In light of my article on Vampire: The Masquerade - Bloodlines, a few people asked me to consider writing more reviews and analyses of obscure or underrated video games. Of course I'm all too happy to oblige, seeing as it gives me a niche to carve out on this site at the very least, and it's always fun paying homage to games that may not get a lot of (arguably) deserved attention. To start off by quickly clarifying, 'forgotten' in this context refers predominantly to video games that have, for myriad reasons, fallen out of public consciousness and are only remembered by a small, or cult-like number of gamers. For me personally, it feels only right therefore to have the second article in this series look at a little forgotten gem made by globally-renowned Square in the early 90s, a game of theirs that showed off a new style of gameplay, and brought about a venture into hitherto uncharted territories. I am of course talking about their 1991 Game Boy classic, Final Fantasy Adventure. It is a gaming franchise that really needs no introduction. Any new or seasoned gamer, regardless of whether or not they enjoy the series, would acknowledge its legacy and influence; from the original NES and SNES titles to the current-gen incarnations, the Final Fantasy franchise is one that ought to be viewed as a megalithic opus for the industry, very much in the upper echelons alongside Super Mario and The Legend of Zelda. It is a series I'm sure many of you, like myself, grew up with. Androgynous characters (well, arguably an element more recent to the last decade's titles), ostentatious and cinematic spectacles, crystals with more power than they ought to have, multi-staged boss fights, and over-sized chickens that are for one reason or another called Chocobos, are tropes we've all come to recognize as inherent to the brand and can be certainly reeled off without any forethought, such is the manner in which Final Fantasy has permeated video games culture.
Truth be told, Final Fantasy Adventure is a bit of a misnomer to the brand. It's not entirely a Final Fantasy game, per se. Sure, it does contain tropes that are common to the Final Fantasy universe, but in reality it is now considered the first instalment of the Mana series of video games that have since had great success. I suppose in this sense one way to look at the Game Boy title is as the progenitor to a new IP for Square. Regardless, even with the Final Fantasy brand stamped emphatically with its title, the game has become an obscure one which few remember. It's strange to say the least, more so because it's arguably one of the best games released on the Game Boy (Link's Awakening probably still pips it in my book), and one of Square's most significant and innovative titles to date - of which I will hereafter argue why. In keeping with Square's other titles, Final Fantasy Adventure was, for its time, one of very few games that actually attempted to have a grand and compelling narrative. Most titles instead prioritised gameplay over storytelling. Video games of the late 80s and early 90s were a means of entertainment and escapism rather than spectacle and exploring themes you'd find akin to literature or film, so very few titles actually had an intended, gripping plot. Instead what you would find were strands of over-arching narratives to justify why the player must move from A to B. The classic NES and SNES Super Mario games, for instance, fully utilised the damsel in distress trope to give all of the running and jumping you'd do significance, and that was all it needed - a thinly veiled story to form some sense of utility and meaning to your actions in-game. Whilst there is of course nothing wrong with this - the player-interaction in video games are after all a primary source of entertainment for many - for Final Fantasy Adventure to have taken the gamer on an epic quest was in itself an impressive feat, on both a technical and artistic level, given it was perhaps the first handheld game to do so to such a degree.
The story itself is simple enough, an evil empire spearheaded by the Dark Lord is seeking the Tree of Mana in order to bring doom and gloom to the world, and it's up to you, a plucky gladiator who once fought for the Dark Lord's entertainment, to stop him. Whilst not an especially well executed or original story - although this can be forgiven for reasons aforementioned regarding the state of video game storytelling at the time - the appeal of Final Fantasy Adventure's narrative back then came in the way it managed to, at least rudimentarily, espouse themes that interconnect the game to the player. Every arc along the way to the main goal of defeating the big bad at the end of the game has moments that express different themes; anything from betrayal and sacrifice, to hope and ambition can be gleaned from moments within the game as tangible, deliberate elements. In fact, the one standout moment I had during my play-through many years ago was when I was forced to kill an ally in order to gain a quest-specific item to save another ailing ally, and the game would not progress until I went through with the act. On hindsight, this was an exceptionally progressive moment to have in a video game, where you, the player, is forced by the game into doing something you may not necessarily want to do to a character who you were intended to have had an empathetic attachment to. What's more, experiencing these story elements on a Game Boy was assuredly innovative for the time, and definitely intensifies the impressiveness that the game was able to sell the narrative to the player, despite being a handheld title. Which leads me nicely to my next point. Of course, the desire to tell a story is but one reason we should remember Square's handheld title. The second however is much more technical by nature, yet still completely related. In order for the story to feel convincing, the game needed the audiovisual elements of the medium to be as sharp and visceral as possible. As such, Final Fantasy Adventure's graphics and art design were hitherto unseen on a handheld console. The animations, sprites, and multitude of different locations, from snowy ice fields, marshlands and arid deserts, to ornate castles and grotty caves, were enough to give the player this very sense of an epic adventure - no mean feat with 8-bit graphics. In the audio department, the soundtrack composed by the highly-regarded Kenji Ito (and one from Nobuo Uematsu) had plenty of variety to further aid the emotional connection to the game's story. Above all, it was a memorable orchestration that effectively utilised the very limited synth-palate of the Game Boy to mesmeric degrees.
So Final Fantasy Adventure was very much an innovative and notable title. However despite the focuses on story and technical innovation for its time, what I would argue it is that makes this game particularly special in terms of its legacy is that it is ultimately the first Final Fantasy spin-off game to have come from Square, and as such we ought to view it as the spiritual predecessor to the Crystal Chronicles and Tactics series. What it is that made Final Fantasy Adventure feel like a deviation at the time was a focus on different core gameplay mechanics. It was the first of Square's games to eschew traditional JRPG elements in favour of more action-RPG-oriented ones. Real-time combat is preferred to turn-based, puzzle-solving involves using your weapons and magic spells, of which there is great variety to both, in order to traverse gaps, destroy walls, or move objects into place, and the leveling up system works differently. Each enemy gives you experience, and when you level up, you choose to upgrade one of four attributes: Stamina, Strength, Wisdom, and Will, leading to a simple yet nonetheless interesting scope of unique character customisation. To this end, using the principle of creating games based on the mythos of Final Fantasy, yet utilising different core mechanics, was something first seen in Square's handheld title. It might seem like a small facet, but to take a recognised brand and give it a makeover with its core elements replaced by others, was debatably a risk. It paid off at the time, and the outcome is for all to see in the likes of the spiritual successors, the Crystal Chronicles and Tactics franchises. We might now call Final Fantasy Adventure the first instalment of the Mana series, but really we ought to view it as much more than that in the wider scheme of Square Enix's library of games. If being the first game to spawn a different yet still successful series, and the Japanese developer's first critically-acclaimed foray into the handheld market, aren't enough, Final Fantasy Adventure is also the one that paved the way for them to enliven the Final Fantasy universe with games utilising different mechanics that give the franchise a new take and feel. For these things, the technological innovations, core emphasis on storytelling, and the significance of them on Square Enix's most esteemed series, Final Fantasy Adventure really is one title we should pay homage to, if for at least a brief moment.