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.

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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!