I’d love to translate more from this series, so contact me if you have anything available. There’s a “Captain N”-ish manga somewhere out there that looks interesting too. –

This short message from the developers of the Seiken Densetsu (known as Final Fantasy Adventure overseas) appeared in the liner notes of the Seiken Densetsu OST. It’s rather slight in content, but I just finished playing through it and felt like sharing.

Final Fantasy Adventure – 1991 Developer Messages

From the liner notes of the Seiken Densetsu OST

Koichi Ishii – Director

Since I joined Square, making an action RPG had been a big dream of mine. I’m really happy I got that chance in the form of Seiken Densetsu. I gathered an extremely talented team togther, and Square gave me the freedom to do as I wished with the game. I’m deeply thankful to all the staff members who allowed this dream to be realized. And of course, to everyone who played Seiken Densetsu, thank you.

Satoru Yoshieda – Programming

We devised a number of new gameplay systems for Seiken Densetsu. We tried a bunch of things to make it fun. Personally, I’m very fond of the magic sytem. I think the Fire spell, in terms of its visuals its effects, came out beautifully. As for my favorite music, that would be the main theme: Rising Sun!

Seiken Densetsu fanart,

by pixiv user sayamadaisuke.

Saito Masaaki – Programming

By now you’ve had a chance to play Seiken Densetsu, no doubt! And hopefully you found it to be an action RPG overlayed with the fun of traditional RPG elements, right?! We worked especially hard to get the difficulty and game balance correct. As for my favorite songs, I know it’s typical, but I think I like the Main Theme and Chocobo Theme best.

Kazuko Shibuya – Graphics

Which are my favorite visuals? Well… everything, of course! Much of the graphic work came out only after a lot of experimentation, but I can proudly declare that this turned out to be the best game I’ve worked on. I think the “Mana Tree” story was very well done. As for my favorite music… hmmm, probably the ending theme.

Goro Ohashi – Planning

As the subtitle “Final Fantasy Gaiden” suggests, we aimed for an action RPG with a Final Fantasy rhythm. So it can’t be helped if the story is little helter-skelter and all over the place! We put a lot of effort into it. I think we did a great job meshing the excitement of an action game with an FF story, if I do say so myself! And if I can boast once more, I have to single out the music for praise. They’re all great songs, so its hard to pick a favorite, but I especially recommend the song that plays in the Town of Jadd during the harp event.

Yoshinori Kitase – Planning

Our main concept for Seiken Densetsu was an action RPG–but an action RPG with a good story! When you think about it, there are a number of action RPGs out today. And we realized that although they have a backstory, they didn’t have much narrative drama. To fill this void we created Seiken Densetsu. As the words “action RPG” imply, movement and action are the main appeal of the game, and we’re confident that players will find the action fun. But I hope you also enjoy the characters, the colorful dialogue, and the narrative.

Kenji Ito – Music Composer

Seiken Densetsu was the first game at Square in which I was given total responsibility for the music and sound effects. Before that I had helped out on the music and fx for SaGa 2 (Final Fantasy Legend II), and I believe my experience in that game helped me compose here. I didn’t want to bring shame to the Final Fantasy name.

Overworld Theme #2 from the FFTA OST.

In total, I finished 27 songs. I have an attachment for each of them, and I gave every song my all, but the last battle theme Saigo no Kessen and the field theme Hateshinaki Senjou are especially memorable to me. I refined and refined my ideas until I got them right.

I’d like to express my gratitude to all the Seiken Densetsu staff who so generously gave me many ideas, and to director Ishii, who openly shared his opinions and thoughts with me. And to all the players, nothing could make me happier than your enjoyment of this CD.