Software:Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger!

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Short description: 1989 video game
Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger!
Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger
North American cover art
Developer(s)Game Arts
Publisher(s)
  • JP: Hi-Score
  • NA: Nexoft Corporation
Platform(s)Nintendo Entertainment System
Release
Genre(s)Action role-playing
Mode(s)Single-player

Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger!, known in Japan as Faria Fuuin no Tsurugi (ファリア 封印の剣, lit. "Faria: Sealed Sword"), is an action role-playing game (RPG) for the Nintendo Entertainment System. It was developed by Game Arts, published in Japan by Hi-Score in 1989 and by Nexoft in North America in 1991.

Story

The game begins with the protagonist, identified as a female soldier from a foreign country, waking up in an inn in the Kingdom of Faria. The soldier quickly learns that an evil being known as the Wizard has kidnapped the princess of Faria, and the king has offered the princess's hand in marriage to anyone able to rescue her. The soldier travels to the tower where the princess is held, defeats the monsters within, and returns the princess safely. The King laments the fact that the protagonist is a woman and cannot marry the princess, and decides to throw a party to celebrate the princess's return instead. It soon becomes apparent that the food given away by the king at the party was poisoned by a mysterious man, and the soldier has to travel to a faraway town to obtain medicine for the townspeople.

The soldier eventually obtains the cure and delivers it to the sick townspeople, only to discover that in her absence the king had been transformed into stone. The princess informs her that the only way to restore the king is to defeat the one who cast the spell, so the soldier sets out once again. After an arduous journey across the northern continent and a land set in the clouds, the Soldier reaches the town of Zellia where an old man informs her that the princess is an impostor. The Wizard kidnapped the princess, transformed himself into the princess's double, allowed himself to be "rescued" by the soldier, poisoned the townspeople, and turned the king to stone all in a bid to steal Faria's royal scrolls. The old man gives the soldier a Crystal of Truth so that she may enter the Phantom Tower, a tower projecting five identical fake images that confound anyone trying to enter. Using the crystal, the soldier manages to enter the real tower and destroy the monster within, discovering that it was guarding the real princess. The pair returns to confront the fake princess, where the Wizard sheds his disguise and attacks the soldier. The soldier defeats the Wizard, only for the Wizard to use the power of the royal scrolls to begin transferring his spirit into the body of a dragon.

Though his spirit escaped, the destruction of the Wizard's body lifts the curse on the king; additionally, in a flash of light the soldier is transformed into a man, revealing himself to be the prince of a frontier kingdom whose men had been turned into women by the Wizard. Before anyone can celebrate the lifting of the curses, the Wizard's spirit uses its power to block out the sun, shrouding the world in darkness. The prince sets out to kill the dragon before the Wizard's spirit is able to completely merge with it, passing through a series of icy caves that surround the Final Tower where the dragon's body resides. Discovering a legendary sword within the tower, the prince uses its power to defeat the dragon and seal the Wizard's spirit within the sword. Having restored the world, the prince returns to the king, who asks the prince to stay and offers the princess's hand in marriage. The prince declines, needing to return to his own country, but the princess asks to go with him and the king consents. The pair return to the prince's country together, and scenes from the protagonist's journey are shown as the game ends.

Gameplay

Faria is an action role-playing game in which the player controls a sword-wielding hero, with a number of similarities to The Legend of Zelda.[3] As with many RPGs, the game is broken into towns, an overworld, and dungeons. Activities in town include talking to non-player characters to gather information and items, traversing the overworld involves combat that takes place on a separate battle screen, while dungeons consist of combat in the same window used to navigate and puzzling through increasingly complex mazes. Combat consists of moving the player character's sprite around the screen while swinging its equipped sword or using a handful of items including bombs and a bow & arrows.[3]

Development

Faria was one of Game Arts' first RPGs, for which the company would later become known through series such as Grandia and Lunar.[1] The game was an early project for Takeshi Miyaji, Yoshito Asari, designer for the Lunar games and director of the first two Grandia games,[3] and Akihiko Yoshida, designer and illustrator on the first two Ogre Battle games and several Squaresoft properties.[1][4]

Reception

Nintendo Power gave Faria only a short, half-page piece of coverage. It rated the game a 3.7 out of 5 on "Theme and Fun".[5]

GamePro had a two page spread on Faria. It gave the game a score of 3 out of 5 for graphics, sound, gameplay, and fun factor, and a 5 out of 5 for challenge. The review erroneously stated that the game was released in Japan 7 years before the publication date. [6]

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 1.2 "Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger! (Game) - Giant Bomb". CBS Interactive Inc.. http://www.giantbomb.com/faria-a-world-of-mystery-and-danger/3030-1754/. Retrieved 23 November 2015. 
  2. ↑ "Faria: A World of Mystery & Danger! Release Information for NES - GameFAQs". CBS Interactive Inc.. http://www.gamefaqs.com/nes/587271-faria-a-world-of-mystery-and-danger/data. Retrieved 23 November 2015. 
  3. ↑ 3.0 3.1 3.2 Fenner, Robert (14 July 2015) "Hardcore Gaming 101: Faria: A World of Mystery and Danger!". http://www.hardcoregaming101.net/faria-a-world-of-mystery-and-danger/. Retrieved 2 December 2015. 
  4. ↑ "Faria: A World of Mystery & Danger! (1989) NES credits - MobyGames". Blue Flame Labs. http://www.mobygames.com/game/nes/faria-a-world-of-mystery-danger/credits. Retrieved 8 December 2015. 
  5. ↑ "Faria". Nintendo Power 25: 81. June 1991. 
  6. ↑ "Faria". GamePro 25: 14,15. August 1991. 
  • MobyGames is a commercial database website that catalogs information on video games and the people and companies behind them via crowdsourcing. This includes over 300,000 games for hundreds of platforms.[1] Founded in 1999, ownership of the site has changed hands several times. It has been owned by Atari SA since 2022.

Features

Edits and submissions to the site (including screenshots, box art, developer information, game summaries, and more) go through a verification process of fact-checking by volunteer "approvers".[2] This lengthy approval process after submission can range from minutes to days or months.[3] The most commonly used sources are the video game's website, packaging, and credit screens. There is a published standard for game information and copy-editing.[4] A ranking system allows users to earn points for contributing accurate information.[5]

Registered users can rate and review games. Users can create private or public "have" and "want" lists, which can generate a list of games available for trade with other registered users. The site contains an integrated forum. Each listed game can have its own sub-forum.

History

Logo used until March 2014

MobyGames was founded on March 1, 1999, by Jim Leonard and Brian Hirt, and joined by David Berk 18 months later, the three of which had been friends since high school.[6][7] Leonard had the idea of sharing information about computer games with a larger audience. The database began with information about games for IBM PC compatibles, relying on the founders' personal collections. Eventually, the site was opened up to allow general users to contribute information.[5] In a 2003 interview, Berk emphasized MobyGames' dedication to taking video games more seriously than broader society and to preserving games for their important cultural influence.[5]

In mid-2010, MobyGames was purchased by GameFly for an undisclosed amount.[8] This was announced to the community post factum , and the site's interface was given an unpopular redesign.[7] A few major contributors left, refusing to do volunteer work for a commercial website.{{Citation needed|date=June 2025} On December 18, 2013, MobyGames was acquired by Jeremiah Freyholtz, owner of Blue Flame Labs (a San Francisco-based game and web development company) and VGBoxArt (a site for fan-made video game box art).[9] Blue Flame Labs reverted MobyGames' interface to its pre-overhaul look and feel,[10] and for the next eight years, the site was run by Freyholtz and Independent Games Festival organizer Simon Carless.[7]

On November 24, 2021, Atari SA announced a potential deal with Blue Flame Labs to purchase MobyGames for $1.5 million.[11] The purchase was completed on 8 March 2022, with Freyholtz remaining as general manager.[12][13][14] Over the next year, the financial boost given by Atari led to a rework of the site being built from scratch with a new backend codebase, as well as updates improving the mobile and desktop user interface.[1] This was accomplished by investing in full-time development of the site instead of its previously part-time development.[15]

In 2024, MobyGames began offering a paid "Pro" membership option for the site to generate additional revenue.[16] Previously, the site had generated income exclusively through banner ads and (from March 2014 onward) a small number of patrons via the Patreon website.[17]

See also

  • IGDB – game database used by Twitch for its search and discovery functions

References

  1. ↑ 1.0 1.1 Sheehan, Gavin (2023-02-22). "Atari Relaunches The Fully Rebuilt & Optimized MobyGames Website". https://bleedingcool.com/games/atari-relaunches-the-fully-rebuilt-optimized-mobygames-website/. 
  2. ↑ Litchfield, Ted (2021-11-26). "Zombie company Atari to devour MobyGames". https://www.pcgamer.com/zombie-company-atari-to-devour-mobygames/. 
  3. ↑ "MobyGames FAQ: Emails Answered § When will my submission be approved?". Blue Flame Labs. 30 March 2014. http://www.mobygames.com/info/faq7#g1. 
  4. ↑ "The MobyGames Standards and Practices". Blue Flame Labs. 6 January 2016. http://www.mobygames.com/info/standards. 
  5. ↑ 5.0 5.1 5.2 Miller, Stanley A. (2003-04-22). "People's choice awards honor favorite Web sites". Milwaukee Journal Sentinel. 
  6. ↑ "20 Years of MobyGames" (in en). 2019-02-28. https://trixter.oldskool.org/2019/02/28/20-years-of-mobygames/. 
  7. ↑ 7.0 7.1 7.2 Plunkett, Luke (2022-03-10). "Atari Buys MobyGames For $1.5 Million". https://kotaku.com/mobygames-retro-credits-database-imdb-atari-freyholtz-b-1848638521. 
  8. ↑ "Report: MobyGames Acquired By GameFly Media". Gamasutra. 2011-02-07. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/game-platforms/report-mobygames-acquired-by-gamefly-media. 
  9. ↑ Corriea, Alexa Ray (December 31, 2013). "MobyGames purchased from GameFly, improvements planned". http://www.polygon.com/2013/12/31/5261414/mobygames-purchased-from-gamefly-improvements-planned. 
  10. ↑ Wawro, Alex (31 December 2013). "Game dev database MobyGames getting some TLC under new owner". Gamasutra. https://www.gamedeveloper.com/business/game-dev-database-mobygames-getting-some-tlc-under-new-owner. 
  11. ↑ "Atari invests in Anstream, may buy MobyGames". November 24, 2021. https://www.gamesindustry.biz/articles/2021-11-24-atari-invests-in-anstream-may-buy-mobygames. 
  12. ↑ Rousseau, Jeffrey (2022-03-09). "Atari purchases Moby Games". https://www.gamesindustry.biz/atari-purchases-moby-games. 
  13. ↑ "Atari Completes MobyGames Acquisition, Details Plans for the Site's Continued Support". March 8, 2022. https://www.atari.com/atari-completes-mobygames-acquisition-details-plans-for-the-sites-continued-support/. 
  14. ↑ "Atari has acquired game database MobyGames for $1.5 million" (in en-GB). 2022-03-09. https://www.videogameschronicle.com/news/atari-has-acquired-game-database-mobygames-for-1-5-million/. 
  15. ↑ Stanton, Rich (2022-03-10). "Atari buys videogame database MobyGames for $1.5 million". https://www.pcgamer.com/atari-buys-videogame-database-mobygames-for-dollar15-million/. 
  16. ↑ Harris, John (2024-03-09). "MobyGames Offering “Pro” Membership". https://setsideb.com/mobygames-offering-pro-membership/. 
  17. ↑ "MobyGames on Patreon". http://www.patreon.com/mobygames. 
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