PixlBit

Quest 64 was a localization of Holy Magic Century, which was made in Japan by Imagineer (best known for big head baseball games.) It only had one playable character (down from three in early previews), a broken magic system where only earth magic really mattered, and a simplistic structure so linear it almost made FFXIII look open world. There wasn't even any money or shops in the game. But it was the only thing resembling an RPG on the N64 until Harvest Moon, Ogre Battle, and Paper Mario showed up, so Nintendo tried to hype it up for people disappointed at the loss of Square and who could see the handwriting on the wall for Earthbound 64/Mother 3. But it sucked hard. It summed up every problem I had with N64 and 5th gen Nintendo in one game.

An awful lot of games that wouldn't have registered a blip on the SNES or PS1 got highlighted on N64 due to lack of competition on a fairly popular console. Acclaim and THQ even became briefly respectable, though Turok was a legitimately good game. 

Mace was a poor man's Soul Edge, and the fact that it got a cover feature in Nintendo Power was some serious damage control on Nintendo's part on how badly they screwed up with the N64 library. See also: Quest 64.

I actually had a meme I did for a Simpsons shitposting page that made fun of Quest 64 but couldn't figure out how to post it here. Basically, it replaced Worker and Parasite with Quest 64,

Legacy of the Wizard was a surprising addition to this collection, considering it was neither made by nor published by Namco here in the US. I had to look twice to make sure it was the same game. My most recent physical purchase was the Switch version of Trails of Cold Steel III, so I'm on kind of a Falcom kick right now. You just got me hoping that Nintendo brings Faxanadu to the Switch, that game was right up there with Dragon Warrior and Ultima 3 on my list of favorite NES RPGs.

Mendel Palace was a little surprising too. It was apparently Game Freak's and Satoshi Tajiri's very first game. 

I bought Volume 2 for LotW, Gaplus, and Rolling Thunder. My cousin had Rolling Thunder, which was on one of those unlicensed black Tengen cartridges. He even sketched out the cut scenes. The original NES version wasn't quite as difficult as this one. My cousin passed away five years ago.  

And I seriously don't get what Japanese gamers see in The Tower of Druaga.

Final Fantasy VII.

That is all.

Nice finale for the PS1. I have my original copy, and in 2013 I got it autographed by Nobup Uematsu af Distant Worlds in Omaha.

For me 1996 was the year of Super Mario RPG and Super Mario 64. The latter was the mosf amazing game I'd seen at the time. Too bad the N64 was kind of a bust overall.

FF8 is a special game to me as well. Besides the graphics (better than most games on the Dreamcast, which launched at the same time) and the music, the story resonated with me. Squall was a lot like me when I was that age. i also got it right before I started my first semester of college, which I was anxious about, so the school setting really appealed to me. 

I always thought Hsu and Chan was a better video game comic than Penny Arcade.

In 1995, Chrono Trigger was the best video game, but I wish I'd have gotten Earthbound. I did get Mortal Kombat II on SNES for my birthday. My dad and I went to see Mortal Kombat in movie theaters. And the other really memorable media I remember is Who Shot Mr. Burns. I actually correctly guessed that Maggie was the shooter. Unfortunately I didn't win the Simpsons house. 

Like Snee, I have only a passing familiarity with R&C, given that my tastes run more towards RPGs and Nintendo. Sounds like you're having a ball. What does the Decryptor do that you hate it so much?