Ludography
38/100
Players27 ratings
Quest 64 cover

1998 · Imagineer · Adventure · Role-playing

Quest 64

Nintendo exclusive

Celtland has been cast into chaos by the theft of Eletale's Book. This mystical volume contains the secrets of the Spirit Tamers. Control Brian, a magician's apprentice, as he explores the expansive countryside and villages on his quest. If he does not reclaim the book, the Kingdom of Celtland will be cast into darkness forever.

Released
1 June 1998
Platforms
Game BoyNintendo 64
Genres
AdventureRole-playing
Developers
Imagineer
Publishers
THQ
Modes
Single-player
Perspective
Third personBird view / Isometric
Themes
ActionFantasy
Country
Japan
Age ratings
ESRB E
Languages
English, French, German, Japanese
Composers
Masamichi Amano

About

Quest 64 (Holy Magic Century in Europe, Australia, and New Zealand, Eltale Monsters (エルテイル モンスターズ, Eruteiru Monsutāzu) in Japan) is a role-playing video game (RPG) developed by Imagineer for the Nintendo 64. It was released in North America in June 1998 by THQ, Europe in September 1998 by Konami and Japan in July 1999 by Imagineer. It is the first role-playing video game released for the system in North America.

After Quest 64's moderate financial success, a sequel was in consideration by the developer Imagineer. However, only the sequel's story was revealed before it was ultimately cancelled. Imagineer released two other related games for the Game Boy Color, Quest: Brian's Journey and Quest: Fantasy Challenge (a clone of Mr. Do!).

Keywords

  • anime
  • magic
  • turn-based
  • artificial intelligence
  • day/night cycle
  • boss fight
  • polygonal 3d
  • potion
  • bread
  • random encounter
  • earth manipulation
  • retroachievements

Media

The articlegameplay, story, development, reception

Gameplay

Similarly to Chrono Trigger, when the player character encounters enemies, instead of changing to a separate battle layout the game simply locks the player character into place and the battle proceeds. The player character's spells work through elemental spirits, with each of the Nintendo 64 controller's four C buttons corresponding to one of the four classic elements (wind, earth, water, and fire).

The game differs from most RPGs in that the experience system is not based upon a traditional "level-up" model. Instead, similarly to Final Fantasy II, experience is gained for specific stats based on how the player performs in battle. If the character gets hit a lot, for instance, defense will increase. Also, whenever the player finds a wispy white spirit, they can choose an element of magic to upgrade (from Fire, Water, Earth, and Wind). Leveling up these elements grants the character new attacks and strengthens existing ones.

Story

The game's story is set in Celtland, a fantastic medieval world that resembles Ireland. The playable character is an apprentice mage named Brian. Brian sets off to find his father, who has left the monastery of the mages - the player learns later that his father is looking for a thief who has stolen the "Eletale Book". The player must also collect elemental gems, which have been hoarded by powerful criminals, before confronting the game's final boss.

Development

The game was announced in early 1997, at which point it was to be titled Eltale (エルテイル) in Japan and Holy Magic Century in all other regions. It was exhibited at Space World in 1997.

Quest 64 was developed by Japanese company Imagineer, while THQ both translated it into English and published it in North America. Despite its Japanese origin, the game would not be released in Japan until much later.

Reception

Quest 64 received mixed reviews upon release with GameRankings giving it a score of 54%. Though praised for its high-quality graphics (IGN wrote "Quest proves beyond a doubt that compelling RPG graphics are possible on a cart") and inventive spell system, reviewers criticized it for lacking depth on all fronts: gameplay, storyline, and exploration. GameSpot wrote "Quest 64's individual puzzles and challenges are similarly straightforward. Go to Town #1.

Converse with townspeople. Discover that there's a villain scaring everyone and making it impossible to get through Forest #1 to Town #2. To boot, he's stolen Unique Elemental Magic Item #1 from Lord #1." The general conclusion was the game was competent enough to charm gamers who had never played an RPG before, but too simplistic and trite to interest anyone else.

Releases by platformdates and regions as published

PlatformReleasedRegions
Nintendo 6410 June 1998North America · Europe 30 September 1998 · Japan 9 July 1999

Editions and related releases

Built on it
Quest 64: Hard Mode

Games like this

Collections3 collections

Platform libraries

Development status

Description adapted from its source, CC BY-SA 4.0.