#and. my biggest complaint about twilight princess so far

[valliass]

I think I somehow managed to softlock my twilight princess save

[echoesofdusk]

(this took far too long to write)

It's time for a review of the second piece of media I experienced this year:

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD

I actually have a bit of a history with this game. I got into Zelda in the spring of 2011 with the original N64 version of Ocarina of Time. When I heard that a new Zelda game would be releasing on Wii later that year I ofc really wanted to get it, but being a 15 year old at the time there was no way for me to afford a Wii and the game (as I also lived in Iceland at the time, which was and still is notorious for blowing up prices of video games and consoles). Throughout the years I tried figuring out ways to get a Wii and the game but eventually I gave up and just accepted that I'd never be able to play it unless I did it through illegitimate means or something.

Until February of 2021 that is, when Skyward Sword HD was announced. I was really happy about the announcement, however, I didn't get the game straight away due to its price point and after hearing about all of its lows, I was afraid of spending money on it and not liking it in the end. However, last December I decided to just take the plunge and grab the game when it was slightly discounted and played through it in 4 weeks.

And boy do I have a lot to say. This is gonna be a lengthy one. I already summed up this game to friends as the game with "some of the highest highs and lowest lows I've experienced in any Zelda game I've played so far". Keep in mind that SSHD is my first time playing this game and I've never played the original Wii version, though I'd love to, even if just a small part to compare the two. Also, I played the game with motion controls, although I did try out the button controls from time to time (and used them for some sections, particularly the Fun Fun Island minigame.)

Alright, let's get to it!

Skyward Sword was in a rather interesting position at the time. Before its release, Twilight Princess had been the latest 3D Zelda game, and it was rather similar to the previous 3D Zelda titles at the time. Because of this, it's really easy to tell that the developers tried experimenting more with Skyward Sword as well as implementing more complex motion controls in the game, as while Twilight Princess was on Wii, it was not designed with motion controls in mind as it was originally developed to be a GameCube game. The developers also had to find a way to implement motion controls fully and I have to say, for the combat itself, it works nicely on the switch version. I had a lot of fun swinging my arms for the combat, although I did go a bit crazy at times.

Guys I swear I'm a pro gamer!

One of my biggest complaints for SSHD is that it doesn't let you fully customize controls. Just bc I like to use motion controls for the combat doesn't mean I want to use motion controls for swimming, flying, controlling the beetle etc etc.

Anyways, can I say just how gorgeous this game is? And it's an HD upscaled port of a late Wii game, which still looks nice (albeit slightly crusty) today. I just think it's a shame that the painterly filter applied on more distant objects is a lot more subtle in the Switch version and like, I get it, the Switch is more powerful than the Wii but it still sucks. Aside from that, this game has an absolutely stellar art direction. It's so good, even if some of the character designs can be weird. Personally, I love them.

This game has some fantastic dungeons, some of which may be my favourite in all of the Zelda games I've played so far. Lanayru Mining Facility, Ancient Cistern and Sandship are the ones I find the most memorable, I absolutely LOVED the timeshift mechanic in Lanayru Mining Facility and Sandship, hell I loved the part leading up to Sandship. Sailing in the desert, shifting the sand to actual water was really cool.

My favourite item in this game has to be the beetle, not only is it cool but it incentivizes exploring in a uniquely different way! I hope there'll be more of it in the future games (I've not played BotW as of writing this).

And the characters, gosh I love them. Well, I mostly mean Link himself, Zelda, Groose, Impa, Old One, and ofc, Ghirahim. This game definitely has my fav incarnation of Link so far. I love how dorky he is while still having a slightly snarky streak, and isn't afraid of being angry. I also love this game's incarnation of Zelda, and she's my fav incarnation of her alongside Spirit Tracks Zelda. I think making Link and Zelda actual childhood friends and lovers in this game was a fantastic decision and I love their dynamic so much. I knew going into this game that Groose would go through character development and that he was a fan favourite for this reason, and yeah he's absolutely one of my fav Zelda characters now. His character development is so good and I love what it stands for. SS Impa is probably the coolest version of Impa so far. And oh boy Ghirahim. My favourite Zelda villain. The ending of the game made me emotional, this is the definitely the best ending to a Zelda game yet in terms of story. The story in Skyward Sword isn't anything groundbreaking, but the character writing is solid. The stakes being more personal this time around also really adds to it.

Skyward Sword also has my favourite enemy/combat theme so far, and it's cool how it's used as a base for one of the Lizalfos battle themes. It's hype as hell. Skyward Sword OST is all around really solid. That staff roll theme evokes so many feelings.

And one more thing. KOLOKTOS! Just Koloktos. I need more Zelda bosses like this.

Unfortunately, while I had mostly a good time playing this game, there are some things that bogged down the experience for me. Fi is one of them, but not in the way many experienced her back in the day, as for those who didn't know, the Switch version removes a lot of mandatory encounters and dialogue boxes, including ones for Fi. For me, she just felt really flat and not really taken advantage of. While she didn't annoy me too much the section before Fire Sanctuary felt particularly insulting, where she just straight up tells you to get water dragon's basin made me scratch my head. Why would you tell me something like this instead of letting me figure it out? Or just give me a clue that leads to the basin? Like something past Zelda games would usually do? There were a few times she popped up where she didn't annoy me, but insult my intelligence. It's one of the worst things a game could do, especially in a long running series like Zelda where players are used to running in circles.

The sky is also particularly disappointing. It felt half baked and barren. I wish there were more towns up there and not just Skyloft. Flying controls are also really bad I think, and not just bc they're motion based when you choose to play with motion controls. Even when you play with buttons, the flying still feels clumsy. It's tight, but you can't do anything like take sharp turns or do cool tricks up in the sky. This makes a particular boss battle rather annoying.

There were also a few times where the difficulty felt all over the place though it may have just been me.

The one thing in the game that really got to me however was the padding towards the end. I was actually starting to get fatigued by the time I finally beat the game. Also fuck that Scrapper escort mission. And god fuck the imprisoned. Stupid dinosaur and his stupid jellybean toes and fingers.

I dreaded Silent Realms though I found in the end that they weren't THAT bad, but stealth still gets to me (and I also used a guide on those bc stealth just gets that badly to me LOL). Eldin bokoblin stealth was really pushing it though, but the tadtone gathering actually kinda killed me on the inside. I was so relieved by Lanayru not being anything like these and actually being somewhat cool and fun, but honestly. Sometimes, less is more.

I do agree that it kinda sucks that the game only has like three or four kinds of environments. They're all really beautiful but yeah. The game's extreme linearity didn't bother me too much though I can see it souring potential replays. I also find it strange that there isn't an area on the surface in this game that would basically become Hyrule field later on. Lack of fast travel also really hurts this game, and I find it so strange that there aren't hidden passageways leading to other areas. Imagine exploring Eldin Volcano and bombing an inconspicuous looking wall, discovering a cave and entering it, ending up in Faron Woods. I wish this game had that. I love finding weird shortcuts in older Zelda games. I'm currently replaying Twilight Princess and bombed a rock in a pool of water behind Kakariko Graveyard, entered the cave which was behind the rock and ended up in Lake Hylia. Why doesn't Skyward Sword have any of that?

The final boss was so... underwhelming. It feels like it's missing a phase or two, although I guess it's that way bc of the final Ghirahim battle and just a lot going on, but man I really wish the devs had cut out that padding and instead used the development time to flesh out the sky and the final boss battle.

Despite all of this... I still went out of my way to get all gratitude crystals, and I think I even may have found all of the goddess cubes. I even thought about getting all of the heart containers but after playing the Fun Fun Island minigame... I decided I was good LOL

Skyward Sword is a messy game. The Switch version improves many aspects and introduces a more traditional control scheme as well, making the game far more accessible, but it doesn't fix the fundamental design of the game. There's still an ungodly amount of padding towards the end and while it didn't make me feel nowhere the same way I felt when I was reaching the end of XC2, I was still starting to get enough of the game, though not quite completely fatigued. Although I have some gripes with this game and believe I'll be annoyed by some things if I were to replay it... I still can't help but look at this game with some fondness. I'm actually a little bit sad I'm not playing it anymore. I looked at the screencaps I took when I beat the game and I felt emotional again. Ocarina of Time makes me emotional too, but Skyward Sword does it in a different way. I hear that staff roll theme and I feel so moved.

Man I just can't help but think fondly of this game despite its flaws. Hard to recommend unless you're a diehard Zelda fan, or just someone really curious about its game design as I think it's a rather interesting case study in that department.

anyways Ghirahim is my new fav Zelda villain and he lives rent free in my head now

[mrneighbourlove]

The Mask over the Man. The Demon over the Beast. Majora over Ganon.

I love both these villains. The N64 was my first console I delved deep into, and Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask introduced me to two of my favourite villains in gaming. Today though, I want to delve into why I see one of these characters as the superior ‘villain’. Just my opinion, but I hope to share my case strongly and passionately. I’ll go over each character, than why I believe that one reigns over the other, even if ever so slightly.

Ganon

The King of Evil. The King of Darkness. And the Great Calamity of Hyrule. I love the pig demon. His constant presence in the Legend of Zelda series cannot be ignored. Gameplay wise, he can be so much fun to fight against in the final battle for the sake of the world. Doesn’t matter if you fight him as a wolf, if he’s a wizard, or just a mighty beast. Story wise is where a have a slip with him. Ganon set the standard for me in the ‘Dark Lord’ archetype, however, he can sometimes feel simplistic in that regard, simply wishing to conquer the world. And as the beast, barring perhaps Link to the Past, he lacks any real character. It’s also unfortunate that most of the time you meet him, you defeat him immediately afterwards. The best he’s ever been as a threat to me, was in Breath of the Wild.

Calamity Ganon

This is Ganon as almost a force of nature. No real conscious we can see, having thrown away any shell of a man for hatred and malice. What really makes this Ganon work, is the relationship you *rediscover* with the old champions, and feeling the heartache at knowing they’re dead. The fact that it festered in Hyrule for over a century, is highly impressive. But the biggest complaint people had (and why everyone is going crazy over the mummified corpse of MummyDorf) is that because Calamity Ganon was just pure hatred, we lacked the relationship of the three Triforce users seen in past games. Which leads me talking about the man, the legend, the best part of Ganon.

Ganondorf

Making Ganon into Ganondorf did wonders for the character. His goals became more relatable, because we as humans can relate with another human being, or at the very least, understand the goal. Hailing from the Gerudo desert, there are two Ganondorf’s that I want to pick out. The Wind Waker split, and the Twilight Princess split. In Ocarina of Time, Ganondorf is the best evil conquer he’s ever been, even without the long locks of Hyrule Warriors. He set out with a long purpose goal to take the Triforce and conquer the world. And he was the main focus as a villain. Ganondorf was also young, and brash. He had a flair, which made him a fantastic villain. He truly appeared to be the King of Evil. Upon his defeat, he gave a loud speech of getting revenge, very classic villain monologue. The next game we saw him was Wind Waker. I feel confident in saying that despite not seeing too much of him, this is the best Ganondorf becomes as a character. He’s far more relaxed in his evil plot. The man goes out of his way to make sure his kidnaped girls aren’t hurt, and when dealing with both Link and Zelda, he gets straight to the point with them, yet, he doesn’t kill them. And up until the end, he still has an air of menace when he wishes to be theatric, despite having more experience and wisdom. After the frightful Puppet Ganon fight, you learn why Ganondorf set out for power in the first place. His people suffered under the desert heat of day, and the icy cold nights. In his own words, the winds carried death. His desire for the Triforce was to bring back the old land of Hyrule. Despite what might have happened after he brought back the land, Ganondorf wanted to *restore* the old land of Hyrule from under the sea. That’s almost heroic. You emphasize with him. Which I argue diminished his villainous qualities in exchange for a more flushed out character. He only tries to kill Link and Zelda after his wish is denied and he snaps into insanity.

Then there’s Twilight Princess Ganondorf. A really cool Ganondorf. His design is awesome, I love his boss fights gameplay wise and musically, but this is one of the Ganon’s I’d place into the ‘cockblock’ section of Ganons. Real talk, I don’t think I’ve ever mentioned this, but I really like Zant as a villain. He was incredibly intimidating until you face him in the realm of Twilight. His relationship with Midna was interesting, and he carried a cool air not seen before. He was chill... until the very end into his sudden crazy decent. I feel that both Ganondorf and Zant suffer because of the formers sudden conclusion. Each character lost time in the game that could have been used to develop them more. Zant could have had more time to develop into madness as the final boss, or Ganondorf could have been established from the beginning, instead of being diet OOT Ganondorf. His evil goal of placing the world into Twilight didn’t have any drastic changes to the world either. Civilians didn’t even notice the danger they were in. At least OOT Ganon ruled Hyrule for 7 years, and Calamity Ganon was around for 100 years. When Ganondorf takes away time from other villains, it makes him a weaker villain as well. Which is why the Mask stood tall in such a unique story.

Majora

The entity of Majora’s Mask stands out to me as something insidious and inhuman. Unlike Ganondorf, you can’t identify with an unblinking Mask like you can a human being. It stands out as a villain that doesn’t need Ganon in its story or to take his form. The duel relationship with Skull Kid is interesting, as Skull Kid isn’t entirely innocent in his actions, but the transition Majora takes over Skull Kid makes you wonder who’s control until the very end. In my recent play through, I just discovered this, but in Day 1 or 2, the Skull Kid will do a little dance when you spot him in the telescope, and once you look back, he spanks his ass at you and jumps away. However, at Day 3, his head is sideways, looking at you, and constantly twitching, rooted to his spot. It’s like Majora is a drug to Skull Kid that has finally caught up. And that’s a terrible fate to think about.

What stands out to me the most about Majora over Ganon, is the stakes as a hero. First, looking at the world. Ganondorf ruled Hyrule for 7 years, yet villages like Kakariko are still around. The world hasn’t been ruined. Even with Calamity Ganon having been around for 100 years, he’s in a prison with Zelda, and civilization keeps ticking by. The moment you enter the world of Termina and you look to the sky, you can see Majora’s immediate tool of armageddon.

The Moon

This rock in the sky slowly falls to the Earth over a period of three days. The stakes are felt immediately. You either stop Majora from crashing the moon into Termina, or you burn with the rest of the world. Swept away by a wall of fire compered to an atomic bomb. If the ticking timer doesn’t remind you of your duty, the earthquakes on the third day, then looking to the sky will. Another peek of interest for me in the camp of villainy, is the people you meet along the way. The world of Termina is full of colourful characters that Link meets throughout his adventure. From Tatl to Pamela and her Father, you get heavily invested with them. And they all are aware of the danger of the moon. Almost all are directly or indirectly affected by the Skull Kid and the power of Majora that he immaturely wields. Mikau is killed by Gerudo pirates because they were influenced by Skull Kid to steal the Zora eggs. Areas such as the Woodfall Swamp, Snowhead mountains and Ikana Valley are cursed due to the Monsters Majora unleashes after sealing the giants away. Kafei is cursed into a child directly by Skull Kid and has his wedding mask stolen by a thief as a result. Cremina, god willing that you save her sister Romani from the “Ghosts”, drugs her sister with alcoholic milk so she sleeps through the destruction of the world. The acts of villainy Majora does ripple big and small. With Ganondorf and Ganon, you are given free room to take your time, you lose very little allies, and you have Zelda backing you up most of the time in a battle of destiny. With Majora, however, Zelda is no way involved, many people you meet die and suffer, some you can’t save even with rewinding time, and if you don’t stop the villain, he isn’t going to reshape the world, or control it in his own image, it’s going to destroy it. That is terrifying. Ganon has never truly terrified me. He’s just too human enough, and his villainous acts have never put me on edge. Unlike the champions of Breath of the Wild who you are avenging, the people of Termina are here and now, and that puts so much more tension on me.

Ganondorf is a great villain, but the inhuman characteristics of an entity that wanted to destroy all left a bigger impression on me. When you finally defeat Majora and save everyone you can correctly and within the time you’re given, including Skull Kid I might add, the credits feel so amazing because you truly saved the world, but more importantly, you saved the people that inhabit it. Defeating Ganon as a villain is a battle of destiny. Defeating Majora is a battle for everyone’s tomorrow.

[princess-of-the-corner]

 I heard about new mlp episodes and I have several questions. 

First off, did we really just get a bunch of new characters dumped in? We just ended the last series with dumping in several new characters. Not to mention they made the Movie Canon(but not EQG for some reason!), which also has a ton of new characters. Okay, I guess the celebrity voice cast isn’t a maintainable option, but they could do something. I know Hasbro has to get it’s toy sales, but come on guys. I think you have plenty you can work with, in both toys and characters to make stories for. 

Continuing on, is this new set going to be new main characters? You can’t just introduce a new, large group like this and have them tag along on every episode. Either it’ll go back to the original cast and everyone goes ‘uh, what about the new guys?’, or you focus on the new ones and let the old ones fade back into the secondary cast. Which, I mean, at that point why not do some kind of full reboot or even just a timeskip?

I also have several problems with the story in general. It’s been a problem for a while now, but this episode made it pretty blatant of “all the non-ponies don’t know about Friendship! None of them have friends, so they’re all jackasses!”. Which is, to be blatant, pretty fucking impossible. They don’t have friends? Not even just ‘oh, our inter-species relationships are bad’, but legit they don’t have friends even within their home country? 

How- How do they function as a society? You can’t love without some kind of friendship, you can’t have a healthy family without some form of friendship. What I’m saying is that, as presented, the population of these countries should be the most fucked up assholes possible, if they hadn’t already killed eachother off!

I don’t even get what they’re trying to do there? You can introduce characters, and even have them be going through a Friendship Problem, without saying ‘they know nothing about friendship at all’. You even could’ve had this episode without that plot point! I mean, if Ponies, who ‘already know about friendship, unlike everyone else’, can still go to Friendship School, why not other creatures know Friendship but strive to learn more about it?

That said, if you’re going to dump characters on us, can we have a Crystal Pony character? You have an entire Empire of them, yet they’re only backup background Ponies. Do any of them have names we heard on-screen and not from looking in the credits/merchandising? Also more Zebras! We still haven’t seen any other than Zecora! Or Diamond Dogs! Or Buffalo! Or the Cats and Parrots from the movie! Or Minotaurs! Or other Sirens! Holy fuck I just realized how many sapient races they shoved in this show. My point still stands though. Y’all should’ve developed any of these before you tossed in Yaks. 

Side note, ‘Everycreature’? Look, ‘Everypony’ was already pointless since everyone/everybody works just fine. Why not just switch to those words? 

However, I feel like the biggest problem is the original cast in this episode. 

The other five usually would’ve been more assertive when they saw how downhill it was going. And, like, when Twilight was all depressed, they were converted to their most basic of character traits to try and cheer her up, even though they all know better! Rainbow: “get the fuck up!”, AJ: “Eating apples makes me feel better!”, Fluttershy: “Here, hug a bunny!”, Rarity: “I bet a pretty dress would cheer you up!”, Pinkie: “Party Time!”. Again, these characters know better by now, and have been legitimately helpful and comforting, and also call each other out on things! 

Instead, we get Starlight doing the ‘tell you what you need to hear, not what you want to hear’ bit. Which, okay, I like Starlight well enough. I kind of want to rewrite her first villain episodes(I have a long rant on how the first ones went far to make her a villain, but had her turn around in a mater of seconds), but she’s been doing good and progressing well enough. Even so, Starlight is not the one who should’ve done this for several reasons. Partly because the rest of the cast should’ve done that. 

And then we have Celestia. Like... okay. Celestia’s ‘uselessness’ in major situations before were explainable. It used to be that she was disconnected from the Elements of Harmony, so she couldn’t use them to save the day. Then it was the dangers either overpowering her or getting the jump on her(Sometimes both.). The second excuse was weak, but hey, if you want Twilight and crew to beat the villain, you need to have them take out the sort-of-goddess so she doesn’t go in guns, er, horn blazing. 

But this episode could’ve showed Celestia off as a Leader, as Princess! When everything goes sideways and all the other leaders are bickering all to hell, she could’ve been the one to smack some sense into them! That is literally part of her job description! Diplomacy! Just have her go “Okay guys, I know you’re pissed. How about we put aside the fight to find the missing students? Then you can talk it out with them.”. But no, she just sits back and tells Twilight to do it. Fucking hell! Who thought old ass memes of characterization would come true!

Also, back to new characters, I have concerns over that villain pony. I forgot his name, but I’m calling him “Dr. Dracula Strange”. My concern isn’t over his potential villainy in the future. Oh no. However, remember that thing I said about Starlight’s time as a villain? How they spent their time making her the worst, most irredeemable pony and then shoved a ‘tragic backstory’ in and had her change her mind in three seconds? I’m scared that they’re going to pull that with this racist fuck. Partly because of story, but also partly because the racism angle hits a bit closer to reality compared to “Unicorn accidentally starts a cult, and then causes timeline fuckery”, so I say let’s just toss the guy in a cell with Tirek and not go the redemption arc route with this one. And that’s coming from me, who loves redemption arcs! You need to give a character redeemable traits if you want them to become a good guy. 

Another thing! It’s not really a complaint but, seriously? “Not even a princess can do whatever she likes when it comes to shaping young pony minds.”. Er, I hate to break it to y’all, but that’s kind of the definition of what she can do! Celestia is the Immortal leader of the country and the one making the laws. If she wanted to, she could make laws on anything. Of course, you do need to draw the line before going full tyrant, but still. Tia’s got a bit more power in this situation. 

TBH, I’m very glad that I already decided that my universe/fanart/fanfics are officially Canon Divergent as of a while ago. 

[midnaslamnent]

Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild Review

FYI - this will not be spoiler free. I don’t want anyone venturing into my review expecting me to only critique graphics or rave over the nostalgia I had with other games. I am including my entire review of the game under the read more. 

Breath of the Wild is easily one of the best games that I have ever played. It was an endless adventure from start to finish. One of the complaints that many people have had for Skyward Sword is that they felt that for parts of the game you have your hand held too much. There is not enough freedom to decide how the storyline is going to move along or all the different ways to figure out a sidequest. Breath of the Wild is created in a fashion that you only are really being guided or having your hand held in the Great Plateau area (which is the first area). You have to complete four shrines before you can venture on quests across the rest of the area. I liked the easement into playing Breath of the Wild because when you begin in the Great Plateau region you do not encounter many difficult enemies. You just have to fend yourself from some bokoblins, and there’s one or two guardians that don’t pose much threat.

I wanted to begin my review of the game by explaining my general feel for the game. I’m going to delve deeper into my feelings about different parts of the game in the little categories below.

Storyline

I loved the story of Breath of the Wild. It was weaved together so artistically. The memories really gave you insight into how the war progressed 100 years ago. You also learn how each of the characters viewed Link as the hero, and he had to earn everyone’s respect. That reminded a lot of Twilight Princess or Ocarina of Time. There are characters living in Hyrule don’t want to admit that Link could be the hero to save them because he’s so ordinary. Now that 100 years have passed, most of the characters seemed to have given up on thinking that there’s a hero coming. The only tribes that immediately recognize you as being the champion are the Zora because they remember you from 100 years ago. The other tribes or races are very questionable of Link because they think he could be the enemy in disguise. 

I loved the fact that they pulled technology into Breath of the Wild, and they used it as Hyrule’s downfall. It connected to Skyward Sword’s Lanayru region where all the ancient robots and technology advances had ended up coming to their own downfall. It kinda endorses that lesson that you should not mess around with things that you do not understand fully. The guardians and divine beasts were easily taken over by Ganon which led to terrible fate that happened 100 years ago. Link and the champions died as a resultant of the collective failure. 

Part of me wishes that Ganon had taken the form of Ganondorf again. Ah, I loved Ganondorf and his dialogue. Ganon was still a great enemy don’t get me wrong, but there’s always the epic villain dialogue with Ganondorf. I thought that the ending of Breath of the Wild foreshadowed a future game following it that would be coming. The idea that evil is really never finished which was great I loved that part. It is something that has been a theme in all the Zelda games. Evil has not been finished for eternity, and there will be a temporary peace. This is true for Ocarina of Time to Twilight Princess because Link is the descendent of the Hero of Time and there is not a 1000 year time period between the two games at all. It’s probably within the timespan of 100 years. 

I’ll probably be one of the few people to admit that I found the ending not to be that epic. There’s so much build for the ending of the game and I just felt that it wasn’t as fulfilling of an ending. It was just so abrupt and the game just ends with “Do you really remember me?” I find it really sweet, but I guess I wish there was more pulling in of the other characters into the ending besides Link and Zelda. I love the ending to Twilight Princess because it really leaves you heartbroken over Midna, and the player is able to imagine what might have occurred as a result to the characters affected. I’m not insinuating this is the worst ending of all time, but it seemed like a let down. My feelings are probably subject to change on this matter. 

Characters

I thought a lot of the characters in this game were a lot more complex than they have been in past games. I’ve heard one of the biggest complaints about Princess Zelda being too “emotionless” or too “selfless”. In Breath of the Wild, the creators decided to explore a different side of her personality that I would probably say is left out in the games. Zelda has struggles and she’s easily frustrated by her own failures. She still has the signature Princess Zelda traits, but they added those traits that we often miss from her character. 

I loved all the Champions (even Revali). I did not think of them as carbon copies of old Zelda characters that the creators felt like referencing again. Mipha is far different from Ruto in her mannerisms and the way she speaks. Daruk is not another Darunia or Darmani. He may be a Goron hero, but he doesn’t exhibit the same characteristics as either of those two leaders. Revali probably had the most annoying personality of all of the champions, but he grows on you over time. I think Revali is a lot easier to relate to because he really wants to be the best (cue the Pokemon theme song), but he’s not the chosen one. He’s struggling to handle that which inevitably leads to him treating Link in a depreciating manner. Urbosa doesn’t really have any resemblance to Nabooru for me besides her being a great Gerudo leader. 

I don’t think I’ll be the first to say it, but I loved the Yiga clan. I thought it was so fun to encounter any of the members as you walked along the paths in the game. I encountered a Yiga clan member before I even realized there was a Yiga clan in the game because I had not interacted with Impa about it. Once you get into the Haunted Wasteland region, you get to interact with the Yiga clan hideout. I loved sneaking into the hideout and throwing bananas to trick the Yiga clan members. A signature trait of the Zelda games is giving all the enemies these odd quirks, which for the Yiga clan is their weakness for bananas. You might think that the Yiga clan leader would be intimidating and strong, but nope he’s the complete opposite. In deeper analyzation, you do realize how evil the clan is, but you can still look at the clan as the jokester enemies.

Gameplay

Breath of the Wild had one of the smoothest graphics and gameplay that I’ve ever played. The coolest part of the game I thought was the ability to see so much distance. You could really picture yourself inside the game witnessing all this beautiful scenery from the side of the mountain you’re climbing. I think one of my favorite parts of playing the game was being able to run and move the camera to the front of Link and watch the Guardians begin to chase after Link. I honestly think the Guardians are one of the coolest additions to this Zelda game. 

Overall, I do not have really any complaints about a majority of the enemies in the game. Most of them appeared really difficult to beat if you did not have the correct weapons or shields. Lynels were easily the most difficult enemy to defeat in the open world portion of the game. I didn’t beat my first one until I had beaten all four divine beasts. Once I got the barbarian clothing set and got strong weapons, it was a lot easier to attempt to kill all these enemies. 

My biggest complaint regarding the gameplay was the glitching. The Kokiri Forest where the master sword is located had the most beautiful graphics in the entire game. It was probably the glitchiest area on the entire map as well. As much as I loved the forest, I did not want to stay in any glitching region on the map, so I would spend the least amount of time in the forest as I could. 

However, that was not the most annoying glitch in the entire game. The red moon was a nice idea to just have the enemies regenerate every few game days at midnight. This way the creators had an excuse to respawn the enemies. When I was playing the game probably every day a month or so ago, my game got to the point where the red moon would randomly spawn in the middle of the day. It would be 3 p.m. in the game and I just finished defeating all these enemies and they would suddenly respawn. This means I lost all my rewards and have my heart container refilled. Once I stopped playing the game so frequently, the glitching had eventually stopped. It was still a glitch that should not have been as bad as it was.

Voice Acting

This was probably one of my least favorite parts of the game. I’m not really big into voice acting for video games to begin with. I like to imagine the voices myself, and often times, I find myself annoyed with the voices gaming companies choose for characters. If anyone reads any of my posts, then they know that Princess Zelda is one of my favorite characters of all time. In Breath of the Wild, I found myself more off put by her character, which is mainly due to the voice actress they chose. It appeared that they wanted her to have this royal, sort of posh voice which just came off annoying because of how forced it sounded. I thought most of the other voices were fine and fit the characters to an extent, and it would have been fine if they had gotten another voice actress for Zelda. 

Clothing & Cooking

I loved all the different outfits you could receive in the game. I got a good portion of them, but I did not max out all the clothing options. My favorite outfit is the tunic for the Hero of the Wild because it’s the signature Link outfit for all the games. That was probably the hardest outfit to max up in levels, and you can’t get it until you finish every single shrine in the game (there’s 120 of them). I really liked using Barbarian armor because your attack went up with that entire outfit. Of course, the champion’s tunic is one of my favorites as well. I think there really isn’t an outfit I disliked in this game. I loved dressing Link in traditional Gerudo garb when he needed to get into the Forbidden City. Oooh, the dark link outfit is sooo cool just based off the looks, but your night speed increases by a ton. It’s so nice.

Anyway, the cooking in this game was nice because you didn’t have to cut a bunch of grass to get hearts. You could make these really healthy meals that would max out all your heart containers and give you extra hearts. Creating elixirs was a great addition to the game because you can’t consume meals when your hearts are maxed out. However, most elixirs do not give back hearts so they just increase your your speed or defense up a level or two. The elixirs last as long as the time that’s associated with them and it’s not game speed hours- it’s real time. The combination of clothing and cooking made this game so fun. I still felt bad for killing the animals in Breath of the Wild despite it being a critical component of the game.

[baphijmm]

Super Mario Odyssey: Initial Reactions

So, I'd been saving up for a little bit, but I'd been having difficulty bringing myself to actually buy a Nintendo Switch. I'm not a fan of Splatoon; I don't tend to like party games (and don't have any friends to play them with, besides); the only game I'd been even remotely interested in on the system was Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, but lately I just don't have the time to play a game like that, entertaining as it may appear to be. (And it looks phenomenal, and I fully intend to play it at some point in the future, but I digress.) Fact is, the library simply hasn't been there to justify the admittedly rather large investment.

I'd still be making that argument had I not walked into the local game store Saturday evening and they flat-out told me they had Switches in stock. See, that was the other issue with the console: They simply haven't been available. You had to be a product reviewer or a close personal friend of Reggie Fils-Aimé to get your hands on one. Nintendo has this really poor marketing philosophy that intends to drum up demand, but all it does is drive that demand to competitors --- including scalpers, who turn around and sell a nonexistent console for massive profit, none of which Nintendo sees. But, that's a rant for another day.

So, they had a Switch, and I had the capital. It seemed as fitting a time as any. And with that purchase, I also obtained a copy of Super Mario Odyssey, the only other game on the console to pique my interest: It had just come out, so, that was the trifecta.

Some backstory: The last Mario game I'd actually gotten excited about was Super Mario Sunshine. I enjoyed Super Mario Galaxy, and Super Paper Mario had great gameplay (if a mediocre story, given the hype), but... that was it. I didn't much care for New Super Mario Bros. or any of its various incarnations and reincarnations; Super Marios 3D Land and World were playable, but nothing really special, at least to me.

Odyssey, I wasn't really sure what to expect: It clearly looked like a return to the 3D Mario formula with the added twist of Cappy, but beyond that, I hadn't really seen much. I knew nothing of the story, nothing of the actual gameplay, barely anything about the system: Which is exactly what I like going into a new Mario game. Completely blind, not knowing what to expect.

I don't want to spoil anything, but fact is, at this point I really can't spoil much; I've been enjoying exploring the first few areas so much, I've not progressed the story hardly at all. THAT, my friends, THAT is the halmark of a good Mario game: That I can pick it up, and enjoy it. It's loads of fun to just wander around the Kingdoms, looking for shit to do. It's a touch frustrating when you find something obvious, but the game forces you to come back later to accomplish that item, which this game does a surprising amount; however, it's bearable.

No, my biggest complaint thus far has to do with the controls. I don't mind motion controls; hell, I loved Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess on the Wii, with just the Wiimote and the nunchuk. But here... This game feels more like the motion controls were shoehorned in because they felt like they needed to be there, and then they made certain actions only performable via those motion controls. It comes across as sloppy, and if you prefer to play platformers with a rigid controller as I do, it makes the game a lot less fun to have to sit there and consciously shake the whole controller around just to get Mario to do the thing.

This probably wouldn't be so bad if the Joy-Cons were designed a little differently. I know, the idea was that you could use the two that came in the box for two-player party games, and so they needed to have the same sort of controls on both, but that really doesn't work so well when, in a platformer, you're controlling Mario's movement with one hand, the camera with the other, and then trying to use the camera control hand to make him jump and/or toss Cappy, while trying to keep the camera behaving (which is next to impossible in the Deep Woods, seriously), AND trying to use the LZ button on the first controller to get him to do anything with any sort of urgency? It's too much for two separate hands. (The size and weight of the controllers doesn't help this.)

Which brings me to my other complaint about controls: The speed. Mario walks at a decent pace, sure, but these worlds are huge. Many times, it's just easier to have him roll, or long jump, both of which are accomplished with the LZ button and either the jump or throw button. I understand, with Cappy's mechanics, they couldn't make the throw button also be the run button (as had been done in previous Mario titles), because you need to be able to hold Cappy in place in certain situations where you do not want to be running; that much, I'm okay with. But then, the LZ button is also the button used to release Mario/Cappy's control of other creatures.

This is especially problematic with Bullet Bills.

In the Sand Kingdom, without going into too much detail, there are many large crevaces that Mario must cross by "capturing" a Bullet Bill and flying over. While controlling other creatures, the Y button --- which is the throw button in every other instance --- is the accelerate button, and Bullet Bills are no exception. As stated before, LZ releases the creature, dropping Mario wherever it happens to be.

I died a good handful of times because I was trying to make Mario go faster as Bullet Bill, and used the LZ button to do so.

You can't change up what button allows your character to accelerate, especially if the alternative causes him to plunge to his death!

BUT. In spite of all that, it's still a fantastically fun game. Like I said, the exploration in it is just phenomenal, and you really feel good about finding the various Power Moons (this game's version of Stars, or Shine Sprites) and hidden Purple Coins scattered everywhere.

The Purple Coins are an interesting and fun mechanic, that I feel add another layer to the game: Each Kingdom has its own form, and those found in one Kingdom cannot be used in another. These coins are used to purchase new costumes and souvenirs for each area, completely optional (unless you want to get to the final area, I'm told), but still loads of fun. Each area has enough Purple Coins to buy exactly everything in that Kingdom, so it's a good challenge to find them all.

You can also buy things with regular coins, another relatively new mechanic, at least for the main-line Mario games. The items you can buy with regular coins are fairly consistent across all Kingdoms, and are wholly different from those you can buy with Purple Coins. If nothing else, you can pretty consistently find a Power Moon for sale in each Kingdom, for regular coins.

Another big change in this game: You don't have lives. Rather, each time you die, you lose ten (regular) coins. I'm not sure what happens when you die without that many, as it's pretty easy to make them back; if you died such that you hadn't fallen off the level, those ten coins are exactly where you had died, meaning you can even scavenge your own things if you can manage to survive doing so. This gives the game a much more free feel, as you're not constantly worried about losing all your lives and having to start all over; further, the way the game is structured, starting over in any given Kingdom would be devastating, as the whole thing is free-flow, rather than the level-style areas of previous 3D Mario titles. (Personally, I like this new style.)

So, in conclusion: Fantastic game, loads of fun, but would greatly benefit from an altered control scheme. (Maybe make use of the... geez, nine other buttons that either don't do anything or are mapped to the same command, maybe?)

[panpanpanini]

Thoughts on MLP The Movie: Unpopular Opinion Edition

(I made a small post about this a few weeks ago, closer to when the movie premiered, but now that the hype has kind of fizzled out I thought I’d take the time to fuss more in-depth.)

So... I really thought the MLP movie was bad.  Terrible.  I had sooo many problems with it, so where do I start?

Warning: SPOILERS AHEAD!! 

My two biggest complaints are:

1) The movie didn’t hold up in terms of quality-- nevermind MLP expectations, it was just a bad movie in general.

2) Target demographic was noticeably shifted (downwards), especially when compared to the show.

Let me start by saying I’m not at all notorious even among friends for being this grouchy, self-elevated, overreaching entertainment critic/analyst.  I can enjoy most things at face value, ie. MLP.  I despise fanaticism (not fandom, fanaticism), and I’m long past the mindset that if I like something, I have to be blindly uncritical of it.  

Please also note that I have not read the movie prequels or supporting media, and I went into this movie with only limited knowledge of those materials.

*deep breath*

(1) So, starting from the top: “It was just a bad movie in general.”

Visually, the movie barely held up for me.  Anyone who’s even had a basic flash animation class knows about this thing called ‘motion tweening:’ it’s an optimized process for creating movement, with which you can set a path for objects to move and deform as opposed to painstakingly animating each frame one by one.  It’s a much quicker process, but the (immediate) result often looks way more mechanical than its traditional counterpart and can often come off as... soulless, or even lazy.  It was unbelievably easy to notice this throughout the movie and it was a huge distraction for me.

You can more easily see what I’m talking about here.

As a side note, I was never really on board with the ToonBoom style from the get-go; I eventually got used to it, but I was never able to totally immerse myself in it-- the whole tweening thing just cemented my dislike for it.  

Continuing my comments on style, the new character designs were interesting, but... so many of them felt too disconnected from established MLP universe conventions.   In fact, the only ones I could only get on board with were the hippogriffs (with a preference towards their seapony forms).  My biggest problem with them has to lay in the fact that nearly all of the new characters-- background and supporting-- were bipedal, when in-show nearly every new race introduced has been on all fours like our titular ponies... and to add insult to injury, so many of them had hands!  Their designs just felt too distant for me to connect that they live in the same world as our pony heroes.  

Note: I realize most of these creatures inhabit lands self-defined by Celestia to be ‘beyond Equestria,’ but that doesn’t dismiss that they still felt like they belonged in a movie not prefaced with ponies.

(Tempest is a little different.  She was visually darker than most ponies than we’re used to seeing, and to the surprise of nobody the poster child for edgy pony OCs, complete with the perfect voice.  Unfortunately, her intimidating demeanor was sometimes too much for me, as it’s much more *effectively* threatening than what we’re used to seeing in-show-- the closest being the Shadow Pony in the S7 finale.)

On a more positive note, I really enjoyed the new environments.  Just the fact that we had new locations to begin with was endearing already, but unlike a lot of the other stuff (see above) they were on par with what I was expecting from MLP on the big screen.  I seriously think the environments had more character/place in the MLP universe than most of the (we’ll call them NPCs) NPCs that occupied them.

Speaking of character, I can forego most of what I’ve talked about above in lieu of a good story (spoilers: the story wasn’t even all that fresh, it was predictable and full of classic kid’s movies tropes).  What I can’t ignore is blatant out-of-character writing.

“But Salt Mom, if you hate out-of-character writing, why are you still watching the show post-season five?” -Most Starlight Glimmer Opposition

As I mentioned at the start, I still enjoy the show at face value.  We’re seven seasons in; our beloved ponies have seen some noticeable character development over the years, which is what some people (perhaps those ruled by nostalgia for the earlier feel of the show) like to label ‘out-of-character writing.’  But the changes are justified by their development, which is why I don’t see it that way.  The movie, however, seems to completely forego character development and reduces them to (at times, vapid) caricatures of themselves and the out of character writing is now completely obvious to someone like me who doesn’t typically enjoy ponies through heavy analysis.  

Pinkie was by far the most glaring.  Pinkie is already one of my least favorite ponies, so maybe I’m biased here, but she was for the most part written as comic relief.  She wasn’t a pony Grubber-- she did play the part of ‘voice of reason’ in the climax with Twilight-- but she had an irritating tendency to completely downplay the seriousness of their situation, as they all did (she was just the most obvious, second being tied between Dash and Rarity).  Since when have they all been so naive?  Except for Twilight, all our heroes had minimal speaking roles (and even more damning, speaking roles with substance), most notably Fluttershy.   

Other problems included the princesses (once again) being victims of weak writing-- they’ve been proven to be capable of putting up more of a fight than we were shown, jeez!-- for the sake of putting the Mane 6 in the spotlight, probably something some people would call ‘forced progression’ (related: bad pacing).  

... Which leads into the movie’s general issue with logic.  

OH BOY.  I had so many issues with the movie logic.  As mentioned before... the ponies’ general naivety, their blatant disregard for the grim nature of their situation...  Capper betrays them, doesn’t explain his reasons, doesn’t get a proper chance to apologize, and our ponies are totally cool with him by the falling action sequence of the movie?  Celaeno’s crew (and similarly, the seaponies) is swayed into changing allegiances with a simple, three-minute song?  The Mane 6 add six or so characters to their posse and suddenly it’s possible to take back Canterlot, after being overwhelmed so easily in the beginning, when the princesses weren’t yet turned to stone?  Really?  How could Tempest-- a pony who comes off as smarter than the rest-- be so desperate to have her horn back that she couldn’t foresee the Storm King’s betrayal?   

*angry flailing motions*

In summary: the animation was mechanical, character designs suffered from a serious disconnect with established MLP canon, and everything from logic to pacing to character behavior suffered from bad, trope-y writing.

---

(2) “The movie demographic was shifted noticeably.”

(A lot of what I’ve addressed above can also be applied to this section of grievances.)

Very few times have I watched anything in general and walked away feeling like a real dumbass.  This was one of those times.  Everything from the humor, the songs, the logic (see above)... it all came together to make me feel dumbed down and like a huge moron for even buying a ticket.  Overall, it was extremely apparent to me that they’d knocked the target demographic down a few years, and that the movie was made with younger kids-- rather than families as a whole-- in mind.  

The brand of ‘humor’ (I use that term loosely) employed by the movie has to be the cringiest one in the book.  It was clear that it was the most vanilla one they could have gotten away with and I found myself rolling my eyes a lot because honestly, none of it was funny at all.  Grubber was purely on the screen for comic relief (we literally don’t see him again after the finale); Pinkie’s naivety was obviously supposed to be funny, as were Rarity’s trademark dramaticisms-- They got close sometimes to pulling a laugh, but then it just... fell short and wound up feeling more pathetic and forced than anything.  Was it even humorous to the kids? 

I laughed literally once during the entire movie, and that was at a very transparent marketing joke (perhaps not deliberate) made towards the beginning, after the Mane 6 fall from Canterlot and band together to decide how to proceed.  They end up saying something to the effect of “hungry, hungry, hippos” as they’re brainstorming and I chuckled because... Hungry Hungry Hippos is also a Hasbro property. 

I thought I might be able to find solace in some of the songs-- I’d heard SIA’s contribution in the days leading up to the movie and thoughts it was a decent tune-- but alas... They turned out to be completely vapid, with the sole exception of Tempest’s song.  Compared to the extensive library of songs we’ve gotten in the show, the lyrics and melodies we got in the movie were neither clever nor catchy (I recall thinking that rhyming schemes were nearly non-existent) and I found myself waiting with bated breath until they were over.  “Time to be awesome?”  Blegh.  Completely forgettable.

IDK.  Maybe I need to see the movie again to confirm my position with it; after all, I had already decided I didn’t really like it before the end of the first act.  For the better part of a year I couldn’t get away from the hype surrounding MLP The Movie, but when I finally saw it it didn’t deliver on the same level and ended up being a huge let-down.  It was lacking in a lot of things standard to its TV-counterpart, including what makes the in-show universe so appealing (lore, memorable songs, and magic), and if they end up putting out a sequel I hope it can bounce back in the same way EQG2 built on the shortcomings of its predecessor.  

That’s all I’ve got.  If you’ve managed to get this far, thanks for reading.  ✌

(Bonus) Things I would have liked to see: an entire pirate fleet (instead of a single crew); more Capper and time spent in Klugetown; more Storm King and the land he comes from; the hippogriffs actually doing something (isn’t Queen Novo supposed to be friends with Celestia?) to contribute to the finale, even if it was them swooping in just before the final fight.

[concentratedevil]

My Breath of the Wild impressions

The new Zelda is out and the hype for it has been... Well, typical of Zelda games. I remember people were declaring Twilight Princess as the best Zelda ever when it came out and months later after the hype died down, people came to their senses and admitted that it was just OK. Similarly, I've heard one hyperbolic statement after another in regards to Breath of the Wild. I read somebody say it's the best Zelda in 10 years, for instance. (Motherfuckers, did you play A Link Between Worlds?)

I initially wasn't going to buy the game since I wanted to wait and see and the launch day DLC was very souring. But I admit, I got sucked in to the hype a bit after watching some Twitch streams and reading a couple of reviews from people I've known to be critical of Zelda in the past.

I've put in quite a number of hours into the game -- enough to feel comfortable sharing my thoughts on it. Since this is a new kind of Zelda game, I thought it might be appropriate to compare it to the three most recent open world games that I loved to see how Nintendo stacks up. At the end, I'll also compare BotW to the rest of the Zelda games I've played. So let's start.

Graphics The Witcher III > Dragon Age: Inquisition > Metal Gear Solid V > Breath of the Wild

I mean, really? There's no comparison. Breath of the Wild looks like a very nice game for 2007, not 2017.

I'm guessing this game doesn't look better because the hardware (Wii U here) struggles to render the game as it is. I would like to have seen better lighting, better models, better textures, better view distances, better anti-aliasing, more lush environments, and generally more pizazz. Wandering a forest in a Zelda game should feel majestic. In BotW, it's nothing you haven't seen before. In fact, it’s pretty underwhelming compared to the forests in The Witcher III that come alive and react to the weather in astounding ways.

Plain as BotW is visually, it would still look far better with a higher resolution and better framerate. So here's hoping that Wii U/Switch emulation really comes along!

Music Dragon Age: Inquisition > The Witcher III > Metal Gear Solid V > Breath of the Wild

Here again, Breath of the Wild is a let down. There's really not much music in BotW. Unfortunately, it's mostly ambient instead of melodic. I remember how jazzed I was to hear the main theme when exploring in A Link to the Past and how hummable and memorable that score was. BotW is completely forgettable. I guess it's a good game to play while catching up on podcasts.

Story The Witcher III > Dragon Age: Inquisition > Breath of the Wild > Metal Gear Solid V

What's cool about Breath of the Wild is that the story is revealed to you as you play. Although the tutorial is still maybe one to two hours long depending on how quick you are, it doesn't feel like a tutorial because you're actually playing and exploring the game instead of talking to some dumb farmer about wrangling animals and having to slog through endlessly banal conversations like you would in Twilight Princess. (I hear Skyward Sword is even worse, but seeing as I abhor motion controls, I’ll probably never play it.)

Once you start getting the bits and pieces of the story, it's fairly good for a Zelda game. I'd argue that story only became a thing with Zelda games from Wind Waker on and so far I'm enjoying what I'm seeing.

Voice Acting The Witcher III > Dragon Age: Inquisition > Metal Gear Solid V > Breath of the Wild

This category is confusing. Nintendo is one of the biggest game companies out there, so wouldn't it make sense that they would have quality voice acting? Well... Breath of the Wild's voice acting ranges from poor to mediocre at best. It's also strange the King of Hyrule and Princess Zelda have different accents. Thankfully, not a lot of the game is voiced, but I would have rather this been an entirely text-based game if Nintendo wasn't going to make the effort in the first place. (Thankfully, it’s not Other M bad, however.)

Transportation Options/Exploration Metal Gear Solid V = Dragon Age: Inquisition = The Witcher III > Breath of the Wild

You know what sucks in Breath of the Wild? Horses. They're damn near useless. Unlike Roach in the Witcher III who magically appears near you whenever you whistle, in BotW you have to hope that your horse is close in the first place. If you're in a different part of the map, they won't even attempt to come to you. On top of that, there's a very annoying mechanic where you have to tame a horse and make them mind you by mashing L1 whenever you're riding them to build affection. So you have to deal with their disobedience and hope that they don't randomly decide to start running a random direction. (Yet random desert walruses behave just fine.) Oh, and your horses can die too. Yay!

The other thing that really sucks for exploring is your stamina meter. Nintendo thought it would be fun if you had to manage your stamina as you run about the massive world. So you can't always run and climb like you would like to because you're worried about maintaining your stamina instead of focusing on playing the game. It's a fun-killing mechanic to me.

Also why is there a run button in a 3D game? Super Mario 64 was smart enough to realize that the analog stick gives you all the range of movement you need, so why do so many modern games ignore this?

And fast travel works OK, but you can only travel to shrines and the regional watchtowers. You can't even travel directly to towns which kinda blows. It's not so bad though once you start collecting these points of interest, but it still takes quite a bit of time to walk from point A to point B -- especially since you can't run the entire way.

Overall The Witcher III > Metal Gear Solid V > Dragon Age: Inquisition > Breath of the Wild

As an open world game, I've played much better in the past year or two. But perhaps it's not really fair to compare them to Zelda. I wish Nintendo was as ambitious as CD Projekt Red, but that's sadly just a dream I have.

If Breath of the Wild were a PC game, I think I would like it way more since it would undoubtedly look better and I would immediately install mods that grant infinite weapon durability and infinite stamina since those two mechanics are super NOT FUN. A mod that makes horses useful and adding equipment storage would be great too.

As it is, stuck on two hardware systems that are woefully underpowered... It's pretty good, but it's far from "perfect". For the next Zelda, I'm hoping that Nintendo will combine the best elements of A Link Between World and Breath of the Wild. That game, I think could be really be great. Oh, except it will probably only be on the Switch... So it's still going to look underwhelming. But as long as it plays great, right?

But really, after all the complaints (because a major Nintendo title will always bring high expectations), I still like this game a lot. I like the direction Zelda has been going in ever since A Link Between Worlds where some of the more annoying things have been curbed. Breath of the Wild features plenty of good puzzles (and a few bad ones -- need I say more than "motion controls"?) and I really appreciate that townsfolk aren't ultra creepy like in Majora's Mask and that I haven't made hide nor hair of abominations like Tingle or the Ooccoos. So thank god for that. If Breath of the Wild is a rough draft of the Zeldas to come, then I remain pretty optimistic.

My Ranking of the Zelda Series A Link to the Past = Wind Waker > Link's Awakening > A Link Between Worlds > Ocarina of Time > Breath of the Wild > Minish Cap > The Adventure of Link > Twilight Princess > Phantom Hourglass > The Legend of Zelda > Majora's Mask