The Journey of Mystic Quest is old, and began in the early nineties on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was initially aimed at beginning players in the RPG genre.

It was criticized after the first pitch for being too easy and monotonous. I first played the game many years ago and was happy to complete the original Mystic Quest. My experience of doing this trip was quite pleasant. I enjoyed the music, found the game fundamentally engaging and entertaining, and was interested in continuing to play to find out what was going to happen next. I found the game easy to use. I did not feel antagonized or manipulated. On the contrary, the game was like a pleasant and relatively forgettable walk in the park.

The Mystic Quest journey is like the traditional final fantasy journey of a young knight who has to defeat powerful monsters in his effort to save the crystals of the four elements. On this journey, he is sometimes accompanied by an old man, who guides him, and 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 he saved.

In the so-called updated version called Mystic Quest Reborn, on the other hand, there are some serious issues that need to be addressed. The first question I would ask is: Is this an advance on the original form of the game or a decline? Has the game really improved as it has been transformed? Let’s explore these questions by considering what changes have actually been made to the game. Some of the changes that I noticed in this “updated” form of the game were changes to the music, slight graphical changes and, in addition to some laborious difficulties.

Let’s first examine the musical changes. Mystic Quest, the original, had an excellent selection of music, which was probably its strongest suit. The music from the original was so good that people made revamped versions of it. It lazily trades them for others, which is known as Square-Enix Games. This new music isn’t bad, it’s actually fine, but instead of enhancing the experience, it actually seems to diminish it. The new boss music, for example, doesn’t really fit the mood, and the old boss music is sorely missed in this updated experience. What the programmers could have done is remix the old music and make it a new experience by embellishing the old. So that’s strike number 1.

Now let’s look at the so-called graphic changes. Now what does this mean? There are no changes to the sprites of the characters, the story, the elements or the game in general. So why make relatively insignificant changes? Well, the changes made are simply textual, indicating another form of apparent laziness. What was changed was the name of the elements, the names of the monsters and some changes in the title screen and the end credits. If this is the new, why not keep the old? Hit number 2!

Now we come to the most unpleasant and uncomfortable aspect of the “updated” version: every battle is a war of attrition. One can die in almost all battles. That’s not funny, that’s ridiculous. Why is so difficult? Well, the number one status items and counterattack make this battle system extreme; and painful. The worst ailments of the state are confusion and petrification. Confusion can almost end any battle in a minute and not in your favor. Your own players could use a spell against you and destroy your entire party. It’s not fun! If you petrify yourself, the game is over. Why just keep 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 required to bring certain party members, but you cannot change their equipment. Why is this a problem? Remember the status issues mentioned above? Well, members of your group can be affected by these deleterious circumstances. Also, you can’t level up the level of your companions, so it all depends on building your own character’s state, which is really difficult. I had to train my MC in the first dungeon and use the exit spell very often!

Furthermore, there is no real opportunity to obtain real financial resources. You can only get money from battlegrounds and some boss battles. So the only way to heal your party is in the first city, Foresta. All of this really is a waste of time. Last but not least, items are moved to different locations, which is not necessary. Also, on the battlefields, there are no new bosses, but there are many more battles. There are up to 99 battles to fight to get the Flare spell! All these monotonous battles have the same types of monsters. You must complete this tedious fight, involved in annoying battles to be able to complete the item 100%. All of this ties into the exact same elements from the original Mystic Quest! That’s Strike 3, and this game has Struck Out!

I think there has really been no really positive improvement on this game. So, it should have been done. I’d say no. “I got the Timewalk CIB version. Turns out I have an original Mystic Quest manual and compared the two. Again, I didn’t find any real improvements made from the original to the updated version. This is the real issue. If you are going to make a more difficult version of the original, then you should give your players rewards and allow them to get something for all their hard work. I got very little satisfaction from completing this game, and that is their carnal sin. Does your audience work so hard and not give them anything for their work and effort? So if you want to play Mystic Quest, I suggest you: play the original and not this unfortunate update. You will have much more fun.