Quest 64 : Ultimate Comprehensive Review 

It is only through obsessive autism and being too poor to afford any other game that you can truly appreciate this title.

Not to mention that your staff power is based on how many spirits you have altogether. By the late game, you can practically melee your way to victory.

Got to admit. I’m impressed with all the work you’ve done with Quest 64. I never would’ve thought anyone would give this game this type of attention. So great work. Really.

This series is without a doubt the very best Quest videos on RU-vid.

I've been playing Quest 64 again, and watching a buncha Quest 64 reviews. I like to dream that, maybe there is a world where Quest isn't rushed and has all of the assets these ambitious devs envisioned.

I like how the game can be played as a dungeon crawler, since you don't actually have to talk to anyone beyond entering the Blue Cave and the final dungeon. It's easy to figure out where you need to go just from the map. A "talk to every NPC in town until one does the thing to advance plot" system would've been a nightmare with the game's awful camera and flood of vacant housing. The French Vanilla romhack is a great way to enjoy this game today. It reduces the encounter rate, buffs spells not named Avalanche, and lets you carry duplicate item drops.

I played this game as a very young kid, having zero experience with the role-playing genre. I really liked the game-outside of the frustration of having to figure out the defense stat was increased via allowing myself to get hit. If I'd played it already being familiar with a series like Final Fantasy or something, I don't think I'd have enjoyed this game at all.

I rather enjoyed Quest 64, the elemental mixing aspect of combat was quite intriguing. Most games just have single-purpose spells but with Quest you were pretty much building your own spells on-the-fly, Magicka comes to mind as not many other games offer that capability. Excellent reviews so far, looking forward to the next one :)

Ah, it's the time of the year to be obsessed about this game again. Currently replaying it on my phone and I'm getting to the end, I can never get enough of it. You made some great videos about it, I really craved more information about the troubled development and the lore of the game and finding your series kept me invested when I should have gone to sleep haha. Really looking forward to the rest! And parroting what many other said: You definitely need more views!

It’s the constant loud footsteps no matter what ground you’re on, I swear Brian is running in heels on marble floors. Although at the time I was playing while having four small kittens sleeping on me.

From one smaller channel to another great job making all of these videos on this game. Quest 64 is certainly not the best game but for many of us it is a nostalgic trip back to an earlier time in our life. For some reason this game despite the flaws gives me many of the same feelings as Ocarina of Time or other well regarded games. The N64 was a special time for gaming. Thank you for being part of making quality content to help people remember it.

Great series. Something you didn’t mention but I think you’d like to know about Imagineer is that February 1997 saw Imagineer going public with 800,000 shares attempting to find shareholders to raise approximately $43.4 million for N64 development including Eltale. Many of their Japanese releases were delayed during this time. Using Nintendo's 1997 Space World Guide book for original dates, 64 Detective Team slipped from March 1998 to October 1998, Snow Speeder from March 1998 got delayed to December 1998, Fighter's Destiny for January 1998 was delayed to December 1998, and finally King of Pro Baseball 2 which was scheduled for January 1998 was delayed to March 1999. Part of this had to possibly due with Genki, who normally only released 3 games per year, jumping up to a whopping 6 releases in 1998, several for Imagineer. Eventually in March 1999 the Nikkei Newspaper reported that Imagineer was expecting a loss 1,010,000,000 Yen ($8.5 million) by the end of that month, indicating that throughout 1998 Imagineer wasn't doing well with their N64 releases, possibly a result of having too much in development at once which likely resulted in behind the scene restructures and priority changes that halted production of various games. Of course the US versions of games like Fighters Destiny and Quest 64 were released way earlier than their Japanese counterparts likely because THQ and Ocean had withstanding release dates which they wouldn’t allow to budge, but for Quest it seems it was the biggest victim with the most lost from being cut short. Around this time many projects were also cancelled, like a sequel to Quest 64 and Desert Island. That’s just on the N64 side as well, I can only imagine the hell Imagineer had in their other console/online divisions around this same time. Also just something from my point of view, If Quest 64 had any positive impact on the N64 as a whole, it was that its sales success allowed H2O Entertainment's Aidyn Chronicles to be released. Had THQ not published Aidyn Chronicles, it's very likely that game would have never been picked up by any other publisher and would have been cancelled and possibly lost to history, so Quest 64 giving THQ faith in the RPG genre was a small blessing which unknowingly helped several unrelated projects come into existence. Aidyn Chronicles is another flawed RPG which personally I think is better than Quest 64 on ambition and a technical and game design level, but that’s too long of a thing to explain in 1 comment. Also in many ways it is the exact opposite of Quest 64, Quest Easy Linear Short (can easily be done in like 4 hours) No stat manipulation, gear, money, or stores Japanese style and pretty basic writing Aidyn Pretty hard Open world not very linear Long as hell like 100 hours Tons stats manipulation, gear, money, and stores. Most complex N64 RPG mechanics Western RPG style art and more adult writing and tone Almost wonder how people would react if their release dates magically switched places, if Aidyn would been the N64 game everyone anticipated and bought during the RPG drought. Had Quest 64 release anywhere other than “1st RPG after 20 months of N64 having 0 RPGs” it likely would have been even more lost to history. Timing really had everything to do with Quest’s reception and place in history, but there’s a million ways this game can be educational. From a game design level, a cautionary level of how things can fall apart during development, how an underrepresented genre can impact the entire legacy of a system like N64, and how companies like THQ, Imagineer, and Konami treated the whole thing as it happened. It’s all too much for any one person to ever cover, but you did a huge chunk more than many people did so thumbs up from me. Your videos were so good, I didn’t even have to play the game again to remember my opinions from the last time I played years ago. That’s what good research does, saves time for other people so they can do other things with it instead of spending so much time just trying to piece together the (rather obscure in this instance) basics of the games creation and layout.

Great vid! Feels like a blast from the past. I have a ton of memories playing this with my cousin as a kid.

I was not prepared to find so many videos covering quest 64 and thought this video ended pretty abruptly but im in for the long ride

I just wanna say, as someone who has quest 64, but only played it briefly when I rented it as a child, this series is a delight. I truly appreciate the passion, and cannot wait for what you have in store for this game and others.

Another great one! Good job on all of these Quest 64 videos. I watched and enjoyed them all plenty. Imo, your channel has a lot of potential.

This video is pretty well thought out and I agree with all of the points you made. When I played quest at a young age I would always find myself dying from the combat. With the frequent battles too I would constantly exhaust my few healing items and I had no idea on how to obtain more. It probably didn't help too that I always upgraded fire or earth first because I thought they were cooler, so I had no idea that upgrading water would unlock a healing spell. I have never made it past the forest before, but maybe I will try again sometime with this new knowledge.

I sincerely appreciate you doing this video…. dunkey level detail, and youre focusing on a game most people have forgotten about. Thank you thank you thank you. Liked and subscribed!

If this game had customization, character class selection, full inventory item equip, better currency, and trading; I would be all over this game probably. I feel like RPG games like these should be created from the inside out first. What I mean by this is to take care of all of the guts of the game first, like even just focusing on gameplay mechanics is important. If you start with the story first I think it just becomes too overwhelming. While, if you start off with a good base firstly, then I think it's easier to build a creative story line around a fantastic foundation. Rather than trying to support a fantastic story with a potentially frail foundation. I also realize that this is completely subjective to me too and also biased.... but I just feel like the bulk of rpg fans really value these things. Don't get me wrong either, any element of any game done horribly can completely ruin it for some people. I just think that more thought and time could have been put into some of these games like Quest or even Aidyn Chronicles... .. Although I will admit that I am absolutely impressed with the quality and uniqueness.... they just needed a bit more....to become complete.

Great vid! 👏👏 can’t wait to see what else you make!

This is the kinda game I fear I’d make. An incredibly built world deep with lore, real world/historical symbolism, finely chosen music and visuals to set the vibe and theme… but then I’d have no story to tell in that world.

The biggest gripe i have is the connections throughout the game route that serves no purpose. After Solverign, there is a forest before you board the ship to Larapool. This forest has an access point to Blue cave. At this point, its flooded with water so you're forced to larapool. Cull hazard has an alternate route to get you to the city by Boiling hole, but again, its not open when you first reach it. All of these routes are only accessible once you reach the location from the other end, but there's no benefit to doing it. No extra lore, no extra spirits, or items. It seems like they intended short cuts or back tracking, so i guess i can only speculate.

When I played It back then It was a wonder. I was just a kid enjoying a beautiful adventure and I was deeply immersed in the world. Thanks for the in depth review!

My only regret was that it did not have more than one playable character. There should have been the three depicted, including the princess.

When I was a kid I had four different play files where I solely leveled up each of the elements to the exclusion of the others. Needless to say I never got very far, because as you say, the healing spell is absolutely necessary! Also my favorite element was wind. RIP.

Very comprehensive review, excellent job man!

I love the water & earth magic in this game

I had fun playing this back in the day

Very well put how the game gives you these qualities on opposite sides of the spectrum, right there with you. Your take on how the intoduction / tutorial area is handled is interesting, I always liked how for replaying the game you could jump right in and get moving right away. I think what hurt it was the timing, coming off the snes greats where it was important to talk to everyone to a game where you could pretty much ignore everyone was strange even though I appreciate the hands off approach they took. Same deal with items and shops, I was really thrown off with how you didn't have that progression of coming to a new town and gearing up with a new set of items, though I still like having that piece be so straightforward since you didn't have to worry about it (though I was always super paranoid about the warp items, they could make part of the game much smoother with being able to warp back and forth between certain towns, so if you accidentally use them it could force you into some obnoxious mid game backtracking). Also like I was saying in the other comment, wind / fire is the combo I endorse, at least once you are familiar and know what you are getting into, let go of the crutch of healing and avalanche, embrace the evasion spells and staff bonks, they are the true LEET strats :p (just be mindful of item usage, don't go wasting all your loafs of bread or whatever they were).

I was excited for this game but extremely disappointed. I had already played FF7, so this was really limited by comparison. I remember being frustrated by the lack of shop items; you would be handed free bread and that's about it. No party system and far fewer spells made this a wannabe JRPG dud.

I feel like if you grew up on Dragon Quest like I did, this game is alot more fun. Problem is most people were expecting another Zelda OOT even though this game came out first. Really love Quest 64.

Subscribed! Great video!

The N64 actually has some pretty great Rpg games,,,Quest is nice, Aydin is so underrated, HybridHeaven is supercool, Paper Mario is a classic,,,,,

By the sound of things, Quest 64 wasn't 100% complete during development and its all because of a deadline or something. It could've been so much more if they had all the time they needed to implement every idea they wanted. Sadly that wasn't the case. Oh well, its still a fine game. Its only overlooked due to its flaws but I don't think that makes it a bad game. To me a bad game is something that can't be played due to bad controls and/or awful gameplay. Anyways I enjoyed your Quest 64 videos, their very interesting and informative which I think is nice.

Gonna be honest... I only like the game for the music as a kid. Now listening to it, all I feel is nostalgia. Can't believe I've finished the game without going nuts and no guide to help. I've leveled my water magic often because it was the support magic and that walking water magic helped a lot when getting ganked.

underrated gem

The game had great concepts, beautiful music, and some gorgeous set pieces. Otherwise the game is bad. Clearly incredibly unfinished game. If this had another year or two of development, it could have rivaled some of the other masterpiece RPGs. As a kid I couldn't wait for this to run out, but even then I know it was less than half baked. I do wish there were some RPGs that came after that were inspired by some Quest 64 concepts.

After watching the Completionist and having a memory of this game that stretches back to when it was new, I knew I had to give it another shot (I believe as a kid I made it to the Blue Cave, saw the damage the enemies were doing and probably replayed FFII SNES again, haha!) As a full grown adult, playing through the game in a mostly blind way, avoiding the "easy path" (not getting Magic Guard, but more balanced stats, ending with 34 for each element at game's end), being very conservative with my items, I had a genuine blast! Yes, the Blue Cave goes on for several eternities, but the game before and after that managed to keep my attention up until the end, as much as I could see cut content around every corner and a clear lack of complex programming skill, for all of its flaws, the game has an undeniable charm. I look forward to watching this series.

I agree that big mistake of the developers is the lack of trading system and currency and maybe fix the caves and other dungeons (the cave to normoon is long and extensive with no real goal to cross because you have no other choice and...Shamwood: to a player without directions, is a big hole of nothing who easily skip it, but shamwood is a big part of lore who explain almost everything). But If you talk with every npc in the game and enjoy the "spirit" of the game, you finally enjoy it. the fight system is awesome and the lore is hidden and cool, i missed a sequel that explained and explored beyond Celtland. I think the designers wanted that but it didn't happen. I hope someday someone will rescue this game concept and remake it. I think it deserves it

I legit think this game is better than many of the top rated PS1 RPGs.

I played it back in the day and I enjoyed it, however looking it back I can recognize that it was a bad game, possibly because it was rushed. It had some cool concepts(like the way of dodging in the combat), the controls felt nice and the environments were very good, but it just feels empty in so much aspects. Specially the fact that the NPCs cannot walk makes very notorious how rushed this game was.

All the little bits where you can just TELL there was supposed to be more content always hurt a little. Not getting to fight through the Blue Cave with Leila, no teamup with Leonardo in Brannoch... NO FIGHT AGAINST SHANNON AT THE GATE TO MAMMON'S LAIR WHERE SHE PUTS HER LIFE ON THE LINE AGAINST BRIAN IN HER STRUGGLE TO UNDERSTAND THE DESIRE TO BE HUMAN AGAINST THE PURPOSE OF HER CREATION. (And no secret boss fight against Lavaar) I still love it, jank and all. Spells just had cool variety, even though some were just so good it made others irrelevant, and others were just plain useless(LMAO Wind Bomb, rofl Homing Arrows). I hear Wind Cutter was absolutely jank-busted-OP in the GBC game. Zelse is my favorite boss, Wind Horizon is a seriously awesome spell.

nice dun lorireag music in the back, i thought it was my audio in the back ground lol

I find your review fair and comprehensive and in many ways am in agreement. However Quest 64 has been a favorite of both my brother and I, along with Ogre Battle 64, Aidyn Chronicles, New Horizons, and the Legend of Dragoon.for many years and still even to this day. It is for this reason, Quest 64 utilizes elements of what is most familiar of 2d top down rpgs and seamlessly integrates with that of 3d design but still maintaining the aesthetics of previous console rpgs. Further the art style and design is charming, where each destination is worth exploring and the music composition further immerses you into the experience and environment. I found the game very difficult and challenging, as such adding realism to the journey, one truly would have to plan accordingly. There is much to explore and strategize, and I played through it, no different than a children's storybook, and as such have fond memories with my brother during late nights, and being that we were children, we truly were fearful of what had to be overcome in Quest and the many areas that had to be explored. In conclusion, the relevance....... the N64 has become an iconic retro console and this game holds value. I think children should experience the N64, and this would be an age appropriate rpg. To me this is what makes the 2ds and 3ds so recommendable, and for children what the N64 did very well, it did very well. But then I am being biased as I have used my Xbox One as a media unit and my Nintendo Switch as my main gaming console. At this point I have several swtiches and likewise my brother of which our children enjoy, his the ages of 8 and 12 and mine age 1 and 2, and to this day we still do local couch play on our retro N64. And seeing Indie developers and mobile gaming, I think the art style of Quest 64 as in what it did well and when it did well, will never be outdated, just like a childrens storybook, or youtube channels adapted for small children, with that being said I am giving away 5 nintendo switches with labo kits to 5 middle schools, and at the event raffling off two nintendo switch lites, this is all taking place at a book store, so..... full circle, Nintendo... is like Disney in that context... and as such I find value, even in a controversial rpg, like Quest 64.... I will be browsing your other videos, but do appreciate the care you took in this endeavor too often Quest like Aidyn or Ogre Battle is dismissed entirely.

Based on me playing, I was mainly a fire guy. But, I also thought the Winds to be the coolest. So, my build was basically more around Fire, Water, and Wind with Earth taking the backseat the most

Quest 64 felt like it wasn't even completely done.

How quiet did you set those audio levels? My god, I'm at max and can barely hear the music.

Hey me again. Are there going to be any more videos about this fine game? I was really enjoying your analysis.

I loved this as a kid lol. One BIG thing nobody appreciates is figuring out how to move in order to avoid enemy spells. As a kid I didnt know about the damage negating shield so I had to rely on learning enemy attacks and how to avoid every one. It was very fun. I also didnt knwo english so my imagination took over the storytelling lol.

How can you play this on your phone?

11:30 ...Really?! Oh that is so silly! I thought item drops were just stupidly rare, that kind of takes away from the excitement a tad. Though it may make me not so miserly in their use, hmm... I guess it's a double-edged sword. 18:00 Glad to hear Dun Lorieag in the background! Always nice to see a fan of dot hack. Oh this is part 4, eh...? Maybe I should check out the other parts.

Not sure why most people hated this game. Sure it didn't have a multi party system, ect. but it was so cute and fun. I played through it multiple times as a teenager.

I love this game

Such an underrated game! I've always liked this game regardless of what most people say.

I wonder who owns the IP rights to Quest 64? THQ published the game here in the west but I’m not sure if the IP is dead due to lack of care or failure by sales? We may never know. :/

Just wondering, but, did you also play Aidyn Chronicles? If so, any chance for an analysis/review? Aidyn is as much underappreciated as Quest64, and shares alot of similarities. Would love to see your thoughts on that, if you decided to do a video on it.

there is a custom rom of Quest64 with a "hard mode" - a lot of new spells and a complete rebalancing. It's quite well done and improves the gameplay of the base game by a large margin.

FYI that purple garbage around text and images is an emulator issue, the game didn't have that on the original hardware.

Did you use a emulator to play this? I notice its high resolution and no foggy anti aliasing

Throw brian in smash.

Too bad this game is so flawed and hard to get into because I love the graphical style of the world, like Mystical Ninja 64.

Let’s face it: has this game come out on PS1 no one would remember it. This less than mediocre game only got notoriety because it was the only RPG in the entire N64 library for years while fans on PS1 were drowning in choices.

This is just good enough to not be complete trash. They should Give this game another go on the Switch. Not a remake, but a new game using similar mechanics. This could've been a great game but it was clearly unfinished.

Good review you have polished a turd. I liked your points don't get me wrong I just hate this game.

This game was great

This game is good

Worst game I bought as a teenager,second worst game I bought was sword of the berzerk guts rage on dreamcast,please try to make that game seem good lol

So you start by talking about plot critical gaps in the story. Your defense is to talk about how you could skip NPC's who flesh things out. OK cool. Excited to see your examples. The first example is someone reiterating EXTREMELY basic info in Brian's dads letter. The second guy is a glorified throwaway tutorial line about using the staff as a weapon. Neither of these adds anything other than bog standard info we already know based on the intro and instruction manual. It's odd to go to these to make the point that NPC's offer interesting and engaging dialogue that could improve player investment. "You can also find power ups and items" The opening of the game tells you, "Search every corner, find a few power-ups and talk to 35 different NPCs because a couple of them might give you interesting info. Travel down some empty staircases, too." That's not much of an engaging opening. Luckily they make some of it optional. "Some of the NPCs have different faces which convey emotion" Wait what!? That was seriously your whole defense for "don't skip NPCs. They'll tell you really crucial info which adds to the game." You showed a child saying he isn't afraid to fight monsters, a guy telling you your staff can be a weapon and a guy telling you what you already know about Brian's dad. Then you move on to facial expressions? As for the expressions. It's not like they're dynamic. They NPCs who have an expression. It's nice. I appreciated seeing it but it didn't fix the lack of engaging characters.

you can remove the purple color on letters with your emulator... the real game didn't have that ugly purple shade

Yeah explain all this to a 10 year old kid who just wants to bash stuff and cast spells lol

Does anybody remember 5N@F before the 'RU-vidrs' got to it? When people talked about it, they'd say things like "It's kinda like middle school, you sit in your chair, aren't allowed to move, and everyone randomly yells at you for no reason." or complaints about how it should take power to keep your doors closed. Then MatPat went and read every newspaper clipping, or whatever and presented the game's actual lore as a new "theory"? Which is something he does quite often, his theories are either objectively false, or he's just presenting evidence as it is given in game, and everyone praises him for figuring out that Mario 3 was a stage play... he somehow missed all the interviews where Miyamoto announced that all the Mario characters are "an acting troop" and all Mario games are canonically fake (like how the Muppets are shows/movies about making those same shows/movies). Anyhow, all I am saying, is that if he announced all the lore already present in the base game, or even if he ripped off these videos _Christopher "Irate Gamer" Bores_ style, then everyone would love the story.

TBH I don't care much for this game. The encounter rate is ridiculous, the level up system is dumb and never made sense. Also the abilities aren't very good. I saw projared's video on this game and he made allot of good points. But If you guys like it thats completely fine

Regardless of how anybody tries to spin, this was a bad game.

Worst rpg ever.

hahaha nerd

This game was so terrible. It had zero redeeming qualities.

Well that was an objectively misleading thumbnail. No. It's not the Best RPG ever

I just wanted to mention this. This game was ultimately unfinished. If I had to guess, they wanted an RPG on the N64 so badly, this game became a rush job. Originally, there were meant to be 3 playable characters. Chances are, they probably wanted to add more to the game overall, even regards to story.

I've been playing Quest 64 again, and watching a buncha Quest 64 reviews. I like to dream that, maybe there is a world where Quest isn't rushed and has all of the assets these ambitious devs envisioned.