Ever since the release of Breath of the Wild, I have hardly had time for anything else.  The game has been such an addicting and crazy experience, filled with adventure and surprises around every turn.  And now that just over a week has passed since its release, I thought I’d chronicle my progress up to this point.  Warning: there may be spoilers ahead, even if the game’s plot hasn’t exactly been my focus as of late.  If you wish to uncover the secrets of Hyrule completely on your own, then you may want to tread with caution, even if I’ll try to keep the spoilers light.

During last week’s post, I summarized my early impressions of the game, and it is today that the real adventure begins.  Once you complete the Great Plateau, you are given far more freedom to explore, as you have finally obtained the trusty paraglider that not only enables you to glide down from the plateau’s great heights, but makes getting around immensely easier.  Nevertheless, I was still given a task.  Go see Impa in Kakariko Village.  (Oh, so that’s how you say the name of that place.  Thanks, voice acting.)  Well, at this point, I had every intention of doing anything but what I was told to do.  Well aware that this game contained an ocean based on what I had seen in the trailer, I looked about for palm trees in the distance, then headed off in that direction once they had been spotted.

While exploration is totally the main focus of this game, I did learn early on that just because you can go somewhere, that doesn’t mean you can survive it.  Once on the beach, I was assaulted by some of the worst enemies I have encountered thus far in the game, Lizalfos.  You may remember these guys from previous installments.  You know, the bipedal lizards with the swords?  Well, this time around, they’re more like chameleons, and they are a force to be reckoned with.  They can swim.  They’re fast.  They can also camouflage.  So, while I enjoyed the scenery out here by the sea just fine, I didn’t exactly enjoy the residents.  The only one who didn’t try to kill me was some girl named Loone, who has an object I’m pretty sure I need.  But the problem is, she loves it and has even gone so far as to name it Roscoe.  I have doubts she’ll be willing to part with it any time soon.

Finding the seashore to be a perilous place indeed, especially when I found a Guardian running around freely on the beach, I decided now was a good time to visit Impa, after all.  At least, I tried to, but again, I quickly became distracted.  My newest focus became scaling the Dueling Peaks, which is home to a pair of Shrines whose puzzles work together.  And let me tell you, it was so satisfying circling those mountains until I found a good place to climb up.

Before this post becomes a massive recounting of everything I’ve done thus far, perhaps I need to be a bit pickier about what I discuss.  As such, I may need to simply glaze over a lot of the story-related segments of the game and just recount some highlights.

Link’s First Horse: First of all, I learned that you can have a total of five horses in this game, but you have to tame them first.  Spotted horses are easier to tame and solid-color horses are tougher, but they have the advantage of being faster and generally more powerful horses.  Once the Dueling Peaks had been bested, I returned to the grassy plains below, where I caught my first noble steed, a beige horse with white spots.  Now, since horses often seem to be called bizarre names, I’ve always wanted to name a horse The Ghost of Christmas Past.  Deciding this was far too long, however, I simply went with the shorter, and less weird, Clip Clop.  Yep.  Moving on.

The Perils of Misko’s Treasure: Skipping ahead, after speaking to Impa, I headed off next for Hateno Village in the east.  This was also after finding a Great Fairy Fountain, even if I thought the Great Fairy herself was rather shady….  But first, I wanted to try my hand at finding a hidden treasure I had learned about whilst visiting the Dueling Peaks Stable.  I won’t spoil the treasure’s whereabouts for anyone who wishes to locate it themselves, but I worked out the riddle, and by darn it, I found it!  It was awesome!  Along the way, however, I ran into a bear, and more frighteningly still, a Stalnox!  How could anything be more frightening than a bear, you might ask if you’re really afraid of bears?  Well, a Stalnox is a massive skeleton that only roams about at night.  And it picked up a tree.  And bears don’t do that.  Needless to say, I fled the scene after that.  (But not before attempting to fight it and getting stepped on.  When I tried to fight it a second time, that’s when it picked up the tree, leaving me with no choice but to practice a very wise and very brave retreat.)

Bad Luck in Hateno: Hateno Village, and my trek out there, was fraught with yet more misfortune.  I first ran into a member of the Yiga Clan, a group of people who are loyal to Ganon.  As you might imagine, we didn’t get along too well.  (I have since encountered several more and have come to wonder, why do they always drop bananas?  Are the Yiga Clan based in some tropical climate?…)  Once I reached Hateno Village, I practiced poor judgement by talking to a statue with evil horns.  Wow.  Now why in the world did I do that?  It stole one of my heart containers, and I proceeded to run around town freaking out and wondering what I should do.  Finding no other solution to my woes, I braved one more chat with the evil statue and got my item back.  And then, you know what else happened?  I gave Clip Clop an apple, and she walked right past it and somehow got behind the little stable I had left her in and became trapped behind a sign!  Did you notice how the word “hate” is in Hateno?  Well, I hate this place!

Ever since I completed the necessary tasks in Hateno Village, I have largely been spending the game just exploring.  Yeah, I did run across Hyrule Field in search of one of the “memory locations”, getting terrorized by a whole bunch of Guardians along the way (they run so fast, and they shoot lasers; it was horrible!), and I did speak to the Zora Prince Sidon.  Then I promptly ignored his request for help and left.  I’m busy having the time of my life.  So what have I been doing since then?  Well, here’s a summary.

Collecting Horses: My second noble steed is a brown horse with a speckled back end named…Brownie.  I’m pretty sure this horse had originally been ridden by Bokoblins, so you can say I’m very kind for having rescued it.  My first solid-color horse is a brown horse I named Rocinante after the horse in Don Qixote.  I don’t think Rocinante was a particularly tough horse, but it’s still a cool name, nonetheless.  My fourth horse is a solid light blue (rather unnatural, I know) horse named Lilac.  I’m saving my fifth horse for the solid white horse that is said to roam…I forgot.  That might make finding it a bit tougher.

Seeing Cool Sights: During the same trek out into the desert where I found Brownie, I climbed the tower in this region and looked off into the distance.  And do you know what I saw?  A massive 100-foot tall robotic camel partially obscured in a huge cloud of dust.  No, Link was not suffering from heat stroke.  Why do you ask?  And…AND…two times in the Faron Region, I saw the giant dragon Farosh!  It was so awesome that I just stood there staring at its magnificent splendor.  Then I tried to get close and was killed by the sparks coming off it.  Oops.

My Most Recent Endeavors: Getting stranded on Eventide Island.  Why you steal my items, random disembodied voice!  I also visited a quartet of islands named after Tingle and his brothers (and David) from Wind Waker out of sheer curiosity.  To my relief, Tingle was not there.  I ended by visiting Akkala Ancient Tech Lab, and…well, I saw something pretty cool nearby, but that shall remain a secret for now.

If this first week is anything to go by, this might possibly be the most epic game, not just of the series, but of all time!  So I better end this post here and get back to playing because I still have a lot to do.  And feel free to leave your experiences in the comments below!  I just love the fact that everyone’s playthrough of this game should be totally different, so I look forward to hearing from you!

Have You Ever Seen a Duck Ride a Horse?

Image from Flickr User: Jeux Video