Squarehas been responsible for some of the most beloved and memorable series in all of gaming, but it’s always going to be hard to top the heights that theFinal Fantasyseries has reached. The games have hit newfound levels of success and it’s for that reason thatFinal Fantasyhas been able to split off into variousspin-offsor other franchises that make use of the series’ name and lore.
Related:Final Fantasy: The 10 Best Spin-Off Games, Ranked (According To Metacritic)
Final Fantasy Legendremains an odd anomaly that was restricted to Game Boy users, but there’s a lot more to the franchise that showcases how these games go far beyond some Game Boy titles.
10It’s Actually A Series Called SaGa
America has a history of rebranding video games under different names for their releases or in some cases just putting an entirely new name on a game in order to cash in on the popularity of another franchise. This is exactly what happened withFinal Fantasy Legend, which was released as theSaGaseries in Japan.Nintendowanted to capitalize onFinal Fantasy’ssuccess and instead released the games under theFinal Fantasy Legendbanner. Despite this hurdle, theFinal Fantasy Legendfranchise has been able to gradually find success in America under theSaGatitle.
9It Introduced The Built-In Battery Save Feature to Handheld Games
The advent of the Game Boy andhandheld gamingopened up all sorts of opportunities, but many of the earlier titles offered no form of permanent save system. The majority of games would utilize the password method, if anything at all. This could often be very frustrating and limited the types of games that could be provided.Final Fantasy Legendsought out to change that and it incorporated a built-in save feature that allowed the player to pause their progress whenever they wanted, fully taking advantage of the handheld and portable nature of the game.
8It’s Designed To Be Intentionally Difficult
TheFinal Fantasygames aren’t exactly easy, but they’re not that steep of a challenge with the proper amount of grinding and experience.Final Fantasy Legend,on the other hand, was purposefully designed to be a more difficult and advance experience, with it being one of the main differences between the mainFinal Fantasyseries.
Related:The Strangest Final Fantasy Spin-Offs, Ranked
A lot of this has to do with the games’ high encounter rates, but the final boss from the first game, Creator, is still viewed as one of the hardestboss battlesof all time.
7It’s The First Square Game To Sell Over One Million Copies
Square Enix, formerly Squaresoft, is now one of the biggest developers in the video game industry and now most of their titles become thebest-sellinggames of the year. The genesis ofFinal Fantasy Legendis during a much more humble time in Square’s career.Final Fantasy Legendwas such a success that it sold1.37 million copies, making it the first of Square’s releases to cross one million. This naturally made it one of the best sellers on the Game Boy as well, plus a major influence on other titles on the handheld likePokémon.
6The Series' Recurring Theme Is Composed By Final Fantasy’s Nobuo Uematsu
Nobuo Uematsuhas become one of the most prolific composers in the video game industry, largely because of his compositions for theFinal Fantasyseries. Uematsu’s work is largely limited to the firstFinal Fantasy Legendtitle, but he makes sure that he makes his mark here. Uematsu came up with 16 tracks for the game, including “Heartful Tears,” which is frequently featured throughout the series. Uematsu struggled to work with the Game Boy’s limited hardware, but his work on the game is still impressive and it’s fascinating to see what he does with the handheld.
5It Technically Has Many Sequels Beyond Final Fantasy Legend III
Since theFinal Fantasy Legendgames are technically the first three titles in theSaGaseries, there are actually near ten more games in the larger franchise, just under the title ofSaGainstead ofFinal Fantasy Legend. There are three titles in theRomancing SaGaseries for theSNESand then the franchise largely moves over to PlayStation consoles.
Related:Final Fantasy: 10 Behind The Scenes Facts You Never Knew About The Franchise
TheSaGaseries has continued to turn out games as recently as 2016, which includes remakes ofFinal Fantasy Legend IIandIIIfor the Nintendo DS.
4It Contains Certain Ties To The Final Fantasy Series
Square Enixhas a history for paying reference to their many games in various titles and it leads to some fun Easter eggs for the hardcore fans. SoFinal Fantasy Legendmay not only be the only Square franchise to make allusions toFinal Fantasyproper, but it’s still very satisfying. The biggest connection here is that in the original version the spell and weapon names are the same to famous ones fromFinal Fantasy. Certain enemies from the series also appear re-appropriated as bosses, like the originalFinal Fantasy’sDeath Machine.
3It’s Designed To Take Advantage Of The Game Boy’s Handheld Nature
Final Fantasy Legendwent into development once Nintendo realized that theGame Boywas actually going to be a success. The game’s development team initially created a title with a high encounter rate and tough difficulty, but something that could still be finished in under ten hours.Final Fantasy Legendalso allows the player to save their game at any point outside of battle. All of this caters to how the title could easily be played during a commute and still feel a sense of progress.
2There’s An Ultra Easy Way To Defeat The Creator
TheFinal Fantasy Legendgames are already known for being highly difficult RPGs, but one of the most frustrating challenges from these games is the final boss of the first game, the Creator. This boss is basically an evil version of God and it feels like it requires an infinite number of hits to defeat. It’s considered to be one of the hardest bosses of its era. However, there’s a strange trick that allows Creator to be defeated instantly through the use of the Chainsaw item. It’s a tactic that’s even incorporated intoFinal Fantasy XIII.
1The Original Game Has A Remake On The WonderSwan Color
There are a number of creative and interesting video game consoles that never were given the opportunity to make a big splash outside of Japan. Nintendo and Sega were allowed to dominate in America, but there are all sorts of alternatives that some gamers are unaware of, likeBandai’sWonderSwan Color handheld. The WonderSwan Color actually has a remake ofFinal Fantasy Legendthat’s in full color and updates the game in many other important ways. Unfortunately, this updated version of the game hasn’t been made available elsewhere outside of Japan, which makes this WonderSwan Color relic even more unusual.
Next:Final Fantasy: 10 Mind-Blowing Fan Theories You Had No Idea About
