Well...I thought I was going to get a lot done today. But then I got sidetracked. Let me explain.
As I said in my last post, the first thing I set out to do was get the missing chests from the shrines I’ve been to so far. That wasn’t that difficult, although a funny thing happened with the bomb shrine. I looked all over that shrine and couldn’t find a chest anywhere. In the middle of it, my brother called me, so I asked him if he knew where it was. He asked me to describe the shrine to him. Like from the beginning? I asked. He said sure. So I run back to the beginning, but as I do, I make a wrong turn and run smack into a bombable wall I’ve never seen before. The chest was behind there. What luck!
I discovered a couple other bomb walls, one on the Plateau and one at the base of it, and I also discovered that sledgehammers can break bomb walls too! You can’t run out of bombs so it’s not a big deal, but it’s cool all the same.
From here, I decided to explore the rest of the Faron region, but I did not succeed. It started off pretty well, but then I got back to the Taobab Grassland, and that’s when I got sidetracked. But before I talk about that, let’s talk about the good and bad of how awesome this game is.
First the good: the grassland has several kinds of wildlife in it, including wolves and herons. I was chasing a wolf and it ran through a group of herons, and it got distracted and started attacking them until they flew away. That’s amazing!
On the other hand, arrows actually arc. That’s good design, but bad for someone who’s been trained - by Zelda games! - to think your arrow will go exactly where you aim.
Another kind of wildlife in the grassland is horses, and I don’t know if you know this, but you can mount a wild horse and tame it if you’re good enough. I saw a horse isolated from the rest of the herd, so I decided to give it a whirl. I sneaked up on it, mounted it, tried to soothe it...and failed. I tried again and failed again. At this point, I decided to give up and try to see if you can get meat out of horses, so I shot it with an arrow but it didn’t die. So I tried to ride it again, and this time it worked. Does injuring the horse make it easier to tame? Jury’s still out.
I wasn’t expecting to actually get a horse, but now that I had one, I didn’t want to get off for fear that it would run away. So I had to find a stable. I eventually got there, but first, let’s talk about the riding mechanics.
Once you’ve soothed the wild horse, you have to grow your bond with it. You do that by telling it to go a different direction than it wants to go, and then soothing it afterward. The horse also has several speeds: from a still position, pressing A repeatedly will make you walk then trot then gallop (which has four speeds of its own). Also, each horse has four stats: strength, speed, stamina, and bond. Bond is the only one you have control over as far as I know.
As I made my way to the stable, I saw a lot of interesting stuff. I could talk about the shrine my Slate pointed out or the mounted Bokoblins or the archery camp I came across. But there’s only one thing I really want to talk about: Lynels!
Lynels are a Zelda villain that go all the way back to the original game, and they’re scary ass centaur creatures who will fuck your shit up before you can blink. Oh, you’ll just avoid them? No you won’t, because they’ll chase a bitch down. But here’s the thing: they’ve never appeared in a 3D Zelda game before! I’ve never seen a reason why. The closest they’ve come is A Link Between Worlds, but that’s closer to 3D like Donkey Kong Country is 3D rather than the way Donkey Kong 64 is 3D, you know?
Anyhow, Lynels are in this game and they’re gigantic and they’re scary. They’re not as frantic as their 2D counterparts, but that almost makes them scarier. They stand in the middle of an area like they own the place, and then they basically choose whether to let you pass unharmed or not. That’s true power. (Side note/spoiler alert: I haven’t tried it yet, but I happen to know you can ride them just like a horse if you’re brave enough!)
Once I finally made it to the stable, I was able to register the horse...for 20 rupees. Rupees? I haven’t seen a single rupee yet. Where was I supposed to get rupees?! Turns out, Beedle has a shop nearby.
It’s a big deal when a Zelda character gets upgraded to recurring. For the first five games, you had Link, Zelda, Ganon, and Impa. That’s it. You kind of had Malon and Talon, if you consider them the same as Marin and Tarin, but then that gets into whether Malo and Talo count too and it’s better off just treating them as separate. But since then, you’ve had characters like Ingo, Dampe, the Great Deku Tree, Twinrova, the Postman, Tingle, Maple, and many others join the ranks. But I’m not sure if any of them have become as much of a mainstay as Beedle has.
I guess that I should say what he’s about: Beedle’s a merchant. He travels across Hyrule buying and selling things. Thanks to him, I went from having 0 rupees to hundreds of rupees, so I was able to register my horse. I wanted to name it Chocolate Thunder, but there’s a nine character limit. I named it Brunblitz instead.
There were several people at the stable (which also doubles as an inn), and talking to them was very enlightening. One told me I can change my horse’s mane and saddle style. One challenged me to a horse riding competition. And one unlocked my first sidequest (if you don’t count the Xenoblade one)!
The sidequest, called The Mounted Marauders - that’s right, the sidequests get names in this game! - involves a nearby gang of mounted bokoblins that are threatening the stable and passersby. So I go out there and give ‘em the old whatfor. For my trouble, the woman gave me an endura carrot, which will overclock my stamina.
I also met a traveler named Totsuna who said something about chasing dragons? I don’t know her story but I bet I haven’t seen the last of her. At least, I hope I haven’t. She seems rad.
Oh yeah, and when I decided to go back and try to keep exploring, I saw a blue horse! So I decided that I had to have that one too. I named it Blublazes. You can stable up to five horses at a time, and you can call them to you as long as you’re not too far away.
As I took Blublazes to the stable, I realized there were people at the archery camp, so I talked to them and they told me about the legend of the giant horse and gave me a sidequest to tame it. They thought they had spotted it, but they actually spotted a Lynel, the poor fellas! Unfortunately, I don’t have enough stamina yet to tame the giant horse, but that gives me time to think of a name. Some I’m considering at the moment include Dunefire, Sandstorm, DesertSon, and Nightfury.
(Note: I have not completed it yet, but this is what that would look like.)
The last thing I was going to do before quitting for the night was the shrine I pinged earlier, but my Switch died right before I got there. Good way to start tomorrow, then!
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