Part 2: Benjamin Goes on a Fetch Quest

2: Benjamin Goes on a Fetch Quest







Uh, hello to you, too?



That's just what happens, man. Don't let it get you down!



Ohhh, well, that’s much worse.



Gee, I wonder what’s over there in that not all conspicuous backyard?



Magic. Magic is what’s over there. Those red chests are special and always have something important or worthwhile in them.



Here’s our menu. To the left is our inventory and below it are our magic points.

Mystic Quest operates on a stock point style of magic use. At his wussiest, Benjamin gets three white spell casts before he’s out. He’ll get more as he levels up but for now that’s what he has to work with.



In the customize menu, we can also change our party member’s control and go from that weird bar… thing… representative for health to the aesthetically superior numbers. Really, I wouldn’t mind the bar but it’s just sort of odd and unpleasant to look at. I’m not even sure what sort of purpose it serves—it doesn’t seem particularly clearer.

Maybe for the aspiring RPG player who hasn’t figured out fractions yet, I dunno.



Below the stump/house where we found Cure is our first inn of the game. Ben’s a big dork so he does a little dance after every nap.

The bed is free so I guess that’s cause for celebration?



Look up a little thing called “please” and get back to me on that.



But we’ve delayed long enough. Let’s go show this withered branch to Kaeli.



There’s a tree blocking the north exit of the Level Forest. I can chop down the tree, but monsters have taken over the forest and I can’t get to it.





Kaeli’s mom is understandably more than a little upset that some dude just barged in to her house and now is trying to drag her daughter into the monster-ridden forest. Ben, where are your manners?

Listen, mom...





Don’t worry, mom.

Yeah, what’s the worst that could happen??



Kaeli’s mom buries her face in her hands as she realizes her daughter is leaving with the world’s biggest nerd





So Kaeli’s pretty cool. There’s not much else to her character beyond “loves nature, wields an axe” though. I like the European artwork of her—kinda gives her a cool viking-esque vibe. I’m not sure why her hair is suddenly silver but there you go.

She’s considerably tougher than Ben at the moment at two levels higher but stats are honestly sort of… useless, I guess you could say, in this game. Is your level higher? Congrats, you’re good to go. Your party members won’t level with you, which is sort of a bummer, but their levels serve as a good metric for where you should be. Those little symbols in the lower right window are elements or status effects that she happens to resist. We will see exactly zero of these effects until like the halfway point of the game.

She does come with the Life spell though, which is basically your cure-all. Death, damage, status effects… you name it, Life cures it.

Then again, in retrospect, literally everything in the game is better than Ben right now.





In any case, Ben and Kaeli trek back to the forest and she just levels that fucking tree like it was nothing.

We’ve got to reach the north exit.

But first, monsters!

(you should absolutely click this)



Our first proper battle. Brownies are about as threatening as you might expect. They’ll hit for around 6 damage and we have 40 health so unless they decide to bully someone you’ll be fine.

Even if they do decide to bully someone you’ll be fine unless you get hit with a bunch of criticals in a row. Kaeli is killing these chumps in one hit. Ben is a weakling and needs two swings of his sword.



Once you’ve beaten them up enough, they’ll take off their hats. That little blue spark over Ben is a Cure spell in action.

Ben got bullied in this fight, is what I’m saying.



The Level Forest is also infested with slimes as per JRPG tradition. Here they are both somewhat smushed and in good health.

That’s basically all for the Level Forest, so we kill enough enemies that Ben isn’t such an embarrassment.



Sure, I can see how that might look ‘evil’.



I sort of have the feeling he was hiding behind the tree.





Here’s the North American manual's depiction of the event. Not sure what the hell is going on with the tree here but it’s fucking enormous, look at it!



Kaeli gets back to her feet after spinning around and falling to the ground. Time for our first real boss battle.

(also worth listening to!)



First things first, you could just cast Kaeli’s Life spell on this guy and win instantly. But that’s too easy so we’re going to do this the old-fashioned way.



If you just walked straight up to this guy at level 1, you’d be in for a rough ride. Possibly an unwinnable one if you didn’t just go the Life route. But other than that, it’s not at all a problem. He can hit you from anywhere between 30 damage to 80.

The minotaur especially hated Kaeli this run.



No, seriously, I wasn’t kidding.



Then, mustering up a newfound strength from his marginally bulkier arms, Ben got such an amazing critical hit that he obliterated the jerk.



I think this is supposed to be a depiction of this fight? Where did the ruins come from? What's the deal with Benjamin apparently having a huge braid?





Oh boy, there's no good way to answer this one.

I’ll be okay… as soon as I take Elixir…



I imagine Kaeli’s mom is just about ready to smack this dumb idiot kid that got her daughter poisoned



Kaeli gives us her axe before she’s taken away. You’re good people, Kaeli.


The axe is pretty much a complete upgrade from our sword but it’s a pretty marginal boost. Switching weapons is another one of my favorite things about Mystic Quest.

At this point, we’re free to chop down trees and collect those treasure chests that have been taunting us... but those brown treasure chests are frankly boring. Each of them contains one of two potions:



Cure potions are exactly the same as the Cure spell only, predictably, worse. Cure potions heal for your level x 10 so they get better as you level up but are always pretty ‘meh’.



Heal potions on the other hand just get rid of your status effects, which we’re going to be running into very soon!

The thing is, these are basically the contents of all these boring brown boxes. There are obviously some exceptions, by which I mean you won't get these two potions and instead two different types of healing items.







Well, hey, at least that wasn’t a huge hassle.



What sort of asshole closes an empty treasure chest? That’s pretty messed up





Suddenly, sick beats permeate the shrine and I guess Ben can hear them too?



That’s your conversation starter? Shouldn’t you be in the back of an alleyway somewhere?






Next time: Benjamin reveals an embarrassing detail about his childhood and we tackle our first actual dungeon


We’re still really early in the game so I’m holding off on a name on the off chance people want to pop in with more suggestions! Thanks to those of you have tossed one out there!