THE LEGEND OF ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD (Nintendo, 2017)

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Being among the first games I purchased when I bought a Switch Lite last summer in order to train to defeat my niece at MARIO KART and being the game that led me to a.) immediately go buy the OLED Switch so I could behold this thing on the big screen and b.) give the Lite to my wife and get her hooked on video games for the first time (ANIMAL CROSSING and LUIGI'S MANSION 3 being her particular jams), finishing – or at least finishing the story (much to my dismay, you can't go back into the game and play around after the main story's end – will remember for TOTK) – BOTW has been a long time coming and I already miss it terribly (in spite of taking six months off because the totally open nature of it wasn't a good fit for my weary brain at that point; couldn't do ELDEN RING either).

A few quick observations:

  • Goron Town is my favorite of the Hylian 'burgs.

  • I'm proud that I remained alive even though my cooking skills weren't up to snuff and yielded many inedible one-heart concoctions in an effort to make elixirs which I never figured out how to make.

  • I loathe destructible weapons and major tests of strength.

  • On that, my reflexes are nowhere near as good as they used to be in my nascent gamings and as such, I fail miserably at blocking and parrying.

  • The levels in the snow are achingly beautiful. Games are art.

  • I want a sand seal.

  • SHIELD SURFING IS GREAT (if I can remember the button combo to get to it)

  • While this is indisputably one of the greatest games ever made, my favorite Zelda game remains, after more than 30 years, A LINK TO THE PAST.

Not sure what else I can add that hasn't already been said about this triumph but I'd be remiss if I didn't mention the (INSERT ELEMENT)blight Ganon fights: perhaps it's that I'm a classically trained gamer (read: NES on Christmas '85 or '86) but there's something about a Nintendo boss fight that's more thrilling than any other company's boss fight, a hardfought success that elicits a string of profanities both in that success and in the seemingly interminable heartbreaks that precede it.

And now, a break for the more contained METROID PRIME REMASTERED (and I really need to finish METROID DREAD) and perhaps something else (I do need to actually play ELDEN RING) then, depending on how long my willpower holds out, it's back to Hyrule to lose all of my powers and weapons for TEARS OF THE KINGDOM to gain them back amid a slower exploration and more complete completion. For now, though, I’ll bask in the unmitigated triumph of this work of art.

a major test of willpower

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Given that I a.) only freed the final divine beast in BOTW last night (Goron City is my favorite of the divine 'burgs and Link's cut-scene jump into the volcano was a moment of pure badassery) and have yet to go all Master-Sword-wielding-Hylian on Calamity Ganon and b.) like to mix things up in my gaming (and should probably finally get around to ELDEN RING, though I had to stop because it was so similar to BOTW) TOTK will remain shrink-wrapped until I'm ready to partake.

links/2023w09

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"(but I don't know) what that something else could be"

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Wrote the above in a note to myself in (one of the) WIP(s); I write this rather frequently, actually: an agnostic faith that I might find it or might not (?) – difference being now that it bothers me far less, if it's the latter, than it used to.

(This is what I tell myself.)

Playing GOTHAM KNIGHTS on the Series S and I'm entertained enough: once I read that the combat was more ASSASSIN'S CREED than ARKHAM (I can't counter? What?!) it made sense and I was able to get over the initial reluctance to embrace it. CYBERPUNK 2077 is waiting in the wings. Still playing ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD, though that's much more of a backburner endeavor, more often than not played in handheld mode (that OLED screen on the Switch is GORGEOUS), except when I have to face one of those stupid tests of strength in the shrines; as someone sagely told me on Mastodon: "When fed up, go foraging": I have been foraging with increased frequency – perhaps I should apply that axiom beyond ZELDA and into the WIP…

Important note: in spite of my Racoon Mario getup below, I've yet to actually fly but the day is young and the sun is only now rising.

the morning's attendance card, a sketchy me rocking something approximating a Racoon Mario getup from SUPER MARIO 3 with one Spockian eyebrow raised. Thus far, I'm unable to fly.

muskville->mastodon: week two or maybe three IDK all the days merge together anyhow

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Remain content with my shift from Muskville to Mastodon (@twweaver@mastodon.social): still in the process of deciding value of having my own, single-user instance when I have this space. In truth, however, my shift is more than a purely "fuck Elon" move but rather a happy confluence of a long-standing desire to exit Twitter cold turkey for different social pastures and the dumpster fire that is Twitter's descent into Muskville. Amazing how a 14-year addiction vanishes when the supplier becomes tainted and (more evidently at least) corrupted.

Current thinking for how a single-user instance would function/interact here: this space would move to once-daily while all whenever/whatevers would move to Mastodon (EarBliss, dogpictures, etc.) That being said, I like the way this site is set up, with the zuihitsu combinations of things all on a single page – hence my present reticence to rock the boat.

But who knows. Maybe the mood will strike me and I'll go for it (when host sites open back up after the present diaspora) and then change it (my new 404 page is nothing if not the entire mission statement / creative statement of this space). Who knows. So long as I avoid redundancy (I've set Mastodon to delete all posts older than a month, so this space is currently essential as a living, breathing document of myself) and being redundant I'm good.

In other: I am stuck in ZELDA – stupid strength/battle tests. But hey, if nothing else, I was right about needing to combine things (in The Work, not ZELDA) - had to see it to believe it or believe it to see it maybe one maybe the other, IDK.

i did not spontaneously combust and other misadventures in sacerdotal flamethrowing

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Candle lit / in memory of / all saints and sinners whatever and ever amen: all without setting anything including myself on fire by wielding a candle. Victory – though I'm still paying for the pretzel I was able to eat at lunch because the rambling, loquacious minister couldn't edit anything (having never learned anything in the decade he's been at this dying church which begs the obvious question of his hand in its torturous demise) and made a sermon that should have lasted 15 minutes tops last more than an hour and a half. Highlight: his video camera died before he was done and he had no clue. Regardless, good deed for the month complete. Exorcism addendum, complete(?)

ENOLA HOLMES 2 is excellent: think I liked it even more than the first one. Reminds me of the Brendan Fraser MUMMY with something important to say. Marvelous weekend entertainment.

Other thing: my favorite character in all of ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD is the turnip(?) with the maracas. One of life's great desires to have been in the room when that bit of (fucked up) brilliance was created.

paintshop shambles

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Waiting on the heat people to come and extend ductwork so I have heat from the furnace back there for the first time in the howeverlong I’ve been working in this space. Anticipating manic dogchildren.

ComicsThing scene being is a total shit and I can't figure out why. Don't know characters? Not needed? Usually it's one of those two but this feels like something else: a hybrid? (Responsible for my writing this instead of hammering it out? Or is this indicative of the utility of these writings? Yes, no, maybe.)

Today I will vanquish you, Waterblight Ganon, you and your accursed ice blocks. That I can't use my runes on my little Link-iPad while swimming is a source of much consternation.

OLED void amelioration

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(Update, 1019: the SmurfPiss Chariot rides again.)

60ºF, clouds: gave in and bought myself the OLED Switch (podrelease reward) and will dive back into ZELDA: BREATH OF THE WILD on the big screen – though today’s main non-writing project is to replace the car battery in the SmurfPiss Chariot; spent much of yesterday afternoon caked in battery acid and corrosion what fun. The Lite goes to K so she can learn how to get thumbs working with dual joysticks, a hand-eye coordination complexity that has befuddled her since even before we started dating.

Pleased with the sound quality of the latest TSR: the Vocaster Two was definitely worth the price tag (though I could have gotten away with the Vocaster One; didn't realize that the second input was for a second physical guest but maybe someday I’ll actually use it) and the post-prod addition of music was easier than I expected (without a physical knob, I couldn't do the intro/outro over the music live).

The only solution to the post-release void is to work on more things (and upgrade to an OLED Switch). And so it is and so it goes. Repeat, repeat, repeat.