Replaying A Link to the Past on the Wii U

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After skipping over Zelda II - The Adventure of Link, which I just beat in August, my journey through the Wii U Virtual Console continued with A Link to the Past. I've already beaten the game on Nintendo 3DS earlier this year and directly compared it to A Link Between Worlds, so you should read that instead, because the playthrough was a little bit more interesting.

This time it felt more like a chore to be honest. I'm going through my backlog of Wii U games now and the redundancy towards the 3DS library really shows here, where the motivation for some of the stuff is quite low. At least with the NES and N64 Classics I have certain goals for my replay sessions, but A Link to the Past was just there, waiting to be completed yet another time.

I don't feel as strongly about A Link to the Past as the other classic Zelda games, most likely because I never owned a Super Nintendo as a kid and I wasn't able to play it before the GameBoy Advance times. I still see it as a great game, it has one of the best overworlds in the series, which Nintendo has reused twice over the years (in Ancient Stone Tablets and A Link Between Worlds), the visuals are nice, the music is great and it invented so many things for the Zelda series. Treasure chests, cutting grass, dashing into trees, lighting torches, Cucco Revenge Squads and so much more... A Link to the Past certainly defined the series.

But after a strong beginning, the second half of the game really is just dungeon crawling and most of the Dark World dungeons aren't as enjoyable. Of course they aren't supposed to be nice places, but they also didn't have to be as annoying, especially with letting you run in circles.

This time I played Misery Mire early (after Thieves' Town and the Swamp Palace), so that I wouldn't have to take to do the complicated backtracking in the Ice Palace. However, when I reached the end, where I could have just placed the block, I realized that I missed a key and since I always do 100% runs with the dungeons fully explored and cleared, I had to go through the entire Ice Palace again looking for said key. I also tend to always miss a key somewhere in Misery Mire, but it's not as terrible there.

Another troll moment is in Ganon's Tower, where you defeat the Armos after that long and complicated room with the invisible bridge. You now have the choice to go either up or left. The way up brings you to the Big Key, while the way left locks you out and then you have to do it all over again, both the puzzle and the Armos fight. Not nice, Nintendo!

At least I've learned something new this time. You can actually turn the "Rabbit Beams" (the rotating stars that follow you around and turn you into a rabbit) into a fairy by sprinkling Magic Powder on them, exactly like with a Anti Fairy. That was news to me and sadly I only learned this in Ganon's Tower. I'll try to use this to my advantage the next time, whenever I decide to play A Link to the Past again, probably on the Switch.

Postbox: Bipin & Blossom's Son

Hello Tourist and congratulations for all the good work, especially about the Oracles!

I would like to ask you something about Bipin and Blossom's son, whom I called Link. I play the games with a New 3DS XL and the bought and downloaded versions (PAL I think).

I have chosen to take the Ages-Seasons-Seasons-Ages route and right now I'm at the first Seasons' Linked playthrough (with Ages' Secret to Holodrum), with 6 of 8 Essences of Nature at the moment.

At the initial Ages' completion I think that I have reached Link's childhood by 150 Rupees and Sing decisions, if I recall correctly. The result was the Shy one.

The problem is that at the Seasons' continuation, things seem to have stuck at this point. Link's parents refuse to ask me any questions and just keep telling me the initial hello stuff. It is as if the game thinks I haven't got any Essences yet. If I speed-catch Link, he says "You're Chris? I'm Link! No way!", or something like that.

If game mechanics correlate this situation with time somehow, besides story progression, neither changing seasons with the Rod, nor planting Gasha Seeds and harvesting them seem to have an effect so far. Even though I must confess that only after Level 6 completion I started to plant Gasha Seeds, because some Level 4 & 5 randomness rings are left for the collection, so it wasn't very urgent. I have harvested about 20 Seeds so far.

Could all this be a glitch?

Could I miss something that as long as I don't do it, the growth from childhood to adulthood effects aren't triggered?

Is there really an option for a forever Shy child? I certainly hope not, just for completion's sake.

The funny thing is that there are some opinions and discussions around the Web that comment about too much pampering! Well, I admit that according to this way of thinking, yes, I have pampered the child a little bit, but I didn't mean to freeze things forever!

Any clues or ideas?

Thank you very much and keep the devoted work!

Chris from Greece

Hey Chris,

thanks for the message!

The child's growth is indeed triggered by planting Gasha Seeds. However, 20 should be plenty, so it's weird that you haven't made any progress yet and neither the child nor the mother give you any choices.

As far as I know, there is no glitch or bug or bad choice that might prevent you from evolving the child. Even a baby can be fully grown in a Linked Game. So, that's the good news, we just have to find out what's blocking your progress. Try keep planting Gasha Seeds and visiting the family regularly in between. Also, try some of the lower class Gasha Spots as well, it might be that you also have to use some of them.

Let me know in the comments, whether this worked or not. If not, I'll do some more research. If anyone has any ideas, also please post them in the comments.

PS: Good choice with the Ages → Seasons → Seasons → Ages route!

My Nintendo Reward Suggestions

Well, My Nintendo still hasn't seen any improvements... In order to not lose any of my "hard earned" Platinum Points, I had to buy the Mario, Donkey Kong and Isabelle Nintendo 3DS Themes, which I'm never going to use. But it's better than nothing or any of the useless discounts. And I'm still at around 3000 points, where I will face a loss of points every month from now on.

And this doesn't have to be. They could make the whole service so much more interesting and exciting by putting some actual content on it, mainly DLC. Here are some suggestions:

• Another My Nintendo Picross game. The Wind Waker Picross, Skyward Sword Picross, something... I suppose that it might be already in the works, but naturally it will take some time.
  
  
• Four Swords Anniversary Edition. Many people haven't gotten this back in 2011/2012 and it was supposed to be a free game. No harm is done by re-releasing it via My Nintendo, except for maybe the fact that the singleplayer mode works much better than the one in Tri Force Heroes.
  
  
• Hyrule Warriors Legends Gifts. Link's Classic Tunic and four sets of My Fairy outfits were only available as gifts for preorders or other promotional events. If they don't decide to add them via future updates, they could offer codes via My Nintendo.
  
  
• Super Smash Bros. for Wii / Nintendo 3DS DLC. It's needlessly overpriced. And we're probably getting it all anyway with Super Smash Bros. for Switch, which is why you shouldn't buy any of the DLC as of now. But having some of the content available as goodies on My Nintendo would be nice. However, they probably would make it cost Gold Points...
  
  
• Swapdoodle add-on packs. Swapdoodle is the successor of Swapnote with the key difference that you have to pay for new features like additional colors this time, which is quite the bold move by Nintendo. I wouldn't invest any money in it, but I certainly would put some Platinum Points into the add-on packs, before the app will be taken down again because of dick pics.
  
  
• Nintendo Badge Arcade Free Plays. This is a similar situation. I rarely ever put actual money into this thing, only of it was a 0.50€ sale game and if there were some Zelda badges that I really wanted to get. And even that made me feel bad. But buying tickets with Platinum Points every now and then would be sweet. They are already offering something similar for Miitomo, so why not this as well?

Anything would be better than what Nintendo currently offers. It feels like Nintendo doesn't know what to do with the service. They wanted to shift from the Club Nintendo to digital goods, but they are not willing to hand out anything worthwhile. And the different currencies are also problematic, because most of the better rewards will be locked behind Gold Points.

For example the The Legend of Zelda x Mario Kart 8 DLC Pack costs 60 Gold Points. Now, all the people, who don't like to invest into the eShop (for good reasons), will be excluded from rewards like this, while their retail games don't yield any bonus (unlike before with Club Nintendo). Ideally the retail games would contain Gold Point cards. You can even redeem point codes, but Nintendo doesn't seem to use this feature...

My Nintendo could be good, but right now it's just a giant turd, but Nintendo isn't really trying.

Hyrule Warriors: Collaboration Character?

With a potential 30th character slot open in both Hyrule Warriors and Hyrule Warriors - Legends, I had another thought. What if Koei Tecmo planned to include a character from another Nintendo game as further collaboration and as a way to test reactions about future "Nintendo Warriors" installments? After all they expressed interest in Mario Warriors and Pokémon Warriors in the past...

I'm personally not the biggest fan of the idea, because I want Koei Tecmo to focus on Hyrule Warriors for now. There's still so much potential left and with a sequel we could easily go up to twice as many characters. There are many good characters left, who would have deserved the 30th slot, such as Hilda, Linebeck or Groose, so adding some character from another game would leave a sour taste, especially if it's some completely lame entry like Mario or Marth.

I don't even see the appeal in a Mario Warriors or Pokémon Warriors. Koei Tecmo already did make the Pokémon Conquest games, while Pokémon Tekken should give the Pokémon fans the fighting action that they want. And Mario has enough spin-offs as it is. The only Nintendo franchise that I could see getting a Warriors spin-off in the distant future, is Fire Emblem. But that's certainly not as popular as Zelda and having a Fire Emblem character in Hyrule Warriors right now probably wouldn't mean much to the fans.

However, there's one character that I could imagine to be part of the game and where I certainly wouldn't mind the cameo: Samus.

She would fit the roster of beautiful and strong females very well. They could even implement her Power Suit as a Focus Spirit mechanic, which could be pretty cool. And it would be a nice way for Koei Tecmo to honor the 30th Anniversaries of both Zelda and Metroid together.

In 2012 one of Koei Tecmo's earlier collaborations with Nintendo were costumes in Dynasty Warriors Vs. on the 3DS, see here. Next to a Link costume, they also had one of Zero Suit Samus:

So, both of this can be viewed as their preferences at the time, where Hyrule Warriors became a reality two years later. A Metroid Warriors wouldn't carry much potential on its own, but in the very least they could have Samus guest star in Hyrule Warriors. This could even tie in to amiibo, so that it's only available for people with a Samus or Zero Suit Samus amiibo... Nintendo would certainly love the idea.

Now, such a cameo character would at least explain, why it's not as neatly integrated as the other DLC characters were in Legends. You wouldn't want to suddenly run into Samus on Hyrule Field or collect her Heart Containers from Lorule, because she's out of place in this universe. It makes sense to keep such a character completely separate from the rest of the game, while it still could be fun to play as her. So, it could add up.

Again, it's more likely that the 30th character slot won't ever be filled, but that won't stop us from speculating. And if it has to be a character from another franchise, then Samus probably would be the most exciting addition.

Breath of the Wild in June 2017?

The rumors about a delay of Breath of the Wild, where the game won't be available at the launch of the Switch, seem to thicken now, with a potential release right after E3 2017. The game was accidentally listed by Target for a June 14th release (see here), while Laura Kate Dale shared about rumors on Twitter with a release date for Friday, June 16th.

Overall I'm fine with this date, it should give me enough time to go through all 3D Zelda games on my Wii U again next year, before Breath of the Wild comes out. It's also a nice time to take two weeks of vacation. :-D

What really annoys me in those rumors is the fact that Nintendo won't be releasing the Wii U version at the same date, but one week later. I completely believe this, because this would be typical for Nintendo. Ten years ago, when Twilight Princess came out, it was the same thing. Even worse, the North American Wii version came out one entire month before the European GameCube version, and in that time I got spoiled with the final boss of the game, before I even had the chance to play it. Things go down on the internet a lot faster these days, so if you're resorting to the Wii U version, then you have to stay offline for more than a week and that right around and after E3! What terrible timing. As usual some people will find the game in stores early and then you might even be confronted with spoilers, while you're just watching E3 news. And that would suck.

Also, it would be essentially another gigantic middle finger for all Wii U adopters. "What? You bought the Wii U in 2013, because we promised you a nice new Zelda game back then? Well, we got news for you! You shouldn't have! The Switch version will be released first and the system will also have all the best Wii U games with new content and enhanced features! But it's your own fault, really, for buying the Wii U, hahahahaahaaaaa!!!!"

So, I'm completely fine with a June release, but in the very least I hope that this part of the rumors will turn out wrong and that Nintendo has the decency to release both versions on the same date. In case they're not releasing a Special Edition limited hardware Switch bundle alongside the game, which I don't want to miss as a Zelda fan, I will stick with the Wii U version. I won't buy the Switch until the inevitable Zelda edition is available, that's for sure.

Hyrule Warriors Legends: 8th SpotPass Gift

Just as a reminder, we're getting another SpotPass gift for Hyrule Warriors - Legends today. This was already announced a month ago (see here), but nevertheless it should be mentioned again. Here are the goods:

• 1.000.000 Rupees
• 5x Golden/Delicious Light Fruit
• 5x Golden/Delicious Mushroom Spores
• 5x Golden/Delicious Elixir Soup
• 5x Golden/Delicious Hyoi Pear

It doesn't accompany any update, but in case we're really getting a version 1.7.0, I would expect it to be released around Christmas. Such an update would add at least one of the two missing fairy designs (Fire and Lightning), as well as the various special / preorder offerings, which includes the Classic Tunic for Link and some fairy clothing. Some people already have this stuff (I got the Classic Tunic and the Classic and Twilight Sets of clothing at launch), but together with the additional fairies there should be something new for everybody as a nice little Christmas gift.

We'll see. It's not certain, but the fact that we're still getting SpotPass promotions might lead the way to one final update that completes the game.

Update: It appears that North America didn't get the 1 Million Rupees this time. Might be an oversight.

Time's End II & Terrible Fate

Theophany is back with a follow-up to his Time's End album from four years ago! To top things this time, he cooperated with EmberLab creating a massively amazing Majora's Mask fan animation about the Happy Mask Salesman and Skull Kid receiving Majora's Mask. Really good stuff, so check it all out:

TerribleFate.com
Theophany on Bandcamp
Terrible Fate on Youtube

It seems like Theophany focused on the Woodfall / Swamp region with this album, while the first album was about Clocktown, so we might get more releases for the remaining regions in the future...? I certainly wouldn't mind at all!