Retro Gaming Australia

Final Fantasy X-2 is the first direct sequel in the series, taking place about 2 years after the events of Final Fantasy X. Some felt that the game’s J-Pop thematics and costume change mechanics were a bit too much of a departure for the series, but it remains popular with most fans.

In the aftermath of the success of Final Fantasy VII, Squaresoft started bringing over other popular RPGs and spin offs. One such game was Chocobo’s Dungeon 2, the second in the serious of Chocobo rogue like spin-offs, and the first in the Mystery Dungeon series to be released outside of Japan.

Final Fantasy: Crystal Chronicles for the GameCube marked the triumphant return of the Final Fantasy series to Nintendo hardware after 5 years. It was quite the departure from the standard Final Fantasy fare – it was a multiplayer action RPG which required use of the Game Boy Advance link feature for the full experience, much to the chagrin of some at the time.

The Bouncer is another collaboration between DreamFactory and Squaresoft. It was heavily anticipated during the early days of the PlayStation 2 due to the high quality of previous DreamFactory/Square collaborations and impressive early footage. However the game was scaled back during development and the final product failed to match the vision. It is not a bad game, it is just short and bare.

In celebration of today’s anniversary – Final Fantasy‘s 25th, in fact – we bring to you another of the Final Fantasy VII ads. The CGI heavy advertising campaign in conjunction with a price drop and effective relaunch of the PlayStation in some territories saw the then-ailing system become the leading home console.

Widely heralded as one of the finest RPGs of all time, Chrono Trigger is an adventure that takes place across the fabric of time, with memorable characters, fantastic graphics, an excellent battle system and one of the greatest soundtracks ever composed.

Secret of Evermore is a somewhat unfairly maligned later SNES release from Squaresoft. The name got a lot of people’s hopes built up, with a lot of them foolishly thinking that it was a sequel to Secret of Mana. When it was revealed that Secret of Evemore was developed for the United States market, obsessive fans automatically assumed the game deprived them of the sequel to Secret of Mana, Seiken Densetsu 3 and declared it terrible, regardless of its actual quality. It’s a common misconception – the reality was that Secret of Evermore was developed by a newly assembled Squaresoft team based in the United States.

Super Mario RPG was one of the most popular J-RPGs of the 16-bit era. Like many RPGs of that vintage, the game was not released in Australia or Europe, which aggravated many fans, since the game proved to not be compatible with most universal adaptors. It did eventually make it here through the Wii’s Virtual Console service.

Lost Levels founder, Gamasutra news director and video game historian Frank Cifaldi has decided to part with one of his prized possessions – a one-of-a-kind prototype of the planned-but-ultimately-cancelled US release of Final Fantasy II for the NES.

Of course, you’d want to have a bit of free cash around before you consider it – the asking price is a cool $US50,000 (though offers are welcomed).

The NES release of Final Fantasy II was scrapped after Squaresoft decided to move onto the Super Nintendo and localise Final Fantasy IV (which hit the US as Final Fantasy II, starting some naming confusion for several years). This particular prototype comes from the Winter 1991 CES, where the game was shown off.

Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is a sometimes unfairly maligned side story in the series, designed mainly for a western audience. We received it here as Mystic Quest Legend, while it was taken back to Japan under the name Final Fantasy USA.