[Shade Aurion]

Okay, so this is my top secret remake of a beloved game. The second Zelda game on the NES. I haven't shown this to many people outside of those who created the engine i'm using to develop this.

Basically, i'm trying to take an old school side scroller and re-envision it in ALTTP/Minish Cap styled graphics with alterations to bring the game more in line with other games in the series through renaming items and introducing items that weren't in the original.  I've got a lot of extra items working and will extend and elaborate areas where it feels right to do so and perhaps flesh out the world a little while trying to stay as true to the story and original map as possible. The challenge is imagining side-scrolling areas as top-down action adventure areas and I thought it would be a lot harder than has been. 4 temples (changing palaces to Temples for consistency) have been mapped out on paper. I'm trying to get the world map done first while paying attention to towns and making them more memorable than the dull original towns. I'll likely switch them around too and instead of them all having humans, have a Goron town (Darunia) and a Gerudo village (Nabooru) Since Ruto is right at the beginning I was thinking of making Kasuto the Zora village too.

Timeline-wise i've got this to word with:
Skyward Sword->Minish Cap->Four Swords->Ocarina of Time->A Link to the Past->Oracle of Ages/Seasons->Link's Awakening->Ancient Stone Tablets->A Link Between Worlds->Triforce Heroes->The Legend of Zelda->Game&Watch->Adventure of Link(This project)-> Breath of the Wild

Anyways, here are some screens:

This is the original World Map for Western Hyrule (for reference)

Spoiler:

Mockup of the logo:



Ruto Town

Spoiler:

(Barebones)



(More Progress)

Desert Cave

Spoiler:

(More Progress)

Parapa Palace

Spoiler:

(Empty but ready for enemies)

And this is a comparison from the NES version compared to mine.

Spoiler:

Northern Passage Map South of Ruto

Spoiler:

Hyrule Castle

Spoiler:

(Barebones WIP)

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Original Dev Log

Spoiler:

- Okay, i've drawn out on paper Rauru, Ruto, the first P Bag, Magic Upgrade, Health Upgrade areas, Parapa Passage, The First Palace, etc and drawn up Western Hyrule and divided it up into 9 parts so I don't face any lag issues. I'll be replacing EXP/P-Bags with Ruppees and Magic/Health Upgrades with Heart Pieces. I'll keep Link Dolls as collectables and shoe horn in some other cool little side quests. I want it to be similar to the original game, but better :3

- I guess its time to do all the actual mapping now. I'll tackle it area by area and when this part is done i'll make sure the maps are connected and traversable, items and NPCs are all added before adding in enemies and bosses. This is pretty fun TBH I may have minor issues with sprites later if i'm being reasonable so I might need some input there but the next update will actually have pictures and maybe video so that should be up in a week or so.

- Okay, on paper i've mapped out the whole game. I can see the image in my head and now its down to mapping it in Solarus. I've done all the icons and game logos and gathered all the necessary resources (NPC charsets, music, etc)

- I've divided up the maps into West Hyrule, East Hyrule, Death Mountain and Maze Island. Each 'screen' is 1024x1024 and there are 15 sections for West and East Hyrule. 6 for Death Mountain and Maze Island. I'll be tweaking things to work a little better with Zelda as a series and tie things up a bit better in general.

- Regarding Ruto Town, I'll be removing the tents and adding 2 more houses and much more detail. I might add the cloud overlay too but this is essentially the second town 'Ruto' in the top left corner of the map I shared earlier. I'll be tackling it segment by segment and adding a bit more direction in general. To access Parapa Cave i'll make it so you need to visit Ruto's Town Elder who will help you after you retrieve the Trophy which I might change to a statue or an idol or something.

- The first shop I think i'll put in Saria Town and I am toying with the idea of having the weather vanes as transport points once you get the Ocarina and maybe put the weather vanes every second or third town. Also instead of having an old lady who heals your magic and a woman in a dress heal your health, i'll make Bars heal your magic and Inns heal your health. As a throwback I might magic the old woman manage the Inn and the lady in a dress manage the bar. I dunno, it's coming together.

- Okay, made a lot more progress on Ruto (Above) and only really need to do the NPCs now, but i'l leave that til i've completed the Western Continent. Graves have bones in them and holes to fall into, a bush has a hole you can fall into and all bushes are destructible. I actually redid a lot of the map to make it look a little more aesthetically pleasing. I dunno, i'm pretty happy with how it turned out. Looks better then it did on paper haha Error lives in the purple house

- I got all the basics done with the next map, the Desert Cave, containing the Trophy item. I'll likely have it locked behind a door that the Ruto Elder gives you the key to so people can't break the quest line. I want to keep some open world but I don't want people to break the game. Either. Below this screen is Hyrule Castle and the next screen i'm doing will contain the first Palace. 3 more Maps and North Western Hyrule will be complete :3

- Well, the second map (Desert Cave) is mostly done. I just need to place enemies and tweak a few things.

- Alrighty, I finished segment 1 which is essentially the first 3 map screens of Western Hyrule.
These are the updated maps minus enemy placement and NPCs

- There are some slight errors when put together I do plan to iron out later but its going well. This is like a fifth of the continent mapped and the next few maps will be super easy :3

- Aaaand i'm done with the Northern Passage Map South of Ruto

- Next will be Hyrule Castle and Rauru Town. I might make Link have his own house on the outskirts of Rauru and maybe decorate it with old treasures from Zelda 1 (Blue Candle. Magic Wand, Step Ladder) on shelves and such using BS Zelda ripped sprites just to add some personality. I am planning to make Hyrule Castle an actual decent castle with a few screens rather then just 1 with sleeping Zelda. I'll make a dungeon, great hall, empty throne room, empty King and Prince's room, have Zelda sleeping in her room being watched over by Impa. I might have a few hidden secrets you can unlock when you've obtained certain items.

- I'm thinking i'll make the towns home to the seven sages. I'll make Rauru the City of Light, Ruto the City of Water (Ironically), Saria the City of the Forest, Nabooru the City of Spirit, Darunia the City of Fire and Kasuto the City of Shadow which will actually be kinda funny as a bit of a Naruto-ish nod with the Hidden Forest of the Shadow. I can make it Impa's hometown and make it a city of ninjas. All of which can be nods towards Ocarina of Time's sages (which took their names from Zelda 2 town names anyways) Hyrule Castle will be the last town of the sages. I might make a descendant of the sages and put them in each town.

- Since Skyward Sword and Minish Cap are essentially ancient history, I think i'm only vaguely mention their story. I'll give a proper nod to Link's Awakening, Link Between Worlds, Link to the Past and The Legend of Zelda. I'll have to mention Ocarina of Time as that is when the timeline splits. It does again after Triforce Heroes so I may mention that also but I feel its less important. I want this game to be rich with lore, side-quests, and I really want it to fit into the series with the same sort of polish AM2R brought to Metroid's continuum. Depth, Quality, Polish. These are all important to me. I gotta admit though, there will likely be some minor flaws in the mapping ad not everything fits together perfectly but i'll do as well as I can and hide what I can also

- When i'm done with Hyrule Castle and Rauru, that will be North West Hyrule complete. I'll likely work on Parapa palace, house and cave interiors and start adding NPCs and enemies :3

- Turns out a castle requires many layers to look okay so this is my progress. I wanna do whirlpool portals if I can in key sports around the world you can unlock after entering them once if I can manage that. Might be a better alternative to ocarina warping. I need to clean up the top bit of the moat also as its too straight. Still a lot of work to go into this map, then Rauru Town and that will be North Western Hyrule completed

- Of course i'll need to set all the transporters and the interior maps but they'll be a snap compared to the world itself. Also I need to learn how to do spriting myself because i'd like to have Minish Cap/Four Swords Adventures style NPCs and enemies just to make things look a little nicer. If I can't figure it out, i'll settle on LTTP lol but i'll stille need to bring the old NES NPCs into that style which shouldn't be too hard. Getting there slowly. I might connect everything up, place all the enemies and NPCs and even though I wasn't gonna make a demo, I might make one for Solarus Staff just for the purposes of critique. I just don't want a public release til the project is done and it'll take me like.. 8 or 9 times as long as this project has been going at least to complete this.

- The bosses will be fun as I kinda know what to do with them with Mezura resembling a Ball and Chain Trooper from ALTTP, Jermafenser's heads flying off but continuing to attack like Blind's heads in ALTTP.. I might recreate something similar to Dark Souls 2's Chariot fight with Rebonak and Carock will be fun, likely with a few Wizrobes as adds. I know exactly what i'll do with Shadow Link and my idea is something even I want to play. I do kinda plan to take liberties with the narrative though. Change the Prince's Wizard friend to a shadow of Agahnim and instead of dying, just the person he was possessing is slain but the spirit flies off to the Great Palace. In the final room where you are to receive the triforce part, I will have a large round room with a large pillar in the center (Like a donut) and up against that pillar will be a large mirror intended to test heroes to look inside themselves. The twist will be that when Link does this, Agahnim will possess his reflection and becoming Shadow Link who will then crash through the mirror and with very aggressive AI begin attacking you and have things like the hookshot, fire rod, boomerang, etc. There will be obstacles and such to use as cover but I don't want it to be a gimmick fight. I want it to just be a straight up hard fought victory. I love the side scrolling game personally but it will certainly be a challenge putting that in a top down action adventure format. Bare with me for now.

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That's probably about enough for now. Despite showing this I have been as vague as possible. Each area is pretty thoroughly planned out and I do have more maps half done but i'd rather wait til there is something more substantial. I'd kinda worked on random areas and if I focus a bit I can just reveal 2 more quarters of Western Hyrule. I do plan to give Link a house in Rauru Village that you can return to and check records and such. Maybe a father using the dad sprite from Minish Cap and editing it? I'll likely re-use, edit and repurpose a lot of Minish Cap, Four Swords and ALTTP sprites and enemy sprite sets. Obviously, they'll all eventually be editing to make their style consistent but as place holders, the sky is the limit. The final boss is already completely planned out. I know a great way to pull it off, make it difficult and fun and already have his character sprite set ready to go but I need to organize his AI and complete the area even as a stand-alone room for testing.


Actual Spoilers

Spoiler:

I may make post-game content but my plan is to make slight alterations to the story so shit makes sense (no more 2 Zeldas bullshit) have the magician friend of the prince actually be Agahnim the shadow of Ganon and not die in the beginning but instead, off on a quest to deactivate the Temples (which Link will then have to go and reactivate with the stones) and then have him pour his power into a tall af mirror at end game which Shadow Link will smash through and aggressively attack you with all your items or at least boomerang, hookshot, bow, shield, magic rod, etc. Post-game content would likely be to link it with Breath of the Wild as chronologically that would be the next game.

AZ2R is on hiatus for a bit while i'm rotating projects but i'll get back to it soon. There will be no teaser trailer or demo and i'd appreciate if nothing left this thread as to avoid DMCA. I want to release when complete and just be like "Surprise internet"

Feel free to ask questions or make suggestions and if anyone has experience with Solarus and would like to get involved, hit me up :3

[ultimaweapon]

Looks pretty interesting

[lexluthermiester]

This is very cool looking. Well nice!

[#]

Looks good. Though personally I'd rather see a remake of other TLOZ games in the style of Zelda II. I'm not sure if that's ever been attempted before.

[dACE]

Now this is a real ’Claim to Fame’ - nicely done!

Not a rom-hack... but it is... something.

/dACE

[PresidentLeever]

While I was hoping for something side view, this looks quite nice so far. Good luck!

[lexluthermiester]

While I was hoping for something side view, this looks quite nice so far. Good luck!

Actually the whole point of this project is to make a version of Zelda 2 in a top-down perspective. I like it. Seems that Shade is going out of their way to make it an authentic experience. Hoping the music is authentic too!

[ShadowOne333]

Gotta say this project looks amazing so far
My only suggestion would be to perhaps polish the ALttP assets a little bit, perhaps changing some to a more unique tileset. If not then simply changing Link's design might do wonders, as the ALttP Link really clashes with Zelda 2's design as it is

[PowerPanda]

I'm really looking forward to this! I had thought about whether or not this would be possible just last week, and had originally thought of doing it in the original Zelda 1 style. This is better though.