I spent a few more hours exploring and foraging around Kakariko village. There is stuff literally everywhere.
I walked behind Impa’s house, and there’s a river back there. I spotted some shrooms growing on the side of the rock wall leading down to the river. I went to collect it, and it started raining right then. I couldn’t move without slipping, and ran my stamina meter halfway down trying to get out, so I had to sit there all night long. It really was annoying! I tried to do the horse whistle to summon help, but you can’t do it when you’re climbing. I doubt anyone would have come anyway. But it wouldn’t have surprised me if it did work — whistling is for signaling your horse to come, but I’ve used it to startle wildlife and to attract the attention of nearby monsters, so it seems like just about everything else, the abilities you have and actions you take can be used in multiple different ways in many different situations.
There were fish swimming in the water, so after it stopped raining and I got to safety, I dove back in and grabbed a few. Then I noticed mushrooms were growing underneath Impa’s house (it’s built on an open lattice foundation that you can walk under). And I noticed a circle of plants growing in the water, so I dove into it and turned up a Korok seed.
I walked down one street and came to an odd rock formation with a tree growing near it. Climbed the tree and got some eggs. Couldn’t figure out what the rocks were for. Maybe it will become apparent later. I walked past them and hopped a fence, then explored the backside of the foothills surrounding the village. There were a few game animals there, and I collected more meat, and shot a bunch of arrows. I need to find a guy to buy more arrows from soon, I guess. I can pick them up and re-use them if I miss, at least.
I scoped out the surrounding landscape with the Sheikah slate in scope mode, and saw several shrines off in the distance, and some ruined buildings nearer by, with what looked like 3 dead(?) Guardians near them. It looked like there had been a big fire. I could also see 3 horses running in the meadow near there. Way off in the distance I could see the big evil looking castle surrounded by dark clouds and purple energy. Then I noticed what looked like a giant aircraft flying slowly around in the sky near the castle. No telling what that could be. It looked huge.
Speaking of huge, I also spotted an ENORMOUS tree, that looked like it must be the size of a mountain or city, some ways away to the north.
I tried to find a way to climb up the hill, and just barely made it up there. I found a sword up there, and it was a very nice one. Then I hang glided off the hilltop, and landed on another nearby hilltop, where I found some herbs growing, and then noticed a moss-covered lump that looked like a treasure chest. I used my magnet power on it, and pulled it out of the ground, and it *was* a treasure chest! It had a nice bow in it. I wonder how many other hills have secrets like this. It seems like about half of them do.
I discovered that there are limits to hang gliding. If you don’t land before your stamina meter runs out, you fall. I almost died, gliding down from one of the very tall hills. I will have to make sure I plan my descents in stages to avoid that in the future. I don’t know if there’s a way to drop or dive or whatever, but that would be very handy if there is.
I glided over the village to the other side where the fairy pond is, and landed on a hill, climbed up to the top of it, and found a rock that I could pick up. When I did, I found another Korok. I’ve found a bunch of those seeds now, and I’ll keep finding more. If I take them back to that weird guy I met on the road to Kakariko village, he’ll expand my inventory capacity, which will really help me out a lot, since I have so many weapons that I don’t want to lose. I wish that you could store them somewhere in these villages, and retrieve them later if you ever needed one.
I met a painter in the village, who told me something, about the fairy pond nearby, but since I’ve already discovered that on my own, it was a bit odd that there weren’t some dialog options for Link to mention it. And I met a little girl named Koko who likes to cook, and she needed ingredients, so I went to the store right next to her and bought them for her, and she she taught me a few new recipes. That was really fun, even if it was simple. Getting to do a kind deed for a village child was more heroic than murdering bokoblins and other monsters.
What’s really cool about the Koko sidequest is that it seems to have been triggered because I happened to be cooking some of my ingredients at the cooking pot next to the village store, and Koko ran up a little before the game clock hit noon, to make food for her family. I’m already aware that certain things will change depending on time of day, but this just creates a whole new dimension of searching for stuff, and makes me wonder how much stuff I’ll miss because I never happened to be in the right place at the right… time of day, phase of the moon, season of the year, etc.
I went down another road and met a warrior from the Yiga clan, who I learned from the villagers are Hyrulians who have turned bad and work for Ganon now. This one tried to recruit me, and I told him no way, and so he fought me, but I killed him with my spear. I couldn’t hit him with my two-handed weapon, because he was so fast. Plus, he had a teleport move, which made him one of the more difficult foes I’ve had to fight. But the spear worked good on him. He dropped a sickle, and it does pretty good damage.
I know the next thing I’m supposed to do is go to this village in the east to get my Sheikah slate augmented or repaired or fully activated or whatever, and that’s the next part of the main quest, but I’m really enjoying exploring and finding secrets. I think that part of the game is better than the combat. Combat is something I’m sure I will need to get better at, but I prefer to avoid it whenever possible, because I don’t want to waste my good weapons on random encounters, and I don’t have enough inventory slots to burn one or two on crappy weapons that I can find a lot of. But I have enough Korok seeds now, i think I can probably expand my inventory if I go back to that weird guy I met on the way here.
I still don’t feel like I’ve done half of what there is to do around Kakariko village yet. I know there’s a lot more things I can spend money on, but I don’t really want to spend all my rupees, and I’m not sure what I should sell off and what I should keep. I have found so many things, but I don’t know what even 1/4 of them do.
This game seems to go on endlessly. It amazes me how much stuff they are able to pack into it. And especially because you can see way far off into the distance, and it looks like stuff is moving around, like the whole world is alive and moving, which makes the experience feel less like a video game where the hardware can only handle so many things at once, so it only renders the immediate surroundings while anything outside of the current “scene” you’re in isn’t really in existence. It’s amazing how much the Switch is capable of doing.
I think the next thing for me to do is go back and trade in some more Korok seeds, then venture out to the East and try to find my way to Hateno Village.