Best of January 2013

Best of January 2013

With the month’s end, there is a lot out there in the world to discover. There is no time for boredom, but in case you are, this is going to be a long article. Maybe you missed on some fancy news. Here are the highlights from my point of view of January.

Best gaming console:

The best gaming console should be a 3DS, as pocket gaming is also part of the word consoles. A 3DS XL Pikachu edition is coming to America for the Nintendo club members. I really want one. Wasn’t there a charizard edition coming? Well, some people believe a 3DS is better than the XL because it is lighter, but it all comes down to personal opinion. The XL is not 500Kg more than the original and I am willing to sacrifice some calories in order to hold a bigger screen. It just can’t get cuter, and the original is also packed with some glossy shiny plastic. Some limited editions aren’t half-bad either.

Best online (flash) game:

This time I choose it from Nitrome, a site full of nerdy, isometric pixilated sprites. I used to love the site ever since they made this old game called mutiny, and spent a lot of time on it with my friends. Back then it was a plain website that is not so heavy on your browser. I don’t know what happened with Nitrome today, as most changes are to the worst, stretching game dimensions and painting the page with adverts that the only good change was the settings on all games, and the steam game. As for the best NEW game they made, as most of their games are good (I still have my complaints on the webpage design) Hot AirJr would take the title. Its sprites are cuter (like yoshi’s island) its menu is also better (like Kirby games) and the difficulty is hard for beginners which is good because it throws you right into where you should be (assuming you played all previous titles). Funny, it even has a storyline. Check it out here. I was going to choose Plunger because of its DYNA-like character but noticing the enemies in the game with the restricted movement it didn’t capture enough gravity. In hot air it may be you controlling the balloon, but the basket is controlled purely by physics. However it might be a good idea to check out a lot of the games on Nitrome. The old-school ones are great.

Best tablet:

Samsung Galaxy Note II 10.1”

Honestly I have never imagined 2GB of RAM on any smartphone or tablet, but the fact that this phone is so big that it is considered a tablet makes it the ace monster in the market. Of course there is a 5.5” screen, but honestly I wouldn’t want to waste such high specs on a lower screen. I don’t mind a drop in pixel density since all tablets nowadays, even ones with a lower screen, do not have a high pixel density like this one. Here are some highlights of the specifications of the N8000:

800 x 1280 pixels, 10.1 inches screen (~149 ppi pixel density)

MicroSD card slot up to 64 GB

16/32/64 internal storage, 2GB RAM

Quad-core 1.4GHz processor Cortex A9

You can see the rest of the specifications at GSMarena.

Best blog:

Every month I will pick a blog. Of course it has to be updated but I also prefer blogs talking about what I like, such as Zelda games. It’s good to admit that some other blog could be better than you as long as there is no real rivalry between the two. This month I recommend you to check out http://touriantourist.blogspot.com/ this blog seems to capture a lot from Zelda and have a good design. This blog has 7 posts on the page. That's okay because you get to see a lot I guess. Better than most other blogs I see in the world. Heck, even the official Google blog is like this. WHY?!

Best smartphone news:
Now while saying the best smartphone bluntly wouldn't work as there are a lot out there, although I love the LG 4X HD P880 over the Samsung SIII and would nominate the Motorola Droid DNA in this contest, let’s stick to the news rather than a comparison between Yugioh monster cards. (The playing cards are 16:9, and so are the screens’ aspect ratios for all the smartphones, so that is a pun in a way or another)

Moving on to the actual news, a way for HTC to catch up with the new NFC technology, HTC is making a remote control to control your smartphone and TV. It also works as a clock, displays SMS, and makes calls, and makes your phone ring when you need to find it. I certainly don’t know if this is a good approach or a bad one, but I hope HTC makes it work for a lot of HTC smartphones then it will probably be good. There are so much more features that you can see a video here.

January has been a good month for all of us and I hope next month brings more tech gadgets to the house. I also hope PC game developers stop requesting new processors and graphics cards because they will ruin computers eventually. Play More Zelda!

3rd adventure map DOWNLOAD NOW

3rd adventure map DOWNLOAD NOW

This is the adventure map I wanted to do from the very beginning. It has the difficulty and 1.2.5 and 1.4.7 versions. The difficulty is like this:

easy = light + water

normal = water

hard = nothing

here is the download list:

3rd adventure map 1.2.5 easy

3rd adventure map 1.2.5 normal

3rd adventure map 1.2.5 hard

3rd adventure map 1.4.7 easy

3rd adventure map 1.4.7 normal

3rd adventure map 1.4.7 hard

Now for the screenshots:

Now I know this is a short article. I am really tired from sitting on the computer all day. Plus that I wasn't able to achieve my daily goal of learning. Today wasn't so good so I can't find anything to type. In the meantime you can just try out the adventure map. They are all harder than the first (handicapped) one. The chests are entirely empty but the terrain has everything you need.

To the west of spawn direction is a little wood in the plains. There is a cave running right in front of the house. There is a swamp northwards of the spawn and a forest southwards. Eastwards there is sugar cane. So you might as well help yourself. It is no fun surviving if you are all handicapped, right? There is even no dog egg or anything. just the animals, their barns/coops, and your house that is an exact replica. Enjoy! And play more Zelda!



Nintendo Direct Sum Up

Nintendo Direct Sum Up

This Nintendo Direct is full of new announcements that may be fun, but let's first list them in order:

1- The Wii U gets 2 updates, one in spring and the latter in summer, to get all-new features in Miiverse and the TVii. It sounds okay, not exciting... Yet! This is just a warm up so that you don't faint about (a Zelda announcement) The features sound very cool, though, but are nothing compared to... I'll tell you later.

halfway awesome

One exciting feature is connected to Wii fit U, where you can seem to have a group to chat together privately. It uses the unique ID that is generated when you create this group or private network of sorts, and that sounds pretty cool.

awesome

Also the Miiverse will seem to have a filtering function to make awesome posts stand out than the "Yolo, I got polo" random posts you see on any social networking site. That is awesome because with addition to the anti spam and anti swaring the Miiverse has, this will make Miiverse waaaaay better than Facebook, Twitter, Instagram, and all the other sites combined. It seems the update will also make Miiverse expandable, so they can add new features on Miiverse and expand the servers all they want without the huge updates required.

awesome feature

pictures

the miiverse sounds awesome

The Miiverse will have an app for smartphones (android FIRST) but it won't be soon. The website will exist after the spring update but not the application.

2- This is even more exciting, that there will be a virtual console releases. And as a celebration for 30 years of NES, they are making some sort of discount. What is exciting is that this means more game on the Wii U that use the play off TV feature and on the gamepad. As well as Miiverse features, the virtual console won't be so closed and old like it looked like on the Wii. It seems you can also take them from the Wii to Wii U (obviously) and playing on the gamepad sounds good. But not as good as.. Oh I love pulling your leg like this. Especially because it is about.. (Zelda)  One more exciting thing in this point is that some games will come out for a limited time before the update.

3- Moving on to what we all wanted to hear, here are the games that are so exciting coming from Nintendo. Ordered by ascending excitement:

• Wii Fit U
• Pikmin 3
• Wii Party
• Yoshi's Epic Yarn
• Fire Emblem and Shin Megami Tensei
• Zelda! wait, TWO Zeldas!!!!!!

The word TWO was not a printing error. THERE ARE TWO ZELDA GAMES COMING!! It's time to leap for joy!

But before that, you have to see all the cool stuff of that new party game. I never liked the old party one but I think I will get this. So cool!

funny picture. Looks like a family game arcade stuffs finally

The first one is a Wind Waker HD remake. Maybe I don't like remakes but at least I don't have to use my old laggy gamecube controller.

he just said "Zeruda" more awesomely than "Zelda"

As for the entirely new Zelda game, Aonuma says "he can't show you pictures yet" that translates to "The game is simply just so awesome that in order not to ruin your life until launch it's better kept a secret." I don't know to what extent Hyrule could be awesome, but just one tiny tiny picture wouldn't hurt, right?
So what did you think about Nintendo Direct? I think that Zelda is awesome. and I also liked Yoshi as a cute plushie. And until we wait for the best game ever to have more news, play more Zelda!

Yoshi as a plushie

(I seem to have used the word awesome a little bit too much, sorry)

Lapis, Map, Pack

Lapis, Map, Pack

For starters there is a little surprise with Lapis Lazuli. I don't know if you would like it or not, but it looks like elements. Maybe if gravel became yellower and grass took on the same shape we would be having animal parade elements problem! They would make a good bell pedestal.

Then remember The first adventure map?

Well it had a problem that the farm isn't at spawn. So I am starting another one with a few differences, but the inside of the house and the dimensions of it are an exact replica. Since it was mentioned in an earlier post, hopefully I will add the difficulty, but it would take me some time because too many worlds would crash java due to low space. After all, there will be proper coop and barn so it would sure take some time, considering that this map has a tiny problem. Which is why I think There will be a back door. After all that, there might be a town, but not at the moment.

Saving the best for last, the new texture pack is here. I wanted to save it after finishing tools and armor, but because of the lack of firework particles it was a little bit of a rushy update. Maybe the sponge will be the light element and gravel should stay hue-less like the default. In a private world, I am currently experimenting the rarest villager job that can possibly spawn. The rarest will be mayor Thomas (or Hamilton from tree of tranquility and animal parade) The farming villagers should be rival farmers? It's quite confusing, but since (after the map) I am getting to the armor it would be quite easy to start with villagers too. Then there is the exact map adaptations, but since I don't have MCEdit (and I don't like it) It will take some time to find a perfect terrain.

Download the girl version here.

Download the boy version here.

Did you think these tree leaves have no y-axis increase (this is x and z top view)? If you did, then you fall weak to the power of perspective illusion. Until then, play more Zelda!

Fairies in Zelda games

Fairies in Zelda games

I previously mentioned yesterday on Zelda Dungeon that fairies have classes just like how some games have classes (warrior, magician, etc) But these classes in fairies are different, and I want to discuss more on them here (with visuals) and clarify that fairies aren't "eaten" like how many people come to agree.

First lets start with the most commonly important fairy, the Great Fairy. She is much bigger in size than all other fairies and she owns a fountain. It seems that these fairies guard some magic power that they would give to you, but notice that every visit, and every secound visit to a great fairy would heal your life and magic. Ofcourse some other fairies only heal your health and not magic, but the point is that all classes of fairies are capable of healing, even if they never do throughout the game. We've established the first obvious rule. If you are still unsure of "classes" then read on and you shall find the answer. Believe.. believe..

Wind Waker fairies are so weak that
they can't emit their own light

Proofs that classes exist are many, but let's look at the first one that comes to mind: The stray fairies. They are fragments of the Great Fairy and even they look special although they have a small size. Their colour changes with the Great Fairy that they were representing. And when you collect one she heals your health only. Ha!

Secound example would be in Spirit Tracks, although you may not remember, but in the entrance of the water temple there is a singing stone. Play the flute, and it would seem that you saved a fairy from being locked up. So it is implied that she has important matters and as a thank you, she would let you use her healing powers only once, and that she is generous enough to do so. This could mean she is of a different class.

Third example would be how the class can change. In phantom hourglass your guardian fairy Ciela, when she regains her memories, Ohsus tells her that she is such a special fairy, that she is a spirit. This proves that classes most certainly exist and that it is possible that fairies can upgrade themsleves or rank up through the classes, only the elite few reaching the top.

Now as to the most common healing fairies that are red or pink (skyward sword). They do have a life and personality, like Tatl and Tael, but the difference between Tatl and an ordinary fairy is that Tatl conserved her powers in order to use them in her own wish (such as scaring your horse) The reason why you can't talk to the healing fairies is because they possess such a small amount of magical power, that they can barely help you out any longer after one healing, because they themselves need to go to the fountain to get refreshed.

This means that when a fairy has disappeared from the game, it doesn't mean she is "eaten" but it means she isn't any helpful in the game at the current moment. Proof would be in Link's Awakening, how it appears that the great fairy is always there except when your hearts are full. Considering that ordinary fairies in Link's Awakening look like miniature versions of their great counterparts, this is a valid assumption.

As to how they heal you. It was mentioned in an interview at Games Kult that Link was inspired by Peter Pan, so it is just as how in Ocarina of Time the fairy just spins around and sprinkles fairy dust. Problem solved. Link isn't evil.

Now for why the Wind Waker fairies just seem so sad. Fairies are an entire race with a population and traditions and culture. Some humans in the real world just want to live peacefully away from adventure, and so do some fairies. They seem to be having a life and some of them just don't want to be disturbed. Maybe they are already weak in power that healing would actually make them sick.

Navi never heals you in game. Her powers are a lot and she won't have time to be healing. She can Z-target (L-target in 3DS remake) and she lets you communicate through Saria's song (she translates the voices heard through the ocarina) Tatl also does a similar translation sometimes. Navi is also very smart and does note your attention to objects that are movable in-game, displays light, colour-codes enemies and suspicious locations, and is like a walkthrough sometimes. Similarly Tatl talks a lot instead of you and gets into fights and made your horse under a spell (check the manga). So then we can also deduce that some classes of fairies lose the ability to heal people any longer, but initially they can.

This makes a lot of sense and proves a lot of mysteries. Do you believe so too? Or do you think I am wrong or missed out something? Tell me in the comments. And play more Zelda!

Best anticipated games for 2013

Best anticipated games for 2013

2013 began just a few weeks ago, and it’s about time to talk about what should be the best games out there we should want, especially with the introduction of so much more.

First starting with Nintendo consoles, and especially the most best one out there, the 3DS, here are some notable titles yet to be released (so we exclude harvest moon new beginning and unchained blades although it’s awesome):

1-    Fire Emblem Awakening: I have tried the demo and it has more complicated stuff (the more complex the better) such as adjacent units affecting each other in battle, and the graphics are obviously awesome. Character voice and customization is completely cool, too.

2-    Pokémon X & Y: Probably the second most wanted game coming to the 3DS, it is the first of its kind. Too bad this means the DS is dying

3-    Animal Crossing New Leaf: You can imagine what it would be like already. New features in everything.

4-    Castlevania: Probably the only M-rated game you would ever want on the 3DS this year.

5-    Etrian Odyssey IV: Let’s admit the 3DS has the most and best releases this year.

Now for the Wii U releases, there are not really notable ones, unless casual gamers want to hear that Wii Fit U is coming this year, but Pikmin 3 is worth noting.

The Wii gets Pandora’s Tower, but I don’t know. It’s like this is the end. But it’s for the better because the new Zelda will be the best on Wii U probably.

Moving onto the Playstation 3:

1-    Tales of Xillia: Okay, I don’t really play on playstation, but the battle system sounds way awesome. I am not sure and no guarantees but I want to try it too.

2-    Lightning Returns Final Fantasy XIII: It’s also coming on Xbox and I am defiantly getting it. 13 was the best and it’s sad that it’s going to end soon so I hope this game is worth being a Majora’s Mask clone.

3-    Dynasty Warriors (PSN) Sometimes games like these make me want to become a dedicated Sony gamer.

There are a lot of titles coming out for PS3 but this isn’t really a site for other consoles than Nintendo. But lucky PS3 gets a lot of RPGs and adventure games.

Now the Xbox:

1-    Dragon Age III: While not an exclusive (it’s also coming on PS3) but it should be a good sequel.

2-    Gears of War Judgment: I like this game and I hope it’s nice.

Lastly Windows:

1-    Sims: I don’t like Sims, but there is so many Sims games going to be released in 2013

The 3DS has so much more interesting titles, and most are exclusives, but for the Xbox, PS3, and Windows have a lot of games released for all titles, which makes the PS3 tops in the total of 153 games announced so far for this year. Look at the graph and see for yourself:

Zelda Rumour: Termina Theory

Termina Theory

The land of Termina is the one where most of your adventures center around the clock tower in an insane three day cycle. It is a Zelda game with no Princess Zelda in it. The shortest, most terrifying experience a child like Link would ever want to face. Of course he is brave enough, but this adventure is just too much to happen to people, or did it really happen?

ZeldaWiki says “Termina is a parallel world to Hyrule and the setting of Majora’s Mask.” But is it really parallel? I have a theory that it doesn’t exsist. But it is different than the other ones out there. But first let’s look at evidence. Note that this is going to be an image-heavy article, so those with slow internet can use this to test their patience (try google chrome, much faster)

Let’s begin with the beginning of the game where the bandit who stole your ocarina in the forest is the very same bandit that was your friend in Ocarina of Time even before the game started. In the manga of Volume 2 of OOT the two last chapters showed an adventure that happened in the lost woods before Link got Navi. It was a real test for friendship and in the end Skull Kid became friends, but the manga shows a character that never appears in the game:

This is a dark version of the Great Deku Tree, probably his relative or his evil rival. Long story short, he made Skull Kid kidnap Saria and he also made Skull Kid hate adults and people from the outside, but in the end it turned out well and they became friends. I’m guessing that tree appeared in the manga to give a reason of why Skull Kid would betray his new friends and try to give him a more noble character (relatively speaking, ofcourse) in order to explain that he is not an enemy.

But the crimes he did in Majora’s Mask is too much to explained that he was possessed. It is too much to say that he was a controlled puppet. Even the first thing he tells you in the game is “What's with that stupid horse of yours” In the manga it shows that the horse is under a spell. Let’s just take a look at some of his crimes, only some.

Not to mention the boulder he put on the entrance of the Romani ranch, and the curses he made on the terrains of the temples, and the MOON!! Oh the sad scary moon. But there is one person who got something stolen from him in the same forest of Hyrule like you. The Happy Mask Salesman doesn’t sound very convincing in his pain though. Just look at what he says in the manga

So the salesman comes to skull kid and tells him about it and then refuses to give it to him. Naturally after being curious it is normal to just go ahead and grab it, especially for that specific imp. He is such a troublemaker. But the salesman is even more of a troublemaker. He caused this whole problem, that in the last chapter of MM manga (that makes in MMM, haha) Link tells the salesman “Be gone, troublemaker.” But the expressions on his face act as if it was his own mask. The salesman clearly wanted to drag Link into this for a reason (read on to find out)

How can the salesman hide the fact that he was driving these events with own hands when it is so obvious. He wanted the mask to get stolen from him. He wanted Link to get into this. He made a mirror of hyrule. This mirror is called termina. Termina doesn’t exsist, but instead show alternate roles and personalities of characters Link and the salesman both know and have met. The proof is in the manga:

Link notices that this world is different. If Termina really was real, how did all the characters migrate from hyrule and enter clock town if the only way to enter termina is through the rusty basement of the clock tower.

The way to enter is too dangerous to be used for all these citizens. All these locked doors, an entrance clearly for deku scrubs, it is not possible that Termina is easily accessible to anyone but certain people. Another proof that Termina is a mirror is what Anju says and Link’s comments in the manga. Its like how Bowser’s inside story included the brainwashed minions to say “Fawful” instead of “bowser”

It is now obvious that the salesman made “termina” in order to let his scheming plans go without him being actually evil because since the characters are not real he isn’t really messing with anyone’s life. The reason is not simply to experience Majora’s power. He wasn’t purely making an experiment with fake memories. He has deeper reasons.

Notice that when Link deposits ruppees in the bank they don’t get lost with time going backward. The merchant obviously controls what goes back in time travel and what does not. Notice that both the salesman and Majora know a lot about Link in since the beginning of the game. The merchant and Majora are then both on equal terms and agree on the actions done. It could be Majora’s magic that makes some of the items stay while others are lost, such as the bomber’s notebook and the powder keg liscence. This could be a plan that Majora’s Mask becomes powerful then agrees to get destroyed, all as the salesman plans.

The happy mask salesman is not more powerful than Majora. Majora is selective to its targets, and somehow gives a sort of humiliation to the salesman in return of what he did. He feeds the mask, the imp, the races of termina, and Link, then he withdraws everything he did so simply.

 The real reason why there is a three day time limit, is because Majora’s curse would reach the salesman after three days. The mirror won’t stay reflecting Hyrule forever. The land of Termina, its name coming from termination, is bound to get destroyed anyway, regardless of the moon falling or not. There is no spell that can permenantly exsist. The salesman helps to break the curse of being a deku because he made it. Why else would a merchant walk around with a dangerous mask and a huge piano? The salesman clearly wants to be your friend, playing with voodoo dolls  driven by his imagination to give you a frightful experience and gain the rewards that you made. Wouldn’t the items then just replicate themselves in order to travel backwards a short time?

I’m not saying that the salesman did all this just to get his bag full of gil, but he wanted to duplicate items and use Majora’s power in a more deeper way. He wanted to enhance his magic, and try to achieve a dream he never did, or at least it was not covered in Link’s memories. This incarnation of Link never knows where the salesman actually goes after the events of the game. So the salesman just wanted ultimate power after all.