vanguard333

Interesting order. Mine would probably be Rito -> Gerudo -> Goron -> Zora, excluding dungeon approaches (though it is hard to not include the dungeon approaches in the comparison since the Gerudo dungeon approach is technically within the dungeon itself). Yeah; I'm hoping so as well. I suspect, however, that it will be more like a linear gauntlet. I'll be finding out soon since I've completed all the other main story content; I just want to hunt enough monster parts to upgrade certain armour pieces first. I would say Hyrule Castle counts more than it did in Breath of the Wild, since this time around, a certain character forces the player to explore the whole thing this time around. I like the open structure of the castle, but, in Breath of the Wild at least, that was mitigated by the fact that there wasn't much reason to explore the entire dungeon; I just found the quickest route directly to the throne room and fought Calamity Ganon. I agree that the game should've been willing to assume that the player has the sage abilities at that point. EDIT: Yesterday, I fought all four King Gleeoks (three in the sky, and one in the Depths), which was a lot of fun and meant that I had done almost everything in the game (I have by no means 100% the game; not even close; I just mean that I've done every bit of story content, every dungeon, all the sky islands, a lot of the Depths, etc.), so, today, I decided to fight Ganondorf and complete the game. Here are my thoughts on the final boss approach, final boss fight, and ending:

Yeah; the Spirit Temple was really anticlimactic. The Spirit Temple approach is fantastic, and I was really looking forward to the dungeon itself, only for the dungeon to just be a boss arena. I was picturing a combination of ancient ruins and modern factory; that the explanation for the secret stone room being inaccessible would be an elaborate security system that has to be deactivated at 4 or 5 points, etc. The Gerudo dungeon definitely had the best puzzles, with the Goron dungeon being a close second for me (but I actually used the railway carts). However, my overall favourite dungeon would have to be the Rito dungeon, if only because of how much it makes use of the air and gliding and how unique it is. Ah; thanks. Speaking of houses, I like the customizable dream home overlooking Tarrey Town as a concept, and it is by no means bad in execution, but I wish there were more types of connecting rooms and more than one room type that has a door. I basically just use the house I built for storing extra weapons and shields.

Another thing I thought of giving my completed thoughts on, now that I've explored them all: the sky islands. Overall, they are a ton of fun to explore. I'm probably biased because I find sky islands a really cool fantasy concept, so actually being able to explore a set of them seamlessly is really cool and they make great use of the zonai devices and the skydiving mechanic. That said, there is one thing I would've liked to see more of with them. I don't want more sky islands, but I want them to have more context. The Great Sky Island was part of old Hyrule that was lifted into the sky, the flower-shaped islands were made to record bits of the history of the founding of Hyrule, the skydiving challenge islands were a coming-of-age trial for young Zonai, and there's one sky island that's an old Zonai forge... and I've just exhausted the list of sky islands that have any context or history behind them whatsoever. The Sky Islands were probably the game's best opportunity for letting the player uncover knowledge of the lost Zonai civilization, which was already lost around the time Rauru and Sonia founded Hyrule. The skydiving challenge islands are fun, but the fact that they shed a bit of light on Zonai society makes them even better than they would've been if they were just three minigames. I've heard that, if the player has completed the Champion's Ballad DLC on Switch, the group photo will be in Link and Zelda's house in Tears of the Kingdom. Importing pictures for the compendium would've been neat.

There are 20 hearts per row. However, this game, like Breath of the Wild, has it that you can't achieve the maximum for both hearts and stamina. In addition to the shrines, there is one sidequest that offers a choice of either a heart container or a stamina wheel. Including that and all the heart containers obtained from main story bosses, the maximum health & stamina the player can have is 38 hearts and two extra stamina wheels or 40 hearts and 1-&-2/3 extra stamina wheels. In total, there are 152 shrines in the game. Exploring the depths helps a ton with finding shrines, as each lightroot in the depths corresponds to a shrine on the surface; it helped me a lot with finding the last few shrines that I was missing.

Yeah; it was definitely much better on an island that in enclosed areas. Incidentally, I never played the Master Sword DLC quests for Breath of the Wild, or any of the Breath of the Wild DLC; I never bought the DLC and, with the Wii U eshop now closed, I can't. Yeah; the Zonai devices are probably the reason. The zonai devices offer a greater variety in what the puzzles available. Incidentally, only once in Tears of the Kingdom did I solve a shrine puzzle using an unintended method: the very last shrine I did, which involved using ultrahand to combine metal spheres so they roll down a ramp a specific way and hit the target. The first two puzzles I completed as intended, but the very last puzzle was so flimsy that, even though I was sure I had the correct way to arrange the three spheres, they still didn't hit the target. So, I just fused the largest sphere to a two-handed sword and threw it at the target, and it worked! Yeah, 152 shrines is a bit much and makes some of the teleportation points redundant and unneeded. That said, while I could be wrong about the numbers, I think the number of shrines on the surface is the same as in Breath of the Wild: 120 shrines on the surface, and 32 shrines in the sky, so the number of shrines is only larger because of the sky. How close are you to completing the shrines?

I like the ending of Majora's Mask as is, but that is a neat idea. By the way, what do you think of TotK's shrines compared to the ones in Breath of the Wild?

I think the implication in the golden ending is that the goddess of time essentially combined all the loops at the end, making it that everything Link did matter. Maybe that would also solve the bank fraud issue. Otherwise, it would be best that Link never return to Termina. To me, the Hebra ice region felt a lot less like filler this time because there's a stable, a geoglyph, a Great Fairy and a maze in it. But yeah, it was disappointing that the Gerudo Highlands is just the area between the Rito and the Gerudo again. I'd say it's especially disappointing here, at least from my perspective, because I used the Gerudo Highlands in my Breath of the Wild playthrough as the way to get from the Gerudo Desert to the Rito location (I completed the Divine Beasts in this order: Zora, Gerudo, Rito and Goron). Since I went Rito -> Goron -> Zora -> Gerudo this time around, there was no reason to visit the Gerudo Highlands except for the one geoglyph. I finally completed all 152 shrines, so I can give my complete thoughts on the shrines and the reward: The reward: The shrines (no real spoilers; this spoiler tag is just to keep this from becoming long):

I wouldn't know; I've only played Oracle of Seasons. If that is the case, then, with Tears of the Kingdom and Majora's Mask are the only two Zelda games with internally consistent time travel mechanics.

I see. Thanks. In that case, that would be another example of a closed time loop in a game that also has Link outright change the past to affect the present (the Life Tree sapling).

Remember what Ganondorf says when the seal is undone? Ganondorf recognizes Zelda immediately, and, even before Zelda goes back in time, he criticizes how quickly Link was defeated by saying, among other things, "Rauru placed his faith in you". I can't say much more without spoilers, so I'll just say that Rauru didn't learn about Link from any prophecies or anything like that; he learned about Link from Zelda. Exactly. Thanks. Of course, I say that a closed time loop being core to the plot would make it impossible for Nintendo to pull another Age of Calamity, but, the more I think about it, the more I wouldn't be surprised if they pulled another Age of Calamity anyway. Nintendo hasn't exactly been the best at being consistent with how time travel works even within one specific game: Ocarina of Time had both closed time loops and altering events, with the Song of Storms being an example of a closed time loop and the magic beans being an example of altering events in the past to affect the future. Skyward Sword was just as inconsistent, and that time with plot events: the crystal that encases Zelda is an example of a closed time loop, while the Life Tree sapling is an example of Link changing the present by altering the past. And then there's Link somehow killing Demise in the past without changing the present, and that's best left not thinking about too much. What do you think? If Nintendo makes a Warriors spinoff for Tears of the Kingdom, do you think they'll do what Age of Calamity did again?

Yeah, I could definitely see a Warriors game set before and during the Imprisoning War. I'm not sure about a time mechanic, since the memories clearly establish that Zelda's travel to the past is a closed time loop: not of what she did in the past changed anything in the present because the present had already accounted for her presence in the past. Incidentally, I'm glad that the closed time loop is so important to Tears of the Kingdom's story, as it keeps Nintendo and Koei Tecmo from creating a Zonai Construct equivalent of Terrako going back in time and changing events.

Not just one big drug addiction reference; it's very similar to some moments in human history when someone deceived a community into taking something addictive. We have a very recent example of a corporation knowing a substance was highly addictive but pretending it wasn't so they could reap a bigger profit; the Goron situation wasn't done with a profit motive; instead a conquest/sabotage motive, but it's still very comparable. By the way, I made a joke about Nintendo having Koei Tecmo create another Warriors spinoff with misleading marketing, but what do you think are the odds of them making a Warriors spinoff for Tears of the Kingdom?

I'm not either, especially since I can't remember any single-player Zelda game that came with a multiplayer mode. I imagine that part of the death of optional multiplayer also has to do with the rise of online multiplayer. Funny enough, I didn't recognize Yunobo initially when I did the Goron quest (I had forgotten his name in the time since I last played Breath of the Wild since I don't remember names very well), so when his brainwashed self appeared, my first thought was that some brand new Goron character was working for Ganondorf out of greed. Then I saw how NPCs talked about him, realized that was Yunobo, and only then immediately realized that he had to be brainwashed. For me, what made the Goron regional phenomenon interesting was not Yunobo's situation, but the distinct phenomenon that was plaguing the Gorons. I've seen some people describe it as the comparatively more lighthearted and comical regional phenomenon, but I think it's really the opposite; if anything, it's the scariest of the regional phenomena; it's just a lot more subtle about it. There's a certain element of, for lack of a better word, reality to it: tricking a community into taking a highly addictive substance is something a number of empires and government agencies in our actual history have done, and those historical examples came to mind immediately when I saw what was happening to the Gorons. EDIT: I just have six shrines left to find before I find all 152 shrines in the game. I must say, the Depths are very helpful for figuring out the location of the last remaining shrines thanks to the lightroots in the depths corresponding to shrines on the surface. I don't think I would've found all 120 shrines in Breath of the Wild in a reasonable amount of time if I hadn't bought the guidebook for Breath of the Wild, but with Tears of the Kingdom, I'm confident that I can find all the shrines without a guide.

Funny; the order I did the dungeons was Rito-Goron-Zora-Gerudo. I thought it would make sense to save the Gerudo for last since I incorrectly thought the fact that Ganondorf was a Gerudo would factor into that part of the storyline, and, after I completed the Rito storyline, I saw some NPCs in Lookout Landing talk about the Gorons and I thought the game was suggesting I complete the Goron dungeon next. Unfortunately, I can't remember which fingers the rings appeared in. That would be neat. Another option would be Unfortunately, the precedent is that any hope for mission-based multiplayer will be in the form of Nintendo making a Warriors spinoff; this time, Nintendo will claim that it takes place during the Imprisoning War, but it'll actually be about how a Zonai-built celery stick travels back in time and prevents the Imprisoning War from ever happening.

I imagine the problem with trying to make an open world co-op game is that you need to make sure the players stick together and that they're all doing the same quest. I imagine that this is one reason that every multiplayer Zelda game (Four Swords, Four Swords Adventure and Tri Force Heroes) were mission-based and didn't have proper overworlds. Incidentally, I actually really enjoyed playing Four Swords Adventure single-player and I would've liked to see a single-player game with a proper overworld and dungeons use the four Links mechanic that that game used. A co-op side mode for Tears of the Kingdom that's mission-based would be cool. That could work.

Thank you. Incidentally, I've completed almost all the main story quests: I have recruited all the sages and fought the disc-one boss at Hyrule Castle, retrieved the Master Sword and obtained all the Dragon's Tears, so now the game is basically telling me, "You're ready to fight Ganondorf, but you need to explore the Depths more before you can", and I have found 132 of the 152 shrines in the game, so I'm mainly going to be a mix of exploring the Depths and finding the last 20 shrines that I've missed. I have about as many old map treasure locations on my map of the Depths as I have missed shrines. (Spoilers below for anyone who hasn't fought the boss of Hyrule Castle or obtained all the Dragon's Tears):

Which colosseum in the depths? I'm pretty sure there's more than one colosseum in the depths; I found one in the abyss area under Eventide Island and I think I saw another one when exploring another part of the depths.

I know where King Gleeok is; I just haven't fought one yet because I encountered that exact King Gleeok very early in my playthrough and decided "I'm not ready to fight the regular Gleeoks yet; I'm not going to try fighting the king until later". But thanks. In any case, have you obtained any Lynel/Gleeok guts? It's funny; Molduga is an example of what I'd prefer, as I have yet to fight a Molduga that didn't drop Molduga guts. Tulin blowing stuff away has happened to me once or twice, but it's very rare for me. I see. Funny enough, I haven't explored the depths as much as I probably should have at this point (though I have found all the statues and obtained the entire "Of the Depths" armour set), so I still only have the Miner leg armour; I don't yet have the helmet or chest armour. I have encountered Frox and Obsidian Frox quite a few times, so the "Of the Depths" armour set was my best armour set for the longest time, but I have yet to find a Blue-White Frox, so that armour set has fallen behind. Incidentally, I essentially stockpiled Light Dragon parts early on since their healing properties are useful and I completed the geoglyphs quest, restored Korok Forest and obtained the Master Sword about halfway through clearing the regional phenomena, so upgrading the Champion's Leathers: the strongest armour in terms of defense, was really easy for me (upgrading it requires light dragon parts, sundelions and silent princess flowers, all of which I had in abundance).

Trying to use the sages' abilities in combat is annoying, so I usually just leave them to auto-attack. For me, the bigger problem is that it's ridiculously easy to use their abilities accidentally when trying to be stealthy or when trying to collect items on the ground. Tulin usually keeps his distance, so I almost never activate his ability by accident at a bad time, but I can't count how many times Yunobo has run over and incinerated the very insects and plants that I was trying to collect. I'm just glad that nothing bad can happen as a result of Sidon or Riju's abilities being activated accidentally. I didn't mind the map, but that's probably because the picture I took of the map was from a bad angle, so it only gave me a vague, rough idea of where to start looking and I still had to rely on actually seeing them from afar and marking their location on the map. My bad photography kept finding the geoglyphs from being too easy. That said, I did have a similar experience of finding something being too easy: the flower-shaped sky islands that contain ancient text. I found the first one by accident while exploring, saw that Link couldn't read the ancient text, and figured "this is something to come back to after learning the ancient text", so I marked it on the map. When I got the sidequest where a scholar in Kakariko Village asks Link to take photos of the ancient texts on these islands, I looked to my map to find it, and it became clear that each of these islands is clearly visible on the map because, despite being small, they all have a very distinct shape, so I was able to find them just using the map. They're not even hard to reach most of the time, and the game clearly isn't expecting the player to easily find them using the map, as the painter Pikango can be found making portraits of these islands and he points Link to them. One complaint I have about the game: certain monster part drops are far too rare. I'm not going out of my to avoid enemies; I fight most mini-bosses that I come across, but even then, I have been having trouble getting enough materials for certain armour upgrades: 1. Upgrading the soldier armour, fierce deity armour, and royal guard armour requires hinox guts. These are an almost-guaranteed drop from blue and black Hinox thankfully, but, most of the time, I'm finding red Hinox, for whom Hinox guts are an extremely rare drop. So far, I have obtained enough to upgrade the fierce deity armour and two pieces of the soldier armour. 2. Upgrading the royal guard armour also requires Gleeok guts. I've fought at least one of each type of Gleeok except for King Gleeoks. Gleeoks are a very fun, but also very long and reasonably difficult fight, so the monster part drops from these monsters should not be rare. I have yet to obtain even one Gleeok gut. 3. The final upgrades for the fierce deity armour and soldier armour require Lynel guts, which only drop from Blue Lynels, White Lynels, and Silver Lynels. The fierce deity armour parts require two Lynel guts each, and the soldier armour parts require five Lynel guts each. I will admit that I haven't fought very many Lynels, but I have fought at least three, and I have zero Lynel guts. 4. Perhaps the most infuriating one is fire-breath Lizalfos tails. The Yiga armour and Snowquil armour upgrades require fire-breath Lizalfos tails: the Yiga armour require three tails each, and the Snowquil armour parts require thirteen tails each (three for the tier-three upgrades and ten for the final upgrades). Finding fire-breath Lizalfos is very easy and very common in the right locations, and I have dozens of fire-breath lizalfos horns, but I have not obtained nearly enough fire-breath Lizalfos tails for upgrading any of these armour sets. Anyone else having trouble obtaining enough of a certain monster part for armour upgrades?

I'm pretty sure Malledus is supposed to be the villain of Spirit Tracks. I don't think that Shadow Dragon was created with a particular player character in mind. The tactician isn't necessarily the player character; Soren is definitely not the player character of Path of Radiance despite being the tactician.

Having watched the original trilogy for the first time around the time the prequels were releasing (I was only two years old when The Phantom Menace released in theatres), I always interpreted that line in Return of the Jedi as Leia talking about her adoptive mother, not her birth mother. Also, a minor bit of pedantry here, but the word is "pedantry", not "pedantisism".

That makes sense. Incidentally, I don't even remember any of those trailers; the only trailer/commercial for Revenge of the Sith that I remember is one that showed Anakin holding a red lightsaber; something that never actually happens in the movie (aside from when he has Dooku's saber, and that wasn't the scene I remember seeing in the trailer), and I honestly think I'm misremembering that trailer because it's been so long.

Exactly. Audiences know the exact fate of all the characters in Revenge of the Sith, yet it is still a compelling story and the best movie in the prequel trilogy.

I'm only in my 20s; I'm not old! There are probably a multitude of reasons for it. I think what's going on is that these remakes are essentially the movie equivalent of gaming the algorithm: 1. Their name promises something comfortable and familiar. 2. There's still a stigma in the west with animation that animation is just for kids' media, so the idea of a "live-action remake (even though these films are often mostly CGI, making them essentially still animated)" essentially tells anyone who believes that idea, "Here's a version of that movie you loved as a kid that you can now watch as an adult". 3. Since it's an adaptation of a classic kid's movie, it also promises a distraction for the kids, and in this case, an even longer distraction since the remakes are longer than the animated originals. 4. No one dares try to compete with a big budget Disney movie in theatres anymore, so these movies essentially have free reign whenever they're in theatres. 5. These movies always staple on one new song that's out-of-place solely so the movie can be nominated for original song awards. And this isn't the full list of ways in which these movies are essentially two-hour-long clickbait (or, I guess, 'watch-bait', since it's a movie?). I will admit that it had its problems, though I think it was good overall; I brought it up mainly as a more recent example of a direct adaptation that had actual heart & effort.