I originally started playing this quest back in 2019, but abandoned the game after just level 1 or perhaps level 2, because the progression was just too tedious and elusive. Much like Mike's Fun House, another highly imaginative and unconventional NES-style quest that I also rage quit too early before much later re-discovering, I'm really glad I have Wizzrobe's Big Day Out a second chance.
I guess I have to mention the elephant in the room, like many others already have: the gameplay and progression through around level 3 is so obtuse due to arbitrary secrets and low offensive and defensive capabilities of the character, it's not particularly fun. This is the point where I quit the first time and almost quit a second time but for some advice from forums posts, which I usually don't feel the need to turn to. I get that LoZ had obscure whistle triggers and other unmarked secrets that most player's wouldn't think to try, but that just so happens to be one of the few bad things about LoZ. In WBDO, this bad element is utilized too much. I'll reiterate that the wand triggers for and inside 'The Gauntlet' are pretty bad because the entrance trigger is so non-obvious and the ice trigger in the dungeon, that leads to an essential item, was hard for me to recognize. There was quite a bit of my character being 1-hit-1-killed early on, and other arduous combat that required some lengthy backtracking, but I get that the difficulty of WBDO was meant to be above-average to solidly moderate.
Past these growing pains, once the player can access the desert, the quest honestly comes to life. There is exploration-galore and the quest becomes gameplay-centric, which gameplay is the quality where this quest really excels. Suddenly, the player's impotent magic, offense, and defensive capabilities can be markedly improved if the player chooses to explore, which is an essential element for every quest in my opinion. The difficulty kind of plateaus from this point and stays fairly easy for a long time, but that's not a bad thing because the dungeon design also markedly improves during this portion of the quest. Early on, the dungeon design is honestly pretty bland, but suddenly the dungeons become more than a means to and end in finding the next item. The story-driven elements take a backseat but are still there on occasion and remain interesting.
Towards the end of the quest, the difficulty ramps up to a solidly moderate level (and sometimes hard) and the story-driven elements come to life again. Without spoiling things, the last 1/4 or so of the quest is probably the strongest portion where gameplay, story, and dungeon design really fire on all cylinders.
I, for one, also really enjoyed the palettes and screen design used in the various overworlds and caves. The world looks relatively real and like a real place, especially for an NES-style quest, which is something few quests manage to achieve. There is a lot of attention to detail in world building, even if most of the maps outside of the main 8x16 overworld are incomplete, and it really shows. Some of the music choices are also impressive and obscure, which others are pretty standard ZC-fare.
Overall, WBDO is another quest where tenacity and stick-tu-it-iveness pay off and there is a grand and rich quest to be had if you can make it through the rough beginning. Honestly, I don't know why these issues with the beginning are still there, after multiple other critiques, but maybe it's for the best? I got a solid 18-hours of play from WBDO and hope to keep[ hunting for some elusive mega secrets and a second ending.
Wizzrobe's Big Day Out
Overview
Feature Quest
Creator: AaronJer Genre: NES-style Added: 29 Jul 2019 Updated: 17 May 2020 ZC Version: 2.53 Downloads: 653 Rating[?]: |
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Information
Three Wizzrobes touch the Triforce and become usurpers to Link, Zelda and Ganon. Madness ensues.