A few disclaimers before we move forward:
- Traveling Thoughts is a means of putting down my thoughts in a bit-by-bit process that will eventually lead up to a formal review of the overall subject. These posts will be more personal than objective, though one should expect a good amount of both as is my personality of habit.
- These posts will absolutely contain spoilers. Read at your own risk.
I would also like to state before continuing that this post will not cover the Divine Beast or the things pertaining to its conditions for entrance. I will dedicate an article to the Divine Beasts in general at some point in the future.
Nearly a month later, my next post will be on the final of the four major areas containing Divine Beasts needing conquering in order to make Ganon’s Castle easier. To strap myself down and get this series of Traveling Thoughts done with (or close enough), I will do a post dedicated to it every day for the rest of this week. Wish me luck.
I wish I could say that Rito Village is a memorable place of splendor and sublimity, but it’s not really. Truth be told, this ends my experience playing through the game for the first time on the Wii U, as I didn’t even bother to go there before getting my hands on the Switch version. Playing through Rito Village was a one-time event—one that provided little different from what the other major areas already presented. Specific character is important for getting to the Divine Beast, the village is troubled by the Divine Beast’s presence, so on and so forth. It’s almost rude to generalize the situation so strongly for an area so imperative to the main quest, but it’s simple to do so, much more than the others.
There’s nothing to latch onto. The villagers aren’t incredibly interesting, the situation feels like a rehash of others, and the area itself is rather dull. It’s a giant stone monument, which seems cool, but the Rito only built attachable huts and stairways onto it and little more. Some greenery around the base is all that distinguishes it as an airborne “palace” of sorts. One doesn’t feel they do much with it, while also not doing much with the people who inhabit it. The icy environment further onward is more interesting almost by default (though that’s personal preference).
The short amount of text this time around was expected due to how little there is to say about Rito Village that hasn’t been said for other major areas that came before. This entry may seem like wasted words (I believe it is to some extent), for which I wouldn’t fight against. As unremarkable as the area itself, which is reflected by the pedantic articulation through which I’m motivated to describe it. Not so much bad as it is the dulled norm, which in some ways may be worse than it being outright bad or problematic; at least then it would be memorable. Rito Village isn’t. The Rito themselves are memorable from past Zelda titles; unfortunately, they aren’t as charming here.
The Visualist's Veranda 