The actual gameplay begins at 8:58.
The story of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest is a well-worn tale at this point: Square sought a way to into the wallets of American gamers. Square Soft’s games regularly topped sales charts in Japan, but they generally failed to make much of an impact across the Pacific. Believing that Americans were intimidated by the complexities of the genre, they tasked one of their teams with creating an /”entry-level/” RPG, tailored specifically to the perceived tastes of the US market in order to generate interest in the genre and in Square’s upcoming games.
The game barely registered as a blip on most gamers’ radar. Final Fantasy fans were disappointed by the shallow gameplay and felt misled by the game’s title, and non-fans of the genre apparently didn’t like being pandered to with promises of a cheap game made for dumb people. (It retailed for 39.99 in 1992 while Final Fantasy II was still selling in stores for 70-75.)
Corporate blundering aside, Mystic Quest does a decent job at being the Tab of early 90s RPGs. You play as Benjamin, a random knight who is appointed would-be hero of the realm by an old man who enjoys dumping exposition on dangerous mountaintops. Accepting his role with a mere shrug of the shoulders, Benny proceeds to beat up some monsters, save some people, conquer a few dungeons, restore light to the world’s elemental crystals, and save the day. Pretty rote stuff, even by 1992 standards.
The gameplay is as simple as a JRPG can be. The overworld is a collection of hubs to be explored, dotted with towns, dungeons, and battle arenas. You don’t have to worry about equipment, there are no random battles, the party is limited to two people, you can save anywhere, and if you go down in a fight, you can try it again from the start. No game overs.
The game is a straightforward dungeon crawl with occasional breaks to explore towns, but there are a few random puzzles thrown in that you wouldn’t see in a Final Fantasy game. These generally involve hopping across gaps, blowing holes in walls, or pushing obstacles around to create paths – it all feels more like a SaGa game than it does Final Fantasy, and there’s a good reason for that.
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was created by the team behind Final Fantasy Legend III for the Game Boy (https://youtu.be/Y5sziyAxLLk ), and it really shows. The inclusion of a jump button, the over-the-shoulder view in battle, and the dungeon gimmicks will all be familiar to anyone who has played Final Fantasy Legend III (SaGa 3 in Japan).
The graphics are strikingly similar between the two. Many of FFMQ’s sprites and character animations were lifted directly from FFL3 and given a bit of color. FFMQ isn’t an impressive game to look at, but it’s not ugly by any means. The enemy designs are fun and often creative, and their looks change based on how much damage they’ve taken. As HP dwindles, ice golems begin to melt, medusas become bald, birds lose their feathers. It all tends to be amusing and endearing in spite of how much palette-swapping goes on.
The similarities in the soundtracks are pretty unmistakable, too. Ryuji Sasai had a hand in both game’s soundtracks, and they carry a similar feel and tone. They don’t mimic Uematsu’s orchestral style, instead opting for heavy rock. It might seem like an odd choice at first given the limits of the hardware, but it sounds fantastic here. The battle BGMs are major standouts, and the last dungeon theme (/”Doom Castle/”) is about as close to epic as the SNES’s soundchip is ever going to reach. Who would’ve ever expected tinny SNES power chords to mesh so well with the strings and brass? Even the cheesy square and saw guitar leads sound great in the mix.
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest doesn’t play in the same league as the /”real/” Final Fantasy SNES games, but it is well made and good for some mindless fun. It’s a bit too simplistic and by-the-numbers, maybe, but it is much more polished than you might expect from a budget-priced RPG for noobs.
One last thought: Square really seemed hell bent on confusing the world with their localizations at the time, didn’t they? As we’ve already established, Final Fantasy Mystic Quest closely resembles Final Fantasy Legend III, which creates a disconnect from the main Final Fantasy series as FFL3 was originally part of the SaGa series in Japan. But Final Fantasy Adventure (https://youtu.be/dTUYbI1pkf4 ), which was actually the first game in the Seiken Densetsu (Mana) series, was released in Europe under the name Mystic Quest, so FFMQ became Mystic Quest Legend for its PAL release. Wheels within wheels, I tell you!
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No cheats were used during the recording of this video.
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