This is an amazing quest. I basically wrote a review in the quest thread, so I'll link that below; I put any spoiler-y stuff in spoilers:
https://www.purezc.n...70762&p=1061365
Heh, how did I miss this quest when it was released? <checks release date> oh duh, it was right before Breath of the Wild came out
Anyway, kudos to the creators. I hadn't played the first Nargad game, but if there's ever a third, I'd be thrilled to play it.
- Current Location:
- PureZC
- » PureZC Forums
- » Quests
- » Nargad's Trail: Crystal Crusades
Nargad's Trail: Crystal Crusades
Overview
Feature Quest
Creator: Twilight Knight , CastChaos Genre: Other Added: 23 Aug 2016 Updated: 30 Sep 2020 ZC Version: 2.50.2 Downloads: 1291 Rating[?]: |
Download Quest (7.03 MB) |
Information
Explore the vast lands of Krelaila in order to stop the invasion of the Rebonites, an otherworldly race. Travel together with Nargad through a huge overworld and 9 big dungeons, with an occasional sidequest for a nice reward.
About Reviews Comments Forum Topics
Description
This is the sequel to Nargad's Trail: Argon's Evil Lair, but the gameplay and concept is quite different from NTAEL. The quest doesn't put much emphasis on story, but instead focuses on an emerging world to explore. Besides that, there are 8 classical dungeons featured in this quest and 1 big final dungeon. While you go through the dungeons in a linear order, side quests and a massive overworld to explore change up the pace constantly.
Features:
2016-08-26: Several bugs were fixed
2016-08-28: More bug fixes and tampering with the item drop sets
2017-07-31: Bug fixes & difficulty tweaking in L9
2019-04-07: A lot of gameplay related improvements making the quest more pleasant to play
2020-06-29: Improved map system (now shows next quest location) amongst smaller gameplay improvements
2020-09-30: More (small) improvements based on the LPs by LordKronos and MeleeWizard
Features:
- A compelling story, but no heavy cutscenes!
- A vast overworld, countless hours of exploration
- 8 mysterious dungeons, all with a puzzling, unique theme
- 1 final dungeon, with two possible endings
- Many interiors, filled with witty, strange and funny characters
- A heavily modified version of DoR 1.0 as tileset
- Reappearing NPCs from NTAEL
- Discover more about Argon and the Orb of Fierce
- Custom (non-scripted) bosses
- Good quality graphics
- Many scripts to make the game smooth
- Energy resource instead of mana
- Some custom music
- Walking SFX
- Travelling system
- A few sidequests
2016-08-26: Several bugs were fixed
2016-08-28: More bug fixes and tampering with the item drop sets
2017-07-31: Bug fixes & difficulty tweaking in L9
2019-04-07: A lot of gameplay related improvements making the quest more pleasant to play
2020-06-29: Improved map system (now shows next quest location) amongst smaller gameplay improvements
2020-09-30: More (small) improvements based on the LPs by LordKronos and MeleeWizard
Story
The lands of Krelaila are under attack by a dreadful army called the Rebonites and Nargad is sent to retrieve an ancient artifact in order to stop that army. Unravel the mysteries about Argon and the Orb of Fierce. Learn more about Krelaila's past and find out who your true enemy is.
Tips & Cheats
Use the map signs when lost, since the last major update they don't only show where you are, but also show where to go!
You continue at the last village or dungeon you were in, or at the last place you entered or left. Remember this when dying much in the overworld.
When you've saved, you continue at the last dungeon or village you were in.
Exploration is key in finding Heart Container Pieces, nice money rewards or upgrades.
You always get a hint where to go next after each dungeon, so be sure to pay attention to the text!
The road to level 2 is very long, so prepare for a long travel!
Pay much attention to what Frozenblood says after each dungeon. He will usually give you a direction on what to do next, even if it seems irrelevant.
You continue at the last village or dungeon you were in, or at the last place you entered or left. Remember this when dying much in the overworld.
When you've saved, you continue at the last dungeon or village you were in.
Exploration is key in finding Heart Container Pieces, nice money rewards or upgrades.
You always get a hint where to go next after each dungeon, so be sure to pay attention to the text!
The road to level 2 is very long, so prepare for a long travel!
Pay much attention to what Frozenblood says after each dungeon. He will usually give you a direction on what to do next, even if it seems irrelevant.
Credits
Creators:
CastChaos (dungeons 1-8, interiors, spritework)
Twilight Knight (overworld, final dungeon, interiors, spritework, cutscenes, story, composing, maintenance)
Testing:
Judasrising
DBDjango
Zolias
Vaualbus
Stray Sheep
ZoriaRPG
Graphics:
Radien
Sheik
Zemious
Prince MSC
DemonLink
Linkus
Jupiter
Scripts:
Joe123
Avataro
Saffith
Moosh
Moscowmodder
LinkTheMaster
Design:
Moosh
Deathrider365 (feedback from his LP)
MeleeWizard (feedback from his LP)
LordKronos (feedback from his LP)
Forum help:
Artistic
Judasrising
CastChaos (dungeons 1-8, interiors, spritework)
Twilight Knight (overworld, final dungeon, interiors, spritework, cutscenes, story, composing, maintenance)
Testing:
Judasrising
DBDjango
Zolias
Vaualbus
Stray Sheep
ZoriaRPG
Graphics:
Radien
Sheik
Zemious
Prince MSC
DemonLink
Linkus
Jupiter
Scripts:
Joe123
Avataro
Saffith
Moosh
Moscowmodder
LinkTheMaster
Design:
Moosh
Deathrider365 (feedback from his LP)
MeleeWizard (feedback from his LP)
LordKronos (feedback from his LP)
Forum help:
Artistic
Judasrising
Deedee
Edited 30 September 2020 - 03:55 PM
My biggest complaint with this when I played it two years ago was the endgame. You finish exploring the entire overworld right before level 6, and the last 3 dungeons have you explore exactly one (or in the case of level 9, 0, but I'm more willing to forgive it cause it's a central area) new overworld screen in an area you've been to before. It would've been cool to explore more of the volcano beyond a simple town inside it (maybe climbing the volcano to reach the sky dungeon?), and it would have been cool to explore a new area right before level 8. Instead, post level 6 just feels bland on the overworld side of things, which sucks cause the overworld was the thing the quest had going for it (the only dungeons besides level 2 and 3 that stood out to me was levels 8 and 9, which means the quest goes through a boring bland spell the moment you set foot in level 6 until the moment you set foot in level 8 ).
Russ
Posted 23 October 2016 - 02:33 PM
So this quest, it sure is something. I was actually a bit torn what to rate it, but more on that later. Let's start with what's good.
First, the overworld. This may just be the best overworld in ZC. It's big, it's varied, it's interconnected, and it's full of secrets and sidequests. Honestly, even if the quest lacked any dungeons at all, I think it would still be an amazing quest based off the overworld alone. You've outdone yourself Twilight Knight. It's truly spectacular.
The world itself. Unlike most quests, I actually felt somewhat invested in the world. It feels like a real world you're exploring, not just a collection of maps. The NPC dialogue is also incredibly funny most of the time.
There's also the attention to detail. Just little things like the sunglasses or hat that you can wear add a lot of detail to the world. Or things like talking to the trees after completing the nature sidequest, or the "gypsies" (which was a brilliant twist tucked away in an obscure line of NPC dialogue).
Of course, there's also the graphical style. I don't how much I can say here. It's good. It's really good. I love what you did with the Pokemon mountains combined with old-school DoR. It's got a unique graphical style that's fantastic.
The dungeons... the dungeons I'm mixed on. Some of them, namely 2, 3 (especially 3), 5, and 6 were great. There was certainly a bit of style clash going in terms of design philosophy (i.e. it was really clear I'd walked from a TK quest into a CastChaos quest), but they were CastChaos at his best. I feel they incorporated everything I like about CC's design philosophy (the creativity, the surrealism) while eschewing all the bad (confusing triggers, cluttered rooms, etc). 7 and 8 weren't bad, but they had some minor annoyances. 1 and 4... Not a fan of anything in 1, really, and 4 did some annoying side warp shenanigans I'm not too fond of. The final dungeon was cool, but relied far too heavily on backtracking. In general, the dungeons were what I want to see from CC, but there were a few missteps along the way.
Custom bosses were kind of hit or miss. While 2.10 bosses have basically fallen from favor, some of them were pretty nice in a nostalgic sort of way. The boss of level 3 especially comes to mind. Her sweeping the room with lasers was really fun. But a lot of the later bosses seem to quickly devolve into hordes of enemies or bosses that stood in one place doing nothing. It was kind of disappointing whenever that happened because I know CC can do better than that. With the final boss, for example. He has a phase where he just summons enemies, which was boring. And then suddenly there's bullet hell patterns and giant energy blasts and escape sequences and it's awesome. It seemed weird that even within the same boss fight, there could be such exciting and such dull moments.
Now the story... I know I praised the worldbuilding and the NPC dialogue, but the plot left a bit to be desired. The Rebonites were interesting, as were the three artifacts (setting aside that the name "Orb of Fierce" is kind of hard to take seriously sometimes), but... well...
While we're on the subject of the story, there's an elephant in the room I feel like we have to address. We all know English isn't CC's native language, and his writing can be awkward at times. In his solo quests, I look past that because I know he's doing the best he can do. But in a collab project like this, it was incredibly noticeable every time a CC string showed up. I feel like I could point out every single string he wrote. I have no objections with CC writing part of the plot, but I don't understand why TK didn't edit his strings from grammar afterwards. It seems like a simple thing that would've done wonders for immersion.
So where does that leave us? A quest with a well-constructed world, the best overworld I've seen in ZC, dungeons that range from "not perfect, but pretty good" to "well it's not awful but it's not really good either", an average (albeit unique) story, decent 2.10 bosses, lots of interesting secrets, and a one-of-a-kind graphical style. I feel like, overall, it should come out to a 4/5. But the weird thing is that, for me, it feels like the quest is more than the sum of its parts. It's got its fair share of mistakes, don't get me wrong. But those mistakes never really stopped me from enjoying it. Even at it's worst, when I had to skim the help thread to find some obscure secret in a dungeon, it never felt like any more than a stumbling block to keep me from reaching the next awesome bit of world exploration again. So I'm giving it a 5/5. That doesn't mean the quest is perfect by any means, but it appeals to me in all the right ways. Great job, both of you.
In conclusion, Urdolf.
First, the overworld. This may just be the best overworld in ZC. It's big, it's varied, it's interconnected, and it's full of secrets and sidequests. Honestly, even if the quest lacked any dungeons at all, I think it would still be an amazing quest based off the overworld alone. You've outdone yourself Twilight Knight. It's truly spectacular.
The world itself. Unlike most quests, I actually felt somewhat invested in the world. It feels like a real world you're exploring, not just a collection of maps. The NPC dialogue is also incredibly funny most of the time.
There's also the attention to detail. Just little things like the sunglasses or hat that you can wear add a lot of detail to the world. Or things like talking to the trees after completing the nature sidequest, or the "gypsies" (which was a brilliant twist tucked away in an obscure line of NPC dialogue).
Of course, there's also the graphical style. I don't how much I can say here. It's good. It's really good. I love what you did with the Pokemon mountains combined with old-school DoR. It's got a unique graphical style that's fantastic.
The dungeons... the dungeons I'm mixed on. Some of them, namely 2, 3 (especially 3), 5, and 6 were great. There was certainly a bit of style clash going in terms of design philosophy (i.e. it was really clear I'd walked from a TK quest into a CastChaos quest), but they were CastChaos at his best. I feel they incorporated everything I like about CC's design philosophy (the creativity, the surrealism) while eschewing all the bad (confusing triggers, cluttered rooms, etc). 7 and 8 weren't bad, but they had some minor annoyances. 1 and 4... Not a fan of anything in 1, really, and 4 did some annoying side warp shenanigans I'm not too fond of. The final dungeon was cool, but relied far too heavily on backtracking. In general, the dungeons were what I want to see from CC, but there were a few missteps along the way.
Custom bosses were kind of hit or miss. While 2.10 bosses have basically fallen from favor, some of them were pretty nice in a nostalgic sort of way. The boss of level 3 especially comes to mind. Her sweeping the room with lasers was really fun. But a lot of the later bosses seem to quickly devolve into hordes of enemies or bosses that stood in one place doing nothing. It was kind of disappointing whenever that happened because I know CC can do better than that. With the final boss, for example. He has a phase where he just summons enemies, which was boring. And then suddenly there's bullet hell patterns and giant energy blasts and escape sequences and it's awesome. It seemed weird that even within the same boss fight, there could be such exciting and such dull moments.
Now the story... I know I praised the worldbuilding and the NPC dialogue, but the plot left a bit to be desired. The Rebonites were interesting, as were the three artifacts (setting aside that the name "Orb of Fierce" is kind of hard to take seriously sometimes), but... well...
Spoiler
Frozenblood. It was so painfully obvious he was evil right from the get go. Like... his name is Frozenblood. Frozen Blood. As time went it, it became more and more obvious, to the point where I was hoping the big twist was that he wasn't evil. So in that sense, the big reveal was pretty disappointing.
While we're on the subject of the story, there's an elephant in the room I feel like we have to address. We all know English isn't CC's native language, and his writing can be awkward at times. In his solo quests, I look past that because I know he's doing the best he can do. But in a collab project like this, it was incredibly noticeable every time a CC string showed up. I feel like I could point out every single string he wrote. I have no objections with CC writing part of the plot, but I don't understand why TK didn't edit his strings from grammar afterwards. It seems like a simple thing that would've done wonders for immersion.
So where does that leave us? A quest with a well-constructed world, the best overworld I've seen in ZC, dungeons that range from "not perfect, but pretty good" to "well it's not awful but it's not really good either", an average (albeit unique) story, decent 2.10 bosses, lots of interesting secrets, and a one-of-a-kind graphical style. I feel like, overall, it should come out to a 4/5. But the weird thing is that, for me, it feels like the quest is more than the sum of its parts. It's got its fair share of mistakes, don't get me wrong. But those mistakes never really stopped me from enjoying it. Even at it's worst, when I had to skim the help thread to find some obscure secret in a dungeon, it never felt like any more than a stumbling block to keep me from reaching the next awesome bit of world exploration again. So I'm giving it a 5/5. That doesn't mean the quest is perfect by any means, but it appeals to me in all the right ways. Great job, both of you.
In conclusion, Urdolf.
- Rambly , Epsalon ZX , Soma C. , and 3 others like this
Accr89
Posted 21 September 2016 - 04:13 PM
Im giving this quest 5 stars because not only did it draw me back into zc again, but there was a lot of work that went into this project hopefully I can start my big review didn't have much of a chance yet. Anyways great Job with this compelling and extensive quest def one of my top 5s for sure!
- Twilight Knight likes this
Useless Old Man Wisdom
Edited 17 June 2019 - 07:12 AM
Edit: I recently replayed NT:CC after it's April 2019 update, which promised a lot of gameplay related improvements making the quest more pleasant to play, so some of my original opinions of the quest may have changed.
This quest is certainly unique in many ways, and an enjoyable enough 24hours of game time, but in my opinion, is also oddly balanced and deceptively hollow.
The biggest balance issue is the long, long journeys to the 1st and then second dungeons. This in and of itself isn't the worst thing in a quest that is created with exploration in mind. On the other hand, surviving the overworld and trekking long distances to the first and second dungeons eclipses the difficulty of the actual dungeons. The first, second, and to a lesser extent third dungeons are simply underwhelming compared to the journey just to reach them. In fact, an ongoing theme I found is that the dungeons and bosses both seemed to get easier as I progressed further. Part of this might be due to naturally finding health, weapon, and armor upgrades, but opting to find upgrades usually doesn't make games or ZC quests as easy as NT:CC becomes.
Once you pick up certain items, you figure out that this journey, and the rest of the overworld, isn't really that big at all; but rather, the overworld just seems that way early on due to lots of hammer pegs, rocks, or other obstacles forcing you to take the long way. The overworld, while looking excellent, can be a real pain to navigate, because there are too many obstacles, arbitrary-item triggers, and other purposeful obfuscations thrown in seemingly just because. For such a large overworld, there seems to also be a shortage of secrets. Many, many, many screens are seemingly just filler and would be totally irrelevant if the overworld design did not force the player to transverse them. That is why I call the overworld deceptively hollow: at first it looks like a marvelous journey across an entire country, but the longer and deeper you look at things, the more you realize the countryside is remarkably empty.
One could say that opting for the built in "donkey-ride" service, which I admit is a pretty great idea, both in terms of practicality and creativity, does help reduce the chore of overworld navigation. However, the donkeys don't go anywhere near levels 2 and 3, so you are required to do a lot of walking. Another frustration I have is that it was surprisingly unpredictable where my character would respawn after I save the game. I'm not sure about the technical feasibility of it, but I kept wishing my character would just respawn on the last map I stepped foot on. I just didn't find the respawning rule as simple as "respawn in the last town or dungeon you were in," and so was forced many, many times to do 5-10 minutes of overworld traversing just to get back to where I foolishly hit F6-continue/save.
Another balance issue is that it just didn't seem worth it to explore much until late in the game. This is because of an abundance of item triggers to get secrets, but also because the quest throws large amounts of rupees at you when it's not possible to get the 999 or 9999 wallets until relatively late in the game. Sure, you could spend that money on potions, but as I said, with the dungeons becoming easier and easier, there is no real need for potions if you are like me and an experienced-moderately skilled ZC player. Rupee rewards are a pet-peeve of mine in ZC, so take this criticism with some salt. Just as well, if is also possible to find enough health and upgrades to become overpowered, so if you desire a challenge, exploring can dis-incentivize the experience For a quest created with exploration in mind, there just seems to be little incentive to do so until too late in the game.
The dungeon design is slightly above average with no major flaws I can remember. I'd say the dungeon style is pretty LTTP-like and navigation is straightforward. The dungeons don't interconnect to the overworld with several entrances, nor do they really have secrets one can come back for, in a metroidvania fashion, so each dungeon is pretty forgettable. In some of the early dungeons, it can be tough to see necessary hints, but I didn't find muted palettes or darkness to be a serious problem. Overall, though, I say that the attention and detail given to the dungeons does pale in comparison to the attention given to the overworld. The 2.10-style bosses are what they are, and usually require no strategy except "use the item(s) you received in that dungeon."
While it might sound like I find a lot wrong with this quest, I actually had a great time playing just the same. Almost all of that enjoyment comes from the overworld and, I too would be just as happy with this quest if it was built with no dungeons at all. I originally rated this a 3, but in replaying and rethinking, I think now I would give the quest an objective 3.75 - which I raise to 4 thanks to the intangible fun factor I enjoyed while playing. This is an enjoyable quest with some quirky design philosophies that somewhat subtract from, but don't nullify the experience. The overworld is quite splendid, but you have to progress far into the quest's less splendid dungeons and put up with some frustrations in order to enjoy that overworld.
This quest is certainly unique in many ways, and an enjoyable enough 24hours of game time, but in my opinion, is also oddly balanced and deceptively hollow.
The biggest balance issue is the long, long journeys to the 1st and then second dungeons. This in and of itself isn't the worst thing in a quest that is created with exploration in mind. On the other hand, surviving the overworld and trekking long distances to the first and second dungeons eclipses the difficulty of the actual dungeons. The first, second, and to a lesser extent third dungeons are simply underwhelming compared to the journey just to reach them. In fact, an ongoing theme I found is that the dungeons and bosses both seemed to get easier as I progressed further. Part of this might be due to naturally finding health, weapon, and armor upgrades, but opting to find upgrades usually doesn't make games or ZC quests as easy as NT:CC becomes.
Once you pick up certain items, you figure out that this journey, and the rest of the overworld, isn't really that big at all; but rather, the overworld just seems that way early on due to lots of hammer pegs, rocks, or other obstacles forcing you to take the long way. The overworld, while looking excellent, can be a real pain to navigate, because there are too many obstacles, arbitrary-item triggers, and other purposeful obfuscations thrown in seemingly just because. For such a large overworld, there seems to also be a shortage of secrets. Many, many, many screens are seemingly just filler and would be totally irrelevant if the overworld design did not force the player to transverse them. That is why I call the overworld deceptively hollow: at first it looks like a marvelous journey across an entire country, but the longer and deeper you look at things, the more you realize the countryside is remarkably empty.
One could say that opting for the built in "donkey-ride" service, which I admit is a pretty great idea, both in terms of practicality and creativity, does help reduce the chore of overworld navigation. However, the donkeys don't go anywhere near levels 2 and 3, so you are required to do a lot of walking. Another frustration I have is that it was surprisingly unpredictable where my character would respawn after I save the game. I'm not sure about the technical feasibility of it, but I kept wishing my character would just respawn on the last map I stepped foot on. I just didn't find the respawning rule as simple as "respawn in the last town or dungeon you were in," and so was forced many, many times to do 5-10 minutes of overworld traversing just to get back to where I foolishly hit F6-continue/save.
Another balance issue is that it just didn't seem worth it to explore much until late in the game. This is because of an abundance of item triggers to get secrets, but also because the quest throws large amounts of rupees at you when it's not possible to get the 999 or 9999 wallets until relatively late in the game. Sure, you could spend that money on potions, but as I said, with the dungeons becoming easier and easier, there is no real need for potions if you are like me and an experienced-moderately skilled ZC player. Rupee rewards are a pet-peeve of mine in ZC, so take this criticism with some salt. Just as well, if is also possible to find enough health and upgrades to become overpowered, so if you desire a challenge, exploring can dis-incentivize the experience For a quest created with exploration in mind, there just seems to be little incentive to do so until too late in the game.
The dungeon design is slightly above average with no major flaws I can remember. I'd say the dungeon style is pretty LTTP-like and navigation is straightforward. The dungeons don't interconnect to the overworld with several entrances, nor do they really have secrets one can come back for, in a metroidvania fashion, so each dungeon is pretty forgettable. In some of the early dungeons, it can be tough to see necessary hints, but I didn't find muted palettes or darkness to be a serious problem. Overall, though, I say that the attention and detail given to the dungeons does pale in comparison to the attention given to the overworld. The 2.10-style bosses are what they are, and usually require no strategy except "use the item(s) you received in that dungeon."
While it might sound like I find a lot wrong with this quest, I actually had a great time playing just the same. Almost all of that enjoyment comes from the overworld and, I too would be just as happy with this quest if it was built with no dungeons at all. I originally rated this a 3, but in replaying and rethinking, I think now I would give the quest an objective 3.75 - which I raise to 4 thanks to the intangible fun factor I enjoyed while playing. This is an enjoyable quest with some quirky design philosophies that somewhat subtract from, but don't nullify the experience. The overworld is quite splendid, but you have to progress far into the quest's less splendid dungeons and put up with some frustrations in order to enjoy that overworld.
- Epsalon ZX , Mani Kanina and Twilight Knight like this
Nargad's Trail: Crystal CrusadesStarted by Mister Snooze , 23 Aug 2016 |
|
|