A new edition of Sacred Reviews is up, and we check out an infamous Zelda: A Link to the Past hack called Parallel Worlds to close the winter. Originally, a user named SePH developed an ALTTP hack called Tower of the Triforce in 2003. He/she eventually scrapped it due to the game being glitchy and nearly unplayable. That is when he/she reworked the concept and then teamed with another user named Euclid to produce Parallel Worlds in 2006. The hack has seen a few revisions not only from the original team but from other modders in the community. The Remodel Edition (version 1.1) was edited by two users called PuzzleDude and qwertymodo in 2012. It was an attempt to address the many issues that plagued the design of PW. The Original and version 1.0 were notorious for their unfair difficulty where the environments and enemy/trap placements were the issue.
Now, the first time I heard of PW is when a YouTube user named Mutahar from SomeOrdinaryGamers narrated the legend of Zelda Bootleg Creepypasta. In that edition of Haunted Gaming, he was playing the first version of Parallel Worlds while narrating the story. That is where I learned about these hacks and was blown away by the differences some of them had from the Vanilla game. PW is also the perfect seasonal game to play as the theme involves an Icy World akin to the Dark World. While this alternate Hyrule might be in a spring season, the hack mostly revolves around the harsh winter conditions of the opposite realm. The plot is about Link (who’s a treasure hunter) gets contacted by Zelda to release her from a prison in Hyrule’s Guardhouse. Upon rescuing her, he learns she along with six maidens come from a different world who each have knowledge of a place called the Parallel Tower. The Hylian King named Draegor has already captured six maidens and has a plan to solve the tower’s puzzle for his evil intentions. The Legend of Zelda: Parallel Worlds Remodel Review
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A new edition of Sacred Guides is up, and we finish the Holiday season off with part 2 of Hyrule’s Christmas DX. I hope everyone had a great Christmas this year as we now reflect on things with New Year’s approaching. As a new year ends, we start getting back to our usual routine of non-holiday events. Sure we have Valentine’s Day and St. Patrick’s Day, but these are holidays one can skip over if they want. Even Easter is another example anyone that has no beliefs can pay no mind to. However, the Wintery Holidays has something that can either be celebrated as a religious or national events depending on the individual. Some of us still have our childhood memories of receiving video games as gifts. There are even moments where most would look for that familiar square box design that the Golden Age Era came packaged in.
For the Guide it is something I kept putting off for four years when Sacred Realm Tower was a separate site. It was the constant switching between the main website and the sister one that kept me away. For once I actually finished the second part to this Quest because switching between sites in the editor wasn’t a pain anymore. It was the same thing for some of the other quests I covered as a part 2 to Ballad of a Bloodline was never published. Fortunately, I saved all my notes to write part 2 and even have the captures ready to use. Eventually, the other parts will get written once there is enough time for me to do them. The guide that is being covered has the player continue exploring the village as we tackle the last two dungeons to save Christmas. Hyrule’s Christmas DX Part 2 I have an old edition of Sacred Guilds to show, and it is when I posted a walkthrough of Hyrule’s Christmas DX in December 2018. There was a reason I started Sacred Guides back then and it was a chore to watch let’s plays of these quests. We the Zelda Classic users were either stuck with that or had to search PureZC forums to find out any detail about cryptic level design. I even posted a comment on a video of a Let’s Play in the Origin quest about how to progress in the second dungeon. It always made me wonder why no one created a walkthrough database for ZC because sites like PureZC could use something like that here. While these cryptic designs mostly come from NES style adventures, sometimes it is good to have something to find and progress. Unless you want to bomb every wall and burn bushes one could find that has no indication is the only way to know anything.
Now, the guide itself continues our holiday countdown because this is a short quest to cover. However, the cryptic design from Ballad of a Bloodline is still used here to find the things needed in Myra's adventure. That is where this walkthrough is here, so you don’t stress on missing something. It’s the reason one could miss the slash ability if they don’t know there is a hidden tree in BOAB. The purpose of these NES designed secrets is to keep the concept of figuring progress out for yourself—There is a place for difficult games to exist otherwise we wouldn’t have the Dark Souls series. However, a hint in the form of discoloration or a slight difference in a tree and rock is placed would still be nice to have. Let’s continue the holiday countdown with the first part to Hyrule’s Christmas DX. Hyrule's Christmas DX Part 1 There is an old edition of Sacred Reviews reuploaded, and it is when I reviewed Hyrule’s Christmas DX in 2018. If you are familiar with Ballad of a Bloodline from CastChaos and Twilight Knight, then they also made a prequel called Hyrule’s Christmas. However, unlike the main game, HC is an actual short quest starring Knil’s (Link of the story) girlfriend Myra. The thing about Zelda Classic is there are not that many that use Christmas as its theme. Aside from the one covered here and Link’s Quest for Christmas — an 8-bit NES style adventure — often a warmer season or just the traditional Eurasian medieval style from the official series is used. It is surprising to find such themed quests even though there are so little of them. The fact a real wintery festival and its traditional music appearing in a variant of the Zelda verse are hilarious.
Now, according to the backstory, HC is actually a prequel to Ballad of a Bloodline since it involves the same characters. The plot centers around Myra where one morning a being known as the spirit of Christmas tasks her with stopping a dark entity. The spirit explains that because of this dark being is the reason joy isn’t being spread across the kingdom. As Knil sleeps in Myra sets out around the town to find and put an end to this evil entity to spread holiday joy. The concept for Zelda is truly hilarious that Hylians celebrating the famous wintery holiday is next level parody. I find this similar to Doom’s Christmas mods that was designed in a parody manner. The Doomer Board’s Christmas Carol and DBK Holiday Special (a Doom version of Jingle All the Way) did something similar to this concept. Can CastChaos and Twilight Knight replicate what the Doom Mod community did? Hyrule's Christmas DX Review I have an old edition of Sacred Walkthroughs to show, and it’s a post from the former sister site. It was posted four years ago until I decided to close down Sacred Realm Tower and make this a section for Retro Gamer Junction. The walkthrough is for a Zelda Classic quest called Ballad of a Bloodline DX. Similar to those hacks akin to Zelda: Parallel Worlds, BOAB gives us a “what if'' type tale where it’s about the story playing out differently. While the gameplay is similar to Link’s Awakening, the level design also follows both the Original NES game and A Link to the Past. Another thing about this quest is it also reminds me of the Autumn season. Maybe the colors the creators used, or it is the custom visuals that was created for the ZC program, that Autumn flare is often present in the game. You will discover this all over the quest even in environments one would never expect to find them.
Now, the thing about BOAB or quests developed by CastChaos and Twilight Knight is they loved being cryptic in their designs. Just like with the Third Quest, this walkthrough will be written in a similar manner. There are many things users will miss the first time around like finding the sword slashing mechanic. That is where this section comes in, so you don’t have to search forums and watch hours of Let’s Plays looking for something that was missed. The point is to power the player up before they tackle the first dungeon which is actually in Lake Hylia. That is just the many secrets to getting ahead in these custom adventures. It is also how the Original NES game was developed before Nintendo abandoned this for better designs. These creators for ZC have done an amazing job taking the old concept further with improvements. The Legend of Zelda: Ballard of a Bloodline DX Part 1 A new edition of Sacred Reviews is up, and we tackle a hacked EarthBound just in time for Halloween. The thing about rom hacks is these fan programmers make it harder than the vanilla games. An example of this is from Zelda: Parallel Worlds that despite being based on A Link to the Past — a game known for its easy difficulty — is actually challenging with cheap level designs. Now, the EarthBound fan games on the other hand are programmed with fair difficulty on most instances. Except for Toby Fox’s Halloween Edition, there are often not that many riddled with cheap gameplay that tests a player’s patience rather than their skill. Another thing these change up is the theme and aspects of the story by providing us a “else-world” type plot. Think of these hacks as their version of Marvel’s What If series where things play out differently than the usual tale is told.
Now, Hallow End was developed over a decade ago at a point where the supposed armchair analysts claimed how rare the game was. In truth there is nothing rare about these cartridges especially the second one that this niche fandom made it out like during the 2000s. While it is also true for internet sellers to overcharge these games — plastic wrapping the whole package when these releases never were originally — that doesn’t necessarily mean, they were rare. Due to Nintendo taking so long to bring the series to the Virtual Console from the late 2000s to the early 2010s might be the reason so many hacks came out. The Halloween theme hack follows a vastly different story while keeping the true nature of what makes EarthBound. On one Halloween night a trio of kids named Sally, Craig and Clyde were doing their usual yearly trick or treating. Then after entering one house on the edge of town and leaving after finding no one there, the townspeople act indifferent towards them. That is when they see actual zombies and ghosts wandering around and coming from a tunnel leading out of Maysville. That causes the trio to investigate why monsters have appeared and adventure to find out why people in their town don’t recognize them. EarthBound: Hallow’s End Review On this occasion I have an old walk-through to show of the first Zelda's third quest from Zelda Classic. Yes, you read that correctly as fans having created multiple numbered quests with the Original game after the official second one. These custom quests don't change the mechanics or visuals but rather ups the challenge to give players a harder mode. The third quest is one of the harder additions compared to later releases due to having some unfair areas. Unlike the official game, there are rooms that forces you to either give up a heart space permanently or fork over 100 rupees. Then there is the one way walls and those you can go through without any hints that appear often here then they did in second adventure. That is what makes ZC such a good software because it produces harder and custom adventures.
Originally from Sacred Realm Tower A new walk through is up and it’s about how to reach a level 2 status before the Key dungeon in the first Zelda’s 3rd Quest. I know it’s been nearly two years since uploading anything related to Zelda Classic. There are times I will fall into a slump when this comes to the main site over at Retro Gamer Junction. If you read my reviews and editorials regularly then all will see that effort is put into them. That obviously takes a lot out of me for many reasons which is why the site got neglected for a while. It’s really hard to act as the Admin, a mod, the writer and the editor of these sites since its only me working on them. There won’t be any schedules to how often I post stuff whether it’s here or on Retro Gamer Junction. I will post content when there is a chance for me to do as these walk-throughs and maps take as long as my written reviews. The reason I put this together is because you won't find any except for the official stuff. That’s the sole reason for putting Sacred Realm Tower together and for it to come off as an easy guild. Instead of searching through the forums and let’s play videos trying to find the answer for the NES style quests, that’s where this guild comes in. I will post maps to the dungeons soon as they are often a pain in the ass to navigate especially later on. I also have written a short walk through on how to reach a level 2 status with the 3rd quest. 3rd Quest: How to Power Yourself Up Before the First Level I have another old Sacred Review to present and it is the time I went over the Second Chance quest from Zelda Classic. The thing I always about ZC is how some of the quest designers know how to take the Oracle games' example and push what those titles did forward. That is why I enjoy these mods because it gives alternate reality types worlds of Zelda as if this was a massive multiverse. Even some of the original quests with it's own assets and story proves how vital these mods truly are to any series.
Originally from Sacred Realm Tower A new edition of Classic Reviews is up, and we check out a fresh released quest by Joelmacool. Second Chance is a mini quest that takes the player through the role of a male god seeking revenge. In the Deity Kingdom two goddesses who are sisters talk over about what horrible things their brother has done in the Mortal Realm. Soon after they call their brother to discuss his wrong doing, he at first dismisses the discussion. However, the two goddesses cast a spell on him and as he leaves, the male god becomes unconscious. After speaking to his sister telepathically in a dream, the male god wakes in a mortal body. The male god must go on a journey to obtain four artifacts to get into the Deity Realm and seek revenge against his sisters. The gameplay is your standard 2D design equipped with most modern mechanics. The quest uses the Link's Awakening/Oracle tile set and graphics to render this game. Personally, this is one of my favorite styles since it was Nintendo and Capcom who used such a concept for the previous entries. The Oracle titles really set the bar high when it came to its presentation and Capcom included extra things not seen in Link's Awakening. Even the level design got taken farther than Nintendo's original concept the first time around on Game Boy. You can see why these games are often held to a high standard and something most users on Zelda Classic should emulate. Typically I don't play mini quests like this one but the concept and style is what originally drawn me to it. I'm that type of gamer that requires their games to have a long adventure with many features to explore. Trying out things like this once in a while does let me take break from the usual. Second Chance Review There is some news as I decided to close down Sacred Realm Tower as a separate website and move it's content on Retro Gamer Junction. If you seen the side links multiple times I always listed it as a sister site to RGJ. If you are also unfamiliar with Sacred Realm Tower, this was a site that had content about reviewing Zelda Classic quests and provided walk throughs. That was it's purpose and when I do get a chance more content will be added as there is hundreds of these fan quests. To reintroduce you to Sacred Realm Tower I have an old review to show about a quest called Randomizer Classic. It basically takes the Original NES Zelda and adds more dungeons and tools that were never there then randomizers everything.
Originally from Scared Realm Tower Welcome to my new site as it's something I wanted to do for a while regarding Zelda Classic. There just isn't a place dedicated to reviews or walk throughs for the quests so far. For the last few months, I have put together a sister site from my Retro Gamer Junction domain. Sacred Realm Tower solely focuses on not only ZC but other fan made quests like Parallel Worlds and games from Solarus like the Book of Mudora title. The only sources of walk throughs or guides that are out there are from Twitch and YouTube. As you can tell there was a problem and this always frustrated me to look through these videos and even their multiple parts. That is the reason I put this site together as when anyone seeks a written guide they want answers quickly. For the review I'm checking out the Randomizer Classic of the Original Zelda made by Herooffire. For years the fans of this niche community have created different versions of randomizers. The most famous comes from A Link to the Past as I have seen dozens of let's play on the hack. There are obviously others like from Ocarina of Time and even a combined rom hack of ALTTP and Super Metroid were even made. However, Herooffire developed a different version for the first Zelda that had cleaner programming compared to the others. Meaning only the items got rearranged and not the levels or caves themselves. Even additional mechanics and items that were never in the original are all present in this quest. Something like this can take any vanilla game further than originally intended. That is one of the reasons playing an old modded game feels better at times. Just take Brutal Doom and its one of the finer examples of how it improved a vanilla title. Randomizer Classic Review |
Tired of going through forums and watching video walkthroughs to find answers to your Zelda Classic needs? Here on Sacred Realm Tower we take on the task of reviewing quests and providing walkthroughs and maps to help the every day Zelda Classic user get by an adventure.
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