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firstpuffin · 5 years

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Spyro, Randomizers and Beam Saber.

So I do have a longer, researched piece in development but I need a bit more time for that. I want it to be as objective as I can because it’s the type of thing that brings emotions to the fore. Instead I am writing this rather more light-hearted piece out of topics that I doubt I can make a whole upload out of on their own.

It’s another multiple topics in one piece, like that writing one I did before but this one will be about video games.

If you’ve looked through my other stuff you will likely have noticed that I like video games. Modern games are like television or movies that you can interact with and for this reason are deserving of more respect than they currently get, so expect more uploads on the subject. Might actually be worth an upload to expand on this.

So I have three topics at the moment and the first is about Spyro the Dragon (1998), more specifically the series on the original PlayStation. For those not in the know, Spyro is a very child-friendly game with cheerful music, bright colours and cartoony enemies and developed quite a following. You play as a dragon who is considered small even by the game’s standards. You can take three hits before having to resume from the last time the game was saved and you know how many hits you have taken by the appearance of Spyro’s dragonfly friend, Sparx, who changes colour as you take damage.

Being a small, possibly underdeveloped, dragon, Spyro is forced to glide rather than fly, can breathe small flames and charge with his horns. As the games progress Spyro can pay to be taught more moves. This isn’t pointless information though, these abilities are used both to fight and to solve puzzles; Spyro isn’t a turn your brain off action game but a puzzle experience.

So all in all Spyro is a cute, brain training game. So why am I writing about it? It had a remaster released in late 2018 after the success of the Crash Bandicoot remaster, and that had me playing the original games (I didn’t have access to the remaster) and I realised that Spyro is freaking terrifying.

At the beginning at least, the enemies who you kind of have to kill are terrified of you. They run and they cower so Spyro is just running around murdering people. Sure, in the first game you might be able to justify it through the fact that I believe the enemies are magical creatures made purely to attack you so maybe it doesn’t count, but in order to recover from taking hits you need Sparx to eat butterflies, which you get from murdering the local wildlife who are just as scared as the enemies. In the second game though, the enemies might well be the local wildlife and are just as scared of Spyro as in the first game.

So what else? Is that all I’m going to talk about? Nope. This occurred to me as I was playing the second game but as you enter a new “world” (I didn’t cover this, did I? Basically, there are a series of worlds that give access to more worlds) there will be a cutscene showing its inhabitants and a similar one when you leave, and these reveal some disturbing information about the inhabitants.

Not only do the enemies show a callous or even sadistic disregard for life, but those that Spyro is working to save also show a light-hearted cruelty that is played for humour. Man-slaughter and torment are commonplace on all sides; Spyro’s murder-spree almost seems tame in comparison.

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I don’t want you to get me wrong though, the games are great. Even for children. The first game can be monotonous but the second one improves on it greatly. The reason why the enemies run and cower actually makes sense, particularly at the start: it gives the player a safe place to get used to playing the game with minimal danger. A slow start. And the dark humour? Well that’s common everywhere in human society. Jokes about death and harm are common and the games count on children not quite understanding what’s happened. This may not be ideal in children’s media, but it’s not too unusual and whether or not it is harmful is not a debate for here.

So which of the two subjects do I want to continue with? I think the semi-“review” that I have planned will be easier to end things on so I’ll leave that for last.

There is a certain type of game, I’m not sure if it has a name, but it kind of relies on discovering specific items to progress the story. The Legend of Zelda series is well-known for this: in the entry Wind Waker you need to approach a dungeon that has a strong wind blowing at you and in order to get close you need a specific item that allows you to approach it. This specific item is always at a specific place and it is the same in most of the games.

The Metroid series is the same. You need a specific item (say, the Spider Ball which allows you to climb walls) from a certain place in order to get to another certain place (up a wall). So where am I going with this?

Well someone figured out how to take these items and make them random; as in, they are not where they should be but are still needed. Naturally there are certain safeguards to make sure that you can actually complete the game but it adds an almost realism to a game you know well. An unpredictability.

And it’s not just items either. The avatar you play as can be random, the colour of your clothes and even the dialogue spoken. These Randomizers (nice name; exactly what it says on the tin) give the player the choice of what is randomised and to what degree.

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-she is not the usual character-

So I guess the question is “What’s the point?”. Yeah, heaven knows I’m too intimidated to try it myself, but it takes an old game that you’ve played a score of times and makes it new. You’re playing the game you love, but not how you’ve played it before. On top of that, random dialogue can be hilarious. But, as with all things video games, someone inevitably took things up a level and combined two games with items randomly spread between the two.

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Even if you are not interested in playing these Randomizer games, maybe you’ll find them interesting enough to watch a few on YouTube.

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And finally, my semi-review. A few weeks back I was able to visit my friend and he was insistent that I put on his VR headset and play a game called Beam Saber. Using two remotes that detect movement you swing them like swords at targets that come towards you. Maybe I should have mentioned earlier but Beam Saber is what is called a rhythm game: music plays and you have to interact with the targets that the game shows you, and always to the rhythm of the song.

-you might remember an old game called “Guitar Hero”; that’s the same premise-

Beam Saber has you swinging your arms as though you were using swords to hit the targets, hence the name Beam Saber.

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-I don’t personally watch this guy’s videos, but he at least guarantees a certain quality-

The thing about Beam Saber is that it is great fun. A lot of games that try to use motion controls like this are willing to let you wiggle the control unenthusiastically to get the same results, but Beam Saber encourages you to really put your all into it. You get better results for putting some umph into your swings while being punished for being too wild. It uses challenges, some of which are optional, to challenge you to measure and hone your movements.

Co-ordination, motor skills, memory and more are tested and practiced as you play; quickly wiping off sweat to avoid flinging the remotes at your bud’s nose (he didn’t have wrist straps so I really had to focus on not throwing them) as you flail about like an enthusiastic madman to a roster of catchy songs. On top of this, play for long enough and you will be feeling the burn for days so you can hardly be accused of sitting around all day playing games.

I would like to add here that people who are particularly weak like myself might benefit from this game. See, if you have weak muscle tone for whatever reason, exercising is particularly difficult; it is noted that dyspraxics are often quite weak (we’re clumsy so sports are not only unappealing but off-putting of exercise in general) and have to start any exercise menu at a lower level. Heck, in my attempt at getting stronger I am beginning with lying down and standing up again and again because I just can’t do push ups; that’s the sort of level I am talking about here. So having fun, with time just flying by, might be a good way to gain the minimum strength needed to really start working out.

-some of us have to make up for wasted time with the most basic of basics-

And even if it isn’t enough for strength gain, it most definitely will help dyspraxics with motor skills, grip strength (but might be best with wrist straps), proprioception and all the other multitude of things we struggle with. On a similar note, video games are great for us who struggle with reactions and the above issues.

So in summary, Beam Saber is great fun and is has any number of benefits.

#first puffin #opinion #review #spyro the dragon #spyro reignited trilogy #beam saber #randomizer #video games #vr #dyspraxia #guitar hero #legend of zelda #metroid #goldeneye #thosetagswilldofornow

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kaialone · 7 years

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I’m gonna ramble about Ganon(dorf) for a bit

Proceed if you’re interested (I wrote a lot)

Okay so I don’t even know how to start this, I’ll just go.

(note that I’ll mention the timeline in this, please dont think that I dont know that the timeline could be changed at any moment should nintendo feel ike it, I just like semi-going by currently established canon. Also please note that I got no problem with people who dont feel like following the timeline for any reason, to each their own.)

I kinda really like the fact that Ganondorf is said to be a reincarnation of Demise, because, idk, somehow the idea of powerful demons needing to reincarnate into human form for some reason, and then once they have this form and live that life they start having human feelings and emotions and start struggling with what they want to be and maybe end up becoming good guys, is just somethign I really enjoy.

(If that sounds weirdly specific, Great Demon King Piccolo from Dragonball is one character with that kinda arc that I love.)

And then of course, one of the most interesting things about Ganondorf, imo, is how in the three different timeline branches, you got one incarnation of Ganondorf who turns out very different in each branch.

Something I always like is to just kinda, look at the different “last words” Ganondorf has in each timeline branch, and what they really mean for each of them:

"The wind... it is... blowing."

“I am the Evil King, Ganon...”

“The history of light and shadow will be written in blood!”

(though this gets a bit muddled in the Downfall Timeline, as technically Ganon died in ALttP, but was revived in OoX,´, which I see as his true death for now, but then again we dunno if any Ganons after that where him revived or reborn so *shrug*)

But first we should talk about the guy that “grows up” to be these other three.

I mean, personally I think no matter how you look at it, OoT!Ganondorf did lots of bad stuff, and wasnt a good ruler to the Gerudo (I dont mind different interpretations at all though), but I do think his initial intentions were good like we hear him talk about in WW, but lets not get ahead of ourselves here.

OoT!Ganondorf doesn’t really end up helping the Gerudo once he actually takes over Hyrule (all the Gerudo are still over in the desert, cept for maybe Iron Knuckles) and its heavily implied all the Gerudo were brainwashed to some extent (The carpenters note that the Gerudo seem nicer, post-Twinrova’s defeat), and Nabooru, who was very respected among the Gerudo, was explicitly against Ganondorf, but then brainwashed into submission.

Like even if you think Twinrova did all that without him knowing, not noticing your parents brainwashing your people doesnt exactly make you a good leader.

Adding to that, if A Link to the Past’s backstory is to be believed (and the timeline is not said to split until Link falls in the final battle) then, Ganondorf entered the hiding place of the Triforce alongside fellow thieves of his, and ended up killing them all so he could have the Triforce for himself.

Buuut before you think I’m just gonna talk about how bad OoT!Ganondorf is, like, I still think he genuinely wanted to help his people (at first) and that everything WW!Ganondorf says does represent his true feelings, and that at some point, he just really wanted to do something good.

I think its interesting to think about why that presumably changed for a while, wether you think its the usual getting mad with power, getting to close to the “dark side” or whatever with all the dark magic going on, or being groomed into this role by Twinrova, or all of that, or something else entirely.

I mean, he definitely did some bad stuff before that too, but in the context of Ganondorf being a reincarnation of Demise, I wonder if it could be possible that either seeing Link and/or Zelda or laying eyes on the Triforce ended up having some effect on him, like awakening some part of Demise within him so to speak, contributing to him losing sight of his initial goals and getting more about power in general.

Notably post timeskip Ganondorf seems to use a lot more monsters/dmemons to do his bidding than before, but this could easily just be the difficulty spike for the player.

Idk if this sounds cheap to people somehow, but I remember a popular theory being that the Triforce of Power turned him evil so, its not that different imo.

Of course, in the final battle we see OoT!Ganondorf become Ganon, presumably for the very first time, but honestly? The transformation itself isn’t that important to me, as it just feels like a visual representation of the downfall Ganondorf had undergone already anyway.

And then, when he is defeated, he infamously curses Link, and ZELDA, and THE SAGES, vowing to kill their descendants once he breaks free from the seal and all...

...which leads into who is everyone’s favorite Ganondorf, and rightfully so, WW!Ganondorf.

Before going into the present day of WW, there is its backstory, which is very interesting to me, cause you just gotta think, how do we go from a guy like OoT!Ganon to WW!Ganon?

At some point after OoT but before WW, Ganondorf’s threat became reality, he broke out of the seal and tried taking over Hyrule once more.

But I cant help but wonder how it mustve felt for him. I picture him for years, decades, centuries maybe, sealed away, picturing his revenge, imagining how great it’ll feel to get free and eradicate the descendants of Link and Zelda, and finally making Hyrule his.

But when he was freed, he likely found a Hyrule that was different from how he remembered it. Notably, there would be no hero, nor descendants of his for him to exact revenge upon. And while we know that a princess seems to have had existed at the time, who knows if she was “a Zelda”, if you wanna call them that.

I just imagine it wouldve felt a lot less satisfying that he imagined, heck, probably wouldve felt more like he was robbed if his chance to take revenge.

And who knows what even happened to the Gerudo by that point? I know lack of them in Wind Waker doesnt mean they are extinct, but for all we know they couldve left hyrule altogether? (Like they seem to have done between OoT and TP, and mightve done post OoT in the Downfall timeline, if you dont think they went extinct)

Overall I could see what Ganondorf mightve pictured/wanted to be his most glorious moment, his long awaited return, mightve just ended up feeling kinda empty.

Not that I think he wouldve done a complete 180 already because of that, but I could see it leaving him in a bit of a shock.

Adding to that, now just as he is about to conquer Hyrule for real, the gods decide to destroy it, essentially. Or at least, thats how Ganondorf felt about the situation, given how he speaks of it in the game. Its like the gods are playing with him, everytime Hyrule is just within his graps, they take it from him.

The flood mustve felt especially terrible for him, cause the way he saw it, it mustve been something like the goddesses saying “we’d rather just end hyrule and kill all its people than have you be its ruler”. What a slap in the face, to put it lightly.

After that, getting sealed away again, and all the stuff I mentioned above, probably gave him time and opportunity to reflect upon his life so far, and the future too.

I dont think that in WW, Ganondorf was just “going through the motions”, and just trying to finish what he started because he had no choice at this point. I do think he still genuinely wanted to try and conquer Hyrule, its just that he has had some time to think about it, a bit more about why he wanted it, and about what he did wrong before, and regretting those mistakes.

Like for example, he really doesnt seem like he wants to harm Link and Zelda anymore, if he can help it. He could be hating them, still furious for what happened during OoT, but he doesnt seem to be.

One of these days I wanna talk about all the contrasts and parallels WW seems to draw to Zelda games that came before it, especially OoT, but for this bit I just wanna mention this one thing.

How in OoT you confront Ganondorf, who smugly plays his leitmotif on the organ, the sound of which growing louder the further you approach his chamber. His back pointed at the entrance which he knows the hero will emerge from. Zelda, encase in a crytal, hangs above him like a trophy, like the hero bait she is to him at this point.

And then in WW, his leitmotif plays in his final dungeon, but actually grow more quiet the closer you get to him. That already makes you feel like, while it invokes OoTs atmoosphere, it actually turns it on its head. And then, when you do cofront him, “Zelda” is instead peacefully sleeping in a bed, (presumably Ganondorfs bed?) with him calmly sitting by her side, watching over her. He doesn’t face Link directly as he enters, but isnt completely turned away from his either.

Of course this scene still has some creepy atmosphere to it, especially when he starts reading her mind, but maaaan, the contrast to OoT (and games that came before it) just GETS ME everytime I just think about it.

Ahhh, I could go on and on like, you all know this stuff, you all thought about him in this game so much, didnt you?

I really hope nintendo will choose to give another Ganondorf this kinda depth, and maybe even just play with the idea of Ganondorf taking on a different role than “final boss” in a Zelda title. I would love that.

Now, let’s turn the clock wayyy back to when Ganon fought Link, and talk about the timeline that occurs when Link is actually killed by him.

To me, this is kinda of the “original” timeline, for various reasons, but I don’t wanna distract from our main man here too long.

In this version of the events, Ganon manages to actually aquire the full Triforce in the final battle of OoT, and causes quite a bit of misery before the Sages finally manage to seal him away in this version, too. But because he is so powerful with the Triforce and all that, it ends up costing a lot more lives to finally get to that point.

Now from that point on, this Ganon seems to just kinda rule the Dark World, a twisted “evil” version of Hyrule of his own creation. And of course most notably, either because of this worlds properties, or his general state of being, this Ganon seemingly always stays in beast form from that point on.

Sadly this one doesnt talk too much (though he is very much capable of doing so), so we dont get much of a grasp on his character.

To me, ALttP!Ganon feels like somewhere in the middle when it comes to Ganons. Despite his bestial appearance, he doesnt seem as blind with power and rage as TP!Ganondorf, maybe cause he doesnt call himself a god or something. But he of course is nowhere near WW!Ganondorf in terms of reasons and having reflecting upon his past.

Either way, it is clear that he is not happy with just ruling his very own personal Hyrule, filled with damned people that have become monsters like him, as in ALttP he does attempt to break his seal and go back to the World of Light

This might just be out of greed, but you could also imagine he might simply be unhappy in this demonic world, or even scared? Given how we see that some inhabitants of this land lose their humanity to such an extent that they’re turning into things like trees, maybe even completely losing their sense of self?

One of the more curious things about ALttP!Ganon is his relationship to Agahnim. No one is entirely sure what they are to one another.

In some of the mangas, Agahnim is portrayed as a human who gets possessed or turned by Ganon in some shape or form, and this portrayal is popular from what I’ve seen.

But in the actual game, Agahnim is described as being Ganon’s alter-ego. The term used in the japanese version is “bunshin”, which can mean a lot of things, including alter-ego or even reincarnation, but in the context of the Zelda franchise, there is another part in the series where it is used. In Phantom Hourglass, Oshus is described as being the “bunshin” of the Ocean King. So, if we assume Agahnim works the same way, his consiusness would have to be exactly Ganon’s, right? Of course that doesn’t mean other interpretations can’t exist, I myself am not even sure what to think.

The usage of the word bunshin does imply that to some extent, Agahnim literally was a part, or offshot of Ganon. So froma certain point of view, we could add his character to Ganons, if we wanted to.

Something that intrigues me though is that in the Downfall Timeline, we never see Ganon in human form again. Could this be related to Agahnim? Maybe not exactly literally but symbolIcally?

Did Ganon split the humanity he had left off of himself, because that was the only part of him that could exit the Dark World before the seal was lifted?

If so, did Agahnim dying have any effect on him? Or did whatever Agahnim was in the end just return to him?

So much to think about here, ahh.

Of cours, ALttP!Ganon then gets killed by Link in their battle. Not sealed away, just flat out killed.

Normally this would probably be the end, but of course OoX happened, in which Twinrova tried to revive him, but didnt quite succeed.

Ganon is revived as a seemingly mindless beast, only actualy talking in his final moments, which is the quote from earlier.

In the japanese version, this quote is written entirely in katakana, which can indicate that its pronounced weirdly somehow, in cases like this likely because he had a hard time forming the words at all.

He also refers to himself as a Demon King in japanese, but that term hadn’t caught on in the english versions of the games yet.

Okay so, as I kinda mentioned above, this Ganon’s story gets a bit muddled from this point on.

Sometime after ALttP, but before ALbW, ALbW’s backstory (which is not ALttP) occurs, during which a hero fights a Ganon, who is then sealed away by him, the princess and the sages, but we dont know if this Ganon is the same, just revived again, or an entirely new incarnation.

But you could argue that it hardly matters, cause he barely does anything in the game, essentially acting as a power boost for Yuga...

However, there is a theory that he might do more than that actually.

So, according to this theory, Yuga actually was completely loyal to Hilda, and its only by fusing with Ganon that he starts wanting to betray, due to Ganons influence. The theory is nice in the sense that it makes Yuga more of an opposite of Ganon than he seems if you take the game at face value, and gives Ganon more to do. Depending on your interpretation, Yuga might just be influenced by Ganon, or they literally fuse into a being that is just as much Ganon as it is Yuga.

But of course that is just a minor theory, and you dont have to like it, naturally.

After that we get HF and AoL!Ganon, who is said to be more of a mindless beast as this point, no trace left of the human he used to be.

A rather sad fate.

Again it is unclear if this is the same Ganon, revived yet again, or maybe (anotehr) reincarnation.

But if its the former, you can only assume that, even if you dont think Agahnim dying had any effect on Ganon, just forcing him to ressurect over and over instead of letting him reincarnate properly, must’ve done quite the number on Ganon.

Somehow thinking about this version of Ganon in particular makes me think about the cursed boars in Princess Mononoke, who where lost to their anger. Especially the moment when the Wolf faces the Old Boar, who we have seen slowly lose his self at this point, and she almost pitifully says “Can’t you even speak anymore?” to him.

It almost feels like Downfall Timeline!Ganon is cursed by fate, in a sense. Not really in-universe either, but out of universe too!

History is already written (the first two games are already out) and thus Ganon has to follow the path that is already set for him, become what he will be in the future (what he is in the first two games), a frightening monster that terrorizes this kingdom of Hyrule for the sake of power, with no humanity in him (him having been human wasnt part of his character at the time the first two games where released)

I wonder if the demons failing to get Links blood in 2 will mark the end of this Ganon? (I hope not)

It was kinda nice to see BotW seemingly do somewhat of a modern take on this kinda idea of Ganon, something that has become little more than destruction of Hyrule in pyhsical form. I could see people place BotW as post- AoL for that reason, even.

And well, rolling back time yet again, we go to the last way OoT!Ganondorf turned out, which is TP!Ganondorf...

....who, compared to the others, actually has a bit more of a complicated “set-up” that kickstarts his character.

When Link gets send back in time at the end of OoT, his Tiforce of Courage breaks apart into the pieces we find in WW, presumably because Link was literally removed from that reality as he possessed it?

Then upon his arrival in the new Child Timeline, Link immediately gets the Triforce of Courage of THAT timeline, presumably cause he is in a state of being where he is meant to have a Triforce Piece of Courage?

Well, regardless of what you believe to be the cause, this is what happens, and as a result, the other two Triforce pieces choose Zelda and Ganondorf to bear them and end up residing in them. Thats how the pieces ended up with the three without the Sacred Realm being entered in this version of the events.

Link ends up warning Zelda and the king of the events that will transpire in the future, and thus Ganondorf loses the trust of the king and is unable to set his plan from OoT into motion.

Its a bit vague, but sometime after that Ganondorf starts a direct attack towards Hyrule, but gets captured and put on trial.

And as you know, as he was about to be executed, the Triforce of Power activated and saved him from death.

Now I am not sure if this is true, but I think up until that point, Ganondorf didn’t even know he had it.

But wether he discovered he had it now, or the moment it fist came to him, one thing I am sure of, he mustve felt so great for it. Cause he has no idea that a time travelling Link caused this to happen, right? From his perspective, the power of the gods just came to him like that because he is that great! And then, he cant even die as a result of this? He is literally immortal? Well, he must be the dang chosen one, right?

No wonder he got all god complex in this one!

Something I´m kinda interested in is how this guy spend years, likely centuries, in the Twillight Realm, and if his form in there is any indication, not exactly in physical form either, I mean isnt it implied he HAD to mae use of Zant like that in order to be able to have a physical form like that?

Ultimately TP!Ganondorf just is a lot like OoT!Ganondorf if you think about it, just kinda taken to a more extreme. He is no longer just human, but has transcended humanity much further than OoT!Ganondorf has, and feels superior to everyone because of it.

He is absolute in his own eyes, he is a god, his eventual victory is certain, his battle with the hero just a formality at this point.

And he sticks to that mindset until the very end, even as he is stabbed and fatally wounded by Link. It only makes sense, he couldnt be stopped by this before, why would it stop him now?

Of course the events that follow are rather vague, and people argue about what it means to this day, but I think it ultimately boils down to Ganondorf biting of more than he can chew, overestimating his own power. Or rather, what he thinks is his own power, cause its not even his.

From the moment he was impaled by the sword of the sage, Ganondorf has been a dead man.

He has only been kept alive afterwards through the power of others, the gods, and Zant as well.

This power was not his, and thus it could just leave him just as quick as it came to him.

The imagine of Zant snapping his neck, to me, either just refers to the fact that with Zant dead, who acted as Ganondorf anchor of sorts, Ganondorf himself dies as well, or it refers to the fact that Ganondorf, who saw himself as a god and superior to everything, was ultimately just as much of a mortal and simple being than the very person who worshipped him as a deity the most.

Yes, you could call Zant the very person that made Ganondorf a god in the first place, in more ways than one, so without him, Ganondorf is a god no more. And he dies just like any mortal would.

Ultimately this Ganondorf story feels like a story of hubris.

Simple, but neat.

(Its interesting like, its almost like, TP!Ganondorf was a human who longed to be a god, and WW!Ganondorf was like a god who longed to be human?)

But, do not think it ends here...

We’ve looked at all the people that OoT!Ganondorf grew up to be, but that isn’t all the Ganons there is, the story of Ganon actually continues further down the Child Timeline.

Yes, this brings us to FSA!Ganon, or as I sometimes like to call him, Ganon II.

I understand that most probably never played this game, and I probably won’t blow your minds if I tell you Ganon doesn’t actually do much in this game but, I still like to think about him.

He’s actually a proper reincarnation of TP!Ganondorf, folowing the latter’s death at the end of TP.

From some dialouge in-game we know a little bit about his past. Like his past life, he was a boy born to the Gerudo people, and was named Ganondorf.

Interestingly, in this game, the Gerdudo dont actually say that every 100 years a male child is born, they that every 100 years a “special” child is born, and of course Ganondorf was that special child. They still mention the “only man” part, but it doesnt come up with the “every 100 years” line.

Notably it also doesnt seem that Ganondorf was supposed to be their king, and it doesnt seem like they ever treated him like a king, they only mention he was supposed to be the protector of the Gerudo people and the desert.

This is just speculation, but perhaps, after what happened to the first Ganondorf, the Gerudo people decided it wasnt a good idea to treat the sole male like a king just because.

The Gerudo in the game tell you that the older Ganndorf became, the more twisted and obsessed with power he became, and eventually he started breaking their laws, too.

When he entered the forbidden pyramid, the Gerudo basically considered him banished from their tribe, but also didnt think he would ever survive in there and presumed him to be dead.

The Gerudo in this game really only talk badly about Ganondorf, which probably makes sense if he really just did bad stuff to them, but its a very stark contrast to OoT where the Gerudo seemed to just let Ganondorf get away with everything, kinda.

Something I wonder about if maybe like, Ganondorf wasn’t exactly treated well by the Gerudo, out of fear of him turning out like the old Ganondorf, or if Ganondorf just turned bad all on his own. Or maybe a mixture of both?

What is sorta interesting is the story of how this one came to be Ganon, which is that within the pyramid, he found a certain Trident, which is implied to have caused him to “awake as Ganon”, so to speak, as he picked it up. This is the inscription found with the Trident:

“Seek...you...the world? Seek you...power? Does your...soul...despise peace and...thirst for... more? Does your soul...cry... for...destruction and... conquest? We...grant you...power to ...ruin...the world. The power of...darkness. Evil...spirit of magic trident. You are...the... King of Darkness.“

The trident feels like it has more out of universe meaning than in-universe (though I do headcanon it to be a reincarnated ghirahim somehow, because I can). The trident being a weapon that franchise-wise is heavily associated with Ganon, and notably Ganon only, as Ganondorf is never really seen wielding a literal trident.

This Ganondorf picks up the trident, and with it the legacy of the interpretations of Ganons that came in the games before this one, so to speak.

I´m sorry for this part being so unstructured, but interestingly, Ganondorf is this game is referred to as “ancient demon reborn”, or something like “instrument of evil reborn” in japanese, hinting that even at the time of the game’s release, this Ganon was probably intended to be the reincarnation of a previous evil, likely a previous Ganon, of course.

What I wonder about is how much this Ganon is aware of that, though. When he grew up, becoming more and more twisted, did he know? Did he know he was the reincarnation of a villain that had previously plagued Hyrule? Did he feel his hatred? Did he know whose it was, or did he consider it his own? Or was it simply his own?

And when he picked up the trident, and transformed into a demon beast, did he understand what this meant? What he was? Did he ever obtain any memories of his past self, even?

Something that hints that this /might/ be the case is Shadow Link.

Now Shadow Link is not actually created by the dark mirror from the evil part of Link’s heart as the english localization suggest. Instead its created from the evil part of Ganon’s heart, using the dark mirror. It is said that through the mirror,the hatred and evil of Ganondorf, throughout time, took on the shape of Link. Likely because the hero is a major subject of Ganondorf’s hatred.

The fact that this happened when FSA!Ganon used the mirror, despite himself never having met Link up until that point, hints that he might, at least subconsiously, harbor the memories of his past incarnations?

But really, as usual there is a lot open to interpretation.

I´m just so intrigued, like in this timeline there is a “second Ganon”, a Ganon that came “after”, someone who had to take on this cruel legacy.

And, with that we have now talked about all the Ganon(dorf)s that have existed in the franchise to this day, not counting stuff like BS Zelda and the CDI-Games.

If you stuck around until this point, thank you so much, you’re too kind!

But also thanks to everyone that just skimmed this or looked it over briefly, I hope this wall of text did something for you.

(Sorry for any typos I... type too fast when I get excited about a topic.)

#legend of zelda #ganon #ganondorf

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hyah-through-hyrule · 7 years

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Spoiler free review of BOTW

I recently finished BotW and I’m excited to share my thoughts in a non-spoiler and honest fashion. (Switch version)

Technical aspects- I’ll admit I’m not well versed with technological terms when it comes to gaming, so if something I write doesn’t make sense it’s because I’m stupid. The fps are much better in undocked mode than in docked mode, which is how i personally like to play it because i love the portability. Feel like playing on the couch laying down? No problem. Playing while in bed under several blankets? Cool! Long boring bus ride? Not anymore! The being said, the fps seems to dip slightly when in towns or in heavily forested areas with a lot of foliage. It dips for a couple seconds, but they’re infrequent enough that it really doesn’t hinder gameplay.

Now onto graphics. I must admit that I’m a bit biased here because I will always prefer stylized graphics over realism in any game. To me, the style reminds me of a mixture between Wind Waker and Skyward Sword, and I really love it. I’d be extremely pleased if they kept this type of cel shading in future Zelda installments. I often found myself taking a break to admire the scenery, weather it be a sunset, lightning storm, or some body of water. This version of Hyrule truly is a beautiful world.

Hyrule- The love that the developers put in this world is astounding and apparent. No two places in this world are the same. Typically with large open world games such as this, you’ll find places that are carbon copies. For example, cave complexes or ways that trees are organized will be identical in many other games. Not this one, every inch of this world is unique. Even what you get from cutting grass can give you different ingredient drops depending on where you are in the world.

Animals- Mad respect to the people who were in charge of designing and programming the wildlife. Sometimes I’ll watch animals from afar to see what they do. Birds will bathe themselves in dust, other herbivores can be seen grazing. Some animals can harm you while others choose to flee if you get too close. Little details like that really make the world seem more alive and dynamic.

Enemies and difficulty- If you’re the kind of gamer who plays games like Dark Souls for breakfast, then botw likely wasn’t too difficult. Most gamers (me) don’t play hard games like that for breakfast, so keep in mind the difficulty is being reviewed by a noob who needs to git gud. Botw is challenging at first, especially for those of us who are getting used to playing on a new console. Even the lowliest of the enemies can instantly kill you if you aren’t paying attention. A detail that I personally like is that the enemies will become tougher the more you progress, just to keep you on your toes. Once you learn how to deal with enemies depending on what weapons they’re using, you’ll have no problem fighting them more efficiently, dying less, and in general feeling rather cool. Now here’s a bit of a personal gripe; enemy diversity. There are lots of different enemies (some animals included too as they’ll actively hunt you), and they can wield a variety of weapons. Despite that, I wish there were more enemy types instead of having base enemies recolored. The variety felt a tad bit lacking in that regard, but it was neat that they could fight with different weapons. (There’s still a certain type of enemy that I still wont mess with even 150+ hours later.)

Npcs- Wow, I think this game really outdid itself with the npcs. In most open world games, the models and/or dialogue for npcs will be repeated. Not here. Some base models were reused occasionally, but they were tweaked so no one looked exactly the same. However, every single npc in this world has unique dialogue. I highly recommend you talk to everyone, as it can often lead to a sidequest, worldbuilding trivia, or sometimes it’s just funny dialogue. (My personal favorite is the ‘master torch’ wielder). I also greatly appreciated the fact that every npc Hylian wasn’t simply a white skinny guy. No, there’s npcs of all sizes, lots of women, and lots of different shades of brown. The Zora and Rito were different colors and heights. The Gerudo did have a few npcs who I could tell were reused assets, which the developers cleverly hid by making their skin tone lighter and their hair shorter/colored differently. The Gorons were the least diverse race in my opinion, but they were changed enough that it wasn’t glaringly obvious. The dedication to make everyone an individual is outstanding and it helps make the world all the more alive. Seriously though, I’m super impressed that not any of dialogue was reused anywhere.

Horses- I was going to post this with animals but decided to have it as a separate topic. I’m in love with the horse mechanic. You can go catch any horse you like, whether you want it for aesthetics or stats. You don’t need to steer your horse at all as it will follow the path all on its own and it won’t run into trees if you’re not controlling it. (Just make sure your bond is all the way up, which is easy to do via petting and feeding apples. Even though mine are maxed bonded, I still pet them and feed them because they’re all good boys and the prompt to do it is there, so why not?). The horse riding in this game is one of the smoothest ones I’ve experienced in any game (including games that feature non horse mounts too).

Dungeons and shrines- Botw broke a lot of Zelda conventions, and the dungeons are no exception. They were fun to explore and discover, though I do wish some of them were longer. I do hope they keep this non-linear system of finding shrines/dungeons out in the wild, but it would be nice if they could incorporate some longer and organic dungeons alongside the shrines. A mixture of the two would create a phenomenal experience.

Story- It’s no secret that in order to create a massive and dynamic world, the story had to take a few hits. I loved the memory system, it was clever and unique. Like with most Zelda games, you have to find the lore yourself by talking to npcs or finding writings via journals and monuments. Still, there’s a lot of stuff that makes me wonder ‘wow this is cool but what’s the story behind it?’ I do like having to find story things on my own rather than it being spelled out to me. There’s a lot of unanswered questions and loose ends. Perhaps the DLC will expand more on this. Despite the story being a bit lacking this time around, it didn’t make the game less enjoyable. There were still plenty of emotional moments, and I’ll admit I teared up in some spots. (Not including when I cried when first coming out of the shrine of restoration, that didn’t have to do with story, only with the fact i was so excited to play after five long years of waiting).

Towns- There’s not much for me to say about the towns (other than the fps thing mentioned earlier). The music that plays in them is wonderful and there’s lots of interesting npcs and sidequests to follow. One weird thing is there is one town you could theoretically never find as it’s not part of the main quest. I think more was intended for it, but there wasn’t enough time to finish it/ something changed when creating the story. Perhaps something will be added to it with dlc, or it’s simply a small village to find at you’re own leisure.

Music- Anyone who knows me knows that I’m a huge sucker when it comes to soundtracks, which is why I’ve saved the best for last. You’ll hear a lot of mixed reviews from people about the music. I personally am in love with it, I’m even listening to the soundtrack now as I’m writing this review. The ambiance of the music sets the pace when you’re out exploring. The shrines have different music depending on what type of shrine it is. Battle shrines are the easiest to distinguish. A shrine with a puzzle involved will be in major key, while a shrine with no puzzle is in minor. It’s a subtle difference that most people won’t catch, but it’s there. The music outside of shrines also varies, though I haven’t quite figured it out yet. I believe that it depends on if the shrine was hidden or not, but I don’t have solid proof for that. The guardian theme always startles me, even when I’m actively seeking them out for loot. It’s one of my favorite songs, but it’s a shame it doesn’t last long because you’re either fleeing or trying to kill it fast before it kills you. I could go on forever about the music, but I should wrap this up soon. The final dungeon and battle is in my opinion a bunch of masterpieces, but you’ll have you’ll have to discover that on your own. Botw outdid itself with it’s music, and I do hope it is appreciated more once people get used not having music that plays constantly while playing.

Overall, this is the most fun I’ve ever had playing a game. It’s not without it’s flaws of course, but it was an enjoyable experience and I look forward to the dlc and future installments in the series.

#botw #loz #zelda #please this took me two hours to write

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