Vagrant Story is an action/RPG released by Square in 2000 for the PlayStation. Some people rate it as one of Square‘s best games of all time. Which is saying something.
Tag Archives: Square
Brave Fencer Musashi, PlayStation
Square‘s 1998 PlayStation release, Brave Fencer Musashi, is an entertaining single-player action/RPG, with real-time sword combat and a 3D environment and characters.
Final Fantasy Legend II, Game Boy
This 1991 sequel to the classic Squaresoft RPG Final Fantasy Legend is considered by many to be even better than the first game. And I would have to concur with that view.
Final Fantasy Legend, Game Boy
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 Adventure, Game Boy
The first game in the Seiken Densetsu (aka “Mana“) series was released on the black and white, handheld Nintendo Game Boy in June 1991.
It’s a spin-off from the famous Final Fantasy series, also by Square. In Japan the original title was Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden (translating as “Holy Sword Legend: Final Fantasy Side Story”). In the West it was released under the title Final Fantasy Adventure.
Seiken Densetsu 3, Super Nintendo [Part 5]
Seiken Densetsu 3 was released by Squaresoft in 1995 and an English fan translation came out in 2000. Only five years after the game’s original release there was a fan translation… That’s unheard of. And there are various translations available now, including German and French.
Seiken Densetsu 3, Super Nintendo [Part 4]
I absolutely love the graphical style of Squaresoft‘s Seiken Densetsu 3. It’s a masterwork of pixel graphics artistry. Everything in it, from the characters, to the buildings, to the items, and to the magic spell effects are all incredibly well presented and thought-out. These are definitely among the most iconic 2D RPG graphics ever made. And the people who made them deserve a round of applause from the rest of the gaming world for creating them. 🙂
Seiken Densetsu 3, Super Nintendo [Part 3]
One mistake I made when I first played Seiken Densetsu 3 was: I didn’t know where the magic spells were. This is probably a common mistake among first time players.
You have to press ‘down’ from the item menu ring to find and use your magic spells, and I probably played the first twenty levels or so without using my character magic at all. If you’re going to give this great game a try for the first time, don’t make the same mistake that I did. Press down to use your magic (and spirits) when the item ring is visible. Pressing up and down cycles through them. The same system as is used in shops for buying and selling. It does take some getting used to although you can quickly switch characters using the L and R buttons, which is useful in shops and essential in combat.
Seiken Densetsu 3, Super Nintendo [Part 2]
Probably the ‘deepest’ thing about Seiken Densetsu 3 is the magic combat system. Yes, you can hack away with swords and claw away with, erm, claws, but you can also bring up what they call the “Ring Menu” and cast magical spells. And – when you’re fighting against some enemies and bosses – it pays to know how to use magic well. Or you will get the stuffing knocked out of you… It’s all about using ‘buffs’ and ‘de-buffs’ – trying to counter the enemy by watching what he’s doing, and casting magic on your sword to create more damage. The combat system in Seiken Densetsu 3 is definitely more subtle than just ‘hacking away’. It is a fight to the death with devastating opponents in a game of wits, speed and magic knowledge!
Seiken Densetsu 3, Super Nintendo [Part 1]
Considered by many to be a Super Nintendo classic, but having never been released outside of Japan, Seiken Densetsu 3 (1995) has – in the past – been something of an enigma. A must-play game, but not available in English. That was: until an unofficial fan translation came out that changed all that.
Seiken Densetsu 3 is the third game in the Mana series (following Secret of Mana on the SNES (aka Seiken Densetsu 2), and Final Fantasy Adventure on the Game Boy (aka Seiken Densetsu)), and it is one of those games that I had played before (although not for more than a few hours, just to get a taste of it), and had planned to play more of, at some point in future.
The King of Grabs 