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Friday Fun Thread for July 12, 2024

Be advised: this thread is not for serious in-depth discussion of weighty topics (we have a link for that), this thread is not for anything Culture War related. This thread is for Fun. You got jokes? Share 'em. You got silly questions? Ask 'em.

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Zelda, well... I want to defend it, but you are probably right.

In it's defense, it comes from an older lineage of CRPG. Early Ultima's had a pretty narrow thread of clues you could get from talking to literally every NPC and writing down what they said for later. Might & Magic played similarly. Probably others. Then you start playing early JRPGs like Phantasy Star, Dragon Quest or Final Fantasy, and they are pretty similar, in that it's not always obvious where to go next and what to do unless you talk to everyone and take notes. It wasn't until later those series got put on pretty strong rails.

In that way, many of the important secrets in Zelda have NPCs that will give you the clues. But not all of them. And brute forcing the rest with limited bombs or the once per screen candle is odious. Then again, when I was playing Zelda as a kid, my older cousins had already beat it and helped me find things. And they figured it out with their friends around the school lunch table. Maybe one of them had a Nintendo Power subscription.

I still love it. But I get it.