PDA

View Full Version : [5th Quest Entry] BigJoe



bigjoe
10-26-2013, 03:10 AM
I am releasing this here before I submit it to the thread, hoping to get some feedback.

Some details about the quest:

Don't let the difficulty of Level 1 fool you. The quest is very difficult. I figured that for a quest to be numbered 5, it shouldn't slack in this regard. A minimal equipment run is probably not a good idea, you'll want to find items as early as you can get them.

The levels are large. I guess I felt it necessary to mention this.



UPDATED:

Original Entry (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94476244/BigJoe_Original_Entry.zip)

-The original final version of the entry.

Current Version (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94476244/bigjoe_5th_final.zip)

-The current version of the entry. Virtually identical but has bug fixes and new soundtrack.

Special Edition (http://www.purezc.net/index.php?page=quests&id=487)

-A Special Edition of the quest released at PureZC. Has some nifty new additions. Doesn't count as actual entry.

CJC
10-27-2013, 12:02 AM
Fool me? Fire shooters and seemingly inaccessible rooms... if you think that your first dungeon is easy then the rest of the quest is going to be like pulling teeth!


Well... combat's not that bad (I tend to exaggerate), but the first level is quite engaging. I'll have to give it another try later.

bigjoe
10-27-2013, 02:22 PM
I am 120% open to modifying the difficulty if the majority find it too hard. As much as I'd like to top 3rd and 4th in terms of difficulty, I don't want to have an experience that is too stressful or not enjoyable. I guess I'll just have to hope enough people play and give feedback in the short amount of time before the final deadline. That being said, I think that with the proper equipment and skill, the quest is manageable. But I can't speak for someone who doesn't know where everything is. The only person who has played a significant portion of the quest is Nightmare, and he's a powerhouse in terms of quest playing skill.

Nightmare
10-28-2013, 03:09 AM
Lv. 7: Two creepy crawlies, non-critical:
1. Room above where you bomb going up on the way to the Map Room: Block with no stairs.
2. Two block room on top: Push, no stairs.

BTW, looks like someone couldn't beat their own level for Level 7. I think good call in making this easier: It was pretty absurd on the early versions I tested.

Onto 8.

-James

Nightmare
10-29-2013, 03:33 AM
Apologize for the double post here, but BigJoe, you've been around Zelda Classic since the beginning, so I'm going to be tough on you for this one. You have Green Wizzrobes and Brown Wizzrobes at 4 hits a shot, and Blue Wizzrobes at 3 hits a shot, and you put Red Bubbles with no way to free your sword except for potion in Level 9. You out of all people should know that Wizzrobes are affected by only swords and bombs, and I only have 12 bombs at the beginning of 9. Were you punch drunk making this level? Did you test it with cheats on only and not play it otherwise? This is quite the mistake you made in your level design and there's not a good wqy to rectify it: Either it's well hidden or not there. not good.

You got a few days, you might want to take Lv. 9 for a redesign.

BTW, your quest turns into Kaizo Zelda as of Level 8.

-James

bigjoe
10-29-2013, 07:09 AM
I managed to beat both Level 8 and 9 without cheats, but I can't say that I didn't die at least twice in each level. If you're looking for blue bubbles, walk through wall downward right of the "triforce" room. However, since you express concern about the difficulty, I will tweak it.

Most of the difficult fights can be avoided if you have enough keys, or have the magic key.

EDIT: Made some modifications to Level 9 and decreased the damage and speed of L2 wall masters in Level 8.

Tell me if this (https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94476244/bigjoe_5th_b.zip) is better.

Nightmare
10-29-2013, 06:01 PM
Wall Masters looking better so far.

(placeholder for Lv. 9 evaluation)

-James

Nightmare
10-29-2013, 07:41 PM
Wall Masters looking better so far.

2 bugs possibly:

1. Brown Wizzrobe room with 2 statues: Are the statues just there for decoration?
2. Room 17: Can't seem to access the stairs (upper-right corner area). I'm locked in by blocks, and when I try to blow the wall open where the Green Wizzrobes are, nothing happens.

Back to this later tonight.

-James

bigjoe
10-29-2013, 09:29 PM
1. Fixed
2. The stairs can only be accessed once you're on the other side of those blocks. There is a warp that leads there somewhere else.

Nightmare
10-29-2013, 11:47 PM
Done. 15 deaths and too many retries, for the reason I'll list below:

1. You might want to adjust the number of strong Like-Likes in certain areas. They for some reason have a bad tendency to skip the Boomerang and eat your shield. It made for a very frustrating Lv. 9 experience.
2. Ganon takes WAY too many hits. 8 is enough. God forbid you don't find the Red Ring.

OK, now for your grading:

Difficulty: 95/100
VERY hard, but passable. Might be a little too difficult in some spots. I suggest playtesting without cheats more to get a better feel before the deadline.

NES Authenticity: 95/100.
Very high marks here. True to the NES with new enemies.

Fun Factor: 70/100
Lv. 9 was a very frustrating experience. The Like-Like rooms were just ridiculous, and led for an infinite number of resets. I got a headache from the stress and the heart-pounding, and as far as classic games go, thta's very hard to do to me. I might sound a little rough here, but sacrificing like 5 NES authenticity points to break enemy groups for the final and do an enemy review might be a much better idea for Level 9. It's more fun and will leave a better experience with the player. Hell, the 3rd did it and still won.

Overall score: 86.67/100

bigjoe
11-03-2013, 04:03 AM
Grr, its not letting me edit my post to update the link.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94476244/bigjoe_5th_rc1.zip

If someone can change it, that'd be great.

SUCCESSOR
11-03-2013, 04:10 AM
Grr, its not letting me edit my post to update the link.

https://dl.dropboxusercontent.com/u/94476244/bigjoe_5th_rc1.zip

If someone can change it, that'd be great.

I see no reason why you shouldnt be able to edit your own post.

Nightmare
11-03-2013, 01:02 PM
I really wish you didn't have so many Like-Likes in tight spots BigJoe in 9, but oh well. Having a few of them gone is helpful.

Anyway, boosted your fun factor from 70 to 80 based on your changes, giving you a 90.0% on my score. Congratulations, the first "A" so far.

-James

bigjoe
11-07-2013, 11:47 AM
Fixed an issue in Level 9 where you could get stuck that happened as a result of me changing the layout of a screen.

If you downloaded the quest before the time of this post, you might want to download it again.

Imzogelmo
11-16-2013, 12:42 AM
I just started on this quest (been trying to get a little way into each quest as I have the time), and I just completed level 1. I felt like I was on the edge of dying at all times. That is to say, it was tough, but I felt it was fair in its toughness (except -=SPOILER=-).

For NES authenticity, I give it high marks. The room layouts are very NES-like, much more than my own. The new enemies (that I have seen so far) seem like logical variations on the NES counterparts. I have no idea where the next objective will be, but I'm sure I will find it if I look hard enough.

I don't feel like I've played far enough into it to report more than that. No bugs to report, so far, so good.

bigjoe
12-06-2013, 05:37 AM
Small update to fix some consistency with push blocks and remove some flags that aren't supposed to be there. If you downloaded it before this post, you might want to download it again.

CJC
12-12-2013, 05:00 PM
Voting is now open for this quest. Vote for as many categories as you please, but be sure to vote before tax day!

Also, please post in this thread stating which categories you selected and explaining why you picked those categories.

bigboylink
01-08-2014, 06:53 PM
Note/disclaimer - I played the version that was modified on Dec 6. From reading the thread, I see that some modifications were made prior to the Dec 6 qst file that I downloaded.

Despite some flaws (that are admittedly very minor, nitpicky, and subjective), I think if I had to vote for a single contest entry, this quest is my favorite so far (though I still have yet to play 7 or 8 of the entries). Prior to playing any of the 5th quest entries, I was keeping in mind Saffith's Antiquity quest as a sort of benchmark to which the entries could be measured. For me, now BigJoe's quest entry is the benchmark.

One glitch/bug to report: in level 9, three rooms west of Zelda's room, nothing happens after pushing the block.

Some minor suggestions:

-=SPOILER=-

Now my review of the quest:

-=SPOILER=-

bigjoe
01-09-2014, 08:03 AM
Thanks for the review,bigboylink. To address some points:

-=SPOILER=-

I am glad that you enjoyed the quest. If you have any other suggestions or feedback, let me know.

justin1
01-10-2014, 11:56 PM
why do all the push blocks only move up/down?

i'm totally lost in level4. been to every room on the map. can't figure out how to get into either of the "eyes" - seems like i've tried bombing and walking through every possible wall. is the whistle the dungeon item? not really a fan of the design of this level, too many random bomb thru walls. oh, i hit another dead end, time to start bombing every possible wall. i've had to leave the level 3 times now to get more bombs. should be more rooms that drop bombs for killing all the enemies - or maybe some enemies with bombs in their drop set. the super strong didongos just rub salt in the wound.

bigjoe
01-11-2014, 07:36 AM
-=SPOILER=-

justin1
01-11-2014, 11:01 AM
the "eyes" in level 4 don't help your clue. the whole time i was thinking, why is he calling this level shape a zol, does he not know what a zol is? would be a lot clearer if your level 4 shape didn't have eyes as well.

also, the level 4 boss room door locks behind you, forcing the player to exit the game if they don't have the whistle yet.


edit: through level 5. i enjoyed it a lot more than 4. the charging darknuts are the best new enemy i've seen in the contest so far.

Zweldron
04-12-2014, 12:55 PM
Just finished this one, so without any ado, here's the lowdown. I have decided to just give a general review, rather than the point-by-point description in previous maps, but I will give my overall rating.

Overall the map was good. It had several clues to where to find things- although there are a few locations that I found during my normal overworld searches, for which I don't recall a hint- in particular dungeons 6,8, and 9 (although 6 is in a classic hidden spot, so that one is understandable). Dungeon 8, in particular was in the very last screen on the overworld that I gave a thorough check to (yes, I checked all 128 screens for every burnable bush [after getting the red candle], bombable wall, pushable object, and whistle) In the map's defense, it was on a screen that usually has something, just not in the usual location on the screen.
The music was very annoying (yes, I got the file in the zip), and so I quickly deleted the file so the game reverted to the ZQ-standard remix.
There were several locations in dungeon with pushable walls that didn't do anything- I found one in each of dungeons 5,7,8, and 9. This, of course, needs to be cleaned up if this map eventually wins the contest (but should be fixed regardless of the contest outcome!) Several twists in the dungeons are things which I saw in other contest maps (though I, of course, don't know if this is conincidence or not; they weren't too unusual), but they were not overused, which is always a plus to me.
The only real complaints from a difficulty standpoint is what others commented on earlier in this thread- several rooms with darkness, narrow paths, and like-likes in the later dungeons were very annoying (the darkness because you need to see the walls to avoid being overwhelmed; sometimes you don't have the time for that), and Ganon needing 16 hits is a bit much. He wasn't powered up, so as long as you have a potion (or full health entering the battle), the fight is long, but dull.

Overall there were a few problems, a few high points, mostly a decent, solid map. It earns a 3.07/5 from me.

bigjoe
04-20-2014, 06:35 PM
Thanks for playing and for your feedback Zweldron. After hearing that the music was annoying from several different people I decided to revert it to zelda.nsf. Fixed a couple of bugs as well. Link will be in first post.

bigjoe
07-08-2014, 06:06 AM
I finalized the bug fixes and added a new custom soundtrack. I hope I'm not stepping on any toes by doing this, but I practically designed my levels around having a custom soundtrack. The original score I made wasn't that good, so I went back to the drawing board and made a better one. I guess I'll revert it if anyone complains, but its not like I'm changing anything gameplay wise. As before, a different theme plays based on the enemy set and in Level 9.

Also, as a bonus, I'll name the shapes of the levels

1 - Hourglass
2 - Block
3 - Zol
4 - Horned Lizard
5 - Sword
6 - Grail
7 - Moon and star
8 - Cross
9 - Ghost

CJC
07-08-2014, 11:17 PM
Looking forward to playing with the new soundtrack! I'm not running ZC lately but when I get back around to it this'll be my first stop.

Coyotek4
08-03-2014, 08:32 PM
After starting this quest, then leaving Zelda for a while, then restarting this quest, I have completed this one.

Simply put: this is easily the most 'authentic' 5th quest I've played, and very well created. I actually liked the musical cues regarding the denizens of each dungeon (though I did have to adjust to the 'Nightmare Fuel' Darknut music. I did find a couple 'typos', but those can be fixed if this quest wins. And this quest has now jumped to the top of my list.

Not a whole lot of 'unique' ideas; all new creatures were basically off-color versions of existing creatures, and many ideas were used in other quests. But to me, that only adds to the authenticity; this quest doesn't need strange 'bells and whistles'. It is, in fact, solidly made, with a good ramping of difficulty.

Kudos!

bigjoe
10-18-2014, 02:12 AM
Updated with link to original entry in compliance with contest rules.