Breath of the Wild, Part 18: Lazy, River

Finally - FINALLY - I got to explore West Necluda. Which unfortunately means I don’t have too too much to talk about, but I had a lot of fun.

The first thing I learned is that bokoblins can’t swim. I started over by Lake Hylia and made my way east, where I quickly came across a bokoblin camp. The first one I attacked got knocked into the water, but I definitely didn’t kill it. But after I killed the rest of the group, I turned my attention back to the first one and it was gone. That dude sank.

Shortly after that, I met Brigo, a swell fella who guards the bridge from monsters so humans can pass. The bokoblins I just finished fighting were camped out right next to the bridge, but to be fair to him, they weren’t ON the bridge, so I guess he’s doing his job. He also told me a little bit about Kakariko, the Great Plateau, and Hyrule Castle.

I noticed at this time something that looks an awful lot like a city in the sky? I later learned it’s not a city in the sky, so what is it?

Down the road from Brigo is a guy named Mezer, who sells meat. He was camped out at what looks like a bokoblin camp, but there were no bokoblins there. Did...did he kill all those bokoblins? Is he selling bokoblin meat? He’s selling bokoblin meat, isn’t he.

It’s also at this point I learned that when you attack a blue chuchu with fire, you get red chuchu jelly.

I also met a guy named Giro who sells stuff (this era of Hyrule is capitalist as hell; everybody sells stuff around this place). There’s not much to say about him, to the point that he’s my first BotW note I’ve had to look up to remember what I was talking about, and I still barely remember him.

I couldn't pick him out of a lineup of one.

On the side of the road, I came across a bombable wall, which led me to a cave with some ore deposits inside. I got a new kind of mineral, diamond, but since I don’t have much to say beyond that, I’ll instead talk about a little about the camera and how I keep finding things that I’m able to add to the Compendium. Weapons and animals are obvious, but what about treasure chests? Ore deposits? These are things I never would’ve guessed, but stumbled upon them accidentally. And that means I can dowse for these things, which is super cool.

Not long after this, I found a new stable - the Riverside Stable - and I met a couple people there. Gotter is another merchant who told me his ancestor (great-great-grandfather, he thinks) was the chef at Hyrule Castle, and he asked me to enter the castle and find the royal cookbook. I also met Parcy, who used to loot the dilapidated castle before it was taken over by monsters, and she wants me to go to the castle and find the royal guards’ gear. 

It seems like every town and stable has a shrine nearby, and this one’s no different. The challenge at this shrine was called “Metal Connections”, and it wasn’t much of a challenge at all. I just had to stack up different metal things to reach platforms.

Down the river from these places was an island with another shrine, and this one was intriguing because there was a person outside it. Her name was Magda and she planted flowers around the shrine to spruce it up a bit. She asked me not to step on them. The flowers create a maze you have to go through to reach the shrine, which has a challenge called “Drifting.” This one also wasn’t much of a challenge was the only element of danger was some easily avoidable TNT barrels. And drowning, I suppose. Afterward, I accidentally stepped on the flowers and Magda got really upset.

Hmm.

What will she do if I step on them again?

I know I shouldn’t.

But I had to know. And it was worth it. I’d describe it, but I wouldn’t be able to do it justice. Just watch for yourself.

https://youtu.be/rhSQvnpaYy8

The final thing I did was explore a pond in the area, and I came across a tall diving platform that’s not close enough to the water to actually dive. I think something else is going on here, but I’m not quite sure what.

Tomorrow: More Necluda!

Breath of the Wild, Part 17: A Link to the Past

Today started with a plan and ended up all over the map, literally. I was going to spend the day exploring Necluda, but that didn’t happen even a little.

Before I could get going, I accidentally talked to Pikango and he wanted to take me to the Great Fairy Fountain. So I let him. He got tired before he made it there, but I took a picture of it for him and he seemed content with that. He also informed me that, since he’s a traveler, he can pretty much tell me where my memories are located. The first one is on Mount Lanayru, and supposedly there’s a dragon that lives in the area.

On the way back from helping him, I saw Lasli run home from Enchanted when it got dark. This gave me the idea to follow each character and see what their schedules were like, and then I could drop in and talk to them during important times. It would also make it easier to find them when I needed to.

I quickly abandoned this idea. After getting through several characters, I discovered that the programming is more sophisticated than I assumed. They seem to have multiple days’ worth of actions, and those actions can change based on the weather and my actions (possibly phase of the moon as well). It would still be very helpful to chart all that, but I don’t have the time or patience.

Still, I did learn some interesting stuff, mainly that Olkin runs through Steen’s carrot patch each night. I also caught some fireflies for Lasli and released them in her house, which cheered her up and she gave me a purple rupee. After that...well, we’ll get there.

One of the memories was of a place near Lake Hylia that I recognized, so after I abandoned the Kakariko stakeout, I went to see if I could unlock it. As I made my way there from the Plateau Tower, and I met a traveler. She surprised me because she was just called Traveler. She’s the first person I’ve met that didn’t have a name. She surprised me more when she tried to recruit me into the Yiga Clan!

And she quickly realized that I am the hero they’ve set out to kill, so she revealed her true form as a Yiga Footsoldier and started attacking me. It was a pain. There was a lot of teleporting and sword throwing, but eventually I took her down. The Yiga seem to be evil Shiekah, at least based on the inverted Eye of Truth they wear.

As I continued on my journey to the memory spot, I saw Farosh flying over Lake Hylia. He was a sight to behold. I took a quick detour to get a scale from him, but I failed. That’s all right; I wasn’t really set on doing that yet anyway. 

From there, I found the spot, but I couldn’t trigger the memory. Turns out I needed to do something that I haven’t yet done, and that’s a bummer.

Not a problem. Since I’m already in Faron, I decided to go talk to Loone again and see if anything will change now that I have my camera. And it did! She told me she loves Roscoe, but what she really wants  is pictures of all the Guardians. So I have to get them for her. I don’t know how many kinds there are, so this could take a while.

So the thing I needed to do before the memory stuff is talk to Impa (which Purah told me and I forgot). But when I arrived there, I discovered Impa’s heirloom is missing! Paya recently discovered its secret, so she’s distraught that someone stole it. She asked me to look for the thief, and tells me to look for anybody acting suspiciously at night. 

Well, the first suspicious person I see at night is Lasli, because I didn’t expect her to be out at night at all. So I sneakily followed her outside of town and discovered that she secretly visits her boyfriend sometimes. Her boyfriend died after being attacked by monsters. No one knows about him, it seems, which makes me wonder where he came from.

Anyway, the next suspicious person I noticed was Mellie. I didn’t have to follow her at all, I just saw her in a place I wasn’t used to seeing her. And when I talked to her, SHE WAS EATING A CARROT! She loves carrots but has to hide that love from Olkin.

I didn’t find the culprit on this night, but the next day I talked to Koko and helped her with the final two recipes (a dinner and dessert). She decided she wants to be a chef when she grows up and wants to start trying to make her own recipes instead of just following her mother’s. Aww.

It was shortly after this that I thought talking to Cado would be s good idea. Maybe he saw something. And he didn’t realize it, but he helped me crack the case! See, after telling me Mellie and Lasli were the only visitors to Impa’s house, he wondered why Dorian wasn’t back yet. I don’t know what Dorian was up to, but I needed to find him. 

I ran into Dorian above Kakariko, but I stayed out of sight because it seemed like he was meeting somebody. And he was. A Yiga! The story unraveled. Dorian used to be Yiga, but when he tried to leave, they killed his wife. To protect his kids, he spied on Impa for the Yiga and he helped them steal the heirloom, but that was the last straw.

The Yiga Bladesman didn’t like hearing that, and he didn’t like me eavesdropping, so he attacked. He was tough, much tougher than the Footsoldier, but a few swings of my Royal Claymore did the trick. I was almost able to grab his sword, but my inventory was full, and before I could drop something and pick it up, he disappeared and it disappeared with him.

I placed the heirloom in a nearby pedestal and a shrine arose from the ground, which shocked Dorian. Inside, I found “Lakna Rokee’s Blessing”, which is an automatic Spirit Orb (accessing the shrine is enough to prove your worth), and a new sword: Edge of Duality.

After that, I went back to Impa and she told me about the memories. She said unlock any memory and we’d go from there. So I went back to Lake Hylia and got my first memory! It wasn’t much of one, but it was still interesting. It was raining; Zelda was sitting beneath a tree, while Link was in the rain, practicing with his sword. Zelda talks to Link about how his father was a knight so it makes sense that he would become a knight too, and then asks if he would’ve ever chosen a different path. It’s very ominous and she seems to be doubting her role as princess. (Also, Link has the Master Sword in this memory. FYI.)

When I returned to Kakariko, Impa gave me the Champion’s Tunic, which I was wearing in the memory, and which lets me see the hit points of enemies at all times. (The way it normally works is that you can see a life meter, but only after you attack them. This lets you see the meter before you attack them, and gives you a number readout as well.)

But I didn’t know that at the time. “Can’t I already see the enemies’ hit points?” I thought. So I went to test it out, and in looking for enemies to fight, I found two shrines in the distance, both easily accessible. Surely I would find enemies along the way, so I went for it.

The first was in the middle of a wetland area and called “Sunken Scoop”. It involved Magnesising a giant bowl to scoop balls out of water and dump them into sockets. The bowl is shallow so it’s trickier than it sounds.

On my way to the second shrine, I met a Zora called Ledo. He pointed me East and said I should go speak to Prince Sidon because he’s in need of a strong Hylian. And I very much want to do that, but I’m like two regions away from Necluda right now so I’m not ready for that yet.

The second shrine was harder to get to than I thought because it was surrounded on all sides by thorns. I had to climb up a mountain and sail to it. This one was called “Speed of Light” and it was hella tricky. There was a switch that would raise and lower water. You needed the water high so you could swim across the first room, but in the second room, you needed it low so you could access a button to open a door. That part wasn’t too bad (Stasis did the trick), but getting the second chest seems impossible. It seems like you need to make the water go higher than it can go. I’m sure I’ll figure it out eventually.

Anyway, after that I went back to Kakariko and got another heart container from Hylia, and I want to say tomorrow I’ll explore Necluda but at this point, I’d probably be lying.

Breath of the Wild, Part 16: Shrine, Shrine, Everywhere A Shrine

This was a very eventful day, so strap in. I know yesterday I suggested I’d be going to the Great Fairy Fountain OR going to Hateno Village, but haha! I did both. But we’ll get there.

Where we begin is Kakariko Village at night, which is something I haven’t really taken a close look at. So that’s what I did, and I learned a lot.

First, I ran into Olkin the pumpkin farmer, who was running to train. He tells me defense is important and points me toward the shrine I recently went to and told me it would be a good place to train...or so he thinks. He hasn’t actually been there because he can’t get in. His parting words were something about how some savage old men will tell you offense is the best defense, but they’re wrong and stupid (paraphrased, but barely). But after I finished talking to him, I ran into Steen the carrot farmer, and literally the first words out of his mouth were "Offense is the best defense"! It's very funny character work made all the better by good timing on my part. For the record, he also pointed me toward the shrine and also has never been, but he did tell me about focusing (what the N64 games called Z-Targeting), jump attacks, and sneakstrikes.  All things I've figured out on my own, but much obliged anyway.

Next, I wanted to see what would happen if I cut down the Mellie's plum trees. She got really sad, that's what. I didn't know if they'd regrow, so I went to a previous save state. That's the first time I've done that, and I don't expect to do it often.

Then I went to find the Great Fairy Fountain, and I did, and it's much different from most other Great Fairy Fountains. This one had a giant pod, and a hand came out to ask for 100 rupees. When I gave it to her, the pod opened up and a Great Fairy named Cotera was inside. This Great Fairy will upgrade my clothes. She tells me there are other Great Fairies around Hyrule, and it sounds like each one does something different. She also pointed out that clothes come in sets - pants, shirt, hat - and sets can have a bonus if all the pieces are upgraded. But not every set does.

Before I ventured out some more, I took the time to explore Kakariko more at night, so I learned more about the villagers. Dorian, Impa's second guard, is the father of Koko and her sister. Their mother was killed by the Yiga Clan, which is why Koko tries to be a mom to Cottla. I'm not sure Cottla understands what happened to her mom, because look at this screenshot. I tell you, Zelda games can get dark.

Olkin and Mellie are married, and you can wake Mellie up at night. She says Olkin does that sometimes. I'm sure there's something else going on here, but I'm not sure what.

Lasli (the barker at Enchanted) is Nanna's granddaughter. She likes to collect fireflies, but can't anymore because it's too dangerous to go out at night. I know there's something I can do about this, but I haven't figured it out yet.

Paya stays up all night praying. She's basically a shrine maiden for Impa's house. She also doesn't like me walking around with no clothes on.

From here, I was going to take a closer look at Necluda, but I decided that before I do that, I should go get my sensor fixed. After all, I wouldn't want to miss any memories. And boy am I glad I did that.

It didn't take long to get to Hateno Village, partly because there was a shrine to guide my way (although I didn't know that when I started heading toward it). The shrine was called “Myahm Agana Apparatus”, and it was fun. The apparatus in question is a Shiekah machine that lets you control a free floating platform. The platform is a Labyrinth game, so you have to guide the ball through the maze. That took some playing around with to get right, but wasn't too difficult. The hard part was getting the ball from the platform across the gap to where it needed to be. Good thing I've done the "Timing is Critical" shrine!

Back in Hateno, I didn't talk to that many people because I wanted to go through it more thoroughly later, but I did meet a woman named Toma who was kind of a jerk (she didn't like my clothes) and a man named Manny, who's in love with a woman named Prima and wants me to help him find a present for her. He's a charmer.

But I was here for the lab, so I got there as quickly as I could. Inside were two people: a little girl named Purah and an adult man named Symin. Purah told me Symin was in charge, while Symin said Purah was. Symin was correct. And Purah's an interesting character. She's over 100 years old, and only looks the way she does because of an experiment that went awry. She's also the one that brought me to the Shrine of Resurrection, so she's a little miffed I don't remember her. (Side note: this lab is very reminiscent of the Lakeside Laboratory from Ocarina of Time, at least to me.) 

She tells me she can fix my Shiekah Slate to help me remember things, but to do that, I need to get the blue flame from the furnace in town and bring it to fire up her technology. The distance is long, but thankfully there are lanterns along the way, so if your torch or stick or whatever burns out, you can just go to the last lantern you lit. I noticed there are lanterns all throughout town, so I wonder what happens when you light them all?

As I was getting the flame, I found a small Hylia statue and was able to pray to it since I had four Spirit Orbs. I got an extra heart this time, bringing me up to four. I marked my map to remember this spot.

I guess this is a good time to talk about pins and stamps. Since the world is so large, the maps has different ways of marking things. You get five pins, which put a colored beam of light in the overworld. They're a good way to help direct you, and I've used them so far for towers. Stamps only make a mark on your map, but they're a good way to help you remember where things are. There are several kinds as you can see below, and there's a limit to how many you can use, but the limit is 100. So far, I have leaves marking where I can find rafts, swords marking enemies I haven't defeated yet, shields marking Korok puzzles I haven't finished, skulls marking Hylia statues, gems marking towers (because there are more towers than I have pins for), and stars for other things I have to come back for (usually shrines or interactions).

Anyway, back at the lab, Purah is able to upgrade my Slate and she does so in several ways. The main thing is that she adds the Camera, Album, and Hyrule Compendium. The camera is a camera. The album stores pictures you take, and includes pictures of places that will unlock memories. And the Compendium is a catalog of the weapons, wildlife, monsters, and more that you come across. You have to take a picture of them to register. This is the main reason I did this before exploring: I've already come across a lot of stuff that I'll have to find again, so I'm glad to mitigate that as much as I can. I was also able to purchase upgrades for my sensor (it can now search for things in my Compendium, in addition to shrines as before) and bombs (they recharge faster). There's a Stasis upgrade too, but I didn't have the materials for it.

I would've gone back to exploring Necluda at this point, but I get distracted too easily. From the hilltop the lab is on, I could see two shrines in the distance: one high up on a cliff, and one very low in the middle of nowhere. I wanted to go to both of them, but I chose to go to the cliff one first, reasoning that I could probably sail from there to the one below. This was the right call, as you'll see.

But first I had to get there. It was mostly easy going. I didn't run into many enemies, though I did take pictures of the ones I did for the Compendium. And for the most part, I didn't fight them. I didn't have time for that. When I finally reached the slope the shrine sat on, there was a Bokoblin camp in front of me. I tried to get close to take a picture, but the scout saw me and alerted his crew. I didn't see them, but I did see about a million yellow exclamation points of attention suddenly appear.

It was probably closer to a dozen.

Either way, I was slaughtered, so the next time I avoided that camp altogether. I learned the blue cattle I've been seeing around are water buffalo, and then I entered the shrine: "A Modest Test of Strength." You may remember when I did A Minor Test of Strength, and this was that but moreso. It took a couple of tries, but thanks to my Royal Claymore and the ton of shock arrows I got from those Lizalfos, I was able to take it down. I retrieved its Guardian Battle Ax+ and Guardian Shield +, along with an Ancient Core (only one more to get the Stasis upgrade!), and there was also a chest with a Knight's Bow inside.

Unfortunately, I lost that bow. And another one. See, my bow stash was full so I had to drop one to pick up the Knight's Bow. And then I had to drop the Knight's Bow to take a picture of it. And then, like a dum dum, I left the shrine. I tried entering it again but they were gone. Whoops.

So I sailed on down to the other one, which turned out to be on an island in the middle of the sea, and found “A Major Test of Strength”! Same basic thing, except whereas the Guardian in the previous shrine had a giant sword and giant shield, this one just had three giant weapons. But again, a clever mixture of shock arrows and powerful swords did the trick...eventually. For my trouble, I got a Guardian Sword++, a Guardian Spear++, and a Guardian Battle Ax++. The chest in this shrine contained Climbing Gear, which makes it easier to climb when it's raining (VERY helpful). 

And you know what I just realized? Guardians look an awful lot like a particular version of Beamos.

That's VERY interesting to me because this Beamos is from Twilight Princess. Until now, the only references have been to Wind Waker, which made me think this game officially took place in the "Adult Timeline", regardless of where I placed it in my personal timeline. But if this is really a Twilight Princess reference, a game from the "Child Timeline", that...that's unprecedented. And it emboldens me. (If all this timeline talk confuses you, check out my timeline primer.)

Anyway, now I'm more than equipped to go exploring Necluda for a bit, and this is a good time for it since I have a whole Compendium to fill out. Because of that, tomorrow's entry probably won't be that exciting, but you never know what I'll come across!

The Zelda Timeline: A Primer

Throughout these Breath of the Wild recaps, I’m going to mention the “Zelda timeline” from time to time. It’ll probably help if you know what I’m talking about, so I’m going to lay it all out for you.

The first question I should answer is, how do we know there’s a timeline in the first place? After all, there are many people who believe that all the games are different retellings of the same story. Well, those people are wrong. Numerous games in the series are specifically sequels or prequels to other games in the series. For example, Majora’s Mask is a direct sequel to The Ocarina of Time, and The Minish Cap is a prequel to Four Swords. So what are all these sub-groupings?

• The Legend of Zelda is followed by Zelda II: The Adventure of Link. (Link kills Ganon in the first; the bad guys are trying to revive Ganon in the second.)

• A Link to the Past is followed by Link’s Awakening, which is followed somehow by A Link Between Worlds. (Link’s Awakening mentions the events of A Link to the Past, and A Link Between Worlds takes place in the same era of Hyrule. They also all have “Link” in the title, which is not a coincidence.)

• The Ocarina of Time leads into Majora’s Mask. (The events of Ocarina are mentioned as having happened recently.)

• Oracle of Ages and Oracle of Seasons are sequels to each other. (This is their whole gimmick. You can play either game separately or link them in either order to get a more complete story.)

• Four Swords is followed by Four Swords Adventures, which are both preceded by The Minish Cap. (The Minish Cap tells the origins of characters and items in the Four Swords games.)

• The Wind Waker is directly followed by Phantom Hourglass, which is distantly continued in Spirit Tracks. (Events and characters from each game are strongly referenced in the games that follow.)

• Twilight Princess stands alone.

• Skyward Sword stands alone.

• Tri Force Heroes stands alone.

• Breath of the Wild stands alone.

So already you can see the beginnings of a timeline forming. If certain games form sequences, then it stands to reason that the sequences can be ordered into a larger sequence: the timeline. And this bears out. Certain games refer to events from other sequences, or their storylines otherwise give information about their place in the timeline.

• Skyward Sword is definitively the earliest game in the timeline, since it’s the story of how Hyrule was founded and the creation of the Master Sword.
• A Link to the Past was designed to be a prequel to the first two Zelda games, hence the title. So it stands to reason you can combine their sequences like this: LttP - LA - LBW - LoZ - AoL 
• The Ocarina of Time was designed to flesh out the backstory about the Great Seal War given in A Link to the Past, so you can add that sequence to the list: OoT - MM - LttP - LA - LBW - LoZ - AoL 
• The Wind Waker mentions the Hero of Time (The Ocarina of Time’s Link) in its backstory, so you can create a sequence like this: OoT - MM - WW - PH - ST
• Twilight Princess also mentions the Hero of Time in its backstory, so you can create a sequence like this: OoT - MM - TP
• The "Oracle" sequence (OoX), the Four Swords Trilogy (MC - FS - FSA), and Tri Force Heroes are harder to place.

So far, we’re at a point that everyone can agree on (except those nuts who think it’s all one story told over and over). Here’s where the disagreement begins. Well, people disagree about where to put those sequences I mentioned at the end, but that’s minor compared to the following rift:

ONE OR TWO TIMELINES?

Common wisdom would suggest a single timeline, but a growing number of the fandom embraced the “split timeline theory”, which took different forms but more or less looked like this:

MC - OoT (adult timeline) - TP - FS - FSA - ALttP - OoX - LA - LoZ - AoL 

MC - OoT (child timeline) - MM - WW - PH - ST

(Note: at the time this was popular, these were the only games out.)

The reason for this is that, in The Ocarina of Time, Link's consciousness can travel in time between his child self and adult self. His adult self defeats Ganon, but then he travels back to when he was a kid and the game ends there. So this theory posits that the traveling through time created two separate timelines and certain games happen in one timeline or the other. 

This never sat well with me. For one thing, the two timelines are very uneven. But more than that, it seemed like a cop-out. Imagine if historians said, “this document talks about the Great Fire of London, but this other document, which is from a different time, makes London seem completely ok. Must be two separate timelines!”

When a timeline doesn’t have firm dates attached to it (sometimes we get a rough passage of time, like around 100 years between Phantom Hourglass and Spirit Tracks, but never more concrete than that), you can have as much time between eras pass as you need to for the story to work. There’s no reason it can’t work as a single timeline.

...so imagine everyone’s surprise when Nintendo released the official timeline to coincide with Skyward Sword’s debut and Zelda’s 25th anniversary, and their stance was that there were THREE timelines!

This was, of course, met with controversy. Although the branches do have a more even number of games between them, the new branch “Fallen Hero” is based on something that doesn’t happen in the game: Link’s death. In Zelda II, if Link dies, you get “Game Over - Return of Ganon.” His death is a canonical outcome that has a consequence. That doesn’t happen in "Ocarina"; you can die, but the death is part of the gameplay, not part of the story. So it doesn’t make any sense for the Hero of Time’s death - and ONLY the Hero of Time’s death - to be responsible for a split timeline. If a Hero's death causes a new timeline, there are billions of split timelines out there, not just these three.

So it’s my personal belief that, regardless of what the creators say, especially since they also say it can change at any time based on the needs of the story (and they have; in The Zelda Encyclopedia, they updated the timeline so the "Oracle" games take place after Link’s Awakening), the timeline looks like this:

Skyward Sword

(unknown length of time)

The Minish Cap

(unknown length of time)

Ocarina of Time

Majora’s Mask

(100 years)

Twilight Princess 

(Several hundred years)

Wind Waker

Phantom Hourglass

(100 years)

Spirit Tracks

(unknown length of time)

Four Swords

(unknown length of time)

Four Swords Adventures

(unknown length of time)

A Link to the Past

Link’s Awakening

(unknown length of time)

A Link Between Worlds

Tri Force Heroes

(unknown length of time)

Oracle of Seasons

Oracle of Ages

(unknown length of time)

The Legend of Zelda

Zelda II: The Adventure of Link 

A couple notes about the harder-to-place games and my reasons for putting them where I did:

The Four Swords Trilogy (The Minish Cap, Four Swords, and Four Swords Adventures) are difficult to place on the timeline because their stories are almost completely divorced from the rest of the series. But since it does have ties to A Link to the Past, if nothing else (Four Swords was included with the Game Boy version of A Link to the Past, whose Hyrule has a special Palace of the Four Sword area, and Four Swords Adventures seems to be the origin of Ganon’s blue pig form), I’m comfortable deferring to the official timeline until new information comes along. But I wouldn’t be against moving The Minish Cap to after Spirit Tracks.

I’ve placed the "Oracle" games where they are because I don’t think he’s the same Link as in A Link to the Past; for one thing, everyone’s surprised to learn he has a Triforce symbol on his hand, and for another, he and Zelda don’t know each other. But it can really go anywhere the Triforce is intact and Ganon is dead. I have Oracle of Seasons before Oracle of Ages because of the pirate crew in each game. In "Seasons", they’ve been trapped underground for a long time, long enough that they get seasick when they get back in water. But they’re on the water in Oracle of Ages. We eventually learn that the Pirate Captain was Queen Ambi’s seafaring love who left her in the past, so it seems that the chronology is that he left her, never returned because he got caught in the desert, and then was able to come back to Labrynna once Link rescued him. (Other information supports this too, such as the backstory in the games' manuals and the serial numbers of the games.)

A Link Between Worlds is set in the same era as A Link to the Past (their map of Hyrule is the same and at least one supporting character appears in both), but uses a different Link (Link and Zelda haven’t met before). Tri Force Heroes is said by the director to be set shortly after A Link Between Worlds and uses the same Link; I prefer to only use in-game evidence, but since there isn’t any, I will defer to him for now.

So where does that put Breath of the Wild? Frankly, I don’t know yet. We know it features Koroks and Rito, both of which were introduced in The Wind Waker and evolved because of the Great Sea in that game. But the Rito were said to evolve from the Zora, which also exist in Breath of the Wild. Of course, they exist in Oracle of Ages as well, which I’ve also placed after The Wind Waker, so there's precedence. We also know it’s set 100 years after its backstory, but the backstory doesn’t match up to any previous game, so that doesn't help. And we know its backstory's backstory happens 10,000 years ago.

So we know that at the very least, the Zelda timeline covers 10,000 years, and probably a lot longer. But we don't know much more than that. What if that 10,000 year gap is in the MIDDLE of the timeline (say, between Spirit Tracks and Four Swords)? We could easily be talking a span of 15,000 years, possibly more, and Breath of the Wild could fall anywhere in the latter 2/3 of it.

Right now, I simply need more information.

Breath of the Wild, Part 15: West Necluda!

I lied.

Yesterday I said I was going to beeline for Kakariko, but I did not do that. What I did do was explore the area between the Great Pleateau and the Hylia River, since I had already seen some of it. And at first, I thought I had made a mistake. Except for a Bokoblin camp, I didn't find much. There were two plateaus with nothing on them, some ruins with nothing around them, a forest without much in it...but I was just getting started. 

My luck started to turn around when I came across a Bokoblin camp that had SO MANY weapons. They were trash weapons - pot lids and rusty claymores and things like that - but there were just so many. If this were one of the first things I had come upon, I would've been jazzed. I also got to ride my first deer! They're usually skittish af, but this one ran up on me, so I quickly mounted it before it could think twice. It didn't last long, partly because I wanted to see if it would stick around after I dismounted. It didn't.

But that's ok, because after that, I ventured to an area called Scout's Hill. It's an area I've been to before (it's where "The Wind Guides You" shrine is), but this took I looked at it more carefully. I completed a Korok puzzle I had left behind previously, and found another one when I went to check out a keep on top of the hill. Not far from here was a cave - a cool discovery on its own! - that had yet another Korok puzzle. These things are everywhere.

At this point, I was going to beeline to Kakariko for real for real, but again, I didn't. Because my Shiekah Sensor started pinging, and it led me to a very neat shrine. This one is called "Timing is Critical", and it involved moving platforms to roll balls into holes. But the title doesn't lie, and you have to be very careful about when you move the platforms. There's one particularly difficult one where you have to lower the platform to get the ball rolling, but then lift it back up so the ball launches at the right speed and trajectory to land in the hole. In the chest for  this shrine was the Climber's Bandanna, which lets you climb more quickly. The would've been nice to have the past two weeks.

Here we go: Kakariko Village! Surprisingly, yet not at all surprising given that Shiekah founded Kakariko, there's a shrine pretty much in the middle of town. And it's so obviously supposed to be one of the first shrines you go to. It's called “Ta’loh Naeg’s Teaching” and in it you fight a Guardian to help you learn how strafe, backflip, parry, and flurry attack. There were two chests in this one: an Eightfold Blade (which I destroyed during the encounter) and a Shield of the Mind's Eye, which looks really cool.

After that I went into Kakariko proper, and it just so happens that the first building I found was Impa's house. Impa has two guards out front because she's serious business, but I'm the Hero so I get a pass. There's a girl washing Impa's porch, and I learn that her named is Paya and she's Impa's granddaughter! Paya has grown up with stories about me and that's very intimidating.

Inside I meet Impa, and she tells me so many things. She's been waiting for me, but she didn't realize I wouldn't have my memory. So she tells me a story that starts TEN THOUSAND YEARS AGO about a prosperous Hyrule and the building of the towers and the Guardians and the Divine Beasts, along with the beginning of Calamity Ganon. She also mentioned that 100 years ago, the Divine Beasts were piloted by the following people:

- Vah Rudania was piloted by a Goron named Daruk
- Vah Medoh was piloted by a Rito named Revali
- Vah Ruta was piloted by a Zora named Mipha
- Vah Naboris was piloted by a Gerudo named Urbosa

A couple things about this:
1. I don't know if this is true in-universe, but the Divine Beasts are named after the Sages in Ocarina of Time and Wind Waker (the Goron Darunia, the Rito Medli, the Zora Ruto, and the Gerudo Nabooru).
2. I appreciate that Daruk and Revali's names match the previously established schemes for their races. (Other Goron names include Darunia, Darmani, and Darbus; other Rito names include Medli and Komali.)
3. I like that a Gerudo gets to be a hero for once.
4. This is basically just Hylian Power Rangers and I love it. (I mentioned this in Part 1 or 2; I'm mentioning it again.)

Impa wants me to meet with the leaders of each race to learn more about the Divine Beasts and she marks their locations on my map. She also told me that all of my memories are stored in my Slate, but my Slate is broken so I can't access them. I need to visit someone in Hateno Village to fix it, and she marked that on my map too. But those are all in different regions, so I don't know how soon I'll get there. I suppose I should go unlock the ability to get memories before I do too much exploring. We'll see.

The rest of the night I just spent wandering through Kakariko. 

There are two sisters, Koko and Cottla, who each gave me two sidequests. Cottla likes to play, either tag or hide-and-seek, and she gives you things if you win. Koko likes to cook, but she's always missing an ingredient. If you bring her the ingredient, she'll give you part of the meal she makes.

Cado, one of Impa's guards, is a Cucco farmer in his spare time. 10 of Cado's Cuccos got out, and he asked me to find them. Cado's wife recently left him, so he's not having a good time right now. Cado also says that the difference between chickens and Cuccos is that Cuccos can fly, and I'm pretty sure that's the first time chickens have ever been mentioned in a Zelda game. Cado also told me a little bit about the Yiga Clan, which seem to be Hylians that have sworn allegiance to Ganon. Jerks. Finally, Cado has a lot of drawings of Cuccos in his house. A lot of them. Whole wall full. Dude's obsessed.

Across from Cado's house is a clothing store. One cool thing about this store is that it has a name. Not a generic name like "Malo's" or anything, but an honest to goodness brand: "Enchanted". The store has a barker outside named Lasli who seems to be into me, and inside had a lot of cool clothes. I bought a Hylian Tunic (which buffs my defense a bit) and Hylian Hood (protects from heavy sun), along with a Stealth Mask, Stealth Chest Guard, and Stealth Tights. They makes me look an awful lot - but not exactly like - Shiek, which is pretty cool.  

The carrot farmer and the pumpkin farmer don’t get along, for reasons I'm not sure about. The carrot farmer is married to the general store owner, so I bet that has something to do with it. Therefore, you can't buy pumpkins at the store.

And speaking of farmers, there's a plum grove in town that's looked after by a woman named Mellie. Mellie tells me the trees were planted when she was born, and they'll die at the same time. Mellie feels very connected with these trees. And she will FLIP OUT if you go near them while she's watching. Wait until night, folks.

I noticed that there's a house for all of the characters, which I'm glad they brought over from Skyward Sword. It adds to the authenticity. 

Finally, someone told me there's a Great Fairy Fountain close by. That's very tempting, but I think I might go to Hateno next. I guess we'll find out!

This is what I've been missing lately. The lore. The characters. Even though I had plenty to do, the game felt a little empty because I wasn't talking to many people. This was a nice change of pace. I guess now that I have multiple objectives, I can switch back and forth between exploring and continuing the story.