A Link to the Past: Riddle Quest and Palace of the Four Sword

The main reason I wanted to play this version of A Link to the Past was for the bonus dungeon, unlocked by completing both A Link to the Past and Four Swords on the same save file. There’s also another bit of bonus content, unlocked by earning ten Medals of Courage in Four Swords. Anticipating that I might not be able to do that much in Four Swords, I got a save that has everything ready to go so once I got far enough in A Link to the Past I could do the extra content.

The Medals of Courage unlock a series of riddles. Another brother of the lumberjacks appears in the lumberjacks’ house, and once Link has the bug-catching net, the lumberjack gives him a cage and challenges him to find the item he describes. Sometimes the riddles are fairly simple, like “Cock-a-doodle-doo!” referring to cuccos, but they can also be somewhat difficult to crack, like “It’s moist and fresh…” describing a fish. And sometimes finding or catching the item described can be difficult, like the fish whose erratic flopping movements make them hard to catch in the net. The rewards for this are mostly cosmetic: Link can get carvings of himself, a cucco, and Princess Zelda delivered to his house. After completing all ten riddles, the lumberjack teaches Link the hurricane spin, a continuous spin attack that drains the magic meter. After learning it, I never found a cause to actually use it, but that’s not terribly unusual. This also unlocked the hurricane spin in Four Swords.

The Palace of the Four Sword, which appears in a cracked wall of the Dark World pyramid, is guarded by one of those critters that asks 20 rupees to tell Link a hint. Once Link meets the requirements, the critter welcomes Link to the palace and challenges him to beat it, then poofs out. If Link leaves the dungeon later for any reason, he’s there again, so restocking potions between bosses adds an extra 20 rupee cost.

Branching off the central room are four microdungeons, which each consist of some sort of puzzle, followed by a harder version of one of the bosses Link fought during the quest. The puzzles often require some trick that doesn’t come up much during the quest (e.g., turning at the precise moment a dash starts to bounce off a wall, using beams created by destroying a Cane of Somaria block) or are new to this version of the game (diving underwater, destroying a pot with an arrow). Proper like likes appear in this dungeon, an addition to the game; they also show up around the Dark World shield shop, so if you’re not careful, you can buy Link a new shield and immediately have it eaten.

The minidungeon bosses:

• The Helmasaur King, who’s gained the ability to summon helmasaurs. At the point when the old boss would be defeated, he grows a second mask, and when it’s destroyed, shows a new weak point that needs to be hit with an arrow.
• Arrghus, who’s replaced the cloud of arrghi that surrounded it with baris. Unlike normal baris, the hookshot pulls them toward Link, forcing him to find another way to kill them without taking damage; the silver arrow works wonders here.
• Mothula, who’s no longer surrounded by spikes, but spawns two illusory doubles, making for a very chaotic fight.
• Blind, who first appears as Link’s uncle, and quotes the text used for Link’s uncle’s death in the Super NES version [1]. After the heads are knocked off, Link has to bat them around so they land back on the body. This is my favorite of the four different fights, and I kind of wish this could be backported into the normal Blind fight because it’s quite fun.

After each boss is defeated, Link claims one of four colored swords. With the full collection, he can pass through an electrified barrier to the final boss: four shadow Links, one for each color. Each Link gains an attack: the green one has a Pegasus Shoes charge, the red one has a hurricane spin attack, the blue one can disappear to avoid attacks and pounce with a downward thrust, and the purple one shoots fireballs. After they’re all defeated, the four colored swords merge and Link claims the Four Sword.

There’s a special ending that plays after Link’s victory, showing each of the Dark World dungeons (including the pyramid) and dungeon bosses. In place of the credits, a roll of each item and how many times Link used them plays. This is a good way to see which items are less useful than others (the magic cape gets used twice: once to get the Cane of Byrna, which outclasses it, and once to get a heart piece), reflect on how many times I had to play the digging game for the heart piece, and get an idea of how long the quest was when I see my number of sword uses at 5,556.

In conclusion: I’m glad I did this once, but I don’t think I’ll ever do it again. The riddle quest was fairly meh, and the rewards aren’t really worth it. The Palace of the Four Sword was better, with some fun one-off puzzles and reworks of earlier bosses, but not really worth doing again.

[1] A different translation of the original Japanese version, anyway. Notably, it says “You are the princess’s…” rather than “Zelda is your….”

A Link to the Past: GBA Update

Overall, I think the GBA version of A Link to the Past is an inferior version of the game. It’s still fine; they didn’t completely wreck the game. But the changes, big and small, add up to less than the original.

One change I’ll praise is the updated text. The translation was redone, changing references to the seven wise men to the seven sages to match the term used in Ocarina of Time. Link’s uncle’s dying speech is reworked to remove the “Zelda is your…” bit at the end; parts of the old speech are used in the bonus dungeon by one of the bosses. That’s about it for major changes, which is fine because the original text was clear and consistent. (The one typo in the original, the Great Faeries offering to "sooth" Link's wounds, was fixed. Also "faerie" has become "fairy," as used in the series' other games.) By the end of the game I was clicking through the text and barely reading it, even when I meant to like with some items with memorable text in the original; checking a text dump, the hookshot kept its BOING!s, and while the Cane of Somaria was slightly rewritten, it still doesn’t actually say what the cane does.

Because the GBA’s button layout is different, controls had to be remapped, and… I generally hate how they did it. Ocarina of Time shifted the controls around, but that was a different game; coming to the familiar A Link to the Past only having sword on the left and item on the right feels backward and threw me off for a long time. Definitely backward is Select to bring up inventory and Start to bring up the pause menu, which is a straight reversal from the original game; apparently this was done to keep controls consistent with Four Swords. The map and action buttons being mapped to L and R, which the original version didn’t use, is fine.

The other area where the game suffers is sound. The music is just not as good; the Dark World overworld theme, and especially the intro section, lost the most. High-pitched sounds became ear-splitting. And some genius decided what A Link to the Past really, desperately needed was for Link to grunt when he swings his sword and scream when he falls into a hole. The former I learned to tune out, just like with Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask, but I didn’t have Link fall into holes enough to get used to him screaming every time he did.

I had a good deal more difficulty with the game than I’m used to, which is probably just minor system differences throwing me off because I’m so used to the quirks and timing of the original. However, there were times where I was certain a gap was too small for enemies to squeeze through, only squeeze through they did. The outer ring of lamplight in dark corridors is now patchy rather than dim. Also, two enemies had significant changes. Unless I was just terribly inaccurate, flipped terrorpins were immune to the ice rod, and died instantly to ether rather than freezing, so they weren’t a useful resource for refilling magic like I was used to. Stalfos knights, while they still die after enough sword hits, became immune to the sword while collapsed, so doing it right and finishing them off with a bomb became a massive timesaver.

Other little changes: Arrows don’t start appearing until Link has the bow, but he gets ten immediately when he does [1] and they’re really plentiful for the rest of the dungeon, even with lots of eyegores between the bow and the boss. Link can destroy signs with the sword, and pots with the golden sword. A few items can destroy bushes or pots when they couldn’t before. The shovel can dig north and south, rather than just east or west. Occasionally, Link will come across a sparkling rock that spits out rupees when he hits it with his sword. Dungeons now display their name when Link enters, and the Tower of Hera has been renamed the Mountain Tower. The inventory has been revamped, with each bottle getting its own slot, and the shovel taking over the old bottle slot and staying after Link gets the flute. Link can dive while swimming. After a certain point – I’d guess once Link unlocks the portal there – a ninth flute stop is added atop the Light World version of Turtle Rock. The goriyas in the cave with the last heart piece are replaced with eyegores – I suppose because goriyas are Dark World only – but the room is still designed with goriyas in mind. Maple from the Oracle games has set up as the witch’s apprentice who runs the potion shop.

Finally, the final puzzle of the Ice Palace was basically removed, and the room it was in and the room above it were redesigned. The flow of the dungeon is basically unchanged; Link still has to go down to the old puzzle room and through a door to the right, hit a switch crystal, and work his way back up to the room above and fall through to the southern half of the old puzzle room, but the actual puzzle is gone. So there’s no reason to sequence break and grab the Cane of Somaria from Misery Mire anymore. Oddly, the part I always used to have trouble with (until I learned the way through) was the route back after hitting the switch crystal, so while I do like the change (for the most part; having the puzzle room split like it is feels weird), it wouldn’t have helped me back in the day.

Next: The Four Swords-unlockable content.

[1] It’s entirely possible this always happened but I was always maxed out on arrows (30) by time I got the bow.

A Link to the Past: The Final Battle

Round 3 – FIGHT!

With his Agahnim disguise [1] destroyed, Ganon now confronts Link in his true form, the familiar pig-demon thing from The Legend of Zelda. The first three phases of the fight really aren’t all that hard; the second phase, where he surrounds himself with a ring of fireballs that turn into blazing bats and shoot at Link is the worst of the three. In the third phase, he destroys the outer ring of the floor, and the battle resets if Link falls through [2]. This gives Link a way to escape if he’s losing; jump out, go to the Light World, restock on potions, and come back. Not very like the Hero, though.

For the fourth and final phase, he turns out the lights. The lights blind him when Link uses the fire rod (or lamp) to turn them back on, and he’s weakened enough that being hit further stuns him. While stunned, he’s susceptible to silver arrows. It takes four shots to finish him off, and a door opens to the north.

The End

“Welcome, Link. I am the Essence of the Triforce. The Triforce will grant the wishes in the heart and mind of the person who touches it. If a person with a good heart touches it, it will make his good wishes come true. If an evil-hearted person touches it, it grants his evil wishes. The stronger the wish, the more powerful the Triforce’s expression of that wish.
“Ganon’s wish was to conquer the world. That wish changed the Golden Land to the Dark World. Ganon was building up his power here so he could conquer the Light World and make his wish come completely true. But now, you have completely destroyed Ganon. His Dark World will vanish.
“The Triforce is waiting for a new owner. Its Golden Power is in your hands. Now, touch it with a wish in your heart.” [3]

Link takes the Triforce, and we’re treated to a montage of Hyrule now that it’s passed from evil hands to good ones. In short: Zelda and the other maidens are free of the crystals; people who were trapped in the Dark World are brought back to Hyrule; everyone recovers, even people who died, like the King, Link’s uncle, and the Sanctuary sage; life goes on as usual for people like the lumberjacks, smiths, Zoras, and faeries; Sahasrahla returns to Kakariko Village; and Link returns the Master Sword to its pedestal where it’s said to sleep again forever.

The endings of the games keep getting better and better. This one has a great sense of accomplishment, along with some beautiful music that may well be my favorite music from any video game. The credits end with a majestic version of the main/overworld theme playing [4], and then a death count that’s oh so satisfying to see at 000.

Final Thoughts

At this point, I am way too familiar with the game to have much chance of changing my opinion of it. The difficulty’s a step down from the first game and a leap from the second, and while I find it quite easy now, that’s again because I know it so well. I don’t remember my initial “games played” count – certainly in the double digits, and I used a lot more potions that time, making numerous trips to the rupee room near the Desert to be able to afford restocking.

So that’s my favorite of the four games I’ve played. It’ll be interesting to see if anything can overcome the nostalgia filter to displace it as my favorite. I’ve heard good things about numerous later entries in the series, so there’s a chance.

Next: Koholint Island.

[1] I’m not sure whether Agahnim was a real person Ganon possessed and used to weaken the seal, or just an alternate form he created that was somehow able to pass through the barrier. Given that there’s a body left behind when Ganon’s spirit flees, I’d assume there was something real there.
[2] Annoyingly, he goes through his whole introduction again on a rematch.
[3] As with the intro text, this is lightly edited.
[4] That kicks in just as composer Koji Kondo’s name appears in the credits.

A Link to the Past: Ganon's Tower and Turtle Rock

Turtle Rock

Upon entering Turtle Rock, Link is warned not to proceed without a way to restore his magic, but there are plenty of magic decanters in the dungeon so he really doesn’t have to worry unless he’s careless. There are rails through several rooms but nothing to ride on them, requiring the second function of the cane of Somaria to create platforms. Many rooms in the dungeon are mazes requiring the use of these rails to navigate through; one room is dark with no torches, so there’s just the little bit of illumination around Link to navigate by. One other room has Link required to make like that other Nintendo hero and go tumbling through green pipes to his destination.

The new enemies in this dungeon are segmented hopping creatures called hokkubokkus, whose segments go flying around the room for a moment after Link hits them. They’re actually quite dangerous, even with the blue mail. Also, chain chomps from Super Mario Bros. 3 make a cameo appearance.

The treasure is strictly optional but neutralizes the laser eyes so it’s so worth it. Getting the mirror shield requires stepping out of the dungeon, crossing a platform, and re-entering. Before going back in, warping back to the Light World leaves Link in front of a cave with the 24th and final heart piece, which he can probably use after having to run a laser eye gauntlet to get out of the dungeon.

The dungeon’s boss is Trinexx, a snake creature with a turtle shell that projects two extra heads. The two extra heads shoot fire and ice, and are thus vulnerable to the opposite rods. The ice head is more dangerous because if it shoots ice, an icy patch will remain on the dungeon floor for the rest of the battle, and that’s no good, so it has to go first. Once the two elemental heads are destroyed, the shell explodes and the snake comes after Link. A few shots to its weak spot and Trinexx is dead.

Zelda thanks Link for rescuing her, and says that her initial impression, that he would become the legendary Hero, was correct. Now it’s time to go to Ganon’s Tower to the west, where the maidens will break the barrier and allow Link to enter.

Ganon’s Tower

Much like its Light World counterpart, the Tower of Hera, Link enters Ganon’s Tower on the second floor. This floor is completely empty aside from some statues and three staircases on the northern wall, two leading down, one leading up.

The first floor of the tower is a completionist explorer’s bane. The path splits from the staircases, one leading east, the other west. The eastern path gives the compass, the western path the map. Neither item is really useful as once Link starts ascending the tower it’s very linear with only one secret room. The two paths converge near the bottom of the map, with Link forced walk over a large section of hidden floor tiles to the correct exit. Then he falls through to the basement and fights another group of armos knights. They may be on an icy floor now, but silver arrows make it only require one shot to kill them, so the fight really is much easier than before. Link can get the big key and find a group of faeries here before returning to the first floor and finding the dungeon’s treasure, the red mail, which further protects him from damage. There’s no real reason to take the path not taken before, unless you’re like me and can’t help yourself.

Heading up the tower, the first major threat is the return of beamos. The mirror shield does nothing against them, sadly. There’s often more than one in a room, and on the 4th floor, some evil genius had the bright idea to put them on moving waterways so they don’t stay in a fixed position and dodging became even harder. Once finally through that gauntlet, Link finds another group of lanmolas, now with a fireball-spitting medusa in the corner. Still not that much harder than before, and the journey up the tower continues.

The fifth floor contains one of my favorite rooms in the whole game. There’s a crumbling bridge, and on either side of the bridge is a moving waterway, one going in each direction. I’ve been known to sit around after the bridge crumbled riding the waterways back and forth for minutes. But we can’t delay the inevitable forever, so eventually Link comes across the return of the moldorm. Of the returning bosses, this is the one they most succeeded in making harder: the one that didn’t need it to begin with. The platform is narrower north-south, so there’s less room to maneuver to avoid its attacks. Should Link fall off, he lands in a spike-filled room [1] with wizzrobes and a fire faerie, which can of course be turned into a normal faerie if needed for health.

After the moldorm, there’s one last room with ice, moving water, bumpers, and traps to navigate before it’s time for the second confrontation with Agahnim. He spawns a couple illusory dopplegängers, which should make him harder but is tactically unsound. If your only weakness is having your fireballs reflected back on you, why create doubles that always shoot fireballs that can be reflected and hurt you? Hitting him three times in a single casting rotation is tricky – it depends where they all cast from, and whether the real Agahnim uses a fireball or his blue shot – but glorious when pulled off. Oh, and he doesn’t have his lightning attack, which was the worst of the three he had before.

With no way to escape this time, Agahnim dies after taking enough hits. Ganon’s spirit rises from Agahnim’s body and flees. Link somehow calls his loyal bird to the Dark World to follow him to the Pyramid of Power, where Ganon has crashed through the top, creating a large hole.

Next: The End

[1] I’ve never actually landed on the spikes, and don’t know if it’s possible.

A Link to the Past: Misery Mire

Misery Mire

The transporter for the sixth dungeon is only accessible by flute, and takes Link to the dark equivalent of the Desert of Mystery, the Swamp of Evil. One heart piece is hidden in a building next to the dungeon entrance, and another requires warping back to the Light World in the northeast corner of the swamp. Then it’s stand on the tile that looks like the ether medallion, use the medallion, and into dungeon #6.

It’s a Zelda game, so of course there are wizzrobes. Unlike the ones future Link will encounter, these guys spawn in fixed positions, either absolute or relative to Link’s position, so they’re easier to deal with than in previous games. The beamos make their return and are only slightly less terrible because Link has the blue mail to protect him now. There’s a new kind of laser-emitting enemy, laser eyes, which are mounted on walls and fire when Link enters their line of sight. For the time being, they’re more of a nuisance than a threat, but they can be deadly, at least until Link gets the proper countermeasure. Finally in the new enemy department, we have sluggulas, bomb-laying slugs that are just… kind of funny.

Getting the big key requires solving a “light the four torches” puzzle with the torches in two separate rooms. With the big key, Link can get the dungeon’s treasure: the cane of Somaria, which is the weirdest item in the game. The game even punts on the description, but the primary function becomes clear: to create mobile magical blocks. This ability is required to pass a button that needs something on it to stay active puzzle when there’s no statues or blocks around to push onto it. Finally, Link’s inventory is complete.

Armed with the cane, Link heads for the boss: Vitreous, another eye monster, bathing in a toxic bath with a bunch of little eyeballs. Vitreous is the easiest boss in the game. Just stand in the corner, spam sword attacks until all the little eyeballs are done, and Vitreous will come out to play. Vitreous continually hops toward Link, and despite being a giant eye, apparently can’t see that Link’s holding out his sword. Vitreous dies after hopping onto the sword enough times, and Link recovers the sixth maiden’s crystal. The maiden tells Link to hurry after Zelda to Turtle Rock, but there’s something to do first.

The Cursed Faerie

At the Dark World equivalent of his home, Link finds a bomb shop, with a super bomb for sale. The super bomb is capable of blowing a hole in the Great Pyramid where it’s cracked, and Link finds a pond like at the Waterfall of Wishing. This time the items that can be upgraded are the Master Sword, which is replaced with/turned into the Golden Sword, and the bow and arrows, which are upgraded to silver arrows to defeat Ganon.

The final two objectives, Turtle Rock and Ganon’s Tower, are on Dark Death Mountain, so it’s time to make one last trip up. Turtle Rock is the only Dark World dungeon whose Light World counterpart is only interesting in connection with it. Reaching the top of the Light World version requires lifting a rock with the Titan’s Mitt. Then to open the portal needed to the Dark World, Link has to hit the three pegs on top in the correct order. Then, after returning to the Dark World, before jumping off the rock, the quake medallion is needed to open the entrance.

Before going inside, there’s another heart piece to get. After going west from Turtle Rock, Link lifts a rock and passes through a cave, ending up on the disconnected mountain top, and then he warps to the Light World to pick up the heart piece. Now it’s time to go back to the Dark World and enter Turtle Rock.

Next: Zelda and Agahnim, one last time.

A Link to the Past: Ice Palace

The Smith Comes Home

The Titan’s Mitt is the final world-opening item in the game. There are surprisingly few things still left to get, and three of the four heart pieces Link can get now are close to dungeons six and seven and don’t increase the heart total so it’s kind of pointless to go after them immediately. So that leaves three items, centered on the blacksmiths’ shop east of Kakariko Village. First, where the Library is in the Light World, Link finds the blacksmith’s missing partner. Somehow, he can follow Link through the Magic Mirror, and the two go to the shop. As the smith promised, now that they’re both there they can temper the Master Sword.

Once that’s done, it’s time to visit the Dark World version of the shop. On the grounds outside are a pancaketon of pegs just asking to be hit by a hammer. Link obliges and opens a passageway to the 20th heart piece. Inside the ruined building where the shop stands, there’s a chest with its key locked inside. Since this isn’t the randomizer where that only happens if the key’s not important, Link takes the chest, which follows him around rather than going to inventory, and finds a man capable of picking locks – the “average middle-aged man” near the entrance to the desert. The man opens the chest in exchange for Link’s keeping his identity as a thief secret, and Link’s rewarded with a fourth bottle, just in time to tackle the hardest dungeon in the game.

Ice Palace

What makes the Ice Palace so frustrating is that there’s no avoiding doubling back, twice. The first time there’s no indication it’s time to turn back, so it’s possible to go further on than needed before Link runs into a dead end (no big key) and needs to start working his way back up the dungeon. Then the second time involves one of the most infuriating puzzles in the game. Link needs to trigger a switch block to be able to push a block down a floor, but hitting that switch means going up and around to be able to push the block. Plus if he goes too far, he’s got to hit a switch on his way back down [1], rendering the whole trip moot.

I understand this puzzle has been changed in the Game Boy Advance remake. I’m going to play that at some point, so I can see the dialogue changes and experience the bonus dungeon [2]. I’m curious to see how they fixed it. Also, sequence breaking and getting the treasure from Misery Mire makes this puzzle really easy. Speaking of treasure, this dungeon’s treasure is the blue mail, which makes the Dark World foes a lot less deadly.

There are a bunch of new enemies here; despite Sahasrahla’s advice that magical fire would be essential, the hookshot is even more useful. Oh, the fire rod and/or bombos are indispensible, no doubt, and the dungeon makes sure Link has one or the other before the first door opens. But the hookshot’s the best way to deal with pengators, kills babasus in a single shot, and lets Link deal with baris without a chance for being electrocuted, all without consuming magic. Sahasrahla also says that stalfos knights can’t be killed with just the sword, which is patently untrue; sure, it’s so much easier to use a bomb when they’re down, but keep beating on them with the sword and they end up just as dead.

Compared with the rest of the dungeon, the boss, Kholdstare, is almost a joke. His first phase can be beaten with a few shots from the fire rod or one from bombos, and then he splits into three worm-like creatures who are also vulnerable to the fire rod or just getting hacked at. The maiden tells Link that time is growing short, but he can take the Triforce from Ganon.

Next: More swamps, yay.

[1] I just realized that’s why this switch, which is initially set to the color needed to proceed through the next room, is there at all. Bloody sadistic design.
[2] Even if I can’t manage to play Four Swords, I have a save with it completed so I can access the bonus content in A Link to the Past.

A Link to the Past: More Dark World

It’s really tempting to sequence break at this point, knowing what’s in store in the next three dungeons. Dungeon #4 has a very high reward to difficulty ratio, and doing it first makes #2 and #3 easier. But, since I’m doing story, I should do them in order.

Swamp Palace

So we start with the Swamp Palace. This palace has several sections where Link needs to flood a hallway to progress, including one at the beginning where he has to go to the Light World and open the gate there to even get started. There’s one near the end where he needs to open a drain to proceed, too. New enemies are mostly aquatic creatures, including balls of water that go flying all over the place trying to hit Link. The treasure is the hookshot, which is a useful tool – it does just about everything the boomerang does and more – but also incredibly fun to use. (BOING!) And it’s a key part of defeating the boss, Arrghus, which kind of resembles a patra. The maiden tells Link more about Ganon and the Triforce [1], and that there are other warp points in the world, which I’ve been using, so, well, thanks.

Now that Link has the hookshot, he can easily get the one near the cave where the path to Death Mountain is in the Light World. He has to hookshot over a gap, then use the cape to bypass a bumper, and then he’s through to the heart piece.

Skull Woods

With that heart piece, it’s on to the dungeon in Skull Woods, the counterpart of the Lost Woods. This dungeon is in three distinct sections, and if it weren’t for my completionist tendencies, the first two can be mostly skipped. Section two has the big key, which is used in section one to open the chest and get the fire rod. Then pass back through section two, use the fire rod to burn the long thing sticking out of the final section’s mouth, and go in. There are three new enemies here: First, gibdos make their return to the series, and die in a single shot from the fire rod. (If there’s two or more on screen, bombos comes in very handy.) Second, we have rabbit beams, which temporarily cancel out the Moon Pearl if they hit Link. And finally, there’s… well, they’re still called wallmasters, but they drop from the ceiling instead of coming out of the walls. Still annoying. The boss is Mothula, a giant moth, the moldorm’s main competition for my least favorite boss in the game. The floor is constantly moving and traps try to hit Link, all while Mothula’s doing its thing. The fire rod is the easiest weapon to use here. The maiden tells Link more about the Hero prophecy: since Ganon, an evil person, got the Triforce, a Hero was destined to appear with the power to stop him.

Thieves’ Town

There’s nothing to do in the overworld, so it’s on to dungeon #4, Thieves’ Town, found under a gargoyle statue where the weathercock is/was in the Light World. The dungeon opens with four huge rooms which contain all the map, compass, and big key. After that, if you know what to do, the dungeon is very linear, but someone who doesn’t know what’s going on would likely be confused, especially with the sequence where Link goes to the upper floor, bombs a certain patch of floor, then backtracks. The dungeon has another signature moment: the maiden appears to be held in a jail cell rather than a crystal, but it’s the boss, Blind, in disguise. If he’s dragged to the boss room, which should have a brightly lit floor patch by now, he’ll drop the disguise and fight Link [2]. The fight is somewhat reminiscent of gleeoks: heads fly off and continue to attack while the fight continues. Once recovered, the real maiden tells Link that the Knights were nearly wiped out by the Imprisoning War, and he may be the last of the Knights’ bloodline.

The prize in Thieves’ Town was the Titan’s Mitt, which opens up the rest of the dungeons. But first, there’s questing to do.

Next: The hardest dungeon in the game.

[1] A good name for a rock band, if you’re looking to get a trademark infringement notice from Nintendo.
[2] Honestly, I can’t figure out his endgame plan here. He won’t follow Link out of the dungeon, which is hella suspicious. So… the best I can come up with is to keep Link fighting monsters until he drops from exhaustion.

A Link to the Past: The Dark World

Palace of Darkness

The Palace of Darkness introduces four new enemies: baris, which sometimes surge with electricity and shock Link if he hits them; helmasaurs, whose defining feature is the protective mask they wear on their face, making them immune to some attacks from the front; goriyas, who no longer throw boomerangs but mimic Link’s movement; and turtle enemies called terrorpins [1], who are immune to any damage as long as they’re upright. Once Link gets the hammer from the dungeon, he can flip them over, and it’s generally easiest to freeze them with the ice rod or ether so they won’t flip back, then smash them with the hammer again to refill the magic spent freezing them.

The dungeon itself is a maze, and I know how to do it with minimal backtracking now, but man I must have gotten lost so many times. The end boss is the Helmasaur King. I don’t know why I insist on chipping away at the mask with the hammer instead of using bombs like a normal person; I guess I like the extra challenge of constantly having to walk up to a giant monster whose movements are erratic and takes off two hearts if it hits Link [2]. Once it’s finally dead, Link recovers a crystal with one of the seven maidens. She tells Link where the other six are, and the Dark World quest has begun.

Exploring the Dark World

Getting the hammer opens up most of the Dark World, so it’s time to go exploring. The first stop is the Dark World version of the Haunted Grove, where Link finds Flute Boy alive, but transformed into a… I don’t know, looks like some kind of fox, and clinging to the Dark World equivalent of his favorite place. He asks Link to find his flute, which he buried in the grove with some flower seeds. It’s tempting to warp back to the Light World right there, but if Link does it where Flute Boy Apparition can see him, he’ll immediately poof and Link can’t move until he’s done, at which point he’s lost the protection from the Mirror’s portal and he goes right back to the Dark World. Anyway, the flute’s buried under a patch of flowers, but when Link takes it back to the Flute Boy, Flute Boy says he can’t use it anymore and asks Link to play it for him one last time. After the song finishes, Flute Boy turns into a tree [3].

Continuing on, there are four pieces of heart available now. The first is just southwest of the Haunted Grove, and is a simple mirror to the Light World, enter the cave, and grab piece. The second is buried with a bunch of other treasures in a field that costs 80 rupees to get to dig up for 30 seconds. This one can take forever, and a lot of rupees, although there are plenty buried in the field so Link probably won’t lose too many. The third requires going back to the Light World and finding a warp point between Kakariko Village and the Lost Woods and exploring the Village of Outcasts. While in Kakariko, Link takes the flute back to Flute Boy’s father, who asks Link to keep it and play it for the weathercock, which shatters and frees a bird which can now take Link to eight convenient locations around the Light World. Also, jumping in a well by the blacksmiths’ house leads Link to find a strange contraption. Sprinkling magic powder on the contraption awakens the Mad Batter, who… honestly, I don’t know what to make of him. He “curses” Link so he uses half as much magic as usual; not so important for the next dungeon, but after that, much more.

The Village of Outcasts piece is hidden in a chest game: open two of sixteen chests for 30 rupees. Like the treasure field, this can go very badly, but there are 600 rupees hidden around the village, so some quick math says there’s only a 6.92% chance of using all those rupees and not getting the heart piece; plus the game’s chests have rupees of their own. Still, random heart pieces are annoying. The final heart piece for now is in a cave on a small cliff overlooking the Light World graveyard, and it’s like the first one. While in the area, Link can access the Dark version of the area that has a blocked-off tomb in the Light World, warp back, open the tomb, and get the magic cape. There’s one more heart piece Link can get now, but it’s so much easier with the hookshot, so I’m going to wait on that.

There are two more items to get right now. First is the Cane of Byrna. It’s up on Dark Death Mountain, and requires a tough journey walking over spikes to get. The easiest way to do it is to wear the cape on the way in, grab the cane, drink a green potion, and use the cane on the way back out. For the second item, Link takes a hidden portal in the Great Swamp and goes to where the entrance to the Desert of Mystery was, warps back, and gets the bombos medallion.

Tomorrow: Swamps, skulls, and thieves.

[1] I cannot take the name seriously. All I can think is that Walking Dead meme: “TERRORpins, Carl!” “Dad…”
[2] This one falls into the “one false move and you’re dead” category mentioned earlier.
[3] No, I don’t know why the smith can follow Link home through the mirror but Flute Boy can’t.

A Link to the Past: The Legendary Hero

The Tower of Hera introduces three new enemy types: little fire-breathing dinosaurs called kodongos, hardhat beetles which seem to exist to frustrate Link by not dying and pushing back when they’re hit with the sword, and mini-moldorms. It also introduces the switch blocks, which here seem to exist to trap Link in after his visit to the floor with the big key, forcing him to learn that the magic mirror can warp him back to the dungeon’s entrance. En route to the top, Sahasrahla encourages Link to remember the Moon Pearl, and although it makes for a rather funny moment later if you forget it, I decided to humor him and grab it before I left.

The boss of the Tower of Hera is a giant moldorm, and my least favorite boss from the four games I’ve played. The challenge it offers is not the one false move and you’re dead we’ll see later with a couple early Dark World bosses, but simply a challenge to not get knocked off the platform. And getting knocked off the platform only resets the boss and forces Link to climb back up to him and resets his health… but there’s a hole Link can fall down the floor below that leads to a pond with respawning faeries that’ll let him come back at full health, too.

They would get the “don’t get knocked off” mechanics right later in this game, and Link’s Awakening has a couple bosses with similar mechanics that aren’t as annoying – and one of those is even another moldorm.

The Master Sword and Agahnim

With the moldorm down, the third pendant is Link’s, and he can now claim the Master Sword. No sooner does he come out from the clearing where it was kept than Zelda contacts him for help again, saying the soldiers are coming for her. Now, owing to video game conventions that as far as I know are generally practiced to this very day, no matter what you do, the scenes at Sanctuary [1] and Hyrule Tower will play out the same way, but the only thing Link can get right now is the ether medallion and that requires going up Death Mountain and back down again, so screw that.

Anyway, Link arrives at Sanctuary moments too late. Zelda is gone and the sage is dying. This should be a sad and touching scene, but the sage’s death animation has him blinking out of existence, accompanied by a ridiculous sound effect. The last chance for the stopping Agahnim from breaking the seal is to rescue Zelda before Agahnim can zap her.

The charge up Hyrule Castle Tower is a fun dungeon. The soldiers don’t pose much threat, but they’re not supposed to, either. Link’s the Legendary Hero, the one who’s destined to save Hyrule, and this is his moment… except he arrives too late. Zelda is zapped into the Dark World before his eyes, and all he can do is take the fight to Agahnim. He reflects Agahnim’s fireballs back at him, and instead of fighting to the end, Agahnim shifts to the Dark World and draws Link with him.

The New Quest

All is not lost, however. Link still has the Moon Pearl, the magic mirror, and the Master Sword. Sahasrahla contacts him to tell him he can still rescue the maidens, recover the Triforce, and stop Ganon and gives him the first location: the Palace of Darkness that’s the Dark World counterpart to the Eastern Palace. There’s a heart piece on the Pyramid, which is another full heart for Link. He can also get one on an island in Lake Hylia, and another under the hollow tree the lumberjacks had been cutting. The ether medallion is useful for the next dungeon, so I got that. Finally, in the northeast corner of the Dark World (minus Dark Death Mountain), there’s a circle of stones with a sign saying don’t throw things in. So, the sign got thrown into the circle, and Link got the quake medallion too. Getting into the Palace of Darkness requires befriending a monkey named Kiki who asks for 10 rupees. Kiki then opens the door if Link gives him another 100.

Next: It’s hammer time.

[1] Technically, you can miss the scene at Sanctuary.

A Link to the Past: Desert Palace

There’s a heart piece near the sanctuary under a pile of rocks that can be smashed with the shoes, and some fun to be had in Kakariko village: the magic powder can turn a woman into a faerie, a cucco can be turned into a woman, and the guy who runs from Link can be caught. Once the fun’s over, time to get the Book of Mudora from the library and go to the Desert Palace.

This dungeon introduces two of my least favorite enemies/traps from this game: beamos and the floor tiles. The floor tiles are mostly just tedious; hide in the doorway, go get a drink, and when you come back the way will be clear. If hiding in the door’s not possible, it comes down to dodging and/or thwacking them with the sword. As for beamos… about the only defense is to circle around them, just out of their line of sight, or hide behind something. They still suck, but they’re more a nuisance than anything.

There are two unconnected parts to the dungeon, and the power glove from the first part is required to enter the second. There’s also a chance to get a piece of heart between the two, which gives a full heart and the corresponding life fill if Link’s got all of them so far. The boss is a trio of lanmolas, and the hard part is dodging the pellets they throw as they come out of the ground. The spin attack doesn’t seem to do extra damage, but with a little bit of luck and timing, Link can take two of them out at the same time and skip the final phase where there’s just one throwing pellets in eight directions instead of four.

Armed with the power glove, most of the rest of Hyrule has opened up. The first destination should be Zora’s Waterfall in the northeast, to get the flippers. Zora sells the flippers for 500 rupees, the highest price in the game [1]. That’s not quite enough to buy everything in the first game (540 for the first quest, 600 for the second, not counting potions), but rupees are more plentiful in this game and here’s one place it shows. While in the area, there’s a heart piece in Zora’s Waterfall, and then the Waterfall of Wishing can upgrade Link’s shield and boomerang.

Now to take Zora’s advice and whirlpool down to Lake Hylia. This drops Link off right in front of the Pond of Happiness, which will gleefully soak up any excess rupees Link has, at least until he’s maxed out his bomb and arrow capacity. In the river leading north from Lake Hylia, there’s a man living under a bridge who’ll give Link a bottle, and then it’s time to head to the third pendant’s dungeon.

Death Mountain

In the caves leading into Death Mountain, Link meets a lost old man. The man tells Link his granddaughter’s one of the maidens Agahnim’s zapped, and Link helps lead him to a cave on Death Mountain where he settles, setting up a third respawn point for the Light World. Before he goes, the man gives Link the Magic Mirror, which will immediately prove vital to the quest.

Spectacle Rock doesn’t house a hammer – we’ll get that later – but there’s a piece of heart for the taking. From that area, Link can see the Tower of Hera, but not get up there; the only way up for now is to step on a portal and enter the Dark World…

Where Ganon’s evil magic turns Link into a pink bunny.

There are a couple other cursed people here, an ogre kicking a ball. They tell Link that the Tower of Hera has an item called the Moon Pearl that lets its bearer keep their form in the Dark World, but since there’s no reason for Link to think he’s going to revisit the Dark World after this brief sojourn, he ignores their prattle. And the fact that his map a full world in the Dark World that he can only access a small portion of; surely all that excess is just some mapmaker showing off. Anyway, he uses the Mirror to warp back to the Light World atop Spectacle Rock, and jumps down to the level where the entrance to the Tower of Hera is and goes in.

Next: The Tower, the Master Sword, and Agahnim.

[1] Shared with red shields, in case Link runs afoul of a pikit and would rather just buy a replacement than buy a small shield and take it to the Waterfall of Wishing for the upgrade.

A Link to the Past: The Quest Begins

The World Opens Up

So, for how much I said the first game’s open world felt weird, the world in this game is not that far behind in how much exploring you can do once exploring at all is allowed. There are chunks of the world that are blocked off, especially Death Mountain, and little areas that you can see but not get to, most of which require warping in from the Dark World, but most of the Light World is explorable at this point. Of course, that’s only half the total game world…

Having played the game so many times, at this point I have the list of everything to do and see memorized:

• Go to the Lost Woods and get the mushroom and heart piece.
• Go to Kakariko Village. Get bombs and the heart piece from the well. Get the treasure chests and heart piece in the thieves’ hideout. Blow open the mysterious hut and fill up on bombs. Get two bottles and the bug-catching net. Since I’m actually trying to follow the story this time, talk to the woman at Sahasrahla’s house, the kid who knows where Sahasrahla is, the smith who’s missing his partner, and everyone else.
• Go to the Quarreling Brothers’ house and perform an act of vandalism, then run through the maze to get a fourth heart piece.
• Go south from Link’s house to the Great Swamp, open the watergate, and get the heart piece there. Continue east and get the ice rod, one of the deadliest things to do right now because of the damned crabs that take off two hearts if they hit Link.
• I usually skip this next thing because it’s easier to do when going for the Desert Palace and there’s no benefit to doing it now, but: Go into the Desert of Mystery, talk with Aginah, and bomb the south wall of his cave to get a sixth piece of heart.
• Visit the magic shop, fill bottles with potions, and trade the mushroom for the magic powder.

Now it’s time to go to the Eastern Palace. Talking to Sahasrahla is optional at this point if you know where to go, but worth it for one of the few times these first three games show a sense of humor [1]: When Sahasrahla asks if Link really wants to find the Master Sword, the two dialogue options are “Yeah!” and “Of course!”

The First Pendant

Anyway, he sends Link off to the Eastern Palace, where the Pendant of Courage is hidden. The dungeons in this game, like pretty much everything else, are a return to the style of the first game, only now taking advantage of the Super NES’ abilities to have bigger rooms, 3D effects – there’s one point in this dungeon where Link passes over a walkway through a room he’d previously visited – and so forth. I don’t think the dungeons ever quite get as big as the ones in the first game did, and certainly never as maze-like. The dungeons’ treasure is now hidden in big chests, which require the new dungeon item, the big key, to open [2].

There’s not a whole lot of variety in the enemies in the Eastern Palace: stalfos, plant creatures called popos, one-eyed animated statues that I remember calling rocklops but now they’re eyegores, and bubbles/fire faeries. The eyegores are the hardest of the bunch until Link gets the bow, which makes them pretty easy. After two games of being tormented by bubbles, it’s really nice to be able to turn the fire faeries into normal helpful faeries with magic powder. It can be a drain on magic, especially if it takes a few tries, but usually the faerie restores more hearts than are lost in the attempt. A group of six armos knights is the boss and a pretty good test of Link’s skill with the bow, although it’s possible to kill them with the sword if arrows run out.

Now with the Pendant of Courage, Link can return to Sahasrahla and learn more about the legendary hero he’s aspiring to become. Sahasrahla says the Knights of Hyrule existed three or four generations ago, while the manual says the Imprisoning War that killed most of them was 500 years prior. But the real point here is that he gives Link the pegasus shoes, which means no more walking anywhere when I can run and, if I don’t stop, run right into monsters that want to eat Link or off cliffs or the like. But who cares? Run! Run! Wheeeee!

He also hints about the ice rod, but I already got that.

Next: Exploring most of the rest of the world.

[1] There was another earlier, with the bottle merchant encouraging Link’s Item Get! action.
[2] Technically, there was a big key in Hyrule Castle, dropped by the flail trooper and used to open Zelda’s cell.

A Link to the Past: Time of the Falling Rain

It Was a Dark and Stormy Night…

“Help me… please help me… I am a prisoner in the dungeon of the castle. My name is Zelda.”

Zelda’s telepathic message reaches Link and his uncle in the middle of the night. I’m not sure who else heard it; possibly only descendants of the Knights of Hyrule. Link’s uncle takes the family sword and shield and tells Link to remain at home while he tries to rescue Zelda. Link, being a good boy, goes back to sleep (even though his uncle carelessly left the light on, and he has no way to put it back out). He never sees his uncle again, and is mostly a helpless observer as the wise men’s seal breaks and Ganon returns to Hyrule and, after Agahnim already softened it up, Ganon easily conquers it.

…

Or, because that would make for a terrible game, Link ignores his uncle’s advice, takes a lamp from the treasure chest, and sets out to help. It’s raining hard, and most of the pathways to explore the overworld are blocked by soldiers, so the only thing he can do is find an entrance hidden under a bush that leads to a secret passage.

In the secret passage, Link finds his uncle, who’s dying. He hands the shield and sword to Link and teaches him the spin attack, then dies with a few final words: “Save the Princess… Zelda is your… … …” I first played this game around the first time I watched the Star Wars trilogy, so I can’t help but fill in “sister” there. I know that’s almost certainly Not True, but looking online I’m also not the only one who thought that. (The Japanese version apparently had him say, “You are the princess’…,” which has a lot more ways to fill in that make sense, starting with (still thinking of Star Wars) “…only hope.” Anyway, regardless of possible relationships between the hero and the princess, we do have to rescue her.

Link takes the sword and shield and makes his way through the courtyard into the castle. The stairs to the dungeon are around the back; if Link stumbles out onto the ramparts, a soldier will tell him that Agahnim’s been taking control of the soldiers and he figures it’s just a matter of time for him, too. He’s standing where one of the bomb-throwing soldiers will later be, so he’s not wrong. The enemies inside the castle are all those possessed soldiers, but Link has little choice but to carve a path through them. Along the way, he picks up a boomerang. Guarding Zelda’s dungeon cell is a soldier with a flail, where the best strategy is to boomerang him, get in close, spin attack, get back out, and repeat until dead. It’s an easy fight, but they’ll get harder from here. (Also, because charging the spin attack leaves Link stuck facing one way but he can still throw the boomerang in any of eight directions, I was throwing the boomerang out of Link’s butt, which was an amusing visual.)

Zelda tells Link what we’ve already learned about the castle soldiers, and says she knows of a secret way out. Which means going back through what he’s already fought through, and a lot of those soldiers have respawned. The entrance to the tunnel is located behind the throne on the top floor of the castle, and gives Link the first real chance to play with the lamp. This is strictly optional; the little bit of default light when the lamp isn’t equipped is enough to deal with the keeses and ropes and rats (they couldn’t have come up with a smeerp name for them, too?) inside the passageway. After passing through the sewers, Link and Zelda come to sanctuary, where the sage tells Link he’ll need the Master Sword to defeat Ganon and refers him to Sahasrahla, who knows more about the sword and can help Link find it.

Next: "Tra la la, look for Sahasrahla…"

A Link to the Past: Introduction and Story

This one I got as a “half-birthday” present (my sister and I were born 18 months apart, so we each got one present on the other’s birthday). I promptly got myself grounded and the game taken away because I was so engrossed I neglected to do things like cleaning my room when we had company coming to visit. Oops.

This is not only my favorite Zelda game I’ve played, but one of my all-time favorite games, period. I’ve played it so many times I know it really well, and have even done a few randomizer runs [1]. That said, I’m still learning new things about the game – this playthrough I learned there’s a cucco you can turn into a human.

The Epic Story

“Long ago, in the beautiful kingdom of Hyrule surrounded by mountains and forests, legends told of an omnipotent and omniscient Golden Power that resided in a hidden land. Many people aggressively sought to enter the hidden Golden Land, but no one ever returned. One day evil power began to flow from the Golden Land, so the King commanded seven wise men to seal the gate to the Land of the Golden Power. That seal should have remained for all time…
“But, when these events were obscured by the mists of time and became legend…
“A mysterious wizard known as Agahnim came to Hyrule to release the seal. He eliminated the good King of Hyrule…
“Through evil magic, he began to make descendants of the seven wise men vanish, one after another. And the time of destiny for Princess Zelda is drawing near.” [2]

Once again, there’s more in the manual. They talk more about the creation of the world, and about how Ganon found the Triforce and the effort to seal him in the Sacred Realm/Golden Land/Dark World. Agahnim apparently came to Hyrule as a friend, dispelling disasters that had ravaged the land. His evil sorcery is mostly the subject of whispers and rumors. But they did a good job of condensing the story for the people who didn’t read it, too.

Hashing Out the Timeline

So the biggest question here: how does this relate to the first two games? The story for Ganon is completely different, and he dies at the end of this game and the first game. I ultimately decided there wasn’t any continuity between the two – the differences were too much – and treated this game as a reboot.

A distant prequel, with Ganon being resurrected at some point, never crossed my mind. I suppose that’s what the A Link to the Past subtitle is supposed to mean [3].

So, here’s the timeline as we have it now:

• Creation of the world and Triforce.
• People search for the Triforce. Ganon eventually finds it.
• The Imprisoning War ends with Ganon sealed in the Triforce’s sacred realm, which Ganon’s evil influence turns into the cursed Dark World.
• Disasters sweep Hyrule. Agahnim shows up as a friend and stops the disasters, but he’s really looking to break the wise men’s seal.
• [Events of this game. The Triforce eventually passes into the possession of the Hyrule royal family.]
• A king, doubting his son’s ability to rule, hides a third of the Triforce. The prince, in an effort to locate the missing piece, allows a wizard to interrogate his sister, who knows where it is. When she refuses to tell, the wizard puts her under a sleeping curse.
• Ganon is resurrected at some point and steals half the remaining Triforce. The princess splits the one piece she still has into eight and hides them from him before she’s captured by him.
• A new hero reunites the split Triforce and uses it to challenge Ganon. Ganon is defeated and his third of the Triforce is recovered.
• On the hero’s sixteenth birthday, a previously unknown birthmark appears, identifying him as the one to find the hidden Triforce third. He locates it, awakening the long-sleeping Zelda, and in the process prevents Ganon’s minions from resurrecting him.

This is the first Zelda game where it feels like there’s a story beyond “Here’s why Link needs to go to all the dungeons, collect a full set of plot coupons, go to the final dungeon, and smash the boss.” Sure, after meeting Sahasrahla, it basically boils down to that, only smashing the boss doesn’t work so he gets to do it all over again, only with more plot coupons stored in harder dungeons. But the gradual revelation of the first chunk of the plot, along with the fact that there is that “Oh ho ho, surely you didn’t think we’d make that whole Dark World map and only use a tiny bit of it, did you?” twist, make the plot feel more alive.

Next: “Help me… please help me…”

[1] Turtle Rock without any armor upgrades or the mirror shield is brutal, especially the stretch with the four treasure chests guarded by laser eyes.
[2] Slightly edited to make it flow better in this form.
[3] Aside from Nintendo of America didn’t allow religious references like Triforce of the Gods.

The Adventure of Link: Two More Palaces, Two More Towns

Two Islands: One Big, One Small

The magic quest in Darunia is another that requires Link to leave town: a child’s been kidnapped and is being held on Maze Island. The path to the child is simple, and the rescue includes the first geru fight. This one’s like a cross between a moblin and an iron knuckle, and they’ll only get worse from here. Oh, and coming down from the mountain and going back up means doing the water-hopping sequence two extra times. The spell is worth it, though: reflect, which makes Link’s shield able to repel attacks it couldn’t before.

Back to Maze Island, and there’s a magic container en route to the palace. The palace itself is divided into two sections from the entrance. First go right and get the boots, then left for the boss. The only new enemies this time are wizards who are only vulnerable to having their spells reflected back at them; it’s so much easier to just ignore them and carry on. The boss, Carock, is one of these guys on steroids, but because he’s the boss, there’s no ignoring him. However, he’s also really easy to fight: cast reflect, crouch in the corner, and wait for him to die.

Now there’s nothing to do but go on to the Palace on the Sea. Well, before actually making it to the palace, there’s a heart container also hidden in the sea, which I’ll definitely want because the palace is bloody tough. Throughout the palace are magos, witches that teleport around and drop fire on the floor. They’re annoying to fight and not easy to avoid. So between them, the iron knuckles, the dead end if you take a wrong turn – after passing through a terrible platforming sequence of ras trying to knock Link into the lava – and the fact that it’s a long palace, the game’s really amping up the difficulty. The end boss, Gooma, is the hardest of the six; the downward thrust is mostly useless against him, so the only option is to get in close, try to jump over his flail [1], and stab him when the opportunity arises.

With that done, it’s time to go south. First we have to deal with the river devil, which is a rather disappointing experience. I walked right up to it, dared it to try to eat me, called it names, farted in its general direction, made insinuations about the species of its mother, and it still didn’t try to eat me. Then I blew the flute and it poofed. So, in the end, all it was was a super roadblock.

The Abandoned Town and Its People

Anyway, from here on in, even 8/8/8 isn’t overpowered. Okay, maybe a little, but it’s not like running through Death Mountain at max stats with the downward thrust and steamrolling what was once a super difficult bit of content. There are three sequences of gerus throwing rocks at Link with a single enemy in the center of the stage, and these are tough. Then there’s a broken bridge with bago-bagos popping up all over the place, and if you want to go to Kasuto now rather than skip it until you have the cross, or at least the eighth magic container so it’s not a wasted trip, you have to do another bago-bago broken bridge.

Kasuto is deserted except for the magic man, who tells Link “The town is dead. Look east in woods.” There are invisible moas, which make travel dangerous, but if Link’s determined, about halfway through the town there’s a house with a message on the wall, “Magic key reads… treasure of Kasuto.” Now to escape Kasuto as alive as possible, go back over the bridge, and start the search for where the people fled to.

The old man could have been a little more helpful, because you have to go through a cave to find the right patch of woods [2]. Now it’s time for the RTFM feature of the hammer, cutting down trees. Hit the right patch, and there’s Kasuto Mk. II, who probably wouldn’t be happy you destroyed their cover, except that the forest here regrows really quickly.

Anyway, there’s someone standing just inside the entrance, who tells Link, “We had to flee Kasuto.” Oh, so that’s why you’re here rather than back in the town with the invisible murder ghosts. Would never have guessed. The rest of the hints point at Kasuto, the last palace, and the last heart container.
“The man who remains has magic.” Well, I figured something was keeping him safe from the invisible murder ghosts. Anyway, he wanted me to come see you first.
“Call for help at the Three Eye Rocks.” Like Kasuto Mk. II, the last dungeon is hidden. This tells you where it is and what you need to do, and I suppose since there are exactly two actions you can take in the overworld and the hammer’s clearly not useful, it shouldn’t be too hard to figure out what to do.
“The hole in palace is endless trap.” Clear enough. Although there’s a second hole that’s not an endless trap.
“East of Triple Eye Rock at seashore.” It’s boiled down to its most basic information, but this hint tells you where to find the last heart container. The two people who talk about the landmark can’t agree on its name, and neither is the “official” one, Three-Eye Rock, even if I give them a pass on the hyphen.

There are three things to find in the town. First, assuming you’ve collected all the magic containers so far, you get invited into a house to receive the last one. There’s a hint in this house about the third secret, “There is a secret at edge of town.”

There’s no quest for the spell. I guess they figured finding the town was enough of a quest. Link does have to crawl through the fireplace to find the old man, which is weird. The spell this time is… spell. Okay, that’s descriptive. It’s really only useful for finding the secret at the edge of town, a building housing the magic key hinted at in Kasuto. After that, magic’s too precious to waste on spell.

Next: The last two dungeons.

[1] Nintendo Power called the flail a mace, which made me not use the term “flail” for ball-and-chain weapons until… oh, about the time I saw The Return of the King.
[2] Or maybe he couldn’t be more helpful because it wouldn’t fit in the text box.

The Adventure of Link: The First Towns and Parapa Palace

His Most Adventuresome [1] Quest Yet

The first destination Link should visit is Rauru, a town about halfway between the North Castle and the cave leading to the Parapa Desert. Most of the townsfolk talk about Parapa and its palace, giving hints like:
“Return the crystal to the palace in Parapa.” Okay, I was already going to do that. This hint is poorly trimmed down from the Japanese version, which pointed Link to the cave he'd have to go through to reach the palace.
“Find the heart in southern Parapa.” That’s a good hint, pointing out where one of the heart containers in the game is.
“Get candle in Parapa Palace. Go west.” Since Parapa is to the east, I assume this is meant to be two different instructions, meant to be performed in that order. However, I know of a graveyard duck that proves such assumptions aren’t always true.
“If all else fails use fire.” Good advice – both for this game and in general – although way early since enemies invulnerable to the sword without the spell don’t start showing up until Link gets the raft and crosses the sea.
“Only the hammer can destroy a roadblock.” This one’s a bit more timely, since there’s a roadblock not far from Rauru.

“Each town has a wise man. Learn from him.” Most of the towns have a quest of some sort before you can meet their old man and learn his spell, but since Rauru’s a tutorial town, the man’s daughter is a bit less demanding. She invites Link in, and he learns the shield spell.

Now the intent is for Link to go to Parapa, but if you’re feeling adventuresome, there are a couple other things to do. There’s a magic container in a cave south of the North Castle, which is slightly dangerous to get without the candle but nothing too harrowing. And there’s a second town Link can visit, Ruto.

Ruto is not meant to be visited this early, and the spell Link can learn there isn’t really useful for Parapa Palace [3]. But it’s there. Hints are generally pointing to the south, most pointedly:
“Do not go south without a candle.” Yeah. The other caves accessible from the start aren’t that bad in the dark (the worst is the next one I’ll write about), but going south is not worth it unless you’re challenging yourself to a no candle run (you poor damned fool).
“Hammer… Spectacle Rock… Death Mtn.” I’ve already addressed this one.
“Find magic in a cave south of the castle.” Already done, but here’s the hint.
“Use keys in palaces they are found in.” It’s a change from the first game, so I guess they needed to mention it.

The magic quest starts when a woman tells Link “Goriya of Tantari stole our trophy.” The jump spell isn’t really useful yet, and the cave’s tough without a candle because trying to cross pits without being able to see the enemy wanting to knock you in (and the ache near the entrance respawns), but it can be done. When Link returns to her with the trophy/goddess statue, she invites him in to learn… well, I already said it.

But the town’s most famous inhabitant is Error, who introduces himself with the immortal line “I am Error.” I never thought this was weird; it’s clearly his name, especially because there’s a character in Mido who’ll tell you to go talk to him. I guess the fact that it’s all that he says until after you talk to the guy in Mido, plus people expecting the game’s English to be garbled, make it stand out as a bit odd… and I have to admit I enjoy the interpretation where he’s a malfunctioning robot.

The cave leading to the Parapa Desert is obviously meant to be traversed without a candle, because the only enemy in it is a single lowder. Its feet can be seen scurrying along the bottom of the screen, so you know when to crouch and start stabbing. Getting to the heart container’s a bit tougher, with an annoying sequence of jumping over pits while deadly bubbles float up from the bottom to try to knock you off. And Link has to do it both ways. The heart container itself is guarded by a goriya in an area that calls to mind Stonehenge.

Inside Parapa Palace, the most common enemies are wosus, hopping canine enemies that drain experience if they hit. Bubbles in this game follow a pattern, traveling at angles and reflecting off walls, but that doesn’t really make them easier to dodge, so they can be the most deadly common enemies in the dungeon. Bots show up every now and then. The three big enemies are stalfos (now sword and shield skeletal warriors who can’t lower their shield to protect their shins), gumas (who throw a constant stream of hammers Link needs to duck under to be able to stab them in the face), and orange iron knuckles (a good warm up for the harder ones we’ll see later). A little backtracking is required, because the elevator to the candle comes before the elevator to the keys that can open doors leading to it. The boss, Mazura (AKA Horsehead), has a common pattern we’ll see again: avoid attacks, jump at the head, stabbity, win.

Next: Hammer. Spectacle Rock. Death Mountain.

[1] I don’t know why “adventuresome” amuses me so much. It’s a perfectly cromulent word, appearing in all three online dictionaries I check for such things [2].
[2] Which is two more than cromulent.
[3] Unless you have the downward thrust, which, combined with jump, makes Mazura quite easy.

A Link to the Past: Table of Contents

An index of posts about The Legend of Zelda: A Link to the Past, the third game in the series.