Spoiler-free Mystic Chronicles thoughts

[Victar]

I just finished playing Mystic Chronicles (the Natsume re-translation of Kemco/Hit-Point's "Fantasy Chronicles") on my Vita TV. Completing the game, including all postgame challenges and optional arena battles, took about 40 hours.

As of this writing (November 2020), Mystic Chronicles can still be digitally purchased in the West, in English, on a Vita or a Vita TV for $15. For some bizarre reason, Mystic Chronicles is NOT listed in the "RPG" section of the Vita digital store; one has to search for it by name, either directly or when browsing through the "Classics" section.

I don't think it's possible to spend money on the cash shop in Mystic Chronicles, but the cash shop is completely unneeded anyway.

I believe Mystic Chronicles can no longer be purchased on a Playstation Portable because the PSP digital store has been shut down. My understanding is that Mystic Chronicles has never been released for the 3DS, PS4, Switch, or Xbox.

Mystic Chronicles is basically Justice Chronicles 1.0, or perhaps I could say that Justice Chronicles is Mystic Chronicles 2.0. The two games have almost identical, turn-based RPG gameplay.

Every party member can be paired with a powerful Guardian Beast. Guardian Beasts level up with the party and can be equipped with items that alter their statistics or give them extra abilities. Guardian Beasts are not controlled directly in combat, but they can be indirectly controlled with a "Tactics" option that instructs them to focus on attacking, protecting, or healing. The "Tactics" option can and does affect which abilities the Guardian Beast uses in combat.

Both Guardian Beasts and party members can be freely swapped around in the middle of a fight. There is a  wide variety of viable options for equipping party members, and a diversity of party member abilities and cooperative attacks, resulting in a high amount of strategic options for the challenging boss battles.

Grinding is required. Not only level grinding, but also grinding materials for the crafting system. The only way to get the most powerful armor and weapons in the game is to find crafting books for the recipes, gather materials, and then make them in the workshop. The game does provide some workshop helpers who automatically accumulate materials whenever the party fights battles, and it is possible to buy some intermediate-stage crafted gear as the story progresses.

The good news is that level grinding is fairly painless. Battles are fast-paced. All party members always gain experience whether they're on the front lines or not, whether they're KO'd or not. The player gets access to an ability that instantly summons monsters to battle fairly early (maybe 1/4 of the way in). Experience scales in such a way that the player will rapidly rise in levels until they reach a soft cap tied to whatever area they're grinding in.

The story of Mystic Chronicles is very RPG trope-heavy, but it does have a few twists that genuinely took me by surprise. Mystic Chronicles doesn't have anywhere near as many "shocking swerves" as the story of Justice Chronicles, though.

There is a story connection between Mystic Chronicles and Justice Chronicles. This connection is so minor that playing Justice Chronicles first does not detract from the experience of either game in any way.

Natsume is a LOT better at translating games into English than Hit-Point is. The intriguing story of Justice Chronicles suffered heavily from its weak English localization.

Overall, I can recommend Mystic Chronicles to anyone who enjoyed Justice Chronicles, but I can't really recommend Mystic Chronicles enough to purchase a Vita or Vita TV for it. Not unless there are other Vita-exclusive games that one really wants to play.

(Shout-out to Persona 4 Golden no longer being a Vita exclusive! P4G is now available for the PC on Steam.)

[andreas]

Did you get the true ending, or the true true ending? Also, for those who don't own either of the sony handhelds, emulation should be fine even on low end systems.

[Victar]

Okay, describing this without any spoilers...

Mystic Chronicles plays its first ending upon beating a certain surface world boss, then a second ending after beating the underworld boss, then a third ending after beating the final boss of the final zone in the game. I played the entire postgame and saw these three endings.

I wondered if there could be a different possible ending for beating the final zone's final boss, if all characters were to have their bonds maxed out or something, but Karm's Mystic Chronicles strategy guide didn't mention anything like that.

[andreas]

[quote=39863]I wondered if there could be a different possible ending for beating the final zone’s final boss, if all characters were to have their bonds maxed out or something, but Karm’s Mystic Chronicles strategy guide didn’t mention anything like that.[/quote]

You only get a special ending with one of your party members your trust level is at least 8 and I think it also has to be two levels higher than everyone elses. This is only for the game's regular ending. If the trust level isn't high enough, or everyone is at the same trust level, then it defaults to the base ending with ?ina

[Victar]

I loaded my save and visited the arena fortune teller maybe twenty times to raise the bond between Lux and the healer to 10, and decrease everyone else's bond to 8 or less. Then I beat the final boss of the final area again. The same third ending played as before.

Maybe bonds only affect the first or second endings?

Doing an internet search for information on Mystic Chronicles didn't give much other than Karm's guide and various reviews. Doing an internet search for "Fantasy Chronicles" yields about a million results for Final Fantasy Chronicles, which may be why Natsume changed the game's title.

[andreas]

Yes, only the first ending is effected by your bond level. There's a capture/wiki site, but it's only in Japanese https://rrpg.jp/capture/gensou_chronicle/

[LemmyTheLenny]

That sucks. i can't wait until we get mystic chronicles for android