Tag Archives: Legend of Zelda

Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment Review

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It’s time to finally look at the final Legend of Zelda. This game series has really been going on for a long while and I am definitely going to miss the Hyrule Warriors part of it. The gameplay is absolutely amazing. It feels great to be taking down whole armies of fighters that try to get in your way. The series has really gotten its gameplay down to an art form by this point in the franchise. Trust me when I say that the game is absolutely not going ever be under an 8 from this team unless the company suddenly forgets how to code.

The game starts off with Zelda falling into a portal that transports her into the far past. She must now work with the king of Hyrule to stop Ganondorf in his mad quest for power. It won’t be easy to do this though. If you’ve played Tears of the Kingdom before then you already know how this will play out on a large scale. That said, the individual events are still different and that is what you will want to really keep an eye on.

At first the lack of a main menu will probably feel a bit weird. Everything is just around the hub world and then you find all the missions and levels from there. Eventually you do get a layout that lets you cycle through everything as a true menu replacement though. There are story levels and side quest levels where you get new items or can recruit new characters. Most of the characters to unlock are in the side levels but even if you skip them it won’t change much.

This is easily one of the worst rosters I’ve seen Nintendo churn out. All of the side characters are basically just palette swaps. I would have liked some really fun ones like Toon Link since these are side characters anyway. I went ahead and recruited all of the side characters for fun but it’s not like I ever really took a liking to them. That’s a mild weakness for the game but at the same time you can tell that I had enough fun where I did go out of my way to beat all of these.

There are also hundreds of quests and character missions. I beat over 100 quests which just means transferring over your items for more rewards. It’s quick and fun so I had a good time with that. The character missions are a bit more tedious so I skipped out on some of them. It is fun to see the map slowly turn into blue to show that you are taking over but the game does have that one annoying mechanic where villains will take over areas you’ve already conquered so you have to keep completing old levels. Feels a bit like a grind for no real reason.

It may sound like I have a lot of little issues with this one but that’s because the more I like the game, the more these things are noticeable. The actual gameplay is top tier. Nonstop bashing of enemies left and right. All of the attacks are really good and the various elements really make it fun to be switching up characters. By the end it was hard to say that anyone was more fun than the King of Hyrule. His gameplay was top tier but ??? is right up there with him.

I should say that ??? absolutely carried the heroes. He was super super awesome. I also liked the new villain who shows up in the game. Probably one of the best new Nintendo villains that I’ve seen in a while. He was really impressive. Aside from the 3D beat em up levels, we also had a few flying levels where you have to shoot all of the enemies in your way. That was a really good change of pace and those levels are what reminded me of how much work they put into this game. It’s clear that this wasn’t just some random beat em up. It was absolutely worthy of the Hyrule Warriors name.

The graphics are definitely top tier here. The game looks like a 2025 title and the attack animations are all really good as well. Even when you’re fighting off hundreds of enemies, you’re not going to get lost or anything like that. You’re going to be able to keep on going strong without any issues. The soundtrack isn’t quite as inspired. It’s decent but I can’t think of any tune that I will be going out of my way to check out. It’s not that kind of game unfortunately but the music isn’t bad or anything like that. Ultimately that’s the most important thing.

All in all, the best way to have a lot of fun with this game is to really dabble in everything that the game has to offer. Go ahead and clear the quests that you have the items for. It will only take a matter of seconds and this will give you a ton of permanent upgrades. I’d also say to clear the recruitment quests when they come up because they are short as well and why not have more fighters right? They all showed up in the final levels but I’m not sure if that would have happened either way. Perhaps that made for an easier climax? The game does have a level up system too so you’ll want to be as strong as you can. The levels can actually have some pretty decent jumps in difficulty as you go through the game.

Overall, Hyrule Warriors: Age of Imprisonment was a terrific game. It is elite in every way and the story is also longer than you may have expected for this genre. It was certainly more cinematic than I would have assumed. The game seeks to surpass your expectations in every area and I would say that it succeeds in this goal. Even if you’re a little burned out on the Breath of the Wild part of the series, this is one game that you don’t want to miss out on. Hopefully we get another Hyrule Warriors someday.

Overall 9/10

The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom Review

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As soon as they announced this game I knew it was going to be hype. It’s about time that Zelda got to carry her own adventure as well. Link had his fun but even Peach has already gotten 2 games to herself. This time Zelda got her first big budget title and it’s a whole lot of fun. I would even say it’s more well polished than any of the other overhead LoZ titles. It also has one of the best portrayals of Link to date which was pretty cool. He doesn’t get shortchanged just because it’s not his game this time.

The story starts with Link breaking into the villain base and taking names. This is Link from the end of the game so he has all of his weapons and abilities and man is it a blast. He just mows everybody down like it’s none of his business. We get a terrific opening boss and then something massive happens and we switch over to Zelda. It’s now her turn to save the world from the dangerous rifts that are befalling the land. She will have to use a legendary scepter that lets her create echos of any object or minion that she defeats with it. Will these abilities be enough to stop the legions of villains that are after her? Only time will tell.

Right away you could tell that there was a whole lot of passion and heart into this project. The levels look absolutely great with a lot of solid details the whole time. The colors are vibrant and everything’s really nice. The art style works really well and it’s also very expressive for both the heroes and the villains. The soundtrack is a little limited but fortunately I really enjoyed the tunes so I didn’t really care too much. When you give me a solid tune, I don’t really worry about the rest. I just know that now I have a very solid background bgm at the ready.

The gameplay is your classic Legend of Zelda overhead style but with one big twist. Instead of always having the sword, you have the scepter and you use that to summon objects and enemies in order to get through puzzles. It reminded me a lot of Scribblenauts where you have countless ways to get past each obstacle. It all comes down to how creative you are about the whole thing. I can tell you I made sure to really be as creative as possible in most areas to get the maximum amount of fun. My go to object was definitely the bed.

You can stack it up in a lot of different ways and jump over large gaps. You can also use it to balance other items or buy yourself a few seconds when you’re trying to get objects to land at the same time. You can also use spiders to soar up to a high level, etc. I’m pretty positive that there were several areas where I cleared the obstacles in a way other than how the devs really intended but the results are really what matter right? So long as you get to the end, that’s what counts.

On the whole I would say the game is fairly easy but this does make you have to use your head a little. I really appreciated the game having a good map the whole time and always telling you where to go though. If you die, the respawn point is always super close and so you have a lot of quality of life details here. Additionally, you can sleep in the beds to gain hearts at any point. You even get the super bed later on. It is possible to miss these things though so I highly recommend scanning every object you come across. There is literally no downside to doing so after all and you’re only hurting yourself if you skip an important one.

Likewise you want to beat every enemy type at least once so that you can summon him. I got a super powerful level 3 sword fighter armored type villain early on and he was perfect for every boss fight. He has a super powerful lunge attack when you first summon him and so the trick is to summon him, let him attack, then summon him again. It results in a nonstop barrage of powerful hits that can down just about any opponent in an instant. Yeah that was really good stuff. Surprisingly the big array of summons is the only part of the game that didn’t feel fully optimized.

Scrolling through all of your echos by the end of the game gets rough because there are so many. It almost makes you want to keep using the same ones so you don’t have to go too far back. I still had fun switching them around though and admittedly this is a fairly small issue to even think about. It just takes more time than you would expect. Now while I would say this is easily one of the least difficult Zelda titles, you can always get overconfident and still die once or twice if you aren’t careful. The enemies deal a whole lot of damage in an instant so you want to watch out for that.

Also, the puzzles get easier the more side quests you complete which is a pretty cool mechanic. For example, when you complete puzzles in the rifts then you get more energy which allows you to summon more things at once. Let me tell you, it’s way easier to make it past a series of gaps when you can summon 8 beds vs 4. So I encourage you to knock out all of the rifts and side quests on the way. Most of them just take under a minute anyway for civilian missions and maybe 2 minutes for rifts. In exchange you will have more hearts and power.

As a final note, this is also one of Link’s best portrayals and I have to give the game major props for keeping his reputation strong as the hero. He’s not suddenly powerless without his equipment or anything like that. He helps out a great deal and show really solid reaction times all the way. He’s an absolute game changer and definitely a fighter you are not likely to forget. The climax of the game is also an absolute blast and I’d like to see more of this in the future. Echoes of Wisdom had a ton of fantastic ideas here and it also had more of a story than I’m used to for the overhead games. In short, there is absolutely a ton to enjoy here!

Overall, Echoes of Wisdom is definitely a great game. It’s the kind of title that you never really forget about and it will go down as one of the best Zelda titles. I do wish it had more of a post came though. Not that I’d have the time to play it right now but it does feel like there’s not a ton of bonus content. I beat most of the side missions and got most of the stamps on the way to beating the game. It definitely added some solid hours into the game but even with 100% I wouldn’t say this is a super long title. It’s long enough though and at the end of the day if you’re high quality enough, then that can make up for sheet length. You really don’t want to miss this one.

Overall 8/10

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Review

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After all these years I have finally gotten to play one of the legendary Legend of Zelda games from the Gamecube era. I remember reading through the user guide for this one so many times back in the day. I think it was a double pack with Wind Waker’s or something but it was always cool reading up on it. The manga was also fantastic so I had high hopes for the game. Let me tell you, it did not disappoint! I can safely say that it is the definitive title for the main Link, even if Wind Waker will always be the head honcho.

Everything was going good for a while until Link and his village are attacked by a bunch of creatures. They quickly overwhelm the heroes and curse Link into being a wolf. Fortunately Midna shows up and agrees to help Link. She will help him save the world and protect his friends. In exchange he will help her gather all of the dark power so that she can crush the evil Zant who has taken over the world. Many lives hang in the balance but Link is ready to save the world. He is just the guy for the job.

It was pretty interesting to have a new villain in the mix here. Usually Ganondorf is the one running around so having Zant in here was cool. The guy actually makes for a great villain for most of his screen time. He talks really tough and is constantly in control. Unfortunately the mask starts to weaken later on and he loses a ton of hype. While he does sink pretty drastically from where he started, I can safely say that he is still one of the higher Legend of Zelda villains. He may not be head honcho material like Ganondorf but he can fight. I also thought he had the hardest boss fight in the game, even harder than ole Ganon himself.

The game takes everything very seriously as you journey through the realms. Outside of Majora’s Mask it would be fair to say that this may be the darkest game. The atmosphere is always intense and it’s nice to see all of the characters in their latest incarnation. The games do tend to recycle the same regions over and over again like the Gorons and the Zora so I would like to see that changed at some point though. Lets just have a true fresh start since it is a new adventure every time anyway.

While the game is darkly lit because of all the shadows, I would say the graphics are still pretty good. The art style doesn’t hold up as well as Ocarina of Time or Skyward Sword but it is still strong. The soundtrack is also good as well. The technical aspects don’t miss here and of course the gameplay is also on point. I always like a good 3D action game and you have so many different weapons and gadgets to choose from. It definitely allows you to play in a rather free way. For bosses you will have to fight them as the developers intended but for minions you can mix things dup a whole lot.

There are also several different gameplay styles here like being on foot, on horse, and as a wolf. The wolf gimmick is the main one that is new to the game. I can’t say that it’s my favorite but it doesn’t bring the game down or anything like that. I just tend to miss playing as Link himself whenever I’m in the Wolf form which is probably not the intent. It’s just that using the wolf’s sense abilities would usually feel like i was slowing down the game.

Meanwhile as Link, you really can’t go wrong with the fundamentals. Even the puzzles feel pretty smooth in this one. There were some puzzles that I couldn’t solve, but fortunately a good deal of them are optional. Even in the final dungeon, I couldn’t figure out why some of the doors wouldn’t open but I could just keep going. I definitely appreciated that, it’s a good balance of how these things ought to be.

One mild quality of life change I would like would be for you to be able to open chests even when your wallet is filled though. My wallet was always filled up so when a chest would have a rupee it would automatically close. The annoying thing about this is that the chest will still appear on the map so I would have to keep track of that while looking for the one item that I missed. They should let me take the rupees even if I’m at my limit. Also as another mild thing, Midna is often not helpful at all with the hints. They should have given her more things to say because half the time when you ask her for advice, she just reminds you of the plot. That’s not exactly what I was hoping for after all.

The game is quite long so you will definitely be getting a lot of bang for your buck. Nintendo is always delivering quite a lot with the Zelda series there. There is a ton of replay value as well. This is a game that you can stick with for quite the long time. As a final note, I like that most of the bosses have weaknesses that make practical sense. Zant is the one exception because I don’t get why arrows literally go through him but the others play their way around the items that the game doesn’t want you to use. It’s fairly creative as opposed to the game just making the weapons do 0 damage for no reason. Having actual explanations and everything is always the way to go.

Overall, Twilight Princess is great stuff. It is absolutely a title that all Nintendo fans should play at least once in their gaming careers. The boss fights are creative, the technical aspects are on point, and the characters are likable. You can’t really ask for much more than that in the end. It’s the stuff that dreams are made of and it’s why Twilight Princess is a game that can be enjoyed by any generation. There is also a ton of side content and dungeons to be tackled. I mainly just sped through the game and it still took me 30 hours which shows you just how long the game is. They did not cheap out in any area.

Overall 8/10

The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess Review

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Twilight Princess is easily the longest Legend of Zelda manga. They really went to town on this one making sure to adapt everything and taking the time that they need. I thought that was an excellent decision and it’s really the right way to handle these adaptions in general. nothing is rushed and you really got to be with the character for a very long time. It’s a really good title and the artwork is absolutely fantastic. You will definitely want to check this one out to see Link at his best. He is really a strong lead who will keep on fighting all the way through to the end.

The series starts off by introducing us to Link who is a very capable farmer. He gets along well with all of the villagers and it’s really peaceful place but that doesn’t last. Monsters invade and deal a whole lot of damage. They are led by the mighty Zant who takes Zelda and threatens to conquer the entire planet. Link will have to brush up on his skills and also use the Master Sword in order to make a comeback. This will not be an easy challenge by any means but Link isn’t here to just fight the easy battles. He’s here to conquer everyone in front of him and will stop at nothing on his quest. He is the hero of time and he will not be denied.

I actually haven’t played the Twilight Princess game yet although you can bet that it is definitely close to showing up on my docket. I’m knocking out a few other titles first but then it’ll be around. Twilight Princess always seemed to serve as the big sequel to Ocarina of Time. Yes, we also have Majora’s Mask for that but I think it’s the fact that this was the big Gamecube game that really made it super memorable. I remember having part of the study guide for it that came with Wind Waker and the game always looked like a lot of fun. You can definitely bet that I will enjoy diving into this one.

The manga works as a good preview for it exactly because it is so detailed though. First up, the artwork is absolutely stunning. This is a title that clearly had a whole lot of dedication and talent behind it. There’s a ton of hard work put into the manga. Each fight looks amazing and even the normal drawings of the characters walking around works well. The super detailed and serious art style works really well in Twilight Princess where everyone is down on their luck and things aren’t looking so good. You can really feel the despair within the art. It also means that each of Link’s rage modes work really well here.

Now since the story has a darker tone that does mean occasionally it can trip into some issues. There is some animal violence like when the villains go after horses and other creatures running around. It’s pretty rare and that is something that could have been taken away if you ask me personally. The serious tone works for most things but that is definitely not one of them. Lets just focus on Link fighting off these monsters.

In terms of portrayal this will always be the best Link. He’s just such a capable fighter and well balanced character. he really comes into his own as a full fledged character even outside of his title as Link. Zelda doesn’t get quite as much to do since she is out of the story for most of it though. She is still solid as always and never gives up even while in the dark kingdom though. I give her credit for dedication but yeah it would have been cool to have seen her get some action as well.

Midna is the main heroine here instead. She’s rather jaded and has a hard time connecting with Link for a while there but ultimately she is here to help. The manga slightly plays up a bit of a romance there which will have you shaking your head but she does do pretty decently in terms of being around to support Link against the villains. Her dark magic seems to have a lot of versatile uses but she rarely gets involved in the actual fights which is a bit of a missed opportunity. Having her actually take down more of the bosses would be good since she does mainly consider herself to be a full fighter as well.

Part of her whole plan is getting Link here to take down the enemies but otherwise she had plans of her own so that would mean she should be able to fight at a high level too. Meanwhile Link does have a curse on him that keeps turning the guy into a wolf. That’s definitely a tough one to deal with since he naturally can’t fight as well in that form. He does his best but it’s definitely clear that this is a full nerf for him. He can’t lift a blade and mainly just takes Ls in that mode. I already know becoming a wolf in the game is going to be annoying since I can’t use my sword combos.

Zant is really the main villain here and he’s not bad but I do think he ends up falling in the shadow of Ganon the whole time. It’s just hard for him to get out from under that because they’re both very similar villains with a shadow motif. If the manga had taken him in a very different direction then that would be one thing and could work but when they’re this similar? You’re going to end up remembering the original more and the way the manga plays out, it doesn’t exactly make a compelling case for the guy.

So in the end he’s okay but I liked the concept of the villain more than the execution. Ganondorf is excellent as always though. His presence is felt and this design is still one of his all time best. It just works super well and you feel like this could be his strongest incarnation. The guy is able to hold his own in stats and ability with Link. Very few other characters can really hope to say that. It definitely makes for a great climax.

The best fight out of all of them though is likely when Link meets up with the Ocarina of Time version who is now a skeleton. Now that was a really intense fight. I was really glad that they incorporated the other Link into the mix like this. It’s something that really helped to make the story stand out as well. It adds in that crossover kind of feel to it even though it’s the same series. I’d still love to see a true crossover game someday with a lot of different Links running around. I’m not sure how likely that is…probably not very likely but it would be really cool.

The older Link really helps the modern one to refine his skills and also keep his mind at peace. Link tends to lose his cool at times and go into a rage but with all of the evil going on you certainly can’t blame him. He’s been through a lot, the difficult part is just that using rage diminishes the power of the Master Sword since it runs on justice. That could be a longer debate in and of itself since you’d think that falls under righteous justice but perhaps the sword doesn’t agree. One of the things Link learns over the course of the series is to let go of the revenge and focus purely on stopping the enemies.

Yes, he does stop them lethally but now it’s out of a pure desire to vanquish evil so it’s different. I do appreciate Link taking definitive measures here because in the wild realm of Hyrule it’s not like you can toss them into a prison cell. Half of the fights are happening in the wilderness and the middle of nowhere. He can’t just carry the guy back to Hyrule every time, that would definitely be a losing strategy.

I spent years reading this story until it finally ended so you’re definitely going to be lucky to be able to binge the whole series now that it’s over. The story will be even more seamless this way. Despite being such a long series compared to other Zelda titles, there isn’t a lot more to say about it as you already understand the formula. Link will go to each village/area and take the big boss down. It’s what he does and it’s why he is such a legendary hero. The bosses are all reasonably strong. Some are vicious creatures while others are humanoids. I wouldn’t say that any of them individually are super memorable but they work well in their roles as obstacles for the hero. Each of the lands are solid as well and I look forward to playing through the levels in the game.

The manga does full justice to the game and the story might be straight forward but it’s not rushed which I appreciate. Most titles are 2 volumes max for a game adaption and this one is over 4X longer. So they really make the most of this extra time by giving Link a lot of times to be introspective. We definitely learn way more about him here than we do in any other continuity. Oath of Lilto may be a lot shorter with a longer writeup but in a way that’s because of how different that title was. There were a bunch of characters to talk about and the whole DBZ art style. This one is playing things out more traditionally and ultimately it did end up being the better series so these things have a way of balancing themselves out. I would certainly recommend checking this series out first as the true definitive Link title. There’s actually time for him to interact with the people and friends he grew up with aside from saving the world. It makes the whole world feel very interconnected as Link continues to try and save the world.


Overall, The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess is a great Link title. It’s really got all of the elements of his adventure that you could want and this would be easy to translate into a TV show or movie series. In a lot of ways it may even be easier for the general audience than Ocarina of Time since no time travel is necessary this time. Whether you are familiar with the games or not, I definitely recommend this title though. It’s a quality fantasy adventure title no matter what kind of context you have for the title. The series gives you all the knowledge and context that you could ever need.

Overall 8/10

The Legend of Zelda: Oath of Lilto Review

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It’s time for a Legend of Zelda title that is pretty different from a lot of the other ones. For starters, Link isn’t even the main character this time. Instead it’s about a kid who is trained by Link and so we have a lot of original villains and heroes running around. This one plays out like a pretty intense Shonen title from start to finish. At times it can be surprisingly intense to be sure, like a modern version of this would likely have to tone down some stuff. It’s interesting though because the tone tends to be light, it’s just that the violence wouldn’t have been seen as such a problem back then. It’s definitely a relic of its time but one that makes for a memorable read.

The series starts with Lilto being interested in studying the sword. The elder decides to train him for 10 years. After that point the village is attacked by 4 evil fighters who work for Ganon. They want the Triforce and will work to revive the evil lord. Even the elder is quickly defeated by one of the minions who works for the 4 but Lilto is able to draw the Master Sword and fight him off. This comes at the expense of his life though. In the afterlife Lilto trains with Link to better his skills and then has one more shot at life itself. Will he be able to save the world and make a difference or will these monsters be too much for him?

So when I’m talking about shock value and big violence, what am I talking about? Well, in the very first chapter the villains murder a bunch of babies. The murders are actually on screen and it’s super disturbing. Then of course we have people being cleaved in two, animals getting blown up, and it’s clear that this is a very dark world. The villains have a whole lot of influence here and without Link, the world has really gone into a bad place. The series has that light tone I’ve been talking about but mainly because it’s from Lilto’s perspective and the guy has a lot of hope in the future.

If you take a step back and look at it from the perspective of the average person living in the land, I’m sure they would not be feeling so great either. There’s just not a whole lot to feel great about here. It also shows how the world desperately needs Link because without him nothing goes too well. I actually wish Link could have appeared more in this title because he’s such a high quality title. It’s definitely a younger version of link like in the classic Adventure games but he still has his bravery and readyness to do the right thing. He’s patient with Lilto and even ends up being a solid teacher. Link still inspires heroism and taking down the villains even when he’s not the main character.

The main heroine Kalin is a solid enough character. Unfortunately for her she doesn’t have a whole lot of time to do much before getting kidnapped. It’s always tough when your screentime is so low but she was a good person from everything we have seen. Lilto naturally gets a lot more screentime here and does well within his scenes. He’s got a lot of confidence and tries hard. He feels like your classic Shonen lead. He may be out of his depth most of the time but still doesn’t back down from a fight so I can really appreciate that. Lilto gets stronger and stronger as the series goes on so he is eventually able to hold his own here. You might say that he’s a little on the generic side but all of his individual qualities are good so I have no issues here. He can almost feel like a younger Goku but if you know Dragon Quest then I’d say Dai is probably a better comparison.

Gonza is a hero who means well but does have a rather rocky start. He hypes himself up a little too much and as a result his skills really started to suffer. He needs to put more work in and also not sabotage other heroes along the way. So once he goes through his character arc then he’s on point. You never feel that Gonza is really in Lilto’s league but with his bombs and speed he can at least be a good support fighter as necessary.

Kaala is a girl who shows up later on to help the heroes out. She can fight which is always a big deal since there aren’t many good guys around in this era. She has good fundamentals and a solid amount of durability. Ultimately she may not do much against any of the important villains but it was still good to have her around. Without her the heroes would have been more outnumbered and everything. I liked her tough attitude the whole time. Definitely my kind of character there and she would have been even better if she could have had some kind of power up to keep pace with the others.

Haggis is the first of the big villains to make a move. He’s a very confident kind of fighter who thinks that he is above all of the other characters and you can see why. With his abilities he has likely not had a real challenge in some time. Even Lilto is unable to do much against him although there are some asterisks in their first meeting. He works well as a villain. The guy has an intimidating presence the whole time and is the most memorable out of the 4. As a character I can’t say that I care for him as his motives aren’t the best. He may be ambitious to be betraying everyone and trying to even take out Ganon but using Kalin for this doesn’t exactly win him any points.

The other generals look pretty bad though. Keep in mind that when you’re working for villains it’s not like you can ever trust any of them right? You should be looking out for yourself the whole time and making sure you don’t get stabbed in the back. These guys underestimated Haggis way too much and as a result they don’t get to do much of anything here. Even Ganon doesn’t look very good I would say. His plans didn’t work out the way that he wanted them to and in a large way I would say it’s because he also underestimated the other villains. This was his chance to really prove himself and instead he faltered when it counted. In the end the villain roster just wasn’t all that good.

Pretty much the whole series is focused on Haggis though so it was a trade off that the series made. I would say it’s one that worked reasonably well though. He definitely did feel like a very serious villain and I dare say that he really did hold his own. He was winning for most of his screen time after all and fought smart so it’s not like he’s one of those villains who lets it all go to his head.

The art is really excellent for the series though and definitely helps to elevate it to the next level. This is a manga where all of the fights look really intense. It helps that the series is styled on the DBZ type of artwork. All of the character designs and everything look like it as well. It means that even a more comedic character like Gonza looks really intense here. I always love to see this kind of artstyle too. It was really huge during the Beet and Dragon Quest eras. You may not see it as much anymore but trust me, it holds up really well.

The series is fairly short at 15 chapters long and as you can guess it has to get a little rushed towards the end. Put it this way, you have the 4 enemy generals and Ganon. Well, by the time you reach chapter 8 which is over halfway through the series, none of them have been defeated yet. That’ll probably get you thinking a little bit right? The series does its best not to feel too rushed but I would say that it absolutely happens regardless. There just isn’t a way around that. This is the kind of series that easily could have kept on going for another 4-5 volumes and I think that would have really allowed them time to flesh everyone out.

It’s not likely to ever happen but this definitely could make for a solid little anime. You could adapt it all quickly after all and it’s a classic fantasy story so it’s not like it ever goes out of style. Link could definitely use more animations considering how big the video game franchise is. The writing in the series was on point and all of the heroes were likable. I always have to give the author big credit there because that’s not always easy. For example the comic relief hero could have easily been annoying but he has enough solid scenes where you don’t mind the bravado. None of the heroes are written too extreme in either direction.

Then for someone like Kalin, at least she has a role beyond being a damsel in distress. She actually has powers of her own which is part of why the villains want her. While her hype comes at the expense of Ganon, she actively contributes to the story. That’s something I really enjoyed because it was definitely unexpected and it also makes me gain a lot of respect for her as a character as opposed to just sitting there and accepting her fate. Now that would have been a bad look.

Overall, This is definitely a very different take on the Legend of Zelda. If you enjoy the main stories then you should still have a good time here though. Link himself may not be here to take a starring role but the series still plays out in a similar way to as it would if he was there. He’d probably be dominating a little more than Lilto but it’s not like their personalities are completely different either. There’s enough common elements between the two to make it all work. The series goes by fast and while it goes down a bit of a different path than you may have expected due in part to it being rushed, it’s a quality story. It’s held back a bit by some of the shock value and violence but mainly that’s all at the beginning of the series. After that the DBZ action is prioritized a whole lot more which works better. The power levels definitely make you really look at the series different and I’d like the main LoZ games to go into that a bit more. Link is really powerful, it’s just that the game style doesn’t always show it.

Overall 6/10

The Legend of Zelda: The Minish Cap Review

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It’s time to play a Legend of Zelda game that has been on my wishlist for a super long time. I’ve wanted this game for years and so when they finally added it to the Nintendo Switch Online, I was pumped! Long had I waited for this one and I can tell you now that it absolutely lived up to the hype. It’s easily one of the best Legend of Zelda games that I have played. There are no annoying puzzles here and you really feel stronger as you get more items and power ups which is the way that it should go.

The story starts off with a mysterious sorcerer showing up and turning Princes Zelda and her subjects into stone. Only Link is able to escape but to defeat this new villain he will have to awaken the Master Sword! That won’t be easy but he is joined by a magician who has been trapped inside the form of a hat. Well, not the most impressive debut but he promises to be helpful and at least Link will not be alone now. Do the two of them have what it takes to claim victory here?

I do miss Ganondorf as that guy still has a lot more aura than the new villain here but Vaati is not bad. He has a cool design and can fight, I just didn’t find him nearly as impressive as good ole Ganon. Now there was a threat! Vaati could maybe get up there if he could just get a few more games I suppose. Zelda looks good here though. While she was taken by surprise and overwhelmed, she seemed like a capable leader and one of the Zelda versions that had a lot of personality.

So lets dive into the gameplay here. It’s an overhead platformer where you go through a lot of dungeons and lands in order to find the Master Sword elements and then save the world. There’s a lot of exploration going on here and while the main events tend to be linear, you have a lot of freedom in what you do on the way there. There are little pieces of rock that are scattered everywhere. Under bushes, dropped from enemies, etc. When you get those you can then try to find the civilian who has the matching piece. Almost every civilian has a rock but there are so many shapes that it can take a while to find the one that the villager has. Every time you make a match it unlocks either a new dungeon or a cool minion encounter that gets you a ton of rupees. A lot of the dungeons lead to useful items like extra heart pieces so I recommend doing as much matching as possible.

It’s a gameplay thing that I didn’t even realize was there until the very end of the game so the benefit at least was that I had a ton of pieces. I was handing them out for around an hour at least and it was cool to see the world opening up so much. In a lot of ways that is why this game succeeds, the world has such a high amount of replay value around every corner. You’re really incentivized to go out there and explore especially as you unlock more abilities. It feels a bit like Shantae where you have a noticeable power boost by the end. That series still does it best but Minish Cap is the best example that I have seen from the Legend of Zelda.

It also helps that the map is really good so you won’t get lost and of course there are a lot of quick travel points. So you don’t have to go everywhere by foot or anything like that. The benefits just keep on coming right? The hub world is really pleasant and the map is just small enough where the parts that you do have to walk through never feel intimidating. It’s really well crafted on every level. Then you have the actual dungeons where the puzzles are handled really well here. There’s nothing abstract like staring at a painting and trying to figure things out or anything like that. Yeah the puzzles can still be rather difficult but it’s in a very fair way. It all feels very legitimate which I appreciate.

The boss battles are also nice and creative here. Definitely no recycled bosses or anything like that. The dungeons are all unique and every weapon tends to be fairly useful. The only exception is probably the boomerang. I was pretty excited to find that one but in the end I never had any reason to use it. The arrows were simply better and the ammo for those was super jealous so I never ran out anyway. In general the game was very generous around the board. I would max out on the gems real quick for example and the same would go for all of the weapons.

I guess what I’m saying is that this game had a ton of great quality of life features. It was always a lot of fun every step of the way and I definitely appreciated that. After all you want to be having a lot of fun at all times and that’s what happens here. It sets a really high bar for the other Legend of Zelda games like Spirit Tracks to try and follow so we’ll see if they have what it takes there. Lets just say that I have some really big doubts there. Minish Cap is one of those titles that is just a bit too ahead of its time.

The graphics were definitely really good here. The character designs were on point and the backgrounds were nice and bright. Meanwhile the soundtrack was on point as well. The tunes were all fairly iconic and it’s another example of how this game got the big budget. They definitely spared no expense on this one and even the gimmick of turning small for some of the puzzles was fun instead of being annoying. That takes effort!

Overall, The Minish Cap is a great game. I really felt like the developers gave it everything that they had here and held nothing back. There are so many unlockables that I didn’t even get to explore a lot of them because the game ended. 100% completing the game would probably be a real trial with how many extra caves there are and such but it’s very satisfying to see the new areas. The gameplay is smooth and the graphics are solid. What more could you ask for right? You absolutely need to check this one out as soon as possible!

Overall 8/10

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Stats and Records

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Stats time!

Play Time 55h
Hearts: 17
Stamina: 2 and 1/4 circles
Armors: 12
Character Profiles 20/22
Side Adventures 5/60
Shrine Quests 0/31
Side Quests 3/139
Memories 6/18
Creatures 0/82
Monsters 5/110
Materials 0/126
Equipment 0/175
Treasure 0/6

The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom Review

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It’s time to sit down and have a difficult discussion about Tears of the Kingdom. I know that you’ve heard from just about every source how this is the game of the year, one of the best games of all time, etc. Well I’m here to let you down gently because it did not reach those heights. I would argue that the first game actually defeats it overall. Tears of the Kingdom ultimately tried to be too ambitious and tried too many things with a lot of them not working out. That’s the big problem here and I say this as someone who has always been a big Legend of Zelda fan. It just wasn’t ready for this and I think the series should go back to the really big story based titles like Skyward Sword. The open world format is cool but it needs extensive fixes.

Well first off the story starts with Zelda and Link exploring some ruins. Unfortunately this does go very well and Zelda goes missing, lost into the winds. Link wakes up on the sky islands and needs to find a way to get going. He must save Princess Zelda from Ganondorf who has returned to destroy the world. Link will need to meet up with various friends and allies as he reawakens the Master Sword and saves the day but can he do this?

Lets talk about some of my issues with the game. First up, they kept the whole breakable weapons mechanic. So every few swings your weapons are going to keep on shattering. Over and over and over again. Yes you now have the ability to fuse weapons with objects which is a new mechanic to the game but this only delays the inevitable as they will both be destroyed before long. The only exception is the Master Sword which still breaks but it will eventually regenerate. This is a mechanic that should have been removed by now because all it really does is force some extra length into the game instead of just letting you have fun. I don’t know about you but I want to have fun and I want to have fun now!!

Then there is the new Ultrahand mechanic to which a large part of the game is built around. With this you can lift up almost any object in the game. This helps a lot with puzzles and such as you jump from platform to platform. The thing is, it’s not a mechanic that is super fun to use. I think it could have been in small doses like using it once in a while but having to do it constantly is something else. Building objects and such is good fun at time but the game is too focused on having you do it all the time. As it is you don’t have much time to just play the game.

You maybe fight someone once every few hours but for the mot part you’re doing a lot of running and map exploring. I managed to scope out almost the whole Depths can a fairly early period in the game and likewise opened up the lighthouses. It is really good to be able to see the map at least and they didn’t exaggerate about the overall size of the kingdom. The game is absolutely massive and it would take forever to run from one side to the other. It is absolutely impressive and I’ll give the egame credit there. They just should have skipped the overall gimmicks so all of the different styles would be gone and you’re just having fun with combat.

The actual combat is smooth but it feels like that is rarely something you need to do. Aside from the occasional boss you don’t have much incentive to take down the minions. You can get some material for beating them but not much. So you’re just going to be doing a lot of running instead and probably getting stuck at some point by those puzzles. I certainly got stuck plenty of times. In the end it took me 55 hours to complete the game and I feel like a good chunk of that was running around in circles because I didn’t know where to go.

There are a ton of sidequests and bonus content to access but most of them are behind puzzles as well so get ready to try and figure those out. Additionally don’t forget that you have to complete a bunch of shrines to get the stars needed to level up your health and stamina. The game may try to present itself as a rue open world where you can make any choices you want but that isn’t always the case. For example there is one boss that you can’t reach unless you get past a stamina door and to do that you had to buy at least 5 stamina upgrades. I wanted to max out hearts and that’s what I had been doing but this forced me to change gears.

Also I believe the open world is to blame for this game not having much in the story. After each temple they play the same cutscene over and over again and just zoom in on a different character depending on the temple. It means that the game froze the progression right here and that’s no good. By the time you get to the end of the game it really doesn’t feel like there was a ton of story that you got through.

At least the climax was a lot of fun though. Lin’s battle stance where he gets ready and the Master Sword lights up was brilliant. That was a great moment all around and is exactly what you like to see in a AAA title. Link has been through a lot but when the going gets tough he is always ready to hang in there. The battle involves a lot of dodging and parrying so you do need to really be on point here. Especially since I had used up all of my hearts earlier thanks to the gloom. I had to beat the final boss and the various phases without taking any hits to my hearts. It took me over 2 hours of trying over and over again but eventually I did manage to succeed.

That was easily the highlight of the game for me because I did feel good in conquering that challenge. I’d argue that the game design wasn’t the best to put you in such a rough circumstance since I feel like most wouldn’t be able to pull that off. Of course there is extra gear and food that you could have gotten to avoid that which is worth noting. The game really wants you to stick around and try all of the content so you can go into the final boss well prepared. It’s a noble goal and I know there is a lot to the game but at the end of the day there just isn’t enough to keep you here. Once you complete the game then you are likely out.

The soundtrack is definitely more on the forgettable side but I suppose I wouldn’t say that it’s bad. You just don’t feel like you will need to Youtube the themes afterwards. The graphics are definitely great here. I would have liked to have had Link’s classic green tunic throughout the game though. Lately it feels like that costume doesn’t appear enough even though it’s the best one. I’m sure it’s out there somewhere in the mode but I was hoping I would get it for the final boss.

Nobody can say that the game is short though. 55 hours just to complete the campaign is really impressive and in terms of overall content I wouldn’t be surprised if this is around 100-150 hours. There is so much to do here. The game can also be fun when you are just relaxing and not having to do anything. The problem is that the game reminds you of what’s coming all the time. Just when you’re unwinding the game throws another puzzle at you or some kind of cryptic clue. You simply can’t escape it.

This all sounds pretty negative so just for the record the reason why I would still call the game good is because the gameplay itself is good. The combat is on point and I enjoy the parrying system. The characters are good and the story is solid when it appears with a cinematic once in a while. You will get real annoyed on many occasions and will need to put the game down for a while since long batches can hurt the experience but at the end of the day it’s a game that you won’t regret buying.

Overall, Tears of the Kingdom is one of the weaker Legend of Zelda games for me but I will applaud it on really trying to be as ambitious as possible. It is a huge game but the gimmicks just ended up bringing the experience down. Sometimes less is more and just letting me fight the enemies without having to worry about things would have been great. I want more story and more action next time. Throw those things into the game and I would enjoy it a whole lot more. I would still recommend the game if you want to travel through the kingdom and have fun. I’m confident that you will have a good time here but you will also get irritated at times so definitely keep that in mind. The game is very much a rollercoaster.

Overall 6/10

The Legend of Zelda: Link’s Awakening Review

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The Legend of Zelda has returned with a pretty big adventure on the Switch. It took me a while to finally get this one but you know what they say, better late than never right? I’ve always preferred the 3D Link adventures to the overhead ones personally. It’s like how for me 3D Sonic beats the 2D ones and 3D Mario beats 2D. Once you go 3D it’s really hard to go back but this one has a lot of quality of life enhancements and fun features that put it above all of the older Link overhead titles. It’s a quality game all the way through so you should have fun here.

The basic plot is that Link was adrift at sea and gets knocked out. When he wakes up he’s in a bright world filed with various Mario villains, evil Kirby, and a Yoshi Egg on top of the mountain. It’s all kind of weird and doesn’t feel like he’s in the real world anymore. An Owl shows up and tells him that he will need to wake the Windfish up and get all of the legendary instruments across the world. All of the bosses beg Link not to do this though or the whole world will be destroyed. Who should Link listen to here? Is he even on the right side anymore? There’s only one way to find out and so Link gets ready to destroy all of the monsters guarding the instruments.

In a lot of ways the story reminds me of Final Fantasy Tactics where the lead is in a fantasy world and has to destroy everyone even though he knows it will destroy their world. Of course there he knows that he’s in a different world and is sure of how to destroy everyone while here Link doesn’t know anything for a fact and has to really tread carefully the whole time. One wrong step and he may make a mistake that he could end up regretting. It feels like the game has a deeper story than most of the overhead ones so that’s a good point in this game’s favor.

The graphics are definitely really high tier as you’d expect from a first party Nintendo game. It just looks really modern and sleek all the way through. The soundtrack is also a lot of fun. It’s got all of the classic Zelda tunes you can picture and they work well with the gameplay. It’s all got a very light atmosphere to it. Link can also move around decently fast so even though the world is rather big it doesn’t take too long to get anywhere. You also have a bit of a sprint option with the way Link does the dash attack even though bumping into anything will still slow you down.

There’s a fast travel here which saves time on going back and forth. You unlock more travel points the more you go through the game. Each dungeon can be tricky but you should get through as long as you’re really inspecting everything. There’s a lot more direction than in the old games and there are a lot of treehouses where you can call someone who will help you out. It’s a great mechanic because otherwise the game would fall into that hole of not telling you much. This way that is never an issue at all.

In terms of game length it felt reasonably long. I forget exactly how long but I would wager you’ll be playing for around 15 hours before you’ve beaten the game and maybe a bit longer. I wouldn’t say it’s super difficult but some of the puzzles will likely take you more than one try to get through. Legend of Zelda puzzles are never a walk in the park after all and each dungeon gets trickier since you have more and more items which could all be an aspect of the puzzle you are trying to solve.

With all of these options you can also ensure that you will have lots of ways to tackle each boss. There will always be a best way but figuring that out is on you. For me I liked using the Boomerang a whole lot because it dealt a serious amount of damage and could also be launched very quickly. It seemed even more efficient than the Master Sword at times which I think is an issue of getting the sword too quickly. It should be an end game weapon so you can make it like 20 times stronger than a normal weapon and have it live up to the hype. By the final dungeon make all of the other weapons completely powerless. It would be a bold approach but one that could make a lot of sense.

I enjoyed using all the weapons though, they were all handled well. The dungeons also have a lot of variety in them so you never feel like you played the same one twice. If there’s anything I’d want more of in a sequel it would be more cutscenes. The ones we got were great of course but I do think nowadays you could probably push things a bit and give us more cutscenes. Maybe throw in a surprise boss during the game outside of one of the dungeons. That would really shake things up in a really fun way. Do some small things like that and the Legend of Zelda series will stand out even more. If not? Well there’s no issue really, the formula has worked thus far so it can keep on working as is.

Overall, Legend of Zelda is back with another solid title here. I had a good bit of fun and I definitely recommend it to anyone looking for a fun time. It’s really done about all that it can with this gameplay style and there are even some fully animated scenes. It avoid most of the pitfalls I usually give these titles which is impressive. It feels like a very focused game with a good story and at the end of the day that’s exactly what I’m looking for here so I was super satisfied.

Overall 7/10