#scenes that hit hard when you remember that sidon looked up to mipha so much and put himself through the guilt of her death

[timegears-moved]

🥺

[zachsgamejournal]

PLAYING: The Legend of Zelda: The Breath of the Wild

Dang this game is big. There's a decent amount going on in the towns. I both want to "get through this" and get lost in it forever!

Divine Elephant Beast

I don't remember it's name, Vah Ruta or something. Anyway, I remember thinking this was a fun opener. I loved riding Prince Sidon around shooting at ice cubes and mines. Very fun, action-packed sequence.

The interior was less exciting. It kinda had classic Zelda dungeon vibes: it's a maze and a puzzle at the same time? I remembered the Ganon gunk everywhere with the eyeballs that had to shoot, but it reminded me of Gylt. Which Gylt is actually reminding me of BotW, and I wonder if this is where Gylt got its idea for destroying eyeballs to unblock gunk.

Anyway, because I've been rushing through the story I didn't have a lot of supplies going into this. So of course we get to the first boss fight of the game and I'm not equipped at all!

It's really hard because the Ganon fiend is killing me in a single hit. Every time I'm defeated my son gets really frustrated. He's so disappointed. We have a conversation about not getting mad and just trying again, learning from our mistakes. A day later, my daughter would recite this philosophy to us when she has trouble with her tablet game.

After the 10th try, I actually figure out how to beat the first form, almost easily. It takes looking up a video guide to figure out the second form. Mostly, I'm just so weak that I can't make any mistakes or DEATH!

We save the day, free the elephant from Ganon's control, and get a cut scene of Mipha being a little flirty and sentimental with Link. Link returns to the Zora's and the old fart that hated us for letting Mipha die has come around a bit. While the dialog is overly long for not being voice acted (and would be overly long if voice acted) it's an interesting story.

Oh yeah, and they gave us this shirt that lets us swim up waterfalls!

On The Hunt for Gorons

So despite the interesting Zora environment, the cool elephant battle, and pretty ok drama for a Zelda game, my wife still isn't sold on BotW. So I set off to find Gorons with the hope that she'll be excited to see them.

But we run into trouble. HEAT. I know that once I get to the village I can buy armor to keep me safe from heat, but I need to get there. Unfortunately I just don't have the health to survive. I spend waaaay too much time trying to access cold areas to collect ice bat wings in hope that I can make cool down potions.

Apparently I just don't know how to make potions.

Even after getting an ice wand (which helps you stay cool) I can't survive the heat. So I decide to switch to Gerudo.

On The Road to Gerudo

I know I can get cooler clothes here, so I'm hoping for the best. We find the guy that sells you Gerudo clothes so you can sneak into the women only town. (I wonder if there's some Trans/Terf issues here...) Point is, we get inside and meet the prince/queen. She seems to know Link is a man and doesn't care.

At this point, I don't think my wife is interested at all.

Still, I push forward. We get sent on a mission to a Yiga clan hide out. Here is a stealth section, and I love it cause I love stealth. The boss fight is kinda neat, but also simple. We return to the Gerudo leader and set off to jump on the camel Divine beast.

OH, I also discover watermelons that say they have heat prevention qualities. I'm thinkg, "I've got my way in to Goron City".

The Divine Beast Camel

I don't remember its name.

This beast, in particular, makes me think of Shadow of the Colossus. Which is another game BotW borrows from, even if not intentionally. But unlike SotC, the animation of the beast...sucks. It's not very smooth and doesn't imply the wait and scale the way SotC animated its creatures. Come on Nintendo, this is like 15 years later you can't do better than this?

I'm not a fan of this sequence. You have to stay near the Gerudo princess to avoid being struck by lightening. But you're either going too fast or too slow. All the while you have to shoot at the divine beast's feet with explosive arrows. Too far a way and you miss, too close and you blow yourself up then get struck by lightning.

Inside of the camel is quite similar to the elephant. No real surprises here. We get to the boss fight and the kids start freaking out again. They just can't take it. After a few tries I learn the patterns. But the last part is the hardest cause he's all electrical. Eventually I figure that out and it's an easy win.

In general, I'm not super impressed by the Ganon battles. Like MGS5, the battles are mostly "pummel it till it dies". While for these series, bosses used to be much more unique experiences. I think, for both games, the intent was to allow players the freedom of creatively defeating bosses, but you know 97% of players are just going to pummel it till it dies. It makes the bosses very unmemorable.

Return to Death Mountain

With the camel tamed, we see the Gerudo champion being a little sarcastic with Link. I don't get it. But whatever. The Gerudo princess thanks us for our efforts, but we still have to be dressed as a woman to be in the city (rules are rules).

Thinking with my Gerudo clothes, Watermelon food, and ice wand that I have a chance to resist the heat--I head for Death Mountain.

Nope. I burn up immediately.

Looking it up, you can buy potions from a lady at the bottom of the mountain. I do that and the trek is way easier. I buy the armor by selling all the minerals and monster parts I've been collecting.

I show this off too my wife and she smiles politely. Then she talks about how we should replay Skyward Sword one day.

Trek up Death Mountain

I decide to carry on finding this divine beast. I first have to find the Goron Chief's back pain medicine. Some Goron in a mine has it. I fight my way there and use a stationary canon to release him from an avalanche. We then agree to climb the mountain to chase away the divine beast making it rain fire balls on the city.

This section has security drones watching a path. Very metal Gear Solid! I fight my way up, bringing the Goron with me. He's slow. When I get to the top I'm confused. Where do I go? I then realize I was supposed to be shooting the divine beast with canons on the way up. Now I have to drag this slow poke back down, plus all the monsters have returned.

Frustrating.

Still, it was a fun sequence despite the back tracking. Now I've reached the divine iguana beast. Which reminds me of the iguana colossus in SotC.

This is where our story ends for now.

[h3rmitsunited]

Continuing Thoughts on Age of Calamity: I am about 19 hours in at this point and oh man are things going down. Just wanted to record some of my thoughts, theories, reactions, etc... before I get to the last four missions of the story because I’m just thinking about this non-stop and want to share.

Spoilers below the read more, so don’t read if you plan on playing the game. It is a lot more fun to experience in the game than reading it, so just you know, don’t read it.

THE NEW BOTW CHAMPIONS ARE HERE, THE OG CHAMPIONS ARE ALIVE! 

-After the siege of the castle mission that ends with the king's death at the hands of the guardians off screen and the menu music changing to the awesome dark theme and the prompt on the screen saying that Mipha, Daruk, Revali, and Urbosa are trapped in the Divine Beasts, I legitimately cried a little bit. Like I was mostly tearing up because of the bit with Zelda and her father and Link dragging her away, but with the context of BOTW and the Divine Beasts and the Champions having been killed in battle with the Calamity Blights, I was like holy crap, they killed them, they're trapped because they died, but then I started the next chapter and decided to do Urbosa and Revali's first and then it starts and they're both still alive and then we see that Teba and Riju come through and like I lost my shit. I was like WHAT!? IS!? HAPPENING?! I thought that it was a really cool way to get more characters to play as (because this is a Warriors game so the vast array of characters to play as is a selling point) and a cool way to keep the OG Champions from being dead which is depressing. So I got Urbosa and Revali back and then realized what this meant for the other mission, that Mipha would be saved by giant grown Sidon and it was just as cute and sweet as I thought it was going to be. And then them working together on the Divine Beast and teaming up and you can see how much Sidon missed his sister and looks up to her, despite the fact that he is literally ginormous and she is a tiny little thing. It made me tear up. The other champion relationships don't really hit that hard because none of them actually met each other before, but it was pretty funny the bit with Teba and Revali when Revali is once again being an asshole to Link and Teba is just like.... WTF? This is the Rito champion, he's like kind of a di- and Urbosa is like yes, we know. Moving on. Because like damn, they really turned Revali's dick factor way up in this game. Like seriously, bird, can you like chill?

-Anyways, another thing that got me going literally insane was the bit in Hyrule field with Astor and Sooga and Kohga when Astor was like...pulling soul power or something from the Yiga soldiers and like turned it into Hollow Link and when I saw that I was like losing my mind. I don't know why it got me so hyped up, but it did and I'm very excited to battle it out with this dark Link character.

-I just finished the battle at Akkala citadel, which was a pretty cool fight, and going to go into the next battle, something about thunder, so obviously another Divine Beast lead in with Divine Beast support trying to fight off Guardians and monsters and stuff. From the placement, it appears like it'll be near Hateno, and will be involving Urbosa and Vah Nahboris. I don't really care for the Divine Beast levels. They are frustrating to control and the camera movements are annoying and the targeting system just is frustrating. The level with Vah Rudania fighting off the guardians was so annoying, just trying to target the guardians and move around and then I just kept getting stuck on the walls and stuff and the movements are so slow, and it was just like, I don't really care for this at all, thanks... I much prefer the on the ground, quick fighting. Obviously, Link is the most intuitive and easiest to use, he's the highest level, and he's the main fighting character, so he's my favorite to use. I really want to unlock the Hyrule Warriors armor set, so I'm going to have to do a ton of quests and stuff which is a lot, but it will make me keep playing the game for a while, which is good since the game cost sixty dollars. It's fun to play though, so I feel like it's worth it. -Regarding the timeline pieces, I'm really conflicted about the backstory elements that we're getting, and I realize that the moment the eggo was introduced, it set this timeline off into a completely different direction, but it brings up questions for me about the original timeline. We don't really know exactly when the Hyrule Warriors timeline starts out and how far from the Calamity attack it was in the past. I would assume that it wasn't too far in the past, most like like less than a year, maybe less than six months? It's difficult to tell because we don't get a whole lot of context. We are given the information that in this game, the Calamity attack on the castle happens at the same time as in the original timeline, on Zelda's 17th birthday, maybe a little sooner, since in the OG, she's coming down from Lanayru with Link and in this one, I think she's leaving the castle to go to Lanayru when the attack happens. But when did everything else happen? How long has Link had the Master sword and been the chosen knight? He's been following Zelda in this timeline since eggo was introduced, but he was still "just a knight" at that point, even if he was a really good and talented one. But wouldn't that mean that he activates his power in Korok forest like barely anytime before the Calamity attack? I mean I guess in the OG timeline, we can kind of get hints that Link hasn't been chosen for a super long time, since Zelda questions him about how confident he is with the Master Sword and can he hear the voice, and is a bit more antagonistic with him, so he probably hadn't been doing that for a super long time either, but it does feel like he's had it longer in the OG timeline memories compared to here when he gets the Master sword and then like two missions later Ganon is popping up at the castle. I mean, it wouldn't make sense really to drag things out a super long time, so I understand that having a bunch of extra cut scenes and missions that aren't super plot relevant would be kind of weird, especially with this Astor dude's involvement, he would want to push things along. But the Ganon attack still happens the same time as the OG timeline, so all of these things happen within the same amount of time. I don't remember in the OG timeline if we ever got any details about how Link awakened his power. I do like how they did it in this version, how it was like a parallel to how Zelda awakened her power protecting Link, which gave me all the Zelink feels, but I just want canon backstory for the OG timeline, you know? We know that this timeline isn't canon for the OG timeline because of eggo being involved, so we can only really pull character elements from this timeline rather than specific plot elements. I also wondered about Impa since she is there kind of escorting Zelda in most of the missions, but was only in BOTW as an old lady, which is fine because they likely hadn't have developed that into the story at that point, but I also think maybe since Link in AOC hasn't become the chosen knight until later, he wasn't seen as capable or trustworthy enough to be her sole escort knight and wanted to keep Impa around for additional protection or something. I don't know, doesn't make a whole lot of sense, but whatever. I'm also trying to remember... when did the Champions get their champion clothes? Does Link have the blue tunic on in all the memories? I'm pretty sure that one of the first memories is that depressing one where Zelda is like knighting Link or something in the gazebo thing in front of the castle, but I can't remember the order... It's just all so confusing and I'm sure I'm deeply overthinking everything and that they're kind of just like retconning elements, but like what does it all mean? I mean maybe... maybe... since Zelda remembers the eggo in her like baby dream memory in that one cut scene, maybe that means eggo was also sent way back in time to the beginning of her life, so this timeline is deeply changed from the beginning of her life, so while the initial difference weren't super evident, just some small things, once they got to later in the timeline and all the Master sword/Champion stuff, it really just like threw everything in the air. I don't know why it bothers me so much, I think it's just me Zelink heart wanting Link and Zelda to have more time together when it's not just crazy monster fighting sad Zelda all the time like in the AOC cutscenes. In BOTW, we get these soft little memories of Zelda and Link researching in the field and riding horses and stuff and like yes the ever present concern about Zelda's power and Ganon is there in the memories still, but it feels more intimate and slow and down to earth. I think it's also because in several of the memories, it's just them two, and in AOC, there hasn't really been any memories with just the two of them together, so it has a different feel to it. I liked in BOTW, the stories in Zelda's diary about talking to Link about his destiny and why he doesn't talk and how he feels the weight of this title and it keeps him silent and it gave Link this interesting depth and emotion that you couldn't really see without that, and then in the AOC, there are some little moments where you see Link having a scrap of emotion, tiny smiles he gives to Zelda, serious face, confused, happy to eat stuff, but most of his moments are the little grunts and blank stares that he gives. Like seriously? Zelda's father just died, she feels like it's all her fault and Link's response is a tiny smile and a "huh". Like yes, there are dynamics with them, she's a princess, he's a knight, he's protective of her and doesn't push her boundaries or whatever, but like just hug please. I loved that memory in the forest in BOTW where she just collapses into his chest and he holds her and we see this pained expression on his face and it's like yes please give me more not lobotomized Link. Like I know this sounds like complaining, because it is, and like I do understand they want Link to kind of be this blank slate, character insert type of character, but give him something please! 

-I'm hoping we get some good content in these last few mission cut scenes. I'm getting down to the last few missions, only four left, and looking at the chapter titles, which is the only spoilers that I have allowed myself, I'm like, okay, what is going to happen next. And like I'm going to go out on a limb here and say that we win and the bad BOTW timeline ending is subverted and Ganon has to go night night, but like who knows, maybe they'll surprise me, but probably not. This is supposed to be a game that you keep playing after you finish the main story, so like killing off a bunch of playable characters and having it end in destruction would be probably not so smart...

-Okay, that's all my current thoughts. I'll be playing more tonight and we'll see if I finish the story tonight, or maybe I'll have to stop myself and take a breather before blasting through the remaining missions. I finished I think three missions(?) last night, and I had a break for dinner, but like I don't work tomorrow, so like, I could probably blast through the last ones, but I'd also still need to do some additional quest stuff in between for level up purposes since I just go through rupees like crazy. Oh my gosh, that reminds me... it is so dang annoying when you get one of those like quest find item marker things that lights up when you have all the items and you're like sweet I'll complete this and as you're pressing the button, out of habit, without super paying attention, you realize it's going to cost like 2,000 rupees or something and it's like... not again! I can't tell you how many times I have done this and it's so annoying. Like warn me if I have to pay rupees, I don't want to use my brain, game! Lol yes, it's my fault, I'm not really mad.

-Okay, the end. For now. TLDR: This game is fun and unexpected, but it is also not BOTW, so don't go into this expecting BOTW mechanics or gameplay. But hey, smashing through tons of enemies is also kind of satisfying too. Also, like the new enemies are wild. Elemental Moblins, Hinoxs, Lynels, Guardians(!), the use of the Elemental weapons is a cool mechanic, and it's cool having some cinematic fight moments, even if it might get repetitive after playing the game for a while, but you also can use a ton of different characters, so there's variety there, I just have yet to leave my boy because he's the easiest to blast through anything and everything, though Impa is pretty cool too, even if most of my moves with her are random button smashes since I don't really have a good grip on how her moves work. At least with Link it's pretty obvious and I've gotten better about actually having some sort of strategy with how he works, the other characters I haven't played enough to have any sort of knowledge on how they work. Also Zelda's moves are not fun to play at all, sorry, but they're just annoying and useless. Also Daruk is bad at fighting Hinoxes. Okay, now, the end.