This pages holds basic information on playing Quest 64. Controls are the controls of the game in various situations. The Battle System describes the monster encounters, Training Tips are simple tips for playing the game, and Battle Technques are useful statedgies in battle.

Quest 64 requires a Controller Pack in order to save games. It can store up to sixteen on one page.

Controls

Battle System

The battle system of Quest 64 is a combination of turn base and live action.

• Randomly outside a town Brian enters battle. He is still in the same direction that he was walking in before.
• Queue up monsters by agility.
• First player does a turn, whether it be Brian or a monster. (Whoever has the higher agility.)
• Continue turns alternating between Brian and the next monster.
• If monster dies, remove them from the queue.
• When the last monster performs go back to the first.
• Continue until Brian is dead (zero HP), runs away, or all the monsters are dead.
• If Brian defeats all the monsters camera rotates to the position it was before the battle and Experience is awarded.

Battle Field

The battle field consist of the physical area (i.e. no scene change), Brian, the monsters, and force fields. The large yellow octagon surrounding everyone is the limit of the field. If Brian ends his turn outside this border--"Escape!" should be displayed--he successfully ran from battle. (The exception is a boss fight in which there is no escape.) Smaller octagons appear at the player's appropriate turn. They are the limits of motion and positioning used to aim or dodge attacks.

Brian's Turn

When it is Brian's turn a blue force field will appear around him. Use the control stick to position/aim Brian and then perform move to execute his turn.

Cast

Using the C buttons select a combination of elements. The name of the spell to be cast appears in a scroll under his normal statistics the right of the screen. Push A or Z to cast it or B to cancel down one element combination. Spells that require more elements use more MP.

Staff Attack

When Brian is close to an enemy a Staff will appear above its head. Press A or Z with zero elements selected to wack the enemy with his staff. This deals damage equal to the sum off all of Brian's Elements, and heals his MP if it connects. Aside: Having a kid smack a huge monster and do an extraordinary amount of damage by physical ability is hard to swallow. I like the idea that Brian channels his elements in a generic form into his staff for power.

Item

Push R to bring up the item list with descriptions of use. Use the Control Stick to select an item and press A or Z to use and B to cancel.

Pass

Press A or Z with zero elements and no Staff icon to skip a turn. This is mainly use to get closer a monster, or run out of the battle.

Monsters's Turn

Monster's turns are just like Brian's except they do not use items, run away, and are automated. However when the monster attacks Brian's movement octagon appears again for a moment. While the attack is in motion Brian can move to dodge.

Connections

When a move actual connects with the target, information will be displayed above their head. White numbers indicate damage, and green numbers indicate healing. The word "Miss!" indicates that the atack hit the target, but their Agility allowed them to dodge it. Multiple hits pile up the numbers above the target's head.

Conditions

See Conditions.

Death

Should Brian lose all his HP he faints and appears at his last save point. All events including raised statistics, gained items, used items, and story lines are kept.

Training Tips

Ethos

What good magician would not have an philosophy on training in magic?

Cheater

A guaranteed way to win the game is to bulk up on Water and Earth. Then only use Staff attacks, Avalanches, Healing, and Magic Barrier throughout the game. A combination of these will fall any monsters easily.

Elemental

Pick and element you like and developed is throughly. There are enough Spirits to develop two fully in the Quest easily. Spells in the elements will be so strong they will override monster's natural immunities. (Here's a little astrological tibit for aid in choosing. Ares|Leo|Saggitarus == Fire, Taurus|Virgo|Capricorn == Earth, Gemini|Libra|Aquarius == Air, Cancer|Scorpio|Pisces == Water)

Generalists

With training supplementing Spirits, evenly raise all four elements. This will get the Elements to about thirty-five, but the assortment of spells allow for multitudes of attacks.

Challenge

Do as you please, but do not raise Water ... not even for Healing. That's right, use all those items you come across to continue your journey.

Basic Tips

• Unless you are obsessive/psychotic Healing is not an optional spell. It will be the most vital one in the game. Its multiple castings will not only heal Brian but increase your MP.
• Just like saiyans, practically anything in battle (or everywhere else for the matter) will increase Brian's abilities. See statistics. Every spell cast, battle won or lost increases his statistics.
• Always make Brian run full throttle (little dust clouds appear at his start) to continually increase Agility.
• Tempting as it may be avoid staff attacks in simple monster battles. Only use it when Brian is out of MP, and there will be plenty of natural occurrences of that. Near the end MP will be more important than HP, and Defence will compensate for a low HP.
• Use the L or B button in battle to change camera angles and "think 3D". By turning Brian and changing angles you should be able to discern where he is, even if a tree is blocking the way. One-eye people have to do this all the time, so you can too.
• When Brian dies do not reset. Events, items, and statistics will be retained after "death". If a dungeon is too hard, then keep playing it. Every attempt will increase Brian's abilities until he is strong enough to pass. The only reason for a reset is if a lot of items were wasted in battle and you want them back.
• Finish battles if possible. Elemental experience is only awarded at the end of a successful battle.

Battle Techniques

Bum Rush

Use spells with a lot of hits instead of stronger spells on monsters. Over time several little hits will add damage quicker than one strong spell. This principle is what makes Avalanche so useful. It is strong to begin with and can have multiple hits.

Assembly Line

Use anti-move spells or items--those that freeze, bind, or silence--on the monsters. While some are immobile, attack the free monsters. If one of the monsters get loose, seal them again if needed. This will give Brian time to finish a monster off quickly instead of continually being overwhelmed by them.

Avalanche Bombardment

The power of this technique is best seen in battles with a plethora of enemies and is so effective the game becomes boring if used. Requires Avalanche (Earth 24), and optionally Healing (Water 6, 25) and a defensive spell.

First position Brian to the center of the monster mass. If a defensive spell is known cast it. Now unleash wave after wave of Avalanches. Each rock does about 100 damage and falls all around Brian. Since you at the center the monsters naturally crawl towards Brian. Use Healing and restore the defensive spell as needed.

Super Defence Booster

This value of this technique is best when done efficiently once per area. Requires a monster that uses weak but multiple attacks e.g. high level Wind Cutter or Homing Arrow.

First look at Brian's defence value on the main menu. Now enter battle with the specified monster. Remove all other monsters except the one with that attack. Next weaken the monster so that one hit will kill it. Now pass turns and let it whittle away Brian's HP. When Brian is about to die exit the battle, preferably by killing the monster. Now look at Brian's defence.

The technique works by using the Brian level's Defence in the game. Every time Brian is hit, i.e. lose HP, his Defence experience goes up. Then more damage the more experience he receives. However this has little use since the experience. given for the same amount of damage lessens as Brian's Defence increases. To circumvent this the damage is spilt between his. Thus Brian receives the same amount of damage but gets more experience for it.

Battle Stretching

This is somewhat of a desperation battle technique ideal for bosses. This will stretch out as much damage Brian can deal in battle. If he wins good. for him. If he does not then his HP is significantly boosted. Requires Healing (Water 6, 25) and a monster that will chase after Brian.

Use powerful range spells and move to the edge of the platform. Let the monster come to you. When the monster uses its close attacks use staff attacks. When Brian is about to pant from loss of HP position him so that he is toward the center of the field, and he and the monster are aligned with a corner of Brian's octagon force field. Continue using staff attacks. When Brian starts panting run to his octagon corner, furthest from the monster, and closest to the other side of the field. Use Healing. Keep running away from the monster, octagon corner to corner, using Healing. When Brian reaches the other side of the platform wait for the monster to come. Using Healing if he is not at full and don't waste the MP on other spells. Repeat from when the monster is close to Brian.

As you can see this technique will stretch Brian's damage. Using staff attacks will restore his MP while dealing damage. Moving corner to corner places the greatest distance between him and the monster. Finally using Healing will give him more time to repeat this. If done properly the battle will be really long, but think either Brian will triumph or he has a lot of HP and Defence on death.