Final Fantasy Legends and Adventure: (Not) Final Fantasy on the Go | Stiles' Series Synopsis
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- เผยแพร่เมื่อ 18 มิ.ย. 2017
- VIDEO MISTAKE: The Image of Ryuji Sasai is NOT in fact Ryuji Sasai! Turns out I accidentally put in a picture of Junichi Masuda, who has acted as the producer for the Pokemon series for many, many years. Pretty big mistake, will try and be more vigilant in the future. Thanks Nintendokings for pointing that out!
VIDEO MISTAKE 2: I mention towards the end that Kenji Ito became the main composer for the Mana Series which is untrue. Hiroki Kikuta composed the 2nd and 3rd Mana games, and Yoko Shimomora the 4th. Kenji Ito was only responsible for Final Fantasy Adventure and its Reimagining, Sword of Mana on the GBA. Thank you Euphoria EntertainmentCompany for the correction.
Of course it's one of my worst videos that's gotten the most traction... thank you all for watching, but I swear my newer videos are better in pretty much every way.
Four Handheld 'Final Fantasy' games in one video! Woooooo! Those who follow my content already know what to expect: A Breakdown and critique of these four titles, all of which graced our favorite gray brick. The Final Fantasy Legend Trilogy and Final Fantasy Adventure.
Jackie Kashian's Final Fantasy Legend Routine: www.cc.com/video-clips/if6ava/...
Mana Series Synopsis: stilesreviews.wordpress.com/c...
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@Stiles' reviews
Actually the 2nd and 3rd Mana game soundtracks we're composed by Hiroki Kikuta and Legend of Mana was composed by Yoko Shimomura.
I swore they were collaborative efforts, but I guess I got that wrong. Thanks for the correction.
@@StilesReviews I believe he did contribute on later Mana games such as DOM
buy I think he took over the Romancing series and composed for a couple of the Frontier games. I know Hamauzu composed one of the later SaGa Frontier OST's.
@@euphoriaentertainmentcompa2605 Yeah I don't really have an excuse for this one. Chalk it up to being one of my earliest videos I guess? Haha. Thank you for the polite correction, genuinely. Added a note in the description.
I enjoyed the final fantasy legend more than Pokémon red... there... I said it
And just as I praise the quality, you post a picture of Masuda (current director of Pokemon games) above this Ryuji Sasai composer xD
Oh Crap! Good Catch! I appreciate you pointing that out. I wasn't able to find a good picture of the original composer as he's rather obscure... apparently google lead me astray! That's embarassing, but hey, I'm only human! Thanks for watching, I'll make a note of this in the video description!
One thing you comment on is needing to do trial and error to figure out what weapon was best. To be fair, all three games came with "feelies" that included weapon and armor charts. Granted, all three of them had minor errors, but they were included that explained things like what stat damage was based on and what the multiplier was such as 5xstrength or 7xagaility.
I know I've still got those well-worn charts somewhere in my mother's basement.
So it was more a case of RTFM. You yourself acknowledged the limitation of the hardware and the cartridges for storage. They got around it by including the information in a reference chart included with the game.
That's a very good point, someone else has brought that up as well, and it's definitely something I wish I'd known before making the video. Thank you so much for the constructive criticism, it does make that one line in my video pretty much moot. I hope you enjoyed the video outside of that and a couple of other mistakes I made, please feel free to continue giving me polite corrections such as this one! Thanks for even giving my video a chance!
"Creator went to pieces" - how I "beat" my first-ever RPG! Couldn't believe you could one-shot the final boss! Great video, thank you!
Thank you for watching, i am glad you enjoyed it!
This went up faster than I expected, thanks. I tried playing each of these games a while ago and I couldn't get into them all that much. This was informative and thanks for the info.
Yeah, went up faster than I expected too lol. I've really been working to put out more content more frequently, I'm finally finding a sort of rhythm too it all. Thank you very much for the comment as usual! I'm glad you enjoyed the video.
The music for the first two are possibly the best soundtracks the Gameboy has to offer
Great video analysis, I'm glad that TH-cam recommended your channel.
Thanks so much! Im glad you enjoyed it!
Hey Stiles, as someone who read through all your written Stiles Synopsis stuff I'm very thankful that you are putting so much time and effort into these videos, they are always very entertaining!
I'm a bit baffled that this channel hasn't exploded with new subscribers yet, you're doing an excellent job.
I found FF Legend 3 at a flea market many years ago and was very impressed by it, mainly because it was a full-fledged RPG on a Game Boy, but that fascination wore off pretty quickly. Still I'm glad I got to experience it first hand.
FF Adventure is one of my all time favorite Game Boy games. I can still remember when I was a kid I sold it (as I didn't have any money for new games, so I often sold my stuff) and felt super bad afterwards, almost heartbroken, so I had to get it back. :D
Thanks again and keep it up!
Thank you very much for watching, and more importantly, thank you for sticking around through the medium change. You are arguably my first fan/follower not counting personal friends that owed me favors lol.
I really do appreciate you supporting me and being here basically since the beginning.
I've played Final Fantasy Adventure three times in the past two years now, and I've liked it more each time I've played it. It's probably my favorite original gameboy game as of now (though, I haven't played a LOT of original Gameboy games to be fair.. the only other one I'd consider a favorite would be the Ducktales port, which was the first video game I ever beat)
As for FFLegend 3? Eh, It was good enough, but I'm content with having played it for this video and will likely never play it again. If I ever do try it again I'll play the 3D version for DS.
Thanks for covering these games. When I was a kid, FFL 1 truly impressed me with it's depth and music, but because I bought it used without a guide, I always found it one of the most confusing JRPGs I ever played. Thanks for covering some of it's issues. However, the game certainly left an impression on me as one of the first JRPGs I enjoyed. It also helped me raise my standards for detail and also using my mind to play a game. FFL 1's challenge made it a haunting mystery for me, although I eventually gave up and sold it to a friend who highly treasured it. I would give it another go if it were re released on mobile. I am sure I would have better enjoyed the later games in the series, but they seemed harder to find. Pokemon came a little after my infatuation with the Gameboy for me, unfortunately, so this was it for me until I became interested in console RPGs.
Thank you very much for watching and for leaving such an in-depth comment! I'm glad the game meant something special to you. I've played worse games for sure, and at the time, there literally weren't any other RPG options (at least, upon it's initial release) for the GB. There's a lot to admire about the game, I just don't feel it has aged very well.
great video! Im playing ff adventure on my gameboy while i watch!
keep up the good work!!!
I'm always pleased to enjoy videos like these but man oh man I absolutely love Secret of Mana and I don't know how anyone could dislike it!!
Great vid btw. Thanks for making this!
oh shit, i didn't know FFL1 was composed entirely by nobuo uematsu, I thought that was only the second game (where Kenji Ito helped)
actually playing through the first game now, it makes sense why the music sounds as it does (as in, it's actually pretty darn good)
Like Final Fantasy for the NES, the games were released with a chart showing all the weapons in the game and what each one did (map on one side, chart on the other), so knowing what equipment did what wasn't actually that difficult unless you had a used copy that didn't come with the reference material. This was pretty commonplace with games and acceptable at the time they were made. Really early games such as Wizardry named their spells totally obtuse names with no hint of what they did or an ingame description, and it was considered a form of copy-protection that you needed to play the game with the spell chart to know what the spells actually did (unless you trial and errored).
I think the first game was the exception though - FFL2 and FFL3 definitely had detailed weapon charts, but I don't remember the first one having it. Still, part of the charm of the games were how esoteric some of the weaponry was, and trial and error was pretty enjoyable. There was a ton of variation and a lot more interesting and meaningful weapon choices to make. In many ways, the SaGa games were actually more interesting than the early Final Fantasy games were. SaGa 3 is perhaps the most 'standard' or conventional in terms of its design, which is why it's often regarded as less interesting than the first two.
First off... holy crap man... Are you a spokesperson for these two games in specific or something?
My second, non-joking response is wow... Thank you so much for having easily the most thorough and in depth comment My channel has yet to receive. You've clearly researched these games beyond what many others would.. I wouldn't be surprised if you were a walkthrough writer at this rate.
Of course, opinions are opinions, and I stand by my video regardless. I'm glad to hear that they did indeed come with information in the original manual, which still doesn't really invalidate my complaint... I looked the info up online, but it's still an inconveniece, one that technological limitations of the time forced upon the devs, but it is still a way in which video games have since improved.
In much the same way, I don't much care for the way mutants were handled. Treating them as mages with extra alternating abilities is, in my opinion, simply looking past an existing issue, not erasing the issue. Different people play game's different ways, and I feel that the majority of players would likely be irritated with the game in the same way that I was in these instances.
That said, you had some incredibly valid points to make. I encountered absolutely zero bugs in my FFL2 playthrough that I could notice, so it comes as a surprise to me that it contains so many. I guess a more accurate statement from me now would be that bugs or no, the quality of life improvements made to Final Fantasy Legend II were so impactful that they made it a far more enjoyable experience in almost every respect, compared to the first game, which to me still feels like little more than a monotonous grind of a title.
Unfortunately, there is just no possible way I can reply to every single point you made, the shear volume of content that exists in your comments is outstanding, it likely could have filled a video of similar size to this one, that being said, I reccommend that anyone who reads this response also check out your messages in full, as they are highly informative. Thank you once again!
I've simply played them a lot - FFL1 is probably my favourite Gameboy era RPG in large part because of the setting. FFL2 is a lot of fun too, but the setting isn't abstract and surreal enough to be memorable. FFL3 is a huge disappointment and arguably the least interesting/meaningful of the first three games because the classes differ so little from one another (because removing weapon durability and making everyone level up the same way via Exp points really makes all classes feel very same-y, with far less meaningful differences). It lacks the strange uniqueness that made the first two games stand out compared to other RPGs around that time, not to mention it's a vastly easier game by comparison.
The quality of life concerns regarding FFL1 are largely addressed on the WonderSwan Colour port, which has an English fan translation available (you can see what Monster evolution you'll get before eating meat, so you can see if you'll take a downgrade or undesirable Monster if you eat). As far as I know, Mutant abilities are unchanged and remain purely randomized, so it was a conscious design on their part. When FFL2 decided to allow Humans the ability to use Magic/Spellcasting items, that's why Mutants were given more control over their special abilities, as a way to keep them considerably different from their Human counterparts.
Well, Conscious decisions still aren't always 'good' decisions, I really don't understand the defense of the mutant class ability structure, but to each their own. I also found the scenery and areas to be TOO abstract, and more form limitations than as a design choice, though you did mention the wonderswan color port, perhaps it comes to life in a more interesting way in that version. I also mentioned how FFL3 had the most polish, but I wasn't sure I agreed with them taking out all of the creative ideas to make it good either.
I'm glad you enjoy the games as much as you do! I'm sure you've already heard about Romancing SaGa 2 coming to steam, I plan on picking it up once it releases on the 15th!
FF Legends 3 was my favorite Gameboy game of all time. The story was awesome and the art and characters were so cool. It would be such an awesome remake, but if the legends games are not true Final Fantasy games from a Japanese viewpoint, I can't foresee them taking the time to remake them. : \
Thanks so much for watching! 2 and 3 were remade for the DS in japan and have english fan translations if you ar einto that scene
Re: Human/Mutant Growth in FFL1:
Human growth rates are slow in the first world due to the cost of the statup items. However, those items are fixed in price, and by the second world you can locate larger enemy groups that are pretty easy to farm (specifically, the Worm groups that appear on the fifth floor where you need the second orb). HP is always tedious to raise since the higher level HP items are expensive, and it gets to eventually be more cost effective to use the HP200 items raising HP 1 at a time which is annoying, but Strength and Agility aren't too bad to raise. Considering they will go past 99 (and can roll over from 254 to 0 if you go too crazy!) they're pretty powerful later on. In many ways, their easily raised abilities and total lack of Mana make them similar to Robots in FFL2.
Mutants actually have stat gains weighted towards HP and Mana:
www.gamefaqs.com/boards/563273-the-final-fantasy-legend/42444042
Sure, it's very random after every fight, but Mutants tend to actually grow very fast - I've never had any issues with Mutants feeling underpowered at any point in the game if I've had them with me from the first floor. Part of that is because unlike Humans, Mutants are the only characters who can use spell items in FFL1. And spell items utterly dominate the game, giving you consistently powerful group combat abilities and healing. Flare spell books are available for purchase as early as the third world, and they'll wipe out basically anything you encounter. Mutants are simply amazing. In general, FFL1 actually has much faster growth rates than in FFL2. Even monsters can be levelled up faster (if you know how, you can get a second highest level monster in the very first world, though it's a lot of work to do it). The only class in FFL2 that comes close to FFL1's growth rates is the Robot class, which has absurd stat growth capabilities if you load up with tons of identical equipment. This works especially well for AGI gear early on, as well as STR gear later for use with the Xcalbur and Gungnir.
The lack of equipment space can make for some armor issues, but if you plan accordingly and make efficient use of the 4 slots you've got, you can still get through without needing any Humans in the frontline (it's a lot easier to get resistance to all elements in this game than it is in the sequels - either So-Cho's Headband will do it, or a combo of Dragon Armor and Dragon Helmet). Really, the only nuisances about Mutants are the limited inventory space, and the fact that you can't control what special abilities you have at any given point in time (though getting Armor or Power right before a boss fight can give you a really potent option to use!), but the ability to use magical spells alone more than makes up for any of their class quirks. That's how good magic is (spells are generally fantastic in all three games).
FFL2's Mutants are great for similar reasons, and in many ways are better since you can control what special abilities you have, you can control how many slots you have for items (7 to 4 depending on how many you allow the Mutant to learn), and so on. FFL2's Mutants do level up slowly though - Humans and Mutants level far more slowly than Mutants did in FFL1.
Just did a playthrough of the Switch release, and my mutant was 700+ hp at the end, and I didn't die once through the entire game. Even better, it's been *mumble* years, and I remembered the whole thing.
It was great. Just the monster mechanic has made me so happy - it was fun.
FF Legend was a game I put SO many hours into back in the day, but got stuck towards the end. A couple years ago I vowed to beat it so I buckled down, and got stuck towards the end again. 30 years and I can't do it! I refuse to look things up online bc that didn't exist back in the day. If a game is that broken it doesn't deserve anymore of my time. But I can't play 2 or 3 until I finish 1? lol Great video you've earned my sub.
And I just noticed that makes 600!
Thanks so much for watching, commenting and subscribing
It wasn't even hard. Beef up a human and Use the martial arts glitch and steam roll everyone. Or mutants with magic.
I saw Jackie Kashian live and got an autograph on my FFL cartridge
"Incredibly overrated Secret of Mana"
Heck yes.
Also Final Fantasy Adventure had Final Fantasy mainstays like moogles, red mages, and chocobos.
"The puzzles were never so opaque as to halt progress"
PAY ME FOR A HINT
PALM TREES AND EIGHT
How did _anyone_ figure out what this was supposed to mean?
I did. I did wierd crap like doing figure 8s around trees/rocks in Zelda though, so it was completely on accident.
You lost me when you said Secret of Mana is "incredibly overrated" and one of the weakest games ever made. That's just absurd. I can't imagine anyone saying that unless they hate RPGs in general and didn't bother playing it more than 15 minutes. It's one of the most fun and impressive games for the system - not just for its time, but it holds up remarkably well today. I'd be hard pressed to find anything about SOM that stuck out as objectively bad, and I certainly can't find any justification to call it "weak" and "overrated". The only knock against it I can come up with is... it's not Seiken Densetsu 3?
Shinobi Wolf "Easily one of the worst games Square made DURING THEIR GOLDEN AGE" is a very different sentence than one of the worst games ever made.
If you are actually curious why I felt that way about the game, I Have a complete text review on my website actually. The VERY Summarized version is that the combat is bad, full of hit and run tactics that are boring to play because it requires no strategy or skill. Frequent stun locks just make this even more aggravating. The magic system is completely unbalanced and the frequent game pausing completely contradicts the purpose of the game being an ACTION RPG. The Coop just slows down the game's combat even more. The leveling system is tedious and makes for a lot of grinding, but in a game that already requires no skill or strategy, it's completely contradictary. Charge attacks are pointless because they don't do enough damage to be worth the extra waiting... a.k.a. DPS ratio is awful and doesn't encourage use of the FEW abilities the game gives you to play with. A.I. is attrocious for everything in game from teammates to e nemies. The story is boring It's pretty. It has good music, but that's about all it has going for it, and that does not make a good game, just good presentation. On the opposite end of the spectrum, I'd like to ask what makes players think it's GOOD besides, 'Pretty music' and 'But it has coop"
If you'd like to read the whole thing, you can go to stilesreviews(dot)wordpress(dot)com, I spell it out much better there.
As for myself I side with Shinobi Wolf in that the game is pure fun to play. I give you respect for your thought out points on control, sometimes frustrating coop and the annoying grinding... As for your clear need for strategy and tactics. I've had a ton of experience with rpgs, final Fantasy 1, 2, 7 8 and 9 legend of dragoon, the breath of fire series, soul blazer, might n magic series, 7th Saga to name a few, and what you feel is a lacking area does not even register as an issue for me, in fact, I find it refreshing. I love the rich sprite-y scenery texture the cartoony animation, and overall am happy with the storyline as it is, but yes, would be happier if they added more depth and detail to the storyline. I love the sweeping world, the canon travel and eventually flamie the dragon or mana beast. I love the land scapes and yes! Love the music! I don't have nearly as much trouble with the pausing or control, as your experience seems to indicate. You have some very well thought out reasons for your point of view, but I would disagree with your statement it's one of the most overrated games. I'm surprised you haven't unleashed a comment firing squad for it, lol! In the end, we'll just agree to disagree but I do wish to commend you
You backed up your points beautifully and I appreciate your perspective as I've never met someone who knew of the game and didn't like it.
Thanks so much for watching and commenting!! More than that however, thanks for the feedback, it's pretty rare to find people whom can disagree but still be so respectful. I'm glad you enjoy it, I don't want to take enjoyment away from anyone, it just didn't work for me. Seiken Densetsu 3 however >>... now that's a game I love.
Seiken Densetsu III is good but it is so janky we didn't even get to have it over here. They couldn't fix the bugs [No-Bug Policy was in high effect at NOA at the time] and it couldn't the approval by the deadline.
(Alan Weiss, Lead Designer/Producer of Secret of Evermore)
Secret of Mana IS very over rated. It's very fun, nostalgic, and colorful, with a sweet weapon upgrade system. But honestly it's just... Not the juggernaut its touted as.
@Shinobi Wolf: sorry but Secret Of Mana isn't that good except for the gimick that you can play it mulitplayer. THe Spell system while interesting has the effect of basically spam spells on every bossfight :-) the story is supar too
12:40 re: bugs
Thankfully most of FFL's bugs are minor, and are easily avoidable/worked around. Mutant stat growth is specifically capped at 999 HP and 99 for all stats. Only Humans can have a rollover of stats and this requires LOTS of stat point pumping, far more than is actually necessary to make them powerful enough to handle the endgame.
I can't think of any abilities that "literally do nothing" - there's the Staff item available in the fourth world that's supposed to inflict confusion, but appears to be bugged in that it confuses your PARTY instead of the enemies. The final boss wastes a few turns at first but that's more or less intentional as far as I can tell. It's possible you're incorrectly referring to the early Mutant ability ESP here. This is actually a pretty useful ability, but understandably a lot of beginners are mistaken about what it does because it's not obvious. It's actually a shield, but unlike shield items which give a blocked message when a physical attack is deflected, enemies targeting the ESP user have a very high chance of missing with physical attacks. It's pretty handy to have in a Mutant-heavy team if your frontliner gets it, and it's one of the more common abilities to get for Mutants, so it can be useful in the right circumstances.
It's pretty easy to figure out what abilities are worthwhile and which are too unusual or gimmicky to be worthwhile. Also, the class system encourages replaying the game a few times with different combinations, so eventually players naturally learn what's good and what can be ignored.
Okay hi hello I was just listening through your series synopsis again while doing a comical amount of dishes and uuhhh, did you unlist your video on World of FF and Explorers? Would be curious to see them
I did, but they are unlisted not deleted, i thought they were still available to view through playlists so i may have done something wrong or misunderstood. They are unlisted because i plan to redo them at some point. FFExplorers i have a 3ds cspture card so i can actually record footage instead of trialer grabs, and world of FF got its maxima update... thst and im just not proud of the video haha. Will look into this tomorrow as it is midnight for me right now
Resetting the game because you lose a particular Mutant ability you liked is overkill - play them as a spellcaster who can take advantage of Mana but only has 4 item slots. Even without ever using special abilities, having access to the spells is alone worth losing 4 item slots. The special abilities for a Mutant in FFL can be treated as a bonus, rather than relied on as a core part of their moveset (and the spellbooks generally have higher damage multipliers than the equivalent Mutant/Enemy skill). Spellcasting items in FFL are particularly inexpensive compared to FFL2 and become financially trivial to obtain by the second world. You practically never have to worry about what Mutant abilities you have at any given time, because you'll always have access to Wands or spellbooks which are more than sufficient.
In FFL2, Humans and Mutants both have access to spells (Humans actually have slightly faster Mana growth), but because items cost considerably more relative to how much money you can get from fights, Mutants are still more useful for saving money, as well as ending up being way more powerful later on due to how tweaks to their special ability system worked, specials being relatively more powerful than in FFL1, and how they can gain DEF naturally far more quickly than Humans.
Holy moly ryuji sasai looks a lot like junichi masuda.
Doesnt he though xD corrected the mistake in the description
@@StilesReviews Aaaaah sorry! XD
Haha no problem! Im still kicking myself for this mistake xD i even made fun of myself for it in my Mystic Quest video!
I played Final Fantasy Legend 1 when it was new so I have a tolerance for it that many newer players probably don't. I like it but admit 2 is better. But 2 has some end-game bosses that are rough. I have beaten 1 (without the chainsaw cheat) but not 2.
These were some of the 1st I played, Legends 1,2,3. Looking back, I'd consider playing 3 again. I'm on the fence for 2, and 1 would be a waste of my time. If I remember right, I just camped out in early areas, bought stats to the max, then bulldozed through the game.
(some nonsense about SoM being overrated).
Wrongo doggo... It very much earns it's classic status. A few flaws, but overall a fantastic experience, and it earns it's pedigree.
A lot of people say that but still haven't been able to explain why.
so...uh the collection came out today
It did indeed
This is an older video so I don't know if this has been mentioned, In "Adventure", the skeletons drop keys, and there are skeletons in every dungeon, The chests appear pretty frequently, I think it can still be soft-locked but when low on keys, grinding one or two when one sees a skeleton works pretty well,
Yeah i screwed up there. Another reviewer made the point about getting stuck and i took it as fact when i shouldnt have. There is a lot about this video that i wish i had done better, but you live and learn. Thanks for giving it a chance! Most of my other stuff is better, i promise lol.
No, you can't get permanently locked in Final Fantasy Adventure by running out of keys. There should always be a room with skeleton monsters and bubble monsters where the skeletons drop keys and the bubbles drop mattock.
Yeah im pretty sure i was incorrect on this. Id heard it else where and assumed it to be true but have never had it happen to me personally. My bad, sorry for the mistake
@@StilesReviews I hope you were able to finish it
Oh ive finished the game several times, i love it!
@@StilesReviews "oh, nevermind" -Emily Litella
Interesting. Are you looking for Game Boy recommendations?
Reccomendations are always fun, I may find something I haven't heard of before. I can't gauruntee that I will cover said games, but you never know. What did you have in mind?
Alright, I'll recommend some lesser-known ones worth trying out then:
Amazing Penguin
Battle Bull
Cosmo Tank
Dexterity
Go! Go! Tank
Ninja Taro
Snow Brothers
Tail 'Gator
Trax
Tumble Pop
electricmastro Awesome! You are right, I have heard of exactly none of these lol.
well well well well well done my amigo.
Thanks so much for watching! Glad you enjoyed it!
8:42
Well, tenacity it's not, since this game came out in 1989 while the Glory of Heracles came out in 1987 and that was among the earliest RPGs of where you must defeat an evil God aka Hades.
Also, I don't know why but it sounds to me like you don't like games back then when they were made on lesser technology and had simpler mechanics and story.
If anything I honestly prefer my games to be straight forward while also has a little bit of depth into them.
And I greatly prefer the older games aesthetic as opposed to a lot of modern games.
I like having to use my brain to fill in the story by talking to NPC and not just having it told from a bunch of cutscenes. I like exploring the abstracted overworlds while only just moving in 4 directions,
I like reading the text as opposed to just hearing it since it's like reading the novel.
I like exploring complex dungeons. having to face many enemies that appear randomly. defeating a lot of enemies and I get rewarded with money and levels the more I do it. and in a way, I find it impressive how a lot of older games are able to fit this amount of content. and I keep discovering RPGs that never made it out in the west and they were on the NES and SNES.
And while nowhere as well known as DQ or even Final Fantasy, I got to discover so much of them, and some of them I like more than even the FF series back in the 8 to 16-bit days.
But that may just be my taste in how I enjoyed RPGs.
Ohh good point with glory of heracles. Should have specofoed game wherr you kill a creator god, but even then my statement could still be inaccurate, i admit. Thats really cool to hear what games you enjoy, i also love a lot of older RPG titles from the era, and a lot of the things you say you like are things i have applauded in other games, i just dont think the legend game sin particular were all that well designed. Interesting but very janky. Either way, thanks again for watching and commenting!
@@StilesReviews That cool, I haven't really decided when I'm going to play The older SaGa games since at the moment I'm focusing on more niche entries such as Shinsenden, SD Keiji Blader, Madara, and maybe Mother at some point.
But yeah The Glory of Heracles was actually a series that I discovered by myself and I have played all of them except for the 2008 DS game that I will get into at some point.
In fact, I was surprised by just how much fun I've had with them.
So much so that by the time I reach the end of the 3rd game I changed my avatar from Exdeath to the Main Character in Heracles 3. and Heracles 3 may just have my favorite soundtrack, characters, and narrative from any other RPG game that I have played.
Tjeuve been on my radar for a while a shave many many games in the backlog haha. You have definitely played more titles thwn i have though! Keep on gaming!
@@StilesReviews I've played them On Vizzed.com since it has a lot of fan translated games and it even has a speed button to make certain grinding sections easier but yeah thanks!
Awesome video, really high-quality stuff. I played all of these in the past except AoM and I'm suddenly feeling the urge to fix that...
15:38 re: FFL2 being better because "no debilitating bugs/reliance on RNG"
lol no
Yes, Mutant abilities in FFL1 are annoying in how they work, but use them as a 4 item slot spellcaster and just ignore their abilities. Problem solved~ They work fantastic and FFL1's abilities tend to be weaker compared to items as well as FFL2 ability counterparts anyways.
www.gamefaqs.com/boards/585710-final-fantasy-legend-ii/41893465
FFL2 is a mess of bugs. And several are seriously debilitating and will be felt by players to a considerable extent. FFL1 by comparison is buggy, but its bugs are generally not detrimental to the game to any serious degree when you're aware of them and are easily worked around (such as the charming Saw bug where chainsaw works on enemies with high defense better than on enemies with low defense).
1) Gold drop rates are garbage due to a bug. From left to right, enemy groups in battle drop gold, and are checked for a meat drop. Checks stop as soon as a meat drops, which means if meat is dropped by the first enemy group, the other two don't drop their gold. If the second enemy group drops meat, the last group doesn't. This causes you to consistently miss out on gold you should have earned from enemies and generally makes FFL2 a lot more grindy for earning cash, especially if you're playing a team with a lot of Humans who don't have rechargeable abilities.
2) Stat growth is messed up. Specifically, Mutant growth rates have a bug and so they basically can't gain Strength (it grows at the same rate tiny rate which a Human's Def does) whereas they were supposed to have about equal probability of gaining all four stats. Also, if you get your HP too high (1024 HP or higher) it becomes impossible to gain other stats due to a bug (this happens if you raise HP up and right before it hits 999, use a Body potion to raise max HP).
3) Stat growth is tied to current stat values, not base values. This means that if you equip equipment that raises a stat, such as the Giant equipment to raise Strength, it becomes much harder to level up that stat. You actually have to unequip such items if you want to level up your stats, as having lower stats in what you're trying to raise makes it easier to level up. It may be intentional and not a bug, but it's very, very annoying and makes levelling up actually a fairly big headache compared to FFL1.
4) Using Teleport during the Dragon Races (by learning it as a Mutant from Dunamis or Venus) triggers the infamous and hilarious Dragon Race Bug where you can fly around areas of the map you're never meant to be able to access by literally flying over tiles you normally can't walk over.It's amazingly fun and silly to do though.
5) The Trash Can glitch, which allows you to get items by 'using' the trash can as if it were an item, based on the Magi you have, and which Magi you have equipped, and which can permanently screw a savefile as it messes with the remaining Magi number (so if you run too low to access the next world, it's game ending).
6) The confusion ailment is buggy as hell and causes oddities to item uses remaining on equipment when your characters are confused. When you or an enemy use a martial art ability while confused, things can get especially wacky as suddenly the attack hits for 5 digit damage!
7) None of the Elemental Magi you can equip (Fire, Ice, Thunder, Poison) work as they're supposed to. Fire Magi ends up being the best to use of these, followed by Thunder Magi.
I have FINALLY had a chance to sit down and Properly watch your video. I seen it once but since I was distracted at the time with other things happening in the background I couldnt focus on what was said. Now that I have... I hate you. I really want to go play these again. That said I only did play the remakes and fan translated versions. But the charm of the old B&W is really cool, and that is the reason I passed them up the first time because I believed the game wouldn't translate well looks wise on the GB. Stupid me. This was highly interesting and entertaining learning the history of these games. Thanks again for another great video brother. :D
lol Glad you enjoyed the video. I really did get sucked into the Black and White.. what's funny is that after staring at it long enough in the dark, looking at the real world seemed even more vibrant than it normally does lol. I don't know that I will ever want to play through these games again (besides Final Fantasy adventure, or, of course, covering the SaGa games) buuuuut I mostly enjoyed my time with them.
What? Cyborgs and beasts rocked! It was easy to get lost in 3, though.
Wish they bring this to retro console on switch better late then never
High quality content for your amount of subs & views
Thanks, it's greatly appreciated!
I literally thought the same thing once I finished the video.
This is great content, thank you for entertaining me.
Thank you for watching! I'm glad you enjoyed the video!
Different strokes, I guess. I love the YOLO randomness of FFL1. I always take along two mutants and a monster just so I can challenge myself. Just gotta keep those control freak, micromanaging RPG nerd instincts in check and roll with the punches.
Glad you enjoy it. At some point i want to play the remakes. The WSC version of SaGa and the DS remakes of SaGa 2 and 3. I feel like there was potential and that remakes could really bring out the good ideas.
@@StilesReviews I suppose it's a little like how a segment of the Zelda fan base was violently opposed to disposable weapons in Breath of the Wild. The designers clearly intended for you to take it in stride. When one weapon breaks, just snatch up whatever's close to hand and keep swinging away. No biggie.
Some people just do not get on with that degree of compulsory spontaneity.
@@willmistretta I hated the breaking weapons in BotW, but I'm going to enjoy playing the series again over and over and over. I need to play the first over - I don't like the mutant male I chose.
This is a nice video, very well done. But I hate that you play with filters on. They drive me nuts.
Glad you enjoy the video! Thanks for watching! I enjoy using filters, Pixelization and jagged polygons annoy me to no end. We all have our own tastes, and since I'm playing these games for my own enjoyment they'll definitely be sticking around (They being filters).
Stiles' Reviews that's understandable. I prefer the crisp look of the original sprites. The smoothing just muddles the intention for me.
Stiles' Reviews though, hopefully not sounding like a jerk, then you talk about the graphics of these old games, I think you should get a bit of unfiltered footage so you can show how it would look originally.
A Valid point. Really My intention is to reflect what I consider is the BEST way to play these games, which does come down to personal taste. When playing a game on a screen that is quite literally 100 times bigger than the original intended monitor, (Though that will vary for others whom are clearly using different sized screens to view this) I feel filters are most definitely the way to go. Besides, I doubt the 'intent' of these games was to be pixelated, they were pixelated because that is all the technology they had at the time, not as a stylistic choice.
Not coming off as a jerk by the way, I'm simply stating why I do what I do, I aprpeciate the feedback, this is just one of the times that I happen to disagree.
Remasters, anti-aliasing and filters are now the norm, and while some people may not enjoy that thought process, it's the way I like to handle things. In a lot of my other videos (Primarily the other SSS of Final Fantasy titles) I stress looking for the best versions, and for me the use of emulators (Under legal circumstances) is the best way thanks to save states, filters and Control options. Not taking advantage of these possible advantages doesn't make sense to me when they exist. Most importantly they make recording clean footage a lot easier ^^'
Sorry, just continuing to explain my extended thought process.
Edit: In other words, because I feel I explained it poorly, There is no 'Accurate' protrayal of what these games look like unless I hold a camera up to an original Gameboy, where the pixelization won't be obvious anyway because the screen is so small. With that in mind I do what I can to make the games/footage look as presentable as possible given modern technological advancements. If the games had a decent color hack, I'd likely be using those as well. Same goes for PC games and Texture packs. I feel a concession I CAN make is to clarify in follow up videos how I'm playing the game and under what conditions so people clearly know I'm using filters though. That is a good point and I thank you for it.
The first one of these I played was FFL3. I'm glad SAGA Colection came out.
Great reviews of these games! I think it is a shame we never saw the remakes of the first three Saga games on DS localized. I technically am not as fond of the first three Saga games as I am more fond of the Romancing Saga games, anyway. Though, there is something to be said about the unique gameplay that Saga has, and it is great that after all these years, Square is still willing to take risks by bringing the series overseas and making more. I hear that Scarlet Grace is actually pretty good. As for Final Fantasy Adventure, I have played the original, Adventure of Mana, and Sword of Mana. And I sort of prefer Sword of Mana because it conforms aspects of the game to the mana series like taking out the Chocobo. I also think Ys and Zelda did the top down adventure game better. But I really like Secret of Mana (I wonder if you cringed), Legend of Mana and Trials of Mana so I guess it worked itself out. Really love the colorful world of Mana games.
Actually, are you planning on doing the entire Saga and Mana franchises too eventually? I doubt you would miss an opportunity to rip into Secret of Mana and shatter the nostalgia in people's hearts (even though you managed to do that in this video). I kid. I kid. But again, awesome reviews. I watched this before and didn't comment on it so I watched it again so I could comment on it.
Thanks for watching and commenting. This is one of ,y older vids now xD. I think i mentioned in the video that ive already covered the entire Mana series im text form.. and i dont think i can bear sitting through most of them again... that said.. i do have SOMETHING Mana related in the cards for the future... cause Trials of Mana remake is a thing that is happening...as for SaGa.. no idea as these are the only three ive played. I have no knowledge or experience with the other games so i dont know if i could bring something interesting to the table or not.
@@StilesReviews Well just know that I will comment on them all eventually, given time. Lol Yeah, I read your Mana reviews (I think). You linked me to them at some point. I actually started replaying Secret of Mana with a friend recently. Though, I am not really a Secret of Mana fan in the same vein as the people that grew up with it, which is why I don't really care when you rip into it. I grew up on the PS1 so you ripping into FFVII, Xenogears or Chrono Cross is what would send me over the edge (not really). I am sure the game gets cred for being one of the only co-op JRPGs at the time (aside from its successor). Though, I don't find Secret of Mana Chrono Trigger or FFVI remarkable so I wonder why it often gets grouped in with those. As for the Saga games, I am sure you are preoccupied with the FF games anyway. Of course, you can tackle the Saga series later if you want. And if not, that is fine too. It is awesome just seeing reviews for the first three here! And looking forward to a Trials of Mana remake video (and the inevitable FFVII remake video).
I don't like reviews that make it seem like the reviewer's personal preferences are to be taken as a universal truth, i. e. 'I don't like it, ergo it IS bad.' I do get that reviews are subjective, yet the choice of wording is aggravating. It is great to state why someone likes or dislikes something - definitely better than just plain on hate on things or fawn over them. Yet one man's trash is another man's treasure. And I am really fed up with (as an example) the baseless hate on FF II and its levelling system. I personally liked it a lot and thought it made great sense - in the same way you would have to keep training your language skills (e. g. Japanese) in real life otherwise you would forget almost everything, or have to train your body really hard to get good at a certain thing. It was refreshing and certainly something different than just grinding an abstract thing like 'experience point's that you would spend on whatever skill or ability you so chose, without actually training it. But that is just my opinion. I would not go around and constantly hate on Exp systems and make everyone that enjoys them feel miserable. If you feel the need to do that - well, since you obviously revere feedback so much.. that was my feedback on why I didn't enjoy this video and stopped it midway. Good luck for the future. :)
Thanks for watching regardless, sorry it wasnt your cup of tea
So happy I stumbled upon this. I remember playing “some” of these games as a kid back in the early ‘90s. I never really had a shot at Adventure but now feel compelled to really give it a try now. Thanks.
I tried playing saga 1, the wonderswan remake, but it doesn't seem to a fix the underlying problems much like all the remakes of final Fantasy 2 fail to do. I gave the first few hours of saga 2 on the DS a shot and I enjoy it, I might save it to play later after I finish legend of Dragoon. I'll play final Fantasy adventure when I get around to playing it as part of the collection of mana on my switch since it seems to be a faithful Port of the game boy version. You think they would have made it sword of Mana due to the way it fits into continuity but whatever
It's been decades since I last played, and still managed to play through without any difficulty. I also had no idea about the Saw "bug" until this video, so I didn't use it at any point.
The monster mechanic is exactly the thing I missed the most.
In FFL2, I miss being able to buy upgrades for my humans. I could easily over level and have 0 issue with it.
EDIT: I hope Mystic Quest gets brought to Switch, as well. It's simple, yes, but I still really had fun with it.
I want to try Final Fantasy Mystic Quest SO MUCH, but ever since the shutdown of the Wii's virtual console, they haven't made it available on any (legal) modern platform. :(
I forgot to post this earlier. Partly in response to your whole "resetting constantly to keep mutant abilities", and partly for personal amusement, I went and beat the game with a 4 Mutant team that disregarded not only mutant abilities but also any items that use the Mana stat:
gamefaqs.gamespot.com/boards/563273-the-final-fantasy-legend/76256868
Basically, mutants still tear the game up thanks to their relatively speedy growth rate. The lack of magical equipment is a significant disadvantage since magical items are generally way more powerful in FFL1, but their innate abilities aren't powerful enough to ever really matter or make a difference (equipment with elemental resistances is much easier to obtain than in the sequel, and generally more powerful such as So-Cho's Headband).
They made that many games, there was nothing Final about it -- if you know that ref you are awesome
What platform ROM/ filter did you get there FFL1 from?
Oh man that was a long time ago, i honestly dont remember.
Have played through all three Legends games and definitely didn't hate them. There's a ton of bugginess in the first game, the mechanics are at least interesting and I liked the parallels between FFL1 and FF1. Can't say I didn't enjoy my time, but I can definitely not recommend them. I feel like it takes a certain retro game appreciator to plow through these today. But then again, I did enjoy them so...
I definitely have an appreciation for them and ive grown as a critic/reviewer since i made these so i dont agree with all of my points, but there is definitely a... clunkiness barrier to overcome? Thats the best way i can currently describe it
@@StilesReviews Yeah. I kinda gotta accept that older RPGs tend to have entire sections of their mechanics that just don't work as intended as well. Like saws in FFL1. My biggest complaints were that in the first game, it felt like endgame, all build roads lead to the same place every time. Your party tends to be most successful if it's built a certain way, and absolutely impossible when built in most other specific character configurations. FFL2 felt the most comfortable, interesting and innovative to me, though screw Apollo. Seriously. (The bit with Odin once you've died once is really cool though, gotta admit.) And FFL3 felt like it drug on for a while, and there were several plot issues that made me feel like I was dolling out mulligans left and right such as the cloning thing with Dion at the end. And I also surprisingly did not like the leveling system in 3. Going back to a normal level progression style made things less... I dunno. Just less. BUT that Talon theme though... FFL3 has a excellent soundtrack.
can you link that person's standup set please
Added a link in the description!
So i'm a retro gamer. But final fantasy is a series I've literally never played one game of.. i'm guessing the best way to start is the first ff on the NES?
Thanks for watching my stuff! Honestly i probably wouldnt start with FFI on NES unless you are already into retro RPGs like Dragon Quest. I'd say start with FFIV, FFVI, FFVII or FFX depending on the 'era' of FF you think would appeal to you most. The games arent connected story wise, so it doesnt really matter which you play first.
Which consoles are those for? I'm really only into NES, SNES and game boy honestly.
FFIV and FFVI are both on SNES and have had decent remakes for the GBA
@@StilesReviews oh ok cool. Thanks for the recommendation 👍
No problem. Should respecify: The GBA has remakes of FF 1,2,4,5 and 6, and they are all decent versions, so it is a good system for all of those.
many of the issues you griped about were more ore less normal back then. i went through them without a guide book back then and beat them.
im listening to you going hahaha modern gamer problems
A lot of things I complained about have since been fixed in the medium for a reason. The goal wasnt to say whether or not they were good back then but whether or not they still hold up now.
That said there are a couple points looking back that i made that i no longer agree with, the comment about weapon purchases in shops being a gamble because stats arent displayed being the main one. The booklets that came with the game did indeed give you a list of item stats so you can make an informed decision,
This in itself is something im torn on though... the instruction booklet showing me every possible weapon and item i can find in the game takes away a lot of the excitement for me because i will never be surprised by something i find in the game. There is no 'holy shit this is such a good sword i found out of nowhere!' Moments, which can be disappointing to me personally as i love that element of discovery.
I know it was a limitation of the time and devs hadnt figured out how to put all that text in game yet, but there are still pros and cons worth discussing.
The SaGa games were not totally playable but hell at least they attempted different stuff. SaGa 2 is easily my favorite Game Boy Game of all time. Even with the crazy bugs and glitches the replay value was still on point. Yes, you can just destroy the game using 4 bots, but there are also other combinations that can be used as well for a decent experience. This is possible even with SaGa 1, although yes - if you use more than like 2 humans in SaGa 1, you'll need to grind out a lot of money to buy stats. But that's easy enough to do about an hour in where you get about 400-600 gil on average. SaGa 3 is the best of them tho.
And I didn't know they redid Seiken 1 in the same way that Seiken 2 was made. People raged over the Seiken 2 remake, but I thought it was alright and a slight improvement. Seiken 2 wasn't horrible, but all things considered it was definitely not the best of Square's 1993-1996 Golden Age. Wasn't the worst either; that goes to Secret of Evermore.
First of all, thank you for watching and commenting!
I also felt the Secret of Mana Remake was better than the original.. though I've never been fond of the original ^^'. It's been a while since this video, but I still mostly enjoyed the Legend trilogy, especially part 2.
A little late to the game but just found this video. I watched the whole thing before realizing how sadly underserviced your subscriber base is. Quality production and content throughout. You sir, have been red buttoned.
Thank you very much! I'm glad that you enjoyed the video and I greatly appreciate the compliment! Working on a couple of big projects now, the most notable being Chrono Trigger. Thanks again, comments like these always make my day!
SaGa 1 is one of the most miserable experience I've had woth an RPG, probably one of the few that I actually despise on an emotional level (others include dragon quest 1 and Wizardry 1) to the point I don't even have the heart to critique it.
I give it a 6/10. Wholly recommend.
FFL 2 had the best story of the Legend Trilogy
Dont knock knight quest too quickly
It introduced me to rpgs
Amazing research and great video, but why the monochromatic format aside from the game footage? Especially when at least FFL3 had a specific gbc palate coded in.
TM Censor Thank you for watching and even more for commenting! I honestly didnt know there was a color palette encoded into FFL3. Aside from that i was doing it more just as a fun gimmick, a sort of video experiment. I will look into that more on future GB games because that is something im very much interested in!
I'm preeeeeetty sure it is, considering it changes from scene to scene, albeit still sharing the same palette limits as the non-enhanced Gameboy games. I was replaying it recently, but on my SP this time, and noticed the scene-based palette changes.
Either way, keep up the good work. You got one more subscriber here!
Other decent to good rpgs for GB were ultima and great greed. Ultima more action rpg but great greed is a solid ecologically themed jrpg
FFL1 had my favorite story. Grab 4 mutants if you want to finish faster.. FFL2 had the funnest grinding, as long as you take 4 humans. If you time it right, you can make enough money as you are on the verge of breaking an old weapon. Fight the enemies who drop weapons. You will be ok. If you want for low cost or attack power, grind your punch and kick.
Certain enemies will drop keys 👍
i love legends i and ii mainly for the same reason i love final fantasy ii that being its stat system even though my reason for loving it in final fantasy ii isnt present in any of the saga games (how easy it is to break the system and become vastly overpowered) both are my third most replayed gameboy games i just love the saga series as a whole and much like dragon quest i wish it was more popular outside japan because imo both are infinitely better than final fantasy is as a whole after all imo after v final fantasy hasnt reached the same heights as those first 5 masterpieces outside a few exceptions like dimensions the after years and the original tactics while every dragon quest and saga game are at worst great games in my eyes
Hey, some good content about SaGa~
Thanks for watching, im glad you enjoyed it!
Too bad you told us about the one hit weapon. Thats kind of a spoiler.
I played the first one waaaay back luckly, but don't remember what I did exactly, as its been ,what? Thirty years?
Hopefully they adjusted that weapon, so it doesn't do that, but now I'm gonna have that knowledge in my head when I replay it on that Collection for switch. So it'll probably influence my decisions now. Gonna try to not let it. Gonna try to just go by what I see in game.
I was gonna watch the rest of the video, but it seemed you were gonna say something else that I didn't want to be told. Maybe when I finish them.
I did appreciate the first warning to skip though.
... I think I played all these. Dont think I have the origionals still, but I might have some of the old booklets for them, as I saved them each in an envelope and stuck them in a little bank pouch.
I'm either gonna try to find these or look online for the origionals to get the info they should have gave us with the collection this time.
Man . . . . a.
Ma...yonaise xD
Who is that comedian?
>says SoM is overrated
+1 like and subbed
Thumbs down rating for filters.
That's cool. You play games your way for your enjoyment, I'll play games my way for mine. That is the point of playing video games, after all.
As a person who has only gotten into the Mana series in the last few months at age 24 I have to agree with you that Secret of Mana is overrated. The infinite stun locks while you are cornered is terrible. I have never found a video review where the reviewer who loves Secret of Mana didn't play the game with a friend as a child. The people who are hating on the remake with all of its gameplay improvements are not playing the game with friends. It seems that they are deluded that the game they cherished is flawed so it's the remakes fault. Secret of Mana is the worst Japanese action rpg on the Super Nintendo, Seiken Densetsu 3,Star Ocean,Tales of Phantasia,Terrinigma,Illusion of Gaia and Alcheast out due Secret of Mana in every way.
THANK YOU... I thought I was alone in this, especially regarding the remake bit. I haven't completed the remake, but I couldn't imagine it being any worse from a gameplay stance. (Some of those music remixes are awful though.. thankfully they let you stick to the originals). Speaking of, I LOVE Secret of Mana's OST... and I feel like the praise it gets is spot on even to this day.
That said.. Nostalgia can be a pain. (I'm trying not to make this condescending... I like a LOT of games that are objectively bad, hell I defended I am Setsuna) but I firmly stand with the premise that there is a difference between Enjoyment and Quality.
Also.. I've never played Alcheast... I'm going to look into it now.
Thank you for watching, by the way. I hope you enjoyed it!
Incredibly overrated Secret of Mana!? APOLOGIZE!!! 😡
I calls 'em as I sees 'em. No need to apologize for the truth ;). Joking aside, thanks for watching, I'm glad you enjoy Secret of Mana, it's just definitely not for me for a number of reasons.