40th Anniversary of Zelda

On February 21st 1986, ゼルダの伝説 (The Legend of Zelda): THE HYRULE FANTASY was released for the Famicom Disk System in Japan. 40 years later the game has left a legacy like rarely any other, with a succession of 20 more titles, half of them remastered or remade, a rich variety of different art styles and gameplay ideas, and even an ongoing spin-off series with Hyrule Warriors.

The Legend of Zelda is the reason why this blog exists, though I was still in the making myself when the original came out. But Europe had to wait until November 1987 anyway to get their NES version.

When you first played the game you were presented with a choice: will you go left, right, up, or down into that cave? Well, you won't get very far if you don't go into the cave first, but that's a lesson for you to learn and it's really up to you. It is your adventure. And it's this level of freedom that later inspired Breath of the Wild to go in a bold new direction, where even the rocky walls aren't an obstacle any longer, bringing the series to a whole new level of popularity and success.

Despite that, Nintendo had decided to skip over celebrating the 35th Anniversary in 2021, save for a Game & Watch system. And to be fair, 35 years are an odd anniversary, where it doesn't necessarily scream for attention, but that's different in the case of four whole decades. Nintendo won't let this opportunity for marketing slip away, especially when they have a whole Legend of Zelda movie coming out next year (even though the series will be 41 years old by then).

But don't hold your breath just yet. They are still in the middle of advertising the 40th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros., where Mar10 day is coming up, the Nintendo Switch 2 Edition of Super Mario Bros. Wonder and of course the Super Mario Galaxy Movie on April 1st. We shouldn't expect to hear about the Zelda anniversary from its creators before that's all behind us. And this also has been true in the past, where they have waited until June to announce something for 25th and 35th Anniversaries and even until September in case of the 30th.

So, at this point we can only speculate and here it's easy to bring up a number of ideas from the past, like those for the 35th Anniversary that weren't meant to be at the time:

• A game collection
• Special-themed hardware
• A dungeon / shrine maker 

Giving us The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD in a collection is still on top of many fan wishlists, where similar to Super Mario Galaxy + Super Mario Galaxy 2 this could run on both the Nintendo Switch and Switch 2, offering something for the fans who have yet to migrate to the new system. However... it's probably more in Nintendo's interest for those people to move on and also to subscribe to the Expansion Pack of the Nintendo Switch Online service, which gives you access to GameCube games on the Switch 2, including The Wind Waker. They will certainly also add Twilight Princess at some point, maybe even this year, and an HD collection would only make such offerings less interesting.

By the way, it will also be the 20th Anniversary of Twilight Princess, sitting right in the middle of the franchise's history. There won't be any better timing to bring this game back, but this may come down to releasing Twilight Princess as part of the NSO GameCube library and finally adding its soundtrack to Nintendo Music. We can anticipate this to happen in the very least.

As for Special Editions of the latest hardware, that's a strong possibility, since the Nintendo Switch 2 doesn't have much to offer yet. Resident Evil Re9uiem will be the first game to come with a themed Pro Controller and that's really it. We could also see a Pro Controller for the 40th Anniversary, or some Joy-Cons, or maybe even a whole Nintendo Switch 2.

But Zelda-themed hardware usually launched alongside a new game, like Tears of the Kingdom and Echoes of Wisdom in the more recent years. It's a bit early for a brandnew Zelda game, though. If we're getting some release in 2026, then it will likely be a side project.

One such side project could be the equivalent to the Super Mario Maker, which became a thing during the 30th Anniversary of Super Mario Bros., more than ten years ago. And it's time that Zelda gets something of its own here. This could be a top-down dungeon maker experience, or a Shrine Maker based on Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. Both could have realistically been in development at Nintendo / GREZZO for many years now, in parallel to the latest games.

Something simpler would be the Zelda World Championships, which is like the Nintendo World Championships, where you play short slices of the games and try to solve tasks as quickly as possible. But instead of different games from one system, this would be focused solely on the history of the Zelda series, featuring the two NES classics, A Link to the Past, Link's Awakening DX, Ocarina of Time and more.

Alternatively, we could be looking at a remake. The internet is currently obsessed with the idea of remaking Ocarina of Time again, which will happen eventually, but it needs the right studio for the job. And GREZZO, the developers behind Ocarina of Time 3D, effectively became the top-down Zelda team over the last decade. Speaking of, a remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons may actually be the more likely candidate.

Of course, it hasn't even been two years since the release of Echoes of Wisdom, so this is a bit too hopeful, but they can re-use a lot of assets from both the Link's Awakening remake and Echoes of Wisdom, which could have sped up the development significantly. They also wouldn't have to create new environments and scenarios, just recreate old ones and mash them together in a more satisfying package.

Well, such a remake doesn't necessarily have to do anything with the ongoing anniversary. In fact, they rarely ever do. Ocarina of Time 3D was tied into the 25th, but this happened retroactively. Meanwhile, both Twilight Princess HD and Skyward Sword HD came out in the year of an anniversary, but weren't marketed as such.

Yet, the Oracle games are in a more unique position, because their development started out as a remake itself – a remake of the very first Zelda game, the one we're all celebrating today. As a result, nearly all of the game's enemies and bosses can be encountered in the GBC classics, which are also seeing their own major anniversary in less than a week: it has been 25 years since their launch on February 27th, 2001.

If they were to remake Oracle of Ages & Seasons, then those assets could theoretically be even used for a remake of The Legend of Zelda. Nothing too crazy, just the original game in the Link's Awakening style, as it was once intended by Capcom. This would be a throwback to a throwback and the ultimate deal for the anniversary, which also could be released for both the Switch and the Switch 2. Maybe they will even have focused on such a project first, because it doesn't require as much development effort, before moving on to the Oracle games in the next step.

Otherwise, Nintendo could also repeat some of things they had done for past anniversaries:

• Start a new symphony orchestra tour
• Launch some more Zelda amiibo
• Release a new book 

The simplest option are amiibo, where they already have been some trustworthy rumors earlier this year that Nintendo will be breathing them in 2026. We're still waiting for the amiibo of Mineru's Construct, but that one will be entirely separate. (Or maybe it launches alongside that Shrine Maker?) For the 40th Anniversary they could just go over the entire series and fill some gaps: Zelda from Ocarina of Time and Echoes of Wisdom, or Din, Nayru and Farore as the Oracles, or Twili Midna, Fi, Linebeck, Ravio...

But it wouldn't be Nintendo if they didn't come up with something special, something that no one is expecting or even talking about. It could be a new cooperation with another video game franchise, some unique merchandise or events, or introducing Rupees as an actual currency in Japan. Let's wait and find out, though the Nintendo of late has been playing it quite safe and by the numbers. However, after the two lackluster anniversaries in 2016 and 2021, which paled in comparison to their Super Mario counterparts, it would be nice to see some more attention on our favorite franchise.

 

Happy 40th Anniversary, The Legend of Zelda! 

Tantalus Developed Luigi's Mansion 2 HD

Luigi's Mansion 2 HD was released on Nintendo Switch just yesterday and of course people have already seen the credits roll, confirming that the remaster was developed by Tantalus Media. The Australian studio is best known on this blog for their work on Twilight Princess HD and Skyward Sword HD.

Together with GREZZO they have supported the Zelda main team with such side projects, where both now have also worked on the Luigi's Mansion franchise in some form, since GREZZO has remade the first game on the Nintendo 3DS.

For a while I was worried that GREZZO is making the Luigi's Mansion 2 remaster as well, because I wanted some more top-down Zelda goodness from them, after their Link's Awakening remake became my absolute favorite Zelda game. And I got my wish, so I'm happy that these two studios are taking turns here. But of course there are Zelda fans who would have preferred to get Twilight Princess HD instead.

As for The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD on Switch, I believe that they became a victim of the postponement of Tears of the Kingdom. Originally, Nintendo planned to release the big new Zelda in 2022, but then they had to move it to 2023. In 2024 we're already getting the next Zelda game with Echoes of Wisdom, so there wasn't any real need for some filler releases. And Nintendo doesn't want to distract you from a new Zelda release with some remasters, which is why they have likely cancelled any plans of porting over the ones from Wii U. If there ever were any to begin with.

However, if Tears of the Kingdom's development had finished in time, we could have gotten The Wind Waker HD and/or Twilight Princess HD in 2023, just to have something for Zelda in that year. That wasn't meant to be, where Tantalus was available to develop else something else in the meantime... like Luigi's Mansion 2 HD.

But they are also available again now, where they might work on getting much requested Zelda HD ports out on the Nintendo Switch in early 2025. There won't be anything new in the foreseeable future for the Zelda franchise. They are apparently working on a remaster of Breath of the Wild for the next system (see U-King-O), but it will take many years to make new open world game. So, 2025 could become the year of remasters for Zelda.

I've said this before, but it still makes sense for Nintendo to port over the Wii U games onto the Switch, because on the next system they won't get away with mere ports, especially in the case of Twilight Princess. Time is ticking here.

As a side note, they did the Metroid Prime Remastered credits thing again, meaning that they only list the people who have worked on the remaster and not the original Luigi's Mansion 2. "Based on the work of the development team from the original Nintendo 3DS version."

Well, I get that the credits are already long enough as they are, but it's still disrespectful towards Next Level Games and everyone who has put their blood, sweat and tears into making this game. This new trend needs to stop. Credit where credit is due.

Twilight Princess Manga, Vol. 11

@AkiraHimekawa

The tenth volume ended with the battle against Dark Beast Ganon, which is Link's last action as a wolf, both in the game and the manga. As a result, the last volume invests a lot of time into the final battle against Ganondorf, something that the other Zelda manga probably would have resolved in a couple of pages...

There was a lot coming together in the volume before, as one epic battle in Hyrule, and only little of that remains in the final volume. You can see Ilia releasing Epona, who then goes to assist Link and Zelda in their battle, which is nice connection, because in the game the horse basically comes out of nowhere. Ilia then gets attacked by some Bokoblin (or whatever), where the manga cuts off, and we later see her next to a dead King Bulblin, who has given his life to defend her and others... Again, this is a good use of this character and also quite the redemption.

The rest focus almost entirely on Link, Ganondorf, Midna, Zelda, and... the Hero's Spirit. The latter actually joins Link for a chapter during this "duel" with Ganondorf and then has one final moment together with Princess Zelda, who has the memories of the Zelda from Ocarina of Time, re-uniting her with the Hero of Time. It's a very beautiful scene.

Ganondorf gets defeated with the same goofy expression as in the game as he gets pierced by the Master Sword. But the manga leaves out the infamous and creepy neck snap moment with Zant, right before Ganondorf dies for real. This scene has spawned theories and discussions left and right, where Akira Himekawa just dodges it entirely. Well, it never really made that much sense to being with, since Zant was already blown to smithereens by Midna, so I can understand the decision. But it would have been nice if the manga tried to give some explanation.

Instead, it will give you something else to talk about, at least if you're into shipping. Other than Ilia, the game doesn't really dive much into the territory of love interests for Link, but the manga doesn't hold back when it comes to the relationship of Link and Midna. Well, he already kissed her on the cheek in the previous volume and as she is about to leave, he acts like a child, wanting to go with her. So, she first slaps him and then kisses him for real, creating a memorable good-bye moment, worthy of her dominant character. And Link's heart breaks right with the Mirror of Twilight when she departs.

Meanwhile, Ilia is waiting for Link to return, but all she gets is Shad, who has a crush on her in the manga and is looking to score. So, he's in love with someone, who loves another, who loves another, who is out of reach... Typical stuff, but it's more than what you usually get from Zelda games, at least from the later ones. The earlier games had a bit more going on for Link, like with the implied kiss at the end of Zelda II, Marin in Link's Awakening, and even various girls in Ocarina of Time. Today he gets abused by giant, chubby fairies.

Anyway, Link has ran off for adventure, leaving the Master Sword behind. Sadly, the manga doesn't seize the opportunity to show what really happened at the end of Twilight Princess. Link ditched the Master Sword, because he found a much better weapon – the Phantom Crossbow. And the he goes to blow stuff up all over Hyrule! If that's how the manga ended, then it would have been perfect...

Nah, jokes aside, the Twilight Princess manga has too much unnecessary filler for my taste to be perfect. I've really enjoyed the course they've taken with many of the characters, like Zelda and the Hero's Spirit, adding a lot more depth to them. And the overall change of direction, making this more mature and really taking the time to tell the game's story, is so much better than what they've done before. But it could have been at least one volume shorter by cutting out characters and scenarios that aren't from the game.

Still, it's pretty much a masterpiece compared to the earlier manga, and I'd love to see this take on another Zelda game, where the best candidate is probably Skyward Sword. Especially the relationship between Link and Zelda is something that can shine here. Of course, there are the much popular Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom, but to me the manga always had this "retro" feel to it, where I'd like for them to focus on what's left from the classic Zelda games. A Link Between Worlds would be another candidate, though one for the shorter, less serious style from before, like Four Swords.

In any case, I'm curious to see where Akira Himekawa will lead us next...

Leipzig Book Fair 2024 Loot

 

Last weekend I've visited the book fair in Leipzig, which is also a "Manga-Comic-Con" at the same time with lots of nerd stuff. It takes up around 25% of the convention, but you will instantly notice how that's the most popular part, with many cosplayers around and such.

Well, here you can see what I took home with me. Nintendo is always present at this convention with a booth and you can get some free My Nintendo merchandise by scanning a QR code. You need to login with your Nintendo account and you will also get 100 Platinum Points, where the mission reads "Completed: Check in at Manga-Comic-Con 2024". But of course you will only be able to do this once, unless you have multiple Nintendo accounts.

Last year they gave away "My Nintendo"-themed pens and tiny ring books. This year it was sticker sheets... The Super Mario sheet was separate, they kept handing this out to people around the booth, but for the Tears of the Kingdom Ganondorf and the Pikmin 4 artwork you had to check in.

I'm not sure if they had other motives, because I was there at the last day of the convention only. Maybe the days before they also had Link and Zelda... But you were getting both stickers twice and as I said you can only do this once. And it's not really important, it's just stickers.

As you can see, the convention was also a reminder for me to finally get the last volume of the Twilight Princess manga. I will share my impressions about it once I've read it.

Tears of the Kingdom – Hinox Chase

If you have the feeling that the Hinox chase scene from the recent trailer looks weirdly familiar, then you might be onto something. It does recreate a similar scene from the GDC 2005 trailer for Twilight Princess (which still didn't have a title at the time), where a Gohma is chasing you through an underground tunnel. Of course this could be just a coincidence, but the camera perspective and the whole setting make it seem like a nod to what was shown to us 18 years ago:

A lot of things from the GDC trailer didn't make it into the final game, but this is one of the more memorable scenes. And Nintendo never forgets their ideas. Even if they don't make it into the next game, they might bring it back in a future installment... And with a Zelda game that has a huge underground system it was the perfect opportunity to do so.

To be fair, Spirit Tracks also had something very similar going on with the Rocktites, which are chasing your through the train tunnels, where this was a giant one-eyed monster as well. So, it wouldn't be the first time that this idea reappears, but this is certainly more closer now to the Gohma scene.

Tears of the Kingdom – The Zonai, Twili and the Sacred Realm?

The part of yesterday's trailer for Tears of the Kingdom that has probably caused the most speculation was actually the logo. This was originally part of my trailer analysis, but I decided to move this into its own post, because there were more thoughts to be had here.

You can see two dragons in the logo eating each other up, where their design is clearly based on the Zonai statues found in Breath of the Wild. This soft-confirms that all the magical / technological stuff that we have seen so far, like the glowing hand, the vials, the Eyegore enemy, or the mechanical glider could really be have been made by the Zonai in the past.

As explained in Creating a Champion (pages 342 and 413), the Zonai were a warrior tribe, who have wielded strong magic, worshiped a water dragon, and vanished thousands of year ago, where this is one of Hyrule's greatest mysteries. Many of the monuments and old temples found in the world of Breath of the Wild are tied to the Zonai, including the large Lomei Labyrinths, where you can find the barbarian outfit once worn by the tribe.

There have been lots of Zelda fans out there speculating about the Zonai's role in the sequel ever since the 2019 trailer (e.g. Zeltik), even calling Link's new hand the "Zonai Hand". I was personally never too convinced, since the Zonai were more of this background mystery in Breath of the Wild and Nintendo loves to leave certain things to the imagination. The name is even an anagram of "nazo", the Japanese word for "mystery", so it's a bit on the nose. And I expected them to simply add to this mystery, where you get to explore more of their ruins and such, instead of making the Zonai a central plot point. However, there could be a lot more this tribe, where "Zonai" may not even be their actual name.

Back in 2019 I saw the hand and vortex as "Gerudo magic", mainly because it used Gerudo runes and banished Ganondorf. And it still may be related, where the Zonai could be connected to the Gerudo somehow. They both share the use of the color green (at least in Breath of the Wild). They both are warrior tribes. The relation of Zelda and the divine being on the stone carvings looks really friendly, reminiscent of Urbosa and Zelda. And the seven orbs might truly reference the Seven Heroines somehow. At the end of the trailer you can also see two orbs in one, facing each other, which could have something to do with the Eighth Heroine... Maybe it's supposed to be Zelda or the divine being.

But that's already speculation about speculation, so it feels a bit out there. Also, in Breath of the Wild the Gerudo were portrayed in balance with the Rito, Goron, and Zora tribes due to the Divine Beasts, the Champions, and all that. But focusing more on the Gerudo would make them feel more important than the others here. Of course the sequel doesn't have to keep this balance and with the re-appearance of Ganondorf there will naturally be some more focus on the Gerudo, but it still might leave a slightly sour taste.

On a side note, there also have been the Zuna in Four Swords Adventures, who lived next to the Gerudo and were a different desert tribe, one with green skin. They had built the Pyramid housing Ganon's Trident. But the name stems from the Japanese word for sand, "suna", and it's very unlikely that we will ever see this tribe again.

Learning more about the Zonai will be very interesting in any case, with or without the Gerudo being related. It might also make revisiting the old ruins in Breath of the Wild worthwhile, because some of the details there may be important in hindsight. A big part of this were the statues, where according to the Creating a Champion artbook they symbolized the history of the Triforce from an ancient perspective (page 342). The dragons represent courage, the owls wisdom, and the boars power.

The Triforce itself hasn't really seen any mention in Breath of the Wild, only depictions, but if the sky islands really are the Golden Land – the Sacred Realm –, then the connection to the Zonai will be interesting. Maybe they tried to enter the Sacred Realm and then vanished together with it, which sounds similar to some other tribe we know...

Speaking of, there is also the corroded Master Sword in the game's logo and it looks like it gets repaired by the Zonai magic. It's either that or this acts as a replacement blade in the meantime, where this may be a temporary thing and shatters after a while.

But this blade substitute is visually very reminiscent of elements in the Twilight Realm, the magic used by the Twili, who seem to have a similar backstory to the Zonai, since they are also strong magic wielders who have disappeared. The connection would even strengthen if Tears of the Kingdom really was about the Sacred Realm and the Zonai have something to do with it, as already mentioned.

And that these two tribes might be connected somehow is yet another fan theory that has been going for a while. It already came up with the Monument Shards in Breath of the Wild, which had a big resemblance to the Mirror of Twilight:

Image Source

Of course Breath of the Wild is full of references to older Zelda games with the whole purpose of making the fans speculate again after Hyrule Historia, but this led people to believe that the Zonai might have something to do with the Twili and that the Twili may return in the next game.

I personally always saw the Twili as something that was only important to the story of one game, similar to the Minish or the Lokomo, but we're dealing with the tears of the fandom here, who have been eternally sad about Midna's good-bye. And to be fair, the theme of tears could also insinuate a connection to the Twili thanks to Midna's tear, which has shattered the Mirror of Twilight, or the Tears of Light and so on. Hands were also a popular motive for the Twili with Zant's Hands and Midna's hair, which gets repeated with the hand from the first trailer.

In addition, the Fused Shadow looks quite similar style-wise to the carvings from the new trailer, which is based on the Zonai architecture from Breath of the Wild. The typical spiral form, like with those "tears", can even be found at the very tip of Midna's helmet:

It's clearly related in style when you put it right next to each other. Of course the similarities could simply be there, because things get repeated in Zelda from time to time, especially visual designs and symbols, where for now it's best to expect that the Zonai may be similar to the Twili, but still something new entirely... Kind of like how the Fused Shadow looked similar to Majora's Mask, but the game never implied any connection otherwise.

Similarly, the Zonai seem to make heavy use of an eye symbol, where it's found on the top of Link's vial belt, the door he opens, his new shield, and the Eyegore golems. This feels very much like something by the Sheikah, but unlike the Sheikah Eye this one doesn't have a tear attached to it, which implies that they have different views, like the Yiga. Having a third faction of the Sheikah would feel a bit much at this point, though, especially since they already have seen so much focus in Breath of the Wild.

That's one thing that Breath of the Wild did remarkably well, however: making the most out of the different tribes from previous Zelda games. They could have invented a completely new tribe for the whole technology aspect, like they did with the Lokomo in Spirit Tracks, but instead they made it a new trait of the Sheikah, which gave the mysterious tribe from Ocarina of Time many more layers.

In the same vein they could bring back the Twili in a very different way, where they might have been just one of many incarnations of this tribe of "Dark Interlopers", who tried to control the Sacred Realm. Naturally, this game probably won't feature the Twilight Realm, Midna, or anything like that, because these things were all tied to the wolf transformation mechanic and with that not really important to the overall story of Hyrule. But it's possible that the Twili and the Zonai are simply different manifestations of the same ancient tribe of sorcerers, making them not entirely the same, but very much related.

The only problem with this theory is that this depicts the Zonai as something evil, while they appear to be an ally in the records. The ancient hero from the old mural in Breath of the Wild clearly was wearing the garbs that Link also acquires in Tears of the Kingdom. The being on the stone carvings, given that it is part of the Zonai tribe, clearly is cooperating with Zelda. And of course the mysterious hand has sealed Ganondorf deep underground.

It all feels more like Zonai became the protectors of the Sacred Realm, where they are defending it from intruders, instead of claiming it for themselves. They even might have hidden it deep in the earths of Hyrule, though there has to be some explanation why it's not longer a separate dimension. But with the Triforce in place anything is possible...

There is also the portrayal of an Ouroboros cycle with the two dragons, where maybe the intention of the Zonai was to end the never-ending cycle of destruction caused by the battle for the Triforce. No matter what, you get a new incarnation of Demise's hatred, usually in the form of Ganon, as well as a new incarnation of Hylia and the hero, and it all starts over again and again. And maybe their plan was to bring this to an end by simply removing the one thing from the equation that matters most: the Triforce.

But we have seen what happens when you destroy the Triforce in A Link Between Worlds. You don't want Hyrule to turn into Lorule, so this was not an option. Instead, they could have wished for the Triforce to be hidden and forgotten, which could explain the situation in Breath of the Wild, why the Triforce never really gets mentioned. It's still there somehow and manifests in Zelda when she awakens her sealing powers, but the knowledge around the three Goddesses and their most precious relic seems to have vanished from the earth, like the Zonai.

... ... ...

But this is a lot of speculation here all based on the imagery that Nintendo has shown us. With Breath of the Wild they have proven that they know what buttons to push to make the fans speculate and create a ton of Youtube videos, forum posts, and articles like this one. It's smart marketing and it works, where in the end the similarities could be just that and we're dealing with something entirely new here. Keep that in mind before you hype yourself up for a story that may never be.

Twilight Princess Manga, Vol. 9 & 10

image by @dailyZeldaManga

The manga of Twilight Princess almost makes the story of the original game feel like some epic saga, where everything is coming together at the end. Volume 9 dives into the Twilight Realm and shows how Midna and Link fight against Zant. In the manga Zant wants Midna as his wife, which adds some weird undertone to it all, but isn't entirely out of character. The fight still plays out quite similar to the game, with Zant taking different forms and Midna using her powers against him at the end.

What's not in the game at all is Link's backstory, where he once lived in a city near the Arbiter's Grounds. There a sword rests, the "Gaurof Sword", which like the Master Sword could only be pulled by Link, which caused the entire city to disappear into the Twilight Realm. And there they are alive and well, waiting to be found in the second half of the ninth volume for some weird scenes.

It's honestly a lot of filler, where the only purpose is to show that the Twili can be also kindhearted, since they've provided the Hylians with supplies to survive. But the manga could have done without all of this and maybe even ended after ten volumes if it weren't for all the unnecessary additions.

Or it could have focused a little bit more on what was already there in the game. The manga creates new things, while the source material already had similar stuff to work with. For example Impaz and the Hidden Village don't appear in the manga at all, while there was this lost village and the girl in the seventh volume, which feels very similar in tone. I guess that a young girl was simply more interesting than some old woman, but this whole part around Ilia's plot was dropped entirely.

And even though Ilia has some nice additional moments, like the one where she shows some empathy towards King Bulblin in the eighth volume, the characters from Ordon don't really play any role any longer. Instead you have Link's new friends from that desert town that never existed... Well, they are there to fight at Hyrule Castle in the great finale, but there was already the Resistance for that.

But credit where credit is due: the manga really makes it feel like a great finale in its tenth volume. Ganondorf unleashes his army of darkness onto Hyrule, which puts all life at stake. In the game no one really cared what happened, since there was no imminent threat to the people of Hyrule, unlike in Majora's Mask for example. The manga changes this and it even gives a sense of desperation, because the force field around Hyrule Castle prevents the Resistance and the knights of Hyrule from achieving anything. It's only thanks to Midna that they can enter the castle, where they storm it with Link at the forefront. Absolutely epic. And it even manages to let Ashei look cool.

The manga also makes use of King Bulblin's change of heart in all of this, where here he follows the strongest in action, not just in words. It's written quite well and proves that Akira Himekawa can make the most out of what the game has to offer. If they had focused more on that instead of adding whole new plotlines and characters, then the manga would have been much better.

Well, it all ends right in the middle of the final battle, so there is one more volume to go. This hasn't been released in Germany yet, so I will have to wait a couple of months for the conclusion.

Twilight Princess Manga, Vol. 7 & 8

image by @dailyZeldaManga

The seventh volume of the Twilight Princess manga probably contains one of its most memorable scenes: Link climbing a steep mountain wall just like in Breath of the Wild. It's just the best reference they could have done.

No, of course I'm talking about the part in Hyrule Castle, where Ganondorf invites Zelda to a cup of tea and they discuss the events of the child timeline. The Triforce of Wisdom let Zelda "awaken", so she knew of her past incarnations' doing to send the Hero of Time back in time, thus changing the course of history, which led to Ganondorf's execution.

When banished into the Twilight Realm, Ganondorf also became aware of what changed his fate. So, he puts Zelda at a fancy table and asks her what she knows about all of those shenanigans. And it's really nice how the manga dives deeper into the lore created by Hyrule Historia, putting together the events of Ocarina of Time and Twilight Princess.

It also doesn't stop there, where the Hero's Spirit is finally confirmed to be the Hero of Time. There is this amazing scene in the Temple of Time where Link sees the Hero of Time drawing the Master Sword and becoming an adult. You can also see briefly how the previous hero looks as an older man in the first half of the volume, where Link gets nurtured by a girl named Anika in some vacant village, which probably could have been the Hidden Village. But it's somewhat unclear (at least to me) how the Hero of Time made it into the Twilight Realm, where he stood at Midna's side as the golden wolf. So, it feels like a bit of a mess.

At the beginning of the eighth volume the Hero's Spirit then trains the new hero in most of the Hidden Skills, like the Back Slide, the Helm Splitter, and the Mortal Draw. It feels a little bit video-game'ish, but I suppose this came with the territory of a more accurate translation. But it probably could have worked without the Hero's Spirit explaining these techniques in details. Just show them training and then the fruits of that labor.

Anyway, the rest of the eighth volume dealt with the City in the Sky and wasn't as good overall. Midna activates the cannon found under the church in Kakariko Village, which comically blows away the roof, complaining how the people of the Light World can't get anything done themselves. This doesn't sit right, considering how they needed some clown to fix said cannon in the game.

And there is more weird stuff coming ahead, not just the Oocca themsevles. Argorok is actually not a Kargarok mutated by the Mirror Shard, which is a popular fan theory, but some golden dragon deity, which normally protects the City of Sky. Now it does the opposite, where is there is this funny scene with an Oocca stating that over two thirds of the City of the Sky already got destroyed by the dragon.

For Shad, who has joined Link on his travel to the sky city, this is actually a motivation to fight the dragon, because he wants as much of the city to be preserved as possible. During one point of Link's battle against Argorok, where in the manga he also fights an Aeralfos at the same time, he loses the Master Sword and it sticks into the ground. Then Shad comes to save the day, where he is able to quickly pull it out and throw it into the Aeralfos by accident.

Like... okay? Is Shad also a chosen hero now? Can anyone just take the Master Sword as long as it doesn't rest on its usual pedestal? Or maybe this is yet another reference to Breath of the Wild, where even a Moblin can take the Master Sword when it finds its way through the Lost Woods? We will probably never know...

Twilight Princess Manga, Vol. 5 & 6

Well, since there currently aren't any news about Zelda, I decided to finally complete my collection of the Twilight Princess manga series, where by now ten volumes have been released. It really got up to ten, where Twilight Princess has as many volumes as all previous Zelda manga combined. And that's not even all of it, where the eleventh volume has yet to be released in English or German. Akira Himekawa really must have loved the setting. Anyway, I will still be going through this two volumes at a time, like I did before, because this feels like a good pace.

The fourth volume ended on a cliffhanger with Zant appearing at Lanayru Spring, which was a cool way of ending one of the books. The "Midna's Lament" part then led to the only appearance of Agitha in the manga so far, where her only purpose was to stir up the other townsfolk after seeing Wolf Link. Maybe she isn't as popular with the mangaka(s) as she was with Omega Force.

Otherwise the manga tries to create more connections between the characters, connections that weren't there in the game, e.g. Auru being Zelda's tutor. The biggest of these new connections is probably between Princess Zelda and Princess Midna, who were able to see and speak to each other as children through some magic well inside in Hyrule Castle, which let young Zelda see into the Twilight Realm.

So, Midna and Zelda are childhood friends in this, which feels weird at first, but you can't really blame Akira Himekawa for adding some more relations, because the Zelda in Twilight Princess didn't really have any. This was always an issue of the original game, where Zelda was only there for some cutscenes and the final battle. She always was one of the most dignified versions of the character and also very pretty, but the game just focused on Midna and her story, while it probably should have been a story about two princesses from different realms.

But their friendship in the manga didn't last long, because when Zelda gets spotted using the well, Auru commands it to be closed, because the Hylians see everything in the Twilight Realm as evil. The manga explores both sides of this whole Twilight Realm idea, where from the perspective of the Twili the people in the Light World are bad, because they use to discard anything unwanted into the Twilight Realm. In the game it was really just Ganondorf and this was only an act of desperation, where the Sages wanted to kill him with their sword first, but then had to resort to other means.

But in the manga they use the Mirror of Twilight as a tool of banishing people on a more regular basis, mainly to create some more conflict, where we even get to see the king and how he commands that Ganondorf is to be banned into the Twilight Realm. Hearing about all this, Link is questioning how the gods let Ganondorf have the power of the Triforce and not differentiate between good and evil. It just doesn't make any sense to him and he sounds somewhat entitled, like the Triforce is only something for "pure" people like Princess Zelda and himself.

At least what's identical to the game is that Wolf Link seems to be the only thing the townsfolk of Hyrule worry about. In the manga it's stated that the barrier around Hyrule Castle can only be seen from a close distance to give some sort of explanation, but it's still silly.

Skull Kid first fights Link in the manga, like he did in the game, but he then starts to recognize him as the hero and says that he has been waiting for him for a long time. That's another nice connection here, where hopefully the manga will acknowledge the Hero's Spirit as the Hero of Time later on.

The sixth volume has only two chapters, where the first focuses on Snowpeak. Ashei used to live at Snowpeak Castle, which makes sense following her little back story that se gives you in the game... And this leads to yet another dungeon duo, where Blizzeta summons two Darkhammers, so that both Ashei and Link get to fight with a ball & chain afterwards.

Actually, it would have made the resistance troupe a lot more interesting if they assisted you like that in the game, basically like Medli and Makar before in The Wind Waker. But since nobody was ever supposed to see how Link can transform into a wolf, this would have been more of a hindrance, which is even a dilemma for Link in the manga.

But I have to say that I like some of the ideas presented here. Usually, I'm not a big of fan of what the manga try to add to the story and that's still true with Twilight Princess for the most part, but some of this would have made an excellent addition to the game.

Another example is Dark Link. The manga explores the concept of how the Mirror of Twilight is corrupting people, like Yeta, a little more. Link gets thrown into this dark void, where he faces his own hubris, taking the form of Dark Link. It's a lot like in Hyrule Warriors, where Akira Himekawa was probably inspired by that game a bit, but the mirrored depiction of Link and Dark Link fighting is absolutely excellent.

And this would have made for a great idea in the game. Image that you get to fight Dark Link after reassembling the Mirror of Twilight at the Mirror Chamber, as one more challenge before you can finally go into the Twilight Realm. It would have been a lot more climactic. They even already had Dark Link in the game, but only for a cutscene... Speaking of, this memorable and very creepy scene, where Lanayru speaks about the Interlopers, sadly didn't make it into the manga. Too bad.

Tantalus Currently Not Working on Twilight Princess HD

With the delay of the sequel to Breath of the Wild to Spring 2023, it seemed like a no-brainer that Nintendo would want to port over The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD to the Nintendo Switch, so that Zelda fans would get something in the year 2022. However, you might already have had your doubts, because this wasn't announced right away together with the delay and Nintendo has a lot in their pipeline for the rest of the year with Fire Emblem Warriors: Three Hopes, Xenoblade Chronicles 3, Splatoon 3, and new Pokémon games.

Now, Tom Crago, the CEO of Tantalus Media, was asked in a podcast whether Nintendo has approached them for such a port or not, where the answer was a straight "no". See NintendoEverything for the full story.

Tantalus has made both Twilight Princess HD and Skyward Sword HD, where they seem like the obvious choice for the job. But of course The Wind Waker HD was made by Nintendo themselves and there is no need to remaster anything in this case, so they might just work on this in-house. However, Nintendo should have all hands full with the sequel to Breath of the Wild, where you would think it's best to let an external company do the job once more.

What would be important about such ports is that they get the same frame rate power-up as Skyward Sword HD, where the game runs now in 60FPS without any noticeable drops. This was still an issue with both The Wind Waker HD, for example during battles on the ocean, and Twilight Princess HD, for example in the swamps of Faron Woods. If they get ported over to Nintendo Switch, there will be no excuse for this at all after the smooth Skyward Sword HD, so simple ports wouldn't cut it.

And naturally, if only Nintendo were to work on such ports, we couldn't expect a remaster of Link's Crossbow Training as part of the collection. And we all know that this would be the true star. Well, not really, but it would make for an excellent extra, same as Bowser's Fury with Super Mario 3D World.

Super Mario 3D World: New Stamp Usage

Super Mario 3D World + Bowser's Fury will release next month on Nintendo Switch as the next enhanced port of a Wii U title. I'm on the fence about this title, where I had quite a lot of fun playing the game on Wii U and could see myself playing through it again on Nintendo Switch, but the last world, especially the Champions' Road, made completing the game and collecting all the Miiverse stamps a little bit too crazy for my taste.

Speaking of the Miiverse stamps, the Miiverse sadly is no longer... So, what purpose will the stamps even have in the port? Well, it turns out that Nintendo had a really cool idea for those:

You can actually use them to decorate the environment when you're taking screenshots in some sort of camera mode. This is really thoughtful and the stamps even have been colored for this, where in the original they used to be black and white.

Why is this of interest? Well, the Zelda series also had a Wii U game with Miiverse stamps in it – The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess HD. And ever since Nintendo had started porting Wii U games to the Nintendo Switch, there has been the question of what would happen to the Miiverse features, if they were to port The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD as well...

Now, at least for the Miiverse stamps we could have an answer: just use them for something else. And it would be really nice, if they kept them in a potential port, because collecting the stamps was a lot more fun than finding dozens of chests with only some Rupees in them.

(Check out my Stamp Location Guide for the many pointless Rupees that have been replaced. It's documented all inside.)

This only leaves the Tingle Bottles in The Wind Waker HD... But I'm sure that Nintendo will find an alternative use for them as well or replace them with a new Tingle feature.

Zelda HD Collection?

This idea has been on the mind of many Zelda fans ever since the Nintendo Switch became a thing: a collection of Zelda HD remasters, which ports both The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD over from the Wii U and adds more to the list.

Ever since the rumors in March that Super Mario could be getting a similar collection this year for its 35th Anniversary, I've been considering the same for Zelda and putting some more thoughts into this. Such a "The Legend of Zelda HD Collection" could come to Switch next year and potentially include the following four titles:

• The Wind Waker HD
• Twilight Princess HD
• Link's Crossbow Training HD
• Skyward Sword HD

As for The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD, it's only a matter of time before these two HD remasters will be ported to the Switch, just like the rest of the Wii U library. Enough time has passed to not make it feel completely ridiculous for every Wii U owner. And for Nintendo it's easy money, but it also makes sense to bundle them somehow, because we would steep into ports of ports with these titles. There has to be a limit of what Nintendo can sell as a standalone full price title and putting them together wouldn't feel like the cheapest effort of making good money with video games ever, even though they probably would sell just fine on their own...

Additionally, both games made good use of the Wii U GamePad for maps and alike, which would all be lost in the Nintendo Switch versions. So, they might even end up as inferior versions when compared to their Wii U counterparts. But if you put them together on one cartridge, no one can really complain about the value.

And Link's Crossbow Training HD would be a fun bonus for the whole package. It's not a game that you would ever expect to return on its own, where even on the Wii it was just meant as an addition for the Zapper. Here half of the work was already done by Tantalus with the remaster of Twilight Princess, where its assets for the updated graphics could be used to remaster Link's Crossbow Training as well, since the game was pretty much just a mini-game add-on for Twilight Princess, re-using its environments, enemies and so on.

Finally, there's Skyward Sword HD, which always felt like the natural choice for an HD remaster on the Switch with its Joy-Cons and all. In the past I was convinced that this would be released as a standalone title, simply because that's how it was for The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD. But there are three good reasons here, why this might change with Skyward Sword...

1) The game is pretty much the anti-thesis to Breath of the Wild, which has become by far the most successful entry in the series. Aonuma even admitted that the starting point for the development were the shortcomings of Skyward Sword with its restricted world and lack of exploration. So, to put focus on such a different 3D Zelda game, which does the complete opposite of the Zelda game that made many people buy a Switch in the first place, might not be the best idea at the moment. But putting this in a collection of various older Zelda titles would easily prevent any wrong impressions.

2) Even if you try to reduce the motion controls of Skyward Sword as much as possible, getting the sword combat to work without the Joy-cons would probably be very difficult or unsatisfying. As a result the game would only be playable with Joy-cons and not in handheld mode, which could be a big reason for people to not buy the game, especially for owners of a Nintendo Switch Lite. But bundled with The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess, which both work with traditional controls, these people would still have something to play.

3) The Zelda series has gotten a new brand styling with Breath of the Wild, where everything is made in a flat design. The logos of both Breath of the Wild and Link's Awakening are in plain white against a background, for example. However, for an HD remaster of Skyward Sword this would probably feel odd and not like a good fit. It should keep the logo and menu design of the original, similar to The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD, since it's really just supposed to be a remaster and not a new thing.

A "Zelda HD Collection" could be sold in the new brand styling, however, where the cover and the main menu are in the same style as Breath of the Wild and Link's Awakening, while it keeps the logos and everything else of the HD remasters the way it was. Problem solved.

With all of this in mind, it really feels like a good idea to put these three or four titles all together in one package. It would be an amazing way of celebrating the 35th Anniversary of Zelda, while dodging any complaints that would come with re-releasing these titles on their own for the Nintendo Switch.

No Ocarina of Time & Majora's Mask HD?

Well, some fans would probably want the two Nintendo 64 titles as well and you can't blame them, but this would really be too good to be true all at once, which is why they weren't considered for this list.

For making the above collection Nintendo could hire Tantalus again, the studio responsible for remastering Twilight Princess on the Wii U. They could apply their expertise on both Link's Crossbow Training and Skyward Sword, where the latter would already generate enough efforts for this project, and then put everything together.

Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask on the other hand would need full-fledged remakes, something done from scratch again, where this would increase the effort for such a collection significantly. Probably even to the point where Nintendo would need to hire another studio in addition. But GREZZO was already busy with remaking Link's Awakening, where the Oracle games should come next and not the N64 games again.

Remakes of the N64 titles were already done for the Nintendo 3DS by GREZZO in the last decade and doing this yet again might be a little bit too early, both for the developers and for the customers. Nintendo is even still selling New Nintendo 2DS systems and both of the previous remakes. And if Nintendo 64 games get added to Nintendo Switch Online eventually, you will be able to play Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask on the Switch anyway...

Also, keep in mind that we're talking about games here, where each remaster and remake so far has gotten a dedicated standalone release with years of development. Even if the Super Mario HD collection turns out to be true, this still might be a little much to ask from Nintendo's forces. The above vision is already optimistic as it is, so it's best not to expect anything more than that.

And new remakes of the Nintendo 64 games shouldn't be something that's done on the sidelines. They deserve releases on their own, starting with Ocarina of Time, with gorgeous graphics, new features and alike. This is something that I can see happening in the future, but not necessarily on the Switch where such remakes for the GameBoy Color Zelda games should have priority.

Global Collectible?

Let's say such a collection happens, it would be nice if all these games were to offer a collectible that spans all titles. Something to unlock artwork and additional goodies in the main menu, similar to the Credits in the Metroid Prime Trilogy.

This would go hand in hand with the fact that both The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD had special Miiverse features that would be in need of replacement on the Nintendo Switch, since the Miiverse is history now. In case of The Wind Waker HD these were the Tingle Bottles, while Twilight Princess HD had the stamp collection.

It would be a shame, if Tingle wasn't to get something new to replace the Tingle Tuner a second time and if all those chests in Twilight Princess contained a ton of useless Rupees again... So, an idea would be to have something here that lets you unlock things globally in the HD collection.

This could be something simple as scrolls, like "Ocean Scrolls", "Twilight Scrolls" and "Sky Scrolls". They could contain a bit of lore as an extra and would give you access to artworks and other goodies. Maybe additional scrolls could be unlocked via amiibo to also give you stuff from other Zelda games.

With Skyward Sword HD they could even tie this into new features. For example they could expand the sky world a little bit and add more to its islands. Or they could let you go on a full night-time exploration later in the game, where you're hunting for Poes or special Goddess Cubes or something similar, which in return rewards you with the new global collectible.

And in Link's Crossbow Training HD they could add new secret targets throughout all the levels, maybe one per level, which will score you with these scrolls.

In any case it would be nice to have something that spans all games in the collection, as an incentive to play them all.

Twilight Princess Manga, Vol. 3 & 4

My collection of Zelda Manga has been expanded this week by volumes 3 and 4 of Twilight Princess. Those have been out for a while now - the German Volume 3 got released in December 2017 and Volume 4 in September 2018. So, I've could have gotten them much earlier, but it's not like I'm in a hurry to read these...

And apparently Akira Himekawa isn't in a hurry to finish this either. Originally the artist duo wanted to conclude the Manga with the fourth volume, but at the end of Volume 4 it places the story right after the Lakebed Temple, so about a third of the game. At this rate the complete Manga of Twilight Princess will most likely have as many volumes as the rest of Himekawa's Zelda series combined, which would be ten books in total.

Anyway, books 3 and 4 mostly continue the quality of the first two volumes, where this time the story follows the events from the game closer than usual, but it still deviates from the source material quite a bit. But no funny Hentai scenes with Twili Midna on all fours this time, I'm afraid.

What I liked is how much larger the Manga portrays the Hyrule. It takes a day and a half to travel from Hyrule Castle Town to Kakariko for example, instead of five minutes, which feels a lot more in line with what characters are even saying about distances in the game.

Kakariko in the Manga has quite a population, which is weird, because in the game it's really just Barnes, Renado, and Luda. Talking about the latter, the girl actually follows Link to the Gorons and even through the dangerous Goron Mines in Volume 4, which is simply ridiculous. Later in the same volume Ralis attempts to do the same at the entrance of the Lakebed Temple, but Link stops him like he already should have with Luda... On top of that, the girl can actually see Midna. That's a lot of attention for a character, who in the game is really just there and has absolutely no importance at all. Before the Manga I even kept forgetting that Luda was actually a girl.

What also changed about the Kakariko part was the "Colin on a stick" scenario, which doesn't happen here (but he was put on a stick earlier in the manga). Link fights King Bulblin on invitation, who simply drops Colin in Kakariko, and the whole Eldin Bridge duel feels a lot less epic, where Link would have died without the help of his horse.

In general, Link seems to receive support left and right, where Midna helps him out in parts that Link mastered on his own in the game. For example, she pushes the Gorons away during the sumo fights, instead of Link using his own strength and some help of the Iron Boots, which don't appear in the manga at all. Or during the fight against Morpheel the ghost of Queen Rutela appears and lets Link ride on her back, Sidon style.

Overall Link also seems really whiny here. He keeps doubting himself as a hero and everything is so much to bear. I suppose it makes for a better character than the dumbfounded Link from the game, but I personally prefer Breath of the Wild Link, who stays mute on purpose. The Link in Twilight Princess already showed too many emotional bonds with the characters for my taste, which made it harder to identify myself with him, because I didn't really care for these characters at all and I didn't make the same silly faces as him in certain situations. I prefer the more silent and carefree nature of other Links. But of course this wouldn't be the best manga material.

In the least the manga has intrigued me with a connection between the Hero's Spirit and Midna, who knows the guy and had his support back in the Twilight Realm. He should be the Hero of Time if the Manga follows the lore, but it probably does not and my bet is that it's simply Link's father or so. Also, Link doesn't originate from Ordon here, but comes from a town that has vanished near the desert. This could be interesting, so let's see how this continues in a year or so...

Super Smash Bros. Zelda Stages: Bridge of Eldin

The Bridge of Eldin is one of the most iconic places in The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess, because of the battle against King Bulblin and the game's intro. Therefore it's no surprise that this was chosen as a stage in Super Smash Bros. Brawl. The stage also returned in Super Smash Bros. for Wii U and of course is part of Ultimate's stage selection like all the other Zelda stages.

In Ultimate, however, it looks very different from before. They put a lot more details into the background and even the bridge itself, which feels very "off" and doesn't look like the original at all. Especially the large part of Hyrule Field to the left, where some of the bigger horse battles take place, is way too hilly and rocky in this version. And the field to the right also looks a lot more accessible, as if everything in the background is something that you could freely explore like in Breath of the Wild, but this wasn't the case in the original game.

Despite the artistic liberties or maybe because of them it still looks quite interesting. You would have expected them to simply go with the visuals of Twilight Princess HD, but instead they make you wonder what could have been, if Tantalus had put more effort into the remaster.

The stage itself always has been very simple overall. It's one big platform that lets you walk off into the blast zones, which can be abused for some easy K.O.s. The center of the stage can be destroyed by King Bulblin and then repaired by a portal, which is a nice nod to how you repair the bridge in Twilight Princess.

Twilight Princess Manga, Vol. 1 & 2

I got these last weekend and it's been a while, since I've read the other Zelda manga. It was in 2011 when I bought all ten previous books from the German publisher Tokyopop and it wasn't even on my radar that the first two Twilight Princess volumes were released in Germany already. But Tokyopop did a solid job at keeping it consistent with what I bought six years ago. Only the red unicorn icon (which stood for "fantasy") on the spine is now gone, which placed the author name and Triforce icon lower. The "Zelda" logo on the cover also doesn't have such a strong relief anymore, but otherwise it's quite uniform. I suppose that if you would buy reprints of the other Zelda manga today, they all would be completely consistent.

The content features the typical Akira Himekawa filigreed interpretation of a Zelda game, but it feels closer to the actual game than usual. The very beginning reminded me somewhat of A Link to the Past with an evil figure that resembled Agahnim and a story about the Light World and the Shadow World. Afterwards you are immediately introduced to the true Midna and you get a panel like this:

Shamed be he who thinks evil of it.

This certainly set the mood... And the manga even has a few brutal scenes, like Ilya being shot by an arrow and Link losing an arm, after it got cut off by King Bulblin. The other Zelda manga weren't this dark and bloody. But the rating of the game was even why the manga wasn't originally published in 2006, because the magazine containing the Zelda stories was aimed at grade schoolers (source). Now, ten years later Akira Himekawa returned to the task and apparently had more freedom with it.

What's also unusual is the length. All other Zelda manga by Akira Himekawa were concluded after one or two volumes. Volume 2 of Twilight Princess brings Link to the point where he finds the first Fused Shadow. Volume 1 mostly focuses on Ordon Village, while Volume 2 is about Wolf Link meeting Midna and Zelda. At this rate it might take a couple more volumes to tell the story, where apparently four volumes are planned in total. But as already said, they are staying a little closer to the source material, save for the more graphic content.

Of course they don't have Link exploring dungeons (the Forest Temple mostly revolves around the cursed Ook and the monkey tribe) and Link talks like usual, where I found his character not as likeable in the beginning, because he only seemed to care about food and Rupees, while he then blames himself for all the misfortunes around him. They even gave him some weird backstory, where he originally came from a desert town that seemingly got destroyed, because he removed some sword from a rock, which wasn't the Master Sword, but connected to the Hero's Spirit...

Surprisingly, I liked the portrayal of both Ordon and Ilya in the manga. The village really feels like a beautiful place in the nature where you would want to live, instead of being the tutorial town you want to escape from. And Ilya is much prettier and nicer than she is in the game, where she is real girlfriend material for Link. It's something that the game wanted to achieve, but couldn't pull off, at least not for me.

There was a nice detail, where they had many souls of the soldiers in the canals below Hyrule Castle (Town). The GDC 2005 Trailer of the game did feature them there in high numbers also, but they weren't as present in the actual game.

Anyway, I'm curious to see where this will be going. However, this might take a while, because Volume 3 so far is only available in Japan and Volume 4 isn't available yet at all.

More Link amiibo Announced

You may not have noticed, because - like me - you are too busy with playing Breath of the Wild, but there was a Nintendo Direct yesterday. The only real Zelda news were some more amiibo, which seems like a continuation of the 30th Anniversary line and only really adds more Links...

• Link from Majora's Mask
• Link from Twilight Princess
• Link from Skyward Sword

What? No Link from A Link Between Worlds? Well, these amiibo already are supported by Breath of the Wild, where you can get a full Fierce Deity set from the first one, so this wasn't a huge surprise.

Source: Twitter

Let's Update Twilight Princess HD

With remakes and remasters Nintendo usually tries to improve the games in various aspects. However, there still might be some things that they could and should have done to really create the ultimate version of the game. That's certainly the case with Twilight Princess HD, where an update could have been a solution. It's unlikely that at this point Nintendo would release one, but the point of the "Let's Update" series is to think about, how the games can be improved by feasible means. All of this is meant hypothetical.


Controls and Interface

• All menus are navigable with Analog Stick or D-Pad on the GamePad
• Classic horse control option
• 1st person camera control option
• New Wiimote and Nunchuk controls

The controls of Twilight Princess HD combine the motion aiming of the Wii version with the more comfortable joypad controls of the GameCube version, which is certainly nice. However, some of the advantages of the original controls were lost with the HD version.

It's noticeable, how there's no separate camera control option for 1st person mode. If you like the normal camera controls with the right analog stick to be inverted in some way, it might be a problem in 1st person. In fact you can't get the camera controls to work like they were on the GameCube, but a simple option would fix that.

The new horse controls are also far from an improvement. The steering is terrible and the horse gets stuck everywhere. While we cannot expect them to add the new Breath of the Wild horse AI, in the very least they should offer the option to have the horse controls like they used to be, because that was already much better.

Not necessary, but still nice to have would be a third control scheme that supports the use of Wiimote and Nunchuk, so you can play the game like on the Wii, if you really want to. And that way the HD version really offer everything from before.


Bomb Bag Bug Fixed

In case you didn't know, there's actually a bug in the HD version of the game, where you might not get one of the three Bomb Bags. Apparently this can be triggered by getting the Bomb Bag from the sunken Goron last, so make sure to visit him before doing anything at the Rapid Rides! Of course an update of the game would ideally fix this bug.


Ghost Lantern

If there's ever going to be a vote for the most useless item in the Zelda series, the Ghost Lantern certainly would be one of the strongest contenders. The fact that Nintendo just added this item with the HD version doesn't make it any better. But it would have been so easy to make this item really useful.

As one of two new abilities of this item, you can now swing the Lantern to reveal Poes during the day. Whenever you're at a location, where a Poe would be in the proximity during the night, swinging the lantern by pressing the button again will make it appear right away, so you don't have to wait for the next nightfall. Experienced players, who already know all the positions, can use this for their advantage. But also new players could use this, if they spot a Poe during the night, but can't make it in time.

As soon as you have collected all 60 Poes, the Lantern will start glowing everywhere. So, it will basically become a lantern that works without oil as an upgrade. You can't light torches with it, however, because we don't want the Oil Lantern to become redundant. Both lanterns will also shine in a different light.


Ordon Gear

In all versions of Twilight Princess some gear found early in the game gets lost lost later on. You can't get the Wooden Sword back, the Ordon Clothes will be replaced by the Hero's Clothes and the Ordon Shield can't be replaced, if it ever burns up. Since Breath of the Wild will put some big emphasis on equipping Link in many different ways, it might be nice to have some more options in Twilight Princess HD, too.

So, with this update there will be one additional slot for shields, armor and swords each on the Collection screen. Both the Wooden Sword and the Ordon Shield will become purchasable in Sera's Sundries in Ordon Village after beating the Forest Temple. You can now have both the Ordon and the Wooden Shield in your inventory and you can replace them at any time, in case they burn up. You will also be able to wear the Ordon Clothes at any time. If it wasn't for the Ganondorf amiibo, they could have made it so that in the Ordon Clothes you receive double damage for a challenge, but this way they would simply give you a different look for Link, whenever you want one.

At least the Wooden Sword could offer a challenge. Next to the lower damage it will also burn up, if you hit fire enemies like the Torch Slugs or Fire Keese.


Twilit Challenge

This would be the same thing as the Boss Challenge in Ocarina of Time 3D or the Lightning Round in Skyward Sword, probably closer to the latter. It simply would be a feature, where you can replay all the bosses in the game. In fact Twilight Princess is the only 3D Zelda game, where you can't replay any of the bosses (except for the final ones) on any means. And since the bosses here can be quite epic and fun, that's a shame. So, let's just add a boss battle mode!

It doesn't need any reward, it could just be for the records. The only question is, where you would put it in the game. I would suggest Link's bed, if he had one... Knowing Nintendo, they would probably tie it to some Ganon amiibo, but let's not go there. It potentially could also be done by Madame Fanadi, who's a character that can be fully ignored otherwise. I've actually didn't visit her a single time on my last playthrough.

In addition this "Twilit Challenge" mode would let you play the Shadow Insect hunts again, similar to how you could replay all Silent Realms in the Lightning Round. It would start with obtaining the Vessel of Light, which now holds the full 16 Tears of Light again. So, in this mode you can still find the four Shadow Insects that got removed in each Twilight area. This way the Shadow Insect hunts still remain shortened for those, who don't like these quests, while the people, who did enjoy them, can still play the full package in this new game mode.