Someone urged me that the children’s book Molblin’s Magic Spear really needed a place, so I rushed out a new version of my wacky timeline. I’ve put it in the same vicinity as the comic and animated series. As I said previously, Ganon’s design is sourced from the cartoon while other characters seem to crib from the Zelda 2 manual. This results in a disconnect with the appearance of Zelda, who is captured in this story. It did remind me, however, of the continuity quirk in this era: there would logically be two extant Zeldas, owing to the plot of Zelda 2 involving reviving the sleeping princess of a previous generation. So I figured this event involved that older one, whose likeness is seen in this book.
The other important addition to this version is “The Hyrulean Adventure”, which is the result of an officially-sanctioned message board roleplaying event in 1996. Nintendo Power Source on America Online was the online presence affiliated with Nintendo of America’s official magazine Nintendo Power, and in this early Internet age they encouraged their fans to participate in collaborative storytelling periodically, which also gave us the Metroid-themed Blood of the Chozo. The Hyrulean Adventure is less well documented, but was summarised in Issue 89 of Nintendo Power. Now you could argue that it’s glorified fan fiction, but at least the information provided by the admins (most likely employees of the magazine) on the premise and setting, as well as event updates, can be considered semi-official and hence pseudo-canon. Which is good enough for me!
The Nintendo Power coverage is a little confused on whether it’s “A” or “The”, and also on the spelling of Hyrulean/Hyrulian, but I’m going with the caption on what I assume is a map provided by the Source authorities, which is also what I’ve used to represent the event in the timeline; this was published in the Nintendo Power article. It’s also a little difficult to place in the timeline because of my lack of access to the primary source, but supposedly it’s on an island in “an unexplored corner of Hyrule”. I figured it was safe to place it around the time of the most recent console release at the time, Link to the Past. Done and done.
Apart from a couple of small tweaks, that’s it. But there were many, many things that I considered adding to beef up this timeline iteration. WarioWare and NES Remix, for example, but they’re mere excerpts of existing games and have no impact on the continuity. The Howard & Nester comic for Zelda 2 is just a dream, and the two Zelda-related Nester’s Adventures strips are not quite substantial enough. I really wanted to include some other Japanese book or comic to represent all the material that’s produced there (try browsing some of the pages here) but decided that they’re pretty much adaptations despite their additions and expansions so I had to draw the line. Maybe if I get much more ambitious one day I’ll rework the whole thing to involve adaptations. But not today.
Before you screen-print this awesome timeline onto a T-shirt or apron, remember to first check the zelda-timeline tag on this blog, in case there’s an update published after you’re reading this! http://miloscat.tumblr.com/tagged/zelda-timeline
Hey, you know that dumb Zelda timeline that I made, and then updated with more crazy shenanigans? Guess what, there’s even more stuff in the Zelda series that really should be in the proper timeline you guys. Seriously. (Thanks again to Glitterberri and x7razorback7x for the image that forms the basis of my insane edit.)
So this Zelda timeline release has a few bugfixes and tweaks, such as making a nicer arrow from the Era of Decline to the Silly Era, and moving LttP Link’s cameo appearances before Link’s Awakening where they make slightly more sense (to me, anyway). I also added nifty logos for crossover games such as Smash, Scribblenauts, and Hyrule Warriors next to the games that they draw from.
The main reason for the update though was that I forgot about the Zelda HD Experience from E3 2011. It has Twilight Princess’s Link in the Temple of Time, but without the Master Sword and with a blue fairy who looks a lot like Navi. This plays into some theories of mine and is as much if not more so a canon source than the Spaceworld 2000 video, albeit less impactful on continuity. Cursor Fairy 4 life!
While I had the opportunity to make the update, I added some semi-important entries I’d neglected. The Too Much Tingle Pack made the cut, as did the German official OOT prologue comic, which reveals information about Time-o’s father. Other additions: the appearance by Crazy Tracy of Link’s Awakening in the Japan-only Wii game Captain Rainbow, and two appearances of Link in cut content: the Starbeans event in Mario & Luigi Superstar Saga (which I have decided is FSA Link, although it could just as easily be Minish Cap Link or Four Swords Link), and the Link sprites in Golden Sun: The Lost Age. I figure if I include the trade show demos as speculative game content, then unused data counts just as much.
Try as I might, I just couldn’t figure out where to place the children’s book Molblin’s Magic Spear, which partially adapts the original game but with character designs drawn from both the Adventure of Link manual and, strangely, the animated series for Ganon’s design. It’s this detail that throws a spanner in the works. It can’t be an event from the Silly Era, or can it? I guess I’ll decide for Mark 4 of my insane timeline. An update will be warranted when Zelda Wii U finally comes out. But for now, this is the “definitive and complete”TM version of the official Zelda timeline, as seen by me. Print it out and stick it on your wall, Zelda fans!
But first! In case I do make a newer one, you’re best off just searching the zelda-timeline tag on this blog, to make sure you’re seeing the most up-to-date fresh to-the-minute Zelda series chronology! http://miloscat.tumblr.com/tagged/zelda-timeline
Remember that edited version of the Zelda timeline I made a while ago that had all the non-canon stuff added to it? Well I’ve revised it with the two new Zelda games that have been released since, and added even more crazy non-canon stuff. Wahey!
Let me explain the changes. Firstly, I moved the Tingle games into actual spots on the timeline rather than off to the side, because I’m convinced now they belong. For a start, Tingle Tower from Wind Waker is clearly visible in Tingle’s Balloon Fight DS’s background, which places it after or during the events of Wind Waker. I thought it would be fun for this to be happening while Windy and Tetra were off voyaging. Tingle’s other two games seem to be pre-WW as he’s not yet a Tingle in the first one and still lives similarly in the second. Rosy Rupeeland takes place on a series of islands in what I see no reason to not call the Great Sea, so in there they go.
I moved the Smash Bros. games out of the chart proper and out there in the outer zone, along with Scribblenauts Unlimited, as they draw from various areas of the timeline and exist outside the Zelda universe. It also gave less clutter in the graph and let me explain next to them the origin of all the elements they portray.
Some events exclusive to various manga were included, with Hyrule Historia’s Skyward Sword prequel set in Hylia’s era, Majora’s Mask’s mythological side story (10 million years ago, apparently), and two extra chapters from the Ocarina manga: one predating the events of the game and one taking place sometime in Link’s adult phase during the game. The spin-off manga series Oath of Lilto was also introduced into the post-LttP era, as it appears to be a sequel to that game. It should probably be somewhere after A Link Between Worlds, which itself is 100 years after LttP. The reason being, LttP’s Link is dead (he literally coaches the protagonist from heaven), but Old Man Streetpass is vaguely hinted to be that Link during ALBW. This manga is a little hard to place, especially since there’s no translation.
A few minor cameos were slotted in. LoZ and AoL’s Link appears in Tetris for the NES and F-1 Race for the GB: being the only extant Link at the time, and also his distinctive flute playing and shield mark him. I threw in the Spaceworld 1995 preview of Zelda 64 here too, as I’d previously theorised that it takes place soon after the Nelsonic Game Watch. It’s most likely LttP’s Link who cameos in Super Mario RPG and Donkey Kong Country 2, as the slight design differences attest and him being the “current” Link at the time of their development. He’s also the most well-travelled Link canonically and missing in action between LA and ALBW, so it makes sense, kinda.
Two DLC packs for other games were also released last year, for Sonic Lost World and Mario Kart 8. Both seem to feature a similar Hyrule Field-type area with a similarly-designed castle. Fine, both staples of later games. Of course, both also feature physical appearances of Skyward Sword’s Link, from an era without a castle and even without a land of Hyrule. How to justify that? Well, my theory is that both are drawing from a setting some years after Skyward Sword’s end, where Link, Zelda, and others have properly founded the land of Hyrule on the surface world, and built a nice shiny castle to live in. Done.
Finally, and the reason I embarked on this update in the first place, was to place Hyrule Warriors into a logical position in the official timeline. My reasons are simple: the game states that the three eras that are accessed during its events are in the past of that particular setting. So placing it towards the end of the Child timeline allows Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time, and Skyward Sword to be seen in a straight line back from it. Ok, only the child portion of OoT actually happened in that timeline, but I reckon that’s enough for what’s presented in the game. Even the Majora’s Mask DLC pack is canon to that timeline.
There’s really no reason HW’s basic setting can’t be placed there. Drawing from elements of various Zelda games is given an explicit justification, with Cia’s dimensional magic shenanigans. It seems perfectly fine to find a place for it, and this one seems the best. I even have a reason for placing it before Four Swords+: with Cia’s death at the end, Lana’s only half qualified to fill the “guardian of time”-type role she held before. This could introduce some dimensional instability to this era, which allows aspects of even other timelines to bleed through. That’s why FS+ (Hyrule Adventure, to be precise) features design and setting cues from Four Swords and LttP, bosses and characters from WW, and even elements from LoZ and OoT.
Well that was fun. It’s strangely exhilarating to try and fit in all the cruft from such a sprawling series into a cohesive package. But next time there’s new Zelda material (ie. Wii U), I might have to make the whole darn thing from scratch, this is getting way too cluttered!
Oh, and once again thanks to Glitterberri and x7razorback7x for the original image which I am progressively doctoring.
Hyrule Warriors will be tricky to review. For now, I’ll say I love it. Smash 3DS… I think I’ll wait for the Wii U and do them together. In the meantime then, and before Pokemon comes along, here’s a review for this old and better off forgotten game.
How the Zelda series ever got off the ground I’ll never know. Even at the time, I think Zelda 2 was seen as a misstep. I feel that Zelda 1 was not much fun, but its highly anticipated sequel not only is less fun, but has completely different core gameplay. A jump button, a mix of overhead adventure map with very little interactivity and sidescrolling action stages, a collection of magic spells, an experience bar, random encounters. It sounds like some generic other Famicom game, not Zelda.
I don’t find it surprising that this blend of Final Fantasy and early Castlevania was not followed up on in the rest of the series. The sidescrolling gameplay was used sparingly again in main titles, but was the core of the game only in the most obscure and disregarded titles: the Zelda Game & Watch, and the first two CD-i games: Link, the Faces of Evil and Zelda: The Wand of Gamelon. It just feels out of place.
This holds true for many other aspects too; the music is largely forgettable, except for the Temple theme and even that has only just been reused in the main series, having found prominence in Smash Bros. Smash is also the only place to use the upward and downward thrusts from this game, fitting well enough there. The game looks ugly and many of its characters and settings have fallen into the landfill of history. About half the enemies will never be seen again or are quite different reinterpretations of existing ones.
It’s not just that the elements of the game feel wrong for Zelda; they are badly executed in the game itself. Enemy behaviour is either punishingly unforgiving or laughably exploitable. There is little vertical interaction. Objectives are extremely unclear, and the temples are so mazelike as to require an external map (Nintendo Power’s Player’s Guide is recommended, along with Zelda Dungeon’s walkthrough for things to do outside temples). The game script (and the manual!) are typical NES gibberish. The seams between overworld and sidescrolling section break the feel. The control and momentum… just don’t feel good. Oh and there are lives, and they don’t respawn, ever.
Enough rambling, though. Should you play this game? Nah. I mean, you could try it out, but in this era this style has been done so much better, and like I mentioned, this is a bit of a black sheep of the Zelda series. Beyond one boss, Dark Link, and the town names showing up as the Sages’ names in Ocarina, it doesn’t have much lasting impact on the series. I’ve seen it has its defenders, but I found it pretty lacking in fun. Big thumbs down from me.
While Skyward Sword left a bad taste in my mouth, Hyrule Warriors made everything yummy and nice. A review for that will be coming later, but in the meantime I had a nice little palate cleanser with the budget arcade shooting spin-off Link’s Crossbow Training.
You know Nintendo. They make a peripheral, have one good idea for it, use it in exactly one game and then it collects dust in your cupboard while a few third parties make lackluster attempts to use it as well. Meet the Wii Zapper, an attachment that slots your Wii Remote and Nunchuck into a frame that makes it like holding a machine gun. Or indeed, a crossbow. Of course, being long past the age of peripherals at this point, I couldn’t just pick one up; nor would I need to. This game was in a hundred bargain bins, and I can tell you works perfectly fine without the Zapper.
The remote itself is all you need; the Zapper I feel would merely make it easier to stabilise. But adjusting the sensitivity down is sufficient to make the game playable. I even got a platinum medal in one stage! smug Seriously though, it feels like the kind of game the Wii Remote was made for. Of course, I wouldn’t have bothered with it if it hadn’t been part of the Zelda series.
Playing Skyward Sword made me appreciate Twilight Princess more. This game reuses assets exclusively to Twilight Princess to be a sort of gaiden, or sidestory, to that game (even though it doesn’t really have a story as such). It’s like a tour of different locations and setpieces, fighting a variety of enemies from that world. Therefore I really appreciated seeing all those elements, it’s like a short reminder of all the fun things that happened in TP. There’s no Twilight Palace unfortunately, but hey-ho. That’s what we have Hyrule Warriors for.
So I said budget before. I cleared the whole game in an hour. Mostly bronze medals, but I’ve never been much of a score-chaser; it’s unlikely I’ll try very hard to top myself. But for the $2.50 I paid for it, I think to myself: I’ve spent more than that playing some shooters in arcades, but this one was more resonant with me, and now it’s on my shelf next to Twilight Princess. So if, like me, you have fond memories of that game, you might get a kick out of it.
Oh by the way, if you do play it, some advice: combos are very important. You can shoot jars and stuff without breaking your combo, but if you’re going for good scores, be accurate. On the other hand, you get bonus points for hitting all targets for the objective in some levels. So try it both ways. I got a great score in the final stage, but I had to do it again because I didn’t actually manage to beat Stallord. Had to get that closure.
Well, let’s get this over with. I hope now that the immense hype has died down after a few years, we can look back on this as on the whole a pretty mediocre Zelda game. That’s what I feel anyway. I mentioned in my long-ago Twilight Princess review that I chose the older game over the new hotness, and having now played both I think I made the right decision. I like Twilight Princess more.
That’s not to say that Skyward Sword wasn’t fun, nice to look at, and had inventive ideas to bring to the Zelda formula. But the flaws and niggles stack up, and the plot wasn’t very engaging to me.
First, let’s talk about the “level design”. There’s not really an overworld, just mini-areas that bring some dungeon-like puzzle solving to themed locations. But then there’s dungeons as well, so I ended up just feeling like an aspect of the Zelda experience was missing without large areas to explore. They were memorable, but partially because of all the backtracking you have to do. I even had to go through an already-completed dungeon a second time as part of the plot, which I resented. You also end up with less overall variety in locations with only three or four themes.
Another aspect that lacked variety in a significant way was the enemies. You end up with essentially palette swaps of bats, blobs, and bokoblins in the three major zones, which got seriously boring. Not that Zelda hasn’t done that before, but it seemed to lack very much beyond them.
I also dreaded fights, and here’s a big sticking point of the game in general: the motion controls made it hard to enjoy. The game relies heavily on the gimmick of the Motion Plus, which is fine I guess, but what they were demanding of the player I don’t feel the hardware was capable of pulling off, or at least how I was using it. Having to point in menus and dialogue was annoying but passable, and aiming things worked pretty well, but any time a precision flick was required the whole thing fell down. Which is a huge problem because so much combat, and certain puzzles, demand you swing the sword in a specific direction at the right time. The precision required was often difficult to do, which caused frustration to me, the player.
This principle extends to other things too: you cannot reliably do maneuvers you intended to, such as doing a vertical spin attack instead of horizeontal, or the awful swimming. But the swimming is modelled after the flying, so let’s talk about that. I hate the flying. They’re going for a Wind Waker thing with a large sky/sea, with islands. Except the islands in SS are inconsequential but for a handful, it’s totally disconnected from the land portions, and controlling the flying is not relaxing or fun like sailing, it’s painful to the wrist and causes anxiety. And for that matter, why is there an impenetrable cloud layer under Skyloft but everywhere on the ground has BLUE SKIES?
There’s a few of these aspects that they’ve taken from past games. The Silent Realms are also pretty shamelessly ripped from Twilight Princess’s bug hunt sections, but I don’t mind so much since they expanded the concept into a stealth-type mode and it’s quite fun. It is yet more backtracking over the same areas though, but it works because you use the knowledge of the layout but they change some things around.
New things include the stamina meter, which I’m conflicted on. On one hand, running is cool, but on the other it depletes from normal activities like climbing and depletes too quickly, with no possibility of upgrade. So you feel constantly forced to travel below the “optimal” speed, all the while with a big green thing on screen and an irritating alarm sound.
Speaking of irritating things that get in the way, let’s talk about Fi. Lots of people complain about all the companions, but I liked Navi ok and loved Midna. This time, things don’t turn out well. Her text is too slow and unspeedable. She pops up way too often to point out very obvious things. She could have been interesting as the spirit of the Master Sword, but her fakey “robotic” demeanour is extremely obnoxious to read. And would my criticism be invalid if I had an adverse reaction to a robotic, subservient, young girl wearing stockings who refers to you as “Master”?
This brings me to my next niggle. There’s just a few elements that seem too distinctly Japanese for Zelda, which I’ve always felt inhabited its own distinct fantasy world, like the dragons’ attire or the vocalisations. I’m trying not to seem racist, but it just took me out a little. As I alluded to with Fi, I also struggled to accept the anime-style cliches that are rife (I always hated starting in a “high school” environment. The characterisation of most of the main characters left me cold and bored, and many of the side characters were too “stock”-feeling—I especially had no feeling for Link or Zelda, and hence lacked some motivation, especially as you find out more about their roles. On the other hand, like many people I warmed up to Groose quickly and enjoyed his scenes immensely.
The other races in the game were also lackluster. There’s, what, two Gorons? They were fine, but the moles were just off, the jellyfish were bad and too few. The Kikwi were ok though, and the robots were fine. And I like how they made humans a rare occurrence, but you don’t get a whole lot of meaningful interaction with any minor characters. Thinking back on it the areas were cohesive enough, but maybe I just miss towns.
As a synthesis of Zelda elements, it’s quite good, with recent advancements such as bug collecting and treasure improved on. It also has some nice new things, such as equipment upgrading and managing your inventory. The dungeons are also pretty good, with interesting themes. The bosses though sucked, partly because of the sword difficulties I mentioned, and partly because of the repeated boring Ghirahim fights that take the place of real bosses. I may have still been having counter-reactions to the hype though, seeing the whole thing as a bit up itself (they even mention the 25th anniversary in the text of the game). Also too much tutorials.
I hope I made myself clear about the anime thing. I’m just tired of the tropes and cliches, and I thought Zelda was a little more, well, its own thing. You know? Eh, sometimes I’m glad I don’t have too many followers, who could get super mad about my super controversial opinions. I don’t want to cause an Internet Scene™ after all. Anyway I’m glad that this was another case of borrowing a game from a friend that I was hesitant to splurge money on for myself. Because it’s fine, it’s even pretty good, but I’ll just say it’s not near the top of my “Zelda favs” list. I just want to think that I hadn’t decided that place before playing it—I think I gave it a fair chance. And why are Link and Zelda’s eyes so big? Ahem. Thanks for reading.
Ah, Zelda. I’ve been playing them since Ocarina, of course. The three “big” entry point games for those of my generation are the original, Link to the Past, and Ocarina of Time. Unfortunately in the style of Nintendo at the moment, everything seems to be jamming on the nostalgia button HARD. Obviously this game leans very very heavily on LttP, which predates my own entry point. In fact I played LttP a few years after Ocarina, but it’s not “my” Zelda game, if you get me.
Consequently I don’t have the blind rush of giddy nostalgia juices for this game. Looking objectively at it though, I can say that it’s a very good game and I enjoyed it. I just feel weird playing it, because it’s so heavily based on a game I don’t have such a personal connection to, and indeed have only played once. There’s some lipservice to other games in the canon, but they’re a bit tacked on and feel out of place. Basically what I’m saying is it feels like the wrong way to do nostalgia.
Anyways the few improvements to the LttP formula, like having main character counterparts in the Dark World, having individualised Sages, shaking up the item acquisition and dungeoning, are very good decisions. Generally it’s good at giving you the things you need and want but still being challenging. Well, I say challenging because some rooms, tasks, and dungeons were tricky moment-to-moment but overall it’s an easy game.
It might just be my super skills, but I never died, and I always had boatloads of rupees. I never got lost or stuck, because there’s lots to do, which is a good thing. Not a good thing is the balance, although I have said the same about other Zelda games, and maybe Hero mode would have suited me better. It’s just that the things people have been saying about the risk and reward of the item system ring false to me, because I rented everything straight away, never died to have them taken, and just sunk rupees steadily into buying the items so I could upgrade them. Not very risky, and the rupees kept flowing in so when I’d bought everything it went straight to 9999 and I’m like “what now?”. So I bought a golden bee.
Anyway I had a great time finding all the things, collecting stuff and getting mightier. I liked interacting with NPCs, but ultimately that was pretty shallow and although the writing was good, it wasn’t a more personable experience than your standard Zelda game, and worse than several of them. I liked the Sages being people from the world that you’d met, but that’s ripped straight from Ocarina and like that game (and to a lesser extent, Wind Waker) they are removed from the world by the plot, making it a more dull place.
I didn’t want to get this game at first because it seemed like just another Zelda game, and that’s not what I wanted. But my lovely wife bought it for me, and so I had to play it. At which point I realised that playing just another Zelda game was something I could get behind. Especially when it’s as fun, addictive, and accessible as this one. Not exactly groundbreaking but it had some cool new features that will apparently inform the future direction of the series. I think they could stand to shake up more aspects of the experience (after all, Majora’s Mask is one of my faves) but this installment is perfectly solid. Yep.
I knew I was going to play A Link Between Worlds, despite my initial hesitation. So I wanted to go back to a game I never bothered to complete: the very first Zelda game. We have it on the Wii’s Virtual Console, but I’m buggered if I’m going to put up with the limitations of the NES if there’s a better version available. And it turns out there is. At the BS Zelda Homepage, you can get reproductions and patches that let you play one of the most rare Zelda games: the satellite broadcast remake of Zelda 1 for the SNES. Only sent out at certain times in the 90s, the game was split into parts with timers. Hackers have stitched them together and made a few teaks, to make it the best version of the original game.
The version I played, Third Quest, uses the dungeons from the broadcast version, which are different to the original game. So it’s not 100% authentic, but close enough and the overworld is the same. They also made a few choices that probably meddle too much, like putting in the Hylian shield, but they also add other things to make it a bit more dynamic (I think, not totally sure). Also you can play as Zelda, which of course I did.
Essentially it’s a graphical and sound upgrade for Zelda 1, all the mechanics are the same. It’s not like a LttP romhack, all the sprites are brand new and look great, and are actually parseable unlike the NES version’s muddy, ugly graphics.
Of course, the graphics and sounds aren’t the only limitation of this NES era game. Movement and combat is stiff, and there’s little interaction with characters or the environment. Like a lot of SNES games, A Link to the Past is doing the same thing as the NES game it’s following, but doing it better and fleshing it out. That’s what I found with this, and I’d much rather play LttP than Zelda 1. But I did find myself having fun with this, enjoying the simplicity and the ramp up of my power, without plot distractions. I feel bad saying so, but I now feel I can give Zelda 1 a niche of its own.
I would recommend BS Zelda over the NES original any day of the week. In my mind, while it exists there’s no reason to look to the NES (apart from blind nostalgia). If you’re an impatient modern gamer like me though, have a guide handy for when you get stuck, because we’re not kids anymore and wandering the overworld endlessly can get tedious. I’m very glad for the BS version, because although I’m a completionist I just didn’t feel I could face the NES one. Similarly, I’m not sure if I’ll ever do Zelda 2. So in the end Zelda 1 was ok. Pretty forgettable in this day and age but I had some fun.
It’s been too long! Scanlating (translating a scanned comic) is a minor hobby of mine, and I’ve enjoyed the ones I’ve done in the past. Now I’ve finished another, with the help of a new collaborator, Kasplat from the DKVine forums, who is a great guy and very easy to work with.
Some background for the comic: it’s by no means an official comic. In fact, Spain got a little bit shafted by Nintendo of Europe, which focused mostly on Germany and France. That’s my understanding, anyway, who knows if it’s accurate. Anyway the magazine Hobby Consolas covers Nintendo, Sega, everything, and has been doing so since the NES days. At some point they started running a comic contest: their readers would draw some pages, send it in, and they would pick the best ones. The first contest focused on Dragonball, which was absolutely huge at the time. Later annual entries expanded into general video games.
This comic comes from the 1997 1st Grand Concurso of “Mangas & Videogames”, the name of the contest and also the book that many entries were printed in, that the magazine sold separately. The comics are so wacky and crazy, no rules at all. Some even have gratuitous nudity, swearing, violence. Anything goes with these Spanish teenagers. I picked this one because it was centred around Zelda I guess.
It was done by Jose Luis Platero Pérez. Watch out for the many cameos, and some of the jokes of course have to be explained, thus ruining them. I hope you enjoy it anyway.
Incidentally, I found the Hobby Consolas comics generally through the Opentrain scanlation group. Their website is down right now, but Cryomancer told me they were working to fix it. If you like this insane crap, go give them a look and a nice comment. (EDIT: It’s back at a new URL.)
You can either download this scanlation in .cbz format for comic readers (it’s really small this time), or view a web gallery on Flickr (probably not the best image site just for viewing, but I like it, it’s easy to use). Thanks for reading and spread the word!
I considered making this post quite broad, about the minor races in Zelda and how they can’t always show up in every game but they’re always there. But frankly typing too long makes my back hurt and my fingers cold. So I’m just going to explain my theories/backstories for the nationalitites of three minor characters from Twilight Princess! You know you love it! Officially, these three ladies are “references” to other races in the Zelda series, but I’m here to tell you why they are definitely members of these races, and thus prove that those races are still alive and kicking in Twilight Princess, and perhaps other titles, despite not being prominent.
You know these three are linked because their establishments are all in a line on the south of Hyrule Castle Town, and they each have a distinctive three-dot tattoo under each eye. My theory does not cover the tattoo, I feel that’s just an indication to the fans more than anything (how hypocritical of me to ignore a detail rather than rationalising it… fine, they belong to the Castle Town Minorities Club, it’s just the three of them taking tea together on Thursday afternoons; membership requires face markings to be applied).
I first learned from Zeldawiki that the three represent three races that are not present in the game as a whole, but are important to Zelda mythology and so they are essentially easter eggs or something like that. More meaningful than those three fangirls outside the Tingle-guy’s tent who resemble the Oracles/Goddesses. Or the Tingle-guy himself, for that matter, as his demeanour and motivations are very different from Tingle, except perhaps the acquisition of Rupees. Enough sidetracks!
Fanadi is the fortune-teller. You know, the one with the obnoxious and forced backwards-masked (somewhat fourth-wall breaking) chant? Yeah, the one you never have to use because the objective in Zelda games is always pretty obvious. Maybe the heart piece finder is useful, but I never felt the need for more hearts than I naturally found.
Anyway, the middle dot in her tattoo is purple (Sheikah are linked to the Shadow Temple and dark magic). Her eyes are red, like most Sheikah that we know of in the games, Impa for example. And, most tellingly, she has the Sheikah eye symbol tattooed on her forehead. Self-explanatory really. The Sheikah are an ancient race, sworn to protect the Royal Family (although it has been hinted that this has not always been in the case, and they have been linked to the Dark Interlopers who became Twilight Princess’s Twili). Fanadi’s role as a mystical fortune teller fits with the secretive and mystical nature of the race.
Just to make this clear, none of these characters is specifically referred to as being a member of these races. But we can connect the dots ourselves. Fanadi is the most obvious, with her third eye tattoo. She’s not actually the only Sheikah in the game, though (not counting the Twili who are possibly linked). Impaz, the appropriately-named old lady in the Hidden Village, also has the red eyes and connection to Old Kakariko, not to mention the significant name which is called out as a reference to a historical figure. Now despite my premise, the Sheikah do not have a strong numerical presence in the series as a whole, but they are very important to the mythology. Their symbol is very common, and Impa as the most prominent individual has at least three confirmed Sheikah iterations, as well as one or two who are not confirmed to be Sheikah. So in a way the appearance of another member of this reclusive race is more important to the overall series.
Telma owns the bar that is a major plot area of the game, and is helpful and sympathetic to the restoration group which meets there. She is also, by virtue of several factors in her appearance, a Gerudo. Her main dots are red, and her red hair and dark skin are distinctive of the all-female desert race. She also sports a stylised Gerudo symbol on her apron (squint, it’s there!). The redesigned symbol, that is, not the original OoT religiously insensitive Islam symbol.
She’s interesting in that she is the only Gerudo in a game that even includes the Gerudo desert by name. That’s not including the ubiquitous Ganondorf, of course, who is their rightful king, as the once-every-100-years male born to the tribe. Supposedly they survive by visiting Hyrule Town to find men. So my theory goes that on one of these conjugal visits she liked the town so much she stayed and opened a bar. She seems interested in Kakariko’s shaman, Renado, but he resists her advances. Why she didn’t move to Kakariko I don’t know, too boring probably.
As for the rest of the race, I believe they live outside the explorable area of the desert, probably avoiding the beasts and creatures of Twilight that may have come from the Arbiter’s Grounds in a slow incursion unnoticed by Hyrule proper until the Twilight invasion during the events of the game. They are certainly still alive and out there, as they appear later in Four Swords+. Apart from their appearances in Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask though, they’re fairly scarce in the rest of the series. The witches Twinrova and Ganondorf are rogue members of the race, and I theorise that General Onox of Oracle of Seasons is the next 100-year male after Ganondorf, or perhaps the one after that. His resemblance to Iron Knuckles which in OoT and MM were Gerudos in armour, and the Gerudo symbol on his chest suggest this to me, along with his allegiance to Twinrova.
Lastly, and most tricky, is Agitha. She has the appearance of a young girl, and lives in a house that has a tree growing in it. She desires the company of shiny golden bugs and enjoys frolicking in the fields. She wears green, has blond hair, and has a green dot under her eyes. She is obviously a reference to the Kokiri, a fae race of forest creatures with a childlike appearance. But how is it possible that she is one, living outside the forest? She is the hardest to reconcile of the three.
It is said that there are consequences for Kokiri who leave the forest. The nature of this is unclear. Here is what we know about Agitha: unlike most Kokiri, she has no fairy, but she appears to have grown a tree in her house. She has a normal Kokiri-type appearance, albeit with different, more detailed clothes. She seems overly obsessed with bugs, and seems detached from reality, with a strange manner of speaking.
So let’s try and explain her. We don’t see any deep forest natives in TP, only Skull Kid, monkeys, and the people of Ordon Village. But I see no reason for the Kokiri not to be out there. We do have a precedent in Wind Waker for Koroks (the Kokiri’s descendants) to attempt expansion of the forest by seeding saplings in other parts of the world. This would explain the tree in Agitha’s house. Alternately, she may have planted it simply as a requirement for her survival outside the forest. She seems slightly mad, either a side-effect of being a semi-magical creature outside of her natural habitat or the result of trauma, resulting from the loss of her fairy. Her fixation on shiny insects must stem from this loss of her lifelong companion. Let’s pick one theory then.
Unlike in Wind Waker, the forest is not dwindled or under threat, so expansion is not a priority. Agitha must have gone rogue after an accident involving her fairy and some monster in the forest. She had a breakdown and fled her home, eventually finding herself in Castle Town. As an apparent orphan, she was taken in by an elderly couple. Not knowing what she was, they took care of her and clothed her, giving her things that made her comfortable, such as bugs and a sapling in a pot. Eventually they passed away, while she remained in a childlike state. The tree that eventually dominated the home kept her stable, a small piece of her forest home to hold on to. She now seeks out shiny bugs in an effort to replace her lost friend, and maintains her nebulous existence in Castle Town, not knowing what she’s doing half the time or why but maintaining the grace and kindness of a child of the Deku Tree.
I did have a theory that the Kokiri were gone and their fairies spread to other forest dwellers such as the Ordonians, hance Link’s Cursor Fairy. But I think now that fairy must be Navi, being unique to Link, and the notion of the Kokiri being dead is just too sad. It also implies a bit more happiness for the tragic Timey, who became estranged from Navi.
Well I think that satisfactorily explains those three. I always try to make things make sense, and turn little nods and references into full-blown fanon. If you have any doubts or questions, reply to this post and I’ll try to address it. Thanks for reading!
I’m taking a break from refreshing E3 speculation sites to write a blog post. Who cares about new games when we have great old ones we can still enjoy! Well, Twilight Princess is only 6 and a half years old, but it is (kinda) 2 generations ago now. I got this game for my birthday, from my older brother. At the time I was trying to decide between it and Skyward Sword. The contrasts are interesting, but not something I’ll go into here as I’ve developed something of an irrational aversion to that game, for a large amount of small reasons. Having not played it, I also imagine the worst about the experience—a mechanism that helps me cope with not owning and playing every game I lay eyes on. On the other hand, here’s a game I have played: Twilight Princess, and I did enjoy the experience.
Approaching this game as I did probably gave me a very different set of expectations to those players who seized it brand new, full of expectations and concerns about the direction of the franchise and the new hardware that the game had been accommodated to (it was developed for Gamecube originally, then ported to Wii with added motion controls and released simultaneously on both). I mentioned earlier that my first impressions were occuppied with the jagginess of the visuals. That’s one factor of revisiting slightly older games that were still striving for what has arguably been executed better since with more experience. However, it is true that this quickly becomes a non-issue as you play and adjust.
In fact, it’s the most realistic Zelda that exists, as I believe SS went back a bit on the cartooniness spectrum. Not that that’s a bad thing, but being of the generation that reveres Ocarina of Time, the increased fidelity of the world and the detail were very helpful to the immersion factor. I’m sure Miyamoto would say the motion controls helped too.
Since I bring it up, the comparisons with Ocarina of Time are inevitable and apt. I think since its phenomenal success, so groundbreaking and different at the time, subsequent 3D Zeldas have spent perhaps a little too much effort trying to recapture it, and in popular opinion this one most of all. I think though that there is enough to make it unique while being in recognisably the same world, the balance was struck very well here.
Where to start. How about the shipping, get that out of the way. While Wind Waker mercifully avoided it, this game embraces pairing Link up with different gals over the course (again, like OoT). Ilia, Zelda, Midna, oh and Hena too. The ambiguity and the confusion was very well summed up in the final sequence, though. This didn’t carry through too much in the game, though. A very tricky problem, developing relationships in a subtle and effective way through gameplay. I must admit though, I did have a little fun filling in the blanks in my mind. I haven’t made up my mind about it one way or another, which is for the best I think. I prefer not to be a rabid single-minded ship captain.
Now that I think of it, the game did a pretty good job conveying emotions most of the time. They worked hard on the faces to bring that through, and it really helped. There were a lot of memorable characters, like the Resistance for instance. They even had a few scenes actually doing stuff, although to me these brief cutscene-only events only served to highlight how static they were functionally. Still, it’s a step forward.
While playing I was helped by reading stuff on zeldawiki or elsewhere, about connections, small details, or fanservice-type stuff. By which I mean it helped with my appreciation of the world I was inhabiting in this game. Knowing that the Yeti mansion probably belonged to Ashei and her father; or the fact that Fanadi, Agitha, and Telma were references to the Sheikah, Kokiri, and Gerudo races despite those races not being represented much otherwise; these facts had me making connections and thinking about the world when not playing the game, which was fun and good. I thought up backstories both for the absence of those races and the presence of those individuals, for example. I’ll tell you all about it sometime.
As for the game itself, it made a good use of motion controls, I thought. You didn’t often have to be too precise, and I wasn’t resentful of the requirement like so many seem to be. I actually prefer it for aiming, which most of the subweapons required. Oh, with one exception (aside from curse you, ROLLGOOOAAAL!!!): thrusting the nunchuck to shield bash never worked for me, it doesn’t work. I always did the spin attack instead. That made some of the sword techniques seem useless, a factor also contributed to by the difficulty in scoring hits on some of the tougher enemies. Fighting them just wasn’t very fun when you only have one or two techniques you can use. Link’s vast array of equipment he always amasses makes it seem like you might have options, but often they only have specific uses which makes half of them seem like junk most of the time.
So the enemies weren’t that impressive, although I liked the Twilight versions. Dubstep birds, I called those Twilit Kargorocs, because they made unearthly sounds when attacking. It was a cool effect, and the visual effects were cool too. Slight tangent here, the pacing of the whole game was a little strange, with the twilight areas being resolved pretty quickly and then a long time without them, and then… oh I don’t know. And the wolf’s abilities weren’t utilised for a long time so i forgot about them. Well, I’m rambling so let’s talk about one of my favourite aspects: the dungeon design.
Specifically, some of the dungeons were absolutely awesome, a couple were a little bland. I loved that after so many Zelda games that had “X Temple” these ones were very flavourful, tonally internally consistent but not externally consistent and just explored some interesting concepts in ways that made a lot of them seem fresh. Of course, again living up to OoT, the Water dungeon (Lakebed Temple I think it was called) was poorly designed and frustrating. But the Snowpeak Ruins just blew me away. It’s an actual mansion, and there’s Yetis squatting there, and you get the map from the Yeti, and there’s snow coming in through holes in the roof! The presentation really impressed me, it felt so natural. Ok this paragraphs a bit all over the place, let’s start a new one.
No wait, I’m not done gushing. Going through those doors in the ruins of the Temple of Time into the sepia-toned splendour of the ancient Temple was breathtaking. The Hyrule Castle courtyard had a great sense of scale, even if it was annoying to get around. The City in the Sky had chicken men everywhere! Meeting the Gorons in the mines was great! Anyway most of the dungeons were great. Great everything is great!
Oh let’s whiplash back to a huge negative which I’ve mentioned before, the money. I was too often at max Rupees and putting them back into chests. There wasn’t enough to spend them on and they gave you too many in a too-small wallet. Other games since (and even before) have spread out rewards with treasures and other stuff, and more things to buy. I feel like the Magic Armour was added later to suck up some money that you always have. I liked seeking out hidden treasures and stuff but too often the reward was just more Rupees I didn’t need.
Anyway next thing. Oh there’s no more next thing? Wrap up? Ok. Well there’s certainly a lot to say about Twilight Princess, I haven’t even mentioned how cool Midna and Zant are as characters yet (super cool) or how the concept of the Twilight stuff is introduced so well but kind of peters out while you’re collecting Mirror Shards, then jumps right back (part of the pacing thing I mentioned earlier). It’s also interesting to examine it as part of the greater Zelda series, but I don’t feel I have the space to do that any more justice. Suffice to say, overall I feel it’s my favourite Zelda yet. Ok, I say that about a lot of games I finished recently but this game is damn good. It takes lots from Ocarina but also brings in so much new stuff, and it does both of these very well. If you loved Ocarina and let’s face it, everyone does, this is great as a follow-up. Ok that’s enough. TP gets 3/3 Fused Shadows, 4/4 Mirror Shards, and one flustered chicken from me.
Some gaming papercrafts me and Everbloom made the other day. It was heaps of fun, but some were more fiddly than others. I made Zero, Samus, and Mr Saturn, she made Toon Link, Chibiterasu and this super complicated Japanese-style bridge that she took to work. They come from various sources, nothing beyond simple google searches.
I just noticed now that we ended up with two competing franchise styles from Nintendo and Capcom, as Metroid and Megaman are often compared and Okami took more than a few cues from Zelda. Mr Saturn’s a bonus. ;)
So I’m playing through some games at the moment, haven’t finished any in a while. Loving the Rayman Legends Challenges App too. But I did recently finish watching a Let’s Play of Zelda Four Swords Adventures, or Four Swords+. I can’t decide which title is less generic. I don’t watch Let’s Plays that often, usually just small parts, but sometimes it’s fascinating to go through the complete experience and get someone else’s take on it at the same time.
I had to choose between two here, and ended up going with Goron50’s one—it had the best quality video, he didn’t talk too much and his voice was ok, and he was doing single player so it was easier to follow when he did everything. In single player mode a GBA connection is not required, and anything that would normally be displayed there is but up on screen in a GBA border. It’s an interesting accomadating technique, and made it very easy to follow in Youtube video format, unlike the other LP I considered which had four players and was confusing, especially as only the main screen was shown and not the GBAs. I did, however, switch to ShadowMarioXLI’s 4-player one afterwards, for a look at the Tingle Tower minigames and Shadow Battle deathmatch mode.
As for the game itself, it was actually very interesting to me. It’s often overlooked, not least because of its peripheral-heavy and exclusionist control scheme. It feels like a game not worth getting unless you have 3 friends with GBA connection cables. Goron50 taught me though that the game is perfectly playable with 1, and in that mode it’s pretty similar to other 2D Zelda games, but with a very different stage-based structure. You can’t help but feel that you’re missing out on all that the game is trying for, though. Seeing parts of ShadowMarioXLI’s run showcased a lot of shenanigans and fun co-op/competitive tension—not to mention those two whole modes that require multiplayer.
Speaking of missing modes, the Japanese version included, in addition to Hyrulean Adventure (the main mode, in which a post-TP Child Timeline Hyrule has to deal with the scheming of a reincarnated Ganondorf releasing Vaati and numerous “Shadow Links”) and Shadow Battle (a multiplayer competition, with coloured Shadow Links fighting amongst themselves), a third mode called Navi Trackers (originally intended as a standalone game called Tetra’s Trackers). As the beta title suggests, this mode is set after Wind Waker with Tetra and her pirate crew playing a treasure-hunting game with Link, who apparently and without explanation has split into four (even he seems confused about it in the intro). This mode supported multiplayer and single player against Tingle, and featured voice acting, including Tetra and other NPCs voicing a customisable substitute name made up phonetically of two morae (ie characters). This is speculated to be the reason for its removal from international releases of the game, as it would be hard to do outside of Japanese. Pretty lazy, huh? Could’ve just removed that feature, instead of cutting 1/3rd of the game modes out entirely.
This makes the Japanese release, the original intent, seem more like a “Kirby Super Star”-type game, with sub-games that are smaller in scope and more variety. Having that Wind Waker setting included also adds to the feel of the game being a total Zelda mashup—this is one of the most fascinating aspects to me. The menus, some sound effects, some visual effects (eg explosions), some enemies, and the bosses in the main mode are taken from Wind Waker. Many environments, sprites, enemies, and plot details are from Link to the Past. The appearance of the Links and the GBA-displayed graphics (not to mention the gameplay) are from the original Four Swords, and these graphics were repurposed for Minish Cap. The plot involves Shadow (Dark) Links (Zelda 2, Ocarina of Time), Vaati (Four Swords), and Ganondorf (Ocarina of Time, Twilight Princess) who transforms into pig Ganon with trident (Link to the Past, Zelda 1). This game, much more than others in the series, takes elements from other Zelda games in a good way.
Also the NPCs. As an actiony arcadey stage-based game, they did well incorporating dungeons and towns. You find such people as Deku Scrubs (Majora’s Mask), Gerudos (Ocarina of Time), and Gorons. More important NPCs include the Six Maidens (Link to the Past), Kaepora Gaebora the owl (Ocarina of Time), Great Fairies in their Wind Waker appearance, and Tingle (Wind Waker). It just seems that it has a larger amount of reused or repurposed elements and characters from other titles, rather than making its own. In this case, I really liked that as a Zelda fan. Sure, they can’t do that all the time but for this game to have that role makes it totally sweet.
After talking about that, the best part to me, I’ve lost enthusiasm for the rest of the game. If I get bored and stop, sorry! I’ll try. So the game obviously relies heavily on the difference between the TV screen (the main area you’re in) and the GBA screen (for sub-areas such as a cave or building). It’s based around the four people in the same area but doing different acitivities. Now it might seem obvious to ask why this wouldn’t work on the WiiU, but each person needs their own screen to be equal, so they can all be in sub-areas or have information the others don’t to encourage co-operative sharing (or competitive taking all the loot). So a single Gamepad is good for asymmetric stuff as they’ve shown and talked about, but this experience is very symmetrical.
It’s a rather inventive use for the GBA-GCN connectivity, but one of the big problems with this stuff is Nintendo has these wacky ideas that never really go anywhere. So you’ve got maybe 2 or 3 games that use this cable in a really cool way, but man that’s not worth buying four of them! So it’s a good idea, but there wasn’t a widespread use of it and it was optional. But now there’s all this stuff built into the WiiU, and you know they’re not going to use it when everyone has it! Ok, now I’m stereotyping Nintendo.
My point is, this is a very niche game. Which is a shame because it’s got cool ideas, it just has so many requirements to get into it—including being a big Zelda nerd to get all the references and stuff, just another requirement kinda. But having acquired all the necessities, is there really enough game here to justify it all, especially with Navi Trackers missing? I mean, maybe there’s not enough content given all the hoops you have to jump through for it. It is a different kind of content to your standard Zelda game, with menus into stages and minigames rather than exploring a world. But what is Hyrule Field but a big menu anyway?
I digress. The fact that there are two ways to play this game is cool. Many gameplay aspects are unique and interesting. The sheer amount of Zelda stuff mashed together is a total delight, even when they don’t mesh together perfectly (eg the Wind Waker boss art style clashes with other sprites). I regret not having the hardware/friends to be able to play the game myself, but the amount of conditions makes it impractical. The way the game feels so much like Link to the Past but with upgraded graphics and sound, and cool zooming effects makes me wish Nintendo or others would try a 2D revival-type thing like this with more polish and utilising modern stuff to expand on that experience, instead of going whole-hog into 3D or new control schemes or whatever. People like retro games, you could make some great stuff by shooting for that feel but enhancing it in other ways. Not like Megaman 9 and 10, though.
Ugh, I’m not getting my point across. I guess stuff like Donkey Kong Country Returns is kinda like that, but this game is all (mostly) 2D sprite art, but more high-fidelity, with zooming out in large areas and sweet water effects and stuff. I feel like you could take some great ideas from this game, and I haven’t seen them done that much elsewhere. Or maybe I have I don’t know. I guess the really specific instance of explicitly Link to the Past-style graphics but enhanced without overblowing them into 3D or something is what I’m talking about. The new 3DS Zelda is an example of that, not that I’m saying it’s bad, it’s just another way to do it.
Sigh. Anyway I should end this rambly, incoherent post before it gets, uh, too ranty. This game is cool, watch a Let’s Play some time. You don’t have to watch all of it. Sorry I went off the rails there. I’ll get this writing stuff down some day. Until next time, may your sword always be filled with the power to repel evil.
Damn I knew I’d forget something. The Zelda HD Experience from E3 2011 completely slipped my mind. And it’s the most compelling source for the canonicity of Cursor Fairy! Well Im'a go edit Twilighty’s post, but I’m not going to bother updating the timeline. It was too much hassle to upload, especially with the horrible new Picasa interface. I’ve got plans to set up a Flickr account soon though so we’ll see.
Oh also, I did mention Spaceworld 2000 (it’s awesome) but there was also Spaceworld 1995. I neglected to mention it as I wasn’t sure which Link was represented, but I’ve been convinced that it’s meant to be Decliney guy, due to the style, the darker hair, etc. I dunno everyone else seemed pretty sure about it so why not? He looks older, but all we can really tell from the video is that some time after Zelda 2 he fought a metal guy in some cave for some reason. Let’s link it to the Game Watch, since that took place in a cave. This metal guy could be his final trial or something before getting the Triforce. The odd thing is, he holds his sword in his right hand even though all Links (including Decliney) have been canonically left-handed until Skyward Sword. Maybe it’s an Inigo Montoya-type situation, he’s learning to be ambidextrous for better mastery of the sword.
Ooh that works cos he was right-handed in the cartoon show too, which likely takes place after Zelda 2, albeit in the Silly Universe.
The name Hero of Twilight is given to the Link of Twilight Princess. He has to defend Hyrule from an incursion from the Twilight Realm, with the help of various Hyruleans and Twili. And Sky People (there’s at least 3 races in the Zelda series who live in the sky). This Link is able to wield the powers of the Triforce of Courage, due to his bloodline as a direct descendant of the Hero of Time.
Twilighty really only has the one major appearance, but he also starred in the following spinoff, Link’s Crossbow Training. This is an arcadey target-shooting light gun game, with stages set in various Twilight Princess locales, during the events of the game. So it’s kind of like an extra chapter of that game, intermissions or such like. It presupposes the existence of the crossbow weapon and minor events that are unseen in Twilight Princess. For example, the most significant event is the final boss battle with “Fossil Stallord”. It’s implied this follows the fight in the Arbiter’s Grounds. The different name, location outside in the desert and Stallord’s extra horns point to a follow-up encounter, which is cool and fits with a reanimating skeleton. There’s not much else to say about this game.
This brings us to the tricky part. It seems at first glance that the Link in Brawl is obviously Twilighty. But look closer, beyond the shorter Master Sword (that can be explained by him finding it during his initial cutscene in Subspace Emissary, it must be a slightly different iteration or Master Hand’s replica): his face is subtly different in detail, and his hair has a much blonder tint. It’s been suggested that this “Link” is an amalgamation of the styles of Twilighty and Timey, who appeared in the previous Smash tournaments. This is backed up by the appearance of Snake, which draws from the look of Naked Snake and Solid Snake (two separate individuals—actually one’s a clone (spoiler!)). More importantly, Sheik appears as an alter ego of the TP-inspired Zelda of Brawl. But Zelda was never Sheik in TP!
This is actually problematic for my theory that these characters are their true selves from their respective games, summoned to an intermediate dimension. But perhaps we can say that Master Hand is able to change them slightly, for whatever reason, for the duration of their stay in his world. It would explain their differing movesets between games (and in some cases, appearances). It’s a bit of a copout but I’m honestly stumped here. It does explain some other things that are great for the game, but tricky for continuity such as alternate costumes (Dark Toon Link for example). There must be some measure of surrealistic shenanigans, to explain the cognitive black hole that is Mr. Game & Watch.
Now I’m all confused. Comes from thinking too much about how Smash Bros. is supposed to work. Where was I? Yeah, let’s say it’s just Twilighty, but Master Hand subtly gave him some of the traits of Timey to make him more awesome, and obviously gave Zelda the capabilities of Sheik to make her much more awesome still. Master Hand can explain many inconsistencies, that’s why he’s great. As for Twilighty’s origin, since he finds the Master Sword during a Brawl cutscene, let’s say he’s been lifted from before the Lost Woods bit but after Zora Temple (he has the Clawshot). This is not even halfway through the game, so he needed a bit more awesomeness. Explained!
Now we come to the biggest question about Twilighty: is his fairy canon?? (Is that the question you were thinking of?) Let me explain. In the Wii version of Twilight Princess, the Wii Remote cursor’s position on screen is represented by a blue fairy much like Navi from Ocarina of Time. Now the Gamecube version obviously does not have this feature, and its left-handed world of Hyrule is considered canon. But I like to think there are canon aspects to both, and as I often say, additive continuity is more interesting than subtractive continuity (ie. it’s more fun to consider the fairy canon than non-canon). The fairy has no other part in the storyline and is never mentioned or acknowledged.
But! This fairy appears with Link in a Subspace Emissary cutscene in Brawl, and is part of one of his in-game taunts. The question now is, is the fairy Navi, who came along with the other Timey-like traits, or the same person as Cursor Fairy? Obviously I’m going to say they are both Cursor Fairy, but consider this: we don’t know where Navi went at the end of OoT. Maybe with Link’s descendants moving back to a peaceful life in the forest (and the Kokiri nowhere to be seen), Ordonians made friends with forest fairies and in some cases took them on as companions? Perhaps even Navi herself bonded with Link’s children, for several generations?
Either way, whether Cursor Fairy is Navi or not, I like to imagine that Twilighty was accompanied by a fairy through his adventure. She must have been fairly passive to go along with Midna as much as Link did, so she may be a young fairy. Or perhaps she was really just super shy, much unlike Tatl in Majora’s Mask. She helps to aim, like Timey’s fairy companions. Anyway it’s just nice to picture a journey where Link is never lonely, even if Midna is being withdrawn. Of course, loneliness is a strong tonal effect, but the good part is I’m reading all this in anyway, so I can turn it off if I feel like it! It’s the perfect plan. Ok that may seem a little hypocritical but hey lighten up it’s a video game.
On that note, I’ll end my series on in-depth lore of the Zelda universe. I hope you enjoyed coming along with me through all these weird timelines (and hopefully the timeline image helped with that). And yeah like I said these are all just silly games but we can make more of them with a little critical thinking, and imagination! So until next time… Hoo Hoo Hoot! Also Kooloo Limpah~!
EDIT: Stop the presses! I forgot the Zelda HD Experience, ie. that Wii U tech demo they showed at E3 2011.
This Link is obviously Twilighty, all the details are there, also the accompanying UI and setting is reminiscent of Twilight Princess. They made new HD assets to show it off, but we can tell a few things. The place looks kinda like the Temple of Time, but it could easily be some other temple, and those feminine statues weren’t found there. Link has the Hylian Shield, but no Master Sword! He seems to be using the Ordon Sword, the one he uses before that. But there’s also an inventory screen, showing the post-Master Sword items the Spinner and Sky Book. So we can’t place this chronologically before obtaining it.
Of course, Link can equip the Ordon sword at any time during the game. And he replaces the Master Sword in the Sacred Grove at the end. So this encounter with what seems to be Gohma of some type could take place any time after the Arbiter’s Grounds, but it makes more sense to put it after TP is wrapped up due to no Midna and why would you switch back to the Ordon Sword if you had a better one?
So we come to Cursor Fairy. Link is accompanied by a fairy, similar to the Wii cursor and Brawl Fairy. So clearly now we can say without a doubt Cursor Fairy is a real character. She also seems very active in this tech demo, flying all over and even pointing out Gohma’s weak point to Link. I can picture her gaining confidence as a guide over the course of the TP adventure, and stepping up when Midna leaves.
I feel much better about Cursor Fairy now. Apart from that, all this shows us is that, as we’ve seen before, even after Ganon is defeated, there’s things to do in Hyrule: temples to be explored, monsters to be slain, and quests to be questing on. We don’t know why Link is in this palace—maybe it has something to do with the book? It is a lot like the Past Temple of Time, enough that I’m pretty convinced it’s the same place, and there’s any number of reasons to go back there.
So I hate to ruin my nice conclusion up there, but this definitely needed to be here, and I didn’t want to try integrating it in. So uh Link I think your name shall go down into history!
Fanadi is the fortune-teller. You know, the one with the obnoxious and forced backwards-masked (somewhat fourth-wall breaking) chant? Yeah, the one you never have to use because the objective in Zelda games is always pretty obvious. Maybe the heart piece finder is useful, but I never felt the need for more hearts than I naturally found.
Telma owns the bar that is a major plot area of the game, and is helpful and sympathetic to the restoration group which meets there. She is also, by virtue of several factors in her appearance, a Gerudo. Her main dots are red, and her red hair and dark skin are distinctive of the all-female desert race. She also sports a stylised Gerudo symbol on her apron (squint, it’s there!). The redesigned symbol, that is, not the original OoT religiously insensitive Islam symbol.
Lastly, and most tricky, is Agitha. She has the appearance of a young girl, and lives in a house that has a tree growing in it. She desires the company of shiny golden bugs and enjoys frolicking in the fields. She wears green, has blond hair, and has a green dot under her eyes. She is obviously a reference to the Kokiri, a fae race of forest creatures with a childlike appearance. But how is it possible that she is one, living outside the forest? She is the hardest to reconcile of the three.
Damn I knew I’d forget something. The Zelda HD Experience from E3 2011 completely slipped my mind. And it’s the most compelling source for the canonicity of Cursor Fairy! Well Im'a go edit Twilighty’s post, but I’m not going to bother updating the timeline. It was too much hassle to upload, especially with the horrible new Picasa interface. I’ve got plans to set up a Flickr account soon though so we’ll see.
Oh also, I did mention Spaceworld 2000 (it’s awesome) but there was also Spaceworld 1995. I neglected to mention it as I wasn’t sure which Link was represented, but I’ve been convinced that it’s meant to be Decliney guy, due to the style, the darker hair, etc. I dunno everyone else seemed pretty sure about it so why not? He looks older, but all we can really tell from the video is that some time after Zelda 2 he fought a metal guy in some cave for some reason. Let’s link it to the Game Watch, since that took place in a cave. This metal guy could be his final trial or something before getting the Triforce. The odd thing is, he holds his sword in his right hand even though all Links (including Decliney) have been canonically left-handed until Skyward Sword. Maybe it’s an Inigo Montoya-type situation, he’s learning to be ambidextrous for better mastery of the sword.
The name Hero of Twilight is given to the Link of Twilight Princess. He has to defend Hyrule from an incursion from the Twilight Realm, with the help of various Hyruleans and Twili. And Sky People (there’s at least 3 races in the Zelda series who live in the sky). This Link is able to wield the powers of the Triforce of Courage, due to his bloodline as a direct descendant of the Hero of Time.
Twilighty really only has the one major appearance, but he also starred in the following spinoff, Link’s Crossbow Training. This is an arcadey target-shooting light gun game, with stages set in various Twilight Princess locales, during the events of the game. So it’s kind of like an extra chapter of that game, intermissions or such like. It presupposes the existence of the crossbow weapon and minor events that are unseen in Twilight Princess. For example, the most significant event is the final boss battle with “Fossil Stallord”. It’s implied this follows the fight in the Arbiter’s Grounds. The different name, location outside in the desert and Stallord’s extra horns point to a follow-up encounter, which is cool and fits with a reanimating skeleton. There’s not much else to say about this game.
This brings us to the tricky part. It seems at first glance that the Link in Brawl is obviously Twilighty. But look closer, beyond the shorter Master Sword (that can be explained by him finding it during his initial cutscene in Subspace Emissary, it must be a slightly different iteration or Master Hand’s replica): his face is subtly different in detail, and his hair has a much blonder tint. It’s been suggested that this “Link” is an amalgamation of the styles of Twilighty and Timey, who appeared in the previous Smash tournaments. This is backed up by the appearance of Snake, which draws from the look of Naked Snake and Solid Snake (two separate individuals—actually one’s a clone (spoiler!)). More importantly, Sheik appears as an alter ego of the TP-inspired Zelda of Brawl. But Zelda was never Sheik in TP!
This Link is obviously Twilighty, all the details are there, also the accompanying UI and setting is reminiscent of Twilight Princess. They made new HD assets to show it off, but we can tell a few things. The place looks kinda like the Temple of Time, but it could easily be some other temple, and those feminine statues weren’t found there. Link has the Hylian Shield, but no Master Sword! He seems to be using the Ordon Sword, the one he uses before that. But there’s also an inventory screen, showing the post-Master Sword items the Spinner and Sky Book. So we can’t place this chronologically before obtaining it.
