Hoping to make your life's design a bit more dynamic!

I have just finished the first world. It was great. I found secrets in pots and cleverly hidden behind other things. I love solving puzzles. I was only daunted by one puzzle. Which was located in the temple where you recive the Ark of Power. I admit, I had to look it up. If you recall (sorry, I did not make a screen shot of it to show you) you have to walk in a specific pattern. The pattern is given to the player in the form of a riddle involving colors and numbers. While it was obvious to me what it all meant I could not figure it out on my own. I remembered the colors but not their placment on the controller...and my keyboard is black. Here is what I had to look up.

Problem solved!
One other thing comes to mind, while in the Lighthouse, on the top floor (Matoyas room) the first task she gives you is to pick up clothes lying on the floor and to put them into her dresser. Easy enough but I stumbled over this nontheless. Up untill that point I had been using the "A" button to bring up the search/talk, item, magic, ect ect menu. While standing over the clothes I would press "A" and select search. This would have no effect on the clothes while using ZNES 1.51 What I had to do was use the "X" button which is the automatic search/talk button to have any effect on the clothes. I pondered over this, the end result of using the "search" command in the menu wrought from pressing "A" should have the same outcome as simply pressing "X" but it was now so. Could this be considered a bug? I don't know, but I thought it may be worthy enough of a situation to bring to your attention.

I wouldn't consider this a bug, rather just the somewhat quirky way the programmers sometimes concocted the command structure. One thing you can do in such instances is load a Japanese ROM and convert a save-state's name to match the Japanese ROM's name. Then load the Japanese game and play over that same spot. If the buttons respond the same way in the Japanese game, then that particular programming feature is likely immutable.

Specifically, Matoya's clothing is very particular about how it let's you pick it up! The placement of the character, if I recall, is somewhat behind the pile not directly over it. You will find other quirky placements in the game as well.

As for puzzles, MA is chocked full of 'em - somewhat Lufia-like until past the half-way point. Maybe the puzzle man got fired from the team or ran out of steam after that, because the game seemed to became more story-intense, especially as you drew closer to confrontations with stronger bosses. World 2 is a really strange experience, but it works. It's filled with humor at the same time. And more puzzles!

Good work, Jer... Don't forget to start collecting monster Figurines. The Monster Arena and collecting the baddies is capable of using as much game time as two or three chapters!

Yes, you are correct on the sprite placement in conjunction with Matoyas clothing.
As for the Monster Arena and it taking time...I can surmise that it would take a fair while to do. It is fun to pit
monsters aginst other monsters or make bets on monster fights. I am glad to see this concept in this video game,
which is very full already, mini games notwithstanding. Wildbill, you are very much right about the Monster Arena
taking along time. I wonder if most of the time is in turning monsters into figurines. Most of the time I come up
"miss"ing when I use the "create figurine" command. At first I thought this might be due to my stats not being high
enough over the monsters own stats. I tried to solve this problem by coming back to weaker monsters and continuing
to use "create figurine" command. This yielded no better results. I then proceeded to use debuffs. I used all that
were available to me at the time stone, sleep, slow etc etc. I also used buffs on main character magic up, attack
power up ect ect. This also did not yield better results. Sometimes I would use the "create figurine" and it would
work outright, as a first move even, on monsters my own level. I have some to the conclusion that "create figurine"
command works or misses on a random basis, yet leaning towards miss. All in all, I still love it and use the command
at least once every battle.


Well, I have just recived the Ark of Fire. This puts me in the fifth world. I am fully enjoying Mystic Ark 1.01beta.
I am on the look-out for any bugs. I may have found some or they may be nothing at all. It is not my intent to point
out every little minor detail and say "hey looky here, I found this, fix it" I only wish to bring things that seem,
[to me(thought I am no expert)] out of place to your attention. If I come across as hypercritical, I am not trying
to be and I apologize. I'm a perfectionist, which I look at as a curse. I also like to ramble on. Which sometimes
causes me to digress off my main point. Speaking of main point...I just finished the fourth world. I may have found
a typo, though I may be mistaken (I usually am) and the grammatical error is of my own shortcomings. The word in
question is "medusa" and "medusae" perhaps "medusae" is the correct spelling of a plural medusa. I don't know, but I
bring it to your attention.


I have found one more, this also is most likely a problem with my own comprehension. But just incase I bring it to
your attention. In Duplo, there is no sound, you have to learn sign language to communicate with NPCs. The NPC that
teaches you sign language "pulls out pen and paper" and asks "Have you ever heard of sign language?". To this you
get the option of answering "yes" or "no" To me it seems that if you (main character) have not heard of sign
language then this would then be the time to learn it. I answered "no" thinking the NPC would teach me sign
language. Here's four screen shots of that situation.
which leads to

At this point the conversation ends but you have the option of starting the conversation over. Once again "Have you
heard of sign language?" "Yes" but
when answering yes the NPC says
It seems to me, that if we (main character) have not heard of sign language, then the NPC would be able to surmise
that we are indeed "strangers" and would need a lesson in sign language. But we have to answer that we have heard of
sign language before we can learn to speak it.
Perhaps I am saying too much about it, here's the short format of what I am trying to bring to attention...Is the
first choices of "yes" and "no" jumbled up?

That's all I could find. Nothing bigger then those two situations, if situations they were. I am sure that the
spelling and comprehension misunderstanding are my own. Dynamic Designs team has done such a masterful job with
Mystic Ark. I also I love what you guys did here I laughed out loud. Extra kudos for you

guys, you have a great sense of humor.

I just looked up "medusae" and found that it is correct...I looked it up after posting. It was 2:30 a.m. when I made the post above. I would edit it out but I'd rather make this post and tell you of my mistake instead. It's not that I'm trying to be lazy, I'm just very tired. Making this post will allow me to get to bed earlier. I hope I can be forgiven for wasting your time with the medusa tid-bit.

I was happy to find something in this game other than the usual casino! A few hidden places also are scattered here in there with little or no clues. There may even be a hidden "Mirror Chamber" in World 7 that no one has ever found to my knowledge. (Mirror, mirror on the wall, who's the fairest...?)

These tips may help. *Spoilers*

1. Use Create Figurine on a monster that is down to just a few HP.
2. Sleep can keep that monster from hitting you or running away while you're trying to capture it.
3. Some Figurines are quite valuable.
4. Others you can keep trading for unlimited power-ups of virtually every attribute.
5. Some are worth super equipment that is not available anywhere else.
6. Some valuable monsters disappear forever after certain worlds or dungeons are cleared.
7. Not all monsters can be converted into dolls, usually the over-sized ones.

I wish someone could take the time to catalog what every monster is worth in the arena.


Regarding the whole sign language scene, we kicked that one around during production and finally decided that the wording was so ambiguous, it could go either way. We could have done a lot of rewriting to make the choices more clear, but space was always a premium, so we finally decided that one way or another, players would either learn sign language right off the bat or sort of stumble into it a few seconds later!

This was a good report, Jer. You are really forging through the game! When you finish, visit the thread about which you liked better - 7th Sage or MA - and share your thoughts. Meanwhile, keep up the good work in this thread.

Thank you Wildbill, I will indeed. Though my former reports turned out to be nothing more then my own
misinterpretations. I come to you now with something that may actually be a typo. It involves the text centred
around a little girl in the Fairy Tales chapter. The girl in question is (I belive[yet I have been wrong on every
account before]) "The Match Girl".
After saving Little Red Ridding Hood and her grandmother from the Big Bad Wolf, the girl in Tinkle (with yellow pig
-tails in the Tinkle Park) is whom I assume to be The Match Girl, makes said typo. The fact that the girl starts out
in Tinkle Park is one of the reasons that I attribute her to being "The Match Girl", as the actual "Match Girl"
story takes place with the girl being in a "parK" or "square" (whichever you prefer[the end result is the same]).
Here are two screenshots that referance her as "The Match Girl", yet they come after the typo (or what I interpret
as a typo). The first is from the woman in Cinderellas house that speaks of a tailor looking for a match.

The second is from (whom I belive is) the Match Girl herself, stating she just been "conned" out of a match by the
tailor...

With these references to being the "Match Girl" here I come (most humbly) with the asumption, but not presumption,
that the girl in Tinkle Pakr is infact the "Match Girl". Which would fit into the Mystic Ark lore of Fairy Tale
chapter. Pig-tailed girl being fairy tale character.
I wish to digress alittle to, but learning towards that fact of relevance, the story of "The Little Match Girl" I do
the "fairy tale" a grave injustice by giving you the very shortest of versions of the story, I apologize, but it is
with the intent of saving time. Time which is precious because I spent most of the day playing Mystic Ark 1.01beta
instead of grading practice tests in kinesiology for ungratefull little $&!7heads. Yet grade I must do after I have
written this report, which I find a very much more enjoyable task. The little Match Girl was a poor girl who sold
matches that her abusive father made. One night after she didn't make any sales. Frightened to return home without
any money, from sales, and fearfull of a beating from abusive father she decided to stay out all night in the cold
[the very cold](on the hopes of selling at least a single match). She did not sell a match. [I forget why and I am
sorry that I have not resurched why] She light a match and in the singular flame of a match she did precive a
message from her deceased grandmother. Upon this she light many more matches, that she was suppose to sell, in order
to receive more messages from grandma. Messages which faded as the flame from the match died. In the morning
passerbyes saw the lifeless body of a little girl with many burnt matches strewn about her. Many remarked the
sadness or foolishness of the little girl which they though had tried to keep herself warm through the night with
singular matches. A sad story, to be sure, but I the referances made above lead me to belive that the girle in
"Tinkle Park" with yellow pigtails is "The Little Match Girl".
Without further ado here is what I perceived as a typo. The "Match Girl" says "'Cause, you know... she's[refering to
Little Red Ridding Hood] the only one who'll buy matches for me."
But I belive that the typo that I preceive is in the word "for" which should be, instead, "from". Making said sentence reading "'Cause, you know... she's the only one who'll buy matches from me."
Once again I will state, I have somewhat of a perfectionist complex, which (has my whole life) caused me to find the smalles of details, to question them, rather then blindly accept the general understanding of things. That mixed with Wildbill spurring me on to "keeping up the good reports" of anything I find, causes me to write this report of what I precive as a meer typo. I make overly long, in the telling, this report so that Dynamic Designs knows my mind
and thinks of me as someone trying to help, rather then (come across) as somesort of naysayer. I esteem D-D and only
strive to be helpfull to their work, which I fully appreciate and find a work of unequalable enjoyment.

After posting this, I have found a few mistakes in my own spelling, sentence sturcture, grammer, and punctuation. I know it is incredibly hypocritical of me to give you a mention in spelling/grammer/comprehension mistakes of works done while using said "spelling/grammer/comprehension" mistakes myself, but I am so tired and have much work to do before I can go to bed, and I have tarried over long with post. So I will leave the above post in an incorrect state, as it is. I do hope you forgive me and good night for the time being. I hope to complete Mystic Ark by this up comming weekend. I still do belive it to be a work masterfully done by Enix and better yet done in the translation by Dynamic Designs. Thank you anf good night.

I can't believe you're in Chapter 7 already. As for the match girl, I have mused over that one before, and here is one interpretation that stopped me from changing it previously: The match girl may be too young to buy matches on her own, so she gets Cinderella to purchase them at the item shop and bring them to her in the town square where she performs the role of the Little Match Girl. Or, I could change it to buying matches from her, as you speculated. What do you think? Give me your final thoughts on the matter.

Jer, when you finish your play, we will release MA V1.01 to the rest of the world. Last night, I played our universal version on a real Super Nintendo console for the first time (See another MA thread.). That was the final test I've been wanting to complete at this end, not play the entire game, just ensure that it loads and starts correctly in real hardware.

As always, I appreciate your reports.

This post comes much too long in the making, it bares the a simple expl...lengthy explanation...which I won't go into (though explanations I am wont to give), and opt for the simple. I lost all the information on my computer, simply put. EVERYTHING! I did not have information backed up...I hate you Windows Vista. All my music, the 1k+ roms, the 4k+ music files, the movies...all gone.
Now I'm using Linux 10.04 (to which I am still learning B.A.S.H. commands) It's hard for gaming, I do like to be challenged though.
MA 1.01 beta was (which I did finish) was one of the best classic games I played. The story immersed me completely. A job very well done by Dynamic Designs. It's been so long, since I've finished the game, so I can only finish this report (very poorly, to which I am sorry) from my own memory, that happens to span roughly a year. The game was great. I loved the story line (modified), so that the implementations of putting in the name of the translators the Dynamic Designs team, were wrought . Tickled me pink, it did.
The last bit of the story was great, I would be aspired to make a career out of what the DD team does, but my own life studies have lead me along another path. I am not well versed in computing, but I can hold my own (with proper instruction, of the simplest kind) , I tell you this because I wish to gain more media, that you (as a team, would deign, to allow me to have, for my own personal use) to run with whatever programs (a native Linux client can handle) you tell me to use.
Good job on MA 1.01 beta, it was flawless, pleasurable to play and nostalgic of my youth. I wish to have more. You, DD team, do a great service to the esthetic value of games for gamers of my, of our, sort. I would like another copy of MA 1.01 beta, though now I've played it, I may not play it again. In what way should I ask for the file? And if the giving is easy (and does not seem pretentious on my part), may I ask for more, I saw some great screenshots of games I always wanted to play on the title page. Thank you for your perusal of this post and/or attention to the matter of getting me more great games, which you have laboriously translated. I humbly await a reply.

Jeremiah RIley, gamer

Hey, Jer!

I'm just happy a tree didn't fall on you up there or an avalanche or something!!

Listen, it's never too late to share or help us with anything - on any level as you have the time or wherewithal to contribute. Yes, we are very proud of our Mystic Ark effort. We did not rush it to production, rather we expended all of our artistic juices to the best of our abilities. In fact, I still owe my friend in France an answer to his incisive post - I am highly aware of that - as I have been remiss in communicating with him due to personal distractions and occasionally intensive work on future game patch releases. Realizing this -as you have shared - when something touches us deeply, time does not matter, rather the heartfelt quality of the response, along the lines of what you have just conveyed.

I sense instinctively that our passionate, highly artistic rendition of Mystic Ark will stand the test of time, long after the propaganda, hype, and well-oiled promotional machines of the present have faded into oblivion. Having said that. I urge you to remain safe in the Great North Woods and pursue a state of wellness as you prepare for the soon-to-be unsealed adventures of Draken's and Bongo`'s Chaos Seed, not to mention Burning Heroes (another Enix masterpiece currently in production at D-D) and many other quality RPG translations we are planning down the road.

Finally, Jer, I will share with you my belief that the SNES platform offered the pinnacle of RPG greatness, regardless of modern whistles and bells, and our devotion to bringing these superb untranslated works to both ourselves and the world through high quality re-coding and storytelling remains our mission. Many of us here are also stirred in primordial ways by these works. So, keep in touch, friend. We enjoy hearing from you and knowing you're safe and alive out there, along with the implication that your electrical generator is still functioning!

P.S. Go Sarah Palin...!!