Waiting for Breath of the Wild

Sooooo... the Switch presentation yesterday. That was a thing. I ended up watching it with a couple friends on voice chat on Discord. Sadly, voice chat means I didn't get a real chat log of it, but... it doesn't really matter. I was honestly... silent, for all the parts that really mattered to me.

I spent the majority of the presentation making fun of the Switch. Don't get me wrong: I'm SO hyped for this console. And guys... PORTABLE SKYRIM. PORTABLE FREAKING SKYRIM. You have NO IDEA how much I freaking love Skyrim. I've said it before and I'll say it again: Skyrim is easily my favorite non-Zelda game. And with my recent love of Oblivion (CAN WE JUST TALK ABOUT HOW GOOD SHIVERING ISLES IS I CAN'T STOP PLAYING IT), Elder Scrolls is probably easily my favorite non-Zelda series. (Past Sierra: "I'VE NEVER PLAYED SKYRIM AND I LIKELY NEVER WILL...") So you can imagine how hyped I am to play it on the Switch. Although I'll miss my... poorly named level 83 High Elf. (Zeruda... a perfect combination of weaboo and fangirl. Lovely.)

But yeah. I spent a lot of time making fun of the Switch, because they made it really easy. But when freaking Breath of the Wild showed up, I just fell... completely silent. With this dumb, stupid grin on my face.

I feel so dangerously optimistic about this game. I'm honestly really scared. The problem is, while Breath of the Wild is a full reboot (more or less), I'm being promised so many things that I was promised before and never received. And it's scaring me. But I'm excited at the prospect of those things coming true, too... does that make sense?

First of all, let me say why I love this game. It's beautiful. It's different. It's... okay, it's basically SKYRIM ZELDA. I literally just went on and on about how much I love Skyrim. AND THIS IS ZELDA WITH A SKYRIM WORLD. I probably can't, you know, murder everyone in town with a fireball when they group up on a Christmas-themed mod-initiated holiday and cause my daughter to run from me in terror while my husband fights my dog and my housecarl cheers them on, but... it's an open world Zelda!!! And it's absolutely GORGEOUS man. And the voice acting is so amazing! And... And Zelda... she seems like she might actually have a personality? Will we get Skyward Sword's type of Zelda, where she has her own tale to tell? Will she even accompany Link on his quest? What about Link? Can he get more emotions (again like Skyward Sword, which was an excellent step in the right direction for storytelling if not so much for other things)? Can Link be more customizable? There are horses and sand walruses and adorable yawning white foxes and Gorons and Zoras and Koroks and FREAKING SHEIKAH and FREAKING GERUDO... and... and...

GUYS WILL WE GET MEDLI BECAUSE THERE ARE BIRD PEOPLE AND OMG CAN YOU IMAGINE FREAKING MEDLI IN BOTW PLEASE MAKE IT HAPPEN NINTENDO PLEASE!!!

...

Ahem...

So, yes. I'm freaking hyped as heck. I honestly didn't even realize how hyped I was until I started typing and the caps lock came out.

I would, however, like to throw out a few points of caution, however. I have a lot of faith in Breath of the Wild, but I do think it's hilarious -- if nothing else -- that Nintendo has promised the things it is promising with BotW before and they did not deliver.

I spent a lot of time hyping Skyward Sword. In fact, I would venture to say that the MAJORITY of this blog is, in fact, Skyward Sword hype. This blog was in its prime in 2011, the year of SS's release, and most of my posts were just my excitement over how great of a game it was going to be. I was near desperate for SS to be the flagship Zelda game, the game that put a dent in Ocarina of Time's infallible reputation as the groundbreaking, amazing, best-game-of-all-time representative for the series. After all, it was Zelda's 25th anniversary; surely they could make a good game for it?

Skyward Sword was nothing like it was promised. We were told we would get a non-linear, personal Zelda experience. We were told it would be groundbreaking and unique and unlike anything the Zelda series has done before. But no... it was another Zelda game. Without block puzzles -- except, you know, for the few block puzzles in the game. With a brand new stamina meter, and a brand new Zelda design, and a fantastic open sky world! -- that has virtually nothing in it. With immersive 1 to 1 motion controls! Which, yes, they worked, but... you had no option but to use them, even if for whatever reason, your controls weren't working as expected, or you had a hard time moving the controller around. It was... not what fans had hoped for, and many people wound up disappointed.

Obviously, we're being promised many of the same things here. Now, I don't really doubt that BotW will deliver on most of what they promised, as far as switching up the formula (pun not intended). Obviously we've been shown the open world, we've been shown the new races and gameplay features... it looks amazing. But I've been burned before. I approached Skyward Sword with so much fangirl loyalty that I was completely blinded and wanted so badly to love it. I... do love it still. I do. I love the story of it, I love love LOVE Zelda and Groose, the cutscenes are gorgeous, and the motion controls, for me personally, made the game so much more fun. But it's not what I thought it was. It has its problems. The sky was barren. The game was linear, with very little to do on the Surface aside from follow the main story progression. There was pointless backtracking. And for the love of nyan why did they switch the item controls from TP? How can I play both games if in one game B uses the item and in the other B cancels it?!?!

Speaking of Twilight Princess, it's also very much worth mentioning that this is more or less a port. Just like TP, the game was originally made for the previous gen, but it was brought to the next gen console due to numerous delays. For Twilight Princess, that didn't work so well. Most still consider the GameCube version to be the "real version" more or less. Again, I think they've handled it better with this game release. I wasn't around for TP's release, so I can't say much about fan reactions at the time, but it seems like BotW is really taking advantage of the Switch's enhanced power. Not to mention that the fact that the Switch makes it portable is worth it. (Trying not to make comparisons to people who might have said "but the fact that you can play with MOTION CONTROLS makes the Wii version worth it!")

Also, a note about the delays. It only just now hit me exactly how many delays we've had. I wanted to reread my original reaction to the first ever reveal of Zelda Wii U, and I found it in my unpublished E3 2014 post (which I finally published, in case you're curious for some reason). I then realized that... we got this trailer in 2014. Three years ago! Not to mention that, as I say in that 2014 post, that trailer was supposed to be unveiled in 2013. My goodness. And Skyward Sword came out in 2011, for goodness's sake. And then, that 2014 trailer tells us it'll be out in 2015. But noooope, it'll have to be 2016! But wait, Nintendo's new console comes out in 2017... guess we'll just wait until then!

I'm just... I'm scared. I have such, SUCH high hopes for Breath of the Wild. I really really don't want to be disappointed.

I've been playing Skyrim and Oblivion nonstop these past few weeks (okay, well, I've honestly been downloading mods probably more than I've been playing, but whatever). I've got over 600 hours in Skyrim and 100 in Oblivion, so I LOVE some good open world fantasy games. I really, really pray that Breath of the Wild can capture that same magic, that sense of freedom, that feeling that you're part of a world that's truly ALIVE and you can do whatever you want in it. And I hope they still bring back what I love about Zelda: touching, classic tales and characters, a huge arsenal of unique items, fun and challenging puzzles, and of course memorable dungeon design. The fact that so many races are coming back is a great sign to me -- I just hope they don't screw them up. I also hope they attempt to be at least somewhat lore-friendly with the rest of the series, although I kinda doubt it considering Nintendo's track record.

And for the love of Hylia, I really honest to goodness hope that the world isn't boring to explore. I'm so scared about that. Skyrim's world is fun to explore because of random encounters throughout it, the beautiful scenery, and the fact that you can find caves, crypts, camps, villages, and tiny stories everywhere. Breath of the Wild has shown a lot of... enemies in the fields. I hope it's not just enemy after enemy, with the occasional award or village or dungeon. I hope the Sheikah caves or whatever you call them don't get repetitive, because if that's the only thing I'm able to find out there and there are like a hundred of them... That sounds like it could get old fast.

tl;dr I am extremely hyped for Breath of the Wild, but I'm also worried that my faith will be misplaced. All we can do now really is wait and see what Nintendo has in store for us, and hope that they can really pull through with a game that not only meets my expectations, but exceeds them.

Aonuma Likes Skyrim!

This article.

Ever since I read that article, I wanted to write a post on it. So here it is, long overdue.

According to that interview, Eiji Aonuma is a fan of Skyrim. One of the Zelda masterminds... likes Skyrim.

And he plans on using ideas from it in the next Zelda game.

As you probably know, I've been talking about Skyrim a LOT lately. I haven't been able to play it these past few weeks because I've been on vacation (which is my excuse to why this is so late, along with the fact that this was supposed to be an extremely long fanfiction post, which I'll get to you sooner or later), but it's probably, at the moment, my favorite non-Zelda game.

And this, hearing that Aonuma's taking inspiration from it and using it for Zelda Wii U... that makes me SO excited!

It sounds like he doesn't really want to copy the game -- which is good. I don't want to play Elder Scrolls when I play Zelda. Rather, he wants the "feel" of the game. The emotions that made it memorable.

When I think of why I like Skyrim, I think it's... it's the freedom. It's the freedom, and uniqueness of your experience. It's rare that your experience in Skyrim will be the same as someone else's, because it's so vast and interesting.

And I'm thinking that's why Aonuma brought it up. He knows that Skyrim's known for that. And he's been talking about how he wants to create "personal" Zelda experiences, and how they want to remove that linearity that everyone seems so concerned about.

Can you imagine an open world in Zelda? Skyrim's overworld is vast and expansive. I don't know if we really need it to that extent in the next Zelda game, but maybe something more like Twilight Princess... except FILLED with secrets and sidequests and things to explore. Exploration would greatly benefit Zelda Wii U, especially if they create sidequests for more unique items. And doing dungeons on your own time would certainly be interesting as well, although I like the stories of Zelda games and don't want them to sacrifice that. In other words, I don't want them to completely reshape the next Zelda game, but I would still love to see something new and exciting and sort of mixes up the Zelda formula a bit.

And then there's voice acting. I highly doubt that's really what makes Skyrim good... especially as far as "emotions" go, haha... but I do think it's an element from it that would be interesting in Zelda. A lot of people are opposed to it, unfortuantely, but I'd be really happy if they get voice acting. As long as it's GOOD voice acting. XD Even if it's just it's cutscenes, I think that'd be cool. Or they can all talk in Hylian! You have NO clue how happy I'd be if they made up a language for me to learn to achieve ultimate nerd status! XD

But... anyway... yeah. I'm just concerned they'll make it too MUCH like Skyrim, or some other game that Zelda isn't. I really don't want to see that. I really want to still feel like I'm playing Zelda. I want a good storyline, too, which can be lost in non-linear games on occasion.

Either way, I'm EXTREMELY excited. :D My iPad's glitching on me here, so I have to go. Have a nice day! See you soon with my absurdly long fanfiction post!

                          

Happy Anniversary to My Wiki Editing!

Alright. I promised everyone a post -- and, as you might notice, it's a biiit late. Part of this is due to laziness, which is self-explanatory.

And a lot of it is due to Skyrim. I WANT TO WRITE A POST ON THAT GAME SOOOO BADLY. Would you guys be mad at me if I did? I've been playing it nonstop lately. I love that game so much. I considered it for this post, but, I mean, I should save that for a time when I'm NOT posting just once per month, because leaving you with an entirely non-Zelda related post doesn't seem fair at all. Of course, I fully intend to post during E3, so this is probably not going to be my only post of the month... but still. Oh, by the way, it's totally the game I was hinting at here, if you didn't catch that. XD (Hilarious, now, rereading this... "I haven't played Skyrim, and I likely never will." Haha. Good news, I found out it's not nearly as bloody as I was expecting if you're a mage. And I am a mage, so we're good.)

Anyway, most of all, I haven't posted yet this month because I had no idea what to post about, just like in my last post. I don't know why I thought that in another week or so I'd suddenly have ideas, but I did.

So here we are, a week later. My options are Skyrim, or The Legend of Zelda fanfiction. And I doubt either of those sound terribly appealing.

This WAS going to be the fanfiction thing -- and I think I might even make another post after this about that. I'll probably write it today and post it tomorrow. But for now, this is just a random... update thing.

Oh! I have news, actually! Today, June 8th, 2013 marks my first year of editing the Zelda Dungeon Wiki!

Yes, that's right. As you can see from the first page of my contributions, my first ever edit may have been May 5th, 2012, but I only started editing frequently on June 8th of that year.

Also, I never mentioned this, but I became a Patroller. I'd been wanting that for a very long time, and I was overjoyed when I got it. ^^ It's pretty awesome. The wiki group there is amazing. They're all very fun people.

So, yeah. I don't know what else to say, haha. I want to go and play Oracle of Seasons or something. I just got to the Ancient Runis, the sixth dungeon. I haven't really done anything farther than that, though, haha.

Have a nice day everyone! See you next time -- hopefully at E3!

OMG GUYS I FORGOT ABOUT THIS BLOG!

I'm sooooooorrrrrryyyy! D:

I had big plans for August posts – I've had the blog up in a separate tab for a good week or so. Unfortunately, I've procrastinated again. Sorry guys. This is sort of just a brief update so that I can keep my record again.

At least I have some news! First of all, school has started back up for me, and I've been quite busy. Am I allowed to blame my absence from this blog on that? ...Well, in reality, it's mainly the Zelda Dungeon Wiki. I'm kind of scared now. I think I'm literally obsessed with it. I HAVE to get in at least two edits per day. It's like how I need one post per month here – I've had to at least edits per day since June 9th or something like that, so I'm keeping it up. That's what I was just doing before I remembered this blog: adding references the Photo Album page for Link's Awakening.

Oh, hey, since I have about fifteen minutes, how about I tell a short story? I remember seeing the Photo Album page on Zelda Wiki forever ago, and I looooved the pictures. I didn't have Link's Awakening at the time, and I was amazed by them. I saved that page on my DSi – remember when I used to use that for everything, before I got my 3DS and iPad? Yeah. I think it's still on my favorites (or bookmarks or whatever the heck they call it on there). But, yeah, so, I really wanted to make my own Photo Album page. Sooooo I did. On July 22nd, 2012, I made the page for Photo Album. Yay. ^^

...That was a lame story. I'm sorry.

Anyway, on the wiki I'm doing mostly Link's Awakening stuff. See, I've been replaying through LA in an attempt to get the no death ending. After I'm done, I'll write an update about it, since I have at least one funny story to tell. It involves how I'm getting my no deaths. Well, you see, after the first dungeon I hadn't even come close to dying, and I was sooo confident going into the second dungeon, and then at the end... well, I won't tell you, haha. I find it annoyingly hilarious – it was really frustrating at the time but it's funny now – and I'm sure I'll have some fun ranting and raging about it later.

Ooooh. Annnd... well, I bought a new game. You know me – that's a big deal, right? Well, maybe you wouldn't know since I only talk about my purchases that interest me, which are primarily Zelda stuff, but yeah. Kid Icarus, before this game, was the last game I bought. It's rare that I get something new. But anyway, there was the Steam sale, and I've been wanting to try this game for a long time – since November, actually, but I was kind of preoccupied with SS to even worry about it – and I finally got it with the sale. Of course, I went on vacation to Canada that same day, so I had to wait a good two weeks or so before I can play it.

Can you guess what it is yet? If not, don't worry; I'll tell you in a later post. Promise. It's kind of like Dragon Quest IX in the sense that I love it enough that I'd actually write an update-esque post about it. So there. It's a GOOD game. Okay, I know I was mean and biased and judgemental about it earlier, but I never said I didn't like it. I did say I'd probably never try it, but you know, it was against Skyward Sword, so–

...I'm going to reveal the answer if I say any more... :P

Anyway, it's 11:55. I guess I'm not going to finish that Photo Album update before the time limit now, but that's okay. I already did my two edits for today.

Oh! Oh! I almost forgot the most important announcement:

HYRULE HISTORIA IS GETTING AN ENGLISH TRANSLATION!

I'm quite ecstatic. I haven't preordered it yet because my parents want me to go to a bookstore to
order it, but whatever. I'm excited! ^^

Well, goodnight everyone! Enjoy September! That's my birthday month...

Skyward Sword FTW

The epic Game of the Year 2011 battle is going on right now at g4tv.com!

Obviously, being the super Zelda fan girl I am, I had to vote for Skyward Sword, because after playing it nonstop the past two weeks, I'm completely in love with it. It has done all right in the first four rounds, beating big titles like Uncharted 3 and Batman Arkham City (and FIFA 12... but I'd never even heard of that :P). Now, it's against the biggest title of them all...

 The Elder Scrolls 5: Skyrim.

Most people thought Skyrim would win hands down - I mean, my gods, anything that can beat Portal 2 at 74% deserves quite a bit of respect. Portal 2 was, after all, the only game that I'd been hoping to win besides Skyward Sword, but Portal was doomed before I even got to vote. So I really, REALLY want Skyward Sword to win now.

I'm not going to lie - I haven't played Skyrim, and I likely never will. It sounds incredible... and quite a bit like my kind of game, too: I love fantasy RPG's! ...But I can't stand blood. It's awesome in books, but in video games or movies, I don't like it. Sorry, Skyrim, but because of your M rating I don't want to play you.

...I know this makes me sound like some stupid ten year old that the Skyrim fans continously claim all of us Zelda fans are, but I'm not. I just prefer Legend of Zelda.

So, I'm here to ask that you vote for Zelda. For me. Or if not for me, just for the most epic Zelda game of all time. Come ON... it's Zelda's 25th anniversary! Wouldn't it be great to have it go down in history as the Game of the Year on its anniversary?

This battle is SO extremely close. Every time I check the page (which I do quite frequently) there's a different winner. The votes are probably just one or two away. Currently it's in Skyward Sword's favor (49%-51%) but that might not last. Though I know I'm not a popular website and probably the only people who will read this are those who've already voted, I will post this anyway.

I'm fully aware of how biased and fangirly I sound, but it's just my opinion. I know I'm doing everything that Skyrim fans criticize us for, but I don't care at this point. At least I'm not lowering myself to their level and bashing them when it's clearly a great game.

Please go HERE to vote. Come on, Skyward Sword! You can do it!