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The Final Fantasy Legend, known as Makai Toushi Sa·Ga in Japan (魔界塔士 サ・ガ, "Warrior in the Tower of the Spirit World ~ Sa·Ga"), is a Game Boy video game. The first game in a three-part SaGa series on the Game Boy, it was released in 1989 by Square. It was also remade for the Wonderswan Color and mobile phones in Japan. The Game Boy version was released worldwide by Square, and its re-release was handed by Sunsoft. Other than the name, the game has little to do with the Final Fantasy franchise, and it was so named for marketing reasons.

Final Fantasy Legend operates on a turn based RPG system, in which the game's characters battle monsters using a variety of weapons. The game follows the story of four heroes that attempt to scale a tower at the center of the world, which supposedly leads to paradise. The four heroes controlled by the player may be one of three character classes, two of which may have different genders and one of which contains many subsets.

Gameplay

In Final Fantasy Legend, the player navigates a character throughout the game world with a party of up to four characters, exploring areas and interacting with non-player characters. Most of the game occurs in towns, castles, caves, and similar areas. To aid exploration on the field screen, Final Fantasy Legend makes use of various signs within towns. In the first act, the player is limited to the World of Continent to explore, and given access to later worlds as they climb the Tower. Players can save their game anytime and anywhere when not in combat to the selected save slot for later playing.

Players can journey between field screen locations via the world map, a downsized representation of Final Fantasy Legend's various worlds. Players can freely navigate around the world map screen unless restricted by terrain, such as water or mountains. The goal in each world is to find the entrance to the next level of the Tower. Like other Final Fantasy related games, travel across the world map screen and hostile areas is occasionally interrupted by random enemy encounters.

Classes

At the beginning of the game, the player must choose a character class, gender, and name for the group's "party leader". There are three available classes: humans, mutants (espers in the japanese version), and monsters, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Character classes cannot be changed once the game has begun. Afterwards the player may recruit up to three additional party members through a similar process via "Member Guilds" found in various towns. Characters may also be recruited to replace fallen party members, save for the party leader. Higher level party members may be recruited at later towns in the game.

A character's performance in battle is determined by numerical values ("statistics") for categories such as agility, strength, and mana power. Character statistics are relative to their class. Humans feature higher hit point (HP) levels, strength, and defense, while mutants are physically weaker, but feature a higher mana statistic. Human and mutant statistics can also be amplified by the types of equipment the character is wearing. Monster-class characters are dependent of its sub-class, and as a result vary greatly.

Humans raise their statistics though items found throughout the game that grant permanent bonuses, such as "STRENGTH" or "HP200". Mutants are driven by experience; when players win a battle by defeating all enemies, they are awarded "experience points", which accumulate until characters gain "experience levels". When characters "level up", the statistics for their attributes increase and randomly gain new abilities. Monsters change in power by consuming "meat" dropped in battles, and depending on the type of monster the meat is from, may transform into stronger or weaker sub-class.

Combat

Whenever the playable character encounters an enemy, the map changes to the "battle screen". On the battle screen, the enemy appears at the top, above the characters currently in the party; each battle uses a menu-driven turn-based system. At the beginning of each turn, the player selects whether to fight or attempt to run. If the fight option is selected, the player selects an action for each player character from their equipment or skills to attack, defend, use magic, or use equipped items. Once the player has chosen actions for each player character, the player characters and enemy begin battle. Participants move one at a time determined by their agility statistic. In the event the player attempts to run and fails, the player characters skip their turn and the enemy attacks. Combat ends if the party successfully flees, all enemies are defeated, or all player characters are defeated. In the last case, the game ends and must be reloaded from the last save.

Winning battles may award the player money (GP) and items. Enemy monsters will also sometimes drop meat that can be consumed by monster-class characters to change their type or recover health, depending on the type of monster the meat is from.

Equipment and Abilities

The basic function of equipment in SaGa games is to increase character attributes; arming a character with a gold helmet, for example, increases his or her base defense statistic. The amount of equipment that can be placed on any one character at any time depends on their class. humans can hold eight, mutants can hold four, and monsters can equip none. There are five types of armor: shields, helmets, breastplates, gauntlets, and shoes. Only one of each may be equipped at any time on one character.

Story

Setting

The Final Fantasy Legend takes place on several worlds centered around a large Tower that spews beasts and monsters onto each world, built by God in ancient times to link the worlds together. There are five unique major worlds that make up different layers of the Tower: the World of Continent at the base, the World of Ocean on the 5th floor, the World of Sky on the 10th, the World of Ruins on the 16th, and Paradise at the very top of the Tower; between each time does not flow at a constant pace, causing some to be more advanced than others. The World of Continent is a large land mass ruled by three kings that each carry a piece of equipment to open the Tower's entrance, and are in constant war with each other for world domination. The World of Ocean consists of a variety of small islands surrounded by water, each connected by small caves. Pirates roam the sea of this world, making travel by ship impossible. The World of Sky consists of large land masses suspended in clouds, and is ruled by the archfiend Ｂｙａｋ－Ｋｏ the 　　Ｗｈｉｔｅ　 Ｔｉｇｅｒ　 from his flying castle. The World of Ruins is technologically advanced cityscape reduced to a post-apocalyptic wasteland from constant attacks by Ｓｕ－Ｚａｋｕ the Red Bird. The final world of Paradise, while the party's ultimate destination, is never seen.

Plot

Once, there was a tower in the center of the known world that supposedly led to Paradise. Although many people tried to climb this tower, none were ever heard from again. The player controls a party of adventurers who will attempt to climb this tower. This is the world the hero starts out in. Three kings in this world are fighting for three legendary pieces of equipment, the King Sword, Shield and Armor respectively. First visiting King Armor, the heroes find out he's love sick over a girl. The heroes find out she is a slime-type monster in another village and she loves King Armor, but is afraid of a bandit leader who wishes to marry her. The heroes track down the bandit and demand he give her up. He refuses, but is defeated by the heroes. He begs for mercy, but is given none. King Armor is so overjoyed that he gives his armor to the heroes. King Sword defiantly tries to kill the heroes when they ask for the King Sword, but is killed himself by them. Finally, King Shield is murdered by his own Steward and after a short fight against him, the heroes have all three legendary items. They place these on a statue of a great hero, which causes a Black Sphere to appear. As they take the Sphere, Gen-bu, one of the four fiends (based on the Su Ling) appears to kill them. They vanquish him, however, and use the power of the Sphere to enter the tower.

The main enemies underneath their leader, Ashura, are four traditional eastern spirits:Gen-bu, Sei-ryu, Byak-ko and Su-zaku. The tower is a long and perilous journey where the heroes encounter three more worlds, along with a few side quests along the way, including the fates of some of those that ultimately failed to make it to the top of the tower. The first world discovered by the heroes after entering the tower is a tropical ocean. The second, a world situated in the sky, on top of the clouds. The third is a burned-out, seemingly post-apocalyptic city.

Eventually, they learn that the fiends of the world are controlled by the evil Ashura. Ashura offers them the opportunity to rule over the world with him. They refuse, leading to a fight with him. After beating Ashura, they fall into a pit which takes them back to the starting world. They climb the tower once more, fighting each of the demons once again. Reaching the top, they learn that this was all a test by the Creator himself. The Creator is the final boss of the game. After defeating the Creator, the heroes discover a door leading to an unknown location. They debate about going through it before deciding it doesn't matter and go back home instead.

Development

The first installment of the SaGa series in Japan and first Game Boy game by Square, it was conceived by Nobuyuki Hoshino, and developed under director Akitoshi Kawazu, two years after Final Fantasy was released. During development, Kawazu took a direct hand in shaping Final Fantasy Legened's scenario development, working alongside Takashi Tokita, Kōichi Ishii, and Hiroyuki Itō; Kōichi and Hiroyuki additionally developed the game's world layout and geography, with Ryōko Tanaka designing the background graphics. Concept art for characters was developed by Tokita, who also handled the in-game sprites.

Audio

The game's soundtrack was composed by Nobuo Uematsu and consists of sixteen tracks. Uematsu stated the music was only comprised of three notes, but that the Game Boy was a system he would like to make something for. He added that Final Fantasy Legend's music was created to complete the game in six to eight hours, based on the time for "an average flight from Narita to Hawaii". Uematsu also pointed out while the game's music could be made of better quality, the emphasis was on the fact the game was fun, and not appearance or sound. The Game Boy's sound hardware was different than the Famicom's, with new stereo and waveforms; he struggled with deciding how to work with these, while Akitoshi wanted to carry on in the same vein as the previous Final Fantasy titles.

From the game's music, the "Prologue" theme would be arranged as the opening for the next two SaGa games, while "Heartful Tears" (also known as "Wipe Your Tears Away") would become a staple for later SaGa titles, used in five of the games and arranged differently each time. Fifteen of the tracks were later included in the 1991 two-disc All Sounds of SaGa soundtrack, which encompassed the Game Boy SaGa series, and was re-released by Square Enix in December 2004 as SaGa Zenkyoku Shu. The final track of the set, "Journey's End", is an arranged version of six of Final Fantasy Legend's tracks via a synthesizer combined into one by Uematsu; he stated he enjoys listening to it while remembering scenes from the game. The game's "Battle" theme was later included as part of Square Enix's Battle Tracks Vol. 1: Square 1987-1996 compilation, released in May 2007.

Releases

The game was released in Japan in December 1989 as Makai Toushi Sa·Ga and included along with the game's instruction manual a map for the four major worlds in the game. A revised version was later released, fixing bugs in the original.

In September 1990 it was translated by Square and released in North America, with new artwork and renamed The Final Fantasy Legend in order to tie into the popularity of the Final Fantasy brand. Some parts of the game's text were left untranslated or removed however, including the game's credits. Modifications were also made to gameplay, such as the single use Glass Sword now having multiple uses. In 1998, Sunsoft acquired the license to the Game Boy "Final Fantasy" games, re-releasing them in North America the same year.

WonderSwan and mobile phone

In September 2001 Square announced a re-release of The Final Fantasy Legend for Bandai's WonderSwan Color unit, and in March 2002 a Japan-only port was released under the Japanese title. The concept art and graphics were redrawn by Toshiyuki Itahana, and cutscenes were added. Players could also now see in advance what a monster would transform into before eating meat left behind after battle. The port also included the option to play through the original Game Boy version intact on the handheld. Other changes an additions were made, such as item usage tweaks, monster names, a bestiary, and an auto-target option.

As of January 30, 2007, Square Enix had renewed their trademark on the Japanese name for the game. At Square Enix's 2007 Tokyo Game Show in September, a mobile phone port of the Wonderswan version of the game was made available for play, and made available for download later that year for Japanese i-mode, EZweb compatible phones, and Yahoo! Mobile compatible phones in 2008. The port lacks the bestiary, Game Boy version of the game, and has a few condensed cutscenes, but adds Chinese language support and new shops with new equipment.

Reception

The Game Boy game received mostly negative reviews from its North American release. IGN called Final Fantasy Legend a "compelling RPG with a complex gameplay system and a solid soundtrack", though complained about the game's difficulty and dated graphical look. RPGFan gave the game a score of 80%, stating "Overall, this game is okay, but is definitely the worst of the ENTIRE SaGa series", but at the same time praised the game's potential and cited the final battle theme as "one of the best last battle themes ever". European reviews of the title received it more positively. German gaming magazine Power Play praised the game as showing potential for the Game Boy, giving the game a score of 78%. Norwegian magazine Svenska Hemdatornytt gave The Final Fantasy Legend a perfect score, with the reviewer exclaiming praise for the title.

Japan on the other hand received the game notably better.. As of March 312003, the Game Boy version had shipped 1.37 million copies worldwide, with 1.15 million of those copies being shipped in Japan. Promotional items beyond the soundtrack were also released, including several player's guides and a calling card. A book was also released in Japan as part of a the Game Boy Adventure series, written by Misa Ikeda.

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External links

• The Final Fantasy Legend at MobyGames
• Makai Toushi SaGa official site (WonderSwan version)
• Makai Toushi SaGa official site (mobile phone version)

• 1989 video games
• Final Fantasy games
• Game Boy games
• SaGa
• WonderSwan Color games
• Mobile phone games