Dear Readers,
Well, it's not much but it's somethin'. I finished today's grind in 5 and a half minutes and it's nice to be guaranteed this much at least. I made a little mistake here and there but I was able to pick it up without too much delay.
Again, I feel encouraged to unlock areas as quickly as possible so I can get higher and higher raises on my pay packet.
Dear Readers,
With this one I set Zygarde complete and Umbreon in order to get the reveal and time missions. I'll have to come back later for the 2 fire Pokémon mission.
It was a bigger puzzle made easier with all the reveals I did. I had to do Umbreon's first as that had to be done at the start. After that it was time consuming but very manageable to do within the time needed.
Dear Readers,
Completing all the missions for this required Luxray, but I didn't have it yet. I used Snorlax for its rising reveal and Fletchling to grind for hyper scans. It wasn't too difficult and I managed to get the time mission goal too.
Dear Readers,
This tile only had a little bit of line in the top left corner and bottom right corner. It was divided by two columns of X-es in the centre. It was slow but satisfying puzzle to solve, with more clues coming in like dominoes as single squares got solved.
Dear Readers,
I was racing to finish the daily grind before midnight. I didn't care about the grind itself, as long as I could do it before midnight. If I missed that, then I wouldn't get a chance to do it anymore. I'd have to do the next day's training and miss out on Picrites. I couldn't be bothered changing the clock.
Dear Readers,
Fletchling has a nice circular shape with a beak and eye. It was fairly challenging too with slow but sure fills that came in like a nice domino effect. It was a pretty satisfying puzzle to do.
It was time consuming though and I couldn't reach the 1 minute goal for the mission. I had to set only electric Pokémon, so I reckon I'll have to come back after unlocking several Pokémon slots.
Dear Readers,
Back to catching! Swirlix is a big weird cloud thing with a face and it was hard to tell what it was even in the completed puzzle. I had to set a fairy type and use cross reveal for missions. I have to finish the puzzle within a minute and I don't think I'll get all the missions done until I unlock a third slot. The puzzle itself is speedy enough to do, but I don't really want to rush it.
Dear Readers,
Making the big bucks now. I went on the daily grind with my new 1 Picrite raise. I didn't meet the target time, but I feel good about earning that extra 1 Picrite every day on top of my regular pay packet.
I find that I normally finish these puzzles in about 4 minutes. 5 puzzles in 4 minutes. Trying to get it in 2 really does feel like a stretch.
Anyway, I feel encouraged to unlock more areas as much as possible.
Dear Readers,
I had to grind more today to have enough to unlock the next area. I didn't have to meet the target time so I went leisurely enough.
When I unlocked the next area, the professor gave me a 1 Picrite raise on my pay packet! Hooray!
Dear Readers,
On the way to Goron City, I heard a shriek from the divine beast in the area. It's a big lizard-shaped mechanical thing that crawls along the sides of Death Mountain.
The Gorons have big smiles and big personalities. I small talked with several of them and checked out their shops. I bought some Goron Spice because I remembered an old man back at Rito Stable wanted some. I'll give it to him later. I looked at the rest of the fireproof armour set. I've got some saving up to do. I stayed at the inn and got a Goron massage.
I like the lore about them thinking precious gemstones are weird food and they only mine them for tourists and other races that pay crazy amounts of money for them. That's pretty amusing.
I met the village elder/boss who was having back problems. Just like with the Rito and Zoras, there was this divine beast, the champion from 100 years ago perished, and now there was a local heroic guy who was gonna help me. I have to go look for him somewhere though.
Dear Readers,
I took to the road with Spotty and rode all the way to Eldin. When I got to the Foothill Stable, I cooked up some fireproof elixirs and set my radar to fireproof lizards just in case. This area is crawling with them.
I also came across a guardian stalker that turned just as I was passing so it wasn't at all alerted to my presence. I thought about attacking but decided to just move on.
I continued on the path until we got to a checkpoint. Similar to the Zora path, I wasn't able to bring Spotty any further. I continued on foot and climbed over the rocks to continue on the path.
Things got hot. I had to change equipment that was gonna catch fire and start drinking fireproof elixirs.
I came across new enemies like the igneo talus that looked really cool. I also passed by some Lizalfos with my mask, which came in very handy, and dashed past some rock octoroks. I passed by the Sheikah Tower as well. I took a more difficult way the last time I was here. It was much easier now with my current preparations.
I passed more checkpoints and eventually met some Gorons and a Hylian that was looking for 10 fireproof lizards as a souvenir. Thankfully I had enough for him and he gave me some fireproof gear! I don't have to use elixirs anymore and I can finally relax in this volcanic area!
When I say relax, I mean I won't catch fire. There were plenty of other hazards along the way, including eruptions that made it rain balls of fire on top of me.
I kept pressing on until I finally made it to Goron City! Hooray!
Dear Readers,
On the ride home I picked tons of apples. I was back to the peaceful life and running my little simmered fruit business. I returned to Hateno Village and spent all day and night picking and cooking apples.
While I was picking during the night I noticed the monster shop was out by the field so I went to visit. Kilton had a new mask! A Lizalfos mask! I traded him a bunch of Lizalfos parts so I could gain enough of his mon currency to buy it. I had way more than enough so it was no problem.
I'm delighted with my Lizalfos Mask! Putting it on makes me do this Lizalfos stance and mannerisms like tilting and twitching my head. I'm looking forward to using it, especially in Lizalfos heavy areas like the path to Zora's Domain!
After all this business, I went back to my house and hung Revali's bow on one of the weapon mounts.
Dear Readers,
I'm continuing the daily grind for my Picrites and continuing to finish the tasks without worrying about the target time. I got today's pay in 4 minutes. Had a nice relaxing time.
Dear Readers,
At the end of Vah Medoh was Windblight Ganon. It was a floating torso and it had some kind of arm cannon thing. Revali made a comment about how he was winging it when he died while fighting it, which was pretty funny. I guess he's developed a sense of humour over the past 100 years while he was dead up here.
Windblight Ganon moved around a bit, shot lasers and tornadoes for a bit, nothing too difficult. I was well able for it with the Master Sword. Halfway through the battle it brought out some drone laser thingies and started making laser webbing, doing some weird stuff like that.
At one point I got knocked off the side but I got back into it quickly. A few more arrows and whacks with the Master Sword and I defeated it handily.
In the scenes that followed, Revali was full of praise for me, even though it was in his usual haughty way. He gave me his ability to cause an updraft and gain some instant height, which should come in handy.
Everyone in Rito Village was very thankful and some had sidequests to do. I'll take part in them later.
The village elder had a chat with me too. I got a special bow that Revali used long ago. I'm gonna display it in my house later on.
On the way home I stopped by apple trees to pick them.
Dear Readers,
Teba flew us high above the clouds and above Vah Medoh. What a view it was up here.
By the way, before we came up, he asked me why I wanted to help him and I said I wanted to save Zelda. I wonder how different it would be if I chose another response?
Anyway, Teba told me about the cannons I had to shoot with my bomb arrows. There were four of them and they were very easy to take out, thankfully. To gain back some height I had to use my paraglider. It was more or less what it was like back at the flight range.
In no time at all I shot all the cannons out and the barrier surrounding Vah Medoh had disappeared. Teba congratulated me before telling me to go on without him. He got some other kind of injury and wanted to head back. I carried on ahead and landed on Vah Medoh.
Dear Readers,
I rode to the great fairy in Akkala as that was the closest and finally upgraded my Rito gear. After that, I rode all the way back to Rito Village, stopping to pick apples along the way.
At one point I also made a diversion to the Korok Forest because in the past I got an icy weapon from a wizzrobe and someone there wanted to see it. I opted to warp in and out of there. I didn't want to do the Lost Woods navigation puzzle again.
Back at Rito Village I got some rest and made my way to the flight range. I chatted with Teba, told him I was ready, got on his back, and away we flew to Vah Medoh in the sky. It'll be nice to finally go on board that thing. For ages it's been a constant shadow looming over me while I was saving up for the Rito gear.
Dear Readers,
I just needed to hunt Fire Keese for their wings now. I slept at Foothill Stable and woke up at night to begin my search, presuming they came out at night.
I was worried I was going into extreme heat, but it turned out okay. The path to Eldin had lots and lots of Fire Keese around. I just had to set the radar to them.
Along the way I picked up any fireproof lizards I could find, just in case I needed them.
I met some Stalmoblins of course but they don't scare me anymore. They drop lots of useful monster parts of course.
I even met a Guardian Stalker on the path! I wasn't expecting to see it. I went straight for it and chopped it to bits.
I had plenty getting in my way while I was hunting Fire Keese. Fire Chuchus were often with them and I had to deal with them also.
Thankfully, many of the Fire Keese I met dropped two wings, so I reached the 24 I needed sooner than I thought I would.
Some lovely hot springs around here too. I was able to replenish health easily.
Dear Readers,
For the next upgrade I needed 15 Sunshrooms and 24 fire Keese wings. I didn't have enough so I checked the Compendium, which told me they were in Eldin. I had a bit of a journey to go on.
I decided to ride through the Hebra region to get there, now that I was able to go into cold places easily. I swapped Spotty for Snowbus, just for fun, and rode all the way through to the other side.
The next thing I did was ride through the area north of Hyrule Castle. It was like a weird mountainous region but I was just about able to get through. There was no road. I kept going until I reached Woodland Stable. I swapped Snowbus for Spotty again, just for fun, and rode to the path northeast of the stable that came to an end. From here I continued on foot across the mountainous Eldin Canyon with my Sunshroom radar on.
I came across many Bokoblin camps and got good use out of my mask as many of the mushrooms were growing near the camps. Eventually I got my 15! My search ended at Foothill Stable, which had some sunshrooms growing around. Maybe I should've begun my search here.
Along the way I found some Koroks. I'm not going to be specific about them anymore.
Dear Readers,
After all my collecting and fighting, cooking and selling, I finally saved up enough rupees to buy all of the Rito equipment! They were very pleased with me when I bought it all!
The headdress is pretty nifty, making me look like some kind of distinguished bird of prey.
So now I'll be able to explore the Hebra region in deep detail without fear of freezing. It seems like there's a lot there. I'll be able to go up to Vah Medoh as well. I'm guessing I'll be able to explore the desert at night too? I hope so!
Dear Readers,
I did the daily grind in over 4 minutes. I realised I wasn't getting the target after a couple of puzzles.
A rare Pokémon was spotted in area 9, so I'm gonna aim for that. I have 106 Picrites and I need to have 120, so it'll take a few days to get there. By that time, the Pokémon will have run away and be spotted again. I'll be ready.
Dear Readers,
I took the easy-going approach again and this time I got the training finished in 3 minutes or so, so it's better than yesterday.
Dear Readers,
This puzzle was quite complex and time consuming. Not too difficult though because I never got stuck. I ended up with what looked like a network of rivers or streams. It wasn't actual water of course but it just looks that way because this mural is blue!
Dear Readers,
This was very easy! A huge amount of it was pure fills with just a tiny triangular pocket in the bottom left, and even that had a line going through it. Unlike the one I just did, this one took very little time at all.
Dear Readers,
This one was time consuming but doable. The pattern that came out was kind of random and veiny. It's kind of hard to describe them any other way.
Dear Readers,
I met the target time again today and no level up this time. It looks like 10 is the level cap. I could relax, but the target time is the way to get the bonus Picrites, so it's still better to do them. I might skip a day or two here and there if it gets inconvenient or I don't feel like it. I guess that's one nice thing about this "job", that I can do as little as I like and come back later.
Dear Readers,
I had no idea who this was until the solved puzzle filled with colour. I didn't spot his cheeky smile! To be fair, I was trying to get the 1 minute mission and cross reveal missions done, so I spent just a few seconds filling in the actual puzzle.
Dear Readers,
This Pokémon has a very distinct shape and pattern! The diagonal along with the contrasting black and white helps to make this puzzle distinctive.
I used 2 Pokémon with Blue Force and completed the thing in time, completing all the missions.
Dear Readers,
This Pokémon had a very detailed head and I had never heard of it before. On the small grid I couldn't really make out its features as I was solving it. I set two electric types for the missions and completed all the missions too! Not much trouble at all.
Dear Readers,
I was expecting some tennis games after saying no to the Nunchuck but I didn't get any! Instead I got bowling, baseball and golfing on the green.
Again, I played very loosely and not too seriously. I got one strike in bowling and at one point the tutorial came up after the ball slipped from my Mii's hand. Whoops. At one point during the baseball I just held out the bat to see if that would work as a swing. Didn't do so well but it was fun to experiment. Might try that again sometime. With golfing I didn't pay too much attention to the meter until I started making big mistakes, so I went back to paying attention to it, faring better.
My fitness age was 28.
I don't feel as ache-y as I was feeling last time.
Dear Readers,
I'm all aches. The season has changed and so have my chores, so I'm doing things I'm not used to doing. I won't be doing as many sessions of this but I'll come back to it.
For now, I got all tennis games. Didn't want to bother with any boxing games. In the targets things went kind of slow but that's ok. In the orange squares and returning I played loosely and not too seriously, missing quite a few times but that's ok too.
My fitness age came to be in the late 20s.
Dear Readers,
Today I got the blue skies, rolling hills and mountains for the third time. It's nice to visit and revisit here too.
The reward I got was a pair of sunflowers.
Today I tried something different: I did 200 skips! I didn't adjust the goal but I did have two sessions. I was feeling sleepy after the first one and wanted to do another, so I booted up the game again and built on top of what I had achieved.
While I was doing the second round of hops, I had the background and its sounds to enjoy. I just have the green screen during the first 100 hops so this was nice.
Hitting 200 reset the gauge again and I got another sunflower added to the one that was already at the top. There's something a little different.
Dear Readers,
I got all tennis games again today and a decent fitness age. To mix things up, I put on the Game Boy Tennis music during the first event.
I was delighted when the two follow up events were also tennis events!
Dear Readers,
My fitness age was in the early 20s today, which was nice. I decided to go for the Nunchuck today and got both boxing events. I got golfing on the green too.
Everything went well, even the dreaded boxing with trainer. I knew I did well in that because at one point the trainer held up both hands at once. That never happened before so I guess that only happens when you do well.
Dear Readers,
Feeling like I hit some kind of jackpot with all tennis related events today. Tennis targets, tennis orange squares and returning tennis balls.
I did well in all of them. The triangle wasn't full but it was really well balanced with all three attributes. Age was lower than it was previously.
Also of note was the fact that I got a Nunchuck prompt and said no.
Dear Readers,
Today I got the puppy for the third time. Only one dog per pattern loop, so this is the third time seeing the dog. I have seen cats many times.
The prize I got were two of those big wedding cakes, this time with bunny heads on top of them. I don't remember if they had the bunny heads before. I'll have to keep an eye out when I win wedding cakes as a prize in future.
Dear Readers,
I got the city background for the third time. I don't really remember getting it because it wasn't today. I'm just updating this later. I don't remember what prize I got either.
I do like visiting the city though. I like to visit it many times to shop, to eat, to go to the movies, meet friends... among other stuff I can't think of right now.
Dear Readers,
I made my third visit to the mushroom patch and I got 2 bouquets of smiling multicoloured flowers as a prize. Very nice!
I can imagine I'm visiting the Mushroom Kingdom, bringing flowers for the princess.
Dear Readers,
I got that particular cat background for the third time and I got 2 smiling stars as a nice little prize. This cat is the one that has its paw out. I don't really know the names of the different breeds.
Dear Readers,
Made another trip to the carrot patch. I forget what my prize was but carrots as big as these would be a very nice prize for such a small cartoon rabbit.
Dear Readers,
Today my fitness age was 28, one year older. I got baseball swing practice, golfing on the green and boxing with trainer.
I did very well on the baseball swing and I got a decent amount of balls in a row. Did fairly well on the golfing too. I boxed the trainer 5 times though, which hurt my results somewhat.
My balance stat was really good but the other stats were weaker in an equal way.
Dear Readers,
I got the living room for the third time today. It's no harm at all to chill out as much as possible and rest. Certainly more than three times! I'll be back again and again I can safely say!
I remembered the prize today and it was 2 wedding-like cakes.
Dear Readers,
Today I went to the moon on my third pattern. I don't remember at all what the prize was, unfortunately. That information got lost in space.
Dear Readers,
I continued the third pattern with the beach. I don't remember what the prize was.
Imagine skipping on a real beach? The softness of the sand might be better for jump rope as opposed to floorboards or concrete, but i don't really know.
Dear Readers,
I got a fitness age of 27. The events I got were bowling, tennis with orange squares and boxing bag.
Bowling didn't go well at all! I was trying to see if I could throw better but often ended up throwing worse. Still fun though.
I missed a few targets with tennis and I was returning some very slow balls.
Did well enough in boxing bag. Missed it a few times which was funny.
The triangle was fairly small this time but the age was ok.
Dear Readers,
Today I got my fitness age down to 24! Hooray! I got this even with the bad boxing game!
I got boxing with trainer, returning tennis balls and golfing on the green.
I hit the trainer 4 times but hit 20 targets. I returned most of the tennis balls. The balls spin fast when they come fast. I got a lot of "nice approach" affirmations from the golfing part, which was cool.
I got excellent balance and stamina with slightly lower speed but all stats were great. It was a big triangle today.
Dear Readers,
Today my fitness age was 31.
I got batting practice and tennis targets and tennis with orange squares.
Speed wasn't so hot. None of my statistics were but I thought I did okay in all of them.
Towards the end of the batting practice there's the odd fast ball pitch! Something I've noticed.
Dear Readers,
Today I lowered the fitness age again. It stayed in the mid 20s.
I got tennis with orange squares, batting practice and bowling.
One big thing of note was that I got a strike in bowling this time. Didn't get one of those in ages!
My strongest trait was balance, but I was pretty good in other aspects too.
Dear Readers,
Today my fitness age was slightly higher but stayed in 20s. I opted for the Nunchuck again.
I got boxing with trainer, golfing to the green, and returning tennis balls.
With the dreaded boxing with trainer, I opted to go very slowly and tried to be as accurate as possible. I managed to come out of it with some points. It felt like I had to punch off to the side at 45 degree angles at times.
Golfing went well and the tennis one went really well. I should try for a high score again.
Dear Readers,
Today my Fitness age stayed in the 20s and I listened to someone livestreaming while I played. I opted out of the Nunchuck and got tennis with orange squares, baseball bat swinging and bowling.
I did very well with the tennis one, okay on bowling and okay-ish on baseball. I couldn't really watch the livestream with tennis or baseball, but I could take my time with the bowling.
Dear Readers,
Today I got the puppy background again, which was nice. I also got the same flowers as yesterday as a prize, which was also nice.
I might change the skin soon, but not to the Badge Arcade bunny. Not a big fan of that application.
Dear Readers,
I got a much improved fitness score of 26 today, a huge difference from a score in the 40s. I got golfing on the green, returning tennis balls and tennis targets.
My balance stat looked perfect. I returned nearly all the balls in the tennis one. I should try the main ball return game. I'm much better at it now.
Dear Readers,
Today I got a fitness age of 46! The highest age yet! Yes, the boxing with trainer was involved, but something else was too...
Today I played using the Wii U Game Pad's screen only. I thought why not try it out.
Aside from the boxing, I got tennis with orange squares and batting practice. I stood at a bit of distance from the Game Pad on its stand. It's cool that the Game Pad itself has a Wii Remote sensor bar built into it.
It was a little awkward and I would need practice. Also, it's very hard to see tennis balls and baseballs coming at you on such a small screen! I missed quite a few swings.
Between all of this, my fitness age came out at 46. I did badly in all three categories and ended up with a very small triangle. Oops! May do this again from a more comfortable position sometime.
Dear Readers,
I got the mushroom stage again, keeping with the pattern. However, this time I got blue flowers as a gift for completing the goal.
This time I played with headphones plugged into a different device while watching a Twitch stream VOD. It's a thing you can do, kind of like the step aerobics in Wii Fit U. 100 hops don't take too long, but I guess you can increase the goal.
Dear Readers,
Got my fitness age down in lower 30s. Woo!
Of course, having no boxing this time was a big help.
This time I had Tennis targets, tennis with orange box and baseball swinging.
I did something different this time: I muted the volume on the TV and just played with the sounds coming out of the Wii Remote. Quite a lot of nice sounds coming out of it!
Dear Readers,
My fitness age result was very high in the 30s this time. Not great. The events included the boxing game with a trainer and you had to punch the pads and not him. This one felt broken beyond belief and I could barely hit any of the pads.
How is it that the punch bag one feels so good to play and this one feels so bad? I don't get it.
So yeah, got a very high fitness age and the speed was way down.
Dear Readers,
I got another repeating cat background. Still has the meowing when you continue past the goal. The prize this time were two fish with their eyes closed.
Dear Readers,
Today I got a repeat of the moon background. Jumping further made the hops go all echo-y.
I also got smiling tulip-like flowers as a prize so that was nice and different.
Dear Readers,
I skipped the boxing again by saying no to the Nunchuck(love doing that) and got returning tennis balls, bowling, and orange box tennis thingy.
With bowling I didn't get a single strike but I got the red pin most times! I think I missed it once.
My fitness age got down to 25 with good stamina and balance but slightly lower speed.
I wanted to try the returning balls on its own again and I wanted to imagine doing it to the Game & Watch Gallery Manhole music, so I played that music on headphones while I played the game.
I must say it adds something! It's a nice change from that regular music, which gets stale and clinical after a while. With the Manhole music you get a nice melody with a bit of build up and increasing tempo.
Tennis games don't normally have music, which is perfectly fine, but I like Game Boy Tennis' music, which is a joyful little tune. Might try that with this game at some point.
Dear Readers,
Today I unlocked the first cat background again. Playing further brought the meows I know from before. I guess it's finally looped. 11 unique backgrounds in total? Maybe not. I'll continue doing this for another few days to see if the actual pattern repeats...
Dear Readers,
Today I locked a hilly, mountainous background. In fact it looked almost exactly like something out of The Sound of Music. Continuing to jump sounded melodic but I couldn't really tell what instrument it was.
Anyway it's a very nice scene with a blue sky.
Dear Readers,
I'm doing two of these in a row so it's hard to keep track of what I did exactly.
I'm using the Wii Message Board, which gives some detail that helps. I usually find it kind of annoying or pointless or overglorifying Wii Sports, but it's turning out to be helpful today!
My fitness age is still in the 30s, but I got it down. No boxing today. I had baseball swinging and golfing to the green. Fitness age is 33.
Dear Readers,
After several kitty cat backgrounds, finally there's a doggy dog one! To be precise, this one's a Cavalier King Charles Spaniel, all flopped out on the ground and looking sad.
Jumping further than the goal brings melodic barking noises.
Dogs usually chase bunnies. This one seems chill though, thankfully. They must be buddies.
Dear Readers,
Today I unlocked a city background. The foreground was a table, like in an outdoor seating area of a restaurant or bar maybe. The background was a blurry cityscape of tall buildings. Jumping further played some atmospheric piano music.
I got some flowers with smiling faces as a prize, or at least that's what I think it was. I'm updating two of these in a row and I hope I don't get them mixed up.
Could you imagine skipping in an area like this? Maybe if it was off to the side, like on a walkway or plaza area during low foot traffic hours.
Dear Readers,
Today I unlocked another cat background, but this time it was a kitten. Very cute kitten with meowing noises.
The prize I got was flowers.
Dear Readers,
Today I unlocked a mossy mushroom background. Continuing to jump made atmospheric echoing water drop sounds. Very nice.
I tried lowering the goal target but 100 is the lowest setting. I then checked what the highest setting was and it was 3000. Wow. Gonna stick with what I can do for now. I got a cake as a prize again.
Dear Readers,
I couldn't do the fitness feature because the night before I played within the 24 hour timeframe, so I played a single game of tennis instead.
I was leading but the score was going 40-30 and I was worried about going to a deuce. I made a very fast serve by accident and won the match! Woo!
I did some tennis training as well with the endless serves and hitting targets. My scores for them now are 27 and 10, respectively.
Dear Readers,
I replayed the first world to feel that lovely music again, but I accidentally forgot to switch on the Wii Balance Board. The game doesn't prompt it, so it just assumed I was continuing with Wii Remote controls.
I continued anyway and played the levels with the added obstacles, since using the Wii Remote is much easier. I still had a good fun time, enjoying the music and dancing to it. Didn't have to worry about the Balance Board either. I also got a higher score, though a Wii Remote symbol appears next to it.
Being prompted and not prompted by menus in a game can be a powerful thing. I noticed it myself when I watched Tim Rogers on his actionbutton Twitch livestream recently, where he played SEGA Rally for SEGA Saturn in the time attack mode. He was able to just continue driving without being prompted by any menus or game overs. The clock just went ahead by itself as well. He drove many laps for quite a while and had a good time. He shared a story of talking about this game with a developer of Gran Turismo, a game series that has lots of menus and settings. There's food for thought.
Dear Readers,
The tough times continue, so I'm trying to play more physical games that make me happy. This is a fantastic game that uses the Wii Balance Board.
I've played this before, and I wanted to return to playing the first world of the main game, which has lovely music, and the skydiving game, which is really beautiful.
I played through the first world without too much trouble and I was getting used to the control, which is generally very challenging. With this game I also worry about making big dancey, jerky movements, because I don't want to do any damage to the balance board.
The music in the first world is absolutely lovely and has a nice beat, and it's much more chill than the loud boisterous music in Banana Blitz, though I love the music in that game too.
When the credits roll, there's a minigame set to music from the first world, except this time there's singing. The first time I heard this was a very nice surprise and it always keeps me coming back to play it again.
In the skydiving game you have to lean to get into position and hold for a few seconds, before gliding joyfully through the air to the next target. It's not much but it makes me feel happy to play, so I was delighted after not playing for such a long time.
I haven't recorded any scores in these past couple of sessions... maybe I should.
Dear Readers,
I tried out the fitness feature. This presented some bite sized tasks to do in the various sports. One was landing golf shots on the green, one was hitting tennis balls against wall targets, and another was hitting several baseballs being pitched.
This feels like a good single-player alternative. At the end of the session you get this table with different statistics in the shape of a triangle. Might get more data the more I do this.
Dear Readers,
Today I got a carrot patch background. It's from the perspective of a very small animal with towering carrots behind me. There were sounds of nature like birds chirping as well. It's a nice scene.
I played in a different place too, which helped mix things up a little. There were sounds of real nature here, so I put my ear up against the Switch to make sure it was different sounds. Birdsong all around.
Dear Readers,
It's tough times so I decided to play some games that make me feel happy. One of them is this Wii launch title. It's really hard but I wanted to play some specific levels and modes.
One thing I really wanted to do was to hit a ball against a wall with a tennis racquet. I found Monkey Squash.
This was really easy to play. I played Wii Sports tennis as well and found that to be much more difficult. More on that later. I just wanted to whack a ball against a wall forever and I was able to do it for 6 points to win in this squash game.
I then played the main game, dancing along with the music. I played the first world and the desert world, which both have lovely music. The dance is easier to do when the game is easier, but it gets harder in the desert level, so I mostly danced when I was dying and flying from the level.
That desert bonus level is quite tricky. I'll need practice.
I mentioned dancing. There's no dance mechanics in what I was playing, I just danced myself because there's nice music in this game.
Dear Readers,
I unlocked the moon background today after 100 skips. It's a nice image isn't it? Imagine the rabbit on the moon with a skipping rope. There's a nice view of the Earth in the background too.
I cycled through some costumes and expressions on the bunny. There's lots of Nintendo character costumes, which is nice. I stuck with the default one for now.
Dear Readers,
Times are tough. Times were also tough when this game came out. I only played it once and found it to be a delightful little thing to help stay active. A cute little rabbit in a tracksuit using a skipping rope and you jump along with him with the Joy-Cons to play.
The one time I played it, I jumped 100 times to meet the goal for the day. This earned me a background with a cat on it, which was nice.
I haven't played it since, until now. Times are still tough and in many ways it's gotten even worse, including a recent event that I won't go into. I think it's time to play this game more. It should help me get through these times.
I'll make a few posts talking about how it's going with this game the more I play it.
Dear Readers,
I equipped Umbreon and Spiritomb for this puzzle in order to clear the missions. I didn't notice it was a bigger than usual puzzle and I wasn't able to use Spiritomb's moves. Oops. Umbreon's move was pretty cool though, seeing all those squares reveal in a big scatter!
After doing that, I had to go through the puzzle normally. It took a chunk of time but it was fun to do the puzzle. Didn't have too tough a time but it was time consuming. By the time I had finished, I was able to get to the rare Pokémon, but I didn't have enough energy left! I'll catch up with it someday.
Here's where I'm announcing I'm skipping a few days in this blog. At the time of writing it's January 2025. I'm updating older days like this because I want to fill the days I had missed before. I'm playing some kind of weird catch-up, like I'm trying to make up for lost time and daily entries. Back then I was filling in entries from even earlier than that. However, during this time in March 2024 I was going through a tough time and I'm feeling the need to leave several days blank. I won't go into why other than saying it was tough times. I feel the need to leave a gap.
Later on in March 2024, I started playing more physically active games to help me get through tough times and I blogged about the games. These posts haven't been published yet but they will be after I post this. I played Wii Sports, the rabbit skipping rope game on Switch and the Super Monkey Ball games for Wii. There are a bunch of entries about these games in drafts, waiting to be published. When I do publish them, I'll go back to posting about Pokémon Picross and Zelda Breath of the Wild again.
Thanks for reading, and for your patience.
Dear Readers,
I wasn't able to do the missions for this one, so I just equipped my new Ditto and Zygarde 10% in order to finish the puzzle quickly. I beat the puzzle in like 20 seconds with all the awesome reveal moves. I had a lot of power in this one. Still chasing after that rare Pokémon and I have to run through this to get to it.
Dear Readers,
I levelled up to 9 in daily training! Also, this time I definitely got the 8 Picrites in my pay packet! Woo! Let's keep that level increase going as much as possible! I need that income!
Dear Readers,
I thought I had levelled up to 8 but apparently not? Today's training I had to level up to 8 again for some reason. I have no idea why. Anyway, I did for definite this time, so I will get an increase in my Picrite pay packet.
Dear Readers,
I finally got the target time in the daily training! I'm level 8 now. It was stupid hard trying to meet that time and I didn't beat it by much. Anyway, I'm just glad that I have now and I can earn a bit more in my Picrite pay packet.
After this I had enough to unlock area 8, so I did that.
Dear Readers,
I'm not getting anywhere in the daily grind, earning the same 7 Picrites all the time. I came very close though. In fact, it was the closest yet, finishing the grind with just a few seconds over the target time.
Dear Readers,
I put on my Bokoblin mask and went riding southwest of the Rito Stable.
I came across a Bokoblin camp and I got on well with them there until one of them set themselves on fire and blamed it on me. I made myself scarce after that.
I explored some hills with Spotty, passed by a sleeping Hinox and went through a pass that took me to the edge of the world. It was just a sheer cliff that looked over a big chasm with some big cliffs beyond.
I saw the warblers area, which is gonna be a shrine thing later on when the Rito aren't threatened anymore.
Speaking of Vah Medoh, it was a constant looming menacing noisy shadow. It hovered around all the time. I often looked up at it and thought about exploring it all later.
Before all that, I still have to gather stuff, cook some stuff and sell it so I can earn enough money for warm clothes.
The blood moon happened, which made the woodcutter axes respawn, so I went chopping wood again.
I did fairly well, earning well above 3,000 rupees. I still have a bit to go.
Dear Readers,
I brought Pancham and Chatot to Buizel's stage. I was getting bored of doing Pikachu's stage.
It took a decent amount of time and I got to use the two hyper scan moves. Thinking maybe I should search for the perfect stage. Not just energy wise, but also just a stage that's very easy and quick to do.
Dear Readers,
One of Jirachi's missions was to have two fire Pokémon in your team. I didn't have any that I could use in the puzzle itself as it was too big, but I could equip them anyway to complete the mission.
However, this made the puzzle take me a lot longer to beat. An hour and a half in fact. I was not going to get that 6 minute mission this time.
Dear Readers,
I haven't got much to do except grind for medals. I'm focusing on the hyper scan one so I took on Pikachu, the puzzle with the least amount of fills and did it over and over until I ran out of energy.
I used Chatot, who also has the hyper scan move, but it gets tired. Pancham is tireless.
I then used the Zygardes, whose square reveals are very much overkill for this puzzle. I made sure to use hyper scan as much as I could. This grind will continue.
Dear Readers,
I set Celebi and Zygarde Complete Forme and went into the Jirachi puzzle. I used the two square reveals in the centre with the aim of working from the inside out. I got on really well, but I did have to use all my freeze times. In any case, I had no trouble and got the mission completed.
Dear Readers,
I set Mew and Pancham to get the time mission for Vaporeon and stopped time from passing much. I'm also grinding for the hyper scan medal which was why I had Pancham along. I got the time mission done and got the reward for it.
Dear Readers,
I finished the daily grind quicker than usual but still over by about half a minute. This time I didn't take time putting X-es everywhere. It kind of helped. Anyway, another 7 Picrites for me.
Dear Readers,
I didn't get the time record again today. In other news, I almost missed out on this as it was close to midnight and I hadn't played it all day. I'll have another chance in a few minutes. In any case, I'll get another 7. Woohoo!
Dear Readers,
There's a couple having their honeymoon at Rito Village. It didn't turn out as expected at all and they weren't having a good time. I sold the husband some flint and the wife some baked apples and they became much happier, giving me lots of rupees.
This helps a lot. I'm still saving for the warm equipment. I'm even using the Master Sword to cut grass so I can obtain materials to sell.
At one point I decided to climb the very tall pillar near Rito Stable. At the top was a chest with a bow in it that the Rito seem to like. It has very low power but it has good speed. Hopefully that'll help me when I get up to Vah Medoh someday.
Dear Readers,
I headed back to Rito Village and headed to the armour shop. This equipment is perfect for the cold but it costs a lot of money for a full set. It's well over 2,000 Rupees.
I have most of it but I decided to do stuff to earn money. I looked around the general area, around the village and around the stable. There are tools like the iron sledgehammer and two woodcutter axes lying around. There are many trees and patches of grass to cut. I found some ore deposits and mined for materials that I could sell.
I also used the Master Sword to cut the grass, finding frogs and bits of wheat.
I chopped lots of trees, gathering many pieces of wood.
I gathered other bits and pieces and sold them to Beedle and the shopkeepers in Rito Village. I have a bit to go yet to obtain enough funds, but I'll get there.
Dear Readers,
After chatting with Teba at the flight range I headed back towards Rito Village. Along the way I came across some horses in the snowy area, so I decided to tame one and ride it all the way back to Rito Stable.
It wasn't difficult to tame. I just fed it apples and soothed it while riding. It eventually warmed up to me. Like Spotty, it has spots, but darker patches. I named it Snowbus, since I found it in the snowy area.
Dear Readers,
Teba is the name of the Rito who was determined to take down Vah Medoh. The villagers told me he tried before and failed and his friend even got hurt. He was still determined though, so he was at the flight range all the time to practise his skills.
I was told that I could glide there from a certain spot, so I decided to try it out. Sure enough It got me to the general area easily, but the instant I got there, I got cold.
I warmed up with the warming concoctions I had on hand and put on my Bokoblin mask before hiking through the snow, past some Bokoblins on horseback.
When I got to the flight range, Teba was there. He wasn't too pleased to see me, but he treated me fairly. I was glad to see a cooking pot here and I made more warming concoctions.
The flight range has an updraft so there's no stamina involved in gliding and I can shoot my arrows at targets all I want without that worry of running out of stamina. It was pretty nice and I was able to impress him easily.
We chatted about going up to take on Vah Medoh together. He agreed to it but cautioned me about being properly equipped. He gave me some bomb arrows, which seems to be the thing needed here. I decided not to go for now as I wanted to get some warm clothes first. I'll come back to him when I get them.
Dear Readers,
I took on this shrine in Rito Village. Before me was laid out a big grid like structure of fans blowing on windmills. I had to turn the fans so that all the windmills could get a chance to spin. I had to think it out at the vantage point of the entrance, as if it were a puzzle on paper. I was able to figure out which mills absolutely needed a certain fan while other fans could power other windmills. I was able to do it handily enough.
Before the puzzle though, there were three treasure chests hidden behind the entrance. I was able to obtain them through doing another windmill thing as well as cryonis to cross the water. I got a Rito spear and added it to the compendium as well.
Dear Readers,
After surviving the guardians and doing that last shrine, I rode all the way to Rito stable with Spotty. We continued across the bridge to the village. Spotty could only go so far and I had to continue on foot.
The moment I got off Spotty, I heard this loud bird-like shriek in the sky. This huge bird-shaped machine in the sky was flying around. The Rito called it Vah Medoh.
Is Vah Medo named after Mido of the Kokiri? It's hard to know. The village had a very similar theme to Dragon Roost Island, home of the Rito in Wind Waker. It's easy to start wondering where they're all connected!
The Rito were friendly. I was worried they weren't, but they were. However, they had Vah Medo on their mind. They told me Vah Medo suddenly showed up and started zapping at anything that got too close. They didn't like living in fear and having to only fly at a safe distance.
I chatted with many of them, including the elder. I met a Hylian couple, but that's another story. There was a shrine here too I hadn't activated yet. I'll do that soon.
There are Rito here that want to take on Vah Medo. I'm finding as much information as I can about them. It seems I have to meet them at the flight range, which is the next major thing to do.
I even got a flashback from looking at the landing of the legendary Rito, Revali. He was the champion I met 100 years ago. I remembered him showing off his ability to create an updraft for himself that enabled him to fly to Vah Medo and gloating about how I wasn't able to do it. His spirit is probably up there now.
The Rito village was lovely, very treehouse like and built around isolated rocks and cliffs at a great height. It's very much a place you'd expect birds to live.
Dear Readers,
Zalta Wa Shrine was puzzle oriented, which suited me at the moment, because I was after fighting a lot of guardians outside.
All I had to do was shoot one orb with an arrow, throw another orb into its chamber and use the trampolining platform to help me reach an activated platform. I grabbed the treasure along the way too.
Short and sweet enough.
Dear Readers,
I decided to visit the Rito area and take on the divine beast there. The other places I couldn't really visit without medicine to cool down so I decided on this one next. Besides, I didn't meet many Rito but I met plenty of Gorons and Gerudo so far.
The way I wanted to take there was across the northern part of Hyrule Field, because I wanted to get practice in fighting Guardians. I got some practice and I made many costly mistakes, but they seem manageable enough. Before this my strategy was mostly about avoiding them. I lost a lot of swords and shields as I went through them. I must've fought about four or five of them?
I enjoyed chopping their legs off and stunning them with arrows. Deflecting their beams seems to be the best way, but it's a tricky thing to do right. Also, for some reason, the Master Sword always lights up when I'm around them.
In any case, I'm glad to have more experience. I continued riding until I got to that shrine I saved for later.
Dear Readers,
This puzzle was handy enough and fairly straightforward to figure out. The pattern I ended up with kind of looked like a cartoon lightning bolt, especially when lined up with the tile above it. Lookin' good.
Dear Readers,
I took on Bidoof's one minute mission with Mew equipped. I also had Klefki for any auto fix x parts I needed to take care of. Just like the other one with Celebi, I finished the puzzle in one second thanks to the freeze time moves.
I got to unlock a mural tile, which was nice too.
Dear Readers,
The training was very slow today. Much slower than usual. After a while I didn't even feel like racing anymore and just saw it through to the end for my 7 Picrites. It took me well over 3 minutes.
Dear Readers,
With three entire columns of 0 fills, I thought this was going to be another easy one, but it wasn't. It was fine, but it was very tightly clued, filling in lots at first but then filling one here and there, chipping away like a sculptor. It ended in a very satisfying way and felt like a good puzzle.
This tile had a line going down the left side before turning in a diagonal. It joins with the tile underneath, continuing that diagonal line along with a branching line of its own.
Dear Readers,
I set Greninja and Zygarde 10% Forme for this one. I square revealed the middle squares and used blue force as much as I could, allowing me to finish the puzzle in very good time.
I also got my blue force medal! Yay!
Dear Readers,
Vah Ruta was now on top of a mountain I couldn't reach before because it was too wet. It was dry now and it looked so cool up there that I couldn't resist the urge to go visit it.
I went all around the mountain looking for the best part to climb. Nowhere seemed like I could do it without having to replenish stamina, so I just went climbing anyway.
It was a long hard climb, but the weather was nice at least. When I got to the top, a message popped up that said I couldn't go near it as it was too dangerous while it was zapping a beam towards Hyrule Castle. I already knew I couldn't go inside but not being able to go near it at all was pretty disappointing.
After this, I decided to just glide towards my horse, which was still waiting at the start of the area. I sneakstruck the Lizalfos nearby when I landed and trotted away.
Dear Readers,
After Vah Ruta zapped a beam towards Hyurle Castle, I warped to Zora's Domain. I went to the king and got a hero's welcome. Everyone thanked me warmly, the elders liked me now, Sidon praised me to no end with shaking my hand, Kind Dorephan had all praise for me too. I told him and Mipha and I were united when that choice came up. He knew full well how much Mipha was in love with me. I also got Mipha's spear. I might just keep that in my house. Is it something that can be only used until it breaks like any other weapon? I'm thinking maybe I ought to cherish it.
I chatted with the elder Zora who wanted to compile the texts of the stone tablets into a book and I was now finally able to do that quest. I might do it later. For now, I wanna go back horse-riding.
Dear Readers,
I was expecting something big to come from activating all the terminals, and sure enough, out popped Waterblight Ganon. Mipha guided me through the fight.
I had a very clumsy time with him! I was very bad at dodging the ice blocks and ended up shooting them out with arrows. I had to switch between normal arrows for this and then shock arrows for Waterblight Ganon himself.
Even though I was clumsy and took a lot of damage, the fight was very slight and easy, kind of like Zelda 1 bosses are if you know what you're doing. He did flood the room at one point, which made it a bit trickier, but I was still well able and equipped to beat him. Dozens of shock arrows and hundreds of regular arrows! Messing around and acquiring stuff is worth it!
After the fight, Mipha's spirit talked more to me and gave me an ability that restores my hearts if I ever run out, which will be very handy in this game.
The game told me I wouldn't be able to come back inside to Vah Ruta, so I was glad to have all the treasure chests found.
Dear Readers,
I explored Vah Ruta. It was just a big huge mechanical elephant skeleton. There were these evil eyeballs that sprouted dead minion heads. I added them all to the Hyrule Compendium, the Lizalfos, Bokoblin and Moblin heads. There was the odd mini Guardian to fight as well.
What was interesting was the trunk of this elephant. I was able to move it using the Sheikah Slate. The water it was spouting I was able to make it aim onto the big wheel to make it move.
There were terminal points in the big wheel, small wheel, on the trunk itself, other little areas too, including one surrounded by fire. I had to aim the trunk water at different points at different times. I had to climb onto the trunk itself to get to its terminal point and to find treasure. I had to aim the water at the fire as well.
I managed to activate all the terminals without too much trouble, but funnily enough I did get stuck on the terminal that was in the small wheel. It turns out all I had to do was use cryonis on the part where the water was coming out on top of it while getting the terminal into a reachable position.
Mipha's nice voice and guidance were good company during all this.
This is like a very small dungeon. I like this idea! I heard that some people didn't like this as a dungeon idea but I think it's fine.
Dear Readers,
I finally decided to talk to Sidon and team up with him to take on Vah Ruta. I had to ride on his back while he swam through the water, knocking back the blocks of ice that were being thrown at us.
Then I had to swim upward with the Zora armour and use the shock arrows to shoot out the glowing orb thingies on its back. I had to do a few rounds of this. The blocks were getting spiky as well. I had to shoot some with arrows and knock back some with a sword. Eventually we succeeded. Vah Ruta was no longer flooding the entire area.
Sidon brought me to a platform where I could continue on my own and go inside Vah Ruta in order to free it from Ganon. He wished me luck and swam away.
On entering, I could hear Mipha's voice saying she was delighted this day had finally come and advised me to obtain map data so I wouldn't get lost.
