[5th Quest Entry] Imzogelmo

[Coyotek4]

In particular, regarding the ladder getting you stuck-- is there a certain room or pattern of tiles that is causing you to get stuck? If it is as simple as a redesign on some rooms, then that may be the way to go to make the quest all it can be.

It was the same room mentioned earlier, where I was stuck. A bunch of Mos in there.

[justin1]

In particular, regarding the ladder getting you stuck-- is there a certain room or pattern of tiles that is causing you to get stuck? If it is as simple as a redesign on some rooms, then that may be the way to go to make the quest all it can be.

it happened to me in multiple rooms. a couple of times i was able to get free by taking damage from enemies. the rest, i just had to exit. the really complex 4-way rooms with push blocks and fake-water seemed to be the worst (the one in lvl9 with the moas as an example). the black goriya room in lvl9 was another time, at least that one the goriyas hit me free. early in lvl9 the pols voice room happened once. and it happened in lvl7 (once in the n-s/e-w bats room) and lvl8 a couple of times (forget the rooms). i think the 4-way ladder is just really buggy in general, so even if you reduced the complexity of the rooms that require its use you'll still have situations where it happens just because.

[Zweldron]

After an exhausting time with level 9, I finally finished this one. For the most part I enjoyed this one. The levels were nicely designed (except for my comments below on 9), and I always had a way to go. The clues scattered about in both the overworld and in dungeons gave just enough cluing to be useful without giving too much away. I did run into a few glitches, however.

First, I will say that I got hit by the "stuck on the 4-way ladder" bug twice- both times in different rooms of dungeon 9 with moas- once in the room with two push blocks just before the 6-headed gleeok, and once in the room before the room with lots of right-to-left conveyors, 3 bubbles and a bunch of blue darknuts. Both times this happened after I had killed everything, so I couldn't get hit by something. The fact that the second time happened on the very next try after I reset from the first time made me quit for the night, as this compounded with my general criticism for level 9.
Second, when exiting the gambling cave 1 screen N of where level 7 was in quest 2, it placed me in the middle of the wooded area. Fortunately I could whistle-warp out, but that is another minor glitch.

Now for the non-bug critique:
The magic lanmolas were interesting, but since they were always the same color as the conveyors, they became very hard to see- particularly when down to 1 segment left. Was this intentional? I felt it made them very annoying, as their immunities and the terrain of battle already made them hard to fight.

Level 9 got very tedious. Almost every path (other than the one to Ganon) effectively leads you back to the beginning- and, of course, two of those paths MUST be followed, even if you already have the dungeon mapped out, as one leads to the boss key, and the other to the silver arrows (and if you want the map or the red ring, well...). Fighting the grey wizrobes over and over again was not enjoyable- particularly in rooms with many other creatures. Their incredible damage level didn't help that either.

On the plus side, Having multiple secrets (sometimes sequenced) in one room, as well as having rooms with multiple (different) staircases was a novel thing (if other contest maps do this, I haven't played them yet), and I can see a few ways this can be developed further.

As a general comment, I think that the "tail of the chicken" clue should probably have been placed in a room in dungeon 7, 8, or 9, as you don't need the item before 9, and can't even attempt to get it before 6. I had gotten that clue very early on, and completely forgot about it, since the ladder was so far later on in the game. Only the fact that I take thorough notes allowed me to realize the problem with getting various items (I was already partway through level 9 before I got it, and the items from earlier dungeons that require it.

Overall, I think that the quest was very good, but the design of level 9 was more frustrating than difficult (the bug hitting me in there didn't help much either!) Still, it does rank as one of the better quests, IMO, and earns a solid 3.86 / 5 from me.

[Imzogelmo]

Thanks for the in-depth treatment. I appreciate it and find it to be quite fair. I hope it was mostly enjoyable, and level 9's insanity was a deliberate throwback to the NES days, so I half-expected to take a ding there.