I watch someone play OoT for the first time

So, I was just watching someone play OoT for the first time
Topic Started 4/1/2009

It was good stuff. After defeating Gohma, he ran toward the blue light. I started telling him not to go into it yet, but he merely responded with, "Why?" and went into the light anyway. And he didn't even go back for the heart container after I told him about it because it was "too much trouble". Knowing him, he'll need it later; I'm surprised he was even able to defeat Gohma on his first try, and it only took him three stuns, 8 deku nuts, and 12 deku seeds. In fact, he beat Gohma in almost as much time as it took him to find her.

Heh, I should be recording this. After watching the cutscene, when the Deku Tree begins to die, he said, "So Link played a song that cursed the tree?" Then when the Emerald descended, he said, "What in the world is that thing?"

Then he proceeded to "train his sword skills" by continually attacking a fence and then chopping up every sign in town.

The best part so far: he actually reads everything Kaebora Gaebora (or however the owl's name is spelled) says and listens to Navi at every opportunity.

I should start making write-ups to chronicle his adventure. There's no end to the hilarity, as I have neglected to mention how insansely bad at combat he is.

''AUGH. I'm always just hitting A and then Kaepora says the bit about do you want to hear again, and I see it but can't stop my thumb obsessively hitting the A button.''

Yeah, he encountered that problem too. Other than the fact that he was reading everything carefully. About the third time reading the speech, he asked me why the owl was still telling him the same kinds of things. Then I explained to him that it's because he kept asking it to.

I don't believe I've ever seen anyone miss the heart container after a boss...

My thought exactly. I don't believe he even knew it was there.

Is he 6 years old or something

You would think so, wouldn't you?

Has he run into any zombies yet?

No Re-deads, but he has run into a few of the skeletons that appear in Hyrule Field at night. After one almost killed him, he decided that the best strategy was just to run past them. He was lucky that it turned to dawn shortly after he reached the drawbridge, so the crowd nearby just sunk back into the ground.

Yes, I had intended to [track his failed attempts at sneaking into the castle]. He has stopped playing long since I posted this topic, but I'll be sure to let you guys know the results when he picks things up. I already told him I refuse to help him sneak in.

Right now, the counter is at one. He failed at his first and only miserable attempt to sneak in. Actually, I'm surprised he found the vines you must climb as fast as he did. Then he played around with the Gossip Stone for a while and asked me what it did. Finally, I convinced him that he couldn't really do anything with it until later. So, he proceeded to jump down from the overhang and run over to the stone blocking the entrance to the Great Fairy. He lasted about 5 more seconds before he literally ran into a guard that was facing the other way and in plain site. <_<

Fail Counter: 1

More good stuff. Fail Count is now up to 11, and he just reached Talon. I'll see if I can remember each failed attempt and detail them (along with other funny occurrences) in a subsequent post. I wasn't taking notes or anything, so sorry if I can't recall one.

Fail Counter: 11

Attempt 2: Rather than jump down from the overhang and run straight into a guard, he decides to walk across the overhang and run straight into a guard.

Attempt 3: Night falls. Suddenly, he's under the impression that the guards go to sleep at night. He takes the main path and is naturally caught immediately.

Attempt 4: Instead of going up the main path or across the overhang, he jumps down and walks up the side of the shallow cliff, as you are supposed to do. Then he walks right in the line of sight of a guard, halfway to the castle.

Attempt 5: I thought for sure he was going to blow all of our socks off on this one. He actually managed to make it all the way to the steps of the castle before he ran, once again, right through the line of sight of a guard standing perpendicular to the path to the stairs. <_<

Attempt 6: Well, he made it back to the steps leading up to the castle. Then he went up the steps, seeming to think that the two guards on either side wouldn't stop him.

Oh, shoot, he's starting up again. Well, at least he starts out back at his house. That'll give me a little bit of time to post the main points of his failure to sneak in. Btw, he went back for the Heart Container from Gohma, so he's up to 4 now. And, as is his strange custom, he must cut down all of the signs in town. That should buy me some more time.

Alright, I'll just some up his other failed attempts here. There were a few where he got careless and was caught at a part that he had already gotten past.

He finally made it back to the stairs and realized that you need to climb up one of the walls and drop down into the courtyard. However, he just ran right behind the two guards at the top of the stairs--he didn't think they would notice him because he was running up behind them.

Next try, he got back there and realized that you had to jump into the moat. After doing so, he swam downstream, couldn't figure out where to get, then swam back to where he jumped in and was promptly spotted by the guards.

Finally, on his 12th attempt, he made it successfully to Talon and woke him up with the chicken.

And I'm just in time. He just now made it back to the Market. He pays the gatekeeper 10 rupees to open the gate, and he assumed that this meant that the guards would not stop him. He was, as he just discovered, sadly mistaken.

And he's finally made it back successfully to the spot where Talon once was. He just has no idea what to do from there, although he does ask what the crates of milk are there for. He thinks you need to play the Ocarina to procede. He pulls it out and begins to play... only to discover he doesn't know any songs yet. <_<

Stay tuned for further developments.

Fail Counter: 12

Well, very shortly after my last write-up, he realized that you must stack the crates on top of each other and then jump across them onto the ledge. After missing the ledge a few times, he finally lands on it and crawls through into the courtyard. The Fail Count is now at 12 as he enters the main courtyard.

He easily avoids the first guard walking around a large hedge. In the second segment, he waits it out and times it perfectly so that he runs out into the open just as the guard starts walking toward him.

It turns to night just as he enters again, and he fails to realize that you can't get through at night. He tries to run past the two guards that appear at the entrance to the courtyard, but he can't make it past. He's angry that those two just randomly appeared there, but he gives it another go... and still can't make it past them. A third try is also unsuccessful. He finally wises up and realizes that those guards are only there at night, so he runs around in circles to pass the time.

On his 17th try, he easily maneuvers past the first two screens and on to the 3rd, which consists of one guard walking around many rupees, with a structure running over the top of him. Surprisingly, he realizes that you don't have to go anywhere near the guard, and he climbs the stairs to the top of the structure. However, he fails to realize that the structure is only a wooden frame, with nothing solid in the middle. He drops through the frame and right into the lap of the guard.

On his next attempt, he actually makes it to and past the third screen. He is tempted to go back for all of the rupees, but he decided that they aren't worth the risk. Once again, he times things perfectly and runs out just as one of the guards rounds the corner of the statue.

This time, he goes all the way. Shockingly, he passes the last three sections all in one try. Not that they're particularly difficult, but let's not forget who we're talking about here.

So, he makes it to Zelda (and I just can't resist showing him the Mario series cameos or the angry bomb-throwing man, which he got a kick out of) and adjourns for now. Note that the failure count includes both the trek to the castle and sneaking through the main courtyard. Normally it would be a disgraceful number, but, once again considering who we're talking about here, I'm actually not sure what to think of the number of attempts it took. It's definitely way higher than it should be for anyone else, but it's right about what I had expected for him.

Final Failure Count: 18

Well, not much else to report. It's almost impossible to be any worse at talking to Zelda than anyone else is. And now he finally has a song to play for all of those random moments that he thinks he needs to play the Ocarina in order to pass, so he begins playing random notes. Upon seeing Impa, he did say, "Is that Sheik?", which is about the funniest thing that happened--like I said, not real eventful.

Looks like he's called it quits for the night. This topic has gained more views and tags than I had expected, and it appears as though it may even last more than two or three days (assuming he lasts that long before things become too difficult and he gives up). Write-ups shall continue to flow forth at every available opportunity (I'll try to get him to play only while I'm around to watch).

I think I'll end the first night of this topic with his own final words: "Next up, fire place."

''I am dead ****ing serious. Make videos of this NOW.''

''Then add hilarious commentary. EPIC.''

If only I could. He's not going to take lightly to starring in a playthrough video in which he is the butt of every joke. And it won't be easy to hide a camera, given the lay-out of the room. I guess I could always try to hid a mic or something, which also wouldn't be too easy given the room, but then he could sue me for placing his likeness on the Internet without his consent.

Someone mentioned the water temple a few posts back, which reminded me of something hilarious: he claims that he already beat the water temple on someone else's game. If that isn't funny enough, he's under the impression that he did so in half an hour. Yeah, I started cracking up, too.

Well, it looks like he'll be starting to play again soon, so I'll keep you all posted. Conveniently, we was unable to play without my... guidance due to factors outside his own control, so he'll be right where we left off. I can't guarantee we'll be so lucky in the future, though, but I'll do what I can.

Well, he didn't get much done today. Certainly no "fire place" yet. I think it's worth noting that he faced more of the skull dogs on the way back to Kakariko, and he didn't do nearly as badly this time. He only lost one heart total, and he actually killed a good number of them.

He seems to have become paranoid of guards. As he enters Kakariko Village, he sees the old man crouching in front of the tree and asks, "Is that a guard? Is he going to get me?" After I assured him that the man did nothing, he proceeded.

He ran around the village looking for a way forward before stumbling upon the graveyard. He spent a few minutes trying to kill Dampe with his sword, and then began trying to talk to him. He soon gave up and then ran around the graveyard. He stopped in front of the tomb of the royal family but did nothing after reading the inscription. He did, however, also read the tombstone of the Composer Bro. The ghost of the Composer Bro. gave him his hardest challenge yet; he suffered 3 hearts of damage, but he only managed to hit the ghost once. He doesn't seem to want to use his shield to defend for some reason and has wasted all of his Deku seeds (for the slingshot). He retreats from the graveyard in defeat.

Next, he spent ten or so minutes exploring the village in attempt to discover where to go next. Finally, he pulled out the Ocarina--I was wondering how long that would take. He still does not play an actual song, though, even though he finally has one. <_<

He finally finds the pass to Death Mountain, but alas, a guard bars his path! "How do I get past him? He's going to throw me out of the town!" I (in retrospect, foolishly) eased his paranoia and assured him that the guard would not bounce him. He talked to the guard and gathered that the sign said he couldn't pass. His solution: chop up the sign. Seems logical enough, right? However, as he soon discovered, it was not so easy.

So, he spent more time aimlessly wandering the village in search of a way to get past the guard. I don't think he even remembers that he has the letter from Zelda, and I certainly don't see him putting two and two together any time in the near future.

He decided to call it quits right after that. More to come tomorrow. Hopefully I can get him to wait for me before he proceeds.

While it did seem logical, chopping up the sign was not the answer. He's finally convinced of that. Of course, he is now unsure that that gate even leads to the mountain. He spent more time aimlessly wandering the town in order to ascertain the way to Death Mountain. He tried collecting the cuccoos (which he insists are called "cluckins") for the one lady, but he could only find two of them before giving up soon after.

Yeah, he's completely forgotten about the letter. He still has no idea what to do to get past the gate, and he isn't even completely sure that that is the correct way forward. It's tough to bite my tongue and sit on my hands, but I'm going to allow him to find the way forward on his own, assuming it takes a reasonable amount of time. It will be interesting to see just how long it takes him. It looks like he should be unable to play for the rest of the night, though.

Well, not much was accomplished yesterday either, in terms of plot advancement. He ran around for a while longer whilst trying to discover how to get past the gate to Death Mountain.

After about 10 minutes or so, he asked me how to do it and even threatened me. I gave him a subtle hint that was just enough to help him get by. "Zelda told you what to do." At first, he just said many things akin to "What the heck does that mean?" and "No she didn't," before he finally thought to employ his old strategy for when all else fails: play the Ocarina! He went up to the guard and played Zelda's Lullaby (which was not such a bad idea), but it was no more successful than chopping up the sign. I repeated that Zelda told him what to do. In frustration, he said, "Then I'll just look at her letter!" Guess he hadn't completely forgotten about that after all. He spent about 5 minutes trying to figure out how to read it before accidentally equipping it. His face instantly lit up, and realized that you must show the letter to the guard.

After the guard opened the way for him, he noticed that the guard said something about buying a proper shield at the Market. He has no idea what the Market is and claims he's never been there. I try to subtly hint at it, but he adamantly insists that he's never been to the place. Instead, he searches every building in Kakariko Village for a place to buy the shield. I was tempted to just tell him about the one in the Graveyard, but this is his playthrough after all. He soon gave up on finding the Market in order to buy the shield.

So, deciding it was no longer necessary to acquire the "proper shield," he does what any first-time gamer would do: go back for the cuccos he missed earlier. Ok, maybe not. <_< He spent about 15 more minutes trying to collect them (which he still insists are called"cluckins", despite the fact that the word is spelled out for him) before gathering all but two of them. Only one thing was really of note there, other than the fact that he failed to return them all once again. Midway through his hunt, he started slicing up one of the cuccos. Yeah, you know where this is going. I smugly said, "I wouldn't do that if I were you," to which he responded with, "Why?" Then he sliced a few more times anyway, sparking the rage of the chickens. His strategy for defense: stand there with his shield up. He was swarmed from all sides and unable to defend himself adequately. After falling to one-half of a heart remaining, he finally decided to run for his life out of the village. He ran valiantly, but he was no match for the swarming poultry. You knew it would happen eventually--his first cucco-induced game over.

After returning to the village, he spent some time in the Graveyard. He fought the Composer Bros. again, and I was surprised at how perceptive he was in realizing that you couldn't lock on to them. Like I said, he's not stupid or anything, he's just bad at Zelda. He only took one heart of damage on both of the brothers. He then spent a few more minutes trying to read all of the headstones. He also discovered that you could pull the stones around, but the kid keeps saying that he'll tell Dampe. He said, "I have to get rid of that kid," and proceeded to use all sorts of methods of removal, such as chopping him up, pulling on a headstone for three minutes straight, throwing deku nuts, and playing the Ocarina next to him, all of which worked to no avail. He then left.

He spent a few more minutes getting one more of the cuccos before calling it a day. He's gotten almost nothing accomplished in the last day or two, but it looks like he may be getting somewhere today. It seems that I missed him playing earlier, but he has made progress since then, and I'll try to sketch in the details after I watch him play again.

Alright, looks like he's starting to play again. I must have missed a fairly good amount earlier, as he now has the Hylian Shield and is in Goron City. He didn't get much done yet, other than just starting to explore the city. After a little bit, he discovered that you must play Zelda's Lullaby to get to Darunia. He picked up on the hint right away about Darunia wanting to hear something green and natural (he draws the link to the Kokiri). He then triggered the bombs to open the Goron Shop and lit the torches to cause the giant Goron pot to rotate. He then saved and quit, knowing that he would restart at his house.

At present, he goes into the Lost Woods. Apparently, he has been there before while I was not watching him play. Stupid owl. Kaepora Gaebora shows up and tells him to listen for and follow the music. I was looking forward to him getting Lost in the Woods, but I had forgotten that Mr. Owl gave such a huge hint. After like two wrong turns, he makes it to Saria with ease. Somehow, he messes up playing Saria's Song as she teaches it to him? How the heck do you do that when the notes appear dimly on the screen as you play?

Well, he gets out of the woods and then plays the song. Saria says that you can hear her song anywhere that is connected to the woods. That reminds me that he never opened the Kokiri-Goron path in Goron City that is covered by boulders. Oh well. He heads back to Death Mountain and to Darunia. He "knows his melody" now and begins to play his newly-acquired song. He only messes up twice before he gets the big guy dancin' his heart out.

So, now that he has the Goron Bracelet, he goes into the Goron Shop, thinking he can buy bombs. After being told that the Goron doesn't actually sell bombs (the ones you see are display-only), he calls the Goron a "cheap-o" and something that sounded like "stoo-uh-er", then leaves. He spends some time blowing himself up with bombs before deciding to throw one into the giant rotating pot. On his 12th try, he finally hits his mark. Out falls some rupees and a Piece of Heart. That's his first one!

He spends more time exploring Goron City. Hey, he did discover the trail to the Lost Woods after all. He sees a boulder and tries to bring a bomb with him into the woods, but it does not work. Now he's reached a wing of the city with two blue "time" blocks suspended in lava. After I tell him that you can't do anything in there yet, he leaves. Then he stumbles upon a series of bombable walls leading down a pathway. After breaking through the first three, he said, "That's the last one I'm breaking." Surprise! A fourth wall. After going back for a bomb flower, he destroys the wall and sees a giant Goron. He says to come back in five or six years. Foreshadowing.

He continues to run around and explore Goron City before finally reaching the conclusion that there's nothing left that he can do right now. He decides to quit for now (and what appears to be the day), saying that he'll begin the Dodongo Cavern next time, as soon as he finds it.

Well, I don't know his age for sure, but he's in grade school, about ten years old I'll say. No, he's not a four-year old who can't pronounce "store" (I just did my best to put his unintelligible angry grunt into writing), and he's not an uncoordinated freshman or anything--he's just about in the middle there. And he's not really that stupid either; he's just not great at this game.

He has made some amateur mistakes, some of which are completely understandable, but for vets who have played the game several times through, it can be funny to laugh at his inefficiency and thought processes (especially his).

Thanks for the positive feedback and interest so far, guys. And it does sound as though he is done for the night at this point.

Oh, shoot, he has different time off than I do. He has all of this week off from school, but I'll only have half of this week. Then I get all of the following week, while he only gets Monday. Hopefully he doesn't make much if any progress in his two and a half days of free reign. I guess that's one downside to him being younger than I, but I'll see what I can do.

It appears that he did manage to find and open the Dodongo Cavern, however. Then he said he had "waited to show me" the dungeon itself. Well, he didn't play at all after I showed up. Let's hope he makes some progress (which I am able to see and write up) tomorrow.

Man, it appears that he got farther than I thought. Figures <_<

Somehow, he already has the Goron's Ruby. Now if only he could make that kind of progress while I'm around. Well, I'll try to have him fill me in on the details of the entire Dodongo's Cavern if I can.

I only saw him venture up Death Mountain. He took two hearts of damage on his climb, despite the fact that he has and was even using the Hylian Shield. He made it to the top and reached the Great Fairy. Wow, I can't get over how creepy-looking she is. He even said something similar. So, she bestows upon him her fairy magic. He has no idea what's going on, though, and asks me what she's doing to Link. He gets the magic and then leaves. Looks like he's done for the night.

Well, I didn't get to see much of his progress today, but I'll see if I can get him to let me know what happened. Tomorrow should be the final day that he has so much time to play without my viewing.

Sorry it took so long for this. He began playing again as soon as I sat down to write up his earlier progress. I'll start to detail it here, and then provide his current progress in a subsequent post.

It sounds like he found and opened Dodongo's Cavern without any trouble. Once inside, it sounds like it was slow going. By his recollection, I count 8 game overs within the second dungeon. Yeah. <_<

It sounds like things proceeded well at first, but he soon ran into trouble. In the room with a solitary statue that moves after you near it, he took damage whenever he tried to pick up a bomb flower. This led to a game over. Re-read the last two sentences again. And one more time. Fourth time's a charm, as he was finally able to progress past the room.

He also said that he died twice to the flaming keese at two different points. Based on his keese encounter that I've just seen (which will be detailed later), I'm not surprised. Once was on the bridge high above the main chamber, where you must drop the bombs on the eyes.

Speaking of bombs, he has bombs now. He acquired them in a room with several of the aforementioned moving statues. And it only took him two game overs to do so! Third time around, he finally discovered that one did not come to life and could be moved out of the way, allowing him to climb a ladder and step on a switch. Soon afterward, he got the Bomb Bag.

He has seen the game over screen seven times so far in this dungeon alone (eight total) as he approaches the boss. He reaches a door and thinks it's a mouth, so he blows it up with a bomb, failing to realize that he was within the blast radius with only half a heart of health remaining. That's number eight in the cavern. He returns there, realizes that it is a standard door, and heads through it.

Next thing of note was the boss fight. It sounds as though he defeated the Dodongo on his first try! He said that he was down to one heart, though; he was hit by the rolling once or twice and was caught by the flames every time, as he didn't learn even after several times that the firebreath curves around the corners. After it sucked in the last bomb and met it's demise, he actually remembered to grab the heart container this time! That makes five hearts, with one additional piece.

He then proceeded to climb Death Mountain. Despite the fact that he had and was even using the Hylian Shield, he says that he did not survive the rock bombardment the first time around. He had more luck the second time, reaching the top with two hearts remaining. Man, the Great Fairy looks creepy. After being imbued with magic (which I believe I already detailed), he descended the mountain with minimal damage.

He then returned to Kakariko Village, where he attempted to gather the "cluckins" once again. He failed of course, leaving two of them untouched. He did, however, induce their rage. This time he had better luck and was able to escape with a heart intact. Low on health and magic (which he had used the spin attack them), he returned to the summit of Death Mountain. A game over screen later, the Great Fairy had rejuvenated him completely, and he returned to the village.

That sounds like it's about the main points of what I missed. He just finished playing again, so I'll have to add more up-to-date information as you're reading this. Oh, and the Game Over count is now at 11.

Well, looks like he wasn't quite done then. Oh well, more write-up for you!

After returning to Kakariko Village, he entered the Graveyard. He defeated the Composer Bros. again, who this time referred to a song to control the sun and moon. Now that he finally has songs, his fascination with the Ocarina has ended. He now has a new obsession to replace it: bombs. Whenever he has a problem, the bomb is his new first solution.

For example, after I got back from the bathroom, he asked me how to get the kid to leave the Graveyard. I told him that you just have to blow him up. His response: "No, I already tried that."

Now, he tries to blow up the Royal Family's tomb. After that doesn't work, he finally goes through some sequence of deduction that I frankly don't remember but didn't really make much logical sense. He somehow arrives at the conclusion that the Ocarina is needed! So he goes up to the tomb and plays Saria's Song. Wow. <_<

After he realizes that you need Zelda's Lullaby, he drops down into the tomb. Remember that keese encounter I mentioned earlier? Yeah, that happened at this point. His strategy was just to wait, crouched under his shield, until the keese hit the shield. Then he would jump up and slash away. After taking two hearts of damage and only killing one in five minutes, I finally caved and just told him to use the slingshot. He met with much more success and only lost another heart and a half before they had been taken care of.

He then goes through the door that opens into a room full of Re-Deads. He runs up to one and freezes in fear. He tries to mash the B button, but to no avail. The Re-Dead jumps on him and encircles him, sucking the life out of him. All of it. After returning to the room, he decides that, while it does harm you, running through the acid means that you are not frozen in fear by zombies. He reaches the next room and carefully scans for Re-Deads. After seeing none, he runs over to the slab on the back wall and reads. He learns the Sun's Song. He actually picked up on the game's hint that the song paralyzes them.

He ran back into the room with the Re-Deads and said, "So I just have to play this song and it tames them." He charges at one of them and is frozen in fear. After narrowly escaping in time, he charges at the next one and is likewise frozen in fear. This one reaches him. There is no hope. I ask why he didn't use the song, but he said he wanted to wait until he close enough. Then I explained that you can't use anything while you're petrified. That's Game Over number 13. "Well, at least that gets me out of here," he says. Surprise! He respawns in the room where he learned the Sun's Song. This time, however, he uses it immediately to immobilize the Re-Deads and escape the tomb. He now has the power to turn night to day!

Whoops, exceeded the max message size.

After a hint from Navi, he gives Saria a call via Ocarina. She tells him to find the next stone at Zora's Domain. "Who's that?" *eyeroll*... I remind him that she said something about following the river. So he jumps into the river-moat around the castle. *eyeroll*... After I convince him that that isn't the only river in the game, he finally notices the other one nearby and follows it to Zora's Domain.

He blows up the boulders obstructing his path and then buys some beans from the dude with the food. He sees the spot of light soil next to the dude and--what else?--tries to blow it up. Then it dawns on him. "Oh, soil!" He plants the bean and then says, "Is that it?" I tell him to come back to it later.

He proceeds up Zora's River until he reaches the waterfall. He doesn't know what to do. Take a guess as to his first course of action. If you said "bomb", you were right! Then he reads the inscription, which talks about the Royal Family. He realizes that he should que up Zelda's Lullaby. The waterfall parts, and he enters Zora's Domain.

He is instantly drawn to the Zora Market, where he decides not to buy anything. Then he just does a little bit of exploring with nothing noteworthy and no plot advancement.

That's about where he stopped right now, but it looks as though he'll be able to sneak in one more session tonight. If he does, you can be sure I'll post his progress here.

Nope, he's done for the night. Well, that just leaves more for tomorrow.

Yes, he does seem to have patience, I'll give him that. Double-digit game overs, and he's still going strong. I think it's time for a progress report.

I just remembered that I failed to mention this before, but it was pretty humorous. As day faded to night at Zora's River, he adopted an evil grimace and said, "Those skeletons won't get me now!" Failing to realize that they only appear in Hyrule Field, he played the Sun's Song. The night only grew darker, so he thought that he had played it too early or it didn't register. He played the song again. It then turned to day and rapidly back to night. He just hadn't waited long enough for it to turn to day, as it isn't instantaneous. <_<

Anyway, back in Zora's Domain, he left the shop and went exploring a little bit. Eventually, he found his way to the throne room. He talked a little bit to the king and then exited out the left wing, which took him to the diving game. Surprisingly, he beat it on the first try with 8 seconds to spare, and he actually went back to claim his prize. He dove down the waterfall again and noticed the passage through which you can swim.

It takes him to Lake Hylia, where he finds the bottle right away. Then he returns to Zora's Domain after no exploration. He presents the bottle to King Zora. Engage unnecessarily long scooting sequence. He makes no comment however, other than repeating the "ma-weep" sound. He does remember that he'll need a fish, so he begins randomly swiping the bottle in the water around the throne room.

After I convince him to try somewhere else, he immediately heads down to the shallow water area, which is actually where you're supposed to go. He bottles one up and goes back up to the throne room. Then it's behind the king and into Jabu-Jabu's domain. He presents the fish and is sucked into the beast.

Once inside, he just leaves... just because he can. Then he goes right back in and shoots the switch to allow him to open the door. He finds himself in an expansive room with electrified jellyfish. He first uses his slingshot, only to discover that it just knocks them backward. Next he uses the sword, which yields a more shocking result than he would have expected. So, he just runs past them to the next door.

In the next room, he finds Princess Ruto. She refuses Link's help, then walks into a sinkhole and plunges down a thousand feet below. He follows after her. Once down there, he talks to her a few times in order to convince her to give him the honor of carrying her.

He carries her into the next room, where he throws her at one of the jellyfish. It hits, but she falls into the water. "Oh man, she drowned." He heads back to the previous room, where he had just found her before. However, jellyfish bar his path. He tries the slingshot a few more times before realizing that it will do no good. His next resort: swing wildly with the sword. He takes damage with every hit, but he doesn't seem to care; he just keeps hacking away, thus electrocuting himself. With his final breath, he killed a second one of them. Then he sees that familiar screen again.

He returns to the room with the sinkholes and drops back down to where Ruto is. She scolds him for leaving her behind and curls back up to allow him to carry her. He goes into the room where she had previously "drowned" and uses her to kill the jellyfish. He accidently knocks her into the water again. He goes back into the other room where she respawns but avoids the jellyfish this time (for the most part). He reaches her again and decides to call it quits for the moment.

Well, it appears as though that's all the progress he'll make today. Hopefully he can complete the Jabu-Jabu dungeon tomorrow in its entirety.

Alright, first I would like to publicly apologize for the lame pun involving electricity featured in a previous write-up.

Secondly, I would like to publicly apologize for the fact that there will be no write-up today. He made no progress today because, out of the blue, he decided to forgo Zelda in order to play Super Mario 64 instead. In addition, it sounds as though he will be gone for the next three days or so, making it difficult for me to chronicle his nonexistent progress. But you can be sure that more write-ups will be brought forth as soon as they exist.

Is he competent at SM64?

Eh, not so much. He's probably only slightly better at Super Mario 64 than OoT. He's not terrible, but he dies rather easily for some of the dumbest reasons (such as running into Bowser's leg while trying to grab the tail or running off the edge because he "didn't see it"). Today, he was on a mission to defeat all three Bowsers (barely playing any of the levels in between), and, courtesy of my game cartridge, he conquered two of them today. He reached Bowser the third but continued to die in some stupid fashion on every attempt. Thanks to the 1-Up right near the pipe, he had unlimited tries, but he eventually ran out of time before he had to go to an Easter celebration.

And thanks to everyone for the positive comments thus far. It sounds as though the amount of time I've put into this is proving to be worth it.

Yes, it seems as though he'll be gone until Tuesday. I apologize for the fact that there will be no more write-ups until at least then.

I should be able to bring forth more write-ups tomorrow, assuming he decides to play it.

Ok, apparently he's being punished for mild misbehavior in school today and thus unable to play today. Looks like we'll have to wait until tomorrow for the next write-up. Sorry about that.

Well, it appears as though today was his dad's birthday, so no more progress today. It's always something. <_<

I really hope he can get back on track tomorrow or over the weekend, as he's gone too long without a new write-up. Everyone has probably forgotten about this in the meantime.

Still no more progress. I'll keep this alive, but I'm beginning to wonder if he'll ever get back to Zelda.

Let there be write-up! He's finally back at it. Just be forewarned: despite the amount of time he played, he made almost no real progress.

He begins at the entrance room of Jabu-Jabu's belly. And he battles the Octorocks in the room once again, losing half of his health in the process. He continues to crouch over and block with the Hylian Shield, followed by a shot from his slingshot, refusing to use his Deku Shield for some reason (perhaps he has forgotten?). He does defeat them, shoots the switch, and advances to the next room.

In the room with the sinkholes, he drops through the wrong hole. <_< He finds the vines which he must climb and returns to the sinkholes. This time, he drops through the correct hole and onto the ledge with the princess. After she scolds him once again, he carries her a few more steps before running into a jellyfish. A few steps later, he hits another jellyfish and accidentally throws Ruto (in shock, I suppose). After picking her up, he is nailed from behind by a jellyfish. Game Over once again.

He returns to Ruto and makes it to the next room this time. He heads into the room with the Octorocks and the wiggling red rectangular platform. He takes massive damage from the Octorocks, as he still doesn't know how to fight them well, and is left with half a heart. He picks up Ruto, throws her into it, and jumps after her. He is electrocuted to death.

Don't worry, I shall ensure that it will not purge. I definitely plan on more updates, especially considering how much progress he has made of late. I just have too much going on right now to sit down and compose a write-up. Recently, more things have been piling onto my workload, leaving little time for this. I apologize to everyone interested in this topic. I hope I can get caught up no later than the weekend, if worst comes to worst.

I also plan on archiving this. If there is enough interest in the topic (which it seems there is, assuming I would actually update), I'll add it to the wiki once we get a little farther along.

Sorry, I'm still swamped. I'll try to get back to this as soon as I can. He made no progress today, just in case anyone was wondering.


 * insert more shenanigans here*

Yeah, sorry I fail at this, guys. I did not originally intend this to be a full playthrough topic because I knew that I would not have the time. Now, even when I have time I don't have time. I did complete some write-ups, but the computer on which I did so is not working for me, and I really don't have the time to re-write them. Yet another excuse to add to the now-stale list. <_<

Again, I apologize immensely for my inability to keep this going. One of these days, when the computer decides to work again and I actually have some time to myself, I will get back to this. I'm just sorry to have to disappoint until then. In the meantime feel free to supply your own time-wasting anecdotes. Or at least something interesting.