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I've always wondered exactly what the deal was with Mystic Quest, so I am hoping one of the FF gurus can help me out here.

I've been playing Final Fantasy games since I could barely read. I have all of them with the exception of FFIII. Even the Game Boy ones. I had to learn to read so I could play FF1. Anyways, when Mystic Quest came out, for the grand old SNES, I bought it. O yes I bought it. Bought it and hated it. What the hell was this? This wasn't Final Fantasy. Pass.

Well, several years ago, while going through a drawer, I found my Mystic Quest cartridge. Well, what have I got to lose? I thought. I played the game start to finish. Not too bad, not too good. Mediocre.

So, with my boring backstory out of the way, what exactly is the deal with Mystic Quest? Was Square simply whoring the FF name, or was it meant to be a step in a new direction for the series that was aborted due to bad response from the fans? Does Square even acknowledge it as part of the FF series? And why is someone very closely resembling Dark Knight Cecil on the cover when I can find no such character in the game?

So, I'm going to ask two things of anyone interested:

1) Please submit any information you could furnish about WHY MQ exists. It would be appreciated.

and, I know it might hurt, offend, or even kill some people:

2) Give Mystic Quest another shot, BUT, pretend it doesnt bear the Final Fantasy name. It's really not that bad.

And if this question has been raised in the past, forgive me. As my name may or may not imply, I am not exactly knowledgable about previous CoN topics.

This post has been edited by The Raging Newbie on 6th January 2004 06:45

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Blood & Fire

I have to agree with the second. As a console RPG, it's half way decent. Take it like FF 8. I liked FF 8, but it didn't feel like a FF game.

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Love and Peace- Vash, the Stampede

If Life kicks you long enough, eventually he'll get tired and walk away- Drew Carry

The deal with MQ was that it was supposed to be an RPG for beginners, so that people would play it and be hooked into the genre. From what I understand, it wasn't an FF game in Japan, only in America, and that was just so that people would recognize the name and give it a try. It was the first RPG I ever tried, and I never bought another RPG for 3 years until my friend let me play Chrono Trigger. And I'm going to have to disagree, it really IS that bad, for a number of reasons:

1. No opportunity to explore anything.
2. You gain experience by going to tedious battle zones and standing ther and fighting.
3. You only have two characters at once.
4. The story is slow and boring.
5. No matter how much damage you and your partner are doing, pretty much everything takes either one or two hits to kill, requiring basically no strategy on your part.

Those are my reasons FFMQ is a terrible game, and probably pushed many people away from the genre that might have liked RPGs if they started with, say, FFVI or Super Mario RPG.

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Hip-Hop QOTW:

"Yeah, where I'ma start it at, look I'ma part of that
Downtown Philly where it's realer than a heart attack
It wasn't really that ill until the start of crack
Now it's a body caught every night on the Almanac"

"Game Theory"
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I'm going to have to go with Gears on this one. Taken at face value, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest really is a substandard game, it's just that all of its flaws are intensified by its (loosely) bearing the Final Fantasy name. The plot and story are boring at best, and the characters are overly typical and wholly unremarkable; likewise, the game is devoid of any semblance of challenge or strategy.

That being said, popular opinion holds it as an "RPG for beginners," though I doubt that it would do much to bring in prospective gamers, and do more to keep them away. A shame, too, considering the quality of other RPGs which were released around the time Mystic Quest came out.

This post has been edited by Super Moogle on 9th January 2004 19:56

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"I always have a quotation for everything - it saves original thinking."
~Dorothy L. Sayers

"The truly remarkable thing about television is that it allows several million people to laugh at the same joke and still feel lonely."
~T.S. Eliot

"Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as reality - in your own mind!"
~ Bruce Lee

When FF:MQ came out, Squaresoft had a descision to make, wheter to bring FF5 to the US or FF:MQ. Because square decided that US audiences would not understand FF5 (because we were not, at the time, a big RPG audience) they decided to make FF:MQ (BTW, they also dumbed down FF4 for the US because they wanted us to understand it)

either way, Supermoogle wouldn't be happy

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<Nealio> Seymour sounds like evil Winnie the Pooh

I like FFMQ. I don't care if there aren't stores, or the enemies always have just enough HP to take one or two hits, or the 2 person limit. I like it because I have fun when I play it. Can't explain why, but I find it entertaining, so I like it.

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Hey, put the cellphone down for a while
In the night there is something wild
Can you hear it breathing?
And hey, put the laptop down for a while
In the night there is something wild
I feel it, it's leaving me

I thought It was challenging enough to keep your attention but those battles were so damn tedious.

I might be alone in this but I think it does count as an FF game as you had to protect crystals like in many of the other games.

I thought it had a better story than FVIII and it was easier to pick up and play than
FFX.

I completed it because I felt I 'had to'. It was just another Square game to try out.

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Ozzie - lead singer from Black Sabbath
Flea - Bassist from Red Hot Chilli Peppers
Slash - Guitarist from Guns 'n' Roses

He drinks and smokes his cares away
His heart is in the lonely way
Living in the ruins
Of a castle built on sand...

Tell The King - The Libertines

The US wasn't an RPG audience at the time. At the time, the vast majority of video game players were young kids (early elementry school age) and casual gamers. FFMQ came out to familiarize Americans with the RPG system before having us dive head first into something more complicated.
Ignore DisasterChild. FFMQ and the censorship of FFIV had nothing to do with Japanese stereotypes of Americans (Americans did translate IV and were half the crew of MQ). And it wasn't a choice between FFV and FFMQ, they wanted to just delay FFV so they could get us more familiar with the RPG system so FFV's American sales would be better than without it (and since it's purpose was for the series, it's more of a FF game than FFT)
And Gears, FFMQ was well receieved when it was released.They released it in Japan later because it did well (and there's sort of an unwritten rule that Japan MUST get a release of all video games :P
I agree with Neal. It is a very good game. There were some challenging bits in there (Pazuzu was frickin' aggravating). If you think it's too easy, then avoid the "random" encounters and see how you do against Pazuzu.
I think the problem here is that people don't like it because other FFs are better. When making a personal rating for a game, you have to take it as it is long before you start comparing it to other games.

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

Quote (Dark Paladin)

Ignore DisasterChild.

Not to start a flame war, but wasn't that a little harsh? DC is the man.

Quote (DisasterChild8)

square decided that US audiences would not understand FF5

Quote (Dark Paladin)

they wanted to just delay FFV so they could get us more familiar with the RPG system

Didn't Dragon Warrior introduce us to RPGs?

I also liked FF:MQ. I liked the dungeons, caves, forests and towers. That combined with the decent music provided a nice atmosphere. It ain't no FFIV or FFVI, but it was a fun smaller scale RPG. The training grounds were always fun for me because of the anticipation of wondering what you're gonna get.



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FFXI (Siren server)
Tauu the Windurstian Tarutaru!
White Mage & Paladin

Personally, I enjoyed MQ, just because, like Neal, I have fun when I play it. As has been said before, lots of people only think of mq as bad because it bears the Final Fantasy name. Which is, as I'm sure anyone here would agree, a very successful/entertaining line of games. Look at MQ as it's own game and it won't appear that bad.

If you really want to find some BAD games, go to the second hand shelf of almost and game store and it's almost a sure thing that you'll find one or more VERY BAD playstation games that you've likely never heard of before.

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Club Sandwiches. Not Seals.

Quote (Neal @ 7th January 2004 17:00)

I like FFMQ. I don't care if there aren't stores, or the enemies always have just enough HP to take one or two hits, or the 2 person limit. I like it because I have fun when I play it. Can't explain why, but I find it entertaining, so I like it.

I won't say anything more than I completely agree with Neal.
That's why I love that game. :P

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..DDR..Maine..
..Hikaroo-chan no Deviantart..

<Tiddles> And I love how people suggest "Why not call it my great name?????" when their name is clearly the worst thing ever.
<Tiddles> "How about ; Mozilla Xplorer & Mozilla Xpress."
<Tiddles> How about you die in a fire?

i'd just like to clarify, i do like the game. it is a fun little adventure. It just would have been a much better choice for square to release FFV. Of course this is all my oppinion.

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<Nealio> Seymour sounds like evil Winnie the Pooh

i acutually liked FFMQ i thougt it was fun. the only thing that i thought was dumb is that the max level is 41

Are you sure that's the max level?


And they could have always released both FFV AND Mystic Quest.
Besides, it's in the past. :P We still got both games in the end. <3

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..DDR..Maine..
..Hikaroo-chan no Deviantart..

<Tiddles> And I love how people suggest "Why not call it my great name?????" when their name is clearly the worst thing ever.
<Tiddles> "How about ; Mozilla Xplorer & Mozilla Xpress."
<Tiddles> How about you die in a fire?

Quote (DisasterChild8 @ 7th January 2004 10:21)

When FF:MQ came out, Squaresoft had a descision to make, wheter to bring FF5 to the US or FF:MQ. Because square decided that US audiences would not understand FF5 (because we were not, at the time, a big RPG audience) they decided to make FF:MQ (BTW, they also dumbed down FF4 for the US because they wanted us to understand it)

either way, Supermoogle wouldn't be happy

For the record, I don't like Final Fantasy 5, either. It's probably my least favorite Final Fantasy out of the "regular" (numbered) series.

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"I always have a quotation for everything - it saves original thinking."
~Dorothy L. Sayers

"The truly remarkable thing about television is that it allows several million people to laugh at the same joke and still feel lonely."
~T.S. Eliot

"Defeat is not defeat unless accepted as reality - in your own mind!"
~ Bruce Lee

I'm going with Neal and Hikaroo on this, MQ really wasn't THAT bad of a game. Sure, it doesn't compare to most FFs in the series (FFII excepted, IMO) but I don't think it was by any means a boring game. For some reason part of the game's attraction was the neat look of the items, key items, weapons, and armor (don't ask...), but I also really liked some of the characters. Tristam, for example, was a cool ninja. I also liked Rueben, with his deadly morning star. Unfortunately, I think your last partner is Phoebe (emphasis on "I think", it has been a while), who I didn't like that much.

Really I'm thinking about searching for a copy at our new GameStop (I have the MQ booklet, fully intact, but either I had the game and lost it, or...just somehow ended up with a MQ booklet )

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SPEKKIO: "GRRR...That was most embarrassing!"

Quote (i90east @ 9th January 2004 03:08)

Didn't Dragon Warrior introduce us to RPGs?

Dragon Warrior 3 is the game that got me into it.

I have mystic quest, but I have yet to play it, concentrating on the numbered games first (counting backwards from 10, I'm currently on 5, having beaten 6-10), but it's on my to do list.

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My second daughter, if we have girls, will be named Rikku. I'm not kidding.

i thought that another cool thing in MQ is the deteriorating enemys. and as for my other post yea the max level is 41, obviously a mistake, i think they wanted it to be 40 but it was programed to lv you up 40 times

I've got to disagree with the general consensus here. I think that, even played as completely seperate of the FF series, the game was still very hollow. It had all the elements to make a good rpg - the cliched characters, the dungeons, the old turn based battle system, and the "epic" type storyline. But it's just a formula without any substance. As mentioned previously, the battles can all be finished in one or two rounds easily, regardless of whether or not you level up. It's one of only 3 rpgs that I beat the entire way through without dying once (Grandia 2 and FFX were the others, for your reference), and I think that says something about the difficulty level. I never really cared about what happened to any of the characters, and having only 2 in your party is ridiculous (especially when you don't get to pick your 2 - Tristam needed to be in the final battle). I don't see it's appeal at all as a game.

This post has been edited by io_rage on 11th January 2004 19:47

Quote (NRH TACTICS MASTER @ 10th January 2004 11:47)

i thought that another cool thing in MQ is the deteriorating enemys. and as for my other post yea the max level is 41, obviously a mistake, i think they wanted it to be 40 but it was programed to lv you up 40 times

Levelling continues after you reach the highest number (for some reason, I don't remember it being 41)

And about the last ally: It's Phoebe.

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"I had to write four novels before they let me write comic books."
-Brad Meltzer

Quote (Dark Paladin @ 8th January 2004 15:50)

And Gears, FFMQ was well receieved when it was released.

1. I didn't say it wasn't well received, I said I didn't like it.
2. We already had the Dragon Warrior series, Final Fantasy, and Ultima. And I personally feel anyone with a passing familiarity with Castlevania and Zelda could jump into the RPG world without too much difficulty.
3. You can't avoid the random battles, because they're always standing in the friggin' intersections of where you need to go. Trust me, I avoided pretty much every battle I could, but was still at a pretty decent level when I finished it.

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"Yeah, where I'ma start it at, look I'ma part of that
Downtown Philly where it's realer than a heart attack
It wasn't really that ill until the start of crack
Now it's a body caught every night on the Almanac"

"Game Theory"
The Roots

I think that FFMQ should not be considered a FF game at all. The first time I played it was on an emulator after I have already beaten FFVI, FFIV, and FFVII. When I first started playing I thought it was a game for little children it was so ridiculous. It was pretty easy and the ending was not worth playing the game. If I would have played FFMQ before any other FF games I would never have played another one again.

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War is for the participants a test of character; it makes bad men worse and good men better. - Joshua Chamberlain

U sir R a n00b >:-( - Cactuar

Quote (The Raging Newbie @ 6th January 2004 01:42)

2) Give Mystic Quest another shot, BUT, pretend it doesnt bear the Final Fantasy name. It's really not that bad.

I can't really comment on why FFMQ exists, because, frankly, I never cared enough to check. I've heard explanations all the time, but I've never seen anything to verify that the information is true.

I agree with this part, though. It's not the best game ever, but it's tolerable if you pretend it's more random spewage from Nintendo. I actually liked some of the puzzles.

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Veni, vidi, dormivi.

Raging Newbie must be kinda young if he had to learn to read to play FF1. no offense. I remember liking FFMQ when I played, which was one time when I was like 15 (in like 96), I still have it and havent played it since, but I've been thinking about playing it again soon. And, if you dont play a real game on a real console, you should. Emulators dont count.

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tell me what you see
someone real?
this is real!
what you wish to be!

...O P E N Y O U R E Y E S........
...open your eyes, open your eyes....

Quote (Terra Branford @ 15th January 2004 23:30)

Raging Newbie must be kinda young if he had to learn to read to play FF1. no offense. I remember liking FFMQ when I played, which was one time when I was like 15 (in like 96), I still have it and havent played it since, but I've been thinking about playing it again soon. And, if you dont play a real game on a real console, you should. Emulators dont count.

No offense taken, i'm not old, but i'm not like 13 if thats what your implying...

Learning to read may be a bit of a stretch, you know I had basic phonics and such but being able to fully grasp exactly what was being said was beyond me at that point.

Not that you have to read to know what to do in FF1. The game doesn't give you very many clues.

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Blood & Fire

Ahh FFMQ, it wasn't made by Square Japan, it was made by Square USA. Thus it was technically FFUS, it's sole purpose with it's easy handling and actually decent story, was to allow people who have never touched an RPG to get into the Genre. I actually enjoyed FFMQ despite it's lack of being a real FF game, but most would say "FFMQ sux0rz!" well I have to point out the fact that yes it would suck to a closed minded individual. I played the game with a very open mind knowing what it was. Granted I used to be one of the closed minded individuals myself, but after careful consideration I realized that FFMQ is great for the starting RPGer. Thank you for reading this if you did.

- Cid, someone who plays WAY too much Final Fantasy.

*playing FFIV again and not so well for some reason... then again that was like 5 years ago*

Then again, I'm 19 and in college, so I've played my share of FF games and I still do.

This post has been edited by Cid_Highwind on 24th January 2004 19:42

I hear alot of trash about FF:MQ, but I'm going to agree with Neal and the group. I enjoyed it. I thought it was fun. I didn't try to compare it to other RPGs, because it isn't other RPGs. It's a unique game, and should be seen that way.


It's been far to long since I played this. This thread is making me want to play it again....


Which I think I will!

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"And that, my liege, is how we know the Earth to be banana-shaped” -Sir Bedevere the Wise

Yeah Regardless of what you people are saying MQ was a Good game. I have really had a difficult time picking up a FF since 7, i plowed through 8 which I HATED, and 9 WAs okay. 10 I refused to play due to lack of world map, MQ was in itself a good game. However it ruined the game when in the last battle i cast cure on the DK twice and he died.When i was little ( 6 or so) i would wake up in the morning for school , and kill the DK once or twice just for fun before school.

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If you've been mod-o-fied,
It's an illusion, and you're in-between.
Don't you be tarot-fied,
It's just alot of nothing, so what can it mean?
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Sins exist only for people who are on the Way or approaching the Way

FFMQ is a cheap piece of BS. I think Square made it for money and Profits!

Maybe I shouldn't post here, since I've never played Mystic Quest myself, but I've seen screenshots of it, and it seems to be basically a dumbed-down RPG, with travel and battle styles that I am pretty sure were easy to understand. So in a way, Square was right when they said they tried to make a game for a beginner with RPGs--one that could easily be understood and played by a novice. However, I've noticed that general consensus has that it's nowhere near the best, and at best it's only mediocre.

I found some interesting information on this website, chronicling the Ogopogo Examiner, what apparently is an old Square newsletter:
http://www.squareuniverse.net/ogopogo.html
You might be able to find more nice information around that site.

Someone here mentioned how they should have released FFV as a "beginner's RPG", but I disagree. I wanted to comment on a sequence for introducing RPGs to people, but I'll start another topic about that.

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Check the "What games are you playing at the moment?" thread for updates on what I've been playing.

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