The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Dungeon (Hack) (NES) - First Playthrough

Game: The Legend of Zelda: Ancient Dungeon v1.00 (Hack)
Author: arnpoly on romhacking.net
Platform: NES
Completed: December 17 2022
Rules: Beat the game

Out of nowhere I heard that there was a brand new Zelda hack that was unlike the others...a single procedurally generated dungeon presented in a roguelike fashion. I just had to check it out, and it was a really great time. Here are some highlights:

34 minutes, 30 seconds - This boss was placed in such a way that if I would have gotten hit and lost my shooting sword, he may not have been beatable at this point in the game with the gear that they gave me. Maybe I could have stood on his body and swung downwards since I don't think a Gleeok body actually hurts you but fortunately I didn't need to find out.

37 minutes, 10 seconds - Occasionally you run into a "free" room like this.

40 minutes, 40 seconds - What new pattern was this? Not sure if this was something that could happen in the original game, if it was added, or if it was a glitch.

55 minutes, 30 seconds - Actually made use of the Red Candle here.

1 hour, 17 minutes - I had 178 rupees in room 178. Very nice.

1 hour, 27 minutes - The slowdown!

1 hour, 29 minutes, 50 seconds - This odd pattern again! Also this is finally where I got the White Sword. All the way in room 195. Is that normal?

Here is a list of everything I found with buy values in parentheses if applicable:

Room 8 - Magical Shield
Room 14 - Heart Container
Room 29 - Boomerang
Room 33 - Blue Ring (59 Rupees)
Room 43 - Heart Container
Room 62 - Heart Container
Room 75 - Magical Boomerang (48 Rupees)
Room 79 - Heart Container
Room 91 - Blue Candle
Room 106 - Heart Container
Room 123 - Blue Potion
Room 128 - Red Candle
Room 139 - Heart Container
Room 151 - Red Ring
Room 164 - Ladder
Room 173 - Blue Potion (56 Rupees)
Room 178 - Heart Container
Room 195 - White Sword
Room 211 - Wand
Room 226 - Bow (86 Rupees)
Room 229 - Book
Room 245 - Heart Container
Room 252 - Silver Arrow

Final thoughts:
This was such a fun playthrough. arnpoly did an amazing job here and made something truly unique! I definitely recommend this to anyone who might be considering this game. In my experience, I never had to push a block, walk through a wall, or bomb a wall to complete the game. There were no dark rooms (thank you!) which made the Blue Candle kind of useless but I did actually find a nice use for the Red Candle against the blue Lanmolas. One question I had was whether you have to actually pick up the awarded items in order for the game to give you better ones. Because I wasn't sure, I started picking them up even if I didn't need them.

Oh and by the way, there's a second quest! I'm going to check that out as well at some point!

"The Legend of Zelda - Ancient Dungeon v1.0 (Hack) - 121722"