...PRAIRIE... ...PRAIRIE... The Prairie is waiting...
Yes, the Prairie is waiting... mainly because I'm doing some exploring at the mountains first. This includes a first peek at the Wind Fish's Egg, which really has become a breathtaking place in the remake:
There was no actual reason to go there yet, but it was on the way to the warp point at the Tal Tal Heights, near the Angler's Tunnel entrance. I like going there right away, so that the warp point is ready for later. And it might now actually worth it to visit that one cave that you have to keep going through to reach the Tal Tal Mountain Range early as well, because there is another new Piece of Heart inside.
Those things are everywhere now! But I wish, it would show you the current quarter, whenever you find one, however. The same with Secret Seashells. When I pick one up, I would like to know the current total immediately. Breath of the Wild did this right with its Korok Seeds and Spirit Orbs
I then did another detour back into the Tail Cave to get that one Secret Seashell already. This might have been premature, because of the other seashell nearby the Tail Cave, but I'm taking my sweet time here. And I wanted to know, if Dampé would be updating his Chamber Dungeon with that particular chamber.
He didn't... I did get it together with all the rooms from the Key Cavern later on, but this really has me worried that certain dungeon chambers will be missable, if you don't clear them before the last set of new chambers coming from the Turtle Rock dungeon (or maybe the Wind Fish's Egg). This might be a problem, because I really would hate it for there to be any missable things in the remake, but of course this still could be patched, if it's really the case.
By the way, I like how you can now simply walk through the teleporters at the start of dungeons without triggering them. You have to stand still inside them to actually use them. But this way you don't have to carefully avoid them while walking through the entrance chamber of a dungeon again.
After the Tail Cave I've made yet another detour to the beach (that prairie REALLY is waiting, isn't it?), because I was curious if I could find anything new there by now. And the cave with the trading Goriya looks really nice:
You also can hear the guy, so you now know there's something up here and you need to check this out later. Nicely done!
Also, you can now already get the Secret Seashell inside the house by the bay. This may be intentional, because it makes sense that it would be there from the beginning, but it certainly will save you some time later, because you don't have to go to the house twice now. I wonder, if the ghost won't even mention that there's hidden something inside his house, if you get it right in front of his eyes...
Back to Mabe Village I was playing some more Trendy Game, mainly to get a few more Rupees to finally purchase a Bow and Arrow set in the shop. This is useful for these annoying bird enemies in the Key Cavern, so I always try to get the Bow early at this point. But the new Trendy Game and the Chamber Dungeon made getting the Rupees a lot easier.
And you will be needing a lot more Rupees now. There is now a Chamber Stone in the shop for 1280 Rupees... And you thought that Bow was expensive! The game really wants you to steal now, doesn't it? But I won't do that. Want to get 100% and that best ending, of course. Plus, my name is "Tourian", not "Thief". But that Chamber Stone should better be worth it, like giving you the Rupee plus effect or so...
So, finally off to the Ukuku Prairie... It has been waiting for quite a while after all!
I always loved this huge skull rock, it feels so special in the game world, where blowing it up is almost a shame
The enemies that come out of the holes in the prairie look really nice now. They are very smoothly animated and not as annoying as in the original.
At this point I realized that it marks every phone booth now on your map, but only if you enter them. This means that in this version you will have to enter every single phone booth at least once for true 100% completion. But it's not a big deal... Owl Statues on the overworld now also get glowing blue eyes, once you've read them. And I think they have an entry in the memories as well, I didn't check those yet... (Update: they don't.)
Before going to Kanalet Castle, it was tradition for me to visit the Seashell Mansion first, because of the two missable Secret Seashells there. In the original you got two bonus seashells, if you visited the mansion with exactly five and ten seashells in your inventory. Luckily, this is gone and there is a new set of rewards now, which aren't missable.
It already teases you with what the ultimate prize will be, but five seashells now give you a Piece of Heart and fifteen seashells the new "Seashell Sensor". I tried this item once on a known seashell spot to see how it works and then turned it off. And it's a good thing that you can turn it off in the menu, because I really want to find all those new Secret Seashells by myself. There seems to be a total of 50 now, which means there are 26 new Secret Seashells! Nice!
In the original I usually went straight for the Seashell Mansion, when I had five seashells, to get the first bonus seashell. And then I usually went straight for the area southwest of Martha's Bay to collect another four seashells for the bonus seashell at ten. I don't have to do this in the remake any longer, but this route is so ingrained into my playthroughs that I'm doing it anyway... And this is when I spotted yet another new Piece of Heart, sunken in the water. This was on my list of suggestions for new Heart Pieces, so I'm really happy to see it happen!
And even though I'm taking this detour out of habit, the new warp points certainly prove to be super useful, because I can go back from where I'm at Martha's Bay back the Seashell Mansion. Man, I wish the original had those, because this had saved me quite some time whenever I replayed the classic.
But enough with the detours, let's finally proceed in the game and go to Kanelet Castle, easily one of the most fun parts of the game...
And I love how everything here now speaks "bell". There are bell banners all around the castle and there is even a bell on top of the thing:
Why is this so important? Because this whole section of the game pays homage to The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls, a GameBoy classic, where Link's Awakening was seemingly based on its engine. We have Prince Richard as a guest character here, as well as the theme of the game in his villa. And it's only fitting that you're getting the Sea Lily's Bell as the main reward of the following dungeon, where you have to get the key from Richard first...
I like, how the Pothole Maze has now another Piece of Heart and even a shortcut back to the grassy paths around the dungeon entrance. This is a very sensible change, because in the original you had to get back all the way you came... And afterwards I've usually went east right away and kept forgetting to put the Slime Key in its hole. This almost even happened in the remake as well, because I got my 15th Secret Seashell in the cave down below and wanted to check the reward right after. But thanks to the seamless scrolling you can now spot the key hole after the shortcut, so you immediately are reminded that you have to use the key. In fact there is now only a few meters between getting the key and using it.
Well, the Key Cavern was already shown extensively in previews, so there is not much to say here. It's as good as ever and I love, how the Dodongo Snakes now are animated...
It's also nice that all the secret bombable walls are still there, because it seems that they've changed a lot of those later in the game... After all, the one tree at the Seashell Mansion gives you the tip to check walls with your sword. But that's really useless, if you always can see the cracks anyway...
Also, the Slime Eye boss was made a little bit more difficult (just a tiny bit), because you have to actually hit the front spot of the eyes, the rest of the eyeballs is protected.
So, the third dungeon is done and another lovely part of the game will follow right away. But at first, let's go back and check the Trendy Game and Chamber Dungeon...
Current Status:
There was no actual reason to go there yet, but it was on the way to the warp point at the Tal Tal Heights, near the Angler's Tunnel entrance. I like going there right away, so that the warp point is ready for later. And it might now actually worth it to visit that one cave that you have to keep going through to reach the Tal Tal Mountain Range early as well, because there is another new Piece of Heart inside.
Those things are everywhere now! But I wish, it would show you the current quarter, whenever you find one, however. The same with Secret Seashells. When I pick one up, I would like to know the current total immediately. Breath of the Wild did this right with its Korok Seeds and Spirit Orbs
I then did another detour back into the Tail Cave to get that one Secret Seashell already. This might have been premature, because of the other seashell nearby the Tail Cave, but I'm taking my sweet time here. And I wanted to know, if Dampé would be updating his Chamber Dungeon with that particular chamber.
He didn't... I did get it together with all the rooms from the Key Cavern later on, but this really has me worried that certain dungeon chambers will be missable, if you don't clear them before the last set of new chambers coming from the Turtle Rock dungeon (or maybe the Wind Fish's Egg). This might be a problem, because I really would hate it for there to be any missable things in the remake, but of course this still could be patched, if it's really the case.
By the way, I like how you can now simply walk through the teleporters at the start of dungeons without triggering them. You have to stand still inside them to actually use them. But this way you don't have to carefully avoid them while walking through the entrance chamber of a dungeon again.
After the Tail Cave I've made yet another detour to the beach (that prairie REALLY is waiting, isn't it?), because I was curious if I could find anything new there by now. And the cave with the trading Goriya looks really nice:
You also can hear the guy, so you now know there's something up here and you need to check this out later. Nicely done!
Also, you can now already get the Secret Seashell inside the house by the bay. This may be intentional, because it makes sense that it would be there from the beginning, but it certainly will save you some time later, because you don't have to go to the house twice now. I wonder, if the ghost won't even mention that there's hidden something inside his house, if you get it right in front of his eyes...
Back to Mabe Village I was playing some more Trendy Game, mainly to get a few more Rupees to finally purchase a Bow and Arrow set in the shop. This is useful for these annoying bird enemies in the Key Cavern, so I always try to get the Bow early at this point. But the new Trendy Game and the Chamber Dungeon made getting the Rupees a lot easier.
And you will be needing a lot more Rupees now. There is now a Chamber Stone in the shop for 1280 Rupees... And you thought that Bow was expensive! The game really wants you to steal now, doesn't it? But I won't do that. Want to get 100% and that best ending, of course. Plus, my name is "Tourian", not "Thief". But that Chamber Stone should better be worth it, like giving you the Rupee plus effect or so...
So, finally off to the Ukuku Prairie... It has been waiting for quite a while after all!
I always loved this huge skull rock, it feels so special in the game world, where blowing it up is almost a shame
The enemies that come out of the holes in the prairie look really nice now. They are very smoothly animated and not as annoying as in the original.
At this point I realized that it marks every phone booth now on your map, but only if you enter them. This means that in this version you will have to enter every single phone booth at least once for true 100% completion. But it's not a big deal... Owl Statues on the overworld now also get glowing blue eyes, once you've read them. And I think they have an entry in the memories as well, I didn't check those yet... (Update: they don't.)
Before going to Kanalet Castle, it was tradition for me to visit the Seashell Mansion first, because of the two missable Secret Seashells there. In the original you got two bonus seashells, if you visited the mansion with exactly five and ten seashells in your inventory. Luckily, this is gone and there is a new set of rewards now, which aren't missable.
It already teases you with what the ultimate prize will be, but five seashells now give you a Piece of Heart and fifteen seashells the new "Seashell Sensor". I tried this item once on a known seashell spot to see how it works and then turned it off. And it's a good thing that you can turn it off in the menu, because I really want to find all those new Secret Seashells by myself. There seems to be a total of 50 now, which means there are 26 new Secret Seashells! Nice!
In the original I usually went straight for the Seashell Mansion, when I had five seashells, to get the first bonus seashell. And then I usually went straight for the area southwest of Martha's Bay to collect another four seashells for the bonus seashell at ten. I don't have to do this in the remake any longer, but this route is so ingrained into my playthroughs that I'm doing it anyway... And this is when I spotted yet another new Piece of Heart, sunken in the water. This was on my list of suggestions for new Heart Pieces, so I'm really happy to see it happen!
And even though I'm taking this detour out of habit, the new warp points certainly prove to be super useful, because I can go back from where I'm at Martha's Bay back the Seashell Mansion. Man, I wish the original had those, because this had saved me quite some time whenever I replayed the classic.
But enough with the detours, let's finally proceed in the game and go to Kanelet Castle, easily one of the most fun parts of the game...
And I love how everything here now speaks "bell". There are bell banners all around the castle and there is even a bell on top of the thing:
Why is this so important? Because this whole section of the game pays homage to The Frog for Whom the Bell Tolls, a GameBoy classic, where Link's Awakening was seemingly based on its engine. We have Prince Richard as a guest character here, as well as the theme of the game in his villa. And it's only fitting that you're getting the Sea Lily's Bell as the main reward of the following dungeon, where you have to get the key from Richard first...
I like, how the Pothole Maze has now another Piece of Heart and even a shortcut back to the grassy paths around the dungeon entrance. This is a very sensible change, because in the original you had to get back all the way you came... And afterwards I've usually went east right away and kept forgetting to put the Slime Key in its hole. This almost even happened in the remake as well, because I got my 15th Secret Seashell in the cave down below and wanted to check the reward right after. But thanks to the seamless scrolling you can now spot the key hole after the shortcut, so you immediately are reminded that you have to use the key. In fact there is now only a few meters between getting the key and using it.
Well, the Key Cavern was already shown extensively in previews, so there is not much to say here. It's as good as ever and I love, how the Dodongo Snakes now are animated...
It's also nice that all the secret bombable walls are still there, because it seems that they've changed a lot of those later in the game... After all, the one tree at the Seashell Mansion gives you the tip to check walls with your sword. But that's really useless, if you always can see the cracks anyway...
Also, the Slime Eye boss was made a little bit more difficult (just a tiny bit), because you have to actually hit the front spot of the eyes, the rest of the eyeballs is protected.
So, the third dungeon is done and another lovely part of the game will follow right away. But at first, let's go back and check the Trendy Game and Chamber Dungeon...
Current Status:
- Secret Seashells: 16 (12 old + 4 new)
- Pieces of Heart: 12 (4 old + 8 new)
- Chambers: 63
- Chamber Stones: 1
- Challenges Cleared: 2
No comments:
Post a Comment