Like Link’s Awakening, But Worse
Final Fantasy Adventure, also known as Seiken Densetsu in Japan and Mystic Quest in Europe, saw its initial Japanese release on June 28, 1991 for the original Game Boy. The NA version soon followed on November 1st of that same year (no one cares about Europe), and it was by most accounts heralded as a quality, Zelda-like experience. I was far too young to have played it in 1991, yet if I had, I most likely would have loved the shit out of it. Today, however…not so much.
The mid-late 1990’s saw a number of quality titles for the Game Boy and Game Boy Color; however, only two among them stand out to me all these years later, both released in North America in 1998: Pokémon and The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening DX. You know Pokémon, I know Pokémon, and this post has literally nothing to do with Pokémon (I just really like Pokémon), but Link’s Awakening holds a bit of relevance, as it was the game that led to me eventually receiving a used copy of Final Fantasy Adventure from my NintenDAD (he owns Nintendo and could have gotten me 100 new copies, but he believes in hard work and self-reliance).
The game was fine; I played the first 15 minutes about 10 times. It felt to me then the way it feels to me now: like Link’s Awakening, but worse.
Final Fantasy Adventure is a Final Fantasy Game
Final Fantasy Adventure was originally envisioned as a Final Fantasy spin-off series for the OG Game Boy. This is clearly evident in much of the design of the game, mostly the character models, status effects and spell names.
For instance, a companion encountered early in the game takes the appearance of a classic Final Fantasy Red Mage, and there are multiple random NPCs who are modeled with the iconic red-and-white robes of the White Mage. The spells status effects present within the game also convey a strong Final Fantasy aesthetic, with the typical Fire, Ice and Cure sitting alongside negative effects such as Poison, Stone and Dark. These elements alone constitute a Final Fantasy game, but does it play like a Final Fantasy game?
Final Fantasy Adventure is not a Final Fantasy game.
No, not really. The combat in Seiken Densetsu is very similar to early The Legend of Zelda titles, using a single button to swing your sword at enemies who glide around the map, yet you are able to use typical FF spells, as well as consumable items.
An average encounter sees you wildly mashing the A button while dodging projectiles, with almost no in-game feedback to let you know that you are doing damage. The boss encounters go something like this: run in, get hit, take a couple swings, run away, dodge a projectile, run in, take a swing, kite away like the little coward you are, get hit by projectile, run in, take a swing, try to kite away again like a little bitch, get hit anyway, run away, heal, repeat. Eventually, you figure out the bosses stupidly predicable movements, so you know when to swing and when to run away. This constant kiting is just not fun, and I felt very little satisfaction upon defeating any of the bosses I faced.
My biggest gripe with the combat involves the constant need to pause and sift through menus while in the thick of battle. Items and magic are used by assigning them to the B button, one at a time. If you want to heal, then you need to equip cure; if you then want to cast Fire, you have to equip it. Looks like you’ve been poisoned, stoned, darked? Menu, sift, select, use. This constant sifting is incredibly tedious and breaks up the flow of combat, and I. Don’t. Like. It.
This menu sifting extends to the overworld sections as well. In a very cool way, you must use items and obsolete weapons to solve small puzzles throughout the overworld map, as well as within dungeons. The puzzles themselves are pretty nifty, such as swinging the chain to grab a post and cross a river, but having to frequently stop to equip old weapons, just to re-equip my strongest one immediately after solving the puzzle, began to wear thin after a while.
I honestly think that turn-based games have aged much better than action-based RPGs, and I think I would have enjoyed this game more if it has implemented a turn-based system, i.e. the mainline Final Fantasy titles. So, I guess if the combat isn’t much like typical Final Fantasy, then what about the story? Is that like Final Fantasy?
Still Not Final Fantasy
No, not really. Seiken Densetsu is the first game in the Seiken Densetsu series, also known as the Mana series in the west. The lore of this series is centered around the Tree of Mana, a tree that, according to this game, “grows with the energy of everything of this world.” Now, I have no idea what the fuck that is supposed to mean, but it certainly does not sound like Final Fantasy to me (where crystal?!?!), and due to some technical limitations (both the Game Boy and my brain), it doesn’t sound like much of anything at all, as the game tends to just throw names at you with very little context relating to who these people are and how you know them. I admittedly did not finish the game, but, like they kept talking about this chick Amanda, and they kept saying, “Amanda this,” and, “Amanda that,” and I’m like, “who the fuck is Amanda?”
The main character, Sumo (Papa), is a gladiator or something. He fights for the, “entertainment of the Dark Lord,” (and yes, his name is Dark Lord), who is trying to harness the power of the Mana Tree. Papa breaks out of his captivity and runs into some guy named Julius (yeah, I don’t really know, either), and then Julius and Dark Lord push Papa off a cliff. Then he runs into some chick that I named Mama (don’t know her real name, sue me). She has a pendant that links her to some ancestor that protected the tree, and then we go off on an adventure to, presumably, kill Dark Lord and save the tree, not before falling off another cliff and meeting some chick named Amanda (they made it seem like I knew Amanda; I didn’t know Amanda).
The story is ultimately pretty simple, but due to the computational limitations of the original Game Boy there just wasn’t any way to include enough text to tell the story effectively. Additionally, much of what we know about the lore of the Mana Tree and the Seiken Densetsu series comes from hindsight, as the decision to turn Seiken Densetsu into its own series came later, after the initial decision to make it a Final Fantasy spin-off.
Where Was I Going With This?
I don’t think playing Final Fantasy Adventure in 2022 is worth your time. The single bit of enjoyment I received from playing this thing was to experience a potential path that the Final Fantasy series may have taken. What if, for instance, this game had been wildly popular, forever altering the trajectory of the series? Maybe Final Fantasies 3-10 would have implemented the action-based combat features we see in the Mana games, or maybe we would have seen seven more handheld Final Fantasy games than we already have.
Plus, you can get a similar experience by playing the early Legend of Zelda games, and you will probably have a better time.
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