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mysmashplaythroughs · 1 year

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Mewtwo Playthrough (Pokemon Y)

Fighter: Mewtwo.

Game: Pokemon Y, Nintendo 3DS. First Released on October 12th 2013.

Fighter Bio.

Created by a scientist after years of horrific gene splicing and DNA engineering, it’s DNA is said to be the same as Mew’s but with a vastly different size and disposition being a vicious psychic Pokemon with cold glowing eyes. Said to be the most savage amongst all Pokemon, it was bred for and therefore only cares about battling without compassion. Mewtwo is one of only two Pokemon known to be capable of Mega Evolving into two different forms, Mewtwo X and Mewtwo Y. Mewtwo Y takes on a smaller appearance with its tail seemingly becoming a tentacle attached to its head, it is said to have grown its mental power immensely in this form at the expense of its physical body. Mewtwo X in contrast is bulkier with a smaller tail, it is said to have augmented its muscles with its psychic power in this form becoming Psychic Fighting type.

Mewtwo is fairly unique in that within the games canon it seems there is only one Mewtwo. Due to this it has a specific backstory detailed in scientific logs found in the Pokemon Mansion on Cinnabar Island. The logs claim that Mewtwo was born from a pregnant Mew who was found deep in the jungles of Guyana. It was tampered with in the womb to alter its DNA and following its birth further gene experiments were performed by a scientist in order to make it the most powerful Pokemon ever. In turn this had the side effect of making Mewtwo vicious and with its great power it broke free from the Pokemon Mansion where it was held, leaving the place a burnt out wreck. The scientist regretted his actions and disappeared. It is implied this scientist may be Mr Fuji, a kindly old man who dedicates the rest of his life to supporting Pokemon in need in Lavender Town. Mewtwo took up residence in Cerulean Cave, known for being the most dangerous location in Kanto with Pokemon there only qualified Champions have a chance of dealing with. Eventually canonically Mewtwo is captured by either Red or Leaf, the new champion of Kanto after a fierce battle. A couple of years later, Johto’s Champion, Gold or Kris arrive at Cerulean Cave to find it collapsed, but a remnant of Mewtwo, the Beserk Gene can be found there. Following this Mewtwo would not appear in later games beyond being transferred from Kanto (or being an event Pokemon given away). However in Pokemon HeartGold and SoulSilver, Cerulean Cave seemingly hasn’t collapsed and Mewtwo can be found inside by Ethan or Lyra. This would therefore imply in this canon that either Red did not capture Mewtwo or released Mewtwo prior to the events of the game. Following this, in the Kalos region there is a place known as Pokemon Village and to the north is a cave known as the Unknown Dungeon. Pokemon hiding from people due to various reasons are said to reside within Pokemon Village which is why it’s so far away from civilization and only those who have earned the Pokemon’s trust may enter. Within the cave resides Mewtwo, how it got there and whether it’s the same one from Kanto is never said, however it holds a Megastone which is capable of Mega Evolving it into either Mewtwo X or Mewtwo Y.

Beyond this appearance there are a few other appearances Mewtwo makes in the games, however in many of these cases such as the Ultra Space Wilds, Max Lair, Ramanas Park and under Giovanni of Team Rainbow Rocket’s command it is implied these are all Mewtwos from other dimensions. Due to this and Mirage Spots appearing in Hoenn during the events of Omega Ruby and Alpha Sapphire it is plausible that some of the previous appearances of Mewtwo such as in Kalos (which has Mega Evolution therefore implying it exists within the same world as ORAS) could be alternate universe versions rather than the same one from Kanto. Therefore, overall it is my belief that the only absolute certainty with Mewtwo in the canon are the events on Cinnabar Island and it residing within Cerulean Cave.

Crossovers with other Smash characters: Similar to Pikachu and most other Pokémon, Mewtwo hasn’t really had any crossovers with other Smash characters outside of its series. There was a cameo of the game Mario & Wario in the Kanto games, appearing on the tv in the character Copycat’s house, but that is the closest there has been to an actual crossover. There is one unique factor to Mewtwo however. Creatures Inc was the successor to Ape Inc who were involved in the Mother series. Because of this it has been heavily speculated but I believe never outright confirmed that Mewtwo’s design was at the very least influenced by a prominent character in the series, Giygas the main antagonist of both Mother 1 and 2 (aka Earthbound Beginnings and Earthbound which Ness is from). Whilst in Earthbound Giygas has a very unique design to put it mildly, in Mother 1 he had a specific visual physical design. The main issue with this is that, from what I’ve found looking into it the only official appearance of Giygas is in sprite form in Mother 1. Due to this, how he looks is mostly down to interpretations of the sprite. The sprite for Giygas is a thin white body with what seems to be two arms and two legs that are thin like tentacles, a long tail behind him and a head with two black eyes and what look like two ears or horns that give him a bit of a feline-like appearance. Due to this there have been similarities drawn between Giygas and Mewtwo’s designs with similar proportions, a tail and the two cat-like ‘ears’ on top of their head. How true this actually is I don’t think has ever been proven or disproven, however it is a theory I see mentioned a lot so I thought at the very least I would mention it, besides there wasn’t anything else to really add into this section beyond it.

Why this game?

The reason I went with Pokemon X and Y for Mewtwo rather than it’s debut game is because this is the game where it gains the ability to Mega Evolve as well as the capability to learn most of the moves it uses in Smash Bros. I have caught Mewtwo in playthroughs of other games later down the line such as Pokemon Yellow, but for this playthrough I decided this game was the best choice.

My past with this Pokemon.

So, when it comes to Mewtwo and my memories of it there’s two things that come to mind almost immediately. The first is its role in the original games appearing in Cerulean Cave as the highest levelled Pokemon in the game. In a real sense despite not being a trainer, Mewtwo is the final boss of the game since it is of a higher level than any of the Champion’s Pokemon and it can only be accessed after you have become the Pokemon Champion, which in Gen 1 meant there was nothing else to face since you were now the most powerful Trainer in Kanto. Adding to that of course is that whilst the other Legendary Pokemon, the bird trio did have one or two references to them in the game, Mewtwo had a lot of books in the Pokemon Mansion visited earlier which could be read to find out about its creation and power, making it unique from any other Pokemon in the game since it was the only one and it had a backstory. The second thing I think of and I’m sure the wider public as a whole around that time think of is the movie, Mewtwo Strikes Back. I didn’t mention this in earlier sections, but when it comes to Pokemon in Super Smash Bros, honestly the anime tends to have more influence on certain aspects of their portrayal, from the voices to certain elements of the characters themselves. Mewtwo is a big example of this, it speaks seemingly through telepathy and it uses Shadow Ball, a move which appeared first in the movie before then becoming a move in the next games.

Since this is probably the Pokemon most inspired by the anime when it comes to its portrayal (although, there’s another contender for that crown later down the line) I think this is the best time for me to really delve into my history with the anime. If you are purely interested in the games I suggest you skip ahead to the My Smash Playthrough section as this is going to be the rest of this section. So in Pikachu’s entry I mentioned how I got into Pokemon after seeing a Raichu figure and getting interested. From what I remember I don’t think I saw the anime fully but I definitely knew of it before getting actually interested in the franchise. Back then I remember on Saturday mornings my Sister and I would go into our parents room and sit on the bed and we’d all watch the kids tv lineups. I remember watching a kids block over here called Diggit which had various Disney cartoons such as Recess on it. When Pokemon was first coming over I believe Pokemon actually had some episodes air on it, this was towards the end of Diggit’s run so I didn’t see many of them through that, still I remember fairly vividly the first episode I ever saw which was ‘The March of the Exeggutor Squad’. It was a filler episode although I think it was one of Charmeleon’s few appearances and I remember my Dad mocking it which made me overly defensive about it and not really want to watch anymore episodes with my parents at any rate. Still later on I believe we got Cable with the channel Sky One which would air Pokemon episodes every morning before I went to school. I believe my Cousins would come over before we went to school (my Mum would take us all in each morning as my Aunt worked in another school elsewhere) so we’d watch through the episodes together before we left. This was the era of VHS and so I believe I recorded a lot of the episodes to rewatch. Going off of memory they’d often show the episodes in order each day and go back to the first episode to restart the run when the latest episodes weren’t available. Due to this I managed to mostly watch it in order eventually from the start to the end of the Kanto season.

Now, I forget if I played the games long after I saw the anime or not but it was definitely a unique experience for me having this cartoon show that was essentially translating what happened in the games onto the screen. Before now there had been Mario Cartoons and Sonic Cartoons which I’d enjoyed but whilst they’d have elements of the games (moreso in the Mario ones than Sonic) they didn’t directly translate the story of the games into the shows like Pokemon did, so to me this was definitely the superior videogame cartoon (not that that was really a high bar looking back). I loved the anime, it showed this world with so many possibilities and all the songs and everything else just defined those years of my life to the point that hearing them again will always bring back that nostalgia (which looking back, my actual life at school at the time was probably one of my most miserable so it probably was the main positive part of it back then.) The highlight to me in the show was the Pokemon League. I’d not been really into sports, only having a very brief enjoyment of football due to the World Cup in 1998, but I soon lost interest and the fact that to a lot of people here Football was life helped kill my enjoyment even further. Either way, this tournament arc was one of my favourite things I’d seen in a cartoon. There were the battles of course but I think the stuff that stuck with me the most were the scenes of Ash preparing for the tournament and the scene of him at the stadium at night looking at the battlefield that would be used in the morning, before any battles in the tournament had taken place. It stuck with me even though I can’t remember what happened or was said, that atmosphere of being in a place that in the morning will be full of people but for now just had Ash thinking was just great to me. Another big thing with the Pokemon anime for me was it was the first time outside of Disney movies that I’d really seen a cartoon series that had emotional storylines (although, maybe the Simpsons was similar but that’s a whole other story), I don’t know if it made me cry then but I will admit there’s times I’ve looked at certain parts of the anime and it’s brought a tear to my eye definitely. Finally, and perhaps the most important and typical thing when it comes to people my age and Pokemon, it was not actually my very first anime, but it was definitely my first series. My Dad had a VHS recording a client had given him slightly before I first saw Pokemon which had Laputa Castle in the Sky on it which is my first anime and a film that holds a special place in my heart to this day. Because of this I actually was constantly thinking of that movie whenever I’d see the Pokemon anime. It wasn’t until Dragon Ball Z a couple of years later that I really started to get more of an idea of anime. Finally I guess to conclude talking about the original series, the point where I stopped was in the middle of Johto Journeys, something I think is relatable to a lot of people, even big fans of the series. I’ll come back to other parts of the anime later down the line but for now that’s the main thing I wanted to say about it.

The movie however deserves its own mention. Of course, for the sake of this post it’s important because it not only featured but defined Mewtwo for a lot of people, including arguably the Smash Bros incarnation of the Pokemon. The other important thing about it however is a somewhat interesting one to me, I’ve seen recently a video by WTP Productions about what killed Pokemon Mania and whilst not saying it was the direct cause of it, they brought up an interesting point of just how much of an influence the Pokemon Movie had on the franchise’s fortunes. With this being a film in the cinema, kids who wanted to go and see it would not usually be able to take themselves, meaning it’s the sort of thing they’d go to with their parents. Due to this it arguably had the side effect of forcing a lot of parents who arguably were already confused by what their kids were doing into having to sit through a movie that, regardless of your views on its quality, I’d say was pretty dependent on knowing at least the basic premise of Pokemon to not be completely lost with. Due to this, unlike with Disney movies that were probably more familiar to a lot of parents at the time and were most often standalone, it left a lot of parents not only more confused but probably growing sick of the franchise that just seemed stupid to many of them and on top of that they already couldn’t get away from. I personally remember at the time, there was a topical news comedy show at night I’d watch with my parents (Not really getting most of it) where one of the people on it was saying about how awful the craze was, that he had to watch the movie with his kids which was probably the worst movie of all time (which got a response from one of the others he clearly hadn’t seen “Kevin and Perry Go Large” then). Either way hearing that always stuck with me as to just how big Pokemon was since I’d never heard Nintendo referenced beyond simply calling kids videogames “their Nintendos” or perhaps a joke about someone looking like Super Mario. Either way, the point I’m making is the Movie arguably was the thing that forced a lot of the audience that really weren’t receptive to in into having to see it and perhaps it could be argued made the backlash to it go beyond annoyance into a lot of adults at the time being absolutely sick of it.

So that was the general situation with the movie, how about for me then. Well, I don’t believe I went to see Pokemon the Movie in the cinema, despite the promise of the Ancient Mew card when going. It’s entirely possible I’m misremembering but if I did go it was with my Cousins or something, still honestly due to what I said before, I think I’d have been too embarrassed to go to the cinema with my Dad to watch it, nor really any other adult. So the main thing for me was getting it on VHS (Which, I think included the Mew card but I’m not sure). I loved replaying it a lot, a lot of the music and just the general animation is nostalgic to me, despite the criticism I remember it having for looking ‘ugly’ at the time, it definitely wasn’t something amazing looking though I’ll admit. I also think it was one of those movies I watched enough that if I were to watch it again I’d probably remember the vast majority of the lines when I heard them. With that said, I think the second movie, Pokemon 2000 was probably my actual favourite Pokemon movie and of the two was the one I ended up rewatching the most and have the most fond memories of. Still I definitely remember finding Mewtwo interesting seeing as it was the only Pokemon (besides Meowth in the anime of course) who could speak. Honestly the idea of this thing being caught like a regular Pokemon felt impossible to me which would make it feel more interesting when I actually did so in the games. Anyway, beyond that I guess the only thing I want to note finally is that earlier I mentioned watching Dragon Ball Z. I’m pretty sure I wasn’t unique in this experience but when I saw the Namek Saga and Frieza entered his final transformation, Mewtwo’s design immediately came to mind, which is funny seeing as Frieza definitely came first. Beyond that, Mewtwo never overly stuck out to me in games later down the line. I really enjoyed its appearance in Pokemon Origins, a small anime miniseries based more on the games than the main Anime Series was and in which Mewtwo was a lot more like the savage powerful creature it is in the games than the highly intelligent and philosophical character from the movie, but that was really it for me when I think about the impact Mewtwo had. Overall it’s easy to think of Mewtwo as ‘overrated’ since it was always pushed so much, but really it was cool and of the original 151 filled a unique role, definitely one of my favourite Legendary Pokemon at any rate.

My Smash Playthrough.

Currently, on my team in Pokemon Y, Mewtwo is at level 72. It has a Timid nature, is Alert to sounds, was met at the Unknown Dungeon at level 70, has the moves Recover, Confusion, Disable and Aura Sphere. It holds Mewtwonite Y which allows it to Mega Evolve. The main issue with this playthrough is that it wasn’t really a Smash Playthrough, in fact this predated the whole idea for this since it was from 2013. In this case I used my own personal playthrough file to capture various Pokemon from Super Smash Bros in preparation for the list idea. I did later do an actual playthrough for Pokemon X in which I went with a specific team related to Smash Bros, however since that’s Pokemon X the Mewtwo in that game wouldn’t be the one I intended to catch for my list as it would have Mewtwonite X instead. The main reason this honestly isn’t that big of a deal to me is because either way, unlike with other Pokemon, Mewtwo won’t really have a ‘playthrough’ as such. Even if I went with it’s original games Red and Blue or Fire Red and Leaf Green, in every appearance Mewtwo makes outside of random event distributions etc, Mewtwo is meant to be the final encounter of the game. Due to this, I didn’t have any Mewtwo on my team playing through the games, at most as with this specific Mewtwo I tried it out a bit at the Battle Chateau. Since I caught it at level 70, levelling up Mewtwo was a lot slower than if I’d gotten it at a lower level, therefore that’s why really I only managed to raise it two levels before stopping. As for the moveset, I’ll go over that more in the next section but it wasn’t until I played Ultra Moon years later I really got the hang of using heart scales and things to get the moves I wanted. So yeah, the only thing of note was catching Mewtwo which was so long ago I don’t really remember anything about it. The only thing I can say about it is that it was caught in an Ultra Ball. Normally this is something I’ve tried to avoid, however I do have a reason in this case perhaps I can excuse myself at least, which I’ll detail next.

Specific aspects about the game relating to Mewtwo in Smash.

Mewtwo’s moveset was the best attempt I could make back then to replicate it’s Smash Bros moveset. Aura Sphere stood in as a replacement for Shadow Ball, Confusion and Disable were both there, however Recover was simply a placeholder because Teleport is from what I’ve looked up only possible for Mewtwo to learn in Gen 1. Psystrike being part of Mewtwo’s Final Smash would be best to replace Recover, however the only way to learn that is getting Mewtwo to level 100, something I’ve not done in any Pokemon game before. The other part of Mewtwo’s Final Smash, being the Mega Evolved form Mewtwo Y was something I had since it was holding Mewtwonite Y. Beyond this the final aspect of Mewtwo which I mentioned in the previous section is it’s Pokeball being an Ultra Ball. Normally I try to capture every Pokemon with a regular Pokeball since in Super Smash Bros the only Pokeballs that appear are Pokeballs and later Master Balls. It would have probably made sense to have caught Mewtwo in a Master Ball, however in Mewtwo’s intro animation in Smash, unlike most Pokemon Mewtwo doesn’t actually appear out of a Pokeball. Therefore due to this, technically it doesn’t really matter what Pokeball I used as the Smash Bros version if anything is most likely meant to be a Wild Mewtwo. With that said, next time I go for a Mewtwo in a Smash playthrough, the Master Ball’s most likely what I’ll go with. Since I realise this entry isn’t that satisfying as there’s a lot of things I did with this Mewtwo that don’t match up with Smash Bros, I think it’s best to go over my plans specifically regarding Pokemon. Currently I have played through some of the games and used Pokemon on my teams with their Smash moves etc. In a regular playthrough, beyond all sorts of trading in advance etc it’s not been very often I’ve managed to actually play through the games with a perfect team based on Smash Bros. On my list following a lot of other things such as Mii costumes and items, I have the list of every Pokeball Pokemon, Pokemon who appears in a stage and Trophy Pokemon. My plan when I reach that stage is that I’m going to try and catch every single Pokemon that’s appeared in Super Smash Bros in their native region, transfer them to Pokemon Ultra Moon and get the special photo of them available when you have a Pokemon from its native region (I’ve got a screenshot in this post of a Mewtwo caught in Kanto and transferred to Ultra Moon.) I then plan to make that version specifically as close as possible to their Smash Bros incarnation. I might come back and update these posts at that time but I just want to be clear these posts are meant to be going over more the Pokemon I used in my actual playthroughs and where possible (since it didn’t happen for Mewtwo) what their journeys were as such. Anyway, that’s it pretty much for Mewtwo.

Credits.

For information on this game including dates of releases I must give credit to Bulbapedia and Serebii.

The screenshots in this post are taken by me using the screenshot feature on Nintendo Switch and in Pokemon Y.

#Mewtwo #Pokemon #Pokemon Y #Nintendo 3DS #3DS #Super Smash Bros #My Smash Playthrough #My Smash Playthroughs

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mysmashplaythroughs · 1 year

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Hyrule Warriors Ocarina of Time Ganondorf Playthrough

Fighter: Ocarina of Time Ganondorf.

Game: Hyrule Warriors, Wii U. First Released on August 14th 2014.

ENTRY WARNING: This post will contain some spoilers for Ocarina of Time, I know it’s old but still want to give a heads up on posts where I have to discuss a major plot-twist. It will go over events in the game which should be common knowledge by now, but if you really want to avoid any spoilers for OOT then I suggest not reading. There are also spoilers for a part of Hyrule Warriors story although despite that being newer I’m less weary of that but thought I’d mention it. Enjoy.

Fighter Bio.

Born to the Gerudo, a race of humans who live in Gerudo desert who are almost all females, Ganondorf was one of the only males who were born into the race once a century. Due to the rarity of this it was seen therefore that this gave the males a birthright to be the King of the Gerudo which Ganondorf grew up to be. Raised by his surrogate Mothers Koume and Kotake, two long lived witches with formidable magic power, Ganondorf became a ruthless tyrant possessed of great physical strength as well as skilled in magic. The Gerudo were often known through Hyrule as a band of thieves and as their King, Ganondorf was also known as the King of Thieves, a title which wasn’t inaccurate since he often pillaged and murdered to take what he wanted. This put him at odds with some of the other Gerudo including the highly respected Nabooru who was his second in command and secretly despised Ganondorf for his brutality. Ganondorf was not just pure brute strength however and calculated a plan to take the power of the Triforce, a treasure left by the Goddesses said to grant unlimited power for himself. To do this he required three spiritual stones as well as the Ocarina of Time to gain access. He attempted to take the stones through magic and trickery in each of the three lands they resided in but was not yet possessed of enough power to outright take them from those defending them, instead plaguing them with monsters that he hoped would force them to give up the stones to him. This was thwarted however when a young boy from the forest called Link managed to defeat all three beasts and gain the stones himself. Meanwhile Ganodorf’s other plan to get the Ocarina of Time was to make a false pledge of allegiance to the King of Hyrule in order to lower his guard, this would both keep the Knights of Hyrule from meddling too much in his plans as well as allow him to learn more of the location of the Ocarina of Time which was in fact in the possession of Princess Zelda. Zelda had prophetic dreams of Ganondorf’s true intent and was the one who sent Link on his mission to find the spiritual stones.

Following Link finding the third stone and returning to the Castle, Ganondorf seemingly learnt the location of the Ocarina of Time and decided to act, his forces invaded Hyrule Castle and in the surprise Ganondorf struck down many soldiers as well as possibly the King himself. Impa, Zelda’s nursemaid and bodyguard fled the castle with her on horseback which Ganondorf followed on his own horse. Outside of the castle Ganondorf lost track of them but came across Link. Seeing him as just a simple child he demanded to know where Impa and Zelda went but Link drew his weapon. Amused he simply blasted Link away and rode off trying to find Zelda himself. Zelda and Impa disappeared following this but unbeknownst to Ganondorf, in her escape Zelda had passed the Ocarina of Time on to Link. Link opened the Door of Time which was said to be the entrance to the Sacred Realm where the Triforce resided and found the Master Sword in the Pedestal of Time. Drawing the sword he was deemed by it not currently capable of wielding the legendary blade since he was a child and therefore was put into a stasis for seven years until he was old enough to. In the process of this however Ganondorf realised the gateway to the Sacred Realm which held the Triforce was now open and he entered thanking Link for leaving the door open for him. Taking the full Triforce however, his heart was deemed too unbalanced to wield its full might and so the only portion granted to him was the Triforce of Power, the Triforce of Courage and Wisdom flying off to find those in the land who were worthy of them. With the Triforce of Power alone however Ganondorf’s power grew exponentially to the point he was able to conquer Hyrule, decimating Hyrule Castle Town and rebuilding Hyrule Castle into his own Fortress.

Seven years of darkness passed with Ganondorf causing destruction and devastation across the world. He would influence those who had bad traits deep in their hearts to act upon them in service to him such as Ingo the beleaguered employee of Lon Lon Ranch who he gives full ownership of the Ranch to and demands the finest steed from for himself. He also wipes out the soldiers of Hyrule to the point none remain seven years later, freezes over Zora’s Domain, captures all the Gorons to imprison them in the Fire Temple, lets monsters run rampant across Kokiri Forest and frees many sealed away horrors from across Hyrule to serve him. The only place Ganondorf spares from his wrath is the Gerudo Desert, although he doesn’t give them any real help or power despite his new position as ruler of Hyrule and is definitely willing to punish any who turn on him such Nabooru. Feeling confident the other two Triforce holders would reveal themselves eventually Ganondorf bided his time. Seven years after conquering Hyrule he became aware that someone who seemed powerful and was a likely candidate to be one of the Triforce holders had travelled through the Forest Temple and defeated a Phantom replica of himself he’d created. Banishing this Phantom to the gap between dimensions following his defeat he personally praised Link recognising him as the boy from all those years ago and therefore likely a candidate for the Triforce of Courage. He tells Link that despite defeating his Phantom he doesn’t stand a chance against his true self. Eventually Link awakens the seven sages who he was advised to seek out to help him defeat Ganondorf and travels back to the Temple of Time. Sheik a mysterious warrior Link had met in his travels reveals themselves to actually be Princess Zelda who had been hiding from Ganondorf for all these years and now was in possession of the Triforce of Wisdom. With this reveal however Ganondorf immediately used his power to capture her and bring her to his Fortress, demanding Link come to save her. Link does so and discovers that this was what Ganondorf had been hoping for all along, that when he kills Link he can reclaim the Triforce of Courage and the Triforce of Wisdom from Zelda. Following a battle to the death Ganondorf was defeated and his fortress begins to collapse. Link and Zelda make a hasty retreat and narrowly escape. From the rubble however Ganondorf rises once again, this time fully powered by the Triforce of Power he transforms into a bestial form known only as Ganon. Link once again fights this beast and following a difficult fight knocks him down long enough for Zelda and the Sages to use their power to seal him away in the Sacred Realm. Ganondorf curses the pair and swears he will return.

Following the battle Princess Zelda sends Link back to his own time since she feels he’s earned the seven years of his life he lost when he drew the Master Sword, this leads to some difficult developments later down the line and through this act creates two different timelines, one in which Link disappears after going back in time and the other where Link returns to his child form. In this new timeline Ganondorf hasn’t yet launched his attack on Hyrule Castle and Link and Zelda are able to prove to the King of Hyrule his plan. Ganondorf is captured and sentenced to death by the seven sages of this time. Link will later leave Hyrule in this timeline and the events of Ganondorf’s execution lead to a whole other event, however that will be covered in another entry. There is one final branch to the timeline from these events however, probably the most important one to Ganondorf himself in Ocarina of Time, this is the Downfall Timeline. This is a timeline where Ganondorf defeats Link in the final battle killing him and claiming the entire Triforce for himself. With this unlimited power he threatens to take over the entire world, but the difference from before when he took over Hyrule is that the Seven Sages are awakened and a long war ensues. The Knights of Hyrule battle against Ganon and his forces whilst the Seven Sages work on sending Ganon into the Sacred Realm which is now transformed through his power into a place known as the Dark World. This event is known as the Imprisoning War and leads onto many other stories in this third branch of the Timeline.

Ganondorf is unique amongst the three Triforce Wielders in the Zelda series in that he is often the same person rather than a reincarnation. There are multiple versions of Ganondorf, however most of them are versions of the Ocarina of Time Ganondorf from different timelines with only one confirmed to be a whole new reincarnation. Due to this being his youngest incarnation this Ganondorf is a lot more brash, arrogant and reckless than he becomes in his later years. This Ganondorf is capable of cunning and willing to play the long game, however he does have a habit of sitting back and waiting for his enemies to move and come to him rather than actively seeking them out. He also therefore tends to underestimate his enemies since the vast majority of those he faces are able to do barely anything against him once he gains the Triforce of Power. In his older years he details his jealousy of Hyrule and how he saw his people suffering from living in an arid harsh desert compared to the green lands the Hylians enjoyed, he does seem to at least treat the Gerudo mildly better than the rest of the world when he takes control, however he doesn’t particularly help them despite his immense power once he gains the Triforce. This makes his claims of doing it for their sake ring somewhat hollow overall. He punishes those who fail or turn on him ruthlessly either banishing them to other dimensions or through his followers brainwashing them to serve as minions against his enemies. He relies a lot on his followers to take care of problems for him and prior to attaining the Triforce seemed fine with simply causing problems to blackmail others into doing what he wants in order for him to fix them such as blocking off the Goron’s food supply and promising to open the cave up again only if they give him the spiritual stone.

Friends: The only possible genuine relationship Ganondorf has is with his surrogate Mothers Koume and Kotake, however this is only ever shown from their loyalty to him and the high position he’s put them in rather than any interactions they have. Beyond this Ganondorf’s forces are loyal to him although it seems this is partially due to him filling the role of the King of Evil rather than true loyalty and respect, a role which in the past had been held by other evils such as Demise and Vaati. Ganondorf is fast to discard those who he deems useless or treacherous as shown when he banished his Phantom doppelganger to the space between dimensions following his loss to Link. Ganondorf has a large Gerudo Stallion he rides prior to gaining the Triforce, however in the future he seems to no longer use it which suggests it possibly didn’t survive or he simply had no further use for it. Ingo of Lon Lon Ranch was planning to give Epona the horse to Ganondorf as a gift which could possibly mean he needed a new one. Of note his Phantom doppelganger rides a ghost horse that looks similar to Ganondorf’s old one, so it’s possible this is the spirit of that horse although this is never confirmed. As King of the Gerudo, Ganondorf seemed respected somewhat but not seen with particular fondness even discounting those like Nabooru who turned on him. When Ganondorf is defeated some Gerudo are seen celebrating alongside the Hylians. Also notable in later games in the timeline many of the customs regarding the males born to the Gerudo becoming King seem to be disregarded and in the far distant future the Gerudo see Ganondorf as a stain on their history.

Enemies/Rivals: Being the main antagonist of the Zelda series as a whole there are very few characters who aren’t somehow negatively impacted by Ganondorf. His most notable enemy is of course Link, although in this incarnation he does not see the boy as a threat until after he’s grown up and even then seems to underestimate just how capable the Hero of Time is, telling him he looks forward to seeing his progress when he first becomes aware of him. Princess Zelda is his main enemy and his failure to track her down over the 7 years Link is in stasis is most likely one of the things that troubles him the most. Other characters Ganondorf either sees as simply an annoyance such as Darunia and the Zora King or does not realise the danger of such as the Sages. Before he gets the Triforce of Power, Ganondorf is a lot more subtle in how he acts attempting to trick the King of Hyrule and blackmail others for what he wants which means despite his arrogance he can recognise obvious threats to his plans and does not underestimate those in positions of power in Hyrule.

Crossovers with other Smash characters: Ganondorf has not made many appearances outside of the Zelda series and this specific version even less so. His only real crossover appearance is similar to other Zelda characters (and also the game I chose for this playthrough) Hyrule Warriors with him having his Ocarina of Time appearance as an outfit. With this he has crossed over with the majority of Zelda characters who have appeared in Super Smash Bros.

Why this game?

So the biggest reason for this is simply like other Zelda characters, this game is the only one outside of Super Smash Bros where Ganondorf is playable. There is another aspect that makes this even more important for Ganondorf than most others but I’ll detail that in the playthrough itself.

My past with this character.

I referenced this somewhat in my post on Bowser but since this is one of the ‘big three’ as I put it, I felt it needs to be restated. To me when it comes to Nintendo there are three main iconic villains that I believe set up the scale of evil, Ganondorf, Bowser and King Dedede. At the bottom end of the scale is King Dedede a villain who even at his worst is a petty greedy jerk and whilst not an outright joke has never actually enacted plans with aims much beyond simply stealing all the food in Dreamland, often his worst actions tend to have been done due to him being possessed and in recent years he actually seems to have joined Kirby more often than opposed him. Next is Bowser who is the most adaptable villain Nintendo has in my opinion, he can be involved in something as petty as trying to ruin a party to conquering the world with his army, travelling through time and even attempting to build his own galaxy, not to mention the amount of times he’s taken cosmic powers for his own. Then at the opposite end of the scale to King Dedede is Ganondorf, there’s no way he’d ever be the main adversary behind some simple minigame, face off against characters in competitions or actually put his differences aside to fight alongside Link and Zelda against another foe, Ganon will more often be the power behind that other foe (and has been numerous times to the point ‘highjacked by Ganon’ is considered a trope.) He will have some nuance and there’s still an origin to him beyond just being pure evil, however out of villains in Nintendo’s major series Ganondorf is the poster child for the most evil. I have realised writing this however that in recent years this idea I’ve had is perhaps now somewhat outdated, I don’t know if it’s fair to bring series like Xenoblade into this, but given the prominence of Fire Emblem nowadays at any rate means there’s arguably other villains who are perhaps more outright disgusting and twisted than Ganon tends to be, still when it comes to a more overt ‘King of Evil’ without being too tongue-in-cheek about it then Ganon’s still probably the top of the scale.

For his appearance in Ocarina of Time I always found it interesting how despite his size and artwork suggesting so, he’s a lot less hands-on than you’d assume. His sword in this incarnation has only ever been seen in a tech demo for the Gamecube and Super Smash Bros with his actual attacks in the game always being magic based which makes this incarnation arguably the most like a dark mage out of all of them. He has a pretty distinctive laugh which fits this arrogant younger incarnation with his other later appearances where he gets to laugh often having an older more unhinged feel fitting of how weary they often are in comparison. It’s interesting for Super Smash Bros Ultimate they decided to bring this version of Ganondorf back again, overall I think he definitely has a design that stands out more with his brighter red cape and hair than other versions of him, I wouldn’t say it’s my favourite, but I do like this version on the whole.

My Smash Playthrough.

So, the big reason I hinted to that Hyrule Warriors is important for Ganondorf and the best choice for my Smash Playthrough isn’t simply that he’s playable, but that he actually has his own storyline you can play through in the main game. I detailed the plot with Cia in Sheik’s post before but I purposefully left out what happens after her defeat. The heroes celebrate and peace returns to Hyrule, the locations brought from other times as well as the heroes brought with them all return to their original timelines and all is well, however without Cia sealing Ganondorf’s spirit, unbeknownst to the heroes he returns once more. The version of Ganondorf in Hyrule Warriors has a unique design which takes elements of a few of his main series designs but similar to Link, Zelda and Impa is meant to be a unique version of the King of Evil. With two villains that were summoned by Cia from other time periods and thought dead, Zant the King of Twilight and Ghirahim the Demon Lord now pledging their allegiance to Ganondorf he begins his campaign to take the Triforce for himself. What follows this is three stages of getting to fight as Ganondorf on his campaign, starting off forcing unruly monsters to follow his command, fighting the Gorons and then taking on Hyrule’s forces themselves along with Zelda and Link.

These levels are great, Ganondorf is set up so that playing as him feels a lot more powerful than any other character you’ve used in the story mode so far (even Darunia with his hammer) and getting the chance to actually be Ganondorf fighting Hyrule for the first time ever was to me as great as it could be. It’s only three stages and following it you take control of the heroes again now having to defeat a Ganondorf who has the full Triforce, but honestly for just plain fanservice fun I enjoyed it and I don’t know what more you could really expect from a Hyrule Warriors game (this was before things like Age of Calamity started being semi-canon etc of course). The best stage naturally has to be the final one of playing as Ganondorf where you have to fight the Hylian forces outside Hyrule Castle. This is a repeat of the very first map in the game but with a changed perspective of you invading the Castle this time. It also has what I considered the hardest boss of story mode and one who beat me multiple times which is taking down Link and Zelda. They’re both formidable and a lot more dangerous than anyone else Ganondorf faces and on top of that they have to both be beaten within a similar timeframe or else one of them will recover after a couple of minutes. If they reach one of the bases you’ve captured they can take it back and fortify it fairly quickly which makes taking them down even more of a priority, still I’d still say it’s more fun than frustrating (although it has frustrating elements to it.)

To play as Ganondorf is fairly enjoyable, as I said he feels powerful, but also his attacks are all fairly decent from what I remember, especially compared to other characters. He can be somewhat slow which is to be expected, although he later was given a second weapon being his Trident. Whilst this Trident isn’t from Smash so I didn’t use it, it is Ganon’s signature weapon going all the way back to the original Legend of Zelda on NES where he wielded it in his ‘pig’ beast form and is a lot faster whilst still being fairly powerful. Ganondorf’s main weapon has a darkness element and his Trident has a lightning element. Beyond this since I wanted to specifically go over this part of storymode in Ganondorf’s post there’s not a lot more to say, it’s a lot of fun and even with Age of Calamity later it’s still something unique in the whole Zelda series being able to play as Ganon fighting Hyrule. If you like the style of Warriors games and are really into Zelda I’d say it’s worth a look.

Specific aspects about the game relating to Ganondorf in Smash.

Before I begin about what I did in this game to setup Ganondorf, the most important thing with Ganondorf which has long been the elephant in the room in a sense relating to him is his Smash moveset. In Super Smash Bros Melee, unlike almost every other character whose moves are taken from their games or at least meant to represent what they could do (Captain Falcon for example having a lot of Falcon based moves and Fox using various gadgets) Ganondorf didn’t have anything from his appearances in the Zelda series starting off being a slower more powerful clone of Captain Falcon. Due to this all of Ganondorf’s moves were punches, kicks and grapples which beyond the rare attack he wouldn’t use in the Zelda series. With Super Smash Bros 4′s addition of custom moves he finally gained an attack involving a sword, however that I will cover in another post. The main thing of importance however is that in Super Smash Bros Ultimate Ganondorf was able to use a sword for some attacks for the first time, something that allowed him to be different to Captain Falcon but still (to me) kept enough of the feel of how he’s always played in the series so as to not make him feel like a totally different character.

The Great Swords are Ganondorf’s main weapon and based on his latest appearance in Smash Ultimate the closest you can get to his sword in that. Whilst not a perfect match, one of his Swords of Despair looks similar to what’s known as the ‘Spaceworld Sword’ which has only ever appeared in Smash and a demo at Spaceworld for the Gamecube and is the only sword the Ocarina of Time Ganondorf’s ever been shown to wield. There’s also an attack (YYYYX) that Ganondorf uses with the Great Swords which summons a dark ball of energy in front of him which he then performs a heavy punch on that shoots it as smaller dark energy balls in front of him. This move always looked very much to me the same as his Warlock Punch from Smash, with him pulling back slowly before performing the punch and the dark energy matching the dark magic that surrounds his hand in Smash Bros. Beyond this for Ocarina of Time Ganondorf, the Era of the Hero of Time Armour is the final thing needed to make him pretty much the closest you’ll get to Smash Bros OOT Ganondorf in another game. Ganondorf’s Final Smash being a transformation is fairly unique so I’m planning to cover that when I get to the posts for Bosses in Smash rather than here.

Credits.

For information on this game including dates of releases I must give credit to Zelda Wiki.

The screenshots in this post are taken by me using Miiverse before it shut down.

#Ganondorf #The Legend of Zelda #hyrule warriors #super smash bros #wii u #Nintendo Wii U #My Smash Playthrough #My Smash Playthroughs

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