Hyrule Warriors: Joke Weapons?

This is another small idea, I had. So far it seems that every weapon can have different variants. Like Link's sword can be the Hylian Sword or the Master Sword. And it would be funny, if you have some joke weapons as variants. Remember the Bug-Catching Net in SoulCalibur 2?

Here are some ideas:

• Skull Hammer as Darunia's Hammer
• Bug-Catching Net as Agitha's Parasol
• Fishing Pole as Link's Whip

The Skull Hammer wouldn't really be a joke weapon, but a good example for a nice weapon skin. I already mentioned the Bug-Catching Net for Agitha in previous posts, but I don't see how her moveset would change. But as a "skin" for the Parasol it could easily work.

And last time I offered my theory that the Whip should have water based attacks to have all four elements for Link. The Fishing Rod then would fit in nicely as a joke weapon replacement for the Whip.

The joke weapons would work exactly as the original ones, the difference is that they would look funny.

Hyrule Warriors: Final Wish List

So, I narrowed my wish list down to the five characters, where I think they would add the most potential to the game. Potential in form of weapons, scenarios, stages, sworn enemies and also troops, which they could command. Those are also five characters, where I would be really disappointed, if the game didn't have them. I call them the "Final Five", so here you go ...

There are four different rules on how to design a potential character:

• The character must be from either Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask, Twilight Princess or Skyward Sword. The realistic 3D Zelda games so to speak. Any other games are very unlikely at this point.
• Every character uses a special item as his weapon. Darunia doesn't use his fist, he uses a hammer. This item is based on at least one of the five elements in this game: Fire, Water, Thunder, Light or Shadow.
• Every character from the Zelda games enters the universe of Hyrule Warriors on a stage that got cut out off space time. Like Darunia with Death Mountain. They might also bring some sort of arch nemesis with them (like Midna and Zant).
• Most characters in Warrior games are leaders, who command troops. This doesn't apply to all characters here.

About the troops: if there are playable villains in the game, you don't want to fight Hyrulean Footsoldiers and Gorons all day long, you want some variety. Actually this is why we have characters like Impa, Zelda and Darunia, who command different troops. They are the generals of this Musou game. Zora warriors as seen in Twilight Princess could be a good addition and they would be commanded by Ruto. The other races, which could offer actual troops, are the Gerudo, the robots from Skyward Sword and Dekus. We have seen Gerudo and Deku warriors in the N64 games and the robots look like they could also act as funny little toy soldiers.

So, it would be nice to have a representative of each of these races. This is why I dropped Mikau, but kept the Deku Princess at the same time. We already have a Zora, but we don't have any Dekus. And for those we need a potential commander. So, here's my list:

Fierce Deity Link

• Weapon: Double Helix Blade (Shadow)
• Stage: Clocktown
• Enemy: Skull Kid (wearing Majora's Mask)

Naturally. I've been waiting to play with Fierce Deity again for 14 years now and Hyrule Warriors is the best chance. Imagine a nice setting with Clocktown and Termina Field as the battlefield. This might even explain, how the moon from Majora's Mask can appear in the Palace of Twilight... the palace might be floating over Clocktown right now!

Deku Princess

• Weapon: Deku Pipes (Water)
• Stage: Woodfall
• Enemy: Odolwa
• Troops: Deku Scrubs

I think, she would be the best choice to lead the Dekus (even though there's a Deku King), because then we would have five princesses in total. I also came up with a nice weapon for her: the Deku Pipes! Imagine, how it would shoot dozens of Deku Bubbles and Deku Nuts and how she would utilize the different songs from Majora's Mask. Like stunning all the enemies with the Goron Lullaby. And she could also spin her body like Deku Link and use her hair as whip in the process.

 

Gerudo Princess, Nabooru

• Weapons: Mirror Shield + Battle Axe (Light)
• Stage: Desert Colossus
• Enemy: Twinrova
• Troops: Gerudo Warriors

I already mentioned her a couple of times now, but I got the weapons all wrong. By now we have Impa fighting with a Naginata and Zant fighting with dual scimitars and if you got Gerudo troops in the game, then they would use the typical Gerudo weapons anyway. You'd want something more unique for Nabooru. I think the Mirror Shield from Ocarina of Time might be a good choice, where she reflects all attacks based on the five elements back. In addition she would wield the Battle Axe of an Iron Knuckle... after all she used to be an Iron Knuckle herself!

 

King of Grooseland, Groose

• Weapon: Bazooka - the "Groozooka" (Fire)
• Stage: Sealed Grounds
• Enemy: The Imprisoned

Groose is actually an interesting stage, where we already have everything prepared. The Sealed Grounds got cut out of space time in the middle of an Imprisoned battle! And we also got the Groosenator there! So, where's Groose? I think they didn't introduce him last time, because they might have feared that after showing Agitha, showing yet another funny character might be too much. So, they presented more serious characters first and saved the best for last. As his moveset I could imagine something similar to Goemon Ishikawa from Samurai Warriors. He basically would use a self-made Bazooka to fire bombs.

 

Captain of the Sand Ship, LD-301N Skipper

• Weapon: Beetle + Scrap Hands (Thunder)
• Musou: Giant Gohdan hands
• Stage: Sand Ship (maybe docking on the Pirate Fortress)
• Enemy: Moldarach, Scervo or Tentalus
• Troops: LD-301 Ancient Robots

With the robots it probably would make more sense to have Skipper instead of Scrapper. He actually commanded them and he's a lot more distinct than Scrapper! Since the Gust Bellow already gets mimicked by the Magic Rod, I thought that the Beetle might work as an interesting weapon here. He would mostly fight with his hands, but send an overpowered Beetle flying at the enemy hordes, use it as a bomber and maybe even ride it himself like Lana does with the Deku Sprout. For his Musou attack I could imagine large hands like those of Gohdan in the Wind Waker or the Minish Cap.

 

The Whip

I don't really care, who wields it, but I think the whip would make most sense as Link's fourth weapon. It would be different enough from his other weapons and it might play with water attacks. After all the weapons comes from the Ancient Cistern, so it would make sense. Because if you look at the elements of Links weapons - the sword deals with light, the Magic Rod with Fire and the Gauntlets with Thunder. Having a water based moveset for Link would nicely fill the gap! And if you add Fierce Deity, you get all five elements for the Hero!

Also, it could be again a combination of items like with the Gauntlets and the Ball & Chain. I could see the Whip utilizing the Spinner similar to how Majora's Wrath creates these spinning blades with its whips.

 

Midna's True Form

One of the most important alternate weapons will be, however, Midna's. Since she uses her "shackle" to fight in the imp form, it's only normal to assume that her alternate weapon let's her fight in her true form. It could be the Twilight Mirror (as in the image above) or it could be the Dominion Rod (it would suit her very nicely), but whatever it is, she will certainly wield it in her true form. Unlike Fierce Deity Link and Sheik this will really be just an alternate weapon, because she doesn't change her name in her different form.

Also, don't forget the Bug-Catching Net for Agitha! Though this would most likely be something like a joke weapon replacement and not a real secondary weapon. With this you could also have the Skull Hammer for Darunia or the Fishing Pole instead of Link's Whip.

So, let's say that they magically have three more spots appear in the character select (either at the bottom or to the right), then there would be even one open character slot. So, I'm not greedy, I just feel like 13 is not enough. 16 would be perfect. This leaves even room for one more. *cough* Tingle *cough* Of course I wouldn't mind any additional characters, as long as I get my Final Five. Those five guys, as well as the whip and true Midna are the characters and weapons I want to see the most.

 

Update: The Hero's Spirit

• Weapon: Four Sword (Light + others)
• Musou: Hurricane Spin Attack
• Stage: Sacred Grove or Snowpeak
• Enemy: ???

An honorable mention would be the Hero's Spirit. He would probably be next on my list and he certainly would be a great addition to the game, being the dead Hero of Time and a playable Stalfos character. Since he appears pretty much anywhere inside the world of Twilight Princess, you could attach him to any place from the game, e.g. the Sacred Grove. Problem with him is that he uses the exact same weapon type as Link, a sword and shield. His moveset probably would be very similar and so far no two characters have used the same weapon type (which is why I use the battle axe for Naboru). But what could be possible is the Four Sword, where he fights with duplicates of himself that position themselves differently based on the attack. The clones could even use different elements for their attacks.

I would also like to see a Snowpeak stage, together with the Snowpeak Ruins. For this I thought about Yeto or Yeta as a playable character, but I didn't find any good weapon for them ... maybe a club for him, but what would she use? Ashei might also be a possible candidate for that stage, but we already have Zelda fighting with a rapier. However, you could just use the Hero's Spirit for that stage, since his presence is pretty much universal. So, I would settle for Hero's Spirit on Snowpeak!

 

So much for the heroes, here are my additions to the playable villain list.

King of Evil, Ganondorf

• Weapons: Sword of the Sages (Light), Trident of Power (Shadow)
• Stage: Ganon's Castle

He basically already got confirmed with the E3 trailer and the ominous Power DLC pack... with him they might introduce playable villains: Cia, Valga, Wizro, Ghirahim and Zant.

 

Twinrova

• Weapon: Brooms (Fire & Water)
• Musou: Koume & Kotake
• Stage: Desert Colossus

With her magic brooms she fights with two elements at the same time, freezing and burning her enemies. As her Musou she shortly splits up into two individual witches attacking the enemies with beams.

 

Demise

• Weapon: Dark Master Sword (Thunder)
• Stage: Sealed Grounds

Demise would be the only villain, who actually offers a Thunder based moveset, so he would be a nice addition, if you think about it. I totally love his lightning strike technique and it would be awesome to play with it. The Imprisoned is already on its way, so he could easily make an appearance. And then compare sword sizes with Ganondorf!

 

Skull Kid

• Weapon: Majora's Mask (Shadow), Skull Mask
• Stage: Clocktown

I think Skull Kid could be an interesting dual character, where based on his weapon (the mask), he's either good or evil. He could also bring the puppet forces from Twilight Princess into battle.

 

The Scythe

As for the Scythe I have been totally blind. I wanted a moveset similar to Gomess from Majora's Mask - the miniboss of the Stone Tower Temple, surrounded by bats, fighting with a large scythe. I even thought about Batreaux having this... but we already have the perfect candidate: Wizzro! I can totally imagine him using that and it would be nice to have alternate weapons for some of the villains.

Hyrule Warriors: The Boss Monsters

With all the talk about playable characters, let's talk a little bit about the big bosses, who probably won't be playable. The new trailer showed us a new boss (probably Manhandla or something similar to Diababa) in what looks like to be Lanayru Valley. So, it seems like each stage might get one big boss, which is another thing to be analyzed in a list:

• Hyrule Field - King Dodongo
• Lanayru Valley - Manhandla
• Eldin Caves - ?
• Faron Woods - Gohma
• Twilight Lands - ?
• Palace of Twilight - Argarok
• Skyloft - ?
• Sealed Grounds - The Imprisoned
• Lake Hylia - ?
• Death Mountain - ?

So, there are many open spots here. I guess with Death Mountain and Lake Hylia it would be only natural to have Morpha and Volvagia. Both of them are iconic enough to play a role and you even would have the Hookshot for Morpha. Twilight Lands allows one more boss from Twilight Princess and I'm thinking Fyrus would make a good choice here. The area is right next to Death Mountain and he looks great.

It also seems like they have a thing for the classic NES bosses. Gohma and King Dodongo resemble their NES counterparts more by now and maybe the plant monster really is Manhandla. It could be that the original stages all have NES bosses. So, what could the Eldin Caves offers? There's Gleeock, Digdogger and Aquamentus left. One of two dragons would be definitely nice here.

This only leaves Skyloft. I'm thinking Moldarach would make the most iconic choice here. Koloktos would be awesome, but probably feel out of place. And with Levias there it could just be Bilocyte, but that fight was terrible and he wouldn't be mobile on the battlefield. So, I'm thinking Moldarach might be the best choice. On the other hand... if they add Scrapper to the game alongside with a Lanayru Desert stage, then Moldarach would be best suited there.

Hyrule Warriors: The Five Elements

It seems there are two more rules to consider, when you're thinking about potential characters for Hyrule Warriors.

a) if a character is from a different era, he or she will come from a stage from that era, e.g. Darunia from Death Mountain
b) all the weapons can cause some sort of elemental damage

We already talked about the first rule, so let's focus on the second one. There are five elements in the game: fire, water, thunder, light and shadow. Each weapon will at least support one of these, they might also support multiple elements (like Sheik's harp). Let's take a look at what elements we got covered so far (from the character menu):

• Link's Sword - Light
• Link's Rod - Fire
• Link's Power Gloves - Thunder
• Impa's Giant Blade - Water
• Impa's Helbard - Fire
• Zelda's Rapier - Light
• Zelda's Wind Waker - Thunder
• Shiek's Harp - Thunder
• Lana's Book - Thunder
• Lana's Deku Stick - Water
• Agitha's Parasol - Light
• Midna's Shackle - Shadow
• Fi's Goddess Sword - Light
• Darunia's Hammer - Fire
• Ruto's Talisman - Water

So, let's count these:

• Light: 4
• Fire: 3
• Thunder: 4
• Water: 3
• Shadow: 1

Oh, only one character fighting with shadow? If that's not a good reason for playable villains, I don't know what it is.

Scrapper's fighting styles would fit into the elements very nicely. His hands would support Thunder and the Gust Bellow would be wind. One character that doesn't look so good now, is Nabooru. In her case you would have to add random elements to her weapons, like they did with Impa. But maybe she could add to the shadow element...

Hyrule Warriors: The Character Menu

So, we got many new scenes today with the live stream including a second look at the ingame roster menu, here.

Based on that structure and the fact that we're near the release, it's fair to assume that we will only have three characters left. The menu is organized in hexagons and has three open spots on the right column:

Now, let's take a closer look here. The characters are actually organized by game. If you read the menu from up to down and then from left to right, you get the following schema:

• 5 characters with original designs from Hyrule Warriors (Link, Impa, Shiek, Lana, Zelda)
• 2 characters from Ocarina of Time (Darunia and Ruto)
• 2 characters from Twilight Princess (Agitha and Midna)
• 1 character from Skyward Sword (Fi)

If you follow the pattern, it looks like we're getting two characters from each linked game. Maybe there's one Skyward Sword character left and two from Majora's Mask? Of course they could just move the characters around ... and it might be that it gets extended by one row, so we would get six more characters.

Actually there's one good reason, why this should be expanded by one row: then Zelda would be on the left side together with the other originals. And then we could add one more character to the Ocarina of Time guys (*cough* Nabooru *cough), have Fi below Midna (they fit nicely together) and then the rest on the right. But then Zelda wouldn't be next to Link anymore, so never mind...

What's also noteworthy is that the game characters each have their own stage. It's basically, where they were met the first time (in the new trailer you can see how the stages are all merged to one world). Darunia has Death Mountain, Ruto has Lake Hylia, Agitha has the Twilight Lands, Midna has the Twilight Palace and Fi has Skyloft. Basically only the Sealed Grounds go without a character, which make me think that this might be Groose's stage. But why haven't they showed him with the last update together with his stage?

The Skull Kid would make sense together with a Termina / Clocktown stage. And I still think that Nabooru together with a Desert Colossus stage would make a great addition. Mikau and the Deku Princess seem less appealing, when it comes to stages. Well, maybe the Pirate Fortress for Mikau could be nice. Woodfall wouldn't be as interesting though. Scrapper would need some part of the Lanayru Desert, but the area around the Lanayru Mining Facility would make for an awesome stage. And Yeto would be big, if you want Snowpeak as an ice stage. Fierce Deity would be perfect for a Moon stage, you could even have Majora as a boss monster there. Or just use Clocktown for everything as one stage and have Skull Kid as the playable villain here.

But with only three characters left I honestly couldn't decide. I really, really want to play with Fierce Deity and Nabooru, those two are my favorites and this goes way back to the year 2000. But each of the mentioned characters would make great additions. Hopefully they'll add another row to that roster, 16 characters in total would be perfect.

Hyrule Warriors: The Final Update?

Looks like with my last update speculation I was only halfway right. And I'm a little worried right now that we're near the end here and won't see many more characters. Keep in mind that with a Musou / Warriors game they usually show ALL the content before release...

Well, I can imagine the final update to be entirely like this:

Ganondorf Update

• New Playable Characters: Nabooru
• New Weapons: Midna's true form, Wizro's Scythe
• New Playable Villain: Ganondorf
• New Boss Monster: Twinrova
• New Stages: Desert Colossus, Ganondorf's Castle
• DLC Costumes: OoT and TP skins for Ganondorf, OoT skins for Impa and Shiek
• New System: playable villain mode

Introduce Ganondorf as an evil character and playable villains (Cia, Valga, Wizro, Zant, Ghirahim) alongside him as an extra mode in the new system. Apposite to Ganondorf there will be also Nabooru as part of the heroes, Twinrova as a boss and the Desert Colossus as a stage. And of course the "Power" DLC pack. Midna's true form would fit the TP Ganondorf quite well ...

That might be it, but with three weeks until the release of the game, we might not get one Famitsu update, but two. Or maybe three, one each week. For once we still have lots of Skyward Sword stuff open:

2nd Skyward Sword Update

• New Playable Characters: Groose, Skipper
• New Weapons: Link's Whip, Lana's Portal magic
• New Playable Villain: Demise
• New Boss Monster: Moldarach
• New Stages: Sand Ship
• DLC Costumes: SS skin for Impa

And naturally there should be some Majora's Mask, which could look like this:

Majora's Mask Update

• New Playable Characters: Fierce Deity, Deku Princess
• New Weapons: Drums for Darunia, Guitar for Ruto
• New Playable Villain: Skull Kid
• New Boss Monster: Majora and/or Odolwa
• New Stages: Clock Town, maybe Woodfall
• New System: TLoZ map mode

We can still hope!

I'd like to see Mikau in the game, but we already have Ruto. So, I'd prefer representational character for the Dekus instead, maybe even get Deku forces in the game.

Hyrule Warriors: Character Wish List (Ocarina of Time Update)

So, we got Darunia, Sheik and Ruto! Darunia uses the Megaton Hammer as expected by many (including myself) and will certainly provide a nice character for this game. In my last update I wasn't sure about Sheik and Ruto. With Sheik I thought she would be too similar to Impa, but I guess Impa is more a Samurai fighter, while Sheik does Ninja stuff. And the game certainly wouldn't have been complete without Sheik, since this is a very popular character because of Smash. With Ruto I actually thought about her using water magic, but she was missing an item for it. Looks like she uses the Silver Scale, nice... We also got Dark Zelda and I think it might be possible to have dark versions of all the heroes, including Dark Link. So, Dark / Shadow Link also made it for now!

It also looks like the theories were right about getting only characters from Skyward Sword, Twilight Princess and Ocarina of Time. Majora's Mask is still out in the open and I'm a little worried here, even though I probably shouldn't be, because the game fits the overall style and it is a huge fan favorite. We still have one more Famitsu update left and if it follows the schema, the last update might focus on Majora's Mask and characters, as well as stages from that game.

But it might also be a "villain" update, where they introduce Ganondorf and the other villains as playable characters. There definitely will be a playable Ganondorf, the unknown Power DLC with two costumes is just way too obvious. And obviously he wouldn't fit a Majora's Mask themed update all too well, I expected him to make an appearance this week... so, overall I'm a little bit worried that Majora's Mask won't play in the big league. But maybe we will get two Famitsu updates before the release? The magazine gets released every week, so...

For now let's look again at all the potential characters from the games in question. The stars next to the characters display their likelihood:

*** = likely
** = maybe
* = unlikely


Hyrule Warriors:

• Ganondorf (***)
  - Sword of the Sages (Light)
  - Trident of Power (Shadow)

It's very likely that Ganondorf will get his own design, similar to Link, Zelda and Impa, and even receive Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess costumes as DLC. However, the question is, how he will tie into the story. Will he be the ultimate bad guy? That would be good, because if he's playable, other villains like Cia, Valga, Wizro, Zant and Ghirahim might become playable as well. But if they add him to the "Player Character" roster and maybe even make him fight for the good guys (because he wants to prevent the resurrection of the ancient evil as much as the others), then we have a problem...

Skyward Sword:

• Groose (***)
  On Sealed Grounds
  - the "Groozoka" (Fire)
• Scrapper (*)
  On Lanayru Mining Facility
  - Gust Bellow (Thunder)
• Batreaux (**)
  On Skyloft??
  - Scythe (Shadow)
• Dodoh (*)
  On Skyloft??
  - Party Wheel (Thunder)
• Demise (***)
  On Sealed Grounds
  - Dark Master Sword (Thunder)

Skyward Sword has still some very nice potential and I'm actually worried, why they only showed Fi the last time... if they had Groose as a playable character, you'd think they would show him off together with the Groosenator. I still think he should definitely be in this game, alongside with Scrapper. But Groose actually already got his own stage! We have the Sealed Grounds with the Groosenator and the Imprisoned. Why wouldn't Groose be there?! I think that Groose is probably the most likely character at this point.

Another character I would like to see, is Batreaux. Actually he would be a perfect replacement for Gomess, who I wanted to see in previous wish lists. He could fight with bats and a scythe like some Grim Reaper, but still be on the side of the heroes! Perfect! Bring it!

One idea for the lulz would be Dodoh fighting with the Party Wheel. Imagine, how he would smash Fun Fun Island on his enemies as his Musou attack. Not going to happen, but still fun to think about.


Twilight Princess:

• Hero's Spirit (*)
  On Twilight Lands??
  - Hero's Sword (Light)
• Yeto (*)
  On Snowpeak
  - ??? (Water/Ice)

Meh. I'm not really a fan of characters from this game, so I'm fine with getting the beautiful real Midna as her "alternate weapon" and be done here. The Hero's Spirit could make a very nice character though, since he's actually the Ocarina of Time Link. And he could act as the playable Stalfos character in this. Yeto could make an interesting fighter, but I'm not sure, what weapon he would use. His fish? Probably something with ice magic though (as part of the water tier). But I can live without him, it's just an idea.

I also thought about Ilya, since she is one of Link's love interests, but I don't like her that much. And you would have to give her some out of character weapon, because there is absolutely nothing she could do to fight in the games. The Dominion Rod accompanied by some Ooccas could act as an interesting weapon, but of course it would make more sense to have Shad as the wielder. But then you'd want all the members of the resistance and I don't feel like they're all too popular...

Overall we wouldn't miss out, if we didn't get any more characters from Twilight Princess.


Ocarina of Time:

• Nabooru (***)
  On Desert Colossus
  - Dual Scimitars & Mirror Shield (Shadow?)
  - Battle Axe (Thunder)
• Saria (*)
  On ????
  - Fairy Ocarina (???)
• Rauru (*)
  On Hyrule Casle Town
  - Cane (Light)
• Malon (*)
  On Lon Lon Fields
  - ??? (???)

Nabooru is still a big must for me. The Gerudos have nice weapons, she would add to the beautiful female cast and there's no good reason not to have her. Problem is that Impa basically stole the Haldberd weapon and we already got Zant fighting with dual scimitars ... but, come on! An alternative weapon could be the Battle Axe of the Iron Knuckles. After all she used to be an Iron Knuckle herself. Another good reason to have her would be Gerudo forces. Right now the good guys only get Hyrulean Footsoldiers and Gorons, maybe Zora soldiers (we haven't seen any yet though). Gerudo warriors would be a great addition for the good forces.

While I thought it would be nice to have all the sages, right now it doesn't look good for Saria. Zelda is already using her song to fight, Lana took what probably would have been the perfect weapon for a Kokiri and they even made their own Deku Tree stage, where it's quite unlikely that we'll see the Kokiri Forest. With Rauru I thought that he could use one of the canes from the 2D games (like the Cane of Somaria, Byrna or Pacci) ... but he has the same problem as Saria that he wouldn't have a stage to appear in. We already got Hyrule Castle.

Malon is only on the list, because she would be really missing from this roster of beautiful ladies. I could see her summoning animals like a Cucco's Revenge Squad using Epona's song... maybe even use the Whip, but that might be too hardcore for her. I don't really see her as a weapon wielder and overall she has similar chances to Rauru and Saria... (Update: Lana even might have a third moveset involving those portals and Cuccos coming out of the portals. So, Malon is even less likely now.)

Majora's Mask:

• Fierce Deity (***)
  On Clocktown
  - Double Helix Sword (Light)
• Mikau (*)
  On Pirate Fortress
  - Fishbone Guitar & Fin Blades (Water)
• Darmani (*)
  On Snowfall
  - Sleep Drums & Goron Fists (Fire)
• Deku Princess (**)
  On Woodfall
  - Whatever possible weapon Lana left... (Water)
• Skull Kid (***)
  On Clocktown
  - Skull Mask (???)
  - Majora's Mask (Shadow)
• Igos du Ikana (*)
  On Ikana
  - Stalfos Blade (Shadow)

I really, really, really, really hope that Majora's Mask is still an option for this game, because there's still so much potential here. Of course some characters like the Skull Kid or the Happy Mask Salesman do appear in Ocarina of Time and there shouldn't be any problem with having them. Skull Kid also appeared in Twilight Princess, so he's one of these universal characters, which you could put anywhere.

And they might even give Mikau his own Hyrule counterpart, similar to Ruto and Lulu or Darunia and Darmani. Or as I already said, the worlds of OoT Hyrule and Termina are still linked to each other. But Mikau is basically the rock star of the Zelda series and shouldn't be missing in a game, which mainly plays Zelda rock covers as the background music! On the other hand, they might just give the Sleep Drums and the Fishbone Guitar to Darunia and Ruto as alternate weapons. It's enough to have one representative of each race and maybe it would be better to focus on the Dekus here instead.

But the Deku Princess now has very minimal chances with Lana's second moveset, because that's something I imagined for her. The Deku King even had a similar staff, which she could have used... but oh well. She could still do something with Deku Nuts and Bubbles.

My absolute most wanted is still Fierce Deity though! If this game doesn't include a playable Fierce Deity, I will be very, very disappointed. He's on the top of my most wanted list next to Nabooru and Groose.

Update:
- since each character from SS, TP and OoT appears on his own stage, I added potential stages for everyone...
- dropped Tingle
- took the weapon elements into consideration
- added stars to display a character's likelihood
- added Dodoh

NES Remix & NES Remix 2 (Review)

This review was originally published on ZeldaChronicles (formerly known as ZeldaEurope) and got translated for this blog in 2021 by the same author.

Currently Nintendo has some offers in the eShop concerning NES Remix: if you own one of the games, the other will cost less (6,99€ instead of 9,99€) and there are several discounted NES games as well. This is a great incentive to finally take a look at this mini-game collection, with a focus on the Zelda NES classics, The Legend of Zelda and Zelda II - The Adventure of Link. Is it any fun or just a waste of money?

NES Remix got released at the end of last year, on December 18th, and NES Remix 2 on April 25th of this year. If you've never heard of these games before, then all you need to know is that these are two download titles for the Wii U, where you have master short challenges in different NES games against the clock. These challenges are usually short snippets from the games, where for example you have to defeat enemies or collect things.

In the following you'll find list of all games, which are used in NES Remix and NES Remix 2 for the mini-games.

 

NES Remix (388MB):

• Balloon Fight
• Baseball (Bonus)
• Clu Clu Land
• Donkey Kong
• Donkey Kong Jr.
• Donkey Kong 3 (Bonus)
• Excitebike
• Golf
• Ice Climber
• Mario Bros.
• Pinball
• Super Mario Bros.
• Tennis (Bonus)
• The Legend of Zelda
• Urban Champion (Bonus)
• Wrecking Crew

 

NES Remix 2 (100MB):

• Dr. Mario
• Ice Hockey (Bonus)
• Kid Icarus
• Kirby's Adventure
• Metroid
• NES Open Tournament Golf
• Punch-Out!!
• Super Mario Bros. - The Lost Levels
• Super Mario Bros. 2
• Super Mario Bros. 3
• Wario's Woods
• Zelda II: The Adventure of Link

 

It needs to be stressed that these games aren't included as a whole, but only in short excerpts. There is a link to the Nintendo eShop for each game, where you can download them for Virtual Console, in case you like them. In a way this is like a collection of short demos.

NES Remix 2 spans a smaller number of titles, but the more sophisticated ones. With Zelda II - The Adventure of Link, three Super Mario Bros. games, Kid Icarus, Metroid or Kirby's Adventure you get a lot more depth than with the more Arcade-like collection in the first NES Remix. In addition, NES Remix 2 also comes with two entirely remixed games, Super Luigi Bros. and Nintendo World Championships Remix, the latter only if you also own NES Remix.

Super Luigi Bros. is a modification of Super Mario Bros., where you play as Luigi, who jumps a little higher, but doesn't have as much traction. Also, all the levels are mirrored, so you're actually walking from the right to the left. Essentially, you're getting a whole new version of the NES classic here, which on its own already costs 4,99€ in the eShop, so this feels like a good deal.

Nintendo World Championships Remix is based on the American event with the same name from 1990, where you had to compete for highscores in three different games on a special cartridge. In this case you have to collect 50 coins in Super Mario Bros., then 25 coins in Super Mario Bros. 3 and finally score as many points as possible in Dr. Mario. While the games are different from the original, it's certainly a nice to have gimmick. But as already mentioned, this only gets unlocked if you have both NES Remix games.

Sadly, there is no quick way of swapping between the titles. So, if you want to switch between playing challenges for Zelda II - The Adventure of Link and The Legend of Zelda, you have to leave the game and then start the other, which is a little inconvenient. It probably would have been better to have this as one big game.

 

Gameplay

So, how does the whole thing play? Every NES title gets a series of stages, where you have to master one or more short challenges. These challenges can be super trivial stuff, like "Take the item!", where some of it feels like a tutorial for the respective game. Later on the challenges get more complex and difficult, where you might have to finish whole levels or fight bosses.

In many cases you get a number of lives for this, where you can die or get hit with Mario, Link, Samus and co. a couple of times, until you've mastered the challenge. In some cases the time will run out before that, however, because many of the challenges have a very short time limit.

If you get a "Game Over", you are still able to jump back into the last challenge, but will only get one star. Each stage has a score of three stars, where two stars require you to beat it without a Game Over and for three stars under a certain time. If you're especially fast, you can also score three rainbow-colored stars.

The stars are used to unlock other games, as well as special Remix and Bonus levels. And this leads to the first problem: if you only want to play the stages for certain games, you might be out of luck and have to grind for stars to unlock them first. Zelda is actually a great example here, where as a Zelda fan you probably want to start with those stages. But in NES Remix you need 100 stars to unlock The Legend of Zelda and in NES Remix 2 it takes 110 more stars to get to Zelda II. And this can take a while...

So, whether you like it or not, you'll have to try the other games, of which some of them have aged quite poorly. For example the jumping in Ice Climbers or the arcade Mario Bros. (not to be confused with Super Mario Bros.) takes some getting used to, where it's easy to lose motivation. Another example would be Clu Clu Land, where it can be quite tough to get accustomed to its controls, even if they are simple on paper. And with many titles you get the feeling that the challenges are only fun, if you know and love the original game. It's just a lot of excerpts taken out of the context of the game.

The Legend of Zelda (NES Remix)

Fans of the Zelda NES Classics on the other hand should be quite unchallenged by the "challenges" and get the three rainbow stars in all stages in no time. The first tasks for The Legend of Zelda already speak volumes:

• Take the sword!
• Defeat all the enemies! (some Octoroks)
• Restore your life gauge! (at a Fairy pond)
• Buy somethin' will ya!
• Enter the dungeon!

Later on the challenges get a little bit more interesting, e.g. "Defeat all enemies without taking damage!", but for the most part you simply follow the key points of the game, where you collect the essential items, defeat all bosses and then finally save Zelda.

NES Remix also offers some more difficult levels for The Legend of Zelda, where you get challenges based on the 2nd Quest or have to defeat Manhandla with a single bomb. But sadly this isn't part of the game's actual list of stages, where instead those are hidden among the "Bonus Stages", for which you have to a majority of the stars to unlock them. Here it would have been better to unlock more difficult stages for the respective game, once you've cleared all its stages with three stars.

Zelda II - The Adventure of Link (NES Remix 2)

You would think that at least the stages for Zelda II - The Adventure of Link should offer some good challenges by default, but curiously they are even easier than the one for The Legend of Zelda. In many cases it's enough to quickly run right through the area and the bosses already got weakened so much that you can defeat them with a few hits. The mighty Thunderbird even dies after a single hit, turning one of the most difficult boss fights in the Zelda series into a joke.

It's all so simple that NES Remix 2 might even leave the wrong impression that Zelda II isn't so hard as they say after all. Maybe this was even intentional, so that some people might finally give this game a chance and purchase it on the Virtual Console, but for fans of the game the "challenges" are just utterly disappointing.

There's also less to do for Zelda II overall. The first Zelda had 53 challenges in 17 stages (not including the bonus and remix stages), while Zelda II only gets 22 challenges in 10 stages, where this could have been more, especially since entire parts of the game got skipped.

In The Legend of Zelda every single Triforce Shard gets visited along with its boss, where you basically are playing a summary of the game. But the stages for Zelda II don't contain anything from Death Mountain, the Midoro Palace, or the Palace on the Sea. The boss fight against "Gooma" at least gets featured in the bonus stages, but again you have to laboriously unlock that by grinding for many stars in the other games. And there are just many interesting parts of the game, which would have been perfect for some mini-game challenge, but don't get any attention in NES Remix 2 at all... And that's a shame.

Controls and Presentation

You can use all possible controllers for these games, which next to the Wii U GamePad includes the Pro Controller, a Wii Remote or a Classic Controller. The GamePad simply mirrors what's on the TV, so you can use it as an alternate screen at any time. Initially NES Remix didn't support all controllers, but this got added via an update in January.

The NES games themselves all get emulated, much like on the Virtual Console, and therefore are only different in resolution from the originals. The emulation is so faithful that it even has the drops in the frame rate. For example, if you go into a room with lots of enemies in Metroid, the game will play as slowly as in the original. According to the developing studio, indieszero, this was entirely on purpose, where this is supposed to add to the challenge. But it probably would have been nicer if the games ran smoother at certain points.

The Remix

At least the eponymous "Remix Stages" offer some graphical novelty, where you get nicer backgrounds or shadow effects, which is reminiscent of the "3D Classics" on the Nintendo 3DS. These remixed levels are effectively the main attraction, because this is where the games truly get modified and mixed.

Lights may be turned off, things appear twice on the screen, or the visuals suddenly turn into that of the GameBoy, but the highlights are with all certainty the crossovers. Link from The Legend of Zelda may try to save Pauline in a level of Donkey Kong – without the ability to jump, of course. Or the Link from Zelda Ii - The Adventure of Link might have to fight his way through a Super Mario Bros. level.

It's ideas like this which make the NES Remix games quite charming, but they certainly got the short end of the stick. There would have been a ton of potential for crazy ideas, as proven by fan games like Super Mario Crossover. And the entire idea of Super Luigi Bros. is based on a remix level from the first NES Remix with the same concept. This just shows how far Nintendo could have gone with this, but the focus of NES Remix sadly wasn't on the remix, but on the many, many demo stages...

Conclusion

It's hard to say who NES Remix and NES Remix 2 were made for. It's an interesting way to familiarize yourself with the NES era in a very playful way, but many of the titles simply haven't aged well and the short challenges might only be fun if you're familiar with the original games. Fans of the NES games on the other hand might be completely unchallenged by a majority of the stages and there was just not enough focus on the ingenious remix stages.

Despite all of this, it would be nice to get a GameBoy Remix or a SNES Remix in the future, where the corresponding titles could be a lot more appealing than the ones for NES...

The Good:

• Playful insight into the NES era
• Diverse highscore hunt
• Very nice ideas for the remix stages
• Support for all controllers
• NES Remix 2 comes with Super Luigi Bros.

The Bad:

• Many poorly aged games
• Too easy challenges for the Zelda games
• Too few challenges for Zelda II
• Unlocking all levels for a game takes too long
• Not enough remix
• Feels more like a demo collection

Sheik, Darunia and Ruto announced for Hyrule Warriors

Nice! We're back on track again.

After the last update, where we only got Fi, I was a little bit worried that the final roster might not be as large, as we had expected. So, I kept my expectations low and reduced my roster to a hand full of characters. While I really wanted Darunia, I was quite skeptical about Ruto and Sheik. But now that we got those two, I'm currently aiming at a 18-20 character roster, not counting the villains.

Originally I had the idea of having all the sages as playable character and now that we got Impa, Darunia, Ruto and Sheik/Zelda, there's no excuse not to have the rest of them. I still want to see Nabooru badly, and Saria and Raura still might have a chance now. I'm eager to see, how Ruto will work, so I can come up with better ideas for those two.

And even though we have Ruto now, I still want to see Mikau. He's the rockstar of the Zelda universe and he shouldn't be missing in a game, where the majority of the music is Zelda rock.

I'm still worried, why they only have shown Fi in the last update. The update was about Skyward Sword and it would have been the perfect opportunity to show Groose or Scrapper alongside Fi, unless of course those characters don't exist in the roster ...

And as expected, we're getting an Ocarina of Time update this week! There probably will also be Ganondorf and other things, so I will create a new wish list at the end of the week, as soon as we have learned everything new!

Next Hyrule Warriors Updates: Ocarina of Time & Majora's Mask?

So, every two weeks we get new infos about Hyrule Warriors in the Famitsu, which leaves two big updates open until the release of the game. It also seems that these updates follow some patterns and revolve around one game, at least from judging the last two ones:

Twilight Princess Update

• New Playable Characters: Lana and Agitha
• New Humanoid Villain: Zant
• New Boss Monster: Argarok
• New Stages: Twilight Lands
• DLC Costumes: Twilight Princess Link & Zelda

Skyward Sword Update

• New Playable Characters: Fi
• New Weapons: Ball & Chain for Link, Wind Waker for Zelda
• New Humanoid Villain: Ghirahim
• New Boss Monster: The Imprisoned
• New Stages: Skyloft, Sealed Grounds
• DLC Costumes: Skyward Sword Link & Zelda
• New System: shops, hearts, bow

So, based on that we could make a prediction like this:

Ocarina of Time Update

• New Playable Characters: Darunia and/or Nabooru and/or Sheik
• New Weapons: Biggoron Sword for Link, Time Portal Magic for Lana
• New Humanoid Villain: Ganondorf
• New Boss Monster: King Dodongo, Gohma or maybe Twinrova
• New Stages: Lon Lon Fields, Gerudo Fortress + Desert
• DLC Costumes: Ocarina of Time Link, Zelda & Ganondorf, Twilight Princess Ganondorf
• New System: Gold Skulltulas

Majora's Mask Update

• New Playable Characters: Mikau and/or Deku Princess
• New Humanoid Villain: Skull Kid
• New Boss Monster: any of the MM bosses
• New Stages: Clocktown / Termina Field

Don't think that any of the other Zelda games are going to get in the spotlight with Hyrule Warriors for two reasons: it's the realistic 3D Zelda games, where they can use models, textures and other assets to mash them together. Also, the story states that the evil spirit was split into four parts, three of them hidden in space and time. Cia opens the Soul Gate to three different eras to retrieve: the world of Skyward Sword, the world of Twilight Princess and probably also the world of Ocarina of Time & Majora's Mask, which are linked to each other anyway, so you basically hit two games with one stone here.

With the DLC packages, it's quite obvious that the remaining costumes will be Ocarina of Time outfits for Link and Zelda. Also, it's quite suspicious that the "Power" package only has two costumes. So, it probably will have the Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess versions of Ganondorf, while the ingame Ganondorf gets his own new design. Impa on the other hand could also get two costumes, one for Skyward Sword and one for Ocarina of Time. Maybe she has the Power Pack, but then they probably would have shown it already.

I could also imagine that Ganondorf will be introduced as a playable character from the start. He could even "join" the good guys as the ultimate fanservice, because he wants to prevent the resurrection of the ancient evil (maybe Demise?) as much as the heroes.

Also, note how the system page shows a Gold Skulltula symbol next to the stages! I bet this will be explained next time with OoT update.

Hyrule Warriors: Character Wish List (Skyward Sword Update)

Oh, the excitement! Hyrule Warriors looks more and more fun with each update. Today they announced Fi as the 7th character and alternate weapons and costumes for Link and Zelda. The Ball & Chain looks really cool and is probably the best solution. The only reason, why I wanted Onox in this game, was the Ball & Chain, so I will drop him from my list. It's easy to make a list with many characters on it, but you should also ask yourself, what potential each character actually holds. If a character can provide different forms and alternate weapons, he certainly adds more value than a character, who only has the one thing. Of course if this one thing is really special, like Agitha's giant bugs, the character still might be a welcome addition. But on other hand you would really have to bend some characters to make them work like that.

But with the trailers they present each character with a weapon and the weapons really change the play style of the characters. So, you could argue that the weapons might be like a character of their own. With Midna it says "cursed shackles" or "cursed form" as her weapon. This might be actually an indication that her true form turns up to be her alternative "weapon" in the game.

With all of this in mind, I want to condense my wish list to a more realistic scope, which also tries to take alternate weapons into account. And it really looks like this is going to be Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time, Majora's Mask and Twilight Princess only (with some tributes to other games). So, I will focus on characters from these games.

I kept updating my previous list so far, but for a major overhaul like this I want to create a new post/list. So, the old list won't be updated anymore!

Confirmed Player Characters:

• Link
  (costumes: Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time, Ravio?)
  - Hylian Sword -> Master Sword
  - Magic Rod -> Ice Rod Upgrade
  - Silver Gauntlets + Ball & Chain -> Golden Gauntlets ?
  - Whip ?
  - Biggoron's Sword ? -> Great Fairy's Sword ? -> Double Helix Sword ?
• Zelda
  (costumes: Twilight Princess, Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time, Hilda?)
  - Rapier
  - Wind Waker
• Impa
  (costumes: Skyward Sword, Ocarina of Time)
  - Giant Blade
  - Whip ?
• Midna
  - Shackle
  - True Form ?
• Lana
  - Book of Sorcery
  - Time / Portal Magic ?
• Agitha
  - Parasol
  - Bug Net ? -> Big Bug Net ?
• Fi
  - Goddess Sword -> Goddess White Sword ?

I'm not going too crazy with the already announced characters and I've been wondering about Link's fourth weapon mostly. It could be the whip, which he established as a new weapon, however, Majora's Wrath could also add way crazier whip action than Link could. But I thought the same thing about Onox, so... An alternative would be giving the whip to someone else, Impa for example might look good with it. The Biggoron / Great Fairy's Sword is also possible for Link, but we already have Impa with the Giant's Blade. However, the demo explicitly named Link's first weapon "One-Handed Sword", so there's a good chance his final weapon will simply be a Zweihänder.

But we also have to think about weapon upgrades. It's not just having different weapons, the weapons will become stronger and maybe even more versatile. The Hylian Shield and Master Sword will replace the Hylian Sword and the soldier shield from the early game. It might even add Skyward Strikes as an additional technique. With the Magic Rod I personally think that they intentionally didn't call it "Fire Rod" - it might get an Ice Rod upgrade, which let's you combine fire and ice magic (freeze and melt them). With a two-handed sword you obviously could upgrade from Biggoron's Sword to the Great Fairy's Sword. Well, maybe even Fierce Deity's sword, if Fierce Deity really isn't a character option. The Silver Gauntlets would have the Golden Gauntlets, most likely.

I was thinking about having the Fierce Deity's Mask as an alternate weapon for Link, which could work, if it wasn't for the costumes. You wouldn't be able to apply them there, so it might make sense to have Fierce Deity (Link) as separate character still. Or there are simply "weapons", which have their own skin or act more like a different character similar to Midna. In that case I could also picture Sheik as "weapon style" for Zelda. However, the demo only showed two weapon slots for Zelda and those are already taken.

With the costumes, they announced that there will be Courage, Wisdom and Power packs. The first two will have three costumes and the latter two. And so far it looks like Courage offers costumes for Link and Wisdom for Zelda. Power probably adds costumes for Ganondorf or Impa and the remaining costumes are most likely their designs from Ocarina of Time.

But for Link's and Zelda's costumes I also thought that Ravio and Hilda could work nicely here. Ravio isn't a fighter anyway, he probably would just use Link's items in a clumsy way. And Hilda wouldn't add anything to the game, because we already have Cia fighting with a staff like hers. But as costumes they could be fun and still possible, even though A Link Between Worlds didn't make it into the plans of the game.

For Lana we already saw an artwork with portals similar to the Gate of Time behind her, so her second moveset will probably have to do with that. And Agitha simply NEEDS the Bug Catching Net as an alternate weapon. The Big Bug Net from Skyward Sword would even be a perfect upgrade.


Possible Player Characters:

• Sheik
  - some Ninja weapons like a whirling scythe
• Darunia / Darmani / Dangoro
  - Goron Fists & Megaton Hammer
• Mikau
  - Fin Blades
  - Fishbone Guitar
• Nabooru
  - Dual Scimitars
  - Gerudo Halberd & Mirror Shield
• Deku Princess / Deku Butler's Son
  - Deku Bubbles / Nuts
  - Deku Leaf
• Scrapper
  - Scrap Hands
  - Gust Bellow
• Groose
  - Bazooka (Groozooka)
• Hero's Spirit
  - Hero's Sword
• Beedle
  - ???
• Ghost Dampé (as requested by the comments :D)
  - Shovel and Poe Lantern
• Fierce Deity Link
  - Double Helix Sword

Well, it makes sense to only have one Goron character, who uses different weapon styles, instead of having three different Gorons with their own fighting stlye. Whether it's an established character or a new one, I don't really care, as long as we get some Goron. Darunia would make the most sense though, especially if he uses the Megaton Hammer. That would be perfect. Darunia could also have a Darmani costume or vice versa.

Also, I dropped my idea of having the six sages playable in their entirety. I simply don't see Ruto and Rauru as fighters, though they somehow could be twisted into one, if really needs be. Ruto could fight with some sort of water magic for example, but Impa already does that and I'd rather have Mikau with his tattoos and his guitar! He would be a lot more interesting than Ruto. Rauru/Gaepora is just boring and doesn't need to take a character spot just to have the six sages.

The two characters I want to see the most, however, are Nabooru and Fiece Deity Link. This goes way back to my first time playing Majora's Mask nearly 14 years ago. There I wanted more from Fierce Deity and I also wanted to transform into a Gerudo with a mask (even though this probably would have looked silly). As for Nabooru's alternate fighting style I'd like her to utilize the typical Gerudo halberds on one hand, but maybe the Gerudo Mirror Shield with the other.

Scrapper and Groose would be for the lulz. I could see them adding interesting fighting styles though, much like Agitha. Though it could collide with the bomb item, which is why Groose needs something like a Bazooka to stand out. Scrapper would simply use his hands (and probably his mouth) and maybe even the Gust Bellow from the Lanayru Mining Facility as an alternate weapon. I'm only worried, because with each update they introduced two new characters. The last update was Skyward Sword themed, so why not show Groose or Scrapper along with Fi? It would have fit perfectly... but hopefully they will keep some characters secret for now.

I was also thinking about Tingle, he could offer some kind of aerial combat, where he hovers above everyone with Tingle Balloons to drop Tingle Bombs or whatever. I'm not so sure about him though, he might be too comical and deformed for this game. That and the fact that many people hate Tingle.


I also dropped Saria for now. The original idea was to have her fight with the Fairy Ocarina and magic songs like the Song of Storms. The Fairy Bow was her secondary weapon. But the Bow is now a normal item and Zelda uses the Wind Waker, which is too similar already and looks a lot better.

I'm also undecided about Sheik. It would be weird to have two different Zeldas, after all they're giving him all those costumes for her different versions, so if Sheik is in the game, it would make more sense as a costume or alternate "weapon". But as with Fierce Deity Link this is difficult to say, so Sheik might be a character after all. The again we already get Sheik in Smash Bros and we have Impa in this game. Everything Sheik could or would do, probably make a good alternate fighting for Impa instead. After all Impa is a real Sheikah and not some fake. But Sheik definitely has many fans and this is a fanservice game, so I won't write her off completely.

Also, keep in mind that simply because a character isn't playable, doesn't mean he or she plays no role in the game. There are many different ways to score a cameo in this game. But it's interesting that they chose a random Goron as the shopkeeper, instead of using Beedle. Might he be a character after all? I would add him to my list, but I can't think of any good fighting style for him right now.

Potentially Playable Enemies:

• Cia
  - Crystal Staff
• Valga
  - Dragon Claw Lance
• Wizro
  - Ring Magic
• Zant
  - Dual Daggers
• Ghirahim
  - Magic Swords

I'll only list the humanoid bosses, because those are the ones, which might be unlockable as playable characters.

• Ganondorf
  (costumes: Twilight Princess, Ocarina of Time)
  - Sword of the Sages
  - dual sabers from TWW
  - Trident of Power
• Demise
  - Dark Master Sword
• Shadow/Dark Link
  - all of Link's weapons
• Skull Kid
  - Skull Mask
  - Majora's Mask
• Majora's Wrath
  - Blade Whips
• Gomess
  - Shadow Scythe
• Igos du Ikana
  - Stalfos Broadsword

Not too many changes with the bad guys. I think that the Garo Master, Gomess and Phantom Ganon are more likely to appear as captains similar to King Bulblin or the Aeralfos. But having King Bulblin as a captain and not as a boss already shows that we probably shouldn't look too deep into mini bosses. But I still kept Gomess in the list, because I really like the design and the weapon. Igos du Ikana doesn't really have an interesting weapon, but he might utilize other special attacks like detaching his head from his body. Maybe the Eligy of Emptiness could be also a thing for him, where he creates clone Stalfos soldiers. So, he still might have good chances to become more in this game.

Twinrova by now I see more as one of the other bosses, where you have in her fused form, but also as the twin witches, but nothing that could be playable. Link's Magic Rod could potentially house ice magic as well, so we don't really need her to be more than a boss.

Shadow Link should basically be a Link clone for the bad guys. Like in Four Swords Adventures or A Link Between Worlds Shadow Link could yield all of Link's weapons, the sword & shield, the Magic Rod or the Ball & Chain. It's just that he works for the bad guys and might even become a formidable opponent during the story mode.

Skull Kid I picture as the "humanoid boss character" from Majora's Mask. Thing is, he could easily become playable as a good guy by switching masks. And I think it would be nice to have a character, who establishes different fighting styles with masks. The "Skull Mask" mode would have him fight normally with his flute and maybe by summoning puppets like in Twilight Princess. The "Majora's Mask" mode gives him bad evil stuff or whatever (you can really pull down the moon with the Hookshot, so...)


Last but now least I want to have a list for the (potential) secondary items, which every character can use:

Secondary weapons:

• Hookshot
• Bombs
  - Big Bombs upgrade
• Bow
  - Sacred Bow upgrade

• Boomerang
  - Gale Boomerang upgrade
• Deku Nuts
  - for stunning enemies
• Bombchus
  - homing bombs!
• Pegasus Boots
  - Makes you run faster
• Lantern
  - for dark areas / night
  - can have crazy upgrades
• Pictobox
  - for Miiverse and selfies!

I will update the lists every now and then...!

Updates:

• dropped Tingle
• added Malon
• added the possibility of an Ice Rod upgrade for Link's Magic Rod
• added Fairy Bow as alternate weapon for Saria
• added Gust Bellow as alternate weapon for Scrapper
• added list of (potential) secondary items
• added Igos du Ikana back on the list
• official update: Bow item and Baton of Wind for Zelda
• removed Saria for now, because her abilities got covered by the update
• added Ghost Dampé (silly idea!)
• considered Twinrova as boss similar to Argarok
• Koei Tecmo officially deconfirmed Yuga
• added Bug Catching Net as possible weapon for Agitha
• moved Skull Kid to the enemy roster for now
• added some weapon upgrades
• reconsidered Beedle
• added the Hero's Spirit back to the list
• Link's Power Gloves seem to incorporate the Magnetic Gloves