Final Fantasy Adventure - Gameboy

Final Fantasy Adventure for the original Game Boy is one of the most historically significant games ever released on the handheld — not merely a beloved classic in its own right, but the very first entry in what would become the entire Mana franchise. Known in Japan as Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden and in Europe as Mystic Quest, the game was directed by Koichi Ishii — who envisioned a new kind of action-RPG that would depart entirely from Final Fantasy's turn-based formula and draw inspiration instead from the top-down adventure of The Legend of Zelda.

The story follows Sumo, a young warrior enslaved by the tyrannical Dark Lord of Glaive Castle and forced to fight monsters for sport, who escapes captivity and embarks on a quest to find the legendary Gemma Knight Bogard. Along the way he encounters Fuji, a mysterious maiden connected to the sacred Mana Tree — the source of all life in the world — whose protection from the Dark Lord and his sinister sorcerer adviser Julius becomes the heart of the adventure. The game features chocobos, Moogles, and other familiar Final Fantasy elements woven through a world built around the mythology of the Mana Tree and themes of sacrifice that would define the Seiken Densetsu series for decades to come.

Gameplay is presented in a top-down perspective across a seamlessly connected world map, with towns to explore, dungeons to delve, and NPCs who provide clues and sell equipment. Combat is real-time and directly controlled: Sumo attacks, dodges, and uses items and magic on the fly with no battle screen transitions. Each weapon type — sword, axe, chain, lance, and more — has a completely different attack pattern and reach, and many enemies are immune to specific weapon types, forcing players to swap regularly and think tactically about their loadout. One item or magic spell can be equipped at a time alongside a weapon, and a full suite of spells including fire, ice, and healing are learned and upgraded as the game progresses. The experience and leveling system is simple but satisfying, and the dungeons are filled with puzzles and hidden passages that give the game genuine depth beyond its approachable surface. Composer Kenji Ito delivered a soundtrack widely praised as one of the finest on the original Game Boy hardware.

Originally released in Japan on June 28, 1991 and in North America later that year, Final Fantasy Adventure was rereleased in North America by Sunsoft in 1998. GamesRadar named it the 13th best Game Boy game ever made, and it was praised by Kotaku as a "really great action-RPG" even decades after release. It spawned three remakes — Sword of Mana for Game Boy Advance in 2003, a Japan-only mobile remake in 2006, and Adventures of Mana for iOS, Android, and PS Vita in 2016 — and the original game was included in the Collection of Mana on Nintendo Switch in Japan in 2017 and worldwide in 2019. The original Game Boy cartridge remains the purest and most collectible form of the game that started it all, and a must-have for fans of the Mana series and Game Boy history alike.

Japanese Title: 聖剣伝説 〜ファイナルファンタジー外伝〜 (Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden)
Language: English
Rating: N/A (pre-ESRB release)
Platform: Game Boy (original)
Genre: Action RPG
Players: 1 player
Developer: Square Co., Ltd.
Publisher: Square Co., Ltd. / Sunsoft (1998 rerelease)
Release Year: 1991 (North American release: November 1991)

Game Boy cartridges are region-free. This U.S. copy will play on any original Game Boy, Game Boy Pocket, Game Boy Color, Game Boy Advance, or Game Boy Advance SP system.