The "Mana" series, of which "Final Fantasy Adventure" was the first game, was the result of Koichi Ishii's desire to create a fictional world. In Ishii's opinion, "Mana" is not a series of video games, but rather a world which is illustrated by and can be explored through video games. When working on the series, Koichi Ishii drew inspiration from abstract images from his memories of childhood, as well as movies and fantasy books that captivated him as a child. Ishii took care to avoid set conventions, and his influences are correspondingly very wide and non-specific. Nonetheless, among his literary influences, he acknowledges Tove Jansson's "Moomin", Lewis Carroll's "Alice's Adventures in Wonderland", and J. R. R. Tolkien's "Lord of the Rings".