Breath of the Wild, Part 2: Time Flies When You're Having Fun

The first thing I did today was explore the Temple of Time fully, which led me to the old man, who was hanging out in the spite of the temple. He decides to tell me what happened 100 years ago...which he does...with his voice! Voice acting in a Zelda game! I’ve never seen the likes.

The old man’s story has a lot going on. Right up front, we learn that he’s actually King Rhoam, the last king of Hyrule. Hyrule hasn’t had a king in 100 years?! What is going on in this game?? We also soon learn he’s been a ghost this whole time. He tells me that back in the day, they discovered ancient machines buried deep underneath Hyrule. They decided to excavate the machines to use in case Ganon ever returned, and there were two different kinds: the Guardians (The Beamos things I mentioned yesterday) and the Divine Beasts. The difference between them is that the Divine Beasts have to be piloted, so the princess of Hyrule (aka Zelda, aka Rhoam’s daughter) and her knight (aka Link; this Link) put together a team from across Hyrule to pilot them...oh shit, are we getting a Hylian Power Rangers?? I am alllllllll for that. I couldn’t see who all the members were, but there were definitely a Goron and a Rito on the team. I’m guessing there’s also a Zora and a Gerudo, but I guess we’ll find out...Or maybe we won’t, because Ganon took control of the Guardians AND the Divine Beasts and pretty much obliterated Hyrule. Rhoam put Link into Stasis before he died, and Zelda has been keeping Ganon at bay in Hyrule Castle for the past 100 years. But her power’s starting to fade, so Rhoam woke up Link to help her.

He gave me the paraglider and told me to go find Impa in Kakariko Village, but eh...I don’t really feel like it. I still have a lot of the Great Plateau to explore. So that’s what I do. But first, I go and pray at the statue of the goddess Hylia within the Temple of Time. Since I have four Orb Spirits, she offers to upgrade either my hearts or my stamina. As much as I want to choose hearts, I choose stamina because there’s a tower that’s just a hair too tall for me to climb right now and it makes me mad. 

So I go exploring and I realize there are SO MANY bokoblins around here that I haven’t taken care of yet. But I wanted to have fun with them. Normally I just run into the camp and start slashing away, but I wanted to mix it up. For one camp, I climbed into a nearby tree and then picked them off one by one (headshots are instant kills for most of them). For another, I sneaked up on it as it was sleeping, stole its weapons, and then attacked it with them. For some other ones, I pushed a boulder onto them from above.

During my travels, I discovered some really neat things. I found a pot lid and learned I could use it as a (very weak) shield. I learned how to defeat the Guardians (like Beamos, an arrow to the eye; but it takes multiple hits and you have to be able to see them but not vice versa). I finally beat the Stone Talus and it rained amber and opal and other gems. I also learned there is weather in this game, and multiple kinds; for instance, sometimes it sprinkles, but sometimes it’s a full on thunderstorm with very dangerous lightning. Rain also makes it harder to climb.

But the most interesting thing I found is a hut that belonged to the old man. I have no idea how I never saw it yesterday, but because I didn’t, I missed out on some stuff: namely a recipe for a meal that’ll keep you warm in cold areas. But that doesn’t really matter because I also found in his hut a Warm Doublet, which prevents damage from being cold.

Let’s talk about this Warm Doublet for a second, because it turns out there’s at least three different ways to get it. The way you’re SUPPOSED to get it is by helping the old man remember the warm meal recipe. Another way you can do it is by managing to get to the peak of Mount Hylia. And then there’s the way I did it. It makes me wonder how much of the rest of this game can be accomplished in different ways.

With the doublet, I can now explore Mount Hylia consequence-free. So that’s what I began to do, but couldn’t finish before I had to stop for the day so my Switch could charge. I did, however, find a ring of stones near the summit that I find highly suspicious but can’t figure out what to do with them yet.

Two days, still in the starter area, spilling over into day 3. I don’t think I’m exaggerating when I say this starter area is as big as the whole worlds of Ocarina of Time or Majora’s Mask.* Frankly, it’s a little insane. But outstanding.

*in between writing this and posting, I looked it up and the Great Plateau does indeed seem to have more playable area than the Ocarina of Time Hyrule (and Termina is probably a comparable size). The OoT map has slightly larger dimensions than the Plateau, but most of that area is not traversable. Also, the rest of Breath of the Wild's Hyrule is almost 100x larger than the Great Plateau. That's bananas.