My quick answer is Mystic Ark.
I guess I'll draft a mini-reflection. I was equally shocked upon learning of the rest of the story in 7th Saga. I initially sought to translate MA because I wanted even more of 7th Saga. For 10 years I carried a file called 7th Saga-II, transferred over and over into probably 20 different PCs. I finally renamed this particular file about a month ago. I didn't mind the difficulty in 7th Saga. Some time ago I brought home a newly released cart from Toys R Us and methodically picked that game apart on an actual SNES console, grinding and grinding until I had savored every possible experience. I literally hungered for every new Enix release in those days.
When Draken turned over a formatted and first-drafted MA to me last spring, I had no idea how the game would proceed. I wrote part of Cat World ten years ago and had a rough idea of the game's style of play, but still wondered if all eight chapters would be standalone quests only loosely tied together. I didn't bother Draken to explain very much of what he learned during the six months he had it because I was pouring all of my juices into Feda.
Talk about a change of pace when I finally finished and polished Cat World! Then, each successive chapter surprised me even more. In the end, I must say that MA rose into my top 10, whereas 7th Saga probably sits somewhere in the 30s. MA is special, so unique it stands alone among all of the RPGs I have played through the years.
The game almost wrote itself. I did very little with the work of Akujin, Shirley, Varkon, and Draken, just polished it mainly and filled in a few blanks and obvious holes in the storyline. Bongo` created about 30,000 extra bytes for me after Draken strained along with about 7,000 bytes to spare, omitting all double spaces and most ellipses. The gain in space was sufficient for me to fix all of those shortcuts and expand the English story to a well balanced level. In some cases, I even discovered that less was more in various parts of MA, especially Dark World.
The puzzles reminded me of Lufia-II. I enjoyed them, but wanted to strangle the guy with the apple puzzle at the gourd bridge! I was tempted to write a line that went like this: I spent half an hour solving the apple puzzle and all I got was a lousy Fruit World tee-shirt!
My extreme enjoyment of Fairytale World surprised me most of all, a theme I thought I'd outgrown. I worked on it the longest, striving to blend Draken's and my styles seamlessly. Fruit World cruised along. Somehow, that nutty plot element worked, allegorically. Kidsdom was the hardest for me to write. I gritted my teeth the whole way, I guess because I have spent 25 years raising children and consider myself overdue for a break. Talk about a bus driver's holiday!! After it assumed the exact shape I wanted it to be, however, it was a real pleasure playing through it and enjoying the kids' antics. I had much fun with the Einstein, Edison, Mozart, and Beethoven characters. Wind World drove me nuts with bugs! Every time I tested through the Clone Cave I held my breath. Dark World was so spooky, I didn't want to go in there... alone! Oh, and Cat World brought my old nautical terminology out of retirement - for a while.
Yes, definitely Mystic Ark! Meeting a challenge is always satisfying, but great stories make special games, and unique plots combined with pleasing soundtracks create unforgettable gaming experiences.
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