I'm currently at the entrance of the Wind Temple, so I've made some progress today. Everything else is pretty much done, I'm only missing three Treasure Charts and two Pieces of Heart, which are gotten from the charts. And there's two Triforce Shards left, but that's it. So, I'm close to finishing this 100%.
After the Forsaken Fortress I conquered the six reefs to get all the special charts. I already mentioned in the last post that some of these charts are useless at this point, when you have been thorough. The charts don't get unlocked until after your 2nd visit at Forsaken Fortress, while you can easily go for all the Big Octos and Great Fairies before that.
One thing I noticed myself doing is that I sometimes actively change the wind with the Swift Sail, so I don't have to do it on the island with the baton... I did this at the reefs a couple of times, but also on other islands like the Angular Isles. I guess, I'm just lazy, but it shows how convenient the Swift Sail really is. Using the baton all the time to change the wind was always quite a hassle.
After I was done with the reefs, I went for the Triforce Shard below Link's cabana. I like to imagine that these holes actually lead you to mini-dungeons down in the sunken Hyrule. Similar to the Earth and Wind Temples, which are accessed from mountain tops. Basically all islands in the Great Sea are mountain tops from the old Hyrule. So, with the mini-dungeon under Link's cabana you're in a sewer. It never really made sense to have a fully developed sewer under one little cabana, but if you take it as a dungeon in old Hyrule, this could be anywhere. When I played this today, I imagined that these are the sewers from Hyrule Castle or something similar. So, it feels right to get Triforce Shards from these locations instead of charts. However, now getting all the money from the Triforce Shard locations feels somewhat "off". You don't really need all the money anymore, but you get showered in it.
Next stop was Fire Mountain and Ice Ring Isle to get the Power Bracelets and Iron Boots. I can't help but feel sad that they didn't use this updated version as a chance to add more to these places. Have some more full fledged dungeons. It didn't need new bosses or enemies, but at least something like the Bottom of the Well and Ice Cavern mini-dungeons in Ocarina of Time. Which means that they get map and compass and a (already existing) miniboss to protect the new items. I didn't expect them to revamp the entire story and add big temples to these places, but something new would have been nice. It's just that these two islands feel very special.
I noticed that there some more changes to the map menu. One is that it doesn't tell you anymore what you got from the sunken treasures. It got replaced by the Fishman icon. While the latter is an excellent addition, I can't see why we shouldn't have both. It was a nice info to see how many Pieces of Heart you got from Treasure Charts. Or to see what can be found where in general. Also, the Tingle Chart used to make a stupid clown's horn sound when you closed it, which is now gone as well. And they managed to bug the menu, sometimes it looks like multiple islands are selected.
To finally make some progress I've beaten the Earth Temple and the entire Savage Labyrinth. The Earth Temple always was my favorite of the dungeons in The Wind Waker. Which isn't saying much, since the dungeons are all pretty weak. But this time it didn't have the same vibe to me. Maybe it was because I played it on the GamePad, which makes it look more like a handheld game, maybe it was the different lighting, maybe a mix of both. But it didn't have the same feel to it.
In the Savage Labyrinth I noticed that you can't loot enemies anymore. On the GameCube you could use the Grappling Hook to steal hearts, bombs, arrows, and Rupees from them. Of course in Hero Mode hearts are out of question, but they don't give you anything this time except for the usual spoils. Not that you would need any of it... even though I was playing in Hero Mode, it didn't feel any tougher than before. Well, in the original version the enemies inside the Savage Labyrinth also don't drop anything by default, so it has always been the case there that you didn't get any hearts (unless you steal them with the Grapple). The only real difference with the Hero Mode now is the double damage. But after you got a certain number of hearts, it's not really a big deal anymore. I was able to get through the whole thing with one soup. And I did make some stupid mistakes.
The Nintendo gallery is almost complete. I'm only missing five figurines at the moment, which are the Wizzrobe miniboss, Molgera, Knuckle, an Elite Darknut, and Puppet Ganon. I got everything else including the Legendary Pictographs, which are now in color and look different. Nice thing is that you can grab all Legendary Pictographs in one run. You still have to change the day for each one, but since this is an one time thing, it's not so bad.
Tomorrow I'll beat the game and probably put the Wii U back in the closet for now...
Miiverse posts:
"Also, the Tingle Chart used to make a stupid clown's horn sound, when you closed it, that is now gone as well."
ReplyDeleteAh, bummer! =(