Echoes of Wisdom Adventure Log, Entry 11 ~ Eldin Volcano

One larger rift remained at Eldin Volcano and this brought me back to the Gorons, where I had explored most of the mountain earlier in the game, before parts of it got swallowed up. As you can see with the starting screenshot of this post, you don't get the intro sequence for these goddess areas until you have official business there. Even though I had explored the volcano before, it only now gave me its overview video. The same thing happened at Hebra and Faron, but I thought it was worth mentioning before we move on.

~ The Chief in Trainee ~

In Goron City you'll get to your first mini rift right away to free most of the Gorons, where I liked how it lets you enter the big Goron vase via a ladder.

This is where you first meet the son and fresh successor of their previous chief. His name is Darston and you will immediately recognize that he isn't really a proper chief yet, because he doesn't take up a two-by-two square space, like the King of Hyrule and all the other tribe chiefs do – Dradd, Kushura, and Seera. 

And after Darunia, Darmani, Darbus and Daruk, Darston has some big shoes to fill... not that Gorons would ever wear any. But his character feels more similar to the early Yunobo, where he may not be afraid of monsters, but he's afraid to fail in his role as the new chief and therefore very insecure. So, it's a nice little coming-of-age story with this one.

After getting to know Darston, you need to find some Goron elders to learn about a shortcut, but they weren't taken by rifts, they simply have curled up somewhere and you have to help them. Get some delicious Rock Roast for them, which can be made into an echo, and fight off some Shadow Lizalfos.

This was my first encounter with Lv2 Lizalfos, interestingly, where I could use their big brother to defeat them. The second tier looks a bit like an Aeralfos from Twilight Princess with their helmets, but without the wings.

~ Eldin Temple ~

After the Faron Temple I was worried that it might become another "Ice Ruins situation", so I didn't have the highest hope going into this dungeon... But I certainly didn't expect it to be this underwhelming.

The Suthorn Ruins had the excuse that their were the first dungeon, but even they had more to talk about. The main problem here is that there is nothing new. You are doing the same two things that you were doing on your way to the dungeons, all around Eldin Volcano: fly from geysers and put platforms into the lava.

And the visuals also looks quite similar to those of the Goron caves that came before. Of course, this is also true for the other two goddess temples, where you have visually similar caves around the areas. But at least those had unique gameplay mechanics that made them stand out, like the giant fans in the Lanayru Temple.

It also doesn't look as impressive as the Turtle Rock from the Link's Awakening remake, in my opinion. That one looked really good for a top-down lava/magma dungeon and I'm not sure why they weren't able to replicate this here. It might be the shift in perspective, but maybe Turtle Rock stood out more in its game, because they weren't any heated areas before it.

But the biggest disappointment was the mid-boss, the Bomb Link. After the first two Imposter Link battles, I was expecting this to be the highlight of the dungeon, but he just stood there... like Shadow Link, throwing bombs in Four Swords Adventures. I spawned my Lv3 Lizalfos and he was done for, easiest boss fight in the game so far. This was pathetic. Pa-the-tic!

The bombs were also the least interesting addition to your Link Mask, because you can just use Bomb Fish... It might be faster to use the Mighty Bombs, but it costs energy. You can upgrade them into Bombchus, though, which is nice.

Hopefully, there will be one last battle against Imposter Link, where he uses all weapons at once. They can't let end things on such a low note here.

At one point you could have two keys at once, but it was pretty much meaningless. And there was this was this little, Metroid-inspired escape sequence after the boss key, where you have to climb from rising lava. The Climbing Band helps here quite a lot, but so does clearing all the enemies before you open the chest or using water blocks at the end. Not that this is a particularly difficult section or anything, but I have failed it once due to the Fire Keese in the last bit...

It then resets you to the point before you've opened the chest, which apparently also what happens when the expanding rifts catch you in the tutorial of the game. So, you don't have anything to be worried about (I have still PTSD from the instant Game Overs in Metroid: Other M).

So, even the nostalgia bait boss fight at the end, where Volvagia shoots a gigantic, green memberberry at you, couldn't salvage this wreck of a dungeon. It certainly didn't help that Nintendo has showed this boss in their "trailers", which completely ruined the surprise here. Otherwise I probably would be a bit more excited...

But I didn't quite understand the point of the green orb... Where did Volvagia even get it from? Since the Seismic Talus has something similar as his weak point, I originally expected this to be of plot relevance, but it's really not. It's just there for to give you something for Bind.

~ The Impossible Imposter ~

Din's Sanctum now allows me to progress in the story, where you're to go into the Eternal Forest next... Will the forest now also get an introduction screen, even though I've been there two times already?

But before going there, I wanted to mention how this half of the game didn't make use of imposters any longer. There were none among the Goron or the Deku, and Condé's brother was simply away. And that was okay, because the imposter idea really reached its peak with the King of Hyrule... Or did it?

Null creates an imposter (or echo) of Princess Zelda. It turns out that it was waiting this whole time for you to succeed and the rifts above the goddess regions were simply a lure, so that you would collect the three sanctums for it. Null really has learned from Ganondorf's Playbook of Evil here, where this is similar to the three Sacred Stones from Ocarina of Time.

Its imposter should not be able to fool anyone, though, because everyone in Hyrule knows that I'm either wearing a cat costume, pajamas, or Link's tunic... But certainly not that boring dress. Speaking of the outfits...

~ The Princess's Old Clothes ~

What was also missing in the goddess areas were new outfits for Zelda... I haven't really found anything new since I went back to the Gerudo Desert for the Dancing Outfit and the Silk Pajamas. So, right now it looks like this feature is quite underdeveloped, while there would have been so many awesome possibilities here. Why does Link get to wear a cheerleader outfit, but Zelda doesn't? It's not fair, it's just not fair! There is so much good stuff they could have reused from Tri Force Heroes here...

The red tunic was a must for the Gorons and the volcanic area, but I wouldn't even have that if it weren't for amiibo... At least the accessories aren't disappointing, where I found a couple new. There was still the Stone Anklet up for purchase at the Hyrule Castle Town Shop, which is the equivalent to the Steadfast Ring, so it reduces your knockback.

The Goron Bracelet also returns from Ocarina of Time, though here it's called "Goron's Bracelet" and it lets you carry things faster, since there aren't any Bomb Flowers to pick anyway. You get it as a reward from Darston after fighting a fiery version of the Seismic Talus.

So, is this an "Igneo Seismic Talus"? The game doesn't say, since it only counts as a mid-boss... And it seems like all the major areas have one of these, except for Hebra, unless I'm still missing something there, but they are usually triggered by side quests... And other than Condé there is no one around.

Finally, I got the Final Mastery from the Slumber Dojo after completing (almost) all its challenges. Getting the better time at the "Blank Slate Battle: Final" was quite infuriating, however. Not sure what I was doing wrong here, but usually I get the better time (for the checkmark that looks like the master's face) on my first or second try.

It's not that I mind a challenge, it's just that it everything else seemed trivial in comparison. The only other training that gave me some trouble was also a Blank Slate Battle, the ice one, but there I was simply doing it wrong. Here I tried so many different orders of the enemies and eventually barely got below 90 seconds.

It doesn't add up. In the "Wizzrobe Gathering" you have to fight three Wizzrobes with everything you've got and get an extremely generous goal time of 2:35. Or you get 2:10 for the "Floating on Fire" battle, which unlocks with the Eldin Temple, and all you have to do is spawn three Moas and cross the room. But in the final Blank Slate Battle you have to defeat eight different enemies from scratch and have a goal time of only 2:00...  I don't know... And it's not even worth the trouble, since you always only get smoothie ingredients, I just did it for the better checkmarks on everything.

The final final challenge, "The Final Titans' Gathering", also includes the second Ganon as a boss fight, so that's nice to have. I was worried that I wouldn't meet its faster goal time, because it's rather lengthy, but it does have quite the leeway. It took me a little over two minutes less than what the goal time is and I still got the better stamp.

You also don't receive any energy during the boss battles, where you finally have a good use for the smoothies, at least the ones that refill energy. You take whatever you have into the dream and it will still be there afterwards, so this makes it convenient to retry.

Clearing the normal goal time finally unlocks the green tunic as an outfit, so I guess I got something new to wear after all... But it's effectively just a recolor of what I already had and I think the red tunic looks better. Will this game also have a blue tunic, by the way? If not, then this will be a missed opportunity for more amiibo rewards. A blue tunic, a white cat, and maybe pink pajamas.

But this also means that none of the mid-bosses or overworld bosses, like the Igneo Seismic Talus above, will be replayable in the Slumber Dojo... And that's a shame. Though, I'm not exactly sure if it will be fun to re-battle Smog on a timer... But the rest would be nice to have, especially stuff like Manhandla or the Lanmola.

Anyway, I'm missing either a Heart Container or four Pieces of Heart now, as well as 17 Might Crystals and one stamp. Getting close to the finish line here. But I have a feeling that there is another big rift coming, since Tri is on level 11 and that's such an odd number. Maybe the forest will be swallowed or so...