Fanmade Skyward Sword Boxart

Probably from the same guy who did this 3DS bundle boxart comes this fancy Skyward Sword artwork. I still hate how the artist likes to add a "The" before the title. It's "Skyward Sword", not "The Skyward Sword". And overall it looks more like a box for a Final Fantasy game and not a Zelda game. I still like it though.

What's really important here is that the box looks like something epic, something magical. Zelda games used to be epic adventures in the past and the adventure would already start with unboxing the game. It featured some epic artwork on the box (the sword and shield from the Zelda NES Classics for example), the box included a map of Hyrule and the manual would feature lots of beautiful artwork and descriptions for all enemies and items. That was something! What do you get today? A recycling box with a small sheet for the basics. That's it. And that's an insult to the Zelda series. Zelda needs to be the epic game that everyone wants to play again and it already starts with boxes that scream "omg buy me".

Source: Go Nintendo (via Zelda Informer)

Four Swords, Round 3

Third evening in a row with Four Swords goodness. Den came over and we got the final Golden Key from Death Mountain and we defeated Vaati a second time.

At the entrance of Vaati's Palace there's now a new sequence, where you chose which door to open based on your keys. And while the three normal stages didn't feel like they got harder, the golden level of Vaati's Palace did. The first floor got a moving platform that moved around the entire area and on which you would have to dodge obstacles. There where eye switches everywhere and you needed to hit them while standing on the moving platform and dodging the obstacles. Took us some time and many falls to get that done. And the second floor/level actually was a forest stage, where we got raped by Moblins. It sometimes happens, that enemies corner you and just kill you by collision damage. While fighting Vaati I got frozen at the center of the stage, Vaati would place himself there and just kill me that by continuous damage from collision. And that sucked...

Ah yeah, when we first played Vaati's Palace, there was Bow-Wow from Link's Awakening as an item. You can take him for walkies by pressing A and put him back again. He eats enemies and attacks the other players, they don't lose health but they will drop some of their Rupees, so you can steal them. It's really fun to annoy everyone with this item.

I have a suggestion for the DSiWare port. Namely adding more unlockable sword techniques. You could use the Medals of Courage to unlock more than just the Hurricane Spin Attack. Like the Peril Beam for example. But what I really want is the "Rock Breaker" technique from The Minish Cap. The one that lets you destroy pots and rocks by swinging your sword. That would be handy in Four Swords, because right now you have to lift every single pot and rock up and throw them, which takes quite some time, because there are so many of them and you want to check everyone for Rupees and other items... they could also make it so that collecting two Razor Seeds gives you this ability. You would lose it at the end of the stage, but it would be a good reason to look for Razor Seeds.

So, I just checked the golden level of Vaati's Palace again and I started right in a tough Death Mountain area. So it seems not only the templates but the entire setting is randomly chosen each time in "Vaati's Palace L-2". I guess L-3, after you got all Hero's Keys, with its 12 floors will be the ultimate level then, where anything can happen. And by now I can confirm, that all three bosses actually got an advance form after getting all three Silver Keys. In case of Hot Head he only takes more shots and you have to play the ball more often. That's probably why I could beat him easily alone when playing for the first time.

And I am really impressed by the large number of different level templates for all the stages. The game manages to surprise me again and again with crazy new setups. It really adds to the replay value and makes hunting for the Golden and Hero Keys more enjoyable.

Accomplishment of the day was finally getting 10 Medals of Courage. I've also already beaten the Riddle Quest (guess, I could have saved me the trouble the other day) again. But now I can use the nice Hurricane Spin Attack in Four Swords.

Skyward Sword Release Date

We have a date, baby! 18th November, European stores. That's three months from now. Can't wait. US stores get the game two days later on November 20th. Also, Zelda Four Swords (DSiWare) is still scheduled for next month and Metroid II - Return of Samus was announced for 3DS Virtual Console.

Source: Nintendo Life

Four Swords, Round 2

Played Four Swords again this evening. This time not with Den, but with another buddy, let's call him "Rob". It surprised me, that he wanted to play this game, because he's more the guy who would bash Zelda games, but the more I get to play Four Swords the better. We've played four stages, but only got two of the Golden Keys... and I also failed to get one of the Golden Keys yesterday with Den.

The results were very different. For the Golden Keys you need 3000 Rupees per stage. And it really happened to me twice now, that we would get about 2950 Rupees. That was really frustrating, you basically played the stage for nothing. Well, nothing except the Medal of Courage. Talking about that, I got nine of these by now. Only one more to go! But it can really depend on the levels, that you get. Some generated areas give you tons of rupees, others don't. One time we would get only 2000 Rupees, the other time about 8000. Playing the same stage.

What really helps is the so called Rupee Fever. If all players have full hearts, you will get double Rupees. The very annoying Rupee Wraiths (that's a ghost, who looks like the one who haunts Gregal in The Minish Cap and who drops your Rupees) can even be abused during Rupee Fever, the Rupees you drop will double if you recollect them. The same goes for Black Rupees. So, as soon as one player gets hurt we would focus on getting his health back to max. So, you need to work together more in the Golden Quest and I guess it gets even more intense in the Hero's Quest, where you need 5000 Rupees per stage. For example right now when you see a bush you would cut it, but you really need to save some for restoring health...

While the stages remained mostly the same concering the difficulty, the bosses definitely got tougher. Manhandla would grow more heads who shoot seeds at you and the Delu Zol would create three fakes (similar to Agahnim in Oracle of Seasons, the real one has a shadow). Hot Head didn't seem to become tougher though... I don't know, it also might be, that we've beaten the Delu Zol during the Silver Quest fast enough so that he wouldn't create the fakes and the number of heads Manhandla spawns might be random. I'll see.

Well, it was fun, hopefully more to come soon.

Nintendo Selects Twilight Princess in Europe

The first badge of the "Nintendo Selects" budget titles didn't include Twilight Princess unlike in the US and I was disappointed about this. However, next month both Twilight Princess and Super Mario Galaxy will be available for a lower price in Europe as well. Nice.

The first for games are sold for 25€ in my local retail store. I was hoping for 20, but it's still a good price... if you haven't gotten the Wii version of Twilight Princess yet, I would take this into consideration.



It should be noted that Nintendo puts this under the 25th Anniversary banner. From the press release:

This year Nintendo is celebrating the 25th anniversary of The Legend of Zelda video game series and in celebration of this has selected The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess to join its Nintendo Selects range. [...] Fans or newcomers to The Legend of Zelda series of games should keep an eye out as additional 25th anniversary activities will be announced throughout 2011.

Source: Nintendo Life

Replaying the Palace of the Four Sword

Sometimes your memory plays tricks on you. So, it's a good thing that I'm currently replaying all Zelda games to refresh my memories and get my facts straight. For example I remembered the bonus dungeons made by Capcom, the Hero's Caves in the Oracle saga and the "Palace of the Four Sword" in the GBA version of A Link to the Past, to be way harder than they actually are.

Or maybe I just got tougher. Especially playing Zelda II again lately probably toughened me up. Well, after beating Four Swords yesterday the Palace of the Four Sword finally became accessible and I used this as a opportunity to replay the dungeon. I originally played the dungeon only one time using the jump-with-mirror-and-go-through-walls-glitch to enter it on a different save file. That was a little bit inconvinient, because you couldn't come and leave as you please, but it worked.

And back then the bosses gave me a hard time. Especially Arrghus II was tricky, the electric Bari can be dangerous if you're not very careful. However, this time around Arrghus II felt like the easiest of the bunch. Mothula II and Blind II were also not a problem. Only Helmasaur King II and the four Shadow Links were still able to deal quite some damage. I used three Blue Potions and I abused the Cane of Byrna a lot, so my performance was still pathetic actually. But to enter the Palace of the Four Sword you have to beat both A Link to the Past and Four Swords and at that point you're definitely fully geared up and I'm not hesitating to use everything in my power.

But the bosses are the only highlight of the dungeon. The rooms before the bosses were mostly a no-brainer.

It's interesting how storywise this dungeon basically connects to Four Swords Adventures. In my theory FSA covers the Imprisoning War, however, there not the Master Sword but the Four Sword was used to seal Ganon away in the Dark Realm. But the backstory of the Master Sword got changed anyway... Well, at some point Ganon broke the seal and he split the Four Sword and cursed it by creating Dark Links guarding it, so no one could ever use it again to ban him. That's what you then get inside the Pyramid in the Palace of the Four Sword. And what you basically do is restoring the blade, though you don't get to use it, because the game ends at that point.

Beaten Four Swords

Yayyyyyy...! At last. From this day on I can finally say, that I've beaten all Zelda games in existence. (Well, except Ocarina of Time 3D for now, but that's just a matter of time, can't avoid the 3DS forever... or can I? But I got the game and I will eventually play it someday.) But this evening I finally had the chance to blast through Four Swords. So, how did I get the chance to play it? To make a long story short, I just asked one of my buddies. It's as simple as that. My buddy, let's call him "Den" for now, is more a PC gamer, but I've played quite some games with him in coop including New SMB Wii and Unreal Tournament 3, so we were already a good team. He doesn't have any Nintendo systems except for the SNES and he never played any Zelda games except for A Link to the Past, but that's fine. None of my friends actually play Zelda, otherwise I would probably have beaten Four Swords already...

Well, I have two GameBoy Advance systems, I got one cheap on ebay some time ago as well as a second copy of A Link to the Past: Four Swords. Primarily because I wanted to try both Four Swords and the multiplayer features of Four Swords Adventures. You can play alone by trying to use both GameBoy Advance systems simultaneously. In case of Four Swords it's even easier when you use the GameBoy Player. And actually I've managed to beat both Talus Cave and Death Mountain that way... so we only needed to play the Sea of Trees and Vaati's Palace to finally beat the game.

You might ask, why it took me so long then, after all I got all the necessary gear and someone to play with... and I honestly don't know. One reason is that all my old video game systems including both GBAs were over at my parents' house in my old home. I only got Wii and DS in my student apartment. But two weeks ago I was visiting home, there I replayed Four Swords Adventures and during that I thought I should bring the GBAs with me back to the university and ask one of my student buddies... but yeah, I've could have come up with that idea earlier. I was hesitating, because none of my friends play/like Zelda and I was secretly hoping that someday I would get to know someone, who actually likes playing Zelda... I was thinking that this game is something that only hardcore Zelda fans would want to play, nothing for my friends. But it seems I was wrong. Well, whatever, doesn't matter anymore. What matters is that I finally got to beat the game.

And it was fun. We were actually really playing against each others when it came to collecting rupees, but I managed to win every round. By now I have six Medals of Courage, only four more to go, so I can play the Riddle Quest on my retail copy. And exploring the levels is fun, it's really satisfying to cut all the grass, turn all stones, dive for treasures and look in all corners. It reminds me of Link's Awakening in some way, there could be hidden something in every spot. You really have to be thorough to uncover every secret. And next to rupees there's are three types of Mystical Seeds (obviously taken from Capcoms previous games, Oracle of Ages & Seasons) and the Rupee Shards to collect. The red Razor Seeds amplify your sword power, the blue Armor Seeds lowers the damage and the green Pegasus Seeds make you walk faster. All of them give you a major advancement over the other players, so you're really willing to cut all the grass, etc. The Rupee Shards work like Pieces of Hearts, only that collecting four gives you 500 rupees. They can also be found pretty much everywhere, I found lots of them under bushes for example.



Well, I was so obsessed with the game that I knew most about it in advance. I tried playing all the levels alone and I watched full playthroughs on Youtube or during some Zelda Marathon. Naturally this somehow spoiled the game experience, because I knew the solutions to some puzzles and I already knew what we needed to do in most cases, so the "figuring it out together" part was missing. It's still a fun game, especially this mix of competing against each other (you want the rupees!) and working together at the same time is very unique and some real cool multiplayer experience, something you don't get in many games.

And the game got some good replay value. The levels are not always the same but get randomly generated. Well, basically an area consists of a frame, which gets randomly selected out of let's say five, six, seven or so different templates, and the the inner parts of the frames get randomly chosen as well. There are multiple templates for each stage and many more combinations of them, so you can replay every stage many times until you've seen everything. And there were already some surprises for me, one area of the Sea of Trees for example was some Lost Woods type of dungeon with two treasure chests in every screen, never seen that before in Four Swords. The level generation is really cool and definitely adds a lot to the replay value.

Also, I love how the game set the style for The Minish Cap, it's always fun to see, what exactly was already made for Four Swords. Like certain enemies, gameplay elements or specific sounds. A lot of people think that everything was made exclusively for The Minish Cap and that it's the only Zelda game in its style, but that's not the truth. The Minish Cap is entirely based on Four Swords, you could go as far and say that all Capcom did was taking everything from Four Swords and forming a singleplayer game out of it.

However, what I missed from The Minish Cap was the rolling by pressing R while you're walking. If you try to do this in Four Swords, Link just stops and tries to grab something. This unnecessarily slows the game down and I hope that they'll fix that for the DSiWare port. It really would feel more naturally if the game fully adepts the control scheme of The Minish Cap. After all most people played TMC, but not Four Swords. (Update: This actually would destroy the concept of Pegasus Seeds, which is about having a Speed Advantage over the other players. So, this might be not a good idea.)

And I have to say that I'm not satisfied yet. Beating Four Swords once is certainly not all there is to the game, after you've collected all three Silver Keys and beaten Vaati for the first time you can go for the Golden Keys and beat him again. After that you can go for the Hero's Keys, Vaati's Palace then gets insane, it features 12 areas instead of the usual 3 and you fight all four bosses. Only if you beat that you've fully beaten Four Swords. So, I still can't claim that I've beaten all Zelda games for 100%. However, Den liked the game, so we will play some more rounds soon. I can't wait.

But that's the problem somewhere, isn't it? I can't wait, but I have to. Probably until the weekend. The fact that I simply can't play the game whenever I want, because I need a second player for playing it is still a problem. Please, Nintendo, never ever make a Zelda game again, that can't be played by yourself... Zelda always was a singleplayer game and no matter how fun the multiplayer in Four Swords might be, it doesn't justify that solo players are not welcome in this game.

For now I will revisit the Palace of the Four Sword. Beating Four Swords once finally unlocked the bonus dungeon. So far I only could enter the dungeon by using glitches, but now I can finally enter and leave the dungeon without any problems. It got some of the toughest bosses in the entire series, so replaying it will be a good challenge.