PUZZLE #23: Sudokurossword

PUZZLE #23

SUDOKUROSSWORD

This next puzzle is inspired by a dream that one of my occasional solvers, Lynn Sweeney, had back in February; after a while making other puzzles, I've finally gotten around to making it! I meet her in person regularly, and the dream in question involved me creating a sudoku puzzle (I taught her how to solve some sudoku puzzles, you see) and somehow transferring the numbers from there to a crossword puzzle. Read on to se the results of that dream!

This puzzle comes in two parts: The first part is a sudoku, which you solve normally (the numbers 1-9 appear once in each row, column, and 3x3 box). The second part is a crossword, but the numbers in the numbered clues have been replaced with coordinates; each coordinate lines up with a box in the sudoku grid. For example, if the coordinates say E3, you look in row E and in column 3 in the sudoku grid below, and you'll get the number 5. So that means that the coordinates E3 in the sudoku grid translates to 5-Down in the crossword grid. If you want to really challenge yourself, you can skip the sudoku entirely and try to fit in the crossword answers without knowing where they're supposed to go, but I wouldn't recommend that.

Once you're done, unscramble the shaded squares in the crossword to form the FINAL ANSWER: A ten-letter word

CROSSWORD CLUES:

A8) Act as a muse again

B5) Mussolini and others

B7) Director DW and actress Melanie

C9) Avoids, as a question on a touchy subject

D4) Director of the upcoming film The Hateful Eight

E9) Covered with 5-pointed shapes, maybe (Anagram of RED TRAINS)

F6) Pacific, Atlantic, and Mountain

G1) Creators of Ratchet & Clank and Sunset Overdrive

H2) Shone, like sparkly stuff

I3) Whip-wielding prosecutor from the Ace Attorney series

Once you figure out what the FINAL ANSWER is, send it to either redhead64@chartermi.net or itsredhead64@gmail.com and I'll put your name on a solvers list in two weeks or so. You can also use those email addresses to give me comments and feedback on this puzzle, or you could send me the answer to last week's puzzle, if you haven't already. If you want a version of this puzzle you can print out, just click on "Read more" below!