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I thoroughly enjoyed this, start to finish. You definitely need to pause and think to figure out what to do several times, but no puzzles felt too difficult. They were quite creative, especially with the blue and orange orbs. I loved the progression. Heart Pieces are pretty easy to find if you do even a little bit of exploring. Dungeons are creative and you can't really snooze your way through them. I understood the lack of dungeon maps, from what I understand the dungeon maps in this game are very difficult to change. I did have a few issues, though.

It felt like I was expected to know the exact route to take. If you take a wrong turn in a dungeon, the backtracking had a tendency to be quite long, especially if there was a puzzle you would have to redo or a spike maze

Statue pulling puzzles didn't wear out their welcome, but ended up just being tedious. Going with the above note, I had to do one of them twice due to taking a wrong turn, and it involved going back and forth with the Hookshot quite a bit just to move the statue one square. It was an easy puzzle to solve, just tedious. The earlier ones were much better

Something the creators really relied on was illusions. Oftentimes you'd find yourself at a dead end and the solution would be to lift or use the hammer on an inanimate object with no indication that you could. Or at least any indication or hint that I found.

I would definitely recommend this to anyone looking for a challenge or even inspiration for their own hacks. There's a ton of great stuff in here.

I really liked this hack quite a lot. There were a lot of really cool things that Puzzle Dude and those guys did to make this game a lot of fun. I actually got stuck a couple of times and had to consult the youtube gods for guidance on how to proceed. Caution: spoiler alert... A good example of this is one particular dungeon you had to freeze one of the enemies near the entrance and drag their frozen carcass over to a block switch and toss the frozen victim at it in order to proceed, and another part where you have to dash jump over a chasm to a seemingly inaccessible area to open a chest containing the ether medallion. If you aren't privy to many of the little tricks that you can do in the game, then you will get hung up for sure. The only gripes I have are the fact that there are several statue puzzles throughout the game that you have to get through, and you will spend a really nice chunk of time tediously pushing through them. The absolute worst one is in the final dungeon (ice dungeon). That particular puzzle was so tedious, that I finally said "oh hell no" and resorted to using me retroarch cheat engine to hack the door open so I didn't have to complete the puzzle. One other thing that happened was where, if you miss one of the keys in the second part of the ice dungeon, you can break the game and get perma-stuck. That happened to me, and once again, I had to use the cheat engine to give myself the missed key in order to finish the game. Other than those few caveats, I would highly recommend this hack. You won't be disappointed. It is, and will forever be, one of my most favorite Zelda hacks to play from time to time.

This one is a good one. I recommend it to everyone. Its fun Its great

Even has its own custom intro very cool

This one is broken, i tried to play this but the Big Key is missing in the first dungeon, and there is no hidden switch under a fake chair.

Play v3.0 instead (if you can find it), that one is working.

I hope I can make others' time better, this game is not broken, no matter which version you use. The idea that someone purposely messed up all of the version is fake news/reviews. If you first start with 3.1, you do not need a statue, since the button is hidden under a trick chair and is a one press and the chair is lifted as a jar, which apparently no one figuered out. So this version is essentially not broken. It appears they also missed a forum-topic with numerous guide-screens on the subject.

In the first dungeon (Water Dungeon, one in which you get the boomerang) the boss fight is not glitched. It is the boss in which you hookshot to pull the things off him and kill them one by one and in this version they are not invincible, you just need to use a spin attack or icerod. The spin attack should be obvious, unless you are a flat-earther. Plus the fight is not mandatory to beat the game.

Fun situation, even more fun because this game was really great, and I was enjoying it, only to be completely let down and smeared by some flat-earther fake reviews. Do not play Parallel Worlds (you'll die - a lot) nor the useless randomizers. But this thing, YES DO PLAY (but not for flat-earthers).

I hope I can save others time, this game is broken, no matter what version you download. I am not sure if someone went in and purposely messed up all of the versions. First started with 3.1, You get to the first dungeon and cannot proceed due to a missing statue in the very first room. So I read up and found out this version is essentially broken, but 1.2.1 (I believe that was the version) worked fine. So Set it up to play this version... about 3 hours into it, in the third dungeon (Water Dungeon, one in which you get the boomerang) the boss fight is glitched. It is the boss in which you use the hookshot to pull the things off him and kill them one by one, but in this version they turn blue and are invincible. In frustration I looked it up and read in the previous review that 3.0 works fine... which is also not true. This version does the exact same thing as 1.2.1 (so another 2.5 hours wasted) and the boss in the Water Temple is also invincible. The reviewer before me stated there is some bad blood between one of the creators and moderators on this site... sad situation, even more sad because this game was really fun, and I was enjoying it, only to be left completely let down and frustrated. Save yourself the time, Try Parallel Worlds or just go play some Link to the Past randomizer... DO NOT PLAY!

Wanting to play a complete Zelda hack other than Parallel Worlds, I arrived at Goddess of Wisdom as a possibility. I patched up v3.1 and was ready to go! At first things seemed great, but quickly into the first dungeon I realized that there was no way to rescue Zelda.

Now, I knew that there were puzzles in this game, and I expected some intensity in this regard, so I tried for countless hours to solve the puzzle myself before looking online for a spoiler. What I found was that no one had ever completed v3.1. In fact, no one ever will, because one of the early chests contains the wrong contents (the gloves). The progression logic is thus broken and there is no way to continue in the game. A bunch of people advertised that they had finished v3.0, but all I found about v3.1 were a couple others in similar situations where they could not progress because they never received the needed dungeon item.

So, I combed through the internet for a long time trying to find a v3.0 patch. It took a long time - some patches said they were v3.0 but were actually v3.1, and others were broken entirely. But, in the end, I patched up a v3.0 ROM that worked and played through the game solving the puzzles that I expected to solve. I enjoyed myself a great deal, and my review in this regard will unfold much the same as those who have reviewed the game before me:

quick v3.1 review:

• broken. It is literally impossible to progress past the first dungeon.
• First dungeon is not completable because the chests inside of it give the wrong items.

quick v3.0 review:

• Great game. An immersive and complete experience.
• Requires a few known tricks like bonking across gaps.
• I like the statue pushing puzzles overall. Since a few are a bit long, I wish that the statues moved faster.
• Overall, definitely more difficult than the classic game, but managable for someone who is good at the classic game, needs a challenge, and has a particularly tenacious spirit.
• There are a couple points where a particular mechanic isn't going to be obvious - they are indicated by yellow stars on the ground to hint that you might have to do something that you don't expect to do. Even then, a couple of the necessary mechanics are really obscure, so you might find yourself stuck trying to figure out what kind of object might be able to, for instance, hit a faraway switch.
• A lot of time went into this game, and it shows. There is a lot of polish that one would not normally expect from a ROM hack.

Now, as I did not want anyone else to end up going through the same experience of having to spend so much time to figure out that v3.1 was broken, I contacted romhacking.net support. Apparently the folks at rh.net have some history with PuzzleDude and don't like him, so they don't want to roll back the latest version (that PuzzleDude apparently uploaded himself). I also contacted PuzzleDude and he apparently doesn't like anyone and he said a variety of things to me and a lot of other people that he will probably regret when he sobers up.

So I don't know what to recommend to you, the reader of this review, other than that this is a great game which you cannot play by downloading the version you see before you. On account of some apparent feud, this broken version will exist on this website forever as sort of a "last laugh" scenario, and somewhere someone will feel great that they somehow "won" an argument by preventing everyone from enjoying a game that must have taken countless hours to create.

After playing Parallel Worlds I was ready for another A Link To The Past hack to play, so I choose the grimful Goddess of Wisdom...

This hack was indeed a much for challenging rom to play after just completing Parallel Worlds, it has less backtracking to it, different overworld with new hidden secrets to find, the Dark World is much smaller compared to other Zelda roms and overall much more use for other items

One thing I really enjoyed about this rom was having to do all kinds of different puzzles to get through the dungeons or mini dungeons, the use of having to bomb jump and dash jump was a bit extreme but a great change, having no extra mails to reduce damage was not involved, only having the level 3 sword and no 1/2 extra magic to gain. not much of a story line to the game, but all you need to know is save Zelda and defeat Ganon. Only 7 crystals in the game and didn't have to collect any pendants.

Less thing I didn't like if you didn't come prepared with potions or fairy's it was very easily to die or get stuck inside a dungeon, bottomless death traps with spikes and no way of out of the room was an automatic death and would have to start the dungeon all over again.

But all in all this rom is great, very different from other Zelda games, more patience, more puzzles, and more of a challenge

8/10

I really, really wanted to not give this hack a No rating because of the metric ton of work that was put into it.

Unfortunately, there were two issues that I could not overcome while playing. Indeed, it got to be too tedious to play past the third dungeon.

• The game is crawling with strong enemies early on, and the most RNG-heavy and annoying enemies are used early as well in the dungeons.

• There is so much backtracking that it completely breaks the flow of the game. Level 3 is a good example of this. "Enter at one end of the graveyard, futz about, can't get anywhere. Slowly chop through lots of bushes and lots of red knights and find another entrance. Solve a late-game style puzzle with a block that mysteriously turns into a pot for no reason to get a key. Painstakingly chop your way back to the other entrance. Die to the enemies in two hits."

It's also possible to get yourself stuck in the room with the crystal switch and knight statue. You either have to save/reset, and hack and slash your way back, or die to the Beamos and waste any fairies you might have.

That was just one example of many. There's so much back and forth that the dungeons become chores rather than puzzles to be solved.

General Impression - 8/10

This is an excellent hack. It's certainly not the best I've played as far as hacks go but it's in the upper echelon, and a Zelda game has to be one of the toughest games out there to hack as it's not straightforward like a Mario game. This was fun, difficult but not mind numbingly so. Only one part was too difficult to be completed without savestates IMO, and that's a nice sight out of a rom hack. If you're a Zelda junkie and you've mastered ALTTP then this is a solid choice. You do not need to be a Zelda god, but I wouldn't recommend this to someone who can't easily beat ALTTP. My rating is a reflection of how I would slot this in as a Super Nintendo title. ALTTP is a 10, this game is a solid 8. Other games on the SNES I consider to be 8's are Mega Man 7, Battletoads & Double Dragon, and Kirby 3. So basically it's not a premier title for the SNES, but a very good one. This game is not perfect and it does not reach the standard of ALTTP (how could it?) but on it's own merits I'd say it has to be considered a rather quality title to pick up and play. As a side note I enjoyed and beat this game on the SNES9x emulator for the Wii. Despite the warning in the readme, it like all my hacks, seem to run every bit as well on the Wii as on the computer. I did experience some slowdown in heavily populated area's but so did the fellow on Youtube using his computer.

For a more detailed review keep reading below:

Dungeons (including mini dungeons) - 7/10 (could be an 8 with one major change, see criticisms section)

Here is where I probably have the most issues with this hack, but in saying that I'd also imagine they are the toughest things in the game to design and ironically may also be the most praiseworthy aspect of the hack. For the most part they were all fun and well designed. The difficulty curve seemed appropriate, with one exception (Master Sword dungeon). There are no map+compass in this game and this wouldn't be an issue, and usually wasn't, save for a few times I got lost in a temple looking for one door because the game expected a little too much random backtracking IMO (A map would probably fix this issue). One time later in the game I could tell the floor levels didn't seem to match up (a reason for no map?), but that's a minor gripe. The positive is the game had some fairly unique idea's that usually weren't too out there to figure out. The enemy placement was usually fair, save for the odd enemy that would spawn right outside the door. Tedious/time consuming rooms were typically made so you wouldn't have to traverse them multiple times, and I rarely got stuck or felt like the victim of a cheap death due entirely to poor layout (there were a couple exceptions, see criticism's section).

Bosses 8/10

It's tough to do too much with these fights I'm sure. They probably aren't all that easy to hack. They are pretty much the same as ALTTP but with some minor modifications to increase difficulty. Some can be annoying to figure out, like hurting the eyeball/cloud boss from the original water temple with the spin attack, but for the most part they were well done. The authors did a decent job making them more difficult without them getting too silly. Mostly the bosses were the same but with some spikes on the floor. Not a bad way to make it tougher, but kind of meh too. Nothing special but nothing broken either, but like I said something special may not really be all that feasible, so I was happy with this part of the hack.

Overworld 7.5/10

Only minor things set this back. The map in some places lacks the connectivity that the original game had once you got all the upgrades, some places just felt too segregated from the rest of the map IMO. Usually they all begin to connect as other upgrades are acquired. Sometimes there's some seemingly pointless stuff strewn about. It seems like a stupid complaint, and it kind of is, but that tree in Kakariko town beside the pond is the worst, it closes off the one section and was just a general pain in the ass making me go around. There were a few other examples of this where the game's areas were overly boxed in IMO. Also what's up with the area blocked by the small dark stone. As far as I could tell, you can't get the best gauntlets so this and other areas like it are just giant teases the whole time. lol. There's very little dark world implementation, and it doesn't hurt the hack but it does make me feel like there's a whole lot more potential in the overworld for exploration. More that could have been. It serves it's purpose well though and it's a job well done for the most part.

Side Quests 6/10

Some of the heart pieces are laughably easy early on, but some are really well hidden. All the side quests for items seemed rather obvious to find with just a bit of exploring, and I never found myself stuck looking for something to do next so I could continue the game. My biggest issue is that there's a lot less to do here than in the original game. The silent chest opening guy is in the game but I never figured out what he did. There's no great fairy upgrades. There is no sword temper quest as far as I could tell. Some of the bottles are not hidden in the most imaginative ways (as a kid that bottle under the bridge blew my mind, nothing in this hack is like that). There was a lot less caves to find, but instead the caverns were often very memorable or large and home to some really quality puzzles. So I'd say they are well done the quests, even if they've been significantly paired down from ALTTP.

Item Utilization 7.5/10

The authors of this hack came up with some creative ways to use items even if they didn't always use every item to it's full capabilities in the dungeons, for example the Red Cane had a fairly different and extensive use in this hack despite not being used to summon a platform. The cape filled an important role early on and I thought that was cool. The mirror was just an exit item and you get it at the very end. A few times you will have to use items in unexpected ways, and there's a good chance you will experience some frustration from this in the game, but only once or twice after figuring out what to do did I feel that my frustration should have been with more than myself. For the most part this is a major positive for this hack. The puzzles in the game are interesting and allows many items to be utilized in an effective manner. From what I can tell, the game is missing some key items: Armor upgrades, best gauntlets, Best shield, shovel (I've always wished I could keep it). A well done aspect of the hack.

Difficulty Curve 8.5/10

The beginning is a little bit of a pain in the ass with the limited health. Thankfully the game doesn't have ridiculously strong enemies early on like the Parallel games. It also gets progressively harder and in both combat and puzzles. The overworld is never an overly strenuous task to traverse. The only blemish, and honestly it's a pretty big one, is the final part of the master sword dungeon (which I will expand upon later).

Graphics - 8/10

A very nice looking hack, it has a custom title menu, Link has his own style, Hyrule's foliage got a makeover, and a couple other little things here and there. Not a lot separates it from the original but enough is different that it retains it's own style, and considering how good the original looks I'd argue this is a great approach. Personally, I think this isn't a terribly important category but it does stand out enough for me to give it a solid score. To get more they'd have to go above and beyond, and honestly that seems like a waste of time. The graphics did get a little glitchy when I fell down a hole in the dungeon with the red cane, but it was fixed by me leaving the dungeon and coming back. A guy doing a playthrough on Youtube had the same thing happen, http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=ijyLRGAp8yM&t=12m52s, so it didn't seem like an isolated incident. This only happened once, and was so minor I could have finished the temple with the problem had I chose too. So no biggie.

Story/Dialogue - 7.5/10

Clearly the story is not the main focus of this hack, and neither are the NPCs. However despite the story being very light in content it manages to serve it's purpose very well. It also doesn't suffer from bad spelling/grammar, a trait often found in rom hacks. On a positive note some of the dialogue from the maidens has it's moments and can be fairly enlightening as what to do next.

Standout Criticisms

I really enjoyed this game and felt that after enjoying all the time the authors put into it I ought to contribute and show thanks by giving them some feedback. The review above is more for those interested in trying the game, however there are still a few minor level design issues I would like to point out more for the authors, although prospective players may still want to read this. Here are my biggest gripes with this hack:

1. Getting the master sword, after getting the four keys and going to the main area, you are tasked with doing a near impossible room. You need to use the wall bounce and hook shot to traverse the room ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=wiEUyCh2BdM ), however, the limited space and two shooting mouths make it damn near impossible. I very highly doubt anybody can accomplish that room without save states. It is good design that once you complete it you won't have to deal with it again, and thankfully this type of puzzle isn't common later on. It could be a really great room but something needs to change. Either remove a laser, split it into two (so there's a checkpoint), make the platforms bigger, or shorten it. Because I tell you that one room almost breaks a great game. With exception to this one room I'd argue this game was very doable without save states, very hard at moments yes, but doable. A truly great rom hack shouldn't need save states, this is too close to that standard to have a room like that IMO. This is a good enough hack that it ought to be accessible to everyone. Even if someone were to use Puzzledude's new difficulty hack it would still be a terribly unfair room.

2. [SPOILER] The first room where you need to use the medallion then ice rod to throw the enemy at the switch ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bQw_2r3oFbg&t=4m47s ). Very difficult to think of on your own IMO, a hint tile would be a great addition (like the one telling you to find the real block switch on Death Mountain) or perhaps a hint maybe even earlier in the game from a NPC. It was frustrating trying to think of that as a solution, I was stuck for a long time. A potentially great puzzle but not cut and dry enough to be fair or fun IMO. Who would think to first transform the enemy (medallions aren't all that useful for the most part IMO), and then freeze him because you can throw him further than a bomb. Not many. Two obscure items being utilized for obscure uses, I'd argue a hint (not a giveaway) is necessary. [Spoiler Over]

3. Length of statue puzzle's. I'm torn because some of these had really terrific ideas, and felt rewarding when accomplished. Execution was just sometimes painstakingly long to accomplish. This one ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=NN4ObZk6mdk ) was really tedious, constantly having to light the torches and falling off the edge made it pretty rude. I'd argue it felt maybe a touch more tedious than fun. Having a barrier from the edge in some key places would really be a nice addition IMO. The puzzle would still have the same challenge but with a little less frustration. The very next room was more of the same but a better room IMO, still perhaps a little too tedious as well. Also having to fall off just to get out of the room seemed wrong to me ( http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dIgJKpmWFWY ). It was good design that they were laid out in a way that you didn't have to do the puzzle's again once they were completed. The ice palace statue puzzle was really fun, execution was still slow (fast forward was my friend) but it felt more challenging than frustrating and was clearly superior to the other two examples. I think it's because there was no edge to piss me off. So all in all I'm torn on these rooms because they were rewarding and challenging, but were perhaps just too tedious at times. Save states aren't a must for this section, but very heavily recommended due to the time involved.

Thanks for the great hack. I hope you appreciate the feedback, and even more I hope it encourages you guys to continue the great work on other rom hack projects (ALTTP in particular). Since you guys clearly worked so hard on creating a quality hack, I figured it was only fair for me to try and offer a concise and quality review in return for a job well done. Thanks again.

I haven't played through this latest version, but the versions I have played through have been most excellent!

The work you've applied to this mod shows. I am one of many among my friends that truly value the work you and those like you put into these kinds of hacks.

So on behalf of them and myself, Thank You! Kudos to you!

This hack is superb.

The new dungeons and the riddles in them are artfully well done, I took great pleasure in solving them. They definitely require brains.

This rom hack skilfully uses the mechanics of the original game and pushes them to their limits, while keeping the overall difficulty of the game to a very accessible level, albeit a notch over the original Zelda: ALttP.

There should not be anything stopping you from dowloading this ROM hack right away, and enjoy!