Despite the Palace of Winds being Vaati’s palace, the statues are all of Ganon. This game has not handled having two villains particularly well. It feels like Vaati and Ganon are both here because it’s a Zelda game so we need Ganon, but it’s also a Four Swords game so we need Vaati, too. And, sure, someone had to be the mastermind behind the plot to free Vaati, and Ganon’s motivation for doing so (as a distraction while he gains power) makes sense, but the whole thing is a mess. And that’s not getting into how, despite the desert level basically spelling it out, no one seems to understand that Ganon’s the real bad guy here; it’s like they’re either being willfully obtuse or there’s some supernatural force keeping them from realizing it [1].
The puzzles in the dungeon have the “final level, final exam” feel to them. The second floor’s first room requires the Links to use four items (bow, boomerang, Pegasus Boots, and hammer) to find four Moon Pearls to create gates to four Dark World areas, each with a button that needs to be stepped on to open the way forward. There are a few new tricks here. Part of the bow puzzle requires a Link in the Dark World carrying a Link in the Light World and setting him on a button otherwise inaccessible in the Light World. Wallmasters show up for the first and only time, but they only haunt specific spaces and are pretty easy to avoid. For players who didn’t take the “use the hammer to reveal the path through the hidden spikes” path in the previous stage, that shows up here, too.
Vaati doesn’t have anything to say when the Links reach his lair. His fight has two stages. The first is very similar to how it was in Four Swords: he sits at the top of a giant whirlwind, and the Links pick up bombs and toss them into the whirlwind, timing them to explode when they reach Vaati. After three bombs, he dismisses the whirlwind and changes tactics, alternating between floating above the fight platform or on the subscreen below. When he’s above, the Links need to shoot themselves out of a cannon and then use the slam attacks to hit Vaati; below, they can chase him on ladders and score hits that way.
After Vaati’s defeated, the Links leave the Palace to reunite with Zelda. The Palace begins crumbling as it was constructed by Vaati’s magic and now Vaati’s gone. Ganon says that even though he hasn’t stolen all the power he’d hoped to, he still has enough to beat the Links, and his spirit leaves the Palace once they’re out and finds its own way down from the clouds. The Links and Zelda go into the Tower of Winds, which is also beginning to collapse, and so the Links need to escort Zelda through to the bottom. This sequence is infuriating because of how Zelda’s programmed. Unlike the Links, she won’t just walk off a ledge, and so needs to use ladders – slowly. If there’s no ladder, she’ll wait while the Links find the button to create one. No, picking her up to carry her isn’t an option. And when she has something to say, she stops until the Links go to where she is so she can say it. The last two of these valuable insights worth stopping to impart – both within sight of the exit – are “The exit’s not much farther!” and “The exit’s nearby! Hu-hurry!” [2] Right after she says the last line, the floor underneath her and the Links crumbles.
While the Links recover from their fall, Zelda sees the dark energy that is Ganon, although she has no idea who or what it is. She tries to seal him with her magic, but he’s too strong and imprisons her instead. Ganon takes proper form to fight the Links, who chase him around the area while he teleports. After they’ve weakened Ganon enough, Zelda is able to overcome her imprisonment; once free, she starts creating a ball of light that will defeat Ganon. The Links need to protect her from Ganon’s attacks while she creates the ball, then shoot it into him with arrows once it’s completed.
The maidens and Links work together to seal Ganon in the Four Sword, then take the sword back to its sanctuary, where it’s restored to its pedestal, and the Links turn back into one. The maidens encase the pedestal and sword in a glass pyramid, and then depart to resume protecting their assigned areas of Hyrule, and Link and Zelda walk away from the shrine together. Over the credits, the maidens continue their travels, and we see how defeating Vaati and Ganon has changed Hyrule for the better: corrupted areas like the Lost Woods and Swamp are back to their normal semi-healthy appearance, Frozen Hyrule has thawed out, the Village of the Blue Maiden is clear of the Dark World and the sandstorms have abated in the desert. We also see Tingle finding a growing stash of Force Gems, the Knights (or their ghosts, at least) back at Hyrule Castle, and Malon and Talon riding their horses.
Overall, I think Four Swords Adventures is a fun game, and a great improvement/refinement of Four Swords. Most of the stages are very well crafted, the bosses are usually fun, and the puzzles are quite inventive. The story is pretty thin, but it works well enough as long as the whole “If you’re going to forget about Ganon, what was the point of going to the desert anyway?” [3] thing doesn’t bother you too much. It’s not among my favorite games in the series, but that’s because that’s a very high bar, and I really did enjoy it a lot.
[1] Yes, Buffy fans, that’s the thing I have in mind.
[2] The actual lines from the game.
[3] I mean, aside from rescuing the maiden there.
Showing posts with label Four Swords Adventures. Show all posts
Showing posts with label Four Swords Adventures. Show all posts
Wednesday, February 6, 2019
Monday, February 4, 2019
Four Swords Adventures: Realm of the Heavens
The Realm of the Heavens is set atop the clouds, with a bunch of places for a careless hero to fall off. Of course, this works both ways; it’s quite easy to knock enemies into gaps or off the edge, too. There are places in the cloud where a Link can fall through to a sub-level; this seems to be separate from the Dark World (which continues to be part of the stages, accessed via portals with Moon Pearls as usual). In a couple areas, high winds threaten to push the Links off the clouds; nearby switches give them a chance to turn off the wind rather than fight it.
Near the end of the level, bridges with colored tiles that change colors appear, where a Link can only step on the tiles when they match his color. Some bridges are four tiles wide and the Links need to form up and wait for the colors to be in the proper order before crossing. One of these is so long there’s barely enough time to Pegasus Boots dash across before the rows change color again. It’s tempting to start dashing before the colors change, but of course it’s entirely possible to start too soon and fall off. There’s also a stand-on-the-four-buttons puzzle with the buttons separated by changing-colored-tile bridges, and one of the buttons is guarded by a Force Like which I’d completely forgotten were in the game as they haven’t been seen since the second level or so.
After crossing the last changing-colored-tile bridge, a pedestal with bombs shows up. Of course, this means the boss fight is a pair of Dodongos, virtually unchanged from the encounter earlier. Once they’ve been blown up, the level’s true boss shows up: a Big Dodongo. There are four treasure chests that spawn at the same time, each holding level 2 bombs, so the Big Dodongo fight is basically the same as the little ones, only there’s only one and both it and the bombs are bigger. Three bombs still does the trick, and the Links are free to move on to the next stage.
The first part of the next stage, The Dark Cloud, is another primarily side-scrolling area. This is divided into two sections. First, the Links need to go horizontally between screens by catching clouds in the bottom right of each screen that take them to the next screen. Then they start climbing, using the cannons to go up because there’s no Roc’s Feathers in this part of the game. The final section involves getting past one last Shadow Link dropping Big Bombs on the screen to send them scurrying for cover, then they catch a portal to the second part of the stage.
The second, longer phase of the stage is more cloudtop platforming. Early on, there’s a huge group of Hardhat Beetles that can be blown up with bombs, which is good because pushing all of them into the gaps would get old really fast. The path branches near the end, with one path’s puzzles being more sky exploration with a fun puzzle of shooting switches to turn off electric barriers while riding on a platform that will run into said barriers if they’re not turned off. (This is the way I went. I'm glad for that choice.) The other way has a long sequence of hidden spikes that only pop out when a Link walks into them or they’re hit with a hammer shockwave.
The boss fight looks like the Big Dark Stalfos fights, only the large seal is gray, and in place of the sacred gem is the Dark Mirror. At first, one Shadow Link appears; once he’s defeated, four more come out. As they too are defeated, another set comes out, and Zelda senses the futility of the battle from afar and teleports in somehow to help. She uses her magic to block the power of the Mirror, and when all the remaining Shadow Links are defeated, she retrieves it. Finally, the Shadow Links are no more, and she creates a bridge across the clouds to the Palace of Winds where the Links will take the fight to Vaati and Ganon.
As the Links step onto the teleportation tiles to end the stage and the Force Gems turn into Force Fairies, I capped the number of Fairies at 99. I have to say that’s pretty well-designed: do well (not necessarily perfect, I know I could have gotten more Gems to turn into Fairies) rounding up Force Gems and don’t have to use too many fairy resurrections and you’ll hit the cap just before the final stage, so all you need to do there is get enough gems to power the Four Sword one last time.
Next: The Four Sword sleeps again… forever! [1]
[1] Until/unless Nintendo makes another Four Swords game.
Near the end of the level, bridges with colored tiles that change colors appear, where a Link can only step on the tiles when they match his color. Some bridges are four tiles wide and the Links need to form up and wait for the colors to be in the proper order before crossing. One of these is so long there’s barely enough time to Pegasus Boots dash across before the rows change color again. It’s tempting to start dashing before the colors change, but of course it’s entirely possible to start too soon and fall off. There’s also a stand-on-the-four-buttons puzzle with the buttons separated by changing-colored-tile bridges, and one of the buttons is guarded by a Force Like which I’d completely forgotten were in the game as they haven’t been seen since the second level or so.
After crossing the last changing-colored-tile bridge, a pedestal with bombs shows up. Of course, this means the boss fight is a pair of Dodongos, virtually unchanged from the encounter earlier. Once they’ve been blown up, the level’s true boss shows up: a Big Dodongo. There are four treasure chests that spawn at the same time, each holding level 2 bombs, so the Big Dodongo fight is basically the same as the little ones, only there’s only one and both it and the bombs are bigger. Three bombs still does the trick, and the Links are free to move on to the next stage.
The first part of the next stage, The Dark Cloud, is another primarily side-scrolling area. This is divided into two sections. First, the Links need to go horizontally between screens by catching clouds in the bottom right of each screen that take them to the next screen. Then they start climbing, using the cannons to go up because there’s no Roc’s Feathers in this part of the game. The final section involves getting past one last Shadow Link dropping Big Bombs on the screen to send them scurrying for cover, then they catch a portal to the second part of the stage.
The second, longer phase of the stage is more cloudtop platforming. Early on, there’s a huge group of Hardhat Beetles that can be blown up with bombs, which is good because pushing all of them into the gaps would get old really fast. The path branches near the end, with one path’s puzzles being more sky exploration with a fun puzzle of shooting switches to turn off electric barriers while riding on a platform that will run into said barriers if they’re not turned off. (This is the way I went. I'm glad for that choice.) The other way has a long sequence of hidden spikes that only pop out when a Link walks into them or they’re hit with a hammer shockwave.
The boss fight looks like the Big Dark Stalfos fights, only the large seal is gray, and in place of the sacred gem is the Dark Mirror. At first, one Shadow Link appears; once he’s defeated, four more come out. As they too are defeated, another set comes out, and Zelda senses the futility of the battle from afar and teleports in somehow to help. She uses her magic to block the power of the Mirror, and when all the remaining Shadow Links are defeated, she retrieves it. Finally, the Shadow Links are no more, and she creates a bridge across the clouds to the Palace of Winds where the Links will take the fight to Vaati and Ganon.
As the Links step onto the teleportation tiles to end the stage and the Force Gems turn into Force Fairies, I capped the number of Fairies at 99. I have to say that’s pretty well-designed: do well (not necessarily perfect, I know I could have gotten more Gems to turn into Fairies) rounding up Force Gems and don’t have to use too many fairy resurrections and you’ll hit the cap just before the final stage, so all you need to do there is get enough gems to power the Four Sword one last time.
Next: The Four Sword sleeps again… forever! [1]
[1] Until/unless Nintendo makes another Four Swords game.
Friday, February 1, 2019
Four Swords Adventures: Tower of Winds
The last stage before the Tower of Winds is the Temple of Ice. The floors are often slippery, a complication compounded by bumpers that appear in several rooms that further punish Links who can’t keep their momentum under control on the ice. An early puzzle has the Links challenged to free the souls of the dead trapped in the ice by throwing bombs across a gap, and since the bombs are landing on ice they tend to skid until they hit something or fall off the platform. It’s tricky to be sure to hit the target you want, and destroying extra tiles only makes it even harder. A later puzzle has a similar idea, only without the exploding ice tiles, so it simply becomes a matter of timing when to throw the bombs to hit the switches.
The stage has the game’s most annoying room so far. It’s covered in ice with bumpers sliding around the room, and Bombchus continually pour out of four holes in the floor. The Links need to stand on switches to close the holes and stop the Bombchus. The only good thing I can say about this room is it gets easier as you get closer to finishing it, because each switch stepped on means there are fewer Bombchus zipping around.
The Fire Rod continues to play an important role in this stage. There are numerous ice blobs throughout the stage, which can contain rewards like Force Gems or frozen Pengators that aren’t too happy about being unfrozen. Later in the stage, it gets upgraded at the Fairy Fountain, and it behaves very much like the Cane of Somaria: creates blocks that explode in fireballs in every direction, and can be set on buttons to hold them down or used to create floating platforms. The later rooms of the dungeon make use of all these functions.
While the puzzles can be frustrating, the combat in the Temple isn’t too bad, so naturally, it’s the first level where I found four heart containers, doubling the Links’ life bar. The miniboss is a Shadow Link quartet who trails ice as they walk, and the final boss a pair of flail troopers made easy by the game considerately giving the Links the Roc’s Feather right beforehand and allowing them to form up and smash the troopers with slam attacks. The Links then reunite with the barrier maidens in the Four Sword Sanctuary, and with the Links providing the four gems, the maidens bring the Tower of Winds back for the Links to enter.
The Tower of Winds is mostly a side-scrolling stage, with the Links trying to climb ever higher. There are lots of doors to top-down GBA areas, connected to the main part of the level by a bunch of doors. The main challenge of the level is to find ways between the doors on the main screen, or to get ladders to appear to help further the climb. Once again I’m impressed by how the series is able to remix familiar ideas to create new experiences. Once again, the level has four heart containers, and also two blue bracelets (I’m not sure if they stack are just there in case the player only explores enough to find one of them), so the Links get lots of extra health, on top of the dozens of resurrection fairies they’re sure to have stockpiled by now.
The boss of this stage is Frostare, which starts the stage attached to the ceiling and summons circling/swooping enemies called Frosteyes to surround it. Unlike other bosses of this type, killing the Frosteyes is strictly to make dealing with Frostare easier, not the all-important first stage. At first, neither the Links nor Frostare is able to actually harm the other – Frostare is immobile (and the Frosteyes not much of a threat), but the Link’s attacks bounce off of it. To start the fight proper, the Links need to get into a crawlspace in the ceiling and cut Frostare’s root, allowing it to move about the room. Then it’s a matter of using the Roc’s Feather to jump at it and hit it until it dies.
The music when rescuing Zelda is directly recycled from the crystal cutscenes in A Link to the Past (the other maidens used a different melody because this one’s been associated with Zelda since Ocarina of Time). She says the Links’ efforts are purging the darkness from Hyrule, but it can only last if they go to the Realm of the Heavens and defeat Vaati there. She and the other maidens will remain on the ground to use their powers to prevent the darkness from returning while he’s at it. The Links exit onto the Tower’s roof, and step onto the teleport tiles to go to the final level.
Next: The last shadows.
The stage has the game’s most annoying room so far. It’s covered in ice with bumpers sliding around the room, and Bombchus continually pour out of four holes in the floor. The Links need to stand on switches to close the holes and stop the Bombchus. The only good thing I can say about this room is it gets easier as you get closer to finishing it, because each switch stepped on means there are fewer Bombchus zipping around.
The Fire Rod continues to play an important role in this stage. There are numerous ice blobs throughout the stage, which can contain rewards like Force Gems or frozen Pengators that aren’t too happy about being unfrozen. Later in the stage, it gets upgraded at the Fairy Fountain, and it behaves very much like the Cane of Somaria: creates blocks that explode in fireballs in every direction, and can be set on buttons to hold them down or used to create floating platforms. The later rooms of the dungeon make use of all these functions.
While the puzzles can be frustrating, the combat in the Temple isn’t too bad, so naturally, it’s the first level where I found four heart containers, doubling the Links’ life bar. The miniboss is a Shadow Link quartet who trails ice as they walk, and the final boss a pair of flail troopers made easy by the game considerately giving the Links the Roc’s Feather right beforehand and allowing them to form up and smash the troopers with slam attacks. The Links then reunite with the barrier maidens in the Four Sword Sanctuary, and with the Links providing the four gems, the maidens bring the Tower of Winds back for the Links to enter.
The Tower of Winds is mostly a side-scrolling stage, with the Links trying to climb ever higher. There are lots of doors to top-down GBA areas, connected to the main part of the level by a bunch of doors. The main challenge of the level is to find ways between the doors on the main screen, or to get ladders to appear to help further the climb. Once again I’m impressed by how the series is able to remix familiar ideas to create new experiences. Once again, the level has four heart containers, and also two blue bracelets (I’m not sure if they stack are just there in case the player only explores enough to find one of them), so the Links get lots of extra health, on top of the dozens of resurrection fairies they’re sure to have stockpiled by now.
The boss of this stage is Frostare, which starts the stage attached to the ceiling and summons circling/swooping enemies called Frosteyes to surround it. Unlike other bosses of this type, killing the Frosteyes is strictly to make dealing with Frostare easier, not the all-important first stage. At first, neither the Links nor Frostare is able to actually harm the other – Frostare is immobile (and the Frosteyes not much of a threat), but the Link’s attacks bounce off of it. To start the fight proper, the Links need to get into a crawlspace in the ceiling and cut Frostare’s root, allowing it to move about the room. Then it’s a matter of using the Roc’s Feather to jump at it and hit it until it dies.
The music when rescuing Zelda is directly recycled from the crystal cutscenes in A Link to the Past (the other maidens used a different melody because this one’s been associated with Zelda since Ocarina of Time). She says the Links’ efforts are purging the darkness from Hyrule, but it can only last if they go to the Realm of the Heavens and defeat Vaati there. She and the other maidens will remain on the ground to use their powers to prevent the darkness from returning while he’s at it. The Links exit onto the Tower’s roof, and step onto the teleport tiles to go to the final level.
Next: The last shadows.
Wednesday, January 30, 2019
Four Swords Adventures: The Last Gem
The Pyramid makes up for the Desert Temple’s simple structure: it’s full of traps, puzzles, twisty rooms to find the way through, and the like. And of course, you can’t have a pyramid without mummies, so the Gibdos are out in full force. Unlike the Gibdos encountered in the desert, most of the ones encountered here simply die rather than retreat to the Dark World as Stalfos; the only exception is one miniboss encounter with four of them that requires shifting to the Dark World to finish them off. (And then coming back to the Light World to get the Force Gem reward before exploring the Dark World more. Oops.)
Near the end of the Pyramid, there’s a puzzle where the intended solution is hitting a set of switches to bring out the platforms that will let the Links walk across a gap, then entering the room again and adjusting the switches to activate the platforms for a second gap. I’ve gotten decent at tossing a Link across gaps, though, so I was able to skip most of the first half of the puzzle, only realizing after going back into the switch room what I’d done. Also, this was the first time I saw a use for the ability to close the GBA window on the screen, so that I could see what platforms were out with the switches and which weren’t.
The final boss of the Pyramid level is Moldorm, with the added twist that its tail’s color indicates which Link can harm it. In many ways, it’s less frustrating than previous incarnations have been. Sure, it’s a fight on a platform that the Links can get knocked off of, but getting knocked off doesn’t reset the fight, so it’s still frustrating to have to work the way back up the platform again, but far better than it was. The tradeoff comes when it reaches about 50% health, when it splits into two Moldorms, which quickly crowd the platform.
Once the Moldorms are down, the Links advance to the next room to find a trident that grants its wielder destructive power has been stolen. The maiden-fairy realizes it’s Ganon who stole the trident, and speculates that he may be the true power behind everything that’s happened. Gee, it’s not like this has been hinted at for the last two chapters. When the Links free the next maiden, she calls for the other five to join her in locating Princess Zelda. They contact her telepathically, and she says she’s in the Tower of Winds before a male voice laughs and contact is cut off. The maidens all turn back into fairies to Lead the Links to Frozen Hyrule.
Frozen Hyrule is right next to the desert on the map, but that’s okay, its condition is caused by evil magic. The music in this area is a remix of A Link to the Past’s Dark World theme, which perfectly fits for an area of cursed winter. The maiden-fairies note that the Tower of Winds has disappeared, and go ahead to guard where it should be, leaving the Links to find the fourth jewel in the hopes that doing so will make the Tower come back. Throughout the early parts of the level are frozen Force Gems, and as the Links go deeper they find walls made of ice, so getting a Fire Rod to melt the ice is the first goal. Getting the Fire Rod involves passing through an area of blizzard conditions, which hurt Link if he’s caught in the worst of it; fortunately, there are lots of holes he can fall into to wait out the winds.
After getting the rods, the Links backtrack through much of the level, melting and collecting Force Gems. During all this, I felt a little bad for Tingle when the Links grabbed a few hundred from one stash and he was ecstatic floating away with a single small green Force Gem. (Didn’t stop me from popping his balloon with the Fire Rod later in the level when he tried to sneak off with a large green Force Gem, though.) Pengators make their return appearance from A Link to the Past in this level, including a massive group of them spawned by standing on a floor switch.
There are a pair of bosses at the end of the level. First comes another Manhandla, with the added complication that this fight’s on a frozen pond, so traction is hard to come by. The second fight is against a Big Dark Stalfos, who has a large complement of soldiers in the Light World, and in the Dark World surrounds itself with a ring of Keeses. He also seemed to have a lot more health than the first three. When the Big Dark Stalfos is defeated and the Knight restored to himself, he entrusts the Purple sacred jewel to the Links, who now have everything they need to rescue Zelda.
Next: Rescuing Zelda.
Near the end of the Pyramid, there’s a puzzle where the intended solution is hitting a set of switches to bring out the platforms that will let the Links walk across a gap, then entering the room again and adjusting the switches to activate the platforms for a second gap. I’ve gotten decent at tossing a Link across gaps, though, so I was able to skip most of the first half of the puzzle, only realizing after going back into the switch room what I’d done. Also, this was the first time I saw a use for the ability to close the GBA window on the screen, so that I could see what platforms were out with the switches and which weren’t.
The final boss of the Pyramid level is Moldorm, with the added twist that its tail’s color indicates which Link can harm it. In many ways, it’s less frustrating than previous incarnations have been. Sure, it’s a fight on a platform that the Links can get knocked off of, but getting knocked off doesn’t reset the fight, so it’s still frustrating to have to work the way back up the platform again, but far better than it was. The tradeoff comes when it reaches about 50% health, when it splits into two Moldorms, which quickly crowd the platform.
Once the Moldorms are down, the Links advance to the next room to find a trident that grants its wielder destructive power has been stolen. The maiden-fairy realizes it’s Ganon who stole the trident, and speculates that he may be the true power behind everything that’s happened. Gee, it’s not like this has been hinted at for the last two chapters. When the Links free the next maiden, she calls for the other five to join her in locating Princess Zelda. They contact her telepathically, and she says she’s in the Tower of Winds before a male voice laughs and contact is cut off. The maidens all turn back into fairies to Lead the Links to Frozen Hyrule.
Frozen Hyrule is right next to the desert on the map, but that’s okay, its condition is caused by evil magic. The music in this area is a remix of A Link to the Past’s Dark World theme, which perfectly fits for an area of cursed winter. The maiden-fairies note that the Tower of Winds has disappeared, and go ahead to guard where it should be, leaving the Links to find the fourth jewel in the hopes that doing so will make the Tower come back. Throughout the early parts of the level are frozen Force Gems, and as the Links go deeper they find walls made of ice, so getting a Fire Rod to melt the ice is the first goal. Getting the Fire Rod involves passing through an area of blizzard conditions, which hurt Link if he’s caught in the worst of it; fortunately, there are lots of holes he can fall into to wait out the winds.
After getting the rods, the Links backtrack through much of the level, melting and collecting Force Gems. During all this, I felt a little bad for Tingle when the Links grabbed a few hundred from one stash and he was ecstatic floating away with a single small green Force Gem. (Didn’t stop me from popping his balloon with the Fire Rod later in the level when he tried to sneak off with a large green Force Gem, though.) Pengators make their return appearance from A Link to the Past in this level, including a massive group of them spawned by standing on a floor switch.
There are a pair of bosses at the end of the level. First comes another Manhandla, with the added complication that this fight’s on a frozen pond, so traction is hard to come by. The second fight is against a Big Dark Stalfos, who has a large complement of soldiers in the Light World, and in the Dark World surrounds itself with a ring of Keeses. He also seemed to have a lot more health than the first three. When the Big Dark Stalfos is defeated and the Knight restored to himself, he entrusts the Purple sacred jewel to the Links, who now have everything they need to rescue Zelda.
Next: Rescuing Zelda.
Monday, January 28, 2019
Four Swords Adventures: Desert of Doubt
The first stop in the desert is the Gerudo village. The Gerudo are all upset about what Ganon’s done; the male Gerudo born every hundred years is supposed to be special, but he became corrupted and is now headed to the pyramid. All of this brings up the question: when exactly is this supposed to be set? It can’t be before Ocarina, because surely the King of Hyrule from that game wouldn’t have been so foolish to trust Ganon after everything he’s done here. And it doesn’t work after Ocarina, given how the name “Ganon” doesn’t seem to be ringing any bells. [Goes to look it up.] Okay, apparently, it’s set in the Majora’s Mask branch, and this is our first true other Ganon (after at least seven Zeldas, six Links, three Impas, three Malons and Talons, and probably four Tingles although it can be hard to tell with fairies).
The Gerudo allow the Links to proceed into the desert after Ganon, but warn that the path through the desert is hard to follow, and if they stray, they’ll end up back in the village. A sign in a cave on the first screen explains how to find the path: go in the direction opposite to the way the winds are blowing. Not that knowing this make it any easier: there’s usually some obstacle to going directly to that path that needs to be overcome per screen. The Pegasus Boots are a common solution, especially once upgraded so they can let Links dash across gaps or sand pits [1]. This game’s take on Gibdos first appear in this section – once the mummy form is defeated, a Stalfos is left behind in the Dark World.
Halfway through the desert, the Links come toa checkpoint an oasis occupied by another tribe, the Zuna. One offers to give the Links a sand rub, healing them a random amount. Another tries to tell the stories about the pyramid, but gets sidetracked wondering if there’s an evil force there or not. Overall, they’re well-meaning, but not as helpful as they hope. The deeper sections of the desert feature areas of loose sand that turn into holes when walked on. The stage ends with two bosses: first a set of Shadow Links that pops in and out of hidden caves, and second the Red Knight as a Big Dark Stalfos who gives the Links the Red sacred jewel. The knight also confirms that Ganon is behind the Shadow Links and Vaati’s release, and wonders where he got the power.
The Desert Temple stands between the open desert and the Pyramid. At first, it seems deserted, with just a few Shadow Links showing up to pester the Links as they progress. After solving the first puzzled: hitting four switches in the correct order that they all stay lit, then standing on a floor switch, the dungeon’s appearance changes. (The music also changes, from the Light World dungeon theme from A Link to the Past to the Level-9 theme from The Legend of Zelda.) They also get hammers, which let them deal with the larger Terrorpins that appear in the dungeon. (The Terrorpins are colored to match the Links, but I don’t know if there’s any significance to this – I was able to kill them all with Green Link leading the rest in duckling formation.)
Unlike most other dungeon levels or the desert itself, the Temple is not particularly mazelike; some doubling back is required once items have been picked up, but otherwise it’s a fairly straight crawl through to the end. The second and final item the Links use for the dungeon is the bow, which proves useful against the new enemies, Armos and Beamos. Well, mostly Armos; Beamos require precise timing to hit their eye when they open to fire, and that’s usually more trouble than it’s worth. Near the end, a puzzle involves lighting torches with the bow while a set of Armos stomps around the room (and disappears once they’re all lit).
The boss fight is against four Shadow Links popping in and out of the Dark World, with a Beamos in the center of the room. This is the one time I found it worth it to kill the Beamos, because Shadow Links running all over the place is tough enough without having to worry about laser beams every time an active Link comes into the line of fire. Once they’re down, the Temple is clear and the Links are free to move on to the Pyramid.
Next: If you mashed Hoth together with Tatooine, would it make a decent planet with nice weather?
[1] At least when I remember this game requires holding down the button to continue running.
The Gerudo allow the Links to proceed into the desert after Ganon, but warn that the path through the desert is hard to follow, and if they stray, they’ll end up back in the village. A sign in a cave on the first screen explains how to find the path: go in the direction opposite to the way the winds are blowing. Not that knowing this make it any easier: there’s usually some obstacle to going directly to that path that needs to be overcome per screen. The Pegasus Boots are a common solution, especially once upgraded so they can let Links dash across gaps or sand pits [1]. This game’s take on Gibdos first appear in this section – once the mummy form is defeated, a Stalfos is left behind in the Dark World.
Halfway through the desert, the Links come to
The Desert Temple stands between the open desert and the Pyramid. At first, it seems deserted, with just a few Shadow Links showing up to pester the Links as they progress. After solving the first puzzled: hitting four switches in the correct order that they all stay lit, then standing on a floor switch, the dungeon’s appearance changes. (The music also changes, from the Light World dungeon theme from A Link to the Past to the Level-9 theme from The Legend of Zelda.) They also get hammers, which let them deal with the larger Terrorpins that appear in the dungeon. (The Terrorpins are colored to match the Links, but I don’t know if there’s any significance to this – I was able to kill them all with Green Link leading the rest in duckling formation.)
Unlike most other dungeon levels or the desert itself, the Temple is not particularly mazelike; some doubling back is required once items have been picked up, but otherwise it’s a fairly straight crawl through to the end. The second and final item the Links use for the dungeon is the bow, which proves useful against the new enemies, Armos and Beamos. Well, mostly Armos; Beamos require precise timing to hit their eye when they open to fire, and that’s usually more trouble than it’s worth. Near the end, a puzzle involves lighting torches with the bow while a set of Armos stomps around the room (and disappears once they’re all lit).
The boss fight is against four Shadow Links popping in and out of the Dark World, with a Beamos in the center of the room. This is the one time I found it worth it to kill the Beamos, because Shadow Links running all over the place is tough enough without having to worry about laser beams every time an active Link comes into the line of fire. Once they’re down, the Temple is clear and the Links are free to move on to the Pyramid.
Next: If you mashed Hoth together with Tatooine, would it make a decent planet with nice weather?
[1] At least when I remember this game requires holding down the button to continue running.
Friday, January 25, 2019
Four Swords Adventures: The Dark Mirror
The next level is Kakariko Village, which has fallen under assault from Shadow Links that are burning everything. Kaepora Gaebora says that the villagers are being affected by the dark power that’s taken root in the area, but there’s no evidence of that in the game. Tingle’s sign complaining about thieves stealing his Force Gems is a lot more relevant: there are a bunch of thieves in the village, and the Links have to round them all up to proceed. Rounding them all up involves tasks such as stealing a Cucco to give to a widower as a pet to ease his loneliness, digging up pits, and using a power bracelet to lift all the village’s trees to get to the thieves hiding underneath.
Once the thieves are all rounded up, a man in the village lowers the spikes that have been impeding the Links’ progress. This lets them advance to a maze with fire walls and a Chain Chomp in the center, where they find a Fire Rod in a cave. Armed with the Fire Rod, they can continue onward and light a set of torches, sending up a rain prayer to put out all the fires in the village. With the fires out, they can start making their way out of the village. First, there’s a minigame involving steering fish into the mouth of a hungry Zora. Then, on the way out, they fight four more Shadow Links, who like to hide in dark pits that can only be lit by a Link standing on a switch on the surface. Like other multi-Shadow Link fights, one of the Shadow Links is the leader, who forces hits from the proper-colored Link, and whose defeat causes the rest to disappear.
A man in town talks about following the river to the temple where the Links could swear allegiance to the great king. Given who the “great king” probably is, they’re more likely to fight him, but either way, they need to go down the river. Which in this case means an extended swimming sequence, collecting Force Gems along the way. At the end of the river path, there’s a final boss fight, with another Big Dark Stalfos. After he’s down, the Knight is restored to his normal form and gives the Links the Green sacred jewel for safekeeping, and comes close to saying Ganon’s name before going off on a tangent and speculating about why Ganon’s done all this.
The next stage is the Temple of Darkness. Outside, there are a bunch of Deku Scrubs who were warned to be mindful of approaching strangers, especially if they’re traveling in a group of four. But a bunch of kids like the Links shouldn’t be a problem, so they don’t try to stop them from entering the Temple. Despite the name, the Temple doesn’t bear much similarity to the Palace of Darkness from A Link to the Past – although Terrorpins make their return to the series; instead, it’s more like a remix of the Eastern Temple with less lighting (including a room that’s entirely dark, even if the Links are carrying lamps).
The two most memorable puzzles in the dungeon involve a giant statue of Ganon the Deku Scrubs are building. At one point, the Links comes across the foundation of the statue, and by blowing holes in it, loosens it enough that it can be pushed and pulled around. This has two uses: first, it can make a makeshift bridge across a gap, and afterward, it can be used to destroy spikes blocking the way forward. Near the end of the level, a group of Deku Scrubs recounts the inscription that’s going on the statue, which is actually directions for how to progress through the next room, where the Links can break down certain walls by pushing against them in formation.
The boss is, once again, Phantom Ganon, and he takes another page out of Agahnim’s playbook and splits into four doubles. Only the real Phantom Ganon’s attacks can be reflected; the other three just kinda evaporate when struck. The real Ganon’s attacks start out green and change color to reflect the Link who last struck them, but it doesn’t seem to make any real difference. Even with the doubles, the fight’s more or less the same as the first Phantom Ganon fight, even with his odd tendency to hit wide right. When he’s gone, the maiden from the last visit to Hyrule Castle is dismayed to see that the Dark Mirror is gone, and figures that it’s what’s creating the Shadow Links. Together with the maiden held in this temple, the two speculate about Ganon, and decide the Links should visit the Gerudo in the desert next.
Next: It’s a Zelda game, so sooner or later I begin questioning the timeline placement.
Once the thieves are all rounded up, a man in the village lowers the spikes that have been impeding the Links’ progress. This lets them advance to a maze with fire walls and a Chain Chomp in the center, where they find a Fire Rod in a cave. Armed with the Fire Rod, they can continue onward and light a set of torches, sending up a rain prayer to put out all the fires in the village. With the fires out, they can start making their way out of the village. First, there’s a minigame involving steering fish into the mouth of a hungry Zora. Then, on the way out, they fight four more Shadow Links, who like to hide in dark pits that can only be lit by a Link standing on a switch on the surface. Like other multi-Shadow Link fights, one of the Shadow Links is the leader, who forces hits from the proper-colored Link, and whose defeat causes the rest to disappear.
A man in town talks about following the river to the temple where the Links could swear allegiance to the great king. Given who the “great king” probably is, they’re more likely to fight him, but either way, they need to go down the river. Which in this case means an extended swimming sequence, collecting Force Gems along the way. At the end of the river path, there’s a final boss fight, with another Big Dark Stalfos. After he’s down, the Knight is restored to his normal form and gives the Links the Green sacred jewel for safekeeping, and comes close to saying Ganon’s name before going off on a tangent and speculating about why Ganon’s done all this.
The next stage is the Temple of Darkness. Outside, there are a bunch of Deku Scrubs who were warned to be mindful of approaching strangers, especially if they’re traveling in a group of four. But a bunch of kids like the Links shouldn’t be a problem, so they don’t try to stop them from entering the Temple. Despite the name, the Temple doesn’t bear much similarity to the Palace of Darkness from A Link to the Past – although Terrorpins make their return to the series; instead, it’s more like a remix of the Eastern Temple with less lighting (including a room that’s entirely dark, even if the Links are carrying lamps).
The two most memorable puzzles in the dungeon involve a giant statue of Ganon the Deku Scrubs are building. At one point, the Links comes across the foundation of the statue, and by blowing holes in it, loosens it enough that it can be pushed and pulled around. This has two uses: first, it can make a makeshift bridge across a gap, and afterward, it can be used to destroy spikes blocking the way forward. Near the end of the level, a group of Deku Scrubs recounts the inscription that’s going on the statue, which is actually directions for how to progress through the next room, where the Links can break down certain walls by pushing against them in formation.
The boss is, once again, Phantom Ganon, and he takes another page out of Agahnim’s playbook and splits into four doubles. Only the real Phantom Ganon’s attacks can be reflected; the other three just kinda evaporate when struck. The real Ganon’s attacks start out green and change color to reflect the Link who last struck them, but it doesn’t seem to make any real difference. Even with the doubles, the fight’s more or less the same as the first Phantom Ganon fight, even with his odd tendency to hit wide right. When he’s gone, the maiden from the last visit to Hyrule Castle is dismayed to see that the Dark Mirror is gone, and figures that it’s what’s creating the Shadow Links. Together with the maiden held in this temple, the two speculate about Ganon, and decide the Links should visit the Gerudo in the desert next.
Next: It’s a Zelda game, so sooner or later I begin questioning the timeline placement.
Wednesday, January 23, 2019
Four Swords Adventures: Hyrule Castle Again and Lost Woods
The next stage is called Infiltration of Hyrule Castle, and as the name implies, it’s got stealth aspects. There are searchlights on all outside areas, and if the Links get spotted, they’ll land in the dungeon. The searchlights are also keyed to sounds, so if a pot breaks, they’ll all converge on where it broke, and if the Links are there when they arrive, he’s in trouble. Breaking the pots can be done if careful – particularly by picking them up, standing outside the lights’ range, and throwing them somewhere where they’ll be able to get the contents once the lights move off. It’s really more trouble than it’s worth, but asking one Link, let alone four, not to break pots to get what’s inside is futile.
The palace’s interior is dimly lit, and the only enemies inside are Ghinis and Bubbles. Walking around is mostly an exercise in finding the path and using the one item inside – the bow – to light torches (either via switch or by shooting through other torches) to reveal the way forward. There’s one large room with switches that light torches that reveal invisible tiles nearby that I managed to kinda cheat my way quickly through by abusing tossing Links over the small gaps; I got the three treasure chests and made it to the other side quickly. Having the bow makes breaking pots outside a little easier since a charged shot can break the pots in place while the Links are far away, then scoop up the Force Gems when the lights move off.
Overall, the level is fairly short, and there aren’t a whole lot of Force Gems to find, even with taking chances with the pots outside. I was short when I came to the boss room, but I know boss defeats generally trigger a rupee shower so I wasn’t too worried. The boss is a rematch with Big Poe, who doesn’t freeze in the light anymore. Instead, if all four torches in the room are lit, he becomes corporeal enough for the Links to damage. Then he sucks them inside of him, where they have to fight his inner self. Then he blows out all the torches, and if his lantern’s light catches the Links before they get all four lit again, he’ll blow them out again. Once the inner being is destroyed, so too is Big Poe, and the next maiden is freed. The maiden asks about the jewel from the Knights of Hyrule, then mentions that her home is the forest. She wants to take the Links there so they can get the Dark Mirror for safekeeping, so that’s the next destination.
Level 5 is The Dark World, so even though the first stage is called Lost Woods, it looks more like A Link to the Past’s Skeleton Woods, complete with the same theme from the area in A Link to the Past playing. The woods are, of course, a giant maze, as humorously illustrated by a sign left by Tingle giving directions to points of interest in the area: arrows pointing in all directions, with “Woods” by each one. The area is populated by Deku Scrubs, who keep a couple areas with useful items locked up. They also seem to revere Ganon, whom they credit with the area’s corruptions, confirming (to no one’s surprise, I’m sure, especially after Phantom Ganon showed up earlier) that he’s the one behind everything. There are also Floormasters, who instead of resetting progress simply drag the Links to the Dark World.
A key part of the stage is helping the Deku Scrubs gather up things to their dumping ground. Well, one of the things they wanted was a bomb, which a Link picked up from a bomb flower in the dumping ground and hurried over to the lead Scrub before it exploded (and promptly regrew on the flower), but whatever. The reward for this is a Power Bracelet, which lets the Links lift trees out of the way to finish exploring. This leads them to a screen with several pits they can fall into, one of which has a bow. Then there’s a larger Gohma who throws rocks at the Links and takes more arrows to kill – I’m reminded of the original Gohmas.
The big Gohma was the boss fight for the level, but that’s not the end. The Links get a key nearby, then have to find the door the key opens, and use the items inside (lantern and shovel) to clear the way to the end of the stage. Then the final screen has Shadow Link dropping Big Bombs, leaving the Links little windows of time to dig around for the entrances to the tunnels that will lead them to the barrier and finally out of the maze.
Next: The tool needed to put out fires is the Fire Rod. No, seriously.
The palace’s interior is dimly lit, and the only enemies inside are Ghinis and Bubbles. Walking around is mostly an exercise in finding the path and using the one item inside – the bow – to light torches (either via switch or by shooting through other torches) to reveal the way forward. There’s one large room with switches that light torches that reveal invisible tiles nearby that I managed to kinda cheat my way quickly through by abusing tossing Links over the small gaps; I got the three treasure chests and made it to the other side quickly. Having the bow makes breaking pots outside a little easier since a charged shot can break the pots in place while the Links are far away, then scoop up the Force Gems when the lights move off.
Overall, the level is fairly short, and there aren’t a whole lot of Force Gems to find, even with taking chances with the pots outside. I was short when I came to the boss room, but I know boss defeats generally trigger a rupee shower so I wasn’t too worried. The boss is a rematch with Big Poe, who doesn’t freeze in the light anymore. Instead, if all four torches in the room are lit, he becomes corporeal enough for the Links to damage. Then he sucks them inside of him, where they have to fight his inner self. Then he blows out all the torches, and if his lantern’s light catches the Links before they get all four lit again, he’ll blow them out again. Once the inner being is destroyed, so too is Big Poe, and the next maiden is freed. The maiden asks about the jewel from the Knights of Hyrule, then mentions that her home is the forest. She wants to take the Links there so they can get the Dark Mirror for safekeeping, so that’s the next destination.
Level 5 is The Dark World, so even though the first stage is called Lost Woods, it looks more like A Link to the Past’s Skeleton Woods, complete with the same theme from the area in A Link to the Past playing. The woods are, of course, a giant maze, as humorously illustrated by a sign left by Tingle giving directions to points of interest in the area: arrows pointing in all directions, with “Woods” by each one. The area is populated by Deku Scrubs, who keep a couple areas with useful items locked up. They also seem to revere Ganon, whom they credit with the area’s corruptions, confirming (to no one’s surprise, I’m sure, especially after Phantom Ganon showed up earlier) that he’s the one behind everything. There are also Floormasters, who instead of resetting progress simply drag the Links to the Dark World.
A key part of the stage is helping the Deku Scrubs gather up things to their dumping ground. Well, one of the things they wanted was a bomb, which a Link picked up from a bomb flower in the dumping ground and hurried over to the lead Scrub before it exploded (and promptly regrew on the flower), but whatever. The reward for this is a Power Bracelet, which lets the Links lift trees out of the way to finish exploring. This leads them to a screen with several pits they can fall into, one of which has a bow. Then there’s a larger Gohma who throws rocks at the Links and takes more arrows to kill – I’m reminded of the original Gohmas.
The big Gohma was the boss fight for the level, but that’s not the end. The Links get a key nearby, then have to find the door the key opens, and use the items inside (lantern and shovel) to clear the way to the end of the stage. Then the final screen has Shadow Link dropping Big Bombs, leaving the Links little windows of time to dig around for the entrances to the tunnels that will lead them to the barrier and finally out of the maze.
Next: The tool needed to put out fires is the Fire Rod. No, seriously.
Monday, January 21, 2019
Four Swords Adventures: Approaching Hyrule Castle
The next area is called Near the Fields, and the first stage is The Field. Okay, they could have maybe communicated a little better there. Anyway, as the Links arrive, the maiden notices a girl standing alone out in the rain, so the Links go over to see if they can help. She says she’s running errands for her father, but between the rain and the soldiers firing cannons all over the place, she’s having a hard time getting home, and asks the Links to help her out. They agree, and so the escort mission begins. The girl – Malon – can take damage from enemies, and she doesn’t have a lot of health, and if she dies the Links die so a Force Fairy can resurrect everybody. It’s a fairly short mission, with the hardest part getting her past the cannons at the beginning because she moves so slowly. When the Links get her home, Talon’s grateful for their help and lets them borrow horses to help in their journey. Malon and Talon’s conversation also seemingly confirms that the soldiers are mind controlled. The horses can jump over fences and trample soldiers, making the next several screens a breeze.
Eventually the Links get out of the horses’ range, just as the rain clears up. The fields ahead are populated by Gohmas, so the next part of the quest is finding a way to deal with them. The solution, of course, is to get a bow and shoot them, but getting the bow requires powering up Pegasus Boots at a fairy fountain, which lets the Links run over gaps, eventually allowing them to reach where the bow is stored. Once they’ve gotten the bow and defeated all the Gohmas, they can get a shovel as a reward, allowing them to dig open a tunnel that leads them out of the area. Near the exit is a giant Force Gem worth 1,000 – Tingle tried repeatedly to steal it, but it’s too heavy for him to carry.
The final part of the stage is a series of big fights. First there’s a bunch of soldiers, then a couple flail troopers, and finally a Chief Soldier surrounded by a bunch of regular soldiers kind of like the various swarm enemies. After that fight, the Links come up against a pair of Stalfos, led by a Big Dark Stalfos in the Dark World whose sword projects to the Light World. When the Big Dark Stalfos is beaten, he turns out to be one of the Knights of Hyrule who keep the sacred jewels. He says that he and the jewel had become cursed, and gives the jewel to the Links for safekeeping.
Kaepora Gaebora arrives at the start of the next stage, The Swamp. He explains that the swamp waters in the area are poisonous, an effect caused by Vaati’s corruption. Falling into the swamp causes the Links to sink, and respawn at the edge minus some health. So, of course, the swamp portion of the stage involves a lot of platforming over the swamp, often jumping between lily pads. After the first section, there’s a sign left by Tingle that talks about jumping over the lily pads, which seems mostly extraneous at this point because to get there Link has to do just that. (Also, Tingle can fly.) It does mention Zoras, who shortly start popping up under the lily pads, sending anyone on them high into the air, adding an extra wrinkle to the platforming.
After passing through the swamp, the Links come to the second portion of the level, a graveyard, which is of course populated by Ghinis [1], who are being mean to a ghost girl. To get them to stop, the Links need to explore a grave to find a Moon Pearl, travel through the Dark World, and stand on a bunch of switches to banish them. Then they can enter the nearby house and meet Dampé, who tells them about a mirror that can seal monsters away that used to be in the Forest of Light, only said forest is now covered with clouds and is more like the Forest of Dark. (Only slightly paraphrased.) A treasure chest in his home has a Power Bracelet, which lets the Links pick up huge things like trees to make their way forward.
The final section of the stage is a large area with four lamps that are lit by standing on a switch. Near each is a large Ghini, who poofs when they enter a lamp’s light. Once all four are gone, the boss – Big Poe, who looks like Jalhalla – shows up. He’s only stunned when he’s in the light, but that gives the Links a chance to hit him. After a few hits, Big Poe skitters off, allowing the Links to complete the stage.
Next: Hyrule Castle, take 2.
[1] I really don’t understand why there are two different names for the ghostly enemies. As far as I’ve played, Ghinis and Poes have only kinda appeared together in the Oracle games, where it’s usually Ghinis but Link gets a Poe Clock from a ghost in Ages and (two of) the Poe Sisters show up as a miniboss in Seasons, and here with Ghinis but Big Poe. (Iron Knuckles and Darknuts are similar, although the different names were established in Adventure of Link, which had a lot of different enemy names for similar concepts, including its own ghostly enemies, the Moas.)
Eventually the Links get out of the horses’ range, just as the rain clears up. The fields ahead are populated by Gohmas, so the next part of the quest is finding a way to deal with them. The solution, of course, is to get a bow and shoot them, but getting the bow requires powering up Pegasus Boots at a fairy fountain, which lets the Links run over gaps, eventually allowing them to reach where the bow is stored. Once they’ve gotten the bow and defeated all the Gohmas, they can get a shovel as a reward, allowing them to dig open a tunnel that leads them out of the area. Near the exit is a giant Force Gem worth 1,000 – Tingle tried repeatedly to steal it, but it’s too heavy for him to carry.
The final part of the stage is a series of big fights. First there’s a bunch of soldiers, then a couple flail troopers, and finally a Chief Soldier surrounded by a bunch of regular soldiers kind of like the various swarm enemies. After that fight, the Links come up against a pair of Stalfos, led by a Big Dark Stalfos in the Dark World whose sword projects to the Light World. When the Big Dark Stalfos is beaten, he turns out to be one of the Knights of Hyrule who keep the sacred jewels. He says that he and the jewel had become cursed, and gives the jewel to the Links for safekeeping.
Kaepora Gaebora arrives at the start of the next stage, The Swamp. He explains that the swamp waters in the area are poisonous, an effect caused by Vaati’s corruption. Falling into the swamp causes the Links to sink, and respawn at the edge minus some health. So, of course, the swamp portion of the stage involves a lot of platforming over the swamp, often jumping between lily pads. After the first section, there’s a sign left by Tingle that talks about jumping over the lily pads, which seems mostly extraneous at this point because to get there Link has to do just that. (Also, Tingle can fly.) It does mention Zoras, who shortly start popping up under the lily pads, sending anyone on them high into the air, adding an extra wrinkle to the platforming.
After passing through the swamp, the Links come to the second portion of the level, a graveyard, which is of course populated by Ghinis [1], who are being mean to a ghost girl. To get them to stop, the Links need to explore a grave to find a Moon Pearl, travel through the Dark World, and stand on a bunch of switches to banish them. Then they can enter the nearby house and meet Dampé, who tells them about a mirror that can seal monsters away that used to be in the Forest of Light, only said forest is now covered with clouds and is more like the Forest of Dark. (Only slightly paraphrased.) A treasure chest in his home has a Power Bracelet, which lets the Links pick up huge things like trees to make their way forward.
The final section of the stage is a large area with four lamps that are lit by standing on a switch. Near each is a large Ghini, who poofs when they enter a lamp’s light. Once all four are gone, the boss – Big Poe, who looks like Jalhalla – shows up. He’s only stunned when he’s in the light, but that gives the Links a chance to hit him. After a few hits, Big Poe skitters off, allowing the Links to complete the stage.
Next: Hyrule Castle, take 2.
[1] I really don’t understand why there are two different names for the ghostly enemies. As far as I’ve played, Ghinis and Poes have only kinda appeared together in the Oracle games, where it’s usually Ghinis but Link gets a Poe Clock from a ghost in Ages and (two of) the Poe Sisters show up as a miniboss in Seasons, and here with Ghinis but Big Poe. (Iron Knuckles and Darknuts are similar, although the different names were established in Adventure of Link, which had a lot of different enemy names for similar concepts, including its own ghostly enemies, the Moas.)
Friday, January 18, 2019
Four Swords Adventures: Death Mountain
As the Links arrive at The Mountain Path, Kaepora Gaebora comes to greet them with news that there’s a giant masked bird causing trouble on the mountain. The Gorons are apparently troubled about it, too, but they have more immediate concerns – lots of fires all across the mountain. The Links can put out the fires by throwing pots of water at them, which is the first part of finding the way through the mountains. Then they need pots of fire to ignite fuses – one blows up a giant jug of water that spreads Force Gems all over, and the other three ignite giant jugs of explosives that function as big bombs. One of the big bombs blows up a part of the mountain, revealing the way forward, and another reveals a fairy fountain.
The next section has falling boulders, and finding the way forward requires waiting for a boulder to fall into and temporarily block the pits on the pathway. Then the Links come to a house that’s been built to block entrance to a cave; a nearby Goron isn’t happy about the placement and has been trying to push it out of the way, so the house’s inhabitant put down stakes to keep the house in place. He also has hammers, so the Links take the hammers, pound the stakes, and push the house. Inside the house are fire pots that can be used to restore the brown Force Gems lying around the area to a normal color. The next area reveals the cause of the fires in the area is Shadow Links torching everything. Once they’re defeated, the Links need to smash the ground to cause hiding Gorons – one of whom has a key they need – to come out.
After fighting four more Shadow Links – with one playing the “only the matching color can harm me” card – the Links come to the mountain summit. First they’re greeted by Kaepora Gaebora, who looks out over Hyrule and realizes something’s not right at the castle. Then they fight the Helmaroc King. A “secret Goron plan” in the caves nearby gives the hint on how to start the fight: knock the bird out of the sky with bombs. It’ll crash into one of the caves, and the Links can go in and smash it with their hammers to destroy its mask. After the mask is gone, the Helmaroc King lands out in the open, where the Links can finish it off with their swords.
The Tower of Flames is, unsurprisingly, a fire level. Fire-themed obstacles start from the very beginning with fire-breathing statues the Links need to wait to stop before sneaking past. The statues show up on the next floor, activating when the Links come close to form a simple maze through the floor. Then a flail trooper whose flail trails fire shows up, forcing the Links to find a creative way around his weapon to attack him: the simplest solution is to use the Roc’s Feather to jump and then use the slam attack. Firebars appear, and the Links can shoot switches to make them change the direction they’re spinning, which seems useful but since they can just jump over with the Roc’s Feather, and the bow isn’t really needed for anything else, I think it’s easier to stick with the Feather.
After defeating another set of Shadow Links, the Links come to the boss floor. There, a Goron laments dropping his bombs into the lava, saying he figures he could throw them into the mouths of the creatures in the next room and get past their tough hides. So, of course, the Links find bombs and the final boss turns out to be a trio of Dodongos. They walk around randomly, and every now and again open their mouths to spit fire, which is of course the opening for the Links to throw bombs in. Three bombs each, and the way forward opens.
Before the Links can rescue the maiden, they walk out on a balcony for a final chat with Kaepora Gaebora. The owl says that trouble has indeed come back to the castle, and there’s probably a maiden there. The maiden in the Tower of Flame agrees to go, and also mentions four sacred jewels which will open the path to the Realm of the Heavens. The jewels are in the care of the Knights of Hyrule… who have disappeared. Like the others, she turns into a fairy to guide the Links to their next destination.
Next: The first knight.
The next section has falling boulders, and finding the way forward requires waiting for a boulder to fall into and temporarily block the pits on the pathway. Then the Links come to a house that’s been built to block entrance to a cave; a nearby Goron isn’t happy about the placement and has been trying to push it out of the way, so the house’s inhabitant put down stakes to keep the house in place. He also has hammers, so the Links take the hammers, pound the stakes, and push the house. Inside the house are fire pots that can be used to restore the brown Force Gems lying around the area to a normal color. The next area reveals the cause of the fires in the area is Shadow Links torching everything. Once they’re defeated, the Links need to smash the ground to cause hiding Gorons – one of whom has a key they need – to come out.
After fighting four more Shadow Links – with one playing the “only the matching color can harm me” card – the Links come to the mountain summit. First they’re greeted by Kaepora Gaebora, who looks out over Hyrule and realizes something’s not right at the castle. Then they fight the Helmaroc King. A “secret Goron plan” in the caves nearby gives the hint on how to start the fight: knock the bird out of the sky with bombs. It’ll crash into one of the caves, and the Links can go in and smash it with their hammers to destroy its mask. After the mask is gone, the Helmaroc King lands out in the open, where the Links can finish it off with their swords.
The Tower of Flames is, unsurprisingly, a fire level. Fire-themed obstacles start from the very beginning with fire-breathing statues the Links need to wait to stop before sneaking past. The statues show up on the next floor, activating when the Links come close to form a simple maze through the floor. Then a flail trooper whose flail trails fire shows up, forcing the Links to find a creative way around his weapon to attack him: the simplest solution is to use the Roc’s Feather to jump and then use the slam attack. Firebars appear, and the Links can shoot switches to make them change the direction they’re spinning, which seems useful but since they can just jump over with the Roc’s Feather, and the bow isn’t really needed for anything else, I think it’s easier to stick with the Feather.
After defeating another set of Shadow Links, the Links come to the boss floor. There, a Goron laments dropping his bombs into the lava, saying he figures he could throw them into the mouths of the creatures in the next room and get past their tough hides. So, of course, the Links find bombs and the final boss turns out to be a trio of Dodongos. They walk around randomly, and every now and again open their mouths to spit fire, which is of course the opening for the Links to throw bombs in. Three bombs each, and the way forward opens.
Before the Links can rescue the maiden, they walk out on a balcony for a final chat with Kaepora Gaebora. The owl says that trouble has indeed come back to the castle, and there’s probably a maiden there. The maiden in the Tower of Flame agrees to go, and also mentions four sacred jewels which will open the path to the Realm of the Heavens. The jewels are in the care of the Knights of Hyrule… who have disappeared. Like the others, she turns into a fairy to guide the Links to their next destination.
Next: The first knight.
Wednesday, January 16, 2019
Four Swords Adventures: Eastern Temple and Death Mountain Foothills
The Eastern Temple borrows a lot of its look from the Eastern Palace of A Link to the Past, and reuses the Light World dungeon theme from that game. The layout is nothing similar, except that both are winding mazes of rooms. Some enemies and hazards are familiar from the Eastern Palace, like Stalfos that jump away from Link when he attacks and the rolling balls that Link needs to dodge, hide from, and/or find a way around. Wizzrobes make their first appearance here. Also, our old friend the spinning floor tile trap makes its triumphant return, increasing the difficulty by not stopping after the tiles are all used up. No, then the rest of the room’s furniture – pots, treasure chests, and even the giant statues – start spinning and flying at Link.
The ghostly hint givers return; the one that shows up this time tells the Links to use a Moon Pearl to bypass a giant cascade of the rolling balls. In the Dark World, there are fewer balls, making it easier for the Links to cross to the other side of the room. There’s a long sequence of hidden doors, entirely within the GBA interface. Near the end of the dungeons, the Links can find a Big Key, which is used to open a double treasure chest to reveal a giant Force Gem worth 1000. Along with the giant pile of Force Gems that also appear in the room with the chest, there’s little excuse for leaving that room without the Four Sword powered up.
The boss of the palace is Stone Arrghus, a rocky version of Arrghus from A Link to the Past’s Swamp Palace. There are boomerangs in the pits of the boss room, which the Links can use in lieu of the hookshot to pull eyes off the boss and kill them. The boss gets stunned when hit by the sword, letting the Links pile on and quickly rack up damage, which makes the post-eyes phase faster than the original Arrghus. Once it’s dead, the Links rescue the second maiden, who says that Vaati is probably using the Palace of Winds that he built during his rampage in Four Swords as his headquarters. She guesses that one of the maidens is being held in her domain, Death Mountain, and the Tower of Flames. Like the other maiden, she breaks her crystal prison and turns into a fairy to guide the Links.
When the Links arrive in the Death Mountain Foothills, a nearby sign declares them to be wanted men, with soldiers attacking them on sight. Buzz Blobs also show up, requiring Link to stun them before attacking (or use ranged attacks) if he doesn’t want to get electrocuted, and I just now realized that yellow ChuChus are basically the same enemy. After the Links has a chance to get acquainted with them, the next screen has a tremendous number of them. They can take them on, but the intended design is to explore the screen and find a bombos medallion which will blow them all up.
Also returning from A Link to the Past are Deadrocks, which still temporarily turn into stone when attacked, only without being knocked back, which is both a boon (where they freeze is predictable) and an annoyance (it’s impossible to knock them out of the Links’ path). The first set is unkillable, but then the Links come to a house that’s been designed to be pushed around, spouting fire as it goes. Deadrocks run over by the house or caught in the flames die, and when all the ones on screen are dead, a bunch of hammers, which can also kill the Deadrocks, show up. The hammers can also be charged up to create a shockwave.
Toward the end of the level, the Links fight a bunch of Hinox. They throw rocks instead of bombs, but the main threat is their damage output. They hit hard and tend to knock Force Gems out of whichever Link they hit, and they can also grab a Link and strangle big enough numbers of Gems out of him to attract Tingle. The Links first fight a single Hinox, then three at once, then face like twenty of them. They’re not expected to actually fight the last group, but to find a cave with the second medallion type, quake, use it to turn the Hinox into harmless Zols, then Hurricane Spin over all of them.
Earlier in the stage, the Links were told about a Lost Woods-esque area called Hebra’s Hill, which the only way through is to stay focused on the destination – i.e., keep going upward. Once through the area, they face the stage’s boss, a Great Soldier with a couple big groups of normal soldiers on call. Once they’re all defeated, the way into Death Mountain proper is clear.
Next: Up the mountain.
The ghostly hint givers return; the one that shows up this time tells the Links to use a Moon Pearl to bypass a giant cascade of the rolling balls. In the Dark World, there are fewer balls, making it easier for the Links to cross to the other side of the room. There’s a long sequence of hidden doors, entirely within the GBA interface. Near the end of the dungeons, the Links can find a Big Key, which is used to open a double treasure chest to reveal a giant Force Gem worth 1000. Along with the giant pile of Force Gems that also appear in the room with the chest, there’s little excuse for leaving that room without the Four Sword powered up.
The boss of the palace is Stone Arrghus, a rocky version of Arrghus from A Link to the Past’s Swamp Palace. There are boomerangs in the pits of the boss room, which the Links can use in lieu of the hookshot to pull eyes off the boss and kill them. The boss gets stunned when hit by the sword, letting the Links pile on and quickly rack up damage, which makes the post-eyes phase faster than the original Arrghus. Once it’s dead, the Links rescue the second maiden, who says that Vaati is probably using the Palace of Winds that he built during his rampage in Four Swords as his headquarters. She guesses that one of the maidens is being held in her domain, Death Mountain, and the Tower of Flames. Like the other maiden, she breaks her crystal prison and turns into a fairy to guide the Links.
When the Links arrive in the Death Mountain Foothills, a nearby sign declares them to be wanted men, with soldiers attacking them on sight. Buzz Blobs also show up, requiring Link to stun them before attacking (or use ranged attacks) if he doesn’t want to get electrocuted, and I just now realized that yellow ChuChus are basically the same enemy. After the Links has a chance to get acquainted with them, the next screen has a tremendous number of them. They can take them on, but the intended design is to explore the screen and find a bombos medallion which will blow them all up.
Also returning from A Link to the Past are Deadrocks, which still temporarily turn into stone when attacked, only without being knocked back, which is both a boon (where they freeze is predictable) and an annoyance (it’s impossible to knock them out of the Links’ path). The first set is unkillable, but then the Links come to a house that’s been designed to be pushed around, spouting fire as it goes. Deadrocks run over by the house or caught in the flames die, and when all the ones on screen are dead, a bunch of hammers, which can also kill the Deadrocks, show up. The hammers can also be charged up to create a shockwave.
Toward the end of the level, the Links fight a bunch of Hinox. They throw rocks instead of bombs, but the main threat is their damage output. They hit hard and tend to knock Force Gems out of whichever Link they hit, and they can also grab a Link and strangle big enough numbers of Gems out of him to attract Tingle. The Links first fight a single Hinox, then three at once, then face like twenty of them. They’re not expected to actually fight the last group, but to find a cave with the second medallion type, quake, use it to turn the Hinox into harmless Zols, then Hurricane Spin over all of them.
Earlier in the stage, the Links were told about a Lost Woods-esque area called Hebra’s Hill, which the only way through is to stay focused on the destination – i.e., keep going upward. Once through the area, they face the stage’s boss, a Great Soldier with a couple big groups of normal soldiers on call. Once they’re all defeated, the way into Death Mountain proper is clear.
Next: Up the mountain.
Monday, January 14, 2019
Four Swords Adventures: Eastern Hyrule
The Coast, the first stage in the Eastern Hyrule level, starts out with a new threat to the Links: stepping on a button causes a giant bomb to fall from the sky, and if the bomb explodes while the Links are on the main screen, they die, so they have to escape to caves or other areas where they’re on the GBA screen, or underwater. Later screens have Shadow Link constantly raining giant bombs, so the Links have to crawl forward as much as they can between bombs. Another new mechanic I first encountered here was massive damage, where a Link takes so much damage Force Gems are knocked free in what I can only assume is meant to be a mechanic for spreading wealth in multiplayer games but kind of pointless in single-player since you just scoop up all the Force Gems and continue on your merry way.
Link finds a new weapon here, the slingshot. Great Fairies start showing up, based on their appearance in Wind Waker rather than the general A Link to the Past look everything else has. They both fully restore the Links’ health and upgrade their weapon to a more powerful version: the slingshot shoots three shots at once, the bomb has a bigger blast, etc. Immediately after upgrading the slingshot, the Links have a chance to test it out, first on a horde of Zoras, then on a group of Sand Crabs. Force Likes make their first appearance here, and are just like Four Swords’ Rupee Likes except the currency they steal has been renamed between games. Force Gems also show a couple new tricks here: some run away from the Links, and others turn out to be Force Soldiers, animated Force Gems armed with a sword and shield.
The final boss of the first stage is a Manhandla. The four claws are colored after the four Links, which of course means that each Link needs to hit his respective claw to defeat the boss. Like others of its kind, it gets faster as it loses claws, and a mismatch between the Link hitting a claw and the claw causes all the claws to regrow, resetting the fight.
The second stage is Village of the Blue Maiden, which uses a creepy remix of the Kakariko Village theme. A sign posted by Tingle talks about children disappearing, no doubt (in his mind) ditching school to play games. The sign prattles on about how Tingle wants to play, too, but the Links have business to attend to. Near the village entrance, the Links feel a strange sensation, and shadows of things that can’t normally be seen show up. Kaepora Gaebora drops in to tell them that the Four Sword lets them sense the Dark World, which he speculates is where the missing children have gone. To save the village, the Links need to use Moon Pearls to Moon Gates to the Dark World – which rather than the twisted reflection from A Link to the Past, it looks more or less the same, only displayed on the GBA with a wavy effect and distorted music – and adventure back and forth between the two worlds.
The first major step is to work with the Seeker’s Guild, who are investigating the disappearances around the village. There are four Seekers throughout the village, and each has found a snippet of a longer message. “The six…,” “Deeply connected to the village…,” “Protect…,” and “Beautiful….” Link returns to the guildmaster and correctly surmises that the messages are about the shrine maidens and is awarded with one of three items putting in first appearances on this level, a shovel. It can open a secret passage and dig up the big force gems that are partially buried throughout the village. The other two new items are Pegasus Boots, which have the familiar charge ability, and the Roc’s Feather, that lets the Links jump and make smash attacks. All three are needed to make it through, and the Roc’s Feather has the added bonus of letting the Links show Tingle his Force Gem-thieving is not appreciated by popping his balloon.
The final boss is a pair of Shadow Links, who hop in and out of a portal to the Dark World. One of the Shadow Links seems to be the leader – he’ll force the final hits to come from the Link who matches his color, and if he’s defeated first, the other one disappears as well. Once they’re defeated, everything’s back to normal in the village, and the music takes on a triumphant sound. This was a great level, with lots of fun solving puzzles and juggling items to find the right one.
Next: The second maiden and her home area.
Link finds a new weapon here, the slingshot. Great Fairies start showing up, based on their appearance in Wind Waker rather than the general A Link to the Past look everything else has. They both fully restore the Links’ health and upgrade their weapon to a more powerful version: the slingshot shoots three shots at once, the bomb has a bigger blast, etc. Immediately after upgrading the slingshot, the Links have a chance to test it out, first on a horde of Zoras, then on a group of Sand Crabs. Force Likes make their first appearance here, and are just like Four Swords’ Rupee Likes except the currency they steal has been renamed between games. Force Gems also show a couple new tricks here: some run away from the Links, and others turn out to be Force Soldiers, animated Force Gems armed with a sword and shield.
The final boss of the first stage is a Manhandla. The four claws are colored after the four Links, which of course means that each Link needs to hit his respective claw to defeat the boss. Like others of its kind, it gets faster as it loses claws, and a mismatch between the Link hitting a claw and the claw causes all the claws to regrow, resetting the fight.
The second stage is Village of the Blue Maiden, which uses a creepy remix of the Kakariko Village theme. A sign posted by Tingle talks about children disappearing, no doubt (in his mind) ditching school to play games. The sign prattles on about how Tingle wants to play, too, but the Links have business to attend to. Near the village entrance, the Links feel a strange sensation, and shadows of things that can’t normally be seen show up. Kaepora Gaebora drops in to tell them that the Four Sword lets them sense the Dark World, which he speculates is where the missing children have gone. To save the village, the Links need to use Moon Pearls to Moon Gates to the Dark World – which rather than the twisted reflection from A Link to the Past, it looks more or less the same, only displayed on the GBA with a wavy effect and distorted music – and adventure back and forth between the two worlds.
The first major step is to work with the Seeker’s Guild, who are investigating the disappearances around the village. There are four Seekers throughout the village, and each has found a snippet of a longer message. “The six…,” “Deeply connected to the village…,” “Protect…,” and “Beautiful….” Link returns to the guildmaster and correctly surmises that the messages are about the shrine maidens and is awarded with one of three items putting in first appearances on this level, a shovel. It can open a secret passage and dig up the big force gems that are partially buried throughout the village. The other two new items are Pegasus Boots, which have the familiar charge ability, and the Roc’s Feather, that lets the Links jump and make smash attacks. All three are needed to make it through, and the Roc’s Feather has the added bonus of letting the Links show Tingle his Force Gem-thieving is not appreciated by popping his balloon.
The final boss is a pair of Shadow Links, who hop in and out of a portal to the Dark World. One of the Shadow Links seems to be the leader – he’ll force the final hits to come from the Link who matches his color, and if he’s defeated first, the other one disappears as well. Once they’re defeated, everything’s back to normal in the village, and the music takes on a triumphant sound. This was a great level, with lots of fun solving puzzles and juggling items to find the right one.
Next: The second maiden and her home area.
Friday, January 11, 2019
Four Swords Adventures: Cave of No Return and Hyrule Castle
Stage 2 of Whereabouts of the Wind is the Cave of No Return. The area’s pitch dark, of course, requiring the Links to pick up lanterns to see the way. The cave is a maze, with lots of blocks to push around. Eventually the Links come to a room with colored blocks, that only the Link of matching color can push. In single player, this requires a bunch of switching between the Links to create the way forward. The next room has holes in the floor the Links can fall through (deliberately or not) to explore the room below, which is inexplicably well-lit and has a couple Bubbles/Anti-Fairies/Fire Fairies floating around. There’s also a heart container and 100 rupees down in the room, so it’s well worth exploring.
The second phase of the stage has the Links equipped with a bow, as there are enough torches now to light the way forward. The bow is used for obvious things like hitting switches or enemies at a distance, and the less obvious but familiar use of being shot through a fire to light another torch. As the Links progress, they find a ghostly old man who came in looking for treasure and got stuck and died. He gives hints on how the Links can work together to progress, like one throwing another over a gap or lining up to pull a lever together. Before the boss fight, there’s a deeper underground section where the Links have to find their way through a Lost Woods-esque series of rooms.
The final boss of the Cave of No Return is Shadow Link. He jumps away as the Links approach, so scoring a hit requires forming up to hit him as he jumps away. After a couple hits, he becomes more solid, taking on the appearance of one of the Links, who has to hit him to finish the stage.
The third stage is Hyrule Castle. Outside the castle is a sign left by Tingle, mentioning an encounter with a fairy who was seemingly captured by the guards. Kaepora Gaebora also shows up, saying that there’s a terrible enemy in the castle. The most common enemy in this section is castle guards, which seems a bit strange to me. They were enemies in A Link to the Past, but it was said they were mind controlled by Agahnim. I suppose with Zelda and the shrine maidens gone something similar could have happened here. Anyway, after entering the castle courtyard, there’s a big group of soldiers led by a Chief Soldier guarding the first heart container. The new item to use through the castle level is bombs, which in addition to blowing holes in walls, can be used like the fire rod to burn whole sections of destroyable plants. They also prove useful against the flail trooper miniboss and the two dozen (at least) soldiers that come pouring into the room after he’s defeated.
Once past that group, the Links find a barrier blocking the way forward. To get past, they need to find the fairy Tingle met. She’s actually been split into two, and each half is stuck looking like a Zora. Once reunited, the two fairy halves merge into a Great Fairy – who looks like the Fairy Queen from Wind Waker – who unleashes her magic, first on the soldiers who notice the Links’ progress, then on the barrier. Before leaving, she promises to spread word among the fairies to help the Links if they need it.
The final boss is Phantom Ganon, which seemingly implies that Ganon is the true mastermind behind the Shadow Links, the shrine maiden kidnappings, and Vaati’s release. The mechanics of the fight are the familiar game of knocking the energy ball back and forth until someone misses, except that here for some reason Ganon tends to send the ball drifting off wide to his right. The ability to set the Links in a wide formation helps a lot here. Once he’s taken enough damage, the way forward is opened.
This time, when the Links break the seals, they rescue the first shrine maiden, encased in crystal. She notes the four Links, and immediately knows that they’ve drawn the Four Sword and freed Vaati. She also mentions that Shadow Link looked just like Link, and encourages the four Links to rescue the other maidens. She breaks her crystal prison, then transforms into a winged ball of light fairy to lead them where the next maiden is imprisoned, the Eastern Temple.
Next: The Dark World.
The second phase of the stage has the Links equipped with a bow, as there are enough torches now to light the way forward. The bow is used for obvious things like hitting switches or enemies at a distance, and the less obvious but familiar use of being shot through a fire to light another torch. As the Links progress, they find a ghostly old man who came in looking for treasure and got stuck and died. He gives hints on how the Links can work together to progress, like one throwing another over a gap or lining up to pull a lever together. Before the boss fight, there’s a deeper underground section where the Links have to find their way through a Lost Woods-esque series of rooms.
The final boss of the Cave of No Return is Shadow Link. He jumps away as the Links approach, so scoring a hit requires forming up to hit him as he jumps away. After a couple hits, he becomes more solid, taking on the appearance of one of the Links, who has to hit him to finish the stage.
The third stage is Hyrule Castle. Outside the castle is a sign left by Tingle, mentioning an encounter with a fairy who was seemingly captured by the guards. Kaepora Gaebora also shows up, saying that there’s a terrible enemy in the castle. The most common enemy in this section is castle guards, which seems a bit strange to me. They were enemies in A Link to the Past, but it was said they were mind controlled by Agahnim. I suppose with Zelda and the shrine maidens gone something similar could have happened here. Anyway, after entering the castle courtyard, there’s a big group of soldiers led by a Chief Soldier guarding the first heart container. The new item to use through the castle level is bombs, which in addition to blowing holes in walls, can be used like the fire rod to burn whole sections of destroyable plants. They also prove useful against the flail trooper miniboss and the two dozen (at least) soldiers that come pouring into the room after he’s defeated.
Once past that group, the Links find a barrier blocking the way forward. To get past, they need to find the fairy Tingle met. She’s actually been split into two, and each half is stuck looking like a Zora. Once reunited, the two fairy halves merge into a Great Fairy – who looks like the Fairy Queen from Wind Waker – who unleashes her magic, first on the soldiers who notice the Links’ progress, then on the barrier. Before leaving, she promises to spread word among the fairies to help the Links if they need it.
The final boss is Phantom Ganon, which seemingly implies that Ganon is the true mastermind behind the Shadow Links, the shrine maiden kidnappings, and Vaati’s release. The mechanics of the fight are the familiar game of knocking the energy ball back and forth until someone misses, except that here for some reason Ganon tends to send the ball drifting off wide to his right. The ability to set the Links in a wide formation helps a lot here. Once he’s taken enough damage, the way forward is opened.
This time, when the Links break the seals, they rescue the first shrine maiden, encased in crystal. She notes the four Links, and immediately knows that they’ve drawn the Four Sword and freed Vaati. She also mentions that Shadow Link looked just like Link, and encourages the four Links to rescue the other maidens. She breaks her crystal prison, then transforms into a winged ball of light fairy to lead them where the next maiden is imprisoned, the Eastern Temple.
Next: The Dark World.
Wednesday, January 9, 2019
Four Swords Adventures: Lake Hylia
Like with Four Swords, the stages in Four Swords Adventures are discrete: Link shows up at the beginning and teleports out at the end, and moves to the next stage. Each level has three stages, and they’re not randomly generated like in Four Swords. Each stage also has a boss at the end. In addition to Force Gems (which replace rupees), each stage also has a few collectibles: heart containers and a blue bracelet that reduces incoming damage. There are also fairies, which act as resurrection tokens, rather than resurrection costing Force Gems. The fairies carry over between stages, but the heart containers and blue bracelet don’t.
The game was meant to be played with GBAs as controllers, and its control scheme is ported over wholesale to the GameCube controller with the sole exception of movement which is given to the left analog stick rather than the D-Pad. The resulting controls are awkward and take some getting used to. The X and Y buttons are given duplicate functions (X took over for the GBA’s Select button, but so did the D-Pad), Z gains the single-player only (and rather useless, in my experience) ability to close the emulated GBA window, and the rather important functions of grabbing and lifting remain relegated to the R button. The best thing about the GameCube controller’s controls is the C-Stick allowing instant formation change with a single movement, which only serves to make L/Y’s slower formation changes even more redundant.
The first level is the Whereabouts of the Wind, and the first stage Lake Hylia. A voice explains that Vaati’s magic has robbed the Four Sword of some of its power. Not the power to split its wielder into four copies – losing that would mean there’s no game and that can’t be. But to pass through barriers at the end of each level, the sword needs to be powered up by Force Gems – in other words, where Four Swords had the Links gathering rupees to bribe fairies, this ties that mechanic into the story a little better. The one explaining all this to the Links is an incarnation of our old friend Kaepora Gaebora, minus the cool music and “shall I repeat that?” prompts. (And I don't think I ever saw him turn his head all the way upside down.)
After he’s gone, the Links are free to explore. The first house they come to has a retired castle guard who teaches his grandkids how to march in formation. Sounds like a fun grandpa to go visit. Once the Links have demonstrated all the formations for him, he leaves a purple Force Gem (worth 50, so maybe that’s why the kids put up with it). The rest of the stage has a similar tutorial feel without being quite so blatant about it. Over the course of the stage, the Links get equipped with boomerangs and fire rods (which can set entire sections of bushes on fire with one shot – remember, Link, only you can prevent forest fires). Unlike in Four Swords, all the Links share the same item, rather than allowing them to have individual items. That actually kind of limits the sorts of puzzles they can do. They also learn to work as a team to manipulate big objects, and individually for when one Link needs to stand on a switch to let the others bypass an obstacle. (There’s a button, at least in single player, that summons all four Links to the leader, which means that there’s no need to find a way to get the Link who would be left behind through the obstacle he helped them through – just summon and he’s back with the group.)
Halfway through the stage, the Links find Tingle trapped under a rock. Tingle is trying to collect Force Gems because he thinks if he gets enough of them he’ll actually be able to turn into a fairy. And so, if the Links leave Force Gems sitting around too long, Tingle will float in on his balloon and steal them. Sadly, the Links can’t just leave him under the rock – the rock’s blocking the way forward (Tingle, too, before he floats off) – or blow the balloon up, so they’re stuck with him.
When the Links get to 2,000 Force Gems, a short cutscene plays illustrating that their swords are now powered up, and they can shoot sword beams and use the Hurricane Spin technique. The ability to fight in formation when they try to cross a bridge and are attacked by a bunch of soldiers, then they come to the final boss of the level, a Chief Soldier. This guy leaves himself vulnerable to being attacked from the rear after a charge attack; once he’s defeated, he drops a bunch of Force Gems. At the end of the stage, there are four switches that can only be hit with a powered-up sword. Once they’re down, the Force Gems the Links have turn into extra fairies, and the Links move on to the next stage.
Next: The mastermind revealed, or at least strongly hinted at.
The game was meant to be played with GBAs as controllers, and its control scheme is ported over wholesale to the GameCube controller with the sole exception of movement which is given to the left analog stick rather than the D-Pad. The resulting controls are awkward and take some getting used to. The X and Y buttons are given duplicate functions (X took over for the GBA’s Select button, but so did the D-Pad), Z gains the single-player only (and rather useless, in my experience) ability to close the emulated GBA window, and the rather important functions of grabbing and lifting remain relegated to the R button. The best thing about the GameCube controller’s controls is the C-Stick allowing instant formation change with a single movement, which only serves to make L/Y’s slower formation changes even more redundant.
The first level is the Whereabouts of the Wind, and the first stage Lake Hylia. A voice explains that Vaati’s magic has robbed the Four Sword of some of its power. Not the power to split its wielder into four copies – losing that would mean there’s no game and that can’t be. But to pass through barriers at the end of each level, the sword needs to be powered up by Force Gems – in other words, where Four Swords had the Links gathering rupees to bribe fairies, this ties that mechanic into the story a little better. The one explaining all this to the Links is an incarnation of our old friend Kaepora Gaebora, minus the cool music and “shall I repeat that?” prompts. (And I don't think I ever saw him turn his head all the way upside down.)
After he’s gone, the Links are free to explore. The first house they come to has a retired castle guard who teaches his grandkids how to march in formation. Sounds like a fun grandpa to go visit. Once the Links have demonstrated all the formations for him, he leaves a purple Force Gem (worth 50, so maybe that’s why the kids put up with it). The rest of the stage has a similar tutorial feel without being quite so blatant about it. Over the course of the stage, the Links get equipped with boomerangs and fire rods (which can set entire sections of bushes on fire with one shot – remember, Link, only you can prevent forest fires). Unlike in Four Swords, all the Links share the same item, rather than allowing them to have individual items. That actually kind of limits the sorts of puzzles they can do. They also learn to work as a team to manipulate big objects, and individually for when one Link needs to stand on a switch to let the others bypass an obstacle. (There’s a button, at least in single player, that summons all four Links to the leader, which means that there’s no need to find a way to get the Link who would be left behind through the obstacle he helped them through – just summon and he’s back with the group.)
Halfway through the stage, the Links find Tingle trapped under a rock. Tingle is trying to collect Force Gems because he thinks if he gets enough of them he’ll actually be able to turn into a fairy. And so, if the Links leave Force Gems sitting around too long, Tingle will float in on his balloon and steal them. Sadly, the Links can’t just leave him under the rock – the rock’s blocking the way forward (Tingle, too, before he floats off) – or blow the balloon up, so they’re stuck with him.
When the Links get to 2,000 Force Gems, a short cutscene plays illustrating that their swords are now powered up, and they can shoot sword beams and use the Hurricane Spin technique. The ability to fight in formation when they try to cross a bridge and are attacked by a bunch of soldiers, then they come to the final boss of the level, a Chief Soldier. This guy leaves himself vulnerable to being attacked from the rear after a charge attack; once he’s defeated, he drops a bunch of Force Gems. At the end of the stage, there are four switches that can only be hit with a powered-up sword. Once they’re down, the Force Gems the Links have turn into extra fairies, and the Links move on to the next stage.
Next: The mastermind revealed, or at least strongly hinted at.
Monday, January 7, 2019
Four Swords Adventures: Introduction and Story
Four Swords Adventures is the second multiplayer game in the series and a sequel to the original Four Swords featuring the return of Vaati the Wind Mage. Unlike Four Swords (before the Anniversary Edition), the story mode of Adventures can be played solo. For games with less than four players, all four Links are present, and for a single-player game, the player has three basic modes of control: control a single Link with the other three following, control a single Link with the others not moving, and march all four Links in formation. The formations are useful for quickly clearing grass/trees/other destroyable objects or keeping enemies from sneaking up behind the Links.
There are some multiplayer-only features I’m not going to get into, like the Shadow Battle game mode and Tingle’s Tower minigames. Multiplayer is done by connecting GBAs (one per player; no one can use GameCube controllers) to the system. The idea, and especially using the GBA screen to show the players information specific to their character while keeping the main screen for communal information sounds interesting but I can’t imagine asking players to buy an extra game system to play a game went over well. (It seems like the DS line would be a good chance to revive the concept; maybe the Wii U gamepad, although I don’t know how many gamepads the system can support at once, and they’re pretty expensive too.) For single-player, the GameCube controller can be used, with an emulated GBA screen popping up on the main screen when control would transfer to the GBA.
The game’s aesthetic seems to be mostly inspired by A Link to the Past, with some Wind Waker touches (in particular, the same font is used to display locations, and wisps of energy/smoke/etc. use a 2D form of Wind Waker version). The music is also reminiscent of A Link to the Past; the title theme sounds a lot like the version of the series’ main theme that closes out that game’s credits (minus the final flourish).
Story
Long ago, in the kingdom of Hyrule, a wind sorcerer named Vaati appeared.
Vaati terrorized the people and kidnapped many beautiful girls from their homes.
When all hope seemed lost, a young boy carrying little more than a sword appeared.
According to the legends, when the boy drew his sword, he split into four, the four-who-are-one worked together to vanquish Vaati.
The hero used his sword to bind Vaati in a remote area of Hyrule. The people christened the blade the Four Sword and built a shrine around it. There it remained undisturbed for many years.
Ages flowed by…
The wind sorcerer Vaati broke free of his prison and kidnapped Zelda, the princess of Hyrule.
Princess Zelda’s childhood friend Link [1] used the power of the Four Sword to defeat Vaati and seal him away once again.
And, for a time, the people of Hyrule believed their land was safe.
Until…
A powerful storm comes to Hyrule, and Link is summoned to Hyrule Castle. There he meets Zelda, who says that she’s worried about the seals protecting the land from Vaati. She’s brought in the six shrine maidens who guard the portal to the Four Sword shrine. Zelda and the maidens open the portal, but before she and Link can pass through, shadowy fog pours from it and a Shadow Link comes through. He kidnaps Zelda and the shrine maidens, then heads back through the portal, with Link following. At the Four Sword Sanctuary, Link confronts Shadow Link, but is unable to harm him. So, with no other options, he draws the Four Sword, splitting himself in four and freeing Vaati from his prison. Vaati summons a cyclone that throws the Links elsewhere.
Shadow Link’s plan has worked for now, with the shrine maidens kidnapped and Vaati freed. But there are four Links, armed with the Four Sword that’s stopped Vaati twice before, so maybe he didn’t think things all the way through.
Next: First stage and basic mechanics.
[1] It occurs to me that I never wondered how Zelda and Link of Four Swords knew each other. I suppose I had just assumed, given the game’s ties to A Link to the Past, that it was the same Link from that game, even though in the version that added Four Swords that Link had his own adventure with the Four Sword, fighting a bunch of Shadow Links to reclaim the sword from them. This Link’s relationship with Zelda is just as undefined.
There are some multiplayer-only features I’m not going to get into, like the Shadow Battle game mode and Tingle’s Tower minigames. Multiplayer is done by connecting GBAs (one per player; no one can use GameCube controllers) to the system. The idea, and especially using the GBA screen to show the players information specific to their character while keeping the main screen for communal information sounds interesting but I can’t imagine asking players to buy an extra game system to play a game went over well. (It seems like the DS line would be a good chance to revive the concept; maybe the Wii U gamepad, although I don’t know how many gamepads the system can support at once, and they’re pretty expensive too.) For single-player, the GameCube controller can be used, with an emulated GBA screen popping up on the main screen when control would transfer to the GBA.
The game’s aesthetic seems to be mostly inspired by A Link to the Past, with some Wind Waker touches (in particular, the same font is used to display locations, and wisps of energy/smoke/etc. use a 2D form of Wind Waker version). The music is also reminiscent of A Link to the Past; the title theme sounds a lot like the version of the series’ main theme that closes out that game’s credits (minus the final flourish).
Story
Long ago, in the kingdom of Hyrule, a wind sorcerer named Vaati appeared.
Vaati terrorized the people and kidnapped many beautiful girls from their homes.
When all hope seemed lost, a young boy carrying little more than a sword appeared.
According to the legends, when the boy drew his sword, he split into four, the four-who-are-one worked together to vanquish Vaati.
The hero used his sword to bind Vaati in a remote area of Hyrule. The people christened the blade the Four Sword and built a shrine around it. There it remained undisturbed for many years.
Ages flowed by…
The wind sorcerer Vaati broke free of his prison and kidnapped Zelda, the princess of Hyrule.
Princess Zelda’s childhood friend Link [1] used the power of the Four Sword to defeat Vaati and seal him away once again.
And, for a time, the people of Hyrule believed their land was safe.
Until…
A powerful storm comes to Hyrule, and Link is summoned to Hyrule Castle. There he meets Zelda, who says that she’s worried about the seals protecting the land from Vaati. She’s brought in the six shrine maidens who guard the portal to the Four Sword shrine. Zelda and the maidens open the portal, but before she and Link can pass through, shadowy fog pours from it and a Shadow Link comes through. He kidnaps Zelda and the shrine maidens, then heads back through the portal, with Link following. At the Four Sword Sanctuary, Link confronts Shadow Link, but is unable to harm him. So, with no other options, he draws the Four Sword, splitting himself in four and freeing Vaati from his prison. Vaati summons a cyclone that throws the Links elsewhere.
Shadow Link’s plan has worked for now, with the shrine maidens kidnapped and Vaati freed. But there are four Links, armed with the Four Sword that’s stopped Vaati twice before, so maybe he didn’t think things all the way through.
Next: First stage and basic mechanics.
[1] It occurs to me that I never wondered how Zelda and Link of Four Swords knew each other. I suppose I had just assumed, given the game’s ties to A Link to the Past, that it was the same Link from that game, even though in the version that added Four Swords that Link had his own adventure with the Four Sword, fighting a bunch of Shadow Links to reclaim the sword from them. This Link’s relationship with Zelda is just as undefined.
Wednesday, January 10, 2018
Four Swords Adventures: Table of Contents
An index of posts about The Legend of Zelda: Four Swords Adventures, the eleventh game in the series.
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