Lost Isle has been my favorite 2D Zelda game of all time since I discovered it about 6 years ago. I love replaying video games, so I’ve played through this quest at least half a dozen times. I think I’ll go ahead and write a full review in another post, but one of the many things I liked about this quest was how polished it was. While the world is massive and contains loads to explore, everything felt like it was readily findable and glitchfree without having to go browse help threads. I thought I had single-handedly discovered everything there was to find in Lost Isle.
…I was wrong. Recently I was inspired to finally browse through the (multiple!) Lost Isle help threads just to make sure nothing surprised me. My original goal was to skim through every one of the 174 pages of the original 2007+ locked thread. Yes, I am probably insane. If it makes you feel better, I’ve only gotten to page 106 and probably will lose interest before I finish, especially since nothing new seems to have turned up in the last 50 pages. Anyways, I did find several things that I never knew, so I figured for posterity, I’d post my list of Things I Never Found Out About Lost Isle Without a Help Forum.
- There are TWO shield/potion shops. I always knew about the Cultist Cave one, but not the earlier/more expensive one. It’s one of those things that, in hindsight, should have been obvious that it was a suspicious spot that I ought to try bombing.
- There is a completely extra 12th key in Bhalstok Castle. As a completionist, I have very mixed feelings about the revelation that there is an extra “cheat key”. Ah well, I shall add it to my list of things to always get—I’ll always get the 11 normal keys anyways.
- There are actual clues to the three Oderra Catacombs mazes. I always thought this was just trial and error (helped by mapping out the rooms). I feel dumb for not recognizing the first one; the other two are so subtle that I’m not surprised I missed them (and rather feel they should have been made a bit more obvious).
- The left path is definitively easier during Armageddon. I knew that there were two paths you can take, but the nature of that part of the quest doesn’t exactly lend itself to deliberate, drawn-out observation and strategizing what the best route is. =P
- I’m apparently the only player who tries to zero-death quests by retrying any time I die, and this has negative consequences…completing the game is much easier (I discovered this time around) when you accept a death during Armageddon and continue.
- Not something I found from the help forum, but I did randomly discover something new this playthrough—a hidden bomb cave with no cracked wall to mark it one scene east of the main entrance to Xaagan Wastelands, containing a random tablet talking about the Queen Fairy. I don’t suppose there are any other secret unmarked caves I’ve missed??? (EDIT: Now that I have the spoilers map...yeah, I suck at finding these hidden tablet caves. I see one in every 8x8 quadrant, and I only found one of the six on my own!)
On a related note, there was frequent reference in the 2007 help thread to a spoiler map. However, the link provided there no longer works. Does anyone know where I can find a copy of that map, just to double-check that I have now found all the secrets that the developers say exist in this quest?
2. Since keys are level specific, it's ok to add that hidden key in there. Maybe if someone wants to skip that one key outside the level that takes a while to get.
5. That's basically what I do with every quest I've done. Only, in addition, I don't use F6-Continues and no potion use either. This quest took a bit of time to get the routine down.
6. Those hidden rooms with the tablets do have cracks on the walls outside, but you have to look really hard to notice the subtle cracked walls.