Friday, October 12, 2012

EPISODE 76: "Ask Ivan"

As a result of working out some bugs with the video, "Ask Ivan" is now live! Really, really proud of how this one came out (I think its the best mailbag to date, honestly) and I hope you'll check it out RIGHT HERE. (There's no embedding option for this blog just yet, working on that..)

And for those wondering, yes - that big action sequence at the end is the "nightmare" editing project that had been giving me so much trouble. So, just for my own edification... it'd be super-awesome if even people who don't "care" about the sketch-segments at least gave it a watch ;)

WATCH IT ON SCREWATTACK NOW!

39 comments:

Robert said...

I agree that making Link female in a future Zelda game is a good idea, in principle. My reservations come from an impression that Nintendo has been less than progressive in the treatment of their female characters. If it was done well, I'd be all for it...but I honestly would rather them not try if they are going to screw it up badly. Perhaps we should have a game were Zelda is a playable character first (more than she was in Spirit Tracks, that is)?

Daniel R said...

Awesome episode! I know you said it was a nightmare to edit but might I just say, time well spent. That final action sequence was top notch!

Yaaayy! My question made it, cosmopolitan huh?

Just so you know, "Whats up with you and Tinkerbell? That bitch knows what she did!" is the single best thing I've heard you say on the internet. Bravo.

Yeah, I'm most definitely for the female zelda angle, but while Nintendo's at it, howzabout they make her, wait for it... Gerudo.

Think about it. Lynk is born and raised to follow King Ganandorf's commands, she's raised to be a proud Gerudo warrior, raised to hate the Hyleans and all they stand for, the legend of the hero of time might have even been told to her all her life as a sort of horror story
"Prophecy says that a malicious green knight will one day attack our proud tribe and kill our beloved king."
Then she suddenly figures out she's the hero of time and bam! DRAMA!

Man, I've got to write some of this down. Where's my notepad?

nullhypothesis said...

My thoughts:

I was about to say that Ivan correctly identified the best pony, until I realized you were going to have him answer it six times.

Or... seven. Or eight, or... TRIXIE?! jeez, did you get that sick of the question?

Okay, and adding onto the message segment:

Earth to gamers: Anita Sarkeesian has never been pro-censorship. In fact, she has never called for or advocated any form of boycott for the various media she has critiqued. I think one of the most "interesting" (by which I mean pathetic) things of the FemFreq backlash has been the litany of opinions and positions that her detractors are trying to project onto her, in lieu of ever actually having listened to a word she said.

Moving on:

I too agree about having Link be a girl. Nintendo should do that. But, since they WON'T do it, perhaps someone should go the "Watchmen" route and just make a new IP that is a transparent Zelda clone with the gimmick being that the Link-character is a girl (that alone would make it different enough that nobody would be crying rip-off).

Bob, didn't you brainstorm a whole modern-day-setting outline for this on Twitter a while back? I can't find it now, because Twitter's search function sucks and I can't stand manually scrolling that far back looking for it, but would you consider posting it in these comments?

Great drama with Omegathinker and Robothinker, by the way.

Razmere said...

Gotta admit, this episode was TONS OF FUN! Got some good laughs out of the end battle.


Also, just in case anyone from Nintendo is reading the comments.

A GIRL LINK WOULD BE WAY PAST COOL! Na you don't need to gender bend the entire cast. (Though it would be interesting to see a lady Ganondorf.)

As long as they keep the NEW GAME PLUS option from Skyward Sword I'll be totally okay with a Lady Link game.

Redd the Sock said...

Okay, first the minor continuity hicup: Mai Shiranui wasn't in the first Fatal Fury, but was added for Fatal Fury 2.

The rest, I'm not against the girl link idea, (I generally play female characters if given a choice and I'm a guy) but not sure if Link has ever had enough characterization to make it matter (okay, at least in the games not CDi based). I mean, had it ever been mandatory to name him Link? It just means that you end up with the same effect as the choose a gender path, a story made of a few nice moments wrapped around a lot of a mute doing errands both minor and heroic, and I'd rather a female character, not a female puppet. Write a real page turner plot around it with characters above NPCs and I'm all for it (mostly because I'm tired of the generic Nintendo plots), but without it, it just seems pointless and pandering to force it. Stick with a gender pick. I don't know how much Zelda dialog refers to Link with a pronoun anyway and it's usually text so it's easy to swap if and when if comes up.

Nick said...

The music when OmegaThinker appears at the end is Zero's them from the Mega Man X games.

1 - Well at least I know Bob's played those ones. Dare I hope you have/will play the Zero and ZX series too?

2 - Did Bob just forget to list that track in the credits with the others, or am I missing something?

Megabyte said...

While the show was good (and the army scenes were HYSTERICAL), I have to admit, I was getting annoyed with the female link part...not because of the idea, but because I began to feel like it was passing the "this is a cool idea" to being a very very very amateurish sales pitch of it... please, Bob... don't do that again.

The Bagwellian said...

A good job. Very enjoyable. I like that you are trying to outdo yourself as you keep this going. Having watched it I think I can see where the problem you had producing it lay.

So, during that fight sequence you had a lot of green screen. More than that, you duplicated clips to add numbers. So you had a clip with the tank and then duplicated it so that there were three of four tanks. But each of those duplicated clips had its own key effect that had to be rendered.

So now you have five or more layers of video and most of them had a key effect. Sooner or later your computer just says "Fuck you, I quit!" How you get around that is either get a render farm, rent time on ILM's render farm, or nest. This means you create other sequences and use them to assemble the individual elements, render those elements as uncompressed video, and them import them into your main sequence. In audio we sometimes have to do a similar thing called stemming.

blue_dragon said...

Just have Zelda save Link! That would be really cool. Plus, that way they would have a chance to show exactly what Zelda is capable of. Zelda has already been established to have her own fighting abilities.

You wouldn't even need to reset the story. Here's an example:

After Zelda becomes a sage in ocarina of time, Link gets captured. The sages look down and see that he is in trouble. After all that he has done for them the sages agree that they must save him. Ruto volunteers first because she considered her self engaged to link for a while. but Zelda wants a chance to pay link back for saving her from ganondorf. The other sages agree, but to descend to the world again she must leave her sage powers behind and become only mortal again.

This set up has many benifits. That Ganon can be resurected with links blood has already been established in the second Zelda game. If link was captured they would obviously take his equipment so if they didn't want to create new stuff to go after their is a good reason the old stuff would have to be recaptured. Now there is a reason the stuff would be inside chests, inside dungeons, with guards.

Zelda especially this Zelda has been established as a capable fighter in her own right but we didn't get much exploration of what her skills and powers actually are. Smash brothers kinda covers it but nothing in cannon explores just what Zelda is cappable of on her own. She is a princess with access to the best teachers in the kingdom and all Hyrules accumulated knowledge. She should be able to do some impressive stuff.

The Zelda/Ruto choice gives a chance to play the game as to very different but still female characteres. Zelda and Ruto being so fundamentally different would give players a chance to explore the same challanges in totally different ways. The Triforce of wisdom was tied to zelda before she became a sage, her powers could be based on that. Ruto could have her powers built around water.

It gives us a good excuse to revisite many peoples favorite version of Hyrule and explore a bit more and mabe include some of the things that had to be cut out last time. A lot of stuff got cut from Ocarina because of time or memory constraints. This gives them a chance to out it back into the world.

Finally Zelda would at last get a GOOD game of her own and hopfully erase the laser disk game from living memory.

ScrewAttackSamus said...

@Sylocat

But she's an eeeeeevil feminist, therefore she MUST be against free speech and hate men for no reason because men are a HORRIFICALLY oppressed demographic in danger of losing "traditional" masculinity to a progressive society. Ah, it's good for a laugh, ain't it?

Anyway, fun episode. I especially like the dig against devs outright admitting they're too gutless or lazy to try developing something for the Wii U

Anonymous said...

"There is a fine line between bravery and stupidity."
~Yurnero the Juggernaut

David said...

I agree: this is the best mailbag episode to date!

I wish I had put my question in time!

Although (sorry for crushing the illusion for one second), sometimes it's pretty difficult to tell when you can interpret Ivan's responses coming from you (as in Bob's opinion coming out from Ivan's mouth as a joke) or from the character (as in an opinion that is it in on itself a joke).

I mean, it's pretty clear that "Ivan likes Halo" but... Ivan saying he loves the "Kingdom Hearts" series or the personal favorites from each Nintendo franchise come really from Ivan or from Bob?


On the Link being a girl thing... well, if it was a starting franchise (or a spin-off!) I would be all for it, but the iconography and mythology of the series are too established for it to properly work. Specially considering that Nintendo is slowly but surely going to the "Link and Zelda hook up" approach (it comes from before "Skyward Sword").

However, I think there is another root for having a female protagonist option, which has been said by other people already: controlling Zelda.

Seriously, the character has shown her potential plenty of times already. They just need to properly use that potential.

PS: Link and Zelda were NOT family in "A Link to the Past". That was just a misunderstanding from a vague line from Link's uncle (which was fixed in the GBA version) paired with some fan wanking.

Redd the Sock said...

In fairness, Sarkesian can come off as somewhat militant in her tone and seems very uninterested in context behind why a decision that may be sexist might actually be made without thought to sexism. Phrases from a couple of her videos like "writers need to stop.." come off like even though she isn't calling for censorship, she wants the idea taken off the table entirely instead of toned down. Granted, a lot of her critics were just out to behave like total asshats, but I think there is legitimate criticism as to how she approaches the subject.

Frankly I'd rather see Liana K at gaming excellence tackle the issue more directly if for no other reason that she doesn't come off like Ivy Valentine's mere existance sets women back to the stone age:

http://www.gamingexcellence.com/features/the-top-five-mistakes-were-all-making-with-women-in-gaming

Unknown said...

While I like the idea of a Zelda game with a female protagonist, I don't think Nintendo is up to the writing to make it work and not just seem like a bad fanservice gimmick. Even if you were to go the Gerudo route that Daniel R suggested or the Zelda saves Link route blue_dragon suggested.

One big issue with a purely female Link is that you have to subtly shift the mechanics and/or story, otherwise the gender change is just a cosmetic one that is inherently meaningless. Making that type of change however will almost certainly annoy some of the fanbase and has the potential for all sorts of implicit misogyny.

One idea that would be interesting if pulled off correctly would be to have two playable protagonists, one male one female, with separate inventory sets, side quests, combat style, etc. Then in some dungeons the male is the optimal choice, and in others the female.
On the story side they each have very different arcs going and even very different motivations. Perhaps have one as the classic Zelda hero type and the other more the grim mercenary and thief antihero type.

Jeremy Allen said...

Loved this episode. As usual you come up with some great answers to equally great questions. Plus I like the idea of giving question sessions to your side characters.

Also, Ivan as a brony is awesome.

MaestroMuse said...

I liked the content, but the video of Ask Ivan was comming apart - good effort anyway. I need to respond on one detail - Nintendo's Zelda franchise, and especially Skyward Sword, was facing real prejudice from the market, but no because Link is a blank slate, or could be improved if he was a girl or *gasp* used a skin tone box to improve accessibility... Zelda is the victim of bias in gamers who think Skyrim was all they needed. Part of this is the reality of market forces - both were competing directly for the holiday market, etc, etc, but more troubling was that Skyrim, as brilliant as it is at showcasing the land and the setting, couldn't hold a candle to the deep boss fights, or heck, just playing around with the double clawshots! Superficial changes aren't really what Zelda needs. That said, 4Swords is not dead, not even slightly, and I see no reason not to see it grow in the direction Nintendo Land could well be testing, girls and all!

Sabre said...

Redd- There is an interesting video that has a bit about that here.
http://youtu.be/LpFk5F-S_hI

But yes, if we are only talking about legal/government level censorship, then she is not trying to censor games.

If we are talking about moral/social censorship, then as you pointed out, it is. Certain topics, themes, ideas, or even costumes, art styles and body types aren't allowed. Not just toned down, done differently or given context, but instead it's "No, don't do this ever."

Nixou said...

"Zelda is the victim of bias in gamers who think Skyrim was all they needed"

I don't think that "gamers who think Skyrim is all they need" even have a Wii.

***

"Skyrim, as brilliant as it is at showcasing the land and the setting, couldn't hold a candle to the deep boss fights, or heck, just playing around with the double clawshots"

Skyrim is as it core, a classical PCish grinder in pretty clothes: many gameplay elements in the Zelda series are not found in games like Skyrim because they are not needed/wanted by the devellopers.

ScrewAttackSamus said...

ah, the imaginary rivalry gamers and even the press tried to make between Skyrim, Skyward Sword, and Dark Souls; it was one of the DUMBEST things last years.

Also, I can tell Bob EXACTLY when CAPCOM broke its brain: when they got the idea to appeal to Western audiences. And who was the man who adamantly supported the notion: Keiji Inafune. Weird, isn't it?

supercomputer276 said...

I thought I recognized the music in the beginning! It just didn't hit me where until the end. Klonoa: Door to Phantomile, "Staffroll." Loving that.

Concerning female Link, it'd be a cool idea, but I dunno. I'm not sure it'd go over completely as well with the fanbase unless it was something like how vlademir1 put it, implementing the change into the gameplay, because that's how Zelda works: gameplay first, story follows. "Who says the reincarnation can't be a girl?" Also consider: who said it had to only be one person at a time, really? History and fiction has its composite characters where traits from two or more people were combined into a whole, and I'm not just talking about that one episode of the Dilbert cartoon. There could be a story where a male and a female each have their own separate paths and adventures that occasionally and with increasing frequency cross, only to come together to defeat Ganon's latest scheme in the end. It could work, but it'd have to be handled delicately to overcome the fan-dumb initial response.

Incidentally, I laughed at each of the "best pony" ones, if only because of the pure running gag-ness of it.

Sabre said...

Aiddon- I wouldn't say "Gamers and the press". I'd say "Nintendo fans and some of the press". That's mainly because, well, no one really cares about Zelda outside of the Nintendo fandom, with the exception of a few games. (1, Link to the Past, OoT, Wind Waker, Twilight Princess) I saw more MW3 v Battlefield 3 and Torchlight 2 v Diablo 3 stuff, and no one really cared about those either, despite the best efforts of the press. Point is, I wouldn't really count it as rivalry because they are so far removed from each other. It's like saying there is a rivalry between chocolate and pizza. At least Torchlight 2 and Diablo 3 were the same genre, so the pre release clashing of heads made sense, but once the game came out, it was clear nobody cared.

Nixou- I'm not sure what you mean when you say Skyrim was a "classical PCish grinder". It's not like a JRPG or a MMO where you walk around a field for 3 hours until you hit a certain number to continue the plot.

If anything, Skyrim is less of a grind than most RPGs because levels don't matter much outside of a few specific level locked dungeons. Alot of things scale and quests are rarely the filler "fetch 20 wolf skins" kind.

Nixou said...

"Alot of things scale and quests are rarely the filler "fetch 20 wolf skins" kind."

I still have this "fetch me ten bear skins" quest in my own current Skyrim game. And there is also the whole "radiant" system, which can be summarized as "fetch me this item/kill the boss in this dungeon randomly selected from a list" and was supposed to be the brilliant idea which would make every game of Skyrim different and give it a virtually endless replay value.

*

"Skyrim is less of a grind than most RPGs because levels don't matter much outside of a few specific level locked dungeons"

Falmers and dwemer security bots are a pain in the ass if you don't have a mid-level healing spell. And don't get me started on the smilodon put in the Middle of the 7.000 steps.

*

"It's not like a JRPG or a MMO where you walk around a field for 3 hours until you hit a certain number to continue the plot."

There is a lot of grinding in Skyrim. At a fundamental level, Skyrim leveling up system has a lot in common with a Dragon Quest or a WoW: you gain one level every 20-30 minutes for the first 10 levels or so, unlocking the earliest bonuses used to customize your character, thus hooking yourself to the game's system of rewards, then the leveling slow down to a crawl. The smart trick used by Bethesda is that instead of using a single linear value (XP) they drown the player under the progression of 18 skills, so much that your punny human brain cannot connect the dots anymore, so instead of thinking "I'm grinding for the next 3.200 XPs", you think "I'm forging new items instead of killing trolls, how rich and varied is this game", not realizing that you are still grinding for the very same 3.200 fucking XPs

Also, Skyrim has virtually no plot: the main quest is a 8-10 hours long by itself, starts with a bang and loses all its steam after the first hour, and since everything else is optional, your characters deeds have virtually no impact: Does becoming the Archmage of Winterhold before tackling the main quest affect it? Nope. Does becoming the legendary Dragonborn, aknowledged as the dominant lifeform on Nirn, who single handedly turned the tide of the civil war before starting the magic academy quests will affect, say, the way Ancano reacts to you? Nope. You just have that enormous worldbuilding in the background of the game which is wasted on a barebone plot because doing otherwise would diminish the sandboxy nature of the game.

Uneek said...

@vlademir1
"...otherwise the gender change is just a cosmetic one that is inherently meaningless."

Exactly. It's like gender in real life!

Sabre said...

Nixou- Skyrim does have issues, but I still don't see how that makes it the "classic PC grind" you said it was.

Yes, it has a few fetch quests, but alot of the time it's deeper and more varied than that, and it's far from something like Dungeon Siege or Torchlight, where the entire plot is grind until the boss which is what is usually mean by "classic PC RPGs".

As for the grinding itself. I hate to say this because it sounds stupid, but if grinding was really an issue for you then you weren't playing it right. You weren't paying attention.

If you CHOOSE to, you can say "I'm going to grind", and so "I'm going to make a million Iron Daggers" or "I'm going to let this weak enemy hit me while I heal to get my armour up" means you had to deliberately pull yourself out of the game to grind. You can finish the game without grinding. You can skip a bunch of quests and still be powerful. Even if all you want to do is level, given that skill trainers exist, it actually takes more effort to grind your way to a decent level than to just raid a few dungeons and pay. If you found yourself grinding alot, you must have either tried to boil the game down to 1s and 0s, or you were really messing up. Yes, some quests are easier with certain skills, but most are doable whatever your build.

ScrewAttackSamus said...

ah, the smithing exploit, showing just how easy it is to BREAK Skyrim. Furthermore, magic (especially offensive) is borderline useless. Just smith until you get the highest equipment and learn enchanting so you can give your weapons and equipment TWO perks and then watch as you steamroll EVERYTHING in the game. Heck, the only way to "enjoy" combat is to just make it so it something inconsequential. It's because of these HUGE flaws (that Bethesda has NEVER rectified) that I can never give TES games anything higher than a 8.5.

Gus said...

I love both Daniel R and blue-dragons suggestions for Zelda plots with a female protagonists.

Here was my idea.

Sequel to Twilight Princess. Basically Link is back at Ordon village working like he always has, when everyone notices the Twilight Rhelm is opening again, and starts bleeding agcross Hylrue, starting at the heart of the castle. He suits up, grabs epona and charges toward the castle. As he fights his way into the thown room, he notices that it is Midna of all people holding Zelda custody, who returned to Earth with "dark energy" since the portal was destroyed (you know, the same "dark energy" that Odin congured to send Thor to Earth in The Avengers since the Bifrost was destroyed.)

With Link unable to slay his friend in that moment, Mindna cast a spell that causes Link and Zelda to switch places, turning Link into a prince and Zelda into a ranch girl.

Basically, it turnes out the Twilight Princess really did develop feelings for the Hero of Time. So she came back to Earth and turned him into a Prince of Hyrule so that not only can their engagement unite their Kingdoms, and in prcess their worlds, but they can be together forever.

So now you the player, are left playing Zelda, now a ranch girl, and must seek the aids of the sages (in the form of those giant gold beasts I forget their names) to gain the strength to defeat Midna and restore the separation of the real world and Twilight Rhelm.

Anonymous said...

Great Episode, Bob! The final battle between the Ninja army and Robo-Thinker really makes me want to find/play Lethal Enforcers.

Must have been a pain to edit though.

Also female Link is a fantastic idea!

Sabre said...

Aiddon- 8.5 is a pretty good score, unless you are using IGN/Gamespot scoring?

Also, the smithing exploit was fixed pretty early on. Though the skill itself is still overpowered, you can't just Iron Dagger your way to victory.

Offensive magic was pretty crap though. So was all the mind powers because unless you leveled them from the start, everything but chickens seemed to resist that stuff.

You could do some pretty crazy stuff with the 2 perks thing. You could even get unlimited magic I think. I don't know if they fixed that or other things though. The game has changed alot since release. Last I played they added kill cams for bows, but I've heard they have added horse back combat and other crazy stuff.

Did you ever play Dark Messiah? That had some great first person combat, although you mostly just kick dudes off of or into stuff. Dead Island had some good combat too, but only works for zombies and other slow monsters. The game was to repetitive and some of the skills were worthless.

The Saarai'ari said...

I'd like to see the Gamer culture use the term "Player" more. Though it will be tough given that the word is commonly thought of these days as a term for guys who have affairs with many women and will not marry or commit to a real relationship.

I say we within the Gamer culture have to start fighting to take that word back. We're the Players.

Also yes, yes, yes, would love to see Nintendo make a Zelda game in which Link is a girl.

Nixou said...

"I still don't see how that makes it the "classic PC grind" you said it was."

Because the "classic PC grind" is a game which gives the player a ton of sidequests in order to hide the fact that it is a grind. the most praised western RPGs: the Baldur's Gates, Fallouts, Dragon Ages, etc... are the ones who do this the most competently; the success of WoW comes from the extensive use of this formula, and Skyrim is all about giving you dozens upon dozens of sidequests which create a sense of variation and discovery to the walk somewhere – kill stuff by mashing L1/R1 – loot everything routine.

The thing is, I love PCish grinds: the reason my favorite game this generation is Xenoblade is because it provides the best PCish grind. So I don't see Skyrim being a classic case of PC grind to be a flaw in itself (the fact that it's used as an excuse to not bother to make a coherent interesting plot, on the other hand...), just the reason why it does not follow the same route as a Zelda.

Jannie said...

It'd be nice to see a Zelda game that actually has Zelda IN IT as opposed to her being an object that needs to be recovered. The Ark of the Covenant had more of a developed backstory in Raiders.

At any rate, I wouldn't hold my breath because the fact is, of the handful of female Nintendo characters, I don't recall any with their own games outside of Peach and Samus and one of them showed up in Other M a while back reduced to a weeping girl child because...

...God I don't know. Because someone over at Nintendo finds a woman cowering in the corner weeping an attractive imagine, because "being anachronistic" was the game's selling point but somebody took it too far, because business environments that promote homogeneity as a virtue and obedience as the norm tend to develop tunnel vision, take your pick.

Whatever the case, Nintendo may be a mite gunshy now thinking that Western audiences will be watching them like a hawk, especially after the whole Sarkesian kickstarter thing became a feminist meme.

To be fair, I'm not sure if you could even make that work without angering homophobes--presumably Zelda would still be a woman even if Link is too (?) so I could imagine conservatives and anti-lesbian groups shitting their pants at the idea of this "weird anime game teaching women to become lesbians!" or some other such nonsense.

Jannie said...

I'm not sure how Zelda is any LESS of a "grind" than...anything. Indeed I'd argue that most Zelda games, post OOT, tend to be more grind-y than the bulk of Final Fantasy titles.

There clearly is a pattern to virtually all post Ocarina of Time Zelda games being that you cycle through a variety of "trials" or "temples" or "tests" or the like to prove your worth until you finally clock out and reach the end boss then fight a pig monster with stuff you picked up in the various temples-trials-tests-etc.

Though I guess you could say that's not a "grind" in the sense that you can't just farm pig-men until you can sequence-break your way to Boss Pig Man and kill him, like with some RPGs (Western AND Japanese). In that respect Zelda games aren't grinds because there is no traditional grinding, per se. But that's splitting the molecules on the tips of hairs.

I guess you could also argue Zelda isn't a grind because it isn't "really" an RPG, but instead some kind of bizarre chimaera of a third-person shooter and a puzzle game. I'm not sure about that one myself but whatever that might be bias on my part. At any rate it's simply incorrect to say that Zelda is not or somehow "less" of a grind than Skyrim, when I'd argue it contains far more tedious busywork than the majority of FF games.

...take note, Link to the Past is one of my favorite games ever, so I'm not opposed to Zelda as a series--frankly it has stood the test of time better than most Nintendo titles, alongside Star Fox in that respect, but nevertheless...

Sabre said...

Nixou- But that is every game really. You are pushing buttons to reach the goal/get the thing/kill the thing. I remember a guy who didn't read books or watch films often because "There are only 9 plots". While technically true, the execution is what matters.

I like Skyrim, but for me, it's got decent action for the kind of game it is, and the quests are usually good. The Forsworn Conspiracy being an example. Even some of the fetch quests have something to make you care, like the one where you have to jewels so a guy can make a wedding ring.

I guess this is coming down to what is considered grind. To me, Skyrim doesn't fit that definition. To me, grinding is where you have to kill the same enemies over and over and over in order to reach a certain level to progress.

Anonymous said...

Finally somebody else says we need a girl link. Been wanting that one for a while. Hell why not just play as Zelda, she is way cooler then link anyway and has a better costume, imagine her with that master sword and shield in hand, so awesome! Those Zelda DS games where such a disappointment in this regard. In one she was a cool black chick but never did a damn thing and had to transform at the end to her standard look, and in the other you got to go on an adventure together on a freaking magic train but it turned out it didn't move freely and she was just an annoying stereotype. I was so disappointed in those games, I want her to kick ass like link does, is that really so hard?

Also, watch the ending, it sucked, sorry Bob. I liked the idea of a dragonball type fight but for some reason your stuff just never looks or feels good, right. funny or in anyway enjoyable, not even in a so bad its good way. Wish I could tell you what it was. Good luck in the future man!

Anonymous said...

I find it odd that Bob would want a girl Link, since way back when he stated that people get angry very easily when you replace a well established (and fan favorite) character with a stereotypical black, hispanic, asian, or homosexual (I believe Bob used Green Lantern Jon Stewart for his example). I know Link is supposed to be a clean slate type of hero, but I think it would make far more sense to just give Zelda her own game, I mean, she is more than capable of fighting when they actually show her doing it, the most famous being her alter ego Shiek. I don't think it would not stretch anyone's imagination to have her wear some battle appropriate attire and save her own damn kingdom for once right?

Anonymous said...

Dood, you look SO ridiculous in that wig. lol.

Anonymous said...

Eh, sorry but no I'm in disagreement with turning Link into a girl. I mean, when I talk to other people who only have cursory knowledge about Zelda, they still call Link Zelda. Making Link a girl will only confuse that issue even further. I get that you're trying to be progressive and that turning Link into a girl is a really good idea in theory, but in practice I don't see it panning out too well. Instead of progressing the cause that anybody can be a hero, you'd butcher his iconic image to severe confusion among the general populace. Also (aside from Samus (most of the time)) I don't think Nintendo knows how to write believable female protagonists.

Also, the gay coupling thing will never pan out. I don't ever want to see that in my Zelda games. Call me homophobic if you will, but I stand by my statement. I don't want those kind of real-life issues in my fantasy games.

Jannie said...

The reason why people call Link "Zelda" is one of the major logical problems with the whole series--the main character isn't the main character, he's a faceless, mute puppet you control and contort to save the REAL main character, the one the plot revolves around in EVERY game.

The only "Zelda" game that actually has any business being called The Legend of Zelda is, ironically, the shitty CDI game.

Realistically speaking the series should be called something like "The Adventures of Link" or "The Hyrulian Age" or some such.

Actually, you could get a lot of pretty good titles by using the same The ______ of Link concept: the Adventures of Link, the Return of Link, the Legend of Link, the Death and Return of Link etc. Put it all under the heading of the Hyrulian Age Series or something. And all of that's still more descriptive than The Legend of Zelda when Zelda is effectively just a weapon everyone is fighting over and the hero is some random kid.

Smashmatt202 said...

lol, I like the idea that the Game Overthinker was just lucky and "isn't cut out for this". Subtle metaphor?

lol, Rarity is best pony! Surprisingly, she's become quite popular among the Brony fanbase, even more popular then supposed pony-icons like Rainbow Dash or Pinkie Pie! Personally, I'm still all for Fluttershy!

"One of those is like a horse"... Technically, she's a Pegasus, but even still, the question wasn't "who would you DO", it's just choosing between two characters. Fluttershy all the way for me.

I'm TOTALLY looking forward to the Adventure Time game, too!

Ah-HA! "Best Pony" isn't the same as "Favorite Pony", people can have ponies who are their personal favorites but still think others are the "best", I've seen that shit happen, people!

"Player"... Yeah, I could TOTALLY go for that label! Let's do that, shall we?

Why are you answering the same question twice? Yeah, I know, I see what you did there, but still. Oh well, at least we know that his favorite is still Pinkie Pie.

Not much to say about other questions, although I like how Bob has decided not to speak too badly about the Japanese gaming aesthetic since he's not Japanese, very classy of him. ...I think.

Capcom has LOST IT in recent years. Simple as that.

It IS kind of sad that Other M has officially split the entire Metroid fanbase, and I also hate the idea that they will just go back to a first-person shooter, even IF the Metroid Prime franchise is pretty damn awesome... so I've been told.

You mean the GREAT and POWERFUL TRIXIE!!!! Just kidding, I don't even care for her that much, though she IS returning in season 3!

That topic about censorship vs. changing by societal pressure was a good message.

Mr. Cake, seriously?! Well, whatever, his choice.

Next Zelda game? Link is female... And he's off to rescue Prince Zed. GENDER-SWAPPED ZELDA! I like that idea! NINTENDO, MAKE IT HAPPEN!!!!

So that's it for the Ivan questions? Dang, I was hoping for someone to bring up how a Fluttershy doll in 2005 would basically be a G3 Pony... Yeesh... Or Hell, one more "Who's best pony?" question, with Spike as the answer. :P

So yeah... Great job stepping in to save him, OmegaThinker. Well, whatever, nice episode. Special Effects could still use some improvement.