This was an absolute gem (emerald?) to play. Having played the oracle games several times, it was nice to be in a semi-familiar area but something that was new. It felt a little strange not to get defense upgrades but the enemies were on par for a challenge but survivability. Nothing seemed particularly out of reach and I didn't come across any bugs or anything. It's very well polished and I enjoyed the story aspects too. Looking forward to more Amy adventures when they come about.
P.S. - Thanks a bunch for the warp hub. Helped a lot especially with the post-game parts!
5/5
The Legend of Amy Rose 3: Oracle of the Emerald
Overview
Feature Quest
Creator:
Eddy
Genre: Dungeon Romper
Added: 15 Apr 2018
Updated: 24 May 2018
ZC Version: 2.50.2
Downloads: 847
Rating[?]:
|
Download Quest (3.14 MB) |
Information
After 3 long years of development, the 3rd quest of the Amy Rose series is finally here!
Be sure to play this on version 2.50.2!
This quest only uses enhanced music! Download the music files below, and place them in the same folder as the quest file.
http://www.mediafire...Music Files.zip
Be sure to play this on version 2.50.2!
This quest only uses enhanced music! Download the music files below, and place them in the same folder as the quest file.
http://www.mediafire...Music Files.zip
About Reviews Comments Forum Topics
Useless Old Man Wisdom
Edited 27 April 2018 - 08:16 AM
I'm almost certainly in the vast minority here in that I have never played any of the official Zelda games that followed Link's Awakening. LA on the original game boy is the most modern one I have played. I never had a N64, GBA, and have just never had the motivation to play the roms on an emulator. I mention that because this Amy Rose 3 is supposedly heavily based on Oracle of Ages. I can't comment on how AR3 compares to OoA, so instead, I'll say that AR3 reminds me a lot of the ZC quest Flow of Time: the same time travel gimmick and execution of that gimmick, familiar screen design, dungeon dynamics, and high-degree of linearity. I liked FoT, so that's good. AR3 seems to branch out though with a storyline that I just couldn't get into. I guess I just don't "get" the love for the Sonic characters, even though I did play the Sonic games back in the Sega Genesis days. I had the same gripe with AR2, which I also played some years ago. The Sonic the Hedgehog obsession is just way over my head. That is to say that AR3 is a vast improvement over AR2, pretty much in all metrics - but especially in dungeon design.
With that out of the way, the main strength where AR3 excels is good old fashioned gameplay. By that I mean the overworld is easy to navigate, dungeons are very short and approachable - usually easy to beat in 10-30 minutes at the most - and the combat is very balanced for lack of any defensive upgrades. Exploration is rewarded and there are plenty of sidequests to do. The difficulty ranges from easy to mild with bosses in particular being between easy and "doable" to beat on the very first try - without knowing the quirks, attack patterns, or really needing to see the bosses a few times to form a strategy. There is little to no artificial difficulty built in, which is appreciated IMO. Like I said, AR3 does a lot of things right in terms of good, fair gameplay.
As far as gripes I have, besides not feeling the story, AR3 was too linear IMO with an over-reliance on MacGuffins to advance the game. This was especially a con in the chain of events between the end of level 7 and the beginning of level 8. During that part of AR3, in particular, I found myself groaning at the wild goose chase I was on. I have read about the GBA oracle games being quite linear as well, so that makes sense. I also felt there were too many "just because" obstacles in places like mushroom hill and the underwater areas that force the player to take the long way around, but perhaps there's a technical reason for that and making these screens more open would break something.
Overall, I feel like the gameplay dynamics kept me in this quest and kept my attention to the end, which deserves at least a 4. The storyline was "meh" for me, and I don't have a frame of reference to the official oracle games, so if those things resonate with you, you may very well throw down 5s for AR3. I got a good 11.5 hours out of AR3, including the post-game content.
With that out of the way, the main strength where AR3 excels is good old fashioned gameplay. By that I mean the overworld is easy to navigate, dungeons are very short and approachable - usually easy to beat in 10-30 minutes at the most - and the combat is very balanced for lack of any defensive upgrades. Exploration is rewarded and there are plenty of sidequests to do. The difficulty ranges from easy to mild with bosses in particular being between easy and "doable" to beat on the very first try - without knowing the quirks, attack patterns, or really needing to see the bosses a few times to form a strategy. There is little to no artificial difficulty built in, which is appreciated IMO. Like I said, AR3 does a lot of things right in terms of good, fair gameplay.
As far as gripes I have, besides not feeling the story, AR3 was too linear IMO with an over-reliance on MacGuffins to advance the game. This was especially a con in the chain of events between the end of level 7 and the beginning of level 8. During that part of AR3, in particular, I found myself groaning at the wild goose chase I was on. I have read about the GBA oracle games being quite linear as well, so that makes sense. I also felt there were too many "just because" obstacles in places like mushroom hill and the underwater areas that force the player to take the long way around, but perhaps there's a technical reason for that and making these screens more open would break something.
Overall, I feel like the gameplay dynamics kept me in this quest and kept my attention to the end, which deserves at least a 4. The storyline was "meh" for me, and I don't have a frame of reference to the official oracle games, so if those things resonate with you, you may very well throw down 5s for AR3. I got a good 11.5 hours out of AR3, including the post-game content.
- Eddy likes this
Orithan
Posted 19 April 2018 - 11:18 PM
This is indeed Eddy's best quest. Taking on a much different tone from the other Amy Rose quests, this quest focused on polishing a short and sweet experience rather than going on an epic journey that has had questionable polish.
Balance-wise, AR3's difficulty is very carefully balanced and tuned around what is available to the player (for the most part. I'll get to these exceptions in a little bit); the difficulty always curving up while never spiking or putting the player into outright unfair situations. The game is well-polished in general and most of my complaints about it are nitpicks at this point. Gone are the badly recoloured out-of-place Sonic Advance Sprites in cutscenes, being replaced with sprites that fit in with the setting. The story is much what you would expect from an sequel to Oracle of Ages, mixed with a little bit of Sonic fanfiction that didn't go over the top and the cutscenes are all nice and short.
The overworld in particular stands out for being easy to navigate while still feeling and expansive. Especially after factoring in the warp network you are rarely, if ever, far from any key location. The dungeons are overall solid though they, especially the early dungeons, could be refined to make them a lot more memorable and stack up better against the original versions of these dungeons from the Oracle games. You put a lot of cool and clever ideas to use, showing a lot of creativity using a mostly scriptless enemy and item cast.
Perhaps my biggest complaint about the quest is how there is no way to review your current objectives and it is easy to wind up getting lost at certain points if you forget where you need to go next. I found myself getting stuck on what to do going from Level 5 to 6 and especially after Level 7 where I spent a literal hour looking all over the overworld for where to go next. Having the Maku Tree review your current objective would be more than sufficient to fix this problem. My next biggest complaint has to do with a bunch of obscure or nonsensical triggers in the later half of the game, like the cutscene trigger to open the passage to underneath Angel Island and some of the triggers in Level 7. In the case of the Angel Island trigger; I'd recommend leaving that entrance to underneath Angel Island open because you would gain access to it at the same time you gain access to that story event and have the dialogue change slightly to reflect the possibility of doing that Angel Island segment first. For the Level 7 triggers; adding in more indication that they have been triggered would help.
Other suggestions I would make is to flesh out a lot of the bonus areas (especially Lynna Fort and Castle Sewers) out more; instead of being just long detours for Heart Pieces and/or for the trading sidequest, to tone down the number of enemies in Level 9 (especially with the Splitting Darknuts) to make fighting them a more viable option over skipping them where possible and to nerf the enemies that summon because they tend to summon way too fast and flood the screen with enemies before you can kill them.
Final score: 4.5/5. It is close to being a 5 from me; but it needs just a little bit more polish and fine-tuning (like addressing the complaints I have) to get a 5 from me
Balance-wise, AR3's difficulty is very carefully balanced and tuned around what is available to the player (for the most part. I'll get to these exceptions in a little bit); the difficulty always curving up while never spiking or putting the player into outright unfair situations. The game is well-polished in general and most of my complaints about it are nitpicks at this point. Gone are the badly recoloured out-of-place Sonic Advance Sprites in cutscenes, being replaced with sprites that fit in with the setting. The story is much what you would expect from an sequel to Oracle of Ages, mixed with a little bit of Sonic fanfiction that didn't go over the top and the cutscenes are all nice and short.
The overworld in particular stands out for being easy to navigate while still feeling and expansive. Especially after factoring in the warp network you are rarely, if ever, far from any key location. The dungeons are overall solid though they, especially the early dungeons, could be refined to make them a lot more memorable and stack up better against the original versions of these dungeons from the Oracle games. You put a lot of cool and clever ideas to use, showing a lot of creativity using a mostly scriptless enemy and item cast.
Perhaps my biggest complaint about the quest is how there is no way to review your current objectives and it is easy to wind up getting lost at certain points if you forget where you need to go next. I found myself getting stuck on what to do going from Level 5 to 6 and especially after Level 7 where I spent a literal hour looking all over the overworld for where to go next. Having the Maku Tree review your current objective would be more than sufficient to fix this problem. My next biggest complaint has to do with a bunch of obscure or nonsensical triggers in the later half of the game, like the cutscene trigger to open the passage to underneath Angel Island and some of the triggers in Level 7. In the case of the Angel Island trigger; I'd recommend leaving that entrance to underneath Angel Island open because you would gain access to it at the same time you gain access to that story event and have the dialogue change slightly to reflect the possibility of doing that Angel Island segment first. For the Level 7 triggers; adding in more indication that they have been triggered would help.
Other suggestions I would make is to flesh out a lot of the bonus areas (especially Lynna Fort and Castle Sewers) out more; instead of being just long detours for Heart Pieces and/or for the trading sidequest, to tone down the number of enemies in Level 9 (especially with the Splitting Darknuts) to make fighting them a more viable option over skipping them where possible and to nerf the enemies that summon because they tend to summon way too fast and flood the screen with enemies before you can kill them.
Final score: 4.5/5. It is close to being a 5 from me; but it needs just a little bit more polish and fine-tuning (like addressing the complaints I have) to get a 5 from me
- Eddy likes this
Moosh
Posted 19 April 2018 - 11:23 AM
I just finished playing and I have to say, this is a pretty great quest. I found it had a bit of a rough start, I wasn't too invested for the first couple dungeons, but once I got into it I had a good time, even with crown dungeon...ech. 
The quest has a lot of polish all around, I only ran into a couple of bugs and maybe one questionable design decision (some unclear secret triggers in level 7). The dungeon length felt perfect, and pacing on the whole was really good. Similarly the difficulty always felt right. It's rare to see a quest that doesn't use rings, but this one didn't and got it right. The story and cutscenes, compared to the previous two Amy Rose quests, are a noticeable improvement. The quest doesn't do anything too overly ambitious with them, but they're smooth and unintrusive this time. Gone are the days of the magic materializing Sonic Advance sprites. The music choices can be hit or miss, but when it hits you it hits hard. I was not prepared for those sick Sonic Mania beats. The worst cases music-wise are where the quest is just being faithful to the Oracle games.
The one thing that holds the quest back, I think, is the source material it uses. This quest is a sort of reimagining of Oracle of Ages with some Seasons mixed in, and as in most cases where a custom quest invites itself to comparison with an official licensed game, it just can't compete with the original. I mentioned the first couple dungeons are the weakest and this is also the cause of that. The early dungeons in the Oracle games were the weaker ones and on top of that, not all of the dungeon mechanics have been replicated in ZC. On the flip side, my absolute favorite point in the quest is probably the final dungeon which is fully original. I would've loved to see more like that.
On the whole this is a great quest if you're okay with some serious Oracle of Ages deja vu. I give it a 4/5.
The quest has a lot of polish all around, I only ran into a couple of bugs and maybe one questionable design decision (some unclear secret triggers in level 7). The dungeon length felt perfect, and pacing on the whole was really good. Similarly the difficulty always felt right. It's rare to see a quest that doesn't use rings, but this one didn't and got it right. The story and cutscenes, compared to the previous two Amy Rose quests, are a noticeable improvement. The quest doesn't do anything too overly ambitious with them, but they're smooth and unintrusive this time. Gone are the days of the magic materializing Sonic Advance sprites. The music choices can be hit or miss, but when it hits you it hits hard. I was not prepared for those sick Sonic Mania beats. The worst cases music-wise are where the quest is just being faithful to the Oracle games.
The one thing that holds the quest back, I think, is the source material it uses. This quest is a sort of reimagining of Oracle of Ages with some Seasons mixed in, and as in most cases where a custom quest invites itself to comparison with an official licensed game, it just can't compete with the original. I mentioned the first couple dungeons are the weakest and this is also the cause of that. The early dungeons in the Oracle games were the weaker ones and on top of that, not all of the dungeon mechanics have been replicated in ZC. On the flip side, my absolute favorite point in the quest is probably the final dungeon which is fully original. I would've loved to see more like that.
On the whole this is a great quest if you're okay with some serious Oracle of Ages deja vu. I give it a 4/5.
- Eddy and Cukeman like this
