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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 was sceptical when I first saw this, just like I was for Freedom in Chains, 2D platforming in Zelda Classic is very iffy, and hard to get good. While quite many users praised Freedom in Chains as being highly innovative, I just couldn't see it, a lot of the platforming was very stiff, and many quirks of ZC engine were still present.


So I'm glad to say that this quest actually impresses me in that regard, a lot of the problems have been tweaked away, circumvented by design choices, or solved by advancements in the ZC engine. The 'Super Fast' screen scroll speed works as well in 2D platforming game as I was expecting, and it's very much a thing that matters for vertical segments. Speaking of which, steps have been taken in the level design to avoid awkward platforming through screen transitions, which was very much present in FiC. This is one of the best, if not the best, example of a 2D platforming game in the ZC engine. It's worth noting, for those who don't know, that this is less of a metroidvania and more of an action/platforming title. The exploration aspects are fairly limited, and the entire experience is quite linear. That's of course not necessarily a bad thing, it's more of a matter of taste.

I would have liked to see a bit more focus on new assets, some bosses are recycled from FiC, and so is the majority of the graphics. While mostly everything follows the same style, I would have wanted to see some improvements in that regard. The graphics are for the most part fairly simplistic, but don't seem to be following any specific system limitation (NES, SNES, etc) nor make the most out of colours.


Now, here comes the biggest critique I have: The difficulty needs to be tweaked. The hardest parts of this game was the start and the end, and the curve takes sort of a dip in the middle. The water/swimming mechanics are pretty awkward, and the first part of the game asks you to do fairly complex movement in it, fast, and in some cases in the dark. Swimming is also somewhat tedious given how much you actually need to mash the button to gain any sort of height. (And again, you need to raise to the surface very fast in certain scenarios.) It's not that the punishment for failing is harsh though, far from it. But it often feels like there is no good way to get through something without taking at least some hits, and this happens in other scenarios later in the game too. Personally, I would say making certain things easier to avoid is the way to go, especially early game, and then raise the damage of failing a bit to compensate.


Anyway, I liked this game a lot, although it was short, and had some minor frustrating parts, it's definitively worth playing. 4/5, needs more memes.