The quest's subscreen has been revamped! Now the useless HP/Magic Crystal counters are no longer filling up the subscreen, and replaced with something much more interesting: Treasures!
This feature comes straight out of Kirby Super Star's Great Cave Offensive, which forms the whole premise of that game - Kirby has gone underground in a weird and wonderful world to collect treasure! While not serving any significant combat purpose in this quest like everything else (including the Essences), the treasures play an important role in the premise of the quest; after all, this is what Hal came for in the end. Every treasure Hal collects contributes to the amount of Rupees his haul (located in the bottom center of the subscreen) is worth, which is displayed in the subscreen. Each playthrough of the quest will contain 15 treasures, as indicated by the number of boxes at the bottom center section of the subscreen, that are randomly selected out of a pool of at least 30 possible treasures; which are determined by random at the beginning of the quest.
Note: There are no "raw" Rupees present in the quest - The only Rupees that Hal obtains on this adventure is through his treasure, provided he makes it out alive. Good luck!
"Wait, why are you showing this subscreen again?"
The addition of the treasures section is not the only new addition to the subscreen, and this other thing also forms the second part of this update:
Hal's shielded sprites are finally finished; this means Hal can now finally block projectiles with ease. His magical shield, the oddly named Strawberry Shield, can block any and all projectiles sent flying at him with a few exceptions and he gets this from the start of the quest.
Sounds OP, right? Well, it is kind of when you look at the raw stats. Firstly, there will be threats that circumvent the shield; Bubbles not only take away your sword and item usage, but also your shield usage, while certain enemies may arc their shots at you instead of firing them at you directly to bypass the shield altogether. Secondly; has the Mirror Shield broken any quest in the same way that the Gold Ring, Master Sword or Fire Boomerang has? No.
And with that's the second update for Hal's Great Cave Offensive over and done with. Before I close off, I will leave a few words:
I don't predict a demo to be coming out anytime soon thanks to having to balance multiple projects, one of which is major, with University so they don't get in my way during my Uni work. Earliest will probably be the Fall Expo if that is happening this year.
Finally, listen to this:
My current candidate for the starting area's theme. I found the OST for it, which will be present in the quest along with the midi.
Edit: Finally embedded the Youtube video
Edited by Orithan, 04 June 2015 - 09:49 PM.
