Final Fantasy Mystic Quest
eliminates the system of random
enemy encounters, a trademark of the
main series. Instead, battles are
represented in dungeons as
stationary enemy sprites, and the
player is given the option of
approaching the enemy and engaging a
battle. However, many of these
battles are unavoidable as enemy
sprites often obstruct the player's
progress or block access to treasure
chests. Once engaged in battle, the
player is thrust into the battle
screen, which presents a
window-based menu with three
commands to choose from: battle,
run, or control. Running from battle
transports the player back to the
field screen, while choosing
"control" toggles between the ally's
battle mode, where the player can
manually control the main
character's ally or opt for a
computer-controlled ally. If players
choose to battle, they are presented
with a submenu of four more options:
physically attack the enemy, cast a
spell, use a curative item (such as
a Cure potion), or defend. The
game's battle system relies on
conditional turn-based combat, where
the characters and enemies cycle
through "rounds" in battling each
other, with the most turns awarded
to the fastest character. Character
health is represented by an
incremental life bar, although the
player may choose to have it
displayed in numerical fractions as
in most role-playing games. If all
character life bars reach zero, the
game is over, but the player is
given the option of continuing and
restarting the battle without
penalty.
A character's performance in battle is determined by numerical figures
(called statistics) for vitality,
attacking power, defensive
capabilities, speed, magical
prowess, accuracy, and evasion.
Character statistics are driven by
experience points (EXP) gained from
winning battles, which accumulate
until players achieve milestones
known as "experience levels." The
process of battling enemies to gain
experience levels is known as
"leveling up." Besides awarding
experience points, battling enemies
also earns the player Gold Pieces
(GP), which can be used to buy
weapons, armor, and curative items.
In the absence of random enemy encounters, battlefields are scattered
across the world map. Players are
immediately thrust into a battle
when entering a battlefield, and
must win ten enemy battles to "clean
out" the battlefield. Once a
battlefield is cleaned out, players
are awarded either a large amount of
experience, a large amount of GP, a
piece of armor, or a magic spell.
