SkyloftSword

Massive Nintendo and JRPG nerd, TotK’s biggest shill

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More new official Echoes of Wisdom art!

Happy holidays everyone! Nintendo decided to drop this amazing piece of art to celebrate the New Year.

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New Official Art for Echoes of Wisdom

Yet another official piece of art was posted for Echoes of Wisdom!

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How to criticize something vs how NOT to criticize something

Yes, the Zelda fanbase has done it again, for the 100th time or something. They have decided that a game is objectively bad and that anyone who enjoys it is just "coping". The normalization of pushing something subjective as objective fact has been detrimental to discussing games online. It's astonishing how people continue to behave like little kids over stuff that really shouldn't matter that much. Discussions nowadays are better off with just talking with your friend groups, because having a different opinion will get you lashed out at. You NEED to agree with Youtuber #299999 otherwise nobody likes you. This type of stuff is horrible in general, however it makes it so hard to be a Zelda fan especially (even going so far as to being hypocritical like saying TotK fans are the toxic ones despite BotW fans literally DDOSing a reviewer's site and sending them threats).

Anyways, here's what I feel like good criticisms are:

"I personally feel like this game has a couple of issues with it, so I didn't like it that much".

"I would have preferred it if they handled it like this instead." *gives a well thought example of how they would have handled said thing*

"I think this person at this point of their video expresses how I feel better than I could." *links a video*

"I think this could've been better executed, but I respect your opinion."

Good criticisms try to be respectful and constructive. They provide examples of how they would have done something differently or didn't like an aspect of a piece of media. There are also no insults or pushing opinions as fact involved. There's respect for others involved with this as well, acknowledging that people have different tastes and whatnot. Of course, you can word your criticisms differently if you feel mine are too formal or think they're not critical enough. Just be sure to not be too aggressive or hateful.

How NOT to criticize something:

"If you like this game, you're a horrible person."

"How the hell could anyone prefer X 2 over X 1???????"

"Watch this video and you'll realize that you're wrong and I'm right!!!!!!!"

"THIS IS SO MUCH WORSE THAN THE PREVIOUS GAME!!!!!!!" *lists zero reasons as to why*

"FIRE THE DIRECTOR AND PRODUCER OF THIS SLOP!!!!!!!! WORST THING EVER!!!!!"

"YOU'RE *insert insult here* FOR ENJOYING THIS GARBAGE!!!!"

*Insert spongebob eating mediocrity food bowl here*

"There's too much positivity here!" *insert random negativity for no reason*

These are examples of how you criticize the wrong way. As you can tell, it pushes subjectivity out the window and resorts to insults and harassment. The lack of reasoning to back up these arguments also doesn't help at all. How would the people behind the piece of media know how to improve next time? Not to mention, people often just drop negativity or criticisms in the replies of people who just want to talk positively about said media in peace. "There's a time and place for everything, but not now." - Professor Oak.

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Casually doing a TotK randomizer and...

The randomizer really decided to make me emotional. Perfect place for the Leathers to be placed in.

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Echoes of Wisdom is a really great game but... (Review)

I'll admit, I was not hyped for this game so it wasn't too hard for it to live up to my expectations. I enjoyed it far more than I was expecting with the best case scenario. HOWEVER, I do have some gripes with it. Spoiler warning.

Okay so my first issue is the AI of Echoes. They take so long to attack that they often die before they're able to land a hit. I found it very easy to be low on Might Meter, so some fights took FOREVER because the Echoes were being dumb.

Another issue I have with the game is how it feels like a massive retcon. People like to throw that at TotK, but I can easily fit it into the timeline anyways. Fortunately for the game, I hate the timeline! I think a three way split timeline limits them on what they can call back to in a game. So basically, the way THIS world was created was the three goddesses decided to create the world (and the Tris) to stop Null from eating all life. They also renamed the Triforce to Prime Energy for some reason?

Ok done with my gripes. Everything else about this game is super good. The soundtrack was far better than I was expecting based on the previews Nintendo did on Twitter. The story and characters are very good. The dungeons and bosses are some of the best in the series for me as well (especially the final boss).

Overall, Echoes of Wisdom is a really, really good game and my 5th favorite Zelda game now sitting right below TotK, SSHD, MM and Link's Awakening.

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Incredible launch day art for Echoes of Wisdom!

Edit: probably should have clarified that this is official art from Nintendo.

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New official Tears of the Kingdom art dropped for the Master Works book!

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Why Tears of the Kingdom is the Breath of the Wild I was hoping for

Alright, so before I get into my rant. I really like Breath of the Wild. It's a very fun game and the events of 100 years ago are super interesting. It just... unfortunately let me down after Skyward Sword in two aspects that I personally feel Tears of the Kingdom succeeded at for me. Story and dungeons. Also please don't tell me to watch a Youtuber on why TotK is worse than nuclear war. I make my own opinions and my take on TotK is very unlikely to change. I have done 6 playthroughs and still feel this way. Spoiler warning.

Okay, so my issue with Breath of the Wild's story is how it feels like a mess at times. The memories don't even try to tell anything coherent outside of the final few. Some of them even need journals for any payoff as well. This system also limited the Champions from getting any development or character arcs. It took until Tears for me to appreciate them because Hyrule was still grateful for them. Revali's bow being treasured by Teba, Riju prays to Lady Urbosa in her diary, Mipha got Mipha's Court and Sidon's entire character arc was about how her death still haunts him and he doesn't want that to happen ever again. Daruk... got lights added to his statue's eyes I guess. Anyways, Tears' equivalent to them is the Neo Sages. Tulin, Riju, Sidon and Yunobo. They each get their own arc and you can tell how much they have grown since Breath of the Wild. What makes them better here is that they actually are relevant for more than just the Divine Beast boarding segments. Sidon deals with fear of losing his beloved Yona just like how he lost Mipha 105ish years ago, yet Yona and Link bring him to his senses. Riju goes from being stressed out about how she's too weak to defend Gerudo Town from the Gibdos with her aim, but Link returning reassures her. Tulin goes from being arrogant and thinking he can do anything all by himself to realizing that charging ahead all on his own is a bad idea and that working as a team is the best way to do things. Yunobo goes from being a manipulated crack dealer to being cowardly again for a bit to becoming courageous and willing to fight to defend Hyrule. These arcs help me appreciate the characters a LOT more. The Old Sages intentionally aren't fully fleshed out characters and its fine because they're barely on screen (their names are Ruto, Darunia, Nabooru and possibly just Medoh for the Rito Sage). Ganondorf being an actual character really helps as well. He wants to use the godlike power of the Secret Stones to his advantage to achieve total rule of the world (in the English localization at least). Rauru and Sonia are wonderful characters that actually try to help Zelda achieve her goal of returning to her time (nice opposition of Rhoam forcing her to achieve her light powers and being harsh towards her). Unlike the events of 100 years ago, the memories/Tears in this game actually focus on telling what led to the Imprisoning War in a specific order. The events in the memories and Tears also are all relevant and side stuff was pushed to the Stone Monument side adventure. Unfortunately the game is less linear than Breath (which honestly should be the other way around and is a massive storytelling issue), however Impa at least alludes to the order of the Tears when you go to the Forgotten Temple after the first one. The Fifth Sage quest is also an incredible questline that did what BotW should have done. It showed the Imprisoning War and how Ganondorf shouldn't be taken lightly. I seriously feel let down not seeing Link and Zelda fight the Calamity and losing. Also thank god you don't have to do an absurdly tedious backtrack quest to unlock the Camera, Tears, the Champion Leathers and the Kohga fight.

Onto the dungeons. I don't get why people switched up on the Divine Beasts in a positive way. They have a great gimmick and the "fights" are cool but that's it. The puzzles are... fine I guess? The visuals are cookie cutter and so are the bosses in every aspect except gameplay (and are basically just the Calamity split into 1/4). Tears' Temples are legitimately the most enjoyable dungeons in the series for me. The atmosphere, music, puzzles having a large amount of solutions, etc. Not to mention the boss fights actually being unique and very fun this time (BotW had some bangers too like Koshia and Thunderblight) and have unique fight themes that are so, so, so good. Seized Construct might be my favorite non-final battle boss theme for me. Also the pre-dungeon segments actually feeling like dungeons for 4/5 of them really helped make me like them more. Both games also have great and bad Shrines. TotK has far less bad ones and has a much better vibe with it's Shrines.

Anyways, ramble over. Thanks for reading. The only reason I made this post was because I was pissed off due to personal reasons. I love these games and this series so please don't take this as me hating BotW.

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SHEIKAH TECH REFERENCES FOUND

I was just goofing around in TotK for a bit and went into the Hateno Tech Lab and found these drawings of Sheikah Tech. Of course it doesn't answer where it all went but I think its safe to assume that the Guardians were dismantled and used for parts while the Divine Beasts, Towers and Shrines vanished from existence similarly to how the Monks did back in BotW.

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TotK's official song names are so much better than the fan ones. Like TO HER HAND (Last Catch)? OH LINK... I'M HOME (main ending song)? The music of TotK is easily the best in the series for me. I swear this game has only gotten better for me in spite of its flaws. It's not a perfect game, but every single aspect feels like a massive improvement from BotW to me, which was already a great game.

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TotK's full soundtrack is finally out and god that final trailer theme really is perfection. I'm glad I went into this game with low expectations so that trailer wouldn't be ruined for me like BotW's Jan 2017 trailer was (I still loved BotW but I felt let down in some areas TotK didn't disappoint me in).

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Things I’d like to see in Echoes of Wisdom (reuploaded because forgot a few things, also please don’t bring negativity here, I want to be a positive space, I don’t care if you hate what I like, I’m tired of feeling like I’m a villain for enjoying stuff)

I’m not expecting any of this to happen but this is just what I’d personally like to see.

- Zelda using a bow for a weapon

- Zonai characters (we’ve possibly seen Zonai tech so it’s possible)

- Zelda and Link team up at the final battle

- Echoes for bosses and minibosses

- Hood can be toggled between up and down

- Mario enemies and Evil Kirby returning

- Ocarina for warping

- Hylian Soldier Echoes

- Koroks returning and you can summon Echo Koroks to fight for you

- Photo booth like LADX

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At first I really didn’t like how Echoes of Wisdom looked gameplay wise but it’s been growing on me. That being said, Mario Party, Mario and Luigi, Metroid Prime 4 and DKC Returns HD were my personal favorite reveals from the Direct. I will be buying all of these games day one, even Zelda because I am a huge bootlicker for this series.

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Does Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door live up to the hype?

As one of the biggest Origami King fans, I was extremely excited to finally experience this game for the first time with this remake. After seeing constant hype surrounding the game for years, I was hopeful that I would love it. Did I love The Thousand-Year Door Remake? Yes, definitely. I put pretty much 60 hours into it by the time I uploaded this review. Now, before I start shilling the game, I would like to express that i do not think it is perfect. I have three minor issues with the game, all of which are only really issues when it comes to 100%ing the game. Spoilers of course.

First off, the EXP system makes going for Level 99 extremely tedious. This isn't an issue if you're just progressing the main story and not bothering with going for Level 99 since grinding isn't required at all. As you level up, enemies start giving less and less EXP, which you know, whatever. HOWEVER, when you get to around level 30 or so, your only real strong EXP source is Amazee Dayzees. Even these start to fall off as you level up, not to mention the fact that they only have ~10% chance of appearing in battles. Also you need to kill them in one turn, otherwise they'll just run away and you'll get 0 EXP from it. Now, for my second issue, the backtracking. This does kind of affect the story pacing a bit, though I heard it was fixed for some parts of the game. My big issue with this is that you constantly need to go back and forth to Rogueport for Trouble Center quests and for cooking Recipes. The very miniscule inventory space (even with the Pit of 100 Trials upgrade) makes backtracking constantly a necessity for Recipes. But, like I said, this barely affects the main story outside of Chapter 7.

Onto the positives... the story is really good. Each Chapter has their own unique thing going on and it ends up with Mario getting the Crystal Stars to open the Thousand-Year Door. After the end of the Chapter, you then play as Peach and have interesting interactions with the computer of the X-Naut Fortress, TEC. Once you're done with Peach, you play as Bowser in a 2D Mario-style platformer. Each Chapter felt extremely satisfying to complete, except for Chapter 4 where your partners become dumb for plot convenience. The characters are all EXTREMELY charming and help make it easier to get invested into the world and stories. The partners are all incredibly written (Vivian is trans by the way), though I will say, I wish they interacted with each other more. The side characters contribute a lot to the story too, Jolene and Pennington especially stand out for me. The music in the remake is absolutely stellar. Massive upgrades for some songs like Super Luigi. The new tracks also add a lot to the scenes for the partners. The combat in this game is extremely satisfying, but also extremely RNG dependent. Goombella is extremely busted though since she can give Mario an extra turn. The boss fights are great as well and filled with charming dialogue.

Now, did Paper Mario: The Thousand-Year Door live up to all the hype I've been seeing surrounding it all these years? Yes. It isn't a perfect game, but no game is and that's okay. I will forever be a fan of this game AND Origami King. Thanks for reading.

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Hey Zelda fans,

I'm not a developer for the Zelda Team. Stop telling me how much you hate the game. Its annoying and makes me want the series to have an actually bad game. I'm not interested in your takes on the game after all the harassment I have received over it. People should be allowed to praise a game without being told negative stuff. I could very easily do the same shit to Ocarina of Time fans because I really, really do not like that game outside of its dungeons. But, you know what? I don't, its annoying.

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NEW TOTK ART NEW TOTK ART NEW TOTK ART

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Happy First Anniversary to Tears of the Kingdom

Happy anniversary to the game that made me lose my sanity all of last year, Tears of the Kingdom. Thanks for being the closest thing I can have to therapy (my state hates neurodivergent people for some reason). I've gushed about this game enough already.