vanguard333

I don't know about Samus Returns (as I haven't played it), but I have to disagree about Shadows of Valentia, since I consider it a remake that doesn't walk across that fine line but instead jumbles all over that line and instigates a war between both sides of the line.

I find it a bit odd that you made that response when, not only did I never say anything along the lines of "primary theme", but you quoted and highlighted the part where I prefaced, "For just one example". I placed no particular emphasis on it as an example, and I picked it as an example because I figured it was the one I could most-concisely reference and criticize before moving on to the next point.

I agree that it is pretty clever. It's probably what I would do if I were told to remake a game where some of its plot twists have become common knowledge: put an increased focus on the ones that aren't quite so famous. To be honest, I do agree with everyone who complains about the plot-time-ghost things (I'm not far enough in the game to know what they're called) and how the game turns out to be more of a stealth-sequel than an actual remake, though my perspective isn't as a fan, but as someone who knows about the Final Fantasy series but has never played an FF game before, as I thought a remake of 7 would be a good starting point, so getting some kind of stealth-sequel kind-of alienates me from some of what's in the game. *** As for Shadow Dragon, that's a great point: I think people do tend to forget a lot of the additions that Shadow Dragon made just because the script and levels were kept the same. One addition that I particularly enjoyed was the prologue added to the beginning of normal mode; I thought it added a lot to ease players in and also make Marth more endearing, as we actually get to see him react to Gra's betrayal and the fall of Altea.

I did say that some might end up feeling that way; I just simply doubted that it would be a majority. I mean, I know that people tend to look back on stuff with rose-tinted glasses, but are we seriously going to do that for Fire Emblem Fates? Anyway, "At least Fates knew what it wanted to be from the outset and stayed true to its themes and ideas" the only way that statement holds is if theme and idea you're referring to is that of, "Throw it all in! Whatever you can think of, just throw it in regardless of if it makes sense!" Almost everything in Fates is tacked on and thrown in as if they just threw in everything they could brainstorm in the hopes that some of it would resonate with players (I'd list some examples, but I fear that the list would never end), and a lot of this stuff completely goes against any themes or ideas that the story does try to establish. For just one example, "Blood family vs adopted family" is thrown out the window because they had to make it that you could s-support the royals because they felt the game had to appease those that want to s-support every character on account of wanting the game to appease everyone, so the Hoshidan siblings had to be written as not actually being blood-siblings to Corrin. Are you seriously suggesting that the Pokémon model of having to buy every route separately (unless, like me, you bought the expensive special edition that could only be pre-ordered) is superior to having all the routes in the one game? Or if you're saying the route split is better because it happens at chapter 5 instead of chapter 1 and thus theoretically had more time to get to know each side, well again; you bought one of the versions first, so you already made your choice when you bought it and knew nothing about the characters in each faction. So Three Houses is still the better route split. As for worldbuilding, the worldbuilding in Fates was practically nonexistent, and what little scraps of worldbuilding were there fell apart under the slightest bit of scrutiny or the moment a single question about it was asked. There's practically nothing to the world of Fates, to the point where they didn't even name the continent. By contrast, a lot can be said about Fodlan. The wordbuilding isn't perfect, but it's actually there, and at least a significant amount of it is utilized by the plot. You levy that criticism of each route at Three Houses, but that same criticism can by-and-large be made towards Fates as well. I can't agree or disagree about Nemesis as I'm not that far into Verdant Wind yet. Nor can I really say anything about your remarks about Dimitri as I haven't played Azure Moon yet. Again, that same criticism can be levied at Fates. Half the the time that I bring up Fates nowadays, it's in the context of, "this particular idea here had potential; shame that the game was a mess in execution that failed to actually use this neat idea". I'm sorry; what?! Fates is bad across the board: story, characters, worldbuilding, combat, level design, world design, class balancing, etc. The gameplay is a nightmare of tacked-on gimmicks. For instance, with map/level design, Conquest and Revelation's maps may as well be called, "tedious gimmick: the game". What's the worst thing you can accurately say about Three Houses' map/level design? That they're a bit bland and overly reused? I'd take any day over games whose maps are filled with gimmicks that only serve to add tedium rather than any strategic value. And, with Three Houses, at least the combat mechanics actually fit together nicely, unlike Fates' tacked-on mechanics that reek of wanting to appease Awakening fans and older-game fans at the same time. The monastery is also miles better than MyCastle. Etc. And at least the characters in Three Houses are actually characters, rather than a collection of one-note quirks, glorified plot devices, and a mary sue at the center of it all. Fates somehow failed to make an interesting protagonist out of a human/dragon hybrid that was (supposedly) born to one royal family, raised by another, and has to watch as those kingdoms go to war with each other. That's like having all the ingredients, proportions, and recipe books for a delicious meal only to end up with something not even mice would eat. I'd say that both Three Houses and in the "they try a lot and get a large amount of it right" camp. They're both games that can, gameplay-wise, be made almost irrelevant by a polished sequel. I disagree about Fates' gameplay, but I agree with your overall point. Three Houses will likely age poorly after getting a sequel that uses its engine and mechanics, but that doesn't make it bad, and Fates is not going to get re-evaluated; at least, not in any significant way. I suppose. For me though, if I may borrow that script comparison, Shadows of Valentia only has half a script that appears and disappears at random points, and the different parts fight each other. For all of Shadow Dragon's lack of expansion on anything, at least what was there is all in agreement. I agree about Mae and Boey. I disagree on Jedah and Berkut. Berkut never amounted to anything more than filler; you could remove him entirely and lose absolutely nothing except for a good voice actor. Jedah is one of the characters I'd point to as an example of one of the ways that the game fights itself: it's as if there was one team of writers that wanted to retain his original "personality" as much as possible, and another that wanted to overhaul him into a somewhat well-intentioned (if self-centered) extremist who genuinely believes that Valentia cannot survive without Duma, and the two teams just could not agree with each other or find common ground. One minute, he's cackling about creating a world of darkness under Duma's shadow, and the next he's practically pleading with the protagonists that Valentia can't survive without Duma, and these moments strongly clash with each other. Okay; if that's what it sounds like, that's definitely not what I meant. I guess I was more trying to say that voice acting doesn't inherently make a remake better than a remake that didn't add voice acting. Also, films and video games are different mediums with different strengths and weaknesses. I agree about voice acting being on a different axis from the script, but I disagree that it inherently adds to the presentation of a video game. Don't get me wrong; done well and in the correct games that would benefit from it, it can potentially add a lot. But it can also do nothing or even detract from the experience overall. SoV is definitely an example of voice acting adding a bit to the game, but I don't think it's nearly enough to make up for its far greater shortcomings as a remake than Shadow Dragon.

Oh, yeah; he could have. You're welcome. I completely understand.

I doubt this. There will certainly be some who think this, but they will undoubtedly be far from the majority. Both games have similar problems of IS biting off more than they could chew, but Three Houses at least has clear focus, and the stuff that it does well, it does very well. It's a lot like Breath of the Wild in that regard: it isn't great overall, but it does get right the things that were core to it and does very well at those things. Fates, meanwhile, is an unfocused and scattered mess. People will look back on it and notice things about it that had potential (as even I have done), but those are not things that were good; just things that could've been good. As far as "not as bad as people made it out to be"; that will only be true if talking about people who acted as if Fates was the worst game ever made, and I don't recall a single person going that far. Anyway, here's my unpopular opinion: Shadow Dragon is a more enjoyable game and a better remake than Shadows of Valentia. At least Shadow Dragon knew what it wanted to be: a 1:1 remake with some added conveniences and improvements here and there. You won't expect much from it, but it delivers everything you would expect from it. Shadows of Valentia can't decide if it wants to be a 1:1 remake, a full-overhaul remake, or something in-between, and the result is an awkward mismatch that's far less than the sum of its parts. Seriously, why is Shadows of Valentia considered the better remake? Is it because it has voice acting? What's the point of having decent voice acting if the script is bad (and, unlike Shadow Dragon, doesn't even have the excuse of being a barebones script from the early 90s)?

I see. I should probably say at this point that I know absolutely nothing about the Megaman X series; I was more of a Battle Network/Star Force fan. In fact, every time I read the name "Colonel" in your description of how you'd implement the visions, my mind kept immediately thinking of the Battle Network character. Thanks.

Hm... I'm not sure. I think a large part of it would probably come down to how you choose to frame it. Perhaps, if you really wanted to avoid it being viewed in a similar way, it might be best to package it as essentially a "bonus campaign" for returning players and for newcomers to play after finishing the main game (if such a thing would even be feasible as an option), though you then run the risk of people complaining that you essentially play the game twice to get a golden ending. Same; I find both kinds of remakes interesting. By the way, what did you think of my other points, like my three main things I think a remake needs, or the question of if a remake can truly be completely faithful to everything that made the original good if one of the things that made it good was an important twist that's now common knowledge, or my argument for why Shadows of Valentia is a worse remake than Shadow Dragon?

My opinion on whether I prefer a 1:1 remake like Ocarina of Time 3D and Shadow Dragon, a more full-overhaul remake like Final Fantasy 7 Remake, or something in-between honestly depends on the particular game, so I don't really mind either approach too much. If I really had to break down what I think a remake needs, I suppose it would mainly be the following: 1. I think a remake should look like what the game devs would've made the original be if they had today's tech. For something like Ocarina of Time, the core game could be played today without too many indicators that the game was made in 1997, so a 1:1 remake fits quite a bit. For Final Fantasy 7, I don't know how the game has aged since I've never played it, but I could easily see them having made something along the lines of Final Fantasy 7 Remake in terms of world design & gameplay if you gave them today's hardware and knowledge. 2. I think a remake needs to understand what people liked about the original; a remake needs to remain faithful in some way to the things that made the original good. Majora's Mask 3D has proven divisive because a lot of its changes were appreciated by newcomers but were criticized by a number of fans for essentially breaking a lot of what made the game unique, and those detractors of the remake often cite how a lot of the development team was made up of people who didn't like Majora's Mask and that the remake was reluctantly spearheaded by Eiji Aonuma, who famously suffered a breakdown during the game's rushed development and looks back on the game with dread, and they often cite how, in preparation for the remake, he went back and played the original, but in the mindset of looking for things he regretted implementing and making a list of things that he felt needed to be changed, rather than looking at what actually worked about the game. Basically, a lot of them say that Aonuma was the wrong person to spearhead the remake's development because he didn't understand what made the game good in the eyes of its fans. Interestingly, both a 1:1 remake and a full-overhaul remake are equally capable of doing this in their own ways. However, there's increased risk in the case of a full-overhaul remake because the more you change, the more you risk throwing something good in the garbage. With Ocarina of Time 3D, the dev team's main goal was "don't mess this up", to the extent that they even went out of their way to preserve all glitches that weren't game-breaking or didn't result in permanently missing out on content simply because they knew part of the fanbase enjoyed stuff like the Jabu-Jabu in the Adult Timeline Glitch; they wanted to translate the game from the N64 to the 3DS without losing any components of the game's appeal. For Final Fantasy 7 Remake, one thing I see from a lot of fans is that the new world design, gameplay, presentation, etc. are all very faithful to what was appealing about the original game, with their main criticisms being certain plot elements; namely the plot-time-ghost things that change the game from an actual remake into more of a misleading stealth-sequel that no one really asked for. The area where I think this gets very interesting in terms of context is the parts where remakes can't really be faithful to one of the appealing things: namely important plot twists that have become so heavily associated with the game that everyone knows about them because of pop-cultural osmosis (what TV Tropes calls "It Was His Sled" twists, though I prefer to call them, "No, I am your father" twists). With Ocarina of Time, the twist everyone knows is that Sheik is actually Zelda. Since the remake was a 1:1 remake, they kept the script and everything intact, but they did make the twist more obvious in subtle ways: for instance, if you look at Ocarina of Time's official artwork, it shows Sheik having a wider frame than Zelda and an overall more masculine design in general, and, despite the remake bring every other character model closer to the official artwork, it dropped this aspect of Sheik's design to make it more obvious that Sheik is Zelda. With Final Fantasy 7 Remake, only two of the original game's main twists have become this famous: Sephiroth is the main villain, and Aerith dies. For both those twists, the game pretty much acts as if the player knows them already. But, almost as if to compensate, the game places an increased emphasis on the twists that aren't so famous, such as the following: How do you feel a game should handle these "No, I am your father" twists? 3. Perhaps most importantly, a remake should have a clear direction about what kind of remake it wants to be. One thing I always appreciated about Shadow Dragon was that it wore on its sleeve that it was a 1:1 remake with a deliberately retro aesthetic and everything, and up until the stuff with the plot ghosts, I appreciated Final Fantasy 7 Remake for being both unmistakably a new game and unmistakably FF7 (in my case, because I was a complete newcomer to the series and I was hoping that a remake of the most famous game in the series would be a perfect starting point). Whatever you may think of either approach; when done with a clear direction, the whole is often more than the sum of its parts. One thing that I really do not like is a remake with an uncertain direction or no direction, as the lack of clear idea of what to change and what not to change makes it that each component of the remake makes all the other components worse (i.e. the whole is less than the sum of its parts). I really wanted to like Shadows of Valentia, I ended up really disliking Shadows of Valentia, and the game's complete mismatch of what to preserve and what to modernize/update was the root of most of my problems with it. I have never played Gaiden, and I could feel what was altered and how it was altered and what was untouched while playing it because it was immensely jarring. They needed to choose: full overhaul, 1:1, or something in between. At first, the game seemed like something in between, but instead, it was all over the place. But I don't know; given how I see most people who've played both say they prefer Shadows of Valentia over Shadow Dragon in terms of what they want with an FE remake, maybe I'm the only one who has a problem with its seeming uncertainty about what kind of remake it even wanted to be. Frankly, for Genealogy of the Holy War, I just hope that, however they choose to remake it, they at least choose something, and that we don't get a repeat of what I think is Shadow of Valentia's core problem. …Sorry this was long; I guess I had a lot to say.

Ah, I see. Yeah; basically, Shedinja is a Pokémon that's literally just the discarded empty shell of a bug Pokémon. I just found it funny that the "Garo" that you fight in Majora's Mask are like that as well: they're just the clothing animated by Twinmold's curse; not the original Garo that wore those clothes. Thanks. That is a good point; now that you have the four boss masks, it's time to confront Majora, which you could theoretically do in the same cycle as the Twinmold fight. I guess I just found it a bit weird how empty Ikana Canyon is of anything to do after you defeat Twinmold. I completely understand.

Well, I just finished Majora's Mask. Now, I'm moving on to something hopefully more lighthearted: Monster Hunter Stories 2. I enjoyed the demo for Stories 1 on the 3DS, but I never actually got the full game. I'm hoping I will enjoy this one.

I never said I disliked it; I just said that I disliked certain things about it. I understand having a bit of darkness for ambiance (I already said that I liked the darkness in the Gyorg fight), but there are some important differences between the two: for the Gyorg fight, you know about Gyorg and a cutscene plays when it releases minions, there's just enough light that you can find Gyorg if you're looking for him despite him blending in with the darkness. With Beneath the Well, while you can see the enemies, the shadows of the wallmasters, and the traps for the most part, it is an area where you are navigating in the dark while knowing nothing about what's in the room, wallmasters looming in some of the rooms, spike traps, etc. One thing that spells it out to me is that there's one room with spike traps that you can bypass with a deku flower, but I didn't do so out of fear of being spotted by the Gibdo without the Gibdo mask and because I couldn't see if there was anything above the traps or not. Well, it does make some sense: you beat the turtle things back in the swamp by burrowing into a flower and using the force from flying out under them to destroy their weakspots (which I didn't find intuitive, but nonetheless sets a precedent about flying out from a deku flower being a strong upward force), not to mention the precedent for avoiding attacks by burrowing into a flower. Having a hole over the flower would be more intuitive, but it does take away part of the point of the puzzle, so I'd say that's a bit of a trade-off. I quite liked Ocarina of Time Ganondorf: his first fight was against a powerful spellcaster, and that has a nice contrast with him turning into Ganon and charging at you with twin swords. It might've been cool to see a Ganondorf that used both melee weapons and spellcasting in the same fight, and that's sadly something we still haven't seen in any 3D Zelda game, but I do like what we got. As for Igos du Ikana, he is a good boss fight; he just might've been better if there was something the player could actually do about his detached head attack. The moment he detaches his head, you may as well resign yourself to taking damage. I tried all kinds of things: blocking, running around & dodging with the bunny hood on, shooting the head with magic arrows, and even standing in the light, and the only one that did anything was standing in the light, and that simply changed it to, "he grabs you with the head and gets a free hit with the sword" to "he uses the head to push you out of the light; still doing some damage". …I'm just saying that you tested it from the back of the cave that you appear from when leaving, and he tested it from the edge where you spawn after falling in the swamp and stated as such. I'm not saying that you were wrong about those two things; I'm saying that your demonstration of being able to hop to the lilypad doesn't invalidate his point that you can't do so from the edge of the cave; that's all. I wasn't talking about your larger point; just that one particular thing. Thanks. One thing I particularly liked about it was that, most of the time with chateau romani, you're supposedly choosing between losing the first day and having finite mana, but in this case, I was easily able to have both the full cycle and infinite magic. He probably would've been a better choice for the secret shrine than Garo Master. Speaking of Garo Master, what did you think of my jokingly-referring to the Garo as Shedinja? I didn't experience voiding out at all; I just stayed relatively close to the central platform. As for the camera, I honestly didn't mind too much; in fact, I'm not sure how useful L-targeting would've been for twinmold given that they're slow-moving, extremely large, and move in all different directions. Heh; fair point. Yeah. It doesn't need too much, given that the place had two mandatory mini-dungeons and a ton of mini-bosses before the temple, unlike the other three regions, and it is the last region before taking on the moon. But I still think that even so much as one sidequest/mini-game involving Pamela and her father would've been enough. Anyway, what do you think of my newest points about the last parts of the game?

Thanks. When I got to the part in Revelation where the Rainbow Sage reveals all this about the Yato, my first thought was, "Finally; we're actually getting some small amount of lore and worldbuilding", then my next immediate thought was, "This is going to be like Corrin being able to turn into a dragon in that the plot will never bring it up again; isn't it?" And, sadly, I was correct. I'd say that, conceptually at least, it seems to be more of a deconstruction of that: if I'm right about what the story was trying to imply, it wasn't because of rightful bloodline or passing trials, but because the sage could use Corrin to fulfill his own atonement. Well, a lot of them have vastly different purposes, so comparing them in terms of power or which one would "prevail" seems like it would get way too easily oversimplified by whoever tries to compare them. By the way, what did you think of the idea I suggested earlier (the one where characters assume the Fire Emblem is an item, only for it to be revealed to actually be a person)?

Thanks. Of course it didn't. As much as I find them annoying, I can understand not wanting to remove them, as others may have missed them if they were gone (though would anyone really have noticed their absence?) EDIT: Well, I just completed the Well and Ikana Castle. Ikana Castle was by far the better mini-dungeon. I have no problem with mazes where you have to bring a different item to each entrance (with each required item being hinted at rather than outright stated), and I'm glad that the only two items you can't get within the well are both asked for at the soonest entrances. However, I do have a problem with the place being a bit needlessly dark since there's no lantern or anything like that to help illuminate the area around Link, I dislike the presence of wallmasters, and I dislike how the "maze" is basically just two main paths: one leading to a generic fairy fountain and the other leading to the actual exit with the mirror shield. I'm not necessarily asking for something more elaborate or extensive (as that would probably just get tedious), but I think a better solution would've been one main path and more branches like the branch path that leads to a room with a Big Poe and a room with a cow. Ikana Castle was visually interesting in that it was some interesting ruins. I like that there are no wallmasters. I like how one room can be crossed using either deku flowers or the lens of truth. I'm glad that there's a Garo in the courtyard that tells you to bring a powder keg, and another Garo that tells you to shine light on the king and his lackeys after defeating them. I just lament that I had to resort to a walkthrough for the falling roof puzzle; in retrospect, with the amount of time the switch remains activated and with the number of flowers there are, it should've been obvious that you burrow into a flower to avoid getting crushed and push the roof back up by leaving the flower. And here I call myself good at solving puzzles. Perhaps I would've figured it out on my own if I didn't have a walkthrough open for the well in order to know which rooms had wallmasters, so I blame the wallmasters for making it that I'll never know if I could've figured out the puzzle. As for Igos du Ikana and his lackeys... they're a great example of how the old "there's one puzzle-like way to beat these guys" mentality makes it easy it is to forget what you have at your disposal that can make a fight easier. What I mean by that is that, because the puzzle for beating them clearly involved the curtains, after I burned the curtains with fire arrows, I kept trying to use the light to stun them and open them up to attacks. I didn't realize that the only real purpose of the light is to finish them off (as it doesn't stun them nearly long enough to get an attack in and they can block it most of the time), and that I could've used Deku Link's spin attack to stun them. I did think about using deku nuts, but I didn't have any. The really sad part is that I used Deku Link to stun the lackeys so I could freely shoot fire arrows at the curtains, yet it didn't occur to me to use that tactic at any other point in the fight until afterward. I was able to beat them, but it took a lot longer than it probably would've if I had thought to try methods other then the light. Well, tomorrow, I will be tackling the stone tower temple. This time, since there shouldn't be any wallmasters, I hopefully shouldn't be needing a walkthrough. EDIT: I was just rewatching Nerrel's review of Majora's Mask for background noise while reading something, and, when it got to the part about Deku Link's movement and leaving the cave, I noticed something that he said: Nerrel: "If the player falls into the water while leaving this area, they'll be stranded on a ledge where they can't reach the first pad or move backwards" All his footage from trying and failing to leave the cave has him start at the very edge of the entrance because that's where Deku Link is placed if the player falls into the water. All your successful attempts at reaching the first lily pad, you started from further back in the cave. I'm not saying you're wrong; just that we both missed that bit of context, which led to a test that was, in some ways, irrelevant to his claim. EDIT: I just completed the Stone Tower Temple. It was interesting. The path to the stone tower was a decent puzzle: you have to figure out the right order with which to press down three sets of switches using the elegy of emptiness. However, I agree with Nerrell that having to play that song over and over again, as well as repeatedly swapping out the hookshot and the transformation masks, was a bit tiring. Good thing that you only have to do that three times before reaching the top. So, anyway, I did end up using a walkthrough, but only to minimize the number of times I would've needed to go outside and flip the temple upside-down. I regret that one or two of the smaller puzzle solutions got spoiled for me in the process, but thankfully most of them weren't. I would've rather explored on my own and figured this all out for myself, but I was still able to enjoy most of the dungeon without the walkthrough. The temple flipping upside-down was a neat mechanic, though having to go outside almost every time means that it's really more like two separate dungeons with overlapping keys. On the plus side, having to go outside for the dungeon gave me a brilliant idea: when I got to the point where I had to flip the temple upside-down for the first time, it was night of the First Day, so I warped to Clock Town using the song of soaring, drank a chateau romani, and warped right back to the temple and continued on without losing a bit of progress. The mini-bosses were interesting: the Shedinja boss was basically like his fellow Shedinja except competent enough to hold onto his swords and has more than 1 HP. He was still rather easy to beat; much easier than the king of Ikana, which makes me wonder why the king seemingly lost the war. (Side note: if you're wondering why I'm calling the Garo Shedinja, it's because Pamela's dad explains that the enemies you're fighting aren't the original Garo; they're the Garo's clothing animated by the curse that's coming out of the temple. So they're basically sword-wielding Shedinja). The one with the scythe and the crows was kind-of interesting, though it was obvious what the strategy was: shoot with a light arrow, close in and slash with sword, block response attack with shield, rinse, repeat. He can deal quite a bit of damage if you don't block, but it really is the fact that this mini-boss looks like a reaper that makes it memorable. Finally, there was the re-used Wizzrobe: I understand that they were rushing, but did they really need to have another wizzrobe? He was rather boring honestly. Anyway, as for Twinmold, they were really easy, especially since I had infinite mana, but an easy & fun boss fight at the end of a dungeon like the Stone Tower Temple isn't necessarily a bad thing, and it was fairly fun. So, then I delivered the last set of stray fairies and received the Great Fairy's Sword from the Great Fairy of Kindness. …I don't know why a Great Fairy of kindness would have a sword, but there you go. The only disappointing thing was the lack of anything to do in Ikana Canyon after beating Twinmold. I mean, there's the secret shrine, but that can be done without having to beat Twinmold beforehand in the same cycle. It's kind-of disappointing that you beat Twinmold, the sky's cleared up, the undead are gone, and... that's it; unlike the other three regions, nothing's unlocked that can only be done after lifting the curse. It might seem fitting at first, since the land was filled with the dead as a result of the curse and now it's empty of the dead. But there are two people in the area: Pamela and her dad. You'd think there'd be some kind of minigame or sidequest involving the two of them, now that the undead that were the reason Pamela's dad brought them there in the first place are gone. But nope; nothing. Now, there's something that the 3DS remake could've added: something to do in Ikana after lifting the curse. EDIT: I just completed the game! I finally finished it! Before I get to the ending, I will just quickly say: the secret shrine is... okay I guess. Strange choice of mini-bosses; I can see why it would have ones like Wart that aren't repeated, but then the rest are Dinofols (who you fight fairly often), Wizzrobe (yet again) and Garo Master (who is supposed to be a unique sapient individual). I get that they're supposed to be one from every dungeon, and they couldn't reuse the cursed frogs, but it's still an odd choice to me. Okay, now onto that final cycle and the moon: The moon is interesting. I guess it only makes sense to end the game on an optional set of four mini-dungeons (even Ocarina of Time ended on something that would be better described as six mini-dungeons and a tower climb than an actual dungeon), and they're rather reflective of the regions: Odolwa's mini-dungeon uses the deku flowers, Goht's the goron roll, Gyorg's zora swimming, and Twinmold's is a series of mini-boss fights. One of these is not like the others, but the same was true of the region. This time, I can understand re-using Garo Master as an enemy, as every part of the moon seems to be some kind of magical construct made by the Mask now that it's possessing the inside of the moon. I gave all the masks to the masked kids and got the Fierce Deity Mask, so the Majora's Mask fight was a cakewalk. Still, the mask doesn't completely reduce the fight to 'spam b to win'; you still have to strike behind Majora's Mask to damage it, you probably want to bring down the four boss masks, you still need to chase down Majora's Incarnation, and you still want to block or dodge Majora's Wrath's fast whip attacks. I think the Fierce Deity Mask is a great reward for the player going out of their way to help everyone in Termina. As for the Majora's Mask boss fight, I like the atmosphere from the surreal realm, I like the fight from a gameplay perspective, I like how the mask takes back all the boss masks and then uses them against you, and I like how each of the three phases reveals the mask's true nature: the 1st phase is cold, the 2nd is a petulant child, and the 3rd is that very child's temper tantrum. That said, I don't think I like how each additional phase just makes the mask more humanoid; you can almost forget that you are fighting a mask. Finally, that ending. The ending I got was frankly a perfect way for the game to end; it crashed... …fooled you there for a moment; didn't I? Nah; thankfully, everything went smoothly, and the ending was indeed pretty much perfect. Seeing "Dawn of a New Day" was just perfect, and I genuinely believe the game is saying, for this golden ending at least, that everything you did to help the people of Termina really did ripple through to this timeline: the Happy Mask Salesman outright says that he can tell by the masks Link has being full of happiness that Link has made a lot of people happy, and every single cutscene in the end credits involves someone you helped where the reward was one of the masks or a mask was needed to help them: Gorman gets to see the band, the dancers perform the dancing ghost's dance, the music guy that's the Terminian version of the windmill guy gets to play (there's a cutscene dedicated to showing him specifically playing happily), Romani and Cremia are happy at the ranch, the five Great Fairies are fully restored, the Deku Butler finds his son's corpse (remember his mini-game that rewards the mask of scents), Anju and Kafei's wedding, etc. Speaking of the wedding, I like how Tingle is there to draw a picture of the wedding and then throw celebration confetti (and he cries all over the picture as it's such a joyful moment), but I'm not sure how I feel about Link not being at the wedding; I mean, he was the witness for their reunion and mask exchange, but part of me does feel that Link should've been a guest at that wedding as well. Speaking of the Happy Mask Salesman outright spelling out one of the game's two main themes, he also spells out the thing I said earlier regarding Link having to learn the same lesson in regard to Navi that the Skull Kid had to learn in regard to the Four Giants: as he departs, he outright says to Link and everyone: "Whenever there is a meeting, a parting is sure to follow. But whether that parting be forever, or only for a brief time... is up to you." At first, I'd say that it's a bit blunt, especially given how Ocarina of Time relegated its themes to the subtext. But, it's poetic, and seeing how many people missed it despite it being bluntly said directly to the camera, I'd say the bluntness was appropriate. Another thing I liked about the ending was how, despite Tatl suggesting that Link get a move on and return to his land while the carnival's happening, Link decides there's still one thing he needs to do: use the Zora Mask one last time so Mikau's band can all play at the Carnival of Time together. Seriously; he's right there, and that's honestly really sweet. I especially like how it implies that he didn't just leave everyone wondering why Mikau and Darmani suddenly vanished (he wouldn't need to say anything to the Deku because he was a stranger to them and they figured out he's a shapeshifter). And of course, that last scene of Link riding off in the Lost Woods as the camera pans to a new picture the Skull Kid has carved that shows all his friends: the for giants, Tatl, Tael, and Link. It really sums up what I was saying earlier about the theme of how just because friends depart, doesn't mean that friendship is gone. I know a lot of people like to think Link ends the game and continues his journey to find Navi. But, personally, because of this theme, I like to think that this experience gave Link the closure he truly needed (at least in regards to Navi as well as the friendships he made in the adult timeline), and that he simply returned to Hyrule, where there are people like Zelda waiting for him. THE END (of my review of Majora's Mask N64 at least; do you think I should put my thoughts on its themes and its ending into brand new topic?)

Okay. Thanks. I'll remember this for the secret shrine (assuming Wart appears there; please don't tell me if he does). Ah; that makes a lot of sense. Okay. If I get grabbed by a Wallmaster that appears in Ikana Castle or Stone Tower Temple, I'm blaming you (just kidding). Speaking of which, did the 3DS remake get rid of the wallmasters or keep them? I know that Ocarina of Time 3D kept the Wallmasters. Personally, I'm just glad that wallmasters and floormasters are largely gone from the later Zelda titles. They're more annoying than anything else really.

We can all agree that the story of Fates is riddled with dozens of problems; this apparent contradiction is one of them. I'm sure someone would answer along the lines of "it was inside the statue and wasn't exposed until after her death", but then that of course raises the question of how it got there in the first place, which the story never answers because Fates is riddled with loose plot threads that never get tied up and ideas that get brought up once (such as Corrin being able to turn into a dragon) that never get brought up again. This is part of what I meant when I criticized Fates for not really exploring the Yato in the slightest outside of a bit of tacked-on backstory.

I suppose another thing I could see the next Fire Emblem be is an ancient superweapon that brought about a horrific calamity, sort-of like the Valkof in Valkyria Chronicles. Then again, according to what little lore there actually is in Fire Emblem Fates, that's sort-of what the Yato was: an ancient weapon forged by the Rainbow Sage to give himself an advantage in the War of the First Dragons by bringing humans into the war and using them as First-Dragon fodder; an act which the other First Dragons copied by giving some of their blood to humans and which the Rainbow Sage stayed behind on the unnamed continent in order to atone for, with the heavy implication that the Yato chooses Corrin not because Corrin is special or a chosen one, but because Corrin desires peace: the very thing that would complete the Sage's atonement. Aw, man; that could've been an amazing deconstruction of the typical FE "legendary weapon given to humanity by an ancient benevolent dragon to protect humanity": a weapon that was indeed a gift, but was originally gifted to humanity for a selfish reason rather than a benevolent one, and that chooses the protagonist simply because that protagonist has similar goals as the blade's creator, rather than because of anything special about the protagonist. Such a shame that Fates didn't utilize that potential in the slightest.

I see. I guess I figured that the eye was too elevated a hitbox for those attacks to work. Ah; that makes sense. Tell me: were you surfacing often to avoid attacks, the mines, or both? Or was it just to make it easier to keep track of where Gyorg was or something like that? Ah. Okay. Perhaps. Nerfing him was still a baffling change though; all they needed was to make it clear that waking him up would lead to a pursuit challenge. Yeah. Perhaps in this case, it was either an overcorrection from Navi, or they thought, "Eh; it's a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time; people playing it will know about the wallmasters, so it's not like we really need Tatl to warn the player about them." Speaking of which, is there anywhere else where there are wallmasters? Beneath the Well? Ikana Castle? Stone Tower Temple?

I see. That makes sense. Ah. I see. Yeah; the way they inflate like a balloon just looks silly. The first phase was fine, if a bit tedious no matter what method you use. As for the 2nd phase, how did you manage to hurt him with the spin attack?! I had to keep rapid-firing arrows and desperately trying (and failing) to dodge and just hoping for the best. Being able to treat him like a bullfight (with Link's sword as the cape) would've been so much easier and less janky. That they are. I look forward to Twinmold probably being somewhat simplistic but still fun. Ah, so your only options in the second phase are mines and arrows... They added an entirely underwater (unless you used ice arrows beforehand) second phase, and don't let you fight him head-on as Zora Link?! Why?! Thank you. Forgot about what? The house using a music player to scare off Gibdos, or being able to use Tatl to interrogate Sakon? Yeah, it is baffling. Honestly, even if you know going in (as I did), you probably will fail the first time if my attempt is any indication, as chasing an enemy through a guantlet is one the player hasn't been challenged on yet. It's easily retriable by just leaving the area and coming back (and there's a hole in the ground nearby for that). But yeah; some intro text would probably have helped, and there already is a sign next to him saying to wake him and beat his challenge and he'll remove the ring of fire around the treasure chest that's on the roof of Dampe's house. Yeah; it is a bit dull. That said, getting suddenly grabbed by a Wallmaster because I was focused on Dampe and mistakenly read that there weren't any Wallmasters in Majora's Mask wasn't dull; it was simply irritating. It's funny; that should've been quite the jump-scare considering all that, but I wasn't even startled; I was just thinking, "Seriously; there are Wallmasters in this game too? These things are nothing but annoying time-wasters. Tatl could've at least told me about them in advance like Navi did in Ocarina of Time."

Yeah, I remember; I was just referencing that for humour. Maybe. Speaking of which, the reason that spin-attack hopping worked in the N64 version was that the spin attack increases Deku Link's speed; it might have been a good idea to test the spin attack on land to see how Deku Link's slow start in the 3DS version affects it. Perhaps. Maybe the best solution would've been to add some kind of reticle when aiming the ice arrows not unlike that which the cryonis rune in Breath of the Wild uses; a neat little visual indicator of whether or not you can make an ice platform at the spot you're aiming at. Huh; interesting. …I can honestly say that I was expecting you to defend the eyeballs; this is a bit surprising. Speaking of eyes, what's your opinion on the mini-boss Wart? Thanks. Yeah; I can honestly say that I've liked all three bosses so far; they are very different from typical Zelda bosses. Don't get me wrong; I normally quite like the typical Zelda puzzle bosses; I just find that the most engaging of those ones for me are the ones that smarten up or are dynamic/flexible in some way, and I suspect that I'm far from the only person who thinks this given how many people really like Koloktos from Skyward Sword. These bosses have that without needing to have weakpoints: Odolwa is a flexible, frenetic and dynamic duel, Goht is a chase where he throws an increasing number of things at you to stop you with the more damage he takes (so there's the learning aspect), and Gyorg, the more I think about it, is probably my favourite aquatic boss so far in the series (or at least in the 3D games), though that admittedly isn't saying much; its competition is stuff like Morpha and Phytops (oh, and I'm not counting Barinade as there's no water in the fight whatsoever except maybe the jellyfish; it's an electricity parasite that you fight in a stomach). No; I was referring to if you want to fight him by swimming around; if you don't want to use the mines, the mines are still there and will blow up if you hit them. Or do you have to use the mines to beat Gyorg in the 2nd phase of the fight? Thank you. So, today, I'll be heading for the Ikana Region. I know about some of the stuff that's in the region (like the girl with the cursed dad and how I can sneak into the house to heal him and get the Gibdo Mask after something happens involving the river, chasing Captain Keeta to get the Captain's Mask, and the infamous "guide Dampe through a graveyard on the Night of the Final Day for the last empty bottle" sidequest), but this is the first area where I am still largely in the dark about how to proceed... and I'd like to keep it that way today; this is the only part of the game where I don't already remember how to proceed from previous playthroughs as neither my brother nor I ever got this far; the one area where I can explore it and figure out where to go and what to do without having essentially a walkthrough in my head, so I'm going to explore it without looking at a walkthrough or any of that and see how far I get by being observant and looking around. EDIT: Well, I can't say that the game was subtle about where to go or what to do. Fight all the Garos (who are pathetically easy to defeat by the way) and they pretty much give you the idea: get Captain's Mask -> get Song of Storms -> heal Sharp using Song of Storms to restore the river -> This somehow enables you to get inside the house that's surrounded by Gibdos, which is the place to then go to. Interestingly, Sakon filled in that part: if you refuse to let him see your sword, then L-target him and talk to him again, you basically get Tatl to buzz around him relentlessly (while glowing red) and press him for information about the area, and Sakon spills about how the house uses a river-powered music player to scare off the Gibdos. Well, I got the Captain's Mask. The Keeta fight was interesting. The first time I went through it, I failed to catch up to him: I missed up hitting him with my arrows (which cost precious time) and I hit one of the fire walls just before it deactivated; throwing me backwards. Well, the second time, I loosed the arrows beyond perfectly, to my own surprise, and I caught up to him shortly after the second wall of fire (I should probably point out that I was wearing the bunny hood in both runs). So, the second run was a bit anti-climatic as I caught up with him a bit quickly, but that was from me doing everything pretty much perfectly (even succeeding in slaying both skeletal soldiers at once for every wall of fire) and I suspect that a third attempt would not have gone that well. That said, the actual fight part was more than I expected; he had almost as much health as an Iron Knuckle. I also completed the mini-game involving the Poe Sisters and got the Piece of Heart, and I cleared two out of the three graveyard sidequests so far; just the Dampe one left. I also went back to the Oceanside Skulltula House and cleared the puzzle that involved talking to the Ikana soldiers there. EDIT: I also just completed the Dampe sidequest; it wasn't nearly as annoying as I read it would be, with the only annoying parts really being that it was unclear that the two platforms were levitating platforms for Dampe, and that I was under the mistaken impression that there were no wallmasters or floormasters in Majora's Mask.

It can easily happen to anyone. I see. Yeah; speedrunners do seem like they would know about this hitbox stuff (though they evidently know nothing about when in-game timing is being sped up). Waiting for him to drop his guard is definitely a good tactic. I'm just saying that I can see people striking the legs, it failing to work because of blocking invincibility, and thinking, "What just happened? Does the sword not work on this guy?" I didn't even know that the deku flower method is shown by the shiekah stone; that definitely would also contribute to that mistaken assumption. Exactly. You show that you understand where they're coming from and show that they're frustration is sound, just misdirected. Possibly. that said, in a lot of areas, the zora swimming is perfectly fine. The more I think about it, I only really struggled with swimming in the two or three small, cramped rooms that had a lot of obstacles in them, where the camera would be what caused Zora Link to swim into a wall or obstacle. I didn't even find the central turbine room that annoying. Personally, I just think smoothening the ice-arrow-platform programming would've gone a long way. One thing that I immediately found helped a lot was changing strategy from trying to make the ice platform path all at once to making an ice platform, jumping to it, then making the next one, as that at least guaranteed a much more downward angle that would make it more likely to make an ice platform that was close to the metal platforms without being too close. So, that's the reason I think just polishing the mechanic would've gone a long way, as it clearly does work, but suffers from being a bit rough in terms of its collision programming. That octorok solution idea is also a decent one, and certainly better than outright giving away the optimal route, though I'm not sure if octoroks in all the places that ask for ice arrows would really worked. Some of those places are already cramped and/or filled with aquatic enemies. Yeah; the ambiance is definitely great. One thing I also thought was interesting was that it's introduction, like that of Morpha, does an underwater first-person cutscene from its perspective. With Morpha, I suspect that a lot players were probably originally expecting the enemy to be some kind of sea serpent or something for a number of reasons, only for it to turn out to be... an eyeball. With Gyorg, considering the temple had Wart as a mini-boss, I imagine at least a few fans saw that scene and thought, "Here we go; another eyeball boss" only to be shocked and terrified when the boss turns out to actually be a giant carnivorous fish. ...And then the 3DS remake went and gave Gyorg an eyeball in its mouth. Side-Note: While it's becoming increasingly clear that the new eyeballs in the remake aren't the only way to kill most of the bosses, I will say that, visually, they just seem... weird, and not a "It's Majora's Mask" weird. I mean; the one for Goht comes out of his backside, which makes no sense, as his bombs come out of his backside (bombs coming out of his back made sense to me if only because, if they came out of Goht's rear, it would probably look like something else). With Goht and Gyorg in particular, it seems especially weird (and again, not a good weird) when the eyeball-popping-out animation happens. If the eyeballs were to visually better connect them to Majora's Mask, I honestly think the bosses I've fought so far already had plenty of visual connections (except maybe Goht): Odolwa has multi-coloured stripes all over his body just like those on the mask, and Gyorg has the same dark purple that's the mask's base colour. Oh; the camera is definitely an issue if you try to fight him purely underwater simply because you're limited to the edges of the boss room and the camera likes acting up in cramped spaces; agree about that. Not sure about the hitbox on the back thing, as I was able to hit him fairly consistently (when I didn't get eaten). As for the arrow tactic, I honestly thought that what it lacked in moment-to-moment action was made up for with effectively hide-and-seek: looking around for him, avoiding his charge attack, and either trying to find him and shoot, or try to wait for him to charge, lock on when he finishes his charge, and shoot. As I said, it was like fighting an ambush predator. Oh; technically, I wasn't having trouble locking onto him; I was having trouble seeing him in the first place. Once I found him, locking on was no problem at all. That's what I meant; a couple of the game's mini-bosses and other enemies have made me go, "I'm looking right at him! Let me lock onto him!" But with Gyorg, I didn't have that problem because I had to find him first. Does that make sense? I see. Yeah; I'll admit that it can be hard to spot Gyorg when he's behind you. But, I mean, he's behind you. I suppose the mines could be useful. Again, I just personally quite like the idea of fighting him through zora-swimming, and correct me if I'm wrong, but you have to be wary of Gyorg and the mines if you try that method rather than the underwater-dodongo method. Possibly. I'd say it's probably too cryptic, especially since it's seemingly a change from the N64 version (as I couldn't seem to freeze the water in the boss room) that doesn't have any indicators. Perhaps, though it was probably a combo of both experience, being in a better mood compared to my second attempt through the dungeon, being able to skip the Wart fight that I still consider janky and unrefined, and just having a greater awareness of what the game actually expects of me in each room (as I definitely was not expecting a platforming challenge involving jumping onto the narrow central pipe of a rotating water wheel).

You calling my idea "super dumb"? In any case, I wasn't suggesting that the Fire Emblem be some kind of chosen one; that would likely end up being a bit dumb, but I think the idea of the Fire Emblem being a person has a lot of potential. Byleth isn't the Fire Emblem; their Crest is. That is an important difference. At most, you could say that Byleth possesses the Fire Emblem.

Huh; I once created a topic like this one a bit over a year ago. Interesting; great minds think alike, I guess. I would like it that it seems like the Fire Emblem is some sort of typical ancient object of great power, only for it to be revealed that the Fire Emblem is actually a person, and there's a reason that history largely misremembers it as an object rather than a person.

Here are some of my favourites: Male Robin x Cordelia: this one explores an aspect of Cordelia that was otherwise mentioned once when her character was introduced and then never brought up again: her being the last of the Ylisse Pegasus Knights, it's one of the times where Robin comes the closest to having a personality due to him and Cordelia actually complementing each other well personality-wise, and it's very sweet overall. It also never even mentions Cordelia's unrequited crush on Chrom. Stahl x Panne: This one won't get too many points for the characters having great chemistry or anything like that, but it is very hilarious. …That's about it, really. Those are the only ones I remember enjoying.

I see. I must've misread your statement. Thanks. So, my theory was pretty much correct. I guess I wanted you to test it because I also wanted to see if I was right about him blocking a lot more often in the 3DS version, as that seems to be the case based on the footage I've seen of the 3DS version and my experience with the N64 version. If that is the case, then, when combined with the fact that the blocking animation makes Odolwa invincible, it means that Nerrel was onto something but came to the wrong conclusion about what the problem actually was: In this case, they had the theoretically very smart idea of making Odolwa more actively defend himself and make the player have to be more observant, but because blocking makes him invincible, it resulted in players using tactics and methods that seemingly should've worked only to do nothing to Odolwa because he's in his blocking animation. All the attacks for beating him are theoretically still there, but the timing for pulling them off was made far shorter, and not in a way that is necessarily visually clear. Combine this with Odolwa coming to a halt in the 3DS version if the player burrows into a deku flower, the large increase in deku flowers in the boss room, and the eyeball weakpoint on the back of his head, and it's easy to see how people mistook the problem as the game funneling the player towards the deku flower method. And it wasn't just Nerrel who came to this incorrect conclusion; I saw quite a few people before Nerrel's video ever went up that were under the mistaken impression that the deku flower method was the only way to beat Odolwa in the 3DS version. Perhaps you should include this in your response video? It would add some nuance to your arguments, highlight the real cause of the problems Nerrel and others experienced when fighting 3DS Odolwa, and including footage of what happens if you throw a bomb too late during the boss fight sounds like it would make for a nice small bit of comedy. Oh, yeah; that is very true. You do need to do the quest at least twice to get all the rewards, as there's a different reward for if you give the letter directly to Kafei's mother or have the postman deliver it. EDIT: Well, I just completed the Great Bay Temple. I even found every stray fairy while doing so, but, in a moment of complete idiocy, I forgot to deposit them back at their fountain before going back to the Dawn of the First Day; I'm going to have to complete the temple all over again, and I really didn't want to have to come back to the temple except to the frog sidequest, as this temple is a real pain. Honestly, it's far from the worst water dungeon in a Zelda game, and a lot of the ideas are sound: navigation is hinted at through following the pipes, the places you backtrack to make a lot of sense, etc. But there is just so much... I believe the term is jank... to this dungeon; getting Link and the controls to do what I was trying to get him to do was an almost-constant pain. I had to shut the game off and redo the dungeon, not because I lost time from the puzzles being too hard to solve (they weren't; far from it) but just from how much time I lost swimming into walls or into exits I was not trying to go down due to the camera being terrible in cramped rooms (for the record, I did not collide with a wall while Zora swimming before this dungeon; not even when going through the Pirate Fortress), how many times I fell off a terrible platforming challenge (there are extensive platforming challenges involving Link's basic jump onto narrow and/or rotating platforms; I didn't play Majora's Mask to play a Mario game with terrible platforming controls; I came here to play a Zelda game: puzzle-solving, exploring, fighting enemies), from how many times the game wouldn't make an ice platform simply because my arrow hit the platform (despite the arrow already being submerged in the water) and the ice platforms then melting underneath me and forcing me to swim all the way back to the starting point of the room, and from the fact that I lost all my bottled-fairies to the first mini-boss simply because of how hard it was to lock onto him in the second phase and how there is too little space to actually avoid him when he's rolling around. There is a ton to love about this dungeon, but in my first run through it, I was completely miserable and couldn't enjoy it. The second time around, I was too preoccupied with actually just getting through it to actually enjoy it. Maybe I'll enjoy it this time around, but if I'm only enjoying a dungeon on my third time through it, when normally you only go through a dungeon once, then that's a problem. The sad thing is that there are just so many little things that could be done to make the dungeon a lot more fun: increase the size of the room in which you fight Wart, get rid of unnecessary non-colored pipes in smaller rooms that do nothing but get in the way of swimming, make it easier to create ice platforms in water near actual platforms, etc. Anyway, then there's the dungeon boss: Gyorg... I actually thought he was rather interesting. I liked how dark the room is and how it makes him hard to spot. Normally, I really dislike when I'm having trouble locking onto an enemy, mainly because it's usually the game frantically refusing to lock on to an enemy despite the mini-boss being the only thing in the room other than Link and being in full view of the camera (as happened to me multiple times during the mini-boss fights in this dungeon), but here, if you can't lock onto Gyorg, it's because you can't physically see him with your own eyes, and I liked that it made him something of an ambush predator. I liked that you could fight him entirely underwater at the risk of being eaten, or you could stay on the platform, try to find or anticipate him, and hit him with a projectile to open him up for a free hit from Zora Link's magic attack. Again, it made him something akin to fighting an aquatic ambush-predator. In terms of anything lacking, I'd say it would've been cool if there was a boss phase where you had to fight him completely underwater but you fought him normally as Zora Link (i.e. avoiding his mouth and ramming into him with a magic attack). I heard that the 3DS version massively over-brightened the room and gave an underwater phase 2, but one where you have to dislodge mines into his mouth. Why not just add the phase but make it that you fight him normally? I understand the brightening though as an unfortunate compromise to account for being on a portable console (and thus the exterior lighting wherever the player is potentially being outside the player's control). One thing I thought was odd was that ice arrows didn't seem to work on the water in the boss room. I tried it multiple times to create extra space for avoiding Gyorg's charging attack, and it didn't work. I find that rather odd considering it's one of the first things someone would think to do, and the 3DS version has the ice arrows work in the boss room (though how many people will notice since the water doesn't sparkle). EDIT: I just went through the temple again, both for the frog sidequest and for the stray fairies, and I realize in retrospect that, aside from the Wart mini-boss, I may have been a bit harsh on the temple in retrospect; probably just a hundred little things put me in a bad mood or something like that. Even the room with the awkward waterwheel platforming isn't that bad.