 when it comes to a behind-the-scenes backstory for a series of games, it does not get much more complicated and confusing than the Final Fantasy games for the original Game Boy. First we have The Final Fantasy Legend, which came out in North America in 1990, except this had nothing to do with Final Fantasy, and was actually the very first game in Squiersoft's new series, called Saga, which would later be known as the Romancing Saga on the Super Famicom. I guess they had changed the name in North America to Final Fantasy because they thought it would sell or something. Then in late 1991 came two more Game Boy games, Final Fantasy Legend 2, which continued the saga series, and just to make things more needlessly complicated, there was also Final Fantasy Adventure, which was actually the first Seiken Densetsu, or Secret of Mana game. So, we have three different franchises involved here, and Final Fantasy is only involved in name only. Pretty ridiculous. But I wanted to do a video in particular on Final Fantasy Legend 2 because my older brother had this game growing up, and I'd steal it from him when he wasn't home and played through it as much as I could without him finding out. Those of you out there with older siblings that didn't like to share can probably relate to my story. Anyway, this game really hooked me as a kid. None of the other Final Fantasy games out at the time really did a whole lot for me, but this one did, which is pretty funny considering this, you know, isn't a Final Fantasy game. True to the saga universe, this game has more of a science fiction slant to it. You have eight different character types or job classes to choose for your main character, including mutants, robots, slimes, and a baby dragon. No matter what you choose, you'll have a human father that will give you a piece of Magi, a powerful item that was once part of a statue of a goddess that was shattered, and as you might expect, you spend most of the game hunting for other pieces of Magi, if only to prevent bad guys from using it to become gods themselves. The father leaves in the middle of the night, years go by, and your character, now a bit stronger and wiser, decides to set out to find him. At this point, you can choose three more party members to travel with. Humans and mutants are separated into male and female, with males having more strength and females more agility. You have robots, which you can essentially use as a tank to lead your party and absorb the most damage, and you have monsters, which can eventually evolve into stronger creatures. The gameplay, of course, involves an overworld map where you wander around and get sucked into random turn-based battles, nothing out of the ordinary here. The only real catch you should know about is that equipable items all have a limited number of uses before they have to be discarded. Of course, you can equip more than one weapon, but still, the game at least makes you plan and think a bit about saving your most powerful stuff when necessary, instead of wasting it on weaker enemies. In another nice touch, whatever attack you use will influence what skill can be leveled up, so if you attack with a sword, for example, that will level up your strength first and foremost. So yeah, the story in the battle system here aren't anything new, but Final Fantasy Legend 2 holds up very well today as a perfectly playable, straightforward, role-playing game that could probably take about five or six hours to complete, depending on your luck with random battles. But what puts this game over the top for me is the music, composed by Kenji Ito, who is of course the main composer behind just about every saga game, as well as Nubou Uematsu, whose presence is really the only other link to Final Fantasy outside the name. The soundtrack here is so freaking good, and this is my pick for the best music ever composed for the Game Boy. There's just so many tracks here that get stuck in my head. Most of all, the overworld theme. I just love this. Also, any game that has random battles that actually has kind of a catchy theme, that should be commended. This is some of the best random battle music I've ever heard. Anyway, yeah, Final Fantasy Legend 2 isn't a Final Fantasy game technically speaking, since it's the second game in the saga universe, but it's still a worthwhile playthrough if you're looking for something simple and straightforward to scratch that itch. If you want more, there's also Final Fantasy Legend 3, which again is actually Saga 3. That's a pretty good game in its own right, but I prefer the second game, and like I said, the music goes a long way toward why I think that. Like most original Game Boy games, the cartridge won't cost you an arm and a leg, so that's a plus. By whatever name you want to call it, or what it wants to call itself, Final Fantasy Legend 2 is definitely worth playing today.