Day 4: Skyview Temple and GRABITUDE CRACKLES!
Today, I only had one goal: play through Skyview Temple. I succeeded, but I got sidetracked afterwards and ended up playing waaaaaay longer than anticipated. But that's ok.
First, I didn't even start at Skyview Temple, because the place that I thought was the entrance to the temple was actually the entrance to Deep Woods, and area I totally remembered but somehow forgot the location of. In Deep Woods, I met Gorko again, and he showed me a weird metal box he called a Goddess Cube, and then informed me that if I hit it with a Skyward Strike, something would happen. So I did, and then it just straight up disappeared. Kind of anticlimactic. In this area I also figured out to Balance properly, and learned that I had been following the directions poorly. Anyway, there's not much else going on in this area except some bugs, which I totally got a bunch of.
So now we're in Skyview Temple, and this place is eerie. Not creepy like Majora's Mask, just eerie. The music is a very somber brass piece, and everything glows with that weird, faint blue of bioluminescence. There's Skulltulas and Walltulas everywhere, as is pretty much expected in a forest dungeon, and there are lots of webs that you'll get caught in if you're not careful (it doesn't do any damage, it's just annoying). There's also tons of Babas around. But going back to the skulltulas, what's neat is that the symbol for this temple is two leaves, one pointing up and the other pointing down, with four vines starting at their stems and moving outwards. So it's got the plant motif, but it also kind of looks like a spider, which is pretty cool. Also, this temple actually looks like a temple that's been overgrown, which I totally dig.
Right away, though, this temple shows Skyward Sword's seeming mission statement of taking classic Zelda things and turning them on their heads. The first puzzle you encounter is a locked door with an eye above it; as any seasoned Zelda player knows, and any new player could probably guess, the proper thing to do would be to use the slingshot you just got to shoot the eye. But if you pull out your slingshot, the eye's lids close tight. Instead, Fi tells you the eye is staring at the tip of your sword, which is a hint to spin your sword around until the eye gets dizzy and explodes. And really, that's what this dungeon is all about: playing with your expectations . It has elements of a water dungeon in addition to forest (you have to raise the water level to achieve certain goals), its final boss is actually your first fight against the game's villain, and instead of a boss key, you have to find a Golden Sculpture that you have to turn the right direction to fit the hole in the boss door. This last thing is a feature of every dungeon and is also an example of the dungeon's *other* mission statement: using the wiimote to its fullest extent. Other examples include copious amounts of swinging and balancing, and the dungeon's weapon: the Beetle, a wrist-mounted device that you launch and then control as it flies around the room (you can use it to grab items, hit switches, cut things, hurt certain enemies, and scout areas; it's super useful).
Let's talk about the boss for a second. He's called Demon Lord Ghirahim, and he's a dick. It's a good thing this game starts you off with six hearts instead of three, because you'll need them. If you try to attack him, he'll grab your sword with his hand and if you're not careful, he'll take it from you and eventually throw it across the room. If you're lucky enough to hit him enough times, he pulls out his own sword and then does a variety of rushing you with his sword, firing a line of darts at you, and teleporting. And during this whole fight, Fi can't give you any information about him. It sucks. when you finally beat him, though, you go to this other room where you can get some items, catch some bugs, and do what you're there to do: get a piece of a map so you know where to go next. There's also another Goddess Cube, but it's pretty well hidden.
Anyway, after all's said and done, I exit the temple and find a bird statue to go back to Skyloft, and along the way I find that the woods have more enemies in them than they used to, which is a feature I really, really like: as you progress through the game, even places you've already been become more dangerous. So I head back to to the sky and Fi informs me that she's getting a weird energy signature; as it turns out, hitting the Goddess Cubes makes treasure chests appear in the sky. I ended up getting 300 rupees, a piece of heart, and an Additional Pouch, which is a pretty sweet haul. After that, I headed back to Skyloft and bring the map piece to the Goddess Statue where it belongs, so it can open the hole in the clouds to Eldin Volcano.
So that was it. I was going to be done. BUT THEN, as I leave to go find a bird statue and quit, I run into a woman who's looking for her daughter, Kukiel. And I had to keep playing because this is one of my favorite parts of the game. The townsfolk think she's been kidnapped by a monster, so it's up to me to find her. I eventually do, and this monster could not be more evil-looking if he tried; he has bat wings with a skull pattern on them, for crying out loud! So I go to strike him with my sword - you know, Link's ansswer for everything - and what do you know: the monster recoils in fear! As it turns out, the monster is named Batreaux and he and Kukiel have been friends ever since he saved her from falling off the edge of Skyloft one day. As it also turns out, he wants to turn into a human so that he can be friends with all the Skyloftians; but to do this, he needs your help to gather things called gratitude crystals (or as Kukiel calls them, "grabitude crackles"), which you get by doing good deeds for people. So basically, it's an extended Bomber's Notebook, which is awesome, except you never know when someone will need your help. Luckily, NPCs in this game get a thought bubble over their head when you really need to talk to them, so it's pretty easy to find the people you need to help. So I ended up getting 16 grabitude crackles, and for the trouble, Batreaux gave me a piece of heart and a Medium Wallet, which means I can now hold 500 rupees (for a total of 1400 with the additional wallets I bought). And then to prepare for my next adventure, I bought an Additional Pouch from Beedle - meaning I have all but one now - and an Iron Shield from the item shop. I'm pretty sure I'm good to go.
Day 5: Eldin Volcano
There's not really all that much to report today. I went through Eldin Volcano and got to the entrance of the Earth Temple, but even though the area is larger than Faron Woods, I just don't feel like there's a whole lot to talk about in it. I met the resident race of the area, the Mogmas, who are treasure hunters. They eventually gave me a pair of their Digging Mitts, which let me dig up soft patches of ground to find rupees, treasure, hearts, etc. I suppose this is a good time to mention that there are three types of items in this game: there's your "- button" items that you carry in your Pouch (generally supplemental things like bottles, shields, and satchels); there's your "B button" items (generally weapons, but also bug-catching nets and the like); and then there's the third kind. The third kind you don't have to equip at all, you can just automatically use them if the context is appropriate. This last kind so far includes the Digging Mitts and the Sailcloth.
Ok, what else? There's a bridge in Eldin Volcano made out of some monster's spine, which is a little weird (and it's skull is floating in some lave nearby). There are small groups of huts dotting the area, but I don't know if they belong to the Mogmas, the Bokoblins, or another group entirely. I encountered two new bugs (the Volcanic Ladybug and the Eldin Roller) and they're both a bitch to catch. And to get into the temple I had to find the key, which had been broken up into five parts. Along the way, I found four more Goddess Cubes, which were very appreciated. I also noticed that because of the density of this game (meaning you have to repeatedly re-cover the same areas over and over), it's impossible to tell which weapon you're going to get next. I've seen evidence for a hookshot, a bomb bag, and some sort of wind-blowing thing, and it could turn out to be none of these.
So after I opened the temple, I returned to the sky to do my upgrades, collect my Goddess Prizes, and get some more Crackles. Unfortunately, there were no Crackles to be had. On the plus side, the Cubes I found netted me 400 rupees, a small seed satchel, and a Treasure Medallion, which makes it more likely for me to find treasure, which is awesome. With my loot, I bought a new wooden shield (my old one burned up), upgraded it to a banded wooden shield, upgraded my iron shield to a reinforced iron shield, and bought a Heart Medallion, which gives me an extra heart as long as it's in my Pouch. (I should've bought Beedle's last Additional Pouch, but I wanted to see what the Heart Medallion did.)
Anyway, I'm getting close to stuff I've never played through before, which is exciting. I can't remember if I did the Earth Temple, but I know for a fact that I didn't get any further than that, so next time is when things will start to get real.
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