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Final Fantasy Mystic Quest: for Beginners Only
04-05-15 12:56 PM
janus is Offline
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After getting my first Super Nintendo in 1995, I had a lot of catching up to do. After trying Final Fantasy II (IV) and III (VI), I came across Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest. I should have skipped it and go towards a better game… Graphics: 5/10 In itself the game has average graphics. Battle backgrounds are very varied according to the environment you fight in – every dungeon has a particular background. The environment itself is also varied and subject to change. For example, you start playing in an environment where the forest is withering away, but once you save the Earth Crystal the environment becomes green and luscious. It was much better than the NES battles and crystals, which didn’t influence the background much. Battles in themselves are OK. If you only face flying enemies like birds, you actually see them float as in Final Fantasy IV. And just like that game, the enemies merely flash when they attack you. However, magic is way inferior to FF IV. There is only one level for each spell and the graphics aren’t very elaborate – curative magic merely looks like the Life spells in FF IV, and lightning only consists of a thunder cloud. On the plus side, your weapons (you, on the other hand, merely steps forward) do attack the enemy directly rather than just see the result of your swing as in other Final Fantasy games. The attack from a claw is the better-drawn one, with each finger showing on the enemy. In addition, your weapons can be used in the field for various actions, something rarely seen in RPGs. Your sword can open switched, your axe can chop trees, your claws can help you climb walls (and reach faraway poles later in the game) and your bombs can open secret passages. Speaking of action, you can also jump! This is an integral part of the game as some place can only be accessed through jumping (you can also access treasures that way). Unfortunately, it’s pretty useless in itself as you can’t avoid enemies nor jump outside of water unless you reach a strategic platform. Nor can you jump over chasms. But overall, the graphics are so inferior to FF IV, which was released around the same time. There is no 3D whatsoever, characters have simplistic designs – compared to Cecil’s Paladin version or Tellah’s robes – and the overworld map is overly simplified. Indeed, you can only move along a pre-determined path that expands only as you complete certain events. But unlike FF IV there is perspective; you actually walk under many floors in dungeons and behind some buildings rather than grossly around them. Finally, the battle system is also simplistic. You can always see the enemies wherever you are – if not, you just need to find the right accessory. This doesn’t really change the speed of the game though; sometimes you have to fight five groups of enemies in 10 steps. Music: 7/10 It’s not Nobuo Uematsu, but the soundtrack is decent. First, it’s very repetitive. All city themes are just variations of each other with very slight variations. The city of fire has more electric guitar whereas the city of wind has wind blowing in the background; the cities of water and earth/forest are nearly identical. Most other themes however are pretty elaborate and loop after more than one minute. Most of the themes boast militarist/electrical guitar tones. They have no realistic-ish orchestration like FF IV but they still sound interesting. The ordinary battle theme is rocking good whereas the boss battle theme sounds a little more dramatic, although not as good as FF IV’s – and the final boss theme sounds epic even with electric guitar. The sand dungeon has a good militaristic beat, the water dungeon has a soothing theme whereas the volcano sounds rockier, as with anything related with fire in this game. Finally, the final dungeon sounds pretty epic too. Sound effects are average and there’s nothing exceptional with them. The jumping sounds gets annoying after a while, the status-inducing effect (from the enemies, with musical notes) is downright unbearable and axe/sword attack is pretty ordinary. Magic sound was mixed: while fire and lightning sounded good, Holy sounded… effervescent and inappropriate. However, weapon usage in dungeons was well-done. Chopping wood sounds very realistic, your sword swing is slight but well-done, your bombs explode well and your projecting claws do sound “projected”. The “other” status-inducing sound (that sounds like an evil laughter) was nice too. Addictiveness: 3/10 I can’t say I got hooked to this game. In addition with simplistic design, the game doesn’t have much to offer. And what it does have to offer – the battlefields for level grinding/special items – get rather repetitive. Otherwise, you simply progress through the game in a very linear manner with barely any detours. Furthermore, magic is ridiculously easy to use once you can buy/find “seeds”. They are extremely cheap and can be found in many treasure chests. Plus they restore ALL your magical energy (which comes in number of times you can cast rather than magic points, like Final Fantasy I and III). Story: 3/10 MQ looks rather pale compared to FF IV. The latter had a very elaborate story line for 1991 with actual character development, plot twists, a non-linear storyline and many sidequests for the time. In MQ, it’s the repetitive save-the-world-from-impeding-doom scenario that moves in an almost perfectly straight line – you get your mission from the start, showing the lack of an elaborate scenario. Your mission is simply to save the world’s crystals, whose faltering has already affected the environment (water froze over, forests are dying, wind is out of control…). When it’s done, you must kill the evil foe that did it. There is literally no character development – it’s even hollower than Paladin’s Quest. You do get some dialogues whenever someone joins you/goes out of the party but it’s nothing worth elaborating about. Depth: 2/10 I ran through this game in about 12 hours (10 if you subtract the level grinding inside the battlefields), which goes to show how shallow the game is – FF IV lasts at least 20 hours, but closer to 25 if I want better chance against Zeromus and the Lunar Core foes guarding the special weapons or those in the crystal floor towards the end. As I said above, the game moves in a(n almost) perfectly straight line. There is no sidequest to speak of as you obtain almost all your weapons with the regular plot. The only “asides” in this game are the red treasure chest which contain spells/weapons and the battlefields where you can also get these objects. But they are usually in your way, mostly in the Middle Tower as you progress up that place. Except for the last dungeon, where you have to fight your way through the same backgrounds as the previous crystal dungeons, the regular dungeons aren’t that deep. They do have the regular dead ends but they don’t offer much exploration. Nor do they have out-of-this-world prizes – there aren’t even bonus dungeons since there are no sidequests. Difficulty: 1/10 Along with simplistic everything, this game is ridiculously easy. Nearly all enemies have a weakness, be it magic or a particular weapon, making their killing very easy. And since magic can be regenerated easily and cheaply, you won’t need much luck to defeat everyone with your eyes closed. Also, since there is basically no random fight, you don’t have to fight that many enemies to make your way through a dungeon. The ice and fire dungeons requires you to have a special objects so you can see the enemies, but it’s pretty easy to find. Finally, you can save everywhere, and I’m not talking about savestates. You can literally save your game anywhere, anytime. So no need for heavy planning since you can try anything you want and reset at will. This also means that you can make your way in the fire and ice dungeons without the special object making you see the enemies. So if you’re a beginner at RPGs and want an easy tutorial game, Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is for you. The game mechanics are easy to learn, you always know where you have to go and battles are very easy to master. Adding the fact that (nearly) everyone has a weakness, your battles will be easy. Plus, you will rarely get caught helpless before fighting since you see where a group of enemy stands. But if you’re a veteran, you will be left wanting for more. The graphics are a step down from Final Fantasy IV, the lack of sidequests is a step down from Final Fantasy III (the real one) and its lack of depth will bore you. Although the music is enjoyable, it’s not enough to get you hooked to the game. After getting my first Super Nintendo in 1995, I had a lot of catching up to do. After trying Final Fantasy II (IV) and III (VI), I came across Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest. I should have skipped it and go towards a better game… Graphics: 5/10 In itself the game has average graphics. Battle backgrounds are very varied according to the environment you fight in – every dungeon has a particular background. The environment itself is also varied and subject to change. For example, you start playing in an environment where the forest is withering away, but once you save the Earth Crystal the environment becomes green and luscious. It was much better than the NES battles and crystals, which didn’t influence the background much. Battles in themselves are OK. If you only face flying enemies like birds, you actually see them float as in Final Fantasy IV. And just like that game, the enemies merely flash when they attack you. However, magic is way inferior to FF IV. There is only one level for each spell and the graphics aren’t very elaborate – curative magic merely looks like the Life spells in FF IV, and lightning only consists of a thunder cloud. On the plus side, your weapons (you, on the other hand, merely steps forward) do attack the enemy directly rather than just see the result of your swing as in other Final Fantasy games. The attack from a claw is the better-drawn one, with each finger showing on the enemy. In addition, your weapons can be used in the field for various actions, something rarely seen in RPGs. Your sword can open switched, your axe can chop trees, your claws can help you climb walls (and reach faraway poles later in the game) and your bombs can open secret passages. Speaking of action, you can also jump! This is an integral part of the game as some place can only be accessed through jumping (you can also access treasures that way). Unfortunately, it’s pretty useless in itself as you can’t avoid enemies nor jump outside of water unless you reach a strategic platform. Nor can you jump over chasms. But overall, the graphics are so inferior to FF IV, which was released around the same time. There is no 3D whatsoever, characters have simplistic designs – compared to Cecil’s Paladin version or Tellah’s robes – and the overworld map is overly simplified. Indeed, you can only move along a pre-determined path that expands only as you complete certain events. But unlike FF IV there is perspective; you actually walk under many floors in dungeons and behind some buildings rather than grossly around them. Finally, the battle system is also simplistic. You can always see the enemies wherever you are – if not, you just need to find the right accessory. This doesn’t really change the speed of the game though; sometimes you have to fight five groups of enemies in 10 steps. Music: 7/10 It’s not Nobuo Uematsu, but the soundtrack is decent. First, it’s very repetitive. All city themes are just variations of each other with very slight variations. The city of fire has more electric guitar whereas the city of wind has wind blowing in the background; the cities of water and earth/forest are nearly identical. Most other themes however are pretty elaborate and loop after more than one minute. Most of the themes boast militarist/electrical guitar tones. They have no realistic-ish orchestration like FF IV but they still sound interesting. The ordinary battle theme is rocking good whereas the boss battle theme sounds a little more dramatic, although not as good as FF IV’s – and the final boss theme sounds epic even with electric guitar. The sand dungeon has a good militaristic beat, the water dungeon has a soothing theme whereas the volcano sounds rockier, as with anything related with fire in this game. Finally, the final dungeon sounds pretty epic too. Sound effects are average and there’s nothing exceptional with them. The jumping sounds gets annoying after a while, the status-inducing effect (from the enemies, with musical notes) is downright unbearable and axe/sword attack is pretty ordinary. Magic sound was mixed: while fire and lightning sounded good, Holy sounded… effervescent and inappropriate. However, weapon usage in dungeons was well-done. Chopping wood sounds very realistic, your sword swing is slight but well-done, your bombs explode well and your projecting claws do sound “projected”. The “other” status-inducing sound (that sounds like an evil laughter) was nice too. Addictiveness: 3/10 I can’t say I got hooked to this game. In addition with simplistic design, the game doesn’t have much to offer. And what it does have to offer – the battlefields for level grinding/special items – get rather repetitive. Otherwise, you simply progress through the game in a very linear manner with barely any detours. Furthermore, magic is ridiculously easy to use once you can buy/find “seeds”. They are extremely cheap and can be found in many treasure chests. Plus they restore ALL your magical energy (which comes in number of times you can cast rather than magic points, like Final Fantasy I and III). Story: 3/10 MQ looks rather pale compared to FF IV. The latter had a very elaborate story line for 1991 with actual character development, plot twists, a non-linear storyline and many sidequests for the time. In MQ, it’s the repetitive save-the-world-from-impeding-doom scenario that moves in an almost perfectly straight line – you get your mission from the start, showing the lack of an elaborate scenario. Your mission is simply to save the world’s crystals, whose faltering has already affected the environment (water froze over, forests are dying, wind is out of control…). When it’s done, you must kill the evil foe that did it. There is literally no character development – it’s even hollower than Paladin’s Quest. You do get some dialogues whenever someone joins you/goes out of the party but it’s nothing worth elaborating about. Depth: 2/10 I ran through this game in about 12 hours (10 if you subtract the level grinding inside the battlefields), which goes to show how shallow the game is – FF IV lasts at least 20 hours, but closer to 25 if I want better chance against Zeromus and the Lunar Core foes guarding the special weapons or those in the crystal floor towards the end. As I said above, the game moves in a(n almost) perfectly straight line. There is no sidequest to speak of as you obtain almost all your weapons with the regular plot. The only “asides” in this game are the red treasure chest which contain spells/weapons and the battlefields where you can also get these objects. But they are usually in your way, mostly in the Middle Tower as you progress up that place. Except for the last dungeon, where you have to fight your way through the same backgrounds as the previous crystal dungeons, the regular dungeons aren’t that deep. They do have the regular dead ends but they don’t offer much exploration. Nor do they have out-of-this-world prizes – there aren’t even bonus dungeons since there are no sidequests. Difficulty: 1/10 Along with simplistic everything, this game is ridiculously easy. Nearly all enemies have a weakness, be it magic or a particular weapon, making their killing very easy. And since magic can be regenerated easily and cheaply, you won’t need much luck to defeat everyone with your eyes closed. Also, since there is basically no random fight, you don’t have to fight that many enemies to make your way through a dungeon. The ice and fire dungeons requires you to have a special objects so you can see the enemies, but it’s pretty easy to find. Finally, you can save everywhere, and I’m not talking about savestates. You can literally save your game anywhere, anytime. So no need for heavy planning since you can try anything you want and reset at will. This also means that you can make your way in the fire and ice dungeons without the special object making you see the enemies. So if you’re a beginner at RPGs and want an easy tutorial game, Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is for you. The game mechanics are easy to learn, you always know where you have to go and battles are very easy to master. Adding the fact that (nearly) everyone has a weakness, your battles will be easy. Plus, you will rarely get caught helpless before fighting since you see where a group of enemy stands. But if you’re a veteran, you will be left wanting for more. The graphics are a step down from Final Fantasy IV, the lack of sidequests is a step down from Final Fantasy III (the real one) and its lack of depth will bore you. Although the music is enjoyable, it’s not enough to get you hooked to the game. |
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04-05-15 01:03 PM
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Great job with this review. I definitely have to agree that Mystic Quest is nowhere near as good as the other Final Fantasy games from that era and that it was way too easy. This is definitely not one of Square's great JRPGs. Keep up the good work. |
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