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Quest 64 review

Game: Quest 64
Platform: Nintendo 64
Genre: RPG (Fantasy)
Developer: Imagineer
AKA: Holy Magic Century (EU), Eltale Monsters (JP)

Reader review by wishingtikal

August 10, 2003

This is N64's only 'decent' RPG besides Paper Mario. Should you buy it ? Perhaps.

Story -5/10
The story is pretty simple : Brian's father has disappeared with a mythical book that some may want to stole so you go after your father to find him or the book, that wasn't clear... And uhm.. that's all. That 'story' is explained to you at the beginning of the game and it never expands after that, except maybe before the end credits. You don't you who Brian's father really is, what the book really is, how Brian can use magic, where is Brian's mother. Never. I think the programmers made the game and then though ''oh geez, we forgot about the story ! Hurry somebody ! we have 5 minutes to come up with an idea !'' and that's it.

Graphics -9/10
I think that's the aspect I liked the most about the game. It's bright, colorful and clear. The textures are pretty absent for the most part but the huge landscapes of Quest make up for it. There's some nice ideas for the worlds, the towns etc. The towns are what were the most well done but you aren't gonna spend a lot of time in them so that's a little sad. The landscapes really impressed me. There's a lot of variety in the worlds and the enemies looks pretty well too. The spells didn't really impressed me though, I've seen better.

Sound/Music -9/10
It's cheerful and enjoyable to listen at. The sounds are pretty absent but it doesn't really bother. The music is catchy, well composed and well orchestrated. It sure isn't anything really special but when wandering through the landscapes, the music makes it a lot more enjoyable. The battle music is cool too.

Gameplay -6/10
Something's wrong here. That RPG wasn't supposed to be a dungeon crawler but it really does look like one. So you start off in a huge castle, then go in a field, battle enemies and enter the next town. Then, you go in a forest, battle enemies and go inside a cavern and then into the next town. That's how the game is until the final boss. Yes, you've it read well. You just wander in huge landscapes, battling enemies. The combat is kind off 'real-time'. The enemies appear randomly and then you can move around your character, and hit the creature with your staff. You can avoid the enemies' attacks by moving the character and you can escape by running out of the 'circle'. You get to fight a boss after each main areas of the game but the bosses are disappointing anyway. You can also use magic and that's the only aspect of the gameplay that approaches innovation. You can choose a spell from 4 elements : water, fire, earth and wind. After selecting your element, you choose another element to use the spell. It's kinda hard to explain but it's well done. The problem is that you have way too many spells that you will never use once. The only spell that you'll basically need is the healing spell of water. You can find elemental spirits hidden through the worlds or get some by battling enemies. You use these spirits to level-up your spells. You can choose which spell you want to level-up etc. But that's weird because Brian never level-up ! The only thing that level up is your spells.. To increase your defense, you have to take hits from the enemy.. To increase your attack, you have to hit the enemy.. To increase your agility, you have to avoid the hits.. Pretty weird.. The HP and MP increase sometimes, for no particular reason. You can't buy items, equipment or anything in this RPG ! The items are sometimes dropped by enemies or given to you by people. No gold, no money, no anything. There is no weapons or shields ! Brian keeps the same old cape and old wooden staff the whole game ! His only attack is hitting the enemy on his head with his staff and that's your only attack for the whole game.. and you won't use magic attacks because you will want to keep your MP for healing.. And that's not all ! You are alone the whole game ! No party member, not a single one ! The dungeons also have no puzzles, only some treasure chests laying here and there.. The only thing that was different from the rest of the game is when you take a ship to cross the ocean.. So it becomes annoying pretty fast as you can see.. The only thing that kept me on this game was that I always wanted to see the next world or the next town. And did I mention you there were way too many random fights ?

Play time -7/10
It's short and easy. The only thing you may want to do is finding all the Elemental Spirits scattered through the landscapes just for the fun of it. But is it really worth it ?

Overall -8/10
By the way I talked mainly about the bad points of Quest, it's like I dislike the game. But that's because I can't see any good points in it, and strangely enough, I really like that game. Maybe it's because of the fact that I enjoyed exploring the landscapes of Brian's world and seeing what was gonna be the next town etc. It's a simple RPG, it's not original nor innovative or anything. It's just that kind of game that isn't anything special but still worth a look. If you like RPGs like crazy, you may like it. But if what you want is a good RPG, take Paper Mario. Quest64 is at least worth a rental.

Rating: 8/10

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