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[5th Quest Entry] Nightmare
This thread included a poll: Something Something
For those having trouble pulling the Letter without the Magic Sword, I won't mention any names CJC and justin1
-James
Playing through this quest now (as I got stuck on Scootaloo's quest in Level 7).
The "It's a Secret ..." message is missing in one of the Rupee rooms. Specifically,
[spoiler]in the 1st quest entrance to Level 6..[/spoiler]
In Level 5, it's possible to get stuck in a room with no means of escape. I don't like when that can happen.
In Level 7,
[spoiler]after you buy the Magic Boomerang, the Gorriya continues to offer to sell it to you.[/spoiler]
Found all 5 OVW HCs, blue ring, magic sword, still trying to figure out how to get through all of Level 7.
Not sure if there is a Gold Candle, but I haven't seen one yet. Also no sign of money-draining Like-Likes. Finally, not sure where Level 9 is, though I have a hunch.
7 must be my unlucky number: for the 2nd straight quest, I'm completely stymied as to how to complete Level 7.
Tried bombing every conceivable wall, blew the whistle everywhere, pushed on blocks and walls ... nothing works.
Here's what I do have so far:
[spoiler]Magic Boomerang, Silver Arrows, Map, Compass, Boss Key. Went through the top two rows of rooms, and the entire right-hand column.
I see a passageway near the entrance, but a row of blocks stops me from going that way. Nothing seems to work in that room.[/spoiler]
I could use a hint here.
Look for little targets on the walls, I think Silver Arrows agree with them very much.....
-James
Jeez, that's subtle. Well, can't argue with that. (Will finish the Level, and possibly the quest, tomorrow.)
You might want to change the graphic to an eyeball instead of a dot to make the puzzle more obvious. I originally thought it was a projectile error on the wall.
OK then, finished this quest. Time for my thoughts.
This is only the 6th quest I've completed (still haven't finished the one by Scootaloo), but this is either #1 or #2 for me at this point. (I very much like the one by HeroOfFire as well.)
I love the opening sequence; I would do that myself, given the time to create a quest. The silver Darknuts are deceptively evil, and are on my short list of best new Enemies. The homage to the First Quest at the end is very well done as well.
As for drawbacks:
I think too many of these dungeons are far too linear. I also think there's a lack of creativity with how some levels were stacked with enemies. In particular: nearly every room of Level 7 has the same enemies. Need some more variety there.
Some of the 'new' items, I feel, went to waste. In particular, I would love to have seen more usage out of the new candle. I didn't bother traversing the overworld with it, as I already had everything I needed before Level 9 by then. (In contrast, I like how you needed the new bracelet for some important items.)
Ditto the one 'slow' room at the end. Why not introduce that earlier and get more out of it.
I'm not a fan of having to defeat mini-bosses over and over (the red ones, in this quest). Personal taste, perhaps.
I don't care for how to get into Level 2. Again, personal taste.
Still have no idea as to the significance of the 255-rupee clue, and at that cost, I think more is needed.
What was the deal with the cash items in Level 8? (For that matter, what's the deal with seeing "NO" everywhere?)
All that said, a fun and imaginative quest all around. One of my early favorites for 'official' status. Kudos!
The cash items were put in there to add some more flavor and in a way a miniquest so you wouldn't have to grind 999 Rupees for the Magic Boomerang.
The slow room is something I took out of New Quest 2; however, I have heard complaints about it before out of PZC people in particular, so I saved it for later. I could've used it more probably.
Oh well on Lv. 7's enemies. Part of the idea of keeping the enemies the same was to show them off in more particular detail: Guess you didn't like it so much.
Thanks for playing, and if you have any Let's Play videos or anything, write me on http://www.facebook.com/nightmarejames
Thanks.
-James
Nightmare wrote:The cash items were put in there to add some more flavor and in a way a miniquest so you wouldn't have to grind 999 Rupees for the Magic Boomerang.
I believe you are aware that, upon leaving a Dungeon Level, the OVW resets.
I just perched myself outside the level at the grave, did the once-around each time for roughly 100 rupees, lather-rinse-repeated myself to 999.
I know, they're still there as an anti-grinding technique.
-James
finally came back to this one. it was one of the first ones i started playing, and it was kicking my ass, so i moved on to other things. i guess playing a lot of the contest entries has upped my skills because it was a breeze when i returned. maybe i should replay the beginning levels, but i'm thinking that the last few levels (7,8,9) were a lot easier than the initial levels. i enjoyed the level design of the later levels a lot more than the initial ones - but overall i found the levels to be very linear. would have liked to see more new enemies in the early levels, you have to wait to end game to see many of them. the biggest takeaway that i'd like to see other quests doing is the minibosses that return - a lot of the contest quests are too easy to just kill the minibosses, go refill potions, and come back and dance through the rest of the level, not yours.
i think a lot of the competitors used the enemy editor a lot more creatively, and their enemies stood out more. your 8-way wizzrobe was a good addition, as were the boomerang resistant enemies. sword throwing darknuts needed to be turned up a notch, others have did them better. but thank god your lvl2 likelikes aren't beasts like some of the others - i wasn't even close to heart attack territory.
obviously, you lost a lot of authenticity points with all the new ideas - slash trees, bomb blocks, armos&trees in dungeons, etc. but the new ideas were fun to play (well, maybe not the slash bush, that was a little esoteric).
difficulty wise, you fall somewhere in the middle, by no means the easier or hardest, but definitely on the harder end of the scale. as mentioned difficulty balance was a bit off, bump up the later levels a bit and you'd be right on the mark.
is your demo version available to public? i wouldn't mind running through it again, and wouldn't mind more flexible rules.
Another quest done. This one was very good in most respects, but unfortunately there are several flaws that ruin the full impact. After reading this thread, I think that the flaws were, in several instances, introduced when the in-dungeon graphics were changed. I'll get to that when I comment on dungeon quality.
The rundown:
Riddler: The clues given in each dungeon, leading to the next, were very well done. With one exception, I always knew where to go next. That exception was dungeon 2. I think the clue to it is from the cave in the bottom row, 6th screen, but that was a bit vague. It implies that a clue from a previous quest needs to be reexamined, but there are so many such clues that it really didn't narrow things down. In fact, I only found the dungeon by accident! That flaw is what gives this a rating of 4/5 here (it would have been at least a 4.5 otherwise)
Difficulty: this was a tricky quest. The creatures were hard, but generally fair, and the difficulty progressed well throughout. Again, only one thing keeps this from being truly great, and that is the tedium factor. In a few dungeons - most notably 8 and 9 - difficult rooms regenerate their creatures. I'm thinking primarily of the level-2-bat-shooting wizrobes, and the gleeok in dungeon 9. When it is likely that you will have to go through these rooms multiple times- either because there are traps sending you back to the start, or the dungeon requires long retraces of the path, having to fight these extra times becomes annoying. again 4/5 in this category.
clever bosses: well, nothing special here. They are, for the most part, simply stronger versions of the original forms. I think the few times that there were other creatures mixed in with the bosses was an interesting touch, but it also makes the bosses seem less boss-like. 2.5/5
interesting enemies: there must have been about 10 types of wizrobes throughout this map. A few modified forms of others, but nothing spectacular. 3/5 here.
dungeon quality: the dungeons were very nicely done- I particularly liked the way dungeon 9 was set up. Some dungeons were better than others in their layout, though. Two dungeons in particular had what I consider major flaws, and these are dungeons 1 and 3, because they can trap you with no way out but to quit. In dungeon 1, it is because of the bombable walls that return when you leave and reenter a room. If you run out of bombs (as I did), you are trapped. In dungeon 3, if you choose the wrong path first, you can get to a room that has a 1-way path in, but requires the ladder to get out; the ladder is found elsewhere in the dungeon, but you can easily go the wrong way. Also, there is the classic trap- a shutter-door room with 3 dodongos. If you don't have sufficient bombs (or just get unlucky with killing those dinos), you can again get stuck here.Note that you cannot assume that creatures that often drop bombs WILL drop them. You should never have a dungeon where you can get stuck.
I mentioned above that there were problems likely introduced when the dungeon graphics were modified. It appears that there were originally boulders within dungeon 6 that required the upgraded bracelet to push. When they were changed to ordinary blocks, there was no longer any reason to try pushing them AFTER getting the bracelet, if you already had tried before. This makes finding some paths very frustrating.
Overall, I can only give a 2/5 for this category, and that is a shame, because the working parts of the dungeons were very good.
overall appearance / NES feel: I think it did very well with this, and it definitely could fit nicely as an "official" 5th quest. 4/5 here.
Overall, I enjoyed the quest, despite the few headaches mentioned above. It gets an overall 3.35 / 5 rating which puts it in the lead out of the 4 contest quests I have played so far.
Batrobe bug squished. Batrobe rooms should no longer spawn more than 8 enemies on the screen at a time.
-James
OK, I have uploaded my final version, as I would like to see it presented when all said and done.
Here is the changelog from the people who played it the first time:
1. A "sweeper" script is now implemented for Batrobes so they play fair.
2. [MENTION=39330]CJC[/MENTION] 's Ganon Battle has been consolidated into the final battle room
3. [MENTION=41360]Imzogelmo[/MENTION] 's Mini Dodongos have been implemented in two spots: Level 2 and Level 9 (one of which for balance reasons)
4. Some balance changes in Level 2 to make it play more fair and reduce the possibility of getting stuck.
The original version is still available for those who want to play it before the changes were made. The Demo version has now been taken down since I am in the finals.
Check the OP for the download link.
Enjoy people!
-James
James I can't enter level 2. I'm able to in an older version of the quest but not in the new release can you look in to this.
Ugh, thought this was yours Mischa's, ugh.
Anyway, Lv. 2: You need a "new" way of opening a new secret. Check my YouTube channel if you need help.
-James
OK, I did indeed goof, putting the wrong tree combo there.
FIXED! RE-DOWNLOAD!
-James
[MENTION=38509]Nightmare[/MENTION]
your quest is sexay, and so are you
So, IS bigjoe doing a Let's Play of this quest?
Well I decided to play through the 'new' version a 2nd time.
You're still missing the text for the money room where Quest 1's Level 6 is.
Coyotek4 wrote:Well I decided to play through the 'new' version a 2nd time.You're still missing the text for the money room where Quest 1's Level 6 is.
Yeah, I saw that.
EDIT: Updated. Now official with the new release. Any bugs let me know.
-James
Here is the start of my playthrough of this quest.
Parts 1-5
https://www.youtube.com/playlist?list=PL3KO2xGUvoVvoH2hDA9xul4b684Gu1UsJ
Was it deliberate that the Level 3 room with the blue Aquamentus was not perfectly symmetric with its tile layout, or a minor error?
Coyotek4 wrote:Was it deliberate that the Level 3 room with the blue Aquamentus was not perfectly symmetric with its tile layout, or a minor error?
Minor error. I'll look into it.
-James
Nice job getting Wallmastered Mischa. 😊
-James