Author: Kat Vadam

Chapter One: Into the Crypt There are ghosts down here. Dark spirits and monsters. Forgotten battles of the dead and the damned. Silence that echoes through barren halls and stilled hearts. Down here, we are buried. Down here, we are lost. Down here, we cannot speak. Souls of history that the kings of annals would rather forget, condemned to fight as demons and malice only written in tales you tell to your children, dark tales of history. We fought you….

Guys, the time has come to revisit a fan favorite. The first truly “dark” Zelda game, a tale of a boy, a separated fairy, a strange land with a strange clocktower, and three days to save the world. It’s a tale of adventure and love and fear as we walk through the lands of Termina, trying to stop the moon’s wicked decent armed with a sword and the masks we’ve collected along the way. I’m talking, of course, about a…

Sometimes, heroes need a helping hand. They’re doing their best to fight evil, explore dungeons and vast lands, racing against time to change the fate of worlds, make massive feasts (to replenish health and stamina, of course)… They cannot do it all themselves! And Link? Well, several games in the Zelda series prove that he is no exception. Yet, no one stops to consider what it is like to fight alongside the Hero of Hyrule as he stumbles his way to…

Feeling inadequate. Always faltering, failing, falling. You give it everything you have, but it’s never enough. Like all the potential in the world should somehow be in the palm of your hand, yet you just… can’t… grasp… it. No matter how hard you try, you can’t seem to do anything right. I know this is a feeling many have felt. I know this is something many deal with on a daily basis. I know that I am not alone. But……

Ah, yes, Ocarina of Time’s Shadow Temple, nestled at the back of Kakariko’s graveyard. The source of haunting scenes and secrets untold, of blood and death and torture. This is a place where horrors lie. But could a horror game lie there, too? Of course, the temple would have to be expanded and given new puzzles, but the game could explore the unspoken history of the Hylian Royal Family. The player falls deep into the despair of the Sheikah, learning their…

We all have our favorite races that we encounter as Link romps around Hyrule. The Zora, the Gorons, the Rito, and so on. Each with their own purpose and their own quests. Yet, the games are always about all the races, and one Hylian boy’s encounters with each one. Sometimes, though, I wonder what it would be like to play a standalone game solely revolving around one of those many races our hero has encountered through the ages. For the…

If you’re anything like me, when Nintendo dropped the reveal of their remaster of Link’s Awakening for Switch, you probably made loud, piercing noises of excitement, too. Link’s Awakening, the first installment of a Zelda game to be released on any Game Boy, holds a very special place in many fans’ hearts. For me, it was the first video game I ever played, the year it was released (yes, I’m old). It’s why I am here. This game followed what many consider one…

Suspend a bit of reality with me for a minute. The characters of the Zelda series are attending Hyrule University, each in a different major. What would each character study? As someone currently enrolled in school, I have found myself “linking” (I regret nothing) majors to my favorite characters. For example, I imagine Breath of the Wild‘s Zelda studying Computer Engineering, maybe with a minor in Archeology, while Ocarina of Time‘s Zelda studies Religion. Midna is studying Business Management, because there is…

Or when he randomly pulls out his sword? Jumps off a cliff unexpectedly? Or when he’s just aimlessly wandering around the same small circle like a drunken idiot? I mean, let’s face it, we’ve all had those moments when we have the attention span of Dug from the movie Up. Maybe someone says something to us and we look over to respond, and when we look back at the screen, Link is standing up close and personal to a wall,…

Are you an artist? A cosplayer? A streamer, musician, writer, podcaster? Do you just enjoy doodling little Zelda characters in the margins of your notebook? Then Zelda Creator Con, hosted by artist Joel D. Siegel and his team at Linktober, might be the place for you to show off your skills. And, good news: applications for the 2022 show are now open! Started in light of the pandemic in 2020 to fill the void left behind when in-person conventions were…