So, one of the first things I discovered in my travels was this mysterious dojo.
Looks interesting...
Yeah. I mean, how often does a wolf come to train in a dojo? Well, we went inside anyway to see if we could train.
So, uh, will you train a wolf?
I can train? Cool, I can train! This is neat!
Thanks. But you charge too much for training, you jerk.
You just wait. I'll save up lots of yen and come back and CLEAN YOU OUT! You'll see! I'll do it, too!
So we left the dojo and found a spot where I could take a nice picture of (most of) Shinshu Field.
Okay, so obviously the pink tree is the Guardian Sapling. On the lower left is the path to Kamiki Village. On the upper left is the path to Hana Valley. On the right, though you can't see them, are the paths to various other places in the field. So, yeah.
So we made our way to the entrance of Lake Harami (which I didn't take a picture of for some reason), where there was a little house with a priest guy inside it who seemed upset about something.
Nice to meet you, Mika. Do you have a good falsetto singing voice, by any chance?
Cool. We were just about to visit it.
Yes, yes, I think we heard about the Moon Cave in the intro...
How mysterious. We'd better investigate that, because it's what we do.
Tao Master? Hmm, interesting. Sounds like this Waka dropped the ball.
How convenient. Well, don't worry, Mika. We'll look into it.
But then he gave us a demon hit list. Apparently some demons in this game are so bad, they have special names. And, of course, the first demon on the list showed up as soon as we left Mika's hut.
Of course, before the fight could start, all the demons stood around politely (I'm assuming) while Issun went on about the arrow stuck in Onimaru's back.
Okay, well, let's take him out, then.
Of course, the most annoying part about beating these special demons isn't even beating them. It's trying to cross their names off the list afterward. Because for some reason, it's hard to get the game to recognize a straight line even when you draw it perfectly 3+ times. Oh well. I finally prevailed, and Issun and I visited the Moon Cave.
That looks like a fun place.
I don't know, that mountain-looking thing certainly looks like it has a cave in it...
You mean that mountain that looks like it has a cave entrance in it? Gee, I don't know.
We heard that in the intro already. Say something useful.
Well, clearly something happened to the Moon Cave...and just as clearly, there's still a cave there. Don't worry, little bug man, we'll find out what's going on soon enough.
So we left Harami Lake and made our way down another side path. After fighting a creepy-looking fish demon with wings (called a Dead Fish), we found another hut, where some guy inside was doing something with explosives.
That's a bad picture of the inside of the hut, but whatever.
Why do you have a bomb on your head?
Uh...do I need to take cover somewhere?
That looks interesting. Do I spot a circle with a line through it? That almost looks like something I could draw...
Okay, cool. Well...like I said earlier...do I need to take cover? You know, because I don't think getting blowed up is in the gods' master plan.
Midnight Wonder Boy? Sounds like something dirty to me. But what do I know? I'm just a wolf.
Then he said something about me having a red-hot gaze, or something. Um, this isn't going to get awkward, is it?
Okay then. What do I need to do? Let me guess; you do all the theatrics, I do all the actual work.
Yeah, I was right. I did all the actual work. But the results were spectacular!
Ooh! Ahh! Fireworks!
Cool, a deer!
And a butterfly! What an impressive display! Can we be done now?
Right, so, what was the point of that, again?
Oh, right, more brush techniques. I'll just dot in the missing stars, and...
Is that a boar?
I think that's a boar. Balancing on...a bomb?
That's definitely a boar balancing on a bomb. And are those little boars following him? This isn't going to end well.
Yada, yada, yada, give me your brush power.
Since explosions are highly visible...
Oh, you were talking about me. Okay, carry on then.
Don't use toilet humor. Don't use toilet humor. Don't use toiler humor. DAMMIT!
Woo! I can blow stuff up now, too!
You know what, Issun? I'd say you're a carbon copy of Fi, but you predate her by five years. So now I'm wondering if Nintendo took inspiration from a game whose developer openly admitted was inspired by Zelda. Who's the hack now?
Yeah, yeah, yeah. Hack.
Of course, before we could do anything else, Issun wanted me to practice using my new technique.
Cool. Time to make things explodey!
So, here's my bomb I drew...
And...KABLOOIE!
Woo!
The bad thing about using bombs to blow up cracked walls is, they blow up so fast I don't have time to get a picture of one. But the ones you use in combat seem to have a longer fuse.
So, after we blew the wall open, we made our way around Shinshu Field exploring some more. On our travels, we met this guy, who will be the source of much annoyance later.
But for now, all we had to do was give him a Traveler's Charm and he went on his merry way. But he'll pop back up later; don't worry.
One of the things we discovered was a Demon Gate. Actually, there were three or four of them. They look like dilapidated little gates you can go through, and once you go inside you're in a battle arena. You fight a few waves of enemies, everything dies, blah blah blah. Once the demons are gone, the area is transformed back into whatever it was like before the demons took over. Which means Nameless Man, who apparently is a potter, got his kiln back, but damned if he didn't even aknowledge that it was back. Well, whatever.
Once we were done clearing out Demon Gates and feeding the local animals, we decided to head back to Kamiki Village and see what was going on with Sakuya. But when we got there...
Festive music was playing, everyone was happy...
Apparently, we were supposed to use Bloom on all the of the wilted trees in the village, and something good would happen if we did. So, like good little adventurers...
Yay, a Bloomed tree! Let's see what the wilted ones look like for comparison.
Fun stuff. So, after we Bloomed all 15 trees, we got a prompt to go talk to Mr. Orange on his platform.
Whuh oh. What have we stumbled onto?
Yeah! That was because of us! Are you going to thank me?!
Uh oh. Are you going to admit you hate oranges? Come on, old man, I don't know if you should strain yourself too much...
That one got blurry. Oops. Well, shuffle you say? I suppose that wouldn't be too strenuous for an old guy.
Uh oh. I'm not going to have to intervene in this, am I? Is there ever going to be a time I can just watch what happens?
Sake? Uh oh, that's just asking for trouble...
Uh oh. His orange grew! (Giggity!) He said he'd have to break his vow of temperance. Not only is he a lightweight, but I bet he's drinking on an empty stomach, too!
Prepare to intervene...
What? You stumbling around in a drunken stupor and falling over on the ground is the stuff of legends? I need to check my legends...
So the old man started using his Drunken Master powers to make Konohana burst into bloom. He managed to make the first few buds bloom himself, but I had to help with the last four. I wanted to take a photo of it, but there was an unfortunate time limit on drawing the Bloom circles on the buds. The epic music did make an amusing record-scratching noise when I failed, though. But, anyway...success!
Konohana is now in full bloom! Glory be!
Hey, it's Sakuya! She's not dead after all!
Leave it to Issun to notice her looks first.
Giggity.
He's too passed-out-drunk to hear you, but I'll pass the word along.
Oh. I...I see. Well...at least we don't have to look at your butt anymore?
Uh huh...
I, uh...okay...
So she said something about how I should go restore the other Guardian Saplings, and happiness would return to the land, or something. Cool.
Sounds like a plan!
Thanks, I guess.
And then suddenly it got dark in the middle of the day. Well, stranger things have happened, I guess.
Hah...yeah, really.
Surprise, surprise...another constellation. So I filled in the stars, and voila!
Weird, it's another monkey...and he moved so fast, he cracked the glass! Ahahaha. Well, I can't say that's ever happened in a Zelda game before that I recall.
What do you have for me, monkey?
Oh, cool. Now I can make lily pads on water that I can stand on, since I can't swim for very long for some reason. Interesting.
Fun stuff. I suppose it would have been too easy to just let me swim anywhere I want, eh?
And that brings me to the end of our journeys for now. Come back next time to see how I use water lilies to cross water and get things! Woo! Until next time, heroes!
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