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The lore is very simple, but enough to convince the player. The maps are well built and have an original soundtrack, which puts the hack above average

However, several level design defects overshadow the potential that this game has to be a hidden gem. The platform challenge in the ice dungeon is very unfair and the part of lighting all the torches in the final garden is painful, I feel like I managed it by luck and not by merit.

The final boss is a recycling, but the arena made everything a little more interesting than a simple asset flip

Good, 07/10

An interesting ROM hack, but one which I didn't enjoy quite so much. I liked the theme although it was very short. The final boss battle was frustrating not because it was hard but because the stage was silly. I also did not enjoy the extended guard-sneaking place. Two of the crystals you have to hit to activate were so deviously hidden that I spent too much time looking for them and didn't enjoy that either. It just didn't feel clever or rewarding once I found them. That said, it's probably worth the short experience. 6/10.

If you haven't played the hack yet, there's some spoilers ahead.

Dawn and Dusk is a fairly short hack comprising of a series of mostly self contained areas to explore with a small amount of back tracking. I enjoyed the overall feel and design of the world. It had kind of a Metroidvania feel to it.

The areas themselves are quite puzzle oriented. I actually ended up completing the hack swordless because I completely missed the sword chest. It wasn't until the final boss was taking an excessive amount of time that I looked up some stuff and found out there was actually a sword. The hack is beatable swordless though. There's only a small amount of combat in the hack.

Also, I found a small graphical glitch with the metal shield that will show Link having his sword when the shield is on his back even if you haven't collected a sword.

The puzzle design I thought overall was pretty good. There wasn't the biggest variety of puzzles. Most areas relied on at least one or more torch lighting puzzle. I liked the new tunic, but there didn't seem to be any need for it, it's supposed to protect against flames, but the next area is an ice cave and the only flames are in the puzzle leading to the tunic.

There were some fun puzzles though, the platform section in the ice cave was pretty great, it reminded me of some of the platform challenges in Hollow Knight. The guard section was probably the most creative use of the torch puzzle, even if it was frustrating to actually pull off.

The hack is quite short, even swordless, it only took me about 4 or 5 hours to complete. but overall, I'd recommend Dawn and Dusk. It has some great ideas and some really beautiful looking new areas to explore.

All the redone graphics look really good, I enjoyed the soundtrack. All the songs fit their areas well. I like the way each area had its own unique feel to it and it was genuinely fun exploring and figuring out the patgs through each area.

I'd like to see more hacks with more self contained areas like this, or even something looping and connected like dark souls 1 or Metroid Prime.

If you like Ocarina of Time, especially solving dungeon puzzles, definitely give Dawn and Dusk a try, you won't be disappointed.

Spoilers ahead:

Just want to start off with saying for a short rom, this had great story and lore. This has great graphics and nice looking new areas, the Dawn village and Red Ice Cavern are probably my 2 favorite looking places in this, the music is really well done and fits the areas really nicely. The custom looking shield and tunic fit really well with the atmosphere into the game.

The gameplay is great for a miniature mod, Wouldn't say it was linear, but it gave you a straight forward way on where to go, little secrets with hearts pieces was a nice find when wondering and kind of back-tracking earlier places (I think I 100% with finishing 7 heart containers). I liked the little puzzle you had to to do in the ice cavern part with the moving tile and avoiding the Beamos, to get to another part of the mini dungeon

The guard part a little tedious, but managed to pull it off after trail and error, and the nice part was seeing/fighting a purple Volvagia with the Megaton Hammer in a new custom boss area, and the same final boss (like in Zelda's Birthday) you fight as child Link.

My one complaint is this rom was too short lol. At the end I wanted more and was sad to know after finishing the game there wasn't any more. But as said, I really enjoyed this mini rom and hope to see more from this creator if he has anymore plans in doing more games. Solid game

8.5/10

Super Nice Zelda N64 Hack, New items, short but fun, probably my favorite since ''The Missing Link\''

Here's a rare strategy guide for this game : https://archive.org/details/zelda-64-dawn-and-dusk-strategy-guide

I played this when it was initially released and it's a solid short and sweet Ocarina of Time hack. The sections vary a bit in quality and enjoyment but nothing last very long so you will be moving on to new areas and types of content rather rapidly. It's probably the most solid OoT hack so far, but it's also by far the shortest which can explain the amount of polish it has.

The new areas and sceneries are also quite pleasing and nice looking in variety of different ways, I had a good time with it and I think it's worth taking for a spin.

I just hope that some time in the future we will get an OoT hack with this level of quality and creative direction that is also larger in size and scope!