I was really surprised by Quest 64, after living through the early Let's Play golden era, Q64 was thrown around as a legitimate 'worst game of all time' contender. It was spoken of in such low, smokey tones so as to give you the impression that just trying it would sap out your very desire to continue playing video games: a grade A, dead-whale sinker.
That's not what I found, it's really just... boring. It's not even in the lower half of particularly bad games I've played. I'm not usually afraid to throw around a One Star, but Quest really, simply does not deserve it.
Its core thesis is that it's just 3D Dragon Quest 1. You play one character, with a very simple level of input into combat. You attack (ideally first, not always), they attack, you attack, they attack, you heal, they attack again, and then you just sort of alternate attacking and healing to win in the most simple manner. Despite following that pattern, you can even tell there's just a bit more to the combat with your spell options, strategies or spells you didn't properly evaluate goading you into a replay.
Is it properly balanced or designed? No, not really. The 'you-go-I-go' is much more strictly enforced than other TRPGs, you always go after every opponent's attack, meaning fighting multiple enemies or finishing them off in specific orders doesn't work as you expect, you instead benefit from keeping weaker enemies alive to devalue your opponent's turn while you kill off the biggest threats first. It's not exactly inuitive or explored well (all of the bosses are one-on-one for example), but there's a curiosity there that would make me want to see someone try harder with it. Past that, the simplified 'aoe everything' approach in a 3d-space reminds me of chrono trigger, just not as good.
Alltogether, that base formula just isn't really that bad.
The game is dead slow on the console in a lot of ways, the fact that you can't buy items means you're overtly forced to abuse the Final Fantasy 2 style leveling, but honest to god it's only about 4 or so hours of pure grinding, which for something that qualifies as an old school jrpg is positively spritely. Though I admit that doesn't mix well with the completely absent narrative and world navigation. It does make up for it though...
By being an absolutely teddy bear of the game. I don't like excusing weak titles with the "SOVL" argument, but damn the presentation here just makes it cuddly. Exploring the landscape (which is easier than it seems despite the high random battle rate because you can easily access great spells and healing sustain early) is just... fun. It's very classic 'check behind the houses' style jrpg exploration, but the reliance on collecting spirits and just how valuable an item can be means every little thing you find feels impactful. The towns and landscapes are both adorable and very classic fantasy and, as you travel, landing a big avalanche on 5 enemies makes for quick bursts of the good brain chemicals.
The game is deeply flawed, it does not deserve to be praised. I imagine, in fact, that if you don't figure out how healing works early on the game might as well be unplayable, but... I don't see the reason for the hate. It's overly forgiving, but I think if I had been a kid, with an N64 and hearing about all the other JRPGs out there I didn't have the chance to experience, this would be... really delightful. Sometimes a game doesn't have to be complex, deep, balanced, or even particularly good value for your money for it to hit all the right strings to give you a good experience. I can't dog a game for being perfect for someone like me.
Just... don't buy an N64 for the JRPGs haha
