I'm liking how intuitive these controls are... I got the hang of it right away. It makes sense
X, the top button = gain height (jump, glide, climb fast)
B, the bottom button = gain ground (run, cancel glide, let go of the wall)
A as the pick-up/talk button, and Y was the sword button works pretty well.
R as throw, ZR to draw bow, ZL to center camera... a bit of getting used to, but feels right.
Select = map, Start = inventory, sure.
R3 = look around in first person, L3 = crouch... those are probably the least used actions, so it makes sense that they're on the weirdest buttons.
I think talking to the old man at the beginning is probably entirely optional. It's missable dialog though, for sure.
Can see Hyrule Castle from up here... it looks so ominous. Kinda reminds me of OoT's Ganon's Castle if you could see it from ontop of the Temple of Time in that game.
Ugh, I hate this loading every time you come back from the home menu on the Wii U version... I really want a Switch so I can take screenshots more quickly.
Got my first game over from falling through a hole in the roof of the Temple of Time... lol it feels so weird... a Zelda game where just casually exploring a peaceful area can get you instantly killed if you aren't careful.
Cool, you can pick up arrows off the ground that the enemies tried to shoot at you, just like in TP.
Found a cracked wall... tried to blow it up using the explosive barrels, I didn't quite do it... still getting used to the physics.
Didn't spend too much time fooling around on the way to the next objective marker... Found a shiekah console device, and after using the slate on it, a message says
Please watch for falling rocks.then some big tower comes up out of the ground where I'm standing.
The map of the Great Plateau obtained... That Shiekah Tower droplet cutscene is really cool... that's some beautiful cinematic art... I love the symbolism of the droplet under the shiekah eye looking like a tear.
The old man glides towards Link out of nowhere, and explains some more of the plot. He says a bunch of other towers have popped up out of the ground at the same time this one did.
It is almost as though... a long-dormant power has awoken quite suddenly...
This plot... it's just as perfect as the game design itself!
You can see a lot from ontop of this tower... a bunch of enemy outposts that probably hold a treasure, which is an overworld element taken from WW... I can see what looks like a drained moat... was the OoT's version of Castle Town originally on this plateau?
I also saw a shrine at this Eastern Abbey area... put a yellow pin there, then started wandering to some other interesting looking things.
Climbing back down this tower feels really scary... It's crazy how much more dangerous this isolated plateau area is when you don't have a gliding ability.
Then the old man you towards a shrine... These shrine structures started glowing at the same time that the towers rose out of the ground. (Did it also revive those scary looking robot things I saw near the Temple of Time, I wonder?)
He says he'll give you his paraglider in exchange for the treasure that's hidden in that shrine. These shrines are like micro dungeons with non-climbable walls, and at the end is a shiekah monk who gives you a glowing object called a Spirit Orb that increases your spiritual strength or something...
lmao that music change when I got attacked by a mini guardian... that freaked me out a bit the first time I heard it.
Got the magnesis ability. L = use rune. And I just realized the D-pad is used as a shortcut to switching weapons/shields/bows, and switching to a different rune.
When you go to ask the old man for the paraglider, he then tells you more of the story.
Those towers... this shrine... it is all connected to that shiekah slate you have there...It actually gives you the option to skip listening to some of the old man's dialog. If you do listen to him some more he says
Long ago, a highly advanced tribe known as the Shiekah inhabited these lands... The great power of their wisdom saved this kingdom time and time again.He says there are 3 more of these shrines on the Great Plateau, and now he wants all the shrine treasures before he'll give me the paraglider.
"That wasn't part of the deal."
He ignores my opinion and tells me to climb that tower again in order to locate the other shrines. On the map screen, the tower, and shrine are now marked on the map and act as warp points... I warped onto the tower, and the old man is there. He says
You certainly took your time.and asks if I know how to warp or not. When you say yes, he says "Now then..." and moves straight onto the next point... this is so refreshing, compared to Skyward Sword where Fi would come out and constantly remind you again and again of the most obvious things, whether you wanted her advice or not.
He tells you to climb the tower again, and gives you advice about using these high vantage points to locate shrines, and then setting pin markers on them... If you try to hide some things from this old man, he'll say he has to work to gain your trust... I dunno, this old man might actually be a bad guy going after the Triforce or something.
Oh yeah, Skyward Sword was the first Zelda game to have these placeable beacons. In this game there's even a bunch of different stamp symbols you can place on the map to help keep track of where stuff is. This is great... it really does help to emphasize that you are meant to create your own path through the game. This feature kinda takes some influence from the DS games where you were able to draw on the map screen... I guess I probably want to use the colored pins as markers for things I haven't done yet, and the stamps as markers for things I've completed.
This plateau is a huge, unnaturally raised piece of land... it's almost like this is the piece of land that the Goddess sent above the clouds in Skyward Sword, and then afterwards it was sent back down, and the hole it came out of was filled in, so now it this piece of land raised up like this, and I guess since then, the Hylians have built a big fancy wall on the sides of the plateau.
Wow... this atmosphere is insanely good... I'm running up some random hill, and the camera naturally points towards the sky, and at that moment a random flock of seagulls starts flying towards something... and another seagull formation coming from a different direction... I immediately suspect there might be a shrine or something interesting in the spot where those 2 flight paths intersect... They were heading towards the Eastern Abbey, which I already had a pin on.
This place is kinda tricky to navigate without the paraglider. There are big guardian enemies inside the walls of this ruined building that are actually still alive, and they track you with a laser sight and shoot an explosive fatal blast if you don't run away and hide behind something... The music changes to this really panic-inducing theme when a guardian is locked onto you... These enemies take so many hits to kill with my current weapons that it doesn't even seem like I'm supposed to fight them yet. Instead I snuck into the shrine from the other side of the building. I guess the more dangerous way to go would be to go in from the front and lure the guardians into destroying the cracked wall.
This bomb trial was easy... Now I have unlimited remote bombs.
Searched around some more... Ended up near the edge of the plateau again.
Found a treasure by lifting up the door with magnesis. Wow this overworld really feels like a giant dungeon without any walls... Random hidden treasure chests all over the place.
Next I warped back to the Shrine of Resurrection and explored further around there... made my way to the Forest of Spirits.
It's eerily peaceful... I'm expecting some ghost enemies to appear or something... Found a Korok... decided to place a leaf stamp on all the areas where I've found a korok.
I realized these waypoint markers don't help much if I'm playing with the Pro HUD. You can only see the pins when you look through the Shiekah slate. Okay I guess I'll switch to the normal HUD... it just makes exploring way more convenient when you have a minimap... although it doesn't reveal too much information. It's kinda like a Zelda 1 style minimap.
Fought a big rock monster... it wasn't that hard.
This Forest of Spirits/Hopper Pond area reminds me of SS's Faron Woods a little bit... but it's way more open.
Now I'm at the entrance to the snowy mountain... I was a bit spoiled on this part of the game from watching the E3 footage... I don't know if I might've missed this otherwise... I cooked some spicy food and made it up to the highest point on the snowy mountain, where the old man gives me the warm doublet... So now I can explore this cold area without worrying about cold damage.
Found the Cryonis trial shrine... Now have the power to create Ice Pillars on any body of water.
The last shrine on the plateau is very well hidden... gotta climb down the cliff at the top of a mountain... This is the Stasis trial... I now have the ability to time-freeze objects and build up kinetic energy in them to move them very far.
The old man shows up again, and tells me to come meet him at the area where the 4 shrines mark an X on the Plateau's map... That would be... the Temple of Time.
After all those shiekah monks saying "May the goddess smile upon you" before vanishing from existence... now Link goes to pray at the goddess statue with his 4 Spirit Orbs, and the goddess answers his prayers with a heart or stamina upgrade.
Saw the old man ontop of the temple's roof... He reveals his true identity. More story time...
Wow, as soon as I glided off the plateau, I immediately noticed an increase in scary looking enemies as I moved closer in the direction of Hyrule Castle... These big lanky moblin enemies look horrifying, I'm not gonna mess with them right now. I guess instead I'll go north east through the Dueling Peaks path that the king suggested to me.
The first shrine I found outside of the Plateau was one that tests your ability to use the paraglider. "The Wind Guides You"
Used ice blocks + paraglider to find... a purple rupee... This was the first time I actually found a rupee in the game.
Woah, this is strange...
I feel like Alice in Wonderland, following a strange flower that keeps moving around every time I get close to it... It eventually leads to a Korok.
Found West Necluda Tower, and then the "Shrine Sensor" ability was unlocked, making it so the shiekah slate beeps at you if your are close to a shrine.
I tried climbing along the cliffs between Mable Ridge and South Nabi Lake... wow it's dangerous here... got attacked by a golem AND a guardian.
wtf... I was climbing around the southeast side of Dueling Peaks... and the sky started quickly becoming red and hellish, and the music turned really creepy... and then Zelda's voice comes and tells me Ganon's power is growing... as it shows a cutscene with monsters reviving from the blood red moon... That was weird.
I'm spending a lot of time exploring these Dueling Peaks cuz I keep hearing a shrine signal that I can't track down. I guess I can't climb up high enough yet to get up to it...
Made it to Kakariko Village.
Some Shiekahs turned to Ganon's side, and formed the Yiga Clan.
Some guy here doesn't believe I'm actually the same Link as 100 years ago, because I don't have the legendary blade.
Shiekah guards let me in to see Impa when they see the Shiekah Slate Link is carrying... Impa explains about how their ancient technology, including the guardians and the divine beasts, were excavated by the Hylians and then Calamity Ganon gained control of it and used it to cause a ton of destruction before he was even fully resurrected. The 4 divine beasts were supposed to be the ultimate weapon to use against Ganon, but now even they have been taken over... She tells about how the 4 divine beasts were piloted by 4 champions from the Goron, Rito, Zora, and Gerudo races, and that these 4 races might know more about how to find and regain control of these divine beasts.
Lastly, Impa tells Link that his Shiekah Slate isn't fully functional, and that there's a scientist in Hateno Village who can restore the rest of its functions.
This is a good place to stop, even though I could easily keep going... I played for like over 8 hours today.
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