First Impression: A Link Between Worlds

I finally got myself a 3ds XL a few days ago, and the first two games I bought were Animal Crossing: New Leaf and A Link Between Worlds. I've had about two days to play both of these, and I thought I'd give you all my first impression of the newest addition to the Legend of Zelda.

Oh wow. I am disappointed. Well, not exactly disappointed, more like frustrated. I don't know if I've lost my gaming touch or something, but this game is so, so frustrating. I've been playing for two days and I think I've already died at least fifteen times. I've beaten three dungeons, and I just died three times trying to beat the boss of the fourth. I don't know what it is, but I am sucking majorly at this game.

I can attribute a lot of deaths to the fact that the game does not seem to want to give me hearts. I've literally run around whole dungeon floors on one half of a heart, desperately smashing pots and skulls in attempts to find more hearts. And all I get are rupees. So while I continue on through the dungeon I'm now also trying to avoid certain death as I fight enemies until I eventually slip up, die, and am transported back to the beginning of the dungeon (or my house). Killing even the most basic ChuChus is a struggle sometimes. Maybe it's because the last Zelda game that I owned and played all the way through was Spirit Tracks (which I adore, ST is a seriously underrated LoZ game), and I'm still too used to the stylus controls.

I'm also not sure how to feel about the open world layout. While it is interesting and fun to be able to roam wherever you want and complete the dungeons in whatever order you want, I find that this layout causes the game to lack some of the exploring factor of old Zelda games. I loved slowly discovering new areas for the first time, and piece by piece completing the map of Hyrule. In ALBW, I ran through the whole map in a day, no more mysteries waiting beyond what's in the dungeons.

I like the gimmick of this game, the fact that Link can turn into a painting, however I will say that some of the puzzles in this game are not very intuitive. Or maybe again, I'm just dumb...

The graphics and overall look of the game are fine. I've never been a graphics snob, so how a game looks generally doesn't affect my overall opinion of it. I'm not sure if I'm a fan of the top-down perspective, but it works for Pokemon, so I won't complain.

The story is alright. Ravio is a fun addition to the Zelda cast of quirky salesman characters, and Yuga is an interesting villain, but the way the game is laid out, the story is progressing so slowly. Do I really have to beat all eight dungeons before any progression happens? That's ridiculous. I want story, I want substance! This game is supposedly a direct sequel to A Link to the Past, which I never played, so maybe that's why the story and world isn't drawing me in like I feel like it should.

It's only been two days and honestly, I feel bored with this game. I feel really bad saying that since Zelda is one of my favorite game franchises, but this game just isn't doing it for me. I blasted through Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks in a matter of days, and I loved Twilight Princess. There's nothing in A Link Between Worlds that is really gripping me and making me want to continue playing. If anything, my high death rate is preventing me from wanting to play more. I want to love this game. I'll probably stick it out and play the game through to see if anything gets better but honestly, right now I'm regretting the fact that I bought it.

My love/hate relationship with Frozen

I have had a very...conflicting relationship with Frozen. When it came out I paid little to no attention to it, as I had no interest in it whatsoever. This initial disinterest wasn't anything personal against Frozen, I felt the exact same way about Tangled, How To Train Your Dragon, and Wreck-it-Ralph. And then tumblr fell head over heels in love with the movie and I was seeing gifs and edits all over the place. I listened to Let it Go and enjoyed it, but I still didn't go see the movie. Meanwhile, tumblr's love affair with Frozen was only gaining momentum and pretty soon I started to dislike the movie even though I hadn't seen it, purely because everybody else loved it so much. Finally I decided to watch the movie online. I came away with the opinion that it was all right. Pretty and with a cute story, but not the Disney miracle that everybody was saying it was.

Within the week that I watched Frozen, I also watched Tangled, HTTYD, and Wreck-it-Ralph, all for the first time, and after each one I realized: I liked all of those movies a lot better than Frozen. Then I started to actually think more deeply about Frozen and realized why I thought it was just ok.



On my tumblr I have discussed the reasons I think Frozen is flawed, ad nauseum. There's a variety of reasons that range from the lack of character development to the poor plot to the lackluster aesops the film is trying to deliver. Looking at the movie's story objectively, I can say that it's an average at best Disney film.

And despite the fact that I have analyzed the film to its bare bones, despite the fact that I straight up enjoy reading Frozen hate, I find myself being tempted to like the film based on two things mainly: the pretty characters and the songs. I don't really want to like the film because like I said, I don't consider the story to be anything particularly special.

I'll cut myself some slack for liking the songs. They were written to be catchy and they do their job well. I'll admit that I sing songs from Frozen almost everyday because I think they're good songs. Plus, I love listening to and singing them in Chinese and Japanese as well.

The problem I have with myself is that I think the reason I still hold onto a sliver of liking for Frozen is because of Anna and Elsa's characters. First of all, they're pretty. There's no denying that fact. I'd even take the leap and say Elsa is one of the prettiest Disney girls ever put on screen. And that's my problem. I shouldn't like characters or the movie just because the characters are attractive, and yet, I'd say that's what draws about 90% of Frozen fans. They see this movie with two pretty girl lead characters, that's already going to bring in a crowd. Add on some cute character quirks, emotional baggage and a sprinkling of depression and anxiety, and now you've got two attractive young female leads, one who is awkwardly cute but desperately lonely, the other who is elegantly beautiful but secretly a tortured and troubled soul.

And there you are. That's the perfect recipe for characters that young people (especially tumblr users) are going to eat right up. Young people are either going to love Anna because "omg, she's not a perfect princess, she's clumsy and silly and just like me!" or they're going to love Elsa because "omg she's lonely and misunderstood just like me I feel such a kinship to her."

I didn't feel a connection to Anna or Elsa. I'm not awkwardly cute like Anna. I don't have the emotional problems Elsa has. But I still have to grudgingly admit that I like their characters, because media has made out the tortured soul (like Elsa) to be cool. And that's not right. I have a huge problem with people who go around saying they have a mental illness just because they think it'll make them cooler. Mental illness is not cool. It doesn't make people cool if they have it, and it's not something you should want to have. And yet to me at least, Frozen is propagating that idea. It makes people think, "Wow, Elsa is so beautifully troubled." No. Depression and anxiety are not beautiful. Romanticizing mental illness is a huge problem in fiction, and even I, somebody who recognizes that, can still fall for the trap, because Disney just knows how to make their characters so that you can't resist them even if you can see their flaws.

That's where my love/hate relationship with Frozen comes from. It's partially a love/hate relationship with myself. I see the problems, but I still fall for it, and I can't help but feel like that mindset I have is something that I've developed thanks to stereotypes the media promotes. Maybe if I read some more Frozen hate I'll eventually get over this.