#madam meowmeow

[katlimeart]

Made in 2023

If you've seen this anywhere else, I posted it back on my deviantArt when it was made.

Mario girls cosplaying as NPCs from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening (Switch)

Marin

Martha the Mermaid

Christine

Mamasha

Crazy Tracy

Madam MeowMeow

Hippo Model

Grandma Yahoo

[bichenique]

I AM HALFWAY BOOK 4 AND I LITERALLY PICKED IT UP THIS MORNING ft cql gifs

SVSSS SPOILERS‼️‼️

mxtx, count your fucking days bro. i can't recover from shen qingqiu and yue qingyuan's backstory AND then you put zhuzhi-lang and tianlang-jun. and then you talk about how tianlang-jun fell for su xiyan.

WHY IS TIANLANG-JUN SUCH AN UNCLE‼️‼️

tianlang jun: omg zhuzhi-lang, you also like shen qingqiu— you and binghe can share him!

zhuzhi-lang: girl i aint gonna steal my cousin's wife—

tianlang jun: girl, we're evil ppl. idk why you're out here doing morals on me

literally my face when i started reading the smut.

bing-mei meowmeow and his sad violin 🎻 bc he has to pull out. wtf is this erectile dysfunction man 😭😭 i busted out laughing so hard i had to put it down.

i will say tho i cannot get past the fact that shen qingqiu is luo binghe's master and he was a student — erm it doesn't sit right with me so i have to say guys that i don't ship it. will i fight you about it? absolutely NOT bc i have other things to do.

HOWEVER, i would like to say it was sweet when shen qingqiu promises to never leave binghe's side again.

liu qingge seems to have a crush on shen qingqiu tho 🤠 he was so mad when madam meiyun (? I forgor her name) was like, describing luo binghe but it also coincidentally matched up with liu qingge. he was like: NO HE DONT LOVE YOU! and stabbed her or something

liu qingge and this man —

same font. theyre the same. except liu qingge is more amicable??? (DOUBT, HE'D LITERALLY OBLITERATE YOU‼️‼️)

but they literally had the same reactions when crush related shit.

i cant fucking do this anymore. i should have been studying but i was studying something else 😭

i might drop su xiyan and tianlang jun BUT i have to write qi rong stuff.

i will say from a literary standpoint that reading svsss is refreshing as it is mxtx's debut novel to my knowledge. additionally, since i read all of her works to date, i can see the progression of how her works were censored right after her debut work. and honestly, that's depressing, and one can deduce that mxtx did become someone like shang qinghua/airplane shooting towards the sky.

as an artist, one has the right to express their creativity freely, and sqh and mxtx aren't getting the justice they should get.

i also like to think that sqh is just mxtx in a book, honestly.

[marinsawakening]

Something I really love about A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening is how they mirror each other. Despite the fact that Link's Awakening has very little connection to A Link to the Past, it functions brilliantly as a sequel by complimenting and contrasting the latter.

A Link to the Past is a grand tale of destiny, of world-saving adventure that will no doubt go down as myth. Within the opening sequence of the game, your uncle dies in front of you, setting the tone for the rest of your adventure: this is serious, this is dark. You spend at least half your time in the 'Dark World', a corrupted realm with dangerous enemies, people trapped inside by their own greed. Your main enemy in the 'Light World' are brainwashed knights of Hyrule. And this game is difficult; enemies respawn constantly, ways to restore health are rare, a lot of the dungeons and bosses are incredibly punishing. Danger lurks around any corner, and there are very few truly safe areas in the game; and even then, they may be raided (see the Sanctuary).

Don't get me wrong: ultimately, A Link to the Past is a children's action/adventure game and the tone reflects that. There are a lot of fun, whimsical moments, and the darkness is more supposed to underscore the important nature of your quest than it's intended to be a horror upon itself. You are on a quest to save the world, and it wants you to feel the gravity of that. It is not afraid to get dark with it when it has to. This game takes itself very seriously, and wants you to take it serious as well.

In Link's Awakening, you get into the second dungeon by rescuing Madam MeowMeow's giant chainchomp Bowwow from dognappers. This game began as a fun side project of the developers and it shows. Link's Awakening is not a grand adventure to save the world: it is a quest to get off this fun, eccentric island. The stakes are lower and the game takes itself much less seriously, going so far as to incorporate Mario elements for no other reason than because it's fun. Perhaps this is version dependent (or, y'know, a skill issue on my part), I'm unsure, but at least Link's Awakening DX was also a lot less difficult than A Link to the Past, with much more frequent health drops and less and overall easier dungeons. It's not just that its story is more lighthearted; it feels less punishing to play than A Link to the Past. Link's Awakening does take itself serious when it has to, and asks that you take especially its emotional stakes seriously, of course; just like A Link to the Past has a lighter side, Link's Awakening has a more serious side. But ultimately, Link's Awakening never tries to fashion itself as some kind of grand adventure of myth: it's the tale of a single, strange island, as you grow to love it. Nothing more, nothing less.

In this, obviously, the two stories mirror each other: A Link to the Past with high stakes, a dark tone, and a harsh difficulty curve, contrasted to Link's Awakening, with lower stakes, a light-hearted tone, and much more forgiving gameplay. This works out beautifully for Link's Awakening; lots of sequels fall into the trap of trying to one-up the original, and it very often ends badly for them. Creating its own niche allows it to shine on its own without having to be compared to A Link to the Past, despite being a direct sequel. Famously, Majora's Mask also did this to great effect.

But what I find really interesting is how their endings contrast each other.

A Link to the Past has the most quintessential happy ending a game could possibly have. You reach the Triforce, and it magically makes everything okay again. People who died during the game (your uncle, the King of Hyrule, flute boy) are all alive and happy, Hyrule is thriving, all the maidens are save and happy, even the monster and the little ball from the Dark World, bully and victim in the game, are friends now. And finally, you place the Master Sword back in its pedestal, where it will sleep.... forever. (Hilarious with the power of hindsight, of course, but still.) A Link to the Past ends as happily as it possibly could have, with all the negative consequences of the game undone and everyone thriving. You fought a grueling fight, and now you and everyone you love gets to live happily ever after.

Link's Awakening, famously, does not end like that. From the beginning, you get clear hints that something is not right about Koholint, hints that become glaring fact as the game progresses and it's revealed that Koholint is a dream. And dreams have to end. Link's Awakening is not a tragedy; Koholint's disappearance is not a bad thing, and the game goes to great lengths to ensure you know this. Dreams are not meant to last forever, and waking the Wind Fish is Koholint's happy ending. And yet: it's sad. It's so terribly sad. Watching Koholint, the vibrant island you've come to love, disappear at the end of the game is heartwrenching. The ending of Link's Awakening is bittersweet, happy and sad at the same time. It's triumphant, it's necessary, and it's heartbreaking.

This, too, is a contrast and a compliment. In A Link to the Past, after all our hard work, we are rewarded with an uncomplicated happy ending that we simply do not get in Link's Awakening. Link's Awakening's ending is complicated; there is no way to soften the blow, to remove the consequences: Koholint will disappear. We see it happen. And we are not only asked to be okay with this: we are asked to be happy, despite how sad it is.

This is not something A Link to the Past does. A Link to the Past does not end with a shot of Link and Zelda happy despite the death of their caretakers, of Hyrule dealing with the consequences of Ganon's attack but growing despite it all; it ends by removing the effects of it entirely. Everyone who died is fine now, Hyrule is fine now, you are fine now. There is no sadness, no complexity: it is reality-defying happiness.

None of this is a bad thing: A Link to the Past has an extremely satisfying ending. But I love the way Link's Awakening contrasts it, forces you to deal with reality, to watch the dream pop and find beauty in it. Something can be sad and happy at the same time, and this is something to be celebrated. Where A Link to the Past offers you a no-string-attached happy ending, Link's Awakening forces you to confront the sadness that comes with happiness, complicates it in a way that A Link to the Past explicitly avoided.

A Link to the Past and Link's Awakening, despite at first glance having very little to do with each other, work very well as a series because of the way the two games compliment each other: light where the other is dark, complex where the other is simple, mirroring each other near-perfectly. It makes it extremely worthwhile to read their stories in tandem to each other; taking the other game into account can enrich the stories of both games immensely.

[shadandrews]

fellow DND player!! can i ask what your character (or favorite NPC if you’re a DM) is?

YESS!!! Ofc always

My CURRENT boy is Jewels(he/they)! He is a tiefling rogue sort of con-man (think reigen [mob100] and madame tracy [good omens] type cons). He's a party rock kind of guy and would much rather be out partying in the club but is forced to help save the world. He used to help manage a small rock band that consisted of his bffs, but they had a big friend fight fallout bc hes irresponsible and was kind of a bad PR look on the band oopsie. He's a mess but a fun time, and you can always trust him to make a situation worse. He's my Pete Wentz character

My FAVORITE meowmeow is Bogdan(he/him). Tiefling warlock (tech we started this game trying out 4e, so he was a swordmage, and the transfer to 5e and to warlock made him worse LMFAO) He was in a campaign and had an awful time. I married the big-bad of this campaign(+3 previous games in the same world.....) who was a demon who lost his heart and could not feel positive emotions(re: love).... he's a good boy who had a hard life and is a mild villian in the world sort of. He's living w his husband (who, thru some bs DID grow back his heart (true love is the strongest magic), but bogdan doesn't know this bc his husband IS awful (but loves him) ) and his husbands...boyfriend??? its fine they're all awful and i love them soooooo much hes a sad little worm.

oh also his husband was his warlock patron. its a mess dont worry about it

As for NPCs, i dont know if they were my FAV NPC, but they were probably the most fun to play!! Alberic(they/them) is a bunny sort of druid warlock bloodmage. We never got super far in this campaign for various reasons, but they were a sweet little country bunny who lived alone in the woods, but was actually working w the main villain of the campaign (semi-willingly but they hated it and him). The party never got to find that out but they were sooooo sweet and small and trusting. They covered up all of the areas where their body was being worn away by bad magic with clothes or bandages (old art included)

Less so now, but I've played a toonnn of DND and have...a lot of characters LOL. Ive been in several major campaigns (a lot of which in the same world by the same dm!! https://deckitout.tumblr.com has dm'd most of my big games!!) but i also get attached to one shot or small campaign characters too oopsie

[zeldauniverse]

Bombers' Notebook: CiaoCiao

Unlike the chomping enemies seen in the Mario Universe, Link’s Awakening brought a new vibe to the familiar Chain Chomp characters. While one red hatted hero jumps away to avoid their bite, Link has the pleasure of befriending a whole family of Chain Chomp pets owned by villager Madame MeowMeow. Her home includes a Doghouse and houses three Chain Chomps each with their own sparkling personality…

[ao3feed-xicheng]

Don't forget me

by MeowMeowing Soulmates concept when you have thoughts of devotion about your soulmate, flowers bloom in your skin. The greater the devotion, the bigger the flowers. However, when you think badly about them, your soulmate gets a gash. More hate, the deeper the cut. And yes, Jiang Cheng and Lan Xichen are soulmates. Words: 25257, Chapters: 1/1, Language: English Fandoms: 魔道祖师 - 墨香铜臭 | Módào Zǔshī - Mòxiāng Tóngxiù Rating: Teen And Up Audiences Warnings: No Archive Warnings Apply Categories: M/M Characters: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Wei Ying | Wei Wuxian, Jin Ling | Jin Rulan, Lan Yuan | Lan Sizhui, Jiang Yanli, Madam Jin (Modao Zushi) Relationships: Jiang Cheng | Jiang Wanyin/Lan Huan | Lan Xichen, Lan Huan | Lan Xichen/Nie Mingjue Additional Tags: Alternate Universe - Canon Divergence, Hurt/Comfort, Angst, Alternate Universe - Soulmates, happy ending for jc, But not for xicheng, slight mingcheng, this is about JC learning to value himself via https://ift.tt/JChrAm1

[majorxmaggiexboy]

ngl i feel like Foggy actually won the race for momski’s affections on this one despite her being irritated with him for being mad about finding out his bff was daredevil

she’s been referring to Father Lantom as “The Sketchy Priest” bc in her words “He’s too nice. Nobody’s nice (to matthew) He’s either gonna stab Matt in the back or get killed and it’ll be (matt’s) fault” 

Momsauce: “Okay but what happened to my boy” Me: “Which boy?” Momsauce: “tHE LAWYER, THE- MATTHEW” Me: “I didn’t know he’s Your Boy??? I thought you didn’t like him because of the whole downton abbey thing?” Momsauce: “I COULD TAKE HIM OR LEAVE HIM BUT HE’S GOT TO GET THE BAD GUY.”

Momsauce, wistfully: “This would be so much better if he was Thor”

(when Meowmeow just tosses the cane and takes off sprinting) Momsauce: “Daaaaaaamn he don’t even that stick does h- SHINS SHINS SHINS YOUR SHINS, GOD. I can’t with him. What’s he gonna do when he misses one of those jumps? How’s he going to explain that one?”

(Matthew walking into Madame Gao’s workshop) Momsauce: “Wow. He’s getting stupider. He better wrap this up quick.

Momsauce: (While matthew is patching himself up on the phone with Karen) “His nurse friend better beat his ass. He’s going to worry that poor woman to death.” Me: “ya that’s pretty much why she left” Momsauce: “Oh Well he’s screwed then. *beat* Good For Her”

[link-is-a-dork]

[stick-arms]

A "boy" and his "dog."

[a-bit-too-much-of-a-zelda-fan]

The Face Shrine Theme: An Analysis of Link's Awakening

Link’s Awakening is a pretty damn good game. I’ve finished the Switch remake twice now. When I play a video game, especially when it’s Zelda, I like to absorb as much media and conversation surrounding it as possible. When I do that, sometimes I piece together one person’s ideas with another’s, and now we have some new analysis. I've got some things to say about the Face Shrine's theme.

Part 1: The Music

To start, I’m going to paraphrase parts of JalopesTL’s YouTube video “The Strangest Song in Link’s Awakening.” This is by no means a complete summary of the video and you should definitely check it out. The Gameboy’s sound chip only had four channels: three that could carry a tune, and one that created “noise” for percussion or sound effects.

The composers for Link’s Awakening used three techniques to create a dreamlike sonic landscape that took advantage of the limited technology: 1) using one or two channels to add a delay/reverb/echo to the primary melody, 2) Using sparse arrangements that freed up those extra channels, and 3) manipulating the volume of certain elements of the music. The track that Jalopes uses to demonstrate all three techniques being used effectively is none other than the theme of Level 6: The Face Shrine.

The Face Shrine theme is one melody carried on one channel and delayed on the other two. What’s more, the volume of the song is constantly changing. It might gradually get louder, and louder, then drop down to the quietest possible in the very next measure. When the song is at its loudest, the delay is barely perceptible. When the song is at its quietest, the delay is very apparent.

The effect of these three techniques makes the song feel unnerving and contemplative. You’re constantly on edge. It refuses to let you find a comfortable pattern to settle into. And I am so glad that I found this video because it really explains why this track is, as Jalopes describes it, “one of the most powerful chiptunes I’ve ever heard.” The composers of the Switch remake understood this, which we can see by the fact that the new Face Shrine theme includes the original chiptune.

Part 2: The Response

This one track is only made more impactful by its placement in the story of Link's Awakening. I can only say so much that hasn’t already been said, so I’m going to let some YouTube commenters speak for me. I found all of these on videos of the Face Shrine theme, original and remake. I have made a few minor edits for clarity, but they are mostly intact. When you read these insightful and emotional comments, keep in the back of your mind the things that the composers did to make this song elicit those emotions.

Love the complete tone shift this game takes. You get a feeling something is off once you beat the Catfish Maw boss then you go to the southern shrine and learn the truth and the haunting feeling lingers over you throughout the next dungeon and the rest of the game. The last dungeons and part of this adventure are very unique. Only almost matched by the feeling of Majora's mask that feeling of inevitability. Nothing matters. This song perfectly encapsulates it.

-

“I like how the volume of the song alternates between being quiet and distant, and loud and inescapable. Really completes the disorientating, sad atmosphere of the whole shrine.”

-

I love how it goes louder and deafening when breaking the solemn notes as if putting you it that “please shut up!/go away!” The mindset Link is probably in due to the intrusive thoughts of the reality he’s facing.

-

This theme really puts the feeling behind the realization that by waking the Wind Fish, you are sentencing the world of Koholint Island to vanish without a trace. And the world knows, and is trying its hardest to stop you.

-

You feel gloomy. Scared. Lost. You’ve just learned that you are in a fake world. A dream. Is it really? Was the stone lying? You feel the same baffled, gloomy feeling, as you enter the next dungeon, not even realizing how long it took to get here. The game even throws you with an almost useless item to keep the excitement and happiness away. And you get hit with this masterpiece of a song. The same sad feeling you felt before, and wonder if all of your journeys, friends, kids, and creatures you have met along the way were all for nothing.

-

Reading most people's interpretations in this song, I heard it a bit differently... I heard it as Link finally learning that it's all a dream, but this world, the people who live in it and keep their schedules, the shop keeper, the crane game owner, the rapids attendant, the family of 6, the animals, Madam MeowMeow, the fisherman, the mermaid, the shy grandfather, the sweeping grandmother, Tarin, Dampe, Marin, everyone... Link has to destroy it all. Despite everyone liking Link, he has to be their destroyer. And for the hero who defeated Ganon and brought back all who were trapped in the Dark World... This is something tragic he has to come to terms with. The hero must betray those he wanted to protect, those that care about him, and their entire world.

-

Forget what you know about the game after beating it. Think of what Link must have felt at this moment. Enemies have started telling you that your efforts will ruin everything. Your guiding owl is growing less emotionally supportive and more direct about leading you on to complete your quest. You just got done having a heart-to-heart with a pure maiden who wants nothing more than to go around the world singing her songs for anyone and everyone. She just barely got done braving the island's newfound, monstrous dangers just to help you out. You've freshly learned that, if you complete this quest, you will remove her and her whole island from existence. And now you're taking your first step into the next dungeon on the way to make it happen. Yeah, this theme is fitting.

-

Incredibly powerful. Especially knowing that this dungeon in particular has the moment of desperation in conversation with the boss. It just feels so sad and haunting and beautiful. Was holding back tears the entire time I played it.

I’ll leave you with one more comment. This one was on a video for the remade song. I saved this for last because every comment before was a reflection by someone who is clearly emotionally mature enough to understand the story of Link's Awakening. They had the ability to connect the music and the feelings they got from it with the story in a way that deepened their understanding of the text. Here's something a bit different.

So I'm going through this with my son. He’s five. Normally he’s engaged. "Dad, go left. Dad, get that treasure. Dad, let me see the map." But after a couple minutes, he’s quiet. Not a peep. I think maybe he’s tired or just not paying attention. After about ten minutes I ask, "You okay bud?" His response: "Yeah, I just want to hear the pretty song."

[katlimeart]

Made in 2023

If you've seen this anywhere else, I posted it back on my deviantArt when it was made.

Mario girls cosplaying as NPCs from The Legend of Zelda: Link's Awakening

Martha the Mermaid

Crazy Tracy

Madam MeowMeow

Quadruplet's Mother

Grandma Ulrira

[starrygazingpie]

For fandom ask prompt:

WICKED

UHHH don't know if i have answers for all of them but i will do my best! this is for the musical bc i didn't read the book

blorbo - elphaba? i care her

scrunkly - glinda is kinda skrunkly

scrimblo bimblo - uhhh hmmm idk?

glup shitto - idk?

poor little meow meow - glinda and elphie are both pretty much meowmeows in one way or another

horse plinko - madame morrible and the wizard both deserve more than a few turns in the plinko

eeby deeby - idk mostly i just think people need some turns in the plinko???

[weirdmarioenemies]

Name: BowWow

Debut: The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening

What’s going on here? A Zelda character? It’s not Funky Friday YET! Is that what you’re thinking? Because it’s not what I’m thinking, since I am the one writing this post and therefore I know exactly what is going on here. 

BowWow as an individual may have debuted in Link’s Awakening, but as a Chain Chomp, he is still objectively a Mario enemy. And I think he is delightful!

In the Mario series, Chain Chomps already act like dogs, but here, they straight up ARE dogs! Don’t ask me how, because I don’t know! They're kept as pets by Madam MeowMeow (who, despite her name, owns no cats whatsoever). She says BowWow is very proud of his fur coat. Where is his fur coat? I do not know.

These Chomps live in a doghouse, and BowWow is even referred to as a “mutt”. It’s in a derogatory way, but to heck with that! Mutts are splendid! 

The one who calls him a mutt is King Moblin (he’s in charge of the Moblins), who has kidnapped BowWow for some unknown reason. When Link comes to rescue BowWow, King Moblin assumes he’s an assassin. Is that how dognapping works? Is it common practice to assassinate anyone who steals your dog? Ok!

Once King Moblin is defeated, it is time to take BowWow for a walk! His favorite food is, you guessed it, dangerous swamp flowers (don’t let your dog eat dangerous swamp flowers)! And since these flowers block the entrance to the next dungeon, BowWow is a crucial ally. The sign in the beginning of the swamp urges nobody to enter due to the potential danger, except BowWow, and I love that so much. Only a dog is allowed! Only one specific dog is allowed! Not even his owner. This dog may frolic unsupervised in the dangerous swamp.

BowWow is not the only dog in town, though! There’s also ChowChow, who does absolutely nothing. Sorry, ChowChow. I have nothing else to say about you.

But then there’s CiaoCiao! That’s what I’m talking about! CiaoCiao is female. Could you tell? Also, she can talk.

“Make-up! Jewels! Dresses! I want it all! Sigh... And some new accessories would be nice... Oh! That Ribbon! I need it! Will you trade for my dog food?“

Yep! Sure sounds like something a Cartoon Female Character would say! I love the idea of her giving you her dog food. Dogs using dog food as currency. Really the idea of dog food is so funny to me. I just imaging dogs saying things like “Mmm! Dog Food! My favorite!”

The dog food can then be traded to an alligator for some bananas, because this game is silly.

[laine-o]

Yay I managed to recover my hi-res file so I could finish the background ^_^ (it crashed before when I was in the middle of resizing it and it was so sad 😭)

My absolute fave part of Link’s Awakening is rescuing Madame MeowMeow’s Bowwow 😆

[swoodthis]

Headcanon: What Even Is Koholint Island?

SPOILERS FOR LINK’S AWAKENING!

Of course it is happening inside your head, Harry, but why on earth should that mean that it is not real? -Albus Dumbledore

Koholint Island is more than a dream.

Koholint is an astral island displaced through time and space by the Wind Fish. Wind Fish PLURAL, because they are a small tribe of godlike shapeshifting, cetaceanoid dragons. Oshus from Phantom Hourglass is one. The island doesn’t disappear, it simply moves back into the astral plane.

Link did, in fact, save the island. The Nightmares’ invasion moored the island off the Hyrulean coast— putting the entire world in danger.

Koholint Island holds immense, reality-warping power. The island’s inhabitants all have powerful magic in their own way, many of them being shapeshifters like their draconic guardians. An inhabitant of Koholint leaving the island would often put them in an animal form. The perfect ending shows Marin getting her animal form: a seagull. Some inhabitants prefer animal forms, others human. Tarin’s animal form is a pig, Madame MeowMeow’s is a cat, Prince Richard’s is a lion, and Crazy Tracy’s is a rat.

Oshus is a Wind Fish who spared many considered unworthy of surviving the Flood, including many Gorons, Zoras who became spikier, Sheikah, and... Gerudo. HOPE HOPE HOPE HOPE HOPE! Wind Fish aren’t fond of destiny and divine cruelty.

Koholint is normally only accessible through magic, but can be accessed from many locations, explaining the Chain Chomps, Goombas, and Cheep Cheeps. Anti-Kirbies are failed copies of Kirby Galeem made. You get the idea.

But getting to the astral realm of Koholint gives people access to those powers and more. In fact, the Happy Mask Salesman erased his name, gained his iconic timey-wimeyness, and gained his first alternate form, that of an adult, by journeying to Koholint Island.

And during Link’s Awakening, it was trapped in the physical plane. Yeah, that might’ve been bad.

[beesmygod]

i played the “link’s awakening” remaster

and i liked it! with some caveats.

i played “link’s awakening dx” obsessively as a small child before i could get my hands on other games (nintendo games have always been $60 dollars a pop so it took a long time to get a new one) so i blasted through the remake super fast using only my muscle memory to help me. by the time i was at the end boss i was missing 10 seashells (they added 24 more for this new release for a total of 50) and 2 heart pieces. i did everything i could in this game, i feel like. so i’m going to quickly share my thoughts about this game in the form of some bullet points. if you somehow manage to get spoiled from this post about a 30 year old game that’s on you at this point, so im not putting this under a cut.

THE GOOD:

the graphical upgrade is VERY aesthetically good. the characters are extremely cute without feeling saccharine and still read as the same characters you remember from the original game. everything looks REALLY good. the plastic-y feeling of everything makes me feel like i;m smashing a bunch of dolls together as a kid having a grand adventure in my imagination. i love it.

the music is spectacular, but its a nintendo game so that goes without saying, really.

they kept the original script intact, which is a DELIGHTFUL relic from the early 90s for a game that was and is very silly compared to later titles. i love the old goofy script and im so glad they resisted the urge to try to improve on it at all. you still get your smooch from madame meowmeow. you can still take marin to the trendy game and get thrown out.

the new map marking system is a lifesaver and should be a standard feature in every game like this, where you have to leave a chest and come back for it later.

there’s also a new feature where you can re-read old dialog from things you’ve read and people you’ve talked to, in case you missed a hint. VERY good stuff imo.

the voice acting additions are limited to grunts and laughs and exclamations. as it should be with every nintendo game imo.

they added physics to the trendy game (the claw machine) and it is absolutely frustrating and hilarious. i love it. its so cruel and funny.

THE MEH:

the dungeon maker is a mixed bag, mostly because i think nintendo mis-sold it. it is definitively NOT a zelda dungeon maker. not even close. it is nothing like mario maker in any capacity and i have no idea why nintendo included the capability of sharing dungeons (using amiibos??? why would anyone want this? why bother?) because no one in their right mind would want to play these. what the feature ACTUALLY is appears to be a sort of fun-ish puzzle game where the aim is to slot the pieces you have into existing molds to try to create something coherent, using the parameters set by dampe. that’s fun! i like that! i like trying to hash something out into a workable dungeon using scant few parts. what i dont like is having to run through it at the end, because i’ve already done all these rooms before. and by the end of all the challenges i’m sick to the DEATH of it.

the music it plays from all the instruments you collect to wake the windfish pretty bad. a sore thumb in what should be a climatic moment is undercut by what sounds like funstep

the eagle tower is still the worst dungeon ive ever encountered, in maybe all of zelda history and im real salty about it still destroying me in 2019 like it did in 1999

$60 is too much for this game, imo.

THE BAD:

the reward for finishing the first 3 difficulties of dampe’s dungeon maker thing are seashells, heart pieces and a fairy bottle. the reward for finishing the last puzzle on the highest difficulty is an insulting 300 rupees.

similarly, the reward for finding 40 seashells is the better sword. the reward for getting all of them is...more rooms for the fucking dungeon maker.

they added some statues of mario enemies to the game that you can win from the trendy game, including one you can’t get until after you beat the game. your reward for this is nothing. except for, you guessed it, more goddamn rooms for the dungeon maker. then he also lets you play the game for 1/2 off. i don’t know why you would want this in post game. think about all this shit you have to do to get a measly 300 rupee prize.

the frame rate is so bad, that i’m shocked. this is a game made by nintendo for their own console and the frame rate is so amazingly terrible. i’m not even someone who notices these things unless they are egregious, that’s how bad it is.

most importantly:

THEY REMOVED THE PHOTO MOUSE!!!! NINTENDO I WON’T FORGET THIS!!!!! YOU’VE MADE A TERRIBLE ENEMY IN ME WITH THIS!!!!!

review: 7/10