#there are so many problems with mineru

[hyde-nseek]

One other thing Mineru is good for is walking across dangerous ground (lava, gloom, etc.)

Good point. However, there are so many other easier or more fun ways to get over those. Like shield surfing. Or spring shields. Or bomb shields. Or rocket shields. Or just building a flying device.

It's insane how you can replace Mineru with a good shield and it becomes better.

Plus, if Nintendo wanted me to use Mineru to travel, the least they could do is make her travel fast. I'm not even talking about horse speeds. At least make her as fast as Link when he's not sprinting! I don't think that's a lot to ask!

[ganondoodle]

still thinking about how even just the decision to basically act like the shiekah tech never existed is just ... so baffling to me

bc again you could have done all the sonau tech does with shiekah instead, and they were perfect to be explored more in a sequel, why wouldnt you grasp that potential, the literal building blocks for more??

if you are that tired of shiekah tech .. dont make it a fuckign sequel to the game prominently featuring it???? totk doesnt take place generations after botw in which things could have changed drastically, its just a few years afterwards??

you want to reuse the map and get rid of shiekah tech? ok fine take LINK into the past then and the focus is for you to find a way to return; do some neat twist where its revealed that link was the one who sealed gan bc he couldnt defeat him without zelda or something if you dare (they wouldnt)

want less work than that and still reuse the map and get rid of shiekah tech AND reuse characters? ok then make it some alternate universe thingy like majoras mask in which everythign is the same but also isnt, its weird and creepy how characters you thoguht you knew suddendly dont act like themselves, shiekah tech doesnt exist, malice is now miasma, etc, it would give reason to why you feel so much like something about this world is familiar yet also very wrong

as far as im aware every "sequel" we have had so far were either generations apart from the first one, some alternate universe or a different location altogether- in all of which its plausible that things are different, things seem weirdly familiar but also wrong, or that another continent just works different from hyrule

but totk does none of that, its supposedly just a few years after the first game, same world same character, but its BUILT like some strange jumbled mess of stuff from botw and new stuff out of nowhere that just .. doesnt fit, but feeling a strange sense of otherness, a déja vu of something you know but it acts off, like an imposter, thats NOT intentional and it shows, its a mess of botw stuff, from stuff that people missed from the old games and entirely new stuff; i dont doubt it CAN work but the way it turned out is like a mix of 3 different puzzles forced together and being told 'see it fits!' even tho you can clearly see the pieces dont look right in these places

again it feels like a sequel that desperately wants you to forget the first game happened, that anythign from it mattered at all

and that isnt really ... the sense of a sequel? why insist on it being one when it only creates problems? is it marketing?? just like it was marketing to call age of calamity a telling of what happened before botw but then it wasnt that at all and that is still the sole reason why i dislike it? bc i was lied to? totk is like 10000 times worse than that, its a main title and doesnt even have the excuse of yeah its basically an excuse to play all your fav characters in fun ways and the game beign well aware that being its main appeal; what is totk appeal? a toybox with botw aestethic and none of the flavor?

(on a sidenote; the sonau tech doesnt even .. matter? in botw at least calamity ganon was made of shiekah tech parts and him overtaking other tech is a big point, the sonau tech doesnt serve anything but .. idk minerus useless mech? gan doesnt even aknowledge it, he doesnt care, all it is is toys for the player, not link, but the player. the monsters mining the tech materials? what for? gan doesnt give a damn and they dont work for the yiga either??)

i said it before but it gives me the feeling that the way botw invited you to theorize, to look beneath the surface, the way it intrigued you and laid the groundwork for so many interesting things without denying anything.. was accidental? or perhaps put in the game without the directors noticing? i cant stop thinking about them saying sth like "after botw zelda wondered if the kingdom of hyrule needed to keep existing the way it had been before the calamity, but then totk happens" bc it just feels like they realized too late that botw naturally led into questioning the status quo and they scrambled to fit it back into a flat and boring road we have seen so many times before (or even worse really) with totk

zeldas character naturally leads into her questioning and reexamine their history and set of rules? we gotta teach her a lesson of why she is importante god given monarchy girl that has to keep it bc what if evil brown man shows up again for no reason

maybe im grasping at straws here but looking at it this way the sonau .. make more "sense"; the shiekah were a group that was under the rule of the royal family, and misstreated before (oh no look soemthing interesting) so they dont lend themselves well to be used for teaching zelda that lesson- the sonau however are tailored really to be just that; they are a supposedly godly race from the literal sky that founded this version of hyrule, that had tech even more advanced and better than the shiekah, she gets put in the past to meet the perfect god king of goodness personally, also his very fridgy wifey that zelda later replaces in a way, shes put there and treated like family and then gets to see just how evil that evil big man from the desert is, sonia is falcon-punched to death solely so zelda can feel obligated to take over her role, have her new, better 'family' hurt by gan; similarly so raurus sacrifice, look what a noble and good king he is, he payed the ultimate price to lock that evil man away, now zelda you cannot let their sacrifice go to waste, rebuild that divinely good kingdom like it was!!

and even though they go so much out of their way to put the cart back onto the rails of black and white-good and evil in an even flatter way than the old games, it still doesnt feel right, at least to me, it still feels like zelda shouldnt have gone along with all of that, it feels like even her character from botw was walked back entirely, except for the intro, it made her feel like a stranger to me-

because this is a sequel, i know this zelda, she wouldnt act like that after all that shes been through, this feels ... off

and it all just insulting to anyone who cared about botw more than surface level, or the zelda lore in general, i dont even care much about the timeline, but theres alot of lore and themes beyond it that felt ignored, especially so given that .. its a damn sequel, non AU, not generations apart, directly part 2-

but its not.

it even feels very "corporate", put zelda in a dress again, people liked that, put crazy abilities in the game to flashbang people with how insane it is even if its not the best for the gameplay or the story, put a new asthetic into it out of nowhere bc its 'new' and act like its been there the whole time, put gan in there bc people miss him and find him sexy even if his role is just as flat as that of an evil cloud monster-

*sigh*

you know, i saw a post that said aoc was like a bad fanfic (affectionate) and totk was like a bad fanfic (derogatory) and tbh thats like one of the best comparisons/summaries i have seen ..

[hollysoda]

Okay so I know that totk turned one year old a couple of days ago but I was away for the weekend and didn’t get a chance to post something about it. Now I’m home again, I think I wanna just put some thoughts down

Firstly, I still love totk. It was a really fun game and had just as much fun playing through it complete blind as I did playing botw with only a loose knowledge of the game. In fact, I enjoyed it more than botw. Maybe it was because I knew more about Zelda than what I did back in September 2022 when I first played botw, or maybe it was because I could see the improvements they made when it came to dungeons and overall exploration. For at least six months totk was my favourite zelda game. Now, a year on, it isn’t.

I think on reflection totk is a very flawed game. While it is technically genius, story-wise it’s incredibly weak, possibly the weakest in the entire franchise. Here are a few points worth mentioning:

Why bother bringing back Ganondorf if he isn’t going to have any real motive? Is there a reason why he’s fighting with Rauru and seeking his own secret stone, or is he just doing it for funsies? Part of the reason why Wind Waker Ganondorf is so good is because he has a strong and clear motive. Without any motive, totk Ganondorf just feels like an enemy rather than a main antagonist

The main thing that drives forward a story is a theme to take away from it. Breath of the Wild’s theme was exploration and lost memories, Skyward Sword’s theme was loyalty and/or devotion, but it’s hard to tell what totk’s theme is. Sacrifice could be the outstanding one, seeing as both Zelda and Rauru make crucial sacrifices for the sake of Hyrule, but where else is it seen in the story? Totk just tries too many things, and having a clear theme would just help to solidify things

For a game that was supposed to solve the mystery of who the Zonai were it sure did a poor job at doing so. I absolutely adore the Zonai and in my opinion Rauru and Mineru’s designs as some of the coolest in the entire franchise but my god. Their lore is so underdeveloped it hurts. We know the bare minimum about their civilisation and culture. We still don’t know why they died off, why they built the labyrinths (and by extension who the Lord of dragons/owls/boars are), why they have secret stones in the first place, why is the Temple of Time in the sky when it was originally on the ground and most importantly why is draconification a forbidden act. If you’re gonna imply that the three dragons introduced in botw were once people then tell us!! Totk deserved a dlc that could explain all of this and not leave us in the unknown

Saying that the Sheikah technology just “disappeared” is an absolutely awful way of saying “uh yeah we never thought about that”. That’s some god awful world-building and planning on the developers behalf. Even if they just said that after the Calamity it lost its magic and then parts of it were repurposed for new technology, like the Skyview towers, it would be so much more believable. The Divine Beasts should have at least been in the game somewhere, perhaps in the depths. The lack of Sheikah tech makes the game feel so disjointed from botw, and makes totk feel as though it’s only a sequel because it has the same characters in it

The ending of the game just doesn’t sit right with me. Why bother having Mineru beg Zelda not to swallow her secret stone if in the end she would be able to turn back into a human. I understand the developers want a happy ending but at least let there be consequences. Let Zelda’s memory be a bit hazy or give her dragon features like many artists have done and let Link permanently be an amputee

Also the Ancient Hero angers me. I’ve got no problems with him not being a hylian because honestly it makes it wayy more interesting knowing that not every hero was hylian, but just explain why. If he’s some sort of Zonai, why doesn’t he look like Rauru and Mineru? Is he some sort of hybrid or a different breed of Zonai? And why does the tapestry depict him as a hylian if he’s not? Seems like an oversight more than anything

I think I should stop there because this post is getting long but uh TL;DR totk could have been a phenomenal game if they spent more time planning out the storyline and fleshing out lore. I get it, the game was originally botw dlc, but after so many delays we at least deserved a better story.

I do still love this game though Tears of the Dragon goes HARD

[themarydragon]

WIP

A not-yet-edited segment of my TotK, Zelda POV fic that extends the CWRD universe, below the cut. Working title: Still So It Flows For context, this is how I'm dealing with the continuity problems I talked about in the rant-post I just made.

MAJOR spoilers for TotK and my own WIP below the cut. I'm serious, don't click if you don't want to be spoiled.

[Set before meeting with Mineru but after arriving in Sonia's era and spending a night recovering and getting new clothes. Zelda is hesitent to speak of her era to Sonia, not wanting to damage the flow of time. Sonia, who was knitting, holds up a ball of yarn, and asks Zelda if she knits]

“Oh, you should. It really helps with figuring out some of the things Mineru talks about, with ones and zeros. Regardless, take this ball of yarn. There is an end buried somewhere in the middle, and then this end, here. And the two are connected, through hundreds of meters of fiber. You could move from one end to the other by unwinding the entire ball, or-“ she poked her finger into the middle and after a moment withdrew it, the other end looped around her knuckle “-some of us, like you, can jump from one place to another and skip the in-between. It might even be possible to move the yarn to the place you want it, but that is beyond my knowing.”

“So, your belief is that, rather than traversing backwards through the entire stretch of Hyrulian history, I hopped across a narrow point in the stream?”

Sonia smiled warmly at me. “More or less. History repeats itself. Events recur, kingdoms rise and fall and rise again. Perhaps in other realities, other worlds, the loop is longer. Perhaps there are places where the coils are more regular, the flow is a lazy river rather than a roiling ball of yarn. This, though, is the point at which creation is protected; entropy is pushed back, creation is reaffirmed, and then it happens again. And again. Endlessly, while the rest of creation whirls around us and grows and changes, we fork and split and merge and wrap back upon ourselves, every possible outcome explored on the way through.”

“And therefore anything I tell you about my future, you might have already heard, as a legend of a time long past.”

Sonia nodded at me, pleased. “When was the great flood? The seas covered the land, and the zora fled to the surface, eventually soaring through the air as they once did through the water. Countless years later, they are the rito. When was this flood?”

“The… what?”

“The zora and the rito are both here, now – are they in your time, as well?”

“They… yes. Yes, we have zora and rito both.”

“The zora yet live, so the flood is in the future. But the rito are with us, so the flood is in the far past. Do you see?”

“I… I think… I might?”

“When something is created – the rito in this instance – it becomes another ply in the yarn, another stream feeding into the river. Hylia becomes human, another ply in the yarn, and all the many events of our times are run through with this new added weight. Perhaps at one point there were no Gorons, no Zora even. Perhaps once the only race upon Hyrule were the Hylians. That makes it seem like you didn’t travel very far at all.”

“How…? How do you know all this?”

Sonia winked at me, and then flicked her tea spoon to the floor. While I watched, she frowned at it, and then it glowed yellow and rose back to its place on the table.

“You play with the flows of time long enough, you get a feel for it.”

[triforce-of-gender]

working on a more serious zelda fic for rauru x sonia, my current fav pairing. i'll share a little snippet under the cut for any who might be curious.

in the meantime, i figured i'd mention what i have posted and what i've got planned. i have one fic from eons ago that's more of a gag than anything else. T rated impa x sheik... kind of? not really. it can be found here if that sounds interesting. but i promise i can do better XD

other than this rauru x sonia biography-ish wip, i've got an impa x urbosa fic planned. likely will be multichap. both fics will have some M/E rated actions goin on, mainly the impa x urbosa. you cannot convince me that urbosa doesn't has insane game. i've also got some headcanons for gerudo culture that i've gotta write rather than explain. it's gonna be a really fun story.

rip impa.

anyway, snippet of the rauru x sonia fic below!! ♥

The door behind them creaked open just a touch. Rauru glanced over his shoulder and found the tiny figure of Sonia there, peering in curiously. “Come on in,” he beckoned. “Do you require assistance?”

“I would like a word, if possible.”

“Yes, of course.” He turned away from Mineru and stepped closer to the Hylian. “I never thanked you for the tea, did I?”

“You did, yes,” Sonia assured him. “Mineru, apologies but…may I speak with your brother in private?”

Mineru’s ears twitched as she turned away from her readings. “I—well, sure, I guess…” She awkwardly side-stepped towards the doorway. “Just…let me know when you’ve…finished.”

The doors closed and Rauru ruffled the back of his head. “Forgive her…she’s not the most verbose.”

“It’s not a problem.” Sonia stepped closer, keeping their distance familiar rather than professional. “Your travels went well?”

“The travel itself wasn’t particularly notable, which is a blessing.” He folded his arms. “As for the Rito…well, there is more trouble there than anticipated. Nothing patience cannot solve.” His head tipped down, closer to her. “Not to make any hasty assumptions, but I feel as though this is not what you are interested in discussing.”

“Not…necessarily.” She smirked. “Are you giving my clairvoyance a try?”

“Perhaps I’ve been taking some notes.”

“I see. Well, in that case, and forgive me if I’m mistaken but…we have known each other for some time. I am quite fond of you. And I am to believe you are quite fond of me.”

Rauru nodded slightly and slowly. “Yes, that is true.”

“I mentioned the other night…how the Goddess keeps drawing us together. You remember that, yes?”

“Of course.”

“Well, I suppose you do like a direct conversation. I apologize for avoiding this subject for so long, or merely hinting at it.” She stepped closer, extended a hand towards him. “I am…very fond of you, Rauru. Very fond. And I would like to keep being fond of you, if in a way lovers are.”

“S-Sonia….”

His hand was chilled and foreign in hers, despite how many times she felt his casual touch. She stared at his thin fingers, the golden-copper rings and bands around his forearm, structured to enhance his power. “I understand if our physical differences may seem like a daunting obstacle, but like all else, it’s an obstacle we can quell together.” Her eyes closed as sureness swept over her. “I know the fondness—the love—we feel for one another, transcends any corporeal bounds. Like you’ve said so many times…” Her eyes opened and she tried to meet his, but he was staring at her hand in his. “There is so little difference between us. We are both fragile. We both breathe and bleed.” She locked their fingers together and squeezed. “I’d like to breathe and bleed together. As one.”

Rauru said nothing, which would have had her worrying if his other hand hadn’t tenderly nestled against her cheek, fingers weaving into her hair. “Forgive me,” he said softly, “this is something I’ve wanted for so long…I urged myself to let the dream die. I had convinced myself it wasn’t feasible, especially now, but…”

Sonia leaned into his hand, warming against her skin. “Is that why you never returned to my village?”

“It is, subconsciously, most likely.” His eyes closed again and he leaned in closer. She couldn’t resist the offer to kiss the bridge of his nose again. To sever their hands so she could hold his jaw with both of hers, keep him there in her grasp, her forehead to his.

[doomed-era]

WIP Meme

got tagged by @bloobluebloo !! i will tag... @1tsjusty0u

still working on my minurah fic I finally got them to talk to each other!! now for the. romance thing.

"I would appreciate the help," Purah said. Really, she didn't have a clue as to what she was doing. Sheikah tech was vastly different from Zonai tech, in both function and form. Maybe learning more about it would help her get over her hangups about the stuff. "You…would." Mineru placed a hand under her snout, and sniffed. "Then I will certainly provide it. I believe there is a problem with its power dispersal unit. It may have been dislodged, or possibly broken." Purah's eyes lit up. "Perfect! Where is it?"  "The standard location for a construct."  "I don't know where that is." Mineru frowned. "How much do you know about our technology?"   "Not much," Purah said. Our? "Just what I've learned from hearsay, and what I've been reading."  "You are a researcher, are you not…? Haven't you seen the many constructs around your Hyrule?"  Your? Everything Mineru said gave Purah a dozen more questions to ask. "Oh, I have. But they only appeared about a month ago, so there hasn't been much in-depth stuff. It's not really my field, anyway." 

[karama9]

Dear Sages

First, let me express my gratitude for your help. The presence of your avatars has been instrumental in helping me overcome many trials. Your abilities, which you loan me so generously, are Goddess-sent, and your assistance in combat is valuable.

However, if I may make just a few small suggestions with the aim of improving our overall odds to defeat Ganondorf? Please do not think the following are reflective of a lack of appreciation on my part.

Tulin: I adore you. I consider you my adopted nephew. Please stop blowing things away when I'm trying to pick them up. I need all the arrows I can get. Also, when I'm standing by the edge of a cliff is not the best time to play hide and seek. You're really good at it. That's not always a good thing.

Yunobo: if you roll over the fruits that an enemy drops, it burns them. Sometimes they're still edible, but they can no longer be fused to arrow or used to cook more efficient food. I realize that this is not an issue with rocks, and I'm only pointing this out because it occurred to me you might not be aware of the disadvantages of burning Hylian food.

Riju: you are incredibly brave! I am constantly in awe of how you instantly charge straight for the enemy with no fear at all. Strategically, however, since your ability is most useful for distance attacks, what with involving lightning and arrows, and since I need you close by to activate it, it would be easier for me to maximize your contributions to the fight if I could get close to you now and again without having to get up close and personal with the enemy.

Sidon: you share Riju's bravery, and strategically, it's a problem in your case as well. Your ability is wonderful when it comes to protecting me from an attack, it allows for very efficient combat strategies. I would be able to make more use of it if I was able to get close to you without your running away towards the closest enemy.

Mineru: I will be the first to admit that the construct your spirit inhabits is, for lack of a better term, super cool. It does, however, have two qualities that must be managed carefully. They're not bad qualities, in fact they can be very useful, but they also have the potential to cause issues and I feel it best to bring this to your attention. First, you are not transparent. When you stand between me and our foes, I cannot see our foes. This affects my ability to fight them. Second, it's great that I can ride on the construct! But when I'm in the middle of a fight, grabbing me without warning to allow me to ride you is a strategy that can easily backfire, and has numerous times already. I think we can learn from this!

So again, thank you for all your assistance. I couldn't do this without you. Love you all,

Link

[karzahnii]

at 105 hours and 52.08% completion I finished TOTK??

I found it a step up to BOTW in every way and a very solid open world game. Fuse + Ascend make all of the game's systems so much more fun to navigate, there were more concentrated big moments throughout the game... it's hard to complain, but I'll list out my personal dislikes ANYWAY 👇

I was severely misled to believe the game's soundtrack would prominently feature saxophone

I didn't build very much. Individual Zonai devices proved VERY fun (fan, rocket, stabilizer, to name a few) but I generally didn't look forward to combining things to solve problems. Even though there were plenty of mini-moments you could build stuff for fun, and Auto-Build, it mostly felt tedious

The Sky wasn't all that... it obviously can't be as dense as the land map but so many areas felt perfectly cookie cutter (big plus sign land island featuring a shrine, launcher, dispenser, chest, and construct boss). The Depths ended up being a very cool and packed surprise feature, I just wish the Sky had a bit more variety

ENG voices - I had JP voices enabled the entire time, occasionally switching to english out of curiosity but immediately regretting it. This is also partly because the game's writing is generally not amazing, outside of a few moments

why the fuck did Ganondorf make that one face

I really enjoyed every sage quest, they felt distinct and cool and give the sages good moments... I just wish more story happened outside these. Yiga Clan got SO much attention (seriously, multiple MAIN quests focused on them) which felt like a waste bc they're played off like joke villains

Assuming this is the final game of this Zelda iteration (it really should be), the ending felt kinda lackluster? Purah should at least have taken a photo of everyone before Mineru fucked off 😭😭 I also genuinely believed Zelda would remain a dragon, it's disappointing she reverted and makes her sacrifice feel insignificant

[deadgrantaires]

FOR TOTK. vicariously experiences it thru u. 1, 9, 24 or 25

ohhhhh thank u >:)

1. the character everyone gets wrong

hmmm... im not HUGE into fandoms (u know this) but from some things ive seen honestlyyyy. a lot of it is link and zelda lol. i still see lotsss of good stuff but like. many some comic compilations ill see on youtube or w/e the way people interpret link and zelda is just ASTOUNDINGLY bad. like rip away eveyrthing thats interesting about them to make them like. boring het couple #1 when theyve both got such interesting things happening to them and their relationship is soo intricate. zelda def gets the worst of it (expected)

9. worst part of canon

MINERUS ROBOT SUCKS SOOOO BAD IM SO SO MAD ABOUT IT. NOW AND FOREVER. i REFUSE to believe she'd craft herself a robot that like. isnt even UNIQUE or fun design or anything. no way in hell

24. topic that brings up the most rancid discourse

im reallyyy not in fandom much but people become idiots when u try to tell them about the orientalism rampant in the games and that no, link wearing the gerudo outfit isnt a big win for nb link its just the games problem with racism

25. common fandom complaint that you're sick of hearing

(does this count) people hating weapon durability! HONESLTY i think weapon durability is a great mechanic! it forces me to use a bunch of weapons i normally wouldnt since i cant just hold onto my favorites forever im pro weapon durability. at least in this game lol 👍

[phoenixcatch7]

Totk end game/post credit spoilers

Me during the final blow and final cutscenes:

^ Link finally getting to beat up the guy that (caused the last century of problems, nearly killed hyrule, wiped out his friends and family, poisoned his friends homes,) took zelda.

^ me. The final dungeon (?) and battle was so so so good and I got to plunge my sword into ganons human body which I will admit I have missed. He tried to flurry rush me!! Failed but still. Rude. I styled on his soon-to-be corpse to show how it was done.

^ girls when the credits roll

^ girls when the credits finish and they see their favourite sage dying after showing her successors her favourite view and passing on the torch to the next generation ten thousand years late but assured a bright future free of suffering, oblivious to the curse of demise trapping hyrule in an eternal loop and link having to stand there and know better and then it cuts to the collapsed construct outside the temple.

^ girls internally when the door knocks and they've got to act normal about it for two minutes.

Notes about the fights:

The gloom shroud/Phantom ganon waiting outside was a pussy as always. Dropped his bow which I appreciated. The white moblin on the other side got shoved off onto his remains. Good build up to the main event.

The demon army was straight out of skyward sword, less satisfying given the lack of physical progress and implied time limit but it was still a fun treat. Didn't get to use any of my fun things though, and the sages made up for their lack of tactical usefulness and REFUSING TO LET ME USE THEIR ABILITIES and BLOCKING MY VIEW and INTERRUPTING MY ATTACKS by their sheer damage output, they deal with several monsters while I was busy. Then they immediately got pulled away by the temple bosses, which kind of dampened the mood. Bye, I guess.

Ganon was literally sitting in a malice hot tub. Straight up marinating in that hot tub like he was a washed up celebrity taking a fake candid photo at a blow out party he hosted at his oversized Beverly hills mansion months before he had to sell it.

Getting to fight rehydrated ganon was so cool! I will admit the way he built up the fight did something for me, the animators did a phenomenal job giving him a weight and power. I wanted to smash his smug face in so bad.

He was strong! Every hit from him knocked link over! But with his shield up it didn't do any damage, so I drew first blood! I always find that very important when fighting bosses XD. I actually had the biggest trouble with his sword, that thing was almost hilariously small on him and blended into the... Everything around link. When he switched to his club it went from worryingly hard to hilariously easy, I flurried literally every attack and didn't get a scratch! I was wary when he got his spear out but I'd gotten into a rhythm and took him out!

The demon king transformation was incredible! When that health bar just kept going I was so excited XD!! It's a fantastic trope/gimmick, love it every time! And the sages came back! And were somehow EVEN MORE HINDERING. He duplicated and everyone split up to fight one, which meant they were running all over the place. Unlike their vows these guys are fully opaque, and when three out of five are many times bigger than link it blocked out a significant portion of the battlefield, when I needed maximum vision to see and dodge the many shadowy ganons flitting in and out of view. I had a plan, I should have been able to pull it off beautifully - yunobo was closest so ram him into the nearest ganon to create distance to reach sidon and water blast through the forming line of ganons, climb mineru for a bullet time and fill everything with explosives.

What did not happen was all of that. I ended up taking the most damage by far in that portion of the fight. Instead of being a cool fight, a useful set of abilities or even an annoying but ignorable gimmick, the sages were active hindrances that blocked me at every turn, side rammed me with attacks aimed at the enemy, hid attacks aimed at me, and escaped my every attempt to reach them like their au was trained for that instead. The only success was reaching mineru to bullet time back flip from her, and by that point I was frustrated enough to use a significant portion of my ancient arrows. If I'd been using the vows I would have deactivated them barely a minute in and taken my chances with the phantoms! It was ridiculous! It was a relief when they got blasted away and it shouldn't have been!

But OH that TRANSFORMATION. I'd heard rumours of the dragon ganon, my own lack of blocking the totk spoiler tag being entirely my own fault, but it was still a shock to see him do what zelda had done, this time laughing manically, gladly willing to throw away even his mind and soul in pursuit of an ever foggy idea of power. (I can only assume he'd never actually seen a dragon before, and had only heard the myths surrounding then, because those guys are NOT designed for combat lol.) The fact that he went laughing as zelda went in pain and tears really cemented how far both were willing to go but how differently they saw it.

That evil dragon aesthetic was IMPECCABLE. 10/10 off the charts. The horns!! The eyes! The explosion! Forcing his way up through the castle with link trapped helplessly in a tooth! The giant claw emerging! The messed up dragon theme!!

And then ZELDA, my beautiful darling!!! I love her so much, even blind and empty, even gone and sleeping her dragon knew what to do against the thing she had been turned into to fight against. Oh she was BEAUTIFUL and so gentle with link, catching him on her fluffy head, she was so small in comparison! And link was absolutely tiny!!! Tiny boy!! She might not have known what to do herself, but she was pressed as close as she could get the whole time, darting about like a minnow in a pond compared to ganons barracuda thrashing. The sunset in the sky just made the whole thing look phenomenal.

The use of like like - esque stones instead of the calamitys eyes was inspired! The eyes would have been too much the same, and the introduction of likes trained us instinctively to hit the rock orb things as weak points. Unfortunately being that high up in the air and being so small comparatively meant judging distance was very hard, I wasted a lot of ancient and bomb arrows trying to hit them. It was only until the stone opened up (sir... Why did you put that BACK on your head?! Hide it in your body like the rest of the sane dragons!) that I realised you could land on him. In my defence he looked entirely comprised of gloom, which has spent the past month sucking my life out on contact so...

I was SO lucky to have my hero outfit on, ie the dyed travellers tunic and cap of the wild, it made every cutscene so cinematic! Sure felt like a zelda game! I took so many screenshots XD.

The final cutscenes though... I've been so worried about getting zelda back to human since I got the master sword glyph in eldin. I've been so, so determined to get her back. I would have done so side quests to do so - since she was a separate quest to defeating ganon I thought impa would give me the instructions! I was fully prepared to have to put in another ten hours or so and then fight ganon again to get the true ending!

And then Sonia and Rauru showed up again like 'that's our DAUGHTER' and gave link the power to rewind time over ten THOUSAND YEARS and turn her dragon soul back to a human ToT. And then they took links arm!! I was so mad! Give him his arm back?! Where did the flesh one even come from it got turned into a blackened lump on a pg screen! They can't even show blood! That arm was fully gone! You said yourself it was beyond - ohhhh they reversed time on his arm too. What is with Rauru and non consensual arm replacement?? I was a part zonai hybrid! The last piece of an extinct species! I could levitate and reverse time! Give me!! my arm back!!!

But Sonia finally got to meet link like she'd wanted and they got their closure after millenia and they said goodbye ToT.

And then link CAUGHT zelda. They landed in the pond he had all that time ago at the beginning, and he swam them to shore, and zelda woke UP and came HOME and SURVIVED after she'd lost all hope for herself and she got to come HOME 😭 (see pictures above for reference). And they SHOULD HAVE HUGGED NINTENDO, THEY SHOULD HAVE HUGGED.

I was crying so hard I literally couldn't see the screen ToT. I had to keep blinking and sniffling and I just SOBBED when the credits rolled. Wailing into the tissues. And then mineru and the sages! Dangit, not my favourite sage! Dangit, let me keep ONE zonai thing?? Thankfully I didn't burst into tears again but it got CLOSE.

All in all? 10/10 incredible showstopping unbelievable never been done before perfect amazing. Everything down to the camera angles were perfection made physical (or virtual). Just NEVER make me have to fight with the sages again.

[thegeminisage]

ok, i'm shifting into zelda mode. i have until friday to finally beat this sucker which i think has actually wound up being a good thing - i was playing less and less of it and less and less often, partly because of time, partly because of brain chemistry, but mostly because i was getting tired of the like. grind. koroks shrines lightroots etc. i don't really want to burn out on totk, so i think if i stop and play pikmin, it will be a nice little break and motivate me to come back to zelda and actually enjoy it instead of just. going through the motions. which is great because i do enjoy this game and i want to remember that i enjoy this game, and also it means i have more of it to enjoy later - at WORST, i will come back for 100% when the inevitable dlc comes out. map fatigue of doing botw twice (nearly 100%ing it the first time, doing it all the way the second time) has been my biggest problem with totk, and it's possible that i will never play either game again (or if i do it will be a very, very, very, VERY long time from now, like at least a decade), so ultimately i'm not mad about stretching it out to make it last longer than just one summer. it's going to be a REALLY long time before we get another zelda. as in, i could very well be in my 40s by then. might as well shorten the wait if i can

anyway the first order of business is to go back and finish the mineru quest. i wanna enjoy actually having her in my party for awhile before i take her to the final boss fight - i should have done it ages ago lol

oh yeah i quit bc of a hinox lol but he was super easy

deeply unfortunate: found several enormous piles of minable rock. which i felt compelled to break all of even though it wasn't fun. the good new is one of them was made of zonaite somaybe soon i can upgrade my battery again

another giant pile of zonaite. im thrilled to have the mats but like...please let me do something else now lol. even mineru's arms have durability. i need my weapons. i've used like 40 bombs. i can't do this with yunobo over and over

also love and light to mineru but she is straight up in my way, and at this point in the game i can't dismiss her. like she wants to be close so she can kneel so i can piggyback and the mech is awesome when im in the mood for it but i am trying to do something. and she makes so many noises also. i think the sages, controlswise, are my least favorite gameplay element of this. they are SO. ANNOYING. i wish there was a limitation where only one could walk around with you at once and the rest were mapped to buttons lol

ok, got it mined. now to the actual spirit temple

aww i like the music here. i like the little lightroot piano cue. i wish i had an actual lightroot lol my hearts have been decimated

little bit worried about this boss.

oh shit i was exploring the arena and fell into the water while riding the mech and now i cant find her?! is she ok......................

oh whew there she is. rip i wanted to go get that big poe...i guess not. i'm sure after the fight i'll be teleported out and even if not it is so much swimming in the dark

oh SHIT evil construct?? DARK MINERU??? why can we have dark mineru but not dark link???

aaaah the old electrified fence arena

i wish i hadnt had to use a rocket to get in here. this fight feels slow and clunky without the benefit of a fan on mineru's back

FOUR ARMS?? OH SHIT WE GOT GENERAL GREIVOUS OVER HERE

GOT HIS ASS

oh my god it's MINERU like it was mineru but now she looks like a person and not a robot

oh god is she gonna give me a CUTSCENE?

like we just got one but am i gonna get another memory

THE

MURAAAAALLLLLLLL

this is breaking so much lore.

NOT THE HYRULE CASTLE THEME

oh a man of great evil here we go show me the boy it's been too long

SCREEEEAM THERE HE LITERALLY IS!!!!!!

oh my god the theme from that very first announcement trailer

THE SHOT FROM THE TRAILERS!!!!!!!

HOLY SHIT ZELDA USING RECALL BABYGIRL YOU ARE SO COOL

YOOOOOOOOO

rauru sealing ganondorf with the fma scar movement. he threw his whole body weight behind that fist 😏

this is gay

IM LOSING MY WHOLE ASS MIND. REMEMBER THIS NAME: LINK. AND THE MAIN THEME STARST PLAYING

AND AT THE BEGINNING. IN THE VERY FIRST CUTSCENE. I REMEMBER SCREAMING OUT LOUD BECAUSE HE RECOGNIZED US. HE REMEMBERED. THE NAME

holy shit. holy shit!!! they literally are just frozen like that just like in my movie pitch <3

ANOTHER cutscene?? i am literally eating

WAHHHH fi's theme

oh im wailing she and mineru love each other so much...neither of them wants to lose the other bc theyve already lost sonia and rauru :(

GOD ZELDA BEING WILLING TO DIE FOR LINK...girl they said you WONT be able to change back ik bc of spoilers that she does but AAAAAA

idk why all the zonai are so long and wiggly. like kaminoans. i don't like it

"even if my body should perish i will be with you in spirit" zelda about to lose mom #4 :(

oh NICE i have unlocked some cool zonaite shopping options...which i refuse to use until i max out my battery, lol

wow. i even got to get those poes

popped out of the spirit temple and was able to grab a lightroot. perfect stopping point bc now i have stuff i have to do lol

[ember-rose-and-duskie]

Aaaaall right! Now that it's been some time, I have another game for you!

(spoilers)

To start, I think this game improves a lot on its original, and is decent enough as is, but is a disappointing master piece in a sense. I enjoyed the game for what it was, but it's a loooong shot from my favorite

Legend of zelda, tears of the kingdom

The first disappointment was the total disappearance of ALL the sheika tech from botw. I doubt all were found and harvested for parts.

The second was the depths. It's a fine addition, but it's too same-y. Also after it's all lit up, it loses the sense of dread I had upon first entering the depths. It's way too big for its own good :/

The third is the cutscenes, in two parts. First is the cutscenes from getting the secret stones. These are all the same, because they all have to tell the same events because you can do them in any order. The total freedom leaves is with way less than the memories from botw, and the memory tears. Speaking of which....

The memory geoglyphs gave a proper story. If you were to watch them in order, it'd be perfectly fine. But MANY got a scuffed order, where you go from a peaceful tea party to the start of a war in an instant. They don't work as well as botw's memories, because the memories there *could* be out of order. They aren't focused on what's happening, but rather a particular character. Something that would improve it would be making them in order in a circular direction, but even then there's still issues. You shouldn't be able to go out of order anyways.

Then there's the fuse mechanics. It's actually really cool, adding the horns from creatures to power up weapons is pretty awesome. it's funny when you fuse two spears together and it clips through the ground. But only the first time, I just think there's better ways to implement it. Heck, I'd pay for an upgrade pack like the master sword trials, where when you fuse the master sword to another weapon, it temporarily becomes that weapon type.

The last thing to me is mineru. Man, what a disappointment. You see that lightning cloaked island, you go through it and open the door and get told to find the 5th temple. Then you build a giant mech thing.

I just don't like the mech. It's too slow.

These aren't the only problems, but these are the main ones that stand out to me. Total freedom is probably the worst thing about this game. There's a good way to do it, but it's done so poorly here I'd rather just go and play Minecraft, a total freedom game that actually makes sense to have as total freedom.

yall reblog this with the most disappointing game u have ever played

like the one that was either a sequel or overhyped and then turned out to be trash?? mine was bioshock infinite

[snommelp]

Warning: rambling Zelda timeline theorizing ahead. Spoilers for Tears of the Kingdom.

When Breath of the Wild was released, I recall many people trying to place it in the Official Zelda Timeline -- and the only answer that we could get was "way in the future, when the timeline split is so far in the past it's no longer relevant."

With Tears of the Kingdom, I have a new theory.

First, we need to remember that Nintendo officially confirmed that time travel splits the timeline; the official timeline has a three-way split occur at Ocarina of Time. I didn't really pay attention to Zelda theories back then, but I think most fans had already created a split timeline of their own with OoT as the splitting point, and the official timeline just confirmed that (while also adding a branch that slits from Link failing).

But wait! Zelda travels back in time in Tears of the Kingdom! She travels all the way back to the founding of Hyrule. Now, if I recall correctly, the official timeline places that event in the space between Skyward Sword and Minish Cap. However, we have a problem: the Zonai.

Mineru says that the Zonai descended from the heavens "long ago." They descended from the heavens... yet there's no sign of them in Skyward Sword (because Nintendo hadn't invented them yet, but hush).

The earliest game in the timeline, where you play a character who was born and raised in the sky, and nobody knows about this race that comes from the sky.

Therefore, I posit that the ancient past in Tears of the Kingdom isn't the founding of Hyrule that takes place after Skyward Sword. Rather, this ancient past takes place before Skyward Sword. And Zelda traveling back in time creates a branch in the timeline where Skyward Sword itself doesn't happen.

In the past of Tears of the Kingdom, Ganondorf assassinates Queen Sonia, and probably would have killed Rauru as well if Zelda hadn't teleported them away. That leads to Breath of the Wild -- the Demon King is imprisoned, and his malice given physical form attempts to destroy the kingdom that destroyed him.

Without Zelda present, Sonia and Rauru both die, and the Demon King runs rampant. The goddess Hylia is forced to intervene, raising the struggling remnants of the Hylian people into the sky and setting the trajectory for Skyward Sword. The previous iteration of Hyrule is lost almost entirely, but when the people of Skyloft return to the surface, some ancient memory remains, and they name their new kingdom after that old one.

[b3crew]

REVIEW | "Mother of the Goddess' Dormitory" | B3 - Boston Bastard Brigade

Considering that the very first shot of Mother of the Goddess’ Dormitory features three of its characters stark-raving nude in the bath, some would argue if that sight alone would either raise or lower a viewer's interest. After all, many harem anime use fan-service to keep its viewers attention, especially those that have bland storytelling. However, merely tuning out just because of its first scene does the series a disservice. In fact, as Mother of the Goddess' Dormitory progresses, one will find something surprising about its narrative.

Based on the manga by Ikumi Hino, Mother of the Goddess’ Dormitory follows a down-on-his-luck boy named Koushi Nagumo (Misuzu Yamada). He finds himself homeless after his home burns down without any family to bring him in. Nearly fainting in from hunger, Koshi falls into the arms of Mineru Wachi (Chiaki Takahashi). She brings him home and feeds him, allowing him usage of her bath. However, upon entering the bath, Koshi quickly discovers that Mineru lives with other women: Kiriya Sensho (Risako Murai), Serene Hosumi (Yuki Yomichi), and Frey (Asaki Fukuyama). After misunderstandings a-plenty, Mineru offers Koshi the offer of a lifetime: become the Dormitory Mother of the household, and he’ll get a roof over his head.

But before he’s fully accepted to the fold, Koushi must face the biggest obstacle: resident Atena Saotome (Ayaka Nanase), who has a fear of men. In fact, her phobia’s so bad, that it causes her massive nosebleeds if she were merely touched by a guy. After gaining Atena’s confidence, Koushi begins work taking care of the residence. However, he quickly discovers why many townsfolk have deemed the place a “Problem Dorm”, due to Mineru’s science experiments, Frey’s need to force weird cosplay on others, and Kiriya not knowing her strength very well.

Mother of the Goddess’ Dormitory doesn’t shy away from its harem label in the least bit. As mentioned, the series starts out with three of its cast members in the buff, with Koushi rightfully freaking out over the sight. This element is something that occurs a lot in the first couple of episodes, and while it’s a staple of this genre of humor, it can get a little tiresome and lazy. After all, throwing in nudity to compensate for a lack of character development is one of the worst offenses a harem series can do.

Click here to read the rest of the review!

[theoretical-tactician]

Okay, doing my final thoughts on TotK because I've always enjoyed putting together these posts for non-FE games I play (and talk about here lmao). Under the cut to save y'all.

So, TotK is definitely a game. I can see reasons for why there are both people who consider it better than BotW and those who consider BotW better than TotK. I'll get into my own preferences later though as that hinges upon factors I'll bring up.

The Pros

To start off, I'll list what I like:

Diving

Skyview Towers

The Spirit Temple :3

The lead-up to the final boss

Mineru + the idea of the sages

For some quick explanations on some of these, I really enjoy how the towers blast you super high into the air from which you can dive/glide down to locations. And with the addition of the glide suit, it really makes it feel good to explore the world in this way.

As for the Spirit Temple, I really love how it's a temple that makes use of every layer of the map. You start on the land to figure out where the 5th sage is, that leads you to the sky, and upon making contact with Mineru, she leads you to the depths for the temple proper (and remainder of her quest). Not to mention the puzzles were really fun throughout. Not overly difficult, but still super fun.

I also think that the three part setup to help Mineru is really cool. It means with prior knowledge, you can skip the first part to immediately head for Mineru's construct head in the sky. It's hard to stumble upon her by accident, meaning first time players can be slowly guided to her by the game when the devs think is right in terms of the story. But those familiar can pick her up whenever.

Also, the lead-up to fighting Ganondorf is great. I really like jumping into the depths and taking this linear gauntlet to face off against him. The game directs you to the boss when you're ready to fight. Also, having the army fight was so much fun and kind of added to the scale of conflict. Plus provides weapons and materials if needed.

Lastly, I really enjoy the concept of the sages in this game. I love the idea of having their avatars run around and fight alongside you whenever you summon them. It's a really nice clutch in situations when you're low on firepower.

Mineru was my favorite of the sages as she's a construct you can just hop on. Fighting from Mineru's back is so much fun, especially when you can customize her loadout. Not to mention she just improves traversal at times with her giving you a safe way to walk over large patches of gloom or lava.

The Cons

Sages

You know how I said that the sages are neat in concept? Because I truly think they are. However, they're horrible in execution. In order to use their abilities, you have to walk up to them and press A. This is fine in theory when you have one sage.

Problem: you get 5 sages. They also run all over the place. This means if you want to use a specific ability, you either need to dismiss/summon whatever sage you want accordingly or you need to run through your group of sages to find and interact with them. And you better hope nothing intercepts your interaction prompt (the number of times Tulin got in the way of me using Riju's ability in many).

Okay. What if we reduce it to just one sage? Maybe you only want one when exploring an area or for a fight? Well, I hope you're ready to run after them to use their ability. This especially problematic for sages like Sidon and Riju as there's no consistent way to bring them to you to use their abilities. At least Tulin and Yunobo have consistent triggers. And Mineru is a massive construct who can't outrun you.

I think the way sages work here is extra annoying because we had a working method to use champion abilities in BotW. Urbosa's fury does an AOE attack when you use a charged attack. Daruk's protection was an improved guard. Revali's gale is activated like a boosted jump. And Mipha's grace is essentially and extra fairy. There was no extra bells and whistles to activate them, they had dedication activation conditions that made sense.

Fusion

Moving on from the sages, another major issue I felt was with the fuse system. It's another good idea in theory, but the way it's implemented didn't feel fun. If you want to have any chance or surviving, then you need to fuse stuff to your weapons. So if you want to do high damage, just get the best damaging material. But that's kind of boring.

It got to a point where I eventually learned an item duplication glitch and simply duped the best attachment. Then I never had to think about combat again. And you may say "you ruined your experience by doing that." Which I will concede. But it felt incentivized considering how painfully labored combat was otherwise.

I think the fuse system would've been better in some sort of middle ground. Way that we keep the basic weapons with their normal durability and the like, but you can fuse materials to give interesting effects. Like how fusing gems gave elemental effects. Or adding monster eyes to your arrows added tracking. It makes interacting with fusion interesting without forcing it upon the player in a labored fashion.

The Story

I'm going to be honest. I think the story of TotK is fine. I don't really feel one way or another. Just seems like stock standard story for LoZ. And that's fine. The problem, however, is with the implementation of said story.

When you want to tell a story in a world like BotW, you need to actively consider the fact that the player will ignore how you want the story to play out. When control of progression is entirely in the player's hands, they will advance the story in whatever order they please.

This worked well for BotW as there was no linear story. Your main story options were to fight Ganon, recover your memories, and complete the divine beasts. Each of these actions is a self-contained thing.

Memories simply existed to give bits and pieces of context as to who Link and Zelda are. And each divine beast is its own self-contained story. The only effect they have is providing you with champion abilities and making the final boss easier. None of these pieces have overlapping story bits, just smaller pieces to a full puzzle.

TotK, on the other hand, wants to tell a somewhat linear story while remaining in an open world akin to BotW. This creates a few problems. The first of these that might get on players' nerves is how each sage tells you the exact same story upon completing a dungeon.

Over and over, you hear about "secret stones" and the imprisoning war. And for good reason: the devs don't know which dungeon you'll complete first. Which leaves them with two options: make different versions of these voiced cutscenes dependent on if you've already encountered one before or have all these cutscenes provide the exact same information.

In the end, it's more cost efficient to just have one cutscene for each dungeon ending. And since the devs don't know how much you know, they'll just give the same info at the end of each dungeon. It's annoying to the player, but it saves so much time and money not having to animate and voice extra cutscenes.

However, they also could have had each sage provide different information about the past, thus making this a missed opportunity to be less annoying. Mineru already has her own cutscenes explaining the past. But, again, if different cutscenes share different info, they either need to fit together like a decent puzzle (that can make sense along the way) or there needs to be a specific order to obtain this information.

Mineru is probably the only case of trying to enforce linearity going well in this game. Because the way to reach and assist her requires jumping through so many hoops that are always available but only revealed after the regional phenomena, the game can gently enforce an order.

Is it possible to deal with Mineru early? Yes. But it's difficult without prior knowledge, thus making it easier to force fresh players along a desired path. This allows Mineru to somewhat comfortably share information in a way that makes sense based on an expected level of progression.

And on the other side of the scale are the memories. The memories are implemented extremely poorly. First off: I didn't even know about the memories or their quest at first. I just happened upon one of the later ones (dragon tear #10) and ended up working backwards from there.

So, once I figured out how these memories are obtained, I started collecting them. Only to later find out there's technically an order you collect them and the quest for these memories only triggers upon collecting the first memory in this desired order. Which is very stupid for an open-ended game like this.

I don't care about whether there's a certain order to technically watch these memories. I still pieced together the story despite watching them way out of order. And that was fine: things still made sense. The problem was that this was a story quest with no clear indication to start it. Not to mention one that starts only once you collect the first one in the game's desired order.

tl;dr: You cannot make a linear story while still giving the player complete freedom over the map without some associated cost. Whether it be repetitive annoyance, creating highly specific tasks the enforce an order, or doing something stupid like what happened with the memories.

Accessibility

Uh oh. Oopsies. I shouldn't need to put accessibility in the cons section for a game. Oh no.

So, before I start my accessibility rant, I feel like I should make two things clear. One: I have small hands. This may seem weird to point out, but it can make using controllers really difficult or uncomfortable at times.

Another thing I should mention here that I don't normally share is I have fine motor issues. Don't get me wrong, I'm fairly good at the games I do play, but my body has issues keeping up with me when I have to act with any sort of speed or precision. And even beyond that, I just...fumble with normal controls a lot, too.

The first problem I ran into as a result of my own problems is that using menus was painful. Now, this is a problem that exists a bit in BotW, too. You have to hold down an arrow button and tap through the list to get whatever item or ability you want. This seems like a simple motion, but it's actually really hard for me to do.

Now, this was less of an issue to me in BotW as I could simply open the pause menu and equip weapons and the like that way. Not to mention I was playing with the joycons where the arrow pad is actually made up of separate buttons, making this task slightly easier for me (when I did use it).

TotK, on the other hand, turns this into a problem. Throwing items or attaching them to you arrows REQUIRES going through this finicky menu. And this is a major mechanic for the game. So, you can probably imagine how painful this was for me (it was extremely difficult).

But, fine, I eventually got used to it (aka: I eventually got to a maybe 50% success rate with doing these menus in battle). However, this was only an issue of fine motor skills. Now let's combine that with having little baby hands.

So, I find it most comfortable to use a pro controller (unless I'm heavily reliant on precision with the arrow buttons). The issue is, reaching the back buttons on the pro controller is somewhat uncomfortable. Usually with controllers like this, I can position my hands to either comfortably use the bumpers or the triggers, but not both.

With TotK, I instantly settled on comfort for the triggers so I can easily use the bow. However, this then becomes a problem once I start using abilities. Left bumper has to be held down to choose an ability from a wheel. Already annoying for reasons similar to what I said above, but made worse because the wheel is sensitive to precise analog stick inputs. Oops.

But also, just holding down left bumper is extremely uncomfortable for me because of small hands. And sure, this could be improved by using the joycons, but then we run into the issue of the bumpers/triggers being way too small and close together, and issue that arises from poor fine motor control. This whole thing is a losing battle for me.

And then there's the fucking final boss. I was starting to warm up to the gameplay only for the final boss to give me a massive middle finger. Because someone decided that it would essentially be required for the player to be capable of doing flurry rushes consistently.

Doing a flurry rush is a precision and timing-based input that I cannot for the life of me get down. And this aspect sucks because the rest of the game is completely doable without flurry rush. But Ganondorf fights spit on that freedom of play. If you cannot flurry rush, you better have shown up with 500 hearts and plenty of food while praying it simply works out for you.

I don't understand why this was done when no other bosses in either BotW or TotK require mastering such a precise mechanic. Sure, Calamity Ganon is made easier if you can flurry rush or parry, but it doesn't feel required. Not to mention, they make it easier to learn there with obvious sound cues and a massive glowing sword.

Oh, and the tanking strategy isn't even viable for Ganondorf as he has a move that REMOVES YOUR HEARTS. Not a gloom effect, an entire heart deletion effect. Which puts a soft timer on you that essentially requires you learn flurry rush or get lucky.

I know plenty of people can probably handle this fight with little issue. But for me, I'm already battling myself to even do boss fights in these games, now I have to battle with the game fucking me over on top of that. It simply feels awful.

So, BotW or TotK?

In the end, I don't hate Tears of the Kingdom. I think people who enjoyed BotW can enjoy TotK. But I also feel that the people who are likely to enjoy the game the most are those who haven't played BotW. Though I also know I cannot speak for anyone besides myself.

Personally, I prefer BotW. It did an amazing job of making a world where you feel lost and alone. Not to mention exploration felt incentivized. It felt good to just get on a horse and let it run along the roads, waiting to see what you'd come across.

TotK provided me with no such feelings. I wasn't excited to explore, I just skipped that aspect by teleporting to unlocked locations and diving from them to collect anything in my sights. I felt no desire to interact with the world around me. The only time I got that feeling was in the depths, but the depths were always so difficult to navigate. So I only went down in short bursts.

I think TotK should have either committed itself to being an open-ended exploration-based game like BotW or to being a linear story and puzzle-based game like previous entries in the series. Combining these two aspects is a near impossible task.

I would be happy to play another game like BotW in the future, but I think the devs need to reconsider their implementation. Perhaps if they returned to how champions worked, did some rebalancing, and found a better even ground between how BotW and TotK handle their story, then it has the potential to be an amazing game.

For now, the one major thing I have to say in TotK's favor is Mineru exists. It gets a Mineru out of 10, whatever that means.

I beat Tears of the Kingdom. And hoo boy. Gimme a hot minute to gather my thoughts. But I can say one thing immediately: FUCK WHOEVER DESIGNED THE FINAL BOSS.

[thegeminisage]

doing some more zelda. my goal today is to fight kohga but i can't resist grabbing a few more korok seeds while i'm here. farosh flies SO close here, it's really tempting to go up and get another dragon part, but i don't wanna lose focus again...

the other reason i wanna get the korok seeds is that there's a hudson sign along the path. i think i have only 9 left! it would be nice to get them all.

also, i'm sort of working ym way down towards the labyrinth - i only have one left, so it'd be nice to do all those too. but UGH, more hands...maybe today, but maybe i'll save it for after pikmin lol

love and light. i really hate having mineru along. i hate to turn her off because i like all the help i can get in fights but like...she gets in my way in fights! she's constantly trying to be close to me so i can hop on her back, but the problem is if i accidentally activate sidon or riju or whoever it's nbd, it's just annoying, but if i accidentally activate mineru i'm up on a fucking mech when i was in the middle of trying to flurry rush or whatever, i hate itbut she's gotta go. sorry mineru :(

ok, the three big things i wanted (aside from all shrines, which will not be possible) were kohga, the labyrinth, and the hudson signs.

i have 7 signs remaining...not too many, and 4 are very close to each other out near hyrule ridge/satori mountain, but the others are in the highlands and blegh. also i'd be crossing some hands to get there

i spoiled myself for kohga by looking up a walkthru. apparently he has FOUR locations?? jumping around everywhere smh lol. if i go the long way i get a lot of depths exploration in, and if i go the short way i get to see what became of the old yiga hideout. also it helps since i'm pressed for time

meanwhile, i know there's hands in this labyrinth, but i'm pretty close to it relatively speaking and i could snag some seeds on the way from the mountain between me and it........

sigh. labyrinth it is

yo wait wasn't this mountain SNOWY in the last game?? now it's all hot and deserty.......that's so wild lol

h!! i found an underpants guy

oh, no, wait, this is an endurance contest minigame thing! im gonna see if i can cheat with food lol

LMAOOO i dont even need food. i can wear my trusty ruby rod

oh boy this is gonna take forever. im BOOOOORED

i wish the view from up here was better. at least then i'd have something to do

FINALLY. jesus christ

oh my god ANOTHER ONE IN THE DAY.......come ON

luckily i have a frost talus heart on one of my weapons lol

taking so long my controllers fell asleep lol

FINALLY!!!

oh boy okay Here I Am at the spooky maze of hands

annoying as he is, calip is a pretty tough cookie. i mean he makes it all the way through all three of these mazes, and the only reason he can't solve the riddles at the center is because he doesn't have a zonaite arm

uh oh i made it to the middle. hand time...?

ruler of BOARS this time!! oh man, like, ganondorf! like obviously but wow

huh this area doesnt seem to be where the hands on the map are...maybe i dodged them by not walking on top of the maze...?

now the big question is how tf do i get up there...

i'm not doing that hot air balloon shit again. i'm gonna warp to a nearby island and take my bike lol

havent ridden the bike in ages. missed it! so pleased at how far it can get without needing a recharge now

fucking DISASTER strikes. so there's one of those tiny zonai relief islands way out there between me and the maze. decided to go to that. landed. DROPPED the bike. managed to cast recall on it but i didnt cancel in time so it flew up into the air and dropped back down. and off the side AGAIN. in my haste to get it, i stepped on the middle of the island which fell out from under me. so i wasted that entire fucking trip

landed on a shrine next to a molduga. might as well lol

wait...i found the piece of the island that fell down...could i ride it back up...?

BOOOOO i can't BUT at least i can grab my pic lol

i'm still mad that idk how to fight molduga in this game lol. last time arrows worked, but not this time...? maybe i need bomb arrows, but i'm running really low...

oh yeah it was bomb arrows lol

did a korok since it was right here. i guess i'll also go ahead and jump in the quicksand holes...rip my bike

this is why i never get anything done lol

oh bad theres redeads down here

i saw a video where someone got close to a redead and nothing happened. do they truly not jump you in this game...?

i regret this already. this is so tedious. i'm gonna have to manually discover every fucking entrance

oh no wait thank FUCK if you just walk over the sand piles it counts

ok. gonna see if i can bike straight up to the labyrinth

MISTAKE. this is gonna take forever. shoulda just started over from that island again

wasnt watching my energy, fell halfway. used a BUNCH of charges to top up and then fell off the bike entirely. today is a comedy of errors

im just gonna make a new bike at the old island. this is so stupid and such a huge waste of resources. that one island, which i tried so hard to complete my first time there so i wouldnt have to GO BACK......

FINALLY amde it

oooh it's that low grav shit...

YOOOOOOOOOOOOOO

oh my FUCKING god that was delightful

ok, so this shrine at the maze, it looks like a rauru's blessing shrine but it has fire fruit trees. which i thot was weird but whatever. but THEN when i tried to go up the stairs they like fucking slide down and revealed a puzzle. this game is fucking with me!!!

genuinely had no idea that could happen. i wish i had been able to be surprised by more of it

the shrine is called "unlit blessing" but i wasn't paying attention and they got me >:)

all right...finally, down i go..........

good news is i checked and no hands.

NO FUCKING WAY LOL i caught a star piece on the way down!!!!!!

god i fucking LOVE. the music in these joints

damn i think i just heard a dragon lol am i on farosh's path? but i can't get out to check til i kill this flux guy. bet i couldn't catch her rn anyways but i'd love to see her

got his ass.

and FINALLY got my phantom ganon armor fr!!!

all i need to do is snag this lightroot and then i can finally do something else with my day lol

luckily i ascended and popped up right under it

i don't see farosh...

OH MY GOD THERE SHE IS...SO COOL.........................

oh my god there;s something else big flying in the dark......GLEEOK?

COLGERA!!!!! OH MY GOD...so cool so cool so cool

i literally can't fight colgera rn. i don't even really have time to farm this dragon. i'm gonna grab one piece and take a break, i have stuff to do - i can get the second piece when i come back!!!