'Twas brillig, and the slithy toves did gyre and gimble in the wabe

Look - an arrow! Clearly much more important than the raging tentacle monster 😅

Anyway, I've just reached Lanayru in Skyword Sword (one day I'll complete the blog series, promise!) and took on the dragon's Lightning Round challenge because why not. It went surprisingly well:



I think that's the first time I've actually obtained that in Skyward Sword, and I reckon I've earned that after that boss rush. One boss in Skyward Sword is physically hard work, let along eight of the blighters in a row!

To be fair some of them are complete pushovers by the time my sword's been upgraded to the Master Sword, and with the reflexes and skill that comes from being 30-odd hours into the game. Others... aren't. The biggest difference is between Imprisoned take 1 and Imprisoned take 2 - the second incarnation is tougher, faster, and cheats by climbing up the side of the pit. So of course Lanayru left that one to the end, and of course that battle went right down to the wire. On reflection that was the only truly difficult battle out of the lot, as the Imprisoned battles were the only ones with a hard time limit and the first incarnation I swatted in a minute or so (the powered up Master Sword makes a lot of difference!).

And as proof that Zelda games continue to surprise me no matter how many hours I put into them, Koloktos (the giant corrupted six-armed chakram-throwing Buddha-like statue at the top of the Ancient Cistern) apparently can summon cursed bokoblins. I've never seen it do that before!

The amount of physical effort needed (motion controls are hard work!) reminds me of fighting those three Darknuts at the bottom of Twilight Princess' Cave of Ordeals. Actually, no, that's harder - Lanayru gives you a moment to collect yourself between each boss, and even within the battles it's sometimes possible to slow down the tempo for a moment, but those Darknuts don't let up for one moment.

Impa has a rather unusual finishing move in Hyrule Warriors Calamity...

It is said that you cannot leave the island unless you wake the Wind Fish...
Owl

Because I'm don't have enough different games I'm trying to blog about...

Many years ago elemnar tracked down a copy of Link's Awakening DX, and I started playing it, but for whatever reason never actually completed it. More recently it's been remade for the Switch and predictably I pre-ordered it (/me waves Zelda fanboy flag). And having completed Astral Chain (which I also meant to blog about), I've been trundling through Link's Awakening.

The art style for this edition is absolutely beautiful. The entire game world looks and feels like Link is wandering around a miniature diorama of Koholint Island, and it all works. In a way it reminds me a little of Super Mario World 2: Yoshi's Island - that was another game with a completely unexpected style and yet one that was so appropriate. Playing this was oddly nostalgic.


Anyway, with shield in hand it was time to go and find my sword. This is a slightly unusual starting set of items - I'm used to either starting with neither (in an environment where a sword and shield isn't needed), or getting both very early on in the game. But the shield is useful, especially as I can use to to push enemies out of the way!

You found your sword! It must be yours because it has your name engraved on it!

The Guardian Stalkers are not small enemies...


Cross-posted to deviantArt

Yes, it's another Amiibo! The Breath of the Wild series are very hard to find from first-party sellers, but the other day I was putting together an Amazon order and had a look on the off chance - and spotted this one available for a non-insane price (still a bit more than retail, but not the 100%+ markup that most sellers have).

*ring ring*
Production: Hi, we've got a parcel for you, could you come and collect it?
boggyb: Sure!



boggyb: That's a bigger box than I was expecting.
Colleague: What did you order, a microSD card or something?



Nope, just slowly growing my Amiibo collection as and when they become available at not-insane prices.

This is actually my second attempt at buying the Champions Amiibo pack. I had actually managed to find them in-stock at Nintendo's own store and placed an order, only for them to sit on my order for a fortnight and then cancel my order as they went out-of-stock again. Nintendo did credit me 10% of the value (on top of the refund) which was a nice touch, though I'd be more impressed if their stock tracker was actually up-to-date and they had a notification system.