Recently I started up a small competition with a friend of mine, Hyperzypherian, where we select a game that we both have and we add it to our little 'Race Roulette' board. Now that we've selected almost 30 games that we would be fine with playing, I start up random.org and let it do the deciding for us; as to not rule out any games that we may not pick up otherwise. The game is then played by both of us at the same time until completion. This week, and the first week of us having a machine do the picking for us, we got Final Fantasy Adventure.

Unlike what the title might lead you to believe, there is not much relation to the actual Final Fantasy series in this game. Other than a spell that turns you into a Moogle and that yellow bird that everyone seems to love, this is actually the first in the 'Secret of' or 'Seiken Denetsu' series; consisting of the ever-popular Secret of Mana. You play as the cliched 'hero' character and often find yourself having to save the 'girl.' Even so, there is an interesting story that can be picked out of the horrid translation. This series does also have a point where magic is hard to come by and you find yourself running out as there is hardly any weapon that can defeat some monsters. After that point, though, you will honestly find yourself with an inventory full of Ethers that won't be used. Everything gets a bit easier after about three-quarters through the game to where you can continue using cure and you won't have to worry about running out of magic.

Now, I feel like I'm giving the game a lot of criticism. In its roots, the game is decent. In fact, it was one of my favorite experiences for the original Gameboy. Although there are some weak points, yes, you will find yourself having fun with the original Zelda-style RPG. All enemies and bosses are in real time and there is a wide variety of weapons for you to use. Later on, some weapons also assist in puzzles that are found in- and outside of dungeons. Many elements of great Nintendo series can be found in this game. For what it was, this is a great experience to behold and a game worth buying for sure. I enjoyed almost every minute of the game, minus a few times where it was easy to be frustrated by the spells some of the enemies could cast. To put it bluntly, it's the type of game you want to save often in. If you die, you must return to where you last saved.

Throughout the entire game, I found myself being a few bosses ahead of Dan, my opponent. This being the case, I ended up beating him to the finish with 17 bosses between us. That's pretty substantial. So, this game ended with me winning.

Thank you to everyone who read up to this point and I hope to see you in future posts.

Thanks for writing this up, interested to see what you play next. Never played this, good to have your thoughts. Are you very familiar with Seiken Denetsu? I bought Legend of Mana recently on PSN, but only played it an hour or so. Honestly didn't really understand the mechanics or where I was supposed to go next. Are secret and legend very similar?

This is actually the first game that I've played of the series and my first full playthrough of the game. When I bought it about a decade ago, I don't think I actually made it all that far. From what I've played, I definitely want to continue on with the series. I watched a little bit of the gameplay and there are some repeat enemies in both, but this game in specific was an over-the-head action RPG, very similar in style to the original Legend of Zelda (NES), so I didn't see too many similarities with this game in specific. However, I think it does follow a similar storyline.

Like you wrote earlier there are few similarities with the rest of the series. Secret of Mana is great, Secret of Mana 2 refined and enhanced many things from the first. If you like SoM do not miss out on the sequel, I think you need to find the english emulator rom. Legend of Mana has a great art style but a weird overworld system. I haven't played the PS2 game Dawn of Mana so I can't say anything about that. You're not missing out on anything by skipping the DS game Children of Mana. It's pure grinding. No really, it's just that. Sword of Mana on GBA is ok, I played it a couple of hours a few years ago. I intend to finish it one day.

Yeah, I definitely want to continue the series after playing this one. I've heard many good things about Secret of Mana. Mostly the soundtrack, though. I haven't watched too much gameplay, but surely I'll get to it at some point.