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''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 [[Running Gag|Shin-Shatteringly Popular]] ''[[Final Fantasy (Franchise)|Final Fantasy]]'' franchise, released for the Super NES/Super Famicom in 1992. It's widely considered to be either [[So Okay ItsIt's Average]] or [[So Bad ItsIt's Good]] -- although it does have a small, vocal fanbase.
 
The story revolves around Benjamin (you only learn his name from [[All There in the Manual|the manual]], [[Canon Name|he has no default name]]), a boy [[Because Destiny Says So|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 many useful items.
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Your goal, of course, is to find the four monsters who have stolen the Crystals and slay them set things right. But are things really as they seem?
 
''Mystic Quest'' is often considered the [[Oddball in The Series|red-headed stepchild]] of the ''Final Fantasy'' verse, and is criticized for being "[[It's Easy, So It Sucks|too easy]]" and "[[ClicheCliché Storm|full of cliches]]" that would appear in many console RPGs after it. Some gamers have decided that these faults can also serve as beneficial for newcomers to the series, but not quite the "[[Gateway Series|gateway drug]]" that ''[[Final Fantasy IV (Video Game)|Final Fantasy IV]]'' or ''[[Final Fantasy VI (Video Game)|Final Fantasy VI]]'' might have been. One reason the game is hated is because many have [[Mis Blamed|mistakenly assumed]] it was created as a replacement for ''[[Final Fantasy V (Video Game)|Final Fantasy V]]'', which was not released in its original Super NES form in America. Although this is not the case, the two games have enough similarities in their visual styles to really piss off the fanbase. However, the game itself shares the most similarities with ''[[SaGa 3|SaGa 3 / Final Fantasy Legend III]]'', both visually and mechanically.
 
That said, [[Crowning Music of Awesome|the game's music is among the greatest 16-bit soundtracks]]. Composer Ryuji Sasai also wrote the soundtrack for a much lesser known [[Square Soft]] game, ''[[Rudra no Hihou]]'', as well as ''[[SaGa 3|SaGa 3 / Final Fantasy Legend III]]''.
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* [[Distressed Damsel]]: Of course. Kaeli, when she gets poisoned and Norma when she's caught on the wrong side of the bridge when it collapses. (Why her grandpa Otto Cid Bekenstein let her wander near [[The Dragon]] is... [[Fridge Logic|yeah]].. but at least she has the sense to at least stay outside the lair.)
* [[Doomed Hometown]]: You see it on the world map for about five seconds in the opening, until an earthquake takes it out. Ben complains about it once, but seems otherwise [[Angst What Angst|rather un-broken-up about it]].
* [[Elemental Rock -Paper -Scissors]]: The game made a point of telling you when an attack was more or less effective against a target. In addition to the magical [[Elemental Powers]] 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 was matching attacks to monster weaknesses.
** Not entirely used straight; what enemies are weak to what element tended to throw players off when [[Wrong Genre Savvy|they expected 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.
* [[Empty Room Psych]]: 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.
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* [[Fisher King]]: 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.
* [[Flechette Storm]]: Tristam's shuriken and Phoebe's arrows are fired off in multiples.
* [[Four Is Death]]: Four crystals, four continents, four big bosses, four allied party members, four [[One -Winged Angel]] forms for the final boss... yeah, you could say this game loves the number four.
* [[Giant Enemy Crab]]: The Snow Crab and its [[Degraded Boss]] form, the Freezer Crab.
* [[Giant Spider]]: 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 [[Eldritch Abomination|octopus]]-tentacled [[Do Not Taunt Cthulhu|abomination]].)
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* [[Ho Yay]]: Maybe it's just us, and the characterization is a little thin regardless, but [http://socksmakepeoplesexy.net/index.php?a=ffmq certain people people have noted] that Tristam's actions toward our hero come off as... rather interesting.
** {{spoiler|He ''is'' also the only character to join Ben on Captain Mac's ship in the ending...}}
* [[ItsIt's All Upstairs From Here]]: The final jaunt up the Focus Tower to face the Dark King in [[Doomy Dooms of Doom|Doom Castle]].
* [[Law of Cartographical Elegance]]: Uses the flat, [[Insurmountable Waist Height Fence]] version. The entire world appears to be bordered by clouds. Also, you move from point to point on rails.
* [[Low Level Advantage]]: 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.)
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* [[Meaningful Name]]: Among the more generic names of the Vile Four, Pazuzu stands out for being named after the Babylonian wind demon.
* [[Moe Greene Special]]: Phoebe's arrows inflict Blind on enemies not resistant to it.
* [[Multi -Armed and Dangerous]]: Dark King's second form.
* [[Musical Spoiler]]: [[Lampshade Hanging|Lampshade hung]] 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.
** [[Leitmotif]]: Notably, Tristam is the only character in the game with a personal piece of theme music.
* [[My Name Is Not Durwood]]: Tristam only calls Benjamin "kid". You always wind up correcting him.
* [[Oddball in The Series]]: Interestingly, this game was developed by the same team as ''[[SaGa 3]]'' (and even shares some enemy sprite graphics and mechanics with it), which was also the oddball in [[SaGa|its series]].
* [[One -Winged Angel]]: The last boss is interesting in this regard. {{spoiler|First he goes [[Multi -Armed and Dangerous]], 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...}}
* [[Palette Swap]]: EVERY enemy in the game is subject to this at least once, usually twice, with the sole exception of the [[Final Boss]].
* [[Patchwork Map]]: All four regions are neatly divided by the Focus Tower into their own climates.
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* [[Underground Monkey]]: Many, including several [[Degraded Boss|Degraded Bosses]].
* [[Urban Legend of Zelda]]: Given that the game was created with the American market in mind, the idea that ''FFMQ'' was created '''by''' Square USA is incredibly prevalent, and it is also false. Square USA's only creation was ''[[Secret of Evermore]]''. ''MQ'' was created in Japan, released in the US first, and then later in its home country and abroad. Compare ''Super Mario USA'', known to us as ''[[Super Mario Bros 2 (Video Game)|Super Mario Bros 2]]''.
* [[Useless Useful Spell|Useless Useful Armor]]: Tristam's armor, the Doom Robe has no status resistances except one- [[One -Hit Kill|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.
** This does lead to [[Epileptic Trees|suspicions]] that Tristam was meant to be around longer during development, as he really is the least-utilized party member in the game.
*** Although due to [[Good Bad Bugs]], your next partner may temporarily steal this resistance.
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