Quest 64

If you've ever played a tedious RPG, you know one thing: It seems like the level up and magic system seems like it'll last FOREVER. Its been like that with Final Fantasy 5, Everquest and other MMORPGs, portions of Final Fantasy 1, Chrono Cross... you get the idea. Its common to bad RPGs: the battle system just feels bad.



Enter Quest 64. Obviously for the Nintendo 64, this was a strange foray into RPGs by THQ. Now, will someone PLEASE tell me a decent game THQ's ever come up with? Lets look at their front-page games: Warhammer 40k, Full Spectrum Warrior, Smack Down vs. Raw, and the Spongebob Squarepants game. Correct me if I'm wrong, not a single d***ed one of those ever got very high ratings. Other semi-decent games like The Punisher and Tak 2 still fail to impress me, considering that these somewhat mediocre games could be considered THQ's best games for any of the next-gen systems. Long story short: THQ sucks.

This is a good example of a medicore THQ game. Obviously trying to make an RPG for the N64, this game hits all of the wrong keys in a virtual mishmash of confusing magic controls, strange and somewhat slow battles, and an uninteresting almost-not-even-there story.



I got overly excited about this game when I bought it because I was excited about seeing a RPG on the N64. When Squaresoft left Nintendo for Sony, it seemed like everyone else generally followed suit, and Nintendo was left in the cold in regards to RPGs. It seemed like this was what Nintendo needed- a decently-sized RPG game that wasnt a strange game like Tactics Ogre.

This game proves that the 64 was NOT made for RPGs. First off, the story. From what I got from this game, it has virtually NO story whatsoever. While there is a general direction you need to be heading which the game makes vaguely apparent, the story, to my knowledge, basically isnt there. However, I might be missing something here: but not likely. Compared to games that came out in the same timeframe like FF7 and FF8, this game is an EMBARASSMENT to storyline writers everywhere.

Second off, the graphics are chintzy and horrible. Instead of realizing that you save disc (Or, rather, Cart) space by doing 2D backgrounds with 3D characters to smooth out the system a little bit and make things prettier, Quest 64 takes a third person view. This would be OK, but the graphics are shoddy, even for the Nintendo 64. The textures are blurry, the characters choppy, and the motion uneven.

The battle system is the real killer here. It tries hard to implement an action element, allowing you to move around and cast magic, but it really does nothing to combat the fact that your little man sucks. I like to play RPGs in "Warrior Mode"- I hate managing MP and magic. I'd preferrably supercharge some warrior-like characters and give them meggido Magic Defence rather than be forced to use magic. In this, you CAN hit things, but it does you no good- you basically always have to cast spells. And when the spells generally suck, this does nothing to help you.



Another thing that annoys me about this game is the main character. You play a kid that looks a d*** lot like "Mahou Sensei Negima", except with less class and more generic magic-person-ness. It looks like THQ took about 5 seconds to brainstorm what this kid was going to look like. I imagine it went something like this:

1: We need a character for our RPG engine that blows. What do you think we should do?
2: Well, it has to be a mage.
1: And most Nintendo players are kids, right?
2: Yeah, so I guess its a kid mage.
1: ...and mages have staffs and staffs!
2: But lets make him unique.
1: Shut the hell up. Just stick a belt on his forehead or something and go make some money.
2: Yes sir.

Everything feels unoriginal. The music is crap. The sound is crap. The graphics are crap. The whole freaking game is crap. The only good point to this game is that you can kill one hell of a lot of time with it if you're in a super patient mode- and that's SUPER-PATIENT-MODE.



I wouldn't recommend picking this game up. I wouldnt recommend even looking more into this game. For the same money you could pay for this game on eBay ($3 USD), you could go out and buy a s***load of candy or something. Or, just give the money to a hobo to go buy booze. Either way, you'd be doing much better than playing this game when there are SO MANY good games out for N64 other than this.

0 star(s) out of 5

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