#recently got Majora too

[coconutfairyyy]

The Fierce Deity mask is one of my favourite things in the entire Zelda series, so I had to take a good picture of it in TOTK.

[wayfayrr]

Hello! If I may, I’d like to make a request.

When I was little (between 4 and 8), my brother and I played Ocarina of Time constantly. It was our go-to game when hanging out. We replayed it and found all secrets and stuff. I was wondering if you could do a platonic self aware OOT!Link one shot? One where Link considers the player to be like a sibling to him since they grew up together in a way?

Thank you so much! I really enjoy your work ❤️

you're very welcome anon! this was such a sweet request to write!! I went with the post timeskip link for this seeing as I've already written one for Majora's mask link and I thought it would be more interesting to have that difference between the two pieces <3 I hope you'll enjoy this

[masterlist]

“Hey, I’ve been wanting to ask for a while… do you still have that old copy of Ocarina of time we used to play together? I’ve been kinda wanting to replay it. It’s a bit of a pain to get a new one or an emulator though so…”

“Uh? I think so, I can check in my attic later and drop it around your place tomorrow if I can?”

“That sounds perfect, thanks for the favour man.”

That was a fairly productive phone call, now I hopefully won’t have to mess about with an emulator or shell out for the subscription to play it again. Seeing as Nintendo doesn’t want to make their old catalogue accessible. All I need to do on my end is to wait and possibly google how to set up an N64 in the meantime.

Turns out that we did still have the old thing, and that it isn’t all that hard to set up either so it’s not like it takes too long for me to hear the calmingly melancholic tones of the game’s opening theme. Our old save file is still there too, although some of the stats on the file seem to have gotten a little bit corrupted because I’m convinced we completed it fully. Although it’s been what like 10 years or more since I would’ve last played, it makes sense that I might just be misremembering things. No harm in seeing where we left off though is there?

Well even though the file says otherwise, looking through Link’s inventory really wants to disprove that - there’s something with the same sprite as Zelda’s letter where it should just be an empty slot. It’s not got a name, if I hover over it it simply brings up a missing value error and the button prompt me to read it. It’s not like there’s any issue if I did open it, it’s an old save file so even if it does corrupt I won’t lose anything. 

Nothing happened, just a fade to blank before it glitched out and the inventory screen popped back up so that I could close it and have a look around…

How did Link turn around as I was paused in the inventory and how did his face get so close to the screen?

“[Name]? I knew you’d be back at some point! I knew you wouldn’t just leave your older brother for good… you wouldn’t would you?”

“...How do you know my name..?”

I know that Ai has gotten incredibly good recently but this is an N64, an unmodded one at that, so whatever the hell is happening right now can’t be due to that. This feels like it could be the start to a creepypasta though with everything going on right now - is this like a real life ben drowned - no it can’t be, he’d be crying blood if it were the case and he wouldn’t be as friendly either. 

“Because you told me it all those years ago when you first played through the game? You always spoke to me like I was a real person, like you saw me as your older brother, so it’s only natural that I started to see you like a little sibling right? Then when you disappeared I got so worried, It’s been so long but you’ve gotten so much older! Did you pull the mastersword yourself, because this much time can’t have really passed can it?... Can it?”

He looks almost like he’s about to cry, I should be caref- why am I so worried about hurting the feelings of a fictional character? Is it cause he sees me like a sibling, a younger one; because he knows me from when I was younger; or because he seems so attached to me already? Maybe I should just… turn it off so I don’t have to deal with it.

“I don’t remember how long it’s been, a good few years at least, Since I’ve played it. I wasn’t exactly planning to-”

“Is that what you used to control me!? I’ve never been able to get a good look at it before. Would you mind bringing it closer?”

“...Yeah I can bring it closer.”

The way he interrupted me was so so sad, he’s forcing himself to be cheery when he looks like he’s about to break down, like how an older brother would act. He really sees himself as my older brother doesn’t he? I have to admit that the way he’s leaning against the screen like an excited kid is also pretty cute I won’t lie to myself, if it weren’t for how insane the situation is I don’t think I’d mind him being my younger brother. He’s younger than me now anyway so that makes far more sense. 

Is the screen cracking beneath him? 

It’s definitely cracking under his weight, there are seconds left before it shatters.

“It’s so simple and yet it was the reason that you were able to-”

Glass can only last so long. And now he’s out, lying on my floor in a shocked heap with glass shards surrounding and covering him. After a couple of seconds of neither of us knowing what to do, we both snap into action at the same time, while I try to help him up and check for any serious wounds… he’s just laughing with the widest goofiest smile on his face, grabbing at my arms like I’m nothing but a wisp of a dream. 

“I - wow I - I could never have imagined that I could - that this - that this was even an option for me…”

“But I can be your brother in person now can’t I?”

[entropicbias]

what video games you like

you... wanna know about my favorite video games...?

THANK YOU, KIND STRANGER! what a coincidence that you asked this when i asked people to ask it. it must have been fate!

here is a list of games i play/have, with bold highlighting the ones i currently enjoy a lot.

-minecraft -overwatch -ultrakill -pokeMMO (i have regular pokemon black v2 as well) -solitaire -wizard101 -legend of zelda (wind waker, majora's mask, twilight princess, and ocarina of time) -garry's mod -left 4 dead -vr chat -roblox -half life (i haven't gotten to half life 2 yet but i've got that too) -portal -psychonauts -phasmophobia -ghostbusters: the video game -undertale -stardew valley -counter-strike 2 -lethal company -sonic adventure 2 - yume nikki - ricochet -luigi's mansion -kirby super star ultra - super mario galaxy - crash bandicoot this is supposed to be me as a wizard. i recently got into playing wizard101 and i've been having so much fun. i don't know why i didn't try this game out earlier. i've always been fascinated by magic! i can go into detail about any of them if anyone else is curious.

[ok-pop-1]

i've recently been working on a linkverse au! the research i've been doing has been... extensive, but here are some character doodles i've got so far :) will probably be posting some more character doodles in the coming days as i finalize different designs. and thanks @tashacee for permission to yoink blind sky :D

rambles under the cut for anyone interested!

edit-- tags are now updated :) you can check out the comic here!

the idea behind this au is essentially, what would it look like if all nine links were alive at the same time? i won't be giving that much plot info for spoiler reasons, but the general idea is that nine heroes were born to fight ganon, instead of just one

this au began before i was really aware of linkverse as a thing and only knew about lu, and by the time i learned about how other folks have been dividing up the timelines and the links, the number nine got a bit too entrenched into the story to change lol

with that being said, i'm not really using lu as a guide for these guys character-wise. they'll be similar, but i've been putting my own spin on them based both on their backgrounds in au and what i want their personalities to be

info about the pictures--

lost and saria bugging mido! (i redesigned the kokiri because i could-- also saria's got shorts on under that tabard, not a miniskirt lol) lost is this au's equivalent of time, but he's more of a mask equivalent than anything else. his backstory is more or less the same-- he was brought to the lost woods as a baby and grew up as one of the kokiri. the events of majora's mask mostly happened, but due to the nature of this au, the events of ocarina of time are technically concurrent with the au's plot

knight! the name is... tentative. i'll admit that much lol, i just don't really have any better ideas. he's this au's sky equivalent. instead of a loftwing, he's got aria, his seeing-eye pigeon. he's training with the skyward sword academy cast to be a knight of hylia, and like with lost, the events of skyward sword will be more or less concurrent with the plot

[rawliverandgoronspice]

TLOZ translations always seem to be a bit shitty. I still see people talk about the weird translation of the Demise monologue at the end of SkSw. I think someone said that Demise was more general with his statement, as in there will always be forces from the demon tribe fighting against the light or smth? Not specifically "us three will always fight". (I've read it a few times, but hard to remember, sorry.) (On the topic of SkSw, I kinda dislike how much it impacted theories within TLOZ, some theories are really cool, don't get me wrong. But now, even games that existed for years before suddenly are being pushed to fit with the lore presented in that game. Ganondorf being the best example: He no longer is his own character who did bad things because of his own will and actions, it's now "He did it all because an evil curse made him do it. He had no choice, he was born as a vessel for the demonic lord." The implications that "the curse of Demise" also would mainly go for the already vilified race of the Gerudo, and make their one male an evil warlord is already kinda... yeah... no. (Not to mention that there are other demon lords throughout the franchise that have nothing to do with Ganon.)

Ohh speaking of this I recently saw this post that did a good translation of that very moment, and pretty much confirms what you are mentioning anon; that it's basically a promise of that cycle coming back moreso than Demise himself coming back (especially since his actual and definitive death is a big deal in that game).

But yeah, I agree it has taken a huge space in the way the series is thought about. I pretty much completely missed that hard turn, as I couldn't play Skyward Sword when it released and wasn't super into Zelda afterward anymore (I had gotten too edgy.... 2011 was the year where I got obsessed with every horror videogame in existence basically except for Resident Evil for some reason I could never get into that series ANYWAY WAY off topic........), so coming back a few years later had me very ???? puzzled about how the theories had reconstructed themselves around Hylia and Demise and endless cycles (it's not that it wasn't a thing before, but I wouldn't say it was as much a Series Trademark as it is now).

But yeah. Ganondorf having his own motivations makes him immediately stronger as an antagonist, especially since his deal is quite complicated all things considered.

I am having a thought about how a lot of Zelda villains' motivation is a sort of rebellion against nature. I have scratched enough digital paper about Ganondorf's situation, but like... Minish Cap Vaati is also very much motivated by his refusal to remain small and whimsical and seize power instead of staying in his lane (and then he gets horny in Four Sword so, maybe let's not go there), Zant is.... Zant, Hilda in A Link Between World has been cosmically punished for trying to reject the Goddesses and create a world on its own terms --like SERIOUSLY this is HORRIFYING I feel like we don't talk enough about how utterly nightmarish of a reality that paints for Hyrule as a whole-- Girahim is devoted but fights for the side more or less destined to lose... It's interesting how Hyrule is hostile to change and anything that threatens the statut quo.

(then you have the occasional Majora and Yuga, whomst I dooon't think really fit the above category --to their full credit! and then you have Bellum, who is..... a blob...... And I don't remember enough from either the Oracles game or about Malladus to put them in either category, I need to replay those games)

Hyrule really has this frightening quality to it when you stare at it for too long: that your two only options are to either graciously submit to your assigned cosmic role, or fight it and become darkness incarnate in some way. A Link Between World showed, quite starkly, that trying to escape that binary choice is *not an option*.

[ordon-shield]

Animated Zelda Adaptions

With recent discussion of an animated Zelda film to follow the Mario movie, I got to thinking about ways to adapt different Zelda games into animation. While a Zelda movie wouldn’t necessarily need to be an adaption of a specific game, with the variety of styles the series has gone through over the years, they’d need to pick one to go with — so here’s my thoughts.

Zelda 1/Adventure of Link/A Link to the Past/Link’s Awakening

I’m putting these four together because I think they could all be adapted into animation the same way — based of the original official art, in the style of an 80s cartoon (just with a bit more of a budget). Each game could be a season of a TV show, expanding on the somewhat limited plot by making it episodic and using the extra time to expand on the characters and world within that format.

Ocarina of Time/Majora’s Mask

For these two, I think stopmotion in the style of Laika (known for Coraline & Kubo and the Two Strings) would work the best (or using 3D stylised to resemble stopmotion, like the Lego Movie). The OoT style doesn’t seem like one that would translate to 2D very well, and I think it would be fun to borrow some ideas from the Link’s Awakening remake for the Switch and have the character designs stylised so they look almost like action figures. While Ocarina of Time would have to be a movie, Majora’s Mask just wouldn’t work in that format, since the sidequests are so vital to the overall story, meaning a one season series would probably be the best way to adapt it.

Oracle of Ages/Seasons

I’ve never played these two myself, but I think going more ‘anime’ with them would work well, although it would be fun to work in the pixel art of the original games somehow. Like the other Downfall Timeline games, these ones would would work best as a TV series — maybe three seasons, one for Ages, one for Seasons, and one for the linked games ending but adding in extra story where Link travels between Holodrum and Labrynna. For an animation studio, someone suggested Toei Animation, who apparently did the animation for the LA remake.

Wind Waker/Phantom Hourglass/Spirit Tracks

Wind Waker, the one that got me thinking about animated Zelda in the first place! I think this is the only Zelda game that would work with Illumination due to its more cartoony style, although other studios like DreamWorks would also work. Although if it was done in 2D, based on the official art, Cartoon Saloon would definitely pull it off. Wind Waker would work pretty well as a movie with pretty minimal changes needed to the plot, and Phantom Hourglass/Spirit Tracks could make up a Zelda trilogy.

Minish Cap/Four Swords Adventures

Leaving out the original Four Swords due to its complete lack of story — I think these two would work with a similar style to the Wind Waker trilogy, although I’d definitely prefer them to be 2D over 3D. Minish Cap would definitely work as a movie, but I’m not sure about FSA, it probably depends on how much is pulled from the manga.

Twilight Princess

Much like Ocarina of Time, I don’t think the Twilight Princess artstyle as it is would work in 2D. Based on their work like Wolfwalkers and Screecher’s Reach, I think Cartoon Saloon could definitely replicate the vibes of the original game in a more cartoony style. Alternatively, they could go full anime with this one — although it would definitely work better as something more inspired by 90s anime and its more realistic proportions.

Skyward Sword

Initially I was leaning towards Ghibli and while it would definitely work, just doesn’t feel right to me. Maybe Toei again? I’m not too familiar with Japanese animation studios, but Skyward Sword is definitely a good fit for the typical ‘anime’ look. Also I don’t think 3D would work here.

A Link Between Worlds

While technically a sequel/remake to A Link to the Past, the differences in art style make me feel that this one should have its own look — preferably 3D so the contrast with Link’s painting form is strengthened.

Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom

These ones have got to be Ghibli, there’s no question about it there. The big question is do you make them each a series, or a movie with a number of timeskips? Either one has benefits and downsides.

[spicyicymeloncat]

Oh shit. In the legend of zelda Majora’s Mask, the game is in four sections.

The first section, you have the Deku mask, created from the spirit of the Deku Butler’s son, who died a long time ago, and you only realise it after you’ve already met those who knew him.

The second section, you have the Goron mask created from Darmani. He died just recently, to the point where you can convince the gorons that he never died at all.

The third section is the Zora mask from Mikau, who you meet just before he dies.

Each time you meet a character, it’s just too late to save them, but as you go on through this journey, the time you miss them by, shrinks. You get closer to being able to save someone.

And in the fourth section of the game, you play the song of healing and you do save someone. Pamela’s father got to live on with his daughter.

It’s just nice that the first 3 transformation masks were created by those you couldn’t save, and the last mask, the fierce deity mask, was made up of the gratitude of all the people you did save.

[blueeyedrat]

Games I played in 2023.

Last year was stable. This year has been... less so. I've bounced between getting out more and shutting myself in more, and between trying to take better care of myself and letting small issues and stressors start to pile up. My steady job got a lot less steady, and I'm now out of work and finding ways to pass the time. Like video games, for instance. Shall we?

(2022 ⇐ 2023)

Moncage

This was another decent year for getting caught up on games I've tried out and expressed an interest in before. Moncage, INSIGHT, Railbound, URBO, and a few other games you'll see further down the list. I also followed up on some games I've played in the past like Train Valley 2, and even dipped back into some old mainstays like Eternal. One of these days I'll find time for Minecraft or Dwarf Fortress again.

I more or less broke even on my backlog this year, chipping away at smaller games from assorted bundles I've picked up over the years, but also picking up some new bundles to add to the pile. So many games, so little time.

Before We Leave

While we're talking about the backlog, here's a game I've been interested in for a while. A settlement builder in a solar system of small planets, with a quaint aesthetic of wooden ships and massive space whales. I was pleasantly surprised how much I enjoyed this one. The automation and logistics aspect is an interesting spin on the genre, even it gets a bit complex at times. Never too challenging, though, and there's enough depth and nuance to hold my interest all the way to the final stages and on towards the stars. I'm looking forward to the upcoming sequel.

The Legend of Zelda (series)

It's hard to go wrong with Zelda. I have fond memories of Skyward Sword, Wind Waker HD, and Breath of the Wild, and with a new one on the way, it seemed like as good a time as any to catch up on my library. In order: Link's Awakening DX, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, The Minish Cap, and the DLC quests from Breath of the Wild I never got around to. Our Wii U saw more activity than it's gotten in years.

Opinions on each: Awakening was a fun, solid 2D adventure that never overstayed its welcome, though the game shows its age at a few points. Likewise, Ocarina was an interesting look at the series' jump to 3D, but was also somewhat janky at times and it took a while for me to really get into a groove with it. (I think the turning point might've been the Water Temple. I actually liked the Water Temple. Ye gods.) Majora was a sizeable improvement gameplay-wise and played with the format in neat ways, though I'll admit that I butted heads with the time loop mechanic more than once.

I have a particular nostalgia for Minish Cap; some of my earliest memories of Nintendo games are watching my friend's GBA over his shoulder on the bus ride to elementary school. After so long, this was the one I was most curious to see if it held up. Answer: yes. Minish Cap is officially my favorite 2D Zelda, and the highlight of this little retro binge. There's a lot of charm to it, and it just feels good to play.

It may be a bit too recent for nostalgia, but I almost forgot how much I loved Breath of the Wild. My old file was exactly how I left it, and playing through the extra content was a good way to re-acquaint myself with the "new" Zelda style before…

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

This was a daunting one. If I had to sum up Tears in one sentence, it would be this: There is so much game in this game. Even compared to its predecessor, there's so much to do and so many more layers of exploration and interaction, with a wide array of smaller improvements that make it a smoother experience overall.

I wish I could say I put as much time into this game as I did into Breath of the Wild, and I did put a lot of time into it, but… some other things got in the way. Summer is when my work got a lot busier and a good amount more stressful, and this was a game I slowly chipped away at whenever I found time for it. I got pretty much everything I wanted out of it, and after the credits rolled, I put it away and haven't touched it since. I should change that. I'm sure there are more good times to be had.

Mutazione

The word that comes to mind to describe Mutazione is fascinating. It's a point-and-click narrative, light on gameplay, heavy on story and character. Of the other games I've played recently, the vibes remind me the most of Sable – quiet and contemplative, where all you want to do is observe and take in the world and characters that are being presented to you. It dovetails nicely with the story itself, which largely consists of a curious little soap opera playing out around characters who are along for the ride. The writing is some of the best I've seen this year, and gets real fuckin' raw in ways I wasn't expecting. This one will stick with me for a while.

Pikmin 3 / The Wild at Heart

I've never had the focus or dexterity for a really complex RTS, but Pikmin's always been a little more approachable. Played the second game in the series a while back, picked up a used copy of Pikmin 3 at a local convention this year, and with another one coming out, it seemed as good an excuse as any to make it a double feature.

Both games have their charms. Pikmin has a distinct style and sense of scale that's hard to replicate, and a good variety of environments and encounters and puzzles. The Wild at Heart is smaller in scope as a Pikmin-like, and hits some familiar beats while remixing some of the core ideas in interesting ways. The latter also put more of an emphasis on character and narrative, something I'd like to see fleshed out more, but what we got was still satisfying. Both games were fun, and I'm looking forward to getting my hands on Pikmin 4 soon.

Chants of Sennaar / Heaven's Vault

Another double feature – one game that caught my eye immediately, and another I've been curious about for a while. For a long time I've had a fondness for constructed languages, with scripts and writing systems of particular interest. The idea of decoding such a language lends itself well to a puzzle game, and these two approach it in different ways: Chants of Sennaar features multiple cultures in a Tower of Babel-esque setting, each with their own quirks and traits to learn and translate between, and their own puzzles to solve. Heaven's Vault opts for depth, with a single language and a vast history that you slowly unravel through exploration.

My verdict for both games is the same. The language puzzles are really cool and interesting! I want more of them! …Everything else in between gets sort of meandering at times. Not enough to drag down the overall experience, but perhaps enough to overstay its welcome. Sennaar filled the space with a mish-mash of puzzles and stealth, which felt oddly paced at times. Heaven's Vault's pacing was hit even harder with slow exploration and visual novel-esque story segments – fine enough for one playthrough, but the amount of wandering and backtracking involved makes me hesitant to go back and play NG+ to see the rest of the content. I don't have the patience to play a visual novel multiple times to see what all of the dialogue options do. The story's fine as is, and I got what I wanted out of it.

Even with their faults, these are still probably the games that influenced me the most in 2023. If anyone asks me, as a game dev, what I would make given unlimited time, resources, and creative freedom, from now on I'm going to point to Chants of Sennaar and say "something like that". I want more games like this to exist. I will make them myself, if I have to.

F-Zero 99

This wasn't the only racing game I played this year – a bunch of new content was added to Mario Kart 8, and I also pulled Horizon Chase Turbo from my backlog and spent a bit of time on that – but this is definitely the one that made the biggest splash. I've never played an F-Zero game, and it controls differently enough from other racers I've played that I had to unlearn a lot of muscle memory, but I got the hang of it after a while. The 99-player model is frantic in an enjoyable way, and races are quick enough that it's easy to pick up and play in short bursts… which is good, because short bursts are all my nerves can take with this one. Seriously this game is stressful. Fun, but stressful. Maybe one of these days I'll actually win a 99-player race.

Cobalt Core

I've been playing... a lot of Cobalt Core these past couple months. I don't jump on every roguelite or deckbuilder that comes out, but when one does get its hooks in me, they get in deep. This is another one of those games where everything just works. Great music and pixel art, fun characters (all traits shared with its predecessor, Sunshine Heavy Industries, which I also liked this year), a simple but engaging narrative, and an addicting gameplay loop that I can easily sink an hour into whenever the mood strikes me. It doesn't reinvent the wheel, but it doesn't need to – it takes a lot of ideas from games that have come before it, and builds on them to create something really enjoyable. One of my favorite games of the year, without question.

Terra Nil

As we build up, so too must we tear down. This is another one I wanted to get to sooner or later, and managed to slip it in during the last couple weeks of the year. It's also a type of game I want to play more often; a lot of the time when I play sim and builder games all I really want in the end is to build nice-looking homes and environments, and Terra Nil spins that into a puzzle game where those things are the only goal. It was a nice time, but left me wanting more – either more content in Terra Nil, or more games like it.

Eastward

This game is… a curiosity. A solid action-adventure game with a memorable cast of characters and impeccably detailed pixel art. Gameplay flips back and forth between slow-paced story segments and fun setpiece levels with a decent variety of tools for combat and puzzle-solving. The biggest sticking point is the narrative: the pacing and worldbuilding felt odd and disjointed in places, particularly in the back half, sometimes feeling like it's saying too much and often like it's said too little. Yet throughout all that, it never failed to be compelling, and I was hooked all the way 'til the end. What's more, the idea of the upcoming Octopia DLC flipping the entire game and setting on its head has my interest thoroughly piqued – something to look forward to in the coming year.

-

Here's to 2024, and here's hoping things turn around sooner or later.

[onyx-archer]

Open World, Shallow Structure: A Look at Zelda and It's Future

Originally, I was going to make my next post about another Life is Strange game, but I've been in a bit of a Zelda mood thanks to playing around with the Ocarina of TIme/Majora's Mask Combo Randomizer, so I wanted to talk about the Zelda series for a minute. As the title would suggest, I wanted to talk about Zelda's current open world direction, why I'm not a fan, and where I think it could improve.

As this is more about game design and less about story, spoilers will be minimal, but present. Just assume that I'm expecting you to be familiar with most Zelda games and their stories, and that I'll mention things from them when I think it's relevant. I'm going to be citing things from the 3D Zelda titles especially, because 2D Zelda is a different beast, but I'll mention things about them when necessary to illustrate a point. I'll put this under the cut cause it's gonna be long, but I have a lot of thoughts.

I also want to say up front that if you like the modern style of Zelda seen in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, that's great! You saw something in those games that I didn't, and I don't want to take that away from you! I just want to talk shop about Zelda's current struggle with game design as a fan who's been playing these games since they were like, 6.

With that, you know the drill, go under the cut if you wanna keep reading.

When I first played Breath of the Wild, I want to be real with y'all for a minute: I put it down after a few hours. I had basically gotten to the point where I was on my way to Zora's Domain, got side-tracked by some Shrines and other stuff, and got bored. What a lot of people see as an adventure full of wonder just felt like I was being side tracked by things that ultimately didn't matter. I've since beaten the game, and even 100%'d it, which is something I'd never recommend anyone sane do more than once.

Cards on the table: I haven't really touched Tears of the Kingdom in any real capacity yet. I watched some people play it, and asked a friend who is a diehard Zelda fan what he thought, and both things lead to the same conclusion: it's just Breath of the Wild 2.0. Which, I mean, duh, of course it was, that's a game that a lot of people liked, and so Nintendo would have to be pretty freaking dumb to not capitalize on that. Even I was initially positive about the choice, because I had thought that since they were going to be building off of the base of a game as beloved as BotW, that we'd see something like a "Majora's Mask" to BotW's "Ocarina of Time" in a lot of ways. In some ways, we got that, but in most ways where I think it mattered, we didn't.

So how can I judge a game I really haven't played? Well, it's built off of one I have played, so I can look at it through that lens. I can also take what I've heard from friends who have played it into consideration. With those things in mind, I've come up with a few core problems that I have with the current direction of Zelda that I hope are righted when the next game comes out in like, 7 years (cause let's be real, it's gonna be a long while before the next big game hits).

The Dungeons:

A big sticking point for a lot of more classic fans of the Zelda series that has yet to actually be remedied is the dungeons. More specifically, how the two most recent titles (not counting the Link's Awakening remake and the Skyward Sword remaster) don't really have tightly designed dungeons. I believe this is a consequence of the open-ended design, and the fact that the developers have leaned too hard into "solve the puzzles in any number of different ways" to allow for that tight design.

Zelda dungeons in the past, for the most part, are a combination of combat encounters and puzzle rooms, with a sense of exploration as you move through them. While I feel as though the combat aspect has been preserved to a degree, everything else is just lacking.

The combat in Zelda pre-Skyward Sword was pretty basic for the most part (just whacking guys with glorified sticks), and this is something that Breath of the Wild has objectively improved in a lot of ways. Combat just feels better, even if there's objectively a lot of jank when managing the inventory to swap between weapons. The only part of combat that is outright trash is the weapon degradation, which I'll cover later.

However, there is one thing that has been lost in this, and it ties into the puzzle element: boss fights.

Bosses in Zelda's past are basic in certain respects, but have layers that lean into the puzzle solving component of the game design. Usually, the bosses require you to play into the dungeon gimmick, which usually involves the tool you get in said dungeon, or in the lead up to the dungeon, which is the case for something like Bongo Bongo in Ocarina of Time. While sure, a lot of this leads to pretty obvious design quirks that make the bosses less challenging overall for some, and lead to mixed results as the series went on, the bosses did more than test your mettle, they tested you on the tools you have.

For every item that has limited use like the Spinner in Twilight Princess, there are items that have utility in ways beyond their dungeon of acquisition. This is typically for staples like the Bow, the Bombs, the Hookshot, etc, but it can also be for things like the Gust Jar or the Beetle from Skyward Sword. Yeah, they aren't as universally useful, but they are still useful, and can be used to add puzzle variety. Beyond just using the tool to exploit a weakness in the boss, they had other uses, and while some were definitely more limited than others, it was still some use.

Modern Zelda has decided that puzzles should be solvable in ways tied to the tools you get during the tutorial for the most part, and I think this has lead to the degradation of feeling of solving a puzzle. While sure, there are times when open-ended solutions to puzzles feels satisfying, it also leads to situations where the player can just cheese an answer, and while that may satisfy some in a creative sense, it leaves the people who want to solve head scratchers feeling like they wasted their time trying to think how the developers wanted the puzzle to be solved.

The fact that BotW and TotK puzzles can be solved in a number of ways, but also really only expect the player to have the tools they got during the tutorial area makes the puzzles feel... flat, for the lack of a better term.

This, in tern, makes the design of dungeons feel less satisfying to explore, because it has lead to the designers basically making all of the dungeon "find X number of keys to open the door to the boss." Yeah, classic Zelda was that at it's core, but the puzzles, while certainly not super complex because of their target audience, often had variety in ways that the modern ones just don't. That variety masked the blatant "find keys" part of the journey, which I feel is so obvious in the modern games that it sucks the sense of wonder exploring the dungeons used to bring. From what I've seen of TotK, this problem is made worse because the game just tells you that you need to find 5 things to unlock a door up front, and that's just kinda lame.

I'm not going to pretend the puzzles in OoT are complete brain ticklers, but they had some fun solutions. Opening the door to the boss of Dodongo's Cavern involved a simple riddle about dropping bombs into the eyes of a giant Dodongo Skull to open it's mouth. It was a fun concept that was really only used once in that game, and it sticks out in my memory to this day. Most of the puzzles in BotW, by contrast, are less interesting outside of the moment you're doing them because they mix the same assets together so much that it all bleeds into one amorphas blob.

Shrines only further make this a problem, because the Shrines have you do these sorts of puzzles outside of dungeons, making them less creative overall over the course of the game. There's only so many times you can have me use Magnesis or Statis Launches to solve similar set ups before I get bored. I do like the idea of Shrines, but there are too damn many of them!

Also of note is the lack of meaningful rewards for doing the Shrines or the Dungeons. Sure, the Shrines give you a resource that lets you increase your Health and Stamina, but that's really it. The chests are largely worthless because they hold weapons that break (at least in BotW), or other things you can just farm from enemies, or just buy. I don't feel rewarded for using my brain, I feel like I'm going down a checklist for some more health. Heart Pieces often had some kind of puzzle or series of things you needed to do to get them, but they felt so much more rewarding because the feeling of getting 4 of them (or however many you need in other games) gave you a satisfying little jingle that hit you with some dopamine like "Look at you! You got a little stronger by using your skull spaghetti!"

My Proposed Solution:

Simply put, my solution is to cut the Shrine number down by half, and make only half of them doable out of the gate. Then I'd use those resources to make unique, tightly design dungeons that give you a unique tool that you can use to solve puzzles with that won't break, and allow those items to be woven into puzzle solutions.

This way, you get some puzzle elements that are open-ended that you can logic out however you want, and then you get some puzzles that have more specific, guided solutions that test your knowledge of the tools you have. You can walk into a Shrine, see a thing that you can't do, and go "okay, there's a tool I need to be able to do this, but I don't have it yet," and know that you'll be able to come back to it later for a puzzle that tests your knowledge as you acquire more tools.

Dungeons could then have more time dedicated to giving them a unique theme and vibe. Unique assets, and a proper sense of wonder that makes them feel worthwhile. Dungeons, I feel, should be guided experiences that progressively introduce new ideas to test the player, rather than just be open ended boxes that have like 5 puzzles that are solved in similar ways to previous puzzles you've likely solved to open a door. They should have a sense of place and spectacle.

Personally, if we were to use the world of BotW/TotK as the basis, I'd have each dungeon reflect the ancient versions of the races civilizations and cultures. Basically, double down on the whole Ancient Sheikah idea, and apply it to the other races of Hyrule. I'd love to see something like an ancient mine of the Gorons teaming with gems and Dodongos, or the dilapidated sunken remains of an ancient Zora city, just to name a few basic things. Pull from the series past and history to create places oozing with cultural atmosphere that stimulates a sense of wonder, but also filled with dangers that excite those seeking the thrill of adventure.

2. The Story

While I am aware that TotK vastly improved the story being told compared to BotW, I think it can't be denied that the open-ended approach to the story is hurting the pacing of things immensely, and leads to a lot of awkward scenarios. The fact that you can view the memories out of order in both BotW and TotK is insane to me, but that's not the only issue.

While open-ended open worlds are good for gameplay stuff, it has taken a toll on having the story of Zelda feel like it has much substance. Sure, you can sit there and say TotK story is good if you sit down and focus on it, but that's the problem: because you can do things in any order, the story loses a lot of traction. I've seen the cutscenes for completing the dungeons in TotK, and the fact that you basically see slightly different versions of the same thing, but with a different narrator, is what I'm talking about.

I personally think that the story is too loosely strung together in these titles because they feel they have to be for the sake of immersion or something, but that is silly to me. You can have an open-ended game that has structure to a plot that is less open, because other devs have been doing it for years. Older Zeldas have done it, to a degree.

Older Zelda titles often did expect you to follow a path the designers laid out for you, but that's because stories often need that kind of structure to be told in any sort of cohesive way. It's like playing a tight game of D&D, where the DM is allowing the players some flexibility, but is still going to guide the players down a path toward some sort of conclusion. The path to that ending may be slightly different, but there are still plot beats that get to that conclusion that occur in a certain order. It's a lot of work, but often leads to satisfying campaigns. And I'm speaking as someone who doesn't care much for D&D.

I think Zelda needs to have a loose, but still very much guided structure. Part of the reason I get so bored playing BotW when I do play it is that the game gives me so much freedom to do whatever, and no real sense of direction outside of a few map markers for the areas you need to go for the main quest. Yeah, that can feel liberating, but it makes it feel more like I'm wandering around in the dark, and less like I'm on a grand adventure, y'know?

I don't want things to go full blown Skyward Sword, where you're effectively on rails, have have to do basically everything in the order the designers wanted you to, cause that feels bad in Zelda too. I think the story should set itself up in such a way where the player is limited to a small pool of possible events that can be seen in any order, but all need to be completed to access the next pool of things, which could be larger. Much like how both Link to the Past divides the game between the 3 Light World dungeons and 6 Dark World dungeons with a trip to Hyrule Castle, or how Ocarina of Time requires you to get the Three Sacred Stones before you can do the Temples for the Medallions.

Events in the stories, as they are, feel like they expect that any dungeon should be your first, and there are only a small handful of dungeons. This, in theory, would be fine, but because each dungeon has to act as though you've never seen things before, it leads to very stale narrative presentation long term.

There's also another small issue that's eating away at the story of the games: the reliance on Ganon.

Don't get me wrong, I enjoy Ganon/Ganondorf when he's done well, and he was several times in the past. I understand he's the big bad of the series, and he'll always be around, but he's been something of a stain on the series' ability to tell unique stories for a while. This was highlighted in Twilight Princess first, where he sort of just comes in and kicks Zant, a villain who was super imposing and interesting, to the curb for the sake of a lame twist. This was lame, sure, but I really don't like their reliance on Ganon in these recent games.

I could put up with it in BotW, because the game is ultimately about dealing with the Calamity, which is Ganon's essence of corruption given shape. It was dumb and basic, but BotW was sort of basic on purpose in a lot of ways with it's story, so I didn't mind. But with TotK? I feel like they just brought him back because it was easy, and because there are a lot of thirsty Ganondorf fans out there. I just see his inclusion after dealing with Calamity Ganon as a blight on what could have been a much cooler narrative.

My Proposed Solution:

As I mentioned above, I think the goal should be to apply a degree of limitation to the player in how much they can accomplish as they progress. This means there are only so many scenarios the game has to account for. If we, say, limit the player to the classic 3 "starter" dungeons before letting them go into the next batch, then it makes things easier to write around. Have each dungeon be tied to a thing going on in the area that is connected to the main plot, but serve as a piece of a larger puzzle.

Then, I'd establish a simple check: if the Player is visiting, say, the Goron Mines first, then they'll get a slightly different cutscene than if they did the Goron Mines after the Lost Zora City, to account for the idea that the player has already seen some of the set up already. Basically, have the stuff the player experiences be told in a set order in slightly different ways, depending on when the player experiences it sequentially, and adjust in accordance to the order to avoid unnecessary repetition of ideas being conveyed. That way, when Link gets insight into the broader narrative, it feels like a puzzle being solved, but the stuff surrounding that insight is focused on the area.

As for Ganon, it's a pretty simple thing: just don't use him for a little while. Again, I get he's the big bad of the franchise, but we've seen other villains in the series work. Even having a devout follower of Ganon take over and try to resurrect him for a game would be fine, if a bit cliche at this point. Let's see Vaati come back maybe? Or another interesting original villain like Majora/Skull Kid? I still want to learn more about lands besides Hyrule, and a unique villain from Ganon gives us plenty of opportunity to explore those lands.

Speaking of...

3. Hyrule

I don't think it's at all controversial to suggest that Hyrule's map in TotK makes it less satisfying to explore for a lot of people. Sure, there are new areas to check out in a post-Calamity Ganon world, and the added the Depths and the Sky Islands... but I mean, it still kind of sucks that 90% of the map is just a copy/paste job.

Beyond that, I've developed a bit of a pet peeve with the Zelda series and it's use of Hyrule. While I completely understand that it's the primary setting, and that's not really something I'm looking to change or anything, I just miss when we got other places to explore, y'know?

Majora's Mask has Termina, the Oracle games have their own countries, and even Tri Force Heroes has it's own unique setting, and that's just scratching the surface. I love when a Zelda game takes us outside of Hyrule to see other parts of the world, even if it just has a bunch of things that make it feel like a remixed version of Hyrule at it's core. Termina is like this, but I still want to go back there and explore how things have changed since then, y'know?

I don't really have a solution for this issue, I just really think they need to be willing to go outside of Hyrule more often... especially with the next game, just to have things feel fresh again.

4. Weapon Degradation and UI

I don't know about y'all, but I hate the weapons I'm using breaking, but having no real way to repair them. Sure, I know you can often find duplicates or, in the case of TotK, you can just build a new copy of the thing you like, but I still hate it.

A lot of this is compounded by the fact that a lot of chests just contain weapons that will break after a few uses, and it just makes the act of fighting things feel more tedious. I know some would say it adds a degree of tension, but I and many, many others don't like it. It says a lot about the system that when you disable it via cheats, BotW becomes more fun.

The UI doesn't make this any better. Cycling weapons and shields feels clunky as hell, and selecting which arrows you are shooting from the bow is just... why is it so bad!? And how did TotK make that WORSE!? Crafting in TotK is neat, sure, but when you have to individually combine the item you want to each nocked arrow, and the menu is that bad, you have to ask how that got out of beta. I dunno if it's been fixed since then, and I don't really care.

My Proposed Solution:

Here's the thing, all I want is to have 2 things in the case of the weapons breaking.

Thing 1: A permanent set of things you can upgrade over time that never breaks, and only needs to be sharpened or something, but lacks special attributes that make the breakable stuff worth a damn to use.

Thing 2: The ability to use materials to repair/maintain the weapons you like.

The simple thing to fix the UI is actually just to have a weapon wheel that you save the things you like onto in the positions you want them, and to have a tab button to cycle to less used stuff. Basically, just do what Ratchet and Clank did 20 years ago.

As far as arrows are concerned, just let the player craft them in the inventory, and have the Bow weapon wheel have a way to cycle which type of arrows you want to use. Easy. It'd still be a touch clunky, but you'd not have to deal with scrolling through a list, and that's just objectively better.

The wheel would also apply to Tools/Abilities like Runes. Just hold hold the button, and then use one of the sticks to cycle around the wheel. Simple.

Honestly, this post got a little long, but hopefully people see where I'm coming from. I don't really have much of a point beyond what's stated above, but I'll try to end this off with something to think on.

Zelda's current direction has been a bit contentious with some of the older fans, and while I think BotW and TotK are respectable games, and they offer new life to a series that was admittedly losing a fair bit of it's steam, it's frustrating how there are some things that just feel like simple, elegant fixes to the new formula that'd bring it more inline with what classic fans like myself would like more. I don't think what I'm asking for is that much (especially with the UI stuff). I'm not really out here demanding that they bring back something like the transformation masks (though if there was a game like BotW and TotK, but they replaced Runes with Transformations like those of the masks from Majora's Mask, I'd probably give the game a 20/10 out of pure bias for Majora's Mask), I just want the game to feel more like the Zelda I grew up with, rather than this sort of bland open world with a Zelda skin that it's become.

As it stands, modern Zelda is starting to feel less like a grand adventure, and more like I'm wandering through the woods without a map or a compass while it's super foggy out, and finding table scraps rather than neat treasure. I might make a post about what I'd do with a hypothetical Zelda game in the future. I've got a handful of ideas, but this post is too long as it is... so... yeah, that will be done later. Maybe.

[marenwithanm]

Slightly updated character references for Little Links, this time including Aryll! Most of the changes are minor tweaks but y'know ¯⁠\⁠_⁠(⁠ツ⁠)⁠_⁠/⁠¯

Transcript:

"Rock": Smarter than he looks. Gets defensive easily, but he's really a softie. Doesn't like being told what to do. Currently 10 (and 3/4!!!)

Extra notes: 3rd tallest, opposite eyebrows from Ocean, he made this belt buckle, apron [He's from Minish Cap]

"Leaf": He's a little confused, but he's got the spirit. Only speaks Kokiri. Always wants to help. 10 and 1/2

Extra notes: 4th tallest (2nd shortest), plant braided in, messy stitching, gathered look, little bit too big. [He's from Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask]

"Pinkie": Stuck in his pjs. Generally a happy-go-lucky kid. Doesn't like conflict. 10, will turn 11 soon.

Extra notes: freckles like rabbit whiskers ;), clip matches with his brother, 2nd tallest, belt is a gift from Wood, flair outward. [He's from A Link to the Past, The Oracle Games, and Link's Awakening]

"Wood": Hardly ever talks. Rather distrustful. Scared of water. Turned 10 recently.

Extra notes: shortest, which way does it point? Who knows!, Shaggy, chubby cheeks, clothes are way, way too big on him, always holding, little bag. [He's from the first two games]

"Ocean": Big brother instincts. No idea what he's doing, but trying not to show it. Desperately needs glasses. Turned 12 today!

Extra notes: slight wave, "what am I looking at???", Fun eyebrows, longer than Rock's, tallest link, matching shell-carving braclets (from Gramma) [He's from Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass]

Aryll: Ocean's little sister. Loud and cheerful. Always has her telescope. Currently 7

Extra notes: associated with seagulls, about a head shorter, acts as his alarm clock half the time

[zeldabf]

just kinda interested in hearing u yap abt ur designs? if ur willing to offer 🙏🙏 they always have so many silly details i love them

OFC i love asks like this 🙏 i'll go over a bit of most i've posted! i can go over other details or ones i missed anytime. sorry i took so long to reply, i often forget to check here haha link (post-mm): not much special, i opted for a modified tunic that gives him an undershirt and matching (visible) shorts beneath the tunic. the scars on his face and streak in his hair are remnants from using the fierce deity (kijin, as i call him!)'s power. and kind of breaking him loose from his binding, but thats for another time. the scars take on the red/blue coloring if he's used the mask recently, and will gradually fade back with time! he also has a chipped tooth and nicked ear from the chase scene at the very beginning of MM. i opted to give him more grown out hair as a sign of growth as a person, and it can also be used to showcase my little rambling ideas about the kokiri having an affinity for decorating themselves. hair clips, ribbons, braids, ponytails, ect! kijin: still finalizing his design right now, but i'm giving him a cape and some more armor stuff. i chose to give him a tunic with patches on it, meant to resemble the moon! that's all i've got to say about him, for now at least. tatl & tael (gijinkas): i'm planning on an overhaul for them maybe, but generally i wanted them to have a matching outfit theme as i see them as being really closely bonded siblings. the small bells on their design are a play on how they make chiming noises rather than any audible voicelines like navi. i wanted them to contrast in shape language as well, which i think fits well with their opposite personalities. majora (gijinka): a more simplified and easy version for me to draw with a bit more flair than just a mask and some icky spaghetti noodle tendrils. i drew inspiration for her from the wrath and incarnate forms of the boss fight, and tossed in a bit of influence from hades (kid icarus uprising) as well. the horns and fangs as well as headpiece draw inspiration from dragon majora, who is from a side story in the MM manga. fun tidbit about my majora is that he has a tiny eye under there :-) couple's mask (gijinka): i wanted a sort of formal look for them while also maintaining an affectionate vibe. used anju's wedding dress for a teeny bit of inspo, and the rose in their pocket is red/purple to symbolize termina's newlywed sweethearts! the weird hair shape is made to represent the symbol on the mask, just... vaguely, i fear. mask of truth (gijinka): same as couple, i wanted to go off of vibe. i drew inspo from various sheikah appearances over the timeline, mainly skyward sword's impa and breath of the wild's outfits! one eye to match the typical sheikah emblem/gossip stone look the mask has. mido: not too different from canon, i just gave him some freckles and extra accessories. the compass he has is an item he found in the woods! saria: again, not super different, the biggest thing i changed were her eyes and outfit. i think she looks quite nice with the heterochromia, and i think it's a sweet idea for her and link to sort of bond over being different - albeit, in different ways. i also have a blast mask gijinka, who i don't think i posted here. i'm due for a big dump of stuff soon </3 hopefully i didn't forget too much! thank you for the ask, as always :3 🤍 if i missed anything, anyone's welcome to let me know!

[hairscare]

Hey!! So IK u said u were out of loop with the BEN drowned story so here!

Basically BEN (behavioral event network) has been tormenting Jadusable in Majoras Mask as the Elegy Statue, he not Ben Lawman aka the kid that drowned! He recently had a canon design back in 2020 where he has green hair, he’s also ageless ^^ we don’t see Ben much at all! In fact, we only really saw him 3 as the Statue of Elegy and one time as Child Link because the other times BEN was in the statue and haunting Jadusable! Then BEN got free from the game lol also he’s a sentient hivemind AI virus :p the Link design w red eyes is just BEN’s fanon design! U can check out Ben’s Lawman canon design on the Jadusable wiki tho :)

ty! i remember there also being something with a cult too? idk but even tho hes not technically a 12 year old i think he deserves to be one bc its funny

[wayfayrr]

This is based on @sketchyspook's Mask - the hero of terminal! he's a lil gremlin who in this decided to pull a sky and break out of his game. He just wants a sibling though so can you blame him?

“Hey we were thinking about going out tonight [name], you want to join us?”

“Nah, I’ll be honest I was planning to stay in tonight. Just want a rest you know, got some old games I’ve been planning to replay.” “Fair, if I hadn’t promised someone I’d join them I’d probably be doing the same. See you around sometime [name].”

After how hectic everything has been recently it’ll be nice to have a night in where I can just zone out and do next to nothing; really what better way is there to do that than by playing through Majora’s mask for the, what 50th time? It’s such a nostalgic game to me that it can’t be anything other than my go-to relaxing game. Besides that though, really it’s just fun to fish using the fierce deity mask. Something about an ancient war god going fishing like that? It’s a fun break from the rest of the game.

Something feels different this time though. I can’t quite pinpoint what but even the opening cutscene feels different. There’s more static than there should be, it just feels wrong. There’s also this feeling, I’m probably just being paranoid, but I swear someone’s watching me. Judging me even. Like they’re trying to evaluate me for something, I just can’t tell what. It’s nothing I’m sure. Just need to shake it off and carry on playing. 

Saving it after getting the deity mask feels like a good point to leave it off for the evening, how long have I even been playing? I could’ve sworn it wasn’t that long but - It’s past 2?? It’s never taken me this long to get to this point before, maybe it’s been glitching way more than I thought. I mean it felt like every few minutes I lost control over Link, oddly enough it was only when his model was facing the screen. My controller must just be acting up, I knew buying the cheapest one on eBay would’ve been a bad idea, of course, it’s gonna have some issues. Just turn off the game and go to bed, it’s that easy [name]. Your bed’s comfortable anyway, you’ll fall asleep in no time. 

What’s that sound? It’s barely enough to wake me up, am I hearing things? What’s gotten into you tonight [name], first being paranoid while playing, now hearing things? Am I coming down with something? Just try to go back to sleep and deal with this in the morning. 

Okay, I can’t just be feeling things now, did something fall on me during the night?

No, it feels far too much like a person, but then who is lying on me? And how did they get here? Opening my eyes to a blonde kid who looks suspiciously like Link doesn’t feel quite real, maybe I’m still asleep and something fell on me and affected my dream? Oh, what am I kidding myself? I’m awake. I’ll just try to gently wake him up to get some answers, if he doesn’t wake up then at least I can move him so I can get a look at just how he got here. 

“Bewegen Sie mich nicht, ich fühle mich hier wohl.”

So he didn’t like that then, my german is rusty but even then it’s clear enough what he meant by how he’s trying to get closer to me in his half-asleep state. He’s going to be staying right where he is for as long as he can get away with it. All I can hope for in the meantime is to try and find out he got in here without moving. There isn’t any broken glass or windows so he didn’t get in that way, it would be insane for a kid to break in just for hugs as well so that rules out that possibility. 

There is broken glass though… by my laptop… what?Of all the - my laptop is shattered. How did that - did he? My laptop is broken and there is a game character in my arms, that has to be related, doesn't it?  

There are tiny cuts and fresh burns on his arms, ones that look like they could be - did he?

That would explain how my laptop broke. There are more questions from that though. Such as how did a video game character get out of my laptop and into my arms?? And why? Answers aren’t going to show themselves and theres only one person who knows why he did this. 

“Kid? I know you don’t want to move, but can you tell me what’s going on? How you got here at least?” That seems to have woken him up a little, enough for him to look at me now even though he looks very bitter he’s had to move. Now that I’m getting a better look at his face though, he’s certainly link but he looks a little different to how he does in the game. White streaks in the front of his hair, paler eyes and far too many scars for someone his age. It’s like he’s picked up traits of the fierce deity mask, you know what if he’s here in my room real like this why couldn’t he look different from in game?

“Ich kann, ich tue es nicht - I don’t want to be in the game any more, so I got out.”

“Can I ask how you got out?”

Alright no answer for that besides a quick look at his hair, must be a sore point for him. I won’t press him on that until he feels more alright to talk about it.

“Is there any reason you wanted to well, be like this link?”

With a gesture to how he’s decided to lay on me, he has at least a little bit of shame as he looks away from me before mumbling something just loud enough that I could hear.

“After you playing through it for so long, you uh, you feel like an older sibling to me. So I’ll stay here with you [name]?”

It’s either he can stay with me or he’ll go out to the street, not that I have the heart to throw him out, after everything I know he’s been through. That I’m partly responsible for putting him through? If I didn’t play his game, he - he wouldn’t have had to go through that would he. It’s my fault. 

“[name]? You aren’t upset at me are you? I didn’t - I didn’t mean to make you cry, I can - Nun, ich denke, ich kann - if you don’t want me here I can go back.”

“No I don’t - of course I don’t think that. I’m sorry link, I made you keep reliving all of that. I never even knew that you were - oh god I’m so sorry link.”

He paused at that to think things over for a second, most likely about to say something although I can’t tell what from his body language. Is he crying now? Shaking slightly while leaning towards me like he wants a hug, I wouldn’t be surprised if he was crying after everythin-

“AUGH! WHAT WAS THAT FOR?”

“You wouldn’t stop crying because you were blaming yourself for ‘hurting’ me. Now we’re even so you can stop crying about it.”

As much as I hate it he is right, somewhat, one single bite doesn’t exactly make up for everything that I put him through but I’m not going to say that aloud incase he bites me again. Inspecting my arm there is a neat mark from his teeth, kid’s got a strong jaw I’ll give him that.

“Alright [name] I’ve seen a few things of your world when you were playing, but um would you mind showing me what it’s like? You’re my big sibling now so I think that’s just what you have to do.”

“Oh about that, why do you see me as a sibling?”

A shrug with yet another glance at his hair like it holds the answer. 

“I’m not the only one who sees you as my sibling, I know the deity has kinda unofficially adopted you as well.”

“Huh? The deity? Like the mask, the thing you use in game? Has adopted me?”

“Mhm, he’s the one who encouraged me to get out, it’s a little complicated but basically I wore the mask a bit too much.”

Just another thing I’ve done wrong then, or maybe not seeing as he seems to be fine with what is happening and the fact that it’s gotten him out of the game. 

“You gonna explain what you mean by that?”

“Nah not yet, gotta come to terms with it myself as well before any of that.”

[fvedyetor]

points. zelda fan. did you play tears of the kingdom?

i've gotten thru like mooooooost of the main quest (as far as i remember) and tbh i think its like. my favorite zelda game. i love fusing stupid stuff together and making silly cars that don't work at all........ also skydiving.

do u have any like. favorite tloz games? :0 like totk is up there for me but im also very fond of windwaker, spirit tracks, and twilight princess <3

yes omg!! ive finished the main quest in totk and all the shrines and caves and lightroots! just missing some quests and a ton of korok seeds lol. totk is the only game that ive actually kinda completed so as of rn its my fave i think. lately ive just been trying to max all my clothes which has mainly been just harassing the dragons for their scales and stuff hehe i do it out of love <3

ive played through all of botw except for the final boss fight. actually recently restarted my game so i could start over bc its been years but ive been too busy to play T^T cant wait for summer omg

zelda is my all time favorite video games!! i hot young parents who i grew up watching play zelda games. i watched my dad play majoras mask and my mom play twilight princess and skyward sword so all of those have a special place in my heart <3 watching them play it is why i love loz sm. no other video game franchise can compare.

i wanna play more games tho!! i need to find a way to stop all the time passing around me so i can just play zelda forever lol

ive also played part of a link to the past (unblocked on school computer) and part of twilight princess (got the master sword and then just got too busy :((

i also have some zelda manga!! i have 1 and 3 for tp and then one that has both minish cap and phantom hourglass. on the hunt for more hehe

i also have zelda shrine. and a growing collection of printed images of totk ganondorfs on my door. and paper dolls of zelda characters. and OMG MY SLIDESHOWS. i have two slideshows about why ganondorf is objectively hot, a slideshow in progress of all the foods from totk/botw, and a bunch of other wips (loz geography, loz timeline, etc) all in order to educate my poor irl friends. OH I ALSO HAVE A LOZ OCARINA and a little book of songs from oot and other games hehe

aaaaaaa im sorry this is so long i had an excuse to talk about zelda and i ran with it hehe

ok but my faves are totk defintely and then also twilight princess and majoras mask are up there for sure. im so indecisive tho aaaaaaaa. for sure tho the cartoon is NOT up there i do not like the cartoon at all (except for maybe zelda... but i didnt finish the cartoon so who knows)

[evas-apartment]

replaying Majora's Mask and it's kind of unreal how much better this game plays than Ocarina of Time. Like, I know. OoT is like the Citizen Kane of video games and Majora was made in like 6 days as the greatest asset flip of all time (exaggerations the both of them) but just playing it, god if only there was like a third of these. If only the DD wasn't a massive failure and we essentially got a patch for OoT on 64DD. Cause OoT has a lot of QoL issues that a patch would fix, or MM fixes outright.

OoT is SO SLOW ALL THE TIME. People talk for too long, you can't skip anything, text scrolls at one speed and that speed is fucking erosion. The cutscenes were groundbreaking, i've been informed, but they go on for way too god damn long. Like three different people explain what the fuckin triforce is like four seperate times like i GET IT. It's a macguffin we don't ever actually obtain just get ON WITH IT.

But no only that, the movement speed is so god damn slow too. glitches aside, the fastest way to move in the game is on the horse, that comes in after like 90% of the child gameplay, so when you have to play as the child again it feels torturous. Bro even the menus are slow! The file select is slow. The pause menu is slow. Changing equipment is slow. Navigating the world is slow.

But perhaps most frustrating on my most recent playthrough is the aiming. I always thought that the first-person aiming in OoT was always wonky because I wasn't playing it on an N64. Then I bought an N64. It's just like that. It is SO finicky and hard to control. Z-targeting is the only saving grace but you can't Z-target switches, ESPECIALLY those fucking eyeball switches and they're in every dungeon in the game ffs.

Literally all of these issues are improved upon in MM. The aiming is smoother and it's far easier to make more minute changes. The menus are WAY faster, you still can't skip cutscense but most text in the game is skippable, which is a huge plus. The movement is better, the game runs at a consistently higher frame rate, you get a horse but literally who gives a shit when you can GORON ROLL BABEY. There are far more warp points in the game, so you spend a lot less overworld time just going from place to place. The pause menu comes up super quick and changing your gear is a lot faster too. All of these changes should have been made when they decided to put OoT on literally every console they ever released after the N64. Like fuck an authentic port if it plays like cottage cheese, gimme more of how MM plays. I'm not even done with the third dungeon in MM and i've once again re-established my correct opinion that I like MM more, and MM plays way better than OoT. OoT may be more fleshed out and larger and yadda yadda yadda, that game had like 5 years of development time. MM was made on sandwiches and wishes and oops they made one of the best games ever again. Still definitely in my top, say, 50 games i've ever played. Maybe 30? Maybe 30.

[mimzalot]

we never really needed the Zelda Timeline

 from twitter •  7th July 2019  

sharing my thoughts on the Zelda Timeline, oral tradition, gamer intellectualism and one of the best characters in Breath of the Wild. I may wrongly use 'oral history' and 'oral tradition' interchangeably but you get the gist of it.

hadn’t put this into words until recently but I think part of the reason the Zelda timeline never mattered to me was because Zelda has always been a bit more like oral history, rather than written history. it’s the Legend of Zelda, not the Cross-Referenced Facts of Zelda.

makes sense, too, why all the Zelda games have vastly different tones, but the same underlying themes and plot - Link is the archetypal hero (like Jack and Jill, Jack and the Beanstalk), and all the different ‘styles’ of game are the different voices they’re recounted by.

you got one person that tells the story with a light-hearted comedy tone! Wind Waker. you got that aunty that’s a fan of ghost stories and plans to terrify you! Majora’s Mask. you know that cousin who’s a big fan of birds? Skyward Sword! each legend embellished in its own way.

and not to be Me about it but it makes me wonder how much of this desire for Zelda’s timeline to be a written, coherent, step-by-step factual recount of events is tied in with the idea that historical, written fact is seen as intellectualism, whereas oral tradition is... not.

I’m used to oral tradition. as a Samoan, much of my knowledge of history has been told to me by family, and while there is value in finding the ‘truth’ of the matter, a lot of times, you just enjoy the story. there’s nothing to prove with it, you just listen and learn.

as a Samoan I’m also used to the fact that this isn’t really seen as a valid or intellectual form of academia. and as a member of the gaming and Zelda community, I know that there’s a pervasive obsession with academia, intellectualism, and proving video games are ‘smart’.

if you’ve been part of the Zelda community for longer than a minute you’ve probably at some point become aware that some Zelda fans - and Nintendorks overall - have suffered with an inferiority complex. the definition of ‘real games’ did not include games about fairy forest boys.

when ‘real games’ had to have the most realistic graphics, dark themes, competitive modes and, well, guns, Zelda fans were chuckled at by ‘real gamers’. it was a good game, but it was a kids’ game. Zelda fans scrambled for legitimacy in the gaming community.

evidence: when Wind Waker was first announced, the great source of fan despair? it was too cartoony, it wasn’t dark enough. how was Zelda going to be taken seriously when, while the rest of gaming was boasting realistic graphics, Nintendo had veered off-course into toon town!?

similarly when Twilight Princess was released, the great source of fan rejoicing was that it looked serious, dark and gritty. Link looked more realistic, and this looked like a game that wouldn’t have the Halo nerds laughing at you when you said it was the best series ever.

so what does the disenfranchised nerd with the inferiority complex do to intellectualise their media? how does the Zeldweeb prove their lore should be taken seriously? you take every piece of it and try to put it down on paper, in sensical order, as evidence. it’s history, baby!

you could probably skip the inferiority complex bit and jump straight to the fact that white audiences will naturally attempt to intellectualise through written history, because historically speaking, that’s what white history is all about. if it ain’t written, it ain’t legitten.

whether it’s because of an inferiority complex, or the cultural context within which media is consumed, or the nature of academia being steeped in white concepts of ‘truth’, we’ve been left with Zelda fans that are DESPERATE for the timeline to make sense. DEMANDING that it does.

and all I’m saying to my fellow fans is - it doesn’t HAVE to. it never had to! firstly because that’s an inherently flawed method of justifying the merit of something, but also because gaming elitism is dumb and there’s no need to force this game to be historically accurate.

because without this urgent demand for a Confirmed Zelda timeline, Hylian lore would be just like my ‘Fierce Deity Link is Sheikah’ headcanon, and numerous other Zelda fan theories - good, regardless of canonisation. speculative, like legends oft are. oral tradition, not written.

... but it’s 2019 now. the Historia was released, and you can tell the games are being made with other games and The Timeline in mind. and this isn’t bad! in fact it’s a pretty interesting progression from oral tradition into written that mirrors real world civilisations. sweet.

Breath of the Wild is the ‘convergence’ game, where all the haphazard timelines come together. to me this is a turning point in the Legend of Zelda, because from here on, games have a unified starting point. The Timeline can, from this point forward, be strictly abided by.

... but speaking of oral tradition and Breath of the Wild, I find it really charming that as Nintendo officially creates a ‘logical’ new-start for the written Zelda timeline, they also introduced an in-game personification of oral lore itself. or a birdification, rather. Kass!

was this thread just an excuse for me to gush about my favourite bird bard, Kass? I mean, no, but while I’m here, let’s talk about Kass! bc I love him, and also because there’s something very meta about a Legend of Zelda character whose sole purpose is to tell the Legend of Zelda

TLOZ as a whole operates mostly on oral lore. more often than not you are told of your history by others - from a great tree, a dead King, a Happy Mask Salesman. your sidequests are primarily word-of-mouth. music is integral in how you connect to Hyrule, past, present and future.

this has become a fundamental and seamlessly integrated part of how the series functions. just like you know that when you hit a crystal something will happen, you also know that in order to understand your surroundings you need to listen to people, stories and songs. NOT read.

... which brings us back to Kass! while the rest of the series (deliberately or not) makes gameplay out of oral tradition, Kass personifies that tradition. at the turning point of The Timeline, Kass both explains and demonstrates how Legend works, in-game and in-general.

and I find it extremely effective and maybe a little sentimental that while we can expect everything henceforth about The Timeline to be indisputable fact, there’s a character which exists purely to represent the legitimacy, excitement and cultural function of oral tradition.

(that the Rito seem coded as a tribal unit that live in a village and operate within a chiefly system not unlike my own culture probably adds to how quickly this comparison occurred to me, too, buuut culture-coding in Zelda is a topic for another day)

Breath of the Wild marks a junction. a new slate - ha ha. gameplay includes more elements of written history (filling a compendium, reading journals, visiting memories based on photos), throwbacks take full advantage of a chronological timeline (location names, weapon lore, plot)

Link is usually our bard, through which we create and share the Legend of Zelda. now, as Link, BOTW and maybe even the series overall develops in another direction, Kass is our bard, and he behaves as a testament to the original point of the thread - the oral history of TLOZ

and it’s just nice to think that this history is being fondly represented in the form of a big bird accordionist that gets bummed out when you don’t want to hear him talk about Zelda. I can relate to that. I think a lot of us can. especially the bird bit. huh? what? I DIGRESS.

ultimately, I didn’t need the timeline. I don’t really think anyone needed it as badly as they thought they did. but! I don’t reject The Timeline. a solid foundation opens up new avenues of storytelling - a direct BOTW sequel with reference to past lore, for example! EXCITING!

I just hope that while the franchise evolves with The Timeline in mind, we can still appreciate that, even untethered, in all its tonally diverse and time-insensitive glory, The Legend of Zelda was never ‘broken’, it was just a history unwritten - and no less enjoyable that way.

feel free to celebrate reaching the end of this thread by listening to this lovely song cover and joining me in prayer that Kass returns with more tunes for BOTW2. MAY THE LIGHT ILLUMINATE YOUR PATH!

additional notes: playing Tears of the Kingdom now and feeling INCREDIBLY vindicated rn. please no spoilers in the tags if you reblog but also SCREAMS AND RATTLES I LOVE ZELDAAA