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brightknightie) wrote2025-07-06 08:01 am
brightknightie) wrote2025-07-06 08:01 am
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I accidentally deprived myself of half of Condé's story (TLOZ:EOW)
A tip for The Legend of Zelda: Echoes of Wisdom, when you choose to play: To get all the cut-scenes, interactions, and story for a certain truly lovely character, approach the snowy Hebra region from the west, not from the east. Indeed, when the time comes, make it easy and just start from where the glowing quest marker is. They put it right there for a reason.
I, unfortunately, continued my "Explore first!" kick into Hebra and so blundered into Condé's story from the wrong side. Not that any option is wrong as such in an RPG or even JRPG, but... I've seen videos of folks playing this charming, intriguing section, so when I blundered into a certain spot and got compressed dialogue skipping that much more personal and exciting introduction to the character, I knew what I'd lost. You won't want to miss it.
That said, exploring Hebra thoroughly brought me fun discoveries that I was unspoiled on, probably because the people who streamed and wrote wiki entries when the game come out last fall had played the main quest at speed, rushing through straight to the end for reasons like not getting spoiled and satisfying their followers, and so missed some interesting tidbits, including about Condé himself.
For example, after meeting the childlike Yeti Condé -- spoilers, naturally! -- if you revisit him in his home in Zelda's various outfits, he has a different response to each. Condé wears only his own fur, but he's very observant about Zelda's clothes.
And, definitely, shown by dialogue, Condé was not trying to clear the mountain of snow, as some people say, but rather of the rifts! Like the Deku Scrubs think the rifts are "thorns," Condé thinks they "dirty" the mountain. Condé of course is sadly deprived of cultural history and collective knowledge, so he's reasoning this out for himself. The Scrubs, on the other hand, seem to have some culture and history so... they are choosing to be foolish, which is part of the depiction of people so swayed by trends and "influencers."
And there's a whole side-quest for Condé after you finish the main quest in Hebra! The upshot is that you learn what Condé will do every day now as he waits for his big brother to return, now that there's no need to fight the rifts anymore. (There's special snow from a certain part of Holy Mount Lanayru that can be used to magic up and/or pray for clear weather... to help his brother's hot air balloon find his way home. Oh, Condé, you are so lovely.)
Also, there's a Business Scrub with a Smoothie Shop in Hebra. Handy for those warming potions Zelda needs if she's not going to carry an ignizol everywhere she goes, especially if she insists on wearing the traditional Gerudo Desert garb in frozen Hebra just because it gives her a stat boost... :-D
Yes, it's a delightful game. Playing as Zelda is fun. Echoes are fun. The plot and lore are fun. If Condé and Dohna are richer characterizations than Link and Zelda, well, that's a peril of a "silent hero," I'm afraid.
I, unfortunately, continued my "Explore first!" kick into Hebra and so blundered into Condé's story from the wrong side. Not that any option is wrong as such in an RPG or even JRPG, but... I've seen videos of folks playing this charming, intriguing section, so when I blundered into a certain spot and got compressed dialogue skipping that much more personal and exciting introduction to the character, I knew what I'd lost. You won't want to miss it.
That said, exploring Hebra thoroughly brought me fun discoveries that I was unspoiled on, probably because the people who streamed and wrote wiki entries when the game come out last fall had played the main quest at speed, rushing through straight to the end for reasons like not getting spoiled and satisfying their followers, and so missed some interesting tidbits, including about Condé himself.
For example, after meeting the childlike Yeti Condé -- spoilers, naturally! -- if you revisit him in his home in Zelda's various outfits, he has a different response to each. Condé wears only his own fur, but he's very observant about Zelda's clothes.
- The traveling clothes get the default dialogue.
- The hooded cloak gets Condé to tell his story of having fallen into a rift and being rescued by Link!
- The princess dress (both colors) makes him worry about how flappy and flimsy it is, and that it's not made for jumping and climbing on the mountain.
- The cat outfit and the Stamp Guy outfit both make Condé ask whether Zelda is trying to look like a monster, but while the cat outfit makes him say that he's never seen a monster like that, he has seen the Stamp Guy and thinks he's a dangerous monster!
- The Gerudo outfit makes him worry that she'll freeze, and also wonder about all the different cultures in the world; he says he'll see them someday, after his big brother returns from his adventure. (I want to write a story connecting Condé and the Gerudo woman who wants to see snow!)
- I don't have the green Link outfit, so I don't know what he says to that... probably the same thing as to Link's hooded cloak?
And, definitely, shown by dialogue, Condé was not trying to clear the mountain of snow, as some people say, but rather of the rifts! Like the Deku Scrubs think the rifts are "thorns," Condé thinks they "dirty" the mountain. Condé of course is sadly deprived of cultural history and collective knowledge, so he's reasoning this out for himself. The Scrubs, on the other hand, seem to have some culture and history so... they are choosing to be foolish, which is part of the depiction of people so swayed by trends and "influencers."
And there's a whole side-quest for Condé after you finish the main quest in Hebra! The upshot is that you learn what Condé will do every day now as he waits for his big brother to return, now that there's no need to fight the rifts anymore. (There's special snow from a certain part of Holy Mount Lanayru that can be used to magic up and/or pray for clear weather... to help his brother's hot air balloon find his way home. Oh, Condé, you are so lovely.)
Also, there's a Business Scrub with a Smoothie Shop in Hebra. Handy for those warming potions Zelda needs if she's not going to carry an ignizol everywhere she goes, especially if she insists on wearing the traditional Gerudo Desert garb in frozen Hebra just because it gives her a stat boost... :-D
Yes, it's a delightful game. Playing as Zelda is fun. Echoes are fun. The plot and lore are fun. If Condé and Dohna are richer characterizations than Link and Zelda, well, that's a peril of a "silent hero," I'm afraid.
no subject
Outfits!
I imagine Condé stumbling over Stamp Guy setting up a stamp stand on Condé's cleaned mountain and whirling on him to eagerly share the glories of Stamp Rallying... or maybe Condé witnessed the Business Scrub or someone else fighting free of Stamp Guy's spiel. :-) Maybe Stamp Guy has learned to refine his pitch by the time he meets Zelda.
(I suspect that Stamp Guy is a call-out to, if not direct replacement for, Tingle, who of course became so very repulsively creepy over subsequent appearances -- especially the Japan-only side games -- that he's surely not coming back for global audiences. I wonder whether innocent Condé perceiving Stamp Guy as a monster is in some way a reference to that.)