theradicalchild | Entries tagged with the legend of zelda

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Tears of Disappointment

Let me begin this deep look by saying I do not like Nintendo’s Legend of Zelda series, and consider it one of the most overrated franchises in gaming history. There are a few entries that I enjoyed, such as the Triforce of the Gods games (A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds), but I believe that the franchise especially went downhill when it leaped from two to three dimensions. Even then, I didn’t care much for Ocarina of Time or its rerelease on the Nintendo 3DS. I remember buying a Nintendo Switch because of Breath of the Wild’s “universally positive” reception, but I still didn’t like it. The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom continues the open-world direction the franchise has headed in, and while I really wanted to like the game, it just didn’t love me back.

Tears of the Kingdom occurs several years after Breath of the Wild, with Link and Zelda exploring the caves below Hyrule Castle, from which toxic Gloom has been sickening citizens of the kingdom. After encountering a mysterious mummy, an event known as the Upheaval occurs that results in Link losing the power that he had acquired in the game’s predecessor, with floating islands and poisonous Depths appearing as well. Some of the backstory is good, but the narrative doesn’t really strike any new ground, and in general, once you’ve experienced one Zelda game’s plot, you’ve pretty much experienced them all. The translation is legible, but Nintendo of America, as in recent years, didn’t really put much effort into making it sound realistic and fitting for a fantasy game, also annoyingly using the acronym OK instead of “okay” among other things.

And makes the endgame nigh unplayable.

Many elements from Breath of the Wild return, such as Link being able to find different kinds of melee/ranged weapons and shields that break after excessive use, with an initial limit as to how many he can carry at a time, but players late into the game can use Korok Seeds strewn throughout Hyrule to increase these limitations, which I only found out about via the internet. Shrines return, where Link, in most cases, must solve a complex puzzle to receive a Light of Blessing, four of which he can use to extend his life or stamina meters at Goddess Statues. Link can also obtain additional Hearts at points, including finishing one of the main Temples necessary to advance the storyline.

Players can outfit Link with clothing for his head, body, and legs for defensive power and increase it at Great Fairy Fountains throughout Hyrule; however, gaining access to their power is difficult without a guide. Certain clothes are necessary to traverse areas with extreme heat or cold without suffering damage, sometimes available in the regions where such conditions occur. Combat largely remains the same as in prior three-dimensional Zeldas, with Link able to lock on to an enemy within his view, attack it, block its attacks with his shield, and execute moves such as side jumps and backflips.

Lamentably, the same problems in combat carry over from prior 3-D Zelda installments, where switching a target necessitates that the player release the targeting button, get close to another enemy, and hold the same button. Moreover, the minimap doesn’t show enemy locations on the battlefield, which leaves Link completely blind from behind. Furthermore, if his back is near a wall, the camera can go haywire, and Link can leap and grab said wall, making him vulnerable to the enemy. Most of the time, killing enemies nets Link parts and armaments he can seize for himself.

Throughout his lengthy journey, Link gains several powers instrumental in solving the myriad puzzles present in most series predecessors. First is Ultrahand, which allows Link to telekinetically move an object around and rotate it in any direction except port or starboard, which leads to many annoying moments. Players can attach movable objects to one another and break one piece from another by wiggling the right stick. This ability plays significantly into advancing through the Temples Link accesses and completing Shrines scattered throughout Hyrule. However, I found it incredibly difficult to discover many Shrines and solve their respective puzzles, if present, without the internet.

Link's a lumberjack, he's...not okay.

Another ability Link acquires includes Fuse, which can allow him to fuse one of his breakable melee weapons and shields with a specific material gotten from defeating monsters or battlefield objects such as wooden crates or boulders, which renders it unchangeable until it breaks. He can also attach materials to arrows he can shoot from one of the bows he can carry to provide effects such as homing guidance towards enemies, which can fare well against those with unpredictable movement patterns. Sometimes, Link can pick the arrows he fires back up if they fail to strike a monster, provided the player can track them down.

Link also gains the Recall ability, which can target a single object and reverse its movement, be it one he has moved through Ultrahand or a moving part of an environment such as a giant cog, often necessary to solve some Shrine puzzles. Furthermore, players can photograph monsters and most weapons, shields, bows, and items they drop to note them in the various compendia, a tedious task when other roleplaying games automatically do so. The Ascend ability allows him to leap through a ceiling if it isn’t too high above and emerge at the top.

While Tears of the Kingdom has its fun moments, given the various killer moves Link can execute, there exist many issues aside from those mentioned that prevent it from being wholly enjoyable, especially toward the end when he must traverse the Depths for the endgame sequence and risk losing maximum life due to Gloom that infests the underworld which seems to exist solely to artificially make the game longer than it needs to be, with the potential to go into the final battles with a low number of Hearts. While there are food recipes that can cure Gloom taint, players will need to go through hoops to get the ingredients to make them, which again can necessitate the internet, which is the only possible way to get through the game in a reasonable time.

Moving to control, while players can theoretically record their progress anywhere, they cannot simply quit in the middle of a drawn-out puzzle and expect progress to remain, with the frequent load times, inexcusable in a cartridge game, not helping, and the autosave feature can be unreliable. Another major problem is the absence of automapping, which would have made discovering the Shrines and other locales of Hyrule easier, with segments of the country mapped entirely alongside no indicator of where the player has been when Link visits one of the Skyview Towers. Even then, Link sometimes must go through hoops to activate them in the first place. The teleportation between Shrines is a godsend, but Tears of the Kingdom could have been more user-friendly.

Along with rockets, flamethrowers, and other weaponry.

Vending machines were all the rage in ancient Hyrule.

Like Breath of the Wild, the sequel has a minimalistic musical presentation. While there are some decent tracks, the aurals rely too much upon ambiance. The sound effects are good, but the quality of the voicework is mixed, with some annoying performances and lots of annoying grunting during cutscenes not fully voiced. Thus, one could get away with muting the volume and listening to other music while playing the game.

The visuals are mostly the same as in Breath of the Wild, with a cel-shaded style that superficially appears decent, and the lighting effects and colors are genuinely beautiful. However, there are many technical hiccups, including a choppy framerate, environmental pop-up, blurry and pixilated texturing, and jaggies. Moreover, Link eating phantom food whenever the player uses food items in the game menus looks asinine. Ultimately, the game is only graphically acceptable.

When ceasing to play the Breath of the Wild sequel, my playtime numbered around seventy-two hours, with plenty of Shrines yet to discover and many sidequests left incomplete. While the supplemental content would theoretically enhance the lasting appeal, only those who somehow enjoy the game would want to play onward.

Overall, Tears of the Kingdom, like Breath of the Wild before it, was for me a massive letdown, given its tedious gameplay and control, hackneyed writing, and average audiovisual presentation, with the Zelda series and open worlds, in my opinion, going together as well as a fish and a bicycle. However, if you liked the first Nintendo Switch Zelda, you would probably enjoy its sequel, but there are far better open-world RPGs. Those in search of the definitive Zelda experience would be far better off playing one of the genuine classics of the franchise like A Link to the Past and A Link Between Worlds. Regardless, if I could use Link’s Recall ability on the time I spent with the game, I would do so in a heartbeat.

This deep look is based on an incomplete playthrough of around seventy-two hours to the “Destroy Ganondorf” quest.

Current Mood: disappointed

A Hyrulian Period Piece

Most will freely acknowledge that the Nintendo 64’s path through history came with it a wasteland laden with the cadavers of partially developed games and whatnot, given the Big N’s desire to have their flagship franchises it absolutely three-dimensions with little, if no, room for two, an attitude dampened by the system’s restrictive cartridge format compared to the rival PlayStation’s more flexible compact disc medium. However, it did bear some games most mainstream videogame critics would hail as near-infallible masterpieces such as the first 3-D Zelda, last rereleased on the Nintendo 3DS as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D. Does it still hold up today?

The game begins with Navi the fairy awakening Link from a nightmare, and after a visit to and into the Great Deku Tree for a Spiritual Stone, he Is tasked with visiting Princess Zelda at Hyrule Castle, from whom he receives the mission of retrieving two other Spiritual Stones to enter the Sacred Realm so that the primary protagonist, Ganondorf, can’t claim the godly Triforce for himself. Throughout the game, players control Link across two different periods to save Hyrule from Ganondorf’s twisted ambitions. Though there is some good backstory on Hyrule and elements such as the Triforce, those who have experienced the narratives of other Zeldas will pretty much have experienced that of Ocarina, so ultimately there’s not a whole lot new under the sun in terms of plot.

Writing has rarely, if ever, been a strong suit of the Zelda franchise, and Ocarina continued that trend. There seems no fathomable excuse, for instance, except inebriation, why anyone would think it natural for a character to greet “Yahoo! Hi, Link!”, address someone to their face as “Link the hero” or “Navi the fairy”, or scream “CURSE YOU…SAGES!” As with other Nintendo localizations past and present, as well, the translators opted to use “OK” instead of “okay”, which no professional writer would ever do, and there exists a chronic overuse of ellipses and exclamation points. The dialogue is coherent, but still proves a prime example of middle-tier videogame translation.

That leaves the gameplay for the most party to carry the burden, but speaking as someone who grew up mainly with top-down Zelda games A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening, just how well did Ocarina transition to three dimensions? There are a few top-down moments where control is two-dimensional, and a few areas that rotate as Link wanders through them, but otherwise, the gameplay is strictly three-dimensional, with the camera constantly staying behind the series protagonist as he wanders, the player able to press a button to get the camera back behind him or hold it to keep it in place, causing the pointy-eared hero to strafe, somewhat critical in combat.

Gerudo Fortress is one of the more frustrating areas of the game.

Ocarina does not allow Link to jump manually, with the first 3-D Zelda opting to have him auto-jump whenever the player guides him between gap-separated platforms, which can at times be a mixed blessing, given the uncontrollable nature of a few leaps. Falling from significant heights damages Link a little, although he tends to get off free with lower falls. The heart system from previous installments, where Link acquires an addition to his life meter after bosses in dungeons or collecting four heart pieces scattered throughout Hyrule, returns, and a (very) late-game upgrade halves damage taken to his life. The loss of all hearts without a bottled fairy results in an unceremonious game over and an opportunity either to save or quit, which really doesn’t make much difference.

The inaugural three-dimensional Zelda does technically allow players to record their progress anytime, though in most instances the feature is superficial, as it doesn’t preserve Link’s current location unlike the liberalized save systems of other titles such as the SaGa games. For instance, if the player saves on the Hyrulian overworld, quits, and resumes their game, Link in the past starts at his home in Kokiri Village or in the future at the Temple of Time, with players also starting at dungeons from their entrances if saving and quitting in them. There are, though, maybe a few moments where players can use this to their advantage, such as saving and quitting to return to a dungeon entrance, exiting and repeating, and restarting at either past or future default location.

Combat occurs, of course, whenever Link approaches enemies, with many options available for him to attack. Key to battle is the targeting system where the player can hold the L button to lock on a foe, keep it visible on the gameplay screen, and have Link walk in relation to its position. Throughout my experience, I had issue with having to keep my finger on the L button to hold a target, and the need to have Link facing an enemy in order to target it in the first place, which proves disadvantageous since he’s completely blind from behind, with no radar indicating enemy position, and the action of combat doesn’t stop while the player attempts to target opponents.

Luckily, child and adult Link have a few killer moves, such as being able to slash, poke, or even jump-leap enemies with his sword, block enemy attacks with his shield and retaliate, execute spinning slashes, and so forth, and such skirmishes tend to be quick affairs and at many moments optional. In many instances, defeating an enemy yields a random drop such as a recovery heart, rupee or rupees, refills for slingshot or bow ammunition, bombs, magic recovery potion, and maybe other things. Link does eventually get a magic meter that allows him to perform a few spells (though only a few are genuinely helpful), use a magic spyglass to see hidden objects or enemies, and fire special elemental arrows (which is somewhat critical towards the end of the game).

The original Tales of Destiny came out a year before in Japan but had a vastly-superior targeting system.

As with prior Zelda games, too, Link has many tools that can serve offensive uses such as a hammer to beat down rusty switches, a boomerang to hit or catch distance objects, bombs to detonate fragile walls, bottles to carry healing potion of fairies to restore life when he loses all health (among a few other things), and so forth. Many of these tools are necessary to advance through the storyline dungeons and maybe discover a few secrets spread through Hyrule. As well, dungeon bosses require specific strategies to conquer, and while there are a few that are genuinely enjoyable, there are many that can be nothing short of frustrating, with the camera not helping in those cases, and death forcing players to retrace their steps back to the boss to try again.

Other supplements to the gameplay include hunting Gold Skulltulas and retrieving their respective medals, which can gradually reverse the curse of a family in Kakariko Village transformed into spiders and earn Link some goodies such as increased maximum rupees he can carry, necessary of course to purchase items. However, while money was an issue early on, late in the game they pretty much burned a hole in my pocket, and it would have been nice for the game to feature some other use for them instead of allowing them to waste away like they did in my experience.

All in all, the game mechanics have some good ideas, though their execution often brings things down, accounting for an inconsistent experience, with gameplay tropes like having to sneak past guards without getting caught, not to mention the potential for repetition if a boss kills you. The camera and targeting system can be pains, titles such as the original Tales of Destiny, which released a year before Ocarina in Japan, vastly superiorly executing the latter, and the general lack of control of the player’s view in the heat of combat doesn’t help matters. Generally, Ocarina of Time still plays like a 3-D game originally released in 1998, but things aren’t entirely bad.

One of the biggest improvements in terms of Ocarina’s control compared to the Nintendo 64 version is the much, much faster text speed and the ability to scroll through most dialogue without all of it having to appear in textboxes first. Other additions include the Shiekah Stone in Kokiri Village and the Temple of Time, which can help newcomers to the game with difficult puzzles necessary to advance through dungeons, though access to them regardless of Link’s location would have been nice. The biggest issues, still, are the camera and the save system, the latter making difficult playing the game in small chunks, given the repetition players must endure when diving back into the game.

Even the axeman wants to off Navi.

Sound has tended to be one of the more positive aspects of the Zelda franchise, and Ocarina in many respects continued that trend. The various melodies Link learns for the eponymous musical instrument, necessary for fast travel and in a few circumstances solving puzzles or battling maybe one specific enemy type, can be catchy and endearing, and signature series motifs such as Zelda’s lullaby and Ganandorf’s sinister theme have a few notes added to them. There are issues regarding the music such as the bland dungeon themes and lack of musical accompaniment during nighttime on the overworld, and things like Navi’s nagging voice can be really grating, but aurally, Ocarina doesn’t completely fall flat on its face.

The latest incarnation of the first three-dimensional Zelda game, furthermore, may still play like a 3-D game originally released in 1998, but mercifully doesn’t completely appear as such, given the graphical refinements for the Nintendo 3DS version’s character models most of all, as well as the convincing depth effects from the handheld’s visual capabilities. Granted, most of the environments still have blurry and pixilated texturing, and there is as prior mentioned the issues with the camera, but visually, the game is far from an eyesore.

As with pretty much every old-school Zelda game, there isn’t an in-game clock to measure total playtime, although upon completing the main quest, players access the Master Quest, although whether they’ll want to partake in it is largely a matter of if they enjoyed the main game, which for me at points was a chore.

All in all, Ocarina of Time 3D definitely does have many things going for it, such as adult/child Link’s diverse arsenal of moves, the secrets ready to discover throughout Hyrule, and decent audiovisual presentation, although there are many issues preventing it from being fully accessible to series newcomers such as the frustrating camera and targeting systems and consequentially needlessly difficult combat at points, the shoddy story and writing, and bland dungeon music. It is better than the NES Zeldas and even some future entries such as Skyward Sword, but those seeking the definitive Zelda experience would be better off playing one of the true classics of the franchise such as A Link to the Past or especially its spiritual successor A Link Between Worlds.

This review is based on a playthrough of a copy digitally downloaded to the reviewer's 3DS of the main quest alone.

Score Breakdown
The Good	The Bad
Child and adult Link have some killer moves. Lots of secrets across Hyrule. Many pleasant melodies. Good graphical upgrades.	Some frustrating enemies and bosses. Terrible camera and targeting system. Lackluster plot and writing. Bland dungeon music.
The Bottom Line
One of the best mainline 3-D Zeldas, but that's not saying much.
Platform	Nintendo 3DS
Game Mechanics	5.0/10
Control	4.5/10
Story	4.0/10
Localization	3.5/10
Aurals	5.5/10
Visuals	6.0/10
Lasting Appeal	3.0/10
Difficulty	Inconsistent
Playtime	No in-game clock.
Overall: 4.5/10

Current Mood: okay

I emailed the Texas DPS to see if there were any alternatives to waiting until the end of March to be able to renew my license, which expired on my birthday two weeks ago. I got a response saying they would call within five business days to give me another appointment time, one I hope will be far sooner, and that if I didn't get one, to go to a local DPS office and talk with its supervisor, so there may be hope yet of getting me back on the road sooner and not have to rely on my parents for transportation. It was my turn to work Saturday, so it was a short weekend. I think my right shoulder is getting better as I've been finding more time to exercise it, and I've been increasing my exercise time since my weight loss has somewhat stagnated.

I'm still chugging along in Persona 5 Royal, way past the original version's ending, but as my PlayStation 4 says that video recording is blocked, I won't spoil anything. I also hit a bit of a roadblock in NieR: Automata where I had to reference the internet to find out how to advance the storyline since the game itself gave shitty direction about the fact that I needed to equip a certain item to scan for YoRHa soldiers. The same goes for Pokémon Violet, where I've struggled with the Elite Four, although I've been exploring and grinding a little, increasing my party's base stats with items, so I'll try again in the near future. I've been playing Ocarina of Time 3D too and am at the woodland dungeon in adult Link's world.

Current Mood: disappointed

My driver's license expired on my birthday, and as I waited too late to schedule an appointment last year on the Texas DPS's website, my appointment date ended up being a week afterward, so my dad had to drive me to work for the rest of the week after Tuesday. This morning, however, he assumed I took one thing for lunch when I took something else, which really irked me since it really showed that he's more concerned about food than anything else, and it triggered me since autistics such as I really detest small talk, which he's prone to making. In the past, he's been really nosy about knowing what I ate for lunch and such when he could be mindful of more important things such as my mental health, where my parents can easily undo weeks of psychiatric progress, which I had been making since I started seeing my new psychiatrist. As I couldn't get it off my mind, I texted him while I was at work to tell him politely to fuck off about things like that, and when he picked me up after my shift, the drive was completely silent, which was somewhat scary, and it felt like he drove aggressively back home. Mom was nice, though, which was a bit relieving, since my father is an acceptable target in my family given his imbecility. I also got access to chat in a group I discovered through Twitter, Furry Healing, and venting my frustrations somewhat relieved me as well.

I got a few small presents when the managers at the call center where I work heard about my birthday, such as a $10 Raising Cane's gift card since I frequent the one in the town where I live. I also got $20 in cash from my sister and her family, which was somewhat odd given that I'm a middle-aged man, and a type of gift usually reserved for children or teenagers, but it really didn't offend me, though there's no chance in hell I would give cash as a gift to any of my siblings (but in the past I gave $20s to my niece and nephew when I gave them birthday cards, not to mention my stepnieces and stepnephews when my younger brother was still married). It was still probably my worst birthday to date, but I'm largely over it. I won't be able to go to church this Sunday given my transportational interregnum (and there's no way I'm going back to my dad's church since he's way too involved with the one he goes to). I lacked the foresight to stock up on booze for my minifridge, and I find hard cider more tolerable than beer, with the alcohol definitely helping me cope and seeming to keep my mood balanced, though I do fear that my parents would freak out if they found out about my drinking (but I'm definitely no alcoholic), given their rampant infantilization.

I didn't play games much this week, though I did get some Ocarina of Time 3DS in, and managed to collect four heart pieces given my exploration between dungeons, killing enough gold skulltulas to get the adult wallet from the cursed family as well. I'm making decent progress in Pokémon Violet too and managed to wipe the floor with my 'Mons at one of the gyms, aiming to visit one in the middle of the frozen area where they're at higher levels. I also started Nier: Automata, and it's been really good from what I've played thus far (though the introductory sequence felt a little drawn-out), with the auto-battle mode available in it as well, and I like how there are sidequest destination markers and/or ranges on the in-game maps. I'm working on Persona 5 Royal too, and am able to send the calling card for the ship Palace, though I'm boosting social links until the deadline gets close. I actually find the plot a bit relatable since I wish I could "steal" my parents' hearts and get them to realize the error of their ways in raising me, but I'll doubt they'll ever change before they eventually die, given that they hopefully predecease me.

Current Mood: okay

My dad's maternal cousin Karla died recently up in Wisconsin. I met her and her husband Tom when my father and I went to Wisconsin for a family reunion of my dad's paternal relatives (and where I met my last living grandaunt on his side of the family, which was as close as I would ever get to meet her older brother and my paternal grandfather, who died before I was born before she herself passed away). They won't be able to do anything funeral-wise until spring due to the weather up there.

Dad had also given me several coupons for Baskin Robbins and Dunkin' (which are packaged together and recently opened a store up in town), all of which I used, most recently one for getting a dozen donuts for free by buying a dozen; I gave the first to my church and kept the second for me and my parents. After church, I used the remaining coupon to get a free "classic" donut (which seemed randomly chosen, but was still good), although I paid for a cold coffee as well, given the typical "if you give a mouse a cookie" standard that in my mind runs true.

This evening my younger brother Chris came over and gave me a $50 Amazon gift card for my birthday on the 24th when I'll be turning 39, and we all went to Red Lobster for dinner, where I "created my own" Ultimate Feast with a lobster tail, grilled scallops, cheddar bay shrimp, and coconut shrimp (rice and lobster mashed potatoes on the side), all of which I devoured since I had had just the donut and coffee for lunch (which I deliberately did so I would have more room for said dinner). Mom also got a free dessert with her forthcoming birthday on the 26th and promised I could have it, but we ended up taking it home since I was too full.

Gaming-wise, I think I'm slowly nearing the end of Persona 5 Royal since my party's levels are in their seventies and I'm at the cruise ship Palace (and I can insta-kill any enemy party due to said high experience levels). I've also made significant progress in Pokémon Violet by killing a few Titans and winning a few Gym challenges, and my tank 'Mon (the grass starter in its most powerful evolution form) has largely been able to OHKO most any opponent. I've also been playing The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D and have reached Goron City, making sure to open up a shortcut to the forest given the developers' decision not to have the save-anywhere feature actually keep your current location. Yeah, I don't exactly have a rosy view of the hypothetical "masterpiece", though it is far better than my least-favorite entries of the series (namely, the NES Zeldas, especially the second, and Skyward Sword HD).

I probably won't have much time for gaming this week since my Java training and placement class allegedly restarts tomorrow, and I've been brushing up on SQL via W3Schools, where I can get a certificate for the language after I complete various exercises and take a test.

Current Mood: okay

Happy Martin Luther King, Jr. Day to those who genuinely honor the late civil rights leader's legacy (and I largely stand where he did ideologically). Keep in mind that, despite oddly-popular belief (for some reason widespread within the furry fandom), being of certain demographics such as race, white or nonwhite, does not make one untouchable.

My second anniversary at my current job was last week (though I didn't get an evaluation from my managers about it the way I did after my first year), and for those of you who aren't familiar with what I do, I'm a Workforce Traffic Analyst for a call center down the hill from where I live, submitting regular reports, one in particular hourly, regarding Energy Advisors outsourced from Southern California Edison (and our call center represents FedEx as well, though their division will close down at the end of the month and we'll be getting new accounts, and very likely, more work), sort of a cyber truant officer making sure agents aren't spending too long on calls, on hold with customers, or in after-call work, etc.

I'm allegedly still in Java training and placement, with the last communication from our instructor being last week, although we didn't have any sessions then or today, and I was certain to note ahead of time when my right shoulder rehabilitation (which seems to be going well) was at the local physical therapy clinic, which may have had something to do with the delays. I've been doing plenty of exercises during downtime at work at my desk (and I have my own individual station again due to the Lead Analyst and SCE managers wanting me to verbally tell the managers which agents have been having issues with their calls), and the pain hasn't been too distracting.

I've also snuck in some alcoholic beverages on nights (such as spiking ice cream milkshakes I make with our Ninja blender with Kaluha, Bailey's Irish Cream, etc.), and drinking some of my dad's Coronita Extras that have otherwise gone untouched for weeks. I also bought and tried a Mike's Hard(er) Lemonade, and while I did get somewhat tipsy, I can apparently hold my alcohol well. I don't actually care much for the taste of beer, but have largely been drinking responsibly for the medicinal benefits (since alcohol can play part in dulling pain). I most recently bought some Guinness beers from a 7-11 at the edge of town, and whether it's lager or ale, it's definitely an acquired taste. I consider myself an "antisocial" drinker since I'm sure my parents would bitch and moan about me drinking despite me being a middle-aged man (I turn 38 in a week).

I've also discovered that apparently, hemp cigarettes are a thing and purchased a pack from a nearby convenience store after I did some research on them, and while they don't exactly taste all that good, a little worse than cheap tobacco, they've apparently helped too with my pain. Since I became legal I've been an on-and-off smoker due to all the stress I've encountered in my life, and with my parents spending the bulk of Sunday evening down in Austin, I tried one of the cigars I purchased from Walmart, which was okay, and I had purchased a $7 premium one from a local store that seems to be the exclusive seller of them in our town. I recently bought a four-pack of more-expensive cigars, although I'm not sure when I'll have the time to try them since my parents are really fierce anti-smoking Nazis.

Despite the issues with my parents, I have been somewhat improving mentally, with my new psychiatrist and non-doctoral therapist being nice to talk to from the comfort of my own computer, and I've largely severed ties with my old psychiatrist who's getting advanced in age and hadn't really improved me psychologically despite my having seen him for seventeen or so years. When I had put one of my appointments into the digital calendar, though, my dad took notice (and as usual he couldn't get the damn name of the cyber clinic, Talkiary, right, despite having a Master's Degree, which I strongly suspect he cheated on given his blatant imbecility), and bitched about costs, despite the online clinic taking Medicare, which I have. I still feel ADHD coexists with my OCD, and will emphasize that next time I talk to my psychiatrist and therapist.

Gaming-wise, I'm still working on Persona 5 Royal and am at the casino Palace, searching for the red control panel in the slot machine wing. I'm also having a blast with Pokémon Violet and have cleared one Team Star camp, two gyms, and one "titan" 'Mon. I sort of put Torchlight on hold since I have a weird system where I track the in-game playtime of whatever I'm playing, and I discovered that it actually did track playing time through experimentation with controls, which has somewhat been difficult, and I'll mess around more next time I pick up the game. I've moved on to The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D, which, despite getting a lot of critical head, I don't exactly view with rose-tinted glasses, given my frustrations with the original N64 version, so my eventual review of the game when I do finish it probably won't be very saccharine.

Current Mood: okay

A Link Well-Kept

I am not a Legend of Zelda fan; there, I said it. My experience with Nintendo’s fabled franchise has, since I first experienced The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past on the Super NES, been grossly inconsistent, although the first and only sixteen-bit entry of the series was positive for me, to the point where I would happily replay it throughout my early life as a gamer. Regardless of whatever adulation entries in the series would receive, in some cases near-universal, I would encounter serious issues of which I believe mainstream gamers need to be aware before playing. My latest experience with the SNES title subtitled Triforce of the Gods in Japan would be on the Nintendo 3DS’s Virtual Console. Does it still hold up today?

Before starting a new game, players can see the elaborate backstory on the Golden Land, the celestial land where the mystical Triforce lies, although the wizard Aghanim seeks to eliminate the descendants of seven sages sealing the sacred realm, among his last target being Princess Zelda, telepathically calling out to Link, who rescues her yet becomes public enemy number one in Hyrule. The narrative was definitely good for its time and has reasonable pacing given the game’s meager length, with Link himself receiving some background as to his ancestry, the bulk of scenes occurring after boss fights in Dark World dungeons, along with a satisfactory ending. There are some tried tropes such as a damsel in distress and legendary hero, but otherwise, the plot rises well above average.

The translation, however, is one of the game’s weak points, and largely fell victim to Nintendo of America’s draconian censorship guidelines that eliminated any religious references, such as Aghanim in the Japanese version being a priest allegedly with celestial origin. They even edited the Hylian language based on Egyptian hieroglyphs on the grounds it had religious references, despite its symbolism of a religion hardly anyone has practiced for millennia. There’s also a bit of awkwardness, for instance, with reference to the Sanctuary as “Sanctuary” minus “the”, which accounts for lines such as “This path leads to Sanctuary” and “The soldiers are coming to Sanctuary!” The writing was definitely a step above the NES Zeldas, but otherwise unremarkable.

The gameplay, for the most part, backs the experience well. Early on, Link receives his sword from his uncle, able to slash at enemies with it with a decent semicircular range in front of him, as well as to “charge” it and either keep it extended to poke at foes or execute a spinning attack, useful for when adversaries surround him. He also starts with three heart containers indicative of his health that, when depleted, mark his demise, with the biggest penalty of death being the player needing to restart from one of a few fixed points and have Link retrace his steps, with the player’s postmortem playthrough only partially recovering the Link’s life points.

Link also acquires a number of tools that can aid him in his crusade against Aghanim such as a boomerang useful for stunning most enemies from afar and making them more vulnerable to his melee attacks, not to mention collecting random drops such as health/magic point recovery and rupees in case they’re out of range. One particular tool that can actually be the difference between victory and defeat is the bottle, with Link able to acquire a maximum of four throughout the game, and can store things such as fairies that revive him with partial health when he dies, and potions that can fully recover his life points, magic points, or both.

Link does eventually acquire increases to his maximum health, first at the Sanctuary (or just “Sanctuary” as the translation terms it), and then from the various bosses he defeats at the end of dungeons, for a total of ten acquired as part of the main storyline. Twenty hearts is the maximum amount of health he can possibly acquire, with many quarter-heart pieces scattered throughout the Light and Dark equivalents of Hyrule, with the acquisition of any four of these lengthening his life meter by one heart. In contrast, Link has fixed magic points, although he can find a shrine to halve spell costs.

Dungeon bosses tend to involve some sort of trick to defeat them, most of the time through the use of whatever tool Link gains within their respective temples, and generally don’t take a whole lot of time to defeat, the same going for the final battle. While bottling fairies and healing potions can allow some room for error in those regards (though in some cases I actually took more damage from regular enemies and environments than many bosses), finding the bottles themselves may necessitate use of a guide, and inexperienced players in general might find it a tad difficult to go into the game blind with regards especially to the final boss. Regardless, A Link to the Past’s take on the signature series gameplay contains enough refinement to make it more than bearable.

As a Virtual Console game on the Nintendo 3DS, the sole sixteen-bit Zelda has a major enhancement in the form of the ability to create a single-slot save state, which in general nullifies whatever quibbles the player may have with the save system, enemies, and dungeon design, the last in particular being sometimes irritating, and as A Link to the Past doesn’t indicate when chambers have keys in them like Link’s Awakening and its remakes, using a key in the last dungeon on a door between two rooms reachable without one by stairs on the floor above can easily leave players lost. However, the puzzles are generally enjoyable and solvable without referencing the internet, and both the overworld and dungeons have helpful in-game maps. There are other issues such as the lack of fast-travel in the Dark World, but otherwise, the game’s control aspect rises moderately above average.

The franchise’s regular composer Koji Kondo provided the soundtrack, which has many signature themes such as the Light World overworld music, not to mention jingles such as the “discovery” and item acquisition tunes. The pregame backstory music appears in two different varieties, as well, and the Light and Dark World dungeon themes provide good ambience and mystery. “Zelda’s Lullaby” also made its first appearance, and other tracks prove solid such as the main Dark World music and its respective Death Mountain melody. Granted, the near-death alarm native to the franchise returns (which wouldn’t have been too annoying if it stopped after a couple of beeps), and there are other aural oddities such as the “Oof!” from soldiers that notice Link, but otherwise, sound is one of the game’s high points.

The visuals were well above average for an early 16-bit game, with vibrant colors and environments that appear radiant and contain unique twists such as the ringed designs of the trees, and there are some nice effects such as a few character sprites, namely the soldiers of Hyrule and maybe some NPCs, turning their heads, with Link’s sprite showing different moods as well, along with fluid animation for all models. There are some good weather and illumination effects as well, namely in the Lost Woods’ Light and Dark World variations. However, there is some rare slowdown when multiple sprites populate the screen, and some character sprites like Aghanim’s may look odd depending upon how you look at them, but otherwise, A Link to the Past was and still is a nice-looking game.

Finally, despite its scope, the sole sixteen-bit Zelda is fairly short, with skilled players potentially able to finish it in a little over six hours, but those who are new to it may take longer, with absolute completion due to things such as finding every heart piece and all tools possibly necessitating up to twelve hours’ worth of playtime, with little lasting appeal otherwise aside from self-imposed challenges.

When all is said and done, The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, has, for the most part, and pun intended, stood the test of time, given its particular refinement of the signature game mechanics working far better than in its eight-bit predecessors and even many of its sequels on future systems, the effective puzzles which luckily don’t tax the mind, quality-of-life features such as in-game maps, the intricate story and mythos, and solid audiovisual presentation. Granted, it does show its age in a few respects, such as the potential difficulty of going into it blind, the possibility of getting stuck in the final dungeon, the awkward translation, and general absence of lasting appeal, but certainly doesn’t scream “the early 1990s”, and is undoubtedly the definitive top-down Zelda experience.

This review is based on a playthrough of a digital copy downloaded to the player’s Nintendo 3DS.

The Good:
+Refined Zelda gameplay.
+Great mythos.
+Excellent soundtrack.
+Good visuals.

The Bad:
-Might be hard to go into blind.
-Some occasional tricky dungeon design.
-Lackluster translation.
-Little reason to replay.

The Bottom Line:
The definitive top-down Zelda experience.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console
Game Mechanics: 8.5/10
Controls: 7.0/10
Story: 9.0/10
Localization: 5.5/10
Music/Sound: 9.0/10
Graphics: 7.5/10
Lasting Appeal: 6.0/10
Difficulty: Moderate
Playing Time: 6-12 Hours

Overall: 7.5/10

Current Mood: satisfied

A Salty-Sweet Sidescrolling Soulslike

Let me begin this review by saying that I don’t really care much for FromSoftware’s Soulsborne games despite the adulation they’ve received among mainstream videogame journalists, largely due to what I perceive to be artificial difficulty, and actually liked the developer’s Enchanted Arms far more in spite of its more-critical reception. Thus, after my negative experiences with Demon’s Souls and Dark Souls, I swore off ever giving the games another try, along with other action RPGs they would inspire such as Ska Studios’ Salt and Sanctuary, although given the game’s markedly-different style of gameplay, I figured maybe trying it out wouldn’t hurt, but does it fare any better?

Upon starting a new game, the player can select from a few initial classes, after which their character begins as a stowaway on a ship that eventually leaves him/her on the shores of a mysterious island comprised of dangerous locations from the world’s various continents. At first glance, one might consider the storytelling to be minimalist, although the lore is surprisingly intricate and never forced down the player’s throat, with most items and even the blurbs in the game’s skill tree having surprising depth and a few biblical analogies, and there is a choice of different creeds that affect the narrative. The main issues are the protagonist’s lack of development and the poor narrative direction, but otherwise, the plot is definitely a decent draw to the game.

Unlike the Soulsborne series, Salt and Sanctuary occurs in two dimensions and somewhat mimics the style of the Metroidvania genre, with the protagonist equippable with various pieces of equipment, a weapon, and a shield if able, with encounters against challenging foes frequently occurring, and the hero/heroine able to jump and attack them (doing so in the air will freeze them in the middle of their leap), earning the eponymous Salt, which serves as experience to the next level, upon successfully slaying antagonists. Players can use the aforementioned Salt in the titular Sanctuaries to level their character if they have enough.

Upon leveling, the player’s character receives a point they can use in a skill tree that combines elements from the tenth and twelfth Final Fantasies, with the access of certain nodes, many of which will require more than one point, necessary to equip various weapons, shields, and armor, with the endurance stat dictating their maximum equipment load that, when surpassed, will cause the hero or heroine to move slowly, and may affect their jumping power if they do come close to exceeding the limit. The development system very well accommodates different playstyles, with some quirks such as the eventual ability to one-hand two-handed weapons and still equip a shield without penalty.

As in the Soulsborne games, however, the protagonist’s defeat costs the player all Salt they’ve acquired and sends them back to the last Sanctuary at which they recovered at a slight monetary cost (around a tenth of their money, in my experience), but the chance to regain the lost experience if they defeat the foe that “Obliterated” (to use the game’s death equivalent of the Soulsborne series’ YOU DIED) the player, and if death came as a result of a long fall, a winged entity materializes that the hero or heroine must vanquish. Like the games that inspired Salt and Sanctuary, however, death again will cost players all the Salt that had gained before.

There are other elements of the game mechanics to consider such as prayers and magic that require the activation of specific tree skill nodes to use, along with a dodge roll (which, like regular attacks, necessitates stamina that recovers during inaction) and the eventual ability to dash in midair, which gives the game a Metroidvania feel given its aid in exploration. The gameplay is surprisingly good, with the Soulsborne formula seeming to work better in two rather than three dimensions, although the difficulty will definitely off-put many, given plenty tricky enemies and bosses and the potential to spend a while acquiring Salt and possibly lose it due to frequent death, but while the challenge level is above-average, Salt and Sanctuary certainly isn’t nearly as difficult as many games from generations past such as say, Zelda II: The Adventure of Link.

On the matter of Nintendo’s The Legend of Zelda series, though, Salt and Sanctuary lacks many quality-of-life features such as that particular franchise’s ability to pause the game and eventual in-game maps, which may at many points drive players to reference the internet, and there exist other issues such as the inability to view numerical Salt to the next level, only being able to view in-game playtime from the start menu, and some tricky level design, but the general controls definitely aren’t terrible, and there are positives such as a monster compendium, the controller rumble, and the like that largely prevent a descent into total user-unfriendliness.

One other negative aspect Salt and Sanctuary bequeaths from the Soulsborne series, however, is its largely-minimalist musical presentation, given the overreliance of ambience throughout exploration and the presence of music only in Sanctuaries, maybe one or two areas, and boss battles, but what soundtrack does exist is decent, despite a few tracks such as the rock pieces seeming slightly out-of-place in the game, although the sound effects and instrumentation serve the Soulslike decently.

The visuals serve the game better, with a nice hand-drawn style where monochrome shades and tings largely dominate, the enemy and player/nonplayer character designs looking nice in spite of the oddity of frog-mouthed characters, and the camera being decent and controllable during gameplay, but one issue is that battles against certain foes can occur in transitional points between areas and at times leave players blind.

Finally, a single playthrough will take players between twenty-four to forty-eight hours, with a semblance of lasting appeal in the form of a New Game+, different starting classes, and various creeds to follow, although the above-average difficulty will definitely deter many from devoting additional time to the game.

Overall, coming from someone who doesn’t care much for the Soulsborne games, Salt and Sanctuary was a welcome surprise, given the fairer implementation of that franchise’s formula in two rather than three dimensions, the surprisingly-deep lore, and nice visual presentation. However, it does have significant issues, starting with the fact that its above-average challenge level will definitely off-put many players, the absence of a few quality-of-life issues including pausing and in-game maps, and the minimalist musical presentation. It definitely is a good game, although given that it’s certainly not perfect, I’ll probably hold off on its sequel Salt and Sacrifice until good maps and maybe guides appear on the internet.

This review is based on a single playthrough of a digital copy downloaded to the reviewer’s PlayStation 4, starting as a paladin to the ending with 71% of all Trophies acquired.

The Good:
+Soulsborne formula works better in 2D than 3D.
+Intricate lore.
+Nice visual presentation.

The Bad:
-Difficulty will definitely off-put many.
-Lacks quality-of-life features such as maps and pausing.
-Minimalist musical presentation.

The Bottom Line:
A surprisingly-good Soulslike slightly more accessible than the Soulsborne games.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: PlayStation 4
Game Mechanics: 7.5/10
Controls: 6.5/10
Story: 7.5/10
Music/Sound: 7.5/10
Graphics: 8.5/10
Lasting Appeal: 7.5/10
Difficulty: Moderate to Hard
Playing Time: 24-48 Hours

Overall: 7.5/10

Current Mood: satisfied

Back when I was a young gamer limitedly experienced with videogames, particularly RPGs that consume the bulk of my gametime nowadays, one thing I took for granted in titles of Japanese origin was their translations and/or localizations, the former defined as the conversion of text from one language into another, and the latter more concerned with truly adapting the game dialogue for another culture. In this editorial, I’ll explore the complex, sometimes tricky, art of videogame localization, and occasional obstacles with regards to the translation of things that normally don’t translate well to other cultures.

My very first JRPG was Dragon Quest on the NES, then titled Dragon Warrior for legal reasons, when I was unaware of the game’s Japanese origin. Back then, I didn’t give much thought to the narrative of the game, given that before I didn’t have much concern with the stories of videogames, which I found to be largely brainless diversions from a hectic scholastic life. At the time, I did notice that the game had an odd style of dialogue I would later discover to be Renaissance-era English, eventually finding that the works of William Shakespeare chiefly incorporated such a textual disposition.

Breath of Fire on the NES’s sixteen-bit successor system, the Super NES, would be the game that really got me into RPGs, with those of Japanese origin, as with today, being the chief source of my playtime, alongside games of other genres, whether of Western or Eastern conception. Again, I didn’t give a second thought to the Japanese origin of the game, let alone whatever translational foibles it might have had, which I would eventually come to realize decades later were somewhat more problematic than average for a game enduring the process of converting Japanese dialogue into English.

Back then I was still unaware of the localization process of videogames, and would play its sequel Breath of Fire II on the same system, although at the time I did notice thanks to an issue of Nintendo Power covering the game listed its single negative point as “Poor English translation”, and thence I began to realize, thanks to the magazine, that many of the games I had been playing were of Japanese origin. The second game in what was then Capcom’s flagship RPG franchise definitely had translation issues, given the narrative’s religious themes, and from then I gave some care as to how games handled their dialogue, although I was still unaware of the tricky localization process.

Later in the sixteen-bit era I would discover Final Fantasy VI, then known in the Anglosphere as Final Fantasy III due to many of the game’s numerical precursors not leaving Japan, and at the time I began to realize that it contained one of the better localizations of its era, thanks in part to translator Ted Woolsey, although I wouldn’t be aware of his name until generations later. Another 16-bit RPG released late in the SNES’s lifespan was Chrono Trigger, which unbeknown to me Ted Woolsey also handled, had dialogue more capable than usual for a game of its time, and I would very much concur with contemporary opinion that its translation was well above average for its time.

Which brings me to the school of localization mainstream gamers would dub the “Woolseyism.” However, I disagree with this nonminer, since Woolsey’s translations, in my opinion, were far from the infallible masterpieces, given various issues at the time. One was Nintendo of America’s draconian censorship policies that purged translated videogames of content regarding politics, religion, sexuality, profanity, blood, and so forth. TVTropes defines the term Woolseyism as consisting of pragmatic changes to a videogame’s linguistic content in cases where a direct translation would be unfeasible.

There were also issues with some of Woolsey’s dialogue sounding unrealistic, with another game he translated, Secret of Mana on the Super NES, having to compress what was to be a CD-based game into a sixteen-bit cartridge, given the fallout of Nintendo’s attempted negotiations with Sony for a compact disc addon to their base system, and Secret definitely had its share of awkward speech, despite getting content past Nintendo America’s antireligious censors such as a reference to “the gods” during its iconic backstory-revealing cutscene. Regardless, the game did very much have one of the far better localizations of its time.

Which brings me back to Final Fantasy VI, indeed sporting a number of changes that were indeed pragmatic, such as his change of protagonist Tina’s name to Terra, given that Terra sounds more exotic to Anglophone gamers as Tina does to Japanese players. Other name changes such as Lock to Locke were acceptable as well, given the potential reference to philosopher John Locke, although some seemed random, such as Edgar’s brother Sabin, known as “Mash,” a nickname of “Macias,” when, even given the text space limitations of the game, Woolsey could very well have easily just stuck to calling the martial artist Macias in the English version, since Mash, of course, is a bit of an asinine moniker.

Woolsey did make errors, for instance, regarding gambler Setzer’s motivations, the character one time saying, “The Empire’s made me a rich man.” The original Japanese text in this particular scene used an idiom meaning “business has dried up,” which he assumedly misinterpreted as “gone up,” and future iterations of the sixth Final Fantasy beyond the PlayStation port would fix this. There were, however, dialogues Woolsey did well, such as his description of the enigmatic Shadow as “He’d slit his momma’s throat for a nickel,” with a later version using the quote, “He’d kill his best friend for the right price.”

Chrono Trigger was also one of Woolsey’s revered localizations, many name changes being pragmatic, such as antagonists Vinegar, Soysau, and Mayonnai to Ozzie, Slash, and Flea, condiment names for characters in Japan generally being humorous, but Americans would more recognize the names of the musicians Woolsey changed them to. Same for Gurus Melchoir, Gaspar, and Belthasar (coming from the Magi that brought gifts to the infant Jesus), called Gasch, Hash, and Bosch in Japan. One unnecessary change, though, was Grand and Leon and the sword they form, Grandleon, to Masa and Mune / Masamune, the latter moniker being fitter for a Japanese katana like Crono’s.

In summation, there were many things that Woolsey did well, such as many of the name changes for characters in the Japanese RPGs he translated, although there were other areas where he didn’t do well, such as villain Kefka’s “Son of a submariner!” in the original SNES version of Final Fantasy VI, when dialogue such as “Son of a…they’ll pay for this!” would have sounded more natural. Thus, I think the translation term Woolseyism would be fitter as “translation pragmatism.” One good example of this would be the change of Nusutto Park to Burglin Park in EarthBound, with the former coming from “nusumu,” the Japanese term for thievery, and the latter in English being self-explanatory.

On the other end of the translation spectrum is the “Blind Idiot” Translation, where the translators of games to English just didn’t seem to care about their quality, with many spelling and punctuation errors, name inconsistences, and/or odd dialogue, among the prime examples of these being the original PlayStation version of Final Fantasy Tactics, with dialogue like “A gang of tortured thieves is trying to sneak into this town,” and so on. Sony’s American branch was especially prone to these, particularly when it came to Final Fantasy VII and the aforementioned Tactics, although Square’s American branch would eventually take over its games’ translation duties.

Another translation type that deserves special mention is the Cut-and-Paste Translation, where translators make major changes to a script, edit scenes, and implement other alterations due to things such as cultural differences and fear of attracting ire from the moral guardians. Fans tend not to care much for this, referring to such efforts as “Macekres” (pronounced like “massacres”) after localization producer Carl Macek, who effected changes to anime he localized that didn’t exactly sit well with those who hold their original Japanese version in high regard, and tended to go hand-and-hand with Bowdlerization, a process named after Thomas Bowdler, who created “family-friendly” versions of Shakespeare’s scripts, for instance.

On the subject of Bowdlerization comes the former policy by Nintendo of America to purge games especially during the eight and sixteen-bit era of all religious content, although in the former case, the first two Zelda titles got away with crosses, although they backtracked with A Link to the Past, going so far as to censor symbols of a religion hardly anyone has practiced for millennia (the Hylian language). Even in modern times has there been censorship of religious content in games, such as Mastiff Games’ purging of all Christian symbols from their translation of La Pucelle, and the PlayStation Portable’s remake of the first Star Ocean having a cross indicative of healing magic censored to appear more monolithic.

Much debate has arisen regarding the localizations by Working Designs whether they qualify as pragmatic or cut-and-paste, given their tendency to inject popular culture references into the scripts of what they localized, with many things changed that one couldn’t properly term them translations, and changes here and there such as in the Lunar games, where, for instance, “Mel governs Meribia” became “Mel founded Meribia.” There were also lines that somewhat felt unserious such as Ghaleon’s “My coming-out party can finally begin! Send in the clowns!” and “The world will once again be mine on a delicious half-shell.”

While the overall quality of videogame translations has somewhat improved in the past two decades, there are still many kinds that localization teams still don’t adapt well for Anglophone audiences, such as the tendency of dialogue in battles not to sound natural, such as characters unrealistically shouting the names of their abilities, which may sound really cool in Japanese (unless they’re botching English words), but sounds out of place in English. There are also dialogues outside battle that sound really odd to English speakers, for instance, such as “More, more!” when gathering items in Etrian Odyssey V, and “Mrr-grr-grr!” in the Bravely Default games.

I would like to mention English anime dubs, and one of the biggest issues I’ve seen with them is not translating the opening and ending credits, although I can somewhat understand not translating their respective themes. The mentioned issue of characters calling special moves again doesn’t translate well, and there are other things like Hawk the pig constantly uttering “Piggy trot!” when running in the anime adaptation of The Seven Deadly Sins, which may sound cute in Japanese, but really sounds out of place in the English dub, and simple huffing and puffing would have sounded far better.

Moreover, the English dubs of animes that clearly occur in Japan tend to use actors without a drop of ethnic blood, and what’s more, titles like Persona games leave the Japanese honorifics in the English dialogue, which sound unnatural and oftentimes lend the impression that the voice actors don’t actually know what they mean. Some argue that using ethnic actors would have issues of its own, although animated films such as Disney and Pixar’s Turning Red show that the use of Asian actors to voice characters obviously having their origins in that part of the world can still sound great.

Lamentably, some contemporary videogame localizations demonstrate that translation teams don’t wholly have enlightened attitudes towards that particular portion of gaming. For instance, titles such as The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time have dialogue like “Yahoo! Hi, Link!” (Who says “yahoo” anymore?) and Link’s Awakening “Annoyance! You are only getting in the way!” Games such as Tales of Vesperia also occasionally feature anachronisms such as “I plead the fifth,” a reference to the American Constitution’s “right to remain silent,” which won’t make a lick of sense to non-American Anglophones, and is vastly out of place in a game that doesn’t even occur on Earth.

Back to the issue of character and location names, occasional changes aren’t typically too big of an issue, although one issue I pointed out years ago in an editorial was that Anglophone players are sometimes in the dark as to their pronunciation. For instance, I had absolutely no idea “Cait Sith” was pronounced “ket-she” instead of “kate sith” until I delved into the world wide web and became knowledgeable as to how the Japanese pronounced character names. Thus, translation guides certainly wouldn’t kill the English versions of Japanese RPGs, be they without voicework.

On another note, RPGs may use onomatopoeia in dialogue, constituting the use of words mimicking their sounds, such as laughter, huffing and puffing, groaning, and the like. Rendering this while making translations sound professional can sometimes be tough, for instance, writing laughter as “ha ha ha ha ha,” screaming as “aieeeeeee,” and so on. There are occasional oddities in this regard mainly in Japanese RPGs, where, for instance, in Mario and Luigi: Bowser’s Inside Story, a pudgy toad says “Oog…” My personal preference here would be to use terms like (groan), (laugh), (pant), and so on.

A final point to make on regional differences between videogames is difficulty changes, making them easier or harder. Since I don’t like hard games, especially artificially so, I much prefer the former option, but in some cases, like with Working Designs, they tended to increase the challenge of their games, sometimes making them unplayably difficult, and even they admitted forcing players to pay magic experience to save the game in the Sega CD Lunar: Eternal Blue was a bad idea. Making games more accessible, though some will disagree, in my mind would be ideal to localization.

In summation, what does constitute a competent localization, particularly from Japanese to English? In my opinion, one by translators who have an above-knowledge of the original language as well as significant experience with English and writing, perhaps with regards to composing fictitious works, and generally remains faithful to the initial script. However, I definitely don’t mind a little cutting and pasting, particularly if the initial dialogue wasn’t good to begin with or sounds really unnatural. Voice actors also need to question bad writing and be competent in that regard. Overall, while the tricky art of localization has significantly become more refined, translation turkeys still exist, and the points I made in this editorial would go a long way in continuing to polish the process.

Current Mood: pensive

As a videogame reviewer, I absolutely do not trust review scores for major and minor releases, and often disagree with not just the numbers, but also the logic, in many instances illogic, behind them. In fact, there have been countless instances in which I’ve purchased and played games that have gotten wonderful scores, even universally with some “professional” critics even calling them “the greatest of all time,” only to experience one disappointment after another, given common gameplay issues that reviewers either downplayed or outright didn’t mention in their critiques. In fact, there really seems to be an epidemic of this, which I aim to analyze in this editorial.

Given my constant crusade to go back through games I’ve originally beaten and reviewed, one can guess that I consider videogame reviewing to be a living, breathing art constantly evolving, and I firmly believe that even older games should be subject to contemporary scrutiny, even if many gamers, professional and casual, suggest that such titles were “good for their time,” rather than given permanent scores from many publications online and offline that don’t ever change, thus remaining skewed for years or in a few instances decades or more. The text of such reviews very much matter as much as, if not more than, the scores their authors assign.

However, just as much as there is rampant bias in mainstream political news, so too is there a pandemic of subjectivism in videogame journalism. For one, videogames tend to receive more favorable reception than other media such as books and movies, with most mainstream reviewers, just like I, tending to use an out-of-ten scale for scoring, although in my case, zero is the lowest score I assign to certain aspects of a game and overall, whereas mainline journalists tend to use one as the lowest assignable metric. An /10 scale with 1/10 as the nadir of grading somewhat diverges from typical scholastic grading in America where students can potentially score zeroes on various assignments and tests.

Speaking of school, websites that use out-of-ten, or out-of-a-hundred, scoring scales tend to suffer from the curse of scholastic grading, where scores seven through ten or seventy out of a hundred are passing, and the seven-based numerical scores are “average”, and anything below tends to be failing. This leads to an issue where websites such as Metacritic that collect scores from countless publications online and offline don’t consider what exactly the numbers entail, especially if videogame reviewers such as I actually use the full spectrum of review scores rather than going by school grading, have skewed amalgamations of numerical opinion ratings.

For instance, in the case of websites such as GameRankings (now fused with Metacritic), they would assign a game with one as the lowest review score on an /10 scale a ten-percent percentage rating instead of a zero percent, and in instances such as a score of one on a /5 scale, they would assign a twenty percent, and so on, which would account for inflated overall scores. When GameRankings still existed, the lowest overall score a game received hovered somewhere between twenty and thirty percent, which I attribute to the most-negative reviews with the lowest scores rarely, if ever, ever coming to fruition due to things such as reviewers not being able to finish certain games.

Speaking of which, another issue with game reviews is how much time reviewers actually spend with games. For the most part, I attempt to complete whatever games I begin, although there are occasional cases where I don’t want to continue playing, with Anna Marie Privitere of RPGamer, to which I once contributed before going rogue, having a “five-hour rule” where if she wasn’t enjoying a game after that time, she would cease her time with the game and move on to other titles, believing there’s no shame in not finishing a game. I’ve attempted to adopt a similar methodology, with the last time I successfully applied it being with Super Mario Sunshine, which was way too hard even with a guide.

However, there are instances where a few hours alone aren’t enough to gauge a game’s overall quality, since there are many times where games start out good but decline in quality later on, or in the rare instance, vice versa. For instance, I was having a decent time with Bravely Default II, although at the twenty-three-hour mark, where I was just in the second of seven chapters, and had levels high enough so visible enemies indicating encounters ran away from the hero on the overworld and in dungeons, I still had an incredibly-difficult time with a story boss, and decided I had had enough.

On a similar note, using the internet and a detailed walkthrough isn’t anything to be shameful about, either, if reviewers note their playthroughs necessitated the use of a guide. As far as my own reviewers go, I firmly believe that needing to use a guide to at least see the standard ending of a game is not an indicator of sound design and do my best to mention that when I write my critiques. For instance, while I’ve had a positive experience with Shin Megami Tensei IV, I’ve often needed to use a walkthrough on the internet to advance the central storyline, in addition to many sidequests, and believe as well that poor direction is a strike against the narrative in addition to the gameplay.

Back to the matter of time spent on games, I believe too that reviewing and scoring a game at least necessitates a playthrough to the standard ending credits, although playing the game to absolute one-hundred-percent completion, in my opinion, is a different matter. However, there have been many cases in which “professional” reviews of games accompanied by scores had their basis in incomplete playthroughs, which would be akin to grading a college essay based on the first few paragraphs. Should I find myself unable to finish a game, I write what RPGamer termed a “deep look” that has no scores but at the end a recommendation, usually average or negative, about whether the game warrants play.

Another issue with videogame reviews, which I’ll admit I’m somewhat guilty of, is bias, with many cases in which it seems “professional” gaming news sites allow reviewers with obvious biases, positive or negative, to critique big-name titles, such as having a journalist who doesn’t care much for JRPGs review one, or a big fan of The Legend of Zelda do the same for the Nintendo franchise’s latest entry. If websites insist on letting such reviewers critique games, they should have another writer with an alternate bias write one as well, or have multiple authors collaborate on individual reviews, as RPGamer has rarely accomplished.

That videogame reviews most of the time tend to reflect one writer’s subjective opinion is one of the primary issues with mainstream game journalism, and while the average consumers would think amalgamations of scores would indicate “collective” opinion, in reality they’re collections of individual biased opinions instead of, more ideally, an assortment of group critiques. Even reviewers written by average janes and joes tend to be unreliable, as well, and RPGs that I primarily play are one of the far-more-favorably reviewed gaming genres among both “professional” critics and audiences, and the latter’s overall scores tending to experience inflation too.

A further issue with videogame reviews from both “professionals” and average gamers is the possibility of not getting one’s facts straight. For instance, I once read a review of the Gameboy Advance title Onimusha Tactics that erroneously said that it had its basis in Chinese mythology when in reality it had roots in Japanese mythos. Some may argue that such errors “don’t matter,” but they most certainly do, damage a writer’s credibility and can easily con average consumers into playing titles with game-breaking flaws. As the late Daniel Patrick Moynihan said, “Every man is entitled to his own opinions, but not his own facts.”

Other phenomena include reviewers downplaying or outright failing to mention serious flaws or conversely exaggerating trivial issues with games. For instance, most positive reviews of the strategy RPG Final Fantasy Tactics from “professional” critics and average gamers (even the Wikipedia article, and as they consider independent reviewers such as I “unreliable sources,” my attempt to mention the flaw in the text the admins reversed) don’t even mention the inability to undo movement, which was to me a serious issue, and as an autistic gamer, I tend to notice things mainstream neurotypical reviewers overlook or don’t think are big problems.

Perhaps one of the biggest hurdles in the way of negative reviews for big-name titles is the fear of online harassment from audiences, to which I can definitely attest from personal experience. Even if reviewers are civil, positively or negatively, in their opinions, many average gamers and users on gaming websites will absolutely refuse to face criticism of their beloved games, and make excuses when others politely indicate flaws in them, frequently gaslighting those with whom they disagree, which really hurt me since I’m autistic. In one case, when I posted an average review of Demon’s Souls on Amazon, it got downvote-bombed by the game’s apologists.

To repeat the question posed by my editorial’s title, whom exactly should players trust when it comes to videogame reviews and both purchasing and experiencing games old and new? The answer is themselves, and whomever reviewers, if they can find any, happen to share their particular perspectives on games. As a high-functioning autistic with unique perspectives, I have yet to find a videogame critic whose tastes align with mine, and thus I tend to trust my instincts and experiences with particular series, positive or negative, and those like-minded should form their opinions as such. As the late Hans Rosling quipped, to conclude, formulating your views based on minimal sources would be akin to judging a person based on a photograph of their foot.

Current Mood: pensive

I had a "natural" videogame-related dream where I was playing a game similar to Salt and Sanctuary, and I constantly fell into the same pit and continually lost whatever experience I accumulated. My fairly-negative experience with Zelda II may have contributed to it, but I actually had a half-decent experience with Salt and Sanctuary a few years back when I played it on my PlayStation Vita. Though I don't know how I would score it were I to go back through it again, and I certainly won't be quick to do so.

Current Mood: amused

More Hellbound than Skyward

Let me preface this review by saying that I do not care much for Nintendo’s big-name franchises such as Mario and Zelda, particularly regarding the three-dimensional iterations of either series, which to me don’t quite carry the spirit of their 2-D brethren. There are installments of the Legend of Zelda franchise that I did enjoy such as Link to the Past, albeit largely due to getting too good at the game through repeated playthroughs during my childhood, adolescence, and early adulthood. One of the entries I had missed out on was Skyward Sword on the Wii, although it would receive a remaster on the Nintendo Switch, The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD.

When beginning a new game, the player can choose motion controls similar to the Wii version or button-only controls that would rather prefer them, and as the former was one of the chief complaints with the original version, I opted for the latter choice. The game itself features the backstory of the Demon King Demise laying waste to the land in want of the Triforce, with the goddess Hylia leading the survivors into the sky so she can war with the demonic deity, with the existence of the Surface ultimately forgotten among the inhabitants of the sky island that comes to be known as Skyloft.

The backstory is good, although the narrative itself is fairly derivative, the initial skybound world above a surface somewhat filched from Final Fantasy III, a storyline twist later on resemblant of a plot element of Lunar: The Silver Star, and the concept of time travel done to death. The plotline ultimately delves into the cliché of Link rescuing Zelda, not yet a princess, from the forces of evil, and is generally a disappointment. As well, while the translation is certainly legible, the localization team made some irritating dialogue decisions such as having the spirit of Link’s sword, Fi, speak in a robotic tone talking of calculations and probabilities and such, making the plot and writing overall a detriment.

Furthermore, even with button-only controls, the general game interface takes a lot of getting used too, with many needless complications regarding things such as throwing and rolling bomb flowers. The swinging of Link’s sword in different directions via use of the bottom-right joystick does work at times and adds strategy to some battles against standard enemies and bosses, most of the former mercifully optional, but there are a great many negative gameplay tropes such as having to go stealth a few times (with the “silent realms”, where Link has to gather fifteen nodes and need to start from the beginning if attacked by a guardian spirit, qualifying among one central instance).

Throughout his quest, Link has to solve many puzzles, most utilizing the tools he receives, and sometimes use them against bosses. Things at first are fun, although there are a great many portions that led me to reference the internet repeatedly, which is not something anyone should ever have to do when playing a videogame. Link’s ability to hold reviving fairies and healing potions in bottles can take the edge off at times, although the camera can be awful, with the absolute lack of a radar/minimap hurting as well. In the end, the game mechanics become a chore far more than anything else.

The controls, as one could assume, don’t help. Skyward Sword ditches the series’ save-anywhere feature for save points, but autosaving does occur at critical instances; regardless the spacing of hard saving opportunities is at times inconsistent, and a suspend save would have been welcome. There’s also an in-game measure of playtime, although one has to converse with Fi to view it, rather than the developers just saving the time and annoyance by displaying the clock in the menus. The puzzles driving players to repeatedly reference guilds, walkthroughs, and in some instances diagrams, don’t help either, and all in all, the game is one of the most user-unfriendly I’ve had the displeasure of playing.

The soundtrack is full of old and new tracks, Zelda’s Lullaby among the former and some sweeping themes such as the flying theme among the latter, and is one area where the game doesn’t fall flat. The sound effects are good as well, although the voices consist mostly of grunting that can get tiring after a while, with Link’s vocals in particular being irritating, and the near-death alarm is annoying as always.

The remastered visuals look decent for the most part, with well-proportioned character models, fit coloring, and some good environs, though these show some blurriness and pixilation up-close, and the camera can mar the experience.

Finally, the game is one of the longer Zeldas, taking somewhere from twenty-four to forty-eight hours to finish, with a Hero Mode accessed upon completion, although frankly, subsequent playthroughs would be nothing short of excruciating.

In summation, I really, really wanted to like Skyward Sword HD, but it just didn’t love me back, given issues such as the lousy controls, even when selecting the option of making them button-only, the weak narrative and writing, and the middling aural and visual presentations. There are rare cases in which the game is slightly enjoyable at times, but it winds up to be one of the far weaker installments of a franchise that has its share of good and bad (in my opinion, mostly the latter) titles, and there are far better Nintendo Switch games out there.

This review is based on a playthrough of a copy borrowed by the reviewer.

The Good:
+A few gameplay portions passable.
+Some of the music is good.
+Graphics look okay.

The Bad:
-Even button-only controls are horrid.
-Incredibly-weak narrative and writing.
-Puts quantity above quality.

The Bottom Line:
One of the far weaker Zeldas.

Score Breakdown:
Platform: Nintendo Switch
Game Mechanics: 1.5/10
Controls: 0.5/10
Story: 0.5/10
Localization: 2.0/10
Music/Sound: 2.5/10
Graphics: 3.5/10
Lasting Appeal: 0.0/10
Difficulty: Artificial
Playing Time: 24-48 Hours

Overall: 1.5/10

Current Mood: relieved
Crossposts: https://gremy.livejournal.com/2952681.html

Beaten:

Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht - Not a great game, but certainly far better than I remember. Full review will come in a few days.

Currently Playing:

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel - The interface takes some getting used to, but I've been having a decent time thus far and am still on the first mission.

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD - I really wanted to like this game, but it's just not loving me back, given the extreme difficulty of getting used even to the button-only controls. I finished the Fire Sanctuary, but found that I still have a ways to go >_>

In My Backlog:

Baldur's Gate I & II: Enhanced Editions - Don't know when I'll ever get to these.

Dragon Quest (Nintendo Switch) - Can't say when I'll ever get to this game, either.

Ultima II: The Revenge of the Enchantress - Low priority right now.

Ultima III: Exodus - Likewise, will play after beating the second game.

Current Mood: exhausted
Crossposts: https://gremy.livejournal.com/2949375.html

Currently Playing:

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD - My younger brother had warned me about this game's controls, although I opted for button-only control, and I've been having a decent time thus far, though as with other games in the series, the localization team really didn't make much of an effort to make the dialogue sound realistic.

Xenosaga Episode I: Der Wille zur Macht - I'm aboard the Durandal during the invasion by human soldiers, and I've spent a few hours grinding, which has been surprisingly fun, and I even was able to up the speed of one of Jr.'s Techs that attacks all enemies so that I can easily smack down enemy parties.

In My Backlog:

Baldur's Gate I + II: Enhanced Editions - Low priority.

Dragon Quest - Don't know when I'll get to this, if ever.

Fallout Tactics: Brotherhood of Steel - Might or might not be my next game, depending upon whether I beat anything for the rest of August.

Ultima II - A potential candidate for my next game, depending upon whether what I'm currently playing lasts me into September.

Ultima III - Will of course only play this after beating its predecessor.

Current Mood: busy
Crossposts: https://gremy.livejournal.com/2942833.html

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The Radical Child

Entries tagged with the legend of zelda

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Deep Look - The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom

Tears of Disappointment

The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time 3D

A Hyrulian Period Piece

Roadblocks

The Sound of Silence

I Run on Dunkin' and Seafood Differently

My Goodness, My Guinness

The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past

Salt and Sanctuary

Editorial - The Tricky Art of Localization

Editorial - Videogame Reviews: Whom to Trust?

Dreams, 4/12/2022

The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword HD

Gaming Update, 9/6/2021

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