BLOW EM' TO BITS - The Legend of Zelda: The Wind Waker HD - 7 

I like my sassy pirate friend.

"Niko won't let you in if you don't say it exactly right...and he's real PICKY about it..." yeah I'll bet he is

As a kid, this part of the game genuinely terrified me. I was convinced Ganondorf was actively doing things, and I was on a timer, and the stormy weather could mess up every island if I took too long. I blame Majora's Mask for actually being on a timer.

Important note about the giant squids: There is no order to the eyes. Each eye can take a certain number of hits, and it glows once it's been completely damaged. It doesn't indicate sequence, just that you're done hitting that eye

Link finally got his desired bomb, now he can make every island BOMBED ISLAND

Link: sees grandma slowly dying and emotionaly wounded Link: *splash* Grandma: (cries more) Link: OH God am sorry I'm an idiot I though you were dehydrated... I'm not good at this.... Grandma: Why do my children hate me 😭 Link: D:

Yes you have to get all the Koroks in one run Its a pain in the butt and not recomended till later (Though its not THAT bad espiecally with the swift sail in the HD version.). One thing to make it easier is now you have met one you can talk to the deku tree and he will mark all of them on your map for your convenience.

Here are some interesting changes about the Pictobox that were changed in the HD version: 1. In the GameCube version, you could only take up to 3 photos instead of 12. They increased the amount to make a lengthy side quest that uses it easier because in the original it took forever. 2. You couldn't take selfies in the original with it because selfies hadn't been a thing around the time of its release. 3. The method of upgrading your Pictobox to have colored photos was changed to just taking 3 pictures and showing them to that guy in the Pictobox house instead of the original; where you had to take a firefly from the Forest Haven to him in order to do it. Now in the HD version, all that does is just he gives you a collectable instead.

38:08 It’s not an “order” thing. You just hit each eye enough times. When an eye is blue, you’ve finished damaging it. When that happens, just move on to the next yellow eye.

Nico, now that you have bombs, I highly, HIGHLY recommend that you check Tingle's Chart again, and visit the two islands marked with fairy icons ASAP. One of which you might notice is actually Outset, which is your next story destination anyways, but while you're nearby you should make a quick detour to the island directly Northwest of Windfall first. Believe me, the sooner you visit both of these two places, the better, as in like, literally try to make these the first places you go next episode if you can help it. You won't regret it! And who knows, maybe these spots might even hold the answer to helping poor sick Grandma? ;)

Fun fact, your little shark buddies out at sea are named "Gyorg" after everyone's 'favorite' fish boss. :D

It really tickles me that Link is slowly and progressively tolerating boats

In case you were wondering, you need to see the scene first in order for the password to work. There’s three different ones I know about. The first was “who can’t walk the plank,” with the answer being “plankton”. The second was “who cleans pirate’s ears,” with the answer being “swabbie.” The third was “what do pirates love more than the sea,” with the answer being “treasure.” They really gave up with that last one, didn’t they?

Can I just say that the curse of the endless rain and night is one of the coolest and eeriest zelda moments ever? Didn't quite scare me but left me very unsettled as a kid

Regarding the maze to the Picto Box: The trick is to go into first person view! It's not immediately apparent but when crouched you can move around in first person, so you can see where you're going a bit better. Moving your camera would've made the boating course minigame a bit easier too!

You don't need the Pearl to get a song from a shrine. At least as far as I'm aware. You could have gotten the song that let you change the wind literally any time after getting the Wind Waker. You didn't need to complete the dungeon for it, you could have just went there and got it immediately.

Nico feels like in every Zelda game there should be " a long ago in a distant land" joke. There's always that one NPC character.

Yeah, I think now might be a good to mention that Wind Waker suffered some crunch time during its development. Not getting the 3rd pearl in a dungeon is one of those unfortunate causalities. Also, the devs did initially want to game to loop to the other side of the map but doing so would’ve created an unfortunate plot issue if they did. Can’t mention what it is since it would spoil the ending, so I’ll save it for until then. Also also, remember the guy that taught you how to sword fight on Outset Island? Try presenting him with a Knight’s crest. Trust me, it’ll be worth it.

The Blue Chu Chu was the reward for getting on top of the cliff with the Grappling Hook. There are only 23 Blue Chu Chus In the game and each only give a Blue Chu Jelly once. As you saw 15 are needed to give to the potion maker at Windfall Island to make Blue Potion. After you make it once you can then buy it there anytime with Rupees which is a lot easier than gathering 4 Boko Baba Seeds ever time you want to get one from Hollo in Forest Haven. There is a third way to get Blue Potion by feeding all purpose bait to rat holes, but its more luck based since they sell random items, and its also more expensive to buy from them anyway.

You can tell Nico is enjoying this game when he has arguments between his character voices.

Fun fact: the password for the pirate ship is actually randomized form a set of words every time you play a new game. The words you can get are Schooner, Barnicle, Chummily, Plankton, Swabbies, and Treasure. There's also a set of three questions that change too and two of the answers can go to these questions. But even if you know the questions and their answers, you still can't get in the ship until you go to the bomb shop and tell you what the answer is because it's a trigger.

Fun fact Nico! The reason the island is destroyed is because the dungeon tied to it was cut from the game.

Boat: Hey link whatcha looking Link: Just all the fish swimming freely in the being one with the great blue ocean Boat: Yeah it truly is wonderf… Wait. What’s that little girl doing? Flayn: Ooooooh

Yay, you finally got the PictoBox! There are several quests/features locked behind the PictoBox. If you want to know more, try going to the Picto Shop in Windfall. There’s also some interesting stuff you can do in Forest Haven with the PictoBox, but not yet.

Hey Nico, before you proceed with the story, you could take this opportunity to go back to the Pirate Ship and look at Tetra's room some more (cause during your first visit it was blocked off) Unless you did that already off-camera, of course It's nothing major, but something neat you only get a limited amount of time to do

unless you cut it from the video you missed your chance to explore Tetra's room. there's some interesting stuff in there if you look closely. like heavy lore related stuff

The Great Sea Is Cursed is a very cool and eerie track, turning the normally majestic Great Sea theme into a foreboding piece that, fun fact, incorporates bits of Ganondorf’s theme from OoT. Love it when recognizable motifs are put into songs to change up the mood.

Okay, that entire intro had me rolling for 10 minutes.

The interesting thing about Greatfish Isle, there is an audio that was unused of Jabun yelling out a painful scream, it was more likely meant to be used as you’re entering the tile that island resides on the map.

I think Grandma's theme (the one that you heard in Link's house) will always be one of the sweetest and heartwarming compositions that I ever heard. Idk it just engulfs me with warm feeling and I just want to make my own grandma's happy when I heard it 😭

Link: Ha, I found you Mr. Korok! Now you have to give me something. Korok: YA HA HA!! my friend is dying.

we need a "rolling facefirst into walls and doors" counter

In still appalled and amazed that Nico saw Bomb Island’s shape as a “sperm” before jumping to a bomb, considering those are staple items for the series.

Boat: “Alright, Link! It’s time to make our way to Outset Island!” Link: “Sure thing. But first, LET ME TAKE A SELFIE!!”

Here’s a fun fact:in speedruns the boss of the forbidden woods is actually defeated useing bombs by getting them early.

Fun fact: The Chu-chu's voices are actually the voices of two Japanize men arguing except it's sped up to 1000x. It's really funny that the chus could literally be cursing at Link as they attack him and nobody would notice

Nico, the fairy that fish was talking about that's on Outset Island's forest... recall that when you went to save Tetra from the top of the island, there was a boulder and a sign that said "Great Fairy's Fountain".

Best definition of Wind Waker: Tonal Whiplash looks bright, goofy, and cheerful; gets stupid fucking dark sometimes with your grandmother becoming so depressed, she cant even see you in front of her, OR AN ENTIRE GODDAMN ISLAND BEING OBLITERATED

Link: (open chest) oh look a Treasure chart Roxas: at least its not a Potion…

Oh god that Drakengard 3 reference in the opening monologue was amazing, amazing job Sai.

I gotta say the boat's personality makes me laugh so hard as well as the fish's. I just LOVE Nico's interpretation of characters. Never fails to be hilarious.

“I bet him and his chat freaked out” Quite the opposite; they didn’t really have much of a reaction :V

Nico, I really think you should get used to using the lock-on feature more often, battles are SO much easier with them. Especially when you're on the boat and want to hit an enemy, such as the sharks.

34:30 Oh my god I never knew you could actually travel between the cave mouths like that. That chest you can't interact with is basically the ONLY time you ever need to actually go up there in those kinds of caves so I always just nabbed it when I could then left.

That little cough gesture that Niko makes when Tetra calls him a simpl-minded rat gets me every time. This game has some great little touches.

Pirate: what's the password. Link: schooner. Pirate: Wrong! Link: what do you mean!? That was the exact password! Pirate: you didn't capitalize the S! Link: How can you even tell that when I'm saying it! Fine, Schooner! Pirate: Wrong again! Link: How!? Pirate: You added an exclamation point! Link: I'LL MAKE YOU EXCLAIM!!!

It's common knowledge that the B in NicoB stands for bomb

Just to let you know, the Nintendo Gallery was in the original GameCube version. Though it is REALLY hard to 100% complete and it's possible to make it so you can't complete it on a playthrough if you're not careful. The Pictograph could only hold up to 3 photos in the GameCube version as well. (And no, the person who stole it isn't Tingle.)

Ok i found the the Peahats from last episode creepy when I first played the game years back, but those Seahats were nightmare full to me back then.

It does make sense that the map doesn't loop around since this isn't the entire world of this Zelda. The handheld sequel Phantom Hourglass happens on a different part of the sea after all.

Anyone else find themselves watching a ridiculous ad that seems ripe for Nico to comment on, and then realize it’s an ad? There are times when I’m like “really Nico? Nothing to say to that? Oh…it’s an ad. Nevermind”

Ahhh... The opening gag... it's evolving...

Blue chu chus are actually a sidequest in this game! They’re rare, so if you find one, its worth it to get the jelly! Also, the big octos don’t have to be hit in order. The boomerang just does very little damage as a tradeoff to being a multi targeting auto-aim weapon against them.

Wow that artwork-of-a-recap-montage was on the level of the insanity that is Gintama's recaps; including the 4th wall breaking. 😆 (Man, so much of this gives a bit of a vibe of it tbh.)

Nico, a few points. You had the right idea for healing grandma, it just uses one specific bottle healing item. Also, the Great Fairy on Outset is not the one you saved in this episode. You might be able to get to her when you go back. You also should check out Nintendo Gallery. At Forest Haven, before you start gliding to the Forbidden Woods use a gull to find a switch. The Gallery is a nightmare for 100%, but it is worth checking out and do as much of it as you want (most of it isn't hard, just a bit tedious, made much faster in HD). Lastly, after the next 2 dungeons, the map is almost completely open. There's only a few things you won't be able to solve yet.

1:16:55 Nico: You see a little wood around the corner, then don’t go that way. Phrasing man.

Watching Nico playing this as someone who played this game like 5 times is painful

A little tip since you seem to be struggling with boat combat, it's much easier to use the boomerang on the boat by locking into an enemy an throwing it, instead of going into first person every time.

Nico there is no order to the big squid it’s just damage based the blue eyes shows it’s fully injured in that eye

Grandma being unwell always made me feel so sad while playing Wind Waker. Grandma... :

the getting the water to the Koroks is probably my least favorite questline in this game because...... its as you feared........ you have to give it to all the 8 trees within 30 minutes. I failed this quest so freaken many times as a kid.

There’s some interesting details and portraits in Tetra’s room that I hope Nico didn’t miss

oh ya? OH YA!? well fun fact: Some islands were cut before final release, but Nintendo has actually gone out of their way to confirm a few removals islands themselves. the island name was "Stovepipe" it has a fairly interesting design suggesting it would either be a dungeon or a town area. With hot springs and an emphasis on steam, Stovepipe even shares some superficial similarities with the Goron Mines from Twilight Princess.

My dude really was swinging on a rope trying to figure out how to stop when there's a button prompt that said "stop" on the ZR button on the screen. I have no idea how Nico is looking at the screen, that he missed that. Maybe I'm underestimating the amount of tunnel vision he gets when he's recording.

I response to that comment I checked a youtube clip of that moment and the people streaming did not realize that the water killed the boss. They thought maybe Link hit the boss with the sword afterwards and didn't even consider that the Forest Water was super effective. Infact you do have to know where all the Koroks are and do it in a single run. Fun fact, the Forest Water timer was only 20 minutes in the original game. Also no swift sail.

Now that you have the Picto Box I recommend you talk to Lenzo (the big guy in yellow in his shop) and do his side quest once the weather changes. You'll need the reward for a certain collectible related to a part of Forest Haven.

Bombs in this game are like the Morph Ball in Dread, you get them a lot later than you think you would

Nico, I know it’s a lot of Zelda back to back to try and do this, but now that you’ve played this game, I think it would be awesome if Twilight Princess was on your list in the near future. There’s such a stark contrast between the two, and the characters in Twilight Princess are developed so well (with one exception imo 😂). I would love to see how you experience it with Wind Waker somewhat fresh in your mind.

Shame you didn't got to test the cannonballs this episode, those are a lot of fun, make the boat a lot more fun when you can blow stuff to pieces.

So the picto box has gotten an upgrade from the original version to the remake. Originally it would only be able to hold three pictures. This makes things a lot easier as one of the biggest side quest in the game is to take a picture of every npc and enemy in the game (total of 134 pictures and some of them are missable) and show them to this one artist who needs inspiration. Luckily that side quest is just for bragging points as it doesn't give you any tangible rewards. If you are wondering what the forest firefly used to do in the original, collecting it was the final step to upgrading the picto box to the deluxe picto box, aka allows for color photos. You still have to the rest of the steps to upgrade it but you no longer have to collect the firefly.

There's some nice environmental storytelling you can check out by taking a closer look inside Tetra's room, if you want. As far as I can remember, this is the only chance you get for the rest of the game to go inside Tetra's room, but its not like there's anything *super* important in there, just overall neat.

Now that you've got the cannon, you can freely fight the giant squids. Lucky you, this time the enemies also drop bombs in those spheres that you can pop which, as you may have guessed, change rewards depending on the color they are the moment you break them. Meaning, yes, you can be a little more at ease when bombing everything.

so about the great octos. each eyes have a few hit points. the bombs one shot an eye while the boomerang takes a few hits. an eye changes color when it dies.

Just for future reference, L-Targeting will save you a lot of hassle in most minor combat instances. When using the boomerang, it lets you forgo sitting still and aiming, and does much the same when using the grappling hook

You can save Grandma! Release a fairy when stood next to her! There's a fairy fountain on Outset you can go to if you fly across where the bridge was and blow some stuff up!

First there's always that one character that says "long ago in a distant land" in every silver game. And Link , the Boat and the mailbox.

It might be worth trying to jump attack onto Beedle's ship if you still struggle to get on the main deck

Honestly all of these banter between Link and The King of Red Lion Boat should be it’s own comment of the day.

You can actually put whats cooking in the pot at Grandmas house in a bottle, its called grandmas soup, it heals you up and fills your magic up completely

As I recall, the original Picto-box could only hold 3 pictures, and there were a handful of sidequests that required you to take a picture. Be thankful you get to hold 12 at a time.

36:36 I HAVE NEVER HEARD THIS NOISE IN MY LIFE!! I HAVE PLAYED THIS GAME SINCE CHILDHOOD WTF

I wasn’t expecting a freaking Drakengard 3 reference with that intro. Good taste!

The rainy night was one of my favorite things about this game when I was little. I like thunderstorms so it felt incredibly cozy to me. Though, I guess it’s supposed to be an eerie vibe lol.

To be more precise, the Nintendo Gallery is Located on Forest Haven, upon opening you can access a figurine gallery that allows you to see figurines of a variety of Characters from this game, Ranging from The King of Red Lions, to (In New Game Plus) all the bosses in the game. There is a small catch though, you have to "collect" the figurines using an item you get later on. Hence why it takes New Game Plus to get figurines of all the bosses. As for what the Fish means, The Ghost Ship appears on multiple islands Depending on where the moon is during the night. Don't worry about the Ghost Ship for now, you can't do anything with it for a fair amount of the game still. Also, I highly recommend while sailing, when you see the Sharks. Instead of Manually targeting them, just lock on it makes it much quicker. Unlike previous Zelda games, Lock on Targetting is extremely useful. Especially with Swordplay, as using Sword play lets you parry which makes fights significantly easier in a lot of situations. When it comes to the Big Octo fights, there isn't an order to hitting the eyes, what needs to be done is to hit all of the eyes until they start to glow like you saw at the end. Essentially you use the boomerang to attack their weakpoints for massive damages Think Nico, what item in this game has the capability to heal any injuries? What could it be? Maybe Tingle knows? Maybe something that he always thinks about? Other then money I mean When it comes to the maze leading to The Pictobox, the strategy is to look at the ground. If you see a wood panel, its a trapdoor if its stone it is the proper path

You are correct, there was a picto box in Majora's Mask. It could only hold 1 picture at a time, in glorious 144p. Fun fact: in the original Wind Waker, the picto box only held up to _3_ pictures, so as you can imagine, the HD version is just a bit of an upgrade.

There is no order for the eyes of the sea squids. you just have to hit each eye multiple times.

King of Red Lions: "It's too dangerous to go any farther in this direction! We must turn back!" Yes. Turn back to the sharks and giant squids and demon birds and fucking GANON. Yep. Totally safer over there.

Hey Nico, if you want to heal up Link's grandma you should bring her a tiny fairy! Help Grandmama!

I predict Link is gonna get progressively more and more fed up with everything that by the end of the game he's gonna whip out an AK-47 and blow Ganon away before he can even say a word.

Fun fact: A lot of the music in this game is inspired by the soundtrack for Ocarina of time. For example: The Outset Island and Forest Haven themes have bits of the Kokiri Forest theme, The Windfall Island theme has bits of Kakariko Village, and even the music you pointed out is kind of wonky when the stormy night hit has some of Ganon's Castle in there if you listen closely. The more you know! (P.S. The reason the music only seems to play sometimes while out on the sea is because it seems to want to only play during the day.)

Link got bombs! Now if only Ganon knew how to set up a TSA he'd be invincible.

Now that you have the Picto Box try taking Pictures of the people you meet and unlock that Nintendo Gallery on the Forest Haven. In the Gamecube Version, you could only take 3 shots. The Tingle Bottles were once used to trade pictures and game notes, and there was an option to make it so you don't receive stuff with spoilers. Too bad those days are gone, now you've gotta do it yourself!

At 54:24 when you mentioned that you can't get up in the "cave" NicoB you can get up there just have to use different angles and some of them will have to be from long distance to short distances as Nintendo really wanted people to look around the islands/isles for your advantage and to use their swimming stamina to the limit, also at 1:14:55 when your going through small passage when you stop moving, the game will give you the option to zoom into the characters perspective and this saved some time when going through these pesky areas.

45:38 _You asked, so I’ll answer._ *A fairy in a bottle.* A fairy will help her. You’ll want to help her, and not just to make her feel better.

When you come back to Outset Isles, go back to the forest where you first met Tetra.

With that, the game opens more. Things you should do before you move on: Look at Tingle’s chart. Find a fairy to bottle. Good backup in case, never know when you need its mystical healing powers Check out bomb island again. Avoid giant cyclones for now And collect money

The Nintendo Gallery is called Club Minitendo in Spanish, which is a much better name for it because it's not actually for artwork. It's a sidequest in which you need to take coloured photos of characters across the entire world to turn them into figurines, some of which are permanently missable.

Now that you have bombs, you can get a bigger wallet on Outset Island. As well as getting a fairy to cure grandma

For the giant squids, the boomerang takes multiple hits to damage an eye. It is not about the order in which to hit the eyes. For those tunnels, you can see which is a dead end if you notice planks in front of you.

Now go to the camera shop & show the pictures box to the man in yellow there.