This time I will review an unfairly maligned game, Final Fantasy Legend. It's not really that bad, it's just not that good compared to other Final Fantasy games. But there are two good reasons for this, first, it's the first game of it's series and first games, especially back then when everything was new and nobody really knew what they were doing, generally sucked because they needed time to get the kinks out. Second, this game pales next to other Final Fantasy titles because it's not really Final Fantasy, it's Saga, an unrelated series made by the same company, Squaresoft. The mechanics are a little screwy, you make a party of four characters which can be either human, mutant or monster. Humans and mutants can be either male or female, not that it really makes a huge difference, monsters are just whatever. Mutants are arguably the best since they are the only ones who can use spells. Mutants also have innate abilities and can equip weapons and armor like humans, their only drawbacks are that they have four fewer inventory slots reserved for their special abilities and they can't use stat items which only work for humans, but they are also the only type that increase stats all on their own. Monsters can't equip anything, and their stats don't normally increase, but they can transform from eating meat dropped by other monsters at the end of battle and that will increase stats and abilities which makes them the least expensive because they don't really require any real maintenance. Humans basically suck, they can't use magic, they don't have innate abilities that restore with sleep at the inn like mutants and monsters do, and their stats only increase from items which are rather expensive. Also, every attack, weapon, magic, or innate ability, has limited uses. Innate abilities restore automatically, but weapons and spells have to be repurchased and some rare ones need to be used sparingly because of this. Armor lasts forever, but unfortunately monsters can't use them and there are no differentiated slots so your armor will be taking slots that potions or back-up weapons could be in instead.
Now the mechanics can be frustrating but once you get used to it, it's all about the story which isn't really that bad. The whole story starts with a dreamer who wants to climb the tower to Paradise, but the door won't open until you find it's mysterious key. A stop by the guild gets you some partners who face the challenge of the three kings. Each king has a relic that must be returned to a statue. The easiest is arguably the King of Armor who will gladly give you his armor if you rescue the woman he loves. The weird part is that the woman is represented by a slime/eye sprite so he's got some weird tastes, and she has apparently been kidnapped by a gang of lizards led by a poison toad, so the story really makes no sense, but completing it will get you the armor. The next step would be the King of Sword who refuses to give it up unless you kill him first. Finally the King of Shield, who will also refuse to give up his shield, but once you have both of the other relics, he will die and his steward will frame you while he runs away with the treasure but after a short chase, you will fight him and claim the final relic which you can return to the Hero Statue which provides you with the Black Sphere and also summons the fiend Gen-bu the Black Turtle who refuses to let you go without a fight.
The Black Sphere lets you enter the tower and you can go up five floors before you hit another locked door and another world. This second world is made up of islands separated by water and the only way to move between them is one tiny magic floating island. Once you get this island, you must look for two orbs each protected by a dragon. The Blue Orb is being held by Ryu-O, (literally, Dragon King) who takes the form of an old man who simply gives you a riddle and if you can come back with the answer he will give you the Blue Orb. So far so good, but the Red Orb is in a sunken shrine where it is guarded by Sei-Ryu, the Azure Dragon who is not as nice as Ryu-O and fights you for it. As it turns out, the two orbs make the Blue Sphere and opens the door which allows you to go another five floors before facing another locked door and another world.
The third world is actually pretty cool, it's all in the clouds, and to get around you will need a glider. It's also actually got it's own real story line, an interesting addition halfway through the game. Byak-ko the White Tiger rules the world as a tyrant and wants the White Sphere. There is a rebel group led by two twin sisters who may actually have the White Sphere. The coolest part of this sub-plot is that instead of the fiend just appearing at the end he actually has an active role in the story. Of course you will defeat Byak-ko after a convoluted chain of events and claim the White Sphere to progress up to the fourth and final world before you enter Paradise.
The fourth world actually has a pretty cool plot too, and also involves the fiend heavily. Su-Zaku the Vermillion Bird terrorizes a post-apocalyptic wasteland and attacks the player almost right away. He is invincible so you can't fight him, he will kill you unless you run. Soon you meet another rebel group of bikers who appear to be the cast of Akira. They will explain that Su-Zaku's invincibility is due to a shield that can be brought down if you can get to an abandoned nuclear power plant and collect the last materials to create an anti-shield that will render Su-Zaku vulnerable. Once you pull this off, Su-Zaku retreats to his "final dungeon" and you can fight him for the Red Sphere just like you fought the other fiends.
Finally this leads you to the final climb to the top floor where you meet Ashura who claims to control the fiends. After you defeat Ashura you fall back to the bottom of the tower and have to start all over. but this time you get to skip all of the extra activities and just fight the fiends, the bad news is you still have to climb the same number of floors which gets very monotonous. At the top you meet the Creator, and he looks familiar. It turns out he's been checking in all along appearing to just be a normal human, but in fact it is, well, God. The real kicker is that everything was just a game to him to amuse himself by seeing how far mortals could make it. You are the first to get all the way to the end and find out the truth. Creator offers access to Paradise, but apparently your party gets pissed for getting yanked around and fights Creator. The ending is extreme, absurd, and fitting for the end of any anime.
One final note, the four fiends are actually the Four Holy Beasts from Asian mythology and represent the four elements, and the spheres correspond to their colors and elements. This made perfect sense in Japan, but sort of got lost in translation. All in all, it's not a terrible game, in fact in parts it's quite good for it's time, but unfortunately in other parts it drags and that probably is why most people don't like it. Personally I think it's worth playing if you can find a cheap copy, but don't go too far out of your way for it.
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