The rise of video games once spelled doom for tabletop and novel-based adventure games; but the Fighting Fantasy series managed to persist longer than originally expected.
Set to celebrate its 35th anniversary this year with its newest entry - Port of Peril - ironically, there's a video game adaption on its way by the name of Final Fantasy Legends. TJ went head-on with developers Nomad Games to delve into its development.
With well over 50 books to its name, one of the biggest questions was how Nomad Games expected to cover the lore of a series almost half a century old. "When we first began working out what we wanted to do, I had originally wanted to create a game that covered the whole set of books" said Carl Jackson - of whom we assume bares no relation to its creator Steve Jackson. "I realized quite early on that it was going to be difficult, if not impossible to make a game like that with the time we had, so we slowly trimmed it down"
Want To Get The Full Picture? The Lengthy Fighting Fantasy Legends Interview Is Over Here
Bringing the total down to 10, Jackson noticed something; "I realized a few of the books take place on the same continent, in the same area, and with the same cities, landmarks, places and people. Ian Livingstone wrote City of Thieves, Steve Jackson wrote Citadel of Chaos, and they co-authored Warlock of Firetop Mountain. With so much variety all grouped into the same region, it felt like an easy choice to put focus on those three books in the end."
Known for their work on similar card/tabletop title, Nomad Games are employing lessons learned from an older title, Talisman, when it comes to Fighting Fantasy Legends by switching up the rules to ensure the focus remains on the stories rather than the limitations and complexities of its systems.
Of course, you can visit the game's Steam page for more information before its rapidly approaching July 27 release.
