Shane's Hot Reviews (Tentative Title)
Hey guys, Shane here clearly not ripping off anyone's really neat thread ideas or anything. But seriously, I tried doing reviews in the past, but they ended up being really poor and short. Some of those reviews I no longer agree with myself. I'm here to give myself a second chance at reviewing. I will be picking what I review based on what I want to play and review, so no requests please!
So you may be wondering where is my rating system section here in this post, explaining what the ratings stand for. If you are truly wondering ... I'm not including ratings. Yep, you heard me clear as day, these reviews will not contain a final rating! I feel like a review can speak for itself whether if the reviewer enjoyed it or not. That, and I do not want people to skip the entire review to see the rating, because a rating is not critical or as educational as a review. Every review will contain some critique and praise, but there may be exceptions to the latter! Hopefully the wording can be interpreted where I think it fits on a scale of five.
My review will not contain a music section, mainly because I am not good at giving out feedback when it comes to music. Of course, if the music choice is really jarring, I will take note and put it in my review. The story section will be cut out too if the story follows the first quest's story. I will try to review less first quest clones, though, so don't worry. Also, dungeon design and overworld design will get their own sub sections, mainly because I have played quests where dungeons were better than overworlds and vice versa. There may be other things you may have not seen in the other review threads either, but I'm not going to list them all. I will note that that after each review post I will include a small index list for easy navigation should this thread see full activity and life from me.
Also when I mean "section" I just mean either one or few paragraphs. The review will be "whole" and not "sectioned".
Without further ado, may I reveal my first review. Admittedly, I was a tad paranoid with this choice, but I checked to see if there were approval from others, and they said it should be an okay entry to review. So yeah, I went ahead and reviewed it anyway. Note that this quest can be assumed pretty much dead - which is why I was concerned of reviewing it in the first place - or the author has put this on a majorly long hiatus. With that said...
Zelda III Return of Link (Demo)
By Cukeman
When I heard first saw this quest showcased on the forums, it used a more dull, low quality modified Classic tileset than what we saw presented in the demo. Personally, while I liked it, it had a lot of flaws in it, and I'm fairly certain Cukeman acknowledged this and decided to start over. He clearly took note in this article, explaining the NES that never was, and used that as a reference and guide to build a really nice enhanced classic tileset. It was a start of a quest with the potential to become beyond amazing.
He personally showed me some content he wanted to keep closed until the ZC 2012 Spring Expo opened to the public, and I was easily speechless. The sheer amount of improvements he had made were just commendable and Cukeman deserved nothing but my full respect for trying his hardest.
Of course, it is a shame that problems got the best of him, putting this quest to a halt either for good or for a long while.
.
You can easily notice this quest had a lot of effort put into it. And it was a effort beyond well done, for Cukeman made some pretty sick custom sprite work. He had talent for spriting and screen design for sure -- although some areas I found pretty bland, with this screen below being the worst offender. It is a damn shame, since it's clearly evident that Cukeman has taste in design and pretty much making some beautiful screens.
The premise in the development thread goes as follows:
After being slain by his dark self in Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, our hero
finds himself in the underworld, realm of the dead. Is Link doomed forever?
They say that "you can't take it with you", and Link discovers how true that is
as he begins this quest with nothing but the tunic on his back...
...It really wasn't that well written, but the concept is nice none the less, and in-game, it is presented better too through neat little cutscenes that were a treat to watch since they were so climatic and well developed. The quest sets in the realm of the dead, a barren wasteland filled with death. Graves, dead trees, ghost, the undead... You can pretty much say it's pretty dark and mature in atmosphere unlike the happy, colourful visuals we see in most official Zelda games. I personally like this grim, evil setting; it sets the quest apart from other quests, so kudos there on that aspect. And beyond the originality, the colours and overall theme is just nicely done.
Most dialogue... overuse "..."... too much... how sad...
It also features many surreal locations that suit the death theme, from a massive wasteland graveyard, to a giant skull, to even the limbo itself. Take note that, it really helps the theme of the quest using areas suited around it. This is why Cukeman's world in Return of Link feels so professional and Nintendo-official. The zombies move a tad slow, making a few screens tedious to navigate, making the intro drag instead of being more well paced. Also speaking of a area beforehand, I do question if Limbo is really needed, unless there was some purpose behind it that I don't know of. But until I learn why it exists, it just felt like a waste of time on the player's end rather than making the quest more immersive.
The dungeon is where the quest no longer felt like a remake of the old unfinished version of Cukeman's quest. Instead it felt like it got the A Link Between Worlds treatment, remaking a generic dungeon into something amazing, fun and memorable. It certainly has a lot more polish than the other version. The dungeon wall perspective was different too, making the dungeon feel even more unique.
You can say, I found it remarkable in both gameplay and visual terms. The hint coin system really helps if you get lost, but hints come with a price - you must find coloured coins in the dungeon. The more early coins give hints for early puzzles, and the later coins give hints for... well, the later puzzles.
You may think this has some basic, straight forward classic gameplay, but it's kind of a mix between classic and modern gameplay, especially showing with its puzzles. It really is a nice mixture, and it makes the quest extremely fun for both people who prefer either classic or modern gameplay. Some puzzles were a bit too obscure and cryptic, such as walk through walls, in spite of hints pointing their existence out. Also spikes appearing underneath you is a bit harsh...
The dungeon item here is Super Bombs... Yeah, it may sound ridiculous, but thankfully, they are nerfed almost to the point where some enemies are immune to them. So the use of normal, standard blue bombs are also needed too, for the dungeon and the dungeon boss. Speaking of who, the dungeon boss is possibly the best boss I've seen, visual wise. The cutscene is amazing too. It may not look like much, but the effort is truly welcoming.
The boss seemed unbeatable. I realized I played this in the wrong version! Overall though, this quest has a professional vibe, and unfinished or not, I personally suggest you give this a try and learn a thing or two from this. It's a darn shame this is no longer in production, after this amount of effort. I hope one day Cukeman will pick it up, in the meantime, all we have is this fantastic demo.
Stay tuned for Review #2! What quest will I review? Wait and see!
Edited by Shane, 04 January 2016 - 05:49 PM.
