Jeff's Gaming Blog

Someone in Hateno Village kept telling me about Lurelin Village being taken over by pirates, so I decided to head that way. The “pirates” (really just monsters, as usual) were found throughout the town, and one of them was hidden. I ultimately defeated them all, and some of the evacuated (or hiding) villagers returned. But the damage had been done: Many buildings were damaged or destroyed.

Rebuilding the village would be quite a big task, but I agreed to help out Bolson the carpenter by repairing the vandalized homes and businesses. First, I had to gather some logs to use as building supports, and find some Hylian rice to make thatched roofs. Then I had to clear out debris and install logs as support pillars. (Bolson did the rest, off-screen.)

Once we restored all of the buildings, many villagers returned and had a party/feast for me and Bolson. Bolson even started dancing with some of the kids in town.

This whole side adventure reminded me of building Tarrey Town in Breath of the Wild. They’re both fairly big projects, even if this one can be done essentially all at once.

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After I (finally) figured out how to activate Skyview Tower, I descended into the Depths…into the Yiga Clan Hideout Chasm. I explored for quite a long time, and I found (and activated) a bunch of new lightroots. Even though the Depths are barren and generally not very exciting, it is satisfying to seek out and turn on each lightroot.

And occasionally, you do find something interesting down there. These lava falls were pretty cool. Well, hot, but cool.

But I inevitably run out of arrows in the Depths (from shooting brightbloom seeds on arrows to see where I’m going), so I have to return to the surface eventually. 😛 And once I did, I started exploring the Hebra mountains. At Snowfield Stable, I learned that Zelda’s horse had run away. (This was for another story Pete was working on.) Of course, this was a side adventure, and I set out to track it down.

Of course there’s a giant flying enemy called a Frost Gleeok along the way, and its ice lasers ended my game a couple of times. But I eventually got past it, and I found Zelda’s golden horse! I took the long way back to the stable (to avoid the Gleeok), and I was ultimately told I could keep the horse. I knew just what name to give it. 😆

By the way, there is something else interesting about stables: Horses that were registered in Breath of the Wild are still available in Tears of the Kingdom! So I still have horses like Amazing, This Loon, and Big Red, which some of you might remember from my BOTW blog entries or videos.

Over at Highland Stable, people said they heard the sound of a flute nearby. I tracked down the mysterious source of the music: A guy up a tree, playing a flute. 😛 I gave him some fireflies to help him impress a girl, and then I called her over to watch the show.

The guy was Pyper, and he is one of the Stable Trotters musicians. Since I helped him out, he was willing to rejoin the group. So I, once again, helped the group get to another fairy. After playing their music, the Great Fairy Kaysa came out of her shell.

That allowed me to upgrade my clothing and armor up to a third level. I’m starting to feel like I’m not such a weaklink weakling any more. 😛

In a shrine nearby, I was having a bit of trouble on the last part, where I needed to make a mine cart go up an inclined track. After trying a few things unsuccessfully, I resorted to something simpler: Just walking across the track. It worked!

I then returned to Lookout Landing to redeem some Lights of Blessing (for another heart container and some more stamina). I also traded in some Korok seeds for some weapon/shield slots. This seems like a good time to wrap up this entry, so let’s take a look at my current stats…

That’s 50 shrines completed and 28 lightroots activated so far. I’ll also include my Hyrule Compendium status for the first time:

• Creatures: 55/92
• Monsters: 74/110
• Materials: 90/126
• Equipment: 94/175
• Treasure: 6/6

And I’m up to 85 hours played. But there’s still soooo much more to do! I’ll see you next time!

Despite being about 60 hours into the game, I had never visited Kakariko Village yet…until now. An archaeologist wouldn’t let me near the largest of the Ring Ruins, the one that hovers in mid-air. But I did get to meet the new village chief, Paya.

Outside of town, I ran into Garshon, who made a good point about being alone. 😆

Nearby, I finally activated a tower that had me stumped when I was in this area previously. That’s the main reason I never found Kakariko Village sooner. The guy out front kept talking about mushrooms from a cave, so I thought I had to bring him some mushrooms before he’d open the door…but that didn’t work. But at least I finally got it activated.

After completing a shrine on a floating island, I dropped down into the Depths. I did some serious exploring and roaming down there, especially after I found an area with parts to make myself a new car.

While climbing a slanted wall underground, Link’s hair swung forward as the camera awkwardly zoomed in. As a result, it looked like Link had a beard for a moment. 😆

I activated a whopping nine new lightroots before I came upon an odd platform in the middle of an underground lake. When I used the Ascend ability, I found myself in a house with two Yiga Clan members. I was back in the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab!

After defeating them, I teleported back to Lookout Landing. I redeemed some Korok seeds for new weapon/bow slots, bought some arrows, and prayed to a goddess statue.

Because I’ve found four “Sage’s Wills,” I was able to redeem them to make my bond with a sage stronger. I chose Yunobo, since his attack comes in handy during battles.

Just outside of Kakariko Village, I ran into Beetz the drummer. He’s another member of the “Stable Trotters” musical troupe.

First I helped him out by giving him some honey, and then I helped the entire troupe cross the river.

They performed some music for the Great Fairy Cotera, and she popped out of her plant bud to enjoy the show.

I can now enhance my clothing to a second level, which should really help protect me from enemies (and those pesky one-hit kills).

Next, I made my way over to Hateno Village for the first time. It wasn’t on the map, so I had some trouble finding it initially. Half the people here idolize Cece, the famous fashion designer.

Of course, the other half of the town is sick of the town being known only for Cece’s fashions. So there’s a bunch of political drama between Cece and the current mayor, Reede. He thinks her art installations…keep the vegetables awake at night? 🤔

They’re planning on having a mayoral election, and both sides are asking me to help spy on the other. Oof. That’s one side quest I’m not interested in right now. 😛

I continued on to the research lab, but it was empty. So I couldn’t get my Sheikah Sensor thing here either. Oof. At this point, I figured it’s time to wrap up this entry. Here are my latest stats:

See you next time!

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After meeting up with King Dorephan in a secret location, his assistant Muzu called me a liar for saying I saw Zelda vanish into thin air. But then just a few seconds later, he himself said he saw Zelda disappear as well! I don’t care if he is an old geezer of a fish, I wanted to slap him upside the head with a big tuna.

The next series of events led to me a fishy island in the sky, down to a location under a lake, and then back into the sky where there was lower gravity and floating water bubbles I could use as transportation.

With Sidon at my side, I made my way up and eventually reached the Water Temple. It’s a wide open area, made up of a few floating islands, and each area has a water faucet you must turn on, to wash away the sludge.

Unlike the Fire Temple, navigation is not a problem here; it’s easy to get around. Each faucet has a puzzle, but they’re not interconnected. (They don’t flow together.) It doesn’t really seem like one cohesive temple as much as just three or four shrines combined. Some of the puzzles seemed much like ones in previous shrines too, so this was not the most challenging dungeon.

But the most disappointing part of all was the dungeon boss. After fighting huge creatures in my previous two temples, this boss was a scrawny little guy that I beat on my first try. I know not every boss can be epic, but this battle was really underwhelming for a Zelda game.

With that done, the sludge stopped falling onto Zora’s Domain, and there were some significant happenings that I won’t spoil in the blog. I also obtained Sidon’s special power that I can use at any time.

One random thing I enjoyed is that this guy Cleff kept making crab puns. 🦀

After briefly walking through the Akkala Citadel Ruins, I visited the East Akkala Stable. This guy was telling me about a “horse god,” and then he suddenly stopped talking because he remembered he had buns to sell. 😆

I found a shrine nearby, and it made me curious when I saw the shrine’s subtitle/hint was “Courage to Pluck.” 😆 But it had a puzzle that was literally a Jenga tower!

After that, I wanted to head over to the Akkala Ancient Tech Lab to get the Sheikah Sensor (or whatever it’s called this time around). But when I got to the lab, I saw the area was taken over by the Yiga Clan! After defeating the fighters, I did rescue someone inside…but it wasn’t Robbie. So I didn’t get the Sheikah Sensor yet; I was quite disappointed.

I found a Stone Talus on the North Akkala beach nearby, but it kept kicking my butt. Even with ten hearts now, I’m still getting one-hit killed by some of these enemies! It’s frustrating, and really annoying. I know I probably need to find some better armor somewhere.

I stopped here for now, but there is much more to be done next time. Here is a look at my latest stats.