Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker (Wet Breath of the Wild)

[LaZodiac]

Onwards, into the Forbidden Woods.

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker [10] Forbidden Woods

Video Length: 25:11

In this one, we actually begin the second dungeon proper! The Forbidden Woods is an interesting dungeon with some interesting mechanics that iterate across the entire place. It's main mechanic is finding ways to bust open these plant locks, gross vines that keep us from opening doors. We need to find a way to smash the bulb that is the source of those vines, and while there is usually an option around at hand, sometimes there isn't. One of the ways we deal with this is by using these hard nuts scattered around, huge nuts that slowly (very slowy) start to disintegrate when picked up. A quick toss as the plant lock bulb will destroy it utterly! This nut is used a number of times, and can be greatly influenced by the Deku Leaf's wind blasts. The second main mechanic of sort you encounter in this dungeon are then gondolas, platforms that are moved by blasting wind at some fans. They're more than a little finicky at times, mostly because one just spinning it isn't the answer, you have to spin it a specific way to move then gondola a specific way. Another option is to just blast some wind behind you to move the gondola forward, but sometimes that feels "bad" or "wrong" but it's really because the rope for the gondola is shorter than you'd expect so you just go slower. We'll be seeing both of these mechanics used throughout a good portion of the dungeon.

Now let's talk about enemies. You've already met the Green Chu-chu's, but lets talk about the rest of the fearsome foes of the forest. We've got Morths, strange spike ball guys that don't actually cause any damage to us, only sticking to us and making us all stompy and slow. The only danger they really pose is agonizing pain for the poor friend who's keeping track of my kill counter, for then purposes of science. Making that worse are then Mothula, a rare enemy in the dungeon. It's a gross insect that lunges at you, trying to chomp Link's little feet off. It can also spew out more Morths. We actually encounter a winged Mothula as a miniboss as well, but it's not actually a different enemy. Mothula's with wings give you gold feathers like Peahats, which is weird. I'm basically just going to assume gold feathers are so rare (since otherwise they'd only be from Kargarocks, an enemy that basically doesn't fit any dungeon in the game) that they decided to just give it to all winged enemies. Speaking of, Peahats! These annoying plant orbs spin their petal feathers around to fly, and the rotating blades deflect your sword swings. You've gotta stun em with the Deku Leaf, bending them all out of shape so you can stab them. They will of course straighten those leaves out after awhile. The final enemy in the dungeon are Dexivines, which aren't actually counted as enemies and I never actually interact with. They grab you, hurt you, and throw you around a little bit. How rude!

After pushing our way through the dungeon, we eventually come across the dungeon item after slaying the winged Mothula. Within we find the Boomerang, an amazing tool for our arsenal. The boomerang in Wind Waker is great, able to target five things at once when you go in direct aiming mode, bouncing around or otherwise curving to strike at the targets. It kills Boko Bada's immediately, disarms Peahats for a longer amount of time, does weird modal freezing stuff to the Mothulas, kills Morths, it's great. It's also used to solve a specific puzzle, cutting down the flower in the, for lack of a better word, hub of the Forbidden Woods. When we first get to here, we are given a path that lets us go up to the top of the flower (near the dungeon's middle warp pot) that lets us clearly see "oh, we should cut the vines. We'll need something to cut it then come back here". But once you get the boomerang, you can go a new path that lets you see some new stuff, try out the boomerang a bit on some vines, and then get plopped out right in front of the flower in the hub room. The other vines being so nearby and required to cut basically makes it obvious what you need to do, and the lack of backtracking is...annoying, to some people.

I myself don't find this a problem. Backtracking, while it can be made fun by introducing new concepts or iterating on room design by having your newly found item doing something new in those rooms you traverse across...it's still backtracking, which I feel is never a really fun mechanic unless the game is designed around it (like say, Metroid). Others disagree, thinking that it's good because it helps give the player, among other things, a feeling of power since it's a place you're familiar with but now you have new tools to get through it faster or in a better way. It helps the player have to have a mental map of the dungeon so they know HOW to get back to where they're going, rather than just hitting a new shortcut that puts them right where they need to be. It makes the dungeon feel less linear, a problem that the Wind Waker dungeons have overall as a sort of problem. Again, I don't agree with this, but I can definitely see why someone would look at this and say "this is right". If you want to hear more about this (and just dungeon design philosophy in general) please feel free to look at Boss Keys by Mark Brown, a very fascinating and great producer of content. Warning that spoilers abound, and also he's one of those people who dislike Fi I think a little overmuch. He also does Game Maker's Toolkit, which talks about game design in general, and it's REALLY good.

I bring all the above up because the Forbidden Woods is basically the most egregious example of Wind Waker's Linearity. You don't feel clever for figuring out you need to cut down the flower, because the game literally plops you in front of it after a room full of vines that you have to cut. It makes it clear that there's really no choice to the dungeon, and that it's more just a series of rooms to solve before going on to the next one. Like I said, I don't really mind this. I think it works perfectly fine, and that some dungeons in some of the Zelda games are perhaps a bit TOO open (we'll talk about this way later when we hit Link to the Past, thank god you guys didn't vote for that) but overall, I can't fault people for saying they prefer dungeons with a bit more freedom.

Anyway, we cut down the flower, breaking open the floor and letting us progress onward. We end today in a room where there's a large red flower that we need to cut down, a further iteration that'll probably lead to some Minish Cap flashbacks. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you guys next time!

[DataNinja]

I like the small, otherworldly, ambient noises that play when there're no enemies around.

The magic replenishing thing was not mentioned before, no.

You got an orb before in the Lava dungeon. Remember, trying to get everything in it sent you into lava?
(Also, I'm pretty sure there was one that despawned during the cutscene where you were talking to the Deku Tree. I was wondering what that pearly thing was, because I'd forgotten about the orbs, but I think it was on of those.)

At least the boomerang has the clear targeting reticle, so it shouldn't be too bad to count.

Spoiler: Treasure Trackers

Show

Treasure #	Contents	Chart?
1	Purple Rupee (50)	No
2	Silver Rupee (200)	Yes
Rupees (Charts)	200
Rupees (Total)	250

[Qwertystop]

It's not (at least in my opinion) the lack of back-tracking, so much as it's the lack of "where do I go next" as a puzzle. In WW, the answer is always "one of the doors I haven't been in yet", and there's nearly always only one openable-but-unvisited door at any given time.

Shortcuts back are fine - the problem is when they're so direct that you don't need to think about where you're going. Even if the one leading to the flower had instead sloped down and put you at the bottom floor of the hub room, that would have been much better. You need to find your way up (assuming you didn't fall down earlier), you need to realize to go to the flower when it's a nonnegligible distance from your face.

[LaZodiac]

It's not (at least in my opinion) the lack of back-tracking, so much as it's the lack of "where do I go next" as a puzzle. In WW, the answer is always "one of the doors I haven't been in yet", and there's nearly always only one openable-but-unvisited door at any given time.

Shortcuts back are fine - the problem is when they're so direct that you don't need to think about where you're going. Even if the one leading to the flower had instead sloped down and put you at the bottom floor of the hub room, that would have been much better. You need to find your way up (assuming you didn't fall down earlier), you need to realize to go to the flower when it's a nonnegligible distance from your face.

Yeah that's be a better way to go about it.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

In the GC version, there is a minimap you can bring up in the bottom left corner of the screen. If I were a betting man, I'd say that there's some way to bring it up on your Wii-U Controller, since it felt like the same mechanic as the chart system on the open seas.

Spoiler: Equipment Guide: Boomerang

Show

The Boomerang is one of Link's classic tools and utilities, dating all the way back to the original NES classic and appearing in most titles in the franchise.

The Boomerang in Windwaker is actually REALLY nifty! First off, anything you can target with a boomerang, you can 'lock onto' as you pan past it with the Boomerang out. This means the Boomerang is actually pretty slow to use outside of combat (more on that in a bit), but has enormous range of utility. It can pick up stuff, like loots, and has various effects on enemies ranging from stunning them to being a pretty effective weapon. By being a targeting weapon, and not ammo-dependent, it remains a useful ranged weapon and tool throughout the game.

But wait, there's more! In this version, it can multi-target up to five targets! This really increases the utility of the tool (and is required to solve the puzzle of the central hub) and makes it one of the best boomerangs of the franchise. Also, if you L-target an enemy, you can just throw the boomerang at them directly instead of multi-targeting for a more rapid-fire approach. This is particularly useful against agile enemies or ones who like to respond to your movements rapidly, as many enemies are stunned by this tool when hit upside the head. It is also an effective weapon against flying enemies, including Keese and Peahats. It will two-shot a Peahat (one to trim the leaf-propeller, one to do the actual killing). It will stun the birds, which leaves them open to the grappling hook to steal their golden feathers or a shot from a more damaging ranged weapon we might find later on.

The Boomerang can also be used to hit triggers out of reach of our intrepid hero, and even triggers which have no direct line of sight due to the curving arc and tendency to follow its trajectory based on the target placement.

It is never obsolete, and can always be used as a valuable combat asset throughout the game all the way to the end, plus a way of grabbing loots which are just out of reach.

I give it 5/5 and another extremely solid tool in Link's arsenal!

I will be doing a dungeon review after you finish it. Suffice to say that I both agree and disagree with Mark Brown on the topic of 'Skyrim doors'.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Spoiler: Zodi's Gusts (10)

Show

Onwards, into the Forbidden Woods.

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker [10] Forbidden Woods

Video Length: 25:11

In this one, we actually begin the second dungeon proper! The Forbidden Woods is an interesting dungeon with some interesting mechanics that iterate across the entire place. It's main mechanic is finding ways to bust open these plant locks, gross vines that keep us from opening doors. We need to find a way to smash the bulb that is the source of those vines, and while there is usually an option around at hand, sometimes there isn't. One of the ways we deal with this is by using these hard nuts scattered around, huge nuts that slowly (very slowy) start to disintegrate when picked up. A quick toss as the plant lock bulb will destroy it utterly! This nut is used a number of times, and can be greatly influenced by the Deku Leaf's wind blasts. The second main mechanic of sort you encounter in this dungeon are then gondolas, platforms that are moved by blasting wind at some fans. They're more than a little finicky at times, mostly because one just spinning it isn't the answer, you have to spin it a specific way to move then gondola a specific way. Another option is to just blast some wind behind you to move the gondola forward, but sometimes that feels "bad" or "wrong" but it's really because the rope for the gondola is shorter than you'd expect so you just go slower. We'll be seeing both of these mechanics used throughout a good portion of the dungeon.

Now let's talk about enemies. You've already met the Green Chu-chu's, but lets talk about the rest of the fearsome foes of the forest. We've got Morths, strange spike ball guys that don't actually cause any damage to us, only sticking to us and making us all stompy and slow. The only danger they really pose is agonizing pain for the poor friend who's keeping track of my kill counter, for then purposes of science. Making that worse are then Mothula, a rare enemy in the dungeon. It's a gross insect that lunges at you, trying to chomp Link's little feet off. It can also spew out more Morths. We actually encounter a winged Mothula as a miniboss as well, but it's not actually a different enemy. Mothula's with wings give you gold feathers like Peahats, which is weird. I'm basically just going to assume gold feathers are so rare (since otherwise they'd only be from Kargarocks, an enemy that basically doesn't fit any dungeon in the game) that they decided to just give it to all winged enemies. Speaking of, Peahats! These annoying plant orbs spin their petal feathers around to fly, and the rotating blades deflect your sword swings. You've gotta stun em with the Deku Leaf, bending them all out of shape so you can stab them. They will of course straighten those leaves out after awhile. The final enemy in the dungeon are Dexivines, which aren't actually counted as enemies and I never actually interact with. They grab you, hurt you, and throw you around a little bit. How rude!

After pushing our way through the dungeon, we eventually come across the dungeon item after slaying the winged Mothula. Within we find the Boomerang, an amazing tool for our arsenal. The boomerang in Wind Waker is great, able to target five things at once when you go in direct aiming mode, bouncing around or otherwise curving to strike at the targets. It kills Boko Bada's immediately, disarms Peahats for a longer amount of time, does weird modal freezing stuff to the Mothulas, kills Morths, it's great. It's also used to solve a specific puzzle, cutting down the flower in the, for lack of a better word, hub of the Forbidden Woods. When we first get to here, we are given a path that lets us go up to the top of the flower (near the dungeon's middle warp pot) that lets us clearly see "oh, we should cut the vines. We'll need something to cut it then come back here". But once you get the boomerang, you can go a new path that lets you see some new stuff, try out the boomerang a bit on some vines, and then get plopped out right in front of the flower in the hub room. The other vines being so nearby and required to cut basically makes it obvious what you need to do, and the lack of backtracking is...annoying, to some people.

I myself don't find this a problem. Backtracking, while it can be made fun by introducing new concepts or iterating on room design by having your newly found item doing something new in those rooms you traverse across...it's still backtracking, which I feel is never a really fun mechanic unless the game is designed around it (like say, Metroid). Others disagree, thinking that it's good because it helps give the player, among other things, a feeling of power since it's a place you're familiar with but now you have new tools to get through it faster or in a better way. It helps the player have to have a mental map of the dungeon so they know HOW to get back to where they're going, rather than just hitting a new shortcut that puts them right where they need to be. It makes the dungeon feel less linear, a problem that the Wind Waker dungeons have overall as a sort of problem. Again, I don't agree with this, but I can definitely see why someone would look at this and say "this is right". If you want to hear more about this (and just dungeon design philosophy in general) please feel free to look at Boss Keys by Mark Brown, a very fascinating and great producer of content. Warning that spoilers abound, and also he's one of those people who dislike Fi I think a little overmuch. He also does Game Maker's Toolkit, which talks about game design in general, and it's REALLY good.

I bring all the above up because the Forbidden Woods is basically the most egregious example of Wind Waker's Linearity. You don't feel clever for figuring out you need to cut down the flower, because the game literally plops you in front of it after a room full of vines that you have to cut. It makes it clear that there's really no choice to the dungeon, and that it's more just a series of rooms to solve before going on to the next one. Like I said, I don't really mind this. I think it works perfectly fine, and that some dungeons in some of the Zelda games are perhaps a bit TOO open (we'll talk about this way later when we hit Link to the Past, thank god you guys didn't vote for that) but overall, I can't fault people for saying they prefer dungeons with a bit more freedom.

Anyway, we cut down the flower, breaking open the floor and letting us progress onward. We end today in a room where there's a large red flower that we need to cut down, a further iteration that'll probably lead to some Minish Cap flashbacks. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you guys next time!

Heh. Everything branches from the hub room in a forest dungeon. Heh. I'll see myself out.

The structure at ground level in the room you enter in 1:34? That's one of the buildings from Ocarina of Time in the Kokiri forest. It reminds me of the store. There's another in 4:41, that one kind of reminds me of Links House with the higher entrance. The platform that is hanging with the flower on top that had the 4 green and 1 blue rupee looked like a house, Saria had a house like that, and the rupees are in the same configuration the hearts were in her house in ocarina of time. The last one that you point out with the bomb dunk I have no idea. Likely the know it all brothers because they loved talking about game mechanics and you use a few of them to get in (bomb dunk, crawling, jumping). You'll also notice that the emblem on each door in this dungeon has the same symbol as the Kokiri's Emerald and Duke Shield in Ocarina of Time.

Morths. Oh God. OH GOD. I'm gonna have to go into the dungeon myself and hand count them. Rip. Putting it as TBD for now. EDIT: well that was awful. and not really helpful. I'm giving you accurate numbers to the best of my ability however. Wish there was a guide with a number of enemies in any particular room right now however. These guys are worse than the Aracha from skyward sword in terms of kill inflation.

Vine maze reminds me of fire maze in OoT. At least with the vines its only a quarter heart.

For the first time you have a successful orb! Orb one sunk into the lava immediately, orb two cost you some rupees which sank into the lava as it spread after defeating one of those magtails. Orb three was taken by the Deku Tree cutscene. Some rupees as well.

Breaking through the floor with the flower house reminds me of the Deku Tree mechanic from OoT. That's gotta be intentional.

---

EPISODE 10 KILL TALLY!

Green ChuChu - 12
Boko Baba - 8
Peahats - 10
Morth - 138
Mothula - 1
Winged Mothula - 1
Octorok - 1

Style Points - 0

Missed Rupees - 0!
Lost Rupees (theft, overflow, ect.) - 0!

---

The Wind Waker
Total Kills
(As of Episode 10)

Spoiler

Show

Boko Baba - 14
Kargarok - 2
Octorok - 3
Peahat - 8
Rat - 3

Blin
Bokoblin, Red - 1
Bokoblin, Blue - 24
Bokoblin, Green - 4
Moblin, Blue - 1

ChuChus
Chuchu, Red - 24
Chuchu, Green - 20

Keese
Keese - 7
Keese, Fire - 4

Mold
Magtail - 3
Gohma - 1
Morth - 138
Mothula - 1
Mothula, Winged - 1

Total Things Dead - 263

1st Place - Morth, at 138!
2nd Place - Blue Bokoblin and Red ChuChu, tied at 24!
3rd Place - Green ChuChu, at 20!

Total Style Points - 5

Total Missed Rupees - 30
Total Lost Rupees - 30

[LaZodiac]

Oh hey more Zelda I guess

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker [11] Kalle Demos

Video Length: 21:41

Starting us off this episode, it's time to raft. Only for a bit though, they realized the precision controls for the Deku Leaf are, perhaps, not very precise, so the flower top rafting segment is very short. This leads us to a room that I've always had problems with as a kid. A big tree stump/former house with a series of crystals around it. The swirl on the tree stump makes it clear, hit em all with your boomerang! But as a kid, I don't know why but it's never worked 100% of the time. I always had to repeat it a bunch. But here I do it first shot so bully for me. Doing this unlocks the chest for the Big Key, so now we're ready to take on the boss of the dungeon! But first we've got some moblins in our way...the first time fighting two of them, and the first time fighting any where we have access to the grappling hook. The loot item you can steal from Moblins is the Skull Necklace. Depending on your definition this is probably the least useful loot item, but also the one that has the most uses. So that's...a fascinating bit of overlap isn't it. Huh. We dispatch the moblins, and make our way to the boss room.

We slice our way path two annoying Mothula's to find ourselves in the room just before the boss. It's a fascinating looking area, with a really interesting feel to it. The big door, the lighting of the torches, the chestnuts laying around full of enemies and items and stuff. As always there is a warp pot near the door, which we open. Now then. It's time to face the boss.

Or we could just leave. That's an option too. We return to the Forest Haven and pick up some of it's spring water. The Forest Haven, due to...you know, being a haven for the forest, has rather pure water. It also happens to be magical, giving you an infinite amount of water for 30 minutes (20 in the original Gamecube version). The timer starts counting down once you leave the Deku Tree's house. Why did I do this? Well...you'll see.

Returning to the boss chamber, NOW it's time to fight Kalle Demos. Kalle Demos is a tiny little plant with a massive body beneath it, protecting it from harm. Thankfully for us it's got vines to attach it to the ceiling, giving us a perfect route to disabling it's protection. That's what you get for having too heavy leaves jerk! Kalle Demos' only way of attacking you is to send out it's roots to flail wildly at you in an attempt to hurt you. It's honestly the least threatening boss in the game, especially given the Wii U version lets you move while aiming the boomerang. A boss that might be a little tricky due to managing your positioning has now been rendered moot since you can aim and shoot. The worst of it is, the flower will close back up after the vines regrow, and if you're within the bud you'll get ate and take quite a bit of damage. Thankfully, we have just the solution to this problem.

With Kalle Demos defeated, the good boy Makar is saved and another heart can be added to our collection. We also took a shot of Demos for later. We return to the Deku Tree, and Makar plays a really good song that I've always really liked, while the other Koroks dance about and sing, and with some effort the Deku Tree creates seeds that drop down for his little tree children. All but Makar and Hollo take a seed and fly off to random parts of the ocean to plant a tree from those seeds, in the hopes that their roots will pull the islands upward. Perhaps one day they will make that fabled thing once known as "land". In return for our hard work, the Deku Tree gives us the Pearl of Farore, a glowing green crystal, and second in our quest. Just one more remains!

But now. Now it is later. So it's time to do the thing. Climbing back up the Deku Tree, we go one step beyond and come out at a different opening in the Haven, and spy a mysterious bunker down on one of the mini islands nearby. Soaring down on our leaf to investigate, we find a kid named Manny. He wants access to this so called "Nintendo Art Gallery". While we don't have a member pass, we DO see the crystal needed to open it. And we did buy those pears...using one of our pears we take control of a seagull and fly it into the switch, opening up the bunker! This is I believe a sort of sequence break of sorts, since the bird always reacts a little weird to the switch like you're really not INTENDED to be able to hit it with the bird, but then hey it works so why not. Once inside, we meet Carlov, who you may recall from Minish Cap was a mini-fig creator. Well in this one he makes full on statues, based on photos we've taken.

Those of you paying close attention may of noticed the "good!" marking on some photos we've taken. That's new to the Wii U version, a way to tell if the picture is good enough for Carlov to make art from it. This is a long running sidequest that spans the entire game, and I will be finishing the entire gallery. This is, for lack of a better term, GOING TO TAKE A BIT. The reason for that being, EVERY NPC and EVERY enemy, boss or otherwise, shows up here. Some of them are obtained as a set and some are missable, and I'll be getting them all. That Rito I took a picture of awhile ago, he vanishes after a certain point, for example. In the original game the pictobox could only hold three photos at a time, and Carlov could only do one statue at a time. Here the camera's got higher capacity and Carlov can work on all of them at once. This will greatly speed up the process, but even then it'll take awhile.

But, that'll be for later. For now, we've finished the video. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you guys next time!

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Spoiler: Zodi's Gusts (11)

Show

Oh hey more Zelda I guess

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker [11] Kalle Demos

Video Length: 21:41

Starting us off this episode, it's time to raft. Only for a bit though, they realized the precision controls for the Deku Leaf are, perhaps, not very precise, so the flower top rafting segment is very short. This leads us to a room that I've always had problems with as a kid. A big tree stump/former house with a series of crystals around it. The swirl on the tree stump makes it clear, hit em all with your boomerang! But as a kid, I don't know why but it's never worked 100% of the time. I always had to repeat it a bunch. But here I do it first shot so bully for me. Doing this unlocks the chest for the Big Key, so now we're ready to take on the boss of the dungeon! But first we've got some moblins in our way...the first time fighting two of them, and the first time fighting any where we have access to the grappling hook. The loot item you can steal from Moblins is the Skull Necklace. Depending on your definition this is probably the least useful loot item, but also the one that has the most uses. So that's...a fascinating bit of overlap isn't it. Huh. We dispatch the moblins, and make our way to the boss room.

We slice our way path two annoying Mothula's to find ourselves in the room just before the boss. It's a fascinating looking area, with a really interesting feel to it. The big door, the lighting of the torches, the chestnuts laying around full of enemies and items and stuff. As always there is a warp pot near the door, which we open. Now then. It's time to face the boss.

Or we could just leave. That's an option too. We return to the Forest Haven and pick up some of it's spring water. The Forest Haven, due to...you know, being a haven for the forest, has rather pure water. It also happens to be magical, giving you an infinite amount of water for 30 minutes (20 in the original Gamecube version). The timer starts counting down once you leave the Deku Tree's house. Why did I do this? Well...you'll see.

Returning to the boss chamber, NOW it's time to fight Kalle Demos. Kalle Demos is a tiny little plant with a massive body beneath it, protecting it from harm. Thankfully for us it's got vines to attach it to the ceiling, giving us a perfect route to disabling it's protection. That's what you get for having too heavy leaves jerk! Kalle Demos' only way of attacking you is to send out it's roots to flail wildly at you in an attempt to hurt you. It's honestly the least threatening boss in the game, especially given the Wii U version lets you move while aiming the boomerang. A boss that might be a little tricky due to managing your positioning has now been rendered moot since you can aim and shoot. The worst of it is, the flower will close back up after the vines regrow, and if you're within the bud you'll get ate and take quite a bit of damage. Thankfully, we have just the solution to this problem.

With Kalle Demos defeated, the good boy Makar is saved and another heart can be added to our collection. We also took a shot of Demos for later. We return to the Deku Tree, and Makar plays a really good song that I've always really liked, while the other Koroks dance about and sing, and with some effort the Deku Tree creates seeds that drop down for his little tree children. All but Makar and Hollo take a seed and fly off to random parts of the ocean to plant a tree from those seeds, in the hopes that their roots will pull the islands upward. Perhaps one day they will make that fabled thing once known as "land". In return for our hard work, the Deku Tree gives us the Pearl of Farore, a glowing green crystal, and second in our quest. Just one more remains!

But now. Now it is later. So it's time to do the thing. Climbing back up the Deku Tree, we go one step beyond and come out at a different opening in the Haven, and spy a mysterious bunker down on one of the mini islands nearby. Soaring down on our leaf to investigate, we find a kid named Manny. He wants access to this so called "Nintendo Art Gallery". While we don't have a member pass, we DO see the crystal needed to open it. And we did buy those pears...using one of our pears we take control of a seagull and fly it into the switch, opening up the bunker! This is I believe a sort of sequence break of sorts, since the bird always reacts a little weird to the switch like you're really not INTENDED to be able to hit it with the bird, but then hey it works so why not. Once inside, we meet Carlov, who you may recall from Minish Cap was a mini-fig creator. Well in this one he makes full on statues, based on photos we've taken.

Those of you paying close attention may of noticed the "good!" marking on some photos we've taken. That's new to the Wii U version, a way to tell if the picture is good enough for Carlov to make art from it. This is a long running sidequest that spans the entire game, and I will be finishing the entire gallery. This is, for lack of a better term, GOING TO TAKE A BIT. The reason for that being, EVERY NPC and EVERY enemy, boss or otherwise, shows up here. Some of them are obtained as a set and some are missable, and I'll be getting them all. That Rito I took a picture of awhile ago, he vanishes after a certain point, for example. In the original game the pictobox could only hold three photos at a time, and Carlov could only do one statue at a time. Here the camera's got higher capacity and Carlov can work on all of them at once. This will greatly speed up the process, but even then it'll take awhile.

But, that'll be for later. For now, we've finished the video. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you guys next time!

Ah ha, another Kokiri house in the room after the floating flower stretch. This one is very obvious in its call back to the house that gets you to the top walkways in Kokiri Village.

Oh god, I'm going to get anxiety from the sight of a morth. Killing all morphs actually helps me because I can see how many exist, and then I don't have to count which you've killed and which you haven't. I guess that's a general rule for counting, but especially for enemies that are hard to tell like these guys. XD

Kalle Damos always reminds me of the Barinade fight from Ocarina of Time. Its interesting the parallels. And the major differences. I also notice that Damos' vines attaching to the ceiling kinda look like Daxihands...cool!

Bottle Beats Baba. And this is why style points are a thing. To reward you for showcasing things like this! +1 Style Point

I love the music in this game. Just saying.

Gotta love the old masks from the happy mask shop. And what game wouldn't be complete without lon lon milk (quite a few actually). Actually...how old is that milk? Also the fish thing hanging from the ceiling is an obscure Majora's Mask reference. The quest is arduous, but I really do love the reward. In terms of the descriptions of things and the models, they just are done well and its great.

---

EPISODE 11 KILL TALLY!

Octorok - 3
Moblin - 2
Morth - 30
Mothula - 2
Kalle Damos - 1

Style Points - 1

Missed Rupees - 0! (x2!)
Lost Rupees (theft, overflow, ect.) - 0!

---

The Wind Waker
Total Kills
(As of Episode 11)

Spoiler

Show

Kargarok - 2
Octorok - 6
Peahat - 8
Rat - 3

Baba
Boko Baba - 14
Kalle Damos - 1

Blin
Bokoblin, Red - 1
Bokoblin, Blue - 24
Bokoblin, Green - 4
Moblin, Blue - 3

ChuChus
Chuchu, Red - 24
Chuchu, Green - 20

Keese
Keese - 7
Keese, Fire - 4

Mold
Magtail - 3
Gohma - 1
Morth - 168
Mothula - 3
Mothula, Winged - 1

Total Things Dead - 301

1st Place - Morth, at 168!
2nd Place - Blue Bokoblin and Red ChuChu, tied at 24!
3rd Place - Green ChuChu, at 20!

Total Style Points - 6

Total Missed Rupees - 30
Total Lost Rupees - 30

[Qwertystop]

You seem to have missed something about the potion you got.

Green Potion is the one that restores only magic.

Turning in those seeds gets you Blue Potion. I'd say they might be the most useful collectible - though you can get enough for a potion on the way into the Forest Haven, so they don't really need farming.

[LaZodiac]

You seem to have missed something about the potion you got.

Green Potion is the one that restores only magic.

Turning in those seeds gets you Blue Potion. I'd say they might be the most useful collectible - though you can get enough for a potion on the way into the Forest Haven, so they don't really need farming.

I...completely forgot that the blue potion heals hp as well. I'm pretty sure Hollo says it only heals magic though?

Plant wizardry is confusing.

[Qwertystop]

I...completely forgot that the blue potion heals hp as well. I'm pretty sure Hollo says it only heals magic though?

Plant wizardry is confusing.

He says it would restore magic. He doesn't say "only", and the item description when you get it mentions the health.

Yeah, this sort of invalidates the potion-shop. Free Blue Potion, forever!

[Yuki Akuma]

In every game with a magic meter, the Blue Potion restores both magic and hearts. In any other game it appears it, it only restores hearts. It's never been a magic-only potion - that's the Green Potion.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

First off, let's talk about the Potion Shop.

He does indeed give you a blue potion, which is both health and magic. The confusion here is that you can theoretically come here before encountering the deku tree being covered in chu-chu that you then have to kill and obtain the leaf. And you are also likely to have enough Baba Seeds to get yourself a blue potion as soon as you come in here. So, to 'gate' you along the 'proper' path, he won't make potions for you until after you get the Deku Leaf, which then gives you the magic meter. However, he can't just say 'you need the deku leaf first', because that would be spoilers. So he uses the generic term 'you need magic before this will be useful to you'. Which, to be fair, is kinda true, because what is the point in a potion that heals both hearts and magic if you do not have both bars to fill? Might as well simply use a red potion, eh?

But his phrase 'you need magic for this to be useful to you' can easily be mis-interpreted as 'this only restores magic', instead of both.

Speaking of potions, let me say a few things here:

Red Potions are largely obsolete in this particular game, as you can store faeries which do the same thing passively and have access to them at roughly the same point in the game.

Green Potions restore magic, which is something that... well... there's so many ways of recovering magic in areas that you might need to recover magic that there's almost no use for this potion. You'll find conveniently located Baba Buds that heal your magic near areas you need to spend magic (such as using the deku leaf to fly around, as seen in this dungeon), or you will find things like renewable shrubs to cut down that have a surprisingly high rate of dropping magic jars, or some similar mechanic.

Blue Potions are clearly the best of the three, basically combining both into one package, and are easily obtainable in the forest shop. Sadly, this makes the Chu Jelly Shop largely obsolete as getting blue potions out of him requires a long and convoluted side-quest that is surprisingly easy to never be able to complete due to how its mechanics works. I've only done it once, personally.

Unfortunately, none of the potions are really critical. Red potions are made obsolete by the prevalence of faeries, green potions are almost never necessary due to a prevalence of ways of getting magic back, and blue potions are really not relevant due to both of aforementioned reasons combined. If you want to carry around a Blue Potion, fine, but the odds of you finding a time where using it is relevant is going to be rather low.

Ultimately, however, there's an even better bottle-based item you can get later that makes even blue potions completely obsolete.

In short, potions are really kinda useless in this version of Zelda, which was addressed and corrected in the next (our timeline, not the zelda timeline) offering: Twilight Princess, in which not everything that healed would heal you full, and faeries in particular were nerfed significantly.

Now then, let's discuss the references made in the figurine shop, at least those I can catch from watching the video casually, I may miss a few. As many of these reference other games in the Zelda franchise, which we may not have done yet, I will put the whole thing in spoiler tags. Unlike many of my other spoiler-tagged commentaries, such as the Equipment Guide series, this will almost CERTAINLY CONTAIN SPOILERS, be advised:

Spoiler: Figurine Shop Easter Eggs

Show

* Tetra's Boat is the first thing that comes up in the spyglass. It's sitting on the shelf, as Zodi focuses on the next item:

* Latte Milk Bar poster is the first thing actually focused on. This appeared originally in Majora's Mask, and has since appeared in other Zelda offerings. In Majora's Mask, you need a particular mask to enter this milk bar, which operates much like a prohibition-era speakeasy or other private club. This poster stood directly adjacent to the door of the milk bar, was targetable, and would inform the reader of the name of the establishment, and that it was for members only.

* Zora Mask. Also from Majora's Mask, over the shoulder of the proprietor of this establishment we see this on the shelf against the back wall.

* Milk Bottles. Up at the very top shelf on the left, we are graced with Milk Bottles. In fact, if I'm not mistaken, this is the graphic for the Chateau Romani also only obtainable in Majora's Mask.

* Ice Statue. These guys show up later in this game. Kind of annoying blow-hards.

* Statuette. Oh look, that cute little statue we saw on the Triangle Island is in here.

* Another boat. I think this is another copy of Tetra's Boat

* Submarine. As we are panning over, we briefly cross over a Submarine, which at first glance looks like a keg, due to the wooden barrel design. We come back to it later

* Seagull. Along the left wall, the first thing focused on is a stuffed seagull.

* Goron Mask. Also from Majora's Mask, is the Goron Mask which, like the Zora Mask, turns you into a specific fellow of that race.

* Keeton Mask. First appearing in OoT, and appearing in at least Majora's Mask, the Keeton Mask was the start of the 'mask quests' in OoT, given to the gate guard at Kakairo Village as a present for her child. In Majora's Mask it has... other uses.

* Pig. Sitting on the counter on the right is a stuffed pig.

Now let's have a look at this dungeon:

Spoiler: Dungeon Analysis: Forbidden Woods

Show

So, this temple has a couple of gimmicks. First, those doors that require you to kill the source of the vines when you physically are distant from it. There's several ways to do this. First off is going to be tossing a nut at it. Then we have several ways of obtaining nuts to bring to the appropriate door to open, including using a gondola and using the leaf to blow it to where you can get it. You probably blew the nut off the gondola at least once the first time you went through, so each iteration built off of experiences from the previous and introduced this concept appropriately. Then you use a bomb instead of a nut, which is also a fairly intuitive leap. Finally, you can use the special item of the dungeon, the boomerang, to bypass them. It only makes you do this once, just to prove you can and make you feel good about it.

The second gimmick is flying around and bouncing around with the baba buds. This really lets you explore the verticality of the dungeon in ways that no previous zelda offering really did. And there ARE a couple of places Zodi missed. In the one room you first encounter the Mothra, you can keep going up, but it requires a new twist on an old tool. You can grapple an area, then slow yourself down and climb up it to get to the next elevation. Continue going up, and you get to a chest with a treasure chart in it! This is a chest that EVERYONE misses at least the first time around, because using the grappling hook to climb straight up is never expressedly mentioned anywhere, and is not a mechanic otherwise used until the final iteration of the final boss. I find this an amazing use of this. For those who look up and figure out the mechanic, not only did you get telegraphed something used later, but you also got a spiffy reward for your trouble! But since it isn't mandatory to beat the dungeon or the game, it can be safely skipped by new players. Think of it as a great way of introducing bonus content.

Now then, like every dungeon in this game, there's a HUGE main room that everything branches off of. This is good for several reasons. First off, flight -or at least gliding- is a major mechanic in this dungeon, so it is particularly appropriate here that it really explores vertical space. However, this also minimizes necessary backtracking by giving you a central hub to go back through at different levels, re-using the same room in different ways to re-use assets already used so you don't have to make multiple big rooms, but also to give you the idea of something fresh and new unlocked, making it feel like a totally different room as a result.

Another point about backtracking, one which receives some pretty negative commentary from the creator of the Youtube series Boss Keys, is how you never *need* to backtrack to beat the dungeon, and how you are always deposited right where you need to be to progress. In particular, he complains that after getting the boomerang, you are shunted through a different exit that takes you right back to the main room that you use the boomerang to go into the basement with. However, I would respectfully disagree with his harsh criticism, and instead say that this is a great example of dungeon layout.

He seems to favor backtracking, I most certainly don't. Backtracking is boring in most cases, because you've already done it once, beaten it, pacified it, and so it is either a trivial issue to go back or, if it was an obnoxious dangerous terrain puzzle, then even more annoying because you have to go back through it again. This game bypasses this marvelously, and I can only approve. I've heard these 'mini-shortcuts' referred to as Skyrim Doors, after the fact that most instanced areas in Skyrim have an exit at the end of the area as well as one at the entrance.

Now, I will concur that this dungeon, as practically every dungeon in Windwaker, is almost entirely linear. Unlike him, however, I don't necessarily see this as a particularly harsh thing. You see, while the path to BEAT the dungeon is almost always linear, there's always chests containing heart pieces or treasure charts laying around in obscure areas that DO require you to go off the beaten path. This, to me, is the best of both worlds. New players can simply 'follow the path', as Boss Keys is wont to say, while those who begin to realize the depth of the dungeons can go get extra loots and feel proud of themselves for having found something that was never pointed out to them. This also functions as an 'advanced tutorial' to help players new to the series discover that there's quite a bit more in Zelda dungeons than first meets the eye, and actually trains players in learning HOW to 'find the path'. However, it does it in such a way as to not just shove it in a player's face with a 'helpful' companion (Fi...), which I find to be the best of both worlds.

Now, I never actually knew about this method of defeating this boss, so good job! However, I will say that, generally speaking, this boss isn't all that challenging anyway. Basically, your job is to strafe-circle and cut down the vines holding it up so you can give it a smack-down. And... that's really all you ever have to do.

As far as difficulty goes, it's not really much more difficult than the previous dungeon. There's a few new tricks, but they are introduced in a very robust manner which gives the player all the information he needs to progress and build upon. The challenges themselves are not particularly challenging or annoying.

I give this dungeon a 4/5. A well crafted environment for a still new player, adding new mechanics to go with the old, and a few seeeekrits that takes a bit more skill to discover/obtain. Entirely suitable for an early-game dungeon.

[DataNinja]

From last time... 138 Morths?

There's an easy answer as to why it behaved. That being that you said it wouldn't.

This boss reminds me a lot of... whatever that parasite was called within Jabu-Jabu. Only a plant. But, especially with the grabbing vine-tentacles throughout the area. (Postscript: Ah, I see I'm not the only one to notice that.)

And, ah. That explains the random water sidetrack.

For some reason, that Deku Tree song gave me a Final Fantasy-ish feel. Parts of it especially reminded me of Crystal Chronicle's festival theme, and Revenant Wings' title theme.

Ooh, nice. I really like the look of those figurines. ...there's a lot of pedestals, though. Also, it amuses me that it explicitly tells you the bosses weaknesses after you've beaten them.

Spoiler: Treasure Trackers

Show

Treasure #	Contents	Chart?
1	Purple Rupee (50)	No
2	Silver Rupee (200)	Yes
Rupees (Charts)	200
Rupees (Total)	250

[LaZodiac]

Oh hey look it's a follow up A Taste Of thing.

A Taste Of: Nier Automata

Video Length: 12:02

I'll be honest, the only reason this one is as short as it is is because the original recording was 30+ minutes because there wasn't really a good place to stop and also because it was amazing fun to play. Nier Automata is the sequel to Nier proper, set in the same world. This one involves robots and androids and goes pretty deep into philosophy and what it means to be alive and stuff. Gameplay wise it's amazing. By the time of uploading this video I've already beaten the game completely except for the DLC, so take it from me when I say this game is definitely worth playing. Just pick up Nier one first.

[DataNinja]

Looks pretty cool. I'm digging the aesthetic, too.

I don't really have much to say, but I do find it cool how disabling the melee capabilities of the excavator turns it into ranged capabilities instead. Interesting design.

[LaZodiac]

I've been super messed up on what day it is due to work, but here have a Zelda.

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker [12] Greatfish Island

Video Length: 25:43

In today's episode, we begin by doing some clean up. First of all, we take a photo of near everyone on the island (only missing the Koroks who left, who we'll get later) and getting all the enemies we didn't have, minus the octorok which I just plum forgot to get. We also pick up all the optional chests we missed, getting a good handful of loot items plus the final Treasure Chart the Forbidden Woods has. After giving the photos away and reporting back to the King of Red Lions, we get told our next destination. Far to the north east is another island, and on it another Pearl. Onwards!

The boat trip is pretty chaotic, as far as traveling in this game goes. We pass by or otherwise make landfall at a couple of islands, the most immediately pressing of them being the Private Oasis, owned by Miss Marie of Windfall Island. It is here that we encounter our first miniboss of then sea, the Eight Eyed Big Octo! These bad boys create a whirlpool around them, trapping you in a slowly shortening loop. Once you get to close to them you're sunk, and deposited somewhere else on the Sea, missing some hearts. The Big Octo itself is pretty challenging to deal with right now, since we only have a boomerang and that can't really damage the eyes all that fast. Luckily, I was able to destroy him...and less luckily, I forgot that then eight-eyes only give rupees as a reward. As a result, we've finally taken a big hit to our wallet in terms of efficiency. Let's hope this doesn't come back to bite us. Other enemies of note include the Seahat, large fish based Peahats that are a massive pain to deal with, pirate warships that we cannot deal with yet AT ALL, and gyorgs, who are barely there shark monsters that can do basically nothing to you.

One thing of note is that we start hearing about some weird stuff from the Fishman. Tales of golden silverware and ways to find pieces of it. You may recall an Old Man Ho Ho said something along those lines back on Outset Island too. Mysterious. Tingle also has some...interesting things to say about the islands, mostly things that raise questions like "okay so the Great Sea doesn't have fish, but we know crabs exist, is sea food still really a thing or not?" It's something that's somewhat unclear, and Tingle being Tingle he just has to raise more questions than we'll ever get answers for.

Anyway, after all is said and done...we arrive on Greatfish Island. And find that we were not here first. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you guys next time...where we deal with what just happened.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Spoiler: Zodi's Gusts (12)

Show

I've been super messed up on what day it is due to work, but here have a Zelda.

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker [12] Greatfish Island

Video Length: 25:43

In today's episode, we begin by doing some clean up. First of all, we take a photo of near everyone on the island (only missing the Koroks who left, who we'll get later) and getting all the enemies we didn't have, minus the octorok which I just plum forgot to get. We also pick up all the optional chests we missed, getting a good handful of loot items plus the final Treasure Chart the Forbidden Woods has. After giving the photos away and reporting back to the King of Red Lions, we get told our next destination. Far to the north east is another island, and on it another Pearl. Onwards!

The boat trip is pretty chaotic, as far as traveling in this game goes. We pass by or otherwise make landfall at a couple of islands, the most immediately pressing of them being the Private Oasis, owned by Miss Marie of Windfall Island. It is here that we encounter our first miniboss of then sea, the Eight Eyed Big Octo! These bad boys create a whirlpool around them, trapping you in a slowly shortening loop. Once you get to close to them you're sunk, and deposited somewhere else on the Sea, missing some hearts. The Big Octo itself is pretty challenging to deal with right now, since we only have a boomerang and that can't really damage the eyes all that fast. Luckily, I was able to destroy him...and less luckily, I forgot that then eight-eyes only give rupees as a reward. As a result, we've finally taken a big hit to our wallet in terms of efficiency. Let's hope this doesn't come back to bite us. Other enemies of note include the Seahat, large fish based Peahats that are a massive pain to deal with, pirate warships that we cannot deal with yet AT ALL, and gyorgs, who are barely there shark monsters that can do basically nothing to you.

One thing of note is that we start hearing about some weird stuff from the Fishman. Tales of golden silverware and ways to find pieces of it. You may recall an Old Man Ho Ho said something along those lines back on Outset Island too. Mysterious. Tingle also has some...interesting things to say about the islands, mostly things that raise questions like "okay so the Great Sea doesn't have fish, but we know crabs exist, is sea food still really a thing or not?" It's something that's somewhat unclear, and Tingle being Tingle he just has to raise more questions than we'll ever get answers for.

Anyway, after all is said and done...we arrive on Greatfish Island. And find that we were not here first. Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you guys next time...where we deal with what just happened.

You had me smiling when you went to get the green and blue rupees in the forbidden woods.

Big Octo! Oh man, not the time to get one of those! Rip overflow. At least it was only 37 rupees. It could have been 100 more than that...

Rip Great Fish island. I wish we'd gotten to see it in its glory!

---

EPISODE 12 KILL TALLY!

Boko Baba - 2
Green ChuChu - 5
Peahat - 3
Big Octo (8 eyes) - 1

Style Points - 0

Missed Rupees - 0! (x3 combo!)
Lost Rupees (theft, overflow, ect.) - 37

---

The Wind Waker
Total Kills
(As of Episode 12)

Spoiler

Show

Kargarok - 2
Peahat - 11
Rat - 3

Baba
Boko Baba - 16
Kalle Damos - 1

Blin
Bokoblin, Red - 1
Bokoblin, Blue - 24
Bokoblin, Green - 4
Moblin, Blue - 3

ChuChus
Chuchu, Red - 24
Chuchu, Green - 25

Keese
Keese - 7
Keese, Fire - 4

Mold
Magtail - 3
Gohma - 1
Morth - 168
Mothula - 3
Mothula, Winged - 1

Octorok
Octorok - 6
Big Octo (8 eyes) - 1

Total Things Dead - 312

1st Place - Morth, at 168!
2nd Place - Green ChuChu, at 25!
3rd Place - Blue Bokoblin and Red ChuChu, tied at 24!

Total Style Points - 6

Total Missed Rupees - 30
Total Lost Rupees - 67

[DataNinja]

Man, that noise of walking on the treetops in the peahat room... it reminds me so much of the Gold Skultula noise. I kept expecting to just see one on the wall.

How did I guess that they would be called Seahats? I guess the name is just too obvious.

Also, why wouldn't the Great Sea have fish? Weren't there fishermen on Windfall Isle? Wouldn't that be most of their livelihood? That was why it was (theoretically) so hard to get a sail, no?

Spoiler: Treasure Trackers

Show

Treasure #	Contents	Chart?
1	Purple Rupee (50)	No
2	Silver Rupee (200)	Yes
3	Piece of Heart	Yes
4	Orange Rupee (100)	No
Rupees (Charts)	200
Rupees (Total)	350

[LaZodiac]

Man, that noise of walking on the treetops in the peahat room... it reminds me so much of the Gold Skultula noise. I kept expecting to just see one on the wall.

How did I guess that they would be called Seahats? I guess the name is just too obvious.

Also, why wouldn't the Great Sea have fish? Weren't there fishermen on Windfall Isle? Wouldn't that be most of their livelihood? That was why it was (theoretically) so hard to get a sail, no?

Spoiler: Treasure Trackers

Show

Treasure #	Contents	Chart?
1	Purple Rupee (50)	No
2	Silver Rupee (200)	Yes
3	Piece of Heart	Yes
4	Orange Rupee (100)	No
Rupees (Charts)	200
Rupees (Total)	350

The lack of fish is something that's mentioned later in the game somewhere (I don't remember where specifically). I think the idea is that there are monster hunters who "fish" for monsters and stuff. So for Windfall, it's hard to get a sail because they need it for that.

[DataNinja]

Ah, okay. I see.

Clearly, they eat Octoroks; but they must be cooked alive, else they disappear in a puff of smoke.

[Knaight]

Man, that noise of walking on the treetops in the peahat room... it reminds me so much of the Gold Skultula noise. I kept expecting to just see one on the wall.

How did I guess that they would be called Seahats? I guess the name is just too obvious.

Also, why wouldn't the Great Sea have fish? Weren't there fishermen on Windfall Isle? Wouldn't that be most of their livelihood? That was why it was (theoretically) so hard to get a sail, no?

Marine ecologies are pretty weird - where in terrestrial ecosystems the bottom layers of the food chain represent the bulk of the extant mass at any given time (there's a lot of plant life), in marine systems the bottom layers are constantly producing a great deal and being consumed rapidly such that the mass is concentrated in big predators (there's not a lot of algae, or small plankton). Meanwhile the WW ocean has a whole bunch of big surface level predators, like the extensive octarok infestation.

[ShneekeyTheLost]

One thing I'll point out here: Notice where on the larger map you were when you ran into Seahats? Roughly the middle of the area. That's a consistent theme, the borders are generally safe, but the middle areas are particularly dangerous seas to navigate in. There were some things you missed, not sure if it was deliberate or not, but typically things I get along the way...

Spoiler: srs spoilerz, for realz

Show

South of the Great Deku is one of the blank-eye fortress islands, where you meet Mr Hoooo who sees a flock of seagulls off of it. THAT particular Big Octo has something VERY interesting, and I'm not talkin' about rupees. I usually call that area 'Tahiti'.

I'm surprised you haven't gone to one of those two areas marked on Tingle's map. You know, the one very near Windfall island? I bet you could've avoided the embarrassment of today's episode if you had visited that area after rescuing Valoo.

I also tend to avoid the central part of the map until I have... something that can more adequately deal with the Seahats. Granted, not entirely possible, but you can hug the boundaries of the map and pass by Outset Island on the way up to Greatfish to avoid most of them.

Since you're going to have to go back to Windfall anyways, it seems, to go chasing after Pirates and whatever their plan is there, you may as well detour to get that other place nearby that Tingle's Chart displays. May come in handy.

You'll hear a lot about golden triumph forks as you talk to the fish-folk. They apparently take great store in these elusive and rare cutlery. Perhaps there will be a reward for finding them all? I wonder if there's a way to keep track of them all, something written... yanno... on a piece of paper or something. Eh, who'm I kidding. There's no WAY there would be any such convenient thing ever given in THIS game.

[LaZodiac]

I have my reasons for why I do things, don't worry Shneekey.

Some times it's because I forgot. Sometimes it's because of game flow. You get to decide which is when.

[LaZodiac]

Super early video due to work that is also early. Ironically it's a good thing this happened because I accidently messed up the upload and can fix it now.

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker [13] Homecoming

Video Length: 23:16

Last time, we discovered that Greatfish Island had been destroyed by the forces of evil, the spirit protector having left for Outset Island. The pirates know of a way to get within Jabun's hiding spot, and they've gone to Windfall. Now it's time to pursue them. Will they help us, or will their desire for treasure override their desire to help us out? The King of Red Lions suspects that they won't, and truth be told he's probably right. Pirates do love them some treasure. So, once we arrive we use the opportunity to investigate the island, looking for where the pirates might be. After all, I can think of a few places they might go. Sadly the cafe bar thing lacks any pirate activity, though it does let us see that the townsfolk aren't 100% sure the pirates are here or not. Even if they were, why would they come to this sleepy little island anyway? I mean it's not like this is a merchantile island literally named after a term that means "gettin' lots of money" or anything.

However, there is one person who can tell us where the pirates went, even if he doesn't realize they're pirates himself. The star gazer, that moon liker boy from a couple days ago, he's seen some strangers head into the bomb shop. So now we know where to go, and now we have the event that I brought up millions of years ago that relates to playing hide and seek with the Killer Bee's. Even though that's optional, most people will end up doing it just as a matter of course from talking to NPCs that look interesting. One of the kids hides behind the bomb shop, seeding it in your mind that "you can go behind the bomb shop" and also revealing the ivy that lets you climb on top of it. If we had climbed up we'd of even seen the hole in the wall that we now go to climb through, to spy on the pirates in question. What follows entering the bomb shop is a fantastic scene where we spy on the pirates, and see a bit of how they work. Turns out the pirate that "tricked" or mail man friend probably WAS concerned for us, giving his reaction. And Tetra herself seems more focused on saving Outset then the treasure...made all the more clear when she notices us and lets it slide, even setting things up so her ship is unoccupied by anyone but that swabbie we hung out with earlier in the game. We overhear the password to get into the ship, the final key we need!

Once aboard the pirate ship, and with the password given to ole Niko, we can finally get inside. Tetra's room is unguarded, and we immediately take the chance to investigate it. What we find is shocking, ancient murals showing a legend we the player may be quite familiar with, if we have memory longer than ten minutes. We also see a Sea Chart with certain islands marked out. Windfall and Outset appear on it, but specifically marked are Dragon Roost, Forest Haven, and Greatfish Isle. Between them, also marked, are what appear to be three triangular islands, of which we've seen two. Together these islands form a triangle within a triangle, and at the center of it all is a strange island. Fascinating. But most importantly of all, we see a portrait of what must only be Tetra's mom. I think this is the first time I've ever actually noticed this picture and really took it in, which is a little sad on my part.

Invasion of Tetra's privacy aside, it's time to talk to Niko. The poor dumb idiot's had a rough time now that we're gone, but now that we're back it's time for another athletic challenge. This time, no platforms! Just swing from rope to rope in the time limit, and he'll...give us the bombs. Yeah, that's a good and smart idea that won't backfire on him. We do it and get the bombs...only for Tetra to phone us on the shining stone. She throws down the challenge; she'll give up on the treasure if we get to Outset before they do, and they leave at dawn. I'm glad Tetra notes that they didn't leave EVERY bomb they have under the "protection" of Niko. With bombs in hand, we head off to Outset Island! Bombs are of course a somewhat situational item, hard to use in combat but otherwise pretty good for puzzles. Timed explosives are always fun in video games. Importantly, we've now unlocked the last bit of boat tech, and can now bring out a big ole cannon to fire on enemies. No more shall we run scared from sea monsters!

With a hurried heart we sail off to Outset. The seas are stormy and the night is long, no doubt an extension of the curse Greatfish Island was hit by when it was destroyed. Fitting that we can use evil to our advantage here. The King of Red Lions tells us to take advantage of it a bit more, to at least meet up with our family again. And it's...quite a sad sight. Grandma is sick, mostly with worry no doubt, and the storm isn't helping. We'll find a way to fix this, but first we have a spirit to save. Around the back of Outset is a small whirlpool, not dangerous in the slightest, but it does prevent us from just taking aim and firing down the door of stone Jabun put up. It's an interesting little minigame, and nice practice for Big Octo's and other such things if you hadn't found them already. We break down the slab and head inside to see our fishy spirit friend. We have a bit of a one sided conversation (I'll post what the translations are for this dialogue at a more appropriate time) and somehow, the King of Red Lions gets Jabun to bestow upon us the third and final pearl, this one belonging to Nayru. He also breaks the terrible curse of night, which is appreciated.

So yeah, that's the entire quest line for the third pearl done. The developers themselves have admitted that they had to cut some stuff, and it's pretty clear that Greatfish Isle was once supposed to be in the game, and have it's own dungeon and everything. But time constraints and other stuff takes it toll, and we have what we have. I would of liked to see what kind of island Greatfish was, but I also kinda like this as well. It's the only real time the power of darkness really lashes out at the world, but it's an effective scene. You only need something like this to happen once to really get a feeling of "we need to stop this as soon as possible". What happened at Greatfish could happen to Outset. It could happen anywhere. Thus my not stopping for anything on our way from Greatfish itself.

But, that'll be it for today. We've finished our quest for pearls, join us next time where we see what we actually do with the dang things. Hope you all enjoyed!

[DataNinja]

Ouch. Yeah, I was wondering why the timestamp was so early when I glanced at the thread. (Of course, your timezone's later than mine, so at least it wasn't actually 4:30am for you.)

Good thinking, boat. Don't let Link get in you before talking to him.

What a terrible night to have a curse. (Though, it looks exactly like the day...)

Ooh, cannonballs? That is nice, that they let you use your items as ship upgrades, too. (Also, I don't think you'll be waging war against a manor of sea creatures... but, who knows, I guess they might have some nice beachfront property. )

So, does the dial stay at night - since it seems like it does - or can you actually lose this race?

Oh. I see. That answers that question. Thanks, boat.

Well, this definitely seems to be a training for Big Octo.

Well, mysteries are meant to be solved, right?

Spoiler: Treasure Trackers

Show

Treasure #	Contents	Chart?
1	Purple Rupee (50)	No
2	Silver Rupee (200)	Yes
3	Piece of Heart	Yes
4	Orange Rupee (100)	No
Rupees (Charts)	200
Rupees (Total)	350

[LaZodiac]

Ouch. Yeah, I was wondering why the timestamp was so early when I glanced at the thread. (Of course, your timezone's later than mine, so at least it wasn't actually 4:30am for you.)

Ooh, cannonballs? That is nice, that they let you use your items as ship upgrades, too. (Also, I don't think you'll be waging war against a manor of sea creatures... but, who knows, I guess they might have some nice beachfront property. )

Yeah, instead it was just 5:30 AM for me.

I know what I wrote and I meant what I route. We're gonna find a monster house and blow it up. BLOW IT UP!

[DataNinja]

Yeah, instead it was just 5:30 AM for me.

Huh. I thought for sure you were more than one timezone further than me. Learn something new every day.

I know what I wrote and I meant what I route. We're gonna find a monster house and blow it up. BLOW IT UP!

Okay, okay, I'll take your word for it.
Don't hurt me...

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Spoiler: Zodi's Gusts (13)

Show

Super early video due to work that is also early. Ironically it's a good thing this happened because I accidently messed up the upload and can fix it now.

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda The Wind Waker [13] Homecoming

Video Length: 23:16

Last time, we discovered that Greatfish Island had been destroyed by the forces of evil, the spirit protector having left for Outset Island. The pirates know of a way to get within Jabun's hiding spot, and they've gone to Windfall. Now it's time to pursue them. Will they help us, or will their desire for treasure override their desire to help us out? The King of Red Lions suspects that they won't, and truth be told he's probably right. Pirates do love them some treasure. So, once we arrive we use the opportunity to investigate the island, looking for where the pirates might be. After all, I can think of a few places they might go. Sadly the cafe bar thing lacks any pirate activity, though it does let us see that the townsfolk aren't 100% sure the pirates are here or not. Even if they were, why would they come to this sleepy little island anyway? I mean it's not like this is a merchantile island literally named after a term that means "gettin' lots of money" or anything.

However, there is one person who can tell us where the pirates went, even if he doesn't realize they're pirates himself. The star gazer, that moon liker boy from a couple days ago, he's seen some strangers head into the bomb shop. So now we know where to go, and now we have the event that I brought up millions of years ago that relates to playing hide and seek with the Killer Bee's. Even though that's optional, most people will end up doing it just as a matter of course from talking to NPCs that look interesting. One of the kids hides behind the bomb shop, seeding it in your mind that "you can go behind the bomb shop" and also revealing the ivy that lets you climb on top of it. If we had climbed up we'd of even seen the hole in the wall that we now go to climb through, to spy on the pirates in question. What follows entering the bomb shop is a fantastic scene where we spy on the pirates, and see a bit of how they work. Turns out the pirate that "tricked" or mail man friend probably WAS concerned for us, giving his reaction. And Tetra herself seems more focused on saving Outset then the treasure...made all the more clear when she notices us and lets it slide, even setting things up so her ship is unoccupied by anyone but that swabbie we hung out with earlier in the game. We overhear the password to get into the ship, the final key we need!

Once aboard the pirate ship, and with the password given to ole Niko, we can finally get inside. Tetra's room is unguarded, and we immediately take the chance to investigate it. What we find is shocking, ancient murals showing a legend we the player may be quite familiar with, if we have memory longer than ten minutes. We also see a Sea Chart with certain islands marked out. Windfall and Outset appear on it, but specifically marked are Dragon Roost, Forest Haven, and Greatfish Isle. Between them, also marked, are what appear to be three triangular islands, of which we've seen two. Together these islands form a triangle within a triangle, and at the center of it all is a strange island. Fascinating. But most importantly of all, we see a portrait of what must only be Tetra's mom. I think this is the first time I've ever actually noticed this picture and really took it in, which is a little sad on my part.

Invasion of Tetra's privacy aside, it's time to talk to Niko. The poor dumb idiot's had a rough time now that we're gone, but now that we're back it's time for another athletic challenge. This time, no platforms! Just swing from rope to rope in the time limit, and he'll...give us the bombs. Yeah, that's a good and smart idea that won't backfire on him. We do it and get the bombs...only for Tetra to phone us on the shining stone. She throws down the challenge; she'll give up on the treasure if we get to Outset before they do, and they leave at dawn. I'm glad Tetra notes that they didn't leave EVERY bomb they have under the "protection" of Niko. With bombs in hand, we head off to Outset Island! Bombs are of course a somewhat situational item, hard to use in combat but otherwise pretty good for puzzles. Timed explosives are always fun in video games. Importantly, we've now unlocked the last bit of boat tech, and can now bring out a big ole cannon to fire on enemies. No more shall we run scared from sea monsters!

With a hurried heart we sail off to Outset. The seas are stormy and the night is long, no doubt an extension of the curse Greatfish Island was hit by when it was destroyed. Fitting that we can use evil to our advantage here. The King of Red Lions tells us to take advantage of it a bit more, to at least meet up with our family again. And it's...quite a sad sight. Grandma is sick, mostly with worry no doubt, and the storm isn't helping. We'll find a way to fix this, but first we have a spirit to save. Around the back of Outset is a small whirlpool, not dangerous in the slightest, but it does prevent us from just taking aim and firing down the door of stone Jabun put up. It's an interesting little minigame, and nice practice for Big Octo's and other such things if you hadn't found them already. We break down the slab and head inside to see our fishy spirit friend. We have a bit of a one sided conversation (I'll post what the translations are for this dialogue at a more appropriate time) and somehow, the King of Red Lions gets Jabun to bestow upon us the third and final pearl, this one belonging to Nayru. He also breaks the terrible curse of night, which is appreciated.

So yeah, that's the entire quest line for the third pearl done. The developers themselves have admitted that they had to cut some stuff, and it's pretty clear that Greatfish Isle was once supposed to be in the game, and have it's own dungeon and everything. But time constraints and other stuff takes it toll, and we have what we have. I would of liked to see what kind of island Greatfish was, but I also kinda like this as well. It's the only real time the power of darkness really lashes out at the world, but it's an effective scene. You only need something like this to happen once to really get a feeling of "we need to stop this as soon as possible". What happened at Greatfish could happen to Outset. It could happen anywhere. Thus my not stopping for anything on our way from Greatfish itself.

But, that'll be it for today. We've finished our quest for pearls, join us next time where we see what we actually do with the dang things. Hope you all enjoyed!

Aw, I was fully expecting you to swing back on the ropes like the first time. Also nice save on them boxes.

Yeah, I really was with the majority of people who hoped that they'd add back pruned in areas in the game with the HD remake. I knew they wouldn't, but it would have been cool. Ah well.

Actually, this is the first time going through this game after having lost my grandparents, so I feel you Zodi.

Jabun-Jabun?

---

EPISODE 13 KILL TALLY!

None.

Style Points - 0

Missed Rupees: -5!
Lost Rupees (theft, overflow, ect.) - 28

---

The Wind Waker
Total Kills
(As of Episode 13)

Spoiler

Show

Kargarok - 2
Peahat - 11
Rat - 3

Baba
Boko Baba - 16
Kalle Damos - 1

Blin
Bokoblin, Red - 1
Bokoblin, Blue - 24
Bokoblin, Green - 4
Moblin, Blue - 3

ChuChus
Chuchu, Red - 24
Chuchu, Green - 25

Keese
Keese - 7
Keese, Fire - 4

Mold
Magtail - 3
Gohma - 1
Morth - 168
Mothula - 3
Mothula, Winged - 1

Octorok
Octorok - 6
Big Octo (8 eyes) - 1

Total Things Dead - 312

1st Place - Morth, at 168!
2nd Place - Green ChuChu, at 25!
3rd Place - Blue Bokoblin and Red ChuChu, tied at 24!

Total Style Points - 6

Total Missed Rupees - 25
Total Lost Rupees - 95

[ShneekeyTheLost]

I'm probably going to be a bit less active over the next few weeks due to local issues. I'm in South Texas. I'll catch up as I am able.