Yesterday was weird, because I've spent like eight hours writing about the remake and maybe 90 minutes of playing... But it's a good sign that I have so much to say, and I wouldn't want to miss doing this. Anyway, in the little time I had left, I went to Kakariko Village and have done some good old grave-digging in the night. It was also the grand opening of the Happy Mask Shop.
Kakariko was the only place that I didn't visit during the endless day, because it's just not the same without some good nighttime. You want to hunt those Gold Skulltulas. You want to visit the graveyard at night. And so on.
We already knew from trailers and screenshots that the layout of the village would change a bit, and I think these changes were for the best. The construction site is now closer to the tree, where Mutoh—eerrrh, I mean the Master Craftsman—is complaining about his lazy workers all day, while not getting any work done himself. And the creepy Skulltula House is now closer to the creepy well, while everything feels more natural, like a proper settlement. There are also several spots now for you to jump upwards and grab ledges for a shortcut.
Curiously, there is music at night in Kakariko. It's the same theme, but calmer, similar to the villages in Breath of the Wild. And while that's fine, I miss that strong ambience with overly loud bird sounds in the distance and the constant rattling of the windmill. It had a certain charm to it, which the remake can't truly replicate. But you won't notice it when you're busy marveling at all the new details. Oh, look at all these ivy plants!
They've added a small gatehouse at the exit to the Death Mountain Trail, which the guard hypothetically could use to rest, but he never does. Just like visiting his family. But they've done a great job of making this look more imposing, as they did with the guards themselves.
You can now also access the future potion shop already, which is currently abandoned and where the door to the backyard is completely blocked. But the remake still doesn't let you enter the house across, where the graveyard boy lives. That will forever be a running gag, just like Fado's house in Twilight Princess.
There is a significant distance between the watchtower and the potion shop, so you can't just sidehop onto the roof any longer. But there is now an intended way to get there as a child: you can simply fly there from the windmill hill. It may not even be possible to use the Hookshot on the roofs in the remake...
Impa's house doesn't have a cow cage inside, where instead it's behind the house. You still need to access this via the roof, though, but you can probably climb outside again once you're there, where the more realistic environments and the new manual jumps seemingly go hand in hand together.
There is also some new dialogue going on, where Anju—errrmh, I mean the Cucco Lady—asks the guy to talk to her aunt, and you can watch him do so. Some little things to make the village feel more like a proper community.
Collecting the Cuccos is fun as always. They have changed some of the locations, but for the most part this is very similar to the original and still the best version of this little side quest. Neither Breath of the Wild, nor Echoes of Wisdom, and certainly not The Minish Cap were able to replicate the cozy glory and that bit of cleverness.
And just like that you already have three bottles. But you will need them, because you now only get single bugs and that bug will disappear for good into a Soft Soil. They are not instantly multiplying whenever you put one into a bottle, making this more realistic, but also less convenient. This will make it more interesting to discover spots with bugs, however.
When the day turns to night and you enter the graveyard, you usually had to face the most annoying Piece of Heart in the game, at the mercy of the great R. N. Goddess. Just like the fishing mini-game, that's a great angle for such a remake to shine. And they have finally fixed things...
If you now play the Heart-Pounding Gravedigging Tour, Dampé will set up a fixed number of dig spots, where you can try your luck with each of them. He approaches the one you pick very quickly and each spot can only be opened once. And that's the key, really. I have obtained the Piece of Heart from the last one, where I doubt that this was coincidence.
So, you only need enough Rupees to do the whole tour and you should get the Piece of Heart for sure. I even had more Rupees in the end, I think... There were some empty spots, but also some red ones and a single purple Rupee. And even if you were to lose some money here, it's totally fine as long as you're guaranteed to get that Piece of Heart at the end. That in itself is a fantastic improvement, where the 100% speedrun category enthusiasts always had to suffer here. (Well, there were some fascinating discoveries recently about how you can determine your RNG from Dampé's eye blinking, but I would still prefer the remake.)
During the day you can also see Dampé tampering inside his shed, but you can't have a closer look... because the remake doesn't have a first person camera view. I'm not sure what I find more annoying, that or the fixed sun inside villages. It's also true for Kakariko, by the way, so there really seem to be two types of areas, just like in the original: where time truly passes and where time pseudo-passes.
Anyway, the real scary part of the graveyard always was the Royal Tomb. My 13-year-old self playing a 3D video game for the first time in his life got seriously haunted by that place. When I first discovered the tomb, I was excited, thinking that this is another major dungeon, but the blocky polygon graphics led me to believe that the ReDead were people... And this then led to one of my first Game Overs, which created a layer of respect that I couldn't shake off so easily.
I did not want to go back there unless I had to... Which caused a problem, because you don't really have to go in there, but you should as early as possible. It's the place that will reward you with the most effective protection from the ReDeads, as well as a tool to change the time of day, the Sun's Song. And it took me a while to realize this back then.
It's a gaming memory I will always carry with me, and they have done this full justice in the remake. The ReDeads are even scarier now, because they can approach much more swiftly. I almost died in here again, creating a newfound respect for a place that had haunted me once as a child. Their bodies are now overgrown with roots, which adds a certain creep factor, like they have been down here taking roots for ages, only for them to lash out at their prey. It's much better than the Gibdos in Tears of the Kingdom, that's for sure.
The Sun's Song also got buffed and nerfed at the same time. I only could get one of them to stun, but the stun remains in place even when you attack them. By the way, I've played around with the microphone humming feature a bit, which works surprisingly well, even when the Switch 2 is docked and further away. Though, I probably wouldn't want to hum when facing ReDeads.
Afterwards, I was surprised to find that the grotto underneath the butterfly tombstone doesn't come with a free Hylian Shield any longer, but they have simply moved things around. It's now in the other tombstone grotto with the single ReDead:
The chest is there right from the beginning, so you don't have to play the Sun's Song or defeat the ReDead, though it's certainly advantageous. And I suppose they have moved the Piece of Heart behind the bombable wall, maybe in the middle of the Fairy Fountain, so you now have a reason to go back there and visit that place. Which would be a very good change. It's also good how the Hylian Shield isn't entirely free now – you have to overcome that ReDead obstacle, making you earn the thing.
Or you can just buy one from castle town if you're too scared. You need to head there anyway to initiate the Happy Mask Salesman quest, which brings me to the next topic...
The Happy Mask Shop Owner looks like Odo and Weyoun from Deep Space Nine had a child together. It is perfectly creepy. The mask designs are also more functional now, clearly made from wood and with visible straps. Though, it's a bit silly how Link's head shakes when you take it on and off, like a bobblehead doll.
Now, the little girl who chases after the Cucco on the market won't stop any longer when you wear a mask. That was always something that stuck out, like she is the one you should be asking first. Still, with this remake I'm going to take the time to talk to everyone with each mask, just to see what new reactions this may cause.
Mamamu Yan—errrh, I mean the Pooch Lady—speaks of a Dog Mask, for example, which might be a nod to the Doggie Mask in Oracle of Ages. Though, she wants one for herself, so it's more of a kink thing and not some accessory for Richard.
Apropos Richard, this is where he ran away and she starts looking for him, already during the day. You still have to find him at night, when all the stray dogs roam the town, where she will still be waiting in the streets, so you don't have to visit her home for this side quest any longer... And if you do, she will screech and accuse you of trespassing when she returns home.
I was lucky to find Richard right away, where I probably should have tried some other dogs first to see the different reactions... Because she does a full inspection. And I wonder if any white dog will do, because she may not actually be able to tell the difference. That would be funny.
It's also funny when the dogs storm out of the castle gate in the morning and the guard there thinks, "nothing unusual here." Nothing unusual indeed.
Oh, and they don't actually raise the drawbridge any longer in the remake. So, even if your first day in Hyrule wasn't endless, you still wouldn't have to worry about being locked out of town. "That's not my Ocarina of Time!" the grumpy millennial complains.
Some fans are also upset that you can't climb the chains for some Rupees, but you have to keep the more realistic design in mind. There are no invisible Rupees in the remake that you just magically get. And for Link to climb these chains, they would have needed to implement some balancing animations, similar to Skyward Sword. Or else it would look off. (Update: there actually is one in the game when you climb onto certain things, like fences. So, they could have done something here.)
The only complaint I have is one I already had this summer when I replayed the Nintendo 64 version: it's annoying to run back and forth between Hyrule Castle Town and Kakariko Village for the mask quest. Something to make this shorter would have been nice, e.g. learning the Prelude of Light early in the game, or letting you ride on young Epona. The new dash helps, but the distance between the settlements became larger. But maybe you want to take the time and just let the beauty of this new, old Hyrule settle in....
Well, I also tried if I could get past the boulders at the Zora River somehow. And I'm sure it's possible with some crazy glitches that the internet has found after fully reverse-engineering the remake for PC, because we live in that day and age now. But there doesn't seem to be a way with the intended game mechanics, like the new jumps.
And I'm a bit disappointed about this, because I was hoping that the remake might make the game a little less linear. In the original there was no real reason why you shouldn't be able to go to the Zora before the Gorons. It was just these boulders stopping you... And I definitely would have gone to Zora's Domain first if I had the choice.
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