The thing I like about the Blood Moon mechanic in Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom is how it affords game-mechanical transparency to the player.

Like, we all know the reason it exists is because, like any complex open-world game, BotW and TotK periodically need to hit the reset button on all non-trivial changes to the world state; in games that don't, your save file has unbounded growth due to the need to keep track of every little thing you've ever done, and eventually the system runs out of memory, save/load performance goes to shit, or both. It's basic software engineering constraints dictating the shape of play.

The thing is, most open world games try to do this subtly, perhaps by setting individual timers for the consequences of different actions to expire, or by linking world-state cleanup to proximity to the player character, but in practice it never works – trying to be sneaky about it paradoxically makes it more obtrusive to the player by rendering it opaque and unpredictable, often prompting the development of superstitious gameplay rituals to work around it.

BotW and TotK take precisely the opposite tack and make it 100% transparent and 100% predictable. Once a week, at exactly the same time of day, there's a spooky cutscene and an evil wizard undoes every change you've made to the world that doesn't have an associated quest log entry. Why everything at once, and always on the same schedule? A wizard did it. Why exactly and only those changes that don't have quest logs attached? See again: a wizard did it.

And this isn't just a gameplay conceit. Everybody knows about the evil wizard! The fact that the evil wizard keeps resetting everybody's efforts to fix the befuckening of the world is a central plot point. There are organisations whose chartered purpose is to go around redoing stuff that's been undone by the wizard.

It makes me wonder what other potential synergies between fantasy worldbuilding and mechanical transparency are going unexploited.

ive been thinking about how the first game in the timeline begins cuz he couldn't catch her as she fell from the sky and the last game ends because he could catch her.

I am fighting for my life.

Having some TotK Zelda thoughts

TOTK SPOILERS

I MISS THE GUARDIANS

Lonk learned the power of

D U C T T A P E

Silly sketch idea. Moon Serpent and Light Serpent (with a small redesign for her and a peek at what I plan on Ko’jin’s future design to look).

This like. 100% wouldn’t happen depending on when Ko’jin appears in the au (post-TOTK’s era). But it was a neat idea regardless so I doodled it while I had the chance 😌

Also since its not canon to the au I’m not gonna bother finishing it rn or making it look good (hence why its a tad scuffed in areas). Maybe it’ll be a thing I finish in the future 🤔.

Perhaps… consider supporting me on kofi if you like my stuff 👀? -> Full-res image available for download here for free

I love that some shrines in TotK outright give the blessing to you, like Rauru decided you put in enough effort just to find it so he’s kind and benevolent about it like ‘oh you sweet soul whose heart is pure and deserving of all things good’ but then there’s some shrines where he’s just like ‘take down a dozen enemies naked with only a stick u fucking twink’

I don’t know what the purpose of the Cece Hat is in Tears of the Kingdom but know that I love it and I’m never ever taking it off

*whisper* I look amazing

IM SORRY LITTLE GUY 😭😭😭

I truly don't understand folks who say that the full Miner's Set is less kinky than the top by itself. Like, yes, a shirt made entirely of locks and chains tells a certain story, but the full ensemble?

I know people who would climb that like a tree.

Tears of Kingdom actually makes Zelda and Ganondorf's dynamic hilarious cause it really gets summed up to "oh God it's this bitch again" but like at very different points in time

Like with Ganon in BoTW he took over the Sheikah technology, killed the Champions and the Hero, and he's so close to conquering Hyrule after 10,000+ years. But the one standing in his way ... is that fucking girl that kept glaring at him when he showed up to Hyrule Castle all those years ago and Zelda has no idea what so ever that Ganon's bitterness is on a personal level during their 100 year battle at the castle.

And meanwhile Zelda in ToTK is launched way back into the past and is trying to piece together what led to the events of the Imprisoning War... only for origin of evil to stroll right into the castle. And now she's gotta figure out how to stop Ganon from fucking over Hyrule of the past and the future. But Ganon honestly has no clue how this seemingly random girl is already suspecting him before he could even get in a word.

It's unbridled anger at both ends while the other has no clue whatsoever

Zelda: would you still love me if I was a worm?

Link, remembering that dragons are sometimes called wyrms, wurms, and worms: I would love you so much

lmao

the shrine goddesses are GONE :^( they took my old bitches away :^(( where are my shrine hags :^((( my dusty girls :^(((( my CRONES :^(((((