Overall 9 Graphics 6.4 Sound 7 Addictive 5.2 Story 5.6 Depth 6 Difficulty 4.4
5
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest: for Beginners Only janus
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.
Graphics 5 Sound 7 Addictive 3 Story 3 Depth 2 Difficulty 1
Review Rating: 4.7/5
Submitted: 04-05-15
Review Replies: 1
7.6
GREAT FOR STARTERS sjorsxd918
Welcome to my second review.
I've chosen this game because there aren't many reviews from it (only 2 by now) and I played this game a lot for a time so I know where I talk about.
Graphics: The graphics of this game were pretty good, but really not amazing. The part of the graphics that I liked the most is the sprites of the enemies. I really like them to see change when they've got some damage. And sometimes they just look funny if they are almost dead.
Sound: I like the music. Every town song is pretty good and it's well made they chance if you have saved the town. The battle music is not such as good and I must say to everybody who like game music, to stay a lot in the towns. The sounds were all right but it is something that could be way better!
Addictiveness:WHAT? A WEAK POINT AFTER ALL THE SUCCES THIS GAME MADE! OMG!
Yeah exactly, an this is why: You will play this game until the end (or until you get stuck, bored ,sleepy...) because you want to know what will happens next. But if you finished it, it feels like its not the end, but really it is. The end could be a bit better and will maybe ruin the good mood from some people, because they want to see what is coming next.
Story: Finally something that really rock about this game!
It's not really surprising because it's a freaking (spin off from) Final Fantasy game. One of the best series on the whole world!
It's not the best Final Fantasy story, but it's one that's really good (and weird...), but however it's my favourite part of this game and because its my review its going to get a big, nasty 10(+)!
Depth: The depth of this game isn't that bad for me as you maybe think yourself. Many weapons and many kinds of armors and even some spells to search for and some battlefields (which can be used for massive exp farming). And it's a long game with sometimes really to many battles. No serious there are like 50 of the same enemies in a single dungeon, so you probably want to skip most of them. The dungeons are pretty big, so keep it in mind to check your magic often because you need to heal your party very often.Yes I know, that was more a kind of hint than a thing from depth.
Difficulty: This is the Final Fantasy game to start with. It's a lot easier in comparison with other Final Fantasy games.
But if it is actually your first, this can be a bit harder than you maybe think when you read this (it was my first FF game BTW)
Sometimes you are just overpowered in this game, I mean jeez 4 enemies all one hit kill with a nice new spell you just found.
That's another reason why I think this game is easy.
My Experiences: This was actually a beautiful game in the beginning, but later on it only get worse (not bad, just worse).
And the upgrades of the weapons aren't that much better.I really beat only like 2 battlefields because they're stupid in my opinion, you beat it and you get........a bit extra xp...WTF!(you get some spells and money sometimes, but still...).
The final boss was really to easy for me, but I'm not going to spoil that.
That was it for now.......BYE!
Graphics 8 Sound 7 Addictive 6 Story 10 Depth 8 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 3.1/5
Submitted: 10-23-12
Updated: 10-23-12
Review Replies: 2
8.4
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest SNES Reveiw CC23
Hi vizzed. This is my game review for final fantasy mystic quest for SNES (Super Nintendo entertainment system) this was a descent game in my book but I hope you think it deserves a 9. But lets get started with the review shall we.
Graphics:9
the graphics on this game were good. They had a nice quality and not a lagy walk around. The graphics were nicely don and had lots of potential. The best thing about the graphics were the detailed land and objects. I think FF did a fine job on the graphics.
Sound: 8
if you read my review about final fantasy 3 nes the sound are kind alike. For those of you that haven't the game has a nice melody calm and nice in town but in the battle the sound makes you ease with excitement. It kind makes you feel like your in the game. When the melody sinks into your ears you just feel like your surroundings changed. But lets stop talking hearing lets talk
addictiveness
addictiveness:8
this game is addictive. You would play for a while just wondering whats going to happen next. And once you hit that boss and defeat him you still cant stop playing. Its a fun addictive game
story:7
the story was OK. You would go level to level vanquishing every monstrous thing in your path. And you must save the world and fend off darkness. But ill let you find that out. don't wan spoil anything. (just to let people know I hate to spoil things)
Depth: this game has lots to offer and has its catches. The game is a nice sized game not super long kind in the 20 hour rang for me. This game is also different from the others in the series.
difficulty:7
the difficulty in this game was on the fun side. Better than those super easy/boring games. It was easy at parts and hard at others.
Overall:8.4
this game is OK I would recommend this game to people who play the classics and people who like the final fantasy series. So that's my review. Hope you play this game and hope you liked my review. Thanks
Graphics 8 Sound 9 Addictive 8 Story 7 Depth 8 Difficulty 7
Review Rating: 2.6/5
Submitted: 08-07-12
Review Replies: 5
8.5
odd but it is fun though joey9900
Ok so a lot of people have mixed feelings about this one it is a what I consider a b side to ff2 I believe if I rember right it came out a lil after ff2 did for snes. overall I give the game an 8 cause weither you think it's odd or different it is fun I mean come on!! It's different but a newer side to final fantasy and you can choose the monsters you want to battle something you can never do in any ff games. Graphics are good for it being on super Nintendo they don't look choppy or poorly drawn some of the monsters in the game facial expression's when you get close to killing them are funny as heck to. ok now for sound the music for the outside world and towns are decent they do make you relaxed while walking if that's possible in a video game now as the battles and boss battles what the heck are we in a rock concert? Defiantly way different ways to do a boss battle music. Odd but fun this game is very addictive once you start playing it you'll want to play it more and see what else you can find in the game and once you get further you'll see why it's addictive I used to own this on the sine's along time ago and played it a lot as well. Now for the story part ok who admits the story of this could've been done a lil better it pretty much follows all the ff story lines your the warrior of light looking for the fallen crystals pretty simple right. The battlefields are an added plus keeps from shopping at stores trying to spend hours buying supplies. Depth the game is very much long and difficult to get through in a certain time it could take you days to get though this and a challenge for newbs there is walkthroughs for those who need help. And difficulty I might be fair in giving this a 6 but it is realivly easy and hard towards the end and if you can't find it easy in the first three crystal parts then you need to play ff more ;)
Graphics 8 Sound 9 Addictive 7 Story 4 Depth 6 Difficulty 6
Review Rating: 2.3/5
Submitted: 12-08-13
Review Replies: 0
5
D-List Squaresoft game for SNES jglennedwards
If you are a big fan of the games Squaresoft produced for SNES, save this one for last. When this game was brand new, it went on sale for about 20 dollars, which was rather cheap for a video game in those days. Mystic Quest became a bit of a joke among Final Fantasy fans primarily since it was lacking in graphics and storyline. I suspect Squaresoft produced this game in order to help bring its contract with Nintendo to an end. Really, we get a bit of a rehashing of the "four fiends" typically found in Final Fantasy games accompanied by the threat of world disaster. The battle system is generally the same as that found in the Game Boy Final Fantasy Legend II, and the graphics in Mystic Quest aren't that much better. Play all other Squaresoft games for NES and SNES first (Final Fantasy, Breath of Fire, Crono Trigger, and Secret of Mana) before you spend time on this one. The storylines in those games are just typically more interesting and the graphics are generally better. Although this game was produced for SNES, it feels like it should have been produced for NES.
Graphics 3 Sound 3 Addictive 2 Story 4 Depth 6 Difficulty 2
Review Rating: 2.2/5
Submitted: 11-29-13
Review Replies: 0
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