Final Fantasy Legend on the Nintendo Game Boy is a game that particularly resonates with me because I remember buying it back in 1989 and playing it to death over the space of six months. Everywhere I went at the time I had my Game Boy, battery pack, and Final Fantasy Legend cartridge, and I would play it whenever I had the time. And when I hear the iconic music playing it takes me back like a time machine…

Final Fantasy Legend is another Squaresoft “Gaiden” style action/RPG spin-off from the Final Fantasy series, just like the “Mana series” games (in fact: I’m sure they share the same soundtrack on the Game Boy, or at least the same themes), except Final Fantasy Legend features turn-based combat.

And although the story is trite and the dialogue has been ham-fistedly translated and is laughable, Final Fantasy Legend is still a bloody good level-grind, with some epic boss battles and excellent combat. When this first came out in 1989 there wasn’t much else around like it on the Game Boy. There was Zelda: Link’s Awakening, but that was much more mainstream and had real-time combat. This was turn-based and aimed at the more hardcore RPG fan.

Final Fantasy Legend also spawned two direct sequels on the Game Boy. The second was even better, and the third was just plain weird. All three Final Fantasy Legend titles together combine to make arguably THE major RPG trilogy on the whole Game Boy platform.

Final Fantasy Legend series on The King of Grabs:
Final Fantasy Legend, Final Fantasy Legend II, Final Fantasy Legend III

More: Final Fantasy Legend on Wikipedia