The Legend of Zelda: Parallel Worlds

=Overview= The Legend of Zelda: Parallel Worlds (heretofore referred to as PW) is a fan overhaul of the perennial SNES favorite A Link to the Past using new graphics, new music, a new over/underworld and a new storyline. You are a young treasure hunter who gets mixed up in his uncle's plans to break into the castle guardhouse. From that point forward you dive headfirst into a completely different beast of an adventure. As of 2008, this game has been in production for 4-5 years and has had a demo release, a 1.0 release and a 1.1 patch to fix many bugs as well as minor changes in dialogue. A 2.0 release is planned and has been officially announced.

=Releases= Demo - PW was originally released by an editor by the name of Euclid as a short demo around 2004 under the name The Tower of the Triforce. The setup and story are essentially the same but the game still used the original SNES graphics (altered slightly to change Link's outfit and hair color). Other than graphics, the other thing that is drastically different from the official release is the map layout which was by the end completely overhauled.

Version 1.0 - Version 1.0 was released on December 31st, 2006 and has become known as one of the hardest fan games ever around internet forums. This release expands on the original demo with new graphics, sound, enemies, dungeons and quests. In addition to these changes, a lineup addition of another editor by the name of SePH contributed heavily to dungeon and underworld design. According to Euclid's blog, "[you] can think of this current version as open beta... if you want."

Version 1.1 - Version 1.1 is the most current version of the game. This patch fixed many of the bugs and spelling errors in the original 1.0 release. Overall, not much is changed other than minor things.

Version 2.0 - Version 2.0 has been in discussion for at least a year or more (as of 2008) and a few things are known about it:
 * SePH is completely redoing underworld and dungeons - partly for aesthetic reasons and partly to change their difficulty.
 * Euclid has said that in the 2.0 version the Guardhouse will be made easier due to the number of complaints about the sheer difficulty of this first level. (See below)

=Trademarks of the game= As most fanedits of games go, this one doesn't avoid the pitfalls of game design altogether. One major complaint is the sheer difficulty curve. There is lots of damage that cannot be avoided and according to some players online, the levels do not seem well planned out as the high amount of backtracking seems excessive to them.

An FAQ and game information can be found at the official Parallel Worlds site

=External Links=
 * The official Parallel Worlds blog
 * SePH's blog dedicated to new changes in v 2.0