#so yeah. the kingdom Has to be just for the vibes for me in totk

[i-cast-zone-of-truth]

Ok but to take the idea of the Kingdom in botw-totk seriously for a second. “Kingdom” means different things in botw vs totk:

In botw, an actual State existed with government and systems etc and when ppl sigh wistfully over it, they’re thinking of the protections offered by that hegemony, but it’s been a hundred years and they don't remember everything that that meant. they can only imagine that world— but it must have been very great! Just look at the mess it left behind!

Totk’s Kingdom refers to “the place where all Link’s friends live.” still bounded by the canyon, the desert, and the ocean…. but the return of one princess does not a unifying government make. The different peoples clearly govern themselves, and look kindly on Zelda who after all only shows up to help (accompanied by 1-5 hylians max). She doesn’t need an army, because she’s not threatening to re-subjugate anyone; she’s just here to study the local insect species, please.

Link losing his memory has more than one upside, because not only did he not immediately have to remember everyone he would feel he’d personally failed in the Calamity, but 100 years ago he was Fully Bought In to the whole Kingdom thing, and it would have been incredibly rough to throw him directly from that into this disordered, emptied place and expect him to see something beautiful.

[thecluelessdoctor]

It's rambling time

*CRAWLS OUTTA WELL WITH A COMEDICALLY LARGE BACKPACK FULL OF NOTES*

I love totk. Don't get me wrong. I love it. But HOLY HELL TO I WANNA STRANGLE WHO EVER THOUGHT 'HEY MAN LETS GET RID OF ALL THE SHEIKAH TECH OTHER THAN LIKE- TWO GUARDIANS' LIKE EXSQUEEZE ME?? MY BABIESSSS/HJ

But on a serious note, I hate the fact how not only Zelda's character development go backwards, it forced a very black and white view on Hyrule. Rauru and kingdom of Hyrule good, Ganondorf bad. Like. What??? EXSQUEEZE ME.

Okz sure, Ganondorf did murder Sonia and steal a secret stone, and attack Hyrule, but like. Let's just- also note this. If the gerudo have a similar story to the sheikah, the kingdom of Hyrule, aka Rauru forced their hand into surrender.

Though I do like the 'keep your loved ones close and your enemies closer' trope (waiting for the ship art/j)

Let me note here, I am rather young, and Botw is what introduced me into LOZ. So. I still have a lot to learn. Anyway! On ward! (Also warning spoilers for TOTK jsndhdbdbdbd)

*sits down on a grassy patch, unpacking bag*

So!! Oh brother where to I start. Let's start with Zelda first because oh my hylia does it hurt.

Ok.

So, Zelda finds out about Zonai and the thing under Hyrule castle, it's understandable that she would be curious! It was established that she was a curious person.

Anyway, she gets yeeted into the past with a TIME power?!? WHAT. I mean it would explain why it took so long for her light power to wake the fuck up, but still?? It feels so random and forced.

Also in BOTW she spends one HUNDRED years keeping a calamity from destroying hyrule, and now suddenly she can't do jack in TOTK?!? EXSQUEEZE ME. WHAT. SHE MAKES A DAGGER GO BACK IN TIME. wOw- link mastered the power in a day- (I'm sorry but I have so many link rambles)

I just MY BRAIN HURTS. also I just- what the fuck happened to the sheikah?!

Yeah we are talking about this now. Like- fuckers are forgotten by EVERYONE- what happened to the shrines?! OR THE GIANT ASS DIVINE BEASTS LIKE WHERE ARE YOU RUDANA- *SOBS* Oh yeah and let's not forget the fact the champions have been forgotten basically. And Sidon moved the statue of his dead sister to make a statue of link riding him. Don't take that out of context. Also how the fuck did they get rid of the lynel up the mountain like?! Even if link killed it for them it would come back every time- endless building there made it so it couldn't come back there-??? Didn't know monsters had manners. I just- UGH.

Ah yes back to the sheikah tech. Everyone, even the sheikah have forgotten it like bruh. Even if it was like- 8 years since BOTW still- they couldn't have suddenly found everything and got rid of the shrines???

Like- the yiga clan (yes fucks I am talking about them) the yiga clan giving up learning about the sheikah for the Zonai makes sense- because the yiga clan has the depth now- and, they didn't have as much *known* access to sheikah tech. But like- PURAH FOR EXAMPLE- WHY WOULD SHE FORGET ABOUT THE TECH SKDNDJHR- IDC HOW HOT YOU ARE IM MAD AT YOU FOR THAT!

Oh and *SIGHS* lemme talk about the sages. No no, not the ones WE know now, I mean the ones of past. I hate them. The only one I like is the one of the gorons because of that one line he says

Me too buddy, me too/j

Anyway.

I wanna fucking murder these sages. Do they all share the same brain cell??? Other than you Mineru I like you.

Wait hold on that's meme potential. SOMEONE DRAW THE SAGES HAVING THE SAME BRAINCELL/HJ

But I just

I hate them.

So much.

Now let me talk about the best characters in TOTK. Besides kogha.

Farosh, Dinraal, and Naydra.

Dear golly I love these dragons. I vibe with them.

Now it's time for my personal favorite topic

THE YIGA CLAN

I love them. And. Yeah

Though I'm very sad about the missed potential for them. Also is it just me or is almost every yiga a dude..

Idk what to say. Just. I love them. And. Kogha better come back or I will cry/J he always comes back-(I'm sorry)

And the last topic of the evening

Link.

I have

Thoughts

Uhm

Ok less about link I love him but like the fact he's so chill about the fact he doesn't have a arm and now has the arm of a furry might say smt.

But at least in BOTW impa is like 'hey you sure your ready to take on what's next and save hyrule' but now it's like 'fucker go do this this and this and go look at the funny ass paintings on the ground' like. Damn ok. ;-;

I can't tell you how much I stalled playing totk. I had such a hard time finishing regional phenomenon. It just- wasn't fun. I knew what to expect, and what was going to happen. So. Yeah.

But I did really like Rito Village. And gorons town. They basically got addicted to drugs and I am ALL FOR IT (not drugs. Don't do drugs) but the Zora's felt... Boring. I mean they felt boring in botw but it got worse. Personally I thought the gerudo were the most boring in botw which is saying something because I got to sneak through the yiga hide out and Rob Kogha. But the zora felt- basic like. Yeah. At least everything else caused you damage or made things harder- the shroud made navigation hard, snow caused damage, the meat roast made conversion harder

But the zora? The sludge just- made you slower??? Idk man.

And omg. Do Sidon and yona make me mad. YEAH, HATE ME FOR IT SIDON FANS!! like people hate yona bc she's engaged to sidon. Personally I dislike them both. Like- Sidon lost the spark that made him- him! And yona- yona is just annoying. Like fuck off mipha copy.

And oh my hylia the MUCKDROCK- I hate it. No. No I loath it. Like what the fuck are you your fucking shrimp.

And it's fight wasn't even that hard. It was just annoying. Like- colagara in my opinion was the easiest, but it was super fun. But the muchdrock? He sucked.

Also btw- before the wrap up, has anyone found the smoldering coliseum and got zants helm??? Just me? Ok :') apparently it's the ice verison of the thunder helm. Now I think there is a fire one.. hmMmmm

Anyway! That wraps up the ramble!

[echoesofwisdomcountup]

27 Days until Tears of the Kingdom Release. More trailer analysis today for y'all. I have watched it an unhealthy amount of times but like the music slaps so hard that rewatching it is not a chore at all. I'm sure most of you by now have heard that the main lead in instrument is a Saxophone which is sick imo.

Spoilers under the cut for those avoiding things.

Picking up where we left off yeasterday, we know have giant sinkholes in the desert. They could be quicksand or pits of death but they could also grant access to an underground section beneath the desert. Considering this is Arbiter's ground, these things might be related to the rising structure earlier in the trailer. Whatever the case, I know that one of my first courses of action will be to walk right into one of these to find out just what they are.

This part to me really hammers in that the underground sections of the game are no joke. They seem to be large and extensive and I'm so ready to explore them. Of course this place is also giving me dungeon vibes which is awesome. Also interesting to see the fire resistant armor mostly unchanged (from what I can tell at least.)

FLYING BOATS!! Are they ghost boats? Magic boats? Zonai tech boats? Who knows but I like the way they look. I think I made it very clear in the first trailer analysis that I needed to explore the giant tornado in the sky. Thank you Nintendo for showing more of the stormhead (although I'll get to the similarities with Skyward Sword another day.) You can see that this boat the trampoline that we see later in the trailer. Its going to be fun to use those.

Now this construct is fairly massive and it isn't the same as the minecraft looking one from the previous trailer. However, I wonder if this one will actually fight us or if its a larger construction construct (hehe). Either way it looks very cool and I am leaning towards fightin given the amount of boss fights this trailer highlights.

My jaw dropped the first time I saw this (although tbf it might have been dropped lower since so much of the trailer had me in shocked awe.) I love the new jump animation Link has (its shown much better later on) which as far as I've seen is only used in gravity manipulation sections. Also yeah gravity manipulation. I've seen several reactors look at this and the weird steps later on and talked about slowing time. Nah its gravity. The little green circle is keeping the water orbiting it at the center. Although, I wonder exactly how common this will be. I hope its used more than once.

Look at that flight suit!! It reminds me of a flying squirrel and I love it. Also mission impossible style laser dodging is not what I had on my totk bingo but I'm not complaining. However, if this section is motion controlled I think I can confidently say that many of us will need several tries. Still a cool use of the new diving mechanics. After this is the shot in the orb but I don't really have anything to say about it except the thing in the background looks like a gumball machine.

If this isn't one of the labyrinths in the sky, I will eat my shoe. In fact, I'm willing to bet that this is in that cube that haunted me in the past trailer.

Sick new spear, same animation, horse that looks very similar to Epona (oh I hope), and most importantly NPC's FIGHTING ALONG SIDE US!! I'm very stoked to see the other members of Hyrule fighting in groups against monsters. It's not just Link. Hyrule is everyone's home and I'm so happy that Nintendo is letting regular the NPC's fight to defend it. Even if their equipment is a little haphazard.

I love Link's expression so much. A little guy. But also he has the shiekah slate and it's got a usb connection into the spool of wire. I'm guessing this is right after/before the little robot arms shot in the past trailer. I have no idea what this is about but I'm curious. Maybe they are viewing more memories stored in the slate? Either that or plugging the wire into the slate is for upgrades or it accesses a specific area.

I have no clue who this person is but I am intrigued. They kinda look like the wall painting showed off in a past trailer but I have no idea what that means. I give this figure props for being mysterious and interesting looking. (Some people said this was in the art book but again I avoided that.)

This part of the castle is very pretty but I don't believe for one second that Link is actually there in the present. He is either reliving a memory or has time traveled because the throne room for sure hasn't been fixed in his time. Magic is involved here.

Zelda looks like she is at an altar. I'm very much reminded of Skyward Sword. I don't know what this means for her but maybe it has something to do with the Master Sword or her goddess powers.

Hmm I mean the random figure saying Link is the last line of defense is cool and all but this shot confuses me. Link's hand should be damaged/be the ancient hand. Is this even Botw Link? Also why is he pulling out the Master Sword again? We know it was damaged so did Zelda stick it back in the pedestal to recharge? So many questions.

Random figure talking to Zelda (who I think might be related to the Owl/the Sage in OOT that talks to Link in the sacred realm) has a similar looking hand. Maybe it's the same one that Link gets or maybe several Zonai have arms like this. Either way we get the first look at the tears part of Tears of the Kingdom but I'll talk about them more the next time.

That's it for today. The only other news I have is that Nintendo has apparently confirmed we will be starting the game in the sky. I'm assuming we either have a very long starting cutscene before they let us have control of Link or we do Great Platau 2.0 first and then we descend to the ground and have to explain what happened to someone like Impah and then the game gives us the explanation cutscene. Anyway, bye for now.

[punishandenslavesuckers]

Heyoo tears of the kingdom next month so I’ve been replaying botw and re reading my fav botw fic, Interim. Thank you for this story, reading it now is like tracing the well worn and loved groves of an old backyard tree. How did you come up with/where did you draw from canon Draga/Geurdo culture’s understanding and mechanics around magic? The simplicity and perfection of blood, bone, and breath paralleling earth, wind, and water. The sea of lives?? Hell yeah. I hope there’s something tasty for you at the feast of totk.

Hello! Answering all these far too late now that TOTK is here.

I honestly didn't draw inspo from anything specific. I think I've read lots of posts, stories, etc that have elemental ties to magic. Like there was a vampire book called Sunshine by Robin Mckinley where a particular character's main totem/type of magic was worked through sun. Like she draw power from the day itself to do magic. The elemental magic types came from I thiiiiink.

That book was probably the biggest inspiration for the VIBE of the magic, how I wanted it to feel and come across. Highly recommend. It's a formative read for me and if you read it, you'll see its influences in my writing for sure.

Draga's stuff I vaguely took from some of Dune media over the years. The idea that power from the desert and time can make you insane and is very, very dangerous was definitely something I wanted to bring to the front of his story. His power has ties to the demonic and to risk etc and I wanted it to feel like he was just barely in control

Link's magic too, wild magic, is VAAAAAAGUELY tied to the Tamora Peirce books I read back in the day about wild magic, but I genuinely dont remember anything beyond the name. I just knew Link too was afflicted by the same dangers as Draga is -- the connection to past lives and time being a threat to sanity and self. Mostly because Link's internal suffering is not well touched on in most games so I wanted to make the stakes for him clear. He's a little eldritch sometimes.

So the sea of lives is something both he and Draga understand and commiserate about. Zelda bears it too, but because she's part divine, some of the harshness is gentled. Her mind is made to handle it while Link and Draga - wholly human - are not really.

Anyway, hope you enjoy TOTK

[kozykricket]

alright, heres something in games that peeves me. maybe it isnt a new thing, but i feel like ive been seeing it more not deciding whether your game is a sequel or a brand new thing the hesitance towards making something entirely new or admitting something is a reimagining.

Well, I think tears of the kingdom is a prime example. what do even megafans of TOTK (me) admit that it has its faults? not acknowledging botw. yeah, malice is just gloom now. what shrines. etc.

...its a game that feels like it didn't really want to be a sequel. oxenfree also comes to mind, sort of. oxenfree 2 feels like its another take on stuff that happens in oxenfree, in the same world, but with different events and concepts that sort of mirror the precedents that were set... but also mix things up still! not to throw around the word shoehorned, but... there being only 1 decayed guardian in TOTK definitely feels like "hey, we're referencing the first draft of this game" and more of an easter egg than... well, it reminding you its a sequel. There are some special things that come from revisiting a world that you've been to before, like hateno village having a whole fashion war in TOTK...

but like, do you feel me when i say it feels like TOTK was "BOTW but if we leaned harder into the ancient zonai, and took it in a little bit of a different direction"

im not gonna say oh its literally just botw but again. because its... the merit of TOTK being a cool game comes from it being different in unique ways. so when it DOES try to remember the game that its a direct sequel to, it only really feels kind of vague and slapped on. what im saying is i think we need more deltarunes. yes these are the same characters, some are still important and some arent the focus anymore, yes determination exists, but its for different stuff now oxenfree 2 felt like it was... mmm, im too tired to write about how it evokes a similar feeling, but i think it does

like, TOTK had an astonishing amount of work put into it. its not just a copy paste with different mechanics. but fundamentally the foundation of the game is the same, and... well, it just seems like they didnt really exactly care to CONTINUE BOTW, moreso that they wanted to REVISE BOTW

i was gonna fit in stuff about A) new content taking priority over old content, sweeping old stuff under the rug (minecraft spawner rooms, tbh) B) new content being really high quality in updated games (stardew valley ginger island, maaybe ror2 dlc to some degree, though it more feels like a diff, equally quality vibe)

like yeah minecraft updates fit into here somewhere, and especially terraria updates and how they're great but honestly these amount of cool ideas could be put into a new game or something... even if that requires making a new foundation... im... sort of tired as i write this, i WILL have a followup post eventually on this, because it feels like there are dots ive found , even if i havent Quite connected them.

like, hey where do persona definitive editions fit into this?

a big thing to me is the ignorance of old things, the fitting the new into the old, blending of...

well yeah, it feels like . if you arent gonna bother blending the old and new together well, then just make a game thats separate. but if you just wanna give another go at a game with similar elements, go ahead and... make it a reimagining! a ... different cut of the game! im sure ill realize smth i forgot to write here when i hit post, because i am tired but have thoughts. there are a lot of games that fit into this puzzle, and i cant quite remember more situations like TOTK off the top of my head but i KNOW ive experienced them

[goodmorningawfulbye]

Nobody asked but I started thinking about it and this is my house so here's my ranking of my top however many Zelda games come to mind

1. Skyward Sword. Therapy is expensive, SkSw was only $50 (plus it was a gift for my sweet 16 anyway) and I've played it at least 10 times. 400 hours for fifty bucks is a good deal. I want to live in the watercolor backgrounds. Or Lake Floria. augh (positive). Hate the Silent Realms though.

2. Twilight Princess. Because A. That's my boy, B. Exquisite sound and level design, and C. "Gee I sure hope this won't come up again later," says weird little girl turned woman obsessed with an elf who turns into a wolf 18 years after TP's release

3. Wind Waker. MY SON!!! Also the main theme is so cleverly done it makes me scream. Honestly so many good parts collected into a very good whole.

4. Majora's Mask. Has to be listed before its more popular older sister because I love Theophany's albums Time's End and Time's End II, and because of my HWMMAU.

5. Ocarina of Time. Iconic! I don't vibe with the N64 controls but that's a me problem. The symbolism for Kids Like Me is off the charts and it has Saria in it which makes me emotional (positive). Also Kakariko Village theme. Hell yeah.

6. Breath of the Tears of the Wild Kingdom. I'm harsh on BOTW because of it being the first "refreshing shakeup" to one of many series I love that made me really bitter in retrospect. But I like the dragons theme and I like exploring the world most of the time and I like Sidon. Passing grade. TotK, on the other hand, felt like "we had more ideas for mechanics from BOTW, I guess we need a LITTLE story" but at least Rauru is voiced by Chris Hackney and we have Matt Mercerdorf

7. A Link Between Worlds. Ravio. Bunny son. That's it! (The painting mechanic is VERY cool, and I love Hilda's theme. And all the inversions of dynamics and values and stuff between Hyrule and Lorule. I had a lot to say about that in 2014!) (But genuinely that was a cool writing choice)

8. Minish Cap. I just think Vaati is neat. And the mechanic where you fling yourself using mushrooms