amethyst73: (tazz)

So, I've just beaten the boss of the first real dungeon in Wind Waker.  I have impressions, most notably of my boat.

Here is The Short Version of what my boat and I have had to say to each other. )

I recognize that the world opens up considerably in a little while, and that I shouldn't be impatient.  :)

Oh. Oops.

Aug. 14th, 2008 09:43 pm
amethyst73: (Default)
Interesting realization:

Those numbers connected with the yellow pots in the Phantom Dungeon in Zelda PH are *seconds*, not *minutes*.  And they *do* take effect immediately; you just don't notice if you're looking for your meter to fill up.  You don't have to wait till your meter is almost empty to break them and have good things happen.

Ooops.

Oh well.  Got through the second difficult section anyway.  And I won't have to solve the sigil-on-the-door problem ever again!  Yay for electronic notes!
amethyst73: (Default)
*has urges to play Zelda Phantom Hourglass*

*puts urges away, due to purported shortness of adventure and wanting to save most of it till China trip*

But... but... I got the cannon over the weekend, and now I want to go use it!  Ah well, poor sad me.

On another videogame-related note, the huz is having huge fun with Okami for Wii.  He says that many of the brushstrokes should be approached as physical skills: the techniques that need to be round (e.g. Bloom) need to be really pretty round.   Further, the Dash maneuver does work, but you need to move the nunchuck along straight X-Y lines to make it work.  Simply tilting or rotating it in the direction you wish to Dash will confuse the nunchuck badly, and result in Amaterasu jumping in all kinds of unexpected directions.  He is currently working on the Moon Cave.

Perhaps I will start Okami while he is off in Sweden.  I only have one world left to go through in Super Paper Mario, after all...
amethyst73: (Default)
Someone decided that it would be a good idea to make a Zelda movie. 

IGN has the first trailer of the live-action flick here.  It... doesn't look promising. 

For starters, I really don't believe it was wise to carry the trope of Link as Silent Hero to the film medium.  Second, I have a feeling it'll look a little like a speed run of a Zelda game (or there'll only be, like, 3 dungeons).  Finally, while it's fun to watch someone else play (and to yell suggestions when they get stuck - Zelda film crossed with Rocky Horror, anyone??), it's generally much more satisfying to play Zelda yourself.


EDIT: Wooops... fooled me!
-----

As a lighter, better bit of humor, I offer you the short story Wikihistory.  It's about time travel and what all the new members of the International Association of Time Travelers do on their first 'trip'.  Enjoy!

DONE!

Jan. 5th, 2008 10:34 pm
amethyst73: (mii)
Finished Zelda: Twilight Princess!!!!!

Much thanks to the huz, without which I probably wouldn't have made it past the second stage of the battle.  But I did it in my very first try, with only 2 of my 3 fairies going off, even!

*thud* Tired now.  Almost a year and 94+ hours of play later, I should think so!

*wonders why the game gave her a ton of random supplies (like water bombs) that were completely useless in the final battle sequence*

Hmmm....

Dec. 24th, 2007 10:07 am
amethyst73: (Default)
Our flight being delayed 45 minutes, we both relaxed and played our respective Wii games.

The huz got a star.

I have three different paths/doors in Hyrule Castle that I am bepuzzled by:
• the barred door out on the balcony near the Boss Key chest
• the barred door indoors, in the hallway with four unlit torches that (mostly) go out very quickly, and the painting nearby that I'm guessing I'm supposed to shoot (given the vaguely similar hallway nearby) when some combination (or all) of the torches are lit
• the un-jumpable gap in the stairwell past the ghost-directed jump room past the locked door on the balcony

Hmmm.
amethyst73: (mii)

..Oh.  And I won the first part of the snowboarding race.  Dang, Yeta is faaaaaaaast! 

Oh, and Tuesday I started Hyrule Castle.  What's with this silly 'fight bunches in an arena space b/f proceeding' business?  Have key, can go inside the building now!

Total playtime today: just shy of, um, 2 hours.
amethyst73: (mii)

I don't know if I'll finish it by the end of the year, but it's possible.  Thank you, Nintendo, for crafting such a good game.  Next up: Super Paper Mario.

Home sick

Nov. 26th, 2007 08:03 pm
amethyst73: (Default)

Oh, and one nice discovery I actually made yesterday: Orisinal: Morning Sunshine is a site with a whole bunch of very pretty, almost entirely nonviolent Flash games that are great when only half a brain cell is working.  You can herd cats.  Feed ducks.  Bounce stars on bubbles.  Be a little rabbit, hopping up bells that are falling from the sky.  Collect sugar cubes for tea.  Help deer cross a stream.  All with pretty pastel-style art and nice (if eventually repetitive) music.  Great stuff for when you don't feel well.
amethyst73: (Default)
Good thing: It's the Thanksgiving holiday!

Bad thing: The huz caught his almost-required vacation-time cold yesterday, and stayed home rather than going and spending much of the day with parents and family.

Good thing: Lots of tasty food yesterday: decent turkey, good stuffing, good gravy, excellent sweet potatoes and rolls, and 3 different desserts, all really yummy.  (Delicate apple pie with thin apple slices that still had a lot of texture to them; a pecan pie recipe out of 'The Best of America's Test Kitchen' that didn't use huge amounts of sweetening; and my Meyer Lemon bars, this time with extra zest!)

Better thing: There were plenty of leftovers, so I was able to take back good-sized samples of everything back to the huz.  He had traditional Thanksgiving food for dinner.  I had leftover pasta, which was just fine!

Bad (but unrelated) thing: Some oxalis is successfully growing through the weed-block stuff we put down a month or so ago.  Much sadness.

Good thing: Good singing practice today!  (Especially since didn't get to practice either of the last two days.)

Zelda things: Yes, the pretty glowing crystal ball stayed outside!  Got the other one (with much hand-slapping, as it were), and made good progress through the central part of the dungeon (got to boss key, and got the small key past that in the room with many floating platforms).  Pretty glowing sword now.  But no Ooccoo - I guess Ooccoos don't live in the Twilight Realm.  Happily, all the arms of the dungeon seem pretty physically short.  Hope that the Zant heads stay dead - they seem to.  Had a nice hour playing today!
amethyst73: (mii)
Ugh.

I hope the pretty glowing crystal ball *stays* where I left it (i.e. outside).

I tried going in the 'No, you really can't go that way yet' entrance multiple time, cuz it looked like it really might be jumpable, until I noticed the 'This way please' entrance.  Therefore, I was down several hearts before the fight with Zant's image.

Ow.

Ow ow ow.

(But I still won in only one go, so I suppose I shouldn't complain.  First time I've made use of the Magic Armor - not that it seemed to help a heck of a lot!) 

And, a couple of tries later, got pretty glowing crystal ball outside and made nice happy imp-people out of ugly monster-people.

I really hope the ball stays outside, while I go back to the sunlight world and heeeeeaaaaallllll......

Zelda crow

Nov. 13th, 2007 04:49 pm
amethyst73: (mii)
Finished the Sky Temple!

..Didn't... quite... mean... to do the boss fight as well.  Total play time: something like, er, 2 hours.

But, but, I just had to take a quick peek as to what the lower part of the tower held, once I opened it!

First time that I've had the 'regenerate where you entered the room' be downright *useful* in solving a puzzle (pulling the chain that opens the way to the Boss Tower can't be done from the floor). 

Fun stuff

Oct. 21st, 2007 02:56 pm
amethyst73: (Default)
Zelda: Ilia's memory is restored!  (1, 2, 3: Awwwww! at pretty cinema when the moment comes.)  I enjoyed the Hidden Village shooting gallery.  The slightly goofy Spanish-guitar and jaws-harp music made the whole scene feel a little overmuch like the various Western-scenery shooters in Rayman, but that actually made it more entertaining, not less.  And I found Howling Stone #7 - I think this is the last of them!

Lolcats: Found out from a friend on Librivox that there's a group translating the Bible into LOLCatSpeak.  I read a tiny bit of Job, and it's a little insane.   Guess what the LolCat name for God is?    .... Ceiling Cat!!!

Nobels: The Ig Nobel prizes for 2007 have been awarded!  I think my favorite this year is in the Aviation category, in which some Argentinian researchers found that Viagra aids jetlag recovery in hamsters.  Wow.
amethyst73: (Default)
I've been seeing rumors all week long that Al Gore was in the running for the Nobel Peace Prize this year.  The huz and I were discussing it last night, and we were both like, "Well, he's lectured a whole lot, but don't you have to do something more than that to get a Nobel?"

Guess I need to go see what the whole scoop is!

In other news, finished Temple of Time last night.  Found stuff behind a pair of statues, a golden bug that (amusingly) is in the same physical location as its genderal counterpart, just in a different spot in Time, and whacked the requisite Muckin' HUGE Spider that eventually pops up in games of this sort.  Second half of the boss battle was really funny though - it's the first time that the second form hasn't been at least as whup-ass nasty as the first half.  It just wanted to get away from me!  And the game even played this cute/funny music to go along with the second form!  Poor widdle spider... ;)
amethyst73: (mii)
<a la Ernie and Bert> :

Heeeeeeeere, statue statue statue!!!!   Heeeeeeeeeerre, statue statue statue!!!!!!! 

<wanders off to find the pressure pad in the room with the many spike wheels going around in concentric circles>

[personal profile] orichalcum, I'm guessing the 'took forever' puzzle that you referred to earlier is something to do with statue manipulation?

Ahaha.  I wondered what one was supposed to do with the random statues with holes in them scattered around Hyrule!
amethyst73: (Default)
Hot spring water and the Goron on the bridge: Okay, I now know how it's supposed to work.  Tried a few times and failed due to accidental ..spillage.. when encountering enemies.  I'm sure it's do-able; I just haven't succeeded yet. 

Lost Woods and Temple of Time: Huh.  It's somewhat easier doing this as a human, and when you know what to expect wrt enemy encounters.  My general strategy: Enter new room, look around a moment while waiting for enemies to appear, spin attack (which, unlike Wolf's multi-enemy attack, does *not* disorient Link), look around and explore room.  Repeat as needed (e.g. climb up tree a step, wait for enemies, kill, proceed).  Mind you, it still took me plenty of time to go through it, partially because as a human you have time to realize, "Hey, I've been in this room before - how'd I manage to get so turned around??," and spend needless time trying to backtrack, or checking each of the (sometimes several) possible exits from a room.  I even considered trying to map at some point, but realized that since Skull Kid was moving in a way that didn't necessarily enter a brand-new room with every move, a map wouldn't necessarily be all that useful.

Once I did actually finish off the Skull Kid, I wandered around the Sacred Grove for, um, awhile.  Finally had to look at a walkthrough to find out how to open the Temple of Time.  (Gee, you would think that with all the hours I spent watching the huz play Ocarina, I might have had *some* clue of what to do.  Nope!)

Temple of Time theme: Put weights on pressure pads to open stuff up.  Huh, wonder if the pads I just weighted down have opened the gates in the room with the icky spider pit, in addition to the door I just went through...
amethyst73: (Default)
Zelda: Bridge fixed.  Must run experiments with *where* to stand to pour spring water on Mr. Lazy-Bum Goron, at which point I'll worry about pouring while the water is hot.  Not particularly looking forward to having to go through the Lost Woods *again*.

Dad: Variable.  Stomach troubles the last few days, likely stress-related.  He has a PET scan tomorrow.

Head: Hurts some, but not nearly to the degree than it generally does for my quarterly headache.  Haven't decided yet whether to go to work or not.
amethyst73: (Default)
The weekend got started a little on the early side.  Thursday night, the huz and I went to a concert to celebrate the opening of the Stanford Center for the Study of Poverty and Inequality.  The music was all stuff that had been specifically commissioned for the occasion, and all of it was both good and moving, accompanied by slideshow/video footage of homeless and shelter folks.  Some of the stats they mentioned were truly outrageous: e.g. there are 37 million people in America living in poverty... that's more than the entire population of Canada.  Eeek.  Anyway, the Center has a three-year grant to study poverty and inequality, and to come up with ideas, probably implementable at the corporate level, to fight a smarter war on poverty.  It's going to be a tough job, but if any area in America can do it, it's probably Silicon Valley.

Other than that, we didn't do much special over the weekend.  I completed Snowpeak.  kayray, you were right - last scene is totally 'awwwwww!'  The bosses seem to be getting nastier; I didn't actually run out of hearts with the end boss, but it felt awfully close.  It's probably time to start putting some serious cash into Malo's bridge project so that the Magic Armor will eventually become available. 

Post with serious stuff later today or tomorrow.
amethyst73: (mii)
Link was exceedingly dense while wandering around Snowpeak earlier.

Number of times he attempted to carry a cannonball past the rotating ice-dragon creatures in cages, or throw the ball up to a level spot, or similar, before realizing there were holes in the cages through which he could bash the creatures: More than I care to remember.

But once I noticed the holes, boyoboy, progress!  I've got the (erhm) key to the bedroom.. and while the map shows no boss, I cannot believe that There Is No Boss There.  There's also another chest which I haven't gotten to yet, which I'm assuming is the second heart piece (since all the other chests are gone now, and I have one but not two heart pieces from Snowpeak).  It's the one on the second floor of the main hallway, which I'm sort of assuming will involve the three chandeliers.  If only I could reliably make that dratted ice skeleton fall off the stairs and die, life would be considerably simpler with regards to solving this puzzle!

And, still in Zelda-land, the huz and I ran an experiment last night.  He did some Librivox recording stuff in the office with the door closed, and I played Zelda in the living room on the lowest audible volume setting (and kept my mutterings quiet).  No videogame noise on the recording!  Huzzah!  So now, while I will probably often choose to stick audiobooks on my Shuffle and do cross-stitch while the huz records, just 'cuz that's something I don't actually get to do very often, I know I have the option of game-playing!  Eeeee, excitement!

Meanwhile, we sold Super Monkey Balls back to the local Gamestop for a surprisingly reasonable amount, and put the credit from that towards a used copy of Super Paper Mario.  The huz played all of chapter 1-1, and has gotten his second Pixl in the town in chapter 1-2.  It's huge fun to watch.  Pretty graphics, if stylized, and the flipping from one dimension to the other is a real hoot.  (Giant Mario is - not to pun - an even bigger hoot.)  The dialogue so far is really very clever, and the play is pretty straightforward.  One minor blow to Nintendo, though: there's NOTHING in the manual (and I think, similarly, NOTHING from Tippy, your hint-Pixl that you start out with) about how to enter a pipe.  The huz would have gotten really frustrated had I not had a moment of insight there in the middle of chapter 1-2.

Finally, as I mentioned in my last post, we downloaded Wave Race 64 the other day, based on my vague but month-long desire for a racing game just to have something different that was a good pick-up-and-play-a-few-minutes game, and on the IGN review of it.  It's fun!  I'm not even vaguely competent yet at doing any of the tricks (barrel rolls and flips off the ramps, doing a handstand or facing backwards or standing up while riding), but I have mostly gotten over the initial difficulty I had with oversteering.  Just playing around in the practice area is a lot of fun.  We both think that IGN went a bit overboard in claiming that the water physics are still the best around, though.  They're fine.  They're quite nice.  Amazing, I'm afraid they just aren't.  But at $10, I'm not going to complain.  :)

Profile

amethyst73: (Default)
amethyst73

November 2023

S M T W T F S
   12 34
567891011
12131415161718
19202122232425
2627282930  

Syndicate

RSS Atom

Most Popular Tags

Style Credit

Expand Cut Tags

No cut tags
Page generated Jul. 4th, 2025 11:24 pm
Powered by Dreamwidth Studios