And that has made all the difference.

Afternoon of Tuesday, July 2, 2019 (plus several finicky editings through July 16 because I couldn’t leave it alone) .... (and just one note from 2023)

And that has made all the difference.

It’s been about two weeks since I’ve beaten the game.

And I guess.... I can’t help but feel a kind of letdown.

I’ve experienced it before; I’m sure many people have. You draw near the end of an epic adventure, and you can sense the finality impending somehow, and you almost don’t want to proceed.... even though the Hero in you knows he must.

You don’t want it to be over.

But I guess, for me, here and now at least, it’s not really over. Not really. There are still two shrines to get. More Koroks to find. My Compendium to fill.... And of course the faraway dread terror of the option to Start A New Game, which would overwrite the present. Dratblast it, Nintendo, why couldn’t you make multiple saves....?

But then, they’ve never really done that, not for Zelda games. You were always allotted one file, and that was it. And it sufficed. I think some other JRPGs must have spoiled me....

At any rate it doesn’t have to be really over. There are new files to play, old sequences to break, and beyond a new game.... another new game. For I have seen the new Zelda trailer. Or another old game, for there are some Zeldas I haven’t played yet. Or another different game, for I’ve been hankering after Tales of Symphonia lately for some reason. Or maybe the Final Fantasy 10 and 10-2 I picked up for Switch. Always heard good things about those ones....

So I guess this kind of adventure is never really over. But it does come in seasons. And seasons still have to sleep. And that does leave you feeling.... kind of empty. Though like a bygone feast you can still taste it on your lips, and there is great satisfaction in the memory as you finally recline to digest.

I would make a terrible Buddhist.

....

I still have not moved from where I left my saves two weeks ago, but I’ve decided.... not to go back and play from the save before I entered the Sanctum. I won’t overwrite where I’ve been. I don’t want to dishonor the very first ending of my adventure, or vanish my initial slaying of the Great Beast of Malice.

Things experienced for the first time are different. They’re special.... How did I put it....? “....Initial playthroughs are always special, because the secrets and surprises are all fresh, the twists and turns jarring....”

So long ago I said that, back at the head of this very log.

Good thing I wrote it down. The shortest pencil is longer than the longest memory.

And speaking of things written down, I found what I thought I had remembered—I did experience that same conundrum of choice before, at the end of Skyward Sword. The abominable saving quandary. I had journaled about it. Of course I had. Because I am the Journaling Fiend. In case you hadn’t noticed by now:

“Sunday, June 10, 2012, into the very early morning of Monday, June 11, 2012

I stood stock-still, fearful of accidentally pushing any buttons that might kill the buzz. But as everything finally faded to black, I was presented with a choice.

Do you want to play in Hero Mode?

The affirmative answer read, “Bring it on.”

The negative answer.... well, I can’t remember.

What pause this gave me.

But I never wanted to play this game again, so.... no. No thanks.

Are you sure you want to return to the start menu without saving?

Augh, but I did enjoy the feelings of those cinematics. Although they’re never as good the second time....

Um, no, not sure. Yes. Save.

Your progress up to this point will be deleted. Are you sure you want to save and do Hero Mode?

Deleted? Oh dear. Wait. No, don’t save.

Are you sure you want to return to the start menu without saving?

.... My eyes bugged in flummoxation.

Cinematics, viewed often, lose their charm. I’d negotiated the same turmoil at the first savepoint after Groose crashed my skydiving.

I couldn’t go through those again. No. The adventure I’d just survived, the shattering of my shield in some godforsaken phantom realm of turmoil and lightning.... that insistent little fairy I had forgotten....

No, I wouldn’t go back there again. Among the million different stories told for the million different players, my own version of this adventure had come to too satisfying an end.

This story needed to be saved and put to rest.”

So even then I couldn’t bring myself to erase what had already been done, I see.

Maybe it comes from a journaler’s need to record. To save. For better or worse.

Save file linearity notwithstanding, I ought to be grateful that Breath of the Wild seems to end Ocarina of Time style, rather than Skyward Sword style. That is to say, I can beat the game and have the ending under my belt, and then play the end again without having to start from the very beginning.

And still have time to play in between.

The whole world is open to me now, all of Hyrule. And I am strong. I want to find those shrines.... and then storm the castle again....

....

Did I write down all of Skyward Sword, too? No. No I didn’t. Just bits from the ending, as they struck me so deeply.

Heh, so deeply I could feel their reverberations even here, as Fi still sang her song from a bleeding blade on the battlefield, deep in that last rainy memory....

Did you hear that soundbyte?

Hahhh!

It has always pleased me to write down that which strikes me. Or if not always, then for a very long time at least. It’s therapeutic. It’s insightful. It’s often surprising and inspiring! They say you don’t learn much when your mouth is moving. But I would dare to say it’s the opposite case when your pen is scrawling or your keys are ticky-ticking. In writing down what strikes you, you might just strike yourself in turn.

And in this case of logging down the entire video game of Breath of the Wild.... well, it’s true that it has pleased me, yes.... It has pleased me, bothered me, tickled me, TORMENTED ME, DELIGHTED me, INFURIATED ME, ENRAPTURED ME, and driven me STARK, RAVING and GIBBERING BONKERS.

The entire game.

I wrote the entire game.

I have journaled my way through an entire video game.

What an intriguing notion.

What an exciting project.

What a gargantuan undertaking.

I knew I should’ve set all my affairs in order before I started playing.

Five megabytes this document weighs now. Five megabytes!?

Have you ever written for five megabytes straight? 614 pages of solid twelve-point Times New Roman inside one-inch margins? Though there are some dregs below this down to page 630.... and a lot of material preceding this that remains unedited yet as of this writing; that’ll push this part further down.... And it’s all been slowly shoved ever lower by the ever-expanding CONTENTS section anyway.... I knew the confluences would never last whenever I remarked on what page I was on.... Where’s Revali now?

....Heh, looks like he’s been pushed to page 501.

Poor sod.

Five megabytes....

279,000 words.

[And I’m sorry to say, as of the deep waking of Thursday, May 11, 2023, that I can calculate the final size no further, due to much of the latter portions of this work being completed in segments post-computer-failure. But maybe some day.]

I wrote the entire game.

I’ve scripted a searchable Let’s Play.

I’ve birthed a mutant metafanfiction.

I actually made it through.

....

It’s been a different experience for me than for anybody else, I think.

Well, of course it has; that’s how Zelda games are, and especially this one. But.... I mean a very different experience. Very far from.... normal.

And I cannot deny that it has affected my playing.

It takes time to write. And being tied to the log.... I couldn’t move as fast as I might have otherwise done in the game.

I remember playing Twilight Princess for the first time, plunging ahead, hurtling forward through the frays, into the woods, into the darkness, breaking out of dungeons, stalking in fearful yearning through lonely shadows, running in desperation and longing for stolen friends, staying up late into the nights, losing sleep and geeking all over my friends the following days, lamenting that I COULD NOT FIND THE CHILDREN.

How invigorating, how all-consuming it was! What a RUSH!

....

But I couldn’t do that with Breath of the Wild. I couldn’t plunge ahead.

Or I didn’t let myself.

I had to move slowly.

Or I chose to.

I chose to put the game away for weeks at a time and force myself to catch up on logging when I really wanted to keep playing.

Wary of spoilers, I chose to shut myself out from certain internet groups. I chose to stop watching certain art circles—oh, that was the hardest. I chose to interact only cautiously with other Zelda fans whilst I floundered behind in the game.

For two years I shied away from the jabbering Zelda community, to keep the discoveries and twists and turns safe for me to discover on my own. And whenever I did find something incredible or unbelievable, all I could do was wonder.... Have people already talked about this? Did they discuss it all in a flurry, months ago? Were there funrowdy times of tightly localized exploration or experimentation, with bursts of forum posts and YouTube videos? ....Or am I the only one in all the world who knows about.... this? And I too isolated to ask aloud.

It felt very.... solitary, a lot of the time. Even when I’d caught up to David, and could finally relieve him from keeping his mouth so faithfully, painfully shut for me. He was heroic, really.

Do I regret any of this?

No. I don’t. I can’t. I chose this.

And besides, the experience was not without its own kind of reward and fulfillment. Chewing and stewing for so long over every point in the game, giving myself time enough for writing, time enough for deepest thought upon every last person and creature and bug that stepped into my path, has granted me a finer and more flavorful vision of the myriad denizens of Hyrule than I could ever have expected. Like Pi drifting slowly over the ocean, seeing and knowing every fish and turtle and whale, instead of only the spray of a rapid wake.

I really did care for Leekah and her poor unlucky happenstance. How could I not, when I barred myself from leaping headlong into so many other multitudes of things to worry about? I really rooted for tender young Kabetta, and seeing his efforts made me both proud and worried. It was heartening and encouraging to see Mils and Mina standing their ground so bravely. Calyban’s turn to generosity truly warmed my heart. Benny’s brave curiosity was endearing and inspiring. I wished Tye and Sorelia all the happiness in the world. I couldn’t bring myself to blame Jerrin.... too much. But I could Zyle; OH who raised that man....? I sometimes felt sorry for murdering hapless red Bokoblins far below my level, while I was under the guise of my Mask. Fronk’s bowed and weeping gratitude made every second of the outlandish pains I took to find and bring back his wife Mei absolutely worth it. Seeing Kass come home to be with his family and make beautiful music with his daughters was so utterly fulfilling, especially to my musician’s heart. And hearing lessons from Sesami’s friend Palme—the man with the unflattering haircut, the poor lost wanderer, the softest and most unable man in a fight—as he delivered the truest, deepest, and most unexpectedly powerful words of wisdom for a meaningful life... is an instance I will treasure.

It’s been a different experience for me, playing this game. Different than it otherwise might have been.

But I don’t regret it.

....

There’s a strange catch there, though. When you think about it, I really can’t regret it. If it was a choice between playing it through for the first time normally, and playing it through for the first time with a journal in tow.... there is no way I would be able to experience both of those. I can play it through for the first time only once.

And so unable to compare the two, how could I know which would have been better or more enjoyable?

I couldn’t.

It’s like that Robert Frost poem about two roads. You are only one traveler; you can’t walk them both.

But I suppose such fractaled pathways are what make life interesting. It’s all right to favor one horizon over another; there are enough to go around.

And from what I have observed, in myself and in others, I think I can rest on that.... as far as The Legend of Zelda ~ Breath of the Wild goes.... I think any pathway would have proven to be good, beautiful, beloved and fulfilling.

But I think I really did take the road less traveled.

I can’t know what it’s like to play Breath of the Wild like I’ve played other Zelda games. And that’s all right. But maybe.... if I’ve wielded my words right.... you reading this can glean some small taste of what it’s like to play the game with Contraltissimo’s very fine-toothed comb. Maybe the experiences are similar after all. I wouldn’t know.

But you might.

Looks like you have the advantage here.

And in truth.... I am glad to offer it, if you’re willing to take it.

After all, it’s dangerous to go alone.

Now, I think I’ll finally have a listen to that Breath of the Wild ~ Sound Selection disc that came with the statue and the Switch case and everything else in that super-mega-deluxe-or-whatever-it-was version of the game I bought.

Hey, music can be spoilerish too! Of course I put it away for later. It was only recently that I actually took off the shrinkrap and loaded the tracks onto my original black iPod Nano, Sylphie. Named for a mermaid.

And now.... I think I’ll finally let myself enjoy it.

As well as the complete soundtrack I bought more recently. Hm, which includes music from the DLC....

Guess I’d better play that, too. I did purchase it, two years ago. I’ve just never booted it up. But in the sparse visits I allowed myself into the Zelda circles of the internet in the meanwhile, I received some very high recommendations for it.

Think I’ll play with my amiibos too at some point. And maybe.... see how the game feels on the Switch.

Man. I’ve put off a lot these past two years.

I just wanted the pure experience first.

Well, I got it.

Boy did I get it.

Turns out anything worth doing.... really is worth overdoing.

That’s why all Heroes are called Fools.

This is Contraltissimo, signing off.

 

Beyond Cotera's Forest

Waking of Friday, August 3, 2018 ~ 2

Beyond Cotera’s Forest

It was raining in Cotera’s Forest.

Where did I want to go next?

I looked at my map.

Huh.... the back way out of Cotera’s Forest, away from Kakariko Village, appeared to connect to that high field where I had first met Kass. I hadn’t been able to solve his riddle back then, or perhaps I had only been too distracted looking for Mei. A beast with a crown of bone....

I had never been beyond Cotera’s Forest before. I could see that the path connected to other places.... Places I meant to visit eventually. Places that seemed too momentous for any sort of casual approach.

But one fork in the road seemed like it would be enough to keep me out of too much trouble there.

I started.

And frightened the deer that were grazing back here, as I’d done so many times before.

Cotera’s copse of trees ended fairly quickly, and the stone of the mountain began to rise high on either side of the way—it was suddenly and very much a road now. In fact the name of it gleamed across the top of my screen. The place was called Lanayru Road ~ West Gate.

Everything was grey.

I came to the fork in a trice. Straight on and bending a bit to the right was the way to that inner lake I was so keen to visit and avoid at the same time. I didn’t want to go that way. Bending to the left was the way to Rabia Plain, where Kass was waiting. And right at the fork, a little off the road, stood a man. He was gazing hard into the right-hand fork....

I went to speak to him.

Traveler....

I’d figured. But.... well, a Hero has to check.

“About a year ago,” he started, “I was walking along this road, when I saw a bright light up in the sky. I looked at it, and couldn’t look away, and then I was surrounded by light... And when I came to, I was in bed. What do you think of that?”

“Sounds like a dream,” I told him as my only response. As Yiga thugs went, I kinda liked this one. At least he made politely open conversation.

“A dream, huh?” he said, “Well, the bed I woke up in wasn’t my bed. It was a hollow bed full of water, and in one corner of the empty room was a glowing device. And I took the glowing device in my hand... and when I came to I was here.”

He looked at me again, a subtle smirk on his face this time. “What do you think of that?”

“That’s... um...”

But before I could say anything more, the Piano dripped like icy water down my spine, and the man dropped his pretense and shouted, “FOR MASTER KOHGA!”

The fight was on, but the biggest worry on my mind was A year? What did he mean by a year? Did the game sense my meandering around and wasting time? What did it mean?

I killed the Yiga Clansman, and took his.... Demon Carver; now that was a mean-lookin’ blade. I didn’t have room for it in my inventory at first, until I remembered to throw out that freakin’ Stalmoblin arm.... Must’ve picked it up in the Gerudo Highlands....

I regarded the gate to the Lanayru Road.... and turned and headed to Rabia Plain instead.

The road opened up onto a lush and placid field.... Pausing only to visit with a cool-looking blonde guy named Eryck at his campfire beneath a tree, I continued north toward Kass’ hill.

There were a heckton of deer wandering around.... But I decided to talk with Kass first, just to let him sing the song again. He did. And after this I went and found a good, strong buck with a handsome rack.... and jumped on.

It really was nice having as much stamina as I did. The buck leapt and sounded its strange, piping call, but I soon soothed him into submission. He seemed so much bigger now that I was on his very back.... and he looked so regal! I urged him into a stately walk toward the Sheikah dais near which Kass stood.

Similar to the bear, when the deer was at a walk, it moved remarkably slowly. Hesitantly, I gave it a little spur—and it sprang into a high-tailed bounding! Gallup would just be too common a word for it. Ah, such a wonderful and majestic beast.

I rode him around the field for a bit before finally steering him toward the dais and slowing him to a walk. And when the beast with a crown of bone mounted this Sheikah throne.... the Mezza Lo Shrine rumbled up out of the hill.

I walked the deer back toward his fellows before releasing him.

Ancient Trifecta was the name of the shrine’s challenge.... which gave me a giggle for reasons only a few I know could appreciate.

I completed the challenge, accepted the monk’s Spirit Orb, and when I stepped back outside around five in the afternoon, the day.... was just so lovely. The sunlit sky over the river and beyond, and the Divine Beast Vah Ruta in the distance, were so beautiful behind the shrine.... that I took a pictograph.

It’s a good one. Gorgeous.

Divine Beast Vah Naboris

Waking of Saturday, July 28, 2018 ~ 4

Divine Beast Vah Naboris

I stood on a belly-level deck of the Divine Beast Vah Naboris. The world moved and spun dizzyingly all around me far below as the gigantic legs turned and worked.

The ride was surprisingly smooth.

“Well, well, well,” said Urbosa’s voice.

What did she go on to say....?

Much the same as the other Champions had said, I think, though her tone was definitely her own.

I liked her. She always felt so straightforward and honest. Fierce but peaceable. No nonsense. She let nothing burden her, and focused on what needed to be done.

And the first thing that needed to be done was for me to download that map....

The Inside of Vah Naboris was largely cylindrical—and it came with its own share of Malicious Eyeballs and a few minor Guardian Crawlies.... which I dispatched.

But this Beast....

Vah Naboris seemed to have the most moving parts of any Divine Beast I had yet encountered. The barrel inside of its main body was comprised of three rotating drums, and depending on how I aligned these, the inner struts and ramps and platforms would allow me to access different portals to exterior decks—or the main control unit, mounted in the center drum. So this was where it would all go down....

And then there was the circuitry—each drum had a single, large, front-to-back conductive strip that could be rotated to top, bottom, starboard, or port. And when these were properly aligned, they transferred power to different areas of the Beast, setting further components into motion!

But there was more that was different here....

The music felt backward this time.

In Vah Ruta and Vah Rudania, when I had started out, the music had been open, up for grabs, awaiting possibilities. But here....

The Piano seemed.... malcontent. The underchords floated around, dizzy and obscure, bemoaning awful things I’m sure, but the Piano, just—it would just pound every once in a while.

Like it was angry at me.

Like it didn’t want me to be there.

Like something.... didn’t want me to be there.

And instead of the soft and open music catching on to my presence and growing darker and faster and more threatening over time.... here the music started out in BLATANT threat, and as I located and activated terminals.... a sound stronger and more organized seemed to commandeer the air—

The Champion Urbosa and I were going to take back this Divine Beast. And Ganon knew it. How we strove together in such terrific concert! But terminal after terminal, that HOPEFUL DORIAN GLOWING permeated deeper throughout the soundtrack, wrapping it up, encompassing it, and sounding to the universe and fate that Good was here, and it was able.

Well, able enough.

Though there were some segments of Vah Naboris that still boggled me right out of my head—not the least of which was that danged treasure chest hanging off the tippity-tip of Vah Naboris’ TAIL. By a ROPE.

I would not be able to sever the rope and Magnese the chest in time. I had tried on too many other objects. Magnesis was not fast.

Even the upward-position of Vah Naboris’ caboose didn’t bring the chest in close enough laterally to land on a deck should I sever its rope.

Where the chest was connected seemed to be an enormous hinge. Maybe if I Stasised the chest and then moved the caboose....

No good. The rope snapped and the chest fell into sandy oblivion.

You bet your Sweet Canadian Mullets I reloaded. Forgive me, dear Korok Leaf that I had to put down! For it vanished on the reload.

Maybe if I moved the caboose in the opposite direction, it could catch the chest from beneath when the Stasis let go....

Nope—it just pushed it down and away toward its doom.

Dang it!

What the heck kinda camel has a detachable caboose anyway? I haven’t seen one of those since.... the Opus and Bill cartoon. What was that even....?

I ran back upstairs so many times trying to get that chest—I am sure I walked in places I was never meant to walk.

David thought I was crazy when I would stand at the back of the caboose, manipulate the circuits to make it swing upward, and then step over the farthest edge as it rose to meet me.

It was terrifying when I would misstep coming out of a paraglide, and plummet suddenly toward the sand three hundred feet below. And how Vah Naboris kept walking! But the furthest reaches of its exterior structuring were blessedly free of the wind of its movements. My many jumps surely should not have been possible. But with a wreck of pounding in my chest I always managed to glide back toward a lower deck.... and try again.

In the end the chest solution was easier than I’d thought—like so many things. I grazed the rope’s base with the corona of a Fire Arrow. And as the rope burned, I clutched onto the chest with a vindictive Magnesis!

And all my Foolish persistence was worth it—the chest contained an Ancient Core.

Ah.... Happy Day.

That chest was the last thing I cleaned up. I had already activated all the terminals, Urbosa’s voice guiding me onward in strength and encouragement; she knew I was ready to proceed.... But I just hadn’t wanted to move forward without picking up every last thing....

But now that Vah Naboris had been completely cleaned out—I’d even found a few sweet mushrooms in deep storage up in its back; that was nice—it was time to return to the central drum, and activate the main control unit.

At Tabantha Bridge

Waking of Friday, August 11, 2017 ~ 4

At Tabantha Bridge

After visiting with Branli I continued down the long road that wound around the Seres Scablands—the place I’d seen north of Satori Mountain, the place with those strange mushroom-like treethings sprouting up out of the earth.

I’d seen a Mount Rhoam nearby on my map, and I wanted to see if that little body of water on it was a Fairy Fountain....

Before I got there however, I came to a crossroads beside which a signpost stood in the grass. It warned me to beware of suspicious characters I might see on the road, of bandits in the area who might attack me.

A woman stood OH SO CONVENIENTLY nearby.

....

Well I wouldn’t be the Hero if I weren’t a proper Fool.

I spoke to her.

Her name was Traveler.

“Dang it!” I shouted.

She threatened to kill me and we had it out. She gave me quite a bit of trouble, this one, but I struck her as I was able. She kept dancing just out of reach....

“Nimble little minx, ain’t she?” said Dad, who was in the room, and I laughed. XD

In the end I took her down and stole her bananas and hurried on up the road to a new stable—the Tabantha Bridge Stable. And a shrine. Which I had trouble accessing at the first by dint of it being up over a small ledge which I was obliged to scale in the rain. But I did get to it, and locked down the warpable.

Did that shrine have Guardians in it?

Where did I get.... more gears....?

Three men stood in a conspicuous huddle outside the stable, just begging to be eavesdropped upon. I approached them and they told me about the Leviathans that used to roam the land, and the giant bones they had left behind.

Ah.

So perhaps those weren’t Dodongos after all.

They asked if I would scout out the three Leviathan skeletons that were known in the land, and then come back and report or show them pictures or something....

At least I knew where one of them was....

Well I checked out Mount Rhoam, but there weren’t any Fairy Fountains on it. Conveniently enough, however, there was another man at the stable, name of Toren, who gave me a clue about a Great Fairy nearby! And he asked, if I were going to go looking for her, would I please make an offering to the Great Fairy for him?

I agreed and he gave me five hundred rupees.

He said something about the Sheikah Tower across Tabantha Bridge—some time in the afternoon, its shadow would point to where the Great Fairy lived....

Hmmm but I wasn’t sure I wanted to get that tower just yet, and so was hesitant to go near it and be tempted....

Do you find it ridiculous?

Why do I play the way I play?

What.

I’m savoring.

I’m breadcrumbing.

I’m exploring.

WHAT.

Instead of chasing after the tower’s shadow, I went back to my map, and studied the Gerudo Tower. I remembered standing near that one all day waiting for its shadow to crawl to where I was. Studying my map and recalling where that shadow had passed, I concluded that any afternoon shadow would be cast first southward, and then sweep counterclockwise to the east as the sun sank lower.

By sight, I placed a marker on the tower across Tabantha Bridge. On the empty blue map in my Sheikah Slate, I added two more markers at healthy distances south and east from the first marker. This pie-slice would be my search area....

And I plunged across the bridge....

A Guardian Flyer seemed to patrol near the road that wound off toward the left. And so as was my wont I took to the hills. I thoroughly searched my little grid around what seemed like it would be the midway point of the shadow’s afternoon course, but to no avail. At length I stood frustrated on top of a high rock, scanning all around me for those bright orange toadstools, that big green cocoon.... but saw nothing.

Disappointed, I moved to the rock’s edge to float down.... and saw the cocoon directly below me.

There was no water nearby.

I floated down, and spoke to the fairy inside.

A thousand rupees she asked for. But that was easy enough, especially with Toren’s help! I handed it over.

The cocoon burst open into a beautiful golden bloom. This fairy’s name was Kaysa. She had slightly darker skin, and sported a gaudy collection of pink-accented jewelry, the bangles on her necklace stark and triangular.

And then there was her hair. It was light pink just the same to match. But if Mija’s pompadour had been the pleasantly proportioned fluff of a strutting prairie-grouse.... Kaysa’s streaming fountain of bangs was more like a long-necked flamingo.

I had her work her magic on some of my clothes, and rather than blow magic at me or bop me with a kissed finger.... SHE LEANED RIGHT DOWN AND KISSED MY FACE.

Link covered his face in a fright before that cinematic was over. XD And it left him gasping and panting like he does when he runs out of stamina! XD XD XD

When I’d had all the clothes enhanced that I could, I went back to Toren and he gave me his thanks.... and I thought of some other clothes I rather wanted to acquire....

I’d recently collected a few more Ancient Gears.

It was time to pay Robbie a visit, and see if Cherry could forge anything for me....

The Trouble with Boomers

Waking of Friday, August 11, 2017 ~ 2

The Trouble with Boomers

I still stood over the head of the Forgotten Temple Valley and—confusticate and beBOTHER the sirens of this game—I was hungry to keep exploring!

Well there was that shrine and stable I could see far to the west across the green fields.

Onward! ^_^

Oh it was a long and rainy jog to get there.

David had seen me playing at one point, or actually I think I had described to him where I was. And I’d told him I wanted to go grab that very accessible looking shrine and stable.

David scoffed and said I’d freeze before I got there.

ò.Ó

I’d said it didn’t look that cold.

But David assured me the environment would be far too cold.

Hm! I’d see about that! u_u

The road went on and on and on, and the rain did not abate. I found at least one Korok up on top of an old ruined hut, and I met.... probably Chabi again. We sheltered beneath the splintered half-roof to chat for just a bit.

There were an awful lot of arrows stuck into the ruined buildings around here. I collected them where I could, but.... it made me wonder how it had gotten like that. What rivaling powers had clashed here?

At length I came to the Serenne Stable.

And it was NOT too cold for me.

HA, David! >8D

I skipped up the adjacent hill and completed the local shrine, and then.... decided to keep following the road. North of the path, before a great mountain cliff, there was a tall tower with a lookout platform on top. It stood beside a camp of Bokoblins.

I ran in and started to climb before they could stop me, and—ah, delight of delights—found a red-barrel boomer on top. ^_^

I peered over the edge; all the Bokoblins were gathered near the base of the tower. I picked up the boomer, and just dropped it over the edge.

And then something happened I had not expected.

Evidently the very tower I stood upon was not immune to the blast. The platform fell out from beneath my feet and I found myself falling through a mess of splintered wood!

Oops.

I remembered my paraglider before I met the ground, but meet the ground I did—along with a squad of angry, burning Bokoblins.

A terrific fire-fight ensued. Grass alight. Blazing clubs swinging. Hot times down on the ground I tell you wot!

After I dispatched them I made a note to never drop any more powder kegs close to the structures I was standing on, and proceeded to climb the mountain.

To See What I Could See

Waking of Friday, August 11, 2017

To See What I Could See

You know, lately I try not to play too far ahead before I’ve written up my adventures so far. I really do. But man....

I don’t know what came over me on this day. It’s a Zelda game. It’s a siren. It’s Blow it all I just wanna play the game and be the Hero. Escape to Hyrule. Divert my mind. Fly me away and tell me stories....

I was still in the deepest recesses of the Forgotten Temple.

David said he’d just warped out of that one. But.... There were no convenient shrines to warp to outside. I think the closest one was Ketoh Wawai, and that one was all in the dark with a Hinox next to it.

I didn’t want to have to traverse any huge distances again. How was I going to get out of here?

....

Well, I decided to just try the same way I’d gotten in—on the air currents. I climbed up the giant Goddess statue for some altitude (pardon me, Lady) and wouldn’t you know.... I made it out unscathed this time! ^_^

After that I climbed back up to where the shrine-detector had vexed me, near where I’d met Yammo and seen my first Tabantha Moose.

My blue marker was right there on that red mountain.

What had I seen on top of that mountain?

I needed to go get it—NOW.

It had always been my wont to keep so many things in reserve until NEVER, because what if I had more urgent need of them down the road?

But I chucked that notion out the window as I perused my very old stock of Spicy Omelets. Surely they should have molded over by now.... but! My hammerspace pockets seemed also to act as the perfect preservation larder.

I ate an omelet, and charged up the road, not stopping for anything! I scrambled over the rough red rocks, straight up the mountainside! My blue marker drew nearer in my HUD map....! And UP over a little crest and it would be in sight!

I had a little difficulty focusing on it however as I seemed to have disturbed a little camp of cold-blooded baddies. Bokoblins, Ice Keese, White Chuchus.

I swiveled my scope madly—there it was! My blue marker!

It was a tree.

I had placed it on the naked trunk of a frozen tree.

....

I ran toward it! Straight through the baddie-camp and further up the hill! Passed the tree, the marker disappeared, and I kept running! I didn’t care to engage any of those things just now!

But higher up on the crest of the mountain was something that made me pull up a short. o_o I snapped its pictograph just as it turned its massive head and noticed me.

A Great-Horned Rhinoceros.

It was big, and woolly! With a blue-grey coat, and an enormous mean-lookin’ horn on its nose!

It charged and I jumped out of the way! Turned and pinked it with my sword. It bellowed and ran away. I ran but couldn’t catch it.... fired one arrow—it groared again—landed a second arrow....!

And it was down!

That was a great lotta meat to harvest! I scooped it all up quick and skipped up to the very tip of the mountain.

The warming effect from my spicy omelet would run out soon.... I decided I would paraglide back to the warmer climes!

And I did—it was a very long flight and I started freezing before I escaped the frigid air. But I managed to touch down on a warmer hill just above where I had started, near that bend in the path that curves around the head of the Forgotten Temple Valley.

GOT the blue marker!

Where to next? :D

Loose Ends

Waking of Friday, June 30, 2017

Loose Ends

And promptly ignored my log for a week.

You know, it is great to take Link romping all over the hills and through the woods and up and down the mountains but ahhh—there is just something really nice about doing it yourself. Bugs and sweat notwithstanding.

The extra six or seven thousand feet of elevation wasn’t so bad either. Lovely climate. <3 Mm, got a little burned that day at Big Lake, but hey, more vitamin D for me, cool.

Only problem left is what to do with the rest of those six hundred and forty-two gingersnaps we made. Mother and I had combined our forces for three days baking those. I don’t know whether to be madly unimpressed that our multitudinous relations didn’t make a bigger dent.... or delighted that there are so many left over for us.

Mmm I think I’m leaning toward delighted.

Okay. I wanted to go back to Akkala. It was time to get my Hero back on track. Dang these Zelda games.... so much wandering.... sirens over every hill.... Hhhh. <3

Akkala.

But I’d sew up some loose ends on the way.

My first stop was the Scary Tower. I mean the Central Tower. I’d seen a Korok’s pinwheel on my way from there to that northern shrine, but I hadn’t stopped to play; I hadn’t been able to find whatever I was supposed to shoot. The targets—sometimes they are silent, and obscure.

But I returned there now—Guardian lasers pointed at my back as I sailed toward those woods! And taking my time with a much more careful eye.... I found the Korok and got his seed.

The next Korok I scared up was much easier—that one that had been hiding beneath the memory tree by the lake. That rainy, rainy memory.

And after that, I really wanted to try to somehow harvest a bit of Farosh’s horn! But loiter all I might atop the Lake Tower, the bridge towers, or along the Bridge of Hylia itself.... he did not show himself.

I warped to Satori Mountain, near where I had seen him for the very first time; perhaps he would show himself there....

No such luck.

I looked at far away, as yet unreached shrines from the top of the mountain, marking them with beacons so I could see how far away they were on my map.... and then deleting those beacons.

“What are you doing?” David seemed shocked. “Don’t you want to leave the marker there?”

ô_ô

It had never really bothered me before, leaving the shrines not in my present path lost in the blue. But.... I found a suitable stamp to mark the spot, and slapped it on the map, and David was sufficed, and I grinned sheepishly.

I didn’t find Farosh from Satori Mountain.

I did however find that giant skeleton in the high meadow again.

It was on its feet and moving around this time. o_o

It was David’s first time seeing it, too.

I didn’t take a picture but I was pretty sure it must have been a Stal-Hinox.

The sun came up and it burrowed back into the ground.

There was still no sign of Farosh.

I went after another loose end in the meanwhile—long ago on my search for Mei, I had left my green marker on a shrine I had seen, in a cave beneath a pockmarked grey hill very near the castle.

I warped to the shrine in that giant Crack-in-the-Earth north of Jeddo Bridge—can’t remember the name of it—and upon rematerializing I remembered that, you know? That was the first shrine I encountered with.... different music; I’ve come across shrines bearing different musical flavors now and again—

And from there I was able to paraglide over the river and onto the grey hill, in the western regions of the castle lands.

The cave was blocked by briars and explodable boulders, easy enough to overcome with some flint and a bomb.

David and I.... rather blanched when we saw it was a combat shrine.

But it was only a Minor Test of Strength.

We exhaled in unison and shared a soft laugh of relief. ^_^;;

When I’d done the shrine I climbed up on top of the hill, looking for Koroks. I found a couple in the nearby vicinity, skirting round the creeping Guardian Flyers.... I also found a Talus on a hill that had looked promising.... I’ll have to remember that....

And as I swept my eyes over the wooded land surrounding that hill, I saw what must definitely have been a Korok’s hiding place: little statues with shallow bowls for offerings before them. They stood even nearer the castle.

I paraglided down into the place—Hyrule Castle Prison or something it was called. I don’t really recall exactly, because just then a laser settled over my heart and the triplet Piano started up at a tempo rather faster than normal. o_o

Korok would have to wait—I ran for cover behind a tree—ran with all the strength I had, but my stamina failed me within a yard of it—

The blast came and blowed me right up.

But Mipha covered me, as I knew she would.

But if I was in real trouble, I couldn’t count on her aid a second time so soon—I swiveled my camera—

A loose, six-legged Guardian.

Its health meter reflected 2000 hit points.

And it was RIGHT up in my grill now—the flames from its first attack hadn’t even gone out—

I was obliged to leave.

I warped once again to the Lake Tower.

But Farosh still did not show himself. Stubborn dragon.... where was he?

Soooo I decided to sew up a few more loose ends: I’d left a few of my beacon markers all over the map—like that green one for the shrine under the hill. I wanted to go try and pick the rest of them up.

The purple one was in the southwestern part of the Lynels’ Corridor, signifying some explodable rocks I had seen. Cleaning those up was easy enough—nifty weaponry!

The red one was away south of Hateno, on the slope before a prominent shrine overlooking the sea. I had visited that shrine once, but as I had not been able to best the Modest Test of Strength inside, I had decided to reload an earlier save in order to escape. This was before I had stopped grouping the activation of shrines with the completion of them in my mind; it hadn’t occurred to me to just lock down the warpable spot, if nothing else. I kinda wish it had....

But I went to the red marker, and found it to be floating in the air beside a tree. That was all. Nothing special. Guess from a distance I’d thought it was something else.

The blue one was far, far away to the northwest of the Elma Knolls. What had I seen there....?

It was too far away for me to care just then. I didn’t feel like running all over those hills, and so went back to the Lake Tower to see if Farosh would show his face.

He didn’t.

Satori Mountain was glowing though.

I’d never gone to visit it during a glowing time, and so decided.... What the hey.

I warped to the shrine near its top, and started climbing. I got onto one of the three highest boulders, and the very air around me took on that phantom teal glow....

I looked down into the little three-way crevasse at its peak.... There at the open end of one of the passes.... three of those little mystical rabbitkabobs sat facing each other.

“Are those blupees?” David asked in excitement. “They’re having a meeting!” he laughed.

....Blupees?

“....Did you know.... that’s what they’re called? Sorry....” he added.

“It’s okay,” I said.

They were right there, but.... still too far away.... I dropped down to get closer, the curvature of the mountain momentary blotting them from my sight! Would they startle and bolt if they saw me coming?

I moved toward them....

But just as my line of sight topped that little rise in the ground—what were those little yellowy dinglethings on their ears?—the teal glow faded, and.... they were gone.

Haaooohhhhhhh it made me want to come back heeeeeere....

I really was procrastinating. It was late and I had to go to bed. David kept reminding me of this. And I kept brushing him off as I swiveled pointlessly around on my map, looking for excuses....

But he knew how to get me off the game. “How about you watch me do that Ishto Soh Shrine?” he suggested.

“Okay!” I agreed immediately as I gamboled through the crows around Satori’s crown. That was a good idea.

But I found one last excuse on the map before I stopped: that big weird island-thing near Mount Daphnes, with a long bridge to reach it in the middle of a large pond of some sort....

“Come on,” David groaned.

I warped to the beloved Shrine of KAAM YA’TAK....

Had to take out a couple of Moblins on my way—I rather laughed at how the one second-nearest the bridge didn’t really seem to care at all as I bombed the living daylights out of his fellow who was nearest the bridge.

No honor among Ganon’s Minions I guess.

The “island” it turned out was a giant stump. Called The Ancient Stump, in fact. The surrounding pond churned with Lizalfos like an evil moat. The bridge was kept by one solitary blue bokoblin, and on the Stump itself, another bokoblin and a moblin, both blue, sat doing nothing.

I ran in to alleviate their boredom, but they couldn’t quite keep up with the exercise.... When I’d taken care of them both, I had a good look at what was stuck in the stump on the far side: a Great Fireblade.

Ohh-ho-ho-ho it was pretty. OuO Two-handed and heavy, like the Great Thunderblade, but of the fire element rather than the electricity element.

Cool. X-)

“Okay!” David pressed, but I dragged it out for one moment more as I jumped into a Korok ring in the moat far below, and collected a seed....

And then it was back to the Lake Tower and OFF with the game! ^_^

David’s turn!

I ran off to brush my teeth or something while he made his way toward the shrine. And when I came back, I had the delight of watching him interact with Moza. X-)

Now, typically, the shrines I suck at, David aces, and the shrines David sucks at, I ace. But the Ishto Soh Shrine proved quite as maddening for him as it had for me.

I could only encourage him along the route that I had taken, which was to lay out some bombs by the switch, get up the first stair by bow and/or paraglider, get up the next two stairs by the previously laid bombs, and get up the last stair by one more very clever bomb....

And eventually, David got it that way too.

This was all after watching him try the most amazingly outlandish tactics to advance, and seeing them not work; and telling him of all the ridiculously crazy tactics I had tried, and how those had failed; and laughing a lot in between.

But afterward, David went back in the shrine to see if he couldn’t figure out the right way to do it....

I noticed the music was different, after the shrine had been beaten. A soft difference. Subtle. The chimes seemed gentler, and muted....  as if.... as if this were only the ghost of the task you’d had to do. A shadow. An echo.

It was quite nice. <3

But David was busy squeezing his head around that Bravery’s Grasp title of the shrine-task.... and he inspected the laser....

AND WE BOTH THOUGHT OH NO WAY....

AND THEN HE PICKED UP THE LASER.

OH MY GOSH—what heavy palms I dragged down my unbelieving face.

“I wanna take this outside!” said David! 8D

He set the laser on the moving platform and moved up the stairway in seconds.

Dang.

Ah, Zelda.

Delightful.

David paraglided down into the Corridor and—oh my gosh—rode the Lynel for all his stamina . . . . and then I went to bed.