...BAY... Your road goes into the bay...
A little bit of Catfish in my life
A little bit of Angler by my side
A little bit of Toona is all I need
A little bit of Reekfish is what I smell
A little bit of Salmon in the sun
A little bit of Manbo all night long...
Mambo No. 5... Well, of course Manbo's Mambo is much catchier and now also a lot more useful than it used to be. You can warp to any warp point now and it even adds Manbo's pond/pool as an additional warp point, which you can then use normally. Together with all the new warp points you can rid of the following stalker quite quickly:
I was also right that you can now get the Secret Seashell before he tells you about it. But that's fine, because the ghost has now another reward up his sleeve, because he gives you the "first" Fairy Bottle. The order seems a little weird, but maybe Nintendo / Grezzo thought that this should be the first, because the other two are entirely optional.
I haven't gotten the third Fairy Bottle yet, which should be a reward from the Chamber Dungeon. But there I couldn't really make much progress, because the Angler's Tunnel didn't add all that many new chambers (most of the dungeon is one giant room anyway) and there was only one new challenge from Dampé, the one where you have to fill up a Bomb pattern on the map (which looks more like a raised middle finger).
It's nice how the Chamber Dungeon also aims at certain "pixel arts" with its dungeon ideas, because that's how dungeons got made both in the original The Legend of Zelda and Link's Awakening. The dungeons usually have a certain form and are often even named after this form. For example the Bottle Grotto is basically the outline of a vase. So, it's nice that they are aiming at some other shapes here, where you get a Bomb and a Heart dungeon now.
The Bomb dungeon challenge gives you even the "+Bombs Effect", which is the first one I got other than Shadow Link. There are many more, though, which makes me wonder what I'm missing here. Maybe you have to beat the challenges with certain secret conditions, like clear time, usage of certain (boss) rooms and so on, but I haven't figured anything out yet. Getting rewards from Dampé feels entirely random to me and maybe I just have to wait until I have more chambers...
I'm not even sure that the Chamber Stones give you specific chambers. I got two more of them, one from the Seashell Mansion and the first one from the shop (yes, there are more and they keep costing 1280 Rupees each). The first one got me a modified chamber from Level 3, while the second one gave me the Color Dungeon boss in a crossroads room. You shouldn't be able to get the latter, unless you have beaten the Color Dungeon already. And maybe these Chamber Stones just keep unlocking the next special chamber in line. But then what happens, if you never play the Color Dungeon? Won't this Chamber Stone simply not be available in the shop then? Or maybe this is like with the amiibo and you can play any boss in advance, as long as you got its special chamber? I don't know...
Afterwards I made another detour to the Tal Tal Mountain Range and from the looks of it you will be going through that one cave multiple times again, because there is no warp point at the hen house or anywhere else up there. This is somewhat annoying, but I guess I'm used to it... Hopefully there will be one next to Level 7 at least.
The bridge in the above screenshot is now entirely useless again, by the way. Well, not entirely, because in the remake you can already take a look at the Eagle's Tower from here. You couldn't do that in the original and the bridge was just there, which is why they had added one of the photo moments there in the DX version.
The cave below the bridge has still that weird chest puzzle, but it has now changed a little bit. Instead of 20 Rupees in all five chests you now have four slimes and the final one has 100 Rupees. So, either you solve the puzzle or get nothing. I'm assuming that all chests still will be empty, when you open one and leave the room, but I haven't tried this. Maybe in my Hero Mode run...
The way that leads up to the rooms also has a new visible crack in the walls, where you are supposed to bomb them. I don't know why they keep doing this... Where they afraid that people wouldn't be able to find these secrets? The spot is even still marked with a small patch of dry floors, just like in the original. Oh, well... For me this makes no difference, of course, because I already know all the secret doorways that you can blow up, but for newcomers it's making the game even easier than it already is.
I've also done the trading sequence up to the Mermaid's Scale, where the new picture for Dr. Wright certainly looks modernized...
Well, there is no new fishing mini-game at the bay. I would say "sadly", but I didn't really get the hang of the new fishing yet, where I haven't managed to catch a big guy at the bottom of the pond, because he always breaks loose and I don't know what I'm doing wrong. It's easy to catch any fish from the alcove below, though, which is why I probably already got all the rewards, unless there is another seashell there or more lures. But I'm having more fun with the Trendy Game overall, so I guess not having a second fishing minigame at the bay is not a big loss, though I previously liked the idea quite a lot.
As already mentioned, I got a Chamber Stone from the Seashell Mansion, which was the reward for 30 shells. I'm hoping that 40 gives you the sword and 50 maybe an upgrades spin attack or so, but it's probably another Heart Container for one of the two. (If there is even a second additional Heart Container, because there might be 20 new Heart Pieces. I already have found 14 new ones, three of them alone with the Flippers, and I already know about two more locations, where it would be disappointing, if that's already it...)
I wouldn't like getting the sword too late into the game, though. Originally you could get the Seashell Sword at this point in the game, after acquiring the Flippers. Unless I've missed enough seashells for the 40 already, it doesn't seem like this is possible any longer. And I'm only missing three of the 24 original seashell here, so in the original I would have already gotten it. That's not a big deal, because you can already get the Red Mail early in the game. However, it would be a shame, if you couldn't get the L-2 Sword until before the 8th dungeon, where you then get little use for the thing thanks to the Magic Rod... Let's see.
Catfish's Maw
Digging in dungeons seems to be the new trend in this remake and the visuals of the Catfish's Maw with the sand floors are certainly something...
Too bad that there doesn't seem to be anything hidden here. So far I haven't found any new seashells inside the dungeons, which feels like a missed opportunity. For example the following spot would have been perfect for one:
The dungeon map now also shows you the secret room with the boss key right away. I'm afraid it will be the same for Level 6, where this would completely destroy the dungeon's main secret, but let's get there first.
The Hookshot also got nerfed hard. It now only stuns and this applies to everything. You should have seen my face when I used it on a Keese (a KEESE, a freaking small bat) and all it did was a stun... Seriously. I'm worried it will be the same for the Boomerang, where it will diminish its value.
Of course these weapons were the way there were because of the limited buttons. The Hookshot and Boomerang gave you additional kill options, so you didn't have to equip your sword all the time. Now you can always use your sword, so not every item has to be a deadly weapon. I get that. But it still ruins some of the experience.
At least the Hookshot is now more useful on these guys...
It stuns them so that you can hit the eyeballs with your sword. It even makes the Bow somewhat obsolete here, where in the original it was much safer to use the Bow over the Hookshot. It's still somewhat the case, but the stun does more work here.
I wonder if you can get the Gohma mini-boss in the Chamber Dungeon now... But I will see this right away, I suppose.
Only three dungeons are left! And with the Hookshot the last major item for exploration is in my hands, so more to find out in the next entry of this diary!
Current Status:
- Secret Seashells: 33 (21 old + 12 new)
- Pieces of Heart: 23 (9 old + 14 new)
- Chambers: 91
- Chamber Stones: 3
- Challenges Cleared: 6
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