After exploring Hyrule Castle the last time, I took a sneak peek into the chasm below (I will put this part in a spoiler box). Afterwards I headed towards Kakariko to explore around and below the village. And then began my search for Hestu, which led me all around Hyrule Castle and the Lost Woods, where ultimately I met up with Impa to have a little bit of story progression. This is going to be a very long entry, where I should go at these more often, but I didn't actually make that much progress, despite covering a lot of ground.
Burst Crater
Since Hyrule Castle seemed quite tame in comparison to Breath of the Wild, and I also got my nice new pair of Fierce Deity Boots, I became a bit overconfident and decided to just see what happens if you jump down the big chasm below the castle... Just to get a first impression.
Hunted
Next, I just wanted to check out Kakariko Village, where the game essentially invites you to go there over the Sahasra Slope, which is even where you can find another Skyview Tower and a shrine. This looked nice enough, when suddenly another of these Floormaster enemies appeared...
According to the loading screen tips those are actually not Floormasters, but "Gloom Spawns", if I got that correctly. Well, I didn't have any time to take out my new camera, but I could save myself by climbing on a rock, where the thing couldn't follow. It then just vanished, before I could take a picture for the compendium, and it also didn't return after I came back from the shrine above...
And this put an idea in my head that this enemy isn't tied to a location, but maybe it's a random encounter, which would make this even scarier, because now I feel uneasy during my travels. I always have to watch my back now that there isn't one of these things around.
When they first had teased Breath of the Wild at E3 2014, this is even how the Guardians were originally envisioned. You stood there in the middle of a peaceful landscape, when suddenly a Guardian appeared and chased you through half of Hyrule, aggressively firing its beams. The final product then was far less threatening, where each Guardian has its dedicated area and they take their sweet time with chasing you and firing their beams. And now this Gloom Spawn / Floormaster / whatever seems to be more in line with the original concept, just this huge threat can come out of nowhere.
Ember Seeds
While I didn't catch the name of the predator made out of Gloom, I was able to learn the name of the tree monsters: "Evermean", as a pun on evergreen. Since I was out of blade weapons or axes, I simply threw some Fire Seeds at them to take them out.
And this is when I realized that this whole new material system is kinda similar to the Seed Satchel from Oracle of Ages & Seasons, where using the Fire Fruits both directly or via the bow is essentially like the Ember Seeds from those game, where you could throw them on things or shoot them via your Slingshot or Seed Shooter. Of course, this here is a lot more sophisticated and there are a lot more things to throw and shoot, but I like how this has evolved from the more basic material system in Breath of the Wild, where the best that you could do is throw some Chuchu Jelly on the ground and hit it. And the interesting new additions all seem to be plant-based, which is why this feels so familiar to the Oracles.
I also like that you now need to pick up Rupees with the A button, like everything else. Breath of the Wild made an exception for just the Rupees, only to make them work like in the classic Zelda games, but this made them feel too different from the rest of the things. This was just a nitpick, but I still like that they've changed this.
In addition, I was able to catch a Star Fragment while it was still falling when I was skydiving around the area. I will have to try what happens if you combine them with arrows, even though that might be a waste... But maybe it will turn them into powerful light arrows that can one-shot enemies... It could help with the Floormasters, maybe... But some valuable material will have to fulfill the role of Ancient Arrows.
Sons of Hyrule
The nearby tower has its doors locked and this is where you meet the Rito Billson again, where I'm starting to wonder how many more people with their names ending on "son" there will be. Technically, everyone born into Tarrey Town will be named Somethingson, where this will grow exponentially. In the future maybe everyone in Hyrule will have such a name...
The next Zelda game, which takes place 100 years after Tears of the Kingdom, then will feature a new Hero of Hyrule, "Linkson", on his journey to save the lovely "Princess Zeldason".
Jokes aside, I really like meeting Addison practically everywhere, where my contraptions for supporting his sign have to become more and more complex, to a point where they look like giant signs themselves. But the guy is just awesome and I love how he rewards you with three things every single time. No other Zelda NPC ever does this! It might not be much, where he gives you some Rupees, some food, and then one other thing, but getting different food is actually quite nice in this game, because they are automatically added to your recipe books.
Now, I really want to check out Tarrey Town to see what is going on there, but I haven't even been to any of the other villages yet... so, let's change this!
Ring Ruins Village
Finally, I could live up to my name and feel like a tourist in a video game, once I had arrived at Kakariko. I can't say I like what they've done with the place, where it became a bit of a mess. These "Ring Ruins", as they are called, have fallen down all over the town, where they are apparently special, because the other Zonai ruins aren't ring-shaped. This has turned the entire village into an archeological site and tourist attraction, because everyone loves Zonai stuff now.
You can learn that these rings represent the Sages and there is an element to each of them: wind, water, fire, lightning, light, and time, where I already had my suspicions about this since the final trailer and this is making things a bit clearer, because each tear is supposed to be tied to an element, truly like the Medallions in Ocarina of Time. Though, you could argue that "time" isn't really an element, which is probably why I was thrown off there, but neither was "spirit". And I suppose the last tear could be darkness, which is the one in Ganondorf's possession. But I will certainly learn more once I progress in the story, so I shouldn't give this too much thought at this point. We're past the trailer analysis and in the discovery phase...
One part of the ring ruins is still floating and Princess Zelda forbade the village from going near it... Zelda's presence in the game has been overall a bit spooky so far. You saw her turn into light at Hyrule Castle. Her blood moon scenes feel a lot more sinister, especially the first one where she says, "witness it!" And here her spirit or whatever is now giving instructions without any explanation.
You will have to obey, whether you want to or not, where there is one guy from the Zonai research team who will prevent you from going near the floating piece, even when you try to land on it from the air. Now, that's annoying, where something similar happened later at the Wetland Stable. They have a raft there and you can find building pieces for a motor boat, which had me excited to give it a try, but the guy at the river simply prevents you from taking the raft... Ugh, that's no fun.
At least Paya is fun, who is now the new chief of the village and still very much into Link, despite having who's probably the manliest man in all of the Zelda series next to her – no, not Ganondorf, but the leader of the Zonai Survey Team, Tauro. He seems to be a cool guy and also quite important, because he got a slot in the character profiles as well. At least you're still not given any boundaries when it comes reading diaries, where I had to check Paya's to learn more about her feelings for Link, and the Calamity Ganon tapestry now hangs up in the attic of her home, as a nice easter egg:
Otherwise, it felt like I couldn't do much at this point in Kakariko, where the shops are either overpriced or empty, and the side quests around these problems weren't as simple either. The firefly lady, for example, wants something against the Gloom to help her grandmother, and while I do have the necessary ingredient from the Poe statue, I haven't found any rice, milk, or butter yet to turn it into the recipe that she wants... You can get some goat butter once you've helped out with the grocery store, where you need to do the fighting for two old hotheads, but this still leaves the milk and the rice. (Update: I misread and didn't even need the butter, lol, neither the stuff from the Poe statue.)
So, I decided to explore around Kakariko a bit instead, where I had my first encounter with a Lynel at the Rabia Plains, but I didn't engage, because it was a blue one. I also saw Naydra for the first time, who was diving head first into a chasm, and I just followed her to see what she is up to... Because why not?
Kakariko Mining Facility
Now, the depths below Kakariko Village also paint a very different picture from what I had first experienced down there. Below Lookout Landing you had this very flat terrain, where I was worried that the entire Depths are like that, but this doesn't seem to be the case. Here you had gigantic walls blocking your path and you can climb up forever. I tried to reach the top of the nearby Lightroot, but ultimately ran out of stamina and stamina-boosting food.
Naydra was going rounds in the background during all this, where I'm not any smarter what the dragons are doing down there... I also found statues guiding the way, where this time they looked like Zora. And these shadowy figures holding weapons are pretty awesome. If you ever encounter a Dark Link looking like this in the game, it will be terrifying. But right now this whole place is just one giant mystery.
With the added heights exploring the Depths became also more and more depressing, but at least there is a good system to exploring them with the Lightroots. Since they are always below shrines, you can use your overworld map to guide you to where the next Lightroot will be, which names are the same as the shrines, only backwards. Likewise, if you can spot a Lightroot somewhere on the distance, you can mark them on your map to see where any missing shrines on the surface might be. This is very helpful, all without the Shrine Sensor.
Of course, you might not be able to get to the next Lightroot so easily when there are giant walls blocking the way, and on my way I stumbled over some fortifications with some familiar symbols. The Yiga have been very busy and they have been building a base below Kakariko, which is ingenious, since they are "inverted Sheikah". They are mining Zonaite there and are already making good use of all the Zonai devices. I had to fight two Yiga flying on gliders, for example, which was spacy, but luckily they were easy enough to take down and I could explore their place more freely.
They've built quite a lot, which makes me wonder when they were doing all of this. How long have I been out? And it all felt so "alien", where again I was getting Metroid vibes from the Depths. But none of my concerns mattered any longer when I found this baby:
This is hilarious. I mean, I already have an inkling what the Ultrahand and all the Zonai devices will let you do in the game, but it's another thing to see your enemies build something similar. I had a good time driving this around, but I didn't get far with the terrain. And now I really hope that the last Zonai ability, which you might get in the game, lets you save and summon vehicles like this, or any of your contraptions in general. This would be the perfect replacement for the Master Cycle Zero. If I could just throw out my self-made tank in the middle of Hyrule Field and go, then this would be some good fun.
But this was honestly the only good fun I had during this part. Exploring the Depths was super depressing (which is probably the point) and it's all a bit much right now. No matter where you go, there is so much more stuff to do and explore with the caves and the Depths. This isn't necessarily a bad thing and I'm sure that I will embrace it later, but it can get overwhelming in the beginning.
At least this has completely removed my worries that Breath of the Wild will be made obsolete by this game. I think there will be a certain charm to its simpler world in the end, where Kakariko is just this beautiful and wholesome place surrounded by hills, where you do a series of side quests and then move on. It will be the purer and more carefree experience, I guess, which might have more replay value in the end due to its simplicity. And it already took me over 160 hours to replay Breath of the Wild again... Tears of the Kingdom will be off the charts with all its many additions.
Ultrahand Stupidity
After all this depressing darkness, I had to take a break from the game first and go back to exploring the overworld once I returned to it, which brought me to the Wetland Stable. Stables have become a lot more valuable, because I have been using horses a lot more already than I ever really did in Breath of the Wild. The stables really act like small bases for me this time, but there is also the task of transporting Koroks around. Though, this time it didn't really work so well...
I decided to use a smaller plank, because you don't really need a big one for a Korok, but this wasn't really a good idea. On my way to the Korok camp the whole wagon just tipped over and I ended up carrying the guy myself after all. And this after all the effort of putting the wagon together...
As you can see above, I had trouble attaching the harness correctly, where the game wanted to put it on the wheels instead... I get that you might want to put things on the wheels, for example blades, but in some cases the Ultrahand is too flexible for its own good. Attaching the wheels themselves can be a similar problem, where sometimes the game realizes what you want to do, but sometimes it doesn't and attaches the outer wheel to the board... (Update: it's based on the distance.) It's all a bit finicky and as many new possibilities this ability may give you, it can also get a bit frustrating.
This goes as far that I'm starting to cheese some of the shrine puzzles already, instead of giving the "intended" solution a try, given that I even understood what the intended solution was supposed to be. A good example is the shrine with the awesome name "Tukarok" and its "Forward Force" puzzles, where you have to move a large orb to its destination with the help of wheels.
I completely skipped the second part, because I didn't understand what I should do there. You have a block on a rail, which goes up diagonally over a series of fences. You get a wheel and a plank, where my best guess was to put the plank on the fences and the wheel on the block to move it along the plank, but I was missing a second plank for this (maybe I didn't see it).
Anyway, I grew impatient, so I simply attached the orb to the block, moved the block to the end with the Ultrahand, and let it slide back down. Then I climbed up, used Recall on the block, and grabbed the orb with Ultrahand, where I was positively surprised that I could grab things when they are in the process of a time reversal... So, that's one way to do it.
On the last part I struggled to build anything that can move across the river without crashing midway, so in the end I just settled for halfway and grabbed the orb with the Ultrahand. Done. This is how you're supposed to do it, right? At least the puzzles will have some replay value, because I might going to solve some of them in a "better" way in the future.
The Search for Hestu
My biggest problem at the moment was the full inventory, like it always is, where even when you fuse everything you will still have to leave some good things behind... So, my priority was to find Hestu next, just so I can start upgrading my inventory, since I already had over 50 Korok Seeds. And I had two ideas where to look... The obvious one was just following the game's directions and head towards Rito Village. Breath of the Wild also told you to go to Kakariko first and you found Hestu on your way there, so it made sense that this may repeat.
The other possibility was checking out Korok Forest and since I was closer to there, I chose to head there first. Plus, at the Wetland Stable you will learn that someone near the Woodland Stable is looking to purchase the Bubbul Gems that you can find in caves, where this was also interesting.
Turned out that someone is Koltin, the brother of Kilton, who wants to become a Satori... Okay, sure. He rewarded me with the Bokoblin Mask for the first one, but then disappeared before I could give him any more, which he has in common with Hestu.
Sadly, Kilton doesn't remember you at all, neither does the little girl obsessed with sky islands at the Woodland Stable, Shamae. So far I don't see how people got the idea that clearing side quests in Breath of the Wild will have any influence on dialogues in Tears of the Kingdom, because it simply seems up to the script who remembers you and who doesn't. But let's see.
Around the area there is also lots of talk about Misko, the bandit, who has hid his armor collection all around caves in Hyrule, which includes rarities from old legends. This explains the thing with the Fierce Deity Boots that I had found earlier, but overall this is pretty much the exact same idea as with the DLC armor pieces in Breath of the Wild, only slightly more integrated. At least this gives you one more extra reason to search through all the many caves, other than the Bubbuls.
I moved on to the Lost Woods and was surprised to see that they effectively swapped status with the Typhlo Ruins. They are now shrouded in this massive dark cloud, while the Typhlo Ruins are finally free from it.
In Breath of the Wild it was actually quite intuitive to find your way through the Lost Woods, but whatever you have to do here, it completely escaped me. I even tried to force my way through it, but no matter where I went it would instantly reset me. So, my best guess right now is that you will need an item, or at least a hint from somewhere... Or I was just blind again and will try another time.
So, instead I decided to check out the Typhlo Ruins to finally see them in daylight, where there is even a tower now there... And I'm not sure what I had expected here, it's just the same ruins that are blocking your path on every turn. They are also filled with stronger versions of the Soldier and Captain Constructs, where I could cheese the soldiers with my better bows that I still had from Hyrule Castle, but I didn't bother with the captains yet, because the soldiers were already costing me one fairy per hit.
Interestingly, they put a shrine nearby, where you have to walk through complete darkness, essentially as a nod to the original Typhlo Ruins. In there you yre carrying a large flash light, which had some horror game vibes to it, but I ended up just throwing Brightbloom Seeds everywhere, because it was more convenient, really, especially for finding all the hidden treasure chests.
Back to the Skies
With the new towers I could reach smaller groups of sky islands near them, where it was really strange to return here after all this time. I'm a bit worried that the whole sky island part is underdeveloped when compared to the Depths, because so far it seems like the Great Sky Island is the only larger area up there and the rest are just these small groups of islands. It's still better than Skyward Sword, but not by much, where this game so far isn't anywhere close the potential that such a setting can offer. I absolutely love the idea of sky islands, but the execution seems to be lackluster once more. And this disappoints me, but I haven't seen everything yet, so maybe things will get more interesting later on.
The smaller groups basically act like Shrine Quests, where you have to retrieve a green gemstone and bring it to the shrine to receive a Blessing. Above the Typhlo Ruins this led to my first battle against a "Flux Construct", which are these box monsters. But it didn't turn out too bad, where the fight worked exactly as I thought it would... Already in the promotional material you could spot that one box stands out from the others and with that observation you're ready for the battle. It's still a very well animated fight.
They also drop a special flux part, which you can only fuse to a weapon, but not collect it to your inventory. But it's quite strong and there is more where it came from. I successfully fought a "Battle Talus" at the Sahasra Slope Tower thanks to the advantageous terrain and this dropped a Talus Heart, which I turned into a hammer.
Also, I noticed that the device dispensers will give you a lot more capsules if you throw in more Zonai Charges at once. So, now I always put it the full five to get a lot out of it. There some stuff in my inventory even that I haven't seen anywhere else before, like shock emitters. But this slowly creates the urge to upgrade my Energy Cell, which is super expensive. I got the first 100, but this only gives you a third of a battery... I guess, you will need to a lot more mining.
A third challenge came at the islands near the Lindor's Brow Tower, where this was a skydiving trial and I had heard about this before from a Construct on another sky island. You can earn the different pieces of the wingsuit there, which is pretty nice. And this trial put you through a series of these long vertical sky islands, where I always assumed that you would have to climb them up, not the other way around.
A Wild Hestu Appears
Now, if you've been raising your brow on reading "Lindor's Brow", then you already know that I've stumbled over my goal. You will meet Hestu on your way up there, who is afraid of the new Evermeans. Once you took care of them (you really always want an axe in your inventory, much like a hammer), he does his new awesome dance for you, together with some friends:
Sadly, you only get to upgrade your stashes twice here and he then tells you that he's heading east... I just came from the east! But he's looking for a new home, without saying anything about what has happened with the Korok Forest. He also doesn't remember you, just like the other Koroks. Did collecting all 900 Korok Seeds really mean that little to you, Hestu? In any case, I will be doing it all over again.
He also has the Kokiri symbol on his character profile, which is nice. Rauru is so far the only one without one, where I would like to see what the official Zonai symbol is, since there are quite a different number of options, like the serpent dragons.
Upland Lindor used to be the area with the best horses in Breath of the Wild, where now the New Serenne Stable is even in a much better spot to check them, near the Royal Ancient Lab Ruins. However, there is now a Lynel back there and I'm willing to fight it, since I've had a lot of practice lately in Breath of the Wild, but I'm a bit worried that the enemy scaling will kick in too quickly, plus you might not even find the best horses there any longer.
The place where the Serenne Stable used to be now featured a mini-game about picking up sand seal plush toys. This is the most adorable mini-game ever and the trick is to stick them all together, instead of picking them up all by one. The person was on her way to Hateno, however, she only got lost, so you probably will be playing this all over Hyrule a couple of time, just as you meet Addison pretty much everywhere.
Impa's Balloon Flight
Nope, this is not a new spin-off title, but the New Serenne Stable is also where Impa has been waiting with her hot-air balloon, which was the main reason why I went in this direction. This introduces you to the "Geoglyphs", the giant markings that you can see from above. When going around the Lost Woods I even noticed one that looked like the Master Sword, where this already implied that there is more to them than just "mystical Zonai things".
When you look at them from above, you might be able to spot something in the picture that looks like a tear. The hollow ones lead to Koroks, but the full ones are where a teardrop has landed, a "Dragon's Tear" as Impa calls them. It's what we could see in the second teaser trailer from E3 2021, but until now I had no clue what this droplet was meant to be...
A Zelda to the Past
These tears give you visions of what happened to Zelda after she had jumped into the distant past, to the time after the kingdom of Hyrule was founded. We already could learn from Purah that Rauru was the name of the first king of Hyrule, but this vision now confirms it, where it's of note how in both games you're guided by a former of king of Hyrule during your tutorial.
We are also introduced to his wife, Sonia, the first queen of Hyrule, who is the mystery woman from the last trailer, where I've been speculating that she is some other version of Zelda or Hylia. Well, close enough. I later went to the Illumeni Plateau not far from the New Serenne Stable, where there is the one geoglyph that we saw at the end from last year's trailer, which is actually picturing Sonia. This leads to a nice scene, where Zelda and Sonia are having tea and talk about their ability to alter an object's course in time, since they both have the same tear around their neck.
Sonia has quite the husky voice and she seems like a good mother figure for Zelda. I wouldn't be surprised if Sonia and Rauru were to name their firstborn daughter Zelda to honor the princess that came from the future. And Hyrule looked so beautiful in the distant past. When Zelda arrived, you could see the Temple of Time in the background, the one that now is in the sky, where I think it really is on the Great Plateau, which was said to be Hyrule's birthplace. And the tea scene seems to have taken place at Lake Lokomo, but it's hard to recognize.
Keep in mind that I see the Hyrule from Breath of the Wild and Tears of the Kingdom entirely as its own thing, separate from the other Hyrules that we know from the classic Zelda games in the "era of myth". This is not the first Hyrule and it won't be the last. I see a lot of talk about the timelines and how the new games are now part of the Downfall Timeline, because of the Imprisoning War, but this is likely a different Imprisoning War, one that took place much later in this new Hyrule, long after the one from Ocarina of Time and A Link to the Past. Otherwise none of this would make any sense.
In any case, I do like how memories work in this game. It's a lot more fun to search for them than it was with the pictures on your Sheikah Slate in Breath of the Wild, and the whole era of this Hyrule's beginnings is also a lot more intriguing. The memories in Breath of the Wild were really nice for getting to know Zelda and the Champions better, but this is about getting to know a whole other era. And it's about Zelda's adventures after you two were separated in the beginning of the game.
Well, this setup feels a bit similar to Skyward Sword, where you were also close with Zelda in the beginning, she falls down and disappears in front of your eyes, and then has her own journey, where she grows more and more distant from you in order to fulfill her destiny. The difference here is that she ended up in a different time and her journey is already over when you start your adventure, which makes this much more tolerable than in Skyward Sword, where she was essentially running away from you the whole game and you will always miss her at the last second, no matter how you play. They've handled this much better in Tears of the Kingdom and I do enjoy the mystery of what's up with Zelda in the present.
In the memories on your Purah Pad you can also watch the cutscene from the beginning of the game again, where the two of you have encountered Gibdorf. But there is one more memory before that, where I'm hoping that this will show a bit of what has happened between Breath and Tears, because I have really no clue. We did catch some glimpses of this potentially with the trailers, where the last one had a scene of Link retrieving the Master Sword from its pedestal at Korok Forest. And maybe I'll still get to see the other spelunking scenes from the original teaser trailer, where Link and Zelda were down in caves filled with Luminous Stones, riding that weird creature.
Speaking of, there is talk at the stables of a "rumored monster" and that Princess Zelda used to ride it, where this may be the same thing...
Game of Tears
Since I really like the new concept for the memories, I followed it a bit further, where Impa invites you to investigate the Forgotten Temple together. This place is much nicer now, without all the Decayed Guardians lurking around, but the giant Goddess Statue has fallen over. (This solved another mystery for me, where I have already checked out the Spring of Courage when I was in the neighborhood, but I couldn't do anything there, because its Goddess Statue was worried about the one in the canyon. I should report back and see what happens...)
Behind the statue you can now find a secret room, which has this awesome stone carving of Hyrule inside, where the positions of the geoglyphs are marked on it. This was totally inspired by the Game of Thrones intro, they could never deny this, but I love how this looks and that you can just walk over it. It's a bit unnecessary, because you can't possibly miss these geoglyphs, but maybe some are a bit trickier to spot. And to have the room as whole is already worth it, it's my favorite discovery so far.
Block Puzzles
The shrine at the Forgotten Temple was a blast from the past for me. There you have to put together cuboids out of several small cubes that are attached to each other, which is like those wooden cube puzzles. The new shrines really are inspired by kids' toys! But I made one of these in school, so this was a nice throwback.
Some of the new Korok puzzles also work similarly, where this is much better than the old Magnesis puzzles, where you had to put a single cube in the right spot. Overall, I enjoy the new Korok puzzles quite a bit, where some are quite creative. For example, they have inverted the puzzles where you had to roll a boulder into a hole in Breath of the Wild. Or the puzzles where you have to remove a cork are funny.
But the backpack Koroks, no matter how cute they may be, often turn out to be too much work. So, I usually just mark them on my map and decide to come back later, once I have something to make the transport a bit easier. Or maybe I should just start attaching them to rockets...
Progress:
- Shrines: 32
- Lightroots: 5
- Towers: 6
- Korok Seeds: 66
- Bubbuls: 13
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