The Wind Waker HD Logbook, Day 1

Played many hours today, I'm currently at the entrance of the Forbidden Woods, though I've done pretty much all available sidequests up to this point, which is why it took so long.

I'm not a big fan of the Wii U GamePad so far. It's quite heavy, playing with this thing for longer time periods is quite uncomfortable. And Zelda is a game, which you want to play for longer time periods. Also, it's not as helpful as I thought it would be. Changing your view between the TV screen and the GamePad can be confusing, it's not like with the 3DS, where both screens are right next to each other. You have to refocus your eyes constantly, which can cause disorientation in the game. I even switched to the GamePad only mode a couple of times, because it was more comfortable playing that way.

The Hero Mode does its job, at least early in the game it's quite challenging. Unlike in Skyward Sword here are rarely chances to heal yourself, in Skyward Sword you could heal while sitting, which made the Hero Mode there pretty easy, but you don't have this option in The Wind Waker. This must have been the first time, where the rats, who sell you Red Potions in Dragon Roost Cavern are actually useful and come at the right time. Also, it's a good move to assemble one additional Heart Container before Dragon Roost. It's doable, you can find one Piece of Heart at the Forsaken Fortress, you get one from the Killer Bees, one from Salvatore and one at Pawprint Island. You just have to make sure not to miss any. And at Forest Haven you can easily farm Blue Potions by giving the one Korok four Boko Baba Seeds. You even get your first additional bottle in the Submarine near Bomb Island. So, there's some strategy to overcome this.

I do like collecting the Tingle Bottles, but so far I haven't got any good messages yet. I for myself try to be useful, my first Miiverse message was an image of Kogoli (don't know if he's still missable, but just in case) and my second one was Gohma. Hopefully some people can make use of that.

I got the Swift Sail right after Dragon Roost Cavern, but not just that, I bought every other auction item as well... I got so much money so early in the game, it's not even funny. How? They changed the Light Rings! In the original those lose treasures mostly gave you only 20 Rupees, sometimes 50. Now it seems like they ALL give you 50. At least every Light Ring between Windfall and Dragon Roost and between Dragon Roost and Forest Haven gave me 50 Rupees. That's 700 Rupees already just from the first areas! I think, noone has reported this change yet.

However, there was one Light Ring from the chart, which I couldn't find. I don't know if this an error with the guide or if they removed this Light Ring. It's the one southeast of Dragon Roost. It might be that they removed some... I'll continue to investigate this.

The Swift Sail comes with a disadvantage. It's naturally harder to steer with this thing. I thought picking up the Tingle Bottles would be easier with this, but it's quite the opposite. I usually have to switch back to the normal sail to make precise movements. I think they removed the small boost that you got, when you equipped the sail. In the original The Wind Waker you would repeatedly turn the sail on and off to move faster, this doesn't work anymore. However, it seems to work with the Swift Sail. The Swift Sail seems to have some starting boost to it, so I think it's faster to mash A with this thing.

With the early Pictobox you can make pictographs of all Koroks right at the beginning, when they're all still at Forest Haven. I would advise doing so, because it's much easier than when they are all scattered all over the ocean. The Minintendo gallery now is a dream. It's nice to know in advance, when a shot is great, especially with bosses and other quick moving enemies. And that Carlov takes up to 12 pictures at once, makes it even better. No more playing Song of Passing hundreds of times. 12 Pictographs feels like the right number, you can usually cover everything inside one dungeon or an area with 12 pictures. The only exception would be Windfall and maybe Dragon Roost, but every other place can be done in one run.