DODONGOS + BOMBING = Let's play Link: The Faces of Evil!

Boy, I got myself into a project far vaster then I could have ever imagined. “Link: The Faces of Evil” is a game I’ve wanted to go through, and yet I could never find a way to force myself to play it. I hope that with this “Let’s Play” I can do that, and hopefully be able to be a source of some comedy amusement for some of you.

In terms of history of the CD-I, I will direct you to this retrospective, as it does a hell of a lot better job than what I could do/say.

Also notes about how I'm doing this: It's going to be a mix of pictures, GIF's, and video (for the cutscenes, arguably the most important part of the game). I'm also using a real CD-I, recording the footage from one of my TV tuners (There is a CD-I emulator out there, but it's not very good. And why bother using that when I have the real thing ). Also, I am not using any FAQ/guide in order to get through this game, I have not beat it before and I've only gotten maybe a half hour into it before doing this play through.

EDIT: Also, please tell me if any of the images are not loading, just in case

So with that out of the way, let's get started!

So after booting the game, and selecting to start a new game, we get the opening cutscene...



Now we choose our destiny�! We can now pick where to go next. The cursor is automatically placed on Nortinka, so that's where Link will go first.







Nortinka is full of Wolfmen�, and magically appearing Orc/Dog men, which drop snowballs. These (and later, fireballs) will become EXTREMELY important later in the game.



Now Link goes left, defeats a few Wolfmen� and Orc/Dog men and enter an igloo.





Ahh, a key! This could be important! And only one Orc/Dog man, this should be no problem for Link!



Great, more Orc/Dog men appear... Now that's out of the way, let's get that key!



Wonderful, more Orc/Dog men! Spear chucking' fools





Now Link goes back to the first house.



There's a Wolfmen� in the corner, and a strange octopus women below. Link goes down the stairs and talks to the octopus...



Turns out, it's not an octopus women afterall . But that's alright, now Link has a mission, to unfreeze the fountain. Link uses the key and leaves via the bottom right door.



And now Link's dead! Our first (but definitely not last) death. Turns out, those baboons can not be killed by sword, but only by fireball... of course that can't be found in Nortinka, so Link must go back to the main map and find a place that does.



Next up, Crater Cove!

To be Continued...........

Why would you even do this to yourself?

For our entertainment; why else?

Trying to take OctoPrime's title of "Guy who LP'd the worst game here" are you?

I can't tell if this is brave or foolish.

I guess there's no reason why it can't be both.

It's broolish. Definitely broolish.

I know "who" they are, but "dog/orc-men" is funnier in my eyes

In any case, now that it's not 2 AM, let's go on with the show!

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We are now in Crater Cove, which if you can't tell from the map is full of FIRE, so it'll be a good place to collect some fireballs.



See, a volcano! Now let's go into that hut and see what's inside...



Locked! Great, need another key. Link now moves left to see if there's another key.







All that work.... Alright...



Now with that out of the way, let's go back to that hut.





Alright, an old women with a knife. Seems safe to me!



Okay! Secret key! Pretty sure we could have just used the last one on that door then, but whatever! But before we go through that wooden door, let's see what's in the other hut (the one above the last key).



Shit! Crabs!





An old man with his crabs... wait... nevermind, let's talk to him.




If you could figure out that cutscene, you're a better person than I because I have no idea what the fuck was going on there. But in any case, we now have the POWER BLAST SWORD�.



Just like the other (real) Zelda games, it only works if you have full health... which is not very often in this game, so it's kinda useless. But hey, at least we have it now, even if it was for very arbitrary reasons.



Let's go inside...

I love how Link explodes when he dies.

Now we are inside the cave and see a shit load of Fire Dairas.



They can't be killed by normal sword, so it's time to get the snowballs out!







Crap, one's running right at me!



Guess he does not care about me, his loss I say!





As we can see... there is nothing else to do here, its only purpose was to collect fireballs. Now we go back to the main map.



It's now directing us to Spearfish Falls, so let's go there.



Wait, Blue Wolfmen�? What are they doing here? Whatever, let's continue.









Great, I need a bomb to blast the rock away, and I don't have any! Have to head to the store first.



A quick trip to Goronu

That way lies madness.

This could be hilarious. Carry on.

"BOMBS! ROPE! LANTERN OIL! I HAVE IT ALL!"

Now before we go back to Spearfish Falls, let's go back to Nortinka and defeat those baboons!



Well, that was easier than I thought.



SHIT! BAT-FACED HEAD MAN BAT!



We slowly work our way up the mountain, untill we reach Ipo





Okay, now we know of his purpose. Guess that could come into use later. :\



Now the map places us at Toyku Lighthouse.





Hey! Another key! Better collect that.







The Bat Man-faced bats would have made more sense here, but this game is not about logic, so whatever. Also, speaking of logic, what the hell? There were no Orc/Dog men outside, why would one walk in here?



1. BIRD RAPE!
2. We now see what looks like a tied up women, better help her out!



Guess she was not tied up, but it looked it to me



Looks much thinner there too, but I digress

Gotta get across that bridge!





BIRD RAPE! (Part 2)
This happened 5 fucking times, this game gets brutal.



Finally we get inside, only to find Dairas about to rape me (again), let's get rid of this scum!



They even pop out of thin air!









Well, now we reach the old man, who is fine with those Dairas living with him I guess.


Yes! A lantern! This will come in handy because of the arbitrary dark areas coming up.

To be continued (whenever I make more footage) :-)

No, it already is.

This is... this is astounding.

And yet, in the same way that the eye tends to pick out the single mustard flower growing in the coal scuttle... there's something here. Some sort of ambition. There was a group at work here, maybe no more than a few people, who thought at the start that they could actually make a great new Zelda game, using this great new technology.

I wonder at what stage in development those few people just decided to give up.

Probably when they were unable to convince the animation team that "Faces Of Evil" didn't refer to Link.

I await the next update with morbid fascination... but please, for your sake, tell me that you're already halfway finished this game.

I think (and I'm only going on a hunch here, since I've never beaten it) I'm about 1/3'ed of the way through it.

It's a pain to figure out what to do, since the game likes to throw you into random locations, and interact with random people who tell you about places YOU CAN'T GO TO. This game's logic goes out the window on nearly every screen.

But I can understand why you would see something in those screens. This is one of the better games for CD-I... and that says a lot about those other games, because this one is TOTAL SHIT. The controls are horrific, the hit detection is non-existent, enemies pop out of no where, and the cutscenes... wow...

On any other platform, this game probably would have never been released. And yet, when put next to the other great classics on CD-I, this is truly a "game". You can "play" it, and "beat" it, there is a real ending. Those other games? Yeah... the less said, the better (until I LP them too, in which case I'll say more)

I have only heard the legends of these games, never seen them in action. Just wow.

It's not arbitrary, it's because there's evil about!

Whole faces of it, it seems!

You make a good point

Ditto. The animated gifs showing just how spastic the animation is was a nice touch.



Look at him go!

The "Faces of Evil" are the characters in the cutscenes, right? Especially that woman...

I wish they were, the game would be much easier and less frustrating if that were the case.

Anyway, I literally JUST beat the game. It took me, in total, around 5 hours to get through the game, and that's mostly because I had to redo parts OVER AND OVER again because of the bullshit controls/AI/Backgrounds/EVERYTHING. This was, by far, the most frustrating game I've ever played.

I'm going to start hacking away at the footage, it should all be up soon enough.

Hardcore Gaming 101's got a piece on this (as you'd expect). It explains some of the design decisions and is pretty interesting.

What I got from reading that was that if I ignored

• The movies
• The voice overs
• The fact CD-I was not really designed as a game system
• The "learn to master" controls

Then I could enjoy this game.

I will give him the fact that the games are not the worst ever created, and are in fact really good on the CD-I... on CD-I... on CD-I... on CD-I... This is the most important factor, they are on a system with REALLY SHITTY GAMES. When you place them next to the huge lineup of crap that Philips released, then they look fine. But that's not an excuse for the fact they are poor games on their own. As I said before, if these games were released on ANY other system (with or without Link or Zelda's name attached), then they would have gotten railed against even more. But because of the platform, they are not as bad... but that does not mean they are "good".

With the controls; is it the developers fault that CD-I only had 2 real buttons? No. But should that excuse them for the fact that hit detection (be it jumping from platform to platform, or hitting enemies) are so off that you will have to repeat levels over and over again because bullshit that happens at the end of one, I'm sorry but I'm going to draw the line there.

Also, I call bullshit on the music. Sure, it's not "totally" bad the first time through... but when you are repeating levels (like Ganon's), it will drive you fucking crazy. But I digress.

If this person had fun with the game and thinks it's good, than I'm not going to say their opinion is wrong. Sure, I don't know where it's coming from, or if we played the same thing, but if they think it's fine, than so be it.

On a side note: I'm going to post another update tonight, just have to keep hacking away at the footage (and be home from work ;-) )

Anyone would think you weren't enjoying this...

Is that Charles Martinet?

Aside from the absurdly banal, nonsensical exchange, the best part is how Link just abruptly disappears at the end.

Wow, this game is a masterpiece compared to those other games people have linked. That Phantom Express is pretty epic.

I like the prospect of a new Lego game this leads me to imagine.

UPDATE TIME!

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Next we are going to Firestone Lake





Fighting octopuses as we traverse over what seems to be a lake filled with urine :-\



Can't really tell if they are spitting rocks, or crap.



A little raft ridin'





First, we have to talk to Gwonam.



Alright, we (kinda) know what happened to Zelda now... don't know exactly how to use that information, but in any case, we get to use the lantern for the first time.





Alright, Don't exactly understand WHY we needed to do that, since the fire is GLOWING, but whatever. Also, why are there wheels of fire chasing me?

But as you can see near the bottom of that screen shot, there are some berries, let's see what they are.



Cool, we got Grapple berries! What do they do? I don't know! But I guess they will come in handy.



Reaching the bottom of the hill, there was a wheel o' fire blocking a ring.



Ahh, Fire diamond. Again, don't really know what that is used for at this point. But it may help at some point.

Back at the world map, the game directs us to our next location, Spearfish falls.







The flying enemies in this area look like fish, yet fly about like birds.

Reaching the top of the hill, we come across a lake with fairies.



Nice, not only is my health refilled, but I get an extra heart! Sure, that whole "falling off and dieing" at the end was not great, but whatever.



Have to start climbing up the mountain again





We enter the cave, and see a dragon (with a detachable missile head) guarding a necklace.



After quick work of him, we continue heading up the mountain until we reach another house/cave.





Where we run into a witch.



Also, I now feel it's time to make a statement:




Cheap shot, but I digress ;-).



We now go back to Toyku lighthouse to give the necklace back to the fake tied-up women.



Alright! The canteen is REALLY important for the later stages. I can now keep a supply of "Water of Life" and refill my health. I wish they gave this item earlier in the game.



Next up, Serigon Caves

I've been "lucky" enough to not only play this game (in fact, all of the CD-i Zelda games) but I've also seen them played start to finish in a live PARTY ENVIRONMENT and let me tell you: There is nothing more rocking than watching Link explode when you're eight beers in, and everyone starts screaming the best (worst?) cusses they can come up with.

You're doing an amazing job of capturing that experience. Bottoms up.