The Ultimate Guide to Fantasy Gaming

FIRION FINAL FANTASY II Our very first named hero is the archetypical holder of the role – loyal to his family and country, with a strong desire to do what is necessary to protect them. Supposedly, he’s got a bit of a weakness for women. ONION KNIGHT FINAL FANTASY III Better known as Luneth to those who have played Final Fantasy III’s remake, this chap has courage in spades but is just a bit too eager to act at times. As the first character spoken to by the crystals, he becomes his party’s de facto leader. CECIL HARVEY FINAL FANTASY IV This brave Dark Knight is neither arrogant nor outspoken, despite his role as one of the king’s elite soldiers. He’s a much better fit for his role once he…

With Final Fantasy games offering more plot depth than the typical videogame, particularly during the early years of the series’ history, there’s some sense to adapting them to film – but straight adaptations have actually been few and far between. Final Fantasy’s first foray into the movie market came with the 1994 release of Final Fantasy: Legend Of The Crystals, a four-part anime video series that followed the events of Final Fantasy V, albeit 200 years in the future with mostly new characters. This one’s not very easy to find anymore – the only English language release was a North American VHS run back in the late Nineties. An even more tenuous connection is found in the anime series Final Fantasy Unlimited, a 2001 series that borrows some elements, such…

G-BIKE FINAL FANTASY VII To be fair to Cloud and company, the initial G-Bike segment of Final Fantasy VII is a genuine life or death escape from Shinra headquarters. Playing it again in the Gold Saucer is pretty frivolous though, as was the standalone mobile version. TRIBLE TRIAD FINAL FANTASY VIII It’s not exactly Magic: The Gathering, but Final Fantasy VIII has its own well-loved collectible card game that shines pretty brightly. Players take turns to place cards on a three-by-three grid, with directional attack statistics causing cards to be won and lost. BLITZBALL FINAL FANTASY X If you’re going to make your protagonist a fictional sports star, you might as well let the players play that fictional sport while you’re at it. While Blitzball gameplay isn’t the all-action affair…

CRYSTAL CHRONICLES FIRST RELEASE: 2003 GAMES: 7 First released on the GameCube and developed by The Game Designers Studio, Crystal Chronicles not only boastsed extensive GBA compatibility, but it also featured real-time fighting that instantly made it stand apart from the core Final Fantasy games. The series has continued to evolve with subsequent releases, such as My Life As A King, which introduced city building, and My Life As A Darklord, which was a well-regarded tower defence game. The 2007 Ring Of Fates was a standalone release for the Nintendo DS, while the 2009 Wii exclusive, The Crystal Bearers, was the last current game in the series to be released. CRYSTAL DEFENDERS FIRST RELEASE: 2008 GAMES: 2 Originally known as Crystal Guardians, this interesting tower defence series started off life…

» DEVELOPER: SQUARE ENIX » FIRST RELEASED: 2011 JAPAN 2016 WORLDWIDE » EXPECT TO PAY: £11.99 FOR A STARTER DECK The heroes, villains and worlds of each Final Fantasy game are gorgeously rich and diverse. There’s a heck of a lot of them, too, so summoning this much-loved 30-year-old franchise into a collectable card game must’ve been a no-brainer for developer Square Enix. The card game revolves around playing cards from your hand into either a ‘forward’ or ‘backup’ lane, with the aim of building an attack force that can wipe out your opponent’s cards, leaving them open for a direct hit. Once you score seven points of damage to your opponent, you will emerge victorious. Of course, there’s a little more nuance to it than that. Each card has…

Before there were dungeons, or even dragons for that matter, there was Jeff Perren. Perren was a game designer, a friend of the late Gary Gygax and a member of the Lake Geneva Tactical Studies Association (as Gygax was). When the convention received a large number of Elastolin figures, it inspired Perren to create a new set of rules which focused on mass combat. Gygax took the base rules, added a fantasy twist and made some tweaks, with the end result being published as Chainmail. The late Dave Arneson was well aware of Chainmail, because he was using it while playing Braunstein, an unpublished Napoleonic game that was set in the fictional town of Braunstein. It was more focused on individual play as opposed to the popular mass combat games…