Everyday I'm Shovellin'

At last! The shovel! It took some doing, since the price was higher than expected, but I finally managed to buy the shovel. The game hasn't fallen apart because of it, but at long last, new avenues to treasure have opened up for me. And it seems that secluded patches of bare earth open into holes a la the bomb/song holes in Ocarina of Time/Majora's Mask. So the game has stretched itself before me just a little more.

However, as progress is made, it seems that some things are getting harder to find.

Fighting the flying, sleeping, rooting pigs just outside of Tingle's house used to yield quite a bit of the item "Minced Meat." Now, though, they drop rupees much more often. Maybe it's just the game's way of making it difficult to heal up my ailing bodyguard, the same way that some of the old Zelda games only give you hearts in abundance when you least need them.

Of course, it might also be the game saying that the most basic of healing potions is no longer as necessary as it once was.

Indeed, maybe the "Simple Juice" will prove more effective than mere "Tingly."

Oh, and regarding the question of where this game fits into the Zelda timeline/universe, in Lon Lon Meadow there's a guy who looks a lot like Ingo. He's been in Ocarina of Time as a farmhand, so there's still a strong case for Tingle's game occuring somewhere around there.

Perhaps, since this is the adventure he goes on before Tingle's looking for a fairy (as he and Link are in Majora's Mask), this game takes place in tandem with Ocarina of Time. Perhaps.