I really do have to confess that Gamergate has really killed my desire to continue with this blog. It's proven to be a very time consuming and exhausting experience. I did start my own blog about what I feel about the whole mess, but there's honestly so much material to cover I don't even know where to turn. I mean, just today we had Boogie finally getting banned from NEOgaf, Brianna Wu throwing Milo under the bus, and Jim Sterling being overall a hypocritical piece of shit.
Oddly enough, Yahtzee has steered clear of all this, and going by what fans of his have said about this... it seems like it's going to stay that way. Apparently, although Yahtzee isn't quite on our side (He hates game journalists and, apparently, has spoken out against this brand of feminism before) He's not on theirs, either.
So yeah. I'd like to officially announce that I consider Yahtzee to be better than Jim Sterling. Yeah, I went there.
Still, I have issues with his opinions, so let's just dive into his look at the best game released last month... Hyrule Warriors.
Of course, he starts off with a 'Wii U has no games' joke, which is so blatantly untrue at this point that it's not even funny in a ironic way. I also like how he implies Nintendo first party IPs are 'uncreative' by showing a bunch of Mario sprites, when they have up and away the widest range of franchises in the entire industry, encompassing virtually every genre, many of which can only be found on Nintendo consoles.
He then lists off a list of Mario games in an attempt to prove that Nintendo abuses their mascot. It doesn't exactly work, as everything he shows are wildly different games that aren't even in the same genre. He then says that Zelda has never done this. Of course it hasn't. Zelda is no where near as flexible as a brand as Mario. And fuck you, Link's Crossbow training was awesome.
He then goes on to explain what Dynasty Warriors is, and like a lot of other idiots (I'm looking at you, Video Games Awesome!) He makes the mistake that Warriors games are inherently supposed to be about the combat, and bitches about how the AI seems simplistic.
Now, the thing about this is that Warriors games are very difficult to classify into traditional genres. They're more like strategy games with action RPG elements. The real skill in this game is choosing where you want to go on the battlefield and adapting to new situations.
He then slams Twilight Princess because he prefers Wind Waker. Twilight Princess is plenty charming, thank you.
And then he starts talking about the plot. Whooooooooooooooooooo boy. There's a lot you can say about this... the plot is genuinely awful.
The thing that bothers me about the way Yahtzee goes about it, though, is the way that he implies that all Zelda games are like this. Uh, no. I'm pretty sure I'm very invested in regular Zelda titles.
Yahtzee does say that he enjoyed the story in an 'ironic' way, but... I don't really understand why, either. That story just had no appeal at all to me.
He then says the gameplay is dull. Oooooooooh boy.
Yeah, I can understand having issues with the story, but the general gameplay? Absolutely stellar. I was honestly surprised, playing it for the first time. The campaign mode always kept you on your toes with new things you needed to do, new people to fight, and new mechanics you needed to utilize to progress through the level. And don't even get me STARTED on the Adventure mode... I'm not joking when I say that's probably one of the harder things on the Wii U right now, if you exclude the W101's 101% achievement. (Which, by the way, I'm still no where close to getting...)
The item switching is fine, despite his claims. He's just not used to it.
Uggggggh. Then he says that OOT, TP, and SS are 'interchangable at times.' I'm not even sure where to begin with this. Yahtzee is a notorious supporter of the idea that all Zelda games (Except for Wind Waker... for some reason) are always the same. Uh huh. This isn't the case at all! They don't even have similar art styles, for the most part.
I do concede he makes a good point about the split timeline thing not being used to it's full potential. That was very disappointing.
He then closes by claiming that I'm simple minded because I like this game. Sure. Whatever you say, Ben.
So to recap, he didn't even mention the Adventure mode, which brings an absolutely insane amount of length, difficulty, and unlockables to the table, and the way he presented his little comics gave me the impression that he played exclusively as Link throughout the entire thing. The only characters you see are the main three, Link, Zelda, and Ganondorf. Nothing about Lana, and how her very existence came straight out of a fanfic, or anyone else for that matter. He does see fit to mention Cia's tits, though. Stay classy, Yahtzee.
Overall, as a fan of the game who knows that it has some very glaring problems, I'm surprised how off base Yahtzee is. I feel this way every time I see a video from him, actually, which is one of the reasons I started this blog. The game is legitimately fun to play: the main problem is the absolutely abysmal writing and the ridiculous DLC. The campaign mode was way too short, but overall I had no real problem with it. If anything, I was impressed with how varied the game was, at least in it's design.
And over time, now that the campaign is over and done with, my initial young passion for the game has blossomed into deep affection, because that adventure mode never lets up.
The game has a lot of problems, but besides the story, I don't feel as if Yahtzee addressed any of them.
