athenian200
Circumspect
- Joined
- Jan 31, 2010
I've been playing through Master Quest recently, and I've been breezing through the dungeons... even without a walkthrough! So far, it really feels like they removed the more frustrating aspects of the game and replaced them with simple puzzles.
The Deku Tree was definitely harder than the original, I have to give them that.
Dodongo's Cavern actually seems easier because you can get up to the second level early on, and then it's just a matter of traversing the dungeon in reverse to get all the items. Overall, it's not really any harder than normal, especially since they removed a lot of random Keese. The Blade Trap room is actually easier, because all the traps are removed, and it has three blocks where all you have to do is move them so you can light three torches that are clearly at the perfect height to reach with those blocks.
Jabu-Jabu's belly... well, that's a mixed bag. It COULD be hard if you didn't think to use Bombchus (or find them from one of the cow switches), but that was my first instinct because of the fact that I used to spend a lot of time imagining what a puzzle involving Bombchus might look like if they made one... and it usually involved rocks in a place you couldn't reach, hiding a switch. When I heard a cow mooing (knowing that cows were switches) and saw oddly placed rocks that Navi turned green over... well. They did move all those annoying claw things into one room, though, and didn't force you to carry Ruto very far at all.
There's no denying that they made the Forest Temple easier. You don't have to face the Wolfos at the entrance, and they basically HAND you the boss key upfront because they make it the first door you unlock, and don't have the hallway initially twisted. As soon as I saw them sending me into that room without getting the bow first, I thought to myself, "Hopefully you moved that Boss Key, because otherwise you're just handing it to me." And then, sure enough... it sends you straight past the rooms where you get the Map and Compass, and into the unchanged area where you get the Fairy Bow. After that point, it's easy. But then again, the Forest Temple wasn't that hard to begin with after you understood the twisting halls. Another amusing point is draining the well. When I first came across that well in OoT, I thought to myself... "Okay, the well has to be drained. It's too deep to conceal a conventional switch, and there's nothing on the outside nearby. They're either going to do a Hookshot check and place the switch to drain it on a high balcony in this room, or they're going to place an eye switch just beneath the water line to do a Bow check, because they know it's the last place most people will look, due to the very water they're trying to drain." So as soon I saw that the balcony switch was gone, I knew they must have traded it in for the eye switch... and they did!
As for the Fire Temple... it's downright amusing. They made it easier than the Deku Tree. All you have to do is use Din's Fire a few times to light torches, use a few more makeshift Fire Arrows via torches, and fight an Iron Knuckle, immediately followed by the dungeon's mini-boss. Then it just hands you the Megaton Hammer and completely unravels the whole dungeon. On top of that, they get rid of any Lava Slugs and Keese that might normally be a nuisance so you can focus on a few new puzzles, and just throw in a few sparse Lizalfos (that can't even reach you most of the time, BTW). They even get rid of that annoying Wall of Flames, and allow you to skip the last two floors of the dungeon since you already have the Megaton Hammer! I can hardly see how one can construe this as "harder." Unless one thinks that having to fight even one Iron Knuckle and deal with a few Din's Fire/makeshift Fire Arrow puzzles (and a couple that check to see if you know that a Hookshot can grab onto a torch) is more frustrating than complicated timing puzzles and drawing out the dungeon.
All in all... I'm beginning to wonder if Master Quest was actually meant to have harder dungeons, or merely different dungeons. The only consistent pattern I'm seeing is that a lot of the action/timing obstacles are replaced with puzzle-based obstacles, and a few harder enemies are thrown in to replace several easier ones.
That seems to be easier to me, but that might just be a quirk of mine... since I'm good with puzzles and poor at dealing with timing and quick action, as well as finding it easier to fight one or two strong enemies than several easy ones (since my attention doesn't have to scatter).
So, what happens? Do they make it easy at first to lull you in, and then put all the difficulty in the final few dungeons? Why exactly is it considered harder?
The Deku Tree was definitely harder than the original, I have to give them that.
Dodongo's Cavern actually seems easier because you can get up to the second level early on, and then it's just a matter of traversing the dungeon in reverse to get all the items. Overall, it's not really any harder than normal, especially since they removed a lot of random Keese. The Blade Trap room is actually easier, because all the traps are removed, and it has three blocks where all you have to do is move them so you can light three torches that are clearly at the perfect height to reach with those blocks.
Jabu-Jabu's belly... well, that's a mixed bag. It COULD be hard if you didn't think to use Bombchus (or find them from one of the cow switches), but that was my first instinct because of the fact that I used to spend a lot of time imagining what a puzzle involving Bombchus might look like if they made one... and it usually involved rocks in a place you couldn't reach, hiding a switch. When I heard a cow mooing (knowing that cows were switches) and saw oddly placed rocks that Navi turned green over... well. They did move all those annoying claw things into one room, though, and didn't force you to carry Ruto very far at all.
There's no denying that they made the Forest Temple easier. You don't have to face the Wolfos at the entrance, and they basically HAND you the boss key upfront because they make it the first door you unlock, and don't have the hallway initially twisted. As soon as I saw them sending me into that room without getting the bow first, I thought to myself, "Hopefully you moved that Boss Key, because otherwise you're just handing it to me." And then, sure enough... it sends you straight past the rooms where you get the Map and Compass, and into the unchanged area where you get the Fairy Bow. After that point, it's easy. But then again, the Forest Temple wasn't that hard to begin with after you understood the twisting halls. Another amusing point is draining the well. When I first came across that well in OoT, I thought to myself... "Okay, the well has to be drained. It's too deep to conceal a conventional switch, and there's nothing on the outside nearby. They're either going to do a Hookshot check and place the switch to drain it on a high balcony in this room, or they're going to place an eye switch just beneath the water line to do a Bow check, because they know it's the last place most people will look, due to the very water they're trying to drain." So as soon I saw that the balcony switch was gone, I knew they must have traded it in for the eye switch... and they did!
As for the Fire Temple... it's downright amusing. They made it easier than the Deku Tree. All you have to do is use Din's Fire a few times to light torches, use a few more makeshift Fire Arrows via torches, and fight an Iron Knuckle, immediately followed by the dungeon's mini-boss. Then it just hands you the Megaton Hammer and completely unravels the whole dungeon. On top of that, they get rid of any Lava Slugs and Keese that might normally be a nuisance so you can focus on a few new puzzles, and just throw in a few sparse Lizalfos (that can't even reach you most of the time, BTW). They even get rid of that annoying Wall of Flames, and allow you to skip the last two floors of the dungeon since you already have the Megaton Hammer! I can hardly see how one can construe this as "harder." Unless one thinks that having to fight even one Iron Knuckle and deal with a few Din's Fire/makeshift Fire Arrow puzzles (and a couple that check to see if you know that a Hookshot can grab onto a torch) is more frustrating than complicated timing puzzles and drawing out the dungeon.
All in all... I'm beginning to wonder if Master Quest was actually meant to have harder dungeons, or merely different dungeons. The only consistent pattern I'm seeing is that a lot of the action/timing obstacles are replaced with puzzle-based obstacles, and a few harder enemies are thrown in to replace several easier ones.
That seems to be easier to me, but that might just be a quirk of mine... since I'm good with puzzles and poor at dealing with timing and quick action, as well as finding it easier to fight one or two strong enemies than several easy ones (since my attention doesn't have to scatter).
So, what happens? Do they make it easy at first to lull you in, and then put all the difficulty in the final few dungeons? Why exactly is it considered harder?
