#majoras mask title screen

[distantsonata]

[n64retro]

photo by angelgrievous at ResetEra

[duckapus]

Zelda Games Be Like

A clipshow episode putting Mario and the rest of the Crew into memes of various Zelda games.

The Legend of Zelda Mario is Understandably Disturbed by Weird Old Men in Caves Who Ask if He's Alone. He chooses to save Hyrule from them instead of the pig wizard.

Wind Waker Do what ye want 'cause a pirate is free, you are a pirate!

Skyward Sword Janky Motion Controls+Exposition Robot+Bird Up=Hell For Mario. At least we still have Groose.

A Link Between Worlds Bob is in Ravio's role for obvious reasons, while Mario gets mistaken for Graffiti and washed off a wall.

Adventure of Link Before it can starts Mario runs onto the title screen, kicks that shit outa here, and instead brings out...

Faces of Evil M O R S H U

Ocarina of Time Something goes wrong, causing Adult Mario and Young Mario to meet. Cue Black Hole.

Four Swords Red Mario, Luigi, Blue Mario and Purple Mario are on a quest to save Hyrule! We Do Not Speak of Green Mario.

Majora's Mask Mario sees the timer and immediately goes into Speedrun Mode, arguably doing more damage to Termina than if the moon had just fallen. Also Bob, Marcy and Melony are there for obvious reasons.

Spirit Tracks Elanore: I Like Trains. :) Also Floyd is there because ghosts.

Breath of the Wild Mario and Meggy go on a fun adventure through Hyrule, seeing the sights, hanging out with Sidon, messing with Bokoblins, finding Koroks, kicking the shit out of Kohga, running from Guardians...but there's this nagging feeling that they're supposed to be doing something. Cue Zelda waiting for them at the castle, bored out of her skull.

Twilight Princess Midna: *exists* Meggy, currently a wolf: This better not awaken something in me.

Tears of the Kingdom Mario eats a Secret Stone, knowing it will grant him power beyond imagining, and goes through a cinematic transformation sequence to become...Beeg Yoshi with a hat and mustache. Beeg Marioshi: I Love It!

[candy8448]

It is done!

I've finally completed many month (maybe even over a year) mission of listening to all the zelda OSTs in release order (now it did take ages cuz i would spend forever between each ost and the longer ones would take so long to get through)

I compiled all my favorite tracks into one massive playlist, as well as covers that i like!

Now i am going to go over each ost and say my thoughts on them! Ill also be mentioning one or two tracks from each game that were really notable for me

(I didn't listen to Twilight princess or Spirit tracks because i dont want spoilers for when i play them)

The legend of Zelda:

The ost for this game is 9 mins long, drastic difference to totk with many MANY hours of music

Obviously a classic, the overworld theme. I really like the "game over" theme, its nice but the ringing of the NES boops hurts my ears so much

Adventure of Link:

I really like the final dungeon theme and the battle theme, so good to just jam to

A Link to the past:

Not much to say here, it set a bunch of classics, dark world theme is super good though and the great fairy fountain theme will always be welcome whenever i hear it, either as the great fairy or as the title screen (tbh i prefer it more as the title screen theme) and the title screen theme! When that bursts out i wanna scream, It fills me with so much nostalgia for this series as a whole

Link's awakening:

Now this one is difficult, because this game is my favorite game out of the games i haven't played just plot wise, but for some reason listening to the music was just super tiring for no reason. Now i was listening to the gameboy version but i tried the swith version and it was also tiring and tedious to listen to?? Im going to go through the switch version ost at some point in time.

You can never go wrong with tal tal hights though, and the ballad of the windfish is just 😭

Ocarina of time:

Im afraid to say anything on it because of the fans of it XD i did play a tiny bit of the game but got to Zora's domain as a child and stopped

Obviously it has a great soundtrack, it has a ton more classics like gerudo valley and such. I like Sheik's theme. The fire temple i am aware is controversial and i think that's the reason it makes me so unnerved when i listen to either version of it

My absolute favorite though is Song of storms (or windmill hut). The first time i heard it, it just stuck with me and i am taken in by it, it luls me, its like magic, im enraptured by it. I don't know what it is about this 20 second theme but i can listen to this on repeat for hours, its one of the first things i learned on piano, when i played the game i just stood in the windmil hut for ages. Such a good track...

Majora's mask:

SUCH an earie ost! I have been wanting to play this game forever. The vibes the ost is just perfect for this game. Clock town is obviously good and its cool how it gets more and more frantic as time goes on, you really feel like time is running out. Overall i think the whole soundtrack does amazingly at embodying this idea.

Oracle of Ages and Seasons:

The two tracks are very similar rhat i can't eeally do these two games separately. For some reason i have a bias towards seasons despite not playing either or really knowing the story??

I love that seasons has song of storms (for some reason), skull pirate's escape is good (oos), ambi's place (ooa) noice, Nayru's song is so nice, and i adore the "Zelda awakens" theme that's in both of them

I love how the tracks for these went back to the boopy style, it makes the themes just has a certain feel that i cannot put words to that feels so right. I have the feeling that when i play these games im going to have a great time with them

Wind waker:

Tbh, not for me, the style of the music is just not the kind of thing i like. Doesnt mean it doesnt have really good tracks though!! Cannot go wrong with dragon roost and i do like a track that i cannot remember the name of (but tbh that is just mostly because i really like the beat) and the Great Sea sailing theme does sound so freeing, you can feel the wind in your hair with that track. Its just that the rest of the music style is just not something i dig so much, its just a personal opinion.

Four swords:

I forgot about this game, and could not recall the ost at all. Had to open sime tracks again to listen to and tbh all i can say is... meh? The ost isn't too great... gotta give it credit for it's version of the overworld theme thoug, possibly one of the better different renditions?

Minish cap:

A cute little game, dont remember much of the soundtrack but i have quite a few saved from it so it must count for something, and i really like the "story" theme whenever i hear it and Mt. Crenel is okay

Phantom hourglass:

Again, it has a similar style to wind waker and i didn't really like it. Linebeck's theme though, what a wonderful character! ("Return of the Ocean King" is also decent)

Spirit tracks:

I did not listen to this soundtrack but the ost is just *chefs kiss* from the ones ive heard. The tracks "the sacred duet" and "battle with king Malladus" are the tracks that made me desperately want to play this game and i am still longing to play it because of these two tracks. I love how throughout the Malladus battle theme there is the constant chugging of the train on the track. I have no doupt that the rest of the ost will be this amazing. (The title theme is perfect, you really feel like you are on a racing train) ive since listened to "in the fields" and ooooooh i love ittttt i so cannot wait to play this game!

Skyward sword:

Man you KNOW i can ramble about this forever. My favorite Zelda game! I cannot put into words how much this game's ost makes me feel all of the emotions in the world, i can only list a few tracks that make me feel so much oooough

Ballad of the goddess (obviously), Romance in the air makes me all fluttery and happy, skyloft theme always feels like home, any version of fi's theme puts me in tears, Groose's theme he is such a silly guy, the loftwing flying theme is so nostalgic, Ghirahim's theme is so menacing, all the Lanayru tracks have such a certain zen feel, silent realm theme's have such a frantic echoey empty perfect feel to them which fit so well, and the guardians awaken theme will make me have a heart attack, and the song of the hero has so many feelings ive talked about before, so much that this track alone made me make a painting for the scene.

This game just stepped into another feel of zelda music with the orchestra, and it captures the grandios of this big, timeline setting adventure so amazingly. I cannot get enough of this game. Arguably one of the best Zelda OSTs in my opinion.

A Link between worlds:

Such a good ost in this game. Dunno what i can say apart for it is one of the better ost's in the series for some tracks alone. Ravio's theme, Hilda's theme, Yuga's theme, Lorule overworld, all the milkbar tracks (the fact that there is also ballad of the godess in there makes me so happy as well), so much of the game's ost is so good!

Triforce heroes:

Such a surprisingly great ost for a game that sounds so much like a fever dream. The main theme?!?!? The woodlands?!?!?!?!? I cannot stop listening to these two such a bop, go listen to them!

Breath of the wild:

Botw has no music???? What the heck???

The tracks are so good! Even all the ambient piano flourishes! It fits the atmosphere so well, but you've probably heared people saying all this before so onto some of my favorite tracks

All the champion's themes fit each one so well, main theme cannot not be good, i lobe how Tarrey Town's theme builds up with each character's home town. The divine beast themes are really cool sounding. Parasailing minigame theme is so fun! Guardian theme will also give me a heart attack, the memory get jingle, i miss Kass and his music so much, Korok forest is so :D, HYRULE CASTLE IS SO GOOD OH MY i love the marching feel. Dark. Beast. Ganon. THIS THEME IS CRAZY BRO that piano!??!!?? All the everything going together?!??!!? This fight may be a victory lap and super easy but it sure as hell has some fire music!!!

Tears of the kingdom:

I finally finished this ost today. It reuses a lot from botw, and tbh it is a little dissapointing how none of the village themes changed even if it does feel safe and familiar, and the surface is largely the exact same even though it is where we spend so much of our time.

There are obviously amazing tracks original to this game though. The main theme was so amazing to hear in full after so long of waiting! So was the prologue theme ("poor Hyrule, for Link has found the body" remember that???) All the dungeon themes have me in awe alongside the sage themes. Each one just fills me with so much ough. The dungeons and their themes were definatly a massive step up from the previous game. I ranked all the sage themes before in another post and go deeper into each one. Link humming while cooking is so cute! The big "BWAAA" when diving into the depths feels so cool and creepy. One of my favorite details is that in the forgotten temple, next to the goddess statue you can hear a broken up version of Fi's theme which im so happy for the sksw ref! It also supports my favorite hc that the forgotten temple is the sealed grounds from sksw! (As well as the reward you get fron that quest but we aren't talking abiut that)

!!!!End spoilers next!!!!!

In the lead up to the final dive into ganondorf's army, the track reminds me of Skyrim and it really does not fit in Zelda. I feel like they shouldn't have used that track. Ganondorf's fight theme is so cool, how at first it is quiet to just hear you two dueling in an echoey room and them builds up. AND HOW CAN YOU FORGET THE FINAL FALL?!?!?!? Such a PERFECT END its amazing how is blends so smoothly to create the perfect scene, all your emotions building up to the end!!! Such a perfect ending to the game. All the music in the end sequence in the Hyrule castle chasm really does do an amazing job of dialing up and down the tension and emotions at the right moments and building up everything until the very end when the credits start rolling.

Overall the ost is great considering all the new tracks!

So that is all the games (other than tp and st)!

Now on to all of the non-cannon games! 🥲

[msith]

I am so sorry but *pulls some glasses on* delete this ask if you are uncomfortable

🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓🤓

The original Sonic.exe story centers on Tom, a young man who was a big fan of Sonic the Hedgehog, especially the older games. He claimed that he had not played any glitchy or hacked games before, though he admitted that he didn't want to after an experience he had.

He then proceeded to recount his experience, saying how he received a CD and an accompanying letter from his friend Kyle, begging him to destroy the disc before it's "too late" and not to play the game.

Ignoring his friend's warnings, Tom played the game and began to encounter odd, somewhat disturbing phenomena, from a title card featuring an evil-looking Sonic with bloody eyes and glowing pupils with a wide smile to the presence of a file select screen similar to that of the one in Sonic the Hedgehog 3, with a red background and chilling music playing.

As he picked the only available character, Tails and began the first stage, titled "HILL ACT 1", Tom continued to find more evidence that there was something wrong with the game, namely the copious amounts of dead animals, all murdered in gruesome ways and eventually encountering Sonic at the end of the level, standing completely still and with his eyes closed.

When Tails attempted to get his attention during a cutscene by tapping him on the shoulder, Sonic's eyes opened, identical to the Sonic on the title screen before cutting to black, with the message "Hello. Do you want to play with me?" In the next level, "HIDE AND SEEK", Tom witnessed Sonic chasing Tails, the latter flying despite an inability to do so without a Super form, before disappearing, teleporting in front of the distraught fox and killing him and cutting to black.

Shocked, Tom reads the next message, "YOU'RE TOO SLOW. WANT TO TRY AGAIN?". After playing as Knuckles and losing a supposed "boss battle" with Sonic, Tom decided to take a break from the game.

However, his rest was plagued by nightmares featuring the corrupted Tails and Knuckles, and the demonic Sonic, with him waking in a cold sweat. Returning to the game, Tom picked Robotnik from the file select screen and continued with the game.

At the end of the level, Sonic teleported in front of Robotnik, before the screen cut to red static. Then, a "hyper-realistic" image of Sonic appeared on the screen, with the words "I AM GOD!". After the game ended, Tom turned around to find, to his utter horror, a bloodied Sonic plushie on his bed. Tom's fate is ambiguous

🤓 that's all you can do????

BEN Drowned, or Haunted Majora's Mask, is a well-known creepypasta (and later, an alternate reality game) created by Alex Hall, also known as "Jadusable". The story revolves around a Majora's Mask cartridge that is haunted by the ghost (if it is a ghost) of a boy named Ben.

Okay, /x/, I need your help with this. This is not copypasta, this is a long read, but I feel like my safety or well-being could very well depend on this. This is video game related, specifically Majora's Mask, and this is the creepiest shit that has ever happened to me in my entire life.

Having said that, I recently moved into my dorm room starting as a Sophomore in college and a friend of mine gave me his old Nintendo 64 to play. I was stoked, to say the least, I could finally play all of those old games of my youth that I hadn't touched in at least a decade. His Nintendo 64 came with one yellow controller and a rather shoddy copy of Super Smash Brothers, and while beggars can't be choosers, needless to say it didn't take long until I became bored of beating up LVL 9 CPUs.

That weekend I decided to drive around a few neighborhoods about twenty minutes or so off campus, hitting up the local garage sales, hoping to score on some good deals from ignorant parents). I ended up picking up a copy of Pokemon Stadium, Goldeneye (fuck yeah), F-Zero, and two other controllers for two dollars. Satisfied, I began to drive out of the neighborhood when one last house caught my attention. I still have no idea why it did, there were no cars there and only one table was set up with random junk on it, but something sort of drew me there. I usually trust my gut on these things so I got out of the car and I was greeted by an old man. His outward appearance was, for lack of a better word, displeasing. It was odd, if you asked me to tell you why I thought he was displeasing, I couldn't really pinpoint anything - there was just something about him that put me on edge, I can't explain it. All I can tell you is that if it wasn't in the middle of the afternoon and there were other people within shouting distance, I would not have even thought of approaching this man.

He flashed a crooked smiled at me and asked what I was looking for, and immediately I noticed that he must be blind in one of his eyes; his right eye had that "glazed over" look about it. I forced myself to look to his left eye instead, trying not to offend, and asked him if he had any old video games.

I was already wondering how I could politely excuse myself from the situation when he would tell me he had no idea what a video game was, but to my surprise he said he had a few ones in an old box. He assured me he'd be back in a "jiffy" and turned to head back into the garage. As I watched him hobble away, I couldn't help but notice what he was selling on his table. Littered across his table were rather… peculiar paintings; various artworks that looked like ink blots that a psychiatrist might show you. Curious, I looked through them - it was obvious why no one was visiting this guy's garage sale, these weren't exactly aesthetically pleasing. As I came to the last one, for some reason it looked almost like Majora's Mask - the same heart-shaped body with little spikes protruding outward. Initially I just thought that since I was secretly hoping to find that game at these garage sales, some Freudian bullshit was projecting itself into the ink blots, but given the events that happened afterward I'm not so sure now. I should have asked the man about it. I wish I would have asked the man about it.

After staring at the Majora-shaped blot, I looked up and the old man was suddenly there again, arms-length in front of me, smiling at me. I'll admit I jumped out of reflex and I laughed nervously as he handed me a Nintendo 64 cartridge. It was the standard grey color, except that someone had written Majora on it in black permanent marker. I got butterflies in my stomach as I realized what a coincidence this was and asked him how much he wanted for it.

The old man smiled at me and told me that I could have it for free, that it used to belong to a kid who was about my age that didn't live here anymore. There was something weird about how the man phrased that, but I didn't really pay any attention to then, I was too caught up in not only finding this game but getting it for free.

I reminded myself to be a bit skeptical since this looked like a pretty shady cartridge and there's no guarantee it would work, but then the optimist inside me interjected that maybe it was some kind of beta version or pirated version of the game and that was all I needed to be back on cloud nine. I thanked the man and the man smiled at me and wished me well, saying "Goodbye then!" - at least that's what it sounded like to me. All the way in the car-ride home, I had a nagging doubt that the man had said something else. My fears were confirmed when I booted up the game (to my surprise it worked just fine) and there was one save file named simply "BEN". "Goodbye Ben", he was saying "Goodbye Ben". I felt bad for the man, obviously a grandparent and obviously going senile, and I - for some reason or another - reminded him of his grandson "Ben".

Out of curiosity I looked at the save file. Eyeballing it, I could tell that he was pretty far in the game - he had almost all of the masks and 3/4 remains of the bosses. I noticed that he had used an owl statue to save his game, he was on Day 3 and by the Stone Tower Temple with hardly an hour left before the moon would crash. I remember thinking that it was a shame that he had come so close to beating the game but he never finished it. I made a new file named "Link" out of tradition and started the game, ready to relive my childhood.

For such a shady looking game cartridge, I was impressed at how smoothly it ran - literally just like a retail copy of the game save for a few minor hiccups here and there (like textures being where they shouldn't be, random flashes of cutscenes at odd intervals, but nothing too bad). However the only thing that was a little unnerving was that at times the NPCs would call me "Link" and at other times they would call me "BEN". I figured it was just a bug - a fluke in the programming causing our files to get mixed up or something. It did kind of creep me out though after a while, and it was around after I had beaten the Woodfall Temple that I regrettably went into the save files and deleted "BEN" (I had intended to preserve the file just out of respect of the game's original owner, it's not like I needed two files anyway), hoping that that would solve the problem. It did and it didn't, now NPCs wouldn't call me anything, where my name should be in the dialogue there was just a blank space (my save file name was still called "Link", though). Frustrated, and with homework to do, I put the game down for a day.

I started playing the game again last night, getting the Lens of Truth and working my way towards completing the Snowhead Temple. Now, some of you more hardcore Majora's Mask players know about the "4th Day" glitch - for those who don't you can Google it but the gist of it is that right as the clock is about to hit 00:00:00 on the final day, you talk to the astronomer and look through the telescope. If you time it right the countdown disappears and you essentially have another day to finish whatever you were doing. Deciding to do the glitch to try and finish the Snowhead Temple, I happened to get it right on the first try and the time counter at the bottom disappeared.

However, when I pressed B to exit the telescope, instead of being greeted by the astronomer I found myself in the Majora boss fight room at the end of the game (the trippy boxed in arena) staring at Skull Kid hovering above me. There was no sound, just him floating in the air above me, and the background music which was regular for the area (but still creepy). Immediately my palms began to sweat - this was definitely not normal. Skull Kid NEVER appeared here. I tried moving around the area, and no matter where I went, Skull Kid would always be facing me, looking at me, not saying anything. Nothing would happen though, and this kept up for around sixty seconds. I thought the game had bugged or something - but I was beginning to doubt that very much.

I was about to reach for the reset button when text appeared on my screen: "You're not sure why, but you apparently had a reservation…" I instantly recognized that text - you get that message when you get the Room Key from Anju at the Stock Pot Inn, but why was it playing here? I refused to entertain the notion that it was almost as if the game was trying to communicate with me. I started navigate the room again, testing to see if that was some sort of trigger that enabled me to interact with something here, then I realized how stupid I was - to even think that someone could reprogram the game like this was absurd. Sure enough, fifteen seconds later another message appeared on the screen, and again like the first one it was already a pre-existing phrase "Go to the lair of the temple's boss? Yes/No". I paused for a second, contemplating what I should press and how the game would react, when I realized that I couldn't select no. Taking a deep breath, I pressed Yes and the screen faded to white, with the words "Dawn of a New Day" with the subtext "||||||||" beneath it. Where I was ported to filled me with the most intense sense of dread and impending fear I had ever experienced

The only way I can describe the way I felt here is having this feeling of inexplicable depression on a profound scale. I am normally not a depressed person, but the way I felt here was a feeling that I didn't even knew existed - it was such a twisted, powerful presence that seemed to wash over me.

I appeared in some kind of weird twilight-zone version of Clock Town. I walked out of the Clock Tower (as you normally do when you start from Day 1) only to find that all of the inhabitants were gone. Usually with the 4th Day glitch you can still find the guards and the dog that runs around outside the tower - this time they were all gone. What replaced them was the ominous feeling that there was something out there, in the same area as me and that it was watching me. I had four hearts to my name and the Hero's Bow, but at this point I wasn't even considered for my avatar, I felt that I personally was in some kind of danger. Perhaps the most chilling thing was the music - it was the Song of Healing, ripped straight from the game itself, but played in reverse. The music would get louder, building up so as if you should expect something to pop out at you, but nothing ever did, and the constant loop began to wear on my mental state.

Every now and then I would hear the faint laugh of the Happy Mask Salesman in the background, just quiet enough so that I wasn't sure if I just hearing things but just loud enough to keep me determined to find him. I looked in all four zones of Clock Town, only to find nothing.... No one. Textures were missing, West Clock Town had me walking on air, the entire area felt... broken. Hopelessly broken. As the reverse Song of Healing repeated for what must have been the 50th time, I just remember standing in the middle of South Clock Town realizing that I had never felt so alone in a video game before.

As I walked through the ghost town, I don't know whether it was the combination of the out of place textures and the atmosphere and the haunting melody of the once peaceful and soothing song being butchered and distorted, but I was literally on the verge of tears and I had no idea why. I hardly ever cry, something had gripped me here and this powerful sense of depression that was both foreign and crippling.

I tried leaving Clock Town, but every time I attempted to zone out, the screen would fade to black and I would just zone in to another part of Clock Town. I tried playing my Ocarina, I wanted to escape, and I did NOT want to be here, but every time I played the Song of Time or Song of Soaring it would only say "Your notes echo far, but nothing happens". By this point, it was obvious the game didn't want me to leave, but I had no idea why it was keeping me here. I didn't want to go inside the buildings, I felt that I would be too vulnerable there to whatever I was terrified of. I don't know why, but I came up with the idea that maybe if I drowned myself at the Laundry Pool I could spawn somewhere else and leave this place.

As I zoned in and ran towards the pool, that's when it happened. Link grabbed his head, and the screen flashed for a brief moment of the Happy Mask Salesman smiling at me - not Link - me with Skull Kid's scream playing in the background and when the screen returned I was staring at the Link Statue from playing the song Elegy of Emptiness. I screamed as the thing just stared back at me with that haunting facial expression. I turned around and ran out and back into South Clock Town, and to my horror the fucking statue followed me in the only way I can compare this is like the Weeping Angels from Doctor Who. Every so often, at random intervals, the animation would play of the statue appearing behind me. It was like the thing was chasing me, or - I don't even want to fucking say it - haunting me.

By this point, I was on the verge of hysterics, but not even once did the thought of turning off the console occur to me, I don't know why, I was so wrapped up in it - the terror felt all so real. I tried to shake the statue, but it would literally appear right behind me every single time. Link started to begin to make weird animations I had never even seen him do before, he would flail his arms around or spasm randomly and the screen would cut to the Happy Mask Salesman smiling again for a brief moment before I was face to face with that fucking statue again. I ended up running into the Swordmaster's Dojo and ran to the back, I don't know why, but in my panic I just wanted some kind of assurance that I'm not alone here. To my dismay I found no one, but as I turned to leave the statue cornered me in the cubby in the back. I tried attacking the statue with my sword but to no avail. Confused, and backed into a corner, I just stared at the statue waiting for it to kill me. Suddenly, the screen flashed again to the Happy Mask Salesman and Link turned to face my screen, standing upright mirroring the statue, looking at me along with his copy. Literally staring at me. Whatever was left of the 4th wall was completely shattered while I ran out of the dojo terrified. Suddenly the game warped me to an underground tunnel and the reverse Song of Healing queued up again as I was given a brief moment of rest before the statue started appearing behind me again... this time aggressively - I could only take a few steps before it would summon behind me again. I hurriedly made my way out of the tunnel and appeared in Southern Clock Town. As I ran aimlessly - in a sheer panic - suddenly a redead screamed and the screen faded to black as "Dawn of a New Day" and "|||||||||" appeared again.

The screen faded in and I was standing on top of Clock Tower with Skull Kid hovering over me again, silent. I looked up and the moon was back, looming just meters above my head, but the Skull Kid just stared at me hauntingly with that fucking mask. A new song was playing - the Stone Tower Temple theme played in reverse. In some sort of desperate attempt, I equipped my bow and fired off a shot at the Skull Kid - and it actually hit him and he played an animation of him reeling back. I fired again and on the third arrow, a text box appeared saying "That won't do you any good. Hee, hee." and I was picked up off the ground, levitated upwards on my back, and then Link screamed as he burst into flames, instantly killing him.

[lyrakeaton]

Chronicling The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess - The Impact of the Player's Actions, and Making the World a Better Place

I just have to gush a bit more on the topic of player impact and how the world around you is shaped by your actions.

This part of the game was one of my absolute favorites. Meeting the Hero's Shade. Despite Skyward Sword taking the advancements in wiggle technology to give Link a flurry of new moves, I feel like Twilight Princess made learning and using these moves feel more fun and emotionally important to the player. While I never knew until now just how many of those moves came from Twilight Princess, and just how many never made it past Twilight Princess, while I was playing I actually felt more motivated to use these moves because they had been taught to me by a loving teacher.

You see, the first time I met the Hero's Shade, I was moved by his story. Once a Hero, now forgotten by time, with no heir or apprentice to pass his skills onto. You feel for this guy. All he wants in his afterlife is to give something to you — how could I possibly say no?

But as I did this sidequest to acquire his skills, I cared a little less about the situational and overtly flashy moves he taught me (some of them have been very useful, though not all), and I started to care more about the Hero's Shade itself. It's one of those moments where I have to tell myself "it's just a video game" as I tear up a bit, reading his heartfelt relief in having passed on his final lessons. Especially that line:

"At last, I have eased my regrets"

This quote hit me hard in the feels, as one might say. This has been one of those tiny moments; a narrow slit in an otherwise locked door; a glimpse into and beyond a virtual character, where I got to feel a supreme understanding of a whole character's being. One where the controller in my paws ceases to exist. My screen is no longer a barrier, and the low res textures and sharp models of a game older than some who might be reading this. That's where I feel truly connected to this beautiful world that these talented, passionate people have created, and to the character on my screen at that time.

This is a feeling that's been all too foreign to me since last I played Majora's Mask. I'm a huge Elder Scrolls fan, and have spent countless hours in each game. And despite all being titled roleplaying games, I've never felt this way about any of the characters I've seen in games like Skyrim or Oblivion.

Unlike these games that are often lauded for their immersion and roleplaying prowess, Twilight Princess truly immersed me. You may only have one role to start with, and you may only have one role to grow into. But damn it, if this doesn't do a better service to traditional roleplaying games than Skyrim could ever do. Because the magic of roleplaying games that studios seem to have forgotten since the times where tabletop was all you had, is in how the player can impact the world, and change it for better or for worse. To know that who you choose to help isn't meaningless, and that helping is worth doing.

( Maybe I just didn't receive as much praise as a kid as I really needed, so being told so bluntly how appreciative characters are for what I did for them hits me especially hard.)

I'm nearing the end of my playthrough for Twilight Princess, and I already have so many fond memories. So many beloved characters that I've walked alongside, and now genuinely care for. I want to see them have a better life. I know it's not as heavy as Majora's Mask and its looming threat impacting all peoples in one way, but the trouble of these small folk matter to me nonetheless.

But when I got to help the Hero's Shade ease his regrets, or help Midna get the mirror back so we can stop Zant, or even just help Agitha get all the bugs for her ball. No matter who I decided to help, all met me with genuine, heartfelt gratefulness. And in big ways and small, I feel the world of Hyrule was made better because of it.

I'm excited to see how this game finishes. I feel a bit sad at the thought of it ending, and not getting to see Midna again in any official capacity (unless I pick up Hyrule Warriors, which I might honestly do, I think I need more of Midna in my life), but I also feel glad to have experienced this wonderful game. I'm crestfallen that this game so rarely gets the discussion it so dearly deserves. And I'm elated that I decided to write this little blog, knowing there's likely only going to be one person reading this after I hit post. And whether or not that person is you reading this now, or someone else who will find this through the tags or stumble upon it by pure happenstance — thank you for reading from my brain's open forum. Expect a final piece to this chronicle once I've beaten the game — assuming I don't have more fangirling to do before so.

[scribbles-2004]

Random rambles about Tingle since the Tingle we play as in his DS games is eating my brain

I really feel like DS Tingle (Rosy Rupeeland/Balloon Trip of Love) is quite different from the Tingle we see in Majora's Mask and the other zelda games he shows up at, specifically when it comes to their personality and behavior

Majora's Mask Tingle, like we all know, flies with his big balloon and explores the world to make maps of the places he discovers and sells them, that along having a cheerful personality along his silly magic words

Meanwhile... DS Tingle? He's just some guy, and in the games before putting on his suit he always seems to have a pretty boring/miserable life

If you stay long enough in Balloon Trip of Love's title screen it shows you the outside of Tingle's apartment, aka the town he lives, and it looks horrible

I know TBTOL Tingle isnt the same as the Tingle we play in Rosy Rupeeland but TRR Tingle also seems to be living in a pretty boring life, and him quickly accepting Uncle Rupee's offer shows that he's quite desperate to improve his life in any way possible

However, he also shows to stand up for himself after deciding to take down Uncle Rupee once realizing that he's been using him this entire time, like he's genuinely pissed off about it and he's not gonna let him keep walking all over him

I know it's just very small things but i think that shows a lot of his character and how different DS Tingle is compared to Majora's Mask Tingle, and to be honest,,,, I think that's why DS Tingle has always been my favorite

anyway that's all,,,

[corvidserpens]

Player Safety

Chapter 1

This added mod pack feature for this game may not support player safety. Do you wish to continue?

Yes         No

Yes         

Your selection has been made now downloading the game with add-on features.

As the game takes its sweet time to load I open up a bag of chips that I left on my desk earlier to munch on. 

CRUNCH CRUNCH CRUNCH

Mmmm doritos… finally the game finishes downloading showing off the title screen. 

Legend Of Zelda: Break The Chain

Licking off the cheese dust from my fingers I hurriedly click the start button. Once I click the start button the game quickly loads the most beautiful high-resolution art of all the previous Heroes of Hyrule. 

As the game's intro finally comes to an end a message appears.

How will you break the Chain?

The message stays on the screen for a few seconds before fading into the character creation menu. On the menu, you couldn't change the gender from male, but you could change the hairstyle though the hair color only lets you switch between various shades of blonde. I select the lightest shade of blonde with a braid that falls to just above the avatar’s knees. I then adjust his ears to be as long as the settings will allow, along with making his height as tall as the settings will allow. 

Going back to his face I style his eyes to be sharp with the most lovely shade of electrifying blue with sharp metallic gold highlights. I could add markings to his face and adjust it, looking through the character face markings selection I gained the idea to make the character avatar have the same face markings as the fierce deity from Majora’s Mask.

After adding the marking I slightly adjust the hair to have bangs similar to the fierce deity and add sharp fangs to his teeth. Messing for around another thirty minutes with the character settings to make my avatar perfect I added a few adjustments making his fingernails long and sharp not unlike claws. I also made sure to add muscle proportionate to his looks, not too much to look like a beefcake but not too little as to look like a twink; just enough to make him look like a tall lithe muscled elf.

Just before I finished and continued to the game I typed my avatar’s name.

Link

Is This The Name You Would Like To Go By?

Yes         No

Yes         

Your Selection Has Been Saved.

On the right-hand bottom corner of the screen, I hovered over the button.

Begin Adventure?

Click.

Your Selection Has Been Made. The Game Will Begin Shortly.

The screen had faded once more to black loading in the true beginning of the game.

But, as the screen started loading I started to grow dizzy, and my eyes slightly blurred for a second before returning to normal. The dizziness still remained and I looked towards the loading screen only for my eyes to start spotting and darkening at the corners. I’m going to pass out. I try to get up to grab my phone from the bed only to collapse out of my chair and into the floor. The static ringing in my ears starts, growing even louder as the seconds pass. Just before my vision fully fades to black I look up at the screen one last time only to see it changed. The words on the screen strangely left an anxious force settling in my chest as I read the screen.

Enjoy your adventure player link.

[spinningbuster98]

The Metroid Prime Remaster

Welp! I played it! So here’s my personal thoughts

I think everyone knows by this point that this is mostly a face lift of the OG, meaning that structurally it’s the same game. This means that any issue you might have had before will still be there, like the Artifact Collecting. Personally I’m fine with this, as the game is very honest with what it is, it’s not a Remake.

However there are a few new options, such as settings for people who are Color Blind, the option to turn on or off the Pal Narrator, and of course at least 4 different control options: Dual Stick, Gyro, Classic and Hybrid (a mix between Classic and Gyro). I’ve only tried out Classic since that’s the one I’m most familiar with, and it’s....mostly fine. I immediately noticed that movement felt looser than in the OG, causing me to “slip around” and make inprecise jumps. Thankfully you can adjust the sensitivity in the options so I was able to recreate the feel of the OG controls much better, though they’re still not 100% precise, around 90% on the way there.

I’ve seen people whining about the Y axis controls being reversed....and yeah they are....but there’s an option to revert them back guys XD

As some have already pointed out there is a sort of delay with the charge shot, if you keep holding the button you will first shoot a couple of shots before actually charging (with the exception of the Ice Beam). This wasn’t the end of the world and it’s relatively minor but I still hope they patch this

But enough about this, we all know what we REALLY wanna talk about here

The graphics

This is honestly the best looking Switch game I’ve seen, it genuinely looks like a PS4 title. Yeah some textures are pretty simple when you look at them up close, and you can sometimes tell that this is actually a 2002 game, but it’s still goddamn impressive, especially since it runs at a consistent 60 FPS, no drops whatsoever!

However I wanted to adress something that I’ve only seen few people talk about. Yeah the game is really pretty, but does it preserve the original’s atmosphere?

Because here’s the thing: remasters and remakes often have the bad habit of screwing up the OG’s aesthetics in an attempt at making the game look prettier, usually by messing with the lighting. Some famous examples being Sonic Adventure DX with its brighter-than-the-sun lighting and plastic characters, or the 3DS remasters of Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask.

Prime Remastered is generally more colorful than the original, and brighter also. And yes I do believe there are a couple of instances where this messes up a little the look of some parts of the game.

An example being Flaahgra, who is now too brightly clolored for a corrupted, poison producing monster plant, or the Hive Mecha Room, whose green fog effect is too saturated. Anothet example are the leaves throughout the Chozo Ruins: in the OG they were a dull red color, indicating they were rotting, but here they’re bright orange.

However I believe the game is mostly careful in preserving the original’s atmosphere.

The Tallon Overworld certainly emphasizes its greens, giving its natural setting a stronger feel, but on the whole the picture is still “greyed out” due to the overall rainy atmosphere, just like in the original.

The brighter oranges of Magmoor Caverns emphasize its “hotness” pretty well.

The Phazon Mines are still pretty dark looking and now Phazon is more bioluminescent than ever, emphasizing the area’s neon-like atmosphere

Phendrana was mostly unchanged from the original in regards to lighting I found.

Perhaps the areas that received the biggest makeovers were the Space Pirates’ labs and frigate: the areas are now brimming with a new cool-blue color pallette generated by all the computer screens and force fields, though they’re still quite dreary looking at points. I’m of two minds here: on the one hand it sorta changes the OG’s atmosphere quite extensively here, but on the other it replaces it with something that is still pretty effective in a way, as i think this serves to emphasize the areas’ more cold and sterile feel (they are laboratories where amoral genetic experiments are being performed after all), and naturally their Sci-Fi flavor.

In general I’d say the game knows when to crank down the brightness, sometimes even more so than the original

The room with the dead parasite queen on the Frigate is noticebly darker here, making it moodier, and the room with the Omega Pirate is generally darker, letting you mostly see its phazon spots, and with the area lighting up in response to attacks

I genuinely believe these two instances (and others) add to the OGs atmosphere!

However even the original had many instances when in wanted to be more bright and colorful, to emphasize the beauty of its locales, and the remaster does an absolutely outstanding job here, with completely new assets, particle effects galore, and plenty of “light beams coming from the sky” kind of shots giving places like the outdoors of the Chozo Ruins, Phendrana, and especially the Underwater Frigate (which made my jaw drop) an almost heavenly feel!

When it comes to graphical details many from the OG’s Gamecube release are kept and even enhanced, like the after effects of each beam’s charge shot, water droplet that not only fall on your visor and arm cannon but actually trail downwards or upwards depending on the curvature.

In the original there were some jet streams that didn’t fog up your visor, like the ones in the depressurization room on the Frigate, but they do now.

The Space Pirates on the Frigate have missing chuncks of flesh and are bleeding (though for some reason some of the ones you find already dead don’t have this feature, weird)

Not only can you sometimes see flashes of Samus’ face, but for a split second she will be looking at whatever direction you’re aiming at

The Ice Beam doesn’t register on the Thermal Visor, but the Plasma Beam appears bright yellow

The lava in Magmoor produces heat waves

When you enter a bright area from a dark one the brightness level will initially be higher before being toned down, to give the idea that your eyes are adjusting

There’s a lot more here. However there are also some details missing strangely enough

Your beam shots don’t light up hallways anymore

Some light effects are missing

The mirrors in the Chozo ruins don’t reflect your image anymore (though they do reflect thye rest of the room which is something the OG didn’t do)

The scar on Tallon IV visible at the beginning is far smaller for some reason

In the room with the two big broken test tubes that used to contain two Parasite Queens the left one used to be covered in lots of green slime that formed a trail leading to a big open vent, indicating that that’s where the Queen you fight came from. Here there’s far less green slime giving a much less clear visual message

While you can still see Samus’ arm with the X-Ray Visor you can no longer see its blackened silouhette for a split second when switching beams

There’s more, and it’s a shame but for the most part I’d say the original’s sense for attention to detail is kept and even enhanced.

Some enemies have also received some slight redesigns which....are not bad but I tend to prefer the originals, like the adult Sheegoths having “angry looking eyes”, or Meta Ridley being slightly more organic. They’re minimal, so I don’t have any big issues.

For some reason on Normal Hive Mecha shoots the same number of Wasps for each phase, only on Hard does it correctly mimick its original behaviour which is weird.

 The Log Book entry for the Metroids has been modified to specify that they’re TALLON Metroid, a new variant born from Phazon Mutation, which is a nice touch.

The Wasp Hive on the ceiling of the room with the Incinerator Dron is now scannable, nice.

So is this the definitive version of Prime? Depends

The multiple control options and the better graphics are enough for most people. I think this is probably the best version to date overall though still not 100% definitive, due to those litle snags regarding the controls and those few instances where the atmosphere is not quite up to snuff with the original, and the missing effects.

Still this is overall one of the best remasters I’ve seen, especially in an industry where the word remaster is often synonimous with “half assed”. There was lots of genuine love and effort put into this and for this it should absolutely be commended.

Please give us Prime 2 and 3 as well Nintendo, you dirty money goblins! Releasing the Trilogy most likely one game at a time when stuff like the Crash Nsane Trilogy exists...

Also no Fusion Suit, can’t wait for the DLC :^)

[karaloza]

Legend of Zelda Theme Park - Epona Ranch

Only a few Zelda titles include a ranch--by any name--as a noteworthy area in the game, but for those that do, it's often a highlight, populated by endearing characters and animals. Because the names vary, it took me a while to settle on Epona Ranch for the theme park, named after Link's beloved mare in several games, and I've taken inspiration not just from the ranches, but from various slow-paced rural towns and horse-centric scenarios across the franchise for the features in this area. Visually, however, it mostly takes after Lon Lon Ranch from Ocarina of Time, with an encircling wall (represented by a brick-patterned strip on the map), an entryway lined with farmhouse-style buildings, and then a large open area with more buildings on the far side. A large horse paddock occupies much of the central space.

Attractions

Epona's Ponies: Located in the barn on the right-hand side as one enters, this is a fairly typical live pony ride—one where the ponies are hitched to a carousel in order to minimize the risk of mishaps. There are two such carousels to cut down on wait times; one goes clockwise and the other counter-clockwise, and the ponies are regularly swapped between them and cycled in and out of active use for their own health and enrichment. Stringent height and weight limits are also in place to protect the animals, so this ride is limited to younger/smaller folks.

Petting Pens: An open-air pen next to the pony ride barn contains goats, sheep, and alpacas to interact with. Large chicken coops are also present, but the animals are not accessible to guests, as evidenced by signs reading “Please do not bother the Cuccos! Miss Malon takes no responsibility for the consequences!” Epona herself—a silver bay thoroughbred—is often on display in a side pen. For the safety of both guests and animals, hand-washing at the sinks provided is required upon entering and leaving the pen.

Malon Meet-and-Greet: Miss Malon herself makes scheduled appearances next to the petting pens, where she will pose for photos, sign autographs, and sing “Epona's Song” to delight the guests.

Miss Malon's Equestrian Extravaganza: Once or twice a day, the central horse paddock becomes the site of a live show in which experienced equestrians demonstrate trick riding, jumps, and other horseback stunts.

The Great Gallop: The main (mane?) attraction of Epona Ranch is located in the building complex opposite the entrance. In this screen-based motion-sim ride, guests mount “horses” and compete in a horse race! The screen provides a first-person view of the track, updated in real time as the “horse” runs and leaps (or fails to leap) over obstacles in accordance with the rider's inputs. The winner of each race receives a special button to wear.

Shops

6. Sera's Sundries: A souvenir and gift shop offering clothing, housewares, knick-knacks, and toys with a country style, named after the rural village shop in Twilight Princess.

7. The Stable Store: A shop for all the horse girls (and horse guys and horse enbies) out there, offering toys, figurines, books, and other items to delight the would-be (or actual) equestrian. The exterior design is inspired by the Stables of Breath of the Wild/Tears of the Kingdom.

8. Kochi Dye Shop: All-natural fiber garments and accessories are dyed on-site in a stunning variety of colors and patterns. Buy as-is or request a custom job for an extra fee. Named after a similar business in Breath of the Wild's idyllic Hateno Village.

Eateries

9. Chateau Romani BBQ and Milk Bar: A family-style barbecue restaurant where the whole party can chow down on steak, ribs, chicken, and country-style side dishes. The name Chateau Romani comes from the “special” (alcoholic?) milk in Majora's Mask, and the “Milk Bar” part of the name isn't just cosmetic; this place has an unusually extensive milk and dairy menu, including goat's milk, almond milk, soy milk, and a number of cheeses. Patio seating is available.

10. The Apple Cart: The humble apple is a favorite snack for horses and humans alike, and this outdoor booth provides all you could want—whole or sliced apples on their own, dried apple treats, apple fritters, apple mini-pies, squeeze pouches of applesauce, bottled apple juice and (soft) cider...but not, ironically enough, horse apples!

Miscellaneous

Epona Ranch doesn't have its own Spirit Train station but is served by the one located in the Lost Woods. Guests near the west side of the area have a clear view of the train as it passes through.

[reblip-reblog]

The Evolution of Link by Dan Ryckert

Scan of pages 38-39 from Game Informer Issue 222: The Legend of Zelda Skyward Sword

‎

Transcript & Close-Ups:

‎

The Evolution of Link by Dan Ryckert

‎

The Legend of Zelda (1987)

Link's debut introduced many of his trade-marks — a green tunic, his silent manner, and iconic items like the boomerang, bombs, and bow. When gamers saw him in-game, many wondered what the odd green pixels above his eyes were. We still don't know for sure.

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link (1988)

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link shifted our view of the hero thanks to its sidescrolling nature. We saw him from the top-down on the over-world map, but most of our time with him was running from left to right in XP grinding runs.

A Link to the Past (1992)

With Link to the Past, the Christian cross imagery was replaced with the iconic Triforce and other designs. While the character's art has almost always portrayed him with blond/brown hair, his in-game sprite appeared to have pink hair.

‎

Link's Awakening (1993) • Oracle of Ages / Oracle of Seasons (2001)

Link's three installments on the Game Boy didn't take the look of the character in any unexpected directions. With the system's limited screen resolution, Nintendo developers didn't have much room to work with when it came to the character's in-game model.

Ocarina of Time (1998)

In previous titles, Link's age was never clearly defined. With his 3D debut, we got to see two distinct versions of the hero — Young Link and Adult Link. The latter is the model that became most recognizable, serving as the basis for his appearances in Soul Calibur II and Super Smash Bros.

Majora's Mask (2000)

Majora's Mask may have featured gameplay mechanics based on time, but Link remained young throughout. This disappointed some who enjoyed the more mature Link from Ocarina of Time, but the 24 masks in the game guaranteed he'd have more abilities than ever before.

‎

Majora's Mask (2000)

Other masks in the game granted him new abilities, but the Deku, Goron, and Zora masks turned Link into new creatures entirely. These allowed him to navigate around Termina differently, and even changed the instrument he played.

Majora's Mask (2000)

Once all the other masks were collected, Link could turn into his most intimidating form ever — Fierce Deity Link. This form was only available during boss fights, and allowed Link to shoot beams out of his curving sword.

Wind Waker (2003)

With his GameCube debut, Link was reintroduced in his most controversial form yet. Thanks to the cel-shaded style of Wind Waker, Link appeared more child-like and cartoonish than ever. While some gamers cried foul over this new direction, the game and art design are generally looked back upon fondly.

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Four Swords Adventure (2004) • Minish Cap (2005) • Phantom Hourglass (2007) • Spirit Tracks (2009)

After Wind Waker, Link's portable adventures stuck with the Toon Link design. From the size-changing Minish Cap on GBA to his two DS titles, the expressive and simple design worked well on the small screen.

Twilight Princess (2006)

Link's return to form was so well-received that longtime Zelda fans openly wept in the audience when he was shown off at E3 2004. His final GameCube game (and Wii debut) featured the most adult-looking Link to date, as well as an alternate wolf form.

Skyward Sword (2011)

With his newest adventure, Link is looking decidedly classic. No drastic changes have been made to his iconic design, but Hyrule looks different thanks to the game's watercolor-like visuals.

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[crescentblossom66]

A Corruption in Time

TRIGGER WARNING FOR: BLOOD AND GORE AND MAJOR CHARACTER DEATH, WHICH IS DESCRIBED IN DETAIL

This is a creepypasta inspired story. For those that don't know, a creepypasta was a scary story about either lost episodes of tv shows or a glitched game, of course they were all made up. The most notable example of a creepypasta was 'Ben drowned' a stroy detailing the horrible things that happened in an allegedly haunted copy of 'The legend of Zelda Majora's Mask'. So I decided to present you with this, have fun reading

I should preface this by saying that I didn't tinker with the game in any way, heck I don't even know how to code or access game files. This all happened with the regular downloadable copy of the game on steam, no mods were installed, as I wanted to experience the game as it was intended, so I have no idea how the game ended up the way it did. I also didn't have any of the DLCs, I wanted to buy them, but the Nyakuza Metro DLC didn't even exist at the time of the events, and I completely forgot about the seal-the-deal DLC.

Alright, now that that's out of the way let me begin to explain the strange things that happened when I decided to download A Hat in Time again after 4 years had passed between me playing it initially.

I was finally setting up my new PC and got Steam back on it to play my favorite games again, when the box art of A Hat in Time caught my attention. I remembered how much fun I had playing this game and decided to redownload it immediately. When it finished downloading, I got a notification that the steam cloud files got corrupted, and that due to this, all my save data was gone for good. Well, I wanted to play the game again from the start anyway, so that wasn't too big a deal. I booted the game and everything went normal at first.

Made in Unreal engine logo, created by Gears for Breakfast, all normal. Hat Kid's ship came and flew by, and the starting menu appeared. I pushed A (I was playing with an Xbox 360 controller, don't think it mattered, but thought that I should mention it regardless.), and I was greeted by...nothing. Normally Hat Kid is supposed to be striking a pose on this screen while you select your save file. I didn't think anything of it, as I hadn't started a completely new file in ages. After selecting File 1, everything played out more or less like it should, aside from the fact that Hat Kid's hat was not on the nightstand and also didn't land on her head like it normally did after she faceplants on the ground. Hat Kid just got up, yawn and went on with the day, unlike me who tried to remember if she got her hat later or something.

Now that I could control Hat Kid, I exited the bedroom and went to the main room of her spaceship. I should mention here that she controlled like normal, aside from the fact that I couldn't use her hat ability, which was kinda bad, as you can probably imagine. I just went up to the screen that showed how far away she was from her home planet, she activated it and then it started to knock on the glass. Without hesitation, I made Hat Kid walk over to the Mafia Goon and the cutscene played. Strangely enough the little “How rude!” Didn't play after she closed the window to stop the Mafia, but the rest played like it should. We lost the time pieces and plummeted down to Mafia Town.

That's when the first real strange thing happen, the title card from the level showed up, it depicts Hat Kid running away from little crows, one Mafia Goon points at her, while another rolls a meat on a bone in her direction, meanwhile Hat Kid turns around afraid, while running away. Now Hat Kid was just...missing, it appeared like they were chasing nothing. This became a theme with all the title cards, Hat Kid was just missing in them.

Nevertheless, I, along with the Mafia Goon, landed in the back alley, Hat Kid struck her normal landing pose and on I was to explore Mafia Town, still hatless. That's when I found out that there were no yarns, no matter where I looked, even places that I KNEW should have one, were completely empty.

I was a little freaked out by that, but thought that it would be a nice challenge to try to play through the game without hat abilities.

One strange thing I noticed was that none of the Mafia Goons would talk to me, not even the ones that played a game with you only to punch you in the face weren't interacting with Hat Kid. Speaking of not interacting, they wouldn't even look at her, Hat Kid looked at them, but they never looked at her, even when I placed Hat Kid right in front of their faces.

Due to me skipping the tutorial, I didn't get Mustache Girl to tell Hat Kid not to stalk her. I wondered if she would have reacted, because what happened at the fountain left me thinking that something was indeed very, very wrong with this game. The cutscene with Hat Kid and the Mafia Goon that had the umbrella played, however he didn't react to Hat Kid and the alien girl just waved her hands in front of his face, equally as confused as I was. He was supposed to push her away, which would have resulted in her snatching his umbrella and pointing it at him, while he freaked out.

First, I didn't remember Hat Kid just waving at the Mafia, even MY memory told me that was wrong. Second, now I was really contemplating just reinstalling the game and trying again, but my curiosity got the better of me. After beating up the distressed Mafia Goon, he dropped the time piece, at least all of that was still normal. I got back to the ship, and had Hat Kid switch on the energy for the kitchen and main room again, which caused the telescope to appear. I entered the kitchen and rotated the camera around to check if anything was wrong in the room, the only thing of note wasn't the surroundings, but Hat Kid herself, she looked a bit...dull in her color scheme later on I'd learn that it was far more serious than that. She also looked distressed like she does when Snatcher appears before her or when the bomb is tied to her.

To make it easier for me to gather my thoughts, and to make it easier to read, I'm going to explain level by level from here on.

Mafia Town Act 2: Barrel Battle

The level started out normal enough, Hat Kid landed near the market, Mustache Girl screamed for help, just as usual. I made Hat Kid move toward the stack of barrels, where the Mafia Goons captured the blonde girl. That was where it turned weird again, the Mafia didn't react to Hat Kid arriving and Hat Kid tapped her foot for a moment, as if she was waiting for something to happen before she just sighed and the cutscene ended. Confused, I simply tried to attack one of the big men, who yelped in pain and then turned as if to look who had attacked him.

I got a cutscene that I didn't even know was in the game, the Goon continued to look around and then spoke.

“Mafia trying to teach lesson, don't interfere...nobody is here, but Mafia got attacked. What's going on?” He looked visibly spooked. Without my button input, Hat Kid attacked the guy that held the red-hooded girl and she scampered off to safety. “Mafia is being attacked by g-g-ghost, AAAHH!” All four just started to run away, that was when I regained control, I chased down the fleeing Mafia Goons and reclaimed the time piece, by beating their leader, which concluded the level. The small scene with Mustache Girl at the end didn't play at all and I was simply brought back to the spaceship.

Now that level confirmed a theory I had from the interaction with the Mafia so far, they seemed to be unable to see Hat Kid. She could still interact with the world around her. Curiously, not much could harm her either, it became more and more clear that whatever it was, was only effecting Hat Kid and not the other characters in the game.

Mafia Town Act 3: She came from outerspace

This level made me question things even more, I thought that with Hat Kid being covered in mud, the Goofy Mafia would just run away form her, likely just seeing the dripping mud, however he didn't react, not even with the mud and the eerie glowing eyes was she able to get a reaction out of him.

Hat Kid seemingly had given up on trying to get the attention of the people around her and the cutscene just showed her looking up onto the platform where you'd get the time piece from the Mafia member. I just decided to go with it and climbed across the banners and platforms until I grabbed the time piece. When I came back to the ship, Mustache Girl didn't show up, not that I could have used her advice anyway, not being able to use hat abilities and all. Hat Kid didn't react to that sequence break at all, however she still had that concerned look on her face, like she knew or felt that something was very wrong.

Mafia Town Act 4: Down with the Mafia!

When I got to the the Mafia HQ, the Goons were still attacking Mustache Girl, without being prompted to do so, I proceeded to attack the Mafia. After I killed the first of them, the others once again panicked, spouting some nonsense about ghosts. Mustache Girl seemed to shiver for a moment before jumping down, “How did they...eh, doesn't matter, time to mess with the Mafia a little.” She walked right past Hat Kid, who only made some kind of pouting noise, while I moved her over to the switches that opened the entrance to the HQ.

Upon entering, I for once wasn't assaulted by the Mafia throwing cans at me for no reason. The cutscene with the Mafia carrying the time piece through the doors still played, so did the rest of the level pretty much. I got the key, opened the door to the freezer, went through the vent, and ended up in the hallway. No Goons were send my way, probably because no one could see Hat Kid approach in the first place. When I arrived I had to attack the Mafia Boss instead of him jumping out of his chair to attack me after giving me a speech about how glorious he was.

“What was that?! Some invisible intruder, wants to pick a fight with me? Alright, let's settle this Mafia style!” With that the fight went more or less the same, dodging his shock attack, jumping over the daggers, getting on top of the Mafia Ball to get a hit in, nothing new. The little interaction between the boss and Mu played out a bit differently, he didn't say anything while Mustache Girl said something about him having lost his marbles for fighting something that wasn't even there. Where was a certain uncertainty in the way she spoke though, as if she was trying to convince herself. After the fight the scene was vastly different though, the Mafia ran away from the unknown entity that just beat their boss into goo, while Mustache Girl only looked at the time piece and...ran away. She didn't pick it up, she only looked at it, and bolted away with a terrified expression on her face. Hat Kid then picked the time-altering object up with a smile and I got brought back to the loading screen.

I wondered how the fifth chapter would play out, now that Mustache Girl didn't know about how the time pieces worked and seemingly started to avoid them entirely. Cooking Cat also didn't show up to talk about relics after I returned back to the ship, but I still remembered that they triggered the purple time rifts.

On that note I will tell you that those and the blue ones hadn't change, so I won't have to go over them.

Mafia Town Act 5: Cheating the race

A level that would normally be all but almost impossible without the time-stop hat, but due to the Mafia not even seeing Hat Kid, I could just snatch it away and didn't have to even play the level. A bit boring if I'm being honest, but I never liked that level that much anyway.

Mafia Town Act 7: The Golden Vault

Another level that played more or less the same, the interesting thing was, that I had tried to select Act 6 before, but somehow I was unable to select it for whatever reason. Instead, I just decided to do Act 7, thinking that maybe I would be able to select it after. Another weird thing that I didn't remember happening in the game was that the alert for a new time rift showed up right after Hat Kid returned to the spaceship. The strangest thing about that rift was that it was neither purple nor blue, it was red.

Still confused, I checked where to find that rift, hoping that I didn't get too vague a picture...looking at you blue alpine skyline rift. It appeared to be on the clock tower, where Mustache Girl normally waits for you to find a way up to her in the tutorial. Easy enough to find I thought, and went there to check out what those red rifts had in store for me.

Now this is probably where you'd think something bad was gonna happen, but those red rifts were actually quite interesting, but something about them was indeed disturbing.

Mafia Town: Red Rift

Hat Kid landed in same out of place zone as with the blue rifts, just some white platforms with water effect, just that the secondary color on the platforms was red instead of blue and so was the background. Next to Hat Kid were a Mafia Goon, the Mafia Boss, Mustache Girl and Cooking Cat. Thinking that maybe I could talk to them and they'd have some interesting dialogue, maybe wondering where they were or something, That wasn't the case, however...I could pick them up. Considering that at the time I didn't even have the DLC that was a bit odd.

Just like in the first DLC, I could make a stack with the characters and it appeared that that was what I had to do for this level. Another thing that I noticed was that all of them were slightly transparent, I wondered why that was at the time, I got my answer later...much later.

So, with my mission now clear to me, I made Hat Kid walk from one platform to the other. It was pretty straight forward until I heard a strange noise and stood still for a second.

That was when I saw something following me. It was about the same size as Hat Kid, and moved similar to her, however it was a bit taller and undefined, and looked more like a jumbled mass of red pixels. It did exactly what I did when I was in the position it was in, if I jumped over a gap, so would it. For simplicity's sake I will refer to this...pixel mess as Red Kid.

Hat Kid gasped when I made her stop to get a better look at the thing, she seemed to outright panic, shaking and motioning for me to get moving, by pointing forward with her free hand. So I did, the level itself wasn't very difficult, just some long leaps that could be cleared without the help of the sprint cap, which I was thankful for, otherwise my play-through would have ended right there. The only thing that made things hard was the teetering either to the left or to the right, due to the stack of people the young girl was carrying.

At the end was no time piece, but a portal that Hat Kid proceeded to throw the characters into without my input. Red Kid stopped only briefly and jumped down at the end of the platform, which completed the rift. Back on the ship, I checked if now I would be able to play Act 6 and found that I could. I wasn't ready for what awaited me.

Mafia Town Act 6: Heating up Mafia Town

Again the level started out just like normal, the Mafia asked Hat Kid to switch off the faucets that the lava comes out off. I realized something was very, very off however, when I tried to attack the faucets to turn them off. To put it simply, nothing happened. I tried and tried again to switch off the endless stream of lava, I even went to another faucet, just in case I had to switch them off in a distinct order or something, but nothing happened.

When I stopped to contemplate what to do, I noticed that the lava was slowly rising, the rather comical bouncing of the Mafia after they got burned by the lava was also replaced by them getting slowly engulfed instead, I watched in shock and turned the camera away after a few seconds, unable to watch the goofy crooks die so horribly. I knew this game could get dark at times, however, this was clearly NEVER in the game!

I tried to find out what my objective was now, most of the faucets were completely submerged in lava by now, even Hat Kid reacted by panting and wiping her forehead when idle, adding to the tension I was feeling. I needed to find away to stop the lava from rising, but I couldn't do anything!

That was when I spotted Mustache Girl in the clock tower, sitting there with her legs pulled to her chest, staring into the boiling lava below with tears in her eyes.

“H-How? H-How could this h-happen? I j-just wanted to get rid of the Mafia-” Mustache Girl wiped her face with her sleeve, “-Now EVERYONE will....All of us will.....” She buried her head in her hands, crying louder. Unlike me who pitied the girl, Hat Kid's expression showed anger mixed with disappointment. Making me think that she knew that the red-hooded girl was the one who doomed the island.

With nothing to do but to climb higher to escape the red, burning liquid, I moved Hat Kid to the cannon and jumped to the HQ, hoping that it would not reach that high. Soon Mu followed and so did the remaining Mafia that had survived until now. Some looked like they were burned by the lava, their character models were charred in some places like the shoulder and a couple of big smoldering spots on their backs. I felt bad a little, even though they were just character models, I still kind of felt bad for the guys.

“What's going on?!” The Mafia Boss, now in the jar, I should mention that he wasn't in the red time rift, came outside, followed by Cooking Cat. Both looked distressed, Cooking Cat's ears were flat on her head and she had pulled down her hat and was kneading it with both hands, while the jar was completely motionless.

With sheer horror, I noticed that the lava kept rising and was now even starting to take over the plateau everyone thought they had found shelter on. I made Hat Kid climb onto the building using the awnings, only Mustache Girl followed her.

Writing out the next thing that happened still chills me, I know that the characters aren't real, but...those screams, those terrified screams of pain and terror, I'm not lying when I tell you that I can still hear them in my nightmares...

Hat Kid was apparently also unable to take all of this, the blue-eyed girl sat down and started to cry, no one able to hear her silent sobbing but me...I felt terrible for her, call me a crybaby, but I really felt for her. First no one can see her and now, all those people died around her.

The red-hooded girl continued to cry and quietly sat down on the roof next to Hat Kid, looking at the ground while the lava slowly crept toward her, threatening to end her, just like it had ended the lives of everyone else in Mafia Town,

“How could I be so stupid...All I wanted was for them to leave...and now, and now-” She trailed of and looked up briefly before looking back down,”I'm going to...” the poor girl was trembling horribly, while I watched on helplessly. I couldn't do anything to save them, I felt like I failed Hat Kid and the people in Mafia Town.

When the lava reached Hat Kid, she didn't react at all, the girl looked at herself confused. For a moment I was a bit relieved at that but was torn right out of my brief moment of respite by loud, terrified shrieking once more. I only caught a small glimpse of the red girl, before I forced myself to look away. It was too horrible to watch...Her clothes caught fire as the lava reached her ankles.

That scene went on for what felt like hours, but was only around a minute in real life...a minute I and Hat Kid spent in hell.

That was when she got teleported back to her ship. Physically she appeared to be alright, but most certainly not emotionally.

I was about to just close the game when a cutscene played, the screen that showed the progress toward Hat Kid's home planet, showed static and Hat Kid went to check it out, still wiping away tears. I felt so bad for the girl.

The static showed a gray, humanoid shape, it spoke in a distorted manner, very low-pitched and quite eerie. “ You can't save them!”

That was all it said. Hat Kid looked shocked and confused and a little frightened. What did he mean with 'You can't save them!'? Who were we trying to save? What was up with this game!? I only wanted to play a nice platformer that I hadn't played for a few years, and now this! No, I didn't sign up to play a disturbing horror game, where a kid is forced to watch people die! No way in hell!

When I went to close the game window, however, a pop up window appeared.

Do you really want to have them all die?

Hell Yeah! No, I have to save them!

I stared at the screen blankly for a moment. Did this game honestly think that I would fall for that! If I uninstall and reinstall the game, I can play normally again, and don't have to deal with this horror. I clicked on 'Hell Yeah' and another box popped up.

So you don't care what will become of the birds, Snatcher and the minions, and the nomads? You're fine with knowing that you killed them, even though you could have tried to save them?

Nothing would please me more! I was only joking!

I would love to say that I just closed the game regardless, like a sane and normal person, but...I felt bad. I wanted to at least try to prevent them from dying. I know it's a stupid reason, but I wanted to see it through.

Alpine Skyline Chapter 1-4

After I so naively decided to continue playing, I checked where I could go to next and found that strangely enough the only area I could go to was the Alpine Skyline. I didn't even have the 14 time pieces required to enter the area, but it wasn't like I could go anywhere else. The gates for Subcon and Dead Bird Studio weren't open.

Wait.....how was I even supposed to GET to the Skyline, never mind even getting to the telescope! I had no hook shot! The hook shot badge was in the second level of Subcon Forest! I tried and tried to make the jump from the room with the washing machines over to where the telescope for the alpines was, thinking that maybe something was in that room that could help me, but I just couldn't make the difficult jump. Was that finally where I couldn't proceed any further because the game became to broken to continue? I did what everyone does in such a situation; backtrack out of desperation. I went to the main room of the spaceship, but couldn't find anything there that could help me, I had a couple of rift tokens though, so I decided to give that a shot, maybe I could get hat flairs, or maybe something changed there.

I did get something out of it, believe it or not! It was a strange badge that looked like the first dweller mask you get, the one with the fox head and the green glowing eyes. Oh, I should mention here that the badge seller appeared to be the only person in the whole game I could interact with. So far I had the no-bonk badge and pon magnet. The scooter- or the fast hatter badge obviously wouldn't have helped me considering my non existent hat. I had all three slots for badges, hoping that maybe I'd find something that could help me. Before I left him he said something I don't remember from the game, ���You've met with a terrible fate, haven't you?” To which he produced a strange green badge that did nothing once I equipped it, shrugging it off, I removed it and swapped it with a badge I could actually use.

Now the badge I got from the machine in the main room worked the same as the dweller mask, the green aura appeared and I assumed that I could enter the lab, now that I had the dweller mask and low and behold what do I find, the hook shot badge! At least I could proceed now, I equipped both, the dweller mask badge and the hook shot badge, and thus I could actually enter the Alpine Skyline chapters.

I walked up the long mountain path to the top and hit the weird spinny things. Then I made my way up through the clouds to the Skyline that, just like Mafia Town at first, looked pretty normal, No changes. That went through literally the whole Skyline though, so I can actually sum most of it up here.

The nomads couldn't see her, so I never received any directions form them, which wasn't too bad as the Alpines are quite big, but fairly easy to navigate through. The Birdhouse and the Lava Cake were quite easy and I only struggled a little in the Windmill, due to the lack of the sprint hat that can help you with some of the longer jumps there.

Before I went to the Twilight Bell, I noticed something again, I already said that Hat Kid looked...off a bit, now it was even worse, she was very visibly transparent now, and looked just...sickly. I figured that it had something to do with the whole nobody-can-see-Hat-Kid thing, but I had no idea what to make of it. She still controlled like normal, but appeared more pained, like something was hurting. I felt bad again for making her go through all of this, especially now that it seemed that whatever it was was causing her pain. Pushing my concerns aside, I pressed on, making my way to the Twilight Bell, that would have been all but impossible without my newly acquired dweller badge.

The real problems started when Act 5 rolled around, and the pollen were released. Before that though I got a pop up that another red time rift had appeared. It was strange, because normally you'd have to leave the Skyline to have any time rift appear, I had already cleared both of the blue ones and the purple one, and the pop ups for them came after I returned form the Windmill and the Twilight Bell and had assembled the relic for the alpines.

Alpine Skyline: Red Rift

The location of the rift was very easy to discern, it was on the knife of the Lava Cake. I found it strange that I could still explore normally, as Act 5 follows right after the last of the 4 levels was cleared. The red time rift looked the same appearance wise. The difference was that this time, I had to carry out lightly transparent versions of a nomad, a goat (I have no idea how she managed ot carry one of those. Well, she carried a walrus in the DLC sooo...), and a Lazy Paw Gang Cat.

Just like before, movement was a bit weird, due to the stack, but I managed alright. A couple of seconds in, I heard the weird noise again and when I turned the camera to look behind me, Red Kid was after me once again, this time I could actually make out something like a hat that they were wearing, but nothing else.

The stack teetering almost threw me off one of the platforms once, especially the fast spinning ones that rotate made it very difficult to jump on safely. I fell a couple of times, thanks to me being garbage at timing jumps right sometimes. All in all it was harder than the first, but still easily manageable. At the end I lost control of Hat Kid again, as she shoved the three characters she was carrying through the portal. Red Kid stopped again briefly, and this time they spoke: “You can't save all of them.”, with that taunt, they jumped off into the bottomless, red abyss, and thus the red rift ended.

Alpine Skyline Act 5: The Illness has Spread

This is where things took a turn for the worst again, go figure. I braced myself for the worst, and started the level. The title card displayed (Again without Hat Kid in it), and I had a bad feeling already. I hoped that it wouldn't be like Mafia Town where everyone died a cruel death that still shakes me to the core to this day when I think about it.

Tightening my hold on my controller, I made Hat Kid move through the dark despair that awaited us both, the three icons that displayed the location of the flowers showed up, and I made my way to the first one. I went with the one near the Birdhouse, avoiding the fire and the thunder of the lethal environment around me. When I got to the platform where it showed the huge plant, getting to it was exceedingly easy, thanks to it not realizing that Hat ´Kid was there to destroy it. Foolishly, I thought that this would be a piece of cake, that all I had to do now was break the flowers and I'd somehow find the time piece after.

My rude awakening out of that sunshine and rainbows daydream happened the moment I made Hat Kid attack the plant...only for it to do nothing, absolutely zero damage, not a scratch or any indication that I did anything. I tried again a couple of times and my hand started to sweat the more it became apparent that, once again, I couldn't do anything.

Hat Kid made a noise of confusion, before the big plant released another cloud of purple pollen. I didn't know what to do, so I just moved around aimlessly, trying to find a hint to something that I could do. When I got back to the small mountain where Hat Kid always starts out form, I could see the damage the pollen had done, houses had burned down all the way to the foundation, and fire and had spread to the point that I had to carefully jump around to not have Hat Kid lose health by stepping on it. Suddenly Hat Kid recoiled and did the animation she does than Queen Vanessa speaks for the first time, she crawled backwards and I had to turn the camera to see just what had scared her so much, due to the dense smoke. I wish I had just turned Hat Kid around and left, but I was too curios and as we all know; Curiosity kills the cat.

I saw the normally territorial, but otherwise harmless, goats chase after the nomads on a platform just below, the huge animal kicked on of the nomads to their doom down the huge mountain, his friend however met a worse end. The nomad seemed to plead for his live, bowing and folding his hands in prayer, but the huge herbivore showed no mercy. I was so glad that I for whatever reason turned Hat Kid around, so she didn't have to look at the horrible scene that unfolded. It still sickens me to this day and honestly I almost threw up when I saw the huge goat stomp on the small nomad, the loud crunch of his spine breaking echoed through my speakers and made my blood ran cold. Even thought blood is pink in this game, it still shocked me to the core to see the bloody mess that had once been a nomad. Hat Kid was crying and visibly distressed, and I couldn't blame her. I moved back, careful to not turn the young girl around. I have no idea if she was programmed to react to all of this or even if this whole scenario was coded and had been in the game before and I somehow accessed it or something, but whoever I have to 'thank' for this mess, I would like to send to a psychiatric ward. This was waaaay too messed up for a kids game.

The level ended when the whole area was full of pollen, so much so that I couldn't see Hat Kid anymore and just stood still in order to not fall off any cliffs. It just suddenly...ended. I wondered if any of the nomads escaped or if the goats killed all of them.

I got brought back to the ship and didn't move for a solid half an hour or so. First Mafia Town, now the Alpine Skyline. This cutsy platformer turned into a Silent Hill game faster than Sonic gets through Green Hill Zone. When I finally got the courage to grab the controller again and to move on, I noticed that Hat Kid was even more translucent, whatever was happening to her was getting worse it seemed.

I thought about just quitting then, but what Red Kid said at the end of the red rift, stuck with me. “You can't save all of them.” Were they referring to the characters Hat Kid tossed through the portal? Were they safe on the other side? It motivated me enough to see where I needed to go to next and I found that the gate to Subcon Forest was now open.

Subcon Forest Act 1: Contractual Obligations

I made my way over to Hat Kid's bed room, still reeling a bit from the horrifying events that continued to flash before my eyes. The first couple of acts for both Mafia Town and the Skyline were more or less tame, and Sucbon proved to be no exception to that rule.

I entered the creepy forest and started my way toward Subcon Village, where the fire spirits were. On the way, I half expected to actually still be captured by the net, but it didn't trigger at all, however I triggered a cutscene a bit further ahead near the bridge where you'd normally find an eyeball enemy that you needed to destroy to get a yarn, but as you know, no yarn for me. In place of the yarn, I got a cutscene that featured two minions talking to each other. The topic turned out to be one of the time pieces, apparently it fell into the bonfire that the fire spirits dance around. Hat Kid listened in, more like stood technically in plain sight, but the minions were also no exception to the No-one-can-see-Hat-Kid rule. I kind of hoped that, given the paranormal and occult themed forest, someone here would react to poor Hat Kid, whose appearance was more akin to a wraith than an actual alive kid.

I didn't waste any more time and moved Hat Kid over to the entrance of the village. I noted that she seemed to move a bit slower than normal, it could have just been my imagination, at least I thought that at that point in the game. When I arrived I obviously didn't get that scene where Snatcher makes sure that you're doing your chores, but it still zoomed in on the fire spirits and even showed the time piece that had fallen in the fire. I knew what I had to do, and was thankful that I at least could still pick things up, given that I had trouble attacking the plants, I had been worried about that. It didn't take me all that long to throw the paintings into the fire and extract the time piece. Before I could go and grab it, one of the fire walls disappeared and Snatcher appeared in the village and started to talk to a minion. I'm going to paraphrase here, sorry, I can't remember what he said exactly anymore.

“Did...did you managed to get rid of those annoying fires that stopped me from getting to parts of my forest?” He looked a bit confused, I'd be too if the thing that kept me trapped suddenly disappeared without cause.

“...Yeah?” The minion cowered in fear, probably hoping that telling his boss that he did it would be a good idea.

“Why didn't you do so earlier!? Well, it doesn't matter, get rid of the other ones too, now that you're at it.” Hat Kid appeared to pout after the Minion just blatantly took credit for something she did.

“...Thanks.” With that the, soul-stealing ghost vanished back in the ground, leaving me to finally claim the time piece.

Subon Forest Act 2: The Subcon Well

When I got back to the ship, I didn't realize that I missed something at the time. The levels in Subon usually needed to be unlocked by stepping into Snatcher's traps, with him now being unaware of Hat Kid strolling around in his forest, I could have easily gotten locked out of the rest of the levels. Thankfully, the corruption or whatever unlocked the rest of the levels aside from Vanessa's manor. That boded very ill.

After I entered the level and was brought back to the Snatcher's stump, I started by getting rid of the fire spirits in the swamp, which I could do earlier than normal, thanks to already being in possession of the hook shot badge. I got another cutscene where two minions talk about the well and that their boss wanted it to be cleaned. All in all not much of a big change here. I went inside the well, broke the ice that clogged it, and found the time piece. I decided that I would open up the other areas by getting rid of the fire spirits though. After all the death I'd already seen, I was far more uncomfortable than the first time I played the game, that I had to get rid of them.

Subcon Forest Act 3: Toilet of Doom

Yet another level mostly the same, it appeared that the outhouse got possessed differently this time, Hat Kid still had her soul after all. The fight went well enough, I got hit a couple of times, due to forgetting that the shock waves the toilet created, tripped you. The only other thing that change, was that a minion got praised for destroying the wretched bathroom appliance, to which Hat Kid shrugged again.

Subcon Forest Act 5: Mail Delivery Service

This one shared a fate with Mafia Town Act 5, due to Snatcher not being aware of Hat Kid, I could just grab the time piece without even needing to deliver the mail, not that I could have done so without the sprint hat.

Subcon Forest: Red Rift

The red rift showed right before I braced myself for the 4th act of Subcon, this time it was placed near the entrance to the manor just across the bridge where the destroyed tower or something is, it took me a while to realize where it wanted me to go. Awaiting another tougher platforming rift, I went over to the glowing orb and entered. Same deal as before, no explanation necessary, I think. I had to pick up a Minion, a Fire Spirit, a dweller, and of course Snatcher, strangely, no Queen Vanessa. I had only 2 health this time though, and due to the stack and Hat Kid's more sluggish movement that I mentioned earlier, I had quite a bit of trouble getting through the spinning platforms and the gear tower things. Red Kid's shape became even more defined, they looked like a boy with short hair and a coat that flowed sightly when he moved, which was the only way for me to tell what it was.

After some very tight jumps and lots of anxiety on my part, Hat Kid finally managed to get the people she had been holding through the portal at the end. Once again, Red Kid stopped.

“Why won't you just give up and disappear!? Just stop struggling already!” He exited by leaping away again. I got back to the space ship with Hat Kid looking confused. Was he the one who put me and Hat Kid through this traumatic nightmare? If so, why? What did he gain by doing that? With noting left to do, I tried to open act 4 again and this time I could access it. I took a deep breath and braced myself.

Subcon Forest Act 4: Queen Vanessa's Manor

Of course the scariest level in the normal game was also the trigger for an even scarier event in this weird corrupted, or glitched, or whatever you'd call it game. I had already been dreading this level, not only because of the strange and horrifying event that I already had to go through, but also because just like with Mafia Town's Act 6, it was kept for last without me being able to select it prior to completing the others.

I was honestly relieved and disappointed when nothing of real note happened at first, everything went normally. Some Minions once again opened the act by explaining that they saw one of the time pieces fall near the manor and emphasized that they would NOT go over there, under no circumstance, a sentiment that I kind of shared, but had to fight against.

Reluctantly, I made my way across the bridge and through the little ice puzzle to the wide nothingness that stretched out all around the manor of the ice queen. I avoided those nasty ice statues at the front because I remembered that you had to enter the manor from the basement. I sneaked around and the door to the cellar opened and I made Hat Kid jump right in.

Kind of random, but the title card for this act without Hat Kid in it was somehow very eerie, just and empty nothingness through the open door the blue-eyed child would have peeked through if this had been a regular version of the game.

This level had one of the biggest changes to the original, so far most of the levels played the same aside from the invisible Hat Kid thing, but now this invisibility caused something worse to happen, I already found it strange that the red rift appeared before I even had access to the final chapter, the reason was pretty weird.

I maneuvered my way through the house as usual, and almost got a heart attack when I opened the door to the hallway and found the shadowy figure of Queen Vanessa just walking toward the kitchen door. Hat Kid did her little skidding animation upon seeing her, while I almost dropped my controller. This may just be the only instance in the game where I appreciated a person not being able to interact with me, even Hat Kid looked relieved.

This relief didn't last long however, I needed to go to the kitchen to open the door on the left side of the hallway and the door that let to the room with the piano was locked, so I had but one option. I carefully moved Hat Kid past the queen and opened the door to the kitchen, which seemed to make the red-eyed apparition recoil.

“What?” She then followed me through the door and I opened the fridge foolishly, in hindsight I should have waited for her to turn around or leave, as that led to Vanessa being even more confused and upset, which further doomed the already pretty miserable citizens of Subcon. “What is happening?!”

Hat Kid was freaking out and so was I, due to the shadowy mass now trailing the purple-clothed child everywhere I made her go. She followed me up the stairs and into the bedroom, watching as I did what you regularly do in this level. I noticed that she started to shake more and more, I assumed it to be out of fear, but no....it was out of fury. “Stop playing tricks on me, my prince. I know you're here.”

I don't know what delusions she was conjuring up as I got the key and entered the attic. At the top I found and opened the treasure chest and that doomed Subcon.

Remembering all of this sends a chill down my spine as I'm typing this. But I'll promised myself that I'll see ti through. I just hope that I can get some answers to why my game ended up this way.

When Hat Kid opened the chest and claimed the time piece, something else fell out...a wilted, old bouquet, the flowers it was made out of preserved forever under a thick layer of ice. “You came back to me...just to get this back for her, didn't you?” Anguish and spite laced the words of the cold queen, before it switched to sadness and then anger. “I thought you came back to see me, but now I understand...-” Ice started to spread under her and toward Hat Kid, who I had no control over yet again, as she jumped onto the window sill, her eyes wide with fear as the ground started to shake.

“YOU'RE NOTHING BUT A FILTHY CHEATER!!!”

That was the line that made Hat Kid bolt, she jumped through the glass and started to run back in panic, the ice spreading behind her, as I gained control again once she landed on the ground outside. I panicked, I panicked as the view turned around and I could see the ice encase the whole manor, turning it into a huge ice crystal. The ice kept spreading at a rapid pace, and even though I had no sprint cap, Hat Kid still ran, she ran as fast as her little legs could carry her, as all I could see was the ice behind the space traveler.

Adrenalin kicked in and I tried to tilt the camera forward again, but I was forced to watch the ice spread as it covered the trees, the rocks. I almost dropped my controller entirely as an insane cackle echoed through the forest and almost made Hat Kid trip.

I only saw something dark and red run past Hat Kid as she entered the village, I hadn't even realized we had made it there already. The cold magic reached the blue-eyed kid, and once again, she wasn't affected.

Again I was powerless, again I couldn't do anything but watch.

That was when the view switched and I could see dwellers and minions slowly freeze to death, while they flailed around in a panic, and begged for it to stop, but to no avail. Hat Kid started shaking, the cruelty on display in front of her becoming too much to bear. My attention was drawn to the distance. Red and purple flashes lit up the horizon. I didn't want to go there, but I had no choice it seemed.

When Hat Kid arrived the ice was spreading up a shocked and terrified Snatcher, I turned Hat Kid around again as he slowly stopped moving and joined the ranks of the endlessly suffering ice statues. The evil cackle from the queen gave me goosebumps and I flinched when she simply shattered the ice sculpture of the tormented ghost. The insane laughter continued, while Hat Kid sat down and pulled her knees to her chest, before she started to cry. That was when it ended again and I simply got brought back to the ship.

It scares me how good the human is at adapting to things, as I was slowly getting used to these horrifying stuff that I had to bear witness to. I realized that I could see through Hat Kid now, even to me she was slowly turning invisible. Only one more chapter, only Battle of the Birds remained. I dreaded what the corruption would do to my favorite characters of the game, but I found out soon enough.

Battle of the Birds Act 1: Dead Bird Studio

Just like all those times before, I entered the first level of the Chapter. Neither the owls nor the penguins acknowledged Hat Kid, nothing new there, and both directors were to busy with the usual spiel of yelling at each other. The cutscene played and I sprinted up toward the vent, not even trying to talk to either of the directors' subordinates. The level proved no challenge, you know why by now. At the end, I simply found the time piece for the level, maybe because I couldn't interact with DJ Grooves and the Conductor.

Battle of the Birds Act 2: Murder on the Owl Express

The interesting stuff happen from this chapter onward. Murder on the Owl Express was there things got really strange. It started the same way, only that one of the owls was talking with the Conductor and the yellow bird told the express owl that he had to go to front of the train to get something. With nothing better to do, I followed the brown owl and witnessed him getting questioned by the crows. One asked him what his favorite sting of numbers and letters was to which he replied with ABC123.

Another question was about his pet's pet name, Pecko actually made me smile a little, which I appreciated after the ordeal in Subcon. It was a bit strange not being the main character in a game for once, given that all I could do was follow the owl to the front, there he picked up the detective costume and got a call about his uncle's sister, Owlina, visiting.

The owl that I had trailed for the past 2 minutes then went on his way to find the clues on who committed the murder, after he had quite the panic attack, due to the other owl lying in a pool of blood, it seems that my owl friend also couldn't tell that it was a mere set up. The important part was that he then just stopped after leaving the room with the blood and hid in the corner, shaking like a leaf.

Hat Kid just looked at the owl, a bit surprised, she hardly paid any attention to things around her anymore, if it was because of her getting more transparent, or due to the horrible things she had to see, I didn't know. I decided that it was best to just find the files and go form there, so I did. Thanking the game for still letting me pick things up at least, I grabbed the files and after I got the one that implicated the presumed dead owl from the cafeteria, the button that lowered the platform to reach the room where you'd find Hat Kid's file wasn't even there, so I simply walked back to the room the detective owl was in. Hat Kid threw the files toward the owl, which hit him in the head.

I wondered what would show up on the movie recordings for a moment, floating files that made their way through the whole train, more like a horror movie than a thriller. In the end the Conductor asked the owl, who the murderer was and the owl picked one of the suspects at random and just blurted out that the other Express Owls did it, which they then confirmed. That concluded this level, I had to look around for the time piece, and found it outside on the little balcony of the caboose.

Battle of the Birds Act 3: Picture Perfect

This time around Hat Kid landed on the big moon set, and we were following a moon penguin who was tasked with establishing a big fan club for himself. He did the endorsement scenes mostly on his own, I helped with pushing the dog cutout from the fountain, which was literally the only one of those that I could do. The others were just the penguin guessing incorrectly at the card game, and him answering with ranch when it came to the way he preferred his tuna sandwiches.

The best part about the level came from when I noticed that the penguins weren't taking pictures of their comrade, and I found one of their cameras near the area you land when the game starts. For a few minutes I actually forgot the pain and suffering the game had put me and Hat Kid through, and I had fun photographing the little moon penguin. It even showed the fedora-wearing bird in the photos that I took of him, the controls for the camera were the same as with the camera badge. All of this came to a sudden end though when I got the time piece as it popped out of the balloon, and the alert for a red rift appeared.

Battle of the Birds: Red Rift

I found the rift near the end of the Dead Bird Studio, right behind the big plastic award. I wondered how hard it would be this time and wasn't disappointed on the difficulty front, I had ONE health, if I screwed up here I wondered if I could even attempt the level again, or if I ended up killing the characters if I messed up. I really needed to concentrate this time. I made Hat Kid pick up the birds, which consisted of the two directors, an express owl, a moon penguin and a crow.

As you can imagine, moving around with a stack of five birds was really hard, fighting against the constant swaying while landing safely on the platforms was near impossible, given my horrible skills in this game. Red Kid, whose shape was now clear, was even more determined than ever to catch up to the little girl I controlled. I had never seen that character in the game before, at the time I was desperately trying to figure out who he was, not even Hat Kid seemed to remember him.

I was so happy once Hat Kid tossed the flock of birds through the rift, Red Kid stopped once again and only glared at the blue-eyed girl for a second before he left. I breathed a sigh of relief after that stressful rift, and I knew that the area I had to go to next would not be as pleasant as 'Picture Perfect' had been, after all following the red rift was only the untimely demise of the remaining cast, the other rifts before made that abundantly clear. I knew that 'Train Rush' and 'The big Parade' would not end well.

Battle of the Birds Act 4: Train Rush

Train Rush...oh where do I begin with Train Rush. This was by far together with the parade the most traumatizing act in the whole game...I honestly don't even want to open this can of worms, but by now you're probably just as interested to see what happened as I was during all this. This morbid curiosity that led me to continue through this whole ordeal...The human truly is a strange creature, that never seems to be able to know when to quit.

I landed on the balcony of the caboose, and entered after the Conductor told the owl that his next movie was gonna be the bomb in a good way...No Conductor...This bomb was bad on so many levels.

The owl pulled the trigger for the bomb, and immediately after the yellow bird stopped talking before telling him to get to the front to turn it off, he faltered, just like in the movie before. Hat Kid panicked and tried to get the hysterical owl to move, of course it did nothing. In my panic, I thought that maybe I could have Hat Kid switch it off, we could interact with objects so far, so where was at least a chance! I made my way through the exploding train carts, screaming and yelling followed Hat Kid as she ran.

I made it to the front, jumping and trying desperately to press down the switch, which didn't budge in the slightest. I yelled and cursed at the thing, while the clock kept ticking away the life seconds of all owls on board. 10...9...8...7...6...5...4...3...2...1 Good bye

“Good bye.” Right before the loud explosion destroyed the only train on the planet, a weak low whisper broke the silence in the room, what followed after I could only tell from the wind shield. The train tilted to the left after the explosion send the wagons in the back off the rail, which caused the others connected to them to get flung off as well. Hat Kid fell toward the left, due the control room digging itself further into the sand, as the wheels spun around to find the traction they had lost.

That was when the shock wave created by the explosion in the back reached the front. The owl, just like Hat Kid, ended up being tossed around by the violently shaking train. He hit the control panel rather hard, a sickening crackling noise barely leveled itself above the cacophony of other noises in the chaos, but I heard his bone snap before he crumbled to the floor. It felt like hours before everything came to a stand-still, it was almost completely silent after what felt like an eternity, broken cables swinging around and fire burning somewhere in the distance were the only things I could hear...that and a creaking noise...How I wished that Hat Kid was able to interact with people.

I gasped when I noticed that the old owl I had presumed to be dead slowly got up hissing in pain. Hat Kid moved over to him, trying to help the wounded bird. He yelped when he tried to move his right wing, and almost slumped back down. He survived! I couldn't believe it!...but of course this wasn't the end of this, this game was cruel and unmerciful. It only toyed with me, making me believe that one of my favorite characters could actually survive.

The same loud creak replaced the quiet hisses of the owl with gurgling noises as a pipe broke off and impaled him. Hat Kid shrieked and started to tremble once she realized what had happened. Blood poured out of the owl's beak and from the huge wound in his abdomen, at least he appeared to have died the moment it hit him, as he didn't struggle to free himself. I felt nauseous when his limp body sank further and further down, impaling the dead bird more and more due to gravity, that was when I finally got my act together and made Hat Kid leave.

The owls didn't have it any better. As I walked around the literal train wreak, I could see that most of them had perished in the explosion, some had been crushed by large objects or debris, while others were looked singed and burnt. One particular owl broke my heart, he tried desperately to drag himself through the hot sand, as he slowly bleed out from a large, gashing injury on his side. I lost control once Hat Kid fell to her knees and cried, once again broken by what happened around her. That was when we finally returned to the ship.

Battle of the Birds Act 5: The big Parade

When I came back to the spaceship after everything once again simply faded to black, I cried together with Hat Kid, I just couldn't help it this time, call me a cry baby, but seeing all of owls meet such a terrible end made me sick even if it is just a game, I really connected with these characters the first time I played the game, so seeing all of this just tore at my heart. The two quarreling bird directors were my favorite characters and now one of them died with Hat Kid and me just a few mere steps away form him, it made my hands shake and I still had one more level to go through, one more level of agony. I was determined to see it through to the end though, I had been through enough of this already, so I deserved some closure. With that in mind I entered Act 5, and prayed that it wouldn't end nearly as bad...You already know what I'm about to tell you though, of course it ended in huge calamity.

Just like with all the levels before it, the first few minutes nothing was wrong, the penguin put on the parade costume and started to roam around the set, while the band of owls followed him. The bad stuff started when the DJ interrupted the parade for a moment and sent the penguin to turn on the pyrotechnics, the floors stayed electrified longer than in the original version, which didn't effect Hat Kid, but made it hard for the other dancing penguins to not get electrocuted.

My unease solidified more and more as I watched them struggle, Hat Kid appeared like she wanted to help the penguins and tried to interact with them, to no avail. The DJ told the star of the show to switch on the fireworks...and that was when things went from bad to worse...far worse.

In the original I already hated those fireworks, that behaved more like homing missiles, but after this I swore to myself that I'd never launch another one of those at new years out of fear that it will trigger this dark memory.

The homing missiles didn't chase after Hat Kid, they instead targeted the penguins and objects closest to them. The very first rocket hit a building, making concrete rain down on the gathering below the stage. Screaming once again echoed through my speakers as penguins got hit and either were terribly injured or got electrocuted by the floors that now had an electric current run through them nonstop, due to one of the missiles hitting one of the buttons.

No matter where I looked, all I could see was pain and suffering, once again I couldn't save Hat Kid's psyche, she had to watch the penguins jolt and twitch as the electricity slowly killed them. One small explosion after another made my skin crawl and my eyes water yet again. Hat Kid screamed out loud as I unfortunately jumped right toward the little area where DJ Grooves stood during the parade, and two missiles were headed right his way. The kid seemed to want to warn the panicking DJ, trying to get his attention, trying everything in her power to stop him from meeting the same fate as his rival and countless others met before him. It was for naught.

The sparkling, highly explosive objects that were meant to spark joy to those that watch them combust in the night sky now only sparked sheer terror as the first one hit the turntables, sending boiling hot shrapnel at the tall penguin's face, he shrieked in pain, as his jacket caught fire from machine breaking around him. For better or for worse the second missile ended his suffering fairly quickly when it stuck him in the back and made him slump over. The missiles continued to wreak havoc, but both Hat Kid and I were paralyzed, unable to turn away form the smoking feathers and the still slightly burning red jacket. The always dancing and moving penguin now laid eerily still, his star-shaped shades were teetering at the end of his beak, threatening to fall to the now empty street below at any second.

We were only brought out of our stupor when the screen went black once again and we found ourselves back in the spaceship. I couldn't even process the events as the little girl suddenly screamed in pain. At first I thought that it was due to all the mental trauma. Damn that red boy! Speaking of the devil.

“You may have saved them, but you won't be able to save yourself!” With that threat, the screen went black once again and I landed in what appeared to be yet another red time rift.

???

This rift was more or less like the others, the first thing I noticed was poor Hat Kid, she was almost completely invisible to me now, I almost had to make my way through it, only knowing by the camera always being centered on her. The blue-eyed girl moved painfully slow now and did the little panting noises no matter if I was standing still or not. I got uneasy, not sure what I should do, but decided to just try and get through the rift. Red Kid spawned again, and this time it happened, this time Red Kid caught me, and Hat Kid did lost her last health and she fell to the ground.

“Finally! Now I can finally exist! Sorry, Hat Kid, but it had to be done.” Red Kid finally got his normal color, he had short black hair, a red jacket, a brown hat, and a white shirt with something printed on it. Some blue, tribal-looking tattoos were painted on his face and he had purple eyes. With strain in her voice, Hat Kid finally named the boy that I had labeled as Red Kid.

“T-Timmy?” He looked shocked for a moment but composed himself.

“So you do remember me! The sidekick you abandoned, and doomed to non-existence!” Hat Kid tried to move and get up, but only fell back down.

“Why? I wasn't the one who did this to you.”

“I just want to live, okay! I've been stuck in endless darkness for so long, while you had a nice, adventure and made lots of friends. I was jealous!-” The sound effect and the little poof, that happened when you switch hats played, and the brown hat, was replaced by Hat Kid's iconic top hat.

“All I had to do was steal the thing that linked you to this world, that made you the main character. Now that I have it, you'll fade away and end up in obscurity just like I was before. Now I can go on adventures and make friends. Don't worry, I won't forget you...but the others will.” With that he jumped away and left the girl on the floor.

This was it? This was how this gruesome game ended...with Hat Kid fading into nothingness? Again where was nothing I could do to help, I had to watch as she slowly faded completely. I opened the menu to find something, anything that could help. That was when the green badge the badge seller gave me caught my eye. I hurried to equip it and now it did something. Hat Kid seemingly faded back in a bit, she regained all 4 hit points and her movement was back to normal.

I ran through the parkour, determined to confront Timmy and get Hat Kid's hat back. Of course I felt a little bad for the poor boy, especially now that I know that he was scrapped in beta, maybe someone in the team put this story line in because they were upset that he was cut...what a sadistic asshole, making the player and Hat Kid go through that!

The rift ended on a huge round platform, that practically screamed 'Boss Battle', and I was right. As soon as I got there, Timmy opened a portal that showed the spaceship and the planet in the background. Timmy noticed Hat Kid approach and ran toward the portal, ready to jump in.

“You won't stop me!” He yelled, but the purple-clothed girl was having none of it, she send the hook shot and grabbed his jacket, pulling back. He growled and thus I had to battle the upset boy.

This battle was like fighting Hat Kid from the normal game, if she were an enemy. He could run very fast, due to the sprint hat, and he could slow down time with the time-stop hat. Thankfully the green badge gave me some health recovery every 30 seconds or so, which at least gave me a fighting chance, I still struggled to stay alive. I'm really bad at describing this battle, sorry, but everything just turned into a blur as I was so focused on the fight. I didn't want to lose and potentially kill Hat Kid, and have her drown in darkness forever.

I beat him after what felt like at least half an hour, and he skidded across the floor much like Mustache Girl does at the end of the battle in chapter 5. Hat Kid walked over and retrieved her top hat from the beaten Timmy, who started to fade, now that he had lost the hat.

Now I was back in control, two choices presented themselves, either leave Timmy here to fade into obscurity again, or take him through portal together with Hat Kid. As I said before, I felt sorry for him, he just wanted to exist, live and have fun, go on adventures and make friends. His actions were horrible and caused a lot of pain and trauma, but I felt bad, even though he was technically just a video game character that was scrapped.

I picked him up and just like the other characters I threw him through the portal, jumping in with Hat Kid right after. The screen faded to black and I ended up back at the title screen. I switched the game off right after, but not before selecting new game to see if it had returned to normal, which I think it has now...the only difference was the option the game gave me after I selected a file...

Start a new game as

Hat Kid Timmy

[deleetrix]

So I was working on my VRChat model so I could take some pictures in the BOTW world I found. It's a really cool world! I've never played BOTW myself so it was a really interesting experience. It starts off in the Shrine of Resurrection, then there's the Temple of Time, the Sheikah Towers rising up out of the ground (that was awesome), and there's some shrines! World name is The Great Plateau - Zelda: Breath of the Wild by ColonelMcKernel.

More pictures below!

Getting the slate! You carry it with you! Though quite a few times it made it difficult to take pictures. My hands kept wanting to grab it or the climbing orbs instead of pointing at the camera controls. XD

After walking up to the ledge the title screen plays.

I look like a tourist or something.

I forgot to take a picture of the tower itself. I cannot describe how cool it is to watch the towers rise up rise up out of the ground. The ground shakes and everything!

Also tried taking a picture of Calamity Ganon roaring over the castle but couldn't get the camera switched around in time, so I didn't mean to be in this picture. Whoops.

Here's the view from the tower.

One of the shrines.

Now this next thing was pretty funny.

I come across the guardian and it fires a few beams near me. Nothing happens so I think I'm fine.

Yeah, I'm not fine.

Yes, it actually went to the game over screen. I got obliterated.

I need to finish the shrines in this world, I found two but I think there's four total? Then there's some other LOZ VRChat worlds I need to visit. There's Majora's Mask, Wind Waker, and more!

[shwoo]

Outer Wilds mod that just adds the clock from Majora's Mask at the bottom of the screen showing Hearthian village time, and flashes up the dawn/night title cards every local sunrise and sunset.

"Dawn of the First Day. 21 minutes remain" "Night of the First Day. 17 minutes and 30 seconds remain" "Dawn of the Second Day. 14 minutes remain" "Night of the Second Day. 10 minutes and 30 seconds remain" "Dawn of the Final Day. 7 minutes remain" "Night of the Final Day. 3 minutes and 30 seconds remain"

It looks like that track that plays would have to be about ten seconds longer to start at local midnight like Last Day does, but I think it would work!

Work to really annoy players by having a title card flash up every three and a half minutes while they're trying to play the game. That might even outweigh the convenience of having a proper clock. Leaning into how long a day apparently is on Timber Hearth would be kind of funny, though.

[everglow-synth]

@inseparableduo asks... 🔥 Send me a “ 🔥 “ for an unpopular opinion.

Ah, what the hell; Zelda's been on the mind recently. Cough cough @the-devils-toybox cough cough.

I will acknowledge that Ocarina of Time paved the way for some of my favorite Zelda games, including and especially Majora's Mask... but I've never liked it. Running around Hyrule Field is fun, sure, but I feel as though its overall design is very antiquated, something that I don't think Majora's Mask suffers from anywhere near as much.

I know it's a cheap shot, but I'm going to look at the Water Temple for my main example; the shit with the Iron Boots sucks in both the N64 and 3DS versions. The 3DS just makes it a few minutes faster because of the bottom screen, it doesn't make it fun. Majora's Mask's Water Temple is also bullshit, but I at least have more fun swimming around in that temple than I do having to change my elevation by taking off and putting on the boots.

Do I hate the game? No, of course not, I can still have a good time with it. But Majora's Mask is far and away the better title in my opinion. Far more interesting story, more interesting mechanics... the Razor Sword's existence is just peak.

[radar-of-the-stars]

Switch 2 predictions:

It will be announced alongside the first full trailer for Metroid Prime 4 in a September or October Direct, MP4 will be a cross gen title costing $70US on either platform

The handheld screen will be 1080p60 with a decent OLED panel

The Dock will be able to output 1440p90, although few games will ever reach that

Retail price of $399.99US

Power will be behind the Xbox Series S, but past the PS4 pro, making ports needlessly complicated, but still possible

New Joy-cons with Hall Effect Joysticks and capacitive buttons, sticks, and triggers that will make for some neat, unintrusive gimmicks

Old joy-cons will not be forwards-compatible

However, the Switch 2 will be backwards compatible with both switch digital and physical games

Framerate and resolution bumps for games that have framerate issues or dynamic resolution but no improvements for games that ran at locked frame rates or resolutions

Gamecube games will be added to NSO at launch

Big exclusive launch title will be Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask HD, full from-the-ground-up remakes... again

Both original games will be immediately pulled from NSO at announcement of remakes

System UI Themes will feature heavily in the marketing, system will be advertised with a new theme that dynamically changes with the most recently attached joy-cons and an OLED black theme

System will have 5G capability, with a SIM slot, Nintendo will use this to market the system as the perfect portable media machine.

The handheld screen will have built in VRR to dynamically lower the resolution in more demanding games a la "the Steam Deck can run anything at 40fps"

Release early April 2024

A new revision of the Switch 1 with a very impressive battery life will release a few months later to pick up the late adopters and bump up the sales with collectors