Path: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu!bloom-beacon.mit.edu!micro-heart-of-gold.mit.edu!news.sgi.com!enews.sgi.com!nntp.primenet.com!nntp.gblx.net!newsfeed.mesh.ad.jp!portc01.blue.aol.com!newsfeed.skycache.com!Cidera!news.eskimo.com!eskimo.com!nickzman From: nickzman@eskimo.com (Nick Zitzmann) Newsgroups: alt.games.final-fantasy,alt.games.final-fantasy.rpg,rec.games.video.nintendo,rec.games.video.sony,alt.answers,rec.answers,news.answers Subject: alt.games.final-fantasy FAQ (Part 1 of 3) Supersedes: <8rtaqm$v4a$1@eskinews.eskimo.com> Followup-To: poster Date: 31 Oct 2000 00:11:47 GMT Organization: Eskimo North www.eskimo.com (800) 246-6874 Lines: 3525 Approved: news-answers-request@MIT.EDU Message-ID: <8tl2o3$95b$1@eskinews.eskimo.com> NNTP-Posting-Host: eskimo.com X-Trace: eskinews.eskimo.com 972951107 9387 204.122.16.13 (31 Oct 2000 00:11:47 GMT) X-Complaints-To: abuse@eskimo.com NNTP-Posting-Date: 31 Oct 2000 00:11:47 GMT Summary: This posting describes the newsgroup alt.games.final-fantasy, and answers many of the more frequently asked questions that are received in this newsgroup. Originator: nickzman@eskimo.com Xref: senator-bedfellow.mit.edu alt.games.final-fantasy:376350 alt.games.final-fantasy.rpg:74545 rec.games.video.nintendo:471422 rec.games.video.sony:543395 alt.answers:52071 rec.answers:62107 news.answers:194799 Archive-name: games/video-games/final-fantasy/part1 Posting-Frequency: weekly Last-modified: 2000/08/21 Version: 1.8.7 +---------------------------------------------+ | * * * The alt.games.final-fantasy FAQ * * * | | * * * Part 1 of 3 * * * | +---------------------------------------------+ *** What's New in this FAQ *** Version 1.8.7 (8/21/00): - More glossary updates. - Added some information about the recently released Chrono Cross. * 0.0 - An explanation One of the most frequently asked questions the FAQ maintainer has been receiving recently is the reasoning behind the cross-posting of this FAQ. There is a reason why this FAQ is cross-posted into several groups: 1. rec.games.video.nintendo is receiving the FAQ because all of Square's games from the company's beginnings until Treasure Hunter G in 1996 were released for Nintendo game consoles. 2. rec.games.video.sony is receiving the FAQ because all of Square's games from Tobal #1 in 1996 to the present were and will continue to be released for Sony game consoles. 3. Both of the above also receive the FAQ because many news servers do not receive alt.games.final-fantasy, so their only place to get questions and answers about both old and new Square games is through the rec.games.video.* groups. 4. rec.answers, news.answers, and alt.answers receive the FAQ in order for this FAQ to be compliant with UseNet FAQ guidelines. 5. alt.games.final-fantasy.rpg is receiving the FAQ since the group is no longer used as an online role-playing group, and is as often used to discuss Final Fantasy as the original group. Basically, no one forces anyone to read the FAQ. If anyone out there has a problem with the FAQ's presence on newsgroups other than alt.games.final-fantasy, then they do not have to read it if they don't want to. The cross-post is a courtesy feature for the many people whose news servers don't carry alt.games.final-fantasy and would otherwise have no means of receiving an up-to-date version of the FAQ. *** Table of Contents *** Section 1 - Intro to alt.games.final-fantasy 1.1 - Welcome to alt.games.final-fantasy! 1.2 - What is Final Fantasy? 1.3 - Does Square make any video games other than the Final Fantasy series? 1.4 - What can or can't be discussed in alt.games.final-fantasy? 1.5 - What is alt.games.final-fantasy.rpg? 1.6 - What are alt.games.final-fantasy.hentai and alt.games.final-fantasy.tech-support? 1.7 - Didn't Square Soft go out of business? 1.8 - Why won't Square Soft release game XXX in the USA? 1.9 - Questions that you should **NEVER** ask again. 1.10 - Square Soft Resources on the InterNet 1.11 - Copyright, disclaimer, etc. 1.12 - Changes History 1.13 - Thank You's and Other Acknowledgements 1.14 - The Ultimate Final Fantasy Glossary 1.15 - I want to post the FAQ, too! Why is the FAQ being posted to newsgroup XXX? The FAQ is too big to post! Why don't you post the FAQ more/less often? 1.16 - I'd like to tell you about ! Where can I find this ? Why don't you add ? 1.17 - Can you send me a copy of this FAQ, or anyone else's FAQ? 1.18 - Why don't you just rip content out of other people's FAQs? 1.19 - My evil news administrators do not and will not carry the alt.games.final-fantasy newsgroup... 1.20 - Will there be any Final Fantasy games for future game consoles other than the PlayStation 2 and WonderSwan? 1.21 - Will Square ever become a Nintendo third party again? 1.22 - How was this newsgroup created, anyway? 1.23 - Where did the name "Final Fantasy" come from? Section 2 - The Final Fantasy Series 2.1 - The Final Fantasy Series (Intro) 2.2 - Final Fantasy Games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) 2.2.1 - Final Fantasy I (USA: Final Fantasy I) 2.2.2 - Final Fantasy II (not released in the USA) 2.2.3 - Final Fantasy III (not released in the USA) 2.3 - Final Fantasy Games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) 2.3.1 - Final Fantasy IV (not released in the USA) 2.3.2 - Final Fantasy IV Easytype (USA: Final Fantasy II) 2.3.3 - Final Fantasy V (not released in the USA - for the Super NES, anyway) 2.3.4 - Final Fantasy USA (USA: Final Fantasy Mystic Quest) 2.3.5 - Final Fantasy VI (USA: Final Fantasy III) 2.4 - Final Fantasy Games for the Nintendo Game Boy (DMG) 3.2.1 - Final Fantasy Gaiden: Seiken Densetsu (USA: Final Fantasy Adventure) 2.5 - Final Fantasy Games for the Sony PlayStation (PSX) 2.5.1 - Final Fantasy VII (USA: Final Fantasy VII) 2.5.2 - Final Fantasy VII International (not released in the USA) 2.5.3 - Final Fantasy Tactics (USA: Final Fantasy Tactics) 2.5.4 - Final Fantasy Collections (USA: Final Fantasy Anthology) 2.5.5 - Final Fantasy VIII (USA: Final Fantasy VIII) 2.5.6 - Final Fantasy IX (supposedly coming to the USA in October) 2.6 - Are there any movies/direct-to-videos based on the Final Fantasy series? Section 3 - Other Games by Square Soft 3.1 - Square Games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) 3.1.1 - Highway Star (USA: Rad Racer) 3.1.2 - The 3D Battles of World Runner (USA: The 3D Battles of World Runner) 3.1.3 - Rad Racer II (not released in Japan) 3.2 - Square Games for the Nintendo Game Boy (DMG) 3.2.1 - SaGa (USA: The Final Fantasy Legend) 3.2.2 - SaGa II (USA: The Final Fantasy Legend II) 3.2.3 - SaGa III (USA: The Final Fantasy Legend III) 3.3 - Square Games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) 3.3.1 - Seiken Densetsu II (USA: The Secret of Mana) 3.3.2 - Seiken Densetsu III (not released in the USA) 3.3.3 - Chrono Trigger (USA: Chrono Trigger) 3.3.4 - The Secret of Evermore (not released in Japan) 3.3.5 - Front Mission (not released in the USA) 3.3.6 - Breath of Fire (USA: Breath of Fire) 3.3.7 - Romancing SaGa (not released in the USA) 3.3.8 - Romancing SaGa II (not released in the USA) 3.3.9 - Romancing SaGa III (not released in the USA) 3.3.10 - Bahamut Lagoon (not released in the USA) 3.3.11 - Super Mario RPG (USA: Super Mario RPG) 3.3.12 - Rudora no Hihou (not released in the USA) 3.3.13 - Treasure Hunter G (not released in the USA) 3.3.14 - Hanjyuku Hero (not released in the USA) 3.3.15 - Breath of Fire II (not usually considered a Square game, but discussed in this newsgroup anyway) 3.4 - Square Games for the Sony PlayStation (PSX) 3.4.1 - Tobal #1 (USA: Tobal #1) 3.4.2 - Tobal II (not released in the USA) 3.4.3 - Bushido Blade (USA: Bushido Blade) 3.4.4 - Xenogears (USA: Xenogears) 3.4.5 - Front Mission Alternative (not released in the USA) 3.4.6 - SaGa Frontier (USA: SaGa Frontier) 3.4.7 - Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon (not released in the USA) 3.4.8 - Einhander (USA: Einhander) 3.4.9 - Parasite Eve (USA: Parasite Eve) 3.4.10 - Brave Fencer Musashiden (USA: Brave Fencer Musashi) 3.4.11 - Ehrgeiz (USA: Ehrgeiz) 3.4.12 - SaGa Frontier II (USA: SaGa Frontier II) 3.4.13 - Chocobo Racing (USA: Chocobo Racing) 3.4.14 - Chrono Cross (USA release coming soon) 3.4.15 - Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon II (USA: Chocobo Dungeon II) 3.4.16 - Vagrant Story (USA: Vagrant Story) 3.4.17 - Seiken Densetsu: The Legend of Mana (USA: Legend of Mana) 3.4.18 - Front Mission III (USA: Front Mission III) 3.4.19 - DewPrism (USA: Threads of Fate) 3.5 - Square Games for the Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2) 3.5.1 - Driving Emotion Type-S (it's too early to determine USA status) 3.5.2 - The Bouncer (it's too early to determine USA status) 3.5.3 - Gekikuukan Pro Baseball (it's too early to determine USA status) Section 4 - Frequently Asked Questions about the Final Fantasy Series 4.1 - General Hints about the Final Fantasy Series 4.1.1 - Monster XXX or Boss YYY is too difficult... 4.1.2 - What kind of a party should I choose? 4.1.3 - Why do you refer to Final Fantasy III as "Final Fantasy VI"? Which Final Fantasy games were put out in the USA, anyway? 4.1.4 - Translation aside, what are the differences between the Japanese and American versions of these games? 4.1.5 - In regard to the previous question, what about non-Final Fantasy games? 4.1.6 - Why can't I resurrect certain characters who die? 4.1.7 - Tables of Information 4.1.8 - Known bugs in several Square games (USA releases, USA titles) 4.2 - Final Fantasy I 4.2.1 - How do I get into the Sea Shrine? 4.2.2 - How do I get the Excalibur Sword? 4.2 3 - How do I get into the Mirage Tower? 4.2.4 - What do I do with Matoya? 4.2.5 - I defeated the Vampire... 4.2.6 - I defeated Lich, now what do I do? 4.2.7 - I defeated Kary, now what do I do? 4.2.8 - I got the Floater, but what use is it? 4.2.9 - I defeated Kraken, now what? 4.2.10 - I defeated Tiamat, now what? 4.2.11 - What items can I use in battles? 4.2.12 - What magic should I use to defeat the elemental fiends? 4.3 - Final Fantasy IV Easytype (USA: Final Fantasy II) 4.3.1 - Palom and Porom have been turned to stone... 4.3.2 - I got the Poison Axe, but no one can use it... 4.3.3 - Where is Odin? Odin talks about some Summoned Monsters place... 4.3.4 - How do I deal with cursed items? 4.3.5 - How do I defeat Asura? 4.3.6 - How do I defeat Bahamut? 4.3.7 - How do I defeat Odin? 4.3.8 - How do I get the rarest armor in the game? 4.3.9 - The Magus Sisters are giving me problems... 4.3.10 - Where can I find some really rare items? 4.3.11 - What calls can I find and give Rydia? 4.3.12 - What spells should I use to defeat the elemental fiends? 4.3.13 - How do I get to the Cave Magnes (the Dark Elf's Cave?) 4.3.14 - How do I defeat the Dark Elf? 4.3.15 - Why are the characters speaking in really sloppy English? 4.4 - Final Fantasy VI (USA: Final Fantasy III) 4.4.1 - What time is it? 4.4.2 - How do I get the Water Rondo dance for Mog? 4.4.3 - I'm in the World of Ruin, and can't find Shadow... 4.4.4 - How do I defeat Wrexsoul? 4.4.5 - How do I defeat MagiMaster? 4.4.6 - Where is the Cursed Shield? 4.4.7 - What do I do with the Cursed Shield? 4.4.8 - Where is the Atma Weapon? 4.4.9 - How do I increase my chances of getting critical hits on enemies? 4.4.10 - How do I revive General Leo? 4.4.11 - Where is the Air Anchor? 4.4.12 - Where can I find the secret characters? 4.4.13 - How do I get the Crusader Esper? 4.4.14 - Where is the Ancient Castle? 4.4.15 - Where are the Golem and ZoneSeek Espers? 4.4.16 - Where is the Raiden Esper? 4.4.17 - Should I get the Ragnarok Esper or the Ragnarok Sword? 4.4.18 - Where is the Experience Egg? 4.4.19 - Where are the Illumina, Muscle Belt, Rename Card, Marvel Shoes, Merit Award, Cursed Ring, etc... 4.4.20 - I just gave Relm the command to sketch monster XXX, and everything got all weird/locked up... 4.4.21 - The world has ended, and my party's missing... 4.4.22 - My character was low on HP, and he/she just did a really strange but powerful attack... 4.4.23 - I want to know where all the Espers are... 4.4.24 - Where can I get the most powerful stuff in the game? 4.4.25 - I got a Snow Muffler and a Bone Club, but how do I equip it on my sasquatch? 4.4.26 - Where is the Paladin Ring? 4.4.27 - Where are the dragons in the forest north of the Veldt? 4.4.28 - What is the best way to get through Kefka's Tower? 4.4.29 - How many endings are there? Is there a "secret ending"? 4.5 - Final Fantasy VII 4.5.1 - How do I revive Aeris? 4.5.2 - Why do so many bad things happen to Aeris? 4.5.3 - Why are the characters swearing so much? 4.5.4 - How do the 'Elemental' and 'Added Effect' materia work? 4.5.5 - What does it mean when a Materia is 'born'? 4.5.6 - How do I learn Enemy Skills? 4.5.7 - What do I need to do in order to make Cloud dress up as a woman? 4.5.8 - Sector 7 has just been destroyed. I bought Batteries from the Weapon Shop in Wall Market, but I don't know what to do now. 4.5.9 - What do I do about Reno's 'Pyramid' attack? 4.5.10 - I'm in the Shinra HQ. How do I solve Domino's puzzle? 4.5.11 - I'm still in the Shinra HQ. Where do I go now that Jenova has escaped? 4.5.12 - I'm currently listening to Cloud recounting his past at Kalm Town. Is there anything special I can do during his flashback? 4.5.13 - How do I capture a Chocobo? Do I have to have one in order to cross the marsh near the Chocobo Barn? 4.5.14 - I'm fighting Bottom Swell at Under Junon. What do I do about the Waterpolos that appear around my character? 4.5.15 - I'm supposed to use Mr. Dolphin to get Cloud up on top of the electrical tower. But, I can't seem to land on the beam... 4.5.16 - Where do I go once I have the Buggy? 4.5.17 - There's an iron safe in the Shinra Mansion at Nibleheim... 4.5.18 - I just escaped from Rocket Town in the Tiny Bronco, Cid's airplane. What do I need to do now? 4.5.19 - Hey...when I went on a date at the Gold Saucer, it was with Aeris. But last time I played, it was with Tifa. What gives? 4.5.20 - I finished the clock puzzle and am trying to escape, but the Demon's Gate boss is beating me up!... 4.5.21 - I need to find the Lunar Harp, but where do I dig? 4.5.22 - How do I leave Icicle Lodge? 4.5.23 - I crash-landed into the Ice Gate Glacier and don't know what to do now... 4.5.24 - I'm having trouble navigating through the snowy wasteland that's between the Ice Gate Glacier and the old man's cabin. How do I get through this? 4.5.25 - If I go east from the snowy field, there is a woman who tells me to go away. What am I supposed to do here? 4.5.26 - Hey, I've been incarcerated in Junon! And Tifa's getting gassed! How can I free her before it's too late? 4.5.27 - Right now, I'm trying to get a Huge Materia and prevent North Corel from being hit by a train... 4.5.28 - I'm at the underground Submarine Dock, and Reno just sent a boss, C. Armor, to attack my party... 4.5.29 - What's the code to release the Huge Materia from Cid's Rocket? 4.5.30 - How do I fight the Ultima Weapon? It keeps running away! 4.5.31 - How do you kill those Magic Pots? 4.5.32 - Yeah, but what if I want to kill the Master Tonberis?... 4.5.33 - There's this guy in Kalm Town who wants to trade things with me... 4.5.34 - I want to get Secret Character #1 in my party... 4.5.35 - Okay, now I want to get Secret Character #2... 4.5.36 - Isn't there some way to get back into Midgar during Disc 2 or 3? How is it done? 4.5.37 - I'm trying to find all six Turtles' Paradise flyers... 4.5.38 - Is there another way to get a Gold Chocobo aside from striking a deal with the trader at Kalm town? I need some Chocobo breeding tips! 4.5.39 - How do I enter the 'secret' battle that Master Dio is sponsoring at the Gold Saucer's Battle Square? 4.5.40 - Where can I get all the Materia Orbs in the game? 4.5.41 - How do I get the Huge Materia and Master Materia? 4.5.42 - Are there any Materia besides the ones listed above? 4.5.43 - How do I gain new Limit Breaks? 4.5.44 - Where are the Extreme Limit Break manuals located at? 4.5.45 - Where can I find my character's Ultimate Weapon? What makes the Ultimate Weapons so special? 4.5.46 - What are the Weapons? How do I defeat them? 4.5.47 - What do the greens and nuts do to my chocobos? 4.5.48 - What other neat things can I do with my materia? 4.5.49 - How do I perform that "unlimited money trick" that I've heard about? 4.6 - SaGa I (USA: The Final Fantasy Legend) 4.6.1 - How do I get the Excalibur? 4.6.2 - Where is the Nuke Bomb? 4.6.3 - How do I solve Ryu-O's riddle on Floor 5? 4.6.4 - What's the best way to defeat Ashura? 4.6.5 - Where can I find a Board? 4.6.6 - How do I get through Sei-Ryu's Castle? 4.6.7 - What is the best weapon in the game, and where can I find it? 4.6.8 - Where did my glider go? 4.7 - SaGa II (USA: The Final Fantasy Legend II) 4.7.1 - Do I really need to conquer the Nasty Dungeon? 4.7.2 - What do I do in Venus's World? 4.7.3 - What do I do with the Masamune, Aegis, and Heart MAGIs? 4.7.4 - Where is the Seven Sword? 4.7.5 - How do I defeat Apollo? 4.7.6 - What are the best items in the game, and where are they? 4.8 - Final Fantasy Tactics 4.8.1 - How do I kill Gafgarion? 4.8.2 - How do I survive the battles at Riovannes Castle? 4.8.3 - How do I learn the Ultima spell? 4.8.4 - What does the "Secret Hunt" thief skill do? 4.8.5 - How do I get the secret character? 4.8.6 - How do I survive the battles at Limberry Castle? 4.8.7 - How do I get various jobs? 4.9 - Final Fantasy V 4.9.1 - There is a dead end in the Valley of the Dragons... 4.9.2 - How do I defeat Bahamut or any of the other difficult near-end-game bosses? 4.10 - Final Fantasy VIII 4.10.1 - How do I get from Balamb to Timber? 4.10.2 - Where are all the GFs? 4.10.3 - Where is the White SeeD ship? 4.11 - Vagrant Story 4.11.1 - I took the FAQ's advice in article 4.1.1, but I'm still getting wasted... Section 5 - Frequently Asked Questions about Other Square Soft Games 5.1 - Chrono Trigger 5.1.1 - How do I defeat the Golem Twins? 5.1.2 - I'm at the Forest Ruins... 5.1.3 - How do I forge the Masamune? 5.1.4 - What do I do in the Northern Ruins? 5.1.5 - There's something in some chests in 600 AD which interfere with the Pendant... 5.1.6 - My party is in the Falcon, and I've lost everything... 5.1.7 - What do I do with Fiona in 600 AD? 5.1.8 - What must I do to get the New Game + mode to be active on my copy of the game? 5.1.9 - How do I remove the curse on Frog? 5.1.10 - How many secret characters are in this game? 5.1.11 - Are there any hidden weapons for my secret character? 5.1.12 - How do I defeat the Son of Sun? 5.1.13 - The Moon Stone is missing, and I suspect the greedy mayor has it... 5.1.14 - What does the right telepod do? 5.1.15 - How many endings are in this game? 5.1.16 - There's a locked drawer in a house in Dorino... 5.1.17 - Gaspar says that someone needs my help, and to find that person fast... 5.1.18 - Does Ayla's weapon ever change? 5.1.19 - Can I get Schala to join my party? 5.2 - Seiken Densetsu III (not released in the USA) 5.2.1 - What do I do in the Black Market? 5.3 - SaGa Frontier 5.3.1 - What do I do next? 5.3.2 - How does magic work in this game? 5.4 - Parasite Eve 5.4.1 - Where can I find key XXX? 5.4.2 - What does Maeda's Gun do? 5.4.3 - What do the various weapon effects do to the weapons? 5.5 - Xenogears 5.5.1 - How do I defeat Calamity? 5.5.2 - How do I get a gear to perform combos? 5.5.3 - How do I get gear parts in Dazil? 5.5.4 - How do I defeat Redrum? 5.5.5 - How do I defeat Id? 5.5.6 - How do I defeat Shakahn's gear? 5.5.7 - How do I solve the puzzles in Anima Dungeon 2? 5.5.8 - Someone in the Snowfield Hideout wants the Kishin Sword... 5.5.9 - Does the "special options" gear menu actually do anything? 5.5.10 - Where can I find some more guns for Billy and Renmazuo? 5.6 - Brave Fencer Musashiden (USA: Brave Fencer Musashi) 5.6.1 - Where are the scrolls and crest guardians? 5.6.2 - OK, so where are the crests? Section 6 - Secrets of the Games 6.1 - Final Fantasy I 6.1.1 - The Pirates' Puzzle Game 6.1.2 - In the Hall of the Giant King 6.1.3 - More Mega Monsters 6.1.4 - The Magic Map Trick 6.1.5 - Coneria's Invisible Man 6.2 - Final Fantasy IV (not released in the USA) 6.2.1 - The Programmer's Room 6.3 - Final Fantasy IV Easytype (USA: Final Fantasy II) 6.3.1 - Item Duplication Trick 6.3.2 - The Mighty Spoon, the ultimate weapon in the universe? 6.3.3 - The Man on the Moon 6.3.4 - Secret Weaponry 6.4 - Final Fantasy V 6.4.1 - The Hero's Song 6.4.2 - Gogo's Secret Job 6.5 - Final Fantasy VI (USA: Final Fantasy III) 6.5.1 - Secret Chocobo Stables 6.5.2 - Carrie Fisher, meet Celes Chere 6.5.3 - Unlimited experience, unlimited money, 99 potions 6.5.4 - Another Atma Weapon & Ragnarok Sword? 6.5.5 - Alternative Blitz Commands 6.5.6 - Free inns - why buy your mattress anywhere else? 6.5.7 - Returners' Hideout: Gauntlet or Genji Glove? 6.6 - Final Fantasy VII 6.6.1 - Ace the Chocobo Race 6.6.2 - Reset the game without having to sit through the PlayStation startup 6.6.3 - All 7 Fever 6.6.4 - Chocobo Racing: To the winner goes the spoils 6.6.5 - Unlimited Items 6.7 - Chrono Trigger 6.7.1 - Reset the game without touching the reset switch 6.7.2 - Changing character names 6.7.3 - Secret Triple Techs 6.8 - Seiken Densetsu II (USA: Secret of Mana) 6.8.1 - Mana weapons without Mana magic 6.9 - Secret of Evermore (not released in Japan) 6.9.1 - Unlimited stamina 6.9.2 - Secret alchemy recipes 6.10 - Highway Star (USA: Rad Racer) and Rad Racer II 6.10.1 - Continue a stage 6.10.2 - Hidden stage select 6.10.3 - Skip to the end 6.11 - The 3D Battles of World Runner 6.11.1 - Continue a stage 6.12 - SaGa I & II (USA: The Final Fantasy Legend I & II) 6.12.1 - Sound Test 6.13 - Final Fantasy Tactics 6.13.1 - Square Parodies 6.14 - Einhander 6.14.1 - Secret Weapons 6.14.2 - Secret Special Bonuses 6.14.3 - Secret Einhanders 6.15 - SaGa Frontier 6.15.1 - The Programmer's Room 6.15.2 - Lots and lots of money 6.16 - Parasite Eve 6.16.1 - Second Scenario? 6.16.2 - One man's junk really is another man's treasure 6.16.3 - Toolkits and Wayne's Trading Cards 6.17 - Xenogears 6.17.1 - Alice's Wedding Dress 6.17.2 - The Big Joe Saga 6.17.3 - The Badge Treasure 6.17.4 - Midori's Ring 6.17.5 - Lots and lots of money 6.17.6 - Battling Secrets 6.17.7 - Shevat's Secret Treasure 6.17.8 - The Trader Card 6.17.9 - Emeralda's Growth Spurt 6.18 - Chocobo Racing 6.18.1 - Secret Course 6.18.2 - Secret Characters 6.19 - Vagrant Story 6.19.1 - Play it again for the first time +----------------------------------------------------+ |*** Section 1 - Intro to alt.games.final-fantasy ***| +----------------------------------------------------+ * 1.1 - Welcome to alt.games.final-fantasy! Welcome to alt.games.final-fantasy! What, did you expect more in this article? (Read onward to find out what we do here, why we do what we do here, and anything else that's not covered by the two items I just mentioned.) WARNING: This newsgroup contains subversive truths, absurd lies, guerilla philosophy, and several very naughty words. Open mind before reading. So, gather around, everyone, and Uncle Nu will tell you a story... * 1.2 - What is Final Fantasy? "Final Fantasy" is a series of role-playing video games for the Nintendo Entertainment System, Super Nintendo Entertainment System, and the Sony PlayStation by Square Co. Ltd, a Japan-based video games company with offices in the USA and maybe a few other countries as well. The Final Fantasy series of games are among the most popular RPGs for any video game or computer platform. What makes the Final Fantasy series unique is how every game sequel uses a different world from the game before it and different this world, but usually maintains the same game engine, game play, and some of the different kinds of items used in the games. And for those people who think that video games are uneducational or rot young minds away need look no further - the Final Fantasy series of games usually contain items and characters taken out of either world history or different mythologies. Even some of the characters and places in the game have mythological functions to them. * 1.3 - Does Square make any video games other than the Final Fantasy series? Of course. In fact, Square's first few games weren't RPGs - "Rad Racer," "King's Knight," and "The 3D Battles of World Runner" were their three first games in the USA. These days, however, Square doesn't put out anything much that's not an adventure game or RPG. Some of these will be mentioned later. * 1.4 - What can or can't be discussed in alt.games.final-fantasy? We're pretty tolerant (well, most of the time, anyways...) of certain discussions, this includes: * Anything relating to the Final Fantasy series of video games. * Anything relating to any non-Final Fantasy video games made by Square Soft. * Anything relating to Breath of Fire II, which is not a game by Square Soft, but can be discussed here anyways because the original game (Breath of Fire) was marketed by Square Soft. * Square Soft game fan-fiction stories. (This does _not_ include any of the various "Final Fantasy RPG" stories - they belong in alt.games.final-fantasy.rpg, see below.) * Making up fake Final Fantasy rumors or full messages loaded with them - we call these "Fwaks" or "FAQes". * Reeeeeeeeaaaaaaaallllllllllllllllllllyyyyy loooooooooooooong signatures. * Why Square Soft screwed you over, or why not. Remember, the topic is "Square," but the newsgroup is called "alt.games.final-fantasy" - discussing anything about Square Soft is OK. * Game Genie codes for Square video games. We will severely flame you and killfile you and subscribe you to 20 different mailing lists if you post any of the following: * Asking for help on any video game _not_ made by Square. (Lone exception: Breath of Fire II.) * Chain letters, pyramid schemes, and/or anything which promises to "make money fast". Keep illegal stuff out of our newsgroup! Thank you. * Cybersex. This isn't _that_ kind of a "fantasy" newsgroup. * Final Fantasy WaReZ. Keep it legal, folks, we don't want to all pay more for the next Final Fantasy game. * Flames directed at people posting Game Genie codes for Square Soft video games. * People who quote an entire message to leave a one-line response, or people who quote themselves in their messages just to confuse everyone. Double the penalty if the person includes a more-than-one line signature. * Posts relating to any of the various "Final Fantasy RPG" stories - they belong in alt.games.final-fantasy.rpg, see below. * Repeated questions asking about things that don't exist in Square games - see article 1.9. * Alternative spelling or typing. * Meowing. (unless, of course, you are physically a cat) * Posting racist material, such as using the word "Jap" to refer to the Japanese, using any other racial slurs, or specifically putting anyone's race down for any dumb reason. * If it isn't about Square Soft, or one of their products, it doesn't belong here. Don't bring it here. Thank you. (NOTE: We're only kidding about killfiling you and subscribing you to 20 different mailing lists. Don't take _everything_ so seriously, since it's nearly a requirement that you have a good sense of humor if you want to read our newsgroup...) * 1.5 - What is alt.games.final-fantasy.rpg? It's essentially a dead newsgroup. Once upon a time, it was used by participants in an online "writing RPG," which has now passed on. The group was rmgrouped a very long time ago. However, seeing how no Usenet servers accept rmgroup commands, it is still very widespread. (Note: As of July 1998, the newsgroup has suddenly become massively repopulated.) * 1.6 - What are alt.games.final-fantasy.hentai and alt.games.final-fantasy.tech-support? Both groups were created by Ahmed "X" Hassan as sub-groups of increasingly popular trends on alt.games.final-fantasy. The purpose of alt.games.final-fantasy.hentai is to act as a repository for binaries containing "hentai" images of Final Fantasy & other Square characters. "Hentai" is a Japanese word which generally means "pervert" or "perverted," etc. The purpose of alt.games.final-fantasy.tech-support is to discuss technical problems with Square games - in other words, not necessarily gameplay-related questions. * 1.7 - Didn't Square Soft go out of business? No, Square's still around today. The rumors of Square's demise in the USA were greatly exaggerated (thank you, Mark Twain...). Truth can sometimes be stranger than fiction - Square Co. Ltd totally reorganized their offices in the USA. Here's a summary of what happened: Around October/November 1995, Square opened a new office in the Los Angeles area, known as "Square LA". The purpose of the Square LA office was (and still is) to work on high-end graphics for future Square games. Square LA demonstrated their expertise in CG (computer graphics) by creating a small demo on Silicon Graphics workstations. This demo featured characters from Final Fantasy VI, and was completely animated in 3D. Most people, including Nintendo Power magazine, assumed that Square was showing off what could be a future Nintendo 64 title. In early 1996, Square Soft (in Redmond, WA) released Secret of Evermore, which along with Rad Racer II, was a game they had actually produced themselves. (Previous games were all produced by Square Co. Ltd in Japan, and released in the USA by Square Soft.) Shortly afterward, the Japanese mothership shut down the Redmond division. At the same time, Square Co. Ltd announced Final Fantasy VII - exclusively for the Sony PlayStation (switch!). This set sort of a panic on Final Fantasy fans in the USA. Although FF VII would not be released for some time now, the question remained: Would it be released in the USA? Square Soft had been shut down, and Square LA was not equipped to port Japanese games. No one knew if the title would be released in the USA or not. Moreover, what happened to Nintendo? Square shocked the gaming world by abandoning Nintendo and signing on with Sony. Some people had thought that this move was a mistake. Some people still do. Then, Sony Computer Entertainment America got involved: They published FF VII in Japan, and reported that FF VII would be released in the USA. They had yet to decide if it should be "modified" from the Japanese version, but strong user feedback made Sony release the game uncut - for the very first time - in the USA. (The first Square PlayStation game released in the USA was Tobal #1, which contained a demo disc of FF VII.) Later on, Square Co. Ltd opened up a second Square Soft, located nearby Square LA. They also set up a second CG shop, located in Honolulu. Thus, "Square LA" became "Square USA, LA Division" and the Honolulu office became the Honolulu division of Square USA. Square Soft's name remained unchanged. So, what happened to the original Square Soft? The employees either moved to what was then Square LA, or they joined a new company, known as "Big Rain". (Big Rain was founded by Ted Woolsey, the same person who brought FF VI and Chrono Trigger to the USA.) Big Rain was dissolved at the end of 1997, and joined up with another company, called "Crave Entertainment". Crave produces PlayStation and N64 games. In a period of about two years, Square Co. Ltd totally switched around their business in America. We can only hope that the changes were for the better... * 1.8 - Why won't Square Soft release game XXX in the USA? This is a hard question to answer. The truth is, though, that Square Soft can only translate and release what Square Co. Ltd tells it to translate and release. Believe it or not, there are cultural differences between Japan and the United States. What could be considered decent in Japan can be considered "mature" in the United States, and vice versa. Square has been notorious for holding back some games (eg. Xenogears) due to mature themes that may offend American customers. The other thing involved is economics. In the USA, role-playing games don't sell well compared to action and sports games. What makes more economical sense, to release a game in one area and sell millions of copies of the game, or release generally the same game in another place and only sell hundreds of thousands of copies? * 1.9 - Questions that you should **NEVER** ask again. Usually, in alt.games.final-fantasy, when nothing else is happening in the Square world and we've all practically exploited a game to its fullest, the only thing we do to keep ourselves entertained is to make up false rumors about the game. Sometimes these have been fun to do, but unfortunately, some people actually believe these false rumors, and as things turn out, we get people asking for things that they've "heard were in the game," but they really aren't there. So, whatever you do, do **not** bring up the following questions, under any circumstance: Game Genie Codes for any Final Fantasy game or otherwise: - There are several repositories for Game Genie codes. Use one of them before you ask here. Final Fantasy III: - Any Chocobos other than the yellow ones in the stables. - Reviving General Leo (he's dead, Locke!). - A "secret ending" (there is none). - Anything relating to Shadow's dream sequences. - A "new game +" feature, or a second quest (neither exist). - Secret characters other than a particular sasquatch and a mime. - Secret Character #2's real identity. - Anything which mentions a character called "Akfek" (read it backwards). - How to receive characters in one game that appeared in another (with the lone exception of Cid, there are no characters who are reused between the Final Fantasy games). - Throwing Atma Weapons at Kefka. - If it's in the FAQ, please read the FAQ before you ask any questions. Final Fantasy VII: - As with all people who are dead, Aeris can not be resurrected. This is not a "missing feature" in the game. - Anything that mentions a town named "Manchuria" (there is no such town in the game). Xenogears: - Any possibility of Ramsus becoming a playable character. My final plea: Please, don't ask these questions! They've been debated to death, and we're tired of seeing them. * 1.10 - Square Soft Resources on the InterNet Square Co. Ltd's Official Home Page: http://www.square.co.jp/ Square Co. Ltd (in Japan) has their own official home page now present on the World Wide Web. Too bad it's all encoded in JIS, so unless your browser can decode Japanese characters, it's illegible. If not, and if you can read Japanese, you might find something useful there, no one knows... RPGamer, or formerly known as "Square Net": http://www.rpgamer.com/ Contains lots of information on everything about Square Soft - the games, the company, the fans. Definitely worth a look. It has less multimedia than the official Square Soft page, but has more "underground" content. The Arris Dome: http://www.cris.com/~shelbyh/chrono/chrono.shtml This site is Chrono Trigger player's heaven: Lots of useful and interesting information about Chrono Trigger, the characters, the plot, etc. If you've played Chrono Trigger before, you owe it to yourself to come here. The Official Square Soft Home Page: http://www.squaresoft.com/ Contains information about Final Fantasy VII, and some other games. This page, unlike Square USA's home page, is aimed more toward consumers rather than job hunters. GameFAQs: http://www.gamefaqs.com/ This site carries less general, more precise FAQs covering a wide spectrum of games. Shinra Corporation: http://www.shinra.com/ This is sort of a joke custom-tailored for Final Fantasy VII players. Quick! Go visit it before Square finds out! Ziggurat 9: http://www.zig9.com/ Ziggurat 9 is the home page of Clio Saga (Kaori Tanaka). While at Square, she was involved in the design of Final Fantasy V and VI, and is probably most famous for designing the characters used in Xenogears. Procyon Studio, Home of Yasunori Mitsuda: http://www.procyon-studio.com/ Yasunori Mitsuda has written the soundtracks to a number games; including Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, Xenogears, and Mario Party. He has also produced some of the sound effects for Final Fantasy titles. This link goes to his home page. (It's all in Japanese, though.) Amano's World: http://amanosworld.com/ This is the official home page of Yoshitaka Amano, the character designer behind Final Fantasy I-VI and the upcoming Final Fantasy IX. The site talks about Amano's involvement with manga, Final Fantasy, and many of Amano's other projects. The Nisan Sanctuary: http://www.zenogias.com/ The Nisan Sanctuary is home to everything related to Xenogears. It's worth a look to everyone who has played, or is interested in playing, Square's popular 1997/98 RPG. The Final Fantasy Movie: http://www.finalfantasy.com/ It's coming, and the Web site has some of the details on the second Final Fantasy movie, which is coming in 2001. * 1.11 - Copyright, disclaimers, etc. This FAQ is Copyright 1996-2000 by Nick Zitzmann. DISCLAIMER #1: This FAQ is provided "as is" without any express or implied warranties. I (Nick) have made every possible effort to make sure that the information contained in this FAQ is correct, but in the event that something is wrong, then I am not to blame. DISCLAIMER #2: Neither I nor any of the participants of alt.games.final-fantasy are in any way related to Square Soft or its employees, etc. Everything here is unofficial to Square. DISCLAIMER #3: The participants of alt.games.final-fantasy and myself speak only for ourselves, not Square Soft or Nintendo or Sony or our employers or any other related company. DISCLAIMER #4: We live in a sick society if we have to have disclaimers on everything... (That's what I think, at least.) This FAQ is to go over some of Square Soft's games, answer questions, etc. If you see anything missing from the FAQ, please send it to Nick at: nickzman@eskimo.com NOTE! BEFORE YOU SEND ME MAIL... Please take the time to edit your post. Specifically, do not quote the entire FAQ just to add a few lines worth of a response. If you're going to send a generic reply to this FAQ, then it might just be better not to quote at all. Thank you... I accept mail from almost every non-rogue site. I accept mail from these sites, but due to abuse I filter messages from these sites to a different mailbox: - aol.com (America Online) - earthlink.net (Earthlink Network) (I will read your mail, but not in a timely fashion.) I will not accept mail from these sites: - Anything within the agis.net network - Any site with an invalid IP address, or messages with blank IDs (Due to constant abuse and receiving nothing useful from these sites, I will never read mail sent from them.) NOTE FOR ANYONE ELSE WHO WANTS TO FOLLOWUP TO THE FAQ ARTICLE: The Followup-To header has been purposely set to "poster" - if you did a real followup, the post would also go to every UseNet newsgroup this FAQ is posted to, including several moderated ones (alt.answers and news.answers). However, some newsreaders out there are brain-dead and will ignore the Followup-To line completely! If you followup to this article, make **absolutely** sure that you are following up in E-Mail only. Thank you. The latest version of this FAQ will always be always be available via FTP: (This FTP server is the official repository for UseNet FAQs. The most current version can usually be found here several days after it's posted.) Feel free to do the following with the FAQ: - Read, share, and enjoy. <8*) - Distribute the FAQ as long as Article 1.11 and my copyright are present. - cite bits and pieces of the FAQ, as long as you make it clear that you're citing a piece from the alt.games.final-fantasy FAQ. - If you can fill in an empty part of the FAQ, let the maintainer know. You may **NOT** do the following to the FAQ: - Sell or otherwise commercially distribute this FAQ for or not for monetary purposes without the explicit written permission of the author, except for downloading off commercial online services which charge. - Post any part of the FAQ to CompuServe. As of 10-20-96, CompuServe has changed their uploading policy so that anything uploaded to CompuServe automatically gives CompuServe the copyright(s) to the file uploaded. Since I'm not about to hand the FAQ's copyright over to CompuServe, the FAQ must not be posted there under any circumstance. - Plagerize the FAQ, create derivative copies of the FAQ, or distribute the FAQ without Article 1.11 present. Please don't do this; the author works hard to maintain the FAQ and doesn't want to get ripped off. I and the many others (see article 1.13) who have contributed to the FAQ have put a lot of time and work into this FAQ. As the maintainer of the FAQ, I expect all the readers to follow the guidelines above when dealing with the FAQ. If you don't agree with those guidelines, you must stop reading this FAQ and destroy any copies you might have made now. This copyright statement is subject to change without notice, and applies to all past & present versions of the FAQ. * 1.12 - Changes History The version history was last wiped in version 1.6.1 of the FAQ. Version 1.6 (7-26-98): - Added a long awaited update on the SaGa Frontier FAQs in article 5.3. - Article 1.6 now discusses the relatively new newsgroup, alt.games.final-fantasy.tech-support. - The "MegaHAL" fad appeared to be more short lived than originally thought. It has been removed from the FAQ. - Descriptions of Einhander's secret fighters have been added to article 6.14. - The HTTP link to PlayStation Gamer in article 1.21 has been fixed. Version 1.6.1 (8-10-98): - Article 1.18 was rather redundant. It has been replaced with another question about copying from other FAQs. - Some SaGa Frontier secrets have been added. - For the first time in a long time, the Changes History has been wiped. Version 1.6.2 (8-24-98): - The FAQ is once again being posted to alt.games.final-fantasy.rpg. - Other minor errors were found and fixed. Version 1.6.3 (9-13-98): - Now that Parasite Eve has been released in the USA, some additional information (secrets, for now) has been added. - A spelling mistake has been corrected (don't ask!). - The article about magic in SaGa Frontier has been edited. Version 1.6.4 (9-20-98): - Some FAQs about Parasite Eve are now listed (and answered!). Version 1.7 (1-11-99): - A new article, 4.1.8, has been added regarding bugs in Square games. - Much has now been added about Xenogears and Brave Fencer Musashiden. - Article 1.8 has been partially rewritten to keep up with the times. - The year-old "important note" has been removed. - There's some new stuff in the glossary. Look for it; the new stuff is now marked. - Sorry there hasn't been many updates in a while... Version 1.7.1 (1-18-99): - Added some more secrets for Xenogears and Parasite Eve. - There's a few more additions to the glossary. Version 1.7.2 (2-14-99): - More secrets, questions, and glossary items for Xenogears have been added. - A new article has been added for the recently released Final Fantasy VIII. (That is, recently released in Japan.) Version 1.7.3 (2-27-99): - Some secrets have been added and articles have been corrected about Xenogears. - The story of the real-life Wong Fei-Fong is now in the glossary. Also, in addition to Fenrir and Vierge, the origins of several of the other gears are now in the glossary. (Does anyone know where the names "Weltall," "Andvari," "Renmazuo," "Seibzehn," and/or "Crescens" come from?) Version 1.7.4 (4-4-99): - The glossary continues to grow! There's now many more articles, mostly explaining origins of names from Xenogears, including most of the origins of the gear names. (The origins of "Renmazuo," "Regulus," and "Crescens" still remain mysteries, though.) - Xenogears is one game that's full of secrets. A few more secrets have been added to article 6.17. - Coverage has been added for Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon. Version 1.7.5 (9-10-99): - Coverage has been added for Ehrgeiz, Chocobo Racing, Final Fantasy VIII, and SaGa Frontier II. - Descriptions of the Final Fantasy III airships have been added to article 4.1.7. - More secrets have been added for Xenogears and Chocobo Racing. - Spots of Part 2 have been updated for Final Fantasy VIII. There won't be any FAQs until people start asking them, though. - And, as usual, a few more Xenogears elements are now explained in the glossary. Version 1.7.6 (10-16-99): - As a result of the recent release of Final Fantasy Anthology, a lot of the FAQ's content has been updated in places. Take a look at the new article 4.1.4, for example. - A few new things have been entered into the glossary. Version 1.7.7 (10-26-99): - There's a number of new and updated entries in the glossary now. - Some of the grammar has been edited, and the amount of damage which FF VII's Emerald Weapon's Aire Tam Storm attack does has been fixed. Version 1.7.8 (1/17/00): - Fixed a few grammar problems, added two more games (Chrono Cross and Chocobo Dungeon II), added two new URLs to article 1.10, and revised a few things including a few new glossary entries. - Sorry, nothing new about FF VIII. Version 1.7.9 (1/31/00): - Finally filled in some details about Final Fantasy VIII. Version 1.8 (2/27/00): - Entered more FAQs about Final Fantasy V and VIII. - Added several more Square games to the list of future releases, including Square's new batch of PS2 games. Version 1.8.1 (3/12/00): - A new entry has been added to the glossary. - There is now some information about SaGa Frontier II. - Added/corrected some more information about Final Fantasy VIII. Version 1.8.2 (4/2/00): - Added yet another Final Fantasy VIII question and answer. - Added an explanation to the cross-post, which was getting to become an FAQ by itself... Version 1.8.3 (6/4/00): - Your maintainer finally took time out of playing Vagrant Story to actually write some about it. - A new article has been added for the upcoming Final Fantasy IX. - Yet another glossary update... Version 1.8.4 (6/24/00): - Some new hints and tips have been added for Vagrant Story. - Some familiar names from Vagrant Story are now explained in the glossary. Version 1.8.5 (7/3/00): - It's been requested that Seiken Densetsu fall under the category of Final Fantasy games, so the list of Final Fantasy and other games was cleared up in this update. Seiken Densetsu (FF Adventure) and FF Mystic Quest have been moved to section 2, and the SaGa series has been moved to section 3. - A few typos were found and fixed. Version 1.8.6 (7/16/00): - A few items in the glossary were added and updated. - Added a new section for the upcoming DewPrism ("Threads of Fate"). * 1.13 - Thank You's and Other Acknowledgements The author would like to thank these people for their help: - David Powell (David_Powell@brown.edu) for stories and information about Seiken Densetsu/Final Fantasy Adventure and SaGa III. - Nicholas Yarymowich (ax164@FreeNet.Carleton.CA) for making a list of Chrono Trigger endings. - Tatsushi Nakao (Tatsushi.Nakao@Colorado.EDU) for stories and information on Rudora no Hihou. - Chris Killam (logain@atcon.com) for providing information about FF IV rare items. - Aki K. Seiya (seiya@ix.netcom.com) for information about the story of Seiken Densetsu III and info about the Black Market in the same game. - Rob Vanatta (rvanatta@calweb.com) for the Secret of Evermore story. - My 11th grade Mythology teacher, who taught me a lot of the stuff you see in the Final Fantasy Glossary below. <8*) - D.J. Green (nebulosa@best.com) for the Final Fantasy V story. - Io (mc3488@mclink.it) for the Final Fantasy Mystic Quest story. - Laurence Hartje (lhartje@primenet.com) for mentioning a tip about the Son of Sun in article 5.1. - Dan Posluns, for contributing stories for Breath of Fire and Breath of Fire II, as well as some information about SaGa/FFL III. - Ian Kelley (ikelley@mail.sas.upenn.edu) for making several contributions to the Romancing SaGa stories and pointing out a few other things. - Gordon Kam (ckam002@cs.auckland.ac.nz) for the Bahamut Lagoon story. - Alan Kwan (tarot@netvigator.com) for the Hanjyuku Hero story. - The list of FF VI/III Colosseum items was originally by Albert Calis (aka the All-Mighty Bill, d040963c@dc.seflin.org). - Kao Megura (cgfm2@hooked.net) was the author of articles 4.5.4 through 4.5.45, as well as article 4.5.48. He also recommended the strategies mentioned in article 4.5.47. Wow! That's a lot of FAQs answered. Thanks, Kao, and good job! - Arlo (ajkristo@students.wisc.edu) for submitting some info about FF II. - NF (naavaash@rocketmail.com) for submitting some info about Parasite Eve. - Zach Keene (zjkeene@bellsouth.net) for some help with Einhander and the origins of "Seibzehn". - Ace Jayce (glasswalker@ax.apc.org) for information regarding the four SaGa monsters. - Zak Gillman (zg317598@oak.cats.ohiou.edu) for providing information about the Leviathan. - The home page of Ohara, Japan, home of Miyamoto Musashi, , for information used in the glossary items about Musashi and Kojiro. - Larry Leow (chickenno1@hotmail.com) for some insight to the origins of Fei in Xenogears. - Some of the foreign words in the glossary were confirmed using AltaVista's translation services at . - Matthias Lambrecht (mlambrecht@handshake.de) for lots of information about Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon, Xenogears, and Final Fantasy III. - Neal Wilson (wilcafe@execpc.com) gets the credit for the "open mind before reading" paragraph in the article 1.1. - NightShade (Mario.Laubacher@span.ch) and RPGamer for information regarding Quetzalcoatl, Minotaur, Gato, Gaia, Nouvelle, and Carbuncle in the glossary. - Richard Healey (rhealey@bu.edu) for some help with the origins of Genji, Id, Anima/Animus, and the real amount of damage which the Aire Tam Storm attack in FF VII is capable of doing. - Dan Szymborski (czerny@mindspring.com) for providing insight into the origins of Andvari and Asura. - The information about Cid in the glossary mostly came from Encyclopedia Brittanica (). - Credit for the information about the changes between the Japanese and USA releases of Final Fantasy VIII goes to Yuzu-chan (YuzurihaX@aol.com) and Musashi (kirei_musashi@team-rocket.net). - The information about Crescens and Dora in the glossary came from the Catholic Encyclopedia (). - Jon Niehof (jnieho38@calvin.edu) for providing some extra information about changes in Final Fantasy VII. - Ken Arromdee (arromdee@rahul.net) for confirming those Xenogears city names were from the Hebrew calendar, and for the suggestion to move some content around... - Danos (danos2@theglobe.com) for pointing out an alternate use of the word "Carbuncle." - The Dome of the Sky () is the source for Regulus in the glossary. - Chris Foley (chris.foley@sourcesmith.com) for pinpointing the location of the real-life Ogopogo. Also, thanks to everyone who has submitted minor changes and typo reports. You know who you are! * 1.14 - The Ultimate Final Fantasy Glossary This glossary covers many of the acronyms, etc. used in this FAQ & the alt.games.final-fantasy newsgroup, as well as some other things found in Final Fantasy games. (NOTE: In the glossary, when referring to Final Fantasy games, I'm using the Japanese sequel numbering, not the American numbering. For a conversion table between the two, please read article 4.1.3.) FF: Short for "Final Fantasy". NES/DMG/SNES: NES is an acronym for "Nintendo Entertainment System," DMG is "Dot Matrix Game Boy," and SNES is "Super Nintendo Entertainment System". These are the American names of Nintendo's products. (They're called "famicoms" in Japan.) CT: Short for "Chrono Trigger". PSX: Short for "PlayStation". The extra letter comes from its development name - the PlayStation started out as an experimental CD-ROM drive for the SNES back when Nintendo announced that they would use CD-ROM technology in their products. Nintendo backed out of the deal during the development, so Sony ended up releasing the PlayStation as a stand-alone system. SoM/SD: Short for "Secret of Mana". (SD is short for "Seiken Densetsu," or "Legend of the Holy Sword" in English.) HP: Hit Points. In most RPGs, the characters hit point amount determines how much physical damage they can take before they get taken out of commission. MP: Magic Points. Characters who cast magic spells use these for their energy when they cast the spells. GP: Can be either Gold Points, or Gold Pieces. They are the units of currency in most of Square's games. Achtzehn (from Xenogears): "Achtzehn" is a German word, meaning "eighteen". It most likely represents the eighteenth step in the Hebrew sephiroth, which refers to the world of humans. (See "Sephiroth" and "Seibzehn".) Aegis Shield (from various FF games): Athena (Minerva's Greek equivalent) used this shield in battle. Aeris/Aerith (from FF VII): The word "Aerith" is a derivative of the word "Earth". (See "Terra".) Aire Tam Storm (from FF VII): The word "Airetam" is the word "Materia" spelled backwards. Alpha and Omega (from Xenogears): The opening quote from Xenogears came from a quote from the new testament, from Apocylapse/Revelations 22:13: "I am the Alpha and Omega, the first and the last, the beginning and the end." Alexandr/Alexander (from FF VI & VII): Alexander was named either after King Alexander of Macedonia, or Tsar Alexander I of Russia. The former conquered all of the known world in the 4th century BC, and had several cities made in his name (such as Alexandria, Egypt). The latter was the tsar who helped Britain end the reign of Napoleon I in France during the 19th century. Judging by the summoned monster's Russian architecture, Alexander was most likely named after the latter of the two... Andvari (from Xenogears): Andvari was a dwarven character who appeared in an Icelandic epic story, the Volsunga Saga. In the story, Andvari had a horde of gold which was taken from him by the giant/trickster god, Loki. (See "Fenrir.") After his gold was stolen, Andvari cursed the gold as well as anyone who received it. Anima/Animus (from Xenogears): The Anima is Karl Jung's feminine aspect, while the Animus is Jung's masculine aspect. Both represent respectively feminine and masculine traits in human behavior. Asura/Ashura (from SaGa/FFL I, SaGa II/FFL II, and FF IV): The Asura is from Indian (Hindu) mythology, and literally means "those who were denied ambrosia". The legend says that the father god, Brahma, married the goddess Shatarupa and created two races of people, the Daityas and Adityas. Both races working together extracted the essence of immortality from the seas, but the Adityas kept the essence to themselves. The Daityas then became the gods' enemies, and became known as Asuras. According to the story, the Asuras' conflicts with the gods then became the origin of all conflict. Aveh, Kislev, Nisan, and Shevat (from Xenogears): All of the major cities in Xenogears (except for Solaris) were named (loosely) after the Hebrew names for months, taken from the Bible. This includes Tammus, which was called "Thames" in the USA version of Xenogears (see "Thames"). Behemoth and Leviathan (from a number of FF games): In Judaism, before God created the void, there were two demons: The demon of earth (Behemoth) and the demon of water (Leviathan). These demons are said to exist even to this date. ("The Leviathan" was also the title of a book by Thomas Hobbes, a philosopher of the 17th century who believed very strongly in an absolute monarchy.) Beowulf (from FF Tactics): The story of Beowulf is told in a traditional Nordic epic poem. Beowulf, according to legends, helped King Hrothgar rid his territories of a monster named Grendal, and Grendal's mother. After doing so, he returned to his homeland where he reigned as king. When a dragon was awakened in his homeland, though, he was expected to defeat it. He wins, but dies after the battle. Bismark (from FF VI): Bismark was probably named after Otto von Bismarck, a Prussian chancellor who united all of the German states (except Austria) into one unified German country in the 19th century. He is most famous for saying that "nations aren't formed out of speeches and compromises, they are formed out of blood and iron." His principle remains true, especially in any modern RPG. Black Cauldron (from FF VII): Hades's attack, "Black Cauldron," comes from Celtic mythology & traditional stories. The Black Cauldron, as defined by the Celts, was a magic cauldron which could re-animate the dead if their bodies were boiled inside the cauldron. A popular retelling of the story of the Black Cauldron can be found in the second book of Lloyd Alexander's Prydain Chronicles, called "The Black Cauldron". (The whole Prydain Chronicles is based on Celtic mythology.) Brigandier (from Xenogears): "Brigand" is another word for "pirate". Cain/Kain and Abel (from FF IV and Xenogears): In the Old Testament, Cain was one of the original sinners, who broke the commandments when he slew his brother, Abel. Carbuncle (from every FF game after FF VI): A carbuncle is a skin inflammation filled with pus, as well as another name for a red gem. Cecil (from FF IV): We'd like to imagine that Cecil was named in honor of Cecil Fielder, an American Baseball player who played one season on the Hanshin Tigers in Japan before coming back to the USA to play on the Detroit Tigers (and on his first season back he hit a whopping 51 home runs, thus dominating the major leagues). Probably not, though. Celes (from FF VI): Celes probably got her name from the Roman goddess of grain and harvests, Ceres ("Demeter" in Greek mythology). According to Greek myth, Ceres's habits and work schedules were what caused seasons to happen - her daughter, Persephone, was taken by Pluto to be his wife. Jupiter would allow Persephone to be with Ceres half of the year (between late March and early September) and be with Pluto the other half; therefore, when Persephone was with Ceres, she would be at work and crops would prosper, and when Persephone was with Pluto, Ceres would confine herself to mourning and crops would be affected. Thus, the seasons are created - Spring and Summer when Ceres is at work, and Fall and Winter when Ceres is sequested in mourning. Chaos (from FF I): In Greek/Roman mythology, before anything, there was nothing but Chaos, where everything was mixed together. Then, out of Chaos came Gaia (Earth), and then Uranus (the sky), and thus, Order came from out of Chaos. This is where we get words like "chaotic," which basically mean "disorganized". In FF I, however, Chaos is portrayed as the ultimate evil, which is not necessarily true every time. (See "Gaia".) Cid (from almost every FF game): It's most likely that Cid was named after Rodrigo Diaz (1043-1099), aka "El Cid", a national hero in Spain's Castile region. As a military leader, Cid never lost a battle, and won victories for both the Christians and Muslims inhabiting Spain at the time. After switching alliances several times, Cid managed to take over the rich kingdom of Valencia, which he ruled until his death. His legend was documented in an 11th century poem, called "The Song of Cid", as well as the 1637 play "Le Cid" by Pierre Corneille. Cloud (from FF VII): A bunch of suspended particles which appear in a planet's atmosphere. On Earth, for instance, clouds contain suspended water particles. (You've always wanted to know that, right?) Cockatrice (from just about every Square game, really): It is said in a legend that, when the moons are just right, a chicken somewhere will lay an egg. On that night, a snake will appear and curl itself around that egg. When the egg hatches, a fearful monster called a "Cockatrice" emerges from it. The monster, half bird and half snake; has the powers of the Gorgon, and can turn people into stone just by people looking at them. Crescens (from Xenogears): Saint Crescens was a companion of Saint Paul during the early years of Christianity. Crescens was supposedly a bishop of Galatia (now modern-day Turkey), according to the New Testament, and is listed as one of the seventy disciples of Christ by the Pseudo-Dorotheus. Crono (from Chrono Trigger): Taken from the word "Chronos," which refers to simple wristwatch time. That leads into things like Chronologies (history, time by time) and Chronic (occurring and getting worse over a period of time). Crusader/Jihad (from FF VI): The Crusades were a series of major wars fought during Europe's middle ages (around 1000-1200 AD) against the Muslims, who had invaded the Byzantine Empire, which included Israel (the Jews' and Christians' holy land). The Crusaders were the people who fought in any of these wars. In the end, though, the Muslims won the Crusades by taking over the Byzantine Empire, and turning it into the new Ottoman Empire (which lasted until the end of World War I). (Note: "Jihad" literally means "struggle" in Arabic.) Cyrus (from Chrono Trigger): Cyrus was named after Cyrus the Great, who was probably the most famous among the kings of the Persian Empire. Dora (from Xenogears): Dora was named after a town dating from Biblical times in the Middle East. It's still inhabited today. Eden (from FF VIII): The Garden of Eden, mentioned in the Old Testament, is according to the Testament the birthplace of humanity. The Testament tells a story about Adam, a human made out of the likeness of the Jewish/Christian God, and Eve, created out of Adam. They were also the parents of Abel and Cain (see "Cain/Kain"). Einhander (from Einhander): Einhander (pronounced: EYE-n-HEN-DER) is a German word meaning "one-handed". **NEW** Elru (from Xenogears): "Elru" sounds suspiciously like "Elul," which is the name of yet another Hebrew calendar month. (See "Aveh".) Excalibur/Xcalber (from every single FF game & then some): In the Arthurian legend, once Arthur had lifted the sword out of the stone & thereby becoming the King of the Britons, Merlin directed Arthur to a magical lake. Within the lake was a lady (the "Lady of the Lake"), who granted Arthur a mighty sword named Excalibur. Once Arthur had died, the Lady of the Lake took the sword back. ExDeath/X-Death (from FF V): ExDeath is just short for "Exceeding Death". Wow! Wasn't that short? Fei (from Xenogears): Fei's "proper name," Wong Fei-Fong, is derived from the Chinese folk hero Wong Fei-Hong. The real-life Fei was a practitioner of medicine and quite possibly a Kung Fu master who supported the Westernization of China during the late 19th-early 20th century. Empress Tzu-Hsi, the second to last ruler of China, feared that foreign powers would demand her early retirement and had every attempt at Westernization shot down. Fenrir and Terrato (from FF VI and Xenogears): More Norse mythology. When Loki (one of the Aesir, but really one of the Giants) mated with a giant, the Fenris Wolf (Fenrir) and the Midgard Serpent (Terrato) were conceived. Both reached Asgard (the world where the gods lived) sometime afterward. Odin promptly threw the Midgard Serpent into the ocean, not realizing that the Midgard Serpent would grow to be so tremendous that it would circle around the world several times. As for the Fenris Wolf, he also grew up fast, and made all the gods (except for Tyr) afraid of him - he had already broken several of the chains, and there are entire stories to how the gods found a way to permanently bound the Fenris Wolf. Unfortunately, while they were bonding the Fenris Wolf, Tyr lost a hand, but the bond would hold until Ragnarok (when the Fenris Wolf would break free and devour Odin). Loki and his mate would also conceive Hel, who became ruler of the underworld, and where Christianity gets its name for the Christian underworld. Flea, Slash, and Ozzie (from Chrono Trigger): We'll probably never know if this theory is correct, but it is believed that this trio of fiends were all named after contemporary American hard rock/heavy metal figures. Flea is, of course, one of the Red Hot Chili Peppers; Slash was part of Guns 'n Roses; and Ozzie was probably named after Ozzy Osborne (of Black Sabbath fame). **NEW** Gaia/Gaeus (from Chrono Trigger, Chrono Cross, and Legend of Mana): In the Greek creation story, Gaia (the earth) emerged from out of Chaos. Since then, the word has come to refer to the "mother Earth". It is also the name of a theory formulated by chemist James Lovelock in 1972, that hyphothosizes that Earth is like a living organism, and all life on the planet are parts of the whole organism. **NEW** Gato (from Legend of Mana): "Gato" is a word that makes various references to cats in Latin-based languages. Gargoyles (from FF I and FF VII): Gargoyles are small statues, usually fountainheads, which look like small dragons. In most fantasy RPGs, gargoyles are animated versions of these statues. Genbu, Seiryu, Byakko, and Suzaku (from various SaGa titles): These four colorful animals were originally represented in oriental mythology. Genbu (the turtle) represents earth, winter, and north. Seiryu (the dragon) represents water, autumn, and west. Byakko (the white tiger) represents wood, spring, and east. Suzaku (the phoenix) represents fire, summer, and south. The four also appeared in two Japanese animes: "Yuu Yuu Hakushou," where the four were supernatural beings the heroes had to kill, and "Fujigi Yuugi," where they were animal gods representing seasons. Genji (from FF V and VI): The word "Genji" brings up some stories of Japanese history. There was the world's first novel, "The Tale of Genji" by Murasaki Shikibu, which told a story about a prince named Genji who practiced poetry. In reality, though, the Genji (or "Minamoto," depending on how one reads the name's Kanji text) family created Japan's first shogunate. An ancient Japanese tradition states that the shogun was a blood relative of the Genji family, even if this was not the case. (See "Shogun".) Gilgamesh and Enkidu (from FF V and VIII): The Epic of Gilgamesh was one of the very first epic tales ever told on historic record. Gilgamesh was the king of the Sumerian city-state of Uruk, and was hated by the people so much that the gods sent a man named Enkidu to challenge Gilgamesh to a duel. Gilgamesh brought Enkidu to him, they fought, and in the end, they emerged not as rivals but as best of friends. So when Enkidu died, Gilgamesh set out to find the secrets of eternal life, even though a wise sage named Utnapishtim warns him that there is no such thing as "permanence". Gilgamesh eventually found a tree which would allow men to live forever if he would only eat the fruit it grew, but on the way back to Uruk, he loses the tree to a serpent. (The epic, as written, ends there; but we're to assume that Gilgamesh died within a year of the incident.) Godfather (from Xenogears): This one-of-a-kind weapon was most likely named after "The Godfather," a famous movie released in 1972 which was written & directed by Francis Coppola and starred Al Pacino. The movie, which at first appears to be about crime and the Mafia, is argued by some to be a movie about a big family. Guildenstern (from Vagrant Story): Guildenstern was named after a character from one of William Shakespeare's tragic dramas, "Hamlet". In the play, Rosencrantz and Guildenstern are childhood friends of Prince Hamlet, who switch associations between Hamlet and King Claudius. Claudius uses the two to investigate the cause of Hamlet's madness, but Hamlet picks up on the dual association after the two repeatedly blow their cover later in the play. In the end, Claudius sends the two to England to deliver a message requesting the execution of Hamlet should he arrive in England, but Hamlet tricks them and swaps the letter with a letter requesting the execution of both Rosencrantz and Guildenstern. Gungir Spear (from SaGa/FFL II and FF VII): Odin's battle spear (see "Odin"). Hades (from FF IV & VII): Hades, in Greek Mythology, was Zeus & Poseidon's brother, and controller of the Underworld. (Note: Hades is not an actual character in FF IV, but the King and Queen of Eblan make a reference to him, or at least they do in the American version. Also, the "Black" items for Cecil in the American version of the game were called the "Hades" items in the Japanese version.) Heimdal (from Xenogears): Yet again, more Norse mythology. The Norse god Heimdall was the keeper of Bifrost, a rainbow bridge which lead between the world of the gods (Asgard) and the world of humans (Midgard). (See "Midgar".) Hermes (from SaGa/FFL I and SaGa II/FFL II): Hermes (aka "Tiw," or "Mercury" in Roman mythology) was the Greek god of communication, and the protector of the travelers. "Tuesday," or "Tiw's Day," is named after Hermes. Id (from Xenogears): Sigmund Freud, the father of modern psychology, devised this important topic in psychology. Freud used the term to represent human instinct; this includes survival instinct as well as hunger, greed, reproduction, and destruction. Jabberwock/Jabberwocky (from SD II/SoM): "Jabberwock" is a creature mentioned in Lewis Caroll's famous poem, "Jabberwocky". The poem's first & last paragraph goes like this: "'Twas brillig, and the slithy toevs Did gyre and gimble in the wabe; All mimsy were the borogoves, And the mome rabs outgabe." The Jabberwock, then, was a "monster" in this poem. The first RPG to have a portrayal of a Jabberwock was Electronic Arts/Interplay's famous RPG, "The Bard's Tale". In that game, the Jabberwock was portrayed as a mighty two-headed dinosaur who guarded the Crystal Sword, an essential item to finishing the game. Every Jabberwock appearance in every game since then has been portrayed in a similar way, and SoM is no exception. Janus (from Chrono Trigger): In Roman Mythology, Janus is the god of open doors and generally represents various opposites that we see in life. Janus has no equivilant in Greek Mythology, making him a "unique" god to the Romans. Knights of Round (from FF VII): The Knights of the Round Table, in the original Arthurian legend, were King Arthur's main group of knights. (See "Excalibur".) Kraken (from FF I, FFA, and SaGa/FFL I): The kraken is a legendary sea monster of northern seas. Not to be confused with the legendary Loch Ness Monster. Lavos (from Chrono Trigger): The idea for Lavos doesn't sound like it was an original one. Lavos does have a literary equivalent - the infamous Cthulhu (pronounced "kuh-tue-lue"). In stories written by H. P. Lovecraft (a horror writer from the turn of the 19th century), Cthulhu is an entity who sleeps silently below ground. His awakening would spell the Apocalypse, as he would rise and drain the world of all its natural resources. Lich/DarkLich (from FF I, FF VI, FFA, SaGa/FFL I and SoM): A lich is a dead body which has been reanimated by some strong source of magical power. Locke (from FF VI): Again, this is pure speculation, but Locke might have been named after John Locke, a political commentator of the 17th century. Locke was one of the philosophers who created what we call "natural law" today, which basically means that he believed in reason being the best government. Locke, unlike his peers, believed that experience was the thing that brought us knowledge, and the environment around us forms our minds. Lucca (from Chrono Trigger): Probably named after a region of Italy, but no one has any idea if that's right or not. Melchior, Gaspar, and Balthezar (from Chrono Trigger and Xenogears): In Christianity, these three wise men departed to meet Jesus on the night of Christ's Mass (Christmas). Merkava (from Xenogears): In Judaism, Merkava is another name for the chariot of God. It was described in Ezekiel 1:4 to 1:28: "And I saw, and, behold, a whirlwind came out of the north, and a great cloud, and a fire infolding it! And brightness was about it, and out of the midst thereof, that is, out of the midst of the fire, as it were the resemblance of amber. And in the midst thereof the likeness of four living creatures [cherubs]: and this was there appearance. There was the likeness of a man in them." ... "As the appearance of the rainbow when it is in a cloud on a rainy day: this was the appearance of the brightness round about." Midgar (from FF VII): In Norse Mythology, Midgard was the realm of the living, where all of the humans lived. Wrapped around Midgard is the Midgard Serpent (see "Terrato"). Midgard will cease to exist after the Day of Ragnarok (see "Ragnarok"). Minerva (from FF VI) and Arachnid (from FF I): Minerva was a Greek/Roman goddess who was thought to be the foremost weaver the world had known, until a skilled mortal named Arachne challenged her to a weaving contest. So, Minerva accepted the challenge, and when she wove, she wove a message out to Arachne to give up before something bad happened. But Arachne didn't yield, instead, she wove up a design which directly made fun of the gods. For her blasphemy, Minerva turned Arachne into a spider, so she would go out and weave for the rest of her life. Today, the words "arachnid," "arachnophobia," etc. come from the outcome of this story. Minotaur Brothers (from FF VIII): The Minoan Civilization, which existed on Crete Island between 2600 and 1100 BC, became fascinated with stories of humans with the heads of bulls. One such story said that the original Minotaur was the son of King Minos, who was born with a bull's head and lived out his life in the king's dungeons. Mu (from FF V): Mu was supposed to be a lost continent of sorts that was rumored to exist somewhere around Polynesia. Because Mu has been proven to not exist, just the word "Mu" has come to mean "nothingness" or "nonexisting". "Mu" is also a Zen Buddhist principle referring to nothingness, and has been incorporated into the Japanese language to mean "nothing". (NOTE: There are characters in Chrono Trigger who call themselves "Nu". These are totally different, and shouldn't be confused with Mu.) Masamune and Murasame (from most FF and SaGa/FFL games): The Masamune and Murasame blades were made by two rival Japanese swordsmiths, who one day competed against each other. Their swords were put into the water for a period of time. Since leaves passed around the Masamune, but were sliced by the Murasame, the Masamune won the competition. Since then, the Masamune has been associated with holiness, while the Murasame has been associated with curses. Musashi and Kojiro (from Brave Fencer Musashiden): Both characters were named after legendary Japanese samurai. Musashi was named in honor of Miyamoto Musashi, a 17th century samurai, who used an original style of fighting which involved a short sword and a long sword. Kojiro was named in honor of Sasaki Kojiro, one of Musashi's opponents. **NEW** Nouvelle (from Legend of Mana): The French Gospel is called "La Bonne Nouvelle", meaning "the good news". "Nouvelle" by itself can mean either "new" or "news" in French. Odin (from SaGa II/FFL II and every FF game after FF IV): In Norse mythology, a giant cow which nourished the Frost Giant Ymir (before the world was created) melted a curious block of ice one day, and the first Norse Aesir, Bure, emerged from the block. Bure resisted Ymir, and called upon his sons (who weren't born yet) to bring Ymir down. Ymir was defeated, but Bure died in the battle. One of the surviving sons of Bure was Odin, who then went forth and created Yggdrasil (the World Tree) which linked Ymir's body (now called "Midgard," or the human world) to a number of other worlds. For starting the creation of Yggdrasil and fathering most of the Norse gods, Odin became the master god of all the Norse Aesir/Vanir (who were the Norse gods). Today, we name our Wednesday in honor of Odin. (See "Yggdrasil".) Omega (from FF V and VIII): "Omega" is the last letter of the Greek alphabet, and generally refers to the end of anything. (See "Alpha and Omega"). **UPDATED** Ogopogo (from FF IV): Another sea monster! This particular one was sighted in Lake Okanagan in Canada's British Columbia. Quetzalcoatl (from FF VIII): Quetzalcoatl; in Aztec and Mayan mythologies; was described as the winged-serpent god of human sustenance, self-sacrifice, penitence, rebirth, and butterflies. The Aztecs and Mayans believed Quetazalcoatl named all of their landmarks, domesticated animals, established their priesthood, created fire, and created music & dance. Quetzalcoatl was also believed to one day come from the east and put an end to human kingship. As a result, the Aztecs mistook the Spanish conquistador Hernan Cortes as Quetzalcoatl, and Cortes & his men proceeded to take down the Aztec empire & build Mexico City in its place. Ragnarok (from FF VI, VII, VIII, and Tactics): Yet another element of Norse mythology. Ragnarok was the day when all the Norse gods and the evil Frost Giants would meet in war (and unfortunately the Giants would win). Due to the lack of gods, Yggdrasil would catch fire, and all the worlds (including Midgard, the humans' world) would be scorched, making Ragnarok a Norse version of an apocalypse. However, after a period of darkness, several new entities (several sons of Odin and Thor) would come out, restore Yggdrasil, and Midgard would flourish in a new world of eternal peace. Redrum (from Xenogears): Read it backwards, and it says "murder". Regulus/Regrs (from Xenogears): "Regulus" is a Latin word, meaning "little king". It is also the name of a star in the Leo constellation. Rosencrantz (from Vagrant Story): See "Guildenstern". Rydia (from FF IV): Since the letters L and R are monophones in the Japanese language, "Rydia" was probably directly named after the ancient state of Lydia. Lydia was part of the Persian Empire (see "Cyrus"), and its most famous leader, Croesus, initiated what became the Battle of Marathon in Greece. Croesus was the richest man in the world in his day, and is the origin of the seldom-used phrase "As rich as Croesus". Seibzehn (from Xenogears): "Siebzehn" (note the spelling; the game's spelling is wrong) is a German word, meaning "seventeen". The number most likely refers to the seventeenth step in the Hebrew sephiroth, which refers to the beginning of the angel world. (See "Sephiroth" and "Achtzehn".) Seigfried/Sigurd (from FF VI and Xenogears): In addition to Beowulf, Seigfried was another popular folk hero of the Norse. The legends say that Seigfried was made invincible by bathing in the blood of a dragon, but a leaf which fell into his bath left him with a weak spot between the shoulders. Seigfried's story was retold in an opera by Richard Wagner, in which each character had a theme song which would play whenever a scene involved that character. This style of musical presentation was applied initially in Final Fantasy IV, and has been used in numerous other Square games since then. Sephiroth (from FF VII and Xenogears): In Judaism, the "Sephiroth" is a code of sorts, and the English word "cypher" comes from "sephiroth". The word is Hebrew for "numbers," and have ten different aspects. The Kabbalists (Jewish mysticists) believe that unlocking the Sephiroth is the key to interpreting the scriptures from the bottom up, and thus reaching Yhwh (God, Yahweh, Jehovah, etc). Shiva (from FF IV through VIII): In Hinduism, Shiva is the god(dess) of destruction. During his/her dance, when he/she beats on his/her drum, one universe (out of many) is destroyed, and another one is made to fill the void. (Maintainer's note: I've seen Shiva portrayed as either male or female. The truth is out there...) Shogun (from SaGa/FFL II): "Shogun" was the title awarded by Japan's emperor to the samurai who, by their newly acquired title, then become the military dictator of Japan. The line of shogun ruled Japan up until the time of Prince Meiji in the late 19th century, who reformed the nation and brought about the end of the shogunate. Sleipnir (from SaGa/FFL II): Odin's eight-legged horse (see "Odin"). Stier (from Xenogears): "Stier" is a German word, meaning "bull". In English, a "steer" is a castrated bull. Terra/Tina (from FF VI): Terra is not only a feminine name, but also refers to Earth. "Terra Firma," for example, is a word meaning "land". Thames (from Xenogears): "Thames" is the name of a river and valley in England. Thanatos (from Secret of Mana): "Thanatos" is an Ancient Greek word, meaning "death personified". (Thanks to sherlock@ksu.edu) Tiamat (from FF I, FF VIII, and SaGa/FFL I): In Babylonian mythology, Tiamat co-created the world with her husband, Apsu. Later on, Ea (the god of wisdom) slew Apsu; and his son, Marduk, challenged Tiamat. Marduk eventually slays Tiamat. Toroia (from FF IV): This city may have been named after Troy, a city belonging to the Persian Empire of ancient times, which was famous for one particular woman. Troy was the site of the famous Trojan War, where the Mycenaeans in Greece fought the Trojans over the capture of their queen, Helen. (Helen is also known as "Helen of Troy," or "The Face that Launched a Thousand Ships".) The Greeks won the Trojan War by use of the famous Trojan Horse, which fooled the Trojans into letting them into Troy. Tower of Bab-il/Babel (from FF IV and Xenogears): It is said that during the time of the Old Testament, a group of people were planning on building a tower which would take them all the way up to God. When God found about this, God made these people unable to communicate with each other as a punishment, so the project was never executed due to the people's failure to communicate with each other. (This tower might have also inspired the Tower in FFL I and the Pillar of the Sky in FFL II.) Ultima (from FF II, VI, VII, and VIII): "Ultima" was probably named in part after Richard Garriot's "Ultima" series of PC RPGs. The first few Ultima titles were published by Sierra On-Line, but everything after that was published by Origin (which is now owned by Electronic Arts). "Ultima" also means "last" in Latin. Venus (from SaGa II/FFL II): In Roman Mythology, Venus ("Aphrodite" in Greek mythology) was the Roman god of beauty. Needless to say, she was one of the most popular of the Roman gods, but even she despised some people, like a mortal girl named Psyche. Venus did have one child (Cupid, a demigod of love in Roman mythology), and has also given her name to the second planet from the sun in our solar system. Vicks/Biggs and Wedge (from FF VI, VII, VIII, and Chrono Trigger): Biggs and Wedge were two Rebel X-Wing pilots who fought side-by-side with Luke Skywalker in the original Star Wars movie during the assault on the Death Star. It's quite possible that the translator thought that Biggs's name was "Vicks" and used that instead. (Note: The name was corrected in FF VII.) Vierge (from Xenogears): "Vierge" (pronounced: "VEE-eh-jhh") is a French word, meaning "virgin". The name most likely refers to Jesus's mother in the New Testament, Mary, who gave "virgin birth" to Jesus. Weltall (from Xenogears): "Weltall" is a German word, meaning "universe". Xenogears (from Xenogears): The prefix, "xeno," means "alien" in ancient Greek. The suffix, "gears," is used throughout the game Xenogears and some other video games (ie. "Metal Gear") as meaning "robot". Hence, "Xenogears" means "alien robot". Yggdrasil (from Xenogears): In Norse mythology, Odin created Yggdrasil as a world tree, which kept the world in balance. At the top of Yggdrasil was Asgard (pronounced: "us-guard"), the home of the gods. The bottom was Nifelheim (or Hel), the Norse afterlife. Between those realms lay Midgard, the realm of humans and former body of the ice giant Ymir, as well as separate realms to house the giants and other creatures. The Norse legends predicted that Yggdrasil would be destroyed during Ragnarok, but years after the incident, the survivors would come back to live in a new world order of peace. (See "Odin," "Midgar," "Ragnarok," etc.) Zohar (from Xenogears): The "Haz-Zohar," or the "Book of Splendor," is one of the levels of the Jewish sephiroth. It was intended to give insight symbolically into the inner life of God, whose symbols were based on the Torah and Israel's life in exile, in order to provide a cosmic-symbolic interpretation of Judaism and the history of Israel. (See "Sephiroth".) * 1.15 - I want to post the FAQ, too! Why is the FAQ being posted to newsgroup XXX? The FAQ is too big to post! Why don't you post the FAQ more/less often? There's a little bit of misunderstanding among many of the people in the alt.games.final-fantasy newsgroup. This is an **official** UseNet FAQ. The maintainer noticed that there was no official FAQ for this newsgroup, so he wrote one to answer many questions that were asked repeatedly over and over again in the newsgroup that everyone was getting tired of answering. After it was written and posted it originally, it was then sent it to the UseNet FAQ people at MIT to turn it into an official FAQ. Because this is an official UseNet FAQ, there are some restrictions on what can and can't be done with the FAQ: 1. No one but the FAQ maintainer can post the FAQ. 2. Changes in the FAQ header are extremely trivial. In order for the maintainer to add or drop newsgroups, he needs to send mail to the FAQ people and wait for them to approve of the change. FAQ maintainers can't change the headers by themselves, they have to request and then be told to do so. 3. The FAQ people are extremely backlogged in mail. It takes nearly a month in order to approve of the changes. 4. The FAQ is posted once a week. If it was posted posted more often, it would not only be a waste of bandwidth, but a nightmare to archive. Since the FAQ is archived at an FAQ FTP server at MIT along with the rest of the UseNet FAQs (ftp://rtfm.mit.edu/pub/usenet-by-group/), we don't want to flood them with FAQs to archive. Besides, there's a nice HTML FAQ out there if you really need it. As for the FAQ being too large to post, it depends on your newsreader. Most newsreaders for Mac and Windows systems aren't especially graceful with large articles, especially some Windows newsreaders which don't allow custom headers. The FAQ is posted using plain old Inews on a Unix host. * 1.16 - I'd like to tell you about ! Where can I find this ? Why don't you add ? These kinds of questions are the most annoying received by the maintainer. Please, folks, the maintainer doesn't want to hear another thing about: * how to defeat the MagiMaster in FF VI, * where to find the rarest items in FF IV Easytype, and/or * how to get vaguely mentioned secret characters in your party in any game. Just read the FAQ before you waste his and your own time asking any of these kinds of questions or sending info about stuff that is already covered. It's all there. Really. * 1.17 - Can you send me a copy of this FAQ, or anyone else's FAQ? Sorry, the maintainer is not a human FAQ server, nor does he ever want to be. If you want a copy of the FAQ, please get it from any of the abovementioned sources or read the weekly posting in the newsgroups. Other FAQs can be found all over the WWW if you look in the right places, such as the Unofficial Square Soft Home Page. As for other FAQs, the maintainer doesn't have them, so he can't give them to you... * 1.18 - Why don't you just rip content out of other people's FAQs? (Yes, this is a frequently asked question.) That would clearly be a copyright violation. The maintainer needs special permission from others to incorporate their work into the FAQ. * 1.19 - My evil news administrators do not and will not carry the alt.games.final-fantasy newsgroup. Can I still read/post messages there and how? If your news administrators refuse to carry the newsgroup (and you asked, begged, and bribed with chocolate), you can still get it by using either Deja.com to read & post news, or a commercial news service. Deja.com can be reached at . There is probably a list of commercial news servers somewhere out there - try searching Excite or Yahoo or some other directory. * 1.20 - Will there be any Final Fantasy games for future game consoles other than the PlayStation 2 and WonderSwan? Square hasn't expressed any interest in any other consoles. Traditionally, Square has never developed for more than one game console, portable console, or computer operating system at a time. We can expect this trend to continue. * 1.21 - Will Square ever become a Nintendo third party again? The simple answer: Not likely. Sony has been bugging Nintendo about data storage on CD-ROMs compared to the "game pak" and magnetic-optical drives Nintendo uses. CD-ROMs have a limit of about 650MB of data, while Nintendo's MO drive with game cartridges will only store up to 65,535K of data. When Sony's Phil Harrison made this argument against Nintendo at the E3 expo in the summer of '97, he used an example: Final Fantasy VII. FF VII uses about three CD-ROMs and would weigh in at 1.8GB of data (if every CD was full), much of which was full-motion video. There's no way that any Nintendo system could cram that much data into one game, unless Nintendo took up either CD-ROM or DVD-ROM technology in the future. George Harrison (no, not that George Harrison) of Nintendo's response: He didn't care about Final Fantasy VII, because, according to him, "most of their [Nintendo's] customers wouldn't want/appreciate such a slow and tedious game such as Final Fantasy VII." That's not the only reason why Square dropped Nintendo, though. The two companies had a very long and turbulent relationship. For more information, take a look at this URL: * 1.22 - How was this newsgroup created, anyway? alt.games.final-fantasy was basically a happy mistake. The newsgroup itself was created by some guy under the alias "Tom Servo" (aka "Big Bob, Lord of Love") back in October 1994, a guy who added new alt groups without discussing them first. alt.games.final-fantasy was one of the groups that he created. Although it was rmgrouped the same day it was created, it still became fairly distributed among Usenet servers. Later on, another person, Einexile, re-newgrouped the newsgroup in Febuary 1995. This time, the newgroup was accepted as legit. Here's a copy of the message which created this newsgroup, courtesy of UUNET Communications: Control: newgroup alt.games.final-fantasy Newsgroups: alt.config Path: uunet!sparky!kwiudl.kwi.com!netcomsv!netcomsv!ix.netcom.com!netcom.com!tomservo From: tomservo@netcom.com (Tom Servo) Subject: cmsg newgroup alt.games.final-fantasy Message-ID: Sender: tomservo@netcom.com (Tom Servo) Organization: NETCOM On-line Communication Services (408 261-4700 guest) X-Newsreader: TIN [version 1.2 PL1] Date: Tue, 4 Oct 1994 22:28:23 GMT Approved: tomservo@netcom.com Lines: 3 Xref: uunet control:1257731 -- "I do not have a beard, but my brother does." --- Jim Collier For those of you wondering about the existence of Tom Servo, he's still alive and posting, just not necessarily in the alt.games.final-fantasy newsgroup. (He has E-Mailed your humble FAQ author, stating that it was nice to see alt.games.final-fantasy still running.) * 1.23 - Where did the name "Final Fantasy" come from? According to an early 1999 interview in Next Generation magazine, Final Fantasy creator Hironobu Sakaguchi said that the game was named the way it was because when the game was being developed, it was his last effort to make a worthwhile fantasy game. Sakaguchi was also involved in the production of previous Square games, such as Highway Star (aka "Rad Racer") and 3D World Runner, and wasn't happy with the way either one of them turned out. +--------------------------------------------+ |*** Section 2 - The Final Fantasy Series ***| +--------------------------------------------+ * 2.1 - The Final Fantasy Series (Intro) There are currently nine Final Fantasy games - eight plus a variation on Final Fantasy IV, and seven SaGa games. Five of the nine FF games were released in the USA; in the descriptors below it will be mentioned if the game was released in the USA or not. All three SaGa games were released in the USA as "The Final Fantasy Legend," and are vastly different from the regular Final Fantasy games. The first three Final Fantasy games were released for the NES, the next four were released for the SNES, the most recent two were released for the Sony PlayStation, and all the SaGa/Final Fantasy Legend games were released for the Nintendo Game Boy. All of the Super NES Final Fantasy games have been republished for the PlayStation. The odd-numbered Final Fantasy games (I, III, V, and VII) have a relatively small cast of characters with a very large plot. The cast of characters generally does not change for the length of the game. Instead, the characters have various "jobs" which they can perform - they can be a fighter, mage, thief, ninja, etc. all in one. In FF I, the characters start out with fixed jobs but get promoted to better jobs roughly halfway through the game, and in the others, the characters can learn new jobs as they become available in their various methods. The even-numbered Final Fantasy games (II, IV, VI, and VIII) have a very large cast of characters with a plot which revolves around the character development of each character. The cast of characters changes rapidly for the length of the game - characters appear, disappear, come back, and can not be changed for the most part. Each character performs one single job which they stick to for the duration of the game, with the exceptions of Cecil and Rydia's "promotions" in FF IV, how all of the characters can eventually learn to use magic in FF VI, and FF VIII's "junction" customization system. Final Fantasy Tactics is a strategy game with a basically infinite cast of characters. Otherwise, it is the same as the odd-numbered Final Fantasy games. The SaGa games (I, II, and III) have a single-person cast, and up to three other party members to compliment this one person. The latter two games include NPCs which can join the party for a small piece of the storyline, then come and go as they please. The characters are jobless and generic, so they can do whatever they want to do. Characters come in the form of humans (generic characters), mutants (generic characters with strong spellcasting abilities and four pieces of inventory representing certain memorized spells), and monsters (who are friendly to the party and can change into the forms of other monsters). The latter two games also include robots (generic characters whose abilities depend on what items you equip them with, and their items are recharged at inns). SaGa III also has beasts (combinations of humans/mutants & monsters) and cyborgs (combinations of humans/mutants & robots). Human and mutant characters can be either male or female - the only difference other than the character's appearance is the character's starting statistics which tend to weigh more towards strength for males and toward agility for females. And weapons have a limited life as well - all weapons and items can be only used a limited amount of times before they break and new ones must replace them. (More about the vastly different Romancing SaGa and SaGa Frontier games in the next section.) * 2.2 - Final Fantasy Games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) * 2.2.1 - Final Fantasy I (USA: Final Fantasy I) Playable characters: N/A (characters are created by the player) NPCs: N/A It is a dark time for the Kingdom of Coneria. The world had been kept functioning and intact by four prevailing elemental powers - Earth, Fire, Water, and Air. But now, fertile valleys are turning into useless clay, the world's volcanoes are threatening to erupt uncontrollably and unpredictably, the ancient Sea Shrine has been invaded and once-peaceful marine life has turned against seagoers, and the Sky Warriors of Lefein have lost their prize possession - the Sky Castle - to monsters with control over the skies. It looked like the world was falling apart uncontrollably, until a wise sage named Lukahn told the King about the Prophecy of the Light Warriors - in times of terror, four Warriors would appear, and they alone would set things straight again. Princess Sara heard about this, and left the castle to find the Light Warriors (unfortunately, she never returned). One day, though, some time after the Princess's disappearance, a group of four showed up at the gates of Coneria Castle, and each one of them held a darkened Orb. You control the Light Warriors, and you must lead them on a quest to return light to the Orbs and gain elemental powers back to where they belong. Did I mention reality's fate depended on you and you alone? Good luck. Final Fantasy I is the game that started it all. It was vastly different from any other RPG available for the NES, as well as being one of the best RPGs in its time. Although this game lacks many things that were added to future Final Fantasy games - like Chocobos, for instance - it's still a great game to play over and over again. It's pretty long, too, for an NES game. * 2.2.2 - Final Fantasy II (not released in the USA) Playable characters: Frioniel, Maria, Guy, Lionel NPCs: Cid, Richard, Minyuu, Josef There was a story posted at , but it appears to have disappeared (hmmm... contradicting words used in the same sentence, neat). Can anyone fill this space? * 2.2.3 - Final Fantasy III (not released in the USA) This space left unintentionally blank. Writer needed! * 2.3 - Final Fantasy Games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) * 2.3.1 - Final Fantasy IV (not released in the USA) Playable Characters/jobs: Cecil Harvey [Dark Knight/Paladin] Kain Highwind [Dragoon] Rydia [Caller] Tellah [Sage] Gilbert (Edward) Chris von Muir [Bard] Rosa Farrell [White Wizard] Yang Fang Leiden [Karate] Palom [Black Wizard] Porom [White Wizard] Cid Pollendina [Engineer] Edward "Edge" Geraldine [Ninja] Fuusuuya (FuSoYa) [Lunarian] NPCs/jobs: Baigan [Adviser] Golbez [Black Wizard] The world was at peace with itself, and kingdoms governed their land justly and with little or no quarreling with bordering kingdoms. In one of the kingdoms, though - Baron - an engineer had finally came up with a machine that would give mankind its ultimate dream come true - the ability to fly. These machines, called "airships," would allow for unrestricted sky travel, and so, Baron became the most powerful kingdom in the world. A man named Cecil, who was originally trained to be a Dark Knight, took up the job of creating and commanding a fleet of Airships, and the people who flew the ships became known as the "Red Wings". One day, Cecil was commanded by the King of Baron to fly to the town of Mysidia and take a magic crystal from the town. The Red Wings did so, but after the mission, Cecil realized what he had done and questioned the King's authority to use the Red Wings to bully a foreign town. So, at that, the King stripped Cecil's authority and commanded him to bring a present to the nearby town of Mist, where humans could call up monsters to do their bidding. Cecil was not going to do this journey alone - he would be accompanied with a skilled Royal Dragoon named Kain. In Final Fantasy II, you are Cecil, and you guide Cecil through a series of plot twists and sub-quests which send Cecil out on a mission to save the world from a fiend named Golbez and the strange power controlling Golbez's actions. Compared to other Final Fantasy Games, Final Fantasy IV was quite long and detailed - Cecil would be separated and rejoined with Kain many times in the story and meet other allies like Rosa, a wizard with magic healing powers; Edge, an ambidextrous ninja; and Tellah, a sage with strong magical powers. Cecil won't be assisted just by humans, however, as this game had many forests which are homes to Chocobo birds which could give the party rides or recover their MP or even store items for them. As the world in Final Fantasy IV gets more and more explored and more progress goes into the game, two more worlds open up to exploration by Cecil. This is another one of those games which you're going to find yourself playing over and over again. The most notable addition to Final Fantasy IV, though, was a "real-time" battle system in which warriors prepare themselves for battle based on their agility level, and when they receive a command, they take out orders immediately. There is no time to waste in battles in this game, since when your party's getting ready to attack or when you're stuck on giving a character orders, the monsters will be attacking you based on their agility levels. Then, there are surprise attacks where the monsters will strike first, pre-emptive attacks where the party has a chance to strike first, and the dreaded back attack. * 2.3.2 - Final Fantasy IV Easytype (USA: Final Fantasy II) This is a version of Final Fantasy IV that was released exclusively for American customers, but Square Co. Ltd also brought it out in Japan. It's the same as FF IV, except that some of the more trivial and nonimportant sub-plots and items were taken out of the game, and the enemies toned down and special battle tactics removed. Here's a quick summary of the changes in the Easytype version: - The only battle tactics which survived in this game were the ones which were absolutely essential for the characters to have, like Fight, Item, Magic for magic users, Jump for Kain, Kick for Yang, etc. - Prince Gilbert's name was changed to "Edward". A few other characters have slightly different names, like Cain became "Kain," Fuusuuya became "FuSoYa," etc. Because the letters L and R are monophones in the Japanese language, Palom and Porom could have been called "Parom" and "Polom," and it wouldn't have made a serious difference. - The enemies have different names. Enemies also attack less often. All enemies, including bosses, are much weaker & easier to defeat. - Items that cure every condition in the original game are extremely rare, and instead, the party had to carry different items to cure different conditions (as in the SaGa games). These items were consolidated into an easily available heal-all item in the Easytype version. - All character development & detail was taken out of the game, except for that of Cecil's, who is the only "important" character to develop. They still removed some of Cecil's background, though - the original game hints to the player that Cecil and Rosa had been sleeping together for a long time. - The Programmer's Room that was hiding in the pub/cafe in the Dwarf Castle in the original game was removed from the Easytype game. - Some of Rydia's calls have disappeared, such as Tofu and Cockatrice; as well as some of the white magic spells Rosa could cast, such as Protect and Shell. - The Beginner's School only appears in Baron in the original game. In the Easytype game, the Beginner's Schools are located almost everywhere. The USA version is also different from the Japanese game in several ways: - The original game had a strip dancer in Baron. While the Easytype version still has this strip dancer, the dancer keeps her clothes on in the American version. - The "Cecil and Rosa kissing" sprite was edited so that they only embrace, but do not kiss. - The scythe that's above Rosa's head in the Tower of Zot was replaced with a large, blunt instrument. (Apparently, killing people with scythes was questionable, but killing people with bowling balls was not.) - Lots of dialogue was censored, especially references to death. The characters talk about sacrificing themselves, but they put in a very subtle way, and do not mention the word "die" or "death" or even "kill" once. - The "Tower of Prayers" is the "Tower of Wishes" in the USA version. Because of this, the Mysidians do not pray, they only wish for things to come true. - The "H'na Hon" or "pornography book" is (not mysteriously) missing from the USA version. - Other phrases that are "questionable" (in Nintendo's book, apparently) were censored. For instance, "the color of blood" became "the color of rubies". - In the Japanese version of the game, Cecil and Kain were sent on a mission to take a bomb to the area around Mist in order to slay some monsters, not fully knowing its true intentions. In the USA version, the bomb became a "Package" which Cecil and Kain were required to deliver to Mist. * 2.3.3 - Final Fantasy V (not released in the USA - for the Super NES, anyway) Playable characters: Butz (Bartz) Klauzer, Lenna (Reina) Tycoon, Galuf Baldesion, "Faris," Kururu (Krile) Baldesion NPCs: N/A The game opens when the main character, Butz, is out riding with his chocobo, Boko. A huge meteorite slams to the earth, not far from him. When he rides over to investigate, he finds a young woman and an older man. The man has lost his memory, but can remember enough to call himself Galuf. The girl identifies herself as Lenna, princess of Tycoon. Satisfied that they are all right, Butz lets them leave, only to chase back after them when the road they travel starts to crumble beneath them and they are attacked by goblins. Eventually, he rescues them and they set off to find a way back to Tycoon, only to find themselves captured by pirates as they explore a watery cave. The pirate leader, Faris, spares them when he finds that he has a pendant exactly like the one Lenna was wearing. He agrees to take them to the Temple of Wind, since there is no wind to be found. At the Temple of Wind, they find that the crystal of wind has been shattered. Concerned about the remaining three crystals - water, fire, and earth, the party of four - Butz, Galuf, Lenna, and Faris (who later turns out to be a she) chase after the remaining three crystals, only to arrive just in time to see each one shatter. After the shattering of the last crystal, Galuf's granddaughter, Kururu, comes out of the meteorite that heralded the destruction of the last crystal, and offers to take him home. Butz, Lenna, and Faris, with the help of the inventor genius Cid (who created a ship powered by - and later not powered by--the crystal of fire) and his grandson Mid, find a way to power their own journey after Galuf, who they want to help out in the quest that brought him to their world. Arriving on Galuf's world, they find him pitched in a battle against ExDeath, a tree into which all of the evil forces in that world had been summoned. With the help of Galuf and his friends Zeza and Kelgar, they continue an assault on ExDeath. Butz learns of the true origin of his father, Dorgan - who was born on this world, and left for Butz's world to watch over the crystals, which kept ExDeath sealed away. ExDeath had once been defeated by the four Warriors of the Dawn - Galuf, Zeza, Kelgar, and Dorgan - and sealed away by the crystals, but he found a way to shatter them and escape, wreaking havoc on Galuf's and Butz's world. Now, each of the remaining Warriors of the Dawn (Dorgan died in Butz's world of natural causes, perhaps precipitating ExDeath's move on the crystals) must sacrifice his life in order to help the four heroes of this generation - the Light Warriors - defeat ExDeath for once and for all. Zeza sacrifices himself in the depths of a Barrier Tower, one of four generating an impenetrable barrier around ExDeath's castle. Galuf is slain in a battle with ExDeath himself, trying to regain the power of the crystals of this world. One of the crystals is shattered, but your party manages to regain control of the other three when Galuf uses his last strength to force ExDeath to retreat. Kururu takes Galuf's place in your party, gaining his knowledge and experience from the will of the crystals that resided in him and moved into her with his death. Kelgar uses the last of his strength, giving it to Kururu to break the trapping illusions of ExDeath's castle when you go to storm it. In the final battle with ExDeath, though, the three remaining crystals are shattered, and the events which follow show the true link between Galuf's and Butz's worlds, and pave the way to the final defeat of ExDeath. In Final Fantasy V, unlike in I and IV, character classes aren't fixed. From the fragments of each of the crystals, your characters obtain "jobs" - character classes ranging from the familiar Knight, White Mage, and Red Mage, to the slightly more exotic but still recognizable Caller, Dragoon (Dragon Knight), and Ninja, to totally new classes like the Elementalist (Wind/Water Mage), the Monk, the Magic Sword Knight, and the Blue Mage (which class is revisited in Final Fantasy VI in the form of Strago). Characters may switch between these jobs any time they are not in battle, but as they stay in a job and earn experience in it, they learn abilities in these jobs. Each character, in addition to his job, can use one ability learned from any class. Some of these abilities duplicate powers the class has naturally - casting white magic, using a harp as a weapon, and summoning the elements - to new abilities that can assist your character even while he plays the class s/he learned it from: summoning woodland creatures, raising your hit points by up to 30%, and paralyzing enemies. Success comes from making suitable mixes of both primary jobs and secondary abilities, making sure that you have ample ability to attack while simultaneously being able to defend and heal yourself. * 2.3.4 - Final Fantasy USA (USA: Final Fantasy Mystic Quest) Basically, there is Benjamin, a boy who was raised by an old man of his village. One day, while he is with a man on the top of a hill, a great earthquake starts, and they are attacked by a monster; and it's a very strange thing, because monsters have never been seen anywhere for a long time... Benjamin kills the beast, and returns to his town only to start a journey that will bring him all across the world, until the final battle with a powerful being called the "Dark King". There are many differences from this and the other Final Fantasy games; the world is divided in four parts (and everyone is related to an Element) linked by a giant Tower, but the tower's doors were sealed long, long ago, to separate the four regions; in every region there is a large dungeon (ie the Ice Pyramid, Lava Dome, and Pazuzu's Tower) which holds a boss monster that controls that land. Another difference is during the game some of your actions will modify the very shape of the world: you start in the Earth region, that is becoming more and more dry and ill, and you will restore it to fertility; the Water region is freezing, and you must restore warm to it, and then open a hole with a powerful bomb in a sealed waterfall that once used to fill a great lake in Wind's region, and now is sealed; the Fire region is being shook up by powerful earthquakes (you'll see them on the world map !) that you will stop, and in the Wind region you will stop the strong wind that is going to destroy the city. During the whole game, your party will be composed only by two characters: you and another, that will often change. The last (and biggest) difference from other games is there are no battles on the world map, but only in the locations, and the monsters are visible, and a battle can be started only by going into them; and, when killed, they will disappear. * 2.3.5 - Final Fantasy VI (USA: Final Fantasy III) Playable characters/jobs: Tina (Terra) Branford [Magitek Knight] Locke Cole [Thief/Treasure Hunter] Mog [Moogle] Edgar Roni Figaro [Engineer] Mashe (Sabin) Rene Figaro [Karate] "Shadow" [Ninja] Celes Chere [Magitek Knight] Cayenne (Cyan) Garamonde [Samurai] Gau [Wild Boy] Setzer Gabrielli [Gambler] Stragus (Strago) Magus [Blue Mage] Relm Arrowny [Artist] Secret Character #1 [Snowman/Sasquatch] Secret Character #2 [Mime] NPCs/jobs: Biggs (Vicks) [Magitek Knight] Wedge [Magitek Knight] Bannon [?] (no name) [Ghost] Leo [General] One thousand years ago, humans infused with magical powers granted to them from three goddesses called the "Magi," destroyed their world in the War of the Magi. The Magi, realizing what they had done, stopped the war by turning themselves into statues and hiding in a specially enclosed part of the world. The magical creatures they created, the Espers, became sick of the evil that they saw in the human world, and went to live with the Magi statues. The War of the Magi ended, magic disappeared, and civilization as a whole was set back a thousand years. One thousand years later, when humanity finally began to recover from the devastating war, a man named "Gestahl" was trying to unite the entire world under a new legion which he was to rule. This new legion, the Empire, slowly began to take over more and more of the world. His three military commanders; Leo, Kefka, and Celes; would see to that. The Empire has also been trying to revive the forces of magic, starting by invading the Espers' World & capturing some Espers. They also found a girl named Tina (Terra), who is said to have been born with mysterious magical powers, and was given a "slave crown," so that she could be totally controlled by the Empire. One day, the mining community of Narshe discovered a frozen Esper, probably left over from the War of the Magi days. Once the Empire had heard about this, they sent a recon group out to find this Esper. This recon group consisted of officers Vicks, Wedge, and Tina (Terra). But her real mission had yet to come... Final Fantasy VI, although not as challenging as its predecessor, had a number of improvements over Final Fantasy IV. The sheer amount of character depth and plot changes make a long and challenging game fold out to you instead of the player knowing everything just by the beginning of the game. Final Fantasy VI also has the largest party size - there are no class changes like there was in Final Fantasy V, so every character has his/her own personal strong points and skills to build on. There are also two secret characters in this game, if you can find them. The geographical features again contribute to the game's story, as different modes of transportation are needed to get to several different scenarios; like rafting down river rapids, taking ferry boats, and even submerging a castle under desert sands in order to get around a mountain range. The major new addition to this game are mainly new ways of using the Super Nintendo's Mode 7 effects - Chocobo and Airship rides are no longer over a flat map, but are now three-dimensional and are really cool to watch. * 2.4 - Final Fantasy Games for the Nintendo Game Boy (DMG) * 2.4.1 - Final Fantasy Gaiden: Seiken Densetsu (USA: Final Fantasy Adventure) All life in the world springs forth from a waterfall which flows from the base of a tree known as the Tree of Mana. The waters from this tree are the essence of life itself, and not only create life, but purify those living in the world. In turn, the goodness in the world supports and strengthens the Mana Tree. However, this idyllic relationship is very unstable. The Mana Tree dependance on the will of all those who live in the world means that should the beauty and peace of the world be tainted with evil, the tree will suffer. Given a great enough evil, the tree will begin spewing forth waters that no longer strengthen peace in the world, but rather breed evil in the minds of the inhabitants of the world. This generation of evil will spiral in until the world is completely consumed by it. Anyone who managed to gain control of this tree could effectively rule the world with near limitless power. Thus, the tree was to be protected - the shrine that surrounded it was considered sacred and no man dared tread on its hallowed grounds. However, long ago, the Emperor of a land known as Vandole entered the shrine and began to use the power of the Mana Tree to enhance his evil and enslave the people of his kingdom. However, his attempt to rule the world was thwarted by the Gemma Knights, the guardians of the Mana Tree, and the Mana Family, the Tree's keepers. Following the battle, the Mana Family feared that the tree could once again be used for evil purposes, and therefore decided to seal the shrine with a magical pendant. Many years later, another corrupt ruler turned his eyes toward the Mana Tree. Dark Lord, ruler of the Empire of Glaive, wishes to use the tree for his own evil purposes. He is assisted by a sorcerer named Julius, who knows a suspicious amount of information about the nature of the Tree and the Pendant that was used to seal the shrine. Some people of this world are unfortunate enough to be captured and forced to fight evil monsters for the entertainment of Dark Lord, as well as the increase amount of evil in the world. These people fight over and over until they die. The hero is one of these people, and was originally captured after sneaking into Dark Lord's castle to find out what he and Julius were up to. After a battle one day, his best friend, when lying on his death bed, tries to tell the hero what he knows about what is going on. He manages to mumble only a few words about Mana, the Gemma Knights, and a particular person, Bogard, whom the hero should see if he should ever escape. The hero indeed escapes, and eventually finds this person, after being pushed off a cliff by Dark Lord and being saved by a young girl. Bogard turns out to be a Gemma Knight, but is very old. He helps the hero continue on his journey, but he learns very little from Bogard. Bogard almost doesn't help the hero at all, until he sees a pendant the girl has around her neck... This game is not an RPG in the way the the SaGa and Final Fantasy series were. It is actually an adventure game, fought real-time. Although similar in battle-style to Nintendo's Legend of Zelda, it differs greatly because of the presence of a good storyline and the ability to develop, and more importantly, control the development of, your character. You have the ability to talk to people, as well as sell and purchase items, armor, and weapons. At certain points you learn special magic spells, and at others you will be assisted by one of several characters who will not only fight at your side, but will also offer advice or provide some service (i.e. heal you). * 2.5 - Final Fantasy Games for the Sony PlayStation (PSX) * 2.5.1 - Final Fantasy VII (USA: Final Fantasy VII) Playable characters: Cloud Strife, Barett (Barret) Wallace, Tifa Lockheart, Aerith (Aeris) Gainsborough, Red XIII, Cait Sith, Cid Highwind, two secret characters NPCs: Sephiroth Final Fantasy VII's story is based on the Gaia theory - that the world is a living being which puts its own life into the creation of living beings. When a person is born, that person takes a little life from the world. When a person dies, the life returns to the world. In the far future, a company named "Shinra" regulates all of the world's politics and power. A long time ago, an alien creature slammed into the northern continent of the world. Shinra's scientists classified this alien as "Jenova," and noted that its bodily systems were far superior to those of humans. So, the Shinra scientists experimented with creating a human with some of Jenova's abilities. This little experiment with genetics, once born, was named "Sephiroth;" and later became the leader of Shinra's elite army, SOLDIER. Sephiroth, being half human and half Jenova, was thus the world's ultimate fighter. Shinra's latest technological breakthrough is a new power plant, called "Mako," which betrays the Gaia theory and can drain the world of its own life to create power. Shinra is not unopposed, though. A group opposed to Shinra's dominance called "Avalanche" has formed, and they have a new member, an ex-member of SOLDIER, named Cloud. Cloud and the others' mission is to shut down Mako before all is lost. Once that this mission is complete, however, there's still much more in store for Cloud & Avalanche. Shinra is a very large company, with nearly unlimited resources. Cloud & Avalanche will have to travel across the world, fighting Shinra forces & destroying Mako power plants. And Sephiroth plays no small role in this... Final Fantasy VII continues a trend that started in FF VI: The world is futuristic and high technology rules supreme, but magic is still present and people still fight with broadswords. The game takes this a little farther, though, by placing the setting in a world which is totally futuristic, unlike FF VI's world where there were only a few futuristic settings (Figaro, Vector, etc.) that made everything else look third-world. The job system from FF V has, in part, returned as well. New to Final Fantasy VII is a "chocobo breeding system," where players can build custom chocobo birds from a chosen set of genes. The set of genes used will determine the kind of chocobo, its traits, abilities, etc. This is Square's first "true" 3D RPG. In other words, hand-drawn graphics and sprites have been replaced by rendered polygons, thus creating a "true" three-dimensional environment. Best of all, unlike World Runner, the player doesn't need 3D glasses to view this game. <;*) * 2.5.2 - Final Fantasy VII International (not released in the USA) With all of the changes that Square made to the USA version (see article 4.1.4), it's as if the USA version is actually more difficult in places than the Japanese version was. This version of Final Fantasy VII, released in Japan, incorporates all of the changes made to the USA version into the Japanese original. A fourth disc was also added, which had some useful tools for playing the game. * 2.5.3 - Final Fantasy Tactics (USA: Final Fantasy Tactics) Playable characters/special jobs: Ramza Beoulve [Squire] Alicia, Lavian, Rad [generic recruits] Malak Galthana [Hell Knight] Cidolfas "T.G. Cid" Orlandu [Holy Swordsman] Worker 8 [Steel Giant] NPCs/special jobs: Agrias Oaks* [Holy Knight] Gaff Gafgarion [Dark Knight] Delita Hyral [Squire/Holy Knight] Algus Sadalfas [Squire] Boco* [Chocobo] Ovelia Atkascha [Princess] Mustadio Bunanza* [Engineer] Olan Durai [Astrologist] Alma Beoulve [Cleric] Rafa Galthana* [Heaven Knight] Meliadoul Tingel* [Divine Knight] Zalbag Beoulve [Arc Knight] Beowulf Kadmas* [Temple Knight] Reis Dular* [Holy Dragon/Dragoner] Secret Character* [Soldier] * = character begins as an NPC, and can optionally become a PC Final Fantasy Tactics is based on a series of true stories about feudal-age Europe: The Black Death, Hundred Years' War, and War of the Roses, among others. Many years ago, the death of the king in Ivalice caused the neighboring kingdom of Zelamonia to claim Ivalice's throne. This caused the Fifty Years' War to occur between the kingdoms. Although Ivalice remained independent after the war, its resources were severely drained. After the war ended, however, Ivalice's nobility was able to restore the kingdom's prosperity as neighboring kingdoms were hit by the Black Death. Now, there is an even greater problem at hand. Ivalice's Princess Ovelia has been kidnapped, the king has died, and the succession of the throne has fallen into question again. The Gallione family, whose coat of arms was a white lion, had a relational tie to the acting queen. However, fearing the suppression of the family of the queen, Parliament has chosen the Zeltennia family to rule. Their coat of arms was a black lion, and they also had relational ties to the dead king's family. This conflict between the two houses erupted into a civil war, known as the "Lion War". According to legend, a commoner named Delita Hyral was supposed to bring an end to the war. Delita, a member of the Hokuten army that fought for Ivalice during the Fifty Years' War, would then establish his family as the ruling dynasty of Ivalice. However, an ancient controversy has prevented the war's real hero, Ramza Beoulve, from being known. Despite the evidence of Ramza's quest, the Church tried to destroy any memories of him. Now, in the future, some historians have discovered Ramza's adventure for the first time. In Final Fantasy Tactics, the player guides Ramza on his quest from being a simple page into a mighty hero. Final Fantasy Tactics is not a typical Final Fantasy game. Where the other games had common role-playing elements, Tactics is more of a strategy game. Ramza is joined by a group of warriors and mages that are (usually) hand-picked soldiers that have their own abilities. Every character can move and attack, but can learn new abilities depending on how many "job points" the party has acquired. Final Fantasy Tactics also employs a job system that is almost identical to that of the job system in Final Fantasy V. All players, including Ramza, start out as squires. However, as they gain "job points" in battle, they can take on different jobs. Squires and chemists are the most basic of jobs, but with a little experience, a warrior can learn to cast black magic, or a black wizard can wield a sword. The possibilities are totally up to the player. All in all, Final Fantasy Tactics is a very complex game. Fortunately, there is an extensive online help system which should get some players started. Still, this game isn't for everyone. * 2.5.4 - Final Fantasy Collections (USA: Final Fantasy Anthology) The Final Fantasy Collections is a re-release of three classic Square games: Final Fantasy IV, V, and VI. Each has new opening and ending video clips, and Final Fantasy VI includes a new mode allowing players to look at some of the artwork used in the game and its promotion. The Anthology that made it to the USA has some important differences from the Japanese Collections. The list of differences is in article 4.1.4. * 2.5.5 - Final Fantasy VIII (USA: Final Fantasy VIII) Playable characters/jobs: Squall Leonhart [SeeD Soldier] Quistis Trepe [Garden Instructor/SeeD Soldier/Blue Mage] Zell Dincht [SeeD Fighter] Selphie Tilmitt [SeeD Soldier] Rinoa Heartilly [Princess of the Forest Owls] Laguna Loire [Galbadian Soldier/Journalist] Irvine Kinneas [SeeD Sniper] NPCs/jobs: Seifer Almasy [SeeD Candidate] Ward [Galbadian Soldier/Janitor] Kiros [Galbadian Soldier/Bounty Hunter] Secret Character [Secret Job] Final Fantasy VIII takes place in a world where high technology coexists with magic. In this world, there is one person gifted with with powerful magic, and she is known as the "sorceress." The game starts in a military school, called "Garden," where children and young adults train to enter the military. Garden also sponsors a team known as "SeeD," which is composed of a group of elite soldiers. Squall Leonhart and Seifer Almasy are two students enrolled in Garden who are trying to join SeeD. After Squall passes (and Seifer fails) the final examination in the besieged city of Dollet, Squall and a team of other SeeDs board a train to the city of Timber, where Squall has a mysterious dream about a soldier named Laguna... Final Fantasy VIII is a story in two parts. For most of the game, the player plays as Squall and his party. Every once in a while, the game will switch over control to Laguna, whose story takes place some time before Squall was born. The major new feature to the game is the "junctioning" system, where magic spells can be used to boost character attributes through use of summoned monsters called "guardian forces." * 2.5.6 - Final Fantasy IX (supposedly coming to the USA in October) The characters were designed by Yoshitaka Amano, the character designer behind Final Fantasy I through VI, instead of Tetsuya Nomura, who designed the characters to the last two Final Fantasy releases. (We'll wait for the USA release before saying much more than that...) * 2.6 - Are there any movies/direct-to-videos based on the Final Fantasy series? Yes, there are. There are two of them; one of them is still in development. "Final Fantasy: Quest for the Crystals" is a Japanese animation that's set in the world of Final Fantasy V, one hundred years after the death of ExDeath. It has been translated, and you might be able to find a copy in some stores, especially ones which specialize in Japanese animation. There will be a Final Fantasy movie coming in the summer of 2001. It's apparently been under development for several years, and has cost Square plenty, but they did demo the movie at Yoshitaka Amano's art exhibit in New York a while back. +----------------------------------------------+ |*** Section 3 - Other Games by Square Soft ***| +----------------------------------------------+ * 3.1 - Square Games for the Nintendo Entertainment System (NES) * 3.1.1 - Highway Star (USA: Rad Racer) Rad Racer was one of the early Nintendo racing games in which the player drives either a sports car or an F1 racer down roads and must make it past certain checkpoints in a given amount of time in order to finish the race and move on. The only thing which made this old NES game unique was that, if you pressed Select during game play, the colors would change so the player could wear 3D glasses and play the game in a 3D motif instead of the regular 2D graphics. Hey - it was made in the 80s, after all. * 3.1.2 - The 3D Battles of World Runner (USA: The 3D Battles of World Runner) This game follows the story of World Runner, a character who can run for super-long distances without tiring, and his goal was to dash through a level in a certain amount of time. At the end of each level was a dragon boss who had to be defeated in order to move on to the next. Sort of like Rad Racer, except it had a plot to it and the game focuses on a human instead of a car. Also like Rad Racer, this game had a 3D feature. Gotta love those 1980s. * 3.1.3 - Rad Racer II (not released in Japan) Generally the same as Rad Racer, except with new tracks, the F1 car removed, the 3D feature removed, and a little bit different of a feel to it. But otherwise, it was relatively unchanged from the original. * 3.2 - Square Games for the Nintendo Game Boy (DMG) * 3.2.1 - SaGa (USA: The Final Fantasy Legend) Long ago, the ancients built a gigantic Tower which linked many different and unique worlds together for easy access. It is said that a special Paradise exists on the top floor of the Tower, but oddly enough, monsters have come out of the tower and the "main" worlds of the tower have been sealed off by fiends, all under control of a creature named Ashura. Now, there is another who has dared to brave the adventure, destroy Ashura and claim the elusive and infamous (yet only fabled) Paradise. SaGa is very different from the regular Final Fantasy games - there are no set characters and no occupations. Instead, you get to make up your own party (see article 4.1). Humans must be manually upgraded using various items the party acquires, mutants upgrade on their own and learn up to four new spells on their own, and various monsters who gain powers by eating the meat of other monsters. * 3.2.2 - SaGa II (USA: The Final Fantasy Legend II) It has been said that when the ancient gods created the worlds, they linked each and every world together by way of one main Celestial World which would connect to other worlds by way of a tower known as the "Pillar of the Sky". One of the ancient gods, Isis, then turned herself to stone and split herself into seventy-seven separate stones which were scattered far and wide. These stones became known as MAGI stones, and when a person used the powers of the MAGI, he or she would effectively be a contemporary god. Five such people - Ashura, Venus, Magnate, Odin, and Apollo - went out and gained powers by collecting MAGI and used them to become more god-like. Meanwhile, an underground operation of people known as "guardians" were storing MAGI of their own so that these gods couldn't go too far in the way of increasing their powers. One of these people is the hero character's father, although he had to keep a low profile in order to prevent blowing his cover while in front of the gods he was working against, so even his family didn't know his real identity very well as he left when the hero was young. Now that the hero (whose name and identity the players get to choose) is older, he/she/it decide to go out and find his/her/its father, and on the way, he/she/it must collect MAGI on their own to help on the search. The hero is not alone, however, he/she/it takes three other people with him/her/it on the mythological Father Quest. SaGa II is much more detailed and longer than the original game. There are many more worlds to discover and many more sub-quests that must be embarked on the player's way towards finding the hero's father. There are the same character classes from the original SaGa, with one addition - robots, who become powerful based on the weapons it has equipped, and its weapons will never break but instead will recharge themselves when your party sleeps at the Inn and be useful once again. The MAGI also plays a role in the game - different MAGI have different uses, and some MAGI can be equipped with a character to give him/her/it special skills like extra strength/agility or resistance to an elemental power. * 3.2.3 - SaGa III (USA: The Final Fantasy Legend III) Thousands of years ago, immortal beings fought a long war over who should become the ruler of a world known as "Pureland". As the battle went on, these beings created more and more powerful magic and more devastating weapons. Unfortunately, the side affects of these increasingly powerful means of war began to show their signs in other universes. The effects of such attacks were so great as to actually threaten the existence of other worlds. Sol, the creator of The World, feared that the effects of these attacks would soon spell the end of his world. So, he built a great spacecraft, known as the Talon, that was capable of flying at incredible speeds, and could even traverse the different dimensions themselves, allowing him to travel to other worlds. So, Sol used this ship to travel to Pureland, where he managed to seal the warring immortal beings, and more importantly the effects of their magic, in their world. This exercise was very taxing for Sol, though, and when he returned to The World he had just enough energy to spread the 13 key components, known as Units, throughout the time and space occupied by his world. He then fell into a deep sleep. Hundreds of years later, the immortal Pureland beings have grown powerful enough to finally retaliate against Sol for sealing them off from the rest of the worlds. Using their combined magic, they summon a water entity that manifests itself above the oceans of The World, and was visible to all inhabitants of the World, past, present, or future. This apparition created two great problems for those who lived in The World. Out of this entity came forth hordes of evil and dangerous creatures who threatened the lives of the inhabitants of the World. Also from this entity poured forth water, and slowly began to flood The World, which not only threatened the lives of those who lived there, but their posterity as well. Only one mortal, known as the Elder of Dharm, in The World knows the true reason for the presence of the Water Entity, and what the ultimate goal of the monsters that was ravaging the surface of his world was. The hero is raised by this man, and when he/she/it grows old enough, the Elder tells the true story of the Water Entity, and how the hero must travel across land and time itself to hunt down and find the scattered pieces of the Talon, so that the Purelanders can once again be stopped, and the world can be saved. SaGa III offers a different style of fighting than in SaGa I and SaGa II, that is similar to Final Fantasy VI. The player normally has four members in the party, but can be joined by a fifth character from time to time. The player doesn't have a choice into the nature of your original characters, but they do have the opportunity to develop them though the gaining of experience. The characters also have the chance to change to/from robots, cyborgs, beasts, and monsters, through the eating of monster meat or installation of robot parts obtained in battle. Robots don't have the ability to use magic, and are initially weak, but have the ability to upgrade through the addition of part capsules. Cyborgs are a cross between human/mutants and robots. Monsters don't have the ability to use any items, but generally have high HP and must continue to eat the meat of stronger monsters if they wish to continue to develop. Beasts are a cross between human/mutants and monsters. Unlike SaGa I and II, many weapons have unlimited usage, but there are also many 1 use items. Also new is unlimited use magic that can be purchased or created with combinations of stones that are found throughout the game. There are also special non-combat spells which will allow you to fly though the air and swim under water. When flying the Talon, you can fly though the air, and the Talon will fight along with the party when they encounter enemies. * 3.3 - Square Games for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System (SNES) * 3.3.1 - Seiken Densetsu II (USA: The Secret of Mana) The player-namable hero is a child who grew up in the little village of Potos, out in the middle of nowhere it seems. He was raised by the villagers there, since his parents just left you in the care of the village before they mysteriously disappeared. One day, while out in areas which were forbidden for the townspeople to enter, he gets separated from his friends and found a strange sword stuck in stone - calling his name. He take the sword, but when he does, the area becomes invaded with evil creatures who fight back against the villagers. Turns out, the sword the hero took was protecting the town, and so, without the sword and with the hero being held responsible, the townspeople drive him out of town. The hero's adventures lead him into a long quest which turns into a journey to save the world from an evil being named Thanatos, who is trying to revive an ancient device of destruction known as the "Mana Fortress". The whole Secret of Mana series was Square Soft's first real venture into creating adventure games instead of RPGs. In this game, the player gets a variety of different weapons, and over the course of the game have to improve them in order to get farther into the game. Your main character will not alone on your quest, two others - a girl and a sprite - will eventually join the party, and you can assign these characters to being either computer-controlled or you can have up to two other people playing the same game at the same time. * 3.3.2 - Seiken Densetsu III (not released in the USA) Long ago, when the world was still in the darkness, the Mana Goddess sealed the 8 beasts of disaster that were to bring destruction into 8 stones using the Mana Sword. Darkness then faded, and thus the world was created. Mana Goddess transformed herself into a tree. Years passed by... Until one day, the peace came to a sudden halt. Power-hungry ones trying to take over the world, breaking the seal and releasing the powers of the 8 beasts... Trying to possess and wield powers greater than those of gods and goddesses... Mana was being depleted from the world quickly... and the Mana Tree was starting to wither and die. And thus, the Triangle Story begins... Seiken Densetsu III is based on conflicts between a neutral country and a leading (strong) country: Forcena <--> Artena Rolante <--> Navarre Wendel <--> Beast Kingdom This combination creates 2 Triangles: BK ---- Artena Wendel ----Forcena \ / \ / \ / \ / Navarre Rolante which can be imposed on top of each other. The story is based on the relationships among these countries. Therefore, the story will differ depending on which character you start the adventure with. There are 6 characters in Seiken Densetsu 3. Your party will consist of 3 of the 6 characters. Depending on who you choose as your main character, your purpose, story, course of action, and the final enemy will differ. You can choose from: Duran (Forcena): soldier Angela (Artena): magic user Charlotte (Wendel): cleric Hawkeye (Navarre): thief Riesz (Rolante): amazoness Kevin (Beast Kingdom): grappler DURAN: Forcena The game starts with a tournament scene. Duran is up against Bruzer. Duran wins (of course). Duran's father, Roki was known as the "Golden Knight," and was a good friend of the king (Eiyuu-ou). He disappeared when Duran was still a young boy. His mother, Simone, died of illness, so Duran and his younger sister Wendy, were brought up by his Aunt Stella. He had no real memories of his father, but like him, Duran became the best swordsman among the young, and became a soldier for Eiyuu-ou. Duran is on watch at the castle. The other guard goes on the round for the last time for the night before their replacement is to arrive. We enter Duran's dream... (he falls asleep.) Duran as a young boy, asks where his father is going. Roki replies he's going to go fight a dragon - Ryuutei - the strongest among all dragons. He never returns. It was reported that he fell into a bottomless pit with Ryuutei. Simone collapses after she whispers "so he was a golden knight till the very end... I'm sure that's what he would have wanted..." Simone admits to Stella that she had been ill, but didn't say anything because she didn't want to burden Roki. (Simone probably dies at this point.) Duran wakes up, and the area is covered by a bright red light. He finds the soldiers on the floor, and a mage in red robes appear. Duran attacks, but fails. He collapses after he is struck by magic. Voices are heard, and the mage splits. (Just in a knick of time... how 'bout that. ^^; ) Forcena advisors suspect Artena of sending spies into Forcena. They want to attack Artena, but Eiyuu-ou stops them - there's no proof yet and no apparent reason as to why they would do this. He orders spies to be sent into Artena. Duran's in the pub, upset that he was beaten. Wendy comes to cheer him up, but runs off. Duran then visits a fortune-teller. And his adventure begins... * 3.3.3 - Chrono Trigger (USA: Chrono Trigger) It has been one thousand years since order has come out of chaos and the Kingdom of Guardia had united the entire world together, so now, the citizens of the world will celebrate a giant Millineal Fair in tribute to the event which happened a thousand years ago, and all the hardships it had gone through since - like a war against an evil wizard named Magus who tried to take over the kingdom four hundred years ago. Crono is a common boy in this world, and he wakes up one morning to go and celebrate the Millineal Fair with the rest of the known world. Crono had only barely entered the fair when he accidentally bumped into a girl wandering around in the crowd. She claimed that her name was Marle, and asked Crono if she could follow him around for a while, and he accepted. The couple travelled to an exhibit at the fair which was being put on by Crono's best friend, Lucca, who was an inventor and scientist. The invention was a telepod - you could step in one end and come out the other. Crono tried it out first, and sure enough, came out the other side in one piece. But when Marle tried it, she just disappeared without a clue to where she went. Although this made Lucca panic, adventurous Crono took the one thing Marle left behind when she disappeared - her strange pendant - and stepped back into the pod. This time, he disappeared, and awoke to find himself in the same place he was in, but he was now four hundred years back in time... As Crono, the player must travel back and forth in time to fix damaged time strands in order to prevent the possibility of having an alternate reality in which everything is destroyed in the future by an alien creature named Lavos. Marle and Lucca will also be along for the ride, but Crono will also meet certain characters from different points in world history which will join the party on his way. Chrono Trigger is in many ways like a Final Fantasy game, except instead of a few large worlds there are many smaller worlds with links to the past, present, and future to be explored. The idea of moving back and forth in time is not a new one, but it does add so much to the story of this game which revolves around time travel. The coolest new feature this game has to offer over the others is multiple endings - the ending is different depending on when Lavos is defeated (see article 5.1.15 for more information). * 3.3.4 - The Secret of Evermore (not released in Japan) Basically, the storyline is very simple. It is about a boy and his dog (whom the player names). from Podunk, USA. The boy is a bit obsessed with Science Fiction films, as he is constantly referring occurrences in the game to the films. The game starts with him and his dog leaving a movie. His dog runs off to chase after a cat, which leads him to a huge mansion. The dog runs in the mansion, and the boy follows. Inside, they find a huge machine. The dog chews on the wire, and the machine sucks him up inside. The boy has no choice but to follow. They find themselves in a spaceship. The professor who used to live in Podunk in the 1960s (it was his mansion) throws the boy and his dogs to some sentries, who are easily beaten with a bazooka found there. Then, the boy and his dog jump out the spaceship and fall to the earth. The boy also finds that his dog has mutated. The game play is similar to that of Secret of Mana. However, the magic is a bit different. You use something called "alchemy" if you have ever played the Ultima Series, the magic system will be VERY familiar to you. Using the L and R buttons, the dog can "sniff" out items you need to cast a spell. I.E. ash, crystal, water. Then, to cast a spell, you need like 2 ash and 1 water. * 3.3.5 - Front Mission (not released in the USA) The FAQ maintainer has never played this game before, so could someone help him fill this space here? Thanks. * 3.3.6 - Breath of Fire (USA: Breath of Fire) In times of peace, the discovery of a wish-granting goddess has caused the rebirth of the Dark Dragons. Now they are amassing armies and seizing towns, it is only a matter of time before the world bows before them. The time has come for the Light Dragons to strike back, but they have all been wiped out or are powerless. One young man will rise to the challenge. He will have to travel the world and gain the powers of the dragon, but he will not be alone. Seven other warriors from clans throughout the world will go with him, and together they will somehow stop the Dark Dragons, and the fanatical goddess that guides them. * 3.3.7 - Romancing SaGa (not released in the USA) Players can select one out of 8 characters as their main character, and they'll get to meet all the other characters in the middle of the game. (And more, of course). Players don't get level up, but they get individual Power, HP, etc up after normal fights, randomly. (Kinda like FF II - the Japanese version, that is.) The stories differ from character to character. The player gets to know pieces of the story by playing each character, but they form a big picture. Basically, there are 3 bosses, two of which were beaten a long time ago by a hero. Maybe a few heroes... They leave 12 pieces of jewelry, and two of them are lost. As the last boss is being reincarnated, the world became messed up. So the eight people, for different reasons, start on their journies. * 3.3.8 - Romancing SaGa II (not released in the USA) A long time ago, seven heroes saved the world. Before they went away, they said they would be back when there's a crisis. Recently, monsters start to harm the innocent people. People were hoping for the seven heroes to return. Indeed, finally, the seven heroes have returned, but this time, they are monsters killing the innocent people. The main character of the story starts on a quest to save the world. Players get to play different generations of the royal family. They can develop a country of their own, and can allocate resources in your country to invent things. They can pass on techniques and skills to any descendants, and save weapons for them. * 3.3.9 - Romancing SaGa III (not released in the USA) 600 years ago, an event known as the "Shishoku" occurred when "Shisei," the Death Planet, eclipsed the sun, and all new infant life died on Earth. All infants, baby animals, and new plants died. However, one baby survived the "Shishoku," and when he grew up, he became the "Maou" (Demon King) and conquered the earth. He opened the "Abyss Gates" to a dimension where four races of evil Abyss beings lived. These beings flooded the earth. However, suddenly the Maou disappeared, and the attacks of the Abyss Gate monsters decreased. 300 years later, after the earth began to rebuild from the Maou's domination, and another "Shishoku" occurred. Again, one baby managed to survive the event, and the Maou's memory began to come back to the baby. Fearing another world domination, the people tried to kill the infant, but as fate would have it, the baby was not killed. However, when this baby grew up, he became the "Seiou," (Holy King) and united the world in peace and harmony. In addition, the Seiou sealed the Abyss Gates completely. Now, 300 years after the second "Shishoku," just as the peace that the Seiou installed began to fall apart, yet another "Shishoku" occurred, and yet another baby survived. However, having not yet fully grown, nobody knows how this baby will turn out. Romancing Saga 3 takes place more than a decade after the third "Shishoku." The player picks a main character out of eight characters: Julian, a member of the Shinon group of pioneers; Ellen, a childhood friend of Julian's and fellow member of Shinon; Harid, a world-famous mercenary; Sara, Ellen's younger sister; Monica, the princess of the country of Roanu; Katarina, Monica's personal guard and surrogate older sister; Thomas, a childhood friend of Julian, Ellen, and Sara, and president of a trading company; and Mikhail, Ellen's older brother and young king of Roanu. Through a random storm, all these characters get tied together and go on a single quest in the beginning, splitting into different parties. Afterwards, the story splits and focuses on the main character's point of view. Later on, the main characters learn that there are four Abyss Gates still open and go out to seal them off. And of course, the baby that survived the "Shishoku" plays no small part in all of this... In terms of gameplay, RS3 shares some similarities with RS2 in that there are no experience levels and character advancement depends solely upon what each character practices. At the beginning of the game, in addition to picking a main character, the player must also pick a homeworld and weapon for your character. These choices will affect what areas of the game the player will do well in. A large part of the combat system depends on weapon techniques learned randomly in battles. Although the techniques are learned randomly, weapon skill and primary weapon also affect this as well. Like the other RS games, there are no random battles; the monsters you fight are determined randomly, but fights will not start until you run into an enemy icon on the map. Being an almost completely non-linear game, the plot of RS3 will depend slightly upon various choices the player makes throughout the game, and what characters are in the party. Unlike most RPGs, though, instead of having one continuous plot, RS3 consists almost entirely of many small subplots. Most of these subplots can be taken in any order, and it is not necessary to complete all of them. Also, some subplots are only open to certain characters, like the company management event for Thomas, and the "country ruling" event for Mikhail. * 3.3.10 - Bahamut Lagoon (not released in the USA) In a strange world (name?) where lands float in the air (ala realm of air from deathgate), an emperor launched an attack on the other countries. The hero is the leader of the "Dragon riders" of the last country to be attacked. The emperor attacked this country the last because of the legend that the greatest and most powerful dragon will come when the country is in crisis. The dragon riders attack, and lost, and the country was taken over, along with the princess. She and the hero are lovers. Well, after some time, the hero returns from his dissapearence (he dissapeared after the battle) and forms the rebellion, and tries to rescue the princess. This game is actually a strategy game with RPG elements. Characters form groups of 4 and each group has a dragon. This game's unique feature is how the player "feeds" different things to the dragons, ie. used armor, potions, weapons, items etc. and they add or decrease the dragons' attributes. Another is the dragons cannot be controlled by the player. The player controls the dragons buy 3 commands: Follow and do not attack, follow and attack enemies in range, and free attack. The dragons react according to their attributes, like if it's intelligence is good, it would avoid poisonous areas on the map when moving and hit the enemy at where they're weakest (hate it when the enemy is of element lightning and the dragon cast lightning and HEALS it). Other attributes are like elements, which controls what type of attack the dragon uses, and normal attacks(claws and teeth!) and defense etc. Oh, BTW, the dragons change appearance too. * 3.3.11 - Super Mario RPG (USA: Super Mario RPG) The plot to this game (which was co-produced by Square and Nintendo) seems simple at first. In fact, the plot is almost exactly the same as the plots in many of the previous Super Mario Bros. games: The Princess has been kidnapped by Bowser (again!), and Mario (Luigi makes his only appearances in the game's manual this time around) goes after her. This time, Mario travels straight to Bowser's castle, and while the two are fighting, a strange thing happens: A giant sword falls from the sky and into the castle; sending Mario, Bowser, and the Princess flying out of the castle. Mario fortunately lands right into his small house, but the Princess is missing and Mario can't get back into the castle. As the plot thickens, however, it's revealed to Mario that the Star Road has been shattered by the Smithies (the same forces guiding the sword), and without it, wishes can never be answered. In order to fix the Star Road, Mario needs to find seven stars, and then drive the Smithies out of the Mushroom World. Super Mario RPG not only enhances on the Mario theme by keeping classic Mario elements (like the ?-mark blocks everyone's familiar with, Starman, etc.) and adding in a new semi-3D world, but it's also the first of the many Mario games over the years to have a role-playing style to it. Mario punches, hammers, jumps, kicks shells at enemies; and also fights with a group of up to two other characters. There's plenty of tiny bites of humor throughout the game, puzzles to solve, places to visit, and various sub-games to play. Some of the puzzles and sub-games in Super Mario RPG, however, may only be easy for people who can maintain a solid rhythem and have an understanding of the C major scale in sol-fesh, because non-musicians may have a hard time trying to race Boshi or helping Toadofsky with his songs. Otherwise, this is a very solid game. * 3.3.12 - Rudora no Hihou/Rudra's Secret Treasure (not released in the USA) After 4000 years of prosperity of the one race of life, there will be one who brings the end to that race... one's name is known as Rudora. Rudora will bring an end to one race and also brings creation of the next race to prosper. Almost 4000 years have past since the race begin to flourish... air was polluted, and there was a sign of the end of human race worldwide. Will there be a way to escape from Rudora's routine of destruction and creation? "Rudora no Hihou" vividly describes the human race that fought against destiny in the last 16 days before Rudora's destruction began... In "Rudora no Hihou," the player searches for the strongest magic by themselves. With different combinations of the specific word (Japanese characters), magic attribute, strength and MP consumption will change. Explore around to making magic and create your own ultimate magic! * 3.3.13 - Treasure Hunter G (not released in the USA) See 3.3.5. * 3.3.14 - Hanjyuku Hero (not released in the USA) Hanjyuku Hero was a "simulation game" produced by Square around the time of FF V (FF5), for the SFC. There was a predecessor on the FC, but I have no information about it. The game contains lots of Japanese puns, and was not translated to any foreign language. The player, "hanjyuku hero," was the leader of an Arumamuun nation. But over a long period of peace, he becomes sloppy, so the nation is on the verge of destruction. Just then, the "kanjyuku army" invades, and the player is to fight a war against them. The game is a simple real-time simulation, where the objective in each stage is to capture all the castles on the map, then defeat the stage boss. Each unit consists of a leader and a bunch of nameless soldiers. The characteristic of this game is the "egg monsters": some leaders (on either side) are equipped with an "egg," which allows them to summon an egg monster in battle. However, that which monster would appear is random, and the power of the egg monster varies greatly, though in most cases it would have no problem squashing enemy human troops. The story is a comedy, with a hero who is kind of sloppy. The highlight is on the egg monsters, many of whom are parodies or puns of FFIV (FF4) characters and objects. * 3.3.15 - Breath of Fire II (not usually considered a Square game, but discussed in this newsgroup anyway) When only a young boy, after a disturbing dream and a mysterious encounter with a dragon, the hero's family has disappeared and no one recognizes him. He runs from the town with a young thief named Bow, only to be challenged by a horrific demon that calls him the destined child. It easily renders him unconscious and throws him from the cave. Ten years later, he and Bow have become junior Rangers at a town, and in the events that follow he begins to realize that he is, indeed, the destined child. And he has a mission. * 3.4 - Square Games for the Sony PlayStation (PSX) * 3.4.1 - Tobal #1 (USA: Tobal #1) Tobal #1 was Square's first experiment with the fighting game genre. They mixed fighting and role playing in a mode called "Quest mode," which will be very familiar to you if you've played Double Dragon V before. Originally, the main selling point behind this game was that it included a demo disc for an upcoming Square game, Final Fantasy VII. * 3.4.2 - Tobal II (not released in the USA) See 3.3.13. * 3.4.3 - Bushido Blade (USA: Bushido Blade) Bushido Blade is a fighting game with Japanese swords - "Bushido" is a samurai sword fighting style. Characters in this game don't have energy, as in traditional fighting games, but are instead defeated by any bone-crunching katana slash. Little else can be said about the game... * 3.4.4 - Xenogears (USA: Xenogears) The destruction of an intergalactic space ship lead to the population of the previously uninhabited continent of Ignas. The north nation, Kislev, has been at war with Aveh, the south nation. It was then that the Church (aka "Ethos") discovered ancient fighting robots known as "gears," and so, armies on both sides dug up & deployed these gears to aid their war efforts. Later, the government of Aveh was taken over by a mysterious high-tech force known as "Gebler," who continued to fight against Kislev. Xenogears tells a story about Fei Fong Wong, a small-town young adult with a gift for visual and martial arts. Fei's two best friends, Timothy and Alice, are marrying each other. On the day before their wedding, though, their village is mysteriously attacked by gears. Unable to resist, Fei climbs into an empty gear, unaware of the cruel destiny which awaits him... The most unique feature of the game is the actual battles with robots. During the course of the game, each character acquires one gear which they can call during combat to use against larger & stronger enemies. Gears do not actually "level up" but acquire their power by purchasing better parts for them to use. This is also the first Square game to have hand-drawn anime movie sequencies instead of having pre-rendered movies exclusively. * 3.4.5 - Front Mission Alternative (not released in the USA) See 3.4.2. * 3.4.6 - SaGa Frontier (USA: SaGa Frontier) Just like Romancing SaGa I, this game has no central storyline. Players can select a character, and then guide that character through their life. Along the way, the character may encounter other lead characters, as well as a number of supporting characters. * 3.4.7 - Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon (not released in the USA) A chocobo from a chocobo village found a magic crystal which made him become evil, and now resides in a mysterious dungeon. Now, another chocobo from the town is going to brave the dungeon and find him. The best way to describe the game would be that it is a Rogue-like game, complete with magic and summoned monsters. There's also a "forge system," where weapons can be combined to become more powerful. The village also grows as the player gets deeper into the dungeon. This game came packed with a "mysterious data disc" which included cheat saves for existing Square games and preview videos of some of Square's other games - Xenogears, Parasite Eve, Soukagai, and more. (A variation on this disc, without the saved games, was published with Parasite Eve in the USA.) * 3.4.8 - Einhander (USA: Einhander) Earth has declared war on Selene, a prosperous moon colony first settled in the 21st century. Although Earth is still likely to win the war with its vast resources, Selene has a new hope: Fighter ships by Endymion and Astraea, known collectively as "Einhander," are being used successfully to thwart Earth's progress in the war. The player controls one of three ships: The Endymion FRS Mks. II and III, as well as the Astraea FGA Mk. I. Each ship can be equipped with special weapons stolen from enemy ships in battle. Weapons can be mounted on the top or bottom of the Einhander, and behave differently depending on the side they're on. Einhander is at heart a two-dimensional futuristic shooting game, similar to the Gradius and R-Type series. However, unlike the traditional shooters, everything in the game is animated in 3D. * 3.4.9 - Parasite Eve (USA: Parasite Eve) Based on a Japanese novel of the same name, Parasite Eve casts the player as Aya Brea, a 23 year-old rookie cop with the New York Police Department. As Christmas approaches, she is invited to an opera at Carnegie Hall with her boyfriend. While watching the show, however, the lead female singer, Melissa Gilbert, gives Aya a strange look, then proceeds to cause most of the audience to spontaneously combust. Unscathed, Aya runs to the stage to confront Melissa, who now insists on being called "Eve" and begins to drop hints about the "liberation of the mitochondria" to come... Produced by Square USA, Parasite Eve contains many breathtaking CGI visuals and spans 2 CDs. Some of its unique features include the Parasite Energy system (a bar not unlike a Magic Points system which only regenerates in battle), which represents the activity of the mitochondria within Aya's body, and the Weapons Graft system, which enables the player to customize their weapons and armor with features from other armaments. The USA version of the game also packed in a demo disc containing a demo of Xenogears; plus previews of Brave Fencer Musashi(den), Final Fantasy VIII, and Bushido Blade II. The disc was the rough equivilant of the "mysterious data disc" which came with Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon in Japan. * 3.4.10 - Brave Fencer Musashiden (USA: Brave Fencer Musashi) When the Thirstquencher Empire kidnaps the princess of the Allucaneet Kingdom while her parents are on vacation, who's she gonna call? Brave Fencer Musashi! After an opening quest where Musashi finds the long sword named Regent ("Lumina" in the USA release), he departs on a quest to save the princess and 35 of her missing servants. Along the way, he'll collect scrolls which unlock powers of his sword; as well as dueling with fearsome crest guardians and his arch-rival, Kojiro. This game came packed with a demo disc containing a playable preview of Final Fantasy VIII. * 3.4.11 - Ehrgeiz (USA: Ehrgeiz) This game, co-developed by Square and Namco, is sort of like a cross between Tekken and Tobal, with a few characters from Final Fantasy VII thrown in. * 3.4.12 - SaGa Frontier II (USA: SaGa Frontier II) In the Kingdom of Finney, an heir is born to the throne. The heir, Gustave XIII, enjoys a nice life as being the future king of Finney - until it is discovered that Gustave has no Anima, the element which gives people magical powers, making Gustave by default unfit to rule. He and his mother, Sophie, are exiled to a faraway kingdom where they became treated like nobles. Gustave's story begins after he learns about smithery from a master blacksmith... SaGa Frontier II builds on the first game by reducing the amount of quests in the game while adding to the plot/storyline of Gustave and one other character, a digger named Wil Knights. The game brings back a variation of SaGa Frontier's battle system, as well as an all-new "duel" one-on-one battle system, and reintroduces the breakable weapons from the first SaGa games. * 3.4.13 - Chocobo Racing (USA: Chocobo Racing) This go-cart-style racing game features a diverse cast of Final Fantasy characters. In addition to characters such as the chocobo and goblin (imp), there is the white and black mages from the original Final Fantasy, Cid Pollendina from Final Fantasy IV, Mog from Final Fantasy VI, and a few secret characters from Final Fantasy VII and VIII. * 3.4.14 - Chrono Cross (USA: Chrono Cross) Twenty years after Crono and friends returned from defeating Lavos in Chrono Trigger, time and space are once again distorted. Serge, a kid living in the small village of Arni, is asked by his friend, Leena, to hunt down some Komodo scales. Upon presenting the scales to Leena at the nearby Opassa Beach, however, Serge is suddenly surrounded by a blue light, and he collapses. Upon awakening, he finds himself in an alternate reality where he drowned ten years ago... Chrono Cross, despite having a different producer and character designer for the game, is a worthy successor to its predecessor. While most of the gameplay and some of the characters from the first game are back, the game features an overwhelmingly large cast of characters, who become available depending on some of the decisions the player makes while playing the game. Also, the game does away with time meters in battles, and the intensity of attacks in battles can be determined by the player, sort of like in Xenogears. The game uses 3D characters on pre-rendered backgrounds, and has a small amount of full motion video clips. * 3.4.15 - Chocobo's Mysterious Dungeon II (USA: Chocobo Dungeon II) See 3.4.5. * 3.4.16 - Vagrant Story (USA: Vagrant Story) Vagrant Story is set in a world which resembles mainland Europe during medieval times. As the story opens, Duke Barbadoa's manor has been sacked by Mullenkamp, a group of religious fanatics led by Sydney Losstarot. Meanwhile, Ashley Riot, an elite knight called a "riskbreaker," enters the ghost town of Lea Monde. During Ashley's visit, he encounters dark powers like the world had never seen before. And Sydney seems to be controlling them... Vagrant Story combines the best features of action, adventure, puzzle, and role-playing games to provide a gaming experience like no other. Ashley acquires a variety of weapons which possess strengths and weaknesses over various elements and character classes. Weapons and armor can be combined together, and weapons can be attached to a variety of grips and jewels, allowing players to make their own customized weapons. There's also an in-depth magic system with four varieties of spells. The game also has one of the largest storylines in a Square game since Xenogears, as well as one of the best in-game graphics engines ever seen in a PlayStation game. * 3.4.17 - Seiken Densetsu: The Legend of Mana (USA: Legend of Mana) See 3.4.15. * 3.4.18 - Front Mission III (USA: Front Mission III) See 3.4.17. * 3.4.19 - DewPrism (USA: Threads of Fate) See 3.4.18. * 3.5 - Square Games for the Sony PlayStation 2 (PS2) * 3.5.1 - Driving Emotion Type-S (it's too early to determine USA status) See 3.4.18. * 3.5.2 - The Bouncer (it's too early to determine USA status) See 3.5.1. * 3.5.3 - Gekikuukan Pro Baseball (it's too early to determine USA status) See 3.5.2. * * * To Be Continued in Part 2 * * * -- Nick Zitzmann "This guy are sick." - Aeris (Final Fantasy VII)