Zelda BotW: Earning My Wings
Now that I’m done with all the Shrines, it’s time to meet up with the Old Man once again and claim my prize – the paraglider. This item is essential to leaving the “tutorial” zone… which doesn’t really feel that much like a tutorial zone, actually.
Come to find out, this is a plateau with no way off except for the paraglider. This is a pretty clever way to block player progress with a fairly natural landform, rather than just building walls or putting NPCs there to stop you.
I also learned that the Spirit Orbs I’ve been collecting in each Shrine have a very important use. You can go to the statue of the goddess and pray, which allows you to trade 4 of them for either an additional heart container or a block of stamina.
I’m not fully sure which one is better at this point in the game, but because I read more experience players saying you will absolutely need hearts in the future, I went with that. Later, you can find a way to exchange hearts for stamina, but I’ll talk about that when I get there.
Anyhow, so I go to meet the Old Man and things get real.
Did you think I was going to spoil the guy’s identity? Nah. Go find out for yourself!
So, being full of secrets as he is, he not only told me who he was, who Link was, but helped to connect the plot-dots about what went down in Hyrule 100 years ago. Most importantly, though, he gave me the paraglider… finally.
Oh, and I got a new quest…
Okay, sure.
Instead of going on that suicide run, I decided to follow the Old Man’s suggestion to find Impa. Since each Shrine and Tower serves as a warp spot, I knew I could come back to this area any time I wanted.
Eager to explore the rest of the world (and man, is it HUGE), I took my first glide off of the plateau into what looked like the ruins of a great kingdom.
And the game let me know that indeed, it once was…
With the world wide open to me, let’s see what awaits Link!
