(The tl;dr video companion for this article):

In an effort to kind of expand the realm of Active Time Event, I’ve been putting in an effort to make more video content, which I’ve been including in the relevant companion articles that I write for them. I enjoy the vibes, and writing the scripts for the videos is a different kind of writing that represents a fun challenge in editing as well as verve, as some of the absolute batshit insanity wordplay I use in articles does not translate natural 1:1 in natural conversation. On top of that, forcing myself to do “speedruns” of my articles, which are usually bare minimum one thousand words, and about an 8 minute read time, and condensing that down to a tenth of that and within 30 seconds truly forces one to exercise their editing chops to make it all work.

To that point, I have been playing around with the idea of attempting to do “mini-articles”, as time restrictions due to any number of relevant reasons, not in the least of which is my full time job, leave me incredibly short on time to do full fledged articles as I normally enjoy doing. For example, my write up on Luna Abyss yesterday took a ridonculous amount of time to concoct, from start to finish. I absolutely don’t mind putting in the work for that level of polish, but if I lack the time, I simply can’t make it happen, as I am still sorely lacking in the ability to manipulate spacetime on a whim. The mini’s are suppose to be more so reverse engineered: as in I write the script for the video first, then the article afterwards, instead of the other way around, just for the sake of expediency. I think today I do have enough time to comfortable hit my 1000 word quota (at the buzzer), but it is something I will experiment with, for multiple reasons, though one of the more contextually key pieces of reasoning involves liking to practice what I preach, which is something I regularly do involving my “Words Of Wisdom” series.

I probably didn’t have to go out of my way to explain all of that, but I enjoy being as transparent as possible with my content, alongside the notion I was just reading about how talking about one’s feelings aloud helps to better manage them in a considerable way, and emotional regulation is a skill everyone should practice. This likely relates to why I’m able to blow off steam from repeatedly losing to hard boss battle so easily, as I self-perform kind of a dialectical behavioral therapy session on my runback to the fight. I’m strategizing all the while, mind you, but uh…feelings and all that. *Cough*…anyways.

I regress entirely back to the premise of my video, which (for those of you who did not click on the video above), was detailing thoughts about how the reactions to the Ocarina of Time remake were definitely luke warm at best, and represented a bit of a divisive moment, if I were to be more directly concerned with getting down to the brass tacks of the matter, as many onlookers were positively horrified at the visual aesthetics Nintendo choose to dress up their favorite child in and expose to the cruelty of the world, seemingly with no reservations on the matter. I think this very much is inline with some of the series past, as if nothing else, how the gaming public reacted to the first looks of Wind Waker, and even well after the games launch, the cel shaded look was endlessly divisive among the fanbase.

I wasn’t one of the detractors in that regard, and while I do believe some people just have strong preference to their aesthetics, it was speculated by many that those who were taken a back by such visuals, perhaps were just showing their ass a bit, in having this ridiculous image of the Zelda series pumped up in their head as something that wasn’t “kiddie”, and to be “taken seriously”, and that those graphics were obviously made for the more effeminate of the gaming masses. Silly shit like that, in any case, were points of contention. I don’t think the stigma surrounding the graphics of the Ocarina of Time Remake carry quite the same heavy weight of prejudice and vitriol that Wind Waker did, but since Ocarina is such a beloved game, and so widely regarded, I think it has reached a messiah status within the old guard that basically makes it idealism made digital, something so perfectly unassailable, the image they have in their mind is beyond the realms of rationality, in terms of ever doing it justice, outside of their own, inner fictionalized version of quality they’ve imbued with the title. Which means anything less than perfect, which is…basically anything that isn’t there imagination, will be less than, and thus, a disappointment after the fact.

Alternatively, and maybe in an assessment that matches more of a fairness in terms of familiarity and where critique is concerned, I posited that perhaps, people are so taken with Breath of the Wild’s visuals…well, I mean, the game just an entity, really, but the visuals are apart of its charm, and now accustomed to that being “Zelda” in terms of reference point, for Nintendo to not have just given the Ocarina remake a “Breath of the Wilding” makeover, was perhaps more shocking than it was offensive. Obviously, redoing Ocarina within the style of gameplay of BOTW, as in totally open world, sandbox gameplay would be at odds with Ocarina’s design methodologies, even just from a visuals standpoint, hybridizing the two titles in such a fashion, in giving Ocarina a BOTW glow-up, and maybe even after the visual overlay effect of matching up the stylization as an eppeal to modern audiences, maybe borrrowing from the UI and handpicking some quality of life improvements from it, would have been the sensible, safe thing to do, in bridging the gape of 18 years betwixt the two Zelda titles. But as I pointed out in the video, anyone who thought Nintendo was going to play it safe with Zelda, has clearly not paid attention to the series stories 40 year history, which has a shockingly exploratory and innovative standard that has always set it apart from the crowd, hence why the series has remained on top for so long.

I would love to shoot the shit about this even more, but I am deadass out of time. Thanks for stopping by.

~Pashford