Final Fantasy Mystic Quest - Intro and Brief Gameplay Demonstration
10As implied in the title of this video, only the intro of the game is shown, followed by a quick gameplay demonstration from the beginning. This was made to be used in a review I made on this French site here: http://www.geekmodeblog.com/2009/04/final-fantasy-mystic-quest.html#complet This video is also supposed to give you a general idea of this game's story and gameplay, which could lead you to try it, I hope! It was first released in North America, a first for a Final Fantasy game, but there's an explanation: it was made for Americans. It seems that somewhere along the way, Square thought only Japanese players were able to handle a high level of difficulty in video games and also, they were the only ones able to endure the complex systems in their RPGs. It is a spin-off of Final Fantasy, which is intended as a beginner's RPG (not bad for that purpose, but there are better beginner's RPGs in my opinion, like Super Mario RPG), and a way to introduce new players to the series (I don't think that really worked, since it features many differences from a real Final Fantasy game). When they released the game in Japan, they renamed it Final Fantasy USA Mystic Quest, so that Japanese gamers would instantly recognize it as the simplified game made for Americans. It was also renamed Mystic Quest Legend in Europe, probably because Final Fantasy wasn't well known in Europe, because the games were not released before a long time. Sure, the story is not as complex (some dialogues are even plain stupid) or interesting as in a real Final Fantasy game, the battle system is also very different and really simplified, but interesting concepts, like no random encounters, were new and fresh for the series. There are also more puzzles to solve and some platforming elements, like jumping and having to cut trees with an axe, or using bombs to open doorways. I also like the way enemies change appearance when they're damaged and the music is not too bad either. It's not a bad game on its own, it's just bad for a Final Fantasy game. If you can find it for cheap, like on eBay, it's definitely worth a try since it's fun, but only if you really know what you're getting, you need to lower your expectations a bit, don't expect Final Fantasy.
Note: The name I pick at the beginning for the main character, Benjamin, is in the official English manual of the game. Nowhere else can that name be found, not even in the Japanese release, so the game probably had no intended official name for the character. Do not consider that name necessarily canon, but I guess it's not that important.