Twilight Princess HD: Smaller Light Vessel, Bigger Wallet

It looks like my suggestions for Twilight Princess HD from last night are not completely outdated yet, since the Famitsu article didn't have any new information. It did have new screenshots though (scans are found and NintendoEverything) and if you take a good look, you can actually find some smaller changes in them:

It appears that there are fewer Tears of Light to collect in the Lanayru Province, since the Vessel of Light only holds 12 tears, instead of the 16 tears in the original. So, I guess, this remake really does follow in the steps of The Wind Waker HD. It has the same interface and The Wind Waker HD mainly focused on small changes, which effectively improved the game flow, like having a faster sail or less Triforce Charts.

With Twilight Princess quite some people complained about the tedious tear collecting and it makes sense that would want to shorten this up a little. I personally didn't mind these parts too much (other than completely ruining the exploration of new areas), so I'm curious to find out, what tears now are gone.

Another addition seems to be a larger wallet, which holds up to 2000 Rupees. This was actually one of my exact suggestions, so that's nice. It's nothing special, but a larger wallet is something that you could potentially add to all 3D Zelda games as an additional reward (except maybe Skyward Sword, which already has a 9900 Rupee limit). The same goes for additional bottles, which they did in Majora's Mask 3D. I also wouldn't mind a fifth bottle in Twilight Princess, which is something, the Cave of Ordeals always should have offered.

The real question is, how will you get this larger wallet. Originally all wallet upgrades were gotten from Agitha and seeing, how she grew more prominent with Hyrule Warriors, they might have expanded her quest. Less bugs in the Twilight Realm, more bugs for Agitha!

It also really could come from some new features, something related to the amiibo or a Boss Rush. amiibo would be a bad choice though, since the larger wallet is helping with the Rupee problem in this game, so it shouldn't be something, which you only can get from optional toy figurines.

And of course there's the possibility that they simply changed the capacities of the three originals wallets... Would be boring though.


But learning that this remake also will offer some improvements like The Wind Waker HD makes me confident that there will be at least an option for Hero Mode. This is minimal effort anyway... And it's kind of sad, how Nintendo managed to lower your expectations to such a minimum over the years. In the past, when a remake was at the horizon, I would dream about additional dungeons, a Master Quest mode and more. And today you're hoping for a simple option that makes you take double damage, because it's entirely possible that Nintendo might just leave even that out.

Suggestions for Twilight Princess HD

We're getting new info about Twilight Princess HD in the next Famitsu, so this is probably the last time, where I can go all in with what I want from this remake, besides better graphics.

Optional Wii Controls

While I certainly will just play the game with the GamePad, it would be nice to keep the Wiimote and Nunchuk controls as an option. But I do have to wonder, how they will handle Link's handedness. On the Wii they mirrored the entire game to make him right-handed and it would be weird, if they kept this, because switching the control options would flip the entire game and confuse you.

But flipping the entire game was a rather radical last minute solution anyway, they just could have flipped Link's model and adapted his interactions instead, in order to keep the game world as it was supposed to be. And hopefully that's what Nintendo will be doing, if they decide to offer multiple control options.


Hero Mode

The game certainly was too easy, so having double or triple damage and no hearts might help with that. If they only do this, I want it to be an option like in The Wind Waker HD, which you can toggle on and off at any time. Or at least something that veteran players can chose right from the start. If there's a 2nd Quest, it should offer more than just the usual Hero Mode laziness. Which leads me to my next point...


2nd Quest

We didn't have a real Master Quest in a long time, so I would like to see something like that here. I guess, as a start they could use the mirrored world for a 2nd Quest similar to the Master Quest in Ocarina of Time 3D. This way the mirrored world wouldn't be lost, but it also wouldn't be a weird control scheme option.

And I never understand, why they can't just add more / tougher enemies. That should be like the minimum effort. I'm not expecting a full blown Master Quest all the time with reworked dungeons full of tricky puzzles and nasty traps. But in the very least increase the amount of dangerous enemies. Like in Tri Force Heroes they did this for the challenges of the Forest Area levels, but in later areas they completely forgot... Or the dungeons of A Link Between Worlds could have been so much more interesting with some more Eyegores in them...

Same here. Add some Darknuts to the Lakebed Temple and let me fight four of them in the Temple of Time. This stuff doesn't have to be exclusive to the Cave of Ordeals...


Boss Challenge

Well, at least the game has actually a Cave of Ordeals, but another neat feature is a Boss Rush, which would be awesome here, since some of the bosses are really fun to play, especially Stallord and Zant. Having an option to repeat those and set some records would be nice. Again, Ocarina of Time 3D shows, how it's done. Maybe they could even use Link's house for this again.

If there needs to be a reward, a bigger wallet (like 2000 Rupees) would help with another big problem in the game...


Rupees

DON'T MAKE ME PUT THEM BACK IN A CHEST... DON'T TELL ME, HOW MUCH THEY ARE WORTH EVERY TIME I BOOT THE GAME... This was so annoying. Some bad choices were made here and this needs to be fixed for more quality playing time.

The main reason in Twilight Princess to collect Rupees was to buy the Magic Armor, so I could burn Rupees, whenever I wanted to collect more Rupees that I just found in a chest. And I don't care, if my wallet is full, I want to have opened all chests in the game and not backtrack later on for some Rupees. At least they should give you "Yes" or "No" option, if you want to put it back.

And telling you, how much blue, yellow or red Rupees are actually worth once per play session was hopefully just a stupid oversight in the original, which the testers failed to notice, because they never leave the game... Though it's much, much worse in Skyward Sword with the treasures, which is one of the reasons, why I would prefer Skyward Sword HD over this.

But with Twilight Princess they just would have to remove these messages, let you pick up Rupees, when your wallet is full, and maybe also give you a bigger wallet. 5000 Rupees might be too much, because of the Magic Armor, but 2000 Rupees would be nice to have.


Fifth Bottle

Majora's Mask 3D added a Bottle and so should Twilight Princess HD. And there needs to be one as a reward for the Cave of Ordeals. So, when you beat the Cave of Ordeals for the first time, you shouldn't just get a fill of Great Fairy's Tears, but a new bottle along with it for your efforts.

With The Wind Waker they changed the reward for the Savage Labyrinth twice (10 Rupees first in Japan, then a Piece of Heart and finally the Hero's Charm in the HD version). So, the Cave of Ordeals could use some similar treatment.


Better Poe Hunting

I don't really care, what it is, but I want something capable of changing the daytime, so I don't have to wait for it to be night again, whenever I'm hunting Poe Souls. It could be a new item like a "Twilight Hourglass". It could also be a feature in Midna's menu next to teleporting. Something.

Also, on the map it should give you a mark, when you found all Poe Souls in a certain area, like they did with the Golden Skulltulas in Ocarina of Time. And maybe some more rewards for collecting Poe Souls would be nice, e.g. if there actually is an item that changes the time of day, it could be gotten for 10 Poe Souls.


Rollgoal

Rollgoal on the Wii U GamePad will be a thing, we all know it and no one is looking forward to it. I just hope that they will get rid of the eight "difficulty levels". Two would be more than enough. So, you beat the game once to get the Frog Lure and then you beat it again with strict time limit for the level select. There's no reason to have the same eight levels over and over again just with little less time. Or they could even make additional levels, which shouldn't be too hard...


amiibo

Probably even worse than Rollgoal for the 100% gamers will be amiibo, if they lock too much content behind it. I will get the Special Edition with the Wolf Link amiibo, so I don't really mind, if this thing does unlock something. I just hope that all the other Zelda amiibo won't be strictly necessary, because I only have Link and I don't feel like buying the others...

But good use of amiibo doesn't just give you some silly one time unlocks, like some overpriced paywall. If amiibo were used right, they would do something cool in the game, whenever you scan them. Something fun, where you want to use the figurines again and again, but also something that you wouldn't miss, if you don't have them. Something like temporary costumes or boosts, changing the music, funny interactions with the environment, etc. You should have to actually keep using the amiibo for its features and not just as a one time key for ingame content.

At least the Wolf Link amiibo will have save data on it, which even carries over to Zelda U, but I have no clue, what it could do. So, I will comment on that, as soon as they reveal it. But I'm more worried about the Smash amiibo right now...


Include Link's Crossbow Training

Not going to happen, but it would be awesome to have this as an extra in the game. It re-uses all the assets anyway. This or I want Linkle's Crossbow Training later this year...

Link's Awakening vs. Link's Awakening DX

While replaying the DX version of Link's Awakening yesterday, I actually prefer the original monochrome version, which might seem unusual to most people. The DX version has color, a new dungeon, a new sidequest and more to offer, so why would anyone prefer the original?

It might be a little bit similar to Majora's Mask 3D, but there I feel like the 3DS version is certainly superior, they simply changed some things to the worse like the swimming, the ice arrows and some of the bosses, but overall it's the better version. With Link's Awakening it has to do a lot with the German localization, which lost some of its fun and charm in the DX version, but also with the improvements not being good enough.


The Colors

At the time reliving the experience in color on the GameBoy Color system was the big selling point of the DX version. I even sold my first copy of Link's Awakening, so I could afford the DX version for my new GameBoy Color at the time, only to regret the decision later and even re-buying the original version for my collection years later.

The coloring is not bad, I especially like these grassy areas, which they had added to the ground and which make the overworld look more lush and green. So, they didn't just simply colorize everything, they also added some texture. But still, the colorization looks like an afterthought, which it is, especially when compared to how beautiful Oracle of Ages & Seasons look on the GameBoy Color. The visuals of Link's Awakening had been more optimized for these two games and as a result the overworld in Link's Awakening looks a little bit too unnatural and dark in comparison.

On the other hand they made the dark rooms, which appear in Level 2 and Level 8, too bright. In the original you had to light the torches to see the abysses, but in the DX version you can see everything just fine without the light, which makes these rooms easier than they should be.

And the dungeons in general don't have the best coloring. Turtle Rock looks really awesome in color, I give them that, and some other dungeons like the Key Cavern are certainly okay. But who thought it to be a good idea to have pink dungeon walls? It just looks weird. I guess, it's kind of similar to reading a book and then being disappointed by the movie, because it didn't match your imaginations. The original Link's Awakening has stirred my imaginations more than any other game, since I spent a lot of time with this game as a kid and imagined how Koholinth would look like in real. And then suddenly having purple walls in the dungeons kind of broke the immersion.


The Color Dungeon

Probably the biggest reason to get and prefer the DX version was the new Color Dungeon, which came with new puzzles, enemy types, bosses and more. And it's certainly not a bad addition, especially the Red and Blue Tunics giving you the effects of the Piece of Power and Guardian Acorn permanently were a smart choice for a reward. The remixed classic NES dungeon music is great and the otherwise almost empty graveyard was the perfect spot for its location. Only the boss in the dungeon is very annoying with his constant text interruptions.

But while the dungeon certainly is a nice addition, I don't really miss it on playthroughs of the original version. The game is easy enough as it is, so you don't really need the tunics, they might even make the game too easy, though I really enjoy having the powerful blasts of the Red Tunic.

Also, the dungeon itself is rather uninteresting. It's called "Level 0" and in terms of complexity I would even rank it as such. It just doesn't have as much replay value as almost all the other dungeons of Link's Awakening. Still, a nice addition, which is more than what can be said about the photo quest.


Photo Quest

A good game can get worse by adding new content if the content is not good enough. This might seem weird at first, but take Hyrule Warriors for example. The original game with the Master Quest DLC felt perfect to me, an overall very enjoyable experience. But starting with the Twilight Princess DLC they made questionable choices and the game turned more and more into a massive, never-ending grind fest.

Well, it might be not as bad with the photo quest in Link's Awakening DX, but it's a quirky addition at best. It was designed to sell the rather odd GameBoy Printer hardware, so it's not exactly a timeless feature. It also introduced missable elements to the game, since four photos become unobtainable after certain events. The original game only had three Secret Seashells, which you could miss, but you only needed 20 out of 26 seashells anyway, so it was not an issue.

I also don't like how one of the photos requires you to steal from the shop, because for me this screws up a savegame. You can't die, if you want to see the best ending, so you can't re-enter the shop ever. And everyone calls you "THIEF", which might not be what you want. So, you have two goals conflicting with each other and because of this I deliberately chose not to get this photo for my savegames. If I want to look at all photos, I simply go to the shop and steal something without saving the game afterwards. But at the same time I keep my name and my 000 death counter stays safe.

Also, the photo events feel out of place in the game and not only because of the chibi artwork. For example with Prince Richard the event at the castle gate triggers, even if you haven't actually visited him before. The whole dialogue is out of context in this case and doesn't make sense. Or the photo with Tarin happens, after he got attacked by bees and should actually be sleeping at home. It just doesn't add up.

A problem with the German version here is also that the dialogues seem rather weird, sometimes even broken. They were not on par with the rest of the game, which leads me to another important point...


Censorship

This is specific to the German and partly also the French version of the game. But if you live in the U.S. you probably can't relate to this, because you've only ever known the safe and kid friendly version of the game.

The Japanese version is the uncensored one and in Europe there is the special case, where the original monochrome version was based on the uncensored Japanese release and the DX version then got based on the censored U.S. release. So, basically the DX version got censored in our region.

You can find all changes in detail here, but the uncensored version of the game has some lewd humor in two occasions. One was the hippo girl at the painter, who is performing a nude portrait. In the original she actually has little pixel breasts and covers them with a sheet, as soon as Link enters the house. She feels ashamed with his presence and turns away from him, when he goes near her, but this whole situation got lost in the censored releases.

A little bit more interesting was the mermaid, who has lost her bikini top. If you dive in front of her, she gets upset and swims away. And when she gives you one of her scales, it gets implied that Link (accidentally) touches her breasts instead. For the U.S. she lost her pearl necklace and there's nothing lewd in the dialogue or anything that could make Link look like a pervert. Safe, but boring.

Some of the lewdness was also thanks to the loose German translation of Claude M. Moyse, who added quite some humor to the game. For example when you sprinkled the Buzz Blobs with Magic Powder, they said things like "Give me your juice, I give you mine" and "Never without a condom".

In the DX version this then got replaced with some hints and I do understand that Nintendo wanted to change this, but I always remember the fun we had as kids, when we shared our discoveries of these "adult" parts of the game. Well, these Buzz Blobs looks like walking condoms anyway.

Claude M. Moyse doesn't work for Nintendo anymore and still today they keep changing his original texts: for the Virtual Console they had to change the name of some characters like the Chain Chomp ("Struppi" turned into "Komet"), because of some maybe outdated references. But I do enjoy the quirky humor of the original, which is partly why I still prefer playing it over the DX version.


Stone Beaks and Owl Statues

They replaced the Stone Slab and Fragment with the Owl Statue and Beak in dungeons, so they could offer multiple hints in one dungeon, instead of just one. It was a unique feature anyway, no other Zelda game has this, where you actually have to find something first each time you needed a hint. Either the hints are put there directly, where you need them, or you have some companion telling you the solutions.

In some cases it was actually necessary to get the hint, it acted as a key for a puzzle, where otherwise the solution would be too hard to figure out. Especially in Level 2, the Bottle Grotto, you could maybe solve the puzzle by luck with the order of the enemies to get the Nightmare Key. Otherwise you need to find the Stone Slab first, so it wasn't really just a simple hint system. It was another key in the dungeon, which you can skip on later playthroughs.

But in other cases you could argue that finding the Stone Slab is even more difficult than solving the real puzzle, which is probably why they re-arranged the content of the chests in some dungeons, so it's easier to find the Owl Beak.

But in the DX version they simply use the Owl Statues for every little puzzle that might not seem intuitive, like the chest with the Nightmare Key in Level 6 or even moving blocks to open a door... It's lame, really. You might as well not have the puzzles at all, if you feel the need to put a solution right next to them.

It also creates another issue where people might simply want to ignore the Owl Statues altogether, because they seemingly are just giving you trivial hints all over the place. But then you might be missing some important information that is necessary to proceed, like in the Bottle Grotto.

Replaying Link's Awakening DX on the 3DS

Following my playthrough of the Oracle games it only felt natural to continue with Link's Awakening, where this time I decided to play the Virtual Console release again, so I can make a couple of posts on Miiverse. Again I finished the game in one sitting during the evening, which took around five hours for a 100% run.

I actually wasn't hurrying, I even wasted quite some time, e.g. I arrived in front of the Eagle's Tower without the Bird Key and then had to go all the way back. And this wasn't the first time that had happened, I do go up the mountain, where the cave with the Bird Key is, but then I get distracted by the other things up there and forget the key. :D

But I lost count, how many times I destroyed Koholinth by now, and I have become exceedingly efficient at it. It's a short, but sweet experience, Link's Awakening (the monochrome original) was my first Zelda game and it's still one of my favorites.

In the past I've already written various posts, where I praised the game for its greatness and I suggest to take a look at them, because I won't repeat these points all over again:

• Beaten Link's Awakening Again
• Replaying Link's Awakening
• The Magic of Link's Awakening

This time I actually want to focus on some things, which I don't like too much about the game and which became especially apparent after playing the Oracles, which took the engine of Link's Awakening, but improved many things. Though it's rather small things...

The worst offender are probably the slooooow unskipable texts here and there, especially with the fishing minigame, where the guy keeps telling you the controls again an again, or whenever you find a Compass. Every single time you get this long text:

You've got the
Compass! Now,
you can see
where the chests
and Nightmare
are hidden! This
Compass has a
new feature-- a
tone will tell
you if a key is
hidden in a room
when you enter!

It's even longer in the German version and even worse than listening to the Owl, because the Owl at least tells you something different on every encounter and not the same thing nine times total.

And while I actually like having the random power-ups with the Guardian Acorn and the Piece of Power, the music is very repetitive. I couldn't listen to the first two dungeons' music at all, because it kept playing the power-up song.

I also think that there could be more short cuts here and there. For example you should be able to jump down from the higher level of Kanalet Castle, so you don't have to go back through the entire interior. Or there could be a quick path out of the Pothole Maze, where you find the key, like a boulder behind a hole. But this complaining on a high level, since the game is short enough as it is.


Now, while playing on the New Nintendo 3DS XL I noticed something for the first time, which I either had forgotten about or never seen before. When you change screens from the Tal Tal Heights to Kanalet Castle, while swimming through the moat, you can see, how the Moblin turns into a Darknut and vice versa:

This totally makes sense, since they are exactly the same enemy type in behavior, but apparently the game simply takes the same enemy and changes its skin based on your location. You can only really notice this at this spot, because elsewhere you don't have these skin changed enemies next to each other. But because of that it also shouldn't be possible to have Moblins at Kanalet Castle, since the Darknuts are basically already the Moblins here. Knowing this, it would be interesting to check the Oracle games again for similar effects.

Talking about enemies, especially around the Ukuku Prairie there seem to be many enemies, which are tough to kill with just your sword, so that the Bow actually becomes quite useful here, if you get it early on. As soon as you get the overpowered Seashell Sword, everything will get blasted anyway... which is something, I have really missed in the Oracle games. This moment, when you exit the seashell hut and blast those Moblins away in one strike, it just feels so good. The sword beams in the Oracle games became too weak and don't deliver.

But besides the sword this game has so many options to kill things, it's a lot of fun. Even the Boomerang is devastating in this game and it was also the first Zelda game, where you could unequip your sword for different combinations of items. People tend to use the sword for everything, but this game has it more interesting. And now I'm back to praising the game, aren't I?

...

Well, the last time I played this game on the Virtual Console, I used the red tunic for the playthrough and I also got the normal photograph in the beginning. To complement this experience, this time I went for the blue tunic and I got the photograph, where Link is unconscious, which happens, if you keep saying "no" to the photographer mouse. He knocks you out and takes a picture. And that's basically the only choice you can make in the game, which is only minor, when compared to the animal buddies in the Oracle games, but it's still nice to have both outcomes available.

I also got this odd path through the Wind Fish's Egg:

→ ↑ ↑ → ↑ ↑ → ↑

I was aware that it existed, but I don't think, I actually ever got this before, it's usually one of the other three. But at least I feel like in the end I created a somewhat more unique savegame here.

Tri Force Heroes: Potential Coliseum Challenges

Today I've updated my post about Coliseum Improvements with a simple new idea: challenges.

I previously complained about not having a completely neutral arena and about the Wallmasters ruining fair duels. All of this could by solved by adding specific Drabland Challenges as optional rules to the arena. Those could be:

• Evade the Wallmaster!
• Avoid the volcanic rocks! / Don't get hit by snowballs!
• Don't fall at all! / Avoid falling and quicksand!
• Win without using a sword!
• Fight in the dark!

So, instead of a Wallmaster appearing during every duel, this would become a challenge, where players can vote, what crazy things they want or not. And by default, the Sky arena wouldn't have any volcanic rocks anymore, but you can add them now to any arena; in case of the Snowland arena(s) it would even be snowballs.

I'm also more strongly obsessed with the idea of having multiple arenas per area. I mean, look at the Den of Trials! Pretty much every floor there could qualify as an arena for the Coliseum! These kind of places are easy to make and they would a lot more variety to the whole game mode.

Together with challenges the Coliseum wouldn't grow boring so easily.

Completing Oracle of Ages & Seasons on the 3DS

In June 2013 I was replaying Oracle of Ages & Seasons, after they were released on the Nintendo 3DS Virtual Console (see this post). To make things more interesting, I used the same Hero's Secret to start a "New Game+" both in Ages and Seasons to play both games simultaneously. And I had a special goal: collect all 64 Magic Rings from scratch again, which I hadn't done since the GBC. I completed both starter savegames in 2013, but I saved the Linked Games for a later date. And this date happened to be now. I started before New Year's Eve and completed everything today, which certainly was a nice start for this year of gaming. This year the Oracle games will also celebrate their 15th Anniversary, where they currently mark the midway point of the series.

Well, by now I have four savegames, two in each game, one for every possible linking scenario, all with full 16 Heart Containers, all upgrades and all 64 Magic Rings. Only seven rings remained to be collected from the Linked Games, which were the following:

• Power Ring L-3 (found in Holodrum's expended Hero's Cave)
• Armor Ring L-3 (found in Labrynna's Hero's Cave)
• Heart Ring L-1 (Temple Secret)
• Swimmer's Ring (Diver Secret)
• Snowshoe Ring (Mamamu Secret)
• Blue Joy Ring (gotten from Zelda)
• Spin Ring (Plen Secret)

I was a little worried about the Swimmer's Ring, because I remembered that the diving minigame felt like that you actually need the Swimmer's Ring to beat it. You have to go through an underwater tunnel maze and reach a star within 30 seconds, but it's a really close thing. I got it at exactly 30 seconds on my third try and the trick was not stopping for the fish to kill them, but swimming right through them. You might even get some boosts from being hurt.

The only other interesting rings were the ones from both Hero's Caves. Especially the one in Ages I haven't played in many years and I remember that on the GBC this dungeon really made me rage. Particularly this evil room:

If you screw up in here (and it's very easy to screw up), you will have to start over, which is a nightmare. The following room works with the same principle of starting over and there you have to jump around corners, which also is hard to pull off. Luckily on the 3DS restore points make rooms like these a lot more tolerable, so I didn't destroy any furniture this time around.

I also got the 100th Ring, the Slayer's Ring and the Rupee Ring in all four savegames. Well, for your collections you only need them once, but for the sake of completion you can still get these achievements in all games, which requires you to appraise 100 rings, kill 1000 monsters and collect 10,000 Rupees every time. And this can take a little while, though it's not too bad...


The Musician

Another interesting point were the choices to make: what animal buddies do I want and what outcome shall the Bipin and Blossom's son have? For the Ages → Seasons route I wanted Ricky as the animal, I named the kid "Error" and I wanted him to be a Hero. For the Seasons → Ages route I chose Dimitri as the partner, named the kid "Bagu" and wanted him to be a musician.

This was around the seventh time that I played through the games and never before I had a musician. During my three original playthroughs on the GBC I happened to get a Slacker first, then an Arborist and finally a Hero. Now, 15 years later, I finally got a musician for the first time, so say "hi" to Bagu:

However, it was quite the struggle to get him. The information on ZeldaWiki is all but correct, which gave me some trouble. I tried the following combinations:

• 10 Rupees → Sing → Quiet & Egg
• 10 Rupees → Sing → Weird & Chicken
• 10 Rupees → Sing → Weird & Egg

And only the last one worked! The other two gave me an annoying Slacker, how I hate this kid... I actually had to replay the first two dungeons of Ages three times over to achieve my goal.

One of the times I was even super lucky with everything else going on. Maple dropped her Piece of Heart right in front of me at our first meeting after Level 1, I also got three rings from her and a potion. Plus, I scored the Light Ring L-2 on my first time in the Shooting Gallery, which the last time took me forever to get. Crazy RNG.

You can imagine that I wasn't exactly happy about giving all this up, just because the kid didn't grew up the right way again... But it was worth it, because I feel like the musician is the most useful outcome. You can listen to a song that you normally don't have free access to and it fully heals you like a fairy. Other outcomes only get you a Gasha Seed or 100 to 200 Rupees at best.

Actually with the musician you can make another choice with the song. He either plays the melody from when you saved one of the Oracles ("courage") or Zelda's theme in the game ("love"), so there's a total of five different outcomes for the kid. If I ever will replay the Oracle games ever again, I will go for the musician again and Zelda's song, together with Moosh as the animal buddy, because I never used him again after getting him in my very first playthrough.

In case you wonder, creating the Hero didn't give me any trouble. The decisions I made were "10 Rupees → Play → Quiet & Girlfriend".


That's essentially it for now... replaying the Oracles really made me want to play Link's Awakening again. In comparison I especially disliked how they have scrolling in the dungeons, since it slows down the gameplay quite a lot. I feel like the majority of the rooms could have been compressed and displayed without any scrolling, it's only really the (excellent) floor tile puzzle rooms that need the bigger size.

But following the ending of the linked Oracle games I decided to replay Link's Awakening next... see you on Koholinth!

Dawn of a New Year – 2016

One year ago I had in mind that 2015 would give us Zelda U and this year we would see the next Zelda on 3DS. These roles got switched and I'm not unhappy with it. I was moving at the end of last year, so the 3DS is my preferred gaming system right now. And Zelda U certainly feels like a better fit for the big 30th Anniversary of the franchise, similar to how Skyward Sword got released during the 25th Anniversary.

Anyway, a new year has begun, so let's look ahead what awaits the Zelda fans in 2016. It's the 30th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda and the new game for Wii U is scheduled to release, where until then we can get entertained by Twilight Princess HD and Hyrule Warriors Legends.

So, there are certainly some parallels to the year 2011, where the 25th Anniversary took place and Skyward Sword got released, the last big console Zelda. They have been working on both these games for five years and it has been over a year that we saw something from The Legend of Zelda for the Wii U (ignoring the small teaser in the last Nintendo Direct). But we should learn more at E3 2016, which will take place between June 14th and 16th in Los Angeles, at the latest, where Nintendo will certainly teach us all about the game, which then should arrive in the last quarter of the year.

And the game will without a doubt be the highlight of 2016. A giant, open world awaits us, which can be explored by foot, horse, or sailcloth. And there will be dangerous monsters, where you will have to flee at first to find the right strategy, which might involve jumping off your horse in slow motion to fire special arrows. And that's what we know so far, where will certainly will learn more this year.

Until the game arrives the 30th Anniversary may keep us happy. The 25th Anniversary gave us Ocarina of Time 3D, the free Anniversary Edition of Four Swords, special hardware, Hyrula Historia, and the birth of the Symphony of the Goddesses, all next to the main dish Skyward Sword. It was an eventful year and since the next big anniversary won't take place until ten years from now, it should make sense for Nintendo to commercially "celebrate" as much as possible in 2016.

To start things off there is the remaster of the GameCube and Wii classic, Twilight Princess HD. It gets released on March 4th on Wii U, together with an amiibo of Wolf Link, where we will have to let ourselves be surprised by what it and the other Zelda amiibo will do in the game.

Three weeks later, on March 26th, we then will already see Hyrule Warriors Legends for the Nintendo 3DS. Apparently, there were requests for a Nintendo 3DS version of the never-ending madness from the Wii U, so Koei Tecmo has ported the game to the handheld and extended it with new contents. Toon Link, Tetra, the King of Red Lions, Skull Kid, and Linkle will all join the party, as well as new stages and an Adventure Map based on The Wind Waker. Plus, Ganondorf will get a Trident weapon. This game is a massive time sink and could easily keep you busy for the rest of the year, if you let it...

The Wii U version will only get the new characters and weapons, but there is also the possibility that Hyrule Warriors Legends will see some DLC of its own with new characters and more, like Groose and Nabooru.

Otherwise I'm convinced that Tri Force Heroes will get additional updates with contents. It was already data-mined that there are four more DLC outfits planned, as well as one more area. It's even possible that this could be tied to the 30th Anniversary somehow, similar to the "Realm of Memories" in the Four Swords Anniversary Edition. Speaking of, Nintendo might even re-release this title once more for everyone who has missed it five years ago.

Other re-releases are in the realm of possibilities as well, like Skyward Sword as a Wii download game in the Wii U eShop. Majora's Mask also didn't make it onto the Wii U Virtual Console yet and maybe they will do something with Link's Crossbow Training, now that there will be Twilight Princess HD.

Concerning the hardware, Europe still didn't get the "Hyrule Edition" of the New Nintendo 3DS XL, which was released in North America at the end of October and will be released in Japan this month together with Hyrule Warriors Legends. Maybe in Europe it will be part of the anniversary, maybe it won't get here at all, we'll see. Plus, with the exception of Tri Force Heroes, Nintendo has released special hardware alongside every Zelda in the last five years, where we might see a golden Wii U or something...

This also raises the question of Nintendo's next console, currently known as the "NX", where we will probably see it at E3 for the first time. It's even thinkable that the new Zelda won't be exclusive to the Wii U, but is also planned for the next generation, just like how Twilight Princess came out for GameCube and Wii. And these type of questions will hopefully be answered in the course of the year...

Other than games, DLC, and hardware, we might see some other things around Zelda during the year. In the very least the Symphony of the Goddesses is still on tour with concerts in Essen, Zurich, Vienna, Geneva, and Paris in October.

Summary

It's the 30th Anniversary of The Legend of Zelda and we will celebrate! Twilight Princess HD, Hyrule Warriors Legends, and The Legend of Zelda for Wii U will captivate us, while the Symphony of the Goddesses keeps pleasing us musically. And those are only the events that we know of so far, where there may be some surprises ahead of us, like additional contents for Tri Force Heroes.

Anyway, his is what we can expect in 2016:

• More Tri Force Heroes Content
• Twilight Princess HD (March 4th)
  
• Hyrule Warriors Legends (March 25th)
• E3 2016 (June 14th to 16th)
  
• Symphony of the Goddesses (October)
  
• The Legend of Zelda for Wii U

Happy New Year, everyone!