Out of curiosity, what do you think about doing some commentary or something for Somewhere In Between (Developer's Review?)? I'd like to hear about how you came up with the story/what inspired you.
Hrm... this might be interesting, actually. I could see a lot of different ways I could do that... ya know what, I think I will. Not so much a "review", maybe, but I think I'm gonna do something like that. Thanks for the idea!
LI review was a nice read. Also, much shorter than what we usually get for LI reviews, which is a good thing. You could have menioned music and gameplay (LI goes somewhat beyond Z1 here), though.
Great review as always. I agree about how well made the overworld/dungeons in Lost Isle are. Sky Garden is also quite possibly the most confusing thing known to man, but anyway....
You could have menioned music and gameplay (LI goes somewhat beyond Z1 here), though.
Yeah, you're probably right. Ya know what, I might make a little addendum to the review. Give me an hour, maybe less. I want to at least mentioned some of the stuff.
Edit: Okay, only 8 minutes, but added a bit to the end. Thanks for pointing out my oversight.
Ballad of a Bloodline is certainly one of the most interesting quests out there, for reasons you'll see soon enough. But of course, the real question: Is it good? Let's find out, shall we?
First off, the quest is massive. I have to give CC credit, he puts tons of work into this thing. There's about 3 "Hyrule" overworld maps and 3 "Inverted World" maps, in addition to 12 mandatory dungeons and way too many side dungeons for me to count. It's a giant game, full of hard work, and I have to applaud CC for his effort.
But sadly, hard work doesn't necessarily translate into a good game. Let's start with the overworlds. They're... well they can be okay. Sometimes. When viewed as a whole, they work, but on a screen by screen basic...
Here we have the "Throw random crap at the screen" philosophy of screen design
Some of the overworld areas are fun, but most of them are just a pain to navigate. The Lost Woods in particular makes just about 0 sense, but it's not the only offender. Several screens are cramped and hard to move around in, and one part of Hyrule Field is literally 9 screens of nothing. Just open, empty screens with maybe one or two trees in the middle that serve no purpose.
This is very good screen design.
It's... confusing at the best of times, infuriating at the worst. But let's not dwell on that. Time to talk about dungeons. The dungeons tend to be hit or miss. Some of them are great, some of them are horrible. They're all very creative, I'll give them that, Clockwork Cathedral standing out the most for me.
This place really was awesome
However, the good dungeons only make up about half of them. In addition to those, we have some bad dungeons. For example, Link's nightmare, which is a mashup of all the other dungeons up to that point. In theory, it's a good idea, but in practice, it was just executed really poorly. It was too confusing to figure out what I was supposed to be doing at any given moment. This same problem plagues some of the other dungeons, such as Plant Pond, where, while the graphical style was unique, it actively hindered the gameplay.
But I do want to talk about one of the cooler ideas I saw in the game. Hidden within each of the main Inverted World dungeons (or outside them in a few cases) is a Lightforce Dungeon, a side dungeon with a collectible Lightforce (Triforce) piece at the end. Collecting these changes the ending you'll get (more on that later). It's a really cool idea, but most of the time, the dungeons are hidden so that you'll never find them, and then the dungeons themselves...
I believe the pictures speak for themselves.
Next, I want to talk about the music, because it's one of the best parts of the quest. Nuvo/Strato was commissioned to make a large chunk of the soundtrack, and it really helps the game. It's good, it's catchy, it sets the theme, and it helps set BoaB apart from other quests (although it really didn't need help doing that). The boss theme in particularly is really well done.
The bosses that go with the theme, however, aren't so much. They're all creative ideas yes, but in execution they fall flat. You'll be fighting such oddities as a possessed painting, a giant beamos, and... a reploid from Megaman... yeah, I'll elaborate on that a little more later. They're all creative, but fighting them is more arbitrary than anything, involving hitting random switches with random items, and fighting your way through lots of enemies.
Eight Death Knights, Huzzah!
Now, up to this point, I've tried to avoid talking about the elephants in the closet, so I think I'll take the time to do so now. First off... how do I even word this? CastChaos has a thing for naked girls. It's not just one time either. You can slash the dresses of Kokiri girls, you can find a darknut keeping a naked girl as a sex slave, and I'm not even going to talk about the naked girl locked in Ebola Zaire's closet.
This review is now illegal in Canada.
Odd doesn't begin to describe it. It's incredibly strange, and given the high frequency of naked girls, it honestly makes me question if CastChaos is a pedophile. This really isn't the kind of feel you want a game to be giving off.
But the quest's troubles don't end there. Rupee grinding is one of the big themes of the quest. In nearly every Inverted World dungeon, Dynamo appears, forcing you to leave either a heart container or an insane amount of money. As if this wasn't bad enough, twice, the dungeon item is a bigger wallet, which requires you to leave the dungeon, grind for at least 255 more rupees and buy a new item. Fun!
In addition, Feed the Goriya rooms are also used way too often. In the weirdest of places. Including right before the final boss. Yeah...
But it gets better! The secrets and puzzles in the game are.. stupid as Hell, for lack of a better way to word it. There is no logic at all involved here. You'll be burning rocks, hookshoting mushrooms, boomeraning blocks, burning walls, bombing random floor tiles... the list goes on. The highlight of this (which I didn't take a picture of, sorry) is probably burning a chicken to make a fence disappear. There's no rhyme or reason to any of this; it's all completely arbitrary The lens of truth is available after the first dungeon, and chances are you won't be able to complete the game without it. It's just that bad.
But all this pales in comparison to the story. The story... oh lord I don't even know how to begin describing this thing. The word "clusterf***" comes to mind. It's just all over the place. It starts out simple enough. Knil and his girlfriend Myra want to go adventuring, but nobody is allowed to leave Hyrule. The King has been acting weird lately, hiring darknuts to patrol the land. To escape Hyrule, they need the Master Sword, but to get that, they need the three spiritual stones. But from there, it rapidly descends into what can only be described as a Zelda/Megaman/Final Fantasy fanfinction.
Um... yeah.
The Engrish doesn't help the story at all.
You are in life! My heart is overflow with happy and rainbows!
The quest does have three normal endings and two secret endings, depending on the equipment you have, which is a really nice touch, especially given that the game's made in 2.10. But still, this implies that you're actually able to make sense of the story, and chances are, you aren't. I really want to rage against some of the pickier details, so spoiler tags here if you don't want to have key plot points spoiled.
Spoiler
First off, Knil is Link. His girlfriend's dad changed his name when he was young to hide him from Vaati. ... Is Vaati a complete moron? I don't think reversing the letters of his name is going to fool anybody.
Next off, Link's girlfriend Myra doesn't actually exist. The whole first part of the game doesn't exist. When they went through a portal, Sephiroth's mom possessed Link's true girlfriend, Niera, turning her into Myra. She then changed Link's memories so he would forget all of this. Okay then.
But the biggest problem I have is with the final bit of the game. You fight Vaati, and he dies easily. Only we learn that Vaati isn't the real villain, Sigma, the villain from Megaman X, is. So we kill him, but then surprise, Vaati is the real villain! Only it's not Vaati, it's actually Sephiroth, from Final Fantasy, who killed the real Vaati and has been disguised as him ever since. After fighting him (which is just fighting a hell of a lot of enemies while he's nowhere in sight), he's defeated, but surprise, it isn't over yet! He transforms, but is killed by his own mother, who is still possessing Link's girlfriend. They escape, only to have the real Vaati, who isn't dead after all, steal the Lightforce from Link's girlfriend (she apparently had it all along) and transform into a monster. But Link kills him, which somehow eradicates all of Sephiroth's mother from his girlfriend, who is pregnant, and is actually Zelda, by the way. They then team up with Ganondorf's daughter to restore to its rightful form, and then they live happily ever after. Oh yeah, and Dr. Wily was actually behind this entire plot.
This makes so much sense!
You're free to ask "What the holy f***?" now.
So overall, Ballad of a Bloodline is a very interesting game. But while it has its moments (such as some of the dungeons), the bad parts of the game far outweigh the good parts. Bad overworld design, horrible secrets, naked little girls, one of the worst stories I've ever heard... yeah. Unless you hate yourself, or you're feeling awfully masochistic, do yourself a favor, and stay away from this game. It will bring you nothing but sorrow, and a vague unsettling feeling in your stomach.
Here's the game summed up with one of its own quotes.
Russ pretty much nailed it with what I think about BoaB. Sorry, but you CAN'T...I repeat CAN'T justify heavy style-clashing as detail. I've said this years ago and I'll proudly say it again. BoaB's screens are messy as hell with nothing but randomness in every single screen. Not only the tiles but the palettes are just utterly disgusting. Once you beat the game, I hope your eyeballs don't fall out. Now, I know you're probably going to say the author put so much effort into this quest, but that doesn't mean squat if its not quality effort and I think the author barely even put quality into this quest.
Hey good review Russ, I've enjoyed reading it I have to admit BoaB's Clockwork Cathedral looks pretty fun! Anywho, If you are in the mood to review quest Could you review my quest.
I know I'm on the opposite end. I actually found BoaB fun. I mean, I had to find the eye of truth for it to be possible, but I had fun all the same.
Yes, it could be executed better. The graphics could have been better utilized, the strings could have been rewritten by perhaps someone who speaks English as a first language, and the puzzles could have been given more clarity and more reason. I could have written more and better music for it too.
I agree with you on many points, Russ. But I enjoyed playing it. For some reason or another. I don't exactly know what it was about it that made me enjoy it, but I enjoyed it.
Thanks for the review Russ. It was a good read. But honestly, I'm a bit disappointed by it. After reading your other reviews, you barely got into any critiquing at all in Lost Isle. It was all positive. I was expecting something a bit more 'meaty' with your review of Lost Isle. Something a quest designer can utilize and walk away from better because of it. I was expecting tearing, rending and slamming of design choices. Instead, I got...praise. Thanks for the review, don't think I'm ungrateful for it at all. Because I'm not. But i was expect a bit more spice to it.
I would love to see someone tear it apart I mean Review it!
Sure thing. I already reviewed one of your quests a while back, not sure if you saw it though. I can give this one a try.
QUOTE(Strato @ Aug 10 2012, 09:29 PM)
I know I'm on the opposite end. I actually found BoaB fun. I mean, I had to find the eye of truth for it to be possible, but I had fun all the same.
Yes, it could be executed better. The graphics could have been better utilized, the strings could have been rewritten by perhaps someone who speaks English as a first language, and the puzzles could have been given more clarity and more reason. I could have written more and better music for it too.
I agree with you on many points, Russ. But I enjoyed playing it. For some reason or another. I don't exactly know what it was about it that made me enjoy it, but I enjoyed it.
Good review, anyhow.
I can see how you would find it fun. I admit, it's probably salvageable, and could made good with a graphical revision for some areas, triggers that make sense, some better lines... it needs work, but there really is a great quest buried under there.
QUOTE(DarkFlameWolf @ Aug 10 2012, 10:20 PM)
Thanks for the review Russ. It was a good read. But honestly, I'm a bit disappointed by it. After reading your other reviews, you barely got into any critiquing at all in Lost Isle. It was all positive. I was expecting something a bit more 'meaty' with your review of Lost Isle. Something a quest designer can utilize and walk away from better because of it. I was expecting tearing, rending and slamming of design choices. Instead, I got...praise. Thanks for the review, don't think I'm ungrateful for it at all. Because I'm not. But i was expect a bit more spice to it.
Well, the problem is, there's not much negative I have to say about Lost Isle. I love just about every single thing about the game. It's my second favorite quest of all time, and the only thing really keeping it from being my favorite is the difficult curve in places... which I guess I could have elaborated a bit on. Ya know, I might have to edit that in somewhere. Sorry I overlooked that.
Sure thing. I already reviewed one of your quests a while back, not sure if you saw it though. I can give this one a try.
Thank! , And I didn't see the review of my quest till you just revived this topic earlier. I have to say thanks for reviewing The Journey Of Link I really appreciate It, (I love seeing other player's complete thoughts on my quest.)
Here we have another quest by Ventus. Since I liked The Journey of Link, I was pretty excited to try this one out. Like its predecessor, it feels experimental; Ventus is trying something that really hasn't been done too often before. Unlike its predecessor though, it doesn't really pull it off quite right. Let's explore why.
The overworld for the quest is a pretty small but standard affair.
Nothing new here.
It's not bad or anything, but at the same time, it's not spectacular. It works, and that's what counts. It's got a few explorable places and secrets, but for the most part, it feels more like the glue that's just there to hold the dungeons together. So let's talk about those next.
There is nothing of importance in this caption.
What you see there is typical of just about every dungeon in the quest. The room shapes are varied from your average square classic dungeon, granted, but they're nothing too special. The dungeons themselves are... sub-par, I'd say. They're extremely linear and fairly short, most of the time consisting of a straight line path, or occasionally, two branching paths leading to two separate keys. The puzzles too aren't anything too revolutionary.
I've never seen anything like it before!
But the puzzles are few and very far between. Most of the time, the game relies on shutter doors and enemies to keep you from breezing through too quickly. Let's take a look at some of them.
This looks totally fair.
Here's a picture of me fighting three (well, two and a half) splitting darknuts five hearts and a level 1 sword. Yeah... I really hope you see the problem here. With such low health and equipment, it's way too difficult. But hey, you can't judge based off one screenshot. That's probably just the exception, right?
Nope.
The theme of the quest seems to be relentless, exceedingly difficult enemy placement. Blue lanmolas, batrobes, Death Knights, expect to fight them all with the first sword and under 10 hearts. And did I mention that they always return? Oh boy!
Fair and balanced difficulty.
There are supposedly sword upgrades to be found on the overworld, but I never did find them. There were some fairly obvious burnable bushes, but I lacked a candle, and I didn't feel like bombing every single cliff wall to find one. I did happen upon a red ring though. But the problem...
Screw you too, man.
Buy the big wallet, buy the bigger wallet, then buy the ring. I'm not a big fan of rupee grinding, but the quest isn't stingy with money, so it's not a big deal, I figured. So I grinded for money like mad. And then, guess what? The biggest wallet holds 998 rupees. One short. This kind of bulls*** isn't acceptable under any circumstances. It's actively punishing the player for trying to play the game, which is just wrong.
Now, I do want to mention the one thing I liked about the game here. It features a "tech points" meter, similar to a magic meter, but slowly refilling. Certain items use tech points, forcing you to be careful with what you use. The problem is that it's really not handled well. For example, the first boomerang doesn't use tech points, but the fire boomerang does, and there's no way to downgrade it, meaning you can't go back to a tech point-less boomerang now. But overall, the system just feels very under-utilized, and does little to fix the several other problems.
I was honestly disappointed with this quest. Ventus has showed he's more than capable of making good quests, but this one just feels like a huge step backwards. Mediocre overworld, linear dungeons, horribly cruel difficulty, outright trolling the player... This Might Be Good? No. This Might Be A Waste Of Your Time.
Great review, but I agree there's serious balancing issues. You forgot to mention that enemies always return is checked on top of the vicious enemies (although I'm one to talk....).
, And I didn't see the review of my quest till you just revived this topic earlier. 
