I poked around Kakariko village one last time, and then headed back to where I thought that weird guy was who wanted Korok seeds for his maracas, but he wasn’t there. Maybe it’s because it was night time when I rode by there, or maybe I remember him telling me something about he would see me around other places, which at the time I thought he meant that there were other locations on the world map where I would run into him, but that I’d be able to find him at this place any time I went there.
I hope it’s just that it was night time.
I didn’t wait around, and took the road to Hateno village. It was a decent trek. I made it a ways east, and came to a ruined fortified wall, where I met a person who told me that it was a historic landmark. There were a lot of destroyed Guardians there, so I searched around and found lots of screws and springs, and a gear. I have no idea what I’m supposed to do with those still, but they don’t seem to be worth very much.
I woke up one of the still-functioning Guardians and had to run away. I don’t like those things. I rode Horsey through the gate and explored a bit on the other side. There was a little cabin, and in the vicinity there were a lot of resources to forage, so I did that for a while, then headed further down the road. The road ran along a valley, with a river going through it, and I could see bokoblin camps on the other side of the river here and there, but I didn’t waste time with them and just continued on.
It grew dark and I ran into a few random encounters, but handled them quickly. I also got into a fight with a Yiga clan fighter, a girl who baited me by crying in the rain in the dark and looked like she needed help. She told me she needed a cooked salmon, and then attacked me. I wasn’t ready for it, and tried to throw my spear, which was badly damaged, but I haven’t practiced that a lot, so I fucked up pretty bad, and she took me down to 0 hearts, but then that triggered one of my fairies to recharge me, and I ended up switching weapons and won the fight. I’m annoyed that it cost me a fairy, because if I’d not been screwing around trying to experiment, I wouldn’t have used it.
A bit further down the road, I had some more bokoblin encounters, and these ones are tougher than the ones I’ve encountered so far, an take more damage before dropping. They also wield farm implements, hoes, pitchforks, and mops, in addition to the usual crude clubs and spears. I can usually take them out quickly without getting hit, but if they do hit me they do a lot of damage, so I have to be careful.
Sometimes, the bokoblins will be attacking people, and I come to their rescue. I saved two girls who were out looking for truffles. I looked around trying to find some, but didn’t turn up any. But I ran into more bokoblins, and ended up breaking too many weapons, so I decided not to stick around there.
I was almost to Hateno village anyway, and it seems like an even larger place than Kakariko village. It’s a bit overwhelming to keep track of everything. It’s a windy city, and there are windmills. They farm things, and they have a clothing store and a cloth dying store, so you can change your clothes to different colors. I’m not sure if there’s a game purpose for it or if it’s just a cosmetic thing that they built into the game rather than just gave you the usual generic interface for avatar designing. Hopefully it will turn out to have a purpose.
I went into a bunch of buildings and talked to people, but it kindof all blurs together, and now I feel like I should have been taking notes while I played. because I will never in a million years keep track of everything. Just about everything anyone tells you is more background information to the world, but its significance is not always clear. Some people you can tell are telling you something very important, while others are merely telling you something that might a clue about something fun in the game, but probably not essential to completing the main quest.
There was a shrine near the village, so I went and cleared it so my Sheikah slate would quit beeping. It was challenging, I had to use the gyroscopic motion sensors to control a tiltable plane in order to pass a ball through a maze, and dump it onto a ramp, so that the ball would go into a hole. This was very challenging, but mainly because the gyroscopic controls don’t seem to work so great, and the camera also made it very difficult at times to figure out if things were lined up right or not.
(Edit: it turns out that the 3-rd party Legend of Zelda joycon I had bought from Hori because of it having a D-pad does not have the motion sensing hardware in it, which caused the tilt sensing capabilities of the Switch not work properly. I discovered this quite some time later, after it got so bad that I had to investigate to see if my Switch was defective. It’s fine, but the Hori D-pad L-joycon just doesn’t include the gyroscope features.)
It took me a bunch of tries, but I eventually got it. This earned me another spirit orb, and when I found a little statue in the village that I could examine, it asked me if I wanted another heart container or more stamina, and this time I went for the stamina, and I think it will be well worth it to have the additional capability to explore.
I talked to some guys who were demolishing a house, and arranged to buy it instead. This will (hopefully?) give me a place to sleep that doesn’t cost money, so I can restore health for free, and maybe I can store extra inventory that I can’t carry on me. If not, then I don’t know what the point of it is. The house will be damn expensive — 3000 rupees, plus they want a bunch of wood bundles, which I haven’t seen much of lately.
I continued through the village and came to a farm on the outskirts, where there were two doggos, a few bulls, which I tried to rode like a horse, but it didn’t work. One of the people I talked to said something about you can ride other animals besides horses, but I guess not these bulls. There were a bunch of sheep, also. I talked to the farmer, who challenged me to hunt deer in the forest nearby, so I did that a few times, until I broke my bow and shot all my arrows. It was sortof fun, but later I found the place where he took me, and I could have just hunted animals there on my own. I gather that if you take enough in the 1-minute challenge the farmer gives you, it’ll reward you with something nice, but probably not anything amazing. I’ve gotten as many as 3 animals and all he gives me for it is 1 rupee, plus I get to keep whatever I kill. I bet if you get, like, 6 or something, he’ll give you the real reward. For all the arrows I had to use, it better be something good. Just one arrow costs 5-6 rupees.
I went beyond the farm and there was another raft, which I took and explored an island in the middle of a lake, and on the island there was a big tree, which I climbed and got another Korok seed. I found another one nearby, but I don’t remember where I found that one. Sometimes you go someplace out of the way, and see some unusual arrangement of nature, or an especially big tree or rock, and you find them.
It’s a simple enough reward for exploring, and I’m glad when I find another one.
I returned the raft and went down hill for a bit, and came to a couple of what looked like wheat fields with scarecrows. I thought maybe I could harvest some, maybe with the bokoblin garden hoe or the pitchfork, but neither one seems to do anything if I stand in the field and swing it. I talked to someone in the village about recipes, and they mentioned rice and wheat, so I know they’re in the game somewhere.
I know the reason I came to the village was to further the main quest, and find someone who can fix my Sheikah slate to fully enable it, but I haven’t found that person yet.
The battery ran low, so I had to stop for now.