Crushed koroks: 1. I finally built a conveyance that actually works. I also went on a "wait where did I see milk before?" quest. (Turns out I didn't! Milk is in Hateno, which I haven't been to yet). So I'm headed in that general direction.
Yesterday's death was brought to us by an electric wizzrobe, which I assured my kid I could beat. Electric enemies do not have a particular weakness so I guess I'll just stab it a lot.
I found a kinda spooky grove or cemetery or something, picked mushrooms, and decided to putter around the village for a while. I also died 5 times biting off enemies too big for me to chew. I'd like to get to the point where I can fell large enemies in some clever way rather than simply chunking tons of bombs at them, but right now that's the strategy.
I finally got around to fusing an axe and confirmed you can kill those mutant trees in one or two swings (before this, I was burning them, which took some time, and hacking them with a sword takes forever). I ran out of arrows and decided to try out the boomerang. The boomerang is a work in progress. I fused a keese eyeball hoping it would help with aim but unfortunately it does not work that way. I was also reminded you can electrocute everything in a pond, so I'm going to experiment with electricity next.
I turned on damage numbers in VS. WITNESS ME.
This is the sequel to Cattails, which my kid spent a lot of time with. Wildwood is a "more of that" sequel with updated portraits and a strong emphasis on building the town and recruiting cats to join your colony. I caught many ladybugs.
I haven't played a game focused around recruitment in a while. The first example that popped into my head was Suikoden, but Terraria does this as well. So far, cats are recruited by collecting all the items on a list through gathering and hunting. Hunting involves a quick-time mini-game that is somewhat unintuitive due to how quickly the bar moves, but doable. That will probably change as the skill levels up.
I only played about 5 hours of the first game, and I'm not sure how much I'll play of this one. I appreciate this game exists and I do like cats, but ultimately that wasn't enough to keep me engaged the first time.
I said I was done with incremental games but I can't resist digging mechanics. Digseum is a short incremental game about digging up relics for a museum. Once it gets going digging is satisfying, and I appreciate the short loop.
Additionally, cheevos hunting in Vampire Survivors continues unabated. The pictured build is not great, I accidentally picked up a power when I was clicking through too fast, but you don't need much strategy to hit level 50 and unlock tarot cards.
Crushed koroks: 1, and this time I wasn't messing around. I'm now back to what I enjoy most in Zelda: running in grassy fields, picking mushrooms, and accidentally blowing myself up. (And a secret fourth thing: running from Gloom. This playthrough I seem to be encountering Gloom much more often than I'm used to.)
I found Kakariko village, where armor prices are sadly demoralizing considering at any given time I'm carrying about 200 rupees, each of which is hard-won. The plan was to hike down to the giant fairy near Dueling Peaks and get some much-needed upgrades for my armor, however...
The game's design issues are starting to get to me. The sage controls are tucked away on the key items screen, when they could have easily been included on the wheel instead of the arbitrary duplicate map button. Another attempt to build a vehicle resulted in a pathetic mess so bad I didn't even take a screenshot for lulz and I spent an unreasonable amount of time in a shrine trying to hit a plank of wood with a huge-ass bouncy ball. An unfortunate number of tasks require lining items up with a certain level of precision, a process which is usually fiddly even with the goop anchors to help.
Here's one of those opinions I warned you about. The modern Zelda games contain a lot of unnecessary tedium that can only be explained as Nintendo Being Like That. Control and gameplay issues that would have been noted within 30 minutes of testing persist through two flagship games, indicating they are intended features, and terrible-design-choices-that-serve-no-purpose-but-to-annoy-the-player are part of the overall design strategy.
Anyway, I'm not saying I hate modern Nintendo but I hate modern Nintendo and pirating Nintendo games is always morally correct. Have a fantastic holiday everyone.
Spent some time vibing in the Inlaid Library in Vampire Survivors. I'm currently unlocking the Arcana cards, experimenting with cursed items like Torrona's Box, and focusing on leveling up. Crown+Pentagram and Attractorb has been essential.
Crushed koroks: 1. I 👏 am 👏 tired 👏 of 👏 snow. I found a few things in Hebra but I am OUT until I gain hearts and stamina. Hate you Hebra. Hate you bear. Hate you moose. Hate you giant ass Talos thing that killed me in one hit.
Koroks crushed: 1 apparently. I discovered a very cool mushroom cave. Then I decided I was going to actually "play the game" and "finish a main quest" or whatever. I kind of hated it, not gonna lie. The ark is undeniably cool and bouncing on the trampoline ships is fun, but getting up there was a major pain in the ass.
My insistence on scrounging for every possible arrow paid off, because I sure used a lot of them. I also used most of my stock of fire fruit before I realized you can actually dive into the weak spots on the boss's back, which is a lot more fun than trying to hit them with arrows and would have saved me a lot of trouble. As it was, I broke the last one that way.
Getting rid of the blizzard monster removes all the ice from the Hebra area, so I look forward to traipsing around refilling my fire fruit stock and discovering secrets. It also grants Link the ability to borrow the Rito kid's gust ability, which should help a lot when I need an extra little boost.
Crushed koroks: 3. Yesterday was extremely productive. Most importantly, I learned 2 new things. 1. If you throw a Hylian pinecone into fire, it explodes. 2. If you strap a rocket to a shield, it's awesome.
I located the Gazette, which is another favorite side quest, not least of which because it rewards you with sticky armor, which in turn thwarts my ancient nemesis rain. This is where you learn Zelda is apparently running around Hyrule doing weird shit, which is something that ought to be investigated. I found more designer armor, including an awesome Rito helm.
I had a rather disturbing conversation with a young Rito who told me they stuff pillows with Rito feathers. This is sort of like a human stuffing a pillow with their own hair. I appreciate these are trying times but seriously. What the fuck.
