The Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom (2023) • Page 125

I feel very satisfied in my choice to go back and forth between the surface and depths.

 

There's a lot of reasons why I chose to do it this way, but one reason that comes to mind is this Kohga quest, which is like the main Depths quest, really. And the first Kohga battle is below Central Hyrule, which makes sense, and then the second is under Gerudo Desert, so it's like... the game wants me to go to Gerudo fourth for the sages, so why would I go under Gerudo right away? It just doesn't make sense.

And now the next is in Zora Country, and the last is where the Ritos are, so I'm going to the Ritos first for Sages but last for Kogha? It's just all over the fucking place.

They should have made it match more to the overworld, to give more incentive for people to explore the underground of an area while they're exploring the overworld.

I realize that makes the game more linear when they're trying to promote exploration, but I don't know, I think it should also promote logic as well. [/crabass]

 

The depths were easy to travel around once I upgraded my battery enough to fly around on the hover bike comfortably. You also start to learn where to search for things based on the map. I knew there was always a treasure chest inside of this u-shaped structure. All of the Yiga hideouts have distinct markings with their fence. The mines have a certain shape. Etc.

 

If that's meant for me, I appreciate it, but I don't have an issue finding where to go.

I just feel like you have two options: explore the Depths in small doses, or all at once.

For the latter, I wish it was more visually diverse, as it eventually becomes uninteresting being in the same environment for so long.

For the former, I wish the quests down there matched more neatly to the quests in the overworld to provide better incentive to fully explore one location.

 

what's the hover bike?

 

Rolled credits. Phew that ending was epic. Cried.

 

So, no continuing to play that save after the story ending ? Kinda don’t like that. Woulda been cool to walk around and talk to everyone after. Was that how BOTW was?

 

It’s how every Zelda game is.

 

Got the first piece of the froggy armor. The prophecy has begun

 

Froggy is so good. I also love the glide armor.

 

I'm back on my Depths bullshit. I pretty much wiped out all the landmarks on the Gerudo corner, and then I went back to the Central Hyrule Depths to clean up some locations there. I think I'll continue moving north from Gerudo, and probably just end up making a big circle, with a couple of exceptions.

Some highlights:

I fought a Lynel and won. It was incredibly tough, more tough than it has any right to be. I mean, it was strong and it was hearty, and it might have been tougher than the Gleeok, to be honest. Part of it is me just not having ever learned how to use the lock-on and dodge to execute a Flurry Rush. I've never had to do it. I'm steering clear of the Lynel Coliseum until probably the last thing I ever do prior to Ganon.

I wasn't sure if I'd be able to do this or not, so when I was exploring and heard a weird roar that wasn't familiar, I was very excited when I discovered it was my old friend Colgera, back for a rematch. Loved the fight the second time just as much as the first. Looking forward to finding other old friends down here.

A lot of these Yiga schematics are cool and all, but I feel like they're not really all that useful at this stage of the game. I've already completed the land and sky, and that's on me, but I don't know that I would've really used most of them in any case. It's neat though how many options the game gives you.

I still haven't made that hoverbike, so I don't know how much that would change things, but I feel like my issue with the Depths is not so much the size of the area as the amount of obstacles in my way. I guess flying over them would be a solution, so tomorrow I'll give it a shot. But man, some of these Lightroots are in weird places. And even knowing where walls are supposed to be, it's still confusing where I need to be climbing to get to where I need to go.

I do however think that once I have my bearings, traversing the Depths is simpler than the overworld just from the fact that I don't have to stop to do any sidequests or backtracking for anything. I just hop, skip, and jump to whatever mine, Yiga camp, or lightroot I have my sights on. So I guess what I mean is I can get a lot more done in a smaller span of time because I'm pretty much just location hopping.

Oh, also, batteries. I was at one point worried about the amount of grinding I'd need to do to get eight batteries, but I didn't know that mines and Yiga camps give you a ton of that particular currency. I'm already at five batteries and I only finished one corner of the map, so I have no doubt I'll get to eight easily.

Anyway, tomorrow: more spelunking.

 

Also beat a Lynel tonight. Absolutely harder than a Gleeok. They just fully tear you apart. I died a few times but came out the victor in the end. The weirdest thing happened though—it teleported at some point. I’m not sure if that’s one of its abilities or maybe it strayed too far from its original location, or some other thing happened, but it fully went into a portal back to where it came from. I had to go back to kill it.

I’m also convinced the flurry rush doesn’t work for me. I try my best to dodge those attacks and even when I dodge successfully the option rarely pops up. It’s like 1/300 tries.

 

Lynels will teleport if it gets too far away from its set area. That is a thing.

 

Yeah, that happened to me too. At one point it looked like it vanished but it was still raining arrows on me. By the time I figured out where it was (below me), it teleported back to my location. Weird stuff.

 

Also, to be fair, the Lynel I fought was a Gloom-infested Silver, so I guess I shouldn't be surprised at how tough it was.

 

Finally went and did the final battle after putting it off in favor of side quests forever. Fantastic game.

The odd thing I realized though…anyone else barely use your horse? I think I only used a horse to carry the musicians places to finish the great fairy quests. Maybe I didn’t take the time to get used to riding a horse like I did in BOTW, but I climbed everything so the horse was restrictive!

 

Horses suck.

 

I used my horse to drag around Koroks fairly often.

 

I just used Ultrahand and walked them over.

 

I did that for some. For others, horse was much faster.

 

Okay, can confirm, hoverbike is my lord and savior, the One Ring to rule them all, as long as you know where you're going, cause it quickly becomes a flight through the darkness.

I guess I could attach a light, but that's more drain on the battery.

 

Ugh I need to re construct my hover bike cuz I followed the steps in the video above and it still is toppling over when in flight. Though I got the schematic for a more robust one in the depths with spikes and that one is dope but can’t fly/hover. It has wheels but does hover a little bit

 

Make sure to turn Yunobo off while flying also. Took me a while to figure that out.

 

So I did a lot today.

First, I finished the Master Kogha quest. That's done.

I also, using my new friend the hoverbike, cleared 3/4ths of the Depths. Maybe a little more. I only have the lower right corner area of the map to fully explore, with the only exceptions being the Lynel Coliseum and the Gleeok Den, because no.

I don't know how much I'll do during the week, but I definitely feel that next weekend I'll be finishing this game. Once I've finished exploring the Depths, I have King Gleeoks to fight in the sky and in the dark, I'll do the Lynel Coliseum and get my ass kicked, and then Ganondorf.

I did get the Korok Mask, but I really don't have any urge at all to find them. And I'm not really interested in getting every entry in the photo album either. I'll get a snazzy pic of King Gleeok though to wrap that one quest up.

We're nearing the end.