#i want a game with playable zelda but i also want it to be fun

[kurozu501]

Hate to be a pessimist, but as excited as i am to finally get a game with playable zelda, the game play they showed… worries me. I really, really hope zelda also gets some kind of basic magic attack you can use to damage enemies normally with a simple button press. If you have to constantly pause the action to scroll through a stupidly long menu of every single item/monster you can copy every single time you want to do anything that's going to get old real fucking fast.

[pcktknife]

Danganronpa/Another Episode.........TWO

[funsizedcrow]

had a dream that i played echoes of wisdom last night...

[faelapis]

okay look, calming down - i understand why some people would want zelda to be a protagonist in like a totk-style 3d zelda. that would be great! the reason i predicted 2d for playable zelda is because its a smaller gamble for nintendo - imo, its realistically what we could get. especially at the end of the switch' life cycle AND so soon after totk.

BUT i'm very happy, for a few reasons:

1. it IS mainline zelda. its not called "triforce heroes" or "tingle's rosy rupeeland", its not a peach-style spinoff or side game. its a real zelda game. its called THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: ECHOES OF WISDOM. that alone, giving the mainline zelda brand prestige to this, IS a risk. and its one i super appreciate nintendo taking!!!

2. i disagree that just because it has the links awakening toy-style aesthetic, that automatically makes it a "lesser" or unserious game. links awakening IS a good game! its some peoples favorite! it added interesting lore to the zelda series, its a canon part of the timeline, its mechanically fun, and it has the fun psychological element of analyzing it in terms of links feelings about the dream. like how even the boss monsters are fearful of "dying", begging link not to destroy the island. which of course isn't "real" since its a dream, but its interesting that link would THINK that. also, marin 💔

3. like i said in the prediction post, this could be understood as a testfire for the concept. IF its as successful as any other 2d zelda game (and thats a big if! i already see people calling it more niche or for babies. i hope that doesnt catch on too much and depress hype 😞), maybe nintendo WILL see it as less of a gamble to make zelda the protagonist in a full-on, "serious" 3d title. nintendo is, after all, a business. trying it out with a smaller game makes total sense.

also... it looks like a good game? when a link between worlds was released, everyone thought the wall merging ability was brilliant and a great way to turn 2d zelda into a more unique experience.

this, to me, looks to have similar potential!! the fact that zelda can essentially order enemies to fight for her and use her environment to think of intelligent solutions to any problem is very in-character! it's fitting both for a princess and for the bearer of the triforce of wisdom.

also, its not just building/environment traversal! she does fight!

idk y'all, this looks like a great time to me! i don't know why people would presume its any "lesser" than any other 2d zelda... when we've literally seen another 2d zelda with this exact artstyle. and its an original game!! its not a remake!! :D

[gaylactic-fire]

Now that the dust has settled, I do definitely think there is some cause for concern over the trirod gimmick. One of my bigger complaints about TOTK is that it cannot strike a balance between creative freedom and challenge. Making machines that violate the Geneva Convention is very very fun, but if it means you can clear a Bokoblin camp in two minutes, ultimately the novelty wears off. To make Echoes Of Wisdom fun AND challenging the devs are definitely going to have to add limitations - especially in terms of creating echoes of enemies to fight alongside you. I'm hoping because of the top-down nature it won't delve too far down the path of TOTK.

That being said, all the people complaining that Zelda doesn't get classic sword combat in this game are laaaame. In almost every single instance of playable Zelda she DOES get either sword combat or magic attacks. I understand why (Hyrule Warriors and Cadence Of Hyrule are fast-paced and combat focused) but honestly, I have to ask, does that fit Zelda as a character? Does giving her a rapier and some random magic tie her in any way to the triforce of wisdom? No. It doesn't. (You'll never hear me say this again, but Age Of Calamity did it right). Personally, I LOVE that Nintendo have actually considered Zelda as a character. I love that they want to make her stand out with her own unique puzzle solving and combat in comparison to Link. Even though I have reservations about the trirod, the fact she is getting such a thought out treatment make me hand an uncommon W to the Zelda devs.

Also EoW Zelda can kill people with rocks. What's cooler than killing people with rocks?

[leaf-miner]

I have mixed feelings about the swordfighter form in the new Echoes of Wisdom footage. It felt like they were showing it like "Look, Zelda can fight with a sword! We're not being sexist!" But then it's a limited time transformation that essentially turns her into Link.

Worst thing is I do think playing as Zelda should feel distinct from Link, but it would be so easy to incorporate weapons too. Zelda has so often been associate with the bow of light, she really should be an archer. In addition, I think it would be cool to give her a dagger that she can use only if she's sneaky and gets a back strike. That would double as kind of a reference to her role as Shiek in OoT and emphasise the "Wisdom" bit with Zelda as more of a ranged/sneak attack fighter. It also wouldn't make echoes redundant since the weapons have obvious limits, and you could use them to distract enemies to get back strike etc. Maybe we'll get something along the lines of this in a future playable Zelda game (hopefully this is only the first of many).

Also other than making the gameplay different to other Zelda games there's really no reason she shouldn't be able to use a sword. She's used one multiple times in the past. You could even give her a different type of sword and have her use it differently to Link. It just feels a bit weird to force her to go around without a weapon or way of directly attacking outside of “throw rock” or “turn into Link”.

On the plus side though, this game does look really fun! I definitely want to play it, and I'm glad we are at long last getting playable Zelda.

[nrwynter]

I haven't done one of these in forever! I think the last one I did was... four years ago? I thought it would be fun to make one again with my improved art skills and show the work that was put into this piece.

The final piece was one of three idea prompts I submitted for the zine. I was already sketching out thumbnails while I was waiting for approval, but I did draw for one of the rejected prompts as well. (Unfortunately I don't have access to them at this time but I'll add at a later date).

Once the weapon prompt was approved, I got started on a rough sketch. (The sketches were drawn cleaner than what I would normally do to make sure it was readable haha). The toughest part of the piece was its composition. Scattering the weapons was hard because I needed to make sure everything looked balanced and focus was placed on the master sword.

What ended up working for me was I managed to grab as many weapon models from the game as I could find, threw them into Blender, and arranged them until it looked good. A bonus of doing this was having good references for both the piece and the individual weapons themselves (which came in handy when I had to draw some of the detailing). The models were also size accurate so that helped a ton too. I did have to upscale the smaller weapons so they'd be more visible on the cover.

Some of the weapon placement was deliberate, others were put there to fill in space or for another reason. The majority of the characters wielded some variation of a sword so I sprinkled in different weapons and other things to break up the repetition. That includes stuff like the Fierce Deity Mask and Toon Zelda's helmet. The more sillier weapons like Tingle's balloon and King Daphnes' sail were placed in the back so they wouldn't clash too much with the other weapons.

I'll talk about some of the more of the symbolic stuff further down the post.

I also drew an alternative version of this piece with Link being in the center instead of the master sword.

Fun fact: at one point I did consider including Ganon since he's technically playable, but realized he doesn't have a weapon. This would have meant I would also had to include the big Cucco from the cucco mode so neither were ever conceptualized.

I intentionally left the art's tone ambiguous just in case the mod team had something in mind. I did picture it having a dawn color scheme though, and the mods wanted the cover to have a peaceful/hopeful vibe so that worked out. I did however add some sunset choices in my color concepts for more options. The four I made also had sepia versions to fit with the aesthetics of the game.

8 was the one the mods chose. However, I did end up slightly adding 6's colors into it to make the sky pop. This ended up being the finalized color concept.

(It looks a little fuzzy because I ended up layering 8 and 6 on top of each other and I didn't position them correctly fghj).

When I do illustrations I start with the background first so I can use its colors for the foreground and midground. I normally don't draw clouds this big and up close so I had to be pretty delicate with how I rendered it. I'm glad I only had to do one side and just duplicate it to the other. Also I made the oranges in the sky and clouds subdued.

After the background was done, I tried rendering the ground and it was a disaster. This was early on in the rendering phase, but what was meant to be dirt started to look like sand. I tried to see if adding textures would help but it made the problem worse. I ended up taking a break from the ground and moved on to the weapons.

Next was the most grueling part of the piece: linearting. I am not kidding when I say doing the lineart took three whole days. I was also juggling with my other illustration I was working on for the zine so the timeline ended up stretching to a week. I'm a detail-oriented person and stuff like this isn't usually that bad for me but this one was pretty rough. The sweat and tears paid off, I think!

After lineart was done, I went back to render the ground again. It was becoming more polished and included more small rock formations, but the dirt-looking-like-sand bit wasn't improved. I opted to add grass instead since that would be easier to render. That was probably the right call because I think that helped with the desired tone for the cover.

I flipped-flopped between working on the grass and the weapons. This screenshot was when I had added the shading, textures, and some highlights. Oh, and I slightly tweaked the sky a bit.

With the grass and rendering done comes my favorite part: color editing. Started throwing overlays, soft lights, what have you on everything and used color balance to level out the colors. Also added light reflection on the ground for some of the weapons.

Something was missing from the illustration and I had no idea what it was. A friend had suggested particle effects and that did the trick! Everything was set and done and I submitted my illustration. When I saw the cover with the title for the first time, I noticed that the illustration was made a bit brighter than what I originally had (likely so the title stuck out better). I actually really liked that change and edited my own copy of my illustration accordingly.

With that said, now I want to talk about some of the more subtle details in this piece. You guys probably noticed these already, but I want to talk about them anyway! I mentioned deliberate weapon placements some ways up so let me go over that first.

Ghirahim's sword, Zelda's rapier, and the master sword are placed in sort of a triangular way meant to represent the triforce (although I think I messed up on the distance between them). I originally wanted Ganondorf's swords being in Ghirahim's spot but I was worried about contrast issues with the swords' darker color scheme and battling attention away from the master sword. I think the idea still works considering Ghirahim is Demise's sword (and Demise is like the Ganondorf of that game). Though Ganondorf's current placement can be viewed as him being a looming threat, for Hyrule Warriors and other Zelda titles.

I have Lana's tome and Cia's scepter close together to symbolize them being two sides of the same coin. Toon Link and Toon Zelda's were placed on opposite sides of the piece but slightly facing each other. Toon Link's and Tetra's are also diagonal from each other, both also representing a type of connection to each other. It's a similar deal with both forms of Midna's weapons as well as Yuga and Ravio. Speaking of Ravio, his weapon is the only one partially buried, sort of peaking over at the master sword to reflect his cowardice natureand being Link's Lorule opposite (at least the Link from a Linked Between Worlds). A similar idea with Fi is that she is somewhat of a silhouette behind the master sword to reflect her growth in Skyward Sword. (I know technically Fi is represented twice here, but her "weapon" in Hyrule Warriors is a different blade so that's why).

Like I said before not all weapons have symbolic placements like this, but a number of them do.

One more weapon detail I wanted to point out is on the master sword. I had this planned from the very beginning but I intentionally draped Link's scarf over the master sword so that the triforce of courage on the blade is the only one visible. I also intentionally highlighted the engraving to make it more prominent.

In the background, the sky is shaped in a way to resemble the Hyrulean royal crest. With the gap in between the clouds looking like the wings, the Master sword acting as the body, and the three visible stars as the triforce (but I messed that up slightly). Only thing I didn't include was the feet of the crest. It's not an exact 1-to-1, but here's an outline for a better visual:

On the topic of stars, there are 29 in total to represent all 29 characters. The brightest star above the master sword is meant to represent Link, but the other 28 are scattered around. Some are more visible than others so it may be hard to spot them all, but they're there.

Saving this last detail because it doesn't really have anything to do with Zelda and more to do with my art. I have always wanted to do this with my work for a while but haven't implemented it until now so I wanted to bring it attention.

From now on, all of my illustrations will have a hidden little angler fish blended into the scenery. I got the inspiration from Adventure Time's snail that appears in almost every episode incorporated somewhere and thought I could do something similar with my art. I'll show you guys where I placed this one, but you'll have to find the next ones on your own.

Not the clearest, but I promise in the future it'll be better drawn (and in case you're wondering, yes there are also little anglerfish in the other zine illustration too!). I just thought this would be a fun way people can interact with my art (and also act as an additional signature).

And that's it! If you have read all of my rambles, thank you!

[gemsofthegalaxy]

As a new Zelda fan, do I think Tears of the Kingdom and Breath of the Wild are better than the older games, Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, etc.? No. I can absolutely respect and understand why people love those games so much, I played a decent amount of Ocarina of Time myself and while it was frustrating to play it was also very intriguing and fun. After quitting it, I watched a whole 13 hour or something gameplay no commentary video so I could still see the rest of it played out, because it's a great fucking story.

I do not think recent Zelda games are better than the older ones. I simply think they're more playable to me and, presumably, a wider audience. Some people complain about how easy the combat has gotten, others, like myself, still find it more than challenging at times. I think it's partially because I've now gotten used to the language of Zelda puzzles, but I've found the ones in TotK the most enjoyable yet, because I have to look it up so much less than I used to- I don't know if they've made the solutions easier, too, but I have a much better grasp on how to read the hints both the characters give you and the situational ones.

I personally and perhaps selfishly hope they continue to make Zelda games that I find accessible, whatever that means. I know some people want them to move back towards older formulas because they miss that style and I don't begrudge them at all, I can understand why they like the traditional dungeons and more linear story, but I personally like the open world. I also like the more lighthearted settings, even for the sorrowful storytelling, so while I know people want a really "dark" Zelda, I don't care much for that.

Ultimately... which side Nintendo will choose is not something any of us actually have control over, so I don't see the point in fighting about it.

[loz-furbies]

Hyrule Warriors Zelda

(While the characters have some dialogue during gameplay, this is based on just the cutscenes because I'm not replaying the whole game for this)

Design

I’m not a fan of HW Zelda’s face, while Zelda in all her incarnations has a rather generic anime pretty girl face, for some reason this one feels bland and barbie-like to me. And in general the aesthetic this time is a lot more fanservicey than usual, with the bikini armour and mini shorts. Which I guess is in line with the overall HW character design but I don’t have to like it. Even more than the bikini breastplate I’m bothered by the fact that her shoulder armour doesn’t seem to be properly attached to anything.

That aside I think this works well as a more action oriented Zelda design, with all the extra armour, while it retains her well known pink/purplish colour palette and the Hyrule crest. I also like her hairstyle with the little weight at the end of the braid.

Like most of the other characters, Zelda also gets unlockable alternate skins, some change her to look like the other Zeldas (and Ilia for some reason) in the franchise, while others are palette swaps of her HW look. So they aren't particularly interesting design-wise, but still a fun gameplay addition regardless.

Sheik again has a perfectly serviceable mysterious ninja design. The scarf doesn't look as awkward and I like the addition of the long braid.

I'm a huge fan of how the weapons in HW get progressively more ornate and impractical, and Zelda's lvl 3 rapier is exactly the type of magical girl weapon I'm into.

Character

Hyrule Warriors Zelda is a mature and competent leader, who also joins the battles in the front lines. Unfortunately there's not much else to her, like sure she's the nice and polite princess again, but she doesn't get that many interesting character moments and a lot of the story is just spent going through the plot.

As Sheik she has the same issue as in OoT, in that she doesn't have in common with her regular self. So Sheik's inclusion does feel a bit like waste and I would rather that they spent that time developing even one persona properly.

I have some issues with how women are depicted in this game, in that at times they feel sort of overly cutesy and infantilised and made specifically to be waifus. Like giggling a lot, doing specific kind of cute poses, staring lovingly at the camera in victory animations and stuff like that. It's not a huge problem with Zelda (or Sheik) and more prominent in characters like Lana or Linkle, but even with Zelda there is this feeling that the target audience is the kind who spends hundreds on bikini DLC.

Role in the story

For the first time in this review series, Zelda isn't kidnapped or cursed at any point of the game so good for her for that! She is a playable character and uses a rapier to fight, which ought to fill the needs of those who want a badass combat Zelda. Though I feel that is less meaningful in this game, since you can level up Agitha to lvl 100 and destroy all enemies as her.

However Zelda not being the target of a rescue mission does make her less important to the story though, since there's not much that replaces that. This is more about the game's character writing in general and not a flaw for Zelda in specific, but for the most part the characters just go through the motions. The story starts with Zelda having a prophetic dream that doesn't amount to much, and in between chapters the narrator tells how Zelda leads her troops to new battles, but I don't get much out of her as a character from that. She has a similar role to Link in that Ganondorf is after the Triforce that is in her possession, and in the grand finale she does some Triforce magic as a group, but otherwise doesn't stand out or do any interesting character driven actions.

Sheik's inclusion in the story feels incredibly superfluous and just there to check the box of having her as a playable character. Zelda disappears after chapter 1 and the beginning of the game is spent looking for her, even when she reappears and joins the group as Sheik in chapter 2. When her disguise is eventually busted, the whole thing is brushed aside in like one sentence of how she had to hide her identity from her enemies for... some reason. This is definitely a "don't think too hard about it" situation and it's better if you just roll with it and accept that since this is a multiverse crossover game, they just need to come up with ways to bring the characters from different games together and it's just easier to get done with it as fast as possible. Though the Sheik reveal wasn't as fast as possible and we spent several chapters looking for Zelda, which I think was a waste of the player's time, since this was clearly marketed to existing Zelda fans so many probably were already familiar with the Sheik thing. Story-wise the most we get out of Zelda's disappearance is some character moments from Impa and enemy-disguised-as-Zelda doing villainy things for such a short time that it barely warrants a mention.

Gameplay-wise her rapier moveset is alright and one of my more commonly used characters, but does feel a little flighty. Now with the new LoZ game on the horizon there has been talk of if it's problematic if Zelda doesn't get to have a sword, or is it problematic to think that a girl can't be a hero if she doesn't use one, and this game's solution of giving her a dainty rapier with pink decorations is somewhat of a compromise. Her alt weapons, the baton and dominion rod, are more traditionally princessy options though I don't use them much since they feel a bit slow or hard to control. And Sheik of course has an agility-based moveset and is therefore highly useful in the "don't get hit" missions.

Relationships

Zelda and Link's potential romantic relationship is at the core of this game's plot, but the whole thing falls flat when it's not developed at all. The story is about a sorceress who split in half, and both halves (the villain Cia and the new ally Lana) are in love with Link, and struggle with the fact that he is "soul bound" to Zelda. So a love triangle (or square) story then huh? Except there is practically nothing between Zelda and Link so Cia and Lana's drama feels so out of proportion.

Zelda and Link don't know each other before the story starts and only see each other for the first time when Zelda inspects her troops' training session from afar. Then she disappears before they get any development, and Link has nothing to do with Sheik either. But even once Zelda is back as herself, they just don't share any meaningful scenes together. Link doesn't talk, but it doesn't make much difference since Zelda doesn't have anything interesting or personal to say to him anyway, they don't show interest in each other beyond rudimentary plot stuff, and there aren't even any basic "they are staring intently at each other" moments after the first one in the training grounds when they hadn't even met yet. Zelda isn't even the one to give Link his green tunic, nor does she take any part in the one character moment Link has when he lets the power of the Master Sword go to his head and needs to be bailed out.

The only actual character moment between them that I can think of is when Zelda compliments Link on his courage and says she believes in him, which is absolutely not enough when the possibility of them becoming a couple is the main driver of the plot (or I mean Ganondorf is ultimately behind everything doing his usual business and he doesn't care, but Cia is the unique villain of this game). The scene where Lana admits defeat and bows out of the competition for Link's love is so nothing because neither Zelda and Link are aware at all that they're even players in this. Like go talk to him girl, he is clearly available!

In the final scene of the main story Link places the Master Sword to its pedestal to seal the remaining darkness, and Zelda joins him to help push it to the ground. Which also doesn't feel like a "we made it to this point together!" moment due to the lack of development, but their fingers do touch during it so if you're desperate enough, that's a sort of hand holding moment.

Despite being a rival in this supposed love triangle, Lana and Zelda don't have any character moments together. Thus Impa as the devoted body guard is the only other relationship Zelda has, and even that doesn't have much else to it than this description of Impa. But I'd say you're still better off shipping Zelda with her, because they do know and trust each other already in the beginning, and at least one of them is passionate about the relationship. And Impa and Sheik have some sparking chemistry when Impa tries to figure out what Sheik's deal is.

[blueskittlesart]

out of curiosity, what would you think of a game that had the player start as zelda? zelda with a distinct personality, headstrong as you said for example. imagine the player saw the world through her eyes, understanding everything from her point of view. i ask this because i'm a fan of games that uses potentially warped viewpoints from characters with strong personalities as storytelling material and i really just wanted to hear your take on this kind of thing

Yeah i think this is the only way to do a playable zelda! the game would need to be told entirely with her as the playable character so as not to break the immersion, but i ALSO don't think zelda should ever be a silent protagonist as that feels a bit too much like agency-stripping to me. my ideal playable zelda would be one who still clearly has a personality and thoughts and opinions WHILE being the player character, which. is not an easy feat to accomplish. I think it can be done but it would take a lot of thought and care to make it well-written and a fun gameplay experience.

[crazylittlejester]

back again with miscellaneous fun facts. 2day/nite (idk when ill finish editing) episode: GameCube ✨️

ok so funny little thing, part of the GameCube's failure can be partly blamed on 9/11. 'Bea what r u on about' ok so there's this game called Eternal Darkness: Sanity's Requiem, and this game was intended to be a launch title for the GameCube. Eternal Darkness was actually originally planned for the N64, which is actually pretty important because this game was more known about. A demo of the N64 version was shown at i believe the 1999 E3.

'ok great this was a game that switched consoles during development, why is this important to the GameCube?' youll never guess, my favorite little effect i lovingly call the Resident Evil effect. this was the era were so many games were trying to be darker and edgier to compete *cough* which is why Wind Waker was so controversial *cough* (theres more to Wind Waker but ill get to that in a bit).

back to Eternal Darkness, this game was for one: a third party title, being produced by a Canadian development studio called Silicon Knights. as i mentioned before, this was during the time were third party developer and publishers weren't working with Nintendo nearly as much and choosing to work on titles for Sony's PlayStation. and two: this would be Nintendo's first Nintendo published M rated game. yes other M rated games have been on Nintendo consoles, but none of those have been published by Nintendo.

now enough backstory on Eternal Darkness, how did 9/11 have any effect on this? so there was a character named Joseph De Molay who was a Templar knight. Templar knights were known for taking part in the Crusades (spreading Christianity to the Middle East). Joseph was removed from the game to avoid any controversies or appearing offensive and was replaced. officially it was said Joseph was removed as he was "just a demo character" but he was playable at E3 2001 and was known about all the way back during the N64 development, which is a lot of work for a character who was supposedly a demo character. especially so close from release, and at the same 2001 E3, two other characters were in that demo who were actually in the game proper. (keep in mind the GameCube released November 2001 in the US and September 2001 in Japan)

there was also all Arab writing in texture images removed. this is a lot of last minute reworking for game that was almost completely, which ended up with Eternal Darkness missing the GameCube's launch and came out roughly half a year later.

because of Eternal Darkness not being a launch titles, especially as such an anticipated title, the GameCube was left with pretty much just Luigi's Mansion. unfortunately, Luigi is yk Luigi. People liked Mario and weren't super interested in a Luigi focused title.

i teased it easier, so Wind Waker, definitely a bit more of a known case. at a 2000 Space World exposition, when Nintendo announced the GameCube, there was a clip of Link fighting Ganondorf to show off the GameCube's capabilities (here). and people were excited at the idea of a realistic looking Zelda game only to get Wind Waker a few years later. Wind Waker's toon style, despite being what Eiji Aonuma was so passionate about, was not well liked by the public until years later. this actually directly caused Twilight Princess to turn out the way it did.

originally Twilight Princess was going to be Wind Waker 2, using the same toon style but was changed to try to recapture the Ocarina of Time's success and appeal to the trend of darker more realistic style games (thx Resident Evil effect).

Twilight Princess is commonly criticized now a days for being "just a OoT rip-off" or "dark and edgy" (i can go on a whole rant about that comment but i shall spare yall today) despite the fact that in 2006 that is what was wanted.

the GameCube was unfortunately doomed from the start, and attempts to boost sales/interest in the system ended up in vain.

sorry that was a lot. um. yeahh.

drink water yall :)

adding the failure of the game cube to the list of things caused by 9/11 right up there next to the downfall of Ellen and the Oppenheimer movie

[thisbelongsto-nohbodys]

Finally beat Echoes of Wisdom (wanted to 100% it, also I beat the final boss in Zelda’s PJs, lol) and I really hope we get more playable Zelda games. This was a fun game and I want to see more of it, granted that they'd have to do something different considering the ending but still, y'know.

The only problem I have is that in all of the map, the only place not really used was the Hyrule Fields for any story stuff except for a few of the collectables, otherwise there wasn't a reason to visit (sure to get ur horse but with warping and water blocks, a horse isn't really needed)

Well, now to play the Ace Attorney Investigations game until the new Mario & Luigi game

[light-wolf]

Ok, time for some of my Nintendo Direct thoughts! I'll go in announcement order:

Mario & Luigi: Brothership: Well, this came out of nowhere! After the closure of AlphaDream, I assumed the M&L series was dead, at least for the time being, so this was a really cool surprise. Mario RPG fans are eating good lately. Game looks really fun and charming and I'm looking forward to it!

Fantasian Neo Dimension: I'm not super familiar with this game but I've heard cool things about it so it's nice seeing it on Switch. I have soooooo many JRPGs in my backlog already though...

Donkey Kong Country Returns HD: This one was a bit of a disappointment, to be honest. Not that I don't like seeing a great game get an upgraded version available on a modern console, but man... it's been 10 years since the last original DK game, and all we can get is yet another remake? This is one of Nintendo's biggest and most iconic franchises and it feels like all they do with it these days is using it as Mario spin-off fodder. It's just sad. Oh well. Great game, though, highly recommended.

Dragon Quest III HD-2D Remake: I haven't played much DQ outside of DQV (which is one of my favorite RPGs of all time) but this one is said to be a classic and I like the HD-2D look so it's definitely on my radar. Nice to see the first two games get remade as well. But I can't help but feel that what I really want is a DQV remake in this style. xD

NSO stuff: Great to see Four Swords live again in some form! Also ZERO MISSION FINALLY!! I've been wanting to replay that one lately. I'm not really interested in Turok or Perfect Dark but I guess it's a good thing that the West also has an "adult" version of the N64 app now, as that opens the door to more games.

Super Mario Party Jamboree: I've never been much of a Mario Party fan, but this one looks quite fun! At least it seems more interesting to me than the other Switch ones. I probably won't get it since I'm more of a solo gamer but I'll keep an eye on it.

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom: HOLY SHIT!!! YES! YES! YES! Oh man, I'm soooo glad that this game exists! I LOVE 2D Zelda and I've been wanting a playable Zelda for so long. Also the gameplay looks so creative and fun! Not a huuuuge fan of it reusing the "toy" art style of the Link's Awakening remake (even though I loved it in that context) but I feel like this game has enough differentiating stuff to have its own identity, so I'm fine with it. Absolutely love this. Probably my favorite thing about the Direct, and it's releasing quite soon too! Can't wait!

Stray: Not a lot to say about this other than it's a game I really wanted to play back when it first released but I didn't have access to it. So it's great to have it on Switch! If the port doesn't suck I'll probably get it at some point.

Ace Attorney Investigations Collection: YESSSS!! These two are the only AA games I haven't played yet, and while I've considered emulating them for years, this is even better! Also great to see the second game get an official localization. So all around a great thing. AA7 when, Capcom? :P

Metroid Prime 4: Beyond: Oh man, what can I say? It's real. Seven years after being announced with just a logo, we finally got a real first look at it. A very short first look that didn't really show much, but a first look nonetheless. It was a bit disappointing seeing it get a 2025 release date, but oh well. I wouldn't be surprised if this ends up being a cross-gen release. We'll see. Can't wait to see more, and find out what's the deal with Sylux.

Overall I'd say it was a pretty good Direct! Nintendo is still giving the Switch a lot of love during its final years and that's great to see. Now, to keep working on that backlog...

[philipszelda]

eow is so fun. i feel healed. like absolutely nothing has pissed me off (yet. so far. there's always something with this series I'm sure)

there's so many things in it I've been BEGGING to see for so long like... i mentioned this on my zelda blog but river zora /sea zora interacting again!! DEKU SCRUBS!!!! JUMPING IN A TOP DOWN ZELDA GAME!! PLAYABLE ZELDAAAA

now if i can just figure out how to get different outfits i SWEAR i thought i saw someone post a screenshot of Zelda wearing something else? cause dressing her up is also something i wanted

[hollypies]

Love the new Zelda game trailer! I adored the style (links awakening remake style) so I'm happy they're doing more with it. Plus ! Playable Zelda!

Mario and Luigi game also looks super rad!

Strange that the games im most hyped for are the Shire and Stray lol

Stray can be excused because I want to be. A kitty cat. But the Shire??

I blame my early childhood self for this. I think reading nothing but the hobbit over and over and also playing the lotr/hobbit lego game did something to me. Fucking neuron activation

Fun fact I used to play lego LOTR with my brothers and like! For some fucking reason we each "claimed" a part of the map. I specifically remember that Bree was the town I owned so only I could collect money and btw we were all very very serious about this. I think I was like. 7 or 8 ?

[fantabulisticity]

I'm getting really tired of how, in Tears of the Kingdom, I can hit an enemy square in the middle of their face with arrows 10 times and not stagger them, but they can hit me with a meleé weapon without even touching me. In Breath of the Wild, which I played right up until starting Tears of the Kingdom, if I hit an enemy in their face, it staggers them, and I have to be in the direct line of their swing or very close to it in order to get hit with a meleé weapon. And there are no difficulty settings that I can find. I thought Tears of the Kingdom was going to be a fairly universal game, like Breath of the Wild was, but it is SO difficult in so many different ways (I have 25 hearts and am still dying a LOT, and the monsters got MUCH more difficult to beat MUCH sooner in the game, and I still am not finding very high-powered weapons, so it takes a LONG time and a LOT of arrows and weapons to kill enemies, et cetera).

I didn't grow up with video games, and I have dyspraxia. The type of rapid hand-eye coordination required to play a video game is already difficult for me, and I struggle to play most kinds of games -- and games that are very fast-paced or medium-difficulty or higher I can't play at all. (I would love to play Bloodborne but I could never complete it because it is physically impossible for me to coordinate movements in rapid succession like that. The ONLY rapid hand-eye coordination I have is catching bugs, and I've been doing that since before I have memories, and I STILL miss all the time.) Legend of Zelda games, from what I've heard, are supposed to be fairly playable by a lot of people. And I have had SO much difficulty with Tears of the Kingdom.

I never had to put down BotW out of frustration the amount of times I've had to in TotK. I am so, so tired. I truly love this game, but there are so many things about it that make it impossible for me to have fun. Some challenges I just straight-up can't complete, which would be fine in a game aimed at more experienced players, but I was under the impression that Zelda games were accessible to people like me. I LOVE BotW. I've played it for hundreds of hours. And I keep having to stop playing TotK because I'll try and try and try to complete the same task for over an hour with little, no, or negative progress. There was one time I even loaded up BotW again to see if I was just mistaken, but no, I can still stagger enemies in that game by hitting them in the face, and I so rarely die. I'm so tired.

I need more games to have difficulty settings. I'm so tired of this mindset of "get gud" that runs so rampant in video game culture and production. I physically cannot get gud. And I have fairly mild dyspraxia compared to a lot of people -- I can usually function in daily life with few or no accommodations. This is not a strictly me problem. Please have accessibility settings for those of us who cannot get gud, and also those of us who don't play video games as much or just want a more chill time.