Emergency-Backup-Game 64
Written: Jul 15 '00 (Updated Jul 15 '00)
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Product Rating:
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Pros: game mechanics are good for beginners, some scenes are absolutely gorgeous
Cons: poor soundtrack, little or no exploration required, is there a point to any of this?
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| zobovor's Full Review: Quest for Nintendo 64 |
Quest 64's single most redeeming feature was the fact that it was released before Zelda 64. That was the only reason to consider buying this game. Of course, that was two years ago, so holding the honor of being first hardly applies today.
Quest 64 reminds me, in structure, of the early role-playing games of the original Nintendo Entertainment System (and the music sounds like it was written for that game system as well). You assume the role of a boy named Brian, the hero of the story, whose goal is to recover the Eletale Book, a powerful sorcerer's relic, while searching for your father, an adventurer himself who sought the Eletale Book, but disappeared. To this end, he had embarked on a quest to explore the three kingdoms of the realm called Celtland. Along the way there are towns and castles to visit, caverns and forests to explore, and of course plenty of monsters to fight.
Like Mario 64 and Zelda: Ocarina of Time, the game is rendered entirely in three dimensions. I found this to be terribly confusing when I first played it, frequently getting lost in the towns and forests, but it's easier navigating now that I've had a little more experience with 3D games. One aspect that beginning gamers might appreciate, but that I don't particular care for, is the fact that Brian is physically incapable of falling off ledges or cliffs, so don't be phased by particularly narrow bridges--they're harmless. Unfortunately, there is no real way to control the angle that you view the character. (You can hold down a button to at least ensure that you see what Brian sees as he turns corners.) Something else that bothers me is the fact that whenever Brian walks too close to an object, the camera allows us to see right through it. It's like every object in the game is a hologram.
Like other RPGs, the goal secondary to the exploration of Celtland is to gain additional strength and magic power by defeating the various monsters that inhabit the realm. This is the first game I've seen, however, that gives you only an indirect indication of how much experience each monster gives you. The game's status screen will show you a percentage figure next to the character's hit points (how many attacks he can withstand), magic points (how many spells he can cast until he's depleted), etc. After each battle, the percentage raises a bit (depending on how powerful the monster was, I'm guessing). Each time the hit points meter, for instance, reaches 100%, Brian's maximum hit points raise by one point.
The battles themselves are fairly routine, but at least every monster is animated, both during its attack and while awaiting your counterattack. (What's interesting here is that it's actually possible to evade some of their attacks.) Brian can either attack with his staff or employ a magic spell from one of four different spell types--Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind. Brian's powers start out fairly limited, but he can increase his magic abilities by practicing the spells he does know, and also by collecting spirits. As a Spirit Tamer, Brian is capable of seeing the spirits that govern the four types of magic, which are hidden in assorted locations over Celtland. With each spirit Brian collects, he can add to his magic power; he can collect up to 50 spirits per magic type. His magic is essential to this game, since it gives him the power to cast healing spells on himself and use long-range spells to reach enemies that he can't attack with his staff.
Each time Brian is ambushed by a monster (or group of them), a glowing perimeter surrounds him, indicating the range of movement he can take during that turn. A larger, differently-colored perimeter also surrounds the battlefield. Brian is guaranteed to escape the fight if he crosses that perimeter, which is a nice feature if you absolutely cannot fight at the moment. (Running away is not a good habit to get into, since your character will never grow stronger, and it's easy to forget which direction you were going in before the fight started.) You win the occasional useful item at the end of a fight, but no gold. There is no currency in the game; the only way to acquire useful items is to win them in battle or find them in treasure chests. You can also get them from some of the townsfolk; at least one person in every town will give you a healing item.
This all sounds fascinating so far, no doubt. It certainly did to me; the game concept is what drew me to Quest 64 in the first place. It's the execution of the game that bothers me. I wouldn't be at all surprised if Quest and Zelda were conceived at the same time, but they simply spent less time developing Quest. (In fact, specific elements from Zelda appear to be lifted from Zelda, such as the fact that the local princess is a tomboy, and a couple of characters from both games share the same name, like Epona.)
For one thing, most of the rooms in the towns and castles are completely empty. Someone took the time to furnish them with beds and chairs and bookshelves and things, but there's no point in visiting any of these rooms, since there's nobody to talk to and no items to find. In fact, finding items is a complete no-brainer, since a gigantic exclamation point will appear over Brian's head when he nears a treasure chest, and a very large question mark will pop up when he approaches one of the spirits. Pressing a button on the controller will cause Brian to initiate a brief search of the surrounding area, but I quickly found out that there is no reason to ever do this in the game. Why equip the game with a feature that never gets used?
There's also the maddening simplicity of the various tunnels and caves that connect one part of Celtland to the next. Many of the caverns Brian will explore are quite beautiful (if you can ignore the occasional transparent cave wall), but a large number of them have exactly one path. You can spend five minutes holding the analog controller down without ever having to make a decision, since there is only one direction in which to travel! There is an ice cave with multiple paths, but the correct path is clearly labeled with arrows, while the other paths are all dead ends. I would hardly call this exploring!
The storyline of the game does not hold together at all. I've played dozens of games where the plot was almost incidental, the real star of the show being the game play itself. Quest 64 lacks both. An RPG, by definition, needs a strong story to propel the game along, but other than the occasional hint from the locals (each of whom has a unique name, a novelty itself) as to what's transpiring in that particular region of Celtland, your main objective is to make it to the next point at which you can save your game. The most helpful of these characters is a gal named Shannon, who seems to always make it to the next town just before you do.
The quest for Brian's father more or less falls by the wayside, and the final boss creature, Mammon, doesn't even get a mention until nearly the end of the game. It turns out that this Shannon character is really a soulless puppet of Mammon; while I get the impression this is supposed to be a groundbreaking turn of events, it's very difficult to care what happens to any of the characters. Once you defeat Mammon, Shannon decided she wants to go exploring; roll credits. We never even find out what happened to Brian's father, which was supposed to be the whole point of the game!
Unless you're an avid RPG fanatic, I can't recommend this game at all. Zelda: Ocarina of Time is superior to this game in every real respect; now that the former is available, it completely negates the reason for the existence of the latter.
Recommended:
Yes
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Epinions.com ID:
zobovor
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Member: Zobovor
Location: Ogden, UT
Reviews written: 350
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