The Legend of Zelda: Return to Koholint

[Radz]

I've been working on a hack for the past two weeks.  It's something I feel is a good introduction to the hacking software and a good way to learn the system.  Mostly, I've worked on the overworld map only.  I have a plot in my head and some general ideas for item placement and order, but nothing is set in stone.  Also, the northern half of my map is pretty much staffed with enemies and the like, but no warps currently work and I haven't really messed with the tree warps yet (though I do have two trees at this point).

Here is the completed Koholint Island in the present.


Here is the completed Koholint Island in the past.


Here is a taste of the underwater portion of the past map.  This is of Martha's Bay to be specific.  I will not be including an image of the full underwater map because it is, frankly, ugly due to the excessive unused space and I don't want to be bothered with cleaning it up and there are also a few little secrets underwater I'd rather not give away.


Here is a large portion of the underwater in the present.


For context, this is several years after the events of Link's Awakening.  Once again, the Triforce summons Link and sends him back to Koholint Island.  Turns out the island didn't disappear when he and the Wind Fish woke up after all.  All those years ago, Link was rescued eventually without ever discovering the disturbing truth that Koholint was more than just a dream after all.  In those years without a hero, the Island has fallen into ruin with monsters running amok and multiple people have vanished from the island completely...including Marin and Tarin!

I will now work on the past overworld which will take a bit longer since most of the present time island's southern portion is underwater (water is sort of a major player in making the island feel familiar but ruined as you can probably notice).  The past time is prior to Link's Awakening and the Oracle games.  It is still fairly close to the events of Link's Awakening though as you will see certain building under construction (such as the camera shop), but it will take place entirely prior to Link's accident and arrival on the island.

[Darkness]

Wait a minute.  It is that past version of Link's Awakening?  I can't wait to see this hack complete.   Good job, bro.  Look forward to complete or demo release.

[Radz]

It's actually the present, but yes, it is indeed Koholint Island.

[Darkness]

Oh.  So that mean this is future of Koholint Island or Link is looking for Koholint Island and he find out that the island is completely ruined.  I can't wait to see storyline and cut-scene.  Oh by the way, can I be beta-tester?

[Radz]

Probably.  I'm going to have my brothers and some local friends alpha test, but once it gets past them, I'll release for beta testing.

EDIT:  I just updated the initial post with the now completed Koholint Island present as well as a little context in terms of when this takes place relative to Link's Awakening and the Oracle series as well as a little plot teaser...a back of the box description as it were.

EDIT 2:  I also just noticed a mistake in the castle.  I'll fix that, but I am not uploading a new picture right now though.

[Lin]

Just so you know you don't have to edit posts - double posting is acceptable here.

Looking pretty... Rad... But seriously, that's awesome. I can't wait to see what you do in terms of plot and events, but that's great mapping. Few people have actually been able to do a good job placing tiles together, especially around mountain areas, but you nailed it. I'm looking forward to the present map! Let me or Fatories know if you need any help.

[Darkness]

Probably.  I'm going to have my brothers and some local friends alpha test, but once it gets past them, I'll release for beta testing.

That is awesome.  Keep it up for update.

[Radz]

Just so you know you don't have to edit posts - double posting is acceptable here.

Looking pretty... Rad... But seriously, that's awesome. I can't wait to see what you do in terms of plot and events, but that's great mapping. Few people have actually been able to do a good job placing tiles together, especially around mountain areas, but you nailed it. I'm looking forward to the present map! Let me or Fatories know if you need any help.

Well, it helps that I'm essentially modding the original Koholint Island.  There were a few parts where some major modifications have been made that required a reworking of the mapping (the former rapids and the expanded moat around Castle Kanalet), but in general it was tile for tile a copy of the original source.

Another thing about the map, you might notice a distinct lack of time portals in the southern half of the island.  That's because I'm not 100% on the progression through the game and time periods so those will need to be adjusted as those become more concrete. 

I can for certain say that you start in the present and depending on what the final design is, could remain in the present for a decent amount of time.  I can also say that songs will function exactly as they do in Ages and appropriately so given the story and context that this game will take place in.  My game will address certain aspects of both Oracles and Ages that were sort of just swept under the rug.

[Darkness]

When I am looking at the picture on overworld map, that mean in the past version, same as normal in Link's Awakening?

[Radz]

By and large, yes, it will be much closer to what we saw in Link's Awakening, but it is at least a year prior to Link's Awakening or even the Oracle series, so some things are going to be different.  Many holes will be missing from the prairie (as you can see in the present, those have only gotten worse over the years...dang sinkholes...) and Richard will only have his villa and the pothole field will be free of plant life as it hasn't been planted yet.

One of the biggest differences would again be the rapids area.  Where the present it has dried up due to the volcanic cutting of the supply of water from Tal Tal Mountains, the past is arguably worse since the rapids do not really exist at all.  In the story, the rapids are actually the result of the quarry where Richards castle materials were obtained being flooded once they were no longer needed.  Because of this, you'll notice that not only is the water level in Tal Tal Heights where it was in the original game, it is actually higher due to the fact that water flows through the rapids much faster than the original river that flows around the quarry.

Now, I did have to make tweaks to the present overworld you see now.  Originally, there were going to be multiple places to go up and down into the Tal Tal Mountains as in the original game, but due to the limit of (essentially) 3 palette transitions, I used some lava flows to block those entrances and cut back on some of my original plans for lava actually flowing down and into the Tal Tal Heights due to area ID glitches as well as the fact that they would not have a smooth color transition.

A few areas are still up in the air in terms of what I keep and what I change about them to reflect the time difference.  I can say that certain things and places will be different, but not necessarily because of the time difference.  I won't spoil that little tidbit for you, but keep that in mind.  The past will definitely have hints in plain sight regarding the who, what, and where of Link's original appearance on Koholint and how his arrival affected the island.

All in all, I'm really excited about this and I'm glad the mapping is done for at least one time period.  I had been putting in enemies as I went along, but I finally decided I wanted something I could really show off and something that (if I have a line of chests with items for debugging purposes) I could at least wander around and let others wander around.

I was going to have my local friends do the alpha testing, but I may actually consider releasing an overworld only build for you guys to take a look at and experience once they're both mapped (and I'll have to map the underwater portions too).

[Fatories]

Lin pretty much sums up what I have to say about the map. I am impressed and am also excited to see what direction this hack takes. Keep up the good work.

[Radz]

Uploaded a new picture with some tile corrections.  As I inspected the blown up map as a whole, I noticed as I said before that the castle was not lining up properly between the front entrance and the second floor balcony.  Upon further inspection though, I noticed that I had multiple instances of half trees around the flooded sign maze.  They would have looked fine in the original since you cannot transition between the relevant screens, but since I can swim around it would be obvious...and I just like having that continuity anyhow.  Can't believe Lin complimented my mapping when I so many obvious errors. :001_tt2:

In all seriousness, I appreciate the interest and enthusiasm I am getting from you guys.  It's nice to have some people who are really interested in what I'm doing.

Tomorrow, I'm not sure if I want to work on scripting the ghini to rise from the tombstones (that's a lot of tombstones now...) or if I want to finish mapping the past or perhaps start on the present underwater to kind of break things up a bit since I haven't done any of those yet.

Dungeons are going to be interesting.  The dungeon in Ages have larger rooms than Link's Awakening so I am going to have to do something with that...perhaps simply enlarge the single rooms of dungeons to make them seem more grandiose and merge the broken up larger rooms where possible.  Suggestions for how to handle that issue are welcome.

[Fatories]

Tomorrow, I'm not sure if I want to work on scripting the ghini to rise from the tombstones (that's a lot of tombstones now...) or if I want to finish mapping the past or perhaps start on the present underwater to kind of break things up a bit since I haven't done any of those yet.

If you would like I can look into that script for you. To be honest I'll probably try to replicate it myself whether you like it or not

[Darkness]

By and large, yes, it will be much closer to what we saw in Link's Awakening, but it is at least a year prior to Link's Awakening or even the Oracle series, so some things are going to be different.  Many holes will be missing from the prairie (as you can see in the present, those have only gotten worse over the years...dang sinkholes...) and Richard will only have his villa and the pothole field will be free of plant life as it hasn't been planted yet.

Oh wow.  This might look fun.  Can't wait. 

[Radz]

Uploaded a picture of Koholint Island from the past.  You can see that the swamp from Link's Awakening is a lake in this time period and dries up over time.  Also, you can see where they are building up the moat around what will become Kanalet Castle and as I mentioned the quarry where the stone was mined for Kanalet Castle.