Dear World, It is 4 am. Zelda owns me. I am my Gamecube's bitch. That is all.
Okay, so you can probably take a pretty good stab (excuse the pun) at what I have been up to these past few days. I would then laugh, tell you that was what I wish I was doing, and try to avoid explaining how I managed to crap out on my midterm like a camper in a cybo. I didn't do well, but I didn't do horrible either. The thing is, our midterm was blessed with questions where during the test, there was constant errata to make up for the errors on the test. I think I was using the right questions, but by now who knows. Couple that up with my E-Paper, and you have what could have been a pretty lame day. It didn't stop there, but I will spare you that. Anyway, I finally got to play Zelda tonight (this morning) and got to put a good 3-4 hours in. It doesn't feel like Zelda honestly. It feels pretty linear so far, but then again, I'm not too terribly far in the game. Since I don't dare spoil anything, I will simply talk about the non story things. First off, I had my reservations about using X, Y, and Z instead of my ever so loved C Buttons. I really dislike the Z placement, so I found it actually had a use. It currently (and probably always will) hold whatever item is the dungeon item. You know, the Zelda magic item you get in a dungeon that is always critical to finishing the dungeon you got the item in. This pattern seems to work well, and it leaves my other buttons open for the more complex things like being Tarzan and throwing bombs. The music controls are rather amusing, since you can make it as hard or as easy as you want. Since I don't have problems keeping time, tapping the buttons on a 6/4 for example is pretty easy. Thankfully, you can just hold the direction if musical stuff is not what you're good at.
Graphics was my biggest worry coming into this. I was afraid that reducing the polygons would change certain parts of the game. Well, most of my fears were gone. Stuff still dies in poofs of smoke that look kind of silly, and the running looks a little odd at times, but I will gladly deal with it. When you see water dripping from Link's clothes, footprints in the sand, and heat effects from fire sources, you tend to eat your words. I'm not talking just a light snack either - it's open wide and shove them in, wash it down with coke. I lacked coke, so I had to settle for Dr Pepper. However, eating your words has never been sweeter. I launched at his expressions, I felt for him when he got sad. The face brings him to life. (Oh, and while talking about graphics, everything sparkles. I don't know if this was intentional or not, but sparkling objects paired with cheesy "I got an Item" theme caused my to break out laughing at the Student Center.)
So we've covered gameplay, we covered graphics, and the music I don't even need to explain. They should be releasing a soundtrack for this. For the setting of the game, in the areas you visit, you can hear hints of old themes. You will be sitting there in your chair, running around, and then out of nowhere you will scream out "It's Kakariko's theme!" Okay, maybe you won't. The new battle theme is interesting, though I have a feeling it may get old pretty quick. The solution to this of course, is to kill stuff faster, which I am largely unsuccessful at doing.
This all equates to one hell of an experience. It doesn't feel like a Zelda game, it doesn't always play like a Zelda game, and yet it is one of the most polished and refined games out there, more than worthy of the Zelda franchise name. I had been waiting since January for this; it was worth the wait.
The only thing that keeps me from playing right after typing this is I do have to make my body sleep. It complains if it doesn't get at least a little rest now and again.
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