This is a video of my guitar version of the Dark King theme from the SNES game Final Fantasy: Mystic Quest.
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest, released as Mystic Quest Legend in PAL regions and as Final Fantasy USA: Mystic Quest in Japan, is a role-playing video game for the Super Nintendo Entertainment System. The game was released as a spin-off to Square's popular Final Fantasy series of video games. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was first released in North America in 1992 and marketed as a "simplified role-playing game...designed for the entry-level player" in an attempt to broaden the genre's appeal. The game's presentation and battle system is broadly similar to that of the main series, but it differed in its inclusion of action-adventure game elements. Final Fantasy Mystic Quest was the first Final Fantasy game to be released in Europe.
In the game, the player controls a youth named Benjamin in his quest to save the world. His goal is to reclaim a set of stolen crystals that determine the state of the world's four elemental powers. The gameplay takes a departure from the main series in a variety of ways. Many series staples are eliminated, such as random battles, save points, manual equipment, and the party system. The game received middling reviews and sales in North America and Japan, citing its simplified gameplay and lack of depth in the game's story. Over time, the game has kept the reputation for being a "beginner's Final Fantasy" and has been praised for its music.
Setting
The fictional events of Final Fantasy Mystic Quest take place on a single continent of an unnamed world, which is divided into four distinct regions: Foresta, Aquaria, Fireburg, and Windia. The welfare of each region is determined by the state of one of four shining crystals: earth, water, fire, and wind, respectively. For centuries the Focus Tower had stood at the heart of the world. It had been a center for trade and knowledge, and the world's people met there to peacefully settle their differences. But on one warm summer day, powerful monsters stormed the Tower, stole the four crystals, and then took off with the magical coins that kept the Tower's doors unlocked. The monsters began consuming the power of the crystals; they grew in strength while the world began to decay. An old prophecy tells that at the time the "vile four" steal the power and divide the world behind four doors, a knight will appear to vanquish the darkness.
Audio
Final Fantasy Mystic Quest's soundtrack was composed by Ryuji Sasai and Yasuhiro Kawakami. It was one of the first games in the Final Fantasy series not to be composed by regular series composer Nobuo Uematsu, after Final Fantasy Adventure (known in Japan as Final Fantasy Gaiden) and the Final Fantasy Legend games (only called Final Fantasy games in North America). The album was first released on one Compact Disc by NTT Publishing on September 10, 1993. ROM capacity limits and hardware limitations made the composition process difficult. After the game was completed, Sasai recorded two remixes on his days off for the game's album, and personally played the guitar parts. “Mountain Range of Whirlwinds” was built off of Sasai's liking of the sound of the french horn, and its ability to go the length of the song and convey a sense of mountains. The track "Last Castle" was written in a short time, and was used to create imagery of a field, but its length left very little space for the "Battle 3" song.'
