Game:

Quest 64 (1998)

Category:

Let's Play

Duration: 17:26

2 views

0

What is Quest 64?

Quest 64 is often talked down upon by most people, and having played the game growing up, and playing it again when my brain is a bit better formed, I can understand why, in fact, even back as a kid, I knew why most people talked down their noses when they mentioned this game.

The first problem most people have with the game is the fact that there is literally no story. It's basically "Dad has been missing for a month, Brian is worried, I hafta go and fetch him." That's it. There is some backstory in reference to a "Day of Grief" but it's just there for fluff. It doesn't really add anything into the game at all, at least not in my experience.

Another reason why this game gets talked down quite a bit for is because it uses the Final Fantasy 2 Level Up system where you don't have an overarching level, but rather, your stats go up by the actions you take in battle, or in Agility's case, by running around a lot both in and out of battle, and dodging enemy attacks. This is actually something I like about Quest 64 and Final Fantasy 2 is that your character progresses by the actions they take in battle, and that makes it more realistic which is a pretty crappy argument to use, but hey! Others have used it for other games, why can't I use it here for Quest 64?

Your elements are basically your attack stat, not just how proficient you are with that element of magic. The higher your elements' levels are, the more damage Brian will do when he attacks with his staff. If you level up your elements evenly, then eventually Brian will do more damage attacking with his staff then he will with his spells. Add in Power Staff and you never have to worry about casting spells for damage again, at least up until you fight bosses that can remove your status buffs.

Unfortunately, unless you plan on leveling the crap out of Fire to get Vampire's Staff, which is your only other means of healing outside of item usage, you'll want to get the Healing spell, which is in the Water element, and you'll probably want that to be at the second level of the spell because the first barely heals you at all, especially early on, and to get Healing Lv. 2, you must invest 25 points into the Water Element, meaning it'll probably be your main element. As for what others have said, like @projared, the Earth element is necessary at all. In fact, I've heard others say that it's the most useless element of the four, but go Wind magic, because Wind Cutter Lv. 3 just decimates most enemies, and the damage definitely adds up once you've gotten a lot of points invested into Wind magic.

Graphics in the game don't look too bad, and the draw distance is impressive for a Nintendo 64 game. It's just too bad that that same level of effort didn't go into the story of the game. Seriously, you can see a castle town in this game darn near from a dock, towards the latter half of the game.

The game's music is fine. Nothing to really write home about, but I do really like some of the tunes in the game, most notably, Dondoran Castle's theme. Not every song is a standout, but there are a few good tunes here and there.

Replay value, I feel like the game has some small replay value, but not very much. It mostly just revolves around focusing on different elements and trying to do a challenge run without leveling the Water element at all. It has some replay value, but not enough for me.

Overall, I do like Quest 64, but that could just be me looking through rose-tinted glasses, as while I do like the game, I also acknowledge the flaws and will readily admit that it isn't a good game. It's okay, but there are so many problems with it that it feels like a Beta test version of the game. The Japanese version of the game is arguably the best, as they added a few things into it, such as a second attack if your first one fails, and even critical hits, the ability to read signs because apparently Brian, despite being a power child prodigy of a magician, was never taught how to read despite living in a monastery of mages, which is something else that was added to the Japanese version, I think. The Japanese version also increased how quickly Brian's stats increased, so they once again got the best version of the game, although from what I've heard, it still feels and plays like a Beta test version of a game. If you want a complete version of Quest 64 to play, then play the GBC version, Quest RPG: Brian's Journey, instead. They actually gave the game something of a story, and the grinding is made faster, they added in a minigame towards the end, it's much better and much more complete than the Nintendo 64 version.

Other Statistics