#overall not 100% done but I like it and enjoy it more than botw and feel it improved on it but I'm not personally feeling the story

[wraithwritten]

some random totk thoughts. major story spoilers ahead

honestly I didn't come in playing this game for the story. unfortunately. which is what Zelda used to BE for me. after getting my story hopes set too high for botw and getting disappointed, I came in with a "story is secondary here" mentality and it shouldn't be considering how important story is to me overall. I came in here namely because I wanted to explore and just fool around. and having both the sky and DEPTHS (which I love the most) and a familiar but different hyrule is scratching that itch for me. basically treating this as my sandbox. so I can say I'm VERY satisfied when it comes to my gameplay and exploration needs. I only wish ultrahand building wasn't so janky to me (I think I need to turn off motion controls since I'm hardly using them this time around)

So that said. hate the rehash of how the majority of story cut scene use is linked to the past AGAIN. and the sages are very underdeveloped and kind of just there (hell even compared to TP I'd even say and those guys were just kind of there) and. not gonna lie. feels like they didn't know what to do with Zelda so we kind of have a semi-redo of zelda being majorly absent. and here we have all this talk of her sealing powers and now time manipulation and. she neither attempts to seal ganondorf away nor do we really get her. actually honing in on her time powers. despite the hints from poor poor plot device Sonia (I AM SO SORRY QUEEN YOU GOT THE DEAD WIFE TREATMENT). in terms of what the story shows us and implies. no. straight to the last resort "lose yourself and become a dragon" option. Zelda girl you deserve so much better especially after what you went through during the calamity and keeping ganon in stasis for 100 years. So as of now I'm not 100% done with the story, at the point where I'm about to use this amazing flying bike build to get up to hyrule castle where puppet zelda is but first I'm gonna get more stamina so I can get the master sword. but anyway. I'm kinda... just waiting to see how this all ends and I'll gather up more thoughts from there.

as a quick aside, all this makes me wonder now is who are the three other dragons??? three of the sages? past zonai? and unrelated but does rauru count as the seventh sage? it's emphasized there's just six and he's just there but STILL (if this is elaborated on I have not done the kakariko ring quest on account of not being able to access them thanks to that one guy).

also not a big fan of early hyrule being depicted as a more tribal people and the so described "good king of light" being the guy who bought civilization and technology to them. I obviously can't speak on this matter but I'm seeing something.

I also have some nitpicking as someone into worldbuilding and overall zelda lore but I'll leave that unsaid for now.

Some positives. more enemy variety thank god. now I'm not as bitter knowing moblins and bokoblins and lizalfos are the main fodder because at least there are other basic enemies beyond them. Would have liked more undead enemies though and poes being actual POES but I understand why they gotta be a more easily obtainable collectable soul currency. I would have liked a new yiga variant and a return of the bow users too but oh well. I LOVE them having bases in the depths though.

love the return of dungeons and ACTUAL bosses that feel more in line with past games. I was not a fan at all of the blights but I'm a BIG big fan of the more varied bosses here and their designs.

finally had some true genuine shit yourself moments beyond the repetitive guardian jumpscares from botw thanks to the depths. also seeing the silhouettes of gibdos in the desert made me yell I cannot begin to describe how happy I am some freaky as fuck enemies are FINALLY in the game. they're like weird redead bugs here. wish they screamed and froze you up still.

I also like seeing how Hyrule has changed in the past ??? years or so. would have liked confirmation but I'm glad everyone seems to be in the boat of a 4-6 year range.

overall though I'd say despite my fun and feeling totk improved on botw's gameplay for me and I'm getting waaay more enjoyment out of it, what I'm really yearning and itching for is in the older games and probably won't truly come back. anyway I wanna replay oot and mm and tp soooo bad. these three are THE essential games for me with mm and tp pretty much hogging the #1 fave spot

#[ ooc ]; #overall not 100% done but I like it and enjoy it more than botw and feel it improved on it but I'm not personally feeling the story

[abbzworld]

Writing commissions

Hello everyone! As some of you know, I’ve been writing fanfiction for a long time now, with accounts on both Archive Of Our Own  and Fanfiction.net. I have also dipped my toe into original fiction writing (just not as often as fanfiction) and as such, I also have a FictionPress account. And I figured that since I enjoy writing so much that maybe I could make some money off of my stories. And that's why I am now offering up some original fiction and fanfiction commissions! The info for both will be under separate sections below. But first, here are some general rules and guidelines before we begin: 1. I don’t want you to send me anything NSFW. Just stick to PG-13 for a rating, alright? 2. The longer the story you want me to write, the longer it’ll take for me to finish it, so just keep that in mind. It could take anywhere from a few days to a couple months. If you don’t like that, don’t commission me. 3. I’m only going to take three commissions at a time. Anything more than that and I’ll overwhelm myself. 4. Your commission can't be cancelled after I've finished the first draft. 5. Anything that you don't specify in your commission information, I can make up. 6. Please only ask for one commission at a time! This allows other people to commission me without one person taking up all three slots. 7. Please note that I will NOT write about incest, pedophilia, explicit abuse or ANYTHING of that sort! ---- Fanfiction Commissions Before we get started, let me make it perfectly clear off the bat that I will NOT write for a ship/fandom that I either don’t like (i.e. a NOTP) or know nothing about (i.e. Harry Potter). I will only take commissions that I can comfortably write! If you're unsure as to what I will write outside of what I've listed below, just ask. Types of Commissions NOTE: My currency is in the Canadian dollar. So keep that in mind if your currency is different. Also, my overall price is 1 cent per word (eg. 100 words is $1 and 500 words is $5, etc.) Drabbles (anything less than 1k words) - Maximum price is $9.99 CAD These will be the stories that’ll hopefully be done quicker than the others since they’re the shortest in terms of words. Short Oneshot (between 1-3k words) - Maximum price is $30 These might take me a little while depending on inspiration, my schedule and what you want me to do. Long Oneshot (between 3-5k words) - Maximum price is $50 These will probably be the toughest ones to write since they’re longer and I have to make sure that they’re the proper length and I don’t go overboard. So don’t overload me with them, okay? Surprise Story (between 1-8k words) - Maximum price is $75 Provide me with one of your artworks, and I'll write a story about it. Do's and Don'ts What I do/am willing to write OC’s aka Original Characters (depending on where they’re from and who they are so again, if you're unsure, just ask) Fandoms: • Paper Mario (mainly TTYD and SPM) • Naruto • Doctor Who • Gravity Falls • Harvest Moon (mainly AWL and it’s different versions) • Legend of Zelda (mainly WW, TP, SS and BOTW) • Bugsnax Romantic ships: • Beldam/Doopliss, Koops/Vivian, Bobbery/Scarlette & Count Bleck or Blumiere/Tippi or Lady Timpani (Paper Mario) • Naruto/Hinata & Shikamaru/Temari (Naruto) • Twelve/Missy, Twelve/Clara, Missy/Clara, Twelve/Missy/Clara, Twelve/Davros (yes, you read that right), Third Doctor/Delgado Master & Sally Sparrow/Larry Nightingale (Doctor Who) • Dipper/Pacifica (Gravity Falls) • Link/Zelda (mainly from Skyward Sword and Breath of the Wild) & Link/Midna (Legend of Zelda) • Celia/Marlin (Harvest Moon: A Wonderful Life) • Filbo/Buddy, Snorpy/Chandlo, Lizbert/Eggabell and Wiggle/Cromdo (don’t judge…) (Bugsnax) Platonic ships: • Dipper and Wendy (Gravity Falls) • Shelda and Floofty (Bugsnax) Characters: • Gaara (Naruto) • Missy, Twelfth Doctor, Clara and Sutekh (Doctor Who) NOTE: I AM willing to write outside of these ships and characters, but within reason. Feel free to ask me about something not listed here, but there's NO guarantee that I'll write it for you. Especially if it's a NOTP (i.e. romantic and/or sexual Sasuke/Itachi, romantic and/or sexual Hidan/Shikamaru, etc.) or just someone that I’m not used to writing yet. (i.e. Stanley Pines) Genres: • Adventure • Angst • Drama • Family/friendship • Hurt/comfort • Romance What I don't write Multi-chapter stories as I have bad luck with trying to finish those, no matter the length. Mature content aka NSFW Fanfiction involving real people Genres: • Biographies • Crime • Fantasy • Horror • Humor/parody • Poetry • Some sci-fi • Supernatural • Western ---- Original fiction commissions Here are some rules and guidelines specifically for my original fiction commissions: 1. My price is 2 cents per word, since writing original fiction is generally more difficult then writing fanfiction. So in other words, just multiple the final word count by .02 and you'll have the price to pay me. 2. My minimum word count for an original story is 100 words (which would be $2) and my maximum is 2000 words (which would be $40). I don't have too much experience writing original stories yet, so that's why my limit is 2000 words. 3. Again, no multi-chaptered stories! It would be too tough on me. Otherwise than, my previously mentioned rules and guidelines apply as well as my do's and don'ts that I mentioned under "Fanfiction commissions". So as long as you follow them and communicate effectively with me about what you do and don't want, I'll be happy to write for you. ---- Other information DISCLAIMER: I have the right to refuse a commission without explanation. How to commission me Send me a chat message or non anonymous ask containing the following information: • Type of commission (i.e. will it be a fanfiction or an original story? What minimum and/or maximum word count do you want? Etc.) • Genre(s) of the story • Which fandom the story is in (for fanfiction commissions) • Any and all characters involved, including OC's • The plot you want • Extra information/specific details you want me to know • Paying by points or by PayPal? You can also contact me on either Discord (abbie26) or DeviantART (found here) with the information.

Closing

Anyways, that should be enough for now. And if you have any other questions that aren’t answered above, be sure to ask me so I can clear it up.

Peace off!

#fanfic commissions #commissions #story commissions #writing #fanfiction #paper mario the thousand year door #Super Paper Mario #naruto #doctor who #classic who #new who #gravity falls. #harvest moon a wonderful life #zelda skyward sword #zelda breath of the wild #zelda twilight princess #zelda wind waker #bugsnax #original fiction

[diviineconstruct]

♡ LOVELY OOC MEME ♡

♡ STOLEN FROM: dash ♡ TAGGING: u

NAME: kou NICKNAME: kou? lol AGE: 22 FACE CLAIM: i used to use nanami chiaki from sdr2 but im afraid of my ooc posts getting flagged sooo havent been using them PRONOUNS: she/them/whatever HEIGHT: 5′5 BIRTHDAY: 12/12

AESTHETIC: dark skies, lightning storms, fresh rain

LAST SONG YOU LISTENED TO: oblivion town music/ambience

FAVORITE MUSE ( S ) YOU’VE WRITTEN: giratina probably, but ruta is the only one who’s been able to contend w her

WHAT INSPIRED YOU TO TAKE ON YOUR CURRENT MUSE ( THAT YOU ARE POSTING THIS ON ): botw was easily my favorite story game i played on the switch, beating mario odyssey even (and ive been a bigger mario fan in my youth). everything about botw (the story, characters, etc) really touched me and i enjoyed it thoroughly, spending at least 100 hours in the game before going to fight ganon. i do rp humanized (gijinka) legendary pokemon, and i looked at the divine beasts and im like.... well, can i do that with them too? i discussed it with friends over discord (bless them for sitting through my nonsensical explanations), and i had it down between ruta and naboris. ultimately, the zora was what made me choose ruta, as i ADORE them and zora’s domain, and i thought it’d be fun to explore her cryonis powers. besides that, i always thought that other than the champions, link, and zelda, the beasts had a very tragic story thrust upon them. while the game doesnt ever tell us if theyre really sentient or not (the champions talk to them as if they are), i still wanted to explore their experiences with ganon’s malice and the loss of their champion

WHAT ARE YOUR FAVORITE ASPECTS OF YOUR CURRENT MUSE: i like the backstory ive built for her so far. we didnt get ANY information about the divine beasts’ past champions 10,000 years ago, other than their races. it really allowed me to flesh out my own headcanons, such as ruta’s first champion, and other aspects like when she and the other beasts were shut down and buried away for later. 

WHAT’S YOUR BIGGEST INSPIRATION WHEN IT COMES TO WRITING: is it cliche to say music? i mostly listen to ambient tracks from various games (botw, skyrim, oblivion), and for some reason it really helps set the mood, and i find im able to write better while listening to these tracks. seeing other people’s threads too inspires me to write; if im following you, chances are i do read your threads on my dash because it helps motivate me to write threads as well.

FAVORITE TYPES OF THREADS: i really like the threads where ruta gets to talk about her past, because not a lot of people are 10,000 years old! i haven’t explored this yet, but im waiting for the day where she gets to openly talk about how badly the malice affected her. yes, it’s gonna be angsty but it’s REALLY important to her character, as that, along with mipha’s death (and her failure overall) contributes to a lot of her character. i do like wholesome and lighthearted threads though! threads where she travels, or discovers something new with someone will always be a favorite as well.

BIGGEST STRUGGLE IN REGARDS TO YOUR CURRENT MUSE: i still find it hard to explain... how she can exist in a more human body? i feel like i can explain it well enough (like here comes her soul/consciousness out of the main terminal woohoo), but im worried that people dont understand it for some reason? not through any fault of their own; im just terrible at explaining things without rambling and jumping topics 7 times in a paragraph. i also tend to struggle with touching on her sheikah heritage-- i talk a lot about the importance of the zora, though i haven’t really done much with the sheikah besides “they created her and she made her human form in their likeness”. she does visit kakariko, though i just have not been able to touch on that very well (i need to find more sheikah muses to follow, maybe)

#💧 // ooc. #long post

[doggodysk-blog]

I seriously underrated The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild

**Some minor spoilers contained in this review**

I won’t beat around the bush, BOTW isn’t just the best game I’ve played this year, it’s the best game I’ve played in a long, long time. Maybe ever. This is coming from someone who was skeptical of an open-world Zelda game, as Ocarina of Time was my favorite Zelda game before this, I really enjoyed the traditional dungeon and progression.

I don’t say “potentially the best game I’ve ever played” lightly. I went into this game critically, looking for things it didn’t do well. And, of course, there are some things it doesn’t do quite as well as others. However, overall, the game is a true masterpiece and a testament to everything Nintendo’s creative minds are capable of. I truly think that nearly everything implemented in this game is implemented nearly perfectly.

The Not So Good

This is all I can think of for negatives. While this seems like a long list, a lot of critical thinking about the game went into this, and, for the most part, these are all very minor. I cannot stress this enough, these negatives DO NOT even come close to detracting from the overall experience of the game. I am only listing these to try to be as objective and honest as I can, as I believe calling it a “perfect” game would be disingenuous.

Graphics and Art

The game can drop in FPS pretty significantly, particularly when there are a lot of particles or in large fights.

Some character models aren’t very visually appealing. Compared to the beauty of the world, character models are somewhat lackluster, particularly their faces.

Enemies

Enemy difficulty can be a little low. The first time or two, Major Tests of Strength or Hinoxes or Lynels were tricky. However, after those times, I never really struggled to fight them and win. I’m sure my thoughts on this will change once I start my Master playthrough.

There isn’t an enormous amount of enemy variations.

Puzzles

Some puzzles can be a bit finicky, especially motion control puzzles. Usually it’s not too bad and just requires a few tries, but it can be bothersome at times.

While they were fun and well designed, the Divine Beasts really didn’t take much time to get through compared to the rest of the game. I would have liked to see them take a tad bit longer.

Considering how there is no way (that I know of) to locate Korok Seed puzzles via the map/Shiekah Locator, it can be somewhat tedious to expand your inventory. Perhaps it would be better if you needed an extra seed every two upgrades instead of one, or implement a way to find the seeds.

*Further reading has shown that this problem is solved by one of the DLC’s which I have not read yet.

Weapons and Items

While the weapon durability system is a lot better than I expected it to be, and I actually think the system as a whole adds to the game, I think weapons should all have a bit more durability.

Special arrows are a bit expensive, and hard to find from chests and enemy bases. I would like to see them show up in chests a bit more often, especially considering the amount of basic swords and bows I find. This affected me more than it may affect other people, because I have been going for a stealth-archer style character.

Mechanics and Systems

Link is weirdly bad at swimming, considering how good he is at climbing. There have been times where I was feet from shore and drowned. This can be pretty frustrating.

The Shrine locator is a bit noisy.

In some areas, it rains just a tad bit too much.

Personal Complaints

This is a personal preference and not objective nor does it really detract from the game, but I don’t like the fact that there is voice acting. I prefer Zelda games to only have the unintelligible noise when you interact with someone and background music.

This is a complaint of mine personally but also a testament to the scope of the game: there’s a bit too much to do. I’m a completionist and really like to complete games I play 100%, especially if they are games I really enjoy. There is just so much. The most tedious is the astounding 700 Korok seeds. I plan on completing everything but the Korok seeds, but the fact that there are so many of them is a bit annoying to me as a completionist.

The Good

As I’ve already said, this game is astounding. One could write a book about how incredible the game design of BoTW is. It’s simultaneously intricate yet simple, easy yet with an infinite skill ceiling. This game will be studied by developers for years to come.

The World of BoTW

The world is gorgeous, and huge. Everywhere I go, I am struck by the beauty and the atmosphere. Every ridge I climb up, I come across a beautiful landscape view. I personally don’t enjoy exploring open-world games that much in general, but BOTW has completely changed that. Everywhere I explore is fun and exciting.

Continuing off of the last point in the last paragraph, the world is dense. I’m very rarely bored while roaming through the world. Whether it’s needing to go quickly so that my Fire Resistance Potion doesn’t wear off, needing to stealthily navigate a field to avoid Guardians, coming across a large Bokoblin camp, seeing old chests hidden in lakes, finding interesting NPC’s and doing missions for them, or simply coming across shrines and towers, there is always something to do.

The world is fully open, but you’re never lost. In a lot of open-world games, I find myself going in a direction where I shouldn’t be and either be turned back because I shouldn’t go that way or getting lost. In BoTW, they deter exploration into later areas by putting you up against enemies that are difficult. You could push your way through, but it will be challenging, and you are usually naturally and intuitively led on a path of enemies that of an appropriate difficulty. Before going into the game, I felt I would feel overloaded with options, but I usually am able to intuitively do what seems right to me. This fully open-world also makes the game excellent for speed running, as you are only limited by how good you are.

The Beauty in the Details

The Towns and Villages are all thought out with incredible amounts of detail. They each have distinct cultures and histories that are reflected through the architecture, lifestyle, and personalities of the NPC’s. Whether it’s a laid-back beach village or a prosperous, modern town that was mostly unaffected by the Calamity, each town and village is fun and engaging to explore.

Speaking of NPC’s, they’re very well-written. Even basic NPC’s in towns and on paths all have personality quirks that make them entertaining to talk to. BoTW has perhaps the most well-written NPC’s in any game I’ve played. Every one has a witty anecdote or hints at a treasure or shrine.

The world is full of small bits of history that paint a large picture of the history of the world of Hyrule. Each book you read or slate you find tells a story, and when you put them together, you get a fully fleshed out history of not just Hyrule, but each area and each Village.

Puzzles and Quests

The quests are abundant and fun. There are few “filler” quests that I have come across, almost all of them are either genuinely fun or very short. My favorite of these quests are Shrine quests, which offer puzzles in the forms of riddles. These are very creative and often times quite tricky to decipher.

The puzzle system is well-thought and a refreshing shift from traditional puzzles. The tutorial section does a good job of introducing the basic concepts of the Sheikah Slate’s abilities as well as showing that puzzles often have more to them than meets the eye. The player quickly learns that most puzzles have a relatively basic main path following a certain theme, and side paths which offer secret rewards for taking the themes learned from the main puzzle, and making them more complex.

Mechanics and Systems

The stealth system is, surprisingly, extremely well done. I went into the game knowing stealth was a possibility, but thinking it wouldn’t be a fully-fleshed system. Regardless of that, I knew I wanted to attempt a stealth playthrough, and wow. After honing my skills for the first few hours of the game, such as landing headshots, target selection, and use of my environment, I could easily clear most camps without being detected with some thought. As someone who loves stealth games, I really appreciate this system.

Outside of perhaps Dark Souls, the sword fighting system is the best of any game I’ve played. It does an excellent job of being interactive, rewarding good timing, giving you options, and allowing for personal skill progression. At first, I was slightly concerned that the controls weren’t very intuitive and that I would struggle to implement it in fights, however, with just minutes of practice, I was able to get a solid grasp of it. The sword combat system is an excellent example of “Easy to Learn, Hard to Master.”

The physics and weather systems make the world feel alive. I haven’t played a game that has put this much attention to science details. The biology of the animals matches their terrain. Things that you think should work, work. If you have a metal weapon out in a thunderstorm, you’ll get struck by lightning. Hot air will rise, so if you set something on fire, you are able to use that to your advantage. Rain makes things slippery, but usually not impassable (if you have enough stamina).

Additional Aspects

There are a lot of fun things to do on the side of the game, such as experimenting with cooking and potions, or filling out your Hyrule Compendium. There is always something to keep you from getting bored.

I’m a sucker for games with multiple playstyles, and the armor system in the game does that very well. For instance, I played mostly with the stealth armor, but you could also use armor that helps you climb better, swim faster, or be protected from certain elements. Another thing the armor system does very well is give you collecting options. You can buy pieces of armor from stores around the land, or you can earn them from various missions.

While the game doesn’t require exploration, it encourages it in a very natural way. If you want to upgrade your health or stamina, or want to get more inventory, or want better food and potions, or want more powerful weapons, then you’ll have to explore. None of these are required to finish the game whatsoever, but are accessible and fun to look for. I believe that the natural and flawless way that they encourage you to explore the beautiful open world they have created is the pinnacle of all of the excellent game design that BoTW exhibits, and future open-world games will look to BoTW for inspiration for how to create their own worlds.

Summary

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild is the best thing the gaming community has scene in quite some time. It marks a positive shift not only for the Legend of Zelda franchise, but for open-world games as a whole. Despite its few minor flaws, this game is a masterpiece from the largest of scales down to the tiniest of details.

#zelda #legend of zelda #zelda breath of the wild #zelda botw #botw #breath of the wild #nintendo #nintendo switch #gaming #games #video games #review #game review

[ggdeku]

Breath of the Wild final impressions

As I watched the credits roll on Breath of the Wild I was conflicted. The game had been a ton of fun, a fresh new take on the series while also being a great open-world game in its own right. But despite enjoying my time with it, I ultimately felt very dissapointed.

Breath of the Wild is not a bad game, far from it, but I couldn’t shake the feeling that I didn’t get what I wanted. In their quest to mix up the “Zelda formula” and bring a new structure to the series, the developers left too much behind. Resulting in a good, but ultimately unfulfilling game.

Ask any fan of the series what their favorite entry is and you’ll get a different answer every time. The draw and appeal of Zelda is so varied that fans often disagree as to what elements are most valuable to them. One of the biggest draws for me has been the design of the dungeons themselves. It’s not just about the individual puzzles in each room, but the way these puzzle rooms are connected to make the dungeon a puzzle itself. Zelda dungeons are at their best when they require the player to understand the architecture and mechanics of the space and make it fun to unravel both the individual puzzles and the overall dungeon itself.

For a deeper examination of the way Nintendo designs these structures, I highly recommend watching Mark Brown’s Boss Keys youtube series. Brown talks about each game in the series and analyzes the way dungeons are designed. This series was very influential for me and helped solidify my thoughts on this topic. I recommend the Majora’s Mask video as it perfectly explains why I love that game.

With BotW, Nintendo very clearly targeted the strengths and design values of the very first entry in the series. An open space where the player has agency to make their own decisions about where to go and what to do. With no predetermined narrative-based path, you can do what you want, when you want.  However, in achieving this goal, the pacing and tight design of the Zelda series is mostly pushed aside in favor of player freedom.

Without a strong narrative path, the developers used the shrines as an incentive for players to explore. The 120 shrines mostly use the game mechanics and player abilities very well, but were also responsible for 120 moments of stinging disappointment. Every time I finished one, I felt unsatisfied because it was just one puzzle unconnected to a greater scheme of interlocking rooms or challenges. While completing shrines I often thought about how much more I would have enjoyed the puzzle if it had been connected to the last 20 shrines I finished.

There are several combat challenge shrines, but they aren’t the most interesting or rewarding things to complete. Even the simple change of reducing the overall amount of shrines to make each one the equivalent of two puzzles and a combat room would have done wonders to the game. That change would make discovery and completion of the shrines more meaningful.

The overall quality of the shrines made the feeling even worse because with individual puzzles that strong, a solid, interconnected design would have probably lead to some of the best dungeons in the series.

The aesthetics of the shrines are all the same. The same music and visuals 120 times. I think that does a disservice to the variety of puzzles they feature, in addition to being boring after the first 20. Even simple themes like forest, ice, fire, wind, fortress, etc. would be a great way to mix up the visuals of these challenges.

Shrines at the beginning of the game look identical to shrines you will find many hours into your adventure.

And then there are the Divine Beasts. They are the closest thing this game has to a traditional Zelda dungeon, because they are much larger than shrines, feature a short series of puzzles and end with a boss.

They share very little with the established "dungeon” forumla, but one aspect they do share with their predecessors is an important one, encouraging an understanding of the structure’s architecture. Each beast requires you to understand and manipulate the movement of the structure in order to activate five switches and fight a boss.The moving and twisting beats are impressive, but the actual goals within them leave a lot to be desired.

Not only are they much shorter than the dungeons of previous Zelda games,  they all have the same objective of activating a few switches. Repeated objectives and simple physics puzzles get boring fast. After you complete one beast you have seen everything they can do.

None of the beasts provide the same feeling as a good Zelda dungeon, unraveling and fighting your way through a tightly wound knot of individual and interconnected puzzles rooms and gaining an understanding of the continuous layout of a piece of architecture. They are far too simple in their individual and overall puzzle design and feature very little combat, other than the bosses. Much like the shrines, the Divine Beasts are not bad, but they are a weak attempt at making sure something resembling a Zelda tradition remained in the game.

The beasts also have the same problem as the shrines in terms of aesthetics. They are all located in beautiful, distinct locations in the world, but the beasts themselves share the same theming (which isn’t very different from the shrines).

As someone who greatly values the traditional Zelda dungeon, this disappointment with BotW’s alternatives hit me hard. No one makes games like Zelda. No one makes Zelda-like dungeons. After waiting six years for the next 3D game in the series it sucks to be disappointed in this way.

It’s not just the dungeons, but the progression in complexity that I miss. The way the dungeon design builds from the Great Deku tree to the Spirit Temple in Ocarina of Time, or from Woodfall to Stone Tower Temple in Majora’s Mask is amazing. That hasn't been a part of Zelda in many years.

This was also one of my biggest problem with A Link Between Worlds. That game had traditional Zelda dungeons, but because the player could tackle them mostly out of order they all felt as if they were each designed to be the first dungeon. The game lost any sense of progression in complexity with dungeons that would be lucky if they lasted more than a couple minutes.

However, this game’s best moments are not the attempts to translate the dungeon format to a new structure. BotW’s strength is the open-world and sense of discovery. These were strongest for me in the first half of the game, when the majority of the world was a still a mystery.

Discovering shrines in the first half of the game was exciting, and solving the tiny Korok seed puzzles hidden throughout the world provided a unique distraction. The Korok seeds are so plentiful (900!) that you can always find enough to increase your inventory, but I felt that their implementation did more to help the developers fill up their massive world rather than create a good mechanic for the player. It’s just another meaningless collectible.

While exploration is incentivized by shrines and Korok seeds, the best discoveries were villages and towns. BotW has the best towns in any Zelda game hands down. They all have a unique atmosphere, great music, and are occupied by memorable NPCs that seem to run on a Majora’s Mask-like schedule. Discovering and entering Hateno Village at dawn was one of my all-time favorite video game moments.

Once I had explored the world, found all the villages, and unlocked each section of the map, I realized that the only thing left to find were shrines and seeds. With Korok seeds cast aside as meaningless collectibles, looking for shrines quickly stopped being interesting as I knew the only thing I could find would only instill the same sense of longing for “real dungeons” that I had experienced dozens of times before. 

Thankfully, many of the sidequests to find the shrines were some of the best moments of the game, taking the unique and interesting puzzles and bringing them onto the actual world map. But aside from those quests I did not find much fun in exploring the world. I wanted to avoid combat most of the time because I didn't want any of my weapons to break and the standard enemies often had worse gear than what I was carrying. Exploring for exploration’s sake does not interest me. I’ve never really been the kind of player that messes around in the open world games without a purpose.

The lack of enemy diversity throughout the world was very surprising. BotW has  a strangely small variety of enemies. Zelda’s famous cast of monsters is mostly absent this time around as Link is left to fight standard and large sized Bokoblins and Lizalfos for most of the game. Fighting the same enemies over and over again started to bore me near the end of my playtime and I found it strange Nintendo left out so many different types monsters such as Like-Likes, Darknuts, Stalfos, Leevers, etc. It really doesn’t help the copy and pasted feel of many enemy encounters when the combat barely changes in hour one compared to hour 100.

I did like that they addressed the common complaint of combat difficulty. The enemies here actually put up a fight and provide for some tough encounters that require quick thinking and good reflexes. However, they also included two mechanics that trivialize the combat: Flurry Rush and parries.

Once I discovered how easy it is to abuse and activate the time slowing effects of Flurry Rush and parrying, the enemies were no longer a threat. The window to activate the Flurry Rush is so large that I often found myself triggering it when I wanted to back flip or sidestep for movement purposes. 

The combat itself felt a little stiff as well. The way Link stops moving when he swings his sword felt abrupt and his canned combos felt too automated. When you attack, Link will perform a simple combo string. In past games, the direction and type of attack could vary depending on your input. Link’s moves would actually be based on player input. I missed the choice of horizontal and vertical slashes, a sword thrust, and a crouch stab from behind a shield, among other moves.

The runes were cool, but I did not use them very often during combat. The combat sandbox in general felt a little underwhelming, mostly because Stasis, Magnesis, and Cryonis are the only unique abilities Link gets. 

The addition of infinite bombs seems like a carry over from ALBW’s item system, but don’t add much to the game. Infinite bombs are incredibly easy to abuse and are often more effective than arrows. I still think Wind Waker and the N64 games have the best combat sandboxes as they have a wide array of items and abilities without any overpowered dodges or parrying.

Because of the lack of unique items and abilities, the sense of progression is stunted. Link doesn’t gain access to new areas with the acquisition of tools that allows him to interact with the world and enemies in a different way. You get your rune abilities at the beginning and that is it. You are stuck making water platforms and moving metal objects for the rest of the game. I’ve always felt Zelda was better off closer to the Metroidvania style of design than an open world style, and BotW only reaffirms that opinion. BotW loses the moments of realization that your newly acquired abilities/items/information can be used in an earlier area to access something new, or recontextualize something you thought you had a handle on.

Link’s various armor sets also exemplify the grindy nature of this open world by  requiring you to farm items to upgrade equipment. This is probably the most standard open world aspect of the game and one that is just not worth engaging in.

I also wanted to touch on the story and characters, which is another element that I feel is important to the series (even if many disagree). Because of the open design, the story was pushed out of the players way for the most part. Unfortunately this led to a bunch of underdeveloped characters I never cared about. The hints into each Champion’s history and relationships with other characters was intriguing, but we never got anything more than simple archetypes. It would have been great to see longer story quests build up to the divine beasts.

One of the biggest story fumbles were the memories. While some were interesting they often added so little and often felt pointless. They gave us scraps of characterization for Zelda and that’s it. As for timeline stuff, the game is so vague that it doesn’t really matter (and I’m a Zelda timeline lover).

There are no memorable characters. We get interactions between the various champions and Zelda in flashbacks, but learn almost nothing about them, their personal histories, or see them grow or change in any meaningful way.

Games like Wind Waker and Majora’s Mask have you meet characters that have arcs, relationships, and goals. Players watch the characters grow and change. They inform the plot while growing along with the overall narrative. You see each character receive closure to their own storylines alongside the main narrative.

There is no plot in BotW. You wake up and are told to kill Ganon. If you defeat the Divine Beats you get to see more of Link’s lost memory, but all of that happened in the past, and you know that the four primary characters are already dead. Their fate is known before the player is even introduced to them.

There is no sense of urgency or danger. In Majora’s Mask you can see how Skull Kid’s meddling and the threat of the falling moon have negatively impacted every single one of the residents of Termina. The Deku Swamp’s water has been poisoned, the Gorons are frozen over, the sea temperature has risen and Lulu’s eggs Zora eggs have been stolen by pirates, the Ikana researcher has been turned into a zombie and the land has been cursed to keep the undead from dying completely. In Breath of the Wild, none of the people are in any danger. No one is scared of the obvious and inevitable return of Ganon. After the calamity life went on, the fall of an entire civilization didn’t seem to have much of an effect on the existing citizenry of Hyrule.

For a series that receives such massive amounts of praise, I don’t think Nintendo can keep on barely scraping by in the story and lore department. Nintendo should put more time and effort into a stronger focus on the narrative for this series. It’s a shame when the peak of storytelling in your franchise was over a decade ago (even though Majora’s Mask and Wind Waker were great).

I enjoyed my time with BotW immensely in the first 20 to 30 hours, but once I had a consistent understanding of the world and mechanics, I started to pick apart all the little things that I didn’t like, and it really hurt my enjoyment of the game.

What makes it hard for me is reading other Zelda fans’ impressions stating this is the best game in the series and that they hope Zelda never goes back to the way it was before. This series can and has done more. It has provided interesting worlds, memorable characters, unique and inventive puzzles and challenges that have stayed with me for years. When I think of BotW I just remember all of the things I didn’t like. I just think about how I can’t see myself ever returning to this game in the same way I do to almost every other game in the series.

It makes me sad because the traditional, more linear Zelda formula, despite some bad design decisions in the later games, still provides a valuable experience and is responsible for more than a handful of my favorite video games of all time.

DLC UPDATE:  I really liked the Champion’s Ballad DLC  just because of the shrine and Divine Beast. The new shrines were some of the best in the game, and the new divine beast was by far the best. The boss at the end was a unique challenge and is one of my favorite moments in BotW, it felt like an important event in a way that almost nothing else did in the base game.

#the legend of zelda #zelda #link #nintendo #nintendo switch #wii u #nintendo wii u #kass #urbosa #mipha #daruk #revali #open world #ocarina of time #majora's mask #wind waker

[dany36]

SIGH so i’m done playing breath of the wild. i beat it about two weeks ago but i just now completed all shrines and sidequests. i thought about hating myself even more by trying to collect all 900 korok seeds but it’s not worth it just to have that 100% in the map screen (plus korok seeds stopped being useful a long time ago). i have 100%d all zelda games i own (except OoX) but i just can’t be bothered for this one.

having replayed all zelda games at least twice, i can’t say i will be doing the same for botw. here are my [long] thoughts about it (spoiler-free):

i can’t say i loved it. i think i was just playing just for the sake of playing it because....duh, it’s a zelda game (plus i sort of spent a crapload of money on the game+console). as a long-time zelda fan, it just...didn’t feel like a zelda game to me. i’m not opposed to change, in fact i was extremely excited to finally play this game, but the overall product just didn’t satisfy me at all. it just felt like a very dull and unfulfilling experience.  

- the overworld. i kept saying it over and over in my head while playing this game: it’s just too damn fucking huge for its own good. and it’s boring as hell to traverse. there aren’t really that many interesting things to do other than look for shrines. oh cool you can climb that mountain way over there? for what? oh haha a korok seed. most of the time, nothing. good job. it just felt tiring and bothersome to explore huge empty spaces of nothing. horses aren’t very useful since most of the time i was warping to try to not bore myself from wandering around empty spaces. i replayed the original loz at least like 5 or 6 times and i absolutely adored exploring every corner of the overworld. botw’s? yawn snore zzzz.

- weapon durability. i mentioned it in an earlier post but i hope this is something that never comes back to a zelda game. it’s especially shitty when you beat a shrine and your reward is a weapon. oh, a weapon that will break after 20 hits or less. so your reward disappears instead of it being something useful that you can actually keep for the rest of the game. this might just be a personal preference but i just hated the weapon system, especially when you find out that the master sword and the hylian shield can actually also break instead of being able to use them infinite number of times (and don’t tell me “oh it’s because otherwise you would never have used any other weapon!” bc idgaf, frost weapons and spears are cool and i would have used them either way)

- the story. oh my god. i know this is supposed to be a throwback to the original zelda, where you can go straight and kill ganon, but my goodness....it’s 2017. how is it that we got such a barebones story?? when i finally got to zora’s domain i was excited. i was finally getting to the story. boy i was wrong. the game gave me zero reason to care about saving the world and its inhabitants (except the gorons, which i think were the greatest in this game). i fucking hate that the story is mostly told through memories. the worst part is, the story told through the memories is more exciting than the one you play through the game. i hate that we are told from the start “you have to save hyrule and the princess because um....you’re a hero, you just don’t remember haha! so GO!!!!” instead of showing me actual, emotional reasons to want to save these people. through the memories we just become spectators, instead of the story actually making us bond and feel something for the people we are saving (except, again, yunobo, who i will save 1000 times if i have to). not even princess zelda’s incredible character growth (which, once again, HAPPENS IN THE MEMORIES and NOT in the present) can save the story from being lackluster. i would talk more about this but then it’d take up the whole post.

- the music. i’ve also complained about it before, but it’s a fucking joke, especially since it’s a zelda game, which are mostly known from having really good soundtracks. for me, there are zero memorable soundtracks. i think i only liked two, the one where you are near a Tower and when you are near a shrine. even minecraft, a freaking indie game, had better ambient music than botw. exploring the overworld becomes 3600% more BORING because as you’re walking, all you hear is link’s footsteps and clanky armor. so the overworld becomes twice as empty because 90% of the time, there is no music. except the five random ass piano keys you hear from time to time. it’s just bad and it makes me sad. people seemed to have hated SS’s OST, but at least it gave us Fi’s Theme and the magnificence that is the Lanayru Sand Sea theme. now THAT’S music that truly takes you into the game and gives it the proper ambiance that the overworld tries to portray. botw? a sad, sad attempt. i’m honestly wondering what they will play during botw’s section at the symphony of the goddess’s tour.

- the sidequests. 90% of the sidequests are boring fetch quests and “kill this type of enemy plz”. it’s just boring and tedious and the rewards are a joke (mostly, rupees, materials which you can easily find ANYWHERE, or food). it’s time for zelda to step up in the sidequests department and give me good, engaging, emotional-investing sidequests that tell me more about a certain character, or which tell me more about the world, or overall just make me CARE about its inhabitans that i’m trying to save. MM is the king of sidequests and botw once again pales in comparison.

- the dungeons. the first one (Vah Ruta) was cool. then it got boring and repetitive, really fast. all the dungeons look identical. the dungeons are for the most part short. there are no enemies inside the dungeons except these flying skeletons that die with one hit. oh yeah and maybe a robot here and there. so there’s some enemies but nothing tough. the premise revolves around manipulating the dungeon by rotating it to discover new areas. so it’s like playing four Stone Towers from MM. Except i guess the Gerudo dungeon, which added an element of electricity (that was cool). but other than that, all of the dungeons are pretty much the same and after you’ve played one, you’ve pretty much played them all, which is sad because it takes away the element of surprise and “oh man i wonder what the theme of the next dungeon will be?”

- the enemies. the lack of variety is a joke. there’s like 4 or 5 types of bokoblins, which just differ in their color and strength. oh and that’s the same for octoroks, moblins, lizalfos, chuchus, lynels, and wizzrobes (which are a fucking joke in this game. remember when wizzrobes were actually tough in the original game?). oh crap, i’ve actually mentioned 90% of the enemies you will face in the game... i think in total there might be 10 or 11, which is PATHETIC when you consider how fucking huge the overworld is. sad sad sad.

- stamina is stupid and so is climbing. stamina was tolerable in SS because of those silent realms you had to beat: you had to be careful of running and climbing and wearing out your stamina because of those crazy-ass guardians. so it made sense because it adds a challenge to the silent realms. in botw, for a game that focuses so much on exploring and climbing, stamina becomes a hindrance that actually makes it annoying to explore the world. you better not run out of stamina while trying to climb that mountain over there lest you run out and have to start all over!!! joy.

- the graphics. can nintendo please try something else with zelda graphics now. don’t get me wrong, i loved TWW and SS, but....these cel-shading graphics (or whatever they’re called) are getting tiresome. i didn’t like how most of the time the game looks bloom-y and blurry af (it’s especially bad when it’s raining or snowing). people complained about TP’s bloom effects but i feel like botw’s light effect (or whatever the hell that causes it to look like someone just put 200% of brightness on an image using photoshop) really takes away from trying to enjoy the scenery and view that the game tries to offer. for the next game can we try something like hyrule warriors or tp or hell even mm 3d? thx.

- the rain. it. rains. so. fucking. much.

haha oh man i never realized how many things i didn’t like about this game. i think i’ll stop here and talk about the things i did like:

- the shrines. although i didn’t like how all of them had the exact same design, the puzzles in them were cool and very zelda-ish.

- the warping system. thank god there are so many warp points to traverse the overworld because otherwise i would have never finished this game.

- the clothes system. i really liked all of the costume options the game gives you, and the fact that you can change the color of the clothes. it takes me back to the OoT days except with more variety. very nice.

- the runes. i loved not having to worry about running out of bombs and the ice rune was very cool and useful: it’s like having infinite ice arrows from MM to make platforms on the water! also the puzzles that involved stopping time with the statis rune were awesome. oh and grabbing treasure from underwater with magnesis never gets old.

- yunobo. yunobo is pure and great and needs to be protected at all costs.

- lynels. for once, a deadly enemy you actually have to be careful with and prepare yourself with good strategy to beat. i remember when i saw my first lynel i was so scared to approach it. they gave lynels such a great treatment and it’s the same one that wizzrobes should have gotten.

- the variety of the weapons.

- revali’s gale. saved me from having to climb so many mountains with its gust that elevates you so high. also after 3 it re-generates in 5 minutes. a blessing.

- the towns. i loved how lively they look. it’s like clock town from mm and it’s great.

- princess zelda. great character development and she has become my second favorite zelda (behind ST Zelda which will always be the best [while oot zelda continues to be the worst])

summary: while i enjoyed some aspects of the game, overall it just was very tiresome and unfulfilling. for a game that boasted about being open world, the world itself was just so barren of interesting things to do and explore. exploring the world of Xenoblade Chronicles, a fucking Wii game, was way more exciting because the environment, story, and music had more to offer. if there’s one thing i can thank botw for, is that it re-awoke my love for zelda games such as TWW, TP, and SS, which i will probably re-play next. i’m all for evolving the zelda series, and i thank botw for trying, but i honestly hope this game will not be the new zelda formula to follow. PEACE OUT!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

#zelda #botw #junk #wow i didn't expect this to be so long #but it just had to be done #this was very therapeutic :y #sigh #botw criticism

[wellthatwasterrifying]

100 questions with 100 answers

One time in 2012 I answered all of these questions and I wanted to redo them because it felt fun to see what all had changed 

http://wellthatwasterrifying.tumblr.com/post/24306127834/100-answers-to-100-questions

The old one. ^^^^

The new one vvvv

1) Put your iTunes on shuffle. Give me the first 6 songs that pop up.

  Honestly I don’t use iTunes very much anymore. I use a lot of spotify but here’s iTunes

“Who’d have known”- Lilly Allen

“Forever” - Youngblood Hawke

“A Poetice Retelling Of An Unfortunate Seduction“ - Bright Eyes

“Shot of Love” - AC/DC

“Something in the Way You Are” Kimbra

This feels silly because I haven’t listened to most of these in years

2) If you could meet anyone on this earth, who would it be?

  I’ll keep it with Brendon Urie. /shrug

3) Grab the book nearest to you, turn to page 23, give me line 17.

  “Like Gansey, he had studied the ley lines for years”

4) What do you think about most?

Lately I think a lot about the future and what I want from it. Are the choices now leading to the future I have imagined or will what I’ve imagined change drastically in the next few years? Are the decisions I’m making now good enough? Of course they are.  

5) What does your latest text message from someone else say?

 Oh it’s much less academic than what I had in 2012, almost shamefully so. 

“I can ask him tomorrow but we are good with pretty much anytime Friday”

6) Do you sleep with ____ or without ______  on?

  I sleep with music on or without the TV backlight on.

7) What’s your strangest talent?

  Honest to god I can’t think of one. But I think that speaks more to my lack of being able to think on the spot than my lack of a strange talent. 

8) Girls…. (finish the sentence); Boys…. (finish the sentence)

 Girls are hurricanes; boys are sea shores. 

9) Ever had a poem or song written about you?

 Yeah I have. Good times.

10) When is the last time you played the air guitar?

 Probably the last time I answered this. LIE. It was when I was thinking of ideas for a bar.

11) Do you have any strange phobias?

I still don’t think I have anything that I’d call a phobia, but I’m not fond of speaking in front of large groups.

12) Ever stuck a foreign object up your nose?

 Most likely

13) What’s your religion?

 I’m a Christian. Baptist. Southern Baptist. Only in the sense that I was raised that way, it doesn’t really impact my life or sway any decision that I make anymore. I don’t believe that there is some omnipotent being controlling or judging every decision we make. 

14) If you are outside, what are you most likely doing?

  Lately it has been studying because there’s a super nice little court yard area outside of the pharmacy building that I really enjoying sitting at

15) Do you prefer to be behind the camera or in front of it?

 I prefer to be behind the camera. Forever behind the camera.

16) Simple but extremely complex. Favorite band?

  I don’t have a specific favorite anymore. I’d still probably say Say Anything out of reflexive habit, but overall I don’t listen to any one particular artist anymore.

17) What was the last lie you told?

  "It was only 3 scoops.“

18) Do you believe in karma?

 Yeah. Yeah I do.

19) What does your URL mean?

  There was one time my tumblr post started getting posted on my twitter account which my mom followed. So she sent me this text message about how my account must have been hacked because it was not a “teresa’s daughter” post. That was a terrifying moment. 

20) What is your greatest weakness; your greatest strength?

 I’d say my greatest weakness is my inability to believe in myself sometimes, I put myself down instead of realizing that I am actually pretty amazing. My greatest strength though is realizing other peoples strengths and pushing them to utilize them to their greatest potential.

21) Who is your celebrity crush?

 BREEENDON URIE [told you he would be back again][and again]

22) Have you ever gone skinny dipping?

  shhhhhhh

23) How do you vent your anger?

  I don’t have a great way to vent my anger anymore.  I used to write it down, but now I just internalize it until it bubbles over. Like I said not a great way. I’m working on changing it into “talking” about  my feelings.

24) Do you have a collection of anything?

 A collection? Not unless the sheer amount of books I’m trying to amass is considered a collection.  lmao I’m still collecting books. 

25) Do you prefer talking on the phone or video chatting online?

 I prefer talking on the phone

26) Are you happy with the person you’ve become?

  I am really happy with the person I’ve become. I do still have a lot of things to work on but it would be boring if I weren’t a work in progress.

27) What’s a sound you hate; sound you love?

 I haaaaaate the sound of Jenny doing flea bites. Drives me crazy. I love sleepy voice.

28) What’s your biggest "what if”?

 What if I had realized I was holding onto the wrong thing sooner

29) Do you believe in ghosts? How about aliens?

  It’s possible

30) Stick your right arm out; what do you touch first? Do the same with your left arm.

  Both touched the arm of the chair. Because I’m in an arm chair.

31) Smell the air. What do you smell?

   The smell of some vaguely gross carpet that is in the process of being fixed. 

32) What’s the worst place you have ever been to?

 The farm my sister was on all those years ago. Still true. 

33) Choose East Coast or West Coast?

 East Coast, but I’ve never been on West Coast.

34) Most attractive singer of your opposite gender?

 BRENDON URIE [and again]

35) To you, what is the meaning of life?

 I think the meaning of life is to find as many of the moments that make you feel like exploding from happiness, that bubble up from the inside and pour over. 

36) Define Art.

 Emotional outlet for those who can express themselves through a medium. Damn. I was smart in 2012. What happened!

37) Do you believe in luck?

  A lot of where I am now feels like luck

38) What’s the weather like right now?

 I wanna say overcast and maybe drizzling

39) What time is it?

  11:02pm

40) Do you drive? If so, have you ever crashed?

  I do drive and yes I’ve crashed. whoop whoop.

41) What was the last book you read?

  The Raven King, again.

42) Do you like the smell of gasoline?

  Not very much but I do like the smell of it on someones clothes after they’ve been messing with a car or something. 

43) Do you have any nicknames?

  I do. The kids at work call me Aims and sadly the people at school call me Boose because I was trying to tell them my last name is said like rice but I shorted out and told them it sounds like juice. So I’m forever known as Boose.

44) What was the last movie you saw?

  Venom

45) What’s the worst injury you’ve ever had?

 I accidently cut my hand on a pocket knife and had to receive stitches. I was only like 6 though, so that’s no big deal. Still the worst

46) Have you ever caught a butterfly?

 Are there people who haven’t done this? Like not having caught a firefly, sure, but a butterfly??

47) Do you have any obsessions right now?

 BOTW

48) What’s your sexual orientation?

 Straight. Honestly probably Bi.

49) Ever had a rumor spread about you?

   Yeah but I can’t remember what it was anymore

50) Do you believe in magic?

Only in a young girls heart.

51) Do you tend to hold grudges against people who have done you wrong?

Not intentionally. I seem to have gained some unhealthy habits from my parents and may have accidentally gained their ability to have a hard time letting things go. But not for everything. Right?????

52) What is your astrological sign?

 Sagittarius! I’d hope this was the same, except there was that scare where they talked about adding another sign and that would have changed mine.

53) Do you save money or spend it?

 Save it. Mostly.

54) What’s the last thing you purchased?

 It has been a few days since I’ve bought anything…gas?

55)  Love or lust?

 Sometimes I think lust would be more fun, but love is more worthwhile.

56) In a relationship?

yeeeeeees (but I want to know who I was dating in 2012??? Zach??? noooo Matt????)(was that you matt???)

57) How many relationships have you had?

7?

58) Can you touch your nose with your tongue?

 No. No I cannot.

59) Where were you yesterday?

I went to my parents for family day/jackson’s birthday.

60) Is there anything pink within 10 feet of you?

  Gummy worms

61) Are you wearing socks right now?

 yesh

62) What’s your favorite animal?

 Dogs. I really think they might be my favorite. I feel so guilty not changing this to cats because blueberry is the light of my liiiiiife. 

63) What is your secret weapon to get someone to like you?

  I notice little things about them

64) Where is your best friend?

  At her home.

65) Spit or swallow?(;

 HA. Wouldn’t you like to know!

66) What is your heritage?

 Dutch on my dads side and Irish on my moms. (supposedly)

67) What were you doing last night at 12 AM?

Laying in bed debating whether or not I should sleep.

68) What do you think is Satan’s last name?

[                                      ]  Did I even type anything here in 2012?? I tried to copy and paste and now I’m thinking I was playing a trick on myself.

69) Be honest. Ever gotten yourself off?

This is like the butterfly question. Hasn’t everyone?

70) Are you the kind of friend you would want to have as a friend?

 Sometimes, but I also know I’m a bit odd.

71) You are walking down the street on your way to work. There is a dog drowning in the canal on the side of the street. Your boss has told you if you are late one more time you get fired. What do you do?

LMFAO. I wish you knew my boss now. I’d save the dog. Thomas can suck it.

72) You are at the doctor’s office and she has just informed you that you have approximately one month to live. a) Do you tell anyone/everyone you are going to die? b) What do you do with your remaining days? c) Would you be afraid?

A) I wouldn’t make it public but I would tell my core.

B) I’d spend as much time as I could with the people I love because that’s what this is about for me.

C) yes

73) You can only have one of these things; trust or love.

 Trust.

74) What’s a song that always makes you happy when you hear it?

Stonewallin’ by Jane Decker(?)

75) What are the last four digits in your cell phone number?

 2259. This wasn’t true in 2012. What was I doing???

76) In your opinion, what makes a great relationship?

 I think it’s communication and trust. Knowing that they’re there for you and vice versa. 

77) How can I win your heart?

 Listen to what I have to say

78) Can insanity bring on more creativity?

 Depends on how insane you are

79) What is the single best decision you have made in your life so far?

 To go after what I want and not look back. I will climb this damn mountain. 

80) What size shoes do you wear?

8.5 I think…

81) What would you want to be written on your tombstone?

 “She was…”----this is actually still fine because right now all i can think is “She tried...”

82) What is your favorite word?

  incorrigible

83) Give me the first thing that comes to mind when you hear the word; heart.

 felt

84) What is a saying you say a lot?

 This is true. Awwwww man. 6 years later and I still say this a lot. How do people put up with that?!

85) What’s the last song you listened to?

  Them Dirty Bones - Mike Waters

86) Basic question; what’s your favorite color/colors?

 Red!

87) What is your current desktop picture?

  Hipster shit.

88) If you could press a button and make anyone in the world instantaneously explode, who would it be?

 There isn’t anyone I would kill…

89) What would be a question you’d be afraid to tell the truth on?

 Why

90) One night you wake up because you heard a noise. You turn on the light to find that you are surrounded by MUMMIES. The mummies aren’t really doing anything, they’re just standing around your bed. What do you do?

SCREAM my head off. Or panic and have a heart attack. 

91) You accidentally eat some radioactive vegetables. They were good, and what’s even cooler is that they endow you with the super-power of your choice! What is that power?

   Teleportation without having to have visited the place before.

92) You can re-live any point of time in your life. The time-span can only be a half-hour, though. What half-hour of your past would you like to experience again?

  That one.

93) You can erase any horrible experience from your past. What will it be?

 blogger. or that one time in the parking lot at UGA where I felt like the world was falling apart again.

94) You have the opportunity to sleep with the music-celebrity of your choice. Who would it be?

 BRENDON URIE [again again]

95) You just got a free plane ticket to anywhere. You have to depart right now. Where are you gonna go?

  Iceland

96) Do you have any relatives in jail?

 Yes

97) Have you ever thrown up in the car?

No, but I almost did once instead I threw up in a CVS parking lot which felt fitting

98) Ever been on a plane?

 YES

99) If the whole world were listening to you right now, what would you say?

  get a grip

100) Give me your top 5 favorite blogs on Tumblr.

sheissuffering

Cooncomic

thatoneismine

burgertv

done

I don’t know. I’d say I only have two favorites

[mario8th]

dont read

Hey guys it’s been a while. Just kinda wanted to get this off my chest. Been thinking about it for the past few weeks.

While I'm still in a bit of a high after school starting, the last half of summer I've been more depressed than ever before. And while it's only week two this high is quickly wearing off as well. Probably started wearing off at about day 3 even. 

Every day when I have time to think to myself I immediately go to everything that I despise about myself. I think about how terrible of a person I am. How it's impossible for anybody to actually like or care about me. I think how I'm awkward, how I can't talk to people, how I can't meet people, and how I'm deathly afraid of reversing these things. How I'll never amount to anything, how I'll never make friends, how I'll never get a significant other, how I'll my life is a waste. 

A big utter waste. 

And I think about these things on a daily, if not hourly basis. Especially over summer, I was falling asleep hours after going to bed due to these thoughts constantly barraging my mind.

I've had these thoughts since my freshman year of high school, and now as a college senior they've only gotten worse. I've never felt more lonely in my entire life. I tell myself that even people I consider friends would discard me in seconds. 

It might be worse this year due to actually having been invited out to things over summer. 

But the amount of times I was invited to something I could count on one hand. The amount of times I wasn't ghosted even less than that. And even in those times I did go out while enjoying the moment I'd leave hating myself even more. 

Two times I've been invited out it was to "go to the club" and that unearthed a part of me that I'm very ashamed to still have. I'm not a drinker, and I don't typically like newer music, and so physically being dragged onto the dance floor was new for me. I could be chatting away having a grand 'ol time at the booth, but when I left I became a different person. I became high school freshman me. 

High school Freshman me was the worst persona I've ever met. He was afraid to talk to anybody, afraid to do anything out of his comfort zone, didn't know how to act around anybody or anything, and wanted to slink into the corner and play a game in every situation ever. 

And in the past 7 years I have tried my hardest to grow away from that person, but this situation firmly planted me back there. I couldn't move. I couldn't dance to the beat. I couldn't even sway to it. I couldn't look at other people, I couldn't do anything. And I don't know why. It was as if every cylinder in my brain was telling me what I'm doing is wrong and I need to leave. I even considered sneaking off multiple times. Many multiple times, because I just could not physically to it. 

Since then I've been thinking about those times a lot, and I can barely come up with reasons why I can't do it.  Being in these types of situations is one of my biggest fears. I'll keep subjecting myself to it because it's important to grow as a person, but it is so so so hard for me to do it. 

The other two times I went out was more of a small get together form and I walked out feeling just as useless after those as well. Both times I was surrounded by a bunch of people, and while I was having a good time interacting with them, I felt that taking my out of the situation would probably not affect the dynamics at all. It'd probably make the event more pleasant. 

I felt absolutely useless. That nobody actually wanted me there. That I was a needless addition that could be removed with zero harm. Which was only made worse the second time when we started a rousing game of "Never Have I Ever" (A card game with lists of naughty things to have done, first to have done 10 of those things wins).

While others in the room were getting to totals in the 20's and 30's, I was sitting at an even 0 the entire night. There were so many activities on those cards I wish had been in my life, but I'm just so pathetic I'd literally done none of them. At a certain point I questioned why I was still playing since the result was always a guaranteed "no" whenever a thing was chosen. 

Most of the cards had some sort of sexual activity to them, which I immedietaly said no too because I've never been laid. Heck, I've never even kissed a girl, never even held hands, have barely talked to girls. And I don't think I ever will. 

Both these types of events made me think a lot about myself, my life, and how much I hate both of them. I've done nothing fun. I sit around playing games all day because nobody wants to be around me. And because that's all I've been doing all my entire life I Don't Know how to talk to people, just worsening the problem. 

Some good things happened in the last few weeks. Started school. Is going well so far. I picked up a second lab section, so I can work less at my bad job. I transferred out of my old department to one I hate a bit less. I bought Nier: Automata for $20 off and played through it. Still reeling over that 3rd playthrough. Almost 100% completed Zelda BotW on Master Quest. Didn't have time to finish it off. Great game. Lost the 1st Splatfest, but won the second. That was pretty fun. Watched The Defenders on Netflix. An overall pretty good show. Lotta flaws but enjoyable nonetheless. 

tl/dr I hate myself and the only good parts of my summer were perpetuating the reasons why I do. 

#don't read this

[lightningenergy]

Overall BotW Thoughts

Finished the story a couple days ago, thought I’d put out my overall thoughts on this game on “paper” so they’re not flooding my brain.

Spoilers ahead, and I’m fully prepared to discuss any issues people have with my thoughts after playing for ~100 hours.

I did like the puzzles and the idea of experimentation, especially since the Runes helped a lot with both of them. I do think I would've enjoyed this game more if it had more of the traditional dungeons with the same puzzles that required depth and thinking. If it was more like Twilight Princess 2.0 rather than Majora’s Mask 2.0 it would've felt more like a Zelda game to me, I think. I mean, don't get me wrong, I like Majora's Mask and I appreciate the references, but having more dungeons with interconnected Shrine puzzles and everything would've been a lot of fun for me.

The big open overworld was fantastic, though, it was definitely what Ocarina of Time was trying to accomplish way back then but obviously much better. Though I would've liked more variation in the overworld music, or at least stuff more akin to the Hyrule/Termina Field theme.

Combat bothers me; I feel like they could've done something where Link (re)learns Hidden Skills through the memories. Like the flashbacks with the Champions where they teach him a certain move or something: Mipha would teach you Shield Bash (a defensive attack based on her healer role), Daruk teaches you the Jump Strike, Urbosa the Back Slice, and Revali the Helm Splitter. Experimentation with fighting I get, but the bombs don't do as much damage as I'd like and fluid combat is fun.

Money is kind of weird, since I didn't really sell anything in the early-to-mid-game for fear of needing the stuff I'd be selling. But I think it wasn't as bad as I was expecting, especially with Hyrule in ruins for a century.

Weapon durability (while understandable due to Hyrule being what it is and the idea of experimentation, etc.) wore out quickly. Sometimes you just want a good weapon to carry you through the whole game coughMasterSwordcough I mean, fuck, SS had shield durability and the Hylian Shield was literally invincible. Here it's still got durability and you have to do a lengthy sidequest to buy a replacement for 3K.

If the Master Sword regenerated before it ran out of energy I wouldn't complain, because then you'd be able to use it practically forever while still managing your usage of it without having to run around for 10 minutes worrying about breaking your other good weapons while waiting for it to recharge. This goes for the Champions’ Powers, as well, come to think of it.

Speaking of, it'd be nice to have a concrete durability meter/number for each weapon, as opposed to just seeing when it's "not new" or "badly damaged". @codyscommandpost brought up the idea of being able to forge and/or upgrade your weapons, which I think would’ve been cool.

Being able to store weapons somewhere outside of that long sidequest would've been nice, too, so I don't have to worry about being forced to use the Champions' weapons. And buying weapons, too, so you’re not facing Silver variants of enemies with low-powered swords.

Clothing upgrading is fine, I do wish you could see what materials you need to upgrade each item to next level in your item screen without needing to run to a Great Fairy Fountain. To be fair those are all right near Shrines so it's not awful, but still.

Another thing: need dragon parts to upgrade your Champion's Tunic/X of the Wild? Too bad it's semi-random when/where they'll show up and you can only get one piece per day so better hope you aim right!

I did like how the game kept track of quests and stuff for you automatically, that's a really nice thing in the large LoZ game like that. It was a little annoying not having the marker on the place you need to go to complete something, as opposed to the person you talk to in order to start/complete the quest.

Calamity Ganon’s first form was somewhat unexpected. The fight itself was more trouble that it ought to be, especially the second phase.

A wonderful, atmospheric, and explorative video game. It kind of falls down the ranking for me as a Legend of Zelda game, but it’s not on the lower end of the scale. It has flaws that, while understandable in terms of lore and gameplay (at least in terms of the developers’ intent for how to play it), hampered my experience more than they enhanced it. I can see where the praise comes from but personally I think I would’ve enjoyed this game more if it stuck more to the traditional Legend of Zelda experience while still sticking to the mix of sandbox and RPG elements that make this game new and interesting.

Overall Rating: 8.5 - 9 / 10 (It’s teetering right on the border, tbh)

#the legend of zelda #breath of the wild