The full-length Myths and Legacy novelization of Takua’s Quest for the Toa has arrived!
Few major BIONICLE stories linger in such obscurity as Takua’s adventure to save the Turaga. As an adventure told exclusively in a GBA game, the story is repetitive, simple, and cumbersome. Set in the period immediately preceding the arrival of the Toa Mata on the island of Mata Nui, the game tells the story of Takua’s adventure to save the Turaga, recover the Toa stones, and repel Makuta’s earliest onslaught. But the game isn’t a proper story, consisting of six main levels that are structured and play out the same exact way, even down to their dialogue.
In the time since, there have been three published attempts at telling the Quest for the Toa as a proper story. The first of these, written by ArcAngelofJustice on ArchiveOfOurOwn (preserved on MnL here), summarizes many of the levels while spinning the first and the last into a delightful adventure, and adding new narrative beats to tell a compelling prequel for the Mata Nui Online Game. The second, written by the Crosswired Geeks for the Biological Chronicle (preserved on MnL here), loyally preserves much of the dialogue from the game while efficiently summarizing the connective tissue. The third, written by Michael Larson for his own compilation project, expands the whole of the story into a full-length novel replete with detailed exposition introducing the island and its inhabitants for first-time readers.
Myths and Legacy undertook to tell its own version, pulling together all the best aspects of each of these. Like the Biological Chronicles edition, we have used dialogue from the game — all dialogue, in fact. (Credit goes to “joint-Dogg666” for providing us with a full table of game dialogue.) Like ArcAngel, we have added connective tissue for MNOG and the rest of the story, adding or expanding on narrative beats insofar as they complied with the game to make each level unique. And like Michael Larson, the story is told as a novel, complete with exposition to introduce a new reader to this fascinating world. Not only that — the story uses Michael Larson’s edition as a starting point and, with his blessing, has carried portions of his work into our version.
All told, we are proud of this rendition of the story, and we are thrilled at the chance to finally unveil it. Although the story came with many creative restrictions and much baggage, we have worked within these restrictions to tell as compelling a story as possible, diversifying each level as much as we can while also remaining entirely compliant with its source material.
This week sees the release of the Prologue and Chapter 1: Realm of Earth. As Takua answers a call from the Onu-Koro elder, he embarks on a mission to topple Makuta’s rule over the island. Braving the deepest shafts of Onu-Wahi and daring to face Makuta’s onslaught of Rahi, the Matoran will set in motion a chain of events that will alter the trajectory of history forever.
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