Hi pal!
I had a long lazy weekend where I didn’t do much. Including not writing this newsletter, so I’m just gonna keep it short and sweet and make a juicier one next week (I promise).
Mini Notes
📝 Article - Fantasy Meets Reality
When it comes to design in the real world, there are a few basic rules that seem to always apply:
If it looks neat, people will want to take a photo with it.
If it looks comfortable, people will want to sit on it.
If it looks fun, people will play around on it. Etc.
[…]
But honestly, a lot of it, I think, is just that some designers are amazing at imagining things, but not as amazing at imagining them surrounded by the universe.
An enjoyable string of thoughts about public spaces. Reminds me of my article Stuck in the world, free in the head.
🔴 Youtube video - Let Goku Die
This one complements the next mini note quite well.
💭 Thoughts - On playing the new Zelda
I took a break for a few weeks after playing the new Zelda for about 50 hours, I was surprised to bounce off it so soon when I loved the Breath Of The Wild so much and I had anticipated this one for a long time. Part of me expected to relieve the feeling of playing the first one for the first time. But that’s not what happened, it’s more like continuing from where I finished the last game.
I think it’s because it felt a bit as if I had played it already. I got a desperate itch to do something new with my time instead.
I’ve found that a lot of the media I consume is about stuff I already know, I’ve been reading the Harry Potter series for the first time (but I know the basic story from the movies), I’ve been playing One Piece Pirate Warriors and watching the anime (even though I know the story from the manga), I’m reading the legend of King Arthur in french (mostly for practice, but I basically know how this story goes too).
I’ve got a feeling that I would be better off moving on to new stories, or games instead of sucking every drop of nostalgia, or whatever it is, out of these familiar worlds. There’s so much I haven’t experienced.
What have you been into recently? How new and surprising is it to you?
Thank you for reading! Have a creative week.
Cool to read your thoughts on Zelda.
While I spend more time on the game than you, I actually had a similar feeling after a while.
Up until reaching the end credits my play experience was personally pretty unbelievable. I had avoided trailers and spoilers so I wasn't sure what I went into - generally, I thought they managed to create an amazing sequel.
My feeling though, is that there is a bit of a narrative problem with the postgame. While the game revolves around uncovering a mystery ("what's going on with Zelda?" etc.) , once that mystery is uncovered a lot of the side quests that might have been fun to play feel a little meaningless - at least to me - since a bunch of those side quests seem to revolve around that very same mystery.
Roughly put, in BotW I felt like I was uncovering a world and in TotK I felt like I was uncovering a mystery - but the problem to me is that this mystery is automatically uncovered after beating the game, leaving me with a world I already explored (in the first game) and a mystery that's already been solved.
Your experience is probably different but I just wanted to share my perspective.
Hope you're enjoying Harry Potter :)