Second Chance

It was a good game but the bullet hell part at the end was difficult i suggest dumbing it down for newer players and i did my best to 100% the game but i couldn't just for the difficulty on the last boss 5/10 but the game its self and the story 10/10

Was supposed to review this much earlier, but didn't get around to it. Here we are tho

To begin with, this is a fantastic quest, way better than anything else you've ever made. I was pretty much hooked throughout the entire quest. The overworld and dungeon designs are beautiful and I really loved the lore you added to all the different places. It gave each setting its own kind of story in a way, and that's really cool to see. The openness of the quest is already a really nice plus as well, where you can literally go anywhere and complete any dungeon you want. I had quite a bit of fun experimenting around what I can and can't do, and there's some really interesting routes people can take with this. The updated soundtrack fits the quest very well and sets the mood of a lot of places. The dungeon progression was pretty neat and nothing felt too hard or too easy on my run.

As for the negatives, there's hardly any for me besides maybe the biggest one being the fire dungeon is little too bland for my tastes I guess, I feel like there could have been a better use of the dungeon item there to have some more interesting puzzles around. There are a few other minor things I've discussed with you, but they don't really add to much. Overall, this is an easy 5/5 for me. Good job!

I played through Second Chance sometime last month, so a lot of details may be overlooked, but I can verify that SC delivers as a non-linear and solid mini-quest.

Yes, the real highlight of SC are the graphics and as a whole, this quest looks very good. The cave system is very-well implemented as a means of transportation and repository for secrets.

I do have a few minor gripes:

- One is that I managed to obtain the L2 sword very early on, by playing through the Kiln first, and that choice pretty much broke the game by rendering it very easy for the rest of the way. I understand this possibility has since been fixed, but take it as a given that it is quite possible to become very powerful in SC by your choice of dungeon order and how much exploring you do.

- The dungeons are pretty simple both it terms of length/time and fairly replete of puzzles, so the dungeons are definitely not the highlight of SC compared to the overworld. This isn't that much of a gripe, though, because it does force the player out to explore the relatively strong overworld.

- I couldn't find a way to see the promised second ending because the way to the final boss became non-functional after I saved following my play through beating the final boss. Maybe I'm missing something simple.

In closing, if you are looking for a good way to spend 4-6 hours, you can do a lot worse than SC. Good job indeed, Joelmacool.

Easily Joel's best quest yet, you've come a long way since How Do I Play Zelda? I think it's neat you made an open world quest as I think you succeeded pretty well. I think what makes the open world aspect work so well however are the neat dungeons that can be found. An open world is only as good as the content you find IMO. It also helps you created a lot of variety and a setting that makes me curious about the lore and history of this place and the events that took place. The storytelling and open world really go hand in hand I personally feel even if that storytelling wasn't really explained fully.

I'm fine with the previous music choices, but great job on some of the replacements. You get special points for having one of the best soundtracks in the quest now. The snow dungeon song has to be my favorite choice. I think you didn't really have to replace some of the songs but IMO finding unique songs do benefit the experience, especially in a quest like this with its own unique feel and setting you've created here.

Speaking of, I'm also fine with the story. At first I thought it was kind of silly, and had Joel written all over it but the more I playtested and played the final version, the more I kind of enjoyed it. There are definitely things I want to see explored in a future quest. I do agree with Aevin that the main character's personality need to show a bit better, and that there was missed chances at some character development (maybe have the protagonist react to some of the horrible tragedies that were recorded for example). But personally, I'm fine with the ending, clunkiness aside, I think I like bold endings like this. Although I can see why they wouldn't be as popular, and I think a "good ending" still could have worked, given the title of the quest. But I guess it never explicitly stated that your second chance was going to be used well. Also before I move on, I do like that split screen effect, that was really awesome!

To wrap this up, I really liked this quest. There are some things that I didn't enjoy too much like the desert dungeon being on each side of the desert. But I didn't necessarily dislike it either. Definitely a 5/5 quest, and easily your best quest yet.

I very much enjoyed this quest. It's quite a fun little game and I recommend everyone checks it out. The screens are beautiful, the dungeons are creative but never overstay their welcome, and the overworld is compact and well thought out. I also really enjoyed the side dungeons in this game as well. It's an overall very solid experience.

After watching an entire playthrough and finishing about 3/4 of my own, I feel comfortable giving this a 5. It's a lovely little quest that seamlessly captures the feel of Oracle-style gameplay, with a beautiful, well-designed, and intricate overworld with lots of secrets to find. It's a smooth, enjoyable gameplay experience with a fun world to explore, and that's all I really want.

The story could be better. I can tell there's effort put into it, but there's a lot of unanswered questions that keep me from fully being invested in the characters. I don't get a great feel for the protagonist's personality, and there's a lot of places we're supposed to read between the lines. What are the supposed atrocities he's being punished for? Is he responsible for the terrible things in the world, such as the dam leading to a desert, or the problems in the castle dungeon? If this was made explicit and he commented on it, or showed some remorse, it would go a long way toward making his character more relatable. His sisters' motivations also aren't fully understood. In the beginning, they allude to some stuff that's never explained. I find it difficult to understand how they actually feel about their brother. I'm also disappointed by the lack of a "good ending," and the method for making that key choice feels clumsy in a 1.92 way.

And then there's the matter of those continue points. I'd strongly recommend a simple continue script that updates every time you switch an area. It's very easy to do; just an ffc script that checks continue dmap and screen and updates them if they're not the current dmap and screen. Then place them at all the dmap borders.

Overall, though, there aren't any issues that detract substantially from my experience. It's just a solid quest whose flaws are very minor.

Huh, would you look at that. Joel, creator of infamously bad quests, went and made a pretty good one.

First off, I want to talk about the positives, because there are several. The most notable being the graphics. The artistic direction is beautiful, and nearly every screen is a SotW-worthy shot. The overworld, aside from being beautiful on a screen-by-screen basis, comes together as a whole quite nicely. Dungeons are also beautiful... with a caveat I'll get into later.

The total non-linearity is a very nice feature. I enjoy being able to wander in just about any direction and find a dungeon. Striking a balance with difficulty here is always difficult, since any area could be the first or the last, but you did about as good a job as can be expected on that front. The dungeons themselves are pretty fun, with some of the puzzles being especially clever.

Now onto the negatives. For the most part, they're minor, but they do add up. The dungeons, while beautiful, have an issue with several screens looking quite "samey". This was especially noticeable in the fire and ice dungeons. Combine this with the general twisting, labyrinthine nature of the dungeon design, and it's quite easy to get turned around. The desert dungeon, while it escaped this fate, has another problem: backtracking. Normally, I'm fine with backtracking, but the constant back and forth across the desert gets a bit old, especially when combined with the rather wonky continue mechanics. Which brings me to that point: the continue points are kind of frustrating. I'd really recommend getting a simple continue point script in place.

Anyways, my last two major complaints are with presentation. The first is the music. A lot of the choices are, quite frankly, kind of boring. Taking a song here and there from Zelda works, but this quest uses several, often times in areas that don't even particularly suit the song very well. That's not to say there aren't some pretty good song choices though; the final dungeon song springs to mind. The other presentation issue is the plot. It... works, I suppose, though I feel like they key moments lack the weight they feel like they ought to have. The general structure is fine, but the dialogue just never is quite as compelling as it really deserves to be. On a related note, most of the NPCs feel useless, not really giving any gameplay hints nor fleshing out the world in any significant way. The Gorons, with their stock rock-eating lines, were probably the biggest offender here.

I'm sure I'm forgetting some positives and negatives I wanted to list, but ah well. I'm also realizing the negatives look way longer than the positives... chalk that up to it being easier to explain why I dislike something than to say "This is very good." All in all, the quest is quite solid, and I enjoyed it. It has some flaws and minor annoyances, but they're usually not significant enough to detract from the overall experience. You've atoned for DayDay Joel. Congrats.