Jeff's Gaming Blog

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.

When I left off in The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild, I was at the Ja Baij Shrine. Inside, I acquired a rune that lets me use bombs! I can use round bombs or square bombs. The best part is that you can remotely detonate them. No more waiting around for bomb fuses. It’s a blast!

After completing a couple of simple obstacles/puzzles, I obtained another spirit orb and finished the shrine.

Back outside, I climbed a tree and did a little pole dancing. I know, I’m weird. 😛

I continued on, until I found a little hut. Inside was a book, but not just any book. It was the old man’s diary!

Unfortunately, his diary was just about cooking. He’s hoping someone will bring him the missing ingredient to a recipe. But as I left camp, I ran into the old man himself. He asked me to help him cut down a tree with his axe, so I did. He went to rest by the fire, so I continued exploring.

I started climbing up a mountain, but it was getting dangerously cold. Even though I had swiped some spicy peppers from the old man’s house, apparently you have to cook a dish with them before they will help you withstand the cold (eating one plain did not seem to help me). So I tediously scaled back down the mountain.

The next day, I had a chat with the old man. He told me I could use his pot to cook myself some food. So I experimented by cooking some apples, plants, and mushrooms. I even made some honey candy!

It seems that this game doesn’t have hearts that you collect to refill your health. You have to eat food, which will generally need to be cooked first. Perhaps this is more realistic, and provides more depth, but the cooking can be a bit slow and tedious. Not my favorite aspect of the game so far.

Instead of going up the mountain again, I set off to explore elsewhere…

It’s fun to just go around, trying to blow things up.

After walking through the Hopper Pond area, I encountered something I was not mentally prepared for. Some large boulders started moving and formed into a large creature: the Stone Talus.

I threw some bombs at it, but they didn’t seem to do much. But when he started walking towards me and throwing his huge stone hands at me, I had a “holy crap” moment. There’s no way I could beat this guy, and I had to run for my life!

I ran through the forest, but he was on my tail. When I reached a mountain, I knew I was caught between a rock and a hard place. I started climbing, thinking I was finally escaping, but he threw his rock hand (or was it his boulder shoulder?) up at me and knocked me down, nearly killing me.

I ran off in another direction, and I eventually made my way to safety. What a scary experience. 😛 I wrapped up my night after that.

The next day, I decided to get back on track on my shrine quest. I started off by returning to the old man’s camp. I cooked some more of the ingredients I’ve found along the way, and most importantly, I cooked some spicy peppers I swiped from the old man’s hut. Now I’ll be able to stay warm up on the mountain.

But near camp, I noticed a gap where it looked like I could cut down a tree and use it to cross over. Unfortunately, my last sword broke in the process.

One thing I don’t like about this game is that weapons wear down and break pretty quickly. So you constantly need to replace them…what a pain! I looked around for a sword or axe to use, but no luck. But then I thought I’d try using a bomb. Fortunately, it worked.

I crossed the log and climbed up the mountain. At the top, I found the Owa Daim Shrine. Inside, I learned the power of stasis. I can use it to stop the flow of time for an object. I used it to stop a spinning gear so that I could cross a gap inside the shrine.

It can also be used to store kinetic energy. After freezing this ball with stasis, I hit it repeatedly with a sledgehammer. When time resumed, all those stored hits acted at once, launching the ball out of my way.

Completing the shrine earned me another spirit orb. Just one more to go! I’ll go after that one next time.