#i still love botw like this is not me coming out as a botw hater because no. sorry

[fourspiceblend]

Totk has fixed SO many of the issues I had with botw, character wise specifically, I'm preparing an essay about it that might never ever see the light of day lol

[dullweapons]

okay so since there are a few hylia’s ( i can count about four ? 2 new & 2 from mutuals on side blogs or side muses … im sure there will be more , hell i wanna write a hylia too lol ) so imma write out how ray actually feels about hylia as clear as i can . i don’t really have a problem with hylia myself ? my only problem with her is her being added late into the games but skyward sword is old like me now so im over it . ( i do dislike that we just forgot demise but imma pretend he’s still here hush— @harbingered for my demise 👀 i will pay attention to him i swear )

ray HATES hylia . perhaps the most out of the gods & deities of the world . he curses her & blames her for a lot of things even when she clearly isn’t to blame . he uses her like a scapegoat . someone to point the anger he feels at when there is no one else to blame but himself . he’ll blame her for the troubles zelda goes through , or link or even ganondorf . because he knows hylia . seen her . felt the sting of her magic . saw her bring up the humans to their safe haven in the sky & leave him down there . she didn’t care .

as a child he was taught to worship hylia, as all the children of skyloft settlement were. his family had small statues of her that they gave offerings too . he would pray to her just as his mother told him to . so he was fine with her … maybe a touch annoyed — but that was mostly towards his mother being quite religious & making him repeat hail hylia when he was naughty ( which was often af )

upon being forced into the ancient battle ; his views were forcibly shifted by his father . not by any commands but more due to his father talking about how hylia cares not for him nor any other demons . lamatar believes demise would do right by the demons & monsters ( was that true ? who knows ) . he would beat this idea into ayrin until he began to think it himself .

“ hylia doesn’t care about me. if she did, she would’ve stopped me from joining this war . she wouldn’t have me here …mama says hylia loves us all but no one loves me. she doesn’t either .”

continuing on, ayrin was stuck by the goddess blade causing a horrible scar that glows similarly to TP! ganondorf’s scar. due to it being a holy blade , it couldn’t go away as easily as death or other wounds for the demonic weapon & he was out of battle for weeks. ( visual ref of rays scar here ! ) i have been debating it be hylia who struck him , but it can just be the first link . regardless , he sat there — scared & angry , not just because he failed his father , but hylia hurt . her blade hurts so so much . hylia is pain .

further down the timeline ; he continues to see princesses & queens struggle with their magic or are forced into horrible situations of the cycle born of demise . he sees link , so young forced into battle & losing his childhood only to become a shell . he’s seen ganondorf turned into a monster of anger & greed for what was once a king has become nothing but a pig . if hylia stayed a god perhaps things would be different . perhaps not . regardless, he blames them all : the golden goddesses , hylia & demise . none of them are free from his hate .

but hylia worship has grown strong again by botw & by then — he is a tired , cynical old man . he works hard to make sure his solders are ready for the war that is coming against calamity ganon . he sees the princess struggle to awaken her powers . he scoffs at her & wonders if the blood of the goddess is finally gone from tainting the royal family.

& he prayed to hylia to save them from the calamity when the calamity came & took over all the sheikah technology & his men died trying to get to akkala .

& she did not answer .

so for the hylia rpers i totally understand if you’re like “ damn he a hater idk if i wanna interact “ because he’s never ever gonna warm up to her . also if you wish to discuss what happened between them during the ancient battle please feel free to DM me ! my default does not need to be canon minus 1: ayrin / bby ray going to the war & 2: ray being struck goddess blade . those two are the only requirements — im flexible with anything !

[aeondeug]

i am learning that there are people who are baffled that there are botw haters that love totk and i guess i get that confusion. the game is a lot more of the same but like. for me at least it really cannot go overstated just how much unique dungeon themes and bosses mean to me. like seeing the chunks of the wind temple and working my way up to it and doing it and then seeing colgera showed up just. it did a lot for me. i cried when i found the wind temple finally and when i beat colgera. i still do when i think about colgera's theme. because look mom! zelda's back! it's not just hot pink cyberganon five times in a row!

and that is, i think, the essence of a lot of why there are people who hated botw but love totk. totk still doesn't feel like an older zelda game, but it has more aspects of the older ones. they aren't handled the same way. indeed, if you look at the game on a mechanical level alone it's even more different than botw. but a lot of the things that were missing have come back in a different fashion. and some of the ones that seem unassuming, like the importance of unique aesthetics and themes for dungeons, actually pull a lot of weight. it doesn't necessarily play more like a classic zelda game but it looks and sounds a lot more like one.

but i think there's also the fact that it's been 6 years since botw and we knew what to expect going in. it's not an open wound anymore. we've had time to sort out our feelings on the situation and some of us still hate it but others of us have softened on it or even come around entirely. and if you're like me you know about the leaps and bounds oot romhacking has been making. so now even if i am never going to get another nintendo produced 3D zelda game like the pre-botw ones there will still be fans making those. and they are proving they can make it at the scale of something like oot.

time does a lot.

[killscreencinema]

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild (Wii U)

“When I was younger, I grew up in the countryside of Japan. And what that meant was I spent a lot of my time playing in the rice paddies and exploring the hillsides and having fun outdoors. When I got into the upper elementary school ages — that was when I really got into hiking and mountain climbing. There's a place near Kobe where there's a mountain, and you climb the mountain, and there's a big lake near the top of it. We had gone on this hiking trip and climbed up the mountain, and I was so amazed — it was the first time I had ever experienced hiking up this mountain and seeing this big lake at the top. And I drew on that inspiration when we were working on the Legend of Zelda game and we were creating this grand outdoor adventure where you go through these narrowed confined spaces and come upon this great lake. And so it was around that time that I really began to start drawing on my experiences as a child and bringing that into game development.”

-Shigeru Miyamoto

NPR Interview, June 19th, 2015

Make no mistake - the sense of awe and wonder that comes with exploration and discovery, which originally inspired Miyamoto to create The Legend of Zelda in 1986, is the BIGGEST draw of the most recent Zelda game, Breath of the Wild.  Even though the Zelda series has had over a dozen installments across various Nintendo systems since the first game’s release, Breath of the Wild is the first to truly live up to Miyamoto’s original vision.

Which isn’t to say those other games are crap (except for the CDi games, and sorry, but those technically count).  It’s just that no Zelda game except for the first one has fully realized the sense of freedom that Breath of the Wild pulls off flawlessly!  Also, even the more hardcore Zelda fan would have to admit that formula was beginning to get stale.  

It should be mentioned right off the bat that, as you can obviously tell, I decided to go with the Wii U version.  Here’s the thing – I just bought my Wii U a couple months ago because I got a good deal on it.  So I intend to explore the library of games for the Wii U before I, er, switch to the Switch.  Knowing Nintendo, I’ll probably have a 2-3-year grace period for them to build up a decent amount of games for the Switch anyway, so I’m in no hurry. Besides, I hear the Switch version has framerate lag issues anyway, so I think I made the wise choice sticking to the Wii U.  I’m certainly glad to hear that the Switch has been relatively successful thus far, once again pitching shade at the haters that seem to have a hard-on over the idea of the Big N eventually going down in the flames.  

Breath of the Wild begins with Link waking up from a 100-year slumber.  When he emerges from his “crypt”, he finds Hyrule almost completely in ruins and Hyrule Castle enshrouded with the dark energy of an evil being known as Calamity Ganon.  It is eventually revealed that 100-years ago Link attempted to defeat Ganon, but failed miserably, and so was put into a stasis to try again later, while Princess Zelda keeps Ganon trapped at Hyrule Castle.  However, Zelda’s power has begun to wane, forcing Link to confront Calamity Ganon before his evil spreads over the rest of the world.  Whether this means you march right up to Hyrule Castle, armed with only a tree branch, Hylian britches, and a measly four hearts of health (good fucking luck); OR you wait until after you find the legendary Master Sword; OR you conquer the Four Divine Beasts, so that they help you defeat Ganon, it’s all entirely up to you!

It’s hard to describe just how staggering the sense of freedom is in this game, but people who have played games like Skyrim or Fallout are very familiar with the feeling.  However, even then, those games don’t offer the option of going straight to the end boss at any point that you feel like.  Most open world games still have a narrative thread you must follow before completing the game.  Not so with Zelda BOTW.  

As of the time I have written this review, I have yet to beat the game, but I have gotten the Master Sword and defeated the Divine Beasts, so aside from a few side quests that I fully intend to complete, I’m very close to the end.  I’ve played enough to say that the hype is real and the game is an absolute masterpiece.

But you already know that.

So instead of continuing to gush at how good the game is, I’ll just mention my favorite aspects of the game. First and foremost, I love how expansive the world is and how you can explore any part of it you want at any point in time.  There are no “invisible walls” or barriers that impede your curiosity.  While the game doesn’t arbitrarily stop your progress, it doesn’t hold your hand either – so if you haplessly wander into a field that happens to be home to a ferocious Lionel (one of the hardest enemies in the game), you do so at your own risk!  So, get used to seeing the words “Game Over”, because you’re going to get familiarized with it quite a bit.

My favorite moment of the entire game, though, is when you first discover the Master Sword.  I took an educated guess and looked in The Lost Woods, once I unlocked that portion of the map, and after I successfully navigated the spooky, fog filled forest, I emerged into a beautiful clearing to see the legendary sword waiting for me.  I wasn’t expecting to find it, as in some games the sword is found in other locations, so it was still kind of a surprise, if only because the game never FORCED me to go find it.  I just decided to explore on my own and there it was.  You can’t just walk up and pull the sword out.  You must be “strong” enough, which is to say, you must have a certain number of heart containers or else you’ll die trying to pull the sword out. This creates quite a bit of tension as you hold the A button, watching Link slowly pull the sword out while his health rapidly diminishes.  When the moment finally occurs that you pull the sword out, though, it’s fucking sweet – probably the best “Link Finds the Master Sword” moment of any Zelda game ever.

I also quite enjoyed the subdued soundtrack of the game.  It’s mostly very quiet as you traverse the landscape, which is nice because it allows you to get lost in the atmosphere of the game.  As much as I love the classic overworld theme from Zelda, having that, or any, music play constantly on a loop would only become distracting.  The arrangement of the music was very reminiscent of a something you’d here in a Studio Ghibli film, which perfectly complements the art style of the game, which reminded me of games like Shadow of the Colossus and Ico.  

It’s funny – when I first played The Legend of Zelda as a child, I was blown away by the sheer vastness of the game.  I had never played a game with such a huge world, and it was almost kind of intimidating.  I never played the game with the intention of beating it, but simply enjoyed exploring the world of Hyrule, discovering the dungeons and secret caves incidentally. I never thought I’d re-experience that feeling with Zelda, only times one hundred, but here we are!  There are few games I’d recommend as absolutely MUST PLAY, but Breath of the Wild is one of them.

Now to finish off my review with this great video by Donkey Breath - enjoy: