Zeldathon day 16: A Link to The Past

Dungeon six – I will admit to this dungeon being a minor head job, the way it had multiple entrances was inspired, falling in from above and what not. The boss and item were unimaginative bu in terms of design the dungeon was a step ahead, brilliant stuff.

And then I explored, for an hour or so, and it was brilliant. It has the same feeling as later games in that you an wander and find all umber of useful items, I aquired 1/2 magic use, two medallions, an ocarina for warping, increased my quiver and bomb bag amounts and 1 and a half hearts just wandering around Hyruleand it was a lot of fun. A Link to the Past has really held up today, just get it on Virtual Console if you have yet to play it as it’s fantastic.

Zeldathon day 15: A Link to the Past has a lot of dungeons.

Passed two more dungeons today so..

Dungeon 4: The first Dark World dungeon is a fairly typical stuff however, it is good fun to see the entrance the same (pretty much) as the first dungeon which rests in the same place, excellent design. The hammer is good, I like flipping the previously invincible enemies. This dungeon also had me retracing steps and missing items quite a bit which made it a little longer than it perhaps should have been, still, good stuff. And the boss is nicely big and fun to take down.

Took a trip to Zora river to get the Flippers then it was on to Dungeon 5…

Dungeon 5: opened with a lovely dark world/light world cross over puzzle, and then it was a fairly typical dungeon with some water puzzles but nothing to write home about. The boss was nice as well, and he had what I would break down as ‘two forms’. Probably the best boss in aLttP so far.

Zeldathon day 14: 1:40 with A Link to the Past.

Wow, is the only word to express my feelings after the jump from the NES to the SNES. If only because I’ve been trapped playing the Nes games for two weeks, the SNES game feels totally fresh and in a league of its own. The gameworld is richer, the characters are more distinct, the world feels like a world, the dungeons are smarter, the items better. It’s where Zelda truly starts…

The main improvement: moving diagonally. It makes Link far more versitile than I would have imagined (only playing games from LttP onwards before) and it makes fighting funner for a start. Anyway, breakdown:

Castle: pretty straight forward but a great intro to the cleverer game that is aLttP, the lantern is handled better and your objective is ten times clearer than before. The boomerang makes an early appearance and Zelda’s lullaby sent shivers down my spine, and bombable walls for later investigation, this is the ground work for Zeldas to come. After a little overworld exploring…

Dungeon 1: Not as big as I remember, but due to the technical upgrade from the NES, the dungeons are much more alive with multi tiered rooms, traps, big key and bigger, more immpressive boss’. Also, more impressive enemies that tower over Link themselves. Some neat block pushery and bobable walls are very Zelda 1.

More overworld exploration leading to…

Dungeon 2: Sandy and again, not as big as I remember but still feels far more Zelda than the Nes games. The boss is fun as well with the sand monsters leaping out and attacking Link.

A climb up Dath Mountain leads to…

Dungeon 3: The technical advantages really come into play as this multi floored dungeon features puzzles requiring link to fall down holes to previous floors as well as hit ‘buttons’ to alter the blue/red blockers, and the boss is large and fun to beat (worm).

After obtaining the master sword, the climb to tackle Aghanim is fun and shows where the sword tennis originated.

Anyway, I’ve decided to leave it here, surprised at how much I remembered but also how small the dungeons are thus far, I’ve done some minor overworld exploration, got two bottles a net and one full heart extra as well, but this is Zelda as Zelda should be. I can’t wait to play some more into it.

Zeldathon day 13: The Adventure of Link completed. Grinding should not exist in a Zelda game.

Dungeon 6: still, lots of combat. Combat combat combat. Aside from the one room which recurred (ala the lost woods and mountains in Zelda) but really, this Zelda is so combat heavy it makes my brain melt out my ears.

Then… After dungeon 6 came the horror that was grinding, in a Zelda game. Now, I don’t like grinding in RPG’s at the best of times, and having to grind Link several levels because I had been destroyed in the final dungeon several times by the boss, this was a boring excercise in repetative gameplay that felt, simply, annoying.

Dungeon 7: The final palace, and it staples The Adventure of Link’s place as a action platformer. It really is all it is, that said… I was fairly ecstatic when I defeated dark Link, as can be seen here…

Anyway, with that the list of best Zelda’s looks like this:

1. Zelda

2. Zelda 2: The Adventure of Link

And with that action platformer out of the way, it’s on to A Link to the Past. Huzzah!

Zeldathon day 12: Adventure of Link really is the worst Zelda.

Well, I grabbed a few of my missing spells, got all the magic, defeated the boss of dungeon 4 (had not done so yet) got the skeleton key and found Dungeon 6. I stopped after investigating dungeon 6 because I can only stomach so much of this game before it starting to bore me.

I was wishing that Dungeon 6 would be the finale, but it turns out that there is the ‘grand palace’ afterwards. Ah well, tomorrow is Sunday which means I can play for a long time and hopefully finish off the adventure of Link…

Zeldathon day 11: Small steps in Adventure of Link and a thank you.

Well, I finished off the boss of dungeon 5 which mean… Not much further to go till I can give my full immpressions on The Adventure of Link…

However, today’s post is more of a thank you, a thank you to everyone who has visited my blog as I’ve broken the 1000 visit’s milestone! And considering I was nudging on 700 at the new year after owning this blog for the better part of said year, to have over three hundred hits in under a month is a great achievement so thank you everyone and I hope I have some slightly regular visitors!

Do I really need to spend £425 on a PS3?

First of all, I’m a student. There we go, that’s all the justification I need not to go out and blow the best part of a grand on a PS3 come March 23rd but, if I’m being totally honest, I don’t need one on launch. I’m looking down the games that are launching with the system and, considering I’m not a fan of racing games and that I already own a 360, there is not enough justification in buying one. The games I’m interested in, and the reason’s why I don’t need to spend £425 to play them are as follows:

Resistance: Fall of Man – It’s another FPS and, considering I cannot play games online while in halls, the game is even less desirable at £40.
Tekken: Dark Resurrection – I could go out and buy this on PSP.
Tony Hawk’s Project 8 – Still yet to purchase the 360 version.
Virtua Fighter 5 – Coming to 360.
Virtua Tennis 3 – Coming to 360 with added Live support for when I’m back on.

The other games that I consider good, I’ve already played through a while ago on another system, or they are downloads on the network (which I would not have access to).

And if that wasn’t enough, I don’t own a HD TV, surprisingly. So while I would be buying a cheap Blu-ray player, I would seem stupid to buy Blu-ray DVD’s to watch in standard definition. I would rather take £500 and purchase a HD TV to admire my 360 games on.

As such, I cannot justify the money on a PS3 at this point in time (even though i could afford one). Instead, I will bide my time for a price cut (in the same fashion that I purchased a PSP with a gig stick and two games for £200) and the release of several key games that I am genuinly interested in (being MGS 4, DMC 4 and White Knight Story primerily, oh and anything by the ICO team).

Zeldathon day 10: Adventure of Link still.

Well, I defeated the boss of what I believe to be dungeon 3, and ventured to the eastern area properly. Because I already had the boots I went to what I assume is the fifth dungeon, and I found the boss (some ball and chain wielding looney) but failed… A few times.

Oh and I also got the flute.. Yeaaa…

As I’ve said, I like the way this Zelda has a lot to discover in the overworld such as hearts, magic and spells, but the dungeons just don’t feel Zelda and it’s missing a number of items that I associate with the series (where are the bombs for example). So yes, I was enjoying Zelda 2 more than I thought I would, but now it is starting to grate.

Zeldathon Day 9: Link’s Adventure, Dungeons 3 and 4.

I’m warming to Adventure of Link the more I play it, the challenging, if sometimes unfair, combat is pretty fun to play and the world map has a lot to see. The way to game wants the player to interact with townsfolk to advance is also a nice feature.

However, I now have the items from Dungeons 3 and 4 and there is a distinct lack of iconic weapons, the bow being the most obvious, and the boomerang. Perhaps they are secrets, I do not know, but their inclusion would have made the combat better than it is. Add to this that the dungeons do feel like simple action platformers and the intricate dungeon design that, as a Zelda fan, I crave is slightly offputting.

However, as an RPG/action platformer slant on the series I am enjoying it. I will try again later to defeat the boss of Dungeon 3 and delve deeper into Dungeon 4.

Zeldathon day 8: Adventure of Link, Slow progress.

This save system just really grinds my gears. Seriously. Having to treck back through the world is annoying, and considering the next part is a maze style series of caves, it is not really fun.

But yes, I defeated the boss of the second dungeon and so emerged from there but as I’ve said, repeating the same caves for the umpteenth time is quite infuriating so I’m putting the game down until tomorrow when I will attempt it again. Refreshed.