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

[Sotaris]

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

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

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.

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.

[Ilyrian]

Sad it was so dumbed down gameplaywise

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.

[wereotter]

FFIV was 'dumbed down' for the US.

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.

[Ilyrian]

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.

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)

[Listrella]

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.

[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.

[TaleraRistain]

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.

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.

[technole]

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.

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.

[TaleraRistain]

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.

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.