James Quest 2: A dilemna

[Nightmare]

I'm wondering what to do here.

Should I?

1. Cut the 2nd Overworld, battle Necrosaro at the end of the Necro Levels. This would take massive scripting and sprite work. I can script, but I sure as hell can't sprite. This would eliminate the 2nd Overworld completely.

Or

2. Retool the 2nd Overworld, COMPLETELY. All the levels and screens in the Overworld get repowered enemies according to either Magic Sword or Zenethian Sword level (undecided on what power level to use yet). So it basically acts like the Legend of Zelda, back to its original power.

What do you guys think?

-James

[CJC]

While the second overworld might be interesting to play, I HATE when games do the 'difficulty shift' and all your awesome equipment is now standard. I'd almost rather you take away the good gear than just power up the enemies (having the big bad turn your magic sword back into a wooden stick would just be heart-wrenching).

[SUCCESSOR]

Since i have no idea what Jame's Quest 2 is like my opinion depends on a few things. Are the overworlds fun and interesting or just a means from getting from level to level. If it's the latter then the less overworld the better. How is the difficulty? A longer curve is better than being dropped into "WTF! OMG! FUUUU!" Is the quest interesting enough to be long? I don't like long quests. If there is an interesting story, the gameplay evolves enough, and there is something new to see I can tolerate a long quest. Otherwise, just sweeten a small package.

[Nightmare]

It's currently a 20 hr quest SUCCESSOR, and just as hard as the first one, if not more.

-James

[Gleeok]

Nightmare: Since I've not only beaten JQ1, but also beaten this quest and 0-gamed it as well, here's some thoughts from that perspective:

The game gets a little ridiculous when you get to the "Let's start fighting tons of Lanmolas over and over again". Personally I don't think the second OW is the problem, it's the fact that ZC 1.92 just runs out of interesting ways to keep gameplay interesting once you get too powerful. This is evident before you even get to Zenethia (or whatever that is). If you did nothing but fixed all the "we're out of ideas so here's rooms full of X bosses just because" for starters I think that would be better than cutting the 2nd OW. If anything the 2nd overworld dungeons is where you can add some new beefy enemies,

[Nightmare]

Gleeok: I'm not against a total redesign: I just got trashed again by Lv. 2 and its surrounding areas: With a 20 hour quest and an enemy editor I can certainly whack a lot of the early stuff and put some new stuff in as well: I am not opposed to it, and bring heavy stuff later.

Generally speaking, it's probably true I hate the quest in its current form.

-James

[Gleeok]

What I'm saying is that the worst of it starts about halfway through. Balance-wise the beginning isn't really a huge issue.

[Nightmare]

http://youtu.be/6778H6IYkPY

A video of some of the new enemies so far.

-james