[5th Quest Entry] Chris Miller

[CJC]

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.

[bigjoe]

Okay, this will be my first completed 5th quest entry.

Difficulty: 85/100 The difficulty was pretty spot on throughout the quest. Level 9 held me for a bit, but other than that, nice work.

NES Authenticity: 95/100 I didn't take much offense to the deviation from the enemy groups. Where it was done, it was done tastefully. The 5 marks down are for the Patra in Level 9, which by no means was a bad thing.

Fun Factor: 90/100 I had a pretty good time playing this quest. It was challenging enough for me, and didn't drag on.

Overall: 90/100 Great job. I don't have much to reference by, as this is my first beaten 5th entry, but this will likely get my vote. It is fun without deviating too much from the NES Formula, and challenging enough.

[Coyotek4]

This is the 2nd '5th quest' I'm working on. Rather easy for me: the only things I'm missing right now are the whereabouts of the Magic Sword (stolen?) and one of the Heart Containers.

Curiously enough, I never found the wooden boomerang. Got the magic one in Dungeon 3.

Working through Dungeon 5 now, and I think I know where Dungeon 6 is. Already found 9. Need to find 7 and 8.


UPDATE: Found the Magic Sword and 5th HC. When I found what I thought would be Dungeon 6, I actually found Dungeon 7. 7 led me to 8, and 8 would have led me to 9 had I not already found it. But the location of Dungeon 6 has me completely stymied.


2ND UPDATE: I cannot believe that I would make the same mistake TWICE!!!

The first '5th quest' I completed, I discovered Dungeon 8 before I should have, then completely forgot that I had found it when I needed to go back, aimlessly looking for a new opening.

Well, I did it again! I found Dungeon 6 a while ago, and completely forgot about it! (Ironically enough, the clue to find 6 DOES work for 7!)

Yeesh!

[Coyotek4]

Just completed this quest. My thoughts.

I found the first eight dungeons rather easy, but Number 9? She's a dandy, that Number 9! Very challenging, with few areas to pick up hearts. I particularly like the puzzling way to find the Red Ring and path to Ganon. And doni't think I didn't notice the jacked-up stats of the Wizzrobes.

Not sure I would have found Dungeon 7, had I not stumbed upon it while 'looking' for 6. (I actually think a clue like "From Arrow to 6, from 6 to 7" would work better.)

Touching message at the end. (29 is too young an age.)

One big problem: TOO MANY KEYS!

(Both the quests I've completed used one same dungeon spot. I guess there's only so many places to place them.)

Nicely done.

[bigboylink]

I finished this quest a while ago but haven't yet had time to give it a proper review. (Actually, I've found everything except the silver arrow, but too much time has passed for me that I'm not really inclined to go back and find it...sorry). Below are my thoughts.

I really liked your Titan's quest and had high expectations for your entry. For the most part, those expectations were met. The quest was very fun to play. The first half of the game was pretty easy (perhaps disappointingly so), though this is adequately compensated by the difficulty of the last three dungeons.

The beginning dungeons are easy not only due to the enemies, but also since it's possible to finish the first 3 dungeons with an extra key in each. This loosens the exploration of subsequent dungeons.

The poison hearts were a nice feature (if somewhat frustrating) that kept me from mindlessly plowing through enemy groups.

One minor gripe is the spreading out of secrets. I know there's only so many places to hide things, but there was a lot of concentration in the southwest woods. One screen west of Quest1-Level3 contains a sword, and one screen west of that contains a dungeon, which is one screen south of the first dungeon. Then two screens further north (Quest1-Level7) contains the blue ring. All are uncovered by the time you have the whistle. Not a huge dealbreaker though.

Love the location of level 9 (imo, that screen is the best spot for placing the final dungeon).

You also get high marks for NES-authenticity and the use of the enemy editor. The new mini-bosses in level 8 are implemented well (ahhh can't use bombs on the orange manhandla!), and the more powerful darknuts and wizzrobes work well in their respective enemy groups.

Overall, this quest is a pretty solid entry, and I expect to enjoy replaying it (and finding the silver arrow) assuming that it's one of the final contenders.

[justin1]

level 5 - from entrance, one left, one down. there is a blue bubble that doesn't cure the red bubble sword jinx. item bubble by mistake?

edit: level 7 - return passageway from boss area puts you in a block. going from blue wizzrobe room to green vire room.

[justin1]

just completed this quest. 6 deaths and a few resets during level 9 (~15 deaths total). as many have said the quest is pretty easy, except for level 9, who's difficulty feels unbalanced with the rest of the quest - although once you know where to go and which battles can be avoided isn't that bad. its a bit harder than the 2nd quest. i really enjoyed the level design - some of my favourites of the contest. and it feels really NES authentic. the poison heart gimmick is really cool, though I agree with Nightmare that increasing the drop rates for certain enemies might be a good addition. i disliked the stronger wizzrobes being the same colour as their regular strength counterparts, and the shooting darknuts would make more sense throwing swords.

other than tossing some more or harder enemies in the earlier levels, i think the main issue is that it is easy to upgrade your equipment early. if you could limit when the player grabs the blue ring, letter, and upgraded swords to later in the game the earlier dungeons would be a lot more difficult, and would balance the game a bit more.

all your old man clues were really cryptic, i don't think i understood the meaning of any of them - but had no issue finding anything. i thought the stalfos clue was to do with a maze path (ESES), but never found a corresponding maze.

i would have liked to see some more upgraded bosses, and was disappointed with a few levels where the dungeon boss was the same as the dungeon mini-boss - at least bump the power of the main boss if they are going to be the same enemy type.

overall i had a good time playing, and if the difficulty was turned up a notch i'd see this being a strong contender.

[Nightmare]

I'd probably second that the Wizzrobes need to be a different color, though I thought he repowered all of them in every level, SO........

-James

[justin1]

I'd probably second that the Wizzrobes need to be a different color, though I thought he repowered all of them in every level, SO........

-James

just rechecked.
level 7 yellow wizzrobes 1 hit and blue 3 hits with magic sword.
level 9 yellow wizzrobes 2 hits and blue 4 hits with magic sword.

this is with the latest version of the quest.

[Zweldron]

Finished this one yesterday. my comments by category:
Riddler: many of the clues I still haven't figured out the meaning of. Several I only figured out in retrospect. Reading the intro bits in this thread, I now realize some referred to earlier quests, but since I don't have those memorized, those wouldn't have helped me. "the most powerful sword has been stolen" made me think something special would be needed for the magic sword (or that there would be a level 4 sword). A little disappointing there. I actually found the magic sword before the white sword.

Difficulty: fairly easy for me until level 9, which jumped in difficulty greatly. I think the ramping could have been done better. A little disappointed in Ganon being normal, after everything else was pumped up.

creatures: Not much new until the end. As mentioned above, swords instead of magic would have made more sense for the grey darknuts.

dungeons: Too many "search for the bombable wall" moments. Even with 20 bomb capacity, I still had to leave several dungeons to get more. I didn't see any "secret where fairies do live" hints- was there one in the map that I missed? I literally searched every burnable/bombable spot on the overworld before found dungeon 8. I had used the whistle everywhere I didn't find anything the other ways, but I didn't bother whistling on a fairy lake that had one. I won't make that mistake in future quests.

NES feel: pretty good. Nothing special though.

Overall: 2.65/5