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Destiny of the Oracles

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Destiny of the Oracles LP- By Pen Adelie


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#46 ywkls

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Posted 04 March 2022 - 07:15 PM

Part 47

 

Probably the aspect of this quest which required the most work but gets the least use is the scripted map.

Not that I'm bitter or anything...

 

The mini-boss is known as Dark Epona.

While fighting, meteors fall from the sky.

It is meant to be the horse Phantom Ganon rides in Ocarina of Time.

Or just an evil pony. Take your pick.

You can't tell if it is being damaged because the enemy's colors are 8-bit.

Nothing I can do about that.

 

A certain amount of my dungeon design tends to be predicated on the concept of a player F6'ing.

Though having that handy warp makes it less essential.

The Trial of Ice especially has a lot of winding paths that maximize your walking time.

 

Solving a puzzle on ice while your health is draining?

Yes, I am evil. How did you know?

 

Sheik's fight was originally meant to have two phases.

However, I decided that the primary battle was hard enough.

The second form was going to be Zelda, but I decided to save that fight for a later quest.

I would say that of all the bosses I made for this quest, this one is my third favorite and personally hardest to beat without a revival potion.

 

The item you obtain is one of the keys to more post-game content.

This includes the Boss Rush and the true final dungeon.



#47 ywkls

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Posted 06 March 2022 - 01:19 AM

Part 48

 

I'm not sure how I would indicate that the waters have rested.

The wavy effect can't be turned off.

And the lights aren't the purported source of the health drain.

Also, I made the Like Likes die instantly to the boomerang thanks to a bug where you could get permanently eaten if underwater.

 

The tornado and moving platforms were made specifically for this area.

Those latter and the result of nearly 6 years of scripting headaches.

And even then, they still only functioned in this quest.

You can actually move around while on them, though this isn't recommended.

 

Most of the enemies in the trial dungeons are repeats from previous dungeons.

There are a few exceptions, though.

The Pols Voice are about the only foes who can leap to their doom.

This is because enemy movement routines prevent non-jumping enemies from falling into them.

 

The swirling background for the Valkyrie fight was taken directly from my adaptation of Metroid 3 for ZC.

I liked it so much here that it is always active in that room.

I spliced together two different sprites to get the effect I wanted for the boss.

 

Those are the only Wind Robes in the quest.

This is why that is so.

They never return after they die.



#48 ywkls

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Posted 07 March 2022 - 01:07 AM

Part 49

 

I actually had the idea to use Morpha as a boss in Passage Through time but couldn't find good sprites.

The boss was supposed to move but refused to do so for some reason.

I do like how the trail of bubbles changes shape and length periodically, though.

 

By doing this, you have completed the requirements for two post-game challenges.

One is accessed by speaking with Farore.

The other has two entrances. 

One is in the Moonlit Grotto on Crescent Isle as Nayru.

The other requires crossing over to a cave on Crescent Isle from Frigid Fields as Din.

Then you open the cave with Ether,

 

The Boss Rush has the same strength as the foes in the Black Tower.

The difficulty is the fact that you can't leave until it is done.

That means you have to conserve your resources on each side.

If you happen to die before completing it, all of the bosses will respawn every time.

 

The mini-game replay was my idea because I enjoyed making them so much.

I only included the non-combat related areas.

The reward kills many enemies in one hit.

Doesn't work on any post-game foes, though.

It is also a requirement for the the third challenge.

The Mole Mitts don't show up due to glitches,



#49 ywkls

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Posted 08 March 2022 - 12:40 AM

Part 50

 

The basic design of the boss rush is where you have to do both sides at the same time.

Some of the bosses had to have their sprites reimported for the black and white palette.

Kalle Demos didn't work with this, however.

 

The reason for the repeat is because the bosses are spawned by script rather than enemy placement.

That also means that there's no point in waiting for the bosses to stop exploding.

I'm not sure what happened with Kalle Demos shooting fire at you from the ceiling.

 

The goddess' powers are all very MP heavy.

They're all extreme buffs.

Nayru's Love is probably the most useful.

This is especially so with projectile heavy fights.



#50 ywkls

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Posted 08 March 2022 - 07:26 PM

Part 51

 

When choosing the super-boss for this quest, I actually had a completely different foe in mind.

However, I had trouble getting that script to work for some reason.

In the end, I like this fight much better.

Did you know? The four Crystals run off the same script.

Slight details make them behave differently.

I also found some bugs with the way that custom enemy scripts work that I was forced to deal with.

This is why your adversary has such a tiny hitbox.

The real challenge here is one of endurance.

Your assets are very likely to run out before the fight ends.

If the sprite fades, it is because the edges of the screen is a Cancel Warp.

This temporarily turns off global script drawing.

If you manage to defeat the Crystals and die afterwards, they don't respawn. 

This could be an exploit but I am willing to allow it.

Nayru's Love can be really helpful here.

Using it, the numerous projectiles have a chance to become recovery hearts.

I'm not entirely sure why he gets stuck sometimes.

 

The power of Din's Fire doubles the strength of all attacks.

Getting it also unlocks the reward from Amy Rose.

I'm very happy with how these three challenges turned out,

 

The idea behind the Hall of Mirrors was suggested to me as a script request long before it was made.

Getting all of the objects to reflect correctly was a monumental task.

Not to mention enabling the ability to switch between all three Oracles at will while inside the place.

In the quest lore, the explanation for how the Hall of Mirrors and the various worlds are connected will be fleshed out in the fourth quest of the series.

The hardest aspect when designing it was getting the sprites to disappear under barriers below you.

This was done with layering shenanigans.

Each character has two unique enemies that can only be damaged by their abilities.

Also, I tried really hard to make them all relevant to the various puzzles.

 

Farore is probably the most powerful.

Except for her main attacks, none of her powers require MP to use.

I also had to restrict the vulnerabilities that she exploits because there's some overlap between the 3 characters.

You can actually use the Cane of Somaria in the ice block puzzle to lower the impassable barriers.

I haven't quite managed to figure out how to make it stop the ice blocks themselves.

I'm also not sure why the Cane of Somaria block isn't showing up correctly.

I'm definitely certain that the Cane of Somaria glitched the ice blocks.



#51 ywkls

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Posted 10 March 2022 - 12:26 AM

Part 52

 

I decided to add the Compass feature for just the reason seen here.

Figuring out where to use the Mole Mitts is otherwise too hard.

This feature of looking for matching lines of sight with torches occurs throughout the dungeon.

I also made the Compass noise where it works on overworld secrets in the sequel to this!

 

There were some interesting glitches with the Hall of Mirrors during development.

Thankfully, they've been mostly ironed out by now.

The various character strengths are as follows.

Nayru's foes are weak to arrows and fire.

Din's foes are weak to magic.

Farore's are weak to bolas.

The reasons why are many and nonsensical, mostly involving defense overlaps.

 

I wanted a four floor dungeon for the last area.

However, i was severely drained by the time that I got to the secret final dungeon.

I settled for four dungeon maps instead.

 

Exposition dump, anyone?  :bounce:

This is the battle where I thought of having all 3 evil Oracles at once.

Instead, this is sort of a preview of the true final boss.

Both were insanely complex scripts to write.

The evil Oracles have all the same powers as your characters.



#52 ywkls

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Posted 11 March 2022 - 02:04 PM

Part 53

 

The settings for the various shield and armor upgrades depend on Dungeon Map settings.

In the main game, armor upgrades are only functional in the correct character's areas.

The Hall of Mirrors has a different setting which allows you to have max armor for everyone.

 

I wanted to use that invisible path script again because I liked it so much.

However, I realized that Din could effectively ignore it.

So, I made the second one have walls to block your progress.

 

I may have stretched the minds of a few players by the way this dungeon requires constantly switching.

The area doesn't really offer a lot of clues as to how to survive.

This can occasionally lead to some confusion on how to proceed.

 

The doors here were all custom made by me for this dungeon.

I may have overdone things on the enemy count in some parts.

The switching restrictions all exist to prevent bugs related to warps.

I couldn't resist adding a sideview section here.

That one screen where you got stuck would have been easier if you could have seen the Somaria block.



#53 ywkls

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Posted 11 March 2022 - 06:55 PM

Part 54

 

Hopefully, my revisions to the way the Cane of Somaria works will prevent these issues in the future.

I'm halfway convinced that some of this is due to memory leaks where the code gets corrupted.

At other times, it feels like ZC edits itself.

In any case, I can only do so much to mitigate the issue.

 

I came up with the concept for Tri-Rova as the fused form of the Evil Oracles.

Just as Hylia was supposed to be the embodiment of good, this foe is the essence of evil.

The script for the boss is easily the most complicated in the quest.

 

The simplest way to explain how the boss works is that it keep you on your toes.

You can only hurt it with the Oracle corresponding to the current color.

Nayru uses the Bow of Ages.

Din uses the Rod of Seasons.

Farore uses the Powder Keg.

The exact reasons are due to enemy defense limitations.

 

The boss has a staggering 15 different attack routines 

When switching weaknesses or attacks, it will always go to one that wasn't the last chosen.

It also goes to a weakness you can't currently exploit.

This can make for a very interesting fight.

My own personal advice is to not even bother trying to do damage when she's in Farore form.

 

The plot details hinted at in the end are for the final quest in this series.

The plan is for all of the characters you see there to be playable in an alternate version of Termina.

The villain has gone through several different revisions, but I've settled on a final identity which incorporates a lot of the hints I've given in the series so far.

Initially, I intended for Demise to be the final obstacle.

However, over time that changed to a more complicated overlord who was behind things; in a bootstrap paradox where his own destruction creates him.

 

The next quest in this series is Remembrance of Shadows.

It doesn't have a specific place in the timeline.

You'll understand when you get around to it.



#54 ywkls

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Posted 12 March 2022 - 10:20 PM

Bonus Episode

 

Many of my testers requested that I include a way to fight the various bosses in the quest again. 

Rather than have two boss rushes, I decide to make a secret arena.

The key to opening it is to watch the true ending.

The entrances have no clues and are well hidden.

 

Each is hidden near a cameo.

Nayru's is in Moonlit Grotto, inside SCKnuckles' Museum of Bad Game Design.

Din's is in the lava waterfall near level 6.

The reference outside is to the Trails of Cold Steel series.

 

The name Memoria itself is a reference,

In this case, to the concluding area of Final Fantasy IX.

The area is divided into mini-boss, boss and optional foes.




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