Let's Play: FF Mystic Quest

*cough* I needed to seriously unwind today, so I decided to start it a bit early. Hope I didn't ruffle anyone's feathers. Anyway, this week's contender iiiisss:

*Cue fanfare*

It's only one of the most simplistic and boring RPGs ever made, and it was made just for us, U.S., that is.*

And yes, I have no shame.

Anyhoo, on to the naming of our Grand Poohbah, champion of all that is right and pixellated in the world!

Originality, thy name is naught Mightyblue, but the similarities of MQ's plot to The Matrix's plot themes made me giggle. So THERE.

This is our noble hero, savour of everything, and wanton depopulator of entire monster populations being christened as the hero by the game's faux-Morpheus, an ostensibly Alzheimer's ridden old man who rides around on a cloud.

His actual name escapes me, so we'll call him Morphy from now on. Morphy being the wise and mystical old fart he is tells our noble Neo that he is the only guy around who can save the world and slay the bad dudes trying to destroy it and all that jazz. Neo, smart lad that he is, reminds Morphy that his village just did the Chattanooga shuffle over the River Styx and that his mommy told him never to talk to strangers. In that order. Morphy reaches into his pocket for the blue and red pills, but the Behemoth falling out of the sky cuts him off.

Next Time: The Day When Pigs Flew, or, The Blue and Red Pills of Life and Death!

Ed. Note: I know this one's short, but I don't have time to do a write up of how the game works and the initial "dungeon." I'll do that later after work, and it should be entertaining! I hope.

*Disclaimer: No puns were harmed in the making of this mockumentary, and all punnists were pun...er, rewarded for their efforts. With death and hot fudge sundaes.

score!

Mystic Quest is one game I really like, despite the fact that it really isn't very good. it's a grand mystery.

Mystic Quest had a story?

I don't even remember there being an excuse for going through the dungeons other then "Hey, some monsters being a jerk, go kill it".

It begins!

I had a blast with this game when I was a kid and I've never really understood the terrible reputation it has. Maybe you can win some converts over to our side!

And just what the hell were those Coke can powerups for anyway? I went the entire game without ever using one.

I never could get into this game, and have always felt a tad guilty for that. It'll be good to finally see it to its completion without me having to slug through it. Also, that still has to be the best opening for an RPG I've ever seen - "This place is collapsing, you're the chosen one - Ah! A monster!"
Mystic Quest certainly doesn't beat around the bush, at the very least.

I'll give you a hint why: the soundtrack. 16 bit awesome.

Mystic Quest is love. Good choice, Mightyblue!

His name is Benjamin.
And the soundtrack is the only reason why I have played that game over 10 times.

The soundtrack is in-friggin-credible though. Like, damn.

Who did the music for FFMQ? I've always loved the music but could never get past the third crystal stage I think... Man that was so long ago too...

On the Refresher question (aka the pop cans) they restore any stat drains you've incurred over a battle, which comes in handy since the game only gives buffs/debuffs to the monsters, and a single set of weapons to you that inflict status ailments. Since monsters are so handy with the status ailments and debuffs, you need a lot of Heal Potions (stat cures) and Refreshers. You can pick them up nearly anywhere from brown chests (more on chest types later), so it's not a big deal. For those who don't want to zip through the game it's not entirely uncommon to farm an area of brown chests with the item you want until you max out your inventory.

Or you could just beat the crap out of anything, since just normal playthroughs have the difficulty of punching through a wall of wet tissue paper.

I'd like to note at this point that Mystic Quest is the closest thing we ever got to a console style Game Boy SaGa/FF Legend game. The game design and style are very similar between the games, and the only real differences between MQ and GB SaGas are the world map, use of weapons on field, and no random encounters. That's right guys, nearly 15 years before FFXII (or less for XI if you want to include it) a Final Fantasy game had no random encounters.

Now for the mechanics bit, since I'm pretty sure only a few people have played this, or it's been a long time. Me, this is my fourth or fifth play through so I've got things mostly down pat. I'll be doing a speed run this time, and only hit the spots that I need for the treasures and magic and skip the battlefields that don't offer much of anything and brown farming.

Basically, you can jump by hitting B on the SNES pad, and you'll skip over a single tile (which can only be a walkable land tile or a water tile). Monsters and obstacles can't be jumped over, although you can deal with some obstacles depending on what weapon you've got equipped. I'll go over the different weapon effects when I get the weapons, although keep in mind that swords stab, axes chop, claws grab things, and bombs blow crap up.

To get into combat, you wander into a monster (or stand next to one and hit talk/use weapon) and the battle screen pops up. Battles run pretty similarly to the GB SaGa games, and veterans of those games should be pretty familiar with the commands. Selecting Fight will let you pick a monster to hit with your chosen weapon (which you can switch by hitting L or R), Magic will pop up the magic subscreen and lets you pick a magic and then its target. You can also do group attacks with certain magics by hitting up on enemy groups or down on ally groups. Item and Run are self explanatory, but Guard's a little different, because you can choose to either defend yourself or cover your partner. Odds are you'll only use Fight, Magic, and Item in-game though, because of the game's general ease in difficulty and the fact that with only two people, it's generally not a good idea to sit around defending with one person outta two.

As far as treasure goes, there's two types Red [Equipment, Spells, Key Items] and Brown [Expendables, Bomb/Shuriken Ammo]. Once you open a Red chest, it's done, but Browns refill each time you leave and reenter an area from the World Map. It means it's stupid to buy your consumables where you can, but it's a lot faster to buy stuff you need rather than farm a spot endlessly. Especially since there's only a small handful of equipment bits that are purchase only.

Anyway that's it for the intermission. I'll pick up in the next post in a while where I left off last time.

NEXT TIME: The Day Pigs Flew, or, Lumberjack For A Day

EDIT: Tired, and busy for next few days. Plz understand. Will post tomorrow night.

Ryuji Sasai did most of the (good) music in MQ. He only did a few other games for Square like FF Legend 3 and the Japan-only Treasure of the Rudras before falling off the face of the Earth completely. Shame, too.

It did, however, have spots to go to in the overworld which had nothing but random encounters.

Speed run? I can't wait.

Make that: "I can wait." Take your time, dude.

Here's an AWESOME OMFG arranged version of the Battle, Boss Battle and Last Boss tracks.

Not really random except in the FFXII sense of whatever monster groups spawn. The battlefields are totally optional, and don't impede your progress in any way, save for one key item.

OMFG AWSOME!! Seriously, that was a good track. Thanks for the linkage.

On the topic at hand, I never finished MQ. I played it one time back when it came out and was pissed as it was nowhere near as good as FFIV. I tried going back a few times over the years and never got more than about an hour in so I don't know anything about the soundtrack. This thread makes me want to play the game (almost) just to hear it.

My tragic tale. In the end I thought it was OK, but I've always been resentful that it didn't live up to FF II, which I wished I had bought instead. You know what bothers me the most about this game? Every time you hit enemy X with weapon Y, it does exactly the same amount of damage - there's almost no randomness at all to the fights. It made the whole (already repetitive) game seem even more repetitive.

That glove that you get that acts like the hookshot is cool, though.

The first time I played this the only FF I had played before was the original so I didn't have any preconceived notions of what Mystic Quest should be. I think because of this I've enjoyed it on its own merits as opposed to expecting it to be more like FF...

I'm not saying that Mystic Quest is great it's more of an OK, which makes sense as it's original scores when it came out reflect (3.75/5 and 7/10).

So if you're going to play it, in your head just leave out the FF, and your left with a good simple game, like Zelda...

Back then that glove was all it took for my jaw to drop. It took far too long for other RPGs to steal that bit of design.

Ah, that explains it. I played Treasure of the Rudras last year, and the music was incredible.

FFL3 and Rudras are two of my fave RPGs of all time... and are ridiculously overlooked. I probably need to replay Rudras about now, actually.

Sorry about no update last night guys, but a paper snuck up and kicked me in the ass. Should be able to knock something together after work tonight instead of playing FES.

When we got that puppy, you swore that you would feed it and walk it every day!

This Week on the Adventures of Neo and His Merry Band: Deus Ex Monstra, or, The Land of Brown Thumbs!

When last we left our noble hero and chosen one Neo, he was being shang...er, recruited as the savior of the world by local senile old fart Morphy. True to the saying that surprises are never good and that you should never take pills from strange men wearing glasses, our fair hero is in a sudden bit of trouble as a monster precipitously falls out of nowhere to gatecrash Morphy's anointing ceremony. To wit:


Our noble hero, having nothing much in the way of combat power besides a dinky sword and bravery has little choice but to hack the gravity-challenged Behemoth to death. Neo fights the hardest battle he will ever fight and emerges on top after de-horning the foul beast and making it cry for its mommy in the sky. Thankfully gravity decides to take a break and spare our wounded hero from the ignominy of getting his ticket punched by a horny mother Behemoth.

Not content to let our hero bask in the afterglow of the moment, craz...er, wise Morphy wisely advises our hero that sitting around on a collapsing mountain, even one with a fancy name is not great for one's life insurance policy. That bas...er, wise old man then flies away on his magic cloud after telling our hero to seek out the MacGuffin of Earth, leaving our fair hero to race the mountain down to the valley below.

Sadly for our hero, there will be no prize money from a cheesy moon country game show for surviving his trial, the pride and honor from freeing an old fart trapped behind a boulder his only reward. The kind old man gives fair Neo a fine torch and tells him to show it to a girl named Kaeli er, scratch that, Trinity in the burg Woodlot, so that she can guide him through the withered forest.

The fair backwater of Treefarm is notable for few things, but our noble hero knows that the populace is only too willing to support his efforts against the monsters, and so borrows the Cure spell from the back room of the house on the river. Armed with his first spell, grand Neo ventures into the house of the lady Trinity and brandishes his new torch for all and sundry to see, even as the lady of the house laments her husband's lost cap. The fair damsel seems troubled by the hero's new toy...tool, muttering something about monsters and foul horticulture, and grabs up her father's axe as she takes on the role of guide through the treacherous Forest of Plumbity.

The path through is blocked by monsters, and the party adds some color to the surroundings with the blood, gore, and, uh, goo of the enemies, our hero growing ever stronger as they struggle to reach the evil tree ruling the forest. Lady Trinity strikes down the foul shrubbery with her mighty axe, but the fiend masquerading as a bit of Nature's finest poisons the brave forester and engages the party in dishonorable combat. Our hero and wounded heroine bravely fight the fell beast, the hero chipping in with his newfound healing magics when the party's strength wanes, but eventually they emerge triumphant over the monster, fallen to a fatal pruning. It is a Pyrrhic victory however, as our heroic lady falls to the invidious poison coursing through her veins, and noble Neo carries her back to her mother's house with a leaden heart.

After securing fair Trinity in her bed, our brave hero learns from the fair lady's mother that only the Elixer can cure the poison afflicting her, and it can only be found the Temple of Sand to the north. Our grand hero sets off with Trinity's axe in hand with hope newly bolstered in his heart and the dying wind at his back.

NEXT TIME: My Fair Bandit, or, My Battlefield for a Trinket!

Ed. Note: You guys have no idea how much goddamn fun I just had writing that. I also changed a few plot details, but it was mostly in the heat of the moment and too entertaining to bother with following the script terribly closely.

This was a sound decision made with the best of intentions I'm sure, and I for one applaud you for it.

I did note it sort of, since there's an image limit to consider, and I plan on doing the blow by blow for the Crystal bosses. Maybe it didn't come through in the text, but that's what I was a going for.

Like many things Mystic Quest does, I wish more games did. (Other Merus favourites: enemies on the field instead of random encounters; dungeons that you return to, unlocking new parts each time that lead to areas you weren't sure how to get to before; neat music.)

Let's Play Mystic Quest.......nnnnnnnnnnnnnno.

Dude, if you don't want to follow along, that's fine, but don't be that way.