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.

Lonely Mountains: Downhill

This is one of the games that has been distracting me from Tears of the Kingdom lately, where I want to talk a little bit about it, with some connections to Zelda in mind. It's currently on sale on both Steam and the Nintendo eShop, where I can only recommend to try the demo to see if this might be something for you. Or maybe my impressions will already help you make decision...

Tears of the Kingdom Adventure Log, Entry 32

It's been over nine months since Tears of the Kingdom was released and I'm still trying to complete it, where my motivation isn't the highest, but I play from time to time, and I avoid to start any other games. Maybe I can reach the 100% before the game grows one year old...? Let's see.

In any case, I've made some good progress during the remainder of February, where I was able to locate and check off all the missing side quests, finally completing the Adventure Log on the Purah Pad. And then it was time to do the same for Hyrule Compendium, where overall I've been running around with the Camera a lot, and therefore have truly evolved into a tourist in Hyrule.

The State of Silksong

The sequel to the beloved Hollow Knight was announced by Team Cherry about five years ago, on Valentine's Day 2019, with an impressive trailer and a detailed statement. A playable demo followed shortly after at E3 2019, which was even featured by Nintendo Treehouse: Live, where it all looked very promising. Then it took three years for another trailer to release, announcing the game for Xbox Game Pass, where it was claimed by Microsoft via social media that Hollow Knight: Silksong would arrive in the next twelve months...

That didn't happen and this may give people reason to worry. Maybe the game was announced too early? Maybe the game was too ambitious? Maybe Team Cherry couldn't handle the pressure of the success of the first game...? But I personally like to believe that the success of Hollow Knight simply allows Team Cherry to take their sweet time with Silksong, to make it the best it can be and as complete as it can be.

There are also some interesting parallels to The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom here. Both games are the sequel to a fan favorite from 2017, where the development spawned from DLC ideas. Nintendo had been working on the Expansion Pass for Breath of the Wild and out of this came the idea for the Ultrahand and more, where they've decided to make this a core aspect of the next game...

For Hollow Knight Team Cherry released a series of free updates, like The Grimme Troupe and Godmaster, where one of the Kickstarter stretch goals for the game had been a playable Hornet, a character who is both foe and ally in Hollow Knight. But they came to realize that it would be more fun to make a game world designed for her, which then led to the development of a new game (which will be free for the corresponding backers).

Now, Tears of the Kingdom released as the full package. Nintendo launched the game on May 12th last year and – other than two additional amiibo – this was really it. No Expansion Pass, no free content updates, they've done all they wanted to do and have moved on immediately, whether you like it or not.

It's easy to imagine the same for Hollow Knight: Silksong. Team Cherry have the luxury now to take as much time as they need and they will likely want Silksong to be fully done when it ships, where it gets all the features that were added post-launch to Hollow Knight from the start, things like Godhome or the Path of Pain, and probably more than just that, so that Silksong will leave nothing to desire. Maybe they'll make some adjustments based on fan feedback afterwards, but most likely they are going to focus on a completely different project, where fans will obsess over it for the years to come.

Time will tell. The only problem with this situation is the radio silence and the lack of transparency. They don't have to show more of the game, if they don't want to, but at least getting some updates about its state of development from time to time would be good. Maybe they will give us such an update soon, maybe it will take another year, we will see...

About the Next Nintendo Direct...

You've heard the rumors, you've heard the "leaks", but they all don't matter, because what matters are facts. Fact is, however, that Nintendo likes to host a Nintendo Direct presentation around February to show us what's in store during the next six months or so. The only exception in the last five years was February 2020, where they've focused exclusively on Animal Crossing: New Horizons, the game that came out just at the right time.

But everyone is expecting a Nintendo Direct soon by nature and you can feel the impatience out there. I wouldn't hold my breath, however, because next week we're going to get the Mario vs. Donkey Kong remake, on February 16th, and this will be followed by the Side Order expansion for Splatoon 3 the week after, on February 22nd. Nintendo is currently in full advertisement mode for the former, if you look at their social media banners and all that, where they usually wait with a Nintendo Direct until the coast is clear to not detract attention from their new releases.

With that in mind, I wouldn't necessarily expect a Nintendo Direct before end of February, on February 28th/29th. It's also possible that they put it on the day where Side Order releases, February 22nd, in case they want to tie both together, but that's really the earliest. And Princess Peach Showtime! releases March 22nd, where end of February or beginning of March is the perfect window for Nintendo to show us what's coming after, without getting in the way of any of their releases.

Update: I forgot that there is the Pokémon Day on February 27th, where we will usually get a Pokémon Direct. With that in mind, March seems more likely at the moment. In the worst case scenario they'll wait until after the release of Princess Peach Showtime!.

In any case, I also wouldn't expect anything about a Switch 2 in the next Nintendo Direct. It will all be about "Nintendo Switch games releasing in 2024". A new console will get its own dedicated presentation and Nintendo will probably take their sweet time with this, because the Switch is still doing rather well, judging from the latest numbers. Before we move into the next generation, it certainly still has some more remakes, remasters, and ports coming to it, but also a couple of new games, where this will be the focus of the next Nintendo Direct.

All I want at this point is Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Remastered and a remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons. If we're still getting this for the Switch, I will be more than happy. But let's talk about hopes and predictions once we get the announcement, as usual...

Zelda Orchestra Concert (Nintendo Live 2024)

Today Nintendo has released a recording of the Zelda concert that was planned for Nintendo Live 2024 TOKYO, but had to be cancelled due to threats. So, this was without an audience, but still something for the world to enjoy.

It was very beautiful, I had one or two tears in my eyes at some point, especially around the Link's Awakening and Breath of the Wild parts, where I really would love to get the chance to attend such a concert in person again some day. But the Symphony of the Goddesses is no more...

Now, the concert lasted roughly 30 minutes and felt a bit one-sided, so the variety of Zelda titles featured was even less than I had expected. Here's the full program:

1. Tears of the Kingdom: Main Theme (Reprise)
2. The Ballad of the Goddess
3. Zelda's Lullaby
4. Link's Awakening Medley 2024
5. Breath of the Wild: Main Theme
6. Hyrule Castle
7. Breath of the Wild: 2017 Nintendo Switch Presentation Trailer
8. Ocarina of Time: Kakariko Village
9. The Legend of Zelda Main Theme
   

The focus on the new games wasn't all that surprising and having the Nintendo Switch Presentation Trailer music in there was an absolute treat. That will always be one of my favorite pieces of music and it was great to see an orchestra performing it.

But with the rest it was very clear that they've restricted themselves to the games that are playable on the Nintendo Switch and where Nintendo has the music rights to them (so nothing from the Capcom Zelda games). With Link's Awakening they've used footage from the DX version and the remake, which are both playable on the Nintendo Switch. But with Ocarina of Time they only used the N64 original for the footage, and nothing from the 3DS remake, while games like The Wind Waker and Twilight Princess weren't featured at all.

Of course you can't have everything in just 30 minutes, but seeing A Link to the Past four times over felt a bit repetitive. And even with these restrictions they could have at least also put something from Majora's Mask in there, where for example the Termina Field music would have been a great addition to the "main theme" portion.

But I don't want to complain too much, because it was a lovely show and I was very entertained. I wouldn't mind getting something like this every year as what's basically a The Legend of Zelda new year concert.

Tears of the Kingdom Adventure Log, Entry 31

This will be a continuation from the last entry, where I'm tying up its loose ends. This means that I've managed to locate the final missing Hinox and Talus, as well as the last Addisons for some rewards, where I'm not all too happy about it all went. In addition, I'm faced with a new mystery about missing side quests...