Final Fantasy Adventure (Game Boy)

January 1st is seen as a day of new beginnings. In that spirit, I thought I’d spend this week with a little Game Boy release that kicked off something truly grand: Square’s Final Fantasy Adventure. Now, I’m not trying to imply that it represents the genesis of Final Fantasy proper, which predates the Game Boy by a couple of years. Rather, this humble 1991 action RPG serves as the first entry in the Seiken Densetsu (aka Mana) saga and the immediate precursor to the better known Super Nintendo classic, Secret of Mana.

That’s not to say that there’s nothing meaningful connecting the two franchises. This isn’t simply a case of a mercenary marketing department slapping the Final Fantasy moniker onto a wholly unrelated product to boost sales. As the game’s original Japanese name, Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden (“Legend of the Sacred Sword: Final Fantasy Side Story”) indicates, Final Fantasy Adventure is part new endeavor, part spin-off. Iconic Final Fantasy figures such as black mages and chocobos appear alongside future Mana mascots like the rabite and mushboom. Director Koichi Ishii and team would take decisive measures to sever these ties in the sequels, but Final Fantasy Adventure itself remains, at least in small part, a “real” Final Fantasy.

The journey starts off with a bang, as you’re abruptly thrust into in the role of an enslaved gladiator just as he’s ushered into the arena to do battle with an intimidating (albeit harmless) giant cat monster. A paper tiger, if you will. This opening is smart, inspired even. It feels like it was calculated to drive home the point that this is no stuffy turn-based RPG and to do it in the most visceral manner possible. I approve.

Immediately after that, however, we’re treated to the first of Final Fantasy Adventure’s many unearned tragic death scenes. Fellow gladiator Willy kicks the bucket in our stunned hero’s arms, right after telling him that Mana is in danger and that he needs to escape the dungeons of the Dark Lord and find the Gemma Knights. “Willy? Willy!!” our bereaved protagonist bellows over a wistful chiptune dirge. Such sorrow! Except, who’s Willy? We’re only two minutes in here, guys!

This lack of a suitable buildup to…well, anything, really, dogs the narrative throughout. Much of the blame for this falls on the game’s breathless pacing, with presumed text space limitations and a functional-at-best localization accounting for the rest. I spent 90% of my time with Final Fantasy Adventure wandering around doing fetch quests and the other 10% reflecting on how the current dialog scene would be pretty impactful if any of the participants had been given more than five lines apiece beforehand. This isn’t one to play for the story, folks.

Fortunately, that first 90% is not to be underestimated. Look past the feeble stabs at drama and you’ll find a clever work that deftly balances pick-up-and-play simplicity with robust customization. On the surface, Final Fantasy Adventure is as basic as can be. You have the common overhead view, the ability to move and attack in four directions, one button to swing your weapon and another to use whatever item or spell you currently have equipped, etc. Anyone with the slightest bit of Zelda experience will immediately fall into a comfortable monster bashing, overworld canvassing, dungeon delving groove.

Straightforward as this core play loop is, the designers still packed in a ton of meaningful choice. Take the wide selection of weapons, for example. You’re able to wield swords, axes, spears, flails, a sickle, and a massive morning star that also doubles as a tool to break down certain walls. They’re all viable options and the differences aren’t merely cosmetic. Swords slash in an arc, spears thrust straight ahead, the morning star spins in a full circle, and so on. Various types have their own special charge attacks as well, as regulated by a power gauge along the bottom of the screen that gradually fills up between swings. As an aside, I consider the weapon charging to be much better implemented here than it is in Secret of Mana. You don’t need to hold down a button to do it and it doesn’t hinder your movement. Thank God.

Player-directed stat growth is another elegant way Final Fantasy Adventure fosters experimentation and replayability. Every time you level-up, you get to decide which of the hero’s four stats gets the largest bump. Two related stats will then automatically receive a smaller increase, and the remaining one gets nothing. If you want to be boring like me, you can spread your picks out evenly, resulting in a character with no particular strengths or weaknesses. Or you can prioritize Wisdom to build a strong magician, Stamina for a nearly indestructible tank, Power to create a devastating “glass cannon” weapon master, or Will to maximize the speed of your weapon charging and land loads of special attacks.

Between a diverse arsenal and the ability to manually steer character progression, there’s just enough depth here to allow for multiple wildly different play experiences without bogging new players down in pointless minutia or passively permitting them to screw themselves over with sub-optimal choices. Add in tried-and-tested combat and exploration mechanics, some charming spritework, and Kenji Ito’s masterful score (which is so much more emotionally affecting than the anemic plot it supports) and you’re in for a fine time.

A word of caution, though: Final Fantasy Adventure does have one potentially fatal flaw baked into its dungeon design. To wit, it’s possible to get stuck in one of the longer dungeons (Glaive Castle) if you happen to run low on door keys after saving your game inside. In this instance, you can find yourself completely stranded and forced to abandon your playthrough altogether. You can’t reach the dungeon boss without keys, yet you also can’t exit the way you came to buy them! There is a workaround, thankfully. You have access to two save slots, so just create a backup save in one of them before you enter the dungeon (with plenty of keys) and then make sure you don’t overwrite it until you come out the other side. This hardly excuses a grievous error that should have been identified and fixed in testing, of course, but forewarned is forearmed.

Final Fantasy Adventure has been officially remade twice now, with each new iteration striving to bring the art, sound, and gameplay stylings more in line with subsequent Mana series entries. I prefer to stick with the original, warts and all. While not perfect, it remains a overall superb portable action RPG and one of the very best Game Boy releases in general. Besides, I find it quite fitting how this tiny monochrome seed of a cartridge was destined to sprout into a majestic Mana Tree that would tower over the RPG landscape for decades to come.