HannahBecz

@HannahBecz@beehaw.org

Trans, married, parent, gamer, Prius driver. I love world building, usually light-fantasy, and writing short stories in the worlds I create

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HannahBecz,

If Todd Howard’s hyping of Oblivion, Fallout3, Fallout4, and Skyrim have taught me anything - the game will come nowhere to delivering anything promised - will be massively buggy - and I’ll easily sink 100s of hours into the game not caring in the least bit and having a blast the entire time. Purchasing it again and again on every platform as the years pass. Though with gamepass I suppose I don’t have to worry about purchasing it anymore.

While Morrowind was my entry into the series in 2002/2003 - I had never heard of it until my head chef at the time told me I needed to purchase it. His hype delivered. But I have no clue what the hype of Morrowind pre-release was like or what was promised vs delivered. But I imagine it was quite similar.

HannahBecz,

Don't forget taking so long a break between games that you completely forget what you're supposed to be doing, and if the game offers no sort of recap/hand-holding quest system - you have to start from scratch.

At which point the daunting nature of that overwhelms you and you just sit there browsing your catalog for something new to play/continue until you're 15 minutes past your allotted time - and you're now even further behind.

Win/win all around.

HannahBecz,

I think they skip the "have kids" part of life.

Like I enjoy games, but I'd rather spend time with kid and spouse than play them. Like I almost feel guilty taking time for myself to actually play them.

The spouse isn't so much an issue to gaming, as separate work schedules gave ample time to just game. Kids on the other hand, and a special needs one for me, as the at-home parent take up almost every waking second of my day, from 7am to 8pm - 9pm if you count cleaning up the days activities.

My backlog is similar to yours - with the same "gotta get them in before Starfield comes out". And I know it's not gonna happen.

It was a much simpler time when you only had one console - and like 2 games + whatever you rented for the week.

HannahBecz,

Oh I want to go back and actually finish NV. I bought it at launch and played, but when I actually got to NV it was such a disappointment that it took me out of the entire game, and I didn't get much further than that. I guess I got caught up in the in-game hype of New Vegas so much that I ended up with Paris Syndrome when I actually got there.

So I know I'm gonna have to restart, even if my save is somehow in the cloud because I have zero recollection of that game - having been nearly 13 years since I played now. And I don't have the time to start a Bethesda game and finish it so close to another one coming out.

HannahBecz,

Yeah that's fine and all, it's basically the same formula Bethesda uses - and a formula I love for gameplay. The issue is coming back 6 months to a year or more later and then trying to get back into it. Which is a struggle with games like that.

I usually keep handwritten notes about quests and activities, but sometimes even then I still cannot get back into them because they rely on intricate knowledge of gameplay mechanics I've forgotten over the timespan of absence.

I love Zelda, and have been slowly working my way through my catalogue of unplayed titles in the series. A Link to the Past was actually the first game I got with my SNES. But I skipped out on the N64 and GameCube ones. But I don't have the time for TotK just yet. I did get BotW at launch - and it was fun - but the final boss fight was rather underwhelming.

But to be fair the only Zelda boss that hasn't been a real pushover is the original NES one where it will let you fight the final boss without the item you need to defeat him. And in no way tells you this.

Anyway I still need to beat Pikmin 3 and Super Mario Odyssey (all launch purchases) before getting yet another Switch game. TotK is on my radar, but Starfield looms ever closer and I know I'll never beat TotK in time. HLTB puts it at like 58 hours just to do the main story. That's a daunting amount of time at my point in life right now.

A Link to the Past is too hard?

I don't know if this is the right community for this, so I am sorry if it shouldn't go here. I am currently playing through a link to the past for the first time and have noticed a steep increase in difficulty once I unlocked the dark world. The dark palace was okay but I am honestly kinda stuck at the swamp palace. I would love...

HannahBecz,

Honestly, without going into too much detail - aimlessly wandering and exploring is kind of a Zelda games thing. More so with the older ones. Trying to play the original NES with no guide other than my own notes is a lesson in patience, and I replay it every year. As well as ALttP here. You don't need to find all the heart containers, so don't spend too much time searching for them - a lot of them are going to be hidden behind items you haven't unlocked yet. Save that for part of your final dungeon prep. Do look for the enhanced armor to take less damage though - however I'm not sure when exactly that unlocks to be found.

But the swamp palace is a PiTA. Those water skimmers are a giant pain always running into you, and all the various switches and backtracking. I don't want to say that the dungeons get easier after this one - it's just where the game really starts to Zelda and the mechanics of the game should start clicking as you go through and on to the next one, making them easier.

HannahBecz,

Yeah, unfortunately that's kind of how it is. I don't know how many SNES or earlier games you've played but it's a similar design philosophy for that era of games. You were expected to be a kid with massive amounts of free time - and generally back then our game libraries were only a couple games.

When I had ALttP on the SNES my only other games were Wizardry 5 and Mortal Kombat - so it was easy to remain on-task with ALttP and not get frustrated/distracted by other games.

There was no handholding or guided-ness to games. Usually a notebook by your side to keep track of locked items, hand drawn maps, and etc to keep track of everything in between sessions.

It didn't matter much as a kid back then because that's just how games were. I mean look at the mega man games - those are brutal to try and play now. But for someone going in fresh, without the nostalgia factor, I can see how it would be considered difficult to get into.

But there's no shame in not finding it enjoyable. Just because it's a classic doesn't mean it's for everyone.

If you're set on it though - and you have a 3DS - A link between worlds is a good medium. That's a bit more modern and not as difficult, while maintaining the core gameplay. I think I died a total of 3 times on my first play through so it wasn't difficult at all.

Playing through that then going back might make ALttP more enjoyable on a second attempt.

HannahBecz,

I never played duke3d but I grew up playing the side scrollers. I didn't know they were remastering those. Never heard of the Evercade and unfortunately another handheld isn't for me.

However the VS looks like something I could install into my cars headunit along with my Roku for when I'm just chilling, and less maint. than my raspberry. Thanks for this post. I have something to look into here.

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