#it really is a replacement for botw isnt it

[ganondoodle]

more thoughts

big part of why i loathe what totk did with its story and lore is that it tremendously hurts botw in retrospect

i said that before and mentioned all of these points before as well but i just have to mention it again; how totk did away with all the little mysteries in botw, like the ancient hero looking kinda strange leading to lots of interesting theories- WHOOP its a sonau mix guy revealed through a collectable and its straight up said by purah/impa that that is the ancient hero .. like it was an always known fact ......

the sonau ruins in botw of a long gone group of people that lived in the forest of phirone - WHOOP those are just monuments built by hylians in memory of the sonau and actually their real architecure isnt rare and few but everywhere en masse and doesnt resemble the ones from botw at all, aside from some vague dragon motive; theres more stuff of the oh so sadly gone and not at all mysterious anymore sonau left than there was of the ancient shiekah in botw (and now it doesnt exist at all anymore, who cares about them, how important they were, or this worlds history, especially zelda, she never cared about shiekah or history that wasnt about sonau :)))) )

one of the biggest crimes, to me, personally, is what totk did with the dragons not actively mind you, but still changed my view of them and i hate it; i always saw them as these ethereal otherwordly spirits older than time itself (i liked the idea of them being like a final evolution of the dragons from skyward sword, tho of course i dont need that to be canon lol) and then totk comes along and .. the newly revealed -always been there super cool- race of people from the sky is heavily based on their designs ... and they have armor sets imitating the dragons ... and have ... magical never heard of before stones that turn people into .... dragons .... i get how that can be an interesting thing for people to connect but for me personally ... its a mystery that REALLY shouldnt have been solved, at all, or even touched, the fact that you knew nothing about the dragons other than they are here was what made them feel so much more divine and awe inspiring (i know you could try to think of it being the other way around, the sonau worshipping the dragons so much they dedicated all of their cultur around them ((but then again were is that anywhere, if they worshipped them so much then they sure didnt matter in any of what we say of them in memories..)) ... but the sonau designs, the armor ... the stones ... its all such an obvious connection ...) and its really hard for me to ignore it, i actively have to work now to keep seeing the dragons as these untouchable ethereal spirits instead of some sonau guy eating a fucking stone

and yet again its like .. can you really blame me for feeling weird about the sonau/dislike them when ... theres nothing that WASNT touched by the sonau, they already had tech way above the level of the shiekah, they were in the sky, the surface AND the underground all along, theirs is the actually important influence on the history of the world, they have been in every place that was once important, hell they were in every place were a settlement of people is EVEN THE FEW YEARS OLD TABURASA (tarrey town), their buildings look like they were abandoned 10 years ago, all their shit is still working, they founded (this) hyrule, they are the royals, they are the gods, they are the dragons, the ancient hero was a sonau mix clad in waht totk made out to be their signature design elements-

we had recordings from that time (tapestry) and even PEOPLE (the monks) and yet the sonau were a total mystery? even though their culture was literally still there when the shiekah built their tech?

what gets me escpeially is how .. they didnt NEED to erase anything shiekah, they didnt need to act like they never existed, they didnt need to make the sonau be the coolest guys ever and were so desperate to get that into your thinking everyone in the game is obsessed with them and tells you why you should be obsessed too

like am i just insane or is it a rather .. obvious connection to make that the shiekah found the tech of the sonau and built theirs inspired by what they could find, it was so old at that point that its non functional or even recognizable in the present, but when the shiekah found it they could still research it; given how the shiekah built multiple shrines and puzzles to them WITHTIN ruins that, in botw, were sonau ruins, i thought that was the logical line to draw and a good way to connect them while still leaving the sonau to be a mysterious ... mystery (this is what im going for in my rewrite btw)

also another thought, if the ancient shiekah could see the future to a degree they built stuff to prepare the next hero for the next calamity that would happen in thousands of years .. how did they never find out about gan? i know they were more about the future than the past but like ... were they really so stupid to see that the calamity will come back just the same from the same place and NOT investigate?? ESPECIALLY considering that the weird half sonau ancient hero was literally THERE when they saw the furture and built all of that for it???? the sonau werent gone gone in any sense and you CANNOT tell me that the shiekah jsut ignored this weird half whatever looking guy outfitted in an aesthetic and culture that wasnt obviously present anymore and clearly connected to somethign else, with probably clear scars were whatever buildings were lifted into the skies- SOMEHOW- and monoments LITERALLY STILL READABLE IN THE PRESENT that tells you about all theshit that went down?? even if you hid them with some weird mechanisms, are you realyl not gonen investigate?? also why hide it anyway?? if its supposed to be a monument to the sonau why the fuck would you built stuff to HIDE the information from it?? gan cant reach it anyway bc hes KINDA STUCK you are telling me the group of people with a vision of the future and high tech stuff that are famously obsessed with the stars and sky didnt see any of the sonau shit floating around there?? ohoho but it was hidden by magic uwu WHY bc you wanted to wait thousands of years for the "right" link to come around?? so you let thousands of people suffer and die just bc you wanted a specific guy? why not the ancient hero instead?? and solve the problem right then and there?? or would that mess too much with the history all of the sudden, you didnt care about messing anythign else up before either

its all just so messy if you start to think even a little bit about whatever the fuck happened in totk and i ahte it, it solves stuff that didnt need solving, ignores or even erases stuff that didnt need erasing and was all ready to go and be more explored, its infuriating

(also additional thought about the previous rant where i mentioned how characters, esepcially zelda, regress HARD in chaarcter development) someone mentioend this about link and ... YEAH, in botw the main thing was the connection between link and zelda, how they didnt like each other at first and at the end were THE brotp; in totk, aside from zelda mentioning how strong link is, theres nothing, the link that was revealed in botw to only be so silent and expressionless (not fully but like supressing everythign rly) bc of the immense pressure that was put on him is now just the most importanest sword guy who didnt even shed a tear when you get the memories of zelda basically killing herself; or did he know she will just be returned to normal with no harm or memory done no problemo in the end?? i dont WANT link to talk mind you, i never want to hear him talk tbh, i like him being mostly silent aside from his grunts when he climbs a cliff or soothes a horse (i go non verbal in high stress situations too) but you could have shown him be affected by it at all, or idk DO ANYTHIGN WITH THEIR RELATIONSHIP they are best friends whod die for each other but that doesnt actually matter in anything bc he just do what sword man does-

[skaters-art-blog]

new pfp for the art blog, plus new theme to go along with it!

[zaptap]

ive made a few of these bingo sheets and theyre fun so i decided to make one not just for e3 but also JUST for splatoon 3 (not just for e3 but for like the whole lifetime of the game). also heres my updated list of characters id like to see in smash, ordered generally by which id like more and/or think are the most realistic

since min min got in i took out helix, and since i couldnt decide whether to add in waluigi or madeline i added another row (realistically i dont think any indies are getting in but i threw some in anyway). also i was like “oh yeah maybe theyd put in a gen viii pokemon” so i threw in hatterene since thats one of my favorites.

also as for waluigi (and shovel knight for that matter) i think it would be nice to see an assist trophy get in just to break that rule. also i remember being super surprised he wasnt in brawl (back then i thought he and wario were equally important) and even though that was based on a wrong impression ive still felt like he should be in there ever since

notes about the bingos under the cut

really is about time for those n64 games, especially now that mario is dead so theyre free to release sm64 on it. game boy games would be nice sometime too

would also make sense to include banjo-kazooie in that, nintendos had a good relationship with microsoft lately and the total absence of anything banjo-kazooie on the switch is odd since it’s a dlc character (every other one has a game on switch they can use for cross-marketing, even if joker’s took a while) and i think the best explanation for that would be that theyre holding off for the nso n64 app (this is easiest from a technical standpoint because all they have to do is make a deal to use the roms)

when are they putting octolings in mk8d

xenoblade chronicles x is one of the only wii u games left that they could port (aside from ones that wouldnt make much sense like splatoon and ssb4) so i guess that might as well happen sometime. also monolith soft might be doing something else besides helping with splatoon 3

im not ready for metroid prime 4 (im over halfway through mp2 and therefore the trilogy as a whole) but it’s been a while, they might show it and it could even come out this year

hal apparently recently hinted at a new kirby game or something

the upgraded switch is obviously going to be called the Nintendo Switch ͥ  since they already did the ds lite so theyre clearly naming everything in the family after the ds family, theres absolutely no flaw in this logic. idk if theyre showing it, but unlike 2019 they didnt say they werent showing new hardware (just that they were showing software, which could be taken as denying rumors, but they sometimes specify when certain things arent being shown)

metroid prime trilogy also might come this year. would make sense to release it before mp4 since not everyone is going to buy a wii u to get it (and at this point that doesnt get nintendo any money since they stopped making them)

where is detective pikachu 2. i hope it has the blue pikachu from that first tease they gave us in like 2014 (2013? that was a loooong time ago idk)

they said this was MOSTLY 2021 so i am absolutely getting my hopes up for splatoon 2

the two sinnoh games could likely be there

would be super cool if oddity came to switch. and almost as ironic as megalovania getting into smash

we havent seen the botw sequel for a couple years so we’re kind of due for an update on that

it’s ace attorney’s 20th anniversary this year so maybe theyre doing something. theyre already porting those games though so idk. maybe he’s getting in smash

whats with that watermelon mario render

i held off on watching a playthrough for ndrv3 on the off chance it came to switch and i could play a dangan ronpa game for real for once but it’s now been 4 years and we just passed the 10th anniversary of the series (albeit during a pandemic when i wouldnt expect them to have done anything) so it would be cool to see the series come to switch. i think if it still doesnt after this though i’ll just watch the playthrough, 4 years is long enough. amazed ive avoided spoilers this long, i still know next to nothing about the game

im about done with acnh but im still waiting on those splatoon items. and i ran out of storage in february so i need more of that too

nintendo did stuff for zelda’s 30th anniversary so i doubt theyre forgetting the 35th. maybe wwhd/tphd ports, idk

been a couple years since fire emblem, intelligent systems is probably up to something besides planning yet another paper mario spinoff

miyamoto forgot pikmin 4 in the oven 6 years ago and it got burnt to a crisp and thats why it hasnt come out yet because he had to start over

and splatoon

the inklings scared daft punk into quitting so now that theres no competition in the robot musician scene they should have a daft punk style group

i waited and waited and neither of my top two splatoon stages (flounder and d’alfonsino) came back in splatoon 2 so i hope just because splatoon 3 isnt in inkopolis doesnt mean they still wont return

would be sick as hell if there was a real hide and seek mode instead of just sticking to your own rules in private battles. havent played that since 2015 but it was super fun

show us the effects of the chaos world

i wanted mc craig to have a song in octo expansion and they didnt deliver. heres another chance

splatnet 3 baby

cant wait for nogami to do a funny 3 pose

abxy came back for splatoon 2.... am i gonna be that lucky again...?

salmon run doesnt make sense if youre friends with a smallfry but they could either change the story context (you just fight “evil” salmonids?) or replace it with an equally fun co-op mode

amiibo!!! i think i said this before but they should label them by weapons if these cephalopods dont have genders, would make more sense (the gendered ones had different weapons anyway)

returning characters!!!! would like to see everyone have a role of some kind

maybe #GearForAll wasnt successful in getting the emperor/spy/mecha gear, but perhaps theyll at least consider not making that stuff exclusive this time around

squid girl gear should be back. and they should call it a dress instead of a tunic because its a dress. and theres no gender now anyway

as ive said before... TRIPLIES!! you hold one in each hand and another in your mouth. and you can spin around like the tasmanian devil

remove splatfest tee annoyances: you should have a prompt at the end of a splatfest to pay to scrub your tee (to make sure you get the chunks) also it should be on a neutral brand so you dont end up with an overabundance of ink resistance up (or whatever else)

better online and cloud saves would certainly justify having a second splatoon game on the same console, as much as im loving that it exists

hopefully theres a global testfire again

sooner or later the workers will rise up and kill mr grizz

remember in splatoon 1 where if you had squid beatz (via the amiibo) you could “play” it in the lobby and change the music? then you were stuck listening to only bubble bath in splatoon 2? why did they take that option away they should bring it back

looking at those apartment buildings in the trailer i think it would be cool if you had your own room and could decorate it

an octavio redemption arc would be fun to see. in the manga he stole the zapfish because the octarians had an energy crisis, and in the end they worked out a deal to share the electricity

[noroalia]

please please pleaseee tell me about video game graphics

thank you zero, i owe you my damn life

a side note: i only have experience in Blender when it comes to shading, rendering and similar things, and Dreamy Theatre 2nd is the only Project DIVA game i’ve ever played. i am nowhere near an expert, and this is just a rant so this may or may not be inaccurate oops

OKAY SO. project DIVA. love those games, have been a fan of them since like?? i first found them when i was 12?? so seeing the fact that it now has a Switch release made me really happy, and i’ve been thinking of buying it, since i dont want to clog up my brothers PS3′s memory just for an old PD game, right? the other day though, i stumbled across this video, which compares 4 of the games World is Mine PV’s, right? and i kid you not that when i understood that the Switch version was the top right one, i got. so surprised. because it looks like a downgrade from even the PS4 one, which i personally believe that in this case was a downgrade from the PS3 one. 

turns out, Mega Mix uses toon shaders, which can be really good when used right! but from what i’ve seen in MM, it just looks so weird. 

i just wanna preface by saying that Future Tone is the game that looks the best overall to me; the shaders and effects highlights the models and sets really well, and uses textures (look at Miku’s clothes in Rolling Girl. they’re plasticy, the light reflects on them and the different textures on her models help highlight what is what. and i think Rolling Girl in FT looks REALLY BAD compared to some previous iterations. look at how it compares to F 2nd and how much the atmosphere is ruined in FT. by the looks of it, F 2nd also uses toon shaders, though im not sure)

toon shaders can be extremely effective. they make the characters more cartoony, overriding any textures and making everything look plasticy and smooth. MMD uses toon shaders - and it causes that unique, classic MMD look!! and i love that look!! but the MMD models were made with that in mind. Mega Mix’s models look like direct ports of the PS4 game, aka they weren’t made for toon shaders.

of course, the context of the song and the pv changes the situation drastically! i’ve seen songs like Arifureta Sekai Seifuku where i actually believe the toon shader enhances the colorful, bouncy nature of the song and PV! thats where i think the toon shaders fits, in bright happy songs! the issue is, that very rarely are there PVs like that. most of them use darker tones, grittier sets or just duller colors. for songs with effects, the PS3 triumphs, but overall the PS4 just looks so much better. just look at ODDS & ENDS. F 2nd still holds up, FT looks amazing and then. MM is just. she’s flat. it’s almost as if any sort of color filter or light bounces off her.

my main issue with the toon shader in this case, is that Miku looks washed out. any texture, bump or feature dissapears, in favor for a flat, bright look. note how you can’t see her nose at all? its small, and that makes it blend in. it drowns. any texture in her hair is replaced with a bright shine and an even, uniform color. look at how well the toon shader is utilized in Ghost Rule, and this was made in MMD. the toon shader in MM leaves no room for things like bloom, reflection or shine. it all looks like its absorbed into Miku, and that she exists on a different layer compared to her surroundings.

this was intentional, from what ive heard! SEGA wanted it to look kid friendly, which means cartoony, 2D inspired and simple. but thats pretty stupid, right? when i was 12, i was drawn to the PD games both because of the gritty songs, but also the bright, happy colors. hell, look at PoPiPo! i remember this PV so clearly because the bright colors and the look made me happy, and this was achieved without toon shaders! and its achieved in Future Tone too, like. Look at World’s End Dancehall. It’s all neon colors without a single dark shadow in sight. and that video came out this year, and because of it, i assumed that this was the Switch port! i was wrong, obviously. still the PS4 release.

i’ve seen some people argue that toon shaders were used because the Switch isn’t a powerful console. first of all, it runs games like Witcher 3, BOTW, and so much more. I agree, the Switch isnt the most powerful console! but it could easily run a game like F 2nd, which still has complex effects and shading. and toon shading is still heavy on the CPU and GPU! there’s even a video where they’ve removed the toon shader in Mega Mix, and it still runs well and looks super good. you can see the textures, the small details and it does her model wonders. you can see the wrinkles in her clothes!!!! and this is still on the switch! it looks straight out of Future Tone. and that game is almost 7 years old. the switch could 100% run it with no to minor problems.

but as far as i am aware, the Project DIVA department has been merged with other departments in SEGA, so its very possible this was made because of budget cuts as well. after all, the toon shader probably takes less effort to slap onto a song, especially since it virtually looks the same on every song, and the game itself is basically a smaller port of Future Tone.

this is the only thing ive been able to think about this week honestly, it makes me kinda sad ngl

[scithemodestmermaid]

ready to watch nintendo redeem e3 2019

watching it on their official youtube, live chat is using tilt controls apparently

(please note, i’m only watching the direct, i’m skipping the treehouse because i have work this afternoon i don’t have time for treehouse)

i sincerely hope animal crossing gets revealed, not because i’ve recently decided i do indeed like the game but because the fanbase is probably going to have an anyuerism if it doesnt happen.

oh its smash, link kickin butt in smash

but also getting butt kicked.

saved by.......someone i don’t know from a game i don’t know.  live chat says he’s from dragon quest.

i was really hoping revali was just gonna show up as a fighter, i know he’s already in as a spirit but it would’ve just been funny, link getting beat up so revali saves him.

its a whole army of anime boys, coming to smash.

and now a trailer for dragon quest, maybe they should’ve done this one first so people like me would know who the heck it was that got added to smash.

i still don’t know much about dragon quest, but the fact that this one has that retro mode still makes me grin.

they’re doing the doug bowser joke everyone knew they’d do.  but i don’t care how obvious a joke it as, it was cute.

doug bowser looks very tired already, you people meme’d him too hard.

luigi’s masnion 3!

ghost pupper

wow all the other characters are here too?

sucction shot.

gooigi provides overpowered abilities and co-op

there’s also multiplayer with hordes of luigis

i only know about the games from ftcr’s legendary playthrough of the first game, but i’m stilll excited

whoawhoawhoaWHOA DARK CRYSTALLLLLLLLLLL

WHY IS LIVE CHAT NOT FREAKIN OUT RIGHT NOW DARK CRYSTAL VIDEOGAME

LIVE CHAT SHUT UP IM SO HYPED FOR DARK CRYSTAL GAME

now link remake

its looks kind of claymationy, i love it

link’s awakening, apparently its the twin peaks of link?

ooh dungeon editor

squeenix

more anime games

trials of mana, oh so is that like secret of mana?  a sequel or something?

i only know secret of mana from robot co-op.

oh hey it IS related to secret of mana, which is coming to switch today

WITCHER 3 FOR SWITCH

full anime

“this is the worst class reunion ever” he says with a dopey smile

fire emblem game they revealed earlier this year, people were excited about it then.

comes out a few days before my birthday.

resident evil??

resident evil in a spooksy mansion

you fell victim to the classic blunder, you opened the front doors

resident evil 5 and 6 coming to switch, the two games folks don’t like

what is this and his voice acting is bleh

travis touchdown, that might be one of the douchiest names i’ve ever heard.

no more heroes 3, anyway

that right there is some early 2000′s graphics

how was that giirl gyrating so much by shooting a handgun?

anyway its a contra

and all the other contras on switch later today

DAEMON X MACHINAAAAAA

SEPT 13

a goblin shark with wings?

oh its panzer dragoon!

more pokemon!!!

you can use the pokeball plus accessory with sword & shield, not as a controller but you can stick your critters in it and good things happen,

oh no the water type gym leader was revealed and i guarantee you she’s going to replace sonia was the internet’s waifu.  also, she’s humanized marina.  

for a second i thought it was cyberpunk 2077

its the astral chain game.

a piano on fire

is this la noire?

no its empire of sin

some marvel title, idc.

oh its that indie link game, cool

mario?

mario and sonic olympics!

peach just kicked tails in the face

retro mode apparently

put infinite in the game, you cowards

uhoh

OH HERE IT COMES?

YESSSSSSSS ANIMAL CROSSING

WHY IS THERE ENGLISH VOICE OVER THATS WEIRD

its an island and tom nook has a workbench

he looks adorbs in his lil hawaiian shirt

you can place furniture outside???

FREYA

also i got spoiled on my current new leaf game, it says fuschia is moving in and she was just in the trailer so now i know who she is

anyway its called new horizons and its coming in early 2020.

it looks so good and seems to have super multiplayer

but im scared to look at the animal crossing reddit right now

spyro!!

ni no kuni???

minecraft dungeons

blades but i knew about that one already

doom eternal

sinking city

ALIEN ISOLATIONNNNN

more smash?

OH MY GOSH

THEYRE DOING IT

BANJOOOOOOOO

THE MEME CAN FINALLY REST

AND THEY ACTUALLY LOOK REALLY GOOD COMPARED TO HOW THEY DID IN FREAKIN NUTS AND BOLTS

I DONT EVEN LIKE BANJO KAZOOIE THAT MUCH YOOKA LAYLEE ALL THE WAY BUT STILL IM SO HAPPY FOR YOU GUYS

one more thing?  what could follow up banjo kazooie for smash?

eels, apparently?

WAIT

THATS LEGEND OF ZELDA ISNT IT???

BOTW?????

ITS A SEQUELLLLLLLLLLLLLLLL

HOLY SHIT

WOW

WHAT

NINTENDO OFFICIALLY WINS E3 2019 i mean it wasn’t really that much of a competition, everyone else was meh, but AAAAAAAAA

[sipping-ambrosia-wine]

okay i did a LOT more running around and i LOVE the stable quests and how they give us a little glimpse into zelda's life post-botw. like yeah she WAS working on a botanical garden (with MAGDA no less). she WOULD help make a new sheep feed she WOULD take an interest in a rare new type of animal. i love all of these she's a princess and that means taking care of her people, rebuilding and also doing so specifically by supporting and contributing to scientific development.

also HELL YEAH FROGGY ARMOR

AND kaneli is alive he just retired to teach thank goodness.

the stable trotters are really cute ^_^ their names being puns too, and i appreciate their dedication to the fairies.

(but also miss maam i thibk i preferred when yall were asking for lumps sums i only have so many rupees)

finally went to find impa and ngl i'm kinda surprised that purah didnt share her age rune with her... or robbie for that matter. im glad though, it may have been useful for her but i think neither wouldve taken the offer, if for wildly different reasons.

SELMIE QUEEN OF THE DUNES

more geoglyphs- the second i found was the demon king in north hebra (the third was the dagger which is actually back-to-back chronologically but in the other direction lmao but i didnt hit that until later).

the golden horse quest... that one gave me pause. most of these are resolved by weird rumors but this one is ominous and doesnt really leave us with a real answer.

but anyway i registered the horse its name is Tacky :P

!!! okay yona is gorgeous. i love character designs that break the mold and her little headpiece is so pretty. i wonder what her powers are? tulin and revali were pretty similar but there are other ways to do water powers than healing... but i do want some kind of healing ability from SOMEONE... that she's from another domain kicks off SO MANY other questions... there are other zora domains??? like in other countries??? or is it a freshwater vs oceanic evolutionary schism (that would explain why one of mipha's champion trials is just swimming fast)? do the zora have active political ties outside hyrule? does muzu have heritage from yona's domain as well since theyre both stingray zora?

...wait shes sidon's fiance?? LMAO

hmm she IS a healer... i hope we get more from her than Replacement MiphaTM she deserves better.

i love the healing cave i always figured it would be a missed opportunity to not make the mountains surrounding the domain like, hollow in places and have a whole second city layer there. they couldve added a diving function but i guess totk is already pretty heavy on the new game functions.

speaking of i think i might be warming up to the fuse function a bit. its still meh though- i actually LOVED weapons durability but its way more tedious now that i have to make them. but the gemstone magic function is cool.

king dorephan was injured by the muck-like which... yeah i think retirement is the best option for you there. relatively its the size of a rotisserie chicken to you. it cant even REACH your gills. but it looks like SIDON is the zora game representative which is massively disappointing. i didnt even use his ability i had an opal rod i stole from a bokoblin.

good on yona for getting sidon off his ass but like... why is she here... his thing is he's holding back because he's scared that taking action will make him lose someone he cares about. yeah thats a decent continuation from what we know of him from botw. what happened to his sister was horrible and she was avenged eventually but this is a whole new threat. but if he needs someone he cares about in danger... he already has that.

his people are sick his father is dying of it. make it so he's scared to leave his father in case he dies while sidon is away. yona isnt really necessary and i hate it. she deserves better we went from teba to tulin i thought we were getting more new adventuring buddies. if teba is too busy as chief then sidon should focus on purifying the water and being a prince while link and yona kick ass.

sorry to sidon fans but he continues to be largely useless pretty much throughout the whole temple- including the boss fight.

i LOVE the muckrock- it was a super fun boss and i love the sharky bit but after colgera... muckrock has more personality but it feels like a silly early game boss from other games and it kind of tips a bias toward the zora as the easy starter town. colgera had me in awe but the pattern to it was dead easy- but that might be on me for fighting it first so the combat meter hadnt amped up yet.

hmm i hope they dont give us the imprisoning war rundown every time. i kind of. dont really care. we dont get to know the sages of old like we did the champions and we arent supposed to. we dont see their faces or learn their names all we know is that they made the modern hyrule alliance of rito-zora-goron-gerudo-hylian. and rauru. oh and that theyre ancestors to the new champions which. eh.

it makes sense with the royalty and even to some degree ~people with strong magical abilities~ but i dont like it for the rito. i never digged teba being a blood relation of revali- i figured rito village is more communally-minded, inheritance of a legacy being tied less to blood and more willingness and ability to take it on. that was what teba was all about. he admired revali and appreciated his legacy but he didnt care about chosen heroes or goddess quests he was doing what needed to be done. all of the other calamity champions were related to or ancestors of the new ones so that makes sense- but also given teba's own efforts toward revali's gale and the wind sage's similar appearance to him why wasnt he able to?

(the answer is that the line of inheritance actually came throught saki and teba is the chief and she's their current historian and spiritual leader)

lmao two in one coronation and wedding has the end result of really feeling like neither i guess. i could treat you better girl. leave the prince, you dont need him.

i think if they made yona the new zora representative then she would risk sliding even further into being Spunky Mipha but i dunno at least that way she would be doing so in a way that gives her the spotlight thats she deserves as a new profile character. it would even give sidon a legit reason to hesitate to take action if it were about her actually doing stuff rather than her... leaving the house. its just a huge missed opportunity. also if im being petty looking at our current gender ratio... its just riju. one woman allowed :/

this feels a bit more negative so i'll leave off with after the zora i ran to lurelin and!!! the besties DDD: !!! i stealthed the monster raid- its really an interesting new combat mode but very stressful for me but i did it! and then immediately gave bolson twelve palm trunks when he wanted normal trees. and then we rebuilt lurelin together overnight ^_^

it was so good to see kiana and her family again- she was the first npc to personally teach me a real recipe so im pretty fond of her and it was nice to see that lurelin wasnt left behind in the realm of hylian development

Totk thoughts so far

this atmosphere is NUTS and the murals....

this tutorial is too damn long. ppl said the same about the botw tutorial and frankly that was bullshit but. the sky island is four times the size of the great plateau AND you cant track a full circle around it. rauru is cool though he seems too... normal for a ghost.

FOETUS ZELDA?!?!?

oh wow its so nice to see hyrule rebuilding. the emergency hideout is also very fun.

wait noooooo whats happening to rito village not the besties

20s!purah is too pretty, but links little alarm at the guardian arms gave me some kind of feelings.

oh cute purah and robbie have an unhinged little science protege

first course of action i heard your botw horses carry over so im heading to the stable by the great plateau.

[lesbovalentine]

i want botw sheik where zelda isnt. disguised as a guy just a Cool Ninja Alter Ego and link with his Lack Of Memories just has no idea its zelda. and then once u get more and more memories links like ???? kinda suspicious but also like "nahh cant be" even tho its super obvious

(more under the cut)

she was never locked in the castle with ganon like people thought shes been in hiding as shiek for that entire century while her magic keeps calamnity ganon in the castle and thats part of why shes disguised as sheik, to make it harder for anyone to recognize her (although anything that can like. sense magic or the triforce or whatever energy can. probably still tell “holy shit thats princess zelda”)

like lbr botw zelda could survive. not only does she have badass magic she knows A Lot. bc of her work on the ancient technoology and the guardians shed know the easiest way to deal with guardians, where to find things that could help her, shed know plants effects without links "throw it in my mouth and see what happens" technique 

those bits where zelda communicates with link from the castle are replaced by fi. the game mentions fi a couple times in memories but it never. truly shows her. but now fi tells u when the blood moon happens and she tells u its time to fight ganon and whatever else zelda says to link. also allows potential for more tie-ins to past games, especially skyward sword (like. there are already locations named after characters, and i guess the dlcs kinda count, and like. the lines from memory no 1, “whether skyward abound, adrift in time, or steeped in the glowing embers of twilight” which are obvious allusions)

if we want Max Sheik-age we can give her The Harp for various purposes like, fun music times with kass, or it somehow being connected to her using her magic in battle and stuff?

nothing impa says abt links past or abt zelda or anything is different bc she and zelda have been In Touch these past 100 years and decided its best if everyone thinks zeldas in the castle so impas just like "oooooh yes zeldas there... stuck in the castle... waiting..... totally not that girl youve been hanging out with thats been helping u.." 

zeldas like. homebase as sheik is kakariko, where she -as mentioned above- mantains her friendship? with impa and they work together to ensure hyrules safety as well as they can those 100 years. maybe the sheikah know who this Mysterious Sheik kid is, maybe they dont, who really knows. 

also. zelda visiting link while hes asleep in the shrine of resurrection. that wouldnt be included in the game probably unless zelda mentions it herself or u get to see anything from her perspective?

that could also be really cool like. when sheiks with you, the chance to switch between playing as sheik and link? but maybe not, that could get complicated.

anwyays sheik just kinda. becomes links companion, and is, as far as i know? the first human - hylian, whatever - companion in the series. to keep the “companion isnt always on screen following you” thing, like how midna hides in links shadow, how fi stays in the sword unless called on, and navi sometimes hangs out in links hat, maybe sheik will sometimes jump into the shadows, into the brush and trees and follows where you can see her if you look real close and you just know where she is from shadows and the way plants move. wouldnt really work in like. open plains and in some other situations. 

sheik isnt Always with link, there are times like certain cutscenes where sheik doesnt follow or sheiks just? not there and link doesnt know when she slipped off or where she went but she always comes back and is never gone for long.

things like, zoras domain, sheik doesnt follow. shes with you the way up but whenever sidon pops up she disappears, and when link enters zoras domain after a few steps in he realizes sheik isnt beside him anymore. but he just kinda shrugs it off. she does this sometimes. anywhere she could be recognized she hangs back, and link never really questions it but that makes it even easier for the player to guess that sheik is zelda (although anyone who Knows the series and esp. oot would probably know right off)

i imght add more to this but im out of ideas for rn

[themater99-blog]

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild - Last words

———————————————-

Calamity Ganon was defeated. Hyrule was saved. Now Link and Zeldas Task was to defeat every single Monster in Hyrule, so everyone can live in peace again.

One day Zelda told Link to get to Hyrule Castle because she wanted to make sure that everything was save.

While Link was on his way, he was watched by Mipha even if she is invisible for him. Since Ganon was defeated she followed him the whole day. She wanted to protect him… but she always felt a sharp pain in her heart…

Everytime she saw him, she remembered the time when they were kids… she remembered when she had to heal him because he had done something stupid… but… with the time she liked him more and more… she did not want think about a life without him anymore… she wanted him by her side for the rest of her life…

Mipha felt that a single tear rolled down her cheek… the only thing she could do for him now was to heal him if anything is happening to him… it was very hard for her to let go, even after 100 years…

Meanwhile, Link reached Hyrule Castle. Slowly he made his way to the Throne room but he did not even saw one single monster. After making sure that everything is save he decided to go back to Zelda. He got out of the main building and looked back one last time.

But then he felt a shard pain in his back. A silver bokoblin attacked him with a sword. Mipha instantly healed him and with a single slash with his master sword he defeated the bokoblin. After he streched he looked in the air and shouted: “Thank you Mipha”. Mipha always felt that her heart was beating like crazy when he thanked her.

Link was now running down the path. He didnt noticed that his pockets were teared up. Mipha saw that a peace of paper fell out. She took it and wanted to lay on his path untill she read the name written on it…

“For my precious Mipha”.

She froze as she read those words… She knew that the letter belongs to Link because he has not giving it to her personally… but… she wanted to read it… she wanted to know what Link wanted to say to her…

She unfolded the letter and read it carefully…

Dear Mipha,

I have so many feelings right now… I just needed to write them down… I hope that one day I can give this letter to you…

I know that I seemed pretty emptionless back then… when we saw us the last time… that was because I didnt know what to do… everyone was dead and I just needed to save Hyrule completly alone. I knew I couldnt make it but you and the others gave me hope… I wanted revenge for what Ganon did to everyone… mostly you…

I remember the time we were kids… we were playing with each other and had much fun. I want it back… I just want back the time we have lost… I… I can not live without you… I just cant…

I know I should be happy that Ganon is defeated… but…

Then she saw that some lines were crossed out. Only some short sentences were left.

Lets get to the point… There is one thing I noticed while I was on my adventure… I love you Mipha and I miss you so much…

Link

Tears formed in her eyes. She began to cry as she collapsed on the ground.

“Why?” ,she shouted, “Why it needed to end like this?” She just sat there for a long time…

After a few hours she decided to write an answer to Links letter. She just wanted to write him her last words before her power was used up. While she wrote it she was crying most of the time. All her feelings were written down in this one last letter.

Next Morning

Link awoke in his room in Kakariko. He and Zelda got a Room from Impa who was really happy that the nightmare was over.

After Link got up he noticed that a letter was lying on the ground. He took it and read what was standing in front of it.

“For my Hero, Link”

As he turned it around he noticed that some places were wet. But it didnt rained this night… He saw a little text which was a little bit blurred because of liquid on it. He began to read it…

Dear Link,

Dont be sad. I will wait for you in heaven, even if I need to wait again for nearly 100 years… Please dont throw your life away for me… I want to see you smile when I follow you the whole day…

But please give me a promise… Please dont forget me.

I love you Link. I always will.

Your Princess, Mipha

Link froze. Single tears formed in his eyes while he grabbed in his pocket. The letter was not there anymore… He layed the letter away as he began to cry.

Mipha now stood in front of him in her spirit form as she watched him crying. She prayed for just one last minute with him…

…

…Mipha…

“Mipha, your wish should be fulfilled. I will give you one more minute in this world so you can say goodbye to him.”

A huge light formed in Links room as he held his hand in front of his eyes. After some seconds the light faded away… Slowly he looked what happend…

“M-Mipha?” Link said as he got a step closer to her.

“L-Link… I know this is surprising but…” Mipha was interrupted by a big hug.

“Mipha! I missed you so much!” He could not hold back his emotions anymore, “Please dont leave again… please…”

“But… But I need to…” Mipha said as she was crying. She felt happiness but mostly sorrow… she didnt want to leave him but she knew she needed to…

“Why?” Link looked Mipha deep in her eyes.

“I just got around one minute… after that I need to return…” She tightened the grip around his body.

Link just nodded and moved his head closer to her. She did the same.

She began to fade away as they kissed for the very first time. They felt their fast heartbeats as the bond between them grew stronger. They knew that nothing could tear them apart.

They knew that they will be together in heaven one day so the sorrow was replaced by happiness.

She broke the kiss.

“My time is over… See you in heaven my prince” ,Mipha said as she flew towards the sky.

“Yes… we will my princess…”

———————————————-

-TheMater99

I am from Germany so my english isnt perfect.

https://www.fanfiction.net/s/12457969/1/The-Legend-of-Zelda-BotW-Her-last-words

[ganondoodle]

totk thought

i feel like totk (as unfinished and duct taped together as it feels, which is wild given the time and everything) missunderstood what was so appealing about a direct sequel to botw, at least in my opinion

i have talked in length about what good of a foundation botw built to keep going with its world and characters and mysteries, and how totk needlessly, bafflingly, throws ALL of it away instead (and i do mean all of it, to me other than their models being the same no character feels like that character anymore etc), which is connected to my next point

alot of people were worried about them reusing botws world, some really didnt like it, some thought it would be fine as long as they changed enough (which they didnt..), and i thought it was really appealing bc i was excited to see this world progress, grow (not size), to .. change, but not how totk did 'change', its all rather surface level anyway, but the change i was interested in was seeing locations i loved be expanded, built upon, developed- and i feel like that is what they should have focused on, if you reuse the same world you CANNOT get it to feel as new and exciting as it did the first time for returning players, which id say is most of them, so you need to shift focus

aside from its mysteries and story potential of botw to be built further (which totk does not, you cannot change my mind, dont try) soemthing i was THRILLED about was just to see how the world has grown- i hoped to see the towns maybe expanded, new buildings in hateno added, someone perhaps painted their house, someone built or IS building a new additional room to their home (maybe you could help finish it?), some thing that made it feel like time passed and people lived there, sure, adding some mushroom stuff is change .. but its rather surface level, like all other changes

in taburasa (tarrey town?) there could have been new houses, maybe they tunneled into the mountain and built cellars there, have some buildings be attached to the sides, the narrow pathway secured with stonewalls, something that felt .. logical? instead they ,,,, removed ... buildings??? homes you literally built a few years ago?? just to make way for kiltons little figurine project, which was funny, but also a little? why remove buildings to put him there, couldnt it have been on the other side of the bridge?? or like a balcony on the side of the cliff?(even the forest .. well the forest is mostly gone and its now an ugly to look at playground for a short little building thing, it all feels so ..... idk, forced? pasted on, this isnt there bc it makes sense, this is your playground)

same should be said about the main regions villages (though my idea there is to actually change it via devastation aka death mountain collapsed and gorons forced to move or adapt, or the zoras dried out and them being forced to go elsewhere, rito being trapped in an actual dangerous blizzard so cold you need special gear for it an cant glide etc bc its damn stupid to put the points of interest in the EXACT same location as last game and then neither change them signifacntly, permantenly, NOR use anything existing as the base for the new dungeons, like making the water temple be an ancient cistern or .. waterworks underneath the now dried out lakes instead), the village of the zoras isnt expanded or anything, its got mud there and an insulting statue change but the mud goes away and then its the same as ever, just like all the other things are undoable and it all goes back to before (aside from death mountains lava)

WHY would the stable in that big empty field just ... vanish? esepcialyl that one?? there isnt anything like a dramatic change there, there is not bossfight there, theres nothing, its just gone and its empty footstep replaced with a semi annoying quest (that is also reused ....)

why the fuck did malanya move???????? the horse god????? leave them there and have the way to them now built in awe of them or soemthing, show that people are travelling there now having found their spring, have it overgrown with flowers that have funny horse shapes or something, even if they dont show up for other people, let them give you a quest that introduces new kinds and colors of horses instead of one random old guy in the spy post after which suddendly there is new pattern??

the statue of in the gerudo highlands, instead of having a very specific puzzle suddendly pasted on, toppled over or broken to reveal an entrance to a new or old shikah/yiga base, or an old gerudo town that shows there was a group that once lived up there (maybe ganondorfs followers???? those that stayed loyal or soemthing??)

akkala fucking fortress?? prime material for a dungeon revealing disgusting secrets of the shiekah persecution or something? no its .. a cave like any other in the door. somehow. in the dirt. (what what waHT WAT)

castle town rebuilt, that farm ruin rebuild! maybe to let all your horses roam there in a big space?? a central tavern hub for the recovering land! ruins that felt like untold stories or teasers to be given a purpose! the fairy fountains being in the same place but their lair expanded, a larger flower or now like a little lake, people actually manaing to visit them now and there being little shrines or offerings, decorations! maybe one of them had to flee (if the "cataclysm" actually .. did anything) which would make that impact much stronger, no, they are just picked up and plopped into the next best place to create the surface level illusion of change without understanding how that comes across, they have to be unlocked again, for some reason, and now its music with the most annyoing quest attached than even the sign guy- why?

how cool would it have been to find a spring and the fairy not being there, her spring is, its open, but she isnt there, a kidnapped fairy somewhere in the udnerground? a corrupted one? since its reusing the same world what you need to do is think about how to surprise the player that grew accustomed to things and attached to chaarcters, and significantly mix up the main points, focus on the characters and narrative to hook them without making it feel forced, its diffcult yes, but so is game making, and botw was such a great basis that imo its not even that hard to come up with compelling things

im not saying there arent any changes, or there was no attempt, but it falls flat or utterly missunderstood WHAT needed to change, the spypost is the biggest attempt at that, but even that doesnt feel like it was done bc it made sense, like the things they wanted to happen where the first thought and the entire thing built just to support that, so all it serves for is to give you that 'hub', even though that position is weird? the place chosen a little disrespectful imo and not very save either, hyrule castle was cleared after clam gan was done for, why would you built a SPY post on the ground level directly in front??? well ,, that was bc the cataclysm happens and the castle is AGAIN the place of the boss, and AGAIN poisoned, the people there couldnt have known it, it makes no sense even if you say well the ground was so poisoned from botw still they wouldnt built there, .. but then right in front? in the middle of a flat field? you could have used the farm ruins for that hub? put it on the hills that are all around?

even characters, instead of like expanding on their character and continueing or challenging their ideals its just so flat, all of them have abilities they never had before, that were never hinted at, other than being vaguely genetically connected to the champions, excuse me, those dont matter, the SAGES i mean, you see riju struggle like, once, with a power she didnt use to have and it only really serves to make her power used by you not her herself (the others didnt need that excuse?) tulin makes me the most mad and his cuteness only worsens it bc he was a little side NPC in botw, now suddendly the main guy (instead of teba?? i guess he was too old, sorry teba, only kids can be blessed with powers or something) he has no character arc and .... he can just use almost an exact copy of revalis storm, just sideways, which is both boring and insulting given how much revali struggled to learn it (which also explains his attitude!!) other characters just seem to forget part of themselves bc its not relevant, robbie has de-made cherry into a little bucket size thing, washt she important to him? purah doesnt have any interesting beat to her either, she just .. offscreen made herself the perfect pretty age with the tech that supposedly vanished as soon as clam gan was done? what? and only serves you to tell you where to go over and over, its sad (not saying botw gave her a super intersting arc or sth, but it built the basis for it, you could have expanded on it? have her reunite with impa? anything?) (and not all shiekah tech is gone, its still there, aaaaaaaaaargh it doesnt make any sense!!!! but its to serve you so, it serves YOU, PLAYER CHARACTER)

the entire game is awfully plagued with that problem, nothing it does feels logical or lived in bc it only serves YOU (and their new favorite thing that everyone loves and should obsess over, sonau/zonai! who doesnt love everything being THEM TM), and once you have checked it off your list it ceases to be anything, theres is no thought about why a contraption is there or what purpose it once served, bc it never has, it serves only to fling you somwhere; to some extent that is fine, like the snowy mansion dungeon in twilight princess is a weird way to build a mansion/fortress but you know its a dungeon so its gotta be that way, back when dungeons where dungeons, but you can easily overdo it, i think its good to think about the world and how to make it interesting for the player at the same time, there needs to be a balance of believability and deniability; a character telling you to press a button is gamestuff, a little weird but ok, a dungeon being built a little weird, well, its a dungeon- people walking around in normal ass summer clothing in the region thats frozen solid? that makes it less believable, even if the game joke about it that they are freezing or explains via 'these people dont feel the cold' or whatever (pokemoooooooooon)

especially with botws foundation, you could have achieved that, easily at times, theres so little restriction anymore, the wasted potential and needlessly thrown away 'everything' still hurts

[ganondoodle]

seeing all the crazy stuff people build in totk kinda ... it feels like that is also a factor in why it turned out like this, like the insane things people did in botw and the (i keep saying devs when i actually mean the directors .. producers?) directors saw it and build totk just around letting people do it all 100 times more

to be clear, i think its impressive as hell what some people build (i just saw like .. a movie scene with a functioning mech gozilla and tanks made with totks building stuff ... what the fuck) and those things go pretty viral (understandibly so) but i also gotta question

as creative, free, and impressive as it is ... should that have been the focus in a zelda game? like .. is building mechas and tanks like that something that should be in a zelda game? can it be in there without inevitably sacrificing so much else? theres building games just for that? and if you want to make it zelda themed you can make it a spin off?

like i get it, people did crazy things in botw, they saw what people had fun with and dialed it up to a 1000 in totk, which in itself is not bad, even pretty good if you consider gamedevs and feeback and all that bc in general you should embrace what people had fun with in your game even if it wasnt the intent, given that nintendy listens to feedback (perhaps even a bit too much at times) and creative solutions was a central point to botw design philosophy but

i feel like totk kinda .. missed the balance?

if its really a reason why totk is build around enabling that in a purely player centered toy box kind of way without it actually mattering in the story .. or even themes ... was it worth it? not to sound like an oldschool boomer tm but in a franchise that iconic, lore and story focused, should you really abandon nigh all lore/story cohesion just to give the player a big box of toys in a world where i feel that doesnt ,, really belong? in a direct sequel in the same world with the same characters no less? that point is perhaps the biggest issue with it, bc again lots of games even if somwhat a sequel, had strange new tech or things in the world but in all of those cases it was some alternative universe, millenia after the other game, or on an entire different continent; while totk is supposedly just a few years after botw in the very same hyrule

(still doesnt explain the erasing of all shiekah things and replacing it with sonau- tho suddendly revealing the shiekah had actual rockets, wheels with suspension and grenade-launchers, might have been confusing too- you could have enabled the player creativity with shiekah too imo, and personally i would have found it way more fun ... lil guardian leg crawlies ..)

having thought about it feels rather logical why they did it in alot of ways, but also ... totk is build around it, while its also not build around it at all- its build around the PLAYER, not the world, not the story, not the theme, not the character, but YOU (especialyl those that dont realyl care about anythign story or lore stuff and just want to have fun with the gameplay loop, which isnt wrong, but i question whether thats the right kind if player to center in a zelda game .... also not saying all of those that build these crazy things are like that but- ... i hope you know what i mean)

(i know games are always build around the player, or should be, but .. do you get what i mean????? playing in a world that doesnt make sense anymore bc its all a box of toys yeeted into my face isnt fun to me, bc im here not only for gameplay fun but for the world .. theme .. characters, its something that has to be harmonical as a whole for me and totk just .. isnt)

i say it alot but i do really mean it, its very difficult to get my thoughts and feelings written out and to have them come across correctly

[ganondoodle]

Hey there, just read your concept for how you would replace building in TotK with Hookshot mechanics and it sounds really cool!

Like, sure Building was fun, but as you said before, it really doe not fit this game/world and just broke to many parts of it.

To get to my actual question, would the Hookshot be aimable in slow-motion while falling, similar to how Bow & Arrows work?

Because I am now imagining Sky-Islands surrounded by lots of small floaty rocks, some of them so far from each other (or moving) that the player has to hook to the closest one, climb up, get a run up, jump, glide towards the next one, and then let go of the glider, whip out the hookshot, and hook onto the next rock.

Heck, you could have an entirely airborne Gleeock Bossfight this way, similar to som of the Bosses in Twilight Princess!

Thanks as always for sharing your ideas with us!

yeah! its not too hard to imagine right? and i feel like it would have fit so well and be much easier to balance for botws world

maybe you have seen it before but i did make an ability concept for it before (some info on this wouldnt be for the botw2 style rewrite im focusing on now bc i made this originally as part of the villain rauru idea, but the abilities and how they work remains the same)

maybe the way to pull yourself towards somethign or it to you wouldnt be a single button press but instead a holding one, so if you wanna hook and immedaitely be pulled there you can just streamline it via holding the button until you are there (i know holding down a button can be rly straining but botws control scheme doesnt have a lot of it so i think using it here wouldnt be too bad .......... less painful thatn the totk arrow menu thats for sure lol)

(can i just say i really like the the infusion idea for abilities too, like ... wouldnt it be so cool to find broken shiekah tech and using it just because and then it WORKS, like theres a guardian wreck and you get on top and use infuse and it springs to life to move out of the way of a doorway for example, other structers you could use similar to twilight princess copy-staff but in a more modern interpretation??)

the building jsut breaks the game too much, and imo not in a fun way like cheating in a way definitely not intended or glitched, its like a 10 piece picture puzzle but you are also given a button that assembles it for you and you get the same reward anyway, that doesnt count as multiple solutions like it worked in botw, its like they gave up and just gave you (multiple) skip buttons, since not only rocketshields but also the 'move thing and reverse it' are like that, and you cant tell me they didnt realize that (also id argue that even without skipping puzzles, alot of them arent fun either, like its mostly either insultingly simple building tasks the game tells you outright what to do .. or just hands it to you .. or you know what to do immediately and the puzzle part comes from you having to deal with clunkily glueing stuff together until it works, which i found pretty frustrating)

ANYWAY thanks for liking what im doing!!! if i wasnt so slow and art blocked so much id have way more to show already, and text alone usually isnt that interesting :,)

[ganondoodle]

this isnt as long as before but i just cannot stop thinking about this, why i dislike story and lore boils down to these main point

--the ending feels unsatisfying as hell even if i ignore everything i dont like about how the game treated zelda and ganondorf, the ending itself just feels, despite being presented as super epic an touching, incredibly empty to me and part of it is that it feels like an unearned return to status quo of course i didnt think zelda would stay a dragon and i actually wanted to help her, which is why i kept trying to hunt down impa since she said shes gonna search for a way for us to help zelda, bc i wanted to!! i was eager to help her!

i fully hoped and kinda expected that thered either be some kind of dragon dungeon (think, the water dragon from okami) tho that would be difficult since you can get items from her so i ended up thinking before going into the end thered be a mission with impa (or at least given to you from her) where she found answers in ancient scripts (that she told you she would look through) and that you need to find a special lil thing that will help zelda undragonfy, like some sort of ultra secret forbidden enigma stone able to reverse dragon transformations kinda deal (golden opportunity to make you go and talk to the yiga bc they might know or even own some ancient texts) that youd keep in your inventory until the very end and after you kill dragondorf (pretty mortal for becoming an immortal dragon huh) you take it out and use it, undragonfying zelda and ending in a similar epic falling and paralel to the beginning way

... and instead impa stays in the house and only has a few repeating dialog boxes and does nothing and you cant do anything bc in the end you just get randomly teleported (and stripped of your clothing AGAIN) into some weird ethereal plane somehow?? with the ghost of long ass dead sonia and apparently not as gone as i thought rauru (seriously i felt sad when he went poof at the end of the tutorial but i guess i shouldnt have) awkwardly blasting dragon zelda with some magic tm and its all reversed no problem (heck me for caring i guess) turns out helping her was killing an evil guy we never really knew and mineru just kinda says lol its bc time and light magic i guess lol as an explanation

like i really wanted to go and help zelda! i was motivated to do it and spent HOURS trying to find impa again but i wasnt allowed to do anything bc zelda gets saved by some deus ex machina bs in the end anyway, what a fool i was, of course killing the evil guy is the solution to everything >:( (and no i dont care if its meant as in uwu sonia and rauru wanted to help one last time uwu bc it doesnt change how unsatisfying it was to watch it all just kinda happen)

--point two is just how much totk feels like its trying to REPLACE botw instead of being a sequel, its not building on anything of it its ripping out the fundation and building its own thing in its place, like i was so excited to see what happened to the titans, and all the sheikah tech what they mabe had done in all that time now that theres a tech enthusiastic girl as the head of the monarchy, maybe even find out more about them and instead its just all ... gone with not explanation? theres isnt even a LAME explanation, its just gone?? you never find out what the ancient energy actually was, and why there were concentrations of it in the regions with the ancient furnace (well heck it didnt even have anything to do with ganondorf actualyl bc that would have been too interesting) bc that was so intrigueing?? like yeah where DID it come from and why is it there ?? and oh suddendly hey look theres an even MORE ancient and even MORE advanced civilization thats way COOLER and BETTER than the ancient sheikah now, they also built stuff everywhere and have been here ALL ALONG cant you see its everywhere!! and its the only thing everyone cares about all of the sudden, all evdidence of the ancient sheikah tech was scraped of the earth so there literally only being some guardian parts on top of the hateno lab feels like an oversight now bc everything lese was to thourohgly wiped of the map- for no reason even?? like im totalls fine with it being useless and not working anymore but .... why remove it like it was wiped from history?? and then they have the gall to mention the happenings of botw like, twice in the entire game but still just give you the most basic summary of it mentioned on a sidenote with again not even a hint what happened to all of it

wouldnt there have been the golden opportunity to use it to access the new parts and map points that changed?? like a shrine thats fallen into the underground, an access to caves and the underground in the broken and collapsed elevator tube of a sheikah srhine?? maybe even a broken interior of an old shrine, like the room you get put into with the puzzle and where the monk once were broken and half overgrown in the udnerground? some left over construction site where you can see oh thats how the ancient sheikah got all that tech underground, bc they all had access to it and built it there to then rise up when its needed? maybe even making use of the old sonau sites since they frequnetly built their srhines within those ruins?? that the ancient sheikah found em and put the ruins to use? to research it and built their own stuff from it? it wouldnt have to have any focus, literally just part of the enviroment even

really everything totk does is like -forget botw ever happend, look how much cooler and better i am, who cares about sheikah stuff sonau are the new cool guys that came out of nowhere but now apparently have been everywhere all along actually-

i LOVE botw and with it feeling much more like its attempting to replace botw instead of building its story and world further every reference to botw i found felt like a slap in the face instead, oh look where the shrine of life used to be isnt even a hint left of sheikah tech somehow, and also right under it is the lake of healing filled with sonau structure bc ACTUALLY they were here FIRST bc they are so cool omg you guys

dare i say it feel a little like they wanted to make an entirely different version of botw basically, but wanted to reuse the map and models so they just said yeah uhhhh its totally a sequel yeah yeha that makes sense, its not erasing botw and doing essentiall the same thing again but bigger cooler and better (tm) its just uuh a ...sequel ye.

[ganondoodle]

genuine genuine genuine question- wwwhy do you not like the zonai? (zonau? not sure if thats like. the worlds coolest plural or a translation difference) given your content with more monstery designs i would have thought they'd be up your alley!! however. i have also not played skyward sword (as much as id like to) and i know most of peoples upset with their existence and the totk storyline is because of its conflicts with that plot? i'm very excited to see what you do with your rewrite/botw2!! given their slight presence in faron in botw, it would be cool to see you repurpose the zonai in some way that doesn't conflict with the plot you're going for, something that makes more sense with the cryptic kinda bare minimum we had in botw? sorry if you've explained your stance on the zonai before <3

hhhhhhhh i had ranted alot about it but i hope you are prepared- (also "zonai" is sonau in german but im choosing to write it with a z so people recognize it at least, im pretty sure zonau is also the orignal japanese word for them)

i am fine with their design, in fact, i LIKE their character designs, however i dont like everything else about them.

and no its also not bc it affects skyward sword bc it doesnt affect ANYTHING in skyward sword, bc skyward sword is the VERY FIRST zelda game in the timeline and totk is nowhere near it, totk draws several paralels towards skysw bc its meant a sort of soft reset for this new era but its really just thematic overlap and references bc those are cool (i know alot of people are trying to convince the entire fandom that totk somehow is crammed into the old timeline but trust me its never anywhere near confirmed nor does it make any sense, heres the lil graphic i made last month to clarify how i think its meant to be understood .. quite obviously even -

i dont mean to sound .. mean, but some people read too much into little phrases or references to older titles (like first king of hyrule .. doesnt have to mean the literal firstest of the first ones in all of forgotten history ever, just the first of THIS hyrule for example), and while im not against theories i am very annoyed when people try to say its somehow canon when its NOT)

with that out of the way;

i dont like how they are 'integrated' into botws world, they feel unnatural and shoved in everywhere, they have been everywhere and did everythign better and cooler and no part of (this) hyrule was untouched by them their architecture feels not integrated well either and design wise its rather bland, while the sheikah shrines for example while obviously not natural and very 'techy' they still build a harmonizing contrast while the totk shrines are pretty laughably unfitting compared to them the basically complete disappearance of all sheikah tech related stuff bothers me immensely bc why would you just get rid of it istead of developing it further (i know about purahs towers and think they are just like a worse version of the previous ones; and before this argument comes up again, them destryoing it all -somehow- bc they were afraid of it being taken over again is a dumb excuse bc then they should be even more scared of zonau tech- even MORE unknown and advanced tech literally falling from the sky) you could have done SO MUCH with the ancient shiekah tech it drives me nuts

i also think it tipped the delicate balance of the kinda medival setting + high tech that botw had set up compeltely over, the zonau tech just .. is so painfully obviously only the way it is to give you little lego parts to glue together (i know its a focus of the game ... or at least the gamePLAY but it could have been done better, again i think they managed the balance perfectly with shiekah tech, its weird and isnt natural but doesnt endanger the believability of it ... the zonau tech just throws that out the window rly ... how cool would it have been if you could built lil guardian walk thingies djknhfkd )

in general they just feel like a complete replacement for the ancient shiekah and are so SO desperately trying to make the zonau the COOLER and BETTER versions of what the shiekah were (you COULD have connected them in a cool way, like there being ancient shiekah labs build in the old zonau mining facilities bc they used zonau tech as basis for their own tech etc)

like instead of building on the set up and potential botw had prepared, they just scrambled to make a 'better' version of botw, like oh no forget THAT ancient civilization we have an EVEN MORE ancient, and EVEN MORE highly developed peoples there that were also everywhere before you but also were never really hinted at- and then repeat botws structure .__.

having an old and forgotten civilization of whom only some withered ruins remain gave botw a much more real feeling, a world with a history that you will never know (you know, bc that makes it intriguing and is just .. a good choice of worldbuilding imo)- and then totk comes along and reveals everything and also nothing, we know too much of them to be intrigued by their mystery and also not enough to actually care about them (also them beign presented as the good perfectly perfectestest kingdom of light that can do no wrong other than underestimate the eeeevil guy while they also had their hands on every part of the land and made all other races be their face and nameless servants just ... thats weird man!! i know its a game, even if its only aimed at kids my god they arent stupid either!! you really present me with that and expect me to take it at face value what argh)

again i think they COULD have been integrated into it, but the way it was done completely threw me off, im not mad about them EXISTING but about how it was DONE in the game

the way they were done robs not just totk but also botw of mystery and intrigue, for example i much rather had them stay a mystery, only ever talked about in some text and some old and almost completely withered ruins left, you never get so see what happened there in the past, you can only guess, but you have to deal with the fallout anyway and thats just ONE possibility, there are so many and it feels like they chose the most boring one every single time

sometimes knowing less is better than knowing half

(maybe i can make it clearer when .. or if i can get to illustrate what could have worked -in my opinion- better .... sorry for ranting again ;__; )

[ganondoodle]

so its part of a way longer post i made some days ago but i want to highlight this part of it:

"i cant stop thinking about the devs saying sth like "after botw zelda wondered if the kingdom of hyrule needed to keep existing the way it had been before the calamity, but then totk happens" bc it just feels like they realized too late that botw naturally led into questioning the status quo and they scrambled to fit it back into a flat and boring road we have seen so many times before (or even worse really) with totk zeldas character naturally leads into her questioning and reexamine their history and set of rules? we gotta teach her a lesson of why she is importante god given monarchy girl that has to keep it bc what if evil brown man shows up again for no reason maybe im grasping at straws here but looking at it this way the sonau .. make more "sense"; the shiekah were a group that was under the rule of the royal family, and misstreated before (oh no look soemthing interesting) so they dont lend themselves well to be used for teaching zelda that lesson- the sonau however are tailored really to be just that; they are a supposedly godly race from the literal sky that founded this version of hyrule, that had tech even more advanced and better than the shiekah, she gets put in the past to meet the perfect god king of goodness personally, also his very fridgy wifey that zelda later replaces in a way, shes put there and treated like family and then gets to see just how evil that evil big man from the desert is, sonia is falcon-punched to death solely so zelda can feel obligated to take over her role, have her new, better 'family' hurt by gan; similarly so raurus sacrifice, look what a noble and good king he is, he payed the ultimate price to lock that evil man away, now zelda you cannot let their sacrifice go to waste, rebuild that divinely good kingdom like it was!!"

bc it feels like i finally "cracked the code" of why the sonau feel both like a reskinned version of the shikeah .. while also not at all to me, so shoved into every single corner of the game and its history (not even the forgotten temple being safe from them sure is .... also something, like them being spread all over hyrule, not just the undergound, but the surface AND sky as well isnt weird enough, the shiekah at least were integrated into the world and by far not as idolized as the sonau)

seeing the sonau like this ""better"" and more """perfect"" version of the shiekah bc they are untainted by any possible complicated relationships with especially the royal family (the sonau ARE the prefect, idyllic royal family of the past after all) makes them make so much more "sense" to me, they are a bad mix of OOTs and botws structure, sure, but the way they were done in the game i cannot for the life of me see it as that being their sole problem

(also looking at how shiekah tech was downgraded to some side gimick of purah ... idk if they ever even call it shiekah at all anymore, and if "all sheikah tech just vanished" like the devs said then ... how does any of that still exist huh? it doesnt add up at all except if you see it as the sonau being the ""better"" version of the shiekah with none of the "problematic" parts or history or conenctions (which would be .. interesting) bc they are supposed to represent that idyllic past zelda should feel obligated to recreate now, to uphold that sweet status quo ..

sidenote: someone on the post i talked about his before said its also dumbo that there is supposedly no connection at all between the shiekah and sonau, and yes! that was something i ranted about while i was still playing the game back in may even (most of my later gameplay at some point devolves into a rant about how stupid it is that there is no connection and instead its all just ... gone) bc its just ... so dumb

its also how i chose to integrate the sonau better into the world in my totk rewrite stuff, that they were once there aand had high tech but its by now only crumbs left with nothing funtcioning anymore but you discover that at the time of the ancient shiekah finding it it was still researchable and they build their tech based on the sonau ruins even if the sonau stuff is nothing but dust anymore- which i find a super ... obvious way to give the sonau a better connection to the existing world, keep the shiekah, expand upon their mystery while also still keepign them as such-

.... anyway, there beign no connection at all somehow also fits even more into my theory of the sonau, again, being there solely to represent the idyllic, perfect past zelda needs to feel obligated to rebuild while the shiekah are nothign but a funney gimick of purah now while everything else "just vanished" somehow bc we dont wanna deal with the shiekahs imperfect past so they really should be just a a helpful helper of the rocals (and the yiga a side note as a little threat to be different from the usual monsters but thats all that there is :)))) -

this is getting too long again .. feel free to add your two cents on it and if seeign the sonau like this makes them make more 'sense' to you too

[ganondoodle]

For the TotK rewritten project: What would be the main tutorial area? I 100% agree canon caters way too much to people who didn´t play BotW before but having an isolated area to get a hold of the controls and systems at least in the tutorial feels pretty neccessary. Love all your work so far!

Hi! and thank you!!

been thinking about it alot and while i love how botws tutorial especially is kinda not overtly a tutorial and blends naturally into the gameplay, i think trying to do it again is a little forced, i guess it makes sense in canon totk but in my rewrite i think i might just directly make it a more typical tutorial

so you know after the intro when zelda gets link out of the caves and his arm is heavily damaged, they make their way to purah, who has a proper lab now, so she can save link by getting rid of his infected arm and replace it with the prototype shiekah prosthetic

since thats a big operation and thing to get used to i think its kinda logical if purah wants to test whether it functions at all, sicne it was an improvised quick solution to save link and keep him in a fighting condition so zelda, while able to defend herself now, isnt fully on her own

so, ill be honest, this is a part im kinda stuck at, bc slowly introducing abilities is a really good thing to do but i want it to feel natural, it did in botw but it kinda failed to feel as natural in totk imo

so im wondering if it would be better if you get a few abilities at the start, like two for example right away, but purah needs more parts to improve it, so you need to visit the hateno and maybe the akkala lab as well so fetch some parts that will get you the next ability once you get them to purah, an incentive to go to interesting locations too, getting you started with the yiga stuff in akkala and with the sagono (fashion lady) stuff in hateno

im also thinking about how to better integrate the sages abilities, bc i think in canon its very much not ideal to have 5 ghosties glitch all over the place while killing the frame rate making you yell at the screen bc you keep getting ahold of the wrong ones

im wonderign whether it would be better to integrate it into links arm abilities so you can choose which one to activate or at least to make it more natural feeling like the champion abilities in botw

this is a big thing to im trying to get to work out and havent yet gotten to it much but i will absolutely make a bigger post about it once i think of something, im taking ideas for it too if you got any!!

[ganondoodle]

Having seen your longpost, I agree. I feel the story was a little, weird. And I feel off trying to analyze it.

arguably it succeeded in telling a very simple black and white story, that was entertaining but lacked any sort of interesting nuance that the previous games had. Wether those games had that nuance intentionally or by translation issues is beyond me to know, but it feels like something was missing.

I personally preferred the more complex take on the antagonists. Where they may have gone too far, but they might not have been completely wrong in their actions or desires.

Also, I just wanted to say I really hate how the Secret Stones are the Secret Stones. Is that also what they are called in japanese Language? I recognize them as 'Magnatama', so their insistence on calling them Secret Stones felt about the same as 4kids insisting that rice balls are doughnuts.

Hi!!

tbh im pretty glad im not the only one that feels let down by totks story (i will add more thoughts to my long post about it soon)

the feeling of of totk isnt trying to continue botws storyline but instead replace it (but cooler tm) gets stronger the more i think about it really and to answer your question, i play with japanese voice acting and german text (i am german), both bc i like it and also bc i want to learn japanese better, a win win so to say (tho i do like the german voice cast as well!!) the german translation tends to me more closely to the original than english (take it with a grain of salt pls) and tho i cant say if its the case with the stones, they are called Mysteriensteine in german ( mystery stones) which i think works fine tho it seems a lil weird in general to even have the oh so godlike sonau race not know where they come from, feels strange to have something as powerful as that just introduced like that out of nowhere