Like the desert around it, the Lanayru Mining Facility has fallen into disrepair. Piles of dust are everywhere, and of course more sinksand (including hidden, slightly buried walkways). The place is overrun by the same enemies as the present-day version of the outside world. There are other, new enemies: tiny scorpions called Arachas that are more a nuisance than a threat and Froaks, floating pufferfish that explode when they hit something without their spikes. Also, Staldra return from the preview appearance in the Skyview Temple, and it still feels arbitrary if I hit one, two, or three heads even when attacking along the correct line. The dungeon item is the Gust Bellows, the latest take on the Gust Jar (Minish Cap), Whirlwind (Spirit Tracks), and some functions of the Deku Leaf (Wind Waker). It blows away dust, can spin propellors, and flips the Arachas on their back so they’re even more helpless.
Of course, Link’s not entirely stuck in the present; there are Timeshift Stones throughout the dungeon that bring the facility to life. There are three types of automaton enemies that come to life with it. Two are familiar from previous games: Beamos, who are now destroyed by slicing through their statues until Link can jab them in the eye/beam emitter, and Armos (the miniboss, who guards the dungeon map rather than the item which is needed to defeat it; a pair guards the boss key), who need to be opened by using the Gust Bellows on a propeller on their head to reveal the two crystals that are their true weak points. The third enemy is the Sentrobe, a missile-launching drone. Link can deflect the missiles with his shield to defeat it; it has another attack with bombs that need to be cut a certain way to disarm.
Other puzzles involve running against conveyor belts (aided by Stamina Fruit that appear at just the right intervals to keep Link from tiring out), platforms that move when the propeller atop them is spun that Link needs to ride/move into position/some combination of the two, and mazes of hidden spikes popping out of sand that can be dispersed to make the maze “walls” visible. Late in the dungeon, Link finds minecarts with Timeshift Stones on them that he has to follow, dealing with the enemies that pop up along the way. The final puzzle involves riding a platform and keeping it moving alongside a Timeshift Stone cart so it keeps going.
The boss room is filled with sand, and as Link enters a trail beneath the sand starts behind Link and passes under his feet. Finally, the final form of the aracha, a thousand-year arachnid, Moldarach, pops out and brandishes its pincers and roars at Link. The pincers have eyes, so they’re the obvious target for Link to attack, while the pincers themselves restrict the direction the attack has to come from. Moldarach has two attacks – grabbing at Link with the pincers and a tail sweep. As the pincers take damage, they eventually fall off; once both are gone, Moldarach burrows under the sand, popping up to try the tail sweep. Link can use the Gust Bellows to disturb the sand in the room and uncover Moldarach, forcing it to surface so he can stab its eye. When Moldarach dies, it leaves behind a heart container before the room completely empties of sand, revealing the exit Link’s looking for.
Beneath the mining facility is a long tunnel with a Timeshift Stone and a minecart. The walls of the tunnel have two lines of statues of the robots saluting – a rather absurd touch. At the end of the tunnel, Link exits to the Temple of Time, where Zelda is playing her harp and singing in front of a wheel. She notices Link and tries to go to him, only to be interrupted when the rubble barricade explodes and Ghirahim jumps through. So that barricade didn’t do anyone any good – Ghirahim was able to get through easily enough, while Link had to go the long way. Ghirahim creates a barrier to stop Link from interfering and charges at Zelda, only to be stopped by her Sheikah protector – and yes, Zelda calls her Impa. Impa tells Zelda to go through the gate; Zelda first tosses her harp [1] to Link (the Item Get thing happens, only for the game to acknowledge now’s not the time), then stops again when Ghirahim gets his sword through Impa’s defenses. However, Ghirahim’s own barrier has quickly dispelled, and Link jumps to the rescue. (He gets dialogue options here, either telling Impa to go or protect Zelda, or asking her if he’s too late this time. I can’t imagine why I needed the first two options.) Impa grabs Zelda and heads to the wheel, which is now a gate. She tells Link to go to the old woman at the Sealed Temple for further advice, then takes Zelda through the gate, blowing it up behind them. Ghirahim is furious, blaming himself for being soft on Link up to this point. (No mention of what he was doing while Link and Impa were talking. I’ve mostly admired him for being proactive, but that perception took a blow here.) He doesn’t have the time to deal with Link now, but promises not to hold back next time and teleports out.
Fi pops up to say she can’t sense Zelda anymore, meaning Link won’t be able to dowse for her. Oh, what a huge loss that is. Outside the temple, Gorko asks why Link didn’t tell him about the way around into the Temple; now that the entry is open, he intends to have a look around before heading to the Sealed Grounds.
Next: Don’t bring me down, Grrrrroose.
[1] It’s more like a lyre.
Friday, November 29, 2019
Wednesday, November 27, 2019
Skyward Sword: Desert Ruins
Near the barricaded entrance to the Temple of Time, there’s a timeshift stone that reveals a pair of Technoblins bothering a robot. Once it’s cleared, the robot says if Link needs another way into the Temple, there’s an underground connection in the Lanayru Mining Facility. Marking that on the map, he notes that the map is inaccurate and fixes it for him. The desert becomes green, and the large ruins area gets filled in a lot more. Link takes a cart over to the exit back to the Mining Facility entrance, activating a Goddess Cube along the way.
The robot’s alterations to the map show the ruins as they were. There are three concentric circles with twelve spoke lines connecting them. Only a few parts of the ruins are above the sand, but the rest are buried shallowly enough that Link can walk on them safely. The number of beacons Link can place on the map is increased to five to aid in navigation. In a timeshifted area, Link finds the power generator that will open the way into the Mining Facility. But for the generator to work, Link needs to activate the three remote power nodes hidden in the area. Fi sets them as a dowsing option and he’s off.
One of the power nodes is simply hidden behind a statue that falls over when Link chucks a bomb into its basket. To activate the power node, Link needs to hit a Timeshift Stone in the next cave over, then stick his sword in and turn. The other two are in bigger areas. Both require a timeshift to drain the area of sand. The Ampilus in the area revert to their egg forms, which are still electrified and can be used to power the mechanism to open the gate to the power node. One is not much more involved than that; the other has a large gap between the main area and where the gate mechanism is, so Link needs to use the Beetle to bring the Ampilus egg across.
With all three nodes activated, Link can use the power generator to open the way into the dungeon. It has three wheels, which have to be turned to the positions of the corresponding power nodes (each one is marked with a symbol so you don’t have to guess the order) and pushed in. Once this is done, the facility entrance rises out of the sand in the center of the area, with a large staircase leading up to it. There’s a hidden cave path in the area that leads to a heart piece; there’s more here, but the targets in the area don’t respond to being hit by the Slingshot.
With the dungeon unlocked, it’s time to head back to the sky to take care of business there. There are three Goddess Cubes Link can grab. One has a silver rupee, one has a Heart Medal that makes hearts drop more often, and the last has a heart piece, giving Link another full heart. Most of the treasures Link needs are available now, so after a fair bit of farming to get everything, he can upgrade:
And there’s one last thing – at the Lumpy Pumpkin, the owner/bartender has a new job for Link: help his daughter (Kina, the waitress) carry pumpkins to the storage shed. And of course it can’t just be a matter of pick up pumpkin, bring it down, repeat until done. No, it’s a full-fledged minigame. Kina challenges Link to carry a stack of five pumpkins that tilts and wobbles. And the shed is way off to the left, but Link can’t turn, just move forward, sidestep, and by combining the two, move diagonally. It eventually gets done, and Link’s one step closer to being clear from smashing the chandelier.
Next: So, about that barricade…
The robot’s alterations to the map show the ruins as they were. There are three concentric circles with twelve spoke lines connecting them. Only a few parts of the ruins are above the sand, but the rest are buried shallowly enough that Link can walk on them safely. The number of beacons Link can place on the map is increased to five to aid in navigation. In a timeshifted area, Link finds the power generator that will open the way into the Mining Facility. But for the generator to work, Link needs to activate the three remote power nodes hidden in the area. Fi sets them as a dowsing option and he’s off.
One of the power nodes is simply hidden behind a statue that falls over when Link chucks a bomb into its basket. To activate the power node, Link needs to hit a Timeshift Stone in the next cave over, then stick his sword in and turn. The other two are in bigger areas. Both require a timeshift to drain the area of sand. The Ampilus in the area revert to their egg forms, which are still electrified and can be used to power the mechanism to open the gate to the power node. One is not much more involved than that; the other has a large gap between the main area and where the gate mechanism is, so Link needs to use the Beetle to bring the Ampilus egg across.
With all three nodes activated, Link can use the power generator to open the way into the dungeon. It has three wheels, which have to be turned to the positions of the corresponding power nodes (each one is marked with a symbol so you don’t have to guess the order) and pushed in. Once this is done, the facility entrance rises out of the sand in the center of the area, with a large staircase leading up to it. There’s a hidden cave path in the area that leads to a heart piece; there’s more here, but the targets in the area don’t respond to being hit by the Slingshot.
With the dungeon unlocked, it’s time to head back to the sky to take care of business there. There are three Goddess Cubes Link can grab. One has a silver rupee, one has a Heart Medal that makes hearts drop more often, and the last has a heart piece, giving Link another full heart. Most of the treasures Link needs are available now, so after a fair bit of farming to get everything, he can upgrade:
- The [wooden] Banded Shield to a Braced Shield for extra toughness,
- The [iron] Reinforced Shield to a Fortified Shield for the same,
- The Hook Beetle to a Speed Beetle that has a faster travel mode, and again to a Tough Beetle that can fly longer, and
- The Bug Net to the Big Bug Net that makes catching bugs (and birds and Tumbleweeds) easier.
And there’s one last thing – at the Lumpy Pumpkin, the owner/bartender has a new job for Link: help his daughter (Kina, the waitress) carry pumpkins to the storage shed. And of course it can’t just be a matter of pick up pumpkin, bring it down, repeat until done. No, it’s a full-fledged minigame. Kina challenges Link to carry a stack of five pumpkins that tilts and wobbles. And the shed is way off to the left, but Link can’t turn, just move forward, sidestep, and by combining the two, move diagonally. It eventually gets done, and Link’s one step closer to being clear from smashing the chandelier.
Next: So, about that barricade…
Monday, November 25, 2019
Skyward Sword: Lanayru Desert
There’s not much new to do in the sky. The Gear Shop at the Bazaar is selling a Bomb Bag, but after getting a Seed Satchel from a Goddess Cube, I’m kind of once bitten/twice shy about buying it. It’s not really worrying about rupees that’s stopping me (a few rounds of Thrill Digger would make back what I spent), but bomb flowers are common when bombs are needed and can refill the bag, and there are enough things competing for Adventure Pouch space as it is. With the wood-burning volcano done and the Iron Shield weak against electric attacks that haven’t been seen in either of the other areas, I swapped it back out for the Wooden Shield before heading to the yellow light. (Speaking of, I’m increasingly sure Peatrice, the item check woman, has a crush on Link.)
Fi introduces the new area as Lanayru Mine. There’s a Goddess Cube right at the base of the tower Link lands on when he arrives in the area. The mine is abandoned and devoid of intelligent life – only Keese, (yellow, electrified) ChuChus, and Electro Spumes remain. A few inactive robots dot the landscape. The minecarts can still be pushed along the tracks, which is needed to reach deeper into the mine. Link eventually comes to an open area with a large blue crystal. He whacks it with his sword, lighting it up, which causes the surrounding area to become a functioning mine – the robots work, the minecarts roll on their own, and the vegetation in the area comes to life (including Ancient Flowers which are a treasure item). Fi explains that the crystal has shifted the surrounding area back in time. There are unrefined Timeshift Stones throughout the mine, but only one stone can be active in a given area at a time. The other notable feature of the area is sinksand, which Link can safely run across but will sink into if he tries to walk; alternately, Timeshift Stones turn it more solid so he can easily cross.
After one last cart ride, Link arrives at the open Lanayru Desert. The desert is wandered by Ampilus, some sort of crustacean or mollusk critter that tries to roll into Link with their electrified shells. A little way into the desert, Link finds a group of cages. By getting to a high place, he can throw a bomb into one, revealing and activating the Timeshift Stone inside. When the area comes to life, a Technoblin – a Bokoblin with an electrified sword that shocks Link if he hits it – shows up with it. After it’s defeated, the cages open and Link can talk to a captive robot, who upgrades his Beetle to a Hook Beetle that can grab things to drop on specific targets.
With the Hook Beetle, Link can cross the large sinksand areas leading deeper into the desert. Ampilus and their shells are immune to sinksand, so when Link uses the Beetle to drop bombs on them, their shells remain as a platform Link can rest on to catch his breath before trying to run further. (However, if he waits too long, the shell disappears and another Ampilus spawns, which doesn’t end well for Link.) Crossing the first sinksand area this way, Link can branch off to hit another Goddess Cube. The next sinksand area has a sandfall to the west, causing the sand to flow east. Ampilus shells go with this flow, allowing Link to ride across while he recovers stamina, which lets him cross a giant area with no other safe places to stand and reach the area exit.
The next area is the Temple of Time, which sounds like where Zelda and her Sheikah guardian were headed next. This area has a bunch of Timeshift Stones and minecarts, with bridges for the carts that have been lost to time and so they only appear when the area has been shifted back in time. One Timeshift Stone is atop a stone structure enclosed in a cage with the only access point being a hole in the top, so Link needs to Beetle drop a bomb inside to activate it. After clearing the path, Link finds his way to the main area of the Temple, which is blocked by a pile of rocks. Gorko tells him he saw an actual sky person (Zelda) go into the Temple with another person (the Sheikah woman), but when he tried to follow, an explosion blocked off the entry into the temple, so he and Link are locked out from whatever’s happening on the other side.
Next: The hidden path.
Fi introduces the new area as Lanayru Mine. There’s a Goddess Cube right at the base of the tower Link lands on when he arrives in the area. The mine is abandoned and devoid of intelligent life – only Keese, (yellow, electrified) ChuChus, and Electro Spumes remain. A few inactive robots dot the landscape. The minecarts can still be pushed along the tracks, which is needed to reach deeper into the mine. Link eventually comes to an open area with a large blue crystal. He whacks it with his sword, lighting it up, which causes the surrounding area to become a functioning mine – the robots work, the minecarts roll on their own, and the vegetation in the area comes to life (including Ancient Flowers which are a treasure item). Fi explains that the crystal has shifted the surrounding area back in time. There are unrefined Timeshift Stones throughout the mine, but only one stone can be active in a given area at a time. The other notable feature of the area is sinksand, which Link can safely run across but will sink into if he tries to walk; alternately, Timeshift Stones turn it more solid so he can easily cross.
After one last cart ride, Link arrives at the open Lanayru Desert. The desert is wandered by Ampilus, some sort of crustacean or mollusk critter that tries to roll into Link with their electrified shells. A little way into the desert, Link finds a group of cages. By getting to a high place, he can throw a bomb into one, revealing and activating the Timeshift Stone inside. When the area comes to life, a Technoblin – a Bokoblin with an electrified sword that shocks Link if he hits it – shows up with it. After it’s defeated, the cages open and Link can talk to a captive robot, who upgrades his Beetle to a Hook Beetle that can grab things to drop on specific targets.
With the Hook Beetle, Link can cross the large sinksand areas leading deeper into the desert. Ampilus and their shells are immune to sinksand, so when Link uses the Beetle to drop bombs on them, their shells remain as a platform Link can rest on to catch his breath before trying to run further. (However, if he waits too long, the shell disappears and another Ampilus spawns, which doesn’t end well for Link.) Crossing the first sinksand area this way, Link can branch off to hit another Goddess Cube. The next sinksand area has a sandfall to the west, causing the sand to flow east. Ampilus shells go with this flow, allowing Link to ride across while he recovers stamina, which lets him cross a giant area with no other safe places to stand and reach the area exit.
The next area is the Temple of Time, which sounds like where Zelda and her Sheikah guardian were headed next. This area has a bunch of Timeshift Stones and minecarts, with bridges for the carts that have been lost to time and so they only appear when the area has been shifted back in time. One Timeshift Stone is atop a stone structure enclosed in a cage with the only access point being a hole in the top, so Link needs to Beetle drop a bomb inside to activate it. After clearing the path, Link finds his way to the main area of the Temple, which is blocked by a pile of rocks. Gorko tells him he saw an actual sky person (Zelda) go into the Temple with another person (the Sheikah woman), but when he tried to follow, an explosion blocked off the entry into the temple, so he and Link are locked out from whatever’s happening on the other side.
Next: The hidden path.
Friday, November 22, 2019
Skyward Sword: Earth Temple
To get the obvious observation out of the way first: although it’s called the Earth Temple, this is definitely a fire dungeon. To be fair, it’s set in a volcano, which is right on the intersection of earth and fire. But Link his hit by a wave of hot air from the start, if he uses a wooden shield there’s a good chance of it burning up, and there are fiery enemies and rivers of lava everywhere. On a side note, if Link falls in the lava, the reaction is pretty much the same as in Wind Waker – jumping a mile in the air while his butt’s on fire – only the art style has changed to realistically-proportioned people so the cartoony reaction is even funnier because it’s so out of place.
A little way in, Link catches up to one of the Mogmas from outside, who’s been separated from his partner. He says he saw Zelda getting dragged in, so it almost certainly wasn’t the person in black. He tries to discourage Link from going further because there are too many Bokoblins around, but of course Link is going to persist. A little ways in, Link finds Ledd, the other Mogma, who’s lost his Bomb Bag. After a miniboss fight (a pair of Lizalfos, who have directional blocking and I found easiest to hit with an uppercut when they tried to cower under their armored gauntlet), a treasure chest appears with the Bomb Bag in it. Link wants to use it, so he asks Ledd if he can borrow it; Ledd remembers his partner and asks about him, then generously lets Link keep the Bomb Bag as a gift and gives a few bombs. Link can actually replenish the bag by storing bombs picked from bomb flowers, and if he pulls out a bomb but decides he doesn’t want to use it, can put it back.
The large central room of the dungeon involves Link rolling a giant statue’s eyeball across the giant pool of lava and over the fireball-spitting Fire Spumes to squash them. Off this room, Link finds both the Bomb Bag and the dungeon map (in that order, oddly). There’s one corner the ball can’t reach, so Link has to open a corridor and guide the ball through it, clearing obstacles and avoid lava jets some statues in the area spit out. The core goal of the room is to press two buttons to raise stairs to further in the dungeon. The rest of the dungeon involves running up slopes and dodging boulders rolling down – or after getting the boss key, running down the slope ahead of the giant boulder from the top because he didn’t have a bag of sand to replace the key with. That boulder plugs the lava jet leading to the boss room, so it’s not a total disaster.
Fi detects Zelda’s aura in the boss room – from a broken chain. So she was captured, but got free. Ghirahim explains that Zelda was rescued by a servant of the goddess – our black-clad friend? – and the reason he’s after her is to resurrect his master. He decides to vent his anger by turning the giant boulder into a pyroclastic fiend, Scaldera, and setting it to kill Link (“It won’t take more than a few moments before you’re charred to a satisfying crisp. And let me tell you, that will put a spring in my step!”) before teleporting out to continue his search. Scaldera is a giant walking fireball encased in rock, and the trick is, much like a Dodongo, to toss a bomb in its open mouth, which chips away at the rock coverings, and then whack the eye while its down. Once the rocks are gone, a few more pokes in the eye finishes it off.
In the sacred spring, Zelda is indeed with the person in black, and we get a better look at her and her clothes have the Sheikah emblem. (So, she’s probably Impa.) Zelda’s apparently finishing the purification ritual, and then a portal opens. Before she can go through it, she notices Link, but the Sheikah woman stops her. Zelda’s clearly saddened by this, but apologizes to Link and goes through the portal. The Sheikah woman refuses to let Link go with them, blaming Link being late for Zelda being captured. This might have landed if I wasn’t certain what happened to Zelda is exactly as the game scripted it – it matters not at all how many sidequests or how much farming the player does, Link would have arrived here at exactly this moment. And in the main questing, there haven’t been just a whole lot of delays – the worst probably being having to get the key to this dungeon, which happened after Zelda was captured. And, even if Link is to blame for Zelda nearly falling into Ghirahim’s hands, what good does separating them now do? It just means next time Ghirahim or his minions catch up to her, he might not be there. Bah. But I suppose this is about on par for the game’s writing.
Once they’re gone, Link whacks the crest with a Skyward Strike to receive another message: “From the edge of time I guide you, the one destined to carry out the goddess’s mission. The spirit maiden who descended from the clouds has passed through the Earth Spring and makes her way to a fated place. The parched desert of Lanayru… That is where the chosen will pass through the Gate of Time into a distant world.” Link receives the final tablet, with an amber stone (yellow for desert), and has a vision of Zelda before Fi takes him outside. Link returns to Skyloft and the Goddess Statue, setting the Amber Tablet alongside the others, opening a third hole in cloud layer.
Next: Shifting sands, shifting time.
A little way in, Link catches up to one of the Mogmas from outside, who’s been separated from his partner. He says he saw Zelda getting dragged in, so it almost certainly wasn’t the person in black. He tries to discourage Link from going further because there are too many Bokoblins around, but of course Link is going to persist. A little ways in, Link finds Ledd, the other Mogma, who’s lost his Bomb Bag. After a miniboss fight (a pair of Lizalfos, who have directional blocking and I found easiest to hit with an uppercut when they tried to cower under their armored gauntlet), a treasure chest appears with the Bomb Bag in it. Link wants to use it, so he asks Ledd if he can borrow it; Ledd remembers his partner and asks about him, then generously lets Link keep the Bomb Bag as a gift and gives a few bombs. Link can actually replenish the bag by storing bombs picked from bomb flowers, and if he pulls out a bomb but decides he doesn’t want to use it, can put it back.
The large central room of the dungeon involves Link rolling a giant statue’s eyeball across the giant pool of lava and over the fireball-spitting Fire Spumes to squash them. Off this room, Link finds both the Bomb Bag and the dungeon map (in that order, oddly). There’s one corner the ball can’t reach, so Link has to open a corridor and guide the ball through it, clearing obstacles and avoid lava jets some statues in the area spit out. The core goal of the room is to press two buttons to raise stairs to further in the dungeon. The rest of the dungeon involves running up slopes and dodging boulders rolling down – or after getting the boss key, running down the slope ahead of the giant boulder from the top because he didn’t have a bag of sand to replace the key with. That boulder plugs the lava jet leading to the boss room, so it’s not a total disaster.
Fi detects Zelda’s aura in the boss room – from a broken chain. So she was captured, but got free. Ghirahim explains that Zelda was rescued by a servant of the goddess – our black-clad friend? – and the reason he’s after her is to resurrect his master. He decides to vent his anger by turning the giant boulder into a pyroclastic fiend, Scaldera, and setting it to kill Link (“It won’t take more than a few moments before you’re charred to a satisfying crisp. And let me tell you, that will put a spring in my step!”) before teleporting out to continue his search. Scaldera is a giant walking fireball encased in rock, and the trick is, much like a Dodongo, to toss a bomb in its open mouth, which chips away at the rock coverings, and then whack the eye while its down. Once the rocks are gone, a few more pokes in the eye finishes it off.
In the sacred spring, Zelda is indeed with the person in black, and we get a better look at her and her clothes have the Sheikah emblem. (So, she’s probably Impa.) Zelda’s apparently finishing the purification ritual, and then a portal opens. Before she can go through it, she notices Link, but the Sheikah woman stops her. Zelda’s clearly saddened by this, but apologizes to Link and goes through the portal. The Sheikah woman refuses to let Link go with them, blaming Link being late for Zelda being captured. This might have landed if I wasn’t certain what happened to Zelda is exactly as the game scripted it – it matters not at all how many sidequests or how much farming the player does, Link would have arrived here at exactly this moment. And in the main questing, there haven’t been just a whole lot of delays – the worst probably being having to get the key to this dungeon, which happened after Zelda was captured. And, even if Link is to blame for Zelda nearly falling into Ghirahim’s hands, what good does separating them now do? It just means next time Ghirahim or his minions catch up to her, he might not be there. Bah. But I suppose this is about on par for the game’s writing.
Once they’re gone, Link whacks the crest with a Skyward Strike to receive another message: “From the edge of time I guide you, the one destined to carry out the goddess’s mission. The spirit maiden who descended from the clouds has passed through the Earth Spring and makes her way to a fated place. The parched desert of Lanayru… That is where the chosen will pass through the Gate of Time into a distant world.” Link receives the final tablet, with an amber stone (yellow for desert), and has a vision of Zelda before Fi takes him outside. Link returns to Skyloft and the Goddess Statue, setting the Amber Tablet alongside the others, opening a third hole in cloud layer.
Next: Shifting sands, shifting time.
Wednesday, November 20, 2019
Skyward Sword: Digging Up Keys
From the Thrill Digger minigame, the way to the temple is fairly short: cross the fallen tower/bridge, climb a vine wall, defeat a Red ChuChu, hop across a gap, and run up a large hill with several platforms and Bokoblins to deal with along the way. At the top of the hill are three Bokoblins tossing boulders down at Link, so Link needs to pop them with the Slingshot to make them drop the rock on their head. Then it’s all the way to the top of the hill and up a short wall and Link’s in front of the dungeon entrance. The first to Mogmas Link met are out front discussing the key to the temple – it’s been broken into five pieces and scattered across the mountaintop. Also, Zelda was apparently taken into the temple. Their goal is to get the key, get into the temple, and liberate any treasure they can find – but then they realize they don’t need the key, they can just tunnel in.
Fi pops up to ask Link who he thinks the person taken into the temple is, and agrees with the guess of Zelda. She also points to the lock and says the key is probably made of the same material, so dowsing for the key is an option. The first piece of the key is buried nearby. The second piece is buried under a Bokoblin watchtower at the bottom of a hill Link can roll bombs down. Accuracy is hard because the hill is uneven, but eventually he hits it, it falls over, and he slides down to dig up the key piece. Near the top of that hill is a steam geyser Link can toss a bomb into to reveal a Goddess Cube. The third key piece is buried in a cave partway down the giant hill Link climbed to reach the top.
East of the dungeon entrance is another Bokoblin camp, complete with a watchtower that needs to be blown up to create a bridge. There’s also a Goddess Cube at the bottom of a slope. The next obstacle is another retracted bridge, and our ninja friend isn’t around to help, so Link has to work his way across by shimmying across a narrow ledge, jumping across a gap, and climbing on a vine wall. He then comes to a cave that’s too hot for him to stay in long, but it’s okay, he only needs to pass through en route to a large hill he slides down. The fourth piece of the key is found about halfway down the slope, across a jump that requires timing two steam geysers to cross. The fifth is in a cave at the bottom, and requires blowing up a lava plug and rolling a bomb across a hill without it falling into the lava at the bottom of the hill to get. There’s a large steam geyser at the bottom that sends him back to before the hot cave, which is nice because there was a Goddess Cube on the slope.
Once again, there’s a bird statue outside the dungeon, so this is a good opportunity to return to the sky and take care of stuff. Of the six Goddess Cubes Link found in the Eldin region, four corresponding chests can be claimed right now. The fifth is in an area of Skyloft Link can’t get to yet, and the sixth is nowhere to be found. The rewards are 400 rupees, a medal to be stored in the Adventure Pouch that makes treasure appear more often, and another small Seed Satchel. And… maybe it’s still early in the game and it’ll get better, but I have to say, the sky is boring. There’s Skyloft, the Lumpy Pumpkin, a couple minigames (one of which isn’t open for business yet), and bunch of floating rocks that only get interesting when Link finds something on the surface. And flying is tedious – the only obstacles are occasional tornados, but you need to watch the controls to keep the Loftwing from stalling. This comes from someone whose favorite element is air and would choose flight as his one and only superpower (I mean, I wouldn’t say no to Storm’s full suite of powers, but if I had to choose one thing – flight). And they’ve just about lost me on this. Like, take all the complaints about Wind Waker’s sailing, only they’re accurate [1].
Between the treasure medal and the Thrill Digger minigame, now’s also a good time to farm treasure and rupees and build up gear. Link can upgrade Seed Satchels to max size (adding 30 to a base 20); I only did one because I wish I hadn’t even bought the others, which will languish in item check forevermore. He can also improve his Iron Shield to a Reinforced Shield. From Beedle, he can buy the third and final extra wallet (total current capacity: 1400 = 500 + 300 × 3), two more Adventure Pouch upgrades (total capacity: 8, which seems to be the maximum), the Bug Medal that shows the locations of bugs on the map, and the Life Medal that adds an extra heart to Link's lifeline. The last thing Beedle has for sale is a heart piece for 1600 rupees, more than Link can currently afford. With that, it’s time to configure an Adventure Pouch loadout (3 bottles with Heart Potion, Treasure Medal, Life Medal, Bug Medal, Big Seed Satchel, and the Reinforced Shield – so I’m not making tradeoffs yet, but I know they’re coming) and head back to Eldin to tackle the Earth Temple.
Next: If this is an earth dungeon, I’d hate to see a fire one.
[1] Ironically, the one complaint I personally have about Wind Waker’s sailing [2] – naval combat isn’t fun – doesn’t apply here, although the total lack of aerial combat is somehow not an improvement.
[2] This does not include having to pay thousands of rupees to Tingle to be able to complete the game.
Fi pops up to ask Link who he thinks the person taken into the temple is, and agrees with the guess of Zelda. She also points to the lock and says the key is probably made of the same material, so dowsing for the key is an option. The first piece of the key is buried nearby. The second piece is buried under a Bokoblin watchtower at the bottom of a hill Link can roll bombs down. Accuracy is hard because the hill is uneven, but eventually he hits it, it falls over, and he slides down to dig up the key piece. Near the top of that hill is a steam geyser Link can toss a bomb into to reveal a Goddess Cube. The third key piece is buried in a cave partway down the giant hill Link climbed to reach the top.
East of the dungeon entrance is another Bokoblin camp, complete with a watchtower that needs to be blown up to create a bridge. There’s also a Goddess Cube at the bottom of a slope. The next obstacle is another retracted bridge, and our ninja friend isn’t around to help, so Link has to work his way across by shimmying across a narrow ledge, jumping across a gap, and climbing on a vine wall. He then comes to a cave that’s too hot for him to stay in long, but it’s okay, he only needs to pass through en route to a large hill he slides down. The fourth piece of the key is found about halfway down the slope, across a jump that requires timing two steam geysers to cross. The fifth is in a cave at the bottom, and requires blowing up a lava plug and rolling a bomb across a hill without it falling into the lava at the bottom of the hill to get. There’s a large steam geyser at the bottom that sends him back to before the hot cave, which is nice because there was a Goddess Cube on the slope.
Once again, there’s a bird statue outside the dungeon, so this is a good opportunity to return to the sky and take care of stuff. Of the six Goddess Cubes Link found in the Eldin region, four corresponding chests can be claimed right now. The fifth is in an area of Skyloft Link can’t get to yet, and the sixth is nowhere to be found. The rewards are 400 rupees, a medal to be stored in the Adventure Pouch that makes treasure appear more often, and another small Seed Satchel. And… maybe it’s still early in the game and it’ll get better, but I have to say, the sky is boring. There’s Skyloft, the Lumpy Pumpkin, a couple minigames (one of which isn’t open for business yet), and bunch of floating rocks that only get interesting when Link finds something on the surface. And flying is tedious – the only obstacles are occasional tornados, but you need to watch the controls to keep the Loftwing from stalling. This comes from someone whose favorite element is air and would choose flight as his one and only superpower (I mean, I wouldn’t say no to Storm’s full suite of powers, but if I had to choose one thing – flight). And they’ve just about lost me on this. Like, take all the complaints about Wind Waker’s sailing, only they’re accurate [1].
Between the treasure medal and the Thrill Digger minigame, now’s also a good time to farm treasure and rupees and build up gear. Link can upgrade Seed Satchels to max size (adding 30 to a base 20); I only did one because I wish I hadn’t even bought the others, which will languish in item check forevermore. He can also improve his Iron Shield to a Reinforced Shield. From Beedle, he can buy the third and final extra wallet (total current capacity: 1400 = 500 + 300 × 3), two more Adventure Pouch upgrades (total capacity: 8, which seems to be the maximum), the Bug Medal that shows the locations of bugs on the map, and the Life Medal that adds an extra heart to Link's lifeline. The last thing Beedle has for sale is a heart piece for 1600 rupees, more than Link can currently afford. With that, it’s time to configure an Adventure Pouch loadout (3 bottles with Heart Potion, Treasure Medal, Life Medal, Bug Medal, Big Seed Satchel, and the Reinforced Shield – so I’m not making tradeoffs yet, but I know they’re coming) and head back to Eldin to tackle the Earth Temple.
Next: If this is an earth dungeon, I’d hate to see a fire one.
[1] Ironically, the one complaint I personally have about Wind Waker’s sailing [2] – naval combat isn’t fun – doesn’t apply here, although the total lack of aerial combat is somehow not an improvement.
[2] This does not include having to pay thousands of rupees to Tingle to be able to complete the game.
Monday, November 18, 2019
Skyward Sword: Eldin Volcano
It turns out when there’s a cut between Link jumping and landing, like on Skyloft or the surface areas, he’ll automatically use the sailcloth rather than splatting. (On the other skislands, where there is no break, he’ll take damage if he doesn’t land safely.) Fi pops out wearing her tour guide hat to introduce the Eldin Volcano region. Link can catch on fire in this game, and rather than running around uselessly as in Four Swords/Minish Cap, he can put the flames out with a spin attack or rolling. The enemies in the area include fiery variants of ChuChus and Keese. There’s a Goddess Cube near the entrance to the area. Before getting too far in, Fi pops up to make sure the player remembers they can use dowsing to find Zelda and offer another tutorial if they’re particularly masochistic. As well-mapped and linear as the woods were, dowsing for Zelda was pretty useless, and I imagine it’ll be the same here.
After a couple hops across a lava stream, a couple mole people pop out of the ground in front of Link and… mistake him for a Bokoblin. They eventually figure out he’s not, and when Link mentions Zelda, they saw someone go past, but they were so fast they didn’t get a good look. A little way further, Link finds another Goddess Cube and meets another mole person near some bomb flowers. As always, bombs can be tossed, but now they can also be rolled to go farther or to pass through narrow passageways. There are a bunch of blocked caves nearby for Link to practice bombing, including a crawlspace for rolling and one high cave for tossing. Yet another mole person says they saw someone go by in a “blackish” outfit. That’s almost certainly not Zelda (unless she’s changed since falling), and Ghirahim was wearing white… but it wouldn’t surprise me if he changed outfits.
A new enemy/hazard in the area is the Pyrup, little seallike critters that take shelter in crawlspaces or shells and breathe fire at Link when he gets too close. Bombs explode immediately in the fire, so Link needs to stand back and roll or throw a bomb to get close enough. Passing through a bunch of these guys, with a little bit of platforming, Link gets a heart piece. Across a narrow, rickety bridge, Link finds a mole person who’s plugged up the lava to thwart the Bokoblins… but that leaves Link no choice but to roll a bomb and blow up the plug so he can advance. In the area, there’s a cave with a hole for Link to jump in. On the way down, there are landings, including one with a Goddess Cube.
At the bottom of the cave, Link finds a mole person lamenting the Bokoblins’ presence and wishing someone could do something about them. There’s a whole bunch of them, but Bokoblins aren’t much more than speed bumps, so Link jumps in and kills them all, with the only challenge being getting to the one on top of the platform with a horn. The Mogma (mole person) who set Link on them is grateful for Link’s help and gives him a pair of Digging Mitts to dig loose soil. By digging, Link can find treasure, rupees, hearts, or, most importantly, hidden steam geysers to send him up to a higher platform. (Or, in one case, a Mogma who’s unhappy about being dug up, but still encourages Link to dig whenever he can.) After passing through a maze of Pyrups, Link comes to a large steam geyser that blows him out of the cave.
A Mogma near the exit tells Link that the black-wearing person just passed by and jumped over a large lava river. As Link approaches the river, a bridge extends from the other side, and the person in black calls to him, encouraging him to hurry and find Zelda. So they’re not Ghirahim, and they’re not Zelda unless they’re Sheik. (White hair, black clothes, ninja? They could definitely be a Sheikah, in which case it may be an incarnation of Impa that takes inspiration from Ocarina of Time.) With the way clear, Link can begin ascending the mountain. On the first slope, there’s a Bokoblin on a platform, then another one a little higher up who tries to roll boulders at Link but can’t hold them if he gets hit by the slingshot. At the top of the slope, there’s a Bokoblin camp, including a watchtower with a Bokoblin with a horn; Link brings down the tower with a bomb, creating a bridge.
In the camp, there’s a cave with a blocked wall. Inside the cave is Tubert, a Mogma who comes completely out of the ground and sits on his tail. He runs the Thrill Digger minigame, inspired by Minesweeper. Link can dig up rupees, which tell him how many adjacent holes have bad things (bombs and/or Rupoors). Green rupees mean there’s no adjacent bad items, blue means one or two, red means three or four, silver five or six, and gold – Nayru help us all – means seven or eight. Link gets to keep whatever rupees he digs up before hitting a bomb, and if he safely clears the board, gets a rare treasure. There are three levels of difficulty – easy has four bombs in a 5×4 grid; intermediate has four bombs and four Rupoors in a 5×6 grid, and expert has eight bombs and eight Rupoors in a 5×8 grid. Despite using this game to farm rupees, I haven’t yet been able to beat expert, which relies way too much on luck. (Unlike Minesweeper, where the first cell is guaranteed safe, Link can hit a bomb on his first dig. Fortunately, I’ve checked, and there’s no unique rewards here.)
Next: Five easy pieces.
After a couple hops across a lava stream, a couple mole people pop out of the ground in front of Link and… mistake him for a Bokoblin. They eventually figure out he’s not, and when Link mentions Zelda, they saw someone go past, but they were so fast they didn’t get a good look. A little way further, Link finds another Goddess Cube and meets another mole person near some bomb flowers. As always, bombs can be tossed, but now they can also be rolled to go farther or to pass through narrow passageways. There are a bunch of blocked caves nearby for Link to practice bombing, including a crawlspace for rolling and one high cave for tossing. Yet another mole person says they saw someone go by in a “blackish” outfit. That’s almost certainly not Zelda (unless she’s changed since falling), and Ghirahim was wearing white… but it wouldn’t surprise me if he changed outfits.
A new enemy/hazard in the area is the Pyrup, little seallike critters that take shelter in crawlspaces or shells and breathe fire at Link when he gets too close. Bombs explode immediately in the fire, so Link needs to stand back and roll or throw a bomb to get close enough. Passing through a bunch of these guys, with a little bit of platforming, Link gets a heart piece. Across a narrow, rickety bridge, Link finds a mole person who’s plugged up the lava to thwart the Bokoblins… but that leaves Link no choice but to roll a bomb and blow up the plug so he can advance. In the area, there’s a cave with a hole for Link to jump in. On the way down, there are landings, including one with a Goddess Cube.
At the bottom of the cave, Link finds a mole person lamenting the Bokoblins’ presence and wishing someone could do something about them. There’s a whole bunch of them, but Bokoblins aren’t much more than speed bumps, so Link jumps in and kills them all, with the only challenge being getting to the one on top of the platform with a horn. The Mogma (mole person) who set Link on them is grateful for Link’s help and gives him a pair of Digging Mitts to dig loose soil. By digging, Link can find treasure, rupees, hearts, or, most importantly, hidden steam geysers to send him up to a higher platform. (Or, in one case, a Mogma who’s unhappy about being dug up, but still encourages Link to dig whenever he can.) After passing through a maze of Pyrups, Link comes to a large steam geyser that blows him out of the cave.
A Mogma near the exit tells Link that the black-wearing person just passed by and jumped over a large lava river. As Link approaches the river, a bridge extends from the other side, and the person in black calls to him, encouraging him to hurry and find Zelda. So they’re not Ghirahim, and they’re not Zelda unless they’re Sheik. (White hair, black clothes, ninja? They could definitely be a Sheikah, in which case it may be an incarnation of Impa that takes inspiration from Ocarina of Time.) With the way clear, Link can begin ascending the mountain. On the first slope, there’s a Bokoblin on a platform, then another one a little higher up who tries to roll boulders at Link but can’t hold them if he gets hit by the slingshot. At the top of the slope, there’s a Bokoblin camp, including a watchtower with a Bokoblin with a horn; Link brings down the tower with a bomb, creating a bridge.
In the camp, there’s a cave with a blocked wall. Inside the cave is Tubert, a Mogma who comes completely out of the ground and sits on his tail. He runs the Thrill Digger minigame, inspired by Minesweeper. Link can dig up rupees, which tell him how many adjacent holes have bad things (bombs and/or Rupoors). Green rupees mean there’s no adjacent bad items, blue means one or two, red means three or four, silver five or six, and gold – Nayru help us all – means seven or eight. Link gets to keep whatever rupees he digs up before hitting a bomb, and if he safely clears the board, gets a rare treasure. There are three levels of difficulty – easy has four bombs in a 5×4 grid; intermediate has four bombs and four Rupoors in a 5×6 grid, and expert has eight bombs and eight Rupoors in a 5×8 grid. Despite using this game to farm rupees, I haven’t yet been able to beat expert, which relies way too much on luck. (Unlike Minesweeper, where the first cell is guaranteed safe, Link can hit a bomb on his first dig. Fortunately, I’ve checked, and there’s no unique rewards here.)
Next: Five easy pieces.
Friday, November 15, 2019
Skyward Sword: Gratitude Crystals
There are ten loose Gratitude Crystals on Skyloft. They’re generally out in the open, and it’s just a matter of checking everywhere for them – in houses, in Link’s room at the Academy, in the tower to the south, in the little place where Groose boarded up Link’s Loftwing. There are two that are tricky: One is in the rafters of the Sparring Hall and needs to be grabbed with the Beetle. The second is on a strip of land off a ledge in the west. And… normal treasures that pop up their description once per treasure per game session; after that, they simply appears over Link’s head to show he picked them up. Every Gratitude Crystal reminds the player what it is, how they’re made, and who Link’s collecting them for. I swear the developers had an audience of braindead goldfish in mind, which is silly because their little flippers couldn’t hold a Wiimote. With ten Crystals, Link has enough to fulfill Batreaux’s first request. For five Crystals, Link gets a wallet upgrade [1], and for ten, a heart piece. The next reward will come at thirty.
Now the time’s come to make it day again. After Link sleeps, Kukiel has returned home to her parents, and her mother gives Link five Gratitude Crystals as a reward. The popup text is at least different this time. Completing this quest seems to have launched another one; the man whose house Link found a Crystal in overnight is down by the statue in the south, worried about his sister. She went out flying to the colorful island to the southwest and hasn’t returned. Link heads out to the colorful island, which is called Fun Fun Island, and is settled by a clown who will apparently host a minigame once Link has the required item. The sister’s not there, so Link checks the nearby islands and finds her and her Loftwing nearby. The Loftwing’s injured and can’t fly, so she asks Link to go find her brother to bring medicine for it. The quest seems like it’s written to work no matter which sibling Link finds first, which is a nice touch. Brother’s happy to help Link help his sister, and gives him a bottle of Mushroom Spores and tells him to keep the bottle when he’s finished. She heals her Loftwing and takes off for home, but not without giving Link five Gratitude Crystals for helping her. Back in Skyloft, her brother also gives Link five Crystals, so this was a very profitable quest.
There’s not much else to do at this point, so it’s time to start getting ready to go explore the surface area opened up by the ruby tablet. The Gear Shop has an iron shield for sale; the iron shield is fireproof but, in a new variant, weak against electric attacks. Since Link’s heading into a – well, I don’t know for sure the next area is fiery, but the goddess’ message described it as “scorched earth,” and Eldin’s where Death Mountain was in Twilight Princess, and the Ocarina of Time progression goes Forest – Fire – Water, and it was a ruby on the tablet, and the beacon is red [3]… I’ll let Fi run the exact odds, but I’ll say it’s pretty damned likely a fiery area – he buys the iron shield and stores his wooden shield in the Item Check (the woman there accuses Link of just coming by to check her out). I’ve got enough rupees left over for a trip to Beedle’s shop [5] and buy another extra wallet and Adventure Pouch upgrade.
Next: To reach the mountaintop, Link must learn to dig.
[1] Okay, so there are wallet upgrades, which increase the capacity of the base wallet, plus extra wallets, which let Link carry an extra 300 rupees each. Extra wallets don’t take up space in Link’s Adventure Pouch, but the Seed Satchel expansion(s) [2] do, and they’re what gets upgraded (via the Scrap Shop). This system used to be so simple and make sense. At least in Twilight Princess, which had separate bomb bags, it made some degree of sense – Link needed separate bags for normal bombs, water bombs, and bomblings – and the capacity upgrade applied to all the bags at once.
[2] Yeah, Link can buy at least two of them from the Gear Shop. (I stopped after two because it seems like a waste of rupees; honestly, when am I going to have a need for more than one – let alone the Adventure Pouch space?) I wonder if there’s a limit (beyond spaces in the Adventure Pouch + Item Check).
[3] But Link’s placeable beacons are blue [4]… so the third may not be water.
[4] Yeah, blue beacons against a blue sky. Great design. I’m reminded why Luke’s lightsaber in Return of the Jedi was green.
[5] It seems appropriate to whack the bell with the Beetle.
Now the time’s come to make it day again. After Link sleeps, Kukiel has returned home to her parents, and her mother gives Link five Gratitude Crystals as a reward. The popup text is at least different this time. Completing this quest seems to have launched another one; the man whose house Link found a Crystal in overnight is down by the statue in the south, worried about his sister. She went out flying to the colorful island to the southwest and hasn’t returned. Link heads out to the colorful island, which is called Fun Fun Island, and is settled by a clown who will apparently host a minigame once Link has the required item. The sister’s not there, so Link checks the nearby islands and finds her and her Loftwing nearby. The Loftwing’s injured and can’t fly, so she asks Link to go find her brother to bring medicine for it. The quest seems like it’s written to work no matter which sibling Link finds first, which is a nice touch. Brother’s happy to help Link help his sister, and gives him a bottle of Mushroom Spores and tells him to keep the bottle when he’s finished. She heals her Loftwing and takes off for home, but not without giving Link five Gratitude Crystals for helping her. Back in Skyloft, her brother also gives Link five Crystals, so this was a very profitable quest.
There’s not much else to do at this point, so it’s time to start getting ready to go explore the surface area opened up by the ruby tablet. The Gear Shop has an iron shield for sale; the iron shield is fireproof but, in a new variant, weak against electric attacks. Since Link’s heading into a – well, I don’t know for sure the next area is fiery, but the goddess’ message described it as “scorched earth,” and Eldin’s where Death Mountain was in Twilight Princess, and the Ocarina of Time progression goes Forest – Fire – Water, and it was a ruby on the tablet, and the beacon is red [3]… I’ll let Fi run the exact odds, but I’ll say it’s pretty damned likely a fiery area – he buys the iron shield and stores his wooden shield in the Item Check (the woman there accuses Link of just coming by to check her out). I’ve got enough rupees left over for a trip to Beedle’s shop [5] and buy another extra wallet and Adventure Pouch upgrade.
Next: To reach the mountaintop, Link must learn to dig.
[1] Okay, so there are wallet upgrades, which increase the capacity of the base wallet, plus extra wallets, which let Link carry an extra 300 rupees each. Extra wallets don’t take up space in Link’s Adventure Pouch, but the Seed Satchel expansion(s) [2] do, and they’re what gets upgraded (via the Scrap Shop). This system used to be so simple and make sense. At least in Twilight Princess, which had separate bomb bags, it made some degree of sense – Link needed separate bags for normal bombs, water bombs, and bomblings – and the capacity upgrade applied to all the bags at once.
[2] Yeah, Link can buy at least two of them from the Gear Shop. (I stopped after two because it seems like a waste of rupees; honestly, when am I going to have a need for more than one – let alone the Adventure Pouch space?) I wonder if there’s a limit (beyond spaces in the Adventure Pouch + Item Check).
[3] But Link’s placeable beacons are blue [4]… so the third may not be water.
[4] Yeah, blue beacons against a blue sky. Great design. I’m reminded why Luke’s lightsaber in Return of the Jedi was green.
[5] It seems appropriate to whack the bell with the Beetle.
Wednesday, November 13, 2019
Skyward Sword: Batreaux
As Link leaves the Goddess Statue, he encounters a woman standing at the top of the stairs and shouting in a loud voice for her daughter Kukiel. She Link if he’s seen her, and the options are “No” and “Who?” Disappointed with this answer, she asks Link to help find her. She says Kukiel’s been seen with a person with a scary face, or possibly a monster. Link agrees to look, and the woman goes back to shouting for her daughter, which would probably not be the most effective way to find her even if she weren’t kidnapped, but you do what you can, yeah?
Over in the southeast corner of the area, Link finds a woman who’s heard the rumors about Kukiel and the monster, and asks Link what he thinks. For her part, she doesn’t believe there are monsters on Skyloft, but Link’s belief reminds her about the old man at the Lumpy Pumpkin. (Then she tells Link he’d have to fly to get there. I’m surprised they didn’t leave that for Fi.) Conveniently, the Lumpy Pumpkin is where the Goddess Chest Link activated is, and has a gold rupee (300) for him. The waitress is outside looking at the pumpkins, and greets Link as “the brave knight who slayed [1] the chandelier.” Inside, the old man re-tells the story of seeing the monster (which he calls a demon), which is nice because I didn’t pay attention to all the details last time (bad me, you know better than that). The bartender doesn’t have anything new for Link, so it’s back to Skyloft.
The most important aspect of the old man’s story is he saw the demon at night, so it’s time to talk about Skyloft’s day/night cycle. It seems to be entirely controlled by Link sleeping in beds; he’s got his own at the Academy, but can sleep wherever he finds a handy bed to advance the time. (Even on Beedle’s airship, apparently. Also, hopefully, whatever musical instrument he gets will have a Sun’s Song/Song of Passing [2] so it’s a little less weird.) Link going to sleep has a silly animation of him taking off his sword and shield, then jumping and flopping on the bed, still in his armor and boots.
In the graveyard, Link uses a Skyward Strike on the grave nearest the tree to open the storage shed, as the old man said the demon had done [3]. Link goes in, and doesn’t close the door behind him, so he’s less polite than the demon. Down a narrow walkway, Link comes to a shack under the graveyard, and as he approaches, a girl screams. Link goes into the shack, and finds the demon – horns, bat wings, the whole deal [4][5]. He raises his arms and roars at Link, but when Link goes to attack, he cowers and asks Link to not hurt him.
His name is Batreaux, and he knows things look bad, but he and Kukiel “were just playing the scream-as-loud-as-you-can game” since there’s usually no one around to hear. He may be a monster, but he only wants to be friends with the people of Skyloft, not terrorize them [6]. Kukiel is the one person who hasn’t reacted to him with terror; she’s unharmed and seems to enjoy the time she’s spent with him, but agrees to go home to let her mother know she’s okay. Batreaux explains a story of his people: when humans make each other happy, they create Gratitude Crystals, and enough of these crystals could turn him into a human. And since Link seems to not be afraid of him, plus hopefully the sort to make more of these crystals, Batreaux asks him to gather them for him. He suggests they might come as rewards for completing sidequests, or even just be lying about the world, and promises to reward Link for his help. So, this is a combination of Spirit Tracks’ Force Gems and Ocarina of Time’s Gold Skulltulas/Twilight Princess’ Poe Souls.
Next: Time to start collecting, then.
[1] “Slayed” instead of “slew” sounds weird to me. Weird enough to merit a footnote, not so outright wrong as to earn a [sic].
[2] The Song of Time is okay, too, if that’s what they want to do.
[3] Well, minus the Skyward Strike bit, which may have been a bit overkill. Worked, though.
[4] He’s wearing a robe, so I can’t tell if he has cloven hooves or not.
[5] Actually looks more like a devil than a demon.
[6] At first the way he spoke reminded me of the vampire missionaries story, but talking to him more, he seems genuine… and, worst-case scenario, there’s a boss fight at the end of the collection sidequest.
Over in the southeast corner of the area, Link finds a woman who’s heard the rumors about Kukiel and the monster, and asks Link what he thinks. For her part, she doesn’t believe there are monsters on Skyloft, but Link’s belief reminds her about the old man at the Lumpy Pumpkin. (Then she tells Link he’d have to fly to get there. I’m surprised they didn’t leave that for Fi.) Conveniently, the Lumpy Pumpkin is where the Goddess Chest Link activated is, and has a gold rupee (300) for him. The waitress is outside looking at the pumpkins, and greets Link as “the brave knight who slayed [1] the chandelier.” Inside, the old man re-tells the story of seeing the monster (which he calls a demon), which is nice because I didn’t pay attention to all the details last time (bad me, you know better than that). The bartender doesn’t have anything new for Link, so it’s back to Skyloft.
The most important aspect of the old man’s story is he saw the demon at night, so it’s time to talk about Skyloft’s day/night cycle. It seems to be entirely controlled by Link sleeping in beds; he’s got his own at the Academy, but can sleep wherever he finds a handy bed to advance the time. (Even on Beedle’s airship, apparently. Also, hopefully, whatever musical instrument he gets will have a Sun’s Song/Song of Passing [2] so it’s a little less weird.) Link going to sleep has a silly animation of him taking off his sword and shield, then jumping and flopping on the bed, still in his armor and boots.
In the graveyard, Link uses a Skyward Strike on the grave nearest the tree to open the storage shed, as the old man said the demon had done [3]. Link goes in, and doesn’t close the door behind him, so he’s less polite than the demon. Down a narrow walkway, Link comes to a shack under the graveyard, and as he approaches, a girl screams. Link goes into the shack, and finds the demon – horns, bat wings, the whole deal [4][5]. He raises his arms and roars at Link, but when Link goes to attack, he cowers and asks Link to not hurt him.
His name is Batreaux, and he knows things look bad, but he and Kukiel “were just playing the scream-as-loud-as-you-can game” since there’s usually no one around to hear. He may be a monster, but he only wants to be friends with the people of Skyloft, not terrorize them [6]. Kukiel is the one person who hasn’t reacted to him with terror; she’s unharmed and seems to enjoy the time she’s spent with him, but agrees to go home to let her mother know she’s okay. Batreaux explains a story of his people: when humans make each other happy, they create Gratitude Crystals, and enough of these crystals could turn him into a human. And since Link seems to not be afraid of him, plus hopefully the sort to make more of these crystals, Batreaux asks him to gather them for him. He suggests they might come as rewards for completing sidequests, or even just be lying about the world, and promises to reward Link for his help. So, this is a combination of Spirit Tracks’ Force Gems and Ocarina of Time’s Gold Skulltulas/Twilight Princess’ Poe Souls.
Next: Time to start collecting, then.
[1] “Slayed” instead of “slew” sounds weird to me. Weird enough to merit a footnote, not so outright wrong as to earn a [sic].
[2] The Song of Time is okay, too, if that’s what they want to do.
[3] Well, minus the Skyward Strike bit, which may have been a bit overkill. Worked, though.
[4] He’s wearing a robe, so I can’t tell if he has cloven hooves or not.
[5] Actually looks more like a devil than a demon.
[6] At first the way he spoke reminded me of the vampire missionaries story, but talking to him more, he seems genuine… and, worst-case scenario, there’s a boss fight at the end of the collection sidequest.
Monday, November 11, 2019
Skyward Sword: Ghirahim
As Link enters the boss room, there’s a stunning flash of light. When it subsides, the man who was watching Link’s progress is seen trying to bash through a golden sealed door in the room. He notices Link’s presence and stops, turning to face Link. He’s the one who summoned the black tornado, but it didn’t do its job well enough because Link survived. Link is mostly irrelevant, though – the tornado was only meant to take Zelda (“Her Majesty,” even though she’s not a princess in this game) from the clouds, and succeeded at that. Now there’s just the pesky matter of actually capturing her.
The man realizes in his ramblings he’s forgotten to introduce himself. He’s the demon lord who claims to rule over the surface since the goddess sent her people to the sky, and his name is Ghirahim. (He prefers his full title, Lord Ghirahim, but he’s “not fussy.”) At this, Link draws his sword, only earning mockery, and Ghirahim goes back to the topic of Zelda. He nearly had her when she fell, but the woman in the Sealed Temple saved her. “Do you have any idea how that made me feel inside? Furious! Outraged! Sick with anger!” Ahhh. Twilight Princess was weird with how different Zant was at first from what I expected, but this is exactly the Ghirahim I know.
As Ghirahim said that last line, he disappeared, and continues to speak to Link, saying that he’s glad for the opportunity to take some of that anger out on him. He walks up behind Link, promising not to kill him (but just barely), then he waggles his very long tongue at the camera. Link stumbles away from him, Ghirahim gets rid of his cape, and the fight begins.
In the first phase of the battle, Ghirahim isn’t really trying to fight Link, merely toying with him. He holds up his hand and catches Link’s sword when he swings it. There’s a quick tug-of-war, and if he wins, he whacks Link a couple times with the sword, taunts him for telegraphing his moves, and tosses the sword away. It’s possible to get a hit through Ghirahim’s defense, but I couldn’t tell why sometimes he was blocking and sometimes he wasn’t. Doing research afterwards, I think the problem is I was too impatient and not luring his hand far enough away from his center to open up the other side before trying to actually attack.
After establishing that Link knows his stuff, Ghirahim recalls the sword he had earlier and begins fighting back. He’s got three attacks. First, he summons a bunch of daggers to throw at Link, and of course they’re in a line that of course Link has to make the right directional slice through and of course the Wiimote’s accuracy leaves much to be desired. Fortunately, there’s no reason Link can’t just walk out of the way of this one. The second attack has him teleport directly behind Link and stand there like a fool for Link to hit. Finally, the third attack is the one that I found easiest to counter: Ghirahim charges at Link and goes off to one side or the other at the last second leaving him open to attack. Hitting him leaves him stunned for a bit so Link can get in a couple more attacks.
After the battle’s gone on long enough, Ghirahim stops attacking. Link’s put up more of a fight than expected, but he now realizes Link has the Goddess Sword. However, there’s no reason to continue the fight, because Zelda’s gone. “Good-bye, sky child. Run and play this time. Get in my way again, though, and you’re dead.” He teleports out, leaving behind a heart container (how kind of him?); once he’s gone, the door Zelda’s aura was behind begins glowing.
Behind the door, which disappears when Link approaches, is a garden area. The centerpiece is another altar like the one in the cave where the Goddess Sword was. There’s a Goddess Cube behind the altar that Link whacks, and then it’s Skyward Strike on the altar, and Fi receives a message that she relays to Link. “From the edge of time I guide you, the one to carry out the goddess’s mission. The spirit maiden who descended from the clouds must travel to two sacred places to purify her body. You stand in one of these places: Skyview Spring. The other is known as the Earth Spring. This second spring is hidden away deep in the scorched earth of Eldin. The spirit maiden, ever mindful of the heavy task entrusted to her, has set out for this second sacred place.” As she says this, she dances and skates around the spring, ending with a long pirouette at the base of the altar. It’s weird, but also rather endearing, which she badly needs. (Immediately after the cutscene ends: “Master, as I have just translated, it would appear Zelda purified herself in the waters of this spring. I calculate a 97% chance that she has already set out for Eldin, where another great spring exists.” YES, I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME. At least Kaepora Gaebora asked before repeating things. Gah.) Link gets a second tablet, this one with a ruby.
Before Link returns to the sky, Machi comes up to thank him for helping reunite the Kikwis and ask if he found Zelda. After he leaves, Link uses a bird statue to return to the sky, then flies back to Skyloft. Inside the Goddess Statue, Link places the Ruby Tablet in the map section, which causes the clouds to part with a red beacon.
Next: Link goes around sleeping in everyone’s beds.
The man realizes in his ramblings he’s forgotten to introduce himself. He’s the demon lord who claims to rule over the surface since the goddess sent her people to the sky, and his name is Ghirahim. (He prefers his full title, Lord Ghirahim, but he’s “not fussy.”) At this, Link draws his sword, only earning mockery, and Ghirahim goes back to the topic of Zelda. He nearly had her when she fell, but the woman in the Sealed Temple saved her. “Do you have any idea how that made me feel inside? Furious! Outraged! Sick with anger!” Ahhh. Twilight Princess was weird with how different Zant was at first from what I expected, but this is exactly the Ghirahim I know.
As Ghirahim said that last line, he disappeared, and continues to speak to Link, saying that he’s glad for the opportunity to take some of that anger out on him. He walks up behind Link, promising not to kill him (but just barely), then he waggles his very long tongue at the camera. Link stumbles away from him, Ghirahim gets rid of his cape, and the fight begins.
In the first phase of the battle, Ghirahim isn’t really trying to fight Link, merely toying with him. He holds up his hand and catches Link’s sword when he swings it. There’s a quick tug-of-war, and if he wins, he whacks Link a couple times with the sword, taunts him for telegraphing his moves, and tosses the sword away. It’s possible to get a hit through Ghirahim’s defense, but I couldn’t tell why sometimes he was blocking and sometimes he wasn’t. Doing research afterwards, I think the problem is I was too impatient and not luring his hand far enough away from his center to open up the other side before trying to actually attack.
After establishing that Link knows his stuff, Ghirahim recalls the sword he had earlier and begins fighting back. He’s got three attacks. First, he summons a bunch of daggers to throw at Link, and of course they’re in a line that of course Link has to make the right directional slice through and of course the Wiimote’s accuracy leaves much to be desired. Fortunately, there’s no reason Link can’t just walk out of the way of this one. The second attack has him teleport directly behind Link and stand there like a fool for Link to hit. Finally, the third attack is the one that I found easiest to counter: Ghirahim charges at Link and goes off to one side or the other at the last second leaving him open to attack. Hitting him leaves him stunned for a bit so Link can get in a couple more attacks.
After the battle’s gone on long enough, Ghirahim stops attacking. Link’s put up more of a fight than expected, but he now realizes Link has the Goddess Sword. However, there’s no reason to continue the fight, because Zelda’s gone. “Good-bye, sky child. Run and play this time. Get in my way again, though, and you’re dead.” He teleports out, leaving behind a heart container (how kind of him?); once he’s gone, the door Zelda’s aura was behind begins glowing.
Behind the door, which disappears when Link approaches, is a garden area. The centerpiece is another altar like the one in the cave where the Goddess Sword was. There’s a Goddess Cube behind the altar that Link whacks, and then it’s Skyward Strike on the altar, and Fi receives a message that she relays to Link. “From the edge of time I guide you, the one to carry out the goddess’s mission. The spirit maiden who descended from the clouds must travel to two sacred places to purify her body. You stand in one of these places: Skyview Spring. The other is known as the Earth Spring. This second spring is hidden away deep in the scorched earth of Eldin. The spirit maiden, ever mindful of the heavy task entrusted to her, has set out for this second sacred place.” As she says this, she dances and skates around the spring, ending with a long pirouette at the base of the altar. It’s weird, but also rather endearing, which she badly needs. (Immediately after the cutscene ends: “Master, as I have just translated, it would appear Zelda purified herself in the waters of this spring. I calculate a 97% chance that she has already set out for Eldin, where another great spring exists.” YES, I HEARD YOU THE FIRST TIME. At least Kaepora Gaebora asked before repeating things. Gah.) Link gets a second tablet, this one with a ruby.
Before Link returns to the sky, Machi comes up to thank him for helping reunite the Kikwis and ask if he found Zelda. After he leaves, Link uses a bird statue to return to the sky, then flies back to Skyloft. Inside the Goddess Statue, Link places the Ruby Tablet in the map section, which causes the clouds to part with a red beacon.
Next: Link goes around sleeping in everyone’s beds.
Friday, November 8, 2019
Skyward Sword: Skyview Temple
When returning to the surface, Link is able to go to any of the bird statues he’s activated. Opening the dungeon requires hitting a crystal switch; once the door is open, a cutscene plays as Link walks in. Fi pops up to say that there are too many creatures in the dungeon for dowsing to work. As an alternative, she suggests Link look around to determine what to do next.
Why? Why did Nintendo assume players would need an NPC to reiterate what they just read and give obvious advice? “Look around to see where we should move next.” And here I was, planning to sit on my thumbs and hope the boss came to me and brought the dungeon item [1]. And later when Link gets the map, it’s “You got a map. You can use it to find your way around the dungeon.” Well, I’m glad you’re here to tell me these things! And, sure, the compass is no longer a separate item – the map comes pre-marked with all the relevant information – and that’s important to convey to the player. But the text popup window, as well as all the icons appearing on the map, would have worked just fine without having Fi explain it.
Let’s imagine Fi in some of the other games…
“Master, the man has said your journey will be dangerous and offered you a sword to use. You should take it and use it to fight Ganon’s forces.”
“Master, Agahnim has accused you of kidnapping Princess Zelda in an effort to turn the people against you. You should be careful with whom you speak.”
“Master, the mural says that Koholint Island is a projection of the Wind Fish’s dream. This means if you wake the Wind Fish, Koholint and its inhabitants will disappear.”
“Master, your fairy companion has shouted to gain your attention. She likely has something to tell you.”
“Master, the moon is about to crash into the earth. You will almost certainly not survive this.”
“Master, this is not Peach. It appears to be one of her retainers. You may find Peach in a different castle.”
I’m not exaggerating – in fact, the opposite, because I refuse to arbitrarily assign percentages. Link’s had companions who have pointed out things that shouldn’t need pointing out before. I didn’t think anyone would be able to pass Ezlo, but now… I am going to do my best to let Fi’s more useless statements pass unacknowledged from here on, but sometimes they may slip through.
Skyview Temple is a first dungeon, forest dungeon, and water level dungeon. There are two major changes to the key dungeoneering components. First, as mentioned, the compass is gone, and its features have been folded into the dungeon map. Second, instead of a Big/Boss Key, Link finds a golden sculpture thing, and the boss door has a niche for it, and because this game wants to use motion controls every way possible, you have to rotate the sculpture to fit in the niche by waving the Wiimote.
This dungeon solidified my opinion of the motion controls. For swordfights, as long as it interprets my swings properly, they’re… okay. I can see why they’d have wanted to put the time into developing this. The miniboss is a Stalfos who defends from two directions at once, so Link has to come at him from one of the other directions, and I had little trouble beating it, and it was actually a bit of fun. On the other hand, some of the doors are protected by eye guardians, and the solution is Link needs to wave his sword in a circle so they get dizzy and fall out to die. This was amusing once. The second and third time, the challenge is meant to be standing in the right place to get the attention of two or three at once. Instead, I had no trouble with that, but then getting the eyes to follow the sword and going in a big enough circle that they die hurt my shoulder. At least this still uses the sword, so I can see why they’d want to use motion controls instead of the thumbstick…
Unlike the dungeon item, the Beetle. The Beetle is a remote-control bug that can scout, retrieve objects, cut threads, and hit switches. It can affect enemies, but it’s too slow and cumbersome to really use in battle. It’s like the natural evolution of the boomerangs’ intricate flight paths, but it had to sacrifice the combat utility to get there. And of course, despite piloting with the thumbstick seeming natural, it’s controlled by the Wiimote’s motion controls. So there’s my opinion of motion controls: okay for swordplay (when it accurately interprets what I’m trying to do), but shoehorned into situations where there are better options [2].
New and returning enemies include green Bokoblins (hey, someone tell the Kikwis they do exist), Skulltulas (who sometimes break free of their ceiling webs, need to be flipped on their backs with a vertical slice, and finished off with an ending blow) and Walltulas, and a Staldra, a three-headed skeletal thing which lines its heads up and Link needs to cut the right way to kill them all at once. (That’s the other thing that bugs me about motion controls in combat: every enemy more advanced than a ChuChu has some sort of defense Link’s got to cut the right way to get around. It works for things like the Stalfos, but for common enemies it breaks immersion, which is probably the opposite effect from what they intended.)
There’s a heart piece in the dungeon, giving Link his first full heart container.
Next: I got so annoyed about Fi’s writing that I ran out of time for the boss.
[1] Actually, given who the boss is, if I sit long enough, this may not be out of the question.
[2] I didn’t mention this, but they’re also used for aiming the Slingshot.
Why? Why did Nintendo assume players would need an NPC to reiterate what they just read and give obvious advice? “Look around to see where we should move next.” And here I was, planning to sit on my thumbs and hope the boss came to me and brought the dungeon item [1]. And later when Link gets the map, it’s “You got a map. You can use it to find your way around the dungeon.” Well, I’m glad you’re here to tell me these things! And, sure, the compass is no longer a separate item – the map comes pre-marked with all the relevant information – and that’s important to convey to the player. But the text popup window, as well as all the icons appearing on the map, would have worked just fine without having Fi explain it.
Let’s imagine Fi in some of the other games…
“Master, the man has said your journey will be dangerous and offered you a sword to use. You should take it and use it to fight Ganon’s forces.”
“Master, Agahnim has accused you of kidnapping Princess Zelda in an effort to turn the people against you. You should be careful with whom you speak.”
“Master, the mural says that Koholint Island is a projection of the Wind Fish’s dream. This means if you wake the Wind Fish, Koholint and its inhabitants will disappear.”
“Master, your fairy companion has shouted to gain your attention. She likely has something to tell you.”
“Master, the moon is about to crash into the earth. You will almost certainly not survive this.”
“Master, this is not Peach. It appears to be one of her retainers. You may find Peach in a different castle.”
I’m not exaggerating – in fact, the opposite, because I refuse to arbitrarily assign percentages. Link’s had companions who have pointed out things that shouldn’t need pointing out before. I didn’t think anyone would be able to pass Ezlo, but now… I am going to do my best to let Fi’s more useless statements pass unacknowledged from here on, but sometimes they may slip through.
Skyview Temple is a first dungeon, forest dungeon, and water level dungeon. There are two major changes to the key dungeoneering components. First, as mentioned, the compass is gone, and its features have been folded into the dungeon map. Second, instead of a Big/Boss Key, Link finds a golden sculpture thing, and the boss door has a niche for it, and because this game wants to use motion controls every way possible, you have to rotate the sculpture to fit in the niche by waving the Wiimote.
This dungeon solidified my opinion of the motion controls. For swordfights, as long as it interprets my swings properly, they’re… okay. I can see why they’d have wanted to put the time into developing this. The miniboss is a Stalfos who defends from two directions at once, so Link has to come at him from one of the other directions, and I had little trouble beating it, and it was actually a bit of fun. On the other hand, some of the doors are protected by eye guardians, and the solution is Link needs to wave his sword in a circle so they get dizzy and fall out to die. This was amusing once. The second and third time, the challenge is meant to be standing in the right place to get the attention of two or three at once. Instead, I had no trouble with that, but then getting the eyes to follow the sword and going in a big enough circle that they die hurt my shoulder. At least this still uses the sword, so I can see why they’d want to use motion controls instead of the thumbstick…
Unlike the dungeon item, the Beetle. The Beetle is a remote-control bug that can scout, retrieve objects, cut threads, and hit switches. It can affect enemies, but it’s too slow and cumbersome to really use in battle. It’s like the natural evolution of the boomerangs’ intricate flight paths, but it had to sacrifice the combat utility to get there. And of course, despite piloting with the thumbstick seeming natural, it’s controlled by the Wiimote’s motion controls. So there’s my opinion of motion controls: okay for swordplay (when it accurately interprets what I’m trying to do), but shoehorned into situations where there are better options [2].
New and returning enemies include green Bokoblins (hey, someone tell the Kikwis they do exist), Skulltulas (who sometimes break free of their ceiling webs, need to be flipped on their backs with a vertical slice, and finished off with an ending blow) and Walltulas, and a Staldra, a three-headed skeletal thing which lines its heads up and Link needs to cut the right way to kill them all at once. (That’s the other thing that bugs me about motion controls in combat: every enemy more advanced than a ChuChu has some sort of defense Link’s got to cut the right way to get around. It works for things like the Stalfos, but for common enemies it breaks immersion, which is probably the opposite effect from what they intended.)
There’s a heart piece in the dungeon, giving Link his first full heart container.
Next: I got so annoyed about Fi’s writing that I ran out of time for the boss.
[1] Actually, given who the boss is, if I sit long enough, this may not be out of the question.
[2] I didn’t mention this, but they’re also used for aiming the Slingshot.
Wednesday, November 6, 2019
Skyward Sword: Goddess Cubes
Fi pops up and introduces the area Link has entered as the Deep Woods. Then she reminds him of his quest to find the temple and Zelda. A little way in, Gorko peeks his head over a cliff to invite Link to come take a look at something with him. Getting to Gorko requires fighting a new variant of Deku Baba, the Quadro Baba, which can change if the mouth/split is horizontal or vertical. The object of Gorko’s interest is a cube marked with the Loftwing crest that’s said to be left behind by the Goddess for her chosen Hero. There’s an instruction attached to the Goddess Cubes: “Summon forth the light from a heavenly blade, and may that sword’s master receive aid.” Gorko asks Link to see if they can figure out what it means, and points out the key phrase in the instruction, so it’s not just Fi who over-explains things. Link whacks the Cube with a Skyward Strike, and it glows before disappearing, sending a ball of light to the sky. There are more of these things, so they’re… treasure maps from Wind Waker? As if proving the concept, there’s a second Goddess Cube to whack between the first one and the dungeon.
At the dungeon, Fi says she senses Zelda’s aura inside, along with a bunch of monsters. She advises against overconfidence, suggesting Link could use a bird statue to return to the sky… to get a shield and potions. *headdesk* But there’s the Goddess Cubes’ output to investigate, so why not? As Link mounts his Loftwing again, Fi brings up the map to highlight the points where the Goddess Cubes’ energy landed. This confirms my guess about what the Goddess Cubes are meant to resemble: the sky is sort of like the Great Sea, only with… skislands, if you will. And no Fishmen to talk to.
The first Goddess Cube’s chest expands Link’s Adventure Pouch by one slot. He still only has three items to fit in the five slots, so there’s no need to go back to the Item Check. There’s a bar on the island, and as Link walks in, the camera tantalizingly hovers on the chandelier, which has rupees and a heart piece. The bartender warns Link not to break the chandelier. The waitress calls attention to the rupees inside, which I don’t care about because my wallet’s full. Among the patrons, there’s an old man who saw a monster in the cemetery one night and Groose’s non-egg throwing lackey.
Link goes up to the upper level of the bar and rolls into the guardrail, causing the chandelier to sway. Doing it again knocks it down onto the large table in the center of the bar, leaving Link free to take the heart piece. The bartender’s pissed, and demands Link come talk to him. He wants Link to work for him until the chandelier’s paid off; the first errand is to deliver pumpkin soup to Eagus, the man in the Sparring Hall, the Knight Commander of Skyloft. Sadly, he’s not inclined to give Link a bottle – maybe if someone hadn’t broken his chandelier, he might be more generous – so Link’s got to drink one of his potions so he can carry the pumpkin soup. Then he drinks it, just to see the bartender’s reaction. Then he gets another bottle to deliver. Eagus is grateful for the soup once it’s delivered. The bartender’s satisfied with Link’s postal service and tells him to check back later for another job.
While on Skyloft, Link has some shopping to do. First, he gets a potion to replace the one he had to drink. (Actually, he drank a Revitalizing Potion and got a Heart Potion. I wonder if the bartender will let him count that expense toward paying for the chandelier. Probably not.) While he’s there, he’s got the materials to upgrade his shield so it’s a little sturdier, and the item shop has a seed bag upgrade – that takes a spot in the Adventure Pouch. Are you fscking serious? Hoo boy, this is going to suck worse than I thought. Beedle flies an airship over Skyloft, and if Link gets his attention by shooting the bell on the ship, he’ll lower a rope so Link can come up to shop. Link can buy an Extra Wallet and Bug Net now; there’s an Adventure Pouch upgrade he could afford by farming a lot, but still has no need for, so he lets it go for now.
There are two more things to do in the sky before going back to the surface. First, the second Goddess Chest has another heart piece that doesn’t require destruction of property. Second, north of Skyloft, there’s a minigame where Link tries to cut a piece of bamboo as many times as he can before it falls to the ground. I had trouble with this at first because I was too deliberate, and I could get eight or so cuts before the Wiimote decided I was doing something other than what I was trying for, and once this game goes wrong, there’s no saving it. Then I closed my eyes, held the Wiimote flat, and waved it wildly, and got 31 cuts.
Next: Exactly how thick does this game think Link (and/or the player) is?
At the dungeon, Fi says she senses Zelda’s aura inside, along with a bunch of monsters. She advises against overconfidence, suggesting Link could use a bird statue to return to the sky… to get a shield and potions. *headdesk* But there’s the Goddess Cubes’ output to investigate, so why not? As Link mounts his Loftwing again, Fi brings up the map to highlight the points where the Goddess Cubes’ energy landed. This confirms my guess about what the Goddess Cubes are meant to resemble: the sky is sort of like the Great Sea, only with… skislands, if you will. And no Fishmen to talk to.
The first Goddess Cube’s chest expands Link’s Adventure Pouch by one slot. He still only has three items to fit in the five slots, so there’s no need to go back to the Item Check. There’s a bar on the island, and as Link walks in, the camera tantalizingly hovers on the chandelier, which has rupees and a heart piece. The bartender warns Link not to break the chandelier. The waitress calls attention to the rupees inside, which I don’t care about because my wallet’s full. Among the patrons, there’s an old man who saw a monster in the cemetery one night and Groose’s non-egg throwing lackey.
Link goes up to the upper level of the bar and rolls into the guardrail, causing the chandelier to sway. Doing it again knocks it down onto the large table in the center of the bar, leaving Link free to take the heart piece. The bartender’s pissed, and demands Link come talk to him. He wants Link to work for him until the chandelier’s paid off; the first errand is to deliver pumpkin soup to Eagus, the man in the Sparring Hall, the Knight Commander of Skyloft. Sadly, he’s not inclined to give Link a bottle – maybe if someone hadn’t broken his chandelier, he might be more generous – so Link’s got to drink one of his potions so he can carry the pumpkin soup. Then he drinks it, just to see the bartender’s reaction. Then he gets another bottle to deliver. Eagus is grateful for the soup once it’s delivered. The bartender’s satisfied with Link’s postal service and tells him to check back later for another job.
While on Skyloft, Link has some shopping to do. First, he gets a potion to replace the one he had to drink. (Actually, he drank a Revitalizing Potion and got a Heart Potion. I wonder if the bartender will let him count that expense toward paying for the chandelier. Probably not.) While he’s there, he’s got the materials to upgrade his shield so it’s a little sturdier, and the item shop has a seed bag upgrade – that takes a spot in the Adventure Pouch. Are you fscking serious? Hoo boy, this is going to suck worse than I thought. Beedle flies an airship over Skyloft, and if Link gets his attention by shooting the bell on the ship, he’ll lower a rope so Link can come up to shop. Link can buy an Extra Wallet and Bug Net now; there’s an Adventure Pouch upgrade he could afford by farming a lot, but still has no need for, so he lets it go for now.
There are two more things to do in the sky before going back to the surface. First, the second Goddess Chest has another heart piece that doesn’t require destruction of property. Second, north of Skyloft, there’s a minigame where Link tries to cut a piece of bamboo as many times as he can before it falls to the ground. I had trouble with this at first because I was too deliberate, and I could get eight or so cuts before the Wiimote decided I was doing something other than what I was trying for, and once this game goes wrong, there’s no saving it. Then I closed my eyes, held the Wiimote flat, and waved it wildly, and got 31 cuts.
Next: Exactly how thick does this game think Link (and/or the player) is?
Monday, November 4, 2019
Skyward Sword: Kikwis
Link catches up to the beacon he placed on the map, only there’s nothing there. He continues on to the next area, Faron Woods. Fi pops up to talk about the local wildlife – I didn’t realize I needed a tour guide. She also says Zelda’s probably nearby, so keep on dowsing for her. After a bird statue, Link comes to a gap he needs to swing across on a rope, and it’s motion controlled, but the controls are pretty much exactly like the Wind Waker controls only swinging the Wiimote rather than pushing the stick forward and backward, so it’s not so bad.
A little farther on, Link comes across a couple Bokoblins bullying a cowering plant creature. They see Link and spare him the trouble of coming over to them to kill them, and Link checks on the plant creature. He mistakes Link for a green Bokoblin and runs off, terrified. As it runs, Fi pops up, saying that the creature is resonating with Zelda’s dowsing aura. She identifies the creature as Kikwi – possibly an ancestor race of the Kokiri? – and encourages Link to catch him to find why the dowsing results match up. Link gives chase, with the Kikwi skipping off every time he gets near.
Finally, the Kikwi throws himself on the ground rather than running; he has a growth on its back that unfolds to resemble a bush as a form of camouflage, but the form seems poorly chosen when running from Link. Better than growing a pot, I guess. Fortunately, Link just stands there staring at him, and he realizes Link fought off the Bokoblins so he’s maybe not a bad guy after all. He introduces himself as Machi, and says he saw another human earlier. The Bokoblins were after her, but the Kikwi elder helped her escape. Fi pops up to comment, and Machi throws himself to the ground in panic once again. Fi recaps what Machi just said before getting to the point – Machi triggered a fake dowsing reading because of its contact with Zelda, so… it’s not just likely or probable that the elder will as well, but Fi says there’s an “85% chance” of it. Once she’s back into the sword, Machi stands up and asks Link if he’s going to see the elder anyway, to tell him that he’s okay.
Getting to the elder requires fighting more Bokoblins, Deku Babas, and what I assumed were Deku Scrubs but are actually Octoroks (Link needs a well-timed shield bash to reflect the rocks back at it). There’s also a rope he’s got to cut loose, and he can’t be smart and hold it with his left [1] hand while cutting with the right, noooo. It’s got to fly free and he’s got to jump to catch it. After making the swing, Link comes to Bucha, the Kikwi elder, who’s huge and lying face-down. (He doesn’t have any vegetation growing from his back, although he has the same growth Machi did.) Bucha is reluctant to discuss Zelda while the Kikwis are scattered and in danger, talking about how the situation has made his memory fail. He’s happy to hear Machi is safe, but there are three more. Fi pops up with another 85% chance estimate that finding the missing Kikwis might ultimately help Link in his search for Zelda, and so now Link can dowse for Kikwis. Fortunately, she’s able to not locate already-identified Kikwis, so Bucha being right there doesn’t throw Link off.
Getting to the first Kikwi requires crawling through a tunnel and walking over a tightrope, and the tightrope controls are terrible. Link’s constantly falling one way or the other and the Wiimote has to be pointed in the other direction to balance him and, screw that, it’s easier to fall so Link can grab on from below and shuffle along, climbing back up when the Stamina Lime starts running low. Then he has to stop a bunch of Bokoblins who are bothering the treed Kikwi. Finally, the Kikwi’s too shaken to climb down, so Link rolls into the tree, shaking him out. Fi pops up, scaring Lopsa, to tell Link that she’s marked the location on the map and there are two more Kikwis to find.
The second Kikwi, Erla, is on a surface Link can reach by climbing vines and using its camouflage bush to hide among real bushes. Thankfully, Link manages not to cut the Kikwi while getting rid of enough bushes to force Erla out into the open. En route to the final Kikwi, Link grabs a piece of heart across a tightrope. The final Kikwi, Oolo, is in a cave in a hole in the ground, and Link has to try to pick him up to get him to talk. Oolo is also scared of Fi.
With all the Kikwis located, Link returns to Bucha. Bucha remembers that Zelda went to the temple deeper in the woods. As thanks to Link for his help, Bucha flops on the ground and spreads the comically undersized bush on its back – which has a slingshot Link can use to help him on his quest. With Bucha’s encouragement, Link shoots a vine free and swings across a gap. After saving his game atop a “viewing platform,” he shoots another vine, which prompts Fi to pop up with an item and aiming tutorial. He climbs the vine and heads deeper into the woods as someone watches him from the viewing platform.
Next: Look, if you didn’t want your chandelier broken…
[1] Another side effect of motion controls: to match having the Wiimote in the right hand and Nunchuk in the left, this version of Link is right-handed.
A little farther on, Link comes across a couple Bokoblins bullying a cowering plant creature. They see Link and spare him the trouble of coming over to them to kill them, and Link checks on the plant creature. He mistakes Link for a green Bokoblin and runs off, terrified. As it runs, Fi pops up, saying that the creature is resonating with Zelda’s dowsing aura. She identifies the creature as Kikwi – possibly an ancestor race of the Kokiri? – and encourages Link to catch him to find why the dowsing results match up. Link gives chase, with the Kikwi skipping off every time he gets near.
Finally, the Kikwi throws himself on the ground rather than running; he has a growth on its back that unfolds to resemble a bush as a form of camouflage, but the form seems poorly chosen when running from Link. Better than growing a pot, I guess. Fortunately, Link just stands there staring at him, and he realizes Link fought off the Bokoblins so he’s maybe not a bad guy after all. He introduces himself as Machi, and says he saw another human earlier. The Bokoblins were after her, but the Kikwi elder helped her escape. Fi pops up to comment, and Machi throws himself to the ground in panic once again. Fi recaps what Machi just said before getting to the point – Machi triggered a fake dowsing reading because of its contact with Zelda, so… it’s not just likely or probable that the elder will as well, but Fi says there’s an “85% chance” of it. Once she’s back into the sword, Machi stands up and asks Link if he’s going to see the elder anyway, to tell him that he’s okay.
Getting to the elder requires fighting more Bokoblins, Deku Babas, and what I assumed were Deku Scrubs but are actually Octoroks (Link needs a well-timed shield bash to reflect the rocks back at it). There’s also a rope he’s got to cut loose, and he can’t be smart and hold it with his left [1] hand while cutting with the right, noooo. It’s got to fly free and he’s got to jump to catch it. After making the swing, Link comes to Bucha, the Kikwi elder, who’s huge and lying face-down. (He doesn’t have any vegetation growing from his back, although he has the same growth Machi did.) Bucha is reluctant to discuss Zelda while the Kikwis are scattered and in danger, talking about how the situation has made his memory fail. He’s happy to hear Machi is safe, but there are three more. Fi pops up with another 85% chance estimate that finding the missing Kikwis might ultimately help Link in his search for Zelda, and so now Link can dowse for Kikwis. Fortunately, she’s able to not locate already-identified Kikwis, so Bucha being right there doesn’t throw Link off.
Getting to the first Kikwi requires crawling through a tunnel and walking over a tightrope, and the tightrope controls are terrible. Link’s constantly falling one way or the other and the Wiimote has to be pointed in the other direction to balance him and, screw that, it’s easier to fall so Link can grab on from below and shuffle along, climbing back up when the Stamina Lime starts running low. Then he has to stop a bunch of Bokoblins who are bothering the treed Kikwi. Finally, the Kikwi’s too shaken to climb down, so Link rolls into the tree, shaking him out. Fi pops up, scaring Lopsa, to tell Link that she’s marked the location on the map and there are two more Kikwis to find.
The second Kikwi, Erla, is on a surface Link can reach by climbing vines and using its camouflage bush to hide among real bushes. Thankfully, Link manages not to cut the Kikwi while getting rid of enough bushes to force Erla out into the open. En route to the final Kikwi, Link grabs a piece of heart across a tightrope. The final Kikwi, Oolo, is in a cave in a hole in the ground, and Link has to try to pick him up to get him to talk. Oolo is also scared of Fi.
With all the Kikwis located, Link returns to Bucha. Bucha remembers that Zelda went to the temple deeper in the woods. As thanks to Link for his help, Bucha flops on the ground and spreads the comically undersized bush on its back – which has a slingshot Link can use to help him on his quest. With Bucha’s encouragement, Link shoots a vine free and swings across a gap. After saving his game atop a “viewing platform,” he shoots another vine, which prompts Fi to pop up with an item and aiming tutorial. He climbs the vine and heads deeper into the woods as someone watches him from the viewing platform.
Next: Look, if you didn’t want your chandelier broken…
[1] Another side effect of motion controls: to match having the Wiimote in the right hand and Nunchuk in the left, this version of Link is right-handed.
Friday, November 1, 2019
Skyward Sword: Sealed Grounds
Link uses the sailcloth to avoid landing in a bloody heap, and Fi pops out to officially welcome him to the surface world. Link has landed in an area known as the Sealed Grounds, which have a helical hill leading down to a seal at the center. Link starts making his way down the hill and is attacked by a couple Deku Babas, and here the motion control swordplay becomes important. The Babas open their mouths parallel to the ground or perpendicular to the ground, and Link needs to slash along the opening to damage them. The vertical Babas were little trouble, but the horizontal ones usually took a few tries – I think I tend to tilt the Wiimote as I swing so it interprets the slash as diagonal, which bounces off the Baba’s hide. At least, I assume that's what I'm doing wrong.
Link jumps off a ledge and the sky turns threatening. Link looks down at the center, where black smoke is coming out of the seal. Link has a vision of the black worm coming out of the seal and eating him; it passes, but the black smoke is still coming. He makes his way down the hill, and as he approaches the seal, a voice speaks to him, telling him to use a Skyward Strike to hit the pillar [1] at the center. Link does so, and the pillar glows with light as the black smoke subsides, and the seal returns to its natural state. Steam geysers pop up all over the hill, which Fi pops up to note.
Fi also says she’s sensing an aura similar to that on the sailcloth Zelda gave Link nearby, and teaches him to seek out auras via dowsing, which is basically an addition to the camera free-look mode. Link detects the aura up the hill and uses the steam geysers and sailcloth to make it back up the hill, and near the point where Link noticed that the seal at the bottom was weakening, a door’s seal stops glowing, allowing Link to open the door and enter.
Inside the Sealed Temple, Link finds an old woman sitting in the spot where the sun shines through the temple’s roof. She has been waiting for Link for a long time, and his mastery of the Skyward Strike indicates that he is the destined bearer of the Goddess Sword. Zelda arrived at the temple before Link did, but she wasn’t supposed to fall from a black tornado – the work of some evil power trying to disrupt what Link and Zelda are meant to do. Right now, that destiny led Zelda to Faron Woods, and Link needs to follow her. The woman teaches Link to create his own beacons on the map. She tells Link there’s a treasure chest which has a useful item and unlocks the temple door leading in to Faron Woods. The item in the treasure chest is a bottle full of Revitalizing Potion, which can repair damage to a shield and restore four hearts.
Not far down the road into the woods, Link finds a Goron being pestered by a bunch of Bokoblins, and jumps to the rescue. The Bokoblins… I think they’re blocking with their swords so Link’s supposed to have to attack from a different direction, but I came in with the Wiimote flailing and they all took hits and eventually died. The Goron thanks Link for the rescue and introduces himself as Gorko, an archaeologist researching the woods. To him, Skyloft is a legend known as the Isle of the Goddess. He points out a nearby bird statue, apparently one of many in the woods. This one is apparently a master statue that can activate others nearby.
After checking to make sure Link’s interested, Gorko talks about what the texts say about the Isle of the Goddess: people actually live there, using huge birds to get around. They worship the goddess, and have a perfect, conflict-free society. Well… pretty good, up till that last bit. Gorko’s descriptions go a bit into the fantastical, talking about buildings made of gold and a mystical river that grants eternal life, but Link continues to indulge his beliefs about his home. Gorko eventually runs out of things to say, so Link approaches the statue, which glows to life, to Gorko’s astoundment.
Next: Fi, quit scaring the Kikwis.
[1] In my introduction I said the Imprisoned has a sword stuck in its head. In Hyrule Warriors, I never really got a good look at it, and apparently, when you’re more concerned with fighting the boss than examining the thing stuck in its head, a triangular prism can look a lot like a flat blade.
Link jumps off a ledge and the sky turns threatening. Link looks down at the center, where black smoke is coming out of the seal. Link has a vision of the black worm coming out of the seal and eating him; it passes, but the black smoke is still coming. He makes his way down the hill, and as he approaches the seal, a voice speaks to him, telling him to use a Skyward Strike to hit the pillar [1] at the center. Link does so, and the pillar glows with light as the black smoke subsides, and the seal returns to its natural state. Steam geysers pop up all over the hill, which Fi pops up to note.
Fi also says she’s sensing an aura similar to that on the sailcloth Zelda gave Link nearby, and teaches him to seek out auras via dowsing, which is basically an addition to the camera free-look mode. Link detects the aura up the hill and uses the steam geysers and sailcloth to make it back up the hill, and near the point where Link noticed that the seal at the bottom was weakening, a door’s seal stops glowing, allowing Link to open the door and enter.
Inside the Sealed Temple, Link finds an old woman sitting in the spot where the sun shines through the temple’s roof. She has been waiting for Link for a long time, and his mastery of the Skyward Strike indicates that he is the destined bearer of the Goddess Sword. Zelda arrived at the temple before Link did, but she wasn’t supposed to fall from a black tornado – the work of some evil power trying to disrupt what Link and Zelda are meant to do. Right now, that destiny led Zelda to Faron Woods, and Link needs to follow her. The woman teaches Link to create his own beacons on the map. She tells Link there’s a treasure chest which has a useful item and unlocks the temple door leading in to Faron Woods. The item in the treasure chest is a bottle full of Revitalizing Potion, which can repair damage to a shield and restore four hearts.
Not far down the road into the woods, Link finds a Goron being pestered by a bunch of Bokoblins, and jumps to the rescue. The Bokoblins… I think they’re blocking with their swords so Link’s supposed to have to attack from a different direction, but I came in with the Wiimote flailing and they all took hits and eventually died. The Goron thanks Link for the rescue and introduces himself as Gorko, an archaeologist researching the woods. To him, Skyloft is a legend known as the Isle of the Goddess. He points out a nearby bird statue, apparently one of many in the woods. This one is apparently a master statue that can activate others nearby.
After checking to make sure Link’s interested, Gorko talks about what the texts say about the Isle of the Goddess: people actually live there, using huge birds to get around. They worship the goddess, and have a perfect, conflict-free society. Well… pretty good, up till that last bit. Gorko’s descriptions go a bit into the fantastical, talking about buildings made of gold and a mystical river that grants eternal life, but Link continues to indulge his beliefs about his home. Gorko eventually runs out of things to say, so Link approaches the statue, which glows to life, to Gorko’s astoundment.
Next: Fi, quit scaring the Kikwis.
[1] In my introduction I said the Imprisoned has a sword stuck in its head. In Hyrule Warriors, I never really got a good look at it, and apparently, when you’re more concerned with fighting the boss than examining the thing stuck in its head, a triangular prism can look a lot like a flat blade.
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