Edited 21 May 2016 - 07:48 AM
This review will have spoilers. Proceed only if you've beaten the quest or don't actually care and are just reading these for fun or something.
Looking at the other reviews here, I may be called out as a heretic for not giving this quest a 5. The main issue I had with it is that I wasn't sure what it was trying to be. Evan said it best: "It's like a cyclone of design philosophies and styles hit Fort Moosh and this was dragged away in the wreckage". There are so many dungeons in this quest that had gimmicks I absolutely loved, but the few that had things like required damage in Dark World 1, or the lights turning off and on in the first floor of Chaos Spire that didn't add difficulty, for me at least, and was more just an annoyance. There were excellent ideas that just couldn't be executed well, too. Light World 8 comes to mind. It was a fantastic concept, but it felt so clunky and slow that I just can't say it was that good. (Oh, by the way, I should mention I am reviewing this as of the 23 Apr 2016 update)
That out of the way, I guess I'll do this how I said I'd do most quest reviews:
Gameplay: Again, this quest has a lot going for it. The light world being linear, followed by the non-linear nature of the dark world simply due to the amount of things you have by then felt like a nice change of pace to quests that are really just one or the other. As for the dungeons themselves, there's so much to talk about here. Some dungeons were well designed around their gimmick and it worked out nicely, e.g. Light World 1, Light World 3/4 (whichever was the water one, I forget), and the final dungeon. However, there were a few that had problems like the gimmick being annoying, or the dungeon just not fitting well with it, eg. Dark World 1, Light World 8 (again, fantastic concept that just, I feel, COULDN'T be executed properly. Maybe it could with heavy scripting, but if you're going to do that, better to scrap it altogether), and Light World 7. This odd mix of good and bad is really inconsistent and meant that some dungeons lasted way longer than others simply because they had something I couldn't get past for awhile (Dark World 1 is the main offender of this with all the required damage, and I now hate Patras with a burning passion). I can't really give an overall here because it all feels like it mixes together and then cancels out.
Music and Story: Music choice for many dungeons was fantastic, even when the music was barely audible. That said though, there were times when the music was barely audible, and then times it was way too loud. The audio balancing was as bad as my videos' audio balancing. Still, music choice was great, and having to change the volume now and again didn't change that. As for story, at first I was sure this quest didn't have one, but then it suddenly decided to? I thought that getting the Hookshot, as the title suggests, was my quest. But suddenly there was Ganon and Poek and Zelda and I don't even know any more. That said, it was a pretty basic plot after it revealed itself: Save Zelda from a power hungry boss with an ego. It was pretty cliche, but I feel like it was trying to be (especially since God Poek straight up asks "CAN THIS BE ANY MORE CLICHE?"). Overall, the music was great, but the plot/story feels negligible.
Graphics: This may be the best point of the quest. Graphic choice for areas was fantastic, and I could see the intention behind... most of it. Areas like the Blu Forest and the Eyesore Forest stood out to my memory simply for choosing the unorthodox color choice (even if I could have been better without my eyes being destroyed by shades of pink) and I could see the intention behind most of them. The dark world's uniformity made it equally memorable as it contrasted the light world's diversity in nearly the same way Metroid Prime 1 and Prime 2 do (an odd comparison, but a view I've always held). Custom bosses looked nice, custom enemies equally so, and dungeons all had good color choice and usage (even if I don't like disco dungeons, I'm aware of the amount of people that do, so I won't judge. I see the appeal behind many colors happening in one space, even if it gives me a splitting headache). Themes were made all the more clear by choice of graphics and colors and overall it was just fantastic (Oh, and I actually loved Octorok mode. Even if it took away the mirror shield, I loved the idea).
Pros:
- Good use of graphics and music.
- Many creative concepts.
- Oktorok mode! Lightning Sword! Gold Tunic! Random little things that made the quest that much more enjoyable.
- No rupees was actually a concept that ended up being much better than I originally thought. Having items like potions and shields be free, just hard to get to, was actually better than needing to rupee grind, or just having way too many.
Cons:
- Oddly fluctuating design concepts.
- Dark World 1
- Random glitches sprinkled around that made things either cheeseable (which I guess could be a pro), or ended up being an hindrance.
Overall: Back to what I said at first, my main problem is that I didn't really get a feel for what the quest was trying to be. Was it a joke quest? There were points I certainly thought so. Is it a serious quest? There were an equal amount of points where I thought so. Even with all the jokes and required damage sprinkled around, the quest blurred the line between joke and serious and it was just... weird. That said, though, nearing the end of it, I found myself becoming nostalgic about the better points of the quest, and even a few of the bad ones. So much of it will stick to my memory like glue and I can't, in good conscious, call this a bad quest. All of that being said, this quest gets my rating of 3.5/5 (rounds up to 4). Despite the flaws, being as numerous as they may, the numerous right design choices keep the quest afloat and keep me playing. Now, I wonder if LQftH2 is a massive improvement... Only one way to find out.
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Deedee
and
Moosh
like this
, it makes it all the more gratifying. Levels are awesome in style and music (Frog's theme remix in level 1 was particularly memorable, as was the Mario Romhack level itself). Bosses are engaging and only get more interesting as the quest advances, with the final boss being quite impressive. I was admittedly stuck for a little while on the final phase until I maneuvered my way to victory. Bringing back the Rivers of Joy midi from Hero of Dreams was a great touch as that is a fantastic overworld theme choice. And let's not forget the humor. I don't think I've laughed at so many message strings in a row as I did here. You have quite the gift for the comedic, my friend. ("I have nothing to say because I'm a useless NPC"...hahaha)
