Square translated the game into English for worldwide release and renamed it, linking it with the Final Fantasy series to improve marketing.

The game's characters battle monsters and fiends using a variety of weapons, armor, and skills that develop through the player's actions.

The Final Fantasy Legend was conceived by Nobuyuki Hoshino and developed under director Akitoshi Kawazu; renowned composer Nobuo Uematsu wrote its score.

[9] Random enemy encounters occasionally interrupt travel across the world map screen and hostile areas, as in other Final Fantasy related games.

[18] Weapons, consisting of swords, hammers, whips, spell books, and guns, utilize either the strength, agility or mana attribute of a character, and can be used only a certain number of times before breaking and being removed from the player's inventory.

[17] Party members that lose HP during combat can have them restored via curative items,[28] spells,[29] inns,[30] or elements of the world such as healing fountains.

[31] If a party member other than the starting character is defeated in battle, he or she loses a "heart" and must be resurrected in a town via the building with a large heart-shaped symbol on it.

Alternatively, a fallen party member can also be replaced completely with a new character recruited from a town guild, regardless of the number of hearts they have remaining.

Restoring the items to a statue of a great hero, they receive the Black Sphere, but are attacked by Gen-bu, the first of four fiends controlled by Ashura.

[44] They locate an old man, Ryu-O, and solve his riddle to obtain the Airseed, allowing them to breathe underwater and enter the undersea palace.

There the party is confronted by the leader of a biker gang, So-Cho, but his sister Sayaka intervenes and the two groups agree to work together to defeat Su-Zaku.

As they gather the needed parts for a device to deactivate the forcefield, So-Cho sacrifices his life to guide the party through an atomic power plant.

Climbing the tower, the party discovers the remains of a family that attempted to reach Paradise but failed,[45] and a library suggesting Ashura is controlled by someone else.

They find the Creator at the summit, and learn that the fiends and the tower itself are actually part of a game created by him to see heroes defeat evil; for succeeding they would be granted a wish as a reward.

[51] Square's concept for the game was a title that could be completed in six to eight hours, based on the duration of an airplane flight between Narita, Japan and Honolulu, Hawaii.

[54] Square implemented several other ideas to distance the games, notably the "meat" system to allow players to collect enemy abilities, though these proved difficult to portray at first.

[55] Kawazu took a direct hand in shaping the game's scenario development,[56] working alongside Ishii, Takashi Tokita, and Hiroyuki Ito,[57] who were involved in other Square projects at the time.

Uematsu struggled with composition at first, as the Game Boy's sound hardware was different from the Famicom's, featuring a new stereo option, unique waveforms, and only three musical notes.

Kawazu wanted the game's music to resemble that of Square's two preceding Final Fantasy titles, but Uematsu chose to develop new waveforms.

Written by Misa Ikeda, the 287-page book was part of Futabasha's Game Boy Adventure series for children, and detailed a hero's trek to the top of the tower to reach Paradise.

[74] Changes to the text were also made, including the omission of some of Ryu-O's riddles,[75] removal of mention about self-sacrifice and a hint of the Tower's true purpose.

[78] Square re-released of The Final Fantasy Legend for Bandai's WonderSwan Color unit;[79] the Japan-exclusive port debuted in March 2002 under the Japanese title.

[81] Among other changes and additions were gameplay tweaks, a bestiary, and an added feature that allowed players to automatically target an enemy for attack in combat.

While Kawazu had earlier plans to bring the originals onto newer hardware, the series' 30th anniversary provided a good opportunity to fulfil his wish.

The one-eyed monster featured on the Japanese box art later became the series' mascot, appearing in the sequel as a character named "Mr.

[92] IGN called The Final Fantasy Legend a "compelling RPG with a complex gameplay system and a solid soundtrack", but complained about the game's difficulty and "dated" graphics.

[93] 1UP's Retronauts described its gameplay as a successor to Final Fantasy II's, though added that the systems involved were not properly refined until its sequel; they further stated that the randomness of the mutant and monster character classes made the game very difficult.

[113] TechnoBuffalo's Ron Duwell said that, while it was regarded less favorably than its sequels, its flaws could be worked around and added that there was no such other title to compete like The Final Fantasy Legend.

GamePro named him one of the "47 Most Diabolical Video-Game Villains of All Time", placing him 37th on the list and adding "You gotta wonder... how many hit points did the developers give God?

"[121] 1UP.com described the battle as "epic", considering it part of a recurring theme of Japanese role-playing games in which characters band together to kill God.