Five items from Link's Awakening you could find in a New Year’s Celebrations.
Yoshi Doll: Link must win the Yoshi doll in a claw game. This nod to the Mario franchise is the first item in the trading sequence.
The Caverns of Ygg are home to a number of settlements that have prospered among the subterranean mushroom forests and lightless rivers. Life underground is fraught with many perils. To prepare children and new arrivals for the particular issues that face cavern dwellers, puppet shows are performed in theaters, churches, common halls, and even the streets. Classic examples of plays include The Raptors of Ygg, a play that details the hunting methods of the dangerous reptilian predator, The Poisoned Spring, a play concerning how to determine water quality, and The Dust of Madness, a cautionary tale concerning the spores of the fungal forests.
Thunder Drum: A drum of thunder is as perfectly thematically aligned as you can get. It is too bad the Instruments of the Sirens don’t actually do that much from a gameplay perspective. I also think it is too bad that that Link’s Awakening has a western snare drum instead of a Japanese Taiko drum.
Most everyday spirits that bother the mundane world are simple creatures of an almost animalistic intelligence. In an attempt to scare these spirits away, fleets of ensorcelled drums are played during the New Year’s celebrations of the Great Lakes Shogunates’ larger cities. In smaller communities unable to afford such an array of drums, bells and chimes are placed in building entrances and ceremonial archways that mark the boundary of sacred spaces. Spirits fleeing the enchanted instruments congregate in abandoned buildings and places far from towns. Some scholars believe the practice of expelling all spirits is creating the haunted forests and abandoned ghost towns that plague travelers. A few scholars fear that forcing so many spirits into the fringes of the world could cause them to coalesce into much more dangerous creatures.
Bird Key: The bird key that opens Eagle’s Tower is another dungeon key in Link’s Awakening. While the key isn’t the most interesting item, the steps Link must complete to get the key are amazing. Link has to learn a song from a frog choir that can resurrect the dead. Link has to then revive the rare flying rooster so that he can jump over a chasm while hanging from the feet of the rooster. This is not the last time Zelda players will see a choir of frogs or a cucco hang glider.
Life in the shadow of an active volcano is fraught with peril. In spite of all the danger many peoples make their home in the Ashlands. One nomadic group worship their ancestors and can even summon the wisdom and strength of their ancestors in times of need. During their first new year’s celebration as an adult, the younger generations are given raven charms by the tribe’s elders. The raven symbolizes the transition between life and death and the raven charm allows the spirits of the ancestors to be channeled by the newly christened members of the tribe.
Organ of Evening Calm: The organ is another of the Siren’s Instruments. The game art looks more like an apocryphal keyboard than a full piano or organ. I was trying to channel a saloon feel for my version of the organ.
In the barrios of Puerto Antigua, music is a part of everyday life. This music rises to a crescendo near the turning of the year when celebrations spill out from the musical halls into every plaza and avenue in the city. The last three days before New Year’s Day are filled with songs about the past and the city's great history. The first three days of the year are filled with music that looks forward to wonderful things to come. Visitors to the city during this time should be warned that constant celebrations fill every hour with the sounds of music and dancing.
Conch Horn: The conch is the most natural instrument among of the eight instruments of the sirens. I imagine the other seven instruments work together to create a type of music I would recognize. Maybe the conch acts like a horns section. I will have to see if conch’s can be more musical than simply loud.
In the time before the Forum, the peoples of the rivers, lakes, and seas could work together. When the many leaders of the people’s below the waves convened, arguments and interruptions derailed discussion until no work could be completed. When the aging shaman chief of the Wither Grasp, a minor clan of little renown, attempted to offer a solution, they were not able speak above the din of the other diplomats. Annoyed, the shaman cast a spell of silence on the entire meeting room and proclaimed through the unnatural quiet that only the one who holds the conch may be heard. The shaman’s solution has been employed successfully for the last 74 years. Upon the commencement of the 75th annual summit, the diplomats discovered the speaking shell is missing only after the silence spell had been cast. What’s more worrying is the fact that all doors to the forum have been barred from the outside, trapping the diplomats and whatever staff was present inside.
----------
I mostly drafted this on my phone so pardon the errors.
If you are an American, please go out and vote. Every vote matters.
Feel free to use my work personally as you see fit but do not profit from my work without my consent.
Be sure to be excellent to everyone.
-Ceph
No comments:
Post a Comment