Happy New Year! (And Thoughts on Hyrule Warriors)

Happy New Years, everyone! Today is the last day of 2013!

Just like last year, I have to examine the quality of Zelda-related events. I wish I could have a more in-depth examination of that, but... Gosh, I'm lazy. I've been having SUCH a problem writing posts for this blog lately.

The most obvious Zelda-related event of 2013 was the release of A Link Between Worlds. I complained last year due to the lack of major Zelda related events -- but the release of a new game is certainly a major event! And I though haven't gotten around to posting my thoughts on dear ALBW, I'll just say now that it is DEFINITELY a good thing. A Link Between Worlds is an excellent game. Of course, you can expect no less from a Zelda title, but you know...

We also saw the release of The Wind Waker HD, which was a great remake. I've talked about it a bit; I liked it way more than I thought I would.

There were some other minor things that I can't really think of... but what I really wanted to talk about was the massive shock we all received about Hyrule Warriors!

Hyrule Warriors is a Zelda game with gameplay that strongly resembles the Dynasty Warriors series. I've never played Dynasty Warriors. But I did a lot of research on it after hearing about Hyrule Warriors. XD It's a hack and slash game based on romaticized Chinese history, I guess, and it's known for having multiple playable characters. People have already pointed out three characters in the background of the Hyrule Warriors trailer (that most have identified as Impa, Nayru, and Zelda). Could they be playable as well?

I am so excited for this. I think I'm more excited for this than I was for A Link Between Worlds. XD This is a new SPIN-OFF! We've never really had a good Zelda spin-off. We had Link's Crossbow Training, but that was hardly a full game, and we have the Tingle games, but they're not strongly Zelda-related, are they? (No, really. Are they? I've never played them. XD) The gameplay for Dynasty Warriors looks like a lot of fun! And oh my goodness, I'm certainly looking forward to playing as some characters besides Link! I mean, I love Link to death -- I really do. I love him more than any of the other characters, really. But I would love to see some interesting changes in a spin-off title!

Anyway, there's only one minute left until the new year. So I have to go! Hopefully you all had a wonderful 2013! See you next year!

First Impressions of The Wind Waker HD - Picto Box/Nintendo Gallery

On September 20th, The Wind Waker HD was released for digital download on the Wii U shop. A special edition Deluxe Bundle was also released that included the Wii U and a special Zelda-themed GamePad, along with a download code for the game and a digital copy of Hyrule Historia. Because I lacked a Wii U system, I decided to purchase this lovely bundle.

And I have been playing Wind Waker NONSTOP since then.

...Well, I suppose that's not COMPLETELY accurate... I WOULD have been playing The Wind Waker nonstop if my life wasn't so busy, especially these days. But on Saturday I played it from three in the afternoon to one in the morning without stopping, sooo...

Yeah. I love the game a lot more than I thought I would. In my original post on it, I obviously was't THAT impressed. But now that I'm playing it... wow. I never realized how much I missed The Wind Waker. There's so much more exploration to it than any other game. It's the kind of thing that seems timeless -- as in, it's almost impossible to remember everything in that game, because there's so MUCH. True, a lot of the puzzles may not lead to anything important, but I still think it's probably one of the harder games to 100%.

As of now, I've played about 18 hours of the game total, and I'm supposed to be searching for the Sages and getting the Iron Boot and Power Bracelets. That's just over halfway through the game, I suppose. And considering I've been playing for so long, it seems rather odd that I'm not farther, doesn't it?

Well, I've been EXPLORING. I've only got three more islands to complete my Sea Chart. And I've gotten the Swift Sail and several Heart Pieces and oh-so-many figurines.

Oh, yes. Figurines.

The Nintendo Gallery has been made SO much easier in this version. Almost RIDICULOUSLY easier. I started with the assumption that it'd be mostly the same (I was vastly unprepared for most of the changes in WW because I wasn't reading up on it that closely, so I was pleasantly surprised by a lot). In the original, you had to take a picture of a character or enemy that you wanted to be made into a figurine and then bring it to Carlov at the Nintendo Gallery near Forest Haven to get it made. However, there were some conditions. First of all, you had to get a GOOD image of the character. And sometimes it was difficult to tell if it was a good one or not. This was especially hard for things that you weren't quite sure were a character or enemy. Like... the Beamos in the Tower of the Gods. Apparently they're not actually enemies, even if they are in other games. If I'd ever bothered getting their picture in the original, and Carlov told me he couldn't sculpt it, I'd have no way of knowing (except the internet) whether it was becaue it couldn't be made into a figurine or because I'd gotten a bad camera angle. And on top of that, you could only give him one pictograph to sculpt per day. So if you wanted to sculpt all three, which was the maximum your Picto Box could hold, you'd have to use Song of Passing several times to get him to finish his current figurine and give him a new one. Oh! And don't forget about Legendary Pictographs, which depicted the characters that you usually did not have the opporunity to get yourself in the game and therefore had to pay several hundred Rupees for. And if that wasn't bad enough... some pictographs were permanently missable. Forgot to take a picture of Gohdan? Too bad! You're not ever seeing him again! (Except in Second Quest... but whatever.)

Top it all off with the fact that these had to be taken in color -- meaning that you couldn't even start collecting pictures prior to making it to Forest Haven and getting the Forest Firefly, sailing allll the way back to Windfall to get the Deluxe Picto Box, and then sailing allllll the way back to unlock the Nintendo Gallery in the first place... well, it was definitely a challenge.

I never completed the Nintendo Gallery in the original. I THINK I got pretty far, but, eh... my GC file's corrupted now, so who knows?

However... The Wind Waker HD fantastically improved on every single dilemma mentioned above.

From the very moment you get the Picto Box, you'll immediately notice what's probably the most useful improvement: you can now save 12 photos instead of 3. That alone is fantastic. Now in addition to the important figurine images, you can take really stupid images, like whatever the heck I did here.

Oh, but that's not ALL. Even though you can take those lovely 12 photos to get figurines made of them, what about the "one figurine per day" limit? Doesn't that sound frustrating, too? Well, I thought so as well, but fortunately you can actually give him up to twelve pictures to make figurines of in one day! I spent the first two dozen figurines or so actually just giving him one and then playing the Song of Passing to go to the next day, because I was so used to that method. Plus, another lovely addition is the fact that upon turning on the system, the Wind Waker song repeats only once, and then after that you just have to play the directions and the song's affects immediately occur... if that made sense. So it wasn't even AS bad. But being able to put in more than one figurine is absolutely incredible, haha.

How about not knowing whether an image would make a good figurine or not? Wind Waker HD comes to the rescue with a little symbol that appears in the corner of all Carlov-approved pictographs, so you'll know right after taking it if it's good or not. Believe me, it's saved me lots of incorrect pictures where I would have to travel alll the way back to take them in again in the original. And how about the Deluxe Picto Box thing? ...No, you DO still need it, and they DO still have to be in color. HOWEVER, the Forest Firefly is no longer required. Now, all you need to do is become Lenzo's assistant at his pictograph shop on Windfall Island by taking three pictures. I didn't know this, but I felt like becoming his assistant anyway. I still am not entirely sure what you got in the original -- I can't remember -- so I was only doing it in hopes of finding out what it was. But instead, much to my delight, I got the Deluxe Picto Box! Therefore, you can start snapping pictures as early as Windfall Island and Dragon Roost! And of course I did. I took pictures of as many people as I could, haha, in preparation for obtaining their figurines the moment I reached Forest Haven.

Lastly... what about Legendary Pictographs? And those permanently missable ones? How on earth could they fix that?

One word: Miiverse.

I'll probably have to write another post separtely on Miiverse at a later date, because I love it so much, but for now, I'll just talk about how it ties into the Nintendo Gallery. Using the Tingle Bottle (which I'm a bit less bitter about now, even though I was annoyed it replaced the Tingle Tuner initially), one can attach a pictograph to a bottled message and send it out. Then another player might receive it and can save that pictograph to their own Picto Box.

Do you understand what this means? Player A can snap a pictograph of, let's say, Cyclos, since he's easily missable. Then Player B, who, for the sake of ease, we'll call "TotallyNotSierra", can pick up a Tingle Bottle with this image in it. And, much to TotallyNotSierra's amazement, she can finally get the figurine that she unintentionally missed! Now, if only Player A would hurry the heck up and send that stupid bottle to TotallyNotSierra because she TotallyDoesn'tNeed it...

...Gosh. I was so mad I missed it. I've been picking up EVERY Tingle Bottle, and though I've SEEN images of Cylcos on Miiverse, I never GET any of them... -.-

But! You get the idea of how it can help, right? So far I've been terribly meticulous in not missing any figurines (EXCEPT CYLCOS. I REALIZED LITERALLY THE MOMENT I SHOT HIM WITH AN ARROW THAT I MADE A MISTAKE. -.-), but oh my goodness, I love it. Even before I'd unlocked the ability to get Legendary Pictographs, I had Ganondorf and Jabun, because someone was kind enough to send them to me. You can only get the images that you randomly find in a Tingle Bottle, though, so you just have to be lucky. You can't pick and choose off of Miiverse, sadly. I've made sure to send out most of the Legendary Pictographs I've both paid for myself (which are only two) and received in Tingle Bottles, just to keep the cycle going and let some other lucky person get those figurines. And I've also sent out images of Gohdan, the Helmaroc King, and Phantom Ganon, which I've seen many people ask for.

...and just in case you guys somehow missed this...

YOU CAN TAKE SELFIES. SELFIES, guys! Look, look, look! Tetra and I were traveling in Hyrule Castle together so I took this picture in front of the Hero of Time statue! :D

 

Yeah. Another improvement? I can pull my images off of Miiverse. So you guys can actually get SCREENSHOTS from now on. ;)

 

So, with these beautiful improvements, I've gotten pretty far in my Nintendo Gallery collection. The Windfall and Outset rooms and fully completed. So, can anyone guess what my first figurine was? It HAD to be special, of course. I made sure of that.

 

Really. I'm going to give you a moment to think. You could guess it if you really tried. Okay? One... two... threeee...

 

It was Medli. Of course.

 

Even if I forever regret my choice in blog title, Medli will still hold a special place in my heart...

 

Alright, everyone! Have a nice day! See you... probably in a month, haha.

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!

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!

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.)

[E3 2011] New Skyward Sword trailer!

This is how E3 started: a wonderful orchestra playing a Legend of Zelda medley. :D This is the video of it. And at the end?

Skip to around 3:30 to find... Skyward Sword!

There's a mysterious girl - I think she kind of looks like the concept art for A Link to the Past Zelda. Exciting! She falls from the sky. And then we briefly see the E3 2009 girl that looks like a sword. We also see the reappearance of that guy from the GDC trailer in March, and Link fighting him. So maybe he IS the villain for this game!

Also, it turns out that the backwards Zelda's Lullaby from the GDC trailer is actually Skyward Sword's main theme. Interesting.

Hopefully there will be a better upload of it later - just the Skyward Sword stuff.

E3 is over now, as you can probably tell from the fact that I'm actually posting again. XD I mentioned all the Zelda goodies we have here in a previous post. Let's recap:

Four Swords Adventures (FREE download)
Link's Awakening 3DS
Special Wii Remote for Skyward Sword
Orcestra performances of Zelda songs

Also (didn't mention this earlier because I got bored posting all the time about halfway through, lolz) there was an interesting Zelda demo thing on Nintendo's newly revealed system: Wii U!

...So Project Cafe is Wii U... interesting...

Here's the Zelda thing they showed on the Wii U. It looks like Twilight Princess... especially with Armogohma there...



(I stole the picture from Zelda Dungeon. XD)

The Wii U controller itself looks very epic, too!

Unfortunately, I probably won't post much more today. Perhaps later this evening, but that's it. I now have to go babysit, and then I have harp lessons afterward.

Keep enjoying E3, people! I'll be back around 5 tonight. ;)