Hoo boy, this is already getting complicated. It’s a good thing I’m keeping this diary so I can keep track of everything I need to do, and everything I need to remember.
So on this Skyland, I have encountered a few Zonai constructs. There are these friendly ones called Stewards, which tell me about the place and how to do things in the world and explain how stuff works. They’re living tutorials, basically. Then there are these other ones, I forget what they’re called, but for now I’ll call them guardians, because that’s what they remind me of. Those patrol and treat unknown beings like me like enemies, so they’ll fight me. They’re not that tough, but they give me some practice fighting.
Since I haven’t played BOTW in a hot minute, my muscle memory for the controls is all but gone, and I have to relearn everything.
So, it’s Left Trigger (ZA) to lock onto a target, and also to raise my shield up, if I have a shield equipped and am not equipping a 2-handed weapon.
Hold right to ready the weapon in hand to throw, release right to throw it.
X to do a melee attack, and you need to be within range and not too close, not too far.
A jumps. Y dashes.
There’s other things I can do, I hope I can remember them all. Shit.
I find a few items about the Skyland. There’s some tree branches and sticks. I defeat a Zonai guardian and get a long stick, which is a two handed weapon good for a more distanced thrusting attack.
I find a few Skyshrooms and apples. Later on I find some Rushrooms.
A Steward tells me I need to find Zelda, and gives me the Purah tablet that she was using in the opening scene. It’s mine now, I can use it like I used the Sheikah Slate in BOTW, but mostly all I can do with it right now is take pictures, apparently the other powers it will grant will become enabled later.
The Purah Pad has a map feature, and I’m supposed to go to a location on the map indicated where Zelda is, and find her. I do as I’m told, encountering a couple of Guardians along the way. They’re easy to defeat, and I gain some basic experience with the melee combat system, and pick up their weapons and a shield.
I get to the place on the map where I’m supposed to go, and I’m greeted by an apparition of a being named Rauru, who is a Zonai. he looks like a tall, goat-headed humanoid. He’s probably actually just normal sized since Link is a shawty and everyone he meets just seems tall.
Rauru tells me that he gave me my new arm, and it used to be his arm. That’s a little creepy. He also tells me the arm should be able to open the door to the place where Zelda is, but it can’t right now because it is powered down. To regain strength, he suggests I visit some shrines nearby.
This is all rather familiar by now. Very much like BOTW. Visit the Shrine, Do the Task, Get the Thing to Enable You To Do The Thing To Do the Thing to Do the Thing to do the Really Important Thing.
So for the next few hundred hours, I guess that’s what I’ll be doing.
I look over at the shrine that Rauru points out to me and head that way.
I go into the Shrine, and a power of my arm is to grab objects and manipulate them. It’s a bit like the Magnesis power that the Sheikah Slate had in BOTW, but it’s a little more refined. I can rotate objects, giving me a bit more control over them. I can also stick things together, to create compound objets.
There’s a basic test of this ability, to create a bridge, then to join two pieces together to make a longer bridge. then to connect two hooks onto a platform, and mount it on a cable, so that you can ride it across an even wider gap.
I am awkward as hell, embarrassingly so, and I have to read the on-screen text telling me how to control the power I’m using for every single thing I do.
I’m rewarded with an Orb of Light. I have passed the Test of the First Shrine.
Onward.