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Review: Quest 64
15 years ago
General
N64 Review: Quest 64
This is my first game review, so please bear with me. I use a 100 point grading scale, and for the games, I rate story, game play, environment, and music, the traits I find most important in a game. Each part gets its own score, then an overall score and a final word.
Story
OK, so Quest 64 (henceforth just Quest) is an adventure RPG that takes place in a land called Celtland which is filled with free-roaming spirits. The mages of the land are spirit tamers whose powers are increased the more spirits they exercise. The story starts off with young Brian who is leaving the monastery where he was training as a mage to seek out his father who disappeared while searching for some powerful spell book. After finding the four elemental stones, Brian runs into Shannon, who turns out.... wait a second, she was important? I swear, the whole time I played through the game, I never spoke to her once. Just saw her standing around here and there. Turns out you have to talk to people yourself to find out if anyone has any relevance. Anywho, she turns out to be a doll created by the evil creature trying to take over the world. After you kill him, she remains alive, and decides to travel the world in search of a reason to live. You never find your father.
Score: 60.
Game play
The game play is definitely the best part, even though not even that's all that great. I found the battles to be very interesting. They are done in strategic turn based style, but instead of having blocks you move around on, you get to move freely around the field, and to flee from battle, you need only to walk out of bounds. Although this sounds like it makes avoiding battles kind of too easy, your movement range is reduced the faster your enemies are, so you can't always just walk by and hope they don't hit you. Sometimes you have to fight, especially if you get surrounded.
The range of spells was enough to compensate for the fact that you can't get any new weapons or equipment. Every spell you see the monsters use in the field, you are capable of learning yourself as you upgrade each element. Unfortunately, boss moves are exclusive to bosses, which is a shame, since many of them look fun to use. Your stats don't increase via EXP, bu rather as needed. For instance, if you get hit a lot, your HP and defense go up. EXP is used only for collecting spirit energy in battle which you use to upgrade your elements. This stops once they all reach level 50, in which you learn every spell possible. The major downside that makes the wide variety of spells not as exciting is that not only can you not get any new equipment, there's nothing to buy at all. Everyone you talk to gives you stuff as you need it, so no money ever seems to be passed. This is a drawback on two levels. One, you don't get to stock up on items you really need, and two, it's not as fun to grind when your gold pouch doesn't grow fatter.
Lastly, enemies don't get stronger by region but by species, so if say you run into a were hare further on, it'll still be a weakling. This is nice because once you learn about a species, you can write it down and always know about that monster. Unfortunately, it doesn't change the fact that you don't ever learn their elemental weakness by scanning them, and your only option is still to just keep whittling them down until they're dead. Still, plenty variety in wildlife.
Score: 60.
Environment
This was the major letdown that practically ruined the whole game. Now I realize the N64 had limited memory and all that, but still, having just a huge wide-open plain with next to nothing in it is pretty stupid. Sure there's plenty of room to fight, but there's too much room all the same. I'd rather have moderately-sized areas with a bit of foliage or something than huge grass-covered deserts. I admire that they tried to give players their space, but they gave too much. Although towards the end of the game, they come up with some nice surrealistic places, I doubt many people had the patience to play that far as I did. The towns are extremely small and dismal. Although more decorated than the wide wilds of nothingness, they're still not very interesting all the same.
Finding your way around isn't so bad since you always have access to a full map, except in dungeons where you have none, but since they're all in a straight line pretty much, there's no need. The deep cave towards the end has pointers to tell you where to go, and everywhere else is pretty much just one path. This is very good since the only signs are extremely blurry due to the small textures used on them.
Score: 30.
Music
Although very limited in instruments, there's still a nice peaceful feeling in most areas, and others pass off the moods intended rather well without being too serious. The battle music is definitely fitting. Not too fast for turn based fights, but not so slow that you're bored to death as soon as the fight starts. I have no complaints except that the main overworld theme seems a bit too cheery for such a bland world. I guess they're just trying to keep players awake.
Score: 70.
Overall, the game is not that great, but it had plenty of potential. I'm sure the game could do well if remade and added too. I could certainly point out plenty of ideas worth preserving for future games, along with plenty of mistakes developers should learn from. A beautiful waste of potential.
Final Score: 55.
This is my first game review, so please bear with me. I use a 100 point grading scale, and for the games, I rate story, game play, environment, and music, the traits I find most important in a game. Each part gets its own score, then an overall score and a final word.
Story
OK, so Quest 64 (henceforth just Quest) is an adventure RPG that takes place in a land called Celtland which is filled with free-roaming spirits. The mages of the land are spirit tamers whose powers are increased the more spirits they exercise. The story starts off with young Brian who is leaving the monastery where he was training as a mage to seek out his father who disappeared while searching for some powerful spell book. After finding the four elemental stones, Brian runs into Shannon, who turns out.... wait a second, she was important? I swear, the whole time I played through the game, I never spoke to her once. Just saw her standing around here and there. Turns out you have to talk to people yourself to find out if anyone has any relevance. Anywho, she turns out to be a doll created by the evil creature trying to take over the world. After you kill him, she remains alive, and decides to travel the world in search of a reason to live. You never find your father.
Score: 60.
Game play
The game play is definitely the best part, even though not even that's all that great. I found the battles to be very interesting. They are done in strategic turn based style, but instead of having blocks you move around on, you get to move freely around the field, and to flee from battle, you need only to walk out of bounds. Although this sounds like it makes avoiding battles kind of too easy, your movement range is reduced the faster your enemies are, so you can't always just walk by and hope they don't hit you. Sometimes you have to fight, especially if you get surrounded.
The range of spells was enough to compensate for the fact that you can't get any new weapons or equipment. Every spell you see the monsters use in the field, you are capable of learning yourself as you upgrade each element. Unfortunately, boss moves are exclusive to bosses, which is a shame, since many of them look fun to use. Your stats don't increase via EXP, bu rather as needed. For instance, if you get hit a lot, your HP and defense go up. EXP is used only for collecting spirit energy in battle which you use to upgrade your elements. This stops once they all reach level 50, in which you learn every spell possible. The major downside that makes the wide variety of spells not as exciting is that not only can you not get any new equipment, there's nothing to buy at all. Everyone you talk to gives you stuff as you need it, so no money ever seems to be passed. This is a drawback on two levels. One, you don't get to stock up on items you really need, and two, it's not as fun to grind when your gold pouch doesn't grow fatter.
Lastly, enemies don't get stronger by region but by species, so if say you run into a were hare further on, it'll still be a weakling. This is nice because once you learn about a species, you can write it down and always know about that monster. Unfortunately, it doesn't change the fact that you don't ever learn their elemental weakness by scanning them, and your only option is still to just keep whittling them down until they're dead. Still, plenty variety in wildlife.
Score: 60.
Environment
This was the major letdown that practically ruined the whole game. Now I realize the N64 had limited memory and all that, but still, having just a huge wide-open plain with next to nothing in it is pretty stupid. Sure there's plenty of room to fight, but there's too much room all the same. I'd rather have moderately-sized areas with a bit of foliage or something than huge grass-covered deserts. I admire that they tried to give players their space, but they gave too much. Although towards the end of the game, they come up with some nice surrealistic places, I doubt many people had the patience to play that far as I did. The towns are extremely small and dismal. Although more decorated than the wide wilds of nothingness, they're still not very interesting all the same.
Finding your way around isn't so bad since you always have access to a full map, except in dungeons where you have none, but since they're all in a straight line pretty much, there's no need. The deep cave towards the end has pointers to tell you where to go, and everywhere else is pretty much just one path. This is very good since the only signs are extremely blurry due to the small textures used on them.
Score: 30.
Music
Although very limited in instruments, there's still a nice peaceful feeling in most areas, and others pass off the moods intended rather well without being too serious. The battle music is definitely fitting. Not too fast for turn based fights, but not so slow that you're bored to death as soon as the fight starts. I have no complaints except that the main overworld theme seems a bit too cheery for such a bland world. I guess they're just trying to keep players awake.
Score: 70.
Overall, the game is not that great, but it had plenty of potential. I'm sure the game could do well if remade and added too. I could certainly point out plenty of ideas worth preserving for future games, along with plenty of mistakes developers should learn from. A beautiful waste of potential.
Final Score: 55.
