Month: March 2017

I know Impa told me to go to Hateno Village. I didn’t forget. But…I got distracted and went off in another direction. 😛 I was climbing the hills above Kakariko Village when I noticed a shrine off in the distance. So I jumped off and used my paraglider to soar down there. It took me into a new part of the world, where I met my first Zora.

She told me I should go meet Prince Sidon over at Inogo Bridge. But I kept exploring. And as I was fighting a Lizalfos during a storm, I got struck by lightning!

As the game loaded back up, I got this helpful tip.

Eventually, I made my way over to Lanayru Tower. Activating it gave me the regional map for this area. Another Zora, named Gruve, was up on the tower. I sailed down to a shrine I spotted, where I found yet another Zora. She also encouraged me to meet Prince Zidon over on the bridge. So I did. The prince asked me to come back to Zora’s Domain with him, and I agreed to help out.

There were quite a few enemies along the way, and it didn’t take long for me to start going through a lot of weapons and food. Not only that, but I soon discovered that the path there was much longer than I anticipated.

At one particularly hard part, a bunch of enemies were shooting shock arrows at me. And even though I had temporary shock resistance, thanks to an electro elixir that Sidon gave me, it wasn’t enough to keep me from dying…including one time where some bees were also hot on my tail.

After a long journey that felt like forever, Sidon popped out of the river to tell me…that I was almost halfway there.

I continued on. After dying a couple more times, I realized I had to be more stealthy. So I started crouching anytime enemies were around, and I attacked primarily by sneakily shooting arrows at the confused enemies who didn’t see me. Fortunately, I had plenty of arrows, so this strategy worked…even if it meant my progress was quite slow.

Towards the end of the path, I was able to climb up a bit and use my paraglider to take some shortcuts. And at long last, I reached Zora’s Domain. There were many Zoras here that I talked with, and there were also shops, an inn, and a shrine in here.

After completing the shrine, I went up to chat with King Dorephan. He told me that I need to defeat the divine beast of this land, and he then gave me the Zora armor. When wearing it, I’ll be able to swim up waterfalls! This will come in quite handy for exploring the world!

After another sequence, I recovered part of my memory! I decided to stop playing at this point; I’m supposed to head up to Ploymus Mountain next. But I think I’m going to resume my previous objective instead. I want to get my horse back and head over to Hateno Village. But who knows…maybe I’ll get distracted again next time too. 😉

After several unfortunate situations with blood moons (I kept dying, so the blood moon kept restarting), I finally made it to the Dueling Peaks Tower. I climbed up and used my Sheikah Slate to activate it, and that gave me a regional map for this area. I also gained the Sheikah Sensor, which lets me know when new shrines are nearby.

When I was trying to use Cryonis to make an ice pillar in the water, I made a huge mistake. I pressed the wrong button, and I actually threw my sword into the water! I couldn’t get it back, either! Fail.

After a lot of climbing up the Dueling Peaks themselves, I found two shrines. They had a connected, memory based puzzle that required you to go back and forth between the two shrines. Completing them earned me two more spirit orbs.

I soon encountered yet another shrine, and this one was more enjoyable. I had to press switches at the correct times to make a ball roll into a designated area. There are more shrines around than I first realized.

When I finally hit the road again, I ran into Mezer. He’s a traveling meat and salt salesman. Now this is the type of bizarre thing I’ve come to expect in Zelda games. 😛

Across the bridge, I reached Dueling Peaks Stable! I heard music playing, and it reminded me of Malon singing Epona’s song at Lon Lon Ranch in Ocarina of Time. It was nighttime, but I went around to explore. There were horses, goats, chickens, and even a dog!

I went inside and talked to some people, although some others were sleeping. The stable also functions as an inn, but I didn’t want to waste money on sleep. 😛 There was also a very familiar face in here: Beedle!

As I waited for morning to come, I explored out back. There were some wild horses, and I snuck up on one and hopped on! I rode my new horse all night long.

In the morning, I registered my new buddy. Look at my horse. My horse is Amazing.

We headed out for Kakariko Village, but I soon encountered a side quest. After I recovered some maracas for Hestu, he offered to exchange some of my Korok seeds for a bigger inventory. I definitely needed the space to hold more weapons!

I continued on, and soon arrived at Kakariko Village! There are villagers to talk to, there’s a pumpkin farm, and of course there are shops where you can buy and sell goods.

At the clothing shop, I bought myself a Hylian hood and Hylian tunic.

But my main objective here was to talk to Impa. She seems to have aged since I last saw her. 😉

She gave me a history lesson about what happened 100 years earlier, and she told me I need to seek out the four races of Hyrule. Each race is in a different part of the map, so I think the world just opened up even more. But first, I have to go to Hateno (no hate?) Village to unlock my memories. I hope I don’t forget to go there! 😉

There was a shrine nearby, so I completed it for another spirit orb. And since I had five spirit orbs, I decided to teleport back to the Temple of Time. I traded in four of my orbs for a stamina vessel this time; it increases the amount of time that I can exert myself running or swimming. Or dirty dancing with Impa.

Since I was back on the plateau temporarily, I tried stopping by the old man’s hut. Unfortunately, he was nowhere in sight. I did read a new entry of his diary, however. 😛

See you next time!

In The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I headed east to the next shrine. The path there took me up into the mountains, where it was very cold. Fortunately, I had some spicy sautéed peppers to help me combat the cold. The bad news was that it only gave me two minutes and 30 seconds of immunity to the cold! So I knew I had to be quick.

As the timer ticked down, it became clear (by looking at the map) that I wasn’t going to get there in time. Not even close. But I saw a spiraling path up a stony peak, so I ran like green lightning. With just seconds to spare, I made it to the top and found the old man there!

He gave me a warm doublet that I can use to stay warm up in the mountains. Good, I sure needed that! I was then able to continue my journey to the next shrine without having to worry about the cold.

About five minutes later, I made it to my destination: The Keh Namut shrine. Inside, a new “cryonis” rune gave me the power to create a pillar of ice from a water surface. That’s a very specific ability. 😛 But the ice pillars can be used as stepping stones to cross water, or as obstacles for enemies.

I used the new ability to complete the shrine and earn my 4th spirit orb. As I left the shrine, the old man flew down from the sky once again. He told me where to meet him, and then he disappeared into thin air. Wait, if he can do that, why does he need the paraglider in the first place?

I took a long detour on my way back. I followed a river and found some goodies behind a waterfall. And of course, I stopped to climb a tree and admire the scenery.

Eventually, I made my way over to the Temple of Time. After praying near a statue, I was able to trade in my four spirit orbs, and the tin man Link got a new heart.

The old man then appeared and told me who he really is. I won’t spoil it here, though. After he gave me a little history lesson, he told me to go to Kakariko Village. He pronounced it differently than how I’ve been saying it all these years, but what does he know? 😛

Once he was done talking, he finally gave me the paraglider. Now I can glide down off of this plateau and into other parts of the world. The game has just opened up quite a bit. Time to sail!

I started heading in the general direction of Kakariko Village, but it’s so easy to get distracted along the way. I stopped to investigate some fireflies, I stole some food from enemy camps, I hunted down a fox, and I saw some strange things…including some Koroks.

On the way, I spotted another shrine: the Bosh Kala shrine. This one was a bit different, because it didn’t give me a new rune power. Instead, it just tested my ability to use my paraglider. Gusts of wind blow and you have to sail across the gaps.

One of the jumps took me a couple of attempts, but I quickly got the hang of it. Completing the shrine earned me a new spirit orb.

Near a bridge, I made a short detour to blow up some enemies at camp, using a bomb arrow. It was super effective.

I love bomb arrows. #zelda #botw pic.twitter.com/MjFirICNnq

— JVGS Jeff (@jvgsjeff) March 14, 2017

After that, I returned to the Proxim Bridge and began walking across. Finally, I spotted another living person I can chat with! It’s been a bit lonely so far, with nobody to talk to other than the old man. So it’s a relief to finally see someone. He pointed me in the right direction.

I saved my game before reaching the Dueling Peaks, but I’ll be going there next time.

I am loving Breath of the Wild more and more as I go on. But it still doesn’t quite feel like a Zelda game. I think one main reason is that there’s generally not any overworld music playing. You’ll hear wind, animals, nature sounds, and other effects for atmosphere, but that’s not the same.

Even the shrines are sparse in the music department. They have quiet, atmospheric melodies here and there, but it’s subtle. Zelda games often have great soundtracks and memorable tunes. So far, that is not the case with Breath of the Wild. I’m hoping that changes soon.

See you next time.