The "Old Man's Diary" changes depending on Link's actions
The "Old Man's Diary" changes depending on Link's actions
- If you run past the Old Man on the Great Plateau directly after starting the game and don't interact with him at all, there won't be a diary inside the Woodcutter's Hut. It makes sense if you keep in mind that this diary was made by Rhoam specifically so that Link can read it, instead of it being an actual diary for a random hermit. Rhoam realized that Link doesn't remember squat and then decided to put the diary there.
- After you talked to him at least once, but before you obtain either the Paraglider OR the Warm Doublet, the "Old Man" will give not-so-subtle hints about how to stay warm in the cold zone and the Warm Doublet itself. We wouldn't want the Hero of Hyrule to freeze to death five minutes after waking up, wouldn't we?
- The diary changes again after you have given him the dish and obtained the Warm Doublet. Interestingly enough, the diary does NOT change of you get the Warm Doublet from him on top of Mount Hylia: it will still say he would "give his Warm Doublet to whoever tells him the recipe" like in the former picture. If you DO give him the recipe/dish during that time, he will have the same dialogue up until to the point where he would normally give you the item - and then he says something along the lines of "...but I already gave it to you, didn't I? I just forgot" and that's it. You don't get a second Warm Doublet.
- After obtaining the Paraglider, he'll apologize for having deceived Link and exlains why he did it. No more "Old Man" monologue to see here.
- If you still haven't obtained the Warm Doublet before getting the Paraglider, there will be a bit of additional text urging Link to take that thing already. This is also the only scenario where the chest in the background shows up. This chest is a bit glitched tho, in the sense that the Sheikah Sensor+ reacts to it even if it didn't appear, so if you obtained the Warm Doublet early there will forever be a "ping" inside the hut that you can not find/open.
Huh, very interesting. Always found it strange how this iteration of zelda treats “ghosts”. Basically alive and well until whoops sorry gotta turn to sparkles, “good luck”
Indeed. I also have the headcanon that Rhoam is somehow responsible for the fog barrier around the Great Plateau, just to keep Link confined to this area area until he learned how to survive. Let's be honest, it's easy to climb down from there even with one wheel of stamina, so in-game it doesn't make sense that he needs the Paraglider to survive leaving the plateau.
And there are other "spiritual beings" already in the game that are able to create fog that swallows Link and spits him out elsehwere (Korok Forest) so why shouldn't Rhoam have this ability as well?