#Replaying oot on my 3DS

[doodle17]

OoT Zelink my beloved ♥️

[bloobluebloo]

Guess who’s replaying OoT 3D?

ME THAT’S WHOMST

My last save file is from 2012, yeesh 😂

I forgot how they lay it on thick with the “desert man” and “evil” and “vile” when it comes to Ganondorf ahahahaha

[journalsouppe]

A LINK TO THE PAST!!!! I love and adore this game so much. I love and adore my little pink son he's so sweet despite witnessing some fucked up things. This is one of my favorite spreads, I love the color combination I chose plus the stickers are really cute :').

I bought two different sticker sheets: The pixel inventory stickers are by Comstock Cafe The chibi/character collection is by Pashmakshop

Writing typed below!

Rating: 8.5 Played: Fa 2022 Port: SNES Switch Online

Comments

I am so glad the switch has save points

I love that Ravio is dressed as dark world link, also glad I played ALBW first!

Harder to figure out in between dungeon objectives

I love how this is the game that is the origin of human Ganon

The game is a lot more cryptic than intuitive

Flute boy is so dark but also so interesting

Moldorm was so annoying

oh Link is the last of the Hylian knights

yay new decrease damage armor! idk why the hat isn't also blue

i think turtle rock island was at the lake in ALBW ... interesting

when you start the game, why do you start with 1/2 health?

I'm still surprised the 7 sages were originally the 7 maidens

i hate ice dungeons T-T

the design of ganon's tower is really cool

omfg the mirror shield is so big it covers most of link's face

i like the bunny beam

you can see all the insp ALTTP had on OOT

i think the blue and red mail should be farther apart (play time wise)

omfg the lynels are terrifyingly fast T-T

LMAO vulture recap

THANK GOD NO DEAD MAN'S VOLLEY AHHHHH

Ganon's tower is SO LONG

oh? talking directly to the triforce essence? interesting

UNCLE ISN'T DEAD? AHHHHH

Sumary:

I can see why this game is so popular, it revolutionized the Zelda franchise. It is still a pretty cryptic game at times, but it was a lot of fun and very charming. There was amazing character and world designs, the artists absolutely killed it. I love how this game was the origin to a lot of things for the future: human Ganon, the ocarina, the dark world, the lost woods (although it was technically in zelda 1), ahhh it's so cool. I'm glad ALBW changed and improved on many things, giving more depth to the dark world, but I will say both have their fair share of annoying bosses. I hope Nintendo will continue to expand on the dark world in the future, especially because it's never been 3D. What a very charming game, I think I might replay it in the future since it's such a short game. I'm excited to finish the rest of the 2D games!

[krisiverse]

loz. which one had the best gameplay and which one had the best story in your opinion (+ worst of these too if you want?)

i hope you know how difficult of a question this is to answer concisely. not just because i have so much love in my heart for all of these games and it's impossible to pick a favorite but because i can be so petty sometimes. 1 million opinions under the cut

storywise i think wind waker is the strongest. i love the themes of it explores and the rich history of the world (especially now that i'm replaying it with the context of oot), i love the individuality of all the characters, i love how there's a clear throughline of motivation for link through the entire game. skyward sword is also really good, it's more focused on interpersonal connections and it has sort of the opposite approach to history and prophecy and it's neat!

i feel like the clear choice for worst story is triforce heroes which i don't think even other triforce heroes fans will disagree with, it's incredibly shallow by design and wasn't really MEANT to hold up at all. it's supposed to be silly! it's supposed to be not even secondary but tertiary to the cool puzzles and dress-up!

so my true worst story will be tears of the kingdom. it might have been good if the game had been designed around it more, but as-is it's a linear storyline stuffed into an open-world game, all the important story beats are cutscenes you watch that link and the player aren't even involved in, you can spoil the entire storyline for yourself just by viewing a single memory out of order, it's SUPER repetitive with the sages, and you can't use the information you actually learn until the "appropriate" part in the story. everything with the arm also makes me SO MAD, the very first thing i thought of with him waking up to it was how fucked up and traumatic that would be, and then i saw a post that said "yeah they literally grafted a dead hand to me irl without my consent and it was extremely fucked up and traumatic and this scene and all the focus on this arm following it was really triggering". and then they bullshit regrow his whole entire arm at the end. cowards. let link be an amputee, you don't even have an excuse of "but the gameplay" because the game is OVER and you even OUTRIGHT said you aren't going to put this one in more games. the only high point of this story is the light dragon and i love her. but she is not enough sorry

ANYWAY i think a link between worlds is still the absolute best in terms of gameplay. it's just so smooth and quick and snappy, you can get really creative with how you do fights and progression too! totk has similar levels of creativity and freedom which is neat.

for 3d games, skyward sword wii has some of the worst gameplay purely due to the control scheme, the motion control is somehow both oversensitive and imprecise and almost every enemy requires you to react quickly and slash in a specific direction... it adds up to a really bad experience. the switch version helped a lot just thanks to the joycons being more accurate and being able to recalibrate on the fly

twilight princess is honestly a slog to get through imo. it has the "huge, empty overworld" problem that absolutely every 3d zelda game has, but without access to at-will fast travel for the first half of the game until you get the master sword, and there don't even seem to be any shortcuts between areas like in ocarina of time?? or any way to pass the time between day and night? the main things i remember from playing twipri are spending ages running across hyrule field to get somewhere, spending ages waiting just outside kakariko village for it to become daytime so i can go in the shop, spending ages CLOMP CLOMP CLOMPing across the magnetic ceiling in my big metal boots in the goron mines long after the novelty of walking on the ceiling has worn off...

the worst gameplay in the top-down zelda games is unfortunately the gb/gbc games (link's awakening, oracle of seasons, and oracle of ages) having two buttons total for your sword, interacting with things, and ALL items in a lttp-style gameplay where you're constantly rotating between different items... it's not user friendly! which sucks because the dungeons are really good, and LAHD proved what a big difference it makes to have extra buttons to bind to and a little bit of extra polish... OOA and OOS really need the remake treatment. also, i didn't have any particular problems with it when i played, but shoutouts to the mermaid's dungeon in oracle of ages for having the single worst level design i've seen in any video game ever

(shoutouts also to zelda 2, for having such different gameplay from every other game in the franchise that i don't have any idea how to rank it)

[gamingstar26]

A dumb quick sketch for the 25th anniversary of oot cause this game means a lot to me. Plus to practice on young link a bit. Might draw some young links to practice.

Idk how to describe why I like it, but it was one of my first Zelda games along side Twilight Princess on the wii. I played the 3ds version and remember getting stuck on dodongo’s cavern (cause I was 9 year old idiot) and later used a guide to get through the game and I completed the game, and replayed it so many times I forgot how many times. (I have a problem I know) but I love this game so much and it made me love the Zelda series. It’s a game that helped during tough times when I was stressed, and depressed and had su1c1dal thoughts.

In a nutshell I just love it and I cry man. And go crazy over my favorite games.

Again I’m terrible at explaining shit.

[faroreswinds]

I got two anons in regards to Zelda.

I'm going to answer them here to maintain spoilers. So spoilers below for Totk.

I'm of two minds about totk's story, personally. Keeping it vague for spoiler reasons, I think the twist with Zelda was a really cool idea, and the final boss was a really grand spectacle that made for a great finale. The new characters, Rauru and Sonia, were welcome additions too, but getting the memories out of order slightly ruins the impact, and I think the scenes in the past should have been playable instead. I love this take on Ganon, but I think his motives should have been explored more.

So, my own thoughts on your specific thoughts.

I personally found the dragon thing.... dumb. It doesn't feel like it belongs in a Zelda game. A friend of mine and I always discuss how much we hated it, haha. But I understand why others like it.

The human side of the final boss was great! The dragon was dumb. But that was because I found the entire dragon concept incredibly dumb.

Rauru and Sonia are.... fine. They aren't really anything special, imo. We don't really get to know them. They are just... nice. That's pretty much their only defining personality trait. I don't hate them or anything, I just don't find them anything special either.

This Ganon is.... meh. He's pretty stupid. He literally leaves Stones out in the open and doesn't take them for some reason. That's dumb villain behavior. His motivation is slightly more clear in the Japanese - He thinks peace makes people weak and he wants people strong. So... that's it, really. I just wish they gave him a Trident and not a samurai sword. Where is my Trident, Nintendo? That's literally his thing, you even had it in the OG teaser trailer! Character-wise, he's no more special than OoT Ganon, except OoT Ganon is actually given screen time to build a rivalry with Link. And was actually a more successful Ganon than this one.

To be frank, I found there to be very little to enjoy from this game's narrative. It's so sloppy, childish (note, I don't mean for a younger audience either, I mean it's like a 9 year old wrote it), and devoid of anything meaningful. The only thing I can recall truly loving was when Dragonroost Island theme kicked in during the Rito boss fight. And that made me tear up a little. And only because of WW, not because of BotW.

To be clear, I enjoyed my time with the game on the whole. But the only reason I plan to replay it is because I want to make a video explaining every microscopic detail as to why this game's story was poorly conceived.

In hindsight, I feel like Botw was to Zelda what FFXV was to Final Fantasy; games that changed the direction of their respective series for better or worse and given Aonuma's whole thing about the previous 3D zeldas being "restrictive", I think we're stuck with the botw/totk formula for a long time.

We are. I'm not exactly.... opposed to the open-world design. I just don't think they figured it out yet.

I know so many people think BotW and Totk are perfected open-world games. To me, a perfect open-world game doesn't look like what these two games gave me.

Here is what I want from the next Zelda game.

A narrative that adapts to the players actions, so the choices we make matter more

A smaller map but at least 8 dungeons. The dungeons should not require an entire sequence to enter, but can be wandered into when discovered. Imagine looking into the lake and seeing a temple! And then imagine swimming into the lake, and entering that temple for a new dungeon. Or, searching the forest and finding an ancient ruins buried deep within the leaves.

The smaller map should have more NPCs. I want real, large cities! Lendyell's, not the pathetic Rito village. I want Goron City to BE a city! Come on, Nintendo, make it happen!

Please do not make Princess Zelda a whiney baby this time, please. Or, in the case of Totk, an uninteresting Mary Sue.

Make horses actually good this time.

Stop forcing me to menu all the damn time.

No building! Lame! Stop it!

Can we make Link emote again, please? It's so embarrassing that the n64 Link has more personality than the latest Zelda game on better hardware.

I have more but this is what is on the top of my list.

Of course, I know I sound like a negative nilly. But I don't really hate the idea of these games like a lot of fans seem to do. I just can't love them yet because there are still too many issues.

I want to love the new format desperately. Totk, while a crappy story, actually gave me glimpses into greatness. I can see how the team tweaked it, tried to find a perfected formula in there. I can see them trying, and that gives me hope!

Like, if you were to give me a choice between Totk and Botw, and I can only play one of these for the rest of my life, I'm going with Totk. It's not a better story, but it's a better game. It doubled down on Botw's weaknesses, but I think that just comes with using BotW as a base. Maybe an entirely new game can finally do away with those weaknesses.

Hopefully, we won't wait 6 years to find out! Hopefully no more than 3? We know that they have already started the planning phase of the new game. And it possible that they started a year ago. Totk was finished over a year ago, and had a year of testing before release. Hopefully, they delegated, and had a small team begin the start of the new game.

Plus, no covid this time to slow them down!

Here's to hoping!

[mallon]

Got an N64 to HDMI converter and I’m so jazzed for my next OoT replay to be my original cartridge after so many 3DS replays!! 

[strawberrycircuits]

So is totk another reincarnation or like next Wednesday of botw?? How did thr environment and tech change so much xddd? Oh wait there could be multiple islands or something.

What are the explanations for shrines? Like they're just there for link to rave in

The trifecta or something like those three triangles are what i most see associated with loz. What did they represent??

Which variation of loz game first introduced you to it? Which is your fave?

If link and Finn adventure time met would they be best friends yes or no. Answer THIS ONE now1 bye

GOD BLESS YUOUUUUUU

-totk is a direct sequel to botw! iirc, totk started as botw dlc, but things got so Big they ended up making another game! we dont actually know how much time has passed between the two games, but there are a couple of things that point to it having been a few years.

>Tulin, who was a very young child (think 4 - 7?) in BOTW, is considerably older (10 - 13) in TOTK, as is riju (she went from being 11 - 14 to being 16 - 18).

>purah's age-reversal technology, which first accidentally made her revert to 6 years old in BOTW, has had its kinks worked out and shes back to looking like a very young adult

>major developments in various characters lives and in the various towns ALSO imply times progressed (zeldas moved in with link and has facilitated the creation of a school in Hateno, Paya is now chief of Kakariko, Sidon is engaged, etc etc).

so its not really the next wednesday after BOTW, its more like. a couple of years down the road. i like to think its been 6 years, just bc thats the actual gap of time between botws release and totks release and nintendo has based their game timeframes off of release dates before (splatoon does this a lot)

-if theres an explanation for the shrines in TOTK i donot know it yet <3 for BOTW, the calamity that strikes Hyrule is actually the 2nd time its happened. 10,000 years before botw, calamity ganon struck, and a link and zelda we dont know anything about managed to seal him away. the ancient sheikah of the time had the foresight to be like "omg what if he comes back" and so they made the shrines to help train whatever hero was around when ganon decided to come back in the future. idk why theyre just Gone in botw tho that shit sucks :/

-uaaah the triforce is so fuckinf weird. ok so its a wish making thing made up of 3 parts-- the triforce of power, triforce of courage, and triforce of wisdom (Woaoo spladfest!!!). if u wanna use it, you have to embody those 3 things, and u also have to be a mortal. if u DONT possess those three qualities, the triforce breaks and embeds whatever quality you embody most in you and the other two parts find people to shove themselves into instead. in skyward sword, link goes through a number of trials that help him develop the power, wisdom, and courage he needs, and he's able to make a successful wish. meanwhile in ocarina of time, ganondorf tries to take it, and he gets stuck with the triforce of power while the wisdom and courage parts go attach to zelda and link respectively. the triforce is a little. dumb i think </3 sorry

-my first legend of zelda was skyward sword, but i never got past the first ghirahim battle, so id just... keep restarting, playing to that point, and starting again. i was kind of obsessed with the opening and i would replay just to see the cutscene where Fi leads Link away to the sword in the middle of the night. I got farther in when i replayed it when i was older but i watched Chuggaconroys playthru all the way bc he loves the game as much as I do and shows u all avenues and details :]. my 2nd game was OOT on the 3Ds and i got to the fire temple and did a similar thing of playing thru the first bit and resetting to play over and over again. then beyond that ive played minish cap, twilight princess, hyrule warriors (wii u), wind waker, botw, and now totk. ive been a fan since i was 4-6, so ig ss/oot got me into it? but BOTW reaaally kicked things into high gear for me lmao. honestly what got me REALLY back into it was michpat6's aftermath series on ao3 because it completely recontextualized how i saw the series and its characters. my favorites are, in order; Skyward Sword, Breath of the Wild, Ocarina of Time, and the Minish Cap!

-ok waiot which. Link. heres wht i think hahehahea;

>wind waker: BESTIES they go on adventurs and be so silly togwtherr!!!! finn talks ab his parents and link talks abt his gma and sister!! they talk abt their nonhuman friends!!!! link shows him how to use the hyoi pears to astral project into the seagulls! bestieeeees!!!!!!

>twilight princess: not sure? TP link gets along great with weird ass kids but idk if that means he genuinely would like 2 chill w a weird ass kid like Finn aushjsa

>BOTW/TOTK: YES but she'd be much more mellowed than Finn. same shenanigans different demeanor yakno. also blond bitches w fucked up ripped off arms and sentient sword gang!!!!!!

>AOC: euurhhhg.no. i think he was a good bit more no nonsense pre calamity but then again he did eat rocks bc someone dared him to and ran like 2 miles bc got his motorcycle hijacked by zelda in this one so idk

>Skyward Sword: he'd be so sooo sweet and like. humor Finn? but unless Finn needed help w anything hed just gently turn down any offers to chill 2gether bc hes sooo focused on other things and the way his swords buzzing tells him he needs 2 get on it

>OOT: ok if hes a kid he'd think Finn is SO COOL but if its adult link i think hed see him as very annoying and would get on his nerves . idk oot link seems very frustrated at all times and like i cant blame him but i think his patience would be very very thin

>Majoras Mask: somewhere in the middle of adult and child links opinions. god knows how long that boys been in a timeloop i think he wouldve learned to appreciate the people around him more than he did as an adult shaped kid back in Hyrule but thats getting into Strawb's Meta Analysis Of Ocarina Of Time/Majoras Mask territory and that would take 5 billion years to explain so i wont here </3

>Minish Cap: tehy have hat. yes. also i read the manga for this one and he acts like sum sort of middle ground between finn and gumball watterson so uauhhhhh ya (nvn)b

>A Link Between Worlds: ok look. i havent played this game. i cannot tell u the plot. what i DO know is that theres this little freak dressed like a rabbit named Ravio who is bizarro Link from a reversed Hyrule called Lorule and im obsessed with him. anuways Ravio and Finn would also be alright buds and Ravio would like. totally cheer Finn on from the background but also he's stealin shit outta Finn's house sowwyyy

[eat-the-richard]

GAME OF THE YEAR ("GOTY") (as they call it) 20222

Fellas!!!!! Howsit going Tumblr, felt like writing about video game again because my brain loves video games! I like thinking about video games more than actually playing them! There’s plenty of us out there who watched a baker’s million video essays in their adolescence and have been poisoned (PLAGUED... even) with gaming knowledge and insights. And I’m one of them!!!!!!!!!!! So here it is, Y'INZ... my top 300 games of christian year 2022.

And just to preface before one of you FREAKS gets any funny ideas, I think basing your GOTY lists on just what released in a given calendar year is bogus! If you do this, GET OUT OF HERE! If you only play the newest games on your PS5 and don't even look at anything released before 2018, everyone at the lunch table thinks you smell weird. So put on some antiperspirant and play freaking Halo Combat Evolved for pete's sake! (EDITOR'S NOTE: Despite this joke, Richard has not yet completed Halo: Combat Evolved despite owning it.)

HONORABLEST MENTION

Sometimes you have a list that has honorable mentions. me too!

Mario Kart 8 Booster Course Pass (Nintendo Switch)

This is actually not very good since it's just cheap mobile game levels imported into the MK8 engine. Unfortunately I love giving Nintendo money AND happen to think that playing Mario Kart after a hard day at the mine shaft is pretty relaxing. So even if they imported levels from like Forza Motorsport I think I would like that.

Sonic Origins (Nintendo Switch)

Is this even really a game to rank on a list like this? 30 year old Genesis remakes shoddily copy pasted into the Hedgehog Engine for some reason? With extra content really not worth engaging with? Ehhhh whatever man, this guy has Sonic 3 in it. You ever play Sonic 3 before? If not go do that instead and come back ONLY IF you've completed at least Flying Battery Zone. I would go further but I'd totally understand if you stop playing after pushing the Sandopolis blocks.

WWE 2K22 (PS5)

Regrettably, the newest outing from 2K Sports and WWE is probably my second most played game on this list. Not that this game is even bad, I mean it is probably the best WWE game in the last 10 years. Tons of modes, good visuals, cool roster. I played the banana slamma outta this game for like a month. But then I realized I was having more fun assigning championships to created guys on my roster to match the week-to-week championship histories of modern WWE and AEW rather than, you know, actually playing it. So I haven't touched this in about seven months. Something about the moment-to-moment gameplay of 2K just doesn't engage me at all, feels too slow but also not impactful enough to match how wrestling actually feels to watch. Feels faker than the real thing, believe it or not.

Ship of Harkinian (PC)

This only didn't make the list since, I mean like it's Ocarina of Time from 1998 which I first played in 2010 and have replayed approximately 8 times. But I've been waiting for something like this since the Ocarina of Time source code was 100% decompiled late last year, and the fellas over on the King's ship have given me everything I wanted. 60 FPS gameplay, tons of tweaks to improve on OOT's core features, support for nearly every device under God's watchful glare, controller remapping AND analog camera. Still doesn't look as good as the 3DS version but if you choose to play Nintendo Switch Online version rather than this you are under arrest.

OK THIS IS THE LIST EVERYTHING BEFORE WAS NOT REAL

16. Super Kiwi 64 (PC)

I remember picking up this game while being stressed out about going to a social function. The sales pitch for me was simple: it plays like an N64 platformer AND you can beat it in an hour.

As someone who has more games in his backlog than iPhone chargers in his plastic bag of chargers (pictured), it feels good sometimes to just... crank one out y'know? One session of non-stop platforming and you never have to worry about it again. Pure dopamine to your chrome dome.

It helps that SK64 is a pretty fun time too. With controls so fluid that I don't think I messed up one of my thousands of jumps, levels which are just the right about of expansive as to not be too imposing or restrictive, and a story which makes me grin to the edge of my cheek bone but not further, this is an easy recommend for people of my age range and taste in gaming.

15. Astro's Playroom (PS5)

That's right gaming public, PROOF that I own a PS5. I purchased that white block of solid matter in January after realizing the sheer amount of gaming experiences I was missing by not being in the PlayStation ecosystem. Of course, directly after making the plunge, one of my main PS holdouts I thought would never release on PC (Spider-Man (2018)), well, did. So I haven't really used my PS5 as much as I probably should have for a $500 investment. My fault, of course, for being bad with money.

But for the brief three hours that I was playing Astro's Playroom, I was not thinking these things. Not that I was absolutely head over heels in love, just that I thought, "hey! this little (big) ps5 system ain't so bad! it has this cute little robot game where I can be surrounded by playstation propaganda and murder the dinosaur from the ps1 tech demo!"

I put this game right above Kiwi since they are both pretty short but the sheer effort put into Astro's presentation just notches it a little ahead. You can tell the devs of this loved making it and, hey, I loved playing it too. A little bit. Not $500 love but maybe $10 over the course of 50 years love.

14. Mario's Super Picross (SNES) (by way of Switch Online)

Much like Kiwi, I played the majority of Picross this year while being stressed out over a social arrangement. But while the social arrangement surrounding Kiwi's purchase and playtime was honestly not that bad and I was just being an anxious little bear, the social arrangement surrounding Picross was a wedding. A wedding I had no friends to go there with, taking place 6 hours away with a crowd full of people who went to Liberty University. Needless to say I was dreading the days leading up to this thing. I distinctly remember sitting there, in my rented Airbnb quite literally just in someone's house, thinking to myself, "why the fuck am I here in someone's house for a wedding I will not have fun at?"

So instead of thinking that, I got lost in Picross. While a game I've certainly heard plenty about, Picross seemed to me like it would be confusing to learn and not super fun for me to play. But all it took was a friend explaining the basics to this Japanese-language-only game for me to figure it out. The game started with easy 5x5 puzzles to get my feet wet with the idea of breaking blocks to match the numbers on each row and column. But before I knew it, I was staring down the barrel of a 25x20 board with 30 minutes to figure everything out. And the cool part was that I didn't necessarily feel overwhelmed by that point. The concept had seeped itself into my head that much.

I'll definitely be playing more of this game in the future. I don't think I've even completed a quarter of this game's gargantuan list of puzzles. I kind of don't want to complete this one because I know if I do I'll be sent down the rabbit's hell of Picross games. That puzzle debt is too great for me at the moment.

13. Sonic Frontiers (PC)

Nearly two years ago, I wrote a bunch of words about Sonic on this very blog that ended with this pretentious garbage:

I don’t want SEGA to half ass [the next Sonic game]. I want them to boldly step into that abyss with a vision of Sonic that appeals to the heart of the fandom. Because, even if it’s been down recently, that heart is still beating, and after the abuse it’s already taken, it’s going to take a hell of a lot to get it to stop. And if SEGA can get this heart pumping to its full extreme as it had in years past, we may have something legendary to look forward to.

And, uhh, that kind of happened? Sonic fans seemingly across the board (or as much across the board of lavishly online Sonic nerds as you can get) are utterly in love with Sonic Frontiers for appealing straight into the heart of early 2000s Sonic fandom.

There's plenty about this game that I can look at and say with certainty that I absolutely love. These main four hedgehog et al characters have never been written this well in a mainline title of the series. At its best, Sonic running around the open world is a straight up good time. And the three titan boss themes have been permanently stuck in my headphones and may be some of my favorite songs of the past several years.

So its a shame then that Sonic Frontiers doesn't quite come together very well. The gameplay loop just feels kind of... random to me in a way that no other game in the series has ever been. In a four hour Sonic Frontiers review podcast (*shudder*) JebTube calls some of the challenges that open the map up "Among Us tasks" which may have just ruined that part of the game for me. More than anything, though, the controls just don't quite stick the landing for me. You feel pretty magnetized to the ground even when running off a ledge, which feels pretty strange when the very foundation of this series is based on being launched up a vertical slope into the air.

Still, it's hard not to respect what SEGA was able to accomplish with this one. Harping on potential is often a fool's errand but sometimes, with a media property that has spat you into the dirt more often than not, its hard not to cling onto that potential so that hope isn't totally lost.

12. Sonic Triple Trouble 16-Bit (PC)

Thankfully, even if the mainline Sonic releases are spotty, fanmade content has kept the spirit alive and beating. And this title, made entirely by one guy (Noah Copeland of bearded twitter PFP fame), is the latest in the Sonic fandom's absolute service to older games in the series. From the Retro Engine decomp releases to mods that force games like Adventure DX and Heroes kicking and screaming to the operating table, Sonic fans love improving on older games. Because we love those games. And preserving the core of what made those games so special while improving on the many objective flaws they may have it's the highest tribute you could possibly make to it.

Triple Trouble 16-Bit may be the shining example of this phenomenon. The base of this remake is in an already decent Game Gear game released in 1994, at the height of Sonic's popularity. But it's just too hard to play those Game Gear games in the modern day. There's a certain retro crappiness that comes with playing a game like that, with cropped aspect ratios and 3rd rate visuals bringing down a decent concept. With a fresh Genesis inspired coat of paint and enough tweaks to the overall package that make things way better to actually play, Copeland's project is pretty clearly the only way to play that game right now.

Seeing this game given such love and care makes me yearn for this treatment for other older Sonic games. Like, hear me out OK? Sonic Rush. 16:9 widescreen. No screen switching weirdness to make it easy for modern screens. CD quality soundtrack. Turn down the trick SFX. And tweak the level design to not be so unforgiving. I would do that but I'm a talentless hack!

11. Spider-Man Remastered (PS5)

When I purchased my PS5 earlier this year, I had two games in mind to play on it. One of them was Spider-Man, which has been taunting me for the last five years since its unveiling at one of those old E3 shows. Swinging around like the red guy is just one of those innately fun ideas, I think. Kids think it when looking outside the car window. Adults think it when looking outside their office's window. I want to jump out of here and swing around monkey-style!

Really, Spider-Man only needed to do that right and, shocker, it does do the swinging right. It doesn't even really matter that the open world is in New York, the pinnacle of urban homogeneity and therefore not an incredibly fun world to look around in. New York City skyscrapers were tailor-made for web swinging and video games have been trying to capture that magic for 40 years. You can argue that the 2004 Spider-Man 2 game has a bit more depth to it, but 2018's version is just so smooth and effortless. Really makes me feel like Sp-

Of course there's a story and structure to this game too. Which were both fine. Both serviceable, both doing exactly what they needed to and nothing more. Which probably is bad if you like Spider-Man more for its narrative. But also you don't exist, I had just made up a guy in my head.

10. Dark Souls II (PC)

The end of 2021 revealed to me one crucial detail - I like Dark Souls and Soulslike games after years of failed attempts. This realization occurring conveniently before the release of FromSoftware's next behemoth Elden Ring. So the race was on - how many Soulsborne games developed by FromSoftware could I complete before getting to Elden Ring?

In January, all eyes turned to Dark Souls II as the immediate next step after slaying Lord Gwyn. I've heard a lot about it, not all positive of course. There's a lot of annoying little things about this one. The controls feel a little weird. The health bar is constantly going down. The levels feel kind of samey and lack a ton of level-to-level cohesion. The bosses are truly all over the place.

But, like, Dark Souls 1 had a lot of problems too. So why did I not love this one as much? The gameplay loop involved in tackling monumental challenge is still as fun as ever, and none of the areas are truly repulsive in quality or anything. Maybe it's the fact that I can't really remember much about the experience that says it all here. Still, I had a good time messing around with this one, and even from the bit I experimented with it looks like replaying DSII is definitely worth it.

9. Risk of Rain 2 (PC)

Gamer confession time - I do not care for Roguelikes. I've tried, believe me I've tried. Isaac, Gungeon, Necrodancer, Spelunky, none of these ever did anything for me. So what were these missing? At risk of going on too much of a tangent, let's just keep it simple. They didn't have multiplayer.

Risk of Rain 2, has multiplayer. And just by nature of that one addition, I'm sold on the idea of randomly generated runs of similar content. What can I say? Reacting to the different events in every run is a lot more fun when there's people to react with. Tackling the challenge of getting to the end of a 90 minute run is a lot more satisfying when it's a group effort. And learning the game's mechanics and intricacies by asking a question to a human is a lot more engaging than doing so to a Fandom page.

You know what else Risk of Rain 2 has? Loader. Gosh damped Loader is in this game. Loader has a grapple hook that can fling her across the level AND can uppercut small critters. I want to be her when I'm robotic and dead.

8. Star Wars Jedi: Fallen Order (PC)

Star Wars is kind of exhausting to engage with. Thankfully, beyond being another piece of the Disney media machine, Jedi Fallen Order is a pretty fun game as well.

I had this game on my backlog for about two years and I'm glad I finally got to it. The main make or break for me, the Metroid-enjoyer of my friend circle, is how the levels would be laid out to incentivize exploration and finding essential movement-based items along the way to facilitate progress. And while not as good as, say, Metroid Prime in that regard, Jedi Fallen Order hits a lot of those beats. I didn't even think there'd be a double jump in this game (for some reason) but when I got one it immediately made me think of all the new areas I could explore with that new ability. Combat is pretty fun here as well, with a slew of abilities both involving your saber and your force hands to obliterate the white menace (Stormtroopers) and all rats that come from the dirt.

Taken as just a game, it's a good time, albeit one that feels like a mashup of a lot of other successful game ideas and mechanics. But when all these mechanics and features are wrapped in a cozy Star Wars shaped wrapping paper along with a gift card to "Actually Tells an Interesting Story of Regret and Acceptance Without Relying Too Heavily on Star Wars Tropes And Areas," maybe it comes together better than the sum of its parts.

7. Splatoon 3 (Nintendo Switch)

Boy howdy, do I love giving money to Nintendo. One of my favorite pastimes, that and sitting. I'll be honest though, I wasn't too keen on engaging with Splatoon 3 up to launch. Nothing really grabbed me as someone who only liked Splatoon 1 and 2. To be honest, I was more of a fan of the single player modes of those earlier games. So if anything, I would just get it for the campaign. Which would have been fine, Splat 3's story takes the best of Octo Expansion's creative level ideas into a wild story that ends with a cool boss fight, like expected.

What I didn't expect was for one of Splatoon 3's multiplayer modes to make a believer out of me, which did end up happening. Not turf war though, at least not really. Still only think that mode is alright at best and infuriating at worst. Or Ranked/Anarchy, sweating in Splatoon feels like a recipe for a brain tumor. Splatoon 3's biggest win is the new Salmon Run. Well, "new" isn't really accurate since its mostly the same thing as Splatoon 2's mode. However, Splatoon 3 surprised millions and soared above the competition with just one innovative tweak and trick - throwing golden eggs with the A button.

And with that, Salmon Run can be played far more offensively, letting you run around all over the place with your Tri-Slosher while throwing eggs into the net from the lower level of the map. And my golly, when I nail a buzzer beater where the last second egg throw into the net just meets the quota to move onto the next level, I felt more comfortable with parting $20 a year for Nintendo Online than I ever have. Until the next communication error, of course.

6. Dark Souls III (PC)

Dark Souls III, the fifth Demon's Souls game and the fourth game on my Soulsborne list, was made for me by the Abyss Watchers. My experience with those guys is what these games are all about. A brutal challenge which I throw myself at time and time again, originally feeling so hopeless and beaten but gradually growing in both skill and confidence to conquer your fears and goals. Dark Souls III is also made by the Dancer of the Boreal Valley, a beautiful fight befitting of its name in which your rolls and R1 presses must fit in tandem with the bosses enveloping swings and spins. When judging Soulsborne boss fights, DSIII is easily my favorite in the series.

And on the quality of those bosses DSIII sits here on my list. Because the rest of the game is kind of forgettable. Maybe it was just Souls fatigue that did this to me but I really don't remember a whole lot beyond the bosses from this game. I remember the one terrible swamp area that felt like dragging my foot through a... mud... puddle. And I remember the area that was kind of black and white that looped back around on itself. That's about it though, and this Souls fatigue kind of bleeds into the overarching themes of the game, it seems like. This world needed to die, leaving it all in the past to chart new territory. Dark Souls is over, but it's spirit will continually revive into greater things.

5. Cuphead: Delicious Last Course (PC)

I have only played Cuphead as a multiplayer experience. Over the summer of 2019, my roommate and I gorged ourselves in Cuphead's challenge and aesthetic. He would wake me up at around 11am, staring with loving yet needy eyes which told me to get my ass up and back at the setup. Much like Risk of Rain 2, the joy of accomplishment feels all the sweeter when shared, and the journey to get there all the more fun. We even learned the Cuphead barbershop quartet jingle, singing it on the way to Frenchi's to the bereavement of passers by.

At the end of our journey, I distinctly remember feeling excited for the new DLC level to release, as at that point it was scheduled to drop later that year. Less than a year turned into three, and by the time the Cuphead DLC launched for a measly $8, I knew we needed to get together again to experience the heights of beating the piss out of bees and carrots yet again.

Cuphead's Delectable Lone Continuation is, put simply, more Cuphead. It didn't necessarily set to light the world ablaze like last time, but as a fun revisit of the mechanics and aesthetic, DLC was everything I could have wanted. We certainly didn't find it as hard as the end of the base game, given we beat everything within two sessions and five hours. But perhaps we have simply grown as gamers, and as men, since our last time at cartoon town.

4. Spark the Electric Jester 3 (PC)

Spark hit the big time this year, notable since it was the first time the Yellow Lanky Brown-Coated Hat Wearing Clown Man has ever hit my purview. Taken on its own, Spark 3 is an impressive feat for a single developer, as high speed 3D platformers are a tough mix to develop for. You have to simultaneously create large, sprawling landscapes for the characters to traverse through, while being keenly aware that the world is often going to be breezed by in a matter of seconds.

But taken as a culmination of developer Lake Feperd's body of work over the past decade, forged in the fangame scene before tackling the challenges and expectations of original IP, Spark 3 rises ever higher. Comparing footage of the game's two predecessors reveals a steady forming of confidence in how to make games that feel and, more importantly, flow like this. With controls that propel the titular character seamlessly to impressive speed, and level design that facilitates such high speed without becoming too much of a straight line. Developers with higher budgets have been treading this line for years, and often fail to hit the peaks of this wondrous adventure.

High speed doesn't define Spark though, as a character and as a game. There's a lot of thought put into how each level fits into the overarching world. You're not just running through levels for the fun of it, these are genuine places that are inhabited by people. If you stray off the linear path to collect any of the colored coins scattered through each level, you'll find each area is fleshed out beyond the point of necessity. The story is surprisingly deep and moving for a game of this style, with twists and turns that call into question the world you've just blazed through. More than anything, Spark feels like a labor of love, and hopefully that love is reciprocated.

3. The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures (Dolphin)

It's easy to take for granted the emulation paradise we're currently experiencing. Nearly every console ever developed has at least some group of passionate hobbyists working to preserve that hardware and software library therein to players and developers for years to come. Even modern consoles like the Switch and PS4 have impressive emulation solutions right now, with undoubtedly more progress to be made in the coming years.

Most impressively, though, is Dolphin. A combined emulator of the GameCube and Wii consoles, Dolphin has been polished to a mirror's shine. Nearly every game worth playing on these two systems have been made fully compatible, with remaining loose ends being closed every day. If Dolphin closed up shop five years ago, it would still be among the most feature complete emulators to this day, but the continued progress is nothing short of inspiring.

No emulation experience has left me in awe more than when me and three other friends played Four Swords Adventures earlier this year. By linking Dolphin and another GBA emulator (mGBA), utilizing the built in Netplay features in Dolphin to connect to each other, and remapping our controls to better suit modern pads, we were able to play one of the most chaotic, insane, well paced, and ultimately fun co-op experiences Nintendo has ever made. While the original game was hampered by insane accessibility concerns (four GBAs for crying out loud!) and has not been ported officially to anything since, this emulation solution has blown the door open for future players to experience this multiplayer masterpiece well into the future.

2. Elden Ring (PC)

There was no doubt FromSoftware's latest game would hit this list, as it has and will do for the lists of thousands of gaming-obsessed wannabe writers over these past and future months. It's very concept left people in want - an open world Dark Souls game with the highest production values and development time in the Soulsborne semi-franchise. These games' following has progressed far beyond cult, as Elden Ring and its impact caused these games to hit the mainstream. Reverberations of which caused me and my friends to embark on our Souls experience in the preceding months. Along the journey, we fell in love with what was on offer - the world, the design, the challenge, the community, and the sense of achievement, specifically on my end, of finally putting a series that I always knew I would love solidly into one of my favorites.

All roads lead to May, when everyone I knew was either already playing or had just started playing Elden Ring. The experience of early Limgrave is something really special, and it remains my favorite part of the game. Truly no path in this early area is the wrong path. Each story and journey embarked is entirely unique to each of the millions of players. Open world games rarely get this unique part of their appeal; playing games like Spider-Man this year only reinforced this perspective. While each player is bounded to come across some of the same things, the pure scale and density of the world is something to behold, and to experience everything requires commitment and time.

But often, when beholding the monolith of something seemingly insurmountable, motivation is fleeting. Admittedly, after getting through Leyndell and conquering Morgott, I simply ran out of gas. It should have come as no surprise, given I had been gorging myself in Souls content for the preceding months and that Elden Ring on average takes around three times the hours to complete compared to the preceding titles. I took a three month long break from completing its remaining areas, in which even when I got there, I was struck by the quality difference between the early and end game. This is to take nothing away from what Elden Ring achieved, though, and the experience I had playing it. Ultimately, it's an experience I'm glad I had, particularly at the end of my Souls journey. But as the months went on, my experience with Elden Ring was not what stuck with me as the peak of my gaming year.

1. Bloodborne (PS4)

I bought a PS5 to play this game. I've owned Bloodborne for many years, with my first experience occurring in 2015. My time with the game was short, as very soon afterward I was whisked off to college without a PS4 to play with. But much like how the experience of trekking through the Undead Burg and Parish is still baked into my skull even years after first attempting it, I will never forget my first run through Central Yharnam. That packed alleyway full of damned locals wielding nothing but their bare fists and torches to light the way, dimly lit and dankly produced with the pronounced, overwhelming horror of a gothic town gone mad with sickness and death, remains the most striking opening to a Souls game FromSoft has ever made.

I didn't get much further than the Father Gascoigne fight before I stopped playing that first time, but something about those early hours kept drawing me back to Bloodborne. Even when I was pitch broke and jobless in college, I would frequently check for the price of PS4 Slims on Facebook Marketplace to see if I could get one for close to $100. While the PS4 has a great library, with tons of quality titles that I would like to play at some point, only one made me eventually pull the trigger when money was right.

And here I was, March of 2022, having bested Dark Souls 1 and 2 and becoming innately familiar with the Souls series, finally sitting in front of my obnoxiously high latency television that was stating the Bloodborne title screen. At last, I was ready to give this experience another crack. And of course, a master at gaming and gameplay that I am, I still got rocked at this same Central Yharnam graveyard. As I soon learned, knowledge of previous Souls games actually isn't that much of an advantage. You don't play Bloodborne like Dark Souls, a fact I was harshly reminded of going straight from DSII to BB to DSIII. It's been repeated to the point of chronic eye pain at this point, but the lack of shields in Bloodborne really makes a difference in how you trudge through it. This lack of instant defensive options combined with the regain system of getting back health upon hitting an enemy, the insane number of quality trick weapons at your disposal, and the complete lack of things like slow rolling and armor upgrades forces players to approach combat scenarios not so much as a studious, opportunistic Dark Souls player but as a ravenous hound, thirsty for carnage and blood vials.

Which, even in context of the game world, makes sense. You aren't a cursed undead trying to escape a rotten world by resetting the cycle of anguish, escaping this cruel engagement through wits rather than brawn. You're coming here. To this ruinous city on its most vile, violent occasion. The utter definition of eldritch, cosmic horror which unravels slowly and grotesquely as the game progresses. You, in your pride, come here to cure illness. And in your attempt, you find yourself adapting to match the furor and intensity of the beasts you fight in your path. Even if a cure can be found here (it can't), the sickness you receive in return can't be worth the trouble. Beasts all over the shop...

I usually don't think of games like this. I have what my goofy favorite YouTuber NakeyJakey calls goopy goblin gamer brain, a sickness which makes you compare every video game to Super Mario. Gameplay comes first and foremost; it doesn't really matter how it all comes together as long as the core is solid. So perhaps its because Bloodborne quite simply can't get out of my head months after completing it that puts it at the top of my list. The more I think about the experience in its totality, the more in awe I feel of it. Games like Bloodborne are not created by pure artistic competency or raw man hours put in. There needs to be a certain alignment of the moon and amygdala to have something so horrific and beautiful exist on our revolving hellfire.

My "New Year's Rockin' Wish" is for Bloodborne to release on PC, if for no other reason than for my friends to play it. They helped me get over the hurdles needed for me to enjoy this series, so they more than deserve to experience what I believe to be the crowning achievement of the FromSoftware catalog. But if Mark Sony hates God and mocks death as much as I think he does, he will continue restricting access of Bloodborne to a sub-30 FPS experience even on my $500 white rectangle. And for this, my gamer brainiacs, he will go to, and burn in, hell.

Thanks!!!!!!!!!!!

[rockingthegraveyard]

My Zelda replay list. Six down, four more to go!!

There is no real special order, just making my way through all the Zelda titles I own. Finished PH today so should probably take a little break before I start ST. My wrists are aching! But Zelda is always worth it, lol. 

Skyward Sword

Ocarina of Time

Majora’s Mask 

Twilight Princess 

Wind Waker 

Phantom Hourglass 

Spirit Tracks  couldn’t finish b/c the flute made me want to kms

Link’s Awakening 

A Link Between Worlds 

Breath of the Wild

Played the 3DS version of OoT and MM but I think my brother has the older ones downloaded on the WiiU so I might go back and replay them when I’m through. I had the Zelda Collection for the Gamecube but it’s not where it should be. I thought I leant it to my sister but she has no clue where it is either. Super bummed about it. If I get desperate enough I can just subscribe to Nintendo online for two weeks or w/e and just play OoT and MM on there. Maybe play Zelda I & II, though last time I did, didn’t work out well for me, lol. I was terrible at them. Link to the Past is on there too, never got the change to finish that before the game I had was ruined. So we’ll see. 

[bloobluebloo]

I want to play OOT SO bad, but the 3DS screen makes me sick, so in the meantime know I am very thoroughly enjoying your reactions with the very little context I have

NOOOOOO THAT SUCKS!!! The 3DS version is a very nice remaster too 😭

It’s been a very long time since I played OoT and its so weird how much of it I’ve forgotten since there was a point in my life where I could literally play this game with my eyes closed if I wanted to 😭✌️ What prompted me to replay actually was all the story discourse around TotK’s story trying to emulate OoT’s story. I felt the need to revisit it and re-experience it myself to make sure I wasn’t wearing rose-tinted glasses when thinking back to OoT. So far I think I’m right ahaha.

(Also OoT Link is pretty tall for a Link he’s not too far off of Ganondorf actually I guess I’ve gotten so used to BotW’s Link being a little guy ahaha)

[journalsouppe]

Ocarina of Time was my first ever journal entry, it also happens to be one of my all time favorite games. Sometime soon I hope to replay the game and give OOT and MM the proper journal entries and summaries because this truly doesn’t do them justice. I didn’t know how I was really going to structure my journals at this point so it’s very lacking in notes. Later on, I ended up writing two whole journal pages on my love for Sheik but honestly, I could write even more.

I love how even to this day my favorite songs from OOT are the short but beautiful duets Link and Sheik share. Ocarina and Majora’s were exactly the games I needed at such a rough period of my life and I will continue to be so grateful for them. <3

The stickers are all from a sticker book from Amazon. I will make a separate post in the future that will detail all the materials I use!

Writing typed below!

Rating: 9.7/10 Played: 2017 (3DS - HD) Watched: Spr 2022 (Keith Ballard (OG, WiiU)

Comments

I love Sheik so much

I really love the reveal of Link being a Hylian and not a Kokiri

FUCK DEADHAND.

Bongo Bongo is one of my favorite bosses. His lore theories are so fascinating

I love Zeltik's theory video on redeads

"Everybody Stalfos"

Hylian Ensemble <3

My favorite songs

Bolero of Fire

Prelude of Light

Saria's Song

Nocturne of Shadow

Song of Storms

Minuet of Forest

Serenade of Water

My summary: Ocarina of Time is easily one of my all time favorite games. Playing through it, I could not believe how old it is. Even the music is so incredible. The moments between Link and Sheik are filled with so much emotion and faith that I can't help to just watch in awe. I am so glad this was my first Zelda game and I will continue to love and appreciate it.

[talesfantastic]

Tell me about your fandom! (Legend of Zelda) Also, this isn't a fandom but I love nonfiction & I recommend Brene Brown's two podcasts if you don't listen already

(NOTE: I found this in my drafts, unposted, so I'm posting it now!)

Recommendation noted! Thank you!

So...

The Legend of Zelda

Baby Kat's first RPG, I do believe, was Ocarina of Time and I adored it. It was not my first "fandom" in the traditional sense of community and interaction (I had no idea about fandom at the time, that came later) but I was most definitely in love with the franchise. Next was Majora's Mask, which creeped me out omg. I loved it, but I can no longer play it through because the three day timer combined with having to go find a save point triggers anxiety. XD BUT, I played it... twice, I think? Once with my brother and once solo to prove I could. And really enjoyed it. I didn't actually pick up a new one until Twilight Princess, then another gap and Skyward Sword, and another gap before Breath of the Wild.

I really can't say I know the fandom end of it well though. Counting plotting with you, I have... one other person I rp in Zelda with, also in the OoT/MM era, and I really haven't been active on the fanfic front either. I do have several friends who enjoyed the games and we've talked about them (mostly BOTW), so that's really nice.

I would 10/10 recommend the games, though, and would like to do more with rping in it. And possibly fanfic, but I've got such a backlog and no burning stories that want told so probably not ficcing for a while.

Under the cut, some aimless rambling about the games I've played.

CONTAINS SPOILERS for: OOT, MM, TP, SS, and BOTW!

Ocarina of Time

Why I love it: I think I love the story and characters, first and foremost, but I also really like the plot device + game mechanic of time travel, that's one of my favorite tropes tbh? Even if it wasn't executed the way I usually aim for. (I also... fairly recently? in the past yearish? found out that it is not, in fact, required to be done linearly so I clearly have to replay one more time minimum just to test this.)

Who should play it: Anyone! It wasn't a horrendously challenging game, in my opinion, so it's not the problem some rpgs are, but it was fun and the graphics may not be up there with the most recent titles but the 3DS version was a really well done remake and I think people should really think twice about ignoring it because of the graphics; in context of video game history, that was groundbreaking. There are creepy parts the well THE WELL that surprisingly didn't hit me as as creepy as they are until I came back to it as an adult XD but still! If you can get your hands on it one way or another it's worth playing.

Majora's Mask

Why I love it: I think "love" is a little strong, but I definitely enjoyed it. The mask system was well done and intriguing, and it had a lot of moving parts and puzzles, even for a Zelda game.

Who should play it: as long as horror elements don't bother you, (it's definitely not a horror game but it's got some creepy bits) and you don't get anxiety over being timed, it should be good. You have three days to complete... everything, but you can do the three days over and over and over so there's that at least? It's got some really fantastic mechanics, interesting characters, and again, puzzles.

Twilight Princess

Why I love it: the characters are what make this game really stand out to me. There's brilliant designs, unique personalities and they all come together to support a pretty solid plot. It's also really pretty. I love the art style. I'd love to see it polished up a little bit with the modern abilities remake? REMAKE, but I wouldn't want them to change the feel of it, it's just really lovely.

Who should play it: both fans of motion sensing (there is a Wiimote version) and people who prefer a straight out controller will be happy here. I, personally, preferred the controller version by far. It's a fantastic story in my opinion with a lot of memorable characters. It also reveals a very important part in Zelda history.

Skyward Sword

Why I love it: I really enjoyed the art style, the storyline / glimpse of where things all began is fascinating to me even if they could have gone back further. It's immediate fic fodder, though admittedly I have not followed through due to other stories in progress already. (Didn't care for the anxiety-inducing timed sections though.)

Who should play it: you could read the wikis or Hyrule Historia, maybe even watch a Let's Play - all of these are valid and even advisable options to those who for whatever reason can't play the game (money, motion controls, anxiety over timers etc) then those are great options! That said, if you can handle this it's a really neat game full of unique art and a fascinating story line. I'd advise going in blank if you can - don't research ahead of time.

Breath of the Wild

Why I love it: Open world Zelda. I think I squeed when I heard that. Being completely honest, I found the lack of the traditionally seemingly linear story initially intimidating but once I'd started to get to know the world and mechanics, I began to catch my stride and I really enjoyed the game! Not so much the ending boss battle that, cutscenes counted, took me over 20 mins, but the rest of it yay! Honestly I even just liked messing around exploring the world and locating shrines. Didn't care for having a "your weapons break" mechanic without an additional "you can repair / smith new ones" though.

Who should play it: anyone who likes Zelda and also open world RPGs. It had a main story, of course, but there was so much interesting lore scattered about in side quests. Now, I haven't (yet) played Tears of the Kingdom but I am excited for it. And might play BOTW again because I loved it and it's worth the time and effort.

So yeah I recommend all of them, if with a few small caveats. Great games - great series! - and there are plenty more I want to play. (Special note for Minish Cap, which I keep meaning to play.)

[zachsgamejournal]

COMPLETED: The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Best Zelda ever? For me, it's going to be hard to play anything else.

BEST OF THE BEST

Ocarina of Time is my favorite Zelda. I haven't played them all, but I doubt this one will be replaced. Mostly because it feels like the original fo the 3D adventures, not just for Zelda, but also all 3D action-adventure games (though my replay of Mario 64 showed that many bosses and ideas in OoT were first explored in Mario). I've played a little of Twilight Princess and Windwaker. Those games have obviously made improvements but it still feels OoT inspired. Of course, playing Link to the Past and the original Legend of Zelda, I can see that many of the gameplay mechanics and themes were presente early on, if not from the beginning. So OoT's higher ranking is likely due to my preference for 3D adventures and the fact it was the first Zelda game I truly played through and beat.

Before playing through Breath of the Wild, I had become much more exposed to classic Zelda titles. I hadn't yet played Skyward Sword. I remember texting a friend that Breath of the Wild felt like a mix of Skyrim (which I love) and Metal Gear solid 5 (which I also love). While I totally think Breath of the Wild was the logical next step and fulfillment of the promises previous Zelda games had made, it still didn't feel like it was a unique Zelda. The names and locations were all there, as well as familiar gameplay items like bombs. But it didn't feel unique to the other open-world games around it. It didn't feel uniquely Zelda. It was the right move, and a great game (my second favorite Zelda at the time).

But as much as Breath of the Wild was fully embracing the open-world spirit of previous entries, Tears of the Kingdom does the same while embracing the Zelda-ness of the series. This makes Breath of the Wild look like an extremely polished prototype for Tears of the Kingdom. It'll be hard for me to ever admit Ocarina of Time's defeat--but I think I have to consider Tears of the Kingdom the best Zelda game ever made (that I've played).

SKYWARD SWORD

My wife loves Skyward Sword. I don't. I enjoy the early areas in the town, but the combat is annoyingly cumbersome due to the motion controls. The story wasn't very impressive. Zelda needs rescuing, blah, blah, blah. There's a great evil, blah, blah, blah. Link is the only one that can save us, blah, blah, blah. I was really annoyed that this game was meant to be the "beginning" of the timeline, but it also references older civilizations and mysteries that are never revealed. I guess it's hard to have a Zelda game without ancient ruins...so whatever.

The reason this matters is because Tears of the Kingdom seems to directly reference Skyward Sword in many ways. Which will get to. But obviously, floating islands. But all the references (story, themes, gameplay) interested my wife (way more than Breath of the Wild ever could) while giving meaning to those things that left me unsatisfied in my Skyward Sword playthroughs.

STARTING A NEW ADVENTURE

I wasn't super excited to play Tears of the Kingdom, as it looked like more Breath of the Wild with floating islands, but I'm glad we got it. It was way more than what I was expecting and after dozens of hours, I constantly felt like I was discovering something new.

The game starts with h Link and Zelda discovering a creepy mummy under Hyrule castle. I wasn't sure who this was at first because it didn't seem related to the Ganon of Breath of the Wild. It seems Calamity Ganon of BotW was just leaking essence from the true Ganon (Ganondorf) held captive under the castle. Zelda falls and is warped back in time while Link finds himself on a floating island. This is the Upheaval. A bunch of floating islands appear while huge chasms appear on the surface. I'm not quite sure where the islands came from, but it's clear that they are the ruins of a long lost civilization.

From what I remember of Breath of the Wild, Zelda is a passive character trapped in the castle. I guess her essence is keeping Ganon at bay. But what we see of her is through flashbacks. Flashbacks that made the past storyline of the Age of Calamity 100 times more interesting than the Breath of the Wild story/plot. Since Zelda is in the past, much of her part of the story is still told through flashbacks. But unlike BotW, Zelda's actions in the past are very active. And as we learn, she directly impacts the present time. BotW just showed us how hard Zelda worked and her doubts before failing. Sadly, no Zelda has brought us OoT Zelda who is both active throughout the game and a total badass. Tears gets close though. Very close.

Being on the opening flying island felt very Skyward Sword. It was also impressive to see how they were able to render all the floating islands while showing a lot of detail in the ground-level world. I mean, we're on the PS5 and the Switch is more comparable to the PS3, so to see it handle huge world is impressive. Clearly, they've worked hard to optimize the tech. And the game looks better than BotW

NEW ABILITIES

BotW gave the player some interesting abilities. Not super interesting, but kinda interesting. Two of those abilities were just bombs. Handy, but unexciting for the most part. and then there was a magnetic manipulation of objects that I mostly used to find treasure chests. Then there was stasis, which allowed people to cheat in interesting ways, and the ice ability. They were used in some interesting ways, but I didn't feel inspired to explore them very much.

At first, when I learned we wouldn't be getting these abilities back, I felt annoyed. But then I learned that these abilities are better, and the game had plenty of tricks to not just make up for lost abilities, but to go beyond their limitations.

The first ability is fuse. You can fuse almost any item. These means putting apples on a word, mushrooms on a shield, or moblin guts on an arrow. (You can also throw almost any item from your inventory.) At first I didn't think too much about fusing. Mostly I just fused rocks to swords so I could mine and break down barriers. But then I learned I could fuse materials and robot parts to make powerful weapons. This fixes the WORST part of BotW, weapons breaking. Even though weapons still break in TotK, but since you can pick up almost any garbage weapon and fuse it to a powerful material, it's really easy to replace your powerful weapons. In BotW, I rarely used my strongest weapons cause I wanted to save them for when I "needed" them, but I didn't have that anxiety (as much) in TotK cause I could keep making replacements. also consider the hammer: good for mining but not fighitng, yet it wasted inventory space. Now I can make any weapon a mining hammer when needed, and then switch it back later.

Next, is the Superhand ability, or something, I don't know. It first replaces the magnetic hand of BotW. But instead of being limited to metal objects, you can pick up almost anything--including tree trunks, wooden boxes, bombs, and various other things. While this makes that BotW skill more useful, it's true purpose is to allow the fusing of objects together. You can fuse tree trunks together to make a bridge. Or wagon wheels to a wooden plank to make a weapon.

But this really breaks out when you start building Zonai devices. See, there was an ancient culture known as Zonai that developed advanced technology. They seem separate from the Shiekah, who are also advanced, and they supposedly descended from the sky. BotW supposedly referenced them. At first you get basic things, like putting a fan on minecart to make it move. But then you can start building rocket ships and offroad vehicles. The game lets you collect these as items to be used whenever, but they also provide pieces just lying around.

It's through these devices that the game started to feel like a Zelda game. You're encouraged to be creative and make wild creations. And the wild creations that people have made are very inspired. I even saw someone make a functioning Metal Gear Rex. I have spent hours exploring different ways to make crazy contractions and solve puzzles in unconventional ways. Never once did I feel bored.

There's also a rewind ability. I think there's a few puzzles it's meant to solve, but mostly if just fixes mistakes. And there's the ascend ability. This mostly helps the player get to the top of structures and mountains without too much fuss. You can explore an underground cavern, and instead of looking for the way out, just ascend to the surface. It's useful but not as exciting as fusing objects.

The bomb and ice abilities are gone. But you can easily amass bomb-flowers that grow in the caves. You can throw these or attach to arrows for powerful attacks or strip mining. You can also attach fire fruit to arrows to make fire arrows or throw them to burn away thorns. Also, you can throw frost-fruits into the water to make ice platforms. Then you can meld those together to make ice bridges. There's so many cool ways to use items you pick up, either for exploring, puzzle solving, battling, or just to entertain yourself.

Being able to throw and fuse items brings a creative wackiness to the game that felt missing from Breath of the Wild, and makes Tears of the Kingdom feel much more Zelda-like and unique from other open-world action adventures (like Skyrim).

This is taking a long time to write and I need to move on with my life.

The point is: I love this game. It would be my favorite Zelda if Ocarina wasn't so important to me.

[alwek]

Just finished my (casual) 100% (as in only did quests and upgrades) of botw and now I'm on to finishing up my playthrough of oot. I'm half way done already, then twilight princess for the first time in years (on purpose) and (almost) finally playing mm for the first time. I know near nothing about the game save for a couple thing i did when i was 4 and some footage from docu series.

I'm very excited to replay all the main line 3d zeldas. Also be nice to find ww any time soon. Never played that one either, very eager to.

So far the experience is amazing. Ss was the start point, and playing itnon switch was VASTLY better. I cried twice in botw from the dlc ending and the main ending. Im proud to say this was a formative series for me. One of the few consistencies of my life. Bless this series and all those who help it be created. I wish someday to make something so impactful

[timbrrwolfe]

Just a little mainline Zelda game tier list. Figured I'd make it now for posterity as I intend to (eventually, at some point) play through more of the series, and I wanted to have a record of where stuff stood in my mind before playing. TL;DR I have a bias for both 2D zeldas and newer games in general. Longer explanations under the cut for anybody who wants to read my ramblings

The Oracles games are my favorites, with Ages being one of the first games I ever beat, especially without cheating (though I did use a game guide. Miss those things, honestly. Online walkthroughs just aren't the same). Breath of the Wild does a lot of things right but there are some things that very much annoy me (weapon degradation being the main issue that some of the other issues kind of have their roots in), but overall it's a pretty good time. Ignore that I'm technically about halfway through it and still want to finish it before Tears of the Kingdom comes out even though I don't expect to get that right away (because money). Link to the Past is the only other one I've actually played at length, and despite never finishing it, it was a pretty good time. I don't know if it's a good or bad thing that I played the GBA port. Just not quite as good as the others, though it's been a few years since I played it so maybe I'll replay it before I redo the tier list. TotK does look interesting, and while it still keeps the weapon degradation it's got some stuff to mitigate that (hopefully), so I'm definitely interested in getting it. Link Between Worlds is very much on my radar but that's gonna require me to pick up (ideally) a New 3DS/XL(LL) since my own 3DS XL broke years back and I missed it at the time. Minish Cap has been on my list for a while, and I even played a little bit of it but got distracted and haven't gone back to it. Still, I expect if I give it a proper chance I'll enjoy it, and I intend to do that some point soon. Link to the Past I also wanna get to, though I'm not sure which version I'll do. Maybe I'll get the Switch version and play through the OG first to see how it compares.

Windwaker honestly probably should be in the middle haven't played tier, on further reflection. I haven't played it but honestly I've seen a lot of it played so I don't think it would hold my attention to play through it myself. Also it seems like a refinement of OoT and MM which is both good and bad. Twilight Princess through Spirit Tracks I don't know a ton about but what I've seen of gameplay or heard about them haven't really appealed much to me. The Four Swords Adventures games I basically know nothing about, and Triforce Quest I know even less about.

It's a bit disingenuous to say I haven't played some of the games in the final tier, but I definitely haven't put much time into them. I gave OoT something like 20 minutes years after it's initial release but I think I missed the boat on how stunning it was to have huge 3D environments after years of smaller 2D games. So without that aspect of spectacle the gameplay didn't grab me much in the short time I spent with it. Maybe if I had played it alongside, for instance, Banjo Tooie, I'd feel differently about it (since I enjoy Banjo Tooie a lot despite being similar games outside of the tones and details) Majora's Mask is basically just more of Ocarina of Time, with a more sinister atmosphere. So, similar issues, with the added obstacle for me in that it's a game with a countdown, which give me hives. I've also seen at least parts of these games played so it's not like I have 0 idea what they're like. Having said that I'm not completely closed off to the idea of playing certain versions of the games. (Unofficial PC port of OoT, 3DS remakes of both) Zelda 2 I gave about 10 minutes, had no idea what i was supposed to be doing, and never went back to it. The OG is a similar story. Plus, as I said, I am very biased against older games in general. I don't play games to overcome difficulty (if it's fun I'll push through a challenge until I beat it but a lot of older games are hard without being fun. So.)

Just my personal thoughts on the series. I like certain kinds of things and not other things.