Holy snot, I’m burned out. The combination of TGS, jetlag and blasting through as much Halo 3 as possible in order to hit the review deadline has left me a total zombie. I went to work today and stared vacantly into space, which you might be surprised to learn is actually not my normal state of existence. I even did the inthinkable: I came home early and took a nap. Man, I must be getting old.
Today’s article is a Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest review which is actually quite a bit more positive than you might expect. So… read it and be awed, I guess. Or just read it. You’ll be glad you did! Probably.
Also, I was very disappointed in the Blues who joined in my carefully-conceived efforts to use Forge to create a 3D platformer and transformed it into a warzone. Some people have no appreciation for the finer things in life.
I insist: killing other people, just like that, is not fun. Killing other people creatively with the sole purpose of laghing hard, is a lot better. Like The Joker.
FFMQ is the game that made me an RPG fan. True story!
I think the best part of MQ’s world map is that it’s now used in the main FF titles too.
You where getting in a fair number of kills yourself Mr. Parish.
I was on the receiving end of a few myself. Damn that hover plane thing.
I’m with you, sir. 4:15 am, is a horrible time to wake up and run for the Air Force. Getting home by 5 pm is a treat! A nap? Unheard of.
I am jealous of you.
Another innovation from Mystic Quest I’d like to see in other games: when the enemies drop below a certain health percentage, they change their appearance to look hurt.
I only killed in retaliation for people spoiling my creative wonderland with their crass violence. And the Hornet is the best vehicle ever.
Not to mention that we got MQ instead of FFV, sandwiched right between IV and VI, two of the best entries in the entire FF series. Finding out how good V was, years later for most of us, made that bitter taste even worse.
But you’re right though, the music was pretty kick-ass.
I rented and never finished this. The most unique thing about it is that some the stereo effects where character oriented, rather than screen oriented. When you swung the axe, it didn’t matter which side of the screen you where on, it mattered which of your characters ears the swinging axe was closest to. I have not seen that anywhere else, for better or worse. One thing I didn’t see mentioned in the review, the party is limited to 2 people, hero+current helper. I was bummed when FF went from 5 to 4 to 3 characters onscreen. The 2 person party was a deal breaker for me.
Also, hey Parish, what do you think of the whole Crazy Cortana thing in Halo 3? I just beat it on legendary, and I could have sworn
SPOILER
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there is absolutely no payoff. After all that stupid spooky-little-girl style ranting. #####################################################################
Since you are a very a vocal fan of Marathon, I was wondering what you thought of it. Also, did Team Ninja re-design Cortana?
I don’t think Valhalla was the BEST level to pick to make a platformer on. Maybe Narrows or that other one that’s all alien-ey and indoors.
You know what was cool about this game? (FFMQ not Halo3) The Cat Claw – I liked how it allowed you to climb the walls. Interaction with the world like that was quite novel at the time.
Why have the last 2 Final Fantasy reviewers completely avoid talking about the best part of each game?
The music, obviously.
They dedicate paragraphs upon paragraphs noting the bad things but when it comes to mentioning the music they only write a short sentence >_
Crap… my post was cut short and now I don’t even remember what was next *angry face*
I think its because music is so easily trumped by gameplay. If a game has lousy music but is otherwise awesome, you will play again. You probably wont replay a brutal game just to hear some sweet tunes, IMO.
Mystic Quest gets way too much shit. If you played it after 4 or 6 then yes, it’s a big step backwards. But this was my first JRPG and I played it at the exact (young) age to find it entertaining and pique my interest in the genre. It served it’s purpose perfectly for me. I even replay it once every few years because I remember it so fondly.
An extention to the observation in the first paragraph: FFMQ was Mystic Quest Legend in the UK, and Final Fantasy Adventure was also Mystic Quest. In the absence of an established Final Fantasy name there may have been a brief attempt to build Mystic Quest as a brand in Europe. This means that the first game to officially use the Final Fantasy name in Europe was Final Fantasy SEVEN.
Meanwhile in a parallel dimension the Final Fantasies continues to be known as Mystic Quests in Europe. OMG MYSTIC QUEST 7 REMAKE SOON.
Rey–
FFMQ isn’t a horrible game, it’s just a parody of one, a caricature, etc. It is fun to play through once in a while, just for the soundtrack and for something easy, but it’s not a terribly exciting game to play through to begin with.
Ahhh…Mystic Quest! It reminds me of the ‘good old days’ when I would only have one or two games at a time, so no matter what they were I played them and I played them hard. Now when there is so much to choose from it’s easy to say a game isn’t good or worth playing to compeltion, but back when my allowance allowed me one pick from the clearance bin at the pawn shop Mystic Quest was there and provided a whole summer of love. *wistful sigh*
Does it have Power Windows? Is the music in Mystic Quest as good as Power Windows? That would be pretty tough.
I dig the cute Japanese cover “translation” of the US version.
Halo 3 = more of the same
video game industry creativity is dead
only big boobs keep it alive
Halo–nothing new
Uniqueness dies like fall leaves
Boobs, its final gasp
(Fixed?)
For some reason I always believed this game was made by US developers, hence the name in Japan. I also think it does a fantastic job at being a beginner’s RPG, for really young kids. Maybe if we’d got it BEFORE FF4 it wouldn’t have been such an awkward moment in US gaming history.
I’d rather replay this game than FFX, and that’s no lie.
Also, kudos to Mr. Rossi for being so sure the reason we like Halo is that we hadn’t realized all FPSs are the same, and that our peurile minds covet giant bosoms in some kind of latent oedipal longing.
http://www.shoutwire.com/viewstory/106308/Why_Halo_3_Sucks
So… the problem with Halo is that there weren’t any shocking setpiece moments in the plot. Except for the shocking setpiece moments that the reviewer didn’t like. And it TOTALLY should have had more lightsabers, and sex, and Master Chief on a dirtbike doing coke and flipping tricks.
Yeah, I can see that.
Review to which the previous comment refers is no longer linked here.
Just so that nobody misunderstands any dirt-bike related sentiments. :)
Yeah, I forgot 1up are getting paid to give the game a 10 by microsoft (while its users give it a 7.3 or something like that).
LOL MONEYHATZ
–Dora
Where do you get that from? 1up’s actually one of the few gaming related sites that has a backbone where that kind of nonsense isn’t tolerated. Maybe it would surprise you to learn that reviewers are human and thus have biases? Besides, why are you getting all worked up over a number? Averages don’t really mean anything, nor do the numerical scores themselves. What’s important about a review are the reviewer’s impressions about the game, it’s strengths and flaws, etc. A “10” or whatever is meaningless without the context provided by the text of the review.