I wrote most of the following in the thread for when this quest was featured in the Quest Club, so I figured I'd memorialize that here too:

This is a superb quest and clearly a lot of love was put into it by the author. Mad kudos. A+ music (seriously - the forest, ocean, and lots of the dungeon tunes). Even the classic GB & LTTP tunes are well placed (and not overused). Others have said this quest captures the good feels of the GB Oracle games, and I agree!

With some minor polishing (better checkpoints, fixing the out-of-bounds issues, a bit more nudging the player for how to get the flute, fixing the rolling block puzzles on the mechanical island), this could be a top-15 quest (IMO) in the DB.

Given the above, I debated giving this 4/5 stars, but ultimately I still had so much FUN playing this quest that I do feel compelled to bump it to 5/5.

There is (at least) one spot late-game where it's possible to hard-lock your save-file -- spoiler: be sure to make backup saves! --

I haven't touched this quest in such a long time, and seeing the Dawn update being brought up again by people I decided to go ahead and give it a replay, and it's kinda cool how I remember bits of the quest after all this time (hell I forgot I apparently was a tester for this quest). So on my replay I think I nearly got 100% and beat it all in 19 hours, still holds up quite well for the most part, still pretty fun after all these years. I really like the oracles inspiration for this quest, I can definitely see loads of Oracle of Ages stuff especially, which makes sense considering the setting of it all. The story is fairly simple but it's fine for what the quest tries to do, and the progression is pretty well made too. The dungeons in general were very fun, quite complex in some places, while others are a little simple but not bad. The idea of most dungeons having some central gimmick is very fun and some really use that well (big fan of Level 5 for this one). I do feel some dungeons were a little lackluster, specifically Levels 8 and 9 which were kinda bland in terms of gameplay. Level 8 had a cool idea of being a tall tower but it does feel like ideas were running a little thin as the higher floors were just rooms after rooms of being in essentially a straight line. I was a bit disappointed with Level 9 since I was expecting it to be some grand final dungeon but instead it was kinda just running back and forwards between two halves, which was a bit lazy IMO (still better than what the Oracles actually did at least lol). Bosses in general were great fun, very nicely created, so that's all good.

The overworld in general was nice, I like how the world started connecting up more and more as you played further and the usage between past and present was done very well, even if some places were a little convoluted. General soundtrack was great and difficulty was very nicely balanced, so all great there. I do feel some of the script work should be refined a bit, especially when it comes to the sliding puzzles in the bonus areas (mechanical island and frozen palace were HELL). I also think it'd benefit a lot if the Reverse Rondo had a tile that lets you go back to the past, just like how the Magic Mirror would work or the Tune of Currents. Because otherwise it's very annoying to teleport back to that one place to revisit parts in the past again. I also think the quick travel song is a tad broken because there were some bird statues that didn't seem to unlock even if I was already there, but then unlocked way later into the quest. I'm not sure what the deal was there, but that can be refined a bit. There were also a few other weird bugs I came across, but the worst of them was in some sideview areas, especially in Level 7. I find that if you fall into pits or lava, Link actually just falls into the screen below which ends up getting you stuck or put you in places where you definitely shouldn't be. I suspect that can be easily fixed, but this caused a lot of issues.

One more thing is I feel while the bonus content is cool, I was quite disappointed with the end of it. It just seemingly ends with an underwhelming Patra boss and then an enchanted chest with a staircase that just cannot be reached. It definitely seems very unfinished which I can get the Dawn of Time quest was cancelled, but idk this was quite unfortunate.

Regardless though, overall this quest is still pretty solid, lots of great stuff about it and a very nice Oracle-like experience. Definitely some things which I feel didn't age too well and other design choices that were a tad questionable, and with all the bugs and other issues present I can't really give it any higher than a 4, however this is still pretty great despite all that. Very nice to revisit this classic, idk if you ever plan to make quests again but I'd love to see future stuff from you!!

So this was really something. I played the newest public database version, so before the Dawn adds but after many, many fixes and upgrades. The amount of work, time and thought that went into this is obvious. It is epic in scope and can easily provide 30+ hours of gameplay. It is quite hard, especially the first half when one only has the green tunic, but never overwhelms. I wouldn't call it a challenge quest. The bosses are mostly well designed and tough but fair. The dungeon layouts are confusing but mostly fun to explore. I can't give something made with this much content, care and feeding any less than five stars.

Having said that I do agree with points made in the reviews that this quest can walk the line between fun and tedium at times. There is a LOT to do. The overworld is big and navigation is a pain until a certain ability is unlocked. Sometimes what needs to be done between levels can take an hour or longer. Some of the fetch quests feel like busy work. I played this over a long period of time (2 months or so) and I would often forget where I had been or forgotten a place where I could later come back and advance once new abilities were gained. I had to make more trips to the help thread than I prefer and even consult a video at times to find that hidden room or lost key or solve a "how do I get THERE?!" mystery. I don't like too much hand-holding but this flirts with the other end of the spectrum. Having said that I was motivated to finish and overall had a lot of fun with this. It's a top-tier quest in the database in terms of both ambition and execution. I suspect this wasn't completely true of earlier versions, but it's true now. Play it if you haven't.

So let me get something straight first: i base mostly a game on how fun and engaging it is, the biggest sin a game can commit to me is being boring and this quest wasn't. I had a blast from start to finish. Now with the review.

Graphics: 5/5 - I'm biased (and don't honestly care) when it comes to the gameboy Zelda games, I love the graphics of those games to death and this quest used those graphics really well to me.

Overworld: 4/5 - I think the overworld has a good design, with each area feeling distinct. The main, not gonna say issue, but slight annoyance is the somewhat high aumont of backtracking. The shortcuts and the warp song did help greatly to alleviate this, so it's not a big deal. I just feel it could use some more minor improvements.

Dungeons: 5/5 - This quest has some really well designed dungeons. They never felt overly complex and convoluted, that's how like my Zelda dungeons. The puzzles were pretty well designed too and their difficulty curve is pretty balanced too. I did get stumped a few times, but it was because i wasn't noticing some obvious stuff.

Boss battles: 5/5 - This quest had some really cool boss battles. They were challenging (they actually posed a threat), had some cool attack patterns and overall fun to fight. The Mecha Zora made me laugh and the level 7 boss was really creative. I honestly never thought a boss comprised of those laughing faces from ALLTP would actually work as a fun boss battle.

Challenge - 5/5 - It had the right aumont of challenge, nothing felt cheap and unfair. Also liked that some items were optimal at killing certain types of enemies, it made me use other items besides the sword (which is an issue i have with some official zelda games).

Music: 5/5 - The choice of music was really good. I specially love Gly'cov Forest song, level 6 Magic Shrine music, level 7 Sacred Sanctum music and level 8 Deepwood Tower music. Overall, it has a solid selection of music.


So yeah, 5/5 from me.

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Edit: Staff contacted me an basically told me that I'd have to bump up my rating for all quests I have ever reviewed by one star. Note that this does not reflect my own opinion on the matter, or the quest, but just that it was something I was made required to do.
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I'm on the fence if I should give this quest a rating of 3 or 4. But at the end of the day, I find ratings to be pointless in the first place, if you want my opinion, read my review, not the rating!

So, The Flow of Time. Is it a good quest? Yes. Is it worth playing? Yeah. Certainly, I think it has a few flaws, but you'd be hard pressed to find a quest that does not have flaws.

So what is flow of time? It's a very linear quest that is inspired by the Oracle games. Most dungeon features puzzles mechanics that are unique to it and follows similar logic to the ones found in the oracle games dungeons. Though, the gimmick in level 2 and 3 are very similar, and some dungeons don't have, or don't focus on, these puzzles. Dungeon design is not incredibly streamlined, there is a fair amount of backtracking and running around in circles to progress. Most people probably won't have a huge problem with this though, but it's worth baring in mind that the dungeons are fairly long as a result.

The overworld is not your standard fare either, the majority of it is segregated into sub areas, and connectivity is fairly low. You can still get around quick enough via the games warp system, so it's not an issue per-say. But get from point A to point B (sans warping,) is as roundabout at the end of the game as it is at the start.

Combat wise the quest is now more in-line with a reasonable experience, you get the defence upgrade at a much more realistic time and the difficulty curve scales much better than previous versions of the quest. Magic management has also been made more reasonable, and the candle is a much more viable weapon then it previously was. Some of the scripted bosses come across as a bit unrefined, but they work, and it's certainly more original than just using the standard ZC bosses. The ball and chain guys over flood the final part areas of the game though, so those get a bit dull.

Graphically the quest is what you'd expect out of an Oracle game. And I mean that literally; All overworld palettes are straight up the same as those in the Oracle games and most graphics are just lifted from it. The dungeon palettes are new though, so those spice things up a bit. But generally, graphically you're not going to see anything too original in this quest, but it still looks good. The tilework is a bit hit and miss, nothing stands out as too amazing, and a few places look a bit off. It's not too problematic graphically, but some of the tilework do get in the way of the gameplay.

There is a fair amount of obfuscation in the screen design, which forces you to take long ways around things. This makes travelling around less enjoyable than what I would have wanted it to be. Steps have been taken to minimise the issue with this in later updates of the quest, but certain screens I feel should just have gotten a complete redesign. This is one of those things that people in generally are not going to take notice of, but it still hampers the experience; So I have no doubt that most people won't even notice this when they play the quest.


I may come of as harsh here, but I'm trying to describe what the quest has to offer. And I do genuinely think it's a quest worth playing. But it's worth baring in mind that the quest is very dungeon heavy, and that exploration is very low priority in the experience offered.

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You can read my old review from a previous version of the quest below. Though bare in mind that a lot has changed since then, so it's not accurate to the quest that you can download here.

So I'm playing this as I'm interested to see all the new stuff and it's been AAAAAGES since I last touched the quest. I am however trying to unlock this new side story and I used the exact password provided, and yet the NPC tells me I don't have the power of dawn. Am I missing something or did I do it too late into the story? I forgot about it until after Level 2, so if that is it then oops.

Edit: I see what it is, the password is actually YBFC1972, you probably should update that in the quest description since that has the wrong one.

how different is it from months ago when i played about 2 hours
is it worth it that i restart it?
sounds really like it is to me
so i will give it a shot soon

Where did you find the music for the special Dungeon 3 ? that sound epic for the last special dungeon where you find the Red Tunic :0

i've only just started but a few tracks have obnoxious crackling in them and it hurts my ears?? the house theme in particular has this problem.