Done. 100% in both Normal Mode and Hero Mode. Considering that I wasn't even playing the game on my own Nintendo Switch, this achievement was more than I had expected. And I'll gladly do it all over again, as soon as I have my own Switch. The game is short, but sweet, where it's the perfect game for one weekend.
Well, the GameBoy original was more the perfect game for one evening, where I could complete it in a couple of hours, but with all its additions the remake can keep me busy a little bit longer. Most of the busy work goes into the new Chamber Dungeon, however, where after beating the game I still had the twelve golden Challenges open, as well as more Chamber Stones to buy from the Town Tool Shop...
This creates this little cycle at the end of the game, where you keep buying more Chamber Stones for the Chamber Dungeon and then clear challenges in the Chamber Dungeon to earn more Rupees for the Chamber Stones, where your entire world takes place in Dampé's Shack and the Town Tool Shop now.
But it's all entirely optional and if you don't care about the Chamber Dungeon and just want all other items, you can simply clear the twelve basic challenges and then be done with the game. But I do care, because I like the feature and this gives me something more to do afterwards. A little bit more of Link's Awakening dungeon action.
In a way this reminds me of the fishing in Majora's Mask 3D (also done by Grezzo), where you could either completely ignore it, if you didn't like the addition, or spend a lot more time with the game in order to catch all the different fish...
Anyway, up until this point I was only able to afford one of the Chamber Stones from the shop, which means I had six more to go for a total of 7680 Rupees. And I was a little bit worried that I had to grind for Rupees, so I could buy them all. On my first playthrough I was playing around with the mini-games a lot more, so I got many more Rupees from those.
And I also was more excessive with building dungeons in the Chamber Dungeon, because I wanted to try everything. Now in Hero Mode I went for much more efficient solutions to the all the challenges and I played through the game much faster, because I didn't have to search for all the Secret Seashells any longer, so I didn't have as many Rupees in the end...
However, doing all the golden challenges was more than enough for all the extra Chamber Stones. You get 300 Rupees for clearing one of them, so that's already 3600 Rupees. In addition you'll get more Rupees from opening any surplus treasure chest, while the real help comes from the +Rupees Effect, which you can use once in every challenge.
The results from both can be quite different, however, and I don't know the exact rules to this yet. Sometimes you keep getting red and purple Rupees for some good amounts and sometimes you're stuck with blue and green ones, where opening treasure chests never has been more any unsatisfying as in the Chamber Dungeon... I suppose, it has to do with the size of your dungeon, where it has these different tiers (like Shrine, Cave, Maze and Labyrinth). The bigger the dungeon, the better the rewards. But the difficulty might also influence this, so a dungeon entirely made out of easy to grab treasure chests won't help you either...
Well, despite the lack of Rupees in some challenges, I was getting more than enough to buy all the extra Chamber Stones from clearing the gold challenges. So, no additional Rupee grinding was required, which is good. In fact I already did get all Chamber Stones after clearing the infamous "Nothin' but Stairs" challenge. Speaking of, again it didn't even took me five minutes to solve this one again...
It's not hard, really. All you have to do is to take all possible chambers with stairs and throw them together until it fits. Maybe I was lucky twice with how it all connected, but I don't think this is the case. It's still the most complicated challenge, but it doesn't seem to be all that difficult to figure out.
The real fun part about this challenge is playing it, because all those tunnels can lead to some unexpected results. With the above version I kept running into dead ends, where I was missing keys for the locked doors (which normally never happens in the Chamber Dungeon, because you're getting the keys first). I had to take just the right tunnel in order to make progress and I was going all over the place. Plus, you never know what tunnels you end up with... So, this was a lot of fun to play and probably my favorite experience with the Chamber Dungeon so far.
Again, this has me convinced that a fully randomized Chamber Dungeon feature would be much more fun than playing your own creations. I enjoy the building part, but playing my own dungeons, where I already know where everything will be located and what the best route will be, isn't exactly exciting... It's just all going according to your plan.
Back to the Chamber Stones from the shop, I've purchased them one by one and noticed how I got them in a different order than the last time. This is how I've obtained them:
And this was the order from my Normal Mode playthrough:
Huh... It's still the same seven chambers, so you're not mixing this with the chambers you get from Dampé or other Chamber Stones. It's just that I got them in a different order this time. But I was also getting them all at the end of the game now, while previously I kept buying them once they became available.
But with all Chamber Stones in my possession before clearing all challenges I allowed myself to cheese the last one:
And here I thought my minimal Turtle Rock run was impressive...
The idea came from bcornelia on GameFAQs and I wanted to try this for myself. My result isn't as clean, but it still worked. I even got way over 600 Rupees for clearing this challenge thanks to the +Rupees effect in the first chamber.
And this is what you get, when you make too many chambers without chests or locked doors, Grezzo! Come on... Especially locked doors are way too rare for some reason. If some of those chambers had locked doors or chests, this wouldn't have been possible, at least not in such a ridiculous way.
Well, at least I turned the "Skull Arrangement" challenge into another boss rush as the real final challenge. I even was able to fit absolutely all boss and mini-boss chambers in there with the exception of the mirrored Gohma chamber, because there are like six mini-bosses with the exact same layout (exits down and left). But since you already have one of those, this isn't a big loss. And there probably even is a way to fit them all together...
Anyway, the only thing left to do here now would be building my own challenges and trying to score a good time. For that you want to use the Red Mail, however. At first I wasn't sure, whether the Red Mail and the Koholint Sword would stack. It didn't seem like they did, similar to the Guardian Acorn and the Blue Mail. And it's certainly not quadrupling the damage any longer, but it does increase it slightly. I've noticed this mainly with some of the bosses. In case of Blaino I only need three hits when I combine the Koholint Sword with the Red Mail. Without the Red Mail it takes four. I can also defeat the Gohmas and the Slime Eel in one cycle, when I have the Red Mail equipped, but I'm usually one or two hits short without...
So, the Red Mail will help to beat Chamber Dungeon records, but you will also have to live with the double damage in Hero Mode then...
Oh, and the "+Hearts Effect" really does work in Hero Mode. It's one of the few ways of finding hearts in this mode.
And we're done. This was the last entry into my "Dream Diary", where I'm really happy with the whole journey. Yes, I have been nitpicking quite a lot, but this only shows how close to perfect this game really is. And hopefully Nintendo will release an update to improve some of the issues. But overall this remake really is a dream and I'm sure that I will be replaying this version of the game many times over.
Well, the GameBoy original was more the perfect game for one evening, where I could complete it in a couple of hours, but with all its additions the remake can keep me busy a little bit longer. Most of the busy work goes into the new Chamber Dungeon, however, where after beating the game I still had the twelve golden Challenges open, as well as more Chamber Stones to buy from the Town Tool Shop...
This creates this little cycle at the end of the game, where you keep buying more Chamber Stones for the Chamber Dungeon and then clear challenges in the Chamber Dungeon to earn more Rupees for the Chamber Stones, where your entire world takes place in Dampé's Shack and the Town Tool Shop now.
But it's all entirely optional and if you don't care about the Chamber Dungeon and just want all other items, you can simply clear the twelve basic challenges and then be done with the game. But I do care, because I like the feature and this gives me something more to do afterwards. A little bit more of Link's Awakening dungeon action.
In a way this reminds me of the fishing in Majora's Mask 3D (also done by Grezzo), where you could either completely ignore it, if you didn't like the addition, or spend a lot more time with the game in order to catch all the different fish...
Anyway, up until this point I was only able to afford one of the Chamber Stones from the shop, which means I had six more to go for a total of 7680 Rupees. And I was a little bit worried that I had to grind for Rupees, so I could buy them all. On my first playthrough I was playing around with the mini-games a lot more, so I got many more Rupees from those.
And I also was more excessive with building dungeons in the Chamber Dungeon, because I wanted to try everything. Now in Hero Mode I went for much more efficient solutions to the all the challenges and I played through the game much faster, because I didn't have to search for all the Secret Seashells any longer, so I didn't have as many Rupees in the end...
However, doing all the golden challenges was more than enough for all the extra Chamber Stones. You get 300 Rupees for clearing one of them, so that's already 3600 Rupees. In addition you'll get more Rupees from opening any surplus treasure chest, while the real help comes from the +Rupees Effect, which you can use once in every challenge.
The results from both can be quite different, however, and I don't know the exact rules to this yet. Sometimes you keep getting red and purple Rupees for some good amounts and sometimes you're stuck with blue and green ones, where opening treasure chests never has been more any unsatisfying as in the Chamber Dungeon... I suppose, it has to do with the size of your dungeon, where it has these different tiers (like Shrine, Cave, Maze and Labyrinth). The bigger the dungeon, the better the rewards. But the difficulty might also influence this, so a dungeon entirely made out of easy to grab treasure chests won't help you either...
Well, despite the lack of Rupees in some challenges, I was getting more than enough to buy all the extra Chamber Stones from clearing the gold challenges. So, no additional Rupee grinding was required, which is good. In fact I already did get all Chamber Stones after clearing the infamous "Nothin' but Stairs" challenge. Speaking of, again it didn't even took me five minutes to solve this one again...
It's not hard, really. All you have to do is to take all possible chambers with stairs and throw them together until it fits. Maybe I was lucky twice with how it all connected, but I don't think this is the case. It's still the most complicated challenge, but it doesn't seem to be all that difficult to figure out.
The real fun part about this challenge is playing it, because all those tunnels can lead to some unexpected results. With the above version I kept running into dead ends, where I was missing keys for the locked doors (which normally never happens in the Chamber Dungeon, because you're getting the keys first). I had to take just the right tunnel in order to make progress and I was going all over the place. Plus, you never know what tunnels you end up with... So, this was a lot of fun to play and probably my favorite experience with the Chamber Dungeon so far.
Again, this has me convinced that a fully randomized Chamber Dungeon feature would be much more fun than playing your own creations. I enjoy the building part, but playing my own dungeons, where I already know where everything will be located and what the best route will be, isn't exactly exciting... It's just all going according to your plan.
Back to the Chamber Stones from the shop, I've purchased them one by one and noticed how I got them in a different order than the last time. This is how I've obtained them:
- Shop #1: Hardhit Beetle's Chamber with four exits
- Shop #2: Great Fairy's Chamber (Color Dungeon) with three exits
- Shop #3: Dodongo Snakes' Chamber (Turtle Rock) with two exits
- Shop #4: Cracked Floor Chamber (Turtle Rock) with three exits
- Shop #5: Flying Tile Chamber (Face Shrine) with mirrored exits
- Shop #6: Hot Head's Chamber with three exits
- Shop #7: Blaino's Chamber with the entrance to the right
And this was the order from my Normal Mode playthrough:
- Shop #1: Hardhit Beetle's Chamber with four exits
- Shop #2: Flying Tile Chamber (Face Shrine) with mirrored exits
- Shop #3: Great Fairy's Chamber (Color Dungeon) with three exits
- Shop #4: Cracked Floor Chamber (Turtle Rock) with three exits
- Shop #5: Dodongo Snakes' Chamber (Turtle Rock) with two exits
- Shop #6: Blaino's Chamber with the entrance to the right
- Shop #7: Hot Head's Chamber with three exits
Huh... It's still the same seven chambers, so you're not mixing this with the chambers you get from Dampé or other Chamber Stones. It's just that I got them in a different order this time. But I was also getting them all at the end of the game now, while previously I kept buying them once they became available.
But with all Chamber Stones in my possession before clearing all challenges I allowed myself to cheese the last one:
And here I thought my minimal Turtle Rock run was impressive...
The idea came from bcornelia on GameFAQs and I wanted to try this for myself. My result isn't as clean, but it still worked. I even got way over 600 Rupees for clearing this challenge thanks to the +Rupees effect in the first chamber.
And this is what you get, when you make too many chambers without chests or locked doors, Grezzo! Come on... Especially locked doors are way too rare for some reason. If some of those chambers had locked doors or chests, this wouldn't have been possible, at least not in such a ridiculous way.
Well, at least I turned the "Skull Arrangement" challenge into another boss rush as the real final challenge. I even was able to fit absolutely all boss and mini-boss chambers in there with the exception of the mirrored Gohma chamber, because there are like six mini-bosses with the exact same layout (exits down and left). But since you already have one of those, this isn't a big loss. And there probably even is a way to fit them all together...
Anyway, the only thing left to do here now would be building my own challenges and trying to score a good time. For that you want to use the Red Mail, however. At first I wasn't sure, whether the Red Mail and the Koholint Sword would stack. It didn't seem like they did, similar to the Guardian Acorn and the Blue Mail. And it's certainly not quadrupling the damage any longer, but it does increase it slightly. I've noticed this mainly with some of the bosses. In case of Blaino I only need three hits when I combine the Koholint Sword with the Red Mail. Without the Red Mail it takes four. I can also defeat the Gohmas and the Slime Eel in one cycle, when I have the Red Mail equipped, but I'm usually one or two hits short without...
So, the Red Mail will help to beat Chamber Dungeon records, but you will also have to live with the double damage in Hero Mode then...
Oh, and the "+Hearts Effect" really does work in Hero Mode. It's one of the few ways of finding hearts in this mode.
And we're done. This was the last entry into my "Dream Diary", where I'm really happy with the whole journey. Yes, I have been nitpicking quite a lot, but this only shows how close to perfect this game really is. And hopefully Nintendo will release an update to improve some of the issues. But overall this remake really is a dream and I'm sure that I will be replaying this version of the game many times over.
Final Hero Status:
- Secret Seashells: 50
- Pieces of Heart: 32
- Chambers: 193
- Chamber Stones: 14
- Challenges Cleared: 24
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