I was not interested in the next Zelda. That, alone, was a shocking thing to feel, but everything I’d seen of the then-upcoming The Legend of Zelda: Wind Waker left me cold. It wasn’t sour grapes over not getting the “realistic” Zelda of the SpaceWorld demo so many expected, just a weird feeling that the…
Skyward Sword has some pretty fun boss fights. Using Koloktos’s blades against it, running away from Scaldera, and tentatively hoovering the sand both searching for and not wanting to find the squirming Moldarach (which still gives me the creeps to this day) are all pretty fun. Of course, there are also bosses that I don’t…
The Zelda series has always been a fairly varied mix of both heartwarming and bone-chilling. From the soothing comfort of going to a familiar town to the outright nightmarish horrors that wait at the bottom of a well, the series has always done an excellent job of being diverse in its presentations of both joyfulness…
I’ve been playing Zelda games since I was 11 years old and first acquired A Link to the Past under my Christmas tree alongside my brand new Super Nintendo Entertainment System. That was my introduction to Link, Zelda, Ganon, the Triforce, and so much more about Hyrule and its ever-growing, ever-complicated history. I kept up…
Back when my wife and I were still dating, I was obsessed with The Wind Waker. I loved Toon Link’s expressions, the dungeons where you control multiple characters, and the vibrancy of this version of Hyrule, but more than anything else, my favorite part was the sense of adventure. Setting sail for an unmarked square…
I have played Zelda games for about as long as I can remember. Every single one of them pre-Skyward Sword has played a massive part in my early childhood, and I love all of them. But if you were to ask anyone who knows me what my favorite is, and which one I know the…
As an English teacher, June is always an exciting time for me. It means the end of the school year and laying down all the stresses that come with it, getting to rest and recuperate from the burdens of the year, making summer plans with my family, and it’s waiting with bated breath to see…
The 100 Gold Skulltula sidequest in Ocarina of Time is infamous for being one of the most arduous, annoying tasks in the entire game to complete. In addition to many of the Gold Skulltulas being extremely well hidden and some of them only being accessible under extremely specific conditions, the reward that you get for…
When I was 12, I had to make what could have been one of the most important decisions in my life to that point. A decision that would not only shape my near future but would irrevocably shape me as a person for many long years to come. A decision of massive importance that only…
When I was a kid, I didn’t know that forums and walkthroughs existed, and nor did my friends. Instead, we traded solutions to the puzzles that the Nintendo 64 games provided us. We would sometimes keep little notes in the instruction booklets, but more often than not, the real challenge was remembering how we solved…
One of the beautiful things about Breath of the Wild is that everyone plays it differently. Some players only care about the story objectives while others seek out every Ancient Shrine and Korok. I was a bit of a completionist. During the months after Breath of the Wild’s release, I played obsessively to complete every…
From when my oldest child was two and a half until he was four, he went through a phase where he would constantly come out of his room when he should have been going to bed. Often immediately after we turned off the lights, but sometimes as much as an hour after, he would slink…
Many years ago, my brothers came back from a long trip, and they were eager to show me and our parents tons of photos of the places they had seen. They were also pretty eager to give us gifts they had as well, and I was excited to see what they were. One of those…
Beyond playing the games and reading the manga, one way that my daughter and I share the Zelda fandom is through watching theorists on YouTube. At least once a week, we’ll cuddle up together and watch and discuss any new hypotheses put forth by channels such as Zeltik, NintendoBlackCrisis, and Hyrule Gamer. One afternoon when…
Of the countless discoveries that players can make while exploring Breath of the Wild’s Hyrule, one of the coolest can be found in one of the most unassuming spots on the enormous map. Meadela’s Mantle is a large, snow-covered terrace that sits just northwest of the Yiga Clan Hideout in the Gerudo Highlands. Aside from…
