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[ywkls]

Part 17

 

You had the correct idea regarding Mr. Write and the necklace.

I actually set up a script recently to add a quest log to the save point.

This will add clues to what you should do with various sidequests.

They will change as you progress them.

 

You can see the clues to the Zol Fragment locations on the map, but they're really small.

Fortunately, the Secret Ring makes finding them easier.

 

The Zol Fragments in dungeons all require the item of that area,

This is to make it where you must complete them before you can acquire them.

 

The Revival Potion is the only item you can buy multiple times.

It only appears for sale if it isn't in your inventory.

 

The Stomp Ring has a limited use.

You could have used it against the Goomba outside Kanalet Castle for an instant win.

 

That jump in Kanalet Castle is notoriously hard.

I just made it a lot easier.

Sorry you won't benefit.

 

The Wealth Ring is specially set up to interact with the shops.

It was tricky, but worth the effort.

 

Nice to see the Song of Storms being used so inventively.

It's a bit overpowered.

 

The Dash Attack is a bit wonky.

Some times it doesn't work entirely right.

[ywkls]

Part 18

 

My first two-floor dungeon in the quest!

This is intended to be the obligatory ice level.

It wouldn't be one of my quests without one of these over/under designs.

I'm not quite as good at making ice block puzzles as other types.

 

I had the magnet posts switch instead of the item because that was easier to do.

Also, that one jump back can be ignored if you think about it.

 

That one ice block puzzle that apparently took you forever was actually reworked because it was possible to softlock yourself.

So, at least you didn't have to deal with that?
 

I do agree about those blind pits. Not my finest hour.

As compensation, I have decided to make it where solving the puzzle makes them go away.

 

I have been making dungeons practically my whole life.

In school, I would trace maps of the continents and then make them into mazes.

Later, I would build mazes out of Legos where you had to guide a marble inside.

Of course, you couldn't see in them and they had dead ends.

I even made these with multiple floors and traps to fall back down.

I've learned not to do that anymore. 

[ywkls]

Part 19

 

I tried to reference a number of items you get in Link's Awakening here.

The shovel is a special favorite.

I guess it's appropriate to an ice dungeon because you can shovel snow?

I will try and change the dirt pile sprites to match this idea.

 

The decision to make the boss weak to the item is even sillier given that it's a giant tiger.

What can I say? I love the classics.

 

The shovel can dig practically anywhere.

Some tiles are marked to prevent this.

I don't have a lot else to say. This was a pretty brief episode.

[ywkls]

Part 20
 
The choice of the past as the focus of the keep was mostly because I couldn't think of a better idea.
The Dash Attack is hard to get right and this is shown more than usual here.
That particular ice block puzzle is one of my best, in terms of difficulty versus ease.
 
I do find the precision needed for the Magnetic posts a bit taxing myself.
There's not a lot I can do about that, though.
 
One thing that isn't immediately obvious in the puzzles with the fire and the boomerang is you can't use any torch.
Only the middle three actually can light the others.
 
One neat graphical detail (totally not a bug) is how Marin looks like she's swimming when pulled over water by the hookshot.

This only happens after you get the flippers.

 

There's no reward for the Death Knight other than satisfaction at surviving.

This is just a way of gatekeeping progress.

But you can totally use the shovel to farm for things.

 

The 4th song is easily the strongest of the bunch.

It totally shreds everything.

[ywkls]

Part 21

 

Some of the secret in this quest were changed from their original settings.

This means that some dash secrets became bomb related.

Others were made to be hammer related.

The large crystals were made as a result of some people being unable to trigger those normally.

 

That room with the moving pits was insanely hard to do.

The power of combo cycling!

 

I don't think I've seen that glitch before, though I think that I know how it happened.

Changed that room to fill in the holes after you solve the puzzle.

I didn't know you could fall while the subscreen is open.

 

The 4th song powers up all attacks, not just the sword.

This makes many bosses easier.

 

That is indeed Nayru, which is fitting to the theme of the dungeon.

Also, those scenes you see are recreations of scenes from Destiny of the Oracles in this tileset!

[ywkls]

Part 22

 

There's a whole smorgasbord of content out there!

Most of it is simply upgrades and quality of life improvements.

But a small fraction is required to get to the post game.

 

For reference, here's the requirements for the secret ending.

1, Obtain 20 Secret Seashells. Open the Seashell Mansion and obtain the Fierce Diety's Sword by completing it.

2. Finish the trading sequence. 

3, Defeat all 9 Mario Monsters.

4. Obtain 10 Shadow Shards.

5. Talk to all 5 fairies around Koholint and hit the switches they reveal.

 

That shortcut outside the way to the west side of the mountains was added because it takes way too long to cross.

Also, the trigger for that one bean sprout was recently changed to the Song of Storms so it could get used more.

There's an invisible barrier blocking your path at the flamethrower, if it wasn't obvious.

 

The soaring spot automatically defaults to the last spot that was activated.

This is true no matter what order they are activated in.

[ywkls]

Part 23

 

This is a direct crossover from the Farore subplot in Destiny of the Oracles!

In fact, that sequence of events is what led to the creation of this quest.

 

There's a somewhat missable sidequest involving Farore.

If you visit Zelda after rescuing Farore, but before seeing the Wind Fish it will trigger.

If you miss it, there's another chance later by going to the fisherman in Mabe Village.

 

That one Heart Piece in the top left corner used to have a bug.

It was possible for it not to spawn before I put it beneath the flower.

 

The Crooked Cataract is one of my favorite ideas.

It works out really well, in my opinion.

 

I don't know why the sword gets wonky in this dungeon.

It's a mystery to me.

 

Much like level one, this uses a variation on the over/under mechanic.

Here, secrets determine which level you're on.

 

The enemy count in this level is incredibly high.

I admit to just running away rather than fighting them.

 

The only downside to the Song of Storms is the inability to heal while it is active.

But the 4th song doesn't have that downside.

It also lasts a very long time, offsetting the MP cost.

 

Level 7 is a puzzle-lite dungeon.

This was a conscious choice on my part.

 

The mini-boss may have been a bit bland due to boss fatigue.

it's hard for me to tell.

[ywkls]

Part 24

 

A conscious choice was made to have the Hammer behave like the Sword of Fate from Destiny.

I don't have it break shields, mostly because that's hard to do with scripts.

 

This dungeon has a lot of switching between floors and levels within those floors.

That can be a little bit confusing.

 

The Zol Fragments are actually something of a joke. 

I had the idea in another game's design of making the hardest enemy use the sprites of a really weak foe.

This is that translated into ZC.

 

This boss reacts to the hammer in a weird way,

It doesn't always take damage.

There's no real why this is.

My only explanation is that it is shielded in front.

 

I'm still surprised how much I can cram into the keeps.

They're all tiny little packages of brain-teasing fun.

[ywkls]

Part 25

 

The boss difficulty may be due to not having enough Shadow Shards.

I'm not entirely sure how many have been collected by this point.

 

I just realized watching this keep that there's a place you could possibly go out of bounds.

Fixing that now, just in case. I would hate to softlock someone.

 

It's actually kind of hard to get those push blocks to change color.

I can do it, but I just hadn't gone to the trouble.

 

I really like the callback to the Oracle games, along with Destiny in the cutscene after the keep.

Though I never had the Essences of Nature in a quest, that could change at some point.

 

That grave is one of many secrets which were changed from the hammer to another item.

This was actually done after the quest was released, if you can believe that.

 

Lakitu King throws shells mostly because I was lazy and didn't want to make more sprites.

Thus is the price of making a quest.

 

This version of Zelda is the one from Passage Through Time.

Continuity across the series confirmed!

[ywkls]

Part 26

 

Since the sidequest with Farore and Zelda was triggered, the one with the fisherman won't appear.

This is the only missable sidequest in the game.

 

Ralph is a recurring cameo in my quests.

So far, I think that a version of him shows up in each one.

In many ways, the dream sequence here is a check to see if you have all of the items you can get up to now.

 

The 4th sword technique is very overpowered. 

Perfect for taking out pesky bosses.

 

Those giant crystals exist because of a glitch.

In some instances, those heart pieces would spawn in spots where you couldn't reach them.

This was my solution to that issue.

 

All of the spots for Heart Pieces from Link's Awakening are reused in this.

Also all spots for Secret Seashells.

Plus the spots for capacity increases,

And all the places you could take photos!

[ywkls]

Part 27

 

I would change the Walrus' appearance if that wasn't too hard.

The sidequest with Richard's servant was actually fairly difficult to pull off.

It's probably the most complex one in the game.

 

The main reason jumping is turned off in the pit maze is due to a bug.

You could theoretically fall into a hole while transitioning screens and jumping.

This would be very, very bad.

 

Level 8 is actually in the same spot as the Color Dungeon.

It accomplishes a goal I'd wanted for a long time.

That is to have a dungeon with three overlapping layers.

Raising and lowering the water was changed to the Song of Storms to make it more useful.

There were some areas in level 8 where I reworked it because I forgot to go to certain rooms.

 

I should note that using the mouse to switch songs was a compromise,

I ran out of keys to use for things, but wanted to do that anyways.

[ywkls]

Part 28

 

That one path where you can go off course by revisiting previous areas wasn't meant to confuse you.

Though it did conveniently leave you near the Zol Fragments; so I guess it isn't all bad?

Some of them aren't in chests due to conflicts with nearby rooms.

 

Thankfully, I tend to veer away from forcing you to kill all enemies.

Otherwise a lot of this would be even more tiresome.

 

The boss in this was interesting because it forced me to change the name of a boss in Balance of Nature.

That enemy was the boss of Ruto's Palace and is now Hothead.

Fortunately, these alterations fit with the sprites used.

His vulnerability changes every time he attacks.

 

The Dream of Koholint does need more lore associated with it.

Maybe I can expand on that in the next quest in the series.

 

Did you know? The Batrobes can actually crash Zelda Classic.

This will happen if too many enemies appear onscreen.

 

I tried to make all of the rings as useful as possible. Obviously, this was easier to do with some than others.

I wanted to be able to equip more than one at a time, but couldn't figure out how.

 

The path to the Sleepy Darknut is actually opened by the switch outside dark Kanalet Castle.

I may include more shortcuts out of these optional dreams so you don't have to do as much backtracking.

 

You just know that I couldn't resist the Mister L reference in the litany of Mario Monsters.

Getting all 8 allows you to fight their master and get the reward for all your hard work!

Edited by ywkls, 22 January 2024 - 06:50 PM.

[ywkls]

Part 29

 

The light path puzzle was one I loved from before.

I decided to use the wand to trigger it because the sword covers too much ground.

I wish I could have used them more.

 

Getting the color cubes to work right took a lot of work.

But I feel that the result was worth it.

Their only flaw is being too sensitive to getting pushed.

 

The moving block that you guide was one I'd wanted to do for a while.

You could say that I broke out all the stops for this keep.

In a way, they're like another level of path puzzle.

 

Making the last Siren Marin was the ultimate twist.

It clues you in to the fact that the end isn't where you think that it is.

 

The various ring sidequests are all optional.

They mostly improve your quality of life more than anything else.

 

Getting the Ocarina of the Sirens is a requirement for viewing the post-game content.

You're one step closer to fulfilling your dreams!

It boosts the strength of healing, the damage done by Song of Storms and the length of the Remembrance of Shadows.

I couldn't think of any real way to boost the Song of Soaring.

[ywkls]

Part 30

 

Beating Kamek is the second requirement for accessing the post-game.

I made sure that the reward was more than worth it.

The fairies actually open up the post-game dungeon when you complete their instructions.

 

At least I didn't lock the Green Joy Ring behind the optional boss?

Honestly, I sort of ran out of ideas for rings to a certain extent.

 

Level 9 is a definite thing.

It is quite easily the largest dungeon I have ever made.

Making the intro sequence would have been nice, but difficult.

There are a lot of high tier enemies here and a complex path to follow.

 

You know how completely lost you can get in level 9?

While designing it, I actually forgot to make some rooms useful.

So they had to be adjusted later.

 

I tried to make a lot of the area friendly to repeat visits by having shortcuts along the way.

Of course, having the Song of Soaring makes it possible to create your own warp points you can go back to.

 

Bombrobes are a replacement for Mirror Robes.

Of course, I may still have those later.

 

The permanent statue puzzle is new for level 9.

When moved, they stay in position when you leave the screen.

[ywkls]

Part 31

 

I think that the biggest problem with level 9 is the existence of the two branching paths.

Both of these have locks on them along with more keys which you can acquire.

 

To my credit, I did go back over the dungeon and tried to add a large number of shortcuts where you visited areas multiple times.

You can take either route first and then must take the other one in order to progress.

 

Some of the concept behind the dungeon is that the floors are mirrors of one another.

There is one floor facing each of the 4 directions.

The sides with waterfalls are vertical, while those with sunbeams are upside-down.

This dungeon is very easy to get lost in.