You are Joe Yamato, a powerful wielder of magic. Your quest is to save your girl, Alexandra from the evil clutches of the bad guy, Zao, who is a henchman of the super bad-ass, Zareth. Alexandra is being held at Azuchi Castle (you can really see the Japanese influence on this game), where Zao is planning to use Alexandra's soul to revive his evil master.

Mystic Defender is played from a side view perspective, similiar to Castlevania and other side-scrolling games. The weapon system is set up like R-Type, with a power bar that you use by holding in the Fire button (which powers up the standard weapon to a really powerful attack). Joe picks up special weapons as the game progresses – Psycho Magic, which shoots out three fireballs at full power (you start with this), Flame Magic, which envelops Joe in a in a cloud of flame and shoots out a contollable flamethrower (you find this in level One), Sonic Magic, which shoots out six balls of power (at full power, four balls bounce around the screen and smash into enemies – you find this in level Two). Then there's the most powerful magic of all, Thunder Dragon Magic, which summons a giant three headed dragon that destroys everything on screen with two giant blasts of fire (this can only be used once, but you find them scattered throughout the game). There are also two other icons to pick up – a red symbol, which lets you power up your weapon faster, and a blue symbol, which replenishes one life block.

The graphics are excellent for such an early game. The attention to detail, especially in Joe's design, is great! The creatures are also designed very well – a really good boss is the flying priest that turns into a giant slug-like creature with the priest for a head. The backgrounds are well-detailed, the spell castings are very clear and the enemies are nice and clear.

The control is very good – it's a little tricky trying to jump onto platforms sometimes, and it's been remarked that Joe really needs a diagonal firing system.

The music is also good – it's very atmospheric and really seems to fit the game.

This game can be frustrating, but if you have patience, you can easily beat this game in time. The most fun part is getting to blast your enemies away with all sorts of magic.