Game:

Quest 64 (1998)

Duration: 2:21:08

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0

Originally recorded: May 23, 2022
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Well, that was a surprisingly quick recovery. I mentioned in the write-up for my last stream that I was expecting an incredibly long grinding session to get myself back on track after some poor decisions I made early on ended up finally backfiring on me. And yet, despite what seemed like a long road ahead of me, I managed to finish up that grinding within an hour. The only real consequence is that the boss fight that had impeded me last time just felt moronic to overcome this time.

I think the most surprising part of this stream is that I managed to overcome my loss of progress entirely this time around. Not only did I finally overcome the boss that stymied me last time, but I managed to get all the way through the entire next section. Hell, I even managed to finish early for a change.

Having said that, it wasn't exactly easy. The sheer lack of any major landmarks in pretty much any environment in Quest 64 outside of the towns coupled with the fact that random encounters will often times literally spin the camera around usually just makes navigating a nightmare. Doing that in an area that's literally just an ice cave where nearly every iota of the area is covered in the same exact bland textures and the only landmarks are shared across multiple points made the Blue Cave an absolute nightmare to traverse. I'm not sure if you can literally hear my mind snap when I thought I was making progress only to find myself literally back at the entrance, but I sure as Hell felt it.

My reward for traversing the world's worst-designed dungeon was story progression that can only be described as "abrupt". I find an old witch's house in the deepest depths of the cave, teleported onto a pirate ship, made our way to the location of the next MacGuffin, climbed up a short cliff and bumbled my way through another boss fight that can only really be described as "moronic". After winning by sheer force of will (and plenty of MP-replenishing items), I then literally just teleported back to the witch's house and was directed to another teleporter than sent me back to the last time. From there, I waddled back to the ship that took me to that new area in the first place, which was now able to take me to a third area. I should also note that by entering the ship's cabin, you can cycle between all three, so you'd better make sure you're in the right place before disembarking.

Like, I'm aware that the game was rushed and had to be scaled back significantly in many respects, but I'm still curious about what the original plans for this section were. I have to wonder if a version of Quest 64 that received all of the development time it needed would've been significantly better than what we would end up seeing or not. Honestly, having more party members is always welcome in my eyes.

I think the most disturbing consequence of this stream is that I'm being forced to defend Final Fantasy VII of all games against a man who has literally been mourning the impending death of turn-based JRPGs for the better part of a decade, seemingly because that particular series changed its formula. Like, when it happened last time, it just felt like a non sequitur. The fact that it resurfaced this time is a worrying trend.

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