What, you were expecting Final Fantasy VII? Nope, sorry.
Long before FFVII came to be, before Cloud and Tifa cosplayers at anime cons were about as common as molecules of oxygen in the air, Squaresoft developed the true master of all FF games. It’s unfortunate that this game ultimately became shadowed by its successor, because it is superior in almost every way.
Due to Squaresoft’s confusing numbering system in the early FF games, Final Fantasy VI was originally known in the US as Final Fantasy III. Released for the Super Nintendo in 1994, this game essentially defined everything I grew to love about video game RPGs: a deep, moving story with a central theme of saving the world; an engaging, partially real-time battle system; and a cast of well-developed characters that have their own unique abilities in battle. Add to this the most evil, conniving, diabolical, sadistic son-of-a-bitch villain I’ve ever seen, and you have one of the best video games ever created.
In the wake of Final Fantasy VI‘s success, Squaresoft released yet another RPG epic for the Super Nintendo console that to this date is widely regarded among RPG fans as a golden classic. That game is Chrono Trigger. By taking common RPG elements and throwing in a unique battle system for the time along with a story centered around time travel, Squaresoft created a fan favorite that has stood the test of time and is talked about even to this day.
Secret of Mana, or Seiken Densetsu 2 as it is known in Japan, introduced to me many of the RPG concepts that I was very unfamiliar with at the time I played it. Being the very first RPG to enter my life, it’s safe to say that this game was my “gateway drug” into the world of video game RPGs. When the game came out, I decided to buy it because it looked like a Zelda game, a series I was (am still am) a huge fan of. However, I soon came to realize that, unlike Zelda games, Secret of Mana is more than just an adventure game – it’s an RPG. Using terminology I had never heard before such as HP, MP, and EXP, this game was one that took a while for me to really get into. However, to this date, it remains one of my favorite RPGs of all time.
Back in 1994 when Enix was still just Enix, they released a game known as Illusion of Gaia (known in Europe as Illusion of Time). It’s now 2010, and I still don’t get what this game is about. But if there’s one thing I know for sure – it’s that this game is loads of fun to play. Set in what’s supposedly our planet in an ancient era (despite the land formations not looking at all like Earth), some of the landmarks in the game resemble those of past civilizations.
