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 So, uh, this is an interesting one. This is a remake of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest done in RPG Maker, which...goes about as you expect. There's obvious changes in mechanics, graphics, and so on, but otherwise it tries to remain somewhat faithful to the original while simultaneously trying to improve on the game and working within the limitations of RPG Maker. I figured it'd be interesting to compare and contrast the remake with the original, see what each version does better, so that's pretty much what I'll be doing here. Important Note: This playthrough is blind. That said, I've played the original a few times so I have the gist of things, but I might miss things here or there, so feel free to call me out if I do so. Assuming any of you have even played this game... This will be more barebones than usual due to laziness, since I've been kinda bad about completing LPs recently. No music links (the music's pretty much unchanged anyway), skipping most dialogue (since it's almost identical to the original), and my knowledge of the original will rely on a combination of memory and the LPs already done for it. I recommend reading one (or all) of those if you haven't played Mystic Quest before, they're pretty good reads! No spoilers for the remake. Spoilers for the original are fine. Oh yeah I'm on loving Twitter and poo poo. Oh, and one more fun fact: In February 2015 the person who made this game tried to get this game published as an official Square-Enix-sanctioned remake, fooling quite a few gaming websites including Gamespot. After trying to sell pre-orders on his sketchy site, Square-Enix confirmed this was a con and the guy promptly disappeared from the internet, taking the pre-order money with him. The weird part though is that he made this game years ago and even planned to make a similar remake for FF4, before suddenly pulling it from the internet. I was planning to do this LP years ago, long before the scam drama happened, but by the time I began looking for the game all download links had vanished. Eventually I found a post somewhere where someone who contacted the creator said he claimed to be arranging a deal to get the game published by Square-Enix (this was back in 2013 or so), and that was as far as I got, at least until the scam drama hit. Oddly, he was continuously improving the game even until "release", so as far as I can tell he may actually have planned to release it. Maybe. The entire thing doesn't make sense to me, and honestly I'm happy leaving things at that. But anyway, let's check out the game. ----- Chapter 1: Level Forest Chapter 2: Bone Dungeon Chapter 3: Wintry Cave Chapter 4: Ice Pyramid Chapter 5: Hellmouth Hill Chapter 6: Lava Dome Chapter 7: Giant Tree Chapter 8: Pazuzu's Tower Chapter 9: Mac's Ship Final Chapter: Doom Castle Mega64 fucked around with this message at 01:28 on Dec 29, 2017 |
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Nov 29, 2017 02:33
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 13:59 |
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Reserved for insanity.
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Nov 29, 2017 02:34
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Chapter 1: Level Forest  Dark Design is the one-man company that made this game. Square-Enix is the many-person company that had nothing to do with this game.  The intro has the same animation, just with the slightly different title and button prompt.  There's a few versions floating around. The one I got a hold of is 3.1.0.0.  Oh yeah, the art and sprites are also stolen, according to my most trusted source, Youtube comments. Going with the "canon" name of Benjamin (according to the manual, anyway) because I'm a purist.   The introduction is pretty much the same, including the dialogue here. I also love that this is the entire backstory of Benjamin. His family's probably dead now, who cares. Mystic Quest gives no fucks.  So, first difference, and this one is a doozy: There's no jump button. The original's jump button led to a couple cool puzzles and, of course, being able to jump all over the place in a freaking RPG. No awesome jump sound effect, no jumping over NPCs' heads, no jumping in every single direction. No, this jump is scripted.  The creator also cheats a bit here. In the original, when Benjamin makes the jump, the previous area descends, shaking violently. Benjamin had just cheated death due to the wonders of JUMP. Jump is good, Jump is sacred. In Remastered, the game just slowly slides to the right while shaking, conveniently sliding the previous area off-screen. It's kind of a cheat, but it's one I can kinda forgive for a free fan remake in a limiting game creation engine. Of course, once you consider he tried to charge money for this...  Plot's the same, gotta go to four different parts of the world and defeat four monsters to save the four crystals. Pretty much a Final Fantasy game distilled to its barest of bones.   Much like the original, our first encounter is a Behemoth. All we can really do is Attack.   And here we get to a major difference between the two. The original opted for a rather simple scale of numbers. Benjamin starts with 40HP and gains an extra 40 each level. The levelling curve is a lot flatter than most RPGs, which makes sense as this game is designed to slowly guide the player throughout the game due to being designed for beginners in mind. In contrast, the remake goes for big, basic RPG numbers. You and the Behemoth do a ton of damage to each other.  Much like the original, one unlucky hit or miss and you will die and have to restart. I'm kinda surprised he didn't bother to fix that considering how freaking dumb it is you can lose in the first drat battle in the game through pure luck. At least you can still retry from the beginning of battle, which is one of those features that I'm still surprised few other RPGs actually used. Mystic Quest had some surprising innovations at the time to streamline the gameplay experience for jRPGs, yet nobody used them since. What the hell?  Same as before. But once we get to the end...  How...how do you gently caress up The Shrug!?!?!? The Shrug is Benjamin's signature emotion. Pretty much 90% of Benjamin's interactions involve Benjamin encountering something mind-boggling dumb, and Benjamin shrugging helplessly for a couple seconds. The timing is perfect, just enough time to process what's going on to let you emphasize with Benjamin's continued frazzled state. This is especially true with this mysterious man. It's probably the most iconic symbol of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, itself the helpless shrug of the jRPG world. I may be overreacting just a tad here, but I say the biggest flaw of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest Remastered is not the creator trying to scam people with a lackluster fan remake using stolen assets, or even not being able to Jump, but that Benjamin's shrug is a single quick animation that's over in a third of a second. You cannot shorten The Shrug to such an extent and have it still resonate with the player. The Shrug needs time to breathe, to strike into the very heart of the player so that they, too, can understand Benjamin's plight in having to save the world using only the guidance of some floating jackass. Also Benjamin's family is probably still dead or something.  Map screen is pretty much the same, graphics aside.  The menu is quite different, however.  In case you wanted to play through this game twenty times, well, there's that option for you!  Also achievements! Sure, why not.  The equipment's also different in that there's equipment. In the original, you pretty much get given pieces of armor besides a couple optional buyable options. Since there's only three tiers of armor total, the game automatically gave you the effects of the highest-tier you had, which was mainly status immunities. Here you get a regular standard jRPG equipment system. We'll see if it does anything interesting with the concept, but I wouldn't be surprised if you just get straight upgrades through the game. At least later FF games either downplayed armor or instead gave different reasons you'd wear different pieces like elemental/status immunities or what have you.  Anyway, we've got our first mission. Alright, then.  On the bright side, you can still use weapons outside of battle to solve puzzles.  Still have to recruit Kaeli before we can handle the area proper.  In the original, you had to jump over the man to push the boulder out of the way. Hell, you could jump over the boulder too and just go straight to town, though obviously you wouldn't be able to advance the plot that way. I already miss jumping.   Key Items!  Some item chests, guarded by some Brownies.   In the original, Benjamin could handle Brownies fine. It would've been a bit ugly, but nothing too bad. Here, they will stomp the poo poo outta you. Hope you remembered to save!  We'll come back to that. In the meantime, let's go explore Foresta.  The NPCs are pretty much the same.   The original had a whopping four consumable items you could use. The remake has a bit more than that. Also, you can't re-enter areas to refresh chests like in the original, though to be fair that was kind of ridiculous anyway.   In the original, this was our first spell, Cure. We get a Shield here instead for a modest Defense boost. We learn magic by leveling up now.  Phoenix Downs didn't exist at all in the original, but every partner knew the Life spell so that made up for it.   In the original, Refreshers were in-battle items that reset stat debuffs. Here, they simply boost specific stats permanently. I'll just use them all on Benjamin as I find them.  There's also Hi-Potions available.  A free heal if you need it. I'll be using this a lot.    We've got our first partner! They usually tend to outlevel Benjamin and be much more useful to start.  I forgot to check if I could steal her stuff and give it to Benjamin. Maybe next time...  Kaeli hits harder than Benjamin, and the two of them together can kill one Brownie. Of course, the Brownies also hit hard, so if they gang up on Benjamin he'll go down.  From what I observed, EXP is the same no matter who lives or dies, but you have to be alive to get it. So Benjamin pretty much needs to be alive at the end of each battle or he'll miss out on sweet EXP. A few people who played this version claim this game is too difficult, and if you just spam Fight then, yeah.  Kaeli has quite a few spells to start. Life is not as ridiculously broken in Remastered as it was in the original since it won't heal a living character to full and as far as I know won't insta-kill enemies. Seriously, Life was ridiculously broken in the original game. In addition, Kaeli has Fire/Ice/Lightning and Sleep. The original had twelve spells, four each in White/Black/Wizard. White was the bare basics (Cure, Heal Status, Life, Exit spell), Black did damage, Wizard did more damage. Honestly Black Magic sucked except for Aero, while for Wizard magic you'd do the best spell you had at the time and just choke down a Seed when you needed it because, hey, restore all MP from one consumable, why not, what the hell is balance. For Remastered, the elements are just bog-standard Final Fantasy starter spells.   Sleep is new to the game, and from my experience it works around 2/3's of the time? Anyway, if you simply cast Sleep every battle then you can pick off the enemies more easily without getting walloped. You'll still be healing a lot, but Benjamin is significantly more likely to live that way. It certainly makes things less difficult.   At L3 Benjamin learns Haste, which...I don't think makes a big difference? Raising speed in a pure turn-based game doesn't really work, especially with only two party members. That's why Haste boosted the number of hits you made in the NES games and didn't affect speed until the ATB was introduced.  Anyway, money.    The only other enemy here is the Slime. I think it can inflict Sleep, but otherwise is around the same level of threat as the Brownie. Sleep works wonders here.  I clear out the area and get all the items.   Achievement Unlocked!   Anyway, the boss is a tree.   As a nice touch, Kaeli actually starts the battle poisoned here. Except...there's no way to cure it. Welp!  Minotaur can be put to Sleep, too. But any attack will wake him so it's kinda moot.  Poison hurts a good bit, too, so it becomes a bit of a race.  Turns out the elemental spells are pretty drat powerful. I opt to have Kaeli focus on magic attacks while Benjamin chips in or heals with Potions when necessary.   Otherwise, Minotaur has some nasty attacks.  I will complement the Remaster so far in that these battles require more thought than the original so far. You can't just spam Attack here and try to win. This guy was actually moderately difficult!  As a bonus, Benjamin's latest level gain finally nets him the Cure spell.   Kaeli's out, so we get her axe.   Great timing there.  Next time, Bone Dungeon. Assuming I don't abandon this one, of course.
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Nov 29, 2017 02:34
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I, uh...I don't get why this was needed. Like, the entire point of FFMQ was that it streamlined away a lot of mechanics in favor of goofy charm. This feels, aesthetically and mechanically, like someone trying to write grimdark Super Mario Bros. fanfic. Do the monsters even have goofy damaged portraits for when they're low on life?
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Nov 29, 2017 02:54
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So far all but the Minotaur had damage portraits. And now I'm curious who did those portraits, they're pretty faithful to the originals.
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Nov 29, 2017 02:57
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Mega64 posted:So, first difference, and this one is a doozy: There's no jump button. Why did this guy even loving bother, then 
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Nov 29, 2017 02:58
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 This is already a magical ride.
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Nov 29, 2017 03:12
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...Wait, what?
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Nov 29, 2017 03:34
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Mega64 posted:So far all but the Minotaur had damage portraits. Did a quick search, looks like the minotaur and behemoth at least are concept art for the original game. The slimes are a free RPGMaker asset. As for the rest of the art, it's mostly freebies that come with RPGMaker with a filter smacked over the backgrounds. Could very well be he threw some stolen art in there as well. Still, this could've just been a nice little hobby project if it weren't for the whole 'trying to sell it as the legit remake' deal. 
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Nov 29, 2017 03:41
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Ground floor on this poo poo. I heard about this when it blew up (both excitement because FFMQ is rad and then disappointment when everything happened), so seeing it in action is gonna be a treat.
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Nov 29, 2017 03:41
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This will be so bad. I assume the music is straight up ripped from the original soundtrack? At least that can't be messed up.
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Nov 29, 2017 03:44
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I love how the "remastered" sprites are just made in the RPG Maker sprite creator, so they still have that lovely RTP style. Also for stealing other peoples art couldn't the guy who made this at least picked something that tried to match either the original style or his own sprites. The idea that someone would try and scam people with a lovely RPG Maker project is admittedly funny to me, so I definitely want to see how "quality" this gets.
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Nov 29, 2017 04:02
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Man, speaking as someone who actually has some childhood fondness for Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, this "remake" is pretty heartbreaking. Way to miss the point of whatever made the game actually interesting and distinctive, Mr. Scammer Dude. They're not even good drawn portraits. Bleah.
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Nov 29, 2017 04:22
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Delicious, delicious heartbreak. This looks promising, unless it breaks down near the end of the game or something.
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Nov 29, 2017 04:36
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No jumps. No Shrugs. What is this pale imitation?!
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Nov 29, 2017 05:55
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Glazius posted:Delicious, delicious heartbreak. This looks promising, unless it breaks down near the end of the game or something. I hope it does. That's what makes an LP fun.
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Nov 29, 2017 06:05
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A mediocre lovely remake makes for a boring LP. A spectacular gently caress-up makes it worthwhile.
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Nov 29, 2017 06:49
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I hate every last aspect of this. Please continue. 
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Nov 29, 2017 06:55
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The jumps! Are yumps!?!?! The shrug! Is bugged!?!?! This Remaster! Is a Disaster! In a more serious note the game seems pretty faithfully adapted into an RPGMaker game... Which is part and parcel of the problem, since part of FFMQ's charm was in it's simplicity. The increased difficulty so far just makes me interested for how the Crystal Bosses and a few other transition area bosses are if freakin' Brownies/tree Minotaur is this difficult. Although props to the remake, having Kaylie be poisoned during the battle AND you having no way to cure it is a great bit of story/gameplay integration. EponymousMrYar fucked around with this message at 07:36 on Nov 29, 2017 |
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Nov 29, 2017 07:10
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I dunno who that guy is, but he looks way too serious to be Benjamin. Or to be in Mystic Quest at all for that matter.
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Nov 29, 2017 07:12
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I've seen RPG maker being beaten into things it was not designed to do including top down shooters and visual novels - paring down the combat system and jump buttons would be trivial compare to the monstrosities I've seen, but it definitely feels like he just used the default load out without really thinking about how it effects FFMQ
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Nov 29, 2017 07:15
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Ha-hooooly poo poo. This looks like amazing garbage.
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Nov 29, 2017 07:16
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As someone who's spent way too much time loving around in RPG Maker over the years (don't judge me), I can say that I can easily think of at least two or three different ways to easily accomplish everything he's cut out or hosed up. And one of them is "steal the script that someone more clever than me used to do it".
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Nov 29, 2017 07:22
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PMush Perfect posted:And one of them is "steal the script that someone more clever than me used to do it". As an occasional tinkerer in RPGMaker, Yanfly motherfucker do you know him. There is zero excuse for this when the scripts for those functions are CC-BY.
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Nov 29, 2017 07:39
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VX Ace has the ability to have a character jump as one of the default events, so I'm decently certain you code a jump with a bit more effort. I expect the problem was that interacting with the enemies/the environment got complicated, but I really cannot imagine it being that much of a hurdle. Credit where it's due though, looks better than the crap Matrix Software shits out.
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Nov 29, 2017 08:40
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Mega64 posted:At L3 Benjamin learns Haste, which...I don't think makes a big difference? Raising speed in a pure turn-based game doesn't really work, especially with only two party members. That's why Haste boosted the number of hits you made in the NES games and didn't affect speed until the ATB was introduced.
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Nov 29, 2017 14:46
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FF1 was basically an unlicensed AD&D game, and I've never really understood how Square didn't get sued for it.
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Nov 29, 2017 15:45
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ultrafilter posted:FF1 was basically an unlicensed AD&D game, and I've never really understood how Square didn't get sued for it. Rules can't be copyrighted, just content, and most of the content in FF1 isn't a direct-enough rip to be problematic. They did rename the Beholder to "EYE", though. Tiamat is a bit trickier, but the name itself comes from mythology, and I guess the concept of a multi-headed dragon that's named Bahamut wasn't worth getting into a legal battle over. EDIT: Tiamat, not Bahamut TooMuchAbstraction fucked around with this message at 17:58 on Nov 29, 2017 |
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Nov 29, 2017 17:52
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Marilith on the other hand is explicitly D&D only outside of Final Fantasy using it.  Granted, it was just an example of a name for a type of demon and only became an actual copyrighted thing in and of itself in... 1987. Huh.
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Nov 29, 2017 18:50
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Along with Japan has different copyright laws than America, and just back when FF1 came out, information from different countries doesn't fly as fast as it does now.
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Nov 29, 2017 18:50
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Didn't know of the original game but I'm always in for a bad RPG Maker LP
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Nov 29, 2017 19:01
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I heard about the scam part of this, but never knew that anything playable was released.
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Nov 29, 2017 20:52
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RPG VX is a cool toy to mess around with, and I like it. You get to mess with tools and get a sense of how cool event triggers work and that stuff, really fed my curosity. This looks like a diaster, a terrible thing-that-should-not-be yet here we are.  I can't look away.
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Nov 29, 2017 22:03
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Lord help this FFMQ remake where you cannot jump
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Nov 29, 2017 22:37
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Anyone who doesn't jump nonstop is playing MQ wrong
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Nov 29, 2017 23:09
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Rabbi Raccoon posted:Anyone who doesn't jump nonstop is playing MQ wrong It's-a me! Benjamin!
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Nov 29, 2017 23:13
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Just did the battlefields and the first room of Bone Dungeon, and uh...I think I made a huge mistake. There are two enemies who can poison you, which in this game knocks off ~10% of your max HP every round. Normally that's fine, except you can't buy any status healing items and you don't learn any status healing spells, at least early on. So the only way you can heal poison is to A) use the rare item you find in a chest, B) backtrack all the way to Foresta and rest at the inn, or C) die and get resurrected. Just...how the hell do you miss something so god drat fundamental. How can you play through your dungeon and not notice what a pain in the rear end poison is to deal with, this is basic god drat game design. Otherwise, battles are significantly slower-paced than the original since enemies hit harder now relative to your HP, meaning you have to spend more turns healing. Same amount of encounters, though, so it's basically much slower. Don't know if I'll fight every battle like I usually do when I replay the original, but then I'm worried I'll get underleveled because I don't trust this game's balancing. Eesh. Next update hopefully this weekend.
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Nov 30, 2017 01:29
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See if you can just crack the game open in RPGMaker and give yourself that ability.
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Nov 30, 2017 01:42
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Not giving you antidotes/heal potions to cure Kaylie is thematic. Not giving you antidotes/heal potions to cure yourself in bone dungeon while increasing the danger of poison is dumb.
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Nov 30, 2017 02:03
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| # ? Apr 25, 2024 13:59 |
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 i did it
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Nov 30, 2017 02:27
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