racketboy.com

DONE!
Yes I cheated, I cheated as much as I could
FAQs, video tutorials, and maps , from different websites and different users.

Games like Zelda are the kind of games that made me stop playing videogames back in the day.
Its simply impossible to finish one your own.
**spoilers**

No way I would have known that there is a magical sword, even if I did I would think that I will find it later in the game, but its IMPOSSIBLE to continue with out. Lets say there happened a miracle and you you tested all the 1000 graves ,and you found the magic sword, you will never know why you can't grab it. Even if you happened to be super human and knew you had to have more harts , you had to find each and every secret hidden hart , that is hidden all over the map. You only get to carry 8 bombs , and 1 burn per screen, bombs are rare and there are 2000 bushes and acres of walls! Its IMPOSSIBLE.

How the hell would you know how to find dungeon 8? through the process of burning every bush out there which will take you a month probably. How will you get to dungeon 5? Well, give it to a lunatic , that would go upstairs only to be back in the same place as it clearly shows this is the end of the map so you figure there is no other place to go, and he would do it four times!
How about dying next to 34 screens until you get to a dungeon , only to be back to the middle of the map?
Or getting close enough to a dungeon boss, then die, then start right from the entrance. Not only you have to battle crazy enemies that will take 3 hits to kill, from their sides/backs only but there are 12 of them in the same room, and if they touch you 3 harts will disappear . Make it worse, its hard to figure your way back to the boss any way due to the multiple rooms and dungeons not to mention the random bombing of walls if you luck you will find it. did I mention you only had 8 bombs to use? That means you can only test 2 rooms for four walls in each room.

Or maybe how a boss will only die using arrows, I am still not sure whats wrong with a sword to kill him. Or maybe there is someone that says "Grumble Grumble" , that means go buy meat, that was very clear.

I can go on and on, but I will stop here.(To only show how tough it is, there is a second QUEST!)

Zelda is a great game, its really epic and I felt it in 2009 I have 0 memories of this game even if I ever did encounter it as a child. Its very clear how they had a vision and put the hardware to the max, its clear that the hardware was limiting them from putting out the game they had in mind(Wish they would do the same to the Wii). Its really an adventure and although i did cheat I felt the roaming of the lands and discovering stuff, I only cheated when I got stuck.

I really enjoyed the experience and I felt like I accomplished something, its the first Zelda on NES , and I am done with it.

I do NOT recommend this game to any one, except if you want a crazy challenge, or if you are following a guide word by word. Its really frustrating, I used save slate and I started right at the room doors, and I had to go through it 6-10 times to beat the enemies in that 1 room.

When they speak of hardcore games, THIS IS HARDCORE. Gears of War, GOD OF WAR, Final Fantasy, etc , those are casual games, those are games that any one can pick up and play. Nintendo when they speak of casual they should create games like Gears of War, when they speak of hardcore they should make games like Zelda! THATS hardcore, now we know the difference. Current games on Wii like Carnival games, those are child games , for 5 year olds and so.

Zelda might have been good back in the 80's, when NES was the only console, people didn't have much money to spend on different games, TV had 4 channels, and the WWW was not invented yet. Today with the amount of retro games, current games, internet, TV , youtube, going out, and amount of work a person would do in one day. Zelda is not for this age and time.

Finally I want to say that I believe I posted once here after playing Zelda 64(my first Zelda, played after hearings its greatest videogame ever) I mentioned that I am not sure whats so amazing about it, and people replied that it innovated a lot of stuff that we take for granted to do and I had to be there to experience it. After playing Zelda nes, I have to take that back, OoT is Zelda in 3D!!! I never imagined that the power bracelet , pushing rocks, shield, sword, lands to explore, even different suits were all in the original Zelda. It transformed into 3D and it was done right! Now I see how amazing it is, I think it even did it better than Mario 64. I think the only other series to do the same was GTA, but I believe not many people knew GTA before the 3D version not to mention it arrived years after after OoT .

I thought completing this game took less, I see i finished it in 6 days, I have to say I completed it in 15 hours, maybe 20 I didn't count.

Thanx for everyone's help though,

So has anyone honestly completed it without consulting a friend, reading tips in magazine or guide?

haha, games like Zelda are what me START playing games years ago...

kingmohd84 wrote:You only get to carry 8 bombs , and 1 burn per screen, bombs are rare and there are 2000 bushes and acres of walls! Its IMPOSSIBLE.

Well, in dungeons you only really need to bomb when you get stuck. Usually, when you need to bomb, if you thoroughly explore beforehand, you'll find an empty spot on the map with no door. Then you just bomb the neighboring rooms. There is no reason to bomb into a room you can access through doors.

And after you get the red candle, you can burn more than once per screen.

How the hell would you know how to find dungeon 8? through the process of burning every bush out there which will take you a month probably. How will you get to dungeon 5? Well, give it to a lunatic , that would go upstairs only to be back in the same place as it clearly shows this is the end of the map so you figure there is no other place to go, and he would do it four times!

I actually found both of those levels without even looking for them. The bush covering dungeon 8 is just begging to be burned, since it is the only thing blocking passage from the left to the right of the screen. And there is a guy in a cave (maybe the cave hidden by the waterfall-- I don't remember) right near the entrance to five who says "Climb up, up the mountain ahead". Given that there is a maze in the southwest end of the map, it wasn't too hard to figure out that this screen worked the same way, just with a different pattern.

I think the puzzles seem harder because you were using a guide. Having a guide prevented you from thinking about WHY you might do something-- you just knew you had to do it.

Regarding the maze screens-- I think the ones in Metal Gear are much worse. They each have eight possible exits, and I'm not sure anyone in the game gives you the correct pattern for them. I could be mistaken, though. I never finished that one.

Limewater wrote:
I think the puzzles seem harder because you were using a guide. Having a guide prevented you from thinking about WHY you might do something-- you just knew you had to do it.

agreed. I hate to sound like an old guy, but WHEN WE WERE YOUNG we didn't have all these fancy gamefaqs, etc. We had Nintendo Power, which might give you some tips to get the ball rolling on HOW you should approach the game's puzzles, etc. I mean, I remember spending so much time on this game, and the puzzles never seemed frustratingly hard. They were fun. And rewarding.

I wonder if games have changed because attention spans have, or if it was the other way around?

The first time I beat Zelda was playing it with my brothers when I was young. We all gathered around the tv at night and gave it what for. No guides apart from random tips we got from our friends in the past. We had handdrawn maps and a pages of tips from our journey. We never found the Lion Key or the red ring - hell half the time I still cant find the Lion Key.

The last time I played through it, about four months ago. I did a no sword quest, which takes ALOT longer but due to save states and playing it on my Palm Pilot it was conquered in a few weeks. The only times I have ever used a guide for it were: to find heart pieces, the Lion Key, and where the bloody dungeons are in the Second Quest.

If you are a fan of dungeon crawling ARPG's there are alot of parts in the game that just click with you and youll be asking why you havent already bombed that rock instead of why would you.

that's what makes Together Retro a blast. I play the games FAQ-less, but I feel like we meet on here and give each other tips and tricks which reminds me of my elementary school playground days.

Bingo

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=HoXb7PIJYmA

kingmohd84 wrote:DONE!
Yes I cheated, I cheated as much as I could
FAQs, video tutorials, and maps , from different websites and different users.

OMG YOU ARE ROBBING YOURSELF BLAH BLAH BLAH!
cool that you played through it. The game is a blast.

kingmohd84 wrote:Games like Zelda are the kind of games that made me stop playing videogames back in the day.
Its simply impossible to finish one your own.

not so when you pool together your friend's knowledge with your own and couple it with nintendo power.

kingmohd84 wrote:No way I would have known that there is a magical sword, even if I did I would think that I will find it later in the game, but its IMPOSSIBLE to continue with out. Lets say there happened a miracle and you you tested all the 1000 graves ,and you found the magic sword, you will never know why you can't grab it. Even if you happened to be super human and knew you had to have more harts , you had to find each and every secret hidden hart , that is hidden all over the map. You only get to carry 8 bombs , and 1 burn per screen, bombs are rare and there are 2000 bushes and acres of walls! Its IMPOSSIBLE.

Thing is, that game has so many different 'mysteries' and rewards you pretty consistently for looking. I remember the first time i got to the grave part. It honestly freaked me out, so i left! ha. But once i gathered myself i went back and tested every grave because that is just what you do for this game. I couldn't handle not knowing if there was something i was missing. Plus, you were probably just got the power bracelet because you checked all those statues. It is only natural to keep checking. In fact, i was too early for it and couldn't get the sword. I actually always thought you needed a certain amount of triforce pieces to get them until i read this thread.

kingmohd84 wrote:Or maybe how a boss will only die using arrows, I am still not sure whats wrong with a sword to kill him.

yeah.. but the audio cues would tell you the sword does nothing, and you really only have a handful of aggressive weapons. That is a short leap to make.

kingmohd84 wrote:Or maybe there is someone that says "Grumble Grumble" , that means go buy meat, that was very clear.

I admit- when i played through it while you were... i had to look that up. It is the only time i did. I just totally forgot what to do.

kingmohd84 wrote:When they speak of hardcore games, THIS IS HARDCORE. Gears of War, GOD OF WAR, Final Fantasy, etc , those are casual games, those are games that any one can pick up and play. Nintendo when they speak of casual they should create games like Gears of War, when they speak of hardcore they should make games like Zelda! THATS hardcore, now we know the difference. Current games on Wii like Carnival games, those are child games , for 5 year olds and so.

oh yeah dude. When people bitch about how easy games are now, it is because we grew up on games that not only don't hold your hand with easy saves or checkpoints. It is because in games like this the world is actually out to get you. You as the player have the odds stacked ageist you rather than it being even or in your favor.

kingmohd84 wrote:Finally I want to say that I believe I posted once here after playing Zelda 64(my first Zelda, played after hearings its greatest videogame ever) I mentioned that I am not sure whats so amazing about it, and people replied that it innovated a lot of stuff that we take for granted to do and I had to be there to experience it. After playing Zelda nes, I have to take that back, OoT is Zelda in 3D!!! I never imagined that the power bracelet , pushing rocks, shield, sword, lands to explore, even different suits were all in the original Zelda. It transformed into 3D and it was done right! Now I see how amazing it is, I think it even did it better than Mario 64. I think the only other series to do the same was GTA, but I believe not many people knew GTA before the 3D version not to mention it arrived years after after OoT .Thanx for everyone's help though,

oh shit yes dude. For all the games that were making the leap into the 3-d world, zelda was one of the few who did it flawlessly. Mario did it alright, but they changed a lot and added a lot to who he was and what he could do. It was still a mario game, but it was different too. Zelda was just strait up zelda. The sad thing is- it seems like nintendo has lost it's passion for these franchises or just doesn't know where to take them. Where you could pick up a zelda game before and expect innovation, now you expect the same thing over and over again. Kinda sad.

fastbilly1 wrote:The last time I played through it, about four months ago. I did a no sword quest, which takes ALOT longer but due to save states and playing it on my Palm Pilot it was conquered in a few weeks. The only times I have ever used a guide for it were: to find heart pieces, the Lion Key, and where the bloody dungeons are in the Second Quest.

I've never done the second quest before. I want to, just haven't yet. I've heard of the 3 hearts challenge, but not the no sword. Pretty cool. I bet the game got a lot easier for you once you had the magic wand.

Limewater wrote:I actually found both of those levels without even looking for them. The bush covering dungeon 8 is just begging to be burned, since it is the only thing blocking passage from the left to the right of the screen. And there is a guy in a cave (maybe the cave hidden by the waterfall-- I don't remember) right near the entrance to five who says "Climb up, up the mountain ahead". Given that there is a maze in the southwest end of the map, it wasn't too hard to figure out that this screen worked the same way, just with a different pattern.

Yup. I didn't know a kid that didn't know about dungeon 8. Once you get the candle and realize there is stuff hidden under bushes, you kind of just burn everything like crazy. And limewater is right- that bush is begging for it. There are a lot of parts that you realize are out of place either in style or placement and those things are usually ripe for bombs/candel.

Plus, you can get into 8 before you even beat 1 if you want. Which lends itself to being remembered because it is so thrilling. Like you found something you weren't supposed to and can go somewhere you aren't allowed. I know a lot of kids who would try to plunder through 8 and would die CONSTANTLY trying to do it. They did a good job of making that level hard.

oh so kingmohd84-

are you going to try adventures of link now?
Because for as hard as zelda is, that game is fucking redic.