This quest is generally very well made, with fun dungeon designs and good custom bosses. Haven't gotten everything yet, but the secrets were nice. It was quite fun to beat, but my experience was hindered by some road blocks along the way.
(the review has some spoilers for bosses/dungeons, don't read if you don't want to be spoiled about those)
First, the good stuff:
-The overworld is a little too linear for my tastes, but flowed very nicely.
-The dungeon design for the most part was fun and also flowed nicely. scarcely did i ever feel like a dungeon took too long/ was generally boring (i'll get to that later)
-custom bosses are definietly a plus. They felt responsive and were fun to beat.
-good use of tiles in dungeons.
-The fast travel warps. really makes traveling through the overworld faster and less tedious.
-some of the puzzles in orlox's lair were challenging, although like alot of the other dungeons, the rest felt a little stale.
Despite the quest being on the easier side (at least that's how it felt to me), the game was quite fun and at times challenging.
Now, for the less good stuff:
-Alot of the custom enemies felt floaty and finicky. Despite this, they were still enjoyable and not much of a nuissance. some died after a single or double blow later on, which made most of the fights very boring.
-I'm not a huge fan of the overworld screen designs. they felt empty and way too simple at times.
-The block puzzles. They get slightly challenging in orlox's lair (and dungeon 3), but for the most part they're way too easy and become a nuissance as the game goes on. also some of the other puzzles that utilized switches also felt the same way.
-Dungeons 4 through 8 were the worst imo. They barely utilized previously introduced mechanics and had some of the more boring block puzzles. They weren't bad dungeons persay, but they still were boring enough to keep me from continuing the quest for a while.
Something that i'm thankful for is that the quest doesn't use cryptic puzzles like zelda 1 and some other quests do. even when puzzles felt tedious, they never outrite made me put the game off out of frustration.
Favourite Bosses:
-Dodongo King(excluding the one in orlox's lair; dies instantly due to upgraded arsenal)
-Mothora(excluding the one in orlox's lair; dies instantly due to upgraded arsenal)
-Phantom Ganon
Least Favourite Bosses:
-Giant Pols Voice (although i did like the concept of the mechanic that was used)
Favourite Dungeons:
-Sandy Ruins (loved it)
-Darunia's Grave
Least Favourite Dungeons:
-Flooded Retreat
All-in-all, great experience, despite some of the less good things. Great quest, very enjoyable, and would definitely love to play through it again. Can't wait to try out some of your other stuff!
Reviews
TheCentralScrutinizer
Edited 28 August 2020 - 08:30 PM
I'll keep this short. Overall, I greatly enjoyed Balance of Nature. However, there were a few flaws that interrupted the flow of the game (which I'm mainly covering in the review so it's known) and, in fact, forced me to use exploits such as clipping through walls. An example is the barrel blocking the grave, which you are supposed to slash away with the lv. 2 sword. I watched a playthrough on Youtube to see if I was doing it right, and I was, however it wasn't working. I saved and restarted, nothing. I hard reset ZC, still nothing. I walked through the barrel to continue through the quest. Note, even with the later sword upgrades, I still couldn't destroy the barrel.
Secondly (please forgive me as I don't recall the name) the dungeon with the trees connected by bridges has a couple of spots that kept me from progressing. One was entering through the back of one of the trees. It should have taken me into that section of the dungeon, in theory, but it didn't. The other was an unwalkable floor beneath an overpass.
In the end of it all, I greatly enjoyed the quest. The music was good, the bosses were just awesome (although Aghanim could use a tweak or two in scripting, it was taking forever for him to fire off a projectile), dungeon layouts were perfect, the overworld was highly enjoyable exploring about. I love the work you did on your teleport hub, so thank you for that, it made the game much nicer to get through.
All in all, good quest, just needed to cheese it a couple of times to complete it legitimately. Trust me, if it were possible, I would have done it without the wall-clip.
7/10. Needs some work and fine-tuning, but awesome experience in the end. Frankly, it was worth the hassle of a few inconvenient barriers.
Secondly (please forgive me as I don't recall the name) the dungeon with the trees connected by bridges has a couple of spots that kept me from progressing. One was entering through the back of one of the trees. It should have taken me into that section of the dungeon, in theory, but it didn't. The other was an unwalkable floor beneath an overpass.
In the end of it all, I greatly enjoyed the quest. The music was good, the bosses were just awesome (although Aghanim could use a tweak or two in scripting, it was taking forever for him to fire off a projectile), dungeon layouts were perfect, the overworld was highly enjoyable exploring about. I love the work you did on your teleport hub, so thank you for that, it made the game much nicer to get through.
All in all, good quest, just needed to cheese it a couple of times to complete it legitimately. Trust me, if it were possible, I would have done it without the wall-clip.
7/10. Needs some work and fine-tuning, but awesome experience in the end. Frankly, it was worth the hassle of a few inconvenient barriers.
Soma C.
Edited 12 December 2017 - 03:58 PM
After playing through the quest twice, once on an older build and again with some added features, I can officially rate this thing XD
Both experiences were quite positive; I only ran into a couple of bugs but they were fixed promptly by the creator so they've a nonmention at this time. As far as gameplay I was impressed both times. Yes, the dungeons are rather simplistic in nature but I didn't have a problem with that aspect of things. It still made them labyrinthine in a way which is something the Zelda series excels at. I think I missed an item in the final regular level (18) but still managed to beat the quest with no issues besides.
Solid 4.5 from me which rounds up to a 5 either way. Great job ywkls. And I'll be playing or replaying your other entries soon
Both experiences were quite positive; I only ran into a couple of bugs but they were fixed promptly by the creator so they've a nonmention at this time. As far as gameplay I was impressed both times. Yes, the dungeons are rather simplistic in nature but I didn't have a problem with that aspect of things. It still made them labyrinthine in a way which is something the Zelda series excels at. I think I missed an item in the final regular level (18) but still managed to beat the quest with no issues besides.
Solid 4.5 from me which rounds up to a 5 either way. Great job ywkls. And I'll be playing or replaying your other entries soon
- ywkls likes this
b
Zolias
Edited 10 November 2015 - 02:43 AM
I played it in about 2 and a half hours, and yes, it was completely repetitive. Definitely on the easy side, but that also makes it a jewel of its own. It can ease newer players into the world of ZC. The only gripes I've had about it is the fact that all it tells you after beating a level is where to go next. Sidequest was kinda bland, as well, and some of it didn't make sense (Spring Bananas go to MOOSH! Not a damn witch; she uses mushrooms for potions!) ...did I also mention that I had gotten 2 deaths total, and I upgraded from Green Tunic... to Red? I completely missed the Blue (found it later, but still... you know it's easy when you can tank the game like Eppy and WIN!)
Still, it wasn't a bad quest as an easy mode game, especially to initiate into a different game (I was playing Passage of Time, and I was stuck. So I played Balance of Nature, read the sign at the end near the bridge, and voila; I tried it out in PoT and guess what? I found where to go next.... anyway, back on topic...)
(Recap)
Bad Points: Quality sucked, game was waaaay too linear, and you could easily tell that the sidequest was rushed (That Spring Banana thing... still weirds me out.)
Good Points: Great game to ease in a new player to ZC, ideal for a Part 1 for a multi-part game set, and Onox can be 4-shot. (That last one COULD be considered bad, but... It's Onox, feared throughout Holodrum, the great General of Darkness.... dies in 4 hits! It's hilarious, since the Aquamentus in Lv 1 took 6 HITS to die; Onox is weaker than an Aquamentus! LMAO!!!! ...so I considered it as a good point solely to humor purposes only)
Rating: 2.5/5 (rounded up to 3)
Still, it wasn't a bad quest as an easy mode game, especially to initiate into a different game (I was playing Passage of Time, and I was stuck. So I played Balance of Nature, read the sign at the end near the bridge, and voila; I tried it out in PoT and guess what? I found where to go next.... anyway, back on topic...)
(Recap)
Bad Points: Quality sucked, game was waaaay too linear, and you could easily tell that the sidequest was rushed (That Spring Banana thing... still weirds me out.)
Good Points: Great game to ease in a new player to ZC, ideal for a Part 1 for a multi-part game set, and Onox can be 4-shot. (That last one COULD be considered bad, but... It's Onox, feared throughout Holodrum, the great General of Darkness.... dies in 4 hits! It's hilarious, since the Aquamentus in Lv 1 took 6 HITS to die; Onox is weaker than an Aquamentus! LMAO!!!! ...so I considered it as a good point solely to humor purposes only)
Rating: 2.5/5 (rounded up to 3)
Eddy
Edited 28 August 2015 - 09:03 AM
At first, I was going to give this quest a 3, but as the quest went on, it just got a lot worse for me and the score just began dropping.
The quest wasn't as bad as other quests I've played, but there's still quite a lot of things I disliked and didn't enjoy. For one, the screen design was alright for the most part. The overworld is definitely better than the dungeons though in terms of screen design. The dungeons all look and play the same, just with occasional palette swaps and wall/floor changes, but besides that, all the dungeons were very bland, empty and far too repetitive. I didn't really enjoy the fact that you had to go through 18 levels of exactly the same thing. I'll admit though, there were a couple dungeons that did change things up a bit, but it still didn't do it for me.
Furthermore, what is up with the enemies? I noticed most of the ghosted enemies are completely bugged out, with extremely large hitboxes and a really buggy sprite. Not to mention, the bosses don't work exactly like what they look like. For example, that Mothula boss. I was expecting it to be an actual Mothula from Z3, but it turns out it was nothing like it. Same can be said for Agahnim and quite a lot of other scripted bosses/enemies. On the topic of enemies, the difficulty is relatively on the easy side... well that is until you get to the final dungeon. The difficulty spike just peaked at those 2 sword Darknuts you come across, and quite honestly, that's where I just gave up with the quest. It would be much better to make them more fair by lowering their insane damage stats, just to make them more bearable.
Next up is the dungeons themselves. I already mentioned that they are bland, empty and repetitive, but I'm not gonna lie, some of the dungeons were really tiresome to go through. I especially hated those levels where you have to repeat the whole dungeon again after collecting a key or boss key. It takes forever to go through these dungeons, and making me go through them again is just a really big turn off. Another thing I noticed is the excessive amount of dungeons. I don't mind more than 9 dungeons, as long as they actually have like their own theme and use it well. This quest... didn't do that too well. Many of the dungeons have the same themes, so it felt like I was repeating some of the earlier dungeons. I also found quite a few layering bugs (can't be bothered to find them now though, since I don't remember where they are), so that looked a bit weird.
Other than that, I have definitely played worse, but this quest wasn't really that great. The overworld was probably the highlight of the quest, I liked the way you travel through the world, revisiting older areas etc, but everything else about the quest was really below average. I would give this quest a 1.5/5, which rounds up to a 2 in this case. I know you're definitely improving and making much better things than this, so that's always great!
(Also, sorry for the long ass and harsh review, I kinda needed to take out my frustration with some parts of this quest, I hope you can understand
)
The quest wasn't as bad as other quests I've played, but there's still quite a lot of things I disliked and didn't enjoy. For one, the screen design was alright for the most part. The overworld is definitely better than the dungeons though in terms of screen design. The dungeons all look and play the same, just with occasional palette swaps and wall/floor changes, but besides that, all the dungeons were very bland, empty and far too repetitive. I didn't really enjoy the fact that you had to go through 18 levels of exactly the same thing. I'll admit though, there were a couple dungeons that did change things up a bit, but it still didn't do it for me.
Furthermore, what is up with the enemies? I noticed most of the ghosted enemies are completely bugged out, with extremely large hitboxes and a really buggy sprite. Not to mention, the bosses don't work exactly like what they look like. For example, that Mothula boss. I was expecting it to be an actual Mothula from Z3, but it turns out it was nothing like it. Same can be said for Agahnim and quite a lot of other scripted bosses/enemies. On the topic of enemies, the difficulty is relatively on the easy side... well that is until you get to the final dungeon. The difficulty spike just peaked at those 2 sword Darknuts you come across, and quite honestly, that's where I just gave up with the quest. It would be much better to make them more fair by lowering their insane damage stats, just to make them more bearable.
Next up is the dungeons themselves. I already mentioned that they are bland, empty and repetitive, but I'm not gonna lie, some of the dungeons were really tiresome to go through. I especially hated those levels where you have to repeat the whole dungeon again after collecting a key or boss key. It takes forever to go through these dungeons, and making me go through them again is just a really big turn off. Another thing I noticed is the excessive amount of dungeons. I don't mind more than 9 dungeons, as long as they actually have like their own theme and use it well. This quest... didn't do that too well. Many of the dungeons have the same themes, so it felt like I was repeating some of the earlier dungeons. I also found quite a few layering bugs (can't be bothered to find them now though, since I don't remember where they are), so that looked a bit weird.
Other than that, I have definitely played worse, but this quest wasn't really that great. The overworld was probably the highlight of the quest, I liked the way you travel through the world, revisiting older areas etc, but everything else about the quest was really below average. I would give this quest a 1.5/5, which rounds up to a 2 in this case. I know you're definitely improving and making much better things than this, so that's always great!
(Also, sorry for the long ass and harsh review, I kinda needed to take out my frustration with some parts of this quest, I hope you can understand
)
- THEMDODO , Obderhode , WhippyBoi , and 4 others like this
Joki
Edited 09 March 2015 - 04:35 PM
Those people who know me know that I like to break down a quest by level and review each little bit... what I liked and what I didn't like...
With this quest however, Im not going to do that. I will however point out which levels I thought were good, and which should have been improved upon.
The Good:
Level 8 - Nice little level with some hidden bombable walls making it a bit tougher than the previous part of the game.
Level 9 - I just really liked this level. Really nifty idea setting it in a house.
Level 11: Interesting idea for a level.
Level 13: Lots of twists and turns in this level... Kept me well occupied.
Level 17: Really tough level. Good luck with this one!
The Bad:
Level 5: The chilling venue. This level had an infuriating bug in it with an unpushable block. The bug has now been fixed, but it ruins my memory of the level.
Level 18: Buggy Boss, and really irritating getting all the items/keys.
The Ugly:
Level 6: Just didn't like this level. Felt there was too much back tracking, and was annoyed that I keep missing things. Conversely, Level 7 I found to be too easy in comparison.
Level 12: My eyes just went blurry here... Must be another way of conferring a water effect.
Overall, still a fun quest, would recommend that you play it to kill boredom. But I will probably forget about it in 6 months or so, unless an update appears... or the Author releases Balance of Ages as hinted at in the ending sequence..
With this quest however, Im not going to do that. I will however point out which levels I thought were good, and which should have been improved upon.
The Good:
Level 8 - Nice little level with some hidden bombable walls making it a bit tougher than the previous part of the game.
Level 9 - I just really liked this level. Really nifty idea setting it in a house.
Level 11: Interesting idea for a level.
Level 13: Lots of twists and turns in this level... Kept me well occupied.
Level 17: Really tough level. Good luck with this one!
The Bad:
Level 5: The chilling venue. This level had an infuriating bug in it with an unpushable block. The bug has now been fixed, but it ruins my memory of the level.
Level 18: Buggy Boss, and really irritating getting all the items/keys.
The Ugly:
Level 6: Just didn't like this level. Felt there was too much back tracking, and was annoyed that I keep missing things. Conversely, Level 7 I found to be too easy in comparison.
Level 12: My eyes just went blurry here... Must be another way of conferring a water effect.
Overall, still a fun quest, would recommend that you play it to kill boredom. But I will probably forget about it in 6 months or so, unless an update appears... or the Author releases Balance of Ages as hinted at in the ending sequence..
