A short review for a short demo. I hope this helps you improve the quest even further.
Gameplay: 30/40
The gameplay of this demo is definitely better than that of How Do I Play Zelda?. The structure of the overworld is again formatted well. And, finally, the enemy variety problem that was such a nuisance in HDIPZ is almost entirely gone, which is good. In addition, the inclusion of puzzles makes the game feel a bit less combat-focused and more balanced.
There are still a few problems, however. I feel like the overworld still needs a lot more secrets (even though there are already more than in HDIPZ) to make it feel more interesting to the player. In addition to that, the dungeons still seem to follow the "Explore the dungeon a little, defeat some enemies, press on a switch to open a block, and find a key and use it to open a door" routine, and I wish you could shake things up a bit more. The key placements in particular are so obvious that it makes them seem pointless to begin with. Also, the difficulty of this quest is quite harder than HDIPZ, which I think is a weakness. While HDIPZ was incredibly easy, this quest is a tad too hard. I died quite a few times to Octoroks when trying to find the first dungeon, for example. Try to tone down the difficulty a bit, though not to HDIPZ's level of easiness. Finally, this demo has a few gameplay bugs, which is understandable since this is a demo. I've told you about them through Skype already.
Lastly, I hope that you make this quest longer than HDIPZ, since HDIPZ had a lot of dungeons but could be completed so quickly. I don't know if this has been fixed because this is a demo, so hopefully it will be.
Design Attention: 29/35
Design attention is again definitely one of the strong points of the entire quest. The overworld in particular is immensely detailed and very beautiful. The usage of layers works incredibly well and adds lots of visual flare to the screen design. The palette also works well.
The dungeons, I feel, are still a little too monochromatic, but with the addition of torches, it's not as glaring of a problem. Perhaps try to find a few more ways to add color variety and details in your dungeons, if possible.
Story: 9/15
This is a hard category to grade because this is only a demo, but for now, the story isn't amazing, but it works well enough, as far as I can tell.
Music: 7/10
The music selections are pretty good, though some of them are songs that have been used many times already in other quests. The first dungeon music in particular comes to mind; everyone's heard of Ocarina of Time's forest temple music. I suggest finding some other music for that dungeon. In addition to this, I felt like the music for the swamp area didn't fit the theme; the music sounds more suited for a graveyard or something, not a swamp.
Concluding Thoughts/Summary
This quest, though good in general, especially in the design department, suffers a bit in the gameplay department due to repetitive dungeon routines and high difficulty.
Strengths- Great overworld structure
- Impressive overworld screen design
- Almost no screen bugs
- Great enemy variety
- Nice balance of combat and puzzles
Weaknesses- Lack of secrets in the overworld
- Repetitive dungeon routine
- Minimal dungeon screen details and still too monochromatic
- Music we have heard before is used
- Difficulty flow is on the difficult side
- A few gameplay bugs
Rating: 75/100
Database Rating: 4/5
This is currently looking better than your first serious quest. Good luck with the rest of it!
