You know who get a bad rap? First, they get immediately dismissed as evil by ideologues, just because they killed humans for sacrifice and also cut off the heads of human sacrifices and also they played basketball with the cut off heads of the human sacrifices. If it weren’t for the Mayans, we wouldn’t even have basketball, or the number zero. Then, everyone thinks they tried to cause the end of the world or something.
Do you know what the Mayans did do? They inspired the game, a match-3 puzzler! Match colored symbols to get points and have a great time doing it. Laugh like nobody’s watching, eat like nobody’s hungry, and read this walkthrough of Jewel Quest for a breakdown of the gameplay, descriptions of a few items, a walkthrough of a typical level, and some fun Mayan tips and tricks! Contents.GameplayMayan Tip #1: Don’t get any blue paint on you! The Mayans would frequently cover sacrifice victims with blue paint before committing the act.
Just stay away from blue paint and you’ll be fine.GameplayJewel Quest is a puzzle game where the goal is to swap objects on a board to match 3 or more of the same object. Objects can only be swapped if they result in a match; otherwise, the move is illegal. Getting a successful match will cause the pieces to disappear from the game board, with more pieces falling from the top of the board to take their place. Getting matches will also reward points, with more points given for higher matches of objects. Additionally, falling gems after a successful match will occasionally cause extra matches, which will grant bonus points.In order to complete a level, matches must be made on every tile on the game board. Every time a match is made, the tiles on the game board the matches were made on change color to gold.
Once the entire board is gold, the round is over. Waiting to finish the level and spending more time getting matches on spots already colored is a valid strategy, but there is also a timer counting down for each level, requiring you to be mindful of how much time is left. Once the level is over, all your points are tallied up and you will receive a score.Mayan Tip #2: The Mayans used three different calendars to denote time. Recently, one of the Mayan calendars reset at the end of 2012. This calendar predates the time the Mayan Empire was founded, which has led many anthropologists to believe they may have been inspired by a previous civilization’s calendar system, if not stolen outright. ItemsEmerald: A very rare jewel with a greenish hue, this gem is commonly found on the game board and is a popular material for decorative jewelry. Along with changing the color of the board, making matches of three or more will result in points being given.Ruby: This square-shaped gem has a dark, blood-red hue, and is very mysterious.
The air of mystery and subtle sanguine color has led to this being a very popular jewel facet, and making matches with three or more will give points, as well as changing the color of the board.Diamond: Commonly found in Africa, this transparent gem has been found all over South America as well. It is renowned for its hardness, and has many practical applications in the construction of tools such as table saws or jackhammers.
However, it is also a very popular facet for jewelry (rings especially), and will grant points as well as change the color of the game board when matches are made of at least three.Shrunken Head: These heads most likely belonged to prisoners of war or slaves. They were painted blue and sacrificed on an altar overlooking the entire village.
While often times the Mayans used disembodied heads as balls in their proto-basketball game, these heads have been shrunken with chemicals and fitted with gems in the eye sockets. Perhaps this was meant as a ward for evil, or maybe it was a particularly perverse piece of jewelry; whatever the case, matching three or more shrunken heads on the game board will give points and change the color of the board tiles. Gold Coin: These coins are made from gold that has been melted down and filled into molds so they can take the form of circular coins.
Elliot Quest was born as a Kickstarter project that promised to recover the essence of the classic Zelda II: The Adventure of Link for NES. Those who remember that Zelda we do with great affection, despite being a title as loved as hated in equal parts, largely because of its radical change from the first game and to offer one of the most challenging titles of the time.
Commonly used as currency when bartering with neighboring tribes and civilizations, these coins are adorned with the visage of the mighty Quetzalcoatl, or the Mayan god of death. Matching these, similar to matching the other precious metals on the board, will result in the changing of the board’s color and the administering of points to you, the player. However, this can only be done if the match is of at least three diamonds.Mayan Tip #3: Mayan royalty underwent primitive cosmetic surgery at a very young age. Babies’ foreheads would be flattened and the nose would be pronounced so it would more closely resemble a beak. That’s pretty messed up! Jewel Quest Gameplay WalkthroughHere is a detailed walkthrough on how to complete a typical level of Jewel Quest. To start, swap an Emerald with the Ruby above it to create a match of three Emeralds, clearing some space and coloring part of the lower-left of the game board with gold.
Then, right next to where you made the previous match is a Gold Coin that can be swapped with another Ruby to create two matches of three, removing a total of five gems and coloring an additional two tiles of the game board.Continuing down the lower-right side, swap an Emerald with a Ruby to create a match of three Rubies. At this point, the falling pieces will allow you to make some additional matches with Gold Coins and a few Diamonds.
After five or so more matches, the entire bottom-right of the game board should be colored gold. Fortunately for you, some of the matches made on the bottom have resulted in subsequent matches being made on the top of the board from falling pieces.Seeing as some progress has already been made on the top-right of the game board, focus on that section for the time being. After making a match of Diamonds on the bottom, a match of four Gold Coins can be made on the top, resulting in four more spaces on the board being gilded and a subsequent cascade match from falling gems. Immediately after, swap the Diamond in the very top-right of the game board with the Emerald next to it and you will form another match of three diamonds, coloring two more spots on the board. With a few more matches involving Rubies and Shrunken Heads, the entire right side of the board should be covered.Now for the left side of the board. Fortunately, some of the work you’ve done on the bottom earlier has colored a good portion of the bottom-left, so the majority of the work needs to be done on the top-left.
In this case, the recommended plan is to make as many matches as possible on top first, and then making matches on the bottom to get some fresh gems to work with on top. This way, if one section gets tapped out, there’s another portion of the board to make matches on.When you’ve got to the point where only two or three more tiles are needed to change into gold to beat the level, take stock of how much time you have left: Any more than half, and you should try and get matches in the areas you’ve already covered in order to bolster your score. If you have less than half of your allotted time remaining, you should probably stick to making matches on that side of the board in order to set up the match needed to clear it. If all goes well, you should have completed your first round of Jewel Quest with a healthy amount of points and some time to spare. Hopefully at this point in your journey you should have realized that the Mayans, for all their faults, were actually not that bad. They had quite a lot going for them, and are even still popular today in some parts of South Africa, with indigenous peoples practicing ancient Mayan traditions.
No human sacrifices anymore, though: they just use chickens! With the help of this guide, you now know the different valuable gems that can be swapped to make points, and you should know the basics of a standard level. You’ve completed our Walkthrough!For more great tips and tricks,!The Jewel Quest walkthrough is meant as a guide and does not contain any cheats, codes, or serials.
About This GameElliot can’t die—but he’s still running out of time. In Elliot Quest, the victim of a rare curse must find a cure before he’s transformed into a demon.After Elliot’s wife disappears, he falls sick and attempts to take his own life-only to discovers that he can’t die. Plagued by nightmares and growing weaker by the day, Elliot seeks out a local Sage, who tells him that he’s the victim of a rare curse. A demon called a Satar is slowly consuming Elliot’s vitality.If Elliot can’t find a cure to the curse before it’s too late, he will become a Satar. His only hope is to ask for the help of one of the island’s Guardians, who have kept the Satar from taking over Urele. Elliot can’t die—but he’s still running out of time.Gameplay:Elliot Quest is an adventure/RPG where players explore the mysterious Urele island in search of an ancient demon. With 5 dungeons to conquer, 16 bosses to defeat, and countless treasures to discover and hidden areas.
Well-balanced gameplay easy to pick up but challenging to master.Elliot Quest features:.An expansive island to explore with over 16 unique bosses.Customize your character with an engaging Level Up System.Chain attacks to make enemies drop more items.Experiment with different magic attacks to defeat Elliot’s enemies.Solve puzzles to find hidden crystals and access secret areas.Hunt powerful monsters to find powerful weapons.3 unique endings based on your decisions.Well-balanced gameplay that’s easy to pick up but challenging to master. As an obvious homage to Zelda 2 for the NES, Elliot Quest largely succeeds, but a handful of serious flaws hamper what would otherwise be an easy recommendation.
As such, I'd only recommend it to players who like the style of game enough to enjoy a budget version that falls short of its potential.Awkward and frustrating mechanics really cut down on the fun in leveling up and exploring. The low level cap prevents you from maxing your abilities. Experience loss on death punishes you for falling down some pits while others contain secrets.
Several abilities only have a small chance to activate, meaning you will often die from something that you easily could have beaten if only your abilities had worked.Exploration also feels extremely limited and unrewarding. In contrast with other games of this style, Elliot Quest has you constantly running into walls instead of finding new areas to explore. Often you'll finally get past one barrier only to find another on the other side. Your eventual reward is then too little too late: mere coins or exp for finally getting through the area you've revisited three times.Elliot Quest is not a bad game, but it suffers from numerous rough edges that take quite a lot away from the parts that are supposed to be fun. Elliot Quest is an exploration based platformer that borrows heavily from the platforming classics of yesteryear such as Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, Kid Icarus, Metroid and Wonder Boy in Monster World. You play as Elliot, a young man with a troubled past, afflicted by a powerful curse.
The story here is secondary and is conveyed through short, vague cutscenes and occassional flashes of internal dialogue. It has yet to draw me in and is so far nothing more than a simple backdrop for the game itself.Mechanically the game is very impressive and satisfying.
You start with the simple ability to shoot and jump. Jumping is floaty and allows for change in trajectory mid jump which enables tricky platforming sections and the ability to fight in mid air. The arrows Elliot fires travel along a set arc rather than directly ahead allowing you to kill grounded enemies from above and calculate your aim. Killing enemies in succession fills a 'chain' meter in the bottom left of the screen which seems to increase your overall damage, of course it could be doing anything which leads me neatly to my next point.Elliot Quest in true old-school style presents incredibly little in the way of tutorial, granted there's not a lot you can do at the start, but simple keybinding would have been sufficient. This becomes a greater problem later down the line however as new items and upgrades don't even come with a line of text explaining what they do or to what extent.
Additionally, the game contains no options whatsoever beyond adjusting audio levels. No remappable keys, no screen-size options, nothing. The game opens in a window by default which can be maximized but cannot enter fullscreen and while controller support exists it does not seem to allow control with the analogue sticks, these are, however, only minor criticisms.The game employs an overworld map with sidescrolling levels and enemy encounters (think Gargoyle's Quest on the gameboy).The metroidvanian influence becomes clear during the first level as I was soon presented with inaccessible secrets and shortcuts I would have to come back to later with enhanced abilities. Those who care to explore will be rewarded with many 'secret walls' and rooms containing treasure, all optional and all hidden.
There are a number of collectibles to find including rare treasures which are housed in Elliot's trophy room and 11 crystals - I have no idea what either might do, but I want them all.The first dungeon boss bestowed upon me the power of the wind which can be used not only as a means of traversing new areas, but for combat aswell, allowing me to travel through enemies and stun them while still being able to fire arrows from within my mighty typhoon. Pretty much all spells and items thus far have had different uses in and out of combat making the upgrades you receive feel more meaningful as opposed to simply being a tool to beat the dungeon it was found in. The inspiration from the Zelda series is undeniable here from the dungeons, to the items,even the aesthetic.
And as expected, before long, I found ERROR sitting happily in one of the village houses.Graphically, the game creates a pleasing, simplistic pixel world with vibrant colours and a charming style. Nothing fancy here, and I wouldn't ask for any more. The soundtrack by Michael Chait is well constructed with suitably archetypal tracks that scream 'dungeon, or 'town' or 'forest' (which if I didn't know any better was a straight rip from A Link to the Past's lost woods theme). Some of the compositions are very enjoyable to listen to and knowingly harken back to the 8-bit classics the game so heavily resembles.Mild rpg features such as exp and skill trees grant a sense of purpose to the never ending slaughter in which you will partake. Enemies respawn every time you exit and re-enter an area and many cannot be comfortaby avoided. The fact that even when revisiting an area for the umpteenth time and having to kill the same enemioes over and over, im still benefitting myself reduces much of the drudgery of backtracking.
Additionally the passive abilities granted by the multiple skill trees can assist somewhat in combat and help to vary gameplay styles a little potentially aiding replayability. By the time the second town is reached the gold gained from backtracking and grinding can be put to good use for more meaningful equipment upgrades, Elliot keeps getting stronger and the pace never slows.Overall Elliot Quest is a fun, suitably challenging (the difficulty seemed to leap up after the first dungeon, compounded by the fact that health is scarce) adventure-platformer that should appeal greatly to sidescroller, Zelda and metroidvania fans. It's a little rough around the edges but the gameplay shines through. There's a meaty amount of content on offer here, rife with secrets, shortcuts and easter eggs.
There are a few frustrations such as sometimes cheap insta-deaths (which can be a real pain late on in the game as dying results in loss of XP), and I got painfully lost on more than one occasion, but those looking for a challenge should feel right at home with Elliot Quest's old-school style of action platforming.=EDIT=Developer Ansimuz has continued to patch and update the game. Fullscreen option can now be toggled from the ingame pause menu. Game fixes and enhanced pixel resolution have also been added.Pros:+Nice overall difficulty+Exploration is fun and rewarding+Classic dungeon delving meets metroidvanian upgrade syatem+Clean pixel graphics+No hand-holdingCons:-No hand-holding-Backtracking can become a tedious memory game-Some music tracks border on plagiarism (overall nice)-Lack of polishScore: 8.5/10.
Elliot Quest is a side scrolling 2D action adventure with a low fidelity art style that adds a lot to enhance an already great game. There's a good blend of action, puzzle solving, exploring and traversal. A lot of what the game does, others have done before it with a few exceptions such as a whirlwind attack that pulls in enemies and items that also lets you cross large gaps or cut through green vines.You play as a boy named Elliot on his way to rescue Cara. Its a typical plot for a typical game. Every so often text will appear telling you about Cara or what she means to Elliot, but beyond that the story and plot are an afterthought.The time was spent in making little traversal puzzles that feel engaging. Defeating a snail and using its shell to get to a higher place. Throwing the body of a stone spitting octopus into purple goo to travel across.
Rolling a giant bomb off a cliff are just a few ways the game turns the typical into engaging.Your primary weapon is a bow with short range arrows. Gravity affects your arrows and it turns the game into one of skill and finesse. There's a nuance to timing, gravity and enemy location that more games should have. Shooting off a cliff to have gravity take your arrow down onto an enemy is satisfying. At some point you can unlock a charge shot that launches the arrow straight forward with no drop off. This charge shot results in a critical hit every time rather than a small fraction of the time.Along the way you get a number of different items, skills and abilities. You gain a shield that you can use to block projectiles if you are standing still, a double jump feather, a shovel for digging, a lantern so you can see in caves and light other lanterns, a limited supply of bombs and much more.
The only catch to the bombs is that they have to be purchased or found in a specific spot. So if you run out, you'll be headed back into a dungeon to replenish your supply.
Defeated enemies will drop hearts or magic pellets to restore health and mana.While the game is a 2D side scroller for the most part, there is an overworld map with several locations some are hidden and you need to touch them before a bubble comes up indicating you can enter. There are a few towns, labyrinths and out of the way places to explore. In the labyrinths these are so big that you'll get a map indicating which room you're in. Its nice to have, because there's a lot you can miss and a lot that you'll need to come back for once you've got specific abilities. You'll have to scour a lot of places several times over.There are a couple of enemies on the overworld that you can run into. These enemies send you to one of a few random side scrolling battle zones. These zones are well thought out and can be little mazes by themselves.
One has an old key for a house door, another has a bag. It adds exploration and intrigue to what could have been mundane.There are often labyrinths on your way to labyrinths; the second of which is the one with the boss fight. The boss labyrinths have keys and giant keys needed to unlock boss doors. Guardians can be found in select locations across both types of labyrinths.While you're scouring dungeons, you can come across heart containers that increase the maximum amount of your health and green elixirs to increase your maximum mana. Its a mechanic used it plenty of other adventure games, even action games and it helps give a sense that you're getting better. There are plenty of other things taken from its inspiration, but there's always a twist to them in order to make them feel fresh.
Stone shooting octopi are only vulnerable when they're shooting at you. Slime will split into other slime.Make sure to push up against every wall, because there are frequent hidden areas that become visible only when you've found them. These are nothing mandatory, but they do contain plenty of chests with gold inside and collectible crystals. The gold itself feels near useless.
There are only a couple of things worth purchasing in the entire game. Other than necessities, there are a few consumable items like red potions for health, green potions for mana and a feather to return you to the last save point. You can only carry two consumables at a time and often, I'd just forget that I have them.As you defeat enemies, you'll earn experience and once you get enough of it, you will level up and earn a skill point. With these points you can assign them to one of five stats: strength, wisdom, agility, vitality and accuracy for an improved chance of critical hits. Each stat can have a level of five with each level unlocking new or improved abilities.
Strength is to shoot arrows farther, but at the third level, you can unlock a charge shot. Wisdom says magic orbs might give double the mana, and at the second level, your mana regenerates, level four spells do more damage and at five spells cost half. Agility improves your shooting rate, level four lets you run faster and level five lets you evade projectiles. Vitality says hearts may give double health, the second level takes half damage 15% of the time, at the fourth health regenerates and the fifth lets you take half damage 30% of the time.With all the great stuff that's here, the only real issue I have with the game is that it can be cryptic. The townsfolk are no help. Some things are self explanatory, but others such as catching a draft as a whirlwind to launch yourself up took me a few hours to understand that's what I needed to do.
I was stuck looking and searching through every secret room looking for a double jump.There's often too much locked away from you at once. Since the game is open world, you can enter fifteen different areas, but only get so far in them before you need to head back. If you're stumped, taking a look back through each labyrinth for something you've missed just takes too long. Is that a bad problem to have though?
At least the leveling up and experience mechanic meant that every time I explored the same area, I was still being rewarded.The only other downside that I can think of is there are no achievements or Steam overlay. Instead there's great music and a charming art style. I'll take the latter over the former.Elliot Quest is a wonderful game that scratches every itch for intelligent gameplay. Its well worth the price of admission, even if its been done in other games, Elliot Quest does it on par with its forefathers and surpasses them. Imagine playing Zelda 2, but instead of Link you play as Kid Icarus, and collect Metroid style power-ups. Thats is Elliot Quest in a nut shell. This game far surpassed my expectations in terms of how big it is, and how well designed it was as a Metroidvania.
Tons of secrets, optional bosses, and upgrades to find. The game also has a leveling system that allows you to allocate points into various stats that yield various passive bonuses, although the max level isn't high enough to let you get everything, so decisions need to be made carefully. Clearing the game and all of its final bosses took me about 20 hours, which is really good for a metroidvania, so good value for your money here.As far as negatives go, the in-game options are pretty weak. There is no way to remap your controls, and the default ones are a little weird using SPACE to jump and D to shoot. It's not enough to ruin the game or anything, but why wouldn't pick 2 buttons next to each other.
Also there is no explanation for many of the items you find telling you what they are and what they do. Not a super big deal as many of them are obvious, but some of them have pretty obscure uses that may not be obvious at first, like using ice to freeze wooden boxes? Would have liked to see steam achievements as well.All of the positives far outweigh the negatives though. The game is everything you could want in a metroidvania, and I would definitely recommend it to anyone who likes these types of game or any Zelda 2 fan. Cons:My biggest problem with this game is that there is literally no aid whatsoever as to what anything you find does.
You get an item, what does it do, who knows. You get key item with a message 'you got key item X better store this at home', what is this item and where is home who knows.
There is no descriptionflavour text for any item or spell. Hell the game doesn't even tell you what the controls are. Is this fun, not for me it isn't and I'm from the NES era where I grew up playing a ton of jrpgs.My second issue is with the experience loss upon death, why is this here anyway.
I really wish this MMO mechanic was not implemented as it makes makes levelling up a chore and a grind when you die as you lose huge chunks of XP.Another issue I have is the 'pay off' for finding chests. I really dislike that money is all you get from chests, normal chests give you small amount of money, blue chests require a blue key and gives you more money. To me this was extremely unfulfilling as there's nothing really to buy besides a few upgrades and potions.
Elliot Quest is essentially the second Zelda game, on the NES.It feels old, and it's intended. While it does have some more modern features (the checkpoints, for instance), it doesn't really try to do much beyond being a Zelda tribute, and a really hard one at that!I'll admit that I didn't finish the game, entirely.
I beat the main story, but I gave up on the last 'end-game' Boss, out of frustration. The pay-off wasn't very alluring either.The problem isn't the Boss itself, but all of the little problems around the game that make big fights a problem.I won't go into details about most of it, so don't consider a review.
These are just some of my thoughts about the game, and one aspect that might make the game worth it, for you.If you're looking for that old-school, very hard experience, go for it! Including some of the very cryptic puzzles, and being lost and disorientated for hours.The game is somewhat like a metroidvania.
You have an overworld separated into areas. Each area, then, is separated into other areas, these being gated by several of the items you will acquire on the adventure.
It gets very confusing, because you'll see many 'gates' throughout the areas, and when you get the item, you have no idea where the gate was. There are also many gates for little upgrades, to make matters even more confusing.Nothing too unusual for NES-like games.Anyway, my problem was mostly the checkpoint system: it doesn't restore your HP fully. Nor your mana. Only half of it. So, if you die in a boss, you'll be handicapped. The only way of getting HP/Mana then is either to kill enemies, or go into a town to buy potions/rest.
You can imagine how incredibly frustrating this is. It's a waste of several minutes each time you die, if you want a decent shot at the later bosses!Not to mention you can only carry 2 potions at any time, and these are not replenishable at checkpoints. So yes, it's a far too punishing checkpoint system for me to bother with that one Boss fight.
I endured through all the others, but after 5 bosses, the 6th one was too much. Death from a thousand cuts, I guess.So, rant is over. So far, you have my reasons for not enjoying it (well, the ultimate reasons, although there were several little reasons throughout - old design. I don't like it, but I expected it from this game, so no hard feelings!)The thing that surprised me - and the reason for me being writting about the game, right now - was the end-game. Things you can do after you beat the story.
Technically, you should do it before, but it's much harder than the final boss, so you might as well.Anyway, you can collect these little crystals that are very well hidden. Either hidden, or behind a very cryptic puzzle, and mostly isolated (as in, the game doesn't prepare you for those types of puzzles). It's supposed to be hard, and the ultimate challenge.What I loved about it, was how 'grand' it felt, in a way. I was simply exploring, after collecting some crystals, and saw a door that required crystals to enter (there are many). I entered a completely different area, and discovered even higher upgrades than the ones you encounter through the normal story. I was pumped.It reminds me of the Legendary aspect of Pokemon, where you go into these secluded areas and find ancient monsters to either capture or simply beat.Plus hidden stores, etc.I wasn't expecting that at all and it seems like something games don't really do much, anymore. PC games, anyway.
The whole end-game seems rather lost. The story guides you through all of the upgrades, and after you beat a game, there's isn't anything 'bigger' beyond it.So yeah, sorry for ruining the surprise! Regardless, if this seems something you enjoy, get the game - but know what you're getting into. Elliot Quest is a great neoretro game.
It's got beautiful big-pixeled graphics with a soothing earth tone palette. The music is very nice.
The gameplay follows the framework of its primary inspiration, the unfairly snubbed Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, while outdoing it in nearly every way: better challenge balance, ten times the enemy diversity, a more sensible level-up system, the list could go on. The most impressive thing is that though Elliot Quest is astoundingly organic (no copy-paste), the game is very long, with tons of hidden content to uncover (extra bosses, secret items, etc.)So taken was I with Elliot Quest that I was on the verge of calling it the next Cave Story - that is, until I reached the tired, brief, depressing ending. It made me very sad, because it undercut the rest of the game so much! And I even got the 'good' ending (apparently, it gets worse)!
As fun as the ride was, I will probably never play this again because of the hateful and hackneyed finale. Perhaps, but I believe that an epic fantasy quest calls for an appropriately epic conclusion, and anything less is unacceptable (a SHMUP or an arcade brawler shouldn't have to worry much about this, obviously, though it should still not end in a needlessly depressing manner).Dumb ending aside, you should get this lovingly handcrafted game when it is on sale; it fills the Adventure of Link niche like no other modern game I've played and we need more like it. I want to like this game, but I can't. It has nothing to do with the presentation or story, but with how horribly broken it is. Maybe this only affects the linux version, but the controls consist of spacebar, directional keys and D, with no way at all to change it. This is simply not a control scheme that works. Controller support is also almost entirely lacking, with only a handful of keys mapped to my logitech pad, not including movement, and again, no configuration at all.
There isn't even a way to display it fullscreen. Sorry, but this gets a thumbs down from me until it gets fixed.