The Legend of Zelda Fanfiction Recommendations

Does this post look familiar? If so, it's because two years ago, I did the exact same thing. And before that, I ALSO did the same thing in 2010, except I used a lot of stories from The Sacred Realm, which no longer exists, sadly. I listed off my favorite The Legend of Zelda fanfics to aid the rest of the world on their search for an excellent story.

However, key words there are "two years ago".

Not only have my tastes changed since then (I'd like to think I'm a bit better at telling a good story from a bad one now), but I've also discovered SEVERAL new stories. In all honesty, my love for fanfiction waned a bit toward the end of 2011, mostly with the release of Skyward Sword. But that doesn't mean I don't like it anymore -- it just means I'm not as active anymore. But I'm still finding new stories to read and writing stuff, so...

First off, for anyone who might not be familiar with this blog, my name on ff.net is TwilightWakerofTime, so if you're interested, go check out my own Zelda fics. I've got seven at the moment: five oneshots, two multi-chapters. I highly suggest Awakening... I love that story a lot. It gets better after chapter three. Promise. And, if you're not satisfied with the things I mention here, go ahead and check out my favorites list. It's terribly outdated -- I HATE removing things from it, and I rarely, rarely add things now, even stories I love, as I presently have extremely high standards -- but you can find some decent reads in there. A lot of what I'm going to mention will be in there, too.

Click here to read my recommendations of 2011, and here to read the list in 2010. Keep in mind, though, that I'm more experienced in the realm of fanfiction now, so these are probably the best Zelda fanfic recs you'll find from me.

These aren't going to be a ranked list like I did previously, but they will be slightly organized by my own personal enjoyment of them, with ones I like the most listed first. Also, I want to mention that I don't read slash fics often. I'm not really a huge fan of them, so I won't be including any yaoi or yuri or shonen/shojo ai or whatever the heck you call them stories here.

And with that, let's begin:

The Return and Reconciliation by Rose Zemlya - Ohhh, yes. Judging from my other lists, I'm sure you saw this coming. These two tales have been two of my favorite fanfictions for a long time now -- and for a good reason. The Return and its sequel, Reconciliation, are fantastic stories. They are some of the most-reviewed Zelda stories of all time, with The Return at 35 reviews per chapter, and Reconcilliation at an amazing 46. That's insane, considering that I would say most stories average at six or seven, perhaps ten or eleven if they're good. The Return is kind of average, honestly; I was worshipping it years ago when I first read it, but now that I'm more experienced, I'd still say I love it and I've reread it soooo many times, but the plot is actually pretty straightforward. However, what Rose excels in is really characterization. Her characters are FANTASTIC. I'm not a fan of OCs in Zelda. As a matter of fact, I generally hate them if they play major parts in the plot. But instead, Hunter, Neesha, and the many other original characters she includes are so incredibly well-written that I can't help but love them. Their personalities are clear, and the way they interact with each other and Link is just so much fun to read. The humor in this story really is something to mention, by the way. It's just so QUOTABLE! It's made me laugh out loud many times. And of course, all of this stems from her portrayal of Link. The story is in first person from Link's point of view, which isn't TERRIBLY common in the realm of Zelda fanfiction, with some third person "interludes" that tell the tale from other characters' points of view. But Link just MAKES the story! He's sarcastic, realistic, and absolutely everything a main character should be. He has flaws, but he's also very likable and has good qualities that stand out.

Reconciliation is definitely the best out of the two, though, I have to say. Like I said, The Return is just average; Reconciliation is where it gets REALLY good. It adds a touch of darkness to the plot that I really enjoy, being based in A Link to the Past. Unfortunately, she updates VERY slowly, but the chapters are usually really, really long, sooo...

I'm going to spend the whole post talking about this if I go any further, so I suggest you check it out for yourself! XD

Forgotten Demons by Celeborn00 - This is new, hmm? It wasn't included on my previous lists. And I have to say I totally regret that I didn't read this soon enough to put it on them. This story is FANTASTIC. I almost read it a long time ago, interestingly enough -- meaning it was almost the second amazing fanfiction I read, the first being Hero of Wolves (which I'll talk about later). It was on the Hero of Wolves's author's favorites list, and I read the first chapter, but mistook Demon for an OC, and you know how I feel about OCs... XD

Actually, Demon is Link. The plot of this revolves around how Link has become corrupt and now fights in these gladiator-style arenas in a country named Aratia, before he teams up with Zelda and they... well, go on a quest, I guess. I don't want to spoil too much. ;) It's dark, it's violent, it's somewhat overdramatic (especially early on, though the author has grudgingly acknowledged that), but I love it to death. Best of all, compared to most of the stories I'm going to mention, it's updated pretty frequently. I just get SO excited when I see an update for this story in my inbox -- especially now, since a MAJOR plot twist happened earlier, and I'm waiting to see how that will resolve. I recommend this to anyone who likes a good darkfic like me. It's so good. Their writing is okay at the beginning, but it becomes astounding near the end. The plot is amazing and their OCs aren't annoying. If you don't mind something dark, please read it. This person deserves so much more praise than they are given for this masterpiece.

Insomnia by tikitikirevenge - I'm not sure why I put this one third. Even if these aren't officially "ranked," the above two stories are my favorites of all time, so this spot probably should be something at least as original and exciting. Yet I'm mentioning a novelization of Majora's Mask. How can that be interesting and new...?

Oh, I dare you to read this and you'll know.

Insomnia is basically the awesome version of Majora's Mask. Now every single time I play the game, I think of this story. It's unavoidable. They've managed to blend in their own realistic style into this very surreal game flawlessly by seamlessly adding in almost unnoticeable rules about complicated things like time travel. The description is fabulous, and both Link and Tatl, again, are SO amusing to read about in their interactions. Their personalities contrast so well that it provides for plenty of humor, and the constant references to Ocarina of Time make it even better. Tatl's always trying to learn about Link's mysterious past, and for some reason, that's very entertaining.

If you're looking for a long, serious-but-not-too-serious fic based on Majora's Mask, check this out. It's really worth it.

Hit List by zestycrouton - This was number three on my 2011 list. And I still love it. Like I said, I was kind of skeptical at first, as I'm sure any new reader would be. High school fics are among the biggest clichés in the realm of fanfiction, and Zelda ones can be notoriously awful, considering it's a fantasy world. But this blends Hyrule's lore perfectly with modern times. It's really impressive. You won't think much of it in the first few chapters, of course -- it'll seem pretty average. However, one thing you will notice is that every single character in it is based on a Zelda character. EVERY ONE. That means... no OCs, but still an incredible amount of originality, since their backgrounds are completely different to correspond with the setting. It's amazing, and I love seeing how my favorite characters act in different scenarios. It's also interesting how this doesn't only focus on Link, Zelda, or Ganondorf, but there are also several fascinating subplots going on at the same time. The biggest draw, though, is how all of the history of The Legend of Zelda series fits perfectly into a HIGH SCHOOL, of all things! I really can't get over how well the Triforce was implemented, how clever their references to the goddesses worked, how they managed to make a tribute to EVERY SINGLE ZELDA GAME by including at least one character from every one. Even if you hate high school fics or modern day fics, give this a chance. And make sure you read past the first few chapters!

Hero and Moving On by Karama9 - I talked about Hero for weeks at one point. Just constantly talking about how good it was and how much I loved it and how great the plot is and blah blah blah... And there's a reason for that! This actually is a good story. Moving On is Hero's sequel, but it's not very far in development at this point and it's on hiatus -- but fortunately its predecessor is enough enjoyment for me at the time. This story isn't very popular, and I don't see it show up very often. Honestly, I have no clue how I found it, but I'm immensely glad I did. This story is SO unique, in its portrayals of Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf, in its setting, its plot... everything. Ganondorf has taken over, and Link is afraid of absolutely everything, which is actually quite adorable even though it's probably not supposed to be, hahaha. It's a really great character choice, because it makes him far more relatable and less like the hero of legend that he's supposed to be. Oh -- and, also, it's rated M due to violent content, although it was actually rated T when I read it. There is some intense violence, to warn you. But I like it because Link and Zelda are so cute, which contrasts so well with their environment: they're put into a dismal plot, where Ganon is killing people constantly and they witness terrible horrors and monsters that are from their nightmares, but they're still bickering with one another childishly and becoming excited whenever they make progress, which leaves a sense of innocence in a foreboding world. It makes me overwhelmingly happy whenever they accomplish anything -- it's quite an impressive feat! And I really can't fathom why this doesn't have more reviews; it's baffling to me.

Shadow Lord's Bane, Rebel Assassin, The Wondrous Adventures of the Righteous Maximus, and pretty much everything else by Split Infinitive - Assuming Split Infinitive is a guy... I love this guy. I LOVE THIS AUTHOR. His writing style is so unique and entertaining, his plots original and fun, his style dark, descriptive, and amusing at the same time. Honestly, there's very little that I could say against him. He's so good at what he does -- it's phenomenal. I've loved every one of his stories, except Storm Star and Legend Redux -- which aren't bad, but... well, I never actually finished Legend Redux (I don't really remember why -- I guess I just got bored or forgot about it or something?), and Storm Star... when I first started writing this list, I hadn't actually finished it: I'd stopped about, eh, chapter ten or so, for a very good reason that would spoil too much if I told you. Thinking of this list (because YOU, dear reader, are awesome), I FINALLY decided to return to it and finish it. And it was probably one of the STRANGEST stories I'd read. Not bad, but... so, so, so weird, and kind of depressing for a while, and then it gets better and stranger and... yeah.

Anyway...
 

The three I listed above are my favorites (along with War of the Fairies which I didn't include up the due to the fact that it's a sequel). The thing is -- his stories are all different! The Apprentice is pretty much your basic in-universe Ocarina of Time fic, with a Gerudo OC that the plot centers around (which is why I don't like this more). It's one of those good, basic, tried-and-true fics that doesn't do much to set itself apart, but it still enjoyable nevertheless. Rebel Assassin is darker, with a more mature storyline and interesting themes of overcoming the evil within. Shadow Lord's Bane is probably my number one favorite, because it's absolutely HILARIOUS -- I laughed SO much at this story. It's a fascinating combination of a serious, adventure-style plot with flat out ridiculous, almost absurdist humor, and it includes parody of many different aspects of literature or various clichés. Actually, the whole story is pretty much a parody of the darkfic genre, with Link supposedly being evil, when in reality everything is lighthearted and ridiculous. And its sequel is War of the Fairies, which is just as humorous and lighthearted with a serious plot as a flawless backdrop. The Wondrous Adventures of the Righteous Maximus is actually a sort of sci-fi Zelda fic -- a rarity to be sure. It's very interesting. The best part about these stories is that they're all very faintly linked together. Now that I've read almost all of his tales, as I'm rereading them I'm catching vague references to his other works in them. It's hard to explain unless you look it up for yourself. He's on my favorites authors list, which consists of six people (most of the rest of which I don't even read anymore) so he's worth a read.

Free As the Wind by S.R.H Fade - I'm finding it hard to say much about this one. It used to be one of my favorites, but as time passes with no updates to refresh my memory of the tale, I'm kind of forgetting it. But it's still really good. Like I said before (it was at number two in my 2011 list), it's about TP Link and OoT Link ending up in TWW Link's world. The plot's fabulous, and the personalities of the Links fit them SO WELL! And I've always loved irony above all else -- you'll see that featured prominently in both the stories I read and write -- and this is FILLED with it. WW Link talks about the Hero of Time, and the Hero of Time is standing right in front of him. That kind of thing. And it's funny, too. There's plenty of entertainment in the relationship TP Link and OoT Link have; they absolutely hate each other, so there's opportunity for both humor and serious characterization. I really hope they update soon.

Beloved Monsters, Masked Dreams, and other stories by Spiritual Stone - Soooo... maybe it's cheating a bit, putting these two together. Masked Dreams and Beloved Monsters are linked in absolutely no way except they're written by the same person. But... eh... I love them both a lot, and I don't really want to make this post any longer than it's already going to be, sooo... we'll leave it here.

Beloved Monsters is my favorite for sure. It's her newest story, but I enjoyed it the most. It's an alternate version of Ocarina of Time, where Link works for Ganondorf and travels with Sheik undercover. And Sheik is separate from Zelda. Sheik is ALWAYS separate from Zelda in her stories. XD In Masked Dreams, Sheik is female, and it's a romance between her and Link, where they... travel around Termina, I guess? I dunno how to really explain it. Just read it and find out for yourself. It's excellent. And there's Fierce Deity! :D

Her plots are always really original and creative, and that's what I love. And her characterization of Link is just AWESOME. Interestingly, I rarely ever like Sheik as his/her own separate character, but I've actually really liked it in Spiritual Stone's stories. I've also read Once Upon a Fairytale and Blue Pearls from her, and they're also excellent. However, she said she probably wouldn't even finish Blue Pearls, which is still ongoing, so yeah. Once Upon a Fairytale was great, placed in an AU (alternate world) fairytale setting and based heavily on Twilight Princess. I reread it just the other day, partially for the sake of this list and partially because I wanted to remember why I favorited it, haha. And it's certainly worthy of my favorites list!

Legend of Zelda: WolfBane AU by Slade1987 - Not to be confused with Wolfsbane by Twilight Stallion, another story that I read that I think was also pretty good, but I don't remember the plot so I couldn't have liked it THAT much... XD Anyway, this is the only rated M story you'll find on this list. Oh, except for Hero. But that was rated T when I read it, so it doesn't count! -.- This used to be on my favorites, but I removed it because there is... er... minor "adult content" in it (so, uh, warning for that) but now I'm rereading it and I love the rest of it so much that I kind of want to add it again, but THEN I'd let the author know I removed it in the first place so I don't know what to do...! XD

But, yeah. WolfBane.

The plot centers around Link being a Wolfos, which, rather than being an enemy like in the games, is a race of shapeshifters that can turn from wolves to Hylians/humans. Link, Zelda, Malon, and Sheik go on an adventure to save Hyrule from Ganondorf, pretty much. The basic story is simple, but there's actually a surprising amount of depth to it. And then there's this god named Ordon that gets involved...  and I looove him. ^^ He tries to manipulate Link. It goes a lot into how different the races are from one another, and it's very interesting. Maybe a bit violent, but, eh. I can't sing praises about characterization for this one like I have for the last few, and in all honesty, the grammar and just writing in general are quite... lacking. Comma splices are extremely common here. But the plot is enjoyable and I really, really like Link's portrayal, which can really make or break a story for me. So I had to mention it anyway. It's worth a shot if you like those wolf-personality dominance stories... like Hero of Wolves, I guess, haha.

Regrets by Yucca - This, like Hero and Moving On, is an undiscovered gem. Again, it's kind of a darkfic. But these are the kinds of stories I like, hahaha. The plot is interesting. There are issues with it, though. MANY issues. It's short. It ends very abruptly, and some ends seem to kind of be left hanging without explanation -- I get the feeling that the author wanted to make it longer but didn't care enough to exert the extra effort. It's a MAJOR shame -- what is there is so amazing, and I've reread it many times. Additionally, I don't like its OCs. I really don't. They're boring and they don't get enough characterization time. And the first chapter is just ridiculous with the amount of detail it gives to things that are never important again. Like I said, it seems like a lot was planned for this, but nothing ever became of it. The whole story seemed kind of... haphazard.

But... I'm making it sound bad. Even with its flaws, it's still on my list, and I love it to death. I like it for its darkness. You'll see what I mean if you read it, haha. If you don't like the idea of Link being a semi-bad guy sort-of-but-not-really... then this might not be for you. (Which is exactly what I should say for Forgotten Demons above, to a FAR greater degree there... but whatever.)

Why You Should Never Travel with Foreigners by LittleBlueNayru - Just... yeah. Read it. All you need to know is it's Twilight Princess, it's based on Midna's nonsense language that she speaks, and it is the funniest thing I have ever read in my life. And I'm actually quite serious about that. I just die with laughter every time I read this. In fact, this could probably be higher as far as personal enjoyment goes, but I decided to put the plot stories first. This is more of something that will make you laugh so hard that people will think you're insane if you read it in public. So yeah.

The Hero of Wolves and Shadow Kingdom by The Wolfess - Considering how high I rated these before, you might be wondering why on earth I didn't mention them right away. To be honest, I've completely lost interest with this series. They're masterfully written, but... I don't like the plot, really. I love the wolf-like mannerisms of Link -- that's what drew me to the story in the first place. But I don't like Dark Link, and he's featured later in these stories (was that a spoiler?). Annnnnd... ugh. The plot of the second story is just killing me, and not in a good way. I don't like it. I can't say why without revealing everything, but... WOLVES ARE SPEAKING GERUDO LANGUAGE. HOW CAN WOLVES SPEAK GERUDO? HOW CAN THEY SPEAK ANY HUMAN LANGUAGE? IT DOESN'T WORK!

And I still hate Dark Link. This story just isn't a good match for me.

However, that doesn't mean I shouldn't mention it. Even if I'm not fond of the sequel, Hero of Wolves is still a great read. And plenty of people love it. The plot is extremely creative, even if it's not my cup of tea. I still suggest that you look into it -- maybe you'll like it more than me.

Ascension by Damien - I'm not sure what to say about this. It's marvelously well-written and very unique, and it takes place after Majora's Mask. It's updated SO slowly though. Fortunately, the chapters are long. It's... different, to say the least. There are a LOT of OCs -- I didn't really hate them, but I can't say they were wonderful, either. But it's interesting in the sense that you can't really tell who the good guys are. The author changed and added a lot of lore that I find interesting, and that I'd suggest anyone to check out.

The Golden Power by DBAinsw - This is a pretty good story about the nature of the Triforce. It's a post-TP tale that follows Link's adventures in two original countries that apparently border Hyrule. It's certainly not a short story, but the OCs are likable and the new countries very believable, so I enjoyed it. It's also one of those stories that make Link and Zelda all-powerful due to their Triforces, and I've always really been drawn to the idea. I like the thought that having the power of the gods in a mortal body can make really interesting conflicts, so it was enjoyable to read.

Also, this person pretty much predicted Fi before Skyward Sword was even announced with their OC Arrika, which I thought was pretty funny at the time...

Fate Favors the Fearless by Freyjadour - Fate Favors the Fearless is a TP-inspired AU ZeLink fic. They changed Ordon to be a warrior village, pretty much, and a separate race on its own, kind of like WolfBane did with the Wolfos. I... think I mentioned this before? Maybe? A lot of the story, at least at this point, is centered around a tournament that Link enters. He faces a lot of racism from the Hylians, though. I really liked it. I've reread it, at least. ('Course, I think I've reread EVERYTHING on this list. XD)

Seven Swords Saga, its sequel, its triquel (or whatever you call it), and various oneshots by Royazali - DID YOU SEE THIS COMING? I mentioned it last time. I also mentioned that this author was nice and helped me beat The Legend of Zelda when I was working on it, so I kind of HAD to mention them out of respect. ...But, of course, I would have mentioned them even without that, because I love these stories so much. XD

Just think of this: every Link ever from every Zelda game ever (except the CD-i because they suck) ends up somehow in the same universe as each other. Except there's one Zelda. And every villain ever ends up kidnapping her all the time. Absolute hilarity.

The humor in this is akin to Why You Should Never Travel with Foreigners -- sarcastic, witty, hilarious, and... awesome. Personally, Seven Swords Summer Vacation is my favorite oneshot -- at the end they all see Skyward Sword unveiled and it's just great. And they play each others' games. And then Seven Swords Saga: CHI, which is a collection of BRILLIANT oneshots, each and every one of which are SO funny. (My favorite is the St. Patrick's Day one!) If you're a real Zelda fan, you'll appreciate the references and jokes that, really, only a Zelda fan would understand. When I first read it, I didn't get everything, because I hadn't played all the games. Now rereading it is that much better because I'm catching so much more than I did before, especially where LoZ/AoL Link is concerned. Of course, to understand most of the oneshots, you actually have to read Seven Swords Saga first, so... go for it! The grammar's not perfect BUT IT'S FUNNY, DANGIT! And the plots actually aren't terrible. The first one's simple, but the sequel and so far the unfinished triquel (or whatever) were decently interesting.

AND OH MY GOSH CAN THIS PERSON SERIOUSLY WRITE A ONESHOT IN WHICH SEASONS AND KNIGHT REALIZE THEY'RE THE SAME PERSON. THAT WOULD MAKE MY DAY.

A Wolf in Goat's Clothing by Elphaba-Rose - Now, I'm hesitant to put this on my list, for the same reason I'm hesitant to favorite it: this story is at only six chapters. My new general rule is to not favorite anything under ten chapters, aside from obvious exceptions for intentionally short stories. After all, last recommendation list, I absolutely loved Bright as Night when it was still early in development, yet I ended up losing interest halfway through that one. However... I had to mention this. HAD to. The length is really the ONLY thing keeping me from favoriting it.

It's a Twilight Princess story. Link goes to join the army, but he's suffering from the loss of Midna and the presence of the wolf within him. You know. Typical Twilight Princess stuff. But it's still good! Lots of OCs, though. I should probably hate it more. But I don't. It's a wolf-dominance fic... and people underestimate Link, which is another one of my favorite clichés... so yeah! When I reviewed in November 2012, they said that they'd update in a few weeks, if all went well... and clearly all did NOT go well, since it has not been updated since February of 2012, which is disappointing... but, even so, if you need a quick little beginning story, try this!

Into the Woods by Lyxie - I think the only reason this is low on the list is because I don't really remember it. But I know I liked it. I KNOW I did. There's supposed to be a sequel coming at some point, too, and I'm looking forward to that. This person goes a lot into magic -- Zelda is a sorceress, so they have a really detailed magic system for their world. Link himself is a really awesome character, too. I can't reveal too much, but this is a really good fantasy "fairytale"-type story if you're interested in that.

My Ghost Shouldn't Cry by Spirit the Fire Dragon - Am I putting this on my list? Really? I have mixed feelings about this one, but... okay!

Alternate ending to Skyward Sword. Link dies. Ghirahim is haunted by Link's ghost. That's the basic plot. But, wow, the emotion in this is fantastic. I can admit to crying more than once. I hate the whole "Link dies" plot, usually, but this one, somehow, really entertained me. It's all from Ghirahim's point of view.

Zelda: A Fairytale and The Mystical Ocarina by Sakurelle - I'm almost unsure if I actually do want this on my list here -- at least in the main section and not under "honorable mentions". But I guess I will, heheh.

Both stories are original AU fics based on classic fairytales. The Mystical Ocarina is a parody of Aladdin, whereas Zelda: A Fairytale combines a lot of different tales. They're very cute and keep of the spirit of the genre they're imitating quite well. Zelda: A Fairytale, at least, is extremely entertaining. It was one of the first stories I read, if I recall correctly. Man, I can still remember describing it to my friends back when fanfiction was new to all of us... now we all have accounts and various fandoms we go to...

But, uh, yeah! It's like a fairytale! So... read it if you want! XD

HONORABLE MENTIONS (Mostly stories I've forgotten the plots of and don't know if they're actually any good anymore.)

Sacred Reliquary by Sharper Than the Sword

Fortitude by Ingie

One Hundred Days by Lyxie

I Just Want a Vacation by -funkmasterjo

Westward! by Shadsie

The Legend of Zelda: Link's Reward by TennisWriter456

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I think... that's it for now! If I discover any other marvelous Zelda fics, I believe I will edit this and add them here. Perhaps in another year if there are a LOT of changes, I'll make a new post. We'll see how it goes.

Thanks for reading! I apologize to the terribly off-topic post for my regular readers (if there are any) -- I really didn't quite know what to write today as my monthly post, and I'd been working on this list for a while, soo... here you go! This SHOULD be about ALBW and WWHD, but... eh. I'm not inspired to write about them, for some reason. *shrug*

Enjoy your Labor Day weekend, everyone!

Aonuma Likes Skyrim!

This article.

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

                          

E3 2013 Wishes Fulfilled and Unfulfilled

I promised you a post later in the day... and here it is. A bit later than you were probably expecting, but it's here.

So, yeah. We had Nintendo Direct today. For some reason, the website I was using crashed, so I ended up using their Australian website to watch it, but it still worked. I spent most of the time chatting in the Shoutbox of Zelda Dungeon throughout the presentation, but then some other guy who lived in Japan started spoiling everything because his live feed was somehow ahead of ours and I had to leave until after. XD

It was better than last year; I can tell you that already. No matter what, it was better than last year. Why? BECAUSE WE HAD SOMETHING BESIDES MARIO, THAT'S WHY.

The presentation started talking about the upcoming Pokémon games with a huge shock: there's a new type of Pokémon. Fairy type. I heard some speculation about that, but I was surprised to see it actually come true. Then they talked about Super Mario World 3D and Mario Kart 8, and I think a bit of a new Donkey Kong Country...

...But this is a Zelda blog, right? So we don't care about that stuff. What I was really looking for came soon enough, though.

A new The Wind Waker HD Trailer. A new Super Smash Bros. Trailer. And then... finally, after the presentation was over, a trailer -- and the official title -- for A Link to the Past 2, AKA Zelda 3DS.

Let's start with The Wind Waker HD, shall we?



That trailer doesn't show it, but they talked about some new features that they're adding as well, one of them being a faster traveling system if you hold A on the boat. Seems convenient, and I'm very glad it's being added for the people who complain about how slow sailing is. Even though the slow speed never REALLY bothered me before, I'll probably use this fast travel thing.

Then they showed... the Tingle Bottle.

Alright, so, when I first saw it, I kind of missed something, and only noticed its features. It can be used in game to send a message to Miiverse with a photo from the Pictobox attached. You toss it into the ocean and it disappears. I actually thought that was pretty cool to begin with. You know? Not a bad idea. Not like it's overwhelmingly awesome, but it's interesting...

And then I realized it was replacing the Tingle Tuner.

NO, NINTENDO. I WANTED THAT TINGLE TUNER IN WWHD VERY BADLY. VERY, VERRRRY BADLY.

You can't even 100% the game without it! Ugggh!

Well, that kind of annoyed me. But... *sigh* whatever...

Next up was Super Smash Bros. 4.

And my goodness, we were certainly in for a surprise.




FREAKING VILLAGER.

THE FREAKING VILLAGER

FROM ANIMAL CROSSING

IS IN MY SMASH BROS. GAME

I just... like...

Wow.

Hahahaha, oh, but that's not the best part. I mean, there are returning characters as well, and there's Megaman, but the above trailer still fails to show THIS:



THE WII FIT TRAINER.

I'm not joking, though: I'm going to play as her. If I don't feel like playing as my usual Zelda characters for once, I'm playing as her. Srsly.

And what about Link himself? He... well, I'm not a huge fan of his look, in all honesty. Just look at this:

I don't even know what's happening to Link in this picture... but I don't like it. Something seems just... wrong. About his face, or... I don't know! But he looks awful in that picture. He's some sort of combination of Twilight Princess and Skyward Sword, and it's strange...

But, then, sometimes he looks cool:

 

That looks good to me! But the above one... eh...

Well, anyway, it doesn't matter, hahaha. I'm excited regardless. I'll probably buy both the 3DS and Wii U versions regardless. XD

Lastly... Zelda 3DS.

Or should I say... A LINK BETWEEN WORLDS! *gasp*

Yep. The new Zelda game is going to be known as The Legend of Zelda: A Link Between Worlds. Here's the trailer:



That makes its acronym ALBW, which I've been repeating over and over today because it's such an awesome acronym that I can't stand it. XD

Anyway... I'm actually far more excited than I was last time I talked about this! I think it looks interesting! My hope was that I'd get some cutscenes, or at least some artwork... and as you can see, I didn't get any cutscenes... however...

LOOOOOOOOOOK

LOOK AT HOW BEAUTIFUL THAT IS

OH MY GOODNESS

IT'S SO AMAZING

I... I was sooo happy to see that image. It's an INCREDIBLE piece of artwork. I can deal with that. It's not what I wanted, but in some ways, it's better. It also confirms the return of the Master Sword and Hylian Shield... and that bracelet that Link has... maybe it's important?

I loved it so much that I made a new avatar for Zelda Dungeon using it. HoT stands for Heroine of Time, my username, in case you didn't know. ^^

So, yes. We didn't get any Zelda Wii U, sadly, but it's not like that was ABSOLUTELY expected. In fact, I kind of wasn't expecting it, but I was hoping we'd get lucky with a piece of artwork or something simple, you know?

Ah, well, E3, I think, was pretty darn amazing. I'm excited for these upcoming games and I can't WAIT to get a Wii U system... I hope you guys enjoyed E3, and let's hope there's more coming!

Have a wonderful day, everyone!

I always have an E3 in X amount of time post. Can't break tradition now!

So, here we are. This time, twenty minutes until E3 2013.

Ugggh. It's sooo early right now. XD The previous two years, I've only have to awaken at eight or so, because E3's been at nine. This year it's six. Why? I don't know. They just hate me and want me to sleep for only five hours, I guess.

What's that? It's MY fault I stayed up until one in the morning reading the Skyrim wiki? Nooo, shhhh, I know what I'm talking about...

So! Yep. This year, as I said in my last post, I'm hoping for Zelda 3DS AKA A Link to the Past 2 -- and what I really want to see of it are some CUTSCENES, and hopefully some official art or at least a better image of Link so I can make a signature with it, haha. And, of course, there's The Wind Waker HD, and it'd be interesting to see a bit more of that, and the big one: the next Super Smash Bros.

That's what I'm most excited for this year, unless Nintendo has even BIGGER plans for Zelda on the Wii U? Maaaaaybeee...?

Alright. As always, you can watch E3 at e3.nintendo.com. (EDIT: The site kind of freaked out when the time came, so actually watch it here: http://www.nintendo.com.au/nintendodirect.) I'm hoping it'll work on my iPad, but it seems to me I had trouble last year, so I'd better hurry and get on a computer soon. Only fifteen minutes left now...

I'll give another post with my thoughts afterward. (OMG, that's going to be three posts in the month of June! That will be... the most since last June! XD)

Enjoy E3, everyone! Maybe I'll be able to go to some demos later today, too, since they're hosting some at Best Buy. That'd be cool. Anyway, see you guys later!

Happy Anniversary to My Wiki Editing!

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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

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! ;)