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TLoZ: Crucible Crest

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Crucible Crest Announcement+Demo!


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#16 Matthew

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Posted 26 January 2021 - 07:23 PM

So, I've given this a whirl, and I can comfortably say that this quest handles the absolute best out of any ZC project I've ever played. The way the enemy knockback works feels so satisfying, and the bow actually feels good to use, which I certainly didn't expect.

 

The atmosphere overall is wonderful. The overworld is beautifully detailed and the dungeon really nailed the creepy crypt atmosphere. You can tell that a lot of thought and care went into this project, from the spiders that crawled out of the pit to the moblin cutscene early on; so many touches are here that weren't really necessary, but were added nonetheless. I truly appreciate that level of care and detail.

 

The demo took me about 20 minutes or so to beat, and might have taken about half an hour if I tried to scour every last corner after the dungeon. For the scope of this quest, I'd say that's pretty appropriate.

 

First quest remakes/reimaginings are pretty common, although I personally enjoy seeing how people can push the limits of the classic Zelda overworld; I'm more than willing to look past the fact that this is the OG Hyrule map at its core. Truthfully, I wouldn't have realized as much if you didn't spell it out for me.

 

As for criticisms, I only really have two: For starters, I feel that the stamina system doesn't really affect gameplay much. Perhaps items will be added down the road that makes it relevant. However, as far as the candle goes, stamina basically doesn't matter at all. Secondly, I think the level of detail might be just a bit *too* much at times;  the screens have a lot going on, and it makes it a bit hard to parse what's going on at-a-glance.

 

In all, though, this is fantastic work. If I had to rate it, I'd give a 4.95/5.00. I'm really excited to see what Sheik and Mitch do here going forward! <3


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#17 Aslion

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Posted 26 January 2021 - 11:06 PM

My best speedrun time of the demo is 4:38 if anyone wants to challenge that :)


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#18 Moosh

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Posted 26 January 2021 - 11:19 PM

Just beat the demo, felt really polished all around. I was skeptical how the new enemy knockback system would work but it actually felt really authentic to how I remember the gameboy games. Link's hitbox feels a little big, but I figure that's just a ZC thing. The main thing I'd look out for in future versions is text wordiness. Some commonly visited areas like the shops and campfires have strings that play every single time you use them, which is fine for the demo but could get grating during extended play. The extra flavor in these places is nice but I'd suggest having it remember which messages you've seen and shortening them on revisits. I don't think the quest being a Zelda 1 remake is too apparent aside from the usual spots, though I'd gladly welcome any future straying from the path. Having Gohma and Mothula in level 1 instead of Aquamentus is a welcome twist.

 

Thanks for making this, you guys. :)


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#19 Mitchfork

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Posted 27 January 2021 - 12:31 AM

NoeL:

I think campfire visibility has been a common refrain from testers and people that have played the demo, so we'll definitely try to work on revising it a little bit in the future. As for level of detail... well, no promises, haha. That's not just Sheik, that's my style too. It's hard to kill the part of you that learned on DoR 2.0, you know?

I think that the map layouts for the dungeons and even overworld will be different enough to make this work for people that don't really want or need a Z1 remake - and I hope that the story stuff is interesting too, for the people that care about that.
 

Matthew: 

 

So happy you enjoyed the extra touches.  We bounced a lot of ideas back and forth for stuff... that Moblin was one of the first things that we decided on doing, actually.  Glad to hear about your impression of the world too - my "vision" for this is something where your general sense of where things are is correct, but the scale of the world, specific layout, and more modern sense of item progression make it pretty different in the hands.
 
The magic meter is definitely planned for future items.  It is very relevant if you're doing a swordless run, as the candle becomes your main weapon... of course, that's way to niche to be a real justification.  We have considered it for the bow charging... it does kind of seem wrong to me for the bow charge to "dual resources", though. This is something that Sheik and I have talked back and forth on though and maybe I'll come around to it, or we can integrate it a little more strongly in other ways.
 

Moosh: 

 

Link's hitbox is definitely bigger than it is in the GB games - I think it's an 8x8 box in those, instead of the full 16x16 that it is in ZC.  I don't think Link's hitbox is adjustable, even in 2.55.  I could adjust the hitboxes on all the enemies to compensate, but this has ripple effects on weapons too... plus it just gets to be a lot of changes.  

 
Text wordiness was a complaint by one of our testers as well, but I didn't want to go through and update all the strings and add the variables to track with the rest of the demo being complete.  I'll definitely try to make a system for reducing that friction, though.
 
Thanks for playing it!!

 


My best speedrun time of the demo is 4:38 if anyone wants to challenge that :)

 

Submit video of the run to Twin Galaxies for official verification, thank you


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#20 P-Tux7

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Posted 27 January 2021 - 01:10 PM

Also... slightly bummed that this is yet another Z1 rehash. I personally would've preferred original maps, but it's not the end of the world.

Funnily enough my criticism extends more to the graphics than it being a Z1 remake. It doesn't graphically imitate the planned Z1 Game Boy remake that turned into Oracles (less saturated palette, has transparency that the GBC couldn't do, etc.), but it doesn't quite look like a remade game. It feels a little generic in that sense. Like, if Mothula uses her Oracles sprites I'm just gonna be reminded of that game instead of this feeling like a whole new Zelda game that can stand on its own two feet. Is it wrong of me to talk about immersion? Legend of Link was halfway there with the character sprites, it just didn't have new tiles, so that definitely proves it can be done and still look good.


Edited by P-Tux7, 27 January 2021 - 01:26 PM.

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#21 NoeL

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Posted 27 January 2021 - 03:14 PM

That too, though I feel it's slightly more of an ask for an original tileset than it is original maps. The art here looks good and is cohesive, so I'm happy with it.

I do find it kind of interesting that GBC tilesets are so common. Feels like such a waste to have an 8-bit palette (i.e. 256 colour) but stick to 3-colour tile limitations. Goes to show just how good the GBC art is!
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#22 leastamongmen

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Posted 28 January 2021 - 09:23 AM

Love it. I age-gapped past the GB stuff, and this looks like a great tribute to both the original and the GB series. Great style and execution, can't wait!
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#23 Mitchfork

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Posted 28 January 2021 - 05:14 PM

Funnily enough my criticism extends more to the graphics than it being a Z1 remake. It doesn't graphically imitate the planned Z1 Game Boy remake that turned into Oracles (less saturated palette, has transparency that the GBC couldn't do, etc.), but it doesn't quite look like a remade game. It feels a little generic in that sense. Like, if Mothula uses her Oracles sprites I'm just gonna be reminded of that game instead of this feeling like a whole new Zelda game that can stand on its own two feet. Is it wrong of me to talk about immersion? Legend of Link was halfway there with the character sprites, it just didn't have new tiles, so that definitely proves it can be done and still look good.

 

Certainly I think it would be ideal if we / other quests had truly unique graphics, but the reality is that we have to work where we can and with what we can.  Creating art assets is simply not where my skill (or passion) is as a hobby game dev.  Now Sheik is actually great at that part - but still swinging a whole tileset would just be impossible for us in any practical sense.  We chose a set that we're both really comfortable with using and fit the scope of the project.

 

That too, though I feel it's slightly more of an ask for an original tileset than it is original maps. The art here looks good and is cohesive, so I'm happy with it.

I do find it kind of interesting that GBC tilesets are so common. Feels like such a waste to have an 8-bit palette (i.e. 256 colour) but stick to 3-colour tile limitations. Goes to show just how good the GBC art is!

 

Not only that, it's also super versatile. One of the real benefits of using LA/Oracle sets that's only apparent if you've used a couple of different tilesets is that it has a large variety of biomes, a really high number of dungeon walls/floor tiles, huge number of NPC tiles, etc. etc... with other sets you usually sacrifice on a few of these areas, or they're taking from such a variety of sources (DoR, Pure) that you lose some of the cohesiveness.  


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#24 Sheik

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Posted 08 March 2021 - 06:58 AM

I'm super happy Deathrider / Tytanium DeathHill recorded a Let's Play of our demo! You can find it here:

https://www.youtube....h?v=yPBiyUGHkvE

 

Thanks again!


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#25 Rambly

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Posted 13 March 2021 - 03:54 AM

Decent quest, but nowhere near as groundbreaking as this author's previously released Zelda 1 Voice Acted.  3/5


Edited by poiuytrewq, 13 March 2021 - 03:54 AM.

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