I would really dig a "crossover" or callback of any kind of Mystic Quest...

So, Mystic Quest holds a lot of sentiment for me personally; I had trouble reading as a kid, and Mystic Quest was the game that made me WANT to learn! And the game was honestly perfect for my particular situation, a true starter-RPG.

But you know what?

Those Battle themes are STILL bangers!!!

Considering Mystic Quest leaves off with Benjamin and Tristam leaving by boat for new horizons, there's always been a part of me that hoped they would show up again in the franchise!

In particular, I've always been more a fan of the sleek-looking version of his armor seen on the original NA box-art:

https://www.giantbomb.com/a/uploads/...1-box_ffmq.png

Of course, I would focus purely on a humorous side-story with him/them. Might be cool if the quest book-ended with Trial against a giant Minotaur or skeletal T-rex (both iconic early boss battles), but that's just me!

And really, how amazing would it be to get the Battle and Boss themes remade for FFXIV?!?

think that game is so obscure that most people have not even played it :D

Isn't it just a reminder that Squaresoft in the 90's thought westerners were stupid?

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Originally Posted by Ilyrian

Isn't it just a reminder that Squaresoft in the 90's thought westerners were stupid?

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to be fair sega also though the west didn't want rpgs and we saw how that ended for the saturn

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Originally Posted by Ilyrian

Isn't it just a reminder that Squaresoft in the 90's thought westerners were stupid?

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Kinda-sorta true, BUT! It isn't actually a bad game. It even had a couple lines of clever dialogue, as I remember. It's just... very simple, and VERY forgiving. But if you're someone who hasn't played a turn-based RPG before, it probably wouldn't be a bad option to recommend, at least in terms of mechanics (the story just doesn't really do anything terribly interesting).

I'll say that, even beyond the music, the enemies got some AMAZING sprites! Plus, they actually show combat-damage, which even to this date is an extreme rarity.

But in saying that, I'd totally have Benjamin's appearance be something played for laughs. Just an Hildebrand is lovable because he's so oblivious, maybe Benjamin arrives in Eorzea and is the only one who seems to have a realistic reaction to HOW incredibly high-stakes the story has gotten (ie. Urianger starts explaining how Primals are summoned, and Benjamin stopping him like "I'm sorry, WHAT?!? What do you mean these are 'world-ending threats'? Like, they can literally end the world? And you want US to fight them? Are you OUT of your MIND?!?!?")

Just make it kind of a goofball who is in way over his head, and he knows it.

Give me Chrono Trigger before Mystic Quest

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Originally Posted by _Koneko_

think that game is so obscure that most people have not even played it :D

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Hah yeah, it was actually among the first FF games I had around here in Europe. Sad it was so dumbed down gameplaywise

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Originally Posted by Ilyrian

Mystic Quest was specifically made that way and I *think* it was the only game the PAL regions got before FFVII (SoM got a UK and *I think* a French translation but sold poorly). FFIV was 'dumbed down' for the US.

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yeah you're right. Was just a shame when you realized this years later and imported the PS1 collections they released in the US lol.

There was a minor reference to FF Mystic Quest during ARR - a side quest in Coerthas Central Highlands had you searching for a stray black sheep named Benjamin, which is a not-very subtle light-hearted stab at FFMQ's 'black sheep' status in the FF series - Benjamin was of course the name of FFMQ's main character.

Whether you would see any further references is anyone's guess - SE seem to be adding the in-jokes and references to the rest of the series including spin-offs more and more, so more FFMQ references are possible presumedly.

FF Mystic Quest was my first FF game I ever played. It has been so long that I don't remember a whole lot about it. lol I was maybe 4 or 5 at the time which probably explains a lot, but I remember it fondly. I wouldn't be opposed to a crossover, but I don't see it ever happening.

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Originally Posted by Sotaris

Sad it was so dumbed down gameplaywise

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Mystic Quest was specifically made that way and I *think* it was the only game the PAL regions got before FFVII (SoM got a UK and *I think* a French translation but sold poorly). FFIV was 'dumbed down' for the US.

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Originally Posted by Ilyrian

FFIV was 'dumbed down' for the US.

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I still have my SNES copy of FFIV.... and yeah. They had low expectations for us since it had a complete walkthrough for the game up till the point you enter the dwarven underground on top of being dumbed down.

I'll say this much in defense of Mystic Quest, though. When you consider it as a product of a specific time, and what goal it was trying to accomplish, it was a pretty solid title. It was a fairly early SNES title coming out before the games like Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, FFVI, etc and was created to intentionally introduce western gamers to the ideas of turned based combat and elemental weaknesses. It was simple by design, and I actually appreciate that. I think it was one of many games that helped set the stage for better RPGs that came afterwards. Even if you didn't play the game yourself, the ideas that were introduced into the western market lasted and became more well accepted. RPG style games before that were more in line with things like Zelda or the Quintet games, games we'd consider as more action/adventure games today.

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Originally Posted by wereotter

I still have my SNES copy of FFIV.... and yeah. They had low expectations for us since it had a complete walkthrough for the game up till the point you enter the dwarven underground on top of being dumbed down.

I'll say this much in defense of Mystic Quest, though. When you consider it as a product of a specific time, and what goal it was trying to accomplish, it was a pretty solid title. It was a fairly early SNES title coming out before the games like Secret of Mana, Chrono Trigger, FFVI, etc and was created to intentionally introduce western gamers to the ideas of turned based combat and elemental weaknesses. It was simple by design, and I actually appreciate that. I think it was one of many games that helped set the stage for better RPGs that came afterwards. Even if you didn't play the game yourself, the ideas that were introduced into the western market lasted and became more well accepted. RPG style games before that were more in line with things like Zelda or the Quintet games, games we'd consider as more action/adventure games today.

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It just reminds me of those dark days when we didn't have *any* of those games - the EU got stiffed on everything (apart from SoM) up until VII. I had to import VI and play it through a converter.
The issue being that Square (and others) just assumed that we didn't want RPGs and then put some effort into getting the US up to speed and left Europe and the PAL regions in the dust. Dark days.

When VII launched and went supernova and everyone was banging on about it like it just came out of nowhere, I was just like *I KNOW* . (Still think they peaked with VI though)

I liked Mystic Quest. I was already a JRPG fan when I played it but it was a cute and simple Final Fantasy with a great soundtrack. I'd definitely be on board to bring some of that playfulness into XIV, especially the music.

I would totally be into this. MQ was pretty fun for what it was, especially using the tools/weapons to actually traverse dungeons. And the music was excellent.

I've got the perfect idea for a mystic quest crossover.

NEW TUTORIAL!

Reworking the various tutorials so that things actally TEACH you stuff, including all the basic mechanics.

With the final challenge being the skeletal trex with trusts. (unlocking trex ex)

Maybe it's because I found it too easy except for needing to figure out how to finish the invisible place. I'm going to say I'd rather have one from Chrono Trigger. Course this is someone who came to this game after playing stuff like Shining Force, FF IV, Lufia ect and only really remember Phobe. Did I enjoy it? Yeah sure but for me it wasn't as good. It gets ignored most likely due to the fact Squaresoft at the time didn't think we could handle harder grity rpgs.

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Originally Posted by ICountFrom0

I've got the perfect idea for a mystic quest crossover.

NEW TUTORIAL!

Reworking the various tutorials so that things actally TEACH you stuff, including all the basic mechanics.

With the final challenge being the skeletal trex with trusts. (unlocking trex ex)

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Maybe if they ever update the Hall of the Novice we can get a character named Benjamin in there teaching you how to play... that would be a good callback

we got kind of a reference to it in eureka anemos, the last boss of that area (pazuzu) was named after one of the vile four (equivalent of the 4 fiends) bosses in the game. beyond that I haven't really seen anything though i'm not surprised, it wasn't particuarly well liked aside from the music.

Mystic Quest was actually called Final Fantasy USA in Japan. SE had a make a handholding FF game for America cause they just couldn't respect the genre. Now everyone wants to label their game RPG. Eureka is the cloest reference to it though because of Pazuzu.

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Originally Posted by ICountFrom0

I've got the perfect idea for a mystic quest crossover.

NEW TUTORIAL!

Reworking the various tutorials so that things actally TEACH you stuff, including all the basic mechanics.

With the final challenge being the skeletal trex with trusts. (unlocking trex ex)

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I honestly LOVE this idea! Seems like a perfect callback, and also playfully poking fun at it being the "beginner RPG".

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Originally Posted by technole

Mystic Quest was actually called Final Fantasy USA in Japan. SE had a make a handholding FF game for America cause they just couldn't respect the genre. Now everyone wants to label their game RPG. Eureka is the cloest reference to it though because of Pazuzu.

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American fans respected the genre just fine before it came out. It wasn't the first JRPG over here. Square (since they hadn't merged with Enix yet) was just trying to be more mainstream and get a bigger market share. And there is a vast difference between western RPG and Japanese RPG genres. A lot of triple A RPG games coming out are western RPG.

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Originally Posted by TaleraRistain

American fans respected the genre just fine before it came out. It wasn't the first JRPG over here. Square (since they hadn't merged with Enix yet) was just trying to be more mainstream and get a bigger market share. And there is a vast difference between western RPG and Japanese RPG genres. A lot of triple A RPG games coming out are western RPG.

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JRPGs were sales slogs in the Nintendo era, that's why a handful of the main FF games were skipped in English and also why we got the dumb Final Fantasy III = Final Fantasy VI ordeal. It wasn't until FFVII on PSone that really blew the lid on mainstream popularity in the US.

The funniest thing about the whole "Americans didn't respect RPGs" thing is that JRPGs as a whole, but especially Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, took inspiration from the Wizardry series, which were western RPGs. Final Fantasy in particular also drew heavy inspiration from Dungeons and Dragons, particularly in its monster design.

That said, I love Mystic Quest. Especially the music, and not just the battle tracks. Every single song in that game is an earworm to me.

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Originally Posted by Rosenstrauch

The funniest thing about the whole "Americans didn't respect RPGs" thing is that JRPGs as a whole, but especially Final Fantasy and Dragon Quest, took inspiration from the Wizardry series, which were western RPGs. Final Fantasy in particular also drew heavy inspiration from Dungeons and Dragons, particularly in its monster design.

That said, I love Mystic Quest. Especially the music, and not just the battle tracks. Every single song in that game is an earworm to me.

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Yep, and what's really true if there was much respect for JRPGs in the Nintendo era, Mystic Quest aka Final Fantasy USA would have probably never existed and all Final Fantasy games 1-6 would have been in English from the get-go. I don't think the business decision for the game was a good trade-off because the other FF games are much better but they had to do something to drum up the genre.

Mystic Quest is pretty far down the list. We still need fights with rubicante and them from ff4, and some ff7 stuff.

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Originally Posted by technole

JRPGs were sales slogs in the Nintendo era, that's why a handful of the main FF games were skipped in English and also why we got the dumb Final Fantasy III = Final Fantasy VI ordeal. It wasn't until FFVII on PSone that really blew the lid on mainstream popularity in the US.

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Right, because JRPGs weren't mainstream. But those of us who were JRPG fans in America at that time avidly played what came over here. Square already had us so we weren't giving them much market share with MQ and MQ even turned off or insulted some fans by how easy it was. While also failing to grab the attention of those new to the JRPG genre.

VII did make it more mainstream, because that game implemented more flash and bang that appealed to a wider audience. JRPGs still are a bit of an acquired taste though many have tried to adjust to the ever-changing state of what's popular in gaming.

Go run Sohm Al Hard Mode, and tell me that music isn't inspired by Mystic Quest's banging Volcano theme. I dare you.

I don't think there's much of interest in Mystic Quest, but I've got to admit the soundtrack was an absolute bop. I would love to hear what Soken could do with that material. We could at least get a dungeon dedicated to it, culminating in a battle against the Dark King! Maybe introduce a quirky mechanic where the healers are depended on for DPS because Cure, etc., damages him more than anything..?
(For those who aren't familiar, casting Cure on the final boss in Mystic Quest did a TON of damage to it, way more than you could normally do. I believe it was due to some kind of overflow bug, but at the time I just thought it was because he was undead or something.)

Honestly, I feel like the giant desert area outside the Gold Saucer, you could have the skeletal T-rex/dragon ("Skullrus Rex") as a GIANT boss, maybe a stand-alone Trial?

Hey, maybe it could be connected to Hildibrand. Might be funny to see how a would-be hero like Benjamin might interact with a clueless Hildribrand.

Might also be funny if the Extreme version involved Benjamin healing the boss to full health, like "Aww man... I swear! Back where I come from, that would've killed him! Sorry everyone!", just as a callback to the Dark King fight.

We could also use other Super Famicom era callbacks like
Secret of Mana ( I really just want a Flammie mount)
Secret of Evermore (Toaster dog minion please.)
And Chronotrigger

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Originally Posted by RitsukoSonoda

Secret of Evermore (Toaster dog minion please.)

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Bow-wow-wow

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Originally Posted by Jennah

Go run Sohm Al Hard Mode, and tell me that music isn't inspired by Mystic Quest's banging Volcano theme. I dare you.

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Quicksand, Sohm Al Hard's theme, is a legacy track from 1.0, and was the Thanalan battle theme.

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Originally Posted by RitsukoSonoda

We could also use other Super Famicom era callbacks like
Secret of Mana ( I really just want a Flammie mount)
Secret of Evermore (Toaster dog minion please.)
And Chronotrigger

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And Secret of Evermore was also a game for the US if I remember right. The true sequel didn't come to NA/EU until the past few years. Also the Final Fantasy Legend games for the game boy were the Saga series in Japan. Final Fantasy Adventure for the gameboy was also the first of the Secret of Mana games, which is why the one we missed is SoM3.

I’d say I’d rather have an ff12 crossover, but it’s looking more and more like xiv is somehow a direct sequel to ff12

FFVII leads my list of crossovers, followed by Chrono Trigger. But even the latter is somewhat iffy, as overall, I'd really rather they not continue to muddy the water with NIER-like non-Final Fantasy nods. I personally think NIER is garbage - it's a predictable, emotionally stunted story layered on top of a bad bullet hell game. It had no place in FFXIV - certainly not before we get any acknowledgement of major pillars of the FF RPG lineage.

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Originally Posted by TeraRamis

FFVII leads my list of crossovers, followed by Chrono Trigger. But even the latter is somewhat iffy, as overall, I'd really rather they not continue to muddy the water with NIER-like non-Final Fantasy nods. I personally think NIER is garbage - it's a predictable, emotionally stunted story layered on top of a bad bullet hell game. It had no place in FFXIV - certainly not before we get any acknowledgement of major pillars of the FF RPG lineage.

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To be fair in regards to Chronotrigger. Akira Toriyama did the character designs for that title. Hence why the character artwork looks so similar to the Dragon Quest series which has had a cross over here that included one of that series staple jokes in the form of the "Puff-Puff". He also provided us with Dragonball and Dr. Slump and the character designs for the Blue Dragon series. For Chronotrigger though even the future tech seen in that title didn't seem as high tech as some of the stuff in the game that isnt from a crossover.

I also wouldnt mind a Super Mario RPG collab that gave us Mario character costumes and weapon glamours fashioned after the living weapon type enemies you fight in that game.

The soundtrack in general was very solid.

Honestly as a baby's first turn based rpg it wasn't so bad. Though at times it felt more like a watered down Lufia than FF.

If I was less cynical about the state of XIV I'd say I'd love a crossover with Octopath Traveler instead. To have the amazing boss themes in instanced fights and a two phase crazy and challenging Caldera fight.

But then I remembered how XIV's fight design has been in the last few years... Nah it'd butcher Caldera.

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Originally Posted by van_arn

I’d say I’d rather have an ff12 crossover, but it’s looking more and more like xiv is somehow a direct sequel to ff12

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It's not. Yoshi outright debunked that ages ago (stating clearly "Hydaelyn is not FFXII's Ivalice"), FFXIV just has FFXIV-specific areas, lore and events taken from FFXII and Tactics, but they are not directly linked as 'sequels/prequels' (it's the same as FFXIV referencing every other FF game in the series but not being directly connected to them). It's fanservice, nothing more.

I'd like to see another game made with the same mechanics as MQ, but more properly fleshed out. But yeah, the music was definitely a high point for the game. I like firing up the Doom Castle music when I start the orb escape in DCSS.

Oh man -- and you've GOTTA have the "over-exaggerated shrug" as an emote to unlock! And maybe a set of gear loosely based on the characters, for each armor-type.

Thinking about it more, though, I think it would be best either have the Minotaur as a solo Trial boss, or maybe "Focus Tower/Doom Castle" as a dungeon. The latter sounds cool TO ME, but I also know almost nobody is familiar with Mystic Quest, so a trial seems a bit more reasonable. That being the case, a fight with the Minotaur, blaring a remix of the Boss Battle theme, would be pretty sick! Probably have some mechanics revolving around Slimes and "Brownies" (goblins?) spawning through the fight, and the Minotaur applying some kind of poison players have to deal with somehow (since in the game, after beating the Minotaur, he poisons your first team member, Kaeli, causing her to fall ill and you had to go to the Sand Dungeon to get her an Elixir).