#bc emulating with citra is good but

[theghostofwilburtheworm]

hey gamers does anyone know of a good 3ds emulator that is not citra??????

[blueskittlesart]

how do u play zelda games... or are u just very familiar w the lore without having played all of them? i only have a switch and have played botw and totk it's the only console i've ever had and i'd like to play more games like ocarina of time and wind waker and majoras mask but idk how to access them and also. expensive 😭

i've played every game I talk about on here! I try not to talk about ones i havent played bc i don't have a full understanding of them lol. for me it's been about 10 years since I started playing zelda games so I've had some time to get this many under my belt but I can definitely recommend some good games & methods for new players!

since you said you only have a switch, i'll start with legal ways to get older zelda games on the switch. many of these will be expensive and arent actually the method i recommend to play them but. for the sake of being thorough. im gonna mention them.

skyward sword HD remake (highly recommend!!) this game would probably be a pretty good starting point after botw and the remake is notably easier to play than the original. it is $60 tho when the original game was $30. so

NES and SNES virtual consoles which are free with a nintendo online subscription have the original zelda, zelda II, and a link to the past on them. as a new player i wouldnt SUPER recommend any of these but alttp is definitely worth it if you DO end up liking some of the more modern games in the series.

the dreaded n64 virtual console has oot on it but im just straight up gonna tell you not to buy that shit. oot is a must play but there are millions of better ways to play it

the fucking $60 links awakening remaster. don't buy this

the way I personally played most of my games is either via console or hacked console. if you're willing to invest in a secondhand wii to hack you can emulate basically any console that came before it, including the n64 for oot and the gamecube for wind waker. if you're willing to invest in OR you have an old 3ds lying around (preferably that hasnt been updated recently but you can get around that) you can hack it to play GB/GBA/DS/3DS games, which includes link's awakening, minish cap, albw, oot 3d, and majora's mask 3d!

if you're looking for a COMPLETELY free option, my next suggestion is emulation. you want a decent PC to be able to run most of this shit without speed drops, and some newer consoles won't run perfectly no matter what. wii games especially are really dicey because of their reliance on motion control so there's not a lot of emulators out there for them.

for anything before the N64 (majora & any game released before it) I recommend the MAME vintage game emulator. this thing was originally built for arcade games but runs a lot of vintage consoles pretty well too and is generally intuitive and user-friendly.

Visual Boy Advance is a good option for GBA games (link's awakening, 4 swords, minish cap, oracle games.) these may also work on MAME

Desmume for DS games (phantom hourgass, spirit tracks)

Citra for 3DS games (requires high processing speed & decent graphics card, most laptops will not run it) (oot & mm 3d, albw)

for gamecube (wind waker) I used dolphin emulator on my hacked wii so I can't vouch for how it'll run on anything else but i believe it should also be able to emulate wii games? (sksw, tp)

hope this helps fuel your loz adventures! if you ever have specific questions about emulation or hacking i might be able to help also lol i hate paying for games so i do this a lot

[flyingcookierambles]

Random sadge thoughts/ramble blog about my current feelings /situation with Etrian/Nintendo emulating

A bit sad bc I randomly thought of Etrian Odssry and 3DS games and all since Nintendo decided to stop making the 3DS with no official support/emulation eShop on the switch. Like. Dang I really should’ve just given in to FOMO at the time and gotten a new 3DS for like $300 and Etrian Odssey Nexus/across whatever for like $50-60 at the time bc now scalpers are going insane. Just searched Etrian 4/5/Nexus/Millenium Girl/Fafnir Knight on the google shopping category and they are all around $100-150. Not even mentioning the prices new 3DS consoles go for. Crazy. Despite my fear of viruses and all ruining my laptop maybe in the future I'll look into emulating 3DS games even though what I can find is that Citra is a pain to work with. My only issue is really just having to replay all the games to get back to what my current progress is. While my 3DS still works, some buttons are wonky and won't work and the battery isn't as good as it once was.

At least XSEED is releasing Ruin Factory 4 and 5 on steam officially. I pre-ordered a steam deck back in Jan or Feb of 2022, so I'm just waiting patiently for my email to arrive to actually get/send the confirmation order. I think that since Nintendo is just. Not making good consumer friendly decisions I'm going to skip the Switch. It kinda sucks bc I really do want to play some games like LoZ Breath of the Wild but like. Uhhhh. I just don't really trust Nintendo much right now so uuugh bluh. Anyways sad rant about the sorry state of my 3DS, Etrian itch, sad decline of the already niche dungeon exploring genre with not much alternatives rant over. Ugh. At least since regular old DS games are easier to run (probably due to less complex graphics especially the 3D layer that was in the programming of the 3DS games) maybe I can try to run Etrian 1, 2, or 3 on my Android phone or gaming laptop instead.....

Sighs

Sadge

(While I don't mind rogue like hack n slash games like hades or hollow knight, there's just something that I like about the turn based dungeon exploring map making of Etrian more you know? According to reddit and gaming forums suggestions i guess I'll look into emulating persona q series and 7th dragon?)

edit after work and posting this horrible mess from my phone: after reading this news article that the 3DS and Wii U eShops will close uhh. yeah, pirate nintendo games. and like. even tho they have massive clout as a game dev/console developer studio, i really dont understand some of their partnering game companies. like. instead of keeping them open or having official emulation software on their switch to play 3ds or ds games (since again it seems that the 3d layer + graphics are a big pain to try and remove/restore correctly), nintendo is preventing other game companies like ATLUS from making money on their nintendo exclusive consoles. like. wow. nintendo is just hurting their business partners, fans, and driving away potential consumers who see this huge mess and horrible loss of video games / art and its anti-archivist stance and just go. “wow im not touching that with a 10 foot pole.” ugh. guess ill try to emulate/download all my DS/3DS games’ roms and also maybe my Wii/Wii U games if i can and put them on an external hard drive or something. while i have many physical CDs and (3)DS cartridges and some GBA cartridges (mostly just Harvest Moon), i don’t have the special F disk drive or whatever to make Dolphin work nor a special (3)DS cartridge to USB/computer/whatever reader, so I can’t rip any of my games (or save files ugh) myself. please press F as i try to research more about emulation software and get virus-free ROM zips from friendly good willed people instead of accidentally falling into traps by scammers :’(

[alinatron]

game recommendations! (sorry for the long post)

i was thinking, maybe people are looking for games to get for the holiday season. here are my recommendations! i can only vouch for the games with western releases though. also im poor so its just 3ds games

pripara! its an arcade game but theres 3 (i think?) 3ds games! unfortunately theyre japan-only so if you have a japanese or hacked 3ds id Really reccomend it! its made by syn sophia (who make girls mode) and is an idol rhythm game. you dress your character (who you can design) and play lives. it doesnt look too difficult, its just a feelgood game. it also has an amazing anime. seriously if you have a good computer that can run citra or are fine with cfw and can understand some japanese you Need to try pripara

aikatsu! its… basically the same as pripara. the rhythm game seems harder though. its an arcade game with 3ds games. and its japan only. id suggest not playing my no. 1 stage if youre not a fan of the anime because you cant make your own character (but it has basically every song in the series as dlc)

etrian odyssey v! you can uhhh kinda make your own characters (really you just recolour existing portraits but its cool) and its a dungeoncrawler rpg. its also cartography simulator 17. basically you walk around a tree and draw a map. all the 3ds eo games (theres 4 not including persona q which has no demo) have demos on the eshop so please try one!! eoiv and a remake of eoi are both €10 on the eshop i think (but have even less character customisation). but warning its quite hard. its made by atlus who are known for tough rpgs

pokemon ultra sun/moon! okay i havent finished ultra sun yet but still. i Loved moon it was amazing!!! i started pokemon with the first 3ds games so even as a newbie i enjoyed myself a whole lot. but Please if you wanna buy sun/moon… dont. buy ultra sun/moon, theyre not sequels theyre alternate universe stories. really theyre just improved versions of the same game. also research the version differences (i chose sun for blacephalon)

ever oasis! this game is just soooo adorable. its sooooooo cute. if you like zelda oot/mm, this actually controls kind of similarly because the creators made the 3ds 3d zelda remakes. theres a demo. its an rpg with simple combat where you have to build an oasis for these cute desert folk

fantasy life is quote similar to ever oasis, but the world in fantasy life is much better imo. it has easy controls but this game is Long. theres a dlc expansion which i suggest buying bc it makes the game way longer and more replayable. its made by level 5 (who made professor layton, inazuma 11, yokai watch) so the arts obviously super charming

extra: zero escape. the final game is 18+ so obviously wont appeal to many girls mode fans… but its so good. its a puzzle game so just… try 999. please. its a ds game (with an ios port if youre fine with no puzzles) so just emulate it. i implore you: do Not play the "remaster" of 999! the graphics are terrible, it adds voice acting but it seriously has godawful sprites. as for the sequels, virtues last reward is on 3ds both physically and digitally, but it also has a remaster on steam/ps4/vita (which includes the terrible 999 remaster). honestly the 3ds version is pretty perfect so no need to get the new edition. finally zero time dilemma is 18+ and is digital only. its… not the best game. the puzzles are great and i personally loved the grapgics but the storys… mehhhh. this game spoils vlr which spoils 999 so please play in order!!