Final Fantasy Adventure

 

One of the older Squaresoft games I recently came across, Final Fantasy Adventure truly punches far above its weight for a Game Boy title. While the Game Boy Color is often praised for its impressive RPG library, especially with the rise of the Pokémon series, I never expected the original Game Boy to be capable of delivering such an engaging RPG experience. Final Fantasy Adventure proved otherwise. Simply put, I was genuinely impressed by the scale and atmosphere of the game, which reminded me of my first experience playing Lufia: The Legend Returns in the early 2000s.
This Final Fantasy spin-off would eventually become the foundation of the Mana series, a somewhat overshadowed but still influential RPG franchise from Squaresoft that left a strong mark during the 16-bit era. It is fascinating to witness the humble beginnings of one of the major names in JRPG history, especially as someone who previously played Sword of Mana, the GBA remake of this very game.

Final Fantasy Adventure was also one of Squaresoft’s early titles that helped shape many of the company’s future ideas. Its action RPG gameplay, clearly inspired by The Legend of Zelda, combined with the central theme of the Mana Tree, laid important groundwork for what action-oriented JRPGs would later become. Looking back, it is impressive how influential this relatively small handheld title ended up being.

Having already played Sword of Mana, it was especially interesting to experience this much simpler and rougher iteration of the story. Despite the hardware limitations of its era, the game still manages to deliver a gripping adventure with a bittersweet ending like its future iterations. Gameplay-wise, I was also surprised by how useful certain weapons felt here compared to their remake counterparts, particularly the Morning Star and Flail, which turned out to be far more fun compared to its Sword of Mana version. The game also retains several classic Final Fantasy elements that would later disappear once the Mana series fully branched off, including Chocobo and Moogle appearances.

More than three decades after its release, Final Fantasy Adventure still managed to surpass my expectations. I ended up appreciating the game far more than I anticipated, to the point that it motivated me to explore more of the Mana series, especially the celebrated Secret of Mana era titles on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System, as well as Adventures of Mana, which is considered a more faithful remake of the original game.