Ganon plays Phantom Hourglass - Part 1

"Let the old kingdom of Hyrule drown under the ocean" they said... "We'll find a new, better Hyrule" they said... "We don't need stuff like the Triforce or the Sacred Realm anymore"... Gahahaha! Don't you fools see that the goddesses betrayed you? Hyrule, the land that contains all the history and lore of the Zelda timeline, has been destroyed, and now in its absence, this abomination of a game is the best they could come up with GAHAHAHAHAHAHA!

Ah but let's not be so quick to judge, Ganon. You know all too well what it's like to underestimate things... certain young swordsmen dressed in green for example?

How dare you talk to the King of Darkness like that!

More like the king of deadness now! And I am a king too you know! I am Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule! I am also known as the King of Red Lions.

... oh yeah that's right, Master Sword and all that. Still, even being turned to stone I can tell this game is garbage. It takes place directly after Wind Waker, yet it's nowhere near as good! Clearly, Zelda games just aren't the same with me gone... If you hadn't made that damn wish to drown Hyrule, I could've been revived again and made the series more interesting!

You and me Ganon, we are the same. We have lived regretting the past, both clinging to the ruins of old Hyrule. That's why I wished for the destruction of Hyrule. I believe there lies promise in a new future for the Zelda timeline, a new Hyrule in a different place, that doesn't involve the triforce. The goddesses flooded Hyrule, and in doing so they created a hope new original Zelda stories to happen in future games.

Very well, then... Allow me to show you... This future of yours... just what hope you have...

See how much your precious triforce-less world is worth! I'll play through this game myself and destroy any hope you have!

More reasons to be excited about Skyward Sword

Skyward Sword is just 4-5 months away from release, and the game just seems to be getting better and better the more info we get on it. These 3 video interviews with Nintendo of America reveal some interesting info about Skyward Sword, and the Zelda series in general.

The Legend of Zelda:Skyward Sword - Timeline, Series Future, Forging Hyrule - GoNintendo


Let's break down what was talked about...

Majora's Mask was done in Japan before localization in the states started. Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess both used simultaneous localization.

In most cases, the localization of Zelda games happen simultaneously with the game development, but in MM's case, it was such a unique game, with many Japanese culture references, it would've been incredibly hard to localize for English audiences. Instead, they waited until the game was finished to start the localization, so they could focus on properly translating and interpreting all the foreign stuff. For this reason, there was a 6 month wait between the Japanese release and the North American release. The differences between the Japanese and US versions of MM are minimal, because they put a lot of effort into localizing the game while keeping true to the original meanings.

I think with other Zelda games, they actually take longer to release because the localization is happening simultaneously with the development, and so the developers have to take the localization into account when developing the game. Majora's Mask is an example of what can happen with the Zelda series when the Japanese have no regard for localization... a weird, creepy, deep and emotional game that departs from the usual Zelda stories. Link's Awakening was like this too, as the developers of that game treated it as a side project, and basically just did whatever they wanted with it...

With Skyward Sword, they've been doing the localization simultaneously with the development. Given the amount of time they've spent SS so far (apparently they've been working on SS since 2009), I'm very interested in seeing how it turned out.

Skyward Sword ties into Ocarina of Time

This was already known, but hearing it again from the horses mouth, specifically saying it "ties in" to Ocarina of Time, doesn't it sound exciting? You know there's going to be a lot of cool connections and references to OoT.

Nintendo fears that if they put out an official timeline, they'll be limited with future Zelda ideas. There is a a master document for the Zelda timeline which contains overall plans for the series, but it's kept under wraps.

Miyamoto often likes to "tip the tea table" on Zelda development, making the developers change or remove story elements to make the game easier to understand for non-Zelda fans. It is a long-running tradition in the Zelda series to make the stories as simple and self-contained as possible, while only loosely connecting to other games through references and hidden meanings. They do this not to remove the notion of a timeline, but to keep the timeline open ended enough so they can add games in between other games in the timeline wherever they want. They have an official timeline, including ideas for future games and their timeline placements, but they keep it secret for the purpose of being able to change and add to it along the way.

Skyward Sword will be 'tremendously expansive'

Imagine soaring through the wide open sky world, discovering dozens of floating islands hiding within them many secrets and treasures, and in certain areas you find connections to the Earth world below. Then you go down to Hyrule, where you are overwhelmed by a vast landscape with dungeons, forests, mountains, and fields. The combination of the Sky World and Hyrule makes an amazing potential for an expansive and atmospheric world...

Spirit Tracks high playthrough comments, part 4

Decided to go do more of the side content before finishing the game... there's actually a lot of cool stuff you could miss easily.

There's some mini dungeons including Disorientation Station, Ends of the Earth Station, Lost at Sea Temple... there's also a fun sidequest where you search for rabbits in the scenery while riding the train... most of the sidequests reward you with materials for train parts, and those can be used to make various different looking trains with different stats... I managed to get the gold train after beating all the sidequests and minidungeons, and doing some grinding to get some rare materials...

I really like how Zelda mostly just complements you on figuring things out, she doesn't point out where you need to go as much as Navi or other Zelda game companions do.

The top floors of the Spirit Tower is the coolest part of the game yet.. the atmosphere is insane, as you have to avoid phantoms and explore in pitch darkness... the Bow of Light can get through the darkness... and the compass of light leads to the demon train. All of the puzzles here require Link and Zelda to use teamwork in unique ways.

That whole final boss sequence was incredibly epic... chasing down the demon train, and then using both Link and Zelda to fight Malladus... and that Duet song... I was like in tears from this ending, the feels were just too powerful...



---
Part 3

Shigeru Miyamoto's Zelda timeline craziness

This interview with Miyamoto explains a lot about why he often disregards the timeline in the Zelda games.

Iwata Asks: Ocarina of Time 3D with Shigeru Miyamoto

In regards to why there are so many inconsistent plot connections between Zelda games that don't always make sense:

The stories in The Legend of Zelda may not match up as the series progresses. We actually expend a lot of time trying to make them match up, though. It would make things a lot easier if the players said, "Oh, that doesn't really matter."

He also goes on to say this:

But the moment I say Yoshi lays eggs so Yoshi must be a girl, they'll say, "Then Yoshi's voice needs to sound more like a girl's!" But I want to make video games without having to worry about such background info. Take the animated series Popeye, for example. In old cartoons like those, the roles of the characters were different every time.

Even though the setting was different each time, the characters you knew and loved would come out and perform. Well, the Mario games are set up like that. It would be much easier if we could use any setting in The Legend of Zelda while preserving the essential relationship between Link, Ganon and Zelda.

Heh, I think I'm beginning to understand Miyamoto's insanity a little now. This kind of reasoning

Spirit Tracks high playthrough comments, part 3

Sand Temple... this is the most "Zelda 1" looking dungeon in the game yet so far. It's much more non-linear right from the beginning... I don't even know if I'm going the right way or not at first.

Pirate Stalfos! Sand Wand! epic...

Did the temple shift around after I got the sand wand? or am I just way too high?
These puzzles are really something... need to get sand onto the floor... took me a while to realize I could walk on those rolling spike things... sand boulder catapult thing...
oh cool, got a pirate necklace... the trading items from WW return in this..
wow, I like how this uses 3d height perspectives in a mostly 2d game..

This game has some messages on the wall with cryptic hints, similar to Link's awakening or the old man hints in Zelda 1... it doesn't spell it out for you at all.

and the puzzles involving marking stuff on the map with the touch screen, something that Phantom Hourglass did really well, are expanded upon further in this game too...

The King of Hyrule is a jerk

This comic shows who the true villain of The Wind Waker was all along.

Source: http://hiimdaisy.livejournal.com/

Wind Waker in a nutshell: An angry boat uses Link to do his bidding and restore the triforce so he can use it to flood an ancient kingdom.

Spirit Tracks high playthrough comments, part 2

This game actually makes you literally TALK to the game characters using the DS's microphone... how embarrassing...
That moblin pirate battle was some epic stuff... I wasn't expecting that at all.
Locomo... I wonder if they're related to the old Hyrule somehow...

Wait, so the land of Spirit Tracks is divided into 4 regions.. Forest, Snow, Ocean, and Canyon... that sounds very similar to the 4 regions of Termina.

oh wow... in the Ocean section the train tracks actually go beneath the ocean... there are underwater octoroks shooting at you and stuff... this is amazing...
running backwards away from a demon train to get to the temple...
woah, the Ocean Temple looks like a giant crystal switch... like the ones from LttP... that's really neat.
The inside of this Ocean temple looks a lot like OoT's Water Temple.

Back to the Spirit Tower... the next floor ramps up in difficulty a bit... this actually feels comparable to the early game of LttP or LA.

I love the puzzles in this dungeon... using Phantom Zelda to lure the other phantoms away from Link with her cuteness...

Spirit Tracks high playthrough comments, part 1

This was my first playthrough of Spirit Tracks. I played through it mostly entirely while high and wrote some notes on it. I was surprised at how good this game was after Phantom Hourglass being a bit of a disappointment.

From wind conductor to train conductor... the next incarnation of Link is the hero of... trains!

This New Hyrule looks sweet, kinda gives me classic LttP vibes.
Princess Zelda calling Link up to her room... giggity

I noticed there's no moat at this new Hyrule Castle... I guess this continent is very dry...

The tower of the Spirit Tracks... an entrance to the Spirit Realm... this is interesting... it's like there's a world of darkness looming over Hyrule in the sky... the environment around this Spirit Tower area is incredibly powerful... reminds me of OoT kinda.

Niko is this Link's grandfather... so he's not blood related to WW Link, but instead is related to one of the pirate characters in WW... and Tetra is this Zelda's grandmother...

Zelda entered the Spirit Realm and became a ghost... she's now this game's navi. I'm okay with this...

Wow, I'm having a ton of fun with this game and I haven't even picked up a sword yet... o_O

Why Skyward Sword is doing everything right

Just like the Dark World/Light World system in The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, Skyward Sword also takes place in 2 separate worlds.

The Sky

The sky world is just like the sea in Wind Waker, in that it's a huge free roaming area with many islands. Instead of a boat or a horse, you travel by bird. The sky world is a heavenly realm that some speculate to be the Sacred Realm, the resting place of the Triforce. That could be the case...

Other sailing/ocean exploration games worth playing

Wind Waker's vast ocean overworld had such a great atmosphere, it really gets you into the mood of sailing the open seas. The wind carries you across the bobbing waves, as you roam the camera around looking for islands off in the distance, and filling out your sea chart. This game was sailing done right.

In case Wind Waker leaves you thirsty for more epic maritime adventures, here's a list of other epic games involving seafaring exploration.