Line #56 VideoGame/FinalFantasyMysticQuest


1	[[quoteright:350:https://static.tvtropes.org/pmwiki/pub/images/final_fantasy_mystic_quest.jpg]]
2	''Final Fantasy Mystic Quest'' (a.k.a. ''Final Fantasy USA: Mystic Quest'' in Japan and ''Mystic Quest Legend'' in Europe) is an early spinoff of the [[RunningGag shin-kickingly popular]] ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' franchise, released for the [[Platform/SuperNintendoEntertainmentSystem Super NES/Super Famicom]] in 1992. The game was developed primarily as a way to ease western audiences into the [[EasternRPG JRPG]] genre, which at the time was niche to the point of borderline commercial impracticality outside of Japan. As a result, today it's widely considered to be outmoded, laughably easy and hastily-written at best -- although it does have a vocal fanbase who cherish it despite those faults.
3
4	The story revolves around Benjamin (you only learn his name from [[AllThereInTheScript the manual]], since [[CanonName he has no default name]]), a boy [[BecauseDestinySaysSo chosen by fate to save the world.]] To do so, he must recover the four magical crystals to restore the world's climate to its proper order. Along the way he will be joined by several allies who have their own reasons for helping him: Kaeli, a young woman who is connected to nature; Tristam, a ninja treasure hunter with his own jazzy musical theme; Phoebe, a mage who joins you to help her grandfather stop an endless winter; and Reuben, a warrior who is searching for his lost father in a volcano. Each will join your party at various times and help you deal with the monsters infesting the land, as well as teach you useful things and give you useful items.
5
6	Your goal, of course, is to find the four monsters who have stolen the Crystals and slay them to set things right. But are things really as they seem?
7
8	''Mystic Quest'' is considered the [[OddballInTheSeries red-headed stepchild]] of the series, and it's still criticized for being [[ItsEasySoItSucks too easy]] and [[ClicheStorm full of cliches]] that most [=JRPGs=] have [[DeadHorseTrope long-since abandoned]]. The relative ease proved beneficial to newcomers to the genre, but ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'' and ''[[VideoGame/FinalFantasyVI VI]]'' (along with [[Creator/SquareEnix Squaresoft]] stablemate ''VideoGame/SuperMarioRPG'') ended up becoming the '[[GatewaySeries gateway drugs]]' that ''Mystic Quest'' might have been. Another reason why the game is so hated is that many [[MisBlamed mistakenly assumed]] it was shipped as a replacement for ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyV'', which was never released in its original form in the U.S. Although this is not the case, the two games shared enough visual similarities to raise eyebrows.
9
10	That said, [[SugarWiki/AwesomeMusic the game's music is among the greatest 16-bit soundtracks]]. Composer Ryuji Sasai also wrote the soundtrack for a much lesser known Creator/SquareSoft game, ''VideoGame/TreasureOfTheRudra'', as well as ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyLegendIII''.
11
12	It finally got some true acknowledgement in ''VideoGame/TheatrhythmFinalFantasy: Curtain Call'', which includes the regular and boss battle themes and adds Benjamin as a playable character. (This is the second time ''Mystic Quest'' has received any kind of ShoutOut or spinoff inclusion since the original game was released, with the previous being a referance in the Mognet letters in Dissida). The original game was also released for the Platform/{{Wii}} Platform/VirtualConsole.
13
14	Not to be confused with ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyAdventure'', whose [[MarketBasedTitle European title]] is ''Mystic Quest''.[[note]]This is because no Final Fantasy game had been released before in Europe, so oddly they launched it as the first and dropped the Final Fantasy name. ''This'' game became ''Mystic Quest Legend'', without being connected to ''The Final Fantasy Legend'', which was a renamed ''VideoGame/{{SaGa\|RPG}}''. Confusing, right?[[/note]]
15	----
16	!!This game contains examples of:
17	* AbilityRequiredToProceed: Benjamin's path is frequently blocked by an obstacle that he can only overcome once his latest partner gives him the appropriate piece of equipment, eg, the "corrupted" trees in Level Forest.
18	* AccidentalMisnaming: Tristam only calls Benjamin "kid". Benjamin's attempts to correct him never stick.
19	* ActuallyFourMooks: A single monster icon can consist of up to three monsters in a given battle.
20	* AffectionateParody: There's a pretty solid argument to be made that the game was at least approached in this fashion by the developers; the Old Man [[spoiler:who is actually the Light Crystal]], at least, seems really pretty flippant about the whole "the world is doomed" issue. There are also a rather disproportionate number of comedy scenes, given the length of the game. And then there's some of the stuff in the endgame, like the [[spoiler:''double subverted'']] [[PropheciesAreAlwaysRight prophecy]].
21	* AllTheWorldsAreAStage: Doom Castle, where each of the four floors the player visits are thematic recreations of the final dungeons of the four regions, complete with powered-up versions of their bosses.
22	* AmericanKirbyIsHardcore: The original box art shows Benjamin striking the same pose, except that he's SuperDeformed in the Squaresoft fashion (He actually looks a lot like [[VideoGame/FinalFantasyV Bartz Klauser]]). This also applies to the rest of the playable cast--[[http://41.media.tumblr.com/e1701828f7a6c8b09feca03debf0dc22/tumblr_msy10d52ak1qeg2xgo1_1280.jpg this]] is the Japanese art, and [[http://40.media.tumblr.com/ffdebbbb27d1bd56d89b3b46895602e6/tumblr_msy10d52ak1qeg2xgo2_1280.jpg this]] is the European art.
23	* AndTheAdventureContinues: [[spoiler:The game ends with Benjamin and Tristam sailing off on Captain Mac's ship to travel the world.]]
24	* AntiFrustrationFeatures: Every party member can cast the Life spell, as can Benjamin once its book is found.
25	** Losing in battle allows you to simply retry from the exact state you were in when the battle started at no penalty.
26	* AttractMode: Amusingly, Benjamin is renamed "[=DemoPlay=]" in it.
27	* AutobotsRockOut: The boss battle music.
28	* BecauseDestinySaysSo: [[DoubleSubversion Subverted]] ''[[DoubleSubversion twice]]''. Not only does the Old Man admit Benjamin [[TheUnchosenOne isn't actually as destined as he'd said]], [[spoiler:it's implied in the ending that he already knew the prophecy was a fake but decided to use it anyway]].
29	--> Old Man: It was really more of a guess...
30	--> The Final Boss [[spoiler:(Dark King): Alas, silly humans, I must share a terrible secret! That Prophecy? Ages ago I started that rumor! Welcome to the power of Darkness!]]
31	* BlackMagicianGirl: Phoebe. She's essentially in a dead heat with the hero for "strongest magic user in the game"; Ben can eventually pick up a greater variety of spells, but her magic stat ends up in the ''nineties'' when everyone else, Ben included, caps out around 40-50 or less. If you're lazy about picking up the strongest magic spells, she'll be the most powerful spell-flinger by a county mile.
32	* BlindIdiotTranslation: Though the game was developed for the U.S. (and released there first), the names "Iflyte" and "Zuh" are applied to enemies that would be called ''Ifrit'' and ''Zu'' in any other Final Fantasy game. The former is especially strange since Iflyte's Japanese name is Cyclops.
33	* BottomlessMagazines: Averted with Ben's bombs, Tristam's shuriken and Phoebe's arrows, which have a max capacity of 99. However, ammunition chests are frequent inside of dungeons and respawn when you leave the area, so unless you are really wasteful, the amount is rarely a problem.
34	* {{Bowdlerise}}: As in ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyIV'', Holy was changed to White. Not that it really affects anything, as Holy is non-elemental in this particular installment.
35	* CanonName: Though the game has no default name for your hero, the U.S. manual refers to him as "Benjamin". The Japanese manual names him Zash.
36	* CantDropTheHero: Naturally. This is Ben's story, after all. Others will cycle through your party fairly regularly.
37	* CharacterTic: Benjamin has the most understandable reaction to weird events in video game history: [[ShrugTake shrug]]
38	* ColorCodedElements: Your party members dress in the color scheme that matches their hometown's element: Green for Kaeli, blue-purple for Phoebe, red for Reuben. (Tristam doesn't have a specified hometown.)
39	* TheComputerIsACheatingBastard: It's a turn-based game, so your actions are determined at the beginning of each round. Get hit for over half your life? Tough, deal with it next round. The monsters? No such restriction -- unless [[AIRoulette the computer is that stupid]], an enemy that was at full health at the beginning of the round, after you bring it down [[ShowsDamage to its wounded form]], will just cast Cure to fully heal itself. Fighting mage-type enemies, especially when they outnumber you 3-to-1 in this game, [[GoddamnBats is REALLY annoying]]. You can get this to work for you, if you set your ally to Auto... but that [[AIRoulette had problems too]].
40	* ConvectionSchmonvection: One of the dungeons, the Lava Dome, is inside a giant active volcano. You enter through the volcano's mouth and hunt down the boss with the Crystal of Fire inside the dome of a volcano filled with boiling lava. And when you beat him, it ''erupts'', and the party is still just fine.
41	* CrutchCharacter: Literally everyone that joins your party: since they don't level up, you will always be several levels below them, and get to spend your time playing catch up. By the time they leave your party, you'll likely be even with or stronger than them, which means it's time for them to leave and be replaced with someone who's stronger than you once more. The worst offender is Kaeli: she's your first party member and joins at level 7, but quickly gets poisoned and taken out of the party to recover. When she joins you much, much later, she's apparently recovered so well that she's now level ''31'', despite spending that time ''bedridden''.
42	* CutsceneIncompetence: Unlike the other characters, Reuben doesn't leave your party after beating the Lava Dome and saving Fireburg, but when you get to the rope bridge and get jumped by a single Mummy, he rather oddly [[LeaveHimToMe engages it in a duel]] and gets knocked off the bridge(despite the fact that he should stand a reasonable chance against it one-on-one), making him unavailable for the entire Windia area.
43	* DaddyHadAGoodReasonForAbandoningYou[=/=]DisappearedDad: Your [[ConvenientlyAnOrphan orphaned hero]] notwithstanding, most of the people you meet are looking for a father figure. Your first partner, Kaeli, and her mother from the Forest world are waiting for Captain Mac to return from his voyage at sea. In the next plane, Phoebe is asks you for help in freeing her grandfather from the ice. In Fireburg, you partner with Reuben and find his lost dad trapped in a volcano. You could say that Tristam's constant meddling earns him a PromotionToParent to the hero.
44	* DamselInDistress: Kaeli is poisoned and incapacitated for a little over half the game, and Norma is caught on the wrong side of the bridge when it collapses. (Why her grandpa Otto Cid Bekenstein let her wander near TheDragon is... [[FridgeLogic yeah]].. but at least she has the sense to stay outside the lair.)
45	* DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist: The game allows you to redo any fight you lose right then and there. If you were ambushed, then it turns into a normal fight.
46	* DegradedBoss: Every single boss except for the four crystal guardians and their boss, the Dark King.
47	** A meta variation with the Behemoth. In other Final Fantasy games it is a very powerful late game enemy. Here it's the tutorial boss.
48	* DemBones: Skeleton warriors are a tough early-game enemy and they later receive [[UndergroundMonkey upgraded versions]]. The two [[TRexpy T. rex]]-type bosses, Flamerus Rex and [[PaletteSwap Skullrus Rex]] are also made only of bones.
49	* DescriptiveVille: Foresta, Aquaria, Fireburg, and Windia.
50	* DoomedHometown: You see it on the world map for about five seconds in the opening, until an earthquake takes it out. Ben complains about it when it happens, and then never mentions it again.
51	* EarlyGameHell: The game has the opposite difficulty curve to most other ''Final Fantasy'' games, as the hardest parts are actually encountered early on, with your attacks having an annoying habit of constantly missing and the enemies quite easily able to score critical hits. Once you've levelled up and got some better equipment, things quickly even out.
52	* ElementalRockPaperScissors:
53	** The game makes a point of telling you when an attack was more or less effective against a target. In addition to the magical ElementalPowers there are also Bomb, Axe (including Reuben's Morning Star as well as the hero's and Kaeli's axes) and Shoot (Phoebe's Bow and Tristam's Ninja Stars) type attacks. Most of the strategy in the game is matching attacks to monster weaknesses.
54	** What enemies are weak to what element tends to throw players off when [[WrongGenreSavvy they expect standard FF elemental rules to apply]]. Flying and digging monsters in particular tended to throw a curve, with flying monsters being weak to wind and digging monsters being weak to earth, despite using those elements to attack. Though in retrospect, a targeted tornado is a pretty good way to ruin a bird's day.
55	* EmptyRoomPsych: The Kaidge Temple, Light Temple, and Windhole Temple. All of them predominantly featured on the map, the Old Man can be encountered in the former, the middle requires the Mobius Crest to reach, and the latter just ''sounds'' important. And yet, there's nothing to do in any of them besides find a few restoratives.
56	* EndlessWinter: Aquaria is covered in snow and ice thanks to the water crystal being dimmed.
57	* EpicFlail: Reuben's morning star, which strangely functions as an axe-type weapon.
58	* ExperiencePoints: An interesting case, because only the main character can gain levels. Partner characters' levels are all fixed, depending on when in the game they are recruited. For the first "half" of the game companions outlevel Ben when they first join. The ''queen'' of this is Phoebe, given how strong she has to be for the final Aquaria dungeon. Unless you've been grinding like crazy she'll have ten levels on Ben and somewhere around ''three times'' his health. She can solo many of the early battlefields and possibly even the first dungeon by herself, were it not for the [[HeroicBSOD emotional breakdown]] you find her in.
59	** {{Cap}}: Specifically, level caps. As noted, all of your party members have set levels that don't go up, giving them hard caps. (Kaeli and Reuben max out at 31, Tristam a measly 23, and Phoebe is the highest at 34.) The game doesn't allow you to go higher than level 41, however, and since you don't actually gain any actual stat bonuses at 41, the "real" level cap for Ben is 40. Surprisingly, you do earn added spell slots if you keep amassing XP (the counter continues to climb) after level 41.
60	* FakeDifficulty: Monsters that can inflict Confuse, Petrify or Paralysis become game-ending encounters when you only have two party members and Benjamin can't get equipment to nullify those three statuses until the end of the game -- your second party member doesn't find new equipment at all. As well, the Life spell for Benjamin cannot be found until the end of Lava Dome (read -- final dungeon in the 3rd of 4 regions), so for a good chunk of the game he's unable to revive his ally if they die, and the spell is fairly easy to miss given how large and confusing the dungeon is.
61	* FanRemake: ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyMysticQuestRemastered''
62	* FantasyCharacterClasses: Despite none being named, there actually ''are'' elements of this in the game. Kaeli is, despite the green dress, actually a sort of armor-wearing, axe-wielding Druid/Barbarian hybrid. Tristam is basically a ranged {{Ninja}} who uses light armor and throwing stars. Phoebe is a bow-using Caster of [[TheRedMage all three magic types]] (making her [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards the second most powerful character in the game]] in terms of raw potential), and wears "cloth" armor to match. Reuben is pretty much a vanilla Fighter type - tough, big weapon, heavy armor and not much else, though he's strangely given access to Holy in his second joining. There are even HP total differences between everyone - Ben gains exactly one "block" of HP per level, and everyone else is adjusted around this (Phoebe takes a rather significant penalty to HP, Tristam takes less, Kaeli's about equal to Ben, and Reuben has bonus HP).
63	** Meanwhile, though, Ben [[MagicKnight kind of does everything]].
64	** To simplify the character’s ranks: for the first half of the game, Benjamin is a Knight (only person capable of using swords), Kaeli’s the White Mage, Phoebe’s the Black Mage, Tristam’s the Thief, and Reuben’s the Warrior. For the second half, Tristam’s the Ninja (no change from the first half of the game, Dragon Claw access and he’s faster), Reuben’s the Monk (access to White/Holy and Life, extra HP and physical damage), Kaeli’s the Priest (uses “maces”, or rather axes, most Healing spells, her first quest is to try and heal a dying forest) and Phoebe’s the Red Mage (access to nearly every single spell, significant HP penalty). Benjamin’s the Paladin who can do nearly anything. [[ShoutOut The entire cast is a homage to the original game!]]
65	* FinalDungeonPreview: After defeating the Hydra boss in Lava Dome, a path opens up in the Focus Tower that leads to the lowest level of [[spoiler:Doom Castle]]. You can only explore a small part of it that's walled off from the main part of the level, but you can fight some monsters and access a chest containing [[BlowYouAway the Aero spellbook]].
66	* FindTheCure: Part of your motivation for going to the Bone Dungeon is looking for the Elixir that will cure Kaeli. More specifically, you're going to the Bone Dungeon to help Tristam find treasure so that he'll be satisfied and give you the Elixir - it's implied ''he's'' the one who took it from the Sand Temple.
67	* FisherKing: The monsters that stole the four crystals cause the surrounding land to rot by draining their power. Once defeated, the crystals restore that section of the world to its natural state.
68	* FlechetteStorm: Tristam's shuriken and Phoebe's arrows are fired off in multiples.
69	* {{Foreshadowing}}: The game repeatedly tells you that there are four magical Crystals that Benjamin needs to restore to put the world back into balance -- so why are there ''five'' crystals on the title screen? [[spoiler:After defeating the Dark King, the fifth Crystal, the Crystal of Light, is revealed to be the Old Man that has been guiding Benjamin on this quest all along.]]
70	* GenericDoomsdayVillain: The Dark King has a rather generic name and no apparent motivation besides being evil for the sake of being evil.
71	* GiantEnemyCrab: The Snow Crab and its DegradedBoss form, the Freezer Crab.
72	* GiantSpider: Dark King's second (six arms, two legs, fangs), third (an actual spider) and fourth (final) forms. (Though the final form is only part Spider; the rest is an [[CombatTentacles octopus-tentacled]] [[EldritchAbomination abomination]].)
73	* {{Golem}}: The Ice Golem and the Stone Golem.
74	* GirlishPigtails: Norma has them.
75	* GrapplingHookPistol: The Dragon Claw functions as one.
76	* GuestStarPartyMember: Everyone you encounter will join your party exactly twice. To her credit, Phoebe joins for what are easily the longest stretches of the game (the three dungeons of Aquaria, and then the entire Doom Castle sequence). Tristam is infamous for his ''short'' appearances (one dungeon early on and then ''half'' a dungeon later). This gets a bit annoying later as many people find themselves pining for Phoebe again, since she's [[LinearWarriorsQuadraticWizards way, way, way more powerful]] than any of the others (moreso if you take advantage of GoodBadBugs).
77	* HeadlessHorseman: Dullahan and its DegradedBoss form, Thanatos.
78	* HitPoints: Curiously, this installment allows you to select in the Options how you view them in the status window. "Figure" presents a standard numeral pairing of current versus total, while "Scale" is more like a series of horizontal bar graphs, Presumably, the intent was for people who might not be good with numbers at a glance to just see the graphs and think, "Lots of yellow = good; lots of red = bad, time to heal".
79	* HyperactiveSprite: Enemies, [=NPCs=] that don't wander around, and [=PCs=] during battle all have a constant animation that usually looks kinda like walking. Curiously, Benjamin is fine staying still outside of battle, and [=NPCs=] that do wander around will hold still between steps; the intent seems to be specifically to communicate that immobile characters aren't also inactive.
80	* IcePalace: The three dungeons in the Aquaria region are all ice-themed, with the Ice Pyramid most befitting of the "palace" type. Once its boss is defeated and the Crystal of Water is restored, most of the ice covering the land thaws out, shutting out access to the Falls Basin (which is now simply a waterfall pouring into a lake).
81	* ItsAllUpstairsFromHere: The final jaunt up the Focus Tower to face the Dark King in [[DoomyDoomsOfDoom Doom Castle]].
82	* KickingAssInAllHerFinery: Kaeli wears a long green princess dress complete with poofy sleeves and a tiara, for reasons that are not unclear (given that she is an ordinary village girl). She also routinely traverses the woods armed with a battleaxe.
83	* LawOfCartographicalElegance: Uses the flat, InsurmountableWaistHeightFence version. The entire world appears to be bordered by clouds. Also, you move from point to point on rails.
84	* LeotardOfPower: Phoebe's outfit is a leotard with some armor pieces and a cape--though given her origins, it could well be a bathing suit.
85	* LighterAndSofter: In comparison to a lot of Final Fantasy games before and after it, Mystic Quest is a lighthearted adventure. The body count is virtually non-existent (though Benjamin ''does'' mention his hometown being destroyed in the beginning, he doesn't mention causalities) and the game gives off a goofier vibe that doesn't take itself seriously. Even other lighthearted Final Fantasy games, such as FFIII or FFV, don't go that far.
86	* LowLevelAdvantage: It's possible to severely damage the final boss by casting Cure on him. The spell will actually do MORE damage at lower levels. (This does not work if your ''partner'' casts cure though.) Though the advantage hardly matters; even at max levels, it will do over ten-thousand damage a hit (in a game where no other attack is above the low thousands) and kill him with very, very few castings.
87	* LuckBasedMission: The ''very first battle'' of the game. Benjamin has no healing items or spells, you can't run away, and the Steel Sword tends to miss often, so you're just sitting there constantly selecting Attack and praying that all of your strikes connect, and that the Behemoth doesn't get a CriticalHit. (Thankfully you get [[DeathIsASlapOnTheWrist unlimited continues]].)
88	* MagicKnight: The main character, who eventually gets every spell in the game in addition to his arsenal of weapons. Kaeli may also qualify, since she uses an ax as her weapon.
89	* MeaningfulName: Among the more generic names of the Vile Four, Pazuzu stands out for being named after the Babylonian wind demon.
90	* MidairBobbing: Airborne enemies like birds and mages bob up and down on the battle screen.
91	* MoeGreeneSpecial: Phoebe's arrows inflict Blind on enemies not resistant to it.
92	* MultiArmedAndDangerous: Dark King's second form.
93	* MusicalSpoiler: {{Lampshade h\|anging}}ung with Tristam the {{ninja}}. Every single appearance predicating his arrival is met with an upbeat jazzy tune and the hero looking confused, wondering where the music is coming from. Notably, Tristam is the only character in the game who even ''has'' [[{{Leitmotif}} a personal piece of theme music]].
94	* NewWorldTease: Traversing the Focus Tower between Fireburg and Windia the player can find a staircase leading to a very small section of [[spoiler: Doom Castle, the final level of the game,]] long before the player reaches it, properly. If nothing else, the kick-ass music and awesome rock guitar riffs should be enough of a reminder to the player that this location has future importance.
95	* NoHeroDiscount: People still won't cut you a break on restoratives even when they all know you're trying to save the world.
96	* OddballInTheSeries: Interestingly, this game was developed by the same team as ''VideoGame/FinalFantasyLegendIII'' (and even shares some enemy sprite graphics and mechanics with it), which is also the oddball in [[VideoGame/SaGaRPG its own series]].
97	* OneWingedAngel: The last boss is interesting in this regard. [[spoiler:First he goes MultiArmedAndDangerous, which is fairly impressive, and then he does the spider thing which seems a bit of a wet noodle. Then you realize those aren't ''legs'' in the traditional sense...]]
98	* PaletteSwap: EVERY enemy in the game is subject to this at least once, usually twice, with the sole exception of the FinalBoss.
99	* PatchworkMap: All four regions are neatly divided by the Focus Tower into their own climates.
100	* PermanentlyMissableContent: Any treasure chests you leave in a one-time area such as Falls Basin cannot be reclaimed. As a variation, you can return to the Charm Claw's chest later on if you skipped it by accident, but if you already have the better Dragon Claw, you won't pick it up because you have something better, leaving a hole in your collection.
101	* PreExistingEncounters: Enemy mobs are always visible in a set position on the map and don't move, except in two dungeons where they are hidden (by thick fog, magic, etc.) There is always a treasure in each of those dungeons to counteract their invisibility and make them visible. The "battlefields" on the World Map are also non-random, but finite.
102	* PoisonedWeapons: Tristam's shuriken and the claw weapons, with the latter inflicting lots of other status ailments besides poison.
103	* PostVictoryCollapse: Kaeli stays on her feet throughout the battle with the Minotaur, but collapses to the ground from its poison once it's defeated.
104	* PropheciesAreAlwaysRight: DoubleSubversion... [[spoiler: The prophecy that "a chosen boy will save the world" was made up as a prank by the Dark King himself]], but [[spoiler: the old man that sends Ben on his quest is revealed to be the Crystal of Light, and they fulfill the Dark King's fake prophecy anyway.]]
105	* RecurringTraveller: The old man that Benjamin first meets at the start of the game. It's justified, though, since [[spoiler: he is the Light Crystal]].
106	* RedheadInGreen: Kaeli.
107	* ReverseArmfold: Otto's sprite depicts him in this position.
108	* ReviveKillsZombie: Naturally, since this is a ''Franchise/FinalFantasy'' game. Cure damages the undead, which the game describes as a "zombie attack" and they are invariably weak to it. Life ''should'' OneHitKill the undead, and does in the EU and JP versions, but in the NA version [[GoodBadBugs a flag accidentally got inverted somewhere]] and it one-shots everything ''except'' the undead. Also an ExaggeratedTrope for the final boss, who wasn't ''supposed'' to have this trope apply to him; however, due to an overflow bug, instead of healing him healing spells do so much damage to him that they kill him in just a few shots. However it only works when the Hero does it, if Phoebe tries it, her ridiculously high magic stats make it overflow TWICE and loop back around to healing.
109	* RibcageRidge: The Bone Dungeon.
110	* SchizoTech: A standard medieval fantasy land... except for the rock band in Fireburg. Dodged with the Refresher item; while its ingame sprite is clearly a Coke can, the art is a [[http://finalfantasy.wikia.com/wiki/File:FFMQ_Refresher_Artwork.jpg glass bottle]].
111	* SelfFulfillingProphecy: The prophecy was just a rumor the Dark King started ages ago. Sure enough, the player ends up fulfilling it anyway.
112	* SetPiecePuzzle: Many of the dungeons require you to press switches, move around blocks, or blow holes in walls. This was actually innovative for the series at the time, since most ''Final Fantasy'' dungeons fit the NoSidepathsNoExplorationNoFreedom classification. Even more odd is that ''very'' few games with the name have tried to further what the game began, or even tackled the same gameplay ideas.
113	* SinkOrSwimMentor: The old man. When Benjamin asks what to do, he gets "Go save the Earth Crystal. See you!"
114	* SkeletonKey: Downplayed. In Fireburg, Tristam gives you a multi-key which he says will open any locked door. You use it once (to enter the house of a Fireburg resident so he can upgrade your bombs into grenades), and it becomes of no use for the rest of the game.
115	* SpeechBubbles: Characters talk through this instead of Franchise/FinalFantasy's traditional bar atop the screen.
116	* ShoutOut:
117	** A triple-headed boss -- one of the heads being a dragon -- is named Franchise/{{G\|odzilla}}idrah.
118	** The rock band's theme has an intro that is an obvious ShoutOut to Music/ChuckBerry, particularly the intros to "Johnny B. Goode" and "Run, Rudolph, Run".
119	* ShowsDamage: Every single enemy. Normal enemies have two images, major enemies have three, and bosses have four. Pazuzu and his recolor Zuh are a special exception as one of his 4 sprites is used for his shield stance where he covers himself with his wings.
120	* ShrugTake: Benjamin's response to just about anything the Old Man says before flying off.
121	* SquishyWizard: Phoebe again. She might have the (arguably) best magic in the game, but she doesn't gain HP nearly as fast as the hero (note her HP total at level 15, for example, when Ben gets that high) and she'll end up with a Defense stat easily forty to fifty points lower than an equal-level Ben at the end, especially if you bother to get all the best armor.
122	* TechnicolorNinjas: Tristam is dressed in ''white'' ninja clothing.
123	* TooAwesomeToUse: For the first entire half of the game, you can only get three Seeds (magic restoring items) which are hidden in a single chest deep in the Bone Dungeon. Sure, you can leave the dungeon and reenter to get more, but that takes ages and is incredibly boring. So, until you get to Fireburg (where you can buy as many as you want), you'll be rationing those things (and spells in general) like they were made out of diamond.
124	* TheUnchosenOne: [[spoiler:The Dark King mocks the hero by revealing that he fabricated the prophecy and there is no Chosen One destined to stop him. The hero kicks his ass anyway.]]
125	* UndeadCounterpart: The Minotaur who serves as the boss of the Level Forest has weaker counterparts in the Bone Dungeon called Minotaur Zombies. Interestingly, the original Minotaur lacks the ContractualBossImmunity to the [[OneHitKill Life spell]] that the later bosses do, but the Minotaur Zombies can't be killed by it thanks to a bug (but they are still weak to healing magic).
126	* UndergroundMonkey: Many, including several {{Degraded Boss}}es.
127	* [[UselessUsefulSpell Useless Useful Armor]]: Tristam's armor, the Doom Robe has no status resistances except one: [[OneHitKill Doom]]. It's the only armor in the game which resists Doom. The first enemy in the game to use a Doom attack appears immediately ''after'' Tristam leaves your party for the last time (leading to speculation that he was intended to be around longer). The next partner may temporarily steal this resistance due to a bug, though.
128	* VancianMagic: White, Black, and Wizard spells all share pools of spell charges for the four possible spells in each category, instead of using traditional MP.
129	* TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon: Early on, you might suspect that the Focus Tower is this. [[spoiler:You'd be sort of right; "Doom Castle" is built under, around and inside of it and you get teases about it at various points. The Very Definitely Final Room of the castle is suitably impressive, too, with the ''floating alien eyes'' and whatnot.]]
130	* WakeUpCallBoss:
131	** Flamerus Rex has much more HP than the previous two bosses, and has attacks that hit both party members, showing you that it's important to pace yourself and stay healed.
132	** Squidite is the first minor boss to come with two minions. Not only will you need to take them out before focusing on the boss, but you'll also need to consider Squidite's elemental weaknesses.
133	* WeaponizedTeleportation: The "Exit" spell can be cast on most enemies to remove them from battle, but you lose out on any XP and GP gains by doing so.
134	* WesternZodiac: The Libra and Gemini Crests. The Mobius Crest is instead emblazoned with a lemniscate, or {{infinit\|e}}y symbol.
135	* WhenTreesAttack:
136	** One of the first bosses disguises itself as a tree and attacks Kaeli, poisoning her.
137	** ''Final Fantasy Mystic Quest:'' The only RPG where trees put you in [[WrestlerInAllOfUs wrestling holds.]]

Context VideoGame / FinalFantasyMysticQuest