#92: Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest

Crystals!

I recently (ok, wow, it was 2 years ago, but it feels pretty recent) played through this game on my main blog for my Final Fantasy marathon. You can read about it here.

Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was a game Square put out in an attempt to make an easy, gateway RPG for American gamers. Their theory at the time was that we just couldn't handle slow, complicated games like Final Fantasy IV so they gave us a dumbed down version of that game and then gave us Mystic Quest instead of the awesome Final Fantasy V. Many people take out their frustrations on this situation on poor Mystic Quest, but I've never hated it the way most people do. I had fun with the game as a kid, and I had fun with the game during my marathon, and I had fun with it while playing briefly to generate these screenshots. Is it the best game ever? No. Is it offensive that Square didn't think we could handle FFV and gave us this instead? Yes. But if you take this game on its own and compare it to other SNES offerings it's actually a pretty good game.

I need the elixir from in here to save Kaeli!

Mystic Quest uses standard jRPG combat in that you have a turn based battle where you input attack or magic or item and then see what happens. It doesn't have standard jRPG random encounters or dungeon movement though. Instead you can see all the encounters on the screen and only fight them if you walk into them. Dungeon movement works more like an action adventure RPG where you need to solve puzzles using your various weapons. Chop down trees with an axe, hook shot across cliffs with a whip, hit small buttons with a sword poke... That sort of thing. Run around, jump, use bombs to open holes.

The game is both very punishing and very easy at the same time. Combat can be brutal since you have either 1 or 2 people in your party and the enemies often have instant death or confusion attacks which will game over you right then and there. But if you lose a fight you get a prompt to try it again! I actually died to the very first fight in the game where my only options were to attack because I got a miss and the boss got a crit. Crazy!

The story is decent, the music is great, the animations are really cute. The bottom line is that once you accept that the game is designed to be an easy entry level game it's actually really fantastic. I can see why people often vent their frustrations on missing out on FFV, but I don't think it's fair. Especially now when we can play both games. And back when I was a kid maybe I needed an entry level RPG. (I doubt it, since FFIV was my favourite game, but who knows.) I didn't feel offended as a kid; I really liked the game.

Rating: S-

#72: Soul Blazer

Such a simple sword for a sword blazer.

I love a lot of games on the Super Nintendo but there aren't very many that bring back memories the way Soul Blazer does. It had a really interesting way of building up a world and that stuck with me over all these years. The basic idea is there are little circles that spawn monsters inside of dungeons. Kill all the monsters that spawn and you can step on the circle to seal it. Sometimes this would open up a new path to travel in the dungeon and sometimes it would release the soul of a creature from town. That soul would appear back in town along with nearby things like a building or a bridge or a set of stairs. You could go back and talk to all of them. Some existed just to add atmosphere to the town. Some existed as part of an end game gathering quest. Most importantly some served to progress the plot and/or open up new dungeons. So the game basically plays out with you hacking monsters in a dungeon for a bit, then going back to town to check out all the souls you saved, then going back into a dungeon. Repeat as necessary.

Old woman sells medicinal herbs!

I didn't remember much about the game beyond the basics of releasing souls. The opening music was immediately familiar, but not from Soul Blazer... No, this music was from ActRaiser! Another game that alternated between fighting monsters and a unique way of building a town. Another game by Enix, actually. It didn't take long for them to link the games together in other ways. In ActRaiser you play as 'The Master' who is essentially the God of that world. You would sent your power down to inhabit statues to beat up the monsters. In Soul Blazer you take the form of a human avatar of a heavenly being but you get to commune with 'The Master'. In both games The Master has apparently failed as all living things have been sealed away by evil. But with a little help from an angel the day can be saved! It also felt like they flat out stole a lot of the sounds and animations for things like enemies dying, and shooting projectiles, and spawning from a lair.

Suck it, Deathtoll!

I saw this game was coming up today and spent all week playing it instead of just popping it in for a bit in the afternoon. Soul Blazer is worth the attention. The story is interesting enough, but a little preachy. The plot is about a scientist who invents a machine that lets evil take over the world. The moral of the story is that science is bad and faith is good. A pretty terrible moral, actually. The ending has the player character fall in love with a human girl. The Master sees this and decides the player character isn't worthy of being a heavenly being and casts him out of heaven to go live with the girl. Sounds good, actually! Oh, except The Master wipes out all of his memories. She still knows he's the angel/man/hero who saved the world but he doesn't remember it. He doesn't even remember her. But she loves him and he's an amnesiac so they obviously live together in the end.

The game is a pretty standard adventure RPG game. Swing your sword, cast your spells. Find the pattern for the boss fights and execute them in order to dish out more damage than you take. Level up some if you need the extra health. Inventory management is a real pain, unfortunately. If you find a key you need to go through the effort of equipping the key to your one item slot before you can unlock the door. Then you need to switch your item slot back to the one useful item.

There are 6 levels of souls to save and then a final dungeon. Each level has it's own theme and story, though they are all pretty derivative. A member of Dr Leo's entourage was in the town and had a gem. The ruler of the town falsely imprisoned them to take the gem, all of which led to the huge downfall of the world. Save people, eventually save Leo's friend, save the now apologetic rules, get the gem. But even though they were all basically the same story the details were different enough in each town to feel like something new was going on.

Is Soul Blazer the best game ever? No. But it's a fun game with a really interesting and unique premise. A lot like ActRaiser in that way, actually. It's pretty telling I think that there's only been two games out of seventy-two thus far that I felt compelled to play through to completion and it's those two games. I came close on Link to the Past and I only skipped out on Final Fantasy IV because I'd just played it but the fact still remains that only ActRaiser and Soul Blazer captured my memory enough to get me to want to play it through, and were good enough to make me stick with them.

Rating : S-

#54: The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

May the way of the Hero lead to the Triforce.

I heard once (ok, it was on Criminal Minds, but Dr Reid sounds like he knows what he's talking about) that musical preferences are formed around the age of 14. If that is true (a quick Google search did turn up a site claiming 12-16 as the range) then it makes sense to me that video game preferences could follow the same sort of pattern. What was I doing when I was 14? Playing games on the SNES, and probably this one in particular. People often debate which of a given game series is 'the best', and when it comes to Zelda the answer to me is clear. A Link to the Past is 'the best'. Top down, two dimensional, 16 bit games are my bread and butter. Wait, I hate both bread and butter... How about they're my bacon and eggs?

Oh no! Zelda!

Playing this game again, especially in contrast to some of the other games I've played in this adventure, is quite the eye opener. A lot of the games I've played thus far have been terrible. Bad sound, bad graphics, lag, no plot... None of those hold true here. This game had incredible music. The graphics may be a little dated but when it comes to 16 bit SNES graphics these are amazing. The game controls well. There's an actual story, and I get told what it is while playing the game. There are tons of items to collect, and puzzles to solve, and secrets to find.

COME HERE!

I know there were open world games before this but when it comes to just having a world to run around in, cracked walls to blow up, and stuff to find this game is awesome. That there are two versions of the same world and you need to go back and forth between them to get at some of the secret treasure is such a great step. When you really have time to just explore around this game really shines.

It was also a lot harder than I remember, but I think a big part of that is that I was trying to push through to get as much stuff done for this post instead of just playing the game. Normally I wouldn't go into a new dungeon without finding a new fairy pool to fill up my bottles. Having 33 health gives a lot greater margin for error than having 6! On the plus side the game actually has a reasonable continue option when you die. It saves your open world progress, and your dungeon progress, and either starts you back at your home if you die in the world or the start of the dungeon if you die in one. No limited number of continues either! Back in the day this option would be inconceivable (if I die it becomes my brother's turn) but for this purpose it worked out ok. And by not filling up on fairies I actually got pretty good at avoiding some of the bosses because I got to fight them so many times. Leaving to fill my bottles would have made it easy, and probably faster too...

I ended up saving 4 of the 7 princesses in the dark land, which was pretty close to done. I expect I'll end up finishing the game later this week. I've found with most of the games in this adventure I can't wait to stop playing them. This one I want to keep playing it!

Rating: S+

#34: Wanderers from Ys III

No real title screen for this game, somehow...

Wanderers from Ys is a game name that has stuck with me for 22 years, but I can't remember a single thing about it. I know it was available for rent from Midnight Video and that means I must have rented it at some point but I don't know what it is. Even after playing it a bit today I can't remember having played it before. But that name is pretty sweet, huh? And apparently this is the third one? A brief look at Wikipedia claims the Ys series is actually the second largest jRPG series after Final Fantasy. Huh. I'd have guessed something like Dragon Warrior. Apparently it has two animes and an MMO!

I see you, bug thing!

The game plays out as an action-adventure game where you play a red headed hero who is wandering around aimlessly with his buddy. His buddy gets a scary fortune told which portends disaster in his home town. We have nothing better to do since we're wandering aimlessly anyway so we go back to his home. Where my buddy immediately locks himself in the inn and I'm stuck wandering around town. Turns out some monsters have attacked the quarry and the mayor is trapped. I volunteer to go save him. I start the game with 1000 gold and no gear... Why? I seem to recall Lagoon started the same way and it just seems stupid. I have enough money to afford a full set of gear at the shop. I'm an adventurer! Why am I walking around naked? Heck, in the intro movie my character even kills a wildcat with his sword... Where is that sword?

Chopped!

I didn't end up making it very far. All the early enemies took two hits to kill and I mostly couldn't find a way to hit them without getting hit back. So I took a hit from every ground enemy and some of the flying ones. Then I made it to this guy who seemed to do more damage or something since I died almost immediately. Maybe I needed to grind on bugs at the start of the mine until I leveled up? Go back to town and spend some of the cash on healing potions if they exist?

Combat was pretty uninteresting (I had a jump button and a short ranged attack button that I just held down) but I was willing to give it another try. Except it forced me to start at the beginning, including watching the intro speeches again. And wander through town buying my gear again. And there didn't seem to be a decent way to speed through dialogue. The game didn't interest me enough to do that, so I'm done.

That said, there was a save feature and I probably could have saved before going into the cave. Grinding for experience and cash may be a bit of a foreign concept now but it's certainly the way the RPG world worked back in the day and I could see myself having liked this game enough to keep trying back then. Combat seemed pretty smooth and quick and I probably could have gotten better at it, so this game felt better than Lagoon did.

I wish I knew what/where Ys was. The intro didn't explain that at all. I bet this is another case where the backstory was listed in the manual. Oh well.

Rating: B

#28: Lagoon

Nice waterfall I guess?

I recognized the name Lagoon but I couldn't really remember why. I was thinking it was an action-adventure game where you saved townspeople by opening chests but that would be game 72 on the list, Soul Blazer. I'm sure I rented Lagoon as a kid but I guess it really didn't stick with me. It turns out Lagoon actually is an action-adventure game, but not a memorable one. The game started with me forced to wander around town trying to find a plot hook. The town was full of buildings with doors. Some doors I could open. Others I couldn't. There was no way to tell which was which which was pretty frustrating. Ultimately by visiting, in order, mayor's house, church, cave entrance, church, mayor's house, church, weapon shop I was finally able to get started.

Huzzah!

I opened this treasure chest and it locked up the game and played a huge, unskippable fanfare. Doo da dooooooo! You found 10 gold. The mayor gave me 300 gold to start my adventure which was enough money to buy every single thing in the store. 10 gold is not interesting. It certainly didn't deserve a fanfare.

ARGH! GO UP! AND AROUND!

I eventually made it to the end of the stupid cave and found the dude I was sent in to rescue. He was injured and took a healing potion I found in a chest to similar huge fanfare. I gather he wasn't going to move until I gave him one, so it's a good thing I found that chest first... Otherwise I would have had to backtrack the stupid cave, then come back here. Once the guy started moving it turned into an escort quest. I had to go back through the whole cave with this idiot following me. Idiot-boy moved very slowly (I guess for flavour because he was injured?) and would try to take the shortest path to me. Even if that path included a little impassable crack. Then he'd just stand there looking stupid until I walked back up to him and showed him the right way to go.

WHY WON'T YOU DIE?!?

I got frustrated with the escort quest so I tried to get my friend killed. Nope. The enemies would just walk right through him without doing any damage to him at all. He would appear to be invincible. Why did he need my help if he can't take any damage? Just walk home on your own, loser. So I took off to the exit without him... But then it wouldn't let me go into doors unless he was beside me, so even if I cleared a straight line path to the door I then had to wait for him to catch up before proceeding.

Slow escort quest coupled with wonky controls coupled with a pretty bad combat system meant I just walked away from the game rather than finish the escort quest. I don't remember getting this bitter at the game as a kid so it's quite possible that World of Warcraft managed to jade my perception of escort quests. 

The combat system was annoying in that my sword was only a couple pixels long and I'd only hit the enemy if I managed to line it up mid-swing with an enemy. My health bar regenerated and theirs didn't so I ended up just charging into every enemy and mashed the attack button until they died. I'd be full by the time I got to the next enemy so I didn't care how much damage I took. This is bad game design, I think. I want combat to be interesting and then to have consequences for failure. Oh well.

Also frustrating... I was going up levels but I only found out by checking the status screen. No dings. No messages. Nothing. Opening a chest with 10 gold in it was worth a fanfare and a pause. Leveling up? Nothing at all. That's the wrong way to design a game. People like to level up. Tell them when they did!

That said, if I didn't have a lot of action-adventure experience this probably wouldn't have been so bad. And it was the first such game on the system. Well, it came out in the same month as Super Castlevania IV... Lagoon should probably be happy it's earlier in the alphabet since I suspect it would get a worse rating in the other order...

Rating: C