So, I've been replaying Ocarina of Time and Majora's Mask - of course opting for the portable remakes on the 3DS - and something really, *really* pissed me off.
Fans of the game will already no doubt be aware of the House of Skulltula in Kakariko Village from Ocarina of Time. The apparently wealthy family have all been cursed and disfigured into weird spider-human hybrid creatures. The only way to save them is to seek out and destroy the 100 Golden Skulltulas that are hidden throughout Hyrule - some you must defeat in the past as a child, some you must defeat in the future as an adult.
Each time you defeat 10 Skulltulas, one of the five children will be turned back to normal and will present you with a gift. 10 for the first, 20 for the second etc. Their father requires all 100 to have been destroyed before he turns back to normal.
So why does this sidequest piss me off so much? Well, to put it simply - you spent virtually the entire game destroying these damn things, backtracking, time-travelling, warping, riding magic beanstalks and playing the Sun's Song until your fingers fall off - you crawl back to Kakariko Village clutching the 100 shiny Golden Skulltula tokens, only for the patriarch of the family to present you with...
A huge rupee. 200 rupees. Are you fucking serious.
The five children all give you fairly decent rewards - the adult and giant wallets are pretty cool, the piece of heart is always welcomed, the Stone/Shard of Agony is awesome - the Bombchus are kinda meh but still an acceptable prize - why the hell does their father, who to rescue might I add you need to defeat another FIFTY Golden Skulltulas then proceed to present you with the shittiest and most useless reward ever?
By the time you've defeated all 100 Golden Skulltulas, you've quite clearly finished the Spirit Temple - you're 95% of the way through the game. Guaranteed if you're a completionist you'll have already collected all of the heart pieces, bottles and whatnot - and no doubt you're walking around with an overflowing giant's wallet with fuck all to spend your 500 rupees on. So WHY does this moron feel the need to present you with 200 fucking rupees?!
To be honest, I always find rupees in Zelda games to be absolutely terrible quest rewards. You find rupees from cutting grass, killing enemies, winning mini-games and finding hidden treasure chests - there is absolutely no need whatsoever to complete practically a game-long quest to collect (or destroy in this case) ONE HUNDRED well-hidden things just to be blindly given more money!
I mean sure, this *might* have been acceptable in Majora's Mask - after all, you're tasked with amassing 5000 rupees in your savings in order to earn a heart piece... And of course due to the 3-day repeating mechanic, you're often tasked with needing to re-buy items instead of wasting time harvesting them. Items also tend to be more expensive in general - like the Goron Powder Kegs that cost 100 rupees (and you'll need several of them in order to complete all of the sidequests) and the 500 rupee All-Night Mask. The most expensive thing in Ocarina of Time are the Goron/Zora tunics from their respective merchants - which you'll only need to buy if you were careless and let a bastard Like-Like eat your clothes.
Again I compare this to the far superior game, Majora's Mask and its "big" sidequest if you like - collecting all of the masks and trading them with the children on the moon for the Fierce Deity Mask. Sure, this is an optional item - but it's also totally fucking awesome. It's immensely satisfying to be rewarded for your dedication by being handed what is essentially a giant FUCK YOU button to the final boss - making it insultingly easy.
What the hell is 200 rupees going to do against Ganondorf? Such a missed opportunity here to do something similar - or even redirect the final Great Fairy's defense upgrade reward - which also comes far too bloody late in the game to be of any real use - but is certainly more useful than pointless money that wouldn't even fit in my wallet.
I am Mog Anarchy, and I like to play games. Whether they are old, new, retro, modern, online, offline, console, computer, critically acclaimed or notoriously bad. Here on my blog, I rant about, review, trash talk, praise and generally talk about all of my favourite and least-favourite games. I also write my own guides on how to accomplish tricky tasks, show off my creative endeavors and challenge myself with crazy in-game tasks. I also have a bunch of gaming merchandise which I am glad to show off. So drop me a comment, I love hearing your questions, criticisms, comments and general gaming discussions. :)
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