15 pokémon picross - s02-04 froakie

Dear Readers,

The puzzles are getting tougher. Froakie has two big eyes and a big head, so there are lots of tiny clues that take time. I was only allowed to use Scatter Reveal. I didn't make the 5 minute mission target, so I did it again and barely made it under 5 minutes. A toughie.

14 pokémon picross - s02-03 chatot

Dear Readers,

I tried doing this puzzle totally with the stylus, as I noticed there was a medal going for that. I managed it but I think I prefer using the buttons. Wish I could use the buttons on the menus and maps too...

Anyway, Chatot is a bird with a big eye and a black head, so there was a lot of squares to fill and a little bit of complexity with the white of its eye. It wasn't too hard at all though and I managed to finish it and all the missions too.

13 pokémon picross - m01 first mural puzzle

Dear Readers,

I tried the first mural puzzle I unlocked. The mural puzzles are pictures made up of smaller puzzles and I got the first one unlocked in the main game's missions. This one I had was from M01, third row, sixth column.

It was a very simple one and the whole thing looks like a few red spikes. A lot of X-es and just a few red lines that look like they're spikes. It's hard to say right now.

Music is nice and chill and it seems like it's a volcano in the background.

12 pokémon picross - s02-02 pancham

Dear Readers,

Pancham is like a panda with a big white head, so there were a lot of X-es to fill in. I set both Poochyena and Eevee as I needed two Pokémon for the missions, but I was only able to use one of their abilities for the starter! I lost out as Eevee fills more than Poochyena, but I managed anyway. The clues were small ones so it took time. I managed to finish all the missions though, which was nice.

I obtained a mural as well, which was cool. It's like a different mode which is pure puzzling with an image and doesn't use Pokémon or energy. It's back to basics. I'll try it out later.

11 pokémon picross - s02-01 pumpkaboo

Dear Readers,

Pumpkaboo is a ghost type and is quite dark, so there were a lot of squares to fill in. A couple of max fill lines were nice and helped with getting the puzzle done quickly. I needed Poochyena alone as only dark types were allowed for the missions.

10 pokémon picross - s01-03 oshawott

Dear Readers,

Oshawott has a big round face like Oddish, which helped a lot with a lot of spaces that had X-es. I had to set Oddish for the missions and I was able to finish it handily.

After this it was on to the next area, but I had to spend a big chunk of Picrites to do that. Things are gonna get expensive...

9 pokémon picross - daily training unlocked! starting straight away!

Dear Readers,

I unlocked the daily training, which means I'll have a way to earn Picrites once a day. I started on the little challenge right away so I could start earning. The professor isn't gonna give me many Picrites so it's better for me to start earning now. I wish I knew this when I first played, but the game doesn't tell you at all.

Anyway, it's nice doing these simple little puzzles, which makes up the training. No pictures are revealed or anything. It's just a way to earn pocket picrites.

8 pokémon picross - s01-02 oddish

Dear Readers,

The professor introduced the concept of energy to me. I can only fill in so much and then the system has to rest and restore energy, as is the case with many free to play games. My Eevee has to do the same, so I equipped Poochyena. I needed this Pokémon for the missions in this level too.

I solved it handily and completed all the missions here too. Poochyena helped with about 5 squares. Every little helps I suppose. Revealing Oddish's round face and petals was fun.

7 pokémon picross - s01-01 poochyena

Dear Readers,

The Professor gave me two Pokémon, Eevee and Squirtle. I had to spend Picrites to have a second one in my party. Other than that it still felt like the good times were rolling. Squirtle has this strange timed blue hint thing and Eevee reveals a few columns before needing a cooldown.

This all made solving the puzzle quite fun and gave me a Poochyena, which has the ability to reveal a scattering of squares at random.

It doesn't look like I've unlocked the daily training yet. I'll need it for earning Picrites soon.

6 pokémon picross - s00-05 poké doll

Dear Readers,

This 10 x 10 was the last of the tutorial stages and I didn't get any tutoring this time. I had to solve the whole thing myself and I had to fill in every single square to get the answer. It turned out to be a Poké Doll which takes the form of a Clefairy. Fun puzzle.

249 zelda breath of the wild - buying a sign for my house

Dear Readers,

I rode back to Hateno and swam around the place with the upgraded Zora gear. It all seemed okay! I was swimming comfortably in the lakes and ponds in any case.

I made some simmered fruit for money and used it on upgrades to the house. I asked Bolson for a sign with my name on the house and to have some flowers planted. It felt pretty good to have it!

5 pokémon picross - s 00-04 repel

Dear Readers,

This tutorial puzzle explained in depth about squares you're certain you can fill in and what squares you can't fill in, which provides further clues for the rest of the squares. Takes a good length of time, for me about 8 minutes, and it finished with a repel item. It looks a little bit detailed with its cylindrical shape and label, so we're getting a bit more daring and varied and detailed with the shapes now. Nice reward to make 120 Picrites, making you feel like you're rich. Quite devious when I know what's coming soon after the tutorials.

4 pokémon picross - s 00-03 egg

Dear Readers,

This is a bigger puzzle, a 10 x 10. A bit more challenging. More stuff is explained like getting the bigger fits straight away before you get all logical with the smaller edging moves. I wasn't really expecting to get an egg, but it's another simple shape that suits the tutorial stages well.

3 pokémon picross - s 00-02 potion

Dear Readers,

Second tutorial is another simple 5 x 5 and it's a potion. It's not detailed at all and doesn't really look much like a bottle until the colour is added after. I think potions are sprays in Pokémon games too? I'm not sure. This one is purple. It's more tutorialising with a 30 Picrite reward. The concept of the edge is explained quite a bit here and it's pretty easy.

2 pokémon picross - s 00-01 poké ball

Dear Readers,

First are the tutorial stages. The first one is a 5 x 5 Poké Ball. It's all very nice and simple and the professor explains things well and gives a nice amount of Picrites as a reward, but I know how this game is gonna be once the tutorial is over.

Being a small puzzle, it's not a very detailed image but a Poké Ball is a nice simple shape so it's a good one to start with. It's very step-by-step and no trouble at all.

1 pokémon picross - starting all over again

Dear Readers,

I had a blog all about this game before my 3DS got water damaged. I'm going to bring it back into this main blog so I can try and fill this backlog I've ended up with for myself.

I lost my data when the damage happened, so I have to start from the beginning. It's a free to play/free to start kind of game, so I can only play so much. I know for a fact there's a lot of grinding to get more of the in-game currency called Picrites, and the game starts with the professor giving you complimentary ones as you go through tutorials. After that you have to obtain them by grinding on daily training puzzles. It's pretty devious, but that's the nature of these games.

Since the 3DS service doesn't accept money anymore, I can't purchase Picrites anyway, so I have no choice but to grind. Let's get started...

248 zelda breath of the wild - upgrading my new zora pants

Dear Readers,

I took the notion to go swimming with the full Zora gear and save the business with Sidon and the main story quest for later. I was in two minds about it because the path here is clear at the moment until the next blood moon comes.

I wanted to try swimming in the river to see if I could traverse that way. It didn't seem feasible as the current was very strong. I also came across another tablet with ancient writings on it. They seem to be scattered all over the place instead of just on the path. It's gonna be hard to find them all...

I went back to the path and skipped over the bit with all the Lizalfos archers. I glided and trekked all the way back to Spotty.

I went to Kakariko and visited Great Fairy Cotera and got her to upgrade my new Zora pants to the max. I had a lot of Lizalfos remains from fighting them on the path to Zora's Domain and she needed them among other stuff for the upgrades.

Maybe my Zora gear will be more suitable for what I was trying to do in the river? We'll see. That current is still pretty strong.

247 zelda breath of the wild - zora pants obtained

Dear Readers,

I hung out in Zora's Domain for a while. I had a picture of a Lynel that someone here asked me to get. I don't remember her name. I showed her the picture and she gave me Zora pants! Just what I needed for the full set! I was wondering where I was gonna get it!

I then went to where the Divine Beast was. It wasn't hard to get there. Sidon was there waiting for me too. Maybe I'll just go ahead and do the story quest.

246 zelda breath of the wild - reading the texts on the road to zora's domain

Dear Readers,

I wanted to head to Zora's Domain. I wanted to read those texts they carved into walls along the path to the area. Before when I headed there I was trying to be careful around enemies.

This time I ploughed right through the enemies. I snuck up on them whenever possible and I lost quite a bit of health to the shock arrow archers. I got through them and the Moblins too.

I saw three or four of those inscription thingies. Are there more? I'm not sure. I might look it up someday.

For now I'll head into Zora's Domain for a while.

245 zelda breath of the wild - saving up to plant trees around my house

Dear Readers,

I wanted to grow some more trees around my house. Bolson offered to do it for 100 rupees.

I ran up to the tech lab and picked apples off the trees up there. I grabbed 10 and cooked two big lots of simmered fruit. I sold them at the general store for 100 rupees.

I then went back to Bolson and gave him the money for the job. They planted trees near the house. I don't know if they're apple trees but they're only saplings so I'll know soon enough. Might get a sign with my name on it sometime.

244 zelda breath of the wild - trotting along the beach and visiting the desert

Dear Readers,

I felt like doing more horse-riding, so I decided to head to the beach.

I went all the way to Lurelin Village and trotted along the sandy beaches. It was a really nice experience. I turned around and kept going west along the beaches, meeting a Guardian and dodging its beams.

Eventually I left and then I decided to head to Gerudo Desert. I got all the way to a block in the road. I moved the rocks by using magnesis on the metal one and using that to push the other rocks out of the way. I passed by the stable and when I got to the entrance of the desert, the horse wouldn't go any further. I can't take Spotty further than this, unfortunately.

After this I rode all the way home to Hateno.

3 dark void zero - final level beaten

Dear Readers,

I played through the entire third level/final level of the game. Very similar in structure to the previous two levels. This time it was all about blowing up a central control thingy by obtaining keycards at the ends of mazes.

It was all very doable and there were replinishing hearts everywhere. They were badly needed because there were just as many enemies that had to be taken down with multiple hits.

The extra thing to find this time were these little monsters in incubation tanks. It was nice to destroy them

At the end of it all was the same boss again, though just that little bit harder. It had all the previous routines plus another one where it took turns shooting in different directions. I had a good gun so I blasted it handily.

The end cutscene was nice, being glorified as a hero and all. 

All in all this was a very simple game but it worked so well as a game and had some very nice fun presentation behind it. Playing as a little fella flying around enemy mazes with a jetpack and a gun is pretty cool.

243 zelda breath of the wild - a horse ride through hebra

Dear Readers,

I took a notion to go horse-riding through the Hebra region. It was very doable, but the journey there was eventful enough.

I tried going through Hyrule Field but it was just crawling with Guardians. I decided it was better to stick going through the more southern parts of the area.

Riding through Tabantha I was surprised those floating guardian thingies didn't notice me. I was just lucky I suppose.

I drank an elixir for the weather on entering Hebra and I continued going until it ran out, which was just before exiting the other side of the region. That's kind of good to know. I should look for warmer equipment if I can find any.

I tried going into  Hyrule field again through the northwest road but there was a Guardian smack in the middle of the road ahead. I turned back. I did activate a shrine around here. It was called Zalta Wa. I'll complete it later.

I had fun with the Bokoblin mask by wearing it. They didn't show any hostility while I was on horseback so that was nice. I even gave some of them apples. I gave apples to Spotty too of course!

I rode all the way back to Hateno before calling it a day.

242 zelda breath of the wild - cooking ham and eggs

Dear Readers,

I got a notion to have some ham and eggs, or at least cook what this game's equivalent of it is.

I recall spotting boars in the region where Tarrey Town is so I rode all the way there and hunted some for raw prime meat. Then I rode to Hateno Village where I could buy or obtain eggs. I decided to buy some.

Cooking the meat with the egg gives you a meat skewer. Not the most accurate but it's still good food. Cooking an egg alone gives you an omelette.

I also discovered that you can have too many meals to store, which is pretty weird. Well it's not weird but I wasn't expecting that. 

241 zelda breath of the wild - self-driving horses

Dear Readers,

Time for more horse-riding! This time I took a notion to visit Tarrey Town so I rode Spotty all the way there from Hateno Village.

I stopped at a stable along the way and they advised that the horse can steer by itself when its trotting along a road. Very nice to know! Self-driving horses!

I tried going to Zora's Domain but there was a road block and I couldn't go any further. I guess you're not supposed to take horses this way.

I did other random stuff too like taking shelter with some other road walkers when it rained. A Goron and a Gerudo. It was nice haha.

I made the mistake of going too near a Guardian and got zapped. Definitely not safe on horseback around there. Must avoid that road.

2 dark void zero - zapping around the second level

Dear Readers,

I jumped back in to Dark Void Zero. I had to start from the beginning so I did that and beat the first level 100%. I had a bit of practice from before so I beat it handily. This time I used the jetpack a lot.

I got to the second level and there were more weapons and enemies and obstacles to be found. There were these scientists I had to shoot as well. They were very defenceless but they were on the enemy side so it was part of the mission to shoot them.

So far my favourite weapons are the regular shot and the pulveriser, which is slower but is very powerful and can break cracked wall obstacles.

This second level seemed to be out on some kind of base I had to do the usual maze navigation and backtracking. The way forward eventually led to outside where I could fly among the stars with some pretty 8-bit background there.

I eventually beat this second level. The boss was very similar to the first boss but it had more minions and an extra weapon to destroy at the end. There was one scientist I missed out on zapping though. Ah well.

I made sure the save didn't disappear so I'll be able to resume on the third and final level next time.

240 zelda breath of the wild - fishing and upgrading my house

Dear Readers,

I fancied the idea of upgrading stuff in my house, while doing some fishing to earn the money for it. I had enough money for what I wanted at the time — a bed, a door, lighting — but I wanted to obtain the money for it as well.

In the stream and lakes around the area, I mostly found armored carp. I set the Sheikah Slate radar thingy to them, I fished for them, cooked them, and sold them at the general store here. At the lake with the boat I used it to go further out into the water. However, mostly I was gliding towards the fish from above so I could catch them more easily.

It is not easy to catch fish 'cos you have to catch with your bare hands and it's not the best spot to go either because the waters are fast moving and big.

I got what I wanted at least and now my house seems a bit more comfortable. I have another nice resting spot to replenish hearts as well. 

239 zelda breath of the wild - riding from riverside stable to hateno village

Dear Readers,

I decided to head to my house in Hateno Village. I took Spotty and we rode from the Riverside Stable all the way there. Some Bokoblins popped out from behind rocks but no one gave me any real trouble. I didn't even have to stop or fight or anything.

The world of Breath of the Wild is absorbing, at least it was this time after not playing it for so long. Travel by horseback was something I never did much either so it was pretty enjoyable to do here. I just stuck to the road to lead me all the way to the village.

When I got there, I saw my house had no bed and no door, so I wanted to change that.

1 dark void zero - 8 bit style shooting with jetpack flying around mazes

Dear Readers,

Deep in my 3DS backlog is this DSiWare title. I wanna play it before it gets disappeared forever somehow.

This was made when Dark Void was around. That was a big title that spawned this little retro inspired title. What happened then was this got a better reception than its big budget equivalent. This kind of thing happens a lot.

There's a fun little reference to blowing in a cartridge which is nice. I blew into the microphone. I don't know if that functionality was there or if it was just a fun reference. I had to press a button eventually anyway. (I later found that blowing makes no difference, it's all button pressing)

The story seems ok, survivors on earth fighting against some weird invasion taking over the Earth. You play as a guy named Rusty, who has the same name as the character from SteamWorld Dig, which is cool. No relation of course.

I played a big chunk of the game. Lovely NES style colours and the fictional NES lore was pretty well written too. The promo photo for Jimmy Fallon was pretty funny.

The game itself is pretty challenging. Platforming, shooting, flying around with a jetpack, tricky to avoid enemy fire... very tricky after a while. There was this big map on the spare screen and I had to explore each corner in order to get key cards to explore the other corners. I died a few times and got the top score on the high score table, which made think that this was a very short game with one level. However, after I beat the first level I found that there were two more levels.

That's how the game is it seems. Three nice bite-sized metroidvania-ish challenges.

I got a few game overs and found the game to be pretty challenging. There is a save feature, but it somehow got lost and the next time I play I'll have to start from the beginning again. Not sure why that's happening but I'm okay with it. Looking forward to playing more and getting this off my backlog!

238 zelda breath of the wild - playing for the first time since 2018

Dear Readers,

Playing Zelda Breath of the Wild for the first time in a long time! I want to do more than play Xenoblade and there's stuff I want to do in this game now after all these years.

I mostly want to play with the horses. I never did much of that and I want to do it now with my recent interest in virtual pet games and the fact that horses in this game transfer over to Tears of the Kingdom later on, which is pretty neat.

As a point of interest, my last save in this game is 26/08/2018 at 6:22AM. I'm writing this post on 1/1/2025 and publishing it as 2/10/2023 to fill a backlog. What an insane time jump...

I loaded my save at the Great Fairy Fountain near Kakariko. I wandered around a bit and left the village to look for a horse. I found one quite soon and tamed it. I rode it all the way to Lakeside Stable and registered it. I named it Spotty. I then rode it to Riverside Stable. I came across some enemies but I didn't bother with them much.

During this time, the batteries from the Joy-Cons and the Switch itself were screaming at me. I eventually switched from tabletop to handheld until the console ran out of battery completely. I managed to get in a trot along the road circling Whistling Hill before that happened. They're all charging now. Nice little excursion! I got the bond level with the horse to increase as well. I'll learn more as I go along.

There's no Pony Point system here like there is in the sequel. 

528 xenoblade - still can't beat mumkhar, currently level 51

Dear Readers,

I tried to face Mumkhar again to see how strong he was and he was plenty strong. We are at LV 51, all of us. I'm making note of this now so we can work from this as we get strong enough to beat him. This is going to be through quests or levelling. I haven't done much levelling before but I'm gonna start now.