Aside from my time watching movies, I dabble in board and video games.
Two weeks ago, the Nintendo Switch released Legend of Zelda: Tears of the Kingdom.
I played Breath of the Wild a few years ago, completing most of the quests. The Guardians in the game became my least favorite foes, with their one shot ability to knock out most of my health if I didn’t use a shield properly.
Combined with breaking weapons and constantly needing to cook meals, since I was not the most robust player in the game, it became a frustrating experience at times.
Jumping back into the Hyrule Kingdom with some of those same parameters was a little trepidatious.
I’ve died a lot in this game. Some of the deaths I’ve totally understood seconds after they’ve happened. Case in point – in the fire temple, there’s a puzzle where a track has a gap in it. I attached a couple of rockets to my cart, sat inside and then let the rockets fly.
Fun reminder about physics, especially in a video game – If your rockets are facing straight forward, that’s where your momentum is going to go when the track ends. It took me at least four different tries before I decided “let’s angle the rockets more at an upward trajectory to help get this cart to the next level.”
I finally succeeded. I of course, died a few minutes later as I stumbled on the solution to the next puzzle by standing too close to a lava pit as I was positioning a bridge and not paying close enough attention to my health pool.
I’ve fallen to my death a number of times, having run out of stamina after launching from a tower and pulling my paraglider a few seconds too early to cut my momentum.
I can’t count the number of times I’ve decided a bomb arrow in close quarters seemed like a great idea and watched as Link succumbs to secondary explosions…
And I also can’t count the number of times the device I constructed to get me from point a to point b has sped off before I can jump on.
The thing I’ve enjoyed and keeps me coming back, however, is how there is no one right way to solve the games puzzles. Sure, there’s the way developers may be hinting you do so. But there are times I look at that and go “I’m going to try this way instead” and be able to make it there.