Video Game / Lost Isle

Lost Isle Title Screen

Lost Isle is a fan-made The Legend of Zelda game built on the fanmade Zelda engine Zelda Classic. The quest was a 'labor of love' between two creators, Dark Flame Wolf and Peteo. It was in development for over two years and finally released on July 24, 2007. It was updated on February 14, 2013, fixing a plethora of bugs and adding various elements to increase difficulty in key areas.

Lost Isle follows the exploits of Link when he sets sail in search of new adventures and ends up awash on a deserted island after encountering a horrific storm. Although the setup is similar in nature to The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening, the differences start upon arriving on the island itself. There are no living civilians to speak of and everything is either dead or dying. As the player progresses through the island in a fashion similar to how one would play Metroid, it is discovered that a great evil resides within the island and is planning to resurrect itself and escape the island to take over the world.

Locales on the island feature various beaches and plains, a massive town of the dead, a graveyard, several forests, canyons, wastelands, castles and mountains. The dungeons range from water temples, to flying gardens, to destroyed castles, to technological fortresses and finally the inner heart of the volcano itself. A new villian is introduced by the name of Morlach, which is discovered to be a demonic soul eater which derives his power from the very souls he eats. Also similar to Metroid is the final escape sequence where you must escape the island and leave at the exact location where you started the game.

Critial reviews of this quest from the community range from outright hating it to loving it absolutely. One thing that is common amongst public opinion is that this quest is something everyone should try at least once and form their own opinions about afterwards.

Lost Isle provides examples of:

• All There in the Manual:
  • The Readme file that came along with the quest went into great detail not only how to load and play the game, but into in-depth story details about each enemy and locale encountered within the game.
  • You could also count the story terminals within level 4, The Plague Fortress as providing necessary backstory on the game's villian, which most players could potentially miss.
  • How Morlach functions is something that cannot be viewed within the game but rather through annotations in Dark Flame Wolf 's walkthrough of the game. With Youtube discontinuing annotations, this background story about Morlach is gone, although this can be fixed with an application that restores them.
• And I Must Scream: The ghosts found throughout the island, later revealed to be the trapped souls of the villagers, cannot leave the island and must forever remain in torment until the Big Bad is destroyed.
• Apocalypse How:
  • A minor one, but restricted specifically to the island Link crash lands on. You basically arrive after its all over and must pick up the pieces.
  • You later cause a secondary apocalypse to the island yourself by destroyed Morlach and effectively causing the entire island to explode.

• The Battle Didn't Count: The first battle with Morlach ends with Link dying and any efforts wasted. It is not until the souls of the villagers come to revive you does the Big Bad realize just how big a threat you are.
• BFG: The lasers beams of death that originate from Morlach's eyes that shave off 4 hearts of damage per second regardless of armor!
• Big Bad: Morlach is universally agreed upon as being the game's primary antagonist.
• Book Ends: Happens where the very beach screen you start the entire game on ends up being your escape location when the island starts exploding.
• Bonus Dungeon:
  • Svalbard Temple, Oderra Catacombs and the Master Dome.
  • The six Triforce Dungeons also qualify.
• Bragging Rights Reward: The Awesome Arrows and Bomberang, received after beating the Master Dome and after the end of the game, respectively.
• Brutal Bonus Level: The Doom Cave, found at the bottom of the Oderra Catacombs.
• The Cavalry: Just when Morlach kills Link after the first battle, all hope seems lost. Then the souls of the tormented villagers come onto the scene and revive Link for one final battle.
• Cut Scene: Notable among Zelda Classic games for having a lot of these.
• Did You Just Punch Out Cthulhu?: Morlach is hyped up the entire game to be a demonic god of evil, yet is easily bested by Link inside the volcano, where he is supposedly at his strongest.

• Disc-One Final Dungeon: Plague Fortress certainly feels like the final dungeon until you realize you still have to explore the inner volcano afterwards.

• Earth-Shattering Kaboom: The entire island explodes!
• Eldritch Abomination: Morlach who not only eats souls but gains power from them qualifies. That and his insatiable lust to rule over the entire world and devour its souls.
• Enemy Summoner: The Bat Wizzrobes that appear only in the optional Master Dome.
• Equipment Spoiler: The subscreen itself holds empty slots in the shape of the potential items you'll receive in the game.
• Evil Is Burning Hot: Morlach literally rises from the lava in the final battle!
• Evil Is Hammy: Morlach just would love to tell you his story before obliterating your very soul!
• Eye Beams: Morlach shoots these in the psuedo final battle to kill Link!
• Fate Worse than Death: Poor Morvayn gets his soul sucked from his body and during the final battle you can literally see his remains on the forehead of Morlach. It is not until you defeat Morlach that his soul can finally be free.
• Flunky Boss: The Lanmolas in Ebenar Temple is this. You can completely ignore the faster moving Lanmolas and focus solely on the mother heads and defeat them all in one fell swoop.
• Gorn: The Oderra Catacombs are so far gone in terms of 2D pixelated blood and gore that it could never possibly be included in any official The Legend of Zelda game made by Nintendo.
• Guide Dang It!
  • After completing each successive level opens up a new portion of the overworld by way of a blue flower being shown removed. If the player had not been to that area previously, there would be no indication or nudges as to where it ultimately is on the island.
  • There is no clear indication that you absolutely need the Horgrus Boomerang in level 3, Bhalstok Castle. Usually you acquire items that are required to reach major dungeons. The fact that you don't need the Boomerang to reach level 3, but you do need it inside, caused some grief to players who got so deep into the level that they realized they could never complete it without the Boomerang!
• Hailfire Peaks: The volcanic Mt. Horgus has a snowcapped summit.
• Infinity +1 Sword
  • The AWESOME ARROWS!!! qualify since they basically make mincemeat out of just about any enemy from its acquisition to the end of the game.
  • The Death Sword found in the Oderra Catacombs make every enemy encounter significantly easier.
    • Actually averted on this count; the Death Sword is only equivalent to the Infinity -1 Sword in Zelda Classic. The true Infinity +1 Sword, the Master Sword, was left out entirely due to concerns that it was too overpowered.
  • The Bomberang?! found on the Last Isle is so awesome it can stun Drones and Wizzrobes as well as Darknut like enemies in their tracks. Sadly you get it after you beat the game that its usefulness is dulled quite a bit.
• Last Disc Magic: The Holy Arrows within the inner volcano qualify, however you can circumvent this powerful item entirely by finding the AWESOME ARROWS!!! in the Master Dome before even setting foot in level 4.
• Leaking Can of Evil: Even though Morlach was sealed, he can still project himself into the outside world and control his Mooks.
• Lethal Lava Land: The inner volcano, even to the point you must cross sinking platforms across a flowing river of lava!
• Load-Bearing Boss: Morlach brings down the volcano after you kill him, forcing you to flee for your life back to the start of the quest to escape the island before it explodes!
• Magitek:
  • The powers that enabled the Sky Garden to fly in level 2 and just about anything that relates to magic within level 4, the Plague Fortress.
  • Particularly notable is the upgrade chip for the magical power rod — the Morachs apparently found a way to seamlessly integrate mundane technology with magical artifacts.
• Malevolent Architecture: Just about everything in level 4, the Plague Fortress.
• The Maze: Oderra Catacombs is a literal maze on several floors.
• Mooks:
  • Degraded Boss: Aquamentus, Dodongo and Gleeok are regulated to standard enemies throughout the game.
  • Elite Mooks: The Deathbos invoke fear in every player once they realize that a single touch will kill anyone who isn't protected by an upgrade piece of armor and a boatload of hearts!
• Mr. Exposition: Morlach himself actually. He just loves telling you his story.
• Nice Job Breaking It, Hero: By defeating Morlach, Link strips any form of protection the island had in keeping itself together. It falls apart when the volcano erupts and causes the entire island to explode!
• Optional Boss:
  • The Dracolich in the Svalbard Temple on the Horgrus Summit.
  • Death Skull at the bottom of the Oderra Catacombs.
  • The Death Knight within the Master Dome
• Orcus on His Throne: Subverted in that the Big Bad makes an appearance in every dungeon, yet double subverted by the fact he does nothing but taunt Link and throw weak mooks at him instead of just killing him. Justified in that the sealing barrier is still intact and he can't actually do anything outside of it; he does take a swing at Link at the end of the fourth dungeon, but is only strong enough to knock him out for a little while.
• Polluted Wasteland: The Xaagan Wastelands is this. In a certain gossip stone cave, it is said that the wastelands used to be a huge, lush forest where the queen of the fairies lived, including another village that is no longer there when the players rolls through.
• Power-Up Letdown: The Holy Arrows can be this if you were to access the Master Dome early and acquire the AWESOME ARROWS!!! prior to level 5.

• Scenery Gorn: Many of the areas are desolate, ruined shells of what they once were, particularly Oderra Village and the Xaagan Wastelands.

• Shout-Out
  • The Oderran Melody in the Oderra Hideout is a clip from a popular ABBA song, Money, Money, Money.
  • The song played where Link break dances in the Oderran Windmill Dream Dungeon is What is Love? by Haddaway.
  • The transfer portal graphics and sound clip leading to and from the Dream Dungeon are from the Mega Man series.
  • The overall face of Morlach is more or less inspired by the central face on the chest of Deathevn from Breathof Fire II.
• Sole Entertainment Option: Considering that the entire island is home to nothing but the undead, you really have no other options other than an arrow mini-game, raft maze and a racing game where the proprieter cheats. And all are run by DEAD SKELETONS!
• Sorting Algorithm of Evil: Despite showing up in person to taunt Link in every dungeon, Morlach is perfectly content to throw weak Mooks at Link instead of attacking him directly. Later justified by revealing that he can't carry much power into his projected form; he does take a swing at Link towards the end, but only succeeds in knocking him out for a while.

• Very Definitely Final Dungeon: The Horgrus Temple inside the inner volcano, complete with boss rematches!
• Villainous Breakdown: Morlach has one of these when he first realizes you have the Holy Arrows!
• Why Don't You Just Shoot Him?: Justified; though Morlach appears in person to taunt Link all the time, he's only projecting a weaker version of himself. Most of his power is still sealed in the volcano, so he can't do much to Link directly. He does actually try to kill Link towards the end, but the attack is mostly ineffectual.

---