Author: Jeff

On board the Sandship, I wasn’t sure what to expect. It appeared to be a mini-dungeon. I made my way through the various rooms and eventually ended up fighting this pirate who was all right. (He had no left hand, so he was all right). 😛 I defeated him and made him walk the plank. Well technically, I knocked him off the plank, but you get the idea.

A large treasure chest then appeared, containing a bow and arrows! Smurf-Fi immediately pointed out something I had to shoot with an arrow. But more importantly, I noticed something I wasn’t quite expecting. The bow filled up the last empty spot on my special item menu. Could this already be the last major item in the game? I guess time will tell.

I found a timeshift stone atop the mast of the ship. Turning it on and off is a process that will be repeated many times while on the Sandship. The skipper briefly comes aboard to tell me I have to rescue his crew.

The Sandship is filled with puzzles. I eventually get to another large treasure chest and its contents surprise me: A dungeon map! This is no mini-dungeon at all, this is a full-fledged dungeon.

I now see I’m in for a longer ship ride than I initially anticipated. The map reveals a number of new rooms for me to explore. After activating a power generator, I meet up with the ship’s crew…but they are behind bars. The little guy tells me that I have to activate the other power generator as well. He marks it on my map.

I then had to go through the engine room to reach a passageway that led to the crew members’ cell. Once there, one of them gives me a key to the captain’s cabin. The crew members flee to safety while I enter the captain’s cabin and find a large treasure chest. This time, it’s a squid carving, which I believe is the boss key for this dungeon. Before going to fight the boss, I save and end my game.

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.

Back in the desert, I looked for a place where I haven’t been, that I could reach with the clawshots. The map showed a part of the map that led to a huge question mark, so it wasn’t that hard to figure out where to go.

I ended up in an area with a Goron and a gossip stone. The gossip stone told me there’s a dragon somewhere in the desert that will test you. If you pass his test, you’ll get the strongest shield available.

I don’t think I’m able to do that just yet, but I’ll keep that in mind. I talked to the Goron, named Golo. He is researching the dragon and is working on a (future) path, presumably which leads to the dragon. He asked for a donation and I gave it to him.

Anyway, he pointed me in the direction of the sacred flame. He said I had to go to the Lanayru Sand Sea. It was once an ocean, but all the water evaporated, so now it’s all sand. But conveniently enough, there was a ship there with one of those time shifting stones on it. After hitting it, the area was transported into the past and water appeared. The skipper of the boat also came to life. He said we needed the sea chart in his shack at Skipper’s Retreat, so we headed there.

Thankfully, the boat didn’t use motion controls like the dragon-flying and swimming parts do. Being on the boat reminded me a bit of Wind Waker. Once I got there, I had to make my way up a bunch of stone pillars to reach the skipper’s house.

After getting the sea chart, I headed back down to the boat. Fortunately, I could zip line back down, which made it a much quicker trip on the way down.

The skipper compared his sea chart to my map, which revealed a new area that wasn’t on my map. I went there and arrived at the shipyard. It has mine cart tracks that look like roller coaster tracks. Is this Zelda or Donkey Kong Country? I stopped and saved my game, but I’ll see what the tracks are all about next time.