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SNAKE! SNAKE? SNAAAAKE!

 

Donkey Kong Bananza - https://youtu.be/LFdQlY46g90

 

Today's menu: lots and lots of lore.

As we already had eels, I didn't expect any snakes beyond probably fossils (like we have of many of DK's animal buddies). However, much as our ostritch buddy Espresso's gliding has been replicated with a Bananza, we also get Rattley's jumping. (While I don't doubt that ostriches can probably glide a little, snakes simply cannot jump very high. They can launch themselves, but not even close to anything like the multi-screen height that Rattley gets, or the probably ten or so meters of the snake Bananza. I'm sure Pauline will comment on it eventually.) And the outfits on all the snakes are so cute! It's funny that the best-dressed characters are the ones without anything resembling hands. I'm a little surprised that the Underground's inventors haven't made any manipulators.

Not only did we get our last Bananza, but we also spent a bit of time with none of them and even had a puzzle using most of them. With our full ability set unlocked, we're really at the end of the game now. I don't think the present layer is the last one, but it might be only one or two away. We do still have to reach the root, after all.

Speaking of the root: we're getting more clues as to exactly what it is, and how all the mechanics at play work. The gold fuels our Bananzas because it's actually from the Banandium Root. That also might tell us why Void is after it: it's a source of infinite gold. However, something has messed up at some point, and I think that the Exploritone lore we're finding might be related. My current theory is that the Banandium Root has been activated at least twice. The first time was someone delving all the way down through these layers, finding wonders but no inhabitants, and wishing to the root that people would live in the Underground. That, then, is "the Origin of Us" that the Exploritone keeps mentioning. The Exploritone was next to visit the root, and probably wished for "everything to stay the same", or something else poorly worded. That would cause the noted lack of new gold roots. The other option in mind is that it has not been activated for quite some time and needs to be periodically visited to keep things growing. Regardless, visiting it this time is probably going to cause some changes in the Underground, kind of like how a lot of new Power Moons are available in the postgame of Odyssey. That is the reason I'm not exploring exhaustively on first visit: I'll go back in the postgame to get everything then.