Before I continue, I just have a gripe with Skyward Sword I want to mention. As all Zelda players know, when your health gets low, the game lets you know this fact with beeping. Not just occasional beeping, but constant beeping until you pick up some more hearts. I think most Zelda fans would agree that it gets very annoying. But Skyward Sword goes beyond that. When your life starts to get low, you get the sound effect that Smurf-Fi needs to talk to you. Once you press down on the control pad to listen to her, all she says is that your health is low. Don’t you think I already know this by the incessant beeping? Shut up, you useless blue bag! 😛
Anyway, at the shipyard, it’s not long before I get into a mine cart. You can lean into turns as you make your way over the roller-coaster style track. There are branching paths and dead ends, so you have to be careful. Indeed, it does feel a bit like the mine cart levels in Donkey Kong 64.
I eventually ended up at the shipyard construction bay. Smurf-Fi advised me to look in the sand for a clue as to where the skipper’s ship could be. I got out my gust bellows and found something I wasn’t expecting…a boss fight!
After beating the large enemy, Smurf-Fi informs me that there is no clue here after all. This whole shipyard area was all for nothing. Well perhaps except for the developers to find a way to include a mine cart ride into the game. I went back to the skipper, who says he may know another place where his ship may be. So we headed off to the Pirate Stronghold. It is basically a mini-dungeon.
At one point, I come across a timeshift orb. It’s like the timeshift stones I’ve seen before, but it’s in an orb form, and portable. You can pick it up and take it with you, turning the present into the past as you go. It’s actually a really cool concept. Bones turn into enemies, sand turns into grass, and platforms rise from the ground.
It made for some interesting puzzles too. Eventually the path circles back around to a room where there is a spot where the timeshift orb needs to be set down. Once I put it down, it made some changes outside. For some reason, now Smurf-Fi tells me I can dowse for the skipper’s ship. It is the ship that holds Nayru’s flame–but it’s invisible. So I go back to the skipper and we get back on the boat. I use my dowsing ability to chase it down. However, I can only stop it by firing the cannon at it. Only when it’s hit does it become visible.
After three hits, I am able to board the ship (called the Sandship). Before I explore much, I see a bird statue and I saved my game. I’ll take a better look around next time.