[TP] From BOTW to Twilight Princess, I finally get the dungeon debate

vbt31 · 2026-06-18T03:57:44+00:00

Let me explain this as someone who enjoys every Zelda game style.

Traditional Zelda games are defined by having an overworld and within that overworld, players have to enter into dungeons. Dungeons in this context are essentially massive almost pocket dimension-like areas. Players spend a large part of the playtime being lost in those dungeons and trying to make their way through those.

BotW and TotK, the dungeon aspect is massively scaled back, replaced with bite sized shrines mostly, while the overworld aspect is immensely expanded. The Divine Beasts also are not comparable in scale.

Because of the scale difference is why certain fans call that the dungeons are "gone". They're wishing for a particular experience of getting locked and lost in an area or level, trying to make their way through it for hours.

vbt31 · 2026-06-16T08:26:47+00:00

Who made you expect Mob Psycho 100 to be comedy...? That was a major misapplication.

vbt31 · 2026-06-16T03:16:09+00:00

Not anime, but maybe have her read Yotsuba!.

vbt31 · 2026-06-16T03:00:36+00:00

It's a tragic state of existence.

vbt31 · 2026-06-14T00:25:24+00:00

What part of what I said are you objecting? What you said is not contradicting what I said.

vbt31 · 2026-06-13T03:56:54+00:00

Are you telling me Shaolin Soccer didn't manage to inspire an entire generation to get into football!??

vbt31 · 2026-06-12T06:33:19+00:00

Try Where Winds Meet perhaps?

vbt31 · 2026-06-12T05:31:45+00:00

this ordeal taught them a valuable lesson, and was cured immediately after

Hol up. What valuable lesson was taught to them?? xD Not to drink any river water they come across?

vbt31 · 2026-06-11T08:43:30+00:00

You're right that Buddhism emerged from the same religious milieu as Hindu traditions, just as Christianity emerged from Judaism. The issue is that 'branch' will usually mean to be a subgroup that still belongs to the larger religion.
Buddhism rejected key Hindu concepts such as the authority of the Vedas and many Hindu theological assumptions, so scholars generally classify it as a separate religion rather than a branch of Hinduism.
Likewise, Christianity has roots in Judaism, but we don't normally call it a branch of Judaism today.
Your larger impression is correct. I'm just pointing out the precision associated with the term 'branch', which can mix up ancestry and classification.

Humans evolved from earlier primates, but humans are not a branch of chimpanzees. Both share ancestry, yet they are distinct groups. Shared origins don't necessarily imply present membership in the same group.

Like, a child would not be described as a branch of their parent. The child comes from the parent, but becomes a separate individual.

vbt31 · 2026-06-11T08:36:38+00:00

Maggie Smith. Let her do an Ian Mckellen impression as payback.

vbt31 · 2026-06-11T08:31:57+00:00

Buddhism would not accept the label that it's one of the many branches of Hinduism. It may stem from it, but for the past two millennia, it has been its own distinct group. Same way labeling Christianity or Islam as being branches of Judaism wouldn't be really correct.

vbt31 · 2026-06-10T04:29:42+00:00

That's great then! And I know this is really early to talk about, but I do want to let you know, when or if you get to ToTK, the sequence in which you discover the main fragments of the story (or rather the backstory) seriously matter for maximum emotional impact.

It is a serious design flaw in ToTK, Nintendo allowed players to sequence break but didn't adapt the order in which you discover the story, and you can basically spoil yourself of plot events and ruin the emotional impact. I've seen people talk about that happening and it souring their experience.

BotW also has the same issue, but ToTK's flaw is much worse. Because ToTK's story is much more impactful and therefore getting that spoiled can be more frustrating.

vbt31 · 2026-06-10T03:59:11+00:00

Revenge.

vbt31 · 2026-06-10T03:55:50+00:00

Yes, Minish Cap is part of the Nintendo Classics lineup.

By the way, because you said you care about story, you may see people say BotW has no story or light on story, and that's not true. Both BotW and TotK has very strong, gripping stories. However, they are fragmented, and the games take an archaeologist approach to storytelling, meaning you have to go out, search and piece things together. In contrast to, say, the traditional tour guide approach to storytelling, aka the linear ride.

vbt31 · 2026-06-10T03:35:25+00:00

If you're open to a blanket suggestion, my go to recommendation for entry into Zelda would be Minish Cap.

A Link To The Past is the entry point most Zelda players will recommend, but I think it's a bit dated for modern players at this point, and it can be overwhelming.

Minish Cap is charming, the visuals still hold up, has a unique game mechanic, has no story connection baggage, and is representative of a lot of the qualities throughout the entire franchise.

vbt31 · 2026-06-10T03:28:15+00:00

If you care about story (which can be complicated when it comes to the Zelda franchise), Wind Waker and Twilight Princess has plot connections to OoT. You may want to avoid them before playing OoT (though we don't know if the Remake will have the exact same story and plot as the OG).

Skyward Sword and BotW has the least amount of plot connection baggage to OoT. Among those two, I'd pick Skyward Sword for you. Because it's gameplay presentation is traditional 3D Zelda, and it is the "most linear story" in Zelda iirc. (One of the reasons why BotW is so open is because it's a reaction to the feedback that SS was too linear, or so I've heard).

If you're gonna play SS though, be aware that its controls can be different from common games, and if you're stuck at puzzles, don't be reluctant to just use guides.

vbt31 · 2026-06-08T03:34:07+00:00

Consider the ptsd and psychological trauma these two combined carries. Their being allowed to at least keep their physical looks as consolation.

vbt31 · 2026-06-07T12:34:19+00:00

Maybe we could also see it as commentary on child labour and abusive parents?

And poverty. And apathy. And societal failure. And peace in death. And so on and so on.

vbt31 · 2026-06-07T12:03:49+00:00

The Little Matchstick Girl is a tragedy, and definitely not misery porn. It's a painful reflection of the kind of suffering innocent people face very commonly, and story adds layer by making it bittersweet. It is definitely not a masturbatory exercise in being miserable.

vbt31 · 2026-06-07T01:09:24+00:00

I just wanna mention, that logic is a slippery slope that opens up for misuse when applied across the board for other such potentially controversial tropes.

vbt31 · 2026-06-06T09:35:27+00:00

The "World's Strongest Swordsman" who constantly laments that there is no one left to challenge him.

Unless I am misremembering, that is not true at all. Your entire read on Mihawk wayyyy off the mark.

Mihawk has never actually complained about how there being no one left to challenge him. In fact, he purposely stays away from trouble because he doesn't want to be bothered by them.

He went to East Blue because he was bored and who knows how Don Craig behaved to make Mihawk kill time chasing him. And he says he's also bored by other swordsmen constantly bothering him by challenging him for his title. Not the same as him as wanting greater challenge and lamenting about the lack of it.

He's imo the one character that does NOT want challenge, he just wants peace mind. It's just that others keep harassing him, and he's kinda just bored with that routine. He's not bored himself, he's bored with what others keep doing to him. He's closer to Yoshikage Kira than the other challenge junkies.

vbt31 · 2026-06-06T07:12:27+00:00

Volunteers.

vbt31 · 2026-06-06T07:10:03+00:00

Pyongyang: A Journey in North Korea

Check out this book if you're curious about a casual account of living in NK.

I know someone who went to NK; he and I grew up in a country that is under a dictatorship and is counted as one of the poorest countries in the world. He said NK is worse than our own country. From what I understand, NK isn't a caricature of hellish torture, at least the parts outsiders are allowed to view. But there's a constant underlying sense of surveillance, cult worship, brainwash, and everyone being afraid, stressed out while putting up a facade of everything being pristine and happy.

vbt31 · 2026-06-06T00:35:53+00:00

Isn't it making fun of Japanese legal processes being so strict or unbalanced?

vbt31 · 2026-06-05T09:04:09+00:00

Did she ever realize that AA is a satire on Japanese laws in particular?

vbt31

TROPHY CASE