Many SPOILERS are contained throughout these posts. You have been warned!

Saturday, March 18, 2017

Breath of the Wild first playthrough log part 15

I'm now at 90 shrines and 180 korok seeds.

I guess I'll go and beat Ganon next... I wanna see if there's a different ending from beating him before doing all the divine beasts, and getting all the memories.
Impa has updated dialog depending on how many of the divine beasts you've completed, and after certain other main quest stuff.

Woah... I defeated a Stalnox and got the Gale Boomerang, an item from TP...

Explored around the ruined Hyrule Castle Town after taking out all the guardians roaming around there... got the memory where Zelda is appointing Link as her knight... and I found a few more shrines and a bunch more korok seeds around here... and at the prison area to the west of the castle.

Then I took a ract and found an opening that leads into the bottom floor of the castle dungeon... defeated a Stalnox in a dead end room, and got the Hylian Shield... Went back outside and found another bottom entrance from the moat, which leads into the docks... Found a shrine inside the castle by lighting some torches... classic Zelda vibes right there...

Then I found the library.
Royal Recipe #1: Fruitcake, 2 fruits, Tabantha wheat, and sugar
Royal Recipe #2: Monster Cake. Tabantha wheat, sugar, butter, and monster parts.
Cool, these are the recipes I needed for a couple of sidequests.

The atmosphere in this castle is amazing... it feels more like a real, actual lived-in castle than any other version of Hyrule Castle in the Zelda series.

Found the dining hall and some more royal weapons...
Then I found the observation deck, which overlooks Castle Town and Hyrule Field... of course everything looks bleak and depressing in its current state.

Went around more of the outside of the castle, to another lower door, that looks like it's been dug out of the wall... Basically I'm just entering every single door I can find, going in order from the bottom up.
Oh shit, it's the East Passage that I heard about... there's a Talus, a mine cart you can ride with stasis, and another way into the library...

Kept exploring some more, destroying every enemy so I could explore in peace... Found the guards' chamber on the mid level... Got lost on the outside again... entered a random tower and it locked me in with a white Lynel battle, in a very small space... AND there's a Ganon sludge enemy generator spawning a bunch of those little floating stal head enemies... I also encountered another tower just like this, with a blue Lynel inside... both rewarded you with a chest for clearing them out.

Finally, went to check out the last remaining lower entrance... found the West Passage.... huh.. there's nothing here except a chest with shock arrows... oh and there's a Korok here... and an upper exit leading back outside... and a bombable wall leading to the prison cells hallway. There's a few bombable walls in this prison cell area... this part feels the most like a Zelda dungeon.

Another bombable wall on the way back up, with a shard of Dinraal's fang...

Now the only thing left to explore is the main straightforward walking route up to the Sanctum, and the few side entrances into the upper part of the castle before that... although this path isn't entirely straightforward... you have to go a long way around in order to destroy the Ganon sludge barrier from the other side... and there are tons of stationary guardian turrets on this path as well as flying guardian drones.

Yeah, unlike the usual Zelda dungeon, all the things there are to explore and find here are just optional goodies/loot that you don't really need if you're already strong enough to beat the last boss. I don't care though, it feels fun just exploring everything.

Then, just as I say that, I find the King's Study... it's a really cleverly hidden room, and here you get to read the journal of King Rhoam, and find out that he felt really bad about how he raised Zelda to be really hard on herself.

The Legend of Zelda: Breath of the Wild screenshot

I also found a really high tower... it leads to Zelda's room. Zelda's journal in here sheds light on how Zelda felt about all this Ganon stuff and being forced into such an important role... She also talks about Link, and gives a really neat take on why Link doesn't talk much.

Up through the hole in the ceiling, I see a path up above Zelda's room... it leads to a memory where Zelda is being scolded by the king for focusing too much on the Shiekah technology, and not dedicating every moment she has to her spiritual training... and a bit further up is Zelda's Study, where she has some notes she took on the Shiekah technology and the slate, and the shrines (which she couldn't figure out how to unlock), etc...

Now I'm pretty sure I've been everywhere, and killed every single enemy in the castle... those guardian turrets and the drones have much harder timing for deflecting their lasers, and I ran out of expendable shields and had to start using other resources to kill them... But I still have my Hylian Shield, and I think I still have enough stuff to defeat Ganon.

But wait, there's more stuff to see up above the entrance to the sanctum I think. There's nothing stopping you from climbing all the way up to the very top of the castle... There's no enemies up here or anything, but there's a bunch more koroks to find. Oh and you can see a big sludge pile ontop of the Sanctum's ceiling where Calamity Ganon is hanging from.


I'm now at 94 shrines and 200-something koroks.

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