Starjuice

My thoughts on every Zelda game, organized in chronological order of release, and then probably other media too. Work in Progress as I get all my thoughts together.

I really love the first game. It was probably the third one I beat, beating it I believe in the summer of 2019. I had actually tried to play it back in 2014, I had gotten the collection of the first two games, Oot, and Majora's Mask. I had picked it first because it was the first game and I wanted to try playing them in chronological order. I ran around for a few minutes, had no idea what was going on because basically every other game I'd played prior was some licensed kids game which were not hard by any means, so instead I decided to play Ocarina of Time.

I'm glad I didn't put it off once I started getting my hands on more games, I think with guides this game isn't that hard, and I'm sure I'll eventually replay it enough times I know all the secrets like the back of my hand. I like just exploring the world, and messing around to find the secrets I know are somewhere. I just think it's a good time. It could get tedious at times, when I lose my magic shield for the millionth time because I'm so bad at staying out of Like Like mouths, or I run out of bombs and then have to leave a dungeon and run around looking for rupees and or bombs. Though it definitely helped me get a good sense of the map and where everything is. I think it's fun though that what wall is bombable isn't visibly clear, fun that the secrets are so well hidden. This is probably because I play it in a time where you can easily look up a guide, but I think even as a younger kid I would have been able to have fun with this game, no worries about beating it, just there to play it.

I wouldn't say I have a favorite Zelda game, but I know this one is somewhere up there.

I changed my mind and ended up coming back to beat this one. Originally in 2019 I got stuck at Death Mountain so I didn't get far at all. I was having trouble with A Link to the Past and decided to procrastinate on getting further in that game by playing Adventure of Link.

Once I got through Death Mountain everything else in the game felt much more attainable. I thought once I got through there everything else would feel hard in that same way but usually there would be like one monster that would keep me held back until I figured out how to beat it. It's really satisfying, Dairas are so hard when you first see them and eventually they became a small issue once I found the right rhythm. At one point my issues were far less with enemies and more I kept jumping poorly and ending up falling into lava.

I think it's interesting seeing what from this game stuck around and what has been left to solely exist in this game. Like the Lizalfos who have appeared in several games since, or the Wosu who never showed up again. I think Thunderbird is a really interesting looking boss, I'd love to see it come back.

I started playing the second quest after I finished it, and it's not overly interesting just the game again but you keep your levels so you can blast through the early dungeons. I think it'd be fun to play it again without that and see how that goes.

This is one I've also started but haven't finished. For some reason I found it really hard. It probably isn't and it was just some weird issue I was having at that time. I plan on picking this one back up once I've finished Oracle of Seasons.

I played the remake of this one when it released on Switch. I think it's a fun cute little game. I think the dream premise is really interesting, since you find out in the middle of the game it really recontextualizes everything as you're still in the thick of it. You're both saving all of these people and also causing their doom.

I also have the DX version on my 3DS that I plan on getting around to playing at some point.

I think the trading sequences are fun, makes you explore the world, sometimes you find a person early and when you finally get to that part it's so satisfying to know exactly where to go.

Ocarina of Time is the first Zelda game that really made me love Zelda. I had played the anniversary edition of Four Swords before, and I liked it, but Ocarina of Time is Ocarina of Time. I played this originally through the Collector's Edition gamecube game on my wii and I instantly fell in love with it. I'd come home from school and immediately start playing it. I didn't even manage to get far into it before that game ended up lost maybe stolen, like didn't even get to the second dungeon, but it really left a big impact on me. I'd watch lets plays over and over again over the years, the year I played it I went as Link for Halloween. I did eventually get the 3DS remake and I still love it to pieces. I wouldn't play it as soon as I got home but I did end my days with it playing it for a while before bed. As and adult with my own money I am looking into getting the original collector's editon to be able to play the game as I originally did.

Majora's Mask 3 day time limit kinda freaked me out for a while before I actually played it, but once I finally played it I didn't find the limit that hard to work around. I've only played this game through the 3Ds remake, and while I enjoyed the game, some of the changes did stick out to me easily and made some parts really suck. Especially swimming as a zora. I do really love this game though and the way it shows the final three days for these people who of course don't know in the end it'll all be ok.

The Clock Town guards always stuck out to me, I first played this game in late 2020 early 2021, so the Construction worker denying the moon falling and keeping the town from evacuating so the guards are stuck there really stuck out to me. They'd tried to fight to get the town evacuated and they couldn't, because someone denied the obviously falling moon.

The zora sections on the moon were what really got me disliking the way the zora swimming works, but overall I really like the moon section. I like the kids' kinda creepy vibes and dialogue. I did work to get the Fierce Deity mask and it's kinda fun and funny after all that to get to just whale on Majora. I'll probably return to this once I've had a chance to play it not through the 3DS remake.

I really like Oracle of Ages, honestly I think Ages and Seasons are some of my favorite games. I like Ralph, I kinda wish we got a little more of him. He was a fun addition.

I Love the animal companions. I chose Moosh he is so cute. I love Moosh so much, Ricky and Dimitri are also cute but fat bear with wings was right up my alley. I'll probably play these games again at a later date so I think I'll try a different companion for that playthrough.

I love that these games made their own races for these games too, I think the Tokay in this are so cute. Though with the iron shield I lost it to a like-like cause I'm so bad at avoiding like-likes when it is the worst time to get eaten by a like-like. Since I got it from a Tokay I didn't think I could get it back, I tried though. I still don't know if it's possible to get it back I never looked it up.

I got the fist ring in this game, and I immediately put that on and ran around punching monsters it was so funny to me. I had a lot of fun with it for a few minutes and then replaced it for a more useful ring lmao.

The Goron dance bit was very frustrating to me at first, because I was playing this around my family who were going about their lives and thus were not making worried about how well I could hear the tones. Once I could hear them it was pretty fun, I spent a whole lot of rupees on it though cause I kept messing up lmao. By the time I was done with it I was much better and had much Much less trouble in Seasons.

I had so much trouble with Veran at the end, so much time spend digging up rupees to pay for potions for each attempt lmao. It took me so many tries. I think it's so weird and cute that she and one of the other bosses can turn Link into a baby. What an interesting choice.

Seasons immediately charmed me with it's references to the first game. The fact the first dungeon is shaped like the eagle from the first, the bosses it brought back (especially Aquamentus I wish Aquamentus got brought back more I think it's cute), the bushes you can burn and find old men who give you money and tell you it's a secret. As I have stated before I Adore the first game so such blatant references to specifically it was so fun for me.

I played Seasons as a linked game so I was bouncing between it and Ages for the passwords. I kinda wish that Farore was a little more clear that when she says the secret of travelling through time she meant that's where you input the passwords from Ages. I thought there was some password I was missing and had to give her before I could give her all the others. Nothing a trip to GameFAQs couldn't help though.

I really loved the OST for this game, I'll need to go back and listen more to the Ages OST and see how it measures up but something about this one really stuck out to me. If I was just paying less attention to the music as I solved puzzles and stuff in Ages, what made Seasons OST stick out so much to me was probably the Tarm ruins. It immediately stuck out to me as very beautiful, I loved being there just for the music. After that I found myself taking the time to make sure I really paid attention to the songs that play in new places with new music.I also had the Koume and Kotake battle in this one and once I saved Zelda I was once again stunned by how beautiful the music was there. I'd love remakes of these games just to get orchestral versions of these songs, the 8 bit is beautiful but I think orchestral could really elevate some of these songs beyond how god they already are.

I think the Subrosians are cute, and it's really cute that one of the things you have to do to progress through the story is go on a date with one of them. I got the subrosian ring and while I didn't really find a use for it (I had the ring that gives you a heart every once in a while for most of the game on) I think it's fun and I may go back and mess around with it see what more I can do with it.

I expected to struggle a lot more with the final bosses of this game than I did, I don't know if they were just genuinely not that hard or if I just got good enough to not struggle too hard. Fighting Ganon after defeating Koume and Kotake was kinda funny, cause I needed to use some strategy to fight them, but I just whaled on Ganon and the fight was over pretty quickly. A bit anticlimactic after everthing lmao. Onox was fairly difficult but I definitely struggled more with Veran in Ages, and it was Way easier to get to him, no maze leading to him.

I haven't play Wind Waker, not even a little bit. I watched a playthrough once but I remember very little of it. Also watching playthroughs and playing the game myself are such diffrent experiences to me. I'll get to it eventually it is quite an important one, but the gamecube version is so expensive and I have vetoed the idea of buying a Wii U.

I have also not played this one, I don't know how I'll get around to playing this one honestly. The format of a gamecube and four gameboy advances is just a little much to get together.

I have managed to play a little bit of Twilight Princess through emulator, however asking my computer to run Twilight Princess beyond Ordon is like asking a three year old to lift a 400 pound weight. I love what I've played so far. Wolf Link is so cute and it's so funny that his official art is so feral but he's just a puppy. Seriously so cute.

I love Midna, fictional woman I am so attracted to.
Turns out getting a wii and the wii version of TP costs less than a new switch game though so that'll definitely be soon.

I'm putting off at Least this game until I beat Wind Waker since it is a direct sequel to it.

I may play this one sooner depending on how I feel. I'm gonna homebrew my 3DS soon so hoping that will help me not have to spend a ridiculous amount of money on this right now.

Skyward Sword is a very interesting game to me. I played this when the Switch rerelease came out, since everyone talked about how awful motion controls were I tried the buttons at first but that was just annoying to me so I played it with motion controls.

The idea of a guy's life being controlled by a goddess who reincarnates herself as a woman who will be there to defend him until he takes up a sword to defend her is very interesting. The way that Zelda had no idea everything had been preordained and yet apologized anyway because it was still her. Their love feels so genuine despite the way it was laid out, like a Swan Princess situation.
Groose is a really fun character, the game does a really good job of redeeming him.

Thoughts on the Game from 6/5/2023

I will speak about things that would be considered spoilers in this. If you are still avoiding ToTK spoilers do not read further.

Tears of the Kingdom has definitely been worth the wait. As of writing this on 6/5/2023 I have put in over 150 hours into it, and I would have put in more if I hadn't had family in town for a bit.

I absolutely adored the opening sequence, I loved exploring the small part of under the castle we get to see with Zelda. I adore this Zelda, and I loved seeing her get excited about the Zonai architecture.

The starting area is so large, so much of my first day playing was just running around there getting lost between shrines, it was a good time.

I do wish the game were slightly more inaccessible to people who didn't play botw, I think some portions where it just feels off when you have played botw would be improved if it was more willing to be confusing to people who didn't play botw. Other LoZ sequels work fine being accessible because they tend to be set in different lands, but ToTK is set in the same Hyrule. There were definitely specific examples, but I can't remember them at this exact moment because this was more of an observation at the beginning of the game.

It's also weird who does and doesn't remember you, Karson and Hudson recognize Link, but Bolson doesn't. Beedle doesn't remember Link. No one recognizing Link in Hateno except Symin is so weird. He bought a house there, Zelda certainly lives in that house now and whether or not he lives with her he often follows her around, and his hair tie can be found in her secret well. Someone should recognize him.

The Depths were definitely really scary at first. I did the quest with Josha pretty early on so I didn't have many hearts, or very strong equipment, so the gloom sickness was scary. I didn't think I'd start exploring it for a long time, but it's become one of my favorite places to go. I love the look of it. Love the plants, the light roots, the fireflies. I spend a lot of time in the depths exploring and slowly building up my map of it. Which works out so well since that means I have quickly built up my energy cells and have 10 as of 6/5/2023.

I really liked the dungeons, I think they were a fun mix of the divine beasts from botw and dungeons from older titles. My favorite dungeon was the Lightning Temple, I really liked exploring a pyramid. Queen Gibdo was the only boss that really gave me any trouble though, and is the only one I died to.

The Dragon Tears questline destroyed me. I had been going through it kinda slowly, and then one day I kinda put all the pieces together and then went and found the rest of the Geoglyphs. Coming out of the final memory and finding that the puddle was now surrounded by silent princesses was gut wrenching. I was inconsolable for several days after, and I still get really sad whenever I think about it too long. She really had so many great things going on in her life post-calamity, and then she has to sacrifice her freedom again

For as important the sky islands seemed in the trailers I really haven't spent much time up there outside of the story beats. I did just do the ceremonies for the glide outfit though and those were some fun islands so I should probably try exploring those more.

One of my favorite things in botw was the outfits and dressing Link up so I've been having a lot of fun with the new outfits so far. Like many others I really love the frostbite and charged sets, and I don't see as much love for the ember set but I adore that one too and have been looking forward to it since we saw a glimpse of it in a trailer. I love how much more gender non-conforming he gets to be with some of these outfits. I still have yet to get all the outfits but I'm getting more day by day. I'm also glad that they let you upgrade outfits from the botw dlc that you couldn't previously. I need to hunt down the Royal Guard trousers, they're the only piece I don't have yet from that set despite being my favorite part.

I haven't yet beat Ganon, and chances are I won't still for a long time. I want to finish exploring the depths first, and find all the shrines and do all the side quests, and upgrade my armor sets and get crazy strong weapons. I have 320 hours I believe logged into BotW, and that's with a master mode playthrough I was doing waiting for totk to release, I think I'll be able to surpass that easily in ToTK there's so much to do.

Final Thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom

I finished totk on July 1st 2023. I spent a ton of time after finishing every single quest just preparing for the final fight. I fought a Ton of silver lynels until a good portion of my weapon inventory was just just weapons I fused with silver lynel parts, and I believe just about every shield and bow I had on my were also the highest level lynel pieces. In the end the shields did me good but I mostly used the master sword. But god was that fight so fun. With nearly 630 hours put in between it and botw I could really tell I'd spent just that much time in the game by my fighting skill.

The demon dragon fight was so fun, and the music for it is so good. I love Zelda being right there with you as you fight him, always there to catch Link when he falls. They're partners and they can't do it without the other.

Link being there to finally catch her after he, Rauru and Sonia turn her back into a Hylian, and then he shields her as best he can with his own body, the fact Zelda describes it as a warm loving embrace, it just makes me sob. I liked their relationship previously in BotW (god I wish the english localization had been more faithful to the japanese in the quest logs, Link wanting to see Zelda smile makes me want to scream in a good way) but ToTK really sold me on them.

The only thing I want to touch on again from my thoughts 150 hours in is the Sky Islands. I did get around to exploring them more and it was really fun, but still a tad lackluster. I may have had a little more fun exploring them if the treasure maps had been able to lead me to anything. By the time I got around to it I'd already gotten the vast majority of the armor in the depths.

I had a lot of fun in the depths, I just liked exploring them. I did max out my energy cells. I'd think I had gone to all the big abandoned mines down there only to realize somehow I forgot like Kakariko and then would get excited as I had to find a new big abandoned mine, or would just stumble across one. As much as the depths being a mirror of the surface was useful both in finding things in the depths and finding shrines on the surface I think it's kinda weird that all these mines corresponde with major settlements of that era. I'm not gonna nitpick and say this ruins everything or anything just something interesting to think about. Like Tarrey Town is only a few years old but there's a mine that correspondes with it, but places like Goponga, which existed ~105 years ago doesn't have one. And like Hyrule begins on the Great Plateau, I wonder then if because clearly it's founded by someone not originating from the land itself if Hylian villages existed across Hyrule before and simply got absorbed into Hyrule, which could explain like the Hateno mine.

As for the story, a definite con of the memory format is you can only have so many of them. Watching the memories in order I find the jump from her knowing absolutely nothing of her powers to her having no trouble with them a bit jarring. I wish we'd gotten at least a little focus more on her actually practicing. BotW it was such a focus that no matter how hard she was trying nothing was working. I think it would have been nice to get her working with Sonia on it, further showing how the kindness and time she gives her results in the powers coming so easily to her.

I like Sonia, she fills in a maternal figure to give Zelda the care and prior knowledge she'd lacked prior to the events of BotW.