Quest 64

"Horrendous."

While many role-playing fans are continuing to wait for the Nintendo 64’s “RPG highway” to become a beautiful, paved road sometime in the future, much like the Super Nintendo’s, it seems like the first construction crew has finally began production. With the first RPG to be released for the N64, named Quest 64, it seemed that construction would be successful. Well, in actuality, it was not. Instead of creating a wonderful little dirt road, that could possibly become a paved highway in the future, the “Quest 64 construction crew” has left many potholes behind, enough for it to never drive on this “RPG highway” again. In other words, the Nintendo 64’s first RPG, Quest 64, contains numerous amounts of “RPG potholes” for many gamers to handle, such as the inability to equip more powerful weapons as you progress, and the fact that a “money system” is simply not available. Many of these flaws present have wondered many people if Quest 64 is a REAL RPG, or simply another offering for the landfill.

One principle aspect responsible for Quest 64’s worthlessness is its storyline. Seriously, Quest 64’s story is completely unoriginal and lackluster; you will not even care about your main mission. You start out as Brian, who probably has the silliest hairstyle I’ve ever seen. Anyway, some moron decides to go out and steal the land of Celtland’s precious “Eletale Book.” Apparently, the civilians are displeased to see this book stolen, since destruction can commence on their land if anyone decides to “abuse” its powers. Brian’s father was the first soul to risk his life to retreat the book, but has not yet returned from his quest. As Brian, you must rescue your father and this awesome book! Woooo!!!

If the story is bad enough, the gameplay doesn’t get any better. I’ve never seen so many differences and flaws in the gameplay before, especially compared to other RPGs, such as Chrono Trigger and Final Fantasy. First of all, the ability to gain and spend some type of currency is simply not available here, which is critical to many RPGs. Instead of a currency system, where you could spend money on healing items or weapon upgrades, to receive items here, you can simply walk up to a specific person, and he’ll generously hand it to you. Either Celtland’s citizens are the most bighearted people you’ll ever come across, or THQ was just too lazy to implement this very significant feature. Due to this absence, the game’s overall difficulty severely decreases, since you can easily receive the same items over and over again for free, without having to gain hard-earned money from defeating foes.

Speaking of significant features, another important aspect of an RPG THQ decided to leave out, is the ability to receive stronger weapons and armor as you progress through your adventure. The fact is, you’re stuck with only one weapon throughout the entire game, and that is your handy staff. As a result, the game’s difficulty and complexity is severely decreased as well. Seriously, I’ve never played an RPG before that did not have this feature included, and this is a serious let-down in Quest 64.

In many previous RPGs, characters were able to increase their stats by continuously defeating enemies and eventually, leveling-up. However, in Quest 64, this is not the case. While the system is present, the different methods to increase your stats are completely ridiculous. For instance, in order to Brian to increase his maximum defense, he’ll need to be continuously attacked by his foes. This system can easily be abused, since you can simply allow only the weakest enemies to attack. In addition, in order to increase Brian’s agility, he’ll simply need to run around the countryside. Again, this is incredibly cheap, since you can control him to run around incessantly in circles.

On a positive note, at least the battle system is pretty original. Whenever entering a random battle, Brian and all enemies will be situated within this octagonal “white line.” In order to attack a specific enemy, Brian must stay within this line and attack using his physical staff or magic. If he decides to run away, Brian must travel outside the octagonal line, or else the battle will continue. Some luck is required in this tactic though, as Brian can travel only a limited distance every turn.

While there is a somewhat unique magic system featured in Quest 64, it is severely flawed. Brian is capable of using the four elements of magic: Earth, Water, Fire, and Wind. As Brian gains experience by successfully defeating foes, he will eventually be able to increase one of the four elements by one level, and thus, acquiring more powerful spells in that respective elemental category. Furthermore, dozens of spirits inhabit the most remote regions of Celthand, and if Brian manages to get a hold of these, he’ll be able to level-up his magic as well, which is a pretty nice addition to this game, in my opinion. But why exactly is this magic system flawed? Well, in order to have a decent chance of completing the entire game, you’ll be required to max out the Earth and Water elements, utterly ignoring Fire and Wind. This is because most Earth and Water elemental spells are overly powerful, and absolutely superior to Fire and Wind. Additionally, while there are numerous amounts of spells available for Brian to learn, the majority of them are absolutely useless. In fact, only three specific spells are required for Brian to be victorious: Avalanche, Magic Barrier, and Healing. Also, did I mention how cheap these spells really are? For instance, Avalanche is incredibly powerful, capable of destroying any boss a couple of times it is used, while Magic Barrier can completely block any enemy spell from damaging you. As a matter of fact, as soon as you have these three spells, you’ll be almost unstoppable, and the overall excitement of this game hits rock-bottom.

The music and sound effects in Quest 64 make me want to destroy my eardrums. In seriousness, there are absolutely no tunes worth listening to. I always enjoy listening to music that portrays a specific region’s atmosphere. For instance, whenever traveling through a dark, mysterious dungeon, or challenging a dangerous boss, I want to hear gloomy and serious tunes to portray that atmosphere. However, in Quest 64, instead of listening the types of music mentioned above, annoying happy-go-lucky tunes are played, especially when traveling throughout the game’s dungeons. Moreover, the amount of annoying sound effects present in battle is simply unbearable to hear. There’s just too much infuriating “beeping” going on whenever a specific attack is executed.

If there are any bright spots present in Quest 64, it will have to be as a result of its graphics. While the visuals cannot compete with other Nintendo 64 titles, such as Zelda: Majora’s Mask, they were still a pleasant surprise to see in an array of annoying potholes. Most regions, especially towns, show some nice, vibrant looking visuals. It is always a pleasure to walk around a specific town, observing the nice, detailed buildings and landscapes. However, while visuals may be Quest 64’s only strength, there are still some minor annoyances to consider, most notably the enemy designs, which look ridiculous in my opinion. While some of the enemy designs appear very crisp and detailed, most of the time, I have no idea what the hell I am fighting. Who knows, I might be battling an alien, or just some weird, deformed creature from another dimension.

Overall, the Nintendo 64’s first RPG can be deemed a failure, well, at least by me. The game’s numerous moronic flaws and the lack of many important RPG features are just too much to tolerate. I have no idea what THQ was thinking when developing this. Whether they were extremely lazy or on crack, it will take a lot for the Nintendo 64 to fill these “RPG potholes.”

Final Score – 2/10

Reviewer's Score: 2/10, Originally Posted: 07/23/03, Updated 07/23/03