beard ひげ @beardalaxy@gameliberty.club

Zelda is like my Lord of the Rings. There is so much rich history there. Is it any wonder anyone but general audiences hated Rings of Power? If someone completely detached from the original writings of Tolkien came out with a new book set 10,000 years into the future that rewrote certain things and left out others, how do you think the fans of LotR would react? It doesn't make a difference that Middle Earth was deliberately crafted down to every detail and that Zelda wasn't necessarily. The writers and director still have to uphold the lore that does exist for it to be successful with its core audience. So I think a lot of the problem in general is that the core audience may no longer be the target audience because it isn't as lucrative. Younger kids and general audiences are more important because, now that gaming is a massive industry, companies stand to gain more by trimming off that core audience and appealing to a much wider demographic.

TL;DR: The writing of Tears of the Kingdom devalues the rest of the franchise while cheesing out old fans. They had lots of great opportunities to make the story amazing and tie it in to the rest of the timeline but decided to go in a completely opposite direction and the game much worse because of that. The gameplay is pretty dang good though and that makes for a very conflicting experience. Without the gameplay additions, it would be my least favorite Zelda game.

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When I first started playing Tears of the Kingdom, I was convinced that it was a near-perfect game, one of the greatest of all time. The more I played, the less I wanted to play it and the more I saw the cracks, especially in the narrative (but also just in how long the game was without feeling like I was being given much in return for my time investment). The more time that passes since playing Tears of the Kingdom, the more it has been grinding my gears, particularly in the story department and the lack of respect the writers/director seem to have for the rest of the series.

The team had every opportunity to tie Tears to the rest of the timeline. Breath of the Wild set an incredible stage for that, and even with the trailers of Tears there were SO many avenues to take.

They could have easily tied it in to Skyward Sword and/or Twilight Princess.

Skyward Sword has a lot of the same sort of ancient technology from people not very well known about. They could have had Ganondorf channel Demise into an ultimate form of some sort. Demise could have been sealed within the Master Sword this entire time, and it breaking could have released him. There could have been a time loop that resets Hyrule back to the Skyward Sword era, maybe even with a way to finally break the curse and alter history. Everything from the way Ganondorf looked when he was powered up, to the tears themselves, to dragons being prominent, to the ouroboros logo of the game was hinting at that sort of thing.

Twilight Princess, Ganondorf gets a massive chest wound in the events of that game and ultimately, the Master Sword is driven through his chest at the end of the game to kill/seal him. Ganondorf in the TotK trailer looked incredibly similar to TP Ganondorf, even down to having Rauru's seal on his chest. On top of that, you have the Zonai bearing some resemblance to the Twili, with dragon iconography. The trailer music had vocal parts that sounded like Midna's speech and some vocal parts in TP. Twilight Princess also has tears as an item.

The Zonai could have ended up being the interlopers that turned into the Twili, or they could have been the ones who stayed in the skies after the events of Skyward Sword. Hell, I'm sure with enough creativity they could have even been both.

The game also completely throws away any and all mystique surrounding the Sheikah. That was a massive part of BotW, the Sheikah tech which nobody knows where it came from or really how to even operate it for the most part. Totally swept under the rug. Could have had some really cool tie-ins with the Zonai, or just any sort of recognition would have been appreciated.

The opportunities in the story/worldbuilding department for this game were boundless and they took NONE OF THEM. Instead, Aonuma decided he wanted Zelda to go down a completely different path, actually stating that he thinks the only reason people like the old Zelda games is because of nostalgia. In the same interview, he says that they want to still cater to the old fans of the series but what does that actually represent when it comes to the game itself?

I'll tell you what it represents. A bunch of shameless easter eggs. Every single cosmetic item from every single Zelda game shoved in as (non-upgradeable) rewards for beating enemies or solving puzzles in an open space. Names of locations that have absolutely zero explanation or cool stories beyond just the text on the map. "Dungeons" that only resemble dungeons from old Zelda games cosmetically and are actually worse than the Divine Beasts from a gameplay standpoint. Zelda's dialogue while she's more or less "knighting" Link in Breath of the Wild references completely different games from different timelines depending on the language you're playing in, for hell's sake.

The worst offender of all is the nerve they had to call the fight between Ganondorf and the Sages "The Imprisoning War." That's the exact same name of the war that took place in between Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past. That's talked about very early on in the game, and so many people (including myself) thought it was a direct confirmation of the timeline placement for the new games, but they pulled a bait-and-switch and well, it was just CALLED the same thing. It's not even a war, it was one battle. They couldn't have called it anything else?? Seriously, who greenlit this? Someone can correct me if I'm wrong, but I'm pretty sure NOWHERE ELSE in the Zelda franchise is one event referred to by the same name as another one. They're all totally distinct and have their own relevance to the story of the game you're playing, as well as an impact on the rest of the timeline.

So thank you, Aonuma. Your dedication to making these new Zelda games "their own thing" and "better than the old games" has actively degraded how actually well crafted the rest of the series was, despite being developed out of order without much planning. I can't believe I'm saying this, but this infuriates me just about as much as The Last of Us 2 did. Sometimes sequels just don't deserve to be made and I think that, unfortunately, Tears of the Kingdom is one of those cases.

Tears was originally supposed to be an expansion for Breath of the Wild, much in the same way that Majora's Mask was originally an expansion for Ocarina of Time. I don't know what the original scope was, but it obviously quickly got out of hand to the point where they had to spend 6 years developing it into its own game. I think that, story-wise, they bit off way more than they could chew and it really shows, right down to the ludonarrative dissonance literally everywhere and using the same story-telling mechanism as BotW which doesn't work here nearly as well.

It's really unfortunate because the gameplay, or at least the concept of the gameplay, is fantastic. I think its novelty does wear off a bit later on but it's still incredibly innovative and fun. The dungeons are subpar, and they added even more shrines for some godforsaken reason, but the addition of caves was cool, there were some cool new enemies and mini-bosses, and I enjoyed seeing the old characters grow up a little. It's just a shame that, for Nintendo's most story-focused franchise, they did the dumb Nintendo thing and decided to focus solely on the gameplay while letting the story fall completely to the wayside. It was just decided that they'd write whatever the hell they wanted, whether it made sense or not, whether it was actually tied in to the rest of the games or not, and then added a bit of cheese on top of it so that the old Zelda fans would look at it and say "look, they remember us!!"

There are Zelda games that I fully dislike such as Minish Cap. There are some I have a bit of a hard time playing like Twilight Princess due to its wolf gameplay. This is the first Zelda game I'm extremely conflicted on, and if it weren't for the heaps of cool, new mechanics and world elements they added to Tears of the Kingdom I'm pretty sure it would be my least favorite Zelda game just by nature of what it is and what it DIDN'T set out to do.

Fucking hell man I was trying so hard not to succumb to the sleepiness because I knew if I did I'd be fucked for work... I fell asleep IN MY CHAIR only for like 30 minutes and now all of my energy is back Dx

mfw i put the blu-ray drive in my pc but forgot to connect it to my motherboard

official erotic nobeta body pillow cover 😭

https://www.amiami.com/eng/detail/?scode=GOODS-04434491-S001

Pretty good video here on why men love playing as girls in video games.

I had ALWAYS played as male characters, self-inserts, until I got on Phantasy Star Online 2. That game has different stats for the different genders, and playing as a girl gave me the stats I wanted so I did that. I've never been the same, I play as a girl almost all the time now. The only exception is when there are good beard options (basically no games tbh) or if the girls in the game don't look aesthetically pleasing or don't fit the vibe (not gonna' play as a girl in Halo). I also gave up on the idea that I HAD to play as a self-insert all the time and started getting attached to the PSO2 character I had created. Not in like a weird romantic way but I like her a lot as a character and I enjoy playing as her in a lot of different games. She just looks cool and has a cool vibe, idk. I've definitely noticed that my personality shifts a bit when I play as her too, like taking on the role of the character. Kind of like you would playing D&D or something.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=3dEiZn6mllU

Well, with all the Steam gifts I got from my friends here's what I picked up!

- Metal Hellsinger. I played the demo for this a while ago and was hooked for the whole thing. It's right up my alley, with how much I liked DOOM 2016 and being a rhythm gamer, plus a big metal fan, I can't say no to that. Thanks to my buddy for gifting me that after I sent him Getting Over It xD

- Rollercoaster Tycoon 3. Actually, my favorite theme park building simulator game. I like it more than the other ones in the series and even more than Planet Coaster, which I thought relied way too heavily on the Steam Workshop and DLC. I had the Gold version of the game physically when I was a kid, and actually bought it with money I had saved up for MONTHS only to find out that my computer couldn't run it. So my experience with it was exclusively at my uncle's house xD Great game though, honestly.

- OTXO. A YouTuber I watch from time to time had a great video about this one being a spiritual successor to Hotline Miami. I fuck with Hotline Miami and this seems right up my alley. I actually gifted it to my roommate who loves HM a little while ago and he really liked it, so I'm stoked to try it out. This and RCT3 were gifted by my best friend, who knows me better than I know myself sometimes xD I sent him some Star Wars games we used to play back in the day like Republic Commando and the Command & Conquer remaster.

- Hot Wheels Unleashed 2. I've been super interested in picking this one up ever since it was announced. I "got" the first one and really liked it, and the second one appears to be an improvement in every way so buying it was a no-brainer. I'm a big racist when it comes to games so I'll enjoy this one for sure. Thanks to one of my roommates for the gift card that let me buy this!

- Ghostrunner 2. Another game where I played the first one and absolutely loved it, so naturally the second one I was very interested in. I'm a little bit worried that it won't be as good as the first, which is what happened with Shadow Warrior, but I'm hoping it'll at least be enjoyable. This is pretty much a mix of a lot of my favorite games, so I'm still really excited to play it. Thanks to my other roommate for the gift card for this one!

Overall, pretty great Christmas! I'm waiting on an Amazon card from another roommate, no idea when that's gonna' get here or if he even actually sent it in the first place lol but I'll probably pick up another blu-ray :) I also have another hundo from my dad, no idea what I'm gonna' do with that. I'm thinking I'll save it just in case the low hours I'm getting at work stagnate to help get me through to Spring, but if I get more hours again I'll grab that Sonic Symphony concert ticket. I got him a Christmas CD from a musician he really likes, which I never would have thought of if I didn't watch those old VHS tapes.

Then of course I'm super glad I got that blu-ray drive from my mom, with two of my all time favorite movies! I'll definitely be watching those as soon as I get the thing installed, which might be easier said than done haha. I will update y'all on how that goes xD she got me some food gift cards as well so that's nice :3 I gave her a book that my grandma published about her grandparents coming to the US and meeting each other. I'm not much of a reader, but I know she'll like it and more importantly, keep it safe, because I'm not sure how many copies of that book are actually out there and my grandma is so off the grid that I'm not sure if she's even alive, as morbid as that sounds.

Hope you all had a great Christmas as well! For me, there was a lot of giving and a lot of receiving this year which is perfect! I love that I'm in a place where I can actually give people presents and I hope that continues because I feel horrible when I can't reciprocate the love from people. I know that everyone does it without expecting anything in return, and for people I bought stuff for that didn't get me anything that's exactly how I feel too! I bought stuff for people because I like them and I wanted to give them stuff. It's just a little hard for me to accept charity.

Merry Christmas everyone! :) and a radical fucking new year, yeah? Let's chase our dreams in 2024! That's my theme for the year and I hope you will all find success and happiness as well :)

Well, I'm not getting any younger and I'm not getting any more tired. Let's do a little bit of work on the game. I'm still going to force myself to take a bit of a break, but I'm away from home and can't sleep so we're gonna have a slight change of plan lol.