#a different art style and setting and a new link and zelda and all that

[themoonking]

i know totk just came out, and i myself literally just finished it an hour ago, but that post credits scene has me thinking about what the next zelda game will be like. will it be another breath of the wild sequel or is it time for another reboot? if it’s another botw sequel, what’s next?

[not-freyja]

New Zelda Game!

Okay cool, cool cool cool cool, I am calm, I am so fucking calm. Looks like Nintendo is staying true to their word that Wild is not getting another game, so now the questions are, what Link is this, where are we in the Timeline, and what information about the game itself can we pick out of these crumbs?

Whose Zelda is it anyway?

So two options:

New boy.

Legend. It’s fucking Legend again sucks to suck bro

Case for new Link and Zelda:

Less messy for the Lore

That’s it, that is the only argument

Case for Leggy boy and Fable:

LA animation style! While it can be fun to bring back older styles of animation for nostalgia/artistic reasons, that seems like a poor choice for *LOZ* games, which are always on the edge of what a game can do. Moving “backwards,” so to speak, in any aspect, would be a disservice to the franchise. However, doing it to maintain consistency for a particular character, and to use the animation style to make sure the audience knows this is the same character from LA is a very simple but effective tactic.

The map! So that shot was so BOTW and so fun, but the view we got wasn’t just recognizable as “Hyrule,” is was, down to the relative heights on the mountain cliffs against each other, the map from ALTTP/ALBW. Nintendo has never repeated a map without it being the same Link. So! Checkmate motherfuckers.

The character designs. That… that was just Legend and Fable, come on. Look at the dress. Every Zelda has a slightly different costume design, and that was hers. Look at Link. Baby boy!

I want this. Let me have it.

Timeline positioning

Okay so if we assume that this is in fact Legend, the next question becomes, “When is it?” Leggy boy currently has 5 games that are canonically his. (Triforce Heroes could be a random other Link, so while we like to say 6 we can’t *prove it.*) So. Let’s break it down.

ALTTP: canonically his first game, can’t be before this one.

Oracles: canonically happen after ALTTP, and he is very much still a child in here.

LA: the game this one is artistically modeled after. Narratively this fits nicely right after Oracles, and in the canon timeline, fits between Oracles and ALBW, so I think a whole new game being crowbarred prior to this one would be… not great for the narrative.

ALBW: This is trickier. No canon time between LA and ALBW is given, it could be a week, it could be years. It is entirely possible that Echoes of Wisdom occurs prior to ALBW, which would make it a direct sequel to LA, which makes the art style make even more sense. It could also be after?

…hang on a fucking minute, lets get the fucking map.

Left, ALTTP. Right, ALBW

Basically the same map! Duh, it’s the same Hyrule. But. BUT. Bottom right, in the lake. Do you see that?!

ALTTP: no log bridge. ALBW: Log bridge. Now, let’s look at the pretty picture from the EOW trailer.

NO FUCKING LOG BRIDGE!

This is before ALBW. Therefore, the game order for The Hero of Legend is

ALTTP, OOS, OOA, LA, EOW, ALBW, TH(maybe)

*cue manic laughter*

Lore Implications

Ganon.

There being a Ganon at all actually has me pointing my finger at the Oracle games and screaming. The TL;DR in those is that there was a plot to resurrect Ganon, each game Twinrova gets closer, but Link stops them. Now, there were also supposed to be three of those games, which means that it is entirely possible that the third unseen Oracle plot—please Nintendo let Link and Farore hang out, I am on my knees barking like a dog—could have resulted in his resurrection. This is the only explanation I have that doesn’t break the Lore or involve Time Shenanigans.

Also, Link does KO the bitch in that opening scene in the trailer. His presence is either just that—a set-up plot point—or him and Link are currently duking it out in the hole. Fun!

Link and Zelda

Now this game is going to put their relationship in the front in the “I have to save them because I love them” way that we usually see from Link’s POV.

Getting it from Zelda’s POV is going to be very interesting. We might be getting a look into her head, into her feelings and thoughts about the whole ordeal of the Legend itself. I hope so. But also, this isn’t just Link and Zelda, this is *Fable and Legend* specifically. The two that were meant to be be siblings but the dialogue that established them as such was cut from the final version of ALTTP. So. This game has the possibility to do three things

Canonize the Prince Legend thing, like they were going to do in the nineties.

Not address the topic at all, leave it nebulous.

Zelink.

None of these are bad choices, but option two is definitely the safest. Both options one and three will cause an uproar from part of the fan base. I can already see the ship wars. Please don’t do this people. Please.

The Holes 🕳️

What are they? Where did they come from? Ganon’s Trident Where do they go? No actually, where do they go? The Dark World (doesn’t make sense in the Lore)? Lorule (that would be a choice)? The Twilight Realm (I am convinced that Lorule and the Twilight Realm are the same place actually and you cannot change my mind)? Some new never seen before parallel dimension? A non-place, like a gap between realities (sexiest option)? I have no idea!

Fun!

That fucking “Fairy”

Tri? Don’t trust it. Will not trust it. Never trust that a companion in a LOZ game is what they first appear to be. Who does Nintendo take me for? A fucking amateur?!

Anyway, I am about 40% convinced that’s Link. I have evidence, but it is circumstantial.

I AM HANDLING THIS NORMALLY.

[theecholegend]

Ok ok ok ok… but, like, where in the timeline is this new LOZ game gonna take place? The style is obviously the same one they used for the Link’s awakening remake and I’ve seen someone point out that the map is similar to ALTTP meaning…

IS MY BOY GETTING KIDNAPPED?!?! IS HE THE DAMSEL IN DISTRESS?!?! Does his Zelda (and in some headcannons: his sister) have to save his booty this time?! Though, for now we have no idea what Link is actually doing while Zelda is kicking arse.

Or maybe I’m wrong and this takes place in a completely different timeline. Maybe it doesn’t take place in the official timeline at all, who knows.

anyways, I am very angry at Nintendo. First the lego set and now THIS?! I’M GONNA BE BROKE HALP ME!!!

art by @/linkeduniverse

[loz-furbies]

Oracle of Ages & Seasons Zelda

Nintendo can't make up their mind if the Oracles Link is the same one from ALttP or not and I suppose the same applies to Zelda. Personally I think that sure, let's give ALttP Link more adventures, but if I were to draw a compilation of all individual Zeldas I'd probably make ALttP and Oracles Zeldas separate characters since they have different enough designs. In the end I don't think it matters though and I seriously don't believe Nintendo cares either.

I played Ages first so this is based on her presence in Seasons linked game, not sure how different it is to the Ages counterpart.

Design

Speaking of character design, this is yet another time for me to bitch about the promo art and sprite not matching (fear not this will end soon as we move away from the pixel games). But seriously, why give her cute hair buns in the sprite if you're not going to use them! And more importantly that would be a unique Zelda design at least, because her actual look is one of my least favourites in the franchise. Like sure she's perfectly cute and there's nothing particularly stupid about the design either, but it's just so derivative. This is just the adult OoT Zelda design except in a younger art style and ALttP Zelda's cape. It's not an interesting or memorable look, and it also makes it harder for me to decide if this is a new character or not (and how to draw her). Like looks-wise it's clearly a different girl, but since there's grounds for the Oracle games to be ALttP sequels it's just so confusing.

Alright, moving on!

Character

This time Zelda does get a moment of being a bit more assertive than usual. She's told to stay safe during a crisis, but instead she shouts that she's going anyway and runs off to give a rousing speech to the villagers. But for the most part there's not much to Zelda outside her typical shtick of being the nice princess who gives exposition.

In the end credits we see every character once more, but Zelda's part is just that she looks at the stars alone at her castle while smiling happily, and while she looks cute, I don't get a lot out of that.

Role in the story

Story-wise Zelda doesn't get to do much. She's the one who sent help to foreign lands after she saw a vision of their downfall, so she takes a very active part in that, but it's all offscreen and ultimately her plan to evacuate the oracles doesn't even work. She then comes to visit herself, and her most notable contribution is to encourage the villagers. And sure I can take that, it's set up reasonably well that she becomes a symbol of hope to them (for GBC storytelling standards at least).

In the grand finale she gets kidnapped as usual, this time so that she can be sacrificed to revive Ganon, and there's nothing interesting to that.

Relationships

Aside from the character design, the biggest reason to consider that the Oracle games are not an ALttP sequel is that Zelda doesn't appear to recognise Link at all and introduces herself as if it was the first time they met. I'm willing to chalk this off as video game jank and it's more of an introduction to the player (for example Impa and the animal companions who you meet in both Ages and Seasons also don't appear to recognise Link in the second game you play in a linked game). I think it also makes more sense for Link to be the friend of the royal family since the game starts with him just sauntering to the Triforce unimpeded.

Not that it makes much difference because Zelda and Link don't have much of a relationship, even if Zelda spends most of the game not being kidnapped this time. However the game does end with Zelda giving a little kiss to him (and him getting all lovestruck about it), and I think it's cuter if they have some history together already.

Impa is also in the game, but she and Zelda don't have much to do together outside the standard princess-and-caretaker stuff. Zelda doesn't get any meaningful interaction with Din or Nayru either.

[journalsouppe]

Casltevania (NES)!! Omg i loved this game so much, but that shouldn't be surprising since The Adventure of Link is my fourth favorite TLOZ game ahdjfskl

I wanted to test the waters with the series early but plan to actually start my playthrough once I finish my Zelda journal which will be sometime this year. I also want to try a new journaling style with using fountain pen art but I'm still experimenting with pens and the style itself so don't expect spreads to look like this in the future lmao

The journal is from Copticore on Etsy!! I also made a post reviewing the journal (it's one of my favorites that I own ^-^)

Writing typed below!

Rating: 8.5 Played: Fa 2023 Port: Steam, Anniversary Edition Language: English

Comments:

LOVE the music

hehe pot roast

really enjoying the gameplay

i have no idea why the chest spawned in stage 5

evil that I cannot set an item to a button and have to press up plus whip

it's always the damn flying enemies T^T

trying to understand the family tree/timeline

these environments fuck!!! T^T <3

I really like both of simon's designs

love the stained glass with medusa

i like how simon and the early belmonts have an iconic walk

(switched to energel due to dip ink bleed)

the pride of frankenstein sounds so cool

the grim reaper hallway is so long T_T_T

NOT THE MEDUSA HEADS T-T-T-T

DAMN THE HOLY WATER DESTROYED IGOR AND FRANKENSTEIN'S MONSTER

i forgot hearts are tied to items T_T

death is so hard T_T

really loved the video that went over the history of this game's speed runs

THE COGS ROOM IS SO COOL

oooo i like how similar the thunderbird and dracula boss fights are

omfg dracula's head in the floor

DRACULA'S DEMON FORM IS CRAZY LOOKING

i can't express enough how much i love the ost - I bought i vinyl of it ^^;

CHRISTOPHER BEE, BELO LUGOSI, BORIS KARLOFFICE, LOVE CHANEY JR... SCREAMING T^T <3<3

absolutely love this game so much

Summary:

To start: I am still figuring out a journaling style so all my early spreads will be a little rough. That being said, I love this game so soosossososo much. This is everything my little universal horror heart could ever want. I knew I'd enjoy the gameplay since I really loved the gameplay of TAOL but the monsters and level design and music just made me have even more fun than i was expecting. The game is very straight forward and nowhere near as cryptic as TAOL, both are very charming but at least you can play castlevania without a guide. The environment designs are unbelievably gorgeous. I would love to draw them someday. I really liked not only Simon but his mechanics. He has a slow, burly gait and wields a whip-- very different from Joust moving link with his sword (joust the game). It ensures you aim your whip properly as enemies have to maintain contact with the end of the whip. The boss fights were also diverse design and attack wise, it was nice trying to figure out new strategies. I loved so much about this game, I just gave it an 8.5 since there's no major story. However, I love that this game was a catalyst for the whole series plus anime adaptations. I am sooo excited to play more of the series, esp Super Castlevania IV!

[dogshit-enchantment]

Finally got around to watching the trailer for the new Zelda game and man. It's fucking bad. Off the bat I'm really annoyed with the art style, the Links Adventure DX or whatever sold poorly so I can't imagine this will do any favors. And the art direction for the new content just looks completely uninspired. They're reusing old designs wholesale (dampe and volvagia come to mind) and it all feels completely disconnected.

And the concept for the core mechanics piss me off. Why can't Zelda do combat???? Like, I'm not even talking sword combat I mean magic and long range combat. Canonically she can wield a bow (Twilight princess, wind waker, botw, albw, etc), a sword (Twilight princess), and magic (every fucking game) so why can't she IN THE GAME WHERE SHES THE PROTAG??? Even in smash bros she can fight just fine!!! It would've required figuring out different ways to make her style of combat shine but fuck. This is just lazy and misogynistic. The only way she's ALLOWED to do combat is by cosplaying as Link. WHY NOT JUST HAVE HIM BE THE PROTAG THEN?? They could've given her the three goddesses powers as cool weapons, they could've just given her magic to cast with her staff, they could've given her a spell book!! But nope! Instead they gave her a shitty crafting system no one asked for and a shitty sword that I can already see myself hating if I ever forked over the *60 fucking dollars* for this mobile game looking ass junk

not only that but to have a game mostly devoid of combat, you then limit what the players can do and usually not in a good challenging way. I recently played though Four Swords Adventures and while the game isn't hard it is primarily a puzzle game since the combat is very simple. That game became a slog by the end. It was extremely boring having the same puzzles over but then when they would introduce harder puzzles they weren't set up correctly resulting in frustration and having to resort to a guide. I can see this game having a similar difficulty spike if it's primary puzzles and hastily thrown together. (Both games share the idea of boring assets wholesale, being primarily logic puzzle based rather than skill puzzle based, and having extremely simple combat due to limitations)

And all of that would suck shit but even more than all of that, the design language used on the promo art pisses me off. LINK IS A BIGGER PORTION OF THE PROMO ART THAN ZELDA. ON HER OWN FUCKING GAME. SHES NOT EVEN ALLOWED TO BE THE MAIN FOCUS OF HER OWN PROMO ART!!!!!!

This may be controversial but the fucking CDI games did a better job of giving Zelda the spotlight and making her look and act cool. Those games suck shit but at least it's a 95/5 split of Zelda/Link focus, rather than 55/45 like how this feels.

They really can't stop doing Zelda dirty. Someone needs to save her from her fucking IP owners

[nintendeez]

Playing Classic Games in HD Shouldn’t Be a Crime

In the realm of video games, there exists a tapestry woven from threads of innovation and nostalgia. One such golden thread is ‘The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time’, a game released in 1998 for Nintendo 64 that set new standards in the adventure genre. It introduced us to a three-dimensional Hyrule full of mystery, danger, and intrigue — all to be solved and resolved by our hero Link as he wielded his trusty Master Sword against evil forces.

The Nintendo 3DS version, which came out in 2011, enhanced this masterpiece even further by adding sharp visuals through its enhanced graphics and improved controls optimized for the handheld console. Now, thanks to dedicated gamers and technological advancements, the 3DS version of ‘Ocarina of Time’ can now be experienced in all its glory on personal computers via emulation software.

Emulators allow players to run console or arcade games on their PC or mobile device. For example, if you wanted to relive your childhood memories playing SNES classics like Super Mario World but don’t have access to that system anymore, you could download an emulator onto your PC and play those same games without needing the actual hardware. Emulating ‘Ocarina of Time’ on PC opens up possibilities beyond what was originally available on either the N64 or 3DS platforms.

These enhancements include upscaled textures and shaders to give the game a crisp, modern look while still retaining its original art style. Think of it as applying a fresh coat of paint to a timeless piece of artwork; it enhances the overall experience without compromising its essence.

To put into perspective just how much of a difference these modifications make, consider that the native resolution of the Nintendo 3DS version of ‘Ocarina of Time’ is only 400x240 pixels. By comparison, most modern PC monitors support resolutions well above Full HD (1080p), with many supporting Ultra HD (4K) resolution. The leading texture pack project for Ocarina of Time 3D brings the internal resolution of the emulated game up to these lofty heights, while adding shader support via ReShade post-processing effects.

As mentioned before, emulators allow users to play console games on their computers. However, in order to do so legally, one must first obtain a ROM of the game they wish to play — which can prove challenging due to copyright laws surrounding intellectual property. This is where things become murky; downloading a ROM of a game you already own isn’t necessarily illegal, but distributing said ROMs certainly is. So while this option may seem appealing to some, it’s important to understand the complexities involved before diving headfirst into the world of PC emulation. The average user will bear no responsibility for a ROM downloaded from an online repository, but if the same user were to acquire the ROM via torrent file sharing, there is the very real possibility that they will receive a strongly worded warning letter from their Internet Service Provider, or possibly worse.

If you choose to proceed with caution and respect both the developer’s wishes and the specific (and well litigated) limits imposed by copyright law, however, you will be rewarded with an unparalleled gaming experience. Using texture packs and emulator upscaling, these games can often look better than ever before, surpassing even the official HD remasters released for subsequent systems.

In the case of Ocarina, every leaf on every tree, every crack in the stone walls, and every stitch in Link’s green tunic comes alive with newfound clarity and detail. It’s almost as though time itself has stood still since 1998, allowing us to revisit Hyrule in ways we never thought possible.

When compared directly side-by-side-by-side, the differences between the three versions of Ocarina of Time are easy to see. While the original hardware undoubtedly holds a special place in our hearts, there is something truly magical about seeing this iconic title running at the native resolution of a modern PC. The combination of increased performance, higher frame rates, and expanded color palettes makes for a far more immersive and enjoyable journey through the land of Hyrule than was ever achievable when playing on the Nintendo 3DS.

In conclusion, despite the legal gray areas surrounding the use of ROMs, there is little doubt that using a PC emulator to play games like The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time is worth the effort. Whether you are seeking to relive fond childhood memories or simply want to discover what all the fuss was about back in 1998, emulating with texture packs on PC provides an unrivaled opportunity to experience these timeless classics in a whole new light. Just remember to exercise caution when acquiring your ROM, and always respect the wishes of the developers who poured their souls into creating all of our beloved classic games.

[themovieblogonline]

The Super Mario Bros Movie Soars

The Super Mario Bros. Movie is a collaboration between global entertainment brands Illumination and Nintendo, bringing the beloved Super Mario games to the big screen. The film follows Brooklyn plumbers Mario and Luigi. The Super Mario Bros. are transported to a magical new world through a mysterious pipe while fixing a water main. Mario sets out on a quest to find his brother, with the help of Toad and Princess Peach, and discovers his own power along the way. Starring Chris Pratt and Charlie Day as the iconic brothers, along with Keegan-Michael Key and Anya Taylor-Joy, The Super Mario Bros. Movie promises to take audiences on a thrilling and action-packed adventure in a new and vibrant universe created specifically for the film. The Good Things About Super Mario Bros.: I absolutely loved The Super Mario Bros. Movie. The animation was incredible, and it perfectly captured the Nintendo style of art and translated it into a movie. The characters from the different Super Mario games are seamlessly blended together. It's great to see Koopa's, Lakitu, Shy Guys, and Donkey Kong all on the big screen. I particularly enjoyed Bowser, who really stole the show with his cheesy but fun villainous antics. Bowser starts off really menacing and scary but we see that there are many different sides to Bowser. The voice acting was also fantastic. While Chris Pratt as Mario's voice acting was great, I thought the other voice actors Like Charlie Day and Jack Black were even better and perfectly fitting for their roles. Anya Taylor-Joy is great as Princess Toadstool and overall I feel like the entire cast is a perfect fit for their roles. I never questioned the sound of their voices even though my inner child had already assigned voices in my head. The story was good enough to keep me engaged throughout the movie. I especially appreciated the way it intentionally tried to appeal to both kids and promote nostalgia in adults. I feel like the pacing was a bit fast. Certain things happen in the story a lot faster than I expect, but it works for what the movie is trying to do. The Princess agrees to work with Mario lightning-fast! It could be because she's attracted to him but it's not super obvious. Bowser's desire to marry the princess lines up with the old stories of the 80s. I thought it was a nice nod to the original source material to keep this attraction in tact. I think the Super Mario Bros. movie is perfect for its target audience, which is mainly children. The Bad Things About Super Mario Bros.: Additionally, I thought it was a missed opportunity for Mario not to use a fire flower. I would have been over the moon if he had, but instead, the movie doesn't deliver. But seriously the critique of this movie is that there are some adult issues that are hinted at but not heavily explored. They're not critical considering what actually happens in the movie but it does feel like a missed opportunity. Overall: In summary, The Super Mario Bros. Movie was a very fun movie that I think is incredibly watchable and rewatchable. I can't wait to see Super Mario Bros. again. The movie needs a second viewing in order to do a proper Easter egg hunt. I saw the various punch-out nods, but I know there are a lot more that I missed. Seeing the kids' reactions in the theater and my own kids' reactions made the experience even more enjoyable. My only real nitpick is that there was no Zelda Easter egg! While this isn’t a knock against the movie, I would have loved to see Link, the Master Sword, or Ganondorf make a cameo. I highly recommend this movie to anyone who loves the Mario games or just wants to enjoy a fun, action-packed comedy. Read the full article

[afterartist]

Have a headcannon dump of a LU!centaur Au that’s been cycling in my brain for a week, I’m quite possibly going to write a fic/do more art,

You’re free to leave ideas or suggestions for this Au as well

(Wild doodle to go with at the end)

•–•Au Basics:

-this is heavily based off the @linkeduniverse Au by @jojo56830

Basically it’s the same but every character (even side characters but they’re not important) are Centaurian, this is finicky and involves things like Cervitaurs, mermaids and whatnot,

This is hevily based on living conditions and most races are born with natural legs, ie; hylians are born with two hylian legs, and their secondary legs will grow in around the age of four depending on the food and lifestyle they’ve had until then, the secondary traits are usually set in by the age of six where they will no longer have their original legs.

—-

Now the headcannons (this is just the links cause idk much about the Zelda’s so I have to do more research)

—-

•–Time•

- The old man is a Stag, no I will not take criticism on this

Time started off his journey a young deer cervitaur, barely grown into his fawn limbs before coming into contact with Fi,

Deer are often seen as prey animals and weak, but we all know Time is seen as the leader for a reason,

My man got mad strong horns and has kicked, impaled and stomped on more Moblins then any sane person should, while deers are often seen as weak you would have to be blind, deaf, three years old and an idiot to think Time any less then the powerful stag that would lay his life down for his family

-

•–Sky•

-Loftwing… kind of a no brainer for this one

Oh yeah, our sleepy king has butt wings and you can’t stop me,

Sky was literally found in a Loftwing nest and the majority of Skyloft secretly think he’s a Hylian Centaur instead of the other way around,

Learning to fly was the literal worst, his wings took a few more years to fully develop so he got to flying later then most, the fact that his wings sit at an awkward place on the base between his hylian torso and his Skywing back doesn’t help that fact

Yes he’s still perfected the art of flying while asleep, not even other Loftwing hybrids know how he does it

-

•–Twilight •

-He’s… hes a Wolf… it’s… it’s twilight… literally what else would he be?

He was actually a wolf hybrid before his adventure started and is honestly not sure how it took so long for the chain to even start to theorise his connections with Wolfie,

Wind guessed they were long lost brothers,

Fun fact, Twi is allergic to fur, it took him embracingly long to realise, ‘Oh, I thought the air was just meant to hurt’

Legend likes to call him a husky and watch as Twi goes on a rant about how they are completely different, this went on for months before time brought a stop to it

-

•-Legend•

-Pegasus… is this because I love the Pegasus boots? You’ll never know

The only reason sky knows how to preen his wings is because legend literally sat on him one day and showed him

In the ‘Not quite horse centaurs’ club with Wild

His tail was unfortunately docked in his third adventure, Wind used his ‘ Customary Pirate Rope tying skills’ to fashion him a fake tail out of foe hair (yes it’s pink) and braided him a new tail,

Legend won’t admit but that was the day he started trusting the rest of the chain

Likes to cuff Wars over the head with his wings, he quickly found out Wars’ wings hurt a lot more to get hit by then his

-

•–Warriors•

-DragonDragonDRAGONDRA-

His scales are literally brighter then the chains future (admittedly not hard to be)

Learned the hard way that his claws are sharp and for completely non related reasons has a wooden backscratcher he won’t tell anyone about

Runs hotter then the others Links, thus why he always wears his scarf, Legend jokes he’s as cold blooded as his blood,

legend regrets.

Has an unhealthy obsession with shiny things, his time in the army has helped him restrain from stealing freshly polished swords and amour but four swears they had a freshly cleaned dagger right next to them and now it’s gone-

-

•–Four•

-Minish?? More like biggish (that was bad I’ll see myself out-)

Still Has four legs like a mouse instead of the two that minish usually have, but has the fluffiest tail in existence

Actually wasn’t sure what Minish were before meeting them so was super confused for the first few years after developing

When Wind was confused on how to use their pronouns (they/them) correctly they told him to just picture four mice in a Trenchcoat (it helped Wind a lot)

Paints their claws/nails, each foot is one of the four colours, the blue nails are for some reason always somehow chipped, Warriors ends up lending them some of his nail Polish which is sturdier

-

•–Hyrule•

-obsessing over the idea that Rules’ Hyrule is basically Australia so Rule is a kangaroo

Kangaroos are evil deer, Rule is the exception

Kangaroos are terrifying and could be hit by a truck and walk it off, lest to say Time had a mini breakdown after watching Hyrule get punched into a tree by a Hinox, stand up, then carry on with his life without so much as a scratch

They still suck at cooking

If you say ‘shrimp on a campfire’ he will ring your throat until you meet Nayru face to face,

‘I may not know how to cook but I know they’re called prawns.’

-

•–Wind•

-Salt water croc for my salty pirate

Changed from lobster because I personally hate lobsters

Has claws and knows how to use them, preferably on the back of legend’s legs but has learned hooves hurt to take to the face

Has 3rd eyelid to be able to see underwater, so he likes to sleep like that sometimes and creep out whoever is on watch

Wild has attempted to eat him at least twice, both times Twi had to stop the because Wind was also curious

Sky only has two legs? Boo loser, Wind has 4 and a big tail that could snap your spine (it took wind several years to learn how not to trip over and he still can’t walk for long periods of time)

-

•–Wild-

-Lynel… Time is not surprised

In the ‘Not quite horse centaurs’ club with Legend

Honestly thought he was a horse until Flora mentioned ‘no Link, horse’s don’t grow horns out of their head’

Isn’t sure if he’s a gold Lynel or just blond (they’re just blond)

Also has a hint of orange in his blue eyes, eyes that glow red on bloodmoons

Unlike their hair they actually like to style their tail a lot, went they went to Gerudo town he was taught how to braid and bun it but can’t do it on his own so let’s Wind do it when he’s bored

Has small horns that Time had to teach him how to take care of, cause who knew horns need maintenance

Literally no one knows how his glider is able to hold him up… or how he climbs literally anything with ease even with his equestrian limbs

Was also one of the first to use Four’s pronouns correctly as they themselves use all pronouns (likes he/they the most tho)

—- Quick sketch of Wild cause I love them with all my heart

Anyway, it’s just a poorly thought out Au and I’ll probably work on it more but have this info dump for a second as I try to figure out what I’m doing with my life,

If y’all have any suggestions have at it,

I just hope my ideas aren’t as jumbled as I think they are

[thisbassslaps]

My Favorite Video Games

Here are five of my favorite video games that have been influential forms of entertainment and deserve some commemorative attention.

5. Tony Hawk's Underground - (2003)

Developed by Neversoft

I was a huge fan of the Tony Hawk's series. I picked up every game from THPS1 (1999) to Proving Ground (2007), before they began to use motion control. The gameplay is a lot of fun.... Hitting left-down->bb for a Gamecube 360 flip is very satisfying. I really enjoyed THUG 1 because it was the first game in the series to have a fully developed story. I was a New Jersey skater, looking to make it into skate industry and rip around the world. I remember the dialogue and story very well, and I constantly replayed it on higher difficulties, adding different pros to my "skate video". This is the only Tony Hawk game where I completed all of the gap locations. I also enjoyed re-creating Boarderline Skatepark in the Create-A-Park editor. It was cool to virtually skate my local park. I am disappointed that I deleted the park file from my memory card...

4. The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask 3D - (2015)

Developed by Grezzo

The Nintendo 3DS is my favorite console, specifically the New Nintendo 3DS XL. It is comfortable, sleek and has an enjoyable catalog of modern and old games. A Link Between Worlds was my introduction to the Zelda franchise. I eventually got around to Majora's Mask 3D and I instantly fell in love with the art style. The purples and pinks looked great and the level design was stellar. I loved playing MM3D during the Halloween season. For me, it fit the crisp Fall mood in a meaningful way. It's somber, lonely, spooky, uneasy (those creepy mask transfigurations...). I enjoyed running into the scarecrow at the Astral Observatory, as well as exploring the Ikana Graveyard at dusk. In typical Zelda fashion, the music by Koji Kondo is great (I love the Goron Village theme). As a side note, I had a wonderful time playing through Ocarina of Time 3D. That game is fantastic and very memorable... but I think that I enjoy MM a little more because of the spooky aesthetic, the main plot and the finely-tuned side missions.

3. EarthBound - (1994)

Developed by Ape Inc. and HAL Laboratory

Earthbound is another game that I logged a hearty amount of hours into. I was gaining interest in a few classics from the Nintendo eShop (Pokémon Yellow, A Link to the Past, Donkey Kong Country 2, Castlevania 3). Earthbound's cult status and quirky suburban setting greatly captured my attention. During a summer after college, I would enjoy the early mornings with a fresh cup of black coffee and Earthbound. The glitchy, psychedelic, 16-bit battle sequences paired nicely with the caffeine buzz...the catchy musical themes and the computer chip-like sound effects were just as addicting as the La Colombe coffee! I loved the dialogue, story, characters, levels....everything about this game was incredibly charming, witty, challenging and fun. The grinding in this game was enjoyable and the rolling hitpoints mechanic built up a lot of suspense during the more difficult battles. In homage to my favorite TV show, I changed the characters' names to familiar Twin Peaks names (Coop, Laura, Jcoby, Hawk). I was happy to have all of my characters above level 90 and to obtain the 1/128 Sword of Kings for Hawk/Poo. My favorite ending in a video game comes from Earthbound. The final chain of events are psychologically demanding and truly unforgettable.

2. Deadly Premonition: The Director's Cut - (2013)

Developed by ToyBox Inc.

I really, really love this game. Deadly Premonition is about as close as I can get to playing a Twin Peaks video game. The Lynchian mood was noticeable throughout my entire playthrough and the clunky gameplay/poorly rendered graphics/subpar sound mixing makes me love the game even more. In the game, you play as Agent Francis York Morgan, who is attempting to solve the murder of Anna Graham in Greenvale, Washington. Deadly Premonition is a bizarre murder mystery, filled with highly developed townsfolk, quirky city police officers, a breathtaking Pacific Northwest setting, terrifying ghouls and the infamous Raincoat Killer. There were a number of instances where the Twin Peaks influence was delightfully apparent. Some examples include the design of the Greenvale Sheriff's Department, A & G Diner, The Pot Lady, the picture of Velvet Falls in York's hotel room. I enjoyed coming across these easter eggs and loved exploring all areas and aspects of the game. I genuinely enjoyed spending time at the hotel, conversing with Polly (the owner of the Great Deer Yard Hotel) and having a cup of coffee (with milk, no sugar). The deeply thoughtful plot, the memorable soundtrack (that "Whistle Theme" and those screeching saxophones..ahh!!) and the open world exploration provided the perfect atmosphere for me to become captivated by the game. Unfortunately, I did not do all of the side missions, as I opted for the endgame cutscene. Maybe one day I will hook up my PS3 and attempt to complete all of the content that I missed (isn't that right, Zach?).

1. Donkey Kong 64 - (1999)

Developed by Rare

On Christmas of 1999, I received a Nintendo 64 and Donkey Kong 64. The N64 was my first home video game console and I was ecstatic. I hooked it up to my older sister's television, popped in the brand new, yellow cartridge and was immediately in awe of what I was seeing. The D.K. Rap was (and still is) amazing and the title screen had me more than ready to play. I specifically remember being enchanted by the sweeping cinematic for the Jungle Japes level. The game blew my mind. I played it nearly every summer from 3rd grade up until 12th grade and explored every single nook and cranny. I collected and completed everything for a 101% game completion status! Grant Kirkhope's soundtrack is truly the best, the sound effects are extremely nostalgic, the characters' personalities are super expressive, the 3D level design is engrossing and the comedic tone of the game had me entertained for hours and hours. I loved this game so much. As a teenager, I wrote my own version of a DK Rap, which included five different dogs that were a part of my close family. What makes this game so special to me is the fact that I had a few friends and family members who also loved the game. Having a camaraderie that surrounded the game made it more enjoyable for me to beat a boss, complete challenging mini-games, watch cutscenes and stumble upon something hilarious. Donkey Kong 64 is an absolute gem and it will always be favorite.

[loopy777]

RE: WIPs game: do I even want to know what Dicebenders is is it another scam how many times are the Gaang gonna get arrested for scamming

No, this time it's me scamming people. XD The dice in question are the RPG Dungeons & Dragons kind.

For a while I was doing a screencap webcomic in the style of "DM of the Rings" and "Darths & Droids" with another creative fan named Captain Boomerang. I was the scriptwriter and selected the screenshots for each panel, and Capt-BA would assemble the comics and improve my scripts (a process that did frustrate me a little, as I felt locked out of the revision process, but I did like the results. I just felt like I wasn't holding up my end of the partnership a bit). I wrote a story bible explaining the characters and storytelling rules, planned out the adaptation of the entire AtLA premiere, and had less detailed plans for the rest of the series, but we only got 6 comics in before Capt-BA went on a trip and never returned to the internet. I did manage to re-establish contact with her long enough to get permission to continue the comic, but the problem is that I have no image-editing skills whatsoever.

If I could find comic-making software that I know would do what I want and be easy to use, I wouldn't mind dropping some money on it, but everything I've looked at is trying to do lots of things I don't need. I only want a way to import existing pictures into comic grids, and then easily add dialogue bubbles. That's it. But the stuff I've found is more about image-editing than comic assembly, and it takes me an hour to put together a dialogue bubble that looks good. So I have 3 scripts that were never produced, which along with the planning docs are what's in that WIP folder, and I don't ever see myself going beyond that.

Besides, someone else already managed to complete something like this, and while I'm not a fan, I don't need to be. At this point, Dicebenders is dead. I'm glad I tried it, and it's a shame it didn't work out, but I'm happy with the other projects I've done instead.

I am squatting on an empty Tumblr for it, though.

Anyway, to share something new, here's the first section of the Story Bible I wrote to make sure Capt-BA and I were on the same page in terms of characterization. The rest of the bible details the plotlines for full series.

AVATAR: THE LAST DICEBENDER

BIBLE

Premise- A small group of players attempt to run a fantasy martial arts RPG that winds up essentially becoming the Avatar saga, or something very close. The main point of the series is comedy, based mostly on ridiculous links between Avatar and RPG's. Sometimes the humor will be in the vast difference between what happens in the comic, and what happens in the cartoon with the same screenshots. Other times, the funny will come from the unexpected ways they converge.

SPIRITUAL PREDECESSORS

DM of the Rings- The original, and my personal favorite. It's a good showcase of how to run a single quest together, while using narrative jumps to skip to the good bits.

Darths & Droids- A similar project, this stands out from its predecessor in two main ways. The players and GM are more friendly with each other, and are more or less having fun with each other. There is also a running, coherent storyline in both the game and in the lives of the players.

Benders & Brawlers- This is actually an existing attempt to do Darths & Droids with Avatar. This is helpful as an example of what we DON'T want to do, retell the Avatar story in a completely straightforward manner, with RPG players behind the characters.

CHARACTERS

None of the characters will be given real names. The players shall always be referred to by their character names, although this can be done in a teasing, ironic manner. When the characters are speaking, their dialogue bubble must always be attached to an image of the character.

The Gamemaster- The GM is a female in her early teens. She is a geek, and a bit of a social outcast for it. Nevertheless, she's trying to make that work for her, although she's not quite mature enough to make it happen yet. She has just discovered RPG's, and in her enthusiasm has gone all out in starting her own campaign. The only problem is that she doesn't know how to recruit players, so she ropes her best friend and little brother into playing with her. This is the GM's first campaign, so she'll a little in over her head. She knows the mechanics of play, and what she's supposed to be doing as GM, but doesn't have the fine skill in crafting an engaging RPG experience. Still, she wants to do her best, is willing to learn, and has a positive attitude about the whole thing. The GM has a strong crush on the Sokka player, but the only way she can express it is by having all the female NPC's flirt with the Sokka character.

Katara- Female in early teens, and the GM's best friend. Katara's player was friends with the GM from when they were both in grammar school, so while they have grown up into wildly different personality types, they are fully loyal to each other. Katara is popular, and outgoing, and doesn't care or know about geek stuff at all. She's only playing the game because the GM begged her to. At first, Katara is clueless about RPG's, and frequently questions or ridicules the mechanics of the game. She never quite gets into the idea of role-playing, but quickly takes to the idea of meta-gaming. She'll have her character act like a righteous do-gooder, because completing missions and fighting bad guys earns XP. She hoards items that will boost her stats. She'll advocate abandoning a mission/plot if it doesn't pay out enough rewards. Katara's player also can tend towards trying to Mary Sue her character, but this is inconsistent and usually shot down by everyone else.

Aang- Male in junior high, and the GM's little brother. He plays simply because his sister has cajoled him into it, and there are hints that he's getting some kind of reward or payment for it. He abuses his position by forcing the GM to give him what he wants in the game, even if it breaks the rules- access to the restricted Airbender class, the ability to bend all four elements, overloaded stats, an Avatar State that protects him from dying, a magic super flying cow ride, etc. However, it's important to note that Aang's player isn't a jerk. He's just immature, and like all kids, just always goes for what he wants via the easiest path, and doesn't realize that he may be causing trouble or hurting feelings. He's enthusiastic about trying out this RPG thing, but he has trouble coming up with any action beyond attacking or retreating. He's also hyper aware that the GM and Katara are girls. He is too old for cootie concerns, but thinks that girls are fundamentally different creatures with their own incomprehensible concerns. Having a big sister, he doesn't find this a big deal, just part of life. Aang's player is too young to be a geek. He likes cartoons and sports and fantasy and school-dramas. He also tends to follow whatever his sister likes.

Sokka- Male in late teens. This guy is your quintessential RPG player. He has is own top-quality dice, he's played campaigns and systems of all kinds, and knows the tropes of the hobby cold. He's a huge geek for all things geeky, but roleplay is easily his favorite. He's a social outcast, but he's made friends among his fellow geeks, and thinks life is just fine. Sokka's player joins when he meets the GM at the comic/games shop they both frequent. The GM was buying some sourcebooks and material to support the fantasy martial arts game she's running, and Sokka noticed, asked about it, liked what he heard, and got permission to join the game. What Sokka doesn't realize, because he is a geek and neither has experience with it or realizes it's even possible, is that the GM is sweet on him. This manifests in the character Sokka's canon luck with the ladies, only kicked up a notch. *Every single* female NPC flirts with him, whether it's appropriate or not. Sometimes player Sokka notices and tries to roleplay it, and sometimes he's just plain confused. Sokka has a few quirks. His best set of dice are his Lucky Red Dice, which always roll high when he needs it, but have been tested and proven to be fair dice. He also mandates that every character he plays use a boomerang; he was turned into a geek by the first video game he ever played, a Legend of Zelda title, and his favorite weapon from those games are the boomerang. Each of his characters has a unique, named boomerang.

Zuko- The GM's favorite NPC. She created him to be a compelling, dramatic character, with a complicated back story, moral struggles, badass loner personality, angst about his existence, a darkly noble quality, and a cool scar. The GM intended Katara to get to know Zuko, for her to try to woo him away from the side of evil, and perhaps to even have a romance with him. The PC's, however, couldn't care less about him. To them, he's just another mini-boss, and the fact that most of his character development is happening "off screen" means they don't realize that he's recruitable. A frequent gag is Zuko delivering a stirring monologue while no one pays attention.

Iroh- Background NPC. The GM tries to use him to give (ignored) hints to the players.

Toph- (tentative) A male munchkin gamer who picked a long list of weaknesses in order to get superbending. Toph's player is a friend of Sokka's player, brought in after an "incident" with his old group, and causes some initial resentment in the group when tries to show the n00bs how its done. Cowing Toph's player is a major victory for the GM.

Momo- NPC, but maybe make him a talking sidekick who gives the players hints when the GM is really exasperated?

Azula- the GM's best favorite villain. Azula is the GM unleashed, letting her take out frustrations on the players in both combat and harsh taunting. Eventually the GM comes to like the character so much, she retcons mental health issues into the character's backstory, and has her pet NPC, Zuko, spare her.

[ravenwolfie97]

2020 Art Summary

Yep, it’s 2021 already. 2020 is finally over. It felt like it lasted forever, and it felt like the end would never come, but here we are. Crazy how the time flew by.

I felt like I didn’t get much art done this year because of Current World Event, but I made a lot more than I thought I did. Even some of my new favorite pieces came out of this year, so I think that’s worth celebrating and looking back upon!

I was insanely productive during the first month of 2020, and looking back I was surprised at all the stuff I did, but then I remembered that that winter season was actually one of the best times of my life! I started being more socially involved, and I think my newfound drive at the time translated into all the art I pumped out this month. This is just a small fraction of what I made in January, but I only have so much space. Quite a few complex pieces in both style exploration and polishing my own style.

Apparently February was a rather intimate month. Things began to slow down in terms of my own art here, with me spending more time in social settings and school work ramping up, I didn’t have as much time to coop up in my room to draw. I did wanna do something for a friend’s Valentine’s Day OC art challenge, so I drew my lovey-dovey couple from Dance of 1000 Words havin’ a dance. Nothing actually came of that challenge, but it was fun to do regardless.

One of the things I was most proud of in the winter season was making more friends, and one of the closest friends I made was completely coincidental. I met a person named Kiri on the bus one night I decided to volunteer somewhere by myself, and we ended up chatting and getting along. They quickly told me their tumblr username, and I shot them a message immediately after they left. A couple days later, we met up for brunch, and we started becoming really close friends and creative partners!

Not much else happened in March cuz that’s when Current World Event started becoming an issue, but Kiri and I still kept in close touch and we randomly started developing a concept for a Pokemon Mystery Dungeon: Galar Edition. These are a handful of characters we thought up, with Skipper the Scorbunny and Dross the Dreepy as the main characters, Morgrem as the main antagonist, and some shopkeepers such as those of the Greedent Bank and the Indeedee General Store. This was also my first time drawing all of these Galar Pokemon (except Scorbunny, but I also made Skipper a bit more unique than a regular Scorbunny).

Lots of events happened this month. First of all, Steven Universe Future ended, one of my favorite and most influential shows was no longer continuing. I had to do something as tribute, both as a send-off to one of the greatest cartoons in the world and as a cathartic release for my feelings towards it.

A while later, I got the opportunity to start playing an MMO in beta called Fer.al, by the same people who made Animal Jam, which coincidentally I had also beta tested for back in the day. I ended up getting really attached to my first character, a Senri I named Sasha, and though I’ve made more characters than them since, they’re still my absolute favorite. Though I haven’t touched the game in a few months, I was really engrossed for a long time and enjoyed playing through the beta and early access phases.

At the end of the month, some friends of mine invited to a roleplay group with some mutuals, and we all played characters in a crime syndicate. Just a bunch of ragtag thieves and criminals who ended up together in order to protect an artifact called the Crown of Thieves, which was essentially a flag to be taken by other groups to prove that they are the best thieves in the land. My character was based heavily on my sona (if it wasn’t obvious) and was also influenced by Cloud Strife, since the FFVII Remake had just come out and I was super into watching the cutscenes at the time. My character’s (code)name is Valkyrie, and they are a mercenary, going between multiple different employers to carry out whatever duties they need to do. They have a more complicated backstory, but presently they were recently hired by recommendation of their friend Shark (played by @shmoots-universe​ who is also My friend now ily maya) who works with a group called the Court Cards who are currently in possession of the Crown of Thieves. Valk never really had a place to call home, but staying with this group of people had to be the closest they could get to that feeling. They still sleep with a knife under their pillow because of trust issue but that’s okay.

Okay, so technically these examples started in April, but I continued making content with them in May, and the month was just pretty void of art in general, so here I am addressing them.

There were two main things I worked on this month: a Steven Universe AU of my own and the whole #sixfanarts thing that kicked off around then. Let’s start with the fanart bits. I did two and a half of them (six in April and nine in May), and it was so much fun to be able to draw stuff I don’t normally do! My personal favorites are shown here: Blake Belladonna from RWBY, Roll from Megaman, Yuki Konno from Sword Art Online, and Link from The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess. The other thing I’d been planning for a while was a Steven Universe AU, probably to cope with the show being over but also because I was inspired by a lot of those SU AU artists I started following at the time. I won’t share the details here because it’s gonna have its own blog at some point, but the example I’ve shown here is of a comic I made loosely in order to introduce a divergence in the plot of the story as well as introduce a character unique to my AU. It was a lot of fun figuring out how to draw the characters and get a feel for the style.

As the year progressed, my amount of art I made per month began to dwindle, this time mostly because school was kicking my ass especially hard with finals. However, I took what time I had to get some backburner pieces finished, like the Tigerlily picture which I sketched out a couple months back, and the Gunvolt picture which I started working on SIX YEARS AGO. I don’t quite know why I got the urge to work on it again after so long, but it was nice to finally realize. The other drawing for DOTS was done in the dead of night but I was really happy with how it came out.

Despite only having two summer classes left of school, this month was really rough because they demanded a lot of my time and attention. I did not have the gumption to do anything digital, so I stuck to my sketchbook to get out what I felt like getting out.

My friends and I did a stream of the game Helltaker, and I really enjoyed the concept, so in following my friends I made my own Helltaker demon OC named Raksha the Ravenous Demon (it’s a pun but also got mythical insp). I also got super into Hazbin Hotel at this point, mostly because the Addict music video dropped and I couldn’t get enough of it, so I doodled Angel Dust cuz I felt like it. The other drawing I did was actually a free commission I gave a friend of mine as a prize for a trivia game show I ran back in June. He along with a couple other friends got some free drawings from me for getting the top three scores, and this one in particular was fun because of how interesting it was. He wanted me to draw a video game reviewer called the Irate Gamer from a specific moment, and I decided to go ham and just make it as dramatic as possible.

University classes finally wrapped up and right after that I was in the process of moving out of my apartment and getting adjusted to living with my parents again. I did a couple of agg.io drawing sessions with my friends from the Court Cards group as well as a new Dungeons and Dragons homebrew group I had joined. I drew some more of Valkyrie and came up with a design for my DND character Qakuqtuq (or Kai for short). He is monkey grandpa and I love him.

My main focus was on finishing a polished piece for my friend Cake, whose birthday was in the upcoming month. I wanted it to be as amazing as possible, so I put a lot of time into getting more detailed and making them look good. In addition to that, I did a few TOME doodles just for fun. The creature on the bottom was for this month’s art challenge on my Discord server where we made original TOMERPG monsters, and I created Hundylow, a Crystal-element monster based on the Grindylow from English folklore.

This month was a lot more productive than the past few had been. I tried to do a 31-day art challenge called Creatober but failed to get past the third prompt because I was still swamped with other work. I’m still happy with what little I did, including the piece with my characters Kyle and Guarudan from DSWD.

I don’t remember how, but I also suddenly rediscovered an old Flipnote Hatena series called Tales of LostClan, a Warriors fan series that I would say was the most obscure thing I’ve ever been super invested in. It was what got me into the actual Warriors books, and I liked it so much I redrew the animations into a comic... twice. Didn’t get nearly as far the second time but clearly my love for this little fanfiction had not waned after nearly a decade. I felt like drawing a book cover/movie poster for the series, just to get it out there and see how much I’ve improved over all that time.

Also I felt like making a vampiresona just before Halloween because I never dress up for Halloween in art (or real life anymore, for that matter), and I wanted to do something like that for once. It was short-lived but I really liked the design!

The focus of this month was definitely on Pokemon stuff. As per usual I contributed to the current Gotta Draw ‘Em All collab, and I was tasked to draw Regieleki. It was really fun to figure out how to make it stand out and look like it was made of electricity.

I also committed a lot of my spare time to my Fakemon Gym Leaders, as I had been working on bringing them to life in the past year or so now. As of this post, I’ve finished rendering their full body poses and gym badges, but I’m still working on completing all eight VS portraits, the first half of which are shown here.

I... didn’t draw anything this month, actually. What I’m showing here was worked on in the last few days but has actually been in progress for a couple of months, and I just finished it earlier today, in 2021. But I needed to show something off, and it’s also about time I mentioned it.

Back in October, I kept seeing people rave about this game called Genshin Impact, and I was interested but not so much as to start playing it... until my friends started playing and I was like “fuck it, let’s download it”. Since that day, I have been super immersed and in love with this game, to the point I came up with my own canon based on my gameplay experiences. This also included the creation of an original player character: Astra, the non-binary Traveller. And now, I’ve finally drawn them and brought them to life.

It has been one hell of a year. I had some of the highest highs and lowest lows in 2020, lots of changes, and I have now officially moved onto the next chapter of my life now that my time at university is finally over. I’m very excited for what 2021 has to offer, and I’m going to go forward with great ambition.

[changeling-rin]

Hi! I was wondering, what are your thoughts on the different Zelda games? Not a ranking or anything, just what did you like/dislike in each game/franchise as a whole? And how did you come up with the personalities of the characters for DL? Thank you!

Oof.  Oh, you’re gonna make me Longpost, aren’t you.  Yeah, okay.  You asked for it.

Skyward Sword/Gen 

-I both love, and hate, the motion controls.  On one hand, I have never felt more epic than when I personally stabbed my sword into Demise’s head.  On the other hand, I have never felt more frustrated when my wiimote would misinterpret my swings and I would subsequently die.  Contrary to popular opinion, I actually like Fi.  Her design is beautiful, her theme is gorgeous, and her goodbye to Link is one of the most beautiful yet heartbreaking moments in the entire franchise.  The origin of the Master Sword, in my opinion, might be one of the best things to come out of this game.

Gen’s personality came about mainly as the foil to Lore and Dusk’s pre-existing dynamic.  Lore is the spastic one, and while Dusk is definitely somewhat of the straight-man, he’s much more likely to roll with it unless it’s drastically damaging.  Gen, on the other hand, will avidly apply common sense to anything and everything, and since Lore very rarely follows common sense, Gen morphed into his ‘conscience’, so to speak.  His predilection for healing was a side-effect of me dying a lot in his game and spending more on Red Potion than probably anything else, and also because the group needed a medic and Gen was definitely the most take-charge character I had who would do that sort of thing.

Minish Cap/Speck

The Picori are the cutest things, oh my gosh.  I do, however, suspect their violent and painful end in BotW - if they’re the ones who put the Rupees and Bombs and stuff in the grass, and there’s no such things in BotW…  Aside from that!  I adored the concept of shrinking down and having the entire environment change on you.  It was such a unique way to make an old area new again.  On the flipside, I loathed the Kinstone sidequest with a passion.  I never did manage to match them all.

Speck was basically me saying to myself, ‘He’s a tiny person.  How do tiny people see the world?’  And then he turned into a quiet, shy kid who tries very hard not to be a bother and looks at problems from a completely different angle than most people.  This is why he always second guesses his words - he’s by far the most frequent user of ‘um’, ‘uh’, ‘ah’, ‘oh’, etc, and this is entirely on purpose.  Tiny people, by nature, will do whatever it takes to make sure the bigger people don’t get mad enough to smush them - a bit morbid, I know, but if you think about it…  This is also where his habit of stabbing the eardrum came from.  Where most people wouldn’t even think of it, Speck just saw a really good access point and a whole lot of convenient fabric handholds to get him there.  

Four Swords/The Four

I have actually never been able to get my hands on a copy of the original Four Swords game.  I know.  I’m a disgrace to the fandom.  However, I have done extensive research, and I can say that by far my favorite concept is being able to deploy a Bow-Wow in the direction of my enemies.  I literally cannot imagine it without cackling.  

The Four were the result of me having two sets of Four Sword Heroes and desperately needing some way to tell them apart.  It took a very long time for me to decide to play up the hive mind aspect, but once I did everything clicked for them.  Rather than being split individual aspects of the original Link, the Four are literally a copy-paste of OG Link’s personality with only tiny variations between them, which led to the decision to make them somewhat quiet and awkward about their synchronization.  People rarely accept what’s unfamiliar to them, and to be honest the Four probably have one of the more ‘tragic’ backstories.  They may or may not have been chased out of a town or two due to a couple misunderstandings about the source of their hive mind.  (My babies, I’m so sorry I did this to you I’m a terrible author whyyyyyyyy)

Ocarina of Time/Ocarina

By far, one of the most investing stories in a game.  Ganondorf is fabulously evil, 10/10 would thwart again.  Music, of course, is beautiful.  The travel mechanic, on the other hand, I am not a fan of.  Trying to get somewhere before getting the respective warping Song is tedious at best, and the sheer amount of time it takes for me to swap between Young and Adult Link is just… it’s a hassle, is what it is.  

Ocarina is a little kid in a Big Person’s body, and I write him accordingly.  He’s the wide-eyed boy in a brand-new world.  He’s naive to a lot of things and oblivious to several others.  He and Mask have a bit of an odd dynamic because of this - Ocarina will basically gravitate to wherever Mask is as a sort of unconscious instinct, under the unrealized assumption that Mask means protection.  The ‘Little Brother’ mentality, if you will.  

Majora’s Mask/Mask

THE MOON.  THE FREAKING MOON.  I will never be able to play this game without feeling vaguely stressed and unsettled the entire time and THAT FREAKING MOON is the reason why.  Very compelling plot, 10/10, but WHY.  Aside from that, the music is fantastic, Majora is Creepy To The Max and we so rarely get that in Zelda games so I am on board, the transformation masks are probably my favorite mechanic, and your heartstrings get yanked on several times with the Goron Lullaby quest and Mikau’s entire storyline.  

Mask evolved directly as the opposite to Ocarina, with the caveat that he is directly aware of Ocarina’s unconscious ‘Little Brother’ mindset - Mask just happens to be sincerely uncomfortable with the ‘Big Brother’ role.  He’s more knowledgable, more experienced, and this was done explicitly to be in direct contrast with the fact that he looks like a little kid.  He’s Ocarina’s opposite in every single way, and it’s fun to have them play off each other.

Twilight Princess/Dusk

Probably my favorite game, art-style-wise.  There’s some things that Twilight Princess does fantastically well artistically, not to mention that it contains one of my favorite characters of all time.  Midna is awesome and there’s nothing that will convince me otherwise.  I actually think the wolf mechanic is a really good way to make new problems within old areas - but I will admit, the bug hunts can be tedious.  And that one escort mission can go jump off a cliff. But I adore everything about the concept of a Twilight Realm, and even though Ganondorf comes in and kinda shafts Zant out of the way, he’s fabulous enough that I can accept it.  They are, after all, both marvelously evil.  

Dusk’s personality came from me thinking back on everything that happens in his game and promptly deciding that: he either went a little insane to deal with it all, or he had the lowest level of crap to give that I’d ever seen.  Obviously, I decided on the latter, and I’m very glad I did, because from there that allowed me to build the faux-duo-actually-triad leadership between him, Lore, and Gen that works so very well.  I kinda ended up putting a little of myself into Dusk, in that he’s very reserved and will think about what he says before saying it.  Of course, I had to incorporate the wolf somehow, and the way that was the most fun for me was to bring some of those traits over into his hylan form.  One of these was me interpreting the howling mechanic as Dusk being a naturally good singer, and we all know where that led.

Four Swords Adventures/Red, Blue, Green, and Vio

The loss of the Bow-Wow hits me deeply, but we do get horses so that helps a little.  Also, it surprised me a little how similar this game is to the predecessor, Four Swords.  There’s a couple plot differences, Shadow Link is a thing, but for the most part it follows a very similar pattern and I kinda wish something different had been done.  It’s fun having more than one weapon to swing around, but not quite as much without other people to play with.  The one thing I have to say about Zelda multiplayer games is that, without actual multiple players, it’s just… not as fun.

I freely admit that large parts of Green, Vio, Red, and Blue’s personalities came directly from the FSA manga - particularly, the subversion of color expectations by having Red be the timid one and Blue be the aggressive one.  You never see that nowadays, and I immediately pounced on it.  Vio and Green had slightly less large chunks of manga personality, but I basically ripped their inner-group dynamic wholesale.  Their individual interactions though, those are all me.  Blue and Vio just seemed like natural bicker partners.  Red’s Adorable Puppy face evolved out of the sheer amount of times the manga had him on the verge of, or shedding, actual tears.  And Green naturally needed to be the exasperated leader keeping them all in line.  It all just sorta flowed from there.

Link to the Past/Lore

The originator of such musical classics like Kakariko Village, the Dark World theme, and Zelda’s Lullaby, and I thank this game for making these songs so good.  I adore the way that the Dark World can take the entire freaking country of Hyrule and turn it into something completely new.  But there were some times where I wasn’t sure where to go?  I don’t know if it was me or not, and it could have been.  I might just be bad at inferring destinations.  

Lore is the direct result of being the target of four entire games, and me thinking to myself, ‘Now how does a normal person deal with something like that?’  The answer was, of course, that they throw normality out a window.  Lore is my way to have fun, and also to let out every random impulse I’ve ever had but never acted on.  In a way, Lore is me, but without all the inhibitions.  Sometimes he ends up being a direct conduit between my brain-thoughts and the page.  That aside, I also gladly seized the opportunity to bring something different to the group, which is how the different languages came in.  He’s the only Link who actively, within his games, visits other countries, and there was no way I could pass that up.  

Oracle of Ages/Oracle of Seasons

They remind me of Pokemon titles.  “Here’s these two games!  With the exception of some minor details, they’re exactly the same!  Combine them for a special surprise!”  I do think the Subrosians are adorable though.  And of course, shout-out to Veran, the only explicitly female villain the Zelda franchise has ever seen.  Maybe someday you’ll get a friend to help you out in that testosterone-filled mess.  Maybe someday. 

Link’s Awakening

Far sadder than I anticipated it being.  Also, the Bow-Wow returns!  Clearly the best thing in the game. On the bad side - I don’t remember which one it was - there was this one dungeon that just… for the life of me I could not get it to make sense in my brain.  I don’t know why.  I also don’t remember what the solution was.  Very engaging story though, the Windfish mystery kept me engaged right up to the Big Reveal.

A Link Between Worlds/Sketch

The painting mechanic is just.  It’s so clever.  The entire landscape is transformed with a single dimension shift and I loved it.  I was kinda skeptical about the same map as LttP, but then Lorule happened and I was pleased enough with that to accept it.  Ravio and Hilda are fine additions to the LoZ family and I wholeheartedly accept them - also, the Lorule Castle theme is one of the best songs in the franchise, fight me.  One thing I do remember is this one boss battle, I think with some sort of Manhandla plant?  It took me at least ten or so tries to get past that thing.  Really didn’t enjoy that one.

Everything intentional about Sketch evolved from his painting ability, this being his phobia of water, his tendency to use stealth in a confrontation, and his continued sidetracking with artistic ideas.  At some point though, he turned into one of the most sarcastic Links in the bunch, and I’m really not sure how it happened.  But it seemed to fit him for whatever reason.

The Legend of Zelda/Realm

I regrettably have not been able to get my hands on this one either, but I have watched a play-though.  My observations are as follows:                    Where is the map.  How did anyone figure out where they were going in this game.  I don’t understand how that wall was supposed to indicate it was bomb-able.  How did people play this game without getting too frustrated to continue.                                                                                       On the bright side, the dungeons seemed to be very well-laid-out, and the bosses, while repetitive, were pretty memorable.  I suspect I would get lost within the first ten minutes, though.

Realm is directly based off of my above observations.  I am firmly of the opinion that absolutely nobody can make it through the original LoZ game without getting lost at least once, and this resulted in Realm’s absolutely abysmal sense of direction.  Consequently, I made him hopelessly optimistic and cheerful enough to make the sun jealous, because the only person who could put up with those sorts of mishaps is the person who can just get right back up and keep going.  Also, the fact that I myself and severely directionally challenged means that writing Realm comes very easily.

The Adventure of Link

I have not played this one either.  I apologize.  That said, I dislike the switch from top-down to 2-D scroller.  In comparison with literally every other game in the franchise, AoL feels the least like a ‘Zelda’ title.  Though, for the invention of Shadow Link, I award at least few points.

Wind Waker/Wind

It’s adorable.  It’s somehow a very dark and serious game disguising everything behind a cute and cartoony art style and even though I can recognize it I don’t actually care.  The story is engaging, Tetra is the Best Pirate, and the ocean makes it feel so big.  I do think the sailing mechanic can be a bit time-consuming before the warp travel kicks in, and I actually feel like Ganondorf went down too easily, maybe?  

Wind is based off of sailing, basically.  I took the amount of time it takes him, in-game, to get places and decided that he has the patience of a saint.  Also the bafflingly ability to stay awake for three days straight, but that hasn’t come up in DL, so.  Because of this, he’s usually pretty content to let conversations evolve without much input from him, unless he’s got something important to say.  And of course, he’s got the Wind Waker, which resulted in me making up an entire magical classification system to explain why he’s so good at controlling the weather, accompanied by an entire chapter-length head canon about the relation between the weather and music.  Ironically enough, for all that Wind has no instrument of his own, the fact that he’s a conductor means he’s actually the most musically talented of the whole group.

Phantom Hourglass

I wouldn’t call it a worthy sequel to Wind Waker, but I honestly don’t think it’s too bad - with the exception of the Temple of the Ocean King.  First time, it was kinda fun.  Second time, less fun,  Third time, getting repetitive.  Fourth time, getting annoying.  Fifth time, and I was really done with that mechanic.  The remixed Sailing Theme was good though, and once I got past Linebeck’s surface personality I liked him pretty well too.

Spirit Tracks/Steam

I have never played this one, but the concept seems fun.  The riding-a-train song is amazing.  This Zelda is probably the most fleshed-out that the character has ever been, and I dearly hope she can take the position of ‘companion guide’ again someday.  Or maybe even ‘protagonist’, who knows?  I do dislike how vague Malladus is, because as the Final Bad Guy I feel like he should have been solidified more than just “Demon sealed a long time ago”.  And to be honest, why Trains?  It just seems so random.  

Steam, like several other Links, is based around his gameplay.  As an engineer, he’s a pretty hands-on type of person, which is why he frequently gets distracted with the inner workings of other Links’ items.  And due to the fact that Trains require very little input to control and a lot of travel time, he’s the least physical of all of them.  This basically means that he runs the slowest, hits the lightest, and will likely bring the least to the table in a fight.  This is one of the reasons I gave him the ‘I Like Trains’ summon, because even if he himself can’t hit very hard, his Train sure as heck can. 

Oh my gosh I think this took me a solid hour to type out, I hope you’re very happy with this response Anon ;)

[loz-furbies]

A Link Between Worlds Zelda

Design

So far the last offender in our list of Zeldas who are different people but look the same. At least this is an improvement from the ALttP design on many of the fronts I complained about: the crest is easier to see at least in this lightning, the stripes are all similar, and they dropped the weird stripe-stripe from her hem. But looking at the design concepts makes me sad because we could have had a brand new design...

Since the game is something of a half-remake of ALttP the reused design makes at least some sense (though I still don't condone it!), and it pairs well with Hilda's darker look.

I'm not really into the art style of the ALbW (as in how the character models look in-game), something about them looks somehow doll-like. But I must admit that I don't much care for the Toon style or the new Toy style either so I'm a full fledged hater on this front.

Character

Zelda has the usual friendly and polite princess personality again, but this time she speaks noticeably formally all the time, which makes her memorable enough. And honestly the most princessy princess in the lineup so far too. In the end there's not a lot to her, her character begins and ends with a pretty standard ideal princess, but I dunno, I still like her a lot because she's just so nice and the way she speaks so politely makes her come across funnily chill about all the strangeness that goes on in the story.

Role in the story

Plot-wise Zelda is pretty passive this time around, she sends Link on a mission and is then damseled for the rest of the game. And since there are a lot more actual memorable characters compared to the likes of ALttP, Zelda's short scene in the beginning doesn't really make her stand out that much as the main goal. She doesn't perform any big magic tricks herself either, and her contribution to the final showdown is just creating the bow of light for Link to use.

I'd say her most meaningful contribution to the story is in the final scene, where she and Link find the Triforce and use it to wish for Hilda to have a second Triforce (even after she spent the entire game trying to steal theirs). Though that's not really because of her as a character on her own, and more about how it's nice to have someone who can talk in that scene so Link doesn't have to mime everything.

In general I still like ALbW Zelda; her character and role are pretty simple, but still enough for this game.

Relationships

Zelda has the standard relationships with Impa and Link; the former does the usual advisor and nursemaid role, while Link is the hero who goes on her quest. This time Link and Zelda are not childhood friends and instead only know each other for a couple of minutes before Link sets off and she gets turned into a painting before they meet again. They do have some connection in that Zelda had seen Link in her dream, but it's not explored any further and is pretty much there just to offer some explanation why she is ready to offer her most prized family keepsake magic amulet to Link, who is a complete stranger to her at this point.

At the end of the game Zelda and Link arrive at the Triforce, and Zelda says she knows Link has the same idea on how to use it as her. I really like this scene, but it relies on the player having grown to care about Hilda and Ravio, rather than Zelda and Link having any kind of special connection or being a culmination of their combined efforts as a team (since Zelda didn't do all that much in this game).

I'd say that ALbW Zelda is at her best when contrasted with Hilda. Even if they don't get a lot of time to interact, just the idea of this darker and edgier version of her is super interesting to me, and for that it works well for the game that this version of Zelda is particularly friendly and sweet. Zelda is pretty forgiving towards Hilda right away and tries to talk things out and say how as a princess she understands Hilda's duty to her people. Which doesn't work, but Ravio being the one to get Hilda to come to her senses is a much better solution anyway.

In general Link, Zelda, Ravio and Hilda make for a pretty good group of characters with plenty of room for interactions between each pair for the fans to imagine, even if the game itself doesn't have that much canon material.

[journalsouppe]

I got a sticker pack from CRFArtStore and that inspired me to journal about the TLOZ enemies!

Writing typed below!

Enemies (minor) Sept '22

One ofthe most memorable aspects of the Zelda franchise are its enemies. Redeads, moblins, stalfos, wallmasters, lynels, and more have had such an impact on the different games they appear in. The change in art style adds not only to the memorability, but their uniqueness in each game. Moblins, for example, change fighting style slightly with the design. Each with powerful blows but height, animal depicted, stature, etc are all memorable. The absence or presence of certain enemies lends a hand to the lore surrounding them. Redeads are a great example of this as in all their canon appearances, they are linked to the Hylian Royal Family (Zeltik, youtube). One of my biggest contentions with BOTW (even thought I absolutely love it) is its lack of varied enemies. Enemies helped the setting and tone of certain locations. Tektites, for example, are a staple enemy of the various volcanic regions (not always necessarily Death Mountain like in Minish Cap). Although the locations are visually and audibly distinct, the variation of enemies is very lacking imo. This gives me hope for BOTW 2 since there are rumors about traditional dungeons returning. Possibly location based enemies will also return. Although, I am curious why keese were chosen but not ropes. As i play through the rest of the games, I am excited to encounter new and same enemies. The different controls I need to adapt to plus different fighting styles leaves each game unique and interesting. I hope to see at least a skulltula in BOTW 2!

[neokad]

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

Hi everybody!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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