Board 8 > Zelda finally plays Breath of the Wild

(+) Yeah! (+)

Yeah its unclear when exactly the Divine Beasts started causing trouble, but its not since the Calamity

But definitely before Link woke up

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.

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.

The Master Swords power doubles against Guardians and in Hyrule Castle (and inside Divine Beasts maybe?)

And the DLC gives you an Eventide Island style quest to double the base power of it

Jakyl25 posted...

The Master Swords power doubles against Guardians

That alone makes it worth it ngl.

keep in mind, the number listed on a weapon is its damage per hit, not its damage per second

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.

Yeah, the power and durability increases greatly in the presence of Guardians and Malice. So it's really good against them and in Divine Beasts.

And then if you power it up in the DLC it's just straight up the best weapon in the game.

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.

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.

There's a neat way to cheese that island.

Toss a bunch of good equipment on the floor
Trigger the Eventide Island quest
Pick your equipment up off the floor
Go to town

But, it's a cool part of the game so it's more fun to play it normally.

That Rito mini game is just for money so dont worry about beating it

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.

You should see the 100% speedruns where they spend half an hour farming dragon parts right after the Great Plateau

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.

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.

You cant hurt the dragons at all. Theyre more or less just forces of nature.

You can get bows that fire straight for far longer distances, but yeah, youre always better off just flipping off your horse and firing from bullet time in mid air

Alternatively, riding a horse into battle can give you a starting advantage. You get a decent amount of height leaping from the saddle, allowing you to enter bullet time and snipe at foes. You can do a lot of initial damage this way, especially if you use the ice/bomb arrow combo.

... ice/bomb arrow combo.

Noted.

I like to run over enemies with my horse

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

Yeah stalkers would frequently aggravate me when I would run in for a hit and they casually backstep out of the way. Of course it makes sense as they solely rely on a long range attack... wonder why they never try swiping at Link with one of their many legs.

But yeah that's why I eventually prioritized parrying their lasers back at 'em since getting in close is more of a challenge. There are some methods though, such as shooting them in the eye to briefly stun/blind them.

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.

Heat Protection is different from Burning Air Protection. No amount of cold food and stripping naked will help you on Death Mountain

Theres an NPC at the stable at the start of the path to Death Mountain that will sell you Fireproof Elixer, and yes, you will find Flameproof clothes at Goron City

Wait, why aren't you using shrine radar?

Sometimes I'd turn it off temporarily if it was bugging me, but otherwise I'd have it on all game.

Yeah I'm surprised you've gone this long without using it lol...

I kept it off for most of my first playthrough as well. Incedsant beeping sounds annoy me.

I'm glad they got rid of the low heath alarm at least.

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.

Oh I've never heard of anyone keeping the shrine detector on all game (until now), I thought it was unanimously despised for its annoying noise!

I would almost never turn it off, because usually if I heard the sound I was going to start searching for the shrine, and once I found it the sound is no problem

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.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

Using statis on a metal block, hitting to accumulate inertia then climbing it to propel myself forward.

Nice. I never thought to tackle that particular puzzle in that way, there are metal blocks hidden beneath the quicksand that you can stack to make a step path.

That's one of the many reasons I love this game though, it encourages you to find creative solutions.

Also I've never had to defeat any bears, I have an aversion to harming any wildlife, even if virtual. I have however claimed one as my trusty bear-steed (temporarily).

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 also started replaying this recently. It's still neat. And crushing starting from zero again.

There's an amazing number of solutions to that tower... here's the most boring one everyone forgets: you can just cryonis your way across.

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 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.

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?

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.

ZeldaTPLink posted...

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.

Funny story, they actually changed this in the English translation. Pretty much all of the romantic implication stuff was added in and wasn't in the Japanese version...

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.

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.

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.

All good options. The castle is one of if not THE best area in the game to explore. Lynel hunting is a great challenge and it feels good to progressively get better fighting them. Especially later in the game when you just walk over every enemy you come across including bosses, and you seem to be at that level now.

Also you raise a good point about Teba I never considered, he's so unremarkable. Maybe that's why I never really remembered his existence. Compared to the other three, who are all wonderful characters. Maybe it's because Revali is just too damn cool Teba can't even hope to live up to that legend so he doesn't even attempt to.

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.

How are you doing on Koroks?

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.

Oh man, you missed the best time to go into the castle for the first time imho. I first went about 20 hours in, when it totally felt like I was "skipping to the end" and "shouldn't be there yet." And it was... just so epic and memorable and the best decision I ever made. The crazy loot, the way more powerful enemies than me, the goddamn atmosphere. Those four hours or so I spent on my first visit were the most memorable experience of the entire game for me. I later went back 60 hours in and finally just over 100 hours in when I actually beat it.

That said the castle is still god tier and a ton of fun to explore, so go do it.

Yeah I mentioned early in the topic how on my second playthrough I went straight to the castle after leaving the plateau. It was one of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had in a video game.

CassandraCain posted...

Yeah I mentioned early in the topic how on my second playthrough I went straight to the castle after leaving the plateau. It was one of the most enjoyable experiences I've ever had in a video game.

Legit thought to myself multiple times "this is the best video game I've ever played" first time in the castle. If the whole game was as good as that one experience, it really would be!

Glad it was still that memorable on a second playthrough even. But yeah, going early and low on health just rules.