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I sure hope that's adventure I'm smelling. Let's Play Ittle Dew!

Back to Let's Play < 1 2 >
  #1  
Old 03-06-2017, 02:15 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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Default I sure hope that's adventure I'm smelling. Let's Play Ittle Dew!



Hey kids!



Who's this barefooted nerd crashing a raft?



That would be Ittle Dew, adventurer and hooligan.



So's the game. Let's play Ittle Dew!

As part of my ongoing monopoly on LPing games starting with the letter I, as well as LPing Daniel Remar's entire creative portfolio in particular, this game was bound to happen eventually. It's going to hew very closely to Zelda 1 in style, but with much more of a focus on puzzling.



Conversations just kinda appear wherever you go.



Gonna handle this one Custom Robo style. There's not so much dialogue that it all needs recording, but there's enough humor to go around.



Premise? What's a premise?



That weird flying fox thing is Tippsie, Ittle's companion. Although they tend to go heavy on the health potions, they're pretty good at being a hints thing.



Here's what we got. Health total, dosh total, tool total.



Ittle's tool of choice is this stick she found on the ground. It smacks things real good. That, uh... that's about all there is to it. It's a stick. What do you even want from me.



Tippsie will usually have hints at about this caliber. Primarily they'll remind you of where you need to go next, or what you need to solve a certain puzzle. Their hints usually cover a wide area.



Ittle will occasionally comment on the assorted garbage she sees while exploring this island. I'll screenshot any particularly interesting observations, this one was mostly to demonstrate the feature.



Anyway, to the meat.



The puzzles in Ittle Dew start out very simple, but they ratchet up in their complexity as you go, and end up pretty dang bamboozling. The switch is pretty obvious: stand on it or put a block on it, and it does a thing. Some things might require multiple switches to be held down to activate.



Blocks like these can hold down switches and can be pushed in four directions. They're Zelda blocks. You know what they are.



The only extra function Ittle's stick has is that she can light it (not herself. It looks like that though, doesn't it?) on fire. In turn, this can light other things on fire, like torches. The stick won't ever be burned up totally, but the fire does go out after a short time.



Oh no, a gate!



And a crystal! Whatever will we do?



We're the hero!



Smacking different barriers, like that gate or door, will highlight exactly what you have to activate to open them. In this case, we need to hit both crystals to drop the gate, in order to defeat the extremely threatening Fishbun that has the door forward locked.



Not strictly necessary here, but hey, I demonstrated it. Waste not, want not.



I swear we're the hero, guys.



And that does it for the tutorial cave. We might be back much later for silly reasons.



Up to the island plains proper!



Sadly, every path but north is blocked by some stumps, and we're not about to get splinters in our feet.
  #2  
Old 03-06-2017, 02:16 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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We'll ignore the house for now. If you're dying to know, scroll to the bottom of the update.



All right, sure.



The castle in this game is akin to, say, the Ocean King's Temple in Phantom Hourglass. Not the instakill enemies and forced stealth, mind, but the returning to it multiple times over the adventure as you gather gear. We'll be entering some other dungeons as we go, but that's secondary to cleaning this place out of dosh.



The castle is the home of the Jenny Rich Monsteur family. Seen here is Jenny Frog, largely defined by her not giving a damn about things.



The spikes, we can't walk over, and neither can Jenny, so we're free to ignore her. Jenny Frog is also among the most ignorable of the Jennies in the game, simply walking in random directions.



Further on, we find some seriously ugly statues.



Heroes.



Aha, now here's a puzzle worth puzzling. We need those torches lit to progress, but there's no fire here.



So first, we open this door back to the main hall. This allows us to light our stick on the torches in there and carry it through. Genius!



We can also use the burning stick to destroy ice blocks. If we don't destroy them, they function exactly how you think they do.



Any door without a gem is, as the sign says, only opened from the other side. So that's an issue.



Easily fixed, though.



Past a hall of about five or so Jenny Frogs, we find these dead ends. Without any torches close enough to light those from (the hall is too long to get it from earlier) we're stuck.



Just south, we get an actual reward, though!



200 gold coins richer! And a mysterious portal! Needless to say, WE'RE GOING IN.



hero



This warp leads to the Warp Garden. The more warps we find in the castle, the more open up here. Fast travel hub! And to the left...



h



Here's where we can spend the lunch money.



Our ultimate goal is to snag a raft, because this place has already bored Ittle...



But that's not on sale right now. However...



Itan sells three magical items of incredible power anyway! And we can already afford the Fire Sword if we wanted. The Fire Sword has all the benefits an on-fire stick would have, with the added benefit of never extinguishing and being generally better at messing up critters we face.



However, we could also try one of the other thingies. This Portal Wand is a curious one. When struck against the ground, it creates a solid block of magical whatever, which can weigh down switches and be pushed and so forth. After a block is placed, Ittle can point the wand at just about anything she likes to instantly warp it to the block's position!



And last, we have the Ice Wand. This is exactly what it looks like: it shoots blasts of frost at things and they freeze. Aside from the obvious combat applications, it can also freeze blocks to slide them around, among other things.

The thing is... we don't strictly NEED all three of these to get to the Artifact. In fact, for this LP, I'm going to start the game by only getting two of these items, then the Artifact. There is a postgame-ish area later that requires all three items, and that I will be attempting, but first I want to just tackle the castle with only two items.

So let's have a vote. What thingies do we want? I'll first get whatever thing is voted for the most, followed by the thing that isn't voted for the least. You'll see all three during the LP, it's just a matter of time. So vote away!

Next Time: Nevermind these blocks. Turn back.
  #3  
Old 03-06-2017, 03:38 PM
R^2 R^2 is offline
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Well, it's not Legend of Zelda, but I guess Ittle Dew.
  #4  
Old 03-06-2017, 05:17 PM
Gerad Gerad is offline
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I want the portal rod!

I played this, but my game crashed very, very unfortunately close to the end. So I'm looking forward to seeing the end, and how you get there with only two things!
  #5  
Old 03-06-2017, 05:59 PM
Mogri Mogri is online now
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Get the portal rod and the ice wand! No sword for you!

If I only get one vote, then I nega-vote for the sword.
  #6  
Old 03-06-2017, 06:18 PM
will will is offline
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Yes! I love Ittle Dew. It's a very tightly designed little boiled-down zeldalike, and there's a surprising depth of options for replays and the like.

I'd vote for Ice / Portal, but I'd think that'd be a good note to end on, rather than to start with...
  #7  
Old 03-06-2017, 06:26 PM
Lucas Lucas is offline
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I'm with Mogri. No sword!
  #8  
Old 03-07-2017, 07:50 AM
Beowulf Beowulf is offline
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Additional vote for skipping the sword--I got all three items in their obvious order when I played this, so I want to see something different.
  #9  
Old 03-07-2017, 06:45 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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Well, if there's one unifying theme here you all agreed on, it's that either swords or fire are terrible. Which we can still do things about, but we need a little more dosh.



Heading up from the room with the first cash chest leads to this other chest.



Yeah! Let's smother some rocks!



It's a piece of heart. Which is a bit more rewarding than in Zelda, as most enemies usually deal damage in the quarter-heart range.



Anyway, we can get more cash heading north, but we have to prove our moxie as PROFESSIONALS first.



Behind the rudimentary block puzzle that I intentially screwed up to read the sign is this old man scarecrow.



In order to open the door, we have to destroy the old man somehow.



Our stick proves inadequate in getting past their incredible armor. However, recalling the words of ancient warriors and sages, Ittle Dew harkens back to the oldest and truest advice any adventurer could rely on.



If all else fails, use fire.



GET INCINERATED CHUMPBOY



Eventually the recorder inside the old man shorts out and the entire thing explodes, letting us continue onward.



That's a bit of a complex block puzzle, but it's not one we need to clear.



Still, may as well, after we get this dosh.



Once we do...



This is Titan de Graphiques!



This constantly screaming moai head is impervious to all forms of attack, but flies slowly and doesn't actually wish us any harm.



Unfortunately, all possible sources of fire to break further through here are too far for our stick. A Fire Sword could fix that, though.



And that door up there requires us to defeat all the enemies in here, which we flat can't do. Back downstairs for a bit, then.



Hey, what's over here?



Haircuts are over here.



Jenny Fox is very, very upset at us. At everything, really, but we're in eyeshot right now.



Tippsie is not NEARLY healthy enough for this right now.



Jenny Fox is considerably more hostile than her sister, and those throwing axes pack a kick, so you should always be careful around her. Needless to say, we're gonna solve some puzzles we don't strictly need to solve yet while right next to her.



More boxes!



Oh nice, the treasure map.
  #10  
Old 03-07-2017, 06:46 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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This gives us the layout of the castle in terms of boxes. The large ones hold money, and the small ones hold other things, like paper scraps.



We can keep going, so we will.



Our next goal is to weigh down the two switches over here.



Ittle herself can hit one, but you can bring a block in from two separate locations for the other switch. I brought both just to prove I could.



This leads us to this area. The crystals here will stay active when hit, but only for a short time, and the time varies from crystal to crystal, so be prepared to experiment with the proper order.



Oh, right. If we want to progress further, we gotta fight this guy.



Brutus here is extremely fast and aggressive, but only when actively attacked. They have lots of health and chase after Ittle extremely quickly, although their momentum carries them forward too fast to change direction easily.



Additionally, Brutus slows down after a bit, and when they slow down enough, they fire off eight spikes and get back up to full speed. Fighting Brutus is about playing matador, letting them run past and getting in a hit, and playing chicken when they slow down enough to let you throw in a few hearty smacks, then backing off once they spike.



Defeating Brutus not only opens the door ahead, but lets us reach this chest!



Yeah that sounds about right.



Trading cards are the most common reward you get from these chests. There's a card for each character in the game!



However, they are by no means required for beating the game or anything, nor do they give you any wacky new powers. Just a collectible.



Back at the top half of the room where we got the map, we can enter this door by solving the puzzle here.



Not a hard one, really.



This puzzle is a bit trickier. We have to get the ice block from where it is to the fire pit to open the south door, leading to more dosh.



Using the block from below isn't gonna cut it, since then we can't push the ice block a second time.



For similar reasons, just putting the block from the right there won't work, since we can't move anything without making the ice block irretrievable.



This is the correct first step, to give yourself some wiggle room on the left once you push the ice block down. Everything else is easy.



And done.



This gives us a total of 400 gold, which means that anyone savvy enough to get to this point can start with any item they want!



I'm going to start with the Portal Wand, though.



Yadda yadda yadda terms and services GIMME THE THING.



What



Itan launches us through his house's roof...



And right into the Warped Woods.
  #11  
Old 03-07-2017, 06:48 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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And wouldn't you know it, he landed us a few scant meters south of the chest with the wand in it. Fine, long way it is.



The Warped Woods isn't a very dangerous dungeon. The challenge in Ittle Dew isn't really ever from the combat, but from the puzzles.



Our first step is to navigate beyond the Fishbuns and to the temple below.



North is our only exit from this room.



Heading up the stairs in that room... oh hey, what's this?



SECRET ZONE

The old man is right. If you want to show off your speedy puzzling chops, you can take a shortcut through all three of the major dungeons, provided you can solve a seriously devilish puzzle in the process. I won't be doing this for this dungeon at least, because playing the dungeon the non-shortcut way is a better and gentler way to learn the ins and outs of your new toy.



Also, what?



Jenny graves, okay, sure.



And just back to the east, we finally get our prize!



While not as universally strong as the Portal gun, the Portal wand is no slouch at puzzling.



As mentioned, smacking the wand against the ground places a block, which for all practical intents and purposes is a pushable block. It'll appear once we step off of it.



Once we've placed a block, we can fire the portal wand at things to warp them to the block. Just about the only thing that CAN'T be warped is permanent dungeon fixtures, including pushable blocks.



So, the first application of the portal wand is obvious. Smack a block down, step on the other switch, bam, done.



However...



If we were especially clever, we could attempt to open this door with our portal wand. I think one other puzzle occupies the room beyond, but generally this is a much denser and harder version of the dungeon itself. Try to deduce how you might solve this room, using the clues from the rest of the dungeon we're about to explore!



Over here, we have some seriously grody Pancakes to deal with. These aberrations will devour any and all bombs they come across, so if we want to solve this puzzle, we either need to kill them or act fast.



The Portal Wand makes the latter option significantly more attractive.



And with these torches lit...



We can head south, towards the exit.



These Petal Slugs are, like Titan de Graphiques, invincible to most methods of attack, but we have a way. Just gotta steer clear of their Brutus-like spike attack.



By creating a Portal block, pushing it onto the spikes, and teleporting a Petal Slug to the block, we drop it on the spikes, instantly killing it.



Turnips?



Oh, hi.



Dancing is for chumps, puzzles all the way.



What a dick.
  #12  
Old 03-07-2017, 06:49 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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We have other talents.



WHY DON'T YOU APPRECIATE OUR TALENT



Anyway yeah. Turnips travel in a straight line, turning 90 degrees when they hit a wall. They can hit switches and push blocks, so their presence is usually intended to signal them as a puzzle-solving tool. In this case, they can hit one crystal while Ittle hits the other.



GIT OUT WAY



Honestly, the usefulness of the Portal wand is pretty widespread. It's not just about "warp this thing to this location".



In fights, it's mostly limited to dealing with Petal Slugs.



The spike-warp method works on almost everything else, too. And if an enemy is where a block would otherwise be about to form, they get launched into space! That's a pretty tricky one to pull off though, so I wouldn't sweat it.



Back above ground, where I refuse to go the clear path.



I'm not kidding when I say the Portal wand will warp almost anything, by the way.



What do you suppose happens if we hit Ittle with her own portal beam? That's right, she warps to the block! (MAKE SURE IT'S NOT PLACED ON SPIKES, IDIOT.)



Nearly done.



Hm, I wonder.



Bah, of course they can't feel spiky pain. But they CAN be warped, so that's good to know.



One last filler room vs. more Petal Slugs...



Oh hey, boss arena.



The oldest and strongest Jenny of them all, Jenny Deer!



Man I wish.



That sounds pretty magic to me.



Eh? How's this for magic?



She is unimpressed. We can fix that.



Thanks to that large shield of hers, Jenny Deer is, as expected, impervious to conventional attacks. And since she doesn't move, we can't launch her with a portal block. She relies on three spells to fight. The first is that flame trap down by our block, which launches volleys of fire towards Ittle.



The second is that concentrated orb of magic. This is how we damage her: we drop a Portal block behind her, then tag the orb with a beam to send it behind her guard.



Jenny Deer's most impressive spell is this twin laser. She'll focus them inwards when firing, but we can take cover behind the Portal block, no problem.



Three iterations of orb-redirection later, and Jenny Deer is defeated.



All vanquished foes vanish into a cloud of confetti when defeated, but none are as festive as those produced by bosses.
  #13  
Old 03-07-2017, 06:50 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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Clearing a dungeon gets you some paper, but that and the dungeon item are the only things hidden away in here, so don't lose any sleep trying to fully explore the dungeon.



And now we just gotta get back to the castle.

Next Time: Nah, not even I would kick this over.
  #14  
Old 03-13-2017, 12:49 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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I'm here, shut up, I'm here.



Once you leave an item dungeon, you have to trek through an overworld area to get back to the castle. As you go, the area is dotted with these little staircases.



Within these staircases are miniature puzzle rooms. They require nothing more than the item you got from that area to solve. So for this one, and all the others around these parts, just the Portal Wand (and our stick, of course) will do.



Our dilemma here is obvious: we need to push the ice block up to the switch, but without the Turnip's carefully planned help, that's a no-go.



These rooms are the main place where you will need to use your retry room option in the pause menu.



Anyway, this one's not too bad. Portal the turnip over to that side, so they'll just hover up and down.



Plop a new block there, and time our push of the ice block so it hits the turnip, stopping it right where we need it to be. After that, we just warp to the block using the mirrors, and we're done.



This guy usually hangs out on the overworld, but we haven't seen him yet.



There he is.



One last secret tree path, he lied.



Oh hey, sandcastle.



And up here by the dull-looking rock, we find another puzzle.



This one's your main intro to retrying the room. We can hit the switch no problem, but doing so cuts off our escape route.



Thankfully, if you have the foresight to throw a block down first, you're fine.



Who's magic now?



The Desert Grove we're currently in has plenty of Brutuses, but now that we have a Portal Wand, we can safely translocate them far, far away from us.



This is another one that you can get yourself stuck on easily. The main thing to do first...



Is to drop a portal block as soon as you enter. This provides us a safe way to get behind that ice block once we push it somewhere else.



After that, hitting all three switches is easy.



Grody.



One more, I think.



Ah, sometimes they're challenge rooms like this. Again, the smart thing to do is to warp Brutus away safely, since that doesn't wake them.



Once that's done, all that remains is the slow task of working through the Petal Slugs.



PAPER



Ah, one last one.
  #15  
Old 03-13-2017, 12:50 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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You all already saw the solution to this one. If we didn't use the professional shortcut earlier, this is likely where we'd learn that the old men can be burned.



Oh man I love cryptic bogus.



Right, back to the castle! Our next goal is to get enough cash for the Ice Wand.



I bet you guys were just dying to know: what the devil was in THIS door, anyway?



Bombs were in here, that's what.



Either the Portal Wand or the Fire Sword is required to pass through here. Your stick will extinguish long before you burn through all three bombs in one run.



Gardening is extremely dangerous in the world of Ittle Dew.



Past several Jenny Foxes, we find a split path. Either one leads to the same end, but you have different tools available when you approach depending on what you got first. So we'll take the Warping Path.



That one's easy enough. Just weigh down all four switches.



Junkrat, give me that block. I need this.



Next up, some Petal Slugs. Again, easy.



And finally, this. The beam from the Portal Wand can activate crystal switches just fine, and this is where you learn that.



Fire the beam, then hit the crystal on the left as the beam hits the one on the right.



And done! The Flaming Path would, of course, make use of the Fire Sword, but both get to the same end.



The party brigade, right here.



Okay, that's enough for a Fire Sword, sure. But we need MORE. Unfortunately, this door won't open until we can extinguish both flames, which of course requires an Ice Wand.



At this point I'm temporarily stumped as to which way to go. But we'll start over here.



With our Portal Wand and some quick footwork, we can warp a bomb over here and ignite it, granting access to the chest.



Wonder what kind of Jenny we'll see next.



This door is off limits without the Fire Sword, but who cares? We can already reach the other side via stairs.



Speaking of stairs, let's go up these ones.



Aha.

There are three paths in the castle that lead to the Artifact and the final boss. This one, the front door, requires the Fire Sword and the Ice Wand. Most players will tackle it with all three items, but it's doable without the Portal Wand.



To the left is a path we can't do anything with. We'd need the Fire Sword and the Portal Wand together to blast that rock formation open.



The closest flame is in the entrance hall, and while I CAN light the bomb with it...



I don't have enough time to do so AND place a portal block by the rocks AND warp the bomb over there.
  #16  
Old 03-13-2017, 12:51 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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This door is another one we can't do anything about. We'd need to slide an ice block across the pit, and we just don't have one.



Eventually I remember the way we can go. Titan de Graphiques is invulnerable to most forms of attack, true.



But we can send him to literal new heights of terror if we pop up a portal block underneath him! He moves slowly enough that this is easy to do if you are careful.



Once we take him and the Jenny Frogs down, we're free to go onward.



This next room is full of sand. Dunno if I've mentioned, but you can't push things on sand, nor can you place portal blocks.



Right off the bat we get access to a new card.



There's also a really creepy wall carving here.



Creeeeepy.



Anyway, this puzzle's pretty tight on timing, but it's not hard. Basically, you throw a block at one end, then fire a beam into the mirror gauntlet, sprint over to the far crystal, hit it, warp back, and hit the first one.



This opens up this area down here. Clearing out the rubble is easy with that bomb there.



We then break one ice block and prepare to push the other, using portal blocks as guidance, to the switch.



That plus the two switches up here opens the exit!



Not done yet, though.



PRANCIN' ABOOT WITH YER HAEDS FULL OF EYEBALLS



This room is very silly. Portal Wand lets us warp anything and anyone wherever we please, making these bombs a delight rather than a chore.



Before I head downstairs, I take the door to the left that required us to defeat everyone.



A new Jenny!



Jenny Berry is friendly and happy-go-lucky, and doesn't wish us any ill will at all!



She also sporadically emits pulses of electricity everywhere, for reasons unfathomable.



Don't be mean just because she has a condition, Ittle.

Most of the time, Jenny Berry behaves the same as her Frog sister. However, every so often she stops and shoots electric lasers all over the place. You can still attack her while she's charged, but those lasers HURT, and she's briefly stunned after she pulses anyway.



There, uh... isn't much to actually do here, honestly.



Nothing except ROLL OVER AND DIE.



Losing all your health resets the room and your health to full, but does nothing else. Good.



Anyway back down the stairs for the dosh. I want to explore a bit more before I call this one, though.



First, this room. We flat do not have the tools necessary to get in here.
  #17  
Old 03-13-2017, 12:52 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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Heading to the left, we can see that since we opened the door from the inside, the puzzle is unnecessary to solve. I doubt we'd have the resources to do so anyway.



Past that is this room. This is solvable without the Portal Wand, no problem.



I use it anyway because it's faster. Main thing is to move blocks to the clearing on the right for extra space before pushing any switches down.



Whoa, now we have 500 gold? I'm not comfortable with that level of wealth. I'm gonna go lie down for a bit.

Next Time: Your smile... give me...

Last edited by Kalir; 03-13-2017 at 07:50 PM.
  #18  
Old 03-15-2017, 01:51 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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As soon as you buy your first item, Itan puts a raft out, but needless to say, we can't pick it up yet.



Same deal as before, eh? Not a problem, princess!



WAIT SHOOT I DROPPED THE PORTAL WAND



Whenever Ittle is launched into a new dungeon, she leaves behind everything but her stick, so as to give you ample room to play with the new toy without the old one breaking things too much.



Anyway, here's That Cold Place.



Again, we're right next to the chest, but on the wrong side. Considering this is in the bottom floor of the dungeon, that's pretty impressive that we're still alive.



This is the undead-flavored area!



And as you can expect, the game is here to make sure you know all about the properties of ice before you even get close to the Ice Wand.



This, of course, is principle number one.



Oh, this one's not too hard, just gotta...



Clear up some space!



Beyond that room, we find Chilly Roger. They're Darknuts.



We also find a turnip explorer!



We enlist their help to mutually break us free of this room. I don't know if they'll stop dancing long enough to actually walk out, but so it goes.



Hm. Well, as we all already know, ice blocks pushed into flames destroy each other.



Really the main trick is to have one ice block against the wall to serve as bracing for the others. This will let you push them down to, and subsequently along, the south wall.



Nothing to it!



Serves as a nice reminder of the other chief property of ice.



Hey Chilly.



And just like that, we've got the Ice Wand!



Does exactly what it says on the box. Many things can be frozen now, and we will be freezing many things.



For starters, these fires. Getting those and the bottom two cleared lets us progress further out.



Man what a chump, he should've just had some shady guy in a kilt vault him into the stratosphere instead.



Oh snap it's Key Cavern.



We can only head north to start.
  #19  
Old 03-15-2017, 01:53 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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In order to take the professional shortcut, you have to defeat both Titan de Graphiques.



Now that we have an Ice Wand, we can freeze them and many other enemies. Most enemies will thaw out after a time, but Titan de Graphiques is relieved enough that they are no longer flying that they simply relax and remain frozen indefinitely. Needless to say, frozen enemies can be destroyed like ice blocks can, but I'm not going to bother with that.



In any case, they prove more than happy to help with getting through the normal way.



This area is also a casual player's likely first introduction to mirrors (I don't know if they required self-warping on the "plain" path in the Warped Woods).



Boss hint.



Again, most critters that aren't Titan de Graphiques will break free of being frozen after a while.



Still, it's a good way to keep enemies out of your hair for a while.



Back to the dungeon.



Our next job is to make thermodynamics cry out in horror, disgust, and confusion. See, we need to blast those rocks out of the way, but we can't do that with the bomb there, can't push it far enough.



Instead, we can freeze a lit bomb, which doesn't harm the wick none, and then push it like an ice block!



We can also freeze blocks, of course. Applying ice physics to everything is probably the single greatest strength of the Ice Wand, but remember that unless it thaws out normally, anything you freeze stays frozen.



Still, it's a great way to handle switches at a long distance.



Right, that opens up the west door.



Time to fight more pirates. Unfortunately, they're already so chilly that the Ice Wand doesn't do anything to them.



True story! I guess they're just too round to apply pressure to the whole switch.



But yeah, we've already covered ALMOST everything the Ice Wand can do. There's one other quirk that we'll see in a bit.



Oh, uh... hi.



This here's Lean Boo! Creepy-looking and all-too-friendly, this haunt will chase Ittle around the room slowly, but persistently.



They're this game's version of a Wallmaster. If they land on you, it's an instant kill, which functionally just means the room resets.



You'll know you're in danger when they launch into the air and winds start howling.



No enemy is better at putting active pressure on you to solve puzzles than Lean Boo, but for all they scare you, they're not actually that dangerous. Just keep moving, and you're fine.



Later.



Making absolutely sure we understand ice physics, eh?



Good, I clearly need the refresher.



Better.
  #20  
Old 03-15-2017, 01:55 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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Journeying east.



Your worst threat when dealing with Lean Boo is tight quarters. Back up and make sure you have somewhere to run to, first and foremost.



Remember: anything that is frozen can be destroyed with fire! ANYTHING.



See, we need to push blocks onto those switches. But we first have to actually be able to push them.



By freezing one, we can then destroy it with a lit stick!



We're succeeding!



This puzzle room's not too hard, just keep your head about you. Harder than it looks with Lean Boo pursuing you, granted.



Start with this one to the left, since it can then be safely pushed down.



Easy.



The hell mess is this.



This room's more intimidating than anything. I find it helps to trace a backwards line, starting from the flame and heading towards any orthogonal mirror.



Find a good spot to stand, and let loose with the Ice Wand!



Nice and simple, that.



And done.



It's probably some crazy kooky wizard. They like this sort of thing, I think.



YOUR BED SUCKS



And that takes us to the dungeon entrance, which is also the exit for us.



The Ice Wand, like the Portal Wand, can hit crystal switches no problem.



Time for boss two.



It's The Lichous Turnip, necromancer extraordinaire!



We'll be fine, honest.



Needless to say, being an undead horror makes you harder to freeze, so the Lichous Turnip doesn't react to that (or our stick). They mostly attack by firing these orbs of magic orthogonally.



However, with proper aim, we can freeze the wall he fires at before the orb gets there, which makes the wall reflective! This bounces the orb right back at him.



Upon being hit with his own orb, he ignites and starts swooping around us at high speeds, but now that he's on fire, direct hits from the Ice Wand do the trick for damaging him just fine.



Alternate between bouncing his own spells at him and firing ice blasts, and you got this fight in the bag. Just watch out for his eight-way fireblasts!
  #21  
Old 03-15-2017, 01:56 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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And with that...



We not only have ourselves a fancy new Ice Wand, but an extra heart!



Twice the survivability as we leave the swamp.



Fancy roses!



Like the Desert Grove before, the Swamp here is full of bonus puzzle areas, just to make super sure you know how the Ice Wand handles.



These puzzles are completely solvable with just the Ice Wand and your trusty stick.



THIS PUZZLE IS STUPID



But hey, paper is paper.



Lots of haunts out here in the graveyard area.



Don't fall in!



Ah, yes. If you didn't try the Professional Shortcut in the dungeon, here's where you learn the other way to defeat Titan de Graphiques.



So naturally, we get the card for Chilly Roger instead.



Seems legit.



Weird place for a golf course.



Ah, here's a stumper. Obviously we're going to have to destroy some of these blocks.



Just this one will do. Now for the challenge of pushing them all where they need to go.



Make sure to extinguish the fire before sending any ice blocks over!



As before, use earlier ice blocks to brace for others.



Bah, messed up. We need the last block up there, not down there. That last switch we can stand on ourselves.



That's the ticket.



And done!



Neato!



This is the part where we don't go down stairs.



Like those stairs. Nothing doing, pal.



Or these ones. The Compost Crypt is a bonus area that I'm not sure if it's DLC or not. Whatever it is, we're not gonna tackle it until we get the Fire Sword.
  #22  
Old 03-15-2017, 01:57 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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These stairs we will take.



Aha, a time trial! We need a lit stick to get through, but we have to extinguish the fires to open the gate.



Get to this block and destroy it and the rest is in the bag.



Aw, they just want a friend. Ittle should not be their first choice.



Back to reality. Where did I put my gravity...



Ah, there it is.



Whenever you come back here after losing items pre-dungeon, they'll be safely stored in this overflowing trash can for Ittle to retrieve again.



Now that we have two tools, we can REALLY do some damage to the castle. Obviously, we can freeze portal blocks we create, letting us warp things to even wackier locations. But it gets better.



Freeze a wall, then fire a portal beam at it! This means that as long as we have a wall we can aim at, Ittle can teleport to anywhere we put a portal block! Our mobility options have drastically increased with this duo.



Here's a summary to mull over while you wait.

Next Time: This is the Portal and Ice back door.
  #23  
Old 03-16-2017, 05:05 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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Right, picking up more or less where we left off in the castle. Armed with the Ice Wand, we can do a few more things here.



First, this. Light our stick from the above floor, head downstairs, freeze a block here, break it.



I have no idea either.



The Ice Wand can freeze most any foe we encounter in the castle, making it fairly safe to traverse.



The Ice Wand also lets us head through here. I don't think we strictly NEED to use the Portal Wand as well, but eh, why not?



Just have to put a block where the Turnip can move it onto the switch and we're good.



Up here, we find an area that would undoubtedly be more difficult without both wands.



As is, we can easily warp to the other side of the gates and open them that way.



It could probably be done with just careful calculation of what goes where, but that sounds lame and boring.



And up we go for another piece of paper.



Back to this room we never have to solve, although armed as we are with the Ice Wand, it's no longer impossible.



Our main objective is this room here. We can get past that barrier there, and I'll leave it to you to mull over while I go tackle some unrelated garbage.



This much larger room is home to some Jennies of all flavors, but I've no interest in solving it yet. I'm fairly certain I'd need the Fire Sword to really do things in here anyway.



That puzzle seems like the most important to tackle when we come back.



Heading south leads to this room. Without the Fire Sword, we can't return through this room, although of course the Warp Garden renders travel much easier.



Here we go. This is absolutely within our reach.



We first need to bring a bomb over here, then to open up the Pancake pen.



Once it eats both remaining bombs, we can simply push the block down safely and warp the other bomb where it was. No Ice Wand required, even.



You gotta have paper, man.



Heading west takes us just south of the last coin room, at the end of a huge gauntlet full of Jennies.



STAND ON IT AGNES



We've successfully looted the entirety of the castle's gold supply! Let's take a peek up those stairs real quick.



Birdhouse!



This particular old man will say random things each time you enter the room, and on rare occasions those things make sense.



I'm not totally sure how to handle this room, honestly. My gut tells me you can get through to the door with only the Ice Wand, but there's a series of four switches you need to weigh down to open the door above. We could... maybe do it with what we have? But I'm not feeling it. Besides, the other side is a room we've already seen.
  #24  
Old 03-16-2017, 05:06 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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Further south is more stuff that requires the Fire Sword.



Oh well, that detour's done. Say goodbye to Markov, kids.



So, this room.

This is the room we came here for.



First off, we need to extinguish the flame here. As it just so happens, firing a portal beam at an ice blast already in flight will warp the ice blast to the block's position. This means we can hit the flame there safely and easily. Remember, freezing a wall makes it reflective!



Once that's done, it's a simple matter of pushing blocks down there, freezing them, and interspersing them with frozen portal blocks to increase space.



By alternating, we can stretch the blocks out just far enough to reach the platform we need to warp to.



And done. Now we can come and go from here as we please. But what, exactly, IS here?



Fascinating!



There are two backdoors to the final boss area. One uses the Fire Sword and Portal Wand. This is the other one. Either of those, or the front Fire/Ice door, will get to the final boss.



Here's the crux of the puzzle. To open the door, all four of those switches need to be down.



We can start by warping this pancake over here to eat the bomb in the way, clearing us some walking room.



Once that's done, we're free to warp the Pancake far away, or just defeat it. It isn't used for anything else here.



Next up, we need the bomb out of the way from this wall, so we can use it to warp ourselves around.



You see the plan, yes? Warp across, use the fire we get from there to light the bomb, warp the bomb over, destroy the rock.



Only trick is timing. Once we're over here, we're reliant on our stick lasting the entire journey.



And while destroying the lower block with the Ice Wand and our stick does let us get over there, we need that block. The actual thing to do there is to freeze the upper block, which in turn means extinguishing the fire once we've used it.



This block is easy to handle once we've done the above properly. Just push it up a space, drop a portal block behind it, then push it back to where it started and warp behind it.



Take two.



That's more like it!



And that's all we have to do to reach the final boss!



The north exit, of course, would be the Fire and Portal back door.



Heading up the stairs, they vanish behind us, and we find ourselves in the final boss room.



AIN'T MESS WITH ME



YOU DON'T SCARE ME YOU SHADOWY LOSER



Don't complain, it was fun.
  #25  
Old 03-16-2017, 05:08 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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Dude your lighting is a bit weak, think we can fix it?



Much better. Also of course Itan is the final boss.



Tippsie's surprised, at least.



So the basic idea is that Itan landed on this island, found some dungeons, paid the Jennies and Turnips to act as guards, and carved the entire castle, just to build an enticing adventure for people like us.



Wow rude. And you carved the castle, you say?



That's pretty dang impressive to me.



Yeah, get to the good stuff.



You what?



What? What?? What???



Okay, no, screw you. We--



Never mind, Ittle's got this.



LOOT AND PILLAGE



Anyway, the fight with Itan. As with every other boss in the game, it's not possible to damage him directly. Instead, you have to puzzle out each round.



This one's easy enough, just ignite the old men. You can warp the ones across the spike valley to your side of the room no problem.



Me, though, I took the fight to them.



AIN'T TELL ME HOW TO LIVE MY LIFE



Phase 2 is Fishbuns and lit bombs.



Easy enough, freeze the bombs and shove 'em over.



The next phase is the same as the first, only now instead of Titan de Graphiques, we have Petal Slugs, and the old men are in the corners, necessitating that we warp over the spike pit.



BRING ON THE SPACE DREADNAUGHTS BRISTLING WITH ATOMIC MISSILES



...Well, he has a point.



Cut him some slack Tippsie, designing fun final bosses is hard.



Wow, rude.



Well, I had fun, at least. But what does Ittle think?



Both correct.
  #26  
Old 03-16-2017, 05:09 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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Needless to say, we don't get this line if we enter the fight with all three bits.



At heart, Ittle is a simple person with simple tastes.



Hooray!



Man I hate when that happens.



Having submitted her review, Ittle enjoys a snack.



Wait what.



That's true, but...



I'm with Tippsie on this one. You guys are loons.



Well, whatever. We can leave this junktown.



Itan chucks out a treasure chest and flies off.



Right, let's see that fancy-schmancy Artifact, then.



It looks like it went through a garbage disposal.



Rude.



And Itan throws the stairs back out too, so we can return the way we came.



While Tippsie is correct, I'm not gonna end the game juuuuust yet. There are other things we can do before we leave.

Next Time: You don't know what that means, do you?

Last edited by Kalir; 03-17-2017 at 04:00 PM.
  #27  
Old 03-17-2017, 02:43 PM
Beowulf Beowulf is offline
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Man, you're just zooming through this. I think it took me longer to play the game than I has for you to post it.
  #28  
Old 03-20-2017, 01:55 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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Let's clean up what last few things we can here and then go get ourselves a Fire Sword. First floor, we've more or less done what we can from where we can reach.



Second floor isn't very explored yet, so that's our main goal before we head off.



Good hint. Top quality hint.



Middle-tier hint, has lots of unfavorable matchups.



Oh right, Ice Wand can get us through here now.



It could also let us enter that room from this side, as the floor grates indicate.



How to fight Brutus.



GOODBYE SKIPPY



Oh hey, Jenny living quarters.



Don't do it. Not safe.



I'd say we're just a treasure hunter but I'm pretty sure Ittle has no compunctions about blatant theft anyway.



You're telling me.



Right, that's one more card down.



NO SHUT UP I WANT A SWORD



YEAH ALL RIGHT LET'S DO THIS



As before, our other items are forcibly separated from us for the dungeon.



Toasty Caves, ho! Jenny Frog doesn't hang out in here, though.



We land in this room, which has the professional shortcut to the right.



And straight north, without any obstacles whatsoever, we get the Fire Sword!



Pretty much what it says on the box. We're no longer constrained by torches, and we also do double damage to anything we hit with it. (If it's frozen, we instakill it.)



Down here is one of the less important old men in the game.



At this point I'm just being a jerk, I freely admit.



So yeah, torches no problem.



This puzzle, though, is trickier.



The main crux is putting one block in place so that it'll stop the other one once it's pushed into it.
  #29  
Old 03-20-2017, 01:56 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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Like so. Additionally, we want the first block to be up enough from the walls to move freely around.



Honestly, the Fire Sword is hard to build complex challenges around, since it mostly removes an element of complexity from an existing item you have. It's still a new capability, sure, but that's hard to build puzzles around, is what I'm getting at.



Like you can already tell what extent we're using the Fire Sword to here. This is straight up a vanilla block puzzle.



The only unconventional thing is that this is the first place a newbie player might seriously consider that they can burn the old men. Remember, we had to already figure that out just to skip the Fire Sword!



It might seem like common knowledge to us now, but it can be overlooked.



Likewise, we already know this basic thing, but it's easy to miss if you haven't been taking things out of order and are yet inexperienced with the game.



Unlike most item dungeon shortcuts, the Toasty Cave requires you to dip into a room in the "normal" route after starting the shortcut. Most other shortcuts just take you right there without crossing into old puzzles.



In this case, we need to open this gate here. Don't mind the Volcano Express for now. They do exactly what you think they do, based on looking.



Speaking of, what happens if we suddenly stop the Volcano Express?



Needless to say, a volcano crashing into a fixed obstacle results in a horrible cataclysm, killing Ittle and demolishing the entire cave system, not to mention throwing the entire ecosystem of the island into whack.



Four minutes later, we can leave and open the boss door.



So we've seen a Jenny and a Turnip as a boss. What else we got?



Uh... huh.



Ay, mi Espaáol no esta muy bueno.



I believe it's Swedish? Ittle?



Dang.



Eh, fair.



Like every other boss we've faced, the Masked Ruby is untouchable with most attacks (i.e. our Fire Sword, because we have no wands). However, he has to stop what he's doing to match our swordplay, so attacking him stops him in place for a bit. Outside of that, he hovers at a middling speed from point to point, and lunges if he ever arrives orthogonally from us.



Lighting all three torches drops a bomb in the area, which can damage him, but only if we bait him into it.



I find the best way to do this is to lure him into the bomb without lighting it, then start swinging like a maniac at both of them, keeping him pinned in place.



After a bomb hit, the Masked Ruby launches upwards, and a Fishbun and two Pancakes drop down. Defeat them all to get him to return, extinguishing the fires in the process.



And that's about it.



Upon taking two bomb hits, the Masked Ruby shatters.



AND THEN INSTANTLY RESPAWNS WHAT MADNESS IS THIS WE ARE LEAVING



That was a weird bug. Never seen that before.
  #30  
Old 03-20-2017, 01:57 PM
Kalir Kalir is offline
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More friendly reminders that this is the first dungeon most players will handle.

Also we drew a smiley face on our lifebar.



Anyway, bonus dungeons for the Fire Sword.



And by "Fire Sword" I mean "do whatever".



We have already established that Ittle Dew, like Sir Cucumber, is a hero.



The collection keeps growing!



Oooh, Master Cave, you say?



Ah, up here by Jenny Bun.



The Master Cave is the postgame of Ittle Dew, home to 12 devious puzzles.



As well as 12 ugly statues.



Ittle, are you that bored?



The statue considers her unworthy of reply.



Tippsie you're OUT OF YOUR ELEMENT



But yeah, we're gonna need some wands for this.



In the meantime, a few less masterful caves.



How did I not screenshot this room in the vanilla state? Oh well. Anyway, it starts with four iceblocks in the center, you can see the bits of ice where I broke the first one. Your goal is to push one onto the switch on the left.



As usual, the trick is in making sure you can push the blocks where they need to go, without cutting yourself off from moving them further. This is the kind of setup you want for that.



What a weird reward.



On we go.



So with this room, if we just light the bombs as they are...



They'll chain react, leaving us with a big pile of nothing and wall, where we'd really prefer a pile of nothing and nothing.



All we really have to do is be careful about what goes where.



Make sure that each bomb will only destroy rocks without setting off the nearby bombs.



At last, we know the secrets of the noble and mysterious Fishbun.



One more.



Obligatory fight room.
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