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The Sealed Palace has great ideas, with a gorgeous overworld and dungeon design. There are very few areas that look anything short of outstanding, every grotto is unique, a lot of platforming/environmental puzzles are present and the more traditional puzzles are also fairly well thought out.

If those are your criteria for really enjoying a Zelda game, I would recommend you play this as it's pretty close to flawless in that regard.

Now... for my gripes with it:

STORY

This game does not have any story that it's trying to tell: A majority of dialogue is recycled vanilla text with few alterations - looking for what is *different* feels like playing spot the difference, as a lot of it is mind-numbing OoT dialogue a lot of fans would not be very interested by.

It starts with a strong setup, with the King of Hyrule being manipulated by his advisors Kotake and Koume and Link waking up in jail and having to find his way out... and that's about as far as it gets before it just sort of... mimics OoT story beats but worse (i.e. you never meet Darunia but his voice in your head tells you about becoming sworn brothers, after beating Dodongo's Cavern).

The game carries itself as a "sequel" to OoT, pretending to be an alternate universe take at first, and then treating it as almost a big reveal to the player that this is set centuries later.

But the thing is... we have no reason to be invested in this present journey. There are no colorful characters or a feeling of growth or adventure, a lot of things happen just "because" without even being highlighted or addressed. I'm not asking for custom cutscenes mind you, but I feel like dialogue could have been completely rewritten to at least make it a little more engaging.

There is a gossip stone in the game that tells you dialogue was the last thing to be added to the game and it really shows the developers philosophies of keeping the story and world very secondary to gameplay.

To draw a comparison to Majora's Mask - a game that reused almost every character model from OoT: Almost no character in this game serves any purpose other than to remind you of that character in OoT. They have very little in the form of diverging personalities, purposes in the story or anything.

Whenever there are any cases of even slightly significant differences, they are with very minor characters such as Talon. And some NPCs are pretty much EXACTLY the same as their original counterparts.

Very little is told to you about the wholly new areas of Hyrule this game takes place in, too. Other than minor flavor commentary such as the carpenter master telling you the Gerudo paid them to build their city/temple... locations are just sort of... there. Which would be fine in any other romhack, but when your whole premise is that it's Hyrule in the future, it might be nice to add some more flavor to it.

This leads me to my next point of criticism.

WORLDBUILDING

While level design is A+, simply phenomenal. Every area is very unremarkable, including a lot of the dungeons.

How could that be the case? Well, almost every place is named flatly after what it is, in this romhack we get outstanding names such as:

• "Cave"
• "Fishing Town"
• "Outskirts"
• "Pathways"
• "Church"
• "Mountain Pass"

The first Dungeon in the game is called "Forest Grotto", I just had to go back and look whilst writing this, because it's such an unremarkable name for a very pretty and well put-together dungeon.

This to me, is a reflection of my previous point: As there is no story to tell, the areas themselves are only gameplay representations. The game doesn't make any attempts to sell you on the fact that this is a living, breathing world.

MUSIC

This game's soundtrack is fully original, which speaks to the effort of the developers in crafting something very high effort and high quality.

But unfortunately, a great majority of this game's tracks are either atmospheric or symbolic. What do I mean by symbolic?

Well for example:

• Forest Grotto's theme sounds reminiscent of Great Deku Tree's
• Church Catacomb's theme has the same percussion as Shadow Temple's
• Goron City's theme is pretty much identical up to a certain point where it diverges in melody.

This is not entirely bad, and makes sense considering composing something from scratch is *very* difficult and this cannot be understated. But this combination accentuates the feelings that this world is not something to get too invested in.

Now, there are some great tracks: Lost Woods, Forest Temple, Pathways, Nightmare, Boss Battle. And some of them ARE atmospheric, but a lot just gets... lost from being too atmospheric or too similar to existing tracks.

Personally, I find using existing music in OoT's soundfont to still be the preferred method because it lets you convey more about how certain places are meant to feel based on the feelings the songs decided for them evoke.

DIFFERENCES BETWEEN ADULT AND CHILD

There are very little. It's something that seems mostly done for "story beat" purposes more than anything. Very few changes in the overworld, a lot of NPC text is completely unchanged, if seven years have passed the game really challenges your suspension of disbelief at every turn.

CONCLUSION

This is a game that you mostly play for the novelty of different maps in Ocarina of Time. It pained me seeing ZFG's playthrough of this after playing it myself and seeing people in chat going "What's the story of this hack?" because... there really is nothing to write home about. "It's OoT's story but worse" is what I'd think.

It would be extremely hard to sell anyone to replay this over replaying OoT, quite frankly, as this hack plays it so safe that it becomes bland.

The saddest part is, it's brimming with potential too! If it would get a re-release with only a rewrite, some area renaming, and different songs in key places, it could be one of the most memorable romhack experiences yet and go down as one of the greatest romhacks that doesn't make use of custom actors or code. Even more if they were to add additional cutscenes, flags and differences between adult and child.

When I watched ZFG's playthrough, I noticed one of the devs getting a little bit defensive over minor criticism saying things such as "Unpaid dev team isn't Koji Kondo" and things of the sort, so I doubt this hack will ever get improved upon. Of course this was just one dev, so maybe the rest have a more receptive mentality when it comes to criticism but personally I don't think there is any chance they'll revise much of what's wrong with this hack.

Either way, as it stands, its an alright experience on your first go and it'll scratch that Zelda 64 itch but will ultimately not be very memorable and will offer very little replayability.

*** Warning: minor spoilers ahead. ***

I first learned of this hack's existence a few days after it came out, when early playthrough VODs started appearing in my YouTube feed. Its sudden release took me by surprise, as I hadn't even been aware that it was in development; the only major project on my radar at the time was Kenton's upcoming Indigo hack. Every time a new OoT hack is released, it always makes me feel like I'm about to unwrap a gift on Christmas morning, so you can probably imagine how exciting this news was for me. While the recent completion of the game's decompilation project will almost certain usher in a wave of new hacks over the next few years, I think it's fair to say that as of early 2023, OoT romhacking is still in its infancy period. After all, it's been a full decade and a half since the release of the groundbreaking (albeit dated) Zelda's Birthday, with only a small handful of complete hacks with fundamental changes having trickled out of the woodwork since... so each new hack is a big deal in my book.

As someone who only stumbled upon the romhacking scene a few years ago, I was quite impressed from the start that despite the limited selection, there were viable options for players of all skill levels: The Missing Link and Dawn & Dusk were simple enough for novices to enjoy, Master of Time was tougher but still accessible to the average fan, and Nimpize Adventure provided a more challenging experience for the experts. Hell, there was even a Kaizo-type hack in The Fate of the Bombiwa as well! The really great thing about the latter three hacks is that the heightened difficulty came in the form of elements like increasingly crafty/clever puzzles, tight (but still doable) timed sequences, and tough (but not impossible) enemy waves; every challenge had a solid path or strategy to find, and the difficult parts still made sense, both in their own context and in that of the rest of the game. Solving a hard puzzle or beating a particularly tough dungeon felt extremely satisfying. Getting over the hump almost always promised to be a rewarding experience. It's a huge part of what makes truly great romhacks so appealing, along with compelling storylines, interesting environmental design, and immersive ambience. Conjuring up all of the above elements and packaging them together into a game that is both accessible and balanced is no easy task.

Before downloading The Sealed Palace, I decided to do quick skim through a few playthrough VODs to get a basic idea of what I was in for, and doing so immediately jacked up my expectations for the hack. From a visual standpoint, it looked totally incredible, with a level of polish and attention to environmental detail akin to that of an officially released N64 Zelda game. The areas to explore seemed massive and diverse, and given the fact that experienced streamers were just barely reaching the "adult" section of the hack after 7-9 hours of gameplay, I figured that the dungeons must be massive and the overworld loaded with sidequests and cool diversions.

So, I patched the rom and loaded it into the emulator, and was quickly impressed with the hack's opening Hyrule Castle sequence. The visuals were fully living up to my expectations, and the early stealth sequences were a lot of fun.

And then I got lost. Over and over.

This is The Sealed Palace's achilles heel: environments that - while looking beautiful from a purely aesthetic standpoint - are so lacking in distinguishing characteristics that they devolve into frustrating mazes.

To its credit, the hack goes further than most of its contemporaries by including Map and Compass items in dungeons, which predictably unlock access to a pause-screen map. Dungeons only make up maybe a third of The Sealed Palace's explorable world, though, leaving nothing but a vague world map at the player's disposal in both the overworld and numerous indoor and mini-dungeon areas alike. Unfortunately for devs and players alike, OoT menu maps cannot be automatically generated from an area's environmental collision, and must be manually drawn and programmed into each location - and they are notoriously difficult to create, which is why so few hacks include them. And from what I've heard, onscreen mini-maps are even more of a pain to integrate (which explains why their presence in hacks is even rarer than menu maps). Sadly, The Sealed Palace follows this trend, and the lack of mini-maps *heavily* exacerbates what might otherwise be fairly minor environmental design flaws. By the time I finished the introductory Castle sequence, I was already a little bit annoyed at how long it had taken, and how much time I'd wasted by aimlessly running in circles. I assumed that things would be better once I made it into the overworld. I was wrong.

The game takes you from a castle that's already easy to get lost in, and dumps you in a Haunted-Wasteland-esque area consisting of the heavily decayed remains of an old settlement. In practice, it's a fog-drenched area consisting of large stretches of nothingness interspersed with random walls that create hallways to nowhere - a literal maze. It also comes complete with day-night cycles, meaning that as soon as the sun sets, one's visibility goes from minimal to zero for several agonizing real-time minutes. It's worth mentioning that when I eventually returned to this area as adult Link, I actually found it really cool and fun to explore - but only because I had gained the ability to climb onto walls, hookshot poles, and charge my sword to mitigate the heavy fog/sand effects. There's no good reason whatsoever to justifying making the player blindly stumble through a literal maze, with no way to make navigation any easier on themselves; there's no discernible pathway, and the only way to get through it is to move in various directions until you eventually hit the right loading zone. This massively frustrating element could be instantly mitigated, at least to some degree, by simply by A) eliminating the blowing sand in the child-Link map, or B) removing the fluid day-night cycle from the map altogether... or, better yet, put some sort of visual markers for child Link to follow.

• **** EDIT: I'm replaying this in November of 2023, but playing the latest version of the ROM. I definitely feel like the draw distance is improved a bit in the Wasteland area, because getting around it feels quite a bit easier now - I really couldn't remember the specifics of the layout eight months after my initial playthrough, yet still had a way better time with navigation this time around. I still think that getting rid of the wind / blowing sand the the child version of the map would have been the right call here, but this is a step in the right direction. *****

The player's reward for making it through this brutal, unrewarding sequence is access to the Castle Town and its attached overworld areas. I was immediately impressed by the size and scope of the town; it makes great use of vertical space with its strings of interlocking balconies and raised bridges and walkways, and seems to go on forever when one first sets foot inside its walls. As the game hadn't given me a shield yet, I decided to find the town's equivalent of a Bazaar shop. So I began opening doors, and that's when it rapidly dawned on me that I was stuck inside an even bigger and more aggravating maze than the first two. A full hour later, I still hadn't found the ****ing shop, and was extremely close to giving up on the hack completely.

• **** EDIT: Thankfully, the devs have added some signs to the castle town buildings to help distinguish them apart in the latest version of the hack, which makes a significant difference in terms of ease of navigation. Kudos to them for making this badly needed change - it's a major improvement! *****

In retrospect, I'm glad I didn't, because as soon as the player makes it out of the Castle Town, the enjoyability of this hack immediately begins to rise. The various environments are excellent on the eyes, though they don't always fit together in the most cohesive fashion. The game often gives you very little to go on in terms of figuring out where to go or what to do next, and while the Navi hints are definitely helpful, the direction that she points the player in can seem really arbitrary when there's little to no environmental or dialogue-based signposting beyond her one-sentence clues.

Still, the majority of the game's expansive world is a lot of fun to explore. If that's what appeals to you in a Zelda hack, The Sealed Palace certainly delivers. The original musical score is fantastic, and there's an uncommon level of visual and auditory polish to the whole package, akin to that of The Missing Link. This is true throughout the overworld and dungeons alike.

Thankfully, most of the main dungeons don't tend to suffer from the same "maze" phenomenon to the same degree as the very early areas (with only the hack's Shadow-Temple-equivalent being a notable exception). What drags them down somewhat, however, is the arbitrariness of numerous "puzzle" solutions that one's ongoing progress is locked behind. Perhaps the best example of this takes place in the Nayru mini-dungeon, the completion of which hinges on a series of steps so arbitrary and obtuse that I *never* would have figured it out without eventually searching the Hylian Modding Discord page for the solution. The hack has way too many moments like this, with no indication of what to do next and a high potential for frustration on the part of the player. This is what really sets The Sealed Palace apart from hacks like Nimpize Adventure and Master of Time, and not in a good way.

Still, when all is said and done, I think the game's high points manage to outweigh its lows. There are a few areas and sequences - the Fire Temple and Link's Nightmare immediately come to mind - that are flat-out phenomenal from start to finish, and genuinely floored me with their brilliance. As a complete package, it might not break any ground, but The Sealed Palace is still worth a look, and most OoT fans will find something to enjoy in it.

Amazing world and dungeon design, feels like an official Nintendo game set in an alternate universe to Ocarina of Time and Majoras Mask

Sealed Palace can be considered a simple but effective OOT experience. I really enjoyed playing this all the way to the end, with a few exceptions.

The dungeons are very cozy and fun to traverse, and I love how the developers rewards the player with a treasure chest after pretty much every room or puzzle solved. Yes, the content of said chest is usually underwhelming, but the dopamine is released every time you hear that victory jingle nonetheless. The overworld is somewhat lacking but very detailed and, even though the story is pretty much vanilla, I liked the additions to the lore.

Overall, the game looks great, it plays really well and I 100% recommend this.

Now, difficulty wise. I consider myself a casual OoT fun, I can't really do many tricks and cheats so, don't worry, if I can beat this, anyone can. This game has a very friendly difficulty curve.

By the time I entered the fourth dungeon I was obsessed. The dungeons are superb. I will say that the game has a very slow, meandering start, but definitely stick with it. The Sealed Palace starts you off in some very large spaces with not a whole lot that you can accomplish. As for myself I took issue with the placement of items. This hack offers a lot of freedom in the order you can tackle its dungeons, but be prepared to make a lot of walks out of half-finished dungeons in search of items you didn't think you'd need (hope you like fishing!). Overall I wish progression-critical items were placed more organically in the world space, or were at least required for entry into that dungeon to save you from the Walk of Shame out of there. Navi's advice points you toward many of them, but not all. I also wish there were less jumps placed at the absolute maximum reach of Link's grab range. OoT platforming is one leap of faith after another.

Beyond those gripes though, this is a must play for OoT fans. The game mechanics are being pushed in a lot of directions that vanilla had never attempted. I also highly recommend making use of the Mask of Truth and Mido's Song in the right spaces, there's some fascinating lore drops. Hunting for collectibles makes for a much more satisfying completionist experience than vanilla as well. Gone are the reused underground grottos. There's a bit more emphasis on smaller, Bottom of the Well-sized dungeons. My favorite main dungeon is definitely the fourth one whose premise I dare not spoil.

it is truly amazing to see OoT in a completely new world like this, completely new questline and everything. I see many people saying it can get confusing , and I agree mostly but I wanna say the main thing to me that is missing in this is The minimap and especially the little arrow telling you where you are. Im really not sure why its been removed , as the Maps on the pause screen are all there , but the mini map HUD with the arrows showing your position would be incredibly useful for making this hack less confusing and remembering where you didnt explore .

Awesome hack and very cool to see 3

I gotta admit, I was extremely skeptical of this hack at first. After playing for only 30 minutes, I was hooked. The Sealed Palace is impressive. The amount of detail that the devs put into this game is amazing. My mind was absolutely blown multiple times throughout the first few hours of the game.

I highly recommend every OoT fan give this one a shot. Words of appreciation don't do it justice.

Some Spoilers Ahead:

This Rom just came out of nowhere, Now I did see some of these creators working on music and dungeons layouts just from browsing on some websites but didn't really think much of it until I saw the game release date. I did play the first version when it came out, and seemed like your typical rom hack when it comes to figuring where to go and what to do when the Npc's and even Navi didn't really help. I did finish the first version without 100% it but when the final version 1.3 came out LOTS have changed and made it seem a little easier to navigate things and go the distance.

First thing I'd like to say is the music is fantastic, Some do sound like the game as vanilla OOT but with a little spice added to the music, from what I heard the person who made these songs is a music composer and it shows that he knew what he was doing when it came to the music and even the custom made warp songs you get in the game.

The castle escape mini dungeon was a nice add for an OOT hack, but my lord I remember when I played the first version the haunted wasteland was Terrible, I could barely see where I was going and it took me a good 20 mins just to get out and find the castle town, Thankfully the version 1.3 fixed that haziness and was a breeze to get through the 2nd time I came back to this

Navi and Saria hints were alot more useful and actually made them useful in this compared to the vanilla game. The overworld has a really nice touch and not some useless big field with nothing to explore, different areas led to different locations that you needed to come back to even as adult Link later on.

I'll mention one thing that bugged alot of people from watching some videos of there first playthrough and mine was the backtracking, and my there was Alot of it, Now in my opinion this in someway makes this a great rom, makes you explore more of the game that some people wouldn't do in the original game, like needing Fishing scale to get to a secret level and the Goddess trails to get into certain levels in the game

Like I said, when I first played this I didn't go the distance to 100% this but when the final version came out I did decide to do that (For little bragging rights lol) and even know the rewards are the same as vanilla, I had fun finding the new areas (The grottos where fantastic looking and could tell alot of effort went into them) and looking for other areas I didn't see earlier

For a game that came out of nowhere when released I was shocked and amazed by how great this hack was and all the effort that went into making this rom. Haven't had this much fun since Master of Time was released, There is some difficulty in this, I was stumped the first time, but telling by the other reviews and the amount of people who have played this I say go ahead and play this yourself, You'll have fun and wont regret it

9/10

This is the only one I've played that both plays and looks like it were another real Zelda N64 title. You might feel like you did playing the original for the first time as a kid.

Fantastic work with the dungeons that had special gimmicks that changed the architecture. The devs really brought their A game for the looks. Every location is beautiful.

The music was this romhack's weakness.

It's like playing the original ocarina of time for the first time without knowing anything, I like that they don't take you by the hand or tell you what to do. In addition to that it works perfect in ED64Plus, let's see if they can add it to the compatibility list.

I can't praise everyone who was involved in this romhack enough!

What a great experience and joy it was to play a reimagined OoT with engaging puzzles, brilliant dungeon layout and a surprising level of depth and creativity across the board.

Some say it was a bit confusing, but didn't we all get a bit hung up on older Zelda games back in the day? Back when hand holding wasn't a common practice. And it's not like this romhack didn't give you enough hints and such; Navi actually bailed me out with some of her tips when I was unsure of my next move.

I give this romhack a solid 10/10. For the OoT fan, it is a must play!

PS I'm not sure why it's called 'Sealed Palace,' but it sounds cool enough lol

To put it bluntly this is the strongest OoT rom hack yet and will be the bar to which all future OoT hacks will be compared. This is a full length new adventure with almost everything from vanilla OoT making a return ( Trade Sequence, Beans, Scarecrow Song, Day/Night ), you can think of it as OoT but remixed in a new world.

The dungeons are the highlight of this hack and for an experienced OoT player one might argue even stronger than the vanilla OoT dungeons. In fact I might even say these are the strongest dungeons of any 3D Zelda, every dungeon is a joy, not a single bad dungeon is found here, there's alot less Ruto escort missions or block pushing, just pure platforming and combat, with some tricky puzzles thrown in but never to the detriment to the pacing.

Some of the dungeon design is unforgettable, lets just say your jaw may hit the floor at a few of them from a visual standpoint, they are better looking than vanilla OoT dungeons. Incredibly this hack features maps and compasses for all the dungeons, which is something sorely missing in the other big OoT hack Master of Time

The hack comes equipped with Rando/Redux features like Ocarina/Boots on Dpad, and fast block pushing, with even equippable Child tunics to add to the fun

One thing to note is this hack does not feature any unique or custom enemies, items, or bosses, everything is kept vanilla

Grottos have been completely revamped since vanilla, no longer simple rooms with at most a web or bombable wall, these grottos are huge with distinct visual designs and lots of platforming, almost like an explorable underworld

Some of the jank of vanilla OoT has been removed, no more 2D areas with weird camera angles like Castle Town, and no Hyrule Field that takes ages to cross as Child Link

Another standout feature of this hack is how nonlinear it is, for all those who cried foul at how railroaded and linear the future 3D Zelda's turned into to, this one has a lack of handholding, little story gatekeeping, most of the world is locked only behind by item gating, allowing for all kinds of routing for repeat playthroughs and speedrunning. Players may get lost but talking to NPC's and Navi can help guide the way, or at worst turn to Youtube or Discord ( Don't act like other Zelda's didn't have guides )

As for another feature almost all the music in this hack is new, both the Ocarina songs and in game soundtrack, with some of the dungeon themes in particular being very strong

Is there anything bad I can say about this hack ? Well not much, the story is serviceable but not particularly strong or memorable, and the stealth intro can leave a bad first impression to the rest of the hack, but just stick with it, this is one to remember

Overall, I give this hack a 9/10, its flat out amazing that a hack of this size without reusing any vanilla OoT maps is able to produce such quality level design throughout, and with strong dungeon design and nonlinear routing, you can be sure any OoT lover will revisit Sealed Palace over and over again

The hack itself is very good overall. There are a few places in the game where it is unapparent in any way what to do. Not necessarily a bad thing, but even the hints from Navi and Saria don't always help.

My biggest gripe is with the path the get Nayru's Love. Its required in this game, but the puzzles for the rooms could do with some slight tweaking. I'd say just adding 1 more second to the timer and making the iceberg just a little more easy to climb back onto when you fall off would help a lot.

I also managed to do a large chunk of adult without getting the bow, when the bow is realistically one of the first things you can get as adult.

I really like the idea of major items scattered throughout the overworld, it adds a nice change of pace finding big items outside of dungeons.

All in all a great hack with some great aspects to it.

I played this over the last week since it was released, aimed for 100%, and came out one Heart Piece, and a Biggoron Sword short.

The spoiler-free review: This is a full-game overhaul that provides entirely new environments, dungeons, mini-dungeons, and puzzle areas (grottos, etc.). While not perfect, none of this feels lazy. This was a thoroughly designed Zelda experience with plenty of fresh and original puzzles for the vanilla inventory.

The visual design here is incredible for what the OOT engine can allow; many areas left me standing around and just admiring all of the little details. Even the most insignificant grotto is a work of 3D art that deserves every bit of praise it gets. There are no fixed-camera angles with 2D backdrops for shops or towns as the entire game is fully 3D with even shops offering a lot more than just a shopkeeper to buy items from.

Dungeons are intelligently designed, and a select few took me by surprise with the gimmick that they centered around. If you think you think this game will struggle to keep things interesting, then think again. Various locations throughout the world will surprise you with a mini-dungeon, a themed grotto, or an indoor puzzle room. You think the game will just give you an item in a chest? Nah, maybe you can go through a mini-dungeon instead... and that's a big plus if that wasn't clear.

The final dungeon, while not the best dungeon design, is an amazing idea that they pulled off phenomenally due to the developers' attention to detail.

This romhack tries to implement every feature it can to make the experience feel polished, such as dungeon maps and compasses, a world map, and a functioning stone of agony. While it comes close to giving you everything you need, the lack of an on-screen mini-map and real-time player location on the map screen, especially in the overworld, keeps you either guessing if you've explored an entire room/area as you search for a remaining chest or Gold Skulltula.

All of the above is about all the positive praise I can give it and, frankly, it's worth a playthrough for those points alone. Good dungeons in a Zelda game are all that most people need, after all. With all that this romhack does right, it sadly does a lot wrong too.

The biggest problem with this experience was how unintuitive it was to figure out where you need to go next. Navi is next to useless until she randomly decides to give you a hint of where to go next (something I'll expand upon in my spoiler review below). I'm not the only one that's had issues with this as other players have struggled to even find shops. Some places, like the main town, are designed like a maze and you never know if you've missed anything. Where this game has excelled in visual design, it has consequently suffered with confusing and disorienting maps that desperately needed an on-screen map.

You will also come across areas that you're not expected to be at yet, only to find out after a while that you were meant to go somewhere else. Many dungeons will not even have a distinct entrance that would indicate there's anything important there. The level design also becomes pretty jank at points so I'm never quite sure if a ledge I've climbed was intended because sometimes it is, but it won't seem like it. This is an unsettling feeling that made some of the level designs feel cheap. This leads to paths not being very clear, such as the top ledge required to climb to reach the Mountain Peak from the Mountain Trail.

I would have much rather had a more simplistic level design that clearly indicated to the player where they can go, what is reachable by child-only, and which jumps they can actually make. Also, can you OOT romhackers stop making custom warp songs? They're all forgettable, and it wouldn't have ruined the experience to have just kept them vanilla.

Speaking of the songs, the music is forgettable, though serviceable. None of the tracks stood out, but they were at least fitting for each of their environments. Many sound like the vanilla tracks with only a slight tweak to the midi maybe cutting out one of the instruments or holding back on some notes. At worst it's inoffensive, but perhaps other players will find some more enjoyment from the romhack's soundtrack.

There's also a story here but, I don't think any of the devs particularly cared about it. You end up going after all the main McGuffins of OOT with the main characters all saying something similar to what they said in the vanilla game. If there was anything of value here, I definitely missed it.

NPCs will often lead you on (seemingly) dead-end trails like the old lady that says she could make some medicine from something at Mountain Peak... but I couldn't find anything there. It's a pretty small region so, once again, it was unclear what she was referring to if anything at all. The fact that I'm this confused and uncertain is a symptom of poor design. There are also instances of 'something' going on, but the game not giving any kind of explanation to give the player any idea of what's going on; the prime example of this is the entrance to and the nature of the third dungeon.

Maybe you don't care about the story in a Zelda game, but it was a missed opportunity for a deeper experience. And the dialogue and function of the NPCs generally lead to confusion or just pretty much wasting your time.

Additionally, I'd like to request a visual queue for the Stone Of Agony to help players that can't get the Rumble working on their controllers for whatever reason.

Overall, I recommend giving this one a shot. If you're an OOT veteran that has played their share of romhacks and randomizers then you won't struggle much with this one and will be able to enjoy it in spite of its flaws. Brilliant dungeons, and tonnes of content to sink your teeth into, but at the price of some typical romhack jank and the occasional loss of direction that will leave you meandering around for 30 min at a time unless you luckily stumble onto the intended path. For more casual players, wait until a competent guide appears that you can follow, or for a version update that adds in some QOL improvements. Also, I personally do NOT recommend going after all 100 Gold Skulltulas (more on that below).

I'm extremely grateful we got such a meaty romhack with this much effort put into it. If it was just clearer on indicating where to go then I wouldn't have spent hours just wandering around doing nothing and ending up where I don't belong or hopelessly interacting with NPCs for some useful information. However, with the dungeons, amount of fresh, new content, and the puzzle design alone, this is an awesome Zelda game, but unfortunately, I have to consider the entire experience. Maybe I'd enjoy this more on a re-visit but... man, if only this game was just a little more clear about its intended path with some cleaner level design, it could have easily been a 9/10.

Spoiler-ish review (this might actually help but proceed at your own risk): In addition to the review above, here I'd like to just complain about specific things that affected my enjoyment of the romhack.

Firstly, the Gold Skulltulas are not worth it. Some of them are in horrific places that took me literal hours to find. The soil patch in the Eastern Bluffs under a cliff near the entrance to the ranch was just mean; but the absolute worst one is in the Sealed Realm (whatever it was called). Don't bother combing over all 3 chambers, as it's in a tree in the central area on a floating island below the statue you see when you enter. Finding all 100 doesn't give you any special reward as all of the rewards, in fact, are vanilla. Only go for them for bragging rights.

Then, there's the trading sequence. I mean, I'm not entirely sure if it exists. I got the Pocket Cucco from the Cucco Lady and... who do I give it to? I went to every NPC I could think of, and no one wants it. There's a sleeping guard in the starting area as the child, but you can't use the item in the past. I managed to find the Biggoron in the Flooded Mines, but he didn't want the Cucco either. After 2 hours of searching, I just gave up and called it a day.

In the first dungeon, there's a room to the left of the entrance where you can get a transparent block to appear under a waterfall. You can shoot-down a ladder onto it as well and this leads to a hidden alcove. Once you get up there... nothing. Granted, I discovered it only after beating the dungeon so maybe that bugged something out as a result, but I tried everything to make something happen but to no avail.

Finally, the progression is horrible at points. When you turn into an adult, you're supposed to enter the guard tower by the graveyard warp pad to get the Bow... I didn't know this until Navi told me after an hour of wandering around and instead going to other mini-dungeons that were intended for much later in the game. I ended up getting Din's Fire and Farore's Wind before getting the bow. Like in the vanilla game, I went to Dampe's Hut instead which hinted at what I thought was the Hookshot (something I desperately needed for progression) but was actually the game's Shadow Temple. Dampe referred to a Church Undercroft... I didn't even realize the town had a Church because of how confusing the map is. Buildings aren't distinct enough to keep track. And I also beat this game's Shadow Temple before even doing the Fire and Water temples because I had no idea how to even find/enter those at the time.