Gaming Zelda Fans Come Hither...

There's still a chance of another game or two squeaking in for the Wii- much like how a couple noteable DS games came out recently despite the 3DS. They most likely won't be SS quality, though.


EDIT- And, holy crap, that recording session preview was great- although it's not so much a medley (unless there are more elements to be mixed into the final track) as it is just the main theme/overworld theme, however, that brief appearance of the ALTTP main title was unexpected and immensely awesome.


EDIT 2- Holy crap x2: Skyward's theme is Zelda's Lullaby backwards.

 

Anyone know of a means to access a Wii game's data? Like if there's any programs that can access/render a debug mode or simply access models or textures?

Mainly because I'd really like to get a good bird's eye view of Twilight Princess's maps (in-game, not the pop-up, paprus-styled warp map or drawn translations from strat guides) to make for some direct comparisons in scale and arranegment to the other games, and that would make it a hell of a lot easier than having to scale and interpret everything from na in-game play-through.

 

Oh, wow!!! I knew nothing (other than hearing of the item name) about the Spinner until just now having acquired it. Holy crap is that awesome! Link has his own version of the Spider-Ball!

Seriously, this thing is awesome and so much fun. I'm glad it ended up being the surprise it was.



On an only tangentially related sidenote, on the cartography subject, I'm convinced this temple and it's surrounding region is actually the Eastern Palace and is a separate desert from the Desert of Mystery of ALTTP/Gerudo Valley of OOT. All this time I've been trying to flip and rotate the map trying to get the desert and lake to align, and it's been staring at me the whole time.

That actually makes almost everything line up except for the Death Mountain caldera (the Death Mountain range itself actually works, just the damn volcano is too far west). I'm wondering if the angles of the map can be adjusted to make them align, though and are simply oriented that way for gameplay purposes.

Regardless, it just expands the Hyrule Field region west of the castle between itself and New Kakariko- and also suggests some interesting changes over time to the village depending on if one places this before or after ALTTP (still can't form my opinion on that, it's gonna really depend on the Ganon details once I get to that part of the plot)- in that it now suggests the village area seen in TP is probably related to the region to the north of the village we see in ALTTP, near the foot of Death Mountain (where the lumberjacks are, IIRC) and that, as time progresses, the village expands south towards the gorge area and related fields we see in TP.

(Alternatively, generations of mining and blasting by the town in TP eventually clears that area out to reflect the open regions of ALTTP).

(Alternatively Part II, the expansion of Castle Town in Hyrule Castle II post-ALTTP has led to New Kakariko reducing in size to just the small community in TP, which has moved north from the gorge area, and is later replaced by the LOZ graveyard (or is simply an expanded TP graveyard since they align)).

Now, if I could just solve that caldera issue, everything would be gravy. Working in my favor is the lack of a caldera in ALTTP and beyond...

 

It'll be interesting, with all the talk about there be a focus on making the dungeons smaller while bringing more of the puzzles into the overworld journey to them- which suggests more complicated overworld regions.

At the same time, reviews have suggested Hyrule feels more fragmented, since you're apparently using Skyloft as a hub of sorts (I'm not perfectly clear on to what degree, though- just that warping is gained early on). So it might be pretty easy to align the areas if they don't have a heavy degree of connectivity.

Plus, given that SS is chronologically first, it may be even easier depending on how young Hyrule is at this time.

However, I'm prepared to eat my own words- never underestimate the Japanese . Hopefully I'll find time over the next year to do something more concrete with my map project beyond the planning and analysis I'm been doing for the past few years.




Anyways, finished the Arbiter's Grounds and am moving onto the mirror shard quest. That was an awesome dungeon, though. Besides my raving love for the spinner and it's courses, the sand traps are a neat touch (and I love how Midna just kinda watches you drown if you do so in wolf form while she's out, ha), those mites are annoying buggers, the Stalfos were good enemies (kill them, then bomb their remains? To quote Hannibal, "Overkill is underrated".), the redeads are always creepy and those were some solid minibosses (good use of form switching for the sword ghost).

About the only thing that was too easy wete the waves of mini Stalfos- Wolf Link's area attack is just too powerful for them. I ended up intentionally not using it just to make it more fun.

And, after the past few boss fights have been way too easy, even though it didn't result in any deaths, I really enjoyed the challenge of the Stallord battle.

I believe my reaction was:

[image=http://2.bp.blogspot.com/-bEpONv4lwbA/TboHEh5ynMI/AAAAAAAAE3U/VEySYDavfFg/s1600/Thor-Movie-Chris-Hemsworth-3.jpg]

"That's more like it!!"

 

Stallord is definitely my favorite boss of TP, helped by the fact that his music is the same as that of the King Dodongo battle.

 

Penny-Arcade has a good strip, though about Elder Scrolls, that fits Zelda and some other games just as well.

 

So I finished Snowpeak Ruins and have progressed through most of the Temple of Time.

Snowpeak was a simple dungeon, but I liked the mansion/house layout- it's different, and it keeps with TP's great motif of making the dungeons seem functional instead of elaborate mazes ancient people made to **** with their descendants .

Once again the miniboss (Darkhammer) was harder than the actual boss (though the reflections angle of the boss fight was clever). Ball and Chain is a fun weapon- I like that it gives you options on how you want to utilize it.

The "no hearts"/borken love angle to it was amusing, though- and it did make things a little more challenging than they otherwise would have been (though the unlimited, evolving soup offsets this). And, is it me, or are there more meta-elements like that in this game than average (though certainly far less than, say, Link's Awakening)? What with there being literal hearts created (or avoided) by the Yeti or the STAR groupies making hearts from their crush on Link, etc, it's starting to be a pattern.

Temple of Time has been pretty easy so far- but the Darknut battle was awesome (but, no lives lost so it's still too easy), I wish more of the common villains could put up that much of a fight (though the Dynafols kinda head in that direction)... one of the reasons I hope Skyward Sword's combat system lives up to the hype.

Just gotta get that statue downstairs and explore a few other rooms now, but I'll do that tomorrow, which means I'll hopefully be able to finish the game Sat night and be all good for Skyward sunday afternoon;evening.

(though, worst case scenario, I'll have TP done Sunday, I believe)

Also wanted to comment that I like that the different armors/tunics actually have individual purpose in this game: in games past, as you upgraded your color, you generally stuck with the highest color (ie staying red)- there's was little reason to switch back to green other than personal handicap challenges.

But TP gives you reasons to not want to stay in Zora/blue armor or Magic/red armor, which is very good.

(albeit, they don't give you much incentive to actually use the Magic Armor since the difficulty level is so low- but it makes for a good way to burn rupees so you can actually claim those chests in the dungeons)


The whole Sacred Grove/Temple of Time thing, though, is curious... it's obviously meant to be the same ruins/same building as the one in OOT plus the grove from ALTTP (complete with the sun beams- and searching online, it seems even the Hylian language markings identify the Door of Time)- which is awesome (my idea for an ALTTP movie would have used almost the exact same way to covey that concept, so it's a pleasant official coincidence )... but there's no way it can be located where it is (there's apparently a theory that they are also the ruins of the OOT Castle Town/Market, and that the castle in TP is a new castle built north of the old; and while that would be awesome if it connected to the North castle of AOL (and potentially solve the Death Mountain Headache!), nothing else would lineup (as you'd have Zora's Fountain now double-north of where it was, and a new Lake Hylia north of the old (ok, granted, that might fit with FSA's map), and a complete change in geography for other stuff).

I'm wondering if it's simply that the Lost Woods moved and took the ToT with it, lol.

I do like that TP answered one detail that always bothered me in OOT: if the main doors to access the Master Sword were locked...why didn't Ganon just smash through the giant stainglass windows in that chamber and enter in from the outside that way?

And TP shows us: they're not really windows (well, at least one isn't...but we can extrapolate to cover the logic hole).

 

Cleared the Temple of Time and Hidden Village, now going after the Owl Statues and (presumably) the Sky Temple. Also have all the hidden skills and have 39 Poes (though I know where at least one of them is in the desert so I aim to get that one next time and at least end with 40/60).

Loved the western showdown vibe of the Hidden Village, though I wish there was more at stake there, to be worthy of that awesome music. Even though that area was spoiled to me a bit by playing Link's Crossbow Training, it's still effective (though even being sloppy, I think I only lost 4 hearts at most?). That cat game was amusing too.

Absolutely loved the statue control puzzles and abilities of the Dominion Rod as well.

The Twlit Ghoma was another cool boss setup, but, again, just way too easy. Seriously, I don't think a single boss has managed to kill me in this entire game, and that's not right. I think the Death Mountain miniboss has been the most successful opponent so far- I died more times fighting him (and that wasn't that many times, really) than I have in the entire game.

Despite the dangerous monsters and proliferation of weapons and explosives, I think drowning is the number one cause of death in Hyrule (outside of Link himself ).

 

He seemed predisposed to disliking the game: "I originally started this review with a fairly lengthy recap of Nintendo?s many past digressions culminating with The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, which wasn?t just a bad game, but also an inexcusably horrid business decision that severely burnt loyal Nintendo fans, even the ones who were too ignorant to realize it."

Really? TP was the culmination of Nintendo's past digressions? Now, I wouldn't claim TP is the greatest Zelda game- it's too easy and recycles one too many elements from OOT (they need to break away from the elements theme of dungeons a little more, but that would still be acceptable if we weren't unfreezing Zora's Domain again or having to face Ganon yet again, or didn't start off with a Forest Temple, etc) but it does some great new things to the series- it's just they come past the midway point on the whole.

He then goes on to complain about the controls (something that have generally been praised universally) for both SS and claiming it's just indicative of TP's slapped-on controls (which isn't fair to TP either- the motion controls weren't fully integrated, that's true (sword controls were abstract), but any point/aim item (Clawshot, Arrows, etc) was most certainly enhanced by the Wiimote controls, and some of the special moves did add some flair to things).

Lastly, and most amusing of all, he bashes it for doing stuff too similar to the rest of the series...and then bashes it for doing something different from the rest of the series (the backtracking/dungeon integration).

 

Nope.

Having played a demo first-hand I know I'm bound to enjoy this no matter what. In fact, I got my shipping confirmation today, so I'll have this when I arrive home for Thanksgiving.

 

Finished most of the Sky Temple, just have the boss left. That Owl Statue mini-quest was initially annoying when they introduced it (being so late-game and all, would have been nice to spread that one out a little) but the statue moving mechanic is so fun i didn't mind as much once I got into it. Plus it helped me explore a few new nooks and crannies of Hyrule (I swear I never even saw that ampitheater before).

Sky Temple hasn't been bad so far- a few drops off from the wind, but the double clawshot stuff is wild (makes Link feel like a superhero or something or even vaguely sci-fi) and the whole maze underneath the city was a bit harrowing.


Also...anyone ever wonder about Link's magic sword sheath on his back? Whenever he does his badass finishing flair move when shething it...there's just no way that can physically happen unless it's doing something we're not seeing (like being open along the side and then closing around it?).

So, hopefuly tommorow I'll finish the Sky Temple boss off and (presumably) Ganon next and be able to squeeze in a little time with Skyward (otherwise SS will have to wait till Mon- damn!).

 

That's probably one of several other objectives I haven't accounted for yet but will have to confront regardless .