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The Mystic Quest journey is ancient, starting in the early 1990s on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was initially aimed at players entering the RPG genre.

It was criticized after the first version as being too easy and monotonous. I first played the game many years ago and was delighted to complete the original Mystic Quest. My experience of doing this trip was quite enjoyable. I enjoyed the music, found the game to be fundamentally engaging and fun, and was interested in continuing to play to find out what would happen next. I found that the game was easy to use. I have not found myself hostile or manipulated. On the contrary, the game was like a nice walk in the park, relatively forgettable.

The journey of Mystic Quest is like the traditional final fantasy journey of a young knight who must defeat powerful monsters in his effort to save the crystals of the four elements. On this journey he is sometimes accompanied by an ancient, who guides him, and by a series of companions. At the end of the game, the traveler realizes, after defeating the Dark King, that the Ancient Guide is the crystal of light that he has saved.

In the so-called updated version called Mystic Quest Reborn, however, there are some serious issues to address. The first question I would like to ask is: is this an advance from the original form of the game or a decline? Has the game really improved since it has been transformed? Let’s explore these questions by considering what changes have actually been made to the game. Some of the changes I have noticed in this “updated” form of the game have been changes in some music, minor graphics changes, and in addition to the addition of some laborious difficulties.

Let’s look at the musical changes first. Mystic Quest, the original, had an excellent musical selection, which was probably its strong point. The music on the original was so good that people actually made revamped covers. This lazily swaps them from others, so-called Square-Enix games. This new music isn’t bad, it’s okay, but instead of enhancing the experience, it actually seems to belittle it. The new boss music, for example, just doesn’t fit the mood, and the old boss music is really missing in this updated experience. What the programmers could have done was remix the old music and actually make it a new experience by beautifying the old. So this is strike number 1.

Let’s now look at the so-called graphic changes. Now what does this also mean? There are no changes in character sprites, story, objects or the game in general. So why make relatively meaningless changes? Well, the changes made are merely textual, which indicates another form of apparent laziness. What was changed was the item name, monster names and some changes in the title screen and credits. If that’s what’s new, why not just keep the old? Hit number 2!

We now come to the most unpleasant and uncomfortable aspect of the “updated” version: every battle is a war of attrition. You can die in almost any battle. It’s not funny, it’s ridiculous. Why is it so difficult? Well, the number one status elements and the contrast really make this battle system extreme; y painful. The worst state disturbances are confusion and petrification. Confusion can almost end any battle in a minute and not in your favor. Your players could use a spell against you and destroy the entire party. It’s not funny! If you get petrified, the game is over. Why keep only the 2-player structure? Why not be able to use the characters in the game? Why not be able to equip them? These were problems that could have been improved.

Now the equipment problem is serious. You are forced to take some party members, but you cannot change their equipment. Why is this a problem? Remember those state problems mentioned earlier? Well, your group members can be affected by these deleterious circumstances. You also can’t level up your partners’ level, so it’s all about building your character status, which is really hard. I had to train my MC in the first dungeon and use the exit spell very frequently!

Furthermore, there is no real opportunity to obtain real financial resources. You can only get money from battlefields and some boss battles. So the only way to heal your party is in the first city, Forest. All of this really wastes time. Last, but not least, the items are moved to different positions, which is not necessary. Also, on the battlefields, there are no new bosses, but there are a lot more battles. There are up to 99 battles to fight to get the Flare spell! All of these monotonous battles have the same types of monsters. You have to complete this boring fight, busy fighting annoying battles to get 100% completion of items. All of this refers to the exact same items as the original Mystic Quest! This is Strike 3 and this game has Struck Out!

I believe there is really no truly positive improvement being made in this game. So, it should have been done. I would say: “No”. I have the CIB version of Timewalk. I happen to have an original Mystic Quest manual and have compared the two. Again I have not found that any real improvements have been made from the original version to the updated version. This is the real problem. If you’re going to make a harder version of the original, you should give your players rewards and allow them to get something for all their hard work. I have had very little satisfaction in completing this game, and that is its carnal sin. Should you make your audience work so hard and give them nothing for their toils and efforts? So, if you want to play Mystic Quest, I suggest you play the original and not this unfortunate update. You will have a lot more fun.

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