Echoes of Wisdom Announced

Let's start with the most important topic for this blog, which will certainly keep me busy for the rest of the year 2024. Nintendo has announced a completely new Zelda game today, called The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom. It launches September 26th, uses the same engine and style as the remake of Link's Awakening, takes place in Hyrule, but lets you play as Zelda for the first time ever in the series.

Zelda will meet the fairy Tri and obtain the "Tri Rod", which lets her copy a lot of things from the world and spawn them on demand, including enemies that will fight for her. So, this creates a rather unique playstyle for a Zelda game to a point where it almost feels like a spin-off. But it's fully part of the main series and storyline, even if it's quite different, like Four Swords or Tri Force Heroes before it.

It might leave a similar taste in your mouth as those games, however, because it's not exactly your classic Zelda title. I've seen very different reactions, from the joy of playing as Zelda in a Zelda game, which should finally shut the media up about this for good, to concerns about the echo mechanic. I share both of this, personally.

Overall this game looks very cute. I've always been a fan of the artstyle from the Link's Awakening remake and it's great to see that this was put to good use again. It's also fantastic that the Nintendo Switch got its own new top-down Zelda game after all, where I wouldn't have expected that.

But this was mainly, because there always has been the potential of a remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons, which simply made sense as a follow-up. Imagine they remake Ocarina of Time (again) and instead of giving Majora's Mask the same treatment, they decide to make a new 3D Zelda game in the old N64 style afterwards, where you play as Zelda and summon Cuccos.

That would get a lot of people excited, for sure, but it also sucks a bit for Majora's Mask. If we already had a remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons, then I would be a lot more hyped about this, because then this wouldn't get made at the cost of an improved classic. It's a silly position, I know, because a new game is generally more interesting than a remake of an old one. But the older Zelda games still profit a lot from such remakes and remasters, where there's a lot of potential with the Oracle games...

Maybe they will still make them afterwards. And if GREZZO has been developing Echoes of Wisdom, then they truly have earned this. After working on two multiplayer Zelda games and three Zelda remakes, it's their turn to truly contribute to the series with a new singleplayer entry. So, I don't want to sound ungrateful, since this is effectively the Zelda equivalent to Super Mario Bros. Wonder from last year and much more than what I had asked for.

As for the Tri Rod, this feels a lot like an answer to the Ultrahand from Tears of the Kingdom, just as something that works well in a 2D space. With the enemy summoning it also feels similar to Cappy from Super Mario Odyssey. So, there is a lot of utility here, while at the same time it's actually very simple.

It makes the gameplay a lot more passive, however. Instead of hitting enemies with your sword, you will have to find alternatives or summon monsters to do the job for you. I'm not sure how satisfying this ultimately will be.

The list of entities will potentially also grow quite large. This is already a big problem with all the materials in Tears of the Kingdom, where the quick selection didn't have enough sorting options and comfort, if you ask me. At least there you barely even need a tenth of everything regularly, so that the "most used" sorting is somewhat helpful. With Echoes of Wisdom it already looks painful to find whatever you need... And it looks like you only get the Y button for it, which means you will have to switch between entities A LOT.

But in the past I've dreamed of being able to alter the island of Koholint in any way I see fit, where the Tri Rod does go in this direction. It probably won't become a top-down Minecraft, however, because I don't think your spawns will be permanent. But if it's only temporary, then crossing certain obstacles in the environment will get annoying after a while. They will have to find a good solution here.

Then there's the fact that Link isn't the playable main character this time, which is probably the biggest novelty here, unless you count the Philips CD-i games (which you really shouldn't) or the actual spin-offs, like Hyrule Warriors and Cadence of Hyrule. I really like how this title begins where most of the classic 2D Zelda games have ended: you fight Ganon as Link and free Zelda, before you're doomed into what's probably the Dark World. And then it's Zelda's turn to shine.

However, I wouldn't be surprised if the game still let's you play as Link further down the road. It was noteworthy how Link didn't have the Master Sword, but something that looked more similar to the Lokomo Sword in color. Could be the Magical Sword, for example, or the White Sword. He also has a bow in the same color and style, which looks a bit like the Bow of Light from Spirit Tracks in shape. (Not saying that these games are connected.) My point is... If he simply disappears until the end of the game, why not just give him the Master Sword right away?

But you also don't want Link to steal Zelda's showtime here, which will certainly happen if Zelda's gameplay is less direct and all revolves around summoning. Maybe it's that fun and addictive that you don't want to play as basic Link anymore with his Roc's Feather and Spin Attacks. But it doesn't look like it from the footage so far...

Well, there is a lot more to discuss with this trailer and I will go into more detail later this week, after I have talked about all the other news from the Nintendo Direct...

Nintendo Direct June 2024 Roundup

Well, well, well... I went into this Nintendo Direct with high expectations. And I can't say that I'm disappointed. Technically, only one of the things from my list made it into the Direct, but that thing is nothing less than the first ever gameplay footage of Metroid Prime 4: Beyond. And that was arguably the most important one here. Hello there, Sylux!

Otherwise, I did get meaningful replacements for almost everything else. There was no remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons, sadly, but they've made a completely new Zelda game in that style, called The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, which is full of surprises. In my Future of Zelda article from earlier this year, I did say that I can see them making a new top-down Zelda game next, but I didn't expect this to happen this year already and in the exact same style as the Link's Awakening remake.

As always, I will make separate posts about the big stuff later today, so I won't get into detail here, but I'm equally skeptical and excited, because on the one hand I really love the style, but on the other hand I'm not yet sold on the new "echo" mechanic. The game will launch together with a special-themed Nintendo Switch Lite, the "Hyrule Edition" and this only comes five years too late...

There weren't any of the remakes, remasters, or ports that I've been considering yesterday, but there was still something from my wishlist that I've made in January: Donkey Kong Country Returns HD. That will be really nice to have on Nintendo Switch, right next to Tropical Freeze, especially since this comes with the improvements of the 3DS version, but without its terrible frame rate.

As for Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Remastered, in hindsight it makes sense that they didn't want to draw away the attention from Metroid Prime 4. Maybe this will still come later this year as a way to pass the time, though.

Then there was something that I didn't have on my radar yesterday, even though I still wanted it: we actually got A Link to the Past & Four Swords for the Nintendo Switch Online Game Boy Advance library. You will be able to play this game online for the first time ever with friends, at least officially. That's a big deal and I will have to get the Expansion Pack now, where this will be great to have as some entertainment until Echoes of Wisdom comes out in September. In addition, there is Metroid: Zero Mission, so there is also something small for the Metroid fans here.

The only thing that was completely missing was some kind of new Nintendo Warriors game. I was absolutely convinced that they would make "Xenoblade Warriors" next and I apologize for getting anyone's hopes up here. Instead, we got Fairy Tail 2 from Koei Tecmo, which was kinda lame...

And yes, I will go apply some clown make-up after this post. I've made the Silksong mistake once now, I won't make it again. I guess, Team Cherry will just do their own thing and drop the game once they are ready... any day now.

Breath of the Wild Switch Log, Entry 8

Last year, before Tears of the Kingdom came out, I was busy playing through Breath of the Wild again, for the first time on my Nintendo Switch. It was meant to be a casual playthrough, just to get me in the mood for the sequel and to refresh my memories of this Hyrule. But then it turned into a mad dash, where I rushed from 56% to 100% within a single week, after realizing that Tears of the Kingdom connects to your Breath of the Wild save file on the Nintendo Switch.

Ironically, I already had the one thing that matters for this connectivity: the Picture of the Champions in your house in Hateno. It also transfers your horses, but that's just for sentimental reasons and you can find all special horses again in Tears of the Kingdom. Not that horses matter in the slightest there, though it was nice to have some good ones early on...

So, this mad dash really wasn't necessary. But of course I couldn't have known that at the time and I'm still happy that I did it... The original plan was to play some Breath of the Wild, then go play the new game, and then finish Breath of the Wild afterwards – for the back-to-back-to-back comparison. But it took me such a long time to complete Tears of the Kingdom and it has introduced so many good quality of life improvements that it's hard to go back to the first game now and find the motivation to play much of it.

If I had to collect 500 more Korok Seeds at this point, I would have turned the other way. But there was still something left to do nevertheless: to enhance all pieces of armor. Otherwise I wouldn't be writing this post right now, over a year later. It was completely pointless grinding at this point, because I'm not going to make much use of the armor pieces in question, but it was just the right dose of Breath of the Wild for me right now. And it was a task that brings you over all of Hyrule, just to get a feel for the game again.

Some Things Were Better in the Old Days

As I've mentioned, there are a lot of quality of life improvements in Tears of the Kingdom that make playing Breath of the Wild not-so-nice any longer. Well, many of them address issues that I've always been complaining about, but now Nintendo has shown that they can do better and only a remaster will solve this. I will write a separate post about everything that I'd like to see adopted there, like the Froggy Armor for example.

Instead, with this post I want to focus more on the things that I've actually liked better... And the above screenshot sums it up quite well. The Guardians as an enemy were fantastic and there is nothing like it in Tears of the Kingdom. The Constructs aren't the same and they are not supposed to be, but they've felt generally quite unimpressive. Too small and weak. I really wish that they were more like Eyegores or something similar, something with a more threatening presence, which is what the Guardians bring on the table, even when they aren't really a threat in the late game. But they make this particular Zelda game memorable.

And I love blowing them to pieces with my Master Sword. The Master Sword overall, especially in its fully upgraded state, is so much more satisfying in Breath of the Wild. I love the "BAM, BAM, BAM!" noises it makes, and it lasts very long. In Tears of the Kingdom there are only very few enemies that will trigger this state and otherwise it breaks quite quickly...

Overall, it feels that Tears of the Kingdom has traded simplicity for versatility when it comes to the weapon system. There is so much good stuff that you can do with Fuse, where I'm certainly missing some of that in Breath of the Wild, but it's also refreshing just to find a good weapon and simply use it, without the need of going through your material list to get whatever you need to make your junk weapons usable in the first place.

Finally, there is my beloved Master Cycle Zero. Well, I'm a bit torn here. I love how it gives you so much more control, where you can do wheelies, jumps, and so on. I also love that you can simply summon it again, so you don't have to worry about losing it. And refueling doesn't really take much longer than waiting for your Energy Cell to recover, but it will last longer. On the other hand it simply can't match the speed and versatility of a the hover bike, so I did miss this quite a bit. But for this game it's still quite sufficient, if only you could use it in the desert as well...

Roving All Over Hyrule

As already said, my final task was to enhance all armor pieces once more, just to have save data that truly matches my achievements on the Wii U, at least in Normal Mode. I was actually surprised how clear my Hero's Patch was when I had left off, especially compared to that thick web that was spun over my map in Tears of the Kingdom. But that's the difference between knowing where you have to look and not. It didn't stay as clean, however, where it did get those trademark star shapes from the Star Fragment farming... But first things first.

My efforts started with hunting some critters. I needed some Hightail Lizards for the boots and climbing gear, but this was as easy as cutting some grass, quite literally. I needed some Stealthfin Trouts for the stealth gear, where I had missed them at Lake Saria in Tears of the Kingdom. But honestly, having them in the Lost Woods "moat" wasn't too bad either, so I don't necessarily prefer it. Then I needed some Energetic Rhino Beetles, mainly for the Hero of the Wild set, but here I used the exact same spot as in Tears of the Kingdom: the future Dondon ranch at Bronas Forest.

Looking for Smotherwing Butterflies was the highlight, though, because this brought me back to Death Mountain, the area that has probably changed the most between the two games, next to Hyrule Castle. It has a completely different feel to it, where I like the version in Breath of the Wild a bit better, but I love the transformation overall. That's so cool (pun intended) and just let's you experience the same place in a completely different way.

Another thing that Breath of the Wild does better than Tears of the Kingdom are the Lizalfos Tails. I still needed some red and yellow ones, where this was a quick job, because they aren't some rare drop. They drop every single time, like the horns in Tears of the Kingdom. This makes farming so much easier and bearable, it's not even funny.

I wish this was the same for everything in the game, but that's not the case, where the biggest problem are probably the Ancient Cores. I still needed like six of them, where you would think that this isn't much of a problem – just go to Hyrule Castle, destroy some Guardian Turrets, done. But nope, even after hunting Guardians around Castle Town and Hyrule Field afterwards, I barely had enough to enhance everything. And I didn't get a single Giant Ancient Core during all this, but luckily I didn't need any.

Finally, I was in the business for multiple dragon parts and way too many Star Fragments. I wish you could transfer the latter between all Nintendo games that have them, because I have plenty left in Tears of the Kingdom and Animal Crossing: New Horizons. But it couldn't be helped, so I have employed the same method described in my Master Log.

You warp to the southern top of the Dueling Peaks, make a fire, skip to the next morning, then to the next night, and look into the west with as little water as possible in your view. Usually, this gets you a drop near the Wahgo Katto Shrine at the Riverside Stable, a place that feels even more so special after Tears of the Kingdom, where there was my first contact with Hyrule's civilization in the sequel.

It works reliably, but it will take a while, especially for dozens of of Star Fragments that you need to upgrade all the different amiibo tunics. So, grinding them was by far the most tedious part of this endeavor and always has been, where it was a bit better in Tears of the Kingdom, because you can get them more quickly via sky diving and also multiple ones per night. Here I really had to watch something else in the background to not make it as boring.

To have at least some sort of variety, the method can be combined with dragon part farming, where they will appear at certain spots right after 12AM, like Dinraal at the Tanagar Canyon or Farosh at Lake Floria. At the latter location I had to realize that my past self was in such a rush that he didn't bother with opening all the treasure chests there... Which are a lot.

The same happened on the ocean. And this was totally understandable, because I had focused on whatever could possibly count for the save file in Tears of the Kingdom and this certainly didn't include any of those. So, I wouldn't be surprised if my Sheikah Sensor+ might go off in other locations as well.

But that's okay and I may revisit this save file in the future just for the fun of driving my Master Cycle Zero around Hyrule. There is just something wholesome about this, just hop on your bike and ride through the beautiful landscapes, where I will do just that from time to time...

Well, I still have Master Mode open and I'm not entirely sure about this. I'd rather play that than Tears of the Kingdom again when it comes to these big Zelda games, but they have improved so many things in the second title that it spoils Breath of the Wild quite a bit. Add in the horribly unbalanced Beginning Trials from the Trial of the Sword and you have a recipe of "meh".

At the same time I fear that I won't ever play this mode if not this year. If they are really developing a remaster already, then I will prefer to play that once it gets released and I won't ever look back to the Switch version (unless they completely screw up the remaster, which I very much doubt). Of course, I have played and completed Master Mode on the Wii U, so I'm not missing anything here when it comes to the experience. But I really don't like going back to the Wii U, where I like to have everything on my Switch going forward. If only I had all the time in the world...

Nintendo Direct June 2024 Predictions

Nintendo has announced the June Direct for tomorrow, 4PM CEST, so in exactly 22 hours. We already knew that we would be getting a Direct in June from the last business update (see here) and that it won't contain any information about the Nintendo Switch successor, so it will be one last rodeo focused on the current system. And here are my hopes and predictions from last time:

• Xenoblade Warriors / Xenoblade Chronicles X
  
• Remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons
• The Wind Waker HD / Twilight Princess HD
  
• Metroid Prime 2: Echoes Remastered
• First glimpse at Metroid Prime 4
  

So, I'm not keeping my expectations low here – quite the opposite, I expect this Direct to give me a lot to talk about. But that's mainly because that this marks the last major Direct focused on the Nintendo Switch, where there are quite some open gaps to fill...

A remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons is the first that comes to mind for me personally. They have the Link's Awakening remake on the Switch and this is the natural follow-up. It makes sense to have this before any other Zelda remake, because they have everything in place for it. Also, I haven't seen or heard anything about GREZZO working on Luigi's Mansion 2 HD, which means that they should be free to have worked on Zelda instead.

My hopes are up in this case, also because this is something I really, really want. I loved the Link's Awakening remake and would like to see more like it. It would be just the right thing after the massive Tears of the Kingdom, something small and cozy to enjoy. And the Oracle games would profit a lot from being remade into one shared experience, instead of being split into two separate games that need to be connected via passwords.

In any case, I expect that we will get something for Zelda for this year, but not a new game, nor a remake of any other game, like Ocarina of Time for example, because they will likely keep those for the next system. So, this leaves us with ports of The Wind Waker HD and Twilight Princess HD otherwise, but you've heard that hundreds of times before... I suppose, a remake of A Link Between Worlds is also possible, since the remake of Link's Awakening borrowed a bit from the 3DS game and this could now go full circle, but I wouldn't expect this before Oracle of Ages & Seasons.

Best case scenario is getting an Oracles remake and the Wii U remasters. It's really now or never for those ports, because on the next system they won't get away with simply porting them over. It just won't be good enough. But since they also won't be bringing anything new on the table right now, it can be treated as a side release.

With Metroid Prime 2 it's similar. We have the remaster of the first game on the Nintendo Switch, so they should at least also give us the second to not have a cut between the two. The main difference here is that it won't be able to share as many assets, for enemies and so on, because those were vastly different between the games. So, just because they have fully remastered Metroid Prime, doesn't mean that this heavily lends into remastering the sequel as well. But these two games really belong together nevertheless, since both originated on the GameCube and have a lot in common. It would be weird if they were to skip the sequel or to remaster it later in even better quality, but not impossible...

In the very least, we should hear something about Metroid Prime 4, because this game was announced seven years ago, right when the Nintendo Switch was still new. And while the development got rebooted at some point, this was also over five years ago. So, people still expect this to become a Nintendo Switch title and even if Nintendo decided to make this one of the launch titles for the Switch successor, I still would expect to see a Nintendo Switch version to fulfill their "promise" and show off that version tomorrow.

Otherwise, there is also the possibility that they will release an HD remaster of Metroid: Samus Returns. So, I'm expecting some Metroid news, just like I'm expecting some Zelda news, it's really just the question of what it will be.

Another game in the genre, which has been announced for the Nintendo Switch many years ago and is awaited by many fans, is Hollow Knight: Silksong. And I know that I have to put on a clown mask for this prediction, because the whole internet goes crazy about this game with every new presentation and nothing ever happens, especially during the Nindie Showcases.

But since it was originally meant to be DLC for Hollow Knight, it was also announced for Nintendo Switch. They even had a demo running on the system at E3 2019, five years ago. Of course, the Nintendo Switch won't cease to exist when its successor launches and nothing will stop Team Cherry from releasing it on the older system in a couple of years still. But I doubt that it will take them all too much longer. If 2024 is the year, then we will likely hear something tomorrow, in the last major presentation for the Switch.

Plus, they've recently featured Hollow Knight as the free game trial for Nintendo Switch Online. This doesn't happen without the consent from either side, where maybe this was good timing for Team Cherry. However, there was also recently an Xbox Games Showcase and if there are news about Silksong inbound, then it will be a bit weird that this wasn't already featured there, unless Team Cherry has some sort of deal going on with Nintendo right now.

Otherwise, I've already seen predictions for a new Hyrule Warriors based on Tears of the Kingdom. And while I'd love that, it's way too early, this will take at least another two years. Instead, I think that Koei Tecmo has been cooking up "Xenoblade Warriors", now that the trilogy has concluded on the Switch...

Update: If there's something about Tears of the Kingdom, then it will be Master Mode. They have said that the game won't get any DLC, so I'm not expecting it, but if they have changed their mind and they are going to add the much-requested mode after all, then this will be announced tomorrow. This would also explain why it takes them so long to get the Master Works artbook out, because naturally it will include any existing concepts for this as well.

In addition, we will likely see some other ports, remasters, or remakes of Nintendo titles, especially from the Wii U and Nintendo 3DS. Kid Icarus: Uprising and Xenoblade Chronicles X come to mind here.

U-King-O and Edward

There were some interesting rumors from last month that I have yet to discuss and those revolve around recent codenames of Nintendo projects. Nintendo uses internal codenames for all their games and hardware, where in case of Zelda this has looked like the following on Nintendo 3DS and Switch:

• Knife: Four Swords Anniversary Edition
  
• Queen: Ocarina of Time 3D
• Joker: Majora's Mask 3D
• Jack: A Link Between Worlds
  
• Alice: Tri Force Heroes
  
• U-King: Breath of the Wild
• EX-King: Tears of the Kingdom
• Richard: Link's Awakening
• Shoebill: Skyward Sword HD
  

Source: The Cutting Room Floor

Yes, the codename of Tears of the Kingdom very blatantly labels the project as an expansion for Breath of the Wild, but that's not the point here. A leaker named Midori has recently shared some more project names from Nintendo and this is where it gets interesting. There is a bit of drama around this account right now, but overall it seems to be credible.

Anyway, the two codenames that I'm interested in are U-King-O and Edward. Project names with an additional letter at the end are often for remasters and ports, where the first one is seemingly a remaster of Breath of the Wild for the upcoming Nintendo Switch successor, codenamed "Ounce".

Apparently, Nintendo has demoed an enhanced version of Breath of the Wild at last year's Gamescom for select developers to show off the capabilities of their next system (source). This would be a similar story to Ocarina of Time 3D, which started as a tech demo for the Nintendo 3DS as well, before it became a dedicated project.

Since the next Nintendo system will likely be backwards compatible, I personally didn't expect to see a remaster of Breath of the Wild so soon, but after playing Tears of the Kingdom the game already feels a bit antiquated, because the "EX-King" came with so many improvements that all would be nice to have in the original game as well (more on that later).

As for "Edward", this could be a follow-up to Richard, where I'm really hoping to see a remake of Oracle of Ages & Seasons as well, maybe already in the upcoming June Nintendo Direct. Of course this doesn't necessarily have to be, but Richard and Edward seem to be somewhat related. Well, Richard is also a character from Link's Awakening and The Frog For Whom the Bell Tolls, while there is no Edward in the Zelda series, but it's more likely that these are just supposed to be the names of British kings.

In the past most Zelda games were just codenamed as "king" in some form, e.g. DSking and wiiKing2 for Phantom Hourglass and Skyward Sword, which is even still true for Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom. But otherwise this seems to have evolved somewhat.

The most common suggestion I keep seeing is either The Wind Waker HD or Twilight Princess HD, mainly the latter, but if we still were to get them now for Nintendo Switch, they would be released as ports and their codenames would probably reflect this, e.g. "ckingS" for The Wind Waker HD on Switch. They could also go for both games in one, but I would expect this to be named "S-kings" or so. Of course there is no real science here and Nintendo will pick whatever they feel like, so I'm not claiming that "Edward" can't be Twilight Princess for Switch. I just don't think it's likely.

Alternatively, it could also be the codename of a brandnew top-down Zelda game, but I wouldn't expect this to be released on the Nintendo Switch still. I am currently predicting such a title for the upcoming Nintendo system, however, for reasons explained in January, and "Edward" could also be that game's codename. I would be quite sad if they completely skipped over the Oracle games, however...

Update: It's very likely that "Edward" is Echoes of Wisdom, the newly announced Zelda game in the style of Link's Awakening.

Tears of the Kingdom Puzzle (Ravensburger)

As a small birthday present to myself and some bad weather entertainment for the weekend, I got a jigsaw puzzle of the cover art of Tears of the Kingdom. It was made and published by Ravensburger, a German toy and puzzle company, has 1000 pieces and normally costs 16.99€, though I got for 6€ less, where this was a very good deal. As far as I can tell, this is the only Zelda-themed puzzle from this company, but they have done stuff for Super Mario and Pokémon in the past.

Anyway, we worked on this as a pair over the course of three days and it was quite fun for the most part. I like how the puzzle has this frame with the Triforces in each corner, because makes it easier to identify certain pieces that are next to the edge, because their tabs still have a part of the frame on them. Then you will probably start assembling the logo and the sky island with Link on it, because those pieces stand out more with their colors.

As for the rest, you have the blue sky at the top, and some darker landmarks with Hyrule Castle and Death Mountain, while the clouds in the bottom right also have their own "texture" to have them sorted. Then there is the storm cloud and the sky island above the logo, but afterwards things get a lot more challenging, because it's effectively fifty shades of cyan. In some areas in the middle you might as well be working on one of those one-colored puzzles, where it's all about finding the pieces with the right shape.

(I've also noticed for the first time how in this artwork the sun is still shining from the north, while in the game they've changed this to the south.)

If you're looking for something simpler, on New Year's Day we did a Breath of the Wild puzzle from Winning Moves with the free climbing illustration:

This only has 500 pieces and we could finish it within a couple of hours. It also comes with a poster of the motive, but it's as small as the puzzle and folded, so not a real reason to buy. I can't really say how much this has cost originally, because I got as a present from some other Zelda fans (from the ZeldaChronicles community) last year, who weren't really into puzzles and just wanted to get rid of it. But it looks like the puzzles from Winning Moves are a bit more expensive...

I would get another one from Ravensburger, though, where I'm hoping that they will do the Game Awards artwork for Tears of the Kingdom as well, because I love that motive so much. Though, it probably would even be more challenging than the first one, because a lot of the sky looks the same.

Got the F4F Mipha

Last year I got the First 4 Figurines Urbosa for my birthday and this year it was Mipha's turn. She was my favorite character to play as in Hyrule Warriors: Age of Calamity, so she was essentially a must-have for me in this line of figurines, where I'm happy to have her received as another fantastic present.

amiibo for scale

The Lightscale Trident looks great and it's a quite detailed figurine overall. Only problem was that the plastic wrapping around the figurine was put so tightly together that it's impossible to open without force, where I was very worried that part of Mipha's crown might break off. But luckily nothing happened.

This version also came with an integrated light in the socket, so you can make her shine in the dark. You can run this with either a rechargeable lithium-ion battery, a USB-C cable, or both, where none of this is included. The light switch is at the bottom of the socket, however, so it's probably best to power it via USB-C, so that you can turn it off without having to lift the figurine.