Ok, let's list the quests that've stuck in my memory:
- The Revenge 2 (PrinceMSC)
- Sabotage Dragoon demo (c-dawg)
- At least one of PolygonX8's Metroid quests
- Lost Isle (DarkFlameWolf and Peteo)
- Mysteries of the Deep tech demo (blue_knight)
- Crucible Crest demo (Mitchfork and Shiek)
All of these quests did something different, and all of them did something new.
The Revenge 2 was ground-breaking from a visual and level-design perspective: it had a custom tileset (mix of BS and GB graphics), exploited room items to have "animated tiles" before those were a thing, "freeform" dungeons (i.e. not the square rooms from Z1 that we were used to), and generally fantastic OW and dungeon design. Pretty sure the tile and map limits were maxed out too, making it (in terms of scope) the largest quest possible in 1.90 - and it happens to be the perfect length for a quest IMO (~5 hours, give or take)! The pinnacle of 1.90 quests, and my all-time favourite quest.
Sabotage Dragoon introduced narrative in a way I'd never seen. It was the first time I'd seen dialogue boxes with character portraits in a quest, and the protagonist would have conversations with NPCs. Add to that the really nice art style and level design and this one stood out to me. Don't think this quest was ever finished, but the demo was enjoyable and memorable.
PolygonX8 made a handful of Metroid quests back in the 1.90 days. I think I played them all, but I can't remember what any of them were called - they were all fairly similar from memory. What made this memorable was the creative transformation of Metroid mechanics into Zelda mechanics - particularly using flippers to substitute the morph ball. The custom art was also a nice touch.
Lost Isle was probably the most ambitious quest of its time, and arguably one of the most ambitious quests ever. Whereas most ambitious quests crash and burn due to bloated scope and developer burnout, DFW was a creator known for following through with her projects - often in record time. At this point she already had a portfolio of solid, occasionally great quests (Isle of the Winds was another that sticks with me), and Peteo had made a name for himself with the critically-acclaimed MMDWR. While I personally never got that far into Lost Isle (it just wasn't that fun to play, at least for me at that time in my life) the scope, level variety and overall polish was exceptional. Also I drew a huge overworld map for that quest, which I guess also makes it more memorable.
Mysteries of the Deep was frickin' Wolfenstein 3D in Zelda Classic. The dude built a raycaster engine in ZScript! Sadly blue_knight disappeared without a trace, leaving all his awesome zcripted tech demos to languish. I also did a bit of work on a tileset for this one, feeling the DoR graphics didn't fit the dungeons well.
I don't play many modern quests due to time/ZC apathy, but Crucible Crest was one I checked out (mainly because Sheik and I are buddies) and absolutely loved. This is kind of an honourable mention because I couldn't remember the name of the quest at all (and TBH, it's a bit of a mouthful). But it still stuck in my memory as a heavily customised Z1 "remake" with a high degree of fun and polish. Exceptional design in all fields, and I'm highly anticipating the final release.
So in conclusion, what I find memorable in quests can be summed up as: ambitious (pushing the boundaries), creative (something novel, unique or interesting) and polished (fun, stable, succinct, high-quality).
Edited by NoeL, 12 August 2021 - 09:02 PM.