Gaming Zelda Fans Come Hither...

Nintendo CIVIL WAR is over- Sakurai Won!

 

No luck on the Loftwing amiibo, alas (apparently there have been shipping delays that reduced the orders sent to NA, but additional stock is expected in August). But, I did score these:



So now, with 3 sets of JoyCons, I officially have more than i can carry with me in a single carry case. I have to make decisions when I travel now!

 

Probably, it's far more linear than those games, and its overworld is much more limited (though still fairly expansive). And between Fi* and its gossip stones you should never have a difficult time figuring out what you need to do next.

*she'll drive you crazy sometimes with how hand-holdy she is, but I guarantee you'll never feel utterly lost

 

One of the QOL improvements for the HD version is making her advice optional/you have to ask for it.

 

Yeah I kinda forgot the HD version just came out. We'll have to wait a bit to see what the consensus is on how hand-holdy this new version is, but from initial impressions it still seems pretty straightforward.

 

SSHD is a remaster of a game that came out about a decade ago. Timeline-wise it's the earliest Zelda game. Gameplay-wise it has some similarities but not a whole ton- it's more in line with older games than with BOTW. It was the first game though to have the stamina wheel.

Classically Zelda games are released all over the timeline. Every now and then you'll get direct sequels that come out shortly after their predecessors, but not always. For instance, the very first game is 12th in line on its timeline.

 

More like 50,000 lol. The Zelda world is oooooold.

 

Yeah, every time a new Link or Zelda is incarnated for a new game timeframe the story is always an “a hundred years later”-type scenario.

Depending on the timeline branch, and assuming BOTW is after everything else, there’s probably an absolute minimum of 700-800 years between SS & BOTW1.

But going by the last trailer preview, we might be expecting connections between SS & BOTW2, so it’s not a coincidence that they’re releasing a new SSHD now versus just porting the existing HD remakes of Twilight Princess or Wind Waker.

Gameplay structure-wise in relation to BOTW, SS introduced the stamina mechanic as well as a decentralized dungeon design that put challenges more into the world surrounding the dungeon than containing them within.

BOTW basically took those concepts and developed them further while combining them with the non-linear structure of A Link Between Worlds and the original NES games (vs the more linear narrative thrust of OOT, TP, TWW & SS).

 

You haven't played BOTW yet right? They explicitly date it "10,100" years after the big fight between the Ancient Hero and Calamity Ganon, which itself is a long time after OoT, at the least. And then presumably there's a sizable gap between OoT and SS, and then about 1000 years between SS and the events in its backstory, which are shortly after the creation of Hyrule. It can be hard to grasp because it's in medieval stasis all that time, barring the occasional schizo-tech popping up in every era (advanced robots in the distant past!)

 

Yeah, I'm hoping to start BOTW by the end of the year. Xenoblade Chronicles 2 will have to go into stasis for awhile- I've been holding off on BOTW trying to finish that game first but I'm only about 30-40 hours in and I need to catch-up on Zelda, Mario, Metroid & the PS4 games I have over the next year. XC2 will get regulated to an hour or two at the laundromat every couple months, I guess.

So, yeah, I didn't know they established that big of a gap (but makes sense, given what basic details I do know about the story). I just figured there's at least 100 years between SS & Minish/FS, another 100 between them and OOT, at least 100 years between OOT & ALBW, another 100 between ALBW & ALTTP, another 100 between ALTTP & LOZ and another 100 between HYWA2 & BOTW. I guessed a 100 minimum between LOZ and HYWA2, but that seems to be my main error.

I didn't play far enough into SS to know myself, but the impression from reports I've read is that the amiibo fast travel feature is a new addition to the game, not an old one locked away.

I'm looking forward to starting SS over eventually (after BOTW). I enjoyed what I did of it originally and had no trouble with the motion controls, so I'll probably keep using them this time to stay as authentic to the original experience as possible. Normally I'd pick up my original save file but it's been almost a decade since I last played it and I'd have no idea where to pick up my quest at. At this point, best to just start from scratch and take advantage of all the new QOL features.

Not to mention the font size in the original game on an SDTV is what made me upgrade to an HDTV back in the day and make me realize that I probably needed glasses in some cases, so having the text in actual HD will be most welcome in that regard .

 

And the amiibo is still selling out seconds after Wario 64 tweets about restocks. Sigh.