The Journey of Mystic Quest is an old one, starting in the early 1990s on the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. It was initially aimed at entry-level players in the role-playing game genre.

It was criticized after the first release for being too easy and monotonous. I first played 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 to be easy to use. I did not find myself antagonized or manipulated. Rather, 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 trip 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 that he saved.

In the so-called updated version called Mystic Quest Reborn, on the other hand, there are some serious issues to address. The first question I would ask is: Is this an advance over 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 I noticed in this “updated” form of the game were music changes, slight graphical changes, and also the addition of some laborious difficulties.

Let’s first examine the musical changes. Mystic Quest, the original, had an excellent musical selection, which was probably its strong point. The music of the original was so good that people even made revamped versions. This one lazily switches them from other, what are known as Square-Enix games. This new music isn’t bad, in fact it’s fine, but instead of enhancing the experience, it actually seems to diminish it. The new boss music, for example, doesn’t 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 turn it into a new experience by embellishing the old. So that’s strike number 1.

Now let’s see the so-called graphic changes. Now what does this mean? There are no changes to character sprites, story, items, or gameplay in general. So why make relatively meaningless changes? Well, the changes made are simply textual, indicating another form of apparent laziness. What was changed was the name of the items, the names of the monsters, and some changes to the title screen and end credits. If this is the new, why not keep the old? Strike 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 every battle. That’s not funny, that’s ridiculous. Why is so difficult? Well, the number one status items and counter attacks really make this battle system extremely painful. The worst status foods 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, it’s game over. Why only 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 forced to bring certain party members, but you cannot change their team. Why is this a problem? Remember the status issues mentioned above? Well, your party members may be affected by these detrimental circumstances. Also, you can’t level up your companions, so it all depends on building your own character’s status, which is really hard. I had to train my MC in the first dungeon and use the exit spell very often!

Also, there is no real opportunity to get real financial resources. You can only get money from battlegrounds and some boss battles. So the only way you can heal your party is in the first town, Foresta. All this really wastes a lot 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 need to complete this tedious fight, taking part in annoying battles to get 100% item completion. This all ties into the exact same elements from the original Mystic Quest! That’s Strike 3, and this game has struck out!

I think there really hasn’t been any truly positive improvements made to this game. So it should have been done. I’d say no.” I got the CIB version of Timewalk. I happen to have an original Mystic Quest manual and compared the two. Again, I found no real improvements made from the original to the updated version. This is the real deal If you’re going to make a harder version of the original, you need to reward your players and let them get something for all their hard work. I got very little satisfaction out of completing this game, and that’s its carnal sin. Should you make 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: play the original and not this unfortunate update. You will have much more fun.