US Release of Final Fantasy Gaiden announced

[Evastio]

What? You mean I've been trying to play through this game, not understanding a word of it, only to find out that it's actually being released in English?

Awesome.

I have found it to be quite fun though. And the constraints aren't really a problem, since the AI is smart enough when it comes to auto targetting. The only potential problem that I can think of is trying to heal a character who's still well when you've got other characters in critical health (in other words, you've given up on keeping them alive for that battle and you're wanting to heal the only likely survivor). It may not have the trademark traits of Final Fantasy like the victory fanfare, or the title screen music at the beginning, but it's fun enough that you won't mind.

What's also fun about the game is that the characters' equipment is actually reflected all the time. You can even make the characters cross dress. Also, this isn't a typical Light Warrior Final Fantasy game where you're restricted to light warriors only. You'll be able to get temporary characters whose equipment and spells you can also customize (so they're more like FFII temporary characters than FFIII DS temporary characters).

There's a lot of stuff I don't get about the game though, like how those five orange orbs get consumed by physical attacks when you have none left, how much of those gems get used by changing classes, how team up attacks work, etc. Oh well, I've been able to make it to the desert town with this helping me out when I lose my way, and not knowing those above things I listed hasn't gotten me killed, so it's all good.

As for the issues you're worried about, the limited inventory isn't much of a problem, since you have an item storage area in towns and the game is easy enough that you won't have to load up on items (it may take a few tries going through certain parts, like the boss you face after getting Unita, but I haven't had to power-level to make it through any parts yet). And I guess the game does have the awkwardness of FFIII and FFIV to a degree (old school gameplay with 3D graphics). I'd say if anything, the gameplay resembles Dragon Quest more than it does Final Fantasy, with the limited item space and not having full control in battles like you do in Final Fantasy (especially when it comes to choosing exact targets), how the game doesn't specify where you're supposed to go next (I only got this from that one review Kishi gave a link to, and this may be untrue if the guy has as little fluency in Japanese as I do), and how you need to talk to a specific NPC to save (he appears in multiple places, so you've got plenty of places to save). The constraints also add to the old school touch, though most of them have never been present in mainstream FF games.

Bottom line, take the facts and make an opinion from there, but don't take that review's opinion as fact.

...Sheesh, this is messed. Back then, I was the one with the negative opinions and people had to intervene and show that things weren't as bad as I made them out to be. Now it's the other way around. At least people are hating on me less now.