Jenn Dolari @dolari@driveinsaturday.org

There's a growing problem I'm having with TOTK, and that's a serious lack of context clues. Usually Zelda is TOO liberal with the clues to solve puzzles, usually putting keywords in colors, or in Skyward Sword's case, even adding little jingles when words appear on your screen. TOTK has the red letters, for sure, but sometimes it just straight up won't tell you somethiong or will leave out clues for how to solve a puzzle.

For example, I was just at one of the skyview towers where the doors won't open. There's a Rito there and if you talk to him he says "Hey, I can't open the doors. Oh, by the way, there's a cave under here to get mushrooms!"

At first, I ignored the cave instructions because it sounded more like "This is a hint on where to get more mushrooms." Instead, I looked around the outside of the tower, didn't see anything obvious, I tried to peek into the tower, but I couldn't see anything. Going back to the Rito, he emphasized going down to the cave under the tower for mushrooms. Even just trying to open the doors shows Link try to open it with nothing happening.

So I went down there, cleared out the monsters, cleared out the rocks, and got the treasures...and...nothing else. I looked around and didn't see any obvious clues.

After a good while I was stumped. So I looked online (something I'm trying hard to avoid), and it turns out the door is blocked by sticks on either side of the door. The solution is to go down to the cave, and ascend up inside to the tower, and remove the sticks.

There's no context clues as to the door being blocked. The bird never says anything other than "it won't open for some reason." If he'd said "it feels like it's blocked" that would have helped. If Link had attempted to open the door and the door opened a bit and were blocked, that's a good context clue (in the game, he pulls at the door, nothing happens). Just anything to help sell "it's blocked."

I've run into several of those now although managed to stumble into the solution after a while (or looked it up), but the context clues in TOTK are a serious weak point I'm running into.

#tearsofthekingdom

You're my new Thursday night thing.

(Oops, forgot to add the sesame seeds)

My friends. At long last. Comics are coming.

Well. There's a neuron that hasn't been touched since Elementary School: https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/From_the_Mixed-Up_Files_of_Mrs._Basil_E._Frankweiler

Thoughts Before Bed:
Today I learned you can have multiple Best Friends. They're called your Chosen Family. ❤

Didn't play much today, so there was just the one completion.

#tearsofthekingdom

Okay, this is getting ridiculous. This isn't even counting the first two I lost because I couldn't find a stable to board them at.

#tearsofthekingdom

I did my first public speaking in a good number of years today. And my first public speaking on Trans issues in a VERY VERY VERY long time.

I tend to be an overwhelming personality, and I worried that I was monopolizing the event, and at the same time, among much younger Trans and Non-Binary folks, worried that I would be a bit out of touch with the younger folks.

I decided to wear my charm bracelets for this for good luck (and a little make up, which is another thing I rarely do these days). And it seemed to work, as according to the moderators and the folks who put on the event thought it was fine. Also, I delightfully jingled like a fairy all evening, and I loved that. ❤

I actually have two charm bracelets. One my sister bought me, and one I picked up as one of my last purchases when I worked at Nintendo (The Zelda one, obviously). The charms are...

Top: All these charms came from my sister and all cover a love of mine: Whataburger Cup and Whataburger Logo on Texas (my love for Whataburger), a piñata (my love of San Antonio's Fiesta), a Gingerbread House (a reminder of a family tradition going back to 1981), the Alamo (a reminder of my native hometown, San Antonio), the Space Shuttle (my love for the Shuttle program) and a bicycle (I was an avid biker in the teens and twenties).

Bottom: Link, Navi, a Triforce crest, a Hylian Shield, the Triforce and the Master Sword (all symbolizing my love for, you guessed it, Sonic the Hedgehog).

Current Mood:

@loadhigh - A gigantic seven hour stream of all the Zork games: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=j_Ck_Mj08gw

@loadhigh - Super SF2 Turbo for MS-DOS: https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=9gQA89snCPE

@loadhigh - Oh, hey! I love the idea of your MS-DOS game stuff. Please enjoy some streams I've done of MS-DOS games:

Well, not only are we seeing the heat waves early, the smoke is starting already as well. :/

Link Is Tiny, Episode #2089365

#tearsofthekingdom

Koroks, man. Koroks.

#tearsofthekingdom

Two days on, one day off. Got stuff to do tomorrow, I'l get back to Hyrule in a day or two....

Today's Completions:

#tearsofthekingdom

Holy Cow, I'm freaking overpowered now. So now that I've completed the Gerudo story and pushed SUPER hard through it, I was given Riju's Sage shadow.

Basically, you can create lightning ON DEMAND. I've taken out whole camps using her power just once, and mined an entire room of ore with a strike. Not to mention, she can fight with you AND is invunerable. I've watched her take out enemies galore. O_o

The tradeoff is a not-terrible charge time for the effect, and having to chase down the shadow, because she's got small weapons and will run towards enemies out of your range for starting the lightning charge.

I'm still very much in the "easy mode enemies" stuff right now, but I'm using some super powered stuff to take them out. Still low on hearts, but working on that.

This is FUN. :D

So I spins my camera around ONLY TO HAVE THIS SPOOKY SHADOWMAN ELDRICH HORROR STANDING BEHIND ME.

Glad she's on my side, but Holy Potatoes. At least I can change my pants out with a button press.

#tearsofthekingdom

As a promise I made to a furry friend when Breath of the Wild came out, no foxes are ever harmed in my games. They're too cute anyways.

#tearsofthekingdom