The Final Fantasy Legend

At the beginning of the game, the player must choose a character class, gender, and name for the group's "party leader".[9] There are three available classes: humans, mutants (espers in the Japanese version),[10] and monsters, each with its own strengths and weaknesses. Character classes cannot be changed once the game has begun. The player may recruit up to three additional party members through a similar process via "Member Guilds" in various towns.[11] Characters may also be recruited to replace fallen party members, though the party leader is irreplaceable. Higher-level party members may be recruited at later towns in the game.[12]

A character's performance in battle is determined by numerical values ("statistics") for four categories. Each statistic has a range of 1 to 99. The categories are strength, the effectiveness of physical attacks; defense, the ability to reduce damage received; agility, the effectiveness of ranged weapons or skills and at avoiding attacks; and mana, the effectiveness of magical attacks. A character's health is measured in hit points (HP), consisting of a current HP statistic and a maximum HP statistic, ranging from 0 to 999.[13] Character statistics are relative to their class—humans have higher HP levels, strength, and defense,[14] and mutants are physically weaker but enjoy a higher mana statistic.[15] Human and mutant statistics can be amplified by worn equipment of different types.[16] Monster-class characters are dependent on their sub-class, and their statistics vary greatly.[17]

Humans raise their statistics through items that grant permanent bonuses, such as "STRENGTH" or "HP200".[14] Mutant attributes simply increase by random increments after battles, and new abilities may be gained (or lost) in the process.[15] Monsters change in power by consuming "meat" dropped in battles; depending the monster's current sub-class and the meat's origin, the monster may transform into a stronger or weaker sub-class[17] or fully recover health.[18] Later versions of the game released upon the WonderSwan and mobile phones removed the latter effect entirely.

In addition to the playable humans, mutants, and monsters, the game features equipment from different genres, ranging from magic and swords of fantasy to plasma rifles and chainsaws of science fiction.

The basic function of equipment in SaGa games is to increase character attributes. Arming a character with a gold helmet increases his or her base defense statistic, for example. The amount of equipment that can be placed on any one character at any time depends on the character's class. Humans can hold eight, mutants four, and monsters none. There are five types of armor: shields, helmets, breastplates, gauntlets, and shoes. Only one of each at a time may be added to one character and cannot be added to monsters.[16] 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. Shields can be used as items in combat, most with a limited number of uses, and allow the user to evade enemy attacks.[19]

Mutants and monsters have different spells and abilities depending on their battle experience and sub-class. These come in one of four categories: attack, non-combative, healing, and resistances/weaknesses. When used in combat, attack spells and abilities will damage a target by an elemental type, while non-combative spells and abilities inflict various status ailments (such as "blindness") or grant benefits upon a target. Healing spells and abilities restore a target's HP and can be used outside of combat.[20] Certain spells and abilities have added traits, like affecting a group of enemies or draining HP from a target.[21] Each spell and ability has a finite number of uses, and once depleted the party must visit an inn to recharge them.[20] Resistances and weaknesses are abilities that are active throughout combat. Represented by an "O" or "X" next to the related element or status ailment, they respectively give the user either resistance or weakness to one or more types of attack; status ailments grant immunity against a particular ailment.[22]

Curative items can be found or purchased in the game through various means, each with a limited number of uses and able to be activated from a character's inventory or the items sub-menu to restore HP or remove a status ailment in or out of combat from a single target. Like other inventory items, in order to be used during combat these must be placed in a party member's equipment slot prior to battle.[23]

Combat is initiated when the player encounters an enemy, which changes the map to the "battle screen". The enemy appears at the top, above the current party characters; each battle uses a menu-driven turn-based system. At the beginning of each turn, the player selects whether to fight or attempt to run.[8] If the fight option is selected, the player selects an action for each party member from his or her equipment or skills to attack, defend, use magic, or use equipped items. Once the player has chosen actions for each player character, the player characters and enemy begin battle.[24] Participants move one at a time determined by their agility statistic.[13] If the player tries the "attempt to run" option and it fails, the party skip their turn and the enemy attacks.[8] Combat ends if the party successfully flees, all enemies are defeated, or all player characters are defeated; in the last case, the game ends and must be reloaded from the last save.[5]

Winning battles may award the player money (GP) and items. Enemy monsters occasionally drop meat, which can be consumed by monster-class characters.[25] Mutant classes may "evolve" at this point, randomly gaining either increased statistics or a new random magic spell or ability, possibly overwriting an existing one.[15] Party members that lose HP during combat can have them restored via curative items,[26] spells,[27] inns,[28] or elements of the world such as healing fountains.[29] 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. Defeated characters with no remaining hearts cannot be revived. An item can be bought at significant expense to restore a heart to a character. 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.[3]

The Final Fantasy Legend takes place on several worlds centered around a large tower,[30] built by the Creator in ancient times (God in the Japanese version)[31] to link worlds.[32] There are four unique major worlds that make up different layers of the tower: the World of Continent at the base, the World of Ocean on the 5th floor, the World of Sky on the 10th, and the World of Ruins on the 16th.[33] Time does not flow at a constant pace between levels of the tower, rendering some worlds more technologically advanced than others.[34] Various monsters come forth from the tower into each world;[35] many are hostile, but some of them are friendly to humans and willing to coexist.[17] An offshoot of the human race (named mutants) also exists in each world; they are the magic-attuned descendants of a union between humans and the World of Continent's older races.[15]

The World of Continent is a large land mass ruled by three kings in constant war for control of their world.[36] They each carry an object needed to open the tower's entrance. The World of Ocean consists of various small islands surrounded by water, each connected by small caves.[37] Pirates roam the sea of this world, forbidding travel by ship.[38] The World of Sky contains large land masses suspended in clouds, and is ruled by a powerful dictator from his flying castle.[39] The World of Ruins is a technologically advanced cityscape, reduced to a post-apocalyptic wasteland by constant monster attacks.[40]

Standing in front of the tower, the hero and party learn that they cannot climb it to paradise without first unsealing its base door. In the base world, three kings named Armor, Sword, and Shield fight for dominance using a piece of legendary equipment corresponding to their names. Visiting King Armor, the party learns that he is in love with a girl who returns his feelings, but cannot marry him, as a bandit holds her village hostage in return for her love. They defeat the bandit, and the king gives them his armor in gratitude. King Sword attacks the heroes, who vanquish him and take the sword. Lastly, King Shield is murdered by his own steward, and after a short fight, the party recovers his shield. 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. They defeat him and use the power of the Sphere to enter the tower.[41]

They climb the tower and come to another door; inside lies a second world surrounded by large bodies of water. By navigating caves, they find a floating island which allows them to travel around the world by air.[42] 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. They encounter the second fiend, Sei-ryu; they defeat him and recover half of the second sphere. Upon returning to Ryu-O, he reveals himself to be the guardian of the other half of the sphere, and the two halves form the Blue Sphere.

Using the Blue Sphere to continue up the tower, the party comes to a world of clouds, dominated by Byak-ko and an army of thugs. They learn that Byak-ko recently wiped out an underground resistance movement, except for Millie and Jeanne, the two daughters of its leader. The party temporarily joins Byak-ko's gang to find the girls, and attempt to defend them until Millie betrays Jeanne and the party is captured. Breaking free, they confront the fiend, who tries to kill Millie; Jeanne takes the blow and the party engages the fiend. They defeat him, recover the White Sphere, and continue their journey.

The fourth world is a post-apocalyptic wasteland; Su-Zaku roams the surface defended by an impenetrable forcefield. The party retreats to an abandoned subway for refuge and meets Sayaka, who directs them to the nearest town. 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. Beasts then ambush the town, and Su-Zaku kidnaps Sayaka. The party defeats Su-Zaku, earns the Red Sphere and travels on.

Climbing the tower, the party discovers the remains of a family that attempted to reach Paradise but failed,[43] and a library suggesting Ashura is controlled by someone else.[44] They encounter him at the top, guarding the final door; he offers each of them control of one of the worlds, but they refuse and defeat him.[45] Before they can pass through the door, a trap drops them to the bottom floor. Encountering the allies they made along their journey, they decide to rescale the tower. As they climb stairs that wrap outside of the tower, they engage each of the fiends revived and defeat them. 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. Angry at his manipulation, they reject the reward and challenge the Creator, who insists that because he created everything he was allowed to use them as he saw fit. They then attack and defeat the Creator in a fierce battle.[46] The heroes then discover a door leading to an unknown location; they consider entering, but decide to return to their own world.[47]

The Final Fantasy Legend's soundtrack was composed by Nobuo Uematsu and consists of sixteen tracks. 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.[49] Despite Game Boy's limited audio capabilities, Uematsu expressed desire to compose music for it again in 2000, though added regarding the notion of a remake "it would be better to have high quality music and graphics, but we need to make sure that the users enjoy the game."[48]

Square has reused several songs from the game (notably the "Battle" theme) in later titles and released them on compilation soundtracks.[59] The introductory music, titled "Prologue", appeared remixed as the opening for the next two SaGa games.[60] "Heartful Tears" (also known as "Wipe Your Tears Away")[1] became a staple for later SaGa titles, used in five of the games and arranged differently each time.[60] Fifteen tracks were later included in the 1991 two-disc All Sounds of SaGa soundtrack, encompassing the Game Boy SaGa series and re-released by Square Enix in December 2004 as SaGa Zenkyoku Shu.[61] The final track of the set, "Journey's End", is a synthesizer-arranged version of six of the game's tracks combined into one by Uematsu.[1][49] In the liner notes for All Sounds of SaGa, Uematsu states he enjoys listening to the track while remembering scenes from the game.[49] The Kanagawa Philharmonic Orchestra played the song in the Press Start 2008 -Symphony of Games- concert as part of the "When Nobuo Uematsu Was Young" medley,[62] while the "Main Theme" was played alongside "Save the World" from Final Fantasy Legend II on July 9, 2011 at the Symphonic Odysseys concert.[63]

Several items of merchandise have been released for the game, including books and telephone cards.[64] Futabasha Publishers Ltd. released a book in February 1990 titled Makai Toushi Sa·Ga—Boukenshatachi no Rekuiemu (冒険者たちのレクイエム^?, Requiem of the Adventurers). 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.[65] In August, Square featured the game in Final Fantasy Ryūkishi Dan - Knights (=ファイナルファンタジー竜騎士団^?, Final Fantasy Dragon Knights), a fan book which consisting of reactions and artworks to the series.[64] The game was one of four titles featured in October 1992 by Game Player's magazine on a video tape named Game Player's Gametape for Game Boy Games, which demonstrated the game and offered a gameplay tutorial.[66]