Greatest Zelda Game Tournament - Ocarina of Time Wins Yet Again

And, as always, Ocarina of Time has won IGN'S Greatest Legend of Zelda Game Tournament. Well, so much for the hope that Majora's Mask could get away with a victory for once. That's what I voted for!

At least Majora's Mask defeated A Link to the Past. That's a pretty great feat - especially when you look at how close it was!

Oh, well. Ocarina of Time is an incredible game as well, and it's no surprise it won. The only surprises that came from this tournament were the victories of Phantom Hourglass over Spirit Tracks and Link's Awakening over Minish Cap. I did NOT see those coming.

We'll just have to keep waiting for Skyward Sword - and, of course, the Ocarina of Time 3DS remake that comes out June 19th here in the United States! And, as a reminder (as if you don't remember from my last, like, twenty posts) Nintendo's E3 is June 7th.

Okay. I give up.

There are WAAAAAY too many new Ocarina of Time trailers and videos coming out! I can't keep up with them. Therefore, I'll just say... go to Zelda Dungeon, or some other fansite that updates more frequently than I do. :P I'll post two of the most recent, but I've missed some - I know I have, since I WATCHED them but was too lazy to post them here - and I don't feel like finding them again. Sorry!

Still, this video is preeeeeety epic!



You know what one of my favorite parts was? 1:33. Somewhere around there. Link's in Ganon's Castle, and these sparklies fly around him and heal him. They didn't do that in the N64 version. So Link would just stiffly look at his hands like an idiot - even more so if you had full hearts to begin with. Now he fluidly looks at the sparklies healing him. Makes more sense. :P

So there actually aren't that many changes, now that I think of it. Backgrounds changed quite a bit, yes, and so did Link... but other characters look surprisingly similar. Facial expressions have been added - such as when Darunia pats (more like pounds) Link on the head at 1:13 or something like that. And movements, as I mentioned above, are MUCH more fluid! I love that.

And this next trailer?



It shows off the new features. The newest new feature I've noticed is the role of the Gossip Stones. I knew there would be a hint feature (as I've mentioned previously) but I didn't know how that would work. Oh, wait. I guess they're not Gossip Stones anymore. They're... "Sheikah Stones." Well, same difference, I guess...

There's also the lovely demonstration of the improved Iron Boots - something I'm sure we're ALL excited about. And at the same time - the Hookshot now has a red line, showing us where it will hit! How convenient!

And then there's that Boss Replay mode. I'm looking forward to that. Trust me, I'll pwn Gohma so many times it won't even be funny... well, at least not for Gohma... but for me it probably will be...

And that's all I've got to say for now! Unless someone has an idea for a Link x Din romance fanfic, lol.

Legend of Zelda Fan Fiction Recommendations

(UPDATE 9/30/13: This post is very old. I wasn't as experienced in fanfiction back then, and my tastes have changed. If you want a far larger and better list of recommendations, please check out the new and improved one here!)

Hey, look! Another fan fiction post from me. However, this time, I'm going to post some links to the stories. I will no longer include the Sacred Realm ones, however - to look at my previous recommendations, click here. Otherwise, read on. The orders have changed for a lot of those anyway. Some aren't even included anymore.

First off, before I start praising other authors... let's look at myself. My username (or penname, as I believe they call it) is TwilightWakerofTime. By clicking that link, you can go to my profile. And - oh, lookie! "Author has written 1 story for Legend of Zelda."

Yep. That's true. And I forgot to post about it on here when I did it. Silly me!

So instead of copying and pasting the whole thing from my word document, I'm going to let you read it on the site. It's called Musings. I wouldn't actually suggest it, though, if it wasn't my own story, lol. It's a Zelink fic that's... pretty stupid, honestly... it has no plot, as I do not hesitate to explain in my author's notes at the beginning there... Oh, well. You can go ahead and read it anyway. The only thing I ask for is that you review. Even if you hate it.

Now! For the recommendations...

1. The Legend of Zelda: The Return and Reconciliation by Rose Zemlya. I suggested these last time, right? Right? I think they were my second pick. Well, now they're first, no doubt about it. I've recently reread them - actually, I'm in the process of rereading Reconciliation - and they just never cease to amaze me. They make me laugh, and yet the plot is just... incredible. So if you're looking for a good read, check out these two stories. Reconciliation is a sequel to The Return, though, so it makes more sense to read that one first. I can honestly say that they're my favorite fan fictions, if not my favorite pieces of literature ever.

2. A VERY hard choice... but... Free as the Wind by S.R.H. Fade. It combines Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess, and Wind Waker into one amazing adventure with very unique personalities for each Link. In other words... OoT Link and TP Link get transported to TWW Link's world and try to help him along on his quest. I read it longer ago than The Return and Reconciliation, but I still know I enjoyed it. They gave OoT and TP Link nicknames - Reoh and Emit. I understood where Emit came from, considering it's Ocarina of TIME Link (spell it backwards if you don't get it) but Reoh took me a while... until I read TP Link's reaction to it. ...It's Hero, if you don't get it... XD Anyway, they made TP Link the reluctant Hero and OoT the serious, dutiful one. It's very entertaining. :P And it has a great plot, too.

3. Hit List by zestycrouton, I guess. It's one of those weird high school fics where they put every character into a... high school... XD I usually don't like these - at least now I don't... but back then I was still pretty new to the site and I just decided to try it out. And OMG I WAS AMAZED. It starts off a bit slow, but it picks up quickly. It only gets better when legends and the Triforce becomes involved in a modern Hyrule. Just... wow. And it doesn't only focus on Link and Zelda and Ganondorf, either - there's all sorts of characters, from all sorts of different Zelda games in there. Every single character in the story is based off of a Legend of Zelda character. That's just another part of what makes it so awesome.

4. Why You Should Never Travel With Foreigners by LittleBlueNayru. THIS. STORY. IS. SO. FUNNY! ...Sadly, I think it's discontinued. Oh, and there's a lot of swearing, just to warn you, but it's so hilarious, I can ignore it... Basically, it plays on the idea of Midna's crazy voiceovers and how nonsensical they are. Yep.

5. Hero of Wolves and Shadow Kingdom by The Wolfess. I mentioned this one last time, too. It was the first story I read on that site and was totally, completely, utterly stunned by. And I still love it. Now Hero of Wolves has its sequel: Shadow Kingdom.

6. Rend and Avilux Ignis and other stories by fleets. Fleets is epic. :D I don't know him/her very well... look, I didn't even know if they're a he or a she! But they're still epic. Because they write epic stories. XD Their story Rend is the second story I ever left a review on (if I'm remembering correctly) and their stories are still the only ones I actually bothering reviewing constantly. Most of the time, I'll just leave a long paragraph review and say "YOU'RE SOOOO COOL I LOVE YOU" and then just keep reading silently, but no. This story... I keep clicking that review button at the bottom. Even when I'm using a stupid, impossible-to-type-on DSi. They really like Vaati - all their stories have him as a main character. All his/her stories are amazing, so go ahead and read them. The only one you shouldn't read is... Recollections. SERIOUSLY! DON'T READ IT! IT'S SO FREAKING SAD!!!! Unless you WANT to cry... don't read it...

7. Bright as Night by Allendra. It's only got five chapters at the moment and already it's on my top ten list. That's GOT to mean something...

8. Zelda: A Fairytale and The Mystical Ocarina by Sakurelle. I mentioned Zelda: A Fairytale last time - it was my number one then. Not anymore. But it was still pretty good. I still love fairytales. :) This time I'm going to add The Mystical Ocarina to the list. It's based on Aladdin and it was really good, too.

9. Sacred Reliquary by Sharper Than the Sword. Similar to Hit List, every character in this story is from a Zelda game, though their personalities are VERY different. No, really. Just look at Zelda in this story. She's... insane... at best. :P

10. Seven Swords Saga, its sequel, and other various oneshots by Royazali. These stories are so funny! Royazali is the awesome person who helped me find the eighth dungeon on Legend of Zelda when I reviewed. You have to know a LOT about the Zelda series to understand some of the jokes. I wish it had more reviews. The only problem with it (thus putting it at the bottom of this list) is that it had quite a few grammar mistakes. He/She (still not sure which) tends to not put apostrophes in his/her contractions! *gasp*

And... that's my top ten list! There's plenty of other epic fan fictions out there - you can view some other great stories on my favorites list. But for now, that's all I'll put.

...I really need some adjectives besides "epic", "amazing", and "awesome"...

IGN Zelda Game Tournament - Round Four!

Well, I missed round two completely and didn't post here about round three (which ended yesterday) even though I did vote on it, but it's time for round four!

If you don't remember from an earlier post of mine, IGN is hosting a "Greatest Zelda Game Tournament" here. Go and vote! The final pairing:

OCARINA OF TIME vs. MAJORA'S MASK!

Wow. I'm soooo happy Twilight Princess didn't beat Majora's Mask. In fact, in the pairing of Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask... I voted for Majora's Mask. :D I'm a little weird that way. I also voted for Wind Waker against Ocarina of Time, lol, but I guess my vote didn't make much of a difference. It still lost by a LOT. Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess' battle was much closer.

In fact, Majora's Mask had a hard time getting to round four! Just LOOK at the competition between A Link to the Past and Majora's Mask! 14375 votes vs. 14934. That's CLOSE. Poor LttP.

I'm also surprised that Link's Awakening beat Minish Cap, and... Phantom Hourglass totally PWNED poor Spirit Tracks. Really? What do they have against trains? XD Lol, well, whatever. I mean, poor Adventure of Link barely got ANY votes. Look! Even Four Swords Adventures beat it! That's pretty sad... O_o I don't mind AoL, despite how impossible it is and the fact that I haven't even completed the first dungeon (I blame that stupid horse boss thing).

In other news, I got a third bottle on Minish Cap, and discovered the game is impossible to play without the R button (I'll probably write a post on this later if I remember), and I played Wind Waker, but our GameCube and game disk are SO old, it froze seven times before I made it to the top of the Forsaken Fortress - seven, I swear, I counted - and then I got hit back down again by a Moblin. Oh, and THEN a Floormaster got me, and as if that wasn't bad enough... the game froze again when it put me in jail. I. Was. SO. Mad...

Again, I'll probably write a post on that because in hindsight, it IS a funny story, though it annoyed me to no end while I was experiencing it...

Anyway. That's all I've got to say... for now. I have a lot going on tonight - my second harp lesson, my sister's ceremony thingy (can't explain much more than that), and studying for stupid final exams (ugggggh!). Yep.

Have a good day! (Because I can't say goodnight... it's not night yet...)

I know I should post some updates.

But I do not have time at the moment. As you may (or may not) have noticed, I have been banned from computer the last week or so. That meant no blogging, no Central/Wizard101, and no checking on Zelda info. I hope I didn't miss anything important, lol.

Anyway, I don't have time at the moment, because I'm about to watch a movie with my family. They're waiting for me.

Just a brief summary of what I'll cover in later posts more thoroughly:

I took my first harp lesson! So excited! Ohl, I'm still stuck on the original Legend of Zelda. And... YES! Twenty followers! Thanks guys!

Hmm. I KNOW there was more. There HAS to have been.

Oh, whatever. Goodnight. :)

LoZ Update - So... now what?

I have another large "thank you" to make. I've thanked many friends before - Seth, Deku, Sydney... but this is a person I actually DON'T know in real life. Or very well at all. He's just a person on fan fiction.net who wrote an AMAZING story that truly deserves more reviews. So I'm here to say....

Thank you, Royazali. He wrote The Legend of Zelda: Seven Swords Saga which makes me lol, literally... click the link above to check it out. Anyway, after a while of reading his/her (you know, I just realized I don't know which... I assumed he, but now Idk... XD) story, I FINALLY decided to review. Finally. And I mentioned in my review that I couldn't find the eighth dungeon on Legend of Zelda... and he was super nice and helped me!

...He didn't help me MUCH, to be honest... but he kinda did! And I GREATLY appreciate the thought. :D

Basically, he told me the dungeon was in the south-eastern corner in the forest somewhere, so I went there. Of course, the EXACT south-eastern corner is just a useless area with a stupid Zola/Zora and perhaps a few Octrocks. So that didn't help much.

But then I started EXPLORING!

I got to this one place that's bordering a fairy fountain, where there's a few Octorocks wandering around. After slaying them, I noticed an odd bush off to the side. It was standing alone, by itself... almost like a block in a dungeon...

So, like blocks in dungeons, I walked over and pushed it. And guess what? There was a secret tunnel beneathe! O: There were three different stairs and an old man telling me to choose any one I felt like. Each of them led to different regions of Hyrule. ...No, they didn't go to the eighth dungeon. But they did give me an idea.

I recalled this one area that was conveniently in the forest, AND happened to be near the south-eastern corner. It had this one mysterious bush off by itself, just like the one I'd just discovered. I found it again (after spending a LONG time being lost) and pushed the bush to reveal...

A staircase! (Da-na-na-naaaah!)

...No, it didn't make that noise. But it should have. :( It did the puzzle-solved theme instead. XD

And I went down the staircase... AND FOUND THE EIGHTH DUNGEON! WOOT!

I completed it - only died once, too! I think I'm getting better at this game, considering I died almost ten times in the sixth dungeon. Well, I'm already doing better than A Link to the Past - I died exactly 99 times by the time I completed that game, remember? And I did most of that on a walkthrough... and now, on LoZ, I've got exactly 50 deaths, and I'm going to find Ganon. Yayz!

Actually, beating the eighth dungeon surprised me quite a bit. I was walking around, then suddenly opened a locked door and led into this room with that one boss... Gleeok, right? I think. XD So I fought it, and died - that was where my one death came from. But then I tried again, this time with potions - and won!

And I walked in the room to find the last Triforce of Wisdom piece!

...I didn't think that it was the actual BOSS. I thought it was a mini-boss. So finding the Triforce piece surprised me a lot. XD

Of course, I went back afterward to TRULY complete the dungeon. There were a lot of rooms I didn't explore, and I hadn't gotten the map yet. I found that... and the magic key. Yay!

So now, with the full Triforce of Wisdom and (as far as I can tell) every item in the game, it's off to pwn Ganon!

...So where exactly is he?

*sigh*

Idk what to do now. I know he's in Death Mountain SOMEWHERE... but Idk where. I think it might have something to do with that one area that looks like an arrow. It just... there's nothing there, so... I think it's hiding something! CURSE YOU, EVIL ARROW!!!

...I'm so weird. -.-

Well... enjoy your weekend. If anyone knows the more SPECIFIC location of Ganon, it'd be nice if you would tell me... so... tell me! :P

...Please?

OMG! NO WAY! This is amazing. XD

LISTEN TO THE SKYWARD SWORD TRAILER BACKWARD!!!



Recognize it?

If you've played, um, pretty much ANY Zelda game save for a few... but most specifically, Ocarina of Time... then you SHOULD!

ZELDA'S LULLABY!!!!

I. Was. Amazed. :D

...And there's also a new Ocarina of Time 3DS Trailer.



BUT I STILL LOVE THE MUSIC THING!!!! XD

I mean, it's so clever, so ingenious... but at the same time, pretty cheap. Lol, they can't come up with something new? BUT I STILL LOVE IT. :P

Nintendo's probably face-palming about now. "Seriously? They didn't notice until NOW?" xD

Btw: Nintendo's E3 presentation is June 7th!

...And if anyone knows where Ganon is in the original LoZ, it'd be nice to know... but I'll write a post on that later.

The only thing I can think of posting: The Tale of Fishies

Okay. I'm bored. So I'm gonna talk about how Link and Picori died, and then Zelda ate them. And then she died too. XD

...They were FISH, okay?

...Yes, I named my fish Link, Zelda, and Picori...

It was for a school project. We were taking care of fish. Obviously. We put them in bottles and prayed that they would live. We were supposed to get two. While we pondered over what to name them, my friend (knowing what a huge Zelda freak I am) said, "I would laugh if you named them Link and Zelda." And I'm like, "OMG! WE SHOULD!" To my partner: "PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLEASE PLE-"

"Okay, FINE."

"YAY!"

So as we were getting our fishies... our teacher made a mistake... and gave us THREE! O: One of them was REALLY tiny, too. So I called it my Minish fish. And then I'm like, "LET'S NAME IT PICORI!" But... it was almost dead already. It didn't move much. Poor Picori... QQ

Zelda was orange with white spots (and really pretty... she looked like a Zelda fish XD). Link was a brown, silver-ish color (you could almost call it green if you looked at it in the light...). Picori was orange with black spots. But... Picori was pretty much dead from the start... XD

We came back to school the next day to check on our fishies and... Picori was dead as we expected. But...

LINK DIED TOO! O:

I was SOOOO sad. I almost cried. XD Poor, poor, poor Link...

But Zelda lived! :D And she ate Picori and Link's dead bodies. O_o It was REALLY gross. But... she lived the next day! And she also lived the next day! And the next! And the next!

A week passed, and Zelda still lived on (and Link and Picori's bodies disappeared... gods, Zelda, that's disgusting!). I was hopeful. Very hopeful. Other people's fish died - the only other group in the class with three had all of theirs die. But Zelda lived!

Then it was the last day of the experiment. We could take them home that day! I was going to take my fish named Zelda HOME!

She was alive in the morning.

And guess what happened when I came in after school to pick my fishy up?

*sob* ZELDA WAS DEAD!!!!!!!!!!!!!!!

That's JUST my luck. My fish dies JUST when I'm going to take it home. Figures. :(

...Well. That wasn't very Zelda related. I'm weird, aren't I?

...Too bad it's Sierra's Story that has the FISH label, and not this one...