Catching up on Zelda games

Growing up with no brothers and no male relatives interested in games I didn't discover games until I was in my late teens/early twenties. So obviously there are a lot of classic that I've missed! One notable franchise that I've completely missed is The Legend of Zelda. So here are three Zelda games I played on my 3DS.

Ocarina of Time
Definitely the most popular games of them all and the one I've heard praised the most. It's definitely cute and the feel of the game was pretty straight-forward. Some puzzles required some time, but nothing that got me stuck. I did spend quite long in each dungeon, though. The very first dungeon inside the Deku Tree I stayed in for about one hour. Mainly because my hands aren't very good with controllers. Kb+m is much easier for me. The ocarina is very gimmicky, but such an integral part of the game that I couldn't imagine it without it. But fishing can just eff off in every game ever. It's such a pain! The game is very cute and quite enjoyable, but the dungeons get repetitive, even with the varying puzzles.
Ganondorf has a humongous nose.
And shut up, Navi!

A Link Between Worlds
I had a really hard time with this one right off the bat. Mostly because the game introduced moving platforms and blocking projectiles in several different directions in the very first dungeon and my clumsy controller hands struggled to keep up. But apart from this the dungeons are pretty straight-forward, although with seemingly more advanced puzzles than in Ocarina which made the later ones a real pain to get through. The story in this one has a better flow imo, because everything you do feels connected to the main story in a way Ocarina didn't. I really don't like the top-down view, though...However the mechanic of going inside walls is really cool :3 And the difference between Ocarina's "This is Navi and he's your personal fairy and he'll help you" versus LBW's "catch a fairy and put it in a bottle" is hilarious to me.
And Ganon... is a pig? O_o

Majora's Mask
This game stresses me out with the timer constantly on the screen xD This game is dark, and creepy, and the first part of the game is spent running around as a Deku rather than Link (well it *is* Link, but he's been transformed into a Deku). This is also a direct sequel to Ocarina of Time, which in my book just means that Link just can catch a break! The ocarina plays a part in Majora's Mask as well, but now it seems even more gimmicky imo (although without the ocarina's time power the game would've ended within the first two hours). The mask system is pretty cool though!
The moon really creeps me out... I'll have nightmares about that moon...
And ofc Majora's weak spot is between the legs smh xD

After having played these three I think I must agree with the consensus (for once) that Ocarina of Time is the best one. At the same time I'm feeling like these games aren't really my thing. I enjoyed playing them, but they didn't wow me, and I can't pin-point why. RPGs and dungeon-delving are usually right up my alley. So yeah, I'm not gushing about these games but they were quite enjoyable and I'm happy they weren't 100+ hours games. I might give BotW a try one day! And I really needed this video to figure out how it's all connected:

The Elder Scrolls Online: Elsweyr

The hype gets less for every chapter. Or is that just me? The hype train left without me when they announced that there wouldn't be a physical Collector's Edition of this chapter. A dragon statue would've been perfect beside my Molag Bal, Dwarven Colossus, and Mephala  But ofc I still pre-ordered it! Now it's been a month since I finished the chapter, but here's a late post!

New class, new zone, new story and the return of a bunch of characters! I was pretty excited to get into it nonetheless. I immediately made a new character in the new class, necromancer, and started playing it. Got to say that while the necromancer has some pretty cool skills I didn't have as much fun playing it as I do playing templar or sorcerer. Imo necromancer was a pretty meh experience. However, it's a very versatile class (much like templar in that aspect) and a lot of people enjoyed it (and I got to admit that there are very few things as satisfying as summoning a flesh colossus on an enemy and have it pummel them to death).

 My angry little necro

I enjoyed the story a lot more when playing through it on my templar main, but that could be because several of the characters were old friends and acquaintances that were all too happy to see me again :3

The story revolves around Abnur Tharn, former high chancellor to the emperor and one of the five companions with whom you do the mainquest. Cadwell also plays a big part, so it's one big reunion from the mainquest days :3 Abnur has accidentally let loose dragons in Elsweyr. Dragons that had previously been imprisoned and the two dungeons in the earlier DLC tells the story of how that happened. The chapter continues with how they're defeating the dragons and I assume the next story DLC will show how they're getting rid of them again.

The story starts pretty slowly like these things do but the last few quests are just epic battle upon epic battle and I loved the final showdown.

Dragon battles spawn in specific points on the map and they're basically this chapter's anchors, which also work like extra world bosses. These dragon battles aren't as much fun as the Skyrim ones though. I think everybody expected Skyrim dragons, but we got something different and I'm not entirely sure that I like them. But that can be due to the sheer amount of people playing through this zone at the same time I did, which usually meant you had to run like an idiot to get to the fight in time and when you got there practically manage to just get in a hit or two before the dragon was dead. Their HP just melted under the sheer amount of people attacking it at once. When I get back into ESO after the novelty has worn off the battles may be a lot more fun.

In every new zone there are side quests that catch my attention, sometimes more than the mainquest itself and in this case there were two. I really enjoyed The Stitches and the story there. Sereyne is so hilarious and a bit sad. Perfect combo! There's also the side quest where Raz show up again and we're shown a completely new side of him :3 A story/quest can't go wrong if Raz is in it ♥

Elsweyr was a fun adventure and I was thrilled to run around with Abnur again. My favourite out of the five companions. He's so delightfully sarcastic. And finding out about Cadwell's backstory didn't hurt. Elsweyr was pretty good overall, but neither Summerset nor Elsweyr have lived up to the standard that Morrowind set as the first chapter release.

Game completed: Fire Emblem Warriors

I was excited when I saw this first Fire Emblem title for the Switch, then I was hesitant when I realised that they had made a hack-and-slash title of my beloved TBS series. But I got the game anyway and started playing. Historically I've been very bad with hack-and-slash games, but I figured this one out pretty quickly.

I absolutely loved it when I was woken up by Chrom and Lissa just like in Awakening. I loved seeing all the old characters again, especially Chrom and my Fates brothers (Xander, Leo, Ryoma, Takumi).

But the more I played the more the game felt like fan service in a pretty package. Aytolis could've had their own bunch of heroes. There was absolutely no need for the devs to include heroes from older FE titles except for the fan service. Except I guess the theme of this kind of game (I'm looking at you Hyrule Warriors).

I missed the strategy element from earlier FE games since most stages in Warriors could be cleared by just running ahead and hacking away. Sometimes use the healing staff which (conveniently) most of the heroes had. (And if they didn't have a staff they had 3-4 healing pots). Mostly you could just run around as one of the main characters, Lianna or Rowan, without thinking about any of the other characters in the group. They mostly managed by themselves, and if they didn't they would tell you well ahead of time so you could run over with a staff-wielding character and heal them. The maps were never so big that you couldn't run straight across them (or make a complete circle) with lots of time to spare. In other FE titles, if you don't think you die. But this felt mostly like midless hacking. Considering it's a hack-and-slash it shouldn't surprise me, but it still disappoints me. One positive is that I enjoyed taking over fortresses and I would spend more time than necessary to just make sure that every inch of that map was blue, and not red, before completing a stage.

The story was extremely straight-forward to the point where absolutely nothing came as a surprise. The bad guy "reveal" made me roll my eyes so hard I was afraid they might get stuck.

The final dragon fight against Velezark was less interesting than the fight against Darios, which was just before. Velezark took longer to beat than the bosses of other stages, but the fight wasn't by far as interesting as the one against Anankos in Fates and it also falls short from the fight against Grima in Awakening.

So tl;dr. Great to see lots of old faces, but the weakest story and execution of the FE I have played this far.

Edinburgh 2019: Day 3

Today we stayed in bed extra long in the morning. I didn't have all that much planned for today anyway. When we finally left the hotel room we made our way up Calton Hill (with our legs aching from yesterday's ordeal).

The guidebook had made it seem like there was a lot to see, do and explore on top of Calton Hill but there wasn't at all much. The observatory was tiny. The monuments were cool especially the Nelson monument which can be seen from all over the city. We dubbed that "the Assassin's Creed tower" during our first day. Funny story is the story about the National monument which was to be built as a copy of Parthenon in Athens, but they ran out of money after only 12 columns and it remained that way. Locals have dubbed it "Edinburgh's disgrace" according to our guidebook.

When we had had our fill of the view from the hill we walked back down to the city. We had some time over so we walked down South Bridge looking for the Surgeons' Hall museum. It's really cool, but also really morbid and grotesque (and a bit gross). Edinburgh was prominent in the 19th century for discoveries and advances made in anatomy and pathology. This museum displays old and preserved organs and body parts, both healthy and otherwise and tells the story of how we went from not knowing a damn thing about our own anatomy pre-18th century to discoveries in the fields of anaesthesia and surgery. Most of the preserved body parts are from the 19th and early 20th century (so all of them at least 100 years old). And it's all so frickin cool! We didn't have enough time to go through it all in detail, but I definitely wish we did. No photography allowed of course.

After that we had dinner and then went to The Real Mary King's Close on the Royal Mile to catch the 6pm tour that I booked on Friday. Our guide led us below the current city to show us the streets and homes on the centuries old street buried underneath the buildings of today. He told the story of the plague in 1645 and how people lived and died in the closes (alleys) of Edinburgh. It was a bit too gimmicky, though, with a lot of it depending on technology rather than the spoken word. And they would benefit from having smaller groups. The group we were in was 21 people and it was very crowded in most areas. Smaller groups, more props and less gimmicky technology would improve the tour by a lot. The tour finished by the group listening to a pre-recorded (again: bigger impact if the guide had told the story) 17th century ghost story that supposedly took place in Mary King's Close. I really liked our guide! He filled the whole tour with a kind of fatalistic humour that made everything funny.

After the tour we decided to go back to the hotel. We took a detour through the Princes Street Gardens on the way to the tram. We bought some sweets and drinks from the nearby Tesco and had a quiet evening on the room before going to bed sort of early. Tomorrow we're going back home.

Edinburgh 2019: Day 2

This day we actually woke up at some sort of early hour so that we could have the hotel breakfast, which wasn't at all what I expected, but it was still good.

After breakfast we took the tram to Princes Street and from there walked down to the Royal Mile and went in the opposite direction from the Castle. The main attraction for today was Holyrood.

On our way there we made stops at the Scott Monument and the People's Story museum, which is a kind of unique museum in that it tells the story of the ordinary people of the city rather than the nobility or military or whathaveyou. I thought that sounded really interesting when I read about it, but I was quite disappointed in it when we got there. I love history, but when we get to the 20th century I lose interest, and this museum was 95% 20th century

After that we continued down the road and got to Holyrood Palace; the royal family's official residence when they're in Scotland. Much like the royal palace in Stockholm parts of it are shown as a museum to Mary Queen of Scots and those coming before and after her. There was no photography allowed inside the palace. The coolest parts of the palace was partly Queen Mary's bedchamber which was up a tower and you had to climb a tiny spiral staircase to get there (how did she do that with those dresses?!?!) and partly the old ruin of Holyrood Abbey on the Palace grounds.

When we were done with the Palace we had lunch at the café and then started on our trek up to Arthur's Seat. Arthur's Seat is a big hill (or a small mountain?) right next to the Palace. The top is at 250 m and the climb gets steep. After 45 minutes of burning legs, burning lungs and gasping for breath we reached the top. And it was so worth the agony of the climb! The top offered a stunning view of the city and its surroundings. We spent some time relaxing there before beginning our descent.

On our way down we took a tiny detour to a ruin we had seen on our way up, which was the remains of an ancient chapel.

We got down and made immediate use of the ice cream truck placed at the bottom of the hill and then we started on the walk back to the tram. On wobbly legs. We had dinner at an Italian restaurant on our way back and then got back to the hotel room where we showered before going out again.

Since it was Toni's birthday I took him to where I celebrated my 18th birthday. The rock pub The Black Rose. Exactly like I remembered it! This night there was an open mic night and the sound levels were high. Everybody sang along even if they didn't hold the mic, and danced and laughed and drank. It was such an amazing atmosphere that even the stuffy air made no difference. There was an older guy there who chatted animatedly with everybody and in such a severe Scottish accent that neither of us could understand most of what he was saying. I also talked with an American guy who seemed nice. It was a great evening and we stayed until they closed at 1am.

Edinburgh 2019: Day 1

This day I had planned a whole day for us in the Old Town. Arguably my favourite part of any town/city. First off we went to Edinburgh Castle where we proceeded to spend a little over 3 hours. I've previously been to the Castle but it was a lot of fun to see everything again and to watch Toni's reactions. The castle is oooooold, like 850 years old and still one of the most impressive buildings in the city. And since it's on a hill it can be seen from pretty much anywhere in the city *queue a multitude of pictures of the castle from every angle*

After three hours at the castle we moved on to the next place on my list: St Giles Cathedral, which was cool but looked pretty much like cathedrals everywhere. The most unique part was the chapel of the Thistle. Photo permit cost £2 so we decided to not take any photos.

Right after that we went across the street to The Real Mary King's Close and booked a tour for Sunday. I tried to book it via their website before we left home, but it wouldn't work for some reason, and then we went to have dinner at a burger place close by, which is where I tried haggis for the first time. My burger included all the ordinary things: beef and onion rings, but also a haggis fritter. Knowing what it's made of I expected the taste and texture of fried liver. Couldn't have been more wrong. It's juicy and spicy and I really liked it ♥

After dinner we walked down Victoria Street on our way to Grassmarket and there we found a Harry Potter shop. So I had to go inside. And spend a bunch of money. We walked through Grassmarket, up the stairs of the Vennel and past the remains of the Flodden Wall and George Heriot's school, before coming up to the Greyfriar's Bobby statue and the Greyfriar's Kirkyard. After a quick look around the kirkyard we walked down Candlemaker Row and along Cowgate until we got to the South Bridge Vaults, where we grabbed a drink at Bannerman's; a rock bar.

After the drink we walked back to the hotel for a quick change of clothes and then we took the tram/walked back to St Giles Cathedral to meet up for the City of the Dead walking tour. I really, really recommend this one! It started off as a history walk along Old Fisherman's Close and Cowgate before the tour brought us to Greyfriar's Kirkyard and the spooky part began. We got the story of the Mackenzie Poltergeist and the Covenant's Prison (the world's first concentration camp), and while most of the tour had been about building tension through words there was one single orchestrated jumpscare towards the end. The tour guide made a point of explaining that the café where JK Rowling wrote the first Harry Potter book overlooked the kirkyard and that she got a lot of inspiration for names from the gravestones. I found James Potter, Moody and Scrimgeour on the stones. According to the tour guide there was a gravestone with the name Thomas Riddle Esq. but although I followed her instructions to the letter I couldn't find it. I suspect it may be in the fenced-in area, and by then the light was so bad that I couldn't see what any of the stones said. (The tour may be scarier in the autumn and winter when it's actually dark during the tour).

When we walked back to the hotel I found said café and we stopped for pictures. I had tea there during my last visit 10½ years ago ^^

We finished the day with a drink in the hotel bar, before going to bed just after midnight completely exhausted.

Edinburgh 2019: Arrival day

Most of this day was spent travelling. To even get to the airport in Stockholm it takes us 1½ hours by bus and train. Everything went as smoothly as you would expect to check in and go through the security. We decided to eat before boarding the plane and found a place that looked good, but was dreadful. The burgers we got made McDonald's seem decent. Anyhow. One disappointing burger later we went to the gate and watched the rain pour down before it was time to get on the plane.







Mandatory George Carlin for every plane ride:

We landed in Edinburgh exactly on time and our bag was already rolling around on the baggage claim by the time we got there. Smooth!!!

We got on the tram from the airport to the city and Toni's head was swivelling around trying to look at everything at the same time. I was mostly just looking at the mountains, because honestly those are the only things that don't 100% exactly like home :P When the tram made the turn into Haymarket my heart made a leap I recognised every inch of that street ♥ I previously spent 3 weeks in Edinburgh in November of 2008. 10½ years and I recognised every inch. I was so happy.

We got off the tram and the hotel I had booked for us was directly across from the tram station. Perfect :) We checked in without any issues and after dumping our bags we decided to go to one of the bars in town.

The bar is called The Voyage of Buck and it's a theme bar. The theme is the voyages of a late 19th century person called Buck and every cocktail is inspired of is travels. The cocktail menu is several pages long. I ordered fancy cocktails for us both and they were probably the coolest drinks we've ever had. Mine had pearl glitter in it so it looked like some sort of shimmering potion, while Toni received edible Legos for his drink xD

Our experience of the bar was that the drinks were really cool and the whole atmosphere of the place was amazing, but the staff could've been a bit more service-minded. They made it clear when we arrived that we were to sit down and then they would come to get our drink orders. Except they seemed more interested in hanging out at the bar and talking between themselves rather than making sure their guests got what they needed/wanted. So concept was amazing - staff needs improvement.

When we had finished our drinks we decided that we wanted something to eat and managed to find a KFC that was open late. We went there and then brought the food back to the hotel room and had an extra dinner there before going to bed.