Mystic Realm 1.09.4 opinions

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SchrodingerBoy

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I've been playing the original Mystic Realm (I'm through the 5th zone) and I thought, "what do people think about this mod?", it's been a long time since the Final Demo era and I'm quite new to the comunity so I'm extremely curious to see what do the people who played it in the day and the ones who played it after think about it, I supose that for its time it was amazing but I really wanna know what people of that era though.
I don't know if this is the best place to post this but as it was such a big part in SRB2's history and I didn't know which forum would be better for this kind of discussion... well, it ended here.
PD: I'll do a kind of level by level review when I finish the mod.
 
Mystic Realm is the level pack. As far as SRB2 goes, it's pretty iconic. It certainly isn't perfect, but I always used to prefer it over the default levels for the longest time.

I would love to see it get the 2.2 treatment. Slopes, adjusted enemy types/placement, reworked level design where necessary, remastered music, etc. Hell, I actually consider it iconic to the point that I wouldn't at all be bothered by the entire Mystic Realm campaign being unlockable in vanilla SRB2 eventually, with or without a remastering. If it did get the full treatment though, could probably do the same thing as with AGZ and combine all the acts of each zone into one level, with act 2 being the boss act.

There's just something about the Mystic Realm levels that feels... Right. I can't think about SRB2 as a game without associating it with Mystic Realm in some capacity. Maybe it was the music, maybe it was the sense of being far, far away from where the main campaign took place, straying further and further into unknown lands and imminent danger, maybe even a little bit of both. I just know that there has never been a level pack that felt so naturally a part of SRB2 to me as Mystic Realm.
 
Mystic realm was amazing for its time (in 1094) but after 2.1 released i didnt feel up to standards with the game - Granted the standards weren't that high in 2.1.

If it were to be ported to 2.2 with no changes it would ancient compared to the rest of the mods and the base game.

Sure it'll be nostalgic to play through but it wouldn't be the same.
 
It's a very iconic level pack with a lot of history behind it, that's for sure. Despite being dated and not really up to the standards that modern SRB2 follows it's still quite fun, but fairly simple now.

I understand Mystic is working on a slightly updated version of Mystic Realm for 2.2, but it won't be a full overhaul that includes slopes and brand new level design as far as I know. Just tweaks to make the pack work better for the new characters and some quality of life improvements here and there.

Mystic Realm peaks at Aerial Garden as far as I'm concerned though, that zone follows a lot of very dated design ideas (unsurprising given its age) but it's still pretty fun. While the worst zone is Verdant Forest for me, that's a level I find terribly boring.

One thing I never did like in Mystic Realm though was how the Mystic Temples funneled players who knew about them down very specific routes through the act 2 of a given zone, so the alternate paths became clearly worse choices once you knew where all the temples were, because you'd be missing out on the Emerald stages if you took a path without a Mystic Temple on.
 
I want to play through the levels again, I have very fond memories (especially liked Vulcan Forge) but it's been so long since I played it (not counting AGZ) that I don't know how it'd be if I tried them again.
 
Some parts of it have aged better than others. Verdant Forest still makes me want to kill myself.
 
Whackjood said:
Mystic Realm peaks at Aerial Garden as far as I'm concerned though, that zone follows a lot of very dated design ideas (unsurprising given its age) but it's still pretty fun. While the worst zone is Verdant Forest for me, that's a level I find terribly boring.
Click to expand...
How long until someone gets permission to make a full fledged Mystic Realm remake?
 
I already miss Mystic Realm, would love to see it return again for 2.2, even if just as a straight port.
 
I love Mystic Realm, when I get into my SRB2 kick of any given time that is usually the 2nd thing I play. It has a lot of really great music (Flame Rift, Prismatic Angel, etc) and the level design is generally good. For me the quality starts to dip at Ariel Garden Zone, although I do enjoy Prismatic Angel Act 1 for its multitude of shortcuts you can take.

Also that last boss sucks real bad, in my experience in current versions its borderline unbeatable. Really loved the idea of having temples to activate an exclusive level, that always was my favorite part. Flame Rift is my favorite zone of the game (Aesthetics and music wise) but every zone has its charm.
 
Mystic Realm is an iconic piece of history that I wouldn't mind seeing again.

I still think it's fun to sit down and play despite the fact that the mod is known to be both flawed and aged.
 
I'm impressed with all the replies, it's so interesting to see what people of that era think, the bad and the good and how important it was, I can't wait to see more opinions, also right now I have some duties but for next week I'll finish the entire campaign (maybe all emeralds) and give my opinion. You're awesome.
 
mystic realm has always been a wad i have had mixed feelings for, it hasn't really aged well in a lot of spots and overall is just infested with enemies, but i still enjoy it despite the many problems it has, and honestly i wouldn't mind seeing it return to 2.2 just for the novelty
 
It's dated but fun nevertheless. The concept of the mystic temples is really cool and the execution isn't that bad either. While I want it as much as the next guy, it would be a herculean task to get MR up to snuff with vanilla 2.2. Basically no pre-existing custom enemies, no act 2 themes, etc. I think it'll happen eventually, but for now i'd be fine with just a port and maybe a revamped soundtrack like what AGZ has currently.
 
I think it's important to remember the context in which I released version 4, in that SRB2 itself had only a three zone demo, and those three zones were incredibly basic designs. Mystic Realm's "gimmicks" were basic things like "lava" and "ice", but we didn't have official stages that even used those basic concepts at the time, so the variety was a big deal.

Mystic Realm also presented itself as a complete game in its own right. While a lot of the stages I built are quite mediocre or even bad in hindsight, the package contained 7 full zones and a bunch of stuff to check out, with a suitable end sequence (even if the final boss was garbage in hindsight) and all the basic things you'd expect from a full game. Considering at the time SRB2 was a demo and clearly played like one, that is what gave it such popularity at the time.

Whackjood said:
One thing I never did like in Mystic Realm though was how the Mystic Temples funneled players who knew about them down very specific routes through the act 2 of a given zone, so the alternate paths became clearly worse choices once you knew where all the temples were, because you'd be missing out on the Emerald stages if you took a path without a Mystic Temple on.
Click to expand...
Yep, this always bothered me a lot in hindsight, too.

The 2.2 port addresses this and a bunch of other similar "this always bothered me" things, basically. It's delayed currently because I'm waiting for a couple things from people who are currently busy, but a basic overall list of changes so far:

  • Reworked all the liquids such that things that actually look painful hurt. No more "toxic mud" and "cold water" nonsense. No more instant death slime. All of the liquids act like they do in vanilla at all times.
  • Modern emblems instead of the old character ones.
  • Moved some of the shrines so they're all on shared routes.
  • Split the new 2.2 AGZ into acts and inserted it back in.
  • Edited sections so the package is beatable by the new vanilla characters.
  • Deleted the archives because it was a terrible idea and god dammit stop copying my worst ideas you guys :(
  • Fixed a bunch of minor gripes and issues
The bosses still haven't been addressed as getting time to talk things over and code that stuff is the main thing the port is waiting on. There's also a WIP Prismatic Angel Zone Act 2 to finally finish what I never did in 2005, but I'll only include it if the results actually turn out at least okay.

tl;dr: it's not anything close to a 2.2 level of insanity; I could never do such a thing on my own. It's more of a "it's been 15 years and I'm well aware of what parts of this are really bad ideas, so I should fix that" set of changes.
 
Pretty much just echoing what everyone else already said. It was great for it’s time and it’s an important part of the game’s history, but it seriously shows its age. Some of the levels (hello Nitric Citadel) are absolutely infuriating while others (Flame Rift Zone) are incredibly barren in that very 1.x way.
An overhaul to bring it all the way up to 2.2 standards would probably just simply take way too much time. That’s basically an entire new game you’d need to be making there.
 
I'm now through Sunken Plant and I had a doubt, where's the ost? I really like it, it's quite amazing that a mod of a fangame from 2006 has an original ost and I find it pretty cool and catchy (I also had a deja vu for some songs that I heard in the past without knowing the origin), I've only found some low quality compilations, does somebody know where it could be?
 
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