Beyond the Algorithm

This Saturday, the day after tomorrow, is the 40^th anniversary of the release of the original The Legend of Zelda game. If a US company owned it, something big would be in store for the celebration. The rest of this year would be full of releases and nostalgia and hype, culminating in the live-action movie (2027) or in a not-yet-teased new 3D game, or both. But Nintendo is very much not a US company. And, unlike Pokémon (hitting its 30^th anniversary at the end of this month), ownership of TLOZ is not shared. Nintendo does exactly what it wants with TLOZ, only rarely* pressured by even sales results, much less anything else.

Speculation has been rampant for months. Actual leaks seem to have begun squishing out this week, maybe. I'm lightly ducking them, but at the high level of subject lines and headlines, they sound much like the speculation, though narrowed down to one consensus prediction. No Nintendo Direct, much less Zelda Direct, is scheduled (only the Pokémon event at the end of the month). Two days ago, some modest quality-of-life updates released for BOTW and TOTK (which is remarkable, right? BOTW released in 2017!). Saturday is not a prime day for marketing announcements.

We would all love a teaser for an upcoming new game, not only a remake, however much we'd all like a remake (OOT and TP are the big candidates, of course). I think it's too early for an actual release announcement with a date; it's been only three years since TOTK (and two since EOW (Grezzo) and one since HW:AOI (Koei Tecmo)). I think most of us would also like a trailer for the upcoming movie, though an entire year out is a bit early in the hype cycle for that, too. It seems to me that it's not impossible that Nintendo will actually let the TLOZ anniversary pass unremarked, or all but unremarked, and then do something on its own time, perhaps with barely a nod to the anniversary, later in the year, after the Pokémon anniversary hoopla is over.

* At release, the market choked on Wind Waker's "childish" art style. Sales were infamously disappointing. Twilight Princess then followed with more the look and feel of an animated Peter Jackson LOTR movie, to great sales worldwide. However, time has redeemed Wind Waker; today, both fans and experts regard its art as "timeless," transcending the tech of its era.

I thought that you might want to know about these developments, too:

A few weeks ago, I saw an article discussing how mass-market paperbacks are on their way out, that the last large publishers/printers of them in English will soon cease production of that cheaper "pocket size" book format that has dominated my lifetime. That market has apparently fallen to a combination of e-book readers and non-readers. Also, grocery stores and drugstores and other such grab-and-go places for which mass-market paperbacks were made don't give books as much shelf space as they used to, as you may have seen first-hand. The future of new books is trade paperbacks and hardbacks, apparently, though I imagine used books will circulate as long as the pages cling to their glued bindings. Anything and everything that puts books out of reach for anyone, yet especially the young and the poor, is tragic. (Subscriber gift link to take you, and anyone you share it with, through the paywall for free: "So Long to Cheap Books You Could Fit in Your Pocket" by Elizabeth A. Harris, New York Times, February 6, 20026.)

Yesterday (Valentine's Day, no less), I saw an article reporting that Harlequin/Mills & Boon, the romance publisher powerhouse, will discontinue its historical romance line entirely in English, after having previously pared all historical eras down to just Regency and Victorian. (Medieval, Old West, US Revolution, and many more were all actively published at various times.) I'm not a big romance reader and I don't buy new Harlequin, but... it's always been there. I've read it from time to time from the library, and bought used from library sell-offs or bins outside bookshops, and while too many of the ones I've read were at best ephemeral candy, and a few were absolute wrecks, an equal few were genuinely good or clever or inspiring and have stayed in my imagination. I am a big reader of historical fiction... I can't feel good about history being a fading interest. (This site allows 3 monthly freebie views: "Harlequin to Discontinue Historical Romance Line" by Sam Spratford, Publishers Weekly, February 13, 2026.)

If at least 5 people total want to play this year, I will run fkficfest, the annual Forever Knight (1992-1996) fic event, again. I'll put up a poll soon, probably next week.

I've got a few more real-life events and obligations than usual this spring, and it looks like we've very unfortunately lost everywoman as a summer event, so I'm thinking perhaps June or July this year, instead of the traditional May. (May is the anniversary of FK's finale and premiere both; FK was a mid-season replacement series, making it actually half a year older than HL.)

I am still, very personally and individually -- and I say this here on my own journal, not in the community -- feeling rock-bottom alienated from the dominant preferences of the broader surviving fandom at this point. (This doesn't mean any individual fans; it means approaches and interpretations.) So I will try to take it easy on myself and dial back my own engagement in ways that shouldn't affect anyone else. I'll sit in my corner and muse quietly on old-fashioned takes, like that Nick is right and Lacroix is wrong, vampirism is a metaphor for evils like addiction and abuse, and selflessness is better than selfishness.

Fi is the spirit of the sword in The Legend of Zelda. The Master Sword looks like a European blade, but TLOZ is a JRPG. A fusion of J.R.R. Tolkien's novels and Shigeru Miyamoto's boyhood in rural Japan, the story gave its fantasy sword a spirit, somewhat as traditional clay-tempered Japanese blades have. Down through all the ages of the story, the sword selects its wielder. (I've deleted my digression on sword spirits in TLOZ. For now. ~grin~)

According to my Switch 2 app, I'm 475 hours into The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild. I've completed every side quest, beaten every shrine, collected every memory, maximized every inventory stash, upgraded every armor/outfit, filled all but five slots in the compendium, and hung the "Champions Ballad" reward picture in Link's home.* At this point, the only things between me and the story's final chapter are the "Trial of the Sword" and completionism (finding every Korok, every chest, etc.). I'm a "story-ist," not a completionist.

The "Trial of the Sword" is a three-stage DLC that powers up the Master Sword for each stage you complete. There's microscopic story gain, really just a gantlet** of increasingly difficult monsters in increasingly challenging environments, which you must conquer all in one run per stage, or be sent all the way back to the beginning to do it all over again. No saves. I really enjoy the conceit of stripping Link of all his weapons, armor, and resources, being left to muddle through on cleverness! Eventide Island, ahoy! But I do not enjoy gantlet-style at all. I've been trying to get through just the beginner stage of the "Trial of the Sword" on and off in my hobby time for weeks. I almost gave up. There's no more story, right?

But. Story got into my head. As it does. How would Fi feel about Link skipping this challenge? All of BOTW's present-day has been about Link rebuilding himself as the legendary hero, regaining his memories, his strength, his mission -- his sword. Isn't this Fi's equivalent journey? Perhaps she even influenced the creation of this darn gantlet for him! So I kept trying. And trying. Finally, Saturday night, after dinner, the third time I've ever managed to make it all the way up to the twelfth level -- and only after checking the internet to confirm that the Hinox with greaves is indeed the last of this phase and I should therefore "leave it all on the field" -- my Link beat the beginner stage of the "Trial of the Sword." Yay!

So: that's enough. The real (fictional) Link would bring Fi all the way through the next two stages! But I am calling this for myself. Next up, perhaps next weekend, it's straight to Zelda to beat Ganon and watch the full end credits in my own game (instead of on YouTube).


* Typical playthroughs are 50-100 hours. Most players do not complete all the optional subplots and sidequests. Also, most players are more skilled than I am. ;-D

** As you know, a "gantlet" is a "lane run" ordeal or challenge, while a "gauntlet" was originally only a stout protective glove that comes up high on the arm, but, over time, the words converged, and "gauntlet" now means both "gantlet" and "gauntlet." English is fun!