I've been replaying Final Fantasy Mystic Quest lately (as anyone who saw my post in the "take a screenshot" thread showing a party wipe), and I have realized a few things that that particular game got right, even though it's such a simple game (by RPG standards, even compared to other JRPGs of its era) and it was supposedly designed for beginners.

In particular, what I've noticed is this:
* There's decent enough variety in enemy encounters, so it doesn't feel like you're doing the same thing every single battle. (Much of this is the result of resistances and weaknesses, but there's still the notion of things like "problem enemies" who use things like status ailments against you, or who can counter-attack.) (I note that this game is *far* better than Final Fantasy 3, which is terrible in this respect, and even Final Fantasies 5 and 6 have their moments of weakness (that one large floor in the cave to the seal in FF6 with just 2 enemy types in it comes to mind here).
* The handling of encounters. Enemies are visible, so you can see before you get into a battle and might be able to avoid some of them, but they're also stationary, which has a couple of advantages: It keeps the player from just avoiding every single encounter, and it keeps the game from turning into an action game. So, if you see a chest behind some enemies, you can actually make the decision about whether the chest is worth the encounters.
* Speaking of chests, another thing the game does right is that it distinguishes minor chests that have consumables (and which respawn when you leave, interestingly enough) and major chests that contain unique items, like equipment or spells.
* Difficulty scaling: The game's difficulty feels like it scales properly, starting easy and actually getting harder as the game progresses (though never to the point of being exceptionally difficult). There are *way* too many RPGs, and games with growth systems in general (Castlevania: Symphony of the Night, I'm looking at you, and even Timespinner and Bloodstained are guilty of this), where the game gets too easy after a certain point. FFMQ manages to avoid this.

So, any thoughts on this? Any other games that may not be the most well-liked, but got things right that so many games of the genre mess up on?

Just so we're clear, you're talking about the Super Famicom Game named Fainaru Fantajī USA Misutikku Kuesuto, and not the confusing name reuse applied to several other localized titles, correct?

How about these points:

• Minor items refill freely, meaning you'll never be without consumable items.
• Most equipment is a permanent upgrade, so you don't have to juggle your inventory.
• You can save nearly literally anywhere. See a boss obviously telegraphing itself? Drop a save.
• Enemy groups are typically in reasonable numbers, meaning you don't ever have to deal with a "Six Magikarp".
• There are battlefields where you can earn rewards.

But on the downside:
• Battles are not fail forward. Even though you can retry battles freely, there's no way to easily back out.
• Sokobanned. Block puzzles.
• There are in fact consumable items that are required for passage though the game but can also be used in battles.
• Said battlefields are often a complete bore.
• There is no concept of enemy extinction. You realize you need something halfway though a dungeon, you're taking the long walk.
• Occasionally, there are backtracking loops where you go partway to something and then a character has a realization, "Oh, I forgot this!"
• Many dungeons are designed to force you to pick a path before you can see the whole.

That's only an issue in boss fights and possibly battlefields (particularly the one I just played through where *every* battle is an unexpected attack, though at least the enemy AI RNG is different each time). It seems that you can reliably run away from any non-boss battle, allowing you to back out.

(Perhaps they should have allowed running away from boss fights, as I hear Romancing SaGa 3 does.) Yes, I am (though it's the US version that I'm familiar with).

I'm not talking about the game released in Europe called "Mystic Quest" (which is an action game FF spin-off that spawned its own series), but rather the game that was released there under the title "Mystic Quest Legend". At least in the US version, if you have 0 bombs remaining, you can still use them outside of battle; you just won't get the animation, and in that one mine near Fireburg, you can glitch out of bounds that way and get stuck (unless you cast Exit).

No other consumables are ever required.

I loved FFMQ. I thought it did a lot right when I first played it and still run through it every now and again. It is rather simplified, but it also has a charm and strategy to it. I didn't like how companions only stayed with you in certain areas, and their powers varied quite a lot. Tristan was probably the most useful over all, but once you defeated the elemental in the desert cave, he was no longer with you.

No, Tristam (his name ends with an "m", not an "n") is not that useful. He's only useful early on because the main character is so weak, and when he briefly rejoins, he's garbage. (Well, almost, except that he can at least hit the weakness of ghosts to one hit kill them, and in the Japanese (and maybe European) versions, can cast Life on the undead enemies, but everyone else is far more useful the second time around.) (I think they should have given him the Dragon Claw as a weapon the second time; more on par with that point in the game, and according to the plot he should have it at that point.)

I would say that Pheobe is the most useful. The first time around, she has a high attack for that point of the game, high magic power, and has access to the first Wizard magic spell (Thunder) before the main character. Second time, she falls behind physically, but 99 magic power is useful, especially with Cure (almost a full heal to both characters at once) and White (heavy non-elemental damage). Only problem is, without glitches, the first time around seeds are scarce (there are only two seed wooden chests, one being at the end of that desert dungeon, and the other being later in the game in a place you can't revisit; that's not a problem later when seeds are buyable.