Get on the Dragon Wagon

A place where there’s a dragon. That roosts.

This is Valoo. He is a dragon. That roosts.

Our next task is to get a certain jewel for some certain reason. From the dragon. That roosts.

The titular item! Acquired on an ancient island that the Rito people inhabit. Along with a dragon. That roosts.

Ah, Dragon Roost Island. After our little bout with irritating kids and possibly more irritating adults, we reach a place where there actually aren’t any humans to speak of. Instead, we have the Rito people, a winged species oft noted for their delivery services.

Before we can get up to talk to them though, and get that pearl, we have to clear some obstacles. And now, as much as they seemed so distant and far-off before, we now have access to…

BOMBS!!

…FOR FREE.

Mr. Bomb-man thinks he’s got so much skill… when the stuff he makes grows just the same AS FRUIT a few minutes away.

-_-

Or maybe he just takes them from here…

-___________-

But of course, “the labeling, the warnings, the packaging does not work,” and they’ll ban these too before long.

Crud to the CPSC – I’m carving out my own path. To the top of the mountain!

This, also, is what I say to the banning of fireworks.

We get closer to the top, and come across a familiar face:

Mr. McAwesomeDude!

(Dearest apologies if that’s not actually your name…
If that is actually your name… awesome, dude!
Hahaha! Haha, ha; ha – haaa… Yeeeeah. Good times.)

Unfortunately, from here on out, things don’t quite sound good.
It all does at first, until you look closer at everything he’s saying…

He starts talking about my sister’s predicament, and:

WHAT?! HANG?! How could you say that!

WHAT? What’s wrong with me? Why are you concerned?

Wha- what kind of aid?! There’s nothing wrong with me! I don’t need your “help”!

What, to WARN them?!

So all your cohorts can KILL ME?!?

Well that’s just great.

Turns out the dragon I need to get that pearl from is in (literally) a fiery rage, and as of right now, it’s impossible to reason with him at all.

1. Oh, so it’s not Mr. McAwseomeDude…
2. *gulp*

I DO NOT HAVE A “TROUBLING TALE!” I DO NOT HAVE ISSUES!!!

I DON’T NEED YOUR HELP!!!!!

GAAAAAHHHHHHH!!!!!!

(Sure they’re probably talking about my sister and being stuck at the Party-of-Terrifying, but… agh! I do not have issues!)

However, we finally get off that topic and on to the big problem – the raging dragon.

As this Rito explains, the dragon usually entrusts new adult Ritos with a scale that allows them to grow their wings and fly.

The obvious problem, then, is that the Rito who now turn of age won’t be able to grow wings and fly. A big problem, since the Rito people rely on and make a living out of their flying abilities.

That, and my real problem – I need to get Din’s Pearl from him.

Wait as long as you like! Like in, forever.

And here, we have our first mention of Prince Komali. We’ll be seeing more of him in a bit.

Okay, so maaaaybe he wasn’t saying I have issues. But people with “issues” can be gallant, too. Hmm… I’m watching you, Mr. McAwesomeDude’sSuperior…

BUTADADADADADADAT HE SAID IT!

HE SAID IT!!!!!

(Okay, so it’s a bit different. But still.)

Opening your heart: works every time.

(Then again, maybe I shouldn’t say that…)

He then directs me to a girl named Medii, who has something that he wants to deliver to his son. To deliver it gives me…

The Delivery Bag!

Ugh.

This is Medii. She’s studying to be an attendant to Valoo, but, you know, that’s kinda hard when he’s throwing a 24/7 tantrum.

Anyway, she gives us the Father’s Letter, and tells us where Prince Komali’s room is.

Oh no. Not Ocarina of Time again. No, no-

Okay. Still suspicious…

Stiiiiil suspiiiiciouuus…

Urgh. We’ll have to see what happens with this later.

First, we have to go talk to Prince Komali. And like several of the Rito have already warned me…

He’s not exactly in the nicest of moods.

You see, Komali’s having some confidence issues. His grandmother passed away, who he was really close to, and with the whole “I am Valoo and I am ANGRY!!” thing going on, he’s kind of lost the will to go get his wings. Or do a whole lot of other stuff. Besides being angry in his room, and holding this redish-orange orb thing.

I hand the letter to him.

“It doesn’t affect Prince Komali…”

What, how? Didn’t he write it before I got here?!
I call plotline issues!

Uh, I’m kinda mute in this game, dude. Sorry.

…The “anything” phrase… I remember that one…
Well, you might regret it later, but okay.

You know, come to think of it… That kinda looks like…

OH DUDE!

That explains some things.

Komali doesn’t think that anybody else can calm down Valoo, and that basically, all the attempts everyone’s making to do so are consequently hopeless. So instead, he holds this pearl that I NEED like a drug and stays in his room. Ugh.

Hey, I got off Turkish Delight – now you can get off that!

I leave him for now, and talk to another man standing in front of a pathway.

Well, I just need to get to the entrance for now. But okay…

Ha! This one again! “Bridge out,” huh? You mean like one plank again? Is it just something dumb that I can just across really, really easily again? Come on. If it’s really that way…

Oh.

Yeah… for reals this time.

I can’t help but think this sounds kinda desperate…

…

…That’s not what I meant.

She explains how the lake dried up – in the midst of throwing the fit of the century, Valoo sent a rock flying down into the spring here, drying up the lake.

However, she next explains that she wants to go to a shrine near the top of the mountain to try and calm him down, but the ledge is too high up for her to reach. So she asks for help. I didn’t really have any idea what her idea of getting up would be, but I said yes.

Wait, what?

I’m reminded of a brutal memory from the last time I tried to throw something up onto a ledge…

That pig. The one I had no idea what to do with, so I tired throwing it up to the guy… and it went nowhere. That, and he mocked me afterwards for having no idea what to do with the pig. And maybe being bad at throwing in the process.

But regardless, I take a shot at it…

THAWCK.

DANG YOU; get OUT OF MY HEAD!!

And unfortunately, this happened several more times:

(Hehe. Last one’s pretty funny.)

Finally, I step back on some raised ground behind me and throw her from there.

It worked!

Yeah, that’s what they all say.  And then “I need you to calm down” gets lost in translation and turns into “We is gummy bears in the rising sun.”

Or something like that.

Somehow I doubt that the imagery of gummy bears in a bright, rising sun, no matter how ridiculously sugar-coated and sweet it may seem, is likely to help Valoo get in a better mood.

Anyway, she continues on, and tells me not to tell anyone else about what she’s up to. Off to save the town, she travels on.

Things seem hopeful for a little while.

Let us emphasize the word “LITTLE.”

So now, realizing the mess you’ve started… you run in to save her.

With a bottle that Medii threw to me before she left, I bottle up water on put it on one of the dead bomb plants.

It’s alive!!

From there, it was just a matter of throwing the bomb on the big rock (while not having bounce off the top and go over…), and blowing it up.

That’s more like it!

And now we get to this puzzle:

This… is probably the most times in a row I’ve died trying to do one thing in the game so far. Partly because, well, from their weird pointy bottoms, I thought those the statues were holding were like nails or something… and not pots.

Yeah… that would help…

After figuring that out, you enter the first dungeon of the game:

A cavern for a dragon…

You know, a certain type of dragon. Like, a special kind… like… one that roosts.

…

Now, to be honest, the cavern’s kinda cool and all, but… there’s not really a whole lot to mention in here other than just explaining what goes on from room to room.

And this is the moment where my blog gets to get up off it’s feet, clear it’s throat a bit, look you in the eyes, and yell nice and loud, “Do I LOOK like a walkthrough to you?!”

You may say yes. You may also get blog-slapped.
What is that? I dunno. I guess it’s just a mental-slap. But still. Painful.

Let’s keep this short and sweet, shall we?

I like these swords. Slow, but daaaang powerful.

Added bonus: they make me feel like Cloud Strife.

This is not good.

Link: A brand new member of the Beastie Boys. “Yo, whatcha WANT?”

So. Many. RETRIES.
AAAAGH!

Wasn’t quite expecting the screen to go crazy like this when I jumped in one of these.

With an added “power down” like sound effect, to boot…
To be honest, my first react was to expect something more like this instead popping up on screen instead of hoping out on the other side of the cavern…

And don’t you think Bill Gates hasn’t ever got one of these… on national television…

And now, we get really close to the summit. We can in fact see Valoo in all his “I CAN HAZ ANGRYS!!!” glory:

And as rumored before, they did indeed capture Medii.

Initiate mini-boss!

But finally, we clear them all out and rescue our friend!

“Uh, HELLO?! Crazed fire-spewing dragon up here! You gonna come RESCUE me?!”
”Eh, sorry. Goin’ hunchback mode here for a bit.”

And then Hunchback Mode crashes.

That’s what you get for being a Mac.

(Joking, yes. :) But I honestly don’t really like Macs… or, actually, Apple in general…)

We reboot, then save the girl, and get:

A Skull Necklace! Which apparently are only good for selling to a certain person, but you get quite a bit for them.

“You had to reboot before you could save me?”
”Well that sure puts a new twist on the old story, right?”
(pauses)
(*slap*)

Good times.
We also get:

The I’m-a-poor-man’s-Hookshot!
Er, I mean, the Grappling Hook.

…
<_<

Having to watch that dumb throwing-and-wrapping-around-the-branch animation over and over again gets pretty old, pretty quick…

And you can’t maneuver nearly as well with this thing as the Hookshot from Ocarina!
-_-

Hmm. Maybe there’ll be an upgrade later, like with what happened when going from young to older Link.

Finally, Medii explains that there’s something bothering Valoo’s tail, and there’s likely some creature aggravating it.

Now, from this point on, it’s probably worth mentioning (and will help explain some things) that I actually had to do this part twice, as I shut down my screen capture software before I had saved the pictures (I had some outside interference…), and it’s kinda crummy in that it doesn’t ask you whether you want to save all the pictures it took before closing out. …Seriously.

I in fact had to start a new save file and just do a quick playthrough back up to this point because I’d already saved after completing the level, so that’s why some things look a bit different from earlier (really just Rupee count and item organization) in all but one of the pictures to follow.

Anyway, after this, we partake in some more dungeon diving. Some of it in particular gets a bit confusing:

Now, I dunno about you, but I do not ever remember being told how to turn while hanging from something with the grappling hook. I just assumed it’d be like the hookshot was, and that you’d be able to push the control stick left or right and actually rotate that way. When that didn’t work, I just assumed it wasn’t a feature of the item.

I really, really, really don’t like looking at a walkthrough for these, but… I was plan out stuck. You can’t grapple over to the right side without turning somehow!

And when I looked it up…

…is when I found out that when you hold R to stop, and are completely still, you can then turn while continuing to hold R.

You’ve got to be kidding me.

…

Poor-man’s-hookshot, for sure.

Here’s another thing that was confusing to figure out:

The next room. -_-

Here, the fire will only turn off around the chest if something’s standing on that button. The near-instant you get off, the fire turns back on.

So I went around grapple-hook-poking a lot of fire-crawler creatures in the eye like pictured above for a little while. Of course, this soon got old, and again not having an idea on what to do, I again, unfortunately, take a peek online…

And…

YOU CAN PICK UP AND SET DOWN THE DANG THINGS WHEN YOU STUN THEM.

…

Anyway, with opening this chest, we finally get:

The Big Key! Which will let us fight the boss for the area.

So I travel on over to the boss room.

And I open the door.

Well, it sure LOOKS like a boss room.

You walk a bit ahead, and the camera automatically pans up a bit, revealing a bit of Valoo’s tail.

And now for the real deal.

You know what, to this deal, I think I’ll say “no deal.”
…Can I pick another briefcase now, Howie Mandel?

The first time I played through this… wasn’t pretty. Again, I had no idea what in the world to do!

This seems to be happening a lot in this level… hopefully not a sign to come…

He got stunned every once in awhile, but nothing seemed to hurt him. Swords, grappling hook – nothing. In the hands or the eye. Because he’d just, you know, close his eye.

Well-played, boss; well-played.

That’s nice.

However, after looking around a bit… I finally figure out what you’re supposed to do…

Grapple onto Valoo’s tail.

…

Bu-bu-bu-but it’s not WOOD!! AAAAGGHH.

Grapple, swing, and let go. The rock that he’s got his tail stuck in falls on the boss’s head each time, lowering his defenses just a bit more.

Three times will send him into “action “ mode – no more puzzles, just straight up mauling his eye like crazy when you get the chance.

Which is just what I was waiting for.

After finally bringing him down (and burning him, to boot!) the magma beneath him cools and hardens, in typical Zelda fashion, we get:

A heart container!

It’s like getting money for your birthday – you just can’t really go wrong with more health.
Of course, enemies often get tougher as you go along and get more health, but… still. Good stuff.

With his tail no longer stuck, Valoo is free. And in a much better mood!

And in the aftermath, Prince Komali apologizes, basically says he thinks I’m awesome, and finally give me:

Din’s Pearl!
Makes me wonder whether it has any relation to the magical moves themselves…

And after a thank you in some language I don’t understand (Dragondings?), and learning my first song, we’re set to sail off to our next destination!

End of Post #4

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This, my friends, is the greatest sign in the world. It symbolizes the optimistic prospects of a small-resident island, dreaming of using their wings to see rare sights, and help make the world a better place.

It stands for improvement, motivation, and achievement. Reaching higher. Going up. It stands for- *looks up*

*sees dark clouds at top*
Oh.
…
…
…

(erases and scribbles a bunch of stuff)
*ahem*

This sign, my friends… is modern economics.