Final Fantasy Legend for Game Boy - Review | hungrygoriya

The Final Fantasy Legend for the Game Boy is a turn-based RPG I've wanted to play for a long time. It's a rebranding of the SaGa series for a North American audience and blends traditional RPG mechanics with a class system of humans, mutants and monsters. It has a few major problems but all in all, it's a great little game worth a playthrough. 🍖
The introductory animation and outro text were created and designed by Saad Azim.
A good meat guide: www.finalfantasykingdom.net/ff...
Twitter: @hungrygoriya
Collecting Blog: hungrygoriya.wordpress.com/
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Patreon: / hungrygoriya
#retrogaming #finalfantasylegend #gameboy

[@SNESdrunk]

Your instruction manual-centric approach (complete with scans!) is great, so useful, thank you for the video

[@hungrygoriya]

Thank you so much! If I have the manual I usually try to incorporate it but for this I had to steal from an uploaded PDF, which is why they're so blurry. I searched forever for another copy.

[@SNESdrunk]

It's cool, it's still something barely anybody else is doing, so I appreciate it

[@JeffreyOsb]

@Snes Drunk Funny seeing you here good sir! I hope you're doing well!

[@FallicIdol]

@@SNESdrunk You and Hungry Goriya have great channels.

[@thestuff10]

Snnnnnnnnnnnes Drunk!

[@DariaPlaysRPGs]

It's funny, I KNOW I've beaten Final Fantasy Legend. I even remember where and and when that was. But watching this video I realize I remember absolutely nothing about it (except that there was a character class called mutant).

[@hungrygoriya]

Sounds like it's time to revisit it then! I have experienced some huge blocks on games I've been replaying lately. I remember some parts like I played through them yesterday and others I've blocked out entirely. It's so strange.

[@jasonbell791]

I think I remember, at least mostly, 3 of the 4 worlds, but that last one I remember nothing about. It's the third world I can't recall.

[@Sad-Lesbian]

I remember about 2 bosses, and the tower and it's only been a few years since I played it.

[@emilyapricot1313]

It will come back to you if you start playing again.

[@MerkhVision]

@@emilyapricot1313 “Emily Apricot!?” That’s a fun name and a cute lil cartoon apricot in your avi!

[@ThomasMHead]

This was one of the most amazing and influential games in my life! The chance to play as humans, 'mutants', and even monsters! The ability to fight with everything from swords and shields to magic, guns, grenades, and lasers! Traveling to settings like under the sea, floating on clouds, and a post apocalyptic future! Yes, it could be harsh, and suffered from the limitations of the time. (Final Fantasy Legend II was a BIG improvement which I recommend playing.) If you press Select, you can adjust the Message speed below your party formation. If you haven't given this another playthrough to the end yet, I really encourage it.

[@hungrygoriya]

I looooved what I played of this one, and unfortunately I haven't gone back to try again just yet. I did pick up Final Fantasy Legend II though, and I'm quite far into that one at this point. I'm enjoying all the improvements without a doubt!

[@ThomasMHead]

@@hungrygoriya it's great to hear that you got into Legend II! The first one thwarted me for a while, too, despite my fascination with it. (Also I had to rely on friends' copies as I didn't own it until later on.) Some games require we leave them for a time, only to try again maybe years later to get it on a fresh playthrough.

[@hungrygoriya]

@@ThomasMHead I think I'll play the first one again eventually... I'm just not sure when. There's so much else to discover in the meantime, like the rest of the Game Boy RPG library. There are so many good games to look forward to!

[@ThewOrldIssqUare]

@@hungrygoriya i hope you give FFL another chance someday! I recommend more mutants 😁 🧝‍♂️🧝‍♀️🧝‍♂️🧝‍♀️

[@hungrygoriya]

@@ThewOrldIssqUare There's always room for more mutants! They're such a fun class!

[@ghosturiel]

During the first world it's possible to make your humans overpowered. Acquire the King Sword and King Armor during the main story, Once you get these items put them on your main character. and the grind, preferably by an enemy you can talk to to initiate combat. Gain an exorbate amount of money to max your main characters stats. Then you can start working on other characters in your party. Of all the Gameboy final fantasy, it's arguably the weakest, but it's still very enjoyable. 10/10 would chainsaw god again

[@FallicIdol]

The King Sword in the first world is indestructible. Once you get it, it's a great weapon to grind with until you're ready to move up.

[@chrlpolk]

In the DS remake, you can’t equip it 😭

[@Tony-Gunk]

I fondly remember me and my brother playing through this when we were kids. The save system is what made it possible imo since you could save anywhere outside of battles. We also had a strategy guide that had a monster transformation chart. I still catch myself humming the songs decades later.

[@hungrygoriya]

...unless you're me and save in terrible places, but yes. Saving anywhere is a great option! The monster transformation chart would've really helped with this. I think while I was livestreaming this, a person in my stream chat was able to help me out with figuring out what I'd become if I ate meat, so that was helpful!

[@bazdaniels7420]

I was so pleased to see this one come up! One of my all-time favorites & I've always remembered this most fondly of all Final Fantasy games. I'll never forget sitting on my grandparents' couch hiding away from my family while experiencing the final stretch! Also, not that I tried searching, in my 10 years of retrogaming nerddom, I've never come across a FFL video review, wow. Thanks. :)

[@hungrygoriya]

It was so much fun until I got my game locked up :( I was having a nice enough time with it. I think I'd like to revisit it some day (I'm still not over losing my game) but it might also be nice to play the second and third in the series.

[@GuyDude-hk8uy]

"Sometimes there is meat" Fantastic name for the section of a game manual, for sure.

[@hungrygoriya]

Yes! Rygar's booklet also has some interesting sections... Animalized Men Wriggling Eerily, or something like that at the top of the bestiary!

[@Xuevium]

This game is really special. A friend gave it to me as a gift in 1992. I will Never forget that epic Beautiful opening music when you start the game. i played this for Hundreds of hours. I will always love it with all of my heart. On the Gameboy, you can Reset the game and then be able to Walk around longer without being attacked, and it would Always let you Run from 2 battles successfully After a reset. The monsters in this game Attack you a whole Lot.. and it was great to be able to keep exploring More, without actually Always being forced to Stay in a fight. Also.. the Glass Sword ❤ my favorite item in the game.

[@hungrygoriya]

These are some good tips. I'd really like to get back to it someday and finally see it through!

[@aspecialvisit]

Final Fantasy Legend is an unusual game in a lot of respects. One thing a lot of new players don't realize is that this is one of the few RPGs where running from most battles can generally be beneficial. You'll run out of resources if you try to fight your way through a tower or dungeon. If you have decent AGI, then you can successfully run from most encounters, and this lets you select when you need to grind for gold or stats, vs. when you just need to reach your destination intact.

[@hungrygoriya]

Some good thoughts here! I have a tendency to want the experience and try not to run too often, but that's a good point!

[@fraserfarmer1557]

This is a really fantastic review!

[@jacobhawk9311]

Final Fantasy Legend 2 is by far the best in the series and one of my favorite games of all time. I go back and play through it every few years. Please do this next.

[@hungrygoriya]

I got a lot of the way through FFL2 a few years ago but had to put it down. I should probably finish it at some point. I did really enjoy what I played of it!

[@jacobhawk9311]

@@hungrygoriya good to hear. Im no expert but I would latch a review or you stream it.

[@djhowell5273]

So glad you did this so I could get some more info on the collection of saga I just got

[@CritRocketRunner]

Loved the video! Hearing that music again was very nostalgic. I had this game growing up and my experience was very similar to yours. I was inexplicably stuck in the middle of the game and couldn't progress...I never put it together that it was because I dropped a key item.

[@hungrygoriya]

It's absolutely crazy to me that they didn't safeguard against that! Even other Game Boy games don't let you drop things that are important... I'm sorry you had a similar fate with this one.

[@endlessrepeat]

Did you try going back to where you got it? I just played this game and I know at least some of the key items (air seed, white key) respawn.

[@maximpact24]

Excellent video Goriya! And bonus points to you for covering a Gameboy game (you know what I like! lol). The main flaw (for me) with some of these older RPG's is the level and money grinding. I just can't stand it. But, I still like them overall. I just don't have the patience for them.

[@hungrygoriya]

I thought I might find you here eventually :) Thanks for checking this one out! And yeah, I have endless patience when it comes to these kinds of games and I love them for all their little quirks. They're all slightly different enough to keep things interesting for me. They make for a great stream too because it's easy to chat while you're mashing attack over and over again and getting somewhere. Grinding with friends is always the way to go!

[@1975GRock]

I truly enjoy your content. From an old time gamer, THANK YOU!

[@hungrygoriya]

Awww thanks very much for saying so. I appreciate you stopping by!

[@edr777]

Great review. Man I love this game...I've played more hours than I can count. 4 Mutants with maxed stats in the first world combined with P-Swords and Flare later in the game are a force to be reckoned with. And the final boss is one of the coolest ever. :)

[@hungrygoriya]

I'm jealous of your final boss experience. I'd love to sit down and finish this one sometime, but I'm hoping to go to the other games in the series instead. Hopefully there are some good changes there that'll prevent me from screwing myself over!

[@Gobblin215]

Amazing review, such detail.

[@hungrygoriya]

Thank you :) I really loved this game until I couldn't love it anymore.

[@VERMISIMILITUDE]

Your editing & intro is fantastic Goriya!!!

[@hungrygoriya]

Oh thank you! You're too kind!

[@redtide89]

Just found this channel, and I'm quite impressed with the honest experience you seem to have with each game. The SaGa and Seiken Densetsu games are among my favorite childhood rpgs, and I love reading about everyone's experience with them. For myself, I like all three of the Final Fantasy Legend games for different reasons. The first is rough but mesmerizing, especially if you ever get a chance to take a second look over what the player is actually accomplishing along the trek up the tower. The second is arguably the best of the series in terms of adventure/story/gameplay and is remarkably well-paced (save a well-placed mimic or two). It has the strongest overall soundtrack, as well (if I remember the public perception correctly). However, and while this isn't a popular opinion... the third game had every single thing that I wanted in an rpg and was absolute perfection for my childhood. It "fixed" everything that I didn't like about the first two games, and just expanded further on the exploration and expanding world. Biased personal preference here, but imo it also has the single best soundtrack on the gameboy. And I love all of the items, the satisfying magic system, the status screen, the playable character types, and how seamlessly all of these systems advance in complication (slightly!) as the game progresses. For example, weapons and armor are found in chests or shops like in the previous titles, but some are also obtained in the story as quest rewards and others can be forged with limited resources late into the game with a simple, yet satisfying deterministic crafting system. It is a beautiful way of giving the player "more and more" without some oppressive, overwhelming anxiety or fear of missing out, which would take away from the game if introduced too early on. Magic has light and dark types (for healing and offense, respectively) much like the first two games, but also enables some out-of-combat utility for story progression and exploration fairly early on. But late in the game, a third type of magic becomes available; the "lost" magic, neither light nor dark, with even more powerful effects. Some of which must be created with your limited elemental crafting materials. Finally, the playable races that everyone knows add two newcomers to the mix, Beasts and Cyborgs, that function like monsters/robots-lite. Something not fully robotic or monster and can be fully equipped, with each having a unique list of abilities to help distinguish them from humans or mutants. The only thing I'd like to express here is that eating meat (or installing robot parts) will tip the scale for any character to move along the race axis, allowing any character to become a robot or monster, or anything in-between. Even back to a human (or mutant). So you can feel free to experiment over the course of a single playthrough without losing any weapons/magic/equipment/stats or even gold. Also, I love the concept art for these games, and it is remarkable how well-implemented all of the in-game systems actually let you act out a fantasy game like the art would have you imagine. Incredible. Anyway I've written a book in the comment section so I'll leave it at that. Thanks for the entertainment!

[@hungrygoriya]

Thanks so much for your kind words. This channel is a way for me to talk about m own experiences with these games, coming to most of them in adulthood. It's been so nice speaking with people about games they grew up with as well as their thoughts and feelings about those experiences. I started FFL2 and didn't end up finishing it since some things came up at the time, but I loved what I played of it. I appreciated its story and characters and felt like it was really a cut above the first game. I also own the third but haven't gotten around to it yet. For all the reasons you mentioned here, I hope to finish them both some day. Thanks for taking the time to leave a thoughtful comment!

[@chrlpolk]

@hungrygoriya Have you gotten around to them yet? I’m playing the DS remake of FF2 and it’s… not pleasant. I think I’ve decided to call it done, I’ve experience what it is. Not that it’s terribly bad, I would have loved it when I was younger, but now I feel like I’m just going through the motions to say I finished it without enjoying it, and that’s not what gaming is about! …or, is it?

[@sirhcman]

haha I made it into a review. I'm famous! :D Seriously though this was a great review/cautionary tale for anyone looking to play the game. I am glad you decided to put it together despite not being able to get through the game entirely. I just hope we get to see you triumph over this game in the future and this review receives an addendum! :)

[@hungrygoriya]

It was definitely bittersweet putting this together given how everything fell apart. I honestly hope someone might randomly have a solution. Thanks for checking this out!

[@primodecalvillo]

I found this game at a garage sale for $1 when I was young. Man the amount of time I put into the game and not having any information. I have no idea how I played it without a guide. Man I ate so much meat! Most def started my love for RPGs. I always kept an eye out for Final Fantasy afterwards and found Dragon Warrior 1(NES) and FF legends 2 at a different sale. I still have my Legends 2 cartridge.

[@hungrygoriya]

That's so awesome! I don't remember finding games at yard sales when I was a kid but I wish I had a memory like this one!

[@MrPanda2002]

Awesome review!! Although I haven't played this game, I've played FF Legend 2 and really liked it. I don't like SaGa as much as FF Adventure (Mana) or classic FF, but I appreciate it for what it is. All in all, any RPG on the old-school Game Boy is nostalgic to me because I usually don't associate that system with RPGs other than the FF "spinoffs" and Pokemon.

[@hungrygoriya]

Thanks for checking this out :) I really want to get back to the series or maybe even finish this game someday, but who knows when that'll happen? FF Adventure is an exciting prospect though! And I totally get what you mean about RPGs and Game Boy not making sense too often, but surprisingly there are a lot of them! I've been hunting them down and hope to play through more of them in the coming months.

[@MerkhVision]

That’s funny, I totally have the opposite experience with the GameBoy. Pretty much all I ever played on it were RPGs! What other genres were big on that system? I can’t even think of any at the moment lol

[@neilfmoore]

@9:16 This is why, after the first Phantasy Star allowed saving anywhere, the sequels all prohibited saving in dungeons. It was just too easy to get soft-locked or soft-locked-for-all-practical-purposes. Granted, PS1 didn't help itself by having some dungeons where you could fall into a map section with no exit (an actual soft-lock), but the concerns of saving on the brink of death also played a part.

[@hungrygoriya]

It's smart that they changed up the save anywhere rule. Phantasy Star 2 was incredibly mean in its dungeon design, and even if I could've saved in them, I don't think I would've for fear of losing total track of where I was and never finding my way out again!

[@293940cabster]

Thanks. My mom bought this game for me from a pawn shop as a kid. I really enjoyed it, although I had absolutely no idea what was going on. Heh heh, monster go brrrr. Fun times.

[@hungrygoriya]

Sometimes the aimless wandering is fun enough!

[@293940cabster]

@@hungrygoriya aesthetic was kino

[@frapseddatsht]

Oh god this brought me back, I barely remembered anything but the ability to have monsters in your party. I can't say for certain but I think I got stuck after throwing away a plot item and never finished the game. I might have been too ignorant to realize it back then but I really can feel the pure despair in the zoom in on the little pixel character after describing that mess.

[@hungrygoriya]

We are one and the same in our sadness. I'm sorry that happened to you too!

[@mikeymakesmaps1849]

great review! i always thought this game was SO HARD as a kid but I loved it anyway.

[@hungrygoriya]

It has some pretty tough sections. I ever really felt like I knew where I was going!

[@rpg_haven]

Great review. I'm playing through Legend now, and it's nice to get some tips about pitfalls to avoid.

[@hungrygoriya]

Thanks very much! I hope you have fun with it! Just don't drop any important items before you're sure you're finished with them, and you should be good to go!

[@roguerifter9724]

The beginning of one of my favorite game franchises. The second game in the series was actually the first Squaresoft RPG I ever played because I got it and Final Fantasy I the same day . However I was about to go out of state to visit relatives so I decided not to start Final Fantasy I until after I got back from the trip. It will be interesting to see your thoughts on the second game, and the third game if you ever do reviews for them.

[@hungrygoriya]

I am actually part way through the second game right now. I had to put it down for a while a few months ago, but I'm planning on finishing it up some day. I've really enjoyed what I've played so far!

[@aramschwartz4502]

I loved playing this when it first came out. I do wish the adventure was a little longer.

[@hungrygoriya]

Did you end up playing the second or third games in the series?

[@aramschwartz4502]

@@hungrygoriya I honestly can't remember if I did or not. Sometimes I see the 2nd and 3rd games as independent games rather than sequels.

[@retrorobbgaming]

Excellent video, glad you enjoyed the game. I just finished my first play through and was thoroughly impressed with it. By the way, I believe the mystery to who the special girl was in the town was the “beautiful girl” in the back that you help marry the king. At least that’s what I got from it.

[@hungrygoriya]

Oh congratulations on making it through! I'm glad you enjoyed it. And thanks for filling me in about that mysterious girl thing. That makes sense!

[@dirtsheep557]

Holy crap. I played Final Fantasy 1 and 2 on the GBA in the mid 2000s, thinking I was harkening back to the beginning of the series. But nope! There was something earlier. Cool that you young folks are playing these old games. Thanks for the look.

[@hungrygoriya]

Well, a weird story about these Final Fantasy Legend games is that they're remakes of the SaGa series with the Final Fantasy name slapped on them. So you did technically experience the beginnings of the proper Final Fantasy series on GBA. Did you like FF2? I really enjoy that one!

[@alaharon1233]

Well Final Fantasy 1 was originally released on the NES/Famicom and you played a remake and Final Fantasy 2 was originally released on the Famicom and you played a remaster. The Final Fantasy Legend games are actually SaGa games and they came out *after* Final Fantasy 2

[@dorpth]

It's hard to convey just HOW mind blowing this music was back in 1989. I'd say without reservation that it was THE biggest leap forward in all of video game history. Prior to this, the best you could call all game music was "catchy". Maybe Metroid added "haunting" to that list, but that was it. I had started gaming in the Atari/Intellivision days, and Final Fantasy Legend was the very first time that game music actually made me emotional. First time I turned it on, I just stood there with my jaw dropped listening to that opening menu theme, not believing that this music was actually coming from a video game. Even after I beat it, I kept my save file at the last boss so I could keep coming back to beating him JUST so that I could listen to the epic ending song, which was the closest thing to a religious experience that I had at 9 years old (and before the internet or game soundtrack albums, replaying it was the only way to listen to it again, unless you took out a tape recorder and made a very shitty bootleg). Of course that all sounds hokey, but in 1989? Absolutely mind blowing.

[@hungrygoriya]

I completely understand that feeling you're describing. I was obsessed with music in Faxanadu, especially the password theme, which was thankfully exceptionally easy to pop on whenever I wanted to hear it. I did really adore Final Fantasy Legend's soundtrack as well. The Game Boy in general has some amazing music. There's something about how it sounds that's so bubbly and bright when it wants to be! I don't remember recording any video game music with my little boom box back in the day, but I definitely recorded stuff off the radio! It's the same sentiment I guess! I don't think I ever thought to try it with video game music since I could just turn the console on and listen to my favourites whenever I wanted to. Thanks for sharing this!

[@dorpth]

Of course, the next jaw dropping video game music moment was firing up Final Fantasy 2 for the first time. Having those Mode 7 airship graphics come up, then the Red Wings theme kicks in. Suddenly, it's the same compositional quality as the FF Legend music, but now with SNES music hardware!

[@littlemixer7522]

Great review! I played this one though dozens of times as a kid growing up so this was extremely interesting to hear your thoughts on it. It was a great game to replay due to having such a customizable party, which is also brought back for sequel. After having died miserably many times playing Final Fantasy 1 deep in a dungeon and having to restart, I loved the idea of being able to save this game anywhere, but as you pointed out, you could get yourself into major problems. I believe at one time on my first playthrough I saved the game somewhere not good with a badly injured party, and nearly experienced a softlock due to being unable to survive the dungeon/boss ahead. Like you with the Machine boss, I had to reload and try dozens of times until I got lucky enough to escape the situation but it was a pretty hopeless feeling for awhile. Also, you are 100% spot on with it being terrible to have the ability to delete key quest items permanently and no way to get them back. A 'key items' page was sorely needed here, like where there is a sub menu that holds the orbs. The sequel also has multiple save slots which helps cover for the soft lock issues of this one, but that is no excuse for only having one save slot here, which is pretty ridiculous. I hope you try this one again someday!

[@hungrygoriya]

It's great to know that you had such a wonderful time with this game growing up. I really enjoyed what I played of this one, and honestly, a lot of the problems I ran into were my own fault in some way. The game could've saved me, but why should it have to, you know? I still think about leaving this one behind a lot. I also got very far into FFL2 and never finished it either, but for different reasons. It seems like me and this series aren't friends! I'm sorry to hear of the troubles you had with the saves and the boss fights too :( It's so disheartening when you don't know if you're going to be able to get out of a tough spot like that, but I'm glad you stuck it out!

[@grumblekin]

I've beaten FFL and FFL 2 about 6x each and bought them on release day. The quirks are part of the challenge and resetting is expected. This is how we rolled back in OG days. My favorite game boy rpgs of all time! I love them to this day!

[@hungrygoriya]

I reset so much in this one it wasn't even funny! I am well into FFL2 at this point and it's a lot more streamlined so far!

[@nathanrobertson3349]

Final fantasy Legend II is the best RPG game for Gameboy! 30 years later I still play it.

[@VERMISIMILITUDE]

OMG! Yes!! What a classic! Look at that stunning collection!!!

[@hungrygoriya]

Thank you! I've been working to build up a nice collection and I love the Game Boy. That's just a little bit of my Game Boy stuff though... I have a link to my collection in the description if you want to get a better feel of what I have.

[@thisguy4505]

I've been playing on Steam Deck in the Collection of Saga. Really enjoying this first game! Apparently the creator wanted to make a "hardcore" RPG, and some of the things like the merciless save system sure do get you! In the final dungeon crawl to the end boss, I saved halfway through and almost blew the entire game! The enemies going up were tricky, but when I wanted to go back and re-equip for the final fight it turned out that the enemies going down are way tougher, by design!! I barely made it back to town, after a bunch of luck and strategic saving 😬 But I think that this kind of unique element does make the game more memorable. I didn't expect much more than a curiosity in playing it, but it's really good!!

[@hungrygoriya]

I'm so glad you've enjoyed it as much as you have! I think one day I might finally try it again and see if I can put my softlocking blunder to bed, but for now I'll keep living vicariously through people like you.

[@emikd]

Just discovered your channel. Really like your work! Hope you get to finish this one. It’s got it’s flaws but I fondly remember playing the heck out of this on my gameboy during a week long power outage. First time I managed to beat it. Also discovered that Human HP can go over 1000 it just doesn’t show on the character. Spent hours grinding HP200s.

[@hungrygoriya]

Hey thanks so much! I haven't had the heart to try it again since I got it all locked up a few years ago, but I've played quite a ways into the second game. Maybe one day I'll finish them both.

[@emikd]

@@hungrygoriya I always preferred the aesthetics of the first game (music & art style) but the second game is a WAY better game overall. Hope you get to finish it!

[@NefariousWes]

That sucks that you dropped the key items needed to progress further. That's something I always worry about when playing those older RPGs. Ouch. I hear ya on the saving thing. This does look like a good game, but I'm probably not gonna go out of my way to play it any time soon. Great job on this!

[@hungrygoriya]

As always, thanks for the support! I was pretty bummed after dropping those items but heck... more reason to play through it again, right? Just kidding... it'll likely be a little while before I pick it up again.

[@calebb7012]

Great video. Managed to pick this cart up off a local retro group.

[@hungrygoriya]

Right on! Enjoy it! I hope this gives you some fair warning not to drop things and get softlocked :(

[@m.x.1800]

Never played this one, but as a child I loved and conquered FF Legends 2. So many hours spent staring at that monochrome screen! Great vid!

[@hungrygoriya]

For me, this game is still a sad little blip in my life. I wish sooooo much that I'd been able to finish it. I do own the other FFL games though, so hopefully I'll get into FFL2 soon enough. I heard there were lots of quality of life upgrades in it that I think I'd appreciate!

[@danielshover]

Don’t have negative thoughts. Remember your mantra. Faxanadu is one of my favorite games btw.

[@hungrygoriya]

It's one of mine as well!

[@flipzmadmax5494]

Had to pick up a GBC just to play these again. Also picked up Castlevania II, Metroid II, and pokemon, DW3. This was such a simple time and great games

[@hungrygoriya]

The music in Castlevania II's so good... I hope you enjoy your time revisiting some games!

[@arc-sd8sk]

oh shit I never knew it was a rebrand of SaGa I think the mutant female was my first pixel crush

[@Protoman00]

“....with that snap decision...” Looks like Thanos’ snap didn’t just effect living beings. Cool video!

[@hungrygoriya]

Thanks :) Glad you had a moment to stop in and listen to my ramblings.

[@zeliardforty-two4692]

When I was younger I had the other two and loved them! Unfortunately for the longest time I was confused and thought DF Adventure was the first of the series 😅 so when I recently wanted to fill out my Game Boy titles I realized my error. Personally I think they refined the gameplay in the other two but I do know them a lot better. Personally I think the third is my favourite! When I do get around to playing this I’ll at least have some knowledge to help me along! Also, mentioned it in another comment but the the Legend series on the Game Boy are actually from the SaGa series. Since the Final Fantasy series was better known they changed the name to help with sales. It’s the same with the Adventure game but that one was the first of the Secret of Mana series. The things they did to get kids to pick up their games back in the day!

[@wesleyoldham4222]

Interestingly, GB and GBC cartridges actually have distinct filenames for their games. Although the labels and the title screens say Final Fantasy Legend, the files on the cartridges are SAGA, SAGA2, and SAGA3.

[@Jazzypants2007]

While Legend 2 will always be the crown jewel of this trilogy IMHO (BEST jRPG on Gameboy), the original is a classic and is still tremendously fun to play. I remember streaming it a while back and doing the solo human challenge. It's tough but LOADS of fun.

[@hungrygoriya]

Ooooo solo human? That sounds so tough! Glad you had a good time with it though!

[@jasonbell791]

I remember playing this as a kid, I also got stuck at least twice. The first boss took me a while to figure how to put the king stuff on the statue, and the second World where 2 lines cross I totally didn't get as a kid and just finally tried one by one talking to all the orbs. I had grinded enough that it was pretty easy because I had seen the room and figured I must have missed something somewhere else because all the orbs seemed fake.

[@hungrygoriya]

It's definitely not the most straightforward game for little ones, that's for sure. I found some parts really confusing as an adult as well, so I hear ya!

[@Moulinoski]

The girl mentioned in the east town in the first world is in that very same town. She's to the north of the town. She is pretty inconsequential. I think she's in love with the shield king? I also had bad luck with this game. I was playing the Wonderswan Color version for its improvements. I spent time getting my monster super powerful. My mutant (known as esper in this version) learned stone gaze and eventually death gaze and, would you know it, bosses are not immune to petrification. I was steam rolling through this game! My human characters were progressing well enough. I made it to the city and was looking for the board. I went to play my game another night and all three of my save files were wiped out! I was devastated. I don't think I'll ever beat this game, at least not myself.

[@hungrygoriya]

I'll have to look for her if I ever come back to this game. I'm also very sorry to hear that you had such a negative experience as well. Do you know if the battery just straight up died on you? They're easy enough to replace but I've lost a few saves like that and it sucks :( I was playing Destiny of an Emperor last year and my save file deleted.

[@wesleyoldham4222]

"Not everyone's gonna save inside of a boss room, but I'm sure there were some broken hearted kids that saved somewhere they shouldn't have and had to start the game over again." I bought this game used about a decade ago. The previous owner had saved in the very last room of the game, past the point of no return. The only two options at that point are to fight the final boss or start a new game.

[@hungrygoriya]

I'm curious: did you beat the boss? Or did you have to start over?

[@wesleyoldham4222]

@@hungrygoriya It's been a long time, but I think I won after a couple of tries. Then I started a new game, used 4 mutants, and eventually beat it on my own. If my Mega Memory Card worked, I would have been able to keep their file. But strangely, FFL1 is the only game I've ever seen that doesn't seem to work with it.

[@g0dzilla1001]

Love your videos

[@hungrygoriya]

Aww thank you!

[@no64256]

Having only played the WonderSwan Color remake (and having not completed it yet), this video really makes me happy I chose that version. I really like this game, and something about the world and world building really hits home with me, but I'm not sure if i could deal with this version lol Text doesn't autoscroll, Key items had their own inventory and you can't discard them, the interface is a lot nicer being on a widescreen 16-bit handheld, you can preview what meat will transform any of your monsters into and their stat changes (but unfortunately not their skill list) The remade graphics are good, and the intro screens for each new world are really beautiful. And I imagine the fan translation with bigger textboxes really help with the story (I know the amarican release changed a certain book that really shakes up the tone). They also kept in the saw glitch, which is just fantastic And although it's not apart of the game itself, the box art and other official art is beautiful. The Japanese Gameboy art is also nice and definitely better than the American, but the Wonderswan version blows them out of the water. I almost want a poster of the WSC boxart My only complaint is with the music, as from what I heard here, I kinda prefer the Gameboy soundtrack. But it's still very similar, with some changes and additional instruments, so i can't complain too much Oddly I didn't have much trouble with the difficulty outside of the very beginning. Which is odd considering I don't think there were any difficulty differences that weren't to do with QoL improvements. Maybe I just got lucky I also want to reiterate how much I loved the premise and world building. It's still just a simplistic and old RPG plot, but sometimes about it just sticks with me. I really need to replay and finish this game. (I just wish playing with multiple monsters was better. Monsters were the whole reason I was drawn to this game)

[@hungrygoriya]

I've been really curious about the WonderSwan version since I know virtually nothing about it. It's great to hear that it's a bit more polished in most places. I wish the monster stuff was a little bit easier to anticipate. I know they probably wanted people to experiment a bunch and really piece together how meat would change your characters, but it was a lot of stuff to map out. I think it's a really cool addition either way though!

[@oofley8346]

The funny thing about monsters is that you can abuse the way transformation works (always looks up the table before it looks down) to get to the second strongest tier in the first world, which it's entirely impossible to downgrade from because every monster type has an entry in that tier

[@hungrygoriya]

Oh really? I had no idea you always have the possibility of upgrading before downgrading. This is good to know if I ever decide to get back to this game someday.

[@oofley8346]

@hungrygoriya I'd personally recommend using a resource that tells you what a given meat does to your monsters if you plan on using them really seriously, because while transformations aren't random (x eating y meat will always turn into z), they might as well be because there's practically no logic to the system and it's not possible to tell whether you'll get stronger or not from eating something without a lot of knowledge of the game's internal mechanisms (that or play the fan translation of the wonderswan color remake that lets you preview transformations, lol)

[@EatingCtrlV]

13s in and I see Survival Kids peaking out of the back of a collection of GB games. Now I really want to watch a video on that game!

[@hungrygoriya]

I need to play it first! I should really add it to my stream list so I get through it.

[@EatingCtrlV]

Do you stream on twitch or youtube? If you play games similar to the ones you review, I'd be a viewer for sure! I decided to be not stupid and check the description for a link and found this one www.twitch.tv/hungrygoriya :) Followed!

[@hungrygoriya]

@@EatingCtrlV Oh thanks for following me there! That is my channel, absolutely... glad you found the link! :) I play all the games on stream first before usually doing a review, or do a second playthrough for this channel for a let's play. Streaming is the place for fumbling through the game with good company! Looking forward to some live chats over there!

[@EatingCtrlV]

Do you have a particular streaming schedule?I'm always into watching interesting obscure or retro RPG's!

[@hungrygoriya]

@@EatingCtrlV Yep, I usually stream RPGs or whatever I'm doing for a longplay on Thursdays and Sundays. Right now I'm playing through Popful Mail. Mondays I also stream but it's reserved for "Meatstick Mondays", a title a viewer came up with where I play games with some form of meaty powerups in them (sounds crazy, but it gets me playing non-RPGs). I just finished King's Quest V and Toki for Meatstick Mondays. Hope you can join sometime!

[@JeffreyOsb]

Did you know that the Final Fantasy Legend games are SaGa games in Japan? That's why the mechanics are so different from most Final Fantasy games. They simply rebranded them for western audiences as a way to gather interest. The SaGa series has been going strong in Japan and still is. We have had a few in the USA, Unlimited SaGa 1 & 2 and several for the PS2/3. Recently there's been a bit of a revival with the SNES games getting remasters in English and SaGa: Scarlet Grace coming out, too. You might want to check out the Romancing SaGa games. (Oh, BTW, the boss of FFL is "God" literally, that's its name XD)

[@hungrygoriya]

I did know this but wasn't aware of how many others there were outside of the three for the Game Boy. Very cool! I've heard of Romancing Saga as well, and for some reason I always get that confused with Romance of the Three Kingdoms in my head... weird, I know. I did hear about the final boss being God, haha... what an interesting choice!

[@JeffreyOsb]

@@hungrygoriya There's a "trick" to one shot the final boss in case you get there and get stuck, you can look it up. I strongly recommend the Romancing SaGa 2 & 3 remasters which are available on Steam, Switch, Xbox One, PS4, PS Vita. They're SNES RPG's essentially. I have to warn you, they're very ambiguous and I strongly recommend guides but they're very interesting. You'll have a blast.

[@hungrygoriya]

@@JeffreyOsb Great to know! Thank you :) I'm glad so many games are available for newer audiences on modern platforms as well.

[@storkbomb7417]

I didn't see anybody else answer this, although I didn't read every comment, so...sorry if this is redundant? The girl mentioned is the "beautiful" squid-thing-person in that village that the one king is in love with. The one that you need to beat the bandit leader for so she can marry his royal highness.

[@hungrygoriya]

Ohhhhh! I don't know that anyone's ever given the answer so this is good to know. Thank you!

[@FeelingShred]

I had no idea that the Gameboy was already around in 1989 !! and even more by having a game of such code complexity on it so early on... wow... I also like how the SMG (sub-machine gun) works in this game (totally surreal, yeah) It hits groups of enemies, and more than once... Felt more satisfying to use than the weapons in Phantasy Star 2

[@hungrygoriya]

It's ridiculous how long the Game Boy's lifespan was!

[@dalehoffman]

When I was 15, I was excited to see an actual RPG for GB, and I bought it SO FAST. I struggled on the final area, left it sit for about a year, then I came back to it, managed to get my monster morphed into some tentacled type monster with the "drink" ability. With that I just pushed all the way to the end and cleared it by spamming "drink".

[@hungrygoriya]

Such a cool exploit you found! What luck!

[@jonthestick7606]

The “Girl” mentioned in the town is there, but she looks just like any other slime. She’ll tell the story about her and the King.

[@hungrygoriya]

If I ever come back to this one, I'll keep this in mind!

[@dalewayward4540]

The girl they were talking about is the one the armor king wants to marry and the bandit is harassing. She is from that town.

[@hungrygoriya]

Right on! Thanks for clearing that up!

[@dalewayward4540]

she is in he back of that town before you defeat the bandit boss.

[@briansmith1288]

I used to read one of these big books of Nintendo games when I was kid. And I would day dream about this game. Never played it. I might need to try out the Saga collection now

[@hungrygoriya]

Go for it!

[@TheOffenderBlog]

Final Fantasy Legend 3 was the first of the series I played, loved it. It is however a much more traditional RPG. Later I would get my hands on Legends 1 and 2. I enjoyed them as well, but their more unusual mechanics took some time to get used to. I know all three got remakes for the DS in Japan, shame the remakes never got localized.

[@hungrygoriya]

I've played a little bit of FFL2, but none of the third game. Good to know there's some more fun to look forward to!

[@TheOffenderBlog]

@@hungrygoriya I won't spoil anything, but I will say Legend 3 is a very ambitious title, and impressive considering the limits of its platform.

[@joshuadickey4894]

If I remember right, the final boss' reason for iniating the events of the game is that he simply was bored and wanted somebody to climb the tower to visit him.

[@hungrygoriya]

That sounds like an incredibly rude reason to start a fight with someone!

[@jwrush]

I screwed up my first PSX Final Fantasy Tactics play thru way back when with the "saving after the last chance to level" problem before a boss. The evil temptation of permissive save rules is real!

[@hungrygoriya]

I'm sorry you ran into that trouble. I feel your pain :(

[@Kuudere-Kun]

I find it fascinating how much the battling looks like Pokémon, I guess originally that was only way to do RPGs on the Game Boy but Pokémon alone wound up considering some of those limitations part of it's identity.

[@hungrygoriya]

Lots of games on the Game Boy look like Pokemon to me too.

[@HighPriestFuneral]

I realized I've caught this review late, but it's so refreshing to hear it from someone who sounds like they actually played the game, instead of just looking up at a guide and following it religiously, then giving the same canned issues that people have with the game. I do hope that you're able to finish the game again at some point The game does let you throw away key items, with the expectation that you can pick them up again (if the area still exists). I am pretty sure if you were to get another Rom from the hidden shop, the Board from the secret shop and head back up the Skyscraper to Machine's room and you could reassemble Erase-99. But... probably a couple years too late for that advice.

[@hungrygoriya]

My memory might be failing me, but I could've sworn that I retraced all my footsteps to try to get the rom and the board back again but they just weren't there. At least now I know that I should hang onto everything until I'm done with the area, even if it's possible to drop the rom and the board. I've never felt more stuck in a game than I did at this point. Maybe I'll pick it up again someday, but for now I have a lot of other things I'd like to enjoy instead.

[@HighPriestFuneral]

​@@hungrygoriya ​ No problem. Looking at your channel, I really appreciate the amount of classical and oft-forgotten games you've chosen to cover and can understand the reticence to returning to another game you've mostly covered. Though what I said was a hunch, I have yet to try it myself. Y'know what, I'll give it a go, get everything needed and discard Erase-99 to see if I can reacquire it, I'll tell you how it goes.

[@hungrygoriya]

@@HighPriestFuneral Keep me posted! I'm genuinely curious! And thank you :)

[@HighPriestFuneral]

@@hungrygoriya Well, I made it up to that point after a couple of hours in the Switch rerelease, and I tried to throw away Erase-99 as you did in the video, but the game refused to let me do so. Maybe it really is a softlock that they didn't know about at the time, but with the hindsight of 30 years, they made it so you couldn't toss it. I should ask others about it. It does appear, in any event, that you can't get back to the room with the Plutonium. So... yeah, looks like it was a softlock. I was wrong there. Sorry about that.

[@hungrygoriya]

@@HighPriestFuneral I appreciate you taking the time to check into that! I'm glad they fixed it for the re-release... thank goodness! Hopefully it'll let people enjoy the game to completion rather than being plagued with the memories of softlock...

[@AaronJLong]

I remember playing this game, and after the first real boss when my party members contributed some dialog, I thought, what if I had no party members? So, I restarted amd flew solo. The conversations still happened, but as I had no allies it was as if ghosts were talking (I think instead of character names it just had ???? as the names of the missing party members). I was able to get through the whole game solo, although being able to save anywhere was a big help, as a random encounter with an enemy with pertrification was a guaranteed game over.

[@hungrygoriya]

That's so interesting that the game doesn't acknowledge your actual party make-up! Thank you for sharing that little bit of trivia, and congratulations on making it through this one solo. Did you play as a human or one of the other options?

[@robertbarker5802]

I remember playing and loving these games back when they came out. But to replay them today I'm not sure I could put up with the massive grind. Happy Console Gamer did a bit of review on the digital remake of Phantasy Star 1 where they added an auto map, double XP, and double gold and little options like that seem like such a good idea on these kind of older RPGs. I would love to see the full FFL series redone with these options and bet a new generation of gamers would be more willing to try them knowing they won't have to give up days of their life to the old school RPG grind.

[@hungrygoriya]

I seem to have endless patience for these kinds of games, but I totally get what you're saying here. I've heard so much about the Phantasy Star remake and am happy they left out voice acting and all that other stuff and instead made great quality of life improvements to what made the original game so great. I would love to play that one sometime. I hope they'll do the same with the FFL series as well, though I've heard at least that the second and third games are more refined. I'll still play them in their original form anyway :D

[@TimewornUncle]

@hungrygoriya is your IRL name Kathryn? Anyway, this might be the most intelligent video game channel on KZbin. Not that others are not intelligent, but I really like the consistently thought provoking approach here.

[@McMurchie]

Wow, now I see where pokemon got their mechanics and design template from...6 years later!

[@hungrygoriya]

So many things on Game Boy look/feel like Pokemon. I'm not surprised there's some overlap!

[@three-quartersbadger2929]

You may have unknowingly coined the phrase 'meat mapping'.

[@SirJoelsuf1]

The fact that the final boss in this game is God and that you can one shot it with a chainsaw makes this game a classic no matter how imbalanced it may be. And anyone who wants to play this shouldn't even bother with monsters. Take either two humans two mutants or three humans one mutant. You can easily grind up the stats of your humans in 1-2 hours at the 5th floor. Use your mutant to blast groups of enemies on the 5th floor of the tower, then buy strength/speed/hit point upgrades and refill magic at the store in the 5th floor base town, then just cruise through the rest of the game pretty much. It's SaGa 2 that is indisputably the best in the series. So much so that its actually more fun to speedrun it than play it casually. That's how much better it is haha.

[@hungrygoriya]

I guess for my playthrough, I wanted to see what flavour all of the classes had but monsters are so volatile and unpredictable. I've played through a lot of FFL2 and liked it quite a bit but didn't end up finishing it. I should really get back to it sometime.

[@kainemaxwell]

Worth it!!

[@siler7]

It's like if Dilbert designed the perfect RPG and then his company got hold of it.

[@IngusMalingus]

There's so much to say, another one of my obsession games. I always picked human female first, she came with saber. I either use it for the damage, or sell it for the Gold armor. Humans can develop 255 strength and agility if you keep giving them STR and AGL. The counter will go back to 0 if it gets to 256. Equip/Unequip Giant glove and Hermes to keep track. If you give your monster the right order of meat, they can become very strong versions, even in the first World. Requires meat map. Normally an item you toss can be found where you originally got it: ROM, King equipment, blue orb, red orb. Which one could not be recovered?

[@hungrygoriya]

I couldn't find the ROM or the board again I think?

[@IngusMalingus]

@@hungrygoriya the lizard guy in Akiba should give you another one if you threw it out

[@hungrygoriya]

@@IngusMalingus Is he the guy kinda north in the town on the periphery? I swear I retraced my steps several times and couldn't find either item again. I might be misremembering though.

[@IngusMalingus]

@@hungrygoriya yes, you have to walk through a gap to an open space and he'll be on the edge of the town

[@teaguevox8160]

I love the FFL series. 1 may be the weakest experience of the three, but there's still a lot of charm in the tower of worlds. Though, yes... being able to softlock yourself so easily and have your quake spell get eaten up by some other spell that might not even work was irritating. Just wait until you make it to the other two, they're very much a treat and an improvement on the first entry in every way.

[@hungrygoriya]

I can't wait to try the others. I played a bit into the second game and was enjoying it, but I ended up putting it down for a bit and then forgot what I was doing. I need to get back to it sometime!

[@RoyalKnightVIII]

7:20 oh that, the girl they're talking about is the slime girl the king wanted to marry in that town.

[@hungrygoriya]

Thanks for the info!

[@RoyalKnightVIII]

@@hungrygoriya yeah it is a bit vague huh? Anyway thanks for the review, it's such a strange and esoteric rpg huh? My cartridge doesn't work anymore but I remember it mostly because of that comedy Central comedian, Jackie Kashian, who talked about killing God which made me more interested in the game 😂 thinking of it now it's kind of a minor miracle that that didn't cause a controversy with all of the anti videogame Propaganda at the time Kudos to Square for taking a gamble with such an out there project instead of playing it safe

[@hungrygoriya]

@@RoyalKnightVIII Honestly, I think about this game all the time still, especially when I'm playing other RPGs and just missing the fast-paced action of this one. I've recommended it to everyone and anyone who will listen because it's just so fun and interesting all around! Sorry your cartridge doesn't work anymore though :( Is it just the saves? You could always swap a battery out if that's the case.

[@RoyalKnightVIII]

@@hungrygoriya in a way the way it opens reminds me of an MMO, you're just plunked down in the middle of the world and just set off with no information, unless you had the manual. When are we getting the HD REMAKE of this? I need to see the pores on everyone's skin! The cartridge is just busted, it won't even boot. R.I.P. so I'm replaying it with an emulator, using cheats to get around the bugs. I wonder what would've happened if these games remained final fantasy games & they started incorporating chocobos and such like final fantasy Adventure had initially Edit- one last thing, I am actually really surprised in retrospect that this game didn't cause any uproar at all with the ending, for all of the anti videogame crusading at the time you'd think a game where you kill God would blip their radar? Maybe it's because so few people got to the ending 🤣

[@gkr2189]

I like how the elves are labeled: "Mutants" Nice.

[@backinthedaygamer]

Great review! I love this game. Count yourself lucky you only getting as far as you did. What I believe to be the last level is impossible and I've been unable to beat it for 30 years. Granted I will never watch a video on how to figure something out bc that did not exist back in the day. Either way it's infuriating. I have 2 and 3 also but I can't play them not having finished 1 lol

[@hungrygoriya]

Thanks for checking it out and for your kind words. Now I really, really need to try to beat it! Are you sure you didn't drop the same items I did to make it unwinnable? :D

[@backinthedaygamer]

@@hungrygoriya There is this evil pheonix thing that is too powerful and it hunts you down and kills the whole party. Not cool lol

[@hungrygoriya]

@@backinthedaygamer Yes! That was the part I was at! The item I dropped was the one I needed to destroy his forcefield but because he had disappeared from the overworld, I thought his forcefield was gone and dropped it... ugh. Apparently he just went into hiding and you had to go and get him underground with the item. It's doable! Don't give up!

[@backinthedaygamer]

@@hungrygoriya Interesting hmmm. Thanks a lot I'll have to give it another go. I owe it to myself after 30+ years. Plus I didn't look up how to do it you freely gave up the info lol

[@hungrygoriya]

@@backinthedaygamer Glad to be of service!

[@jfmoone]

Have you considered playing the other Final Fantasy Legend games? I really enjoyed watching this video on the first one.

[@hungrygoriya]

I'm actually part way through the second game a the moment!

[@b3delta1]

I cannot count the amount of times I have played this game to completion. It is one that is very close to me, that my brother and I can still talk about. It sounds like you had some issues that are fixable. Don't ever use the House of Life or buy Hearts, or replace characters. If a single person dies and you don't have a Revive, just load your last save. It's not worth the money and grind to bring them back otherwise. The girl in the back still looks like an alien, just a girl alien. She ends up with the King at the end of World 1 after defeating the P-Frog/crime boss. That machine, yes it can ruin a run. Grind, grind, grind. Weapon selection. You had some pretty crappy weapons in your inventory. As soon as you get to a new level - grind until your Humans are maxed for the level. (HP200/400/600) Strength and Agility also don't max at 99, they go all the way to like 254, keep track of where you're at and push them all the way up. Party. I always use 1 human, 2 mutants, 1 monster. It's cheap to only level 1 human, and 99% of the time one of the mutants will have a really good spell (maybe not in world 1...), this will offset the surprise loss of attacks for useless debuffs. The SAW is only really useful for the very end. Glass sword is the strongest in the game - save it for when necessary, Flare is the best spell, Masmune is another great sword, Excal and Revenge swords I find aren't that great. Suit Armor is a must for your mutants when its available!!!!

[@hungrygoriya]

These are some great bits of advice! I wish I'd been able to get past that softlock area but if I ever do pick this one up again, I'll keep these things in mind.

[@aceundead4750]

My favorite thing iv learned over the years about this game is how to turn the final boss into swiss cheese

[@hungrygoriya]

I've heard about that! Very cool to have that knowledge going into that fight.

[@andrewostman3135]

I remember breaking this game and used shields to max my def. On the first level against the tigers i could do something (been 30 yrs so i dont remember) that netted a 100 percent chance of a def increase after the fight.. err wait that was the second game

[@hungrygoriya]

Were you playing with robot characters? That sounds like the second game where you can equip 8 shields on a robot and make him indestructible :)

[@andrewostman3135]

@@hungrygoriya just humans. All humans i actually still have my cartridge with the save in my dresser.... it was so epic i found a way to exploit the game my 8 yr old self kept it... i booted it up last week to show my daughter.... other than asking me why there was only 1 color she thought it looked cool. But more to the point i figured out a way to force the games rng to always allot a skill increase by getting attacked on the first level by the tiger... all blocking and kill the next round...save game reset the game and the do it again.... i still remember sitting for hours at my parents kitchen table just rinse repeating until 99 def

[@hungrygoriya]

@@andrewostman3135 Oh right on! And very cool that your daughter's interested in it as well... it'd be neat to hand off your childhood game to her and let her go to town at maximum power!

[@andrewostman3135]

@@hungrygoriya i saved the old gameboys except for the original because i played it until it broke....but she will have to start from the beginning and learn for herself, that is the best way ;)

[@ravinnox2640]

One of those, if I had it as a kid I would have loved it but I'm too busy now games.

[@hungrygoriya]

I always feel that way initially but streaming them really helps. That way I have company while attacking the same monsters over and over again.

[@willwade8050]

When you fight The Creator use the Saw. 1 hit and BAM!!! Done and done.

[@hungrygoriya]

I may never see this final boss, but I will commit this to memory.

[@bartsullivan4866]

I found that problem in FFL2 not enough space in your inventory. Late in that game you would get all these new weapons but have no space for them. I thought the monsters in the 2nd game was the weak link because you were never sure which one you would turn into something good or useless. I had a gamelock in FFL2 kept going back to the healer lady in the 1st world for cheap healing and after awhile a previous dungeon respawned that I couldn't enter or get around having to start over after a lot of progress sucks. Nope you are not the only person who saved at the wrong place and time in a videogame. I did the same thing in Diablo 1 a long time ago rushing into a dungeon and did a save in a terrible spot where I couldn't backtrack out without getting slaughtered. Different game but for someone like me who saves often so I won't have to grind more than I need to it can really screw you with that instant save sometimes. Great point.

[@hungrygoriya]

I only played about halfway through FFL2 before I put it down and unfortunately never bothered to finish it. I really should one of these days! The lack of inventory space in these games is definitely a downer. I wish there was more :( I'm sorry you've run into a few situations where you've gotten yourself into hot water with saving and softlocks. It's good not to feel alone in those frustrations, but goodness does it ever suck when that reality settles in. What a bummer!

[@Joker22593]

I love the ideas of this game, but the execution is so weird. As a crazy power gamer, my recommendation for getting ahead of the difficulty curve is 4 humans. The game doesn't display stats past 99, but you actually can push human stats to 255.

[@hungrygoriya]

The four humans approach would require a ton of money grinding though, right? That's the only thing I think that would make me never want to go that route since money's so hard to come by.

[@ryogo666]

If you ever feel like revisiting this game again in the future, maybe you should go with the Wonderswan Color remake of the game. It looks very beautiful in color and there's a full English fan-translation available. You probably won't be able to trash your key items in this one!

[@hungrygoriya]

I'd honestly love to revisit it sometime and finish it. I hate leaving things incomplete, but I was pretty frustrated after that happened and I have so much else to play that I wasn't going to pick it up again right away. I didn't even know that there was a Wonderswan Color version. That's a great option. Thank you for the information!

[@bearwooden660]

Awesome game. I had 2 humans 2 mutants party and got stuck on Creator the last boss. I have tried so many times but could not beat him. And back then there was no Google in 94'. FYI for anyone trying this game at first you can put on King Armor and use King Sword and they are indestructible so this makes first floor a cake walk until you have to use it on the statue.

[@hungrygoriya]

I'm sorry you never made it to the end... thanks for the information about the armour and sword though... if I ever try this game again, I'll keep that in mind.

[@japanimationman4442]

I once had a similar soft lock in Sword of Vermillion. I cleared out room in my inventory thinking I was done with the keys to previous dungeons, but nope! The final dungeon needs them to progress. Whoops! Those older games weren't that concerned about you ruining your progress. That machine boss looks suspiciously like the ultimate random encounter from the original Final Fantasy. Can't remember it's name. Warmech, maybe? And if you've never fought it there, it is seriously the hardest fight in the entire game.

[@hungrygoriya]

I'll have to keep an eye out for that in Sword of Vermillion when I get there... I appreciate the information because I'm apparently capable of softlocking every game I play. Even if they can't be softlocked... You know, it's been ages and ages since I've played FF1, and if I hadn't seen a friend play through it again recently with that boss looming, I wouldn't have remembered that machine boss... ugh.

[@shadowmanwkp]

You are correct, that machine boss is warmech from the original final fantasy. It even uses its nuke attack, which is translated as N.bomb.

[@johnsimon8457]

It was the longest time before I found out the bosses are from Chinese astronomical mythology and match the color of the spheres you're supposed to collect - Blue dragon, red bird, white tiger, black turtle, and they use their japanese names. Japanese game developers really mine mythology for ideas, so a lot of tropes become reused.

[@hungrygoriya]

I'm partway through Final Fantasy Legend II and the mythology mine continues! I didn't make that colour/naming connection either... if I ever replay this, that'll be a neat tidbit to keep in mind.

[@johnsimon8457]

​@@hungrygoriya YAY! FFL 2 is like a weird childhood friend I keep revisiting. :) After seeing your the manual scans from the western release, I found the japanese manuals on Archive. I can't read any japanese but they have a number of cute little character doodles of your team that better represent what the characters are supposed to look like. archive.org/details/MakaiToushiSaGaManualJPGameBoyGB

[@tinkerer3399]

I think when I decide to play it again (played it as a kid but lost the cart before finishing) I'm just going to ignore the monster class. I'm not fond of referring to online guides and while I liked monsters as a kid I'm pretty sure it would just annoy me now.

[@hungrygoriya]

Yeah I think unless you're going to luck into a good monster early on, it's not so enticing. The randomness of the meat change can be fun but I don't know if I have the patience for it either.

[@BB-pn2qv]

Yay! Foundit

[@lurkerninethousand2591]

HG I know you’re not the only one to save where you probably shouldn’t have. Your favorite 16 bit JRPG prevents save anywhere early in the game because of that problem. I’m not sure if I want to try this or stick to the GBA Dawn of Souls and SNES Final Fantasy 4. Good video HG I’m just thinking this one might not be for me.

[@childofcascadia]

You ever gonna do Legend II? I love that game. I startled my mom when I was a kid one night cuz she was sitting there reading and I was playing FFL 2 nearby with earphones on. I finally beat Odin after like 4 tries and shouted full volume "YA! DIE ODIN!" and my mom about hit the ceiling, then yelled at me for yelling. It still makes me laugh. FFL was basically a test run for FFL2, imho. Ive never beat it, it just isnt as good as 2 and way more frustrating. Almost thru all your reviews. What will I watch on my breaks now??

[@tonyta9380]

I'm a huge FF games fan, just wondering, since you got soft lock, did you restarted the game or didn't finish it? I want to play this game now 😅

[@hungrygoriya]

I didn't restart it. I had other stuff I was more interested in playing instead, and I was so deep into it that it felt like too much time to make up.

[@vagrantlibertine]

Mutants can get Cure but it's not common. Unfortunately the sequel to this game both fixes, and creates, problems with Mutants. Early in the game their abilities seem to change more often, so I found myself saving often to make sure I didn't lose something good. At least in this game their Defense goes up naturally. The main difference between Humans and Mutants in this game is the ability Humans have to surpass 99 in their stats. They can go up to 255, but somehow the game can only show a maximum of 99. They will reset back to 0-1 if you try to go above 255 though. Sorry to hear about your save file, that's rough. It's weird, because I've beaten this game a number of times and found you were able to get some late game key items more than once. You're not always able to access the acquisition points though. From what I've learned researching this series after playing, it was intended to be the kind of thing you could complete within eight hours. This game and the first sequel utilize something called nodal story telling, where the player is engrossed in a number of small plots with, at best, tangential connections to the main plot. Many of the empty buildings in the first city were supposed to hold other game features, but they were removed due to time constraints. I'm guessing the cyclops alien was referring to an NPC related to one of these features. Interestingly, the creator of Pokemon cites this game's monster system as one of his influences, and early proof the system was capable of more complex games. Certainly the third game in this series, alongside things like Lufia: The Legend Returns and Zelda: Link's Awakening, were evidence of this as well. If you return to this game there's a point near one of the early settlements you find in the tower where you can get a reasonable amount of money from battles. I seem to recall the amounts being something around 1000-1400. It is at this point in which you can steamroll a reasonable portion of the game with overpowered Humans. :)

[@hungrygoriya]

I've since started into Final Fantasy Legend 2 and have been enjoying it quite a bit compared to the first game. Like you said here, it still has a ton of problems, and I think the worst thing for mutants is that if they get a new skill, it always overwrites one in a specific position (maybe the last?) in your list so you always have to keep an eye on good stuff when it pops up. If I end up picking this up again, I'll definitely keep your suggestion here in mind. There's just so many other good games to experience out there that I can't see myself getting back to it any time soon.

[@vagrantlibertine]

@@hungrygoriya You're right, it's always the last skill on the list. While the first game sets things in stone with four dedicated slots for skills, as you've seen Mutants can have up to eight. While this is intriguing, I can rarely bring myself to remove a fourth piece of equipment. The boot accessories you get later on are indispensable for extra defense, and the idea of having Warning- (which only prevents surprise attacks), as a fifth skill is not appealing. Despite the few problems it has, some of which are shared with Phantasy Star 2, it remains one of my top ten favorite games. I'm one of those weird people who's managed to beat the game with a party of four Robots. If you return to it I hope it becomes a fun experience for you. :)

[@HighPriestFuneral]

@@hungrygoriya A bit late, but it is important to know that you can move that last slot around in FFL2, so that you can decide which skill you want to be on the potential "chopping block".

[@hungrygoriya]

@@HighPriestFuneral This is good to know! I still need to finish up that playthrough some day but I will definitely keep this in mind. Thank you!

[@SwordsmanOrion]

I remember reading all about this game in Nintendo Power and being completely intimidated by it. I only had the NES Final Fantasy to compare it to, and reading all about in Nintendo Power just confused and intimidated me thanks to all the much more confusing and difficult sounding mechanics like how monsters and humans level up and the fact that your weapons can break. Was this the game with robots in it, or was that FF Legend 2? Maybe that was the game I was reading all about.

[@hungrygoriya]

Final Fantasy Legend 2 has the robots. This one just has the three classes! It's not bad once you get going, though there's a lot of randomness that you just don't have to deal with in more traditional RPGs!

[@oldirtygamer]

More great content :)

[@hungrygoriya]

Thanks! I'm glad you enjoyed it.

[@SaadAzim]

I'm ... uhhh ... probably focusing on the wrong thing here, but the BGM is sweet!! Also, as far as key items go, I think the conventions of 1989 would involve swearing a lot, then restarting the game from the beginning. -_-

[@hungrygoriya]

Yeah, one of these days I'll play it through again and finish it. I mean, soft locking the game wasn't the worst thing that ever happened to be my a longshot, but it'll be nice to check this one off the list.

[@SaadAzim]

​@@hungrygoriya agreed.There are worse things than soft locking games. (Ran into my first soft lock in my very first play through of Final Fantasy 2/4, in 1995, actually. -_-')