Systems: Nintendo Switch
Release Date: May 12, 2023
Publisher: Nintendo
Jesus where do I start. This game came out literally over a year ago and I spent around 355 hours playing in my own little way with my own little self-imposed rules that changed a bit over time. I wasn't trying to collect one of every item. I wasn't trying to complete any part of the compendium. I wasn't trying to find all of the wells. I wasn't trying to find all of Aticus' locations. I wasn't trying to collect all of the Korok poops/seeds. I wasn't trying to find all of the caves and all of the Bubbulfrogs; yes, I knew about using cherry trees to find cave locations in a given area. So what was I doing this whole time?
My article from December 2023 goes into depth about how I played a lot of the game as far as my fast travel philosophy if you can call it that. Over the last year, mainly during Monthly Update articles, I talked about my progress, usually thinking that I was near the end of the game, which was not the case. Since I have already covered how I played most of the game, let's break down the order in which I completed the main quest, because that could be hypothetically interesting.
I know the game directs you towards Rito Village in the early game with a lot of dialogue from NPCs talking about the dire situation that the Rito find themselves in. However, I decided on a different order and I can't specifically pinpoint where I got the information that informed my choice. It might have been an episode of The Besties (Part 1, Part 2), or an article somewhere, but the information I gathered was that the item/ability gained after completing each temple allowed Link to better explore Hyrule in a specific way. There was something about Yonobu's ability being beneficial both in exploring caves and during battles, so I decided to head to Death Mountain to help out the Gorons with whatever trouble they had gotten themselves into. I also liked this direction since in Breath of the Wild, I had completed the temples in the following order: Water, Fire, Air, Lightning.
Next, I visited Rito Village, and by "next," I mean that after completing the Fire Temple and Yonobu's quest, I probably spent 50 or so hours exploring Hyrule and doing side quests. I mean, I spent 55 hours before I even visited Kakariko Village, and I did that before even arriving at Death Mountain. I completed the Wind Temple and gained Tulin's sage ability. It was after beating Colgara that I realized that the two big temple boss battles had been a little challenging, but mostly a lot of fun. Using each of the sage's mechanics to defeat their respective boss felt like something other than a gimmick in the ways that older Zelda games might have, especially Skyward Sword. The whole experience felt like a spectacle set piece designed to make the player feel accomplished without feeling like you were totally overpowered.
Insert a lot more time doing side quests, and exploring the Depths a lot while discovering as many of the large Zonai mine locations only after I unlocked the Auto Build function on the Ultra Hand. I used Tulin's sage ability a lot as exploring the sky islands became more attainable. On one day, I decided to see what was going on with the large thunderstorm over the Faron region. I launched off of the Great Sky Island on some kind of contraption that along with Tulin's ability was able to get me to Thunderhead Isles, except I didn't know that it was called Thunderhead Isles. I ended up landing on Dragonhead Island and the Shrine Finder immediately started going off. I eventually found my way down to the shrine which ended up activating and starting the Spirit Shrine quest to awaken Mineru's construct.
It was after the Spirit Temple that I went up against my first Gleeok, specifically the Flame Gleeok. I had 22 hearts, a maxed-out stamina wheel, and a fully upgraded Hylian Armor, while wearing the Vah Rudania Divine Helm since I never bought the Flamebreaker Helm (too expensive). I figured if the first battle didn't go well, I would avoid the Gleeoks for a while longer as you kind of have to aggro them into battle on purpose. The battle went surprisingly well, so I sought out the other two varieties of Gleeoks (I didn't learn about King Gleeok until later) and was able to kill them all with varying degrees of success; the Thunder Gleeok giving me the most trouble, even while wearing a partially upgraded Rubber Armor Set (immune to lightning).
Once again, after doing a lot of side and shrine quests, I realized that I hadn't spent much time in the Gerudo Desert and since I did that quest last in Breath of the Wild, I would do the Lightning Temple next and save the Water Temple for last since I did that one first in BotW. I actually didn't do a whole lot of the side quests in the Gerudo Desert before tackling the Lightning Temple and only really came back to the Desert towards the end of my run. But I did do most of the quests in and around Gerudo Town because I was there, and there was still the sandstorm that made exploring the desert rather difficult. Once again, I loved the main quest here, including finding and helping Riju, defending Gerudo Town, the Gibdos, the reveal and exploration of the Lightning Temple, and the fights against Queen Gibdo. Just about everything to do with this quest, I loved.
I don't remember the specifics, but it was after beating the Lightning Temple that I went exploring around the Lost Woods, thinking I would be able to find something to do with the Master Sword. This sent me back to the Gerudo Desert, or at least I thought since that's where the quest location marker was. However, since I was playing in "Pro Mode" which meant that there was virtually no HUD, and since I wasn't frequently checking back to the map, I didn't notice that the quest location marker had moved and was actively moving. I eventually made the connection as to how and why the sword was moving and long story short, I collected the Master Sword.
It was at this time that I started to really dig into the rest of the quests (apart from the main quest to explore the regional phenomena, being the Water Temple). I finished the Tears of the Dragon quest shortly after acquiring the Master Sword, which was probably a little out of order, but I had found all of the other Tears before I finished the Spirit Temple so I was holding off on this one for a while. I also completed the "Messages from an Ancient Era" quest, after looking up where the pillars were located because I was only looking for them on the ground not realizing that they were located on the star-shaped sky islands. So with most of my quests completed (most, not all), I headed to Zora's Domain to proceed through with all of the quests I could find and to make a go at the Water Temple.
I had previously been to Zora's Domain thinking that I was going to start it before I went Master Sword hunting, but then I got distracted at Mipha's Court and Shatterback Point then did more side quests. Before attempting the Water Temple, I had kind of forgotten all of the previous trauma caused by this elemental temple, but halfway through it dawned on me that I was in the Water Temple, fitting with the theme of the game, that temple was up in the sky. Maybe that made the idea of the temple easier to handle, but I also think it was because it was well throughout to not require as much backtracking and head-scratching as previous iterations. Before I attempted the Water Temple, I had heard from somewhere that the final boss battle against the Muckterock was an amazing set piece, but for me, it was the weakest of the temple boss battles in terms of spectacle. The design was decent, but I think I would have liked the Muckterock to have been massive and not this slightly larger than normal-sized Octerock.
After completing the Water Temple, I felt that there was not much left in terms of the main quest. I had completed the Lucky Clover Gazette quests revealing to the greater public that all of the Zelda sightings had been imposters the whole time, which left the sighting of Zelda at Hyrule Castle, which, suprise to apparently everyone, it was again an imposter. But it also led to a battle with a whole lot of Phantom Ganon's throughout Hyrule Castle. This was probably meant to be a way for the player to explore the castle, but I had been through most of the castle already when I found a tunnel leading from the central living area at Lookout Landing into the prisons under the castle. This led to a conversation where Purna layed out the next steps such as locating the Spirit Shrine and the Master Sword, which I had already completed, to which I was happy that there was already dialogue in place for her to be surprised that there wasn't much left to do.
The only other quests I actively tried to complete between the Water Temple and taking on Ganon, was to find as many of the shrines as possible to build up my Heart Containers. During this time I also finished upgrading the Zonai battery charges, finding all of the lightroots in the Depths, receiving whatever the Dispelling Darkness Medal was supposed to be apart from a trinket to show off to no one. I also found all of the shrines on the land and in the sky. I admit that I did look up where to find two shrines since my shrine-detector kept going off and I knew their general location based on where the lightroot was located, but I couldn't for the life of me locate the cave entrance (because it had to be a cave). So let it be known that I was unable to find either the Sepapa or the Tenmaten shrines on my own and resorted to using a guide. My shame is cleansed. What I was not expecting upon completing the last shrine was acquiring the Ancient Hero's Aspect in the Temple of Time after being directed there. By this point in the game, I might have said that most of the mysteries had been nearly solved, but this armor and its appearance opened up a whole new bucket of questions that I don't have time to get into. But seriously though, what's their deal, this Zonai/Hylian hybrid?
Then after a little more running around doing I don't remember what, it was time to enter the gloom below Hyrule Castle and take on Ganon. What I liked about this final dungeon was that it felt organic in a way that final dungeons don't often do. This was a gaping hole in the ground with passages containing what looked like both Zonai architecture and Hylian structures. There was the revisiting of the mural chamber from the beginning of the game that felt a lot smaller than when I first visited. There were the battles with Ganon's army including all five of the sages (and me forgetting to equip Mineru's construct with anything substantion besides its flailing arms). And then the moment when all four of the main bosses show up and the sages essentially kick you out of the room to follow Ganon and Link likely having flashbacks (and me having played Age of Calamity) to when the four Champions from 107+ years ago were all killed by the Ganon Blights.
The battle against Ganon was about what i was expecting, and sadly, I had heard something a few months before this encounter about Ganon turning into a dragon so that was a little less impactful than it could have been. And while that whole fight sequence was incredibly cool*, I did feel that Ganon swallowing his secret stone was a little eye-rolly; I guess everyone's doing secret stones these days.** I did appreciate that the Light Dragon was programmed to scoop up Link if he falls past Ganon-dragon, and I am very thankful that I had the full set of Glider armor set upgraded to level 3 (I didn't have enough Gleeok wings to upgrade the whole set to max), because being able to direct my flight/falling was immensely helpful.
That ending though, with Link skydiving towards Zelda, recreating their last time together at the beginning of the game, and the mid/end credits scene with the sages and Zelda at the Temple of Time, it was a nice conclusion to this trilogy (yes, trilogy), and thanks to the Ancient Hero's Aspect, I now want another prequel to show what that was all about. I do really love this game, and while I have no immediate desire to replay the whole game all over again, I think when I do, I might attempt it in the order semi-suggested by the game: - Wind Temple
- Fire Temple
- Water Temple
- Lightning Temple
- Zelda in Hyrule Castle
- Spirit Temple
- Master Sword
- Ganon
If only just to see how the quests are doled out to Link and how the story could progress that way. Maybe also not seeking out all of the Skyview Towers and Dragon Tears all at once and try to come across and seek them out more organically, rather than purposefully trying to find them before doing much else. I still very much love the way I played in regards to roleplaying Link with him sleeping when near stables, limiting fast travel, and overall just taking my time enjoying the game and taking in as much of the world as I could. Even if it meant taking nearly three times as long as a main+extra run is supposed to take, or even an additional 117 hours past a completionists run without actually completing everything.
I love this game, possibly my favorite game on the Switch. I don't know if it's my favorite Legend of Zelda game, but it is definitely up there. I think it's hard to think about that compared to having replayed the original Legend of Zelda or A Link to the Past multiple times and knowing those games inside and out because they were smaller in scope and shorter overall. I don't know how many hours I've spent playing the original Legend of Zelda and if it would total 355 hours. The feeling of exploring areas in this game though, all in part thanks to the Hero's Path feature something unparalleled that I have ever experienced. Might be chasing that feeling for a while.
*I think the only thing I would change about the final Ganon battle is to cut away to people on the ground, Impa, Purna, Archeologist Hardbody (aka Tauro), or other people looking up and seeing the battle in the sky. Maybe use some of those cool zoom-in camera tricks circa 2002-2003 a la Firefly and Battlestar Galactica. I think it would help tie the fate of the rest of the world to this cataclysmic battle in the sky. Or even have Ganon break off from the battle to start wrecking havoc on the rest of the world. Maybe have the battle go into the Depths or above the ground that's not quite the sky but at a height that would make it feasible for the Light Dragon to still scoop up Link if he misses Ganon-dragon. Just spitballing here.
** It does make you wonder then about the other three dragons. Like, were they Hylians or Zonai too and became dragons by swallowing secret stones? What's their story? Mineru knows about the process to "become an immortal dragon" so at least one person must have gone through the process before Zelda.
P.S. Also a bragging point of pride, that I never used any of the item duplication tricks to level up the battery.
P.P.S. I also love that you literally see Zelda as the Light Dragon after emerging from the cave on the Great Sky Island for the first time. Like, she's right there, but you don't know it yet. Love it!!
P.P.P.S. I had to force myself to stop this article and stick to the main quest points and the order I did them in. It easily could have gotten more out of hand than it currently has. My original plan was to keep this article short, but it then ballooned into what it is now. I have no regrets other than not talking more about other aspects that I loved (caves, dungeons, shrine quest design, voice acting, music, world design, more side quests). There's so much.
P.P.P.S. Okay, last thing because this deserves mentioning. I loved the small makeshift armies that you could meet up with to assault enemy strongholds in the "Bring Peace to [region name]". I love the ragtag nature of the groups and I love how the other Hylians actually would actually take out enemies and it wasn't only Link the whole time. Sure, they likely would have failed if Link hadn't been there, but the fact that there were other peole out in the world and not just Link trying to restore some semblance of peace made the world feel more alive and lived in than previous LoZ games.
And now I'm wondering if the make up of the army builds as you clear the different temples as it does at Lookout Landing. Would you eventually end up with an army comprised of Hylians, Gorons, Gerudo, Rito, and Zora? Only way to find out is to replay the game I guess.
P.P.P.P.S. I just fucking love this game!
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