[5th Quest Entry] BtjCraft's 5th Quest Entry

YAY! I'm so happy I got this done! I really enjoyed putting this thing together, and I tried my best with this quest.

http://www.mediafire.com/download/ja...sEntry_1.2.zip

Well...here it is. Included is the quest itself, a little guide that reports the location of the secrets in the game and has bios of the new enemies so you have a better idea of what to expect, and an update log.

[Edit]
The quest is no longer passworded and the Level 4 Cheat has been enabled. (The cheat code is "5")

[Edit 2]
Hey, look, I'm back, yay. Anyway, the quest has been repassworded and the cheat is gone.

Please report any bugs, errors, abnormalities, etc. and submit feedback.

Anyway, enjoy!

[Brief Version History]
v1.1: Several changes are made and a Level 6 related bug is fixed.
v1.11: Some bug fixes.
v1.12: Defaulted many of the strings, and a few other things.
v1.121: Fixed a couple of embarrassing mistakes.
v1.2: Increased the difficulty (hopefully by a decent amount).

woo doggies, this was pretty fun, but fairly easy. I never bought the blue ring and played through level 6 for tonight at least. The dungeons get drawn out but I like the spelling theme to help navigate. Your item order is bonkers, but I managed to find the red candle, bracelet, ladder, raft, magic boomerang, both swords, the red candle, letter, wand and maybe one other thing. I'll try and finish up this weekend :)

I thought the quest seemed pretty easy, but I wanted to get some feedback on it first before I make any modifications on the difficulty. So, unless if you prefer it to be easy, expect a raise(but not a big raise) in difficulty soon. Although, I'm pretty sure that the difficulty really starts to kick in at Level 7, and there isn't anymore spelling from that point forward, but Level 7 is pretty linear so navigation there shouldn't be too difficult.

But, is my item order really bonkers? I didn't try to make it that way. Oh well, it's nice being abnormal. :encouragement:

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.

You might want to change your White Sword string back to something more traditional. There's no reason to use this as a political platform; it's just describing the color of the metal. If you prefer, you can utilize the original term: "Noble Sword".

EDIT
I've noticed other strings are unorthodox. Just a heads up that that might lead to low marks in the contest; players will be expecting cryptic messages like the original game.

Found the red candle and am grateful for the boost in weaponry. Also found Level 7 and the Silver Arrow... though I have no bow with which to use it! Still looking for level 2.

One bug: You've placed too many raft flags around the piers on the eastern sea, and one in particular is causing a glitch. Between the two piers you are supposed to cross for the HC puzzle is a raft flag that triggers when the player tries to double back and--if triggered--gets Link stuck on his ladder, leaving only a quit and continue to escape. You really only need the flags on the last pier going North, I recommend removing all other flags on the screen.


Where's the key shop?

Found Level 2. The dungeon's color is a little weird. Ah, it's the wrong CSet! I can tell because it reverts to normal color when the room darkens. Is that intentional?

Level 2 Boss Room: If the player runs out of money, the only option to end the battle is to die or quit. I recommend removing the south shutter to prevent this instance, or adding a staircase back to start.

Found out about the Eagle Dungeon Glitch after I wasted a key on Level 3. I cannot continue in the dungeon without a key shop and I cannot find it.

Dungeon 5 seems to be short a key as well, you may wish to check that. I used the L4 cheat as supplied in the txt file to bypass these problems for now.

I have to say Dungeon 6 is quite interesting. I have never before dared to brave Wizrobes without the blue ring, and the MirrorRobe fight was interesting (but a little drawn out, maybe lower his health a little?). You need to place a hint somewhere in the dungeon, though, telling the player where to look after retrieving their prize.


Check your overworld secrets, especially the whistle door on Screen 7A. There are a few caves instead of stairs.

If you re-enter Level 7, you will be unable to escape without quitting or dying. Also, the boss room has no escape if you run out of rupees save death. You can fix both by putting a 'back to start' staircase in the boss room.

In Level 9, if you do not defy the arrows and get the Magic Key, you risk being unable to complete the game. You either need to drop keys in each of these rooms to replenish the key spent, or supply a means of purchasing keys (because there is not a key shop).

Finished the quest.

I can say Level 6 was the best dungeon I've played for this contest. The rest of the quest was a little lackluster, though; there was very little hidden in most of the dungeons and a lot of the rooms were plain.

Overworld secrets were good. Level 9 Boss Rush was also good. My favorite boss in this quest was the Twin Summoners, followed closely by the Mirrorrobe. Splitting darknuts were also a nice touch.
Ganon fight was hard: had to use both potions. That's a good thing.

Didn't really understand the eternal flame puzzle, and decided not to bother since I was so close to the end anyway. I'm guessing...

Spoiler: show

It has something to do with the letters that make up the maps of the dungeons

Completely missed the blue ring, bumped up to Red in Dungeon 8.


You can see my bug report in the previous post; keep an eye on those secret combos!



Anyway, thank you for making this quest.

Thanks for pledging and thorough reviewing, CJC. I'll make sure that I make some changes accordingly.

(By the way, keys can be found for 100 rupees in screen 66, and for 80 rupees in screen 34(you can also find the blue ring here).)

And, you're welcome!

After some discussion, here's your review:

Difficulty: 0/100

Easier than the First Quest. No secrets used. No statues. No challenge.

NES Authenticity: 20/100

Octorocks On Cracks (which we told you not to use)
Death Knights (which we told you now to use)
2 Entrances on Level 6.

Fun Factor: 0/100

Parody not appreciated
Offensive Material (White Sword and Letter screens)
Barely any use of the enemy editor

Overall: 6.67/100 OK, I'm being polite about this, but this was a really really bad quest. It was easily the worst of the bunch I played and the potential DQ candidates would probably score better if scored directly. Also, I did not appreciate the South Park Zelda parody that was tried, it was awful and not funny at all, and could get AGN into trouble with Nintendo and other sources. Avoid this at all costs please, there are better quests to play.

Apart from that, Mrs. Lincoln, how did you enjoy the show?

Truth be told, that review was so scathing that I felt compelled to download and play it before it got erased!

Through 5 levels now, with all 5 OVW HCs, the Blue Ring, and the Magic Sword. I got plenty of criticisms to voice once I'm done it, but I do feel the previous review to be ... [Carl_Spackler]a little harsh.[/Carl]

(I do agree that the reference to 'racism' needs to go. The 'letter' joke, well, that was done in 'Ocarina of Time', so it's hard to argue.)

I sincerely apologize for the whole strings issue everyone, I have realized my mistakes, and I have just recently changed the original strings back to the defaults, so we no longer have to deal with that.

Nightmare, thanks for being honest and polite, I just don't like it when people explode.

Coyotek4, did you mean "erased" by: I erased it by my own free will, or the authorities(of any type) told me to erase it?(Or was that sarcastic?) Oh, and uh, I have gotten a couple benefits from Nightmare's review(personal benefits, tough to explain), so it wasn't that bad.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BtjCraft

Coyotek4, did you mean "erased" by: I erased it by my own free will, or the authorities(of any type) told me to erase it?(Or was that sarcastic?) Oh, and uh, I have gotten a couple benefits from Nightmare's review(personal benefits, tough to explain), so it wasn't that bad.

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I think he thought you might erase the quest.


I would just like to reassert though that your quest DOES have some great and innovative material, particularly Level 6. I played it with the Green Tunic and it was exhilirating; if I were to do a mash-up of all the 5th quest entries I would use your Level 6 as Level 3.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BtjCraft

Coyotek4, did you mean "erased" by: I erased it by my own free will, or the authorities(of any type) told me to erase it?(Or was that sarcastic?) Oh, and uh, I have gotten a couple benefits from Nightmare's review(personal benefits, tough to explain), so it wasn't that bad.

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What I meant was, I wanted to play it before YOU erased, or otherwise changed, the quest. As you seem to have 'given in', I'm glad I did.

I actually just finished the quest. Time for my thoughts.

OK, I'll just start with this: this ain't making the final cut. It IS extremely easy, with numerous item rooms being just bare or with only a pittance of enemies. And, you just give stuff away! I'm all for early swag and all, but that was just crazy.

I had no real issues with the scripts you had (save for the 'racism' one; that joke just fell flat). Frankly, my 7-year-old found the TP reference funny. And I did get a chuckle out of the Gorriya in Level 9.

On the other hand ... "Moar bombs"? Seriously?

There was nothing particularly imaginative about the Levels, including (and especially) Level 9. Really felt like you were throwing paintballs on the canvas to see what would stick. (At least the 'russian-doll Darknuts' were interesting, and challenging.)

In the early-going, there was nothing special about the locations either. Switching two locations of interest doesn't really make for a challenge.

Incredibly, I almost lost the game anyway: jacking up Ganon (2 hearts' damage with the Red Ring, and takes 10 shots with the Magic Sword) proved very tough; I ended up using red and blue potion (starting with full 16 hearts) and ended up one hit away from death. Considering how easy everything was to that point, it was a bit jarring.


Having said all that ... I found the midway-boss of Level 6 to be most creative; something that I could see in other quests. There are probably other ways to use him. (The setup for Level 6 hurts the authenticity, but makes for ideas in more original quests.)

Also ... this really is a quest that (when cleaned up, anyway) would be suitable for a child's first game. Even more so than the official 'Child's Quest'. For that, I thank you. And for that, I will not be so quick to delete this quest from my files.


This was not my 'least favorite' quest, though it ranks below most of the ones I've played. But it was short and sweet, and I certainly enjoyed myself.

Almost forgot: some other 'bugs'


In Level 2: you can get stuck with no Bow up against Gohma.

In Level 7: if you go back to clear out every room (you can't do so in one try), you get stuck.

One entrance (along the top row) is a cave, but should be a staircase. (I've seen the opposite happen in a couple quests.)

In most levels, you can still the roars after a sub-boss dies.


(Never got the reference with the letters, or that one clue by the old lady in the bottom cave.)

I'll adjust the revew in light of the changes:

Difficulty: 0/100

Easier than the First Quest. No secrets used. No statues. No challenge. (not chaning this at all)

NES Authenticity: 50/100

Octorocks On Cracks (which we told you not to use)
Death Knights (which we told you now to use)
2 Entrances on Level 6.

Fun Factor: 50/100

Barely any use of the enemy editor

Overall: 33.3/100 This will work out better, but there are still some issues. I think the enemy editor could've been used more creatively and not just in one or two spots. Second, it was pretty much stated not to use Crackterocks and Death Knights, use your judgement call to keep within NES limits. Third, you're getting no points for difficulty for a quest easier than the 1st Quest, but I think you're well aware of that, and I wouldn't expect you to change your work or haphazardly make things harder and break your quest like Travster appaently did from reports. Thank you for removing the South Park-style parody, it was so offensive and in a lot of cases not funny.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Coyotek4

In Level 7: if you go back to clear out every room (you can't do so in one try), you get stuck.

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Where exactly did you get stuck?

Quote:

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Originally Posted by Nightmare

Overall: 33.3/100 This will work out better, but there are still some issues. I think the enemy editor could've been used more creatively and not just in one or two spots. Second, it was pretty much stated not to use Crackterocks and Death Knights, use your judgement call to keep within NES limits. Third, you're getting no points for difficulty for a quest easier than the 1st Quest, but I think you're well aware of that, and I wouldn't expect you to change your work or haphazardly make things harder and break your quest like Travster appaently did from reports. Thank you for removing the South Park-style parody, it was so offensive and in a lot of cases not funny.

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Understood. It's tough for me to come up with great ideas, and that's why I didn't use the enemy editor that much(I did recently get a couple of good ideas though). I was actually in the process of severely increasing the difficulty, but the warning stopped me quickly, I'm still going to try to bump the difficulty up some, but there won't be any big changes.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by btjcraft

where exactly did you get stuck?

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Spoiler: show

in the upper-right portion of the dungeon, you have to choose to go either left or right. Shutters prevent you from backtracking, but as you're going to exit upon defeating the boss, it doesn't matter the first time through.

I'm a completist: I like to get into every room of every dungeon. Thus, i went back in to see the rooms i didn't see the first time. Doing so got me trapped.

Quote:

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Originally Posted by BtjCraft

Where exactly did you get stuck?



Understood. It's tough for me to come up with great ideas, and that's why I didn't use the enemy editor that much(I did recently get a couple of good ideas though). I was actually in the process of severely increasing the difficulty, but the warning stopped me quickly, I'm still going to try to bump the difficulty up some, but there won't be any big changes.

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Generally, when I play quests, I keep in mind a general number while I'm playtesting.

Usually, when playing quests, if I 0-1 game it's way too easy (yours was 3, but I was doing multiple levels at a time and being generally more careless than usual, so I keep that in mind).
3-8 games is usually average
If I have 10+ games it's going to take the average gamer probably 100 or more games (with my experience with James Quest and James Quest 2).

I generally got good at Zelda playing James Quest. It put me on a different level because while developing it, I had to be able to play it without it being too hard to pass. While there is room for improvement when you play, you generally don't want to make something you can't play. If you're working on your quest and you don't test it, or it takes you 100+ games to beat it, then you got some work to do in balancing the difficulty honestly. I remember 100 being the first time I played the 1st Quest when I was 8 years old and is generally "the breaking point" for most people. For me now it's 10, because I figure for every death I take with my advanced skill it's going to be ten times worse with everyone else. A lot of college professors also do this with class difficulty as well.

-James

beat it in 3:30 with 1 death in level 6.

really really really easy. level 7 is easier than some competitors level 1! i was able to run through most dungeons without getting hit or at full health the whole time. level 6 being the exception because i suck at wizzrobes.

i wasn't too much of a fan of the level design, mostly very linear with very few secrets - almost no walkthru or bomb walls, and absolutely nothing off map.

enemy editor use was disappointing with the exception of the summoner and triple splitting darknuts, cool ideas.

the boss rush at the end was at good idea, but none of the bosses were difficult to begin with so with all the kit at the end they are even easier. ganon on the other hand hits really hard, i had to use both potions, and was getting worried about how much HP he had left.

there were too many levels in the western woods - 4, and another really close by. none of the levels were in particularly interesting locations.

using the eaglebug was neat, but is the point of it so that the player ends up with extra keys? level3 i used the bug, and finished with an extra key (i think i could have completed the level without the bug). i forgot to do the bug again in level6, but that didn't matter because i had the extra key from lvl3. so i assume if i remembered to do it in lvl6, i would have an extra 2 keys.

i really disliked a lot of the OW secret locations being on the outer row of tiles, i've never seen another quest put them there before. i didn't find them until after looking in your quest file.


still a lot of bugs in it.
- its impossible to get the heart container on the beach, your ladder/raft idea isn't working. and doesn't make much sense anyways since both ideas are available in the same level.
- screen 69, the secret entrance is just a black tile.
- still possible to get stuck in level7 as several people have said
- level 6, after getting the triforce you are warped to OW screen 05 in the top left corner, need to exit game.
- level 8, map screen 1B (NOT dmap screen#), dark room has floor tiles in two different csets
- probably more, but those are the biggest ones.

Just finished this one- in just under 6 hours total play time. This was a very easy map; with the exception of Ganon, the quest was very easy. That doesn't make it bad, but it does make it not really "5th quest" worthy. Anyway, before I get to the details, I should note that I played this map after it was "cleaned up" I don't know if that makes it the latest version, but it should give a frame of reference.

warning! the rest of this post contains spoilers! stop reading now if you don't want to know! (I don't want to put the whole post in a spoiler tag)

As usual, I try to explore as much of the overworld as I can before diving into dungeon 1. Being a bit over-eager, I got killed by a lionel before I got the magic shield. That was my only death in the game. Finding the red candle early on, I explored a lot more than I usually do, and so I had every item available outside of dungeons before dungeon 1. (not counting things that required items in the dungeons, of course).
The first thing I noted was the (lack of) difficulty, but beyond that, there were no "dark" rooms in the dungeons, merely dim ones. I was also surprised at how straight-forward the dungeons were. Unless I missed something, there were no "off-the-map" rooms, only one "push through the wall" room, and NO move-a-block rooms. Although I complained in other quests about overusing some of this, not having it at all lessens the classic feel of the dungeons. One other problem I had was that when I finished dungeon 6, I was placed in the upper-left corner of spectacle rock, and so couldn't move, and, being on the edge, couldn't use the whistle to warp. I needed to quit/save to continue. Finally, I was never able to get the heart-container on the lone dock. I read the comments here, and viewed the quest in the editor, but the place where I should have been able to launch the raft only used the stepladder, so I had to finish with only 15 hearts.

Now, before you think I've nothing but bad to say, there were some highlights- mainly with the new/modified creatures. The mirror-room wizrobe was fun. I wish more was done with this than just that one fight. I could see making "black box" type puzzles with this.The splitting darknuts were an interesting twist. The charging leevers, however, were just annoying.

If I were rating this map as a stand-alone, and not for this contest, then it would have done better (although the bugs would need to be worked out), but as far as the contest goes, I have to rate this at only 2.42/5