The Land of anarchy is a very good quest. The later dungeons are extremely good, however, I do have some complaints

for some reason the story was removed. the beginning feels so cool with the story, but then there's no story ever again

the bosses are trash.

the first few dungeons aren't that good

the overworld was pretty good but was too short, I went to every screen on the second part in a couple of minutes.

despite my complaints this game's later dungeons really carry it.

4.5 which rounds up to a 5

If you have ever played any of the Maze of Hyrule quests, you know the same creator has a penchant and love for labyrinthine dungeons and inventive puzzles. Those themes are certainly at play in Land of Anarchy, but with a bit more influence from Isle of Rebirth, in terms of the dungeons being even larger and generally every single dungeon being multi-phase. I happened to also play through LoA back in 2015, before it was revised into the version 2.0 - which this review is really about. The original version had a lot of frustrating elements and little things that weighed it down, which this new version promises to fix. How well does this new version do, towards that end?


Pros:

-- Backtracking seems to be significantly reduced here. In particular, I can recall that in the 2015 version, one had to traverse a 10-12 (ala To the Top) floor dungeon in order to access the final boss, with no really good way out from the final boss floor if one wanted to leave for any reason. One would have to backtrack a good 5-10 minutes just to get out. That problem has been corrected. Similar back tracking seems to be reduced in the other dungeons. In general, the player can apply a systematic approach to solving dungeons with less walking in circles. IE, the usual tactic of "don't switch the dungeon to a new phase unless there is nothing left to do in the current phase" still applies, but I seemed to get lost a lot less, because the dungeons that require rote pattern memory seem to be optional now. Labyrinth floors 1 and 2: I'm talking about you.

-- The NPC dialogue and script has been edited pretty well. These things were honestly downright badly done in the original.

-- Some of the more complicated and time-consuming puzzles have been made easier. This is probably a pro for most players. For example, the "math equation" puzzles make logical sense now, where as before, the logic of these puzzles simply eluded me. For another example, I can recall the ice-block puzzle, in order to unlock the boss key, in the ice tower - which was essentially level 2 in the original - has been cut way down in complexity. I can recall that ice-block puzzle took me a good 20-30 minutes to figure out, which is fairly inappropriate in such an early level. I like puzzles myself, but there really was what could be considered puzzle overload in the original, which disrupted the pacing a lot and made the dungeons more slow and tedious. The dungeons seem to flow a lot better now, while still retaining a complex feel.

Neutrals:

- This quest is a dungeon romper at heart. The overworld, while actually aesthetically pleasing and easy to navigate, is pretty barren of secrets. Caves, which lead to heart containers or rupees - with rupees being remarkably scarce in the LoA - stand in contrast to the complexity of dungeons, in that the player doesn't really have to do much of anything to get those rewards.

- Your character isn't a "Ganon" sprite anymore. I kind of liked that element in the original. Of course, the bunny world is gone, so you can't play as Zelda either.

Cons:

- There is essentially no longer any story. While the stor(ies) in the original quest were not presented all that well, due to the bad NPC dialogue and script editing, those stor(ies) did add to the overall quest experience. I mention "stories" because there used to be two different worlds - a slave world and a bunny world - yes, a bunny world - that were markedly different and with different stories.

- The bosses are really easy now. Especially the final boss. In the original, the bosses felt like bosses, if that makes sense, and now they don't. This no doubt makes the new version of LoA more approachable, but nerfs a lot of the challenge.

- If you don't like things like the image below, you will consider such puzzles a con. This sort of things remains. Personally, I like this puzzle and other similar ones, even though this particular one is deceptively frustrating and can be time consuming:




Overall, this version 2.0 has a lot of improvements, and is going to be more approachable. I completed the quest through the final boss in about 9 hours, with the optional, post-final-boss dungeons still to go. I think the loss of the quest's original story kind of hurts the new version, but get it. I would personally try to add this back in, in case there is a future version. I would also add an "easy mode," which could be this version 2.0 as it stands, but also include a "normal" mode, that is more in accordance with the harder puzzles, enemies, and bosses of the 2015 version. Overall, I would give this quest a diplomatic 4.25, but I really like the creator's vision and talent for dungeon design, so give it a subjective 5.

I'm glad to see there's a version 2.0 of this quest. The 2015 version of LoA had great dungeons and inventive puzzles, but was let down by way too many little things, so that the original quest wasn't nearly as enjoyable as it could have been. If those little things have been fixed, as it sounds like, I look forward to giving this a new play through.

I cannot say i dislike the idea of evil bunnies and I think the shopkeeper is deliberately lying,red text is intentional in the potion shop ? i will not play all the worlds if the dungeons are all the same, i'm agree whit Shane in this point.
Maybe if each character had a unique ability ...it would be interesting to try them all

First of all, thanks for fixing a few of the issues. I'm glad my thoughts thus far have had influenced this quest for the better.
Now, I have a few randomly ordered concerns regarding Bunny World:

- The dialogue... really? I know it's just that, dialogue, but I'm frankly concerned. We have lines like "I am so happy my parents are dead", and "all we do is slaughter each other". And this all takes place in a whimsical looking and sounding setting. Polar opposite themes. At least Zelda isn't slaughtering innocent bunnies... that would of been sad.
- Speaking of which, the bunnies lack animation. Is it just me though?
- You didn't fix the text colour issue, by the way. (see my comment below)
- Tile error:

- Nayru's sprites? Why didn't you use, you know, Zelda's?
- Please proof read all the lines again. There are a few spelling errors.
- Same dungeons? Well gee, I couldn't of waited patiently for all three worlds if we were getting the same dungeons. It would of been better to have all three available from release, I doubt people who have limited free time are going to be able to sit down and play all three worlds when all the new content is mostly the overworld and somewhat goofy stories.

OK so I'm playing this:
This isn't Maze of Hyrule? Felt like it.
Some random ordered notes:


- Why?


- The text after the red text isn't fully black. It looks unintentional and weird considering that different text colour is only meant for emphasis.

- Also dramatic music much? It's just an intro. Calm down.
- Story is a little meh.
- Bombchus and enemies that deal high damage all without a sword and in narrow corridors? Cool.
- Boss 1 + No Shield = Why?
- 1HKOs really? Why not warps? This is too much and unfair.
- Magic is the best dungeon.
- Puzzles are neat.
- Ice Tower(?) is OK. The boss key puzzle is no.
- Thanks for no ice physics.
- Same boss again?
- Slave World, Prison, Magic, etc. (and Bunny and Insect World) could really use proper names. They sound silly.

IDK how to feel. It's like a roller coaster of good and questionable design. It's fun and slowly goes to being frustrating and vice versa. IDK. I might play more later, finished Level 2.

very nice, i cannot wait to see the other worlds