Mystic Searches – a new game for the NES

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The retro community is alive and well, with everything from retro inspired games to new games being developed for retro systems. This is one of those games. Mystic Searches is a new game being released by an Indie studio for the original Nintendo Entertainment System. And not just a game, the creators have a whole soundtrack being released on cassette and vinyl, along with novels and even a comic book!

The game is a top-down adventure game, heavily influenced by games like The Legend of Zelda, Star Tropics, and Magic of Scheherazade. The game fully utilizes 8 directionals on the d-pad and even makes use of the z coordinate with the different level terrain and variable jumping features. You can swim in water, sink into quicksand, and fall down holes. You have a melee and a projectile attack, which can be powered up with different effects (auras) collected from different bosses. If you collect enough music notes, you can enter a special song mode where you can play songs you learned throughout the game. It’s like a rhythm mini game, and if you complete it successfully, you get a temporary effect when returning to normal gameplay.

You play as Julian, a young minstrel serving in the Order of the Mystics on the supernatural continent of Myrinda. When a cult tries to usurp control of all the magic in Myrinda, Julian must embark on an adventure to learn the song of the world and restore balance to the continent. Armed with his lute, he will have to explore a vast land and combat all kinds of creatures. The game also has a rich background lore and history to fully immerse the player. You can explore more on their website: https://www.mysticsearches.com/ or purchase/preorder their games and merchandise at: https://theretroverse.com/product-category/products/mystic-searches-collection/.

In addition to the Mystic Searches game, the music, and books/comic book, you can also buy Mystic Origins, which is an earlier version of the game, before they revisited and revamped the game to produce Mystic Searches.