Wind Waker: Nifo’oti from the thousand isles of the Master Navigators.

 Wind Waker: Nifo’oti from the thousand isles of the Master Navigators.

Phantom Ganon's Sword: Phantom Ganon is the first manifestation of Gannondorf’s power that Link must face in his adventure. When Link is ready to face the ultimate evil threatening the Great Sea, he must defeat Phantom Ganon repeatedly to find his way through a maze. At the end of the maze, Link must take up the vanquished phantom’s sword and shatter a barrier blocking his way.

In the Isles of the Master Navigators, there is little enough metal to make tools and too much wet salt air to keep metal tools safe from rust. Instead, the craftspeople of the islands turn to wood, stone, shells, and teeth for their tools. With tools and weapons that exist in harmony with the seas, the Master Navigators have successfully beaten back the self-important metal-clad invaders for generations.

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Nifo'oti are real Polynesian cane knives made in various forms by the many different Polynesian peoples. The Pacific Islands were first discovered and settled by humans using navigational techniques that include knowing what types of clouds form near or far from land and how birds behave near and far from land. The Polynesian explorers accomplished incredible feats earning their status as master navigators.  

Trying to unlearn the "colonialism is a good thing" lessons I was taught as a kid is hard work. Taming an “undiscovered” land of savages is often a default plot that still bubbles up, but there are some cool inversions of that story that show the experience from the indigenous people’s perspective.

A cool world concept and art project that would be a great game setting is the Orken World from SixMoreVodka that shows the various tribes of orcs uniting to resist the colonial expansion of pale-faced humans that are the most thinly veiled reference to actual colonial invaders. 

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: An anchor.

Wind Waker: An anchor.

Stalfos Club: Stalfos wield these bulky spiked iron clubs recklessly in their lifeless attacks. Link wields the clubs with only marginally more skill as their incredible weight forces him to make slow and ponderous swipes. The clubs are heavy enough to shatter stone pillars just like Darknut Swords.

A sea giant extorting tolls from any ship that passes through its domain uses a massive anchor to menace the passing ships. The anchor has scuttled the handful of ships that rejected the giant’s demand, leaving just enough survivors to tell the tale. Ships have begun to avoid the prime shipping lane, but this has only emboldened the giant to strike out farther and farther from their home.

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The Warcraft 3 sea giants with their whale skin cloaks wielding massive anchors were the direct inspiration for this drawing. I loved that when the sea giants entered the water they just looked like swimming whales and not dangerous giants bent on destroying your fledgling navy.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Wind Waker: A dagger axe from an infantry troop.

 Wind Waker: A dagger axe from an infantry troop.

Moblin Spear: Moblins of the Great Sea often attack Link using long crooked spears fringed with tattered braids. Link can use these spears by defeating Moblins, greatly increasing his range of attack. These spears are as deadly as Darknut Swords but are not strong enough to shatter pillars.

Swords are for the rich and axes are for the woodpile, but spears are for soldiers. Spears can slay a foe before a sword can reach and they can take down a charging horse. Let the flashy fools keep their shining swords, give me a trusty spear any day.

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Given the choice of having a spear or a sword, most modern people would want the flashy hero energy of a sword, but most people contemporary with both would choose spears. You can’t use a sword as a walking stick, but you can use a spear as one.

I wish that the fantasy and RPG space made spears cooler. The only two compelling spear fighters I can think of are Oberyn Martell from A Song of Ice and Fire and Balsa from Moribito.

Go out there and make a cool spear fighter.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Digivolve your champion with this digivice.

 Digivolve your champion with this digivice.

Digivice: A digivice from the first series of the Digimon anime. Digivices allow DigiDestined children to digivole their Digimon. That sentence is all the explanation I need for why Digimon didn’t overtake pokémon in the fight for monster collecting supremacy.

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I think that is it for the monster collector item mini-set. There was a while there where I liked Digimon more than pokémon but pokémon was clearly the IP that endured. Did you have a favorite child collecting monsters show that wasn’t pokémon? Monster rancher? Card captors? An even more obscure one?

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Catch ‘em All with this Pokeball.

Catch ‘em All with this Pokeball.

Pokeball: Use Pokeballs like this to catch all of the Pokémon to complete your Pokédex. 

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Unless you want to directly reference pokémon in your games, I don’t see these being anything but a funny one-off easter egg item, but it could be a great way to represent a stone of summoning or some single-use summon a monster item. 

I haven’t played any of the Pokémon games after the last Game Boy Advanced games Ruby, Sapphire, and Emerald. They do have a special place in my heart as one of my first hyperfocuses, but I doubt I’m going back to Pokémon any time soon. I just don't have the time to catch them all or craft the perfect team, especially not with however many pokémon there are now. 

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph

Capture all of them with these Pal Spheres.

Capture all of them with these Pal Spheres. 

Palsphere: Use these brightly colored spheres to capture all the pals, and anything else they can grab too. Find an additional collection of Pal Spheres below.

Wind Waker: A two-handed falchion of the finest steel.

 Wind Waker: A two-handed falchion of the finest steel.

Darknut Sword: Heavily armored Darknuts wield these massive swords with one hand. If Link can disarm or defeat a Darknut he can just wield the bulky blade with both hands. Link can use the blade to battle enemies and to shatter certain stone pillars.

The city of Damshuk is famous for its miraculously fine steel. Its forges produce such awe-inspiring steel that some foreigners believe the blades to be enchanted. The merchants of Damshuk do nothing to disabuse the ill-informed buyers of such ideas while being very sure to never directly state the steel they offer is magic.

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Damascus steel was truly impressive to everyone in the age of sword and steel. Honestly, it still is. The iconic layered patterns in the steel come from many layers of steel with different carbon contents that respond differently to an acid etching that reveals the amazing luster once the forging is finished.

A low fantasy setting could have equipment forged from Damascus steel be legendary rewards worthy of legendary heroes.

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Be excellent to everyone.

-Ceph