The Cave

Logan bought a subscription to PlayStation Plus about a year ago and we've gotten a ton of games from it. Most of them are things I'm not really interested in, so I don't pay a whole lot of attention to the list. But recently, The Cave caught my attention.

Image from gamingbolt.com

Basically, you play as three characters at a time, each of which has a bit of darkness in his/her past. Over the course of the game, you discover bits of their story by playing through puzzles and finding cave paintings that show a piece of whatever secret they're hiding. It's a fun puzzle/platformer that moves quickly and is quite charming, in a dark kind of way.

I played through with the scientist, the time traveler, and the monk. All of the stories were pretty good, but the monk really got to me. You see, the other two were dark because they centered on slightly evil choices. I won't spoil anything, but trust me, they were occurrences that everyone would say "of course you wouldn't just do that."

But the monk was different. His dark secret came about because he wanted to be something that he simply wasn't. He tried so hard to change himself, but just wasn't good at what he desired to do. His story hit me hard, because it touched upon insecurities I know that  I carry and that I suspect many other people carry as well. What if we're not actually good at what we're trying to do?

I, for example, feel that way about my writing. What if I'm trying for naught? Am I secretly the monk, doing my best for an ultimately hopeless goal?

I sure hope not.

A Link to the Past: Part 3 ft. The Most Annoying Dungeon (I Hope)

Image from justpushstart.com

Over the weekend, I beat Dungeon 4. I call it Dungeon 4 here for the sake of keeping the blog family-friendly, but trust me, I don't call it Dungeon 4 at home. It has a quite a few colorful names there.

I found the dungeon (do these things have real names, or they actually referred to by their numbers?) fairly easily. Logan thought I would have trouble tracking it down, but since I've gotten into the weird habit of pulling on stuff while I'm thinking because I think the animation is hilarious, I found it almost as soon as I walked into town. Of course, the completely inconspicuous statue helped.

I mean, this doesn't look suspicious at all. Image from zeldawiki.org.

I even managed to get through the dungeon fairly well. If there had been any more rooms, the similarity between all of them would have gotten me very confused, but after a little while of trial and error, I got used to the set-up.

Then I found the maiden.

Image from nerdgasmnetwork.blogspot.com

As per her request, I tried to take her outside, only to have her run away when we got to the entrance. I immediately thought that she wasn't a maiden after all, but was actually the boss. I went all the way back through the dungeon, got her again, then led her into the room that the compass told me would house the boss fight.

Nothing happened.

I knew it had to be something to do with the light outside that made her run away the first time, so I figured I could beat her with some bright light. While exploring the dungeon earlier, I found an upstairs area that was brightly lit. I led her up there, smug with my intelligence, and she ran away again.

Frustrated by getting beat by the puzzle and by Logan's obvious desire to help me, I ran around in circles upstairs while I thought. That's when I noticed I could bomb the floor right underneath a beam of light. Lo and behold, the "you did something right" noise went off, and I went to fetch the maiden for the third time.

The third time was the charm because when I led her into the boss fight room, she transformed into Blind -- the master thief who hates light.

Image from nerdgasmnetwork.blogspot.com

I'm extremely proud to say that -- despite being confronted with two invincible, fireball spewing heads in addition to Blind himself -- I beat him on my FIRST TRY! Huge success!

The fact that I used two potions is irrelevant.

A Link to the Past: Part 1

Image from justpushstart.com

As you can see, I decided to start playing A Link to the Past rather than to continue with The Legend of Zelda. I think it was the right decision, because I'm already having way more fun. I'm missing out on some serious potential nerd cred, but whatever.

My initial impression of LttP is that it's a bigger fan of puzzles than the original. Instead of just hitting enemies, you have to know how to hit them. Case in point -- the most recent boss that I defeated, pictured below. I was super proud of myself for figuring out how to beat him on my very first attempt, and Logan was the very picture of disbelief, because he saw me beat the boss in the dungeon before.

Image from digital-polyphony.com

Which, let's talk about that guy for a minute. I thought Zora was a jerk, but he's got nothing on Moldorm. Moldorm is a jerk, not because he takes much health at a time or anything, but because he's so pushy! And his health resets every time he knocks you off the platform! Let's just say that after getting him down to one hit left three times in a row only to get knocked to the floor below to start over, I was saying some words that my mother would not approve of.

Image from zelda.wikia.com

But the sense of accomplishment I got when I finally beat him was unbeatable. Even finding the Master Sword directly afterwards meant nothing in comparison.  I have a feeling that the fight against Moldorm is going to be a constant companion in my memory when I'm trying to get through something difficult. Can't finish my essay? Don't want to clean out the litter box? Getting out of bed is an absolute chore? Heck, I can do all that stuff and more, after all, I beat Moldorm!

The Legend of Zelda: Part 3

Image from fatratgaming.com

Since last time, I have cleared dungeon 3. I actually got through it without much trouble, which was super surprising! I'm still not very good at the game, but I have noticed a marked improvement from when I started. I die for stupid mistakes less often and I don't have to actively think about the mechanics of the game so much anymore. It's like it has seeped into my brain.

Image from Zeldadungeon.net

Despite all that improvement and my feelings of accomplishment, I am considering letting Zelda go. Because Logan and I are both playing it right now, I see everything before I actually get around to doing it, and it's quite disheartening to watch someone who's awesome at the game blast through a dungeon in 30 minutes that I later take a couple of hours to slog through. It's starting to feel tedious because it's always on in the apartment when I'm home from one of us playing and it feels repetitive to see the same bits over and over.

Image from zelda.wikia.com

So I'm torn between moving on and playing Link to the Past, which is next on my list, or sticking to Zelda. On the one hand, I would be more entertained with Link to the Past because then Logan and I would be playing different games and there would be some variety on the tv. On the other hand, I feel like a wimp by quitting Zelda. 

What are your thoughts? Should I stick with Zelda and be a little frustrated/bored, or move to Link to the Past and be a quitter? Please leave me a comment!

The Legend of Zelda: Part 1

 Last night I started playing The Legend of Zelda. I wanted to play it on the NES, but Logan insisted we get it on the Wii to save the NES the strain. Because I've never played Zelda, I wanted to have the full old-school experience, but I understand his concern.

Image from fatratgaming.com

I needn't have worried about losing the old-school experience though, because about a minute into the game I realized Logan isn't kidding around when he says old games are much harder than new games (in general, of course). I died a few times before I even managed to find my way to the first dungeon, mainly because of the jerk in the water.

Image from ign.com

I finally did make it to the first dungeon and died a number of times in there before I finally got the swing of the game and managed to walk a couple feet in a row without getting the crap smacked out of me. But then I had to master the art of walking through doors, which sounds easy, but actually requires pinpoint accuracy. I cannot tell you how many times I have walked into walls already and before I stopped playing, I'd only completed my first boss fight. 

Image from superadventuresingaming.blogspot.com

 Aside from the frustration that I'm suffering because of the game's difficulty, I'm having a good time so far. There isn't really a story at all (at least not yet) and it's not the best visual experience in the world, but I like that I'm doing something that's challenging and works out my brain in a way that I'm not used to.

The Legend of Zelda and the Symphony of the Goddesses

Last night, I took Logan to the Symphony of the Goddesses show put on by the Cincinnati Symphony Orchestra. It was a Legend of Zelda-themed show that played music from a whole bunch of the games, accompanied by a cool video of game clips that corresponded to the songs. It was an absolutely fantastic show, and he was as thrilled about it as I could have hoped.

Image from zelda-symphony.com

Unfortunately, though understandably, recording and pictures of the show weren't allowed, so I can't share any of the actual performance with you, but I do want to talk about how it made me feel about games.

Watching those clips of various Zelda games (many of which I haven't played -- lose 50 nerd points) reminded me how inspiring games can be. An orchestra was playing pieces from the games, which a LOT of people went to go listen to. And many, many more people are fans of the Zelda series than just the ones who were at the show.

Why? Because Zelda (and when I say "Zelda" I'm referring to the franchise as a whole, not one specific game) is the epitome of what we love about games. It's a classic story of good vs. evil where we know good will prevail because we have as many lives as we need in order to complete the game. We are given a worthy mission -- go save the world from darkness and also rescue this super-cool princess. We're set in a world that is fun to explore and has a lot to see and discover besides just the parts that are fundamental to the plot.

In other words, we're given a clear purpose and the means to achieve that purpose -- something I think we all crave in our day-to-day lives.

Image from fatratgaming.com

Going to see the show made Logan decide to replay the series and I think I might just join him. Stay tuned for gaming updates and blogs about over-thinking the symbols and messages in games!

I'll leave you with this video about Ocarina of Time, which is hilarious: