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Howard Phillips: This game nearly put Squaresoft belly-up in America. But I had faith in them and convinced Nintendo to release Final Fantasy here. |
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Black Mage Says: Whew! |
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The Bent Kangaroo Says: But you decided releasing this game first was a good idea? |
So What Kind Of Game Is This?
A vertical shooter with RPG elements.
So This Was Squaresoft's First RPG?
No, it was their first and only shooter. This was the first game they ever made, released in Japan in 1986. But it was the third game released in America, shortly before their first RPG.
What Are The RPG Elements?
You have four different characters with different abilities. On each of their respective levels, they must collect power-ups and spells (by destroying blocks, trees, etc. in your way) to use later in the game. You gain levels by killing monsters, and can repeat the levels indefinitely until you reach maximum status, which you will need to.
Difficulty Level?
Next to impossible. For starters, the screen automatically scrolls, and quite quickly. It's easy to miss necessary power-ups and spells, necessitating replays of each level. Worse yet, you can get stuck behind mountains at the bottom of the screen, a la Ikari Warriors, and get killed.
Second, most of the allies are awful fighters, and too slow to get out of the way. There are speed power-ups, but not enough. Oh, and you can only shoot straight ahead, not sideways or diagonal.
Lastly, on the final level, your team joins as one big mess with one power bar, incredibly prone to enemy attacks. Each party member must use their special spell at some point during the level, but to do so, you must have that member in the front of the party. Can you just pull up a menu to switch party members? Of course not! You have to step over a block that rotates your party, with the screen scrolling and enemies flying at you at lightning pace.
...
Exactly.
Links
Crawl and 1000's Pictoral Review
GameFAQs
Game Genie
