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

[Terin]

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?!?

[_Koneko_]

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

[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.

[Ilyrian]

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