This is sad.

I have no excuse. I seriously forgot.

And I really, really can't post anything right now. Ugggh. I'm so mad at myself right now. I have to get up really early tomorrow morning, so I can't write this...

Plus, all I can say is that the Oracle games came out on the eShop... when was it? Yesterday? Today? I THINK it was yesterday. But I already have them on GameBoy Color, so... I don't have a point to buying them. (Except I really, really want to! They would have a backlight! My GBA doesn't have a backlight, so it's hard to play at night...)

Oh, and E3's kind of coming up soon... SSB and The Wind Waker HD and Zelda 3DS and maaaaybe some Zelda Wii U if we're super duper lucky...

Well, I'm sorry, guys. I really have to go. I can't write anymore. I still have lots to do before sleeping, and it's eleven right now.

Right now, I am making a full promise to you to write a post later this week. I am swearing it, right now. I'm not sure when, but it WILL happen. Before E3, hopefully. Because I'll probably make some posts on that. It's sure to be better than last year, which I concluded was boring. Even if Nintendo's not holding an official press conference this year.

Gods. I can't believe this even happened.

I'm really sorry! Goodnight everyone... See you later this week.

Zelda 3DS - Oh. Yeah. Maybe I should post something.

I FORGOT AGAIN.

Wait, I take that back. I didn't forget. I procrastinated. There is a difference.

I thought of my blog several times over the month and CONSTANTLY told myself to go and post something -- but I kept telling myself I'd do it some other time. Oh, well, it's not like there's anything to post about anyway. It's not like anything important is going on, and I didn't play much--

...What? A Link to the Past? What are you talking about? I haven't played A Link to the--

Oh.

Oh, yeah.

So, there's that thing called Zelda 3DS that I kind of forgot about... I mean, uh, I didn't forget about it, but I didn't really feel like posting about it... XD

Ugh. See, here's the thing. Zelda 3DS -- or A Link to the Past 2, as the community calls it (since apparently it's Triforce of the Gods 2 in Japan? Seriously, Nintendo?) -- is kind of a bit of a big deal. Think about what I would have done a year ago. After all, 2012 sucked for Zelda fans, as I emphasized in my yearly closing post in December, heh. I would have FREAKED. OUT. And then ranted all over the blog about how amazing this was going to be.

Strangely, though, this year, when Zelda 3DS was announced... I didn't feel that.

It was the strangest thing. First off, it looked like a fan project. ...Yes, I know. That's exactly what I said about The Wind Waker HD. Maybe I'm going to think all Zelda games from this point on look like fan projects; I don't really know, since I've only had the whole "find out day of the announcement" thing with Skyward Sword, and I'd been counting down the days for E3 to show us more about that. Well, and OoT 3D, I guess... which, interestingly enough, I suppose I didn't believe THAT was a real game at first, either, thinking it was only a tech demo...

Anyway, it looked like a fan project. Fans have tried to recreate 2D Zelda games into 3D before, although I haven't heard of any super successful ones. Or it looked like a fake. Either way, I didn't believe it.

When I found out, I was still at school. My school is evil and decided to block virtually everything gaming related, including almost every Zelda fansite in existence, so I am completely out of contact there. I knew there was going to be a Nintendo Direct that evening; the day before, there had been rumors about Majora's Mask 3D being announced then. But, of course, I didn't believe the MM rumors and completely forgot about it.

So, at lunch, my friend sent me a text message saying "SIERRA! (Well, real name, whatever.) HAVE YOU SEEN THIS? 3DS sequel to A Link to the Past!"

And, of course, I scoffed and sent her a suspicious message back, saying, "Are you sure?" I was trying to be as kind as possible because she had CLEARLY fallen for some stupid rumor or fake, but I didn't want to seem condescending or dismissive in case she had some kind of real lead here. After that, she said, "Well, yeah, the The Legend of Zelda group on Facebook posted it..." Since I don't know anything about Facebook, I wasn't sure how official this Zelda Facebook group was, although I did feel a bit interested by this fact, especially knowing about the Nintendo Direct. But maybe she had misunderstood the announcement? And then she tells me that NINTENDO ALSO posted it on THEIR Facebook page... And then she shows me a bunch of screenshots that she had saved...

And, finally, she tells me I can use her phone to look at the websites. XD

So I sought her out (since she doesn't sit with me) and the very first thing I did... was go to Zelda Dungeon.

Because for some reason, I trust Zelda Dungeon more than Nintendo's official The Legend of Zelda Facebook Page. You know.

And, sure enough, there it was, right on the front page.

So, yes, the surprise was ruined for me yet again, just like in TWW. Except for TWW, at least it was a fantastically wonderfully unexpected surprise when I got home, where as this was a surprisingly unusually unexpected discovery at school. Apparently setting makes all the diffence. XD I didn't want to freak out there, so I waited until I got home.

...But the excitement never really came.

Please help me. I don't know what's happened to the Zelda fangirl that used to run this blog. She's missing! And she's been replaced by someone who keeps judging games based on appearances again!

...Yeah. You heard that right. So, uh, I don't particularly like the graphics.

Now, uh, I'm sort of happy. I'm just not, like... overwhelmingly excited, like for SS and ST. I even felt more eager for WW HD than this. I don't know. Something about it just... puts me off.

Oh, well, maybe it has something to do with the fact that I never liked A Link to the Past in the first place? (Except for that one post forever ago. But that doesn't count. -.-)

Yeah. Now, believe me when I say I was among all of the others that were cheering for a sequel instead of a remake, but keep in mind that when they said sequel, I was actually imagining something 3D. "But, Sierra," you say, "A Link to the Past 2 IS 3D!"

First off, STOP CALLING IT THAT. THE BEAUTIFUL GAME KNOWN AS LINK'S AWAKENING IS AN A LINK TO THE PAST SEQUEL AND IT IS PROBABLY WAY COOLER THAN THIS NEWBIE GAME JUST BECAUSE I SAID SO. And, uh, when I said 3D, I meant, like, Ocarina of Time 3D.

Geez, Sierra. When will you ever learn that you can't trust tech demos on what the graphics of the next game are going to be? Even if the tech demo was made into a full game? D:

(Which probably means that Zelda Wii U will look nothing like the demo, either. Darn. I love those graphics.)

Yeah, so, I was among those fooled into thinking that Zelda 3DS would look like OoT 3D. Instead we get a remake of a game that never really was a favorite of mine to begin with.

Like with TWW HD, though, DON'T GET ME WRONG. I probably will love this game to DEATH. And maybe I'm just waiting for the excitement to kick in. Maybe it'll come as we learn more about this game. But for now, I'm not impressed by a couple of videos and some cool turn-into-a-2D-painting thingy.

Oh, yeah, I didn't mention that yet. You can turn into a drawing or something. Kind of interesting. I can imagine some cool stuff with that. XD

Wow, no pictures for this post. I'm sorry. I'm kind of in a hurry, in case you didn't notice. It's becoming 11 PM here on the last day of the month.

PROCRASTINATION FOR THE WIN WOOOOOOOOOO

But, yeah. It's probably past midnight in most of you guys' time zones. I wonder if Blogger adjusts to time zones? I don't think it does, but...

...I'm off-topic.

Yeah. So I'm not exactly hyped for Zelda 3DS yet, but any Zelda-related announcement is a cause for celebration. I was talking about it all day the following few days.

I still can't believe I left a post announcing a BRAND NEW ZELDA GAME until now. Oh, how the mighty have fallen... XD

Unnecessary, insincere, and probably false promise: Hey, maybe I'll get on sometime this weekend and write a full post about my thoughts on Zelda 3DS! If I remember. After all, I didn't get to go into much detail here. I want to tear apart every little aspect of the game, including music, more on graphics, and what I think about it being a sequel to the SNES classic. Oh, and I want to complain about Link's voice. Don't let me forget that. That will be first on my list. Objective one: complain about Link's voice.

Alright! Goodnight, everyone! Have a nice... week? The day's almost over, so it probably won't do you any good to say day. :P (...Assuming you read this as soon as I post it, haha. Which is a rather awful assumption.)

Random trivia fact: This is the first post on my blog with the label "A Link to the Past" since March 30th, 2010. See. I told you I don't really care much for that game.

TAoL Update – I BEAT ZELDA II.

YEAH, THAT'S RIGHT.

ME.

I DID THAT.

I. BEAT. ZELDA II: THE ADVENTURE OF LINK.

And I'm very, very, very happy. :D My Hyrule Historia posts are going to have to wait. This is more important! I must record this historic event before I forget it!

I know this might come as a surprise, Considering the last time you heard about TAoL was Halloween... but I've actually been working on it very hard this past month, and just didn't tell anyone, haha. I was in the third dungeon last time you heard from me, and now I've completed everything.

I'd love to skip right to the boss, but let me talk about the rest of the game for a moment first. Naturally, I died a LOT. This game is NOT easy, believe me. I had more trouble GETTING to the palaces than completing them in some cases. After the second and third dungeons, it was off to the Maze Palace, and you have no idea how many times I died just trying to GET there. About halfway through that palace, I decided to develop a system for grinding, which is basically getting as much EXP as possible and leveling up.

I should NOT have to grind in a Zelda game. But I did.

Outside of Maze Island and near the town there (I forgot which – I want to say Nabooru, but don't quote me on that) there's a little desert area. For those of you who haven't played the game, when you step off of the path in AoL, three black blobs appear to represent monsters. There are two types: the tiny ones and the big ones. And fairies appear sometimes, too, but they never help me...

Anyway, the tiny blobs are, as you can expect, easier monsters than the big ones. When you run into one of these blobs, you go into a side-scrolling battle screen. I discovered that the tiny blobs in the desert consisted of a battle with a few Leevers and two Octoroks on either side of the screen. It was a VERY easy battle, and the Leevers gave you 10 EXP each and the Octoroks 5, so I was gaining about 80 EXP every time I went through that. ...So I kept going through that. I wandered around in the desert (found a hidden area with a magic potion, too, that I never took), attacked the tiny blobs, ran from the large ones, and gained experience. For a long, long, long time, until I'd leveled up to what I deemed sufficient enough to STOP DYING in that STUPID Maze Palace.

Then I beat the boss. Yay!

The fifth dungeon was the one out in the water, which you had to use your magical walk-on-water boots to reach, and I don't remember it much. Hmm... Oh, wait, was that the one with the hidden wall? It was, wasn't it? It had a hidden room in it behind a wall that wasn't ACTUALLY a wall. I knew this thanks to the villagers. However... I couldn't find it ANYWHERE.

I'd gotten to the boss of the dungeon, and I still hadn't found an item for the place. So, curious, I went on Zelda Dungeon to see if there was an item for this palace. I found it -- it was a Flute or something -- and then, as I was scrolling up...

I saw a picture – JUST A PICTURE – of Link standing inside a wall.

And then I knew where the fake wall was. :(

So, I used a walkthrough. In that one moment I ruined all of my hard work. Turns out, though, that fortunately, I don't fail completely – I actually hadn't been in the room that the invisible wall is. I somehow skipped over it in my previous runs through the palace.

But I still used a walkthrough.

Which I'm not allowed to do.

-.-

The next dungeon was behind that "River Devil" thingy that you had to play the Flute to get rid of. Then you go through this long pathway with a ton of Lizalfos throwing fireballs at you until you FINALLY reach this forest bordering a desert, where the Town of Kasuto is. However, the original Town of Kasuto was destroyed, and the old man, the only guy left, tells you that they all moved to the forest. Soooo I looked in the forest.

And I couldn't find it.

No, you don't understand. I looked EVERYWHERE.

LITERALLY EVERYWHERE.

There was this lovely secluded forest area that was through a cave, and I was very certain the town was there, or at least SOME kind of secret. But I walked over every single tile in that area, and there was nothing. Then, wondering if I had to play the Flute to find it like the dungeon of this stage, I played the Flute in every tile.

Still nothing.

Therefore, I decided instead to go to the main forest area. I refused to enter the dungeon without the spell from the Town of Kasuto, so I kept looking. After about a half hour of skimming the forest, I started using the same strategy as in that secluded area: I literally walked over every. single. tile. in that stupid. freaking. forest.

Every. One.

And then, I started walking over every one AGAIN so I could play the Flute on each of them.

NOTHING.

The only good part about this is that I leveled up so much that I was level 8 -- the highest level -- in both Magic and Life when I went into the dungeon, and only one away in Attack. I kept running into monsters during my search, which in this area were Lizalfos and Deelers (which I thought were Skulltulas until I checked the wiki).

So yeah.

Halfway through my Flute escapade in the main forest, I was furious. I'd been looking for HOURS. I really desperately wanted to use a walkthrough or friend or something or ANYTHING.

And then, suddenly, a ray of hope shined down upon me.

I had just finished ranting to my sister about how annoying this game was and how stupid it was that I couldn't find the town when I retreated into my room. Then, for some strange reason, I suddenly wondered what would happen if I pressed A in the overworld.

So I did.

And the trees in front of me, in the area that used to be forest...

Vanished.

So, apparently, for WHO KNOWS how long (since these trees have been there since the BEGINNING OF THE GAME) I've been able to completely DEMOLISH the trees in front of me, and I HAD NO IDEA UNTIL NOW.

D:

Thus, with a renewed sense of responsibility, I hurried back to the behind-the-cave forest area that I'd thought the Town was in. It took a while, because destroying the trees makes you move slower, and every time you get into a battle with some enemies, the trees come back, but FINALLY, I FOUND THE STUPID TOWN AND GOT MY FREAKING SPELL.

Also, I used another bit of Zelda trivia. I remembered that the OTHER line Link actually speaks in the series was something along the line of "I can get up from here," or whatever, so in Kasuto, I found a random chimney that I was able to jump up and got the spell. And Link said that, so... yay?

Yep. Yay.

And then it was on the Hidden Palace, which wasn't terribly exciting. It was so easy for me to find -- like I said, I found it before the town, actually -- and it wasn't TOO difficult to beat. I was pretty annoyed that the boss had lava in his room though. Not cool. Lava is my mortal enemy in this game.

Finally, after that, it was on to... THE VALLEY OF DEATH!

Which, um, killed me. A lot.

Moas are very frustrating enemies. They really are. And there were plenty in this wonderful death trap. Not to mention LAVA. Lava one-hit kills you. It's completely unfair! Water is the same way -- and WHY? You have magical boots that can walk on water, BUT YOU STILL DROWN IN ONE SECOND? HOW?

Fortunately, I finally, finally, FINALLY got to the Great Palace. And I'm going to tell you now: THIS PLACE IS A MAZE. Why is THIS not the Maze Palace?

Well, probably because Great Palace sounds way cooler for a final dungeon.

The only good part about this was that instead of going back to the North Palace like in every other dungeon as I was expecting (thus making me HORRIFIED when I died for the first time – I DID NOT WANT TO DO VALLEY OF DEATH AGAIN) you just went back to the start of the dungeon. Woo-hoo!

However, while I died a good five or six times trying to locate the correct path through the dungeon, it wasn't too bad, and eventually, much to my surprise, I randomly stumbled upon Thunderbird one day. With great joy I fought him–

Annnnd of course, I died right away.

...Well, that's okay. I just go back to the start of the dungeon. I mean, it sucks, because I have to go through the whooooole stupid place again, but at least I knew where I was going now, right?

Um, no. It's not good. Because I died soooooooo many times getting through that particular path, and it's a miracle I reached Thunderbird at all. There are two types of unique enemies in the Great Palace: Fokkas and Fokkeru. Additionally, there are more powerful versions of several familiar enemies, like Bits and Ras and Ropes and stuff. I can deal with Ras and Bits and Ropes and even freaking annoying Fokkeru, but the Fokkas...

Ohhhh, the Fokkas...

I cannot even begin to describe my hatred for these impossible enemies. I just CAN'T. It was... They were... Oh, my, gosh.

See, this is probably why no one likes The Adventure of Link. In an RPG game with levels and stuff, what do you do when you can't defeat an enemy? Why, you go and level up! So what do you do when you're the HIGHEST LEVEL and STILL can't kill your enemies?

You just die. Soooo many times.

I also developed some strategies. For instance: I learned which Fokkas I could run away from without taking TOO much damage, and which ones I HAD to fight. The Red Fokkas weren't TOO hard. Sure, they still made me want to rage quit a number of times, but at least they only took three hits to beat and only had melee attacks. Thus I ran away from most of those. It was the Blue Fokkas that gave me murderous thoughts. They can shoot from far away, so they can hit you in the back as you're fleeing. Not cool. Plus they take such a ridiculous amount of times to hit that it's not even funny.

There was this one Blue Fokka in particular that I'm thinking of right now. He was in a room with several blocks surrounding him on either side that you had to hit through, as well as two Bots within those. Of course, Bots only take two hits to kill, so they weren't a problem... But if you tried going through those blocks at ground level, the stupid Fokka would start shooting you THROUGH THE WALL as you're trying to kill the Bots and break the blocks. Thus, I developed MANY strategies for this room. First off, you needed the Shield Spell. I swear there was no way to survive that room without a Shield Spell or a plethora of lives. Next, you had to make a staircase up the blocks so that you were too high in the air for the Fokka to jump and shoot you with. Then, time your jump and reach the ground to face that Fokka (which wasn't terribly easy to do, mind you). Next, continue blocking his ranged attacks with your shield, and then, once he jumps over you, quickly do and Upthrust to try and hit him from below. If you're lucky, he'll be pushed back to the other side where you can repeat this until he's dead. If you're not lucky, which happens more often then not, you'll instead get hit by him while doing your Upthrust, somehow.

That room was soooo terrible. The good news is that after dying in it about ten times, I realized that I could kill the Bots to heal myself and regain magic. They reappear every time you wander out of their sight and then head back again, so I just kept walking back and forth and killing the two Bots until they gave me magic, and then I used the Life spell to heal myself after that dreadful battle with the Fokka. After about three times of this, I also realized that every six Bots gives you either a Magic restoring thingy or a Points Bag, so I knew when to expect it, too.

Can you tell that I spent a LOT of time in that room?

I mean, seriously. Wandering back and forth between Bots over and over and over again. Did it take forever? Yes. Was it boring? You have no idea. Was it worth it? Totally. For the first time ever, I was making it to Thunderbird with three whole lives and fully healed. Not that it helped me much.

Notice that with all these horrors I've described, I still haven't even gotten to Thunderbird yet. The reason?

I died. Sooo. Many. Times. On. That. Stupid. Boss. That. It's. Not. Even. Funny. Anymore.

Before it was because I'd generally only make it to him with one life and then die right away. But I started getting better and better at navigating the palace as time went on, it became clear that that wasn't the reason. I just really, really sucked at this. The closest I got was down to two bars of hearts for him. But I kept dyyyyyiiiinnnnnngggggg.

Oh, by the way, about twenty deaths in, I accidentally pressed save on the death screen and had to go back to the North Palace and finish the Valley of Death again? The only good news is that it let me get my missing Heart Container (which I might kind of used a picture to find...)

Wait a second. Does that mean I 100%ed this game? I think it does! I got all the Life and Magic Containers! Anything else I'm missing? I don't think so! :D I never 100% games! Usually it's because something goes tragically wrong (one missing Heart Piece in ALttP, one missing Heart Piece in SS, one missing Ocean Bunny in ST, one missing Heart Container in LoZ) but still. Woo!

Well, whatever. The rest of my time was spent dying another forty times against Thunderbird – and that's only SLIGHTLY an exaggeration. It was at least thirty times. Over and over and over and over and over and over and over again. And keep in mind that in this particular instance, dying doesn't mean losing a life – it means losing ALL my lives and getting a Game Over. Therefore, multiply that number by an average of two (since the amount of lives I had varied between one, two, and three) and you can tell that there were a LOT of potential rage quitting moments there. But I trooped on.

WHY. NO ONE ELSE SAYS HE'S HARD. THEY ALL COMPLAIN ABOUT DARK LINK. WHY ME. WHHHHY.

Well, anyway, it was a normal day. I'd been trying to beat this for a week, and begged the people in my Skype group (Atticus, Fused Shadows, Little Gumball, and Odd300) to tell me how to beat him. Of course, the only one who had even beaten the game before was Fused, and he said he'd forgotten, so yay. I was sitting there, trying to get through the dungeon again. Now with my newfound strategies, I was usually making it to Thunderbird with three lives and full health... so I did. I was sitting on my bed, the 3DS plugged into the wall to conserve battery power and headphones in my ears so that I wouldn't miss a second of music when I at long, long last finally beat the game. My first two lives went by quickly this time, as usual. But suddenly, he got down to two bars. I was hopeful. Then one. Then, finally, I struck the final blow–

AND OH MY GOSH THUNDERBIRD DIED.

I sat there in shock for a few seconds before abruptly pausing the game and rushing to tell my sister the great news. Of course, in the process, I forgot a few things – namely the charger and headphones – which of course played roles in my subsequently trip. Basically the charger pulled me back when I tried to run forward, and so I dropped the 3DS behind the laundry and the headphones tore out of it, too. But here's a fun "primary source" as you might call it. After tripping, I decided it probably wasn't too important for my sister to find out anyway (she wouldn't care) so I instead rushed back to my bed and grabbed my iPad and basically barfed out my excitement into our Skype group:

Mm-hmm.

As mentioned in the picture above, I still had one life left for Dark Link! But you know what was really annoying? Thunderbird, despite being the most difficult boss in the game, does NOT give you much experience. They should have at least given you enough for an extra life! Seriously! Unfortunately, this meant that I was going into Dark Link, the real final boss, with only one life and health that was beeping at me for being drained.

And, expectedly, I died.

I was really praying that I wouldn't have to fight Thunderbird again – and fortunately, I didn't. So I made it to Dark Link again with three lives and full health. Naturally I died the first few times. And by few I mean two. Because on my third life,

I killed him.

No, no, no. Just think about this for a second. Thunderbird, the boss that no one ever talks about, killed me thirty times. Dark Link technically only killed me once, and everyone said he's torturously difficult.

...Am I missing something here?

I didn't even use the "crouch in the corner and stab" method that everyone says makes Dark Link so easy. I tried it. I did. I must have been doing it wrong, though, because I kept getting hit and he wasn't taking any damage. I developed a different strategy that obviously worked rather well: keep walking forward into him and stabbing. Yeah, I got hit a few times, but he got hit way more than me, and I was the one who triumphed in the end.

I honestly don't get it. I'm so confused.

Oh, whatever. I BEAT THE ADVENTURE OF LINK WOOOOOOO!

And I took a bunch of horrible screenshots with my iPad! Yay!

YAY!

...Well, yeah. So TAoL has taken its place as the hardest Zelda game for me, unless I died more on Majora's Mask. A Link to the Past was previously my most-died game at 99 deaths, but The Adventure of Link is now in the lead with...

Well, dang. I went to check and discovered that after beating the game it erased all my deaths. I'm really, really sad now. :(

It was past 132. I know that. When I accidentally saved, it was at 132. So I'm going to go ahead and guess around 145 or something. Ugggh. I'm reeeally sad about my death count removal.

Oh, whatever. Sorry for that extra long post, but it was fun to write. I really have to get going now – it's our last day of Spring Break, and I haven't done any homework. I'm in so much trouble. I have a lot to do.

Have a nice Easter, everyone! (As I just learned it was, like, an hour ago!) Enjoy April!

Sorry, Hyrule Historia, but if this is confirming, I need to look up some definitions.

I'M LATE BUT I DON'T CARE.

I need to write a post about HH. I got it forever ago (okay, not THAT long ago... like, February first...) but I really, really, really have to talk about it. Or rant about it. I dunno. Both. Well, not talking, I suppose, but writing...

(Random person in the crowd: "JUST GET ON WITH IT, SIERRA!")

So, yes, if my UPS tracking e-mail is to be believed, I received Hyrule Historia on February 1st. I could probably find out for sure if I wasn't so lazy, but... I am so lazy. So we'll go with February 1st.

I was soooooo excited to get it. You have no idea how happy I was to get this book. It's the freaking Zelda BIBLE for goodness's sake. Why wouldn't I want it? Why wouldn't any Zelda fan want it? (I have proof that people like it, too – number one bestselling book on Amazon! Woo! And I didn't even buy it from Amazon!) I, unfortunately, did not get the limited edition version. I had a dress rehearsal for my theatre performance the night it was announced and the actual performance the day after, and when I got home the next day, I checked every website that stocked it, and they were ALL out. Every. Single. One. Uggggggh. And then you see jerks that bought thirty copies or something just to sell for ridiculous amounts. How frustrating!

Regardless, I still enjoy my perfectly normal copy for HH very much. It smells like a new book. Who doesn't love that?

When I first started reading it, I actually made this stupid promise to myself that I'd read it from start to finish, without skipping any pages. It took me... three days to finish, I think. Something like that. And this gave me a lot of time to really think about things in the book.

Now, in this post, I'm going to specifically talk about one topic: "confirmed theories". It's going to e a bit of a rant. Don't get me wrong: I LOVE the book. Love love love love love love love love it. ...However, it's not at ALL what I was expecting.

You see, back when this was just released in Japan, we had these INSANE rumors going around about everything that was confirmed in HH. "OMG, the Ocarina of Time's made out of Timeshift Stones! Whoa, the Hero's Shade actually IS OoT Link! Hey, Sheik's harp is the same as the Goddess's Harp! WHAT? TIMELINE REVEAL! ALL OUR QUESTIONS ARE ANSWERED! Can you believe this stuff?"

...and then I actually GOT the book, and I learned that things are a LIIIIIITTLE different.

First off, let's talk about all those "confirmed" theories. Turns out, they're not actually confirmed at all.

They NEVER state anything definitely. NEVER. Unless it's already in the game. It's. So. Darn. ANNOYING.

For example: that whole, the Ocarina was made out of Timeshift stones thing? Well, this is what HH says about it: "With this talk of controlling time, one can't help but think of Ocarina of Time. The ocarina is the same color as the Timeshift Stones. Could they be made of the same material?"

...Well, I don't know, book! How about you TELL US?!

They bring it up again later, too, in the OoT section of the timeline. "Its blue-white radiance brings to mind the Timeshift Stones found in the eras of antiquity." Well, that's fabulous. But does it mean anything? Apparently not, because you won't TELL US ANYTHING.

And they do this a lot. With the Goddess's Harp thing? "The harp in Skyward Sword looks a lot like Sheik's harp in Ocarina of Time. Could it be the same one...?"

STOP ASKING ME STUFF. YOU'RE SUPPOSED TO KNOW THIS, DANGIT.

Worse, it does this with things that are already flat out CONFIRMED. When talking about ???, Zelda's friendly hand in the toilet dude, they say it "may have its roots in traditional ghost stories."

Now, allow me to direct you to a quote by Miyamoto himself. The interviewer here asks him to explain what the hand in the toilet is. He responds, "It's actually something from a Japanese ghost story. Not a specific ghost story. There are some ghost stories in Japan where — when you are sitting in the bathroom in the traditional style of the Japanese toilet — a hand is actually starting to grab you from beneath. It's a very scary story."

The book itself doesn't even want to confirm confirmed stuff. WHAT IS WRONG WITH THIS STUPID THING.

However, with all of this, the one I was most disappointed about not being confirmed was the Hero's Shade one. That is my favorite Zelda theory of all time, ever. I love the idea that a past Link interacts with his descendant. But this is all HH says: "Some theorize that the fact that he holds his sword in his left hand indicates he is actually Link from Ocarina of Time." Well, I already knew that, Hyrule Historia. But thanks for reminding me that it's only a theory. :(

The only "theories" that I saw confirmed all related to Rauru. These were the ones saying that he was the first sage and that he built the Temple of Time, and he takes on the form of Kaepora Gaebora outside of the Sacred Realm. But even then, there's some fun uncertainty. It's only "THOUGHT" that the Temple of Time was built over the ruins of the Sealed Temple. He built it, yeah, but, hey, maybe he built it somewhere else, guys! Who knows! HH sure doesn't!

...yeah, sorry about this ranting.

Let's get one thing straight, though. I really, really love this book. It's so incredible. Despite pretty much telling us everything we already know, it still tells it like some sort of story, and it's extremely interesting to read. And the formerly unreleased artwork is enough to want to get this. Some of the early designs of characters are fascinating. For example: Byrne once had red hair and a polkadot outfit.

I need to upload some pictures to here for my next post. XD

I'll leave my discussion of HH with the failed theory confirmations, though. Oh! And one other thing: this silly little medallion mix-up! Because I'm too lazy to explain it, I'll let Linkfan do it for me at his post! He has an awesome new Zelda blog called Triforce Talk so you should all go look at it. ^^ Basically, they mixed up the Fire and Spirit Medallions, hahaha. I didn't even notice it my first time through. I blame being totally livid on how they refused to confirm any of the fun theories. XD

Well... I think I need to make another HH post soon, talking about some of the more POSITIVE points of the book. And the artwork. This book is so amazing. I just wanted to rant about the annoying lack of confirmation. :P Of course, I'll probably never get around to writing another post, but whatever.

Have a good evening, everyone! (And, hey, guess what? TODAY ISN'T THE LAST DAY OF FEBRUARY. HAHAHAHA.)

The Wind Waker Wii U – Medli Returns in Glorious HD!

This was announced a few days ago, but I didn't get the chance to post it until now, which shows just how far from grace this poor blog has fallen. But that's okay. At least now I've calmed down (a bit) over the initial unveiling and I won't go all fangirl freakout mode on this post here.

So what is this magical reveal that has the whole Zelda fandom talking?

The Wind Waker HD.

Yeah. That's real.

They are actually, REALLY going to remake The Wind Waker.

I... I pretty much freaked out when I heard this. My poor Facebook page ended up being my outlet instead of this blog for once, though. To put things in perspective... I don't think a single person on my friends list has even touched The Wind Waker, as far as I know. Well, maybe that one kid from elementary school that used to talk about video games with me... And, okay, I did force my friend to fight WW Ganon at my birthday party...

Anyway, no one knew what I was talking about, and I RARELY go on Facebook, but here I was, caps lock and all, typing up nonsense. I even went off and started complaining about "stuid OoT fanboys". Yes. In my excitement, I wrote "stuid".

As a result, I think you'll appreciate me waiting in the end, because this would be a full on nonsensical rant otherwise.

Not that I won't rant. Oh, no. I'm still reeling over this whole thing.

Let me begin by saying how I discovered this. As you know, I edit the ZD Wiki a lot. So I returned home from school, and, as my routine demands, the first thing I did was check my e-mail and the Recent Changes of the ZD Wiki. I realized people were editing the Wind Waker page and "adding HD release" was their reason for editing. I was like, "Okay, what is this noob talking about? HD TWW? That doesn't make sense. What's this?" And then I saw uploaded photos of "The Wind Waker Wii U", and suddenly realizing that something incredibly important had happened while I was at school, I immediately went to the front page of ZD with all the news posts...

And there it was.

...I could hardly believe my eyes. It... it didn't even look like a real Zelda game. It looked like some kind of fantastic fan project. Not because it looked bad, but because it seemed so impossible. I was completely and utterly shocked.

And the one thing I kept thinking was: WHY?

Majora's Mask 3D has been recognized as a desire, the possibility of an ALttP remake generated a considerable amount of attention – BUT NO. THEY CHOSE THE WIND WAKER.

I think it has something to do with the fact that it's the only Zelda game that hasn't been on another console aside from the Oracles and Skyward Sword. But seriously. I...

Okay, opinion time.

I was kind of upset.

...Okay, maybe upset isn't the right word. More like... affronted? But a bit nicer than affronted. Like... I felt...

Ugh. I just don't like the graphics, okay?

It's not that I don't want this remake. Not. At. All. I am soooo excited for this, you have no idea. But... That's kind of why my fangirl freakout manifested itself in a nonsensical Facebook post:

I had NO idea what to think.

I am TORN between LOVING this announcement and HATING it. The Wind Waker was my first Zelda game right? It's the reason this blog has its dumb namesake of a character from The Wind Waker that makes it sound nothing like a Zelda blog (I'm sorry, Medli, I love you! Really! I do! I've just moved on!). So, naturally, the prospect of it coming back really made me happy. My file was corrupted a while back, and since then I have not completed Wind Waker again. This will be the perfect incentive to play it another time. And, oh my gosh, A ZELDA GAME ON THE WII U. WHO COULD POSSIBLY HATE THAT.

...But... Those stupid graphics!

I don't like people who judge a game based on its graphics. Most people of the video gaming world don't, actually, particularly Nintendo fans. And I don't necessarily have a problem with this art style. I like it, actually. No, I take that back. I LOVE it. It's so beautiful. I would love a new Zelda game like that.

The problem lies in the fact that it's The Wind Waker we're talking about here, and not some new game. I loved The Wind Waker's GC graphics. They, out of all of the Zelda games, are the only ones that still look really amazing by today's standards.

So why would you take them and CHANGE them? They looked BEAUTIFUL as is! Don't fix what isn't broken!

The problem is that there are, what, fifteen, sixteen Zelda games? Any one of those could have been remade aside from Wind Waker, and they would have been AWESOME. Twilight Princess really, in my opinion, looks quite bad compared to The Wind Waker and Skyward Sword. If we had a remake of that with graphics like that tech demo – oh, my gosh. Just... I can't even comprehend the awesomeness. And what happened to A Link to the Past? I'm pretty sure MM is coming to 3DS eventually, so I'll disregard that, but what about ALttP? I personally was very excited for that, because I can't wait to see how 2D translates to 3D. But we got THIS instead!

...See my problem?

I sound like a whiny fan. Sorry. Like I said, I'm completely unsure what to think of this announcement. But those are just my thoughts on the matter.

I really hope they add in some new features for us, though. I also can't wait to try the Tingle Tuner. I've never been able to use that.

Anyway, Iwata also spoke briefly about the brand NEW Zelda game coming to Wii U eventually. I'll (hopefully) address that in a later post. I can't wait to hear about that.

Oh, and lastly: Hyrule Historia came out today! My copy's set to arrive on February 1st. I hate having to wait a few days, but whatever. I'm looking forward to that.

Well, have a good evening, everyone. I'll return in a later post to further discuss the details of Wii U Direct and the new Zelda Wii U, and perhaps more TWW thoughts.

Goodnight!

Yay for New Year!

*Looks at post count of 2012*

WHAT.

FOURTEEN. ARE YOU SERIOUS.

Okay, 2009... 49 posts. 2010... 89 posts. 2011... 63 posts.

And 2012 has FOURTEEN?

Whoa. My activity dropped pretty badly this year, huh? Only May and June got more than one post. D:

I'm sorry. But this hasn't been a very Zelda-active year, huh? It's sad, actually. We haven't gotten anything cool this year, aside from Symphony of the Goddesses.

And why didn't I make a post about that? Uggh, now I can't remember it! I'm such an idiot! :(

Maybe I still should make a post. Man, I don't know why I didn't write one earlier! I had perfect memory of it all then...

...Now all I can remember was when the announcer guy mentioned the Water Temple and I laughed way too hard...

And then they played Ballad of the Wind Fish and I was the happiest Zelda fan ever...

Anyway.

Um, yeah. 2012 sucked for Zelda fans. Let's leave it at that.

I'm going to pray at 2013 is better. I really, really, REALLY want to see a new Zelda game at E3 next year. We've still got six months to go, and I'm already so excited for E3 2013. I watched the Wii U Tech Demo again yesterday from 2011 (which was one of the best years in Zelda history; thanks, 25th anniversary!) because I was planning on making a signature out of it, and it is BEAUTIFUL. No words can describe the fangirly excitement I feel when watching that trailer. I was pretty darn happy watching SS, but somehow it's even better seeing this tech demo that might never come true.

I'm not sure how that works, but...

Well, guys, I hope you all have a happy New Year. ...Yeah, that's right. I don't have anything Zelda-related to update. Except... I beat Unicorn's Cave, fifth dungeon of Oracle of Seasons. And now I'm back to the beginning of the OoS cycle, which is get lost, miraculously find dungeon, get stuck in dungeon, pwn dungeon, and repeat. So... yeah. I'm not sure where these ruins are that the Maku Tree is talking about. There was a place called... Temple Remains or something, but there's just this big, stupid gaping hole there that I can't cross, so maybe that isn't it. Or maybe I'm missing something.

Ugh. I hate the "get lost" stage.

Um, yeah, that's all. Oh, and there's Dog House glitch on Link's Awakening that I don't think I covered yet. Maybe in a later post I can discuss that!

But for now... I just listened to the Skyward Sword credits song while writing this, and it just ended, fading into the Rhythm Thief musical from Random Encounters... so I think that's my cue!

You know what was funny earlier? I have a TON of Zelda songs and Random Encounters musicals and MLP songs on my iPad, and I love putting them on shuffle and listening. Earlier, I got Game Over of Link's Awakening, a Majora's Mask remix (forgot what song, but it was Majora's Mask for goodness sake), Game Over of OoX, and Game Over of LoZ all in one go. Not even joking. Is my iPad telling me something?

While writing that, Rhythm Thief ended and now I'm listening to Shadow Temple. Yaaay!

Yeah, well, that's it. XD I'm done telling you all about what songs I'm listening to while writing this post, haha. Bottom line is: I hope you all have a very happy New Year's Eve and Day. I'm having some friends over.

Have a good holiday, everybody! Late Merry Christmas and all that. Enjoy!

Happy Birthday, Skyward Sword!

This... is incredible.

I can't believe it, but it's true. Somehow, a year has passed, and The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword is officially one year old. Here in the U.S. we've still got two days to go, but this is the date it was released in Europe.

Wow. It doesn't feel like a year. Not at all.

Unfortunately, I'm unable to really celebrate its birthday, since my family plans on heading to some festival thing. And this morning I've spent SS's birthday browsing Zelda Dungeon and playing Link's Awakening, so yeah. But hopefully I can celebrate it on the twentieth, which will be the day that I, personally, have had it for a year.

It's just so unbelievable! It still feels like I was just recently pouring over websites and absorbing every little bit of pre-game info I could get before its release date. And then... completing the game is still so vivid in my mind...

If really does prove the saying, doesn't it? "Time flies when you're having fun"?

Yeah. Really. :)

Interestingly enough, in addition to Skyward Sword turning one, the Wii U comes out today. I was on the fence for a very long time over whether I should get it on launch date or not, and I finally decided against it. There really aren't any games I want to play on it yet. Besides, Club Nintendo doesn't even offer a warranty extension! What's with that? I really do want that limited edition deluxe package though... I hope limited edition isn't TOO limited...

I'll just leave it at that for now. If I end up having more time later today, I'll post some of my favorite Skyward Sword trailers and my thoughts about them. Of course, I already HAVE done that, when we were still waiting for SS... but, you know, it HAS been a year. Maybe my thoughts have changed?

Well, that's all for now. Have a great day everyone! Play some Skyward Sword or Wii U or something! ;)

Medli's Messages' Third Halloween!

SUPER HAPPY HALLOWEEN, GUYS!

If you celebrate it.

It's one of my favorite holidays, so I hope you do.

So this is Medli's Messages' Third Halloween. ...Well, technically it's the fourth, but last year I didn't really care and never posted anything about it. So this is the third Halloween POST.

Guess what, guys: this year, I was Zelda! ...Not like I was Zelda the year before last, which was essentially an old Sleeping Beauty costume with a Triforce painted on a cardboard cut-out tied in the front, but in an actually decent Zelda cosplay, custom-made by a fantastic friend of mine. I was Skyward Sword Zelda, to be specific. And, considering the amount of work she put into the costume, I think I'll probably be SS Zelda next year. And the year after that. And the year after.

It's okay, though. It was so much fun to be a character from my favorite video game series.

I'm afraid I've left my blogging to the last day of the month again, although I have excuse this time because it's Halloween. And... honestly, very little Zelda-related stuff have happened lately. That includes news and personal achievements.

In fact, the only thing I've done that's Zelda-related pretty much all month is play Adventure of Link. And knowing the reputation of that game, I'm sure you can imagine how THAT turned out.

...Okay, actually, it was pretty good. See, the nice thing about AoL is that when you accomplish something, you feel SO awesome afterward. Did I tell you that story about my erased progress earlier? Well, my 3DS somehow erased some of my progress in AoL so that I was before the second boss that I'd already pwned earlier. Fortunately, it didn't get rid of all the progress in dungeon two (I probably would have just tossed away the game and said, 'Well, I tried!' if that was the case), but it had been so long since I'd beat him that I didn't know where the boss room was anymore. I've spent quite a few times trying to find him since then (and experienced the pain of death – or rather, watching Link die – and Ganon's infuriating laughter on numerous occasions), and only yesterday did I at long last locate his room.

And what do you know? Despite having died a good five or six times initially, I beat him on my first try.

...It's because I had the Life spell, really. I didn't have that the first time through the dungeon. In fact, the way I found the spell is rather humorous; see, I wanted the spell from Saria town, and the woman there wanted her mirror. Only after I completed dungeon two did I remember the line from AoL that's randomly written in first person: "I found a mirror under the table!" So I found a room with nothing but a table in it and, lo and behold, there was a mirror and that peculiar line of dialogue showed up.

My Zelda trivia skills actually were useful for once.

...You know, I keep getting the towns Saria and Ruto mixed up. Because, you know. It's "Water Town of Saria", but Ruto's a Zora in OoT, so I think of HER being related to water and all...

...Oh my gosh. I just realized that every single one of the Sages' names end in a vowel. Weird.

In other news, I started Skyward Sword again. Um, but I think this was last month, maybe. I can't really remember when, to be honest. But it was interesting. I decided I was going to try 6 Heart Challenge in Hero Mode. I was breezing through it, and I reached Ghirahim, beat him, took my Heart Container, and then got the Tablet. Then I headed back to Skyloft and collected some Goddess Chests, but when I got in to the Lumpy Pumpkin to grab the Heart Piece there I suddenly realized:

"Wait. I have seven hearts."

I was so excited after beating Debbie that I grabbed the Heart Container and SAVED.

So I started over. But I'm stupid, so I went out of my way to collect Heart pieces and now I have three. One more and the six heart thing is ruined again. Better not forget... and save often. And check my heart count before I save.

Well, seven minutes until midnight. NaNoWriMo starts tomorrow. Forgot about that. But I'm totally excited. Go look it up if you don't know what it is.

Alright, that's it! Happy Halloween!

LA Update – Anticlimactic Alternate Ending!

Hi guys. It's my birthday today.

I mean, um... that has no relevance to anything at all, but I thought I'd mention it anyway. Just because.

So, I'm ready to write another Link's Awakening post. I'm sure everyone's getting annoyed that I keep rambling about it, but it's my favorite game right now so SHUT UP. It's my blog.

Just under ten minutes ago, I completed my no-death run of Link's Awakening DX on the 3DS Virtual Console. I wasn't quite as moved this time by the sadness of everyone disappearing forever, but it was still pretty emotional for me. Later, you're going to hear ANOTHER rambling post from me about how incredible the music is. This is the first Zelda game to really make music an important part of the gameplay, something which even Ocarina of Time, "the greatest game on earth", decided to follow.

So, there's just a few things I wanted to touch on. This is my second playthrough of LA, and thus I was a lot better at it. A LOT better. I didn't die, right?

Right?

Well, no. Not exactly right.

See, I DID die once. And – as ashamed as I am to admit it – I CHEATED.

*gasp*

You see, the 3DS has "Restore Point" things where you can save your progress on the bottom screen at any point of the game and then return to that point whenever you feel like it. Meaning that if I create a restore point right before I die, then I can go back to the point right before I died and then NOT die. See?

Now, you know me and my hatred of walkthroughs and help like that. You know I want my accomplishments, such as this no death playthrough thing, to be indisputable. This definitely qualifies as making it disputable. Why do you think I didn't just start over the whole game once I died, as I was sorely tempted to do?

Because I SWEAR my death was a fluke.

This is how the beginning of the game went. I got through Mysterious Woods, through Tail Cave, and the Moblin Hideout, and so on, and I felt pretty good. I hadn't even come CLOSE to dying yet. Then I go to the second dungeon, Bottle Grotto, right? I went through the whole thing and I was STILL doing awesome! I couldn't help but think how easy getting this alternate ending would be. So I grab the boss key, and make a lovely restore point just a couple rooms back just in case my 3DS exploded or something (I'm not sure that a restore point would help there, but you know) and head in to the Genie's room.

Annnnnd I died.

I was so shocked. Utterly horrified that all of my work had been for nothing. I wondered what exactly I should do; I was still playing through this game for the Wiki, anyway. I was trying to get info on LA to add to pages, and the no death thing was just a bonus. Should I start over or what?

Well, though it pained me to do so, I chose to load up my restore point anyway. I was a few rooms back from the boss, so I solved the puzzle: whack the crystal and make the blocks go down, go left two screens, pick up the bottle and use Roc's Feather to jump to the other side of the pit, get the Boss Key out of the chest, hit the crystal, walk on top of the blocks to the right, then go right two more screen. Then you kill the Pol's Voices in the room and lift up this one bottle in the bottom right of the room to get a fairy to heal with, then a staircase appears and you enter it to get in front of the boss door.

I entered the door. I died again.

Furiously determined at this point, I did the things again – hit the switch, grab the key, kill the monsters, get the fairy, enter the staircase: AND I DIED AGAIN.

I was able to get to the second half of the Genie battle, you see. In that phase, though, he splits himself into clone-like figures, so you never know where he'll appear and where you can hit him. And his fireballs take a full heart of damage, so with my 4 hearts I could only make four mistakes.

Four mistakes is too few.

So, as you can tell from that long explanation above about what I needed to do before the boss, I remember it well. Want to know why that is? It's because I died SEVEN FREAKING TIMES and had to do all those actions SEVEN FREAKING TIMES before it occurred to me that I could make a new restore point right before the boss's room. And even then it took me forever – I died another four or so times before FINALLY killing that stupid, stupid, STUPID GENIE.

As soon as I did, I was OVERJOYED. I didn't even care that I'd broken my rule not use those silly restore things. I'D FINALLY KILLED THAT DUMB JERK, SO I WAS HAPPY.

Immediately afterward, I headed to Crazy Tracy's house to get some Secret Medicine. It works like a fairy in future games: it heals you automatically if you lose all your hearts.

And guess what? I still have that medicine.

In case you don't understand, I'm implying that I never died once after that Genie battle. If you assumed as much, you'd be correct.

After that, I went through the whole game without dying once, and without even using the Secret Medicine I bought way back before the third dungeon. I still had that medicine earlier today when I went to fight Nightmare the final boss, and I didn't use it.

I suppose you could argue, "Hey, you used the blue clothes, which gave you double defense!" And I suppose that's a valid point. If I hadn't had the increased defense from the Color Dungeon, then maybe I WOULD have used that medicine. But I still wouldn't have died. And I didn't get those cloth until after the third dungeon, so I went through at least one without any problems.

...SO WHAT THE HECK IS UP WITH THAT STUPID GENIE?

I really want to know! Is he a notoriously hard boss or something, or am I missing some obvious strategy that makes it easier to beat him? There's GOT to be something wrong with that guy! It can't just be me! I beat the WHOLE GAME without even coming close to dying, but that dumb Genie killed me at least TEN times! HOW DID THAT HAPPEN?

Well...

*sigh*

Yeah... I'm sorry. I honestly don't get it, though. But know this: I will never forget this day, Genie. And some day, far in the future, I'll replay Link's Awakening, and I WILL kill you. You shall never taste victory ever again, for I will forever remember your scheming and evil fireballs, and I will find a way to defeat you without dying. This is a new "thing", for me; it's just like how I'll never forget knocking over my Wii and restarting MM because I was angry at those ReDeads. Or, more accurately, I won't forget where to get bombs in MM because I was stupid and didn't realize there's a Bomb Shop in Clock Town. Actually, this closely resembles how I now know to not press any buttons when doing the Goron's part of the Moon in order to get the Fierce Deity's mask.

...Hmm. I was pretty stupid in Majora's Mask, wasn't I?

Anyway, I beat the game earlier and the no death ending that I worked so hard for was quite anticlimactic. Marin just shows up and she turns into a seagull. I knew that was what would happen, but I thought... I don't know. I thought it would happen in a more interesting way, you know?

Well, that Genie tale is pretty much the only interesting story from my LA DX playthrough. I can't think of anything else that happened that's worth telling on this blog. But that should be enough for now, right?
Have a nice day, everyone. Hopefully I'll come up with another post later this month. ^^

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...

The Link's Awakening Manga...

...is amazing.

I think I've mentioned once or twice that Link's Awakening is among my favorite video games of all time, right? I know I haven't been posting too often, but I'm sure I've at least implied that. Quite frankly, the story and the music are the best in the series.

I have been aware of the existence of the Link's Awakening manga for a while now; I buried that information in the back of my mind long ago, when I was still browsing random pages on Zelda Wiki and managed to find the entry for it, a complete and utter noob to the series trying to learn more about the games I wished to someday own. It didn't interest me back then (I mean, it was going to be translated eventually like the other Zelda manga I was undoubtedly waiting for; duh).

As I stated in my previous post, I've been contributing to the Zelda Dungeon Wiki a lot recently, and yesterday I somehow stumbled upon this wiki's own entry about the Link's Awakening manga. With not much else to do, I decided to follow the link that was listed at the bottom of the page, which led to a translation on History of Hyrule.

ANDOHMYGODSITWASEPIC.

This manga managed to perfectly capture everything I loved about the game... and more.

Listen: I used to rant on and on about how incredible the manga series was. I thought they were perfect adaptions of these incredible games. In fact, one might say they were what made me become a Zelda fan – I bought the Ocarina of Time manga, Volume One, when I only owned The Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass, so I really hadn't cared much about the "Legend of Zelda" aspect of those two games' titles until I read the manga and became interested in previous installments. Actually, now that I think of it, I've been reading the manga since the very first volume released; as this post suggests, I waited until the day almost every volume came out, to get it on the first day or as soon as possible (such as the Christmas following OoT V2's release).

In recent years, I've reread most of the manga, and they're decidedly... cheesy. Oh, no, I still love them to death. The artwork's incredible, and I can't imagine how hard it must be to make a video game into a fully comprehensive story. Not just a story, even – a manga. I won't pretend to know a lot about manga, but I'm pretty sure there's a lot of work put into them.

But... some parts are so cliché, they're cringe-worthy.

Link doesn't have a personality. Or, if he does, he's either annoyingly overconfident, annoyingly under-confident, or way too into the Hero stereotype with helping out people and destroying evil for him to be even somewhat believable. The only exception was Four Swords, where, of course, each of the Links had a defining personality to them – although Green was still our classically annoying sterotype. Plus, a lot of important or interesting plot points are skipped. Seriously, what happened to the Shadow Temple? That was my favorite Ocarina of Time Dungeon. On top of it all, there are tons of mistakes. I'm certain the Japanese writing is better, but still. (I think specifically of "Are you sure you should be telling tell me something so important, Zelda?" from Ocarina of Time Volume One... and the lines were mixed up once in The Minish Cap, twice in Four Swords Volume Two... and I thought for a good while that Ocarina of Time came out in 1996 because of an error...)

Now, back on topic, let's go to the Link's Awakening manga. I discovered that it was actually made by a different artist: Ataru Cagiva. The other mangas are written by Akira Himekawa, a collaboration of two women. I have no idea who Ataru Cagiva is or what his/her other projects might be, but their manga adaptation of one of my favorite games was beautiful.

I suppose one might still say that there were cheesy moments and Link's personality wasn't all that better: he still had that frustrating overconfidence. And, another thing I never really liked about the A Link to the Past official manga was Ghanti, a random OC who appeared to be added in for no reason other than the authors' enjoyment. I still can't figure out the reason behind Master Drona in the Link's Awakening manga. He just appears out of nowhere and wants to fight Link. Seriously, you couldn't have pulled out a mini-boss or something for that role? Why was a random pig-guy necessary? Felicia, Link's fairy companion, also got on my nerves occasionally, but from one point of view, I could kind of see why the author had added her; she held the instruments for Link, which is something that was never really explained in the game, and she was useful when Link needed someone to talk to. She also contributed to the feelings of betrayal that appeared later, and she heighten the emotion – but I'll talk about that more later. And the translators still made mistakes, just like VizKidz (Your dead! Spin Attcak!).

So, if there's still all these problems, what made Link's Awakening the best manga for me?

The emotion. The emotion is exactly why I loved Link's Awakening in the first place. I didn't cry in Skyward Sword, nor in Majora's Mask, nor in any other video game in existence – but I strongly recall, more than any other moment in Zelda history, reading the tablet in Southern Face Shrine in Link's Awakening. This was the real turning point of the game, where everything is revealed to be an illusion... and the point at which all is revealed is just so, so amazing...

This picture...

With this text...

"TO THE FINDER... THE ISLE OF KOHOLINT, IS BUT AN ILLUSION... HUMAN, MONSTER, SEA, SKY... A SCENE ON THE LID OF A SLEEPER'S EYE... AWAKE THE DREAMER, AND KOHOLINT WILL VANISH MUCH LIKE A BUBBLE ON A NEEDLE... CAST-AWAY, YOU SHOULD KNOW THE TRUTH!"

Combined with this hauntingly gorgeous music...



...makes my favorite Zelda moment.

Now, to return to the topic... The manga captured this beautifully. The reason I liked Link's Awakening Manga Link more than any of the others was because of his emotions. He reacted as any normal person would – confusion, anger, feelings of betrayal toward those who had been helping him, and those who had known. I felt one of the best moments was when Link actually tried to escape the island along with Marin on a raft. I really felt that that was a realistic decision someone would make.

...And the whole time Link read that tablet, the music was going through my head...

I'm also going to throw out that I loved the "Messenger of Awakening" title. That should have totally been in the game. I think Link was developed very well, where he starts off completely willing to save the island, from going to denying his destiny, to deciding that it is fate after all.

Another great improvement over Akira Himekawa's manga – there was actually some action! The dungeons all felt rushed in the mangas, where as here, Link was shown fighting not only bosses, but also weaker enemies, even around Koholint Island's overworld while travelling.

Another great point: the characters. ...Besides Link, since I already mentioned that I loved him. When I first started reading it, I wasn't expecting a much different experience than the other Zelda mangas. In fact, the first volume wasn't anything spectacular, although I did still enjoy it more than the other mangas. It wasn't until the second volume where I started thinking about how amazing it was.

But if there's one thing I thought when I started reading, it was that Marin is absolutely adorable.

Okay, okay, um, that's not a good reason to love a character, I suppose... no matter how true it is. Nevertheless, I liked her and Tarin (well... mostly her) and I thought they were portrayed rather well, considering their lack of screen time. I don't know why Tarin didn't turn into a Racoon, though. And personally, Marin and Link's farewell could have been even more emotional. As a side note, I also felt that Felicia and Link's relationship was rather... forced. I didn't feel much change with their attitudes toward one another, until Link outright stated that he felt differently about Felicia than when they first met. I think that the readers should be able to tell on their own that something's changing between them, without having it told to us (although, I must admit, I'm utterly guilty of that in many of my own works of fiction; it's so much easier to just come out and say it). Perhaps if they'd started sharing smiles, or inside jokes, or even simple signs of friendship... or, you know, some touchy-feely moment of some sort. Even so, the characters and plot were very well-done.

Honestly, I loved it all. I can't get enough of this manga.

...It NEEDS an official translation. I'd pay any price for a physical copy of this manga.

I think that's all I'll say about it for tonight – it's 1:30 in the morning. I stayed up for an hour writing this. I'm just on a complete and utter Link's Awakening high right now. I can't stop thinking about how awesome that game is, haha. I'm really sorry about this long, somewhat rambling entry, but I really wanted to talk about this! ^^ I have not had the chance to read over this yet, so there are likely many mistakes and horribly worded sentences. It's also probably rather disorganized. I'll hopefully get around to editing tomorrow; I really want to go to bed now...

Thank you for reading, and as always, have a good day, my nonexistent readers!

Another Harp Video?

Why yes. This time, it's Fi's Theme/Lament from The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. I made another harp video! Yay! ^^ It's somewhat disappointing that not as many people are instantly attracted to it as the previous harp video, but I suppose that was to be expected. I'm just sad that I received two dislikes. I didn't get a dislike until months after Ballad of the Goddess, and now, just one day after posting, it has TWO? Ah, well. That's the internet.

Oh! Other updates? I've been considering applying for an article writer at Zelda Dungeon! ...Okay, yes, I know. I wanted to apply a LONG time ago. But I'm thinking about it again. I actually have some ideas now – initially I was going to post them on here, but perhaps I'll save them for ZD, hmm? I wanted to write a post about why I love Link's Awakening (because I really, truly do, even though I haven't played/talked about it as much as some of the others). And I was also thinking about writing "Stuff I Didn't Initally Realize in Zelda" or some title less foolish than that. You know, just a collection of funny stories. That one will probably still end up on here rather than ZD; it's more of a personal thing, anyway, than an article...

Speaking of ZD, I'm obsessed with editing the Wiki. Anyone who reads this blog knows that I love editing and writing, and that's entirely what the Wiki is comprised of. I've been staying up until two in the morning editing stuff. XD One day I hope to be a Wiki Scribe! Lately, I've been working on writing Phantom Hourglass articles. It makes me want to play Phantom Hourglass again, haha. I've been using the text dump constantly to look up stuff, since it's been so long since my last playthrough.

Anyway, I hope you enjoyed the video of me playing Fi's Lament! I think it's such a pretty song, although on harp some of its beauty disappears. The original had these gorgeous strings in the background, but I don't play violin, so there was no way to pull that off.

Have a nice day, everyone! (And curse Blogger – my paragraphs disappeared again. Time to try some HTML coding!)

What was at E3 this year?

Nothing.

Absolutely nothing.

Funny how in my last post, I hoped it wouldn't be just generic Mario games and Pikmin 3 footage. And that's exactly what it was.

There was, of course, no Zelda – but I could live with that. I could live with it if, maybe, we saw some Smash Bros. (wistful thinking), or even Metroid or Starfox or whatever. Anything besides Mario. Anything new.

In fact, the most Zelda-related thing we saw was this casual Zelda-based mini-game in the upcoming NintendoLand for Wii U. I hope it comes bundled with the Wii U, because I'm not buying it on its own, though it would be interesting to try the Zelda mini-game.

Pikmin 3 didn't look bad. In fact, it looked pretty awesome, and it made for an exciting start to the presentation. I'm just not a Pikmin fan; I was really, really horrible at the first game. But that was at least something different. Oh, and I guess Luigi's Mansion 2 wasn't bad either. I might actually try that game.

But besides that, all we got was Mario. And, I'm terribly sorry to any Mario fans, but that wasn't at all interesting to me. There's never really been a Mario game where I've thought, "Wow, this was amazing!" Super Mario Sunshine was okay on GameCube (I know my friends certainly liked it when I was in elementary school; I bought it because I had a friend who claimed it was better than Super Smash Bros. Melee, and wow, how could that be possible, because Melee was the greatest game of all time ever to exist ever?), but I've never really liked platformers. Not to mention I absolutely suck at them. Who knows? Maybe I'm just not playing the right ones. But from an inexperienced Mario observer, I only saw a New Super Mario Bros. copy with extradordinarily similar graphics that do the Wii U no justice and a couple more items and redesigned levels. Feel free to correct me if I'm wrong, of course.

Oh, and not to mention, if I'm correct, almost every first-party title that Nintendo announced was already confirmed before E3 today. There wasn't anything new at all. Forgive me if I'm wrong, but I definitely knew there was a Wii U Mario coming, a Pikmin 3, and Luigi's Mansion 2. The only other thing I heard was a new Paper Mario.

...On the other hand, I suppose I shouldn't lose hope. Nintendo might still be hiding something – though if it's a game as major as a new Zelda, why wouldn't they have shown it today? Maybe we'll still get that HD collection, though, or something similar.

Nintendo's 3DS game announcements will be tomorrow at 6 PM PT. Will we hear something Zelda – or, for the love of Nayru, at least something new?! We'll see!

E3 in an Hour!

...Well, technically it's less than an hour now. More like 48 minutes. But that's okay.

Nintendo's E3 press conference, on June 5th at 9 AM PT, is just about to start. I'm excited – I'm hoping more than anything that they'll have new Super Smash Bros. news, or perhaps even some new Zelda footage. I doubt there'll be anything on Zelda Wii U, but maybe we'll get lucky. It's more likely they'll announce a new Zelda 3DS, or, as the rumor goes, a Zelda Wii U HD Collection of many revamped past games.

I'm planning on watching E3 on TV – mainly since the computer is being used right now by another family member. It's on Spike TV (and, supposedly, on MTV2 as well, but I have no idea what channel that is; I didn't bother looking for it last night). You can also watch it at E3.Nintendo.com. That's where I watched a pre-E3 presentation on the Wii U. However, while they say it's optimized for smartphones and the like, I initially attempted to watch it on my iPad, and it wasn't working properly. While both image and sound did come through, they were not synced together for some reason, so about half way through the presentation I switched to the computer. I don't want that to happen again.

Anyway... expect an update from me later today, or at least later this month! That is, of course, assuming that there will be something that I care about there, and not just a ton of Zombie shooters and Pikmin and Mario and... I don't even know what else...

(Yes, it's true: I don't like Pikmin, and most Mario games aren't my thing. And I've played the first Pikmin and Super Mario Sunshine and the original Super Mario Bros., and I'm just awful at them all. I'll stick to my story-driven dungeon-puzzle Zelda games.)

My Skyward Sword Experience

(WARNING: This is an extremely long post filled with careless spoilers! This hardly seems necessary, considering the top of this blog already says there's unmarked spoilers... but I thought I'd mention is anyway. Enjoy!)

*gasp*

Wait! Wh-What is this? ...Two posts in the month of May? Impossible! This must be some kind of trick!

...Well, it's not. I've delved to the world of blogging yet again this month to finally write a post that, of course, you should have expected the moment I mentioned Zelda Wii. Which was March 1st, 2010, in case you don't remember.

I'm going to go into detail about my Skyward Sword experience.

E3 2012 is surprisingly close - Nintendo's presentation is June 5th, 9 AM. I'll probably be waking up early yet again this year in hopes of hearing about Super Smash Bros. 4, but it's not likely we'll have anything Zelda-related. ...But who knows?

Anyway, it's made me realize that I really should talk about Skyward Sword - it's one of my favorite Zelda games of all time. I just decided that today, when, just about an hour ago, I completed Hero Mode for the first time. Honestly, though, I can get so into this game. It's the strangest feeling; a few times I've even caught myself flinching when Link is hurt or something similarly stupid. I've also determined that the best way to play this game is in front of a huge TV with lots of space around you, standing up. It's incredibly fun and immersive.

Annnyway?

Let's start from the morning that I first received Skyward Sword - November 20th, 2011, of course. I woke up early to get to GameStop as soon as it opened. My sister and I walked into the store and headed over to the desk to pick up my preorder.

Here I am, decked out in a Zelda shirt and internally freaking out, whispering to my sister as we pass a kid walking by with Skyward Sword in his hand. "Did you see that? Oh my gods, he has the game! That is one awesome kid! He didn't get the special edition, though... oh gosh, I can't wait to get my hands on my golden Wii remote..."

So we look up at the GameStop guy, and naturally, seeing my impending fangirl freakout, he says, "You're here for Zelda?"

Vigorous nodding. "YES YES YES!"


He smiles sadly. "Oh, well, I'm sorry. You came on the wrong day. It's not coming out until tomorrow.

...

Moment of silence.

...

"B-but... B-b-but..."

...

...

And then my sister speaks up.

"But... what about all those Skyward Sword games behind you...?"

And then a grin forms on his face and he starts laughing. "Yeah, yeah, I'm just messing with you! You have a preorder?"

Yes, that's right, everyone. He, knowing that I was about to dissolve into a puddle of fangirly excitement, decided to screw with me and claim that the game I'd been waiting for two freaking years (longer if you count the amount of time that they were actually MAKING the game, though they hadn't announced it yet) wasn't coming out for another day. My mind literally froze up when he said that. I'm sure that the stupid grin that had been on my face that entire morning suddenly disappeared into a blank expression of incomprehension. Thoughts like, "But... it's November 20th! I literally counted down, day by day, until this moment! I've had this date circled since the day it was announced! Where did I go wrong? Is this a nightmare?" were running through my head.

Honestly, if my sister hadn't said anything, I probably would have stood there, frozen, for an indefinitive amount of time.

You, Mister GameStop Employee, are evil.

Oh, and just for the record? This isn't the only time people at that GameStop have messed with me. When I preordered Kid Icarus: Uprising, I asked, "So, can I preorder a game?" And the guy responds with, "No." I stared at him in confusion for a moment before finally letting out a nervous chuckle and telling him what game I wanted.

So, FINALLY, I got my copy of Skyward Sword and jumped back into the car, tearing apart the box immediately to gaze longingly at my golden Wii remote and beautiful game disk. Finally, when we arrived back home, I rushed into the back room and shoved Skyward Sword into the Wii. Then, knowing I'd be spending at least the next week or two of my life on this game, I hurried on to Club Nintendo on the computer and registered the game before allowing myself to play it. Because of my excitement, I actually have no recollection of what I wrote in those little boxes asking for your opinion on the game. I probably typed something along the lines of "OMG NINTENDO IM GONNA DIIE IF I DONT PLAY TIS GAEM NOW JKAD FJK!" Perhaps even less comprehensible than that. They probably figured some three-year-old had gotten ahold of the computer and typed something in. That, or they're used to stupid responses like that from desperate fans dying to try out the game.

At last, I strapped up my golden Wii remote, selected Skyward Sword from the Wii menu, and PLAYED.

It's... difficult to remember my first playthrough of Skyward Sword, now. After all, it was a while ago. However, to the best of my memory, it was incredibly fun.


I played the game for ten hours on my first day, getting through Skyview Temple and the Earth Temple. I could not hear much of the music, unfortunately; my father plays guitar in a band, and he needed to practice. And, of course, he had to practice in the exact same room.

The intro was mostly lost on me. I'd already watched all the way up until Link meets Fi for the first time on YouTube, because I was incredibly impatient and simply couldn't resist the temptation. Skyview I remember a bit more clearly. Why? Because I spent most of my day in there.

Okay, I'm SURE this is just me. I've watched two other people play through this part, and NEITHER of them had a problem with it. If you've played the game, you may recall the room right before the large "hub" room of the dungeon that was used in demos prior to the game's release. You know what I'm talking about? There's two rooms that branch away from it (remember the "One switch is above, one switch is below" puzzle?) where in both you must raise the water level. I did that. I figured it out pretty quickly, too.

...But for the life of me, I could NOT figure out what to do next.

Now, what you're SUPPOSED to do is climb on this convenient little log that raised along with the water and from there jump onto a vine wall.

THIS LOG. It's totally evil.

For whatever reason, I completely skipped over this log.

Instead, I walked back and forth in between these two rooms, struggling to figure out how to get to the treasure chest that I just knew was holding the key into the next area. I must have spent a half hour on it at least - two hours at most. Seriously. It was a long time.

I purchased a guide with the game, too, and I was severely tempted to use it. Eventually submitting, I skimmed over the pages a bit - and couldn't find anything. Why? Because most people aren't IDIOTS and don't MISS THE FREAKING STUPID LOG.

This is a classic example of Sierra overthinking things in Zelda games. Trust me. It happens a lot.

After that, Earth Temple was a breeze, as far as I can remember. Because, I don't. ...Remember, I mean. I don't remember the Earth Temple.

Lanayru was a bit more difficult for me. I spent three days on it. Three. Days. Ugh. I don't know what was so frustrating about it! It was also the first time I died. I allowed my sister to try the game for the very first time while I was activating the generators (or whatever you do to get into the Lanayru Mining Facility). She brought me down to two hearts, and when I frantically stole the controller from her to save myself, I died.

...So technically, that death doesn't count, since it wasn't my fault.

When I first got into the facility, I was stuck on my second seemingly insolvable puzzle. If you can even call it a puzzle. I never get stuck on actual "puzzles", just on stuff that should be obvious. LIKE THE LOG, FOR EXAMPLE... *angry muttering*

This time, however, it was a switch. ...Now, these switches appear throughout all of Skyward Sword - they're like little red bars that you had to sprint toward a wall to run up it, grab the lever, and pull it downwards. ...For some reason, I couldn't figure that out. I knew that lever had to do SOMETHING, but thanks to my oddly over-analytic mind, I was certain that the solution couldn't be a simple as running at it. Oh, no. Never.

...It took me a while to finally figure out.

The rest of Lanayru wasn't much easier for me. I remember one moment where you were supposed to use the Beetle to grab a bomb and drop it on these wooden boxes to explode them. ...I don't know why I didn't think of that at first. I kept running back and forth in between these few rooms before finally thinking, "Wait a second... I can probably explode those!" And then, in true facepalm fashion, I tried it, it worked, and my head met my hand.

At least it was better than the wave of complete and utter humiliation and underlying rage like, oh, I don't know... maybe...

THAT STUPID LOG!!!

...And... then I fought Moldarach - which was actually the first Skyward Sword boss we saw, at E3 2010. Remember that? I do, haha. Now, let me just say that Moldarach looked a lot easier in the demos than it actually was. Plus, during the second phase of the battle added after the demos, you had to find it in the sand, and that was extremely frustrating. I recently fought it in the Hero Mode Thunder Dragon's Lightning Round (with one heart, too, and it was the last boss to fight before I got the Hylian Shield; talk about pressure!), and I took ten minutes in that battle because I couldn't get it out of the sand. I don't remember my inital battle too much, though. When I fought it in Hero Mode (outside of the Lightning Round), I know I died twice, however. It insta-killed me if it managed to back up and ram into me before I could stab its eye in the second phase of the battle.


What makes it worse is that, after looking up some YouTube videos, all the comments say that it's the easiest boss. D:

Also, doesn't the post-Moldarach chamber kind of look like the Tower of Spirits from Spirit Tracks? There's train rails and everything...

(I couldn't find a picture, though. Sorry. D:)

So, after that, I watched the cutscene, which became my favorite cutscene until I met Zelda again. It's inside the Temple of Time, and Ghirahim and Impa have a somewhat epic battle. Kind of.

One of the best parts of this cutscene was being able to choose your own answers! Isn't that awesome? :D

I chose "Am I late?" which is CLEARLY the best answer. Because it's an "IN YOUR FACE, IMPA" moment, because of how she told Link off in the Earth Temple. (That's the only thing I remember about that place, after all. I really didn't like Impa after that cutscene. XD)

So, after that... what happens again...?

...I honestly don't remember. The next dungeon is Ancient Cistern, and I think you fight the Imprisoned again... by the way, I HATE the Imprisoned, soooo much...

...OH!

Silent Realm.

This was quite a terrifying experience. It was not necessarily shocking - I knew it was coming from pictures and videos before the game came out - but it was still scary.

And I was horrible at it. Horrible! So horrible, in fact, that Fi actually told me, "Master, the chances of you being the chosen hero are rapidly decreasing..."

Which kind of made me laugh, but made me dismayed at my own failure at the same time. Even the game knew I sucked.

My problem was that I thought you had to actually sprint to get away from the Guardians - which apparently isn't the case. Just running at normal speed is sufficient. However, I didn't know that, so I continuously ran out of stamina and got caught.

Plus... I couldn't find the last tear! It was on an elevated platform accesible from a vine wall. I couldn't find it for the longest time.

Oh well. After that stressful moment, we had the semi-peaceful Ancient Cistern. (If I'm remembering this correctly, of course.) Although that moment where you had to climb up the vines to escape the Zombie Bokoblins kind of freaked me out. O_o

Neeeexxxxtt...?

Well, the second Silent Realm was Nayru's, right? I think everyone has a similar story (at least, I've read them from others), but I'll tell it anyway.

There was one moment where a minecart sat in waking water, and you had to push it to get to a floating tear. However, I carelessly stepped into the water while trying to move the minecart. This awakened the Guardians and created an interesting scenario. I'd run in a circle to stay away from the Guardians, then return to the minecart, and push it slightly. Then I'd run again, return, push... and so on, until I jumped on to reach the tear. To be honest, it alleviated my fear of the Guardians quite a bit, since I evaded them for so long. It made me confident for once. ^^

And then... Sandship? Yeah. That sounds right.

Now, I loved the Sandship. Actually, scratch that. I love the Sandship. As in... present tense. When I first went through it, I actually didn't care much for it at all. But after replaying it and thinking back on it, I thought it was a lot of fun.

I got stuck a few times here, too, though. (Lanayru just doesn't seem to like me.) There's one point where you're supposed to lower or raise a life boat off to the side to hit the Timeshift Stone. I... well, it took me a while to realize that, haha.

...Not as long as that log, though.

Yes, I'm going to keep mentioning that.

Eldin Silent Realm was frustrating, if only because at some points, I felt like I HAD to awaken the Guardians. I don't like waking them up. My heart starts pounding the moment I hear that music.

I rather liked Fire Sanctuary, though! I think it was just the design of the dungeon, however. It was just kind of... temple-like. The most temple-like dungeon in the game, I think. Or perhaps it was that riddle about the two statues, and that leap of faith I had to take. I really was shocked when I didn't fall into lava.

See, at first I thought I liked it because of the music, but then I realized that I was thinking of the Earth Temple music, which is amazing. Fire Sanctuary music is boring.

One problem I encountered in this temple was... well, those water-filled plant-thingies. I DID NOT KNOW YOU COULD STAB THEM. So... imagine how long it took for me to figure out how to open the water-activated door?

These plants. I thought they were just for making lava blocks!

Fighting Debbie/Ghirahim at the end was fun, though. I heard something very odd, though, about that battle. Ghirahim states that he and Link are bound by a crimson thread of fate. And apparently, in Japan, a red thread is a symbol of two lovers.

...Was that on purpose, Nintendo? I hope not. O_o

At last, I got the last flame and forged the Master Sword. And then I returned to Sealed Grounds... to see the saddest cutscene in Zelda history.

Seriously, there's some sad stuff in Zelda. Just think about Anju and Kafei embracing one another as the moon destroys the world around them. But Link's face in this cutscene... Oh my gods...

...One still picture doesn't really cut it, though. You just have to watch it. I've NEVER seen Link look like that before in a Zelda game. I thought he was going to cry for a moment there.

If Link ever cries in a Zelda game, that's officially going to be my new favorite game. XD

Annnnnyway... and then it's on to Song of the Hero! Like I said in my last post, I went to Lanayru first (and got my Hylian Shield :D), Eldin second, and Lanayru third.These parts were pretty fun. I stumbled into the Eldin one on accident, though. It was kind of frustrating; once you activate that event, you can't get out of it without completing it. I traveled to Eldin for a sidequest: you have to fetch the fortune teller a new crystal ball. Deciding to ignore the event and just not bother getting my items back, I used dowsing to find the spot.

...BUT THERE WAS NOTHING THERE.

After a rage inducing moment, I determined that maybe the crystal ball was INSIDE the Earth Temple, though why my dowsing would lead to the SIDE of the temple, I didn't know.

...Well, as it turns out, the crystal ball is reached using the Double Clawshots, but the clawshot target doesn't appear during the Song of the Hero event. O_o So it wasn't my fault that I couldn't find it and wasted ten minutes trying to figure out what the heck was going on.


Oh, and that third Imprisoned fight before you go get Faron's part of Song of the Hero? ...Am I the only one who seriously struggled with that? After you hit him once, he starts flying up, and you have to hit him with a bomb from the Groosenator. I missed a few times. Oh, and then even WORSE after that, you have to fire Link at him. I kept missing Link, and one miss and you're done for. I must have heard the old woman in the Sealed Grounds scream, "All is lost... all is lost..." a good four times. (Which, in case you are some sort of gaming ninja and didn't know that, it's what she says when you get a game over because the Imprisoned reached the temple.)


...I think I said all of this in my last post. O_o

At last, I got the Song of the Hero and hurried to Skyloft for the Skyloft Silent Realm.

However, as I stabbed down and went into the Silent Realm challenge, I realized something.

...There were Remlits, those evil little adorable flying lemur-kitty creatures. And... if I could place them on the Silent Realm platform...

Well, this happened.

Yes, that's actual footage, filmed from my cell phone, of me stabbing the Remlit. And you can't imagine the giggles I tried to stifle while filming this. XD (I also apologize for my sister's apparent incapability at properly filming something! Not my fault! ...I think she was watching the actual screen, haha.)

So, yeah. What next?

Skyloft Silent Realm was not so terrifying now that I was used to Silent Realms, so it went by fast. After that, it was on to one of my favorite dungeons: Sky Keep! I loved this place. ^^ (And I just did it today, so I remember it well.)

If I remember correctly, I got the Triforce of Wisdom first, Triforce of Courage second, and Triforce of Power last. Now, I just wanted to point something odd out.

...Why is there Twilight Princess Hylian on the walls? In SKYWARD SWORD?!

This is in all three of the Triforce chambers. And I KNOW it's Twilight Princess. I think it doesn't read as anything - many of the characters are hard to make out, but what I did translate didn't make much sense - but it's THERE. The letters appear to be flipped on one side, futher supporting the fact that it's TP, since the letters were flipped from GameCube to Wii.

Plus, it's also on the door in the Sealed Grounds!

Anyway... maybe everyone knows about this, and I'm just a bit late in noticing it. XD

So... then it was on to the final battle! I love the cutscene right after you make your wish on the Triforce, though. Link and Zelda hold hands! And Link LAUGHS! Now, just think about it: when, in any Zelda game ever, have you seen Link laugh? I'll tell you when: never. He never laughs. He has little giggles from time to time, but never full out LAUGHTER.

And then... horde battle. Debbie. Demise.

So, when I first fought Ghirahim, I thought I was going to die. I really, truly did. And I still don't know what happened. In the end, I miraculously survived with half a heart. That's it. One. Half. XD


So, of course, I ran as fast as I could to Skyloft afterward and stocked up on two Heart ++ Potions and two fairies.

Fighting Demise... well, I actually died once. But that's just because I forgot that I only had two fairies. If I'd remembered, I could have drank my Heart Potion ++, I suppose.

But it wasn't that hard after that! I got really good at Shield Bashing. I didn't use it for most of the game, but in the final two battles with Ghirahim and Demise, it was quite useful. The lightning was a nice touch too, haha.

Also, Demise uses a lot of big words. Now, think about it. If you just heard the words "subjugate" or "paragon" or "begot" without any context to help you figure out their meaning, would you know what they meant? No. But Demise says all of that.

In the ending cutscene right afterward, Link was a jerk. Zelda begins crying... and Link just STARES at her. SMILING, even. He doesn't do anything to comfort her. Nothing. At. All. Seriously. WHO DOES THAT?!

 

...Well, that's pretty much all I have to say about Skyward Sword right now. It's quite late - I've been working on this post for a few hours, now. The only break I had was practicing harp. I will probably come back and edit this surely long, pointless post later... but for now... hope you enjoyed! :D

(If the paragraphs are glitchy, BLAME BLOGGER. IT HATES ME AND MY PARAGRAPHS.)

Thanks to YouTube - specifically, TheHiddenTriforce, Tobygames, and some guy (hypermetalsonic?) with HD cutscenes - for the pictures! ...Except for those low-quality ones, because you KNOW those are mine. :P