On the subject of a weapon's smith, there are a lite versions of this in the game. For instance, in Zora's Domain, there is a smithy that will make a new Lightscale or Ceremonial Trident for you if the ones you obtain break. Likewise in Gerudo Town, the chief of the guard always standing at Riju's throne will remake the scimitar and shield you get after beating the divine beast. In both cases, you need to bring stuff like gems, flint or maybe a different weapon like a spear from them to use to put the gems on and craft the weapon. I've never bothered with any of it because there are always other weapons equal or better than them to bother with it and I'd rather use my ores for other things like upgrades or selling.
The most significant happenings for me of late are that I've now found all 12 memories. I was able to discover the last one by chance but I knew it would be the hardest. It is the forest one that can be found in the bottom right of your memory pictures. There aren't a lot of details to help you place where it might be. I'd been hoping to find the painter in another location for a clue to this area but I've only had him pop up in one other location since Kakariko village. Maybe it's because I've been able to find the rest without his help. Anyways, every time I saw a forest area, I'd check it out in case it might be the one but it would never match up right. But finally, I was passing one area and I thought it seemed sort of close. It had some potential because it had some similar raised ground in it like the picture and a bit of a path. So, I slowly walked along the path trying to see if the view in front of me would line up like the picture when the memory glow suddenly began to appear ahead of me. Fistpump to myself on finding what is probably the most difficult one with no help and that mission complete.
As well, I was travelling along the Hylia river in the search for the missing Zora Mom and came across some stables and shrines I hadn't been by yet. At one stable, there was a person who talked about wanting a cookbook from Hyrule Castle and another person who talked about a Royal Guard Set left behind at the Castle. Intrigued that there was an armor set at the castle, I decided to make another journey back there. My raid on the castle ended up becoming a full on conquest. At this point, with some of my maxed armor like my Champions Shirt and Amber Earrings, I had a defensive rating of 80. Plus, I had much better weapons that I've been sporting. So, going through the insides of the castle, I pretty much started fighing everyone in it instead of sneaking around. As well, all the Guardian robots are stationary so I started deflecting back lasers to eliminate some and from all the treasure chests I was opening in the castle, I received a bounty of Ancient Arrows. Maybe around 14 so I used those on other higher HP Guardian sentries. I even confronted the Savage Lynels hidden in the castle and took them out. Even with their weapons, when they hit me, they'd do about a quarter or half a heart of damage. This allowed me to practice fighting them more and on the second one, I was actually able to get in some flurry strikes. I still haven't gotten the timing right to do it regularly put I'm getting better at dodging and fighting them so I'm happy to see me skill improving there.
It turns out that I misunderstood the side quest. There is no armor set there. The Royal Guard series refers to a type of weapon style and the character in the sidequest just wanted to see one of those weapons. I realized that after a bit of time but since I'd covered a bit of the castle at that point I decided to just keep going. At this point, I've pretty much covered everything inside and outside that castle and defeated all enemies in it except the flying sentry bots. (Didn't have enough Ancient Arrows for all the robots.) At this point, I almost feel like I should just try fighting Calamity Ganon as that's about the only left to do there and all the enemies will probably respawn on a blood moon but I don't really want to since I know I'd be refighting him after I beat all the Divine Beasts so why do it now and spoil the surprise? I just got carried away with my Castle raid but it felt really good returning to the castle and suddenly dominating and taking out all enemies after my first venture in there and having to constantly run and sneak around that I just kept going. At least I was able to get a lot of treasure and loot out of it and almost 4,000 rupees from it all.
I will say that the Castle is a strong argument in favor of how the minimalist music while exploring Hyrule is a good thing. After a couple hours of it, I was really starting to get sick of it. It's great at first but it wears out its welcome. I think it was a pretty smart decision on whoever handled the music.