Tears of the Kingdom: Part 3 - Crisis at Hyrule Castle, Defeating Ganon, & Finding Zelda

Six months after its release date, and more than 75 hours of gameplay later, I finally finished the main story quests for Tears of the Kingdom (TotK). I was not in any hurry to finish this game. In fact, I stalled a bit on the final main quests Crisis at Hyrule Castle and Defeating Ganon. The reason was because I was scared. One of the aspects of TotK and Breath of the Wild (BotW) that I love is that the games give a true sense of adventure. The path to the Wind Temple, climbing higher and higher into the sky with its sense of isolation feels like you are on a true journey. The Crisis at Hyrule Castle turned out not to be as difficult as I thought. It was a great way to explore the castle, however, because unlike BotW, Ganon is not in the castle in TotK. The Defeating Ganon quest involves exactly what the title implies, only you have to find him first and the game doesn't really give you any hints. Turns out he is hiding right in front of you the entire time.

At the beginning of the game, Link and Zelda go into a cavern beneath Hyrule Castle to explore the disruption known as The Upheaval. The Upheaval causes chunks of land to rise to the sky, forming islands above Hyrule and lifts Hyrule Castle into the sky. From the chasms where the land has risen seeps gloom, a deadly substance. While exploring, Zelda falls into a chasm and disappears, and Link has his hand ripped from his body by a mummy-like enemy. Link awakens on one of the islands floating above Hyrule. The Upheaval completely changes the landscape of Hyrule, and the game begins. It turns out that Ganon is within the chasm created when Hyrule Castle lifted into the air, the same place he was at the very beginning of the game.

The journey to get to Ganon is absolutely epic. You dive deep into the chasm below Hyrule Castle. The path is littered with gloom and enemies. Gloom not only hurts you when you come into contact with it, it removes a heart as well, decreasing your total health. This is why I was scared to start this particular quest. I knew I couldn't just go on this journey without preparing. I had to get plenty of meals to not only restore hearts, but also to restore my total hearts after I came into contact with gloom. At the end of the path you reach a large room where you have to face Ganon's army, which consists of four rounds of enemies. This path takes about 20 minutes to complete, and along the way there are no fast travel locations (shrines), no save points beyond auto save, and no way to restock your supplies. You better come prepared, because there are plenty of opportunities to get injured and lose hearts to gloom. 

Once you finally get to Ganon, the battle is absolutely epic as well. There are four rounds to the battle, with the fourth round taking place in the sky as Ganon is transformed into Demon Dragon. The battle is tough. I died probably 15 times, despite my numerous meals prepared by Elle. The four rounds are psychologically tough, because once his health bar is depleted, you think you've defeated him, just for him to transform into a different version of himself. I had 5 or 6 shields going into the battle, including the Hylian Shield, the toughest in the game, and by the end of the battle I was down to one shield that was nearly broken because of all the blocking of Ganon's attacks. I thought I was well prepared, but by the end of the battle I was absolutely on fumes, with low hearts and very few supplies remaining.

Through a separate main quest (that is somehow optional), you learn that in the past Zelda transforms herself into a dragon in order to deliver the Master Sword to future Link to aid in his adventure to defeat Ganon. In the final stage of the battle, Ganon transforms into a dragon, and with the help of Zelda's dragon form, you defeat Ganon in the sky above Hyrule. The entire quest to get to Ganon and the battle that follows is absolutely mega (to quote Zac Brown). It is definitely one of the more memorable battles against Ganon in the Legend of Zelda series.

Lego AT-AT

 

The All Terrain Armored Transport (AT-AT) is one of the Empire's most iconic symbols of military strength. The AT-AT walker was made famous on the ice planet at the Battle of Hoth in the Empire Strikes Back. Lego makes two versions of the AT-AT: an absolutely mammoth version that has 6,700 pieces and costs $850, and a smaller but still large version that has 1,200 pieces and costs $170. I built the smaller version. I've seen the larger version at the Lego store, and while it is impressively large, I don't think it is worth the nearly $700 jump in cost. The smaller version is still quite large and they look similar.

To be honest, this was not one of my favorite Lego builds. Building the body was fine, but building the legs was redundant and there was a lot of grey bricks, so not much variety. The cheaper walker looks impressive sitting in my bookshelf, but I will say it is a bit flimsy on its legs. It wouldn't take much to knock it over, and I wonder if this is an advantage the larger and more expensive model has over the one I built. My favorite part is that there is a pulley system coming out of the belly of the walker, where I've staged Luke Skywalker in his famous orange rebellion suit grabbing onto the wire to be pulled into the walker, with lightsaber in hand.

Game of Thrones: Season 2

 

Season 2 of Game of Thrones finished with the memorable Battle of Blackwater. Stannis Baratheon attacks King's Landing from the Blackwater Bay to claim the Iron Throne. Only it's a trap setup by Tyrion, where Stannis' boats are locked in the bay as explosions of wilfire engulf their boats. Tywin Lannister sweeps in at the last second to proclaim victory for the Lannisters. Meanwhile, Tyrion is severely injured. It's the first large battle of the series, and it changes the landscape of Westeros. With Renly Baratheon dead, many in Highgarden have pledged their allegiances to the Lannisters in King's Landing. Joffrey reneges on his betrothal to Sansa Stark, instead promising to marry Margaery Tyrell from Highgarden instead. Robb Stark also reneges on his marriage promise to a Frey girl, instead marrying a field nurse he met in battle. Additionally, Robb's mom Catelyn releases the Kingslayer without Robb's blessing. Both actions cause ripple effects throughout the houses that support the Starks and the north. 

The other memorable item from this season is Jon Snow's capture by the wildlings north of the wall. We're introduced to the wildling Ygritte, and get to hear her famous phrase "You know nothing, Jon Snow." for the first time. We also get a glimpse of the White Walkers. A few other supernatural things occur as well. Arya strikes a deal with a faceless man, while Daenerys visits the House of the Undying to get her dragons back. 

Ahsoka (TV Series)

 

Anakin Skywalker's Padawan Ahsoka Tano is one of my favorite Star Wars characters. Heavily featured in the animated Clone Wars and Rebels series, she played an important part in many Clone Wars era battles. She was framed for the bombing of the Jedi Temple in Coruscant and left the order. When the Clone Wars ended and the Empire rose to power, Ahsoka became a bit of a wanderer. She eventually teamed up with the Ghost Crew in Rebels, who took on Grand Admiral Thrawn. At the end of Rebels, Jedi Ezra Bridger is fighting Thrawn when they are both shipped off through Hyperspace to an unknown location in a different galaxy. Fast forward to the New Republic era, and Ahsoka has returned to her wandering ways. This is where the story picks up in the Ahsoka series.

Given the fact that there have been Star Wars shows in the Disney+ era that have been really good (The Mandalorian, Andor) and not so good (Boba Fett), I was really hoping this would be one of the better shows. For the most part it succeeds. Anyone who likes Rebels will like this show. It features all of the main characters from that show (minus Zeb) and their pursuit to find both Ezra and Grand Admiral Thrawn. They succeed in finding them, both living on a desolate planet in a different galaxy that was the home of the nightsisters prior to Dathomir. While they succeed in bringing Ezra home, they do not succeed in stopping Thrawn, who travels to Dathomir with his nighsister crew. Ahsoka and Sabine Wren remain stuck on the desolate planet, and Ahsoka seems oddly at peace with this. I found her behavior at the end very odd, because she failed her mission in defeating Thrawn, and he was supposed to be a massive threat to the galaxy. Other scenes where Captain Hera Syndulla is pleading with the New Republic government for resources to stop Thrawn and they act unconcerned also undermines the severity of the threat. 

On the flip side, Dave Filoni has always heavily featured the supernatural aspects of being a Jedi, and seeing the World Between Worlds in live action was absolutely awesome. Featuring the nightsisters was also awesome, as were the Sith lords. Overall I think the show was good, despite the awkward ending. It seems pretty obvious that it is setting up for a second season, so I hope to see more character development for Ahsoka, more Sabine (who was maybe the best character of the show), and more Thrawn with his nightsisters! 

Modern Headphones

 

For the longest time I had no use for a nice set of headphones. However, as my TV consumption increased it became increasingly apparent that a nice set of headphones would be useful. I had been using a pair of entry level gaming headphones that my brother bought me. They are fine for gaming for me, but they are wired which was cumbersome to deal with when watching on an iPad and made it impossible to use them for watching shows on the TV. Once I figured out that I could connect a pair of headphones to the Apple TV via Bluetooth, I began looking for a nice wireless pair of headphones.

I started looking at gaming headphones first. I was hoping to get a pair that would work for both gaming and TV & music. I probably could have found a pair that would have worked for me. However, most of the wireless gaming headphones used a dongle to connect to the console, and I was concerned that I would have connectivity issues when trying to connect just via Bluetooth (which possibly is untrue) so I ditched the gaming headphone idea and just looked at regular headphones. Besides, I don't use my gaming headphones often and when I do the Turtle Beach pair that I have works fine for me.

After doing some research, it seemed like the $300-$400 price range is where most of the top rated wireless headphones sat, which is a lot. I picked out 3-5 different models within this price range, and settled on this set of Sony headphones. I would have likely been fine with any of the models, honestly. I like Sony as a brand, however, and I thought this pair was one of the better looking sets. It also was one of the higher rated headphones as well. 

Since I have purchased them, I have used them to watch TV on both my iPad and Apple TV, as well as listen to music. This is the first pair of noise-cancelling headphones I have ever owned, and I must say the technology is pretty awesome. After connecting them to a device, you can literally hear the sound in the room switch off. If I want to hear what Sarah is saying, I just put a hand over the left ear cup. If I want to pause what is on TV, I simply take the headphones off my head. And not having to fumble with the connection wire is a major plus as well. The audio quality and connection controls are really awesome. This is by far the fanciest and most advanced pair of headphones I've ever owned.

A Song Of Ice And Fire: A Clash Of Kings

 

A Clash Of Kings starts right where A Game Of Thrones ends. Following the deaths of king Robert Baratheon and his buddy and hand of the king Ned Stark, Robert's "son" Joffrey rises to king of the Seven Kingdoms. However, Joffrey isn't actually Robert's son. His real father is actually his uncle, Jaime Lannister. This opens up the debate of who is the real heir to the throne. While Joffrey and King's Landing hold the title, Robert's brothers Stannis and Renly claim heir as well. Meanwhile, the Starks are still dealing with the aftermath of Ned's execution. Son Robb has formed his own army and has been declared the king of the north. Daughter Sansa is still being held at the Red Keep, subjected to Joffrey's abuse. Arya is on the run, though she was captured and working as a servant at Harrenhal. It's suffice to say that there is a lot going on in this book. While A Game Of Thrones primarily focused on the Lannisters and Starks at King's Landing, A Clash Of Kings zooms out quite a bit, focusing on the entirety of Westeros. The scope is massive.

While war battles and strategy are taking place, there is always this background threat of the supernatural. We got a taste of this in A Game Of Thrones, but the pace picks up in A Clash Of Kings. We're introduced to Melisandre, the Red Priestess and ally to Stannis Baratheon. Daenerys visits the House of the Undying, the Warlock headquarters in Qarth, in search of aid on her journey to claim the Iron Throne. Arya strikes a deal with Jaqen H'ghar, a Faceless Man of Braavos. All of this doesn't even include the activities north of The Wall with the Others. I find all of this very interesting, and honestly I don't remember how it all ends from watching the TV show a decade ago, so I'm very interested to see how it all plays out. 

I've already moved on to the third book in the series, A Storm Of Swords, and have started the second season of the TV series. With the scope of the story this large and dense, it is helpful to revisit the TV series after reading the books as I have a much deeper understanding of the plot now.

Horizon: Forbidden West

 

The Horizon games are a huge success story for me as far as Playstation Plus is concerned. I likely would have never played them otherwise. I knew they were well reviewed but probably wouldn't have plopped down $70 for them without previously playing them. Between Zero Dawn and Forbidden West, I liked the first game Zero Dawn the best. This is mostly because of the mystery of what surrounds you, with the slow reveal of what happened as the plot progressed being the proverbial dangling carrot. By the time the story of Forbidden West arrives, you pretty much know what is going on. The mystery was my favorite part of Zero Dawn. Regardless, Forbidden West is a great game. Heading out west provides its own intriguing moments, and seeing Las Vegas under water and San Francisco in ruins is very cool. 

I think the gameplay improved in Forbidden West as well. Anytime you can paraglide around a al Breath of the Wild, it is a good thing. I've also come to realize that I love using bow and arrows in video games, and there are plenty of opportunities to do that in this game. Of course the game looks amazing on the PS5, so I won't spend too much time discussing its graphics. I do want to spend some time discussing the sound, however. Playing this game in surround sound is fantastic. Despite being quite large, the machines tend to blend into the surroundings, making them somewhat hard to see at times until you are very close to them. Hearing them (before you can see them) charge at you from the side, with their mechanical gears grinding, is unsettling and really adds to the overall game experience. Once you finally defeat the machine, it creates a subwoofer thumping explosion. The entire audible experience is just awesome.

Horizon has become one of my favorite Playstation game series, right up there with God of War and Gran Turismo. Its a game where I could see myself playing side missions or buying DLC. The makers of the game say that they have big plans for the series in the future, so I'll look forward to Aloy's next adventure.