Final Fantasy (aka Final Fantasy I) for the NES, as the story goes, was successful enough to keep Squaresoft alive, and soon it spawned two unrelated entries that bared its name before following Nintendo to its next console. These three games have received ports and upgrades since their 20+ year ago debut, and I’ve saved the world in all three.
But as most Final Fantasy players would agree, these three games are not likely to make it to the top of anyone’s best Final Fantasy games list. They simply can’t match later entries in terms of story — or gameplay. So while the various remakes that have tried to modernize them, they are still limited by their now-dated foundations. That’s evidenced in the fact that three worlds are saved in 45, 55, and 80 pages respectively. But for those of you who want an abridged but more lively version of these games, Memory of Heroes will serve you well.
This light novel opens with some color pages that show each of the first three Final Fantasy games’ main party and the world map. Then, in separate adventures, you can follow along with four amnesiacs, a group of young revolutionaries, and some orphans as they try to fulfill the will of their world’s Crystals. Like some other Square Enix JRPG novel adaptations, the journeys are condensed and changed to try to make them smoother and quicker. Towns are skipped, supporting characters are given additional dialogue to make up for the lack of NPCs, and spellcasters suddenly have more powerful versions of their magic.
Out of the three, Final Fantasy II is probably the weakest link. While players may identify it as the black sheep of the family because of its leveling system, the story involves three kids who find themselves in the care of their homeland’s rebel army. The fourth slot in the game’s party was a revolving door of hellos and goodbyes, and Memory of Heroes is forced to spend so much time on these temporary player characters that Firion, Maria, and Guy (whose Tarzan-like speech is not nearly as evident as the game’s localization) suffer as a result. And the final developments never made much sense, and even with some added dialogue, they are just as bad if not worse when written on paper.
The biggest surprise though is that the four Warriors of Light in Final Fantasy I are named! We have Setro the warrior, Zauver the thief, Teol the black mage, and Flora the white mage. Considering they are nameless and voiceless in the game, and Dissidia‘s Warrior of Light is but a serious and dedicated knight, it was interesting to see them as realistic people — confused but determined. They are heavily inspired by the typical associations with their classes (Teol is quiet and analytic, Zauver snarky). Umemura did a good job of making them human without trying to turn them into fully fleshed-out characters and ruin the original feel of the story.
As no official English version of Final Fantasy III NES exists, I’m going to guess it favors the DS version based upon the names. It does feel the most developed and modern of the three, giving off a pseudo-Kingdom Hearts feel. Luneth, Arc, Refia, and Ingus do change jobs a few times in the story, but they usually stick to being a warrior, black mage, white magic, and thief. There is a lack of vegetable-named soldiers here, which I thought that might make for a good addition to the ending here. Otherwise, I thought the text (or maybe the translation?) could have done a little bit better making them sound younger than the other heroes, but it’s a relatively light, enjoyable adventure.
Final Fantasy I * II * III: Memory of Heroes unfortunately does not have a follow-up that covers the SNES games, let alone the post-SNES games. That’s disappointing as this was not a bad read. It’s not going to make someone suddenly love these retro games, but if you’ve skipped them or only know of the leads thanks to games like Dissidia, this is a pretty good way to get to know them a bit without having to spend 30 hours fighting goblins and grinding.