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

[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.

[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.

[technole]

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.

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.

[Katie_Kitty]

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

[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.

[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.

[Fyrebrand]

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.)

[Terin]

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.

[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