Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest

Jade Plays: Final Fantasy - Mystic Quest (part 1)


The consensus among most fans of the series is that this game absolutely sucked (right now it's a four-way battle between this, FF8, FF10, and FF10-2 as being the "worst Final Fantasy eV@r"). Mystic Quest was made to be a beginners RPG for the American market, seeing as the genre wasnt too popular in the US at the time. Unfortunately, it received more attention from fans of Final Fantasy 4, who hated it. Which is understandable; Im certainly not going to try comparing FFMQ to FF4. But thats exactly what a lot of people did. Combine that with the fact that we got this instead of FF5, and I can see why this game is so hated. It is certainly inferior to FF4 in almost every way; the graphics are kinda simplistic, the game is ridiculously easy (if you die, you can simply redo the battle you died in), you can only go to designated spots on the world map (you cant explore freely), the story feels like a re-telling of FF1, and the script is pretty lame. Still, it doesnt totally suck. I liked the puzzle-based elements in the game, giving it a quasi-Zelda feel. I rather liked how you could see enemies on the map instead of the random-battle system in most RPGs, as well as how they visibly weaken on the battle screen as their HP depletes. And the music was as good as any game with the Final Fantasy name (although I dont think Uematsu-sama did it). And I feel that it accomplished its goal of formally introducing me to the RPG genre; I had only played the original FF1 before this, and I dont think I fully appreciated it until after I played this game, so MQ does have some nostalgic significance to me.