So, I was originally going to give this quest a 3, but as the quest went on, things just got worse and worse (but not so bad to the point where it was a disaster, thankfully). I'll explain more on that a bit later, but first lemme get through the positives.
I had a bit of fun in the early game, with decent difficulty (with a few exceptions). The 2nd dungeon is probably the most fun IMO, since I really like how it resembles Bottom of the Well from OoT and kinda plays a bit like it too. Screen design in the Light World is probably one of the strongest things I could find about the quest, with some screens looking really nice a pretty, and some of the design concepts you had were really neat. Overall on that, there's a few things that are quite good with the quest, like I just mentioned.
However, there were a ton of bad stuff which brought my score down to a 2. For one, while screen design is nice in the overworld in some places, I do feel that there were quite a few screens that were lacking detail. The biggest issue with the overworlds though is that I felt like they were too "boxed". A lot of the mountains were far too straight and without any curving, which made everything looked quite unnatural. The Dark World managed to look a bit better, but some screens (especially in the snow and mountain area) looked kinda empty and lacking of detail. I noticed one of the complaints you've addressed is money problems. While it's nice you have better ways to get money now, the next problem is that I think you added a bit too much money in the quest. I noticed getting to max rupees way too much throughout the quest, getting to the point where money became kinda useless since I would always get my money back from drops.
Dungeon design was quite good, though it isn't as strong as overworld design IMO. I feel like some of the dungeon design is very empty and bland, and maybe you can try to add more detail (even just adding floor bordering can make a really huge difference). Maybe also try to add some wall detail as well, like torches and wall designs. IMO though, I do feel like you probably should've picked a different tileset to work with since it takes a lot of practice to use DoR Hybrid really well, and while this is a good start, maybe using more simpler tilesets can give you more confidence to make better maps. That's just my advice.
Finally, we have my biggest complaint, and that's difficulty. I feel like the difficulty curve in this quest is completely non-existent. I mean, you come across 3 splitters the moment you start the game, and that is an instant "no" from me. Throughout the quest, the difficulty just was all over the place, with splitters everywhere and the abuse of bosses (especially towards the end). It doesn't help that enemies were horribly buffed. Early on, enemies would take forever to die and they would deal too much damage. This got worse as the quest went on and quite honestly, I would recommend to just leave the enemies with their default stats to make things more fun rather than buff everything to become a huge spam fest (which isn't fun). Boss choices are really questionable, I mean, Fire Gleeoks so early on is never a good idea, and cramming bosses together into one room later on just makes things unavoidable and just gets boring and repetitive. I'll have to be honest, I did have to use cheats a few times to get through some excessively insane rooms with enemies and bosses all crammed in tiny areas, since it was literally just unbearable for me to try and go through rooms like that legit. A big recommendation I'll give is to try and balance out the enemies, make them get progressively harder as the quest goes on, and try not to over-buff enemies. I'll also recommend to stick with just one boss on a screen, rather than a thousand of them clumped up together, you'll get a much nicer looking product, trust me.
Overall, this is a decent start into ZC, and while there were a lot of problems and issues, I do feel like you have potential to make even better quests in the future, and I'll definitely be here to help you out with anything if you need it. As far as this quest goes though, I'm going to give it a 2/5. It isn't bad nor good, but it's a decent start. Looking forward to what else you have in the future!
The Dark World's Return
Overview
Feature Quest
Creator: Mr.ReDead Genre: NES-style Added: 17 Jul 2016 Updated: 16 Apr 2020 ZC Version: 2.50.2 Downloads: 664 Rating[?]: |
Download Quest (3.45 MB) |
Information
*UPDATE 3*
Remaining content to add and bugfix: Two "Spike" dungeons to get the major collectible count to 8 as well as round out the heart max count.
After that, its just a matter of playtesting and bugfixing, then it will be here.
**Quest file will be updated when I finish adding in the new content and finalize the build.**
I recommend not playing this quest until the new *final* edition is released to consider it.
Remaining content to add and bugfix: Two "Spike" dungeons to get the major collectible count to 8 as well as round out the heart max count.
After that, its just a matter of playtesting and bugfixing, then it will be here.
**Quest file will be updated when I finish adding in the new content and finalize the build.**
I recommend not playing this quest until the new *final* edition is released to consider it.
About Reviews Comments Forum Topics
Description
The Dark World has returned and Link has taken notice.
Two sequels are the follow-up idea when this takes its final shape.
Two sequels are the follow-up idea when this takes its final shape.
Story
Link feels a familiar draw as the Dark World has returned. "Why now?" He wonders. He begins his trek to investigate just why... it has returned.
Tips & Cheats
Explore.
Collect as much as you can; it will help with difficulty later.
Collect as much as you can; it will help with difficulty later.
Credits
Mr.ReDead for bug-testing and making sure everything works to playable standards.
Nintendo for the original Legend of Zelda game format.
PureZC for letting me host my quest and providing the means to make it possible.
Zelda Classic for the quest builder and quest player.
Nintendo for the original Legend of Zelda game format.
PureZC for letting me host my quest and providing the means to make it possible.
Zelda Classic for the quest builder and quest player.