGs, fresh off of Final Fantasy, thrilled to have one I could play in my treehouse, safe from interruptions. I didn't know it would be closer to Zelda than its namesake, I didn't care once I found out. The world in that little cartridge seemed so big, so mysterious. I didn't mind the janky combat, the weapon switching, the simplistic dialogue and storyline. I loved exploring, grinding, leveling, was delighted by new towns and twists. It was full of possibilities, it was mine, and I played it over and over again.
And now I've revisited it. The map now seems smaller, emptier. The borderline linear nature of the game stands out. The hitboxes, the bizarre choices, the godforsaken snowman puzzles all stand out in stark contrast with my memories. The music is at times grating, it is all too easy to forget how to get back to some prior location you are suddenly directed to, the incessant swapping of weapons and the borderline antagonistic enemy immunities causes you to spend an inordinate amount of time in menus. Chests can block your path, magic is all but useless outside of healing, items simply build up in your inventory until you have to start throwing them away. Critical items like keys and mattocks are limited, rarely found and often purchased. It's all too easy to run out of them in the middle of a dungeon, leaving you to hunt down the one enemy type in the game that produces them.
Nonetheless: a lovely game, an oddball barrel of design decisions. Elephants as the final enemy type, grafting robotic legs to beloved companions, spring-based enemies found in natural environments, a man who is more hair than flesh, a noble who is the child of a medusa, a medusa that creates more of its kind via bite-based infection. It's strange, amateur, reaching and endearing all at once, the athletic brother to the more steady Final Fantasy. And while it may be smaller now than it once was, it was more than big enough to get lost in once again.
I remember playing Final Fantasy Adventure when I was a kid. I was new to RPGs, fresh off of Final Fantasy, thrilled to have one I could play in my treehouse, safe from interruptions. I didn't know it would be closer to Zelda than its namesake, I didn't care once I found out. The world in that little cartridge seemed so big, so mysterious. I didn't mind the janky combat, the weapon switching, the simplistic dialogue and storyline. I loved exploring, grinding, leveling, was delighted by new towns and twists. It was full of possibilities, it was mine, and I played it over and over again.
And now I've revisited it. The map now seems smaller, emptier. The borderline linear nature of the game stands out. The hitboxes, the bizarre choices, the godforsaken snowman puzzles all stand out in stark contrast with my memories. The music is at times grating, it is all too easy to forget how to get back to some prior location you are suddenly directed to, the incessant swapping of weapons and the borderline antagonistic enemy immunities causes you to spend an inordinate amount of time in menus. Chests can block your path, magic is all but useless outside of healing, items simply build up in your inventory until you have to start throwing them away. Critical items like keys and mattocks are limited, rarely found and often purchased. It's all too easy to run out of them in the middle of a dungeon, leaving you to hunt down the one enemy type in the game that produces them.
Nonetheless: a lovely game, an oddball barrel of design decisions. Elephants as the final enemy type, grafting robotic legs to beloved companions, spring-based enemies found in natural environments, a man who is more hair than flesh, a noble who is the child of a medusa, a medusa that creates more of its kind via bite-based infection. It's strange, amateur, reaching and endearing all at once, the athletic brother to the more steady Final Fantasy. And while it may be smaller now than it once was, it was more than big enough to get lost in once again.
What if Final Fantasy was Zelda except it's neither and is instead the start of a new series called Mana? Turned out alright but serves better as a historical reminder if how a series started rather than something stuff worth playing for most modern gamers.
Sounds more like Link's Awakening than a proper FF title, but it's very pretty and fun, although confusing sometimes.
i guess this is technically abandoned? i got to the penultimate dungeon and essentially got cut off from progressing further since I didn't have any keys and no enemies dropped them as an item in the dungeon, so ive played like, 89% of this game? i watched someone play through the rest on youtube, it's okay.
dont let my score be a condemnation of this game, i think it's fine, it's just very outdated. i enjoyed my time with it and was shocked to learn it predates link's awakening and even ALttP by a few months. i bring those up because they're some of the best 2d action adventure games, uh, ever? yeah, ever.
it might be unfair to compare them, in that regard, but i just kinda inherently compared them anyways without even really thinking about it. i think the greatest claim to fame this game has is being the first game ever to have the title "seiken densetsu" (it was only ever a final fantasy title outside of japan) and "seiken densetsu" is the coolest name for anything ever. just say it out loud, it's so satisfying. seiken densetsu. rolls off the tongue.
i wouldn't recommend this game super heavily unless you've somehow played secret and trials and just wanna see where the series started, or you're a crazy person like me and insist on playing series in release order, regardless of if it even matters or not.
dont let my score be a condemnation of this game, i think it's fine, it's just very outdated. i enjoyed my time with it and was shocked to learn it predates link's awakening and even ALttP by a few months. i bring those up because they're some of the best 2d action adventure games, uh, ever? yeah, ever.
it might be unfair to compare them, in that regard, but i just kinda inherently compared them anyways without even really thinking about it. i think the greatest claim to fame this game has is being the first game ever to have the title "seiken densetsu" (it was only ever a final fantasy title outside of japan) and "seiken densetsu" is the coolest name for anything ever. just say it out loud, it's so satisfying. seiken densetsu. rolls off the tongue.
i wouldn't recommend this game super heavily unless you've somehow played secret and trials and just wanna see where the series started, or you're a crazy person like me and insist on playing series in release order, regardless of if it even matters or not.
“An adventure unfolds, a new beginning…”
I think a year or so ago I wanted to try to get into the Mana series but just never did. When Visions of Mana was announced, it brought some interest in me to give the series another chance. Look I’m not gonna guarantee anything but I might play that game whenever it comes out. I wanted to at least try to play most of what the series had to offer. So without further ado, here are my thoughts on the first game.
So I’ll be honest I’m not really that knowledgeable on this series besides the fact they exist. This was the only one I had put a decent amount of time and thought into the past but never got past I think when you get the Chocobo. Final Fantasy Adventure reminds me of the Zelda series with the top down weapon based combat seen here. Though unlike Zelda, this one puts in some of the RPG elements you’d see in a game like Final Fantasy. I’m not sure if this is the case for later games but was surprised to see so much of the series still showing up here like many of the classes. I would later learn that the Japanese title was called Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden. So even over there it was seen as a FF spinoff. It made stuff like the sprite art look familiar even if I have never beaten an FF game in my life.
The progression in FFA was a nice surprise. Was expecting just some generic story but what is here is kind of touching and shows that not all stories can have happy endings for everyone. I think this was already a thing in FF games but I’m unsure. The game stars a slave to the Dark Lord that you can name whoever you want but since he ain’t a girl, I’ll just use the canon name Sumo. He swears to avenge the Dark Lord after he kills his best friend. There’s actually a decent amount of losses like Amanda becoming a Medusa and dying by the hands of Sumo with him having to get her tear afterwards to lift the curse of her brother Lester. The most tragic one for me had to be with Marcie where he says he’ll jump after throwing you to the other side only to realize he lied and went down with the sinking tower knowing he had to stay, I miss him. You can also name a girl but I also just went with the canon name being Fuji. I think her moment in the end is sad but I do feel like most of her time is just getting kidnapped now I think about it. I also really liked the part where Sumo didn’t want to be a Gemma knight anymore because he saw himself as a failure, while it’s not much there are moments I enjoy seeing his dialogue and I’m glad he has his moments of weakness. It’s hard to say much for the world itself as towns are small and almost no one is out in the overworld but what is here outside of that did get some feelings from me so I think it deserves a gold star for that.
The gameplay is the part where it shines the most for me because you can get all these cool weapons and spells to use. It’s not just a sword like the one you start off with. You get other weapons like an ax, chain, morning star, lance, and a sickle. Some have uses outside of combat like destroying some type of obstacle. They also have their uses in combat and swords & lances even use elements in combat. Even doing attacks is interesting thanks to the bar that fills up letting you do more damage as it fills up. Once you level up a bunch, it goes up really fast and when it’s fully charged, you can do a special move with it. I think my favorite weapon was the morning star as it had good range and power and it makes the mattock item irrelevant.
The magic is cool but it was never something I used a ton besides for cure. A lot of it is just too situational and I really only felt like using it since I knew I wouldn’t be running out of MP anytime soon. I should let you know that be careful when using Heal because if you use it, your defense bugs out and will be 0 until you pause. I also wish magic was more useful on bosses because most of them seemed immune to whatever I threw at them. Some enemies can also inflict statuses onto you and at worse they just feel like minor annoyances. I also felt items were very situational but maybe I was just playing too well to need them because I felt like I had a full bag for 90% of the game. This also meant I always had a ton of gold because the only expensive things are equipment and weapons and I always had enough of them.
Exploring the overworld is interesting to me because at first it’s pretty linear but by the time your chocobo gets the ability to run on water, you have a whole small world to explore and it can feel easy to lose yourself in but thankfully the areas you need to go to aren’t far off. That said however nothing in the world really screams landmarks outside of the tiles depicting what location you’re in like a desert of a snowy mountain. It can make the world feel very samey but it never really bothers me because I just like moving around hitting bad guys. There’s thankfully not many moments of needing help from a guide. There was one part I got really stuck at because the hint about palm trees and 8 make no sense to me though maybe I’m just stupid. The localization at times feels a bit rough and even left some stuff out from the Japanese version but it’s far from the worst. It should be noted that a fan translation of the Japanese version does exist if you wish to play that for a more accurate script.
There’s so many dungeons in this game that they all kind of blend in my mind as I’m writing this. None of them are really too hard, thankfully but one regret I have when playing them was not exploring them enough, I think I missed some weapons and equipment because of it. I don’t know why but it just never got old for me just exploring them and they never got frustrating, the only thing I don’t like about them is the overuse of ice magic puzzles. The bosses in these are also fine but none of them can inflict statuses on you and a lot of the patterns again blend in after a while. I swear a lot of them move in the same way. They do look pretty big and threatening but only a couple gave me much issue.
One story I have about my playthrough was how I almost had a dead save in the final dungeon. So, I made two saves, one before entering and one during the exploration. It was going fine until I accidently overwrote the one before the dungeon and then I realized I only had 3 keys. You can’t leave this area either, at least I wasn’t able to figure out how. I also couldn’t find any enemies that dropped keys. I’m sure there is some solution if you run out but I was very thankful I had just enough. Getting to Julius and facing him felt satisfying and was a good challenge and the story stuff at the end is pretty sad to think about but hey at least we get to see our chocobo be happy with another one before we leave to protect Fuji, forever…or at least until Sumo dies. Kind of screwed up to think once that Mana Tree dies, humanity is doomed.
The game does look nice graphically and it’s about what you’d expect from the genre at the time which isn’t a bad thing. Sprites look nice outside of the occasional ugly enemy, nice environments, it just works nicely. The music by Kenji Ito is amazing stuff. This has to be some of my favorite stuff on the system. Sadly there really aren't any good uploads of the OST on Youtube so I’ll refrain from sending many links of those but trust me when I say it’s great. The two overworld themes really give a great feel in my mind for the journey I’m going on. There’s some really nice sad and calming pieces in the game but my absolute favorite song has to be Courage and Pride from the Heart. The song plays for the Dark Lord and Julius phase 2 fights and my god it feels so perfect for the moment. Especially for the Dark Lord, a sword on sword action fight where you’re both moving around trying to get hits in, it’s perfect! Makes me wanna play more games with his music in them. This game even has the Chocobo theme! Everyone loves the Chocobo theme!!
I was very surprised with my final thoughts on the game. I thought it was pretty good. Don’t get me wrong, it has issues and I recognize that but I just had too much fun playing that game from beginning to end that the issues just don’t hurt the game enough for me. Final Fantasy Adventure is a very good action RPG for the Game Boy and it is a good start to this franchise. It has me very interested in the next game, Secret of Mana. If you can handle the issues with this game then it’s an easy recommendation. Maybe I’m going too nice on the game but when I beat the game I said “Well I thought it was really fun and that’s all that matters.” FFA is a game I’ll probably not replay in the near future but I’m satisfied with my finished playthrough of it! Not sure whenever I’ll get to Secret of Mana but expect that in the near future. Farewell for now.
I think a year or so ago I wanted to try to get into the Mana series but just never did. When Visions of Mana was announced, it brought some interest in me to give the series another chance. Look I’m not gonna guarantee anything but I might play that game whenever it comes out. I wanted to at least try to play most of what the series had to offer. So without further ado, here are my thoughts on the first game.
So I’ll be honest I’m not really that knowledgeable on this series besides the fact they exist. This was the only one I had put a decent amount of time and thought into the past but never got past I think when you get the Chocobo. Final Fantasy Adventure reminds me of the Zelda series with the top down weapon based combat seen here. Though unlike Zelda, this one puts in some of the RPG elements you’d see in a game like Final Fantasy. I’m not sure if this is the case for later games but was surprised to see so much of the series still showing up here like many of the classes. I would later learn that the Japanese title was called Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden. So even over there it was seen as a FF spinoff. It made stuff like the sprite art look familiar even if I have never beaten an FF game in my life.
The progression in FFA was a nice surprise. Was expecting just some generic story but what is here is kind of touching and shows that not all stories can have happy endings for everyone. I think this was already a thing in FF games but I’m unsure. The game stars a slave to the Dark Lord that you can name whoever you want but since he ain’t a girl, I’ll just use the canon name Sumo. He swears to avenge the Dark Lord after he kills his best friend. There’s actually a decent amount of losses like Amanda becoming a Medusa and dying by the hands of Sumo with him having to get her tear afterwards to lift the curse of her brother Lester. The most tragic one for me had to be with Marcie where he says he’ll jump after throwing you to the other side only to realize he lied and went down with the sinking tower knowing he had to stay, I miss him. You can also name a girl but I also just went with the canon name being Fuji. I think her moment in the end is sad but I do feel like most of her time is just getting kidnapped now I think about it. I also really liked the part where Sumo didn’t want to be a Gemma knight anymore because he saw himself as a failure, while it’s not much there are moments I enjoy seeing his dialogue and I’m glad he has his moments of weakness. It’s hard to say much for the world itself as towns are small and almost no one is out in the overworld but what is here outside of that did get some feelings from me so I think it deserves a gold star for that.
The gameplay is the part where it shines the most for me because you can get all these cool weapons and spells to use. It’s not just a sword like the one you start off with. You get other weapons like an ax, chain, morning star, lance, and a sickle. Some have uses outside of combat like destroying some type of obstacle. They also have their uses in combat and swords & lances even use elements in combat. Even doing attacks is interesting thanks to the bar that fills up letting you do more damage as it fills up. Once you level up a bunch, it goes up really fast and when it’s fully charged, you can do a special move with it. I think my favorite weapon was the morning star as it had good range and power and it makes the mattock item irrelevant.
The magic is cool but it was never something I used a ton besides for cure. A lot of it is just too situational and I really only felt like using it since I knew I wouldn’t be running out of MP anytime soon. I should let you know that be careful when using Heal because if you use it, your defense bugs out and will be 0 until you pause. I also wish magic was more useful on bosses because most of them seemed immune to whatever I threw at them. Some enemies can also inflict statuses onto you and at worse they just feel like minor annoyances. I also felt items were very situational but maybe I was just playing too well to need them because I felt like I had a full bag for 90% of the game. This also meant I always had a ton of gold because the only expensive things are equipment and weapons and I always had enough of them.
Exploring the overworld is interesting to me because at first it’s pretty linear but by the time your chocobo gets the ability to run on water, you have a whole small world to explore and it can feel easy to lose yourself in but thankfully the areas you need to go to aren’t far off. That said however nothing in the world really screams landmarks outside of the tiles depicting what location you’re in like a desert of a snowy mountain. It can make the world feel very samey but it never really bothers me because I just like moving around hitting bad guys. There’s thankfully not many moments of needing help from a guide. There was one part I got really stuck at because the hint about palm trees and 8 make no sense to me though maybe I’m just stupid. The localization at times feels a bit rough and even left some stuff out from the Japanese version but it’s far from the worst. It should be noted that a fan translation of the Japanese version does exist if you wish to play that for a more accurate script.
There’s so many dungeons in this game that they all kind of blend in my mind as I’m writing this. None of them are really too hard, thankfully but one regret I have when playing them was not exploring them enough, I think I missed some weapons and equipment because of it. I don’t know why but it just never got old for me just exploring them and they never got frustrating, the only thing I don’t like about them is the overuse of ice magic puzzles. The bosses in these are also fine but none of them can inflict statuses on you and a lot of the patterns again blend in after a while. I swear a lot of them move in the same way. They do look pretty big and threatening but only a couple gave me much issue.
One story I have about my playthrough was how I almost had a dead save in the final dungeon. So, I made two saves, one before entering and one during the exploration. It was going fine until I accidently overwrote the one before the dungeon and then I realized I only had 3 keys. You can’t leave this area either, at least I wasn’t able to figure out how. I also couldn’t find any enemies that dropped keys. I’m sure there is some solution if you run out but I was very thankful I had just enough. Getting to Julius and facing him felt satisfying and was a good challenge and the story stuff at the end is pretty sad to think about but hey at least we get to see our chocobo be happy with another one before we leave to protect Fuji, forever…or at least until Sumo dies. Kind of screwed up to think once that Mana Tree dies, humanity is doomed.
The game does look nice graphically and it’s about what you’d expect from the genre at the time which isn’t a bad thing. Sprites look nice outside of the occasional ugly enemy, nice environments, it just works nicely. The music by Kenji Ito is amazing stuff. This has to be some of my favorite stuff on the system. Sadly there really aren't any good uploads of the OST on Youtube so I’ll refrain from sending many links of those but trust me when I say it’s great. The two overworld themes really give a great feel in my mind for the journey I’m going on. There’s some really nice sad and calming pieces in the game but my absolute favorite song has to be Courage and Pride from the Heart. The song plays for the Dark Lord and Julius phase 2 fights and my god it feels so perfect for the moment. Especially for the Dark Lord, a sword on sword action fight where you’re both moving around trying to get hits in, it’s perfect! Makes me wanna play more games with his music in them. This game even has the Chocobo theme! Everyone loves the Chocobo theme!!
I was very surprised with my final thoughts on the game. I thought it was pretty good. Don’t get me wrong, it has issues and I recognize that but I just had too much fun playing that game from beginning to end that the issues just don’t hurt the game enough for me. Final Fantasy Adventure is a very good action RPG for the Game Boy and it is a good start to this franchise. It has me very interested in the next game, Secret of Mana. If you can handle the issues with this game then it’s an easy recommendation. Maybe I’m going too nice on the game but when I beat the game I said “Well I thought it was really fun and that’s all that matters.” FFA is a game I’ll probably not replay in the near future but I’m satisfied with my finished playthrough of it! Not sure whenever I’ll get to Secret of Mana but expect that in the near future. Farewell for now.
Les tous débuts de la série Mana, avec des bonnes idées de gameplay assez variées.
Côté Histoire ça tenait bien la route.
En revanche la traduction FR tout en caps lock, avec des erreurs de direction, et la map du jeu pas user friendly, ont vite fait d'entacher la découverte plaisante...
Côté Histoire ça tenait bien la route.
En revanche la traduction FR tout en caps lock, avec des erreurs de direction, et la map du jeu pas user friendly, ont vite fait d'entacher la découverte plaisante...
Un juego lleno de carisma con ideas muy interesantes, a pesar de lo críptico que puede llegar a ser en la progresión y tener problemas con las hitboxes, resulta en un juego entrañable que motiva a seguir jugando para ver la conclusión de su historia simple pero efectiva. Visualmente es bastante simple pero cumplidor considerando la época y consola en la que apareció, también se le suma su soundtrack bastante memorable. Un buen inicio para la saga Mana a pesar de sus problemas
a charmless action rpg that's the first mana game, it is entirely by the numbers and unremarkable but it's fine
If you put a guy who hates the inventory management in Link's Awakening in a room with this game for 15 minutes you'd come back to find him impaled on his Gameboy
The thing about playing the old classics and building block games which you missed is that sometimes one of them blows you away. This thing just goes down so smooth, especially compared to everything else in the franchise. The thing I expected least was just how Zelda 1 it is. The dungeons are the same collection of squares with destroyable walls and everything. The different weapons serve as your set of tools, and the complexity of having to switch between them for puzzles and enemy weaknesses increases on a good clip through the game. The sort of melodrama I'd expect from the series (FF or Mana, honestly) is strong here for a gameboy game, nothing mind-blowing but complicated enough to keep me invested. It does fall off in the last third or so, when the map opens up.
I could nitpick things here and there but I don't care to. Game's great. One of my new top Gameboy games and good enough to stand with plenty of console titles of the era.
I could nitpick things here and there but I don't care to. Game's great. One of my new top Gameboy games and good enough to stand with plenty of console titles of the era.
Sure was a game of all time. Don't really remember much of this despite playing it all the way through. One of those instances where I don't remember anything bad which is good but i also don't remember anything noteworthy which is bleh. maybe i was asleep when I played?
It's a pretty neat Game Boy action RPG, but things like the world map just being blank squares or having a super small inventory kind of hold it back.
Good soundtrack (although a bit repetitive at times), the gameplay loop is nice for what it's worth.
Be sure to have a guide when playing this game, there are many vague and cryptic indications that are never told to you and would feel better to get through with a guide (especially when it comes to dungeons)
Overall a decent but dated game.
Be sure to have a guide when playing this game, there are many vague and cryptic indications that are never told to you and would feel better to get through with a guide (especially when it comes to dungeons)
Overall a decent but dated game.