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The first Zelda game surely has no shortage of ROM hacks. Perils of Darkness is one of the best and a must-play for fans of the original Zelda. Perils of Darkness excels in excellent dungeon design an interesting overworld, cool new graphics and a high amount of polish.

It's clear that the author has a deep understanding of the mechanics of Zelda. In Perils of Darkness you are multiple times surprised by the novel and clever way these mechanics are used. It feels like if Nintendo would've started again from scratch to create a new experience, using the existing mechanics in new and interesting ways. I don't want to spoil anything, but I highly recommend players to check it out for themselves. Every dungeon is a delight to explore.

This game is just so well polished. Design of the overworld and dungeons feels natural, with no strange design decisions. I encountered no bugs and everything just makes sense. Even the hints are perfectly placed and understandable. It must have taken an enormous amount of time to get the game in this state, but the result is mighty impressive!

Regarding difficulty. If you can beat vanilla quest 2, then you won't have much problems with the difficulty level in Perils of Darkness. I'm not an expert Zelda player and had a great time playing on normal. Yes, there is a challenge, but that also largely depends on how well you explore and when you find the important items. The game gives you a lot of freedom and encourages you to explore every nook and cranny to find cool stuff early.

One last tip. Read the included text files before starting Perils of Darkness, there are some very useful tips in there! Oh, and don't be like me... don't forget that you can only push gravestones from above. It will save you a lot of trouble! :-)

I highly recommend this hack to Zelda 1 fans.

The game has new enemy character sprites, attractive color pallets in dungeons and overworld, and new sound effects. The visual/audio changes make it feel and look like a new Zelda game.

I really appreciate that Quest 1 is more open world and you can take on any number of dungeons in the order you want; Quest 2 is more tight and linear. Some very powerful items are available fairly early on in the game in Q1, which is fun.

The heart containers are replaced with heart pieces so you have to find 4x the secrets, which is what Zelda is all about.

It is really convenient to be able to save/restart whenever you want just by pushing select in the menu screen. Nice QOL upgrade.

One warning I have for new players is to read the documentation carefully if you want to find the silver (white) sword. I ended up missing it entirely which made a lot of dungeons harder than they needed to be. There is an in-game hint for it though, so maybe that's on me

My last comment is that the new dungeons are very fun to play and I appreciate that you must explore them all very thoroughly in order to get all of the heart pieces (4 each dungeon in Q1).

Big thanks and job well done to The3Dude for making this very fun and well designed hack.

(Played on Normal Difficulty)

Just want to start by saying I really enjoyed this hack - it was challenging, fun and felt like a real adventure. That being said, there were a few flaws;

Walking through wall doors in dungeons seemed like a head scratcher. I finished the first quest 100% and don't recall being told about it. I discovered it by accident and was left wondering if the game had glitched. There's no hints on these fake(?) walls which made almost every dungeon be a trial and error of walking against the walls to make sure I wasn't missing a room.

The next was just a nitpick, I'm not sure how complicated modding the overworld is but there were a few cracked walls/dark stumped bushes that couldn't be open, I read in a YouTube comment section that they're for the Second Quest but it's a tad frustrating when you're lost, think you've found the answer and it turns out it's a cracked wall that won't budge.

Finally, there were areas where the game felt a little too cryptic. The location of the last dungeon had me looking for ages with no hints that I could find. Turns out there's a very obvious hint in the included text file which felt like a cop-out. This was the only thing I didn't figure out on my own and I don't think I would have done.

Now for the good stuff;

The game is incredibly creative and fun to explore. The open level design makes everyone's play through different and avoiding spoilers, one of the dungeons in particular incredibly creative and fun starting you out somewhere different.

The difficulty is there, but the game practically throws money at you. You won't be grinding for cash and there's plenty of places to buy potions and keys if you're really stuck.

Extremely solid hack, I realize I said more negatives than positives in this review but I really did enjoy myself and it's an easy recommendation for anyone who likes the original Zelda and is after more. Due to there being no guides currently out there beyond a play through or two on YouTube, there's no temptation to Google if you're stuck - you've gotta figure it all out on your own.

I Lets Played this rom hack on my YouTube channel Tytanium Joopy. It consisted of 15 ~20min episodes so at least 4-5 hours of gameplay which is pretty good for a game of this scale. I felt the difficulty was not as high as it was in Link's Shadow but was easier than Hyrule's Doom (both of which are two other rom hacks done by The3Dude that everyone should play). I am one that particularly likes difficulty and I felt this one was alright, it could have been a little harder but was comfortable. The new elements added to this such as the amazing heart piece was very well done. The different environments were really cool and was a fantastic way to divide up the land and make it much easier to identify where everything was being every area was very unique.

Overall this was an amazing rom hack and I urge everyone to play this as well as the many other fantastic projects The3Dude has made!

The author read reviews and made updates to make this hack even playable in my opinion. The author taking feedback and time to fix things made me look at this hack again.

And I'm sure glad I did. Now that I can play it, I find it highly enjoyable.

The hack has enough "vanilla" left in it to fit my tastes of romhacks, but holds its own.

It is one of the better Zelda hacks out there and worth a try.

Synopsis: A well made, well thought out hack. Rating 9.4/10

NOTE: I am currently stuck trying to find Lvl 9 Quest 1.

Outstandings: The sprite work is excellent. Very few bugs are to be found. It does seem as though a lot of effort has gone into this hack 1/4 heart system just like ALTTP. The map has a much more defined flow to it than the original. The tornados in the ice realm are a great touch All dungeons have received an overhaul in many respects. Layouts have greatly improved. I feel these are more difficult as well (a plus). Many dungeons can be completed at any given time which allows a great amount of player control, perhaps more than the original.

Shortcomings: Little core function has changed. e.g. sword, arrows, boomerang, etc all work the exact same. There are no new items (reskinned only). The dark palette where you start is almost too dark Level 8 palette is almost washed out Over world feel is mostly the same. One entrance per screen basically. Either a heart, money, old guy/girl, or a shop. Some glitches can be performed to your advantage if you have the ability! For instance, I was stuck, so I screen wrapped and got the ladder early.

Whoever played Link's Shadow and Trial of Courage already knows the quality of this guy's hack!

But this Perils of Darkness ... is definitely something I've never seen before in a Zelda's game for NES.

Now there are 20 pieces of hearts spread across Overworld, in the style of A link to the past!

The opening theme song I think is an 8-bit version of the original for SNES, very cool!

The dungeons are challenging and have beautiful textures on the floor, in the best Outlands, Trial of Courage style!

I haven't finished the game yet, but I'm loving it.

The experience is really good, reminding something of the QUESTS of the Zelda Classic for PC ...

Recommended!

I am by no means far into the game, but what I have played has been very good. I think this is better than Overlands. For one thing, the map isn't ridiculously complicated to navigate. You also start near the sword. I feel that whole "trek the world to find your sword" gimmick has been overplayed. Also, the upgraded graphics look good. A small addition that I like is that the dungeons don't tell you what level they are. It makes it feel like you might be able to play them in any order to complete the game. The layout of the first dungeon made it look like I either needed a certain item to proceed, or that I was going to find said item in the dungeon and neither turned out to be true.

Level 9 Quest 2 would make you lose your hair until you figure out where to go! LOL! It's the final dungeon, so it's supposed to present the most challenge.

This hack is pretty awesome. It offers beautiful overworld and level designs. It's easy to pick up and play, and it now falls more in line with other Zelda games with heart pieces. The hack utilizes every normal technique and aspect of Zelda 1. There's no dull moments with this game. I highly recommend it. it's a blast!