Daruk’s Song, Part 1: Activating Shrines

Fresh from our success with Revali’s Song, we jaunted off to the next stanza in the Champions’ Ballad quest:  Daruk’s Song. In this post, we explore activating the three DLC shrines in Eldin.

As we’ve whinged before, Eldin is our least favorite land. We’ll even take the Guardian-infested area of Central Hyrule over lava lakes and heat (which may be a dry heat, ha ha, but lava is lava).  In short, during the main game we spent the minimum time in Eldin as necessary to complete shrines and free Divine Beast Vah Rudania. 

With a “get it over with” mentality, we swapped our snowsuit for heat protection armor and fast-traveled to the Shae Mo’sah Shrine, north of Goron City.  We followed the path downward through town (stopping to speak with village Elder Bludo, who is not very Goron-like in his perpetual ill humor) until we reached a place just east of the marker on our map.  From there we flew over the lava and up the hill, not to grandmother’s house but to Daruk’s pedestal. 

As expected, Kass was there to serenade us  – and by the way, why does HE not need heat protecting armor?  You’d think the local restaurant would be serving up Roast Rito for dinner! Ahem.  Kass offered these clues to the location of the three shrine-activating quests:

  • Stop a titan of molten stone
  • Follow rings of light alone
  • Survive lava’s fiery fate

As you might imagine, we did not at all like the sound of those.  We generally avoid Taluses as much as we avoid Eldin, so a Talus indigenous to Eldin, and a Titanic one as well?  Perish the thought.  Or perish us, more likely.  And surviving lava’s fiery fate?  That’s just setting us up for failure!  Following rings of light sounded easy, though.  Like following a trail of Korok flowers. Fun! We decided to save the fun one for last. 

Zelder Tip #1:  You can mark the expected locations on the map with a stamp and consult your map as you go, or use the Sheikah Slate scope to set a beacon that makes following the direction easier.  Just remember that a red or yellow beacon in Eldin doesn’t show up as well! 

Survive Lava’s Fiery Fate
Future site of Rinu Honika shrine

After chatting up three Goron brothers on a small hill overlooking Darb Pond, south and slightly east of Death Mountain, we spotted a glowing ring inconveniently out in the middle of molten lava.  (As an aside, we submit that molten lava does not constitute a pond, and it’s just cruel to name it that.) Beside the so-called pond’s edge were two metal blocks and not far from shore, a smattering of rocks.  The task was this:  use the metal blocks to move the rocks into a stepping-stone path across the lava to get closer to the ring and, ultimately, place a block in the ring that Link can stand on to activate the shrine.  Just flying into the glowing ring, which is possible from up near the chatty Gorons, results in a fiery fate that one does not survive. (We know, we tried.)

Zelder Tip #2:  If you have the travel medallion and you’re as prone to falling into lava as we are, set a travel point near the site of the shrine activation quest.  Then if you need to retreat to more hospitable climes to replenish your hearts (and possibly your mind), you won’t have to make the overland trip again.  We also found the medallion indispensable for getting ourselves out of, shall we say, hot spots, without leaving the area.

Zelder Tip #3: There’s a Lizalfos near the second, further metal block; best to dispatch with it before anything else.

Zelder Tip #4: Your goal is not to maneuver a metal block into the ring and, during the same attempt, er, swim or hop in the lava over to the block. You will fry. Instead, maneuver a block under the ring[1], transport to your nearby travel medallion, race back up to where the Gorons wait, and from there fly onto the metal cube inside the ring, activating the Rinu Honika shrine.

Zelder Tip #5:  Do not rest on your laurels on a blisteringly hot metal cube inside a ring in a pool of lava.  Resting on your laurels will get you killed.  We realized this as our hearts began to not-so-slowly fade away while Demelza was busily jotting down notes. Transport back to your travel medallion safe place and seek the nearby shrine from there.

Stop a Titan of Molten Stone

The “titan of molten stone” holds court off the north shore of Lake Darman.  That’s right, inside the lake; you’ll need to ride updrafts to get to it. (Again with the inappropriate use of bodies of water names.  Proper lakes are made of water!) Like all Taluses, this one sports a large ore deposit atop its – head? torso? – really these defy description.  Anyhow, you can’t just hop aboard the Igneo Talus Titan and whack away at the ore deposit; doing so will fry Link crispy.  Instead, strike the Titan with an ice arrow to momentarily cool it off – if you are so foolish as to want to climb on its back, that is.  Us? Oh, we tried that, and promptly slid off into the lava before we’d landed a single blow. It’s not like these things hold still.

We then consumed an attack up meal and rode air drafts to shoot electric arrows at the hump until the molten titan gave up the ghost and, sure enough, Kamia Omuna Shrine rose from the ground.  (We also used ice arrows, and although they did cool off the Talus, we weren’t going to try landing again; what’s more, we found electric arrows did more damage.)

Zelder Tip #6:   Although bomb arrows work well against a Frost Talus, woe betide the Link who notches a bomb arrow in Eldin.  Not that we did this.  Not that we did this multiple times before realizing it wasn’t the Igneo Talus blowing us up. 

Follow Rings of Light Alone

At last we arrive at the fun part!  This is gonna be just like following Korok flower trails!  Yay! 

Or not.  

After warping to Divine Beast Vah Rudania at Death Mountain, you’ll see the first ring of light nearby on a mountain cliff.  There are nine total. Glide to the highest point on the rock near the first ring. The clock doesn’t start ticking until you go through the ring, but once you do, you must balance time against stamina use, and of course, drowning in molten lava. 

Zelder Tip #7:  Although we generally don’t like adventuring at night, we found it easier to see the rings of light when it was dark.

The first ring is easy enough, and the second, located atop another nearby mountain, also.  You’ll have to climb to get through that second ring, but it’s close, so stamina won’t be an issue, nor will time.  Continue flying/climbing upward through the third ring.

And that’s where all similarity between Korok flower trails ends.  

The fourth ring is located below you, and if you blindly sail off, not knowing where the ring is, you will most likely get disoriented and run out of time and into lava.

Zelder Tip #8:  As you go through each ring, look for a beam of light to show you the direction of the next ring.   The beam of light that emanates after piercing the third ring will point you downward, where you’ll see a ring of light atop a patch of rock.

The fifth ring hovers over a river of lava trailing down the volcano’s side, but it’s close to the fourth ring; there’s time to pause here and regain stamina if need be.  (Or load up with extra stamina before beginning.) The sixth ring is also downward from the fifth, so remember to use B to drop down (but not TOO far down, into the lava!) lest you run out of time while sailing about at high altitude.

The seventh ring is further down still, very close to the lava and between two rocks.

The eighth ring is the worst:  it’s very low, underneath an arch over lava.  There’s not a lot of headroom here.  But once through the eighth – it’s free sailing to the ninth and final ring, which opens up the Sharo Lun shrine.

Zelder Tip #9:  You don’t have to go through the rings precisely in the middle; hitting a side or top works just fine.

Zelder Tip #10:  Have an ice martini to cool down before continuing with Daruk’s Song!

[1] It helps to remember that the up and down arrows on the left D-pad move the cubes forward and backward.  It’s too bad we didn’t remember the D-Pad for the first room of Rohta Chigah shrine.  How on earth did we manage to get out of that room, we wonder?  In our defense, we were in a BOTW drought and hadn’t played for a while!  Still.  “Designed by sadists” comes to mind.

Champions’ Ballad: Revali’s Song

When the One-Hit Obliterator exploded, we grieved mightily for its loss – not.  We hated that thing.  Lulling you into thinking you were invincible – yet all the while reducing you to one-quarter heart; removing the use of other melee weapons; imprisoning you in Rohta Chigah shrine; and always clanking distractingly behind your back, since it couldn’t be removed unless you left the Great Plateau. We said goodbye and good riddance with perhaps more enthusiasm than was seemly.  The Obliterator’s oblivion proved laudable in another respect:  It triggered the next phase of the Champions’ Ballad.  Four pedestals appeared on the map, one in each of the four champions’ stomping grounds.

We chose first to stomp around Revali’s grounds.  Don’t ask us why.  Maybe we were avoiding Eldin at all costs.  Maybe we had fond memories of our first Divine Beast in Lanayru and wanted to save it for last.  Maybe we shuddered to think that the Gerudo region’s trial would be as horrible in the DLC quest as it was in the main game.  

For whatever reason, we donned our snow gear and hied ourselves off to Hebra, specifically, to the Tabantha Tower, from whence we glided off to Cuho Mountain to find the pedestal.   There we interacted with Kass, as chatty and serenading as ever.  We perused the three pillars around the pedestal, viewed their “maps” without learning much, listened to Kass’s clues, and went in search of three new shrines.  In no particular order:

Shira Gomar Shrine

This one was destined to be Itzal’s favorite, at least for the shrine activation part, because it involved finding the dragon Dinraal and shooting his horn.  We’ve a fondness for Dinraal because he’s so reliable, unlike some we might name (Naydra!).  

One couldn’t find Dinraal in just any old place, however, as we soon discovered.  We went to the Tabantha Bridge Stable, sat by the campfire to make it morning, and shortly upon our arrival at the holey place in the Great Tabantha Bridge, here came Dinraal, regular as clockwork.  Unfortunately, he did not have a glowing blue horn, which we understood from the guidebook and the interwebs to be perquisite to activating the new shrine.  Back we went to follow orders:  Find a plateau overlooking Tanager Canyon, east of the Dunba Taag shrine and talk to a Rito named Mazli there at night.  Sure enough, soon after came the ever-reliable Dinraal sporting a blue horn.

Waiting for Dinraal in order to activate Shira Gomar shrine

Shira Gomar, the shrine that rose from the ground after a successful horn-shot, was not dreadful (although it’s entirely possible that after Rohta Chigah, we have lowered our standards of dread).  Some updrafts, some well-placed bombs and a little Stasis, and before we knew it we were talking to a monk who gifted us not with a spirt orb – we understand those to be exhausted – but rather Revali’s Emblem.  One down, two to go.   

Zelder postscript, 2025 replay on Switch 2: With the caveat that our blog does not purport to be a walkthrough, we must admit that the above offhand reference to “a little Stasis” was a mite too offhand. Demelza was in this shrine for hours, hours she complains, attempting to glide through the gate over the rotating gear during the split second that the gate was open and a wind draft was also conveniently available. In a huff, she re-read this post and noticed the little Stasis reference. Indeed, a well-timed Stasis on the rotating gear gave her the larger window of time in which to use the wind draft to fly through and scramble up. Harrumph.

Kiah Toza Shrine

Activating this shrine was moderately annoying, but not so much we didn’t prevail, of course!  You see, it required shield-surfing, which we never used in the main game.  We may have needed shield-surfing for a quest or two, but that’s it; you would never catch us riding our shield around Hyrule.  Indeed, we so rarely use shields in any capacity[1], one might well conclude that we would rather chuck all our shields in favor of expanded bow and melee inventory.  (Hmm, perhaps we’ll drop a note in the Nintendo suggestion box.)

Nonetheless, after some reading up on how, exactly, to shield surf, and a bit of awkward instruction (“It says to pull out your shield, then run and jump, then mid-jump, press A.” “Right, like that’s all going to happen. How do I raise my shield?” “ZR.  No, ZL.  One of the Zs.” “Not helpful, Demelza.” “Just run and jump and press A.”  “In order to run I have to push B, and that puts the shield away.”  “Uh…okay, don’t run.”), we got ourselves to the proper area outside Goma Asaagh Shrine, ready to put our wobbly shield surfing skills to use.

Inside Kiah Toza shrine

After shield-surfing through several ice arches, we activated Kiah Toza Shrine.  

Inside required maneuvering ice cubes and navigating wind drafts, moving some orbs, and voila! Another Revali’s Emblem was ours.

Noe Rajee Shrine

It must be admitted that we failed to speak to Kaneli, the village elder, before beginning our questing.  We shall not make that mistake again with future Champions’ Songs.  The first time we went to the flight range, the location to activate Noe Rajee shrine, we did not see Teba and instead made the mistake of talking to his offspring, whom Itzal derisively calls the Little Chicken.  Do not speak to the Little Chicken.  That will start an aerial challenge, to be sure, but not the one you want.  

Back we went to consult Kaneli, then Teba’s wife, the Rivo shopkeeper, and maybe Kaneli’s mother-in-law for all we know.  There was a lot of talking, it seemed.  With that crossed off the list, we returned to the flight range, ignored the Little Chicken, and spoke to Teba.[2]  

The challenge involved shooting four glowing blue targets in quick succession.  The quick succession is key: it doesn’t matter if you shoot four targets or even five or six if you take your sweet time about it.  

Float until you find four in proximity, then shoot away quickly.  It helps to use a rapid bow or one good for aerial targets; we found the Phrenic Bow to be just the ticket.

Activating Noe Rajee shrine

As with the other shrines in Revali’s Song quest, you’ll be utilizing updrafts in Noe Rajee.  But here you must initiate them first by striking four crystals, one on each side of a large pillar; doing so starts fans a’blowing.   Once that’s done, ride the resulting updrafts counterclockwise to reach the altar and claim the third and final Revali’s Emblem.

Windblight Ganon in the Illusory Realm

Emblems in hand, head back to Divine Beast Vah Medoh and prepare to relive the fight with Windblight Ganon in the so-called Illusory Realm. It’s not the same as in the main game, thankfully and not-so-thankfully.  We’re thankful we didn’t first have to do a dungeon puzzle that required rotating terminals this way and that.  We’re not so thankful that all our foodstuffs and weaponry weren’t available.  Rather, we were relegated one Feathered Edge Sword for melee work and one Wildberry, Endura Shroom, and Raw Bird Drumstick to recover our health.  We weren’t given any shields, but we cried no crocodile tears for that. 

We also had a limited selection of bows, 100 regular arrows, and five bomb arrows.  Sure, that sounds like a lot, but it’s not as if Windblight Ganon hangs around waiting to be used for target practice.  Rather, you’ll be eating that Raw Bird Drumstick with relish if you don’t stay out of his range.  Ride the updrafts and shoot the blight’s blue eye to stun him, then run over and whack at him with your (solitary) sword. 

Had we known it was possible (or had we thought about it), we would have drunk an elixir or eaten a meal that provided Attack Up or Defense Up or SOMETHING Up.  Those effects do carry over into the Illusory Realm.  However, we were suffering from Post One-Hit Obliterator Quarter-Heart Traumatic Stress Disorder, and numbly and resignedly climbed into the ring with the Windblight with exactly what we were given and no more.

Link is rewarded with Revali’s Gale plus after defeating Illusory Realm Windblight Ganon

But it was enough.

For our efforts, we were rewarded with Revali’s Gale +, which reduces from six to two minutes the recharge period for this Champion’s Gift.

In celebration, we drank a Dutch 75.  After all, in our first encounter with the Divine Beast Vah Medoh, we’d downed a French 75.   We figured the Illusory Realm was like another country, so why not go international with our cocktail? 

[1] Itzal notes that he uses the Ancient Shield with abandon, whilst being SHOUTED AT, trying to defeat Guardians.  He harrumphs as he notes this fact. (Delmelza counters that the ONLY shield Itzal uses is the only shield that requires NO skill but does require a Giant Ancient Core to craft.)

[2] It must further be noted that Demelza had to do a lot of nagging to get Itzal to go back and do this.  She harrumphs as she notes this fact. (Itzal harrumphs in kind but has no rejoinder.) (We do a fair amount of harrumphing in this blog. And in life.)

Rohta Chigah Shrine Wars

A long time ago, in a galaxy blog far, far away. . . we entered the Rohta Chigah Shrine.  And there we stayed for over three months.  This is the story of what we endured, what we learned, and how we (finally) escaped. 

First, some disclaimers.  We two Zelders are no longer located in the same city, so our weekly Nintendo sessions have dwindled to monthly-ish. Second, the BOTW game we’re playing resides on Demelza’s and not Itzal’s Switch; and Demelza, it must be said, does not generally wield the controllers except to hunt for Hearty Lizards or to cook Endura Shroom casserole. (She does not use the lizards in the casserole.)  Thus, although we jointly[1] attempted Rohta Chigah shrine on four separate occasions, it would be unfair to say we spent three months actively trying to solve the shrine. There were planes to catch, work to attend, and family obligations to fulfill.  Life goes on, even when one is trapped in the Rohta Chigah shrine.

Four Rooms of the Rohta Chigah Apocalypse

Next, let’s review the four odious sections, or rooms, of the shrine. The first requires Magnesis to move slabs of metal or a cube to cross bumping, gyrating spikes in the floor.  In the second room, one must navigate two spike-surrounded gears and then traverse a giant rolling spike gauntlet on a moving walkway.  

Thought we were dead for sure here in first room!
Why, exactly, did we turn around to look at the wall?

In the third, our hero paraglides over a chasm guarded by three swinging, spiked balls. And in the final section, Link has to follow a narrow path, over which spiked cubes can drop from above or impale him from the side; all this while a spiked wall approaches from behind. 

That last step in the third room is a (near) killer.
Final room: So close! (But we remained without cigar.)

What could go wrong?  Plenty.  And it did. Over and over again. And since you only have a quarter-heart, each time you die, even if you’ve made it to the final room, you start over again in the first. Poor Itzal tried gamely (you should pardon the pun), but, as he snarled after the eleventy-second attempt or so, this was no fun.

Much time passes….

Eventually, Demelza’s guilt caused her to attempt the shrine on her own, resulting in several hilarious videos but no spirit orb from the monk in residence.  But hey, Demelza was trying, so as to not leave Itzal with all the responsibility. Indeed, she even enlisted the Spouse, who plays golf and not Nintendo, to give it a whirl.  (“What’s the A button for?  What’s a rune? How do I make him jump?”)  Demelza demonstrated, making it into the third room before dying.

Annoyingly, the Spouse, who had never handled a game controller in his life, made it to the second room after less than ten minutes, whereupon the following exchange ensued:

Demelza:  “Now switch from Magnesis to Stasis.  Use Stasis on that gear over there so it stops moving and you can walk around it more easily.”

The Spouse: “Wait, aren’t you supposed to whistle for the horse first?”

[Some explanation is required: Demelza does not always remember how to switch runes, and thus occasionally if not often first whistles for her horse; she had done so while demonstrating for the Spouse.  Oh, but for Epona to ride to her rescue in Rohta Chigah shrine!  Whistling for the horse did not, however, result in equestrian salvation, nor did it advance the Spouse any further than the third room.]

Denouement

Finally, the day arrived when Itzal would be in town for another joint attempt. After laying out snacks and cocktail ingredients, Demelza waited impatiently on the sofa for his arrival. She made a final pass on the Internet, searching for hints.  In one Rohta Chigah whine-fest, a player suggested that removing Link’s armor enabled him to jump higher and paraglide further in the third room.  Why not?  Any port in a storm. We stripped Link to his underwear.

Link does the dance of joy! (As did we.)

In addition, for purposes of Itzal’s sanity and blood pressure we decided to switch off playing.  When Itzal died, Demelza took the controller.  When she died – usually much faster – Itzal resumed play.  And we gave ourselves a limit; we would play until a set hour, after which, win or lose, we’d switch to something more enjoyable, like Ocarina of Time.  About fifteen minutes before the deadline, and to our great surprise, it finally happened: We made it to the monk.  And yes, it was Itzal who took the honors.

Lessons learned

With the passage of three months, countless hours, and heaven knows how many deaths, we humbly offer our combined wisdom, a selection of Zelder tips:

  • Don’t play Animal Crossing for at least 48 hours before entering the shrine. The buttons aren’t the same in that game. In fact, don’t play anything else other than BOTW, or the wrong button muscle memory can trip you up: you’ll end up brandishing a shield instead of your bow; forgetting how to jump – and why to jump; and possibly stopping to turn around and gawk just as a wall of spikes is closing in on Link’s backside.  
  • When using Magnesis in the first room, bear in mind it’s the metal you want to move, not Link.  Yes, it’s tempting to inch Link backward when you want the piece of metal you’re maneuvering to pull forward just a tad.  Doing so will usually result in Link falling off the end of the platform he’s on.  Careful with that left analog stick! Remember to use the up and down buttons on the left D-pad instead.
  • In the second room, cast Stasis on the furthest gear to enable you to jump to and walk around that gear more easily.  When you make it to the moving walkway, center the camera behind you and try not to move so quickly that you weave from side to side, impaling Link on the gears on the side.  But, you know, move, lest Link be impaled on the spikes behind.
  • Don’t take spiked corners too tightly. 
  • Whistle for Epona all you like. 
  • In room number three, shoot the rope on the first spiked ball to get it out of the way.  Cast Stasis on the farthest remaining ball when it’s away from the opening.  Don’t wait too long to start paragliding, or the Stasis will wear off.  And, hey, strip down to Link’s underwear before doing anything at all.  It can’t hurt. 
  • Before beginning the final room, cue up a good video to preview what’s ahead.  We liked one by a You-Tuber named Caticulated. In fact, Demelza is responsible for 132 of the most recent views of this outstanding clip. (We would embed it here, but we can’t exactly ring Caticulated up in the UK to inquire about permissions. You can find the video with a quick Google, however. Note that Link goes to the right to bypass the first cube; after that, he hews to the left until the very end.) 
  • Center the camera behind you before stepping on the switch that activates the final section.  And don’t go too fast – although it’s hard to ignore the wall of spikes coming from behind, moving too quickly can cause side-to-side weaving and an eventual slip into the abyss. 
Ignore that treasure chest, Link! It’s just a Forest Dweller’s shield.
  • And finally and most importantly, don’t suggest, gently or otherwise, that one’s gaming partner left behind the Forest Dweller’s Shield in the first room and should return for it.  Choose to live.
Reward thyself

If all else fails – and it will, more than a few times – have our recommended cocktail: the Suffering Bastard.  You’ve earned both the drink and the title. 

[1] Itzal protests that the word jointly is being applied rather loosely here, if by jointly Demelza wishes to imply that she, too, attempted to maneuver through this spikey hell.  If by jointly she means that she sat on the sofa offering (shouting) ineffectual advice and drinking cocktails, well, then jointly is applicable. 

The Champions’ Ballad

The Champions’ Ballad, in the second half of the DLC expansion pack, offers more shrines and new adventures.  In many respects, the titular quest reminds us of a condensed version of the main game:  One starts in the Shrine of Resurrection and must first activate and solve four shrines on the Great Plateau.  After doing so, four pedestals appear on the mapscreen.  Each pedestal is surrounded by three pillars, which offer clues to new shrines.  

When a given region’s shrines are solved, Link faces a repeat fight with that area’s blight, and when the blight is defeated, the associated Champion’s gift (Mipha’s Grace, Revali’s Gale, et cetera) is enhanced with a shorter recharge period. Finally, after all four blights are trounced, there’s a final Divine Beast “dungeon” and boss fight – albeit not with Ganon.  

Upon successful completion of the main quest, the player earns a Divine Beast of Link’s very own.  Yes, like Mipha with her elephant and Daruk and his salamander, Link, too, as a champion, can operate a mechanical marvel:  the Master Cycle Zero.   

Of course, there’s considerable work to be done before Link can tool around on his Divine Motorcycle.  Let’s get to it.  We’ll start on the Great Plateau with those first four shrines…

Mission and (Lack of) Resources

One-Hit Obliterator

Remember the first time you woke up in the Shrine of Resurrection?  You didn’t have much; Link was in his underwear with no weapons and but three hearts.  This time, you’ll be fully clothed and start with a weapon, and it’s a doozy, called the One-Hit Obliterator.  As the name implies, this weapon will defeat an enemy in a single strike.  

Naturally, the odds can’t be entirely in Link’s favor, right?  So let’s take away the use of all other melee weapons.  You still have shields – but a fat lot of good those do in most instances, since you don’t have three but instead only one–quarter heart.  That’s right:  as long as you carry the Obliterator, you won’t have even a full heart.  What’s more, you can’t eat your way to a full complement of hearts (we know, we tried).  Thus, it’s a given that it will take only one hit from an enemy – or a bee sting or a stubbed toe – to obliterate Link, too.  

The first goal is to activate the four shrines, which are, naturally, surrounded by enemy encampments.  Fortunately, Link retains the use of bows and arrows, and that brings us to –

Zelder Tip #1:  Use a bow whenever possible to strike an enemy from a distance rather than engage in hand-to-hand combat.

Zelder Tip #2:  Save the game frequently, so that if you do get obliterated, you can try again from whatever place of advancement you’ve achieved.

Zelder Tip #3:  Although you can’t eat your way to more hearts, you can consume meals to get a stealth effect, and you can also wear stealth armor.  The armor won’t protect against an attack, but it will enable sneaking around while using your bow and, more judiciously, the One-Hit Obliterator. 

Majora’s Mask.

Zelder Tip #4 (albeit personally unverified):  According to others, wearing Majora’s Mask provides another advantage in that enemies will not recognize Link as a threat, enabling their defeat at a closer range before they realize what’s happening. 

When all enemies surrounding a shrine are vanquished, enter and begin a new trial.  You still have but one-quarter heart, and you can’t simply drop the Obliterator to replenish your health. It’s with you for the duration, for good and (mostly) ill. 

Yowaka Ita Shrine

Although Link doesn’t have the use of melee weapons other than the Obliterator, he does retain the always-useful runes.  In Yowaka Ita shrine, you’ll use Magnesis to move a large and eventually a small orb into position to open the gate to the monk.  There are some treasure chests in this shrine, but having a considerable amount of everything in inventory, we mostly (okay, ENTIRELY) ignored the chests, much to Demelza’s chagrin. 

Ruvo Korbah Shrine

Ruvo Korbah features Guardian Scouts and a Guardian Scout IV.  The Champion’s Tunic was helpful here; although it didn’t protect Link as such (See:  ONE-QUARTER HEART, ARE THEY KIDDING?), the hovering health points it reveals alerted us to the presence of enemies.  Think of it as enabling one to see around a corner. Link’s shields are also available, although personally we’ve always preferred to shoot first, ask questions and raise shields later.  Cryonis is in play with this shrine; Link will need to raise blocks of ice. Oh! That comment about skipping treasure chests?  There’s a notable exception in the Ruvo Korbah shrine:  one chest contains a Giant Ancient Core.  The regular reader knows that Demelza will not allow a Giant Ancient Core to go unclaimed, no matter how focused Itzal’s Eye is on the Prize.  

Etsu Korima Shrine

If it’s not enough to be reduced to a quarter-heart, let’s add to that a darkened shrine where danger lurks in the shadows.  And for additional fun, how about laser beams, spikes, and pillars of flame?  Yep, all this and more is yours for the taking in the Etsu Korima Shrine, winding up with a big finish of three Guardian Scouts.  Frankly, we are amazed this shrine didn’t give us more trouble than it did.  Perhaps it’s because the Nintendo gods were saving up for . . .

Rohtah Chigah Shrine

We once wrote about the Worst of the Wild:  worst quest, worst Korok seed, worst Divine Beast task.  That list is hereby preempted by the WORST OF EVERYTHING: the Rohta Chigah shrine. We loathed this shrine with every fiber of our beings.

In Rohta Chigah, there are four sections – let’s call them rooms – in which one can, and most assuredly will, die.  And unlike certain shrines in which dying does not mean a complete restart, in this case, it does. What’s more, there are no cheats, as with the Yiga Clan Hideout or Eventide Island.  There is only suffering. 

Spoiler alert:  Eventually we solved all four plateau shrines, causing the One-hit Obliterator to split into four parts and form the aforementioned pedestals that begin the individual Champions’ Songs.  But that’s for later.  First we need to wallow in the misery that is the Rohta Chigah shrine.  Stay tuned. 

Nintendo’s White Rabbit

Yesterday, the Zeldaverse was all atwitter[1] at news that Nintendo was pushing back to spring 2023 the release of the sequel to Breath of the Wild.  Since last June, when the second BOTW2 trailer aired at E3 2021, Zelda fans had been hoping for a return to the skies and lands of Hyrule in 2022.

Legend of Zelda series producer Eiji Aonuma delivered the message, as shown below, in a tweet from @NintendoAmerica:

Reactions to the announcement varied.  Not surprisingly, many, many expressed disappointment.  Others moved rapidly to Nintendo’s defense, pointing out that it’s better to release a great game later than to release a game before it’s ready.  

We take no argument with either of those points of view, which we do not consider mutually exclusive. Yes, we were certainly disappointed.  Indeed, we had already carved out large swaths of our lives in November and December in hopes of playing then; jobs, family, and travel plans are– er, important, to be sure, but able to wait on the side for a bit, no?  At the same time, if a delay was needed to make BOTW2 as spectacular as we expect, then we would rather wait for spectacular.

The Zeldaverse also hastened to opine on whether the delay was expected or unexpected. Not surprisingly, most offered that they had expected the delay.  (Who wants to say, wow, caught with my Hylian trousers down!)  

That does beg the question, however:  Has Nintendo not considered queuing theory, which explores, among other things, how long people are willing to wait patiently in line (or, in this case, for a sequel to Breath of the Wild)?  One aspect of queuing theory is that people will happily wait – or at least, less grumpily – as long as they know what’s going on. 

So, tell us, Nintendo, what’s going on?  

One can’t discount COVID.  We don’t.  The ramifications of the pandemic on work and supply chains and just about everything else in life are legion.  Nor do we want the game’s development team collapsing from exhaustion. 

But tell us.  Is it largely a COVID-caused delay? Or are they enabling a two-player game, with Zelda as a playable character? Are they hiding Easter eggs, which we would love to discover? (We could understand and forgive all these reasons.) Or is it because someone had a grand idea to embed the Rohta Chiga shrine, a Spiral Charge tutorial, the wagon chase to Kakariko, and the Yiga Clan Hideout all in one super-dungeon?   (Because then we could not forgive.)

Just tell us. 

There has been speculation that the delay signals that Nintendo is working on a new console, with the sequel to BOTW to be playable on both the current Switch or Switch OLED and on another console, perhaps the long-rumored Switch Pro or some other console-to-be-named-later.  And, the speculation goes, if that new platform wasn’t ready, then BOTW2 was perforce delayed in kind.  

If that speculation has merit, we’re inclined to believe that the release of the Switch OLED signals less possibility of a Switch Pro and more of a different, albeit still hybrid, console. Personally, we love the portability of the Switch, since it enables us to take our play with us wherever we go, whether it’s just across town or the state or to another country.  (In Demelza’s case, having a spouse who does not play Nintendo, the travel in question is most often to the spare bedroom.) And we don’t see Nintendo elbowing out the Playstations or Xboxes of the world with a console that plugs into the television alone.  Unless…unless…could it be something in the realm of Virtual Reality?  Not, it must be said, like the Labo lineup?  Something exceptional?  Something that effectively transports the gamer to Lurelin Village, replete with sounds and scents, color and texture, and….Mai Tais?

We can but dream. 

In the meantime, we also “can but” continue with the DLC expansion pack, fiddle with Ocarina of Time, don Majora’s Mask, and set the alarm clock for Link’s Awakening.  

Speaking of clocks:  We’re tapping our watches, here, @NintendoAmerica.  You’re late.  For a very important date.  (Which you still haven’t told us yet, by the way.)  

So pull a White Rabbit out of your hat and give us something – a name for the game, a definitive release date, or a reason we’re still tapping our watches and waiting in this cyberqueue.  

We promise we’ll understand.  

[1] Literally, there was a tweet storm.  And figuratively, in our feelings.

Nintendo 64 Controller for Switch

We Zelders are susceptible to nostalgia.  Call something retro and we are likely to spring for it – or, as the case so often is with Nintendo, pine for it. Thus, when the wireless Nintendo 64 controller for Switch became (theoretically) available last October, Demelza mulled over purchasing one for all of five minutes before deciding we simply must have it. Unfortunately, that five minutes was all it took for the entire stock of Nintendo 64 for Switch controllers in the United States to be depleted, replaced with a message on Nintendo’s shop that “more controllers will be available in 2022.”

[Incidentally, it must be pointed out that Nintendo keeps referencing 2022, whether it’s for the release of the sequel to Breath of the Wild or for broader availability of retro controllers.   Cue the Princess Bride:  We wonder if 2022 means what they think it does.] 

March is now aging into April, and “more controllers will be available in 2022” has been replaced with a message that the N64 controllers are sold out, please check again soon.  (We’re certain that, if we were to telephone, our call would be very important to Nintendo, and so we should please stay on the line for the next available controller. . . for all of 2022.)  Thus, we’ve been pining – and not springing – for new controllers.

Perhaps some backstory is necessary here. . .

After we finished Skyward Sword – which, for all we lambasted the game, did keep us entertained for several months – we wondered what to do next.  We’ve toyed with the BOTW expansion pack and may do so again before 2022 rides into the sunset.   (That is, if we can ever get out of the Rohta Chigah shrine, but that’s for another post.)

We could also try our hands again at Age of Calamity or Link’s Awakening.  The experienced reader will recall that Itzal snaps “hard pass” at the first option, because. . . who does all the fighting?  And he snaps “hard pass” at Link’s Awakening because, well, he’s not very good at it.

The adventure begins: Ocarina of Time

And then there are the Nintendo 64 games available through Nintendo Online:  The Zelda 64 lineup includes the classic Ocarina of Time and its sequel, Majora’s Mask.  

In the end, we opted to get our Zelda fix with OOT.  

We didn’t have a nifty retro controller, but it was our understanding[1] that the N64 games could be played perfectly fine with either a Joy-Con setup or a Pro controller. 

Erm.  

(And why is it that the British “erm” captures so much more than our own “um” or “er?”)

We are here to say that, erm, it is our understanding that the perfectly fine playing of N64 games with Joy-Cons is theoretically possible, just like the 2022 release of BOTW2 and the availability of more retro N64 controllers.  But doing so requires more mental agility than we seem to have:  “Wait, the on-screen prompt says to use the C ‘left’ button for the slingshot.  Where’s the C button on this, any C button at all? And, do you suppose the ZL and the ZR buttons are interchangeable as plain old Z?”  

Which Z button on the Joy-Con?

Mind you, it’s usually the lack of physical nimbleness that troubles us; executing a spin-kick-jump with a side of shield-bashing isn’t in our gaming repertoire.  Exacerbating our manual dexterity limitations with additional mental gyrations did not augur well for Link’s progress simply walking, let alone playing an ocarina we had yet to earn. 

We had a go at it, of course.  But eventually – which is to say, after a lot of shouting at each other – we decided we needed the buttons in our hands to match the instructions on the screen.  Thus, Demelza rooted through her storage unit to find a mass of wired Nintendo 64 controllers that collectively looked like a bad tangle of Christmas tree lights.  (They must date to the era in which we played four-player Smash games.) 

After untangling one such controller from its brethren, we added to its wires and couplings yet another piece of hardware, an adapter to connect the aging controller to the modern-day Switch.

The good news?  It worked!  The dusty, trident-looking controller was now connected to the television, complete with lots of wires to trip up the unwary, just as we remembered from our salad days!

The bad news?  Using the original 64 controller wasn’t a wholesale improvement over Switch’s Pro controller.  Which is to say, more shouting ensued.  Sure, the available buttons now matched the on-screen instructions. But there were fewer buttons, meaning that, horror of horrors, there was no “capture screen” button to record gameplay for blog post-erity.  (Itzal suggested that Demelza target the television screen with her cell phone, snapping away madly in rapid succession, so as to capture all important moments.  The regular reader of this blog can imagine exactly what she had to say about that.)

And now we return to our pining and springing story. . .

Eventually, we got a real retro controller.  (No, we didn’t pay scalpers from The Website That Shall Not be Named; we have our standards. We, erm[2], ordered one from Japan, very likely paying more in import fees and shipping than if we had paid a stateside scalper, but hey, it was the principle of the matter.)

After a couple hours’ play, we got Link armed and mildly dangerous such that he defeated the Parasitic Amored Arachnid Gohma, earned an extra heart (oh, how we love hearts), and gathered up the Kokiri emerald.   And here are our resulting impressions:

Inside the Great Deku Tree, with C buttons!
  • We are grateful for the home button and the all-important capture-screen button.  
  • We appreciate not having wires to trip over, especially since we are approaching the hip-breaking age.  
  • And we definitely sigh with relief when the on-screen instructions coincide with the buttons we’re using.

However, it’s still awfully large, this controller; we compared it to the original, and they are of a size.  It’s not easy to get our fingers around the thing, and yet our nostalgic memories don’t include carpal tunnel.  Were our fingers thinner in our salad days, when we ate more salad than chips?  Or is it that arthritis had not yet set in, such that size did not, in this case, matter? And what ARE those controls on the left side doing over there, where we’re not supposed to put our hand (this controller having a middle handle)?  It’s like the controller had a stroke on its left side.  (Younger readers may not understand this reference, but you Boomers, you get it!)

On balance, however, we like the Nintendo 64 controller for Switch:  It made a trip down memory lane more of a skip than a slog.  What’s more, it is our understanding that, since we went to the time and trouble to secure one, NOW more controllers will be available soon for everyone else. And our call is very important to Nintendo.

[1] Have we mentioned we used to work in government?  It is our understanding is a favorite phrase of those who work in government.  The phrase makes clear that one believes something to be the case while not flat out saying “Yo!  This is my opinion, but I’m probably right!”  The passive construction also neatly deflects any responsibility if one is incorrect in the stated belief.  

[2] One wonders what the Japanese equivalent of erm or even umm would be. . .