Quest 64/Characters

This covers the various characters of Quest 64 as well as its Gameboy remake, Quest RPG: Brian's Journey.

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Heroes (and playable character)

Brian

Our Protagonist. The son of Lord Bartholomy.

Cute Shotaro Boy: Has some fangirls!
The Hero: Also a...
- Heroic Mime: Even more silent than normal. The only time you'll get a yes or no is when it's time to save.
Idiot Hair: The key charm of his character design is that quail-like hair. When walking through high grass or wheat it's the only way to tell where he is.
Muscles Are Meaningless: Other than a handful of children, every character in the game is taller than him. He barely comes up to shin height to some of the bosses. However, when you're packing a library of spells in your beatin' stick, you don't need to be a bodybuilder to dismantle people.
- Standardized Leader: Has no major character traits other than implicitly being brave enough to go out into the world alone to kick ass from hell to breakfast.
The Only One: Brian is the only person in the world to know such a huge variety of magic spells, making him, in theory, the most versatile magician to ever live. In practice, he only needs one more spell than anyone else: the strongest Healing he can manage, Vampire Staff, Avalanche, and the Game Breaker Magic Barrier.
It's Up to You: Well, nobody else is joining him.
Simple Staff: Albeit a staff that stores all his magic, which makes it hit like a mack truck.

Shannon Stork

A beautiful young woman with white hair and a slightly detached, dispassionate outlook on life. She follows Brian in his quest, weighing in with tidbits about history, the local scene, and matters philosophical. Given her continual presence, it is possible she was going to fight at Brian's side.

Knife Nut: Sports a dagger.
The Lancer: To Brian. Brian is small and has peppy combat animations. Shannon is tall, stoic, and a bit of a downer.
Rei Ayanami Expy: Perhaps, given her occasionally morbid observations.
Sexy Mentor: More knowledgeable than Brian in the ways of the world, if not of magic, and one of the more attractive members of the cast.
White-Haired Pretty Girl: Might actually be albino.

Leo D'nardo

A fellow magician and possible party member, once upon a time.

Cute Shotaro Boy: Looks like a cross between Brian and Persona 4's Teddie's human form, in a ridiculous getup. Would it surprise you to learn these two are paired up?
Hey, It's That Guy!: Shows up twice, once in an out of the way room in an inn, the other deep behind enemy lines in the penultimate dungeon.
Simple Staff: But it's bejeweled, so it's presumably magical.
The Smart Guy: Seeing as how he's also a magic-user like Brian, he may have been a magic-using assistant.
What Could Have Been: Also around Brian's height and armed with a magic staff.

Princess Flora

A presumably spunky princess and possibly a cut party member.

Action Girl: In theory.
Badass Princess: Again, in theory.
The Big Guy: She's got a sword, the most dangerous weapon of the coulda-been party members.
Everything's Better with Princesses: The ostensible love interest.
Rebellious Princess: Her father would rather she stay safe, she'd rather roll up her sleeves and get her hands dirty. Sadly, the former wins out, given the all-but-static nature of the game.
What Could Have Been: She's around Brian's height and carries a weapon. She also mentions having tried to fight the good fight before. It makes you wonder...

Grand Abbot

The first person to speak in the game and fill you in on the backstory. He has no relevance after he delivers the speech.

Mr. Exposition: One and done.
The Watcher: Doesn't lift a finger, other than to point out the ample treasure chests full of delicious loot for Brian to pilfer on his way out.

Lord Bartholomy

Brian's missing father, constantly two steps ahead of him until the end where he gets defeated by Shannon. A great magician.

Badass in Distress: So the other guys claim, at least.
Bolivian Army Ending: You never get the chance to save him yourself, an unpleasant invocation of the Tethercat Principle.
James Bondage: When you finally run into him, he's just gotten his ass handed to him by Shannon.

Epona

A goddess and powerful magician who helps Brian at two steps along his journey.

Lavaar

A mysterious magician, and the last of his kind, found in a semi-hidden desert city sealed from the rest of the world.

Bosses and Villains

Solvaring

A hulking mountain of a man and the first boss.

The Brute: He's gigantic.
Mighty Glacier: Big, strong, and hypothetically slow (given how you just trade rounds, there's no way to tell if he's actually slow or also a Lightning Bruiser). The big concern is running out of MP trying to whittle down his health, requiring you to bash his skull in at the range he's most comfortable.
Offscreen Villainy: Stole the Earth Orb and beat the shit out of the Kennishire palace guards.
"Wake-Up Call" Boss: Teaches you how the rest of the bosses in the game are going to be. Unfortunately, given the mild difficulty curve, he's also a...
Warmup Boss: ...since those intimidating-looking magma columns are easy to dodge at range.

Zelse

A twiggy wind magician getting revenge on all those who belittled him.

The Brute: Even more brutish than Solvaring, as he's just a punk kid with a magic artifact.
Goddamned Boss: With his Massive Cutter, he's more annoying to fight than actually dangerous, especially since you can pummel him with your mighty Earth attack spells.
Lean and Mean: The skinniest boss and the one with the most petty motivation.
Offscreen Villainy: Stole the Wind Jade to take revenge on those who belittled him.
Who's Laughing Now?: His motivation for taking the Jade.

Nepty

A spell-slinging nymph who has it out for Brian.

Apparently Human Merfolk: Lives underwater. Other than her sea-based accoutrements, blue hair, and funky ears, she's a dead ringer for human.
Break the Haughty: Implicitly, upon kicking her ass.
Bubble Gun: Her nasty bubble spell is hard to dodge and hits multiple times.
Dark Action Girl: Her balletic movements and haughty tone set her apart from Shilf.
Fantastic Racism: Not a fan of humans, this one.
Little Bit Beastly: Has fins for ears.
Offscreen Villainy: Caused storms and redirected currents. The only villain to affect you personally, as your ride can't get where it's going if you don't stop her.
That One Boss: Often held as the most annoying boss in the game, as her long-range spells are hard to dodge and hit hard and her close-range spells are nearly impossible to dodge and hit harder.
Unusual Ears: Note that three tropes of hers relate to her ears. This ain't a game heavy on characterization, people.

Shilf

A buxom cultist devoted to Mammon.

The Dark Chick: Barely moves in combat, preferring to stand still and hurtle spells at you, making her the least-active combatant among the villains.
The Dragon: Her and Shannon are Co-Dragons Mammon.
Gag Boobs
Jiggle Physics: Combining with the other boob trope above. It's rather Uncanny Valley due to the low polys involved.

Fargo

A renegade pyromancer currently hiding out in an active volcano.

MacGuffin Delivery Service: Was waiting on Brian to bring him the other three gems, so he could kill Brian and take them for himself. Unfortunately, Brian arrives with three gems' power worth of magic behind him...
Offscreen Villainy: A murderer and thief who escaped imprisonment before the game starts.

Guilty

A hideous ogre with strange, unearthly magic.

The Dragon: To King Beigis.
The Evil Genius: His experiments with magic have blasted the landscape.
Gambit Roulette: Possibly implied. He has the least dialog of all characters but he claims he's let Brian get this far purely so he can harvest his vast array of spells. Either he's bluffing, he's behind all the thefts happening at once, or future revisions of the script would have better implied his hand in events.
Non-Elemental: His magic, along with the final boss's, are without element and quite powerful.
Power Parasite: Plans on cracking Brian open to get at his magic powers.
Offscreen Villainy: The eternal darkness and general ominousness of the final areas are attributed to his magic.
Shout-Out: Strongly resembles an Ogre Mage as seen in Dungeons and Dragons.
Was Once a Man: Maybe? It's possible Guilty is meant to be a human magician turned into a hideous aberration by experiments with magic.

King Beigis

The penultimate enemy, a sword-swinging despot armed with black magic.

The Dragon: To Mammon. Also...
- The Heavy: He seems to be the mover and shaker behind the plot until the final boss shows up.
Offscreen Villainy: Incinerated a village and its occupants to test out his newfound powers.

Mammon

An unspeakable horror from beyond time and space. He's here to finish the job he started on the Day of Grief.

Shannon

She was never really on your side.

Becoming the Mask: After all is said and done, it seems that humanity rubbed off a little on them.
Evil Mentor
Humanity Is Infectious: As above.
It's Personal: Their treachery is revealed when they kick your dad's ass.
Kick the Dog: Attempted, though not really succeeded.
Not Even Human: From the beginning they were something else only pretending to be human. Kind of unsettling, really.
Obviously Evil: Given their appearance, many guess the turncoat well before they turn.
The Unfought: Nope, you never wind up fighting them. Counts as a Missed Moment of Awesome given the potential of proving yourself stronger than your father.

Lavaar

In the Gameboy Color version of the game, he winds up turning on you.

Dragon

Wyvern

A recurring foe and one of the iconic enemies of the game, both for its relative difficulty and for its impressive Jay Leno chin.

Boss in Mook Clothing: Wyverns are damned unpleasant to fight. On the other hand they are also perhaps the most common enemy in the game, appearing in two regions. Only Blood Gels and Termants show up more.
Degraded Boss in Mook Clothing: Since they appear in more areas than most other enemies, wyverns eventually become little more than speed bumps as a demonstration of your increase in power. Their Palette Swap Red Wyvern cousins are naturally easier to kick the ass of, oddly enough.

Other Enemies

An assortment of oddities out to kill the hell out of Brian. A surprisingly diverse lot, even with the occasional pallet swap and model swap.

Everything Trying to Kill You: Rabbits, hippos, sunflowers, bluebells, dogs, and animate piles of rotting meat. These are the first enemies in the game.