#modern alttp zelda

[akibarayuri]

zelda sketches feat. modern fable, lu blue, mc zelink

[yasmeensh]

The comforts of palace life are still within reach for Zelda with the Tri-rod ✨

[clowns0up-felix]

Going full brainrot about your Links on a roadtrip... thinking about pitstops, getting stuck in traffic, car malfunctions, weird roadside attractions, playing games to pass the time... oh the to be in a car with the sillies

Sorry this took me a bit to answer bc I was originally draw more but I lost my steam so it was just sitting in my drafts for days,,, I didn’t draw anything u we’re talking about I’m sorry 😭 hope it’s not a crazy letdown

I might draw more in the future bc I DID have some fun visions,,, like playing games thatre themed after their games, Ravio running a souvenir shop with overpriced stuff,, them going camping and botw link being great at providing food out in the wild,,,,,, what if they stop at a beach and sailor and bunny show mc link how to build a giant sand castle,,, I dunno

[misio-dangisio]

Modern Alttp/LA AU +AlbW AU

I wanted to give him original pantless vives so I gave him a kilt. Also I set him as a student studying in Koholint(real place in this AU), so pants might be too sweaty.

+look at my scene Link I enjoyed drawing him

[blueskittlesart]

how do u play zelda games... or are u just very familiar w the lore without having played all of them? i only have a switch and have played botw and totk it's the only console i've ever had and i'd like to play more games like ocarina of time and wind waker and majoras mask but idk how to access them and also. expensive 😭

i've played every game I talk about on here! I try not to talk about ones i havent played bc i don't have a full understanding of them lol. for me it's been about 10 years since I started playing zelda games so I've had some time to get this many under my belt but I can definitely recommend some good games & methods for new players!

since you said you only have a switch, i'll start with legal ways to get older zelda games on the switch. many of these will be expensive and arent actually the method i recommend to play them but. for the sake of being thorough. im gonna mention them.

skyward sword HD remake (highly recommend!!) this game would probably be a pretty good starting point after botw and the remake is notably easier to play than the original. it is $60 tho when the original game was $30. so

NES and SNES virtual consoles which are free with a nintendo online subscription have the original zelda, zelda II, and a link to the past on them. as a new player i wouldnt SUPER recommend any of these but alttp is definitely worth it if you DO end up liking some of the more modern games in the series.

the dreaded n64 virtual console has oot on it but im just straight up gonna tell you not to buy that shit. oot is a must play but there are millions of better ways to play it

the fucking $60 links awakening remaster. don't buy this

the way I personally played most of my games is either via console or hacked console. if you're willing to invest in a secondhand wii to hack you can emulate basically any console that came before it, including the n64 for oot and the gamecube for wind waker. if you're willing to invest in OR you have an old 3ds lying around (preferably that hasnt been updated recently but you can get around that) you can hack it to play GB/GBA/DS/3DS games, which includes link's awakening, minish cap, albw, oot 3d, and majora's mask 3d!

if you're looking for a COMPLETELY free option, my next suggestion is emulation. you want a decent PC to be able to run most of this shit without speed drops, and some newer consoles won't run perfectly no matter what. wii games especially are really dicey because of their reliance on motion control so there's not a lot of emulators out there for them.

for anything before the N64 (majora & any game released before it) I recommend the MAME vintage game emulator. this thing was originally built for arcade games but runs a lot of vintage consoles pretty well too and is generally intuitive and user-friendly.

Visual Boy Advance is a good option for GBA games (link's awakening, 4 swords, minish cap, oracle games.) these may also work on MAME

Desmume for DS games (phantom hourgass, spirit tracks)

Citra for 3DS games (requires high processing speed & decent graphics card, most laptops will not run it) (oot & mm 3d, albw)

for gamecube (wind waker) I used dolphin emulator on my hacked wii so I can't vouch for how it'll run on anything else but i believe it should also be able to emulate wii games? (sksw, tp)

hope this helps fuel your loz adventures! if you ever have specific questions about emulation or hacking i might be able to help also lol i hate paying for games so i do this a lot

[zeldaelmo]

ZeldaElmo's masterlist 2024

Coming on Dec 1st... Of Fading Echoes!

When Zelda hears a rumor about Link she can hardly believe, she's sure it's just pointless gossip. But then he shows up with something that can only be an apology bouquet and things take quite the unexpected turn.

AoC zelink, written for This or That challenge hosted by @zelinkcommunity, T-rated; Read Blooming Gossip

An old promise forces Link into a betrothal with Zelda, the daughter of his father's friend and the center of Castle Town's rumors. At the end of the winter solstice ball, however, he makes his own, rushed promise to her. He soon discovers she might be worth holding it no matter the trouble that seems to follow them like a shadow.

Regency AU, E-rated, ongoing novel; Read The Promise

Bodyguard by day, artist by night—apart from Link's manageable crush on Hyrule's Princess, his life is pretty boring. That is, until one of his artworks attracts the attention of a blogger who anonymously publishes erotica about the Heroes and Princesses of old. Before he knows it, he's in the midst of a flirty online friendship with "Tetra" who happens to know a little too much about castle life.

Modern AU, E-rated; Read Inspiration, Illusions, and other Inconveniences

Link and Zelda visit Rito Village and Tulin can't help but pester Kass with questions about the two.

Kass PoV.

BotW, written for Loftwing Letter exchange, G-rated; Read Like a Starfragment in the Night

"Would you have chosen a different path?"

Zelda finds the answer that Link gives rather depressing, but sometimes life deals second chances when you expect it the last.

BotW; G-rated; Read To have a Choice

Zelda sneaks away to prepare for her performance during the Wing Ceremony, hoping Link heeds her advice to practice flying with his Loftwing. Link, however... well, let's just say that's not exactly how it's going.

Skyward Sword; G-rated; collaboration with @mistresslrigtar. Read Practice for Keeps

Link’s uncle is certain—Princess Zelda visits them to propose to Link.

Link only rolls his eyes but when he returns to the house with Zelda, he realizes in horror that his uncle has prepared everything to set up a romantic mood... And the worst is, Zelda suddenly looks…excited?

Oh boy.

ALttP; G-rated; Read How the stories go

***

Still need more? Here are the other years!

Master list 2023

Master list 2022

Master list 2021

Master list 2020

3-sentences fics for a follower milestone

[xelanzy]

FOUR SWORDS DAD RED AU

What’s it about?

Basically Red takes in the thief kid aka shadow and the story changes abit. It also goes into link between worlds abit. May include references to OoT aswell maybe

Changes to story:

The Links are all like 18-19 maybe and shadow is younger

Shadow watched Links life go by quickly shortly before he appeared to Link and shortly after he was created

Blue isn’t the only scary one here

Shadow doesn’t die but gets badly injured

Shadow sticks with Red up until shortly before the Green and Vio “fight”

Red realizes shits up when shadow and vio vanish

Before Shadow gets badly hurt Red realizes “oh shit my kids in danger” cue Vaati stew once Red realizes

The four links don’t become one again

Shadow decides to just be in the thief kid look to not scare people

A link between worlds + a link to the past tie in

Ravio is a older Shadow

The four links are trapped in the temple

Hilda was taken in by Red

ALTTP Link is a descendant of Blue(like grandson or maybe is his son it’s not decided yet) while the Zelda is a descendant of surprise Vio(Zelda had to have a heir and the others were either married or not interested)

After the defeat at the temple Red Blue Green and Vio end up at modern day Hyrule castle

Shenanigans ensue but Red is looking for his kids with greens help

ALBW starts and it’s at the end of the game that Red reunites with his kids

This ensues the largest family dinner

Oh yeah Ghirahim is there as the Lorule Master Sword and the cool yet weird uncle who lets you get away with crap

Fi is there aswell and married to Ghirahim

The Four Sword ended up getting a spirit who is named Yellow and is taken in by Ghirahim and Fi

[turtleduckscribbles]

How about 1 and 5?

Love your writing! <3

Ahh that means so much, thank you kindly, friend! 🥹💕 And thanks for your ask too!

1. Is there a Zelda game(s) that you associate with each season or time of year?

There is, believe it or not! Flashback to the day after Christmas, 2006. Little teenage me was so depressed that Christmas was over and there were no more Christmas festivities to indulge in. But then! I look over and see a pile of my brother's opened Christmas gifts sitting untouched on the floor. I see the newest Zelda game, Twilight Princess, in that very same pile, looking very lonely (my brother is off playing one of his old standby games). The thought crosses my mind that it was strange that he was given this gift and not me (my brother plays Call of Duty style games — who knew how long it would take him to touch this one?), so I make the executive decision to pop it into the GameCube and play it for myself. I'll never forget the game opening to that pretty title screen with Link on horseback... It was like Ocarina had been given a facelift! 😊

So every year that week rolls around, particularly the time between Christmas and New Years, I always think of Twilight Princess. 💖 (My brother still teases me about taking his gift to this day, lol.) That game was my absolute favorite for like 10 years until BOTW burst onto the scene and dethroned it.

5. Favourite LOZ soundtrack?

Ohhh man, SUCH a hard one! I have favorite tracks across the franchise, but picking one game's soundtrack is hard... I'd probably have to go with A Link to the Past's OST. Yes, yes, the original tracks are old and don't have that high-resolution audio like the modern games do — but wow, whenever I do hear this soundtrack orchestrated? 😍 What a dream.

I think many forget that ALTTP was the original architect of the series's classic tracks like Zelda's Lullaby and the Fairy Fountain theme, which I really respect it for. A personal favorite track of mine is the Hyrule Castle theme, which eventually morphed into the King of Hyrule's theme. I always love seeing this one crop up throughout the series!

Send me TLOZ asks!

[cyphyra]

i kinda hope that some older zelda games get remade down the line to recontextualize and better fit the zelda timeline as a whole

like OoT especially would benefit from a proper remake-- maybe give Navi some actual personality so her getting shunted out of the Ganondorf fight actually FEELS like something

and by remake i dont mean the upscales that ALttP, OoT/MM, and TP/WW got on gameboy, 3ds, and wiiu respectively-- i mean full-ass remakes/rewrites with modern gameplay conventions. like FF7R, but for zelda

the only games i think would actually benefit from proper remakes would be OoT/MM-- OoT for lore reasons and probably better character writing, and MM for gameplay, on top of the added fact that an MM remake would give an opportunity to revive previously cut game content

[waffletheorist]

Started thinking about what language every Link would speak if they spoke languages from our world, and my bias as a half-Greek half-Irish person is absolutely not showing.

Skyward Sword Link speaks Ancient Greek or Latin

Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess are both Irish

Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass/Spirit Tracks are all Greek. Spirit Tracks is Modern Greek, and Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass are sort of in between Ancient and Modern Greek.

BotW/TotK is Japanese, I just think it fits the games and I saw it in a fic once and it sort of stuck.

Minish Cap/Four Swords are confusing, because on the timeline they take place between Skyward Sword and Ocarina of Time last I checked, so I need to somehow make the transition from Ancient Greek to Irish make sense. I'm skipping this one, because it's confusing me and I don't know much about those games.

Hyrule Warriors is also difficult because I haven't played the game, so for now I'm just gonna go with French or British, because I feel like they would have that sort of accent.

I think that in Zelda 1 and 2, because of that whole "Link is part fairy" thing, Link would start off speaking in wing flutters or bells or something, because that's totally how fairies speak, and the actual language could be anything, but I'm just gonna make it English for now.

A Link to the Past, the Oracle games and Link's Awakening are all difficult as well. ALttP is just gonna be English for now, the Oracle games take place in other countries, if I'm remembering correctly it's Labrynna and Holodrum. No idea about that, so I'll leave it for now. Link's Awakening can have Spanish, since I stole it from Wind Waker so it could be Greek.

Triforce Heroes is definitely French.

[aurora--spirit]

cool stuff i like in video games that is cool

i LOVE the vibe of the unexplored. searching through an ancient temple to find new things. finding a land that defies all logic. thats the important part, it has to defy logic. I don't want to explore your lame ass lightly forested plains if i already know what i'm gonna find there. break my expectations. destroy your own precedent over and over again.

lets take a look at some examples of games that did this for me (minor spoilers for zelda totk and mario wonder ahead, but theyre small enough that you can make the judgement call. they probably won't ruin the game for you.)

zelda twilight princess. I didn't play this when it released, i played it much later on the wii i have when a friend gave it to me because he decided he didn't like it. it certainly isn't part of what most would consider my "childhood". it was my 3rd zelda game. (my first was botw and my second alttp) yet it executed this vibe im talking about (and probably explained poorly) so well. after the whole "chase down and eat bugs" section, i was surprised by the 4th section, the ice one i forgot the name of, because i thought the world wouldn't get any larger. doing "the 3 things" is usually the end in modern video games. they like to follow consistent patterns. this game did NOT do that and i love it for that. i got surprised when i could go to the city in the sky. i got surprised when i could go to gerudo desert. holy shit exploring places like that and exploring the TWILIGHT REALM?? heck yeah. this is what i buy video games for half the time. exploring weird and unconventional places. heck, in this case, even the temple of time kinda fulfilled this "exploring the unknown" vibe.

anyway enough of twilight princess. totk did this wonderfully as well, at least until i got used to how the sky islands are laid out. finding weird and interesting puzzles in the sky is such a joy. again, its a strange place that defies logic and convention. its hard to get to, so getting there is all the more rewarding. that is to say it had that joy UNTIL i got used to it. that's the important part, if you're going to defy logic, you have to do it repeatedly, or you'll just be following your own logic again. i need to not expect what comes next.

hell, even what mario wonder did with the deep magma bog overworld map. its mostly hidden until you walk to it, and each part is a slightly unique take on the magma feel. this is the bare minimum you can do to achieve this vibe. its weird and different for the average lava zone in mario, so it feels mysterious and magical.

i think that's kind of where this all is going. each of these things feel magical. this magical feeling is created by a lack of understanding, and by not immediately imposing a "logical conclusion" upon it. in these spaces in these games, the player allows the game to violate their understanding of the rules. that's what makes it magical.

anyway, that's enough rant for now.

edit: wait holy shit how do i add a cut i dont want this thing to fill someones entire screen and the only tutorials i can find are for old ass tumblr ui

i know i added a cut before but i cant remember how

edit 2: nvm i figured it out dont worry guys

[kitchfit]

Year in Review: Games Pt 3

My penultimate list of games contains a rather random grabbag of obsessions I bounced between over the summer and into the fall. And for this list I do mean obsession. Most of these titles took over my brain for at least a week until I was able to stave it off with something else.

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past Randomizer

I don't often think too much about the structure of traditional Zelda games when I look back on them. Recently, in an interview, Eiji Aonuma expressed a lack of interest to return to the traditional styled Zelda games, stating "Why do you want to go back to a type of game where you're more limited or more restricted in the types of things or ways you can play?" I understand that sentiment, but I believe the restrictive structure of older Zeldas actively curate the gameplay experience rather than hinder it. There's something to be said about how linearity in a game can be in service to a better story, but in Zelda, the linearity turns the entire map into something of a puzzlebox. There's a reason this franchise inspired Metroid.

These are the thoughts I had while figuring out exactly how Zelda randomizers worked and actually getting one to function properly. A Link to the Past, the game the solidified the Zelda formula. Compared to Zelda I, this game is considerably more linear, each mark of your progression hindered by a Key Item that progressively unlocks more of the world around you until you have free reign of the map. The OG makes this progression path relatively intuitive, but in a randomizer the path still exists, but its been altered. All of the keys are behind new locks, and the experience of finding those locks is almost like playing Alttp for the first time.

Familiar items from the beginning may be moved towards the end. I didn't even find the sword until around the halfway point, and had to get creative when dealing with bosses, but near the end, when I had everything, the game was identical to its original counterpart. In this way, the restrictive nature of the game made it more compelling than if I had free reign of the map from the get go. But I guess the Zelda team just isn't interested in that type of gameplay anymore.

Super Mario Odyssey

This is foreshadowing a much more psychotic stage of this review, which I'll save as the last update to this Year in Review project. The is my first time playing this! Can you believe! I'm apparently something of a "gamer," but one of the most beloved Mario games of modern times remained unplayed and alone... I had to rectify this. And damn, yea. This is the perfect advancement in 3D Mario since the time of Mario Galaxy. The controls are a perfect mix of freedom and control; I was never agitated with Mario's movement. The Moons allowing simple exploration and puzzle solving to be rewarded without booting the player out of the level. Finally, after all this time, Mario has reached the heights of the first Banjo Kazooie game.

This is a lot easier to qualify with hindsight, since well... You'll see! But during my time with the game, what I was most impressed with were the environments. You're exploring entire communities! New sections of the Mario world that we've never seen before that fit perfectly with everything we've seen before. Classic themes with a twist. The Sand Kingdom is a normal dessert level that has been frozen over with an icy curse. The Wooded Kingdom seems at first to be a standard grass theme, but is actually a defunct industrial zone upkept by robots who like to garden! Even New Donk City with its hyper realistic Business People, which seems a wild setting for a Mario game, hearkens back to the older games like Donkey Kong 94. For the first time in a long time, this game got me interested in the lore of the Mario universe, and that would have dire consequences...

Fire Emblem: Awakening

This is one of those franchises I have a lot of love for despite the fact almost every entry has something that makes me stretch my face into a comical frown, like Wile E. Coyote realizing he's been thoroughly duped by the funny bird that goes fast. The Fire Emblem games are already thoroughly difficult tactical rpgs, which are hard enough to invest yourself into without tearing your hair out. Awakening is the game that brought the franchise back from the brink of death, at least in the west, and part of that, I believe, was because of the reintroduction of a mechanic from FE4 I affectionately refer to as "the breeding mechanic."

By slamming your anime chess pieces against each other like action figures to make them kiss, they can get married and have a kid. That child can then be recruited into your army after some goofy time travel antics, and their stats, class options, and abilities are decided based on those of their parent units. This means breeding your units like livestock to create the best child units is the most effective way to play the game, which, I won't lie, is just simulated eugenics. This grossed me out as a teenager when I bought this game, and combined with how hard the game was for me at the time, I put the game down for an indefinite hiatus.

Returning to it after all these years, I am sad to say abusing the breeding mechanic is fun as all hell. Okay, maybe equating romance options in a video game to actual eugenics is a bit harsh. It's not like the game encourages playing like that, it really is just letting you ship your favorite characters together, which is present in every FE game these days. Pairing the units up based not only on chemistry but on available skills allowed me to have a nice time with a pretty fun cast and absolutely WRECK HOUSE through the chapters to the point that difficulty became something of a joke. There's also a story in this game. It's fine. Time travel is in it.

Fire Emblem: Binding Blade

This is lauded as one of the most difficult FE games to ever exist, but it isn't usually said with a happy face. Every map is a "seize map" meaning the primary objective is always to kill the boss and bring the Lord (in this case, Roy) to the place the boss was sitting. Roy stagnates at level 20 around the midpoint of the game, and will not promote until the second to last chapter, meaning he's basically useless in the latter half of the game but still required to use in every chapter. Reinforcements appear to a genuinely goofy degree, and will sometimes capsize your run without any warning. You cannot get the true ending of the game without keeping certain fragile ass characters alive (sometimes on the ENEMY TEAM) that unlock hidden chapters with even more bullshit difficulty. Full disclosure, I had to use a guide + a hack that removed fog to get through this game.

Despite ALL OF THIS, Binding Blade has been one of the most engaging and thought provoking Fire Emblem experiences I've ever had. The plot follows a World War esque scenario. On the relatively peaceful continent of Elibe, the country with the strongest military, Bern, has suddenly broke treaty and attempts to conquer all neighboring states. Roy, a 14 year old noble boy on a quest to deliver reinforcements, is suddenly thrust into the role of general after the commander of Lycia falls in battle against Bern troops. And THAT is why the game's difficulty feels so appropriate! It's an uphill climb from day one, Roy is in no way prepared for this, he's FOURTEEN. He should be playing Animal Crossing on his Nintendo 3DS, consarnit! There's also an interesting twist at the end that calls into question our celebration of history and responsibility of the past, which I might get into if I replay it. And I probably will! There's a very lovingly made hack that remakes all of Binding Blade in FE8 with qol features that made me excited to come back to it in the future.

Pikmin 4 pt 1

I'm still having a hard time believing this game exists. I feel like I'm taking it for granted. Just last year I remember cynically telling my friend this title would probably be in development hell for another half a decade at least. But it's here! And damn what a fantastic return. Similar to Pikmin 2, 4 foregoes time limits and resource management in favor of exploration and isolated challenges, without turning to the bullshit difficulty 2 would occasionally throw your way. There's just so much stuff in this game! Caves are back! Piklopedia is huge! Two new types of Pikmin! Like 6 enormous maps to explore!

I do have a few reservations on it. Instead of following the previously established continuity, Pikmin 4 reboots the series, repeating Pikmin 1's plot with the caveat that Olimar never made it off of PNF-404, and it's your job to save him. Along with sixty other tiny alien people that are apparently also prone to crash land in dangerous areas like Olimar before them. It's hilarious, really, the only reason your (custom made) character is in charge is because they're the only one who made it through the atmosphere without shitting themselves.

The caves overall have stronger themes than Pikmin 2 ever managed, and are extremely well designed in their layouts, and the plot and characters are super charming as well. Louie is back and bastardly as ever. He is such an asshole in this title, I love him so much. This is marked as part 1, not only because I'm excited to jump back into the extensive postgame content, but also because of the amount of detail put into the Piklopedia that I want to read EVERYTHING, but due to circumstances I wasn't able to at the time. I know these lists may come off as unemployed behavior, but astonishingly I do have a job that holds back my GAMING POWER just a little bit.

Castlevania: Harmony of Dissonance

I took a slight gaming break after Pikmin 4, but it wasn't long before the gaming urge enveloped me like a holy fire. I considered replaying Zero Mission, but if I start one Metroid game I will play through all of them into Dread, which I didn't want to start. And then I remembered there are like 10 Metroids that I've never played, and they have vampires in them! I guess, rather than a Metroid, you could call them a Vania. I've only really played Castlevania 1 and 3 on the NES before, but it's a series I hold pretty close to my heart, and this game works as a good introduction to the series, if you'd like.

The plot follows Juste Belmont, the fruity grandson of Simon who follows his boyfriend into Dracula's Castle to find their girlfriend. Juste has the typical whip finesse of a Belmont, but his direct lineage to Sypha Belnades from Dracula's Curse gives him skills in elemental magic that he slowly unlocks throughout the game. The element Juste is equipped with pairs with his secondary weapon that each unleash a different spell type, which are super fun to experiment with. Dracula's Castle is also split between to dimensions, like the Light and Dark world from alttp, and while it's always fun to explore old areas with new differences, I don't think it adds too much to the aesthetics. Both versions of the castle are nearly identical in terms of artstyle, with the "B Castle" taking on a slightly darker palette.

Juste also collects random shit he finds in the castle to decorate an empty room he found, which is tied to the true ending for some reason. I have a friend who picks up random trash off the streets and brings it back to his house as "trinkets" that he shows off to people when he has visitors, which I found myself reminded of when Juste picks up what must have been Alucard's childhood teddybear to hoard back in little nest.

Digimon Survive

This is a fascinating game. If you have any love for digimon as a series, or if you love visual novel horror games, this is a fantastic deal. From what I remember it faced some backlash when it was revealed it wasn't just a digimon tactical rpg, and even more criticism when players found out how involved the visual novel aspect was. For me, this game perfectly marries the two genres. Your choices in the visual novel structure and treatment of your units during these sections decide not only how your digimon evolve and grow, but which units Survive to the end of the game. There are also four branching paths the story can take that genuinely feel influenced by the choices you made, even though they mostly come down to a rather straightforward morality system.

The plot is similar to season one of the Digimon anime, but with a more mature feel. Eight kids at summer camp are whisked away to the digital world, where the laws of physics are altered, a vague facsimile of human culture can be found, and tons of wacky creatures show up to either aide or harm our protagonists. Except in this version some of them may actually die. I made it through the game with losing only two characters, but they're absence was felt all the way to the end of the game. You don't have to know anything about digimon to appreciate this, but it is a fun new way to enjoy these classic creatures, or be terrified of them, in a certain Bunny's case...

Final Fantasy VII

I don't mod a lot of games. I do look for fan games and improvement patches for older games, but I got a hankering to seek out some stuff a bit more high tech. On Nexus it turned out there were a lot of cool HD graphic mods for an rpg I hadn't picked up in eight years: FF7, baby! I originally got a quarter of the way through this game on steam and put it down for a bit, and then never picked it back up. I remembered being annoyed and confused at the plot and the setting, but going back to it now (with clearer visuals, lol) I enjoyed the hell out of this complicated mess of a story! Honestly, it's not as convoluted as people made it out to be, but maybe my brain has been fundamentally altered by Kingdom Hearts. There's a central mystery present around the six hour mark surrounding a memory Cloud has that doesn't make any sense, and the truth behind that memory slowly unveils itself in a fascinating way.

I was surprised how much I liked Cloud as a character. He never really impressed me in Smash or KH, but in his original game he's this goofy, anxious dork who tries too hard to be cool in front of pretty girls. I can relate to that. AND he has motion sickness. I can relate to that even more.

There are a lot of playable characters in this game, but only 3 of them are allowed in your party, who naturally will level up a lot faster than the benched boys. This is good for replayability, I guess, but if I go back to it anytime soon, I'll have a hard time not picking Barret, Aerith and Tifa as Cloud's best buddies. The other characters are cool (Yuffie is still more of a KH character to me), but I got so damn attached to those three. I also went to the effort of Chocobo breeding for the busted endgame materia, which was a surprisingly fun sidequest, despite its esoteric nature. I did this totally legitimately too! EVERYONE CONGRATULATE ME FOR BEING SO COOL!

Final Fantasy IX

I think this is the easiest Final Fantasy game to recommend to someone. All of the FF games I've played have this compelling found family aspect present, but it's executed in the best way in this one. The characters seem to have this genuine affection for each other that gets more and more real as the game progress and they develop as people. It's also hilarious in a very Shakespearean way. The main character, Zidane, was raised by theater kids, so the goofy, dramatic irony stage gags are very appropriate. All the characters were super compelling with great designs as well, and I had a hard time deciding which three would be in the final party. I settled on Vivi, Freya, and Dagger, but I used Quina and Steiner quite a bit.

The story pulled out tears from me towards the end. This is a tale about grief, identity, and the acceptance of death, and it handles those themes with depth and grace. Zidane and Vivi are unsure of who they are, where they come from. While Zidane looks normal enough, by FF9 standards, Vivi is forced to confront the fact he is probably not human almost immediately upon encountering his puppet brethren, and his reflective journey on accepting this and the fact he does not have long to live is the strongest emotional through-line of the game. But what moved me to tears was (SPOILERS FOR THE REST OF THIS PARAGRAPH) Zidane's drive to reach Kuja before his unavoidable fate. To reach out to his brother and risk life and limb just so he could offer this man comfort in his last moments, to have the last emotion he felt be the tenderness he never got to feel during his long life. Idk it got to me.

(SPOILERS OVER) The Chocobo mission in this game is a lot more fun and intuitive than it was in 7. Instead of breeding, you play a hot and cold mini game that's frustrating as hell at first, but gradually gets faster and more fun. The games lore makes a lot of references to earlier titles, though I really only recognized the call backs to 7 and 4. This inspired me to make a Libre office spreadsheet of all Final Fantasy games lore, plot and recurring elements in an obsessive and ultimately futile attempt to tie the first nine games together in a neat timeline. I'm filling it out as I go through them, so I may never actually release my findings, but it's still been a fun project, similar to these Year in Reviews!

Final Fantasy

This is the GBA version. After 9, I wanted to go through all the FF games I hadn't played, starting of course with 1. According to Legend, the team that worked on this were about to go out of business went all out on one Final product to make or break the company, thus "Final" Fantasy. I think it may also be named so for the amount of cliche fantasy tropes played out through the story. There are elves who's prince has been put under a sleeping curse, dwarves that love to mine and forge, mermaids imprisoned by a sea monster, there's even a floating dead civilization inspired by Castle in the Sky complete with still functional robots. All of this makes for a pretty fun setting, and seeing where most of the recurring aspects of the FF series originated was delightful! A few of them even threw me for a loop; Bahamut lives underground and gives you a class upgrade, I didn't even expect him to be here!

The combat is simple. The gba version reduced the amount of random encounters, and the world design is relatively intuitive (except for the airship, which is hiding underneath a super esoteric sidequest the game barely tells you about), so the challenge was mostly limited to the boss encounters, who can be cheesed with elemental magic from a decent mage. I played with a Black Mage, a Monk, a Fighter, and a Red Mage, so my healing options were pretty limiting. I didn't realize until near the end of the game that monks are strongest without weapons, so at the last moment my little Monkey boy was FUCKING SHIT UP while he had been dragging his feet for most of the game. The final boss fucked me up in return, however, and I almost grinded (ground doesn't sound right) levels for the first time in this game before discovering the Titan Gloves.

The final boss is (spoilies) the first boss from the opening of the game, who has been transported 1,000 years into the past to manipulate the conflict of the game, including his own initial defeat. This means defeating him for the 2nd time breaks this loop, stops him from creating conflict in the first place and retcons the entire events of the game, allowing your actions to fall into obscure legend in the cultural consciousness. This provides a nice explanation for the main cast's lack of identity. This story is being told second hand as a legend. These people are only remembered for their actions in a myth and thus their true names have never been known...

Final Fantasy II: Dawn of Souls

Before playing this game I had it beaten into my head from video essayists and game journalists that this is the worst Final Fantasy with dogshit mechanics. Maybe that's true, I haven't played all of them yet. These mechanics were cool as hell to me, though. Your stats are decided by usage instead of building up through leveling up, meaning your magic stat is trained by using more magic, attack is trained by attacking, etc. In the og NES game, this also applied to HP, which was trained by getting hit, but that was changed to a more steady leveling curve in the GBA version, and thank God for that. There are also several weapon types like swords, axes, and spears you can train your party members with, though you're forced to specialize early on, lest you be under-leveled later in the game. I think this system is incredibly ahead of its time, inelegant as it may be, as it lets you customize your characters' stat builds in a way that's now standard for modern rpgs.

The story kind of rakes you across the coals. It follows a group of children who have joined a rebellion against an empire dead set on taking over the world. Almost every victory is met with an equal degree of tragedy. You might defeat the enemy commander only to be too late to prevent a city being wiped from the face of the earth, you might find one of the game's macguffins from a tough dungeon only for a party member to be brutally killed off at the last moment. Even defeating the emperor comes with a slap in the face, as his death only leads to a portal to ACTUAL HELL where the emperor has seized control of the afterlife. It makes the ending very satisfying in my eyes, though there are some story developments (like Leon) that feel pretty undercooked. There's also a bonus story featuring all the dead characters exploring hell! Cool! I didn't play this, since it drops everyone back at level one, but I may return to it as a separate game someday. I just gotta know what happened to all the dead guys! They died??? Oh shit!!

Fatum Betula

I discovered this game watching Any Austin talk about games you can get on the Switch for $2, and can you believe my luck? It was only $1 on sale packaged with Paratropics! After playing it, I think this game is worth more than $2, though it is pretty short. The opening of the game is unsettling. Through hints in the menu, you learn to stare out into an abyss until a face with too many teeth tells you to fill a vial with liquid to feed to a birch tree.

And that's all you need to do! Find several different liquids hidden in the beautifully rendered polygonal environments and give to the birch to change the fate of the world. I only figured this out through a lot of trial and error. There are several endings depending on which liquid you choose, around 9 in total if I remember right, including poison, blood, liquid bone. Some of them are received as rewards for exploration and experimentation, while the true ending is done through a series of bizarre tasks that I honestly had to use a guide for.

The endings have a good range of philosophical to comedic, my favorite one being liquid bone, which transforms everyone in the world into funny dancing skeletons. There are so many characters in this world that delight and intrigue, and the writing blows my mind at a few points. It's a game you want to dig into and dissect its many angles, while still hitting you with occasional dialogue that makes you laugh pretty hard.

AND DONE! This list is a bit longer than usual, since I wanted everything on the final Games list to be homogenized. Dang I played a lot of viddy games this year. Next time I will be covering Shows. I was going to do a comics list but I haven't finished enough comics this year to merit one, maybe at the end as a bonus!

[wishuponroses]

Top 5 favourite video games

Spyro 2; Season of Flame -- simply out of nostalgic reasons. I played my GBA+SP a BUNCH as a kid and couldn't get enough of this game. I'll always prefer it over SoI/AotR. I love how the developers included holiday themed realms, like Christmas, Halloween, and even St. Patrick's Day! The Sunny Plains homeworld music is so pleasant and catchy to listen to.

The Legend of Zelda; A Link Between Worlds -- My first Zelda game that I've ever beaten, and the first game I bought while getting a 3DS for the first time. I love how they reused the world of ALttP, and implemented puzzles by using Ravio's bracelet. I loved Yuga as a villain, Princess Hilda, Ravio, and one of the cutest Zelda designs to date. It's just an overall charming game.

Monster Hunter Stories 2 -- I dove into so many hours in the original MHS back on the 3DS. I loved monster-taming games, but one where you fight alongside your monster and on top of all that, there are cats and dragons? Count me in. But I adore MHS2 just as much. We get to revisit old characters from the first game (Avinia, Cheval, Lillia, Reverto) and see how much they've grown as we're partnered with them. It's such an addictive game with a nice story. This is how the modern 3D Pokemon games should be, IMO.

Pokemon HeartGold & SoulSilver -- Would you look at that, ha. Another handheld title. I adore replaying these games over and over again. Gamefreak certainly nailed the atmosphere. The following Pokemon, the different sounds depending on what you step on - be it leaves, grass, cobblestone. It's the little touches. And Lyra. Oh, Lyra. I ADORE her design. It's probably my favorite. I remember when the games were first announced, a lot of fans of the franchise hated Lyra. They compared her entire outfit to Mario. But I loved her design, her personality, her character.

Kirby -- Kirby is pink, round, and makes me happy. I finally started playing Kirby games last year. I love colorful platformers. I can't believe it took me this long to finally play a Kirby game. They're so carefree and charming. I really wanted a Spyro-esque feel, and boy, do I get it with Kirby! (despite only playing Forgotten World and Return to Dreamworld Deluxe... still need to finish the latter!)

Thank you, Blaze! Have a great day. :D

[hopeymchope]

Your top-down Zelda post made me think about how cool it would be if we got a modern reimagining of the two NES Zelda games. Especially since they were originally designed in an era where reading the instruction manual was highly recommended, if not mandatory, and secrets were found by exchanging tips with friends and calling Nintendo for help lol. So it would be cool if the original Zelda and Zelda II the Adventure of Link were updated and refined in a similar vein that Metroid Zero Mission did for the original Metroid. What are your thoughts on that?

I just recently watched a video where a guy was talking about how the original NES TLoZ gives you no direction whatsoever to a degree that's overwhelming, and I was sitting there the whole time like "Yeah, it came with a full map of the overworld and the manual included a step-by-step guide on how to travel to the first dungeon and then complete the entire damn thing." People who play it today on Switch Online don't even know how much we DON'T get to help us.

It's honestly surprising that your suggestion hasn't happened already, y'know? They made the NES Mario games more accessible with Super Mario All-Stars in the SNES era, giving them save features that they (especially 3 and Lost Levels) desperately needed. They gave us Zero Mission as a more accessible Metroid remake that had a friggin' map functionality. They even did the Kid Icarus "3D Classics" release on 3DS that added saves (and some cool backgrounds) that made the original easier by tweaking a few key details - Pit's arrows fly farther, extra life bars fill up as soon they're obtained, Reapers no longer pursue when attacked, etc.

And they even STARTED to do this for the first game at one point! The two "Oracle" games began life as Nintendo commissioning Capcom to remake the original Legend of Zelda with Link's Awakening-style sprites, providing full 8-directional movement and spin attack and more NPCs to give hints and direction + other ALttP-style enhancements. But Capcom's "enhancement" ideas gradually grew so much that they asked to shift focus and got the go-ahead to make a whole trilogy of new games instead. (Which later got downgraded to two new games.)

Heck, they even had a graphically updated version of Zelda 1 on the Satellaview service for the SNES... even if it did require you to be connected online to progress at specific times. And it had no other changes. :P

It just seems like such an easy-money decision. And they've clearly considered it and/or made half-steps towards doing it on more than one occasion. And Link's Awakening remake has sold over 6 million copies now... so YEAH.

They really need to pull the trigger on this... especially for Zelda II. It needs punching up more than any other title in the series, frankly. Hell, even just removing the limited-lives system would be a GIGANTIC improvement to it!

[snowcapmt]

HEY AAAAAAA ITS MY FIRST TUMBLR POST

I’ve been afraid of this website for a long time. I still am, but hey, I gotta post more places if I wanna establish myself and my art.

So anyways yea this is meant to be me trying to do the trope I like to call the “Second soulmate trope” correctly (in my AU) I love both MariLink and AlttpZelink a lot, and I like them equally, so I want to do both ships justice.

[telesthisia]

it’s no coincidence that your fav depressed goth princess is back, actually something cool happened today! i was able to talk to the mun, legend, who ran a alttp link rp blog they were my main link more or less! and will still be tbh bc we had too many good headcanons and junk! they are doing well! and i was so happy to hear from them ;v; tbh that sorta helped with reviving her muse again haha! i remembered how much i love writing for zellie!