I liked this quest...until I didn't.
I liked the look of it and I had a pretty good time playing it but there were some spots that were too cryptic. I spent a long time wandering trying to find Level 6 which was annoying and really slowed down the momentum of the quest. I kept playing and finally found it but the issue repeated itself with the hunt for Level 8. I spent hours looking for it, got bored and gave up. Its a super big bummer to invest so much time into a quest and not be able to finish it.
P.S. your hint for finding Level 8 ("Use super bomb in Light world") is both inadequate and telling that you knew it was too difficult to find. Its too bad that you didnt just fix the difficulty for finding levels 6 and 8 because the flow and momentum of the quest would have been much better, and overall it would have been a more fun and gratifying experience.
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Taleran Dark Rule
Overview
Feature Quest
Creator:
RetraRoyale
Genre: Dungeon Romper
Added: 16 Jul 2013
Updated: 25 Jul 2013
ZC Version: 2.50
Downloads: 573
Rating[?]:
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Download Quest (0.65 MB) |
Information
A fun, linear quest with plenty to explore. Enjoy it!
About Reviews Comments Forum Topics
Description
This is my first quest, made sometime around 2001-2002. It's quite fun and moderately challenging. It's one of the more fun quests I've played, but maybe I'm just biased. It rewards thorough exploration, and get's pretty easy once you get better equipment.
I've updated the quest to be a little less cryptic in places, and added some minor details. Fixed some graphical errors (barring pallette issues, but I didn't understand sprite palettes when I made this, and I don't want to fix it... The bosses will look bad, so just kill them in mercy.) Level 9 is a little boring and straightforward, but now it's not so cheap.
Edit: Tons of bug fixes.
I've updated the quest to be a little less cryptic in places, and added some minor details. Fixed some graphical errors (barring pallette issues, but I didn't understand sprite palettes when I made this, and I don't want to fix it... The bosses will look bad, so just kill them in mercy.) Level 9 is a little boring and straightforward, but now it's not so cheap.
Edit: Tons of bug fixes.
Story
The story doesn't matter. It's there, but not really anything worth repeating. I've updated the quest to allow dialog skipping, since that's what I want to do all the time. Save the girl from the evil guy. Plus, there's a dark world. (Original!)
Tips & Cheats
I made this quest a long time ago, so it's not perfect. Here's some hints:
Explore and get the boomerang and sword before Level 1.
Don't get the rune in Level 1 right away. Go down from the last room in order to get the candle first. There is also a Piece of Heart hidden under a push block.
Level 1 is a bit of a challenge, but the quest is mostly pretty easy, in my opinion.
Money is really important early on. Buy a super bomb and power glove first.
You can get the fire boomerang after you get the flippers, and that pretty much breaks the game.
Level 6 is on the fight side of the Dream World, 2 screens in. Level 8 is in the light world; use a super bomb.
There is a secret or entrance on every single screen of the over-world.
Explore and get the boomerang and sword before Level 1.
Don't get the rune in Level 1 right away. Go down from the last room in order to get the candle first. There is also a Piece of Heart hidden under a push block.
Level 1 is a bit of a challenge, but the quest is mostly pretty easy, in my opinion.
Money is really important early on. Buy a super bomb and power glove first.
You can get the fire boomerang after you get the flippers, and that pretty much breaks the game.
Level 6 is on the fight side of the Dream World, 2 screens in. Level 8 is in the light world; use a super bomb.
There is a secret or entrance on every single screen of the over-world.
Credits
Everyone that ever made the world as it was to make this possible. That's a lot of people, but some more than others; I just won't name them right now.
Also, Artistic for doing some comprehensive bug-finding.
Also, Artistic for doing some comprehensive bug-finding.
Haylee
Posted 15 March 2023 - 09:01 AM
My Final Inventory:

This one surprised me. It's a very by-the-books Z1 style quest, that clearly was edited to more recent versions over time, and it shows. As a result, I think it picks up significantly in the 2nd half of the quest, with the early game being kind of weak, due to some really cryptic design in some places. Around the point you get the lens though, I started to really enjoy just exploring the map, and finding the absolutely insane amount of tiny things that were just put everywhere. The aesthetic of the quest is strange and unusual, but in a mostly good way. The weird clashing of BS and Newfirst makes it stand out of the pack, and I actually liked it as a result.
The dungeons are very simple. It's nothing too groundbreaking, but really tiny ZC tricks here and there made it fairly fun as a discussion piece with other users while playing. My favorite dungeons, and area actually ended up being the Dream World and its optional dungeons, just because of how fun in ended up being to explore them, despite their optional nature. It felt very intentionally "unnatural" in a way that few quests I think have successfully captured, and it was cool as a result, despite those dungeons being optional. That unnatural feeling is what made it fun to explore.
My only major critiques are that, due to its simplicity, relative low difficulty, and honestly a very cryptic start, the quest is by no means for everyone. I like the simplicity and even its difficulty a lot, though. If you want a very normal Z1 clone, this quest has that in spades. As far as its low difficulty goes, I actually think that makes the quest very good for either low% runs or speedrunning. As a result of the sheer volume of secrets, it wouldn't be difficulty to route out either the fastest way to beat it, or even the path that gives you the least amount of items.
All in all, I liked the quest quite a bit, and I can recommend it to anybody who likes either very simple Z1 quests, or people who like going crazy looking for secrets. Give this one a shot if you're interested.

This one surprised me. It's a very by-the-books Z1 style quest, that clearly was edited to more recent versions over time, and it shows. As a result, I think it picks up significantly in the 2nd half of the quest, with the early game being kind of weak, due to some really cryptic design in some places. Around the point you get the lens though, I started to really enjoy just exploring the map, and finding the absolutely insane amount of tiny things that were just put everywhere. The aesthetic of the quest is strange and unusual, but in a mostly good way. The weird clashing of BS and Newfirst makes it stand out of the pack, and I actually liked it as a result.
The dungeons are very simple. It's nothing too groundbreaking, but really tiny ZC tricks here and there made it fairly fun as a discussion piece with other users while playing. My favorite dungeons, and area actually ended up being the Dream World and its optional dungeons, just because of how fun in ended up being to explore them, despite their optional nature. It felt very intentionally "unnatural" in a way that few quests I think have successfully captured, and it was cool as a result, despite those dungeons being optional. That unnatural feeling is what made it fun to explore.
My only major critiques are that, due to its simplicity, relative low difficulty, and honestly a very cryptic start, the quest is by no means for everyone. I like the simplicity and even its difficulty a lot, though. If you want a very normal Z1 clone, this quest has that in spades. As far as its low difficulty goes, I actually think that makes the quest very good for either low% runs or speedrunning. As a result of the sheer volume of secrets, it wouldn't be difficulty to route out either the fastest way to beat it, or even the path that gives you the least amount of items.
All in all, I liked the quest quite a bit, and I can recommend it to anybody who likes either very simple Z1 quests, or people who like going crazy looking for secrets. Give this one a shot if you're interested.
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