[pleasejust]

Holy ****. There's an article on Nintendo life about your romhack. Congrats. Can I have your autograph?

[Ok Impala!]

Holy ****. There's an article on Nintendo life about your romhack. Congrats. Can I have your autograph?

Yeah, that blew me away too! Amazing to see all the positive reactions to Zelda II - Amida's Curse. I worked so hard on this game to make it an enjoyable experience and it's heartwarming to hear from players enjoying themselves! 

[Eggplantus]

Just ignore that peck neck Haniel, OK?

[MetalSmasher86]

I just finished the game, and it is definitely the most beautiful hack of this game I've seen. Yes, it's easier than the base game, but there are some puzzles that I really had to take a hard look to solve, particularly finding the old men with the Jump and Ice spells. Stay tuned for my Sunday Longplay tomorrow!

[Ok Impala!]

I just finished the game, and it is definitely the most beautiful hack of this game I've seen. Yes, it's easier than the base game, but there are some puzzles that I really had to take a hard look to solve, particularly finding the old men with the Jump and Ice spells. Stay tuned for my Sunday Longplay tomorrow!

Thank you so much! Please send me the link to your video once it is up. I will share it on Twitter! 

[pleasejust]

Might I suggest a hard mode patch that increases the difficulty somewhat as I can understand why some might have an issue with that.

[pkhilson]

I was really enjoying this game. Feels like a proper sequel to the original and improves on the original in every way.

Unfortunately I have encountered a game breaking.

After a picked up a 9th heart container, my life is permanently stuck at 1 heart making the game impossible to finish without save scumming. The areas with invisible enemies are especially impossible. Going inside a house with the lady in red does nothing at all, no recovery.

I tried getting a game over, continuing, saving, nothing works.

When I pick up a 9th magic container, the screen completely glitches up and the game hard locks.

It was fun while it lasted and I was hoping to finish the adventure, but I'll have to stop playing and move on to something else... Maybe the game was never built to handle 9 life/magic.

[lexluthermiester]

Might I suggest a hard mode patch that increases the difficulty somewhat as I can understand why some might have an issue with that.

The difficulty is spot on! Challenging but not so much so that it becomes maddening or frustrating. A hard mode for those who enjoy videogame masochism, sure. But most will enjoy it as is. That said...

@OK Impala!
This is masterful! I will not say more because spoilers. I think anyone who was involved in the original game dev will be able to have a game to sit down with and enjoy fresh & new like we all did back in the day! You kept faithful to the original while at the same time using game mechanics in interesting new ways. Well done! Well done indeed!

[Ok Impala!]

@OK Impala!
This is masterful! I will not say more because spoilers. I think anyone who was involved in the original game dev will be able to have a game to sit down with and enjoy fresh & new like we all did back in the day! You kept faithful to the original while at the same time using game mechanics in interesting new ways. Well done! Well done indeed!

Thank you so much!  Feel free to share these words in a review, it will help other players to estimate whether this is a game for them! 

I was really enjoying this game. Feels like a proper sequel to the original and improves on the original in every way.

When I pick up a 9th magic container, the screen completely glitches up and the game hard locks.

Hi! Sad to hear you broke your game!  You shouldn't be able to get 9 containers at all.  Did you start the game with 3 heart containers and 2 magic containers? Try starting a brand new game and check if that's the case. Then try renaming the ROM so your emulator creates a new savefile. This could be caused by you using a name for your Amida's Curse that was used before, so your emulator uses an existing savefile from another Zelda II game, messing up your starting conditions.
 

If this doesn't work. You should patch a clean ROM again and double check you have the correct Zelda II ROM. You should start with 3 hearts and 2 magic containers and should therefore never be able to get more then 8 of each (There are surely no more containers in the game). Would love to hear from you what the issue was.

Might I suggest a hard mode patch that increases the difficulty somewhat as I can understand why some might have an issue with that.

Thanks for the suggestion! I put a lot of thought and work in balancing Amida's Curse. For the average player, Zelda II - Amida's Curse is challenging, but fair. I can understand the wish from Z2 Experts for a "nightmare" version of Amida's Curse. But to do that wish truly justice, would require a complete redesign of all screens of the game.

Might I suggest another challenge for Z2 Experts? Try beating Amida's Curse by not picking up any Rupees (P-bags), Heart Containers, Magic Containers or Lifes. That's a great way of upping the challenge and will surely be pretty hard to reach the ending. Might be a lot of fun trying to pull that off!   

[pkhilson]

Thank you so much!  Feel free to share these words in a review, it will help other players to estimate whether this is a game for them! 
Hi! Sad to hear you broke your game!  You shouldn't be able to get 9 containers at all.  Did you start the game with 3 heart containers and 2 magic containers? Try starting a brand new game and check if that's the case. Then try renaming the ROM so your emulator creates a new savefile. This could be caused by you using a name for your Amida's Curse that was used before, so your emulator uses an existing savefile from another Zelda II game, messing up your starting conditions.
 

If this doesn't work. You should patch a clean ROM again and double check you have the correct Zelda II ROM. You should start with 3 hearts and 2 magic containers and should therefore never be able to get more then 8 of each (There are surely no more containers in the game). Would love to hear from you what the issue was.
Thanks for the suggestion! I put a lot of thought and work in balancing Amida's Curse. For the average player, Zelda II - Amida's Curse is challenging, but fair. I can understand the wish from Z2 Experts for a "nightmare" version of Amida's Curse. But to do that wish truly justice, would require a complete redesign of all screens of the game.

Might I suggest another challenge for Z2 Experts? Try beating Amida's Curse by not picking up any Rupees (P-bags), Heart Containers, Magic Containers or Lifes. That's a great way of upping the challenge and will surely be pretty hard to reach the ending. Might be a lot of fun trying to pull that off!   

I will definitely leave a review. Despite the game breaking bug, I have the urge today to start a new game to see it through to the end. It's that good!

I distinctly remember starting with more than 3 heart containers and 2 magic containers, so that would explain how I went over 8 and broke the game.

I will follow your recommendations and let you know. One step in the setup process in the readme that confused me was to load a file into the emulator video settings. Could you elaborate on this? Now I'm thinking that I caused the bug by not doing the setup properly. I made sure I had the correct ROM versions, and applied the patch to it.

Edit: I figured out how to load the pal file in my emulator. I patched the original ROM file again making sure that the original ROM file matches the required file SHA-1 and CRC32 values. When I start the game, I can confirm that I have 4 heart containers and 4 magic containers.

I think what I will do is play through the game and avoid going over 8 containers for each. It is very easy to intentionally not collect the extra ones on my situation. That's too bad because that means there is 1 magic container I had not located. Love the exploration and finding secrets. I'll still look for it but not pick it up.

Just hope bringing this to your attention will ensure that all players can enjoy the game as intended. Thanks for all the work you've put into this great game!

[Ok Impala!]

Edit: I figured out how to load the pal file in my emulator. I patched the original ROM file again making sure that the original ROM file matches the required file SHA-1 and CRC32 values. When I start the game, I can confirm that I have 4 heart containers and 4 magic containers.

I'm 99% sure this is caused by the savefile of your emulator. You probably gave your patched ROM a name you used before for another Z2 game you played on that emulator. So it will load the savefile of that other Z2 game, giving you the start values of that Z2 game.

I just tested this scenario, and I can start with more hearts and magic containers too that way. So, it is not in the ROM, but in the fact that a savefile for this specific ROM name already exists when you start your game for the first time.

A simple fix. Rename your patched ROM to Z2Amida.nes and I'm sure you will start a new game with 3 hearts and 2 magic containers. Let me know if this solved your problem! 

PS. And thank you so much for your kind review. It was a pleasure to read! 

[pkhilson]

I'm 99% sure this is caused by the savefile of your emulator. You probably gave your patched ROM a name you used before for another Z2 game you played on that emulator. So it will load the savefile of that other Z2 game, giving you the start values of that Z2 game.

I just tested this scenario, and I can start with more hearts and magic containers too that way. So, it is not in the ROM, but in the fact that a savefile for this specific ROM name already exists when you start your game for the first time.

A simple fix. Rename your patched ROM to Z2Amida.nes and I'm sure you will start a new game with 3 hearts and 2 magic containers. Let me know if this solved your problem! 

PS. And thank you so much for your kind review. It was a pleasure to read! 

This wasn't the case for me unfortunately. Both times I did not load the Zelda 2 ROM in the emulator before patching. I downloaded an emulator specifically to play this game so I did not play the original at any time.

Sadly, I just encountered a despawning key bug near the end of the garden temple and I cannot continue the game yet again. I confirmed this by watching a Twitch playthrough and the player got a key at the end of the room with the coloured blocks in front of an elevator. It was not there for me and I cannot unlock the door leading to the boss. It is the latest version of the patch I am playing.

I'm pretty sure I had other issues with keys while playing. The volcano temple did not have enough keys to open all the doors and I had to make sure I opened the right one to get to the boss. I had 2 "spare keys" along the way and I had to use one to get the item in the mountain temple and the other to get through the path to the cursed town.

Despite this my review stands. It's a great game and I enjoyed it.

[Ok Impala!]

This wasn't the case for me unfortunately. Both times I did not load the Zelda 2 ROM in the emulator before patching. I downloaded an emulator specifically to play this game so I did not play the original at any time.

Sadly, I just encountered a despawning key bug near the end of the garden temple and I cannot continue the game yet again. I confirmed this by watching a Twitch playthrough and the player got a key at the end of the room with the coloured blocks in front of an elevator. It was not there for me and I cannot unlock the door leading to the boss. It is the latest version of the patch I am playing.

I'm pretty sure I had other issues with keys while playing. The volcano temple did not have enough keys to open all the doors and I had to make sure I opened the right one to get to the boss. I had 2 "spare keys" along the way and I had to use one to get the item in the mountain temple and the other to get through the path to the cursed town.

Despite this my review stands. It's a great game and I enjoyed it.

This is a bit puzzling, since you are the only player experiencing these problems.  Please send me your ROM and savefile so I can investigate this and fix your savefile (impala@okimpala.net). Did you try renaming your patched ROM to Z2Amida.nes and then start a new game? Which emulator are you using?

[pkhilson]

This is a bit puzzling, since you are the only player experiencing these problems.  Please send me your ROM and savefile so I can investigate this and fix your savefile (impala@okimpala.net). Did you try renaming your patched ROM to Z2Amida.nes and then start a new game? Which emulator are you using?

I'm 99% sure this is caused by the savefile of your emulator. You probably gave your patched ROM a name you used before for another Z2 game you played on that emulator. So it will load the savefile of that other Z2 game, giving you the start values of that Z2 game.

I just tested this scenario, and I can start with more hearts and magic containers too that way. So, it is not in the ROM, but in the fact that a savefile for this specific ROM name already exists when you start your game for the first time.

A simple fix. Rename your patched ROM to Z2Amida.nes and I'm sure you will start a new game with 3 hearts and 2 magic containers. Let me know if this solved your problem! 

PS. And thank you so much for your kind review. It was a pleasure to read! 

This is a bit puzzling, since you are the only player experiencing these problems.  Please send me your ROM and savefile so I can investigate this and fix your savefile (impala@okimpala.net). Did you try renaming your patched ROM to Z2Amida.nes and then start a new game? Which emulator are you using?

I tried downloading a new emulator just in case that was the issue. I was using punes64 previously. I switched to Mesen and changed the ROM file name to Z2Amida.nes. Once I loaded up the ROM and started a new game it worked! 3 hearts and 2 magic containers.

All I can think of is that I must have messed up and opened the original version on the other emulator.

EDIT: I have completed the game! It seems it was related to the original ROM as you said. I can confirm that if the game starts with 4 hearts and 4 magic containers, there will be missing keys in the temples and the game can't be completed. Definitely would be useful to have that noted in the readme file.

Thanks again for a great game. The end game part is really well done.

[Ok Impala!]

I tried downloading a new emulator just in case that was the issue. I was using punes64 previously. I switched to Mesen and changed the ROM file name to Z2Amida.nes. Once I loaded up the ROM and started a new game it worked! 3 hearts and 2 magic containers.

All I can think of is that I must have messed up and opened the original version on the other emulator.

EDIT: I have completed the game! It seems it was related to the original ROM as you said. I can confirm that if the game starts with 4 hearts and 4 magic containers, there will be missing keys in the temples and the game can't be completed. Definitely would be useful to have that noted in the readme file.

Thanks again for a great game. The end game part is really well done.

Yes! I knew it! If an existing savefile of another Z2 game is already present when loading the game in an emulator (and it has the exact same filename!), it uses the start values of that particular savefile for your game. Spawn bits for all items are stored in the save file too, so that would surely mess up the placement of items in the game! I've included this warning in a new version of the ReadMe. Thanks for testing once again, and good to hear you got the correct experience now! 

[Just Monika Things]

Just finished this, the passion really shows through the whole thing. One of the better Zelda 2 hacks even with the difficulty being lower.

I especially loved how distinct every palace felt, not just aesthetically but in gameplay too. This is something the original game stumbled on a bit, but you nailed it despite having more dungeons to work with.

There are some things I felt could be done better. The early game throws a ton of experience at you like Zelda 2 does, but unlike the original this isn't really hard enough to justify it. Levels start to balance out around halfway in, but by the second/third palace you'll probably have 4-5 in all stats and steamroll everybody.

The overworld does start to feel empty and too safe at times with the lack of random encounters, especially near the endgame when you've collected everything. I don't know if it would be reasonable from a programming viewpoint to add random encounters back to some lategame areas, but this would probably make them feel dangerous enough.

Not too major of a complaint, but the round helmet knight... things that show up at a certain point in the game look kind of silly. Generally the new graphics are incredible but those enemies were the only time I found myself wanting the old design back.

Despite any balance problems there were, I loved playing this hack from start to finish. Was nice to see something so well done for one of my favorite games. Have a cookie. 

[Ok Impala!]

Just finished this, the passion really shows through the whole thing. One of the better Zelda 2 hacks even with the difficulty being lower.

I especially loved how distinct every palace felt, not just aesthetically but in gameplay too. This is something the original game stumbled on a bit, but you nailed it despite having more dungeons to work with.

There are some things I felt could be done better. The early game throws a ton of experience at you like Zelda 2 does, but unlike the original this isn't really hard enough to justify it. Levels start to balance out around halfway in, but by the second/third palace you'll probably have 4-5 in all stats and steamroll everybody.

The overworld does start to feel empty and too safe at times with the lack of random encounters, especially near the endgame when you've collected everything. I don't know if it would be reasonable from a programming viewpoint to add random encounters back to some lategame areas, but this would probably make them feel dangerous enough.

Not too major of a complaint, but the round helmet knight... things that show up at a certain point in the game look kind of silly. Generally the new graphics are incredible but those enemies were the only time I found myself wanting the old design back.

Despite any balance problems there were, I loved playing this hack from start to finish. Was nice to see something so well done for one of my favorite games. Have a cookie. 

Hi! Thank you very much for your detailed reaction (and the cookie!)  . Balancing is pretty delicate as every player has a different skill level for this game. Making the starting exp levels harder to get would make it very hard to beat Helmet Head for less experienced players. Especially at the start of the game I didn't want to scare people away by being too harsh on difficulty. Still, I saw a lot of streamers get a Game Over in the first and second Temple. So I think if I'd made the game harder at the start, that for many players that would've been too much. Especially since you don't have the healing spell there. So yeah, I did a lot of back and forth with the starting difficulty and think the current exp rise is the best fit for the average player. Thanks for sharing your experience! 

[Bfediuk1224]

Been playing the game (love it) but I just finished the fire bird and nothing happens. Just in an empty room with no music.

[Ok Impala!]

Been playing the game (love it) but I just finished the fire bird and nothing happens. Just in an empty room with no music.

Hi! Thanks for playing. That seems like an extremely rare vanilla Z2 glitch, as you are the first player to report this.

Did you get a key after the fight?
Did you enter the room from the left?
Did the boss music start playing the moment you started the fight?
Did you start the game with 3 hearts and 2 magic containers?
Can you still open the menu and press up+A to save?
Can you exit the screen after the fight?
Did you try again and did it happen again?
Which version of Amida's Curse are you playing?

Please double check you have patched the correct ROM. Let me know so I can investigate this problem.

[llaffer]

Thanks for the game.  I've been playing it for the last few nights and really enjoying it.

I have a question about the 4th dungeon.

I found the door where I think the boss and probably the dungeon item is behind.  I at least see the curtains on the other side so I think it's supposed to be an important room.

I've been everywhere that I think I can be and can't find the key.  I've found the exit and put the gem in the stone, left the dungeon, and reentered it.

Is there a key to pick up on the other side that I can't get to since I've locked myself out of the area?  Or any ideas on which key is so well hidden that I missed it?

Also, is there a way to tell which version of the game I may be playing?  I was given the rom already patched so I'm not sure which version I have.  I've been playing it on a modded NES classic so I don't think I can extract the saves from it.  I'm also not sure what will happen if I try to install the latest patched rom onto it.  I have a feeling it will start a new save file.

Thanks again!