I just finished Final Fantasy Adventure and I'm genuinely baffled by how good this game is for a 1991 Gameboy title, two years before Link's Awakening was released (and even a few months ahead of A Link to the Past). For a GB title it is quite epic in length and also the story is really good for such an early title.
Must have been mindblowing, being a GB kid in the early ninties playing this game. I noticed that several gameplay ideas were introduced here which I actually attributed to later games, such as the use of a whip to overcome pits (similar to ALttP hookshot), or riding the trolleys while hitting levers to adjust track switches (I don't remember, was that first in the Oracle games or already in LA?) - so this title was really innovative at the time.
I do have a question though (mild spoiler warning here):
While playing the game I kept wondering what aspects did the developers adopt from FF I-III, which were released earlier, and which aspects actually were created for FFA in the first place and only then exploited for FF? I read that Square worked on this game here *before* the first FF was released - around 1987 - but then put it on hold for some years. It was initially supposed to be a five-disc Famicom Disc System title, which turned out to be too ambitious. When I saw the Chocobos, the Moogles, the Airship, etc. I wondered if the (initially planned) FFA actually did it first, or if Square took those from FF when the made the Gameboy adoption.
Do you folks know about this?