Rynling R&D

Thank you Ganondorf <3 (via the Age of Imprisonment trailer)

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I really liked Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity. Maybe this was because it was the pandemic, but I played that stupid game for close to two hundred hours. I'm usually the sort of person who's like, "the story and atmosphere are just as important as the gameplay," but in this case. 100% of the appeal is gameplay. The story is inconsequential; I just want to swing around a samurai sword. Hopefully while playing as Ganondorf.

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If I'm being honest, though, I'm totally onboard with the idea of Link being evil. Like, not just a primal force of chaos, but actively evil. That would be super fun to write. Also he and Ganon should fuck about it.

But first I need to get over myself and finish the fic in front of me. Wish me luck, I guess.

once upon a bang
https://bsky.app/profile/fairytalebang.bsky.social/post/3lclbxs2cic2j

Introducing our first all-fandoms bang! Create brand-new works incorporating elements from fairytales & folklore.

I think I will, actually.

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Now that I finally have time to sit down and play Echoes of Wisdom, I’m really enjoying it. It’s a cute and clever little game, and I enjoy being able to play as Little Kid Zelda exploring Hyrule.

I maintain that the first two hours of this game are rough. Zelda can’t damage enemies effectively, and she dies quickly. In addition, there are too many gameplay verbs mapped onto too many buttons, and it takes a while to get used to the constant menu scrolling. Thankfully, all of these issues disappear with time, practice, and a modest number of upgrades.

If nothing else, it’s nice to take a break from the doom and gloom of the world at large and escape into Hyrule, where problems are easily solved and everyone wants to help you succeed.

Echoes of Wisdom opens up a bit after the first dungeon, but the menu tax only gets worse as new objects and enemies are introduced all at once.

Moreover, while I understand the Pokémon battle appeal of being able to choose the exact perfect monster to fight another monster, the AI of all of your summoned monsters continues to be shit. More often than not, the only viable option remains to summon a rock and toss it.

There continues to be an inappropriate density of monsters on the overworld, and my Zelda keeps getting caught in situations where she can't immediately defend herself, takes three hits, and dies. Resources are extremely limited, so you can't just spam potions. I play FromSoft games for fun, so I don't mind dying, but it's somewhat disheartening to see "Zelda is finally a playable character" getting the crap beaten out of her.

Midway through the first dungeon, Zelda unlocks a phantasmal sword fighter form, but it only last for five seconds. The worst thing is that, for those five seconds, the game is actually fun. I resent that this fun is withheld from the player, and also? I resent the implication that it's not actually Zelda wielding the sword, but rather the spirit of Link who's temporarily possessing her body.

I really want to like Echoes of Wisdom, but it's needlessly frustrating and not very enjoyable to play.

Castaway
https://store.steampowered.com/app/2564860/Castaway/

Castaway is a tribute to Link’s Awakening whose story campaign takes about 35 minutes to play. This campaign functions as a tutorial to the game’s Tower Mode, in which you have one life to climb 51 simple and static floors with very few health drops and no permanent upgrades. Tower Mode is not for me, but the story campaign was a pocket of pure and unadulterated joy.

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Whether this tiny game is worth $8 is debatable, especially if you’re not interested in speedruns or gauntlet survival challenges. I love Link’s Awakening beyond all reason, so I was happy to put down the money to support indie developers while spending 45 minutes in nostalgia heaven. Still, it would have been nice if Castaway had more substance.

During yesterday’s Nintendo Direct, Eiji Aonuma introduced an upcoming Legend of Zelda title, Echoes of Wisdom. In this game, you play as Princess Zelda, and your job is to rescue Link using a magic staff called the Tri Rod, which can summon various objects onto the game map. This ability allows Zelda to solve navigation puzzles by means of Animal Crossing style furniture placement. Zelda can also fight enemies by tossing these objects at them, and then she can summon defeated enemies to fight alongside her.

For reference, this is a normal reaction: Echoes of Wisdom looks like a sweet little game that might be fun to play.

This is my personal reaction: I’m a big fan of 2D Zelda games, and I loved the Link’s Awakening remake for Nintendo Switch. The dungeon-building minigame in Link’s Awakening was flawed, but it had potential. I’m very excited to see this potential realized in its own dedicated game, and I think it’s marvelous that Zelda gets to be the hero of this game. Given that the Switch is nearing the end of its lifecycle, Echoes of Wisdom seems like an interesting experiment with the series formula that might lead to even more intriguing experiments in the next mainline 3D game.

This is my after-dark reaction: So Zelda fights Ganon herself, you say. So Zelda can apparate an infinite number of beds, you say. I wonder how many beds Zelda has to go through before Ganon is defeated, if you catch my meaning.

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TLDR: I would also like monster friends and a wizard staff that magically assembles Ikea furniture.

Yesterday afternoon I gave a short lecture at SUNY Buffalo on Nintendo's "Blue Ocean Strategy" and how industry trends and the constraints of console technology shaped the art direction of the Legend of Zelda series. Trying to summarize the stories of the games in a sentence was difficult.

For example, I couldn't say...

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Korok Costume
https://nekoaq.com/products/korok-costume

This is a series of photos of a grown man wearing a Korok leaf mask over a spandex bodysuit, which you can purchase for yourself if you have $45 and a strong stomach. I can't put my finger on it, but for some reason I find this intensely uncanny and disturbing.

I think, if you really wanted to put together a Korok costume, this would be the way to go:

Hooded Cape: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1549305817/korok-hooded-cape-cloak-tloz-halloween
Mask: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1574205739/korok-mask
Leaf Bag: https://www.etsy.com/listing/995482796/elven-leaf-cross-body-bag-fabric-fairy
Seeds: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1455736109/korok-seed
Shorts: https://www.etsy.com/listing/1497649840/funny-korok-mens-boxer-briefs-funny

Tumblr decided to be cute with a tag autocorrect and ended up making an intriguing casting suggestion.



I have an immense level of apathy for the director of the Zelda movie, and my hopes are not high. The hosts of the Dark Souls podcast suggested that the movie could at least strive to be genuinely bad, perhaps by virtue of an all sex offender cast, with Kevin Spacey playing Ganon. I mean, sure. Sounds legit.