I returned to Hateno Village to complete some more side quests, including one where I had to sneak around to see where Cece (the fashion designer) would go late at night. Except that I went about it the wrong way, and she threw me out. 😆
My next attempt was successful, though. The side quest reminded me of some of the quests in Majora’s Mask, where you also had to follow people to see what they did at certain times. Anyway, I completed the steps required to begin the mayoral election between Cece and Reede. But thanks to Sophie’s help (and the snooping work I did already), they agreed to cancel the election and just work together.
Back in Kakariko Village, I told Paya the latest developments (regarding Zelda, not the Hateno electon), and she finally let me explore the floating Ring Ruin. I found a stone slab inside and took a photo, then I showed it to Paya and Tauro, who deciphered it. The carvings let me know where I need to look next for the other sage, in Faron.
But of course, I did more exploring first. While looking for more lightroots in the Depths, I was surprised to find a dragon down there! But I hitched a ride on it to quickly reach another lightroot.
I ran into a “researcher” who had an odd question for me.
It actually reminded me of Jingle from the early Animal Crossing games. 😆😆😆
But it wasn’t actually Jingle. In fact, it wasn’t even a researcher. It was a Yiga Clan warrior (of course), trying to kill me. After I (easily) defeated him, I found a schema stone nearby for a bridge! I can now build bridges with Autobuild now! That is so helpful! But because the bridge is so big, it is a bit unwieldy and tricky to move around if you’re not in a large open space.
Eventually, I made my way to the Faron region to advance the story. I spoke with Calip at the new base of operations, and he sent me off to inspect some nearby Zonai Ruins. With Tauro’s help, I learned I had to search near a dragon-shaped river for parts of a special outfit depicted on a mural. The outfit was a charged outfit, so apparently Link put them on his credit card. 😉
Once I completed my tasks there, a new chain of sky islands was revealed. I stormed my way up there and bolted from island to island. At the end, I found a relic that led me back to the surface, and then into the Depths. I don’t want to spoil too much, but I’ll just say that the missing sage Mineru communicated with me, and I had to assemble a construct by visiting four separate storehouses.
Once I completed the task, I was instructed to visit a site to the south. That site turned out to be the Spirit Temple, which I visited before (but couldn’t enter). Mineru’s presence unlocked the way, and I fought a boss there. Surprisingly, it wasn’t a proper temple like the other previous ones. But defeating the boss led to Mineru’s secret stone. Mineru gave me her power, so I can use her construct at any time! Mineru’s story break also confirmed what I thought happened to Zelda.
After seeing that I only needed one more geoglyph, I consulted my photo of the geoglyph locations from the Forgotten Temple. I saw that the missing one was near the Tabantha Frontier, so I headed there. But while chasing down a Korok (one that kept warping to new locations), I was lured into a fight with a Flame Gleeok!
Even though Mineru’s construct wasn’t as helpful as I hoped, I kept fighting and I ultimately defeated the Gleeok! It took me ten minutes, but I was glad to finally beat one of those things.
After that, I looked around and found the final geoglyph. Impa and Cado were there, and I activated the vision. After watching it, a dragon tear created a new vision, and I rushed to it. This final vision wrapped up the story and explained a lot of things…including the game’s subtitle. It’s sad, but I really have to say I like the plot of this game. It’s a lot more interesting than what we get in most Zelda games, in my opinion.
I next investigated reports of a psychic chicken, known as the All-Clucking Cucco.
He had two tests for me to perform. And once I was done, he revealed himself to be…well, a fraud. When I was done, uh, wrapping up the story, Penn dropped in. He told me this was the last story he needed my help with! It’s suddenly sinking in how far I’m progressing in the game, and it feels a bit sad to wrap up my side gig as a reporter. But of course, I know there’s still much more to be done in the game. And I also earned the remaining piece of the froggy suit to climb wet surfaces.
When I returned to Lookout Landing, Purah confirmed that I’m pretty much ready to fight the final battle. I need to look in the Depths to figure out my next steps. But of course, I’m not quite ready for that.
This seems like a good place to wrap up this entry. My play time is currently at 175 hours, and here are my latest stats:
My shrine count is up to 95 (from 87 last time), my lightroots are up to 65 (from 53), and my Korok seed count is 160 (up from 146). My Hyrule Compendium progress is as follows:
- Creatures: 78/92
- Monsters: 101/110 (up from 98 last time)
- Materials: 110/126 (up from 106)
- Equipment: 127/175 (up from 125)
- Treasure: 6/6
Until next time, I’ll leave you with the wise words of this insane traveler. 😛
