Amy (![[personal profile]](https://www.dreamwidth.org/img/silk/identity/user.png)
brightknightie) wrote2024-08-31 10:42 am
brightknightie) wrote2024-08-31 10:42 am
Entry tags:
on some recent Zelda events
Cartoon DVDs. I heard that they've recently re-released the 1989 The Legend of Zelda cartoon on DVD (Amazon listing) -- that is, that they've produced fresh copies of the same DVD first released in 2012? Or something like that? Speaking as a lover of '80s cartoons... be aware what you're diving into, if you choose to watch this show, whether on DVD, YouTube (playlist), or elsewhere? The 13 episodes are each ~15 minutes; they were part of a larger Nintendo anthology show. The creators reportedly were given no canon background except the booklets that came with the first two game cartridges and a VHS-camera recording of someone playing the second game in Japanese. As I personally remember it -- from all those many years ago -- this show isn't one of the unjustly sidelined classics (e.g. Dungeons & Dragons) or sadly unfulfilled potentials (e.g. Jayce and the Wheeled Warriors, Skeleton Warriors, Pirates of Darkwater) of '80s cartoon storytelling. It's pretty much exactly what we'd expect from a cartoon of its vintage intended to help sell games. Zelda does get a bow and pants, and is "damseled" only about half the time; that's not nothing for the era. But Link as horny chatterbox is, um, thankfully unique to this timeline.
Surprise third trailer. Nintendo dropped a surprise trailer on Friday featuring the world inside the rifts. Zelda's "sword form" -- looks like spirit-sharing of some kind! I'm thinking Spirit Tracks, Raru's arm...? And there's evil/puppet Link! It is his turn, indeed. I expect that he will be unbeatable with "sword form" and will require wisdom. People in the Still World freeze and eventually fade away if not rescued, Tri says, so this would seem to definitely not be the realm of the Twili or Lorule or any known adjacent reality, but somewhere quite new... depending where we are in the timeline, perhaps. Also: Great fairies in this art-style! Known dragon enemy!
PAX West gameplay preview. Folks at PAX West this weekend are getting to play 15 minutes of Echoes of Wisdom (GameXplain footage). I believe that there are a few new hints of story/lore previously undisclosed in the trailers. From Impa's lines, I think we now know that there's an imposter king who imprisons Zelda and blames the rifts on her, and I'm imagining that perhaps it's the real king puppeted back by the Big Bad from the Still World, and/or perhaps there's an evil echo ability counterpart of Zelda's good echo ability; I think that an evil parallel would be thematically cool. And of course we pick up that Tri or Tri's people had previously been responsible for closing rifts, and that rifts, Tri says, have been appearing for a long time in Hyrule, but have only recently gotten out of control, beyond the fairy's -- are we still sure Tri is a fairy? as Impa cannot see Tri? I'm no longer sure Tri is a fairy, exactly, and am moving toward the "Triforce itself" explanation, or maybe the Fi-like explanation -- ability to stem itself. I bumped into intriguing speculation that this could have critical importance for the game's timeline placement, either moving it all the way back before the timeline split -- so, after Skyward Sword and before Ocarina of Time -- or moving it all the way forward, into the great, immeasurable gap before the Wilds games, as a kind of nexus pulling the three timelines back into one, via the Still World, and throwing that one forward toward the Wilds games. That's probably a bit much, but... not nearly impossible. Nintendo has certainly washed away everyone who tried to dismiss or deprecate this game as "merely" top-down/2D or "just" starring Zelda and therefore negligible for story and lore.
Addendum: The better and better Echoes of Wisdom looks, the more and more I suspect that the Switch II won't be premiering next year after all. I don't know how this works, marketing-wise, but with 16 known new games still coming to Switch I in this calendar year...?
Surprise third trailer. Nintendo dropped a surprise trailer on Friday featuring the world inside the rifts. Zelda's "sword form" -- looks like spirit-sharing of some kind! I'm thinking Spirit Tracks, Raru's arm...? And there's evil/puppet Link! It is his turn, indeed. I expect that he will be unbeatable with "sword form" and will require wisdom. People in the Still World freeze and eventually fade away if not rescued, Tri says, so this would seem to definitely not be the realm of the Twili or Lorule or any known adjacent reality, but somewhere quite new... depending where we are in the timeline, perhaps. Also: Great fairies in this art-style! Known dragon enemy!
PAX West gameplay preview. Folks at PAX West this weekend are getting to play 15 minutes of Echoes of Wisdom (GameXplain footage). I believe that there are a few new hints of story/lore previously undisclosed in the trailers. From Impa's lines, I think we now know that there's an imposter king who imprisons Zelda and blames the rifts on her, and I'm imagining that perhaps it's the real king puppeted back by the Big Bad from the Still World, and/or perhaps there's an evil echo ability counterpart of Zelda's good echo ability; I think that an evil parallel would be thematically cool. And of course we pick up that Tri or Tri's people had previously been responsible for closing rifts, and that rifts, Tri says, have been appearing for a long time in Hyrule, but have only recently gotten out of control, beyond the fairy's -- are we still sure Tri is a fairy? as Impa cannot see Tri? I'm no longer sure Tri is a fairy, exactly, and am moving toward the "Triforce itself" explanation, or maybe the Fi-like explanation -- ability to stem itself. I bumped into intriguing speculation that this could have critical importance for the game's timeline placement, either moving it all the way back before the timeline split -- so, after Skyward Sword and before Ocarina of Time -- or moving it all the way forward, into the great, immeasurable gap before the Wilds games, as a kind of nexus pulling the three timelines back into one, via the Still World, and throwing that one forward toward the Wilds games. That's probably a bit much, but... not nearly impossible. Nintendo has certainly washed away everyone who tried to dismiss or deprecate this game as "merely" top-down/2D or "just" starring Zelda and therefore negligible for story and lore.
Addendum: The better and better Echoes of Wisdom looks, the more and more I suspect that the Switch II won't be premiering next year after all. I don't know how this works, marketing-wise, but with 16 known new games still coming to Switch I in this calendar year...?