Today I focused on clearing the Swamp area and on the swampside fishing, as well as other minigames, which became available with the Bow.
I'm not exactly sure, how many times I've beaten Majora's Mask now, but this should be the sixth time. This does not include replaying parts of the game for the fun of it though. As a kid I didn't have much money for video games, unlike today, but I made my games count and played them thoroughly. On the Nintendo 64 I only had four games, which includes both N64-Zeldas. But especially Majora's Mask kept me entertained for a long time, since I could replay every part of the game, whenever I wanted, thanks to the three day cycle. And one of my favorite things to replay were the Skulltula houses:
I love this so much! Awesome atmosphere, fun collectible mini quest, I could do it over and over again. And I did. Best mini dungeons in the entire Zelda series. It's just so much fun collecting all the spiders.
The fact that you get one bottle earlier now with Koume's target shooting actually improved the experience, because you can already have three empty bottles, unless you decide to play the Spider House before Woodfall Temple. But you didn't have to run around as much as you would with only one or two bottles. I still don't like that they took the bottle from the graveyard, because it added more variety to the rewards there and it was handy for the Big Poe. It also was another good reason to visit the graveyard before going to Great Bay.
There's an interesting change at the Deku Palace: the cave with the Bean Seller now has a 2nd exit at the spot, where you need to plant the beans. I wonder, if you actually still have to go through the palace gardens and dodge the Deku guards... I haven't tried this out, but theoretically you should be able to just use the back entrance. Unless this hole only appears, as soon as you bought the beans...
They changed the Stray Fairies in Woodfall Temple, both their color and some of their locations. The green fairies are definitely a better fit for the Woodfall Temple and I like getting the double Magic Meter earlier. Originally I would always leave Snowhead Temple before the boss fight, deliver the fairies and then fight Goht. But that's a hassle and it's good that they changed it.
But it feels weird, how they made finding certain Stray Fairies easier. I always liked in the original, how some fairies were really cleverly hidden. It made me feel special. Like this one beehive, which used to be in the background, it now is directly next to the door, looking very suspicious. But I suppose they made it so that you can get all fairies without the Great Fairy Mask or potentially drowning yourself in poison water.
The new Odolwa was good. I suppose, he's actually more difficult than in the original, where you just had to spam arrows and hack. There's more strategy here and Deku Link is actually useful in the fight, which is nice. I was worried that I won't like the changed bosses and I'm still worried that you can't defeat Gyorg and Twinmold as Fierce Deity Link anymore, but let's see...
New Masks:
Now off to minigames: gyro controls for the win. In both the Swamp and Clock Town Shooting Gallery I scored a "Perfect" twice on my first try! I was always pretty good at the swamp gallery, but the town one usually gave me huge troubles. Check out this blogpost, where I played the Wii version of the game. I actually made a list next to my TV with all the Octorok locations to make the game easier. That's not necessary here. Gyro aiming is just so much faster.
Apropos minigames: I spent more time with fishing and I really enjoy it. This is what I catched today:
Interestingly enough if you switch the language from English to German, these values are completely different. It still uses cm as the unit, but the numbers are all off (I put them in brackets). This is really weird and I can't really explain it. Maybe the game uses simple size units for the fish (like 1 to 10) and the actual size is dependent on the translation. But I don't know how gradual this is. Can you catch a 62cm Bass in German, but he still will be 13cm in English...? It's quite confusing, why this is so different.
I also had a big catch today, but this is spoiler territory:
I'm not exactly sure, how many times I've beaten Majora's Mask now, but this should be the sixth time. This does not include replaying parts of the game for the fun of it though. As a kid I didn't have much money for video games, unlike today, but I made my games count and played them thoroughly. On the Nintendo 64 I only had four games, which includes both N64-Zeldas. But especially Majora's Mask kept me entertained for a long time, since I could replay every part of the game, whenever I wanted, thanks to the three day cycle. And one of my favorite things to replay were the Skulltula houses:
I love this so much! Awesome atmosphere, fun collectible mini quest, I could do it over and over again. And I did. Best mini dungeons in the entire Zelda series. It's just so much fun collecting all the spiders.
The fact that you get one bottle earlier now with Koume's target shooting actually improved the experience, because you can already have three empty bottles, unless you decide to play the Spider House before Woodfall Temple. But you didn't have to run around as much as you would with only one or two bottles. I still don't like that they took the bottle from the graveyard, because it added more variety to the rewards there and it was handy for the Big Poe. It also was another good reason to visit the graveyard before going to Great Bay.
There's an interesting change at the Deku Palace: the cave with the Bean Seller now has a 2nd exit at the spot, where you need to plant the beans. I wonder, if you actually still have to go through the palace gardens and dodge the Deku guards... I haven't tried this out, but theoretically you should be able to just use the back entrance. Unless this hole only appears, as soon as you bought the beans...
They changed the Stray Fairies in Woodfall Temple, both their color and some of their locations. The green fairies are definitely a better fit for the Woodfall Temple and I like getting the double Magic Meter earlier. Originally I would always leave Snowhead Temple before the boss fight, deliver the fairies and then fight Goht. But that's a hassle and it's good that they changed it.
But it feels weird, how they made finding certain Stray Fairies easier. I always liked in the original, how some fairies were really cleverly hidden. It made me feel special. Like this one beehive, which used to be in the background, it now is directly next to the door, looking very suspicious. But I suppose they made it so that you can get all fairies without the Great Fairy Mask or potentially drowning yourself in poison water.
The new Odolwa was good. I suppose, he's actually more difficult than in the original, where you just had to spam arrows and hack. There's more strategy here and Deku Link is actually useful in the fight, which is nice. I was worried that I won't like the changed bosses and I'm still worried that you can't defeat Gyorg and Twinmold as Fierce Deity Link anymore, but let's see...
New Masks:
- Mask of Scents
- Mask of Truth
Now off to minigames: gyro controls for the win. In both the Swamp and Clock Town Shooting Gallery I scored a "Perfect" twice on my first try! I was always pretty good at the swamp gallery, but the town one usually gave me huge troubles. Check out this blogpost, where I played the Wii version of the game. I actually made a list next to my TV with all the Octorok locations to make the game easier. That's not necessary here. Gyro aiming is just so much faster.
Apropos minigames: I spent more time with fishing and I really enjoy it. This is what I catched today:
- Termina Bass: 13cm (61cm)
- Termina Loach: 22cm (79cm)
- Groovy Carp: 5cm (39cm)
- Fragrant Reekfish: 10cm (53cm)
- Postal Salmon: 42cm (108cm)
Interestingly enough if you switch the language from English to German, these values are completely different. It still uses cm as the unit, but the numbers are all off (I put them in brackets). This is really weird and I can't really explain it. Maybe the game uses simple size units for the fish (like 1 to 10) and the actual size is dependent on the translation. But I don't know how gradual this is. Can you catch a 62cm Bass in German, but he still will be 13cm in English...? It's quite confusing, why this is so different.
I also had a big catch today, but this is spoiler territory:
Any tips for catching Lord Chapu-Chapu? Can it be seen while diving as Zora Link or does it hide inside the cave?
ReplyDeleteYou can easily spot him from above. I didn't even have Zora Link at the time. But he's huge and his face shows from the cave.
ReplyDeleteIt's random though, so you probably have to leave and enter the Fishing Hole a couple of times during the 3rd day, before he shows up.
Thanks for clarifying this. I left and entered the Fishing Hole plenty of times, but I never found it or the Ferocious Piracuru. Guess I'll need a few more tries. Also, I don't seem to be able to locate the Colossal Catfish, even during earthquakes or Goron pounds.
ReplyDelete