⏰ In a rush? Don't worry, I gotchu'! ⏰
What Works:
✅ It shipped onto store shelves: And it boots up, too.
What Doesn’t:
❌ Mediocre Story and Conclusion: The narrative is bland and the conclusion feels anticlimactic. The cutscenes are poorly animated and the voice acting is cheesy.
❌ Repetitive Combat: Combines turn-based battles with real-time action but fails to engage. Basic attacks can defeat any enemy, making advanced abilities unnecessary.
❌ Uninspired Exploration: Exploring the world in third-person is lackluster. The map is unhelpful, characters are lifeless, and the graphics are dull and washed-out.
❌ Poor Level Design: Paths to objectives are linear and filled with repetitive enemy encounters that lack purpose. Villages offer generic fetch quests and uninteresting side missions.
❌ Technical Issues: The game suffers from severe performance issues, including graphical and gameplay glitches. Characters clip through objects, bridges have invisible holes, and combat animations are poorly synchronized.
❌ Long Load Times: Transitioning between areas takes too long, further diminishing the experience.
🎮 The Evolving World of Game Releases
In the world of today, publishing and releasing a video game, although ever the significant responsibility, is less daunting than it was years ago. Don't be fooled, though, as these older video games also contained issues that were not easily solved with a simple patch. Street Fighter II, for example, was released with a known programming error, allowing crafty players to execute a sequence of multiple consecutive attacks. However, that error also changed the video game landscape for the better. Beast Quest? It's just frustrating.
🔥 Beast Quest's Fiery Plotline
The premise is simple and straightforward: a boy named Tom is chosen by a wizard as the hero destined to free four mythical animals from a curse. This unfortunate event is the work of an evil wizard, intending to control said beasts to sow disorder and anarchy. Throughout the very short, but aptly named Beast Quest, Tom will find allies for his quest, along with each beast he frees. From what has been shown so far, despite basic execution, everything seems fine and even demonstrates a cohesive narrative thread. However, every story has its climax, and Beast Quest's is a slap in the face with a mix of emotions between "finally this is over" and "...just this?" with a bonus round of "this is just silly." Silly because all the animations during story cutscenes are robotic and ridiculous, as well as the severely cheesy and corny voice acting.
⚔️ Combat: A Repetitive Clash
But despite a disappointing conclusion to a bland narrative, there was the possibility that combat could be fun and interesting. Alas, this particular feature proves to be a repetitive mix of turn-based battles with real-time action. During battle, Tom can dodge to the sides or block attacks with his shield, plus the ability to strike weak and fast or strong and slow blows. Still, this hero has elemental abilities of fire, earth, water, and wind, along with the ability to summon gathered allies for additional damage to enemies, during a small cutscene. There is even the possibility to upgrade the main character's native abilities, as well as equip accessories for the same effect. On paper, all this seems interesting and exciting, but any enemy can be taken down with simple basic attacks. There’s need for little else.
🌍 Exploring the Bland World
Outside combat, Tom will explore the world in a third-person view. This could have been another point of redemption, something even fun, but if the combat insinuates mediocrity, then the adventure aspect is a level lower still. Besides the uselessness of both the map and minimap in providing useful geographic indications, Tom can walk, run, and jump towards his destination, and along the way, he will encounter numerous villages full of lifeless, static characters stuck in place, offering one or two text boxes with little to no relevant information. The graphical presentation that fills the Nintendo Switch screen focuses on washed-out, lifeless tones, something that at least does justice to everything mentioned so far.
🚶 Corridor Crawls and Combat Challenges
As if that wasn't enough, outside the villages, the path to the next objective is, more often than expected, a disguised corridor full of enemies whose mere function is to serve as an obstacle. Don't get me wrong: that's the goal in video games, but there's a difference between good and bad execution. Beast Quest simply drops groups of three adversaries on the trail with no rhyme or reason. They are like those skeletons from school science rooms, waiting for Tom and his wonder group to cross their path. With combat initiated, and after pressing the Y button ten or twenty times, these adversaries fall, and our hero walks a bit further down the corridor until he reaches his destination: the battle against one of the mythical animals. These encounters at least require the use of the blocking function from time to time, but still, the fight always follows a repetitive outcome. It is also notable that there are some side quests to accept in each village traversed. However, be prepared for your run-of-the-mill fetch quest and destroy X enemies.
🔧 Technical Troubles and Performance Pitfalls
There is still one last area to cover in this malignant spiral: performance. In any mode, the game's execution can either be stable or resemble a PowerPoint presentation, and this would be minimally acceptable were it not for the numerous graphical and gameplay errors that, quite honestly, really beg the question on how this title shipped in the first place. For example, on several occasions, our hero passes through various rocks in the scenery as if he were the non-existent soul of this title crossing the physical plane of this cosmic existence. Similarly, several bridges contained invisible holes, resulting in unjust losses of life. Even during combat, if Tom strikes at the same time as the enemy, it is registered after all animations end. In physical places where the risk of falling is more pronounced, and if it really happens, the game places the character back on the path but without the possibility of jumping to safety, resulting in another unfair fall. And as the cherry on top, the loading times are very long between each area change. A true disaster.
🏚️ The Final Verdict on Beast Quest
Beast Quest is proof that even if a video game boots up, it doesn't have enough to even proclaim itself as such. It is not fun, has an overly basic, short story with a horrible conclusion, is filled with technical problems, and, as if that weren't enough, the launch price, at the time this review was written, is set at €34.99. Even for free, it would be worthy of asking for a refund.
🌟 M I S C 🌟
◻️ 🌳 Visit my Linktree for more content.
◻️ ⚠️ Review originally written for FNintendo (defunct website) and published on January 7th, 2020.
◻️ 🙋♂️ Explore more reviews written by me.
◻️ 🎮 Discover Nintendo Switch video games I've played.
◻️ 📜 Review Number 014
✨ F I N ✨
What Works:
✅ It shipped onto store shelves: And it boots up, too.
What Doesn’t:
❌ Mediocre Story and Conclusion: The narrative is bland and the conclusion feels anticlimactic. The cutscenes are poorly animated and the voice acting is cheesy.
❌ Repetitive Combat: Combines turn-based battles with real-time action but fails to engage. Basic attacks can defeat any enemy, making advanced abilities unnecessary.
❌ Uninspired Exploration: Exploring the world in third-person is lackluster. The map is unhelpful, characters are lifeless, and the graphics are dull and washed-out.
❌ Poor Level Design: Paths to objectives are linear and filled with repetitive enemy encounters that lack purpose. Villages offer generic fetch quests and uninteresting side missions.
❌ Technical Issues: The game suffers from severe performance issues, including graphical and gameplay glitches. Characters clip through objects, bridges have invisible holes, and combat animations are poorly synchronized.
❌ Long Load Times: Transitioning between areas takes too long, further diminishing the experience.
🎮 The Evolving World of Game Releases
In the world of today, publishing and releasing a video game, although ever the significant responsibility, is less daunting than it was years ago. Don't be fooled, though, as these older video games also contained issues that were not easily solved with a simple patch. Street Fighter II, for example, was released with a known programming error, allowing crafty players to execute a sequence of multiple consecutive attacks. However, that error also changed the video game landscape for the better. Beast Quest? It's just frustrating.
🔥 Beast Quest's Fiery Plotline
The premise is simple and straightforward: a boy named Tom is chosen by a wizard as the hero destined to free four mythical animals from a curse. This unfortunate event is the work of an evil wizard, intending to control said beasts to sow disorder and anarchy. Throughout the very short, but aptly named Beast Quest, Tom will find allies for his quest, along with each beast he frees. From what has been shown so far, despite basic execution, everything seems fine and even demonstrates a cohesive narrative thread. However, every story has its climax, and Beast Quest's is a slap in the face with a mix of emotions between "finally this is over" and "...just this?" with a bonus round of "this is just silly." Silly because all the animations during story cutscenes are robotic and ridiculous, as well as the severely cheesy and corny voice acting.
⚔️ Combat: A Repetitive Clash
But despite a disappointing conclusion to a bland narrative, there was the possibility that combat could be fun and interesting. Alas, this particular feature proves to be a repetitive mix of turn-based battles with real-time action. During battle, Tom can dodge to the sides or block attacks with his shield, plus the ability to strike weak and fast or strong and slow blows. Still, this hero has elemental abilities of fire, earth, water, and wind, along with the ability to summon gathered allies for additional damage to enemies, during a small cutscene. There is even the possibility to upgrade the main character's native abilities, as well as equip accessories for the same effect. On paper, all this seems interesting and exciting, but any enemy can be taken down with simple basic attacks. There’s need for little else.
🌍 Exploring the Bland World
Outside combat, Tom will explore the world in a third-person view. This could have been another point of redemption, something even fun, but if the combat insinuates mediocrity, then the adventure aspect is a level lower still. Besides the uselessness of both the map and minimap in providing useful geographic indications, Tom can walk, run, and jump towards his destination, and along the way, he will encounter numerous villages full of lifeless, static characters stuck in place, offering one or two text boxes with little to no relevant information. The graphical presentation that fills the Nintendo Switch screen focuses on washed-out, lifeless tones, something that at least does justice to everything mentioned so far.
🚶 Corridor Crawls and Combat Challenges
As if that wasn't enough, outside the villages, the path to the next objective is, more often than expected, a disguised corridor full of enemies whose mere function is to serve as an obstacle. Don't get me wrong: that's the goal in video games, but there's a difference between good and bad execution. Beast Quest simply drops groups of three adversaries on the trail with no rhyme or reason. They are like those skeletons from school science rooms, waiting for Tom and his wonder group to cross their path. With combat initiated, and after pressing the Y button ten or twenty times, these adversaries fall, and our hero walks a bit further down the corridor until he reaches his destination: the battle against one of the mythical animals. These encounters at least require the use of the blocking function from time to time, but still, the fight always follows a repetitive outcome. It is also notable that there are some side quests to accept in each village traversed. However, be prepared for your run-of-the-mill fetch quest and destroy X enemies.
🔧 Technical Troubles and Performance Pitfalls
There is still one last area to cover in this malignant spiral: performance. In any mode, the game's execution can either be stable or resemble a PowerPoint presentation, and this would be minimally acceptable were it not for the numerous graphical and gameplay errors that, quite honestly, really beg the question on how this title shipped in the first place. For example, on several occasions, our hero passes through various rocks in the scenery as if he were the non-existent soul of this title crossing the physical plane of this cosmic existence. Similarly, several bridges contained invisible holes, resulting in unjust losses of life. Even during combat, if Tom strikes at the same time as the enemy, it is registered after all animations end. In physical places where the risk of falling is more pronounced, and if it really happens, the game places the character back on the path but without the possibility of jumping to safety, resulting in another unfair fall. And as the cherry on top, the loading times are very long between each area change. A true disaster.
🏚️ The Final Verdict on Beast Quest
Beast Quest is proof that even if a video game boots up, it doesn't have enough to even proclaim itself as such. It is not fun, has an overly basic, short story with a horrible conclusion, is filled with technical problems, and, as if that weren't enough, the launch price, at the time this review was written, is set at €34.99. Even for free, it would be worthy of asking for a refund.
🌟 M I S C 🌟
◻️ 🌳 Visit my Linktree for more content.
◻️ ⚠️ Review originally written for FNintendo (defunct website) and published on January 7th, 2020.
◻️ 🙋♂️ Explore more reviews written by me.
◻️ 🎮 Discover Nintendo Switch video games I've played.
◻️ 📜 Review Number 014
✨ F I N ✨