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wild-dagon · 1 year ago

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TOTK Role-reversal (part 2)

I know I’m late to the party but this idea has been floating around in my head for months. (Also spoilers for the game)

The classic role-reversal with Link and Zelda in TOTK.

Finally my last idea. Link gets the Spirit stone.

I don’t know about you but it bothered me at the end of the game that there wasn’t a new Spirit Sage. They brought Purah up there and then didn’t give it to her? (I was also expecting Paya to get it as all the other Sages were leaders (or the child of the leader) of their respective races. I really wanted to see Paya go from being unsure how to lead her village to an amazing warrior surrounded by other leaders for support but thats a rant for another post)

Anyhow Link.

Let’s tie this to BOTW. Link can see the Koroks (spirits of the forest) he can see the dragons (not everyone can) and in BOTW he talks to multiple ghosts. Heck even in TOTK he is able to interact with the ghosts of solders in the Depths to get weapons.

What if when Link goes back in time, his stone just won’t settle on a specific power. This is weird to Rauru and Sonia as they have never seen some one with so many different kinds of magic. Link is super confused as he doesn’t have magic. The other champions and Zelda have mystic abilities. He doesn’t.

You can stretch this confusion out to them going back to the castle and or you can make the next part happen on the way to the castle.

The one day they get attacked and Link goes to fight (he’s used to protecting people.) but he’s weak from the interaction with Ganondorf.

He’s about to get crushed when his stone turns red and a familiar crystal shield forms around him. “I gotta little buddy” He turns over his shoulder and sees Daruk. He’s in spirit form but he’s here, talking and fighting with Link.

Then the stone turns green. Air burst forth and Revali is up in the air shooting down the foe.

The stone turns orange and a bolt of lightning rains down on the remaining enemies as Urbosa steps forward.

Finally it turns blue as Mipha appears and heals Links wounds.

They are here. All of the champions are here. Link’s stone finally settles on purple.

Mineru explains that Link’s stone couldn’t settle on a color because it was sensing the remains of the champion abilities inside him. But now that the champions spirits have been released his stone has settled on his powers.

This leads to a lot of Mineru and Link bonding as she helps him master his powers. Maybe he can make the other champions corporeal if he focuses hard enough or if he masters his powers. Maybe he can give them a second chance at life. (Here’s where you could have some fun with shipping making it zelink, miphlink, or revalink)

Anyhow. Mineru is Link’s mentor. They both are a little crazy about building questionable contraptions. She starts to view him as her’s. Rauru was always going to have kids, she never expected to have one but Link is precious to her. As is he to Sonia and Rauru. They love hearing about their descendent Zelda.

Maybe Link and the champions are able to save Sonia from Gannon but he still gets his hands on a stone. Either stealing Sonia’s (without the murder) or by killing Rauru or Mineru. Or you could go super angst and have him get Link’s stone cutting him off from the champions (once again Ganon has taken them from Link)

In the final battle Rauru/Mineru/Sonia (who ever is alive) traps Gannon. Link either swallows his stone or stone give to him by another survivor.

Personally I like the idea that Gannon gets Links stone, Sonia seals him promising her descendant will come to stop him (I think Sonia’s faith in future Zelda could be super sweet) Rauru realizing his wife is gone and there is nothing he can do, gives Link his stone allowing Link to become the dragon and heal the sword. Mineru still builds her contraption knowing that Zelda will need a sage of spirit as Link will be preoccupied being a dragon.

Zelda gets guidance from Sonia and Rauru.

When it’s all said and done and Mineru is ready to leave, her stone goes to Zelda becoming the time/light stone. Meaning Link has a spirit stone Zelda covers time and light. The other sages are still around and the champions are back.

Zelda’s journey

You can also make this really fun by having the spirits of the champions guide the sages on their journey.

Maybe while spirit dragon Link is hanging out in the clouds that champion spirits hang out with him. When it’s time for the new sages to awaken they go to their home villages and appear to the new sages. So instead of just hearing a strange voice they see the champion of old.

When Tulin is out on his own he is struggling with a enemy that is suddenly shot from behind. When he tracks the shoot Revali is flying there. Their eyes lock before Revali flies off. Zelda arrives right after this moment, Tulin to tell her about the strange Rito that flew off. Tulin feels like they need to follow him and they do, all the way up to the sky arc. (Picture the Zelda chase scene in the castle but with Revali and sky boats.) Once Tulin gets his sacred stone Revali appears again (allowing for a sweet reunion scene between Zelda and Revali) and offers to stay near and train Tulin on how to use his powers as Revali had trained with the sage of old.

When Zelda arrives in Goron city it’s weird. Why are people talking about Link giving Yunobo a mask. Then she sees Link and chases after him only to find an enraged Yunobo. After getting the mask off of him the two talk about Link before seeing Daruk’s Spirit. Once again they chase him to the fire temple. Things play out much the same with Daruk as it did with Revali.

Arriving at the Zora domain Sidon doesn’t see Mipha until he fights the first sludge monster with Zelda. Mipha had tried to appear earlier but Sidon thought he was just seeing things from over working himself. It isn’t until he lets Yona help him and fights along side Zelda that he finally is open to seeing Mipha’s spirit. She leads them to the underwater cavern and to the water temple proper. Again always just out of reach never a word is spoken until after the sage is fully awaken and the boss is beaten. Once Sidon has his sacred stone Mipha is able to appear and have her reunion with her brother.

In the desert Urbosa is seen many times by other warriors but she cannot directly help them. Once Zelda arrives she appears to both Zelda and Ruji before disappearing. She appears again after they successfully defend the town. After they defend the bazar they see Link walking into the storm. Both girls go to chase after him but Urbosa appears and shakes her head No before disappearing without a word. Urbosa leads Zelda through the sand storm to the different light pillars, and lead them to the light temple. She doesn’t appear again until after they defeat queen gibdo and Riju awakens as a sage.

This build trust between the reader and Zelda and the spirits that are appearing. Which means when Zelda sees Link up on Hyrule castle she rushes to him. He’s leading her through the castle the same way the champions did. It’s unnerving as the champions moved like that because they were spirits and Link should be alive but Zelda is going to ignore that tidbit for now.

She follows Link to the throne room where it is revealed that he is Ganondorf’s puppet.

As they fight the sages and champions appear to help Zelda defeat the phantom Ganondorfs

After this they got to find the fifth sage. Mineru tells Zelda about the Dragon tears and how to view them using the purah pad. This is when Zelda does the dragon tear quest. Up until this point they were just weird geoglyphs but know she can view Link’s memories. She realizes that Link is the Spirit Dragon.

(You can also have a moment where she yells at the champions for not telling her. But how do you tell someone that new?)

She needs to find the Master Sword so she returns to the lost woods hoping Link returned it there in the past. She doesn’t know if the blade will let her pull it but she has to try.

After freeing the lost woods she realizes the sword is with Link. Maybe she goes to get it maybe she leaves it but either way she will be able to use it. It’s with Link and if he’s going to let anyone wield his sacred blade it would be Zelda.

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gay-jesus-probably · 1 year ago

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(Feel free to ignore this-! I’m just happy to hear someone’s deep takes on Zelda)

I really love your deep dives and interpretations/discussions on the Gerudo people and their history, influence and life in BOTW/TOTK (I totally agree with all you’ve said)

I just want to ask/Point out (after reading your imperialism post about TOTK) didn’t the Zora for many years like- not want to serve or be a part of the Hylian families army either? Like, even before Mipha’s death, weren’t the Zora very much against conforming to the Hylian’s rules and such? (In every game?) I’m a bit confused on how Hyrule is split up, the Zora’s having their own kingdom(s), the Rito and Goron’s having elder’s/their own leaders but still serving the royal family??

It’s always bothered me how these separate races all still have statues to the Goddess Hylia (Started in BOTW) and not their own deity’s to pray to or follow (Like the Zora praying to Nayru makes sense, or even something like Jabu Jabu to bring back- or the Rito could’ve prayed to Valoo, a great dragon or something.)

It just feels like Nintendo COULD’VE put so much care into all their races stories and histories! But oops no this game will be for Kids(TM) and we can’t put anything too deep or serious. Makes me sad :( I wanted to see them in a deeper context.

Oh yeah, it's very weird that they just put zero effort into explaining some of the worldbuilding. I mean, in BOTW it makes perfect sense to have the races be off doing their own things! It's post apocalypse, Hyrule does not exist anymore, these different communities have no real reason to interact with each other! And I really liked that BOTW outright showed that there was no particular effort for diplomacy, but people still got along as individuals - I liked that we saw different races hanging around each other. I loved that there were Gerudo in Goron Town to trade for their gems, I loved that Goron were allowed into Gerudo Town because they're a race of rock people that legitimately don't have any real need for gender and just use masculine terms by their own choice, and the Gerudo understood that. And I loved the whole Tarrey Town sidequest, because it actually felt really satisfying to build up a new town that had inhabitants from all the races, not for any particular reason, but just because they were people that wanted to live there and work together. They didn't need a big central government to make it a whole Thing; they were just getting by.

And we also saw the less good side of these things, like that one guy in Hateno that greeted you at the gate, and decided Link was trustworthy specifically because he was Hylian, making it clear that xenophobia still existed. I like that Kass was kind of thrown by Link asking if he was a giant bird, and the implication that Link was being kinda insensitive there and Kass was choosing not to be offended. I liked that there was a Hylian couple on their honeymoon in Rito village because the guy genuinely loved the town and its culture, while his new wife looked down on the Rito and hated being around them. And I liked that the older Zora still held a grudge against Hyrule for many things, up to and including the fact that Mipha died defending it, and the older generation would rather risk everyone's wellbeing than accept help from a Hylian that had been involved. And I like that you can run into other Hylian's near Zora's domain that outright tell you Zora have been trying to recruit them to do something important, but they all refused to get involved because they don't think that those weird fish people could have anything serious going on and it all seemed really sketchy.

My point is, BOTW really did feel like it'd been a hundred years since the end of the world, and everyone was just trying to get by and live their lives. You saw people being open minded and accepting other races for no other reason than the fact that they were all people, and you saw people being petty and bigoted just because they didn't trust people that looked and acted differently from them, but for the most part people were all just getting by and doing their own thing. BOTW gave the impression that Hyrule had been an equal alliance between the Hylian's, Zora, Goron, Rito and Gerudo (and with the Sheikah having a considerably less equal role, specifically built on the Sheikah having been forced to submit to cultural genocide to save their own lives, and the Yiga clan being the survivors that fought back instead), with Hyrule acting as sort of the core of the alliance, if only due to literally being in the geographic middle.

I mean fuck, the existence of the Divine Beasts suggests that things are equal! Yeah, Hyrule has a royal family with holy powers due to literally being the descendants of a Goddess, and they're the ones that always get the reincarnation of the Hero that's the only one who can wield the bullshit OP magic sword... but they don't get a Divine Beast (Link's dinky little DLC motorcycle doesn't count). The Divine Beasts were specifically made to be weapons of mass destruction, and they were specifically made for the non-Hylian races. That really does suggest an active effort being taken to balance the scales, that the ancient people saw that only Hylian's were granted divine favour, and so if the gods wouldn't give that power to other races, they'd fucking make it themselves. The existence of the Divine Beasts feels like a promise to keep everyone on equal footing, and say what you will about pre-Calamity Hyrule, but they didn't even question keeping that promise.

...And then in TOTK, all of that's just gone. The Sheikah aren't their own people with a complicated relationship to the throne, now they're just Hylian's with a different aesthetic. The 'alliance' between the races turns out to be built on Hyrule's first King and Queen pointing their stockpile of magical nukes at everyone and asking them politely to become their subjects, and pretending not to notice the implied threat that they'd magically nuke anyone who refused. In BOTW the Sheikah race being sworn servants of the Hylian royal family was acknowledged as a fucked up situation, and that power imbalance being horribly abused in the past was what created the Yiga clan. In TOTK, we're outright told that Rito, Goron, Zora and Gerudo all exist for the sole purpose of serving the Hylian royal family, and that is framed as a good thing and the proper way of the world; the first sign of Ganondorf being evil is that he refuses to submit.

And even putting all that super gross ancient past stuff aside, the present day is equally fucked. Hyrule has been gone for a century. In BOTW, few people even remembered that Zelda had ever existed, and of those people not many of them cared. Nobody was really interested in having a central government, they were all getting by just fine on their own. And again, it was made pretty clear that the pre-calamity situation had been an actively maintained collective alliance between independent nations. There was a reason that people were predicting that Hyrule's monarchy would be abolished in TOTK, and that's because we all saw that there was literally no reason for anyone other than the Sheikah to respect Zelda's authority as a ruler - the Zora were the only other people to still remember her, and they were completely done with the Hylian royal family anyways. If Zelda rolled up declaring herself the Queen of Hyrule anywhere else, she'd be laughed out of town, because that's the standard response to a random teenager showing up and informing you she was actually the highest authority in the land. Zelda had no inherent authority left at the end of BOTW, if she wanted to be in charge, she'd need to earn it. That's the state of the world that we were shown.

Except nope, nevermind, Zelda's the almighty God Princess of the world and literally everyone mindlessly accepts her ultimate authority. She can order people to strip naked and walk into a monster den to die for her amusement, and they would immediately do it without asking any questions (yes I know the underwear thing was a misunderstanding, but the fact that everyone jumped to follow the misheard order without a single question is horrifying). And the imposter Zelda arc just hammers home the point that Zelda is in a completely unearned, lifelong position as dictator of the world, and literally nobody cares if she abuses that power. Zelda brainwashed Yunobo and forced him to ruin his own business and nearly destroy his own people? He's just worried she'll be angry that the mask keeping him brainwashed was destroyed. Zelda summons a giant monster to attack Yunobo and Link then walks away? Oh my god, the giant monster Zelda just summoned to kill us might hurt her, we have to save Zelda from it! Zelda literally openly attacks King Dorephan and tries to murder him? He'd rather go missing in the middle of a crisis and suffer alone in hiding than let anyone know that Zelda just tried to kill him. I don't understand why they bothered with the fake Zelda arc, because literally nothing the fake Zelda does is allowed to have consequences.

It just doesn't make any goddamn sense. Nobody feels real anymore, there's no politics between the races, there's no reason for anything being the way it is now. The entire world of Hyrule has been reduced to just Zelda's Fanclub, and nobody would ever consider doubting her for a second. I don't understand why the fake Zelda arc is in the game, because it's never actually allowed to be part of the story. Nobody actually cares about 'Zelda' tormenting people, and so we're told that there is literally nothing that can possibly happen to make Zelda lose her authority. There's no stakes. We're not supposed to care about anyone who isn't Zelda, we're not given any real reason to care about Zelda herself, and so why the fuck are we still here?

...I've distracted myself a lot here lmaoo, I'm not really sure where I was going with all of this beyond just rambling about shitty writing and bad continuity. The point is, BOTW had some really good writing and worldbuilding. That Hyrule felt like a real place inhabited by actual people, and the different races were their own, independent people. When they worked together, it was a sign of them putting time and effort into reaching out to each other and meet on the same level. Meanwhile TOTK feels like it's made of fucking cardboard most of the time.

(Also for the record I agree that the Goddess statues being Literally Everywhere was kinda fucked, BUT I'm willing to let it slide as a matter of just game design; that's where you go to trade spirit orbs for upgrades, so you want a spot to do that in every major town for player convenience. And using different deities in different areas wouldn't work, because the players are introduced to the mechanic with a goddess statue; they're not gonna naturally assume that the statue of a giant fish can do that too, so most of them would assume the statue is scenery and just ignore it. I thought it was at least a nice touch that the goddess statues had different decorations in some towns, and that some towns put the statues away from the main areas; it gave the impression that while everyone while worshipping Hylia was widespread, everyone was doing it differently, and in some places it wasn't very popular - just look at the Kakariko statue being in the middle of town with a well maintained pond surrounding it and torches to draw more attention to it, then compare that to the Gerudo Town statue being down a side street on the edge of town, away from the main gate, with nothing of any real importance nearby, and nothing to get people's attention. It really works with the Sheikah's culture being built on their devotion to the Goddess, while the Gerudo's history with Hylia and her followers is a lot more complicated, and so their statue's location implies that worship of Hylia is pretty unpopular among the Gerudo.)

#tears of the kingdom spoilers #tears of the kingdom #my continued inability to shut up about this game #i hate the writing in totk and it's boring as hell if i take it as face value #but the fucked up stuff the bad writing accidentally implied is FASCINATING #also for everyone thats sent me asks about this sorry in advance if i dont reply to you #but they keep prompting me to deliver long rambling essays about my thoughts on this game #and i only have so much time in my life to do that #for context while i was typing this whole essay i got another 3 new asks #still dealing with a puppy over here. he's got another month before he's ready to leave his mama #and that means a month of trying to socialize him enough to make up for the lack of littermates #basically i'd love to do nothing but rant about totk but life is still very hectic right now

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freshbeeth · 5 months ago

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Aside from Marina, who are your favorite character/s to cosplay as?

i’ve only cosplayed as Eight, Pearl, Marina, and my octoling (yup those were my first cosplays ever!!) but Pearl was BY FAR my favorite

dream cosplays that i haven’t done yet: riju and/or urbosa from botw/totk, nessa from pokemon sword/shield, and vivian from paper mario

(also tabloids are saying i might be cosplaying marie’s summer nights outfit when i stream the summer nights splatfest but you didn’t hear that from me 🤫)

#splasks #splatoon

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newtabfics · 1 year ago

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Ok so now that I’m playing TotK it reminded me of how I used to ship Revali and Princess Zelda. I liked that they both disliked Link and I thought that maybe with Revali, it stemmed from Link getting to be Zelda’s knight and not him. He wanted to spend more time with her and be close to her, protect her.

I’m thinking if it was canon that he most likely had an unrequited crush on her…but for the sake of my ask let’s say they have mutual feelings. Ok now…

For the ask would you be willing to write a scenario of Link being appointed Zelda’s knight and that night Revali comes to her window in the castle (Link isn’t there) and they’re both remorseful that they have to be separated. He’s worried that Link is moving in on her and that he’ll lose her. Take it in either a SFW or NSFW direction if you want (that is, if you’re comfortable writing this), I’m fine with either (I also enjoy a good horny fic, ngl ;D ) But I do love me some angst and this is filled with it.

If it’s NSFW it’s probably because Revali wants to claim her virginity for himself, that way he could always be her first, and in his mind Link doesn’t win

I’ll stop rambling now lol

I just need you to know, you AWOKE a ship in my head I didn't even realize I needed. Had to consult my sister cuz she's a furry and a Revali fan so she directed me to some NSFW Revali art she likes to help me figure out the general biology regarding all this.

I did also take some creative liberties with this and adjusted the timeline for it to kinda sync up with the plot of BOTW.

Btw: you reminded me of my Mipha x Revali ship I had and like, hear me out. AU Of these two trying to help each other get with their real crushes (Mipha x Link, Revali x Zelda) and ya know, shenanigans? Maybe? Idk. I'm rambling. BELOW THE CUT:

Always First. Revali x Zelda Spicy Fic

｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆　�� ｡･:*:･ﾟ★,｡･:*:･ﾟ☆

Warnings for BOTW Spoilers, I GUESS???? Plus spicy content.

Word Count: >1000

Revali watched the knight return to his own chambers before flying over the castle quietly. He hurried for her room, assured now there would be no disturbances.

Her gasp made him smirk as he quirked his head. She shook her head. “You can’t just do that anymore, Vali,” She sighed softly.

“If you were really angry, you wouldn’t be smiling,” He chirped, making it widen across her face as she quickly wrapped her arms around him. He held her close, nipping at her ear affectionately. “You’re really being restrained ever since you got him beside you,” He muttered angrily.

Zelda sighed, nodding. “It’s…for my training.”

Revali clicked his beak closed, sighing. It wasn’t that he could argue. He had isolated himself for months on end at one point to even begin scratching the surface on how to use his power. Given everything, he supposed he could understand the king’s fear.

“Still, it’s not fair to you to have to go through all this for something you don’t even know you can do.” Her eyes flitted down to their feet, as if he just spoke the one fear she had. Which he had. “Zelda, stop,” He said, using a feather to lift her chin. “You’re smart enough to know we can use our resources to our advantage. After all, you’re head research for those ancient machines.” He smirked as her cheeks flushed a slight. “You didn’t just ask me for help because of my down feathers, right?”

Zelda smiled and kissed the tip of his beak with a nod. “You’re right,” She chuckled softly. There was a long beat of silence before the princess sighed. “What is it?”

“He’s a bit too close for a knight,” The Rito hissed, feathers ruffling a slight in anger just at the thought of the knight.

“He takes his job seriously, Vali,” She said, smiling up at him.

“And what if he takes you?” She blinked at that as he sighed. “I’m not saying he’d do anything without your permission. He’s too much of a good little bird or that.”

Zelda’s lips pursed at the taunting nickname as she remembered her own mother’s nickname for her. “You’re jealous then?” She realized.

At the way he fluttered and stammered at the accusation, she smiled adoringly. When her hand cupped his face, he stopped and relaxed into her touch.

“You’re such a needy Rito,” She teased.

He chuffed and nipped her hand playfully. “I hate this,” he sighed.

The separation for so long had been a bit too much for him. He was joyful when she melted into his touch not long after she’d asked him to be Vah Medoh’s pilot. He was joyful to know that she, the princess of Hyrule, chose him above Hylians.

The king’s orders stopped those late night meetings He had been fine with the system they had in place. Despite her grievances, he asked her to stay by Link, which he was now kicking himself for. He wanted her safe.

Link would take her to a spot and go off once Revali had arrived. Despite all the taunting, Link would just wave and turn his back. He wouldn’t be leaving entirely but he wouldn’t pay them any mind and give them privacy.

But now, the king’s orders even reached the Hebra Region. Many of the Rito sympathized with the princess. He wondered briefly if others had heart of it too.

Though, if they heard that, they must’ve also heard how hard she was working, to a point of utter exhaustion.

“I just don’t want to lose you to some boy,” He sighed.

“You wouldn't," she chuckled. “He’s annoying.”

He laughed at that and guided her to the bed, holding her close as he nuzzled into her. “Even so,” He sighed. “You know the old trope?”

“Hm?” She hummed, blinking at him.

“About the knight and the princess?” He coaxed.

“A…trope?”

“You need to read more,” He teased. “About how the knight does something amazing and the princess can’t help but want to be ravished by him.”

Zelda’s face flushed a bright pink as she playfully pushed him away, making him laugh as he held her closer. “Ew! No. I’m not interested in him at all!”

“Oh? So you only want to be ravished by me?” He joked.

“Yes!” A silence hit and she went a brighter red before hiding her face.

Revali leaned in and nuzzled against her cheek. “Zelda, don’t be scared. You know I will protect you.” He smiled. “I don’t want him stealing you from me.”

“I know a few things he couldn’t take even if I gave it to him,” She muttered, looking up at him.

Revali’s heart fluttered as he watched her before leaning in. The kiss was gentle, full of affection and promise and want. It slowly deepened before he was laying her back into the bed. His beak dug into her hair and lightly nipped near her scalp, making her shiver and smile under him as he carefully helped her strip.

Zelda gulped when he stepped back, seeing the tip of his length peaking out from under his feathers. She knew Rito biology well enough. She didn’t have to be a scholar to know he was aroused by her nudity.

She reached into his feathers, carefully gripping the hardening length. The Rito froze and let her test the waters carefully, stroking him to full hardness. She was surprised when it stood out against his body.

“How did you hide this?” She asked curiously.

His chest swelled with pride at that as he stroked him carefully. “What? Like it?” he teased, making her gulp thickly as she bit her lip. He took her chin into his fingers, pulling her eyes back to his. “At your command, your highness.”

She shivered at that, not entirely sure why that sent a jolt through her body. “You–You’ll need to be in charge. I don’t know…I mean, I understand the logistics…”

He smiled and bent, kissing her. “Want me to take the lead?” She nodded hesitantly, still unsure of herself but knew this was the path she could finally take for herself.

Before long, he was sliding into her, making her hands twitch against his back. He moaned lowly with her, careful not to move to quickly. “Don’t be afraid to pull a few feathers,” He grunted. “I’d like knowing I stopped your brain from working.”

She smiled and cupped his face. “Then stop it.”

#revali x zelda #ask request #revali fic #zelda fic #botw revali #botw zelda #mild angst #botw spoilers #botw smut fic #botw smut #revali smut #zelda smut

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joshuamj · 2 months ago

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Thoughts on Echoes of Wisdom

This is for the full game, so spoilers ahead!

My non spoilery overall thoughts: Really good and enjoyable game! Unfortunately the echo combat just really wasn’t for me.

I’ll start off with a list of positives! I’m probably missing some specific stuff, so keep in mind i like this game more than just these bullet points.

I loved the intro where you get to play as Link with all his hearts n stuff. If makes me think of like an alternate universe where the game was never revealed to be a Zelda Game, and so the switch to Zelda is a complete surprise…

It was heartwarming to see the townsfolk and guards seem so fond of Zelda :’)

Also Link!! It was so so nice to hear people appreciate Link.. made me feel bad for wearing his cloak and making a few people almost think i was him.

Also just learning about Link was really cool. Got to see his house, his hometown, his motivation for fighting… was all really cool

Was cool to have him be canonically incapable of speech… Was very surprised when they outright said he couldn’t talk. Later in the game though when you're traveling thru Null with him and he just kept giving u weird little nods i kept on thinking “we gotta get this kid some sign language lessons, stat!” I do love his stoic little face, its really funny. Paired with no speech, he truly is a weird little guy…

Favorite echoes time:

Water block water block water block my beloved. I used those fuckers to skip the entire stealth portion of both hyrule castle and the gerudo stealth minigame thing. (so u can imagine how much i sucked at the deku one :( )

Flying tile. I loved when someone would be watching me play and clearly think I didn’t know what i was doing or that i surely couldn’t make it to a certain area and then boom. Flying tile.

That one spider fella who provides webs to climb on

CROWS. I used hordes of crows to rob monsters blind it was awesome.

When you get ur first outfit, some people will say different things to you depending on if you're wearing your disguise or not! I only really tried this in castle town, so idk if it works anywhere else, i kinda doubt it.

Also people begin to talk to and comment on Tri and its cute. It was fun to see Tri become more social. Also theres tons of comedic potential when it comes to who can see Tri and who can’t.. We did have that happen a few times where only like half the people there could see them. I want fan comics of funny moments springing from that

It was so nice to have the King of Hyrule be a good dude and a sweet dad. Made it even more frustrating when he Got Got and was replaced with an evil echo

Was very glad to see the deku scrubs back… they’re just funky little guys

Also!!! It seems that in this game deku scrubs go by they/them!! At least 2 or 3 of em do, i have evidence. Also they they/themed Tri iirc, so thats some nice confirmation to have too.

Absolutely loved when the hyrule field themed slightly changed and had the Zelda’s Lullaby notes at the beginning. When I first heard, my jaw dropped and i was wondering what the heck was going on. Such a beautiful start to the track…

Very fun getting to play alongside Link, and was especially fun to have to do all the puzzles for him lol. It was great getting to grab him with Bind

Null was sick, and dang when they started absorbing the Tris and started looking like them… gave me chills man

Also shoutout to Null for being a cool non-ganon main big bad! It'd be cool to have them come back for another game someday… usually ganon is the only recurring one, but Vaati came back like twice, so its not out of the question.

I’m glad Zelda got to keep the Tri staff :’). I was prepared to say goodbye to Tri since that's what always happens to Zelda companions, but I was really happy to get something to remember them by.

It was fun to have the triforce be a fairly big thing! It was barely in botw/totk, so I had been hoping for a new game to bring it a little more to the forefront again.

Overall, the game was beautiful and cute, was engaging and had an intriguing story. I really really enjoyed it!

Okay, negatives time. This portion looks really big, but I swear the positives far outweigh the negatives to me. My biggest gripes with the game itself are mostly just quality of life things. Otherwise, the issues I faced were more “me-issues”. It wasn’t the game, it was me. I’m not a super creative person, like in totk I really didn’t do much with the Zonai building stuff, so I wasn’t doing crazy stuff with the echoes either, and I think I was probably downright bad at using echoes, so that's a skill issue on my end. Also just game mechanics preference, I just prefer to go up and wack things. It was very strange and slightly annoying to have to stand aside while other things fought for me. But honestly, I was able to guess from the trailers that the combat gameplay probably wasn’t going to be for me, so I went in knowing that, and that helped me not be too upset about it. So while I do complain about it, i absolutely know that not everyone feels the same and that its not the game’s fault, so pls don’t come at me lol

(anyway, list of negatives:)

Combat using echoes was really hard for me and not really fun ngl… Part of it’s definitely on me, but also like. Many echoes are just so damn slow to attack, and often times other things will dodge while they’re winding up their attacks, or just straight up kill my echoes immediately. A few times i was actually seething with rage because of how annoying my echoes were being….

That stupid fucking echo select menu. Whose idea was it to bring back the weapon cycle menu from botw/totk. It wasn't bad in botw, but with all the things you could fuse to arrows in totk, the flaws of that style of select menu were definitely showing. Yet they used it again here???? It wasn't bad at all at first, but there’s almost 130 echoes in this game and god is it a nightmare to cycle through them.

The lock on system. As far as I can tell, you can’t like cycle through things to lock on? And i’m never a fan of doing that anyway as i often fumble the controls in the process. But it would've been real helpful cuz god the lock on system was frustrating. It would often lock on to my own echoes or some random thing when I was trying to target an actual enemy and Cause Many Problems

I couldn't seem to turn down the music? Using headphones, even the lowest volume on my switch was too loud, but I couldn't find a way to lower the game’s music, which confused me, since many games have like, audio settings to mess with stuff like that. Like all i needed was for the bg music to be quieter, the sound effects weren’t too bad (thankfully only had this issue with headphones tho, and was able to find places to play alone and have the sound up)

Also maybe this is me imagining things or just me not being creative enough with my echoes, but i swear as you went on some fights were definitely made for sword fighting in mind. Which is strange cuz the game’s whole thing is echoes and wisdom and whatnot.

Was very bummed to have to give up swordfighter form to give Link back his weapons. Cuz then I just spent a lot of those final fights just kinda running around trying to not get hit while Link did most of the work. Like, i get it. Logically, Link needs his stuff back, and since the game’s who Thing is Zelda and Echoes and Wisdom, so theyre gonna want you to embody that aspect of the game in the final fight and use echoes. So i understand why. Doesn’t stop me from being sad about it.

Why not more outfits :(? Like I had quite a bit of extra rupees toward endgame, they should have added regional clothes to all the stores to give you something else to spend ur money on, cuz this far into the game u probably have tons of smoothie ingredients, and those only cost 10 rupees, so ur not spending that much on healing or buff supplies.

Honestly besides some quality of life things, if I could just be in swordfighter form the whole game, it would be near perfect. Really wish you could have gotten like, a reward of a sword you can fight with normally, for finishing the game… Like i would totally start a new file if I could replay the game but now with the option of either non-temporary swordfighter form, or just, like giving Zelda her own sword.

Also i wanna know what they were saying in that last cutscene when Zelda and Link return, and the King and townsfolk are there. Cuz at one point everyone looked at Link really shocked?? And i don't think it was him talking, cuz i think he had already been talking before

Also mixed feelings on Link getting his ability to talk back. I would’ve liked him to stay canonically mute, since it's interesting to have a Link that doesn’t just not talk much or something, but actually be incapable of speech. But I also get it, it seemed like losing his speech was a part of his motivation to do what he did, and it seems like he wanted the ability back, so it's not nearly as bad as if Link had just been naturally mute yet was magically “fixed” or something. But if they're gonna make Link speak again, I wanna see it! We see his mouth move and him make talking gestures at the end, but if they're gonna show him speaking, i wanna see :(. But even with that, I’m of 2 minds… Link is such an interesting character, but him speaking would really characterize him differently… so i didn’t actually really want to hear him speak, but they showed it on screen, so i wanna know what he said!!

Also wish we had gotten an explanation for the swordfighter form…. It was so cool and intriguing and it made me think we were gonna get Lore (™) for the sword and might crystals and everything, and if we were lucky, some Link lore too. But eh, as much as I wanted an explanation I did suspect that it truly was nothing more than a game mechanic, thus we weren’t going to get any explanation. Still ever so slightly disappointed tho.

So yeah, those were my thoughts! They’re very fresh, and clearly just kinda word-vomitted on the page, so maybe someday in the future I’ll have more like, overall things to comment on, but for now, this is it! Really good game that i just wish i could wack things in more <3

#eow spoilers #echoes of wisdom spoilers #loz #loz eow #josh talks #when looking at what i dont like about the game pls keep in mind that a lot of it is just about my personal experience and preferences #like i fully acknowledge that its a me problem and not the game #just wanna clarify this cuz sometimes the internet lacks the knowledge of the difference between #“i didnt personally enjoy this” and “this is objectively bad and you shouldn't enjoy it or ur wrong”#if ur reading the tags but not the post cuz of spoilers this may look bad lol. i swear i really like the game #this is just for a little portion of it

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marimbles · 1 year ago

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im not in any of the current fandoms ur into (im no longer as into ml as i used to be, but i like seeing ur tags and u have such a sunny personality so i still follow you) AND OMG UR ART HAS IMPROVED SO MUCH???

i remember you would replicate the ml style but now youve developed ur own style and youve got such a good understanding on lighting and colours, and ur lines are so smooth and just ajdkkdksksk anyways im proud of how far youve come w ur art !!

HELLO?? I’m gonna break down crying this is so nice 😭😭💜💜💜💜 thank you so so much! !

First of all I’m flattered you liked my stuff at all haha let alone that you have stuck around despite not being in the same fandoms anymore 🥺 next of all!! What a kind thing to say!! It means a whole whole lot. I think on my end it’s harder to see improvement, so it’s really encouraging to hear that other people can see it. Like intellectually I know I am always improving, but drawing is still hard and I’m always in the weeds of my own work and don’t really get to step back and see a wider view unless I look at some of my old art and I’m like oh hey! I actually did get better bc this looks worse to me now 😂

yeah I was definitely trying to replicate the ml show style in the beginning! I decided to learn how to draw specifically so I could draw miraculous ladybug fanart HDJDJS and at first that’s all I really knew how to do. When I got into toh I didn’t replicate that style but I did incorporate some elements from it. I think I did the same a little bit w atla, and I’m doing it now w the botw/totk art style too. and I’m sure as I love more things and keep drawing it will keep developing! I am also hugely inspired by other artists and I sometimes try to incorporate the things I admire into my own work. I feel like my art style is just a culmination of all the things I have loved so much I had to create about it. just a big playdough ball with a bunch of colors rolled in, haha

Also you’ve discovered my weakness…i have an Addiction….to THE GLOW. moth behavior. I wouldn’t say I have a great understanding of lighting and colors but I sure do love when they’re happening. So I just try to make them happen and I’m like ohohoho what if it were sunset. get this: rim lighting. perhaps (definitelyhaps) a lens flare. God was so right when He said “Let there be light.”

man sorry I always ramble sm this was just so nice and I got excited haha. “I’m proud of you”…trigger words fr!! This made my day, thank u 💜💜💜

#anon #ask #nice things #waaaa

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monpalace · 2 years ago

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Twi’s Name and Times name have the same name and look similar but not identical, Times [Name] was definitely taller and more lean where as Twi’s name is a bit shorter and plumper. Twi’s [Name] definitely has more hair however where as Times was shorter due to being in the Royal Guard (think the same length as Botw/Totk Zelda).

Twi’s [name] definitely had her share of adventures as of right now she technically doesn’t have a shadow (reasons to be told later should anyone notice it which it would most likely be Time) and she while twi was with the chain had taken in two children, why? They reminded her of Twi and herself (also the reason she currently has no shadow) that’s why she was checking the perimeter of her land when she met the chain. Times [name] never thought she would’ve had kids honestly. She was also raised the daughter of a smith and knows her way around a sword whereas Twi’s knows her way around a bow and arrow.

They both punch hard something time and twi know well. They both tilt their head up and look at the sky the minute they know someone is spouting bullshit because they know if they look at the person they’re going to go off. Twi’s [name] is more of a homemaker so she has the skills in terms of cooking and gardening that Time’s didn’t.

These are just some rough ideas I had please feel free to add more and yes Time sound’s like Howl to me and Twi sounds like a young Matthew McConaughey -🧚🏽‍♀️

young matthew mcconaughey's voice literally has me forcing myself to keep quiet. it really does fit twi so well? need him to do a few voiceovers to twi rn 💳💥💳💥💳💥

those are a good few differences though! [name] taking in the kids is cute to without twi's knowledge is cute to (i just had vague thoughts abt domestic life with them 🙏🏽)!

it makes sense as to why she would look around the perimeter of their land to make sure they're safe but still prefers the bow and arrow over the sword. it keeps her close to the fight, but just far enough that she isn't in immediate danger-- almost like to her similarities and differences to time's [name]. close enough to be the same person, but the differences keep her from being in the middle (if that makes sense)

i'd imagine time's [name] is more acquainted with formal combat (wars, large monster hoards, etc) whereas twi's is better with bar fights? time's version requires her to be stronger to, so she probably wouldn't have to flex to catch a glimpse of her muscles lmao

maybe twi's [name] grew up an orphan like twi, which is why she resonates with the kids she took in? since time's [name] is the opposite, maybe she's unused to being familial around kids since she's so used to hard and sharp things?

🧚🏽‍♀️ anon you made the mistake of interesting me in your thoughts. i literally want to hear everything you have to give now

#this is my formal resume. im handing it into both [name]'s #they dont need twi or whatever person time's [name] finds. im literally right here‼️‼️ id make the oerfect gf #* perfect #the lesbian in me made an appearance im sorry #mcconaughey looks like such a fun name to have but id kms if i ever had to spell it #ive always heard of him but havent heard/seen him in anything #i hate the way totk zelda's hair looks #short was def a goof idea but the way it gets more body?#* good #it makes her look like a sandwich idk how to explain it #honesty circle?#idk what a shadow is #i still have yet to touch the official lu comic 🤙🏽#ik the shadow is the reason the chain are all together and why theyre jumping through times n whatnot but thats it #faeries in the garden #the palace answers #Athena. Songbird. Atalanta. and Aphrodite

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minijenn · 1 year ago

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Anyway I would have never said this a few months ago but now that I’m on my second playthrough of Tears of the Kingdom and I’m giving myself time to actually digest everything I have to admit

Totk’s story is… kinda bad?

And like there are things about it I do like, basically anything having to do with the Light Dragon is soooo good and heartbreaking, but there’s also so much shit about the plot and how it had to be structured bc “open world game” is so disappointing

Like thanks I def wanna hear each sage give me the same spiel about the imprisoning war four damn times; I def think nobody realizing fake zelda is a fake is dumb even though link knows she’s fake pretty early on but he’s not allowed to emote or have a personality bc fuck you. I think ganondorf is such a damn non-entity in the present of the game that he might as well not even be there, he does literally nothing until the finale of the game, what was even the point of having him here if he’s just gonna lie underground the whole game. I hate that fucking robot construct body we build for mineru so. Fucking. Much from a gameplay perspective because it’s clunky af and also from a story perspective bc it’s so weird and random and like???? Why??? I don’t understand raurus whole “keep my enemy close” nonsense bc if he’d just dealt with ganondorf like he SHOULD have then maybe Sonia wouldn’t have died smh stupid stupid so many stupid decisions were made the entire plot and gameplay loop is structured just like botw but worse bc at least on botw if you got the memories out of order it didn’t really matter but in totk you kind of have to get them in order for literally anything to make sense but you only discover that order if you wander off to the forgotten temple and learn the very specific order like why did they do it like this why couldn’t we just have normal ass cutscenes why did they feel so married to botws structure why did they make so many weird choices wit. This games story, why is it so disappointing when it should have beeen great why is the tone of the game nothing like what that first trailer showed us why aren’t things more mysterious and left open to interpretation why why why WHY

Great game tho 10/10 goty

#legit tho I love totk and from a gameplay perspective it’s my favorite of the whole series #but that story is just #yeesh #I feel like it has the same problem as kh3 where they probably rewrote the story from the ground up late on in development #it’s just such a mess from all fronts #hoping the next zelda game isn’t structured like botw and totk were tbh #cause the plot suffers from the openness of how you uncover it tbh #makes it so much less structured and so much weaker as a result #the amount of plot that actually happens in the present is so minimal it’s ridiculous #tired of these games where all the plot happened hundreds of years ago #look at ss or ww or hell even tp #they have stories that happen in the present #why can’t these games have that too #Jen rambles #tears of the kingdom #legend of Zelda

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cobaltsage · 7 months ago

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People definitely gave Genshin a bad rep when it first came out, and I think that deterred a lot of people from playing it. But honestly, comparing it to RSL is kinda hilarious, because I think most people don’t even realize what kind of game Genshin even is.

On the surface, yeah it’s a BotW clone that grew far past its origins. It’s 120GB in size on desktop (40GB on mobile) and even free, I think the game’s worth playing. Early on, yeah, the game’s a little grating with pacing and VA and stuff I hope they go back and re-dub eventually, but the newer content is proof that the game’s really come into its own. It’s stories are engaging, its lore pretty deep for what’s essentially a play on Isekai stories, it takes the time to flesh out every area not just in design and extra details, but in mountains of hidden lore you can find in notes and books and character dialogue.

While I get it’s a Gacha game on paper, the game honestly has way more content than both BotW and TotK combined, so to me it’s not that weird that the fandom is so big, especially when they take the time to really let you meet and interact with all the PCs.

Plus, you can tell that everyone involved loves what they do. The voice actors always talk about their work with love and affection, or how they were able to insist on taking a line a certain way. Every major update has a preview where the devs talk about what’s coming up, and sometimes they talk about the aesthetic, but when Fontaine came out no, they were like ‘do you know how goddamn difficult it was to work on functioning underwater mechanics in a game that previously didn’t have them? Do you know how big of a challenge that was? Let’s go line by line and show you exactly what we did to make that possible. We cannot stress enough that we hope you see just how much time we put into making underwater plants and fish and scenery, and love it. ‘

The localization team? Also has a field day. They love throwing in references to things you wouldn’t expect ( my most recent find? “Naturally, any rational citizen knows that strange women lying in ponds distributing swords is no basis for a system of government.” ). When the in game TCG came out? They absolutely leaned into Yu Gi Oh references. Legitimately, as someone who loves to learn about game design, it’s hard not to feel affectionate toward Genshin, not when you hear things like what happens to game devs like Kojima, or seeing what happens when a dev is forced to cut corners like with The Pokemon company.

I hear horror story after horror story about pretty much every company in the industry, and here Hoyo is being like “ yeah we want to tell these stories about these lesbians but we do sorta have to find a way to squeak by Chinese censorship laws. “ and like. As far as problems go? That’s sorta it. When the previous English VA for Tighnari got called out for predatory behavior? No. He got cut immediately. He got replaced. They were like ‘ yeah stay tuned we are redubbing all of his lines as we speak and will patch it in as soon as it’s done. ‘ there was nobody trying to defend what happened, there was no trying to hush the issue, there was only total reassurance that the issue was being handled and an entirely outlined process on how.

So yeah. I know I can be a bit of a Genshin fanboy when I’m talking about it. But when you see game devs actually loving everything they’re doing for a game, it’s hard not to love it back.

Also not for nothing, but even if you aren’t interested in the gameplay I’d say it’d be worth listening to one of their concerts.

can i be real with u for a second. i can't believe tjere's a real fandom for stuff like genshin impact. imagine if half your dash was posting about raid shadow legends. you'd think it was astroturf

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emperorpookie · 5 months ago

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YESSSS!!!! HIIIII!!!! sorry for getting back late, not felt that social today!

that makes sense! i feel like my stranger things special interest comes back in full swing every few years and it’s in that dormant state again. unfortunately. but what can i do!!

that’s totally okay! i get this 100%, i’m a little scared to come off anon anyways so this works out perfectly fine for me ^w^

well. okay. the thing is, my current hyperfixation is a little embarrassing for me to reveal to you… and it would make it very obvious to find me in your followers LOL. i will hide in shame!!! 😅 other things i do like are: music, video games, writing (fanfic, poetry, etc.), other word related stuff (ex: webweaves), movies/tv shows (have admittedly watched more tv shows than movies at this point), and probably other things i can’t quite think of right now! i didn’t list all that much but i am a little foggy in the brain rn :’))

that’s so sweet of you! you’ve been on my mind as well, i just didn’t know what to Exactly say to you lol. but i’m here now!!!!!

glad to hear you’re okay, that’s really nice. i heard your air conditioning is out :((( i hope you’ll be able to survive and such. god knows i cannot get a wink of sleep when it’s hot. sending you cool vibes!

i’ve been having a rough go of it lately but i’m hoping i get a breather soon from bad things happening or my brain convincing me everything’s gone to shit haha. trying to be kind to myself as best i can. pushing through.

thank you for being so kind about stuff <3 it’s genuinely so sweet and cute to see you happy to see me!!! /p it feels nice to be missed even if i am anonymous and a stranger more or less. it’s lovely to be back! i like being here! was just hard to find footing for a bit, you know? anyhow, feels nice to see you again!!!! i’m glad i get to be a little guy who’s around for you💘💞

-🦇 anon

Ooohh i totally get that!!!! Hyperfixations that ebb and flow are a thing for me too!!! Like for me, my mom just took me to the movie IF. VERY CUTE. but ryan reynolds was there so now he's back in my brain living rent free. Which was actually good timing cuz the Wolverine and Deadpool movie will be out soon so i can be extra excited to go see that! 🤣🤣🤣

Oohhh hahhaaha now I'm like 👀👀👀👀👀👀 but no it's totally okay! I wont go looking! But i do like games! Im really only good at like, racing games, pokemon, and the two newest zelda games. I never really played the older ones when i was young. But i adore, botw and totk. I love writing too, really only fanfic and not very often these days but when the inspo hits i like to dabble! Hahaha! And ive seen sooooo many movies and shows so thats probably a good place to start!!! Tho i am bad about watching newer shows... my brain has a "its not the right time yet" thing, for pretty much all media. Very annoying, but I get to things eventually. When the times right! Haha!

Air came back this morning thankfully!!! And i got a few hours of sleep once things cooled down! So sorry your brain is being rude and that possibly also life is being rude!!! I hope things get better! I'll send healing and good vibes your way!!!

Yesss!!! My batty little guy!!! And i totally get it! And absolutely no pressure to send a ton of messages. I 100% know how it feels sometimes to just not be feeling it. Or not knowing what to say. So definitely dont like, push yourself, especially if you're not feeling up to it mentally! I'll be here! No plans on going anywhere else!!! Just send stuff when and if you feel up to it! And I'll be happy to see you when you swing by!!! 🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡🧡

#🦇 anon #asks #putting it under a read more cuz i like to make things small. hahahah

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lucyandthepen · 1 year ago

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hi it’s 🍭 anon here !!

first I wanted to tell you that the last time you answered my ask I was so happy, like fr thank you so much for your kind words, it touched me a lot :’) 🫶🏼

NOW ! I just read salted caramel and. omggg.

first I wanted to say to jisung, I also enjoyed Age Of Calamity lol

hyuck is really a menace to society here💀 but thanks to him we had a jealous mark (in this house, we love jealous mark ‼️). I read the tag before reading the fic but I didn’t expect y/n and mark to be on the phone with hyuck this long hahaha.

thank you again for sharing your work, it’s always a pleasure to read your works <3

as I said last time, I go check your blog everyday to see if you updated anything.

1st I hope that your move while go smoothly ☝🏼 and I cannot wait for honey citrus !!

Also, have you seen the nct nation concert and heard the album ? (https://twitter.com/allforljn/status/1695421368870015007?s=46&t=wPoG9lz8nXXKd2HT9NynOA this jeno clip literally drive me crazy)

sorry I talk too much 😭 anyway, I hope that you’re okay. Have a great day/night and take care of yourself ~ <3

hello my sweet candy anon! 🍬 i’m so happy you’re happy! hearing from you always makes my day so much brighter, and i’m over the moon to hear from you again. 🩷 thank you for always being so nice and sending a message again!

are you a zelda fan/koei games fan?? i am both!! i really enjoyed age of calamity (even though some people say the format is kind of boring) and i love botw/totk! (watch that come out in another fic!) fun fact: the argument about dynasty warriors is based off of my personal experiences, and i share my opinion with chenle — the seventh is the best! the ninth was a train wreck! (although the art was truly quite nice.)

we always love a jealous mark! i am of the opinion that he is a very possessive person but tries to act like he isnt/thinks it’s not right to be so openly jealous. i will not delve into it too much right now but if i had to mtl the dreamies and their jealousy, mark would EASILY be in top 3 😭 SO WE LOVE SEEING MC FEED HIS POSSESSIVENESS WITH A FEAST! poor hyuck tho 🥹 he was a champ for staying on the line for that long but!!! he may have gotten something out of it anyway so we can’t say it was a terrible time for him😮‍💨

i hope that it isn’t too much of a hassle for you to check my blog! 😭 i know i’m not the fastest when i write so there are gaps between fics but i hope to not make the wait between uploads too long 🥹

thank you for your super kind words; i hope the move goes well too! i am quite scared but i think it’ll be a good new adventure, so it’s exciting too 🥹🩷

and honey citrus is something i’m definitely excited for as well 😮‍💨 i have a very particular hc list for jaemin when it comes to intimacy so i hope to get to explore those things in the fic! we can be excited together!!!!!

i wasn’t able to watch the beyond live of nct nation BUT i’ve seen clips and THE BAT JENO WAS SO OFFENSIVE (lovingly) TO ME LIKE WHY DID HE !!! HOW COULD HE!! he slayed every outfit and his arms were GOING HARD! what was your favorite performance of the night??

never apologize for talking too much!!!!!!!!!! i talk like crazy too so don’t even sweat it. i love blabbing and rambling with you and with everyone, so i hope you always feel comfy talking to me. have a really great day or night where you are, and as always, stay safe and happy! 🩷💜

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scarletknightreterns · 1 year ago

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-My TOTK Review pt 1-

I finished the game a while ago now, and even now I’m continuing to play it and collect almost everything while daydreaming about the world, lore, and my Oc’s personal story and how I might revamp her to fit this world more.

There are so so many things I’ve discovered through the game, and even the other day I lost my mind with someone I SUDDENLY realized while looking at the sheikah stealth gear. I’ll get into that in a bit.

So.

I figured I would make a review of my personal thoughts and opinions on the game. It’s too good not to do, and it would be interesting to hear what all y’all think.

—

Things I like:

• The Sky Islands. These are so damn beautiful and a highlight of the game. Not only does the game start off STRONG with the ‘plateau’ and it’s Temple of Time, but there are literally so so many things to do. I love the sky-dive challenges, the mining factory, and that one island that gives the Zonai headdress— I did that a few days ago and thought it was actually very unique!! I live up in the sky so much because it’s just, absolutely serene. Gorgeous. Spectacular and I love collecting all the mushrooms and plants up there.

• The ZONAI!!! Like, holy shit. Nintendo didn’t scrap what BoTW was originally going to be with all that alien tech and Link’s weird arm. I had hoped to see them do something with that, and even I did not expect the Zonai to have such a major part in TOTK. We all thought they were a mysterious tribe of people long long ago- and while they were, they were so so much more. A lot of people seem to have a gripe about the Zonai, being glorified goats that come from heaven or something, but I actually think a lot of their history was purposefully burned away from Hyrule, making them the tribe of ‘brutes’ that BOTW suggested them to be; or we all tenorized. But. My gosh, I love them so damn much?! Rauru is gorgeous and I’m so glad he exists, none of you can convince me otherwise!

• The Constructs. All of them. All of them are beautiful. Yes, I know the Divine Beasts are gone, but I do NOT care when there are these adorable Stewards that I want to hug and keep company because they are lonely and deserve to be appreciated! Also, I can build things?? I can build things. Glory be it’s Minecraft. I love even the Gacha Machines because they are so cool. And the shrines?? Absolutely amazing, in appearance, and even the statues in the end where you get the spirit orbs.

• The Temples. I’m so glad they brought temples back although I really wish there could have been more to them, like, original 8, but all in all, they were beautiful. My favourites had to be the Rito’s War Boat which was super cool, and Zora’s Giant Fish (I forget the names of them, but you know what I mean haha). I was very surprised they added a Spirit Temple, but I’m sad that thatbonly had me build a construct although, in the end, I was sooooooo hype I got to KEEP that construct and ride it 0w0

• Sidon, Teba, Yanobo, Riju. First of all, Sidon is beautiful, Teba is precious child must protect, Yanobo is Yanobo, and Riju has matured and grown up UwU Of course, this is something else that upsets me. While I was super SUPER HAPPY to have them accompany me for the Temples, having merely apparitions of them follow me around, while it’s cool, is just.... it’s very, very upsetting. I was hoping I could select any of them at any time to come with me, have dialogue and say encouraging things. Like, it would be NICE TO HEAR THEIR VOICES WHILE WE EXSPLORE!! Maybe they collect things as well and can even give me things as rewards or shows of speciation. Like, Nintendo could have done SO SO MUCH MORE with them and they DID NOT (don’t mind me I’m just upset because my fishy prince Sidon didn’t get to stay with me in the way I dreamt...) but it’s still cool....

• The Depths. Like, holy holy crap?? Nintendo literally might as well have spent the past.... 5-6 years alone on this place to make it the perfect place it is. It looks unbelievable and there are even little places like the Gerudo Underground Cemetary, and the Gerudo Dark Skeleton. It’s just small things like these that I really really like. There is also the Ancient Underground Fortress which I think is really neat, and speaks to a story. Also, the Lightroots?? Are simply amazing?? I’ve almost gotten them all, not quite, but close! The boss fights you can relive down there are also a nice touch, as well as almost all enemies and their gloom-corrupted forms.

• The new enemeies. I really love the return of more enemies. The Horrorblins remind me of the Bokoblins from TP, very creepy, and actually seeing Gleeoks is a MASSIVE. MASSIVE BOON FOR ME BECAUSE ✨hydra-dragons✨King Gleeok is a B***H to kill tho... not gonna lie. Might try that again later on today :’P also, they added in the silver enemies as well. I never saw those in BOTW because, I think, those were Ballad of The Champtions DLC exclusive. It’s really nice to have tougher enemies— and the Bokoblin’s charge attacks are always annoying. The Lynels are my favourites to fight tho; their horns are soooooooo good for fusing yo the master sword. 60 dang bby, I’m a monster >8)

• We. Can. Actually. Join. The. Yiga. Clan. These fools won’t know what hit them and I’m laughing because they are all such hormonal, love-deprived twats that are so emo and edgy and need more to eat then just bananas. Maybe banana bread. Make them that, and they will be happy. Glory to Master Khoga.

• I finished the Labaryths around last week and. Hellll yaaaahhhh I’m getting my Edgy Teen Ganon vibes ooonnnnn— I literally don’t take this stuff off because. Cape. No excuses just cape. Me fancy, with sorcery! No sword, just sorcery (secret Yiga technique) yeeting fools into the air ehehehehehehehehehehheeh

• Dragons. An actual reason for the dragons, and I love we can collect a bit more from them in terms of the shards, and they don’t just vanish after taking something from them, I can stay of Naydra’s back for hours and take as many scales, horns, claws, fangs as necessary. Also, what’s interesting is, instead of going up, like they did in BoTW, they go down now, into the Depths, which is really interesting to me. They are literally like... Dolphins, hopping in and out of the rifts and I can ride them still while they do so by standing on their snouts B3

• This gets it’s own ping for literally being my favourite. Silver Lizalfos horn. Fuse to master sword. Master Scythe. Nothing more to say~

• Another thing (or rather 3) that gets their own ping for being top of my list despite being alllllll the way down here. Elemental dragon outfits??? I need to get the charged set but I don’t think I can because I got Mineru by my own exploring and mistake and I don’t think I can trigger the side quest.... :’)))) which MAKES ME MAAAAADDDDDDDD—- but flame set ~ my beloved~ dyed purple because purple hair~ Glows in the heat??? My favourite UwU

What else is there...?

Ah yes.

• Koroks. They did not get rid of these little guys but the new quests??? They shouldn’t hav.... I can abuse forest children by attaching them to rockets and launching them into the sky for the greater distance, then bring them to their friend. Also, the new little hidden challenges. I found a dandelion and I was so confused until I touched it XDD they are so creative. Also have you SEEN THE NEW ANIMATION FOR HESTU’S DANCE????? IT’S SO CUTE!!! KOROKS JOIN HIM!! I’M 😭😭😭😭😭

Phew, this is quite long already and there are still things I could list... But I think I will end this here and make another update later on listing the things that SHOCKED ME, and then the things I didn’t like about the game, and finally, the things I terrorize and lore stuff. :>>

#loz totk #totk

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drhu0806 · 2 years ago

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Coming out of my TotK stupor a bit just to post some of my thoughts so far since I’m in late game at this point (spoilers of course):

Sequels in general can be pretty tough to get right because it’s really hard to strike the right balance of keeping just the right amount of the previous entry while also adding in just the right amount of new stuff to still justify them as their own thing and be able to stand on their own. In terms of gameplay I really think TotK nailed it with how they somehow made the open world bigger and the nutty, stupidly amazing things you can do with the new crafting powers. Plays like og BotW but also with enough new stuff to stand on its own.

Love and hate how the devs put in even more ways to kill and scare the hell out of us players (take a shot for every time I was jump-scared/flew into a quiet panic because of a new enemy).

My cons: this is an issue I had with the og as well so not TotK specific but I’m still not happy with the combat in general. The requirement to lock-on for more effective combat is absolute hell and doesn’t make sense in a game that regularly swarms you with multiple enemies at once. Really wish dodging didn’t require a whole other button press. WHICH I ALSO WANNA TALK ABOUT

Because as much as I love the new mechanics I also don’t like that it adds a whole other layer of button press combos when the button scheme for the game was so heavy already. MAYBE IT’S A SKILL ISSUE ON MY PART but I don’t know, constantly mashing the D-pad and fat-fingering it quite often to pull up the wrong menu can get a little grating.

NOW COMES MY BIGGEST GRIPE WITH THE GAME SO FAR:

The day before worldwide official release, when the review embargo was lifted, a reviewer I followed tweeted something along the lines of, “You will hear more from me because what they did to Zelda was criminal!”

And while I don’t know exactly what she was referring to, after finishing the geoglyph questline, I find myself agreeing

TotK does well as a sequel in terms of its gameplay for sure, but I’m pretty irritated with how much it reuses so many narrative elements from BotW, most particularly how they sidelined Zelda in the same way again. I feel like they really should have given her more presence within the current setting players/Link play in than just live within flashbacks. It was fine in BotW but they could have absolutely found a way to give Zelda more presence in TotK than just getting Barrier Maiden’d all over again. They could have literally just parked her in some place and made her a simple questgiver and for me it would have still been way better. Really stings given how I know so many fans were hoping for playable Zelda in this game, and while that was probably always gonna be a very tall task, to fall so short of that is frustrating. Not done with the game yet.

SO YEAH those are my thoughts so far. I don’t see a lot of it changing since as mentioned before I’ve finished the geoglyph quest, I’ve gotten the Master Sword, on the last of the four hub quests, so I should be in endgame soon. (My Chasms map is woefully emptier than maybe it should be this late in the game, sorry I’m just a coward and that place used to scare the hell out of me). This game is undeniably great for sure, but for me personally it’s in the this weird space where I know it’s going to receive Game of the Year, I just don’t think it deserves it.

#what does the owl say

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paulthebukkit · 1 year ago

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This is a great review, and pretty much sums up how I feel about TotK now that it’s been out for about a month.

Personally, my biggest complaint with the game was its overworld. I felt from the start that this game was really held back by the fact that it takes place in the same world as BotW. Sure, there’s new things going on in the towns, and there’s caves scattered around the world, but I honestly can’t think of any other significant differences between the overworlds of the two games. And there is also the sky and the depths which are really cool at first, but like OP said, once you’ve explored 10% of them, you’ve pretty much seen all of it because this game reuses so many assets across those two areas.

I still remember hearing in an interview back when TotK was first announced that the director wanted to have the sequel take place in the same Hyrule from BotW, and I remember thinking that was the first red flag for this game. Zelda is largely about exploration, and there’s a reason that no two games have shared the same overworld before (with the exception of ALttP/ALBW, which I can excuse because those games were released decades apart).

I think the suckiness of the reused overworld is amplified by the fact that this game was in development for 6 years. No new Zelda games were released between BotW and TotK, so it was hard not to be disappointed. It will probably be another 6 years before we get another Zelda game if this trend continues, and that’s why this hurts so much.

As far as the other big complaints go (ultrahand feeling tedious, sage abilities being intrusive), I have to agree with them, although they weren’t dealbreakers or anything. I somehow didn’t know until yesterday that you can favorite creations in autobuild so you can build them quickly later, which I feel soooo dumb about. If I had known that then I likely would have gotten a lot more enjoyment out of it, so I can’t really complain about that.

As for the sage abilities, a simple fix would have been to either a) map the sage abilities to different buttons or b) only allow one sage out at a time so they don’t constantly clutter the screen. It does seem weird that no one on the dev team thought to do that during that entire year they spent testplaying and polishing the physics.

I have a love-hate relationship with TotK. There’s so much I like about the game, but it’s hard for me to talk about it without complaining about it too. BotW was a magical experience the first time and I think everyone can relate to that, but TotK lacks that sense of adventure and discovery that made BotW so amazing. Of course I enjoyed TotK, I know I’m just complaining about it here but I really did enjoy it and all of the new ideas it brought to the table. It’s just that after the very long wait for the game’s release, I can’t help but find myself wanting more.

my thoughts on tears of the kingdom (on a non-zelda blog)

so here's the thing, I love Zelda.

I've been playing the series since I was a child, practically raised on it by my oldest brother whom I have a 10 year age gap with. One of my most cherished childhood memories was when he got me Wind Waker on the Gamecube as a birthday present, I would have been around 7 years old and he would have been 17. Zelda was and still is a huge part of our lives.

So skip to today, we both got Tears of the Kingdom on launch day. We're both busy adults now who live far away from each other so we've just been updating each other on our progress and sending memes.

But I've got a lot of thoughts about the game that I really want to get out, as someone who's been with this series for two decades. My brother started with games like A Link to the Past and that was practically my first exposure to the series as well as it's what I would watch him play, alongside Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask.

There will be mild SPOILERS ahead concerning the gameplay and story, so don't click the jump unless you've already played the game or don't mind getting spoiled!!! LONG POST AHEAD!

So I guess let's just get on with this, yeah? I'm not gonna separate it into "good" vs. "bad" because I find everything in this game has good shit that comes packaged with bad shit. It's a lot of pros with cons attached, so trying to separate it cleanly between "good" and "bad" isn't going to be a very productive approach.

I've seen TOTK described as "DLC" for Breath of the Wild (derogatory) while on the opposite end, Breath of the Wild has been described as the "tech demo" for Tears of the Kingdom (positive). Frankly, I can see where both sides are coming from. There are lots of elements in TOTK that feel like they could have been in BOTW, whereas other elements can confidently stand on their own separate from that of BOTW.

One such example is the new Sheikah Slate, aka the Purah Pad. While there are some features from BOTW that are surely missed (Cryonis, sigh) others have been replaced with far more beneficial features such as Ultrahand and Fuse (the bread and butter of this game) and Recall, which - controversial I'm sure - is far more functional and has way more opportunities to be useful than BOTW's Stasis ability. The Ultrahand ability alone is a massive upgrade, allowing you to go wild with the game's physics engine. The shrine puzzles are a lot stronger in this respect, having more to work with by combining the Ultrahand ability with thematic Zonai devices, often times taking you through a gauntlet of rooms with similar puzzle-solving, each more challenging than the last. There's nothing more satisfying - and doubly frustrating - than seeing the solution to a shrine you've already spent three days on and going "Wait, I could have done that???" It just goes to show that the inventive creativity necessary to solving these puzzles from BOTW has carried over twofold into TOTK.

However, I feel like these new features are less rewarding as the game goes on. While mechanics like Cryonis and remote bombs made exploring feel unique and accessible in BOTW, the lack of these features in TOTK have made exploring feel far more difficult than it should be. What used to be an easy - albeit slow - endeavor such as crossing a river by creating ice block bridges with Cryonis has now turned into an exercise in futility and physics knowledge. You can't just cross a river, you have to build a boat out of whatever resources you can find or use to cross said river. And while this is a very inventive feature that has really stretched the creative bones of its players, it's a feature that becomes draining. Sometimes you really do just want to cross a river without having to build a spaceship or a ferry. Sometimes you do just want to be able to get up to the top of a cliff without needing to build a hot air balloon. Even with the Autobuild ability, these new mechanics do really start to feel grating after a while, especially for someone such as myself who struggles with executive dysfunction and doesn't want to build yet another boat or flying car just to travel 10 feet.

Regarding that last statement, I think the inclusion of the Ascend ability helps to combat tiresome climbing, but it never seems to be an option quite as often as it could be. I've seen people praise the ability stating that it helps them avoid climbing cliffs entirely, but more often than not, I've found the ability is only usable for a third of a rocky mountain where it happens to have a platform jutting out that's close enough for Ascend to reach - with the rest of it encouraging you to just climb up naturally, or, you guessed it, use the Ultrahand ability to build your way up. The Ascend ability - like Statis from the game's predecessor - is very specific and not accessible enough in the world's design to make it actually helpful. You know exactly when and where you're supposed to use it, and trying to use it outside of those instances won't get you anywhere. Of course, I'm not going to judge this ability too hard because it's still more than what we had in BOTW, but I find its application isn't quite as useful as it could be.

And boy, there are a lot of things in TOTK that don't have as strong an application as they could. I think there's no truer place this could be said than the expansion of the game's map, through The Sky and The Depths.

Disappointingly enough, just like in Skyward Sword, which suffered for having a strong premise but weak delivery with an open sky that had nothing to do in it, Tears of the Kingdom has barely fleshed out its Sky and Depths areas enough to make them feel memorable or worth going out of your way to explore. Once you've explored 10% of either, you've experienced all of it. While the Sky and the Depths each have their own dungeon, neither of them really feel justified enough to explain why they had to be there. The Depths don't add anything to the nature of the Fire Temple - by the time you're finished with it, you'll forget you're even in the Depths - and while the Water Temple does have the addition of lowered gravity up in the Sky, no other islands have this, so it feels like a random addition in the way of a gimmick that doesn't actually play much of a role in the dungeon's puzzle-solving.

As for the Depths, I do have to say that the game introduced it in the best way possible. No one spoke of them, outside of an NPC in Lookout Landing sending you on a quest to find a nearby one, but they still don't describe to you what you're about to come upon. It wasn't in any of the gameplay trailers. You see a big hole in the ground with gloom coming out of it, you know you can jump down into it, but it's not until you actually do that you realize you're diving down into the belly of a completely different beast. Link keeps falling and you're realizing how dark it's getting and hoping you can pull out your paraglider in time to hit a ground that you realize you cannot see - when the music shifts and the horns blare and your stomach sinks realizing just how dark and vast this place is.

The Depths are what I truly fell in love with in this game. I was struck with that primal fear in my gut that I hadn't felt since playing Majora's Mask as a child. For the first time in forever, I felt like the smaller species, like a speck of dust in unfamiliar territory. It was a welcome feature for a game that - if you had preceded it with Breath of the Wild - needed something to shake things up.

But, unfortunately, that initial thrill wears off eventually. The Depths become just that - a vast expanse with nothing in it. Aside from the odd treasure chest containing a piece of gear, the Bargainer's Statues, and a couple main story quests that take you down there, the Depths have nothing. Mapping them out is a feat in and of itself, even more daunting than mapping out the above ground with its tens of lightroots, but once you get at least 50% through the map, you realize that there's really nothing else to it. In fact, the map of the Depths exactly mirrors that of the map above you, with even less to do due to its lack of notable landmarks (outside of a central mining area, the Korok Grove, and the aforementioned Fire Temple), lack of biome distinction between areas (aside from the Eldin area created specifically for the Fire Temple), and lack of shrines. Once you figure that out, mapping out the rest of it is an unfortunately boring cakewalk.

I think both of these new inclusions in the game are unfortunately half-baked, making TOTK in and of itself feel like a tech demo for something that could have been more expanded upon. That said, it's a tall order, to ask for the game to run an in-depth open world map on three separate levels - the hardware itself already often struggles to load the Depths if you dive down into them too quickly, as the fall itself is its own cleverly hidden loading screen - but it's a shame to see it essentially repeat the mistakes of Skyward Sword, and it's where I feel that "this could have been DLC" complaint comes from.

There are features that feel like mild downgrades from BOTW, such as its new Fuse ability to fuse together weapons. While it seems inventive at first, the amount of inventory being carried over from BOTW makes the gameplay grind to a halt as you scroll through your pop-up inventory list to find the right thing to attach to your arrows or weapons, often times mid combat. While you can sort your menu into different sections - such as 'most used' and 'most powerful' - such a thing could have been fixed by allowing the player to create their own custom lists of items or just reducing what is and isn't capable of being fused. It feels like an unnecessary extra step thrown in to BOTW's weapon degradation mechanic just to make it feel more unique.

Moving on, this is where I want to talk about the game's story. Like the last game, it asks Link to piece together the memories of companions already gone. The story woven within these memories is a tragic one, with an emotional depth to it that I found myself relating far more to than in BOTW, which asked us to sympathize with characters who we had never met and were already gone. On the flipside, TOTK manages to tell a similar story with a lot more emotional depth, now using Princess Zelda as the tether between the present and the past, in a way that I feel works much better than in BOTW. Its climactic twist felt like something you would find in Spirited Away, and its one that I felt was appropriate for the game's setting and themes. That said, I still do not find myself compelled by this game's version of the Champions, similarly to what I experienced in BOTW. At the very least, it brings back cast members from BOTW for us to connect through, such as Purah and Lady Impa, who I was happy to see return.

And then there are the Sages.

I have a lot to say about the Sages.

The Sages have to be the single worst inclusion of this game. And that's not to say they ruin the game, but in a game full of wonderful moments and amazing gameplay, they definitely feel like a tarnishing C- on an otherwise perfect report card. Just like in Breath of the Wild, the game's main story gameplay is the weakest part of Tears of the Kingdom. While BOTW had Link conquering the out-of-control Divine Beasts, TOTK asks Link to unearth ancient temples and awaken the spirits of sages long gone for their powers to be reborn through their descendants, three of which happen to be the successors of BOTW's Champions: Riju, Sidon, and Yunobo. While the development team and press surrounding this game called these temples "traditional dungeons", they are fundamentally the exact same as the Divine Beasts, following the same 4-beat structure in which you have to activate 4 'locks' (themed around the dungeon's setting) to unlock the dungeon's boss. I found these dungeons were often even easier than the Divine Beasts of BOTW, essentially asking Link to solve four separate shrine puzzles to get to a boss that follows a simple mechanic loop. While the bosses are far less repetitive than the Blights of BOTW, they are also far less intimidating or punishing, barely requiring any extensive thought to figure out how to overcome them. The hardest boss in the game - the Gibdo Queen - ironically had one of the easiest dungeons out of the four.

But here's the thing - Tears of the Kingdom is built the exact same way as Breath of the Wild, giving the player freedom to choose the order in which they complete dungeons, if they even choose to complete them at all... but unlike past Zelda games which offered this freedom, TOTK fails in how it delivers these dungeons and the narrative surrounding them. I was miffed upon completing my second dungeon - the Fire Temple - and realizing that the cutscenes it presented were the exact same as the first one I did - the Wind Temple - and sure enough, that same cutscene played out from its respective sage for the following Water Temple and Lightning Temple. They are all the same. While one could argue this was their way of navigating around the freedom of choice - to allow the player to experience neutral cutscenes that won't be out of order or out of context - the memories themselves are also out of order and out of context so having the dungeon cutscenes be varied should be a feature, not a bug to patch out. Currently, with its repetitive cutscenes and what you gain from completing a dungeon, it makes them far less enjoyable to do, knowing you're essentially just doing one big shrine with a giant enemy (one you can find in the Depths for farming, which makes them feel far less unique or imposing) with the reward of a heart in the end.

Of course, I'm forgetting to mention the other reward you get after completing a dungeon. Sage abilities. The biggest downgrade from BOTW by far.

In BOTW, upon completing a Divine Beast, you would be granted with an ability from its respective Champion, typically a passive one - meaning, if you had the ability enabled, it would activate on its own or you could trigger it a specific way, such as Mipha's Grace which would automatically revive you once in between cooldowns (basically a fairy you didn't have to catch) and, the fan favorite, Revali's Gale, which could be triggered by holding down the jump button and would grant you so much more ease of exploring.

Tears of the Kingdom, instead, asks "What if we made all of the Champions their own characters who could run around you, get in your way, and offer even less useful abilities?"

The present Sages - Yunobo, Tulin, Riju, Sidon, and Mineru - are akin to a teenager taking way more dogs than they could handle out for a walk. They are five nuisances who will run away from you when you need them, and run around you when you're just trying to pick up an item, causing you to accidentally trigger their abilities which are simply mapped to the A button. Too many times I've had them trigger a fight with enemies I was trying to avoid, blow away loot I was trying to grab, or blow up explosives that I wasn't aiming at, killing me outright. While they can be turned off, I feel like it could have been far easier to implement them in a way that wasn't so distracting and obtrusive - currently, the way they're implemented basically demands you keep them turned off until you absolutely need them. Considering a map of the Switch controller buttons comes up with the A button highlighted, it begs the question, why even have the other three buttons visible onscreen if they can never be mapped? Why not make use of different buttons for different companions? Or make them passive abilities similar to that of the Champions from BOTW? Overall, their inclusion feels clunky and not well thought out, and their abilities aren't near beneficial or useful enough to justify this much headache. At most, Yunobo is helpful in blowing up rock walls when you don't have Bomb Flowers, and Tulin is helpful in gusting you towards a landing spot while gliding through the sky, but that's about where their usefulness ends. Unlike in BOTW, the efforts required to gain their abilities barely feels like a reward, but more of an obligatory chore, making the dungeons feel even less rewarding to do.

With all that said, unlike in BOTW, Tears of the Kingdom never becomes a smoother experience to explore. The effort you put into completing the dungeons and gaining better weapons and gear never feels rewarded with anything substantial or worth working for. The Sage abilities are a burden and give very little benefit to exploring or combat the same way BOTW's Champion abilities did, the dungeons themselves aren't experiences worth writing home about, and the story is so milquetoast and repetitive that once you beat one dungeon, you've experienced all of them.

That said, while I've done a lot of complaining, there are a lot of things about the game I'm enjoying compared to Breath of the Wild. One such thing are the sidequests - there are a LOT more of them in this game, and many of them feel far more engaging and rewarding than Breath of the Wild. Accessing the Great Fairies requires an actual sequence of quests now, in which you bring a travelling band back together, and from that point forward, you can always hear them playing their music at the stables scattered throughout Hyrule. Hateno has its own questline that rewards you with what's possibly Link's greatest piece of fashion ever, Cece's Hat. Even the small quests feel more rewarding to do because TOTK feels far busier than BOTW did. There are far more NPC's, and the world itself just feels more lively; I wouldn't expect any less in the sequel to BOTW which experienced a cataclysmic event that wiped out the population of the kingdom. It's nice to see the difference in how the towns operate in TOTK because you can feel it through its sidequests. There are still Yiga Clan members in disguise on the surface, but it's far less now compared to BOTW where you couldn't talk to an NPC on the road without getting shanked.

Of course, it wouldn't be a BOTW sequel without one of its most daunting sidequests of all - the Korok Seed quest. This time, there are 1000 Korok Seeds to find, with new puzzles to find them, most notably the escort quests, which require you to build whatever godforsaken Roman-era torture device you need to build to get wandering Koroks from Point A to Point B.

That said, the unfortunate news I have to break to you after finally seeing someone complete the quest themselves - all that awaits you in the end, once again, is "Hestu's Gift" which I have to say, isn't as quite as funny the second time around. While in BOTW it felt like a funny nudge at completionists, in the vein of "Haha, look at you! You worked so hard to get all those seeds and all that awaited you was a pile of poop! It's all in good fun! The real prize was the adventuring you did along the way!" but having that be the end prize again in TOTK where we're exploring regions we've already explored before feels far more passive-aggressive, like it's making fun of you for really doing what the devs expected you to do a second time, with a snarky, "Seriously? You're that stupid? You really thought there'd be something new this time?" Especially considering the Koroks exclusively populate the Sky and the Surface - giving players even less incentive to want to explore the Depths, further robbing this new expansive area of less identity. Ironic that the Depths, an area so big that it requires its own hidden loading screen, would end up having even less to do than the Sky itself, which barely covers any surface area in the game's overall map by comparison. It's a damn shame the devs couldn't be bothered to think of something to reward the player with for all their work. At least in BOTW it could be said the reward was the exploration, as so much of BOTW's map goes untouched by its main story and its world was brand new to us back then - it's not brand new now, though, and the areas that are new are going completely unused.

I realize this review is getting quite long, but I want to close it with one final point - Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom's place in the Zelda franchise.

There's a startling lack of one specific thing that makes a Zelda game truly Zelda, despite the dev's best efforts to return its old school elements such as traditional "dungeons" and its nods to previous games in the title through its referential gear sets implemented right into the game (vs. exclusively as DLC in BOTW) - and that's the Triforce.

It's said that a true Zelda game can't contain its core triad of characters - Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf - without containing the Triforce in the center of all of it, and yet Tears of the Kingdom did this, and frankly, it just proves that point.

Anyone who knows me knows I'm not good at singling out a 'favorite'. Whenever people ask me what my favorite Zelda game is, my mind races through all the titles I played as a child - Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess - and yet I rarely think of Breath of the Wild and likely won't think of Tears of the Kingdom either. It's not for lack of trying or consideration, I do think both Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom are respectable games, both inclusive and exclusive of one another, but rarely does my mind go to them because to me, they don't feel like true Zelda games. And I didn't realize why until I recalled that the last game we had featuring Link, Zelda, Ganondorf, and the Triforce as core setpieces... was Twilight Princess. A game that will be turning seventeen this year, and will likely be twenty by the time the next mainline Zelda game releases. And one could argue even Twilight Princess doesn't count because Ganondorf was a last second addition - if we want to be really obtuse about it, technically we haven't gotten a game featuring Link, Zelda and Ganondorf as our main characters since Wind Waker, a game that turned twenty years old last year!

I felt its absence especially in Tears of the Kingdom, seeing Ganondorf manipulate his way into stealing the sigh 'secret stones' (I'm sorry but that name is so fucking cringe, please just call them "sacred stones" or "mystic stones" or SOMETHING more interesting than "secret stones", we don't even get any sort of lore or hinting towards where they came from, they're just magical McGuffin's with a stupid name) but not once mention his true motivations prior to finding out about the stone's existence. There was no emotional motivation such as what can be seen in The Wind Waker through a Ganondorf scorned by his lost culture and the kingdom that he just wanted to see wiped out to make things even; or Ocarina of Time Ganondorf who sought to access the Sacred Realm and take the Triforce and all its power for himself. Shit, there wasn't even a mention of Demise, the massive plot-twister of Skyward Sword, which Nintendo attempted to make the ultimate explanation as to why the games and their stories experience the same warring cycle from generation to generation; an explanation that could have worked, if they had actually followed up on it through BOTW and TOTK - yet, despite having the opportunity to do so, seem to just be whistling around the issue, pretending like it's not there. Despite having an Ouroboros in its title art, this cycle of death and rebirth is noticeably gone in Tears of the Kingdom.

Look, I get it. The developers have already stated that they're intent on moving forward with its open world format in future Zelda games. It's making them a lot of money. It's refreshing. It's bringing new fans into the franchise. And it's bridging the gap between generations by re-introducing classic exploration elements of retro Zelda while trying to also balance the narrative elements that modern post-N64 Zelda fans have come to expect.

But when you tear apart all the original components of a franchise, of its themes, its characters, its stories, and replace them with new components only slightly reminiscent of the old... can that franchise really be called the same thing anymore? When people ask me what my favorite Zelda game is, I don't think of Breath of the Wild or Tears of the Kingdom because to me, they're just not Zelda games. They're just what they are - Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Nintendo had a huge opportunity to make Tears of the Kingdom into a game that could tie its predecessors together with a neat little bow, and yet it still took the half-baked way out, layering it instead with its own story that doesn't even really work or take advantage of the foundation it's standing upon. They're their own games, and that's okay, but I can't help but feel that the further we go down this road, the less it'll encompass what made Zelda what it was to begin with.

And yeah, I'm sure I'm just being a typical 'old Zelda fan' who's complaining about the exact same thing that people complained about in games like Wind Waker and Twilight Princess. But when your Zelda game featuring Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf does not mention a word of the Triforce, I think both retro and modern Zelda fans can agree to even a slight extent that you can't have Legend of Zelda without the Triforce. That would be like having Super Mario without Power Stars (or some equivalent of them) or Kirby without its existential nihilism or Sonic without Chaos Emeralds. Sure, you can have games in their franchises without their respective trademarks, but do it enough times and people will start to notice something's seriously off. I think we can all agree that while Twilight Princess and Wind Waker may be, aesthetically and thematically, completely different games, you can't deny they're Zelda games at their core because they still have that signature cast fighting over those pesky golden Doritos.

In this respect, Tears of the Kingdom feels like it's suffering from the same problem Star Wars is suffering from - it exists to spite the titles that came before it, but knows it won't succeed without the fans of those titles so it makes as many cheeky references to those titles as it can without paying actual respect to them. It even opens the game with references to things that retro gamers will recognize - Rauru, Ganondorf recognizing Link's name, etc. - but then all those elements are later revealed to be unique to TOTK, such as Rauru being the first King of a Hyrule that's exclusive to the BOTW timeline, or Ganondorf only recognizing Link's name because a time-travelling Zelda told him his name, not because it's the same Ganondorf of titles' past. It feels incredibly disappointing to have all this setup and so little payoff especially for these games that are claiming to be the 'next step' for the franchise. It feels less like a 'next step' and more like a complete reboot for a different audience. These games are not reminiscent of what pulled me and my brother into the franchise way back in the day.

But I dunno, maybe it's a weird hill to die on. I don't want to be one of those "not my Zelda" puritans but when the games don't even contain elements of what made them distinctly Zelda back in the day, down to its trademark features, it makes me wonder what exactly where the series is headed.

Anyways. That was a lot. I do want to make it clear that I am enjoying this game, very much so, but like many games that top the charts with solid 10/10's on release, I feel like there are definitely still places the game could have been further refined, despite the extra year it took to polish it. From the inconvenient gameplay halters like the inventory fusing, to the obtrusive butchering of the Sage abilities, so many things could have been tightened up just a bit more to further improve on what Breath of the Wild started, rather than trade out what BOTW did for weaker alternatives. It's a game of gimmicks, rather than one of substance. While Breath of the Wild lacked substance itself in many regards, it at least had the benefit of being a brand new format, with a vast world one could spend hours exploring - with that same world returning in Tears of the Kingdom, with very little done to flesh out the attempts to expand it, it very much feels like it's simply riding off the coattails of Breath of the Wild, and in that regard, I can agree to an extent with the "DLC" arguments, while also agreeing that there are things in TOTK that very much improve on BOTW and make it look like a tech demo.

One thing I will recommend in the end to those of you who might be reading this - do not play Breath of the Wild right before Tears of the Kingdom. Whether it's your first time playing BOTW or you're wanting to revisit it, don't do it. I was fortunate enough that my last time playing BOTW was several months ago, but I've seen loads of people not enjoying TOTK because they replayed BOTW in the days before its release, and let me tell you, this game is far less of a unique or fun experience if you play BOTW right before playing TOTK due to the world design. If you play them one after the other, you'll burn yourself out on it and not get to appreciate what TOTK adds to BOTW's world as much as if you had gone in partially or mostly blind.

And that's all I'm gonna say on that. Tears of the Kingdom gets a 8.5/10 from me. I am excited to see where the franchise goes next in terms of its open world concept, I hope Nintendo can at least stray away from this version of Hyrule so we can get something new like we did in BOTW. Tears of the Kingdom was by no means a negative experience for me, and I'm planning on getting back into it tonight and tackling more of its sidequests, which are probably one of my favorite parts of the game. I could very well be way too hard on it, so this opinion could change over time as I spend more time in its world, but these are my general experiences that have come up in the back of my mind over the past couple weeks since its release.

Thanks for reading!

#sorry for the rant but i had to get my opinions out there #also. 1000 more korok seeds in the same overworld?#yeah no im not doing that again #tears of the kingdom #totk #breath of the wild #botw #the legend of zelda #zelda #tloz #loz #nintendo switch #nintendo #video games #gaming

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