Edited 15 April 2021 - 08:47 PM
This quest is far from perfect, but it is innovative, fun, and a great time killer (60-80 hours indeed), which brings me back for a second third playthrough.
As you may have gathered, the main overworld is ridiculously massive (8.25 overworld maps) and it isn't possible or practical to obtain the whistle until 5/8-3/4 of the way through the game. This is very much an exploration-based quest, and if you don't want to spend hours and hours walking, you aren't going to like playing. While there are some warp areas on the overworld, they aren't too useful, so Link is going to be wearing the soles of his boots down to dust. Unfortunately, the gameplay is clunky: 4-way movement, 2.10 custom bosses are quirky at best, dungeon events and shutter doors can be buggy, there's no sword slash until after level 6, overworld layering issues will almost certainly make you F6/continue at some point and unpredictable continue-spawn points drag the quest down a notch. For the most part, progress, while very linear in spite of the open-world concept, is intuitive if the player is diligent about exploration. I find the difficulty to be mild-moderate throughout almost all of the game, but I also learned how to find the early blue mail, red mail, and health upgrades, which all mitigate the difficulty. A challenge player or masochist could have a great time by sticking with the green tunic and avoiding the ample-amount of potions which are offered by the quest.
I really, really like the idea of the Ancient's Pass. There are eight AP levels which are themed, by color and enemy population, to the corresponding eight main dungeons. Each entrance to each AP level is located nearby the entrance to the corresponding main dungeon. Suddenly, there's a use for all of those rings you see laying around once you start working on the AP; and furthermore, suddenly all of those rupee prizes you also see laying around can buy more rings. Progressing through the Ancient's Pass is tedious because you can't hold more than one bait/ring, but the wealth of puzzles and maze-like qualities of every AP level make these levels a fun grind if you love dungeon crawling. Honestly, the ring gimmick could have worked out a lot better if ZC allowed the player to carry and use multiple bait items, but only having one at a time makes some of those ring-gauntlets in the AP an unenjoyable chore. I would have just made those Auric-ring rooms cost a certain amount of rupees, say 200, and it would have worked out much better in my opinion. If this quest was JUST the Ancient's Pass, or a metroidvania heavily centered around the AP, I would totally be the niche that enjoys such a thing.
The Ancient's Pass doubles as a subway system by way of warp tiles and shutter doors, so progressing in here as soon as possible makes traveling the massive overworld much easier. There are also certain prizes like armor upgrades and HCPs which make the AP a worthwhile priority. You can make some serious progress in the AP after just level 4, so I recommend doing so.That said, the "~" key, or whatever else is your fast-forward button, is your friend for this quest. Clear your main overworld routes down to one enemy per screen, and it almost isn't a pain to breeze across the overworld with the frame-rate cap button held down.
I also found it helpful to take a piece of graph paper, divide it into 9 equal rectangles, and plot overworld items and locations you find along the way. This will help you keep track of rupees, rings, HCPs, and other things which you can't obtain without a future dungeon item. In much the same way, mapping the Ancient's Pass and certain large dungeons is highly recommended. If you don't like this sort of old-school videogame map making, or your memory isn't like a sponge, prepare for frustration.
Overworld and screen design is unfortunately inconsistent, with many overworld screens an incredibly plain mass of token objects and enemy hoards. Far too many screens amount to nothing more than filler, even when the terrain on these screens offers excellent opportunity to hide secrets. On the other hand, other overworld areas are quite detailed, labyrrinthian, and pleasing to the eye. I get the impression that the quest maker probably burned out on building this quest, due to the massive overworld, and just said F-it and left a lot of screens boring and drab. It seems that it is impossible to obtain more than 22 hearts (instead of the expected max of 24), which gives the impression that the quest just wasn't finished to the extent that the creator originally intended.
On the positive side of things, again, dungeon design is consistently strong, with interesting mechanics I haven't seen anywhere else (the Mausoleum might be my favorite). I ran into some gameplay clunkiness with more than a few dungeons, as mentioned, but quite enjoyed the dungeons overall. Music selections run from standard ZC fare to novel - in particular, I like the regular boss music a lot and had to check the quest midi info and then Google to discover where the music is from. The dark world music selections are pretty great overall and where else are you going to get a midi of Ozzy Osbourne's Mr. Crowley? If I were going by cold and rigid criteria, I'd probably give this quest a 3.5, but the subjective fun I enjoyed throughout, appreciation of the Ancient's Pass, and the obvious effort put in by the quest's creator rates a 5 IMO.
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MermaidCim
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Avaro
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