Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest

Reviewed by Jason Venter (Date unavailable)

Monsters leave behind an obscene number of experience points, so it’s not hard to go up three or four levels in each dungeon. Not only that, but the world map also provides additional opportunities in the form of battlefields you clear for prizes and experience. Because of this system, it’s actually difficult to maintain low levels unless you skip over the enemies at every opportunity.

Reviewed by Lassarina Aoibhell (August 28, 2002)

The plot, too, is forgettable. It's the RPG standard--destroy the bad guy--but without the lovely trimmings that usually come with said standard. There's little to hold my interest, and even less to inspire me to replay the game.

Reviewed by Marc Golding (January 13, 2004)

The reason for Mystic Quest's being is an interesting one (and a humourous one, depending on how serious you are about the genre and what side of the Pacific you're on). It seems that Squaresoft wanted to present a dumbed down taste of Japan's favourite genre to uncultured, slow-of-mind North Americans so that we could adjust to the inherent complexity of the RPG, and allow our brain cells time to grow in anticipation of the oncoming deluge of ever more mind-blasting RPG perplexity. Needless to say, the intended market found the move to be insulting and quite unnecessary. However, as I have already let on, if Mystic Quest failed to nail down a beginner RPG player niche, it accomplished something else just as meaningful.

Reviewed by alecto (January 19, 2003)

In its effort to be an “easy” game specifically geared towards young people and those not familiar with role-playing games, Mystic Quest exploits two different concepts of the word “easy.” The game is easy in that it lacks the complexity and number of micromanagement options that could easily overwhelm a casual gamer and tend to turn many people off of RPGs in the first place. However, Mystic Quest also easy because it lacks any serious challenge and lightly skims through all the areas of gamepl...

Reviewed by jerec (January 31, 2003)

If there ever was a game to support the whole “RPG’s are for wimps” argument, Mystic Quest is it. Most RPG’s in general are easy to finish, only providing a real challenge to those who have trouble pressing buttons and defeating monsters in a turn-based environment. The unsuspecting newbie to the genre would have to come to grips with the whole idea of ‘stats’ as well as a host of other things like multiple party members, weapons, magic, abilities and turn-based fighting. Square decided that Eur...

Reviewed by lurkeratlarge (January 21, 2004)

The idea that Americans need an ''easy'' RPG to introduce them to the genre is already quite insulting, especially considering that games like Wizardry have been around in the US far before anyone knew what Dragon Warrior was. It's no big wonder that RPGs in the early 1990's were ill-received, anyway; not only were they often primitive, monotonous affairs, but they were usually plagued with god-awful translations laden with ridiculous censorship.

Reviewed by overdrive (July 07, 2004)

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest can best be described as a slap to the face of any American fan of role-playing games. Commonly referred to as an RPG for beginners, this SNES blunder seems to be less of a tutorial game and more of an insult to a player’s intelligence.

Reviewed by phediuk (March 22, 2006)

It's rare that one comes across a game whose very existence seems as unnecessary as Final Fantasy Mystic Quest. After the so-so sales of previous RPGs in North America, the developers at Square went back to the drawing board and tried to decide what it was that wasn't clicking with American gamers in the genre.

Reviewed by sayainprince (November 19, 2005)

Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest was a game made released in the States, after II (IV) and before III (VI). SquareEnix apparently thought that the sales of Final Fantasy II were directly related to how complex the game was. Now it is true that when they released Final Fantasy III, they would completely shotgun their own theory, but they had a different approach to the problem at first. Someone had the idea of making a game with less items, less magic, and a simple storyline. They definitely nailed th...

Reviewed by sgreenwell (Date unavailable)

Bobo The Clown's Hobo Soup Recipe Start with rusty pail of sewer water. Make sure it is relatively free of chunks, otherwise they will conflict with later ingrediants. Add one dirty shoelace, three toenail clippings (excluding the big toe), and fifteen copies of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, well-mashed. Serve hot. Stays good for several weeks.