#the formula for each Zelda is just:

[spicyicymeloncat]

First attempt trying to draw all of them :)

#some of the designs are a little improvised #yeah the proportions are not consistent but like it’s fine #hey it’s hard to translate wind waker into the same style as games like tp #that’s why tetra’s head is so big okay #totk coming full circle with the green #also totk joining her ancestors with the funny rectangle cloth with triforces on it #the formula for each Zelda is just: #long hair most likely blond (not always) with two little bits in front of her ears #crown made up on either straight or curled spikes with a gem that’s red most of the time #longer ears than link #pink colour pallet with blue accents #darker pink top and lighter pink skirt #long fabric in the middle usually it’s blue and it has the triforce and bird on it #gold belt #gloves or cuffs #gold armour/jewellery around neck area #and blue eyes #botw broke like most of these conventions #her eyes are GREEN #anyways #love her a lot #loz #the legend of zelda #loz Zelda #fanart #digital art #art #it’s 3am #loz design

[rotisseries]

THAT’S SO COOL????? I’m not into video games but GOD they reincarnate and are in love every time??? princess and knight??? also I’ve been wanting to say this for ages but link is sooooo gender. you get it

so. they are in love in the sense that nintendo is queerbaiting me. queerbaiting me with a "straight" couple (they are lesbians). they are not canon they kissed only in the second ever zelda game when there was only the barest story and they were nothing more than pixel sprites and they have not been canon since. and because every game is technically a different link and a different zelda, each individual game varies on how shippable they actually are? like, I'm not very far through twilight princess yet but I've heard they're pretty much just coworkers in that one. the three latest mainline games though, they're like. they're pretty much canon in all but name like you could say it's platonic but like at that point you are running on loads of denial. the three latest mainline games are skyward sword, which is the first link and zelda, the start of the cycle. the plot ENTIRELY revolves around how much link loves zelda. cause they're best friends, hyrule as a kingdom doesn't even exist yet (they live on an island in the sky) she falls to earth and is running around having to discover that she's a reincarnated goddess (that's a whole angst factor btw bc the goddess (hylia) had to fight demise and she won but knew it was temporary and knew demise would have to be defeated again, and that he would need to be defeated with the power of the triforce, which can only be wielded by humans, so she decided basically that she'd need a loyal human knight, and so she reincarnated into a human girl because a girl is loved in the way a goddess isn't and she knew someone would love a human girl enough to save her WHICH HAPPENS so basically zelda gets to have an identity crisis was she just dragging link towards this destiny the whole time? did she truly love him? did he truly love her? are they puppets in this grand plan? "I'm still your zelda" she says to him, but is she??? drives me nuts) and he, ever loyal, keeps running after her to save her again and again and again (link is so dog coded there's a great botw fic about this), and then they defeat demise and he curses them and link is just some guy who went through ALL THIS SHIT cause he LOVED zelda. what if you were in love with your best friend and it cursed you and your descendants for the rest of time this is so francesca by hozier I'd tell them put me back in it I'd go through it again if i could hold you for a minute. and then the next two mainline games are breath of the wild and tears of the kingdom and breath of the wild involves an amnesia plot so you basically watch link fall in love with zelda a second time and then in tears of the kingdom they are. common law married. they share a house. there's only one bed. do NOT get me FUCKING STARTED on the hateno house. and nintendo still plays FUCKING COY zelda's english va has to be like "they... have a really close bond...." this is how I know they're queer you wouldn't do this with straight people. and then people also ship ocarina of time (most popular and well known game of the series most praised for its story) zelink a lot but that's an older game I haven't played yet so I can't speak on them. zelda is so transmasc in that one though this I know. I talk about link being genderqueer a fair amount and everyone on this internet knows link is trans but trust. zelink is t4t

#also I love that you said “princess and knight” like it's another awesome factor about them cause yes so true #but so many people are like “UGH the princess and knight trope🙄” LIKE YOU DON'T GET IT!!! IT'S ABOUT DEVOTION!!! #tbf the zelda plot is always that you have to save zelda and nintendo won't break out of this winning formula #so I suppose for a lot of people it just feels sexist and tired and whatnot #but I've played only the latest games so I'm able to look past it cause zelda manages to still be a really good character from the sideline #also. they're literally in love. um. why do you hate true love and soulmates #anyway TECHNICALLY they're not in love every time. cause. as I said. twilight princess #(also there's some zelda games that don't follow the standard plot (such as link's awakening which I've played its SO GOOD btw) #so there isn't. a zelda and ganon. so obviously no zelink there) #but whether or not they're actually romantically involved I do think it's critical that they are SO SO SO SO IMPORTANT to each other #in which case if they are genuinely just coworkers in twilight princess I do think that's a failing of twilight princess #ask #witch-of-aiaia #hi aiaia! #also. fun detail here. link is a silent protag and they tend to make him a bit of a blank slate in the games #so when I say zelink is in love I am simultaneously working with the bare ass minimum in regards to link #and yet also so so so much cause of the everything he does for her #zelda being a reincarnated goddess/from the line of a reincarnated goddess is so crazy insane to me btw #she's links patron goddess he's her ever loyal servant they're UGHHHHHH #I could talk forever about them. evidently. they're so important to me. only couple I've written fic for

[youssefguedira]

idk i love breath of the wild w my whole heart and i am excited for tears of the kingdom but if its not The End of zelda (which i don't think it will be for the simple reason that zelda's a big money maker) i dont know how i feel about the idea that they want to move away from the formula entirely because i personally love the typical Zelda Formula™ and id be kinda disappointed if they just. decided to stop you know

#but totk will really be the deciding factor i think. like i miss traditional dungeons and i do love botws open world but i like more story #driven zeldas also. you know. im really curious how much totk is gonna draw on botws story because like. 90% of it is optional? #you dont have to do the divine beasts you dont have to do the memories. theres no reason you couldn't just skip it #and i don't know what baseline they'll work from. does link remember everything? does he still have memory problems? who knows #so we'll see i guess. 9 days left tho #neon has thoughts #i know people complain about the formula but i for one giggle and kick my legs in the air every time i hear the little secret theme in a #dungeon. i LOVE linearity i love progression i love dungeon items i love puzzles that get progressively harder and build on each other #miss you zelda. what id love is if they focused on a Less Huge And Groundbreaking zelda after totk and did another 2d cause i love em. but #that's just my little speculations #the thing is. i dont Know where its gonna go after totk. and im nervous abt it #i should probably not be this attached to Nintendo Franchise but oh well. i am

[prokopetz]

Metroid (1986) and Castlevania II: Simon's Quest (1987) are often cited as the foundational texts of the metroidvania genre, not without cause, but they were really just a couple of the most prominent examples of a widespread trend. During the same period, we also had The Maze of Galious (1987), Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1987), Blaster Master (1988), Faxanadu (1987), Wonder Boy III: The Dragon's Trap (1989) – each of them foundational to the metroidvania formula in its own way – and many more besides, all tightly clustered in that specific three-year span from 1987 through 1989.

I know it's not always the case that there's a single ignition point for this sort of thing – sometimes an idea's time has simply come! – but I'm tempted to bet there was some obscure Japanese PC game released in 1984 or 1985 I've never heard of that sparked the trend, and I have no way of chasing that thread down because if any resources on the topic exist, they'd all be in Japanese.

#gaming #video games #history #gaming history #metroidvanias

[phoenixcatch7]

I remember playing botw and just feeling like it was a celebration of the legend of zelda. Like the creators had taken all the stuff they'd loved about the previous games and cranking it up to eleven now technology was able to keep up with their dreams. The million and one references seamlessly blended into the world, the wind fish island, lon lon ranch, the temple of time, the forgotten temple, the lanaryu promenade, the spring of power, the branding on the milk bottles, the tiny island in the west moat of korok forest, the half buried arbiters grounds, the old man, the writing in the beacon pins. It all mixed together into a melting pot of memories and history and love for it all.

Totk feels like a celebration of every legend of zelda game. Like the creators had taken all the stuff they'd learned from the previous games and dialed it up to a hundred. Just the coding they must have written into every inch of the world for us to use our new abilities! The amount of detail they've lavished on every particle and sound effect! They must have had to write the physics engine near from scratch to handle the stunts we can perform without even a frame drop! The elements of each game is stronger than ever! I'm seeing wind waker and skyward sword and I'm seeing ocarina of time and twilight princess and hyrule warriors and link between worlds and zelda 2 and links awakening and it's all this chemical formula of colours on a matchstick waiting for someone to set the (whole thing) on fire to reveal the borealis of decades of gameplay. It's absolutely stunning.

#I've literally had the game three days #loz #legend of zelda #totk #tears of the kingdom #loz totk #the legend of zelda #breath of the wild #loz breath of the wild #loz botw #botw #loz tears of the kingdom #Like fr #1k

[catohphm]

One of my favorite elements of Legend of Zelda: Spirit Tracks is its incarnation of Link. At the start of the game, he is completing his final exam to become a train driver. He becomes a warrior and hero to save the land after the Demon King Malladus is broken out of his prison by his supporters, proceeding to wreak havoc across the Kingdom of New Hyrule. That is part of a formula seen in other Zelda games such as the Wind Waker.

However, Spirit Tracks is different because before the final battle, you're given a "choose your own" path for Link where you can decide if he'll continue to be a warrior, retire from the high adventure lifestyle and become an engineer, or a third option "Dunno." The post-credits scene with Zelda in her office is different depending on which option you pick.

The warrior path has Link practicing with his sword just outside in the grounds below her office. Zelda gets up from her desk where they see each other, causing him to fall down. They wave at each other before returning to their tasks.

In the engineer path, Zelda is catching up on the paperwork when she hears the whistle of Link's train. She checks out the window and energetically waves at him as he travels past.

The third option just has her remembering her adventure with Link before continuing with the paperwork.

I may be biased toward the engineer path as much as I love trains, but I also prefer that choice for this Link because it gives a different idea of his character. He is a highly skilled, resilient and intrepid warrior when the need arises. However once the kingdom is safe, he actually has an opportunity to settle down and live a regular lifestyle as a train driver, getting the sense of adventure he enjoyed while traveling with Zelda through that. This Link was the hero Hyrule needed, but once the quest is over, he is able to have freedom in his life as a regular person without the burden of it over his shoulders.

#legend of zelda #legend of zelda spirit tracks #spirit tracks #toon link #link legend of zelda #link #zelda #princess zelda

[linderosse]

Hi! I love your art and your Wisdom AU. I have a question about it. Are you still keeping Legend and Fable siblings after Jojo said they weren’t related in the Q and A, or are you sticking with Linked Universe canon?

Thank you!!! Glad you like it!

Hm, I haven’t seen this Q&A! Can I get a link to it? :)

The reason some Zelda fans believe ALttP Link and Zelda are related is this:

Those are the dying words of Link’s uncle. Some English fans (Edit: choose to)(Edit: nowadays) believe the end of this sentence was supposed to be “sister,” since nothing else really fits (I’ve heard “soulmate” (Edit: or “destiny”) as an option, but it seems strange for Link’s uncle to be telling him who he’s supposed to end up with). Thus the headcanon of ALttP Link and Zelda being siblings.

The Japanese text is even more ambiguous, since it reads something along the lines of “You are the princess’s…” This means the line was probably meant to say something like “You are the princess’ only hope.” Unfortunately, this version doesn’t seem to work as well with the English translation, while the “sister” line still works with the Japanese text. The intention is different from the way some fans choose to interpret it. :)

To complicate matters further, the remake (2003) removed the line from that scene, although the line is still present elsewhere in the game— Blind the Bandit disguises himself as Link’s dying uncle and repeats the same lines, and he says the original phrase (Edit: ending with, “You are the princess’…”). The devs are definitely aware of the original line. (Edit: And they’ve fixed the translation, lol.)

So there’s the background info!

Now, on to the main part: regarding following LU canon. The truth is: I am already changing a few things from Linked Universe, the most important of which are these:

Legend and Fable are siblings

Tetra and Wind are not Phantom and Spirit

Shadow and the Four Swords manga are canon

Time and Wind (and other relevant characters) remember Hyrule Warriors

Why am I making these changes for my AU?

Discussed above!

I’m much more of a Spirit Tracks fan than Jojo seems to be :). And when considering the Zeldas, Phantom is markedly different from Tetra in both personality and skills. I’m sticking to LoZ canon over LU canon here. Phantom deserves to be her own character!

I’ve been a fan of the FSA manga for a decade and a half now, so it has long affected the way I see the Zelda series. I also love Shadow and Four’s history— it adds a unique twist to the classic Zelda formula. Shadow is therefore canon in Wielders of Wisdom and the parallel LU story, The Secrets We Keep. Expect Shadow’s backstory to play a role somewhere in the combined Wisdomverse :)

I’m new to the Hyrule Warriors fandom, but I love the connection it gives Warriors with Time and Wind— and other characters :). This is also going to be addressed in The Secrets We Keep. Check that out for more info!

Many of you who write/read fanfics for LU have seen these ideas before. Interpreting canon in different ways has always been an integral part of the Zelda fandom, because canon is itself can be contradictory. That’s one of the things that makes this fandom so fun <3.

And the most important thing is that these changes fit the story I want to tell better.

I’m going to do my best to stick to LU whenever possible, but I want to tell a fun, engaging story, and sometimes that will mean taking a different path: sometimes following LoZ canon more closely, sometimes interpreting things my own way :).

So, to answer your question: I will probably be keeping Legend and Fable as siblings. It’s a popular headcanon among fans. I believe the story I’m telling for Fable works better with other romantic interests for Legend. And I want to stress that he and Fable are just as fiercely loyal to each other.

That said, I definitely don’t mind if you believe differently! I don’t really emphasize romance anyways, and I’m not here to police the fandom. Please feel free to read the references to Legend calling Fable “sister” as friendship, or just ignore it, or whatever you wish! I don’t mind who you ship with who.

Only preference is: please don’t ship the Wielders with each other, since they’re canonically related by blood and spirit :). Other than that, anything goes as far as I’m concerned.

Anyways. This got really long, didn’t it?

I wanted to answer the question as thoroughly as I could. Please feel free to ask more questions, or stop by my quiet little art streams and ask me live if you want an immediate answer! I will always do my best to respond :)

You can find all previous responses under the tag: #lin responds !

#lin responds #wielders of wisdom #linked universe #the secrets we keep #lu wielders of wisdom #lu the secrets we keep #lu fable #lu legend #lu tetra #lu wind #lu spirit #lu phantom #lu wow

[nebuvoid]

Playing BOTW/TOTK again is reminding me of a hope I had from the first TOTK trailer, and I'd like to ramble a bit about it.

By now we know that when Zelda falls into the abyss she zip zooms back into the past but. Back then I had this slim hope that Zelda would finally get her chance to shine on her own, especially with how BOTW went out of its way to depict her as something more than just The Dignified Princess.

So what I imagined was this. Zelda falls into the abyss. So does Ganon. Each of them use their magic to not turn into soup upon impact when they land. I saw it a sort of mirror to Zelda being trapped with Ganon in the castle in BOTW. Except this time Zelda isn't just a sitting duck. This time we play as Zelda exploring this new underground map while hiding from Ganon and coming up with a plan. What I loved so much about the trailer was its mysterious and spooky atmosphere so Zelda would initially be doing a lot of running and hiding like you do when you first encounter the Gloom Hands.

While finding structures of old civilizations and information about the mummy Ganon Zelda would also gradually learn how to fight from necessity, building her own weapons from what's around her with her own ingenuity. Zelda is smart and curious, she's more than capable! Meanwhile a severely injured Link is found by Purah and can't go after Zelda right away because he needs to recover (again to mirror BOTW), perhaps get a sick robot Sheikah arm. He won't be joining Zelda in the underground until the last act (you get the idea.)

Of course thinking of the depths now, a whole game that only spans that endless darkness would be boring so perhaps there would be dark spooky areas but also many that are just as lively and full of flora fauna as the above ground. You could easily have some giant lightroots on the ceiling that act like little suns. Basically a whole new map that's just as big, vibrant and interesting as Hyrule, but with no repeats or even reshuffeling. The zonai, or their relics anyway, are still present, as are the mysterious blue crystals we first see. Maybe there's no horses but more dondons to ride. Maybe even some whole new tribes of people like those frog? statues we see in the depths. Mole people. Bug people. They could tell Zelda about legends of old, of some dark gloom coming from the ceiling ever since they can remember. The more I ponder on this the more ideas I'm having.

There was so much potential to do something that goes against the usual LOZ formula... Maybe my idea is too farfetched but while dragon [REDACTED] was very cool and TOTK's story does have some aspects I like, it left much to be desired. I doubt they'll ever split from GANON-BAD ZELDA-OUT OF REACH LINK-HERO but I can still imagine at least. (Good boy Ganon that fights against his fate when!!!)(That was another hope I had when Ganon's hydrated design came out...)

#tears of the kingdom #totk #loz totk #totk zelda #i know totk is old news by internet rules and no doubt bigger fans have come up with all kinds of amazing things but. eh let me still throw #my own stick on the pile #loz talk #sorry to diehards that know way better about lore than me ive spent most of my life only watching zelda content and am not that deep in it #p.s. i get that totk was born from botw dlc ideas but this is purely about what the trailer inspired #loz

[jheselbraum]

Totk Ganondorf is a departure from other versions of both Ganondorf and Ganon in that he is not a disruptor to the status quo, at least not thematically.

Like, oh no he wants to destroy Hyrule? It was already destroyed, that's the status quo that got changed between botw and totk by Link and Zelda. Ganondorf lifts Hyrule Castle during his big ol earthquake, sure, but he also returns Hyrule Castle to both the state that it was in during botw (red glowy, surrounded by malice) AND to the state that it was in pre-calamity for that one sequence. What about in the ancient past? The civilization of Hyrule didn't exist, the Zonai civilization had been in that region for thousands of years, and it's the Zonai that Ganondorf primarily focuses on.

Totk Ganondorf is fate. This isn't the first time a Legend of Zelda game as presented the villain as tied to fate but Majora's Mask was pretty literal with it all things considered. But the moon falling in majoras mask is presented as just as inevitable as totk Ganondorf's assault on Hyrule, he's fucking fate. He's specifically the fate that fucked Zelda and Link up initially, and there's thematic importance in Zelda's ultimate plan to stop totk Ganondorf. At no point after Link touches down in Hyrule again is he ever truly alone, it's only when Link goes to fight Ganondorf that he loses the ability to summon sages. In fact that happens twice, Link tries to fight Ganondorf alone twice and both times the sages show up anyways to bail him out. Technically this happens three times if you count the opening sequence.

Totk Ganondorf is literally stuck in the past, lost in nostalgia and continuing a war that he doesn't have to and that's why he thinks he can lure Link into a false sense of security by appealing to his sense of nostalgia, because obviously Link's life was super hunky dory when the castle Looked Like That, everything was great and he didn't have an anxiety disorder and Zelda specifically was super friendly and niceys to him during that time. Obviously Link has nostalgia for that era in the first place.Totk Ganondorf is the old way of doing things, he expects Link and Zelda to be working to restore Hyrule Castle when in reality they live in fucking Hateno and never fucking touched the castle until the seal on Ganondorf started weakening and spitting out gloom everywhere.

He's the old Zelda formula. With Ganondorf back we get temples and sages as well, we get bombflowers and like likes and visual callbacks to Ocarina of Time and I think we've collectively forgotten that botwtotk Link and Zelda are a Link and Zelda that are from a different Legend of Zelda game than breath of the wild and that they lost their original Legend of Zelda game. They know the exactly what Ganondorf is and they know their prophesied role in stopping him, they know the loz formula. They also know that following that formula got them all fucking killed.

Ganondorf thrives when Link follows the old Zelda formula of clearing temples, unlocking sages, and going to fight the demon king alone regardless, and Zelda thrives when Link realizes that teamwork makes the dream work to the point where her millenia spanning bond with the ancient sages pays off and, unlike the calamity, there is no expectation that whoever goes to face the demon king will have to do so alone and that's why Zelda and Ganondorf are foils. Totk Zelda represents the new ways, possibly the new Zelda formula since. It's Nintendo. There's gonna be a formula. But at the very least she represents a kingdom that doesn't give a rats ass about fate and prophecy and sending children into battle alone. When we unlock each secret stone, the cutscene we get isn't some divine instruction, it's the previous very mortal and not divine at all sage saying, in essence, "hey I told my friend Zelda that we'd help her friend in the future can you do that since I've been dead for 10,000 years?" And the one time it isn't the sage in question is Mineru who, you know. Is the sage from 10,000 years ago.

Rauru is ancillary, Sonia is ancillary, Link is ancillary, dialogue between Ganondorf and Zelda or lack thereof is fucking ancillary.

The real fight is between Ganondorf and Zelda and it's over what kind of Kingdom Hyrule is going to be moving forward: Ganondorf's where everything 100% dictated by fate and inevitability and an incredible fucking loneliness or Zelda's cool new Hyrule where everyone is the most free from fate and prophecy that they've ever been and the ones that aren't are not alone and have the support of not just their communities but the rest of the world too.

#tloz #totk #totk ganondorf #totk zelda

[somethingwittyandweird]

What's your favorite game you played this year?

You've activated my “review of my year in gaming” trap card! I was already going to make this post in some form or another, you've just given me the perfect launching point. So, the first thing you should know about asking me for favorites: I never give just one. How could I, when it's been such a banger year of games? (Heads up, this one's going to go long.)

I loved Tears of the Kingdom to death, and it took home my most hours played on Switch. It is a shining example of what devs can do with an extra few months to polish a game. There were so many remarkable moments that testified to how much care and ideas the devs were able to put in. I loved how it used the time since the first game to develop familiar places and characters, adding depth (no pun intended) and also making sure every familiar location had some new twist. The story was a much stronger followup to BotW, and I think this overall has my new favorite ending sequence of anything in the series (I'd love to make a full post sometime about how the final Ganondorf battles just keep getting more spectacular with each new title). I am so, so, so, so normal about this incarnation of Princess Zelda. 

Also in my favorites this year is Fire Emblem Engage, which hit at just the right time to scratch my strategy itch. As a long time FE fan it’s not a surprise I enjoyed this one- though it lost the political intrigue of its predecessor in favor of a more traditional/tropey story, I still had a lot of fun with all its gimmicks and gameplay innovations. Also it is hands-down the most visually appealing game in the franchise, a title previously held by the series’ GBA entries which are masterworks from the peak era of beautiful sprite art. From the incredible crit animations to the spectacle of super attacks to the battle maps which are so beautifully detailed that the game lets you free roam around them after a battle just to appreciate them better. 

I finished the Link’s Awakening remake this year! It was a charming trip back to an older era of Zelda design philosophy and I found it fascinating to compare the ways where the classic puzzles and challenges differ from what the game would be like if it were made today, as well as the places where modern technology allowed for better QoL changes that weren’t in the original. I really enjoyed the music as well, which I find to be a standout among the series still.

Here at the end of the year, I have to give a shout out to Sea of Stars. It has everything you want in an indie darling- very pretty pixel art, very nice music, turn-based battles with timed hits I joke, but Sea of Stars does a great job balancing evoking/paying homage to icons like Chrono Trigger and bringing new gameplay to the JRPG formula. I like its pared-down take on JRPG combat which revamps skills/mana into a much more dynamic resource that’s constantly being spent and regenerated, and I’m a known sucker for character combo attacks which this game has in spades. The later parts of its story are told with a lot of heart, and again I am a known sucker for certain character archetypes. Surprisingly also, I think the movement and exploration is absolutely a standout- not something that’s typically emphasized in the genre. But this game constantly has you hopping across stepping stones, balancing on tightropes, climbing walls and ledges… the emphasis on interesting traversal and verticality is a strength few games like it can boast. 

Before my final pick, I’m including a special section for all the games I didn't play myself but watched my friends play and still want to praise: Hi-Fi Rush, Bomb Rush Cyberfunk, Mario Bros Wonder, Pizza Tower, the Minish Cap Switch rerelease, and more all came out this year and all of them have brought killer music, excellent gameplay, and stunning visuals that I’ve enjoyed to no end. Anyone considering to pick up any of them would find a quality product without a doubt.

With all that said: I think ultimately it has to be Tunic in the end. Underneath its premise of a Zelda/Souls-like adventure game there is a wealth of secrets that goes as far down as you have the courage to delve. It’s a game built to evoke nostalgia for games that you didn’t understand yet, posing as a game that you watched an older sibling play or a game you could only find a poorly-translated foreign copy of. It obscures everything and teaches you its secrets through context, exploration, and discovering in-game pages of the manual (remember manuals?). It’s a game made for lovers of secrets and puzzles, full of hidden paths and trophies that reward inquisitiveness and observation (and taking paper notes). It was when I saw that it not only has a conlang, but that it gives you the hints you need to fully translate it, that I knew I had to get it myself. It spurred me to screenshot every in-game piece of menu text, then spend evenings cross-referencing it to identify phonemes and construct a key.

The rush I got on completing that key is one of two moments I knew this game was absolutely special. The second standout moment is when the game teaches you its hugest secret, and then invites you to prove your mastery of it by presenting you a huge, multi-part puzzle. But, Tunic does the same thing that one of my other all-time favorites, Outer Wilds, does so well: powerups via knowledge, “unlocking” abilities that you always had, you just didn’t know that you did. The pieces to this puzzle are hidden in plain sight; it’s only when the game tells you what you’re looking for that your understanding shifts, everything clicks, and your eyes are opened to the path you have to follow. I don’t say it lightly, but I consider Tunic to be a one-of-a-kind title, and one that delivers completely on its unique vision. 

In case that brick of text doesn’t make it clear, I love this game. 

I love all of these games.

It's a fine time to be alive.

#i talk a lot tag #skysometric #loz #totk #sea of stars #fire emblem #fe17 #link's awakening #thank you so so much for giving me this space to make this post #sorry-not-sorry about the wall of text jumpscare #i mean everything i said sincerely and honestly still have more to say about some of these #that i'll save for another time #long post

[zeravmeta]

every so often i come across videos talking about pokemon and discussing how mainline pokemon games always have lackluster plots and like. here’s the thing on one hand pokemon mainline game plots always do tend to be super simple compared to other series and even other spinoffs within the same franchise (like pmd). but on the other hand i feel like its incredibly dismissive of what does exist (and obviously I’m the fool for watching youtube videos on subjects i definitely know more about than them) and also feels like they miss the point on what kind of stories these games want to tell.

but then I really sat down and thought about it. what DOES make a good pokemon plot for the mainline games? because they are formulaic, you always repeat the same process and hit the same plot beats throughout, much of what changes between games is just the creatures and the aesthetic along with whatever new gimmick they might introduce, but overall you can play one pokemon game and you’ve basically played them all so what changes? what really separates pokemon games from each other? what makes people love the world of pokemon so much aside from the creatures?

and then it hit me. pokemon mainline games always have simplistic plot, but a phenomenal narrative. The plot is the story that’s trying to be told, but the narrative is the presentation, the thematic core within a story. The thing about pokemon is that the plot is supplemental to the narrative, rather than the narrative being an aspect of the plot like in most stories.

True, in every mainline game you basically do the same cycle of getting your starter following the map beating the gyms stopping the evil team leader and becoming the champion. But the thing about pokemon is that the actual plot is secondary to the intended purpose of having you actually explore the world. You’re not MEANT to care about the plot details, but rather the plot is flavoring to the characters and world building.

Think of the Gen5 games for a second. People often consider these the best written pokemon games (and for good reason) but what I always notice is that people never bring up the central plot as a reason for that. Rather, the big draw of the writing is the character writing and lore: the circumstances surrounding N, the thematics of what Team Plasma represents, the Memory Link side stories. All of these you can entirely ignore in any given playthrough of a bw/2 game (you can even 100% the games without touching any of these!), yet they’re the things that stick out the most to players for years after the fact.

The same is true of every pokemon game, you don’t care about the central plot, but rather the world and the characters where the majority of the writing IS focused on: Silver’s struggle with his father, Maxie and Archie as well-intentioned villains, Cyrus as a character who wants to save the world from itself, you can ask any pokemon fan to talk about their favorite characters and even though the plots of the games are incredibly simple, they can tell you tons of things about the characters.

That’s something of a trend I feel exists in Nintendo’s biggest games: there is no plot, but you care about the world regardless. Mario games don’t have a plot but we enjoy playing through the worlds. Legend of Zelda recycles its plot basically every game but you remember the interesting dungeons, the funny and weird npcs, the actual experience of discovering the world and its lore. Kirby has no plot whatsoever but uses its aesthetic and presentation to build a world and a lore out of it, putting the focus of exploring the world to the player by giving you a mechanic that lets you skip the game entirely. Pokemon does largely the same thing with its games, but since it’s an rpg there has to be SOME writing to it, and they always attribute that to the characters. Quite literally, its about the journey, not the destination. This is particularly why I kind of love the Gen7 games, because while I do absolutely agree that the game drowned you in cutscenes, the most memorable things about it to me were the random little events you could find around the region that added so much personality, not to mention that this time the plot was driven specifically BECAUSE of the characters narrative (Lillie) rather than having it as a consequence of there needing to be a plot. This is also what I feel Gen6 failed with, because as much as I loved Kalos as a child, they focused far too hard in trying to Have A Plot that they ignored the narrative entirely: you don’t really care about Lysandre because hes never really shown to make any kind of sense, and Kalos as a region was ultimately empty. The one interesting character in XY (AZ) is tied directly to the lore they do introduce, which is his main draw as a whole, but outside of that there’s very little to it all.

This is also why i feel that pokemon spinoff games have such banger iconic stories to them as a result? because the mainline games have a very simple plot but have incredible lore, world building and narrative to them, so when a spinoff actually takes the time to add a properly written story to them its always incredibly complementary as a result and basically half of the work in writing a story is already done, so they can focus on the characters entirely. Anyone whose ever played a mystery dungeon or ranger or any of the other story based spinoff games can tell you that their stories are always incredible.

If they ever do want to make a pokemon game with a legitimate plot to it, I don’t even think they’d have to revamp the formula and gameplay loop that all games have you do, but rather add some extra importance to it. They somewhat tried to do this with HMs I feel, where you can’t progress in the world unless you beat the gyms, but instead of having the gym challenge just be something that the player is pushed into, actually making it a core defining aspect of whatever hypothetical story the writers would want to tell. They could even toss the gym challenge out entirely and try something new, but overall in order to have a good plot, they’d need to make the progression within the game have some type of importance aside from letting you advance in the world.

#pokemon #zerav meta

[loopy777]

So there's going to be a live-action Zelda movie.

(Let's leave aside that no one from the creative team inspires any confidence.)

In celebration (?), I'm going to dig out my old idea for the only way a LoZ movie can be anything other than a cheap rip of Peter Jackson's LotR movies. See, I don't think LoZ has much to recommend it as fantasy itself. It doesn't have very many characters, and most of them don't have any personality beyond the most generic archetypes. There's no story that isn't just about collecting some plot coupons and fighting the big bad. Visually, there are few unique recurring memorable icons, just the Gorons and Zora, and Link in the green clothes; the triforce is just a triangle and the master sword fits in a little too well with all those cheap unofficial sword props they sell at conventions. Everything else varies too much to be iconic.

They could play it safe and adapt one of the more memorable games. But there's a reason why fanfic novelizations of those very rarely get very far, and why the manga adaptations usually last one or two volumes and spend most of their pages covering the initial premise and interactions with the quirkiest side-characters. Sure, it's possible to put together a good movie out of such a thing, but in that case, would the final product be all that much different than the recent D&D movie that underperformed despite being nicely entertaining?

I've long said that the one thing the Zelda franchise really has going for it (outside of being fun video games, which is actually the most important part but of no use in this conversation) is the way it uses repetition of its own iconography. It often retells the same stories, even when the stories are sequels to each other, and there's always a Link and always a Zelda and always a bow'n'arrow and always a moblin and water dungeon and a flute, etc. When a game does something unique, that stands out even more because of the context of the formula.

I also want to combine that with a fun mechanic in some of the games where Link solves puzzles by flipping between worlds/times. In 'Link to the Past,' he can go back and forth between the Light and Dark Worlds to make progress. In OoT, he can set things up in the past to solve problems in the future. In the Oracle GBA games, the dungeons themselves have puzzles which require taking actions in certain seasons and time periods in order to solve them.

So my ideal Zelda movie has multiple simultaneous stories going. One based on OoT, one based on Twilight Princess, one based on Breath of the WIld, and a mix of the NES games. They would each have a completely different acting cast, including the Links played by different actors. Scenes from each one would have different directors, ideally, but that may be unnecessary if the art teams can really do a good job differentiating them. The storylines would intercut to show their similarities and differences, and would sometimes even replace parts of each other's stories so that the lines between them blurs. At least one fight scene should be so intercut that literally every cut changes which storyline we're in, but it combines to create a single continuous and discernible fight scene.

As I've thought about this idea over the years, I've decided the storylines should swap characters as they go. The actors should stay the same- TP!Zelda should always be played by the same actress, for example, even when she's in the OoT storyline. Otherwise it would just get too confusing.

The theme we're going here is the nature and purpose of legends. We want to show how this one basic story reflects the societies that tell it, so we want the various storylines to make a big show of the setting of Hyrule in each era. We want to hint that the various elements in the story, including the characters, say something about the people who tell and value the legends. And we want to highlight how this changes as Hyrule changes.

It all culminates in all the storylines converging in the final battle against Ganon(dorf), with all the Links and Zeldas and sidekicks teaming up for a massive fight against evil. But the critical part is that all the populations of Hyrule are observing this fight, and the soundtrack is their shared million-person chorus recounting The Legend of Zelda, an epic poem chanted in a manner that puts Duel of the Fates to shame. I'm torn on whether the poem should be in English, or some made-up language that has to be translated via subtitles, complete with translator notes about untranslatable stuff and words where we're not sure of the exact meaning.

I admit it's possible I'm missing the entire point of a Zelda movie.

#legend of zelda #legend of zelda movie #loz movie

[prokopetz]

It might still be too early for this kind of question, but what have been your favorite video games you've played in 2022? :3c

Given what the release schedule over the next three months looks like, yeah, it's probably jumping the gun, but what the hell. I'm going to arbitrarily restrict my consideration to games actually published in 2022, or else we'd be here all week, though.

(I make no apologies for the high concentration of sequels on this list. I know what I like!)

Amber City is a spiritual sequel to 2017's Flood of Light, and its gameplay is in much the same vein, being an atmospheric walking sim with light point-and-click puzzle elements. If you enjoyed the idea of The Witness but wish the puzzles didn't hate you personally, this might not be a bad one to check out.

Blossom Tales II: The Minotaur Prince isn't going to break any new ground for those who’ve played its predecessor, though it's somewhat more adventurous in its dungeon design; if you enjoy casual 2D Zelda-likes, you'll probably enjoy this. Fans of 1980s fantasy media may also get a kick out of its pop culture pastiche elements – let’s just say the narrator is definitely taking advantage of the fact that his grandkids have never seen Labyrinth!

COGEN: Sword of Rewind is a Mega Man Zero style hack-and-slash platformer that does one of the first interesting things I've seen in years with the time manipulation formula, essentially merging your "mess with time" gauge with your health bar. The damage-boost routing in the speedrun is something you need to see to believe.

Curse Crackers: For Whom the Belle Toils is a retro platformer from the makers of 2020's Zelda-like dating sim Prodigal. Comparisons to Celeste are, perhaps, unwarranted, as the mechanics are very different, but I felt something familiar in the role of momentum in its flow of play. Visually, it's incredibly pink, which is something I always appreciate in a game.

Dungeons of Dreadrock is a short logic puzzler that one could be forgiven for mistaking for an old-school roguelike at first glance. Each level is a set-piece that borrows from the conventions of the grid-based roguelike genre to create situations where only one sequence of actions leads to survival, and challenges the player to find it..

FAR: Changing Tides swaps Lone Sails' landship for, well, an actual ship. The engineering sim gameplay remains largely unchanged in spite of that. Some of its elaborations on the previous game's formula don't work as well as they might have, being challenging more due to the limitations of the physics engine than anything else, but the frustration factor wasn't high enough to ruin my fun.

A Game with a Kitty 1 & Darkside Adventures is me flagrantly breaking my own rules, since everything in this anthology actually came out in 2005–2008 – it's just the anthology itself that's a 2022 release; I'm mostly throwing it in because this list was otherwise light on free-to-play titles. It all held up remarkably well on a replay earlier this year, though.

Gunborg: Dark Matters is a run-and-gun precision platformer that seems to have flown entirely under the radar, having just 11 reviews on Steam at the time of this posting. I'm not sure why – I mean, it's got a great soundtrack, and you play as a woman with a sword the size of a surfboard. What else do you want?

Jack Move is a JRPG-style title that blends self-consciously silly 1980s cyberpunk with contemporary anime aesthetics. I have to confess that I'm cheating a bit by including this one, as it's been out for all of three days at the time of this posting, and is the only game on this list I haven't played; I have, however, followed its development for some time, and I've had a lot of fun with the various demos the dev team has put out over the years, so I'm confident in plugging it here.

Recursive Ruin takes a page from 2019's Manifold Garden and basically asks "what if it was super fucked up?" The recursion here is fractal rather than directional, with progress "inward" eventually leading right back where you started. The story is naturally pretentious as hell; whether that's a criticism is a matter of taste.

RUN: The World In-Between wears it Celeste influence on its sleeve, but really takes more from classic endless runners like Canabalt. The "procedural generation" is just the same dozen or so puzzles for each zone being strung together in various orders, and the story is thinner than the trailer makes it look, but if you're a fan of the "running from left to right set to awesome music" genre, you could do a lot worse.

Submerged: Hidden Depths picks up where 2015's Submerged left off. The gameplay is substantially similar, though with a heavier focus on exploration puzzles and fewer linear set-pieces. Even so, it's not exactly what I'd call challenging – it's better approached as a pretty walking sim with light parkour-puzzler elements.

System Purge is about as basic as it gets for a precision platformer. No fancy moves here: you run; you jump; you get your face melted off by a laser. There's actually quite a bit of blood and gore, which is something I rarely have the stomach for, but the game is short enough that the lurid bits don't overstay their welcome. Fair warning!

Taiji is... well, remember when I said Amber City is a good one to check out if you like the idea of the Witness but wish the puzzles didn't hate you? This is one to check out if you do enjoy it when the puzzles hate you. There's a lot here that will be familiar to fans of the latter, though the puzzles are somewhat more varied owing to the fact that colouring grids is a more flexible game mechanic than drawing lines.

Vain Ascendance is a a roguelite precision platformer whose art style and mechanics put me strongly in mind of 2018's Overclocked, though the dev teams are unrelated. When I've plugged this game in the past I've been teased that my obsession with games about red haired women who can air dash is showing, but this I must protest: her hair is purple.

As for unreleased games available in demo or early access versions that I've tried out in 2022, I'll keep it brief, since these aren't proper recs, but you might have a look at any of Dormiveglia, Garbage Girl Louise, Gigasword, Keylocker, Koa and the Five Pirates of Mara, Little Witch in the Woods, Rebel Transmute, Rose & Locket, Ruin Valley, Shards of Gravity, Star Hearts: Launch Point, Undergrave, Venus Looks for Jupiter, Vermillion Descent or War Girl.

#gaming #video games #video game recommendations #violence mention #swearing

[bloobluebloo]

I feel like the main problem is that Ganondorf has never had a consistent presentation in the series. Like we know his boar form has, but the man himself has been a king of thieves laying down atrocities and breadcrumbs for Link to a demon king in control of everything in OoT, to a more focused individual who carefully selects targets and a petty bitch with pathos in Wind Waker to a surprise villain in Twilight Princess, to being playable in Hyrule Warriors, to just deploying phantoms, gloom, and puppet zeldas in ToTK. So like… in ALL of his appearances AS GANONDORF (excluding the pigs) the approaches have been vastly different in comparison to say Sephiroth or Bowser’s formulas which are repetitive but you can at least know what they’re about by looking at them and wanna punch them. Meanwhile Ganondorf is drastically changing with each decade plus he only has 5 GAMES to his name unlike Link and Zelda… bro is not doing fine in this department.

I think the fact that Ganondorf does have the space to change is an asset to his character rather than detrimental. His core attributes are entitlement, a desire for power, and the desire to have Hyrule under his control. I think that throughout the series this remains pretty consistent. If we look at Link, while he is always a hero he also changes quite a lot, from being a boy living on an island to a boy living in a forest, a boy that joined the knighthood, a boy raised on a ranch etc etc that finds his way into the role. This allows the story of LoZ to change as a result, from having your traditional knight saving a princess game to sailing games and sky island games and train games and ancient technology games etc. The nature of LoZ demands that its main cast be flexible in this regard so I don't take issue with it.

Now when it comes to Ganondorf's ever changing titles, I think the one I take most issue with is Demon King. It's not that I don't think he should be a king of demons because in my opinion Ganondorf seems more at home with monsters than he ever does with people. It's just moreso what that implies. I feel like, especially in modern games and anime, "Demon King" has become a blanket title for someone who is evil and happens to command monsters and I find that a little underwhelming. Sometimes I think of the Overlord games where you take control of monster minions to have them do your bidding, and there you can truly see that these monsters follow the Overlord of their own volition, seeing him as their savior and truly having love and respect for him. It would be neat, if they really want to lean into Ganondorf being monstrous, to see him actually interacting with his monsters. That short scene where he leads his monster army he actually looks genuinely gleeful so I think he enjoys being a king of monsters? I want to see more of that! Show me why you guys decided to call him the Demon King (because again, I don't think he gave himself that title. He personally seems more invested in seeing himself as the bringer of darkness, I think he would call himself the King of Darkness if he got to choose imo). I think what I find fascinating with Ganondorf's writing is that it feels like he is constantly being pulled in different directions as to *what* he should be like. When you look at the details in his character, from his longing for a nicer place to live, to his position as a king of a despised nation of people, having his mother's names engraved on his blades, the many details and sigils on his clothes and armor that show pride in his heritage, his anger at being executed and wielding a blade he despised, breaking the statue of the goddesses that hung above his throne, running away from his people to evade execution, there is a distinct sense that they do want to make him something more than just a monstrous being, but at the same time it feels like they feel too intimidated to give that side of him the time it needs to breathe. Sometimes I wonder, given that Ganon was initially conceived as a pig monster who only hungered for power, if they are afraid that exploring this side of his character would diminish his villainy. This is in part why TotK's writing for him frustrates me; there is established precedent for him when it comes to his human form. If they want to lean into him being monstrous, Ganon is right here. After all, Ganon tends to be the form he assumes when he has shed his humanity. When I see Ganondorf on screen, I expect his more human attributes to be explored or else what is the point of him having a monster form if they are both essentially the same? (I think they should explore what it is like for him to be the only man in a tribe entirely made up of women? Being put on a pedestal for your gender only to step out of your home to find out that your gender is completely normal? I think that would fuck him up in 10 different ways at least yet we never get to see that)

#ganonthots #sorry this got long but I HAD THOTS

[cloudninetonine]

I’m bored and sad again so guess what time it is? Head canons!

-Legend is a force to be reckoned with when it comes to anything player related. Like, after he remembers he is basically a constrictor snake around them, has to be touching them at all times, he even hisses whenever anyone comes too close. He has had so much torn away from him (including player if, on his side, they had to leave for every in between of his journeys. Don’t know if that’s the case, but it’d be angsty as hell if it was. Having them leave, to coming back, only to leave again and repeat the cycle until they stopped returning.) and he is not going to let one of the things he just got back again go.

-Player must pet every. Single. Dog. They see. Big retriever? Pets. Little angry chihuahua? Pets. Big wolf- HOLY-! Better yet they know it’s Twilight and by the looks on the others faces most if not all of them don’t know. So they get to make puppy talk all they want and won’t be deterred by Wolfie’s grunts or growls because they know he won’t actually hurt them, while they also are completely aware of his situation and why he isn’t turning in front of everyone else to stop the merciless petting.

-There have been times where the player has (begrudgingly) looked up the answers to puzzles online, but they have done it so rarely with the Zelda series because it’s their favorite and they’d hate to spoil anything. This means they are the Loz puzzle pro and can take just one glance to solve half a dungeon, they are just that used to the Zelda formula. Every time the boys are stuck on a puzzle player comes swooping in spewing out orders faster than Epona can run, within a minute they’ve made it to the next room and can continue with their lives. It’s very strange for the chain.

-Player has shown them a cutscene or two from Botw, where in that game there is voice acting. One of the boys asks “do we also speak in your quote on quote ‘games’?” To which player, innocent (evil) smile on their face, shows them a ten minute video of all the Links over the years making their wide range of grunts, yells and “HYAH”s.

-Player shows them all the silly little games they have on their phone, to which the gang get addicted to playing temple run or something and strive for a better score than everyone else and proceed to very quickly drain the phones battery over the course of a day. Player is not pleased to say the least.

-“So basically they are metal carriages with no horses and a spinning wheel inside to move it about?”

“Hit the nail on the head!”

“…Yeah, not sure I believe that.”

“Wah- oh come on!”

-Player has mentioned Fi before and freaked out Sky. Like- “how do they know? Did Fi come to them at night and tell them? Are they also a spirit in a sword and they all know each other or something?!? Is that why (Name) is so weird?!”

Player: Thanks goodness the other two aren’t here!

Time: What other two?

Player: These two other Links I know, you wouldn’t want to meet them.

Wind: Ugh! You’re telling us there are more? Just when I thought I was free from even more overbearing adults.

Player: Nah, I bet you won’t ever meet them. One’s game is… a little too out there, and the other doesn’t even have a game, it’s all perfectly fine-

Koridai and Courage, emerging from a random portal: Heeeey-

Player: (screeches)

Anyway, that’s it. I hope my description on Korodai and Courage was accurate. I believe they are the cd-i Link and the, “Well excuuuuuussse me, princess” Link respectively, but I may be wrong on that.

(You're completely correct on Courage and Koridai babes, those cringey boys)

ALSO LOVING THE HEADCANONS KEEP THROWING THOSE MY WAY THEY MAKE ME HAPPY TO SEE THEM!

"Nah, because- something like the divine beasts makes sense but a car doesn't!?"

"Yup."

"That's it, put your hands up we're about to fight."

My personal experience with puzzles is that they're literally the light of my life, fucking love those things (hate having to look for solutions to hard puzzles tho) so Player happily commits to the puzzles in the dungeon while the Chain is debating their next move.

"So, if we-"

"Done."

"....What?"

PLAYER NEEDING TO PET THE DOGS-

"....(Name)?"

"Yeeeeeesssss?"

"Why are you cuddling a wolf?"

"This is a dog?"

"No...no it's not..."

"Huh....well, she ain't done anything yet so I'm not bothered."

#cloud answers #bloodybloob #BB

[gerudospiriit]

[Now I'm just stuck on the thought of "why didn't Ganondorf just take the stones for himself" and just seeing how that could have literally made him feel more like an ever-present threat if you had to like...see or face HIM at each stone (which I guess if you count puppet Zelda he was there but not really) or even like BEAT him to it somehow it would have been such a neat change to the formula rather than just sticking him in the castle/Depths again to wait for you. Instead of him creating monsters to guard the stones, as we see in every other Zelda game (except to some degree SS because Ghirahim ACTUALLY FIGHTS YOU AS THE BOSS IN TWO TEMPLES because he realizes that these monsters he's conjuring up just aren't cutting it which I really think was great), it would have been cool to just get some kind of shift to something a little different in this regard.

Like I just feel with how much they've tried to shake up the formula with botw and now totk, this could have been the PERFECT time to do something different with our big bad--especially now that he's not a flying pig cloud--and they just...didn't. They miss so many opportunities to connect Ganondorf, who has historical ties in many, many ways to Hyrule, to the overarching story outside of fighting him at the end and sending puppet Zelda around to troll Hyrule and they just DON'T.]

#[ ☀ ˢᵖⁱʳⁱᵗˢ ᶠʳᵒᵐ ᵇᵉʸᵒⁿᵈ ;; ᵒᵒᶜ ] #tears of the kingdom spoilers #totk spoilers #i think most of my followers have finished it but to be safe #idk like ive said they did a lot better with totk #but i would have loved to see them push the envelope more with both gameplay and story