#and I have only played 2 zelda games being hyrule warriors as a kid with a friend on my wii U and then botw a frw months ago | Explore Tumblr Posts and Blogs

amongussexgif · 5 months

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idk why but I made a roster for SSB6. I was bored, okay?

characters or sorted by series, series are sorted by when they were introduced to smash

explanation for some picks and misc ordering stuff below cut

I'm gonna start with why I picked the characters I did. First new character is Impa. Zelda needs a fourth rep, and another Link just isn't the right choice. Sheik has stayed her time, but I feel it should either be the Impa from Hyrule Warriors or Purah to play with some Tears of the Kingdom shenanigans.

Bandana waddle dee is here because Kirby's core four has been incomplete for LONG ENOUGH! This is justice for my boy!

Mewtwo was put in as a placeholder for a new starter. throw in the grass type starter from whatever the most recent Pokemon game is.

Colgate Toothpaste from Fire Emblem is there bc Fire Emblem deserves three reps. Marth to rep classic games, Robin (and I suppose Lucina) to rep the franchise's golden era, and Colgate to rep modern fire emblem.

Waluigi.

Tails and Knuckles are in because I said so. The Sonic franchise has interacted with Nintendo so much that it only feels right to add the rest of Team Sonic.

Noah was added as a second Xenoblade rep, replacing Pyra/Mythra.

Alucard replaces both Belmonts as a Castlevania rep. He just fits better imo.

For other odd roster choices, Isabelle steps up as Animal Crossing's main rep. It just feels right to have Isabelle there instead of... generic self insert main character. Wolf and Lucas were demoted to echo fighters for obvious reasons.

Geno was added as standalone DLC not only because Geno is awesome, but also because having 11 DLC characters would bring the total number to 56 (including random), which can be neatly sorted into a 14x4 grid

The first wave of DLC was the more "kid-friendly" wave. Open with Crash for the old timers, Eggman to round out the core sonic cast (except Amy, but oh well), Rayman because he got ROBBED in Ultimate, Shantae because she's cool and unique, and The Knight to rep the Best 2D Video Game Ever.

Wave 2 is the slightly more mature characters. Open with Bridgett because we love her, 2B because I couldn't think of anyone else, Travis to open the door for truly mature characters. Master Chief is the big one, obviously. I couldn't care less about Halo, but I feel like it might happen. Nintendo likes money and they've added Microsoft characters before. Joker's there as a placeholder for whoever the Persona 6 protag is. I put them on the end to close it out with an echo fighter.

I kinda wanted to be on-brand and put in amongus but I just can't see it being functional in a platform fighter.

#super smash bros

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izunias-meme-hole · 10 months

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My Top 10 Favorite Zelda Games

(Excluding Spin-Offs like Hyrule Warriors)

Number 10. Link’s Awakening DX - This game… it’s not quite memorable, but the atmosphere, and chibi stylization make the experience feel nice.

Number 9. Spirit Tracks - Link and Zelda honestly make this game, but aside from that, this is one of the funner 2D Zelda games and the little unique features it had make it stand out.

Number 8. A Link Between Worlds - What’s this? A game where Link and Zelda have dark counterparts? Sounds like shit on paper, but the way it’s executed make these counterparts seem less like eviler variants of the duo, and more like people with personalities that are the complete opposite of the duo. As for the gameplay? It’s still pretty fun.

Number 7. Skyward Sword - A surprisingly great prequel to every single game in the series, with incarnations of Link and Zelda that feel like people, the Great Grooose, and the absolute icon that is Ghirahim. Still the gameplay is much to be desired and I’ll never forgive Nintendo for creating The Imprisoned.

Number 6. Twilight Princess - Good gameplay, good story, great secondary antagonist, great aesthetic, Midna herself is amazing, the final boss was great, and this game feels like an epilogue of Ocarina of Time, while also doing its own thing and expanding upon the lore.

Number 5. Wind Waker - This game… is far from perfect. Actually Twilight Princess if superior if you want to talk about mechanics, but this is arguably one of the most compelling versions of Link and Zelda’s tale in the series. Link here started out as just a kid who wanted to save his sister and Zelda started out as a young pirate, but both ended up basically getting dragged into an ordeal that’s bigger and a lot older than them. I’d write about this game in full because there is a good amount to talk about, but it’s nice.

Number 4. A Link To The Past - This may just be personal preference talking, but I love this game. This was the true progenitor of everything that people love about Zelda Games, and it honestly has the best interpretation of Classic Ganon and its not even close. Sure the gameplay is kinda outdated, but it’s a whole fun ass game and a case where the ancient stuff is great.

Number 3. Majora’s Mask - Despite only being Number 3, this game is on par with the next entries on this list. It’s easily the most horrific, creepy, and sadder Zelda games, but there’s more to it. This game can be funny now and again, while also being weirdly heartwarming. It juggles multiple things at once, and it’s surprising because you’re playing it while everything is on a literal doomsay timer. Then there’s the looming threat of Majora, a mysterious evil entity with the mind of a child who is the perfect Non-Ganon antagonist.

Number 2. Breath of The Wild - Revolutionary. The open world gameplay, the story that is told through flashbacks and the environment, Zelda’s characterization, and most importantly, the atmosphere. This game not only returned the series to its roots, but with the power of technology, it became a modern masterpiece.

Number 1 (TIE). Ocarina of Time & Tears of The Kingdom - I wanted to seperate these two games, but if I’m being honest both are amazing. Everyone and their parents talk about Ocarina of time being a masterpiece and they certainly don’t lie. The gameplay, while old, is still revolutionary for its time and aged well in comparison to other N64 games, but the story of this kid named Link growing up into the hero who slayed the King of Evil, aged like fine wine. As for Tears of The Kingdom? The story isn’t as perfect as Breath of The Wild’s was, but the good outweighs the bad because Ganondorf is the scariest he’s been since his debut, the addition of the Zonai add a level of intrigue, the liveliness of Hyrule this time around help keep the game feel different, the larger hub world, the absolute horrors that are The Depths, and the game’s consistent theme of sacrifice and what it means. In short, both these games somehow just vibe with me.

#the legend of zelda #legend of zelda #ranking #(one behind the mask) mun izunia

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arkon-z · 2 years

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I posted 1,751 times in 2022

That's 67 more posts than 2021!

166 posts created (9%)

1,585 posts reblogged (91%)

Blogs I reblogged the most:

@lastdovahkiin

@ranger-kellyn

@asexual-society

@ghirahimbo

@artisticzaati

I tagged 1,138 of my posts in 2022

Only 35% of my posts had no tags

#hwaoc - 203 posts

#zelda - 159 posts

#impa - 121 posts

#botw - 118 posts

#link - 111 posts

#age of calamity - 105 posts

#purah - 99 posts

#robbie - 86 posts

#what are queue doing? - 78 posts

#fanfic - 59 posts

Longest Tag: 138 characters

#i'm not kidding when i say that version of impa did more good for my self-perception than any post i've ever seen about healthy body image

My Top Posts in 2022:

The weak point smash attacks in Age of Calamity are cool enough, but I wish the camera didn't lock the way it does during the animation, because it means we miss seeing details like this:

The Blademasters wave to Kohga after they toss him, which you don't see unless the camera gets stuck at a different angle. Like, that's a fun detail! Why would you hide it where we can't see it?

22 notes - Posted March 5, 2022

Good news! I'm slowly becoming a fan of the Metroid series. This started shortly after I was exposed to the idea that Samus and Pikachu are pals ever since she rescued him in Smash Bros Brawl in the Subspace Emissary story. Which I know isn't part of the Metroid lore, obviously, but it did make me appreciate Samus as a character.

She is an ice-cold, unflinching badass in her games (which I need to finish playing still, so no spoilers) and relies on no one but herself. That said, I love the idea that she has a soft spot for this fuzzy yellow critter with the world's worse case of static. She saw he was in trouble, broke him out with no hesitation because it was the right thing to do and now they're inseparable.

And I know that has nothing to do with Metroid proper, but like I said, it makes me appreciate Samus that much more. That's the power of fanfic, baby.

23 notes - Posted February 18, 2022

Perhaps a spicy take:

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity did more to make Hyrule feel like a populated, living world to me than many of the mainline games.

I'm serious. This version of Hyrule feels like it's full of people, and as you play, you really get a sense that you're helping them out. See, to earn things like health bonuses and attack combos, you have to complete these little text-only quests. On every level where you actually fight enemies, you earn materials, and different quests require specific materials for completion. And all these quests have a little blurb about a task that needs to be done that requires the materials you provide. When you complete the quest, there's another blurb talking about how you helped the people out.

See the full post

26 notes - Posted August 6, 2022

Random BOTW headcanon:

Master Kohga faked his death in his fight with Link so he could go back to his nap.

He's not incompetent by any means and is in fact a skilled and powerful warrior. The fight was a sham to get the Thunder Helm out of the hideout so the Gerudo would stop raiding it. His lackeys stole it because it's treasure, but he obviously couldn't just say, "Take it back, you're making it worse around here." After his 'defeat', the rest of the Yiga played along, accusing Link of murder and making their attacks more personal.

In conclusion, Master Kohga is actually very intelligent and despite being the leader of a cult of personality, he watches out for the clan and acts in their best interest at all times.

48 notes - Posted November 18, 2022

My #1 post of 2022

Got cool stickers? Do you get anxious about trying to decide where to stick them? Do they just live on the sticker sheets forever, gathering shameful dust in your drawer?

THERE IS HOPE! I saw this on Reddit.

What you need are magnetic sheets.

Now, take your stickers:

See the full post

1,943 notes - Posted March 12, 2022

Get your Tumblr 2022 Year in Review →

#tumblr2022 #year in review #my 2022 tumblr year in review #your tumblr year in review #false

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luimagines · 3 years

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Could you maybe do one where the reader is in their time and they take them on a date since everything is calm for a moment?

Masterlist

It's Reader's turn to treat their favorite hero!

Date Day! Part one will included Wild, Legend and Hyrule!

Content under the cut!

Wild

“Ok, bare with me for a minute?” You grin and put a finger to your lips to keep your boyfriend quiet. “I want to show you something.”

“And we’re sneaking out because?” Wild tilts his head but follows you regardless.

“They to the place is a little... challenging and I don’t my Grandma or Time... or Twilight for that matter getting on our case about it.” The face you wear is mischievous and Wild can feel his morph to match yours as you tip toe away from the main group.

When you get far enough away you look over your shoulder and giggle. In a flash, before Wild can figure out what’s happening, you grab his hand and sprint away into the forest growth behind your house.

Wild snorts at your excitement but follows you step for step as you lead him through the foliage.

You stop a quick breather by a rock cliff and before you point up. “That’s where we’re going.”

And then you start climbing.

Wild blinks and doesn’t hesitate to follow you. A small woop leaves his mouth as he takes a running start up the rock and catches up to you relatively quickly.

Your practiced movements and Wild innate ability to climb anything makes the trip as simple as walking up a hill.

You get to the top first, since you’ve made this trip countless time to your Grandmother’s chagrin, and wait for Wild to make it up, holding out your hand to help him with the final stretch and pull him to you. You jump a little in your spot as he gets himself situated and giggle a little at the way his jaw drops at the sight before him.

A meadow of those flowers Wild seems to like so much, the Silent Princess.

But in the middle?

A natural fountain, with water sprouting upwards to give the rocks below the chance to be rained upon even if they’ll never see the light of day beyond what the crevices would offer. It falls into a small pool just beyond the rocks where small lily pads grow ands frogs sing their songs. In the darker corners you can see fireflies take off and return and there’s multiple dragonflies to dart from flower to flower where they know the mosquitoes reside as they try to catch their own lunches.

You see Wild take it all in and stare.

“This is my favorite spot.” You admit in a whisper. “No one else knows it’s here. They can’t get up even if they tried. But I can, and I knew you could because you can do anything.”

“It’s...”

“It’s a bit small I know.” You say with gulp. “and I doubt it’s anything compared to what you’ve already seen in your own world but I wanted to share it with you.”

“It’s just like you.” Wild says and looks over to you with a large and and boyish smile on his face. “It’s perfect.”

The admission strikes you in your spot and you don’t deny the blush that follows. “That’s a bit much, don’t you think?”

“No.” Wild takes your hand and kisses your knuckles. “Not at all. I think it’s a bit lacking actually, but there’s no other word to use to properly describe what I think about you.”

“What am I going to do with you?” You snicker and take your hand away to cup his face.

“Tell me about this place.” He answers. “How did you find it?”

“Oh that’s easy! You see, Link...uh, my brother, was just born and I was left unsupervised as mom and dad had to take care of the baby so-”

Legend

“Legend!” You cry and drape yourself across his back. “Come with me! I wanna take you somewhere!”

The boy in question falters in his step from your added weight and looked over his shoulder to see you better. “Now?”

You grin and nod. You’re fairly certain that you look crazy but you’re too excited to care.

“Should I be concerned?” Legend gets a small smirk on his face.

“Of little ol’ me?” You tilt your head, your smile never leaving your face. “Maybe. But right now? No. Come on, let’s go! I got Wild and Warrior to watch over Link and Zelda and Time and Twilight are busy humoring my grandma. It’ll just be you and me!”

Legend pauses before he seems to mellow out, and he reaches for your hand behind him. “Ok.” His voice is soft, the kind he saves only for you and when you’re alone. “Lead the way.”

You barely suppress the giggle that passes your lips before you pulled him closer to your side. You take off a brisk pace in case some of the others who are unattended decided to follow you.

You drag him through the streets of your home, your footsteps a mere after thought to the idea of Link’s reaction to what you plan on showing him.

He doesn’t say anything as you travel and keeps a tight grip on your hand, less he get left behind and lose you.

You stop in front of a flower shop and tilt your head in its direction. Legend nods, at your unspoken question and beams when you brighten even more so than you already were.

You both enter and you b-line for the some of the smaller flowers they have near the back and begin to seemingly pick a few at random.

You don’t even notice you lose Legend sometime in the middle of your choosing.

You’re so focused on your selection that you go to pay and head out, already working on your project.

You weave and bend and keep the flowers in place as you begin your journey out of the store.

Legend watches you leave in the middle of the your concentration and quickly pays the needed amount before following you out. He walks next to you at you pace and keeps one hand on your shoulder at all times to guide you back through the streets and make sure you don’t crash into anyone or anything.

He smiles at you, a soft and secret look he knows he should give you more often but he can’t seem to handle the idea when you’re in public.

Within moments he can see what you’ve been making.

A flower crown, braided with such intensity that the flowers covered every inch of the band, there’s not a spec of stem green in the mass that’s been created by your fingers and Legend has to admit that he’s impressed.

You beam and glance at him, as if he’s never left your side the entire time and rip off his hat.

He jumps to take it back but you throw it over your shoulder and spin him around. It’s a dance you both do often and there’s a laugh on your breaths as you anticipate the other’s reaction. But what Legend doesn’t expect is for you to trap him in your arm as you spin and to put the crown over his head from behind.

He’s stunned and when you kiss the tip of his nose, he’s inclined to not move a muscle until you say he’s free to do so.

You spin around while he freezes and bend down to pick up his hat, placing it on your own head with a cheeky wink.

Oh, Legend thinks, he likes that.

Legend blushes crimson and take takes his hand and places the single flower he bought up to your ear and between your hair. “There.” He says. “Perfect.”

You giggle and adjust the hat to keep the stem in place and grab Legend’s hand to lace your fingers together.

“Thanks for coming with me.” You grin and swing your hands together as you begin to walk around with no destination in mind.

Legend smiles back just as bursting with joy as you are. “I’ll follow you anywhere.”

Hyrule

“If I were to say we should leave, what would you do?” You ask your boyfriend, as you watch the group meander around your house. No on is paying attention to you, too focused on the game your cousin and little brother have made up as your grandma watches from her rocking chair, knitting something that will no doubt be gifted to one of the boys before you have to leave again.

It was nice.

A bit loud.

But that your everyday anyway, whether in your home or with the group, so it wasn’t all that unfamiliar.

Hyrule looks over to you with a raised eyebrow and and grin on his lips. “I’d follow you anywhere anytime.”

You smile and place your cheek on your hand as you rest your elbow on the table. “That doesn’t answer my question.”

“Did it have to?” Hyrule snorts. “You already know my answer.”

You hum and tap your fingers on your face before you smile. “Come with me.”

Wordlessly, he follows you and you lead him out of the house and into your garden. It was something your mother started before she left.

You took it upon yourself to try to keep it alive but you never had the same green thumb that she processed. Still, it wasn’t too shabby if you had to say so yourself.

Hyrule took a deep breath through his nose and grinned. “There’s magic in the air.”

You pause and turn to look at him. “You can smell that?”

“Nooo...” Hyrule laughs. “But I can feel like. It’s nice. It’s warm and sweet.”

You smile and hold your hand out to him, waiting until he seems to get a ahold of himself and pull him from behind you.

You walk together in silence before the old and beaten path opens up to reveal a small clover covered clearing, with a two seater swing hidden by the tree branches. “Come on, let’s sit there Link.”

Hyrule smiles and sits down first, pulling you unexpectantly onto his lap. “And here I thought we were going to go on those adventure you like so much.”

“No.” You blush at the close proximity but lean yourself against him, placing your head by his and poking his neck with your nose. “Grandma would still need me close by incase the kids get too rowdy. At least I’m within yelling distance.”

Hyrule nods and begins to play with your hair as he pushes off the ground somewhat to get the swing in motion. “I like this. I want one.”

“I’ll build one just for you.” You snort and snuggle closer. “Anything for you.”

“Only if you’ll join me.”

“Obviously. Who else you plan on swinging with?”

“I didn’t think I’d be here at all, let alone have someone other than you.”

You hum and play his hair even if you can’t see it. Hyrule shifts the both of you around so that you’re both lying on the swing instead of being precariously placed on the edge. “Well, I’m glad I’m with you.”

“Me too.”

Part 2

#linked universe #linkeduniverse #linked universe x reader

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corpsentry · 3 years

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so you want to read that fic but you don’t know what a zelda is

a brief introduction to the characters and several elements of breath of the wild and age of calamity for this bitch. this is basically for my friends and longtime readers who want to read when the war is over/angels but have never played a video game in their fucking life so the rest of you can ignore this. also you should check out when the war is over/angels. it’s pretty great.

THE CHARACTERS

this is zelda, princess of hyrule, descendant of a goddess. her mom’s dead and her relationship with her dad’s kinda fucked. she’s also supposed to have these, like, superpowers or whatever, and these superpowers are supposed to, like, save the world or whatever, but we dunno where they are and she dunno what do about this. she has a complex about her powerlessness, of course. she’s also very beautiful so she gets two photos.

this is link. i don’t have a nice photo of him saved so you’ll have to deal with this. he’s been hella badass with a sword since he was like 2 years old and they kind of held him up as a Model Knight at the dinner table or some shit so now he’s very repressed and doesn’t know how to communicate his feelings openly to people anymore. he’s also the chosen knight that’s supposed to, like, save the world or whatever alongside zelda. he’s also zelda’s personal knight. he has canonically eaten rocks.

this is impa. friend and protector of zelda. scary. i would kill men for her.

the champions. the big dude with the hairy arms is daruk. he belongs to a race called the gorons that canonically eat rocks and he’s very nice. the tall lady with red hair is urbosa. she’s the chieftain of her people, the gerudo, and she’s the fucking coolest. she will also not hesitate to slap you. the bird is revali. he’s a bird. the tiny fish child next to zelda is mipha. mipha would never slap anyone unless it involved her brother sidon. the champions + link who is also a champion but like a special one, like how everyone has a favorite powerpuff girl, get to pilot these giant gundams called divine beasts and then kick ganon’s ass. that’s pretty much their entire job description. 1) get in the gundam shinji 2) kick ass 3) profit.

this is the egg guardian. he came from the future and only exists in the age of calamity timeline. you cannot find him in the botw timeline. why? because the bitch left.

this is calamity ganon. think of him as a giant worm on a string that wants to eat your family. spends most of his time vibing out as a concept. the primary antagonist of the zelda franchise though he’s not usually this fucked up looking.

SHORTHANDS AOC = hyrule warriors: age of calamity, a hack & slash spin-off game that was advertised as a prequel to the legend of zelda: breath of the wild. released 2020. BOTW = the legend of zelda: breath of the wild. the game. the legend. the bitch. released 2017.

THE STORY to get a grasp on That Fic all you really need to know is that a hundred years before the events of botw zelda and co fight against the giant worm on a string and lose. the champions, her dad, and like half of the kingdom’s population die. link also technically ‘dies’, but the sexy sword he picked up (master sword, legendary item, very swag) is like ‘if you send him to this big blue box called the shrine of resurrection on the great plateau he’ll take a 100 year nap and then wake up feeling hella great. he’ll also lose all his memories xd’. so they send link to the shrine of resurrection and then zelda goes to the castle to meet the giant worm on a string and she basically plays uno with him for a hundred years to keep him distracted from the whole eating her family thing while link lies in a box and gets over being dead. so here’s the catch: in aoc, they win. in aoc a hundred years before botw the giant worm on a string attacks and with the power of friendship and also time travel (they import some stock from botw aka Buff dudes and traumatized younger siblings and also children) they defeat him. aoc is literally fix-it fic but like shitty fix-it fic that doesn’t address anything particularly interesting and aims for making everyone happy instead of experience meaningful emotional development. i’m kidding the above is all strictly subjective opinion but the important thing here is that botw is neon genesis evangelion and aoc is the powerpuff girls and that’s a problem for me because they’re supposed to be the same story.

WHAT THIS FIC ADDRESSES WHEN THE WAR IS OVER/ANGELS is basically a very elaborate and fucked up answer to the question: is it possible to have them win and lose in the same universe? the answer by the way is no but through some elaborate buttfuckery i manage to smash both narratives to pieces and then weave them back together and also give everyone extra emotional trauma in the process. the story starts out in the aoc timeline and more or less follows the powerpuff girls story until chapter 2 which is when shit hits the fan. chapter 2 may confuse you, so i would recommend you check out the spoiler-filled addendum if you need clarification. chapter 3 won’t hurt you. i promise. in summary, everyone in this story would commit murder for zelda. and they do.

#my stuff

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certainempatheticturkeymuffin · 3 years

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Age of Calamity Review

Hey! I wasted three hours of my life writing this in Arlo's comment section and part of it had to be cut out because of Youtube's word limit, so y'all get to suffer with me.

Here's the video that I wrote this on, give him some love, his opinion is a great juxtaposition to my own!

There are a few weird formatting errors because tumblr wants me to make new paragraphs, but there's no missing words as far as I can tell.

I like it, but I like the first one better, mainly for the appearance. I don't know why, but the pop ups are hard for me to see (by pop-ups I mean the challenges and weak point meters, the out of battle menu is actually pretty good, though I admit the text is a little small on the opening screen), and the lack of saturation makes it hard for me to see. Actually, that might be it, I just don't like the paler color palette in this context, since for a fast paced game I kind of need to be able to see, which I can't because I'm partially blind, and glasses have a glare that's an annoying trade off. Compare that to the original Hyrule Warriors, the weak point meters are brightly colored and change color the more you damage it, which is good for those with visual impairment who need some extra feedback to judge their next actions. The menu was also this aged tan color which provided a great contrast that wasn't the blinding white on top of dark blue, which wasn't bad at all, but the buttons and text were always big enough for those with visual impairment to see, though I will admit that the little pop ups with all the people crying out for help have a bit of the same issue as AoC. I think I just like the more vibrant colors of Hyrule Warriors in the context of a faster game, rather than the pale beauty of BotW, since my eyes can't really see what's going on if the colors aren't at least comparable to what you'd find in Minish Cap or Triforce Heroes. I can see fine in BotW during the day time, but at night, well, I just run and hope for the best, trying not to get killed by an electric keese, which is also a problem in AoC, mainly Zora's Domain; I could barely see a thing and it negatively impacted my experience.

I've got hundreds of hours in HW, and maybe five or ten in AoC. It's mainly because I just don't like how it looks. I've heard a lot of people say that it looks pretty much exactly like botw and...I have to disagree. A lot of areas are pretty perfect, but some, like the tower, are just a little off in a way I can't describe. That's a personal irrelevant nitpick though, but it negatively impacted my experience, so I thought it was worth a mention, the tower on the opening screen always annoyed the crap out of me, every time I see it I just want to exit the game because ew.

The gameplay is fine, and thank goodness for the addition of the meditation room, there's not a feature like that in the original, so I had to play the first stage over and over again to figure out new combos, I think Mipha is my favorite hero that I actually unlocked (though I've been wanting to play more just to see if I can control Revali and Teba like I can Fi (which makes her insanely good since her wide area of movement is the only thing you need to account for)), and I think Zelda is my least favorite, since she's a little clunky for my taste (Daruk is too, but his rolling makes that more bearable). I was a little disappointed with Impa, but her seal thing is kinda like Zelda's and Fi's thing in Hyrule Warriors (there are probably stronger connections, but I'm not experienced with every single hero), and I think it was just the hype that she got. She's not the type of character I like to play, since Zelda and Fi are my favorites, speedy and nimble area clearers (Sheik and Marin are cool too, I just have less experience using Marin, and Sheik is always a B pick since I find them a little harder to control with less area of impact), which meant that Mipha, a character I admittedly was never attached to, became one of my favorites in the game. Impa wasn't an area clearer for the most part, she had a few moves that could do that, but she was mainly a boss-killer to me, Mipha though? She's great, set up a few waterspouts and everything dies.

I do like that they've lessened the kind of ridiculous amount of items that were in HW, and that they didn't try to strong arm fairies in, because that system was the most annoying thing in the world and so poorly explained that I had to watch the same tutorial three times over about once a month because it was so convoluted.

I do hate the runes though, I just, couldn't seem to use them right. It might just be me, but I found trying to use them weird. It's a little hard to explain, but it's probably just a me thing. Not only that, but I found the inclusion of the rods on top of the runes annoying. The rods were entirely unnecessary if you were going to use runes. They just added another layer that was thin at best, not to mention that I found them hard to use as well. I hated the weird controls of the targeting system. I don't think there's anything wrong with a basic hack and slash, and if you're not going to have the excessive amount of items, runes were a good idea i think it might've been a me issue, but rods? It seems a bit excessive. It's probably just a "you'll get better with practice" kind of thing, which, fair, most people can't use Fi like I can, so that makes sense. I figured it was worth a mention anyway since the runes were a constant source of annoyance and I used the rods twice before never bothering again because I hated them so much.

I do like the addition of healing from food drops whenever you want though. In the original if there was a dropped heart but you were at full health, sucked to be you, going back for it when you need it would waste time. The plot is still as weird as ever though (from what I've heard from other videos and such), which is fine, since I tend to play my favorite levels over and over rather than actually do anything plot relevant (can you believe that it took me over a year to finish the story of HW because I kept getting distracted by letting Fi and Zelda mow down everything in the Adventure maps and challenges? I literally got the boomerang like six months after

getting the game. It's perfect for people with ADHD I swear) though I am extremely disappointed with the fact that they took the cheap way out, it's a kid's game and a nintendo game, what did I expect? For them to let everyone actually die? Nope...though honestly, I can't comment on the overall amazingness of the plot they went with because...er....I only did Mipha's and Daruk's stages before just losing interest, so I'm not the person you want to ask about any story criticism, because that would be pure conjecture and utterly pointless.

The customization of heroes, now that's great. It's a weird system that I needed to google a lot for, but it's absolutely brilliant and I love it. Sure, getting the specific seals I want is a little annoying, but it's a great mechanic and I love it.

I probably should've said this earlier, but I'm comparing it mainly to Hyrule Warriors rather than BotW because AoC's a Warriors game and thus plays more like Hyrule Warriors than BotW, and BotW has a different set of standards due to being an open-world game. I'm still salty about the plot though, so I guess there's your comparison.

Also, I absolutely ADORE the fact that you can track materials. Not having to google which stage gives me which material is just the best. And the fact that the side quests have little blurbs, absolutely fantastic. We didn't get that in HW, but then again, once you finished the main story, the rest was just, Have Fun and Kill Everything, which is great, and I love it, but adding in a weird ingredient fetching quest with a nugget of lore is kinda cool. I don't wish we got it in HW though, since, as aforementioned, there was no way to track which material came from which stage, so that would've made it a nightmare.

The Divine Beasts....I hated them, they were literally just time wasters, and, granted I only did Rudania and Ruta before dropping the game, I just hated them. The UI was horrendous and even Ganon's Fury was better, and I absolutely DESPISE Ganon's Fury. Once I finished them, I was just happy for them to be over and never bother with them again. I hated their controls, I hated the cramped paths, I hated how I couldn't really turn and see anything, and honestly, I commend the champions for being able to control these bulky slow and absolutely horrible machines.

On the music, I think it's good. I loved BotW's soundtrack, I loved Zelda 2's soundtrack, I loved Wind Waker's soundtrack, I loved Cadence of Hyrule's soundtrack, I loved Hyrule Warriors's soundtrack, I loved Minish Cap's soundtrack, Triforce Heroes, Spirit Tracks (you're lying if you say otherwise, this soundtrack is a bop and I will actually fight you), etc etc, and this one is no different, though I will admit it did a pretty good job of having me ignore it, though that may have been more due to my frustration at the rods and runes and Zelda and Daruk more than actually having an unimpressive soundtrack.

Personally, it didn't do much for me, I can't get over the color palette, the mechanics, the divine beasts. I had pretty average, maybe a bit high, expectations, but they weren't quite met. I played it for a few hours one day, dropped it, picked it up again a few months later, then remembered exactly why I dropped it. I think the original Hyrule Warriors is just better visually for me, even if the plot isn't great or it's a bit fanfictiony, it had depth in combat that didn't absolutely annoy me, and the annoying battles were usually optional, and the bosses had variety, which is a fault mainly of BotW and was just an inherited problem for AoC, and I'm not a completionist, I don't want to have to complete anything with Darunia or Cia, so I don't unless I have to to progress something, which means that I don't stress about the gargantuan amount of content in HW.

IN SUMMARY: I've never had problems with frame rate (though I play docked due to visual impairment), and if you're visually impaired, wear anti-glare glasses because the pale colors aren't going to help much. I haven't found an option to make text bigger. The soundtrack is good,

there isn't much boss variety (not AoC's fault, but it's still there), the meditation room is great, the runes take a bit of getting used to, as do the rods(i never got used to them), Divine Beasts tank performance in all aspects and are just disappointing, you actually know which stage drops which item, and there's no My Fairy (which is definitely a positive).

To slap on an arbitrary rating that only means something to me: 4.5/10

It's a good game if you can get passed the issues that bug ME to no end.

And there we have it. There goes....holy crap I spent three hours on

I wanted to like this, I really did, and I'm glad others enjoy it, but as it stands, I'll let y'all move on to Age of Calamity, and I'll stick to my handy dandy Hyrule Warriors ice cream with a dash of Breath of the Wild, a sprinkle of Cadence of Hyrule, and a Zelda 2 cherry on top. It's not like I have to wait long for Subnautica; hopefully that doesn't disappoint me too much, I preordered this one. Actually, I get Pokemon Snap today too, hopefully it isn't a SwSh level disappointment, AoC is magnitudes better than SwSh at a 4.5

this????? Three hours of my life. Gone.

#age of calamity #loz #hyrule warriors #review #game review #zelda botw #age of calamity review #hw aoc #aoc #botw #aoc spoilers #legend of zelda #breath of the wild #late review #like several months late #who cares #visual impairment #gaming

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askroahmmythril · 3 years

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Reference List for amiibo Fighter Names (Set 2)

13) Ganondorf : Going Alone - A reference to the start of the original Legend of Zelda, the good ol’ “IT’S DANGEROUS TO GO ALONE TAKE THIS!” And the fact that, up to Smash 4, Ganondorf did not use his sword, despite clearly having one in his victory poses from Melee. Many jokes were of course made about this, this is one of them. Granted, now that he HAS his sword in Ultimate, this one’s a bit outdated, so might have to see if this one needs a revamp. I’d still be using the Smash 4 visual style though since alas, we didn’t get an updated amiibo figure for him of his OoT style.

14) Greninja : Kerobusa - A play on kero, Japanese for the sound a frog makes, and Hayabusa, the last name of Ryu Hayabusa, star of the Ninja Gaiden series. I wanted to parody the cutscene from the original Ninja Gaiden where Ryu is standing on a cliffside, overlooking the tower of the big bad, Jacquio. Given Greninja was introduced in the Kalos games, I subbed in Lumiose City and its prominent central tower for the scenery. The writing on the nameplate is from the title screen of the original Ninja Gaiden.

15) Ice Climbers : ParkaPower - Not really any sort of major reference here, I mostly stuck to the source game for this one, and just referenced that they wear parkas. Because dangit, their parkas are adorable. A notable difference between my version and Neo’s, he used the seal version of the normal enemy from Ice Climber, whereas I used the Topi as it’s what I was more used to.

16) Ike : SluggaBeef - This name actually came from WanStan, who donated this particular amiibo to me. Back with the earlier amiibos, I offered an incentive for anyone who donated a Smash amiibo to allow them to name the character, and they were the only one who donated a figure and actually took me up on that offer. Their idea was essentially just how he swings his sword with the power of a baseball bat for some hefty hits, so we played around with the idea and went with making a full-on baseball card out of it. The 24 refers to the release number of his amiibo.

17) Jigglypuff : J-Pop - A reference to j-pop style music, and well, the fact that her name starts with a J. And she’s a balloon, so those can pop. Multi leveled references! This was actually the first card I drew for the project. I originally asked Neo if he could just like, polish up my drawings with better colors and shading, and he surprised me by going full tilt and making his own version of my rough sketch. And thus the project was born. This went through some various bits of retooling, such as the Love Ball being replaced with a Fairy Energy symbol on the nameplate, and also revising her hairstyle a bit.

18) Kirby : dyson - Dyson, much like Kirby, is actually a brand of vacuum cleaner. Dyson’s commercials were famous for the designer being shown working on blueprints, saying things like “I just think vacuums should work properly,” things like that. Since it’s his most powerful vacuum power to date, I put in a Hypernova plant on his desk.

19) Link : HeroOfAges - While a little outdated visually since we now have BotW Link as the Smash rep, again, we’re in that impasse where we didn’t get a BotW style Link amiibo specifically for Smash. So he’s still got his Smash 4 look here. With this one, I just wanted to reference the various Links and LoZ games throughout time. So here we have referenced Ocarina of Time (Ocarina itself), Link to the Past (Magic Mirror), Link Between Worlds (Ravio’s bracelet), Twilight Princess (Fused Shadow), Hyrule Warriors (Link’s scarf), Skyward Sword (Beetle), the original Legend of Zelda (8-bit Wooden Sword), and the Oracles games (Harp of Ages). Neo added some extra details on each reference as well.

20) Little Mac : Jr.Whopper - Basically just a play on, if Little Mac is to Big Mac, what would you call the Whopper equivalent? Burger King for a long while was my go-to for fast food, though these days I probably prefer Sonic. Still, the joke was too good to pass up. Still amused Neo snuck the actual Burger King “King” mascot on there on his version, haha. I have no idea why I had so much trouble drawing Little Mac’s hair, I was probably way overthinking it...

21) Lucario : AttackTurn - Yu-Gi-Oh! is one TCG I have a tendency to return to every now and again. Given the Egyptian theming it has, it seemed a good fit for Lucario, who has an Anubis kind of feel to him visually. Thus I set about trying to find a card that made sense as a reference to how Lucario works. “Psychic Blade” was the best I could find. You equip it to a monster, then pay life points in multiples of 100, up to a max of 2000. The equipped monster then gains that much Attack and Defense. Thus, somewhat similar to the concept of Lucario’s aura, as he gains more attack power the more damage he’s taken. For the final card, we changed the name to “Aura of Psychic Blade” to more reference his aura. Neo added a lot of clever references in the “card info” parts of this one, such as having the Pokémon artist shown as the illustrator, a card number referencing the Hoenn games where Lucario originated, all nice little easter eggs.

22) Lucas : Tomato Kid - Given the long time wait for an official localization of Mother 3 (I forget, DID one ever get announced?), fans took it upon themselves to make their own translation. One of the more prominent ones I’d heard about was done by someone going by Tomato. And thus, since in Earthbound we had Orange Kid and Apple Kid, we now have Tomato Kid. There’s not too much else to detail here. I literally copied a screenshot of Mother 3 pixel by pixel in Visio Home for this. I couldn’t resist having the frog in the car, it’s just too weirdly cute.

23) Lucina : #FixFate - I admittedly don’t have a whole lot of Fire Emblem knowledge, so I had to just go with what references I could pull from. Lucina’s game came out fairly close to around the same time as that Fire Emblem / SMT crossover type game. Tokyo Mirage Sessions I think it was? All I really knew about it was some of the visual style of the colored shadows walking around. Given Lucina does have some time travel elements to her, going through time to fix her family’s past, her being in modern day Shibuya and texting on a smartphone doesn’t seem too out of the question... (okay it probably totally is but work with me here). I snuck in a Persona 4 reference with the Calorie Magic ad, as well as a more general SMT reference with the Jack Frost phone charm. Neo suggested adding a Splatoon ad in the background on the Shibuya tower.

24) Luigi : ReaL2401 - This is a reference to a big ol’ rumor inducing message people claimed to see on the star statue in the back garden of Peach’s castle in Super Mario 64. Supposedly, the plaque on it said “L is Real 2401.” People thought it was a hint to Luigi existing somewhere in the game. Later, more well defined images showed the plaque to just likely say “Eternal Star.” So I had the idea of Luigi leaving the message as a graffiti tag.

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vulpiximisa · 3 years

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finished age of calamity

i liked it but i dont like people saying “better story than breath of the wild” because botw didnt really have that much of a story. like yeah the memories but it was like... backstory/lore...??

story wise, i dont know what i was expecting. this being the “everybody lives” au that we all wanted was... actually great. we didnt have to play as the champions dying!

bruh (i played wind and lighting first) when that cutscene happened, i couldnt stop screaming. its cliched and i should have thought something like that would happen given eggbot did time travel from the beginning but im so glad i didnt get spoiled for it because i was so moved

rip teba tho because everyone else got along really close with the champions and him meeting revali is just “uh... he certainly was a guy”

im living for every revalink interaction, as in every moment revali makes a jab at link, including the final move where everyone is “go gett’m!!” and revalis just “dont fuck it up!!” gosh this game fed me, thanks for the good

bro i cant stop crying over mipha and sidon. the fact that he came from the ruined time and “i wont let you take her again” im 😭😭😭😭😭

astor was a disappointment, but i wasnt hoping too much for him in the first place, he was very generic from the get go

i did not expect to like kogha and his OC yiga henchman sooga so much (if ur asking u already know but yes they are yiga husbands) the moment kogha didnt run and stayed to fight with sooga, then bowing his head to his sworn enemy because of his losses, im just 😩😩😩 anyway im HOPING sooga’s not actually dead because this is the everyone lives au

i was hoping eggbot’s origin was a little more complicated but i guess i cant expect too much from a zelda game. kinda mmm that zelda had NO RECOLLECTION of eggbot. like, girl you made that. i know shes busy and a kid but kids are usually really impressionable. iunno

also speaking of zelda, glad the king is alive and apologizes tho i feel like she also apologized but SHE DID NOTHING WRONG.

gameplay wise, yeah its fun. i started listening to some reviews and i guess its easier than other warriors games? i played the first hyrule warriors but its been so long i dont remember what that was like. plus its more botw infused so theres that.

not a fan of.... the clothes changes? i mean, i guess that was a thing in the other hyrule warriors and botw link had outfits but they dont do anything here? and i finished the game so the champions and zelda also get outfit changes but uhhhhh iunno

my fav to play as is mipha, urbosa and impa. i want to get good with revali but most of his moves use him in the air and its kind of annoying. and teba is fun if you only use his strong attacks. i prefer yunobo over daruk, no offense, but i think gorons should punch (darunia was fine from what i remember, i think his hammer felt like it hit harder than daruk’s boulder breaker) sidon is fine but his strong move is kinda hard to get a hang of, same with king’s form change.

monk is fun, fairy queen is too big and hestu is kinda too gimmicky

uhhhhh yeah. i didnt think this would have any tie ins with botw2. so if anything, botw 2 is like the majoras mask to OOT while aoc is the... proper timeline?

#pixi plays games #re age of calamity

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mememan93 · 4 years

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Age of calamity Full review

This is not spoiler free!

TL:DR its not that its a bad game exactly, just that i have a shit ton of criticisms about it

So because i wanna ramble its gonna be confusing so im gonna split it into groups so the ramblings make sense

The gameplay

I actually love the dynasty warriors gameplay! admittedly i’ve only played hyrule warriors before this, but i still love the gameplay! The rods were a nice touch, but i wish you could BUY apples instead of having to find them

also what was with the reccomended levels? we went from reccomened level 6 to level 28 inbetween 2 consecutive levels

The Story

HOO BOY. The game was initially marketed as a prequel, and even though i had my doubts that the champs were gonna die onscreen and have nintendo leave it at that (zelda is STILL a kids game guys) it was somehow worse than i expected? lots of people have said it felt like a fanfiction and they arent wrong. timetravelling egg, ze//ink being pushed on us (ill explain later) The villain being that (also later) The yiga clan. Like it started off fine, but right after hyrule castle is when it started to get bad

The music

So the music was pretty good! I do have a few ones that i like, namely mipha, urbosa, and revali’s battle theme and Astors non battle theme. It was pretty good, but ill admit i dont remember a lot of it (im listening to the ost as i type this) Astors theme was a good theme, but it doesnt translate well into its battle theme.

The Voice acting

Its bad. It feels stale, the only character whose voice acting was REALLY good was khoga. When ninendo decided to go with voice acting for fire emblem 3 houses, they hired Patrick Seitz as a voice director, the way he directed the (already amazing) actors was spectacular. Idk who age of calamities Voice director is, all i know is its not the same guy

Listen to this video of the voice acting in fire emblem 3 houses, you’ll see what i mean

Astor

Yes, he gets his own segment i have that much to say

Astor had SO MUCH potential that was just wasted. when he was first announced, people noticed the gerudo symbol on his clothes that they did *nothing with*, so many theories came out, i was in a discord that notices that the thing he holds looks kinda like a corrupted giant core. I feel like when they made his only goal to make sure the calamity happens they made him a worse ghirahim (not that ghirahim was bad, ghirahim is y favorite villain, they just took all the good things about him, removed it and made astor.) also i feel hes gonna be dlc which is disappointing because i dont want to spend more money on this game. I think if he was from the same time as terrako, and only came back to stop terrako from fucking up the timeline it would have been more compelling. Speaking of which...

The egg

oh. my. god. The whole game i wanted to punt this thing. when i got the chance to beat it up in the last level i went FERAL over that. i still think that if zeldas bond with that egg is as deep as it wants us to believe, zelda wouldn’t’ve needed to hear it sing to remember it. i cannot tell you how much i cringed when the “hes a knight as well” line happened.

Zelda

Its not a secret that i dont like botw zelda. but this game just made me dislike her more. maybe it was the fact that the game was so focused on her feeling sorry for herself that annoyed me? maybe it was *still* her voice? maybe it was the...

Zelink

*Disclaimer* i am a multishipper* when it comes to zelda games. i ship zelink in skyward sword and spirit tracks (i ship Midzelink in tp so that sorta counts) i dont think he ship itself is bad.

*As long as its not like pedophillic, incest, or just creepy

The way almost every cutscene with link and zelda is like pushed romantics, we dont see any of the resentment between them from botw. they pushed off mipha and link, which was one of the things that interested me about botw, with like 2 lines about it, only between mipha and daruk. D a r u k

Have i covered everything? i think so, but its like 12 am and im tired

#Age of calamity #age of calamity spoilers #hwaoc spoilers #hwaoc #lee begrudgingly plays hwaoc #<- the finale #loz #lee speaks #do not clown on this post

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radramblog · 3 years

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Game of the Year 2020...?

Ive scrolled the list of games that came out this year to see what my GOTY ended up being, but turns out the only game I played in 2020 that released that year was, uh…….

Fucking good game but like I’m not gonna hand it GOTY by default (That goes to Hades, based solely impressions from other people). Actually, I’m not handing out any awards, really. So I guess I’m just gonna go over a bunch of the other games I did play last year, regardless of whether or not they came out then.

Hyrule Warriors: Definitive Edition

A mate got me this for my birthday in December 2019, and unlike the other games I got then (Kirby Star Allies which I burned through that month and Octopath which I still haven’t played) I spent a fair few hours playing it last year. This was before the sequel was announced, and also a little bit after the fact- figured I should try and finish one before playing the other. Unfortunately, I have yet to purchase Age of Calamity nor finish Definitive Edition, because the former is expensive and the latter is expansive. Holy shit there’s so much fucking content in this game. I don’t think I ever will finish it to be honest, though despite the repetitiveness it never really felt boring to me. It’s the only Warriors/Musou game I’ve played, and I’d be interested in trying others based on the experience.

(I’m not playing Fire Emblem Warriors though fuck that)

Pokemon Sword and Shield DLC: The Isle of Armor and the Crown Tundra

Sword and Shield felt somewhat lacking on release, and while the DLCs released this year did much to try and fix this its still a bit shit that it required an extra paycheck out of you to get the full game- outside of outsourced mobile games like Go and Shuffle, or services such as Bank or Home, Pokemon has never actually had DLC/microtransactions, so this was a little disappointing. I’d argue that it absolutely wasn’t worth it when Isle was released, as fun as the content was it was again, lacking. Crown Tundra I would argue exceeded my (admittedly low) expectations, however- the new and returning mons are cool and welcome (I despised Calyrex’s design on first reveal but their behaviour in story redeemed it more than enough), and the Max Lair Adventure offered a surprisingly replayable romp that has been great to just try and grind out with friends. I can’t say I’d recommend the DLC pack though- only if because you’ve probably made up your mind already as to whether or not you’re getting it, or this doesn’t apply to you at all. I could also put basically every main series Pokemon game on here, seeing as I’m pretty sure I nuzlocked every region at some point during the year, but I don’t want to make this *that* long.

Super Smash Bros Ultimate Expansion Pass

Smash is still Smash. I don’t find myself playing it much on my own, and even in Perth get-togethers weren’t super common last year. As neat as the DLC characters released this year are for the franchise as a whole, none of them convinced me to play significantly more than usual, and I can’t wrap my head around half of them, so.

Also, I’m still salty about Byleth, and I actually really liked Three Houses, it was my first FE game. Why the fuck wasn’t it Claude????

Rivals of Aether

On the other hand, in the last few months I’ve found myself grinding match after match of Rivals with one of my best mates and the game is a fucking blast, holy shit. I still haven’t bought it for myself, but its basically 100% of the reason I have played 0 smash for the last few months since we’re too busy mashing Orcane vs Ranno over and over and not really getting tired of it. It requires a specific type of person to get into it, but if you’re in that group then its just an excellent game.

VA-11 Hall-A

I first played VA-11 Hall-A (Vallhalla, since typing that is a pain) by pirating it and playing it on my laptop in the dead of night.

It quickly became one of my favourite games of all time.

When the Switch port dropped, I felt obliged to actually pay for it this time around, since the developers had more than earned my money. And then I replayed it again, playing it on my switch in the dead of night (At least this time I had the excuse of being a nightshift worker). With the sequel unfortunately delayed into 2021, it might be time to run it back once more or drag more of my mates into Glitch City since I already forcibly exposed a few of em to it.

The post-credits title screen is still my phone background.

Fallout: New Vegas

I don’t really have much to say about FNV that hasn’t been said already, especially considering HBomberguy’s recently released video, but it is also on my top 5 list and I only got around to playing Lonesome Road and Dead Money this year. Also went out of my way to 100% achievement complete the game on Steam, which I believe is the first time I’ve done that for a game.

Zero Escape Series (Nine Hours Nine Persons Nine Doors, Virtue’s Last Reward, Zero Time Dilemma)

The Danganronpa series’ less colourful sibling, Zero Escape was a series I finally got around to finishing after having borrowed a friend’s copy of VLR back in high school and playing it wrong due to not deleting his save file (oops,). I think VLR remains my favourite, and I really hope the series continues at some point (unlikely as it seems now) considering how ZTD missed the mark pretty hard. The first 2 games are still excellent mystery games and a lot of fun, though you do need somewhat of a tolerance for words.

A Hat in Time

Oh god this game is so fucking cute. Also, just an excellent platformer. Is the DLC still on sale? I should buy that.

Fallout 4

Its just not New Vegas. It just isn’t. I really tried with this game, I really did. The gunplay is great, modding and building shit is fun, but its just not the same.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

A couple years ago I bought a SNES Mini, but until 2020 I didn’t really have a convenient way of playing it seeing as my monitor didn’t have an HDMI port. But now I do have one with one, so I got to start playing this classic! And then stopped because of uni. Should finish that, probably.

Pokemon Super Mystery Dungeon

Shit Keara I still have your copy sorry I’ll get back to it :<

Pokemon Stadium

I also managed to get my N64 up and running, and despite being the wrong region for most of the games available in local shops, I somehow managed to get Stadium for a great price. Got to dig out my old Red cartridge and anything. Fuck me though, this game is brutal. Seriously, Gen 1 battle mechanics are tough to deal with at the best of times, having to do battle after battle with said mechanics without losing is just nuts. I still haven’t managed to get Round 2 unlocked.

God, fuck you Blaine. Goddamn fire spin Rapidash motherfucker.

Super Mario 64 Speaking of, I managed to pick up a Japanese cartridge of SM64, complete with BLJ glitches and 3 entire save files. After much effort, I managed to actually get it working, and spent most of the night of Christmas getting smashed and trying to beat Bowser in the Fire Sea. I played a lot of the DS remake as a kid, and I feel like an idiot for struggling as much I did with the original.

This is all of course a buildup to the fact that I was lying about not assigning a GOTY. Because there is only one N64 game in my small collection deserving of Game of the Year, because its deserving of Game of the Year every year since its 1999 release.

BEETLE ADVENTURE RACING MOTHERFUCKEEEEEEEEEEEEEEEER

#ramble #video games #retro games #pokemon #for real tho beetle adventure racing is actually good #mario kart who?

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mrneighbourlove · 5 years

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The Mask over the Man. The Demon over the Beast. Majora over Ganon.

I love both these villains. The N64 was my first console I delved deep into, and Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask introduced me to two of my favourite villains in gaming. Today though, I want to delve into why I see one of these characters as the superior ‘villain’. Just my opinion, but I hope to share my case strongly and passionately. I’ll go over each character, than why I believe that one reigns over the other, even if ever so slightly.

Ganon

The King of Evil. The King of Darkness. And the Great Calamity of Hyrule. I love the pig demon. His constant presence in the Legend of Zelda series cannot be ignored. Gameplay wise, he can be so much fun to fight against in the final battle for the sake of the world. Doesn’t matter if you fight him as a wolf, if he’s a wizard, or just a mighty beast. Story wise is where a have a slip with him. Ganon set the standard for me in the ‘Dark Lord’ archetype, however, he can sometimes feel simplistic in that regard, simply wishing to conquer the world. And as the beast, barring perhaps Link to the Past, he lacks any real character. It’s also unfortunate that most of the time you meet him, you defeat him immediately afterwards. The best he’s ever been as a threat to me, was in Breath of the Wild.

Calamity Ganon

This is Ganon as almost a force of nature. No real conscious we can see, having thrown away any shell of a man for hatred and malice. What really makes this Ganon work, is the relationship you *rediscover* with the old champions, and feeling the heartache at knowing they’re dead. The fact that it festered in Hyrule for over a century, is highly impressive. But the biggest complaint people had (and why everyone is going crazy over the mummified corpse of MummyDorf) is that because Calamity Ganon was just pure hatred, we lacked the relationship of the three Triforce users seen in past games. Which leads me talking about the man, the legend, the best part of Ganon.

Ganondorf

Making Ganon into Ganondorf did wonders for the character. His goals became more relatable, because we as humans can relate with another human being, or at the very least, understand the goal. Hailing from the Gerudo desert, there are two Ganondorf’s that I want to pick out. The Wind Waker split, and the Twilight Princess split. In Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf is the best evil conquer he’s ever been, even without the long locks of Hyrule Warriors. He set out with a long purpose goal to take the Triforce and conquer the world. And he was the main focus as a villain. Ganondorf was also young, and brash. He had a flair, which made him a fantastic villain. He truly appeared to be the King of Evil. Upon his defeat, he gave a loud speech of getting revenge, very classic villain monologue. The next game we saw him was Wind Waker. I feel confident in saying that despite not seeing too much of him, this is the best Ganondorf becomes as a character. He’s far more relaxed in his evil plot. The man goes out of his way to make sure his kidnaped girls aren’t hurt, and when dealing with both Link and Zelda, he gets straight to the point with them, yet, he doesn’t kill them. And up until the end, he still has an air of menace when he wishes to be theatric, despite having more experience and wisdom. After the frightful Puppet Ganon fight, you learn why Ganondorf set out for power in the first place. His people suffered under the desert heat of day, and the icy cold nights. In his own words, the winds carried death. His desire for the Triforce was to bring back the old land of Hyrule. Despite what might have happened after he brought back the land, Ganondorf wanted to *restore* the old land of Hyrule from under the sea. That’s almost heroic. You emphasize with him. Which I argue diminished his villainous qualities in exchange for a more flushed out character. He only tries to kill Link and Zelda after his wish is denied and he snaps into insanity.

Then there’s Twilight Princess Ganondorf. A really cool Ganondorf. His design is awesome, I love his boss fights gameplay wise and musically, but this is one of the Ganon’s I’d place into the ‘cockblock’ section of Ganons. Real talk, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this, but I really like Zant as a villain. He was incredibly intimidating until you face him in the realm of Twilight. His relationship with Midna was interesting, and he carried a cool air not seen before. He was chill... until the very end into his sudden crazy decent. I feel that both Ganondorf and Zant suffer because of the formers sudden conclusion. Each character lost time in the game that could have been used to develop them more. Zant could have had more time to develop into madness as the final boss, or Ganondorf could have been established from the beginning, instead of being diet OOT Ganondorf. His evil goal of placing the world into Twilight didn’t have any drastic changes to the world either. Civilians didn’t even notice the danger they were in. At least OOT Ganon ruled Hyrule for 7 years, and Calamity Ganon was around for 100 years. When Ganondorf takes away time from other villains, it makes him a weaker villain as well. Which is why the Mask stood tall in such a unique story.

Majora

The entity of Majora’s Mask stands out to me as something insidious and inhuman. Unlike Ganondorf, you can’t identify with an unblinking Mask like you can a human being. It stands out as a villain that doesn’t need Ganon in its story or to take his form. The duel relationship with Skull Kid is interesting, as Skull Kid isn’t entirely innocent in his actions, but the transition Majora takes over Skull Kid makes you wonder who’s control until the very end. In my recent play through, I just discovered this, but in Day 1 or 2, the Skull Kid will do a little dance when you spot him in the telescope, and once you look back, he spanks his ass at you and jumps away. However, at Day 3, his head is sideways, looking at you, and constantly twitching, rooted to his spot. It’s like Majora is a drug to Skull Kid that has finally caught up. And that’s a terrible fate to think about.

What stands out to me the most about Majora over Ganon, is the stakes as a hero. First, looking at the world. Ganondorf ruled Hyrule for 7 years, yet villages like Kakariko are still around. The world hasn’t been ruined. Even with Calamity Ganon having been around for 100 years, he’s in a prison with Zelda, and civilization keeps ticking by. The moment you enter the world of Termina and you look to the sky, you can see Majora’s immediate tool of armageddon.

The Moon

This rock in the sky slowly falls to the Earth over a period of three days. The stakes are felt immediately. You either stop Majora from crashing the moon into Termina, or you burn with the rest of the world. Swept away by a wall of fire compered to an atomic bomb. If the ticking timer doesn’t remind you of your duty, the earthquakes on the third day, then looking to the sky will. Another peek of interest for me in the camp of villainy, is the people you meet along the way. The world of Termina is full of colourful characters that Link meets throughout his adventure. From Tatl to Pamela and her Father, you get heavily invested with them. And they all are aware of the danger of the moon. Almost all are directly or indirectly affected by the Skull Kid and the power of Majora that he immaturely wields. Mikau is killed by Gerudo pirates because they were influenced by Skull Kid to steal the Zora eggs. Areas such as the Woodfall Swamp, Snowhead mountains and Ikana Valley are cursed due to the Monsters Majora unleashes after sealing the giants away. Kafei is cursed into a child directly by Skull Kid and has his wedding mask stolen by a thief as a result. Cremina, god willing that you save her sister Romani from the “Ghosts”, drugs her sister with alcoholic milk so she sleeps through the destruction of the world. The acts of villainy Majora does ripple big and small. With Ganondorf and Ganon, you are given free room to take your time, you lose very little allies, and you have Zelda backing you up most of the time in a battle of destiny. With Majora, however, Zelda is no way involved, many people you meet die and suffer, some you can’t save even with rewinding time, and if you don’t stop the villain, he isn’t going to reshape the world, or control it in his own image, it’s going to destroy it. That is terrifying. Ganon has never truly terrified me. He’s just too human enough, and his villainous acts have never put me on edge. Unlike the champions of Breath of the Wild who you are avenging, the people of Termina are here and now, and that puts so much more tension on me.

Ganondorf is a great villain, but the inhuman characteristics of an entity that wanted to destroy all left a bigger impression on me. When you finally defeat Majora and save everyone you can correctly and within the time you’re given, including Skull Kid I might add, the credits feel so amazing because you truly saved the world, but more importantly, you saved the people that inhabit it. Defeating Ganon as a villain is a battle of destiny. Defeating Majora is a battle for everyone’s tomorrow.

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wildshero · 4 years

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ooc: welp i went ahead and spoiled AoC for myself, under the cut are spoilers you have been warned

im super disappointed in nintendo for making everyone live. the game would have been so powerful to have the true ending that leads straight into botw. but they just love their split timelines don’t they. not every game has to end happily at risk of spoiling spider man: miles morales that game has a very bitter sweet ending with death involved, and no one is complaining. i just don’t get why they had to ahead and ruin a timeline they already firmly set up. like the game was described as being a view into what happened before the 100 years, but its not that if you go and change the whole damn story.

like ngl if botw 2 takes place after aoc i’ll be kind of disappointed, like aoc erases everything from botw

like all the heartache and shit is erased in aoc, and it takes away everything that link and zelda fought for in botw in order for it to not happen, which is fine, but at the same time like calling forth the “new” champions from the future to fight alongside you isn’t an answer to the problem. it just creates a huge paradox

so from here on out are basically my thoughts to watching the cut scenes

its just bad writing, not to mention straight up stealing the fact that zelda and impa can understand the egg from droids and their “masters” from star wars, the egg is her music box... and plays her lullaby. like stop forcing the egg on us please

why can no one see hestu til zelda can? like scuse me, no link can see the giant brocoli just fine despite this cut scene. also hestu not remembering link in botw if this scene is real? like COME ON

mipha is shit at hiding her crush

the not ganon character is a seer who wants to control their own calamity possessed egg, and sooga is like its not for mortals to control

it is weird seeing link without the slate on his armor, there’s a place for it, but its like not there.

i know its hyrule warriors and you gotta have more than two people going but like impa being there at the spring of courage... like love her all you want but nah fam this aint it also it steals story elements away from link, i know the boy is selectively mute BUT JESUS give him something please

also its like link being the hero means nothing in terms of the slate and the towers, and then the shrines. its like all of it is meaningless in this game, which like revali says what’s the point of link then

calamity comes early? what the hell? this game. im so upset, but also like rhoam getting unnecessarily angry at link for doing what he’s supposed to like jesus fucking christ then he lowkey dies like okay

purah being there when zelda breaks down and its not just link... like the whole story of botw is like fucked, and zelda has time travel tears now

like all the things that happened in botw that built the characters is erased, like everything is a group effort which like is disappointing. i love how the new champions come BUT at the same time it defeats the point of the champions ballad, and the solo battles that link has to face.

alot of the story telling elements are repeated like more obviously than in botw which is saying something

all that the new champions are seeing is for nothing... like they will go back with these memories and it will suck cause they know the current state will have been changed and so what they see will be burdens they carried alone and for nothing for their future people

link’s sacrifice is for nothing, so thanks for diminishing that for me AOC. like him fending off the four blights unlocks zelda’s power but like seriously what is the point of him in this game, he is literally useless, like he straight up disappears. and her power isn’t unlocked via her love, but seeing link fight, and then thinking of the loss of her father

the yiga joined the good side? the fuck aoc

oh link is magically back now. why is he even in this game?

her father isn’t dead but was transported to the temple of time cause of a relic zelda and her mom found. THE PLOT ARMOR, its a shield its literal plot armor oh my god. which lead to her power awakening having no real meaning

literally everything from botw is unwritten, all the strife and everything that was fought for in botw is literally gone

i liked that teba was not a fan of revali’s attitude but like he then becomes a simp for him like dude you can still be in awe and think he’s a jerk to link and in general

ah a blood moon at the end... *eyeroll* okay

harbinger ganon... *squints*

the seer becomes sucked into ganon and the egg attacks zelda and link deflects its blast killing it... WHAT IS THIS WRITING

cool zelda is crying more over this damn egg than her people in BOTW, so zelda is like 5 when her mom dies in the castle (?) its not clear, and her dad is like training only now

also the eggs name is terrako

who needs the master sword the darkness when you’ve got egg boy and zelda’s sealing power, no wonder its shit 100 years later. fi realized she wasn’t fucking needed

slice him through like butter link that’ll do it *eye roll* what happened to that courage power from the fucking master sword scene? what sealing are you doing with that sword? you sliced through him. LIKE?

things that i kinda like, and appreciate character wise

link gets flustered easily. revali revels in the fact that link will be the fallen knight and his reputation what little he has will be ruined, it is also well known that link is in fact a nobody meaning his family is not noble born, but that does not mean his family, read his father, on this blog is a nobody.

urbosa defending link from revali’s bullshit

link fighting malice champions from the totally “not ganon” hooded figure

link is officially considered a champion, and talks with urbosa

impa being pissy with the egg, i feel it. i am tired of the fucking egg pushing himself in too

sooga is the only character i want to see in botw2

link can teleport more than one person is confirmed, though three max is like it in a weakened state.

as much as i hate how many paradoxes this creates, yunobo and sidon’s enterances are very good, and teba’s and riju’s are similar. urbosa recognizing she’s in trouble is very in character for her imo.

i liked that all in hyrule worked together but like at what cost

i prefer this design of calamity ganon

the master sword lets FUCKING DISCUSS

ahahaha no. link pulls the sword when he’s a kid. I WANT TO HAVE A DISCUSSION NINTENDO GIVE ME YOUR NUMBER

like the scene is cool and all but we’re gonna be rewriting that bullshit. the only thing im taking from it is apparently link and the sword together have some courage power a-la zelda’s healing power... NOT THAT IT MATTERS CAUSE HE DOESN’T GET TO FUCKING USE IT

HOWEVER he does not pull it for the first time right then and there, sorry nope, not happening

The story is very much zelda’s which it should be, but like every moment that could have been link’s was taken by another character because of how hyrule warrior’s opperates. like if you want to play as zelda this is your game

im just disappointed, it erases everything from botw quite literally. it gives the new champions memories that they bare alone because zelda and link wont be there in 100 years to help them with it...

link was useless in the game. like you could literally write him out and have the same game, having the master sword literally does fucking nothing because of how OP zelda is. like its called legend of zelda and rightfully so but Link becomes a literal footnote. purah and others takes his place in all the important scenes that were his before.

and like i said if BOTW2 takes place after this its gonna be disappointing and not as dark as nintendo is intending IMO, they should have let this game end the way it does in the lead up to BOTW, it would have been so much more rewarding in my opinion yes you “technically lose” but you would still get some awesome final moments with zelda, and it would hype you up for BOTW.

there were parts i liked obviously, but there were major issues, and this is JUST STORY BASED, im not even talking game play.

#tw: aoc spoilers #ooc: out of memories #i am so disappointed

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jinmukangwrites · 4 years

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I’ve been writing (not posting it) LU fanfics for a while now and I was wondering if you had any suggestions on how to make the characters feel a little less ooc? I’ve been having a lot of trouble with that, especially with Hyrule since there’s not much material other than the au itself to base his personality off of.

So, the way to characterize LU characters for me at least is a little different than how I would characterize let's say DC characters.

For DC, there's canon material dating back all the way to the fourties. It's easy to know how Dick would act in different situations because at this point there's not a whole lot of situations he hasn't been in. To get a grasp on his character, I just had to read his comics and then pretty much go from there. There's an easy fanon version of Dick Grayson that's easy to get a grasp on and is easily accepted by the fandom.

But for LU it's a little different. It's a little harder. The thing about LU is that it's based off the Legend of Zelda games, which mean technically, while playing, you are Link. There's no way to characterize a Link because, technically, a Link's characterization is you. It makes it a little hard to write them because, even with JoJo's comics, you still have a version of this character in your head of what they should be by your standards.

For me, Wild was this quiet yet outgoing young man who only wanted to help people. Yet for others, Wild is this gremlin who will set someone on fire at the drop of a dime.

With Hyrule, I agree with you that he is very difficult. He doesn't have much of a story, hardly a personality in his canon games. You're given a task and you go do it. My gameplay of Zelda 1 was me following a step by step guide and doing whatever I was told to do. I can guarantee that my Zelda 2 adventure will be exactly like that as well.

So Hyrule, there's a lot of open space for him.

So you have to go with the basics and fill in the blanks yourself.

Who is Hyrule? Well, he's most of the time rather reserved. When put in the right situations, he'll be a little gremlinish, especially if he has Wild near him. He's a skilled fighter who doubts himself and his abilities often. He goes along with the crowd, never really wanting to stand out too much, but he does have a curious spirit where sometimes he just can't help it.

Then? You fill in the blanks. Who is Hyrule to you? Well, he can really be anyone at this point. Jojo hasn't done much with him, so really he's free reign to characterize however you want.

But that's what you need to do. You need to characterize. You can't just read the Canon material, play his games, and then base everything you know off of that. You have to constantly ask yourself questions about his personality to make him seem less like an OC and more like a human being. A simple way to do this is to look at videos, memes, music, everyday situations you see in your life, and ask yourself "what character is this? How would this character react to this? How would this character get into this situation?"

Characterization is practice. And if something feels a little oc to you, then evaluate what feels wrong and fix it.

If you're super stuck, look up some other fan fiction. Look at fan art. Look at someone else's headcanons and integrate those into your own creations.

However, keep in mind that content is meant to be consumed by the reader, and the creator and the rest of the fandom has no say in how you consume that content. If you want Hyrule to be outgoing because that's how you perceive him? Go for it. If you want Warrior to be a huge gremlin? Time to be angsty all the time? Twilight to be mute? Wild to be self conscious? Sky to have adhd? Wind to be a crazy kid that can't be quiet? Four to be reserved and totally secretive? Then you have every right to do that.

The great thing about this fandom is that there's no one right way to characterize someone.

If I wrote Dick anyway other than how he is in canon/fanon I'll get people telling me that I'm writing him wrong. But if I wrote Legend as a crazy idiot with a need to steel people's kneecaps, then no one would really be bothered by that.

If a character feels ooc to you, then you just need to make your characterization just a bit more solid. Study up on them a tiny bit more. Rewrite the scene and change a few words. Try typing with your eyes closed, imagining the scene play out like a movie and you're simply writing down what happened.

I hope this sorta helps you? I went on a ramble and I'm sure I went on multiple tangents, but still. I hope you find some advice in here that can help :)

((asks are still temporarily closed))

#jin answers #ask #anon ask

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shekorla · 4 years

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Linked Universe and Magnus Archives

So, I really love Linked Universe, and I also really love the podcast Magnus Archives. I decided to try and see which fears fit each link. I tried to see which fear would haunt them, not which one they would be an avatar for, might do that later. In other words which of the fears would be the one that keeps them up at night and sneaks in to eat at the edges of their mind. If you are seeing this because you love Magnus, check out linked universe here, it’s a cool Legend of Zelda AU with all the links traveling together. If you are seeing this because of LU check out the Magnus Archives here (or literally any place you can get podcasts), its an awesome horror podcast made by rusty quill gaming. If horror isn’t your cup of tea check out their other stuff too, they've got a lot of cool stuff. The list ended up being pretty long, so I’ll put it under the cut.

· Time-The Web. The web is the fear of being controlled, it’s the fear of being trapped with no escaped. I chose the web for time because I saw a connection to The Mother of Puppets. With his masks particularly the fierce deity mask and the possible loss of control and insanity that comes with the power that it gives. He saw what the power of Majora’s mask did to skull kid and fears that the same will happen to him. Not only that but Majora set up a lot of tricks for him and more or less used him as a plaything. After being used and thrown away by Hyrule when they needed a hero, not great. He tried his best and went through hell to live up to destiny and follow the path set for him by fate and by the sword and then he was told to forget anything ever happened and go back to being a kid. So, I think that the fear that would fit him best would be the web, particularly The Mother of Puppets side of it. I think that the fear of not being in control of anything in his life or losing control to some force out there would be something big for him.

· Four- The Lonely. The lonely is the fear of being alone. It is the fear that you are alone, no one cares for you, and you will always be alone. This one isn’t as deep as some of the others, I think four’s biggest fear is being alone. He has lost Ezlo, then he lost shadow, and in a way lost his four parts. I think he is afraid that one day he will be all alone without his parts, or any of his friends.

· Twilight- The Hunt. The hunt is the fear of being hunted, it is about the thrill of the chase, violence, and the victory of the final kill. I think that twilight fears that when he turns into a wolf he will lose himself. He’s never had that problem before, but that doesn’t mean it’s not possible. I think twilight is afraid of losing himself to the thrill of the hunt and end up hurting someone he cares about. On the other side of the coin, he has also been hunted. When he was first turned into a wolf he was chased out of his village by people he considered family. To top it off questing to save Hyrule and being hunted by monsters is never good for one’s sanity.

· Wild-The End. This one may seem weird because the end is the fear of death and wild is an adrenaline junky who can literally come back from the dead. but I think that his death and failure to save Hyrule the first time around haunts him. I think that some part of him deep down is afraid of dying, and what his death will mean for Hyrule. I don’t think he is afraid of the pain of dying, but the end of life, does something come after, if so what, what will happen to Hyrule without its hero. I think that there may also be a part of him that fears that he can’t die, whether that means that the world won’t let him die, or that he physically cannot die no matter what. What if he is forced to live on and watch as everything he worked for crumbles before him.

· Legend-The Web. So, Legend was really hard to pick just one fear for Legend, there were multiple that could have worked. I almost chose the spiral, which is the fear of madness and nothing being real, because of his experience on Koholint, and the thought that maybe nothing is real and it’s all just a dream. In the end, I decided on the web because the kid has been on something like 6 quests and it probably seems that he will never get to rest. Not only that but with traveling with the other links he must have learned from Hyrule that all his work was for nothing, in the end Ganon came back. So, I think the web is the fear that haunts him, the fear that no matter what he is trapped by destiny to fight, loose people, and do it all over again until he dies. And it will all be for nothing.

· Warrior-The Slaughter. The slaughter is the fear of war, violence, and killing. It’s not about the chase like The Hunt is, and it is very much about human death, unlike The Flesh which is very animalistic. I picked the slaughter for Warrior because you don’t just walk off leading an army through a war, and having to kill your own men when they turn traitorous without some kind of permanent backlash. I think that sometimes he is afraid that he is nothing but a mindless killing machine lost in the violence of war. I mean in the games you kill about 1,000 enemies a level, most of the time more, that’s probably more then you might kill in the entirety of some of the other games. I think the mindless brutality of war haunts him.

· Wind-The Eye. The eye is the fear of being watched, it is the fear that someone out there knows all of the secrets you would rather hide. I don’t think Wind has a lot of secrets to hide, he’s pretty open, and freely tells stories about most things. But I don’t think he likes being watched. In his first quest he was being watched and judged by the gods, to see if he was worthy of the title of hero. Then when battling the phantoms even the smallest millisecond of being spotted could mean death. He has a lot to live up to with the eyes of everyone in the past looking at him. I think that keeps him up at night, trying to live up to everyone’s expectations and fill the shoes of the mythical Hero of Time.

· Sky-The Spiral. I don’t think the madness aspect of the spiral would really get to Sky, he seems to be pretty grounded, but the corridors are an entity of the spiral. I don’t remember if that is what it is called, but whatever Michael is. The endless hallways full of doors that trap people. I think this works for Sky because I think that he fears being endlessly trapped chasing something. He spent a lot of time chasing Zelda, and I think that he blames himself for not catching up with her and helping her sooner. His low stamina doesn’t help. He was also too slow to stop demise, which lead to all of the others being cursed. So, I picked the spiral for him because I think he has nightmares of running and running and never quite being able to catch whatever it is, no matter how far he travels.

· Hyrule-The Flesh. I had the opposite problem with Hyrule that I had with Legend. To me, he seems like a guy that doesn’t let anything hold him back and doesn’t hold on to trauma. The flesh is usually a fear only associated with animals and has to do with slaughter and butchery. This may seem a bit out of place for Hyrule, but if you think about the events of Zelda 2 he spends the entire game being hunted like an animal for his blood. I almost used the hunt for this, but they are specifically after his blood which I feel plays into the animalistic nature of the flesh very well. I considered giving him the lonely, but then I realized I don’t think he fears being alone. For him being alone is the norm, maybe after spending time with the other links and going back home the pain of being alone may hit him, but I think for the most part he doesn’t fear being alone because he doesn’t realize he is alone. he doesn’t realize that most people spend most of their day surrounded by others.

These are just my thoughts feel free to share yours if you think I got one of them wrong, let me know. I’m always open to constructive criticism or just to hear your thoughts. I might make some art for these later, or make a list of the avatars that they would each be. I don’t know stay tuned.

#the magnus institute #magnus archives #linkeduniverse #linked universe #the magnus archives #tma #headcanons #magnuspod #all the links #rusty quill gaming #rusty quill

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vgwriter · 5 years

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Breath of the Wild: A Review

A Little History

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild came out in 2017 to universal acclaim and helped to successfully launch the Nintendo Switch. While that is far from a surprise, (the Zelda series is one of the most critically acclaimed and commercially successful franchises of all time) Breath of the Wild does take the series in a much different direction. It's focus is almost completely on exploration and is the most nonlinear of the series. It is the second biggest jump the series has made outside of going 3D. So, does it work? Well, the rest of the world and their mother seem to think so but here's my take on this game.

What I Loved

*SPOILERS*

#1-A Story to Remember

It seems odd to focus on the story when the game doesn't but behind the vast world and great characters is a subtle yet amazingly well executed story. The player finds Link in a DBZ healing pod after he is just awakened from a hundred year slumber of healing. He is told by the disembodied voice of British Zelda to defeat Calamity Ganon but wait, there's more! Turns out Link has amnesia from the fight he had 100 years ago trying to protect Zelda. After obtaining the Sheikah Slate (the games multi-tool), the player discovers there are photos Zelda locked in the Slate to help Link recover his memory. This is how the story is unfolded for the player. The struggles of the Five Champions and Princess Zelda are seen through flashbacks that explain how Hyrule went to sh*t. It is a simple and traditional method but it is effective when coupled with the games minimalist piano soundtrack and isolated atmosphere. It gives a heartbreaking insight into just how lonely and broken this version of Hyrule is and how much Link and the others lost.

#2-The Puzzles

The games dungeons are split up into two catagories: shrine and divine beasts. The shrines are smaller and have a variety of challenges in their 120 locations while the devine beasts are 4 large challenges with several moving parts. Most shrines are designed to be easy to follow but still make the player feel creative. This feeling of creativity stems from the developers themselves that made each level doable in multiple ways. Each dungeon is designed to test the players use of the games mechanics, the player can play it how it was designed or try to tackle it from another angle. One example from my personal playthrough was using a bomb arrow to light fire because I couldn't figure out how to light a torch through a gate. It worked but probably not the way it was designed to. While not every shrine has a variety of ways to solve them (mostly the trial by combat shrines), they are all intriguing challenges designed with fun in mind and feel rewarding when completed. The divine beasts are a similar story with a few minor details. The player must first find the map of the dungeon and then go about reclaiming terminals to free the divine. The map is a 3D rendering of the dungeon with an interactive portion that moves key parts of the beast around. This was a great design choice because it challenges the player to think of the dungeon as a moving puzzle and to consider how moving the pieces will help them advance to the boss.

#3-The World and Character Design

To say the world is stunning is an understatement. The design of the enviroment feels so natural to explore and interact with that finding Koroks is like spoting cognitive distortion in a high school drop outs racist rant on Facebook. I usually find map towers annoying in games like Assassin's Creed but in BOTW they are better integrated into the games exploration. Some towers are actually challenging to climb if Link doesn't have enough stamina or if the player just throws him onto a tower without looking for enemies first. They are like little challenges all their own and it is a great take on something that has been bland and stale since it was first introduced (to me at least) in AC1. Outside of the towers is the vast world that pulls the player into it with rewarding exploration in cute and helpful ways. The shrines are an obvious reason to explore but there are also Koroks, fun and unique side quests, and just cool stuff to find as well. The variety and density of things to do justifies the games gigantic map. It is one of the few games to live up to the idea of an open-world and keep it interesting throughout a 100 hour playthrough.

The art design, oh my cel shaded god, it's amazing. I'm not gonna pretend like I'm some art history major but the regional designs do some pretty interesting things with the enviroment. The five peoples in Hyrule have all appeared in previous titles but have been tweaked in some way for BOTW. The Gorons have a theme of raw strength throughout their entire section of the map, from their weapons to the steel planks on the streets of Goron City. The Rito's design is more centered on their freedom and ability to fly with the entire settlement resembling a nest. Seriously, everything has feathers. The Zora have an elegance in everything they own from the large city built from one large carving to the silver weapons. The Gerudo seem to be a shell of their former selves like the Hylians with ruins surrounding their two settlements. Their quality in construction and bejewelment of everything that shines shows what matters most to them, beauty and effectiveness. The Hylian design is European with a mix of far east in certain pockets. Hyrule castle is a great dungeon that actually lives up to the title of castle. Kakariko village is a weird area that doesn't fit into the Hylian design but c'mon, you can't go wrong with far eastern architecture. Each region has its own design that both fit its surroundings and its people and feels natural, like the people and land are truly living together. It's impressive that Nintendo was able to pull that off because it is not easy to do.

The characters are simply iconic, mostly. The four champions don't get a lot of screen time but they use what they have effectively. Daruk is a stubborn strong man with a great admiration for strength and brotherhood. Mipha is the white mage of the group with a thing for Link (which I prefer to Zelda). Revali is the arrogent prick of the group that comes around eventually. Urbosa is basically the group mom, being the most mature out of everyone. Each of these characters are simple but fill their role effectively and are all quite likeable (even Rivali). Their present day counterparts aren't as memorable though. I mean, outside of Sidon. Sidon makes me feel like I can do anything just by smiling. But everyone else I had to look up for this review. Yunobo is some shy kid that finally lives up to his potential. Teba is a proud warrior but really not that memorable. Riju comes close to being memorable but I still had to look her up. Outside of the champions and their descendents, Kilton made an impression on me. The Bolson company had one of my favorite quests and some of the funnier cutscenes. Each side quest character has that quaint old fashioned rpg vacuum writing. They all live in their own world and interact with Link for one reason.

Overall, the characters and how they interact with the enviroment are what make this game a masterpiece. The mechanics and story are what make it a great game but the world design is that extra step where most great games stumble to me.

#4-The Combat

The combat is simple but has a multitude of uses against the games enemies. Link has three moves: attack, shield, and shoot. Everything beyond this simple moveset depends on how the player equips Link or uses the Slate Ruins. If an enemy is mostly ice, fire weapons are super effective and vice versa. Thunder disarms anyone, including Link. It gets better than simple elemental weapons. If you bring a cucco to a battle and an enemy hits that cucco, a swarm of bird will rain hell on that unassuming bokoblin. Seriously, that alone gives this a 5/5! Also, the enviroment can be used as a weapon if it's set up correctly. If Link fells a tree and lines up the path right, it will attack the enemies. There is just so much to do in this game and it all works off of three simple actions. Perfect.

#5-Misc.

Some other things that stood out enough to mention but not enough to make a paragraph. The crafting is useful and not intrusive. Link can buy a house, which is always fun. The outfits are all great designs and useful in their respective enviroment. There are throwback outfits from previous titles (mostly through amiibos) and that is always cool. Zelda became a scholar and that was a great take, not just on Zelda but on the idea of fictional princesses in general. Link can cut grass. The variety of weapons is astounding. Oh, and uh, all this fits on a small little card no bigger then the last knuckle of my thumb.

What I Didn't Like

#1-The Weapons Fragile Weaponinity

The weapons break way too easy. That's it. That is the only thing I have to complain about this game. That shouldn't be all I have to complain about. I should have two more points to make at least but I don't. Nintendo has made a masterpiece.

The Score

This game shouldn't exsist, it's too good. The gameplay is simple but versatile. The enviroment is peaceful and relaxing while also being desolate and dangerous and this makes it fun to explore. The story and the enviroment fit so well together and compliment each other every time they connect. Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is a 5/5 and the definitive way to make open-ended games.

#legend of zelda #zelda #botw #nintendo #video games #reviews #spoilers #5/5 #prince sidon #lady mipha #mipha x link #urbosa #daruk

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