Working Title 10.18.07: Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is AWESOME
Posted by Jordan Williams on 10.18.2007
It's been hailed as the black sheep of the Final Fantasy family. It's been called the worst that Square has ever put under the Final Fantasy banner. It was marketed as an entry-level RPG but it really just cheesed off 'real' RPG gamers. But guess what? It was AWESOME. Also, my reaction to Sonic in SSBB.
Welcome back to the #1 Column to spend most of it's week scaring people shitless, WORKING TITLE. Yes, there was no column last week, but at least I actually warned you all this time. You see, during October I take a seasonal job at Busch Garden Africa (Tampa)'s Howl-O-Scream event. I basically spend my nights in dark room that's covered in various blood and guts and use the fact that I am a 6'7" 330lbs+ black person to instill fear into patrons. It's actually pretty fun and pays very well.
But on the downside, it makes me so tired that sometimes I never get a moment to write the column outside of being asleep, tending to other duties, and working. But this week you GET A (short) COLUMN.
*Applause*
Anyway, for a while now I've been doing my AWESOME series, detailing the silver lining on some of gaming's biggest failures, and this week is the last one sadly. Next week I'll be kicking off a Working Rant and the week after that I'll most likely be heading into a new series.
The idea for this week's topic came to me from the 411mania Forums. We were having a discussion about games that should be rated 10/10 by our review chart, and someone (sarcastically) brought up Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest.
Really, why didn't I think of this one before?
Sure, it's probably the worst Final Fantasy game to date, and some people are honestly messed up in the head for liking it (Note: I liked it) but there's some silver linings to be had there. In fact...one might say that...
Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is AWESOME!
Yes, the black sheep of the Final Fantasy family that is MQ. A lot of people have regarded this as the worst of the series, right up there with Final Fantasy VII (kidding. As if that'll stop the hate mail I've been getting FOR A YEAR NOW).
This was Square's attempt at trying to lure us stupid Americans over to the RPG genre. You see, back then, Japan thought that Americans only liked run and gun games and that anything mildly complex was far too complex to us. So they gave us this really dumbed down version of an RPG and then tagged it with being "And Entry-Level RPG" so we wouldn't get offended.
Here's the funny thing...
...it actually worked.
Yes, this RPG actually worked on some small scale. Sure, it didn't broaden the genre as much as FFVI or FFVII did, but it did give those who couldn't read or the youngins a nice RPG to play. Why do I say this? This was one of the first games my little sister ever played and beat.
She was 5 when she did it.
Entry Level =/= Bad
Yes, you read that right. My five year old little sister (Who is 15 now) actually sat down and played Mystic Quest, and over the course of a month or two actually BEAT it. In my family video games is a really big thing. I used to sit back when I was six and watch my older brother and sister (rest her soul) play Final Fantasy IV and get SO frustrated that I could never figure out what the hell they were doing. So my mom eventually got the wonderful idea to use that game as a reading aid.
Final Fantasy IV taught me how to read. I am not ashamed of that at all. Although it was very funny looking back at how in Kindergarten I was the only child running around calling myself a "Bahamut" and using "Fire 3" on people. No one ever got those attacks and just hit me with a dodge ball.
Anyway, it was a great thing to see this happening to my little sister. Sure, we shouldn't let her play games this young, but seeing as she would be just watching us play anyway, we decided to give her a game of her own that she could mess around with. After trying (and failing) at Final Fantasy VI (which admittedly might've been too hard for a five year old) she seemed to find her niche with Mystic Quest. She'd come home, get her snack, then have one of us turn on the SNES and she'd just hack away.
Sure, we'd help her with some of the puzzles and the occasional boss battle, but other than that she knew how to do everything else herself outside of read some of the larger words. That is what Mystic Quest originally set out to do, wasn't it? Bring the RPG genre to people who would otherwise never have heard of it. It didn't work on such a large scale, but at least they managed to help one five year old girl(a double rarity of gaming) find a niche in the RPG genre, which she still plays today. Right now she is currently running through Tales of Symphonia for the fourth time on top of playing through Fable and KOTOR II. How many 15 year old girls do you know do THAT?
The Little Things
So many people focus on all of the things MQ apparently did wrong. It took out random battles, it took out the deep story, and it took out the challenging boss fights. Are all of these things REALLY bad when you look at the game for what it was?
I never did get the standard that most gamers and reviewers have that if a game is made entry-level or for a younger audience that the game is automatically bad. Sure, if I played Spongebob Squarepants for the Gamecube I'd probably think it was horrible, but if you give the same game to a 7 year old they will probably think it's the best thing since Lunchables.
Do not worry. You will not get a SPONGEBOB IS AWESOME column anytime soon. I fucking hate him
You see it all the time during reviews for video games. They already look at simplicity and the game being geared towards a younger audience as a bad thing and dock points on it. Sure, the average gaming is a 25 year old male, but what do you think those 25 year old males played back then? Simplistic kiddy games that we frown upon now. So if MQ is a bad game for not being geared to the (non-existent) hardcore RPG gamers out there, I think that's a bit of a loaded call.
You surely wouldn't call Oregon Trail or Carmen Sandiego bad games would you? Those are all entry level games. Why so much hate for Mystic Quest?
Was it REALLY all that bad?
Here's a question I haven't asked on all of the other AWESOME topics. Was MQ really THAT bad? Look at what it was? A nice little diddy of an RPG with a decent story, some basic RPG magic mixed in with some action/adventure segments. The game itself was of decent length and it had a pretty good story. Looking over at Wikipedia I see the game got fairly average scores and I agree with it.
So why so much hate for it? This isn't like the other AWESOME topics where they were inherently bad and deserved all of the criticism. This game just looks like it was treated unfairly by the mass populace who felt jipped that this wasn't Final Fantasy V (which no one said it was going to be). Sure, it's a bit of a slap in the face that Japan didn't think that we would be able to handle a true RPG with all of its' difficulty and playtime. But they were wrong and now we all get the same games. Are you honestly going to tell me that Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest WASN'T awesome? If in it's (somewhat) failure it managed to show Square that us wacky Americans DID want a real RPG and what we got from then on. We haven't had a thin RPG like Mystic Quest since! At least you can chalk that one in as a win from the black sheep of the Final Fantasy Family.
It's AWESOME
Just like the G4TV column. It seems like this one came off me defending something I liked rather than trying to point out the bad in something obviously bad. Like I've said COUNTLESS times in this column I just feel that Mystic Quest got an unfair shake by the fan base that followed it. Mystic Quest was made, marketed, and released and an entry level RPG to get people into the genre and the introduce them to a new type of game. It might not have succeeded on such a large scale that it had hoped for, but I know it converted one five year old girl, and probably a few others.
"It's the worst of the Final Fantasys" sure, that can be said. But then again when the WORST game of a 13 game long series scores average scores, can you really hold that against it?
I'm pretty sure there are TONS of franchises out there that would rather have their worst game be averages rather than a complete and utter bomb. So next time when you're on your snazzy little forum of chatroom and someone brings up Mystic Quest, try not to scoff to loudly, remember that the only reason this game was made was to bring in people who had never played and RPG before. You certainly wouldn't say Super Mario Brothers, Pac-Man or Frogger were all horrible games would you? Those three were entry level and while the only one of them gained a very large mass appeal, the other two certainly aren't called horrible for it.
So just remember in the back of your head that Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest is AWESOME
Mini Rant
So, if anyone has been following the Smash Brothers Dojo updates. You'd know that last week history was made when Sonic was announced as the newest playable character. If anyone remembers correctly I was NOT a big fan of this idea in the first place, and not that it's finally finalized I'M still not a big fan of it.
For two decades Mario vs. Sonic has been billed as a gamer's wet dream. For a little under one decade Super Smash Brothers has been billed as a Nintendo Fan's wet dream.
No, I'm not going to complain about the third party presence. What I am saying is that why would Nintendo waste such a big opportunity on really such a small chance? It's already bad enough that the announcement of Sonic completely stopped any limelight and focus Snake had DEAD. But then you have to look how it was done.
Snake got a giant unveiling at E3, the biggest stage of them all, and for a year had that game under his thumb. What did Sonic get? An update on a website and a minute-long promotional video.
You'd think that Nintendo would do a LITTLE bit more for such a huge rivalry.
It doesn't stop there. Not that Nintendo has put all of its eggs in once basket, what else are they going to do when the next Smash Brothers comes out? And don't give me that "IF there's a next Smash Brothers" nonsense. We are talking about a company who has made EIGHT MARIO PARTYS. To think they won't keep the Smash Brothers cash cow mooing is just dumb.
But how can they top this now? If they would've just kept Sonic out it would've disappointed A FEW fans, but those fans themselves would've been disappointed by themselves. They hyped themselves up for something that wasn't going to happen. But then we would've had a Smash Brothers game built around the Mario vs. Sonic rivalry. Instead all we have now is Sonic kind of shoe horned into a game.
It seems like a big waste of such a great build up, but I guess there's nothing to do now but wait and play the game.
And to steal for Larry Csonka over in The Wrestling Zone.
Nintendo:
Not to say this game won't sell like cocaine laced hotcakes or that Sonic won't be good in the game. Far from it, this game is going to be Nintendo's (delayed) killer app. But I just think they wasted a far bigger chance here rather than just hold off. But that's just me. I'm sure I'll be getting some mail about it.
Until next time…
I did have a Working Feedback piece set up. But Yahoo ate my account yet again (if anyone has a gmail invite, hook me up) so I didn't get it. I do remember that the gist of it, however.
I forgot Code Monkeys in my G4TV is AWESOME column. I apologize for that. Code Monkeys IS an awesome show, but sadly I haven't watched more than about three episodes but now that G4TV is playing them nonstop, I'll finally be able to catch up.
Either way, next week get ready for one of those ‘wonderful' Working Rants. The topic? I really don't know yet.
Until next time, I'm Jordan Williams and Working Title likes Fritos... Working Title likes Tab and Mountain Dew…
