Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass (I asked for LESS water!)

[Qwertystop]

I liked how Romanos tells you to come back just when you leave the house.

[LaZodiac]

Here's a controversial thought. What if...more Zelda?

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass [8] Cyclok

Video Length: 30:01

Sort a long one today, due to some various circumstances of it being made. Hope you all don't mind.

Starting us off today, we continue into the island in search of the windmills we must blow to open the way to the Temple. It's not overly tricky, but it does bring to us a new, slightly buggy mechanic. It's time to sneak along the sand and walk without rhythm. Sandworms infest the dusty windmill area, and they're attracted to sound. Unfortunately, it feels like even if you move slowly they can still see you after awhile, and that just feels wrong. My personal assumption on why this happens is because the game is just not precise enough to have you sneak consistently. Thankfully, bomb flowers litter the area that we can use to distract, and explode, the sandworms. We make our way to the correct windmills and give em a good woosh, opening the way to the dungeon proper.

The Temple of Winds is pretty cool. One thing I like and dislike both about the temples in this one is that they all kiiinda look the same? Like, they all have different aesthetics, but you can tell each temple has the same general feel as the others. I like it because it connects them, the Temples we're exploring are offshoots of the Ocean King's Temple and that's kinda cool. But it also makes them feel a bit bland Though I do like how they look, don't get me wrong. The puzzles within the Temple of Winds are pretty varied, most of which involve wind and some of which involve bombs. It starts you off with a RATHER difficult precision bomb throw...which in my majesty I of course succeed at flawlessly at the incorrect time. The actual main meat of the temple is trying to make two more windmills start spinning, which we accomplish by going down into the basement. The basement is full of sand, and as such more sandworms! What's weird to me is that even with a lack of bomb flowers to throw, this area feels way easier than the one outside the Temple! That's just odd to me. Once the two windmills are spinning we get access to our dungeon items, and it's a good old friend, the bombs! We can kill the sandworms now, as well as blow our way into a secret (or not so secret) area for 100 rupees. We can also continue and conclude the dungeon proper but that's to be expected.

Enemy wise, we only actually see one new friend! The rest of the dungeon's inhabitants are things we've already seen, though the Rope snakes could of made their first appearance here. Our new friend is the Rock Chu, which are just red Chu's wearing stone hats. Blow them up to break it off, revealing their true form of a squishy red slime that we can easily slice in half. This dungeon isn't really focused on combat though, which makes sense given it's the dungeon of wisdom (though in that case it should really be water instead of wind, wind is pretty definitively a Courage element in this series) and fits the puzzles nicely. Finally, we make it to the boss...who's actually rather simple compared to Blaaz. Cyclok, the octorok wind wizard, is a pretty tough boss from the standpoint of how many times you have to stab him in the face, but otherwise is pretty easy. He flies around on the top screen, and you've gotta throw bombs at his tornadoes to deliver him an explosive surprise. He can spit out mini tornadoes as he moves around, and he can wrap himself in wind to do a charge attack. This last attack is annoying in that it protects him, and eventually you basically have to use his mini tornadoes to hit him instead of the ones that just show up under where he's moving. Overall, not the hardest boss. But of course I'm burying the lede here, it's also A REALLY COOL BOSS in that it takes advantage of both screens in an incredibly cool way, and with the border of the DS itself removed it looks UTTERLY SEEMLESS and that's super rad and pretty rare for a DS game. It's super cool and I really like it a lot.

With Cyclok dead, we've got an extra two minutes in our hourglass, and a new friend! Neri the Fairy, spirit of wisdom and a nice minty blue flavor to go along with spicy Leaf and...whatever flavor white is for Ciela. Lovely fairy friends who will one day be actual power ups. But for now, we've completed the dungeon in one video so I'm ending it here! Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you guys next time...for more Ocean King's Temple.

[DataNinja]

Well, looks like you had an easier time with the windmills than the candles.

Ah, boomerang hubris.

Clearly it's door react to the presence of the Hero™.

I hear another miniblin on that bottom floor. So... perhaps you did not kill them all, hence why you missed said red rupee?

...you have bombs back in that room that you just came from before the sandworms, Past Zodi.

Alas. No bomb use. What happened to explosions being the solution to everything?

No bombs to get secret? I don't suppose you can bring them out of the backtrackpath back around.

Ah ha! the bomb epiphany!
And a bomb bag, too. Better than an epiphany.

Yeah, huh. No wall ping. Just the extra shape of the map on the top wall.

I getcha. It feels like tossing two different bombs would have two different timings, but it works because of chain reactions. It just isn't symmetrical, so thus doesn't feel 'proper'.

What a rip off. First boss was 10 minutes, this next one only two?

and with the border of the DS itself removed it looks UTTERLY SEEMLESS and that's super rad and pretty rare for a DS game.

It's not quite seamless, but it still looks pretty dang good. If you look at Ciela hovering near the border, or when the boss crosses the threshold, you'll see they "compress" a little bit so that it looks like they're occupying the physical space between the screens on a standard DS. Which is, in its own, a pretty neat trick.

Spoiler: Discovered, but not gotten, Orbs

Show

Location	Type
Mercay Island Shop	Red
Beedle's Shop	Blue
Beedle's Masked Shop	Green

[LaZodiac]

Yanno, Zodi... I'm so very glad that you are doing this Let's Play. I never had a chance to pick up this game. And now, seeing the troubles the player interface is giving you... I'm just as glad that I never will.

I mean... it's easily a contender for 'worst interface from a Zelda Game', right up there with Skyward Sword. In fact, soundly trouncing Skyward Sword, which is a feat and an accomplishment wrapped in bacon.

It's almost painful to watch the Let's Play, because I see how much grief the interface is giving you, and I'm like... 'wow, Zodi is the most awesomest LPer ever to have thrown herself upon this game like a grenade in a foxhole'.

We're definitely never going to agree on what controls bad, since I've always felt Skyward Sword controls fine, but I'm glad we can agree on one thing; Phantom Hourglass is pretty miserable to play through at times!

Yeah, huh. No wall ping. Just the extra shape of the map on the top wall.

I getcha. It feels like tossing two different bombs would have two different timings, but it works because of chain reactions. It just isn't symmetrical, so thus doesn't feel 'proper'.

What a rip off. First boss was 10 minutes, this next one only two?

It's the worst because we know they DO have different sound effects for hits and stuff.

Yeah, Blaaz really is the outlier I think.

Anyway hey, here's a new thing I'm trying out! I hope you all enjoy!

Zodi Plays: Magic the Gathering Arena [1] Secret Corpses!

Video Length: 35:22

I'm not sure what, if any, demand there is for this or if anyone will like it, but I wanted to do it so I did. I may do more of it later.

[DataNinja]

Yeah, Blaaz really is the outlier I think.

I think so, too. And, I mean, mechanically it makes sense. You get a big buffer to learn the mechanics, straining it more and more as time goes on, and you need to learn speed and use the tools you're given. But... logistically... this guy was a lot more there. He shoulda turned into more sand.

(Also, dang, midnight video... ah well, guess I'm watching it so I don't forget. XD)

I'll be honest. I've never magic'd. So... this'll be all new. We'll see how I feel at the end.

It was... a thing. Not bad, the commentary did help, but I think I'd have enjoyed it better if I knew how to play, and what all the cards did. That's just my fault for not playing it, though.

[LaZodiac]

I think so, too. And, I mean, mechanically it makes sense. You get a big buffer to learn the mechanics, straining it more and more as time goes on, and you need to learn speed and use the tools you're given. But... logistically... this guy was a lot more there. He shoulda turned into more sand.

(Also, dang, midnight video... ah well, guess I'm watching it so I don't forget. XD)

I'll be honest. I've never magic'd. So... this'll be all new. We'll see how I feel at the end.

It was... a thing. Not bad, the commentary did help, but I think I'd have enjoyed it better if I knew how to play, and what all the cards did. That's just my fault for not playing it, though.

To be fair, I think Blaaz technically gave us all ten minutes since he woke up the Hourglass. Cyclok's gonna be giving us I think two minutes...you know it occurs to me that when people said this they were talking ABOUT the sand rewards, not "how long it took to fight them" and I'm feeling super dumb about it. Maybe. I could be wrong.

You know, there are ways to learn! Magic the Gathering Arena is in open beta, free for everyone, so get in there and sling some cards

[DataNinja]

To be fair, I think Blaaz technically gave us all ten minutes since he woke up the Hourglass. Cyclok's gonna be giving us I think two minutes...you know it occurs to me that when people said this they were talking ABOUT the sand rewards, not "how long it took to fight them" and I'm feeling super dumb about it. Maybe. I could be wrong.

You know, there are ways to learn! Magic the Gathering Arena is in open beta, free for everyone, so get in there and sling some cards

Yep, it was two minutes, as noted when the sand entered the glass. Hence why I commented on it.

...on the one hand, it would make things make more sense. On the other hand, I still have to finish an RPG (read: bang my head against the endgame ), do a bunch of schoolwork, and also run several tabletop games. I need more time in a day.

[LaZodiac]

Okay, let's do a Zeldo

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass [9] Ocean, Again

Video Length: 26:33

In today's exciting episode, we head back to the Ocean King's Temple to once more plumb it's depths. But before we do so, let's check up on a few of the boats lingering in the North Eastern Sea. Beedle is one, and it is here I'm reminded that his shop sells different stuff depending on the region he is in, and his masked ship probably does the same. That'll be rough. Also rough, I do NOT have enough rupees to buy the bomb bag, which I'd very much like to have right now. Unfortunately I also decide the cash is burning a hole in my pocket so I buy us a nice gem. After that, we head to a mysterious long-ship that turns out to be...the Prince of Red Lions, piloted by a rather suspiciously dressed individual who believes himself to be a hero of some sort. We train a bit...and by train I mean terrify him with our sword, and he rewards us for it. We'll be back to train more COMPLETELY with Nyeve here later, because I forget how to make him willing to do more. And because I definitely don't have time to do 100-200 hits on him just yet.

With those distractions out of the way, we finally return to Mercay Island, and wander our way up to the Ocean King's Temple. With our bombs and shovel in hand, we do have SOME access to new things. First off, on the walk up to the temple, we can blow up some rocks to get a shortcut to the temple (not super relevant considering how short the other path is) and blow up a rock wall that leads to some treasure, and further mysterious interactables. Within the temple itself, the first two real floors get a shortcut with the bombs, though of these the first one is a bit more significant than the others. Floor B3 has basically no real shortcut, since the shovel point really doesn't accomplish much that isn't just as easy to perform otherwise. But finally, after all that, it's onto new content. And what new content it is!

B4, the start of the next bit of new content, introduces us to a...contentious new friend. The Phantom Eyes! The eyes of the Phantom, they have a...finicky view range that is not even remotely shown on the map, and once they see you they become invincible and alert every single Phantom on the floor to your location. They also sometimes SUMMON more Phantoms, so that's always fun. Thankfully, if you do catch them unaware with the boomerang, you can kill them and that solves that. And on this floor you even get a treasure chest for doing so! The puzzle otherwise is just navigating a wind maze without being caught out, so it's easy enough. Onto B5, which...is less puzzle and more combat challenge. This is honestly appreciated, since a ton of puzzles in a row isn't always the best gameplay. Sometimes you need to break it up with some combat...though given it's Phantom Hourglass's combat, that's a small blessing to be sure.

The last room, B6, is another example of how the game feels trickier than it is. There are six tablets, and the four in the corners tell us the order we should care about them, while the middle two tell us "hey care about the order" and...just kinda rudely dunk garbage onto us without any warning at all? It's super bad and probably the worst thing we've encountered in this game up till this point. Reading this tablet, without any warning, drops two more Phantom Eyes into the room, at rather inconvenient spots. It's not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it's a level of rudeness you wouldn't often expect from Zelda, and one that is very much not appreciated since it implies we'll probably end up with MORE rudeness like this later. At any rate, we draw ourselves a hourglass symbol, and make our way into the room of courage, wherein we find a fun little sun mural telling us how to get to the next temple! All we need to do is press our map into the stonecuttig on the mural. This is one of the most iconic, memorable puzzles in the game due to how it takes advantage of the DS in I think interesting, relevant ways. With our map marked with a little courage symbol sticker, we can now safely...have no idea what to do with it. But the hintings at a Salvage Crane makes me PRETTY sure what we can do next.

Before that though, we check out the now open Treasure Teller! He appraises our treasures and ship parts, and we can sell them to him for rupees. The price he assigned each ship part set and each treasure is entirely random, determined when you start the game...and it turns out most of the stuff I have right now is garbage! Thankfully, I know not to sell to him just yet. There's a store out there that buys certain items at a rather high price...it's just that this is also determined randomly. Sweet. It's to encourage connecting your game with other players, but as someone who is flying entirely solo that doesn't really help me much. It also just feels bad to have all this treasure and be told it's not worth much. But ah well, it wouldn't be Zelda if there wasn't at least one finicky and weird mechanic.

But that'll be it for today. Join us next time when we finally obtain the Salvage Arm, and set about...probably trying to get treasure from under the sea, but also probably progressing things. We'll see. Hope you all enjoyed!

[DataNinja]

And so we go.

One Good Thing get! ...man, I really hope that Beedle's shop is the same inventory (barring the Masked shop) in every map. Otherwise, whoops, this strikeout is pointless.
Addendum: Oops, looks like it's pointless. Wait, no, upon further research, only the treasure and ship parts are randomized, the other items are fixed. Phew.

Well, phantoms be heavy enough to walk through the wind no problem...

Huh. Coulda sworn bombs could be used as Phantom attractors. Maybe it's only within a small radius? Or maybe I'm remembering wrong.

I wonder if that gold pot high on the wall could be rolled off. Or if it needs you to be elevated to do it.

What item do you think it is, Zodi? Because, well,

Spoiler: The Item

Show

Funny thing about touchscreen controls. They make aiming Bombchus pretty easy, if I remember correctly. Just draw a path and go.

Haaaate to burst your bubble, Zodi, but you had 415 rupees before Miniblin room. And 436 after the green and red rupee. Red rupees in this game are just 20.

Maybe the eye you can't do anything with yet is involved? In order to make revisits at least somewhat rewarding?

Yeah, maaaaaan, that closing the DS puzzle stumped me back in the day. Only figured it out by accident.

Huh. I didn't realized that it was randomized for selling.

Spoiler: Discovered, but not gotten, Orbs

Show

Location	Type
Mercay Island Shop	Red
Beedle's Masked Shop	Green

[LaZodiac]

Haaaate to burst your bubble, Zodi, but you had 415 rupees before Miniblin room. And 436 after the green and red rupee. Red rupees in this game are just 20.

Yeah, maaaaaan, that closing the DS puzzle stumped me back in the day. Only figured it out by accident.

Huh. I didn't realized that it was randomized for selling.

Spoiler: Discovered, but not gotten, Orbs

Show

Location	Type
Mercay Island Shop	Red
Beedle's Masked Shop	Green

I cannot believe I made that mistake AGAIN. This is never going to not happen is it?

I don't want to laugh because you're a cool person but that's really funny to me.

Yup! Entirely random, and it's randomized each time you start a new game in a new slot, so it's never the same twice.

[DataNinja]

I don't want to laugh because you're a cool person but that's really funny to me.

It had just never registered to me that, well, closing the DS was anything other than essentially hitting pause on it. In retrospect, it makes so much sense, and is a cool little mechanic, but there'd never been any real interactions with closing before that. (I encountered another later on in Duck Amuck, where you closed the DS and used the L/R buttons in response to directions vocally emitting from the DS.)
But, yeah, it is something to laugh at now. It was just really frustrating at the time.

[LaZodiac]

It had just never registered to me that, well, closing the DS was anything other than essentially hitting pause on it. In retrospect, it makes so much sense, and is a cool little mechanic, but there'd never been any real interactions with closing before that. (I encountered another later on in Duck Amuck, where you closed the DS and used the L/R buttons in response to directions vocally emitting from the DS.)
But, yeah, it is something to laugh at now. It was just really frustrating at the time.

Highly recommend Hotel Dusk, which does it and also does the very unique thing of making you play the DS sideways, like a book. It's real good!

[huttj509]

Highly recommend Hotel Dusk, which does it and also does the very unique thing of making you play the DS sideways, like a book. It's real good!

I really liked in 999 (DS version) where it has you turn the DS upside down to emphasize a paradigm shift at the end (yes vague, yes, past spoiler expiration date, don't care, nyah).

[Qwertystop]

I just find it kind of amusing that Ciela acts all amazed that you figured out what the close-the-DS puzzle meant. In-world, "press your Sea Chart onto this image" isn't a puzzle at all, it's just plain instructions. Though I guess it might still be impressive to someone without limbs.

[LaZodiac]

I really liked in 999 (DS version) where it has you turn the DS upside down to emphasize a paradigm shift at the end (yes vague, yes, past spoiler expiration date, don't care, nyah).

There is no expiration date for spoiling a game in the Zero Escape series. I believe that's what you're saying, but I'm a bit too tired to parse words good.

I just find it kind of amusing that Ciela acts all amazed that you figured out what the close-the-DS puzzle meant. In-world, "press your Sea Chart onto this image" isn't a puzzle at all, it's just plain instructions. Though I guess it might still be impressive to someone without limbs.

This is a really good point. Ciela is very easily impressed.

[DataNinja]

This is a really good point. Ciela is very easily impressed.

To be fair, she also lost her memory. So, all of this stuff she's learning for the first time, by someone with a body type that isn't hers. It's very possible that she doesn't realize you can do all that stuff.

[Qwertystop]

Oh: As a direct result of that MTG Arena side-episode, I made an account. Got no idea what I'm doing, but still. Same name, if anyone else joined similarly.

[huttj509]

There is no expiration date for spoiling a game in the Zero Escape series. I believe that's what you're saying, but I'm a bit too tired to parse words good.

Eh, among my friend group there's various opinions about spoilers, and "after X years don't worry bout it." My general stance in a public forum is if there was a factor of "ooooooooooh" in my enjoyment of a thing, I'm not gonna remove that for someone else unless it's directly pertinent. Though that sometimes results in me being possibly over-vague to avoid being too detailed.

[LaZodiac]

Oh man. Z E L D A.

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass [10] The Arm

Video Length: 20:16

Bit of a short one today! You'll see why.

Starting us off today, we head to Fuzzo's work shop to get the Salvage Arm. The only problem is...he recognizes us, and wants us to show how much we want the Salvage Arm. So we need to shout it out. And he does mean literally shouting. I am...not a big fan of this, especially because if my DS's mic was even a little bit worse I would be stuck here! Additionally, the LEVEL OF SHOUT you do determines how cheap the arm is...ranging from 200 to 1000 rupees. This is absurd, personally. And to cap it all off, once you finish it...his apprentice notes you can just snap your fingers and it's fine. There's egg on my face, because I did actually shout the things I said in this. It...was a thing.

But of course that couldn't be the actual end of our troubles today could it. With Salvage Arm in tow, we head to one of the first optional salvage points we have to get some treasure. And instead we get a terrible touch based minigame, wherein we control the arm from the very bottom of the screen. Hold down to speed up, hold up (but still at the bottom of the screen!) to slow down. You also control it by shifting the little lever we've got as a visual aid left or right. We need to avoid Octomines as we do this, with the occasional bubble of rupee in our path, and at the very end is a treasure chest...a chest that we can miss, making the entire lengthy process moot. But if you DO grab it, be prepared to do the exact same thing again, since you've gotta drag the chest back up to the surface! This of course makes your salvage arm a bigger target for smashing into rocks or Octomines. But, you may ask, what happens if you get hit? Well, you lose a point of durability, of which you have five, and only ever have five. These can be repaired at Mercay Island, and only Mercay Island, for 20 - 50 rupees. Unlike the ship proper that heals every time you make land fall. And if you let the salvage arm be destroyed? Or more accurately, the game has currents that you can't see, making the arm not respond, or the absolutely garbage finicky controls make it hard to control the crane? Well, if you get destroyed...you can't Salvage anymore. You need to go to Mercay Island, and only Mercay Island, to get it repaired for 100 rupees. Until then you cannot use the Salvage Arm. At all.

This is the part of the game where I'm reminded WHY I can't remember basically anything about this game. It's a hell of a thing, and probably...one of the worst mechanics I've seen in a video game. A friend of mine was playing Xenoblade Chronicles X and they make you do a minigame like this to upgrade the one robot player character, and it has basically no stakes beyond wasting time. And HE despised it. THIS, this is WORSE, because not only is it a large amount of time to perform, it's also...much harder to control, and with actual consequences if you lose too much. We will not be doing any salvage that isn't required until end game, JUST because we cannot repair the crane ANYWHERE else but Mercay Island. And even then it won't be that easy for reasons we'll go over then...

So, the above aside, what else have we done today? Well, we saved Nyave again, and got a comical amount of treasure. That was really funny, actually. We also did do that one bit of required salvage, obtaining the sun key! With the Sun Key in hand, we returned to Molida Island...to be faced with a boss! The Giant Eye Plant, which...is a giant Eye Plant. It spits goo at us, but we can easily shoot it out of the air. It is a very simple boss, with barely any thought to it beyond having to steer the ship every so often. Once more I feel the monkey's paw curl as something I ask for is delivered to me. But, it's relatively harmless, so we make our way to Molida proper and do a quick little jaunt to the Sun Door. We turn these weird laser shooting rocks to face the door to our next Temple, unlock it, and call it there. Next time on Zelda, we're gonna do the FUN thing about this game: actually very good dungeons!

I hope you all enjoyed this hot mess. I'll see you guys next time!

[DataNinja]

Ah the shouting. I'd honestly thought this was for the cannon, too. I... yeah, was wincing at the bad mic, though.
...welp. Didn't know you needed to say things for selling.
Maaaan…. this sucks on your end, but, it's kinda funny overall. For me (through the magic of blowing into the microphone), it was only, like, 100 or something, so I didn't get to see these things. And the reaction text is funny. I tip my hat to you on that.
(Addendum: ah, 200 is the lowest it goes.)

...I completely forgot about this minigame. And, let me guess. If you lose all your arm's HP, you have to get a new arm. I don't recall if that's what happens but... that seems like something that might be done.

Okay, not quite as bad as having to do the whole arm buying thing again. But, admittedly still pretty bad. I get what they were going for, but it's just a frustrating thing. I get having "hits" on the way down to the chest, but, still...

*glances at the map* Hmmm... I have an inkling you might not be terribly fond of the salvage mechanic.

Sorry, no idea if there's a hole, I wondered if there might be, but, I'll check. *one google later* Nope. You need a later item to get it. Sorry, Past Zodi. Your Shovel Knight time is in vain.

Spoiler: Discovered, but not gotten, Orbs

Show

Location	Type
Mercay Island Shop	Red
Beedle's Masked Shop	Green

[Qwertystop]

Wow. That's a terrible thing to get the arm and then another terrible thing to fix it.

(also, the minigame thing is in Xenoblade Chronicles 2, not Xenoblade Chronicles X).

Other notes:

The Giant Eye Plant looks a bit like Bilocyte from Skyward Sword.

[LaZodiac]

Happy Canadian Thanksgiving to all you wonderful peeps out there. Here's some Zelda to go with your absolutely nothing special since most of you are American.

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass [11] Courage

Video Length: 21:13

Bit of a shorter one today as well, though this time NOT because of a bad bad gameplay mechanic, but simply because Zodi is a dumb and spent 4 minutes on a puzzle due to a complete disconnect mentally on what specifically it asked me to do, plus getting left and right mixed up.

Anyway, today we start the third dungeon, the Temple of Courage! This one is quite a bit larger than the other ones, with a bit more challenge to it as well. We've got rolling spike logs, blade traps, and a bunch of other nasty traps to contend with. We've got more than our fair share of bombable walls, most of which are hidden decently well but still fairly, and we've got a couple pretty good puzzles as well. We also have enemies, which is unfortunately where the dungeon lags behind in terms of quality. The Green Chu-chu's are...frustrating, and I really don't know how to handle them. They dodge into goop when you slash at em, and there really doesn't seem to be any rhyme or reason for when you can hit them vs when you cannot. I think the idea is to wait until they ungoop, because then they'll be a little tired, but even then it doesn't work half the time. A thought occurred just now to try using bombs...but spoilers this is the only place they show up so we'll never get the opportunity to! We also meet Pols Voice, a classic enemy all the way from Zelda 1. These bunny head monsters are invulnerable to most attacks, but if you give em a good shout they'll be stunned, become quite vulnerable. In previous games, arrows could deal with them, so I'm unsure if we NEED to shout in this game, but you probably do. We've also got Hardhat Beetles, cute little bugs that can't really be destroyed, merely deflected. Toss them into the pit to kill them for now. Finally, we've got Moldorms, who are entirely armoured centipedes except for their tail weakspot, which must be struck to kill them. We've also got Beamos and Winders (flowing orbs of electricity that go along the walls) but they can't be killed, and Beamos can only be stunned by bombs.

Speaking of arrows, once we get past an invisible walkway we find the dungeon item, the hero's bow! Thanks to touch screen technology, the bow is rather accurate for the most part, allowing for full 360 degree aiming. Unfortunately you also can't MOVE while using it, much like the boomerang, so it's use in the heat of combat is tricky. It can destroy a Moldorm in one hit, but getting that hit is finicky and not worth the waste of arrows. The bow, like the boomerang, is mostly a puzzle interaction device. Shoot the eyes to trigger things, shoot these little arrow orbs to send the arrow flying in a direction...usually into another eye. It's fun, and pretty neat actually. Seeing your arrow fly across the entire dungeon to peg a poor loser in the face to make a chest appear has a certain good feel to it.

The Temple of Courage has a unique bit to it, in that most of it's puzzles follow a certain pattern. Up, down, right, left. A simple one, but important to remember, since many of the puzzles relate to it. Unfortunately, or fortunately depending on your point of view, not every puzzle follows it. I feel like it could be cool if they tried to make every puzzle follow this pattern, but I totally get why they didn't. Most of the puzzles that are major do though, like those switches I got held up on for four minutes. I was confused because I thought it was a trick, that you pulled the switches based on their DIRECTION, not their LOCATION. But then I realized they didn't have any that would be pulled up! So I go to pull the switches in the dungeon order based on location...only to mix up left and right. Womp womp. This, combined with actually just outright missing the stairs at the end of the video, are why this one is a bit shorter.

That being said, I hope you all enjoyed! I'll see you guys next time for when we beat the Temple, so prepare yourself for a boss fight. And then...prepare yourself for the Ocean King's Temple, because we're gonna have to go through all of it again. Every single room we've seen so far...again.

[DataNinja]

Yay, Zelda to go with my something special later.
(Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.)

A room with lots of pillars or little islands? I feel like I know/remember what this room is...
Ah haaaaa. Yep. There's the map.

If you release the item button, rather than pulling your stylus away, you can put away the bow without firing an arrow.

I think for the green chus, the idea is to stun them via boomerang first?

Yeah, this backtracking shortcuts definitely helped you a lot here, what with heart snacks.

[LaZodiac]

Yay, Zelda to go with my something special later.
(Happy Thanksgiving to you, too.)

A room with lots of pillars or little islands? I feel like I know/remember what this room is...
Ah haaaaa. Yep. There's the map.

If you release the item button, rather than pulling your stylus away, you can put away the bow without firing an arrow.

I think for the green chus, the idea is to stun them via boomerang first?

Yeah, this backtracking shortcuts definitely helped you a lot here, what with heart snacks.

When I've tried, they dodge the boomerangs too! What jerks!

[DataNinja]

When I've tried, they dodge the boomerangs too! What jerks!

Okay, hmmm. Been a while since I played. Guess it's just meant to be counterattack time - they don't gloop when they're jumping at you, I think. Which... really, makes sense. You need to have the courage to face them head on, and not shy away from their attacks. Or... something. Or maybe I'm just putting too much thought into this.

[Coidzor]

Man, it feels like forever since I've seen Hardhat Beetles in a Zelda game. I think Oracle of Ages/Seasons was the last time.

Also, while it was neat that you managed to stumble upon that arrow orb and puzzle it out before you were even supposed to have gotten to it, I'm still flabbertygasted as to how you managed to get lost on the way back to the entrance to heal.

"I HAVE YOU NOW" is a terrifying thing to say. These Phantoms are intense dudes. What happens when a phantom catches you? OH GOD YOU LOSE TIME?! 30 seconds doesn't seem like much, but it could be, bad. Especially when you have to retread the room as well...I'm also noticing hook shot stumps, and bomb walls around, cracked floors for...a hammer maybe? So maybe retreading in the future won't be terrible?

I think the juxtaposition from how almost everything else you fight in a Zelda game can't or doesn't speak heightens this.

[Qwertystop]

Man, it feels like forever since I've seen Hardhat Beetles in a Zelda game. I think Oracle of Ages/Seasons was the last time.

They turned up in Link Between Worlds, I think.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Real life happened! So I'm a little behind. I'll try and post once each day so its not overwhelming...(not to mention I only have time for once a day atm)

Spoiler: Zodi's Times (8)

Show

Here's a controversial thought. What if...more Zelda?

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass [8] Cyclok

Video Length: 30:01

Sort a long one today, due to some various circumstances of it being made. Hope you all don't mind.

Starting us off today, we continue into the island in search of the windmills we must blow to open the way to the Temple. It's not overly tricky, but it does bring to us a new, slightly buggy mechanic. It's time to sneak along the sand and walk without rhythm. Sandworms infest the dusty windmill area, and they're attracted to sound. Unfortunately, it feels like even if you move slowly they can still see you after awhile, and that just feels wrong. My personal assumption on why this happens is because the game is just not precise enough to have you sneak consistently. Thankfully, bomb flowers litter the area that we can use to distract, and explode, the sandworms. We make our way to the correct windmills and give em a good woosh, opening the way to the dungeon proper.

The Temple of Winds is pretty cool. One thing I like and dislike both about the temples in this one is that they all kiiinda look the same? Like, they all have different aesthetics, but you can tell each temple has the same general feel as the others. I like it because it connects them, the Temples we're exploring are offshoots of the Ocean King's Temple and that's kinda cool. But it also makes them feel a bit bland Though I do like how they look, don't get me wrong. The puzzles within the Temple of Winds are pretty varied, most of which involve wind and some of which involve bombs. It starts you off with a RATHER difficult precision bomb throw...which in my majesty I of course succeed at flawlessly at the incorrect time. The actual main meat of the temple is trying to make two more windmills start spinning, which we accomplish by going down into the basement. The basement is full of sand, and as such more sandworms! What's weird to me is that even with a lack of bomb flowers to throw, this area feels way easier than the one outside the Temple! That's just odd to me. Once the two windmills are spinning we get access to our dungeon items, and it's a good old friend, the bombs! We can kill the sandworms now, as well as blow our way into a secret (or not so secret) area for 100 rupees. We can also continue and conclude the dungeon proper but that's to be expected.

Enemy wise, we only actually see one new friend! The rest of the dungeon's inhabitants are things we've already seen, though the Rope snakes could of made their first appearance here. Our new friend is the Rock Chu, which are just red Chu's wearing stone hats. Blow them up to break it off, revealing their true form of a squishy red slime that we can easily slice in half. This dungeon isn't really focused on combat though, which makes sense given it's the dungeon of wisdom (though in that case it should really be water instead of wind, wind is pretty definitively a Courage element in this series) and fits the puzzles nicely. Finally, we make it to the boss...who's actually rather simple compared to Blaaz. Cyclok, the octorok wind wizard, is a pretty tough boss from the standpoint of how many times you have to stab him in the face, but otherwise is pretty easy. He flies around on the top screen, and you've gotta throw bombs at his tornadoes to deliver him an explosive surprise. He can spit out mini tornadoes as he moves around, and he can wrap himself in wind to do a charge attack. This last attack is annoying in that it protects him, and eventually you basically have to use his mini tornadoes to hit him instead of the ones that just show up under where he's moving. Overall, not the hardest boss. But of course I'm burying the lede here, it's also A REALLY COOL BOSS in that it takes advantage of both screens in an incredibly cool way, and with the border of the DS itself removed it looks UTTERLY SEEMLESS and that's super rad and pretty rare for a DS game. It's super cool and I really like it a lot.

With Cyclok dead, we've got an extra two minutes in our hourglass, and a new friend! Neri the Fairy, spirit of wisdom and a nice minty blue flavor to go along with spicy Leaf and...whatever flavor white is for Ciela. Lovely fairy friends who will one day be actual power ups. But for now, we've completed the dungeon in one video so I'm ending it here! Hope you all enjoyed, I'll see you guys next time...for more Ocean King's Temple.

Wow, you just dug in the correct spot and found a random 100 rupees? Lucky AF!

I definitely expected that rupee room to have a rupee like in it...maybe the game is giving you a false sense of security for next time you encounter a room like that?

We saw cracked walls in the Temple of the Ocean King but that's been it so far I believe.

I'll be honest, I would have dug up all the vents as well. Interesting, when you return to this room, the incorrect vents get covered up again...which caused you to begin digging them again. There's a mogma somewhere who must be very grumpy with you,

Yeah, fake wall tink would have been nice...also you were so busy trying to find the secret wall, that you let a blue rupee despawn! :(

A comment on Rock Chuchu - we've actually encountered these guys before in Minish Cap. When we counted them there, we counted what they died as, so a Red Chuchu. Chuchu's will always be the most problematic of countable enemies, with their reforming and splitting and change of states...at least their colors so far have been consistent! By the by, we've already encountered more red chuchus than the entirety of Minish Cap, which was 29. This episode we've already netted 21 and I'm not done counting the kills yet.

It's interesting that the game makes you read a sign to open up the blue warps. That means some people who habitually don't read signs are gonna be at a loss.

So...is it Cyclok making those Mini Cyclones outside? And if so, do the cyclones count as parts of cyclok, and then be counted in the Octorok section? Do they just stay in their own section? (probably) Curious minds want to know!

The dual screens fight thing is AWESOME. Also, the symbol for this temple is the same symbol that the Rito use, so a wind them makes sense. Nayru's symbol, I believe.

---

EPISODE 8 KILL TALLY!

Sandworm - 9
Red Chuchu - 21
Keese - 3
Rope - 8
Miniblin - 5
Cyclok - 1

Style Points - 0

Missed Rupees - 11
Lost Rupees (theft, overflow, ect.) - 0

---

Phantom Hourglass
Total Kills
(As of Episode 8)

Spoiler

Show

Blaaz - 1
Bubbles, Fire - 4
Cannon Boat - 2
Eye Plant - 3
Flying Fish - 6
Geozard - 1
Miniblins - 42
Mini Cyclone - 5
Phantom - 1
Rats - 17
Ropes - 25
Sandworms - 9

Avians
Seagull - 1
Takkuri - 4

Bugs
Bees - 27
Bee Hives - 3

Keese
Keese - 22
Keese, Fire - 5

Octoroks
Octoroks, Red - 11
Octoroks, Sea - 9
Cyclok - 1

Tektites
Tektites, Blue - 6
Tektites, Red - 4

Slimes
Chuchus, Red - 89
Chuchus, Yellow - 14
Gels, Green - 6

Total Things Dead - 307

1st Place - Red Chuchus, at 89!
2nd Place - Miniblins, at 42!
3rd Place - Bees, at 27!

Total Style Points - 4

Total Missed Rupees - 12
Total Lost Rupees - 0

[LaZodiac]

Real life happened! So I'm a little behind. I'll try and post once each day so its not overwhelming...(not to mention I only have time for once a day atm)



Wow, you just dug in the correct spot and found a random 100 rupees? Lucky AF!

I definitely expected that rupee room to have a rupee like in it...maybe the game is giving you a false sense of security for next time you encounter a room like that?

We saw cracked walls in the Temple of the Ocean King but that's been it so far I believe.

I'll be honest, I would have dug up all the vents as well. Interesting, when you return to this room, the incorrect vents get covered up again...which caused you to begin digging them again. There's a mogma somewhere who must be very grumpy with you,

Yeah, fake wall tink would have been nice...also you were so busy trying to find the secret wall, that you let a blue rupee despawn! :(

A comment on Rock Chuchu - we've actually encountered these guys before in Minish Cap. When we counted them there, we counted what they died as, so a Red Chuchu. Chuchu's will always be the most problematic of countable enemies, with their reforming and splitting and change of states...at least their colors so far have been consistent! By the by, we've already encountered more red chuchus than the entirety of Minish Cap, which was 29. This episode we've already netted 21 and I'm not done counting the kills yet.

It's interesting that the game makes you read a sign to open up the blue warps. That means some people who habitually don't read signs are gonna be at a loss.

So...is it Cyclok making those Mini Cyclones outside? And if so, do the cyclones count as parts of cyclok, and then be counted in the Octorok section? Do they just stay in their own section? (probably) Curious minds want to know!

The dual screens fight thing is AWESOME. Also, the symbol for this temple is the same symbol that the Rito use, so a wind them makes sense. Nayru's symbol, I believe.

---

EPISODE 8 KILL TALLY!

Sandworm - 9
Red Chuchu - 21
Keese - 3
Rope - 8
Miniblin - 5
Cyclok - 1

Style Points - 0

Missed Rupees - 11
Lost Rupees (theft, overflow, ect.) - 0

---

Phantom Hourglass
Total Kills
(As of Episode 8)

Spoiler

Show

Blaaz - 1
Bubbles, Fire - 4
Cannon Boat - 2
Eye Plant - 3
Flying Fish - 6
Geozard - 1
Miniblins - 42
Mini Cyclone - 5
Phantom - 1
Rats - 17
Ropes - 25
Sandworms - 9

Avians
Seagull - 1
Takkuri - 4

Bugs
Bees - 27
Bee Hives - 3

Keese
Keese - 22
Keese, Fire - 5

Octoroks
Octoroks, Red - 11
Octoroks, Sea - 9
Cyclok - 1

Tektites
Tektites, Blue - 6
Tektites, Red - 4

Slimes
Chuchus, Red - 89
Chuchus, Yellow - 14
Gels, Red - 6

Total Things Dead - 307

1st Place - Red Chuchus, at 89!
2nd Place - Miniblins, at 42!
3rd Place - Bees, at 27!

Total Style Points - 4

Total Missed Rupees - 12
Total Lost Rupees - 0

The cyclone enemies that we see out in the ocean are unique elementals, personally. Cyclok is just a very powerful wizard. He may of summoned them, but they're just creatures of water and wind, not actual octorok babies. That's my take on it.

[TheWombatOfDoom]

Spoiler: Zodi's Time (9)

Show

Okay, let's do a Zeldo

Zodi Plays: The Legend of Zelda Phantom Hourglass [9] Ocean, Again

Video Length: 26:33

In today's exciting episode, we head back to the Ocean King's Temple to once more plumb it's depths. But before we do so, let's check up on a few of the boats lingering in the North Eastern Sea. Beedle is one, and it is here I'm reminded that his shop sells different stuff depending on the region he is in, and his masked ship probably does the same. That'll be rough. Also rough, I do NOT have enough rupees to buy the bomb bag, which I'd very much like to have right now. Unfortunately I also decide the cash is burning a hole in my pocket so I buy us a nice gem. After that, we head to a mysterious long-ship that turns out to be...the Prince of Red Lions, piloted by a rather suspiciously dressed individual who believes himself to be a hero of some sort. We train a bit...and by train I mean terrify him with our sword, and he rewards us for it. We'll be back to train more COMPLETELY with Nyeve here later, because I forget how to make him willing to do more. And because I definitely don't have time to do 100-200 hits on him just yet.

With those distractions out of the way, we finally return to Mercay Island, and wander our way up to the Ocean King's Temple. With our bombs and shovel in hand, we do have SOME access to new things. First off, on the walk up to the temple, we can blow up some rocks to get a shortcut to the temple (not super relevant considering how short the other path is) and blow up a rock wall that leads to some treasure, and further mysterious interactables. Within the temple itself, the first two real floors get a shortcut with the bombs, though of these the first one is a bit more significant than the others. Floor B3 has basically no real shortcut, since the shovel point really doesn't accomplish much that isn't just as easy to perform otherwise. But finally, after all that, it's onto new content. And what new content it is!

B4, the start of the next bit of new content, introduces us to a...contentious new friend. The Phantom Eyes! The eyes of the Phantom, they have a...finicky view range that is not even remotely shown on the map, and once they see you they become invincible and alert every single Phantom on the floor to your location. They also sometimes SUMMON more Phantoms, so that's always fun. Thankfully, if you do catch them unaware with the boomerang, you can kill them and that solves that. And on this floor you even get a treasure chest for doing so! The puzzle otherwise is just navigating a wind maze without being caught out, so it's easy enough. Onto B5, which...is less puzzle and more combat challenge. This is honestly appreciated, since a ton of puzzles in a row isn't always the best gameplay. Sometimes you need to break it up with some combat...though given it's Phantom Hourglass's combat, that's a small blessing to be sure.

The last room, B6, is another example of how the game feels trickier than it is. There are six tablets, and the four in the corners tell us the order we should care about them, while the middle two tell us "hey care about the order" and...just kinda rudely dunk garbage onto us without any warning at all? It's super bad and probably the worst thing we've encountered in this game up till this point. Reading this tablet, without any warning, drops two more Phantom Eyes into the room, at rather inconvenient spots. It's not that big a deal in the grand scheme of things, but it's a level of rudeness you wouldn't often expect from Zelda, and one that is very much not appreciated since it implies we'll probably end up with MORE rudeness like this later. At any rate, we draw ourselves a hourglass symbol, and make our way into the room of courage, wherein we find a fun little sun mural telling us how to get to the next temple! All we need to do is press our map into the stonecuttig on the mural. This is one of the most iconic, memorable puzzles in the game due to how it takes advantage of the DS in I think interesting, relevant ways. With our map marked with a little courage symbol sticker, we can now safely...have no idea what to do with it. But the hintings at a Salvage Crane makes me PRETTY sure what we can do next.

Before that though, we check out the now open Treasure Teller! He appraises our treasures and ship parts, and we can sell them to him for rupees. The price he assigned each ship part set and each treasure is entirely random, determined when you start the game...and it turns out most of the stuff I have right now is garbage! Thankfully, I know not to sell to him just yet. There's a store out there that buys certain items at a rather high price...it's just that this is also determined randomly. Sweet. It's to encourage connecting your game with other players, but as someone who is flying entirely solo that doesn't really help me much. It also just feels bad to have all this treasure and be told it's not worth much. But ah well, it wouldn't be Zelda if there wasn't at least one finicky and weird mechanic.

But that'll be it for today. Join us next time when we finally obtain the Salvage Arm, and set about...probably trying to get treasure from under the sea, but also probably progressing things. We'll see. Hope you all enjoyed!

I think you hit the wall rather than the Phantom Eye, thus all the bad things befall you.

It's nice that there are pots with more time in them. I keep thinking they're the pots with the safe area juice in them though, so I wince every time you break them.

I like that each visit reveals more floors, and each floor has things that will change it on a revisit. For example - we kept seeing bombable spots last time we visited, and digable holes, and now we have those items to use on those locations. Now we are seeing eye targets (presumably for arrows) and other things we don't know even what they would be for, so ultimately I think this dungeon is so far pretty clever. However, you've cut out a lot of the dungeon in editing, so its probably more tedious than I'm seeing...

OKAY. So that Bomb kill of the phantom eye was epic. This is the reason we have style points. +1 style point (even if it was an accident )

I like that there's a pressing together gimmick. Of course, that means this trick (along with the mic gimmick) seal the deal for this game never being ported to a system like the switch like Minish Cap was.

Ah ha! Goron Amber - a tasty goron treat. Nom Nom Nom. Zora Crown - Once owned by a princess, maybe. So it's not from a current Zora. That answers that mystery. Now to see what those Helmaroc Feathers and Zora Scales are...oh...didn't try them out. Maybe he'll like those?

---

EPISODE 9 KILL TALLY!

Red Chuchu - 10
Miniblin - 9
Flying Fish - 1
Eye Plant - 2
Takkuri - 1
Rats - 3
Phantom - 1
Phantom Eye - 7
Yellow Chuchu - 4

Style Points - 1

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

---

Phantom Hourglass
Total Kills
(As of Episode 9)

Spoiler

Show

Blaaz - 1
Bubbles, Fire - 4
Cannon Boat - 2
Eye Plant - 5
Flying Fish - 7
Geozard - 1
Miniblins - 51
Mini Cyclone - 5
Rats - 20
Ropes - 25
Sandworms - 9

Avians
Seagull - 1
Takkuri - 5

Bugs
Bees - 27
Bee Hives - 3

Keese
Keese - 22
Keese, Fire - 5

Octoroks
Octoroks, Red - 11
Octoroks, Sea - 9
Cyclok - 1

Phantoms
Phantoms - 2
Phantoms, Eye - 7

Tektites
Tektites, Blue - 6
Tektites, Red - 4

Slimes
Chuchus, Red - 99
Chuchus, Yellow - 18
Gels, Green - 6

Total Things Dead - 345

1st Place - Red Chuchus, at 99!
2nd Place - Miniblins, at 51!
3rd Place - Bees, at 27!

Total Style Points - 5

Total Missed Rupees - 12
Total Lost Rupees - 0