This wikipedia page on History of Easter role-playing games says :
However, I think that at least until 1990, side-view battles were exclusive to the Final Fantasy franchise. All other major franchies who started before 1990 : Dragon Quest, Phantasy Star, Shin Megami Tensei, Earthbound, all uses front-view. Even other RPG games developped by Square, such as Square's Tom Sawyer and Final Fantasy Legend/SaGa series were front-view. SaGa series only went side-view in 1991 with the release of Romancing SaGa. On the contrary, the 1992 release Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, developped by the team usually beind SaGa series (if I'm not mistaken) is still front view despite the game being called Final Fantasy.
The first RPG outside of the Final Fantasy series I can think off which also uses side view battles is Fire Emblem (april 1990, released more than 2 years after Final Fantasy 1). Until it's predecessor Famicom Wars counts, which features side-view battles but isn't really an RPG. And Fire Emblem only have one-to-one battles shown in side view so it's quite different than Final Fantasy.
So either I completely missed something, or side-view was very Final Fantasy specific viewe for JRPGS in their begining and even in their early golden age. Did I miss games here ?
Quote:
[Final Fantasy 1] also featured concepts such as time travel;[136] side-view battles, with the player characters on the right and the enemies on the left, which soon became the norm for numerous console RPGs;[137]
However, I think that at least until 1990, side-view battles were exclusive to the Final Fantasy franchise. All other major franchies who started before 1990 : Dragon Quest, Phantasy Star, Shin Megami Tensei, Earthbound, all uses front-view. Even other RPG games developped by Square, such as Square's Tom Sawyer and Final Fantasy Legend/SaGa series were front-view. SaGa series only went side-view in 1991 with the release of Romancing SaGa. On the contrary, the 1992 release Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, developped by the team usually beind SaGa series (if I'm not mistaken) is still front view despite the game being called Final Fantasy.
The first RPG outside of the Final Fantasy series I can think off which also uses side view battles is Fire Emblem (april 1990, released more than 2 years after Final Fantasy 1). Until it's predecessor Famicom Wars counts, which features side-view battles but isn't really an RPG. And Fire Emblem only have one-to-one battles shown in side view so it's quite different than Final Fantasy.
So either I completely missed something, or side-view was very Final Fantasy specific viewe for JRPGS in their begining and even in their early golden age. Did I miss games here ?