Spirit Tracks: Embrose

The Goron chieftain stands in the way of the path to the Fire Sanctuary, but when he hears what Link’s done for his people, he moves out of the way so Link can pass. The way to the Fire Sanctuary is full of enemies that want to eat Link – Like Likes and Fire Babas. As with the other sanctuaries, Link finds a stamp station along the way. The final test involves more of those statue heads and a puzzle involving the story interpretation of the statue arrangement. As with the other Lokomos, Embrose knows why Link’s come to visit and teaches him his part in the song needed to restore the tracks.

Before Link and Zelda head to the temple, Embrose hints that they may want to talk to the villagers for tips on dealing with the monsters on the mountain. The chieftain says there are three locks, and monsters have taken the keys. The other villagers give tips for dealing with the monsters. They’re good at running away, but if Link approaches them head-on he should be able to take care of them. They also dislike loud noises, particularly in a pattern probably best described as “choo choooooo.”

The Dark Trains are gone from the Fire Realm, don’t appear at all in the Ocean Realm (Link has to fight off Pirates there instead – fortunately without the boarding party encounter), and sometimes don’t appear in the Snow or Forest Realms (and Link sometimes has to fight Tanks – basically land pirates – instead). On the other hand, when they are in the Snow Realm, one of them is replaced by an Armored Train, although like all the evil trains it stays in its little area and only bothers Link when he goes up there.

Now that Link has a freight car, there’s a bunch of people Link can help out by hauling stuff. Starting in Goron Village, there’s one Goron who’s unable to return home because of a lava spout, so he needs Mega Ice to bring to him. Someone in Castle Town wants fish, and there’s a merchant in Papuchia Village who sells fish, so Link hauls the fish. A guy in Aboda Village wants to raise cuccos, so Link buys some from a guy in Castle Town and brings them to him. Whittleton needs iron to make new axes, and the Gorons sell it. The Anouki need wood to build a fence, and that comes from Whittleton. (They also need the bridge worker to actually build the fence.) Ferrus sends Link a letter asking him to pick him up from one of his photography expeditions, and asks to be brought to Aboda Village to meet Alphonzo. (He’s disappointed to learn Alphonzo doesn’t think of himself as a legendary engineer, but a legendary swordsman.) And Steem wants something to decorate his sanctuary, which turns out to be a giant vase sold by the Wise One in Papuchia Village. (It being a vase, Link can’t help himself and destroys it after going through the trouble to deliver it safely. Steem is understandably upset, so Link goes and gets another one. Chastised, he lets this one live.)

All this work adds up to seven new Force Gems. The new tracks have two new warp gates, connecting the Fire Realm to the Forest and Snow Realms. There are seven new rabbits Link can catch: four in the Fire Realm, and one each in the other three. The one from the Forest Realm brings his total to ten, and he now has one of each type of rabbit, and both of those accomplishments earns a treasure from Bunnio. (There are five types of rabbits, not four – one that Link caught in the southern Fire Realm is actually a Desert Rabbit. Although everything in story is pointing to the Fire Temple as being the last dungeon, there are a bunch of signs that it’s not – a fifth type of rabbit, Link at 12/16 hearts, the stamp book at 15/20, two empty inventory slots.) Oh, and speaking of the stamp book, Niko rewards Link for getting 75% done by letting him change outfits between the guard’s outfit/Hero’s tunic and his old engineer clothes.

The Force Gems have opened two new stations in the Snow Realm. First, in the northwest corner, there’s Snowdrift Station. This has a minidungeon, with five crystal switches across a narrow gap and a warning that hitting them in the wrong order will cause a person to “fall into darkness.” There are four staircases, each leading to a challenge for Link to overcome that leads to a tablet with a hint for the correct order to hit the switches. With all the hints, a bridge appears for Link to cross to a final challenge: fighting four Mini-Freezards in a small icy area, which quickly becomes chaotic with how they bounce all over the place. Defeating them leads to the reward: an ultra-rare Alchemy Stone treasure.

One of the challenges at Snowdrift Station was a maze with icy floors, which was a good preparation for the other new station, Slippery Station in the northern Snow Realm. The main feature here is a huge icy maze, with three challenges; the harder challenges have longer sections of the maze to complete. The trick is to learn to corner quickly by rolling, and thankfully rolling is much easier in this game than in Phantom Hourglass. The prizes for completing the three challenges are 300 rupees, a rare treasure, and another Alchemy Stone.

Next: From big tracks to little tracks.

Phantom Hourglass: Bellum

Bellum is a giant blobby creature with a prominent eye and five tendrils, each of which has a pad with an eye at the end. The first phase has Bellum in an ooze bath occasionally spitting ooze at Link. Link uses the grappling hook to remove the ooze from Bellum, and eventually pulls Bellum over for a chance to whack his eye. After enough damage, Bellum rises from the ooze bath and Link has to run up stairs to the upper levels of the arena to shoot the eyes on the tendrils, which are holding Bellum up. After all the eyes are down, Bellum falls back to the ooze pit. The cycle repeats with Bellum going up one more level, and this time when he falls, he spits out a ball of energy.

That ball of energy turns out to be Ciela’s missing memories and powers. It turns out she’s not just the spirit of courage, but time as well. Oshus contacts her, but with her memory back, she knows what to do herself. When Link returns to the lowest level to resume fighting Bellum, Bellum comes out of the ooze pit and starts zipping around unpredictably. Ciela has a counter: she creates Phantom Spheres with let Link use the Phantom Hourglass’ power to stop time. (The player has to draw an hourglass in the box that pops up – without the game being paused, so I was basically frantically scribbling and hoping it was close enough.) With time stopped, Link can pound Bellum’s eye until Bellum loses control, eventually falling into the ooze pit and apparently exploding.

With Bellum defeated, the temple (or maybe just the boss room) begins collapsing, and Link and Ciela are nearly crushed. Oshus, with some of his power restored, teleports them to Linebeck’s ship, where Link appears directly above Linebeck and falls onto him. Oshus had also used some of his power to restore Tetra; when she recovers, she thanks Link, Ciela, and Linebeck (after he draws attention to himself) for saving her. Link’s starting at Tetra with a giant goofy smile the whole time, and just as they reach for each other, Bellum reaches out through a portal in the ceiling and grabs Tetra.

Everyone goes outside to see Bellum heading toward the ghost ship with Tetra. He possesses the ship, starting a naval combat sequence between the ghost ship and the SS Linebeck. The ghost ship’s covered in eyes, giving Link a place to shoot. After enough hits, the Ghost Ship begins to sink, giving Link and company a chance to head over and check things out. (Before that happens, Linebeck or Ciela prompts the player to save.) As they come over, Bellum rises, still holding Tetra, and flies into the ghost ship’s mast, knocking it over onto the Linebeck, sinking it with Oshus still aboard. While everyone’s looking at that, Bellum grabs Link as well, fortunately knocking the Phantom Sword loose in the process. Linebeck takes the sword and stabs one of Bellum’s remaining tentacles, causing him to drop Link and Tetra. It doesn’t work so well for him, because Bellum starts wrapping him up instead, but with his last bit of strength, he throws the Phantom Sword back to Link.

Bellum possesses Linebeck, turning him into a Phantom with Bellum’s body on the back. When Link stops time to try to hit Bellum’s eye, he finds it closed, so Ciela tries to get close to see it (the view on the DS’ top screen), but gets grabbed by Bellum. When Link wins a blade lock with Bellumbeck, Ciela is knocked free for a few seconds, long enough to toss a Phantom Sphere to Link. Then Link waits for the eye to be open, stops time, and runs around to hit the eye. (Bellumbeck has a spin attack that Link can counter with a spin attack of his own leading to a blade lock. Very cool.) After enough hits, Bellum separates from Linebeck and explodes into golden sand, which Link absorbs into his sword as the skies lighten up.

Linebeck comes to and apologizes to Link for what happened; Link’s gracious, and even Ciela has kind words for him for once. Then everyone remembers Oshus, but it’s okay – the sand leaves the Phantom Sword and returns Oshus to his natural form: a giant whale, who leaps from the sea, splashing the big piece of the ghost ship everyone’s standing on. (Link stays upright. Linebeck gets swept off his feet.) He thanks everyone for their good work, and remembers his promise to Linebeck, who only wants his ship back. Ciela’s shocked, and Linebeck grabs her and starts trying to pull her apart by the wings. I think it’s meant to be funny, but yikes.

The Ocean King has one last thing to reveal: His world is separate from Link and Tetra’s. They’ll have to return to their world, while he and the spirits stay in his. Ciela says her goodbyes to Linebeck and Link, and the credits roll, with illustrations of Link’s adventures like Niko’s drawings from the beginning. After the credits, Link and Tetra wake up on the considerably more intact ghost ship in their world as Tetra’s ship pulls up alongside it. They return to Tetra’s ship, and Tetra yells at the crew for taking so long to find them. They say it’s only been ten minutes, and whatever adventures… oh, it’s Link’s Awakening all over again. Except the ghost ship disappears, and as Tetra and her crew debate, Link finds the now-empty Phantom Hourglass in his pocket, and looks out to see and sees the SS Linebeck sailing away.

The touchscreen controls were natural and mostly easy to pick up (never got the hang of rolling, but it was only useful for knocking rupees out of trees). I’ll admit I didn’t think I’d like the Temple of the Ocean King much (or at least would get sick of it), but as I said earlier, it’s well done. Unfortunately, that’s more than I can say for most of the rest of the dungeons, which were unmemorable and the game’s weakest point. I’d put Phantom Hourglass somewhere alongside the Oracle games overall.

Phantom Hourglass: Phantom Sword

With all the Spirit Gems, Link returns to Spirit Island to complete upgrades on his spirits. Leaf gets even more damage, Ciela allows better sword beams, and Neri… I guess absorbs even more damage? Given that taking damage hasn’t been a problem and I prefer to run Link into melee for jump attacks so sword beams aren’t much use, I stuck with Leaf the whole time. On Zauz’s Island, Zauz takes the three pure metals and begins forging a sword, but it’s going to take a while so Link has to scuttle off to find something to entertain him in the meantime.

A perfect opportunity comes in the mail: Jolene challenges Link to one final confrontation. Link seeks her out, and she’s honed her skills. She doesn’t leave herself open as long after missing a big attack, and picks up her sword after being disarmed the first time, but she’s still no match for Link. She’s apparently concerned that Link’s quest to stop Bellum is doomed and trying to dissuade him, but Link’s determined to see it through. And she knows Linebeck’s been hiding in a box. Once she’s gone, Linebeck explains their history: He accidentally saved her from a sea monster, and she mistook him for a hero, so they traveled together for a while. Then he realized he couldn’t keep up with her, so he stole something from her and ran off. All the while apparently oblivious to the fact that she was in love with him.

The diversion with Jolene accomplished its goal: Zauz had time to forge the Phantom Sword’s blade. But Oshus needs to make the hilt, so Link takes it to him. (Oshus swings it around, causing Link to scream and duck.) He takes the Phantom Hourglass – with no patience for Link’s Item Get! presentation – and turns it into the hilt of the Phantom Sword. Link takes the completed sword, and the theme usually associated with drawing the Master Sword from its pedestal plays. (The Phantom Sword itself is modeled after the Master Sword, so it’s not too out of place.) In addition to being able to fight Bellum, there are other powers of the Phantom Sword that Ciela has yet to unlock. Linebeck stops Link and Ciela on the way to the temple with a few encouraging words of his own.

Having the Phantom Sword completely changes the Temple of the Ocean King, because Link can now kill the Phantoms. The hammer is also very useful because its impact catches the notice of the Phantoms who come to investigate, and Link can hide out in a safe zone, wait for them to come over and turn their back to him, and whack them. The hammer can also kill Phantom Eyes around corners. A treasure chest appears on each floor when all the Phantoms are defeated, containing treasure, ship parts, and rupees. That said, the first nine levels really aren’t that different aside from maybe trying to kill all the Phantoms. (Annoyingly, killing the Phantoms on the seventh level puts the treasure over on the west side, which can only be gone back to by going down to the eighth floor and back.)

On the lowest floors, the Gold Phantoms teleporting to Link’s location means all he has to do to kill them is get spotted just outside a safe zone, run into the safe zone, and jump out to stab them as they teleport in. These last floors also have some of the hammer tricks from Mutoh’s Temple; rusted floor switches appear, and Link can basically skip the eleventh level by running to the nearby open staircase down and catapulting himself out of the enclosed area of the twelfth floor. The final level, empty before, now has three sets of three Phantoms – one set of each type – for Link to kill as a final test.

The next room of the Temple is safe, with a bridge. As Link runs across, the torches on either side of the bridge light up. Once he makes it to the other side, an earthquake causes the bridge to collapse behind him, seemingly indicating there’s no way back – but a portal appears leading back to the temple’s entrance. This gives Link a chance to collect the treasures marked by the maps he got on this final run, and he can repeatedly run the Temple to earn more treasure (there’s a reward of two random ship parts for re-completing it). Also, by careful use of time refunds – including grabbing the last one immediately before running through the final door – it’s possible to get both the halfway checkpoint time and the final time down to zero seconds.

When Link’s ready, he doesn’t have to go through the whole Temple again; the portal he took from the end left a return portal. Link goes through the portal and heads up the long staircase to fight Bellum.

Next: Linebeck’s moment of glory and Link’s awakening.

Phantom Hourglass: Cobble Kingdom

There are two main islands in the northeastern sea, both surrounded by rocks. The only way though one circle is blocked by a cyclone, so Link starts on the other island, the Isle of the Dead. In a cave near the dock, Link and Ciela find journals written by an explorer who came to the island looking for the Cobble Kingdom. The important hint here is the shape of the island: a man wearing a crown, seen in profile. He also notes there’s supposed to be a treasure in the cave, which Link finds by bombing a wall and passing through a Rupoor maze: two ship parts, a treasure chart, and a Courage Gem.

Enemies in this part of the world include Rupee Likes (which had me throwing the boomerang at all stray rupees – actual rupees get picked up, Rupee Likes don’t), Stalfos, and rolling boulders that seem to know which way I’m going to dodge. The temple in the northeast has a repeating series of rooms that can only be solved by learning the path from the sages in the graveyard. Getting to the graveyard involves digging in a particular spot, passing through a tunnel (getting a Power Gem along the way), and shooting an arrow at a switch to open the gate. The sages’ gravestones indicate the path through the temple, allowing Link to meet a knight of the Cobble Kingdom, Brant. Along the way, he finds the remains of the explorer whose journals he read in the cave. Brant, sympathetic to Link’s quest, allows Link to take a Regal Necklace, which will get him through the cyclone to the Isle of Ruins.

The Isle of Ruins is a series of mazes, puzzles, traps, and monsters Link has to pass through, meeting the other three Cobble Kingdom knights along the way. Bremeur guards a seal that keeps the island partially flooded, so he sends Link to get the key from Doylan. With the key, Link returns to Bremeur and opens the seal, opening the way to Max, who opens the way to the temple, with a final test: Link needs to learn a sacred crest to draw on the door to enter. This involves going back to the maze at the start, which is different now that it’s no longer flooded, and reading the tablets in the area which Link couldn’t get to before. Having learned the crest (a square with the bottom triangle cut out), Link returns to the final door and opens it. While solving the island’s puzzles, Link finds a Courage Gem, a Power Gem, and the last two Wisdom Gems.

Mutoh’s Temple is more of the same, with puzzles, trap doors, Stalfos, and Rupee Likes. Terrorpins show up here, along with floor switches that have rusted so Link can’t budge them with his weight. These foreshadow the treasure item: the hammer, which is technically wielded by Ciela (so it can hammer anywhere within Link’s line of sight, or around corners if you drag the stylus), and can be charged up for a mega-smash (although I don’t think I found any use for this ability). After finding the hammer, Link finds catapults he can stand on and hit the trigger with the hammer to go flying up to higher levels and/or over obstacles. The hammer can also destroy Stalfos in a single shot. Finally for hammer tricks, there are several puzzles with red/blue floor tiles that flip when an adjacent tile is struck and Link needs to make them all a certain color or match a pattern. The main level of the dungeon has several puzzles involving flooding and draining the floor. The last Courage Gem is in the dungeon.

The boss is Eox, Ancient Stone Soldier, a giant golem. The boss is covered in red spots, which are its weak points. There are four catapults in the room Link can use to fling himself into the air, and while airborne, have Ciela smash the weak points with the hammer. As he does so, the exterior falls away, revealing the wooden skeleton, which has four weak points. Link needs to hit these in rapid succession (basically during one flight) to break down the frame, leaving just the head. In the final phase, Link uses the catapults to fling himself onto Eox’s head, where its final weak point is. Finally, Eox explodes into golden sand, which Link collects in the Phantom Hourglass.

In the lowest level of the temple, Link meets the ghost of King Mutoh. Now that Eox has been destroyed, peace will return to the ruins of the Cobble Kingdom, and Mutoh and his knights can sleep again. He gives Link the Aquanine so that he can help the Ocean King, and Link finally has the materials needed to make a Phantom Sword to destroy Bellum. Before Mutoh returns to sleep, he also sends Link the last Power Gem.

Most of the dungeons in the game have felt kind of uninspired, like they saved all the good stuff for the Temple of the Ocean King. (Also, they’ve all been really easy, like they never took the training wheels off.) But I really liked this one, along with exploring the islands that led to it, and the boss was incredibly fun. (That’s right: They made a dungeon with water level puzzles my favorite in the game.)

Next: Revenge!

Phantom Hourglass: Northeastern Sea

Link now has 21 minutes to navigate the Temple of the Ocean King all the way to the bottom. With two new items at his disposal, pretty much every floor he’d previously visited is somehow different. There’s a Courage Gem he can get on the first floor by shooting an eye switch from a grappling hook tightrope and a chest with a Wisdom Gem appears on the second floor when a switch is hit by a bombchu. Floor three is totally different – Link can completely skip rounding up Force Gems and just slingshot his way to a different exit. Bombchus can open up an alternate exit on floor four that lets Link skip most of floor five. (Floor six is the same as before, but it’s “run to the door, draw the symbol, leave”; not much to do to make that simpler.) I did the same thing as before – one run to explore, one for reaching the checkpoint as fast as possible, and got my checkpoint time down to 45 seconds.

With the extra items, Link is able to do the next set of floors without backtracking. The grappling hook lets him cross from the west to the east side of the seventh floor, getting the crystal there on his first visit. On the eighth floor, a bombchu can hit a switch without Link needing to bring a crystal up from the ninth floor. So, Link can grab the crystal from the seventh floor, carry it down two levels, and have all the crystals without needing to backtrack once. There’s also a Power Gem Link can get on the seventh floor. (One more shortcut that I didn’t use: Link can get a key on the third floor that he no longer has to use to get a Force Gem, and use it on a door here to get a faster exit from the seventh floor and some extra time from a yellow pot where he comes in on the eighth floor. However, using the checkpoint exit takes away the key.)

When Link puts the crystals in the pedestals in the right order, the safe room becomes an elevator, leading him down to the tenth floor. (Ever helpful, Ciela notes the rumbling of the safe room moving, and that we’re in a different place than we were before.) The Phantoms on these last floors are gold, and move like the normal blue Phantoms – but if Link is spotted, they teleport to his location. The tenth floor lets Link kill the Phantoms by smashing them with rolling boulders, then navigate a central maze filled with Phantom Eyes to reach the exit at the center. The eleventh floor has an exit right near the entrance – but the area it leads to on the twelfth floor has no way out with the items Link has. So, he has to solve a puzzle involving stepping on four floor switches to open the other way forward. (One of the skeletons on this floor gripes about not being able to use the D-Pad. Surprised he made it this far.)

The twelfth floor has another Force Gem puzzle, with one Phantom patrolling a central area carrying one of the Gems. The other two are in chests, and as soon as Link opens each chest, another Phantom spawns nearby. Plus placing the first two Force Gems causes Wizzrobes to spawn (although if Link simply tosses the Force Gems into the safe area and waits to place them until they’re all there, the Wizzrobes aren’t a concern). The final floor is weird – the timer still counts down, but there are no Phantoms or other enemies or even hazards, and there’s a red pot Link can use to make a safe zone. More importantly for now, the northeast quadrant map is here, so Link can finally explore the full sea.

The northeast quadrant has the final Golden Frog to give Link a warp symbol. There’s also another Traveler’s Ship, this one overrun by monsters. Once they’re gone, the ship’s owner, the Man of Smiles, comes down, and as a reward, gives Link a treasure chart and the Hero’s New Clothes, starting a trading sequence. The Hero’s New Clothes go to the hero on the Prince of Red Lions, in exchange for a kaleidoscope he jokes was a gift from his sister. The kaleidoscope goes to the Ho Ho Tribe in exchange for a guard notebook, which goes to Nyave for a Wood Heart. Searching the seas, Link finds another Traveler’s Ship in the southeast, this one run by the Old Wayfarer, who’s looking for more food because he didn’t realize mermaids ate so much. He takes the Wood Heart and invites Link to visit him on Bannan Island, where he gives Link the Swordsman’s Scroll, teaching him the Great Spin Attack.

Link can revisit the Man of Smiles; the reward for saving his ship again is a Prize Postcard Link can send off in the mail to enter a drawing. It’s better to lose this drawing – the consolation prize is a ship part, while there’s no prize for winning. I “won” three of the four days I tried. It’s not worth it.

The uncharted island in the northeast quadrant is Maze Island, where Link is challenged to solve a maze, hitting gossip stones en route to the prize chests in the center. There are three levels of difficulty, and prizes are a Wisdom Gem, a treasure chart, and a heart container, along with another Wisdom Gem Link can get along the way. Finally, Link can salvage a bunch of treasures, including two new maps from the game on Harrow Island, and two that are technically in the northwest quadrant but only accessible by coming over from the northeast.

Next: Raiders of the lost kingdom.

Phantom Hourglass: Isle of Frost

The other major island in the southeast quadrant is surrounded by a ring of ice. It even appears on the map, and as long as it’s there, the SS Linebeck can’t dock on the island. As the ship approaches, Linebeck suggests circling around the island and blasting the ice with the cannon. Each section of ice takes a few hits to destroy, and once it’s all gone, a docking port appears on the Isle of Frost.

The island is home to two tribes of people. The ones near the docking port are the Anouki, who have antlers and wear fur-lined hooded coats. They don’t get along with the Yook, and split the island between them. However, the chief says a Yook has snuck over to the Anouki side, taken one of the villagers, and has been pretending to be that villager and living among the Anouki. And so, in order for Link to get to the temple and get the island’s pure metal, the chief wants Link to find the Yook imposter and kick him out. The hint he gives is that Yook are liars, while apparently Anouki are honest.

Ciela apparently doesn’t trust the chief, and her warning combined with the fact that the Anouki seem to really dislike the Yook put my senses on edge for a revelation that the Yook are the good guys and we just happened to meet the Anouki first. But there’s no other way forward at the moment, so Link heads up to the village and starts talking to people. Some of the villagers say that others in the village are honest, while the rest suggest that others are liars. Examining the hints Link’s gotten, it becomes apparent that if only one of them is lying, it’s Aroo. When Link confronts him, Ciela tries to convince him to leave peacefully, but her squeaky voice “drives [him] wild,” causing him to revert to his natural yetiesque Yook form. The Yook wants to eat Ciela, saying she looks tasty, and Ciela says she’s not (“I’m yellow [1], but I don’t taste anything like a delicious fruit!”). The Yook ends up blowing Link and Ciela out of Aroo’s home and escaping.

The chief opens up the way to the Great Ice Field, where the Yook live (Link’s ambivalent about revenge, but Ciela’s up for it). As Link heads over, a stone has a message explaining the Yook’s weakness. It’s mostly been wiped clean, but there’s enough to get the gist: chuck a bomb in their mouths as they’re breathing in to build up to blow everything in their path away. That stuns them and lets Link finish them off with sword attacks. Six Yook need to be defeated to open the way to the temple (as it turns out, they’re not friendly, so it’s okay), then one last Yook – the one who was impersonating Aroo – confronts him. Throughout it all, heavy winds also hinder Link’s progress.

An early puzzle in the Temple of Ice requires a bombchu, so this dungeon has to come after the Goron Temple. As an ice dungeon, the floors are slippery and there are icy variants of Bubbles and Keese to welcome Link. After fighting a couple Yook, Link get’s the treasure item, the grappling hook, which is more like a hookshot in this game, but it’s got a new twist: Link can sling it between two posts and either use it as a tightrope or a giant slingshot, which can be used to bounce things off of or to throw Link across gaps. There are two Wisdom Gems in the dungeon.

The dungeon boss is Gleeok, Two-Headed Dragon. One of the heads is fiery, one is icy, so the standard Twinrova tactics [2] work here, using the grappling hook to reflect attacks and crack their masks. Sometimes they flood the room, so Link needs to jump on the posts to be above the wave. Once both masks are broken, the two heads come forward and destroy two of the posts, but that’s okay, they change tactics. Now they build up big attacks, leaving their tongues hanging out, and Link grabs the tongue to pull the heads down to swat them. Once both heads are defeated, Link gets more sand for the hourglass, a heart container, and the Azurine.

As Link leaves the temple, he meets the real Aroo. With the grappling hook, there are a bunch of Spirit Gems Link can get across the world, bringing his total up to 16 Power Gems, 14 Wisdom Gems, and 15 Courage Gems. Gongoron and Aroo send Link letters, also containing a Courage Gem (Gongoron) and Wisdom Gem (Aroo). Gongoron invites Link to check out Dee Ess Island again, where the minigame has been set up. The game involves rolling Gongoron over the island, hitting targets. If it can be done in less than 35 seconds, Link gets the second bombchu bag upgrade, letting him have 30 bombchus.

Next: Filling out the map.

[1] The Spirit of Courage is yellow. Heh.
[2] Hrm. I’ve been playing the NES games so I’ve been thinking about the evolution of the Zelda formula, and A Link to the Past has a boss very much like this Gleeok in the dungeon where Link gets the Mirror Shield, but there’s no way to reflect the fire/ice attacks at the opposite heads. Checking it out, it looks like Oracle of Ages was the first game where every dungeon item is used to defeat its boss.

Phantom Hourglass: Gorons

There are two main islands in the southeast quadrant. The first is in the southwest corner of the area, and as the SS Linebeck approaches, a cyclone lifts the ship and carries it off, soaking the engine so it’s stuck. A Massive Eye, a giant flying slug with six eyes on its sides, comes flying at the ship. Linebeck shows why he’s not an adventurer – he doesn’t realize the conspicuous eyes are the monster’s weak point. It shoots a bunch of projectiles at the ship, and those aren’t so bad, but it also makes ramming runs that are, as far as I can tell, unavoidable. Once the eyes have all been shot out, the Massive Eye flops back into the sea, leaving Link and Linebeck free to explore the island.

As Link sets foot on Goron Island, the first Goron he sees greets him by advising him to talk to everyone else. Talking to everyone involves clearing some Yellow ChuChus off a cliff with the bow, and getting a treasure chart as a reward. There’s also an ominous warning about Link possibly losing his shield and needing to replace it from the new store on the island. Once Link’s talked to everyone, Ciela pipes up that he’s done so and it’s time to visit the elder. The elder is Biggoron, and he’s bigger than the rest of the Gorons but not so towering that only part of him fits in the frame. Once he’s established that Link has introduced himself to everyone, he begins asking questions about the tribe and the island (for a fee of 20 rupees). The quiz calls to mind Who Wants to Be a Millionaire, including a lifeline (“Gorohint,” which removes an incorrect answer) and “Is that your ultimate answer?” Correct answers award rupees, but once everything’s done, there’s the matter of membership dues – the exact amount of rupees Link got for answering the questions. (He gets a Wisdom Gem, which he gets too keep.)

Biggoron says the pure metal’s in the nearby temple, and his son, Gongoron will show Link the way. Gongoron’s not thrilled about the newest member of the tribe, and runs off, defying Link to keep up. After heading the wrong way, Gongoron then goes past the Goron checkpoint and to the temple. The upper half of the island is a giant maze Link needs to navigate, finding a Power Gem along the way. The last obstacle before the temple is a Like Like, which tries to suck Link in. This gives an opening for Link to chuck bombs into their mouths.

The Goron Temple reintroduces Armos, who go inert after being hit by bombs and can be pushed around to hold floor switches down. On the second level of the temple, Link catches up to Gongoron, who got grabbed by monsters and thrown in the temple and is suddenly a lot nicer to Link. Link and Gongoron need to work together to advance, with the player alternately controlling both. After getting both Link and Gongoron to stand on switches, the treasure chest with the dungeon item appears, giving Link bombchus. I’ve never cared much for bombchus, but these are an exception: Link/the player gets to draw the path for them to travel, with them exploding at the end (or when they hit something). Once Link opens the way further down, Gongoron finds his own path, leaving Link alone to solve a series of bombchu and Armos puzzles. There’s a Power and Wisdom Gem to be found in the dungeon.

Gongoron returns in time to help Link fight the dungeon boss, Dongorongo [1], Armored Lizard. In the first phase, Gongoron has to knock Dongorongo over and then Link sends a bombchu over into its mouth from across a sand pit. Complicating matters, enemies constantly spawn and cross the sand to attack Link, so the player has to switch over to have Link deal with them if they get away from Gongoron. After a few hits, Dongorongo sits up and flops over, leading Gongoron to go ahead. But it didn’t explode into sand, so there’s one phase left. A bridge appeared across the sand for Link to cross, and now he can wait for Dongorongo to suck in air in preparation for a fire stream attack and add a bomb to its diet, then whack the newly exposed weak point on its back. After enough of this, Dongorongo goes down again, and this time he does explode.

Gongoron’s waiting for Link in the chamber with the Crimsonine, and apologizes to Link for thinking Dongorongo was defeated before it actually was. When Link takes the Crimsonine, Gongoron tells him to stop by his home to talk to Biggoron before leaving. Biggoron officially says Link can take the Crimsonine to make the Phantom Sword, and as a parting gift, gives him back the membership fee he paid earlier plus a bonus (a total of 200 rupees). Before leaving, Link stops off at the island store and buys a bombchu bag upgrade. After that, various stores around the islands start selling a heart container for 2000 rupees, but at this point Link’s swimming in rupees from selling off treasures and duplicate ship parts, so that’s not a big deal.

Next: Knights and knaves.

[1] I go back and forth between reading this as “Dongo Rongo” and “[Do]dongo” with “Goron” stuck in the middle.

Phantom Hourglass: Southeastern Sea

With the Wisdom Gem I got on the last run through the Temple of the Ocean King, I’m up to ten, so that’s another visit to Spirit Island, this time to awaken more of Neri’s power. This upgrade makes Link take less damage and gives him some ability with his shield, but I stuck with Leaf. There are a couple letters Link can receive before heading off to the new area: one from Linebeck trying to express respect for Link (he’s mostly successful), and one from Joanne thanking Link for delivering Jolene’s letter. Both contain ship parts.

As Link heads into the southeast quadrant, there are three pirate ships that almost immediately spot him and come over. Sinking two of them is pretty easy, but the third charges at the SS Linebeck and if it gets close enough triggers a boarding attack. It’s just a few Miniblins that board, and it took longer for them to actually show up on the ship than for Link to finish them off. Once they’re gone, Linebeck emerges from hiding to give Link a Courage Gem. There are two golden frogs in the region for Link to shoot and learn the warp symbols. One looks like a capital omega, and it seems no matter how badly I draw it Link warps just fine. The other, a W with a line over it, is really twitchy and took a bunch of tries to get right.

A third traveler’s ship appears in this area, this one containing members of the Ho Ho Tribe (inspired by Old Man Ho Ho from Wind Waker), looking for treasures they can sell at home. They pay better than the Treasure Teller on Mercay, but only buy one type of treasure each day, and it wasn’t long after I started having things to sell them that they got stuck on the same type of treasure for three days in a row. (And paying less for it each day.) Plus, it’s not like it’s hard to make rupees, so trying to wait for them to be interested in the other seven types of treasure seems a losing proposition.

There are two uncharted islands in this area. Harrow Island to the north seems to consist solely of a treasure field digging minigame. Link gets to dig up ten treasures. Some of the “treasures” can be rupoors, which count against the total. There’s also a spirit named Lucky Lee who, when dug up, offers Link a chance to play a straight up gambling minigame, choosing between two hypothetical treasure chests. The whole Harrow Island game is basically a wash; in two games, I got a couple treasure charts and about broke even in rupees.

The second hidden island is Dee Ess Island, which is shaped like a DS. (Preparing to sail off, Linebeck notes the island’s “different shape.” I would have gone with “distinctive,” but, oh, well.) There are Gorons here setting up a minigame, but it’s not ready yet. There’s a few things to do on the island now. First, there are a bunch of soft soil patches Link can dig up. A lot of these reveal Rope nests or beehives, but there are rupees to be had as well. A gossip stone hints for Link to dig where the Menu button is, which means at the bottom left corner of the “touchscreen”; he finds a Courage Gem there. At the north end of the island, there’s a pit corresponding to the other screen with a couple Hinox. Once they’re defeated, Link can claim another Courage Gem. That brings Link’s Courage Gem collection to 10, so he can go back to Spirit Island to power up Ciela. Her power lets Link shoot sword beams. (At full health, I think. Still sticking with Leaf.)

As in Wind Waker, Beedle has a rewards program for buying stuff from him. Points are earned for every 100 rupees Link spends, so they grow faster than in Wind Waker where it was one point per purchase. The reward tiers are Silver Membership (50 points, permanent 10% discount and a freebie item card), Gold Membership (100 points, permanent 20% discount and a compliment card which earns a compliment from Beedle), Platinum Membership (100 points, permanent 30% discount and a complimentary card which lets the player compliment Beedle), and VIP Membership (200 points, permanent 40% discount). It’s not hard to climb the ranks, even as the discounts make things cheaper; he sells two ship parts a day, and some of them can get pretty pricey.

There are eight ship parts and nine total sets. One of these is the base set that Linebeck had when you met him (plus Eddo’s cannon). The others are two fancy sets, an iron set, a stone set, a crappy set (the anchor is a swim ring!), a demonic set, tropical/shell set, and a golden set. Using multiple pieces from a set (other than the base set) adds hearts to the ship, so it’s worth upgrading. Pieces can be found in stores, in some treasure chests, by salvaging from treasure charts (generally either a ship part or Sand of Hours), or as minigame rewards. Getting all the pieces is really only worth it if you really need the full eight hearts from equipping a full golden set or your completionist side won’t let you not.

Next: Who wants to be a Goron?

Phantom Hourglass: Checkpoint

Jolene is now constantly patrolling the waters, looking for Linebeck. If she finds the ship, she’ll try to board, and escaping is pretty much impossible unless you’re close to an island or quadrant boundary, or use the Cyclone Slate to warp away. It’s amusing the first few times she does it, but eventually it just becomes tedious. (Right around the time the dialogue starts repeating each time and Linebeck stops giving rewards for fighting her off again.) If Link has trouble fighting off Jolene, Linebeck shouts out a hint, leading Jolene to wonder where the voice came from.

Zauz is expecting Link’s return visit. When Ciela asks how, he explains that his people have served the Ocean King for generations. They developed weapons to fight the Ocean King’s enemies, and most pertinent to Link’s cause is one called the Phantom Sword. Unfortunately, there are none left in the world; Zauz can make one, but lacks the materials. (Ciela isn’t amused by Zauz’ suggesting an idea but waiting to bring up the complications.) For Zauz to make a Phantom Sword, Link needs to find three pure metals: Aquanine, Azurine, and Crimsonine. The three metals were given to three tribes of the world, and to find them, Link needs to visit the Temple of the Ocean King again. It turns out there’s a second symbol Link can write on the door on the sixth floor, the Triforce. This will open the lowest levels of the temple to him.

As Link approaches the Temple of the Ocean King, another earthquake hits, which Ciela says is coming from below the temple, and so it’s probably Bellum causing them. Inside the temple, some of the phantoms have been upgraded to Swift Phantoms. They move faster than their counterparts. Ciela’s worried, but Leaf points out if they don’t see Link, it doesn’t matter how fast they are. All nice to know, but I’ve got to wonder why they’ve got to have Link wander out of the initial safe area to start yapping about it. The first few floors don’t have very much new; a few eye switches Link can hit to make things a little easier for him, and one Power Gem. On the fifth floor, the enemies have been upgraded, but with Leaf buffing sword attacks, they still go quickly.

When Link comes to the sixth floor, Ciela reminds Link that this is where the door he needs to draw on is, and to remember the shape they saw in Zauz’ home. However, Link can draw the hourglass symbol to go back to the original room, which he might want to do because there’s a 30 second time up there. When he draws the Triforce symbol [1], an alternate room opens up. This room has the courage seal for Ciela to open, and the latest victim of the temple opens a checkpoint portal. Link can step into it to return to the start, saving his progress. The only catch is that returning to this room uses the same amount of time Link used the last time he used the checkpoint portal to get out. So, I did the first six floors of the Temple twice: once to remind myself how it goes and see the new stuff the bow opened up, and once to speed through for the most time left going forward. I got it down to about a minute and a half used, which I feel pretty good about [2].

The ultimate goal of the next three floors is to place three crystals into their slots. This can’t be done in a single straight shot through the floors; Link’s path has him going up and down between the floors multiple times. There are two new complications: first, some of the tiles make noise when Link runs on them, which alerts nearby Phantoms, so Link has to be careful when they’re nearby. (Carrying a crystal slows Link’s speed enough that he can go as fast as he can without worry.) Second, the lowest floor has this game’s variation of Wizzrobes, who stalk Link when his back is turned and steal time by whacking him with a scythe. Link can kill them with a spin attack if he lures them close enough. There are a Courage Gem and Wisdom Gem on these levels. Once the crystals are in place, Link finds the Southeastern Sea chart. A skeleton in this room says if Link places the crystals in a specific order, it will open up the way to more levels of the temple. For now, I’ve got enough to go on – I don’t even have to use some other arcane feature of the DS to make the map useful – so I’ll leave the next levels for next time.

I know the Temple of the Ocean King is not the most beloved aspect of this game, but I like it. I think the developers did a good job putting new stuff to discover on earlier-visited floors, plus the shortcuts to make them fast to go through when I’ve already gotten the treasures. Having to stealth it isn’t too bad – it’s not instant-fail, and not that hard to make it to a safe zone. And the time limit is more than generous (although admittedly getting the treasure maps and hauling up the sands from the ocean floor help here). Plus I’ve always been the type to enjoy repeating things until I get them perfect, so replaying the Temple doesn’t bother me too much.

Next: That can’t be a natural island shape.

[1] It’s pretty twitchy about what’s Triforcy enough; if the symbol is close but not close enough for the game’s purposes, it shows up briefly and tells you to try again.
[2] Plus Link can go back to the symbol door, draw the hourglass, and get another 30 second time refund before venturing deeper into the temple.

Phantom Hourglass: Ghost Ship

As the SS Linebeck heads into the foggy area where the ghost ship is, the engine goes out. Linebeck goes below to fix it, but he’s going to have to stay below to keep it working, so Link takes the wheel. This section takes advantage of the more direct control over the ship’s direction by having Link adjust heading as he goes. The three spirits float in front of him, and when he’s pointing toward the ghost ship, they start shedding sparkles and the pinging that serves as an audio cue speeds up. Following the spirits’ guidance, Link eventually finds the ghost ship, and he, Linebeck, and the three spirits get on board.

To no one’s surprise, Linebeck finds the ghost ship scary, and Ciela takes great joy in calling him a chicken. Er, cucco. So, it’s up to Link to explore the ship and look for Tetra, and possibly treasure. One deck down, Link finds a girl huddled up in fright; she says she’s the youngest daughter of the House of Cubus. She and her sisters were kidnapped and have been prisoners on the ghost ship ever since. There are three more for Link to rescue and lead to her. When she talks about the enemies below, she gets a little weird, saying, “Fallen! Fallen! They are the fallen!” Actually, her entire manner of talking is stilted, but that outburst still stands out.

One of the sisters is on the same deck as the youngest, and she isn’t too hard to rescue. Sure, she stops moving if Link tries running too fast, and she screams and stops dead if she gets too close to one of the Skulltulas who drops from the ceiling. But it’s not until the next sister, one level down, where the real fun starts. The bottom two decks have safe areas similar to the Temple of the Ocean King, and they wouldn’t have those if there weren’t something to be safe from. In this case, Reaplings, Grim Reaper-esque critters that hit hard if they catch up to Link. So sneak around it is. This is already annoying enough without the escort aspect, but the Cubus sisters really aren’t helpful. Having to backtrack if he runs to fast is bad enough, but their arachnophobic screams alert the Reaplings. Oh, and they give advice, but it’s bad; the second sister points Link to one of two treasure chests… that contains a Rupoor that steals 10 rupees and creates another Reapling on the level. If Link/the player learns their lesson from that one, when the third sister says not to shoot the Reaplings in the back, he can take learn the opposite, discovering a way to stun them. Here’s where I’d say this couldn’t be more frustrating if the sisters were trying to sabotage Link…

…but they are. As soon as they’re all reunited, they express disappointment that the Reaplings didn’t kill Link, but they decide they can do it themselves. They bring Link to the boss arena and challenge him to a match of “dead man’s volley” – the now well-established game of reflecting energy attacks. Oh, and they reveal their true demonic faces and are identified as the “Diabolical Cubus Sisters.” In the first round, three of the sisters shoot laser beams while the fourth attacks. Once the first sister is down, tactics get messier: in particular, after Link reflects an attack, the sisters bounce it among themselves before sending it back to him. This continues until it’s down to just one, who shoots three attacks at once, only one of which can be deflected. Once the last sister is down, she makes a taunting comment about Tetra before poofing and dropping the key to the hold where she is. (Ciela calls the sisters “volley girls.” Heh.) When Link goes below to find Tetra, the Reaplings are gone, leaving him free run of ship. He finds Tetra, but too late… she’s petrified. Linebeck shows up, noting that the ghost ship’s fog has dissipated and now he’s interested in the legendary treasure. As Linebeck examines Tetra, Oshus shows up, explaining that the ship drained her life force, leaving her in her current state.

He says it’s time for Link to know everything, starting with who he really is: the Ocean King. (Oshus. Ocean King. I should have known.) He was attacked by some sort of abomination named Bellum, and taken to the Temple where his life force continues to be drained. Bellum’s monsters spread over the sea, capturing Leaf and Neri, but Ciela split her soul and escaped, which inspired Oshus to do the same. Meanwhile, Bellum created the ghost ship to lure in people seeking treasure and drain their life force. It’s not too late to save Tetra, if Link can defeat Bellum before all of Oshus’ life force is gone. He directs Link to Zauz, who will know how to defeat Bellum.

While this is going on, Linebeck leans a little too hard on Tetra and knocks her over, then picks her up and inspects her for damage… but then the important part clicks for him: there’s no treasure! With his entire motivation gone, he quits, intending to take his ship and go home. Ciela can’t talk him into staying, even by pointing out that for a seafarer, the Ocean King being consumed by evil is probably not the best turn of events. But Oshus has his own way: he offers to grant a wish to Linebeck for his continued assistance, and Linebeck jumps to action. Oshus apologizes to Link for dragging him and Tetra into what should be his battle, as Linebeck continues to urge Link to hurry up and go.

Next: The second quest.

Phantom Hourglass: Jolene

Before leaving Molida Island, Link can buy a quiver upgrade from the shop. He also receives a letter from Romanos (the Wayfarer’s son), inviting him to check out… something. It turns out he’s set up a shooting gallery to raise money to fund his own adventures, and invites Link to try his hand at it. This thing is deceptively hard: most of the targets have ghosts painted on them and award 10 points, plus 10 points for each consecutive shot that hit a ghost up to a maximum of 50 points. About halfway into the game, targets start passing through that have a girl painted on them, and hitting one of them costs 50 points. There are two main rewards here: the second quiver upgrade for scoring 1,700 points, and a heart container for 2,000.

My main difficulty with the game is that I found it way too easy to accidentally hit a target’s edge rather than the center of the one behind it I was aiming at. This is obviously bad with the girl targets you’re not supposed to hit – although honestly I think they’re trying to get hit so they can laugh with their friends how they ruined my run – but it’s not much better when shooting at a ghost and hitting a different ghost. Or, worse, hitting two ghosts with one arrow only to have fired a second arrow to hit one of the ghosts that isn’t there anymore. There are some good things: the treasures he awards for solid runs sell to the Treasure Teller for a good deal more than a run of the game, so it’s very profitable. (I started with 200 rupees and ended with over 4,000.) And it awards ship parts for good runs after you get the main rewards, so when I start focusing on completing that collection, I’ll be coming here a lot. (It’s bound to be a little less stressful when all I want is rupees and ship parts. By the end, I was getting 1,300 points more often than not.) And, when you get annoyed enough with it, you can shoot at Romanos. He jumps over the arrow, but it’s still satisfying [1].

As the SS Linebeck sets sail, Linebeck and/or Ciela decides the ghost ship’s likely hanging out in the fog in the northwest quadrant. Before they can set a course to go that way, another ship approaches, and its captain, Jolene, calls out Linebeck. Apparently, they’re old friends or enemies or whatever. Linebeck characteristically decides running away is a prudent course of action, but the engine goes dead before they make it too far and Jolene boards the ship. She’s surprised to find Link there; when he won’t tell her where Linebeck’s hiding, it starts a duel. Typical stuff, really: let her make her big attack, then strike back before she recovers. After three hits, Link and Jolene get a blade lock going; Link disarms her, and she runs off. Linebeck pops out of hiding, gives Link a blue rupee as a reward, and they set off again.

Now that Link’s collected ten Power Gems, it’s time to visit the pool on Spirit Island again. The gems unlock some of Leaf’s power, powering up Link’s sword. Link can only have one active fairy companion at a time, and as helpful and nice as Ciela’s been, double sword power is too useful a trick to pass up. (And you know it’s not like she won’t pop out when she has something to say.) Back on Mercay Island, now that Link has the bow, he can pass through the cave on the way to the Temple of the Ocean King. On the other side, he finds a laser statue that marks another hidden cave that has a Courage Gem and leads to the little island off the northeast of Mercay. There, Link finds Freedle, a guitar-playing [2] bard who has several magical boxes that will let Link trade unwanted ship parts and treasures with other players. That’s probably not going to happen, but also of interest on this island is a treasure chest with a Wisdom Gem.

There’s one last thing to wrap up before heading for the ghost ship: While hopping around the islands, Link got visited by the postman who read a letter from Jolene to her sister, Joanne. The postman asks Link to properly deliver it, and fortunately, there was a hint in the letter: Jolene asked if Joanne is still mermaid cosplaying. When Link delivers the letter to Joanne, she gives him a Wisdom Gem as a reward.

Next: How would I go about revoking Nintendo’s license to make escort missions?

[1] Phantom Hourglass is available for the Wii U Virtual Console, which… I can’t imagine to be terribly fun? I realize the game needs a touchscreen for controls and a second screen, but playing on the gamepad while the TV serves as the second screen (assuming that’s how it works) doesn’t seem like fun. And trying to line up the gamepad with the TV for things like this archery game sounds like a fscking nightmare.
[2] As he calls it, anyway. It looks more like a lute.

Phantom Hourglass: Spirit of Courage

The guy at the docks who earlier asked if the ship had a cannon stops Link to ask if he has a salvage arm. If Link says he doesn’t, the guy suggests going to Eddo. If he gets ahead of himself and says he does, the guy sells him a treasure map for 50 rupees. Meanwhile, in case the player didn’t get the hint, Eddo has sent a letter advertising that he’s got a salvage arm for sale and will sell it to the first person who gets there. Except he’s a bit more demanding: Link has to yell to show how much he wants it, and here I learned I was blowing/yelling/making noise into the camera, not the microphone, so of course I was having trouble. But now it’s settled and he sells Link the salvage arm for 200 rupees.

Using the Salvage Arm is not automatic like it was in Wind Waker; the player has to guide the arm as it descends, grab a treasure chest, and guide it back up. Along the way there are sea walls to avoid, and enemies – some stationary, some mobile. The salvage arm can take five hits before breaking and becoming useless, at which point Link has to return to the shipyard on Mercay Island to repair it. I only ever got good at salvaging when I set the DS up on my Switch stand to hold it steady (which my left wrist appreciates very much). At the mark from the temple, Link finds a key with the sun emblem. There are other treasure maps he’s collected up to this point; most of those treasures give ship parts, but a couple give extra sand for the Phantom Hourglass.

Link’s approach to Molida Island is interrupted by a giant eye plant. Linebeck lays out the guidelines for the boss fight: Link has to hit the eye while not getting hit, and can help with the latter by shooting the eye plant’s attacks before they hit him. After a few shots, the eye plant dies and Link’s able to sail in to dock. He returns to the Wayfarer’s hideaway and unlocks the door with the sun symbol, which leads him to the north side of the island. (He can immediately drop back into the cave to find a Wisdom Gem.) In this area, there are three statues that, when activated, emit laser beams. A slate says the statues are the key to opening the dungeon door; Link finds the three statues and activates them, and has to turn two so they hit the door with their laser. Once all three lasers are on the door, it opens.

Key features of the Temple of Courage include riding platforms (mostly automatic, but there’s one near the end that needs to be controlled by drawing a path on the map), putting key gems into slots, and invisible walkways over apparent gaps. Moldorms show up, explaining why that name wasn’t used for the Sandworms, and they curl up when Link whacks their tail, allowing Link to get in more hits and easily finish them off. Pols Voices also show up for the first time since the Oracle games, and their weakness goes back to the Japanese version of the first game: making noise into the microphone stuns them. Finally for newly returning enemies, there are Beamos, which are only temporarily disabled by being bombed. The dungeon’s treasure is the bow, and some puzzles have Link rotating then shooting into cannons. There are two Power Gems, one Wisdom Gem, and one Courage Gem here.

The boss is Krayk, Bane of Courage, a giant hermit crab. The first phase is confusing: Crayk turns invisible, and the DS’ top screen changes to its point of view. The trick is to shoot it when it’s got Link in its sights, which stuns it an allows Link to attack its shell’s weak points. When the weak points have all been hit, the shell crumbles and the second phase begins. This one is easier: try to attack the face, which it will defend, leaving the actual weak spot on the tail open. With Crayk defeated, Link gets two more minutes’ worth of sand for the Hourglass.

The seal breaks open and the Spirit of Courage is free… but silent, not acknowledging Link or Ciela (who notes the Spirit looks like her). Back at the dock, Oshus is there with Linebeck to offer an explanation: the reason the Spirit looks like Ciela is because it’s part of her. He does a bit of magic that reunites the two halves, and Leaf and Neri come to help her rediscover her powers. She hears Tetra calling for help, which Oshus explains as part of her power to detect evil. With this power, she and the other Spirits will be able to lead Link to the Ghost Ship through the fog. Linebeck again asks Oshus how he knows so much, and Oshus again refuses to answer just yet. (On the other hand, Ciela being the Spirit of Courage explains why Linebeck’s cowardice annoys her so much.)

Next: If you ask me, I’d say she’s up to something, and to be honest, I’d appreciate it if you eased up off my back about it.

Phantom Hourglass: Case Closed

Even after my trip to Spirit Island, I never thought I should start documenting the Power/Wisdom/Courage Gems Link gets. I still thought of them like the “treasures” Link sometimes gets like pearl necklaces and Zora crowns, but they’re more like a collection sidequest along the lines of Skulltulas or Poe Souls, so here are the ones I’ve gotten so far:

Power Gems

• Given by Astrid after completing the Temple of Fire (already mentioned).
• Bought for 500 rupees from a shop.
• Found in the bomb flower cave on Cannon Island.
• Found on the Isle of Gust.
• Found in the Temple of Wind.

Wisdom Gems

• Bought for 500 rupees from Beedle [1].
• Found on Zauz’s Island (already mentioned).
• Found by clearing Miniblins in a cave on the Isle of Gust.

Courage Gems

• Found on Spirit Island.
• Bought for 500 rupees from I Can’t Believe It’s Not Beedle [2].
• Found in the Wayfarer’s cave on the Isle of Gust.
• Found in the Temple of Wind.

There are four more Link can get now: Astrid gives a Wisdom Gem for completing the Temple of Gust, Oshus gives a Power Gem, and Salvatore mails a Wisdom Gem. Finally, on the way back to the Temple of the Ocean King, there’s a cave Link can bomb into and find another Power Gem.

On this trip to the Temple of the Ocean King, Link has two more minutes’ worth of sand, but has to go through the floors he did the first time, plus three more. Fortunately, having gotten bombs and the shovel since the last trip to the Temple, Link can take advantage of a couple shortcuts on the floors he’s already done. The last old floor still requires gathering the three gems and tossing them into their pedestals, so it still takes a while, but the first two are quick. After the main room on the third floor is cleared, Neri opens the way forward.

The first new floor has new critters called Phantom Eyes, which can help the Phantoms find Link and summon new Phantoms to chase him down. Unlike the Phantoms, they can be defeated if Link stuns them with the Boomerang before they can spot him. When all on the floor are defeated, a chest spawns with another Power Gem. The next floor has no Phantoms or Phantom Eyes, just a couple rooms which spawn ambushes of normal enemies. The third new floor has six stone tablets. One explains that four of the others “govern the crest,” which in this case means Link has to draw a symbol on a tablet to open the way forward, and those tablets are the four points Link needs to draw lines between. (The symbol is an X with an enclosed top and bottom; a stylized hourglass.) The sixth tablet is “cursed”; it summons an extra Phantom Eye. This should be an easy floor to do on repeat visits.

The next safe room has a giant disc with the sun symbol Link and Ciela saw on Molida Island. The disc has an upside-down map of the southwest quadrant with Farore’s symbol marked on it. The instructions read, “Press the sacred crest against the sea chart to transfer it. The Temple of Courage will open to the holder of the Sun Key.” Pressing the sacred crest against the sea chart involves opening the relevant portion of the chart, then closing the DS clamshell. This transfers the mark to the map, but it’s out in the middle of the sea, and Ciela has no idea what to do with it. A portal opens, and Link’s third visit to the Temple ends.

Back in town, a new shop has opened, the Treasure Teller. This guy will buy any of the treasures Link’s picked up to date, and pay nice prices for them. Even the ones he dismisses as “trifles” he pays 50 rupees for [3], and I was able to sell one for 1,500. He’ll also buy unwanted ship parts, as long as they aren’t the base parts that came with the ship. With the haul of rupees Link got here, he was able to visit Beedle and buy another bomb bag upgrade for 1,000 rupees, then wait for the masked guy to show up and finally buy that heart container for 1,500 [4][5].

Next: In brightest day, in blackest night, no evil shall escape my sight.

[1] Another thing I haven’t mentioned: Beedle’s sailing around the sea, running a shop and giving reward points for spending Rupees at his store.
[2] Late at night, Beedle is replaced by the guy in a mask. As in Wind Waker, he’s got different items and is talking about closing shop.
[3] The same price Eddo thought would be too high for Link to pay for the cannon.
[4] In any other Zelda game, this would be a huge amount. (It’s more than he can carry in any of them except Wind Waker.) Here, I get the feeling that even having spent over 4,000 rupees, I’m just getting started.
[5] The same price as the three spirit gems combined. I probably should have bought this first; it’s more immediately useful.

Phantom Hourglass: Isle of Gust

There are two unmarked islands in the northwest quadrant. One, Zauz’s Island to the north, is mostly uninteresting for now – there’s a treasure chest with a Wisdom Gem, another “draw an X on the mark and dig there” quest to find a treasure map, and Zauz himself, who says he may be able to help Link later, but not yet. The second island is unexplored, meaning Link has to completely draw the map himself. A gossip stone has a poem that suggests Link hit the other gossip stones in a particular order (based on their location and the island’s whale shape); when he does, a bridge appears leading to a cave where Link meets Golden Chief Cylos, leader of the golden frogs he’s seen around the seas. He recognizes Link as a friend of Oshus’ by the Phantom Hourglass, and gives him a Cyclone Slate to aid in his quest. The other golden frogs teach Link symbols he can draw on the slate to be warped by cyclone to their location – even more convenient than quick travel normally is, given the difficulties in going from the southwest to northwest quadrants.

The dungeon mark on the map is on the Isle of Gust, and as one might guess from that name, there are strong winds that blow across the island, making walking difficult. This can interfere with combat, and of course there are jumping puzzles. Sometimes Link has to be careful not to get blown backward as he jumps, sometimes he has to use the wind to make an extra-long jump. And there are geysers he can use to jump up to a higher location. Along the way on the path through the island, Link can use a bomb flower to blast into a cave where the Wayfarer stayed for a bit. His journal notes that he’s gone to chase the mermaid, and he left a map with both his new location marked as well as the two unmarked islands Link explored.

The dungeon entrance is blocked by strong winds, with a tablet nearby saying that shutting the winds off will require manipulating some windmills. In the northwest corner of the island, another tablet clarifies that the hero must blow on three sacred windmills to open the way forward. The windmills are in a giant sandy area, and a nearby gossip stone warns that the area is home to creatures sensitive to sound. So Link has to basically tiptoe through the sand; if he goes too fast, Sandworms (surprisingly, that’s their name and not Moldorms or Lanmolas) pop out from underground to eat him. Link’s options at that point are run, try to trick them into eating a bomb instead, or take it and shake loose before taking too much damage. Once all three windmills are activated, the winds blocking the temple subside and doors open from the sandy area leading back near the entrance.

Inside the Temple of Wind is really a lot like outside, only the winds now come from the walls or statues and can be blocked or turned off. There’s even a windmill puzzle on the second floor, although the solution there involves pushing statues to blow on the windmills rather than Link doing it himself. The bottom floor has more Sandworms and a puzzle involving lighting torches by digging open four geysers. Once both of those puzzles are done, Link can claim the dungeon’s treasure: bombs. The starting bomb bag only holds ten, and while drops are quite common throughout the dungeon, I was constantly afraid of running out so used them sparingly (no blowing up Sandworms, for instance).

The dungeon boss is Cyclok, Stirrer of Winds, a giant Octorokesque creature that floats above Link in a cyclone. He’s got two attacks: come down to Link’s level and charge, and summon cyclones to send at Link. Both are easy enough to dodge, and there are bomb flowers in the arena so Link never has to worry about running out of bombs. There are three spots where non-threatening cyclones appear, and Link can throw a bomb into these and have it explode up where Cyclok floats. If one explodes close enough to Cyclok, he’ll fall to the ground, stunned, for the customary chance for Link to whack him until he gets back up or dies. Just like with Blaaz, the number of hits Cyclok can take is astounding, and I had trouble with timing the bombs, so this fight took a while.

Cyclok explodes into golden dust when becomes two more minutes of enchanted sand for the Phantom Hourglass, and the spirit of wisdom, Neri, emerges from the seal. After she introduces herself, Ciela helpfully chimes in, telling Link who she is in case the player dozed off for five seconds and missed her introduction. Neri agrees to join with Link’s party, and they all go down to the dock to meet with Linebeck and sail off.

Before returning to Mercay Island, there’s one last thing to take care of in the northeast quadrant. Back on Bannan Island, there was a cave that required bombs to fully explore. By blowing a hole in the wall, Link can pass through the cave and find his old friend Salvatore. He’s running a new game that involves riding in a boat and shooting at targets and as bored out of his mind as ever, except when he explains the rules; sadly, no cutouts this time, just a dramatization of the game. Thanks to the DS’ “poke the screen where you want to shoot” controls, the game’s much easier than it would have been in Wind Waker; the big prize is a larger bomb bag.

Next: They really are determined to make use of every last feature of the DS, aren’t they? (Aside from the buttons and D-Pad, I mean.)

Phantom Hourglass: Following the Wayfarer

In the western part of the southwest sea, there’s an island surrounded by a minefield. The island is Molida Island, and it seems to be home to a sailor who eventually found his way to Link’s next destination, the Isle of Gust. His son’s kind of peeved about him chasing adventure and abandoning his family, but eventually tells Link to look in the cave where his father used as a “hideaway.” The hideaways filled with monsters – mostly red ChuChus, but there’s a Geozard miniboss to get by. The Geozard needs to be stunned by being hit from behind with the boomerang before Link can attack it and move on.

In a room blocked by a bombable wall, Link finds the Wayfarer’s journal, which indicates that he had a second hiding spot, hidden underground at the place where the lines between the stone tablets he left on the island intersect. There’s also a shovel in a treasure chest, so all those places where something’s obviously buried can be dug up. The lines intersect under a palm tree near the Wayfarer’s house, and when Link digs there, he finds a hole leading to the true hideaway. The Wayfarer’s left a letter of apology to his son for abandoning him. More importantly, he’s left a map showing the way through the ghost ship’s fog. There’s also a locked door with a sun symbol that Ciela notes Link should remember for later.

Before following the path, there are two things to check out in the southwest quadrant. First, Link can board a traveler’s ship to find it overrun with Miniblins and the traveler laying facedown in the middle. When Link gets rid of the (other) boarders and checks on the traveler, he finds the traveler’s alive but playing dead. When he eventually realizes his guest is not hostile, he gets up and introduces himself as Nyave of the Maritime Defense Force and gives Link a treasure as a reward. Second, a unmarked island lies in the middle of a triangle of rocks. On the island, Link finds a shrine whose spirit explains the use for the various gems he’s been collecting: they power up the spirits who are helping him. But Link’s only got one spirit, and two gems for that spirit, and it takes ten to power up a spirit, so this will have to wait until later.

The Wayfarer’s path works, and Link guides Linebeck’s ship through the fog and to the rest of the northwest quadrant. There are two islands here, so Link starts with the one where the temple isn’t, Bannan Island. The Wayfarer has resettled here and calls it the Wayfaring Island. He’s come to the island looking for a mermaid, intending to capture her and keep her in a small pool in his hut. After learning of the mermaid, Link can see her in the water near the island. She’ll swim away if he gets to close, but he can thwack her with the boomerang to prevent that. She’s reasonably annoyed at being thwacked with a boomerang and demands an apology from Link – revealing in the process she’s a human who likes dressing as a mermaid [1] and going for swims. Heh. When she learns about the Wayfarer, she thinks it would be interesting to hang with him and listen to his stories – but she finds Linebeck first and mistakes him for the Wayfarer. Double heh. She eventually finds her way to the actual Wayfarer, who give Link a fishing rod as a reward for his role in helping him meet the mermaid.

Fishing in Phantom Hourglass is the most fun incarnation yet. The controls are simple and intuitive – hold at the bottom of the touchscreen in the opposite direction the fish is trying to swim away, make circles to reel it in, and lift off the screen when the fish jumps. Link first catches a small Skippyjack, then returns to the Wayfarer, who tells him there are bigger fish out there. Link catches two bigger types, Toona and Loovar, and the Wayfarer rewards him for his catches with a Big Catch Lure. This lets him catch Rusty Swordfish, and the Wayfarer tells him about the ultimate big fish: Neptoona. Now, a bigger fish shadow sometimes appears in the overworld, and it usually has a Rusty Swordfish, but after trying long enough, Link can catch Neptoona and return it to the Wayfarer for a heart container [2].

Nyave mentioned a heroic brother to the north, and Link can find his boat sailing the waters in the northwest quadrant. You can tell he’s a hero, because his clothes are basically Link’s with a few alterations. And his ship is called the Prince of Red Lions. He takes Link as an apprentice, and teaches him swordfighting, culminating in a challenge reminiscent of Orca’s from Wind Waker: hit him as many times as possible before getting hit three times. (He doesn’t actually fight with a sword, but… some kind of pitchfork/trident thing.) Getting over a hundred hits gets another heart container as a reward.

Next: Braving the winds.

[1] She says “mythical creature” referring to mermaids, which struck me as weird, but the only other merfolk in the series thus far are the one from Link’s Awakening and Link wearing the mermaid suit in Oracle of Ages. (And there are Zoras, who are certainly mermish.)
[2] A full container, not just a piece. I guess Phantom Hourglass is simplifying.

Phantom Hourglass: Cannon Island

Trying to head directly north to the northwestern part of the sea doesn’t work; a giant cyclone scoops up the ship and drops it back south. There’s a line of rocks in the southwestern part, but what appears to be a gap is actually blocked by some really big rocks. There’s no way through there, either, although Linebeck suggests that if they had a cannon, they could blast their way through. Back on Mercay Island, there was a guy on the docks who asked Link if the ship had a cannon, but they didn’t. He said there was a place to get one to the south, and since it’s not the Isle of Ember, it’s got to be the other island in the area… called Cannon Island. Well, that’s promising.

On Cannon Island, Link meets the postman for the first time, and this version’s a cherub. After he flies off, Link proceeds to the one building he can access, Eddo’s Garage. They don’t have any cannons for sale at the moment, so Eddo’s locked himself in his workshop so he can finish one. Eddo’s apprentice, Fuzo, suggests that if Link really wants to talk to Eddo, he can go around the long way, but warns him it’s not a safe path. Still, he opens the gate and lets Link go. The monsters aren’t particularly tough – most annoying are bees which are tiny and easiest to kill with a spin attack. The true challenge of the path is, starting with the cave Link needs to pass through, there are a bunch of bomb flowers; Link needs to pick up bombs and run them to where he can throw them to explode what needs exploding. The timing can get tough.

Eventually, Link makes his way through to Eddo, who’s impressed Link’s come this far. He hypes up the cost of the cannon, making it sound terribly expensive, but then names the exorbitant price of 50 rupees. Once again, I wonder how the economy of this world works, but whatever, Link found more than that getting through Cannon Island, and surely he’s not going to come all this way to get something he needs to progress and decide, eh, too expensive. Now that that’s done, Eddo is going to get to work on a salvage arm so Link can get treasures. Before leaving the island, Link meets the postman again, delivering a letter from his boss asking Link to be nice to the postman. (Afterward, he says it was a little weird to read.) And, once again, the DS features show up with Link signing that he got the delivery really meaning that the player signs for it.

Now that Link has a cannon, sailing becomes dangerous. I know that the sailing in Wind Waker was not the most beloved feature of that game, and it kind of feels like Nintendo took those fan complaints, printed them out, and rolled them up and smoked them while laughing at them. Some things are better: Linebeck’s boat is steam-powered, so Link doesn’t have to mess with the winds. Also, firing the cannon – my big dislike from Wind Waker – is a lot more user-friendly than with the King of Red Lions – ammo is unlimited, and aiming and firing is all one motion controlled, of course, by poking the screen where you want the ship to fire – and items dropped by aquatic enemies are automatically picked up. I might even find Seahats tolerable under these conditions, but they’re not around. On the other hand, combat’s more dangerous; rather than working off Link’s health, the ship has its own meter, and every hit drains one heart. As for navigation, drawing the path you want the ship to take is fine if you’re not going to change your mind about where you want to go, but rerouting means opening the chart again and drawing a new path.

The cannon blasts through the rocks Link and Linebeck saw earlier, and almost immediately afterward, the sky turns cloudy and the ghost ship appears. Linebeck’s desire for treasure overwhelms his cowardice, so he’s cheering for Link to chase after it, and here’s where the repathing starts to become annoying. As the ship crosses into the northwestern quadrant, the fog picks up, and eventually becomes impenetrably thick. It lifts a little bit, but the ship’s back near the quadrant boundary, and the ghost ship is nowhere to be seen. Linebeck (or maybe Ciela) says the fog that leads sailors astray is a feature of the ghost ship, and we’ve only had catching it as our end goal since the end of the intro; why did no one think that might be important to mention before now? Anyway, going forward is no longer an option, so Link heads back to look for clues that will lead the ship through the fog.

Next: X marks the spot.

Phantom Hourglass: Sands Through the Glass

Back on Mercay Island, the shipyard has opened by the docks. Here, Link can swap out parts of the ship to upgrade Linebeck’s ship. There’s a treasure chest here with a part so he can try it out. Using multiple parts from a set upgrades the ship’s stamina, so maybe for now Link may as well stay with Linebeck’s default parts. There’s not much else to do, so it’s time to check out the Temple of the Ocean King again. As Link enters, Linebeck comes in behind him, warning him that if he goes in unprotected, he’ll end up like the skeletons lying around the entrance. He tries to scoot off to leave Link to explore the temple, prompting yet another argument between him and Ciela [1], and it’s like okay, game, I get it already, he’s a coward and she doesn’t like that very much.

Oshus shows up to spare the player too much arguing, and says Link’s impressed him by freeing the spirit of power and might have a chance against the ghost ship after all. He points to an altar near the entrance deeper into the temple, where an hourglass sits. As Link approaches, the altar explodes with sand. At Oshus’ direction, Link takes the hourglass and the sand pours into it. It’s the Phantom Hourglass, which can protect Link from the Temple’s energy drain as long as it has sand in the top. (Linebeck brings up the idea of flipping it back over, but it’s magic sand and being drained depletes the magic until it’s restored. Going outside restores the magic, but also resets progress.) Defeating certain monsters, like Blaaz, gives Link more sand, and thus more time. Linebeck asks Oshus how he knows so much, but Oshus says he’s not ready to reveal all his secrets, because of course he’s not.

The first floor, that Link explored before, is mostly bypassed this time: the way forward isn’t blocked, and Leaf can open the door leading deeper into the dungeon. The next floor is patrolled by armored enemies called Phantoms, which Link can’t fight. So, stealth mission it is, although unlike many other stealth missions in the series, being spotted isn’t an instant fail. If Link can get to a safe zone before he’s caught, the Phantoms won’t be able to get to him, and they’re not smart enough to camp the zone waiting for him to come out so they can grab him. Small mercies; combining a stealth mission and timed mission is approximately like combining a vision test with a blindfold. (The Phantoms can also hear noises Link makes like breaking pots, but still can’t get into safe areas.)

This trip through the temple requires passing through three floors. The first two are basically Link sneaking around doing dungeony things to get a key to open the door forward. The third floor is a lot more complex: Link has to gather three gems to place into sockets to open the way forward. One of the gems is behind a locked door, and the key held by a Phantom (a helpful skeleton/ghost/hint dispenser tells Link this in case the player doesn’t notice the doubled-up icon on the minimap), so Link needs to dispose of the the Phantom by waiting till it walks over a trap door and then sending it falling to its doom. In addition to normal pots, there are two special kinds of pots to help Link advance: red pots create small safe zones where they break, and yellow pots restore some time to the Phantom Hourglass.

After the three puzzles are past, Link comes to a safe floor. His life doesn’t drain, and there are no Phantoms, so he can just head over to the treasure chest with the next part of the sea map and claim it. Once he does, a portal leading to the surface opens, and armed with what he came for, Link heads through. Back at the seaport, he finds Linebeck minding the ship. The map’s covered in dust, making it hard to read, so Link gets to blow the dust off the map, which of course is the player blowing into the microphone again. The cleared map has an island marked with Nayru’s symbol, so that’s where the Spirit of Wisdom probably is, and Link’s next major destination.

Next: Getting armed for the journey.

[1] I just realized that even though I don’t think I’ve misspelled her name, I’ve been reading it wrong (as “Celia”) and probably saying it wrong in my head.

Phantom Hourglass: Isle of Ember

Choosing a heading while sailing is accomplished by drawing the path for the ship to take on the map. There’s no wind to worry about, and at least for this journey, no seafaring monsters to harass the poor boat. Just set a course and go. On arrival, Ciela and Linebeck get in yet another argument, and obviously the fact that fate has thrown the two of them together for this adventure doesn’t indicate to either that maybe they should try to get along.

Link and Ciela scurry off to find Astrid, and her home seems deserted. However, there’s a staircase leading to the basement, and once Link is inside, the door closes behind him and a bunch of Octoroks pop out. After they’re dealt with, Ciela notes a presence on the other side of the other door in the basement, and thinks Link should call out to whoever it is. Or, more accurately, the player should call out using the DS microphone. Once that’s done, the person in the locked room responds – it’s Astrid, and she locked herself in to hide from monsters, and by an incredibly user-friendly design, the panic room only opens from the outside. She points to the map by the door, and says that her assistant, Kayo, knows what needs to be done with the map to open the door.

Kayo’s gone from his home, but his journal tells whoever finds it to look to the east side of the island. Over that way, Link and Ciela find Kayo’s body, and his ghost pops out to tell Link to look for three torches on the island. (Ciela’s reaction to the ghost is to tell Link to “get” it, heh.) One torch is on a small island near Kayo’s body, and another was back in Kayo’s home, so that leaves on to find. It’s on the north side of the island. With the locations known, Link returns to Astrid and marks the locations on the map, opening the panic room. Astrid agrees to help find the ghost ship, and looks into a crystal ball, seeing that Link must confront darkness. His first step is the nearby Temple of Fire. As Link approaches the temple, the island’s volcano begins spewing rocks. To open the temple, Link needs to blow out the two candles at the entrance – by the player blowing into the microphone.

There are some key changes to dungeons in this game. (Or at least, the first dungeon.) The map is unlocked, floor by floor, as Link enters each floor. Instead of compasses, gossip stones tell Link how many chests he’s missing per floor and offer to mark the chests on the map. The big key needs to be carried to its lock, Four Swords Adventures-style. And there’s no miniboss. Still, the dungeoneering feels familiar. The dungeon item is the boomerang, which is controlled by tracing a flight path on the screen. (It can also be thrown directly at enemies.) There are a bunch of switch puzzles, as well as chances to show off the fine control the boomerang gives. Ciela also takes several opportunities to be Captain Obvious, telling Link not to walk into fire, to write down hints noted on walls, and that there’s an evil presence in the boss room.

That evil presence is Blaaz, Master of Fire, a simple boss. He’ll split into three smaller versions that Link needs to reunite with a boomerang toss, but otherwise he just teleports around the room and sometimes summons falling rocks. And, for some reason, it takes an incredible number of sword hits to kill him. But eventually, die he does. Once he’s gone, a fairy emerges from the center of the room, freed by Blaaz’ death. He’s Leaf, the Spirit of Power, and he joins with Link and Ciela in their quest. Clearing the temple has also settled the volcano.

Astrid says Link will ultimately need three spirits to find the Ghost Ship, one corresponding to each of the virtues of the Triforce. She doesn’t know where the other two spirits are, but knows where Link can find a hint: back in the Temple of the Ocean King on Mercay Island. She also gives him a Power Gem, one type of spirit gem, ten of which can raise the spirit’s power. Linebeck’s excited to be one step closer to fabulous riches and runs off, leaving Ciela disgusted as usual. Astrid says that Linebeck will ultimately turn out to be helpful, but Ciela has her doubts. But that’s not the important thing right now: back to Mercay and on with the quest!

Next: So are the minutes of Link’s life.

Phantom Hourglass: Linebeck

The first floor of cave leading east covers the very basics of dungeoneering: some simple combat, using keys to unlock doors, an easy puzzle, and how things like pushing blocks and pulling levers works with the stylus controls. The second floor brings it all together; Link needs to get a key from a rat who scurries between two holes in the wall too fast for him to catch, so he blocks off one of the holes with a block, waits for the rat to come out of the other hole, stands between the rat and the hole, and catches the rat for the key.

As Link and Ciela emerge from the cave, Ciela says she’s not a big fan of Linebeck, whom she all hat, no cattle. But he’s possibly the only lead they’ve got for the Ghost Ship, so they head down to the docks to find him. Instead, they find another man admiring Linebeck’s ship. When he hears that Link’s looking for Linebeck, he points him to the local milk bar where Linebeck’s known to hang out, but he hasn’t been seen for a few days. The bartender says that Linebeck decided to explore a nearby temple devoted to the Ocean King, and then he and a patron begin trying to talk Link out of going there, saying that the temple has become cursed to drain the life out of any visitors. Still, they point out the temple’s location, because surely Link’s got enough sense to heed their warnings and stay clear.

On the way to the temple, Link takes the time to visit the tree he was pointed to and knocks a big green rupee (100) out. When they arrive, Ciela repeats the same information from the milk bar: built to honor the Ocean King, fallen into disrepair, cursed. Unlike them, however, she has no intentions of encouraging Link from abandoning the quest – heck, she’s been the one pushing for it all along. It’s like Link’s finally found the perfect fairy companion. Inside she’s a bit creeped out by the skeletons of those who failed to explore the temple. The skeletons can still talk, referring to the dangers inside. One refers to monsters Link won’t encounter, and another mentions making notes to help him when he comes back. So, the Temple of the Ocean King is apparently the dungeon Link’s coming back to.

As Link and Ciela enter the temple proper, someone calls to them. It turns out to be Linebeck, asking Link to help him. Ciela is annoyed by how rude Linebeck’s being even as he asks for help. Linebeck says he’s trapped, and can’t free himself because he sprained his ankle. When Link agrees to help, Linebeck explains the mechanics: the temple drains the life out of explorers, but areas shaded in purple are safe. After some quick exploration, Link finds a switch that lowers the spikes that are blocking Linebeck from the exit, and Linebeck runs for it. Link heads back to the entrance.

Ciela accuses Linebeck of faking, but he dismisses her and addresses Link. He asks what brought Link to the temple, and when Link apparently mentions the Ghost Ship, asks if Link is looking for the treasure. Ciela pipes up that they don’t know anything about treasure, but are trying to save Zelda, which causes Linebeck to change his tune: he’s willing to help. Linebeck’s looking for the ship too (for whatever treasure there is, no doubt), but hurt his ankle and… well, now they’re caught up. After making a display of how much his ankle hurts when Ciela doubts him again, he grabs Link and shakes him, telling him to explore the temple and find a clue to the Ghost Ship’s location. When Ciela accuses him of being scared, he says he’s letting Link have the glory instead, and gives him a key… while Link’s still woozy from being shaken (he stumbles around with swirly eyes doing the item get thing, and the jingle is off-key, heh) [1].

Exploring the rest of the room involves hitting two switches to disable spike traps, then grabbing a central treasure chest. The chest contains a sea map that uncovers the southwest portion of Link’s chart. The help text mentions showing it to Linebeck, only by time they get to the entrance, Linebeck’s ankle’s recovered enough that he’s gone outside. Linebeck takes a look at the map, and decides he’s got what he wants so he doesn’t have to play nice and runs off with it.

When Link and Ciela catch up to him at the dock, Oshus is there, having crossed the now-repaired bridge and come to see how things are going. Oshus is impressed by Link’s accomplishments, and with Linebeck unable to figure out anything useful from the map, takes it and gives it to Link to uncover the secret. Near the southeast corner of the map, Link discovers that parts of it can be flaked off to reveal a mark not unlike Din’s pearl on the Isle of Ember. There’s a fortune teller there who might be able to help locate the ship, so Link and Linebeck prepare to set sail together to find out what she knows. Oshus encourages Ciela to tag along, too, and she’s excited about it aside from having to put up with Linebeck. And one last thing: Link takes the money he’s found and goes to the island shop to buy a shield.

Next: I didn’t even know the DS had a microphone.

[1] The item get thing gets another poke if Link finds the chest Linebeck emptied for the key. He goes into the pose, only to reveal he got nothing.

Phantom Hourglass: Ciela and Oshus

“Hey!”
“Hey!”
“Hey!”

Link has landed on a beach and a fairy has been trying to get his attention. I’m not entirely sure the fairy’s voice is the same as Navi's (she doesn’t say “Listen!”), but if it’s not, they probably could have saved whatever money they spent recording the new clips. The fairy’s name is Ciela. She’s lost her memory, and has been living with a man she calls Grandpa. When she hears about the Ghost Ship and Zelda, she thinks Link should go talk to him. Control is given over to the player for the first time, giving me a chance to get used to controlling Link by poking the screen. It’s different, and I’m not a huge fan of this style of control, but most of it’s become fairly easy to get a handle on.

By time Link gets to Oshus, Ciela’s “Grandpa,” he’s been filled in on what Link intends to do. He tries to talk Link out of his goal, but Link’s not easily dissuaded, and neither is Ciela. So with a grumble about young people, he points Link to the nearby harbor village, where Link can find a sailor named Linebeck, who might be willing to help Link find the Ghost Ship. Ciela mentions that he’d come to visit them, and wants to go with Link to point Linebeck out. Oshus agrees, to Ciela’s great delight. Oshus has one final warning: there are monsters about the island, and Link needs to be careful.

As Link heads to the village, an earthquake strikes the island, and Ciela notes that they’ve been happening a lot recently. The bridge leading from Oshus’ home to the village is knocked out by the earthquake. A woman standing by the wrecked bridge tells Link and Ciela about another way to the village around to the north, but the path is filled with monsters so the only thing to do is wait for the bridge to be fixed. Oshus agrees with this careful plan, but Link and Ciela have to go see the monsters for themselves. In fact, a flag has to be set by Ciela commenting on the monsters – you can’t go to the path, see the ChuChus, realize Link doesn’t have a sword [1], and go back to Oshus to advance the plot without her nudge.

Despite Oshus’ continued insistence that Link and Ciela wait for the bridge to be repaired, Ciela isn’t giving up on dashing to the rescue. She and Link find a cave that Oshus uses to store stuff, including a sword. She remembers his passnumber hint, which gives Link the opportunity to find it and write it on the sign forbidding entry to the back room. With the room now open, Link goes in and finds the sword Ciela mentioned. She says they shouldn’t tell Oshus they’re taking it, but he’s there to greet them as they come out and notices Link has the sword. He agrees to let Link use the sword – after a swordplay tutorial. In-universe, while it makes sense for Oshus to make sure Link can use the sword, Link should be able to quickly show that he’s advanced beyond “the pointy end goes into the other man.” But out-of-universe, since the control scheme is all-new, it’s very welcome. The targeted attack is easy, the side slash is slightly more complicated but not bad, but the spin attack, which requires drawing a circle around Link, I can only manage about half the time.

There’s one more tutorial before Link sets out to the north – a guy had a bunch of rocks fall into his field and he wants Link to clear them. He rewards Link with a single rupee – which actually gets the full item get sequence – and then to make up for it not being very much, tells Link about a tree he might want to crash into off to the northwest, which introduces the idea of using the DS touchscreen to make notes on the map. As Link takes the trail and fights off a few Red ChuChus, there’s a gossip stone that tells how to roll, and suggests rolling into a nearby tree. I'm about as good at rolling as I am spin attacking, but I got the red rupee out. At the end of the trail, Link heads into the cave that leads to the eastern end of the island.

Next: How to run with a sprained ankle.

[1] The Master Sword got left in Ganon in Hyrule, but did Link not keep the sword he got from Orca? I guess it could have been lost when he went overboard, or he had it stowed somewhere on Tetra’s ship and didn’t have time to get it before his ill-fated attempt to jump over and rescue her.