It was about four days ago, when first attempted to reach Goron City and I had arrived at some kind of impasse here. To go there, I either need some fire resistance armor or some elixir/food with good heat protection. I assume that you will get the Goron Armor at Goron City, but I also wasn't able to cook up something with more than the low-level heat protection.
But that might be, because I don't have the right ingredients yet. Maybe the White Chuchu Jelly does the trick, but I'm not sure, what to do with Chuchu Jelly yet. Do I need to search for Doc Bandam's descendant? However, there might also be good freezing ingredients up on Mount Lanayru or other cold regions. I even found this memory, where Zelda talks about going up to Mount Lanayru to tease me. But... I didn't have clothes with good enough cold resistance yet, only the Warm Doublet from the old man in the beginning. So, it was either getting warmer clothes or some ingredients from Death Mountain, where the latter would lead to a Catch-22.
And because I didn't know, what to do, I decided to head to the Northwest of Hyrule, where the Rito live. And it would turn out that this was the right choice...
Heading Northwest
I started going west from the Central Tower, where on the Nima Plan I caught myself a new fine steed with good speed. Because the area had so many bridges around that she took without any complaints, I gave her the highly original name "Bridga". I should probably stop with this, where I feel like naming horses after various bosses would be a better idea. And it would follow Ganon's lead.
After registering it at the Outskirt Stable I rode the horse around Satori Mountain, which is a mountain that wants to be climbed. In general I love the climbing aspect of the game, because it really takes me back to my childhood. I grew up in the German midlands with lush forests, ruined castles on beautiful mountains and many interesting rock formations. I hiked a lot as a kid and always wanted to climb everywhere. And this feeling of freedom that Breath of the Wild gives you is simply beautiful.
Anyway, there's a cherry blossom tree on top of the mountain, where I didn't really figure out, if there's any significance to the place. But there are Koroks in the area and the Mogg Latan Shrine right around the corner. In there you had to play around with Magnesis, where I did like building a staircase with moveable parts on tracks at the end.
Ridgy Ridge
Next stop was Washa's Bluff in the Ridgelands, where you have these mushroom rock formations. On one of them Kass awaits with a new Shrine Quest, where the Mijah Rokee Shrine is only accessible under Blood Moon. I returned here later and there is enough time, if you fly over from the Mogg Latan Shrine at Satori Mountain. You just have to react, when a Blood Moon is about to start. The shrine gives yet another "Modest Test of Strength" combat trial, which are fun to do by now.
From over the Washa's Blush the next goal was clear: the Ridgeland Tower is not far from there, so let's go. On the way you can spot an interesting ruin, which gets plagued by a constant thunder storm above it, but currently it's probably not much different from the rest of Hyrule. It just rains way too often.
When I arrived at the Ridgeland Tower I was greeted by yet another evil defense. There's a lake around the tower with multiple Electric Lizalfos and Electric Wizzrobes. Well, I just used Cryonis to get close and then ran for it... The tower has enough balconies to stay safe from the Wizzrobes. But it was still quite the evil trap.
On top of the tower some NPC wants you to show your gliding skills, where I set off to Hyrule Castle for the fun of it. I arrived at the mold and this is the closest that I've been to the castle yet. And it looks like you can just climb one of the five big pillars to enter the castle without running into any Guardians (Update: you can't climb the pillars, because they are made out of Sheikah tech). If you avoid Hyrule Field and go around either in the west or the east this should be possible. But let's try this later...
Instead I headed in the opposite direction, where you can see the fire dragon Dinraal flying through the chasms. I really have to figure these dragons out later on, because they look exciting. I haven't seen the one in the Lanayru region yet, but maybe he's up in the mountains.
I did the Shae Loya Shrine on the way, which is right next to the Tabantha Bridge Stable and had a nice bow shooting puzzle, where sadly I got low on arrows. I'm in a situation, where I'm using Ice Arrows instead of normal ones, because I have so many and I'm too lazy to go collect normal arrows. This shrine should have been a fair warning for the trials ahead, but I proceeded anyway...
Traveling Through Tabantha
At first I wondered, why the name "Tabantha" felt so familiar. And it's actually a reference to the Castor Wilds from The Minish Cap, which are called "Tabanta Wilderness" in Japanese and "Tabanta Plain" in German. So, that's a lost reference in English for you!
The Tabantha Tower is protected by dark matter, but that was more of a puzzle, where after various well defended towers I was relieved that I didn't had to go through hell for some map data. There's a Great Fairy in sight of the tower, but she turned out to be disappointing. She's pretty much the exact same thing as in Kakariko, just with a different skin color and different upgrades for outfits.
Behind her is a road protected by Guardian Skywatchers. I avoided them and went up the hill to the Tena Ko'sah Shrine at the end of the Ancient Columns. But this is the first "Major Test of Strength" that I've found so far, where I didn't want to try my luck yet. There's also another memory of Zelda in this place, where she reminds me of the Zelda from the Animated Series with her whole unlikable attitude. Her goal was to enter the shrine, where I would love to see her facing one of those Guardians inside.
The Tabantha Frontier is quite small, so Rito Village came quickly in sight.
I couldn't find a shrine next to the Rito Stable, but that's probably because the stable is so close to the village anyway. I also caught another deer up in the hills, when looking for the shrine, where I probably could have saved me the trouble the other day, where I rode with a deer long ways to get it to a stable.
Rito Village
Well, the first impression of the Rito Village was pretty nice. I like the architecture, where you have this one giant circular staircase going around a massive rock. The slow version of the Dragon Roost Island theme from the Wind Waker is also beautiful, though I would also have liked it, if they tried something different.
However, the village itself falls flat. The NPCs all all very generic, where you just have the typical inn and shop owners. One Rito even wants to start a new shop. Boring! And there's absolutely no threat here. The flying Divine Beast shoots down Rito, who fly to high up. That's it. They could just fly low and wouldn't have any problems. At least the other Divine Beasts caused some natural disasters.
The village's teleport point is the Akh Va'quot, where the trial is just called "Windmills" and really lives up to its name. Lots and lots of windmills. But as with most shrines I really enjoyed the puzzle.
I also got a full set of warm clothes at the Rito Village shop in form of some Rito Armor, which I immediately upgraded at the Great Fairy in Kakariko. The set bonus is "Unfreezable", which should solve my problem from earlier. I can now travel through the super cold regions, but this set of armor is also required for the dungeon ahead, because it gets very cold up in the sky.
I liked the elder Kaneli, who looks like a giant owl. For a moment I also thought that he would be your companion for the mission ahead, but this was going to be Teba, where I see little difference between him and the Champion Revali other than the color of their feathers. Both have the same cocky and proud attitude, where I don't like Revali's character all that much. I guess, it's funny, how he keeps teasing Link, but that's really it.
For the living partner under the Rito I would have liked someone more special and different, where Teba is probably one of the most forgettable characters in the story. I liked his wife Saki much more. If they had turned her into a warrior, instead of doing this Rito family nonsense (those Rito children look freaky by the way), this whole part could have been more enjoyable. I liked the Rito in the Wind Waker so much more than here.
Also, this whole part turns out to be really short. All I had to do was flying over to the Sha Warvo Shrine, which has a nice updraft puzzle, but where the trial name gave the puzzle solution away. From there I just had to walk over to Teba, play a very short updraft bow shooting minigame and that was it. Ready to storm the Divine Beast, again with Bomb Arrows...
Divine Beast Vah Medoh
I did enjoy the action part, where you had to take down the four cannons. They kept it very simple here, but the action was stylish and I enjoy doing the slow motion bow shots. Also, instead of using some "vehicle", you just were using your Paraglider all the time and in general the dungeon made very good use of the item.
The Divine Beast dungeon was impressive as always, but overall the easiest of the three that I've played so far. You can tilt the entire dungeon to the left or right, which was a cool idea and brought some fun moments. I dropped a weapon to get a better one out of the chest and when tilting the dungeon, the weapon kept moving around the room, which was a nice detail. But other than that there wasn't much to the dungeon. The shrines on the way already prepared you in full detail for the puzzles and skills required here. And there were only two small Guardians on the lowest level, which didn't offer much resistance.
The boss was also the easiest so far. After the desert boss gave me some good trouble, this was quite the letdown. Again, the action was great and very stylish, I very much enjoy flying up in the air and shooting arrows in slow motion. And the boss looked very cool, as the others. But all you had to do was shooting arrows at it, where my main problem was that I was out of normal arrows again, which had me waste more Bomb and Ice Arrows at the thing.
Revali's Gale is a useful reward, this skill lets you create an updraft by charging a jump, which will come in handy, whenever you're about to face a Guardian on foot. Too bad these skills take quite long to recharge.
Also, it wasn't explicitly mentioned that the Divine Beast Medoh was named after Medli or at least I haven't found a confirmation yet. But it's still pretty obvious, because Medli is spelled "Me-Do-Li" in Japanese. She's even called "Medolie" in German and French, as an anagram of "melody". So, the "Medo" is in her name.
Overall the whole Rito part was really short and disappointing. I didn't anticipate that I would be able to do it today, because I didn't have as much time, but the whole quest and dungeon didn't take much time. While I've certainly grown stronger in the game, this was still probably the shortest and easiest part so far... Originally I wanted to save this for last, because sky dungeons like the Palace of Winds or the City in the Sky usually take place late in the Zelda games. But luckily I didn't. Maybe Death Mountain won't disappoint as much...
At least I have now the means to proceed into cold areas, looking for some way to get to the final Divine Beast.
Some Thoughts on the Story and Timeline
End of Day 9 Progress
But that might be, because I don't have the right ingredients yet. Maybe the White Chuchu Jelly does the trick, but I'm not sure, what to do with Chuchu Jelly yet. Do I need to search for Doc Bandam's descendant? However, there might also be good freezing ingredients up on Mount Lanayru or other cold regions. I even found this memory, where Zelda talks about going up to Mount Lanayru to tease me. But... I didn't have clothes with good enough cold resistance yet, only the Warm Doublet from the old man in the beginning. So, it was either getting warmer clothes or some ingredients from Death Mountain, where the latter would lead to a Catch-22.
And because I didn't know, what to do, I decided to head to the Northwest of Hyrule, where the Rito live. And it would turn out that this was the right choice...
Heading Northwest
I started going west from the Central Tower, where on the Nima Plan I caught myself a new fine steed with good speed. Because the area had so many bridges around that she took without any complaints, I gave her the highly original name "Bridga". I should probably stop with this, where I feel like naming horses after various bosses would be a better idea. And it would follow Ganon's lead.
After registering it at the Outskirt Stable I rode the horse around Satori Mountain, which is a mountain that wants to be climbed. In general I love the climbing aspect of the game, because it really takes me back to my childhood. I grew up in the German midlands with lush forests, ruined castles on beautiful mountains and many interesting rock formations. I hiked a lot as a kid and always wanted to climb everywhere. And this feeling of freedom that Breath of the Wild gives you is simply beautiful.
Anyway, there's a cherry blossom tree on top of the mountain, where I didn't really figure out, if there's any significance to the place. But there are Koroks in the area and the Mogg Latan Shrine right around the corner. In there you had to play around with Magnesis, where I did like building a staircase with moveable parts on tracks at the end.
Ridgy Ridge
Next stop was Washa's Bluff in the Ridgelands, where you have these mushroom rock formations. On one of them Kass awaits with a new Shrine Quest, where the Mijah Rokee Shrine is only accessible under Blood Moon. I returned here later and there is enough time, if you fly over from the Mogg Latan Shrine at Satori Mountain. You just have to react, when a Blood Moon is about to start. The shrine gives yet another "Modest Test of Strength" combat trial, which are fun to do by now.
From over the Washa's Blush the next goal was clear: the Ridgeland Tower is not far from there, so let's go. On the way you can spot an interesting ruin, which gets plagued by a constant thunder storm above it, but currently it's probably not much different from the rest of Hyrule. It just rains way too often.
When I arrived at the Ridgeland Tower I was greeted by yet another evil defense. There's a lake around the tower with multiple Electric Lizalfos and Electric Wizzrobes. Well, I just used Cryonis to get close and then ran for it... The tower has enough balconies to stay safe from the Wizzrobes. But it was still quite the evil trap.
On top of the tower some NPC wants you to show your gliding skills, where I set off to Hyrule Castle for the fun of it. I arrived at the mold and this is the closest that I've been to the castle yet. And it looks like you can just climb one of the five big pillars to enter the castle without running into any Guardians (Update: you can't climb the pillars, because they are made out of Sheikah tech). If you avoid Hyrule Field and go around either in the west or the east this should be possible. But let's try this later...
Instead I headed in the opposite direction, where you can see the fire dragon Dinraal flying through the chasms. I really have to figure these dragons out later on, because they look exciting. I haven't seen the one in the Lanayru region yet, but maybe he's up in the mountains.
I did the Shae Loya Shrine on the way, which is right next to the Tabantha Bridge Stable and had a nice bow shooting puzzle, where sadly I got low on arrows. I'm in a situation, where I'm using Ice Arrows instead of normal ones, because I have so many and I'm too lazy to go collect normal arrows. This shrine should have been a fair warning for the trials ahead, but I proceeded anyway...
Traveling Through Tabantha
At first I wondered, why the name "Tabantha" felt so familiar. And it's actually a reference to the Castor Wilds from The Minish Cap, which are called "Tabanta Wilderness" in Japanese and "Tabanta Plain" in German. So, that's a lost reference in English for you!
The Tabantha Tower is protected by dark matter, but that was more of a puzzle, where after various well defended towers I was relieved that I didn't had to go through hell for some map data. There's a Great Fairy in sight of the tower, but she turned out to be disappointing. She's pretty much the exact same thing as in Kakariko, just with a different skin color and different upgrades for outfits.
Behind her is a road protected by Guardian Skywatchers. I avoided them and went up the hill to the Tena Ko'sah Shrine at the end of the Ancient Columns. But this is the first "Major Test of Strength" that I've found so far, where I didn't want to try my luck yet. There's also another memory of Zelda in this place, where she reminds me of the Zelda from the Animated Series with her whole unlikable attitude. Her goal was to enter the shrine, where I would love to see her facing one of those Guardians inside.
The Tabantha Frontier is quite small, so Rito Village came quickly in sight.
I couldn't find a shrine next to the Rito Stable, but that's probably because the stable is so close to the village anyway. I also caught another deer up in the hills, when looking for the shrine, where I probably could have saved me the trouble the other day, where I rode with a deer long ways to get it to a stable.
Rito Village
Well, the first impression of the Rito Village was pretty nice. I like the architecture, where you have this one giant circular staircase going around a massive rock. The slow version of the Dragon Roost Island theme from the Wind Waker is also beautiful, though I would also have liked it, if they tried something different.
However, the village itself falls flat. The NPCs all all very generic, where you just have the typical inn and shop owners. One Rito even wants to start a new shop. Boring! And there's absolutely no threat here. The flying Divine Beast shoots down Rito, who fly to high up. That's it. They could just fly low and wouldn't have any problems. At least the other Divine Beasts caused some natural disasters.
The village's teleport point is the Akh Va'quot, where the trial is just called "Windmills" and really lives up to its name. Lots and lots of windmills. But as with most shrines I really enjoyed the puzzle.
I also got a full set of warm clothes at the Rito Village shop in form of some Rito Armor, which I immediately upgraded at the Great Fairy in Kakariko. The set bonus is "Unfreezable", which should solve my problem from earlier. I can now travel through the super cold regions, but this set of armor is also required for the dungeon ahead, because it gets very cold up in the sky.
I liked the elder Kaneli, who looks like a giant owl. For a moment I also thought that he would be your companion for the mission ahead, but this was going to be Teba, where I see little difference between him and the Champion Revali other than the color of their feathers. Both have the same cocky and proud attitude, where I don't like Revali's character all that much. I guess, it's funny, how he keeps teasing Link, but that's really it.
For the living partner under the Rito I would have liked someone more special and different, where Teba is probably one of the most forgettable characters in the story. I liked his wife Saki much more. If they had turned her into a warrior, instead of doing this Rito family nonsense (those Rito children look freaky by the way), this whole part could have been more enjoyable. I liked the Rito in the Wind Waker so much more than here.
Also, this whole part turns out to be really short. All I had to do was flying over to the Sha Warvo Shrine, which has a nice updraft puzzle, but where the trial name gave the puzzle solution away. From there I just had to walk over to Teba, play a very short updraft bow shooting minigame and that was it. Ready to storm the Divine Beast, again with Bomb Arrows...
Divine Beast Vah Medoh
I did enjoy the action part, where you had to take down the four cannons. They kept it very simple here, but the action was stylish and I enjoy doing the slow motion bow shots. Also, instead of using some "vehicle", you just were using your Paraglider all the time and in general the dungeon made very good use of the item.
The Divine Beast dungeon was impressive as always, but overall the easiest of the three that I've played so far. You can tilt the entire dungeon to the left or right, which was a cool idea and brought some fun moments. I dropped a weapon to get a better one out of the chest and when tilting the dungeon, the weapon kept moving around the room, which was a nice detail. But other than that there wasn't much to the dungeon. The shrines on the way already prepared you in full detail for the puzzles and skills required here. And there were only two small Guardians on the lowest level, which didn't offer much resistance.
The boss was also the easiest so far. After the desert boss gave me some good trouble, this was quite the letdown. Again, the action was great and very stylish, I very much enjoy flying up in the air and shooting arrows in slow motion. And the boss looked very cool, as the others. But all you had to do was shooting arrows at it, where my main problem was that I was out of normal arrows again, which had me waste more Bomb and Ice Arrows at the thing.
Revali's Gale is a useful reward, this skill lets you create an updraft by charging a jump, which will come in handy, whenever you're about to face a Guardian on foot. Too bad these skills take quite long to recharge.
Also, it wasn't explicitly mentioned that the Divine Beast Medoh was named after Medli or at least I haven't found a confirmation yet. But it's still pretty obvious, because Medli is spelled "Me-Do-Li" in Japanese. She's even called "Medolie" in German and French, as an anagram of "melody". So, the "Medo" is in her name.
Overall the whole Rito part was really short and disappointing. I didn't anticipate that I would be able to do it today, because I didn't have as much time, but the whole quest and dungeon didn't take much time. While I've certainly grown stronger in the game, this was still probably the shortest and easiest part so far... Originally I wanted to save this for last, because sky dungeons like the Palace of Winds or the City in the Sky usually take place late in the Zelda games. But luckily I didn't. Maybe Death Mountain won't disappoint as much...
At least I have now the means to proceed into cold areas, looking for some way to get to the final Divine Beast.
Some Thoughts on the Story and Timeline
End of Day 9 Progress
- Shrines: 53
- Koroks: 98
- Divine Beasts: 3
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