Monday, June 24, 2024

Four Swords Online, Round 2

three Links at the end of Sea of Trees Stage

Another day, another round already. I've played in a slightly different group this time, organized from the ZeldaChronicles community. So, no stream to show today. But I still had this one guy (again as the blue Link) with me, who is really ambitious about getting all the Rupees before everyone else, so it was as competitive as yesterday, probably even more so. It was also more balanced, where everyone scored first place at least once, so that was great.

In the beginning we were only three, which made it feel like Tri Force Heroes, but after one stage we had the fourth guy join us for some mad fun. And we've beaten the game on the easiest difficulty, so we've played five stages in total. Well, a little bit more than that, because there have been accidents...

GAME OVER above a fallen blue Link

If a stage starts on a difficult section and you don't have any Rupees yet, it's easy to get a Game Over, especially if people are screwing around.

Anyway, in case you're wondering how progression works with different people, the progress is saved individually for every player in the form of the different keys for each stage. And you're always playing by the lowest common denominator. So, even though two of us had Golden Keys already and I was the host, we still were playing for the Silver Keys to let the other two players catch up. But now that we've beaten the first version of Vaati's Palace, we're all eligible to earn Golden Keys, which we will do next time.

green and red Link waiting at the end of floor 1 of Vaati's Palace

Why even bother and not just stay in the same group, you may ask? Well, I suppose, here it's actually a good thing that you need ten Medals of Courage in total. This encourages you to play with less experienced / progressed players, because this gives you another / a better chance.

So, even though blue Link and me didn't see any actual progress in the game today, we still made some progress by earning medals. I got two more, which brings me to five, only five more to go!

place 1, 2, 3 and 4 in order from left to right

Overall, we had some good laughs. At the end of the floors we often just started attacking each other maniacally, so it became impossible to finish. Or some levels in Vaati's Palace have these bridges, where one player has to stand on a switch to keep them retracted. Of course he wouldn't dare to step off right when everyone else is crossing... right? And it was always a fierce fight for every treasure chest. The possibilities to mess with each other in this game are priceless.

The guy who played purple Link, who has joined us last, also brought in some nice dry humor, which is perfect for a game that you shouldn't take too seriously. Would love to play Tri Force Heroes with him one day and hear what he has to say about those epic tales from the Drablands.

Can't wait to continue this!

3 comments:

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  2. I just completed getting the Gold Keys myself. And got five medals of courage during this playthrough (6 total, so far). I'm really working hard to get more rupees than the competition (one player provided quite the decent competition; the other was a noob). Still, this is way more manageable than Hero's Trial ever was on the Anniversary Edition. I want to get the 10 medals and do the Riddle Quest to unlock the Hurricane spin before I do Hero's Keys and the final 12 floor Vaati Palace.

    I'd forgotten how much fun this game was. It's blast finally being able to play it the way it was meant to be: online multiplayer. I'd gotten used to the single player on the 3DS, which made grinding for rupees a chore in order to unlock the Hero Keys.

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  3. Yeah, I also think that this is the best way to enjoy this game and I certainly won't be missing the extra levels from the Anniversary Edition. Singleplayer was still nice to have, because it lets you play the game whenever you want, but it was poorly balanced without the Rupee Fever.

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