Breath of the Wild first playthrough log part 7

Currently I'm only at 60 korok seeds and 35 shrines... it's insane to think how much of the game is still left...

Found more Zora lore... the white scale has a long has a long history of protecting the Zora.

Upland Zorana has a lot of luminous stones... I'm basically just exploring the mountains bordering Zora's Domain now, before heading back west to Woodland Stable... I still haven't done much of the east border of Akalla/Lanayru/Necluda yet either...
The Lost Woods in this game feels like OoT's Haunted Wasteland, with really creepy music...

At first you just have to follow the direction of the sparks coming from the torches... but then later there are no more torches... do I have to follow the trees with faces on them? No... You still have to follow the wind... I don't have a torch with me that I can carry... but I can see the little particles in the air being subtly blown by the wind... that's enough to get me through it, but it's a very slow method.

Found the Master Sword grove, and the Korok Forest... wow that was easy. The Deku Tree has a voiced cutscene here... and trying to pull out the Master Sword makes you lose all your hearts.

It cuts through bravado and superficial enhancements. Only true strength can draw it from its resting place.

Main Quest - The Hero's Sword

I guess I don't have enough hearts.

There's a lot of koroks here... but a lot of them hide when you get close. Only some you can talk to. There's some little shops inside the Deku Tree.

The sword pedestal, with its easy to see sunbeam acts as a landmark for the center of the forest. All the paths from here branch out into the Korok Trials. And also there's a free shrine right near the Deku

Breath of the Wild first playthrough log part 6

Akalla Citidel Ruins... it used to be a fortress protecting Akalla. Had to use sneaky food to get passed to the drones, to get through that to get to Akalla Tower. This tower is covered in ooze... gotta go around the tower to find the one high spot where you can glide to it above the ooze.

After that I went ahead staight to Eldin Tower as well... it wasn't hard at all to climb up the mountain to it, especially with this trick I learned where you can regain stamina on steep inclines by switching between climbing and running with B.
The heat at this part of Death Mountain is still below damaging level.
I see the divine beast climbing around on the peak of Death Mountain from here... that still looks SO high up, even from the top of Eldin Tower.

I now have the entire east side of Hyrule's map filled out.

Next I went to the Akalla Ancient Tech Lab... the old scientist Robbie is really weird... he's married to a woman much younger than him, and he has a robot that he named Cherry, but his wife forced him to stop calling it Cherry... lol this robot is shamefully asking for rupees from Link.

Now that I have the Akalla map, I can easily see the path between the lab and the furnace... this makes it much easier than the Hateno one, which I didn't have the map for at the time.

Woah, wtf, since relighting some of the blue flame lanterns, some of the guardians reactivated... there wasn't a blood moon or anything...

From Robbie's memoirs, I found out Robbie and Purah came upon Fort Hateno... Link had battled an army of guardians there, and it was where he'd been defeated...

this journal is really long...

Also I went to the bottom of Skull Lake and met this monster fanatic... he travels around and sells monster-themed gear, in exchange for his own special currency that you can only get by selling him monster parts. He says he travels around to the various towns at night...

Breath of the Wild first playthrough log part 5

Next I got to got to Grassland Stable. Found the horse-reviving Great Fairy... this music is really weird... it's asking for 1000 rupees. Meh, I don't need it right now.

Pikango says that picture with the 2 statues is at the northeast shore of Lake Hylia...
Got 1:19 on the horse obstacle course... I think I need a faster horse before I can beat the target time of 1:15.
After accidentally completing a sidequest, Perosa tells me about a giant horse in Taobab Grassland.

wtf I mounted a stalhorse after knocking a bokoblin off of it... these skeleton horses don't require taming at all... you can't register them, and they disappear as soon as the sun comes out.

This korok puzzle is pretty hard... you can only carry one of the 2 chained rocks at a time, and it's really hard to control where the other one lands.

There's a lot of weird/cool looking structures in Faron Woods... I found Kass again, he says something about "Where the forest dragon splays its jaws"... I looked on the map and I see a body of water that kinda looks like a dragon opening its mouth, I think that's what he's referring to?

I tried following the path north...

Breath of the Wild first playthrough log part 4

First playthrough commentary: Part 4

Some kids hanging out around Hateno Lab, are gossiping about a little girl that supposedly lives in that lab now...

That little girl is actually the lab director, Purah. She asks Link if he remembers any dreams from when he was asleep... she seems to know a lot about him... in fact she was the one who put Link to sleep in that chamber... she says you need to bring the blue flame from the furnace over to this lab in order for her to restore the Shiekah Slate... She's too embarrassed to go out and get the blue flame herself because of how she looks now.

lol her diary is amusing... she experimented on herself with a de-aging potion and that's why she has the body of a kid now... her room has little ladders so that she can reach all the high shelves.

That blue flame sidequest was easy... all the blue flame torches are laid out in a way that guides you to where you need to go to get between the furnace and the lab.
Gained the Camera, Hyrule Compendium, and Memory album... The camera already has a bunch of photos that were taken by Zelda... Those photos are the key to Link regaining his lost memories... I also found out there are a few more Shiekah Slate functions I can get by going to the lab in Akalla. I recall hearing about the Akalla region in the northeast near Death Mountain and Zora's Domain, but I haven't gone there yet.

Oh wow, the upgraded Shiekah Sensor is amazing... you can set it to search for any of the items in your compendium, including treasure chests. This compendium thing is like the figurine quest in Wind Waker, except WAY better.

Purah says to go talk to Impa again to get more info on the memory photos. I found the Necluda tower and unlocked the map of this region, and then headed back to Kakariko... it was then that I noticed the path between Kakariko and Hateno is actually very simple and straightforward. I didn't need to do all that slow mountain climbing from Zora's Domain down to Hateno... I could've just taken the road and followed the directions on the signs to get here easily.

I showed that painter guy, Pikango, where the Great Fairy is... now he gives you tips on where to find the locations shown in the memory photos. He tells me about the one near the Lanayru East Gate... oh yeah, I recognize that place.

Breath of the Wild first playthrough log part 3

I went back to Kakariko through the main horse path, and that's when I spotted the big Korok that I missed before... This Korok, Hestu has a little quest where I have to get his maracas back from some bokoblins... and after that he lets me trade Korok seeds in exchange for gear slot upgrades.
After I do a few trades, he says he's going back to his home in Korok Forest, which is somewhere north of Kakariko... he says you can find it by following Hylia River.

I encountered this weird blue rabbit... found out that shooting it gives you rupees.

Tried taming a white/blue horse near the Dueling Peaks stable...
These 2 NPCs in a stable are talking about about Misko's treasure and the hint on how to find it.

The little twin steps over the little river. My cave rests above that river's source.

Misko hid the location of that treasure in some kind of strange secret code.

Now that I have more stamina, I was easily able to do the 2 shrines ontop of the Dueling Peaks... these 2 shrines have a linked puzzle where you need the hint from one shrine to solve the other one.

Breath of the Wild first playthrough log part 2

I just did the combat training shrine in Kakariko. Flurry rush is such a fun mechanic...

Explored around, and found a Fairy Fountain... wow that was easy to find.

But the fairy says she needs to be gifted a ton of rupees before she'll help anybody... jeez, typical woman.

Then as I walked out of Kakariko, in this dark canyon path I talked to a travelling NPC that turned out to be a Yiga Clan member. At first he offers Link to join, but then when he realizes Link is on the side of good, he takes off his disguise and attacks. He dropped a bunch of rupees as I defeated him... then I went back to town, decided to sell some more stuff in order to get enough rupees for the Great Fairy... now she offers you clothing/armor upgrades in exchange for certain materials.

Then I explored north of Kakariko... at this big shallow lake area with a bunch of Lizalfos enemies hanging out... I got to a shrine called "Sunken Scoop", and it looked like something where you needed a diving ability so I went back and left it for later... only later I realized it's not a diving shrine, it's about using magnesis to interact with stuff under the water.

These Lizalfos aren't very hard thanks to my new defense upgrades... I also fought my first Wizzrobe here... got a lightning rod.

Then suddenly, a zora called out to me... she says Prince Sidon is looking for a Hylian, and she points me toward Inogo Bridge, where Prince Sidon currently is.
Another zora near a shrine, says basically the same thing, to go a bit up Zora's River to get to Inogo Bridge... There's no quest marker for this, so the game just expects you to use pins or remember where to go... I've been spotting so many shrines that my pins are almost always fully used up.

Breath of the Wild first playthrough log part 1

First playthrough commentary: Part 1

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.

EarthBound high playthrough log part 6

Reading through more of the guide now...

I didn't notice that the dinosaur museum in Fourside was hinting at the next plot development, as they've been receiving fresh dinosaur bones from a place east of Fourside called "Scaraba".
But at least when you're on foot, Fourside is a dead end oceanside city... after you finish saving the Runaway five, defeating the evil statue, and saving Paula there's nowhere else to go except back across the desert to Threed, where your UFO is.. and that leads you to getting the 4th melody and taking the UFO to Summers. This part of the game is kinda cool cuz it's not very obvious where to go next unless you are paying attention.

- Summers/Toto -

Now at level 47, 36, and 37
Time to explore Summers... no idea what to do beyond that. There's a lot of expensive stuff to buy here.. I actually drained out my whole 50k savings

Some bird on the beach has a lot of random dialog if you keep talking to him...

Wake up in the morning, fall in love. Eat lunch, fall in love. And at night, fall in love. That is my dream life!

Are you from Eagleland? If you like adventure, this isn't your kind of place. You should travel across the sea to Scaraba from Toto, the port town.

To go to Scaraba, you need to cross the sea. However, a monster named Kraken lives in the open sea. He attacks ships that pass through. Are you scared?

The guy next to me is really bugging me. He keeps following me around.

Scaraba Cultural Museum... a lot of cool but useless stuff to see here... the curator mentions the Fourside museum curator called him..

Getting

EarthBound high playthrough log part 5

Several more attempts at the Dept store, still no progress... guess I'll check the guide and see if there's anything I can do here besides grind.

Actually, looks like I just need to get to the Dept store boss with both Ness and Jeff alive, then I can defeat him in one turn with Ness's PSI and Jeff's Big Bottle Rocket... er wait no, I only have a normal bottle rocket. But I do have the counter-PSI unit which would be really useful against the boss who mostly only uses PSI.
looks like there are Super Bombs I can get for Jeff to make the enemies more manageable. but I have to deposit some items and run back and for the revive Jeff and then travel to Threed.. Oh wait, those are only normal bombs and normal bottle rockets I can get there... I missed my chance at buying big bottle rockets and super bombs at Fourside Dept Store before this event happened... damn

Also I learned these present enemies can only move in a straight line, so it is possible to avoid them if you can't despawn them.

There we go.. I got there with both Ness and Jeff... the strategy is just to spam PSI Weed beta and bottle rockets and he's dead in two or 3 turns.

At this moment, PAULA should be... Monotoli...

It looks like staying on the inner sidewalk when you're on the outskirts of Fourside lets you avoid running into angry taxis and other enemies... I gotta be careful here with NESS at very low HP and no PP.
Hotel newspaper:

Mysterious Dept Store blackout caused by mouse.

So hint guy says to go to the Cafe... nothing I can do at Monotoli building yet... oh yeah I recall someone there was specifically saying to me "Monotoli is definitely not here."
Someone else is hanging out here trying to find Monotoli.. and the woman here says she hears something outside...

People

EarthBound high playthrough log part 4

Oh... so Jeff starts fixing things at each rest stop once he gets to 10 IQ. I guess he'll be able to fix more things as his IQ level gets higher. So far I haven't found anything else in this section of the guide that I didn't already know about from my playthrough, I was very thorough...

The Saturn Valley part of the guide also blends into the desert section, which I haven't done yet... but before that there's also the Milky Well part that I haven't done yet... I stopped right before that part.

NESS is at level 29, Paula is at level 23, Jeff is at level 24.

Wow, I'm actually really under-leveled for this Milky Cave area... I keep having to go back to heal at the hot springs again right after fighting that first set of enemies in the cave. it doesn't help that I can't revive my PSI without a butterfly... er, actually I can heal PP easily by staying at the hotel at Saturn Village, duh

The 3rd melody boss is the Trillionage Sprout. This boss battle is interesting. Jeff says it's weak to fire.. and since Ness is feeling strange, I'm only having him defend and heal (so as not to accidentally hit my own team with him), while Paula uses her PSI Magnet to gain PP from the enemy and using that to shoot fire and shield everyone.. and Ness used the temp guts boost on Jeff so he could be more on the offense in place of Ness... at the beginning, I just used Ness to paralyze the two mini sprouts so they can't do anything but use PSI on us, and used PSI Shield Omega on everyone with Paula, and used Spy on the Trillionage Sprout with Jeff.. then I kept the two mini sprouts alive so I could drain their PP with PSI Magnet beta, and once they were paralyzed and out of PP they became useless/harmless plants. now I just have the boss himself to worry about... but Ness is running low on PP to heal with and sometimes even heals the enemy accidentally. oh, and Trillionage used PSI shield on himself before I got the chance to do any damage to him with fire... so now I'm just buffing Jeff and relying mainly on him.

Sheesh this is intense... you really gotta focus on strategy the whole way through...
Oh man it's getting close... Paula got diamondized before she could manage to fully drain the boss's PP.. and both Ness and Jeff are close to dying... I have to take risks with Ness now and use him to fight as well... just barely made it

Ness's sound stone recorded the melody of the Milky Well

Saturn Valley's stink problem is now fixed... some of the Saturns have different dialog now.
"i HaVE nO SOmEtHinG."
"YOU wait tHREE minUtES! ZOOm! YOU COmE HERE tO wait tHREE minUtES? nO?"
"nO SCaRED."