A Questline in a Decidedly Green Tunic

Hello everyone.
I think the time has come.
Those of you who know me know that I can quite easily be drawn in to a story and that the completion-ist that lies within me sometimes is allowed to watch several seasons of a show with the intent of having heard the "whole story." (Even while the logical individual is acutely aware that they are often just making this shit up as they go, and that their ability to do so is based entirely upon how many people watch the show)

That having been said. Some stories are worth exploring to as much of a degree as is possible.
The Legend of Zelda has proven time and time again to be such a story.

My acquisition of this recently released "Hyrule Historia" may have admittedly influenced my decision to take this on.

However, I love the Zelda franchise. Always have. Always will. And while I still plan to complete my longer questline/goal of beating Final Fantasy I-XII (some of which I've beaten previously) chronologically, I imagine that given the 30-40+ Hour nature of those games that that goal is set over the course of many months, perhaps even a couple years.

This wouldn't be true if I had more time at my disposal, but I'm a student (though I'm graduating in about 2 months) and will be fulltime employed post graduation. My life currently has music obligations, school obligations, work obligations, video game obligations (or so I like to imagine) and social obligations. Suffice it to say this all will take a bit of time.

BUT! LOGISTICAL COMPLAINTS NOT WITHSTANDING (You might see where this is headed)
I wish to complete and document a bit of the process of completing Every Legend of Zelda Game.
(Cue music!) in order!

This does however raise a couple of questions.
First! Since the publication of the aforementioned Hyrule Historia, there are two was in which to complete the games in sequence:

The first and most obvious being chronologically in terms of release date:


Beginning with 1986's The Legend of Zelda,
this has the advantage in many ways in that you play through the games in the way that the originally were played through. Each new game acts like a newly released game, a new bit of the story.

However, the problem comes in when  one considers what has been taught to us by Hyrule Historia.

This is kind of like the first time you realized that the first Star Wars film had the additional moniker of "Episode 4." The chronology is not quite what it seems. For a long time the chronology of the series was a subject of debate amongst fans. It no longer is.

In short, "The Legend of Zelda" (The first game) is not actually where the story began, at least retroactively. Personally I believe less in this arrangement of the story than I do that George Lucas had some serious thought as to what Episodes 1, 2, 3, could be when episode 4 was released. But that having been said, compliments to a translated version of Hyrule Historia on wikipedia, here is the true order to the story of THE LEGEND OF ZELDA:

(Click the image for a closer look as the text is quite small)

This proves to be a little too convenient in my mind. The release this huge book, which is of course amazing I should add, comes a short time before the release of Skyward Sword and of course it becomes the earliest point in the chronological story. "You simply must see where the story began!"

Now, the completion-ist in me wants to care. It really does. Because this does seem cool. But it also bothers me. To be honest, when playing through a more than substantial number of the Zelda games as a child I was, as were many of my friends, convinced that the games were only loosely connected in terms of plot. That basically these were alternate universe type stories, or at the least re-tellings, perhaps (when I became a teenager and began thinking of such things) a form of purgatory. A game you could not truly win, because there would be a new adventure where things had gone wrong again.
Which should I choose in the end? I'm not sure. If you have input, let me know.

Also: From a purely pragmatic standpoint there are some challenges. I don't own all of these games. I have some games to buy. Also: I don't even own a Wii. Skyward Sword is Wii exclusive... that is a problem. Also, while writing this, I missed the copy of Ocarina of Time MasterQuest that I was going to bid on, on ebay. Woops. Oh well.

With this in mind and acknowledging that I would perhaps like a partner in this endeavor, to keep me honest, or divide up the games with and have them write on here as well (there are something like 18 games)...I may contact Juice or Andy M about such a thing.

We shall see. For now, wish me luck on my new questline.

I like that this blog began with the goal (for Jenna of course, not me) of beating Zelda: Ocarina of Time and now, it returns to Zelda.

-Aerick
Soundtrack of the Moment: Ocarina of Time's Song of Storms

At least I had a fairy in a bottle...

Today was kind of a day of failing at life, so when I came home from work, I expected the same from my continuation of attempting to beat Ocarina of Time/Quest One.

I was sort of right.

"When we last left our hero, he (she) had attempted to beat Dodongo's Cavern, but had not yet been victorious." Luckily, the tricks for slaying King Dodongo were as fresh in my mind as they could be. I destroyed that giant fire lizard with hardly a mark on me.

Darunia rewarded me with the Goron's Ruby, and then one of the Great Fairies gave me Din's Fire, which will probably be pretty useful down the line.

From there, things. went. really. slowly.

I couldn't remember for the life of me what to do next.

I decided to check out Lon Lon Ranch, since I hadn't visited yet. Got Epona's Song. I kind of figured this was not where I needed to go next... so I left.

Then Navi suggested I talk to Saria, since Saria, of course, knows everything I'm up to and what I should do next. This, in the past, implied that I should go back to Kokiri Forest. So I went back to the Forest, and made my way through the Lost Woods. Having to re-enter twice after picking the wrong log to walk through, I eventually made it to the Sacred Forest Meadow (a.k.a. Saria's "Secret Place"). I found that girl-next-door, and she doesn't tell me anything. No-thing. I started leaving, and then Navi bugged me again to talk to Saria. Then I played Saria's Song. Saria tells me to go to get the third Spiritual Stone from the Zoras, down at Zora's Domain. She couldn't have told me that while I was standing right next to her and after I had ran through the pain-in-the-ass Lost Woods? Fine. I guess I'll just call you on my ocarina when I want to talk to you since you just got all awkward face-to-face. Then, I went to get the last spiritual stone from the Zoras.

I made it to Zora's Domain. I even met King Zora himself. However, he seemed as if he didn't even notice I was there. He just said something about the princess going missing. I tried everything to get his attention. Nothing. I wandered around the Domain. Nothing. Some guy asked if I wanted to play a diving game. Like I have time?!? Kept wandering around. Left. Came back. Left. Visited Lake Hylia (It's quite pretty this time of year). Noticed something on the bottom that I couldn't quite reach. Wandered around. Came back. Tried talking to the King again. Thought about offering him a fish. Then I realized that he kind of is a fish. This time I decided to take that diving game guy up on his offer since I obviously didn't know what to do. He took my rupees and threw them off the cliff. "Go get them and you will get a prize." Oh, really? Like a biscuit? Okay, fine. I dove the most beautiful swan dive, and then collected the rupees in the 20-something seconds. Went back up to get my prize.

Turns out it was a pretty cool (and completely necessary) prize: a Silver Scale. It let me dive more deeply. It also turns out the Zoras have a shortcut between their Domain and Lake Hylia. I snuck back, and got that thing in the water. Letter from Princess Ruto. Great, now the King will pay attention to me and I can just get that third Spiritual Stone. I show it to him, and he implores me to go get Princess Ruto out from Jabu-Jabu's belly. Fuck. What? [Side note: Jabu-Jabu is the furthest I have ever gotten in the game. I've watched some people get further, but that's it.]

Speeding up the story:
-- Got through Jabu-Jabu's belly by beating a merry-go-round of jellyfish death.
-- Got the third Spiritual Stone: Zora's Sapphire (by getting engaged to Ruto).
-- Went to the castle to meet up with Zelda
-- Watched Zelda & Impa get chased out of Hyrule by none other than GANONDORF
-- Zelda tossed the Ocarina of Time (!) in the moat before He-Who-I-Call-GANONDORF could see
-- GANONDORF made fun of me because I tried to be the hero that everyone's been telling me I am
-- I picked up that new Ocarina, listened to Zelda talk to me (apparently ocarinas were used instead of phones back then), then headed to the Temple of Time
-- A lot of crazy shit happened, and I woke up seven (7!) years later. With the worst hangover ever. And then this dude with an amazing mustache tells me that GANONDORF has taken over as an evil king and has the Triforce. Dude. Can I at least get some coffee here? Isn't now the time to give up? No, I guess not. He talks me into saving the world now that I'm all grown up.
-- I get a hint from somewhere that I should head to Kakariko Village. So I do.
-- Someone tells me that Impa's in the graveyard dealing with some ghosts...

That's when I decided I should stop. This was a good place to decide that today was not a complete waste. Afterall, I completed my original goal (spiritual stones) and then some (dealing with that fucking Jabu-Jabu's belly), and then some more (7 years later...).


Later.

Goddamnit, Navi!!

I did end up spending about 45 more minutes on the game last night. Got through Sir Great Deku. And then he **spoiler alert??** died. And we were sad. But. We (I guess "we" means Link ("me") and Navi) did get the first Spiritual Stone! The Kokiri's Emerald. Beautiful.


Today: spent about 2 1/2 hours working through it. It's so hard to not get distracted by side quests...

Then the whole tense event of sneaking by all the palace guards. I kept getting impatient and tried rushing through, ultimately having to restart the section FIVE times. Whoops. But we did meet the adorable Princess Zelda where, after meeting me, immediately told me that I need to go save the world. So I said, "Okay." She also taught me Zelda's Lullaby, which I guess has some crazy powers.

Next was a little visit to go see my old friend Saria because I felt bad for thinking Zelda was adorable. And poor Saria's just the girl next door/childhood friend. Right? Oh, also, she taught me my second song: Saria's Song, and told me I could talk to her anytime I played it. How sweet of her!

I made it up Death Mountain to get the second Spiritual Stone: the Goron's Ruby, but King Darunia was pissed off about something. So I played him a song that cheers me up: Saria's Song! And it worked! That big, crazy guy danced all over the place! However, he said I had to go kill a bunch of fire lizards (a.k.a. dodongos) to give him good reason to give it to me. The Gorons also wanted their tasty rocks back, which I guess are all in Dodongo's Cavern. So I said, "Okay."

I got through most of it before having to leave for dance tonight, but I'm going to have to run through all of those stupid rooms that I worked through already. And, of course, whenever I would enter a room that I got the heebie-jeebies about, I would creep in slowly, look around, and then Navi shouts at me: "HEY! LISTEN!" and my heart would almost stop. Then I shouted back, "Goddamnit, Navi!" I know she was just trying to help me out, but the shouting? Really?

Anyhow, that's how far I am. And I know tomorrow I'll have even more time to play, and see how much further I get.


*save*

*quit*

Hey! Listen!

I love video games. I love playing them, and I love watching them. However, I have never officially completed a single video game in my life... (*gasp*) beyond the original Super Mario Bros. (in which I used every shortcut possible). I know. Ridiculous. To remedy this, Erik/Navi has decided that he/she/it will come up with regular missions [entitled "Hey!"] for me to complete. This is to at least get the ball rolling on this whole thing.

There will be rules & regulations with every mission [entitled "Listen!"].

[By the way, if you are confused by the titles, I assume you have never played/watched Ocarina of Time. Otherwise, you would be familiar with Navi's method of getting your attention. Or you're just slower than I assumed...]

The goal of the blog: To receive missions and instructions from Navi (the mystical fairy) for video game completions.

****************************************************
Quest One

Hey!: Complete The Legend of Zelda: Ocarina of Time start to finish in seven days, beginning Tuesday, October 5th at 5:30pm (that's Central - we're running on Central here in the Midwest), and ending Tuesday, October 12th at 5:30pm.

I know this quest doesn't sound too crazy if you know some of the records. But I am not an amazing gamer. I'm not really even a gamer. I'm a lady (a classy one at that) who loves video games and needs to beat a lot of them.


Listen!: Walkthroughs are not allowed (Most likely a rule for every mission/quest). Avoid as many side quests as wanted. [No requirements as far as collecting Skulltulas, Poes, glass bottles, masks, etc.]


Navi's going easy on me for this first one. "Easy." Ya.

Yikes.

Wish me luck.