#instead of a boat or an ocarina or a talking sword he gets this and it's vital to his journey

[science-lings]

You all know how I like to make botw Link a nerd when it comes to potions and botany but I have now decided that it would also be neat if he was also more interested in mechanics and physics than he seems, like even before the calamity. 

I mean, just imagine, this kid who since the age of four has been naturally great at fighting, the latest in a long line of royal knights, his path only being reinforced when he’s discovered to be the reincarnation of the hero, his duty to the crown being reinforced in his head for years and years, and maybe at first he thinks that he and Zelda would get along due to their similar interests. But she immediately hates him for the sword on his back. 

So every time he escorts her to the royal tech lab, he desperately wants to participate and tinker but he’s just a guard, and all he can do is listen. He loves it when she rambles about what she’s doing and he finds it all fascinating but it’s also been fused to his being that he’s just a soldier meant to gladly die for her and his thoughts don’t really matter. 

Then, when he comes back from the dead, in a room full of mysterious ancient tech, the first thing he’s given is the sheikah slate. And the whole theme of the game is curiosity and discovery and exploration and why should that be limited to just the world? He should be so excited to get the runes and learn how to use them and be baffled by how they defy the laws of physics. He takes pictures and figures out puzzles and has a blast working through problems with the tools he’s given. (also the implied building mechanic in totk... you cannot tell me that he’s not super hyped about making his own car) 

He would think that the champions dlc would be totally worth it when he’s given the master cycle zero, he even gives it the new name of Vah Epona. He powers it with his near infinite supply of apples as if it were a living horse and balances zooming around with teleporting to shrines because that’s just as exciting. 

But in the end he’s still supposed to be the hero, so he can’t stay to talk about tech with Robbie and Purah, he’s happy with waiting for those lectures until Zelda is freed, he has a feeling she’d be interested in it too. 

#taking the interpretation of stupid link and shooting it in the back of the head with a rifle #im tired of it #its weird when fics have Zelda talking to purah or robbie and Link is just in the background making tea or something as if he wouldn't be an #expert when it comes to the sheikah slate and it's capabilities #HE'S NOT DUMB #he would love to show her the master cycle and all the runes that weren't unlocked when it was hers and not to mention that canonically #IT WAS MADE FOR HIM SPECIFICALLY #he's the only one that can use it to enter the shrines that were built for him to learn and to train to rebuild himself #like it's an important part of the story that it's his #instead of a boat or an ocarina or a talking sword he gets this and it's vital to his journey #even when everything is taken away for the monks trials he still gets to keep the slate #so yeah i think he might be a little attached to it #botw #totk

[glitchedfoxx]

Today (April 9th) marks the one year anniversary of when I started working on what has become one of the biggest passion projects I’ve ever had. Despite this, though, I feel not many people know much about this AU, so to remedy that, I’m gonna share some fun facts about the characters!

Green is yellow/blue color blind

Blue is autistic and mostly nonverbal

Red is hypermobile and likes to freak people out with his extreme flexibility

Vio has hemophobia; He can handle small scratches, but larger quantities of blood make him woozy and sometimes pass out

Red is scared of heights, particularly while flying, he prefers to keep his feet planted on a solid surface

Green is the second youngest of 7: Saria, himself, Mido, Navi, Tatl and Tael, and Malanya

Vio’s real name is Jasper, “Vio” derives from “Violet,” which is an old schoolyard nickname given to him because of the rarity of his feathers

Red’s favorite animals are dragons; While they exist in this world, he’s never actually seen a real one

Green, on the other hand, has seen a dragon: Farosh, who lives in the bed of Lake Hylia

Vio has a habit of talking a lot, despite this, he’s very quiet when he talks

Red has sticky pads on his fingers and toes similar to a gecko, which allow him to climb vertical surfaces

(TW: Depictions of injury) Blue’s missing his right ear and blind in his right eye, these injuries happened in the same boating incident, where he got hit with wooden shrapnel; This lead to his ear getting infected and amputated, and a scratch to his cornea resulted in an ulcer

Despite having wings, Green doesn’t actually know how to fly

Vio spends a lot of time grooming himself but often forgets to properly care for his tail

The gemstones on Blue’s brooch and sword are a specific stone: Aquamarine-- known for its ability to store and channel water-based magic; the reason for this choice in stone and not sapphire is because rubies and sapphires are different color variations of the same mineral, no matter the color, corundum is used for fire magic instead

Previously in the development of the AU, Green played a banjo, I later decided to scrap this idea and replaced his banjo with a pan flute; He often plays it with his sister Saria, who plays ocarina

If you look closely at certain parts of Blue’s clothes and accessories, you can see stylized fish designs; Another Easter egg in his design is on his sheath, when translated to the roman alphabet, the Celtic runes spell out the word “sword”

While Red’s flaming crest looks and moves like normal flames, it doesn’t behave like ordinary flames; It matches the temperature of his body, which under normal circumstances would burn other creatures, if he cools down to a tolerable temperature, you can stick your hand in his hair and not get burned, the flames also stay lit under water

Vio grew up in a cluster of floating islands collectively known as Totori Village, these islands are also known as the “Island in the Sky” and the “Second Skyloft”

While stoic and quiet on the outside, Blue does have a taste for mischief and sarcastic humor

To learn more about this AU or ask questions of your own, check out these resources!

Official Ask Blog | Chapter One | Carrd

#the legend of zelda #tloz #loz #four swords adventures #fsa #au #alternate universe #territorial divide #tdau #green link #red link #blue link #vio link #shadow link #art #digital art #drawing #digital drawing #long post

[claybrownie7566]

I want all the Links in the chain to watch the Polygon unraveled video for the timeline because I just made a post and now I can't stop thinking about it so here you go.

Here is all the boys' commentary on the Zelda Timeline according to Brian David Gilbert:

Sky and Four: "ok ok everything seems to be going according to plan. Ok! We are good. Nice"

*high fives

BDG: "and then Ocarina of Time"

Time: oh sweet Hylia here we go

BDG: *explains the normal two timelines

"and then there's a timeline where Link DIES. He fights Ganondorf and just can't do it so then we have a Link to the Past"

Time: Ø_O

Legend: O_O

The others: 😬

Twilight: "umm.....ok well we were right about me I guess"

Wild: *jabs Legend

"basketball"

Legend: "Shut up!"

BDG: "and then we have Links Awakening where Link goes sailing and he crashes and dies in the ocean"

Legend: O_O

LITERALLY ALL OF THEM: O_O

Wild: "Im-"

Warriors: "sheesh no wonder you're so grumpy"

Legend: "that can't be right! I went on like twenty quests before I even set foot on that boat!"

Twilight: "I don't know man"

BDG: "and then instead of having an existential crisis or hanging out with pirates-"

Wind and Time: *look at eachother

BDG: "he gets really into fashion and then we have triforce heroes"

Four: "you what now?"

Legend: "Oh Hylia help me"

BDG, lovingly: "and then it's the Legend of Zelda! The first one" <3

Hyrule: "aww"

Legend: *smiles

"everybody loves Roolie"

BDG: "then the second one. This is the same Link idk some cult wants to resurrect Ganon or something"

Everyone: *slowly turns to look at Hyrule

Hyrule: *shrugs

"what!? They didn't! I stopped them! Its fiiiine"

BDG: *explains Breath of the Wild

Wild: "Umm"

Wind: "Huh....so that's how you got my shirt"

Twilight: "and Majora's Mask"

Hyrule: "and my hat"

Wild: "hehe......yeah."

BDG: "ok I'm gonna make it worse here we go"

Everyone: *groans

BDG: "easy Zelda spinoffs. Like the one where Link learns to use a crossbow for big game hunting-"

Warriors: *rolls his eyes

"of COURSE Twi was part of big game hunting"

Sky: "yeah geez Twi we know you grew up on a ranch but you're playing into this a little too hard"

Twilight: *shrugs

"I don't think being a sharpshooter is going to hurt my reputation at all."

Warriors: "point taken"

BDG: *talks about the CDI games

Time: "who?"

Legend: *puts a hand up

"upbabababa......no. I don't wanna talk about it"

Everyone: *turns to look at him

Legend: "we aren't talking about it."

Wind: "What did you-"

Legend: "I said we aren't talking about it!"

*covers his face while the footage plays

Warriors: "oh my gosh"

BDG: *tries to explain the BS games

Legend: *throws his hands up

"is this Legend slander day!?"

Wild: "well we certainly call you Vet for a reason sheesh mate"

Legend: "I'm going to die before this video ends"

Time: "THERES MORE?"

Legend: "there's ALWAYS MORE TIME!"

Twilight: "I'm gonna cry for you"

BDG: "Tingle-"

Time and Wind: *both press fast forward

Sky: "you cant-"

Time: "no"

Wind: "not today"

BDG: "Hyrule Warriors"

Everyone: "Yay!"

Twilight: "there he is"

Warriors, about to sob: "WHY AM I NOT CANON!? THE TIMELINE WOULD MAKE SENSE IF I WAS CANON!"

BDG: "Hyrule Warriors is the second most important game in the entire timeline for how it goes everything together"

Warriors: "THATS WHAT IM SAYING!"

*counts on his finger

"Midna, Medli, Sprite, Marin-"

Legend: "what now?"

Warriors: "Ruto, Wind, Skyloft. It's all there! Everyone is there! Anytime there is a weird gap in history, it's because of ME. Do I exist on some weird plain of existence to just catch the broken pieces of time!?"

Four: "strangely poetic, but yeah I guess so"

BDG: "ok back to Ocarina of Time. Remember existential crisis? He's done! What does he do? Mario Kart, Super Smash bros, Soul Caliber 2"

Everyone: *looks at Time

Time: *smirks

"I don't tell you guys everything"

Legend: "you were in soul caliber?"

Time: *nods

Legend: "d-do you need a hug?"

Time: "it's fine let's keep going"

Twilight: "I feel like we should address this, but that was me in super smash......"

Sky: "I was in Mario kart?"

Wild: "I was in both.....with Fable actually"

*smirks

Legend: "you WHAT"

Wild: *cackling

Legend: "we will have words later sir. Also rip Time"

Time: "yup. No fun for me since smash bros melee."

BDG: "but while you were doing that Ganon got resurrected so....that's on your conscience"

Time: "PLEASE I ALREADY GET NO SLEEP LEAVE ME ALOOOONE"

Twilight: "dang he really just called you out"

Four: "This timeline is terrifying"

BDG: "Sonic is also in this timeline"

Hyrule: "Aww yes! That was awesome!"

Everyone: ???

Hyrule: "what? I can have fun too"

BDG: *explains the Skyward Sword Manga and the Link before Sky

Wind: "wait who's that? Why isn't he here?"

Sky: *sighs

"First is a tricky case. He dies in the war with Demise. Sun says there was no point he could've left to join us or he would've. Maybe we will get to meet him, but he has no point in time to join us.....unless we broke him out of prison but that'd be bad."

Time: "Prison?"

Sky: "Long story."

Everyone: *tries to process the rest of the video

*collapses on the floor when it's over

Time: "I hate our life"

*mumbles of agreement*

#linked universe #Zelda Timeline chaos

[steve0discusses]

Yugioh Ep 34 S4: The Boys (and Mai) are Back in Town

OK, back to the writing table! It’s been a while! So I made the mistake of like...scrolling down on the playlist when I realized...

This duel is like 6 episodes long (7 even? It’s a lot) and like...yo I have no idea if we’ll finish this season in 2020! Damn you 2020. Damn you.

But wtv, what I like about this side project of mine is that I don’t have to rush things, and I can really spend the time with each episode and just...enjoy the moment. So often I watch a whole series in like half a week and then it’s like...I don’t get to enjoy it. This series I’ve enjoyed for years now. That’s kinda neat. So...we’re gonna be slow...but lets just enjoy this weird ass anime moment together. 2020 deadlines are all fake anyway. I’m not even sure if 2020 was a real thing that happened or like...an alternate universe opening a door and letting through just so many terrible ghosts. We might never know.

Last we left off, everyone has decided to hallucinate Dartz’ terrible backstory.

Unfortunately we have NO darts in the past. Was really hoping to see at least one darts reference in this entire season, just one darts board on his wall. But alas, we will not have a Season Zero death darts match with Dartz. (Man I need to get back to Season Zero. And FMA. And a lot of things)

I feel like if I watched the original version there would have been some things different. First off...what ocean? Second off...well, we’ll get to that. There’s some things I think were changed for English TV.

Including censoring the nude people like it’s James Cameron’s Avatar.

Fun fact did you know that James Cameron’s Avatar was supposed to be ass naked and that they were supposed to have like 8 cat nipples? Yeah.

Man, that movie was a mistake. I’m so glad we all decided to collectively forget James Cameron’s Avatar.

(read more under the cut)

The actual locations of anything in Atlantis does not match up with it when it’s zoomed out. We have giant cities, we have sprawling wheat fields, and we have...THIS situation. This active volcano next to...pine trees?

I feel like they wanted it to feel vaguely Pompeii, since I know people like to put Atlantis in the Mediterranean. Maybe? Maybe that’s what they were going for here?

One of my top ten favorite Yugioh plot twists ever was finding out this episode that this snake who has no limbs somehow created these...rocks...that all of our main characters have been wearing and obsessing over this entire time.

And so this is my theory, this is the thesis of my Yugioh college paper. These rocks are turds. There’s no way these rocks aren’t turds. There’s no way this snake didn’t poop out a bunch of glowy magic stones and then stuff them into a volcano.

THE ROCKS WERE TURDS THE WHOLE TIME.

God bless, Yugioh.

Seto spends this entire episode groveling that he isn’t playing cards that will absolutely kill him. Like Mokuba, Seto isn’t happy until he’s cheating death.

(I really wish we got more super past future tech. I love that type of concept art. Instead, we just got a lot of flying boats--the same boat that I think the team flew on in S1 when they went to Seto’s video game universe.

So those boats are 10,000 years old? They existed in the 10,000 year old Pangea, huh?

Neat.)

Anyway, lets take a gander at Princess Zelda circa Ocarina of Time.

SUPER princess Zelda, and I know it’s not 1:1 but damn it feels so much like a late 90′s Princess Zelda outfit to me. Check out that PURPLE. That low poly circlet. The random ass sword. The thick ass belt. 

Also check out this super dead family.

Yo so this is a 00′s thing, a period of time where we liked to tell stories like LOST, with just a bunch of random ass plot twists in flashbacks instead of just...telling a story from start to finish. And can be a great and fun way to do it--but at the sacrifice of actually making me care about these characters while they were still alive.

Like I would have maybe cared about Chris and Ironheart dying if I had known that Dartz was killing his whole family? With...lightning strikes? But alas, these dumbasses decided NOT to tell us they were royal. It’s so strange both from a logical perspective and a storytelling perspective.

Man...missed opportunity, IMO, but I can see why they did it. The wanted the ‘Gotcha!’ I feel ambivalent about it, honestly.

And who am I kidding, people are still doing unpredictable plot twists this. It’s a way to tell a story. Is it the most impactful way? No. It’s...it’s a gotcha!

It’s at this point in the story that things start ramping up, but it’s not clear if it takes place over years or just a couple hours. People just start going a little cray and turning into Monsters.

Straight up, though--did they turn into monsters that already existed and are modern Duel Monster cards, or are the monsters from modern Duel Monsters cards actually descendants of Atlantis who were once human?

They don’t say, actually. Maybe...maybe every card was a human once. That would be a freakin weird Yugioh twist if Kuriboh was like a 45 year old dude.

PS Dartz was married...soak that in.

ROMANCE ON YUGIOH ALERT.

Love it every time. She was there for like...half a second, and Dartz was like throwing so much shade about how “only the people with evil in their hearts were turned” and it’s like...

...dude that’s your wife? OK then. I can see you guys got along real well.

Anyway, so long to the ship of IonaxDartz, you were here for even less than the amount of time that Seto dated Blue Eyes White Dragon in a hallucination, which kind of sets a new record for us.

This might be the shortest-lived ship in all of Yugioh and they have a 12 year old daughter and what I assume was a 12 year marriage for that entire time.

that is if they...HAD the concept of marriage 10,000 years ago on Atlantis Pangea island. Maybe?

I mean they might have not had the concept of dating and marriage yet because he gets over this like immediately. The show will never hover back to that time Dartz watched his own wife turn into a creature. We have no idea if he was like “OK honey lets uh...let just get you a haircut and maybe no one will notice?” We have no idea how long he was desperately trying to remain married to the beast that was no longer human and was also trying to eat everyone else in his court. We just don’t know.

Dartz just had a lot of other things to think about. He’s been King for like...a year...he’s only 21...he’s just doing a bad job at everything.

(Biden opens Pres Trumps bedroom in the White House come January and it’s juts full of glowing green evil golf balls) (OK that was my last 2020 joke I swear to you) 

Anyway, Dad is here, but it’s a little too late to really do anything with the situation. Everyone is worshiping little snake turds. What can you really do about that?

One eye golden, the other eye, the color of a glistening Leviathan turd.

After the rest of the surviving royal family was chased out of the castle, Dartz decides to just wave his hands around a lot.

I’m not entirely sure what Kings do...never really had one...but I think they’re supposed to do more than wave their hands at a crowd like the Pope. Like...everyone’s dead right? Like everyone?

Who’s he talking to?

Meanwhile, Chris and Ironheart decide to revive some monster tablets to get some real actual duel monsters to do their bidding.

So apparently some monsters are in the tablets, and other’s have just always been here...and...

They didn’t know violence but they did have the cards?

There’s a lot of vague stuff they didn’t feel like ever writing, because it would have probably been boring to write about. I guess we’ll just let our imagination fill in the rest and ignore all the inconsistencies. It’s a kid’s anime. well........kind of a kid’s anime. A lot of people have died this episode and I don’t even know how to add it to the death count.

How many people live in Atlantis? I dunno.

Are the inhabitants of Atlantis even dead, or are they just turned into Monster cards? I dunno. Clearly the Great Leviathan wasn’t awoken this first battle so...did all those souls get returned? I dunno.

Either way I’m not gonna bother the death count about it because I just do not know if they died, and since it was neither an implied death or an on screen death...I dunno.

Just feels like a bit of a translation snafu--where maybe they couldn’t kill that many people on English TV, so they were like “AND IT’S A DRAW!” but also...it could be canon to both versions. The leviathan didn’t work the first time, maybe no one died? I dunno.

In this shot, PS, Raphael just gently backs up out of this flying plane, and it looked really funny to me. I probs won’t cap it because it’s split between two other cuts, but just...they just kind of moved that sprite to the right really slowly, no animation, it was great.

Dartz decides to end the backstory hallucination, and we get introduced to a new twist--a better twist than that last one, that’s right, all our boys are cards!

Including this asshole!

Been a while since our boys have been cards! Man, I miss Bakura!

Yes, I looked back to earlier episodes this season to see what was going on with Pegasus’ new look. I think what happened is that it’s always been this shade of gray purple--but when you put purple next to it’s opposing color (which is yellow colors) it looks even MORE purple. It’s just how color works. Love color theory. mm. Good stuff. Good purple hair.

I can’t wait until Yami kills Yugi for the 3rd time in one season.

Anyway, that’s all for now, and like always, here’s a link to read these in chrono order.

#ygo #yugioh #yu-gi-oh #recap #photo recap #episode recap #yami yugi #seto kaiba #Dartz #I don't know if he has a last name or if they were invented yet #Dartz' hot wife #Yugi muto #Joey Wheeler #Mai Valentine #maxamillion pegasus #Raphael #s4 #ep 34

[neokad]

The Legend of Zelda - The Wind Waker! (HD Turbo Championship Edition)

Hi everybody!

As I plan to revisit many Zelda games I haven't played in years (or at all!) in the upcoming months, I finished what used to be one of the most controversial titles in the series for the second time, and the first in four years! And to my shock considering what I've heard about this adventure over time, I fell in love with it all over again 💗

I'd actually like to start this humble review with this analogy: What surprised me the most while replaying this game, is how its overall structure and world are. I feel like the best way to describe this game is like this: A perfectly balanced mix - as all things should be - between a classic Zelda quest, and the much more revolutionary Breath of the Wild. Now, I gotta say, it may be strange to some people to compare an older title to a newer one to describe it, but I promise it'll at least somewhat make sense at the end of this review... I hope O_O

But hey, we might as well review the plot early as usual! Well, there honestly isn't a lot to this story as usual for most Zelda games, but it is pretty solid regardless. Basically, as the ambient intro of the game teaches you, the ancient land of Hyrule got flooded by the gods, as Ganondorf tried to conquer the land with no Hero opposing him. And ever since that event, the world has been flooded with the Great Sea, only leaving many small islands and some people behind to rebuild the world. And so, many years after this happened, we find this game’s Link on his 12th birthday, wearing the “Hero of Time’’s clothes for the occasion as a longheld tradition. BUT, as this supposed happy day happens, his sister Aryll gets kidnapped by a giant flying bird to the Forsaken Fortress - as many other young girls. Naturally, Link tries to go save her with the help of Tetra - another young girl that escaped captivity thanks to her crew of pirates. With the help of her companions and their ship, Link sets out for the fortress, but as he is clearly underpowered, he gets demolished there by none other than Ganondorf, and washes up ashore, unconscious on Windfall Island, greeted by... a talking red boat! And this same boat tells him he must collect the Three Pearls of the Gods in order to gain access to the Master Sword, to finally save the kidnapped girls! This is not the whole plot of course, as I’m hiding some actual plot twists from you, the reader, buuuut I will say that while it’s not the most developed tale out there, it’s well done! But I feel like what drives this the most is certainly the art style and the characters themselves. See, I firmly believe this game has the best Link in the ENTIRE SERIES, no questions asked! He’s expressive, funny, endearing and he just looks so dang adorable! Part of his charm is definitively thanks to the situations he’s put in, but I think it’s mostly because of the game’s artstyle. IT’S BEAUTIFUL

Yes, granted, it’s not nearly as detailed as many games you’ve probably played, but the cartoony style they chose for Wind Waker really makes the locales pop out, and made the slapstick in the game that much more endearing! Plus, some of those shots just look, well, breathtaking really.

Speaking of character expressions and slapstick, I also believe Wind Waker possesses a very memorable set of NPCs as well! Be it the employee in the battleship game with his twofaced personality, or anyone involved in the many sidequests all over the islands, I’ve built lots of memories just traveling all around the sea, reading and delivering letters, just to get to know those people more! And it turned out that a good chunk of them gave me a good time!

Well, let’s talk about those travels, shall we? Wind Waker got (in?)famous over the years for having sailing. Lots of it. And especially in the original Gamecube version, it made travelling slow and boring to some as a result. Basically, you needed to constantly change the direction of the wind in order to travel as quickly as you could. Suffice to say, switching the wind’s directions this often got irksome pretty quickly : P Thankfully, the HD port on the Wii U does give you an optional Fast Sail in a side quest! As early as the second island in the game! Which means that those who found the sailing unbearable in the original will have a better experience ^^ But regardless, there’s a lot of sailing in this game, which is what replaces running/rolling around on the overworld. And instead of having different regions, they’re all replaced by 49 islands of different sizes and importance! And this is where my BOTW comparison will shine~ I think this game is pretty close in spirit to Breath of the Wild in some ways. Sure, unlike in that game, you’re locked to a certain sequence of items/dungeon/progression, just like a classic Zelda experience! BUT!  Wind Waker also allows you to explore 40+ non-important islands, and sailing between them in anticipation of what you might find there is suuuuch a good feeling! Plus, there’s many treasure chests to loot (both major and minor) while you’re travelling on the big blue. Due to how much you can find in your way off the main quest - while being far away from the suggested path the game wants you to do at the moment - gives this game a very open feeling despite still having a linear quest to it! And I think this element of discovery and exploration in a linear format - coupled with the great visuals and ambience the sailing offered - made this game so, so, so much fun to play <3

But what about the gameplay and dungeons themselves? Well thankfully, they’re both quite good as well! What I like most is how much of an improvement swordplay got compared to Ocarina of Time. Not only are the enemies generally more diversified in strategies and design, Link also received many new moves to his arsenal, and those made combat so much more intense and exciting! Though it did make the game very easy overall thanks to having so many options... alongside you not taking very much damage for most of the game :P Still, the dungeons made up for this! They’re quite fun and pretty well paced, and each offer some quite nice ambience as well!  Although I will say that the late part of the game has two dungeons with pretty similar concept, which while fun in their own right, did feel a little uninspired despite them having clever puzzles :/ On a semi unrelated note, the intro sequence at the Forsaken Fortress has you playing a stealth sequence, and you coming back to it later while able to defend yourself was a high point for me!

I do want to leave a quick note about the music, and honestly? It’s pretty great as well! Like I pointed out earlier, the dungeons create some very fitting atmosphere, but as soon as you’re outside them, many of the main islands have some very pretty, energetic music that is PERFECT for a Zelda game (especially Dragon Roost Island), and the Great Sea theme is very adventurous and grandiose, which motivates you even more to set out and explore! Though it’s somewhat strange that many smaller locations have no music at all, which makes sense to be fair, since those islands are usually pretty small from the outside ^^

Overall? I expected to only like this game, but I ended up adoring it! The Wind Waker is a marvelous journey that leaves a lot open to the player about how they approach the game, while still giving you enough of a compass to never be lost! And a competent story with charming characters and great music certainly help to make that adventure all the more memorable! Though I suggest you all should play the HD version if you can, since it has the fast sail and better looks. BUT, it also heavily tones down the infamous lategame Triforce fetch quest. (While it did not make much sense story-wise since you could just do spoiler without it before, I didn’t find it all that bad in the HD version since you can do some of it before having completed all other dungeons in the game ^^ But yes, HD or not, this is a grand adventure! Play it! 9/10

#zelda #wind waker #review #neokad #gaming

[four-swords-dub]

Next up we have our Green bean blooper machine! Riley!  (Karen: Riley couldn’t record his answers so I’ve included one of my fav lines of his) Name: rockriled Character(s) you voice: Green Link, Deku Scrub #2, Sound Director/Editor of the FS Dub Project Are you in any way like those characters? I think we’re similar in terms of wanting to help/protect the people we love.  As for Green’s personality…probably not? Green is confident, independent, and hardworking while I’m a bag of nerves and anxiety.  I could fit into the hardworking area, though. As for the Deku Scrub…we’re both short, squeaky, and flammable?  (I’m probably not gonna refer to the Deku Scrub for the rest of this since they only got…four lines, I think?)

Favourite/least favourite thing about voicing your character? My favorite thing about voicing Green is that I can just let loose.  I don’t talk much outside of the project due to shyness and how most of my friends live a long ways away, but when I play Green, I can feel powerful and confident even if it’s just for a few minutes.Least favorite thing about voicing Green is that depending on the chapter, he has the most lines.  I blame this on my lack of voice-acting experience, but both actor-me and sound-editor-me look through the script and think “dangit, Green, stop hogging the spotlight and let someone else speak!” Which characters did you audition for? I auditioned for Vio first, but I got nervous that auditioning for only one role was rude.  I figured I wasn’t cute enough for Red or tough enough for Blue, so I went with Green. How did you react when you got the part(s)? Hoo boy, um…settle in, this is a bit of a story.My self-esteem has always been in the pits—and combining that with my perfectionist needs didn’t help, either.  Whenever something cool came up, my brain would go “why bother, you’re gonna fail” and I’d do just that: give up without trying.So when posts about the Four Swords Dub Project started floating around, the same thing happened all over again.  Best way I can describe it… Brain: “Don’t even try it.  You know you’re not gonna get a part.” Me: “But it’s Four Swords, my favorite part of the Zelda manga series.” Brain: “And?  Your voice sucks.  Your acting sucks.  You won’t even get a minor role.  Do you really want to add another failure to your life?”   Me: “…look.  I’m really interested in this.  I don’t know if I’ll actually get a part, but I still want to send in an audition so I can say that I tried.” Brain: “…two main characters?  Really? Don’t get your hopes up.”(some time later) FS Dub Email: “Congratulations, you’re going to be our Green Link!” Me & Brain: “WAIT, WHAT?!” It was a total shock.  I was so convinced I wasn’t going to get in that it never occurred to me that I could get in.  Heck, it’s been a little over two years and I still can’t believe I got a leading role. As for the part of Sound Director/Editor…I can’t remember how, but I somehow got a hold of all the voice lines for all the characters in Chapter 1-1.  Even though I have zero experience in editing, I suddenly got curious and started mixing the files with background music and sound effects. I sent a copy of what I put together to Karen (our voice and project director) for fun. Next thing I knew, I was the BGM/SFX guy for the rest of the project! Long story short: this dub’s been full of surprises. ^_^ Who do you wish you could voice? Oof, that’s a tough one. @_@  It’s so hard to pick because everyone’s already perfect as their current roles...   Had you read the manga before taking part in the dub? Yep! :D It was around the time the internet became a big thing and when YouTube was first made.  Middle-school me spent HOURS scouring Google for Yu-Gi-Oh! content (fell in love with the show in sixth grade) when I stumbled across a website with Legend of Zelda comics  It had the manga versions of Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, the Oracle games, and—my top favorite—Four Swords.

FS holds a special place in my heart for not only giving the Links such diverse eyes/expressions, but destroying typical color-personality associations.  I’d seen fan-comics of Four Swords with Red as the angry one, Blue as the smart one, and Purple as the newbie or the…um…stereotypically-gay one.  Akira Himekawa’s version of the Links blew my freaking mind and I LOVED IT. <3     Any past voice acting experience? At best, the only voice-acting experience I had prior to the FS dub was watching tons of anime and re-enacting scenes via talking to myself.  I still do this with anime, TV shows, movies, books, and video games. @_@ I’m not sure if this counts, but I…kinda got voice training in other areas?  I yelled my lungs out in Tae Kwon Do for two years, sang alto in a chorus for three years, was moved to soprano for one year, yelled my lungs out again in Judo for one year, and learned classical/opera singing techniques for a few months (a friend’s friend was studying to be a music teacher and they needed a volunteer to practice their teaching skills).  They might not count for this question, though… Who is your favourite FS character (if any)? Oh boy...I know younger-me’s favorite was Vio (I blame the eyes and ability to side with both Shadow and the other Links), but these days?  It’s hard to pick, thanks to the dub. @_@ How do you warm up/get in character before recording? Big thing for me is how I’m feeling.  Currently, I work six days a week (it sucks but I need the money/insurance DX) and I use the commute from work to where I live to figure out my mood.  If I’m down in the dumps to the point that music can’t help, I won’t be able to deliver as Green.  If I have some energy or so much energy that I can belt/rap to my music, I’m all set.  It means I’m all loose and confident to record. As for days when I don’t have work like days-off or holidays, I try to relax and get myself in a Green-y mindset. 

Little something I picked up from YouTube is gargling a mouthful of water.  I’m not too sure how it works, but I do this right before a recording session and it helps a lot. Favourite chapter to voice so far? Favourite scene? Um…it’s kinda hard to pick a favorite chapter or scene I liked voicing since I had fun with all of them.  Can I make this into favorite scene/chapter to do sound stuff for instead?  And can I pick multiples instead? >_>;; Favorite Chapter for Sound Editing: Chapter 4.  I had to compile different sounds that reflected Green’s desert, Blue’s snowstorm, Red’s forest fire, and Vio’s night in the woods. It was both challenging and fun. :D  Favorite Scene for Sound Editing: Every comedic scene, scenes where the background music slowed to a halt, and scenes where I had to improvise sound effects.

The slowed-down songs are in the scenes where Blue and Green fight on the boat, and when Red admits he lost his weapons to Blue in the Ice Cave.  Those were tough to do in Audacity (had to slow down the music piece by piece), but it was SO worth it.

As for scenes where I had to use nearby stuff for sounds…there’s a bunch of ‘em.

The door slamming while Erune talks about the missing children = me slamming my bedroom door.

The Gerudo Masseuse’ movements and the Gerudo Elder’s staff = me shaking my wrist while wearing my old belly-dance bracelets.

Deku Scrubs popping out of the ground = me smacking my lips mixed with the deku sound effect from Ocarina of Time.

Green’s sword hitting the labyrinth wall = me hitting a pot lid with a wooden spoon.

Green falling and sliding down the labyrinth wall = me falling and sliding down a bedroom wall.

Eerie shadow raising their sword to attack Green as the moon rises = me sliding a knife sharpener over a kitchen knife.

Shadow walking on clouds = me blowing into the mic mixed with footstep sounds from Ocarina of Time.

Big Poe screaming at Red and Blue = me banging pots, pans, and piano keys mixed with chaotic sound effects I found online.

Big Poe taking Blue’s soul = me breathing into the mic along with heavy editing.

Red clapping at Big Poe = me clapping my hands.

The Four Swords pulsing = me playing a four-note harmony (one for each Link) on the piano mixed with heavy editing and a wind chime effect.

(Karen: This guy is a genius when it comes to sound effects and the dub wouldn’t be half as good without him!)

Lines you dread voicing the most (screaming, crying, etc): As much as I love battle cries, my microphone and its inconvenient ability to make stuff clip bothers me.

And even though the chapter’s long gone, the part where Green remembers when he playing with Zelda as a toddler.  I’M NEVER VOICING SMALL CHILDREN AGAIN. DX

What are your biggest worries when it comes to voicing your character? *pulls in with a giant dump truck* um…

#1 – Is my voice too high or too low? Green’s age would be around early teens or so, and with my weird vocal range, I can’t tell if I make him sound younger or older than he is. #2 – Am I getting the personality right? Because of my shy-as-hell nature, it’s hard for me to pick up if my confident-Green-persona sounds genuine or fake. #3 – Is it bad that I can only voice Green with my natural voice? Many voice actors have a HUGE variety of voices they can do (ex. Tara Strong).  It’s likely because I’m still new to this, but part of me gets nervous that me voicing Green with my normal speaking voice is a sign that I lack voice acting talent. #4 – (Personal worry but it still bothers me sometimes) How will I sound as Green in the future?  I’m a pre-HRT transmale who hates how high his voice is. This year, I’ll be moving out and if I play my cards right, I can start the process to either get testosterone, top surgery, or both.  I love this dub to death, but after voicing Green in my non-HRT voice for so long, I get nervous that I could accidentally lower the quality of the dub if my voice changes if/when I start HRT (assuming the editing process for videos will be the same as it’s been). (Karen: i figure I should add this since people might be wondering how we’re going to handle it. As Green is right now I feel his voice wouldn’t hurt if it went a little deeper. However, if Riley’s voice becomes too deep, I’m going to edit the pitch of his lines. Don’t worry Riley, you aren’t going anywhere!) #5 – Do I make too many bloopers?  During recording, I either screw up or my mind wanders a lot, and I save ‘em for the blooper reel.  When the reel comes out, however, I’ll sometimes see my segment is a little longer than everyone else’s and I get nervous.  ESPECIALLY if Green only had two lines and I had nearly an extra 30 seconds worth of bloopers. Would you date your character (if they were of age)?I’m gonna sound horrible, but…I don’t think Green’s personality would stand out enough to me as a possible date.  If anything, I think we’d just end up being a weird duo of friends: the strong, confident soldier and the socially-awkward weirdo. *laughs*

Do you have a favourite voice actor on the dub?I don’t have a favorite voice actor, but I do have favorite lines/sounds from some of the cast (this is likely to change as more chapters are released).  The way the VAs say these lines, I LOVE ‘EM.  For now, I’m only going to list a few of them so this Q&A doesn’t go too long.

Favorite Carrottheluvmachine/Red line: “Oh!  And it [footprint] looks like mine!” Favorite Ashe/Blue line: “so that’s how you want to do this, huh?!” Favorite Swiss/Vio line: “Losing confidence? …it’s because I’m you too, remember?” Favorite Kaenith/Shadow line: “Shadow saying “you’re a creature of darkness now, don’t forget that.”

Asked by Anon: Riley, how do you come up with so many awesome bloopers? Aww, thank you. ^///^ Most of them are accidental, like me not saying a word correctly. Others happen when I try and fail to memorize the script: if I’m struggling with a line, I’ll have a physical copy of the manga and match Green’s facial expression. This helps me get into the mindset, but it does draw my attention away from the script and I’ll end up flubbing a line because I tried to say it off the top of my head. 

The mistakes where I either notice something weird either pop up on the fly or something I noticed a while back, and then suddenly remember during recording.  The part where I noticed the Four Sword “thrumming” happened when I couldn’t get Green’s “the four sword is pulsing!” line right and I had to keep looking at the manga for the proper face.  It was at that point I noticed the weird sound effect drawn in.  Also, the blooper where I sang a song from The Heathers as Green flees the Eerie Shadow? That was in my head long before the script for Chapter 5 was out and when the time came to record, I remembered that bit. 

Asked by Anon What was the funniest/most humorous line you guys have had to say? Not sure if this counts, but Kaenith had a blooper where they screwed up as Shadow, saying “you’re pretty—UM PRETTY SMART!”  They shared it with the staff and it was so funny, Swiss made a joke response as Vio going “I prefer handsome.”  I was given the two lines to put together and as a joke, I added some audio of a guy screaming “MAKE OUT!” 

The staff liked it so much, they asked me to add Green shouting “NOW KISS!”  It took a while to get perfectly, but I had SO much fun with it. ^_^

#legend of zelda #four swords #green link #manga #zelda #askthecast

[pml1225-blog]

3: lets backtrack and talk about the timeline.

Here is an attempt to summarize the Wikipedia article on the Zelda timeline. These are in my view, the important games* and what happens. Heavy Spoilers for like Every Game In the Series.

THE VERY BEGINNING

Farore, Din, and Nayru are goddesses who create everything, including the Triforce. The Triforce is the Macguffins of Macguffins – it literally just grants wishes, but it has no like morals or whatever. Hylia is the guardian of the Triforce. She does a few things – protects Hylians (humans), creating the Goddess Sword, and trapping the demon Demise. Then she gives up her powers and becomes reborn into Link (the first one).

Skyward Sword (I didn’t play this game).

Link (the first one), with the help of his friend Zelda (the first one), gets the Goddess Sword and destroys Demise. But Demise vows to reincarnate and forever torment Zelda and Link’s descendants. Apparently all you need to do is vow to do something and boom – a eternal war emerges.

Ocarina of Time (This is a Very Good Game).

Ganondorf is trying to get the Triforce. Ganondorf is a Gerudo King who has the rage of Demise inside of him. Link is a kid, is caught up in some shenanigans around Hyrule to get into the Spirit Realm where the Triforce is, but Ganondorf takes it first and takes over Hyrule. Link stays in a coma for 7 years, wakes up and gathers the seven Sages who have the power to seal Ganondorf away, and gets the Master Sword (this is the same as the Goddess Sword), all while time traveling with a magic ocarina. It turns out that Ganondorf was too unstable for the Triforce, splitting into the Triforce of Courage, Power, and Wisdom, of which he has Power. Adult Link defeats Ganondorf/Ganon (Ganon is a pig-beast that Ganondorf becomes with the Triforce of Power) and becomes the Hero of Time (or does he?), and he gets sent back to his childhood to continue living his days.

THE B I G S P L I T

Nintendo aka the Biggest Bullshitters of All Time posits that there are three outcomes from the Ocarina of Time. In the first, Link fails to actually beat Ganondorf (making OoT technically not canon in this timeline). He dies, as does Zelda. The sages still seal Ganondorf away, and he’s in the Dark Realm. What is the Dark Realm? Who cares.

The second and third outcomes are just continuations of the two timelines that result from OoT. Ganon is dead (sealed somewhere) in the Adult Timeline, but Ganondorf is resurrected. Since Adult Link was sent back to his childhood (Very Important Plot Reason from post 2), there is no Hero of Time to come back and save everyone. In the Child Timeline, Ganon never comes to power, Ganondorf is executed (or is he?), and everything is Gucci™.

TIMELINE 1: The Decline of Hyrule (the boring one because these games are old and story wasn’t important back then)

A Link to the Past

Link (the Hero of Legend) is telepathically called by Zelda who is trapped in a dungeon to defeat some wizard who is trying to unseal Ganon (remember, Hero of Time Link died but Ganondorf was still sealed). He beats the wizard with the Master Sword, but Jokes! It was Ganon the whole time! Link defeats him.

The Legend of Zelda (the very first one)

Link (The Hero of Hyrule) has to find the shards of the Triforce of Wisdom that Zelda hid from Ganon before she was captured and defeat Ganon. It’s kind of unclear how/when Ganon was resurrected this time.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (the second game released)

Link finds the Triforce of Courage and awakens Zelda from a deep sleep, somehow. They live happily ever after. This was the 80s. But hey! Now all three parts of the Triforce are accounted for.

TIMELINE 2: The Hero of Time is successful, but disappears (is sent back in time)

Wind Waker (This is my favorite game.)

Ganon comes back imbued with the Triforce of Power, but the Hero of Time isn’t there. The King of Hyrule, Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule (yes, really), out of options, prays to the goddesses to help, and they flood Hyrule, separating it into islands so Ganon’s influence can’t spread (boats aren’t very common, evidently). Link (the Hero of Winds) goes on an adventure to save his sister, who is kidnapped by Ganondorf, with the help of a pirate named Tetra who his sister was mistaken for. Along the way, he is guided by a talking boat named the King of Red Lions. He resurrects the spirits of the sages that sealed Ganon away in OoT, finds the Triforce of Courage which the Hero of Time hid after completing his mission, and gets the Master Sword. He beats Ganon, with Tetra’s help (she happens to actually be Princess Zelda, wearing the Triforce of Wisdom as a necklace). However, Ganondorf manages to unite the three pieces of the Triforce momentarily, but the King of Red Lions (who is actually Daphnes whatever the heck his name is) touches it first and wishes to completely flood Hyrule. Ganon is dead, Hyrule is gone, so Link and Zelda set sail on her pirate ship to find a new place to establish Hyrule.

TIMELINE 3: Link from OoT got sent back to his childhood.

Now that they know Ganondorf is evil, they try to kill him but fail. Instead, they seal him in the twilight realm with a magic mirror.

Twilight Princess

Link (The Hero of Twilight), a descendant of Hero of Time, accidentally becomes a wolf while trying to save some kids. He gets roped into saving Hyrule by Zelda and an imp named Midna from a sorcerer named Vant, who is the King of the Twilight Realm and is trying to consume Hyrule in Twilight. After killing Vant, it turns out that surprise! Ganondorf was behind this the whole time! Again. Link kills Ganon and saves Hyrule.

WAY IN THE FUTURE (Unknown which timeline)

Breath of the Wild

Ganon has given up on reincarnating through Ganondorf, and decides to just be a pure force of energy known as Calamity Ganon. Zelda is trying to unlock her power to seal Ganon away, but can’t. Meanwhile, she is amassing a huge army of mechanical spider things called Guardians and four huge robots called Divine Beasts, which are piloted by a group of Champions. When Calamity Ganon takes over everything and turns all of the machines against them, killing the Champions, Link (the Hero of the Wilds) dies protecting Zelda, but she uncovers her power trying to protect him. She finds a way to put him in a medically induced coma, where he lies for 100 years while she goes to Hyrule Castle to try to contain Calamity Ganon. Link wakes up 100 years later, regains control of the Divine Beasts and frees the Champions’ spirits, and then goes to Hyrule Castle, where Zelda has been holding Calamity Ganon at bay for a century. With her help, they cast Calamity Ganon away, and Hyrule is able to rebuild.

*important is a very subjective word. For my purposes, these are basically the games where Link fights Ganon. The Minish Cap was an extremely fun game and Four Swords Adventures looks super lit, but honestly, with the amount of times that Ganon disguises himself as secondary villains only to take the glory of being the Big Bad™ at the very end of games, I don’t really care about people like Vaati or Bellum.

#legend of zelda #storyworlds mapping

[attackingstarfish]

Just finished LoZ: Wind Waker...

I normally never post, but I recently wrapped up Wind Waker HD (Yes, I’m late to the party), and it is so far removed from the usual Zelda fare that I just had to compile my thoughts. And if I’m compiling my thoughts, I might as well yell them into the void.

You will have to show me physical proof that Wind Waker is not Ocarina of Time from the Opposite Dimension, where windows are the primary means of entering your house and people worship at the altar of Hello Games, because despite me being almost exactly as satisfied with Wind Waker HD as I was with Ocarina of Time 3D, the greatest sources of joy are flipped with the biggest annoyances between the two games.

Yay!

Breath of the Wild had won me over in part because the entire world felt cohesive; you could go anywhere on the map without having to encounter a single loading screen, and I had no idea Wind Waker did the same thing. The Great Sea is a vast trove of trees, pirates, and treasure, with the occasional giant squid attack or salutation from the Flying Dutchman. Each of the 49 segments contains an island that is often unique in purpose, and you’re very rarely sent to a specific island for a specific item by a specific character. Instead, the entire overworld becomes open to you as soon as you grab your sail on Windfall Island, and you have a literal sea of knowledge before you as the 49 fish that serve as your guidebook to the game take their places.

A couple of islands start off closed, unable to be reached until you get the Iron Boots or the Bow or the Hulk Hogan suplex manual, but that’s it as far as what you can’t reach, and the squares of ocean containing even these islands can be reached as early as any other zone, fish and all. The fish are easy to spot, splashing around near their respective region’s landmass, and to reward taking to initiative to explore, a surprising amount of what they tell you can be put to use immediately, like the location of the all-new extra-fast wind-changing sail the remake’s added to speed up travel. Good thing, too, because there’s a point where travel time stops being buildup and becomes padding, especially when you have to dance a round of Hands Up every time you want to change direction. Later in the game, when you’re better equipped, you could stop by one of those islands you couldn’t figure out earlier on, and figure out what to do with just one more trip around the border. Nothing pops up on your map to indicate that suddenly you’re able to access anything new, and your boat doesn’t  wonder whether the eastmost pillar on island A7 has met any nice hookshot targets lately. The game trusts that you can navigate the uses for your gear yourself, which I value. Fewer tutorials, more expectations.

Even the story serves the game’s hands-off attitude. Ocarina starts with Link going into the Deku Tree to purge it of some unspecified evil (What exactly does Gohma do in there, anyway?) before coming out to be told of his fate to kill a man he has never met before and become Hyrule’s savior. Link takes up the mantle in that game only because the gods who have not and will never make a proper appearance want him to do it. Meanwhile, Wind Waker opens with Link putting on the green tunic to make his grandmother happy for a day, right before his sister, who clearly adores him, gets kidnapped by a giant bird, and he teams up with pirates to sneak into a fortress and rescue her but instead gets bitch-slapped by Ganondorf, who turns out to own the place and the bird. In addition to being awesome because pirates kick ass, Link’s introduction to the man who wants him dead feels a lot more natural here, and Ganondorf doesn’t even come into the plot for real until the second half of the game. Link’s got a sister to save, and everything he’ll do to accomplish that goal will demonstrate him to be worthy of the Master Sword, which itself seems to prefer this organic sort of journey, seeing as the Link who set out to get the Master Sword from the beginning ended up locked in solitary confinement by the thing while it allowed the man it was created to kill to instead take over the world. Evidently the Master Sword is a strong, independent blade beholden to no one who can’t think for themselves, and anyone who disagrees can spend some quality time with the nice old man who loves to talk and talk and talk and talk.

The characters in Wind Waker feel more on the dynamic side than Ocarina’s. At first I was a bit surprised that i felt that way considering Ocarina had you view two very different versions of Hyrule, but Ocarina’s characters either don’t change in personality much between time periods or don’t make an appearance in one of the two at all. Talon’s still lazy in the future, the carpenters are still idiots, the Lake Hylia scientist is still mad, the Kokiri of course don’t change at all, you see none of the Zoras after their caves are frozen over, etc. Not to mention Ganondorf, who doesn’t get much beyond “evil Gerudo thief king who wants to take over the world because of reasons,” even if he gets a bit further than many movie/game villains and is able to demonstrate exactly what he’d do while in charge and why he’s so dangerous. Wind Waker, meanwhile, has even a fair few one-off characters with their own tiny arcs. Mila goes from stuck-up rich kid to poor as dirt and struggling to adapt, so out of her element that she resorts to stealing money from her new boss until Link catches her and helps her stay true to herself in the future. Maggie’s father starts out so desperate for Link to save his daughter that he will annoyingly stop you in your tracks every time he so much as glimpses you and repeat his pleas for help, but after Maggie is returned home and he strikes it rich through no deed of his own, he decides everyone else is beneath him and starts bitching at Link, the Rito postman, and anyone who thinks repeatedly boasting about your own fabulous wealth makes for poor dinner conversation. Even Ganondorf himself is given more than a simple desire to take over Hyrule this time around, as his belief that the rest of the kingdom deserves to suffer the way the Gerudo suffered in the desert is brought to light. 

Boo!

Part of the reason I liked the dungeons in Ocarina of Time so much is that they had a way of coming full circle at the end, or even a smaller full circle in the middle. You’d come across something at the beginning, go “Huh, that looks cool,” then move on. An hour later, BOOM, payoff, and likely in a way you didn’t even expect. The web serving as the floor in the Deku Tree and the blue stone head at the back of Dodongo’s Cavern come to mind. Plus, there were often open rooms that allowed you to get a handle on where everything else was relative to you, and gaze upon areas you’ll visit once you find the Hookshot or Hover Boots. Wind Waker’s dungeons are the antithesis of the rest of the game, they’re cramped and, for the first half of the game, overly linear. Dragon Roost never musters up much more challenge than “kill enemy in front of you, go through door in front of you, repeat,” a far cry from the wall-climbing around the first half of the Deku Tree. Re-hydrating the bombs to get into the place is arguably as clever as you get with it, which for me is the perfect representation of the amount of thought that went into everything surrounding the dungeons vs. the amount of thought that went into the dungeons. And aside from those spinning leaf wheels in Forbidden Woods that wouldn’t know what a wind was if they were fired for incompetence and forced to spend the rest of their lives at its mercy, this is best illustrated during the teamwork-based dungeons with Medli and Makar toward the end of the game .

Considering how often you have to switch between characters to set up a Mirror Shield reflect or to hit a switch or to plant a seed or because you got hit fucking once, it would’ve been nice not to have to do half the Macarena every time you want to switch to your companion’s viewpoint. It also would’ve been nice if the controls of your partners didn’t make me want to offer them to the Floormasters. That said, Medli wasn’t awful. Yes, her flight was a bit hard to direct, there was no way to halt her Link-bearing glide without throwing her, and the number of times you had to hop on the Wind Waker was a pain, but the irritation was diminished when lot of her roles involved standing still and shining light while you played as the character the game actually put work into handling. Plus, my wave of enthusiasm from the first moment I walked under a spotlight while carrying her and saw the light reflect lasted me quite a ways into the dungeon, so my memories of the Earth Temple are okay enough.

On the other hand, Makar. (I still call him Oaki, which should indicate how memorable Makar’s character is) When flying with Medli, all that was required was good aim when leaping off any ledge you were leaving, whether she was on her own or supporting Link. Makar has to fly in patterns more complex than straight lines, so naturally his controls are twice as stupid. You have to repeatedly press A to fly, speeding up or slowing down your button presses to increase or decrease the amount of lift as you go. Button mashing as a recurring mechanic, yay. Its imprecise nature becomes worse when the vertical nature of the dungeon’s biggest room has Makar rack up a ton of momentum from the amount of rising and falling he’ll be doing, leaving you struggling to adjust your frequency to keep up, with aerial endurance that makes you wonder how the Korok seed-spreading ritual has not led them to extinction by mass drowning. Fortunately, there’s a giant fan you can activate at the bottom of the room to blow yourself upward and kill any chance you have at forward progress. You’d think that being able to coast to the top of everything would be a good thing, but being in the fan’s range of “anywhere” causes Makar to eschew any direction that isn’t straight up (as his flight meter drains!), when running out of flight power has the same effect but downwards. If that wind catches you while you’re trying to cross the room, you’re left to watch as Makar is frozen in place while his energy drains to zero, wait for the fan to stop, fall several stories to the bottom of the room, and walk about two feet toward where you want to go before the fan activates again and restarts the cycle. And that’s assuming one of the many flying enemies doesn’t brush Makar and throw the camera back behind a Link who’s attempting to keep calm by doing the wave.

The combat took some getting used to. Ocarina’s combat was fine; it was easy to tell what you were in range to hit, and timing your swings properly could get shield-wielding enemies like Stalfos in a loop where continually accurate shots would finish them in seconds. In Wind Waker, Link’s attacks don’t reach quite as far as his sword would indicate; you’d think the gods would make sure their magical evil-smiting blade is most capable at the end that goes in the King of Evil, but I guess not. “Just The Tip” is a no-no with these monsters, so it’s either impale them in full or let them dominate you.

Meanwhile, you have two options for your targeting system, and they both suck. You either hold down L as long as you want to keep an enemy targeted, which before long will cause your left index finger to rebel against its draconian master, or press the button once to start targeting and press it again to target a different enemy, leaving you with no way to stop targeting the enemies and put an arrow in the switch. This wasn’t that big a deal in Ocarina, since Link had a wider vertical range with the bow and there were never many enemies hounding you  when there was another immediate objective to complete, but in Wind Waker, you can expect a rainbow of respawning Chu’s to ambush you around the clock. It sours a lot of dungeons and dungeon-themed areas for me. That’s why the Wind Waker experience was so surprising; the dungeons were a slog to get through and felt less like a collection of clever puzzle ideas suiting each region’s theme and more like an obligation to throw in because it’s Zelda, yet everything surrounding them felt engaging and intriguing enough to make me want to keep playing and find out what happened to everyone.

(Tower of the Gods was pretty cool, too.)

#legend of zelda #wind waker #zelda wind waker #link #zelda