Taken into account this game was made as an "introductory" RPG for beginners, you'll find it has a lot going f
So a good decade after that, I tried pulling it out and giving it another go. And do you know, after all the great RPG's I've played, all the great Square titles I know and love, it's still pretty darn decent?
One of the things I've learned since the first time I saw this on the shelf at Electronics Boutique is that this was set up to be an introduction game, one to make it simple for those unfamiliar with the RPG format. The Japanese, God bless 'em, had known for a while how wonderfully FUN this genre was, but it wasn't doing so hot in the U.S., and so released this game in hopes of catching our attention (and making it a bit more digestible to younger players both in Japan and other countries). Make it a bit easier, a bit more user-friendly, and maybe it'll catch on. And BOY OH BOY, did it work.
The game itself is pretty "stock" for such games; a young lad on a quest to discover what's behind the odd happenings in his land. You only have to deal with a small party, and members change throughout his adventure. Side-quests are small and simple, and the graphic style is pretty much a reflection of the times (it was also the first game I ever played where the bosses and some enemies showed a gradual breakdown during battles. Instead of a single image that stayed the same from the first to the final blow, you got to see them go through changes like falling apart, looking madder, getting bigger, etc.) It definitely does have a likeable hero, though, and there are some mysteries to be solved.
There's bound to be a lot of RPG fans out there who don't know the debt they owe this particular game, and more than a few will probably dismiss it outright. Still, old-school fans need to give this title a whirl, and wonder why it took the rest of the world so long to catch on.