History VideoGame / MysticArk

* WholePlotReference: To ''VideoGame/{{Makai Toshi SaGa}}'' (aka ''The Final Fantasy Legend''), right down to the GainaxEnding. The difference is that the Goddess is treated as well-intentioned unlike the Creator, and the Hero chooses to go through the final door instead of rejecting it.

** Even the Goddess being broken into the 7 Arks is similar to Gorsia's power being broken into the runes.

* RareCandy -- Much like DragonQuest, another Enix franchise, there are stat boosting seeds as well as figurines you can get from the Arena minigame provided you have enough platinum to exchange them for those specific figurines.

* TheMario -- Remeer/Ferris; strong attack power yet not as strong as Reeshine's, and with magic that's effective yet pales in comparison to Miriene's or Meisia's. Tokio and Kamiwoo could also be considered this, although their attack and magic are both less effective than the hero's.

* PaperThinDisguise -- How do you infiltrate a ship full of pirate [[PettingZooPeople cat people]]? Easy, just pin a rank insignia on, and walk right up to the guards - even if they've never seen you before, they won't give you any trouble.

* NothingIsScarier -- For being in a game where "cutscenes" are just two or three images with added text, the Dark World is ''creepy.'' There's actually very few monsters in it; instead, it's a huge, creepy, endless house where touching or interacting with anything is dangerous.

* GainaxEnding

* NothingIsScarier -- For being in a game where "cutscenes" are just two or three images with added text, the Dark World is ''creepy.''

* MythologyGag -- The game's intro shows a spinning tile capturing the protagonists in the same way King Lemele recruited the heroes of ''VideoGame/The7thSaga''.

* TheManBehindTheMan -- [[spoiler: Darkness, a humanoid figure that looks like [[DragonBallZ Cell]] would if he died and was mummified for a few hundred years, is initially introduced as the mysterious figure that is traveling between the several worlds, turning people into figurines, and bringing each world's BigBad to power. However, after you defeat Darkness near the end of the game, it turns out that he's being controlled by an even worse entity called Malice, an EldritchAbomination who lives in TheVeryDefinitelyFinalDungeon.]]

* MythologyGag -- The game's intro shows a spinning tile capturing the protagonists in the same way King Lemele recruited the heroes of The7thSaga.

* {{Homage}} -- To {{Myst}}: Both games take place on an island and both have objects that take you to different locations. [[spoiler: Even the fireplace which played a role in one puzzle acted as a doorway]]

* ChestMonster -- Both Subverted and played straight. In the Children's World, the Mimics in the basement are quite peaceful and neutral, even one offers to heal you midway through the laboratory as it has got covered in a healing potion on accident giving it properties akin to a healing spring. In the Giant's World, you do have to fight 2 of them at once at the start of the sand maze.
* CloneArmy -- [[spoiler: The Current "Ancients" are clones of the original ancients who were wiped out. Whether or not they are directly cloned from Kuga/Ancient One is left up to speculation]]

* FireIceLightning

* GoldfishPoopGang -- Sly/Coscarra.

* {{Homage}} -- To {{Myst}}. Both games use objects that take you to different locations. One large exception is that the objects in Mystic Ark are completely different from books and just by either touching them or getting close to them pulls you into those worlds.

* ThatOneBoss -- The Death Knights. Take the Children's world boss Chimera and multiply the number of enemies you have to fight by 3. Now give them the powerful Fireball spell and have them all know More Health.

* UndergroundCity: [[spoiler: Metalimo.]]

* YouAllMeetInACell: You are the first to break free from captivity as a figurine, you can only free the remaining 6 (Use their bodies as allies via Ark Infusion) after gaining your first Ark.

* GoldfishPoopGang -- Sly

* FanTranslation

* YouAllMeetInACell: You are the first to break free from captivity as a figurine, the others you have to free later on and they will join.

* FanTranslation -- There are two out there, but the one generally most preferred is [[http://www.romhacking.net/trans/1428/ Dynamic Designs']] due to the fact that it allows for more characters (meaning that item names and dialogue are not truncated or abbreviated).
* ForcedLevelGrinding -- Shockingly averted, considering its predecessor. The game even goes so far as to allow any figurines you're carrying to level up along with you, no Ark infusion required.
** To be fair, much of the predecessor's reputation for LevelGrinding was due to a botched job of DifficultyByRegion.

* NoodleIncident -- Whatever it was that started the longstanding feud between the crews of the Bloodhook and the Gunboss. It's a Noodle Incident because no-one actually remembers after all the centuries of fighting. Except perhaps Matoya, and she's not telling.

* UrbanLegendOfZelda -- It was long held up as an actual sequel to ''The 7th Saga'' rather than a mere SpiritualSuccessor... until someone finally started work on translating the game and discovered right off the bat that their stories are entirely unrelated.

* WhereItAllBegan: You know the room where the figures of you and the other heroes were: Guess where the gate to the last dungeon is.

The SpiritualSuccessor game to Enix's [[NintendoHard infamously difficult]] RPG ''{{The 7th Saga}}'', released in 1995. Released only in Japan, ''Mystic Ark'' is both similar to and different from its predecessor at the same time. Though retaining the GPS-map and combat system as well as a similar art style, the overworld gameplay is very puzzle-oriented and almost like a PointAndClickGame.

* UrbanLegendOfZelda -- It was long held up as an actual sequel to ''{{The 7th Saga}}'', rather than a mere SpiritualSuccessor... until someone finally started work on translating the game and discovered right off the bat that their stories are entirely unrelated.

* WholePlotReference: To ''MakaiToshiSaGa'' (aka ''Final Fantasy Legend''), right down to the GainaxEnding. The difference is that the Goddess is treated as well-intentioned, unlike the Creator, and the Hero chooses to go through the final door instead of rejecting it.

* BigBadassWolf -- The Big Bad Wolf himself in Fairy World.

* GameFavoredGender -- Ferris has slightly lower speed and power than Remeer, although higher magic. The two also have slightly different spell sets.
** Ironically enough, Reeshine's attack power blows Remeer's out of the water despite her also being female.
*** May have something to do with the fact that Reeshine is a grappler. Physical prowess is all she has going for her.

* ThatOneBoss: Death Knight in the Mechanical world. You have to fight 3 of them and all of them use instant death spells and powerful fire magic.

* DidNotDoTheResearch -- Your bottles of honey can go ''rancid'' after a certain amount of time.

* EnemyWithout -- The ending reveals [[spoiler:Malice]] to be this to [[spoiler: the hero]].

* NoodleIncident -- Whatever it was that started the longstanding feud between the crews of the Bloodhook and the Gunboss. It's a Noodle Incident because no-one actually remembers over a hundred years later. Except perhaps Matoya, and she's not telling.

* NoodleIncident -- Whatever it was that started the longstanding feud between the crews of the Bloodhook and the Gunboss. It must have been pretty [[SillyReasonForWar silly]], since neither of the captains want to talk about it.