Quest 64 is Unfinished, and You Should Play It

I'm the lead of the Quest64 decompilation project. We're about 50-ish percent done. My goal is to fill this game out and hopefully make it what it was supposed to be, and I am really glad people are talking about it in a better light now.

The biggest flaw of this game is that you don't see events happen, they're told to you. It feels like a simpler game, like a nes game, but in full 3d.

Used to leave a VHS tape on top of the Analog stick to have Brian run into a corner while I was at school to raise my Agility Stat, good times Quest 64.

My favorite joke to make about quest 64 is that someone came up with a prototype for a neat magic system and then was given two months to put it on store shelves

Unfinished is a perfect way to describe Quest 64. The game had so many good things going for it and all they needed was a little more time which they didn't have. Glad we got it but I wonder what would happen if they got just a few more months to develop.

The weird part about Quest 64 is a lot of the magazine descriptions of the game were wildly different before release. The UK N64 magazine gave a description of the story where Brian (who was originally named by the player) would originally set off on a quest to find 3 legendary swords to defeat Larva, an evil Spirit Tamer who was defeated long ago but has since come back and released the "Evils". The extra party members weren't Leo, but the princess of Dondoran Flora (known as Nina then), and the pirate Kiliac (known as Cozi). It was also an action RPG instead of a turn-based one with ARPG elements. But yeah, Quest 64 is one of my favorite games of all time precisely because of how weird and unfinished it is. It's got a certain charm that only N64 games really provided in this era and I still really enjoy the combat system, even if it is a bit simplistic it's fairly ambitious and unique. The GBC version is also really good

I remember having a good time with Quest 64 back in the day. Unfinished, sure, but the combat's still reasonably fun. The emptiness really is striking. The game is missing so many things you expect from an RPG - party members, meaningful exposition, shops, an inventory system, equipment, little bits and bobs to make the world feel less empty. But as a result it has, almost by accident, a very unique atmosphere. I think there's value in that.

It’s art. It’s a video game. It’s history.

I never got very far in this game, but I always found it very charming and full of potential. The simple premise of a boy heading out on a quest in a vast, colorful 3D world is very appealing to me. I also think the emptiness is a part of the game's identity, as it lets you use your imagination as you explore the world, but as you said, it's clear they had bigger plans for this game. Still, I appreciate how mysterious these early 3D games felt. They were very colorful, yet a bit scary for a few reasons. First, there was very little to no hand-holding, so you really felt alone. Like the first time you go somewhere without supervision. Second, the models were low in detail and very angular, which instinctively made them feel more threatening, as we not only fear the unknown, but also associate angular shapes with sharp things, like fangs, spikes, etc. Third, the thick fog makes you feel a bit uneasy as you can't quite see what danger might lie ahead. I think this game's formula could be interesting to revisit, honestly. It has a lot of the same design philosophies as an old sandbox MMORPG like EverQuest, but solo. Maybe it could be made into a 2-player co-op adventure, now that I think about it. Just getting immersed with a partner, exploring a vast and mysterious world... sounds like fun. Nice video once again. ^^

Quest 64 does have a unique atmosphere that is kind of comforting and other times terrifying XD

Awesome video! I somehow played through this game twice as a young kid. The first time I was too underpowered to beat the final boss. Then I learned to just concentrate on the earth power for the strongest attacks. I beat the game and of course the ending was highly disapointing lol

I remember renting this and I couldn't turn off my console because I didn't have a memory card. I still somehow beat it

I remember this game. Everything about it was kind of awkward. It came out early in the N64 lifespan, which was starved not just for RPG's, but for anything. So a lot of N64 owners ended up playing it at some point. Once Zelda OoT came out, Quest was very quickly forgotten. It's too bad the game didn't get finished. From what little I've heard it sounds like the project go rebooted a couple of times, which is why they didn't have the time or money to finish it. The game has an interesting system with the characters moving around in a 3D space and having to think about where you are on the battlefield, and which direction your attacks will go. Clearly they wanted to do more with it, most likely with Brian, Leo, and that blonde princess girl working as a team against teams of monsters. It's too bad, maybe it could have been a fun little game given some more time.

The YouTuber Malefact used the phrase "Suddenly and violently grows a plot" to describe Tower of the Sorcerer, like, decades ago or something. (wow YouTube old) The phrase describes a lot of older games, like that, or the original Final Fantasy, and here with Quest 64. Its not as common a thing to see these days, but its always stuck with me

Gotta love how high effort the editing is in such understated ways. Quest 64 is a game I've always planned on playing, partly because I dig the character designs, and partly because it can't be THAT bad, can it? I was always interested in how the Japanese version is consistently branded as "Eltale Monsters" everywhere except the title screen; surely that's the first thing you'd update when you change the title of a game?

If you play the Gameboy Color version: Brian's Journey, they do flesh things out a bit more. For example, when you enter Dondoran, you actually witness Solvaring kidnapping the Princess Fiora, or Leo actually "joins" your party. He doesn't do anything, but he does venture with you in your quest. I would recommend looking into the Gameboy version if you're interested. Lavaar is pretty much the only actual plot reveal who'll tell you the actual story relating to Epona and Mammon that the rest of the world seems to have forgotten. Another thing is in the fact the NPCs have so many unique models and they all have names. Tiny changes, but still, they intended for the world to feel alive. I believe it was rushed, despite their emphasizing NOT to rush the game in Nintendo Power. It sure feels like a sudden crash, especially towards the end of the game, The Boil Hole is a very straightforward dungeon and Mammon's sky palace has a lot of empty, long corridors... =w="" On another note I know how to handle the text rendering for emulation, you just got to tweek the textures to use a completely blank image instead of the defaults.

I'm a non-game-dev who randomly decided to to start making a game earlier this year, and my nostalgia demanded I make something inspired by Quest 64. I'm about a month away from my prototype release, and I'm glad this video popped into my feed because I'm taking great notes!

"Man" -Brian (on the thumbnail)

It's a testament to your channel that I usually don't even recognize your thumbnail style. I just look at your videos and think "cool topic I want to watch that" and not "oh yay a new video by computer lab hijinks," which would also be okay

I also recommend trying the Fanmade Mods/patches for this game too! Quest64 "French Vanilla", which is a Quality of Life update that improves a lot of things. and the Quest64 Hard Mode which not only adds quality of life bug fixes but also increases the difficulty to make it more challenging!