Skyward Sword: A Mostly In-Depth Review, Part The Last

Day 16: The Final Trial and The Sky Keep

I didn't do much today, mainly because I'll be busy all night tonight and I got to a really good stopping point (any time the game asks you if you want to save out of the blue, that means that's a good stopping point).

So first I did the final spirit trial, and I don't know if this was by design, but it was by far the hardest for me. I had to restart two or three times, which is more than any of the others. But when you succeed, you get the Stone of Trials, a red gem with a triforce in the middle. Fi tells me it's a part of a pair, so I know exactly where it goes (I knew as soon as I saw it, but nevertheless): the bird statue with the missing eye that's been haunting me the whole game. So when you put it in, the statue turns around, becomes a cannon, and fires a ball at the part of Skyloft with the Goddess statue causing the bottom half to just fall off. Then a spiral shaped building descends from it; this is the Sky Keep and it houses the Triforce.

The Sky Keep is really cool, because it's made of eight rooms arranged in a square. One room is the entrance, three house the pieces of the Triforce and are designed accordingly (sorta; I'll get to that), and three are designed to mimic the dungeons of each region. There's not a ninth one to make the square complete because the [really cool] gimmick of this dungeon is that the rooms are movable by using a puzzle board in four of the rooms. The trick is that whatever room you're in at the time is unmovable, which makes moving the other rooms trickier. Now, about the Triforce rooms. The Wisdom one has you using a timeshift orb, and that makes sense because timeshift stones are by their very nature puzzle-oriented. The Power room has you traversing a course of lava, which involves jumping from one lava floe to another and dealing with a few dark monsters (which can curse you). The Courage room is divided into three subrooms, in which you fight a series of monsters (two iron shield moblins, then a room full of bokoblins and stalfos, and then a giant four-armed stalfos and several ReDeads cursed bokoblins. Now, in my opinion, Power and Courage should be switched. Especially since the Power room has a couple blind leaps and relies heavily on tools, while being cursed can prevent you from using those tools, usually to the detriment of your health (for instance, there was one time when I was on a floe that was sinking, but I was cursed to I couldn't clawshot off of it, though luckily the curse lifted at literally the last second). So my point is that the Power room is scary and the Courage room requires brute force. But maybe I'm wrong.

After you get all three pieces of the Triforce, you get to make a wish, and Link wished for Demise to be imprisoned forever so that Zelda can wake up. The wish is granted and the Goddess statue island starts to fall back to the surface! But more than that, it lands in the Sealed Grounds, because IT USED TO BE PART OF THE TEMPLE OF HYLIA, WHICH MAKES SENSE BECAUSE IT'S A HUGE STATUE OF HYLIA AND I DON'T KNOW HOW I NEVER CAUGHT THIS. The spiral shape of the Sky Keep matches the spiral path leading to Demise's seal, and the architecture of both places matches up perfectly. It's amazing. But anyway. Demise is sealed forever now, and Zelda wakes up, leading to a beautiful reuniting of Link and Zelda and Groose is happy and it's all so sweet, the end. That was a great game. The ending was a lot more downplayed than others in the serBUT WAIT. That's not the end at all! Ghirahim shows up to interrupt the lovefest, because he's discovered a loophole. Demise is sealed forever now, but that's a new development. So Ghirahim kidnaps Zelda and runs through the Gate of Time so they can go free Demise in the past! So that's where I stopped for today. Phase 3 is complete, and how many phases does this game have anyway? I don't know, but I'm excited to find out.

Days 17 and 18: The Final Battle(s)

It turns out that I quit right before the end of the game, so there really won't be a lot to cover this time. I headed to the past and out of the Temple of Hylia, and then saw Ghirahim doing this weird dance ritual with Zelda floating in the air. I couldn't let him unseal Demise, so I headed to the bottom of the spiral, but then Ghirahim threw up energy walls and sent hordes of bokoblins, moblins, and stalfos at me. I fought my way through all of those and my reward was a fight with Ghirahim. Lucky me.

So he goes One Winged Angel for real this time (he loses his clothes, turns all black, gets an orange diamond on his chest, etc) and makes an energy platform that rises high into the air. He plans to knock me off, so I have to do the same to him (and then perform a Fatal Blow on him). Doing that three times begins the next stage of the fight, and it's really easy to do - if you're not overzealous, you can get through it without losing a single heart. He pulls out two swords, and the game doesn't tell you this but you're pretty much just supposed to ignore him for now. Eventually he'll teleport and then fire a sword beam at you, which you volley back at him and then wail on his exposed chest. Do that a couple times, and stage 3 of the fight begins: he pulls out a giant sword that he'll use to counter your attacks (and attack you, of course). You have to break the sword in half and then hit his chest, which is harder than it sounds because if you're not fast enough, the sword will heal itself. Defeating him reveals that Ghirahim is actually an evil counterpart to Fi and also reveals that the ritual he started has been continuing this whole fight. So it was a waste of time because Demise is now free. And you have to battle him!

Luckily you get a chance to prepare before the final battle, so I took that opportunity to find a Goddess Chest I had previously missed, get a piece of heart from Gorko for helping him out (which filled another heart container), and - after fighting Demise a couple times and losing - going to the item check to get my second life medal and two more bottles for fairies (bringing the total up to five). And even with all of that, 49 hearts in total, it still took me like three hours to beat him. It was awful. The first stage isn't that bad: you block his sword attacks with your shield and then attack him with your sword, then repeat this until he falls down. But when he gets back up, shit gets real. It starts lightning everywhere and Demise can charge his sword with it, because it's basically an evil Master Sword (complete with inverted Triforce at the base of the blade). Link can do the same thing, but good luck with that. If you can manage to do so without being hit or without being hit afterward, you can block Demise's attack and then strike him with your own sword...a lot. I usually had to do this two or three times before he fell down, and I had to make him fall down three or four times before I could actually perform a Fatal Blow on him (he stays down longer each time). I *finally* did, though, and he died, and the day was saved thanks to The Powerpuff Girls Groose me. In his dying breath, however, he cursed Link so that his descendants will never be free from the evil that plagues Hyrule, and then swore that every time he was destroyed, he'd be reborn in a new form, thus explaining Ganon, Malladus, etc.

Then Link and Zelda go back to the temple to talk to Groose and Impa, and Impa says she'll stay there to make sure everything stays ok. Zelda is against this at first, but then gives Impa one of her bracelets to remember her by, and then the three of them return to the present. When they get there, they notice that Grannie (the old Shiekah) is wearing the same bracelet. She was Impa all along, and I totally called it! Also, I read online that she was wearing the bracelet for the whole game; I never noticed it, but it doesn't surprise me because this game is full of foreshadowing. There's tons of it. Callbacks and foreshadowing, that's what this game is made of. Anyway, a couple of the other Knight Academy students come down to the surface to party with the trio, everyone's happy and the credits roll.

During the credits, we get to see the game from Zelda's point of view: landing on the surface, meeting Impa, praying at all the temples, etc. Then after the credits, we get a scene of the other students (Groose included) flying back to the Sky. Zelda and Link seem about to leave too, but then Zelda says she wants to stay on the surface and fulfill Hylia's wish of building a nation there. So Link holds her hand and their Loftwings fly to the sky without them. THE END.

Final Verdict

I really, really enjoyed this game. I don't just want to gush so I'm trying to think of things I didn't like about it or thought could be better, but I'm having lots of trouble. The design is great (the impressionism-derived graphics are inspired, as are the character designs, monster designs, dungeon architecture, etc), the writing is great (the characterization rivals Majora's Mask, the game is never bogged down in exposition despite setting up every other game in the series, I've already mentioned the foreshadowing, etc), and the gameplay is great (for one thing, the motion controls definitely make it more immersive). It's more challenging than other games in the series without being noticeably more difficult and definitely not Nintendo Hard, and this is achieved mainly through just not explaining every detail to you; for instance, Fi often doesn't know how to defeat an enemy, and there are several things you can do in the game - such as minigames - that I never knew anything about until I read about them online (another way it's achieved is through great AI: the Skulltula will never purposefully turn its back to you, bokoblins will step on your fingers if you're on a ledge and run away from bombs, etc).  And this is very nearly the quintessential Zelda game; it doesn't have Ganon or Hyrule or the Zora or even some more notable enemies like Gohma or Dodongo or wizzrobes, but it still *feels* like the distilled essence of the series, at least in my opinion.

Part of that is all the callbacks I've mentioned throughout these reviews, which are so numerous that it sometimes seems like they just put all the other games in a blender to see what came out, even though a large number of things in this game are completely new. Part of it is that, perhaps because it's the first chronologically, this seems like it'd be a good first Zelda game for someone, which is definitely not true for many of them. Part of it is that you actually get the Triforce in this game, and as part of the gameplay no less, which has never been done before. And a large part of it is that, unlike perhaps any other game in the series, the name The Legend of Zelda actually makes sense: Link may be the protagonist, but this game's story - start to finish - is all about Zelda and her ongoing attempts to make Hyrule a better place to live in.

If I had to change some things about the game, I would've connected the three areas (though have it so that you had to discover those paths on your own) and perhaps added a fourth area in the middle just for a little more variety. I also would've developed the Parella more and probably added a Zora presence somewhere, even if it were just the monster kind. And I would've gotten rid of the slingshot and had something else instead, because nearly everything you can do with it can also be done with the Beetle, which you get no too long afterward. But none of that really matters. Skyward Sword was a fantastic game and right up there with Majora's Mask as one of my favorite in the series.

Skyward Sword: A Mostly In-Depth Review, Part 8

Day 15: Phase 3, Backstory, and More

Now that I completed Phase 2 of the game, I headed over to Faron Woods to begin Phase 3. But right when I was about to (by performing a Skyward Strike on the huge column in the middle of the Sealed Temple), the freaking Imprisoned broke his seal again, so I had to go reseal him. This time, two things were different: 1) he had really long arms now, and 2) Groose was there to help me out. Apparently, while I was galavanting around trying to power up my sword, Groose was chilling at the temple and building a giant catapult. So I had to cut off the Imprisoned's toes like normal and hit its fingers with Groose's catapult, and it was tough but I finally did it and sealed him away again. Then I went back inside and Skyward Struck the column thing, which made it break apart into hundreds of tiny cubes which then recombined into a shiny gear with the triforce and tune symbols on it. After that, it "opened up" to become this trippy tunnel thing that transported me, as you would expect a Gate of Time to do, into the past.

When I arrived, Impa was waiting for me and told me that we're in the past in the Temple of Hylia, which eventually becomes the Sealed Temple. I was able to finally able to catch up to Zelda, and apparently the Temple of Hylia is also infodump headquarters, so there's a major SPOILER ALERT on this paragraph, because this is the first time we get real backstory in this game and it's a doozy. Are you ready? Ok. First of all, Zelda reveals that the Imprisoned is actually a demon king named Demise, who wanted to get the Triforce (she also explained the history of the Triforce, but we already know all that) so the goddess Hylia created Skyloft and stored the Triforce there to prevent evil from getting it, which means that Skyloft - for intents and purposes - IS the Sacred Realm, or at least a version of it. She also revealed that Hylia was reborn as a mortal to protect herself, that mortal is Zelda herself, and that Zelda had to visit each temple to pray so that she could relearn who she really was. Then she tells Link that he's Hylia's chosen hero and tasks him with obtaining the Triforce so that Demise can be sealed away for a long time if not forever, and then puts herself to sleep for "thousands of years" until she can be safe (but right before that she says she hopes Link will be the one to wake her). WHICH MEANS SHE'S ALMOST CERTAINLY THE SLEEPING ZELDA FROM THE SECOND GAME.

So she puts herself to sleep and I head back to the present and then to Skyloft. But before I can leave for the sky, Groose tells me he's going to stay behind and try to pretect the temple because somebody has to. Groose rivals some of the people in Majora's Mask in terms of character development and I really dig it. Before going to Skyloft itself, though, I remembered the girl from the Lumpy Pumpkin saying something about plowing, and I figured that the sidequest would be open now that I was in a new phase of the game. I was correct, and got the ability to dowse for a person that could help her (it turned out to be Guld, the Mogma elder). 5 grabitude crackles! Then I went to the Bazaar, and Sparrot was missing. The guy at the diner said he hadn't shown up for work lately, so I should go visit him at his house to see what's up. I did, and it turns out his crystal ball broke. I got the ability to dowse for a new one, but I already knew where it was (on the top of the Earth Temple entrance). 5 more grabitude crackles! So I visited Batreaux and he gave me 600 rupees! After that, I went to the Knight Academy and talked to Gaepora about the Triforce, and at first he said he didn't know anything, but then he mentioned that a sky spirit named Levias probably would. So I go into the thunderhead to talk to Levias, but he's...not himself. Specifically, he has a parasite controlling him. If you defeat the parasite and then talk to Levias (who, by the way, is the latest in a long line of cetacean deities in the Zelda universe), he'll tell you about the Song of Heroes, which you have to learn in four parts from him and the protector dragons of the three regions of Hyrule. Lovely.

I decided to visit Faron first, and something weird happened: I could only access two bird statues. And I swear yo you, this is what happened next: first I said, "oh no, I *better* not have to fight The Imprisoned again" and then when I found out I had to fight The Imprisoned...again...I said, "What's gonna happen this time? Is he gonna grow wings or something?" And then hew grew wings! Anyway, that's not what's important. After I beat him and make my way back into Faron Woods, I discover that it's been flooded and it's even prettier than it was before. The Water Dragon (who's also named Faron, by the way) was tired of the monsters so she decided to take matters into her own hands, but she decides to unflood it once she teaches you her part of the song. In the meantime, though, you have to prove yourself worthy by tracking down tadtones, which are basically fish that correspond to musical notes. The hardest part is simply finding them, and the second hardest part is getting all of one group at the same time (which can be as little as two or as many as like ten or twelve). Pretty simple stuff overall. Also, the reason I came to Faron first is that Owlan asked me to find a new species of plant, and I succeeded by bringing him Oolo the Kikwi. Five more crackles!

Next, I visited Lanayru to talk to the Thunder Dragon, and this was pretty straightforward. I got to visit a new area (Lanayru Gorge) and had to get a timeshift stone to the center of the gorge by following its track and opening doors for it when necessary. This section's long and kind of hard to explain, so suffice it to say that I had to use a variety of tools and the timeshift puzzles never cease to amaze me. Whoever came up with that idea should get a raise, seriously. So when it finally gets to the center, it turns the pile of bones nearby into the Thunder Dragon, which is really, really sad. But it's ok! Because, without getting into the pretty awesome (and very timey-wimey) time travel shenanigans you have to get into to accomplish this, you can feed him a fruit that cures his ailment which allows him to be alive in the present. And then he teaches you his part of the song out of gratitude.

And finally I tackled Eldin, which took way longer than I expected it to. When I descended from the clouds, I didn't get to choose where I landed. Instead, I woke up in a bokoblin prison with all of my stuff stolen. Bokoblins have taken over the volcano, and more than that, the volcano has recently erupted, sending up a cloud of ash that darkens the area and prevents your from returning to the sky. A Mogma named Plats was able to return my Mitts to me (which I could use to escape) and point me in the direction of some of my other items, and what follows is basically an extensive stealth mission where you have to retrieve your items while avoiding being seen by the bokoblins. Maybe it was just because it was late, but I had a ton of trouble figuring this out. But I finally did, reached the summit, got the rest of my stuff back, finally got that in-plain-sight Goddess Cube I mentioned yesterday, and talked to the Fire Dragon, who taught me his part of the song. That calmed him down and brought Eldin Volcano back to normal, thank goodness.

I was going to quit there for the night, or at least after I got the two Goddess Chests I unlocked, but it turned out they were both inside the thunderhead which is where I needed to go anyway. So I got them (an unneeded small quiver and an equally unneeded but possibly more useful fifth(!) bottle) and then went to learn the last part of the song from the Wind FishLevias. The completed song will, of course, unlock another trial - this time on Skyloft - but I'll worry about that tomorrow.

Skyward Sword: A Mostly In-Depth Review, Part 7

Day 12

I upgraded my Medium Bomb Bag to a Large Bomb Bag.

Day 13: The Sand Sea And Other Things

I haven't played in over a week because of work. I tried playing last Sunday (Day 12), but I was so tired I could only play for like ten minutes. But I was free all day today and got a lot done. Let's get into it!

I started out at the Shipyard, which is where I left off of course, and though I thought it was a new dungeon, it wasn't.  It's basically just a mine cart ride, and even though the Wii lends itself well to mine cart rides, it's basically every other mine cart you've seen in a video game.  At the end I had to fight a miniboss (the same Gohma scorpion thing that was the boss of the previous Lanayru dungeon) for no reason, and the ship I was looking for wasn't here so I had to go to the Pirate Stronghold.

The Pirate Stronghold is this giant colossus that looks like an anglerfish. It took me forever to figure out how to get inside, mainly because I thought I had to hit something to open the mouth. It was also here that I learned the game cheats occasionally: the Stronghold has a dock for you to get off the timeshift boat, and there's a wall of rocks about halfway down the length of the dock to prevent you from driving around to the back of the Stronghold; but when you actually step onto the dock, the boat is suddenly inside the wall of rocks and the dock is shorter, making you think you can drive around the Stronghold when you really can't. (I say it cheats because you wouldn't notice it until you're on the dock, so then you'd get back on the boat to try to drive around to the back, but suddenly there's a wall of rocks preventing you from doing so). It was weird and I didn't like it.

Anyway, I finally found the way in (a regular old door that I just happened to miss) and was then treated with a little mini-dungeon. And just when I thought the timeshift stones couldn't get any cooler, the Zelda team proved me wrong once again with the introduction of the Timeshift Orb. The orb is designed to be movable from one power source to another, and you have to do just that. To do that, though, you have to carry it through the dungeon, which makes monsters appear, platforms appear, and door security to work properly. It's that last one that's the coolest, because it introduces a puzzle element (e.g., the only way to go through the door is to not be carrying the orb, but then you have to find a way to get the orb through the door). It's also around here where I learned that the Sacred Shield can block Beamos's beams (and if you do a shield thrust, the beam will stun Beamos for a bit)! That's great!  Anyway, putting the orb into the new power source makes the angler's mouth open up, which is where you find some old masts belonging to the Robot Captain's invisible ship, and that means you can now douse for it. And that's good, because it's invisible. So now we're done with the Pirate Stronghold, except we're totally not because I know we'll be coming back here later (if for no other reason than that there's a Goddess Cube I can't get to yet).

So I tracked down the ship and it turned out to be the real dungeon. They tried to make it feel like a ship with narrow hallways and stuff, but the rooms are just a little too roomy, so it ends up feeling like an Old West hotel or something. The miniboss is the Ancient Pirate Scervo, who probably has one of the best names ever - it's like "servo" because he's a robot, but also "scurvy" because he's a pirate! He's super easy and you get the Bow for beating him, which takes up that mysterious open spot in my inventory. The Bow is cool because you can point and shoot just like the slingshot, or you can press the C button and draw back the nunchuk to get better aim. After this, I used the bow to hit a timeshift stone on the central mast of the ship, did some more dungeony stuff, got a piece of heart, freed the ship's crew, got the Squid Sculpture from the Captain's Cabin, and used it to unlock the door to the room holding Nayru's Flame...which turned out to not be there. This begins a pretty cool boss battle that I'll get to in a minute, but first let me talk about the Boss Key. The key, as I mentioned, is shaped like a squid, which both fits the theme of the dungeon and (spoiler alert) the boss itself; furthermore, the hole the sculpture fits into is shaped like a skull, which goes along with the pirate aspect. I really dig it. Anyway, after you open the door, the ship is attacked by a giant squid monster named Tentalus, and I really dig this too; this game is really good about explaining why the bosses are there. Then, pretty much the whole dungeon becomes the boss room, because as Tentalus punches holes in the ship, it starts to sink, so you have to avoid the tentacles and the rising water and rolling barrels and all that jazz. Pretty cool. Then you get to the actual battle, which occurs on the upper deck because that's pretty much all that's left, and it involves cutting off Tentalus's tentacles with Skyward Strikes, then hitting his giant red eye with an arrow, then hitting it again with your sword. [Side note: I also learned that if a bokoblin fires an arrow at you and misses, it'll stick in the ground for a second and you can pick it up to add to your inventory. That's nice attention to detail, and pretty useful.]

After you beat him, you get Nayru's Flame, which imbues your sword with more power, making it the Goddess Whitesword. I forgot to mention it when I got Farore's Flame, but this whole collect-elemental-things-to-power-up-your-sword-with-each-version-of-the-sword-having-a-different-name is very reminiscent of Minish Cap, and a White Sword being replaced by a Master Sword has previously been done in the Oracles Linked Game. The Goddess Whitesword also lets you douse for more things, including treasure, Goddess Cubes, and grabitude crackles. It's pretty sweet.

Now that my sword's all powered up, I went back to the Isle of Songs to learn "Din's Power", and then I went to Eldin Volcano to perform my last trial. It was pretty tough, but I got through it and was rewarded with the Fireshield Earrings, which protect me from heat. Why earrings? I don't know, maybe it's a Japanese thing. Anyway, this allows me to go to the Volcano Summit, which I'll tackle tomorrow.

Before I quit, though, here are some other things I did: upgraded my bow to an Iron Bow and then to a Goddess Bow, bought a small quiver and then upgraded it to a medium and then large quiver, opened two Goddess Chests (got a piece of heart and a gold rupee), got 5 crackles from Fledge, and found 5 crackles around Skyloft.

Day 14: Volcano Summit and the Fire Sanctuary

The Volcano "Summit" (it's clearly not actually a summit, because I'm inside), is kind of confusing because there's all these paths I can take. There's also a Goddess Cube that's in plain sight but surrounded by lava so I can't reach it. I ended up running into my bud Gorko again, and he's looking for more Goddess Cubes, but he's at a door that's blocked by things of fire. There's a frog head sculpture nearby and a sign that says to quench its thirst, so I went looking for a spring and found one. But that's not the only thing I found: in the same area as the spring (outside), there were a bunch of rock spires covered in leaves that led to another Goddess Cube. But I can't figure out how to get my clawshot to reach. Oh well, I'll figure it out. So I get some water and open the fire door, and guess what? There's more fire doors! So I open the next one, but I can't open the third one because Gorko says it's going to take a lot more water than my bottle can carry. He says that Lake Floria has a lot of water, so I should maybe go there. And I'm glad I did, because as it turns out, there was a Goddess Cube on top of the Forest Temple that I completely missed! So I got that and then I went to talk to the Water Dragon to ask if I could use her basin. She said sure because she wasn't planning on getting sick for a while, so I called Scrapper to carry it for me to the Summit. Except here's the thing: when I went through the portal to Eldin Volcano, I didn't land at the Summit. I didn't even get the choice. Man, Scrapper was sore at me. So I had to walk all the way up the volcano again and protect Scrapper from all the baddies. This is harder than it sounds (it took me three tries), but luckily the monsters stay dead if you have to do it over.

But anyway, once you get to the Summit, Scrapper pours the water and opens the door, which leads to the Fire Sanctuary. The Fire Sanctuary is really the first time a dungeon is this game could only be a dungeon. It looks like it's supposed to be a temple or something, but it fails. Even the Boss Key doesn't have a thematically appropriate shape, because there's really no theme to fit it to. But it is pretty fun, and laid out well. There are a couple mogmas you have to save, and one of them gives you the Mogma Mitts, an upgraded form of the Digging Mitts that let you burrow under the ground, which is kind of neat. They're supposedly rare, but all the Mogmas can burrow without them, so I'm not exactly sure why they exist (I'll just chalk it up to Gameplay And Story Segregation). There was this interesting mechanic that's hard to explain succinctly, but it involves a monster being necessary to your advancement if used the correct way - it lifts you up to a higher platform - while at the same time, killing it solves a puzzle. And since this seems to be a holy place or something to the Mogmas, a race of treasure hunters, there were treasure chests that held items that had nothing to do with the dungeon (I got a new Bottle, for instance), and I like that attention to detail. . . I just wish that attention could've been applied to the dungeon as a whole. Anyway, the boss is Ghirahim again, and before we fought he talked about the relief he found in the boss room that revealed there was a second Door of Time in Faron Woods. Then he went One-Winged Angel on me (sorta - he just removed his cloak and a tattoo appeared on his face and chest; it's hardly General Onox turning into a giant dragon, to give just one example), which was a mostly cosmetic change because his fighting style was pretty much exactly the same. Defeating him granted me Din's Flame, which transformed my Goddess Whitesword into the Master Sword. And you know what that means: Phase 2 of the game is complete!

After beating the Sanctuary, I went around to find all the Goddess Cubes I had missed (the one in plain sight at the Summit still eludes me, so I guess I'll be revisiting that area later) and I ended up with a lame Small Bomb Bag and two pieces of heart. Phase 3 begins tomorrow, and what lies in store? I don't know any more than you do, so we'll find out together! 

Skyward Sword: A Mostly In-Depth Review, Part 6

Day 10: A Brave New World

I got a TON done today. The first thing I did was go Inside The Thunderhead (which it turns out is the real name of the Ominous Dome Cloud). Inside were more islands, a Goddess Chest that I was able to get, and a fair amount of rupees. The main island, the one I was supposed to go to, is called the Isle of Songs, and that's because you learn at least one song there: Farore's Courage (you might learn Din's Power and Nayru's Wisdom there, too? I don't know. I don't even know if those are real songs, but I bet they are). But before you can do that, you have to spin this dial to get these three bridge parts lined up. It's tricky, but not difficult.

After I learned Farore's Courage, I went back to Faron Woods and found the area where I was supposed to play it. This brought me to a place called the Silent Realm, which - I swear - is just the Twilight Realm with a different name. It's got the same weird glow, and you even have a string of lights that you have to collect like 15 balls for. The trick is that there are guardians in the Silent Realm, and if you do something wrong (like touch the water or go too long between getting the balls), the guardians wake up and try to attack you. One hit means you're kicked out of the Silent Realm. So it's basically a fusion of the Twilight Realm and the Temple of the Ocean King. If you're successful, you prove you're worthy and get a Water Dragon's Scale, which let's you swim underwater. So it's basically a fusion a zora scale and the scales from Valoo that the Rito need to fly.

Now that I'm able to swim, I can get another Goddess Chest in Skyloft that got me a piece of heart, and I can also get into the giant ass tree in the middle of Faron Woods. It's a trek to the top and kind of a pain, but when you get up there, you talk to the Kikwi Hermit, which tells you about the Water Dragon and how to get to where she lives. And how you get to where she lives is by going to the giant gate with the Tune of Currents symbol on it (you know, the one I said I had no idea what it was for), charge your sword for a Skyward Strike, and then draw the part of the symbol that's missing. Very Phantom Hourglass- or Spirit Tracks-ish. This leads you to Lake Floria, where you meet a new race called the Perella, who look kind of like a cross between a seahorse and an octopus.

The Perella are led by the Water Dragon, but the Water Dragon is sick, so she enlists your help to go track down some Sacred Water. By the way...WE ARE NOW IN UNCHARTED TERRITORY; EVERYTHING PAST THIS POINT IS 100% BRAND NEW TO ME. Anyway, guess where it is? In the Skyview Temple. Except for the Temple of the Ocean King, which is a special case, I don't believe a Zelda game has ever made you go through the same dungeon twice before. It's interesting. Just about everything is as you left it, but there's more enemies, bigger and badder enemies, and you get to talk to a Mogma occasionally (he's looking for treasure). You also get to use your first Goddess Wall, and it too is very DS Zelda-ish, because if you draw a rupee on it, you get a ton of rupees, and if you draw a heart, you get a ton of hearts. Anyway, right before the boss room are two archer bokoblins, and I died three times trying to get past them. It wasn't completely, my fault, though, because the item drops led me to believe I was supposed to use my slingshot to stun them and then walk across the rope, but that was not actually the case (I was supposed to use my Beetle to grab a bomb and hit them with it). In the boss room, I had to fight three Stalfos and that was a pain; I died once or twice there too, but finally got through it. So I got the Sacred Water, brought it back to the Water Dragon, healed her, and she became this SUPED BIG mega dragon. And then, as thanks, she showed me where the first flame I need to get is: *another* dungeon by the name of Ancient Cistern. And that's what I'll do tomorrow.

Other stuff I did: bought a piece of heart and bug medal from Beedle, upgraded my slingshot to a Scattershot, upgraded my small seed satchel to a Medium Seed Satchel, upgraded my Sacred Shield to a Divine Shield and then a Goddess Shield, and...I feel like I upgraded something else too, but I don't remember what.

(I feel like this entry hes less reaction in it than the others, but I'm not sure if that's true. If it is, it's because I played a lot today, and since I was called into work, there was a big gap between the first stuff I did and the later stuff. It's also because it's really late and I'm tired so I'm just trying to finish. I'm sure Day 11 will be much better, especially since it's all new stuff.)

Day 11: The Ancient Cistern and The Lanayru Sand Sea

The Ancient Cistern is weird because ostensibly it's a factory of sorts (it purifies the putrid, evil water from the caverns below), but it looks more like a temple. There are pipes running all over the place, but for the most part it has a very zen Buddhist/Hindu design aesthetic that is really nice. An element of the dungeon that doesn't really fit this aesthetic but is still cool is what's basically a water elevator. You can open certain valves in the pipes with your whip (ps, you get a whip in here) which release columns of water that you can ride to a higher level. Majora's Mask had something similar in the Great Bay Temple (which was every bit a water plant and had nothing temple-like about it), but in that, the columns of water were just used as platforms for you to step on. Lame. How does that even work? Anyway, the whip is kind of neat because you can use it to pull levers, swing across gaps, and steal items from enemies. It's not my favorite weapon, but it's pretty useful. Not as useful as this game's MVP the Beetle, but still.

After you finish with the main of part of the Cistern, you have to go in its bowels, which is filled with cursed water and a type of Bokoblin that's really a ReDead in all but name. It's here where you get the boss key - I mean, the Idol Statue - which is wooden instead of gold like the others, and is probably the easiest puzzle to solve yet. And ugh, Ghirahim's here again, but thankfully I didn't have to fight him. Instead, he imbued the Cistern's guardian, Ancient Automaton Koloktor, with evil energy. Koloktor, by the way, is a beast. He's a six-armed golden statue, and in the first phase of the fight, he tries to smash you with four of his arms and hit you with spinning blades with the other two. After you get past that, he gains legs so he can walk around the room, and all six arms get giant swords. You have to break one of his arms so that it drops a sword, and then you have to use that sword to break the rest of him. Twice. It's rough. But doing this gets you Farore's Flame, which turns your Goddess Sword into a Goddess Longsword and makes it like twice as powerful.

After I finished with that, I went back to the Isle of Songs to learn Nayru's Wisdom (called it!), and then I headed to the desert to do Nayru's challenge. At first I didn't understand what Fi meant when she said it would test my wisdom, because it seemed exactly like Farore's challenge, but it's really not. Nayru's challenge has a couple of small puzzle elements to it (mainly figuring out how to get orbs that are out of reach) and unlike Farore's, where the orbs were basically in a line and you just had to find the path and run it without getting caught, a big part of this challenge is finding the best order to get the orbs in (such as passing up really easy-to-get-to orbs so that you can use them as a safety net if you get seen). My prize for proving worthy are the Clawshots, and now that I have those, you know where I can go? EVERY-FREAKING-WHERE. And I ended up getting like five or six more Goddess Cubes and a boatload of rupees because of it.

So now I'm supposed to head deeper into the desert, but before I did that, I took the opportunity to open some chests and get some more crackles. The chests, incidentally, got me a piece of heart, another heart medal, another life medal, a rupee medal (which makes rupees appear more often), some rupees, and I waaaant to say another piece of heart, but I'm not sure. Then I talked to Cawlin and he wanted me to deliver a love letter to Karane, but since I already know that Karane's not into Cawlin, I thought that was a waste of time, so I decided to give it to the weird crying person in the bathroom that needs some paper. This person turned out to be a ghost woman, and more importantly turned out to be the Hand in the Toilet(!), one of the best Zelda characters of all time. If you talk to Cawlin again, he'll be upset at you for giving the letter to the toilet when he specifically told you not to, but if you visit him again at night, Moaning Myrtle will be haunting him while he sleeps and she'll give you 5 grabitude crackles for introducing her to her new love. I also got 5 crackles from Potion Shop Owner Bertie for finding his baby's rattle, and I *finally* got into Zelda's room (by way of chimney) and got the crackle inside, bringing me up to 50, and so I got to talk to Uncle Bats and he gave me the Giant Wallet, which holds 5000(!!!) rupees, which, if you're keeping track at home, brings my maximum rupee total up to 5900. [Side Notes: I finally found out who's been keeping Karane from bathing, and I should've been able to guess because it was the only person I couldn't account for: Gaepora. And I don't know why Zelda has a tunnel leading from her room to a grate over the bathroom, but I guess she's a perv. What I *do* know, though, is that Zelda has a Tingle plushie, and I'm glad he got to make an appearance in this game.]

Anyway, I went back to the desert and used my hookshot to get to a door I hadn't been able to access before, and it led to and area called the Lanayru Caverns. The Caverns have a path that leads back to the Lanayru Mines and a path that leads to my next destination, the Lanayru Sand Sea, but it also has another path that's currently blocked off, although a new Goron I met named Golo (Gorons Only Live Once?) is trying to rectify that. And he asked me for 10 rupees to "fund his progress", or something along those lines. Seems kind of shady to me, but I paid him anyway, because I had 1900 rupees at the time so it's not like I really felt it or anything.

Now, let's talk about Lanayru Sand Sea for a bit. It's exactly what it sounds like: a giant sea of sand. It's basically the Sahara. But here's where it gets interesting. Near the entrance is a pier with a broken down boat and even brokener down Ancient Robot at the end. But the boat has a timeshift stone on it, and when you hit it, amazingness happens. See, the Sand Sea used to be a regular sea, so you can ride on the boat all you like, because it's in a ring of crystal clear, beautiful water...but surrounded by desert. I haven't been using pictures in these reviews, but this really needs one:

Except that a picture can't even do it justice, because the boat needs to be moving to see how great it is. Anyway, the Ancient Robot (who's wearing a sweet pirate hat that almost deserves a picture of its own), says your map's all wrong and that you need to swing by his retreat to get the Sea Chart. As it turns out, he retreat really is a retreat, and you have to use your clawshots to scale tons of cliffs to get to it. (There are also these weird things that look like Peahats, but they're not actually enemies, they're just for hooking onto, so I don't know what they are.) After that, the captain wants you to go to the Shipyard to help find his ship...that's invisible, because his ship is where the second Flame is stored, but the Shipyard looked an AWFUL lot like a dungeon, so that's where I quit for the night. The end...for now.

Skyward Sword: A Mostly In-Depth Review, Part 5

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.

Skyward Sword: A Mostly In-Depth Review, Part 4

Day 6: Earth Temple and Lanayru Mine

Today I tackled the Earth Temple (which is a fire dungeon, don't let the name fool you) and I had planned for that to be all I did, but there was a severe lack of post-temple cleanup - sidequests, Goddess Treasure, upgrading, etc - so I went ahead and started the Lanayru province. But I'll get to that.

The Earth Temple is your standard fire dungeon, but with more lava than most. As in, there's practically no floor and you have to roll around a ball (that you can fall off of if you're too zealous). But just like the Skyview Temple, it looks like an actual temple that's in ruins, and I'm always a fan of that. Weird point of interest, though: at various places in the temple, there are statues of elephants. Elephants! Since when are there elephants in Hyrule? I mean, they're probably not *called* elephants, just like chickens are called cuccos and bats are called keese, but still. Elephants!

Anyway, since this is a pretty standard dungeon, there's not much to say about it. I ended up getting a Bomb Bag (a Mogma I had met earlier asked me to find his, and then he let me keep it once I helped him find his friend), which is a shame because I really wanted whatever wind-blowy thing I'll be getting. A cool thing about the bomb bag in this game is that you can refill it at any time by picking up bomb flowers. Because there aren't actually any bombs in this game; they haven't been invented yet. That won't stop Rupin in the Skyloft Bazaar from trying to sell them to you, but just know: if there's a place you'll need bombs, there will be bomb flowers somewhere nearby. So don't waste your money. The Boss Key this time was a Serpent Sculpture, which fits the decor of the temple more than the Skyview Temple's key did, and the boss is annoying, but pretty easy once you figure out what to do.  The boss, by the way, is summoned by Ghirahim (who shows up again, obviously), which is more believable than usual, and Ghirahim mentioned a master, so it looks like he's not the Big Bad after all and is just the Big Bad's Dragon. My mistake. Nevertheless, beating the boss will let you go the next room, where you see Zelda and some hot Shiekah girl (who I briefly saw yesterday but forgot to mention). Zelda is being cleansed in the waterfall of this room, whatever that means, and is then whisked away by this anonymous Shiekah woman (who I assume is Impa, but she isn't necessarily) who admonishes Link for basically sucking and taking too long to get there...which, to be fair, I totally took my sweet time getting there, so she has a point. Then she goes so far as to say that perhaps the Goddess chose the wrong person to be the Hero, which I find a little blasphemous but whatever.

After that, I brought the map piece I got back to Skyloft so I can open the portal to Lanayru, and then I ran an errand for the Lumpy Pumpkin. I didn't have anything else to do after that, though, so I headed down to Lanayru. Lanayru, as it happens, is a desolate desert and, except for a Goddess Cube (which gave me a silver rupee when I opened the corresponding chest) and some ancient ruins, there's not much there. That is, until you hit the giant crystal you come upon, which turns out to be a Timeshift Stone, which is possibly one of the best mechanics in any Zelda game. The timeshift stone sends out a ring of energy which turns the present into the past. So the arid desert you're in turns into a lush oasis, the ruins become working (and high tech) mining equipment, etc. But like I said, it only happens in a small vicinity around the stone, so you know...good for puzzles.  I also met the region's (former) inhabitants, the Ancient Robots, whi are advanced robots that mine the area for timeshift stones, because that's where they get their energy from. They are all about work, so they're kind of mean.

Anyhoo, I got through the Lanayru Mining Facility and stopped at the Desert Entrance, so tomorrow I'll cover the Lanayru Desert and maybe whatever temple is there? Maybe? I guess we'll find out!

Day 7: Lanayru Desert (Part 1) and Upgrades!

Today was a short day for playing because my batteries were low, but I still got a decent amount accomplished. Firstly, I explored the first part of the Lanayru Desert, and although there wasn't much to see (it IS a desert, after all), I was able to collect a good number of tumbleweeds (a new type of treasure, although I don't know who would consider tumbleweeds treasure), find a Goddess Cube that gave me a Heart Medal (which makes it more likely for me to find hearts, but which I'm not using because I feel like it may give me hearts at the expense of rupees), and save an Ancient Robot who repaid me by upgrading my Beetle. As it turns out, the Beetle is a Lanayru artifact; I don't know what it was doing in Faron or how it was kept in such good condition, but here we are. Anyway, this new Beetle has pincers so it grab things, and it comes in handy quite well. There's another Goddess Cube in the desert that I can't get to yet, and another three I can't get to yet in Faron that I found while looking for rupees and Hornet Larvae, and it makes me mad. I want those treasures!

Speaking of things I know I need to do but can't do yet, let's talk about grabitude crackles for a minute. I know I need to buy a stamina potion for my peer Fledge. I know I need to deliver a letter to Pipit from Karane, and that I also need to free up the bathroom so Karane can wash up. And I know I need to clean Pipit's house for his mom (who I suspect has the hots for Link, but I can't say for sure). But I can't do any of those yet. I did happen to find a crackle in my room, but that's little comfort. Hopefully these things will become available after I beat the desert temple. [Side note: Pipit's mom may or may not have the hots for Link, but Peatrice - the item check girl - TOTALLY has the hots for Link. It's kind of funny, and a little sad. Maybe they'll get together by the end of the game? I guess we'll find out!] [Side side note: just how did Link get to Skyloft in the first place? He doesn't seem to be related to anyone there, but surely he must be. I suppose he's the son of one or two of the mysterious Skyloft Knights that don't get names or houses, but I guess we'll never know for certain.]

By the time I finished with Lanayru Desert (Part 1), I had enough money to buy the last Additional Pouch. So I did. And after taking the time to collect some more money and a couple treasures that I needed, I was also able to upgrade my Banded Shield to a Braced Shield, my Bug-Catching Net to a Big Net, and my grabby Beetle to a Speed Beetle. I also bought a Small Bomb Bag, even though I didn't really need it. Other upgrades that I can technically get, but don't have the payment for them yet: Slingshot > Scattershot, Speed Beetle > Stamina Beetle, Seed Satchel > Large Seed Satchel, and Reinforced Iron Shield > the best iron shield, whatever it's called.

Next time: More Lanayru Desert and a temple, probably! (For real this time!)

Skyward Sword, A Mostly In-Depth Review, Part 3

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.

Skyward Sword: A Mostly In-Depth Review, Part 2

Today continues my detailed look into The Legend of Zelda: Skyward Sword. Yesterday's note covered the whys of the series and the opening parts of the game, but now that that's out of the way, we can really get into the nitty gritty. So let's go!

Day 2: Skyloft and the Surface

When we last left our hero, Link had just been given the Goddess Sword, met Fi, and was tasked with rescuing Zelda. He had also won the Wing Competition, which means he gets to become a senior in the Knight Academy; this change in status is highlighted by a new uniform, which looks very familiar. With that out of the way, it's time to go to the Surface and rescue Zelda. So let's get going!

...or not. Zelda can wait. Instead, I decided to check out Skyloft some more, and it's fantastic. One of the reasons it's so big is because every NPC has a place to sleep (with a couple minor exceptions). This is important because of the day/night system; Skyloft during the day and Skyloft at night are two very different places, so the NPCs have to have a place to go (this adds a verisimilitude to the town that even Clock Town never had). How are they different? For one thing, there are Keese and ChuChus out at night; also, you can't use your Loftwing at all. The Bazaar is also shut down, but certain characters run black markets of sorts out of their homes. During the day, however, you can go to the Bazaar (which features a potion shop, an item shop, a fortune teller, and an item repair/upgrade* shop), you can go to Beedle's flying shop if you can flag him down, and you can fly to other islands.

[*This is one of the new additions to the game, and like with the stamina bar, it works surprisingly well. Certain items, such as your shield, can only take so much damage before they're destroyed. The damage is only reversible by repairing them, but you can also upgrade them to make them more powerful (which is similar to the upgrades in other Zelda games, except you can't switch between them.]

Other islands, you say? Yes. In a move that is VERY reminiscent of Wind Waker, the sky is dotted with a couple major islands and a bunch of tiny ones that mainly hold treasure. Besides Skyloft, there's also Pumpkin Island (which houses a bar/hotel called the Lumpy Pumpkin), Fun Fun Island (which will host a game, but it isn't ready yet), Bamboo Island (which houses a sword challenge), and Beedle's Island (which is where Beedle lives). The Lumpy Pumpkin is where Link gets his first sidequest, and also his first dick move: by making the bar's new chandelier fall, you get a piece of heart, but you also have to start working for the owner to pay for a new one. So he gives you a slew of tasks to complete throughout the game. Also, he looks a lot like Talon, but I'm pretty sure that's not his name.

However, as fun as hanging out in Skyloft is - and it really is, if for no other reason than getting bits and pieces of the townsfolk's lives (e.g., the repair guy is trying to build a robot and this little girl has a mysterious friend called "Uncle Bats") - there's not much else to do until you get some weapons. So it's time to go to the Surface. But first, there's one thing I keep forgetting to mention: on Skyloft, there's something called a Shiekah Stone. It's basically a Gossip Stone, except instead of just repeating hearsay (presumably because they're old and rundown), the Shiekah Stone knows EXACTLY what's going on. It's purpose is to keep track of which goals you've started and which ones you've completed, and also to give hints on how to complete them if necessary. It's pretty neat. Ok, now it's time to go to the Surface.

When you do, you wind up in a place called the Sealed Grounds, and there's really not much to say about it, except that it seems like they tried to throw every recurring symbol they could into this area: there's a door with a Shiekah eye on it, above which is a ceiling containing the temple symbols from Ocarina, and there's also a post inscribed with three symbols that originated in Oracle of Ages (but have since been used in Wind Waker and some others as well). Inside the Shiekah door is a weird woman who I'm pretty sure is a Shiekah, but who can say really? 

Other things worth mentioning:

1) This area introduces a new mechanic called beacons, which is a ray of light that you can place on your map to help you find where you need to go, which is cool/

2) The Goddess Sword lets you do a move called the Skyward Strike, which is essentially shooting a beam from your sword. Having your sword shoot beams at full health is a staple of the 2D Zelda games, but for some reason it never appeared in the 3D games until now. I like it, though.

3) Fi can give you information about bad guys, which is something I sorely missed in Wind Waker and Twilight Princess.

4) This game's Deku Babas are so awesome, and are a great use of the system. There are three different kinds: one with a horizontal mouth, one with a vertical mouth, and one whose mouth can change orientation. To defeat them, you have to swing your sword the proper way. It's pretty smart designing.

Day 3: Faron Woods and Housekeeping

So we start off today entering Faron Woods, which you've definitely seen because it was featured in the majority of the game's pre-release advertising. And with good reason: this place is beautiful. But I'm getting a little ahead of myself. The first thing you see upon entering the woods is a Goron being attacked by some Bokoblins. When you rescue him, you learn that he's an anthropologist of sorts named Gorko who's studying the legends of the Sky People. He points you to a old Bird statue that revives itself when you examine it, which is nice because these are how you get back to Skyloft when you feel like leaving. Anyway, Gorko's cool and I feel like I'll be seeing him again.

Now, about Faron Woods. Like I said, it's very beautiful and also very maze-like (which is a common theme for all of the settings as far as I remember; I dig it).  I also encountered two new functions for the wiimote: Swinging and Balancing. If you're hanging from a rope, you can swing the wiimote to pump until you have enough momentum to jump off. Balancing is used for walking across tightropes, but it's tricky and I haven't quite gotten the hang of it yet. It's filled with bokoblins and keese and deku babas and these weird crow things that - no joke - will poop on you. But the main inhabitants are a race of creatures called the Kikwi, who look vaguely like kiwi birds, but have bulbs on their backs that they can use as camouflage (they're very shy). Once you make sure that all the Kikwi are safe, their leader gives you a Slingshot, which you need to get into the first dungeon. And it just so happens that the Kikwi leader saw Zelda go into that very dungeon. So let's go rescue her!

Just kidding. ZELDA CAN WAIT. Now that I have the slingshot, I can go flag down Beedle's shop, and that's just what I'll do. And while I'm at it, I decided to make sure my affairs were in order as much as I possibly could before I started tackling dungeons. There's no kill like overkill, after all. So I went to Beedle's and bought a Bug-Catching Net and an Additional Wallet, which lets me hold 300 Rupees. Then I bought another Additional Wallet, bring my capacity up to 900. I feel this might start getting ridiculous. He also had an Additional Pouch for sale, but I didn't have enough money...yet. (Earlier in the game, I was given an Adventurer's Pouch that lets me hold four items; the Additional Pouch lets me hold a fifth. The Pouch introduces a strategy element into equipment. Pretty much everything that's not a weapon goes into the pouch, but you can't carry everything since you have a limited number of spots. I'm fine for right now, but eventually I'll have to start making really tough decisions about what I carry. Even with Additional Pouches, I can only carry a max of eight things.)

Long story short, I upgraded my Wooden Shield to a Banded Wooden Shield, bought an Additional Seed Satchel (so I can carry 40 seeds now for my slingshot), bought another Additional Wallet (1200 Rupees!), bought the Extra Pouch, and caught a wide variety of bugs (which I can sell later or give to a man that'll use them to make my potions stronger). I'd say I'm pretty well set to take on the first dungeon now, even though I don't remember much about it.

Other stuff:

1) There are things throughout the world that you can sit on, from chairs to stumps to even toilets (which flushes when you stand up!); sitting makes you slowly regain health, which is pretty cool. But you can be attacked while you're sitting, so you have to be careful about enemies.

2) When you kill a bug or certain baddies (like keese), their body disappears in a puff and then a cartoon ghost appears for a second. It's a little cheesy, but I like it.

3) The Tune of Currents symbol from Oracle of Ages has appeared again, this time on a wall in Faron Woods. I happen to know why, but I'm pretending like I don't.

Updated Verdict: I am loving this game so far! It's a little premature to say, but I think it may be in my top 3 Zelda games. It's just such a rich, beautiful world that it's easy to get lost in (both figuratively and literally). My only complaint is that, as if you couldn't tell, I don't really care about the story yet because there's not much story to care about. But that's not really a problem when you're enjoying the game anyway; after all, some of the funnest games have only the barest bones of a story or no story at all!