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DELRON
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The Legend Of Zelda: Legacy Of A Princess
Author: Hiyazuki Sakamora (Red Jetter)
Date: 2004
ADRIFT 4.0
Reviewed by David Whyld
I’ve never
actually played any of the Zelda games - on which this is based - so I’m not
sure if I missed out on something and enjoyed the game far less as a result. Or,
on the other hand, if it just isn’t that remarkable full stop.
It starts
off reasonably well. You leave the cave of Impa - some kind of chronicler from
what I gather - to be informed that the King of Hyrule has been kidnapped by a
strange creature in blue armour. Princess Zelda has demanded your presence and
off to the palace you go to meet her. Here, unfortunately, things start going
rapidly downhill.
Zelda wants to accompany you and so you set off to
find the King with her. Figuring out what to do next is the hardest part. Most
of the time I spent wandering around the town which seems to comprise the bulk
of the game, not having a clue what I was doing. There were a few NPCs scattered
about - the Windmill Man, a librarian, a few guards, some others - but all were
very poorly done and had next to no depth about them. The IF equivalent of
cardboard cut-outs? It would seem so. Interacting with them was difficult: they
react only to "ask [name] about [subject]" and while I was able to garner a few
responses from them, nothing I discovered was in any way useful. Most attempts
ended in the default message that such-and-such "does not respond to your
question".
The few items I have - a sword, a hookshot, a shield and an
(empty) money pouch - I was hardpressed to find a use for. The hookshot I
eventually managed to use to get some information out of the moblin I discovered
in the palace dungeon but the others so far I haven’t discovered anything to do
with. In fact, I no longer have the shield. Some monster with the seriously
unscary name of Like Like swiped it in the graveyard and I don’t know any way to
get it back. If I need that shield to finish the game, I’m clearly screwed...
The town itself is fairly empty and lifeless. The few NPCs don’t so much
add depth to the game as merely emphasise just how desolate everything is.
Descriptions of the various things you see are basic and to the point without
any effort expended to make them feel real; often they don’t tell you anything
more about the item in question than you had already seen in the location
description.
Difficulty wise, Legacy Of A Princess is a hard game. Few
games come without so much as a few hints somewhere along the way. Unfortunately
this is one such game. It’s also not the sort of game where hints are
unnecessary as I soon discovered when, after several hours of playing, I still
hadn’t managed to make any further progress than I had made in my first five
minutes. To date I’ve achieved precious little: I’ve recruited Zelda to my side,
spoken to the Moblin and been attacked in the graveyard while searching for a
boat (why is there a boat in the graveyard? I wish I knew.) And about that’s it.
Okay, there’s also the shop which sells a mask I might need but as I don’t any
any money (rupees) I can’t buy it and stealing doesn’t seem to be an option. One
location in the game contains gazillions of rupees but is no longer available to
me and, reloading from a previous save, I was told I couldn’t take the gems
anyway! There’s also the lake I’m unable to cross without a boat - the idea of
swimming the lake obviously never occurred to the writer as there isn’t an
option for it. And that really is it. There could well be a fairly reasonable
game past the points I’m stuck on but I suspect not. Most reasonable games start
out that way and few of them start bad and then dramatically improve somewhere
along the way.
Errors (Obvious and Otherwise)
Not too many but
they are annoying.
There were obvious ones at the start in which you’re
told there you can see some bookshelves; however, trying to examine them hits
you with the unhelpful message "Which shelves. The books or the shelf?" The
books can be examined but the shelf/shelves can’t. You get an ambiguity error
each time you try.
The conversation system is unhelpful but never more
so than when you try ask certain characters about certain other characters and
run into a flaw in the design system. "Ask Katie about Impa" produces "Impa
isn’t here!" Strangely, "Ask Zelda about Impa" works fine.
Conclusion
This isn’t a terrible game by any means and it even looked like it might
be worth playing from the opening paragraphs, but lack of hints and depth just
persuaded me I’d be far better off trying something else instead.
4 out
of 10
Reviewed by by Ron Newcomb
Although the original Legend of Zelda seems to be heavily influenced by
text adventures and would probably translate well, you'd never know it playing
this I-F. Poorly implemented with many spelling errors -- and isn't Impa's name
misspelled in the intro? -- it isn't even faithful to the source. A Like-like
outdoors? Hyrule without magic? Zelda/Sheik has to use a crossbow? Hyrule with
crossbows?
But what truly kills this adventure: Link can't hit a darn
thing with that sword.
Reviewed by Emily Short
This appears to be largely a
parody/expansion/fanfic/something based on The Legend of Zelda. As I never
played the original, it didn't mean much to me. There were a number of rooms
where there was nothing to do, and the initial several moves of plot were of the
variety where X tells you to go somewhere and see Y, and then Y tells you to go
and see Z, and Z tells you to visit X again. So I wasn't terribly enthralled,
and quit. Someone with nostalgic feelings towards Zelda might have a different
experience. Or not.
Reviews should be considered copyrighted by their respective authors.
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