Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest Review (Super Nintendo, 1992)

Unlike in most FF titles you play as a nameless hero (Benjamin by default) with almost no backstory. The adventure begins when he returns home from an adventure to find his village has been destroyed. All that remains is a mysterious old man who speaks of a prophecy which revolves around the focus tower. This monolith stands tall in the middle of the world and is a gateway to just about everywhere. Armed with just his sword Benjamin is tasked with saving the world. To do so he must free the four magical crystals which control all of the world’s elements. Basically, the elements are all out of whack and it’s his job to set them right. The scenario is very basic with a tiny cast of characters and very few major plot twists. It’s serviceable at best, and very simple by FF standards.

Either way, let’s get on to the gameplay. Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is a traditional Japanese role playing game. You move through town areas and dungeons, and there’s a world map which hosts all of these places. Rather than exploring you simply choose your destination and you’re off. It makes the experience very linear which is a little disappointing. What is interesting however is that you can choose to partake in battlefields. These give you the opportunity to get extra experience points for your main character, but they serve a more interesting purpose as well. When you fight through ten battles the battlefield is destroyed and you’re awarded with treasure or extra money. I like this aspect of the game, and the fact that they’re optional (and you can complete the game without bothering with any) is pretty neat.

The battle system is one of the most unique by series standards. Enemy encounters are never random. You can instead see any monster before engaging them. The problem is they are stationary and most of the time impossible to avoid. These enemy encounters are strictly turn based affairs where you select to attack with your currently equipped weapon, cast a magic spell, use an item, or defend. It’s extremely basic with no real curve balls thrown at players. Damage is still calculated numerically. One really neat effect is that when enemies lose different portions of their hit points their sprite changes. This is a rather interesting means of indicating your progress in defeating them.

The first thing you’ll notice about this title is the fact that you can only have two party members at once. There’s no way around it; this aspect of the game is very limiting. It reduces the amount of strategy you can use. By default the AI controls your secondary party member. You can choose to take full command of them. Interestingly this is one of the few cases I opt to surrender this control. This is because the AI reacts in real time to what’s happening in battle. If you lose most of your hit points they will change commands to heal you. The same goes for if Benjamin perishes in battle. This is surprisingly useful and makes the secondary party member more dynamic. It more than makes up for the occasional weird command the AI uses.

Several other aspects of the game have been simplified from it’s contemporaries as well. For example there are only a handful of different swords, armor, and accessories that you can equip. Most of these are acquired via plot developments. There are many instances where they are only gained by exploring dungeons and completing battlefields. Unfortunately there are only four different general types of weapon that Benjamin can use. Swords, axes, claws, and bombs are your only options here. For the most part these are all extremely similar to one another, but most of these have distinct advantages. Axes deal elemental damage and are therefore significantly better against specific enemy types.  Bombs target all enemies at once which can be very useful, and also annoying. The differences in the weapon types are actually pretty neat.

You can get through most of the game simply by equipping the most powerful one you currently have (newer weapons of the same type replace the old ones). The two I just mentioned serve very specific uses. Switching weapon types is a painless experience even inside of battle. From the command menu it can be done with the simple press of a button. Unfortunately your guest character cannot change equipment. Sometimes they get upgrades via story revelations, but it’s entirely out of your hands. This element didn’t have enough effort put into it in my opinion. For example, Phoebe is still stuck with the same lame bow and arrow from the second world on. They don’t even gain experience points which is a real drag. Only one guest character is in your party at once, and you cannot switch between them. This is entirely dictated by the story.

Unfortunately this game doesn’t offer much of a challenge. In my opinion it’s about on par with the other 16-bit FF titles. The simplified gameplay mechanics make this a bigger issue than it would otherwise be. What makes up for this problem somewhat are the dungeon designs. These are, surprisingly, a step above those in many RPGs of this era. Instead of relying on labyrinthine designs with dead ends Mystic Quest instead features some fairly intelligent puzzle solving elements. While they are still linear you can avoid entire rooms if you want, and many enemy encounters can be skipped. You’ll have to do some light platforming, move objects around, fall to lower floors, and more. Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest does a great job of keeping players engaged in it’s dungeons.

Benjamin has a few abilities he can use outside of combat such as jumping. I already touched on that so I won’t waste anymore time with this element. What’s neat is you can use your weapons as tools in the dungeon and town areas. The swords can be used to hit switches, axes chop down trees, claws are used to scale specific walls and even bombs blow up elements in the environment. This isn’t just some simple gimmick. Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is completely based around this element. It’s never too vague, but always a treat to climb walls or hookshot your way across chasms. In this regard Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is better than most 16-bit RPGs. It’s quite impressive for a title that many disregard for being ‘too simple.’

The game is a bit weak graphically. It’s pretty clear that the engine powering it is based on the SaGa games on the Game Boy. Many of the sprites are recycled, but they’ve been updated to fit the hardware. Outside of battle the terrain isn’t exception. The tiles sometimes consist of only a few different pixels to distinguish snow or grass. Other areas feature animated floors with moving sand or water which is a nice touch. Things are better in battle with large enemy sprites. There’s no animation, but that’s to be expected with the year in which Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest was released. I really like the enemy designs but they rely too much on palette swaps. Aside from the final boss absolutely every monster has a color variation at some point. The graphics are a little generic and simple for an SNES title but they’re fairly charming.

The soundtrack is extremely enjoyable. This is the one thing even the most jaded of gamers can agree on. I’ve always liked the town themes in particular. Most of these have the same theme but feature remixed versions to fit the element of the land. It’s really neat, and incredibly well done. The battle theme is one of the best in the series. It puts to use the SNES sound chip by simulating electric guitar riffs and drums. The boss theme is similar, but ups the energy. It too is one of the best ones in the series. The victory fanfare is also extremely enjoyable, and it’s one of the most memorable tracks here. The music and even sound effects are extremely well done in this game.