3-D WorldRunner

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NES
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Release Date: September 1987

IGN Presents the History of Final Fantasy

Know the legacy of the greatest RPG franchise in videogames.


Final Fantasy is the longest swan song of all time. It was never meant to last, but now, more than two decades later, it remains the most recognizable name in role-playing games. More of an idea than a true series, it has evolved into something that a young Hironobu Sakaguchi would never recognize and almost single-handedly turned a small, struggling company into an international powerhouse. In the twenty years since it first arrived on Japanese Famicom systems, it's never once relied on nostalgia or conceded to rest on its laurels. Every new game has continued to press forward, and that's precisely what makes it one of the most interesting stories in game history.

Going Out on a High Note

Hironubu Sakaguchi joined Square right out of college. At only 21 years old, he started his journey to bring the software company into the world of computer games. You could scarcely pick a more exciting time to be a gamer, as the Nintendo Famicom was giving birth to a new console market, and a generation of 8-bit computers explored new kinds of games never possible in the arcades. Western genres like adventure games and RPGs were creeping onto the Japanese systems, and pretty soon, they'd eclipse the arcade shooters of old.

The watershed moment for RPGs came with the 1986 release of Dragon Quest on the Famicom. Games like Wizardry and Black Onyx introduced Japan to the genre, but Enix's flagship title distilled it into a simple, playable form that the console crowd could embrace. Along with Super Mario Bros. and The Legend of Zelda, the title went on to become one of the defining games of the Famicom's early life, and propelled the console to a new level of success.

This was the climate when Square released their earliest games in 1986. Sakaguchi released a pair of graphic adventures, and others at the company put out Cruise Chaser Blassty, Square's first original RPG. By the following year, they had some novel pseudo-3D games on the NES. Tobidase Daisakusen and Highway Star might sound unfamiliar, but we'd bet you've heard of their American names, 3D WoldRunner and Rad Racer. Square was picking up a lot of creative steam, but there was one problem: the games weren't really selling.


Sakaguchi grew increasingly pessimistic, as the company faced possible bankruptcy, and he realized his next game would likely be his last. Every man wants a legacy, so he committed to take one good crack at a masterpiece before bowing out. He decided to make his final game a fantasy epic, and he named it accordingly. The finality of the title would haunt him in the years to come, but at the time it seemed perfect.

Final Fantasy followed the mold of other RPGs of the day. The genre wasn't crowded yet, but competition was heating up. Final Fantasy released on the same week as SEGA's Phantasy Star and just two months ahead of Dragon Quest III -- classic games and timeless rivals. Fans will still squabble about which of these was truly the best, but all of them played a role in legitimizing the RPG as a mainstream genre.

To stay competitive with Enix, who drafted Dragonball creator Akira Toriyama to do designs for their games, Square recruited Yoshitaka Amano, known for his distinctive, sophisticated art style popularized in Vampire Hunter D. Coupled with a memorable soundtrack by Nobuo Uematsu, Final Fantasy was a polished package that just about anyone could hop into.

This one game alone was not enough to build the Final Fantasy empire, but it was success enough to pull Square out of their financial crisis, at least for a little while. It cemented a long and valuable working relationship with Nintendo that would eventually pull them away from the computer game market, and propel them to international success.

It was nearly three long years before Nintendo's localization reached American kids. By the time it arrived, it was behind Phantasy Star, Dragon Quest (known as Dragon Warrior here), and even the 16-bit Phantasy Star II. Despite the competition, Final Fantasy outsold them all in the US, and did much to erode the myth that American console gamers didn't want RPGs. For many, it was the first time they ever played such an expansive, deep, and involved game. You never forget your first RPG, and that loyalty would take Square a long way.


Do it Again

Well before Square even dreamed of releasing its game abroad, they were already hard at work on a sequel. With Dragon Quest cranking out new games about once a year, they knew they had to move fast or get left behind. Rather than just expanding the game with a bigger quest or more classes, they set the tone for future games in the series by releasing a game that had little connection to its predecessor and did its best to advance the gameplay and create something new. While Dragon Quest would later become notorious for its adherence to convention, Final Fantasy would constantly strive to be the Next Big Thing.

For the first time, Square placed their narrative front and center. While the first game had a thin story with interchangeable protagonists, competitors like Phantasy Star had comparatively rich stories and even cut scenes. Final Fantasy II upped their game with an original cast of characters with names and designs by Yoshitaka Amano, and much more complex storyline set in a new world, unconnected to the first.

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Game Details

Published by: Acclaim Entertainment
Developed by: Square
Genre: Third-Person Action
Release Date:
United States: September 1987
UK: Released
Australia: Released
Japan: Released
MSRP: 4.99 USD
Also Available On:
Also known as: 3D World Runner

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