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barramundi · 10 months

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my twilight princess journey: enemies to lovers apparently

A few days ago I beat the legend of zelda: twilight princess for the first time ever!! and man...... i am not okay (positive)

I've always been a HUGE zelda fan, ever since I was a little kid. i literally can't remember a time I didn't have zelda in my life. so much i used to spend all day long playing majora's mask with my older sibling and i remember how i knew there were other zelda games but i thought all of them would look like oot/mm... and then twilight princess was announced. and i thought that was the most beautiful game I had ever seen. i fell in love with midna and i thought link was just so handsome and cool... unfortunately i never owned a gamecube and apparently my sibling was not really interested in twilight princess, so... time went by and i never had the chance to play it.

and then, back in 2012, 10 years late, 14 year old me heard of the wind waker for the first time. i immediately fell in love with the art and i HAD to play that game. i owned a Wii at the time and i remember feeling disappointed realizing WW was for the gamecube but then FEELING EXCITED REALIZING THE WII COULD PLAY GAMECUBE GAMES. i fought really hard to be able to play the wind waker. and i did!!! i played it way too much probably. i always say it's at least my top 2 zelda. sometimes even top 1, only losing to majora's mask.

and twilight princess remained unnoticed........ until I noticed it... negatively

back in the day people used to hate a lot on the wind waker because of the graphics and art style. and what they would compare it to to say the graphics sucked?? twilight princess. "TP good dark mature awesome!!! WW bad stupid kiddy game!!" UGH i was outraged. i had to stand up for my favorite game!!! before i even noticed, i already hated twilight princess.

i had some (bad) reasons like being under the impression that TP was trying way too hard to be dark and gritty and realistic and that it took itself so seriously it made it look stupid. and i would compare it to majora's mask's effortlessness in creating a depressing but beautiful atmosphere without having to be visually dark. "TP wants to be MM soooo bad it's embarrassing hihihi!!!" oh shut up you never played it, weirdo!!!!

anyways, fast forward to may 2023. nintendo releases tears of the kingdom and with it apparently the end of the old zelda format. i was so devastated and sad... ever since botw, i was hoping for a new old-fashioned zelda game; and now it would never come... but still i was longing to play a zelda game. i wanted to GET THROUGH DUNGEONS, SOLVE PUZZLES, DO COOL SIDEQUESTS FOR FUNNY CHARACTERS!!! but i didn't want to play the ones I had already played again... i wanted something new... but what!!!

i looked at twilight princess, twilight princess looked at me.... i thought "welp... i guess I wouldn't be able to run from you forever". and off i went to hyrule... or rather, to ordon village

at first I was sincerely shocked by how much TP felt like the wind waker. same engine, similar combat (but greatly improved), same sound effects, the yellow rupee... i was jokingly saying it was the wind waker's evil twin lmao

when i got to the first dungeon, it finally hit me: through all these years, what the FUCK did I think twilight princess was gonna be other than... *SHOCK*... A NORMAL ZELDA GAME?????

A VERY GOOD ZELDA GAME???? T-THE BEST ONE????

remember all that talk about trying way too hard to be dark and gritty?? dude. what the fuck. this game is fucking adorable. midna is SO cool in a sweet way, the songs are great and honestly this is my favorite link ever. i always looked at him being marketed as a MANLY MAN THE MOST AGGRESSIVE REALISTIC LINK GGRRRR LOOK AT HOW DEEP HIS VOICE IS!!!! reality: he is the cutest link. literally the cutest most adorable link. bless him forever. i want to hug him so bad............. i am going to pass out (positive)

also midna and zelda. they are dating.

so yeah, there i was having an absolute blast with this game. it has the best dungeons I've ever seen. (except for lakebed temple. i hate lakebed temple. good thing arbiter's grounds is the best dungeon in the entire franchise.)

anyways I got to temple of time and then my PC fucking gave up and i had to go get it fixed; i lost all my progress and cried myself to sleep but then i pulled myself together and went through it all over again. and i would do it again. because i love this game. i finally beat it 5 days ago and i can't stop thinking about it. might just as well start another run honestly

twilight princess has now surpassed most zelda games I've played and is comfortably sitting under majora's mask and the wind waker as my 3rd favorite zelda game. but there is a twist: i haven't played MM and WW in years and i kinda needed to play them again just to confirm or change my ranking. the problem is that i just don't feel like playing them. 'cause i just want to play twilight princess!!!

so yeah, with a new personal record of 17 years of delay, it still feels kinda weird to say that twilight princess might just be my favorite zelda game ever. 🙏

that's it bye

#the legend of zelda #tloz #twilight princess #zelda #zelda tp #zelda twilight princess #long post #video games #legend of zelda midna #midna #midna x zelda #link

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miisakyuu · 5 months

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Rating the Ganondorfs over the years, because I’m bored.

The Legend of Zelda; Ocarina of Time

5.5/10

This ganon is very much the staple for the OG ganondorf. Hes a more lean and oddly shaped version of ganondorf. His armour is a little odd, with a strange colour palette and a design that feels confused at times. This ganon is fine, but I think he would spend a lot of time fixing cars and talking about dad things and I’m not about that vibe.

The Legend of Zelda; Wind Waker

4/10

This ganondorf is not my favourite. He wears no armour, what will protect him from his many haters :(( his heritage feels a little lost here too, but it’s understandable because we don’t see the gerudo or any mention of the gerudo desert in wind waker. His long sleeves remind me of an egirl :( he gets points for effort.

The Legend of Zelda; Twilight Princess

12/10

Now we’re cooking! This ganondorf has a lot more detail to him, he has a cape to add to his epic badassery, and a crown to show us that he’s here for the throne. His gloves are fingerless so he can play games on his phone now. Very cool choice of weapon, since he uses the sword the sages tried to kill him with, petty revenge anyone? This ganondorf is not your friend, and he likes it that way.

The legend of Zelda; Hyrule Warriors

9/10

Here we see a much different approach, this Ganondorf has long flowing hair, and he uses maybelline for sure. We still see his crown, but now it’s becoming a bit obnoxious. His armour is very detailed, and he for sure checks himself out in the mirror. He is very cunty. This ganondorf does look like he is a warrior, and I’m salivating.

The Legend of Zelda; Tears of the Kingdom

1000/10

Oh damnnnn there he is. This ganon doesn’t wear armour but that’s because his rock hard abs provide all the protection he needs. He opts for flowing and comfortable clothing that lets him move around easier in battle. This ganon has styled and long hair, and he has forgone his obnoxious crown. He says “I don’t need a crown, you bitches know who I am.” He is very connected to his gerudo culture. Not only does he govern the bitches, but he gets them too.

Phantom Ganondorf: The legend of Zelda; Wind Waker

10/10

Technically not ganondorf but he is added because I like him. This ganon has a simple design, and definitely a striking look. He has a big bitchin sword, and a subtle but definitive armoured to him. His cape is very nice, and I’m a big fan of his helmet? Horns? Who cares. This ganon is serving.

Phantom Ganondorf: The Legend of Zelda; Tears of the Kingdom

11/10

Oh wow, this ganon is scary. He is very big, and I’m craning my neck to look at him. He is a great mix of detailed and mysterious, and I think I saw him lurking in my room last night. This ganondorf is not here to make friends or play games. He looks like he’s mean, but he also needs a spa day.

#ganondorf #the legend of zelda #it’s just like #my opinion man.#everyone knows I’m a little biased.#probably forgot to add some ganons #not too worried about it #this is a low effort post #ganon

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bloobluebloo · 4 months

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Tbh I think that the big pushback against nuanced villains may have its most potent roots in the idea of woobification? I could be wrong about this, I was a little bit late to the ride, but my earliest days on the internet fell right in the middle of when mischaracterization by making the character very soft was common. I was in the Creepypasta fandom for a while, so I saw a lot of it. A lot. Nontheless, the whole "Oh, you think this character isn't JUST pure evil? Then you're excusing their actions/absolving them of blame/just think they're hot!" feels very reactionary. From what I can observe, it's the same instinct that makes people respond to accusations of a character being a Mary Sue by making that character extremely dark. Is this making any sense?? I only just now woke up fhejbdbd

You're not wrong, and it is actually an issue that has been pervasive in fandoms ever since fandoms have been a thing. I can tell you from personal experience that being a fan of Ganondorf in the early 2000s and trying to justify his actions as anything but vile and evil was not exactly a walk in the park (though Wind Waker came along and gave him some grace in that matter). I personally find it fascinating that often people will accuse others of liking villains or relating to them or even just talking about them in a way that isn’t entirely negative because “they’re hot” or “you want them to be misunderstood when they’re not” or “because you endorse abuse and murder" and so on and so forth. To me, when I read these arguments, it gives me a lens at understanding how so many people will read and interpret a story. The only reason you could like a villain is for their obvious traits that are plain as daylight to see and require nothing more than your plain eyesight and the ability to read the textboxes and take everything being said literally. Liking those traits makes you susceptible to falling for obvious traps of course. In the same way, you should love the hero because it is plainly obvious that their design evokes goodness and everyone around them loves them and all they want to do is protect their land.

I'll bring this back to Ganondorf because I always do, and it is something I've touched upon several times, but my reason for loving him as much as I do goes beyond the contained narrative of the game. I played OoT at the age of 11, and as a person who had already been subjected to so much scrutiny and aggressive comments for my ethnic and religious background, Ganondorf's story read like a propaganda piece to me. I couldn't see him as the vile evil man that the game was trying to tell me he was because I had seen this story hundreds of times already, played out not only in fictional media but in real life as well. The burden was on me to show people that I wasn't the aggressive terrorist that proliferated mainstream news at the time. This really resonated with me when Nabooru had to explicitly tell Link that "she wasn't like Ganondorf" as if the default is to assume that all Gerudo are bad. It seemed disingenuous and like the narrative was leaning too hard on Ganondorf and the Gerudo for all of Hyrule's troubles because they were the easiest targets to scapegoat for numerous reasons. It didn't help at all that, in OoT itself, there was evidence that Hyrule was responsible for several warcrimes of its own. Yet, the game always pivoted to show Hyrule in the right, that they were the bastions of justice and that Ganondorf was being needlessly aggressive and had to be put down for his actions. That's why I relate to Ganondorf; I understand where his anger and hatred come from. Anyways, my point is that people don't seem to want to think beyond what the story is telling you, or think about why someone would write such a story with such themes, or why they would decide that the human form of their pig beast demon who is greedy for power should be a desert-dwelling man that only knows anger and hatred. In the same breath they will accuse you of liking a villain because they think you like them for shallow reasons. It's tiring ahaha

#ganonthots #bloothots #honestly I have no idea how to put all my thoughts exactly into words #my relationship to loz is a complicated one #but I hope I got something across

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moore-nocturnal · 11 months

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Oh oh! Question, what got you into drawing?? And what got you into the Zelda franchise?

It's funny I can't say I was Always wanted to be an artist, original I wanted to be a baker lol. I had a friend back in elementary who did art and I would do stuff on the side. But one day their mom complimented my work and thought I would go far in life. She would write notes for her kid and she's always have one for me too. I switched schools but ever since then the thought of someone believing in me for the first time really made me want to keep going. I was pretty much self taught, before going to school for it later.😄

Now Zelda I was pretty off and on with the franchise when I was younger. Play a few games but they weren't ever mine so I either didn't finish them or didn't have much to immerse in it. One of my best friends is actually a big fan lol so she would talk about it a lot. I was more a Sony gal the Nintendo so I played a lot of kh and ff years later when I got a switch and played BOTW a few years after it was out. It was so nice I could just be forget my responsibilities,and not worry about spoilers or keep up.

Had a lot of thoughts, played oot, mm, ss that I have physical copies of. I love wind waker and tp but they where never mine and the original Zelda was my dad's which was lost years later. To this date I still really like oot/mm a lot you can tell even with totk out and I still think about oot link 😩 so plenty of things really I just like being link and imagining what he or they may feel. There so many implied things that happen but never explained and I just really like to think about.

SORRY for the long response! 😅

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trixstriforce · 1 year

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hello :) i saw your posts about lu and idk if you were gauging interest in people hearing your opinions. personally i would be super interested in reading what specifically about every lu character is ooc! i am similarly frustrated with the current dominance of lu characterizations in fandom as a ww fan. ive been following for a while i just logged into this side account because i am scared to ask on main :( i hope you do not mind the somewhat bare blog. thank you!

oh my god oh my god oh my god someone wants my opinion??? do u wanna make out???? u do not understand the power u r giving me rn u do not understand how annoying and nitpicky and very passionate i can get specifically about lu bc i care so much about link its unreal and also bc i just like things like linkedmaze, dimensional links, and minaslinkverse better characterization wise bc to me they have shown the "found family links meeting up" thing a lotttt better than lu when i still read it

but to be fair i STOPPED reading around the part where four split due to the way the lu community reacting to the person with DID, a very stigmatized disorder who genuinely just wanted Jojo to acknowledge they messed up in the past and present and didnt like the vauge ass apology she gave making me actually disgusted. ppl talk about accountability then rallied against 1 tumblr user who was uncomfortable bc ppl liked Jojo's comic so she doesnt have to explain that now she respects nonbinary ppl and understands how past things were wrong for her to say we just infer this bc lu good :/ like hey maybe Jojo owned up to it afterwards or something bc she made 2 apologies that would make a YouTuber blush so i was done w/ the community and it was only rlly after that and after i played a few of the actual games + read some mangas i realized wow actually i do not like lu as much as i thoguht i did they butchered my boy, also i feel i should say it literally wouldnt matter to me do what u want in ur au but lu is now a fandom of its own and its influenced a lot of other aus and interpretations of link so i do take issue w/ how ooc these guys end up being

OK HERE R THE MOST BASIC ISSUES W/OUT GETTING INTO EACH LINK RN:

for one i dont know for me having link as a secret hoarder who would rather DIE than use the full scope of his abilities around OTHER HEROS is just no bc thats fucking stupid levels of wanting to appear normal around OTHER HEROS possiblly the ONLY other ppl to ever understand what u r going through

for me having every single link act like a frat boy/standard teenage white boy who is emotionally constipated is a no??? have u SEEN link he is so sociable and kind and understanding to other ppl WHY r the links like this, so many fics just...make them stew in their issues for angst and not trust the others and be incredibly insecure about the other heros(which is lu canon for at least hyrule and wind i think?) and like ok that is definitely fine for 1 link but why r they all like this in the games link is clearly not like that he wouldn't be this closed off and wouldn't hesitate so much like my dude he just inserts himself into other ppl's lives to make them better than leaves he wouldn't pussyfoot around other heros like what

also another major issue is the mergings just lead to certain characterizations or important backstory for certain links(FOUR. LEGEND.) being completely erased and the nuance of their journeys lost like when u merge links who r canonically 100s of years apart not just in the timeline but in the GAMES? yeah u lose things that make that link special

also bc u mentioned wind waker i found it kinda fucked up that wind waker link was delegated to The Kid TM even tho his entire journey was about moving on from the past to a brighter future and he took on the mantle left behind by the hero of time on his own volition and did what Time COULDN'T do which is kill Ganon but he is constantly underestimated and made into the Kid Who Wants Approval trope specifically around Time which sucks ass ngl he deserves to be an equal him still being a kid while the others got to grow up, including Four who's first journey arguably would have been a better fit for this archtype of wide eyed kid, is just side lining one of the most interesting links especially considering most of the other links were YOUNGER than him when they started

this is all general stuff plus 1 of my issues w/ Wind bc ur a Wind Waker fan bc as a Spirit Track fan i feel a kinship, im gonna make another post for specifically each link breaking down my issues w/ how they r portrayed later bc rn it is 8am and i ment to just say haha ty for the permission but then my inner ranter came out i am INCAPABLE of being normal about lu especially after i actually experienced zelda games bc lu was my FIRST introduction to zelda outside of smash bros lol

toast if u r reading this say rip to ur dms bc i am once more gonna talk to u about a comic for a videogame franchise u only know about due to my rambles and forcing u at gunpoint to learn about link...godspeed comrade

#trix posts #linked universe #rant #kinda?#ask #toast's dms r were i go to complain about lu bc they also do not like it bc i keep complaining about it #also bc from what they have seen of lu they just do not like it

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socialc1imb · 1 year

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GUSH AWAY i'm curious now

-catreginae

I FORGOT TO RESPOND TO THIS OH NO-

OK so anyways, basically, Wind can see ghosts, but only sometimes, whereas Spirit can see them all of the time!

For Wind, he has to use magic to be able to see ghosts, which takes up effort. When he has no magic left or no way to replenish his magic, then he’s not actually able to use that power. It’s the same as his Deku Leaf in Wind Waker! He can use that item only when he has magic. That being said, I’m taking the creative liberty to say that when you run out of magic, it’s physically tiring, the same way how in LU fanon, when Hyrule uses too much of his magic, it’s detrimental to him.

So Wind can see ghosts, however, it is physically taxing on him.

Spirit can also see ghosts, but since his game has no mechanic for “magic”, I just decided that the only reason he can see ghosts is because he just naturally has that ability!

Also, I genuinely love just talking about how this concept works so if y’all have any specific questions, feel free to ask

#asks #twawb #train whistles and wedding bells

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sesamie · 2 years

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wow youre a real gamer! i did not know that what are some games you’d recommend based on your experiences with them?

oh hell yeah i was a real nintendo fan as a kid, still am, not of the company, but of a lot of the well-known nintendo games - mario (i like paper mario's best but only the first three, thousand year door is a masterpiece and one of my all time favorite games! also, the mario & luigi RPGs are great as well, i played partners in time and bowser's inside story. mario galaxy will also always have a huge place in my heart because i played the hell out of it as a kid and it's super nostalgic for me), legend of zelda (my favorite is wind waker, i played majora's mask and ocarina of time too, and i got to play skyward sword a little bit but never got too far. and i have loz DS games but i can never remember the names of them), pikmin (3 is the way to go but i loved 1), animal crossing (wild world has a home in my heart and so does new leaf, which i've played the most. don't even talk to me about new horizons) pokemon (does pokemon count as a nintendo game?? i have played a shit ton of the actual games but never for very long. however blue rescue team is my one true love) donkey kong (i played DK64 and donkey kong country returns) and that's all i can squeeze out of my brain atm but there's probably more i could talk about. i'll go back now and bold the names of games i think are worth playing if you can find the means of playing them!!!!

in terms of other games off that list, tony hawk pro skater was a huge part of my nintendo-64-driven childhood, it's really fun. my stepdad is kind of a video game guy so when i met him he had a few megaman games i got to play and loved. lots of other things on the list are things my older brother was playing that i got to try, or things my friends have shown me that i got to try. and the list is made up of like all triple-A games so it ofc doesn't account for indies and whatnot!

#sorry for the slapdash answer #and if you can't play these games i recommend playthroughs #grayfruit played thousand year door and it was great #aks

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faroreswinds · 3 years

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I think like Star Fox, Zelda does a soft reboot everyone couple years. Like Zelda 2 is clearly a sequel to Zelda 1, Link's Awakening reference's Link to the Past pretty clearly, but like OOT is a retelling of vairous old points. Also Hyrule Historia's timeline section even says not to take it too seriously and that future games may make it outdated.

Oh my god... A ZELDA ASK?!

Please, more Zelda asks! I love Zelda, I want to talk Zelda! Please, I promise I'm not as jaded as I typically sound!

I'm not sure if that's so true. I didn't go too into depth with the how the games connected as they were released, but really the only true soft reboot seems to be BotW, given that it is so far in the future that it doesn't really matter where it is on the timeline other than it takes place looooong after OoT (the game references OoT Link and Ruto as a sage).

If we group them based on released, then it goes like this:

Loz, AoL, LttP, OoT, and MM were obviously connected

LA was somehow connected but how it was unclear

Oracles are unconnected in any way

Four Swords is unconnected in any way

Wind Waker is directly connected to OoT

FSA and MC are connected to FS

TP doesn't seem connected to anything directly, except with vague possibilities to OoT (later confirmed to be true)

PH and ST are directly connected to WW, and thus connected to OoT

SS was always meant to be the beginning of the timeline

LBW and TFH were connected to LttP

BoTW is connected to OoT but overall a soft reboot.

Now, HH statement is obviously meant to basically give them an out, so that any new material that comes out can retcon their own work in the future. As you said.

You could make an argument that the Oracle games and FS are reboots, but then they go right back to connecting the games to the older games or even the new "reboots" in a weird, tangle-y mess.

Personally, I think the dev team just isn't interested in keeping continuity accurate. They have basically stated as much in multiple interviews, where story comes last and gameplay comes first. Here is one example of an interview with Koizumi:

They were always saying, let's not try to push the story forward too much.

Miyamoto was particularly famous for not caring about the story, and Koizumi had to sneak in story elements wherever he could. SS was actually written in a day, but before the story was written they made the whole setting in the sky because Fujibayashi wanted Link to jump from the high places, and they wrote it as a story for the Master Sword solely because it was a wii game and the player was going to swing their sword like a sword. This came before the actual story itself!

I tend to feel that lots of fans give the devs a lot more credit than they deserve when it comes to the lore of the series. One big mistake in SS, for instance, is that Link prays to the Triforce for a wish. Every other game either states Link must touch it or has someone touch it for their wish. Devs make mistakes. They forget things. Or they would rather do something cool and epic regardless of it makes sense or not. The Zelda team in particular cares if the game is fun first- the story and lore bits are completely secondary.

I had also mentioned a redditor's timeline they presented and I was totally all for it. I'm not claiming it to be canon but it makes a lot of sense. I'll link it here for anyone who wants to read it but I really like the concept of it, because it cleans up a lot of messes.

Enraric (the user) presents three "sagas" for the timeline: The Downfall Saga, the Saga of Time, and the Four Sword Saga.

They go like this:

The Downfall Saga: LttP — OoA/S — LA — LBW — TFH — LoZ — AoL

The Saga of Time: SS — OoT — MM — TP

WW — PH — ST

The Four Sword Saga: TMC — FS — FSA

Notably BotW is absent from this list but this makes sense since its placement is still hotly debated. But ultimately, this does sort of clean up a lot of issues many may have with the errors in continuity. Although, I may place LA right after LttP and have OoA/S after that instead in my own interpretations.

Anyways, thanks for the Zelda ask! I love them!

#zelda discourse #zelda timeline #zelda timeline discourse #anon asks #asks

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eat-the-richard · 3 years

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Why Super Mario Sunshine is kind of bad (and how to fix it)

It’s safe to say that in our current hellscape that there are few games in the Mario franchise with as strong of a following online than Super Mario Sunshine. And how could it not? It’s so unique and fun that most people could probably have a good time with it. But it’s interesting to note just how much this perspective has changed over time.

When Sunshine came out it was considered by some to be the black sheep of the series. Or at the very least a noticeable step down from 64. There’s quite a lot wrong with Mario Sunshine. While there’s a great game at the core of this thing, there’s certainly a few miles of paint-like goop to sift through.

What’s frustrating is that a lot of these problems could have been solved with just a bit more development time. Mario Sunshine was rushed. This can be observed even without prior knowledge, but it becomes plainly evident when you look at some of the prerelease videos. In some instances it doesn’t even resemble the final product. Even at E3 2002, just three months before launch, there are a lot of noticeable differences to the final product.

Because of this rushed development, a lot of corners needed to be cut to pad out the game’s relatively lacking amount of content. The result is a game that is fun and well designed in some instances but a complete and utter disaster in others.

The issues plaguing Mario Sunshine were emblematic of a Nintendo-wide issue. At the start of the GameCube’s life, many prominent franchises were rushed along development to meet strict deadlines to fill out the console’s thinning library and boost sales. The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker is a textbook example. A lot of people had issues with that one too when it came out. Despite some clearly dumb points about the game’s art style, there’s definitely a lot to say about how Wind Waker pads out limited content. Doesn’t that sound familiar?

Thankfully, in 2013, the Wind Waker received an HD rerelease for the Wii U. Alongside a hefty visual overhaul, there were many under the hood changes to make the game an overall smoother experience stemming directly from those 2003 critiques. Sailing is made way simpler and faster in this version and the Tingle-inspired back-half of the game is shortened significantly. These two changes alone make this version superior, at least to me.

In the years since, I believed that Sunshine could have benefited from a rerelease similar to Wind Waker. Not necessarily in terms of its visuals (which I think have held up rather well) but in terms of its structure. Some small changes to the way Sunshine progresses could really benefit it overall, and I believed, erroneously, that it was only a matter of time before it received this treatment.

But we live in a post-3D All Stars world, and Nintendo’s response is clear. They believe Mario Sunshine is perfectly fine as is. Just touch up some of the textures, give it a resolution increase, and you got yourself a solid product. And yeah, its still pretty fun like this. But its hard to look past the missed potential in refining some of Sunshine’s rougher edges.

Which is what I plan to outline in this video. If I were to be given the reigns to nosedive Nintendo’s current plans to revamp a 2002 GameCube game, what would I change? After a suitable amount of complaining, I’ll discuss a fan project that comes close to doing what I think Nintendo should do.

So sit back, relax and let me refresh your body and spirit.

The first changes I’d make have to do with the frame rate. It’s evident that Super Mario Sunshine was supposed to be a 60 frames-per-second game. Some prerelease footage even shows as much. But somewhere late in development, the framerate was capped at 30, making it the only 3D Mario Game post-64 to not reach 60. Using Gecko codes, it’s possible to unlock the framerate and play at a pretty consistent 60. It’s so consistent that it starts raising the question of why Nintendo didn’t implement this into the Switch rerelease. This code isn’t emulator exclusive either, it also works pretty well when used on Wii consoles. Also, a hypothetical rerelease using the source code wouldn’t even have to deal with this anyway. But it’s good that the game works so well like this even without more structural changes. I don’t really need to explain the benefit of an increased framerate, so strike that one down.

And with that out of the way, it’s time to outline the biggest change my hypothetical Mario Sunshine remaster would make. One seemingly small but with major ramifications towards the rest of the game. But first, some background.

Super Mario 64 took a pretty big risk back in 1996 by significantly changing the main objective of playing a platformer. It was no longer about clearing a level. You aren’t going through these areas to reach an end point. The objective is now to find certain major collectibles, in this case power stars. But the game doesn’t want you to collect all of them. I’ve heard a lot of discourse recently about the boot-out system, but even when I was a kid I realized that 64 kicked you out of every level not just to pad out game length but to keep you moving around the castle.

64 is always inviting you to explore new areas with a constant trickle of new content the more total stars you collect. At first, the amount of stars needed to unlock a new level are small. The first area of the castle has every level besides Bob-omb’s Battlefield locked behind a small star total. And the amount needed to progress onto the next full area with five more major levels is only 8. But these star totals gradually increase over time, requiring 30, 50, and finally 70 stars to unlock new content. But what stars you got never mattered, just how many in total. This allows for free exploration where the player doesn’t have to think about where their next objective is. For instance, exploring pretty much every cardinal direction of Lethal Lava Land will lead you in the direction of a star. And because it doesn’t matter which star you get, it allows players to choose how long they invest in each level. Are the constant treks up Tall Tall Mountain or Rainbow Ride annoying you? Well all those stars are completely optional, you just have to compensate by completing more of the other levels. It’s an ingenious system that allows for a lower total amount of levels to feel more rewarding.

Super Mario Sunshine is practically begging to be like this. In fact, for the first few hours, that’s exactly how it works. New levels are unlocked progressively through getting Shines. But it doesn’t work in quite the same way. These shine totals are never outlined to the player. It shows you that you’ll eventually be able to use the Rocket Nozzle and has objects like the pineapple blocking Sirena Beach to make you yearn for a Yoshi. But you’re not told when these things are to be unlocked; it just sort of happens. Which is fine, it definitely makes the game feel more mysterious. But it lacks that forward momentum of 64 where your end goal is always simple and in the back of your mind. Oh, I need 30 stars to unlock this big door. Sunshine doesn’t have this despite literally operating in the same way. But it still maintains the ability to slowly unlock content to players through playing more of the game, which is good. And importantly, which stars you get for these gates aren’t important, just that you’re getting them at all. And if the game stuck to this principle, that would’ve been great.

Except it didn’t.

After the rocket nozzle is unlocked and Pianta Village becomes accessible, your total amount of Shines is never relevant again. Instead, game progression is contingent upon completing mission 7 of every level. Not every shine is valued the same according to the game. The progression is far more linear than in 64. You can no longer choose to avoid the Chuckster mission. Or the Sand Bird mission. Or the teeth cleaning mission. Or racing Il Piantissimo three times. Or fighting Gooper Blooper three times. Or fighting Petey Pirahna twice. Or defeating these same Piranha Plant Gatekeepers five times. Or even chasing down and squirting on Shadow Mario E L E V E N T I M E S. There’s a lot of repetition here which would’ve been eased simply by allowing the player to avoid doing these missions wherever possible. 64 had similar situations of reused content, but it’s not as egregious when there’s no incentive to collect stars you don’t want to.

This structure is also weird because there’s a ton of extra missions in this game. Some of the game’s most, err, fun segments are hidden away in Delfino Plaza. These can be some pretty time-consuming tasks. You know what I’m talking about. But that’s not all. Every course also has some bonus shines. Every secret stage has an additional Red Coin challenge. There’s some “cleverly” hidden shines even within certain missions. There’s even a mission 8 to every level. Every level also has a 100 coin mission which, just to get it out of the way, should absolutely not spawn the shine somewhere 100 feet away from you AND boot you out of the level upon collection AND not be possible in every mission. Like c’mon, Mario 64 got this right on the first try. So Nintendo went out of their way to put all these extra shines in the game, and yet none of them matter towards game completion. Which makes me wonder what the point of completing them is supposed to be?

All this extra content, regardless of quality, would benefit from a system similar to Mario 64. In its current state, there’s not much of a reason to even bother with these extra missions, especially when some of them are of questionable quality. On that same token, there’s some pretty fun missions hidden in this extra content, and it’s a shame that they aren’t more important.

Well, with that...

B L U E C O I N S

I almost forgot about you!

Blue Coins are pretty despised. But in concept they’re pretty smart to put in a game like this. It’s kind of like the Red Coins but on a broader scale. They’re packed into every little tiny corner of the levels, giving players more of a reason to explore the pretty environments. And once you collect 10 of them, you get a Shine Sprite from the local beavers. If these Blue Coin shines counted towards a grand total for game completion, Blue Coins could give players a nice buffer to replace some of the games more questionable missions. But just like all of the extra content, Blue Coins matter not one iota towards finishing the game. So, the only reason to collect Blue Coins at all is if you wanted to collect them all.

And that’s precisely why people hate them. Because collecting all the Blue Coins is an absolute nightmare. Let’s not even talk about how cryptic some of these coins are because honestly I’ll be here all day. Let’s instead talk about how impossible it is to know how close you are to getting every Blue Coin in a level. You can intuit through previous levels that it caps out at 30 per level, but the game never tells you that. There’s obviously no Blue Coin tracker like there is for shrines in Breath of the Wild, so if you’re frantically darting around Noki Bay looking for the one coin you missed that's hidden inside a wall for some reason, you’ve only got GameFaqs and Jesus to help you at that point.

To top it all off, just like the 100 coins missions, it’s impossible to get every Blue Coin in every mission in a level. Some blue coins are exclusive to certain missions. And it’s impossible to know how many are exclusive, which ones are exclusive, how many exclusives you’ve gotten, how many exclusives you need. Must I continue? This process is a disaster and gives Blue Coins a bad name. If they were put in a game like Mario 64, I feel like these things would have much more of a positive reputation. But as it stands these things are so toxic they’ve been reduced to POW switch fodder in later games.

I think Blue Coins summarize the issue with the extra content pretty succinctly. In a game like Mario 64, they’re harmless. But in a game where none of it is tied to beating the final level, the only purpose they have is 100% completion. And 100% completion should never be the focus of 3D Platformers. Some players prefer playing to completion but there’s a reason why most don’t. Fully completing a game is a soul commitment as much as it is a time commitment. It’s saying to yourself that I am willing to go through all the unfinished, janky, and cryptic content Mario Sunshine has to offer all for the extensive reward of… a different end screen. So yeah, there is no reason to get 100% of Mario Sunshine’s content. Even completionists are going to be disappointed. Not only is this content useless towards Any%, it’s aggravating for 100%, since fully completing the game is so unrewarding.

So, how do we fix this issue? Well to do that, let’s take a look at a mod that, in my opinion, does exactly that: Super Mario Sunburn, made by Epicwade.

The biggest change Sunburn makes is in its requirements for completion. Rather than Bowser being locked behind completing the seven Shadow Mario shines, the door to Corona Mountain is opened when the player attains 70 shines overall. If you recall, that’s the exact same amount 64 requires of the player to reach the final level. This change, by itself, adjusts Sunshine more towards what I would like it to be. But if you’re crazy enough to prefer the previous mode of completion, it’s still there as an option.

That’s not all, though. Now, when you collect a Shine, you’re no longer booted out of the level, and instead are simply asked to save and then you’re free to explore the rest of the level. My feelings on this essentially boil down to which mission I’m playing. I think the first two shines of Bianco Hills show this working pretty much perfectly. You squirt on the gatekeeper to get the first shine and then you’re immediately free to go forward and fight Petey Piranha. This feels far more natural than having to get booted out after the first shine and make the entire trip through the first half of Bianco Hills just to get back to where you just were. So in this case, it’s a positive.

However, Sunshine very often changes its course layout per mission. And when that happens, it feels a bit unnecessary to have to boot out of a level manually and boot back in just to get the next event to trigger. Sometimes you can chain getting a bunch of shines out in the open with a secret stage which resets the level upon entering the newly placed warp pipe at the end of it. But otherwise you’re stuck pausing and exiting. I feel this issue may be able to be streamlined by doing something like Mario Odyssey does, where collecting certain Moons boot you to the beginning of the level with the new mission unlocked. This might be outside of the reach of Sunshine modding at the moment, though.

This isn’t the only change set to make Sunshine more open. One of my favorite parts of the original game was that you could see other levels whenever you looked around. Turning at the start of Bianco Hills and being able to see not only Delfino Plaza but also the yet to be unlocked Ricco Harbor and Pinna Park was fascinating to me when I first played it. Sunburn takes this concept one step further by allowing players to travel from stage to stage. For instance, taking the river in Bianco Hills spits you out Ricco, and climbing a vine in Ricco allows you to travel back. This is a pretty novel idea and definitely makes replaying the game an entirely different experience, especially when combined with the lack of boot out. It does lose me a bit in how it necessitates for every level to be unlocked at the start. As I mentioned previously, slowly unlocking stages to the player by collecting whatever collectible they’re using allows for 3D Platformers to have constant forward momentum, which is lost here. But for those who’ve already played the game I think this is a fun option.

Other quality of life changes are strictly positives. In most instances, Blue Coins are now accessible from any mission in a level. I say most because it’s impossible for some of these coins to make the transition. But in the vast majority of cases, it’s been done. More coins have been added to each stage, along with Red Coins counting as collecting two coins just like in 64. This makes getting 100 coins a lot easier, especially when you’re doing multiple missions of a stage in a row. Two of the game’s weakest sections become far more manageable with these changes. There’s some smaller changes too, like being able to skip cutscenes, Blue Coins no longer bringing up a save screen, and Shadow Mario’s invisible health bar being restored. There’s also new content here, with additional secret stages being accessible from the main courses. Nothing mind-blowing, but it’s at least pretty neat to run around Outset Island as a FLUDD-strapped Mario.

Super Mario Sunburn addresses a lot of my issues with the original version, which was exactly the point. I’m not the first to bring up these issues, nor will I be the last. There’s so much potential within Super Mario Sunshine to be one of the best examples of its genre, so to see it fall short in such fundamental areas is undeniably frustrating. As usual with Nintendo, and even with other publishers, it’s often the community that sees itself to correct the issues with the games they feel deeply passionate about. Basically the only difference between Sunburn and an official Sunshine remake or remaster would be a significant layer of polish. That still might happen, but I’m not holding my breath at this point. So if you find yourself feeling similarly as I do about Sunshine, it might be worth it to check Super Mario Sunburn out. Here’s the download link again if you’re curious.

#mario #super mario sunshine #nintendo #essay #rom hack

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iguessishouldbethankful · 4 years

Text

Sly Cooper 1 Review:

As in, I recently completed the game and since I was asked to, I will give my review on it. I’m a little nervous because this is the first time I’m doing this, so hopefully I’ll get this right.

KEEP IN MIND: I did not grow up with this series, and I am going in after @oroanillado gifted me the entire series for the PS3. I am a new fan who basically grew up on Nintendo products, so my views might come off differently.

ALSO: SPOILERS AHEAD!!!

Onto the review.

0. Initial Reaction:::::::::::::::::::::::::

I was pretty surprised how the game collection required no download or installation. So that was a good little bonus as I could immediately sit down and play it without much of a wait. As for the starting point on top of the roof... lemmie say that Sly is adorable at first glance. His movements are fluid and it’s very satisfying to control him--especially the fact that he has a bass sound to his steps that is beyond addictive. I love it.

Not to mention the music is nice. Not exactly as memorable, but I can listen to it and it does give the area a feel.

And then Bentley opened his mouth. Whew boy. Okay. Rok heard my live commentary every time he opened his mouth, so it’ll be a theme. It wasn’t that bad at first though so it’s mostly me wanting to explore the Police Station. It’s mostly a tutorial level so it’s nothing impressive, just giving the feels.

When Carmelita showed up, like expected, I was stunned by two things: she owns an extra fancy taser gun, and that slow as fuck taser gun is able to cause the destruction of public and private property as a massive scale. Ma’am, can we talk? Can you not blow up the cars?? LADY-

As for the comic style animation? Yes, perfect. I was looking forward to it and was not disappointed. I love the cartoony look it gives to the whole world. Which is something else I noticed--the feel and look of the game is very much like the love child of Banjo Kazooie and Psychonauts. The colors and collectathon.

Also the character motivations for Sly, Bentley and Murray are believable. All are orphans, and Sly saw his family get killed but the bad guys and the family book of thieves stolen. Carmelita? Eh, wish I had more context to her but good cop trying to catch the robber is good enough.

Note: I had no idea Carmelita was actually someone that worked for Interpol. My dumbass thought she was just a French cop. The more you know.

As for the hub safehouse area, it’s simple and direct to the point.

Okay. We good? Now onto the levels.

1. Tide of Terror:::::::::::::::::::

Sly dies in one shot.

No. This was okay. I was determined to find out how I could get around this. I explored the initial open area, collecting the coins and trying to get the bottles because I knew that the point of the games was to collect all pages, right? So I needed the bottles to get the clues so Bentley could give me the code. Thing is, I ran into a few problems on the get go. BESIDES SLY BEING A ONE HIT WONDERBOY.

I didn’t know I could pimp whack enemies with the cane. So I see this walrus looking mofo just hammering away on a boat and I’m like... How do I not aggro this dude. Keep to myself, reach areas I new I could jump to, and... OH FUCK THERE ARE BOTTLES ON THAT BOAT GOD DAMN IT! Fine. Let’s sneak in. By sneak I mean run around the walrus and realize that the guy just sees me and hammers harder. What? Okay then he doesn’t chase me. Get the bottles, realize after 5 minutes that Sly’s pimp ass cane can in fact obliterate the ship’s pole to get the last bottle, before trying to confront the walrus.

So I died the first time. Then I smacked him. You know, for a one hit wonder as Sly is, I appreciate that the enemies are the same as well. That balanced everything out and not made it a colorful furry version of Dark Souls. So off I go. Up the ladder and jumping right into the second area where there are search lights. I’m like okay, let me go around these and--

WHAT DO YOU MEAN THE ROSE BUSH KILLED SLY?!

GOD DAMN IT!!

Yes, a lot of this happened. It has been a while since I played a colorful game like this and I a lot of this is simple designing that is obvious, but I am also someone that enjoys finding other ways to get around them. So many choices in the game seems nonsensical. A raccoon unable to brush by some thorn bushes was rather hilarious. I was basically fussing at full volume while Rok was laughing at me. Which was good, I meant to be hilarious.

I discovered the wonders that were the search lights and that they are easily turned off in the small sections. That I could in fact dodge most attacks from the minor enemy characters. Realized that this damn raccoon cannot swim to save his damn life. LITERALLY.

kjsdbkjsd And then I realized that I was missing quite a few bottles once I got to the end. I was frustrated. I wanted to get them all already. So I went back and tried figuring out how to get them and I SWEAR TO GOD I CANNOT EVEN LOOK AT THE SAFE WITHOUT BENTLEY GOING “YOU DON’T HAVE THE BOTTLES NEEDED TO OPEN IT U-”

Bro. Bro I know. Bro please.

Shut the fuck up.

Got the bottles and moved on. Found out that I absolutely adore Sly being in a barrel and wanted to take that barrel with me everywhere but I couldn’t. Realized that Sly puts come paper cuts outs of his emblem in opened up safes and--can we talk about this? Does Sly just sit in his room with colored craft paper and cuts these out every night? Does he redo them if one comes out funky? Does he get glittery paper or is it like the kiddy kind? Does he do them in the van? Is it with scissors or an x-acto knife?! How do you make these bro you don’t simply walk into a FedEx’s Kinkos to print these out!

Anyway, I’m learning more tricks as I go along, getting all of the keys and bottles and I do go back to each stage to get all of the damn bottles because I am not leaving one behind because I really want all of the pages. I am also seeing all of the death animations Sly does and honestly, the humor in each of them is not lost on me at all. I adore them. The first time I saw him just realizing he’s gonna fall to his death and he just-

I busted laughing so hard and Rok got to hear me lmao oh my god-- But for real, most of his death animations are strangely adorable in my opinion. Especially when he just falls and his little leg twitches. They never made animations like that for other games I played so far (not even for Banjo Kazooie). And the lightness of everything makes it less frustration in my opinion. As though I had no problem if Sly died along the way. Whereas I would get way more frustrated with how Mario or Banjo would die.

Anyway those are my tidbits. But lemmie tell you something.Once I got to the last stage where I needed to get the 7 keys to access the final boss? There’s a treasure chest with crabs mini games.

FUCK. THAT. GAME.

The only reason I got through it was because I’m stubborn and I distracted my frustrations in my chat with Rok as I had this damn raccoon swim around in a submarine, killing about 100 crustaceans just for 40 chests!! 40! Not a normal number like 20 or 25. No. 40. That drove me nuts for some reason.

Anyway, finally got to the final boss after I collected all the horseshoes and lives around the main hub of the level, and then yeeted Sly from the canon ALA Wind Waker style.

Raleigh is freaking gross. Not in voice, but his animation made me feel really nasty with looking at him, which in my opinion was a good visual design and motivator to get rid of him faster. It was also easy to sort of find out what the boss fight was requiring from me in the end--making it so much easier as well. I guess for a kid it’s a bit more difficult and I can understand that. I just enjoyed the fights for having a repetitive nature that was satisfying. Like even if I died many times, the game didn’t throw me all the way out of the level at all. It restarted the fight from the beginning and that, to me, was a good way to introduce me to the entire function of a Sly Cooper 1 boss fight.

I felt happy when I defeated Raleigh. And of course, Sly isn’t a “killer” so froggo dude is still alive, just in prison after “HOT LATIN FOX LADY” caught him. Of course. Can someone tell me where Carmelita is from? Is she Spanish or Mexican or..? Like was that defined by the games or was it thrown up in the air?

Anyway, onto the next level.

2. Sunset Snake Eyes:::::::::::::::::::::

Lemmie just say that I actually enjoyed Mugshot’s backstory? It made me feel really sympathetic towards him in a way.... Despite him being a murderer but you know. It was a nice touch.

Okay so, are any of you familiar with the whole “Mickey Mouse is taking his dog Pluto for a walk” dilemma? Well, I had a moment like that as well in this section. Why? Because Mugshot has feral dogs all over his turf and that messes me up a lot for some reason. Like I always wondered how, evolutionary wise, can an anthro dog and a feral dog look so similar? I had a moment like that as well when reading Farewell, Beloved Falco. There was a feral pig in that comic and it bother the fuck out of me. But it didn’t impede me from playing the game.

The look was very much classical American desert wasteland in the middle of nowhere. Possibly southwest USA if I were to guess, and I liked the feel of the casinos and run down RVs, trailers and cars. However it made me question why this place was a junkyard almost if he kinda has a functioning casino. For Raleigh I could understand because it was a hideout, you do what you can right? Even if you have a fucking floating metal blimp over your hideout, like that won’t catch military attention at all, nooooooo--

But like, an abandoned casino suggests that it was once owned by the mafia or a mob, and just--Okay. Police regulations and gun control. Etc etc, I’m rambling on about things that have nothing to do with the game. Back to the design.

Again, collecting all the bottles like a desperate AA member that needs a hit for old times sake and running back to open up the safe. Can I just say that the names of each Cooper ancestor is rather amusing? Like some have the most dumb but adorable names. Huckleberry Cooper jfc--

And once I got into the main hub, I got my first taste of the “Murray can’t think without his stomach thus gets himself in trouble and needs to race his Moon Rover turned into a Van to win one of the keys” mini game and “Bentley told me I gotta keep you alive as you run through this area full of trigger happy criminals, Murray, plEASE STOP RUNNING IN FRONT OF MY BULLETS MURRAY-” mini game. Nice. Not as bad as the 40 treasure chests crabs.

Also, why would Mugshot or his minions just leave a red sports car running on reverse for days on end?? Anyway.

The inside of the casino was a nice section to play ngl. I enjoyed that a lot. The platforming too, despite some of the bottles being utterly difficult to get without having to die and do the entire section again to get them. And then comes the level when Carmelita decides to destroy private property because she’s after this dumbass raccoon. I wonder how she felt seeing him jump around back and forth breaking bottles and dodging her SLOW AS FUCK TASER GUN.

“Could you stand still?!”

“Nope. Not my fault you couldn’t get a license for a firearm.”

Finally I got to the Mugshot boss fight and like the first one, it was a very satisfying fight. Mugshot had me in stitches because he walked around with his long ass arms instead of his legs at first like lmao! Also once I got to the final third stage, I was all cautious and excite to jump around the wires. Yessss.

Defeated, all bottles collected, Carmelita caught this villain as well, and off we go... stealing shit from the USA before coming back to the Safehouse? Alrighty then.

3. Vicious Voodoo:::::::::::::::

Let me tell you something about myself. I have an intense love for Voodoo in video games. Started with Gabriel Knight: Sins of the Father, Princess and the Frog and I had an intense call back to one of the swamp areas of Banjo Kazooie in this level.

So basically, this is my favorite level.

I think it’s also the level where I argued the most with Bentley as well. Or at least the second one because, since the very first game, he keeps repeating the same obvious commands all the time with a constant reminder of press the O button. Sly? Sly?? SLY! PRESS THE O BUTTON! Bentley? You’re cute, but you gotta stop my dude.

The sliding effect on the long branches was a lot of fun, the tree enemies that had more than one hit kills were also satisfying to beat the shit out of. I also enjoyed the general murky color of the level in general. Just the spooky was definitely my aesthetic. You know what wasn’t my aesthetic? The first mini game I ran into, which was the candle mini game where Bentley would repeat himself all the time right at the start of if you had to restart the level. I muted the entire thing and had Sly mindlessly killing the fishes to turn on the candles while blabbing to Rok on the phone so it was easier for me not to get nervous about the time limit or the amount of candles I had to turn on. It was the same thing with the Chicken Gumbo mini game, but I didn’t mute that one. Because Bentley stayed quiet.

Also, @oroanillado is the biggest troll. I was on the beast section of the game and they did not describe to me what it was like. So I’m honestly not expecting much at all, just wanted to grab my bottles and go. Once I’m halfway though, and I already saw the water moving around I’m having Amnesia the Dark Descent flashbacks like OH SHIT OH FUK O Shi- But no. No. What got to me was... This intensely huge serpent coming out of the water and chasing me and my camera kept pointing BACK instead of pointing forward so I could navigate Sly out of that mess while also getting the fucking bottles along the way!!

I was shrieking!! I have an acute fear of things that are larger than normal (it’s connected to my Agoraphobia). I have that with whales and sharks and fish, so I usually avoid big mobs if possible in any game. Yes, including the 3 mythical dragons from Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. @thekursedone-lylat was present when I was freaking out about saving Naydra and how huge it was. But at the same time I have a big fear of these sorts of creatures, I was laughing and cursing at the end of the level because honestly, Rok was having a good time and so was I.

Oh yes, also the other mini game where I had to navigate the same speed boat thingy and shoot down the on coming ghosts and flaming rocks was pretty annoying until I figured out I needed to destroy the pillars where the ghosts came from. Then it was easy.

But my absolute favorite section of this whole level was the Green Water Full of Body Parts and Bones. Bentley was losing his shit at the beginning of the level and I would accidentally yeet Sly into the water of decomposing bodies like yeah, yeah the turtle won’t like the smell of this. It was just a well designed level, so I had no problems having to redo it to get all the bottles again and again.

Now, the boss fight? I was warned about this ahead of time so I had to unfortunately put Mz. Ruby on mute so I would concentrate on her attacks but apparently they were supposed to go with the rhythm of the song and the Sly Cooper Collection messed that up? I think she was the only Boss I was really wanting to listen to as she talked because she was giving me good “yeah I’m bad, probably not the best one in the group, but I don’t care I’mma own up to it so try to dodge my attacks as best you can” vibes. It was also entertaining to see Sly go Neo with some of the commands.

All bottles collected and onto Winter in China.

4. Fire in the Sky::::::::::::::::::::::::::

Oh hey look, fireworks!

.....oh.

Surprisingly, this entire stage was rather meh to me? It worked like the others, felt like the others, but I really wasn’t as wowed by it. It might also be just the fact that I mostly saw white in general due to the snow, and spent most of my time looking for a few bottles on one section that really irritated me. Like I legitimately got mad in one section and didn’t want to deal with it because of the noises some of the monkeys were making.

This section. I hated it so much because I thought the bottles I was missing were in here and 2 of them were but I needed hints for it. Argh... Everything else in this section was pretty much a blur for me besides the two mini games with Murray, and the one level where Carmlita came back again, destroying more private and ancient property with her taser gun--and the main reason I remember this was because:

Carmelita saying she was going to catch criminal scum Sly and Sly just went “you really need to get woke, I’m not the bad guy here.”

I collected all the bottles but Bentley told me I had to defeat Clockwerk before I could open this damn safe, and it was the only one requiring this!!

Carmelita went down with the dragon statue, into the hypothermia levels of cold water while shaking her fist into the sky.

I will say the part of Sly and Bentley discussing the whole mechanics of Sly taking the rockets into Panda’s lair was pretty funny tho. Just,

Bentley: Hey you might be able to reach the top of the tower before these explode.

Sly: Okay but what if they explode before I get there?

Bentley: Then I guess you’ll blow up into many pieces.

Sly:

As for the Panda King boss fight, it was okay. I just kept running in circles around the arena while approaching the dude. Defeated him and was like okay, I really need to go and defeat Clockwerk now so I can open that safe.

5. The Cold Heart of Hate:::::::::::::::::::

Look.

I get Sly probably weighs next to nothing, Murray, but could you at least break once Sly gets knocked off the top of the van? Or when the rocks are falling down towards us, maybe also step on the breaks so not everyone is being driven to their ultimate death?

No?

Okay.

I will say, I headcanon that both Bentley and Sly were getting an intense case of whiplash when Murray was driving that van around at 120 MPH collecting all 60 computers because... Bentley needed those to hack into something??? It wasn’t as bad as the 40 crabs and treasure chests but man. And then of course there’s the section where, oh surprise surprise, Carmelita is in an obvious trap, slamming her fist on the glass, needing to be saved. Bentley warned Sly it was a trap. But of course Sly is like:

OH THANK GOD THE BARREL IS BACK.

Anyway, obvious trap is an obvious trap. Carm just bitches at Sly right as he gets stuck in the glass chamber and is sprayed with RAID. So Bentley has to save his ass. This is possibly the mini game I dislike the most. I just put Bentley on constantly circling mode as he shot down the targets.I died about 9000 times before I won.

Carmen is all Oh I was wrong about you the whole time Sly!

Sly: Duh.

And off we go to the next section where Sly lost his cane and he needs to recover it with Carm’s help. So I’m controlling Carm’s taser gun. Guess how many times I purposefully killed Sly? Many. For funsies. Because the gun magically got faster once I was behind the trigger.

Next section was the whole climb up the beam tower as it’s being consumed by lava! I very much enjoyed this whole climbing bit. It was fun. Again, died a lot and I actually glitched through the walls because I jumped somewhere I wasn’t supposed to and had to kill Sly along the way. But still very fun.

FINALLY.

CLOCKWERK.

Are we serious? Are we actually serious right now? Clockwerk had absolutely no motivation beyond ultimate hate? WHAT?! That’s just... not a satisfying reason ngl. Anyway, the jetpack flying section was probably the easiest thing ever and I loved it. What I didn’t like was the laser section that came after it... I kept dying. Again. FUCK. THOSE. LASERS.

Clockwerk speaking random little words while malfunctioning was super cute those. I don’t why, but I loved it. I was shrieking by the end of everything though because once I got right at the back end, where I’m supposed to jump on this mad owl, I was not expecting the head to jump on me. HHHHHHH!!!

Anyway, I killed Clockwerk dead. Back into the lava you go. Witnessed Sly give Carmelita the slip of the tongue and handcuffed her onto a railing over an active volcano before yeeting himself. Classy. Then back to his old tricks again with the gang. End credits.

NO WAIT.

The last chest. In the Panda section. Yeah I went back for that and got the extra ending.

0. MY RATING::::::::::::::::::::

Honestly, 8 trashcans out of 10. If Clockwerk actually had a believable motive besides hate, I’d give it a higher rating. But the game is satisfying and I love the mechanics of it.

Bentley just needs to chill the fuck up tho. God.

#sly cooper #sly cooper reviews #peep peep #long post

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mckittyarts · 5 years

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HEY GUYS sorry for the long silence! this thing took a while but im so glad to finally have these gals to show everyone!! but yeah, just like the Links i did a little while ago, these gals are my interpretations of all the Zeldas over the years! because my gals needs some love too baybe!!!

as usual, nicknames and headcanons under the cut!

Harp (Ocarina of Time/Majora’s Mask): - post-ocarina so basically she’s in the adult timeline but seven years older than she were when we last saw her at the end of oot - big mom friend,,,,,,,,,,,, tall and Motherly will adopt every child - she can and will slice a bitch if she needs to dont cross her - her scars were from the 7 years where she hid as Sheik while Time took himself a nice little nap - after sending Time back to his childhood she’s just been working to rebuild her kingdom and is now Queen - like i said on the Links one, headcanon that she’s Time’s twin sister - nothing much to say about her design it’s pretty much the same asdfghj

Plume (Skyward Sword): - still rowdy. still bapey - can and will push you off a cliff - really loves her animals and insists her remlit’s a sweetheart despite what Sky may tell her - really sweet and understanding about Sky and his napping but will still Suplex A Bitch if he’s being an ass - after what happened in skyward sword she’s in the lead of getting the settlement on the surface up and running - changed her outfit a bit to one more inspired by one of her concept designs but it’s kinda hard to see anything but a white shirt in this image asdfghj - a few scrapes and scratches from tumbling around on the surface, nothing too serious though

Dawn (Twilight Princess): - Stoic and Quiet - i’ve had Twi for five minutes, but if anything were to happen to him i would kill everyone in this room and then myself - cares a whole lot about her kingdom and will do just about anything for her people- has been working to rebuild her kingdom too but like there isn’t much to fix anyway so i guess she gets off easy - again, same design as usual aaaaand no real noteworthy scars she’s smart enough not to get killed unlike everyone else

Hope (Breath of the Wild): - NERD ALERT - spends most of her time documenting and rambling - what do you mean shes gotta rule her country she’s found a cool frog she’s gotta take pictures of!!!! - can actually remember her friends and misses them a whole lot :( - HOO GIRL YOU’VE GOT......... A WHOLE LOT TO REBUILD..... WHEW - kept her design mostly as is and gave her the green eyes because nINTENDO ARE SO INCONSISTENT WITH HER EYE COLOUR IS2G - got in a few scrapes after sAVING WILD’S DYING ASS so that’s where the scars are from

Rapier (Hyrule Warriors): - the cool but wildly irresponsible mom - *gives a whole sword to small child* hell yeah kid go fuck those bitches up - also filthy rich even compared to the other Zeldas like look at that ridiculous amount of gold and silver armour it’s not even gonna protect her dumb ass - can absolutely destroy you if she chooses to do so - has a lot of scars because sOMEONE doesn’t know how to gear up properly - knows sign language so that she can communicate with Her Boy

Canvas (A Link Between Worlds): - the biggest sweetheart you’ll ever meet...... like oh my god bapey............ - Big Fan Of Art - has a whole museum of paintings in her castle - is 100% convinced that Albi is Deceased :( spent a lot of resources to find him but kinda gave up on it after a year or two - the lighter patch on her face is the ‘splash’ mark from being turned into a painting which also caused the color in her eyes to change - she actually used to have green eyes

Pebble (The Minish Cap): - OOOO BABEY.......... TODDLER - still really close to Minish they always hang out - Dramatic Little Shit - absolutely a sheltered kid there’s no way Daltus didn’t get a million times more protective of her after she got pETRIFIED??? - despite being completely baby she still manages to be taller than her Link lmao eat shit Minish - the feathers are supposed to resemble Picori feathers, no idea if they are real or not

Ghost (Spirit Tracks): - FUCKING DIES ASDFGHGFGHJ - super energetic and sweet - got all of Tetras attitude but none of the smarts. absolute Buffoon - might be out of mortal danger but still gets in trouble all the damn time - barely has any scars because ghosts don’t get injuries but she does have a big burn/lightning like scar on her chest/stomach from having her sOUL RIPPED OUT OF HER BODY - redesigned the dress a bit so she’d look different from Pebble - also the ribbon in her hair is supposed to be a Tetra’s old bandana!! she got it as a gift from her when she was still Very Small

Tetra (The Wind Waker): - Fuck Yeah Pirate Time - completely Rowdy. Will Stab a Bitch - is more like a robin hood type of outlaw she only steals from Corrupt Rich Asshats like a good pirate should - swears WAY too much. Horrible Influence on Children - is missing like half on her left leg, probably lost it to like a gyorg or some shit - scars are from various battles with other pirates, bokoblins, birds, etc. - busy finding a New Continent

Crystal (A Link To The Past): - tired............... needs a break - Just Wants Link To Stop Dying And Come Back Here For Once!!!!!!! dumbass - real quiet but real calculated - Reads Minds and Talks Inside Peoples Heads - real fond of gardening her own herbs and vegetables -listen i KNOW they’re like her pajamas or some shit but the blue dress just suits her better!!!! also Canvas doesn’t have any alternate costumes soooo

Ribbon (The Legend of Zelda): - ROUND!!!! CHUMBY!!!!!!!!!! - very sweet and very bubbly - will absolutely hug you to death and there’s nothing you can do about it - rebuilt an entire kingdom because uhh that thing kinda fell apart a couple hundred years after ALBW - doesn’t have any scars because she just kinda sat around while Ganon and Link were having a bit of an argument - i changed her dress to be green because of her in game sprite

Dreamer (The Adventure of Link): - HEY GUYS DID YOU KNOW THAT CLASSIC SAVES TWO ZELDAS??? BECAUSE I DIDN’T REALIZE UNTIL NOW - THIS BITCH CAME BEFORE PEBBLE.......... SHE SLEPT FOR /THOUSANDS/ OF YEARS STRAIGHT - is Very confused, doesn’t know what the hell is going on 99% of the time - absolute grandma, doesn’t understand any of this newfangled technology - just real sweet but also completely disoriented - i guess she just kinda helps Ribbon figure out how to get all the old rules and traditions back in place, just a complete big sister for her

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melancholicwriteaholic · 5 years

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Samus and Link are Bros #9

Samus drifted slowly downward toward the green island below. She looked around the planet she had landed on, frowning.

Why on Earth would you spend so much time detailing your world just to flood it all like this? she wondered. Then she sighed and walked toward the house that matched Link’s description. She could never get a grasp on his line of thinking, but hey. His games had never failed yet.

When she opened the door Link, still in his adult form from Ocarina of Time, was sitting around the table with Ganondorf, in his newest cartoon-ish form, on the other side. The two were looking through print outs.

“No, I asked Zelda and she says she doesn’t care about all of this. She says we should just go with the toon style, haters be damned,” Link was muttering.

“The haters... are abundant, however,” Ganondorf said. They both sighed.

Samus cleared her throat, and they looked up at her.

“Hey, Link? Are you busy right now? I can come another time-?”

Link waved toward the other room.

“We’re only using the kitchen. Go ahead and take the living room,” he said.

As Samus made her way to the other room, which was more of the other end of one larger room, she heard Ganondorf half-whisper.

“Your girlfriend still doesn’t have a place of her own?”

“She’s not my girlfriend,” Link sighed, in a tone much like someone tired of explanation that the pretty lady he was always around was his sibling. Samus remembered it took Zelda literally years to ask Link out because he hung out with her so much after their first games on the NES. “And that’s not any of your business.”

Samus walked into the room, not fond of being talked about in secret. Better to be thought of as nosy.

“Bro, you need help?” she said. It was Ganondorf that answered, though.

“Not unless you can make thousands of people forget about the gamecube tech demo we made. No one, it seems, will be giving our new game a chance because of the hype generated by our sword battle,” he said, scattering the papers over the table.

Link shook his head. “Ganon, how about we take a break? I’ll make us something to drink.”

Ganondorf grunted and stood up. “Indeed. I could use some sun.”

Samus heard him audibly mutter something about hating all of the water as he left. She walked up to Link, who was organizing all of the papers.

“Sorry, Sammy. He’s worried this game will be the one that cripples the franchise. Worked up, is all,” he said.

Samus gave a firm grip to Link’s shoulder.

“And how are you feeling, buddy?” she said.

Link didn’t answer, but kept looking down. Then he shrugged off her admittedly ungentle grip and walked to the... cauldron. Huh. Samus guessed cauldrons were going to be a motif in this “Wind Waker” game he was making.

Samus frowned. Then she gave a light smile.

“Hey... you going to show me your new model?” she said.

Link turned his head to her, an eyebrow raised.

“My new model? Um... You haven’t seen it yet?”

“I mean, not really... Ganondorf has a spanking new look, so I just have to see what yours is like.”

Link looked around, as though afraid someone would come in and see him. Was he afraid of Ganondorf seeing him? Then he shrugged, though Samus could tell he was not as uncaring about this topic as he was trying to seem.

“I mean, sure. Um... I can’t turn it on and off immediately just yet. I’m still getting used to... Well, here goes,” he said.

There was a poof.

Samus pointed her gaze downwards. Her eyes widened.

She smiled.

*** *** ***

“Put me down!!!” Link said, flailing around in Samus’s sitting cradle hold.

“Oh my Gods, this is the best thing ever!” she said, squeezing his cheek.

“Ow! Stop that! Lemmego!” Link said.

Samus hugged her big brother, who had just lost the right to call himself her older brother and would be forever the little brother in her heart from then on she decided.

“You’re gonna make so many new fans, buddy,” she said.

Link stopped squirming for a second. “...Do you think, so?”

“Totally. This new form will definitely be a favorite, just you wait. It has my approval, anyway. So listen to Zelda, and don’t worry about the haters, okay?” Samus said.

Link, apparently more expressive in this form, looked like he was close to tears.

Samus didn’t like that. She poked him in the hip and Link gave a short, hiccup of a tickled laugh.

Oops. Samus smiled and Link had a look of pure dread.

“Sammy, NO!” Link said, desperate to escape her grasp.

“Oh dear lord, Christmas came early...”

*** *** ***

I know people ship Link and Samus, and that’s valid. I also know some people have a tickle fetish.

But NO. These guys are SIBLINGS here! Back off, I have a gun.

#Samus and Link are bros #Link and Samus are bros #metroid #tloz #wind waker #the legend of zelda #super smash bros #toon link

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neurotiddies · 5 years

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Taken from Cameron Morris, @CamWriter on Twitter, an interesting stance on Ganondorf.

“When Zelda fans talk about WW Ganondorf, it's usually re: him being the most sympathetic version of Ganon, or the most sympathetic character in Zelda.

I'ma take a minute to go over why he's the most evil Ganondorf has ever been. Probably the most evil Nintendo character, period.

People love that line—"I coveted that wind, I suppose." He's reflecting while he says it! Shit's got depth, and feeling behind it! He's admitting to his own greed! This is development!

And, yes, it is development. But it's first and foremost a portrait of a liar, like this scene

The Zelda series never goes deep into the lifestyle of the Gerudo, even in BOTW. We see bits and pieces. When WW came out, OoT was all we had

So when he talks about the suffering of his people, how the desert wind killed them, we want to believe. We want him to have a reason.

But it's not true, you know? Immediately and on its face

We never see the Gerudo populace in Ocarina, only a border fort and one of their sacred temples

We do see the effect Ganondorf has on his soldiers, the experiments his lieutenants run on them, though this isn't about that

Assume that what Ganondorf says is true—the Gerudo existed on the verge of extinction and in a state of constant suffering. Assume that what we see in BOTW, a thriving people who are rich in culture and secure in their place in the world, was a later development.

Then what?

Ganondorf ruled Hyrule with absolute power for seven years. No army could stand against him; no martial force was a meaningful threat. His forces were omnipresent. He was effectively omnipotent.

Not one Gerudo lives in the body of Hyrule when Link returns. Not one.

You may be thinking, "But WW Ganondorf is a different character!" It's true that he can't inform our reading of OoT, but WW is so dependent on the events and characters of its predecessor that I think it can't help but be informed by it. This is the same man you defeated in 1998.

The really terrifying thing about Ganondorf in this sequence isn't that he's telling us a lie—it's that he might well believe it. Here? He is real. He looks back on his deeds and says, "I must have had a reason."

And he invents one.

And he believes it.

And we believe him.

He is a man who is rewriting his past, holding up his own people as justification for atrocity because there is no one left to gainsay him. A country shattered, a world ruined, but it was for a cause, wasn't it?

Wasn't it?

But the lie doesn't hold up under pressure. There's only so much that Ganondorf can believe about himself. At his heart he is not a sad creature given to melancholy—he still hungers, and that hunger would swallow the world.

Wind Waker is about him nearly satisfying that hunger.

"Give Hyrule to me!"

We might still believe him, even then, mightn't we? That he's simply settling his ancient grudge, righting a layered wrong against his people, against himself, against Hyrule. Who doesn't want Hyrule to come back? Who doesn't want the sea to recede?

But he doesn't get his wish. The world is in his hand, and once more it is pulled away. And something falls from him, then

Maybe he doesn't stop lying to himself, but he certainly stops pretending to be something he's not. Denied, his hunger doesn't recede; it finds a new outlet

Daphnes wishes for hope for Link and Tetra, for the people of Hyrule. He wishes that they have a future free of the shadow of Ganondorf, the Triforce, everything in their blood-soaked history

Here, Daphnes is who Ganondorf pretends: flawed, cruel, but struggling for his people

And Ganondorf is left without the ability to pretend. And Ganondorf no longer sees fit to hide himself.

When looking at the children who will guide the future, who are to be free of him, with the engine of the universe turned against him, he has only one thought: to ruin what part of the world he can still touch.

And it is not rage, or sorrow, or yearning for the return of his people that drives him. He does not covet the wind; he sought the world, and it is not his, and its inheritors cannot either. Why should he be unhappy now? He is free to express himself as he did centuries ago.

So he turns, and shows us his real face. And oh, how he is smiling.

And still—still!—we believe him.

We remember him for his moment of melancholy, instead of the blood he has bathed in. For the lie he told about himself and his people, instead of the truth of the children he would have butchered simply for the cruelty of ruining the world.

We want so badly to believe him, I think, because we want to believe that people aren't simply evil. We'll extend that to anyone, even our sorcerous god-kings.

What a good lie he told. How effective. How monstrous! How real. A lie that actual men like him would tell.

I think about this almost every time I see people who make fanart or fanfic of Ganondorf being a kind, misunderstood person. Or their own good versions of Ganondorf.

I'd like to see that character—the one people believed to be there—one day. This man isn't him.

The Calamity is a natural cataclysm; TP Ganondorf is someone who thinks themselves a god; OoT Ganondorf is a wizard king who seeks the world.

Wind Waker Ganondorf is a man who tells himself he's justified in burning the world, and believes it. What's more evil than that?

In case it's ambiguous: Ganondorf is one of my favorite characters in any game, and Wind Waker is definitely my favorite iteration of him. More believably evil wizards!

Always more believably evil wizards

If you like how I talk about Zelda, listen to my podcast.

The Book of Mudora's nothing but talking about the lore of the Zelda games, and how we relate to that lore. It's a lot of fun! Also available on whatever podcast platform you prefer.”

http://www.audioentropy.com/#/the-book-of-mudora/

#zelda #cameron morris #ganondorf #ww #windwaker #wind waker #the legend of zelda

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firstpuffin · 5 years

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The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening remake

-Note: It’s kind of embarrassing to admit but my comments around the visuals of A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening are straight-up incorrect. The two games did not share the same visual style and I honestly don’t know why I said that; I most definitely knew better. Still, I’m not going to get rid of it because the internet needs more examples of people admitting to be being wrong.

I say a lot that I want to be positive, but it’s really gonna be hard with this one. See, at the latest Nintendo Direct it was announced that they would be releasing a remake of the 26 year old game, The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening. As it happens I was already considering writing something about this game in a “Games from my Childhood” article, but that would actually have been positive! This one is… well, I’m going to at least try and balance every negative with a positive.

-at least the title screen looks good-

So where to begin: I won’t cover the story because spoilers but how about some personal background? The game came out a year before I did (ha! bad jokes) and I have no idea when I got my grubby little paws on it, but it was a part of my life genuinely for as long as I can remember, along with the Pokémon games. I never completed it as a child, but my memories of it were so good that I returned to it as an adult and completed it, learning its sad secret.

-hey! according to this it released the same year I did; me getting my years mixed up I guess-

Link’s Awakening (LA) was originally a pet project made outside of work hours which is why it borrows resources from other games such as the Mario series, but it was eventually released to critical acclaim. The gameplay is much the same as its immediate predecessor A Link to the Past (LttP), but with a number of new items and a unique soundtrack. Visually it is much the same as well, although its original release was black and white for the GameBoy with Link’s Awakening DX adding colour for the GameBoy Colour.

So let’s start with the visuals as that is most of what we have right now: the original shared its visuals with LttP what with them using the same assets (tools, resources etc) and LttP had a sequel recently that looked really nice. But the upcoming LA remake looks nothing like it; I wouldn’t expect it to but when a defence of the artistic choice is that “it’s an update of the original graphics” (so why not use the assets from the LttP remake?) or that it somehow “reflects the atmosphere of the original” except there’s no reason for it to be any different to, again, the LttP remake. And in response to the “atmosphere”, LA was one of the darker yet in some ways more whimsical games; this new style is childish to the extreme.

Don’t get me wrong, I love something that is good and childish, but there is a level when it stops being great and starts to feel like they condescend to the player. Bright colours, simple faces, high pitched noises- Oh god the noises!! I’ll expand on the sounds later but I’m still on the visuals. I’ve heard the game described as looking like Claymation, which isn’t wrong, but my immediate thought was that it looked like cheap plastic. And after watching it again and again as I discussed it with a friend, this opinion stuck.

-tell me this doesn’t look like claymation; this isn’t a game, it’s an animated short film-

You know how shiny and tacky cheap plastic usually looks? Imagine an entire game like that; an entire world like that. Fans of anime may understand what I say next, but there is a large element of “chibi” in this new game. Large head, tiny body. It’s often seen in short 4 minute spin offs of popular series.

-as you can see, chibi is hardly meant to be taken seriously-

-just to hammer things home-

So shiny plastic, silly chibi art with a soulless expression. Oh yeah, that. Link’s eyes have zero soul behind them. Zero. He’s a freakin’ monster. Have you seen those Funko Pops? You know how empty they look? Some have said it somehow reflects the original game’s art again, but back then they didn’t have the technology to make him look soulless and young me always thought he looked determined; it was really cool.

-determined; dead inside-

Okay, so I said I would try and be fair, and I have shat upon the plasticine toy-box long enough, so here’s what is good visually. The areas are actually really nice.

Ignoring the nail varnish sheen on everything, things are really detailed. There is an unfortunate trend in games, likely due to technical limitations, to have flat textures. Basically, imagine the difference between a tile or wood panel floor, and a picture of a tile or wood panel floor. But this game looks to have really tried in these areas. The grass looks thick and lush, tiles look like more than a photograph on the floor and even the flat flowers on the ground look decent. Just a shame it all looks like LEGO. Actually, a LEGO Zelda game would be awesome. But this is not that.

I haven’t explained that very well, it’s an area that I am new at but I will say that clearly a lot of care has gone into the assets and the world. It is not a lazy game in any way.

-don’t tell me those trees and rocks and- well, everything, don’t look like LEGO-

Next I’m going to talk about the sound. First of all, I’m convinced that they have artificially increased the pitch of Link’s voice so it is painfully sharp to the ears. I’ll admit, I have an unusual sensitivity to lights and sound and thus I prefer darker colours and quieter sounds; I avoid clubs like the plague and not just because I’ll likely catch it there. So maybe, just maybe, I’m noticing something that won’t be a problem for most, and is just unfortunate for me. And let’s ignore that it doesn’t match the darker tone of the game.

And the music? Also quite high pitched. And super cheery. It doesn’t have either the dreamlike or dark tones that could be expected (and just thinking of how it could be dreamlike gives me shivers; it could be so good) but is instead inanely cheery. In fact, I hope they sped everything up for the trailer and the pitch is just an unfortunate side-effect.

On the plus side, the trailer opens with a cool cinematic and I swear the music changes from a nice, cheerful rendition (I don’t dislike cheerful in-and-of-itself) of the Zelda main theme to the death squeals of various instruments that I mentioned before. On top of that, it ends on a really nice vocal version of the LA theme, Ballad of the Wind Fish. If the trailer had been the cinematic and that closing song alone then I would be beyond excited about the remake. Thank heaven it wasn’t, I’m not sure my love of the series could survive such a plummeting disappointment.

youtube

-and here’s the actual trailer for your perusal-

So I’ll finish here. I was originally very pleased, excited even that they had decided to remake what was a favourite, underrated and apparently forgotten game, but I kept my expectations low because I knew what to expect from these companies. I thought I did anyway. I was still disappointed. I thought I had prepared for the worst. Still, at least it gave me something to write about.

But, the game has clearly had a lot of work put into it and gameplay-wise it actually looks to flow really well so I’m sure it controls like a treat. But the visuals and music are too big of a deal for me to let slide; if it keeps up like this then it could literally be painful for me to play. Still, games do change a lot from the initial trailer to its release and I even put forth an idea of why the sound may hurt me so much here. Maybe the final game will be a lot better. Unfortunately, the things I want to be done in games and such rarely are, and I am often alone in my complaints.

And finally, yes I am aware that the famous and incredibly popular Wind Waker entry in the series also had similar complaints and became, as I said, incredibly popular. I wasn’t a part of that crowd, I was too young and honestly, Link’s Awakening was the only Zelda game I had actually played at that time.

#first puffin #opinion #video games #nintendo #legend of zelda #links awakening #links awakening dx #links awakening remake #remake #thosetagswilldofornow

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