Quest 64

"Would have been great if it waited a year, but still a DECENT game at the least."

Quest 64. A lot of people tend to think that this is probably the RPG equivalent to Superman 64, thought they tend to be exaggerating since everybody hates THAT game. Quest 64 actually does have some good parts to it, but at the same time it seems to lack all of the great things that RPG's had to offer during it's time, like a solid storyline and awesome gameplay that kept you glue to your Standard Definition TV. Even though this game doesn't have that good of a storyline or gameplay that is common in most rpg's, it still is a decent game, but if THQ waited a little bit, it could have been a LOT better than what it is now.


GRAPHICS 8/10

Probably one of the good parts of this game would be it's graphics and visuals. For a 64 bit system, it actually did the job pretty well. A lot of the areas are very colorful and have interesting landscapes. Cities tend to be based around a certain feature, like land, water, wind, trees and many other things, which is probably based around the story. I give this an 8 out of 10.


STORYLINE 5/10

This is where a lot of stuff in Quest 64 tend to kinda suck. The storyline is pretty lackluster and the characters tend to be a bit bland. The main character's father leaves him to go search for a legendary book that went missing and you're goal is to find him. Later you find out that many bandits stole magic crystals (VERY cliche) and are under control of a Demon who wants to take over the world. Later, you're goal is to gather up these crystals and go to the demons realm and kill him. It's actually kinda like Final Fantasy where you use the crystals to get to Chaos. What could have been done with the story is that they could have added more twists and turns to make it seem less cliche and make it a lot more fun, but that didn't happen. Storyline is probably one of the most important parts of ANY RPG and since the story isn't very innovative, I give it a 5/10.


MUSIC 9/10

Another good part in this game is the music. A lot of it has catchy tunes that won't get stuck in your head, but you'll still remember them. A lot of the areas have music that fits them perfectly. The only reason I'm not giving this a 10 is that a lot of the songs have instruments that may or may not annoy you. 9 out of 10.

GAMEPLAY 7/10

Now this is where things start to get very, VERY iffy. I'm going to divide this into 4 parts: Fields and Dungeons, Towns, Menus and Combat.

FIELDS AND DUNGEONS

This is fairly simple. On the field, you walk around from one destination to another. Simple right? Well, sorta. On the field, there are a lot of items and power ups that you want to find, like healing items and elemental boosts (I'll cover those in Combat), thus making you waant to search every nook and cranny on the field. The same goes for dungeons, but they're mainly cross roads to make things a bit more challenging. When you enter them, you can't use any escape items to leave the dungeon, leaving the entrance and the exit the only two ways of leaving. Monsters tend to appear more often in dungeons and they also come in larger numbers and can be a lot harder. Items and elemental boosts can be found here as well, thus making it worth the risk for exploring everywhere in the dungeon. Dungeons also tend to have certain rooms inside of them that have either a boss or a strong enemy. If you defeat them, you can get access to a lot of good items.

TOWNS

Towns are like something that should have been, but didn't really happen. Most towns tend to be out in the open so you can get to them easily, but inside them you won't find what you expect in most RPG's. In fact, it takes a HUGE toll on the game and makes it a huge inconvenience. In most RPG's, towns are like resting places. Since the overworld is usually big and has very little stops, you're going to want to stock up on items so you can live longer and increase your chances of surviving the huge map, but in Quest 64, shops don't even exist and neither does money. The only thing close to a shop in Quest 64 are inns and travel agencies. Inns let you recover all of your HP and MP and if you don't have any healing items, there are two people who will give you one item that recovers HP and another that restores MP. Inns also let you save (Memory Pak is required though). Travel agencies differ from town to town, though they still have the same function. The person running the agency will give you a set of wings that will return you to the town where those wings came from. These wings can only be used inside a town or in the field. Since thy are limited to those areas, it may seem like a useless item, but they can help you at the right time.

MENUS

When you hit the start button, you bring up the menu. Here, you can see your stats, items, exp, the map and elemental power. Nothing much here.


COMBAT

This is the interesting part. Combat in this game is very innovative but it does have a few flaws. When you enter combat, there is no combat screen like in most RPG's. Instead, a yellow hexagon covers the battleground which is the area you walk in during the battle. A blue hexagon covers your walking area. When your turn starts you have a few options: Run away by walking outside of the Yellow Hexagon, Attack the enemy by moving closer to the enemy or just doing nothing. Enemies do not escape from battles but have similar options as you do. About a second after enemies attack, you can avoid their attacks by moving out of the way, though some attacks are unavoidable. In battle you can come close to an enemy and attack with your staff or stand from a distance and use magic attacks. Magic attacks differ from spell to spell and there are four types: Fire, water, earth and wind. Each element can be powered up 1 level after you gain a level (experience is earned by winning battles). You can achieve an elemental power up to 50 for each element. Elemental booster, or elemental spirits can be found almost anywhere, making it easier for you not to fight so many battles. There are a few cons though....
First of all, you are the only party member in the game, You can't have anybody else join, even though there are plenty of people who would have been great for joining your party, though it would probably take away the ability to avoid attacks of other party members joined. Second, your only weapon is the staff you start out with. This doesn't seem like much of a problem at first, but it gets a little boring after awhile.



RENT or BUY?

The day I'm writing the review is August 5, 2008, so chances are you won't find a store renting out this game. I would recommend trying to find it on ebay or a used game shop that still sells N64 games, but if you do find a rental shop the rents N64 games then go for it. I personally would buy this game since it's pretty cheap on ebay.


Quest 64 really is a love or hate game, but it could have been a great RPG for the system it it waited another year or so. My guess is that THQ thought that people would loose interest after a year, so they rushed it which was a big mistake. I still like it though, but it could have been better.

OVERALL

7/10

Reviewer's Score: 7/10, Originally Posted: 08/05/08

Game Release: Quest 64 (US, 06/01/98)