Reviews
SyrianBallaS
Posted 13 May 2014 - 02:29 PM
wow you were able to do so much despite the limitations of Zelda Classic, if you made a stand alone game using C++, java, or c#, etc with different graphics of course, the limits wouldn't just be virutually boundless, it could very well be good enough to sell as an indie game. And if you are really into game design and a game you made suceeds it could possibly get the attention of many employers. This quest is just fantastic!
- Lightwulf likes this
Maleboocado
Edited 11 May 2014 - 02:07 AM
This is quite a strange Zelda game.
When you look at the promotional screenshots, and then you create a new savefile and play through the first screens and hear the music, it's pretty normal (and i must add the word "expected") to think this is some kind of a joke, and that you should download another custom quest. The pallete choice, the enemies, everything seems to look kinda amateurist. And indeed, the game does not take itself seriously. But this is the actual soul of this quest.
Once you make some progress into the game it is pretty much imposible to stop playing. Donuts has a charm I no longer find in any official Zelda game released after The Wind Waker (the last great Zelda game), which, despite its bad level design (just look at its dungeons) and poor spatial logic, had the most wonderful and inmersive world Miyamoto's company has delivered to me (plus some really great and subtle cutscenes, something hard to find in Nintendo). However, saying that this game is better than whatever Nintendo pass these days as "Zelda" is not really a complete and satisfactory explanation of why I liked this quest. And I think I will never be able to understand my love for this game. Which is not really a problem for me.
Good games are like open books because they make you quickly realize why you love them, but great games will always leave unresolved questions behind. To quote the great game reviewer Tevis Thompson, "we are explorers". We make books to be read, songs to be heard, movies to be watched, because we are human beings, and there's nothing as human as exploring emotions and personal experiencies. Why is that song magical for you or your relatives? Why can't you stop thinking about that story? But we still make games as simple time-killing software, something like bigger and more complex Game & Watches. I also want people to make games to be played. To make me think about games themselves.
Donuts is the triumph of quality over quantity. Instead of leaving you with bazillions of dungeons or lots of NPCs and boring sidequests (like many fangames or official games does), Donuts delivers the absolute minimum needed elements, and then it exploits them in a rich, creative way, never relying on just a few gimmicks. It focuses on exquisite level design, quite a lot of good, lighthearted humor, some minimalistic touches, and a powerful atmosphere, all of this nailed thanks to a small overworld with a great gamespace logic. In short, this is to Zelda 1 what Super Mario Land 1 was to Super Mario Bros. 1 (Donuts = "Super Zelda Land").
Compare all of this with so called "masterpieces" by the established, conservative media (IGN and the like) such as Twilight Princess, where you are given a far bigger overworld but it's completely empty, and you can interact with mythological creatures but nothing (not even their appearance) makes them interesting, and the castle town and other locations looks quite detailed and organic but the game never really exploits them and instead it opts to put the usual shops, some people related with ongoing sidequests, a few minigames and nothing more.
Zelda is now in creative bankruptcy. Like JRPG and modern FPS in general, it has reached a safe niche, where risky ideas will never be introduced, and where players always know what to expect. Donuts is the opposite. I care about Donuts, about what I see in the game, even if it's pure comical and nonsensical. Donuts it's not truly innovative, and it's proud of it. It does not try to overhaul the entire Zelda gameplay like some other ZC quests does, because it knows that's unnecessary. The game is like an old friend who meets you after so many years of being distant and/or absent: it's the same person you knew, yet (s)he's different in many details. When I play Donuts I remember why I liked the franchise since I was a child, yet this quest is also its own self-constructed product. I want more quests doing this.
Whereas Donuts use the language of videogames (the graphics, the music, the gameplay) with love and dedication, like a mother caring for her children, some other (fan)games just use these resources as mere tools ("here comes the expected dungeon", "now we need to add some enemies there because it's a game and there should be enemies") without respect to the original material and future players. Whereas in Donuts the final product is bigger than the sum of its parts, in modern Zelda games it is not.
Of course, Donuts is not perfect. I would consider myself a fool if I say the opposite. But perfection itself is a big lie. And nevertheless all the small complains and questionable design concepts are hidden with dozens and dozens of brilliant ideas. Probably Donuts will never share the same deep, personal place in my heart as Link's Awakening's unforgetable and cute story, Majora's Mask's apocalyptic world or Wind Waker's loneliness, let's be honest. But it's ok, it does not need to be there. Even if in a few years from now I have played tons of wonderful custom quests and I find myself to see Donuts with different eyes ("it's an inferior quest", "I cannot enjoy it anymore") I wouldn't care: Donuts has/had its time, now it's up to us to follow a new path. Please, questmakers, listen to this: make me commit errors and false presumptions. Make me open my mouth and be surprised. Make me feel alive, part of a real world, part of a big adventure. Open my mind! Make me walk through lands nobody has seen in a hundred years! Make me an explorer.
This is the lesson Donuts teach us: an irregular but unique and memorable product will always be loved and shared far more than a technically correct but souless one.
I will follow your new creations, Rambly, with great dedication.
When you look at the promotional screenshots, and then you create a new savefile and play through the first screens and hear the music, it's pretty normal (and i must add the word "expected") to think this is some kind of a joke, and that you should download another custom quest. The pallete choice, the enemies, everything seems to look kinda amateurist. And indeed, the game does not take itself seriously. But this is the actual soul of this quest.
Once you make some progress into the game it is pretty much imposible to stop playing. Donuts has a charm I no longer find in any official Zelda game released after The Wind Waker (the last great Zelda game), which, despite its bad level design (just look at its dungeons) and poor spatial logic, had the most wonderful and inmersive world Miyamoto's company has delivered to me (plus some really great and subtle cutscenes, something hard to find in Nintendo). However, saying that this game is better than whatever Nintendo pass these days as "Zelda" is not really a complete and satisfactory explanation of why I liked this quest. And I think I will never be able to understand my love for this game. Which is not really a problem for me.
Good games are like open books because they make you quickly realize why you love them, but great games will always leave unresolved questions behind. To quote the great game reviewer Tevis Thompson, "we are explorers". We make books to be read, songs to be heard, movies to be watched, because we are human beings, and there's nothing as human as exploring emotions and personal experiencies. Why is that song magical for you or your relatives? Why can't you stop thinking about that story? But we still make games as simple time-killing software, something like bigger and more complex Game & Watches. I also want people to make games to be played. To make me think about games themselves.
Donuts is the triumph of quality over quantity. Instead of leaving you with bazillions of dungeons or lots of NPCs and boring sidequests (like many fangames or official games does), Donuts delivers the absolute minimum needed elements, and then it exploits them in a rich, creative way, never relying on just a few gimmicks. It focuses on exquisite level design, quite a lot of good, lighthearted humor, some minimalistic touches, and a powerful atmosphere, all of this nailed thanks to a small overworld with a great gamespace logic. In short, this is to Zelda 1 what Super Mario Land 1 was to Super Mario Bros. 1 (Donuts = "Super Zelda Land").
Compare all of this with so called "masterpieces" by the established, conservative media (IGN and the like) such as Twilight Princess, where you are given a far bigger overworld but it's completely empty, and you can interact with mythological creatures but nothing (not even their appearance) makes them interesting, and the castle town and other locations looks quite detailed and organic but the game never really exploits them and instead it opts to put the usual shops, some people related with ongoing sidequests, a few minigames and nothing more.
Zelda is now in creative bankruptcy. Like JRPG and modern FPS in general, it has reached a safe niche, where risky ideas will never be introduced, and where players always know what to expect. Donuts is the opposite. I care about Donuts, about what I see in the game, even if it's pure comical and nonsensical. Donuts it's not truly innovative, and it's proud of it. It does not try to overhaul the entire Zelda gameplay like some other ZC quests does, because it knows that's unnecessary. The game is like an old friend who meets you after so many years of being distant and/or absent: it's the same person you knew, yet (s)he's different in many details. When I play Donuts I remember why I liked the franchise since I was a child, yet this quest is also its own self-constructed product. I want more quests doing this.
Whereas Donuts use the language of videogames (the graphics, the music, the gameplay) with love and dedication, like a mother caring for her children, some other (fan)games just use these resources as mere tools ("here comes the expected dungeon", "now we need to add some enemies there because it's a game and there should be enemies") without respect to the original material and future players. Whereas in Donuts the final product is bigger than the sum of its parts, in modern Zelda games it is not.
Of course, Donuts is not perfect. I would consider myself a fool if I say the opposite. But perfection itself is a big lie. And nevertheless all the small complains and questionable design concepts are hidden with dozens and dozens of brilliant ideas. Probably Donuts will never share the same deep, personal place in my heart as Link's Awakening's unforgetable and cute story, Majora's Mask's apocalyptic world or Wind Waker's loneliness, let's be honest. But it's ok, it does not need to be there. Even if in a few years from now I have played tons of wonderful custom quests and I find myself to see Donuts with different eyes ("it's an inferior quest", "I cannot enjoy it anymore") I wouldn't care: Donuts has/had its time, now it's up to us to follow a new path. Please, questmakers, listen to this: make me commit errors and false presumptions. Make me open my mouth and be surprised. Make me feel alive, part of a real world, part of a big adventure. Open my mind! Make me walk through lands nobody has seen in a hundred years! Make me an explorer.
This is the lesson Donuts teach us: an irregular but unique and memorable product will always be loved and shared far more than a technically correct but souless one.
I will follow your new creations, Rambly, with great dedication.
- SyrianBallaS and Air Luigi like this
