The Evil that is Square

[echaecha]

So, further research into the Square plagiarizing all that is AD&D has led me to further discoveries, notably that basically the entire game of Final Fantasy (I) is based on the old Monster Manual (and just a little bit of the Monster Manual II). Hah! I knew it... ya sad sobs

Comments

[bulkor]

Those mind flayers were "pisco demons" in the Japanese version. They were wise enough to avoid complete plagiarism over here, even if they stole pretty much everything.

I remember reading that AD&D was responsible for whatever fantasy boom Japan got in the late 80's and early 90's, since it inspired both Final Fantasy and Lodoss War.

[echaecha]

Hmm - actually, I wasted all of this evening further researching this - the mind flayers were the weak version, the piscodaemons were the palette-switched stronger versions. (I think!) Anyway, Lodoss War was apparently a RPG (with paper rules and all) in the '80s or so after D&D started to die off (because of price and because it was too difficult!); I guess the anime came from that, although it is a complete ripoff. :D

I actually wrote up a pseudo-scholarly paper about Final Fantasy's plagiarism - for fun! Draft one is here: http://two.xthost.info/uatu/games/ff.html

I even went and found the original beholder images!

[bulkor]

Wow, you worked pretty hard on that thing. That's a lot of evidence.

As for Lodoss War, there was an RPG just for it, but the original characters are taken straight out of D&D. (fighter, priest, wizard, thief, dwarf, elf...one of each!) Evidently some of the guys who played the actual Lodoss War campaign went on to write fantasy (in the light fantasy novel boom of the 90's, which was all pretty D&D-based, I hear) and translate some minor fantasy RPGs into Japanese, which is why they had their act together enough to write their own game.

[echaecha]

Ha ha... I'm a dork.

Anyway, you're right about Lodoss War being TOO OBVIOUSLY based on the old boxed-set D&D classes, one of each! Unfortunately, the proliferation of Japanese-made simplified D&D clones seems to have basically destroyed D&D in Japan (and non-console/PC RPGs). It is kind of sad that it has all sort of devolved into the "Johnny's"-esque CRPG crap that is so prevalent these days...