Completed my hard mode run the other day, and boy was it a journey. The *Lunaria* update really polishes everything about the quest that had been iffy before (hell I actually enjoyed the Ultimate Test/Moosh's Ways to a point because they were so challenging, but at the same time they were optional so I felt that mitigated alot of the frustration in the end), mainly the slightly bland overworld...not that it was terrible: because I know that I wouldn't be able to make much better haha. The new scripted tricks alot of enemies had were very interesting. I'm not a huge fan of the hopping darknuts and the ones that slam dunk you but I guess that's their charm haha. All other foes were awesome to look at and fight.
This applies to both versions of the quest but I absolutely love the music choice for the dark overworlds: the Final fantasy 3 boundless ocean theme. It lends such an air of despair to that overworld which is shared by the difficult enemies you fight there as well as the darker palette in the original and the varied enviroments of the update. It just fit so well and now I have that midi stuck in my head all the time now it feels like haha.
The new dungeons are epic, especially the MMMM one which is obviously a nod to the indie game VVVVV. The original Veni Vidi Vici wasn't that bad imo, but it did have its fair share of annoyances of course. How it was pulled off to mimic VVVV in ZC is well beyond me but I've given up trying to understand this creator's genius by now (Gg, Moosh, Gg The boss of the Let's Play Tower is the hardest in the quest apart from the secret boss in my opinion, but as I'm led to understand Evan was responsible for that one, that doesn't surprise me... :O
I tend to ramble alot in my reviews so I'll just end by saying that I somehow managed pull off the entire quest in Hard Mode and the secret boss in Anarchy. The latter still blows my mind but I have picture proof if anyone is interested haha.
So hats off to an amazing quest (pun intended obviously ..........and if Link's Quest for Canada or whatever third Hookshot quest is a thing, I hope it's a thing.
Fantastic job to all involved

I've heard I may be the first to clear everything in this quest on Anarchy. Yes, it's possible (but there are two specific problems I'll touch on in a bit). Was it worth it? I honestly can't say. But, as that is a joke difficulty, I won't factor annoyance stemming from how it works into my rating.

I'll start with a comment on the writing. The plot feels like Moosh took the story of Romancing SaGa 2 and dumped a truckload of Zelda and PureZC in-jokes on it; the fact that the two games essentially share......shows that this isn't just me. However, this didn't really bother me for three reasons:

• I've never actually played Romancing SaGa 2. (I only know about the connection because of an old Super Mario World romhack. Free cookie for anyone who knows which one.)
• This feels like it was meant more as an homage to ZC and its community than as a serious standalone work.
• Most importantly, Moosh is freaking hilarious.

As for the dialogue... well, refer to one line above. A few nitpicks, though (one about a bonus dungeon, the other about the superboss): With that out of the way, let's get into the level design. As many others seem to have mentioned before, Level 8 is hard on the eyes. I love the mechanics of it, but I couldn't look at the dark red color scheme for very long without getting a headache. Also, any room with what I call Nukerobes (the green guys that attack with massive circling explosions) tended to be little more than a matter of dodging everything until they attacked, which would usually kill everything else in short order; this did make sense, but felt a little cheap. Finally, there's one of the two Anarchy issues I mentioned before: the signature wind mechanic turns the nonsensical floor of the LP Tower (NJF's?) from an amusing experience into pure RNG hell. The statues spew so much wind that neither side of the northeast room can be passed consistently, even by running into enemies to avoid getting swept up. Everything else was great, especially all of the new dungeon and weapon mechanics (of which there were a great many), and all I have left in this section is a question: how do you get to the potion in Level 5's basement (if it's even possible)?

Next: the bosses. The first five Deadly Sins were easy, even on Anarchy, but the last two were a lot harder, though this was in keeping with the difficulty spike of the Dark World. I felt like Eppy was a lot easier than the other "Seven," though I'm guessing some of his shots' properties were lost when converted to wind. Regardless, they all had their charm, even if I never did realize which item is useful against Sloth and how (which, in retrospect, should have been obvious anyway). Lust and the LP Tower boss made me laugh pretty hard, the final boss was well executed, and the Dangerfree boss and superboss were absolutely beautiful. The latter of those in particular kept me on my toes; despite what I said earlier about its lore and design, it's not a fight to be missed. (Loved the riddle, too!) The other Anarchy bug I ran into (which has already been passed along to Moosh) is that one particular attack by the final boss is converted into a circular wall of wind that never disappears. The attack is rare enough that it's no more annoying than the rest of Anarchy mode, but it still strikes me as something that shouldn't happen, especially given that being caught in it traps you until you F6.

Finally, the music. The only tracks I can really complain about are the Light overworld one (which, while fitting as a general track, suffered from a really grating MIDI) and the superboss theme (which felt selected more to drive home the attempted reference than to contribute to the fight's atmosphere, though I'm glad you didn't go with the obvious choice). The rest of it served its purpose well.

Overall, a must-play for anyone who wants to know what modern ZC is all about. Very few of my major gripes are really applicable outside a joke difficulty, and most of those in turn aren't things I think I'm allowed to dock points for, so this gets a 5.

I've played through this game twice. I enjoyed the original iteration of the game already barring the bonus dungeons, but now playing through the new version, this has easily become my favorite quest in the database. The dungeons are good and those bonus dungeons are incredibly fun. The only dungeon I wish had changed a bit was Level 8, and the only thing that should change is that color scheme. The colors are painful and hard to look at! There is just so much fun stuff and extras, that this quest is a must play.

Also, you have a good sense of humor! I always enjoyed seeing what the description of the items were and some of the dialogue was great. I'm not going to write a super detailed review, but the entire thing is fantastic and well-balanced. Great job!

Finally got around to beating this quest and I must say, I was pleasantly surprised by this and I had a fantastic time with the quest. I beat this on Normal mode, was close to 100% and all I got left is the superboss, but I might as well review this now.

Starting off with the great things, the screen design is great. The overworld especially looks beautiful and each area looks so varied and different with lots of cool secrets and places to go to. The enemy balance is perfect with things not too hard or two easy, the bosses are all amazingly done (including the LPers) and the bonus dungeons are really awesome. VVVVVV is easily my favourite of the lot, but now all we need is a Geometry Dash level and I can die happy. The quest flowed really nicely and getting from area to area wasn't a hassle at all. The shortcuts between overworld areas and dungeons were very convenient too. The dungeons were all pretty unique in their own way. Level 8 especially is easily the best dungeon. I've never seen that kind of dungeon gimmick before, so congrats on making a dungeon with such a unique idea.

There were a couple downsides and odd things I found, though most of them are pretty minor. For one, it can be very hard to see where you are going when you're in the two forest areas of the quest because of the overhang decorations. That can get a little frustrating to navigate through most of the time. Talking about overhang, I also found this layer bug. I also happened to get myself stuck here when entering from the screen to the right. This also happened while I was in Patra's Ways. One of those Hookshotrobes phased into the pit and then shot out its Hookshots. I got caught by one and grabbed me into the pit, where I could walk around. As I went one screen down though, I was stuck in an infinite falling loop and the only way out was to F6. Another thing I would like to mention is how the Red Ring and Gold Ring were both available at the same time. Since the VVVVVV dungeon wasn't all that hard, people can easily just go straight to the Gold Ring, skipping the Red Ring, and making it useless. It would probably be better to hold off the Gold Ring until a later point in the quest (maybe even after Level 7). Again though, it isn't really a big deal, but just wanted to make a suggestion. I also wish the dungeons had the same quality of design as the overworld, especially the earlier dungeons, but ah well.

Overall, this was a truly fantastic quest. I enjoyed a lot of it, and even though I did come across some problems (though not many), I still had a blast with it. But there was no Eddy references so 0/5 Nah not really, easy 5/5 from me. Expect an LP from me in the near future, definitely looking forward to playing this again!

...now to figure out how to unlock the superboss lol

Moosh you have made a masterpiece. The gameplay is incredible with custom bosses that are absolutely stunning. The more I play the more I want to see. Congrats Moosh

Dude, this crashes ZC as soon as I enter the name and click ok. With compatibility (windows 7) it throws exceptions, guess I'll debug. I'm using windows 10, ZC 2.5.2.

Since I already reviewed the older version of this game, I felt like making a comment about the update.

Moosh, I'm full of envy. You asked me if you could create an overworld in the style of TRIFORCE, and you've made an overworld that is now forcing me to up my game. TRIFORCE has nothing on this overworld. At least I can now say that if TRIFORCE never comes to be, that the tileset itself at least made it's official debut and sign of recognition here. I couldn't possibly match this.

The new dungeons are great, and I loved using the LP weapons.

Your Superboss may be a little cheap, but it was fun to play. It may not have left a lasting impression as Tartaros from Isle of Rebirth, it's a very well crafted boss that you can tell has a lot of heart put into it. While it literally pisses the world off. lol

At this point right now, I'd be more or less satisfied just stopping quest design altogether and just play more great quests by Moosh. But I got a promise to keep and a few new quests to complete. Keep making more great quests like this one, Moosh! I'll be looking forward to it.

Thanks so much for updating this. I really enjoyed replaying this quest

Very psyched that this has received a huge update. Already downloaded and will play it soon You have once again surpassed expectations, Moosh. This sounds and looks incredible!

Gonna give this a spin if I ever have any goddamn time, I beat your previous version and thought gameplay was ok.
Overworld was pretty bad though, can't wait to see what's in store.