Paladin's Quest is a hallmark of bad game design in every sense of the word, from shoddy menus to mediocre storyline.
As mentioned, the only real difference between Paladin's Quest and other RPGs is the lack of MP used for casting spells; spells now drain hit points when used, the amount directly related to how useful the spell is. Other than that, the combat does not offer anything new, as the battles are turn based, like half the games on the market. The only difference is the spell system and the problems it brings with it. Because spells take up HP, battles will involve much more healing than a normal RPG, especially when battling large groups of enemies, and due to the lack of healing spells (obviously), your items are going to drain quickly. The fact that the only item that heals all your allies does not come until the near end of the game only helps to prove this point further. All of this adds up to a lot of grinding. You will grind to get the best equipment quite often, and refilling your items and sleeping at the nearby inn only serves to make the grind last longer. This may help explain why bosses are so easy. A few stat changing spells, several rounds of mindlessly hitting "attack" later, and they are dead.
However, not all the problems stem from the new magic system. For example, the world map is incredibly hard to read. Each square on the grid that is the world map is represented in less than a single pixel, making it very hard to approximate where you are. The only way to navigate the world of Lennus successfully is to look up a map on the Internet with all the important locations already marked. Menus are also surprisingly hard to navigate, both in and out of battle. In most RPGs, if you want to use multiple items on multiple characters, you just go to the item menu, select an item, use it, and do that for however many times may be needed. In Paladin's Quest, you have to open the menu every time you want to use an item, instead of just going to the item screen once. Magic menus are much more poorly designed. There are two columns on the magic menu, but Paladin's Quest treats it more like on column spilling into another. This oddity makes it slightly hard to locate a particular spell, since the location of a spell relative to other spells is not set in stone.
Perhaps just as bad is Paladin's Quest's storyline. 10,000 years prior to the events of the game, somebody creates a dark monster called Dal Gren. The game begins with the protagonist unknowingly unleashing it upon the world, hideously destroying his hometown in the process. Essentially, the game begins on genre clichés and continues in a worse direction. There are only two recurring playable characters throughout the game; others are mercenaries that you must hire. Understandably, this makes it hard to relate to any of the characters, since there is always the knowledge that you can dismiss two of the characters with a few commands. This hindrance, oddly enough, also transfers to the two permanent characters, as one follows the "silent protagonist" rule, and the other involuntarily leaves the party a few times.
In addition, the story itself is deplorable. None of the events really fit together in any significant way, and you very rarely feel like you are embarking on an epic quest; rather, the events of the game are almost entirely jumping from town to town, solving whatever problem the citizens may have. The only original elements in the game's story are a few stupidly easy quizzes. These tests serve no purpose outside of making sure you were paying attention to what the characters were saying, and this is not necessary due to the answers being listed in sequential order.
Perhaps just as bad are the game's graphics. They are of TurboGrafx-16 quality, using only about 20% of the SNES's graphical power. These poor graphics are unacceptable by any standards, especially given the fact that Enix released the game in 1993 the same year as better-looking games like Star Fox, Secret of Mana, and Super Mario All Stars. Even when one takes into consideration the Japanese release date of 1992, this does not change much, as other games (Turtles in Time, A Link to the Past, Out of this World) still had far better graphics than Paladin's Quest. The only real advantage Paladin's Quest has over other RPGs of the time is animated enemies, an advantage that cancels itself out by the fact that there are only two frames of animation for nearly every enemy in the game.
The only aspect of this game that is not entirely bad is the music. However, the music is average at best, and poor at its worst. There are a few memorable tracks, like the town theme and the first overworld theme, but there are also some awful songs, like the squeaking farts of the dungeon theme. On the town theme, it incidentally serves as a way to tell what to do in the game. If the music playing in the village is peaceful and calm, move on, as there is nothing of interest in that town; if, however, the music suggests something is amiss, there is probably something wrong with the people, and you need to solve it in order to progress through the game. Other than this, the music is nothing special. While it may be good, what JRPG has ever had a truly horrible soundtrack?
While Paladin's Quest may not have a bad soundtrack, almost every other element in the game is bad. While the use of HP to cast spells may sound like a good idea in theory, the execution is horrid. Combined with the poor graphics, word-for-word translation, and bad story, you would think that Enix released the game while they were still making it. Overall, Paladin's Quest is a hallmark of bad game design in every sense of the word, from shoddy menus and mediocre storyline to the constant grinding and sub-launch title graphics.