Quote from: Töqi on February 20, 2017, 04:08:31 PM

I really regret using the fierce deity mask, since it turned the last fight into an easy 30 seconds. I thought I was supposed to use it, like the giant's mask. I think I'll go back through and avoid it to actually experience the real boss fight.

Overall, fantastic game and ending. I really like seeing the side quests represented in the credits. I still think the main plot is pretty weak, but all the different stories and characters on the side make up for it greatly.

YEAH, I was gonna warn you not to use it, because it's really just meant to be a fun power trip thing. I used it my first time, too, but I didn't regret it at all, because after all the shit I put myself through to get it, I felt like I earned it. That, and the Fierce Deity is just so fucking cool and I wanted to see him in action.

Needless to say, he's a lot tougher without it, and you can access Majora at any point now anyway. No big deal.

Congrats either way--you just played through a classic. Are there any other games in the series you feel like finishing?

I stopped Spirit Tracks almost immediately upon starting it, but supposedly it's one of the best. I also need to pick up Phantom Hourglass.

Oh, and I was surprised by how difficult it was for me to give up all those masks. Fuck those kids for making me fork over my entire collection.

Quote from: Töqi on February 19, 2017, 06:08:19 PM

Okay, so this dungeon is cool as hell. Maybe one of my favorites in the series. It's surprisingly linear, so I'm not getting lost like in OoT's water temple, but it's basically just room after room of puzzles for the couple new items you get just prior. And all of the fairies I've found are in chests, so there's no way to miss them unless I don't complete a puzzle.

Nice, I'm glad you enjoyed it. I really don't understand why it's so controversial.

At this point, you should have all the masks by now, right?

I'm at 100% completion, working my way through the moon right now. Were you referring to the Kufei quest earlier? That was a lot of fun. I actually did most of it early on in the game, but couldn't figure out what to do when it goes to Ikana Canyon.

I'm at the door to the stone tower. Everything I've heard about this dungeon is bad; is it really that awful?

Did you unplug the Ethernet then plug it back in

Yeah

I don't want to have to do that every time though

Okay so almost every time I turn my computer on, I have to reset my router/unplug, re-plug the ethernet cable in in order to connect. I have several other devices plugged into my router that do not have this issue, so I'm certain it's not the router. I thought maybe it had something to do with my VPN and changing IP addresses, but when I disable my VPN the issue is still there. The only help I've seen online is to change my IP to static, which I've never had to do and would prefer not to do.

Any advice?

If you don't see how any of the things I mentioned could be considered dark, I genuinely don't know what to say, really.

First of all, I appreciate the unnecessary thoroughness of your post. You clearly put a lot of effort into it. That said, I'm not trying to argue the game isn't dark, just that it's been overstated in my opinion. I don't want to disrespect your effort by responding sentence by sentence (because I don't disagree with it; I noticed and enjoyed everything you mentioned). Quite a bit of the darker elements take place in the first three-day cycle, in which you get back your ocarina, your horse (well, I saw her safe and sound in the ranch), and your body. The mask salesman doesn't turn out to be an evil guy, he's just an overtly creepy guy with a neat story, and Skull Kid isn't even the villain.

The music is the strongest conveyor of mood in the game, and I do agree it's fantastic.

'Upbeat' may be too strong of a word, but look at some of the things you do in the main storyline: you save a monkey who was trying to rescue a princess, have a goofy adventure with two villains from OoT, clean a swamp and return it to its normal, lush greenery, help a Goron hero's spirit rest peacefully, restore an entire Goron village to spring, sneak through a pirate fortress to save some Zora eggs who then hatch and write a song for you, save the spirit of a rock n roll Zora frontman and take his place in the band while having a bunch of fun jam sessions with them, clean up the ocean...the list goes on. All while playing what seems like dozens of fun mini-games. Sure, Link's a kid, but he's the hero of time, who already saved Hyrule from Ganondorf and lived as an adult (and don't forget the OoT opens with a vision of Hyrule burning and Ganondorf chasing a young girl, then the death of Link's parent figure, and soon after the game pulls the rug out from under the player by showing Hyrule decimated after we believed we'd saved it; Zelda games have always been pretty dark under scrutiny). I appreciate the darker themes, but I don't feel that overwhelming dread you seem to while playing. I can fix everything by going back in time. Weirdly enough, I do feel that about Wind Waker. The idea of Hyrule being completely underwater, frozen in time, and seeing the races changed and adapted to their bleak, island-hopping life is really depressing.

It's important that you point out Dark Souls, since I think the two series are actually very similar. After playing Bloodborne again recently, MM feels very familiar and almost like a companion game, especially with the cyclical story elements and the symbolism of the moon.

Quote from: BiglyTurkey on February 18, 2017, 03:37:20 PM

It's pretty disappointing how many in-game assets and locations are direct copies from OoT, and it seems like the plot is a lot weaker than OoT, but it's still fun.

you'll roll your eyes at this, but i really love the re-used assets from an artistic standpoint--i'm 99% sure it was intentional

Intentional, as in 'other than an inexpensive way to design a game'? It's absolutely not a bad thing --  it feels more like a mod of OoT, but so much is similar or exactly the same that I wish they'd used it to explore those possibilities. Kotake and Koume are in the game, but they're apparently different. Why not make them the same characters whose lives are changed because the disaster in OoT was averted? I'd apply that question to any character who seems to have been transported to Termina. Or Termina could be some sort of expression of Link's grief, ultimately leading him towards the disappointing life we know he had, ending in him becoming the Hero's Shade.

also, define "weaker plot"

the plot--specifically the lore--is actually quite rich and is generally considered one of the deepest in the franchise

If you have any sources about that I'd be interested in reading, but I can't really see why it would be considered deep. All of the sages from OoT are involved in the story and memorable; there isn't a single character I've come across that seems to have any bearing on the story or be particularly interesting. I'm only halfway through the game, but side quests feel tedious, and while I get that I'm supposed to feel this way, the constant resetting of progress I make in each area is unsatisfying. The antagonist is just the mask, and isn't really a character in any appreciable way. It is absent from the game until the final fight. The moon is totally unexplained, which is weird. Why does it have a face? The giants are typical Zelda macguffins of the highest order. The two dungeons I've done so far are very short, and badly designed. The game is supposed to be thematically darker than OoT, but I've yet to see it. Yeah, the town getting destroyed would be bad, but I have the ability to control time. The time limit serves to hamper my ability to complete tasks, not to drive Link's actions or the plot. In OoT, we saw firsthand the effects of the villain's success, and (solely in my opinion) it had more of a narrative impact than MM.

I presume that defeating Majora's Mask in the end ultimately solves most of the problems we fix throughout the game anyway, right? The swamp is cleansed, the ocean is...not foggy, or whatever is wrong with it? The goron village stop being snowy? How much more interesting would it have been to have a slightly longer time limit, but let your accomplishments persist? I.e., you have the ability to reset the clock, but what you accomplished is erased and won't be magically fixed by the deus ex machina waiting for me at the end of the game.

I really like the game, don't get me wrong. I'm just nitpicking while it's fresh in my mind. The 3 day limit is an interesting narrative choice that could have been implemented much worse than it is now.

Finally playing Majora's Mask. Up until now I'd never gotten far in the game; I found the time mechanic frustrating because as a kid I'd play rental copies and have no idea how to pick up during other saves. I'm just starting the Great Bay Temple and so far really enjoying all the different masks and mechanics there are. It's pretty disappointing how many in-game assets and locations are direct copies from OoT, and it seems like the plot is a lot weaker than OoT, but it's still fun.

I'm working on a 100% completion, only using guides to steer me towards heart pieces rather than how to work through puzzles and dungeons.

This all seems kinda silly tho

Why should he even have to apologize?

He doesn't. But if he was going to, he should do it seriously rather than in a whiny, flippant vlog in which he complains about his apology not being taken seriously. Why might he consider apologizing sincerely? Because that's the quickest way to calm a PR shitstorm like this and not get fired by Disney.

Quote from: BiglyTurkey on February 17, 2017, 09:33:55 AM

"mildly off colour joke about jews"

"kill all jews"

that's SO fucking tame dude

this isn't the fucking 60s

The 60s were tame? All they did was do hard drugs and kill vietcong all day.

Now you just battle a couple easy pokemon and a boss mon. Occasionally there's a battle with the leader of the island. Kind of a disappointing departure, but it's at least something new.

It's not really an issue of who's right, the media or PDP

The whole things reminds me of that scene in Die Hard 3 where Bruce Willis wears a sign in Harlem saying "I Hate Niggers"



Would it be wrong for him to get his ass kicked by some hoodrats? Yes. Is it also incredibly stupid to do the joke in the first place, and kind of silly to whine about the repercussions in a very half-assed apology video? Also yes. Journalists are vultures, but they didn't make him do what he did.

Trump: "Number One, I am the LEAST anti-Semitic person you have ever seen in your entire life. Number two: racism, the least racist." 1:05:00

Someone needs to murder that man's tailor, though.

Back when this show was good.