You can't tell me this is basically Sherlock Holmes in the Ghibli universe. Even the animation is reminiscent of him. Great video for shining light on this underrated gem.
Layton an Phoenix Wright share their universe, and the Phoenix Wright universe has their own version of Sherlock Holmes, that being Herlock Sholmes from The Great Ace Attorney games.
Despite the apparent worldwide success of the Layton games, (luke even boasts about it at the beginning of the movie) it's unfortunately pretty rare to find videos talking about them, and even rarer for said videos to get very much publicity... Which is an absolute shame because this video is not just *criminally* underrated, it's *the entire prison.* As a longtime fan of this series, The Eternal Diva movie had always felt like such a natural progression in the franchise to me for reasons I could never quite place, and those reasons were articulated so well here. To my recollection, I don't think I've ever seen anyone talk about the *themes* of the game being so centered around love and the effects it has on people, and how they brought those themes so naturally into the movie, it just gave me more appreciation for this movie when I didn't think I could appreciate it any more. The editing was great, the explanations and history were fun to listen to and easy to understand, the jokes had me reeling (the way you write and your comedic timing is all around fantastic, 5:06 in particular made me have to pause the video for about 5 minutes because I was laughing so hard), the audio is fantastic and your voice is very nice to listen to, just had an all around great time with this video. Really hope it gets blessed by the algorithm so more people can see it
Thanks for the nice feedback! I’m really glad you enjoyed. I definitely agree. For such a successful series, Professor Layton is so sadly underrated and not talked about. Part of me wonders if that’s due to the less successful games on the 3DS which maybe dulled the legacy of the franchise? (I’m a big PF fan and even I’ve not played them).
@@AGeneProduction It's a very good theory, I'm certain that it's true they contributed quite a bit. The most recent one to come out with Layton's daughter had some very bad reviews and I think left a lot of longtime fans very disappointed
@@AGeneProduction You really should (if you can, obviously)! The Miracle Mask is my absolute favorite game of the franchise, it looks into the Professor's youth in a gorgeous way (plus it's REALLY long, like, you have tons of puzzles and adventures to play in it). When it comes to the Azran Legacy, I must say that it did feel a little bit less entertaining than the other games, because it's kinda repetitive (you have to travel from one city to another the whole time) and most of the puzzles are too (like, there are many puzzles throughout the game which are just different versions of the same puzzle, as if they didn't want to spend much time thinking of a variety of puzzles); however, it's the conclusion to the trilogy, so it's a must-play once you've gone through Specter's Call and Miracle Mask (and each of the cities you visit in the game are totally charming to me)! Still, if you've played them in order (which I'm really jealous of, since I played 5-3-2 before knowing there was an order and then did 1-4-6, so it's all messed up) and keep fond memories of the game, maybe you don't need to play them. As you've put it in this wonderful video, the series has a perfect structure for everything you know, so you could not need those two extra games. I'm writing this just because if I knew there were two Professor Layton games out there that I haven't played, I would run to buy them, because no matter how "bad" a Professor Layton game could be, it would still be amazing! (Except for Lady Layton... that game... well... at least there are puzzles in it)
I think the thing I’m most curious about in the prequel trilogy is how Descole plays into it. From Spectre’s Call and Eternal Diva, they seem to be painting him as more of a “big bad” than Don Paolo in the original trilogy (and even calling him a “big bad” is a stretch considering how goofy he was), so I’d like to follow that thread more than anything. I’ve no doubt I will play them sometime in the future - I’m low-key hoping they port the prequel trilogy to iOS like they did with the originals, but that might not work with no 3D effect, not to mention Nintendo being notoriously stingy with their IPs!
@@AGeneProduction From the future here! I really think getting the last two of the main series is worth it and, if you feel like it, the phone game Layton MysteryRoom is pretty good in my opinion. I think the bigger plot with descole is one of my favorite things (but maybe that’s because he’s my favorite character) Really the ending have the main series a cohesive loop that gave me a sense of nostalgia even while playing it for the first time. Super excited for the reveal of New World of Steam to come out and bring our Gentleman Professor back!
I imagine the petering out of sales on the 3ds was simply bc the install base was smaller than the ds. Miracle Mask and Azran Legacy absolutely did the series justice imo (Miracle Mask is actually my favorite in the series, just above Unwound Future). I know getting your hands on a 3ds is pretty tough nowadays, but if you ever get a chance def give them a try
I agree that those were worthy additions to the series. I'd also add Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright on to tha5 mix because it's really some of the best of both worlds.
my first experience with Professor Layton was with Miracle Mask on 3DS and after playing most of the games (haven't gotten my hands on Last Specter yet) its still one of my favs!
Azran Legacy was a perfect culmination of the prequel trilogy. What it reveals about the prior games, how it incorporates the story of the Eternal Diva, it's just, masterfully done. I truly wish I could relieve the Layton games from scratch anew, but alas, I'm waiting with bated breath for the New World of Steam to blow me away once more.
15:23 while i love the series, im not surprised they were able to transcribe the video game to movie formula because of the genre. i find it easier to convert a visual novel to a movie rather than an action or platformer since visual novels tend to be a lot more story driven however, this isnt to suggest Level-5 relied on this to make a good, video-based form of media. ive heard good things of their megaton musashi TV series
the eternal diva is one of my favorite films ever, it's so close to my heart and it always makes me cry even in a video essay form layton is such a beloved franchise to me, i loved it as a child and pre-teen, and then one day it went away... and this is all i was left with i'm so grateful for this franchise's existance, i really think i wouldn't have been the same person without layton, luke and all their acquaintances and adventures
I'm glad more people are finally talking about this movie. In general, the whole videogame movie curse was an American thing, Japan has been producing amazing adaptations for a long time, even before Eternal Diva I remember there was that Animal Crossing movie that I don't know if it was even localized but it was amazing as well. Back to Layton, I completely agree with you on this take and I also love that this movie is canon to the story (with Miracle Mask even referencing these events). I also suggest to you to play Miracle Mask and Azran Legacy as they are still good (MM in particular is my second favourite one after Lost Future), while you can absolutely skip the Katrielle ones...
I loved watching this as a kid. My sister owned the DVD and every once in a while she'd put it on for me. Definitely a nostalgic movie for me, especially since my lovely sister also let me play the games. I guess I'll always associate Professor Layton with my relationship with my sister. How fitting.
This was brilliant! I think you really hit upon why this niche film was so excellent and not simply some hum-drum cult classic. Truly the analysis of the various branching elements, and a wonderful video, starting humorously on the disaster that is most video game movies and ending quite seriously on the beauty of this movie and it's themes. Every puzzle has an answer, and I believe this puzzle is solved.
This is a great video, your talent for content creation really does shine through here. You make lots of great points about the film and the franchise as a whole. It's so nice to hear people so passionately and articulately explain why Layton is such a great series. 👍
Incredible video, you nailed every part : Clear structure, great storytelling, on point and meaningful analysis, without taking yourself too seriously and keeping it super dynamic and fun I'm super impressed on how good you are at this and how QUALITATIVE that video is, keep up the great work buddy
Oh what a great video! The editing is so well done and I loved the little humerous bits. Eternal Diva really is such a great movie! Personally I also love how the movie adapts the puzzles. Everyone knows it would sound stupid for random people to give Layton random unrelated puzzles so they put him into a game show! And aside from the themes of love you mentioned (which i didnt even notice up till now!) it also borrows many popular aspects of its predecessing games: giant robot (the mobile fortress from LF), a swordfight (vs Anthony in PB), building a flying device (The car in LF and the glider in CV), etc. Thank you for this video, i enjoyed it a lot and it got me thinking about all this again!
Although I believe that the title of best video game adaptation as recently been encroached by works such as the Castlevania animation and LoL's Arcane, I will always give credit to this movie for being the first to breaking the curse. Excellent video by the way.
I’ve not seen Castlevania or Arcane yet. I wonder how I’d view them having not played the games yet - would I be more or less critical of their content, given I’d have nothing to compare them to as an adaptation? They’re certainly on the list though! Thank you for the comment :D
@@AGeneProduction You can definitely enjoy both shows without playing their respective games. Actually, both shows kinda cheated in a sense. They prioritize telling good stories based off the lore, rather than emulating the gameplay. If you enjoy Arcane for example, you might be disappointed by how little the gameplay of League of Legends has in common with it.
What about the Animal Crossing movie? It came out 3 years before the Layton movie, was a great representation of the game's chill vibes, and had a good story.
While I love the stories of the Professor Layton games, and I like the puzzles, I'm a bit of a stickler about not getting any unnecessary help for a puzzle if I can help it, so I struggled a lot for the harder puzzles. It didn't help that some didn't translate well, as in, they had assumed common knowledge that was more common in Japan than the US. Still, I did finish the first two I played, the first and the third, and I have finished the crossover game with Ace Attorney, a series I love so much I finished every title I could get my hands on, so there's that. Great games, just a little heavy on puzzles I wasn't familiar with to completely divulge my time into. (To clarify, while I enjoy the puzzles, I sometimes played while not at my brightest, so I would bang my head on the wall trying to solve a single puzzle for an hour before giving up. I like puzzles, but I'm not incredibly good at them.)
Clearly a lot of love went into this video. However, I feel like the crux is less complicated. This is a Layton game where they cut out the gameplay and animated the transitions. If you took just the cutscenes of Xenosaga, or FFX, or Tales of Symphonia, then animated the m8ssing parts, and edited down to a tight 90m, I think you'd have some great, watcheable films recognizeable to their IPs. But that's not what your aforementioned failed films are trying to do - they're trying to adapt games, often not story-driven games, into a live-action medium with general audience appeal. Eternal Diva doesn't tell us how to do that. Your argument could be that people shouldn't try, and that's fine, but then you're answering a question nobody is really asking.
always happy to see new videos pop up about this series :') i think it was good also because there were already animated snippets in the series, also the games already had a story focused narrative great editing btw
this movie is honestly outstanding, i rewatched it yesterday and i loved every bit. my favorite bit was when they introduced the first puzzle, i actually got goosebumps and got so excited because the music was so on point
I never considered The Eternal Diva to be a video game movie adaptation but now that you mention it, it totally is one... 🤔 I think this also has to do with how it didn't try to be a star-studded pop culture blockbuster like so many others do (well, putting aside the fame of its Japanese VAs). Also being animated in the same style as the games goes a long way too! I can't even imagine how different it would have turned out if it were live action instead.
Great work! I've seen Eternal Diva before, but never really thought about what made it different, or how well it worked with the rest of the franchise. I really agree with your points, though, and it made me think. Love the Layton series :)
Brilliant video! But you should definitely consider playing the last two titles. I've also just played them a few years ago once the 2DS got less expensive and I didn't expect them to be that great to be honest, however it was more than worth the wait
Hmmm, it's much easier task to adapt a animation game into a animation movie, even easier to adapt a storytelling game into a movie... So no surprise at all here...
Thank you so much for this. I did not know this movie existed despite being a huge fan of the series as a kid, and thanks to this, I was able to find and watch it before finishing this video. It was excellent, and I think I agree that it is the best video game film adaptation I've ever seen.
1:57 the first Mortal Kombat movie was not high art, but it’s certainly not a bad movie. It’s a fun watch. Edit: same goes for the first two live action Resident Evil movies. I’d go so far as to say the first one is a pretty good zombie film
That was a really well made video! I still love the original trilogy and consider it a true masterpiece, it's a shame that the probability of another game or movie is basically non-existent because of the State of Level 5 as well as the death of Akira Tago. Just in my opinion though regarding the best video game trilogy I personally have to place Layton slightly below the Uncharted series but on par with the witcher games (which has a book series for it's basis so this really speaks volumes about the quality of professor layton).
Thank you! I really appreciate the nice comment! I have to say, Uncharted is definitely up there as some of my favourite games of all time, but I do think the first game could have aged more gracefully. I definitely have games I like more than the Laytons (including Among Thieves, actually), but as a trilogy, I think they’re all consistently amazing and very very rarely fall below that standard. As for the Witcher… I have yet to play any of them. (I’m not ready to sink hundreds of hours into Wild Hunt yet).
@@AGeneProduction very interesting but probably in line with most people, I think we all agree that Among thieves reigns supreme played that game about 10 times at this point. I have to say from a story perspective I am in far bigger conflict with Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy than I am with Uncharted 1 just beacause I can forgive many of the gameplay issues (like the beautifully aged jetski scenes) due to it being the first game (also I still like eddy raja‘s dialogue that was transported into the Uncharted 3 multiplayer) but I get where you are coming from. I am intrigued: What would you consider your 5 favorite game franchises? Also I had the time to watch some of your other content. The chicken little video was great, the reveal was suprising and the storytelling style really suites you. I am looking forward to your future content, I hope you have more videos like this up your sleeve.
That’s a very good question, and I had to think about it for a while. My opinions are gonna be swayed by some nostalgia, unavoidably, and I can only judge on the games that I’ve played in a franchise. But my top five franchises would be: 1. Tomb Raider 2. Super Mario Galaxy 3. Professor Layton 4. Uncharted 5. Crisis The Elder Scrolls, Animal Crossing and Resident Evil were close runner-ups, but like I said, nostalgia is unavoidable and a lot of these I consider comfort games. The PS2-era Tomb Raider games in particular were the first games I ever played with my dad, and so the T-Rex fight from “Anniversary” is cemented in my mind as the greatest sequence in gaming. Absolutely blew my mind as a kid!!
Wow, great video, awesome script and editing! Wishing you the best of luck with the algorithm gods. You're missing out on that theme of love with the last two main entries, being love as loyalty to a friend and love for the entirety of humanity, respectively. The Kat game was good though lower stakes, but from what I heard its anime adaptation did the story way better.
It’s nice to know they kept that theme up until the end of the franchise. Only when I was making this video did I discover the anime, and when I tell you it was like discovering an overdue epilogue to this childhood franchise of mine. A joy to watch :D
@@AGeneProduction I have yet to watch the anime, but I really want to! I know she isn't very popular but I enjoyed Katrielle as a character a lot, I thought they made the right call by portraying her as a quirky, air-headed genius. Plus I loved the game for the puzzles of course. Come to think of it, Azran legacy has more than just the love for humankind, it has also a theme of obsession, losing oneself in the pursuit of something, not too dissimilar to Anton's but spanning several characters and with wider consequences. Characters hurting others through their obsession, in turn giving their victims obsessions of their own, and the cycle breaking when realizing the futility of it all, leaving just a sliver of hope that some wounds can be mended. (Not that I have nothing to say about Miracle mask, it's my second favorite!)
It Plays to it strengths and doesn't try to be something it's not; Professor layton un my mind stands amongst classical detective titans like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot and is fun to watch do his thing. There a reason general audiences love mysteries and wacky setting of layton is awesome.
Dang, I'll have to play every Layton game then instead of only Unwounded Future (I think it was that) before I watch this video 😫 Oh well, I'll be back in a week or two 😶
This is gonna be a loooong long comment, so beware. How I’d create a Zelda film First things first. It’s gonna be animated. None of that live action bullshit- like imagine if they got someone like Tom Holland to play Link like that’d be so dumb haha so stupid it just feels weird hahahAHAHA. >:( Okay so first things first, you’ve got the normal structure of a Zelda film. First introduce the gimmick or theme of the whole game that ties into the world- be it the world is underwater, there’s two characters talking about life at “twilight”, Hyrule is in the sky. Then the classic hero’s journey is put in, Link most likely has no weapons and is a “farm boy”, or is just an outsider who stumbles upon the main thing of this story like in Majora’s Mask- but I think for this just doing him as a “farm boy” works. So after this, he gets thrust upon his journey when the baddie either takes Zelda, throws the town and thus the world into peril, and/or takes his buddies. For this I think just the classic “he kidnapped Zelda” works, the world is also screwed. Shortly after he’ll find his “companion” or the thing that’ll help him throughout this journey (whether it’s a character or an item like the Shieka Slate) in which he fights monsters, goes through mysterious dungeons and meets wacky ass characters. Finally he faces off against the big baddie- most likely gonna be Gannon- defeats him, saves Zelda, and makes the world or town go somewhat back to normal… until the cycle repeats. Things to include would be: - Link being mute, doesn’t utter a single word and uses his facial expressions and body language to show what he’s feeling and what he wants. His rule will be “all action, no talk” so every decision he makes- even in a conversation- will be somehow visually shown for the audience. - The companion won’t be handholdy for the audience, only to help with a different perspective to problems, be a different side to a conversation, and to give SOME exposition for the new element of the world. (I fuckin hate exposition, so if done well then we won’t fully notice it) - Also there would have to be at least ONE uncanny scene and/or monster. It’s gonna be a cool and fun adventure but the scary scenes are the ones that always stuck out to me as a kid, we all remember them. So I’m with Jim Henson when he talks about why he made The Dark Crystal have scary moments or made the Skeksis terrifying for most kids. SO! The theme for my story will be about cycles, and the idea of fighting inevitability… I mean that’s kind of the idea behind most Zelda entries (Breath of The Wild and Majora’s Mask especially) but the gimmick is the thing that could differentiate it. The gimmick will be about traveling through the “dead” memories of people and long lost memories of ancient beings. Basically the world is kinda in this post apocalypse state (like pretty much every Zelda title) in the Ghibli sense. It’s recovering from a past crazy event, and people are living in a melancholic comfort. Hyrule was shoved deep underground by giant country sized statues and lost to everyone, and the story starts above ground with Link and Zelda chilling in this little town.
Heres my first draft plot point idea. It can absolutely be changed or even scrapped. ACT 1 It’s established what’s up with the world currently, no one knows where Hyrule Castle went. It shows Link and Zelda as buddies who definitely love each other. It’s shown that Zelda likes pranking him. She invites him to see what her and an old inventor have been working on, an incomplete doll-like robot. Zelda has been slowly copying her consciousness into the machine but it currently only has her “negative” and mischievous sides to her personality- as well as her wisdom. The village is suddenly attacked by creatures, an army of these surreal monsters and possessed Bokoblins. (Strange purple fog coming out of their eyes and mouths) They destroy parts of the town, kidnaps some of the inhabitants we met earlier, and it’s revealed that a mad Gannon (with that same fog coming out of his eyes and mouth) is leading all of it, kidnapping Zelda (where we see that he makes her become unconscious) leaving the town in ruins and returning underground… revealing an ancient doorway above ground. Half of the inhabitants are mysteriously unconscious, and the ones who are awake are terrified and in despair… with the robot waking up, swarming with that foggy substance in places where she’s incomplete. Link and the doll robot talk, her name’s Minerva. She’s basically a tomboy bully version of Zelda but as a floating robot lady and they figure out that they can both go into unconscious people and after killing some nightmare spirits in their brains, the people become conscious. They do this for the old inventor, who as it turns out has a green tunic and a sword for Link. They both agree to go through the ancient doorway, and venture down. ACT 2 They find a great underground foggy land full of sand and springs of water. There’s a few unconscious people there, as well as an unconscious Epona. Who rides them to the edge of the giant land to another doorway. They encounter biomes like vast Forrest’s, a strange little town full of puppets who “woke up”, and battle many monsters… before they slowly find out they’re inside a giant upside down statue. One of the first people they wake up is a wandering Rito. One who seems greedy, and very strange. Hoarding healing items and stamina potions. He seems to be slightly corrupted, as he has smoke constantly coming from his mouth, which he hides with a pipe. He tells them that “Ganon resides at the crown of the abyss” speaking in riddles the whole time… and he says that he will take them to Ganon… if Minerva marries him. Both of Link and Minerva basically tell him to screw off and continue. Throughout this whole time, I want there to be plenty of times for Link and Minerva to connect. She pranks him, she can be mean mean and sometimes gets mad, but she always respects and cares for him. He grows to really trust her. Several weeks pass while they travel (these biomes are BIG) and I want to make it a point that these two characters start rubbing off on each other. She’s still has a lot of Zelda in her, but more of her impulsive side. They find a little town and she tries drinking alcohol to see if she can actually get drunk (spoiler alert, she can) and tries getting Link to drink as well. She helps link fight the nightmare monsters, she laughs at him when he gets shy, and when she’s scared Link’s there to encourage her. Her favorite flower is this blue glowing flower. She tells Link she doesn’t know why but it makes her feel so calm… so for the rest of their journey, whenever Link finds one, he gives it to her. Her character arc mostly centers around the idea that she doesn’t have any memories of Zelda, and she’s apparently made up of PART of Zelda, meaning she’s “incomplete” and worries that she might not even be a person- that she’ll never be like Zelda, never as wise or as calm, or as well mannered… then slowly just letting herself be happy, content with herself, thinking that “if Link loves me just the way I am, then who am I to wish I was someone else.” They started from the feet, are currently at the chest. They slowly find out that the ancient being is controlling Gannon to bring Zelda to its head so it can basically wake up from it’s eternal slumber and bring chaos to the world. There’s a problem that arrises… every time they go into a person to heal them and wake them up from their slumber, Minerva slowly gets sapped of her energy and life force, and it’s gradually been killing her. It’s getting to a point where Link has to carry her around and REFUSES to let her go into people’s minds- but she still has the good nature of Zelda and does so anyway so that they can at least wake them up from their nightmares. Minerva tells Link that if they get to the head, they might be able to find the brain of the thing, and she could probably recharge and be fine again. Finally… they make it near the neck of the giant, Link’s completely out of things like health potions or food for stamina and strength… and that’s when Ganon shows up! He destroys Link’s sword, beats them close to death, and then crashes them down to this giant dark chasm… where they fall and fall. Link uses his parachute to make them float down but it seems to go on forever until… they see the palm of a massive stone hand… and in that palm… is Hyrule castle. They go down to it, it’s broken down, burnt, nearly destroyed… they go through the halls of the castle… at this point, Minerva is out of commission, she’s got barely any smoke coming out of her, she’s unconscious and she’ll be dead soon if Link doesn’t somehow get back up… ACT 3 Link is devastated, he knows that Zelda is miles and miles up to the head, and knows that Minerva is close to death while he’s at the bottom of the destroyed Hyrule castle… and from a slab, he sees the Master Sword and pulls it out. So with that, he looks up, holds Minerva close to him and then begins climbing as fast as possible. There’s no entry points in the palm that he can see currently, and the monsters that would be in there would be too much to take on by himself, so with his bare hands and determination he begins climbing. He gets exhausted very quickly but keeps going and going, his fingers becoming numb and bruised, he keeps going and going until he’s close to reaching the ancient being’s elbow. He can’t stop now, even for a second, his muscles are strained to their breaking point but he pushes on and on… he finally gets to the elbow… and someone is waiting for him there. That Rito from earlier stands before them. He tells Link that if he wants to keep Minerva alive in any way, that he MUST give her to him as a bride… Link obviously doesn’t want to do it, but his fingers are bruising, his eyes are struggling to stay open… he has no other choice. So the Rito carry’s them to the entrance of the head head and becomes very creepy towards the unconscious Minerva, and the exhausted Link pulls out his sword towards the Rito and holds Minerva close to him. The Rito taunts him and becomes angry, yelling that Link owes him a bride, and they fight and the Rito throws Link through the doorway to the brain; revealing this giant smoggy surreal brain creature- the brain of the slumbering beast. Link and the Rito fight more and Link eventually wins. He brings Minerva to the brain thingy in hopes that she gets healed up… but it only awakens the being. (Uhhhhhh reason is that uhhhh it uhhh- I’ll think of it later. Maybe it needed all three triforces to be in its body or be touching its brain so it could awaken? Or like… hmm… this definitely needs more work) and then this massive Giant ancient being begins to emit fumes, rumbling the planet from below before crashing through the surface, Hyrule castle in hand. It’s unbelievably huge, half of its body is still submerged and yet it’s head is up to the clouds. It shoots an energy beam that blows through a mountain and created a colossal explosion in the distance. Link faces Ganon, now consumed with smog and fumes, smoke pillows through where his eyes should be, his mouth glows as the smoke races out. They fight, and Link nearly fails, Minerva gets healed enough to come help him out, and she transfers him to Ganon’s mind, where they fight in this surreal and terrifying ever changing world. Eventually Link defeats Ganon, and they find Zelda and quickly bring her back to consciousness. Minerva reveals to Link that this ancient being must go back underground or else the world will be in peril. She would need to stay with it to forever keep it in under slumber, never to step foot outside again. Link doesn’t want to say goodbye, and I want it to be a devastating scene. Link just fought his ass off to make sure she was gonna be okay, he climbed nonstop for miles, so this nearly breaks him. But after a big hug, she sends them back down, and soon takes control of the giant ancient being, setting castle Hyrule down gently, before going back into the ground… where she shall never see the light of day again. Then we’re left with Link, Zelda and the people of the town. They rebuild, scrap around for parts, and try finding comfort once again… and the last scene is of Link finding Zelda by a meadow, and she picks up this blue flower and tells him it’s her favorite flower in the world. That it’s called “Silent Princess”… and the last shot is just Link smiling, a melancholic smile. THE END.
It’s suuuper super rough, and if things should be taken out or changed up- or if the idea should just change entirely then let’s do it, but that’s the quick jot of what I’d do if I made a Zelda film. OH! Also- the animation! So even though the story would be filled with lots of melancholy, I want the style to be somewhat cute, and for everything to be presented as this charming little thing even if the story underneath is kind of depressing. The music would help with this too, of course you’d get your classic adventurous music, but then it could just be fragmented pianos, or a quiet and creepy Silent Hill-esk sound… oh man, and the sound design would be SOOO important! How each little action feels believable and real, the texture of rain dropping on Link and Minerva- the sound of what a vast but still cave-like cassom must sound like, trees in the wind, and all of the little video game-esk sound effects when Link heals up. Also there will be references to previous titles, but they won’t be part of the story. They’ll show up in the background and it’ll be like how the Adventures of Tintin film got away with cramming looots of references in the film without being bogged down by any of them. Like if you know, you know, but you don’t have to know to know the story, you know?
CRAP! Also I forgot about Epona! Okay so how about after a certain point, Epona runs off with this horse guy who takes care of horses (very crazy I know) and basically after Minerva returns everyone, Epona just returns back as well… also that final fight scene is rough, lots of action, very poorly paced, definitely would need a few more changes to get just right huh?
You can't tell me this is basically Sherlock Holmes in the Ghibli universe. Even the animation is reminiscent of him. Great video for shining light on this underrated gem.
Layton an Phoenix Wright share their universe, and the Phoenix Wright universe has their own version of Sherlock Holmes, that being Herlock Sholmes from The Great Ace Attorney games.
Despite the apparent worldwide success of the Layton games, (luke even boasts about it at the beginning of the movie) it's unfortunately pretty rare to find videos talking about them, and even rarer for said videos to get very much publicity... Which is an absolute shame because this video is not just *criminally* underrated, it's *the entire prison.* As a longtime fan of this series, The Eternal Diva movie had always felt like such a natural progression in the franchise to me for reasons I could never quite place, and those reasons were articulated so well here. To my recollection, I don't think I've ever seen anyone talk about the *themes* of the game being so centered around love and the effects it has on people, and how they brought those themes so naturally into the movie, it just gave me more appreciation for this movie when I didn't think I could appreciate it any more. The editing was great, the explanations and history were fun to listen to and easy to understand, the jokes had me reeling (the way you write and your comedic timing is all around fantastic, 5:06 in particular made me have to pause the video for about 5 minutes because I was laughing so hard), the audio is fantastic and your voice is very nice to listen to, just had an all around great time with this video. Really hope it gets blessed by the algorithm so more people can see it
Thanks for the nice feedback! I’m really glad you enjoyed.
I definitely agree. For such a successful series, Professor Layton is so sadly underrated and not talked about. Part of me wonders if that’s due to the less successful games on the 3DS which maybe dulled the legacy of the franchise? (I’m a big PF fan and even I’ve not played them).
@@AGeneProduction It's a very good theory, I'm certain that it's true they contributed quite a bit. The most recent one to come out with Layton's daughter had some very bad reviews and I think left a lot of longtime fans very disappointed
@@AGeneProduction You really should (if you can, obviously)! The Miracle Mask is my absolute favorite game of the franchise, it looks into the Professor's youth in a gorgeous way (plus it's REALLY long, like, you have tons of puzzles and adventures to play in it). When it comes to the Azran Legacy, I must say that it did feel a little bit less entertaining than the other games, because it's kinda repetitive (you have to travel from one city to another the whole time) and most of the puzzles are too (like, there are many puzzles throughout the game which are just different versions of the same puzzle, as if they didn't want to spend much time thinking of a variety of puzzles); however, it's the conclusion to the trilogy, so it's a must-play once you've gone through Specter's Call and Miracle Mask (and each of the cities you visit in the game are totally charming to me)!
Still, if you've played them in order (which I'm really jealous of, since I played 5-3-2 before knowing there was an order and then did 1-4-6, so it's all messed up) and keep fond memories of the game, maybe you don't need to play them. As you've put it in this wonderful video, the series has a perfect structure for everything you know, so you could not need those two extra games. I'm writing this just because if I knew there were two Professor Layton games out there that I haven't played, I would run to buy them, because no matter how "bad" a Professor Layton game could be, it would still be amazing!
(Except for Lady Layton... that game... well... at least there are puzzles in it)
I think the thing I’m most curious about in the prequel trilogy is how Descole plays into it. From Spectre’s Call and Eternal Diva, they seem to be painting him as more of a “big bad” than Don Paolo in the original trilogy (and even calling him a “big bad” is a stretch considering how goofy he was), so I’d like to follow that thread more than anything. I’ve no doubt I will play them sometime in the future - I’m low-key hoping they port the prequel trilogy to iOS like they did with the originals, but that might not work with no 3D effect, not to mention Nintendo being notoriously stingy with their IPs!
@@AGeneProduction From the future here! I really think getting the last two of the main series is worth it and, if you feel like it, the phone game Layton MysteryRoom is pretty good in my opinion.
I think the bigger plot with descole is one of my favorite things (but maybe that’s because he’s my favorite character)
Really the ending have the main series a cohesive loop that gave me a sense of nostalgia even while playing it for the first time.
Super excited for the reveal of New World of Steam to come out and bring our Gentleman Professor back!
Rest in peace Professor Layton Series... We will never forget you...
New World Of Steam: Am I a joke to you?
I imagine the petering out of sales on the 3ds was simply bc the install base was smaller than the ds. Miracle Mask and Azran Legacy absolutely did the series justice imo (Miracle Mask is actually my favorite in the series, just above Unwound Future). I know getting your hands on a 3ds is pretty tough nowadays, but if you ever get a chance def give them a try
I agree that those were worthy additions to the series. I'd also add Professor Layton vs. Phoenix Wright on to tha5 mix because it's really some of the best of both worlds.
Yes, he must at least play Miracle Mask 👍
my first experience with Professor Layton was with Miracle Mask on 3DS and after playing most of the games (haven't gotten my hands on Last Specter yet) its still one of my favs!
Azran Legacy was a perfect culmination of the prequel trilogy. What it reveals about the prior games, how it incorporates the story of the Eternal Diva, it's just, masterfully done. I truly wish I could relieve the Layton games from scratch anew, but alas, I'm waiting with bated breath for the New World of Steam to blow me away once more.
15:23 while i love the series, im not surprised they were able to transcribe the video game to movie formula because of the genre. i find it easier to convert a visual novel to a movie rather than an action or platformer since visual novels tend to be a lot more story driven
however, this isnt to suggest Level-5 relied on this to make a good, video-based form of media. ive heard good things of their megaton musashi TV series
the eternal diva is one of my favorite films ever, it's so close to my heart and it always makes me cry even in a video essay form
layton is such a beloved franchise to me, i loved it as a child and pre-teen, and then one day it went away... and this is all i was left with
i'm so grateful for this franchise's existance, i really think i wouldn't have been the same person without layton, luke and all their acquaintances and adventures
I'm glad more people are finally talking about this movie.
In general, the whole videogame movie curse was an American thing, Japan has been producing amazing adaptations for a long time, even before Eternal Diva I remember there was that Animal Crossing movie that I don't know if it was even localized but it was amazing as well.
Back to Layton, I completely agree with you on this take and I also love that this movie is canon to the story (with Miracle Mask even referencing these events). I also suggest to you to play Miracle Mask and Azran Legacy as they are still good (MM in particular is my second favourite one after Lost Future), while you can absolutely skip the Katrielle ones...
Level Five really does know their stuff when it come to game adaptations. The Megaton Musashi TV series is also incredible.
I loved watching this as a kid. My sister owned the DVD and every once in a while she'd put it on for me. Definitely a nostalgic movie for me, especially since my lovely sister also let me play the games. I guess I'll always associate Professor Layton with my relationship with my sister. How fitting.
Eternal Diva is absolutely my favorite movie of all time. Great video! There's never enough Layton content in the world
This was brilliant! I think you really hit upon why this niche film was so excellent and not simply some hum-drum cult classic.
Truly the analysis of the various branching elements, and a wonderful video, starting humorously on the disaster that is most video game movies and ending quite seriously on the beauty of this movie and it's themes.
Every puzzle has an answer, and I believe this puzzle is solved.
This is a great video, your talent for content creation really does shine through here. You make lots of great points about the film and the franchise as a whole. It's so nice to hear people so passionately and articulately explain why Layton is such a great series. 👍
Incredible video, you nailed every part : Clear structure, great storytelling, on point and meaningful analysis, without taking yourself too seriously and keeping it super dynamic and fun
I'm super impressed on how good you are at this and how QUALITATIVE that video is, keep up the great work buddy
Oh what a great video! The editing is so well done and I loved the little humerous bits. Eternal Diva really is such a great movie! Personally I also love how the movie adapts the puzzles. Everyone knows it would sound stupid for random people to give Layton random unrelated puzzles so they put him into a game show! And aside from the themes of love you mentioned (which i didnt even notice up till now!) it also borrows many popular aspects of its predecessing games: giant robot (the mobile fortress from LF), a swordfight (vs Anthony in PB), building a flying device (The car in LF and the glider in CV), etc. Thank you for this video, i enjoyed it a lot and it got me thinking about all this again!
Although I believe that the title of best video game adaptation as recently been encroached by works such as the Castlevania animation and LoL's Arcane, I will always give credit to this movie for being the first to breaking the curse. Excellent video by the way.
I’ve not seen Castlevania or Arcane yet. I wonder how I’d view them having not played the games yet - would I be more or less critical of their content, given I’d have nothing to compare them to as an adaptation?
They’re certainly on the list though! Thank you for the comment :D
@@AGeneProduction You can definitely enjoy both shows without playing their respective games. Actually, both shows kinda cheated in a sense. They prioritize telling good stories based off the lore, rather than emulating the gameplay. If you enjoy Arcane for example, you might be disappointed by how little the gameplay of League of Legends has in common with it.
What about the Animal Crossing movie? It came out 3 years before the Layton movie, was a great representation of the game's chill vibes, and had a good story.
This is a great video. I hope it gains more traction in future.
Not only is it a video game movie adaption, it's canon in the games.
While I love the stories of the Professor Layton games, and I like the puzzles, I'm a bit of a stickler about not getting any unnecessary help for a puzzle if I can help it, so I struggled a lot for the harder puzzles. It didn't help that some didn't translate well, as in, they had assumed common knowledge that was more common in Japan than the US. Still, I did finish the first two I played, the first and the third, and I have finished the crossover game with Ace Attorney, a series I love so much I finished every title I could get my hands on, so there's that. Great games, just a little heavy on puzzles I wasn't familiar with to completely divulge my time into.
(To clarify, while I enjoy the puzzles, I sometimes played while not at my brightest, so I would bang my head on the wall trying to solve a single puzzle for an hour before giving up. I like puzzles, but I'm not incredibly good at them.)
The hours I spent on the final puzzle in “The Curious Village” (the one with the seven squares). I thought I was going mad after a while xD
Looking at these other comments, I see I'm not the only one who thinks this video is remarkable. Excellently well put together. Subscribed
Clearly a lot of love went into this video. However, I feel like the crux is less complicated. This is a Layton game where they cut out the gameplay and animated the transitions. If you took just the cutscenes of Xenosaga, or FFX, or Tales of Symphonia, then animated the m8ssing parts, and edited down to a tight 90m, I think you'd have some great, watcheable films recognizeable to their IPs. But that's not what your aforementioned failed films are trying to do - they're trying to adapt games, often not story-driven games, into a live-action medium with general audience appeal. Eternal Diva doesn't tell us how to do that. Your argument could be that people shouldn't try, and that's fine, but then you're answering a question nobody is really asking.
This is really good, can’t believe I’m only your 80th subscriber.
always happy to see new videos pop up about this series :')
i think it was good also because there were already animated snippets in the series, also the games already had a story focused narrative
great editing btw
this movie is honestly outstanding, i rewatched it yesterday and i loved every bit. my favorite bit was when they introduced the first puzzle, i actually got goosebumps and got so excited because the music was so on point
What super clean video essay of one of my favorite movies! I go back and watch it and am impressed every time :D
I never considered The Eternal Diva to be a video game movie adaptation but now that you mention it, it totally is one... 🤔
I think this also has to do with how it didn't try to be a star-studded pop culture blockbuster like so many others do (well, putting aside the fame of its Japanese VAs). Also being animated in the same style as the games goes a long way too! I can't even imagine how different it would have turned out if it were live action instead.
The cover art LITERALLY mentions "based on one of the best selling Nintendo DS games" lol
@@HylianBean97 Cover art? Pfft I watched the movie on a random pirate website like a normal person
Great work! I've seen Eternal Diva before, but never really thought about what made it different, or how well it worked with the rest of the franchise. I really agree with your points, though, and it made me think. Love the Layton series :)
Brilliant video! But you should definitely consider playing the last two titles. I've also just played them a few years ago once the 2DS got less expensive and I didn't expect them to be that great to be honest, however it was more than worth the wait
Hmmm, it's much easier task to adapt a animation game into a animation movie, even easier to adapt a storytelling game into a movie... So no surprise at all here...
I’ve just subscribed, I was really impressed with this video! Please make more Layton content ☺️
Thank you so much for this. I did not know this movie existed despite being a huge fan of the series as a kid, and thanks to this, I was able to find and watch it before finishing this video. It was excellent, and I think I agree that it is the best video game film adaptation I've ever seen.
1:57 the first Mortal Kombat movie was not high art, but it’s certainly not a bad movie. It’s a fun watch.
Edit: same goes for the first two live action Resident Evil movies. I’d go so far as to say the first one is a pretty good zombie film
brilliant video loving this channel as an irish layton fan
That was a really well made video!
I still love the original trilogy and consider it a true masterpiece, it's a shame that the probability of another game or movie is basically non-existent because of the State of Level 5 as well as the death of Akira Tago.
Just in my opinion though regarding the best video game trilogy I personally have to place Layton slightly below the Uncharted series but on par with the witcher games (which has a book series for it's basis so this really speaks volumes about the quality of professor layton).
Thank you! I really appreciate the nice comment! I have to say, Uncharted is definitely up there as some of my favourite games of all time, but I do think the first game could have aged more gracefully. I definitely have games I like more than the Laytons (including Among Thieves, actually), but as a trilogy, I think they’re all consistently amazing and very very rarely fall below that standard.
As for the Witcher… I have yet to play any of them. (I’m not ready to sink hundreds of hours into Wild Hunt yet).
@@AGeneProduction very interesting but probably in line with most people, I think we all agree that Among thieves reigns supreme played that game about 10 times at this point. I have to say from a story perspective I am in far bigger conflict with Uncharted 4 and Lost Legacy than I am with Uncharted 1 just beacause I can forgive many of the gameplay issues (like the beautifully aged jetski scenes) due to it being the first game (also I still like eddy raja‘s dialogue that was transported into the Uncharted 3 multiplayer) but I get where you are coming from.
I am intrigued: What would you consider your 5 favorite game franchises?
Also I had the time to watch some of your other content. The chicken little video was great, the reveal was suprising and the storytelling style really suites you. I am looking forward to your future content, I hope you have more videos like this up your sleeve.
That’s a very good question, and I had to think about it for a while. My opinions are gonna be swayed by some nostalgia, unavoidably, and I can only judge on the games that I’ve played in a franchise. But my top five franchises would be:
1. Tomb Raider
2. Super Mario Galaxy
3. Professor Layton
4. Uncharted
5. Crisis
The Elder Scrolls, Animal Crossing and Resident Evil were close runner-ups, but like I said, nostalgia is unavoidable and a lot of these I consider comfort games. The PS2-era Tomb Raider games in particular were the first games I ever played with my dad, and so the T-Rex fight from “Anniversary” is cemented in my mind as the greatest sequence in gaming. Absolutely blew my mind as a kid!!
Layton's coming back in New World of Steam
Eternal diva is really good but the Street Fighter II anime movie did it in 1994.
Wow, great video, awesome script and editing! Wishing you the best of luck with the algorithm gods.
You're missing out on that theme of love with the last two main entries, being love as loyalty to a friend and love for the entirety of humanity, respectively. The Kat game was good though lower stakes, but from what I heard its anime adaptation did the story way better.
It’s nice to know they kept that theme up until the end of the franchise. Only when I was making this video did I discover the anime, and when I tell you it was like discovering an overdue epilogue to this childhood franchise of mine. A joy to watch :D
@@AGeneProduction I have yet to watch the anime, but I really want to! I know she isn't very popular but I enjoyed Katrielle as a character a lot, I thought they made the right call by portraying her as a quirky, air-headed genius. Plus I loved the game for the puzzles of course.
Come to think of it, Azran legacy has more than just the love for humankind, it has also a theme of obsession, losing oneself in the pursuit of something, not too dissimilar to Anton's but spanning several characters and with wider consequences. Characters hurting others through their obsession, in turn giving their victims obsessions of their own, and the cycle breaking when realizing the futility of it all, leaving just a sliver of hope that some wounds can be mended. (Not that I have nothing to say about Miracle mask, it's my second favorite!)
I think I was just spoiled to what the spectre was in 6:45
God Dammit!
It Plays to it strengths and doesn't try to be something it's not; Professor layton un my mind stands amongst classical detective titans like Sherlock Holmes and Hercule Poirot and is fun to watch do his thing.
There a reason general audiences love mysteries and wacky setting of layton is awesome.
short explanation of why it's good:
It's a pretty meme, exquisite
This deserves more views!
My favourite movie
You’re missing out, the 3DS ones are pretty good. Better than the first in the prequel trilogy. It looks better too
I’d argue that Miracle Mask is the weakest entry in the main 6 title, but yeah they’re both still really good.
@@theplinko9840 I liked them so much because it just goes so hard. Like platforming? It’s crazy
Edit: also the music
Also lore on the dynamics between Layton and Descole, as well as the introduction of an even bigger bad than Descole
Yet, it wasn't live-action, like the other examples given!
Dang, I'll have to play every Layton game then instead of only Unwounded Future (I think it was that) before I watch this video 😫
Oh well, I'll be back in a week or two 😶
You’re in for a treat! 😄
It’s been a month now, was the video good?
Thanks
This is gonna be a loooong long comment, so beware.
How I’d create a Zelda film
First things first. It’s gonna be animated. None of that live action bullshit- like imagine if they got someone like Tom Holland to play Link like that’d be so dumb haha so stupid it just feels weird hahahAHAHA. >:(
Okay so first things first, you’ve got the normal structure of a Zelda film.
First introduce the gimmick or theme of the whole game that ties into the world- be it the world is underwater, there’s two characters talking about life at “twilight”, Hyrule is in the sky.
Then the classic hero’s journey is put in, Link most likely has no weapons and is a “farm boy”, or is just an outsider who stumbles upon the main thing of this story like in Majora’s Mask- but I think for this just doing him as a “farm boy” works.
So after this, he gets thrust upon his journey when the baddie either takes Zelda, throws the town and thus the world into peril, and/or takes his buddies. For this I think just the classic “he kidnapped Zelda” works, the world is also screwed.
Shortly after he’ll find his “companion” or the thing that’ll help him throughout this journey (whether it’s a character or an item like the Shieka Slate) in which he fights monsters, goes through mysterious dungeons and meets wacky ass characters.
Finally he faces off against the big baddie- most likely gonna be Gannon- defeats him, saves Zelda, and makes the world or town go somewhat back to normal… until the cycle repeats.
Things to include would be:
- Link being mute, doesn’t utter a single word and uses his facial expressions and body language to show what he’s feeling and what he wants. His rule will be “all action, no talk” so every decision he makes- even in a conversation- will be somehow visually shown for the audience.
- The companion won’t be handholdy for the audience, only to help with a different perspective to problems, be a different side to a conversation, and to give SOME exposition for the new element of the world. (I fuckin hate exposition, so if done well then we won’t fully notice it)
- Also there would have to be at least ONE uncanny scene and/or monster. It’s gonna be a cool and fun adventure but the scary scenes are the ones that always stuck out to me as a kid, we all remember them. So I’m with Jim Henson when he talks about why he made The Dark Crystal have scary moments or made the Skeksis terrifying for most kids.
SO! The theme for my story will be about cycles, and the idea of fighting inevitability… I mean that’s kind of the idea behind most Zelda entries (Breath of The Wild and Majora’s Mask especially) but the gimmick is the thing that could differentiate it.
The gimmick will be about traveling through the “dead” memories of people and long lost memories of ancient beings.
Basically the world is kinda in this post apocalypse state (like pretty much every Zelda title) in the Ghibli sense. It’s recovering from a past crazy event, and people are living in a melancholic comfort.
Hyrule was shoved deep underground by giant country sized statues and lost to everyone, and the story starts above ground with Link and Zelda chilling in this little town.
Heres my first draft plot point idea. It can absolutely be changed or even scrapped.
ACT 1
It’s established what’s up with the world currently, no one knows where Hyrule Castle went. It shows Link and Zelda as buddies who definitely love each other. It’s shown that Zelda likes pranking him. She invites him to see what her and an old inventor have been working on, an incomplete doll-like robot. Zelda has been slowly copying her consciousness into the machine but it currently only has her “negative” and mischievous sides to her personality- as well as her wisdom.
The village is suddenly attacked by creatures, an army of these surreal monsters and possessed Bokoblins. (Strange purple fog coming out of their eyes and mouths) They destroy parts of the town, kidnaps some of the inhabitants we met earlier, and it’s revealed that a mad Gannon (with that same fog coming out of his eyes and mouth) is leading all of it, kidnapping Zelda (where we see that he makes her become unconscious) leaving the town in ruins and returning underground… revealing an ancient doorway above ground.
Half of the inhabitants are mysteriously unconscious, and the ones who are awake are terrified and in despair… with the robot waking up, swarming with that foggy substance in places where she’s incomplete.
Link and the doll robot talk, her name’s Minerva. She’s basically a tomboy bully version of Zelda but as a floating robot lady and they figure out that they can both go into unconscious people and after killing some nightmare spirits in their brains, the people become conscious. They do this for the old inventor, who as it turns out has a green tunic and a sword for Link.
They both agree to go through the ancient doorway, and venture down.
ACT 2
They find a great underground foggy land full of sand and springs of water. There’s a few unconscious people there, as well as an unconscious Epona. Who rides them to the edge of the giant land to another doorway.
They encounter biomes like vast Forrest’s, a strange little town full of puppets who “woke up”, and battle many monsters… before they slowly find out they’re inside a giant upside down statue.
One of the first people they wake up is a wandering Rito. One who seems greedy, and very strange. Hoarding healing items and stamina potions. He seems to be slightly corrupted, as he has smoke constantly coming from his mouth, which he hides with a pipe. He tells them that “Ganon resides at the crown of the abyss” speaking in riddles the whole time… and he says that he will take them to Ganon… if Minerva marries him. Both of Link and Minerva basically tell him to screw off and continue.
Throughout this whole time, I want there to be plenty of times for Link and Minerva to connect. She pranks him, she can be mean mean and sometimes gets mad, but she always respects and cares for him. He grows to really trust her. Several weeks pass while they travel (these biomes are BIG) and I want to make it a point that these two characters start rubbing off on each other. She’s still has a lot of Zelda in her, but more of her impulsive side. They find a little town and she tries drinking alcohol to see if she can actually get drunk (spoiler alert, she can) and tries getting Link to drink as well. She helps link fight the nightmare monsters, she laughs at him when he gets shy, and when she’s scared Link’s there to encourage her. Her favorite flower is this blue glowing flower. She tells Link she doesn’t know why but it makes her feel so calm… so for the rest of their journey, whenever Link finds one, he gives it to her.
Her character arc mostly centers around the idea that she doesn’t have any memories of Zelda, and she’s apparently made up of PART of Zelda, meaning she’s “incomplete” and worries that she might not even be a person- that she’ll never be like Zelda, never as wise or as calm, or as well mannered… then slowly just letting herself be happy, content with herself, thinking that “if Link loves me just the way I am, then who am I to wish I was someone else.”
They started from the feet, are currently at the chest. They slowly find out that the ancient being is controlling Gannon to bring Zelda to its head so it can basically wake up from it’s eternal slumber and bring chaos to the world.
There’s a problem that arrises… every time they go into a person to heal them and wake them up from their slumber, Minerva slowly gets sapped of her energy and life force, and it’s gradually been killing her.
It’s getting to a point where Link has to carry her around and REFUSES to let her go into people’s minds- but she still has the good nature of Zelda and does so anyway so that they can at least wake them up from their nightmares.
Minerva tells Link that if they get to the head, they might be able to find the brain of the thing, and she could probably recharge and be fine again.
Finally… they make it near the neck of the giant, Link’s completely out of things like health potions or food for stamina and strength… and that’s when Ganon shows up! He destroys Link’s sword, beats them close to death, and then crashes them down to this giant dark chasm… where they fall and fall. Link uses his parachute to make them float down but it seems to go on forever until… they see the palm of a massive stone hand… and in that palm… is Hyrule castle.
They go down to it, it’s broken down, burnt, nearly destroyed… they go through the halls of the castle… at this point, Minerva is out of commission, she’s got barely any smoke coming out of her, she’s unconscious and she’ll be dead soon if Link doesn’t somehow get back up…
ACT 3
Link is devastated, he knows that Zelda is miles and miles up to the head, and knows that Minerva is close to death while he’s at the bottom of the destroyed Hyrule castle… and from a slab, he sees the Master Sword and pulls it out.
So with that, he looks up, holds Minerva close to him and then begins climbing as fast as possible. There’s no entry points in the palm that he can see currently, and the monsters that would be in there would be too much to take on by himself, so with his bare hands and determination he begins climbing. He gets exhausted very quickly but keeps going and going, his fingers becoming numb and bruised, he keeps going and going until he’s close to reaching the ancient being’s elbow. He can’t stop now, even for a second, his muscles are strained to their breaking point but he pushes on and on… he finally gets to the elbow… and someone is waiting for him there.
That Rito from earlier stands before them. He tells Link that if he wants to keep Minerva alive in any way, that he MUST give her to him as a bride… Link obviously doesn’t want to do it, but his fingers are bruising, his eyes are struggling to stay open… he has no other choice.
So the Rito carry’s them to the entrance of the head head and becomes very creepy towards the unconscious Minerva, and the exhausted Link pulls out his sword towards the Rito and holds Minerva close to him. The Rito taunts him and becomes angry, yelling that Link owes him a bride, and they fight and the Rito throws Link through the doorway to the brain; revealing this giant smoggy surreal brain creature- the brain of the slumbering beast.
Link and the Rito fight more and Link eventually wins. He brings Minerva to the brain thingy in hopes that she gets healed up… but it only awakens the being. (Uhhhhhh reason is that uhhhh it uhhh- I’ll think of it later. Maybe it needed all three triforces to be in its body or be touching its brain so it could awaken? Or like… hmm… this definitely needs more work) and then this massive Giant ancient being begins to emit fumes, rumbling the planet from below before crashing through the surface, Hyrule castle in hand.
It’s unbelievably huge, half of its body is still submerged and yet it’s head is up to the clouds.
It shoots an energy beam that blows through a mountain and created a colossal explosion in the distance.
Link faces Ganon, now consumed with smog and fumes, smoke pillows through where his eyes should be, his mouth glows as the smoke races out.
They fight, and Link nearly fails, Minerva gets healed enough to come help him out, and she transfers him to Ganon’s mind, where they fight in this surreal and terrifying ever changing world.
Eventually Link defeats Ganon, and they find Zelda and quickly bring her back to consciousness.
Minerva reveals to Link that this ancient being must go back underground or else the world will be in peril. She would need to stay with it to forever keep it in under slumber, never to step foot outside again.
Link doesn’t want to say goodbye, and I want it to be a devastating scene. Link just fought his ass off to make sure she was gonna be okay, he climbed nonstop for miles, so this nearly breaks him. But after a big hug, she sends them back down, and soon takes control of the giant ancient being, setting castle Hyrule down gently, before going back into the ground… where she shall never see the light of day again.
Then we’re left with Link, Zelda and the people of the town. They rebuild, scrap around for parts, and try finding comfort once again… and the last scene is of Link finding Zelda by a meadow, and she picks up this blue flower and tells him it’s her favorite flower in the world. That it’s called “Silent Princess”… and the last shot is just Link smiling, a melancholic smile.
THE END.
It’s suuuper super rough, and if things should be taken out or changed up- or if the idea should just change entirely then let’s do it, but that’s the quick jot of what I’d do if I made a Zelda film.
OH! Also- the animation! So even though the story would be filled with lots of melancholy, I want the style to be somewhat cute, and for everything to be presented as this charming little thing even if the story underneath is kind of depressing. The music would help with this too, of course you’d get your classic adventurous music, but then it could just be fragmented pianos, or a quiet and creepy Silent Hill-esk sound… oh man, and the sound design would be SOOO important! How each little action feels believable and real, the texture of rain dropping on Link and Minerva- the sound of what a vast but still cave-like cassom must sound like, trees in the wind, and all of the little video game-esk sound effects when Link heals up.
Also there will be references to previous titles, but they won’t be part of the story. They’ll show up in the background and it’ll be like how the Adventures of Tintin film got away with cramming looots of references in the film without being bogged down by any of them. Like if you know, you know, but you don’t have to know to know the story, you know?
CRAP! Also I forgot about Epona! Okay so how about after a certain point, Epona runs off with this horse guy who takes care of horses (very crazy I know) and basically after Minerva returns everyone, Epona just returns back as well… also that final fight scene is rough, lots of action, very poorly paced, definitely would need a few more changes to get just right huh?