I've been enjoying the hold so far and will be able to give some detailed commentary later, but I have one thing I'd like to mention right away:
It's possible to get completely stuck in Spider's Den if you make the wrong decision. In Spider's Den Twice West, if you close the black door at (3, 12) before getting the green key inside, later on it will be impossible to get all the blue keys necessary for the portable orb. It's difficult (if not impossible) to see this ahead of time, and since you want to make a beeline for the short sword in order to make this level doable, I think this is a big flaw.
I would recommend keeping the structure you have now, but adding an additional way to get a green key in this level, either by making another choice in that room to get the same green key guarded by the spiders, or putting a green key somewhere else guarded by some mud babies, gray men, or other monsters that are tougher than a Large Wraithwing but not as tough as a Tar Baby.
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Aside from that, I think the level design is OK, save for some rooms and structures that are set up so that one choice is always better than another, and other oddities (why kill 5 spiders in 3W in order to get the goodies in the 1S3W hallway, if you can come in from 4W to 3W, lock the yellow door and get them that way?)
I also think you should also add just a couple more areas in the hold where you can fight moderately difficult monsters and get a yellow key, since there tend to be yellow doors blocking important gems or items.
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Also, here were my stats just prior to trying to gather up enough green keys to fight the Elder Spider:
HP: 212
ATK: 54
DEF: 45
(Elder Spider does 0 damage)
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[Last edited by Chaco at 04-23-2012 12:10 AM]