Mystic Quest (Seiken Densetsu)

European box cover

U.S. box cover

"Mystic Quest", known as "Final Fantasy Adventure" in the U.S. and 聖剣伝説 ～ファイナルファンタジー外伝～ (Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden) in Japan, is a Game Boy game released in 1991 by Squaresoft.
Not to be confused with the 1992 snes game titled "Mystic Quest Legend" (Europe), "Final Fantasy Mystic Quest" (U.S.), and "Final Fantasy USA: Mystic Quest" (Japan).

Honestly these title changes made things unnecessarily confusing.

Japanese box cover

In 1987 Squaresoft trademarked the name 聖剣伝説 "Seiken Densetsu" (Legend of the holy sword), intending to use it for a game clearly inspired by Arthurian lore, since the subtitle would have been "The Emergence of Excalibur". It would have been for the Famicom Disk System and be contained on 5 floppy disks.
The ambitious project had to be canceled, probably due to Squaresofts impending bankruptcy.
In October 1987 everyone who had preordered a copy of the game got a refund with a suggestion to instead order the upcoming title "Final Fantasy".

The first fight

"Final Fantasy" (1987) ended up being such a success that it saved the company from bankruptcy.

Hero and Chocobo

After the release of "Final Fantasy III" (Famicom) in 1990 Square offered director Koichi Ishii to direct a spin-off game to the Final Fantasy series. The result was an action-rpg for the Game Boy released in 1991 in Japan and the U.S. and in 1993 in Europe.

It was developed under the name "Gemma Knights", but eventually Square revived the trademarked name and released it under the title "Seiken Densetsu: Final Fantasy Gaiden"

True to it's title, the game does feature the "Holy sword"; Excalibur, but it is introduced rather late in the games story, and the main focus of the game and the series that was spawned by it is the Mana tree. The Seiken Densetsu series thus appropriately got the English title "The Mana series".

Excalibur is also included in many Final Fantasy games, quite likely as a nod to this franchise.

Getting a clue to a puzzle

The game-play is reminiscent of early Zelda games, but perhaps a little more influenced by the rpg-genre. Whenever you level up, you get to decide what attributes to focus on, thus deciding if you want to be more magic-oriented or fighting-oriented. The will attribute increases the speed with which the will-meter in the bottom of the screen increases, and when full you can use you're equipped weapons special attack.

The A-button is used to attack with your weapon, the B-button is used to use whatever item or magic you have equipped. I found this slightly cumbersome, since whenever you wanted to use an item or set the magic you needed to use, you would have to first go into the inventory and choose the item, and then pushing the button. It's something you get used to, but considering how often I change what item/magic I want to use it does slow down the game a bit.

An npc looking like the FF White Mage (Lower left)

The real annoyance however is the fact that you talk to npcs by walking into them. This means you often talk to people you don't intend to, since people walk around randomly, sometimes eve blocking your path. Since you can't really cancel dialogue this becomes really frustrating sometimes if you are unlucky.

You should keep most of the weapons you get, since even if the newer ones are generally more powerful, many of the weapons have additional effects, such as the Battleaxe being able to cut down trees and the chain making it possible to traverse to poles in the game. In other words switching between weapons is essential to being able to progress in the game.

When working on the series Koichi Ichii drew inspiration from abstract images from his memories of childhood as well as works of fiction that captivated him as a child. He has cited that some of his inspiration was Tove Jansson's Moomin, Lewis Carrol's Alice in Wonderland and J.R.R. Tolkiens Lord of the Rings.
Of course another inspiration for this first game in the series is obviously Final Fantasy, which is apparent. It was originally intended as a spin-off after all.

A couple of Black Mage enemies

A few examples of the similarities with Final Fantasy is the occurrence of Chocobo's and the design of some of the games characters.
The Black Mage exists as an enemy character and some of the npcs are modeled after the White Mage class.
An unnamed traveler accompanies the hero at one point, and he is clearly a Red Mage.
Even Moogles appear in the game, although rather than being white winged creatures, it is an item.
An airship is also featured in the story, something that has become an obvious trope in the Final Fantasy franchise.

There was a remake released for mobile phones (sadly only in Japan). It was basically a 16 bit update of the original game, with color graphics and improved sound.

Seiken Densetsu Mobile. Fighting a boss with the man that looks like a Red Mage

In 2003 a remake was released for the Game Boy Advanced, this time the game was heavily re-imagined to take most references to Final Fantasy away and to make the game-play and art-style more in line with the following games in the Mana series. In fact there where so many changes that it can barely be considered a remake of the original game. The title of the game was "Sword of Mana".

Sword of Mana (2003, GBA)

In 2016 another remake was made, this time for iOS, Android and Vita, entitled "Adventures of Mana". This remake was again much more true to the original although of course much improved in every way, this time featuring 3D graphics.

First fight. Adventures of Mana (2016)

Mystic Quest was a really deep and gripping action-rpg for it's time, and it also hold a special place in my heart, since it was the very first Squaresoft game I ever played.

The European version seems to go for about €20, but a complete set in good condition is being sold on ebay for about €90.
The american version is about €15 for a used copy, and about €150 for a new copy.
The Japanese version also go for about €15, but that's for the cartridge only. I don't know how much a new copy would go for,