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Link's Decision 2: Chronos the Tears of Fate

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Creator: obake-san Genre: Dungeon Romper Added: 04 Feb 2022 Updated: 12 Sep 2023 ZC Version: 2.10 Downloads: 511 Rating[?]: Rating: 4.2/5 (4 ratings) Download Quest
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Useless Old Man Wisdom  
Rating: 4/5

Edited 15 February 2022 - 01:45 PM
Though I have not finished the quest yet, I am at the estimated 60% mark, so I have seen enough to gather an impression of what the quest is about. With that said, I am likely to come back and edit the review later once I have actually finished.

Link's Decision 2 promises a really novel premise, in being able to choose a "job," ala certain old-school Final Fantasy games. The quest also boasts of 3 overworlds, lots of dungeons, time warps and shifts, programmed side quests, and more. Overall, I think the quest falls short of its ambitions and execution is lacking in several areas; but overall, LD2 is a really full and impressive quest when you consider that the quest was built in v2.10 and ported over to modern Zelda Classic.

Having chosen the thief class, I'm not entirely convinced there is any real difference in the thief job and other classes - beyond the arbitrary item restrictions among the different classes. I don't think it's possible to alter offensive or defensive stats between different "jobs" in ZC, let alone metrics like speed, agility, or stamina to craft a job system in ZC that compares to an RPG with a job system. The thief-only item(s) do offer a unique advantage and sequence-breaking chances, which are interesting, but doesn't really leave me convinced I'm playing a unique role. On the other hand, maybe programming some rare drops upon enemy death - which I have certainly seen in 2.5 quests - would go a long way to mimic a thief's steal command and add to the immersion. I might go on to replay with the thief's companion class, which I recall is the monk, in order to better impression of the class system and see more dungeons.

The dungeons themselves are good, not spectacular but good, and have enough twists and turns to keep me from getting bored. I like how the dungeons change in certain time phases and how changes in the past can reflect on future phases. Some things I don't like about the dungeons are the repetitive moveable block mazes and shutter door rooms, which slow the pacing down a lot and create tedium and backtracking when I have to revisit these rooms or chose the wrong direction. I also became stuck several times in moveable block rooms and had to F6 continue, due to no warp-reset tiles in these rooms. I also see a lot of pushable block and switch rooms where there isn't a permanent flag, admittedly which I've seen in many 2.10 quests, but also add to tedium when I have to do these puzzles again upon revisiting these rooms. There is also a curious abundance of Like Likes in the dungeons and caves, love this enemy or hate them, which has left me needing to repurchase a L2 shield much, much more often than usual.

The overworlds - meaning the different time phases - are pretty nice and detailed and good use of the tileset. There are enough secrets and sidequests to keep busy between dungeons, which I consider a necessity in a quest. In particular, I really like the golden statue sidequest and am surprised this was technically possible (if not added during the 2.5 port). I think the time warps are in the right places to prevent excessive walking around and there are enough obstacles to make the player look for the right route without forcing the player to walk excessively. I have always liked putting optional items at the end of dungeons, instead of just another McGuffin to advance the plot, which certain dungeons in this quest do satisfy. I have found a number of bugs where exiting caves places my character in (I'm guessing) unintended spots, and also rupee caves where I can keep collecting the money over and over again, but nothing that compromises the quest or would result in a soft or hard lock.

Challenge wise, the quest has struck me as quite easy. I completed the three parts of the arena before finishing level 4, and in general, never felt threatened by enemies or bosses, nor in need of a potion. Curiously, the challenge seems to be altered by the fact that either the swords are nerfed or enemy HP are buffed, which has become a recurring annoyance in that having to swipe enemies over and over again becomes unnecessary tedium instead of challenge. Music choices are good if not quite familiar if you've played a lot of ZC quests or official Zelda games. I get major Chrono Trigger vibes, not just from recurring midis, and time travels, but also from the tiles and other artwork throughout the quest.

So far, I'm around 16 hours in and only an estimated 60% done with the quest, so this is a fairly long one. I do plan to come back and edit this review once I have fully played through. That is to say that I've seen enough good things to make me want to finish playing through.