I mentioned already in the thread that I think there's definitely a place for a puzzle compilation quest but it's a tricky balance to strike. The reduced linearity here definitely helps, as does the added context the areas provide. I like the addition of a world to supplement the puzzles. The previous two quests felt like a series of arbitrary tasks with no downtime, yet here I was constantly motivated to see what kind of areas would show up next. Just a little bit of context went a long way. I also liked being able to choose to some degree the order to which I tackled puzzles though they were still all mandatory eventually. My big complaint about the world though is the mazes. A sprinkle of maze is almost unavoidable in ZC design but when navigating the area starts to overshadow the puzzle content, that's when the quest would lose me. I definitely preferred the areas as visual setpieces, storytelling elements, or downtime between puzzles rather than as puzzles themselves.
The story the world supports, unfortunately, I found largely incomprehensible. It's a mishmash of Lovecraft references and doesn't have much sense of direction. There's not much in the way of characters and a lot of things I think assume you're familiar with the source materials. I was not familiar with the source materials. It's probably not helped by occasional grammar oddities. Or outright oddities altogether. A string in the cat town called me a "retard." So you know it's true to Lovecraft's style.
As for the puzzles, the real focus of the quest, there's a mixed bag. I think they fall into two categories. You have simple quick and straightforward ones that you could see in your typical Zelda-like quest, but also methodical head scratchers that feature a lot of answer entry and slow thinking that can only exist in this sort of quest. Anywhere else those would be a pace killer but for me here they were some of the highlights. Unfortunately with this mix a lot of the early game and some of the midgame just felt too easy. And as a knock on effect, I didn't actually learn the intricacies of some puzzle mechanics until the second or third encounter with them at which point I may have formed some wrong assumptions. I would love to see a Zelda-like with this kind of puzzle diversity or a full on Layton-like but either direction I think the balance could use some work.
All in all this is probably the most negative I've been on something with this much work put into it in a while. I really wish I could have enjoyed it more and I hope my impressions haven't been too discouraging. It's a unique quest and I do think this sort of thing has potential.
