Quest

Quest Corp. (株式会社クエスト) was a publisher and developer based in Setagaya-ku, Tokyo. [1] The Ogre Battle series of strategy games and tactical RPGs was the company's most popular work.

Quest was incorporated on July 7, 1988 [2] ¹, spun off from the consumer (i.e. console) division of Bothtec, a publisher and developer of computer games. [3] Bothtec was merged into Quest in 1990 [4] ² and became Quest's computer division. The Bothtec brand continued to be used on computer releases. [5] Bothtec was spun off into an independent company on September 2, 1997. [6]

In 1995, Yasumi Matsuno, Hiroshi Minagawa, and Akihiko Yoshida — the creator and main artists behind Ogre Battle and Tactics Ogre — left to join Square, where they made the similar Final Fantasy Tactics. [7] Square acquired Quest's game software development business in 2002. [8] At the time, Quest was headed by Makoto Tokugawa (徳川誠) [9], who would later head Nintendo second-party developer (now subsidiary) NDcube. [10]

Following the Square acquisition, Quest was renamed コモン. コモン was dissolved in 2015. [11]

Footnotes:
1. Yasumi Matsuno, who worked at Quest from February 1989 until July 1995 [12], once noted that Bothtec's development division had been dissolved by this point, and there were no in-house developers at Bothtec from then on. [13] He also did not recall any former Bothtec developers working at Quest between 1989 and 1997. [14]
2. Matsuno noted that Bothtec and Quest had the same president at the time. [15]

Research Methods: Actual mentions, code comparisons, online resources, shared staff

Note: Various conversions of Magical Chase, Ogre Battle, and Tactics Ogre were released, but development was handled by other groups.

Famicom/NES

• Maharaja (JP Publisher: Sunsoft)

Graphics: M.P.Run

• Maten Douji / Conquest of the Crystal Palace (JP Publisher: Quest; US Publisher: Asmik)
• Musashi no Bouken (JP Publisher: Sigma)

Famicom Disk System

• Wakusei Aton Gaiden (JP Publisher: Kokuzeichou [National Tax Agency]) [16]

Game Boy

• Battle Pingpong (JP Publisher: Quest)
• Legend: Ashita e no Tsubasa (JP Publisher: Quest)
• Taiyou no Tenshi Marlowe: Ohanabatake wa Dai Panic (JP Publisher: Technos)

This game was included on Quest's works list and turned up in a code comparison, but the final game scrubs any reference to Quest including staff credits. (Only Technos staffers are credited.) However, a leaked English-language prototype (Philip & Marlowe in Bloomland) features the Quest logo/name and the original staff credits. (The prototype is dated 1991; the game was not released until 1994.) [17]

Game Boy Advance

• Tactics Ogre Gaiden: The Knight of Lodis / Tactics Ogre: The Knight of Lodis (JP Publisher: Nintendo; US Publisher: Atlus)

Mega Drive/Genesis

• Double Dragon II: The Revenge (JP Publisher: Pal Soft)

Nintendo 64

• Ogre Battle 64: Person of Lordly Caliber (JP Publisher: Nintendo; US Publisher: Atlus)

English Version Programming & Graphics: Dual

PC Engine/TurboGrafx-16

• Magical Chase (JP Publisher: Pal Soft; US Publisher: TTI)

Super Famicom/Super NES

• Densetsu no Ogre Battle / Ogre Battle: March of the Black Queen (JP Publisher: Quest; US Publisher: Enix)
• Tactics Ogre: Let Us Cling Together (JP Publisher: Quest)

Windows

• Ginga Eiyuu Densetsu V (JP Publisher: Bothtec)

Links

• Official Website (Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (Japanese)
• Developer table entry (Internet Archive Wayback Machine) (Japanese)