Back to a big screen, I've completed the Threefold Melody quest and reached the top of the Citadel. This means I've explored the rest of the Whispering Vaults and the Cogwork Core, as well as the High Halls and finally the Cradle, with a detour into the Wisp Thicket in between. And technically I have now beaten the game, but as with the first Hollow Knight it's rather questionable and there is still more to discover.
This week I was visiting a Zelda community gathering, so my progress is rather limited, but here and there I'm using a quiet hour to play some more Silksong. The screenshots in this post will have a different format than usual because of this.
Another ramification is that I mainly focused on side quests, so the only new area that I have explored is the Memorium. The main goal was finally upgrading my needle a second (and third) time, however. For this I had to complete the "Great Taste of Pharloom" quest, where to delicacies were still missing.
Usually, I'm not much into ROM hacks and randomizer stuff, because I hardly can keep up with the official releases, but this week I'm on a Zelda community gathering. And here I could witness this absolutely marvelous crossover between The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time and Ace Attorney.
It was made by Newer Team and you can find everything you need to know on the game's website. I can only advise to give it a try, where it's a short game and you will be in a for a fun evening.
Talon got killed and Princess Zelda found him on a visit of the Lon Lon Ranch, where it looks like Malon did it with a Poacher's Saw. Link in his finest Zora Suit becomes her defense, while Ganondorf Dragmire poses as the prosecution, which is absolutely hilarious.
Any fan of Ocarina of Time will immediately know who actually did it, but of course it's about delivering proof by using evidence and all given statements. Like in your regular Ace Attorney game. It's a bit weird to have Link talk as much, but he also often just delivers his thoughts, where a lot of it is funny.
Overall, this ROM hack is absolutely impressive. The soundtrack is also a banger. If nothing else, go download it for a treat, also on the Hero of Law website.
They've skipped August for their not-so-monthly Zelda soundtrack addition in Nintendo Music, but we've gotten Zelda II - The Adventure of Link today. While this game is among the least popular from the Zelda series, its soundtrack always has been awesome with some very catchy tunes, like the Palace theme, which has been prominently featured in all Super Smash Bros. games since Melee.
It's also worth checking out the Famicom Disk version, because there are some notable differences, starting with the title theme, which makes better use of the soundchip. The Battle song is also completely unique, where it may sound strangely familiar to you. That's because it was later remixed as the mini-boss battle theme in The Minish Cap.
Next on my list of detours was Mount Fay. Once you have the Clawline, you can reach this icy area from the Slab. And I climbed the whole thing for my biggest achievement in the game so far. Spoilers for this whole area ahead. In addition, I visited the Sands of Karak and finally challenged an old advisory.
Oh, behold the glory of the glorious Citadel! After getting to the second act of Hollow Knight: Silksong, I've had some of my best times with the game so far, but also some of my most frustrating ones. By now I have reached a certain point right at the center of the Citadel and explored most of the Choral Chambers before that, with detours into the Underworks, the Slab, and the Whiteward. I also got caught up in a variety of distractions all around Pharloom, where I have been playing courier quite a bit...
After running a number of errands all around Pharloom, it was now time to reach Hornet's initial goal: the Citadel. There are two major options for you to get there, the path of the pilgrim and the path of the sinner, where I've been trying my luck with both, starting with the former on the Blasted Steps. But eventually I also ended up in the Bilewaters and the Mist. Spoilers for all these areas ahead!
It's a thing for Metroid, it's really thing. There have been few Metroid releases over the past ten years, but most of them got their own amiibo, which always included that game's version of Samus in her default suit, as well as the most prominent enemy. And Metroid Prime 4: Beyond won't be any different, except that they'll also throw Samus on her new bike on top, which even has a name: it's called "Vi-o-la".
That one is probably going to cost a bit more, I'm guessing 30€. The Kirby Air Riders amiibo actually cost 50, which is insane. We have arrived at a time, where a single amiibo costs as much as games used to.
What's also interesting are the release dates. For some reason, the first two, Samus and Samus on her bike, will actually launch alongside Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment on November 6th. And then Sylux gets released on December 4th, the launch date of Metroid Prime 4.
We don't know yet what they will do in the game, but I'm not expecting much. Curiously, there is only one Metroid title that didn't get its own amiibo after their introduction in 2014 and that's Metroid Prime: Federation Force, but it's also the one that made the best use of them with all those paint jobs for your mechs. It even proactively supported the Metroid amiibo that came out one year later for Samus Returns (see here).
Samus Returns rightfully got some criticism for locking an entire difficulty mode behind one of its amiibo, where Metroid Dread hasn't repeated that mistake, but its functionality also wasn't exactly great... There you got an extra Energy and Missile Tank for scanning the new ones, which would be missing otherwise.
Ideally, Metroid Prime 4 will not only support its own amiibo, but all the ones that came before, including those for Smash. Maybe there could be skins for your bike that are unlocked via amiibo, like a Dark Samus design.
Yesterday's Nintendo Direct gave us the release date for Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and it's still coming in 2025, as promised back in June last year, but barely. It's going to launch on December 4th, to be exact, and that's not the only launch shown in the latest trailer...
There were comments about how Samus's new suit looks like a sports car... and now we know that this was fully intentional: the big reveal was that Samus will be driving a long motor bike in the game. Yes, she is joining the club!
With that also comes the largest world in a Metroid so far, seemingly going more in an "open planet" direction. And unlike the Master Cycle Zero in Breath of the Wild, which got added via DLC, this game was designed around this feature, having clear sections that are meant to be traversed via the speed bike.
And this is where it's getting... bland. When you have these huge, open deserts with nothing but sand or snow, it looks very uninspired, like something from a generic JRPG that only cares for its character models. Anyway, this likely serves as a way of traveling from one area to the next, instead of using your space ship (which is gone anyway) or the usual elevators. And the idea itself is actually quite nice, it's just that the execution clashes visually with the rest of the game.
At first I also thought that this might be a different mode altogether, kind of like the boat or train rides in Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, meaning that there are separate bike sections and normal gameplay sections. But it looks like you can change to your bike whenever you want, it's just that based on the location one way of traversing will be preferred over the other.
But the second Samus hopped off her new bike and the game went back into her visor view, it looked so much better. It's like they had to tremendously scale down the details in those open areas. The rest of the trailer looked really cool, just like your typical Metroid Prime.
Now, the "bike across the planet" part is what really sets this game apart from the original Metroid Prime Trilogy, what makes this the next generation of 3D Metroid. And I can't say that I'm convinced... I just hope that it will be so much fun to play that I won't really care.
Remember when you had pre-ordered Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity on the eShop and all you got was a "Lucky Ladle"? Remember when your save data from Breath of the Wild unlocked a measly Training Sword in that game?
Well, those days are over... According to the official website for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, having save data of The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity on your Nintendo Switch 2, will unlock an Eminent Guard’s Sword and Eminent Guard’s Claymore respectively, looking like something you actually want to have. The Japanese website even features their artworks, which you can see above.
And those are completely new weapons, in an ancient Zonai design. In the memories in Tears of the Kingdom we usually only saw the soldiers wielding a spear, which was never featured among the game's actual weaponry, but it's nice to see that they are also coming up with new toys and not just recycle the weapons from Breath of the Wild for the fourth time.
The Japanese website notes how those might be sold separately at a later date, which indicates that you won't be able to obtain these normally, just like the Lucky Ladle and Training Sword in Age of Calamity. But don't be fooled, they gave the same hint about those weapons and to this day I was not able to obtain the Lucky Ladle, because I went with a physical copy and they never actually sold it separately. I guess it's just a required legal note in case they want to do it, but with these pretty weapons there might be actual demand.
Though, every Zelda fan should be able to get those just fine, because why wouldn't you have played Tears of the Kingdom and Age of Calamity before this one? Luckily, there is no digital pre-order bonus from what we know so far, which I appreciate very much.
However, what about an Eminent Guard's Spear? Will this be a thing in the game? Or some later DLC reward? And who's going to use these weapons? The Construct Link?
Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment will launch November 6th, in less than two months. Naturally, we got the game's box art at this point already. And... it's fine, but far from great.
I liked the one for Age of Calamity much better, but I suppose they couldn't do the whole "surrounded by a red army of doom" visual a second time. There are also way too many characters on the cover, where the masked sages don't hold any real value as of now. I'm sure the game will flesh out their personalities, give us their names, and show us their faces. But we had none of that in Tears of the Kingdom, so they are not in the same position as Mipha, Daruk, Revali and Urbosa were, where these were beloved characters long before Age of Calamity came out.
At least the Korok deserves to be on the cover, because that little scrub has a lot more personality from the one scene we saw of him than all the other sages combined (to be fair, we probably have seen the Sage of Lightning already and she looked also interesting).
Then we get a good look at Construct Link, who looks like a Ninja Turtle. But here you can see that it's clearly meant to represent Link in some form, and not Fi, where I'm guessing that this Construct will house the Spirit of a hero from a past Hyrule. It will be interesting to learn what this is all about and why it got introduced to us with Fi's theme.
In Japan the game is published by Koei Tecmo again, where they will have the usual "treasure box" version. It even includes a scarf again, the one that is worn by Construct Link and the Korok, who are also featured quite prominently here with an acrylic stand and mouse pads. The Korok gets a key-chain on top and then there is a poster of the game's boxart. Nothing too exciting, but it does show how important those new characters are going to be.
A new trailer for Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment got dropped during yesterday's Nintendo Direct and provided us with lots of new footage, as well as a release date: it's November 6th already. That was quite surprising, since it was originally scheduled for "this winter", so not even necessarily 2025. And November is still fall in my book.
Anyway, the trailer offers some very interesting insights details, so let's talk about those. Easily the biggest reveal was the introduction of a new Korok character, the most stylish one in history. He wears a scarf (with the same design as Rauru's) and a second leaf like a pompadour. We can see him throwing different elemental fruits, lots of them at once, and then strike with a Forest Dweller's Sword.
This guy looks like he's going to be a highlight. Hestu was great in Age of Calamity, but he was a bit clunky and this new Korok will be certainly more on the swift side of the roster. Also, it's crazy to think about how they have designed a completely new Korok as a playable character for this game, while the first Hyrule Warriors couldn't even offer us a playable Makar.
They've always liked to create some original characters with these games, like Lana, Cia, Linkle, Terrako or Sooga, but this time the majority of the roster might be made out of new faces. There will be the four masked sages, the Korok, and also the Construct Hero that we saw already at the end of the previous trailer.
Turns out that this one can even fly for some aerial combat sequences, which reminds me of how DOOM: The Dark Ages did something similar this year. And he can swap from this flying mode back into his human form, where you can see him sky diving into the Depths, though this could have been a cutscene. But I want this character as a DLC for Tears of the Kingdom! Make it some endgame bonus, like the Ancient Hero's Aspect, but let the player go crazy.
They have also confirmed the "Sync Strike" mechanic, which is similar to how the Fire Emblem Warriors games do it. They even showed Sonia as an example, where she stands on the battlefield with a longbow, but for some reason they shy away from showing her as an actual playable character. Yet, at the same time, during the training mission with Rauru, it looks like you can swap to some generic Hyrulean soldier:
It's the fourth character in the selection on the left of the screen. It has been a common wish for the Hyrule Warriors games that you can also play as the captain units, but I personally didn't need this. But maybe these will be something like temporary units, who might join you for a battle or two, but are not part of your main character selection. This way we could even have Sonia as a playable character, without her creating a gap in the roster later on, given that this games truly follows the canon events.
We can even see one of these commanding units in action with a Gerudo Warrior, who fights alongside the Sage of Lightning. But in this case it really could be just for the Sync Strikes and nothing else, where you might be able to perform them with any stronger ally unit nearby, not just the ones you take control of. It could also be that this is an important character, similar to Captain Buliara, who happens to be playable as well, but she looks strikingly unremarkable.
What's even more interesting are the new foes shown in the trailer, who look to be mini-bosses for the different sages:
There is this witch character, who looks like a Gerudo, but with tentacle arms. The Zelda Musou X account features a different reel, where you can see how she is summoning lots of mud and surrounding herself in it. She is opposed by the Sage of Water in both scenes.
Meanwhile, the Sage of Fire is taking on some weird hybrid of Lynel and Hinox and fire monster, which is sitting on a Gloom Rock. It looks awfully familiar and completely new at the same time, quite the creation. I usually love the designs they are doing for the Hyrule Warriors games and I'm happy that they are getting much more creative with the enemy design here.
In Age of Calamity we mostly got the Malice variants of all stronger foes, but this trick won't work again here, since Tears of the Kingdom already drenched everything in Gloom. There were also new elemental variants, like the Fire Lynel, and the Bomb Barrel Moblins, of course. But getting completely new monsters in a Hyrule Warriors is something else, where the closest is probably Harbinger Ganon. But that could have been a playable character as well, similar to Astor, which doesn't really look like an option for this Gloom Rock beast.
But maybe it is? So far there is no indication, but I'd love a villain campaign for this game, where you play as Ganondorf and his henchmen. How awesome would it be if he had something like a group of "Anti Sages"?
Zonai Devices are also explained, where it's crazy how you can combine their effects. In the trailer you can see how Zelda uses a Shock Emitter on a fan, which creates this huge lightning tornado. Looks like these devices were intended to be a lot more potent than what they are in Tears of the Kingdom. However, it doesn't really look like something that's much fun to engage with. You take these devices out of an inventory and then carry them around, which prevents you from using your normal attacks. I'm usually the type of player who tends to ignore such options unless they become necessary.
You can also play in split-screen and use Game Share to play with someone, who only has a Nintendo Switch, which is very interesting. You can see how the resolution got cropped significantly for this, where it's probably similar to playing in splitscreen from a technical standpoint, but it also needs to be streamed to the other Switch at the same time. From my experience with both Hyrule Warriors and Age of Calamity, this is not something that I would recommend.
Sadly, I wasn't able to watch today's Nintendo Direct live due to a conflicting appointment, but I pretended to when I arrived at home and avoided spoilers beforehand. It was the first major Nintendo Direct after the launch of the Nintendo Switch and with that came a lot of expectations. But it mostly aligned with my own from two days ago, so I got what I wanted out of this. Though, sometimes you have to be careful with what you wish for...
The 40th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros. was a big part of the Direct, where it started with lots of stuff outside the games, which is now Miyamoto's thing, including a first look at the new movie. The big surprise to me here was that it's going to be The Super Mario Galaxy Movie. After the ending of the first film, I would have expected a "Super Mario World Movie" instead, but I suppose Yoshi will still play an important role and the psychotic Luma was so popular that they decided to skip right to this instead.
They will also release a collection, but not of the New Super Mario Bros. games, but Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2, as a perfect companion to the movie. This is still coming to Nintendo Switch and looks better than the 3D All-Stars collection from five years ago, but not by much, where it seems to be a low effort remaster. Maybe Tantalus was working on this?
Curiously, there was no DLC for Mario Kart World announced, but for Donkey Kong Bananza instead. Didn't see that coming... But maybe they are making a whole new world for Mario Kart World and this will take time. This is where they could throw in all the crossovers, including Link and Samus riding on bikes.
Speaking of, we finally got the release dates for both Metroid Prime 4: Beyond and Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment, as hoped... And they both are coming out this year, on December 4th and November 6th respectively. And I hate it. I absolutely hate it! Don't get me wrong, Prime 4 in December is fantastic. What throws me off is getting Hyrule Warriors before that and with only one month in between.
Warning, absolute first world problem incoming: I want to play both of these games when they come out, take my time with them, enjoy them, and blog about them. But Age of Calamity took me about two months to complete and Warriors games are super beefy in general, so it will definitely clash with Metroid Prime 4. This week was already miserable enough, because I just want to play Hollow Knight: Silksong, but I don't find much time for it. And now I feel like I need to take a small sabbatical or reduce my working hours for the last two months of 2025 just to keep up.
Plus, all three games are big Game of the Year contenders for me personally. I usually only have one or two "must play" games per year, which is more than enough. And all of this could have been avoided if Age of Imprisonment actually came out in winter, as they had said it would. Some early 2026 release, like February 5th 2026, would have been perfect, instead of shoehorning this between Silksong and Prime 4.
But February is where they have more important things to release... like the Nintendo Switch Online Virtual Boy... Really? Reeaaally? Generally, I love the idea of having these games as part of the NSO service, but why don't they offer them without the 3D and the ugly red colors? They require you to have this atrocious peripheral (or a cardboard alternative) and this feels more like a joke, where this will sell for the memes only. I mean, it had flopped for good reasons... At least it will make the Virtual Boy and its games a lot more "accessible" in 2026.
What's also funny is how they keep treating Kirby Air Riders like the next Super Smash Bros., just because Sakurai is making it. Does it really need two full presentations of its own? It certainly has some fans, but far from the reach that Smash Bros. gets. But I guess Sakurai just loves doing this sort of stuff.
What's not so funny is how Nintendo is creating generic video game patents around Pokémon, so they can sue companies like Pocketpair, while at the same time they are making a Minecraft rip-off starring Pokémon. It doesn't get any more hypocritical than this.
The bouncer this time was Fire Emblem: Fortune's Weave, starring Alucard from the Castlevania franchise. And it looks absolutely glorious – I can't wait to pull for its characters in Fire Emblem Heroes. I wish I was joking with that one... As said in my predictions, the mobile game is nearing the end of its storyline, where 2026 may open the final book. So, it makes sense that Intelligent Systems is pushing out one more main game to be featured in this.
I'm personally always intrigued by the Fire Emblem games, I like their worlds and characters quite a lot. The soundtracks are also among the best Nintendo has to offer, if not the best. But their gameplay is so slow and time-consuming that I usually drop them in the middle, because there is always something more interesting to play. I have never finished Engage and never even started Three Houses... It's a shame, but at least Heroes is designed to be played in-between and lets me take a glimpse at those worlds. So, I still play that, even though the power-creeping has become beyond ridiculous. Be sure that some of those characters from Fortune's Weave will be walking nukes that auto-win any battle they enter.
Oh, and for some reason they keep making amiibo... Didn't look like the new ones for Tears of the Kingdom were selling, they are all over the stores, but you may blame this on the hype being over. But we're getting three different amiibo on vehicles here, which is interesting. I actually like how you can swap out the riders with the Kirby Air Riders amiibo.
As usual, I will write separate posts about the more interesting topics, which is the new footage for Age of Imprisonment and Samus on a bike.
We have September. This means it is time for a Nintendo Direct, where one was announced today for this Friday. This shouldn't be all too surprising after the leak by NateTheHate, but Nintendo generally likes to hold Directs in September and we're long overdue for some news. The unusual part is that this will take place on a Friday and that it's an entire hour long, which will make this one of the longer Nintendo Directs.
The reason that it's on Friday is probably because they wanted it close to September 13th, the 40th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros. on the Famicom. This may even become a big part of that one hour, where we might get a first trailer for the second Super Mario Bros. Movie, which is coming to cinemas in about half a year. And then maybe some other things...
Donkey Kong Bananza came out only two months ago, though. This game was made by the Super Mario Bros. Odyssey team, so I don't expect any major Mario news in terms of games. Maybe something on the side-scrolling side, but Super Mario Bros. Wonder isn't that old either... But I love the idea of a "New Super Mario Bros. Collection" for the Switch or Switch 2, which has remastered versions of New Super Mario Bros., New Super Mario Bros. Wii, and New Super Mario Bros. 2.
Oh, and there is Mario Kart World, of course. This game should receive major updates and DLC, in the very least a 200cc mode. Maybe some of it will even have to do something with the 40th Anniversary, like special costumes or whatever. And if they are adding new courses, it will be interesting to see how they are expanding the world.
But what I mainly want out of the Nintendo Direct is more information about Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment and Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. Show us some more things and then please tell us when these two games are coming out, so I can plan vacations. To be honest, I'm so absorbed by Hollow Knight: Silksong at the moment that I don't really want to think about future games right now. Just give me the release dates and we're good.
Otherwise, I'm not really sure what makes sense at the moment. They won't announce a new Zelda game already, because we just got new Zelda games the last two years. So, it's way too early and we're getting Age of Imprisonment anyway. Maybe there will be some remake or remaster, but if that's the case, then it will probably not be made by GREZZO. The internet is really begging for an Ocarina of Time remake and I wouldn't mind to see one, but if one was in the making, then it would have to be made by some unknown studio.
I also see people asking for a new Animal Crossing or Super Smash Bros., but I've explained back in June why this likely won't be happening anytime soon:
The short version is that their usual developers are busy with other projects – Splatoon Raiders and Kirby Air Riders. Once those games are out and a couple of years have passed, then we can expect new entries on those franchises. I also don't think that "Nintendo Switch 2 Editions" of the current games with exclusive contents would make much sense, because they still have to be backwards-compatible in online play with Nintendo Switch players. Some free updates would be nice, though, where they may even add new contents to both the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2 versions.
This will generally be interesting to see what others games may receive Nintendo Switch 2 Editions or free updates, if any. I'm hoping that Metroid Prime Remastered will get something to rise up those resolutions and also offer the new mouse controls. And Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity should definitely get a free performance update, even though it already runs a bit better on Switch 2 by default.
As for other Nintendo franchises... I'm not sure, but Fire Emblem feels like the biggest contender for something new, or in the very least a remake. Intelligent Systems is working like a conveyor belt anyway and Fire Emblem Heroes will enter its tenth year in 2026, which may become its last year in terms of receiving new story content. So, they will certainly want to have one last new Fire Emblem game to feed of from, before the inevitable end of their live service. Or maybe I'm wrong and this will go on forever, where it won't really matter...
So, overall I'm expecting nothing much from the usual suspects, besides what already has been announced anyway. But like with Kirby Air Riders, Nintendo might revive some franchise or spin-off series that hasn't seen something new on the Nintendo Switch so far. A new Wario Land game, for example, would be really cool. And I'm still waiting for that Pilotwings crossover with Dodo Airlines.
Another possibility is a follow-up to the Nintendo World Championships. I'm sick of the NES games and would love to see a Game Boy Edition instead.
After liberating Bellhart, I was mainly absorbed in side quests, back-tracking through the lower spheres of Pharloom, fulfilling some wishes, and fighting some optional bosses, including one that has given me a hard time previously. I also took a brief look at the Sinner's Road...
Well, I didn't get as far as over the weekend as I had hoped... The weather was too nice and the bosses were too hard. My goal was to reach the Citadel, and I came close by taking a look at the Blasted Steps, but I'm not there yet. Since my previous entry, I was busy with clearing the rest of Greymoor, exploring the Shellwoods and the Hunter's March, before finally freeing Bellhart for some much needed progress. Spoilers ahead for all these areas!
Today I've been playing for a couple more hours, where for the most part I've been going back and forth on the horizontal, instead of gaining some altitude, but I've reached a higher area eventually. My journey went to the Deep Docks, the Wormways, the Far Fields, and finally Greymoor. Keep that in mind when reading.
To be honest, I'm not entirely sure this will be a good idea, but I'm going to give it a try nevertheless. Usually, I only do these logs for new Zelda games, but I have done one for Metroid Dread about four years ago, where Hollow Knight is very close to home and checks all those boxes of what I love about the Action Adventure genre.
