I got all the items. Beat all the dungeons. Saw the custom bosses and left victorious.
And I have to say, I think playing this through was one of the most depressing things I've done in a little while.
Potential, that's the word of the day. The Randomizer games have one glaring, cancerous flaw, and that's missed potential. There's too much, and the game just isn't built for it. After a while, dungeon busting becomes a slog. And I don't even mean that in just a sheer, repetitious 'too much' sense, I mean it as in before even half the game is over, you have some many items and are so strong, absolutely NOTHING stands a chance against you anymore. What starts as a quest where you work with what you're given at the RNG's expense very quickly turns to a multi hour trudge, wading through enemies who simply cannot damage you, cycling items for seconds at a time to try and take out pol's voices, and lamenting the fact that I'm never, ever going to use this ball and chain over the sword, or any of the alternate swords over the main one except maybe the shotgun spread zweihander.
See, it's not TRULY random. You will ALWAYS end up extremely powerful before you touch a level 9. It's deliberately made so your power growth outpaces the game's by a LOT. I saw and thought the custom Ganon was cool. I liked the effort that went into the bonus bosses too. But they felt designed around a game where you weren't guaranteed ALL the best stuff. It felt like they were balanced around the fact that MAYBE somehow after getting 16 fairies and who knows how many other dungeons that didn't have them, players would still ONLY have the blue mail or maybe not have been fortunate enough to get a high tier weapon. It's easy, pointless grinding after a point.
And worse, why are games ever randomized? Replayabilty. The idea, on paper, is that this quest is different each run. This is not true, all that changes is how fast it is before you hit godmode. You ARE guaranteed godmode. It'd be much more meaningful if you couldn't have every single item in every run. It'd reinforce the "work with what you're given" mentality the final boss even lampshades. It would give us reason to fire it up every now and then when we just want some sort of a classic zelda fix but retain some element of surprise.
I feel like the randomizer idea has been tainted by overambition. Having an 80 dungeon quest sounds awesome, but not when it means that before even clearing 30 of them I'm unstoppable and no longer need to even try. The enemy cast just isn't built for the sort of potential the player so easily ends up with. The items themselves don't support it, with several clearly being tideovers and improvised weapons that only see use early on. There is nothing justifying their existence except just to be there to collect.
I think the next randomizer should... not be afraid to leave items out. It'd make for a much better game if only it was scaled back. 309 possible items, but only give us, say, 50 per run. 36 dungeons, give us 9 randomized from the four sets. Give us a reason to play and replay, discovering new dungeons and items on each new journey. Make me want to use the ball and chain. Give me the possibility to have only a wooden sword still on a 100% run, because there's enough in here that some other weapon I have WILL be adequate.
Randomizer Outlands
Overview
Feature Quest
Creator: HeroOfFire Genre: Scripted Added: 04 Jul 2015 Updated: 07 Mar 2020 ZC Version: 2.50 Downloads: 1164 Rating[?]: |
Download Quest (8.84 MB) |
Information
A remake of the Outlands hack by GameMakr24... with the Randomizer twist.
About Reviews Comments Forum Topics
Cyberventurer
Posted 25 August 2015 - 04:27 PM
I hope this isn't interpreted too badly, because I don't mean to knock on the effort that was put into making this.
I feel kinda bad about this because I loved the other randomizer quests but the graphics for this are just distractingly bad for me. The sprites and icons having outlines on them make everything look too squished, and I sometimes have a hard time trying to make out what things are supposed to be, even though I recognize them based on movement patterns and such. The item graphics seem muddled and the sprites are all so busy-looking and bright it actually bothers my eyes a bit playing this. I picked up that blue blob item that's shown in the first screenshot, and it's really fun to use, but I can't make out what it is. At first I thought it was a magic lantern, but it also kinda looks like a white glove getting ready to squish a fairy. The sound effects aren't terrible, but definitely feel like a step down based on the original game. They feel a little too muted compared to the original, louder sound effects you would hear in the normal game.
I'm not against the idea of a graphical makeover, and I'm not really sure what I would do even if I were capable of doing graphical art myself, but I hope it's toned back a bit if the creator decides to make another randomizer.
I feel kinda bad about this because I loved the other randomizer quests but the graphics for this are just distractingly bad for me. The sprites and icons having outlines on them make everything look too squished, and I sometimes have a hard time trying to make out what things are supposed to be, even though I recognize them based on movement patterns and such. The item graphics seem muddled and the sprites are all so busy-looking and bright it actually bothers my eyes a bit playing this. I picked up that blue blob item that's shown in the first screenshot, and it's really fun to use, but I can't make out what it is. At first I thought it was a magic lantern, but it also kinda looks like a white glove getting ready to squish a fairy. The sound effects aren't terrible, but definitely feel like a step down based on the original game. They feel a little too muted compared to the original, louder sound effects you would hear in the normal game.
I'm not against the idea of a graphical makeover, and I'm not really sure what I would do even if I were capable of doing graphical art myself, but I hope it's toned back a bit if the creator decides to make another randomizer.
Drachenritter
Edited 07 July 2015 - 03:13 AM
Level T - no exit ? Startet in room with Manhadla , room with treasurebox has no exit
Edit : ok there IS an Exit ( walkthrough wall in room with Treasure Box Counter ... very tricky)
Hm ... i found a swich stating "Parallel worlds, confirm download" ... but what happend ?
Edit : ok there IS an Exit ( walkthrough wall in room with Treasure Box Counter ... very tricky)
Hm ... i found a swich stating "Parallel worlds, confirm download" ... but what happend ?