ZeldaFan
1986
The Legend of Zelda is a franchise I hold very near and dear to my heart, but unlike other video game series that have affected me in multiple ways, I never really acknowledge this one as much, so I figure that it’s finally time I give this series it’s long awaited love from me.
With Tears of the Kingdom coming out in a few months, I decided to replay every Zelda game (and play some new ones), now I say “every” Zelda game, as in every Zelda game I have access to not including spin-offs, this list includes:
The Legend of Zelda
The Adventure of Link
A Link to the Past
Link’s Awakening
Ocarina of Time
Majora’s Mask
Wind Waker
The Minish Cap
Twilight Princess
Skyward Sword
And Breath of the Wild
Well, now that you know this, here’s my review of the very first game in the series: The Legend of Zelda
So I love the Zelda series, each game I’ve played is absolutely incredible each in their own way, I love the atmosphere, the whimsical feeling of each game, the darker undertones, the puzzles, boss fights, and the great stories of each game.
Obviously with the original game in the series, there isn’t gonna be all this stuff immediately here, so I’ll go over the positives that this game has
I’ll start off by saying it’s a fun game, exploring the world in the technically first open world game is just something so nice to see, to truly go back in time and see how this all started, it’s great.
I must say, for a first game, there’s a shit ton of enemy variety here, you got almost every staple Zelda enemy here.
Of course the biggest positive here is the impact this had on the gaming industry, not only giving us the first Zelda game, but giving us open world and more explorative adventure games altogether, without this game, I doubt a lot of the games I loved would’ve been made today, it’s the reason why I gave this game a 6 instead of a 5.
Well, onto the negatives………..yeah, I can cut this game slack since it is the first in the series but just, oh god.
I think the main thing that drives most things in the other Zelda games is the story, but that’s like almost non-existent here, I mean it’s probably told in like a magazine or something but I don’t exactly have an 80s gaming magazine on me, it just loses a lot of the motivation to play the game when you have 0 idea what’s even happening, but it is an overall minor complaint because well, the NES just couldn’t handle much text on screen so it would’ve been hard to convey the story in game.
One thing I can definitely say that applies to nearly every NES game is that this game has not aged gracefully, the game barely tells you where the hell to go or what the hell to do, I hate when a game holds my hand a lot but I also hate when a game gives you fuck all for advice, they have the hints from the old man in the cave but like his locations are so random that the hint doesn’t even help, it’s very obtuse and not in a good way.
Lastly, the dungeons are just kinda plain, they’re not bad, but also just kinda………there, same with the bosses too, they’re just………..there
In comparison to many of the other games, I don’t have too much to say honestly, it’s a game I respect more than I actually like, I respect what it did from the gaming industry, but I don’t think that excuses it for its faults, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it as someone’s first Zelda game.
I know i made it sound like I dislike this game, but I absolutely do not, I still enjoy it overall and again, immensely respect it for what it did for gaming in general
But if you do ask me, this series didn’t truly begin until A Link to the Past
Next up is Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, I’m actually very interested to try this one out, hopefully I enjoy it.
With Tears of the Kingdom coming out in a few months, I decided to replay every Zelda game (and play some new ones), now I say “every” Zelda game, as in every Zelda game I have access to not including spin-offs, this list includes:
The Legend of Zelda
The Adventure of Link
A Link to the Past
Link’s Awakening
Ocarina of Time
Majora’s Mask
Wind Waker
The Minish Cap
Twilight Princess
Skyward Sword
And Breath of the Wild
Well, now that you know this, here’s my review of the very first game in the series: The Legend of Zelda
So I love the Zelda series, each game I’ve played is absolutely incredible each in their own way, I love the atmosphere, the whimsical feeling of each game, the darker undertones, the puzzles, boss fights, and the great stories of each game.
Obviously with the original game in the series, there isn’t gonna be all this stuff immediately here, so I’ll go over the positives that this game has
I’ll start off by saying it’s a fun game, exploring the world in the technically first open world game is just something so nice to see, to truly go back in time and see how this all started, it’s great.
I must say, for a first game, there’s a shit ton of enemy variety here, you got almost every staple Zelda enemy here.
Of course the biggest positive here is the impact this had on the gaming industry, not only giving us the first Zelda game, but giving us open world and more explorative adventure games altogether, without this game, I doubt a lot of the games I loved would’ve been made today, it’s the reason why I gave this game a 6 instead of a 5.
Well, onto the negatives………..yeah, I can cut this game slack since it is the first in the series but just, oh god.
I think the main thing that drives most things in the other Zelda games is the story, but that’s like almost non-existent here, I mean it’s probably told in like a magazine or something but I don’t exactly have an 80s gaming magazine on me, it just loses a lot of the motivation to play the game when you have 0 idea what’s even happening, but it is an overall minor complaint because well, the NES just couldn’t handle much text on screen so it would’ve been hard to convey the story in game.
One thing I can definitely say that applies to nearly every NES game is that this game has not aged gracefully, the game barely tells you where the hell to go or what the hell to do, I hate when a game holds my hand a lot but I also hate when a game gives you fuck all for advice, they have the hints from the old man in the cave but like his locations are so random that the hint doesn’t even help, it’s very obtuse and not in a good way.
Lastly, the dungeons are just kinda plain, they’re not bad, but also just kinda………there, same with the bosses too, they’re just………..there
In comparison to many of the other games, I don’t have too much to say honestly, it’s a game I respect more than I actually like, I respect what it did from the gaming industry, but I don’t think that excuses it for its faults, and I definitely wouldn’t recommend it as someone’s first Zelda game.
I know i made it sound like I dislike this game, but I absolutely do not, I still enjoy it overall and again, immensely respect it for what it did for gaming in general
But if you do ask me, this series didn’t truly begin until A Link to the Past
Next up is Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, I’m actually very interested to try this one out, hopefully I enjoy it.
I am just………speechless
RGG has outdone themselves yet again, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for them
RGG has outdone themselves yet again, and I can’t wait to see what’s next for them
2020
THIS GAME IS SO DAMN GOOD, GET IT IF YOU DON’T HAVE IT
Before playing Metal Gear Solid 3, there were only 2 pieces of media that I’ve seen throughout my life that made me tear up
After Metal Gear Solid 3, there are now 3 pieces of media……………
After Metal Gear Solid 3, there are now 3 pieces of media……………
2002
Beat this game at 2 in the morning today, after I started it at like 5 in the afternoon yesterday.
Metroid Fusion is a short but sweet Metroid experience, the sprite work here is phenomenal, the atmosphere is serene, the same things I basically said for Super Metroid are retained here, and in some ways improved upon it.
The SA-X is such a unique and interesting antagonist, quite literally putting samus against herself, each section with the thing is intense, and is the closest thing this series comes to a horror thriller type game.
With all that being said, this game has one thing really holding it back, and you already know what I’m about to say, the game is way too linear, now I don’t usually have a problem with that, Metroid II was linear but I liked it, so why is this one different? Well, it comes down to the fact that the game literally always shows where to go and what to do, the great thing about the Metroid series is being lost and exploring uncharted territory, when you find things or bosses on your own, you get a little sense of accomplishment, but that’s thrown all out the window here, I feel like just a simple change of not immediately showing us the map as soon as we enter the area, and instead we have to find it in the area ourselves, just that simple change could go a long way.
Even with that gripe, this is still a fantastic 2D Metroid game, it’s also weird to say this but I recommend this being your first game unless you have access to Zero Mission somehow, although idk why Nintendo decided to make the 4th game in a series that actively has a storyline going on that needs the other context of the previous games to be the most accessible game for new players, but hey, that’s Nintendo.
Onto Dread, then I’ll probably start doing every 3D entry that I’m able to play.
Metroid Fusion is a short but sweet Metroid experience, the sprite work here is phenomenal, the atmosphere is serene, the same things I basically said for Super Metroid are retained here, and in some ways improved upon it.
The SA-X is such a unique and interesting antagonist, quite literally putting samus against herself, each section with the thing is intense, and is the closest thing this series comes to a horror thriller type game.
With all that being said, this game has one thing really holding it back, and you already know what I’m about to say, the game is way too linear, now I don’t usually have a problem with that, Metroid II was linear but I liked it, so why is this one different? Well, it comes down to the fact that the game literally always shows where to go and what to do, the great thing about the Metroid series is being lost and exploring uncharted territory, when you find things or bosses on your own, you get a little sense of accomplishment, but that’s thrown all out the window here, I feel like just a simple change of not immediately showing us the map as soon as we enter the area, and instead we have to find it in the area ourselves, just that simple change could go a long way.
Even with that gripe, this is still a fantastic 2D Metroid game, it’s also weird to say this but I recommend this being your first game unless you have access to Zero Mission somehow, although idk why Nintendo decided to make the 4th game in a series that actively has a storyline going on that needs the other context of the previous games to be the most accessible game for new players, but hey, that’s Nintendo.
Onto Dread, then I’ll probably start doing every 3D entry that I’m able to play.
2013
I’m going to log this one later, just know that I think this game is an under appreciated gem.
2015
Well, I found my new favorite game ever made
LENNEH
Yes
2018
Phenomenal
Also holy shit I was not expecting Doc Ock to be that great of a villain in this game
Also holy shit I was not expecting Doc Ock to be that great of a villain in this game
Well, this is going to be the first time I do this
I’m not extremely interested in reviewing video games, but they’re few that I actually would like to review, and in this case, it’s this absolutely under appreciated gem, Wind Waker, after my most recent play through, it has become my favorite Zelda game ever made, now OOT, MM, ALTTP, TP, and all the others I’ve played are fantastic, but wind waker to me is on a whole other level.
So, let me explain why
I guess a good thing to start off with would be the story, we start off on a simple adventure to save Link’s sister after a bird captured her, but things quickly unravel into an absolutely phenomenal tale, with some pretty unexpected twists, fantastic spectacle, a beautiful sense of scope and adventure, and of course, extremely sad emotional moments, but what really makes this story are the characters, now the Zelda series has had its fair share of great characters, and wind waker follows this as well, Medli is absolutely wonderful, she might be the best out of all the new characters, I like her design a lot and she’s really well defined as a character, same with Makar, he’s just so damn cute, Link’s sister is great for the two minutes we see her, other characters like Valoo, the Deku tree, Jabun, all the characters on the islands, the ritos, the other Koroks, you don’t see a lot of these guys, but thanks to their fantastic designs, you can distinguish each character and even their personalities, god there’s just so many, my only real flaw is that I wish we saw a little more personality from a few, like the pirate crew, what little we see is great, but I mostly can only pin down Niko and Gonzo’s personalities, the rest just kinda do nothing, only on my most recent play through did I learn that there was a character named Zuko, he literally doesn’t have a line in the game, the only reason I know his name is thanks to a letter sent by Link’s sister, he literally doesn’t speak, poor pirate named Zuko, he’s got it pretty rough.......buddy (HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA).
Now, with all the minor ones out of the way, now it’s time for the big four, let’s start with pirate turned princess, Tetra
She’s another character we don’t see a lot, but even with just a few scenes, we see a nice arc throughout the game, she’s kind of an asshole at the beginning, but as the game goes on, she starts to sympathize with Link and even help him, with stuff like giving him a head start with the third pearl, or even helping him out with chasing the bird away, hell, Link didn’t even ask or anything, she just did it, it’s clear to see that she actually cares about others, admittedly, when she turned into Zelda I’d thought she’d become generic, but that last cutscene before the final fight is proof that this ain’t the case, she’s just all around great, and I wish we saw more of her.
But what is a Zelda game without a companion, an up to this point they’ve been a little annoying, can’t say anything about minish cap hat, but Navi was extremely irritating, and Tatl was actually decent, but the king of red lions/king daphnes is just so much better, he’s probably the second best only topped by Midna in twilight princess, but anyways, let me explain why this character is phenomenally written.
King of red lions (I’ll just call him KORL from now on) is just so good, his introduction is great, thanks to the two previous titles, you were probably expecting some fairy type companion after link gets picked up by a boat, then you hear a deep voice, then YOUR BOAT TURNS ITS FUCKING HEAD AND TALKS, this shit caught me off guard when I played this for the first time, anyways, KORL doesn’t really do much, in fact he’s not really important until the Jabun part, after that he’s nothing but fantastic, even during those earlier parts, the game hints that he knows more than what you think, Valoo speaks a weird language early on and he says nothing, but once you reach Jabun you realize he understands this language, it’s nice little hints to his big reveal of who he actually is, that being King Daphnes, he feels like actual help unlike Navi, and much like Tatl, he has an effect on the story, but this effect is a much bigger one, this idea would be expanded with Midna in TP, his arc through the game is so satisfying too, he’s a king who’s lost his kingdom and his people, and throughout the game we see him wanting to bring his kingdom, dragging Link and eventually tetra to bring back the old tactics to beat ganon once and for all, but ultimately, at the end, when he finally places his hand on the triforce, he doesn’t wish for the old hyrule to return, he just wishes to wash away the past, and forge a better path for the future, I’ll get too this later, but this final scene with him is so great.
But of course, what’s an adventure tale without an intimidating antagonist, and luckily, the best ganon to date.
Ganondorf in the previous games was always intimidating, but I bet by this point people were getting a little tired of him, especially after Majora’s Mask and how great and refreshing Skull Kid was as an antagonist, so why go back to ganon, he’s intimidating sure, but he’s kinda just a give me power machine, so what could they do to make him something new, well, make him a character, not just a character, one with some actually relatable traits to him, but before I go on with this, how about we have a little comparison with how this game uses Ganon against another Zelda game, I would pick OOT, but 1. That was the first 3D Zelda and they probably didn’t want to step to far out of there comfort zone, and 2. There’s one game that uses him extremely poorly, at least in terms of the story, I’m sorry to fans of this game, but I’m about to shit on Twilight Princess’s endgame.
Ok so basically throughout TP, they set up Zant as the game’s big antagonist, meanwhile they showed Ganon in a total of one god damn cutscene, this would make you think maybe Ganon has some effect on the story, but nothing too big, then you finally reach Zant expecting him
to be the final boss, then he says something about Ganon giving him powers, and I assumed this was the involvement, but then after you beat Zant, it’s fucking revealed that Ganon was the true villain all along and then you just go to hyrule castle and now he’s the main villain and final boss, with barely any setup, imagine if this was someone’s first Zelda, they’d be so fucking confused, it’s just not that greatly, Ganondorf feels more like an add on then someone who’s actually apart of the story, the thing that sucks most is that everything else that’s not the story in this endgame section is fucking fantastic, the whole final dungeon is pretty great, the battle against Ganon is incredible and is easily the longest fight against him, and while a lot of the character designs really sucked in TP, Ganondorf’s didn’t, he looks badass, it’s too bad this badass just shows up to the party when everyone wants to leave, I love twilight princess but I can’t never get attached to this ending part of the story, even if that ending itself is fucking phenomenal, and even more disappointing is that this could’ve worked, just set him up throughout the game more, make his presence known, don’t just shove him in at the last minute.
Now the difference with Wind Waker is that Ganon is an actual character, and actually affects the story, Ganon isn’t just some asshole in this game who wants to kill shit to take over shit, he’s actually got motivation and feels like something.
How do I describe Ganon in this, well, he’s kinda like Thanos in infinity war, on a much smaller scale of course, but still, he’s not a villain motivated by just genocide and taking over the world, it feels like a character who’s doing thing to motivate his own goals, ones of malice and domination, but there a difference here, Ganon thinks what he’s doing is right, he justifies his actions kinda like Thanos, in the end, it’s all for a greater goal for him, plus he’s cunning as hell, probably the most he’s ever been in the entire series, his design is of course fantastic, and that final cutscene before the final battle is just incredible, showing both his calm and cunning side, but I’ll get to that part of the game later.
Now what’s a villain, or companion, or any supporting character without a main protagonist, and Link is of course back, but not just back like normal, he’s back with a new fresh coat of paint and he is extremely expressive.
WW Link is on a whole other level compared to the previous and future incarnations, in the other games, let’s be honest, he’s nothing, he has a few facial differences sometimes, but he’s usually only there so the player can immerse themselves and kinda pretend to be Link, that’s why they give the name system, simply put, in previous and future titles, Link isn’t Link, he’s whatever you name him and pretend to be, but in wind waker, it’s entirely different, there’s not you playing the role of hero who saves everyone, no, you play as a character who’s a hero who saves everyone, but what attributes makes him this, well, firstly he’s a fucking badass and easily destroys the other link’s in bravery and courage, how did the other Link’s become the legends, well, it was their birthright, these fuckers already got all the fancy schmancy stuff and didn’t have to earn it, but WW Link, he got no birthright, he’s given nothing but shit at first, tetra makes fun of him like he’s going to cry in the first part, the townspeople don’t really see him as much, and even KORL says, even after he already bested two dungeons and gotten two pearls, that he’s not the hero of legend, but what does he do in the face of this shit, he doesn’t give a fuck, he works and works, besting everything in his path, oh what’s that, the triforce can’t just be handed over like to the other Link’s before, well fine I’ll assemble the bitch myself, and then he goes and does it, poor Link is pulled through so much shit and sees it through anyways, making him way more badass than any other Link. Secondly, Link in this is just a hell of a lot more expressive, even when he’s taking fucking pictures he can’t help big make faces, he isn’t just completely stoic in every cutscene, he actually interacts with the characters, when he struggles to lift or do things, you can see it on his face, when anything happens to him, whether it be interaction with people or harm done to him, which makes him an actual character, not just a piece of fucking wood.
Hmmm, what was I reviewing again, oh yeah, a video game, all in all, the story is fantastic, and the gameplay is just as much so.
Like all Zelda games, the main gameplay is fun, the first big thing we should talk about is combat, holy hell it’s fun in this game, of course you have all the big main stays like the jump attack and spin attack, but something that’s new in this game is the parry system, one where instead letting an enemy hit your shield the attack, you press A at the right time of an enemy’s attack, it may not sound like much, but it adds a surprisingly new twist to the swordplay, and it makes you feel more like a badass, but it’s not just swords you’ll use in combat, there’s also a huge assortment of items in this game, and this game has some of the absolute biggest improvements of items in these games, biggest example is the boomerang, remember how dog shit the boomerang was in OOT, it was only used for combat and it was kinda terrible, well in this game, it’s got a whole new purpose, not only can you fight with it (and it’s extremely efficient and effective), but you also use it to solve multiple puzzles across the game, it’s just an excellent item all around, and it’s even upgraded even more in twilight princess, all the other items are great too, the grappling hook is so fun to use, the korok leave is also well used, the bow and arrow is fast and efficient, you get what I’m saying, every item is fun to use, and is extremely well designed around the dungeons, puzzles, and bosses.
Speaking of dungeons and bosses, they’re all great, dragon roost cavern is a great first dungeon, it introduces you to the basics of dungeons, plus it breaks the tradition of first dungeon being earth/grass themed, and Gohma is not only a great boss, but also an extremely good twist on OOT’s Gohma fight, forbidden woods is also pretty good and Kalle Demos is a pretty decent battle, the tower of the gods is a pretty fantastic dungeon and Gohdan is, well, it’s hand head boss number 23303993 from Nintendo, forsaken fortress is fun the first time, and the second time is ok, plus helmaroc king is a satisfying boss, finally get to beat the shit out of the big chicken, the earth temple can be a little repetitive, but it’s creepy atmosphere and fun use of the mirror shield is really good though, plus Jalhalla is a really fun boss, the wind temple is probably the weakest one to me, but still pretty fun, Molgera is a boss I both love and hate though, on the one hand I love the use of the hookshot, on the other hand fuck those little snakes in the sand, they always get in the way when I’m trying to deal damage to the boss, and the final dungeon, well, I’ll be getting to that one soon enough.
A brand new addition to this game is the new way you get across the map, instead of simply running or riding on Epona, you sail on the high seas, and I have to be honest, I fucking love this part of the game, seriously, seeing the islands slowly appear in the distance is so good, the sailing is great (when you get the swift sail) it just feels exciting to steer and sail all over the ocean, and it’s all wrapped up in an absolutely beautiful piece of music, not only does it give you a feeling with excitement, but it also puts a sense of fear in you, particularly with the Big-Octos, the giant tornado that just intimidates you, and in rare occasion, the sky goes dark and you see the ghost ship, it makes the sea feel more dangerous, it’s just cool how much stuff they leave open for you to discover, it’s excellent all around, the islands are also pretty fun, Windfall is great, Outset is a nice starting area, Dragon Roost’s theme is incredible, even the little islands leave just that little impact on you.
All in all, wind waker is incredible, but now, we shall finally move onto it’s final few quests.
And as soon as we start we get to the one part of the game that’s pretty mediocre, you know it, I know it, that’s right, it’s the triforce reformation quest, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, MEDIOCRE PART OF AN ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL GAME, WOOOOOOOOOO.
Seriously though, with how great they did everything else, it’s crazy how half of this quest is one big disappointment, now don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate this as much as other people, it’s not even that bad, well, half of it isn’t, let me explain.
The Savage Labyrinth, the two locations here you battle enemies in four of the rooms, and the house maze are actually pretty solid, they’re fun challenges that feel rewarding to complete, the three treasure charts and the ghost ship one though, those are very bad, and one in particular is honestly disappointing as shit.
The three treasure charts are honestly so lazy, and to show you I’m gonna show you what discovering it all is like for a first time player.
After going through the trouble of enemies or a puzzle, you go into the place and play the wind’s requiem, an you go “oh man, I can’t wait to get this triforce piece” then you open the chest and BOOM CHART, then you think “ok, I’ll go to the location on the cha— why’s tingle’s face on this?”
Then you go to tingle’s island, and instead of just maybe doing it for free or even just a little bit of money, he charges you 400 RUPEES to finally get the location and get it from there, it’s dumb, it’s bad, and you have to do it 3 times in the HD version, meanwhile in the original, YOU NEED TO DO IT FOR ALL EIGHT PIECES, what was Nintendo thinking with these.
Anyways, those are bad enough, but they pale in what is (IMO) the most disappointing part of this entire journey, the ghost ship.
Now, this is more of a personal thing, so let me explain my story, two of them in fact, one of the best experiences is the game, and one of its worst.
Let’s start with that first one, so the first time I’m playing blind, trying to find any way to get pieces of heart around the sea, it was after i had beaten the Forbidden Woods and I wanted to look around before I continued more in the story, I believe I was heading towards crescent moon isle, when it started storming, now usually when it started storming at night in Wind Waker, since I was younger, I usually switched it to day cause I was kinda scared, but as I was pulling out the wind waker, a flash of lightning came down and in the distance I saw something, slowly I started moving towards this something, then I saw it fully, the music started playing and in view was the ghost ship, seeing it like this, with no prior knowledge, was one of the best moments I’ve ever had in the Zelda games, it’s a moment I always look back on with joy.
Fast forward to when I get the ghost ship chart, I’m excited to finally head into the thing that scared me so much earlier, what will it be, hopefully a dungeon!!!!
Cut to me about a minute later with a feeling of disappointment and I said out loud “that was it?” I mean, the game showed it early to clearly tease something, but like, why just make it another submarine thing that just has a spooky skin, it’s creatively bankrupt, and this is just my whole problem with the triforce quest, it’s just tedious disappointment.
So I’m going to try and fix it.
So here’s my basic plan, split the triforce into 3 pieces instead of 8, get rid of all the triforce chart shit, but the balance to this is, put these three pieces in harder spots to get to, these three spots are special, put the first one in the savage labyrinth, but put it at the bottom, that way we get as much challenge as possible out of this new quest, keep the second one in the ghost ship, but this time, make the ghost ship a full on dungeon, maybe not as long as the other ones, but seriously, imagine the ideas you could’ve cooked up with a dungeon like this, and the last piece should be a voyage around the ocean, what do I mean? Well have someone maybe give you the triforce chart, it could be anyone, KORL, the grandma, the deku tree, etc., and then you have to go to a bunch of different spots around the ocean, like this first triforce chart leads you to another chart, that leads you to something else, and it all eventually leads up to you finding the last piece, maybe throw in a little mini boss in there to.
They could’ve done so much more with this quest, I mean you could beyond my simple ideas, but unfortunately, Nintendo took the lazy way out with this quest.
Luckily though, this disappointing and mediocre quest ultimately leads to Wind Waker’s endgame, and what a phenomenal way to end the adventure it is, to me, it’s easily the best part of the game.
We start off with heading back to hyrule and then Ganon’s castle, and it’s a pretty good final dungeon, I like all the little puzzles leading up to the boss rematches and how they replicate a little bit of the dungeon they’re based off of, the boss rematches are pretty lazy, and while I don’t really have a problem with facing the first two bosses again, fighting big ghost boy and twinmold 1.5 is kinda lazy considering how recently we just fought them, but they’re fine, then we get to the phantom Ganon section and by god it’s great, taking out phantom ganon multiple times in the same looking rooms is confusing and kinda intimidating in a way, that makes it all the better once you reach the final room and get the light arrows, then you can finally completely destroy Phantom Ganon, it’s a pretty satisfying little puzzle and a nice challenge before the final fight begins.
Finally, after conquering everything and going some decently menacing stairs, you finally come face to face with........Zelda sleepi— OH SHIT GANON, I love this scene, seeing Ganon slowly go from calm and collected to screaming about how the gods destroyed you, it’s really intense honestly, and then one of the most terrifying things in the Zelda series happens, Ganon starts to morph into something, and as he is doing it you can hear his bones crack and stretch and you can hear him scream, it scared me when I played the game originally, then Puppet Ganon is revealed and I nearly shit my pants, this leads to a great fucking boss fights, and also one of the strangest in the entire series, the weird creepy movements and the ways you use the boomerang and the light arrows is very fun.
After that terrifying thing, you think you’re done, but, FUCK ME GANON IS STILL ALIVE, NOW I GOTTA MEET HIM ON A ROOFTOP?!?!?! After that cutscene, you have to climb up a comically long rope, and after a couple more tricks involving the grappling hook, we finally arrive to the final fight.
This leads to the final confrontation with Ganon, and, this cutscene is just fucking fantastic, Ganon telling the story of his people is tragic, you can even see it in his face, it’s not a look of evil, it’s just sorrow, it’s almost tragic, he’s obsessed with getting the triforce back together, to the point that it’s consumed him, you almost start to feel bad for him.
Then he starts beating a child, like literally punching link, it’s almost a little funny.
Then the triforce is finally assembled, and with all three pieces combined there’s nothing stopping Ganon from achieving his goal.
EXCEPT FOR A BOAT KING OF COURSE, KORL comes in and makes a wish before Ganon can even reach the triforce, he wishes for hyrule to finally be washed away, so they can let go of the past, it’s triumphant and an ultimate win for the heroes.
After that, you think Ganon’s got some secret plan, or he’s going to attack, you’re prepared for anything.
But then he starts laughing, laughing maniacally, it’s not a victory laugh, not a pity one, but one of defeat, and one of someone who has absolutely lost their mind.
After the laugh session and a badass cutscene with Link and Zelda teaming up to fight Ganon, the final battle begins, and what a phenomenal final fight it is, what it may lack in difficulty, it makes up for in fun gameplay, fantastic spectacle, a sweeping score, a phenomenal arena, it’s the game’s best boss and one of my favorites of all time.
After the valiant battle, Link does a badass finisher, finally stopping Ganon once and for all (at least for this timeline), then Link and Zelda have their final conversation with KORL, man I love this scene, seeing him express about letting go of hyrule moving onto something new is a great contrast to Ganon, who couldn’t move on from all these hyrule shenanigans, the water finally starts filling in, Link and Zelda are starting to be taken back to the surface, Link reaches for KORL, but he doesn’t reach back, link is taken away, and Rhoam washes away along with his kingdom, and after link and tetra resurface and are picked up by the pirate crew, everyone cheers and after the credits, set out on a new adventure to find the new kingdom, leaving us on a bittersweet, but ultimately satisfying finale to this masterpiece of a game.
Wind Waker is an absolutely phenomenal adventure, from start to finish it’s an extraordinary journey, and it’s one of my favorite games of all time.
I’m not extremely interested in reviewing video games, but they’re few that I actually would like to review, and in this case, it’s this absolutely under appreciated gem, Wind Waker, after my most recent play through, it has become my favorite Zelda game ever made, now OOT, MM, ALTTP, TP, and all the others I’ve played are fantastic, but wind waker to me is on a whole other level.
So, let me explain why
I guess a good thing to start off with would be the story, we start off on a simple adventure to save Link’s sister after a bird captured her, but things quickly unravel into an absolutely phenomenal tale, with some pretty unexpected twists, fantastic spectacle, a beautiful sense of scope and adventure, and of course, extremely sad emotional moments, but what really makes this story are the characters, now the Zelda series has had its fair share of great characters, and wind waker follows this as well, Medli is absolutely wonderful, she might be the best out of all the new characters, I like her design a lot and she’s really well defined as a character, same with Makar, he’s just so damn cute, Link’s sister is great for the two minutes we see her, other characters like Valoo, the Deku tree, Jabun, all the characters on the islands, the ritos, the other Koroks, you don’t see a lot of these guys, but thanks to their fantastic designs, you can distinguish each character and even their personalities, god there’s just so many, my only real flaw is that I wish we saw a little more personality from a few, like the pirate crew, what little we see is great, but I mostly can only pin down Niko and Gonzo’s personalities, the rest just kinda do nothing, only on my most recent play through did I learn that there was a character named Zuko, he literally doesn’t have a line in the game, the only reason I know his name is thanks to a letter sent by Link’s sister, he literally doesn’t speak, poor pirate named Zuko, he’s got it pretty rough.......buddy (HAHAHAHAHAHHAHA).
Now, with all the minor ones out of the way, now it’s time for the big four, let’s start with pirate turned princess, Tetra
She’s another character we don’t see a lot, but even with just a few scenes, we see a nice arc throughout the game, she’s kind of an asshole at the beginning, but as the game goes on, she starts to sympathize with Link and even help him, with stuff like giving him a head start with the third pearl, or even helping him out with chasing the bird away, hell, Link didn’t even ask or anything, she just did it, it’s clear to see that she actually cares about others, admittedly, when she turned into Zelda I’d thought she’d become generic, but that last cutscene before the final fight is proof that this ain’t the case, she’s just all around great, and I wish we saw more of her.
But what is a Zelda game without a companion, an up to this point they’ve been a little annoying, can’t say anything about minish cap hat, but Navi was extremely irritating, and Tatl was actually decent, but the king of red lions/king daphnes is just so much better, he’s probably the second best only topped by Midna in twilight princess, but anyways, let me explain why this character is phenomenally written.
King of red lions (I’ll just call him KORL from now on) is just so good, his introduction is great, thanks to the two previous titles, you were probably expecting some fairy type companion after link gets picked up by a boat, then you hear a deep voice, then YOUR BOAT TURNS ITS FUCKING HEAD AND TALKS, this shit caught me off guard when I played this for the first time, anyways, KORL doesn’t really do much, in fact he’s not really important until the Jabun part, after that he’s nothing but fantastic, even during those earlier parts, the game hints that he knows more than what you think, Valoo speaks a weird language early on and he says nothing, but once you reach Jabun you realize he understands this language, it’s nice little hints to his big reveal of who he actually is, that being King Daphnes, he feels like actual help unlike Navi, and much like Tatl, he has an effect on the story, but this effect is a much bigger one, this idea would be expanded with Midna in TP, his arc through the game is so satisfying too, he’s a king who’s lost his kingdom and his people, and throughout the game we see him wanting to bring his kingdom, dragging Link and eventually tetra to bring back the old tactics to beat ganon once and for all, but ultimately, at the end, when he finally places his hand on the triforce, he doesn’t wish for the old hyrule to return, he just wishes to wash away the past, and forge a better path for the future, I’ll get too this later, but this final scene with him is so great.
But of course, what’s an adventure tale without an intimidating antagonist, and luckily, the best ganon to date.
Ganondorf in the previous games was always intimidating, but I bet by this point people were getting a little tired of him, especially after Majora’s Mask and how great and refreshing Skull Kid was as an antagonist, so why go back to ganon, he’s intimidating sure, but he’s kinda just a give me power machine, so what could they do to make him something new, well, make him a character, not just a character, one with some actually relatable traits to him, but before I go on with this, how about we have a little comparison with how this game uses Ganon against another Zelda game, I would pick OOT, but 1. That was the first 3D Zelda and they probably didn’t want to step to far out of there comfort zone, and 2. There’s one game that uses him extremely poorly, at least in terms of the story, I’m sorry to fans of this game, but I’m about to shit on Twilight Princess’s endgame.
Ok so basically throughout TP, they set up Zant as the game’s big antagonist, meanwhile they showed Ganon in a total of one god damn cutscene, this would make you think maybe Ganon has some effect on the story, but nothing too big, then you finally reach Zant expecting him
to be the final boss, then he says something about Ganon giving him powers, and I assumed this was the involvement, but then after you beat Zant, it’s fucking revealed that Ganon was the true villain all along and then you just go to hyrule castle and now he’s the main villain and final boss, with barely any setup, imagine if this was someone’s first Zelda, they’d be so fucking confused, it’s just not that greatly, Ganondorf feels more like an add on then someone who’s actually apart of the story, the thing that sucks most is that everything else that’s not the story in this endgame section is fucking fantastic, the whole final dungeon is pretty great, the battle against Ganon is incredible and is easily the longest fight against him, and while a lot of the character designs really sucked in TP, Ganondorf’s didn’t, he looks badass, it’s too bad this badass just shows up to the party when everyone wants to leave, I love twilight princess but I can’t never get attached to this ending part of the story, even if that ending itself is fucking phenomenal, and even more disappointing is that this could’ve worked, just set him up throughout the game more, make his presence known, don’t just shove him in at the last minute.
Now the difference with Wind Waker is that Ganon is an actual character, and actually affects the story, Ganon isn’t just some asshole in this game who wants to kill shit to take over shit, he’s actually got motivation and feels like something.
How do I describe Ganon in this, well, he’s kinda like Thanos in infinity war, on a much smaller scale of course, but still, he’s not a villain motivated by just genocide and taking over the world, it feels like a character who’s doing thing to motivate his own goals, ones of malice and domination, but there a difference here, Ganon thinks what he’s doing is right, he justifies his actions kinda like Thanos, in the end, it’s all for a greater goal for him, plus he’s cunning as hell, probably the most he’s ever been in the entire series, his design is of course fantastic, and that final cutscene before the final battle is just incredible, showing both his calm and cunning side, but I’ll get to that part of the game later.
Now what’s a villain, or companion, or any supporting character without a main protagonist, and Link is of course back, but not just back like normal, he’s back with a new fresh coat of paint and he is extremely expressive.
WW Link is on a whole other level compared to the previous and future incarnations, in the other games, let’s be honest, he’s nothing, he has a few facial differences sometimes, but he’s usually only there so the player can immerse themselves and kinda pretend to be Link, that’s why they give the name system, simply put, in previous and future titles, Link isn’t Link, he’s whatever you name him and pretend to be, but in wind waker, it’s entirely different, there’s not you playing the role of hero who saves everyone, no, you play as a character who’s a hero who saves everyone, but what attributes makes him this, well, firstly he’s a fucking badass and easily destroys the other link’s in bravery and courage, how did the other Link’s become the legends, well, it was their birthright, these fuckers already got all the fancy schmancy stuff and didn’t have to earn it, but WW Link, he got no birthright, he’s given nothing but shit at first, tetra makes fun of him like he’s going to cry in the first part, the townspeople don’t really see him as much, and even KORL says, even after he already bested two dungeons and gotten two pearls, that he’s not the hero of legend, but what does he do in the face of this shit, he doesn’t give a fuck, he works and works, besting everything in his path, oh what’s that, the triforce can’t just be handed over like to the other Link’s before, well fine I’ll assemble the bitch myself, and then he goes and does it, poor Link is pulled through so much shit and sees it through anyways, making him way more badass than any other Link. Secondly, Link in this is just a hell of a lot more expressive, even when he’s taking fucking pictures he can’t help big make faces, he isn’t just completely stoic in every cutscene, he actually interacts with the characters, when he struggles to lift or do things, you can see it on his face, when anything happens to him, whether it be interaction with people or harm done to him, which makes him an actual character, not just a piece of fucking wood.
Hmmm, what was I reviewing again, oh yeah, a video game, all in all, the story is fantastic, and the gameplay is just as much so.
Like all Zelda games, the main gameplay is fun, the first big thing we should talk about is combat, holy hell it’s fun in this game, of course you have all the big main stays like the jump attack and spin attack, but something that’s new in this game is the parry system, one where instead letting an enemy hit your shield the attack, you press A at the right time of an enemy’s attack, it may not sound like much, but it adds a surprisingly new twist to the swordplay, and it makes you feel more like a badass, but it’s not just swords you’ll use in combat, there’s also a huge assortment of items in this game, and this game has some of the absolute biggest improvements of items in these games, biggest example is the boomerang, remember how dog shit the boomerang was in OOT, it was only used for combat and it was kinda terrible, well in this game, it’s got a whole new purpose, not only can you fight with it (and it’s extremely efficient and effective), but you also use it to solve multiple puzzles across the game, it’s just an excellent item all around, and it’s even upgraded even more in twilight princess, all the other items are great too, the grappling hook is so fun to use, the korok leave is also well used, the bow and arrow is fast and efficient, you get what I’m saying, every item is fun to use, and is extremely well designed around the dungeons, puzzles, and bosses.
Speaking of dungeons and bosses, they’re all great, dragon roost cavern is a great first dungeon, it introduces you to the basics of dungeons, plus it breaks the tradition of first dungeon being earth/grass themed, and Gohma is not only a great boss, but also an extremely good twist on OOT’s Gohma fight, forbidden woods is also pretty good and Kalle Demos is a pretty decent battle, the tower of the gods is a pretty fantastic dungeon and Gohdan is, well, it’s hand head boss number 23303993 from Nintendo, forsaken fortress is fun the first time, and the second time is ok, plus helmaroc king is a satisfying boss, finally get to beat the shit out of the big chicken, the earth temple can be a little repetitive, but it’s creepy atmosphere and fun use of the mirror shield is really good though, plus Jalhalla is a really fun boss, the wind temple is probably the weakest one to me, but still pretty fun, Molgera is a boss I both love and hate though, on the one hand I love the use of the hookshot, on the other hand fuck those little snakes in the sand, they always get in the way when I’m trying to deal damage to the boss, and the final dungeon, well, I’ll be getting to that one soon enough.
A brand new addition to this game is the new way you get across the map, instead of simply running or riding on Epona, you sail on the high seas, and I have to be honest, I fucking love this part of the game, seriously, seeing the islands slowly appear in the distance is so good, the sailing is great (when you get the swift sail) it just feels exciting to steer and sail all over the ocean, and it’s all wrapped up in an absolutely beautiful piece of music, not only does it give you a feeling with excitement, but it also puts a sense of fear in you, particularly with the Big-Octos, the giant tornado that just intimidates you, and in rare occasion, the sky goes dark and you see the ghost ship, it makes the sea feel more dangerous, it’s just cool how much stuff they leave open for you to discover, it’s excellent all around, the islands are also pretty fun, Windfall is great, Outset is a nice starting area, Dragon Roost’s theme is incredible, even the little islands leave just that little impact on you.
All in all, wind waker is incredible, but now, we shall finally move onto it’s final few quests.
And as soon as we start we get to the one part of the game that’s pretty mediocre, you know it, I know it, that’s right, it’s the triforce reformation quest, WOOOOOOOOOOOOOO, MEDIOCRE PART OF AN ABSOLUTELY PHENOMENAL GAME, WOOOOOOOOOO.
Seriously though, with how great they did everything else, it’s crazy how half of this quest is one big disappointment, now don’t get me wrong, I don’t hate this as much as other people, it’s not even that bad, well, half of it isn’t, let me explain.
The Savage Labyrinth, the two locations here you battle enemies in four of the rooms, and the house maze are actually pretty solid, they’re fun challenges that feel rewarding to complete, the three treasure charts and the ghost ship one though, those are very bad, and one in particular is honestly disappointing as shit.
The three treasure charts are honestly so lazy, and to show you I’m gonna show you what discovering it all is like for a first time player.
After going through the trouble of enemies or a puzzle, you go into the place and play the wind’s requiem, an you go “oh man, I can’t wait to get this triforce piece” then you open the chest and BOOM CHART, then you think “ok, I’ll go to the location on the cha— why’s tingle’s face on this?”
Then you go to tingle’s island, and instead of just maybe doing it for free or even just a little bit of money, he charges you 400 RUPEES to finally get the location and get it from there, it’s dumb, it’s bad, and you have to do it 3 times in the HD version, meanwhile in the original, YOU NEED TO DO IT FOR ALL EIGHT PIECES, what was Nintendo thinking with these.
Anyways, those are bad enough, but they pale in what is (IMO) the most disappointing part of this entire journey, the ghost ship.
Now, this is more of a personal thing, so let me explain my story, two of them in fact, one of the best experiences is the game, and one of its worst.
Let’s start with that first one, so the first time I’m playing blind, trying to find any way to get pieces of heart around the sea, it was after i had beaten the Forbidden Woods and I wanted to look around before I continued more in the story, I believe I was heading towards crescent moon isle, when it started storming, now usually when it started storming at night in Wind Waker, since I was younger, I usually switched it to day cause I was kinda scared, but as I was pulling out the wind waker, a flash of lightning came down and in the distance I saw something, slowly I started moving towards this something, then I saw it fully, the music started playing and in view was the ghost ship, seeing it like this, with no prior knowledge, was one of the best moments I’ve ever had in the Zelda games, it’s a moment I always look back on with joy.
Fast forward to when I get the ghost ship chart, I’m excited to finally head into the thing that scared me so much earlier, what will it be, hopefully a dungeon!!!!
Cut to me about a minute later with a feeling of disappointment and I said out loud “that was it?” I mean, the game showed it early to clearly tease something, but like, why just make it another submarine thing that just has a spooky skin, it’s creatively bankrupt, and this is just my whole problem with the triforce quest, it’s just tedious disappointment.
So I’m going to try and fix it.
So here’s my basic plan, split the triforce into 3 pieces instead of 8, get rid of all the triforce chart shit, but the balance to this is, put these three pieces in harder spots to get to, these three spots are special, put the first one in the savage labyrinth, but put it at the bottom, that way we get as much challenge as possible out of this new quest, keep the second one in the ghost ship, but this time, make the ghost ship a full on dungeon, maybe not as long as the other ones, but seriously, imagine the ideas you could’ve cooked up with a dungeon like this, and the last piece should be a voyage around the ocean, what do I mean? Well have someone maybe give you the triforce chart, it could be anyone, KORL, the grandma, the deku tree, etc., and then you have to go to a bunch of different spots around the ocean, like this first triforce chart leads you to another chart, that leads you to something else, and it all eventually leads up to you finding the last piece, maybe throw in a little mini boss in there to.
They could’ve done so much more with this quest, I mean you could beyond my simple ideas, but unfortunately, Nintendo took the lazy way out with this quest.
Luckily though, this disappointing and mediocre quest ultimately leads to Wind Waker’s endgame, and what a phenomenal way to end the adventure it is, to me, it’s easily the best part of the game.
We start off with heading back to hyrule and then Ganon’s castle, and it’s a pretty good final dungeon, I like all the little puzzles leading up to the boss rematches and how they replicate a little bit of the dungeon they’re based off of, the boss rematches are pretty lazy, and while I don’t really have a problem with facing the first two bosses again, fighting big ghost boy and twinmold 1.5 is kinda lazy considering how recently we just fought them, but they’re fine, then we get to the phantom Ganon section and by god it’s great, taking out phantom ganon multiple times in the same looking rooms is confusing and kinda intimidating in a way, that makes it all the better once you reach the final room and get the light arrows, then you can finally completely destroy Phantom Ganon, it’s a pretty satisfying little puzzle and a nice challenge before the final fight begins.
Finally, after conquering everything and going some decently menacing stairs, you finally come face to face with........Zelda sleepi— OH SHIT GANON, I love this scene, seeing Ganon slowly go from calm and collected to screaming about how the gods destroyed you, it’s really intense honestly, and then one of the most terrifying things in the Zelda series happens, Ganon starts to morph into something, and as he is doing it you can hear his bones crack and stretch and you can hear him scream, it scared me when I played the game originally, then Puppet Ganon is revealed and I nearly shit my pants, this leads to a great fucking boss fights, and also one of the strangest in the entire series, the weird creepy movements and the ways you use the boomerang and the light arrows is very fun.
After that terrifying thing, you think you’re done, but, FUCK ME GANON IS STILL ALIVE, NOW I GOTTA MEET HIM ON A ROOFTOP?!?!?! After that cutscene, you have to climb up a comically long rope, and after a couple more tricks involving the grappling hook, we finally arrive to the final fight.
This leads to the final confrontation with Ganon, and, this cutscene is just fucking fantastic, Ganon telling the story of his people is tragic, you can even see it in his face, it’s not a look of evil, it’s just sorrow, it’s almost tragic, he’s obsessed with getting the triforce back together, to the point that it’s consumed him, you almost start to feel bad for him.
Then he starts beating a child, like literally punching link, it’s almost a little funny.
Then the triforce is finally assembled, and with all three pieces combined there’s nothing stopping Ganon from achieving his goal.
EXCEPT FOR A BOAT KING OF COURSE, KORL comes in and makes a wish before Ganon can even reach the triforce, he wishes for hyrule to finally be washed away, so they can let go of the past, it’s triumphant and an ultimate win for the heroes.
After that, you think Ganon’s got some secret plan, or he’s going to attack, you’re prepared for anything.
But then he starts laughing, laughing maniacally, it’s not a victory laugh, not a pity one, but one of defeat, and one of someone who has absolutely lost their mind.
After the laugh session and a badass cutscene with Link and Zelda teaming up to fight Ganon, the final battle begins, and what a phenomenal final fight it is, what it may lack in difficulty, it makes up for in fun gameplay, fantastic spectacle, a sweeping score, a phenomenal arena, it’s the game’s best boss and one of my favorites of all time.
After the valiant battle, Link does a badass finisher, finally stopping Ganon once and for all (at least for this timeline), then Link and Zelda have their final conversation with KORL, man I love this scene, seeing him express about letting go of hyrule moving onto something new is a great contrast to Ganon, who couldn’t move on from all these hyrule shenanigans, the water finally starts filling in, Link and Zelda are starting to be taken back to the surface, Link reaches for KORL, but he doesn’t reach back, link is taken away, and Rhoam washes away along with his kingdom, and after link and tetra resurface and are picked up by the pirate crew, everyone cheers and after the credits, set out on a new adventure to find the new kingdom, leaving us on a bittersweet, but ultimately satisfying finale to this masterpiece of a game.
Wind Waker is an absolutely phenomenal adventure, from start to finish it’s an extraordinary journey, and it’s one of my favorite games of all time.
The last 1/3 of the game didn’t have to go that hard but it did
And I couldn’t be happier
And I couldn’t be happier
2011
Like I said said with Uncharted 2, it’s everything a sequel should be and more
Plus JK SIMMONS HOLY SHIT
Plus JK SIMMONS HOLY SHIT
………….huh?
I’m just kinda confused honestly, I played this game for most of the day and uh, yeah I don’t know what to even say about this game, it’s not horrible I guess but like many NES games it’s aged horrendously, combat is just not fun
I haven’t completed this game yet, and I just have no desire to really complete it right now, idk if it’s this game or my desire to play every other game in the series again, but this game just isn’t interesting me
I won’t rate it now obviously since I haven’t fully beaten it, my score right now would probably be like a low 5/10, that could change when I eventually play more but like, this game is just rough man.
ALSO LINK GETS HIS DICK SUCKED WHAT THE FUCK
Next game is a link to the past, I have actually played this one before but it’s been quite some time, though I do remember absolutely adoring the game so hopefully I’ll feel the same now
I’m just kinda confused honestly, I played this game for most of the day and uh, yeah I don’t know what to even say about this game, it’s not horrible I guess but like many NES games it’s aged horrendously, combat is just not fun
I haven’t completed this game yet, and I just have no desire to really complete it right now, idk if it’s this game or my desire to play every other game in the series again, but this game just isn’t interesting me
I won’t rate it now obviously since I haven’t fully beaten it, my score right now would probably be like a low 5/10, that could change when I eventually play more but like, this game is just rough man.
ALSO LINK GETS HIS DICK SUCKED WHAT THE FUCK
Next game is a link to the past, I have actually played this one before but it’s been quite some time, though I do remember absolutely adoring the game so hopefully I’ll feel the same now
This review contains spoilers
In the many years I’ve played video games, I’ve noticed that I’ve always liked the…….weirder or divisive sequels more than their less divisive and more critically acclaimed predecessors.
MGS 1 and MGS 3 are perfect bond like action games with a simpler but in many ways complex story, they are simply phenomenal games, however, MGS 2 and MGS 5, the (timeline order) sequels to the former and the latter, are far more weird and overall considered divisive (more so in the case of MGS 5) than their predecessors……….but I still love these two more.
The Last of Us 1 is one of gaming’s true perfect stories, a perfectly paced emotional adventure that almost anyone can enjoy, however, the sequel is far more divisive and generally hated by a lot of people……..yet me and all my insanity love it a hell of a lot more.
Ocarina of Time is a perfectly paced adventure, treating us to the true whimsical beauty of what the Zelda series truly is…….and yet, the much weirder, much MUCH darker sequel I vastly prefer.
Majora’s Mask by all means should’ve been a failure, the game only had one year in development and reused a lot of assets from OOT, most games with that short of a development time are either broken buggy messes or just plain uninteresting, and reused assets can always make a game just not stand out from its predecessor.
The game had many experimental ideas going in, and since there was no time to question anything, they went all in with every idea, by all accounts, this game should’ve been a disaster……….but, Eiji Aonuma and the rest of the team behind the game tapped into something magnificent, in letting the game take its own form, the game truly became something unique, something awe-inspiring, something bizarre, and something very……VERY dark.
The game immediately opens with a bleaker scene than the rest of the series, instead of a great tale being told or a charming little intro in the opening area, it begins with Link getting knocked out, robbed by skull kid, falling into a very big tree, and being painfully transformed into a deku scrub.
Once the game takes off, it doesn’t really stop with its overall bleak atmosphere, you’ll find people in trouble or in pain all across termina, most of it skull kid inflicted.
The story and structure of this game are very much different compared to the rest of the series, the way the game uses the 3 day cycle is really good, it basically causes you to plan your every move, and execute it all in a timely manner, the cycle never feels too long or too short. The game uses this greatly with its story, while it is a lot simpler in premise compared to OOT, but it uses this simplicity to flesh out the world, the characters, and the side quests.
Speaking of the side quests, this game definitely has the overall best in the series, the amount of great stuff you can do off to the side is just incredible, Romani ranch and the Anju and Kafei quests are the highlights, I can almost say it’s just necessary to do them when playing this game, and thanks to the notebook, you can keep track of every character’s schedules, which greatly adds to the whole planning and three day cycle routine. These side quests also really help flesh out the world, and what a world it is.
Termina is a far greater overworld than the ones most of the other games have, it’s not too big so it’s easy to travel around and comes packed with a lot of content, I also lobe how unique each section is compared to other Zelda games, the swamp takes elements from kokiri forest but it builds on them and does a lot of things on its own, snowhead is probably the only big mountain area in the series that doesn’t include a volcano, great bay is fun to swim around in with the Zora mask, and ikana canyon is one of my favorite locations in the entire series, the dark atmosphere, tone, the music, all are wonderfully dead.
I have been forgetting to mention it in my other reviews, but the soundtrack in this series is phenomenal, and even better in this game. Let me talk about a few of these tracks, starting with the clock town theme, on the first day, the music is more festive, not a care in the world that a moon is hurdling towards earth, it’s very much a warm welcome in the form or music, the second day is more laid back, being more relaxed and less festive, and it even has a tiny hint of worry, now it feels like the moon is noticed but only thought about a little, the third day however is far more sinister, the music is fast and kinda messy, it’s like the music is freaking out and panicking, along with it is some evil sounding synths playing in the background, all throughout the day, the moon has definitely been noticed by now, and of course, the final hours, my god that score is a 10/10, it truly feels hopeless, you’re not panicking anymore, you’re just accepting fate, it is masterful. I’d also like to talk about the individual area themes, all of them are kinda the same, but many different sounds and notes make them all feel different, the swamp has a more serene feel, you kinda feel gross listening to it, perfectly representing the poisoned swamps, the mountains are more tame, and feel more winter like, obviously representing the frozen mountains, the great bay feels far more tropical, but like, tropical while a thunderstorm is fucking up the area, which obviously represents the polluted waters, then you have ikana canyon, my god, every single little note in this version has been made far more haunting than the ones before, then once the main chorus comes on, it truly feels dead and lifeless (in a good way obviously), but even through all the dreariness you hear little notes of Romani/Malon’s singing, representing the little hope that is still left with the girl and her father there…….what a pleasant area :). One last song I’d like to mention is the song of healing, it’s a simple short track that kinda perfectly represents what this game is, it’s a somber tune, one that’s very sad sounding, which makes sense considering what it’s used for.
Alright let’s talk about all the dark shit, how about Epona being dead, oh you think Epona’s fine? Skull kid simply put her in Romani ranch, a loving home for a horse? NOPE, Skull kid 100% killed the real Epona and the one you see later is just the termina counterpart, I know it’s a theory technically but the fact the game STARTS OFF with this is crazy, and it doesn’t stop there, Southern swamp? FUCKING POTENTIAL WAR, Snowpeak? ICE AGE, great bay? POLLUTED AND BABIES THAT HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED, ikana canyon? THE DEAD CAN’T REST.
What I’m basically saying is there’s tons of dark stuff all throughout the game, but the most impressive part is how the game balances them extremely well and it never really feels like it’s in your face, the game just has a natural way of delivering it, in fact let’s go over a few of my favorite dark moments from this game.
The implication and realization of the deku butler’s son, unlike everything else in the game, he’s the one thing you can’t save.
“They” from Romani Ranch, a completely unexplainable enemy in the series, it’s especially fucked up what they potentially do to Romani, part of me wants to know what they did but a bigger part of me never even wants to think about it.
The little girl and her father in ikana canyon, both of them alone and afraid, completely surrounded by the dead as one of them is slowly turning into one of the monsters outside.
There is more, but I’ve gone on long enough.
I think what balances all the darkness out is that, you can help almost everyone in this game, you can cure the poison of the swamp and stop the war, you can bring spring back to snowhead, you can bring clean waters and rescue the babies in great bay, you can lay the dead to rest in ikana canyon, you can protect the ranch from “them”, you can save the girl’s father in ikana, you can do almost everything………..but, no matter what victory you achieve, what life you save, you’re always reminded of one constant thing no matter where you are at in the world, all you need to do is look at the bottom of the screen, or hear the bells of the clock tower, or of course, look up, and you’ll see it.
The moon, the end of the world, the fate that you must stop in order to save everyone, no one will truly be safe unless you stop this thing from hurdling towards termina, and the game makes you just feel helpless against it for like 90% of the game, always turning back time any time it gets close to those final hours…………..until you play a certain song, an oath to order.
This is one of my favorite scenes in not only this entire series, but in video games in general, the camera shows us the moon hurdling towards termina, hopeless as it has been the rest of the game………….then a somberly triumphant theme starts playing, it swells up as one giant appears, then two, then three, then four, and finally, once they’re all there, they put their full power and strength into holding the moon, and after a struggle………….it stops, the one threat that has been haunting you throughout every mission………stopped……….OR SO YOU THINK.
Majora’s Mask is its own being bitch, it flies up into the moon and then the moon starts moving again, but you triumphantly step into the moon, no more will you hide from this mask, you take the fight DIRECTLY TO ITS BASE, DIRECTLY TO THE………the………nice tree and open field?
I’m gonna admit, I obviously didn’t get this on my original playthrough, and I still don’t know now……….anyways, this leads to a final battle with the mask itself, and the fight is pretty fun, I mean it’s not ganondorf in OOT and the fight is basically trivialized by the fierce deity’s mask, but it’s a cool fight, the game isn’t really too strong in the boss department, everything else is just so spectacular that the boss aspect kinda falters.
After beating Majora, the moon disappears into the sky, the giants leave, and everyone celebrates.
It’s a dawn of a new day.
Link leaves termina as everyone there celebrates, including many musical performances, a fun time at the carnival, and of course, a wedding……….link is last seen in the lost woods, and finally continues off to find his old friend……………and he’s sadly never seen again.
And that is Majora’s Mask, a far more unique game than most, it was really fun to replay, and it’s still just as mesmerizing and beautifully dark as I remember, I hope one day I can write a longer and more in-depth review than this one, cause this game is just so good, it’s one of my two favorite Zelda games, and the other one? Well…
Next up is Wind Waker, very excited to replay this one, I just adore the art style so much man.
MGS 1 and MGS 3 are perfect bond like action games with a simpler but in many ways complex story, they are simply phenomenal games, however, MGS 2 and MGS 5, the (timeline order) sequels to the former and the latter, are far more weird and overall considered divisive (more so in the case of MGS 5) than their predecessors……….but I still love these two more.
The Last of Us 1 is one of gaming’s true perfect stories, a perfectly paced emotional adventure that almost anyone can enjoy, however, the sequel is far more divisive and generally hated by a lot of people……..yet me and all my insanity love it a hell of a lot more.
Ocarina of Time is a perfectly paced adventure, treating us to the true whimsical beauty of what the Zelda series truly is…….and yet, the much weirder, much MUCH darker sequel I vastly prefer.
Majora’s Mask by all means should’ve been a failure, the game only had one year in development and reused a lot of assets from OOT, most games with that short of a development time are either broken buggy messes or just plain uninteresting, and reused assets can always make a game just not stand out from its predecessor.
The game had many experimental ideas going in, and since there was no time to question anything, they went all in with every idea, by all accounts, this game should’ve been a disaster……….but, Eiji Aonuma and the rest of the team behind the game tapped into something magnificent, in letting the game take its own form, the game truly became something unique, something awe-inspiring, something bizarre, and something very……VERY dark.
The game immediately opens with a bleaker scene than the rest of the series, instead of a great tale being told or a charming little intro in the opening area, it begins with Link getting knocked out, robbed by skull kid, falling into a very big tree, and being painfully transformed into a deku scrub.
Once the game takes off, it doesn’t really stop with its overall bleak atmosphere, you’ll find people in trouble or in pain all across termina, most of it skull kid inflicted.
The story and structure of this game are very much different compared to the rest of the series, the way the game uses the 3 day cycle is really good, it basically causes you to plan your every move, and execute it all in a timely manner, the cycle never feels too long or too short. The game uses this greatly with its story, while it is a lot simpler in premise compared to OOT, but it uses this simplicity to flesh out the world, the characters, and the side quests.
Speaking of the side quests, this game definitely has the overall best in the series, the amount of great stuff you can do off to the side is just incredible, Romani ranch and the Anju and Kafei quests are the highlights, I can almost say it’s just necessary to do them when playing this game, and thanks to the notebook, you can keep track of every character’s schedules, which greatly adds to the whole planning and three day cycle routine. These side quests also really help flesh out the world, and what a world it is.
Termina is a far greater overworld than the ones most of the other games have, it’s not too big so it’s easy to travel around and comes packed with a lot of content, I also lobe how unique each section is compared to other Zelda games, the swamp takes elements from kokiri forest but it builds on them and does a lot of things on its own, snowhead is probably the only big mountain area in the series that doesn’t include a volcano, great bay is fun to swim around in with the Zora mask, and ikana canyon is one of my favorite locations in the entire series, the dark atmosphere, tone, the music, all are wonderfully dead.
I have been forgetting to mention it in my other reviews, but the soundtrack in this series is phenomenal, and even better in this game. Let me talk about a few of these tracks, starting with the clock town theme, on the first day, the music is more festive, not a care in the world that a moon is hurdling towards earth, it’s very much a warm welcome in the form or music, the second day is more laid back, being more relaxed and less festive, and it even has a tiny hint of worry, now it feels like the moon is noticed but only thought about a little, the third day however is far more sinister, the music is fast and kinda messy, it’s like the music is freaking out and panicking, along with it is some evil sounding synths playing in the background, all throughout the day, the moon has definitely been noticed by now, and of course, the final hours, my god that score is a 10/10, it truly feels hopeless, you’re not panicking anymore, you’re just accepting fate, it is masterful. I’d also like to talk about the individual area themes, all of them are kinda the same, but many different sounds and notes make them all feel different, the swamp has a more serene feel, you kinda feel gross listening to it, perfectly representing the poisoned swamps, the mountains are more tame, and feel more winter like, obviously representing the frozen mountains, the great bay feels far more tropical, but like, tropical while a thunderstorm is fucking up the area, which obviously represents the polluted waters, then you have ikana canyon, my god, every single little note in this version has been made far more haunting than the ones before, then once the main chorus comes on, it truly feels dead and lifeless (in a good way obviously), but even through all the dreariness you hear little notes of Romani/Malon’s singing, representing the little hope that is still left with the girl and her father there…….what a pleasant area :). One last song I’d like to mention is the song of healing, it’s a simple short track that kinda perfectly represents what this game is, it’s a somber tune, one that’s very sad sounding, which makes sense considering what it’s used for.
Alright let’s talk about all the dark shit, how about Epona being dead, oh you think Epona’s fine? Skull kid simply put her in Romani ranch, a loving home for a horse? NOPE, Skull kid 100% killed the real Epona and the one you see later is just the termina counterpart, I know it’s a theory technically but the fact the game STARTS OFF with this is crazy, and it doesn’t stop there, Southern swamp? FUCKING POTENTIAL WAR, Snowpeak? ICE AGE, great bay? POLLUTED AND BABIES THAT HAVE BEEN KIDNAPPED, ikana canyon? THE DEAD CAN’T REST.
What I’m basically saying is there’s tons of dark stuff all throughout the game, but the most impressive part is how the game balances them extremely well and it never really feels like it’s in your face, the game just has a natural way of delivering it, in fact let’s go over a few of my favorite dark moments from this game.
The implication and realization of the deku butler’s son, unlike everything else in the game, he’s the one thing you can’t save.
“They” from Romani Ranch, a completely unexplainable enemy in the series, it’s especially fucked up what they potentially do to Romani, part of me wants to know what they did but a bigger part of me never even wants to think about it.
The little girl and her father in ikana canyon, both of them alone and afraid, completely surrounded by the dead as one of them is slowly turning into one of the monsters outside.
There is more, but I’ve gone on long enough.
I think what balances all the darkness out is that, you can help almost everyone in this game, you can cure the poison of the swamp and stop the war, you can bring spring back to snowhead, you can bring clean waters and rescue the babies in great bay, you can lay the dead to rest in ikana canyon, you can protect the ranch from “them”, you can save the girl’s father in ikana, you can do almost everything………..but, no matter what victory you achieve, what life you save, you’re always reminded of one constant thing no matter where you are at in the world, all you need to do is look at the bottom of the screen, or hear the bells of the clock tower, or of course, look up, and you’ll see it.
The moon, the end of the world, the fate that you must stop in order to save everyone, no one will truly be safe unless you stop this thing from hurdling towards termina, and the game makes you just feel helpless against it for like 90% of the game, always turning back time any time it gets close to those final hours…………..until you play a certain song, an oath to order.
This is one of my favorite scenes in not only this entire series, but in video games in general, the camera shows us the moon hurdling towards termina, hopeless as it has been the rest of the game………….then a somberly triumphant theme starts playing, it swells up as one giant appears, then two, then three, then four, and finally, once they’re all there, they put their full power and strength into holding the moon, and after a struggle………….it stops, the one threat that has been haunting you throughout every mission………stopped……….OR SO YOU THINK.
Majora’s Mask is its own being bitch, it flies up into the moon and then the moon starts moving again, but you triumphantly step into the moon, no more will you hide from this mask, you take the fight DIRECTLY TO ITS BASE, DIRECTLY TO THE………the………nice tree and open field?
I’m gonna admit, I obviously didn’t get this on my original playthrough, and I still don’t know now……….anyways, this leads to a final battle with the mask itself, and the fight is pretty fun, I mean it’s not ganondorf in OOT and the fight is basically trivialized by the fierce deity’s mask, but it’s a cool fight, the game isn’t really too strong in the boss department, everything else is just so spectacular that the boss aspect kinda falters.
After beating Majora, the moon disappears into the sky, the giants leave, and everyone celebrates.
It’s a dawn of a new day.
Link leaves termina as everyone there celebrates, including many musical performances, a fun time at the carnival, and of course, a wedding……….link is last seen in the lost woods, and finally continues off to find his old friend……………and he’s sadly never seen again.
And that is Majora’s Mask, a far more unique game than most, it was really fun to replay, and it’s still just as mesmerizing and beautifully dark as I remember, I hope one day I can write a longer and more in-depth review than this one, cause this game is just so good, it’s one of my two favorite Zelda games, and the other one? Well…
Next up is Wind Waker, very excited to replay this one, I just adore the art style so much man.