Final Fantasy Adventure

Final Fantasy Adventure (known as Mystic Quest in Europe) is a spin-off title from the main Final Fantasy series, released for the Game Boy handheld console. Becoming the first game of what would become the Mana video game series, it was marketed as a Final Fantasy title. However, its gameplay held more similarities to the Legend of Zelda games of that time. While a loose adaptation of Adventure was released for the Game Boy Advance as Sword of Mana, it would later gain a proper remake under the name Adventures of Mana.
==Gameplay==
thumb|left|A battle (GB).
The gameplay is similar to the original Legend of Zelda for the NES: the world is viewed from a bird's-eye view angle and comprises single screens that take up the entire viewing area. Saving is possible at any point. The player can interact with individuals within towns to gather information and buy or sell items and equipment.
Sumo progresses through a number of different areas, with a different goal in each location. The game features grasslands, a marsh, a coastal beach, a forest, deserts, snowfields, a mountainous region, and two small islands. Players are able to progress from area to area either by obtaining a key that opens the way or by finding the weapon that will allow Sumo to destroy whatever is blocking the path.
Enemies can be battled on the fields and inside dungeons to gain experience, GP, or randomly dropped items. Within dungeon areas are a number of puzzles that are required to be solved in order for the player to advance. The player starts with a sword and eventually gains an axe, a chain-flail, a spear, and a mace. Each of these weapons can be used to destroy certain features of the environment; e.g. the axe can cut down trees and open up new paths for Sumo.
The main character possesses several statistics, including hit points, power, and stamina, which can all increase upon gaining a level. Magic spells, which expend the character's MP, can be used to heal oneself or damage enemies. These spells can only be found in certain locations or obtained from other characters at specific plot intervals. In addition, the protagonist has a "will" gauge that affects his attack strength—the higher the gauge, the stronger his attack will be. The gauge fills up slowly over time, at a speed dictated by the character's "will level," but is emptied upon attacking. When the gauge is completely filled up, the next attack will be converted into a special attack, depending on the weapon equipped.
==Characters==
The names Sumo and Fuji are taken from the English manual and are the subsequently the default choice in the localization of the 3D remake, though both of these characters can be named by the player.
;Player Character
*Sumo - the protagonist of the story and the only playable character. He is joined during certain sections by secondary characters who provide essential assistance, however, they cannot be controlled.
;Guests
These guests will join at certain points, but cannot be controlled.
*Fuji - Fuji is a mysterious girl that has a pendant which is the key to the the power of Mana.
*Mysterious Man - Sumo meets him inside the Cave of Marsh. He immediately offers his help in finding the Mirror that can help him find the Fuji.
*Watts - Watts is a dwarf, he joins Sumo in finding the Silver so he'll be able to pass through Gaia Pass.
*Bogard - Bogard is a former Gemma Knight, but still powerful. He helps Sumo save Fuji inside the airship.
*Amanda - Sumo meets her at the beginning of the game, but he meets her again inside the Cave of Medusa to find the Tears of Medusa to free Lester from the curse cast by Davias.
*Lester - Lester is the brother of Amanda. Sumo sees him in the form of a parrot inside Davias' Mansion. He joins Sumo upon breaking the curse Davias put upon him.
*Marcie - Marcie is a robot built by Dr. Bowow. Marcie lived in the Dime Tower ever since it sank beneath the sand.
*Chocobo/Chocobot - Sumo finds its egg near north of Menos inside a forest and upon hatching, believes that Sumo is its mother. Sumo later meets Dr. Bowow and learns that chocobo's leg was wounded, he mechanized it, and names him Chocobot.
==Story==
The world is threatened by Dark Lord who is on a quest for the power of Mana which will, once obtained, allow him to rule supreme over the land. At his side is a mysterious wizard named Julius. Sumo, a gladiator whose parents were killed by Dark Lord, is imprisoned and forced to fight daily for the Dark Lord's personal entertainment. One day, Sumo escapes and by chance overhears the Dark Lord and Julius in their plans to seize the power of Mana. When they discover his escape, they chase him over a waterfall to what they think it is his death.
Having survived the fall, Sumo saves a mysterious young woman from monsters. She encourages him to help her find the magical objects needed to defeat Dark Lord in his quest for the Tree of Mana. They first journey to the nearby town of Topple to gather information.
One of the last Gemma Knights, Bogard, is now living as a hermit in the mountains. Bogard tells the two to seek out Cibba in Wendel. The pair's journey to Wendel takes them through a swamp and to a mysterious house called Kett. They spend the night there, but Fuji is captured by the master of the house, the vampire Mr. Lee. Sumo must find a mirror inside the Cave of Marsh, with the help of a Red Mage. With the mirror, he defeats the Kett's butler, enters the basement of the house, rescues Fuji and defeats Mr. Lee who turns out to be a vampire.
In Wendel, Cibba shows Fuji that she is descended from the Mana Family, which the Gemma Knights protected. But then Dark Lord's forces attack Wendel. The Red Mage offers to take Fuji to safety, but he reveals himself to be Julius and rides away with her in his airship.
With the help of the dwarves, Sumo makes it through Gaia Pass, meets up with Bogard and boards Glaive's Airship. They try to rescue Fuji, but Julius catches Sumo outside her cell window. He gets Fuji's pendant before Julius knocks him off the ship and down to the ground below.
Sumo lands in Menos, home to another former Dark Lord slave, Amanda. She steals the pendant and takes it to Jadd hoping she can barter it for her imprisoned brother Lester. Instead, Jadd's ruler Davias turns Lester into a parrot and forces Amanda to hunt for his mother, a Medusa whose tears can restore Lester. Sumo helps Amanda hunt down Medusa. They are unable to get any tears after defeating Medusa, but Amanda turns into a Medusa from the battle, forcing him to kill her and take her tears. Once Lester is returned to normal, he helps Sumo avenge Amanda by defeating Davias. With his last breath, Davias says he gave the pendant to Julius' pet bird, Garuda.
Lester's music clears away the poison gas outside Jadd, opening the path back up the mountains and to Dark Lord's castle, where Sumo rescues Fuji and battles Dark Lord for the pendant. After defeating Dark Lord, it is revealed Julius has the real pendant. He admits that he is the last descendant from the Vandole Empire, and he mesmerizes Fuji into chanting the spell that causes the Waterfall to flow upward. Sumo is push off the mountain while Julius and Fuji ride up the waterfall.
Sumo is rescued by a chocobo in the Crystal Desert, which takes him to Ish. Bogard has been here since he fell from the airship. The chocobo's legs broke from carrying him, but the town inventor, Dr. Bowow, replaces them with mechanical legs, allowing it to walk on water. Bogard tells Sumo to find Cibba, who has gone to the mountain city of Lorim. Lorim has been frozen by Kary, freezing all the townspeople and trapping Cibba in his room. He travels to the Cara Mountain Range and defeats Kary which breaks the spell and free everyone.
Cibba says to him that he must find the legendary sword Excalibur. In the floatrocks region to the northeast, Sumo finds a cave that takes him to an island in the southwest, though he first must get past the Kraken. In the island cave, Iflyte has what appears to be the legendary sword, but it is all rusty.
After beating Iflyte and getting the rusty sword. Cibba tells him to raise the Dime Tower in the Crystal Desert. Dr. Bowow directs him to the Cave of Ruins, but first he must defeat Lich for the Nuke spell. The spell helps open a cave in the desert. At the very bottom of this cave, an altar causes the Dime Tower to rise when Sumo holds up the rusty sword.
Inside the tower is a robot named Marcie, who helps him reach the top of the tower. At the very top, they must defeat Garuda, but the tower begins to fall after the battle. Marcie throws him from the tower to safety, going down with the tower. Sumo is now back at Glaive Castle and takes the waterfall up to the Temple of Mana.
At the end of the Temple of Mana is the Mana Shrine, where the spirit of Fuji's mother turns the rusty sword into Excalibur. In the sanctuary is the Tree of Mana, but Julius has succeeded in tapping into the tree's power. Julius first splits himself into three clones and then transforms into two different monsters before Sumo can finally defeat him for good. Defeating Julius causes the Tree of Mana to be destroyed. Fuji sacrifices herself to become the last Tree of Mana and preserve the world. Sumo then becomes her Gemma Knight and guardian.
==Music==
The Seiken Densetsu Original Sound Version was released in Japan alongside the game. Most of the tracks were composed by Kenji Itō, while track 16, "Chocobo Tanjou (Chocobo's Birth)", is credited to noted Squaresoft composer Nobuo Uematsu. Seiken Densetsu: Omoi wa Shirabe ni Nosete (Let Thoughts Ride On Knowledge), a set of arranged tracks, was also released the same year. Both albums were compiled into Seiken Densetsu: Sound Collections, originally released in 1995.
==Development==
Square Co., Ltd. trademarked the title Seiken Densetsu: The Emergence of Excalibur in 1987, intending to use it for a game project led by Kazuhiko Aoki for the Famicom Disk System. According to early advertisements, the game would consist of an unprecedented five floppy disks, making it one of the largest titles developed for the Famicom up until that point. Although Square solicited pre-orders for the game, Kaoru Moriyama, a former Square employee, affirmed that management canceled the ambitious project before it advanced beyond the early planning stages, possibly due to the company's close proximity to bankruptcy.
In October 1987, customers who had placed orders were sent a letter informing them of the cancellation and had their purchases refunded. The letter also suggested to consider placing an order on another upcoming Square role-playing game in a similar vein: Final Fantasy.
Four years later, in 1991, Squaresoft developed a Game Boy game under the working title Gemma Knights, and then revived the name they had trademarked back in 1987 and released the game as Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden, fusing the concepts of both games together. It was later released in Europe as Mystic Quest and Final Fantasy Adventure in North America.
In 1998, Sunsoft obtained the license for the game and re-released it along with the Final Fantasy Legend games.
In 2003 a loose adaptation of Final Fantasy Adventure was released for the Game Boy Advance handheld called Sword of Mana , making substantial changes to the story and removing any Final Fantasy elements, and it is not marketed as a Final Fantasy game unlike other releases. Owing to its substantial alterations, Sword of Mana is considered a distinct game from Final Fantasy Adventure.
Revealed during Square Enix's E3 2006 press conference, the game received an additional port for mobile phones in Japan and and released on August 16, 2006 for SoftBank's 3G network. It was later ported onto i-Mode distribution service on November 6, 2006 and EZweb distribution service on February 5, 2007. The gameplay of the port is said to be more like the original version of the game, but featuring updated graphics and sound. It also has an improved world map, and a new sickle. The 3D remake, released about ten years later, is relatively close in execution to this version and includes a Ring Menu navigation system based on Sword of Mana.
On September 17, 2015 at Tokyo Game Show, Square Enix announced a third, 3D remake of the game for PlayStation Vita, iOS, and Android for a winter release in Japan under its original title.http://jp.square-enix.com/seiken/ On January 8, 2016, Square Enix confirmed a localization of the remake for iOS and Android as Adventures of Mana, but not PlayStation Vita,http://jp.square-enix.com/seiken/en/ although Square Enix was gauging interest in a Vita release for the west.http://na.square-enix.com/us/blog/adventures-mana-released-iosandroid The game launched globally on February 4, 2016 for Android and iOS. The PS Vita version was released digitally in Europe on June 27, 2016, and a day later in North America. The game is also part of a Mana series anthology titled Collection of Mana for the Nintendo Switch system, first released in Japan on June 1, 2017 and converted for Western audiences June 11, 2019. 
==Final Fantasy Adventure II==
The second entry in the Mana series and sequel to Final Fantasy Adventure was initially advertised as Final Fantasy Adventure II in Nintendo Power and Final Fantasy Adventure 2 in Electronic Gaming Monthly. It would instead be localized as Secret of Mana.
NP Final Fantasy Adventure II.jpg|The 51st issue of Nintendo Power, page 67.
EGM Final Fantasy Adventure 2.jpg|The 45th issue of Electronic Gaming Monthly, April 1993, page 90.
==Packaging artwork==
FFA Japanese Cover.jpg|Japanese GB cover.
FFA Japanese Logo.jpg|Japanese logo.
FFA-box.jpg|North American GB cover.
FFA NA Rerelease Cover.jpg|North American GB Sunsoft Re-release cover.
Cover E (FFA).jpg|European GB cover.
AoM Logo.png|Global logo for Adventures of Mana remake.
==Citations==
==See also==
*Final Fantasy Adventure Concept Art
*Final Fantasy Adventure Translations
==External links==
*Wikipedia's entry on Final Fantasy Adventure
*Wikipedia's entry on Sword of Mana
*Sword of Mana at Fandom's Wiki of Mana
*Further information on the Mana franchise at Fandom's Wiki of Mana.
de:Mystic Quest
es:Final Fantasy Adventure
Category:Final Fantasy Adventure
Category:Related games
Category:Mana series