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Various Zelda: A Link to the Past Hacks
This is a collection of various hacks that I attempted and did not finish, either because they were too difficult or because poor programming made that impossible. All of these are available on romhacking.net, just FYI.
Zelda: The Ruins of Rockvan - Another romhack of A Link to the Past, following many of the common tropes thereof: Extensive period of enemy-dodging before you get a sword? Check. Significant map changes without editing the map screens? Check. Increased difficulty evident from the very beginning? Check. Less-than-perfect playtesting leading to numerous "unwinnable" conditions? Check.
And I mean it about that difficulty. There's a Turtle Rock enemy in the castle sewers. There are high-end soldiers everywhere. There are custom monsters that take lots of hits to kill. And then first dungeon really takes the gloves off, with a series of nasty monsters and spike-dodging sequences that you'll end up traversing repeatedly as you try to figure out what order to do things in.
There are also some graphical glitches and some scrolling errors with text, though admittedly, those may by the fault of SNES9X; I haven't tested this with Z-SNES.
This hack puts in a sorta-new plot: Apparently Link is the Captain of the guard, with bizarrely yellow hair, and the Prince has gone mad and is trying to break the seals on a magical gate.
Zelda: Bruce Campbell Vs. Ganon - Poorly done and vulgar, I suspect that if Mr. Campbell knew anything about this he'd sic lawyers on the creator. The hack is apparently very unstable, as falling in any hole traps you in an unwinnable state, so the author recommends save-stating often. I played for the better part of an hour and saw virtually no Evil Dead references; but the telepathic messages from Zelda were replaced with the author of the hack swearing at you. Skip it.
Zelda: Shards of Might - More impressive that many hacks, this one features a working name input screen. It doesn't drag out the swordless section, and seems to try hard to have a coherent new plot (the Wizard's Council has split the crystal into seven shards and stolen them away).
However, the initial section of the castle ("elder's house") seemed very familiar; I even recognized one of the puzzles, though it definitely wasn't in the original game. I started thinking that maybe parts of this were reused from or for another hack that I've played? Ahah! Yes, because this was remade as Zelda: Goddess of Wisdom, to remove several bugs, including the one where Zelda doesn't appear in the guardhouse so the game is unwinnable. (And apparently, even if you hack past that point, the forest dungeon is also unwinnable.) So....see below.
Zelda: Goddess of Wisdom - Take the same intro paragraph from Shards of Might. This was apparently the result of numerous hackers all working in sequence to fix various game-breaking bugs and each add their own flair to the game.
This is not quite as insane as other hacks (in terms of drowning you in enemies), but still harder than the original from the get go. It doesn't do that stupid thing where you have to fight and dodge enemies without a sword, at least. It actually has a difficulty curve, which is a rarity in fan-made games: There are some really nasty areas, particularly by the fifth dungeon, where you need to either use save states or be insanely good at the game. I finally lost it in the Mountain dungeon, where you need to push a statue across an invisible floor in order to dash-bounce off of it across a gap.
Similarly, some of the puzzles are a good challenge and some are moon-logic "How on earth were we supposed to figure that out?" gimmicks. Finding the third dungeon is a perfectly valid puzzle (hook across a gorge) made stupid by blocking off most of that area and making it nearly impossible to see there was something to hook onto. Getting into one area requires using the Quake Medallion to transform an enemy into a blob-thing, then freezing it with the Ice Rod, then throwing it at a crystal switch. How on earth you were supposed to figure that out, I have no idea.
Remembering tricks that were unnecessary in the first game (like dash-bouncing, throwing bombs down pits, using the Cane of Somara effectively, and hurting bosses with the spin attack) are critical.
Credit where it's due: There are a lot of puzzles where you need bombs or arrows; this hack is very good about putting pots full of them nearby. Similarly, there seems to often be a large magic container near places you need to light torches. Some boss fights even have pots in the arena to recharge your items or magic.
World map is edited, which is something I look for in a good hack. The story is edited to something about crystal shards, but most of the maidens' dialogue was changed to random vulgarity, so I really couldn't follow it.
As with other hacks, it is critical you have the most recent patch and that you apply it to the correct rom file. In this case, the latest patch is at http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/662/, and the rom you need to find is Legend of Zelda, The - A Link to the Past (E) [!].
Overall: I think it says something when PuzzleDude's Quest, which was only middling and made no effort to change the story, was the best of the hacks I've played. Hackers seem to think that what makes a good ALttP sequel is incredibly difficult enemy gauntlets, pixel-perfect tightrope walking, and either tedious or incredibly obtuse puzzles. I think we may be forced to wait until the new 3DS sequel comes out and Nintendo shows how its done.
Zelda: The Ruins of Rockvan - Another romhack of A Link to the Past, following many of the common tropes thereof: Extensive period of enemy-dodging before you get a sword? Check. Significant map changes without editing the map screens? Check. Increased difficulty evident from the very beginning? Check. Less-than-perfect playtesting leading to numerous "unwinnable" conditions? Check.
And I mean it about that difficulty. There's a Turtle Rock enemy in the castle sewers. There are high-end soldiers everywhere. There are custom monsters that take lots of hits to kill. And then first dungeon really takes the gloves off, with a series of nasty monsters and spike-dodging sequences that you'll end up traversing repeatedly as you try to figure out what order to do things in.
There are also some graphical glitches and some scrolling errors with text, though admittedly, those may by the fault of SNES9X; I haven't tested this with Z-SNES.
This hack puts in a sorta-new plot: Apparently Link is the Captain of the guard, with bizarrely yellow hair, and the Prince has gone mad and is trying to break the seals on a magical gate.
Zelda: Bruce Campbell Vs. Ganon - Poorly done and vulgar, I suspect that if Mr. Campbell knew anything about this he'd sic lawyers on the creator. The hack is apparently very unstable, as falling in any hole traps you in an unwinnable state, so the author recommends save-stating often. I played for the better part of an hour and saw virtually no Evil Dead references; but the telepathic messages from Zelda were replaced with the author of the hack swearing at you. Skip it.
Zelda: Shards of Might - More impressive that many hacks, this one features a working name input screen. It doesn't drag out the swordless section, and seems to try hard to have a coherent new plot (the Wizard's Council has split the crystal into seven shards and stolen them away).
However, the initial section of the castle ("elder's house") seemed very familiar; I even recognized one of the puzzles, though it definitely wasn't in the original game. I started thinking that maybe parts of this were reused from or for another hack that I've played? Ahah! Yes, because this was remade as Zelda: Goddess of Wisdom, to remove several bugs, including the one where Zelda doesn't appear in the guardhouse so the game is unwinnable. (And apparently, even if you hack past that point, the forest dungeon is also unwinnable.) So....see below.
Zelda: Goddess of Wisdom - Take the same intro paragraph from Shards of Might. This was apparently the result of numerous hackers all working in sequence to fix various game-breaking bugs and each add their own flair to the game.
This is not quite as insane as other hacks (in terms of drowning you in enemies), but still harder than the original from the get go. It doesn't do that stupid thing where you have to fight and dodge enemies without a sword, at least. It actually has a difficulty curve, which is a rarity in fan-made games: There are some really nasty areas, particularly by the fifth dungeon, where you need to either use save states or be insanely good at the game. I finally lost it in the Mountain dungeon, where you need to push a statue across an invisible floor in order to dash-bounce off of it across a gap.
Similarly, some of the puzzles are a good challenge and some are moon-logic "How on earth were we supposed to figure that out?" gimmicks. Finding the third dungeon is a perfectly valid puzzle (hook across a gorge) made stupid by blocking off most of that area and making it nearly impossible to see there was something to hook onto. Getting into one area requires using the Quake Medallion to transform an enemy into a blob-thing, then freezing it with the Ice Rod, then throwing it at a crystal switch. How on earth you were supposed to figure that out, I have no idea.
Remembering tricks that were unnecessary in the first game (like dash-bouncing, throwing bombs down pits, using the Cane of Somara effectively, and hurting bosses with the spin attack) are critical.
Credit where it's due: There are a lot of puzzles where you need bombs or arrows; this hack is very good about putting pots full of them nearby. Similarly, there seems to often be a large magic container near places you need to light torches. Some boss fights even have pots in the arena to recharge your items or magic.
World map is edited, which is something I look for in a good hack. The story is edited to something about crystal shards, but most of the maidens' dialogue was changed to random vulgarity, so I really couldn't follow it.
As with other hacks, it is critical you have the most recent patch and that you apply it to the correct rom file. In this case, the latest patch is at http://www.romhacking.net/hacks/662/, and the rom you need to find is Legend of Zelda, The - A Link to the Past (E) [!].
Overall: I think it says something when PuzzleDude's Quest, which was only middling and made no effort to change the story, was the best of the hacks I've played. Hackers seem to think that what makes a good ALttP sequel is incredibly difficult enemy gauntlets, pixel-perfect tightrope walking, and either tedious or incredibly obtuse puzzles. I think we may be forced to wait until the new 3DS sequel comes out and Nintendo shows how its done.