Finished this up in about 14 hours, unfortunately I can't finish the bonus postgame stuff because of what I think is a ZC bug but I'm not sure (money guy rooms always end up respawning so I actually can't get past into the 2nd maze for the lost woods). With that said though, I did basically finish everything else so I think I'm good to review it. This was pretty fine I think, it still has that unique property of having different classes to pick from which you saw from the first quest although I actually do think the first quest was better in a few ways.
I'll start off by saying that I do like the premise of the quest, I think it's actually quite cool to traverse between three time periods and play the dungeons in different states as well as seeing how the overworld changes during the time skips. The best example of this was the town as it was very cleverly made. The future states were in ruins until you go to the past and defeat the Wizzrobes, and that changes everything later down the line which I thought was executed very well. The final dungeon also did some pretty cool stuff with this concept too, like hitting switches to open stuff in the past that can be used for the present and future.
There are however quite a few issues I have with the quest. For one, while the time travel aspect is done well in the overworld especially, I do wish this was done more in the dungeons. As they are, the versions of dungeons all seem fairly different from each other save for one or two things that carry over. I think it'd be cool if there were more continuity here rather than essentially all new dungeons between the times. I do however like how Level 4 was done, where you traverse times in one main dungeon. Another problem I have is the general quest design. I think for the most part the design philosophies are fine but it's more so the graphics and tileset usage. To be completely honest I do not think a tileset like this is very fitting for this kind of quest. The quest is built very much like a Z1-style quest, and the tileset is built for more complicated style quests as it usually is quite detailed. What this ended up being is a strange mix of both. The overworld generally looks ok, some bits a bit more empty than I'd like, but not too bad. The dungeons however all look very bland and fairly boring for the tileset, which is why I think a simpler tileset would compliment this a lot more than this one.
Additionally, I think some of the dungeons had this issue of too many rooms where it's full of pushable blocks and ngl I found that very annoying to traverse through. Maybe a few times across the quest is fine but not at what is basically every dungeon ever, it gets irritating after a while. I also feel the quest leans quite a bit on the easy side, you have the best sword and armour available about halfway through and it basically just trivialises a lot of the difficulty. I also wanna say I'm disappointed with the fact that the class specific items don't really get used much in the dungeons to give different paths and such, like in the first quest. I thought that was a very cool concept and to see it basically disappear here is quite sad. I also understand why all the class dungeons were contained in one place, but it's also a bit disappointing that they weren't spread about like before.
Ultimately though, this quest was fine, I think there's a lot more things that could've been done differently which is why I prefer the first quest to this one. With that said though, this gets a solid 3/5 from me.
Link's Decision 2: Chronos the Tears of Fate
Overview
Feature Quest
Creator:
obake-san
Genre: Dungeon Romper
Added: 04 Feb 2022
Updated: 25 May 2024
ZC Version: 2.10
Downloads: 669
Rating[?]:
|
Download Quest (5.89 MB) |
Information
This is an enormous quest. Do you have 15 hours to spend?
A province in a neighboring land needs Link. Ganon is in a protected bunker, and the six Tears must be collected to enter. Link knows nothing of the area or where to find them, but you can use the walkthrough.
Travel centuries in the past and future to get the tears. Can you change your present?
Play as a knight, wizard, monk, or thief, each with a set of class items.
v1.6 Full Game. Best in ZC v2.53, but works in v2.55.
A province in a neighboring land needs Link. Ganon is in a protected bunker, and the six Tears must be collected to enter. Link knows nothing of the area or where to find them, but you can use the walkthrough.
Travel centuries in the past and future to get the tears. Can you change your present?
Play as a knight, wizard, monk, or thief, each with a set of class items.
v1.6 Full Game. Best in ZC v2.53, but works in v2.55.
About Reviews Comments Forum Topics
Useless Old Man Wisdom
Edited 15 February 2022 - 01:45 PM
Though I have not finished the quest yet, I am at the estimated 60% mark, so I have seen enough to gather an impression of what the quest is about. With that said, I am likely to come back and edit the review later once I have actually finished.
Link's Decision 2 promises a really novel premise, in being able to choose a "job," ala certain old-school Final Fantasy games. The quest also boasts of 3 overworlds, lots of dungeons, time warps and shifts, programmed side quests, and more. Overall, I think the quest falls short of its ambitions and execution is lacking in several areas; but overall, LD2 is a really full and impressive quest when you consider that the quest was built in v2.10 and ported over to modern Zelda Classic.
Having chosen the thief class, I'm not entirely convinced there is any real difference in the thief job and other classes - beyond the arbitrary item restrictions among the different classes. I don't think it's possible to alter offensive or defensive stats between different "jobs" in ZC, let alone metrics like speed, agility, or stamina to craft a job system in ZC that compares to an RPG with a job system. The thief-only item(s) do offer a unique advantage and sequence-breaking chances, which are interesting, but doesn't really leave me convinced I'm playing a unique role. On the other hand, maybe programming some rare drops upon enemy death - which I have certainly seen in 2.5 quests - would go a long way to mimic a thief's steal command and add to the immersion. I might go on to replay with the thief's companion class, which I recall is the monk, in order to better impression of the class system and see more dungeons.
The dungeons themselves are good, not spectacular but good, and have enough twists and turns to keep me from getting bored. I like how the dungeons change in certain time phases and how changes in the past can reflect on future phases. Some things I don't like about the dungeons are the repetitive moveable block mazes and shutter door rooms, which slow the pacing down a lot and create tedium and backtracking when I have to revisit these rooms or chose the wrong direction. I also became stuck several times in moveable block rooms and had to F6 continue, due to no warp-reset tiles in these rooms. I also see a lot of pushable block and switch rooms where there isn't a permanent flag, admittedly which I've seen in many 2.10 quests, but also add to tedium when I have to do these puzzles again upon revisiting these rooms. There is also a curious abundance of Like Likes in the dungeons and caves, love this enemy or hate them, which has left me needing to repurchase a L2 shield much, much more often than usual.
The overworlds - meaning the different time phases - are pretty nice and detailed and good use of the tileset. There are enough secrets and sidequests to keep busy between dungeons, which I consider a necessity in a quest. In particular, I really like the golden statue sidequest and am surprised this was technically possible (if not added during the 2.5 port). I think the time warps are in the right places to prevent excessive walking around and there are enough obstacles to make the player look for the right route without forcing the player to walk excessively. I have always liked putting optional items at the end of dungeons, instead of just another McGuffin to advance the plot, which certain dungeons in this quest do satisfy. I have found a number of bugs where exiting caves places my character in (I'm guessing) unintended spots, and also rupee caves where I can keep collecting the money over and over again, but nothing that compromises the quest or would result in a soft or hard lock.
Challenge wise, the quest has struck me as quite easy. I completed the three parts of the arena before finishing level 4, and in general, never felt threatened by enemies or bosses, nor in need of a potion. Curiously, the challenge seems to be altered by the fact that either the swords are nerfed or enemy HP are buffed, which has become a recurring annoyance in that having to swipe enemies over and over again becomes unnecessary tedium instead of challenge. Music choices are good if not quite familiar if you've played a lot of ZC quests or official Zelda games. I get major Chrono Trigger vibes, not just from recurring midis, and time travels, but also from the tiles and other artwork throughout the quest.
So far, I'm around 16 hours in and only an estimated 60% done with the quest, so this is a fairly long one. I do plan to come back and edit this review once I have fully played through. That is to say that I've seen enough good things to make me want to finish playing through.
Link's Decision 2 promises a really novel premise, in being able to choose a "job," ala certain old-school Final Fantasy games. The quest also boasts of 3 overworlds, lots of dungeons, time warps and shifts, programmed side quests, and more. Overall, I think the quest falls short of its ambitions and execution is lacking in several areas; but overall, LD2 is a really full and impressive quest when you consider that the quest was built in v2.10 and ported over to modern Zelda Classic.
Having chosen the thief class, I'm not entirely convinced there is any real difference in the thief job and other classes - beyond the arbitrary item restrictions among the different classes. I don't think it's possible to alter offensive or defensive stats between different "jobs" in ZC, let alone metrics like speed, agility, or stamina to craft a job system in ZC that compares to an RPG with a job system. The thief-only item(s) do offer a unique advantage and sequence-breaking chances, which are interesting, but doesn't really leave me convinced I'm playing a unique role. On the other hand, maybe programming some rare drops upon enemy death - which I have certainly seen in 2.5 quests - would go a long way to mimic a thief's steal command and add to the immersion. I might go on to replay with the thief's companion class, which I recall is the monk, in order to better impression of the class system and see more dungeons.
The dungeons themselves are good, not spectacular but good, and have enough twists and turns to keep me from getting bored. I like how the dungeons change in certain time phases and how changes in the past can reflect on future phases. Some things I don't like about the dungeons are the repetitive moveable block mazes and shutter door rooms, which slow the pacing down a lot and create tedium and backtracking when I have to revisit these rooms or chose the wrong direction. I also became stuck several times in moveable block rooms and had to F6 continue, due to no warp-reset tiles in these rooms. I also see a lot of pushable block and switch rooms where there isn't a permanent flag, admittedly which I've seen in many 2.10 quests, but also add to tedium when I have to do these puzzles again upon revisiting these rooms. There is also a curious abundance of Like Likes in the dungeons and caves, love this enemy or hate them, which has left me needing to repurchase a L2 shield much, much more often than usual.
The overworlds - meaning the different time phases - are pretty nice and detailed and good use of the tileset. There are enough secrets and sidequests to keep busy between dungeons, which I consider a necessity in a quest. In particular, I really like the golden statue sidequest and am surprised this was technically possible (if not added during the 2.5 port). I think the time warps are in the right places to prevent excessive walking around and there are enough obstacles to make the player look for the right route without forcing the player to walk excessively. I have always liked putting optional items at the end of dungeons, instead of just another McGuffin to advance the plot, which certain dungeons in this quest do satisfy. I have found a number of bugs where exiting caves places my character in (I'm guessing) unintended spots, and also rupee caves where I can keep collecting the money over and over again, but nothing that compromises the quest or would result in a soft or hard lock.
Challenge wise, the quest has struck me as quite easy. I completed the three parts of the arena before finishing level 4, and in general, never felt threatened by enemies or bosses, nor in need of a potion. Curiously, the challenge seems to be altered by the fact that either the swords are nerfed or enemy HP are buffed, which has become a recurring annoyance in that having to swipe enemies over and over again becomes unnecessary tedium instead of challenge. Music choices are good if not quite familiar if you've played a lot of ZC quests or official Zelda games. I get major Chrono Trigger vibes, not just from recurring midis, and time travels, but also from the tiles and other artwork throughout the quest.
So far, I'm around 16 hours in and only an estimated 60% done with the quest, so this is a fairly long one. I do plan to come back and edit this review once I have fully played through. That is to say that I've seen enough good things to make me want to finish playing through.
