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#epona being in botw is so important to me. wish the only way to get her wasnt the goddamn twilight princess amiibo
blueskittlesart · 2 years
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Link and horses? Feel better!!
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old friend
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r95irth · 3 years
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Finished Hyrule warrior age of calamity...
And i loved it so much, but if my heart (read : biggest crush on zelda) is satisfied, my brain can’t help but think of a way to improve it (as always) so here are my thought under spoilers x) Feel free to ignore me, it is purely to play with scenario in my head !
First thing first : the base story ; while i do love the idea of time travel (it would be hypocrite of me to say otherwise as 80% of my fics plays with it) I do think it could be played on better in this story. For me the biggest flaw is that they don’t play on the “will they, won’t they?” that comes with time travel fix it, by stating immediately that Terrako (tiny eggrobot) comes from the future and is changing the future by its mere presence.
How to fix that -> This is probably the change that would take most of the work. First thing first, i would make the jump back in time further in the past ; enough for terrako to be seen as the “seer” that predicted the Calamity ganon’s return. Which happens i think (if i recall the lore right, when Zelda is around 7 years old, right after her mother’s passing). I think it would be interesting for 1 small prologue chapter to be about this. It will change the “twist” in the story endgame but the twist is, in my opinion, less important than the tension we couldget from the “will they/ won’t they” throughout the whole game. 
In my mind it would go like this : we play King of Hyrule + Urbosa, background character Zelda’s mother and Hyrule’s chancelor (Astor but not you know, nt corrupted yet) as background characters not-playable (or maybe Zelda’s mother to show what it looks like to fight with the power?)/ probably having to protect them is the mission + maybe Link’s parents as PNJ solider battling alongside the characters and Cass’s master the Sheikah that sings balad in the Hyrule castle. 
1rst battle (somewhere in hyrule) : The chapter starts with the reports of monsters becoming more and more frequent, and so the royal family investigates it. As it could be a sign of the calamity ganon returning (says the queen) the chancellor is doubtful : how many monsters is a sign? Do they have records about it? How can they know? Won’t they just put themselves in danger for nothing? Of course his prediction rings true and the monsters surround the place. They have to evacuate the town and organize strongholds around the town to protect it. (Introduction to Link's parents as hylian captains in charge) + King asking the Sheikah to go ask for reinforcement Zelda’s mother saying Urbosa is close. Then once the stronghold are in place, the purpose is to hold it until the time limit ends, when Urbosa arrives with her troops as reinforcement and they eliminate the monsters completely. Demo at the end of the battle shows the queen is looking around the place and finds terrako lying on the ground / in the ruins + the sheikah plate. The king and her decide to bring it to inspect it / offer it to her daughter as toys (to make the King of Hyrule a little bit more likeable through his relationship with his wife and daughter first in between battle), against the chancellor’s wishes. 
2nd Battle (in the hyrule castle + castle town) : The Queen is teaching Zelda how to repair terrako with the help of the Sheikah chief (and maybe Purrah as kid and Impa?). Like in the story, Zelda repairs terrako and shows it to her mother, which says she is very proud of her. Terrako however runs away as soon as it can, and the battle is to catch it as it runs around the castle and causes havoc. Urbosa (who is here for a visit) has to catch it before the King of Hyrule notices it. Once the battle is over, the Sheikah can finally analyze the data within terrako. It brings the information that the calamity is indeed coming back. 
3rd battle : The chancellor advises the king and queen to be careful, as sheikah technology had been buried deep for a reason (maybe bring up the lore of the Hyrule family betraying the sheikah and so the birth fo the Yiga clan). He says he believes in the common way to predict the future and asks to use a ritual to confirm the queen + terrak + sheikah’s prediction. He says it could be a trap from the Yiga clan. To prove him wrong, Urbosa goes spying the Yiga clan. (Idk what it could be, a mix of infiltration, kind of mission and battles? To capture a Yiga?) Anyways it’s Urbosa again with one Hyrule captain as a guest. In the meantime we are on another battlefield, where the king assists the chancellor in his ritual in the time temple on the great plateau. He has to protect him until the end of the ritual? (With the other hylian captain) At the end of the battle, baby!Zelda is lead to the battlefield because of terrako, when he reaches the temple of time some corruption seeks in during the ritual, while the chancellor gives of the prophecy that beasts are buried beneath the ground and that could help fight the calamity. It is unclear what caused an explosion : terrako’s presence or the corruption, or the ritual, or maybe even a yiga? Anyways something happens the queen protects Zelda and the king with her power. We skip places : Urbosa gets the news that the Queen and the chancellor has been killed.
End of the prologue chapter with a funeral demo. Adding Zelda acting dignified through the funeral. Someone in the crowd says it is sad, as the princess is young, and will probably not remember her mother at all. (To justify Zelda forgetting Terrako) Maybe a scene with young Link (with baby mipha here near to show they’re friend, among the zora delegation) being told by his remaining parents that he has to protect the hyrule family like the parents that were as a temple (and implied that died too) did. 
Another addition i would put in the game is the possibility to go on inside the map without enemies in between battles (to look for korogu but not chest) ; and be able to purchase things here once the markets are opened/unlocked. It would allow people like me who like to see the landscape / comparison between breath of the wild and age of calamity to be satisfied. Of course it is optional you can go inside the map or purchase directly on the menu like you do today. 
Let’s go back to the game. 
So now after we go through the first chapter that is not changed one bit, Terrako appears like usual. The only difference is that during the first half of the battle, there’s a discussion between the King and an unknown soldier who says an old storage of the queen’s has been touched by the canon’s fire by accident (or maybe make a monster reaches the canon and adds a art where Link has to defend the canon from a monster waves). The soldier also says the magistrate impa went to check on the damage done and retrieve what can be salvaged (which explains Impa’s presence and her holding the sheikah plate) Which explains why terrako is lying on the ground later. You have access to missions in the hyrule castle. 
Another change i would do for missions : some of them lead to small demos as a reward that deepens the information you get on the characters. Each character has at least ONE serie of missions that leads to demos. Also, there’s two series of missions that leads to the retelling of breath of the wild + ballad of the champion dlc demos. I mean it it’s very important. Once you complete these missions you get to see again the memories you had in those two games, with almost no difference (except some alteration you can notice oly when your rewatch it, like not wearing the champion tunic yet / not carrying the master sword yet, or terrako being behind from afar, providing the outside pov we had in there (like seeing Link and Zelda’s backs). Also some mission are accessible within a certain time range. (and it’s showed on the map, terrako icon is up and saying until which chapter you have to complete).
Anyways the first missions you get are : 
(Epona serie) The king of Hyrule requesting says Zelda’s new horse is ready and to retrieve it to Malon’s ranch. >Later> Leads to Zelda having trouble with her horse and Link giving her advices (maybe leads to special mission where you are on horses’ backs, only being able to use Link and Zelda on horse’s back and later Revali, flying, and Riju with mme Patricia) >later> Leads to the demo of BOTW where zelda explains she will go pray to the wisdom source. 
Other missions you could get : 
(Link’s past serie) Adding a new quest for Link and his remaining parents to show the pressure he is under too.
(Zelda’s training) Adding new quest showing Zelda praying/meditating to show she tries. It makes Zelda prays in the temple of time, or other divine places (like the one in BOTW where there’s a giant goddess statue, or to ancient gods like Naryu..ect...), it ends at localizing the spring of strength.
(Romance serie optional) Adding a serie where the player can choose who Links ends up with. (Link has choices between Zelda, Mipha, Sidon) ; (Zelda can end up with Link or Impa -yes i’m sorry not urbosa, since urbosa knew her mom i think it’s for the best ><).
I have no idea for the champions, but you’re welcome to add/imagine one serie for them. Here are some other missions that could be added :
(Astor) -> This serie of missions is used to learn that astor = chancellor that has disappeared in the ritual on the great plateau. He was saved by the calamity ganon’s corruption. 
(Sheikah’s ballad) -> This serie of missions is about Kass’s master and his unrequired crush on Zelda / hatred toward Link. You would have missions like  helping him find inspiration for his songs, or protecting him while he travels with you. 
Other details/alteration : 
-OUTFITS are easier to get throughout the story and every character gets one. You cannot play the character in the zone until you get the right outfit for them and wear it (winter clothes for Zelda/Link/Impa in the Rito for example). That way people can customize their characters earlier. (For example Revali and Mipha need a special outfit in the field with lightning?) 
-Also in the gerudo town map, only female characters can enters the town, you’re automatically switched off the male characters if you do venture in. 
SO THIS CHANGE : the first half of the game is longer and makes sure the player wonders if the future of breath of the wild is going to happen still like it did. 
For that here is the order of the previous games memories put in order (and modification added) :
1)Memory of Zelda snapping at Link for following her by king’s order. (Change is Link does not carry the master sword and is in his knight’s outfit).
2) Memory of Urbosa being requested to help through by Zelda/ King of Hyrule at the end of her recruitement chapter + scene at the end of it. 
3) Memory of Darruk talking to Link at the end of his recruitment chapter (changes are Link does not carry the master sword and is in his knight’s outfit)
→ After Darruk’s recruitment there’s a quest that leads to Zelda’s discussion with Darruk featuring in the champion’s ballad. 
4) Memory of Zelda’s meeting with Revali at the end of the chapter of his recruitment (needs ; everyone’s snow outfit, zelda’s horse quest completed - no change)
5) MIpha’s memory with Link happens after her recruitement.
6) Mipha’s conversation with Zelda in the champion ballad is held after her recruitement battle and Link’s awakening of the master sword. (no change) after a mission. 
7) After Link gets the master sword, there’s a serie missions where zelda needs the ingredients to make the champion’s outfit. (You need to unlock the ability to dye armors too, and the blue color). it leads to two memories : the informal ceremony requested by darruk in BOTW, and the Ballad of champion demo where you are intronized by the king and later have a picture taken of the group. (Only alteration is that line where they say they have yet to unlock the other abilities of the sheikah plate, and you can see terrako looking at Impa taking the picture).
8) Revali’s memory with Link (botw) happens once Link has the master sword too.
9) The memory where Zelda asks if links hears the master’s sword voice happens in a serie where you improved the divine beasts + after a first mission with darruk driving his divine beast. 
10) I suppose the memory with Yiga pursuing Zelda can happens during the chapter we fight Yiga / infiltrates them. 
11) Same with Zelda’s sleeping next to urbosa. It happens once you’ve improved the divine beast + did the first operation with Urbosa using her divine beast. 
12) The silent princess memory is here with a serie of mission dedicated to save it, like there is in the game already and the frog mission. You also have to complete all the previous memories stated before this one. 
13) The Zelda’s training mission serie leads to localize the strength source and ends up with the memory where Zelda prays there. 
14) The memory of Link and Zelda having a heart to heart under the rain happens during Link’s personal serie of mission. 
15) The memory of Zelda helping Link after a hard battle on death mountains happens once you completed the serie of extreme fire missions that is already in the game. 
16) The memory of Zelda having a fight with her father happens after the spring of courage disastrous mission and a series of missions that started after the 2nd battle of chapter 1 (where you fist fight a guardian) that had the goal to be able to use guardians. Once you have this memory you cannot do the mission about sheikah technology for a while. 
Finally the last memory you have in this first half of the game is the one with the horse riding, right before the chapter where calamity ganon awakes. Where Zelda says she will go to the spring of wisdom tomorrow for her birthday. It is the end of the serie mission about epona and her white horse. (no alteration except terrako being seen at the end and maybe a skip to evil!terrako so we know why Calamity ganon is awakened sooner, because Astor saw this through him and so acted upon it)
Now that the first half is done, the game can continue like it had, with going full canon!divergence and the game is almost the same as it. The only changes i would do are : 
-Adding a serie of missions WAY BEFORE (like in the first half of the story) where they find the shrine of resurrection, maybe even a battle mission on it before where someone is injured and you have to carry them there to test it. 
-Altering Zelda and the King’s reconciliation :
1)When the castle is attacked, and the King is left behind : adds Link’s remaining parent by the king’s side and telling him to protect the princess at all cost to add a bit of emotion to Link too.  
2)Then making the runs outside the castle another battle mission leading to the memory where Zelda breaks down in Link’s arm like in BOTW but ends up with Impa and terrako finding them, out of the forest and the scene we had where terrako sing the song to Zelda (+ seeing Revali’s divine beast in the sky) at the end. 
3) Akkala’s fortress retaking takes place in the same way as before, once you rescued all the champions. But the reunion with the king happens right before the Hateno fort battle. He has been brought wounded there and you meet him mid battle while protecting the place. So the scene where the kind is already proud of his daughter BEFORE she gets her sealing power. The flash back scene happens here explaining he got saved by the metal part + adds a little bit of him saying he was afraid he would lose her to the sheikah technology the same way he lost her mother/ the chancellor...He is surprised by her leading the troop so well and retaking Akkala. Also it’s not sure he will survive yet it is said, and when she asks about Link’s parents he says they got separated and doesnt’ know if they made it. So the scene where Zelda panicks when Link is about to die and thinks of her father (and maybe adding Link’s parents) still happens. She unlocks her sealing power. 
4) After the Hateno battle a little bit more is expanded by Yiga’s chief recruitment, and we can see the king is better but sees his daughter leading the battle proud. The great plateau battle happens, and instead of a reveal of the king being okay, he saves zelda from an attack at the end of the great plateau (and same scene, with him saying he is proud of her). 
Here it is a satisfying reconciliation for me. The one we got suffers from the crappy redemptions arc tropes we always have “yeah now i’m okay since you got exactly where i wanted you to be and so i have little to change about my mindset” so nope. Nope. Big nope.
The rest i would change almost nothing, to the rest of the game. (Except maybe as i said missions quests where you learn more about Astor / About Kass’s old sheikah mentor who had a crush on Zelda / and a little bit about every character’s past, but that’s optional). The explanation for Zelda forgetting Terrako is the same as she doesn’t remember being called little bird or her mother’s face in te memories we have of her, as stated in the funeral scene.
And i’m done with “what i would improve in the age of calamity game” thanks for reading xD See you for the next game ! 
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