This is a game I’ve heard called awful and bad for years and years. One of the very first (and of course ultimately one of the only) RPGs on the N64, for some reason I had it in my head that it was a western-developed game for the N64. Only recently did I discover so much more about it, like that it’s both developed and published by Imagineer, a Japanese developer. Not only that, but it was also released in North America first by almost a year, and the Japanese version (known by the far less catchy title “Eltale Monsters”) actually has a mentionable amount more polish and content as a result. Now I never went into this game thinking that the Japanese version would be some secret super edition of the game that suddenly turned it into something awesome, and that is absolutely what I found to be the case. Nonetheless, I found Quest 64 to be a far better game than its reputation would lead one to believe, even if it still doesn’t exactly deserve a stellar reputation regardless. It took me about 9 hours to play through the Japanese version of the game on real hardware.
Quest 64 (aka Eltale Monsters in Japan (aka Holy Magic Century in PAL regions)) is the tale of Brian (aka Jean Jacques in Japan (aka Aryon in PAL regions)) and his quest to save the land of Celtland (which the Japanese version does confirm is pronounced with a soft ‘c’ sound). The magic Tome of Eltale has been stolen, and its destructive power could potentially be catastrophic. Though only a novice elementalist of 12 years old, with his father having gone missing on this very same quest, it’s up to Jacques to be the world’s savior and figure out what’s going on here in the first place.
Being an N64 game, Quest 64 struggles with a lot of issues that RPGs on the system faced in terms of cutscenes and dialogue storage, and they are very present through a lot of the game’s presentation. One of the more notable things in the Japanese version is a slightly revised script and a completely redone ending, so things are a little more polished up here, especially as far as the end of the story goes, but it’s still really nothing special. That’s one reason why talking about the English translation in comparison to the Japanese is a bit difficult. So much is genuinely changed in a way localization couldn’t’ve been responsible for that it’s nearly impossible in a lot of cases to say what might’ve been the result of a bad translation and what is the result of that part of the story simply having been changed since the game had been released in English.
Honestly, for a game from 1998/1999, Quest 64 feels far more like something that would’ve been expected nearly a decade earlier on the Famicom. NPCs basically never move (so in-game scripted events are basically nonexistent), the story and adventure are so linear that there are very few returning characters, and the bulk of the plot is defined by the twist at the end. The dialogue is still written quite well, regardless, and there are some memorable characters here and there, but overall, while I wouldn’t call the story “bad”, I’d absolutely say it is immensely underwhelming for the time, and I don’t blame people at all for feeling it was boring then or now. If you hold your expectations accordingly, I still think it can be a fun little adventure, but if you expect something to rival its contemporaries on the PS1 and Saturn, you’re going to be very sorely disappointed.
Mechanically, there is a lot that is VERY strange about Quest 64, and in some cases (in)famously so. Running into a lot of hurdles with the N64’s hardware that other RPGs on the system also faced, there are a lot of staples of the genre that are completely or virtually absent here. For example, Quest 64 has no money, it has no shops, it has no equipment items, and it has no party members. While it does have an inventory for you, all items are either found in chests or given to you by NPCs (many of whom will give you an item only if you have completely run out of that item already). This also means inns, which are your save points, are completely free as well. While this does mean that you can’t grind up cash to extra healing items or to buy better gear if you’re having a hard time, this isn’t really a problem in large part due to just how easy a game Quest 64 is.
A lot of the difficulty is VERY front-loaded, with the first boss of the game being by far its hardest fight, with things getting progressively easier and easier due to how the magic and combat systems function. Your stats are quite weird in Quest 64. To raise your agility, you just run around the world. Raising your attack requires raising your HP as the two are linked, so get bopped on the head and do bops on the head yourself to raise your defense and HP. Your max MP is increased by casting more spells, and you heal MP by either dealing physical damage in battle or by just running around the world. It’s a quite nifty system, almost like a more approachable version of how the old SaGa games worked, but the way your magic works is also quite unconventional.
By finding little wisps in the world or just by doing enough battles, you’ll be able to level up one of your four elements of earth, water, air, and fire (up to a max of 50). Upgrading different ones will allow you to mix and match elements (up to three) to cast spells ranging from healing to utility escape spells to buffs to good old attacking magic. The only issue there is that the magic system is designed in such a fashion that there is a very straightforwardly best possible battle strategy and therefore upgrade path. Water + earth is your level 1 healing spell, and adding a level 3 earth on the end there will get you healing level 2. As your MP is healed not just by running around but also bapping things with your mage’s staff (physical attacks), this means that a pretty golden strategy is bap with staff to regain MP, heal, rinse and repeat. There are some times where you’ll need to use some kind of magic to hurt enemies or bosses, but even physical immune enemies are very easily run away from, so you don’t really have any emphasis to not just play the game this way.
Sure, random encounters are a bit too common (and they make just how easy it is to get turned around in dungeons even easier as a result) and enemy weaknesses are extremely arbitrary and hard to guess, but factors like this just don’t really matter much in the face of just how easy it is to trivialize basically all combat. I’d love to praise how you kinda have a real-time element to this turn-based game, as you can actually run-around during enemy turns to genuinely avoid their attacks, and that’s a super cool thing in an RPG of this time. I’d also like to praise the game for being a more approachable RPG in an era where a lot of RPGs were generally on the harder end of things still. But it’s hard to do that when so much of the game’s systems just don’t matter in the face of these larger execution problems. As with the story, while I can’t really call the game’s mechanical systems outright bad, their sloppy execution and rough difficulty curve certainly makes people not being enthused with them very understandable.
The aesthetics of the game are all around pretty decent for a game released in mid-1998. The graphics are cute and charming, and while the actual environments aren’t terribly impressive (and all often look so similar that getting completely turned around is far too easy with how you actually have 0 manual camera control), the monster and NPC designs are very nicely done.The music is all around pretty good too, although it is very amusing with just how many sound effects sound extremely similar to ones also used in Link to the Past x3
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. Quest 64 is absolutely not a bad game, particularly for the time. That said, it is very far from flawless, and only the most dedicated RPG or N64 fans really have much reason to look back on it nowadays. Seeing the additions and polishes the Japanese version added was a very cool experience, but it still can’t save this game from being a cool historical footnote unable to live up to the ambition it was clearly conceived with.
Quest 64 (aka Eltale Monsters in Japan (aka Holy Magic Century in PAL regions)) is the tale of Brian (aka Jean Jacques in Japan (aka Aryon in PAL regions)) and his quest to save the land of Celtland (which the Japanese version does confirm is pronounced with a soft ‘c’ sound). The magic Tome of Eltale has been stolen, and its destructive power could potentially be catastrophic. Though only a novice elementalist of 12 years old, with his father having gone missing on this very same quest, it’s up to Jacques to be the world’s savior and figure out what’s going on here in the first place.
Being an N64 game, Quest 64 struggles with a lot of issues that RPGs on the system faced in terms of cutscenes and dialogue storage, and they are very present through a lot of the game’s presentation. One of the more notable things in the Japanese version is a slightly revised script and a completely redone ending, so things are a little more polished up here, especially as far as the end of the story goes, but it’s still really nothing special. That’s one reason why talking about the English translation in comparison to the Japanese is a bit difficult. So much is genuinely changed in a way localization couldn’t’ve been responsible for that it’s nearly impossible in a lot of cases to say what might’ve been the result of a bad translation and what is the result of that part of the story simply having been changed since the game had been released in English.
Honestly, for a game from 1998/1999, Quest 64 feels far more like something that would’ve been expected nearly a decade earlier on the Famicom. NPCs basically never move (so in-game scripted events are basically nonexistent), the story and adventure are so linear that there are very few returning characters, and the bulk of the plot is defined by the twist at the end. The dialogue is still written quite well, regardless, and there are some memorable characters here and there, but overall, while I wouldn’t call the story “bad”, I’d absolutely say it is immensely underwhelming for the time, and I don’t blame people at all for feeling it was boring then or now. If you hold your expectations accordingly, I still think it can be a fun little adventure, but if you expect something to rival its contemporaries on the PS1 and Saturn, you’re going to be very sorely disappointed.
Mechanically, there is a lot that is VERY strange about Quest 64, and in some cases (in)famously so. Running into a lot of hurdles with the N64’s hardware that other RPGs on the system also faced, there are a lot of staples of the genre that are completely or virtually absent here. For example, Quest 64 has no money, it has no shops, it has no equipment items, and it has no party members. While it does have an inventory for you, all items are either found in chests or given to you by NPCs (many of whom will give you an item only if you have completely run out of that item already). This also means inns, which are your save points, are completely free as well. While this does mean that you can’t grind up cash to extra healing items or to buy better gear if you’re having a hard time, this isn’t really a problem in large part due to just how easy a game Quest 64 is.
A lot of the difficulty is VERY front-loaded, with the first boss of the game being by far its hardest fight, with things getting progressively easier and easier due to how the magic and combat systems function. Your stats are quite weird in Quest 64. To raise your agility, you just run around the world. Raising your attack requires raising your HP as the two are linked, so get bopped on the head and do bops on the head yourself to raise your defense and HP. Your max MP is increased by casting more spells, and you heal MP by either dealing physical damage in battle or by just running around the world. It’s a quite nifty system, almost like a more approachable version of how the old SaGa games worked, but the way your magic works is also quite unconventional.
By finding little wisps in the world or just by doing enough battles, you’ll be able to level up one of your four elements of earth, water, air, and fire (up to a max of 50). Upgrading different ones will allow you to mix and match elements (up to three) to cast spells ranging from healing to utility escape spells to buffs to good old attacking magic. The only issue there is that the magic system is designed in such a fashion that there is a very straightforwardly best possible battle strategy and therefore upgrade path. Water + earth is your level 1 healing spell, and adding a level 3 earth on the end there will get you healing level 2. As your MP is healed not just by running around but also bapping things with your mage’s staff (physical attacks), this means that a pretty golden strategy is bap with staff to regain MP, heal, rinse and repeat. There are some times where you’ll need to use some kind of magic to hurt enemies or bosses, but even physical immune enemies are very easily run away from, so you don’t really have any emphasis to not just play the game this way.
Sure, random encounters are a bit too common (and they make just how easy it is to get turned around in dungeons even easier as a result) and enemy weaknesses are extremely arbitrary and hard to guess, but factors like this just don’t really matter much in the face of just how easy it is to trivialize basically all combat. I’d love to praise how you kinda have a real-time element to this turn-based game, as you can actually run-around during enemy turns to genuinely avoid their attacks, and that’s a super cool thing in an RPG of this time. I’d also like to praise the game for being a more approachable RPG in an era where a lot of RPGs were generally on the harder end of things still. But it’s hard to do that when so much of the game’s systems just don’t matter in the face of these larger execution problems. As with the story, while I can’t really call the game’s mechanical systems outright bad, their sloppy execution and rough difficulty curve certainly makes people not being enthused with them very understandable.
The aesthetics of the game are all around pretty decent for a game released in mid-1998. The graphics are cute and charming, and while the actual environments aren’t terribly impressive (and all often look so similar that getting completely turned around is far too easy with how you actually have 0 manual camera control), the monster and NPC designs are very nicely done.The music is all around pretty good too, although it is very amusing with just how many sound effects sound extremely similar to ones also used in Link to the Past x3
Verdict: Hesitantly Recommended. Quest 64 is absolutely not a bad game, particularly for the time. That said, it is very far from flawless, and only the most dedicated RPG or N64 fans really have much reason to look back on it nowadays. Seeing the additions and polishes the Japanese version added was a very cool experience, but it still can’t save this game from being a cool historical footnote unable to live up to the ambition it was clearly conceived with.