I’m actually fairly new to traditional RPGs (those not like Zelda games). I made my first serious RPG purchase a few weeks ago, when I purchased Final Fantasy 7 for my PC. Then I rented Quest 64. After playing FF7 for so many hours, I realized almost immediately how much Quest 64 pales in comparison to Square’s best selling title.

The biggest flaw Quest 64 has is that its story is as generic and bland as its title. Most RPGs are essentially interactive novels, so if the plot isn’t there, the player’s interest isn’t there either. Quest 64 revolves around your quest to retrieve a stolen spell book. That’s it. Someone supposedly wrote down an awful spell in this book, and you must get it back before this spell is cast. In itself, this could be mildy interesting if the premise was padded with the same level of depth that Final Fantasy 7’s story has, but this depth is missing from Quest 64. Additionally, most of the dialog in the game is meaningless and boring. Many of the houses or castle rooms also seem to serve no purpose but to waste your time.

The one thing Quest 64 offers that’s not generic is the battle system. All of the battles take place in real-time 3D. The conflicts are turn-based (as in most RPGs), but in Quest 64 you must move your player around the screen between moves. For close range attacks, you must work your way next to the enemy. Since your range of movement is limited in between each move and is centered on where you finish your last turn, it can take several tries to reach your target. Even then, it’s not uncommon for the game to show you hit the enemy and then produce the most anoying "MISS," indicating that your attack was unsuccessful. The initial magic attacks aren’t impressive at all, and magical attacks seem to do less damage than physical attacks. It’s also very difficult to avoid being hit almost every time an enemy attacks. The result of taking such constant damage is that you must roam the land fighting and dying (the game keeps your experience level if you die) until you have enough hit points to outlast enemy attacks.

As I spent time raising my hit points, I realized that I had no real compelling reason to continue doing so. The game quickly became tedious, and I honestly wanted to get my money back for the rental. In the time I spent playing Quest 64, I experienced nothing but boredom. Some of the graphics in the castles were moderately impressive, but the story and gameplay remained uninvolving. If you’re looking for a great RPG for the N64, it looks like you’ll have to wait even longer. Stay away from Quest 64.