The Dink Network

Honor Quest (The)

Description
Dink asks Martridge's help in a matter of honor: Dink spent the night with a girl, and finds that she's pregnant. You play the "honorable" Martridge, trying to find a husband for her, so our beloved hero won't be dishonored.
Released:September 26th, 2006
File Size:1.94 MB
Downloads:269
Release Notes:v1.00
Play:Play this D-Mod right now in your web browser! (More Info)
 
November 18th, 2013
v1.00
Score : 7.0 good
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Peasant They/Them Australia
LOOK UPON MY DEFORMED FACE! 
I recently went back and replayed "The Honor Quest" after I initially gave up many years ago because it was all too hard. I then remembered why I resigned in the first place, it just isn't very good for a number of reasons.

First of all the map is rather horrible. Tiles are strewn around without much thought and half the screens are empty. There is a big road on the edge of town that doesn't go anywhere and the village consists of only a few houses despite the size of the cemetery which means it doesn't really make any sense. Some burned houses and other assorted rubble would make sense and would make it look a lot more coherent-looking. The best parts of the map end up being the ones copied from the original game.

There are various implementations that I simply don't like such as the mana system. I can appreciate the time and effort put into it, but it has numerous problems. The only way to recharge your mana is by purchasing potions from the store. This does not provide the player with an incentive to use magic to kill enemies as they're going to have to buy magic power in order to continue fighting. The player is effectively "paying to play" which is laborious and will cause many folks to quit. This means that the player also has to pay to heal (using the spell) which punishes the player for playing. It would be very simple to have the monsters drop mana refills in order to solve this.

The next issue is that there's no proper separation between the real world and the "game world". Breaking the 4th wall rarely works out well, and this case is no exception. The grave stones and the library shelves give you hints regarding gameplay, and the posters tell you about how "Rabidwolf9 invented a spell" but this is confusing and nonsensical as it doesn't relate to the game world in any way. Merlin's new magic style "DinkC" is also quite jarring and annoying as it distracts from the world presented to the player. A lot of it should have just been in the readme or in the dialogue of the non-player characters.

Finally, there's often no hint as to what to do next, or where to go. I'm basically expected to read the developer's mind to know what to do. There are incredibly arbitrary blocks placed upon things I am not supposed to access yet, with no explanation provided as to why. Martridge is able to magically open the door to the tower at the end, but supposedly wasn't able to beforehand. Likewise, I can't get the poison magic at the start because "I can't dig here for some reason". The NPCs are almost useless in helping you which makes most of what you're doing feel like a crappy chore. The endings I managed to discover were unrewarding with many unresolved plot holes and didn't provide a sense of closure.

However it seems like the contest this mod was part of was mostly to blame, as the others in the contest seem to suffer from similar problems. Overall I think the "failure" contest was a bad idea as it encouraged bad design decisions that don't produce a good experience. There are lots of things done well such as the dance sequence, the duck-catching, and the math puzzle (I can't understand how the other ones work). The initial plot is quite interesting and the music is mostly well-selected. It's just a shame it never got a patch to fix some of the most glaring problems.
TopicPostsPosterLast Post
5th spell4anonOctober 25th 2011, 03:08 AM
Help with killing Merlin3cherubMay 20th 2011, 11:46 AM
iceorb spell 11dinkerMay 19th 2011, 04:34 AM
Sliding Tile Puzzle Solution25redink1May 19th 2011, 12:33 AM
Crystal2GodleyJune 29th 2009, 02:46 PM
Where'd the friggin duck go?6neomioJune 17th 2009, 01:58 AM
Empty room with numbers1marsmaenncheMarch 29th 2009, 04:18 PM
Honor Quest - Where's the dang key?3Yuko6754March 17th 2009, 03:07 PM
Stuck w/key4AceMarch 8th 2009, 05:01 PM
How do you solve the numbers puzzle?5arossowJanuary 24th 2009, 03:06 PM
stuck on number stone puzzle1arossowNovember 16th 2008, 05:21 AM
Basement?8YT678July 1st 2008, 04:05 PM
How to save Beth's father first?1dinknroundMay 31st 2008, 06:42 AM
stuck12DreamwizardFebruary 3rd 2008, 04:36 PM
i realy need help 32lo2lo2a82January 29th 2008, 07:56 PM
stuck,library2dinkfan2October 8th 2007, 10:02 AM
The honor Quets1jarkaJune 22nd 2007, 02:25 AM
numbers2LaneMay 10th 2007, 02:33 PM