Wind Waker Chapter 6: how i mine for rupee?

In this incredibly exciting blog post, I'm going to talk about the progress I made in making some more rupees, exploring, and getting Triforce charts. Joy! I was too lazy to actually take any pictures of what I was doing, though, so I had to scour the Internets for photographic equivalents for my achievements.

So. I decided the best plan of action would be to explore some of the map squares I hadn't been to yet and talk to the fishmen to find out where the Triforce charts are. I was on Windfall Island when I turned the game on, and as I hadn't yet been to Pawprint Island (gasp) I decided to sail there forthwith.



















This is a nice picture. I went into the cavern inside the blue-and-white egg thing and was able to find a Treasure Chest containing a Purple Rupee (50 rupees) another chest containing a Heart Piece, and another chest containing a Treasure Chart. I also killed a whole bunch of ChuChus. If you look at the picture you can see another cave on one of the island's "fingers", but I didn't go into that one. I tried using my Hookshot on the trees, but I don't know if I wasn't standing close enough or what, and there was a bomb boat trying to shoot me, so I gave up and moved on.

Next on the agenda: The square directly north of Pawprint Isle's. This turned out to be Crescent Moon Isle!

Night had fallen when I reached Crescent Moon Isle, and I caught my first glimpse of the elusive Ghost Ship.














That thing used to freak me out so much when I first played the game. Oh, who am I kidding? It still freaks me out. The sun couldn't come up fast enough. I was also attacked by sharks when I sailed into the vicinity, which didn't help at all.

After that moment of "soul-freezing terror" or whatever the fishman says, I ventured onto Crescent Moon Isle, which is basically a crescent moon of bare rock. There wasn't much on it other than a couple of Blue ChuChus and a chest with a Treasure Chart in it. You can really tell the Nintendo people were pretty much just phoning it in with some of these islands.

After I was finished with Crescent Moon Isle, I sailed east, as there were a couple more squares I hadn't been to yet. The next place I encountered was Seven-Star Isles. The Internets say there's a Big Octo to kill somewhere around there, but I didn't encounter it...or anything else worth my time. Did I mention Nintendo phoning it in?










Lame. Okay. I continued eastward, and next I encountered...Overlook Island! When I talked to the Fishman, he mentioned the Triumph Forks! That means the island contained a Triforce Chart and was definitely worth a stop. I had no memory of this island at all. Not even a little bit. Which is kind of sad, considering I have to have gotten the Triforce Chart from the place at least twice before.













Once I got into the cave via using the Hookshot on the trees, I found a circular room with several doors leading to other rooms. There was one locked door directly across from the entrance. I had to clear each room of enemies (easier said than done in some places) and then once I had all the rooms cleared I had to fight 4 Darknuts at once in the main room. That was...not fun at all, but I persevered. Once the last Darknut had died, the remaning door unlocked and I was able to get a Triforce Chart! Yay!

After I finished with Overlook Island, it was time to sail south. The first place I got to was the Flight Control Platform. Two guys dressed like Ritos let you try to break someone's flying record - they never mention who exactly set the record, but whatever. I tried a couple of times but couldn't do it, so I got frustrated and moved on.













Old Man Ho-Ho was also there looking at something in the distance...which turned out to be a Submarine. My vague memories warned me not to go into the Submarine, but I didn't listen, went inside, and was promptly attacked by approximately one million Miniblins. The payoff after I killed them? The Platform Chart. It's a chart that shows where all the platforms are in the Great Sea. The platforms that contain nothing other than a couple of hapless weakling enemies. Why would I care about that? Well, maybe if I was broke and really desperate for rupees, I guess.

Time to move on. The next square down was the Star Belt Archipelago. There was nothing there. Like, at all. Phoning it in! Great job, Nintendo! Apparently the Ghost Ship shows up sometimes, but that's it. Not even a Big Octo! Lame.








Okay, I did get attacked by a bunch of Kargarocs. Those jerks.

Continuing south, I encountered Thorned Fairy Island! Finally, some content!










She gave me the last arrow upgrade. Now I can carry 99 arrows at once! Thanks, Thorned Fairy!

After I was done rejoicing about the arrow upgrade, I sailed southward once more. This time I encountered Bird's Peak Rock! The Fishman mentioned the Triumph Forks again, so I knew a Triforce Chart was lurking within. But first I had to control a seagull with a Hyoi Pear and hit six switches on the aforementioned Bird's Peaks.
















Did I mention that the switches were all inside Kargaroc nests? With Kargarocs on them? That I didn't bother to try to shoot down before I took control of the seagull? Yeah. Flying around with six Kargarocs chasing me was pretty fun - I mean, harrowing.















The above picture illustrates what I should have done. I had to fly a seagull to all of those peaks you can see in the picture. For a moment I regretted only having two Hyoi Pears with me, but as it turned out, I didn't even need the second one. I'm just cool like that. So, I managed to hit all the switches and unlock the door leading to another Triforce Chart.

Unfortunately, talking to the Bird's Peak Rock Fishman used up the last of my bait, so my exploration adventures were done until I could get more. I decided to warp to the Forest Haven and turn in some more Pictos. The awe-inspiring Picto I took of the Ghost Ship didn't inspire the Nintendo Gallery guy at all, though, and one of the other pictures I took was turned down because somehow I didn't get the guy's whole body in the picture, even though his whole body was in the picture. Nice. He did accept my picture of one of the guys from the Flight Control Platform, though.

After I was done at the Forest Haven, I decided to warp to Tingle Island and get my three charts deciphered for the low, low price of 398 rupees each. This...is not going to be fun at all.

Who's in charge of the biggest racket on the Great Sea? This guy.













I suppose it didn't help matters that after I was done getting my charts deciphered, I went to Beedle's Special Shop Ship and bought a bottle for 500 rupees. This is going to be a long rupee hunt, guys. Good thing I like exploring!

Next post: Whoring myself out for cash Earning as many Rupees as I can in totally legal ways.

Wind Waker Chapter 5: Blowin' in the Wind

So, you know how in my last post I said I was going to go to the Wind Temple in my next post? Well, first I decided to do some exploring. You see, it was kind of troubling me that I'd gone to all these Great Fairy Fountains and still hadn't gotten the doubled magic meter. My weird amnesia regarding this game meant that I couldn't remember where to get the upgrade from, except I vaguely remembered finding a Great Fairy in a Big Octo. So I decided to get the magic meter upgrade before I went to the Wind Temple.

Being the great video game player I am, I decided to look for a Big Octo around Tingle Island. The search proved fruitless, however, and then I lost my concentration and just sailed around for a while looking at islands and talking to fishmen.

Along the way, I visited a Great Fairy Fountain I'd already been to and caught a fairy in my spare bottle.


















Poor captured fairy needs a hug.

Eventually, I got tired of wandering aimlessly and decided to break down and check the Internets for a solution to the elusive magic meter upgrade problem. In short order I had my answer: Two-Eye Reef. The Big Octo I sought was there!



















Not my photo. So anyway, I sailed to Two-Eye Reef, fought the Big Octo, and got my doubled magic meter. Unfortunately, the look on Link's face in the following picture seems more akin to "I just blew up an entire city!" than "I just got a magic meter upgrade!"




















I can't remember exactly what the fishman was talking about in my next photo, but my original point still stands: I love how the fishmen almost always talk about really obvious stuff when you talk to them, or things that you already know. Some of the things are things you've known FOREVER! You'd think they could update what the fishmen say if you've already discovered whatever it is they originally talk about.




















After all that backbreaking hard work (and after eating dinner) I decided to finally set sail for Gale Island. Poor Makar probably thought he was going to be stuck on that boat until the end of time.



















I didn't have a chance to take a lot of photos of the Wind Temple. It's kind of hard to take pictures while you're fighting things at the same time. I'd get someone to help me, except then I'd have to answer a lot of awkward questions about why I'm taking pictures of the TV screen while gaming. No thanks.

So Makar and I walked into the first room of the temple. I immediately noted the presence of two patches of dirt that Makar could plant seeds in at the bottom of the hill below us, so I jumped down to investigate and was immediately attacked by Toucan Sam- uh, I mean a Wizzrobe.




















The above picture is actually of the Wizzrobe I had to fight later on to get the Hookshot. But enough about that. The only reason I have that picture is because I took the time to take a picture of the Wizzrobe with the Picto Box. That's right - if I'm not taking pictures with my iPhone camera, I'm taking them with the Picto Box instead!

Going back to the patches of dirt I mentioned above, I had Makar plant seeds on them, which immediately sprouted into full-size trees. I imagine deforestation would be a much smaller problem were this possible in real life. In one of the subsequent rooms, I had to have Makar fly to a bunch of progressively taller hills and plant trees on each one. But at the top, one of those thrice-cursed Floormasters popped up and kidnapped Makar! I was not expecting this. I keep talking about how many things I forgot about this game, and this was definitely one of them.

Slightly confused, I decided to proceed alone, and ended up in this room:




















Look at those scary spikes. I wonder what purpose they could possibly serve. It's always entertaining to think about how these temples always have puzzles and traps do nothing other than trip up the hero. I guess the most logical conclusion would be that Ganondorf (or whoever the bad guy is) put the traps there to trip up the hero. So...before he got there, the whole place was just a succession of empty rooms, apparently.

At the center of this temple is a very large, circular area that's somewhat like an elevator shaft without the elevator (at first). Various open areas that lead to different rooms in the temple are scattered around the area's edges. I came out of a door near the top of this elevator shaft. I have no idea what room I was technically supposed to go into next, but in an amusing series of events, I accidentally leaped off the edge of the elevator shaft (while trying to drop onto a small platform set into the wall) and fell all the way to the bottom. After that I pretty much had no choice except to fight the afore-mentioned Wizzrobe for the Hookshot. I had also forgotten the Hookshot existed in this game. Good times!

Incidentally, the fight for the Hookshot was a lot harder than I remembered. It started out with the fancy orange Wizzrobe, a normal Wizzrobe and a Darknut. The orange Wizzrobe kept summoning other enemies into the room, such as a couple of Moblins, a whole bunch of Keese and at least two more Darknuts. In retrospect, I should have killed the summoner first (always our mantra in the old days of World of Warcraft) but I kept thinking maybe it would be easier if I just dealt with all the extra enemies first. At one point, I was down to a quarter of a heart left, but I persevered (and broke open a whole bunch of those spoils ball things) to win the fight. The orange Wizzrobe ended up being the second-to-last guy to go down. It was kind of weird seeing him die and then having to finish off a last Darknut before the chest with the Hookshot appeared.





















Clearly, whoever wrote the description for the Hookshot was thinking, "Screw this. I'm tired of thinking of witty things to say for this stuff." After I got the Hookshot I was able to free Makar from his prison and proceed through a door in one of the adjacent rooms that had been blocked by a Song Stone or whatever those things are called.



















In this picture, Link demonstrates the goofy expression he always has on his face while he's mind-controlling someone with the Command Melody.



















After that it was pretty much smooth sailing. I once again managed to get through the dungeon without the use of a player's guide! Not that that should be particularly difficult for this game, but I have a weakness for player's guides.

I didn't have much trouble remembering how to kill Molgera, with him sticking out his giant Clue Tongue and all. So the foul beast was destroyed and Fado showed up while Makar and I were playing the Wind God's Aria.




















This allowed the Master Sword to magically grow back its missing yellow stone set in the hilt, and gave it a totally sweet glow!



















After I got out of the dungeon, I just had to take a picture of myself with my awesome sword:






















Truly, I am...the Hero of the Winds.

That's about it for this post. Next post: The unavoidable rupee hunt. Time to do everything I can for a quick buck!

Wind Waker Chapter 4: This Private Island is Totally Ballin'

Today on the newly-renamed Operation: Replay...

First on the agenda was paying a visit to Windfall Island. I finally had enough Joy Pendants to give to Ms. Marie. I can only assume that after I gave them to her, she hung all 20 of them around her neck at once. Can you imagine shuffling around with 21 cheap plastic butterfly necklaces around your neck? I'm guessing your average 4-year-old girl does that all the time, but a grown woman? Not so much.

So anyway, after I gave the pendants to Ms. Marie, I got the Cabana Deed, granting me
ownership of my own private island. Yes, please. So I warped down there and decided to relax poolside for a while.



















This is the life. I've always wanted to have my own private island with a cabin. And this place is bitchin'. I want one just like that in real life. It just has the right feel to it.

After hanging out at my oasis for a while, I decided it was time to head down south and get the Iron Boots. This meant that I had to climb onto an island of ice and slip'n'slide my way to the cave entrance and then to the chest with the boots inside - all within a 5-minute time limit.



















I'm not sure why the ice looks red in the photo (I cheated and snapped that one after I got done with the time limit). I actually managed to finish with something like 3 minutes to spare - I can remember slipping and falling into the water on previous playthroughs, but not this time! I finally mastered the ice! I'll never get used to Link making sounds like he's hopped up on way too much speed, but whatever.

So, after I slid down the ice slide inside the island, I got THESE!



















Now I can use the boots to sink in water...uh, wrong game. I mean, stick to magnetic surfaces - oops, still not the right game. Uh...keep the wind from blowing me away, I guess. Let's move on!

After leaving Ice Ring Island, I sailed around for a bit and ended up on Outset Island. After taking pictographs of a crab and a seagull, I remembered I had the Power Bracelets and decided to take the neighbor's giant pig for a walk. No, I'm not talking about his wife! AHAHA. After a few failed attempts, I got him to dig up THIS!




















After that, I checked on how many Knights' Crests I had and discovered I had 11 - enough to visit Orca and learn the Hurricane Spin. Basically, you get your sword out and then hold B for a while to charge it. When you let go of B, Link spins around in circles screaming like he's had a little too much sugar in his Cheerios, presumably destroying all the enemies around him. I'm going to be honest here - I don't think I've ever used this attack. Like, ever. Here's a picture of Link cheering like he just won a cake-eating contest.



















For some reason, Orca is overcome by my mastery of this technique. Apparently his skills were just too bad for him to ever be able to do it himself, or something. Check out the old man crying.



















Uh, okay.

On a side note, taking the pictographs of the crab and the seagull enabled me to 100% the Outset Island portion of the Nintendo Gallery. I was a little confused about the crab, because I took a picture of one and showed it to the guy, and he was all like, "This picture doesn't inspire me. Like, at all." Which surprised me, because I figured the crab could be photographed just like almost everything else in the game. Maybe I did it wrong, I dunno. But the Internets said the crabs could, in fact, be photographed, so I tried again. Maybe because the one I photographed the first time wasn't actually on Outset Island? But my pig picture was accepted even though the pig in the picture was from Windfall Island. Confusing...

Okay, anyway, here's a bad photo of the Outset Island portion of the Nintendo Gallery.



















After I got that done, I had to head up to Gale Island to get the last Wind Waker song. That was pretty uneventful, except one of the bomb boats kept shooting bombs at me the entire time I was tromping my way up to the wind statue thing, but that's par for the course. Those bomb boats have the worst aim. I'm pretty sure the only times they've ever actually managed to hit me were by accident.



















Once I got inside, I found another one of these:




















Which prompted me to whip out the Wind Waker and play the song. Then Fado showed up!





















His advice is to find the person who uses the violin. I wonder who in this game could possibly use a violin. It's like they think we won't remember the only previous time a violin was ever used in this game (aside from the intro music). Time for a trip to the Forest Haven! But first I had to sail west to Northern Fairy Island and pick up a wallet upgrade. If I've got enough street cred to have my own private island cabana, I've got to have the rupees to back it up, right? Right. Off to the Forest Haven.

Like before, I arrive at the Forest Haven and am almost immediately serenaded by someone playing a violin from a ~*hidden place*~. I swing my way inside it and look, it's Makar playing a violin! I pull out the Wind Waker and show him what's up. Then Fado appears again and we have a cute little "concert."
























Link looks confused for some reason.




















And with that, now I have Makar riding along with me on the King of Red Lions. He, uh, wanted me to go straight back to Gale Island, but I may have taken some detours.



















"Yo ho ho, a pirate's life for me!" - Makar

Next post: The Wind Temple!

Wind Waker Chapter 3: Earth, Wind, and F- uh, I mean, just Earth

Previously on Adventures in Wind-Waking...



















I got the dungeon off to a good start by using Medli to stand on one switch in the first room while I stood on the other switch to open a door below. Fun stuff. In the next room, I was attacked by a bunch of Chu-Chus, including some Dark Chu-Chus which I had completely forgotten how to kill. Eventually I remembered all you have to do is lure them into direct sunlight (which was conveniently shining down from the ceiling).



















I failed to remember the significance of Medli's harp reflecting the light until I got into the next room and found two beams of light and a sun with eyes for reflecting light onto. So I went back into the previous room and used Medli's harp to reflect light onto the transparent chest in the room, making it visible and giving me the Dungeon Map! After doing some more stuff in that room and adjacent rooms, Medli and I were able to reflect light to do this:




















Apparently the game's idea of a nice, happy sun is...this crazed-grin-on-its-face monstrosity.
I also encountered some Poes, which in this game like to throw their lamps at you and then possess you, reversing the controls and making you run in opposite directions than where you're pointing the Control Stick. After a few more rooms, I encountered some Floormasters, which I also couldn't remember how to kill. After tentatively running over one of them a few times, I got it to come out of its hole so I could fill it with arrows. Those things creep me out way worse than ReDeads.

And hey...a room with ReDeads! These guys were a lot scarier in Ocarina of Time. Getting gnawed on by a cartoon corpse just isn't the same.

Eventually, of course, I got to the miniboss room! I could tell it was a miniboss room because Medli stayed outside the room when I went inside. I had to kill a Stalfos, and then two more. After beating them, I got this!



















Now I don't have to waste time mind-controlling Medli whenever I want to reflect light onto something. Plus, it looks cool!

So I made my way through the rest of the dungeon. At a couple of points, I found Wind Waker rocks blocking the way! Hey, a use for this 6/4 time song I had to learn to get Medli to become the Earth Sage. I love it when I have to learn a song that has one use and then you never play it again.




















This dungeon is basically a combination of Ocarina of Time's Shadow and Spirit Temples. I really liked one of the last few rooms where I had to move a bunch of mirrors around and reflect light onto them so Medli and I could reflect light onto another crazy sun. And, of course, I had to get the Boss Key.



















Not before fighting my way through another room full of coffins and ReDeads for what I thought was the Boss Key, only to turn out to be a treasure chart. I forgot about the fancy chest the Boss Key always comes in.

When I finally got to the end of the dungeon (without any use of a player's guide!) and started fighting Jalhalla, I couldn't remember what I was supposed to do (obvious though it was). I could remember I was supposed to shine light on him to make him corporeal, but after that it was a blur. So I ran around hitting him with my sword for a few minutes, which did nothing, and tried a few other weapons, all to the same effect. FINALLY I remembered you're supposed to pick him up and throw him at the spikes on the walls (duh). After that it was pretty easy. Then Laruto and Medli showed up and there was a happy little cutscene!




How cute. I just did all of that and there's, like, no payoff whatsoever. Ooh, the crossguards on the sword popped out. I mean, come on.

Well, okay, I guess the sparkles are kinda cool. But still.



















After the dungeon I hit up the Nintendo Gallery and got my Pictos from Earth Temple turned into statues (a Stalfos, a Poe and Jalhalla).

Well, that's all I had time for today. Next on the list: working on getting the Iron Boots so I can do the Wind Temple! Good times.

Well, it's been a long time...

It appears that I haven't posted on this blog in almost three years. Well, all that time has passed and I finally have something new to post.

Recently I decided to play through The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker again after not playing it for about five years. I almost immediately started thinking about using my blog to chronicle my progress, but figured it would be too much work. But then I changed my mind, so here I am. I'm going to try to post three times a week or so and provide commentary on various games I play.

In no particular order, here are the games I intend to play and/or re-play over the course of the summer (and probably longer):

The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker
The Legend of Zelda: Twilight Princess
The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time
The Legend of Zelda: Majora's Mask (maybe, if my disc version isn't too glitchy)
Okami
No More Heroes
No More Heroes 2: Desperate Struggle
Deadly Creatures
Fragile Dreams: Farewell Ruins of the Moon
World of Warcraft (heh)
Portal 2
Star Wars: Knights of the Old Republic
The Sims 3: Generations (and all previous expansions)
The Sims Medieval
Possibly some Dragon Age: Origins/Dragon Age 2 if I really want to torture myself. I've already played through Origins 3 times and Dragon Age 2 4 1/2 times, so...yeah.

This, uh...this is going to take a long time. Especially since I work full-time and can't always use the TV for Wii-playing when I have free time.

Okay, anyway, I've already started on Wind Waker. So, here's my first commentary.

I've more-or-less talked about most of my progress through my posts on Facebook, but here's a quick recap. I beat three dungeons (without a player's guide! yeah!), got the Master Sword, learned the Ballad of Gales, took a lot of pictographs of various people (including everyone on Windfall Island, which was incredibly tedious) and, with this post, was about to get started on the buildup to the Earth Temple.

The first thing I had to do was get the Power Bracelets so I could get into the temple. Unfortunately, looking at the TV was putting me into a fatigue-related haze, and in my befuddled state, I couldn't remember what I was supposed to do first. So, I (when I refer to myself as I, I'm generally referring to the character I'm playing) dragged myself over to the King of Red Lions and warped up to Dragon Roost Island.



















When I got there, I was greeted by the sounds of Medli strumming her harp over and over, which never gets old when the harp sounds don't match the background music at all and never stop. 'Aha!' I thought to myself. 'I was supposed to go here first!' So I stumbled my way up to Medli's little perch up on top of the island, and...nothing happened. I talked to her, she mentioned how her harp somehow foretold her destiny, or could do amazing party tricks, or something, and I wandered off feeling like a moron.



















I decided to sail to Fire Island and see if I could get the Power Bracelets. But when I got inside, I couldn't figure out what I was supposed to do. There was nothing there except a couple of Magtails slithering around, along with a Headstone and some kind of archway. I can only conclude that my exhausted stupor was what prevented me from figuring out the obvious solution to the puzzle, and I decided to go to Headstone Island and try to figure out if I was supposed to go there first. But, again, there was nothing there for me to find (other than the Piece of Heart I grabbed after I used a Hyoi Pear to control a seagull).

Frustrated, I went back to Dragon Roost Island to show Medli the Wind Waker baton in hopes that something interesting would happen. She recognized it for what it was and wanted me to play a song for her, but none of the songs I knew did anything, so I knew I had to find the Earth God's Lyric in order to be able to accomplish anything.

Feeling even more foolish than before, I went back to Fire Island.



















Like an idiot, I wandered around inside the island some more and accidentally killed one of the Magtails. Idly, I decided to kill the other Magtail. Bingo! The chest containing the Power Bracelets appeared, and I felt shameful for completely failing to recognize one of the most basic Zelda gameplay traditions ever created.



















With the Power Bracelets finally obtained, I was on my way back to Headstone Island to learn the Earth God's Lyric and then back to Windfall Island to talk to Medli. After I learned the new song, there was a nice little cutscene featuring Laruto. I found myself wondering just how the Zoras managed to go from humanoid mostly-fish people to humanoid mostly-human-with-bird-noses-and-wings people.






































So anyway, blah blah, I went back to Dragon Roost Island again and taught Medli the Earth God's Lyric. This was also one of my favorite parts of the game - sneaking away without saying goodbye to the prince was so sad! Plus the music was so good.

So Medli and I made our way back to Headstone Island and opened the door. Unfortunately, the sleepy stupor I was in the entire time I was playing only got worse when we walked into the temple. I couldn't imagine actually trying to beat a whole dungeon...so I end here for now.

This Just In

Someone get me a copy of Twilight so I can take a picture of myself lighting it on fire. I'd buy a copy, except then I'd be giving Stephenie Meyer money. No thanks.