The Night Music Poet Does (Zelda) Gaming: Part 17b

GAMING UPDATE: LEGEND OF ZELDA PROJECT 2014

A Link Between Worlds

Another couple of nights’ worth of gameplay and I would say that this game is going quite smoothly.

Let me start off by correcting one of my statements from my last update. I mentioned that we wouldn’t be finding any major items in the dungeons because of the item rental system. Well, there are a few things that we will be finding in the dungeons; for example, the Titan’s Mitts in the Desert Palace which allow you to lift very heavy things, the Blue Mail in the Swamp Palace, which cuts the damage you take by half, and the Red Mail in Lorule Castle toward the end of the game, which cuts the damage you take in half again. I would call those major items, though they are not necessarily weapons or such.

During my gameplay sessions last night and tonight, I was able to clear the Desert Palace, the Dark Palace, and the Swamp Palace and I hunted around for more baby Maiamais and Pieces of Heart. I’m close to finding all the baby Maiamais actually; I’ve found all the ones in the Hyrule overworld and most of the ones in the Lorule overworld, and I’m doing at least decently well on the Heart Piece side quest. I also did a bit of exploring around Death Mountain and activated the weather vane near the Ice Ruins at the top of Death Mountain in Lorule, but I’m going to have to go back through Rosso’s Ore Mine again to find a Piece of Heart that’s down there. I’d already been down there once…I’d forgotten about that Piece of Heart that time so…I guess I’ll go find it again. There are four Pieces of Heart that I know I’m not going to be able to get, and I think those have mostly to do with certain mini-games. But I think I’ve found maybe something like half of the available Heart Pieces by this point, maybe even a few more.

The Desert Palace is (naturally) the sand/desert level in this game, the Dark Palace is…well, dark, to say the least (it’s actually really dark in there and I would suggest equipping your lantern at most if not all times), and the Swamp Palace is the water dungeon of this game. Each has its own interesting mechanics, though I would say that those of the Dark Palace and Swamp Palace are a bit more interesting. In the Dark Palace, there are certain rooms where you actually need it to be completely dark so you can see where certain platforms are located. In the Swamp Palace, you use your Hookshot on these interesting wheel-like devices to raise and lower the water level, and a new type of wall panel is introduced which you can grapple to with your Hookshot and then very quickly merge into the wall so you can walk along the wall at higher altitudes.

As of now I’m saved just outside the Skull Woods dungeon, which will be my next challenge. That will perhaps happen tomorrow night. We shall see how far I get. The dungeons in this game aren’t actually taking too long; most of my time I spend exploring in this game trying to discover as much as I can and figuring out what secrets there are to be found. I like how you’re not limited by a set order in which to do things, so you can explore as much as you want without really missing much as you go along. Though some secrets you do need to be pretty clever in finding; such is true of any Zelda game. But…onward!

And now…Night Music Poet Gamer Stats!

Title: A Link Between Worlds
Platform: Nintendo 3DS (played on a 3DS XL)
Time Played: 10 hours thus far
Status: Desert Palace, Dark Palace, and Swamp Palace cleared. Four of the Seven Sages rescued. Titan’s Mitts, Pegasus Boots and Blue Mail obtained. 90 Baby Maiamais rescued.

Back soon with more updates for this project. For science!

Until then, good night.

The Night Music Poet Does (Zelda) Gaming: Part 17a

GAMING UPDATE: LEGEND OF ZELDA PROJECT 2014

A Link Between Worlds

And now, time for the final (or should I say, most current) chapter in the Legend of Zelda franchise, released on November 28th, 2013: A Link Between Worlds.

In this game, we see Link as the apprentice to the Blacksmith in Hyrule, tasked with delivering a sword to the Captain of the Hyrule Guard. When he reaches Hyrule Castle, however, Princess Zelda gives him the Pendant of Courage and informs him that she’s had some nightmares about evil rising again in Hyrule (oddly enough, Link has been having those exact same nightmares). And of course, that evil is indeed rising, in the form of an eccentric—and artistic—sorcerer named Yuga, who has captured the Seven Sages of Hyrule and turned them into paintings. He intends to do the same to Princess Zelda, and it’s up to Link to stop him. In his quest to do so, Link stumbles upon a world that is now connected to Hyrule through Yuga’s magic: it’s the Kingdom of Lorule, watched over by Princess Hilda, and this world is slowly falling apart due to Yuga’s influence. Link’s challenge becomes to find and free the Seven Sages and rescue Princess Zelda, and figure out just how closely connected the Kingdoms of Hyrule and Lorule actually are.

There was a lot of hype surrounding this game when it first came out, both good and bad. This game was heavily influenced by A Link to the Past, and you can tell that in the game’s layout, soundtrack, dungeons, and even certain gameplay mechanics. Lots of people said that it was only a sequel to A Link to the Past. Well, it is, and it isn’t. It’s a sequel in almost every sense of the word in terms of the overworld design and the overall plot of the story: go back and forth between the two worlds, find and free the seven key characters (in A Link to the Past it was seven maidens, and in this game it’s seven sages), final boss fight. However, this is where the similarity ends. The viewpoint is top-down, like most 2D Zelda games, but the graphics in this game are beautiful and absolutely stunning in 3D. The method by which you go back and forth between the two worlds is really awesome too; at the beginning of the game, you meet a mysterious character named Ravio, who asks to rent your house temporarily to set up shop (actually, he’s a little rude about it and you don’t have much choice), but he lets you have a bracelet for letting him stay there. This bracelet is the key to this gameplay mechanic, as it lets you become a painting and merge into walls, thus being able to slide through cracks, walk on the walls to places you may not be able to reach otherwise, and even sneak up on people when they least expect it. There are certain cracks in walls and such things which are colored around the edges and have black smoke coming out of them; these are the cracks which you can walk through as a painting to get back and forth between Hyrule and Lorule.

Ravio is kind of an odd character. He is dressed in purple robes with a purple rabbit hood, which I think were inspired by the Bunny Hood from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, as well as the Rabbitland Rescue guy from Spirit Tracks. I’ve also heard tell that his rabbit costume could be a reference to Bunny Link from A Link to the Past, because when Link first enters the Dark World in that game, without the Moon Pearl, he turns into a rabbit. Hmmm…

Now let me speak a bit about Ravio’s shop which he sets up in Link’s house, uninvited. It’s an Item Rental Shop. Yes, you won’t be finding dungeon items in this game. You’ll be able to rent, and later buy, all the major items in the game from Ravio’s Shop (included are: the Fire Rod, the Ice Rod, the Tornado Rod, the Sand Rod, Bombs, the Hammer, the Bow, the Hookshot, and Boomerang). This is a mechanic that I was at first a little nervous about, since if you die in battle or something to that effect, Ravio’s little sidekick bird Sheerow will come and take all your rented items back from you, and you’ll have to rent them again. Once you become able to buy items however, they’re kind of expensive at 800 rupees each (400 rupees for the first item you buy), but you won’t lose them if you die, which I guess is a fair trade-off, right?

Being able to rent or buy these items frees up the gameplay quite a lot, actually. Because you’re able to do so and because you won’t be finding major items in the dungeons, you can go through the dungeons in any order you want. Yes, that’s right, you are not limited by dungeon order in this game. This leaves you free to explore as much as you want, whenever you want, and being someone who loves to explore when I play Zelda games, I didn’t mind this at all.

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Both tonight and last night I spent some time starting this game, and I think I’ve gotten a fairly good start on it. It’s playing rather quickly in terms of plot so far; the main plot itself isn’t taking all that long, but the exploration part of it will surely tack on more hours than I plan, I’m sure. I’ve made it through the first three dungeons (the Eastern Palace, the House of Gales, and the Tower of Hera), as well as the Thieves’ Hideout, which is one of the seven dungeons in Lorule, which as I said, you can play in any order. So far, none of these dungeons are proving to be that hard, as it’s not taking me that long to clear them. I’ve also cleared a few mini-games as well, and I’ve advanced in a couple of side quests.

There actually aren’t that many side quests in this game; just two that I know of: one for the Pieces of Heart, and the other is the Maiamai Collection. In a cave in Hyrule near Lake Hylia, you meet a large pink octopus-like creature named Mother Maiamai, who has lost her 100 babies. So of course, since we are the protagonist, she asks us to find them for her. These baby Maiamais are hiding everywhere, from treetops to walls to buildings both inside and out, and even under rocks and things. I’m getting on in that side quest nicely, since most of my exploring pertains to finding these little things. You can tell when you’re near one because you’ll be able to hear it squeaking, but sometimes you won’t be able to retrieve them without the Merge ability or certain items. I’ve also bought half the items from Ravio’s Shop thus far (Bow, Bombs, Hammer, Tornado Rod and Sand Rod), since I’ve been finding countless numbers of rupees everywhere (you essentially have a hyperspace wallet in this game as well, and you can collect up to 9,999 rupees at a time) so that’s been helping a lot. As for the mini-games, there is one where you must stand inside a corral and dodge Cuccos that come flying at you, and if you can do that for 30 seconds you’ll win a prize (namely, double the rupees you spent for a chance to play the game). However, if you beat the mini-game on hard mode, you’ll win not only 150 rupees, but also a Piece of Heart.

The second mini-game has two variations: one in Hyrule, one in Lorule. Both variants are called Rupee Rush, and the point is to gather as many rupees as possible within 30 seconds. However, there’s no timer, so you have to judge as best you can how much time you have and go back to talk to the person running the mini-game before the 30 seconds is up. Quite by accident both times I played this game, I managed to both find the baby Maiamais, finish the game with less than 1 second left and thus get a 3x bonus, and score enough rupees to get the number I needed to get myself the Piece of Heart I could win by setting the records. So, yeah! That happened! If only I were better at Octorok Baseball or the Treasure Chest mini-game…though I haven’t tried those yet. I’ve played this game before and I realize that both those games are not worth my time because I’m no good at either of them.

The transport system in this game is interesting as well. There are weather vanes scattered throughout both Hyrule and Lorule; these act as your save points and your transport points. You’ll occasionally see Maple flying around in the beginning of the game; when you meet her, she gives you a bell, which you can use to call her at any time when you’re outside in the overworld. She’ll bring you to whichever weather vane you want, provided of course that you’ve saved at it at least once. It makes traveling a lot easier, that’s for sure!

As something of a minor detail here, you can catch things with a net in this game, like you could in A Link to the Past. You can catch things like fairies, bees, and even recovery hearts and put them in bottles. There’s actually something of a reason for catching bees in this game; in Kakariko Village in Hyrule, there’s a man in a bee costume who gives you the bug-catching net so you can catch bees for him. If you bring him back a bee, he’ll give you 50 rupees for it, and it’s actually a nice little money-maker if you’re running short of cash. Also, if you catch a Golden Bee, he’ll give you a Bee Badge the first time, which means that if you find a bee in the wild, it won’t sting you, and it will instead sting enemies and stun them so you can get hits on them. Pretty neat! I actually don’t remember what happens if you catch a second Golden Bee for him; my best guess is he gives you a ton of rupees for it.

My next destination appears to be the Desert Palace in Southwestern Lorule. Here I’ll free the next sage and decide where I should go next. Onward!

And now…Night Music Poet Gamer Stats!

Title: A Link Between Worlds
Platform: Nintendo 3DS (played on a 3DS XL)
Time Played: 5.5 hours thus far
Status: Eastern Palace, House of Gales, Tower of Hera, and Thieves’ Hideout cleared. ~45-50 Baby Maiamais found (will have exact count in the next update).

Back soon with more updates for this project. For science!

Until then, good night.

The Night Music Poet Does (Zelda) Gaming: Part 16g

GAMING UPDATE: LEGEND OF ZELDA PROJECT 2014

Skyward Sword

At long last, this game is DONE!

Over the past two or three nights, I got in the last necessary hours on Skyward Sword and finished the game. There’s a lot to cover in this post, so I’ll paraphrase most of it. Now, where did I leave off from last time?

Right. The Fire Sanctuary. This place is similar in appearance to the Ancient Cistern, actually, in the sense that it is full of Chinese- or Japanese-themed decor, including Asian-style dragons and so forth. The main gimmick here is to rescue some Mogmas that have been captured and strung up over pools of lava; for rescuing them, you’ll get the item of the dungeon, an upgrade to your Digging Mitts: the Mogma Mitts. With these gloves you are able to not only dig up soft soil for rupees, Eldin Ore and the occasional recovery hearts, but at certain spots of soft soil, you can burrow underground and crawl around in search of underground switches and the occasional angry-looking Moldorm. Another new gimmick is introduced here; sometimes you’re going to find places where you’re not going to be able to jump over the lava or get to the next part of the room without crossing the lava. This is where the water bulb is introduced. These can be used in two ways: if you find one hanging over lava, you can knock it with a projectile (Clawshots, Beetle, Slingshot, or Bow) and it will fall into the lava and harden into a temporary platform, allowing you to cross to the next platform; or if the lava underneath you is moving, it will transport you to the next part of the room. Or, if they are hanging low enough to hit with your sword, you can grab onto the bulb with your sword and carry it around. In this dungeon there is a mini-boss called Magmanos (magma + manos…this latter is the Spanish word for “hands”…yeah, total sense-make!), which you can toss one of these water bulbs at, making it harden, so you can hit it with your sword. Ghirahim makes another appearance as a boss in this dungeon, and he’s actually not that hard, even compared to his first incarnation as the boss of the Skyview Temple. He sends more of those red laser rockets at you, but these you can deflect back at him if you swing your sword in the right direction. You’ll also have to be careful not to let him block your sword with his hand. The fight is honestly not too different from the first one at the Skyview Temple, and after this fight, you’ll temper your sword in Din’s Flame, which awakens your sword as the Master Sword.

At this point, we’ll be able to open the second Gate of Time, which is located, surprisingly enough, in the Sealed Temple, but before we’re able to do so, the Imprisoned breaks its seal again, and we have to force it back underground. During this second fight, this beast has grown arms, and Groose has started at least to come to his senses a little. Here’s where Groose actually comes in handy. Since the old woman in the Sealed Temple has apparently talked some sense into him and showed him that he actually does have some potential to help, he has developed a catapult with which he launched bombs at the monstrous beast, which stuns him temporarily, so you have an easier time hacking into his feet with your sword. After defeating him a second time, you can open the Gate of Time, where you learn some back story to enhance the plot and your Master Sword is fully awakened as the True Master Sword.

Our next task is to go into the Thunderhead and figure out what’s causing the stormy weather in there. According to Headmaster Gaebora and Instructor Owlan, Levias, the Guardian Dragon of the Skies, has been possessed by some kind of parasite and we need to eradicate it from him. Instructor Owlan instructs us on how to use the Spiral Charge while flying on our Loftwing, and so now we have the skills we need to help Levias. It’s actually a little difficult to keep up with him because he is constantly moving, so it takes a lot of patience and trial and error. Upon ridding Levias of the parasite, he tells us to seek the other three dragons in the Faron, Eldin and Lanayru Regions, and learn their respective sections of the Song of the Hero, which will show you the way to the ultimate goal: the Triforce.

So first, off to the Faron Region first, and strangely, we can’t land anywhere except for within the Sealed Grounds and behind the Sealed Temple. It seems we’re up for another fight with the Imprisoned. The first couple of phases of this fight are similar to the last battle, but now the Imprisoned has developed the added ability of being able to fly!…or should I say, float; this thing doesn’t actually have wings, I don’t think, but there is a black and red halo above its head which allows it to do so. During the third phase of this third battle, Groose gets cut off from his bomb stash, so he proposes to launch you from his catapult onto the Imprisoned’s head so you can smack the sealing spike back into his head. You have to run fast and use the air vents wisely to get back to the top of the Sealed Grounds and your aim has to be perfect, because otherwise you might fail the boss fight. Don’t overshoot and don’t hesitate at all; the Imprisoned flies fairly quickly for such a giant leviathan of evil. But if you have precise aim and you drive the spike back in time, you’ll have no problems here.

But now it seems something odd is happening in Faron Woods; we weren’t able to land there before our third fight with the Imprisoned, and the old woman in the Sealed Temple tells us that the whole of Faron Woods has been flooded. Groose launches us over to the woods in his catapult, and upon swimming up inside the Great Tree, we find that the flooding has been caused by Faron the Water Dragon, in order to drive out the monsters. In order to learn Faron’s part of the Song of the Hero, you’ll have to swim through the flooded woods and find all the Tadtones which make up the song. When seeking Eldin, the Fire Dragon, when you land in the Eldin Region, you get blown off-course by a volcanic eruption and knocked unconscious, at which point you are overrun by a hoard of Bokoblins, who steal everything you have from weapons to adventure pouch. You now have to scale the volcano while avoiding being seen by the Bokoblins, and get all your weapons and items back. This I think is one of the most annoying parts of this game, along with another part of this game which I’ll get to in a moment. It’s horrible to have no items on you! But once you do get to the summit and get all your items back, as well as your sword, you find the Fire Dragon, who apologizes for the volcanic eruption and teaches you his part of The Hero’s Song. And finally, in the Lanayru Gorge, in the southern part of the Lanayru Region, is what I think is the most annoying part of this game. The little robots in the mining facility are about to send a Timeshift Stone off to the Thunder Dragon, whom all these little robots work for, apparently, and you must follow this Timeshift Stone through a series of caves all the way to where the Thunder Dragon is. Upon finding him though, you discover that he’s quite ill, and needs a fruit from the Tree of Life to recover. So what do we do? Find the Tree of Life sapling, plant it elsewhere (more specifically, the Sealed Temple, in the Past) and bring the fruit back to the Thunder Dragon. For curing him, he’ll teach you his part of the Song of the Hero. When you leave the Lanayru Gorge and return, you’ll open up a sort of “Take ‘Em All On” mini-game, where you re-fight the various bosses you’ve taken on thus far, and if you can win four times without dying before stopping, you’ll get a Piece of Heart. If you win eight times, however, you’ll get the indestructible Hylian Shield, which is a really nice thing to have, actually, even though it’s not necessary. I like having it though, because as I said, it’s indestructible!

So now we can return to the sky and learn Levias’s part of the Song of the Hero, and now that we know the whole song, we have one more trial ahead of us. There is one more Silent Realm, the Goddess’s Silent Realm, in Skyloft. This one can be a little trickier than the others, but it’s really compact, so you might not have too much trouble. However, there’s a lot of potential to be seen by Guardian Eyes, so be careful. For completing this trial, you’ll get the Stone of Trials, which will lead you to the place where the Triforce is hidden. It’s actually right here in Skyloft, in a hidden dungeon called the Sky Keep.

This place is actually a little weird; there are eight rooms in this dungeon, each of which is themed like the dungeons you encountered in this game, and all of which can be moved around using slide panel puzzles. It’s a little frustrating to figure out, and you have to utilize every skill you’ve learned thus far to get through these rooms. But eventually, you find all three pieces of the Triforce, and once you have them, the whole of the Sky Keep detaches from Skyloft and falls into the Sealed Grounds, and you’ll be ready to take on the end-game.

I only wanted to do this once, so I was very careful in taking on the end-game. Before battling Ghirahim, I stocked up with three extra-powered-up heart potions and two fairies, as well as both Life Medals and my Hylian Shield, before getting down to the bottom of the Sealed Grounds you must fight off hoards of all variants of Bokoblins, which actually seems like what is going to happen in Hyrule Warriors…you can unleash sword blows on these guys which send them all flying. Occasionally they’ll drop recovery hearts, which is helpful for fighting Ghirahim. He’s actually not too hard even as a lead-up to the final boss fight; you’re up on raised platforms and he’ll attack with kicks and punches, but just keep slashing at him until he falls to the ground, and deliver a fatal blow each time. When you get all the way to the ground, he’ll start attacking with a sword, and he’ll shoot giant red laser discs at you, which you have to deflect back at him with the appropriate sword slashes (vertical slashes deflect the vertical discs, and horizontal slashes deflect horizontal ones), and then you can get some hits in on him once he’s stunned. Do this enough, and Ghirahim will take out a new sword, which he’ll be able to restore if you don’t capitalize on your attacks. You have to keep slashing at him as his sword blocks your attacks, because if you hit his sword enough it will break, at which point you’ll be able to stab at Ghirahim’s chest. Do this enough and he’ll fall, but in the meanwhile, the Imprisoned breaks loose again and transforms by Ghirahim’s spell into Demise, the evil entity whom Ghirahim had been trying to resurrect this whole time. And finally, we fight Demise in a dimension far above the Surface.

Before I fought Demise, I didn’t even have to replenish anything. I was careful during the fight with Ghirahim, although I did come close to losing all my health, but I didn’t use any of my potions or fairies. All I had to do was head back into the Temple of Hylia and sit on the stool that is there to replenish my life bar. I then followed Demise into his alternate plane and prepared for battle. As stupid an idea as it may seem, it’s actually safer to stick close to Demise and dodge his close-range attacks than it is to keep your distance. Keep slashing at him where he isn’t blocking and for God’s sakes, jump out of the way when he attacks. Keep that up enough times, and Demise will start preparing Skyward Strikes. Again, stick close to him and prepare Skyward Strikes of your own, and if you successfully hit him with one before he hits you, you can get some hits in on him. You’re going to have to do this three or four times to successfully defeat him; it took me four times but that’s because I was erring on the side of caution. It is so damned difficult to get a Skyward Strike on him, and I went through both fairies and most of my potions, but after downing him four times and successfully landing a fatal blow, I defeated Demise and saved Zelda.

And oh yeah, I finished the Gratitude Crystals and Goddess Chest side quests, which is awesome.

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So now for my final thoughts on this game.

The art style, graphics, soundtrack, and gameplay are awesome. There’s a little too much hand-holding in this game (re: Fi), but I guess it doesn’t get too much in the way of the experience. This game is also the longest in the series, as it took me 47.5 hours to complete, and this is not even completing the game 100%. I’m short three heart pieces but I know which ones they are: Fun Fun Island, Fledge’s Pumpkin Pull, and the Rickety Coaster in the Lanayru Shipyard. There is so much to explore in this game, and most of this time spent playing this game is flying around on your Loftwing and trying the mini-games for the I-don’t-kn0w-how-many-th time. This game has a lot of unique puzzle mechanics in it and I did enjoy a lot of what the game had to offer. The motion controls are a little wonky at times, especially since I found myself having to center the controls on frequent occasion, but this didn’t get in the way too much either. Also there’s actually a lot of things in this game I forgot about; for instance, having to protect Scrapper on the way up Eldin Volcano. This game is definitely worth playing more than once, and I would play it again.

With Skyward Sword behind me, I’ve just got one more game left for this project, and that is the most recent installment, A Link Between Worlds. I may or may not start that today, depending on whether or not I decide to write the recaps of Monty Python and Queen + Adam Lambert this afternoon or not. Though I’m wondering whether I should try to finish this last game before the end of Thursday, as Thursday is the last day of July, and it would be kind of a nice thing if I could finish this project within the next few days.

Onward!!

And now…Night Music Poet Gamer Stats!

Title: Skyward Sword
Platform: Nintendo Wii (played on a Wii U)
Time Played: 47.5 hours
Status: Cleared
Next Challenge: A Link Between Worlds

Back soon with more updates for this project. For science!

The Night Music Poet Does (Zelda) Gaming: Part 16f

GAMING UPDATE: LEGEND OF ZELDA PROJECT 2014

Skyward Sword

On both Monday and Wednesday night this week, I furthered my progress considerably in Skyward Sword. I completed the next dungeon, furthered some side quests, passed the third Goddess Trial in Din’s Silent Realm, and opened the way to the Fire Sanctuary in the Eldin Volcano Summit.

Upon exploring the Lanayru Shipyard and Pirate Stronghold for clues as to the whereabouts of the Skipper’s ship, and coming up empty (except for riding around in mining carts and having a second battle with Moldarach in the Shipyard Construction Bay, and re-orchestrating the power supply of the Pirate Stronghold by transporting a Timeshift orb from one part of the stronghold to the other), our next step is to dowse for the ship and see if we can find it that way. Upon finding my target and shooting it with a few cannonballs, the Sandship appears from invisibility and thus our next dungeon awaits us.

The Sandship is an interesting dungeon. Not very big and not all that difficult, but the chief gimmick of this dungeon is a Timeshift Stone on the mast which you can activate or deactivate at any time from the deck or just below, and it’s kind of awesome. When you activate or deactivate the Timeshift Stone, the Sandship will transform from old and dusty (Present) to new and shiny and technologically advanced (Past). This place is infested with Bokoblins (top deck) and Aracha (lower decks), and even the occasional Keese. Scervo, the mini-boss of this dungeon, is the usurping Pirate Captain of the Sandship, and for a mini-boss, he’s not so hard even though he looks formidable and threatening. Just keep knocking him back off the prow of the ship with your sword. However, I would advise caution because there’s a spiked grating behind you which comes closer to you with each attempt to knock Scervo off the prow; not as you fight him of course, but at the point where you make him almost fall off, and he regains his balance. But upon the third attempt he will fall off the ship, and your reward is the item of this dungeon, and the final new weapon in our arsenal, the Bow and Arrows. Using these you can hit the Timeshift Stone on the mast and employ the gimmick of this dungeon. It can help you navigate through the Sandship depending on where you need to go. The idea here is to turn on two generators to get the inner machinery going within the ship, and upon doing so and finding the Boss Key, we’re ready to take on the boss of this place: the Abysmal Leviathan, Tentalus. It’s kind of ironic, actually, because Tentalus is a giant squid-like creature with a ton of tentacles, and the boss key is in the shape of a squid. And this thing is GIANT. Its tentacles come up through the deck of the ship and since they’re too big to be hacked at with normal sword slashes, you have to use Skyward Strikes to cut them off. Then of course, shoot Tentalus in the eye with your Bow and Arrows. Upon defeating this leviathan squid, you temper your sword in Nayru’s Flame, which gives you more dowsing capabilities.

After the Sandship was cleared, I was brought back to the Lanayru Sand Sea port where I had first entered the area, and then I went on to further some side quests and learn a new song in the temple on the Isle of Songs: Din’s Power. Before going back to the Eldin Region, however, I completed Fledge’s side quest and thereby opened up a new mini-game called Fledge’s Pumpkin Pull. Fledge will toss pumpkins in the air and you can shoot at them with your bow. This is, essentially, a shooting gallery game, similar to the ones from Phantom Hourglass. For each pumpkin you shoot successfully in a row, you will get a points bonus, and the max point value for a pumpkin is 50 points. For scores of 250 or better, you will get 50 rupees as a prize. For scores of 400 or better, you will get a rare treasure (Dusk Relic, Ancient Flower, and so on). For a score of 600 or better (only the first time though), you’ll get a Piece of Heart.

Speaking of Pieces of Heart, I’m missing two of them. And I know where they are. They’re from winning the mini-game on Fun Fun Island and for getting the top score in Fledge’s Pumpkin Pull. If I feel like going through the frustration of those mini-games again, I might go back and get them. For now though, I’m continuing on with the story.

Anyway. Using this new song, I traveled to the entry of the Eldin Volcano and entered the Trial Gate. Din’s Silent Realm is not quite as open as Nayru’s Silent Realm, and is harder as well. I found it easiest to do what I did in Nayru’s Silent Realm: start in the northeast corner of the region by going up the giant air vent near the Trial Gate and go in a clockwise fashion around the place. The slide on the east side of the realm is treacherous as there is Waking Water everywhere. In fact, I failed the trial the first time because I’d accidentally touched Waking Water on my way down the slide and couldn’t escape the Guardians when I got back to the foot of the volcano. Upon succeeding, however, I was awarded the Fireshield Earrings, which enable me to explore the volcano even in the most extreme temperatures. Upon exploring the Volcano Summit, I found my next destination: the Fire Sanctuary. I also caught some Volcanic Ladybugs on my way, and thus have now obtained at least one of each type of insect available in this game.

Getting into the Fire Sanctuary is no easy task, however. There are two frog statues beside fiery walls, and we need to “quench their thirst,” as a nearby stone tablet tells us, so that we may enter. Fortunately for us, there is a waterfall just outside the Volcano Summit, so we can grab a couple of bottles of water for this purpose. The entrance to the sanctuary itself is not quite so simple…the frog is way up high and we can’t reach it, and it’s also bigger than the other frog statues. We’re going to need something bigger than our bottles to put the flames out. Fortunately, we know where something like that is. Next stop, the Floria Waterfall, where Faron the Water Dragon graciously agrees to let us borrow her water basin, and of course we must enlist Scrapper to help us. However, Scrapper still doesn’t seem to like us very much, and upon reaching the Eldin Region, he gets the idea that he can get to the Surface before we will, and in his haste to spite us, his plan kind of backfires on him, because we land at the entry to the region instead of the summit of the volcano. Now we have to scale the whole of the volcano again. Nice going there, Scrapper! And of course we have to protect the robot from any attacks, because otherwise he will malfunction and we’ll have to start over again. I had actually forgotten this part; having the Bow and Arrows, especially upgraded all the way to the Sacred Bow, is an extremely effective weapon against the many Bokoblins and Moblins you’ll find on your way. Once we reached the Fire Sanctuary, Scrapper pours the water on the frog statue and just lets the basin drop (how rude!), putting out the fire that blocks our way into the sanctuary.

Also I noticed something the other day…each region of The Surface is named for one of the Oracles: Eldin, Lanayru, Faron. Just a little interesting bit of trivia there.

For next time, I take on the Fire Sanctuary in search of Din’s Flame. Onward!

And now…Night Music Poet Gamer Stats!

Title: Skyward Sword
Platform: Nintendo Wii (played on a Wii U)
Time Played: 34 hours thus far
Status: Lanayru Shipyard explored. Pirate Stronghold explored. Skipper’s Ship found. Sandship cleared. Various side quests furthered. Sixty of eighty Gratitude Crystals obtained. Din’s Power learned. Din’s Silent Realm cleared. Eldin Volcano Summit explored. Fire Sanctuary discovered.

Back soon with more updates for this project. For science!

The Night Music Poet Does (Zelda) Gaming: Part 16e

GAMING UPDATE: LEGEND OF ZELDA PROJECT 2014

Skyward Sword

This past Friday night I got a bit more gameplay in. I was able to clear the Ancient Cistern, pass the second Goddess’s Trial, and discover new sections of the Lanayru Region: the Lanayru Caves and the Lanayru Sand Sea.

The Ancient Cistern is one of the prettier dungeons in this game, for lack of better words. It reminds me very much of the inside of a Buddhist or Chinese temple; everything is golden in here and there are lotus flowers and lily pads floating in the water within the main room, and there is a giant statue in the middle that looks like a Buddha, which you can move up and down by flipping various switches. The item of this dungeon is the Whip, which is something like the grappling hook from previous games, in that you can latch onto bars and swing across them, latch onto switches and turn them, or grab onto enemies that are far away and bring them closer to you. It’s a handy weapon to have around, though admittedly, outside the dungeon it isn’t used for much, at least yet. There is a lower floor in this dungeon similar to an underground cave, and in here you can find a new variant of the Bokoblin: Cursed Bokoblins. These zombie-type enemies are easy to knock down but not easy to kill, so once you knock them down, perform a fatal blow to finish them off. However, I’d highly recommend you carry the Treasure Medal with you through this dungeon (if not through the whole game; I find it quite a nice thing to have around), because Cursed Bokoblins rarely drop a treasure called an Evil Crystal when you kill them. You’ll need at least four of these to upgrade various items, and you won’t find them anywhere besides Cursed Bokoblins except for randomly in treasure chests (though very rarely) or for a price from the Midnight Merchant Gossip Stone inside the Waterfall Cave on Skyloft at night. The battle with the boss of this dungeon, Ancient Automaton Koloktos, is one of the more epic battles in this game. This golden machine is possessed by some evil spirit (most likely planted there by Ghirahim, since he shows up again right before the battle), and he is at first stuck in the ground. He has six arms, two of which are covering his weak spot, and four of which are trying to attack you. He’ll throw axes at you, which you’ll have to dodge, or he’ll try and smack you with his arms. When he does the latter, attach your whip to one arm and rip the arm off. Once all four of his attacking arms are torn off, smack at his weak spot, a red sphere in his chest, until he fuses his arms back on and then repeat the process over. Eventually Koloktos will pull himself out of the ground and all six of his arms will pull out gigantic swords. He’ll either try to slice you with three of the swords, or he’ll summon a few Cursed Bokoblins to distract you while he attacks. When he tries to slice you, attach your whip to one of his arms, pull it off, pick up the sword and then go all out on him by slicing off his limbs until he falls to the ground, and then slash at his weak spot. Lather, rinse, repeat until he is destroyed. Thus you can temper your Goddess Sword with Farore’s Flame and it will become longer and stronger.

With that bit of trouble out of the way, and after catching up on a few side quests for Goddess Cubes and Gratitude Crystals (and having reached 50 of them, obtaining a wallet that can hold 5,000 rupees, plus the three extra wallets which can add 900), I returned to the Isle of Songs to learn a new song called Nayru’s Wisdom, which will lead us to the Trial Gate in the Lanayru Region. Nayru’s Silent Realm is somewhat a larger region than Farore’s Silent Realm and the Tears of Nayru are somewhat more spread out, and not only do we have Guardians and Waking Water to deal with, but also remember there is still quicksand here, so we have to watch out for that. It’s easiest to go clockwise around the realm to get the Tears of Nayru, and to leave the ones in the middle of the realm (where the entrance to the Lanayru Mining Facility is) for last so you don’t run out of time before getting back to the Trial Gate. It’s very easy here to be caught by a Guardian Eye or to run out of time between finding the Tears, so just be careful of that. For completing this trial, we get the Double Clawshots, making their return from Twilight Princess, and being ever so helpful to our quest because now we can access ledges and places we couldn’t before, such as the entrance to the Lanayru Caves, where we find passage to the Lanayru Sand Sea, which used to be an actual sea, but which has since evaporated and been replaced by endless sand dunes.

Here, however, we find another Timeshift Stone on a small boat at the dock, and a Skipper who has lost his ship and his crew to a band of pirates. In exchange for helping him find his ship and his crew, he’ll give us use of his small boat to explore around the sea. We must first obtain a sea chart from his retreat, which is *WAY* up high on some rock pillars which we can only reach using the Clawshots (also Peahats return at this location, and similar to their variants in Twilight Princess, they are simply used as Clawshot targets, and they won’t hurt you at all), at which point we’ll be able to navigate where we’re going. The first clues to finding his ship supposedly are in the Shipyard, where I am currently docked.

As soon as I am able to manage it, I’ll get back into this game. Perhaps tomorrow night. My next objective is to explore around the Shipyard to see if I can find any clues as to the whereabouts of the Skipper’s ship and his crew.

And now…Night Music Poet Gamer Stats!

Title: Skyward Sword
Platform: Nintendo Wii (played on a Wii U)
Time Played: 28.5 hours thus far
Status: Ancient Cistern cleared. Nayru’s Wisdom learned. Nayru’s Silent Realm cleared. More side quests furthered. Lanayru Caves and Lanayru Sand Sea discovered. Sea chart obtained from Skipper’s Retreat. Lanayru Shipyard entered.

Back soon with more updates for this project. For science!

Until then, good night.

The Night Music Poet Does (Zelda) Gaming: Part 16d

GAMING UPDATE: LEGEND OF ZELDA PROJECT 2014

Skyward Sword

This update is going to be rather long. Both yesterday and the day before I got in enough gameplay to more than double the number of hours I’d already racked up, and during all that time I accomplished a great many things.

Saturday, July 12th (9.25 hours)

On Saturday I cleared the Earth Temple, discovered the Lanayru Region, found my way to the Temple of Time, cleared the Lanayru Mining Facility, kept going with more side quests, and opened a way into the Thunderhead.

I am in fact a little unsure why this particular dungeon is called the Earth Temple; it is hidden within the Eldin Volcano and is full of lava. It has only one floor, much like the Skyview Temple, but it doesn’t have much in the way of solid floor. To get around this place, most of the time you need to stand of top of a giant boulder and roll it around in the lava (this is obtained by blowing up a pile of rocks within the main room of the temple), and if you’re not careful, you could lose your balance and fall off of it. The item of this dungeon is the Bomb Bag, which you at first are asked to retrieve for a Mogma who has found his way into the temple to search for treasure, but upon reflection, the Mogma lets us keep it. Skyward Sword introduces a new mechanic with the bombs; if your Bomb Bag isn’t full, you can pick bomb flowers up off the ground and instead of having to use them, you can store them in the Bomb Bag for later by pressing B. I really like that mechanic because it prevents the unnecessary use of a bomb if you don’t need it. The boss of this temple, a rather odd creature called Pyroclastic Fiend Scaldera, looks kind of like a giant molten spider and will chase after you until it crashes into a bomb flower and rolls to the bottom of the long ramp on which it is chasing you. It will then inhale in preparation to spit giant fireballs at you, but if you act fast and toss a bomb into its mouth, it will explode and stun the monster for a while, during which point you can slash at its eye; its not-so-obvious-at-first weak spot. Enough of this will bring it down. And oh yeah, did I mention that Ghirahim sent it after you? It seems he has a vendetta against us and wants to stop us at all costs!

After leaving the Eldin Region and gathering a few more treasures from Goddess Chests as well as some Gratitude Crystals, I investigated a new light path through the cloud barrier afforded me by the Amber Tablet I had placed into the frame inside the Statue of the Goddess in Skyloft; the map now being complete, I have a passage to each region of the Surface. Here through this yellow shaft of light is found the Lanayru Region, a seemingly barren desert where tumbleweeds roll free and where quicksand can swallow you if you don’t get across it quickly. Tumbleweeds are abundant in this area and can in fact be used as treasures for upgrades at the Scrap Shop in the Skyloft Bazaar. Three new insects can also be found here: Sand Cicadas, Gerudo Dragonflies, and Lanayru Ants. These, like the other insects, can be used to infuse potions and make them stronger. A new mechanic is introduced here in the Lanayru Desert: as you look around, it seems that an ancient civilization once lived here, and its members specialized in things called Timeshift Stones. When the Timeshift Stones are activated in this area, the land within the immediate surroundings of the stone will revert back to the past when this civilization was active in the mine. Contrary to the desert’s current state, it seems as though this area was once green and vibrant at first, and years of climate and geographical change had turned it into a desert. The ancient civilization seems to be an exceedingly technologically-advanced race of mining robots, powered by electricity and a little mean and angry in their demeanor. To enter the Lanayru Mining Facility, we first need to activate three power nodes around the desert (and of course, to do this, we must activate a Timeshift Stone near to each one), and once this is done, we can activate the main generator and enter the mine.

The Lanayru Mining Facility works pretty much the same way as the desert itself; it appears old and abandoned, but by activating Timeshift Stones throughout the facility, parts of it will revert back to the past when the mine was active. The item of this dungeon, the Gust Bellows, works kind of like the Gust Jar from The Minish Cap, but instead of sucking air into it, the Gust Bellows blows air out of it, so that you can clear dust and sand from the ground. Like the Beetle, the Gust Bellows has almost no use against the temple boss, Thousand-Year Arachnid Moldarach. This thing looks like a giant scorpion and the idea is to slash at the eyes within its claws and cut them off, after which he will bury into the sand, where you will have to employ the Gust Bellows to find him again.

After clearing the mining facility, obtaining the Goddess Harp from Princess Zelda as she escapes at the last second from Ghirahim, and taking care of a few side quests in Skyloft, our next task is to head back to the Sealed Grounds in the Faron Region. As we’re landing, however, our nemesis Groose seems to have caught up with us, wanting to save Zelda himself and thus stealing her from us. However, once we reach the Sealed Grounds and meet with the old woman who resides inside the temple, Groose learns that he is not in fact the one chosen to save her, much to his chagrin. We also learn he is a complete and total coward, panicking at every turn and cowering at the sight of our next boss: The Imprisoned. This behemoth of an evil entity must be kept away from the temple at all costs, and to do that, we must cut off its white bulbous toes and knock the dislodged spike back into its head.

Once this had been completed, I flew back up to Skyloft, leaving Groose alone with the old woman inside the temple. My next task was to discern a meaning to the lyrics of the Ballad of the Goddess, which the old woman in the Sealed Grounds had taught us with the Goddess Harp, and we learn that we must focus two windmills on top of Skyloft toward the Light Tower in the Plaza. Here we go on a little side quest to resurrect a small Lanayru robot named Scrapper, who belongs to the man who runs the Scrap Shop in the Bazaar, and this robot can help you carry objects from the Surface back to Skyloft. One of the windmills on Skyloft is missing its pinwheel, which can be used to turn the windmill, and we have to find it. And thankfully, Scrapper agrees to help us. Upon finding it, bringing it back to Skyloft, repositioning the windmills toward the Light Tower (thus opening the top of it), and playing the Ballad of the Goddess at the top of the Light Tower, a light shot out of the tower and into the Thunderhead, a dome of ominous-looking clouds to the northwest of Skyloft. Well then. Next stop, inside this giant cloud!

Sunday, July 13th (5 hours)

On Sunday I flew into the Thunderhead, discovered the Isle of Songs, passed the first Goddess Trial in the Faron Region, assisted Faron the Water Dragon, kept going with more side quests, and entered the next dungeon: the Ancient Cistern.

Within the Thunderhead are several small islands, one of which is of great importance to us at the moment. This is the Isle of Songs, which once we solve a quick puzzle to get the bridge from the island to the tower into one piece, we can enter and learn a new song for our Goddess Harp: Farore’s Courage. We’ll need this in a moment when we return to the Faron Region. We’ve learned that we will need to pass three trials to find the three Sacred Flames in order to temper our sword; the first is in the Faron Region. There’s a Trial Gate right in front of the Viewing Platform in the northeast corner of the Faron Woods, and upon playing Farore’s Courage on the Goddess Harp, in a strange twist of events, our soul gets transported to what is known as Farore’s Silent Realm, where we must collect fifteen Tears of Farore, which enables our soul to grow and makes us worthy of serving the Goddess (whom everyone in Skyloft and on the Surface seems to worship). This place almost acts like the Twilight Realm from Twilight Princess; nothing really changes here, but it is darker in the Silent Realm and there are no earthly enemies. The only enemies here are some ominous-looking glowing creatures called Guardians, who will start to pursue you as soon as you step out of the barriers of the Trial Gate, or if you collect a Tear and don’t find another one within 90 seconds, or if the patrolling Guardian Eyes catch you in their lamplight, or if you accidentally come in contact with a substance called Waking Water. If they strike you, you will fail the trial and you will have to start over. The Silent Realm is also the only place where you can find a certain type of treasure called Dusk Relics. These look exactly like Amber Relics, except they are purple in color instead of orange. You’ll want to find as many of these as you possibly can, because as I said, you can only find Dusk Relics in the Silent Realm. These are necessary for some of the upgrades to your shield and weapons. There are a total of three Silent Realms in this game, so if you look around enough you should find plenty of Dusk Relics. A good way to take advantage of this is to purposely fail the trial, because when you collect Dusk Relics and fail the trial you will hold onto whatever relics you find, and at the same time, the relics will re-spawn, so you can collect them as many times as you need to. Also, there’s an opportunity later on in the game where you unlock a kind of “Take ‘Em All On” type of mini-game, where you can not only obtain the best shield in the game, but also replay the Silent Realms if you are so inclined. Again, another good way to farm for Dusk Relics.

For completing the first Goddess Trial, we are awarded the Water Dragon’s Scale, which allows us to swim underwater. There’s a new area we can explore now, inside the Great Tree where the Kikwis live, and at the top of this tree, we find the Kikwi Hermit, who tells us where the Great Water Dragon lives, in the depths of Lake Floria in the southeast part of the Faron Region. Upon finding a passage under the lake, we meet a new race called the Parella, who look something like a cross between jellyfish and seahorses, and who it is theorized evolved into the Zora later on in the Hyrule Historia timeline. They serve the Great Water Dragon, who was recently attacked by Ghirahim and who is recuperating in a large container of Sacred Water, which, once we backtrack through the Skyview Temple, can be found in Faron Spring; we need to bring some back to her. Once we help her out, she shows us the location of the first Sacred Flame: the Ancient Cistern.

This is my next objective. That will be taken care of next time.

********************

Something I’m noticing here; flying around on your Loftwing is about the same as traveling around on your train in Spirit Tracks, except it feels a lot more epic than just riding around on a train in a set direction. You can fly wherever you want on your Loftwing, and just with a slight tilt of your Wiimote, you can instantly bank to one side or the other. The controls are pretty sensitive so you don’t need to tilt them more than you need to.

I may or may not get back into this for a little bit; I’ve got a side project going that I’ve just found out needs to be finished before Friday, so there may not be any new progress for a few days. We shall see, though. For now though, onward!

And now…Night Music Poet Gamer Stats!

Title: Skyward Sword
Platform: Nintendo Wii (played on a Wii U)
Time Played: 23.5 hours thus far
Status: Earth Temple cleared. Some side quests advanced. Lanayru Region explored. Lanayru Mining Facility cleared. Thunderhead entered and Isle of Songs discovered. Forty-two of eighty Gratitude Crystals obtained. Farore’s Courage learned. First Goddess Trial passed and Water Dragon Scale obtained. Skyview Temple revisited and Faron the Great Water Dragon assisted. More side quests advanced. Ancient Cistern entered.

Back soon with more updates for this project. For science!

The Night Music Poet Does (Zelda) Gaming: Part 16c

GAMING UPDATE: LEGEND OF ZELDA PROJECT 2014

Skyward Sword

Both last night and tonight I spent a good amount of time advancing in this game. I first began with the Skyview Temple, started a few side quests in Skyloft regarding the Gratitude Crystals, restored a second part of the stone map which gave me a light column leading to Eldin Province, explored the Eldin Volcano as much as I could for the time being, obtained Digging Mitts from the Mogmas who live around the volcano, and found the five pieces of the key that opens the door to the Earth Temple on top of the volcano.

First off, the Skyview Temple. This place is sort of reminiscent of the Forest Temple from Ocarina of Time in that it looks like a ruined temple with grass and vines and plants everywhere, and it’s almost like these plants are bioluminescent or something because they glow rather beautifully, but for whatever reason, the music is a lot more creepy and ominous. The item you find in this temple is the Beetle, which is an interesting item, because it acts kind of like a far-range attack drone and item collector. You launch it from your arm and you can control it with the Wiimote. It can do things like activate crystals, make vines drop so you can use them to swing on, collect rupees and hearts, detach Skulltulas from their webs, and so on. However, it is completely unnecessary and not recommended at all for the battle with the temple boss, Dark Lord Ghirahim. As it turns out, this guy has been following us, and he too is looking for Zelda. For a boss, however, he’s actually kind of a pushover. Your first objective is to slash at him with your sword, but you have to watch out for his right hand, which will try to catch your sword and block your attacks. Hold your sword to the right, and when Ghirahim’s hand is stuck in mid-air, slash at him from the left so that he doesn’t block your sword. Once you’ve done this enough, he starts to up the ante a little by actually attacking you. Sometimes he’ll dash at you and slash you with his sword, sometimes he’ll teleport around the room and reappear behind you to try and catch you off-guard, and most of the time he’ll just block your attacks with his sword. Other times he’ll snap his fingers and make these red rocket-blades appear, and then he’ll send them flying at you. These are easily deflected with your sword. The easiest thing to do here is to perform a shield attack when Ghirahim runs at you to knock him off balance, and then you can attack with your sword. He doesn’t pose too much of a problem; just watch out for his dash attacks.

Once you get back up to Skyloft and place the second piece of the map into the Goddess Statue, you’ll find out that one of the village girls is missing. Upon talking to some of the villagers, you find out there’s a “monster” living in Skyloft that abducts children. Really? Let’s investigate! It has to be nighttime to start this side-quest, so lie down in a bed and sleep till nighttime. Skyloft is quite a different place at night; there are keese and green chu-chus everywhere, and the Remlits, little cat-like creatures with big ears and stripey tails like raccoons (and the absolute cutest meowing sounds ever), have turned evil and will lunge at you. If you go to the graveyard on the east side of Skyloft, strike the grave closest to the tree and then move it back, the door under the house above will open, and you’ll find a path to a house underneath the island. Inside you’ll hear screaming, and inside you’ll definitely find a monster, with devil horns and a wingspan the length of a pterodactyl. Try and attack him, however, and he’ll cower. Turns out, he doesn’t want to fight or hurt anyone; he wants to be friends! This is Batreaux, and it is he who wants you to find Gratitude Crystals so that he can turn human. The little girl who disappeared is here too, and she and Batreaux were playing the “scream as loud as you can” game. There are a few individual Gratitude Crystals around Skyloft, and once you find ten of these, you’ll get a bigger-sized wallet and a piece of heart!

The Gratitude Crystals side quest mainly involves helping people solve their problems. This side quest feels similar to the Force Gem side quest from Spirit Tracks in that if you bring people something or somewhere, they will get very happy and all their happiness materializes into the Force Gems. Same goes for the Gratitude Crystals: help people solve their problems, they get very happy, and their happiness takes the form of the crystals.

I then descended into Eldin Province, where my next place to explore, Eldin Volcano, awaited me. This place is covered in lava and there’s a lot to be careful of, especially these fire-breathing slugs called Pyrups which hide in rocks and under skeletons. In a cavern here, you meet a group of mole-like creatures called Mogmas, who dig around here looking for treasure. They’re in a bit of a fix because Bokoblins have moved in and infringed on their territory. If you help them out within this cavern, you get the Digging Mitts, which will allow you to dig in soft soil. You can find rupees, Eldin Ore (another treasure), and even hearts. They’re also necessary for finding the five pieces of the giant key to the Earth Temple that are hidden around the volcano.

I’ll say a little bit about Fi and her gameplay mechanics…Fi is extremely smart and can make very accurate and precise calculations. She doesn’t have emotions, however, and she talks more like a computer than a spirit or a human being. That being said, however, Fi does a *LOT* of hand-holding in this game. She can get almost as annoying as Navi because of how often she wants to tell you things that she has calculated based on the surroundings of the area you’re in or which actions you’re taking. She’s almost like HAL 9000 from 2001: A Space Odyssey, except that she hasn’t been programmed to protect anything at whatever cost (i.e., she doesn’t kill people in cryo-sleep or refuse to open doors or anything like that). Well, I say “she,” but according to Nintendo, even though Fi looks and sounds like a young woman, Fi is genderless. Regardless, I still prefer to think that Fi is female because of the way she looks and sounds.

As it stands now, I’m saved in front of the Earth Temple in the Eldin Volcano, about ready to explore it. That’s my next major objective: to clear the Earth Temple. I’ll do that next time, as well as get farther along in any side quests. I’ve got a couple of things though that I want to take care of before I leave the volcano, and mainly that is to catch some more insects. There are Volcanic Ladybugs and Eldin Rollers here, and I have a couple of the latter but I haven’t seen any of the former very much. I’ve seen one ladybug, but it was out of my reach, and furthermore, I learned tonight that you should *never* roll into the wall where the ladybug is because it will just fly away. Hopefully I’ll find a few more of those and be able to catch them. I need them for potion infusions. I’ll probably get more into that a bit later on.

And now…Night Music Poet Gamer Stats!

Title: Skyward Sword
Platform: Nintendo Wii (played on a Wii U)
Time Played: 9.25 hours thus far
Status: Skyview Temple cleared. Some side quests advanced. Twenty-five of eighty Gratitude Crystals obtained. Eldin Volcano explored. Key to Earth Temple repaired.

Back soon with more updates for this project. For science!

Until then, good night.

The Night Music Poet Does (Zelda) Gaming: Part 16b

GAMING UPDATE: LEGEND OF ZELDA PROJECT 2014

Skyward Sword

Another two hours in, and not much in the way of story progression yet, but I did explore Faron Woods fairly extensively and did a bit of side-questing in Skyloft.

While I was exploring Faron Woods, I encountered plenty of Bokoblins and a strange group of forest-dwelling creatures called Kikwis. These are small, plump, brown creatures with off-white bellies, bushy tails, pointy noses, a small green bush on their backs for camouflage, and adorable high-pitched voices. They are also fairly skittish creatures, afraid of most things they are unaccustomed to. Their elder, about ten times more giant than they are, is worried about them because there are so many monsters which are disrupting their peaceful lifestyle in Faron Woods. It is our job to find them and tell the elder that they are all okay. There are only four of them total, one of which you find before talking to the elder, so there isn’t really a need to worry too much about finding them all. They’re pretty easy to find, all things considered. Just make sure you explore everywhere.

Once you find them all, you are rewarded with a slingshot, your first official weapon besides your sword and shield. This thing pretty much does exactly as it says on the tin: equip it with the B button, aim it with the Wiimote cursor, and shoot it with A. It can be used for many things such as hitting enemies or targets from afar, shooting down vines and ropes so you can swing on them, and even shooting down hornets’ nests. I wouldn’t recommend this last thing unless you’re after the bees themselves as well as their larvae. I’m going on a tangent here, but while on Skyloft once you have the slingshot, you can use it to ring the bell on Beedle’s Airshop and he will lower a rope for you to climb up, and while in his store you can purchase a bug-catching net from him, as well as a wallet upgrade and some other things as well if you have the cash. But the bug-catching net helps you catch insects, which can be used to infuse potions, and their larvae qualifies as a “treasure” which you can use to upgrade items. I’ll get into these things a bit more later on once I have access to more of the types of treasure and insects. But briefly, while wandering around the overworld, you will on occasion find insects flying around, as well as certain treasures. There are a total of twelve insects, and I think sixteen types of treasures, and different combinations of each will go towards upgrading your items, weapons, and potions at the Skyloft Bazaar. But back to my point about insects; you can catch them with the bug-catching net, although the controls for this are a little hard to pin down exactly…it acts just like your sword controls but at the same time it feels a little less smooth than your sword. I guess it’s just another thing I’ve got to remember how to do effectively.

I also discovered a side quest here which involves strange metallic cubes called Goddess Cubes. According to a Goron researcher in the area named Gorko, the Goddess left them there for the Hero to find, and if we hit them with a skyward strike, they will activate, shoot up into the sky in a purple glow, and we’ll be rewarded for it handsomely when we find the corresponding Goddess Chests. The first two of these that I found contained an Adventure Pouch upgrade (a thing we use for carrying items; yeah, no hyperspace tunic this time) and a Piece of Heart, so I think it’s safe to say that the more we find of these cubes, the better!

I explored deep into Faron Woods and discovered the first dungeon of this game: the Skyview Temple. I haven’t gone exploring in here yet though; that’s for my next session which will hopefully be tomorrow. By the time I got there it was getting toward the end of the amount of time I had allowed myself to play tonight, and I didn’t want to stay up too late because lately I haven’t been sleeping enough. So next time, I’ll take on the Skyview Temple, and maybe I’ll get a bit further if time allows.

And now…Night Music Poet Gamer Stats!

Title: Skyward Sword
Platform: Nintendo Wii (played on a Wii U)
Time Played: 4 hours thus far
Status: Faron Woods explored. Kikwis found safely. Slingshot and bug-catching net acquired. Two Goddess Cubes and their respective treasure chests found. Skyview Temple entered.

Back soon with more updates for this project. For science!

Until then, good night.

The Night Music Poet Does (Zelda) Gaming: Part 16a

GAMING UPDATE: LEGEND OF ZELDA PROJECT 2014

Skyward Sword

This game is considered the prequel game to the entire Legend of Zelda series, according to the ret-conned Hyrule Historia timeline. Here we see what has been described as the origins of the Hylians and how they came to inhabit the overworld we know as Hyrule. Link, who is in training at the Skyloft Knight Academy, is scheduled to participate in the annual Wing Ceremony, whereupon if he succeeds in winning a race to claim a bird statue, he will participate in a re-enacted ritual with Zelda, who is to play the part of the Goddess. The idyllic day is interrupted when a strange tornado knocks Zelda off her Loftwing and out of the sky, and brings her down to The Surface beneath. Link learns he is destined to play a part in a great plan, as is Zelda, his childhood friend. To find her and rescue her, he must go down below the clouds to The Surface and discover what great plan it is that he and Zelda destined to take part in.

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This game is considerably brighter than its home console predecessor, Twilight Princess. Whereas Twilight Princess took on a very muted and dark color palette with a soundtrack both regal and sinister, Skyward Sword is composed of much brighter and vibrant colors, and thus far its soundtrack is far more pleasing to the ears and not so unsettling. Motion controls make their return, and sometimes they are just as difficult as they were to get used to in Twilight Princess. They do however feel a little smoother with the inclusion of the upgraded technology of the Wiimote Plus, and because I remember how the mechanics worked in Twilight Princess, they aren’t so hard to get used to. Plus there are a ton of tutorials early on in the game if you need them, and several non-playable characters will reiterate various tips such as Z-targeting or how to use the controls on the Wiimote.

In this game’s beginning, we see the goings-on on an island above the clouds called Skyloft. This island is kept here in the clouds, away from the dangers presented by the world below, known only as “The Surface.” We see people milling about on the ground and giant birds called Loftwings flying around the sky, seemingly on a patrol of the island, keeping it safe. And we see a beautiful young girl, whom we perceive to be Zelda, giving her Loftwing a letter to deliver to someone. Then we see Link, our protagonist, having a nightmare about a huge, looming evil, the origin of which is unknown. He hears himself being summoned by a voice who tells him he is part of a great plan and must awaken to his destiny.

But for now, this thing which awakens him is only Zelda’s Loftwing. Today is the day of the Wing Ceremony, a day which has great significance for Link, because if he wins the Loftwing Race today he will graduate to the next class at the Knight Academy and thus be one step closer to becoming a Knight of Skyloft. Princess Zelda is playing the part of the Goddess during the ceremony, and it is revealed that she and Link have been very close friends since their early childhoods. This day does not go without a hitch at first, however; Link is a habitually late sleeper, and as he slept, some classmates of his, by the names of Groose, Cawlin and Stritch, have stolen his Loftwing, a rare Crimson Loftwing, and have hidden it somewhere where they are sure Link won’t find it, thus forcing him to sit out the race this year. However, due to some quick thinking and a bit of sword practice, Link and Zelda are able to find Link’s Loftwing and thus Link is able to participate in the race.

I noticed something kind of interesting during my playthrough of the early part of this game; all the non-playable characters at the Knight Academy are named after birds: on the first floor we have Groose, Cawlin and Stritch (goose, caw like a crow, and ostrich), as well as Fledge and Pipit (fledgling, and pipit…yes, there is a class of birds called pipits). On the second floor we have Karane (crane), as well as two instructors, Owlan and Horwell (owl and horned owl), as well as Headmaster Gaebora (the name given to the exceedingly annoying guide owl from Ocarina of Time, Majora’s Mask, and Four Swords Adventures).

Right away, Groose reminds me very much of Gaston from Beauty and the Beast. He is constantly teasing and making fun of Link and always putting him down, along with Cawlin and Stritch. He has that arrogant swagger and that overly muscular build, and he believes that he is going to get with Zelda and steal her from Link by winning the Loftwing Race during the Wing Ceremony. Well, boy, did I prove him wrong! After winning the Loftwing Race and participating in the Goddess ritual with Zelda, she is so happy that she asks us to fly around the clouds together. It is then that the giant ominous tornado knocks her out of the sky, and the conflict of the game begins.

That night, after we recover from the shock of watching our closest friend be rudely taken away from us, we notice that we hear a faint sound from beyond our bedroom door. Upon opening it, a strange being who looks like the one from Link’s nightmare begins leading him toward the Statue of the Goddess in the north part of Skyloft near the Knight Academy. It is then revealed to us that this being, with her own strange language even more difficult to understand than Midna’s language from Twilight Princess, is named Fi, and she was created long before our time in order to guide the chosen one from Skyloft to carry out this great plan. Link is entrusted with the Goddess Sword, is taught the Skyward Strike, and given a tablet which shows a rift in the clouds through which we can reach The Surface.

I’ve landed in what I am sure is the Faron Province; it is a part of the world covered in forests and lush grass, with clean springs of water, and where many species of animals, birds, and insects live. I have begun to explore this area, but as of yet I am not so far into it. This will come though. Next time, I explore more of the Faron Woods and discover what else this place has in store for me.

And now…Night Music Poet Gamer Stats!

Title: Skyward Sword
Platform: Nintendo Wii (played on a Wii U)
Time Played: 2 hours thus far
Status: Skyloft partially explored. Wing Ceremony completed. Conflict of the story revealed and exploration begun. Faron Province opened and entered.

Back soon with more updates for this project. For science!

Until then, good night.

The Night Music Poet Does (Zelda) Gaming: Part 15g

GAMING UPDATE: LEGEND OF ZELDA PROJECT 2014

Spirit Tracks

Well, that’s another one down!

In a final combined 6.5 hours from last night and just now, I succeeded in clearing up the last few side quests, rescuing all the rabbits, restoring the last of the Spirit Tracks, entering the Dark Realm and defeating Malladus. And thus, I cleared the game.

The Dark Ore side quest, the one I was a bit apprehensive about, didn’t actually turn out to be as bad as I had thought. I really concentrated as I was going through the tunnel to the east of the Dark Ore mine, and killed the giant Rocktite on the first try. So that made bringing the Dark Ore back to Linebeck III much, much easier. By getting all the stamps for Niko and for rescuing all the rabbits for the Rabbitland Rescue guy, you get two Swordsman’s Scrolls, which allow you to use both the Great Spin Attack and the Sword Beam Attack, the first of which allows you to spin around with your sword when you perform three consecutive spin attacks, and the latter of which allows you to shoot laser beams from your sword when you have full hearts. I earned enough points to get the Gold Membership card at Beedle’s Shop, and thus I got the heart container for that; the only heart container I didn’t get was the one from the whip race in Whittleton Village. But at the end of it, it didn’t really matter.

Upon exploring the Tower of Spirits one last time (and subsequently getting a bit lost) and obtaining the Compass of Light, I was able to reveal the Spirit Tracks leading to the Dark Realm, and it was here that I began the battle with Malladus. First off, you have to gather Tears of Light which make your train invincible for a short time (don’t worry about collecting all of them; they re-spawn after a while), and the object here is to speed through the Armored Dark Trains while invincible and destroy them. Once that has been accomplished, the Demon Train reappears, and makes life fairly difficult if you don’t know what you’re doing. It took me a while to get the hang of this part of the battle, because the train will not only try and shoot things like explosive barrels and lasers at you, but it will also shift along the tracks and try to crush you or brake suddenly while you’re behind it and make you crash into it. Yeah, I died quite a few times during this part, but thankfully upon returning to the Dark Realm I didn’t have to fight the Armored Dark Trains again. Once the Demon Train is out of projectiles, the object is to shoot down the lasers on its side, get in front of it, and shoot cannonballs at its face. After a while it will stall and shut itself down. Be sure to save your game at this point, because I am pretty sure you won’t get the opportunity to do so again.

The next part of the battle was also kind of difficult, because not only is Puppet Zelda (possessed by Malladus) shooting laser beams at us, but Chancellor Cole is also making things kind of difficult. Princess Zelda is given a Phantom to inhabit during this phase, and you have to march her toward Puppet Zelda while fending off these weird glowing rats that Chancellor Cole keeps sending at Phantom Zelda. If one of them touches her, Chancellor Cole will then control her and you have to cut the strings with your boomerang. Keep sending Phantom Zelda forward and remember to stay behind her while fending off the magic rats, and then once you get to the front of the Demon Train (yeah…this part of the battle takes place on top of the Demon Train), make Phantom Zelda grab Puppet Zelda. They will then lift up into the air and you have to prepare the Bow of Light and shoot a Light Arrow into Puppet Zelda, thus splitting Malladus from Zelda’s body and causing the Demon Train to stall, explode, and vanish into the Dark Realm.

Finally, we have a game to play with Malladus, not unlike the tennis matches you play with Ganondorf in Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker. However, during this phase of the battle, you must protect Princess Zelda (who has now successfully reclaimed her body) from fireballs that Malladus spits at you. She is concentrating her power and her focus can’t be broken, or it pretty much starts the whole battle over again. Malladus will spit these fireballs at you and you must swing your sword at them to deflect them from Princess Zelda. This phase of the battle can get a little hectic, especially when Malladus spits four fireballs at once. I swear, it took me much longer than I thought to clear this part of the battle, but after a while, I got the hang of it. On the other hand, when you successfully deflect a fireball, sometimes it will leave a heart for you so you can recover some health. It helped a lot, let me tell you. I did go through both of my potions during this fight, but I focused, concentrated, and kept fending off those fireballs.

Once Princess Zelda concentrates her powers, you play a song on the Spirit Flute which combines her powers with those of the Lokomos that you met during your travels (Gage, Steem, Carben, Embrose, and Rael; this last guards the Sand Realm), revealing a weak spot on Malladus’s back, and now a much easier phase of the final battle begins. Princess Zelda takes your Bow of Light and aims it at this weak spot, and while you distract Malladus, the upper screen shows Princess Zelda’s view; when you have a clear shot, tap the Bow of Light icon at the bottom of your screen and Princess Zelda will shoot Light Arrows at him. When you successfully hit him three times, he’ll be stunned for a while, so you can slash at his head with your sword. This happens a couple of times, and then on the seventh successful hit with a Light Arrow, Malladus will again be stunned, and this time when you slash at his head, quickly rub the stylus over the screen and keep doing so until Princess Zelda hurries over and helps you deliver the final blow.

Thus Malladus is destroyed, all is right again in New Hyrule, and peace is once again restored.

********************

So, time for my final thoughts on this one.

This was a fun game. Very much like its predecessor, Phantom Hourglass, and in fact, in this branch of the Hyrule Historia timeline, there are some interesting things to point out.

Phantom Hourglass, as I mentioned before, takes place immediately after Wind Waker, and Spirit Tracks takes place 100 years after Phantom Hourglass. There are little hints and revelations in this game which connect it to its predecessor; when you collect all the stamps for Niko, for example, he’ll give you the Shield of Antiquity and the Swordsman’s Scroll for the Great Spin Attack, which he claims he got from “an old friend.” The “old friend” Niko is referring to is the Link from Wind Waker, as you obtain both this shield and the Great Spin Attack in that game. Near the end of the battle with Malladus, Princess Zelda calls upon her ancestor, Tetra, for strength; the same Tetra from Wind Waker and Phantom Hourglass. Also, in Princess Zelda’s quarters, there is a stained glass window of Tetra’s likeness. Nice little nods, those!

The thing that takes up most of the time in this game is definitely traveling around in your train. Unlike sailing a ship in the sea, you don’t have the ability to warp anywhere at will; instead you have to travel towards the Warp Gates scattered around the tracks, and even then, a certain Warp Gate will only let you warp to a certain place in the overworld. This can be a bit frustrating if you have to get to a place in a hurry, especially when you’re carrying cargo. There’s also not that much to do while you’re traveling around in your train, unless you want to get Beedle’s attention or if you have to fight any enemies that come your way. Avoiding the Dark Trains can be difficult as well, especially if you’ve got two of them coming at you from both angles (one in front, one behind). Sure, you can fend them off with your cannon for a little while, but they’ll just keep coming after you until you get off the part of the tracks where they patrol. Though it is kind of fun to speed into them while invincible in the Dark Realm.

I think this is only the second time I’ve beaten this game. Along with its predecessor, Spirit Tracks doesn’t seem to be one of the most popular games in the series, as both it and Phantom Hourglass are rarely talked about by most of the fan base. I suppose I would agree to the extent that much like Zelda II: The Adventure of Link, they are something of a departure from the series in both style and gameplay mechanics. Zelda II was more a departure in its mixture of top-down and side-scrolling style and introducing the idea of a magic meter and leveling up, while Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks combine top-down and third-person style and focus on using the stylus for everything and making the buttons pretty much obsolete. I am not the biggest fan of “stylus for everything” gameplay, but I can see why the developers created these games the way they did; on the 3/DS platform, the stylus was a new tool and they wanted to make use of it. I just think they went a bit overboard. Not really a big deal. I forget whether or not they used the stylus as much in A Link Between Worlds; it’s been a while since I’ve played that one, and I don’t quite remember all the mechanics in that game.

But anyway, one more game down, and two games left in the series to go. For my next challenge, I go back to where it supposedly all began: the idyllic world of Skyloft, in what has been called the prequel of the entire Legend of Zelda series, Skyward Sword!

And now…Night Music Poet Gamer Stats!

Title: Spirit Tracks
Platform: Nintendo DS (played on a 3DS XL)
Time Played: 29 hours
Status: Cleared
Next Challenge: Skyward Sword

Back soon with more updates for this project. For science!

Until then, good night.