the rambling fanatic

I'm still enjoying my way through The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom! I know that some folks don't relish that its combat is mostly ranged, with mage Zelda instead of fighter Link, but I'm finding it entirely natural. They fixed the menu inconvenience with the Switch 2 upgrade; you can favorite/star echoes now, and there are more sorting pre-sets. And I've found several side scenarios that I was not at all spoiled on.

Mild spoilers for a 17-30-hour game that's been out for 9 months...

Having started with Gerudo Desert and explored it thoroughly while saving its people from the rifts and monsters, I then went to Jabul Waters and did the same. I'm afraid that I found the Zora region a little less interesting, challenging, and satisfying than the Gerudo region, which left me wondering whether I should have done them in the opposite order. The story, side quests, and follow-ups with the Zora just weren't as engaging for me, personally, as those with the Gerudo, which had more personality and pathos. For example, at this point in my gameplay, everyone in the Zora region, including in the Hylian village, is completely content as well as wrapped up, with the possible exception of the one Sea Zora who is secretly either crushing on or fangirling her chief, Kushara. Over in the Gerudo region, though, there's still one woman actively suffering from having been in a rift, and many characters expressing new hopes, dreams, fears, and projects after I fulfilled their side quests... and of course I'm still working on the Mango Rush mini-game (I know it rewards a new outfit with a stats effect). Do I smell different writers for each region? That's pretty customary, right?

After both of those, and as much side-exploration as I could manage to sweep up all the NPC situations and open up the map , of course I cleared Hyrule Castle and moved the story forward. I then did as much more free-exploring and side-questing as I could without triggering the next main story phases, and finally climbed Eldin Volcano, where I am now.

( Some loose fanfic inspirations from the game )

Tonight will be one week from when I got my Switch 2. I'm enjoying Echoes of Wisdom very much -- with all its exploration and puzzles, and side-character dialogue changing every time you accomplish something that affects them, so you need toI choose to run back and re-interview all of them to catch the tidbits. The folks who felt grumpy because it stars Zelda instead of Link because she's a conjurer instead of a fighter, well, they can go enjoy some combat-heavy game while I enjoy this one. I'm perfectly happy dodging and hiding and casting while my echoes fight for me; this is what mage and cleric characters naturally do, right? And it's why they team up with fighter characters when they can. (Folks who were grumpy because you play as a girl character were just sad and silly and making themselves miss out, of course.)

Last night, I pretty much finished the Gerudo Desert portion of the game*, including killing the two giant sandworms causing the sandstorms. All that remains in the desert, that I know of, is the mango mini-game, which I keep losing at the second level, and the not-yet-unlocked quest for the soldiers who are too busy practicing spear-work to talk to me (there has to be a quest there, I'm assuming). Oh, and to come back and (minor spoiler) talk to all the cats when I later unlock that ability.

That I've come this far in a week reminds me that I need to pace/ration myself. As nice as it is right now to go hide out in Hyrule, I must not let this take over all my hobby time! With the in-game map and quest log functions, you don't need paper game journals in the old way, but I'll nevertheless be starting one for time played (to keep it reasonable) and a minimum number of potential lore/fanfic observations/ideas generated per session before I will let myself play again.

Do you put time limits, or level limits, on your play-time...? What have you found works well?

* I chose to do Gerudo Desert first when the game branched into two paths. Others may take the other branch first.