My previous review stated my distaste for this quest and for good reason ranging from randomly punishing the player with Rupoors to forcing damage onto the player in order to proceed. I even still somewhat agree with it, but I'm starting to see some appeal to this quest. I like this quest a lot conceptually, the execution brought down the experience but it was still moderately enjoyable.

I think the most noteworthy thing is how the overworld is laid out. Areas, caves and even dungeons feel interconnected and feels like one giant map. The quest doesn't feel formulated despite having the basic elements down. Level 1 doesn't feel like the first dungeon despite having to complete it first. Now I'm praising this quest mainly for my subjective experience which is normally something I haven't done, but I think this quest, to me, excelled at a unique personal experience. It's not a great strength to have, but it's something that this quest accomplished pretty well.

This quest has some decent pacing and nice variety and ideas. The design is moderately good, some things did make me laugh assuming those things were intended to do so... A pretty solid experience overall on the positive side of things. I should also quickly note that your updated version has some better screen design and changes for sure. I also want to point out I like the dungeon variety in terms of how they are structured. Some require you to revisit them later on, some require entering from multiple entrances and some you have to come back to every now and then. But otherwise most dungeons are pretty traditional in terms of how they're played.

That's not to say this quest doesn't have parts that lowered my experience because there were. For instance, forcing Rupoors onto the player; I will somewhat forgive this since Rupees doesn't even play an important part in this quest, but just imagine if they were and you get my point. These Rupoors are placed in front of chests or in chests or just out in the open. But on the other hand the quest also spoils you with stuff right from the get go. Take a guess where the Blue Ring is? That's right, the very first dungeon. Along the way, you'll get sword upgrades too but they're optional as far as I'm aware but you'll be needing them due to the crazy enemy balancing this quest has. Having to constantly kill enemies to push blocks is a mild annoyance at worst and while we're on the subject of enemies: Why the cat and block enemies? They're pretty strange, but they're not the only custom enemies that stood out in a negative light. Another example would be the Gel/Zol enemies that have the boss sound effects and have a semi-glitchy animation going on. The block enemies do, too. As a side note I do see potential in the block enemies, it's just one of those things that I admire about the quest but frown upon at the same time: the amount of potential this quest has.

I think the biggest offense however is the constant "get key, use key"-gameplay this entire quest has going on. It can get boring just seeing another key as your reward. Shake things up, use items to progress the quest instead! Keys are boring! Hell, even use in-game events to add some layer of progress. As a quick example, why not open a floodgate to release water and allow Link to progress? Stuff like that. Also some areas do feel poorly designed. Take for example the house on the mountain area where the key was in the same room as the entrance leaving the rest of the place pointless to explore. There's just some oddities like this all across the quest and it also brings down the quest quite a bit.

To list the remaining flaws, which are pretty minor: Music choice was bland. Speaking of music I believe the cave music randomly changes at some point in the quest? That was kind of weird. I dislike the lack of NPCs or life. Some of the screen design was a bit bland or looked wrong too.

So in conclusion, I feel the potential I mentioned before you and this quest have was barely tapped, and I know you do take reviews to heart but honestly I would like to see another quest from you in a similar manner. Learn the basics such as message strings and whatnot (I noticed the lack of proper messages which was odd) and start designing another quest. I feel you might be able to nail something with this style you have going. It's somehow unique without doing anything too out of the ordinary, I like it. For what this quest is, it's decent, I enjoyed replaying it. It's a little quirky but for the most part it's a nice attempt at a linear adventure, and I find nothing wrong with linearity. I give this quest a 2.50/5. Between bad and good because that's how I feel about this quest after replaying it. The idea of this quest has inspired me to some degree and that's something most quests don't do for me, so there's that. Either way, a fairly solid quest that has some mild fun and good going on but also some bad.

Good
-Uses a lot of items
-Interesting puzzles
-GBC tileset
-Story, it has one, but I don't really play Zelda games for story

Bad
-Glitches (broken down into two categories)
1. Many continue bugs in: Tunnel (possible permastuck if you don't wiggle around to the north wall where the dragon enemy is), Silent Realm (permastuck), Pyramid area
2. Can sequence break to the end after getting the hammer, all 8 pieces of Triforce is not required
-MANY enemy gauntlets
-Too much backtracking
-Too big of an overworld with poor warping system

I agree with Joelmacool's review, but I just can't call it a good quest with so many technical issues. I was determined to finish this quest and came back to it many times, but getting permastuck really frustrated me. If another update could be made to fix these glitches, I'd gladly replay it.

Let me start off this review as "it's not that good, yet not that bad".
Here are the things I enjoyed about the game:

- It had some good design.
- Interesting puzzles.
- I could make out what was what.

And now... the bad things:

- Most screens were horrendous.
- I did not enjoy that this quest had no storyline.
- You can literally skip the ending boss.
- Some oddly placed tiles...

And that's just the tip of the bad stuff.
Anyway, since I am generous I shall be giving this quest a 3. I'm giving it a 3 because as I said above, it's not bad but not good. I hope you make better games than this and I hope I can at least give you a 4.

Enjoy your day

Just as an FYI for any who read this, I've taken the comments all to heart & have given the quest a massive overhaul... as in virtually every screen being in someway changed / etc. I will update it and it will be released for a final time on the 13th of October. Happy Halloween!

An immediate update has been implemented to address some of the more critical issues that have been pointed out (such as the "permastuck" glitch at the beginning, the Pyramid area key problem and a few other bugs). That which could be quickly remedied has been done and is reflected in the update. Both of the issues involving the rupoors and the cats have been altered as well as some of the other concerns that just about everyone agreed on.

I've not downloaded it myself, but judging by the reviews, perhaps overhaul this, take it to beta testing for feedback, and implement suggestions. Many people on these forums have some good ideas that can help improve your quests. During development and Beta Testing of my Zelda 3 quest, I took a lot of suggestions, and they really helped.

nvm doing review