Day 8: Lanayru Desert (Part 2), A Dungeon, And Other Things
Making my way through the desert involved hitting a lot of timeshift stone and running across a lot of sinksand. It also involved killing a lot of these giant stork things I don't know the name of. Eventually, though, I made it to the Temple of Time, and guess what? Gorko was there! He had planned to study the Temple of Time, but guess what else! It's blocked off by some rubble. Luckily, a nearby Ancient Robot informed me that there was a shortcut in the Lanayru Mining Facility, and he helpfully marked it on my map. He also noticed that my map was "all wrong", so he "fixed it"...by making it a map of what it was like pre-desert times. This is a pretty great idea, I have to say.
Anyway, to get to the Facility, I had to first activate three power nodes that were located around the desert, and then I had to turn some dials the proper way. The game doesn't tell you what to do at all, but it's a pretty clever puzzle. The fortress walls that used to be there make something resembling a clock, so you have to turn the dials (one for each node) so that they line up with where each node is. Once you do that, the Lanayru Mining Facility rises from the middle of the desert and you're now one step closer to this area's dungeon. And it turns out that's the only step you need, because the designers totally pulled a bait and switch. As it happens, the Lanayru Mining Facility IS the dungeon. Since the two previous dungeons were called the Skyview Temple and the Earth Temple, and since time manipulation plays a large part in Lanayru, it's only natural to assume that the Temple of Time is the dungeon you're trying to get to. But it's not. Well played, game designers.
The Mining Facility is pretty fun, I have to say. It looks every bit the rundown factory that it is, and it has some neat puzzles, often including timeshift stones that are moving. It also features a new type of Beamos that you can take out with your sword, but like all Beamos, it's very annoying. This dungeon also gave me the Gust Bellows (aka the Definitely NOT the Gust Jar, No Sir), which is a pretty cool little gadget and is a nice companion for my Digging Mitts (aka the How Could You EVER Get These Confused With Mole Mitts?!). And I joke, but the Bellows are kind of like the opposite of the Mitts, because instead of finding patches of dirt and digging stuff up, you're finding mounds of dirt and blowing it away. But this brings up a problem I noticed, though: it didn't occur to me when I was just getting rid of small mounds, but at one point I had to clear a whole room of sand, and I mean...where does it all GO? It just seems to disappear. It's weird. At any rate, the boss is basically Gohma, but a scorpion, and with eyes in its pincers as well, and eventually it starts burying itself to get away from you, so you have to use the Bellows to dig it out. Pretty basic stuff. [Side note that I forgot to mention when I originally wrote this paragraph and now I can't fit it in properly so I'm sticking it here: when I got the Bellows, it skipped a space in my inventory. That's the first time it's happened, and it's driving me crazy! What goes there? Did I miss something?]
After you defeat it, a door opens up that takes you to a light-filled corridor adorned on both sides by giant Ancient Robot statues that are saluting you. It's a pretty cool room. At the end of the corridor is a staircase that leads to the Temple of Time, and when you get there, Zelda and Impa (by the way, it turns out the hot Shiekah chick is Impa) are there, standing in front of this giant, glowing gear. Then Ghirahim shows up, you and Impa keep him from getting Zelda, Impa and Zelda disappear into the giant gear, and then Zelda throws you a harp (the Goddess's Harp). Then the gear crumbles into rubble, Ghirahim disappears, and Gorko shows up wondering what happened. Phase One of the game is now complete.
Thus begins Phase Two, which involves my going back to the Sealed Grounds to talk to the old Shiekah that's hanging out there. Before I got to that, though, I went and opened a Goddess Chest (which got me a piece of heart), upgraded my Quick Beetle to a Strong Beetle, cleaned Pipit's house for his mom (5 Grabitude Crackles and 20 rupees!), and bought a Stamina Potion to give to Fledge (No Grabitude Crackles!...yet). Getting those 5 crackles caused a spat between Pipit and his mom about money, but there's not much I can do about that. Also, I noticed that each of the students' rooms at the Knight Academy are just a giant room divided into two by a partition, which provides some VERY subtle character development for Groose: at some point in the past, he moved the divider so that he could have an extra large room to himself, while Cawlin and Stritch have to share an extra small room. Once again: good job, designers. (And speaking of rooms and grabitude crackles, I can see from going into Karane's room that there is totally a crackle in Zelda's room that I can't get to. It's irksome.)
After taking care of all that, I headed down to the Sealed Grounds and got an interesting surprise: Groose was following me! And when he saw where he was, he FLIPPED THE FUCK OUT. But once he got his bearings, he basically thanked me for my service and then decided to try to save Zelda on his own. I really have no idea if he has a shot with Zelda or not, but I like that he's taking the initiative, unlike *some* people (everyone but Link and Groose, basically). So Groose runs off to talk to the old Shiekah woman while I talk to my man Gorko and he tells me about Blessed Butterflies and how they sometimes show up around something he calls Goddess Walls and something else he doesn't have a name for but they spring up from the ground and go "boing-oing!". I don't know where this cat gets his information. So I proceed to catch up with Groose, and the old Shiekah woman breaks it to him that Link is the only one that can save Zelda, which he seems unfazed by. Then OSW says that the Door of Time is needed to save Zelda, but when she calls it up, it breaks the eponymous seal and out escapes a weird looking thing called The Imprisoned. So Link prevents it from escaping by repeatedly cutting off its toes and then reseals it in a pretty badass way, and Groose is both impressed and saddened by this, because he realizes Link is boss. So he mopes off to somewhere and then OSW teaches Link how to play the harp and to specifically play the Song of the Goddess and now we're basically done with the Sealed Grounds.
Before we left, the old Shiekah woman mentioned going to visit someone who knew about the song so I could learn more about it. So I head back to Skyloft and talk to Gaepora, and he teaches me the lyrics, which are frankly awful but tell me what I'm supposed to do. (Oh, I forgot to mention: I'm supposed to power up the Door of Time with a skyward strike, but my sword isn't powerful enough yet, so I have to find three flames and this song will tell me how to do it.) The song, by the way, is all about turning two windmills to face a tower on Skyloft, and I can do that no problem with my Gust Bellows. Unfortunately, one of them is missing its control propeller. I know where it is, but have no way to pick it up...that is, until Kukiel's dad reminds me about the robot Gondo's been working on (I never actually forgot). So I go give Gondo an Ancient Flower and that makes him able to restore the robot, which turns out to be an Ancient Robot, and one that has no patience for Link, or "Master Shortpants" as he calls him, but who - no joke - has a major crush on Fi and will do whatever she says. So we go get the propeller and turn the windmill and all that jazz, and then I got up on top the tower and played the harp. This caused a beam of light to shoot down, which was directed by a lens into this ominous dome of clouds that's been there the whole game, and that's where I need to go next. So I thought that was a good place to stop.(If this day seems longer than most, it's because I ended up playing longer than I usually do. It's basically two days' worth of gameplay, and as such, it should probably get a post all to itself, but oh well. Because I got through so much, though, that means there's a good chance I'll get to stuff tomorrow that I've never even seen before, which is super exciting!)
Day 9: Errand Day
As you can tell by the end of Day 8, I didn't mean for this to be an errand day. But due to a combination of being called into work and having more errands to run than I thought, it turned into one. That's fine, though, because a relatively short entry is a good complement to a super-long one.
The *plan* was to upgrade some stuff and then head off into the Ominous Cloud Dome. But on my way to Gondo's stall in the bazaar, I noticed that Rupin had a new shield for sale: the Sacred Shield. The Sacred Shield kiiiiinda looks like a Hylian Shield, but purple and with what looks like a bird track instead of a bird. It's supposedly very fragile, but it also heals itself over time, so you know...trade-off. So I went to buy it, but my Pouch was full, so I had to stop by the Item Check to drop something off. But when I did THAT, Peatrice was basically throwing herself at Link, so I decided to try to see that through to conclusion. We'll get to that later.
So I bought the Sacred Shield, and incidentally learned how to get the Bird Feather type of treasure (it involves catching tiny birds with your net; who knew?). I tried to upgrade it and couldn't, but I did upgrade the Reinforced Iron Shield to the Fortified Iron Shield, and also increased the size of my bomb bag.
Then I got A LOT of grabitude crackles (I convinced Peatrice I was in love with her, I found a disc that was needed to get Fun Fun Island up and running, and I found a couple lying on the ground here and there). I ended today with 39 and I tried REALLY HARD to find another one, but I just couldn't do it. This did give me over 30, though, so I talked to Batreaux and got a Big Wallet - which allows me to hold 1000 rupees plus the 900 from my extra wallets (1900!) - and also something called a Cursed Medal, which makes rupees and treasure appear more often at the expense of not being able to open my Pouch. But I barely ever use my Pouch anyway, so suck on that!
Another thing I did was finish my indentured servitude to the Lumpy Pumpkin by accompanying what's-her-face on my Goddess Harp. I got a piece of heart for it. I also sold a lot of my treasures and bugs and ended up with enough money to buy a piece of heart from Beedle, which will give me a new heart. So that'll be the first thing I do tomorrow, and then right after it I'll get right to the Ominous Cloud Dome, and that's where we'll pick it up next time.
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