SPOILER ALERT! I think I should start adding these. During these posts I will be talking about where I am in the game and my experience as I play it. Some of that might just spoil the game for you if you are planning on playing it.
Back in the early days of the video game industry we never had these fancy players guides, official and non-official, to turn to when we got stuck in a game.
We couldn’t just go online to look for a solution from the many websites carrying walk throughs of the game.
No we had to struggle and try and find a solution for ourselves. If we were lucky a friend or class mate might be playing the same game and know of a solution.
Otherwise our only hope was in the pages of the monthly video game magazines and their help pages. If luck was on your side some-one had already written in and had a solution published. Other wise it would mean putting pen to paper, and sending in your question, hoping you would get selected for publication. Or sometimes the magazine would publish a map for the game that you could use.
You had to be a lot more resilient back then. I’m not saying I was. As memory tells me I didn’t finish many games at the time.
The official Tears of the Kingdom players guide did indeed arrive Wednesday. Nearly a week earlier than Amazon had planned to deliver my pre-order. A fact I am still baffled by.
Wow what a weighty tome the player guide is.
I went for the soft cover version. I dread to think how heavy the hard back version is. This is 500 (498 if you don’t count the covers) glossy pages.
I do like the use of screen shots and art through out the book. The book although packed with a lot of information still manages to look amazing in side.
For me this players guide has the right level of detail. It’s not a micro guide talking you through every step as some of the online walk throughs do.
Apparently I am going after the Wind Sage on my current path through the game. The player guide has spoiled the fact there are four of them and I am apparently going for the right choice as the first one to go for. That’s pure luck.
I don’t remember anything in the story line that I’ve come across so far that mentions these sages.
Oh wait I have. They will be the anomalies I have to investigate round Hyrule.
I have made a new friend in the game called Tulin from the Rito Village. Tulin is really cool as he is able to generate gusts of wind that can carry you over longer distances using the paraglider.
I’m sure that after I have defeated or freed the Wind Sage I’ll get a similar ability. Or I hope so. As I think having Tulin shadow me everywhere is going to get annoying.
But this bit of the game where I am jumping/gliding from one sky island to another ascending to this boat hidden in the storm clouds above has triggered that feeling I get when when heights are involved in the game. I did talk briefly about this in my initial thoughts on Tears of the Kingdom.
It’s weird.
I’ve done Crib Goch in Snowdonia, walking along it’s knife edge ridge with drops either side. I’ve done a via ferrata in the French Pyrenees starting at the bottom of a gorge, climbed up the side of the gorge under a bridge, death slid across the gorge 300ft above the ground into a net the other side. And neither of those times did I ever feel like this game or others have made me feel while playing them.
I don’t like heights. They make me very nervous. Doing the above was possible as I was able to block out the drops, and just focus on what is directly in front of me. Having tinnitus does make it easier to do things like this. I practice the skill daily.
But come video games I get so immersed in the game when I get to a level like the sky islands with sheer drops in Tears of the Kingdom I get triggered and an irrational fear kicks in.
I know it’s not real. I know I can fall and nothing will happen to me. But those butterflies in the stomach still kick in.
It’s only a game.
Still my mind and body are fooled into thinking it’s not.
How much do games like Tears of the Kingdom or Doom fool my mind and body. Watch me playing an FPS like Doom or Half Life and as I look round corners etc my body moves too!
Yeah I get totally immersed.
I could do with scanning some amiibo cards to top up my swords. But I’ll do that once I reach my final destination in the clouds.
I think that my favourite ability for Link’s cybernetic limb is the ascend ability. I just love the cool animation showing him move through the solid object, and then half emerging on the surface.
In the meantime it’s onwards and upwards.
If you are interested you can catch up with my other posts about Tears of the Kingdom HERE.