Final Fantasy Adventure

Lore & Background

Final Fantasy Adventure was originally developed under the name Gemma Knights. Its gameplay is roughly similar to that of the original The Legend of Zelda, with a top-down camera angle and screen-based movement, but adds role-playing statistical elements such as hit points, power, stamina, and magic spells. The player can save at any point, interact with townspeople, and battle enemies for experience and items. A power gauge affects attack strength, and non-player characters may occasionally accompany the main character. The game introduced the ability to kill townspeople, uncommon for role-playing games at the time.

The story follows the Hero (officially called Sumo) and the Heroine (officially called Fuji) as they attempt to thwart the Dark Lord of Glaive and his sorcerer assistant, Julius, from destroying the Tree of Mana. The plot involves a pendant key to the Mana Sanctuary, a medusa encounter, the sword Excalibur, and the eventual sacrifice of the Mana Tree, who is revealed to be the Heroine's mother. The Heroine becomes the next Mana Tree, and the Hero her guardian.

Development was led by designer Koichi Ishii, with scenario writer Yoshinori Kitase helping write the script. The game was released with familiar Final Fantasy elements such as chocobos, later changed to common enemies of the Mana series. A remake, Sword of Mana, was released for the Game Boy Advance in 2003, changing plot and gameplay. A second remake for mobile phones in Japan improved graphics and music. A third remake, Adventures of Mana, was released for iOS, Android, and PlayStation Vita on February 4, 2016.

Reader's Guide

Final Fantasy Adventure is significant as the first entry in the Mana series, which became a successful video game role-playing franchise. Its sequel, Secret of Mana, was released in 1993. The game was met with generally positive reviews at the time of its release and has since been considered one of the best action adventure games on the Game Boy. It spawned an entirely new game series, and ports were released for mobile in Japan in 2006 and as part of the Collection of Mana on Nintendo Switch in 2017 and 2019. The game's development history includes a canceled earlier project titled Seiken Densetsu: The Emergence of Excalibur for the Famicom Disk System, which was canceled before advancing beyond early planning. The Mana series was the result of Koichi Ishii's desire to create a fictional world, drawing inspiration from abstract childhood memories, films, and fantasy books such as Tove Jansson's Moomin, Lewis Carroll's Alice's Adventures in Wonderland, and J. R. R. Tolkien's Lord of the Rings.

Did You Know?

• The game was originally developed under the working title Gemma Knights.
• It introduced the ability to kill townspeople, which was uncommon for role-playing games at the time.
• The game's soundtrack was composed mostly by Kenji Ito, with one track credited to another composer.
• A canceled earlier project, Seiken Densetsu: The Emergence of Excalibur, was planned for the Famicom Disk System with five floppy disks.