Sonic 3 & Knuckles high playthrough 2

After my first high playthrough a month ago, I played through Sonic 3 Complete again with Tails only, then again with Knuckles only... and then I started a Sonic-only file and used the special stage rings found in the first 2 acts of the game to clear all the special stages and unlock Super Sonic... now on that save file with Super Sonic unlocked, I'll play through the game again while high...

This is basically an easy mode playthrough at this point, because of how Super Sonic makes you invincible as long as you keep collecting rings... it'll be interesting to go through the whole game like this and see how different it feels from my earlier high playthrough.

Lava Reef Zone... overall I think this is my favorite zone in the game... even with Hyper Sonic, gotta be careful not to get crushed in Act 1 or fall off in Act 2... Act 2 also leads into that weird Master Emerald shrine bathed in darkness, in a cave...

Sonic 3 & Knuckles high playthrough 1

Started a playthrough of this while vaping weed... Using the "Sonic 3 Complete" patch which makes it feel more like a single cohesive game and gets rid of the continuity errors and fixes some other stuff. It also adds the Sonic 3 final boss back into the game, which would've been cut out in the vanilla version of S3&K.

Got my first game over at Ice Cap act 2.

Holy hell I forgot how annoying AI Tails is in these games... so many times where he hits the boss right before you're about to and you get caught in the boss's invulnerability frames and screw up...

Launch Base Zone... this music epic...Sonic stole Eggman's ride at the end, found Knuckles, he fell off, the then the base launched and took off and Sonic went back on it to get to go after Eggman...

Got another game over at the Launch Base Eggman boss (the 2nd phase, the 1st phase was pathetically easy)... Also Tails isn't with me anymore on this boss so I can't blame that.

The 3rd phase is pretty hard too, mostly because you get 3 rings at the beginning and that's all you get for all 3 phases of the boss.

Sonic Adventure 2 hi res dolphin playthrough while high

Decided to get high and replay this game, after doing the same with Sonic Adventure DX. I remember liking this game a lot, especially doing all the missions, A-ranking everything... it was quite a fun challenge.

Sonic's levels varied from annoying (Crazy Gadget) to really fun (Final Rush)... overall they were worse than the SA1 Sonic levels.

Tails' levels were... meh... I think I liked Gamma's shooting levels a lot more, and the Tails flying platforming levels in SA1 more than that.

Knuckles' and Rouge's levels were fun all around... way better designed than the SA1 Knuckles levels, and also way more confusing.

The Chao garden in this is way more addicting... probably in part because you can get to it very easily and quickly compared to the one in SADX.

Eggman's levels just felt like alternate paths to the Tails levels, with more of the same shit. Actually these can be kinda fun sometimes... the little extra platforming challenges to get to 1ups and stuff are fun.

I managed to A-rank a few of the Sonic and Shadow levels on the first try, like Radical Highway, White Jungle... as some of the Knuckles/Rouge levels, and a few of the Tails/Eggman levels I got A-rank on mostly from comboing so many things... but mostly got C-D on everything else...

The level where Rouge breaks into Eggman's base... it's like Death Chamber but with patrol robots and E-series bots...

Security Hall is the hardest treasure hunting level in the game for sure...

There's some really lazy stuff in this game though... That Golem turning against Eggman, just an excuse to reuse the same boss fight...

Mad Spaaaace... this is probably my favorite treasure hunting level.

Eggman's last level is pretty fun... A-ranked it on the first try.

C-ranked the Last Story mission...

"The controller is the one who unifies the chaos" = "Chaos Control"
mind blown...

I underestimated how short this game was... Beat all of it in one sitting while high... I guess when you're not going for emblems and stuff it's much shorter than Sonic Adventure 1.


Screenshots:

Sonic Adventure DX hi res dolphin playthrough part 3/3 - Big, Gamma, and Final story

Although I finished most of Knuckles' story in the 2nd session, I left a bit of it for later... Now for this weed edible session, I plan to do Big's story, then finish Knuckles, then E-102 Gamma's story, then do the final ending.

I beat all of Big's levels in less than an hour... Froggy merged with Chaos 6, and I had to fish him out...

The Tikal scene with Big is really really weird...

Time to go and finish repairing the Master Emerald...
Got to the jungle with Knuckles...

Two stone statues... the door to the past...

You have to explore this jungle maze to open the next level... found a silver statue hidden in a dead end underground...

Found the Lost World level... then Knuckles gets teleported to the Angel Island ruins of the past... Tikal is begging the Master Emerald to leave this place before her father finds it...

Back in the present, Knuckles follows E-102 to the Egg Carrier for the last remaining pieces...

Found Eggman's private room... wow I don't remember this at all.

Sky Deck... this level is kinda hard, with those missiles coming out of the wall constantly...

Knuckles fights Chaos 6, while Sonic goes after Eggman... Knuckles considers the story over at this point once the Master Emerald is restored.

E-102... yeah like I thought, the Final Egg is the training level...

Captured the frog at the beach... got teleported to past Angel Island... this is even weirder than Big's trip to the past.

Location: Unknown. This presents a problem...

Gamma goes into the wrong room, sees one of the other robots in pieces...

Sonic Adventure DX hi res dolphin playthrough part 2/3 - Tails, Knuckles and Amy levels

Another high edible session... The previous session was just going through Sonic's story, which is the longest of all the characters. This time I went through the much shorter Tails, Knuckles, and Amy stories.

Tails is mostly just the same as Sonic's story... even most of the levels are the same... but you get to see a bit more of how he found some of the emeralds...

A frog takes the red chaos emerald that Tails found in the forest... chased it at Sand Hill...

Tails met Tikal in the past... exploring this place with Tails' flying ability is really fun.

The Sky Deck level with Tails is so ridiculously easy...

Tails rescues Amy while Sonic puts a stop to Eggman's plan...

oh shit I forgot this part... Tails' story goes on a bit further past the point where Sonic's story ends. Egman crashes into Station Square, and tries to detonate a missile.... then you have to race through the Speed Highway level against Eggman... the flying shortcuts make it an entirely different level basically.

Tails fights a big endgame Eggman boss battle...

Knuckles' story goes by really fast... it starts to get a bit hard at the Red Mountain level... you have to rely on the wind gusts to save you from falling and sometimes they don't work.

Amy's story is the most interesting non-Sonic story, because she crosses paths with the main plot at various times while going on her own unrelated adventure.

She rescues a bird from Eggman's robot... thinks the robot is after her...

Sonic Adventure DX hi res dolphin playthrough part 1/3 - Sonic's levels

Right after 100% completing Sonic Generations, I decided to get high and replay this game on dolphin... Here's some random unorganized thoughts I wrote down as I played through Sonic's story.

This Sonic is in a weird mid range between classic Sonic and modern Sonic... he's a bit of both.

The first couple levels are very easy to find in the hub world... nothing much to say about them. It's immediately noticeable how bad this game really is in comparison to the newer 3d Sonic games like Generations and Colors... The music is so good though, it's probably the main thing that made me love this game back then.

Casinopolis is the first level that's a bit tricky to get to... it involves finding the lightspeed dash ability that is randomly found in the sewer...

Found this cool card pinball minigame with a NiGHTS cameo... and also a slot machine pinball area like in Sonic 2.
The lobby/shower area is weird... Every time you come out of the pinball zone it fills up with rings and you have to go through a short action/platforming section to get back to the lobby, until you deposit enough rings to get to the chaos emerald.
Sonic: "Hmm, pinball"
yes...

Took ice key to the west cave in Mystic Ruins
Icecap... this level has some old school platforming, it really feels like a classic Sonic level, with some slow parts mixed in.

These levels are easy on the "C" mission, which is just "get to the goal ring/emerald", but the later missions are quite a bit more challenging...

So Eggman is in control of this Chaos character... in other words... he has... Chaos Control?

VVVVVV high playthrough log

Wow, how did I not know about this awesome game until now... This is the perfect game to play the first playthrough while high on edibles... This soundtrack... This humor... so amazing

Rescued Violet, found the ship + teleporter hub... the others are lost somewhere in this VVVVVV dimension and can't teleport back cuz they don't know where they are in relation to where the ship is.

Found Vermilion in the tower...

If you fall up, just pick yourself down.

Doing things the hard way...

uh... should I... yeah

I love all these self aware level names... each screen has a different title... this game is genius.

Finally found the yellow guy, Vitellary... there's this cool dual-character gameplay section.
WTF flashing lsd elephant... and a very far out of the way trinket...

These parts are levels/dungeons... you can see the tiles but not the stuff inside them...
Rescued Verdigris after that Pacman-like area...

One crew member remains...

New area: Gravitron... this game officially wants me dead. At least there's a lot of checkpoints.

New area: Single Slit Experiment...

WOOOW this is amazing... these gravity flippers kind of turn it into a standard sidescrolling platformer with weird glitches... "SYNTAX ERROR" lmao

Sonic Generations high playthrough log

Just some unorganized notes/thoughts I had when I got high and played through Sonic Generations for the first time...



Okay, so this Sonic is from the original Genesis game... he doesn't talk at all...

Tails and Amy come to this dimension after Chemical Plant...

The red rings you collect in the levels actually have a good reward, you can exchange them for new abilities, like Power Break.

Knuckles showed up after clearing Sky Sanctuary.

Exploring the hub... there's Challenge gates... Boss gates locked by keys... alright... Found Casino Night Zone hidden in a breakable wall... cool it's like a bonus pinball stage.

Knuckles buried treasure challenge... Sky Sanctuary speed challenge... Chemical Plant with bubble shield challenge... Amy spinning top race... Wow these challenges are really fun and unique. A lot of these challenges are actually completely new levels, while others are the same levels you've beaten already but with a gimmick.

Metal Sonic battle for a chaos emerald... easy S rank.

Death Egg robot... epic music for a pathetically easy boss... another easy S rank and chaos emerald...

Speed Highway... lol this level feels weird with classic Sonic. S-ranked Act 2 with modern Sonic first try.
Cream and Cheese show up after that...
OMG 2D City Escape is brilliant... and 3D City Escape is a huge improvement over SA2.
Rouge showed up and met classic Sonic...

Banjo-Kazooie high playthrough part 3/3

Finished the rest of the game on another 10/10 high edibles session.

Finished everything at Gobi's Valley, then went to do the 2nd crocodile minigame in Bubblegloop Swamp, and the 2nd Boggy race in Freezeezy Peak. That race was actually decently challenging.

Mad Monster Mansion portrait near the Rusty Bucket Bay entrance... I'm kinda remembering now how all the portraits in the hub world are kinda placed in a way that makes you find where the next level after that is... except for the Click Clock Wood one.

That timed glass sliding puzzle thing is only hard because of the camera angel.
Swam down the well and got the stuff at the bottom of it, even though I know it's much easier to do this later as a pumpkin...
The giant haunted church, with the rhyming ghost piano player... this part is really huge and atmospheric... almost missed finding the flight pad.
Creepy potted plants that say "thank you" in a really strange voice... wow
Some of the windows lead to random hidden rooms with nothing but monsters + consumable pickups
I remember having a lot of trouble at this hedge maze part when I first played this, I guess I didn't know back then that you can kill the ghosts with gold feathers and they don't respawn.
Exploring this level again as the pumpkin, with all the enemies gone, is really fun... just taking in the atmosphere...

Banjo-Kazooie high playthrough part 2/3

Did some vaping and played through Freezeezy Peak and Gobi's Valley... the only 2 levels where you have to go back to them after getting an ability in the other level

Beak-bombing all those annoying snowmen on their hats is so satisfying... then as I was running low on feathers I went ontop of the giant snowman and got the 2 jiggies that were just sitting there out in the open.

These levels with flight pads in them... there's like no reason to do any of the intended platforming obstacles, you can just bypass everything... lol N64 game design.

Turning into a walrus... this is the point where they kinda ran out of interesting ideas for transformations... you can't do anything with it except slowly crawl around everywhere.

Brentilda, a fairy that you can find throughout the hub world... tells you little tidbits of trivia about Gruntilda's personal life... this game is so silly
Cockroaches and Cream... god damn that sounds nasty

lol the architecture of Grunty's tower makes no sense... going inside the mouth of a Grunty statue leads to a lava pit room out of nowhere... found the Gobi's Valley portrait here... and then it leads to an outdoor graveyard area... what? am I still inside the tower?

Despite it being weirdly designed, I still find it easy to find my way around even after all this time.

Died for the first time ever at the timed pyramid maze thing...

Banjo-Kazooie high playthrough part 1/3

Started a high replay of this in spring 2012. Did the 1st 4 levels during a 10/10 weed edibles session...

This game is so much easier to me now than it was when I first played it lol... I remember having a lot of trouble on the termite tower but I found it super easy now.
Found the Click Clock Wood picture, but no puzzle pad... I don't remember this being at such an early part of the game...

The Bubblegloop Swamp area... wow something about this really hits me in the nostalgia... The pointing witch statue... Gruntilda's rhymes... I'm getting major Alice in Wonderland vibes here

Did the first 4 levels, and did everything in them except for the crocodile minigame where you're supposed to use the shoes... Spent 22 minutes on the first level, 32 minutes on the 2nd level, 30 minutes on the 3rd level, 42 minutes on the 4th level... this game is soo easy now wtf... I was so bad at video games when I first played this.

Star Fox 64 3D high session 3 - hard path

Mission 1: Corneria - Enter Star Fox
136 points on the hard path... not terrible, better than last time at least.

Mission 2: Sector Y Combat Zone
138 points
Falco dropped out here, damn

Mission 3: Aquas Ocean
113 points here
I used to have so much trouble with this level, but I can beat it easily without dying now.
another level with a "bioweapon" boss, which i guess is just an excuse for having a boss that doesn't talk

Mission 4: Zoness - Toxic Waste Area
228 points... pretty decent
gotta hit those searchlights.
Kat: "You trying to hit my pretty face?"
yes you dumb bitch get outta the way.
this bouncy toxic water messes you up so much if you run into it... why is the water on this planet so bouncy?

Star Fox Adventures high res dolphin playthrough part 4/4

The warp stone guy says the last Spellstone is at Dragon Rock, and the gatekeeper is a random character here in Thorntail Hollow... "The one who has no voice has plenty to say."

Dragon Rock

This area is the most action packed part of the game... it's a big red Mars-looking area with drones flying around that shoot at you if you go near them. but you can take them out by shooting them from a distance... After you free the Thorntail here, you get to ride on him and take out the 4 guard towers while avoiding being shot at. Then you can free the big Hightail character, and then ride him across the area while shooting all the oncoming missiles... this part is kinda fun.

Then there's some puzzle involving turning off switches to prevent an exploding barrel from getting hit by fire, and then taking it through a flamethrower-filled platforming section... pretty sure the game already did something like this several times before.

Saved a cloudrunner, and he flies Fox to where the SpellStone is... another rail shooter segment just like when riding the hightail, except this one is way more frantic and difficult.

Even the boss fight of this area is a rail shooter segment...

Star Fox Adventures high res dolphin playthrough part 3/4

LightFoot Village

That place that was just an empty passthrough area up until now, actually has stuff going on this time when you head back from Cape Claw. The LightFoot characters think that Fox stole their treasure and captures him... then a cloudrunner comes to help and there's a weird awkward first-person combat minigame sequence against the LightFoots... This convinces them to let you go... Next Tricky says there's a Krazoa Spirit nearby (he can sense them?) and you get to explore the actual village, which is a bunch of treehouses in a shallow swamp.

Another "gather all the things and take them to the central area" section like in Cape Claw... wtf it seems like there's random water currents in this swamp for some reason?

The LightFoot Village leader helps Fox find the Krazoa Spirit only if you can complete their tests... the first test is just more busywork, where you gotta explore the village and find all the totem poles in a time limit... the 2nd test is a Mario Party "Mash A" minigame.

Found the teleporter to the next Krazoa Shrine... again like the last shrine, it's another linear obstacle/puzzle course.
Test 3 - The Test of Fear... while a cutscene happens you have to try and keep the bar in the green part of the meter. so many tests...
Got the 3rd Krazoa Spirit. Obviously next is the part where you go back to Thorntail Hollow and warp to Krazoa Palace again.

Also there's a really boring annoying sidequest you can do where you have to round up all the LightFoot babies and for doing that you get access to some new areas around the village, with just some minor stuff to collect like fuel cells and a cheat token.

back to Krazoa Palace...

Star Fox Adventures high res dolphin playthrough part 2/4

Thorntail Hollow 3

Next you have to gather some firewood and light some torches back up... just pointless padding to get you to explore this area again for the 3rd time. Then a dinosaur gives you the Moon Pass Key... and that lets you go to the next area where the first Force Point Temple is located.

Moon Mountain Pass / Volcano Force Point Temple 1

The enemy spots Fox and starts rolling down a bunch of barrels down the hill at you... lol this is nothing... just a simple linear path straight to the Volcano Force Point Temple.
There's some cool puzzle at the temple door where you have to shoot fireballs through some flames that change color, so that it hits the switch when the flame is a certain color.
Got the Freeze shot, which can be used to put out torches.
Fire keese enemies ripped straight from Zelda lol...

Peppy's floating head comes in to explain a bit about how these Force Point Temples work... each one had two SpellStones placed inside them to help keep the planet from falling apart...
There's a lot of points where you think "Oh, this must be the place where I have to return the spellstone", but no, it's just a mechanism where you use the spellstone to unlock a door or something...
Found a teleporter that leads to the central SpellStone hub... there are slots for 4 SpellStones... I guess this place is connected to both of the Force Point Temples... or something

Left the temple... as I'm heading back, suddenly I hear Krystal's voice crying out for help... saying she needs Krazoa spirits to survive... and a Krazoa ghost shows up out of nowhere... Tricky convinces Fox to help her...
I guess this is what Krystal was doing before she got captured... so the SpellStones and the Krazoa Spirits are the 2 separate ongoing main missions... the Spirits just come out of nowhere there, I don't really get it...

Got the Ground Quake staff power... it's needed to kill certain enemies in the ground.
Explored the Moon Mountain Pass some more... there's this dumb geyser rock puzzle... a lot of annoying repetition... kill ground enemy, get a moon seed, use it to grow a vine to climb up a wall, rinse repeat...
finally found a Krazoa Shrine teleporter... in this shrine is a linear obstacle course that tests all of your abilities... then the Krazoa Spirit at the end makes Fox complete a test of combat in order to collect it.
It then warps me back out to Moon Mountain Pass. The Krazoa ghost from earlier tells Fox to return this spirit to the Krazoa Palace...

Star Fox 64 3D high session 2 - middle path

I think most of the hard levels lead to the middle path if you don't get enough points... whereas the middle and easy levels have other requirements for their alternate path.

Mission 1: Corneria - Enter Star Fox
115 points on the hard path... not even close
Falco leads us to the correct path... "incoming enemy from the rear"
despite this being the hard path, the Attack Carrier boss is so much more consistently easy to beat than the all-range boss.

Mission 2: Sector Y Combat Zone
107 points... I was actually trying to get a lower score than 100 here for the easy path to Katina... but I forgot that it lets you choose which path to take anyway when you clear the alt path.
Shogun is another all-range boss fight... you spend a lot of time searching around for him while getting called "Cocky little freaks"

Mission 3: Katina - Frontline Base
"Fox that's one of ours"
I learned pretty quickly that the friendly ships are the ones with visible blue fuel exhaust coming out of them...
when the Flying Assault Fortress Saucerer appeared, I spent too much time focusing on other enemies and missed the hard path...
163 points while not taking out the mothership
then I played the level again cuz I wanted to go to Solar instead... took out the mothership and got a measly 90 points

Mission 4: Solar
That area's an oven!
no shit... these guys are really badass, trusting Slippy's heat guarding technology as they fly straight into a star...

Star Fox Adventures high res dolphin playthrough part 1/4

Krazoa Palace

I don't remember much about this game from the first time I played it, other than it's a decent 3D Zelda clone.

Starts off with some backstory... you play as Krystal riding a dinosaur, and there's a pathetically easy shooting boss fight... then you're at this really magical place called Krazoa Shrine... collected the first Krazoa Spirit... back to the less magical Krazoa Palace...

All of a sudden, Krystal gets captured and sealed in a crystal... like Zelda in OoT.

Thorntail Hollow 1

Star Fox is on a mission to restore Dinosaur Planet which is falling apart...
FIrst is a really easy pointless rail shooting arwing mission that is nothing like the original Star Fox games... you need to get 3 gold rings and survive to the end to clear the stage... anything more you do is just for high scores.
Fox lands at Thorntail Hollow, picks up Krystal's staff, and then sees Krystal's floating head talking to her... gets the fire blaster...
You need to shoot fireballs at certain switches, just like the eyeball targets in Zelda.
The Queen Earthwalker asks Fox to go rescue her son who got kidnapped and taken to the Ice Mountain... apparently the only way to travel this world is through warping, maybe because of the world falling apart...
The warp stone is a giant talking rock golem with a hilarious Scottish accent... you need to give him a rock candy in order to get him to warp you to the next area... so you need to collect scarabs, the currency on Dinosaur Planet, and buy a rock candy from the shop... you can also buy the map of the current region and the next region you'll go to...
The shop keeper has a hilarious voice lol... "Youuuuu pay THIS much"...

Star Fox 64 3D high session 1 - easy path

Started replaying this on 3DS while high.

First of all, 3DS mode vs N64 mode differences... 3DS mode basically just easier. You take less damage, losing a wing doesn't screw up your flying, less points required for Sector Z medal... may as well play on N64 mode. The voices and graphics are redone in both modes either way.

Mission 1: Corneria - Enter Star Fox
93 points on the easy path... lmao I am so rusty at this
I kinda miss the faces/text showing up on the same screen as the action so I can easily see the character faces when people are talking. I'm not usually paying attention to the bottom screen on 3DS.

Mission 2: Meteo - Into the Asteroid Field
177 poins... meh
Falco's the only one still in good health...

I'm starting to realize why this game is so great... it's like, it has the feel of a classic arcade shooter, but with the polish and quality of a full 1st party console game... the story and presentation are amazing... and the huge variety of paths to take... almost every level has 2 paths...

Mission 3: Fichina - Former Defense Post
18 points... wow terrible
intentionally failed to disarm the bomb so that I'd go to Sector X
Peppy is in repair now

Mission 4: Sector X - Combat Zone
146 points... decent I think?
Andross's secret weapon...
"I will terminate all enemies"
"Where is the creator?"
Slippy gets slapped... now I can't read the weapon's health bar...
also I noticed with Peppy gone, you miss out on all the strategic tips and little tidbits of background story he occasionally gives you throughout the level...

Zelda II high playthrough log part 2/2

Two palaces to go and then the Great Palace... I intend to beat the rest of this game tonight while vaping weed, and beat it before the high session is over.

I still can't get passed that devil south of Nabooru... but there is one lead I have on where to go next.

It is said the east of Nabooru has...

There is in fact a path going east of Nabooru, and it stops right at the shore of the ocean... with the boots, you can continue walking east across the water, and it leads to the next palace as well as a hidden area with the 3rd heart container.

Level 5 - Water Palace

I'm still on the lookout for a false wall somewhere, due to that one NPC hint I came across earlier...

Zelda II high playthrough log part 1/2

This is my first time playing through Zelda 2 AoL in over 10 years... I barely remember anything about it, except that it's way better than I was expecting... Now I'm replaying it while high on edibles... attempting to beat it without a guide.

The backstory of this game is really good... Princess Zelda has been asleep on an altar at the North Palace for a long, long time, and her story has become "The Legend of Zelda"... Link needs to reunite the 3 pieces of the Triforce in order to awaken Zelda from her slumber... Impa gave Link 6 crystals and a scroll, which says that Link needs to defeat the guardians of each of the 6 palaces and place the crystals in the palace statues in order to gain access to the Great Palace, where the Triforce of Courage is hidden.

Right from the start, as you exit the North Palace you can immediately access the town Rauru to the east, and the town of Ruto to the northwest, without putting yourself in any danger at all. In Rauru, an old wise man in someone's basement teaches Link the Shield spell.

When you go off the main road, that's when enemies attack you constantly. There's some easy EXP to get just from exploring around... but most of the caves are off limits for now because they are pitch black and you can't see anything. As that woman in Ruto said you need a candle to go further...

Zelda 1 high playthrough log part 2/2

Resumed the game off a battery save instead of a save state, to make this playthrough feel more legit.

Starting from the beginning square, did some more exploration of the brown woods area to the west. Found some more "Secrets to everybody", bought another potion refill, went to the southwest most square and found a dead end with an old man in a cave that says:

Go north, west, south, west to the forest of maze.

There it is, that's how you get through the lost woods without using a guide, and get to the graveyard. Touching the graves makes a ghost appear... but if the armos statues have taught you anything, you know that one of these graves probably moves to reveal a staircase... yep.

Master using it and you can have this.

Magical sword get!

Found the 6th dungeon after that, very easily.

Level 6 - Dragon Dungeon

Aim at the eyes of Gohma.

This dungeon introduces wizzrobes... both the red and blue variety. The blue kind moves around the room while shooting at you, the red kind only teleports around and is way easier to avoid. They get really annoying when they're combined with other enemies in the room.

The first part of this dungeon is very linear... but its difficulty is mostly from the enemies. I think the game meant for you to have the magical sword by this point because otherwise this dungeon would be a huge difficulty spike...

Zelda 1 high playthrough log part 1/2

I've beaten the original LoZ several times before this, but this time I played through it entirely while vaping weed and kept notes on my progress. I still have a very good memory of where most of the dungeons are in the 1st quest, and that combined with the cryptic in-game hints is enough that I can play through to the end without a using guide.


The game begins at the 8th square from the right, and the 8th square from the top. 8-8

I know right away to go north to the Eyeglass Lake, where the first dungeon is located in a tree on the right eyeglass island.

Level 1 - Eagle Dungeon

Eastmost peninsula is the secret

Got map, compass, boomerang, bow, defeated Aquamentus and got a heart and a triforce piece.

From there, I backtracked a bit to the shop near the beginning area, and bought the blue candle... then I used that to find a few "secrets to everybody", plus a few angry people that made me pay to repair their door... Then I went to burn a couple trees near the Eyeglass Lake to buy the discounted magical shield and meat, and get the 2nd heart container...

Then I went exploring north of dungeon 1, east across the desert, farmed a few more rupees, found the 3rd heart container in a cave, then explored a bit of the mountain... Found a staircase under an armos statue, with an old man who says:

Secret is in the tree at the dead-end.

Explored a bit more, and found the white sword at the top of the waterfall.

Master using it and you can have this.

Went back to the east, to the northeast most section of the map... found a dead end with a rupee gambling game inside a tree... this must be what that guy from before was talking about... yep, as I was bombing the north wall, I found a hidden fake wall that lead to another area, with a 100 rupee "secret to everybody".

Also found a high up cave and got the letter that lets you buy potions from the old woman... the first "trading quest" sequence of the Zelda series...

Oracle of Ages (Linked game) high playthrough log 4/4

The mermaid suit found in the previous dungeon lets you swim through the ocean... and the only part of the map left to go to is the ocean part in the southwest... I also explored around Crescent Island again and found the Mirror Shield out of nowhere!

Exploring the ocean is easier than you might think... you can dive in almost anywhere and all of the rock/coral walls are mostly the same underwater as they are above water... Also you can't play the harp unless you are on dry land. I found an island that someone says was located further to the east a long time ago... interesting.

Found Zora Village... this part is interesting, because the Zora people have very long lifespans, so they remember the past era a lot more clearly than the other characters do.

The Zora here say the previous king got sick and died, and they lost the key to the Eyeglass Isle Library. Since then they haven't had a king. Back in the past, the king is sick and all the Zora are worried about him. This part is kinda hard if you haven't been exploring thoroughly and paying attention... but I happened to find the house of the witch Syrup (Maple's grandmother) near Yoll Graveyard before even coming here. She has the magic potion I need to cure the Zora King. The potion heals the king, and Link asks him about the "big fish" that is supposed to hold the next essence... He directs Link to the shrine of Jabu-Jabu... but he's not that big yet in the past era.

Found a fairy that was turned into an octorok... She says that Veran has dirtied the sea and that's what's making people sick. Need to get the Fairy Powder to turn her back so that she can clean the water... Back in the present, King Zora is still alive. In fact these Zora have such long lives that they all still remember Link from way back then. Jabu Jabu has grown, but now he's gotten sick from the dirty water, and King Zora says if I can find a way to clean the water then he'll let me in to see Jabu Jabu.

Got to the library... need the Book of Seals to get to where the Fairy Powder is. Went to the library again in the past to find the Book of Seals... then followed a sequence of

Oracle of Ages (Linked game) high playthrough log 3/4

The Maku Tree says the next essence is also in Rolling Ridge... the same place as the essence I just got. There's now a whole new section of this already confusing mountain/cave system opened up... plus there's both ages of this area to consider... exploring this place takes a while.

There's a bunch of minigames to do here, they're pretty fun... but all this running around back and forth to fetch random items for random gorons... ugh, this is the worst part of the game easily... My least favorite part out of all the Zelda games really... There's still a bunch of other stuff to get from the minigames and other side content after you obtain the Mermaid's Key... including the boomerang... the boomerang is just an optional item in this game, just like it was in Zelda 1.

The 6th dungeon is hidden behind a waterfall, the mermaid's key gets you into it.

Level 6 - Mermaid's Cave

The map is shaped like a pixel mermaid... This dungeon is actually accessible in both ages, and it's required to explore both versions of it to complete it. The present time version doesn't have the waterfall in front of it, and all the water in the dungeon is gone and some of it is replaced by pitfalls... there's wall masters and floor masters and wizzrobes here.

The present version of this dungeon has the miniboss Vire, the same one who kidnapped Zelda earlier in the game. This guy is like Veran and Onox's 2nd in command or something.

After you get the mermaid suit, allowing you to explore underwater, this dungeon becomes a lot more complicated.. when you're underwater you mostly control the same, except you move in little bursts of speed, and you swim across pitfalls and spikes, and you can't use certain items.

The past version of this dungeon has the dungeon boss Octogon. Basically just a big octorok, the main difficulty is you have to follow him underwater and deal with the weird movement speed.
Got the 6th essence, Bereft Peak.

It is a proud, lonely spirit that remains stalwart, even in trying times.

The Maku Sprout contacts Link to tell him that Queen Ambi just left the palace, so now you can go there and take out Veran and save Nayru... This is a sneak past the guards section, like in OoT, except it's like a decently sized minidungeon.

Veran seems impossible to fight when she's in Nayru's body...

Oracle of Ages (Linked game) high playthrough log 2/4

Found a bunch of Oracle of Seasons secret passwords around Crescent Island...

Dmitri gave Link a ride back across the ocean... At Lynna City there's an that only happens in a Linked game, where Princess Zelda showed up and got captured and taken to the Black Tower. She was kidnapped by a red flying monster that remembers Link from Holodrum... It's just a quick little sidescrolling Donkey Kong knockoff section. She gives you a special ring in exchange for saving her. She says she came here because she saw a vision of this land being consumed by sorrow and despair... Impa and Zelda go to hide out in Nayru's house for the rest of the game.

More trading sequence progress... the people in past Lynna City are getting more and more suspicious of Queen Ambi now... oh, a "very sub-rosan fellow" washed up on the south shore... more Linked game shenanigans. The sword baseball game is fun... got 430 points.

I heard this next part of the game changes depending on whether you get Dmitri's flute, Ricky's flute, or Moosh's flute, and it even changes some of the terrain to accomodate for whichever animal you went with... that's cool... but since this is a linked game I'm stuck with Ricky who I chose in OoS.

Got to a part where you need to gather all the carpenters so that they can fix the bridge... saw a fairy randomly fly by... followed it to the Fairy Woods where Moosh got lost... unlocked the OoS Great Fairy secret.

Symmetry Village Ruins... a village on a volcano this place is all ruined by fire monsters and abandoned in the present time. In the past, the characters on each side of the town are twin images of each other. You have to restore the Tuni Nut in the past to save the village's future... I wonder if this catastrophe was part of the shadow of sorrow that Veran is trying to cast over Labrynna... The Black Tower is now very close to being finished in the past, so its effects are already having more drastic consequences on Labrynna in the present.

Found a character who teaches Link the Tune of Currents... it's just like the mirror in LttP. With this, you can now go back to the present time at any moment when you're in the past. Exploring the Talus Peaks to find all the optional goodies and the right way

How to make Skyward Sword 10 times less annoying

I've just recently stumbled onto a hack that removes the most hated and annoying aspect of Skyward Sword.

Remove Fi+Clothes Modifier [Anarion]
285FC88A 00000200
00955D4D 0000000F
CC000000 00000000
00955D5D 000000FF
E0000000 80008000

Press 2 to switch on & off.
If skyloft clothes is used, you will not have Fi, which means you can complete temples without ever being annoyed by her if you activate code before you enter the temple. If used on Skyloft, Skyloft current day will be set to the day of the Goddess Ceremony, which means you can do the sky race again. Switch to Knight Tunic by turning code off, enter a house to have Skyloft reset to its current day.

Oracle of Ages (Linked game) high playthrough log 1/4

After the bad ending of Oracle of Seasons, Twinrova now has the Flame of Destruction. Now they only need the flames of Sorrow and Despair to complete their dark rites...

The password from the end of OoS creates a Linked game in Oracle of Ages. All of the rings and other stuff Link had at the end of that game are carried over.

The Triforce sends Link to Labrynna next to save the Oracle of Ages, Nayru. Impa is already there and is being attacked by Octoroks, and the Octoroks immediately run away as Link shows up.

A bunch of animals are standing around, completely absorbed in Nayru's song...
https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=BQK8P0lsA58
I could listen to this forever.

It turns out Impa was possessed by the villain... Veran, Sorceress of Shadows... Veran comes out and then possesses Nayru. Nayru's friend Ralph tries to save her but he's too late. Veran can now freely travel through time, and create the age of darkness... she starts changing history, and a bunch of people get turned to stone.

Link already has a sword when you start the game, so there's no need to go to Nayru's house in the Forest of Time in the east.

This game has much more interesting story than OoS... Also a family from Holodrum moved here to Lynna City and their story continues where it left off in OoS. Also the Maku tree in this game is a girl, with very obvious girly facial features.

There's a Hero's Cave here too, just like in the beginning of OoS. Except this Hero's Cave is a really tough end-game dungeon
meant for after you get all the dungeon items.

Ralph showed Link how to go through time portals to get back to the past. The past world and the present world are similar, but different in a lot of ways. Certain paths are open in one era and closed in another era, waterway structures are different, etc...

Ever since Nayru came to this era, the sun never sets. The postman complains

How can I deliver the mail on time if I don't know the time

The people of Lynna City in the past are being forced to work on building Ambi's Tower 24/7... They say this tower is being made to guide Queen Ambi's lover back to her, but now everyone's starting to hate this tower, and they've started calling it the Black Tower.

The path to the Maku Tree in the past is a little

Oracle of Seasons high playthrough log 3/3

The overworld treasure map that I got recently, shows the location of the 4 jewels needed to enter the Tarm Ruins. This place kinda reminds me of the LttP's eastern ruins combined with the northern region of Zelda 1.

A lot of the hidden secrets you find in this game are passwords,
that you're supposed to use in the OoA linked game to get the actual
reward.

To the left of there is the entrance to the Lost Woods... this place is cool, it's kinda like the Zelda 1 Lost Woods, except the 4 seasons are part of the puzzle. You have to go west, south, east, north, with each step leading to a warmer tempurature...

There was a cutscene showing that there's another evil lurking in the shadows behind the game's main villain, Onox. It seems like something bigger is going on here...

If you save Din, the world will be filled with destruction, sorrow, and despair, a great sacrifice will be offered, and the Evil King will be revived!

I think I know what this implies...

• If you're playing a non-linked game: Link saves Din, but Zelda gets sacrificed and Ganon is fully revived, which leads to the Zelda 1/AoL story.
  

*]If you're playing a linked game: Link travels through time to save both Din and Nayru, and Ganon's resurrection fails and is easily defeated, which leads to a different scenario.

Got the Noble Sword... and the Lost Woods also lead to another section of the Tarm Ruins, which lead to...

Level 6 - Ancient Ruins... kinda shaped like a pyramid I guess.. each floor up gets smaller and smaller.

That compass was hard to get to... damn beamos...
Most of the dungeons in this game seem like more action oriented than anything. Most of the challenge is from the puzzles. Actually figuring out where to go is easy. Kinda a lot like Zelda 1. The boss of this level is Manhandla.  Hardest boss yet... Got the 6th essence, Blowing Wind.

Sweet fruit is born when pollen is carried by the Blowing Wind!

Finished Subrosia's big trading quest and got the L-2 armor... that would've made the 6th dungeon way easier if I had done that earlier lol

4 Golden Beasts sidequest... How were you supposed to do this without a guide? If you dry up the lake near the 1st dungeon, you find a staircase leading to an old man who tells you about these 4 rare gold enemies that are

Oracle of Seasons high playthrough log 2/3

I like how the Subrosia portals kind of act as shortcuts to get you around Holodrum faster. Although you have to know your way around really well to make use of this.

There seems to be a good amount of sidequest content that you can do in both Holodrum and Subrosia in between each dungeon. There's also the big trading quest that spans the entire game... you can either do each little bit of it as soon as you can (which I did), or save all of it for later. Just like the trading quest in Link's Awakening though, you do need to complete it eventually to progress...

Wow this is cool, there's an overworld treasure map... I think this is like the first time a Zelda game has had a map that helps you find where the overworld treasure is.

Sunken City... found Gale seeds, a very useful item that lets you teleport to other gale seed trees... got a bit lost in this area... got to a fairy fountain just when I was about to die.... found the Zora Flippers that let you swim and dive underwater.

Another Subrosia portal... some Subrosian kids took my feather, and had to do a stealth minigame to get it back... Found the skeleton pirates' ship stuck in the sand... and another way into the Temple of Seasons, gained access to the Tower of Spring... Also explored a bit of the north side of Holodrum where the Temple of Seasons used to be... this place looks really cool.

Found Bananas for Moosh at Mt. Cucco... this place is a bit puzzley to navigate...

Level 4 - Dancing Dragon Dungeon... the middle floor is kinda similar to the nazi symbol dungeon in Zelda 1.

This level was pretty tough, but mostly just because of the enemies and obstacles. Those Stalfos and Wizzrobes are tough... Also, Agahnim from LttP is a miniboss here... what? And the main boss is Gohma. It's weak to ember seed slingshot attacks instead of the bow + arrow.

Got the 4th essence, Soothing Rain.

Bathed in drops of Soothing Rain, shoots grow into saplings!

Found another way into the Temple of Seasons in Subrosia, and got the power of Autumn... then I was able to get to the next dungeon very easily... Wow, this "Eyeglass Lake" area, I'm pretty sure this is literally the same location as Level 1 in LoZ... the similarities are way too much... At this point

Oracle of Seasons high playthrough log 1/3

Link gets summoned by the Triforce to the land of Holodrum, where he meets a dancer named Din. Zelda foretold a curtain of shadow drawing around Din, and she instructed the nurse Impa to take Din to Hyrule.

Standard Zelda plot...
"You have a triangle on your hand, that means you have to help us."
Suddenly the bad guy Onox appears and kidnaps Din, who is actually the Oracle of Seasons, and the Temple of Seasons sinks into the ground.

Impa directs Link to go meet the guardian of Holodrum, the Maku tree... discount Deku tree.

The Hero's Sword is said to be hidden in the Hero's Cave

Got the Ring Box, not sure how to use it at this point... that's where the Know-it-all birds come in. Zelda always has these kind of characters, they're like an in-game NPC version of the instruction manual.

The Ring box holds rings, a special collectible that you can equip a few of to get some bonus buffs or other effects. A lot of the optional hidden treasures you can find in this game end up being rings.. or sometimes just restockable stuff such as seeds.

Found the Hero's Cave, a little minidungeon that contains the sword.

The Maku tree senses evil up at the Northern Peak, where the Temple of Seasons sank into the ground. To restore the power of the seasons, Link needs to collect the 8 essences of nature in Holodrum.

Level 1 - Gnarled Root Dungeon
Shaped like a spinning top or something...
The dungeons in this game feel very Zelda 1 styled. The cryptic old man hints, the diamond block pattern surround a staircase, the underground sidescrolling sections... it literally feels like a remake of a LoZ dungeon. It even has Aquamentus as the dungeon boss! Also the Twin Minotaurs miniboss is cool, kinda reminds me of an LttP boss..
Got the first essence, the Fertile Soil...

Seeds scattered across a bountiful lands are nourished in this Fertile Soil!

Found a portal that leads to this weird underworld area called Subrosia. All of the NPCs here are wearing mage cloaks.

Found some shipwrecked pirate skeleton in the desert...

I want to get back to all me mates and dig the ship free, but Cap'n said "Don't come back till ya find me bell"

I guess this is a sidequest for later...

A temple, like, fell into Subrosia! um... what's a temple? Subrosia is a secret place. I must return in secret without being seen.

This NPC