So when this quest came out, I immediately streamed it for 8 hours straight. I then immediately came back to replay it. Suffice to say I liked this quest.
This is a 1.90 quest with all the messy limitations that come with it, yet I found it easy to forget that with how modern its design is. Every aspect of this quest feels very intentional and well thought out. Many of the old 1.90 quests gave off a vibe in places that they were just going through the motions at points and this one never gave me that feeling.
The overworld is very open ended in a way that can be a bit intimidating at first, however the quest takes a nonlinear approach at the start and levels 1-3 aren't that different in difficulty. So whichever you encounter first the difficulty is manageable. While the quest doesn't directly guide you to most of the dungeons, there are plenty of other hints throughout giving a trail of breadcrumbs leading to the essentials. The hinting is all very well done, and in the few places where I got stumped on my first playthrough an update fixed the wording of hints to be even more clear.
Dungeons are the high point of the quest for me. I loved almost all of them to the point where it's hard to pick a favorite. If I had to though, it'd be somewhere in the stretch from 6-8. Dungeon navigation is always kept interesting despite the restrictions and it was rare to find myself totally lost despite the open ended design. The placement of bomb walls and use of the map and compass are all very smart and make for intuitive navigation. I especially approve of the decision to use the compass to actually mark useful items rather than the comparatively more useless triforce location.
Visually it should be no surprise I'm a fan. The quest is using my Firebird 1.90 tileset and goes even further by customizing the palettes. I am always a fan of a quest with a custom set of palettes. It expands the potential idea space of the quest by a ton. The music choices are also all excellent. A mixture of ZC classics I recognized, newer songs, and some I couldn't quite place. All of them suit their areas well.
If there's one thing I'd say I wasn't a fan of, it was a certain warp maze dungeon. It was very intelligently constructed and I even praised it at the start, but as I played more it dragged on and on. It was one of those situations where there were two rooms left on the map and it took me forever wandering semi aimlessly to find them. I think I may just not have the patience for this type of dungeon.
The economy also doesn't seem to have quite enough money to get the blue ring as soon as it's available, but all of the dungeons are balanced well for not having it. On my first playthough I never even got it. Enemy difficulty is weighted more towards the lower end of the power scale to accommodate. You don't end up seeing blue darknuts until fairly late.
In conclusion, I came into this quest with high expectations and the quest met them all easily. Good show. 5 stars!
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Fun in the Sun: Full Circle
Overview
Feature Quest
Creator:
Darkmatt
Genre: NES-style
Added: 19 Dec 2025
Updated: 20 Dec 2025
ZC Version: 1.90
Downloads: 216
Rating[?]:
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Download Quest (1.06 MB) |
Information
A NES-styled challenge quest made entirely in a version of this engine from 25+ years ago!
About Reviews Comments Forum Topics
Description
Welcome to Fun in the Sun! Full Circle is a quest for ZQuest Classic, an engine that emulates a certain game from a certain console from the 80s. You'll be exploring a vast world of many monsters, dangerous dungeons, and sneaky secrets, to defeat evil and ride off into the sunset.
The difficulty of this quest can be seen as considerably above that one game, so if you've played that already, you should have a tough, but doable experience. In the beginning. Also, depending on your abilities, this can take anywhere from around 4 hours to, well, an infinite amount of time. It just all depends on how often you wish to try again.
I won't lie: you're in for a long, difficult journey. But also, you're in for a chance to persevere, to conquer, to seize victory! This quest is for those sorts of people, who believe they are up to the challenge, and much care and consideration has been done to strike a balance between tutorialization and a need to explore and innovate. I hope this is what you experience playing my quest, and even if you crash and burn somewhere in the middle, I still thank you for giving it a try.
Latest version is 1.1, released 12/20/2025.
There's a .pdf manual included and you should really give it a read, even if you know what you're doing.
The difficulty of this quest can be seen as considerably above that one game, so if you've played that already, you should have a tough, but doable experience. In the beginning. Also, depending on your abilities, this can take anywhere from around 4 hours to, well, an infinite amount of time. It just all depends on how often you wish to try again.
I won't lie: you're in for a long, difficult journey. But also, you're in for a chance to persevere, to conquer, to seize victory! This quest is for those sorts of people, who believe they are up to the challenge, and much care and consideration has been done to strike a balance between tutorialization and a need to explore and innovate. I hope this is what you experience playing my quest, and even if you crash and burn somewhere in the middle, I still thank you for giving it a try.
Latest version is 1.1, released 12/20/2025.
There's a .pdf manual included and you should really give it a read, even if you know what you're doing.
Story
You are about to embark to a wonderful fantasy world where you will forge your own legend as a hero. Monsters prawl the outdoors, dragging the world into chaos. From the great castle of THE SUN does shadow rule over all FUN. It is here you will make your name. It is here you will fight for freedom.
You will be supported by the good people who still enjoy THE SUN, who foretell of a young hero (That's you!) to rise against the evil and free the world from shadow. Hidden safely from shadow's grasp are fragments of the GOLDEN POWER, fragments of concentrated THE SUN. With all eight fragments, you will receive great power and the privilege to enter the temple of THE SUN, where you will wage the ultimate battle against darkness.
Your quest will teach you through lush forests and trecherous mountains, through ruins ancient and mysterious, and through strange lands both enticing and dangerous. Your courage will guide you through dangers and defeat the shadows that will bar your path. You will experience all that the world has to offer, and through your bravery, triumph over all.
This is your moment to aspire to greatness, to be the hero that all others will aspire to. Your chance at greatness is at hand. You are ready to challenge the darkness, and win. This is your time to shine. It is your time to become the greatest hero ever known.
...
(there is no story please stop asking me for one)
You will be supported by the good people who still enjoy THE SUN, who foretell of a young hero (That's you!) to rise against the evil and free the world from shadow. Hidden safely from shadow's grasp are fragments of the GOLDEN POWER, fragments of concentrated THE SUN. With all eight fragments, you will receive great power and the privilege to enter the temple of THE SUN, where you will wage the ultimate battle against darkness.
Your quest will teach you through lush forests and trecherous mountains, through ruins ancient and mysterious, and through strange lands both enticing and dangerous. Your courage will guide you through dangers and defeat the shadows that will bar your path. You will experience all that the world has to offer, and through your bravery, triumph over all.
This is your moment to aspire to greatness, to be the hero that all others will aspire to. Your chance at greatness is at hand. You are ready to challenge the darkness, and win. This is your time to shine. It is your time to become the greatest hero ever known.
...
(there is no story please stop asking me for one)
Tips & Cheats
This is something the manual teaches you so hey, another reason to read it. Seriously. Read it.
Credits
Quest designed by: DarkMatt717
Thanks to Mani Kanina and Autumn for providing primary beta testing to ensure the quest released as bug free and balanced as possible.
Graphics by:
Supindahood, Linkus, Relic, Sheik, Migokalle
Moosh, Russ, Feenicks, Ether, Jared
Rambly, Variscite, P-Tux
Full credits, including music used, can be found in, the manual. That's three reasons by the way.
Thanks to Mani Kanina and Autumn for providing primary beta testing to ensure the quest released as bug free and balanced as possible.
Graphics by:
Supindahood, Linkus, Relic, Sheik, Migokalle
Moosh, Russ, Feenicks, Ether, Jared
Rambly, Variscite, P-Tux
Full credits, including music used, can be found in, the manual. That's three reasons by the way.
Rodanism
Edited 21 December 2025 - 05:03 PM
This is a well constructed quest. It looks rich and detailed, and it does not look, play or feel like a 1.90 quest. It is much more refined and sophisticated. Props for all the obvious hard work. I thought the readme file was really well done, too, and totally understand and appreciate the reasoning for constructing the quest in 1.90. So often less is more. 
With that being said there were some issues. For me, its all about the pacing and flow of the players experience.
First, a few of the dungeons were super hard to find. I'm fine with a challenge but after a few hours of really trying to find them I admittedly get bored and lose interest. When its too cryptic it becomes tedious and you lose the fun, gratifying, dopamine fueled "I'm progressing" vibe and momentum. I found and finished levels 5, 6 and most of 7 before I found level 4.
I also found it to be a bit too grind-y for me. No coins or hearts in the bushes, and I would say enemy drops were on the conservative side. Again, fine, but it can really slow down the quest. I felt this a little when saving for the blue armor, but definitely more after acquiring the bow and lens, which both cost rupies to use. It slowed down the harder later dungeon attempts because you'd have to go outside and grind rupies to re-up after each try, especially in dungeon 7 where you need to use the lens and arrows a ton. A little tedious and, for me, it lost some of the fun at that point.
Other than that it could use an overworld map and sword slash. I always feel so puny and chibi with the little sword sewing needle stab.
Thanks again for all the hard work! A solid quest!!
With that being said there were some issues. For me, its all about the pacing and flow of the players experience.
First, a few of the dungeons were super hard to find. I'm fine with a challenge but after a few hours of really trying to find them I admittedly get bored and lose interest. When its too cryptic it becomes tedious and you lose the fun, gratifying, dopamine fueled "I'm progressing" vibe and momentum. I found and finished levels 5, 6 and most of 7 before I found level 4.
I also found it to be a bit too grind-y for me. No coins or hearts in the bushes, and I would say enemy drops were on the conservative side. Again, fine, but it can really slow down the quest. I felt this a little when saving for the blue armor, but definitely more after acquiring the bow and lens, which both cost rupies to use. It slowed down the harder later dungeon attempts because you'd have to go outside and grind rupies to re-up after each try, especially in dungeon 7 where you need to use the lens and arrows a ton. A little tedious and, for me, it lost some of the fun at that point.
Other than that it could use an overworld map and sword slash. I always feel so puny and chibi with the little sword sewing needle stab.
Thanks again for all the hard work! A solid quest!!
- Jared likes this
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