Lurker > ZeldaTPLink

I took down a lynel.

I went to fight the one at the entrance of Mt. Lanayru. Then I got there and realized it was blue, and I wanted to start with red. I decided to go anyway.

It wasn't that hard? I dunno, I guess it weapon was weaker than the weapon the Akkala lynel uses. Because my lv 3 soldier armor could take a lot of hits. I was still terrible at dodging it, but after a while I started catching some patterns. I had to stop to eat some food mid fight, so I still can't kill one without healing, I suppose. But that's on the game for making food OP. Its HP is still obscene so this was a long battle of resistance. Eventually it fell, and just I was collecting the loot, the ice dragon passed flying above, as if to congratulate me.

With that I managed to complete the Riddles of Hyrule quest and also start upgrading my Barbarian gear, both which require lynel parts.

On the way to the lynel, I also spotted shrine 88, behind a waterfall at some watery ruins. I had spent some time exploring the place before, but it had so many interesting bits I couldn't look at everything. I need to remember stuff behind waterfalls are a gaming staple.

Jakyl25 posted...

I like to watch BotW LPs and youre only the second person Ive seen use Cryonis there

The Forgotten Temple is meant to be the temple from Skyward Sword leading to the huge Goddess statue from Skyloft, as are the Springs which match 1:1 to the Springs from that game

Haven't played SS so I didn't get the references.

I didn't know snowballs were a thing in this game.

But yeah there are small puddles of water right at the spot and I thought they looked conspicuous.

There is a huge canyon separating Ridgelands and Tabantha. When I shot fire dragon for his scale, it fell inside. I had initially assumed the canyon was bottomless, but when I stopped to look, I saw lizalfos on the ground, as well as some ruins.

I looked at the world map and saw a place called Forgotten Temple in the northern edge of the canyon. Alright, I need to check it out.

The temple is a massive structure. The fact it's so out of place (literally inside a hole) suggests it's from thousands of years ago. It's also packed full of decayed guardians, over 10 of them. I managed to get past that madness to claim shrine 85.

I then buy the 2nd piece of ancient armor. Should have done that before facing the dozen guardians, but better late than never I guess.

I suppose it's the perfect timing to attempt another labyrinth, though. There's one in the desert and one in the snow area. I do the desert one.

Before I get there, I go over a hill, where someone left an abandoned camp near another shrine. Their diary says I have to make a cold shadow over the shrine pad, and the NPC lacked the means to do it. This stumbles me at first, but eventually I figure out you gotta make ice cubes with cryonis to block the sun. Shtine 86 get.

I get to the labirynth. Which is rather lame because this one doesn't have guardians. Shrine 87 is quite tricky to find but eventually trial and error gets it done.

I cross over to the desert and see another shrine in the distance, near the egde of the map. Seems to easy to be true, and it is. There is a thirsty gerudo who decided to faint on the pedestal that opens the shrine door. She wants a specific drink i've never heard about, and now I suppose I need to find the one NPC in the game who randomly mentions the recipe when you talk to them. I guess they are probably in Gerudo Town. Let's try this the normal way before I check a guide.

So there is this platform with a hole for an orb near the Kakariko fairy fountain that is an obvious shrine. Problem is that I'd never figured out how to unlock it. Normally there is either a bard nearby, with a dong that says exactly what you have to do, or a very visible NPC at the nearest town who will give you the quest as soon as you talk to them. I spend a good hour at Kakariko talking to everyone, but no dice. Until I find the orb inside Impa's house. However Impa forbids me from grabbing it since it's a sheikah heirloom. Crap.

So what do I have to do to get the orb? Find all 12 memories? All 4 beasts?

I check a guide.

But I make a point to only get the minimum info, which is that the quest to get the orb will appear once I do all the other major quests the village has to offer. And I'm just missing one, which requires talking to the armor shop girl at night after leaves work but before she goes to sleep, so she will ask you for some fireflies.

This game could have used a Bomber's Notebook.

After the quest, I go to sleep, and next day, the orb gets stolen. The shrine quest is to figure out whodunnit, and punish the criminal.

The guards of Impa's house only saw two people come in, the shopkeeper girl, and an old lady who plants carrots. I start patrolling the city at night, and soon I find both of them doing shady things. However both those things are completely unrelated to the stolen orb.

Finally, it turns out one of the guards also had an agenda. I spot him going to the shrine pad, and follow him. Turns out he is not the thief, instead, it's a guy from the Yiga Clan. The guard used to be part of the clan, but he fell in love and defected. But the clan killed his wife and started threatenining to kill his children, so he has been giving them information since then. When he finally decided to cut ties, they stole the orb and decided to eliminate him. I put an end to this madness, by taking down the yiga with the good ol' rain + thunder blade combo. The guard then asks me to hide what happened, and pleads loyalty to my quest. I put the orb at its rightful place and get shrine 84.

Very cool quest. 9.5/10. It just needed to have some hint for the firefly quest that preceeded it to be perfect.

Before leaving, I also spot one if the guard's kids going to the graveyard in the morning, to mourn her mother. I love the little details.

Yeah I noticed dragons travel a lot becsuse I've seen Farosh in 3 places already.

Just thought it was weird Ive never seen the fire one at death mountain or Akkala but its on the other side of the map.

While I wait, Link stops to flex his own biceps and look at them. That's uh... some characterization

A shooting star just fell a mile away. It taunts me to give up on this wait and go pick up the space rock.

I get tired and decide to explore a nearby hill with a cherry tree on top. The tree is actually a korok. And I've actually been here before. There was a ghost horse that I tried to tame and failed to (forgot to write about it back then). But there is also shrine 81, in the middle of some rocks, which I didnt find last time because the radar wasnt on. Well this is a decent shortcut to the red moon shrine, I guess I'll try to use it when there is a red moon because waiting is so boring.

Continuing to clear the shrine quest list, I climb the Gerudo Highlands, to find a marking in the mountain that seems man made. It is a huge target that Im supposed to hit with a lightning arrow. A tad arbitrary I'd say. 82 shrines.

I get to Gerudo Summit, where Farosh (you again?) and a white lynel (a new benchmark for strongest being in the game) wait for me. Pass.

Why is there a sword the size of a house here?

I return to Ridgelands for the dragon I'm actually hunting, the fire one. Getting a scale from it is rather easy now that I know when it appears. It tries to burn me but have I mentioned I have a fire suit? The only annoying part is fighting the guardian scout IV at the Spring of Power, which at this point of the game is just a glorified damage sponge. Shrine 83 get.

Taluses are fun to kill (I needed the interet to help me, but the solution was ingenious. Just climb them!) but the best part of how they might be the most profitable hunts in the zelda series. Each Talus drops almost 1k worth of ores. The biggest wallet in Ocarina of Time can't hold the value of a single Talus's loot.

Clearing the shrines in Ridgelands now. 79 is at an island west of Hyrule Castle. 80 is the trial of Thundra Plateau, which involves taking four colored orbs to corresponding platforms while a horrible wheather goes on. This is mostly a test of patience on dealing with the effects of wheather. Climbing structures, finding the right place to hit the orb so it reaches the plateau, putting the sledgehammer away before a thundebolt hits you.

I also see the fire dragon, which is weird because I thought it would be a death mountain. I try to teleport to a shrine near it and it vanishes. Meh.

Find another shrine. To unlock it, it serms I have to stand naked on a platform under a red moon. The problem is how do I trigger a red moon? They are weekly or something. And I havent found any shortcuts nearby so I can just come here next time there is one.

Seems like I'll have to do it the old fashioned way. Link is standing naked on that platform while I type this sequence.

The real test is enduring the Rito Bard's repetitive song while you wait.

Not much, but the trailer looks absolutely gorgeous.

Which is probably the reaction they wanted from me.

_Blur_ posted...

If you do that, at least don't go straight to Ganon when you go in. Revali's gale lets you skip like the whole castle, but it's by far the most fun place to explore in the game. It's sprawling and filled with loot and secrets. I just feel like beating the final boss only after exploring and dominating the place is the way to go.

I'm really hoping Tears of the Kingdom has a bunch of "open dungeons" like Hyrule Castle. I would be cool with a mix of like four or five of these massive open dungeons and four or five more traditional, linear dungeons.

If they could pull off a mix of both, it could be a perfect game.

Oh definitely. I gotta at least kill every single thing in the castle.

I already noticed the master sword doesn't break while in there.

Also I feel like I already skipped most of the "magic" I would have gotten from going to it very early in the game. Right now I'd just be doing it in two parts.

Nah. I wanna come in, with 4 champions and 120 shrines, from the front door, as if I own the place and Ganon just had a nightmare about me coming to kill him, which is about to come true in the most epic way imaginable.

Shrine 77 found behind a waterfall in Faron. I'd actually guessed this one ages ago, but was too lazy to go look for it. The Faron region might be the least exploration friendly in the map. The shrine radar gave me the extra nudge I needed to beat the laziness.

I went to the castle. Spent a while farming guardians (can't believe that's a sentece I wrote) then got close enough that the game showed a cutscene with ganon flying around, and EPIC music started playing.

After a couple minutes, I just stop. it feels wrong. The music is epic, but I'm arbitrarily sneaking in before the right time to steal a memory and some royal guard items or whatever. I'm very invested in the plot at this point, and I want the attack on the castle to be the real deal. This ain't it. I teleport out.

Shrine 78 is gotten on death mountain, from a quest about finding a hungry goron lost in a tunnel, then carrying a meat-shaped rock uphill to feed him (a classic from majora's mask). The game tries to make this difficult by spawing more moblins than logic should allow and have all of them spam fire arrows while fire chuchus attack

But...

Is it just me but getting the full flame set and upgrading it twice trivializes the whole region. Link just casually NOPEs all the fire attacks and takes the rock all the way to the top.

Well, at least watching the happiness with which gorons "cook" a piece of rock then chew it is pretty amusing. And the shrine is a weird one, with a slope that drops both endless deadly boulders and endless money. Greedy Hill or something. Cool theme. Shrine 78 down.

Akkala is really beautiful when you jump from death mountain and look at the region from the top. The NPCs say it's empty, but it's really full of landmarks, like a platformer game or something.

I challenge a blue lynel. One mipha's grace, 2 fairies and a broken guardian axe ++later, I realize this isn't working. Gotta start with the red one first, I guess.

I dunno I guess I'm just more careful when it comes to exploring places in games. But I'll remember this if I ever replay this game.

I think I have 97 or something like that.

I never spend any playing time specifically hunting them, but I stop whenever I see something that might be a Korok.

There was potential for a story here, with Teba wanting to risk his life. Maybe his wife could fight more against that and Teba would have to prove it's worth it. Give him a speech about how not being able to fly is worse than death. Make it so Revali has made the same speech before.

Rito also seem rather sexist, with the whole "men are reckless warriors, women just shrug that off". I don't expect nintendo to be too explicit on social commentary, but there was some potential for good subtext here. It felt missed.

Even gameplay wise that was shorter than usual. Yunobo had to be saved at a dangerous area. Sidon wanted you to fight a Lynel and also convince the minister to help you. Teba just needed you to beat one of the easiest minigames ever made then have you the bomb arrows for free.

The battle against Mecha Lizard is pretty different from the last one. It's much slower paced. The lizard is lazy. It stands still while an army of sentries it spawed before the battle monitor the Death Mountain crater area, and if they see you, they warn the lizard who will then make the mountain erupt on you. You must either use stealth, or use the environment to kill them, since they have a lot of HP and bomb arrows are banned here. All to take Yunobo to the cannons which you will use to fire him into the beast and damage it, which is the easy part.

I think this is better than Bird because it's not so easy it's boring. But Elephant was more fast paced and exciting.

We beat lizard, and he retreats into the lava surface inside the crater. Which is a really cool place for a dungeon, ngl.

Well, "cool" may not be the best word here.

At first, the dungeon is pitch black, and I think thats going to be the theme. Its actually only until I find the map, though.

Lame, it was annoying but gave the level an unique feeling.
You can make mecha lizard tilt 90 degrees to the side. Thats similar to bird, but more extreme, and even closer to Stone Tower Temple (precisely half as close).

Nice music.

I finish dungeon 3. This one feels like it was even easier than the usual. Boss is fun, but my immunity to fire does it no favors. It mostly swings a huge, slow sword at me or throws fire. Well, it fires a laser once. But master sword does double damage to it and there are also ice arrows. GG.

I release Daruk's spirit and he gives me his power, which creates a magic shield whenever I use the ZL-target. Neat.

There's a heartfelt scene where Yunobo sees Daruk, who is probably his great-grandfather or something, and they greet each other. Love that stuff.

I feel like the Rito part is where Nintendo did the budget saving, because that one had much less characterization than the goron and zora ones. It would be nice to see Teba or Mr. Huge Owl having character moments like this, relating to Revali.

I find memory 11 near death mountain after a lot of climbing around. In the past, we see Link resting after wiping out a horde of enemies, including 2 black lynels (DAMN). Zelda is worried that monster attacks are happening more often.

Only 1 memory left. This one is at the castle walls, though. Should I go there to see if I can grab some treausures? NPCs did suggest me to do that early in the game. Or maybe I should challenge a red lynel to look a little less pathetic compared to my past self.

Every chapter 7 is a desperate quest to find or stop a mcguffin by going to the Undernet, which ultimately fails because the game wants to have 8 chapters and a final dungeon in the eigth one.

My favorite one of the set is actually the one from MBN3, where you have to become King of the Undernet, or something.

While on death mountain, regular arrows instantly turn into fire arrows. That's cool.

Meanwhile, bomb arrows instantly explode on your face before you can shoot. That's also cool, but I wish the game gave a warning.

I also continue the quest to build a city, by recruiting the gerudo tailor with -son in the name who happens to be unhappy about her lige (this is so unlikely it's hilarious). She opens a shop for heat protecting clothes at my city. Apparently gerudo making clothes for men is super rare, which makes sense.

I find this areas' "protagonist", Yunobo, a goron teen who is also a coward. This is an old trope, but never done with gorons before, so I like it. Dude has arms the size of trees but is afraid of monsters.

Behind him there's shrine 75, at the end of a railway. Inside it'e a long puzzle involving carrying a blue flame. I also get stunlocked between a giant spiked metal ball and a lava pool, and have to teleport out of the dungeon and back in to avoid dying.

I get a memory of Daruk, the goron champion, also Yunobo's ancestor. He's uh... a generic goron hero guy. You know Darunia? Same thing.

He also had the ability to make magical barriers, which Yunobo inherited. Because of that, the poor kid is regularly used as cannon ammunition to keep mecha lizard away. lol.

I'm sent to help with the next cannon routine, though they dont know I actually want into the beast.

Shrine 76 is a super shot puzzle involving making a giant block stop mid air, to make up for the previous long shrine.

Yunobo following Link around is funny because he's so big yet feels like he's uncomfortable with his body or something.

NFUN posted...

as somebody who is close to beating MMBN2, anybody who says 3 is worse because of the backtracking is absolutely fucking insane

having some backtracking spread out with a sneakrun navicust program is so much better than hours of this ice bullshit

The ice chapter is not great I'll give you that.

But I just had less fun with 3's "press" sections (and having to do the same area like 3 times in the bubbleman chapter), and that atrocity of a chapter where you had to go over every previous area dousing out fires.

I'm thinking, I love what they did with the gorons here.

They eat rocks, right? Right.

Well, turns out, the most valuable ores (rubies, diamonds, etc) taste like shit to them

So what do they do? Sell them, of course.

And over time, the gorons have become a mining civilization. You approach the city and you start seeing gorons with helmets and pickaxes, doing day and night shifts. They probably have workplace safety rules and unions and stuff

And gorons are the race you see the most outside of their "territory", besides hylians. Because they are out there, selling their shiny rocks, and buying everything else they need. So the gorons in this game get to live more comfortably, and have a city with multiple houses and shops that sell more things than a heart and a red shirt.

Heck, there's probably a goron union or cartel controlling the ore prices, since ores are so valuable here. Finding rupees in chests is usually a consolation price to finding valuable ores. And if you buy them from a goron, the price is even more absurd. And they control the mineral industry because they are stronger so they work faster, doing so also gives them free food, they can survive in extreme conditions and they own Death Mountain, aka the biggest pile of rocks in the map.

So Mecha Lizard destroying their mines is a pretty big deal. it may not kill them, but could kick their living standard back to Ocarina of Time levels, where the biggest structure in their town was a freaking rotating pot, and they had a Bomb Flower based economy.

Lizard.

The entrance to goron city is a huge sculpture on the mountain of a goron doing a thums up. Lol.

Npc tells me I need 3 cooling elixirs to make it to goron city safely. I buy 6 just to avoid risks. And end up using 1 to get there.

This area's equivallent to the zora water bed and the rito feather bed is the goron massage. Sounds painful.

Shrine 74 is the obligatory shortcut to the city.

Mecha Lizard causes eruptions, which mess up with the gorons' mining business. Ok, that's the lamest regional sob story of the 4 so far.

Gerudo > Zora > Rito > Goron to me. It's a close one between the first two, but I give it to the gerudo because no zoras would be harmed if the dam burst, and there aren't that many hyilians living near it to be bothered, either. While Mecha Camel will more or less wipe out the gerudo soon.

This goron chief is a cool dude. Hes got the necessary goron goofiness, but feels like he was a total badass when he was younger.

Found a Goron named Greyson. I recruit him and his little brother Pelison to build my city.

I do a quest about helping a zora girl who likes to send love letters fown the river find out who is replying them. After following the letter, it ends at an adult hylian dude

I'm expecting the game to have the two split up since its an adult man and a child, but nope, they actually end up together and thank Link for it. They say she is technically older than him since Zoras are basically elves so they age much more slowly, but that doesn't make it look less creepy.

Godanmit, Japan.

Thanks to the radar, I find shrine 72 at a grotto south of Akkala, behind another hard to spot bombable wall. The strategy of looking for large sections of the map without a shrine works.
I max out my stamina. The hylia statue says "you body overflows with vigor"

Clearly there is only one thing to do now: to prove that I'm RIPPED.

RIPPEDness has been proven. I clear the climbing minigame in half the time (probably didnt need as much stamina). The gorons declare me one of their brothers (classic). Shrine 73 done.

With over 60% of the shrines done, I feel like it's time for another dungeon.

Lizard or camel?

I start going to the desert. I get memory 10 at the oasis. Link saves Zelda from some yiga assassins and she finally starts appreciating him.

I also spot a gerudo with -son at the end of the name, which is important because the carpenter company only hires people named -son. Though they currently want me to find a goron, not a gerudo. The gerudo is certainly unhappy about living in the desert, so let's remember to hire her later.

I cook some heat protection food but then realize all I have to do is walk around with an ice sword equipped.

The people at the oasis say mecha camel is a problem because it is slowly walking to the fortress and bringing endless lightning and sandstorms with it. Ok, that is an actual problem.

I go to the gerudo fortress, where I'm not allowed due to having a Y gene. Trying to climb around doesn't work: gerudo vigilance has evolved massively since the timed of Ocarina of Time. I do find shrine 70 though, eith a fun puzzle involving completing an electric circuit.

I just realized a big upside of having a steampunk flavored zelda is electricity puzzles, becsuse those are perfect for the series, but you couldn't do them before due to the medieval theme.

I rode a sand seal through the desert.

I love that this an actual sentence. Put my shield under my feet and let the sand seal pull me like a jet ski.

Screw horses, sand seals are where the fun is at.

The last tower in the game is also the tallest. It extends down infintely, into a bottomless pit. You can't climb it from the floor because there is no floor. Fortunately, there are nearby cliffs, and revali's gale. The map of hyrule is now complete.

Find shrine 71 in the middle of a sandstorm, another "quest" that I avoid by just looking from a different angle than the game's intended one.

Jakyl25 posted...

Also IIRC there are huge stone blocks that kinda fall like dominoes there if you hit one with a bomb arrow that get you to the tower

I saw those, but they were all near the tower, so if there was a pattern to make them connect to the shore, I didn't see it.

I start playing with the shrine detector on. The plan was to put my horse on some road and let it randomly guide through the map until the radar started beeping

That happened very fast, near Dueling Peaks. The radar pointed me to where I once faced onf of my biggest enemies: the Bear. They are still annoying to fight, but my stats are just much better now so the bear meets its end. Suck it, Pooh.

Finally, I spot shrine 67, behind a rather conspicous wall of rocks. In my defense, it was hard to look for goodies while being mauled by bears.

It was also a large area with no shrine shortcuts, so I supposed I should have looked there already.

I spot a stone tower in top of a hill, so I use revali's gale to climb it faster. The game tells me I just climbed back to the Great Plateau. This feels... empowering.

The tower has a chest with 10 arrows.

I get tired of horse riding after a while and decide to check one of the two remaining towers, in the southwest corner. I trek through the arid area, killing bokos and trying to endure the annoying buzz the radar makes. I find shrine 68 before getting to the tower, a series of minigames with conveyor belts and metal balls.

the tower is rather easy to find, but it's surrounded by quicksand, and some magic makes it so strong wind blows away from the tower no matter what direction you try to approach it on. Flying is impossible, you gotta solve the puzzle. Which I do, by finally employing a trick I'd heard about but never tried before. Using statis on a metal block, hitting to accumulate inertia then climbing it to propel myself forward.

From the top, you get an impressive view of the entire gerudo desert. The fortress is in the middle, as well as an oasis. And then I spot it: Mecha Camel, the last ancient beast, walking around the desert like it owns the place. Well, it probably does.

I spot the next shrine from the tower, which hides the gerudo canyon stable beside it. I complete some puzzles involving batteries, taking the shrine count to 69.

Only one tower left, because I somehow skipped the mountainous area that was blocking the path to the desert, by going through the canyon in the south instead.

Right at the start, Ngamer advised me not to use it to keep the adventuring more fun, and Ive been following that pretty religiously. Ive only used the radar function for some great fairy materials.

Ive gotten to the point where I'll start looking at faqs more and more often now though, so I guess I'm start with the radar first.

went to explore the dark forest again. I figure out (uh the internet tells me) the torches are shaped like birds and I need to follow their beaks to find the path.

It's s pretty fun mini dungeon, with random things attacking me in the dark and I'm having to figure out how to kill them without seeing them.

Eventually, I make it to the end, where I light 4 torches, and then I learn that hinox eyes glow in the dark.

after a rather easy battle, the hinox dies and I get shrine 64.

while going to the dark forest through the east side, I see two shrines on the lava near death mountain.

One of them seems pretty close to the tower, which is not too hot, so I decide to eat some cold food and see if I can get to it.

The cold food is not enough and Link burns while gliding, but I managed to get into shrine 65 with 20% of my hearts left.

The other one, which is much further to the center, will have to wait.

well I could get a crapton of cold food now and brace through, but I think either the Goron or Gerudo towns will have anti-heat clothes that will solve this permanently

I also raid a moblin/bokoblin camp for a ruby and a sapphire, which total around 600 rupees. For the size of the prize, this should be hard, but it's not. It's on top of a mountain which gives the bokoblins surrounding it some really bad angles, even though they carry bomb arrows, and black moblins are starting to be a non-issue at this point, especially when hit by ice spears.

Tingel Island.

Yes that's right, they did name a landmark after that menace. And another 3 islands after his 3 "brothers" from Wind Waker

The islands are pretty hardcore, too. They are all tall peaks surrounded by guardian skywatchers. I get my first kill against them, by exploding its propellers with bomb arrows and watching it fall into the abyss

I go through all islands, then I realize I did then in the inverse of the order the game wanted me to, by taking a shotcut around the guardians. So I make my way back and eventually find shrine 66 under a metal slate.

I'm strongly considering turning on the shrine radar in the next playthrough. I'm starting to get short on patience for going to places and spending time not finding anything. It was ok when there were a lot of easy to find shrines, but those are mostly done now. If I'm going to check faqs, I might as well use the in-game one.

1 shrine and 2 memories today. I randomly climb some towers, eventually find a stable with shrine 63 near hebra tower. Also another stable I had somehow missed when I found its shrine in ridgelands. It gives me the hint to the memory.

Memory 8 is a scene that has generated some memes. The one where Zelda shows her features. Definitely better than sad zelda, to say at least.

also this is mostly her geeking out about endangered flowers and trying to get Link to eat a frog FOR SCIENCE. Zelda is a nerd

Memory 9 is more sad Zelda. She is making a ceremony to "knight" Link as a hero in front of the other champions while they point out how the whole thing is anticlimatic af. Goron guy is disappointed by the mood, Mipha doesn't say anything, Revali makes more pot shots at Link, and Gerudo woman points out how this is all about Zelda having an inferiority complex. Thanks Gerudo woman, I didn't notice.

also I had to sacrifice about 4 shields to get to this one since it's absolutely PACKED with guardians. And my newfond biggest annoyance in the game, weak enemies that get in the way when you're trying to focus on deflecting a guardian's laser

also master sword is quite effective at killing decayed guardians but guardian stalkers not so much because they like, run

... ice/bomb arrow combo.

Noted.

Another thing, I love the way those little sections full of enemies spamming elemental arrows from vantage points can be hard. Cuz those arrows hit hard and their rate of fire is not forgiving. Suddenly the game turns full FPS.

I think the only thing I miss is having more of an incentive to fire arrows while on horseback. TP was great at that, but the way this map is structured (mountains everywhere), mounted enemies not being as common, arrow paths being more realistic so they are hard to hit from a distance, and the horse not being immortal, you have an incentive to leave it at a safe place before entering the fray on foot.

I think I got fooled by the compedium telling me Farosh was friendly. Surely you aren't supposed to kill it. But turns out he drops parts while alive. I thought I had to get close and press A to pull a part, or something.

I climb mount lanayru, at last. At the top, I find another elemental dragon, Naydra, the ice one.

It is corrupted by ganon's malice, so I have to hit some evil eyeballs covering it while gliding to release it.

After I'm done, it lets me hit one more arrow on it, so one of its scales will drop, allowing me to offer it to the Spring of Wisdom, which awards me shrine 60. Fun little sequence.

...

... wait, all I gotta do to get their scales is shoot them?

https://gamefaqs.gamespot.com/a/user_image/7/7/4/AAO9CbAADryO.jpg

I arrive at the Spring of Courage, after killing the 15 lizalfos defending it, and offer Farosh's scale to claim shrine 61.

Farosh did shock me again as I approached it to shoot it, but the legendary, ancient technology known as rubber mitigated the damage.

Now where is the third dragon... I'm guessing somewhere at death mountain. The Spring of Power is near there, too.

While fooling around at Akkala, I finally figure out the spiral peninsula puzzle. Theres an orb at the base of the spiral which you must drag to the center, making this one fancy enemy gauntlet. Shrine 62.

I didnt play it but from what I read about it was less "spam canon on fast moving opponent" and more "activate combo that destroys every panel in opponent field and deals 5000 damage in 1 second before opponent does the same to you"

Dunno how fun that is, though. I'd like to find out.

Eventide Island Round 4: This Ends Now

I start with the Hinox this time, just so I don't waste time if it kills me again. Turns out it's possible to land on its belly and not wake it up, provided you are careful. I'm not careful enough the first time, but I succeed the second one.

Going for the Hinox first gives me a huge headstart for the rest of the quest, because I also steal its club and bow, which actually have good stats. I speedrun through the island, mauling bokoblins and taking their weapons, fueled only by my spite. Eventually I make it to the hill with the moblin and a bunch of bokoblins, but I've done this section before, so I know what to do. Sneak in, head shot on the lookout boko, sneak out. Sneak in, bomb on the bokos at the campfire, sneak out. Sneak in, Stasis+ on the moblin, beat it to death.

Then grab all the loot, use the bokoblins' campfire to cook some food, heal, finish the easier boko camp at the other hill, place all orbs at their altars, and claim shrine 59 and 300 rupees.

(then find out theres a Rito now chilling around near the shrine, who lets me play a fun minigame about gliding through some rings. I dont have enough stamina to finish it, but I do well enough he says I'm better than even a Rito. Okay).

Finally, leave the island, not before killing that damn Hinox so I can use its guts to upgrade my helmet later.

Goodbye, Eventide. You were really fun, but I don't want to see you again so soon.

I get shrines 57 and 58, by interpreting some rito music. 1st one is simple enough. Wait for the time the sun lights a heart shaped form on a platform, shoot a fire arrow on it, go inside the shrine and do a simple canon mini game.

2nd one is way more complicated, with a fetch quest to get some rito girls to go do a music rehearsal. Then I have to use a korok leaf to shoot some statues in the same order the girls sing (I almost got this by myself but needed google to tell me it was a leaf, not arrows). Then the shrine itself has a switch that instantly plunges the player into a lava pit with wind, spikes and a small key, making this one of the more "dungeon like" shrines in the game so far. I liked it.

I unlock the tower for Hebra, the game's mandatory snowy region.

It requires me two levels of cold protection just to walk on ground level, and I suspect some of its peaks will ask for three levels.

I think I'll explore this later. The region is huge, I probably need a lot of fire arrows, and Ive been skipping a lot of stuff already.

Zigzagoon posted...

I hope there are more fetch quests

I'm fine if there are side quests full of those, but the 3rd game had General White levels of mandatory backtracking. And it wasn't just in one chapter, but the entire game.

I think 2 is my favorite game because it did everything 3 did right but had a more concise structure.

I also hope they tone down on the random fetch quests in MBN3.

Ok now I want this.

Yeah I guess being a one handed weapon makes the MS better than most options.

Not that much better, though. There are weapons in the 25 range that are also one handed and drop like crazy.

Jakyl25 posted...

The Master Swords power doubles against Guardians

That alone makes it worth it ngl.

Well this was cool, but also pretty easy. Instead of being carried by the rito, you get a huge updraft that lets you glide infinitely, while Teba distracts mecha bird. However the bird has garbage tier aim so I never took a single hit. Now let's enter it and clear the dungeon.

Teba leaves so now its time to interact with Ghost Revali. Who is still a jerk, even after death.

This time instead of an elephant's trunk, you can make the whole bird roll left or right, which gives the dungeon a certain Stone Tower Temple feel.

As you progress through the dungeon and unlock the terminals, Revali gets less spiteful and more hopeful. Nice touch.

Dungeon 2 beaten. The boss is a cool concept, taking advantage of the aerial slowmo mechanic. But he could have used better aim. Funny that Revali says his aim is spot on. No bro, you just bad at dodging.

Oh, so that huge pillar I spent half an hour climbing earlier today was mecha bird's perch. Ok. It lands on it and fire tha lazor at Ganon. Revali admits I'm a warrior. And says he underestimated my luck. I guess that's the standard tsundere greet. I'll take it.

I gain the ability to create updrafts whenever I want, instantly reaching heights. Well I can think of a few treasure chests I missed because I didnt have that. Thats one useful ability for videogames in general.

Master Sword obtained.

The cutscene and flashback that follow are very good. This game has the barebones plot we are used to from zeldas, but it knows how to convey emotion with the little it does.

You feel bad for each downed champion, and now for Zelda. And the weight of the responsibility of not failing again weighs on you.

(The game telling me my attack went from 38 to 30 for equipping the master sword ruins the mood a little, though)

It has the classic energy beam shot, too. Now on 3D.

With winter clothes, I can finally do the quest at the mountains near Hateno about aligning three cedar trees. Well I could do it before, but I had to eat cold protection items and the time limit was annoying. Shrine 54 get, as well as the last piece of climbing gear.

The hard part are those ice lizalfos. They hit HARD, especially when Im having to sacrifice defensive armor for winter clothes, which is about 7-8 hearts of protection lost. However I recently found out they also die in one hit of any fire weapon/ammo. So it's a matter of whoever strikes first, wins.

I find shrine 55 due to a glitch. Its behind some blowable rocks, near a stable at faron, which I was going to buy some materials for armor improving. The wall disappeared while I was flying so I could see a glimpse of the shrine. Was wondering if this was really the only stable without a shortcut.

On the way to continue the rito quest, I beat shrine 56, a very fun platforming section with upward winds. I wish this game had more of those. I'm now able to get the master sword. However, I'd like to get it after the 2nd dungeon. For tradition. I think I'll go for more stamina instead.

Teba is an alright guy. He is not nice. But he is not a jerk. He's a grumpy, no-nonsense guy. Link wants to help so he respects his determination.

I beat a rather easy shooting mini game and he gives me some bomb arrows. No going after a frigging lynel this time. Now time for an aerial battle against mecha bird.

CassandraCain posted...

I never even knew this lol, maybe I shoulda spent more time talking to people. So that means they've gone 100 years of non stop rain? That dam must be raltively new then.

Regardless never ending rain would be like heaven to me.

From what I gather the ancient beasts only woke up recently, maybe in response to Ganon's seal weakening.

Well jerk characters are also part of good storytelling, Revali seems pretty good in that regard.

Revali: "I challenge you to a duel to prove if you are worthy of facing Ganon. Let's do the duel on the top of mecha bird, Oh wait, you can't reach mecha bird, cuz YOU CAN'T FLY!" - flies away, laughing.

Link: ...

Some npc tells me to look from the top of the tower at a right hour of the day so its shadow points to the faity fountain.

I find the fountain before even getting to the tower by simply looking down while I'm gliding.

I go into another upgrading spree, this time taking my defense to 48. That's 12 hearts reduced from every hit. And another 6 points if I can bring another hinox eye, which at this point is pretty easy.
Already regretting using google to find the previous fairy. My defense went from crap to amazing very quickly.

And I still just got my ass nearly handed out to me by a black moblin. Power creep is op

Tabantha tower unlocked. This tower is so high up I have to wear winter clothes just to stand on it. The flipside is that I'm seeing another two new shrines.

I arrive at Rito village. A slower remix of the classic Wind Waker song starts playing

The Rito can't fly high because huge mecha bird will shoot them if they do. They say it's demoralizing. Sounds like a lesser issue that what the zoras were facing (unstopping rain breaking a dam and flooding all of hyrule), but hey, I won't judge.

I find an armor shop that sells non-shitty winter clothes. Shut up and take my rubies.

The local inn has a type of bed make from Rito feathers.

...

Uh...

The winter clothes I just bought are also made of Rito feathers. What the hell is going on with this town.

Why do rito children in this game look like ducks. They are so ugly. Did they get generically modified so the shopkeepers would harvest their feathers for beds and winter clothes, or something?

Beat shrine 53, the obligatory city shotcut

The Rito chief is a huge ass owl.

Like, huge. I first thought he was a goron before noticing the owly face

The ritos don't have the same insanely long lifespan as the zora and the sheikah, so they don't recognize me. They do recognize me sheikah slate though, so they know I'm a big deal.

Quest: join a rito guy named Teba to attack mecha bird with bomb arrows so I can enter it.

Aka the same thing as with the elephant but reflavored

Also important: do that before Teba decides to face the bird alone and die, leaving his wife and kid to fend for themselves. That's... kind of important.

Cuz apparently hes that reckless.

So Link has a memory of Revali, the original pilot of mecha bird

I had seen the internet mention he was an asshole. The game did not disappoint me. He is a 10/10 jerk. Completely full of himself. Doesn't get why he can't be the main character when he has wings and Link doesn't. Excuse me, do you have a triple triangle tatoo in your hand that flashes sometimes? No? Then stop whining, Tweety.

Not much novel stuff but I gotta announce my counts.

On the way to bird people land, got shrines 50 to 52 and memories 6 and 7. Those were less sad Zelda and more hopeful Zelda so I guess that's progress.

One of the memories was about her trying to enter a shrine, so the memory came as a freebie with the shrine. There was a guardian scout 4 inside though, but Ive killed one of those before. I gotta start progressing the main plot before I get too strong for it. Also I'm just one heart container from getting the Master Sword now.

Btw, what I thought was a sky island is actually the ancient beast. Those things never fail to impress.

Shrines 48 and 49. First one is in a canyon at ridgelands, not much to say. Next one is more interesting cuz I have to beat a guardian stalker to get to it, in its full 1500 hp, laser shooting, spider leg glory. Takes me two tries, but I pull it off. I'm starting to enjoy fighting those things. Also they drop so many parts I can see myself buying some guardian weapons from now on.

Memory 5 at a forest southeast of the castle that was rather easy to find now that I have a map. This one is after Ganon takes over the beasts. Starting to get bored of those memories, tbh. While they do add depth, every single one of them is Zelda being sad because she doesn't have powers. I wonder if every memory is like that or if I just got a bad streak.

I have hints for another two memories, but they seem pretty close to the castle so it's tricky. The last 5, I still need to find the painter who tells where they are.

So lately I've been focusing on hearts over stamina, to get the master sword.

I need 9 more shrines (or 5 shrines and an ancient beast) for 13.

Might end up getting when I beat the next beast, which lines up with the series' tradition of getting the sword by the midpoint of the game.

I just looked at the price for amiibos and I'm trying to imagine why anyone would pay for that.