Tag: Video Games

What a wild ride. I was expecting to only spend an hour or so working through a temple and I ended up playing past midnight and moving the plot along farther than I had first imagined. Whew.

SPOILER WARNING: DO NOT READ ON IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW

I went back to Lake Floria and retrieved the basin I needed, mistakenly thinking that I would just fly back to Eldin Volcano and head up to the save point I had found … but then I was sent back to the beginning of the mountain ascent and needed to get myself to the top.

The fun part is that I had my carrier robot badgering me the whole time. I only needed to replay two areas four times before I could get all the ay through (I’m getting better with the sword, really …). After that it was easy enough to have him douse the frog and let me in.

On to the Fire Sanctuary!

Once again, great temple that revolves around being able to dig underground and use drops of water from a certain plants to open up new paths and defeat giant hands of magma …

GIANT HANDS OF MAGMA!?

Yes, that’s correct. Just watch out for them.

Boss battle was difficult, but I was able to get through with only a single heart potion! YAY! Finally, the final fire gave me the … duh duh duuuuuuh … Master Sword! Well, close to it at least.

Time to head back to the Sealed Temple and engage the Gate of Time and meet up with my friend, Zelda.

Of course, when you get there, you need to beat the monster back into the ground and seal it shut … again. This is getting quite annoying. After that, you find out that the monster is actually Demise, evil incarnate really. I’ve stored that away for future reference.

After that battle you head back up and engage the Gate of Time.

You head on through and find yourself in the WAY past and you find out that … hey, Zelda is actually the mortal incarnation of the goddess Hylia! Well, you learn something new everyday.

After some more prose she seals herself in the past in order to seal Demise more securely and give Link time to go and seek out the Triforce so that Demise can be defeated once and for all.

Now the adventure really begins for a third time!

That’s where I’m at. Zelda is frozen in a diamond to keep Demise put in the future and now I need to find the Triforce. I’ve taken Day 11 off, so I’ll be back soon with more information later.

I’ve been sick for the past couple of days, so this is coming out late. It’s been over a week of playing at night and I have no idea how close I am to completing the game. It. Is. Awesome.

SPOILER WARNING: DO NOT READ ON IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW

Well, I have now cleansed my sword in the second fire, completed the final two trials (thank goodness), learned another new song, and am at the door step of the next temple … but now I need to go and get me some water so I can continue!

So, you’re in the desert and then you find this ship … in the desert. You hit the crystal and then you have a little circle where you see water. So cool. You’ll understand when you get there, but this is seriously one of the coolest parts of the game so far. You are in a little circle of ocean in a sea of sand. Very cool.

Finally, you get to the temple here, and yes, it is a ship in this sea of sand that you had to track down and knock out.

It’s called the Sand Ship and it is a lot of fun, even if it includes a lot of back tracking in order to complete (since it is only one ship). Finally you end up facing the boss, and it is one of the easier ones as long as you know what you are doing. It isn’t hard, but it was fun (and the boss looks kind of silly as well).

You get the ability to use your dowsing ability on more objects and then you are off to get the next song. It is here that I completed a couple of side quests just for fun, stocked up on some needed potions (I have one fairy and two heart potions with me at all times), and then it was off to Eldin Volcano for the next temple.

I’m happy I’m done with the trials. It’s not that I didn’t like them, it was just that I had to die at least once on EVERY ONE. Oh well, I completed the trial and now I can withstand the great heat of the volcano so I can progress.

Progress I did. All the way to the final gate to the temple and I find out that I need a huge amount of water in order to get through. Well, where do you find a huge amount of water?

It’s back to the Water Dragon!

Alright, so I played last night, I’ll admit it. I worked myself into a corner and wanted to clear the mind a little bit … so … yeah.

SPOILER WARNING: DO NOT READ ON IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW

It was time to conquer the Ancient Cistern and purify my blade … or at least purify it a little bit. The level design this time was pretty amazing and I was impressed with how varied the different sections of the temple were.

You can see that it includes water and a huge statue in the center with some wheels. That’s actually just the surface of this entire thing, and below you will find …

… THE UNDEAD!

Well, they’re cursed, and they take quite a beating, but it is an entirely different area with its own art direction and puzzles and … undead enemies! I liked it. It’s all purple-y and stuff.

It’s a great design and varied as well. The whip that you receive opens up a lot of new possibilities (including grabbing the tails of some birds, bringing them close enough so that you can slash at them), and I’m excited to keep going ahead.

I died again during the boss battle, mostly because I made some mistakes at the very beginning. Playing through it a second time was much simpler, and wielding its own weapons against it was satisfying.

I now have an updated sword, a new shield, learned a new song, and am heading back to the desert to take on the next trial and get this show on the road!

Onward!

Whew, it is starting to really get good. After today’s post I’m going to be taking a break from the game for a day or two to take care of some work before getting myself back into it. I’m not at an ideal place, but it is good enough.

Let’s get started.

SPOILER WARNING: DO NOT READ ON IF YOU DO NOT WANT TO KNOW

There is a lot left to do, but I won’t get into too much. Needless to say, you are going to find out what is underneath that center area in the forest, talk to the old lady again, get a robot (who loves Fi), find a windmill-thingy, find out what is in the massive cloud thing in the sky, go down, play a song, and then …

… one of the trials.

I failed once, and I’m probably going to fail again later on. You get no sword, and one hit is all that is needed for you to fail. Good luck. My advice: stay away from the light and just be careful. The second time was much easier. It is an interesting addition, a sort of mini-temple added to a mini-temple with its own puzzles and the like.

You then get to climb the Great Deku Tree, talk to a hermit, dive off of a cliff, follow some water-creature-thing, beat up a fish, learn how to fly out of the water, and then talk to a dragon. A small dragon, but a dragon nonetheless.

That’s a lot of stuff, and we are not even to the temple yet!

Whew.

You then track back to the temple in the north, fetch some water, bring it back, heal the said dragon and then …

Poof. Big dragon gest to talk to you. Finally, you are allowed to enter the next temple to search out the first of the fires to cleanse your blade.

It took a while, but it was fun. Once again, the motion controls make everything just a little bit more challenging, but more fun at the same time. There are new enemies to attempt to defeat and new areas to explore. The Great Deku Tree was kind of cool because you were able to climb up, and up, and up, and finally see the whole of the forest. Nice touch.

Like I said above, I will see what the next temple brings in a couple of days, but I’m still amazed by what I have seen so far and the game just keeps getting better and better. Very impressed.

If you want to have a great listen about Nintendo and their history, listen to the last half-hour or so of the most recent Hypercritical. John Siracusa pretty much says what I’ve been thinking for a long time.

Brilliant.