#mystery solving and monster hunting in a modern setting with limited magic?

[grapesofa]

And then the guy is like "man, I really wish there was a marvel movie that's not about superheroes and instead focuses on a group of guys who hunt ghosts together. It should be a comedy and there needs to be at least one scene where a guy gets sucked off by a ghost." And then you tell him that he should check out Ghostbusters and he tells you to go fuck yourself.

People keep trying to construct analogies for the cultural dominance of Dungeons & Dragons in tabletop roleplaying spaces like "imagine you met a guy who considers himself a cinema buff but exclusively watches Marvel Cinematic Universe films released within the past 12 months, explaining that he doesn't branch out because he just doesn't have the time to learn the lore of a second cinematic universe; when you suggest avoiding that problem by watching a standalone film that isn't part of any cinematic universe, he reacts like you're a huge weirdo, and after a bit of questioning it turns out he genuinely believes that films which are part of massive cinematic universes and black and white Eastern European art films about depression are the only kinds of movies which exist", and I know this is intended as hyperbole to illustrate the absurdity of the situation at hand, but, like, I have literally met the guy they are describing.

[silverflintdaily]

ARTIST CLAIMS ARE NOW OPEN!

Please read all the summaries below the cut and fill out the form with your top 5 picks.  If you have questions about some of these fics before signing up and want us to follow up with the authors, please send us an ask or shoot Mel an email.  SUBMIT CLAIMS BY APRIL 25  - artist claim form here

1. running is a victory Skeleton Island holds the greatest and most ancient treasure the world’s ever known—not that anyone’s ever actually seen it before. Captain Flint and his crew sail through treacherous seas full of English ships, freak storms, and at least one large monster lurking in the deep, desperate to find the island and obtain the Urca gold. That all seems simple compared to dealing with the charming yet duplicitous John Silver and the alleged Urca curse. [Black Sails meets Pirates of the Caribbean!] 2. A Ship is a Republic Flint and Silver train relentlessly on the cliffs of Maroon Island. Silver begins to realise how much he enjoys obeying Flint's instructions. Swordplay gives way to foreplay. 3. Elijah's Violin "A mage, a sorcerer, and a warlock walk into my bar,” says a woman behind the counter. “Have you heard this one before?”

The city of Venice is in turmoil: someone has been turning people to stone. Years after the events that landed them both in hot water and separated them, Flint and Silver are thrown together to solve a dangerous magical mystery. They are joined on their mission by Thomas (who may or may not have a pet Hellhound). The three magicians must work together (and try not to kill each other) before the Carnival of Venice devours them as well. 4. title tbd Or, James Flint, state park employee and firebrand, discovers that someone who broke his heart is back in his life, and that someone is miserable. That this someone is miserable makes James Flint very happy! Except for how it really does not make him happy, whoops. Modern au, angst, slow burn, mutual pining, happy ending. 5.  Don't Say I Didn't Warn Ya John's a drag king, making friends with Thomas and his drag queen troupe. They all perform at the bar that Flint and Gates own and run together - The Frigate.

Trans!Silver, Poly!Flint. ships: silverflint, established flintgates & flinthamilton, possible eventual silverflinthamilton (if I have it in me to write that far) 6.  call to war When the Maroon Queen gets a letter from Woodes Rogers indicating that Madi is alive, she makes the executive decision to have Flint rescue her without telling Silver. When Flint does find Madi, she tells him not to tell Silver she is alive--so that he will want to continue to fight the war he so desperately hates, all so Madi's "death" wasn't for nothing. Against his own judgment, Flint agrees, leading to a series of events that spiral out of control, bringing Flint and Silver closer together, even as Flint is wracked with guilt over his deceit. A s4 canon divergence, heavily focused on Madi, Flint and Silver, as well as the Maroons.

7.  the life that we chose All of Silver's schemes and machinations screech to a halt when he locks eyes with Captain Flint across the deck of the Walrus and the world explodes into color. Flint's cold and indifferent behavior towards him in the weeks that follow makes no sense until he learns that the captain first saw colors ten years ago, in London.

(Flint's been able to see color since he first met Thomas, it's true, but - has Billy always had blue eyes? Was the spine on that book always such a deep green?)

note for artist claims: silverflint au where when you meet your soulmate you can see color. thomas and silver are both flint's soulmate: he saw most colors when he met thomas, but once he meets silver he can finally see the full spectrum. of course he doesn't realize this because ANGST 8. To Be Rid of Temptation “What would you suggest we do instead, then?”

Maybe it was the way he said it, the way Flint was sitting with his knees sprawled out, or the secrets he guarded so closely; Silver didn’t know what it was, but somebody’s Devil took ahold of his tongue then and he said, “I think we should fuck.”

Set around the start of season 3, *spoilers* they do fuck. 9. Chasing Sea Foam Once upon a time, there was a pirate Captain whose moods controlled the seas and whose grief over his missing Lord drove him to wreak havoc in the West Indies.

Once upon a time, there was a merperson who saved the pirate Captain from drowning and who longed to be a part of his world. One day he was faced with a terrible decision: to see his Captain bring death and destruction onto the world and himself, or to stop him and reunite him with his missing Lord. The merperson made his choice and disappeared into the sea.

Years after his Happily Ever After, Flint sets out to find answers about Silver guided only by tall tales and a longing in his heart.

supernatural AU (not a Supernatural the show AU, it just has supernatural elements), features Flint/Thomas and Silver/Flint/Thomas as secondary ships, and past Silver/Madi)

10.  the long waves crawl Nassau sang with magic in a way that Silver hadn’t felt since his childhood, not unlike the hazy memories of a tiny house crowded with herbs and all sorts of books that smelled of cedar smoke and sage.

Only here he was not hidden, nor was he safe. He darted through the streets, avoiding the hungry looks that other magic users gave him. Felt their eyes on his skin and knew they could smell the magic in his blood.

In which Silver is a witch, and in an already complicated world magic is a dangerous thing. 11. Fire Light Silver is a new University professor who starts his job by stealing research out from under Flint’s nose. To get access to the research, Flint steals Silver.

12. Birds Of A Feather A Black Sails/Pride and Prejudice crossover, featuring John Silver as a victim of Mrs Bennet's match making escapades and James McGraw as a lieutenant on sick leave who just wants some peace and quiet.

13. the whole estate of mortal man Silver has a limited memory, an unlimited lifespan, and a need for human souls. He spends four seasons trying to buy Flint's.

14. "On the Banks of the Lethe" Waking after a head injury with no memory of the past two years, Flint finds himself a stranger in a strange land. Faced with the politics of a war he doesn’t remember, and a Walrus crew he hardly recognizes, Flint must reconcile what he knows with what has transpired: Gates’ betrayal; the discovery of the Urca gold; the aftermath of Charles Town. All preceded by the rise of a quartermaster he doesn’t trust—a quartermaster he only knows to be a liar and a thief. Uncertain of his newfound loyalties, Flint suddenly finds himself standing in the shadow of a monster of his own inadvertent making: Long John Silver, Nassau’s newly christened Pirate King.

Amnesia!fic. Set right before Season 4. Angst. Confusion. Gross abuse of tropes. Stupid men in love (even if one doesn’t quite remember). AKA: What if Season 1 James Flint met Season 4 John Silver.

15. a beautiful, sinuous thing; a terrible, treacherous thing Driven by grief, James Flint leaves the city behind to become the caretaker of a lighthouse in a small coastal town. But despite his desire for solitude, he finds himself drawn to a man who seems to have simply strolled out of the sea one day. Silver expects the new lighthouse keeper on his shores to be easy prey - quiet, isolated, sad. But he may have more on his hands than he expected. Modern fantasy au influenced by works like Daisy Johnson's Fen and Victor LaValle's The Changeling 16. The Return of John Silver Seven months after leaving Savannah and the war behind, Flint and Thomas are doing their best to leave the past where it belongs. But the past is never quite past. When the arrival of a wounded pirate on their doorstep threatens to shake what little foundation they've managed to build together, Flint finds himself at a familiar crossroads. Does he allow himself to admit that John Silver belongs in his life, (and in Thomas's) or will he continue to deny the truth even to himself? 17. gonna need a bigger boat The not-quite-Jaws AU where Flint is a perpetually irritated sea captain, hired by a perpetually irritating quasi-con man Silver, both to hunt a shark that has supposedly killed seven people in the last few months. Only they stumble upon a crime in action, end up trapped on a small boat in the middle of an ocean, and they figure out that they're going to have to work together to stay alive and collect that shark bounty somehow. (Featuring the use of thinly veiled shark metaphors, shark fun facts, and two people who cannot believe that their relationship is hurtling towards - something). 18. Loose Lips Sink Ships Rewrite of Black Sails S4. Billy Bones tries to kill Silver, fails, and Silver starts his revenge quest. Woodes Rogers is dead, Nassau is in chaos, and Silver finds his whole world changed. Mostly silverflint and it does become silverflintham. Happy ending! Very, very violent beginning.

[bonetrader]

Unusual RPG combinations

I like to tinker with mixing and matching rpg settings and systems. I will try to collect the ones I'm most fascinated with. I haven't found the opportunity to actually try any of these combinations, but I guess it doesn't hurt to put them out there in case someone finds any of them interesting.

Shadowrun redux

Setting: Shadowrun

System: Blades in the Dark

I adore Shadowrun. It takes all the bleakness of reality, amplifies it, but also mixes it with a lot of magic and wonder. And if you read the books selectively, even with hope.

But playing it can get convoluted, especially if your group is prone to overplan. And we know that plans always go sideways. There's no such thing as a milk run. Spending an hour on planning can be annoying in itself. But it's extra painful if it has to be thrown out the window in the first five minutes of execution.

Enter Blades in the Dark that instead of planning ahead encourages to use flashbacks on the spot to reveal how you prepared in advance to get past an obstacle. That makes pulling off daring heists a lot more easier for the players. Infiltration is way less stressful on the player if they can make up any forged backstory on the go, and do a flashback to make sure it's believable. There's still some minimal planning, but it's practically just setting the starting scene of the run. You don't have to specify anything beyond that.

The concept of crew from Blades also fits nicely with Shadowrun. It can tell the GM what kind of runs the players prefer, and gives the players the ability tospecialize their team. Blades was created for a different level of technology and magic. But it mainly focuses on the hierarchy of the criminal underground, and that translates easily even to a modern world. So I expect the same crews to work with Shadowrun, but more thematic options could be added to tie it closer to the sixth world.

The concept of hunting grounds should be reconsidered. In Blades it means a specific neighbourhood the characters are more familiar with and usually target. In Shadowrun it makes more sense to make it a specific scenery they usually operate in. For example it could be a specific megacorporation they often go up against, or a type of gang that's common in the sprawls they operate in.

Blades also offers a nice subsystem for handling reputation, growth, notoriety, and even stress and trauma between runs. Incorporating a specific vice for each PC also seems completely in line with Shadowrun's concept.

The biggest difference will be in character creation. Blades' system is more abstract than Shadowrun's. In Blades you have to pick a specific playbook for your character. I think that's OK. While Shadowrun allowed building characters skill by skill, it always encouraged working toward specific archetypes like face, rigger, or adept. Your playbook determines your starting stats, but you can still somewhat specialize it. Blades also allows crossing from a playbook to a new one, but that's long term character advancement.

Adding some elements of Shadowrun might not be trivial. Spirits could be more or less handled as the ghosts in Blades. But magic and technology would have to be specifically addressed. Some of it could be treated like fluff, making it mechanically irrelevant whether your efforts are more effective because of training, because of an implant, or because you are infusing them with magic. But at least mages, riggers and deckers would probably need their own playbooks.

Twisted Houses of the Drow

Setting: any fantasy setting with drows, but I have a specific campaign idea for Spelljammer

System: Houses of the Blooded

This is a re-skin of Houses of the Blooded. The ven and the drow have different values and cultures, but I think they share a similar style. Decadence and intrigue runs deep in their societies. I'd replace the virtues (attributes) of the original game with corresponding vices. And each vice would be linked to a drow god instead of the totem animals of the original game.

Instead of the romance mechanic there would be rivalry. It would work the same way, just with a different flavour. Drows could pick someone as a rival, driving each other to greater feats. Instead of creating art drows could develop schemes. Same as the art mechanic. The scheme could give a bonus to those it was shared with. Seasons, regions, holdings, and blessings would have to be reworked, but I think renaming them would be enough in most cases.

My campaign idea is for a group of drow renegades employed by the elven admiralty as covert agents. They would be sent for long term infiltration missions to places where surface elves are not welcome. Each of them would have an affiliation with a drow god as well, and each would have their own hidden agenda. It might even work if not all characters are drows. I could imagine one or two elf, half-elf, or shapeshifter mixed in.

If I ever got to it seasons of the campaign would include: Building up a career of piracy in space (remember, Spelljammer) to get on the good side of a notorious and elusive pirate king, and lead the elven navy to its hideout. Instead of holdings the players could manage trade routes they raid, and their ships. Another would be infiltrating a drow city to stop an invasion. I think this would be the closest to the original Houses game. And finally I'd drop them in a mission to arrive as inmates to Elfcatraz, the secret prison of the admiralty (named by one of my players) to find out who's really in control there.

Around Cerilia in 80 days

Setting: Birthright

System: Primetime adventures

This one is kind of cheating, because Primetime adventures is quite setting-independent. So I rather mean it's a better fit for the kind of stories I'd like to run in this setting.

Birthright's setting works on a comprehensible scale for me. Most fantasy worlds have gigantic continents with dozens of large countries. They are too large for me, and I end up with a vast countryside where everything's the same for weeks to go. But Birthright has a small continent, maybe more like a large island with five distinct cultural regions. And each of those regions have a dozen provinces, each province described with its own flavor. It's not complicated, but colorful.

I guess it was done this way to accomodate the strategy aspect of Birthright that was one of its main features. While the concept of ruling provinces sounds great, the setting really makes me want to have a game about just travelling through this world. Not with adventurers, but rather with tourists, merchants, travelers who are going there to see a foreign place, or do business with the locals, and not just to explore a dungeon that happens to be there.

Ever since I saw the Roman Mysteries TV series I've been particularly fascinated with the idea of having a bunch of kids as player characters who are brought along by one's aunt/uncle on business trips to foreign lands, and get into trouble there. For example a trip from a frontier barony to the capital city, traveling through the woods of wary elves, then sailing down the river, stopping in a few more interesting port. Or a journey to the magnificent kingdoms in the east, although there are many perils both natural, and man-made on the way.

Thinking in Primetime adventures terms each province or city could be a separate episode. And the peculiarities of the place could be used to decide which character's spotlight episode should happen there.

Even domains of awnshegh (people and animals infected by the power of a dead god of darkness, becoming "monsters") don't have to be off limits. Some of them were quite sociable, and even more ruled over people whose perspective could be interesting.

Crown of Wings

Setting: Council of Wyrms

System: Birthright's domain management

Council of Wyrms focuses on playing dragons from various clans who work together. Despite the central role of the council, and the politics between the dragon clans, Council of Wyrms didn't touch much on the actual politics and realm management. It was the same AD&D, just scaled up to dragon PCs.

But I think there's so much more potential in the setting. I could easily imagine dragons ruling the land, managing guilds, and churches, and building out ley line networks to cast spells affecting whole realms. So everything that Birthright's system offered.

The setting isn't fully fleshed out, but it lets us fill in the land with fantastic locations. Some cities and towns were mentioned at unusual places, full of various races. So players could run wild with ideas when they create their own domain. Should their be trade routes with a merfolk city, and underwater ley lines? Absolutely. Could there be a church based on promoting the halfling lifestyle? Why not?

And then there's the Council. Domain Power could determine the character's status in it. Regency Points, and Gold Bars could be used as bargaining chips.

But what should be its purpose? I have seen enough of the trope of warring factions who have to be unified against some common threat, maybe with a traitorous faction thrown in the mix. I mean it makes for a fine story, but I'm getting a little tired of it. This time I'd rather see a council as a way to trade, to exchange ideas, and to help everybody improve their own clan. It doesn't make for a strong narrative, but I think it's a more positive message overall.

I think the biggest restriction in the setting is that dragon clans are too homogenic. Like, each clan consists of just one kind of dragon. That doesn't help in putting together a game with diverse characters. The original game concept solved that by making the PCs agents of the Council who may come from various clans.

For a more political game we could introduce mixed clans. So the characters could be part of the same clan, while still coming from various places. Maybe they are outcasts or survivors who created their own clan. Or maybe their clan was open minded, and was located in a central place, so it naturally lead to it becoming more diverse.

Or we could say that they are from different clans, but their clans are neighbours and allies of each other. At least if you're like me, and you don't want to set the players up for PvP by putting them to opposing sides of a clan feud.

Custom Quest

Setting: Your long-running campaign

System: Fiasco

I think any campaign that went on for a while should be an easy source for creating a Fiasco playset for a one-time play. Fiasco is about nobodies trying to pull off something bigger than they are. It's about petty people, and half-baked ideas going wrong. And while that might still sound like your average adventurer party, here we know they can't win. They will be lucky if they don't end up in a lot worse situation they started in.

For convenience I will refer to the PCs of the original campaign as heroes. It's okay if they are not actual heroes. That happens pretty often. But they had the greatest influence on the campaign this one shot is based on, so we have to heavily rely on them.

So the player characters in this one-shot are probably just background noise in the original campaign. I think this is a great way to explore how the actions of the heroes might affect the common people in unexpected ways. Objects driving the character dynamics could be things the heroes brought back, created, or just used in a memorable moment. Maybe an artifact they sold off is making its rounds on the blackmarket, and someone sees an opportunity in it. Or evidence surfaced that could incriminate one of the heroes.

And it's not just Objects. Their shenanigans might have brought the unwanted attention of a powerful cult to the city. Or the local barkeep loathes the heroes because they trashed his place one too many times. And he's just looking for some idiots to exact his revenge. Really, just look for whomever the heroes might have ever slighted or aided to get a plethora of petty plots and strange driving forces in the community. This can give you the Needs and Relationships between the player characters.

Locations could be places well known by the players, preferably close to a place the heroes frequent. The heroes, and the more memorable NPCs could give some enjoyable cameos. And finally they could become part of the Tilt table to turn a bad situation worse in the middle of the game.

[sterekweek-2024]

Hey hey Sterek Fans! Today is the day that we announce our 2018 Sterek Week Schedule!! Without further ado, here’s the theme schedule for this year’s Sterek Week!

Thursday October 25th- Scooby-Wolf: Supernatural fans may be somewhat familiar with this one, as last season's "Scoobynatural" episode was one of the most well loved in the show's history (and definitely my personal favorite!) We at Sterek Week are ENORMOUS Scooby Doo fans, but don't let that fool you! You DO NOT have to use actual Scooby Doo charectors in your work at all! You can if you want to, but rather than this being a crossover, this theme is alot more about the theme of Scooby Doo it's self- young adults going out to unmask monsters and solve mysteries! You can use the theme of "Scooby Doo" any way you'd like, it could be a crossover, or you can take that simple mystery-solving theme and use it for Stiles and Derek (there's already a taste of that in canon if you don't want to go full AU) or you could even use one of Scooby's famous monsters for them to fight.... and maybe make it real, the sky is the limit for this one, so grab a box of Scooby Snacks and climb in the Mystery Machine! (Quick note: If anyone does intend to use a monster from the Scooby series and isn't sure what to go with, Admin Void and Admin Asagi, your local Scooby fanatics, are more than happy to assist!)

Friday October 26th- Lyrics and Quotes: This is one theme that can truly, easily bridge across any fanwork medium with ease, be it a video set to music, a songfic, graphics covered in quotes, or art inspired by lyrics, let your imagination run free with any words that inspire you! They can be dark, light, romantic, angsty, from fiction or real life, there are no limits, and CERTAINLY feel free to include more than one if you’re so inspired!

Saturday October 27th- Vampires: Throughout literary history, werewolves and vampires have long been enemies, but it wasn't always that way, in fact, many believe that the popularity of the werewolf was partly launched by Dracula, who's favorite forms included not only bats, but also cats, ravens..... and wolves, this is your chance to vamp up Teen Wolf in any form you choose! Are werewolves and vampires mortal enemies? Are they freinds? Can they become hybrids? We want to know, so sink your teeth into this theme and let your vamp flag fly!

Sunday October 28th- Alternate Canon: We've all had our complaints about canon, but the Sterek community is a very diverse fanbase, meaning that controversial topics like taking Derek's Alpha powers, Stiles joining the FBI, and even weather or not Sterek should have become canon in the first place, are less fandom-wide agreements and more matters of personal taste, but no matter how much you like (or dislke) canon, you surely have atleast ONE complaint... and now is the time to fix-it! Alternate canon however you'd like! Be it in a big way (magic!Stiles, no Hale fire, alive Laura Hale) or a small way (everything is the same except... Stiles keeps his jeep in 6A, the sheriff's name is John, Derek DOES have a cell phone) this is your chance to put a band-aid on whatever burn canon may have caused!

Monday October 29th- Scene Stealer: Take a scene, any scene, from any show/book/movie, and Sterek it! Do Stiles and Derek have to stop Thanos from getting the Infinity Gauntlet? Maybe Stiles is an exceptional assassin... with an exceptional desire for Detective Derek Hale? Do the two of them take part in the annual Purge? Or maybe they both want to save the world of their favorite virtual reality? Maybe someone can fix that Bleach redux, if you’ve ever thought “Hey this scene would have been SO much better with Sterek..” then this is the theme for you!

Tuesday October 30th- Witch Hunt: Ahh witches, over the course of time they've really done a 180 from the believed-to-be-pure-evil of Dracula to getting their wands and brooms for an adventure at Hogwarts, there are classically bad witches, good witches, and everything in between, but perhaps the darkest moment in the history of witches is the Salem Witch Trials... but just because that's the most famous witch hunt, it's far from the only, now Stiles and Derek will have to battle witch hunters themselves, are they after Stiles for being a witch? Maybe in an AU, Derek is the one who possesses magic? Or maybe it's canon and they both have to rescue a witch from being hunted? Anything you can come up with is our pleasure to see, so cast a spell and remember- DON'T burn the witch!

Wendsday October 31st- Halloween: Our last day this year is my personal favorite day of every year: Halloween!! From ghoulies and ghosties and long-legged beasties, let your love for Sterek rule the night! The best part of Halloween themes is that you can use the actual holiday as Halloween for your theme- picking out costumes, trick or treating, and carving pumpkins, or you can just use what Halloween REPRESENTS- the celebration of all things magic, haunted, and living in the shadows, or hey, you can always combine it! You could also mix Halloween mythologies and modern day Halloween, maybe something special happens to werewolves on Halloween, maybe the Hales have always had a history of Halloween parties and some wicked pixies take over, maybe Stiles goes to the woods as Little Red Riding Hood and his Big Bad Wolf is waiting there for him… this may be the end of Sterek Week this year, but mark my words, as long as there is Halloween, there will be Sterek Week!

We’re so excited to announce these themes, and even more excited to see your work in October! Now that the themes are here, it’s time to start your engines, and gear up for Sterek Week 2018!!

[sammisincostumeagain]

Finally beat Breath of the Wild today.

Spoilers belowwwwww

Read my review.

Okay, so I eagerly awaited this game for years and now that we finally got it and I finally finished it, I’m ready to go over it.

I tend to judge games based on three factors: story, effects, and mechanics. Everything else is just a bonus, so here we go.

STORY - 7/10

I have a LOT to say on this. Personally, story is perhaps the most important factor in a game. I play for a good tale and I’ll tolerate a lot for one.

First of all, I want to say that the story had an amazing amount of presence for how few cutscenes it actually had. The story was told as much by the environment as it was by words. There were several locations that begged many questions, like Fort Hateno and the Forgotten Temple. The damage from the calamity 100 years ago is evident throughout the map and it’s easy to draw conclusions from what you see while wandering around. It all has a very grave and mysterious feel to it.

The general concept was also very unique and surprising for a Zelda game; more than any previous game, this story really was about Zelda herself. It’s a tale of Zelda we’ve never really seen. I love the way they explored this through the visions, too; you were playing Link, but the whole time the story was more about what happened before you came around. It was a really clever twist on the whole “hero awakens with no memory of the past” trope.

But more than any other game in the series, this game let us get to know Zelda and really explore her character in detail through her tragic “failed princess” backstory. As much as her technical manner annoyed me, she was still relatable and I found myself very sympathetic to her. We’re used to a game in which Link is a farm boy or other citizen one wouldn’t consider ideal for heroic work and he has to just get the gist of it as he goes. In Breath of the Wild, Link actually is a trained warrior and is better prepared for his destiny than Zelda herself. You start the game as a badass; Zelda spends over 100 years trying to fulfill her destiny, and she has a lot of poignant lines about it in the Recovered Memories.

This is Recovered Memory #11, Shelter From the Storm.

The characters were, generally, very likable and this is where I feel like the story begins wanting. The Champions, of course, are dead; their only presence with you is evidenced when you use their powers and their voice calls out to you. As you travel around and free the Divine Beasts, you meet several new and interesting characters, but your involvement with them is limited to the time you conquer their respective Divine Beasts and then they lose relevancy. This is a great shame, as they were all characters I found really engaging and would have loved to further explore.

I had sort of hoped that they would pilot the Divine Beasts as new Champions, and that they might assist in your assault on Hyrule Castle. I was rather disappointed to find that Hyrule Castle was one solo quest, and I found myself feeling sort of lonely by the time I was prepped and ready to conquer it.

In addition, the side quests offered are shallow and do little to promote a relationship between you and the other, maybe, 50 citizens on the entire map. They do not expand or contribute to the story in any way, and seem to just be a way to earn a little extra change or some weapons. They’re good for that, but otherwise unfulfilling and I never felt compelled to finish them.

EFFECTS - 8/10

I’ll say this now: while effects are really important to me, I don’t grade this on a scale of realistic graphics or crap like that. I actually really like animated and cartoony games. The only thing I want to be realistic is the soul of the characters, so I’m not judging the quality of the graphics here.

What I WILL say is that Breath of the Wild has beautiful graphics. Everything was watercolor magic and looked beautiful. The glittering of obtainable items was subtle enough not to be irritating. The change of music and atmosphere on the night of a blood moon was eerie. The music that accompanied Guardians--and only Guardians--was what anxiety is made of.

The silence at certain times and in certain places in this game was very appropriate and had a real effect on the mood. Dead silence with only restless crickets for company at dusk or midnight was great. The enemy music could have been a little creepier, but I’m a major horror fan so I’m a little biased. Every sound is creepy when it’s dead silent and you thought you were alone in an area. I had a particularly frightening encounter with a Lynel before I knew what that was a month ago. The light piano music on the overworld also gave the world sort of a Studio Ghibli feel and I was reminded of Castle in the Sky and Howl’s Moving Castle (Zelda even sounds like Sophie).

The background music was nice, but when it wasn’t playing the world felt really empty and cold. It felt like a substantial amount of music was missing. This brings me to another major complaint I have about this game: the lack of a real soundtrack. Almost every game in the series boasts a large range of original tracks that are catchy and inspiring. The music for the villages was just unmemorable, and kind of felt half-assed. There is also no music at all in any of the “dungeons”, and many of the most popular songs from the series are songs from dungeons.

The most interesting tracks are at the very end of the game. I do like that some elements of the theme from Link’s Awakening were present in the intense track on the exterior of Hyrule Castle, but that’s hardly enough for a game I spent over a month playing. It’s the only song I can remember other than the theme in Kakariko Village.

MECHANICS - 9/10

I really don’t have a lot of complaints here; even without a complex storyline at the forefront, this game totally delivered on the “exploration” front and was a blast just to play for weeks. I loved floating around on the paraglider and basically just spent the whole game climbing on absolutely everything. There was treasure just about everywhere you thought to look, and I’m a treasure hunter at heart. Every time I went out on a limb and tried someplace new, I was rewarded for the effort.

I liked the way they set up the heart container situation in this game too. The temples taught you how to be creative in solving problems and a lot of them were really clever puzzles that gave me ideas about what to do out on the map. They weren’t all hard, and some of them had the puzzles on the outside. It was great because you could hunt them down at your own pace and get just as many hearts as you needed. It bothered me that you needed so many more Spirit Orbs to get a decent boost in stamina, though. I didn’t really feel like I had enough until I had a second bar, which was 12 orbs later. It was really cool that you could trade them back and forth though.

In terms of learning the mechanics, this game had virtually no tutorial, but I was able to figure everything out on my own. The first thing I learned was that I am an idiot who apparently enjoys doing everything the hard way; I would frequently spend a bunch of time, materials, or hearts to accomplish something, only to get past it and realize there were approximately 1,000,000 easier ways to do that if I had just gone a little farther up the hill or remembered all of the applications of Magnesis. I also liked the way that the Divine Beasts moved within, allowing you to change the geography to access new areas. Breath of the Wild had an extremely dynamic environment even by modern standards that was incredibly fun to dick with.

The addition of so many weapons was great too, although to begin with I felt like the durability on the weapons was way too low. Once I got about halfway though, I found myself encountering more and more weapons and then it was more an issue of space. Upgrading space was not difficult either. Koroks were behind every blade of grass.

I also loved the various armor sets. The Sheikah set was my favorite, and upgrading armor was really easy. By the time I reached the Great Fairies I had more materials than I had any idea what to do with. It’s easy to make money if you mine daily around Death Mountain, so you can buy a lot of the materials you need from Beedle at any stable. There wasn’t anything I felt was unachievable in that respect. Even by the time I got to Robbie’s Lab I had so many parts from Guardians that I was able to get most of the armor and weapons in a single go.

The Amiibo were pretty useful too. I got Epona my second time using the Smash Bros. Link Amiibo and I got the Tunic of Twilight. It was also a good way to acquire materials.

What DID irritate me was the shooting star feature. I cannot count how many times I saw a star fall in the distance and it was so far away that I couldn’t reach it and the little beam of golden light didn’t appear. I was able to acquire 2 over the entire month and a half I was playing. It was stressful to watch them drop and know I couldn’t get them, even after I gave up trying.

Another complaint I have is that there really doesn’t seem to be any reason to continue playing this game after you’ve beaten it. The bosses in this game were all pretty easy; it had to be fairly hack n’ slash to allow for any weapons you have to be useful and allow multiple play styles, and that’s something I’ve wanted for Nintendo to do for a long time. Oftentimes you can even just use the environment to kill monsters, and I really like that. I pretty much killed everything with Bomb and Ancient arrows. But there’s not really any reason to replay the game once you’ve done all of this stuff once.

If you’re a completionist, you’ll probably feel compelled to complete everything before you beat Ganon. If you wait until afterward, there’s no really satisfying reward for all your hard work. Something I didn’t do was construct Tarrey Town, but I feel like that’s really only fun before you beat the game. Otherwise, it’s just another means to amass wealth and an arsenal. Nothing changes after you beat Ganon, so it just kind of feels like deja vu.

The good news is that we have DLC coming. I’m not too interested in the Hard Mode or Cave of Trials, but there is going to be a new feature and this Holiday Season™ we’ll be getting some new story, and that’s motivating for me. I’m really excited for that, and seeing as it’s May in a day we’re nearly halfway to Christmas already. Fingers crossed that it’s good!

OVERALL: 7.5/10

Recommendations

I like to add a section for recommended adjustments to future installations of the series based on what was lacking in the present game. It’s pretty subjective so I don’t expect everybody to agree with it, but I like doing it anyway so here we go.

1. Incorporate supporting characters more fully into the storyline. 2. Provide fewer, but more engaging and emotionally rewarding side quests. 3. Provide some content that is strictly post-final boss. 4. Develop a more thrilling soundtrack. 5. Maybe give us another companion character.

All in all, I’m quite pleased with this game. Its story  and characters are on par with Twilight Princess, the exploration is reminiscent of Wind Waker, and the appearance and mood of the world reflect that of Skyward Sword. It possesses elements from all of my favorite games, I just think it could have used a finer polish and maybe even another year of development. With that, it would have been the perfect game.

As it were, what Breath of the Wild DOES do, it does phenomenally and playing this was certainly an experience that has raised my standards for Nintendo. I hope the next game is only better, no matter how many years I have to wait for it.