I got an idea about making a quest wherein level 9 is available from the beginning, and very easy to find. Walk inside a go a few rooms to find the wooden sword. But after this, the level is a bitch like it should be, and it's friggin LONG. So, rather than gather up triforce pieces, you venture around the overworld looking for dungeons with hearts and items, etc, basically just exploring all over until YOU think YOU are ready, not what the game thinks. This leaves a lot of ways to play it, some opting maybe to speed run it, some taking the time to find every single goody, etc.