Gnarled Root Dungeon
To the north of Horon Village, in a tree on an island, lies the first dungeon, Gnarled Root Dungeon. The entrance a more than a little reminiscent of the first dungeon entrance in the first game, and the similarities don’t stop there. The dungeon’s map is kind of eagle-y. Enemies spotted in the dungeon include old favorites like stalfos, keeses, and… well, they’re called floormasters because they come out of the floor, but they’re more like wallmasters. The treasure is under a room with a block diamond surrounded by blade traps, and the treasure room even looks like the ones from the first game. There’s even an old man who’s decided this hole is the perfect place to live who gives Link a hint on how to use the treasure! That treasure is a seed bag filled with ember seeds, which can light things on fire, including lighting torches. The dungeon’s miniboss is a pair of goriyas with linked health, which I was surprised to discover because it’s usually just good tactics to kill one before starting on the other, and whoops they both died. There’s a new feature introduced here: mine carts for Link to ride.
Completing the nod to the very first dungeon of the series, the dungeon’s boss is Aquamentus. It’s been slightly reimagined; it doesn’t just walk back and forth in a small path, it constantly moves forward until it reaches the wall and then returns to start, and sometimes it charges. There are no sword beams yet, and I didn’t test the basic shield against its beam attacks, but the basic strategy remains the same: don’t get hit, attack the head, hit it enough, and win. It’s still not hard, but the redesign makes it an effective first boss – bravo for that. Link moves to the last room, which has the first Essence of Nature, Fertile Soil.
The Maku Tree contacts Link, saying that the Fertile Soil is strengthening it, and pointing Link to visit the Temple of Seasons, where he’ll get a precious item. That’s not a tremendously useful hint, since the Temple of Seasons isn’t where it’s supposed to be and I’m not sure where that is anyway. Unsurprisingly, Link killed enough enemies in the dungeon to run into Maple when he comes out, and she’s apparently doing pretty well for herself because she’s upgraded her broomstick to a vacuum cleaner. Heh.
Finding Subrosia
Link returns to Horon Village, where he gets his rings appraised, including the Discovery Ring which seems to activate around soft soil patches. There’s a heart piece in the village that Link can get to now with the ember seeds. Also around the village, there’s a guy who looks like Mr. Write from Link’s Awakening, and his name is Dr. Left. He’s having trouble reading because his light is out, so Link uses an ember seed to light it, and is rewarded with his cuccodex. Finally, there’s a tree in the village that grows ember seeds. North of the village, Link finds this game’s version of Malon in her house, struggling to look after cuccos while Talon’s off climbing Mt. Cucco, and she gladly trades an egg for Dr. Left’s cuccodex. Aha, we’ve started the trading sequence. Maple said something about wanting a Lon Lon Egg, but there’s probably no hurry there, I’ll run into her before too long.
Now it’s back to the village to burn a trail to the east. Before Link can go, Sokra, a wandering prophet, approaches him to tell him that the spirits of the seasons are still in the Temple of Seasons, and that if Link can find the Temple, he should visit the seasons. As Link explores to the east, he sees a windmill with a guy playing the Song of Storms in front of it. He gets a break on his search for the Temple when a girl (you can tell because she’s got a ribbon on her head) enters the screen, talking about how “a ‘temple,’ like, fell into Subrosia!” Apparently, Subrosia is supposed to be a secret place, so you know what that means: stealth mission. It’s mostly fairly easy, except at one point she seems to exit the screen and then pops right back, so if you think “Oh, she’s gone, I can follow her now,” she’ll see you and you have to start all over.
Eventually, she enters a portal, and Link follows her through to Subrosia. The Subrosians all look like the girl, only wearing different color robes and no ribbons. Looking at character art, they’re apparently supposed to be wearing hoods and those spots on their face are their eyes – sorta like Jawas, if their eyes were huge. Looking at the in-game sprites, all I can see is Kenny from that one episode of South Park where he took a school picture with his parka on upside down so his butt showed through the hood.
Subrosia’s an interesting place, where they use a different currency than Holodrum and the people are apparently immune to fire because they take lava baths. Exploring Subrosia, Link comes across a Subrosian dance game, which he’s invited to join. It took me a while to figure out that the dance caller was calling three dance moves at a time, but once I got the hang of that, the game was pretty easy. The reward for the dancing game is the boomerang, which has come down to normal after its overpowered appearance in Link’s Awakening. It’s still useful, just more in line with its traditional power.
Next: Walking in a winter wonderland.
Monday, September 17, 2018
Friday, September 14, 2018
Oracle of Seasons: Introduction and Story
Now I enter the Dark Ages, which I mean in the sense of “I know almost nothing about these next several games,” not “the next several games are bad.” (I mean, they might be.) When Twilight Princess came out, I thought it was the first new Zelda game since Majora’s Mask, although I was somewhat aware of the GBA A Link to the Past remake with Four Swords and I may have heard of Minish Cap.
So here’s what I know about Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages:
Two Games, One Overall Story
Let’s touch on that first point some more. From reading the manual and playing the game some, there a lot of references to sharing things between the two games using codes. Right now I’m kinda ignoring all this and focusing on a straight run through Oracle of Seasons, to be followed by connecting that with Oracle of Ages. Then, quite likely, Oracle of Ages followed by Seasons so I can see how they play out like that and, if necessary, wrap up collecting rings.
The Story, Such As It Is
I’m not going to judge it just yet – Link’s Awakening didn’t seem to have much of a story at first, but a memorable twist turned it into the most haunting story of the series so far, so maybe this will develop as well. Link rides to a chamber where Essence of the Triforce is, and is sent on a quest to Holodrum. He enters the world rather roughly and is nursed back to health by a dancer named Din. Link comes to and starts talking to Din’s friends, and after dancing a bit with Din, a tornado comes, knocks everyone out, and kidnaps Din in the name of someone named Onox. Din is the Oracle of Seasons, so Onox’s master plan is apparently to seal her in crystal, bury the Temple of Seasons, and cause Holodrum’s seasons to go wonky and kill everything.
After being knocked out a second time (by the tornado), Link meets Impa, who was Din’s troupe’s cook, except in a shocking twist, she’s actually Zelda’s nurse and came to Holodrum to bring Din to Hyrule before Onox could do his thing. Well, as we now know, that didn’t work out. So Link needs to go to Horon Village and talk with the Maku Tree. Before Link can do that, he needs a sword, which makes me question the Triforce’s foresight if it sent him here without one. There’s a cave south of the town where Link can get a sword, and that opens the way to meet to Maku Tree. The Tree tells Link where Onox has made his hideout (where the Temple of Seasons used to be, duh), and that he’ll need to gather the eight Essences of Nature, which will be needed to break Onox’s barrier so Link can confront him and save Holodrum. The Maku Tree gives Link the Gnarled Key, the key to the first dungeon.
Or, in short: World in peril, damsel in distress, eight plot coupons, big bad evil guy. It’s basically the first game, only the names and places have been changed.
Fun Around Horon Village
The core collectible in Oracle of Seasons (and Ages too, I think) is rings. Link gets his first ring and a ring box from the town jeweler, and it’s mostly there to introduce the concept of rings. There are a couple other rings for sale at a shop in town for 100 rupees each, which is a little pricy. However, with this game made with color in mind, farming rupees isn’t as tedious as it was in Link’s Awakening where they only ever dropped one at a time (there were more in some chests), and especially when every 30 enemies defeated causes a witch to spawn who’ll drop a lot of rupees (and sometimes other stuff, like rings or a potion or even a heart piece). And there’s one other source of rings: Link can plant Gasha trees, which will eventually grow Gasha nuts, which contain useful items including random rings. I was able to get, without spending too much time, the shield and bombs from the town shop, the two rings from the other shop, and six rings appraised (one was a duplicate, so it got sold for more than the appraisal cost). One of the rings turns out to double the value of rupees Link picks up, so if there’s a bow that requires 980 rupees or something, it’ll only take half as much farming to get.
There was one more interesting thing in town: a couple with a new baby they hadn’t come up with a name for. They ask Link to name it, which of course means it actually falls to the player. After considering all sorts of ridiculous names (“Biscuit” is too long for the field, sadly), I settled on my default name of Bob.
Next: One hell of a nostalgia trip.
So here’s what I know about Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages:
- They’re related games, meant to be played one right after the other with links between the two and a true final boss after the two are completed.
- They don’t take place in Hyrule.
- Even by Zelda timeline discussion standards, their place in the timeline is controversial.
- One game involves manipulating seasons, the other… time travel?
Two Games, One Overall Story
Let’s touch on that first point some more. From reading the manual and playing the game some, there a lot of references to sharing things between the two games using codes. Right now I’m kinda ignoring all this and focusing on a straight run through Oracle of Seasons, to be followed by connecting that with Oracle of Ages. Then, quite likely, Oracle of Ages followed by Seasons so I can see how they play out like that and, if necessary, wrap up collecting rings.
The Story, Such As It Is
I’m not going to judge it just yet – Link’s Awakening didn’t seem to have much of a story at first, but a memorable twist turned it into the most haunting story of the series so far, so maybe this will develop as well. Link rides to a chamber where Essence of the Triforce is, and is sent on a quest to Holodrum. He enters the world rather roughly and is nursed back to health by a dancer named Din. Link comes to and starts talking to Din’s friends, and after dancing a bit with Din, a tornado comes, knocks everyone out, and kidnaps Din in the name of someone named Onox. Din is the Oracle of Seasons, so Onox’s master plan is apparently to seal her in crystal, bury the Temple of Seasons, and cause Holodrum’s seasons to go wonky and kill everything.
After being knocked out a second time (by the tornado), Link meets Impa, who was Din’s troupe’s cook, except in a shocking twist, she’s actually Zelda’s nurse and came to Holodrum to bring Din to Hyrule before Onox could do his thing. Well, as we now know, that didn’t work out. So Link needs to go to Horon Village and talk with the Maku Tree. Before Link can do that, he needs a sword, which makes me question the Triforce’s foresight if it sent him here without one. There’s a cave south of the town where Link can get a sword, and that opens the way to meet to Maku Tree. The Tree tells Link where Onox has made his hideout (where the Temple of Seasons used to be, duh), and that he’ll need to gather the eight Essences of Nature, which will be needed to break Onox’s barrier so Link can confront him and save Holodrum. The Maku Tree gives Link the Gnarled Key, the key to the first dungeon.
Or, in short: World in peril, damsel in distress, eight plot coupons, big bad evil guy. It’s basically the first game, only the names and places have been changed.
Fun Around Horon Village
The core collectible in Oracle of Seasons (and Ages too, I think) is rings. Link gets his first ring and a ring box from the town jeweler, and it’s mostly there to introduce the concept of rings. There are a couple other rings for sale at a shop in town for 100 rupees each, which is a little pricy. However, with this game made with color in mind, farming rupees isn’t as tedious as it was in Link’s Awakening where they only ever dropped one at a time (there were more in some chests), and especially when every 30 enemies defeated causes a witch to spawn who’ll drop a lot of rupees (and sometimes other stuff, like rings or a potion or even a heart piece). And there’s one other source of rings: Link can plant Gasha trees, which will eventually grow Gasha nuts, which contain useful items including random rings. I was able to get, without spending too much time, the shield and bombs from the town shop, the two rings from the other shop, and six rings appraised (one was a duplicate, so it got sold for more than the appraisal cost). One of the rings turns out to double the value of rupees Link picks up, so if there’s a bow that requires 980 rupees or something, it’ll only take half as much farming to get.
There was one more interesting thing in town: a couple with a new baby they hadn’t come up with a name for. They ask Link to name it, which of course means it actually falls to the player. After considering all sorts of ridiculous names (“Biscuit” is too long for the field, sadly), I settled on my default name of Bob.
Next: One hell of a nostalgia trip.
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Majora's Mask: The Moon
The final confrontation with the Skull Kid starts more or less the same way the previous one did, with Tael telling Link and Tatl what they need, and the Skull Kid bopping him. When the Skull Kid accelerates the moon’s descent, Link plays the Oath to Order on the ocarina, and the giants come and hold up the moon. In the moment of peace, Tael says it wasn’t really the Skull Kid’s fault, illustrated when Majora’s Mask comes to life, abandons the Skull Kid, possesses the moon, and starts pushing against the giants. Tatl wants Link to reset time again, but Link intends to go through the portal to confront the Mask. Tatl is reluctant to join him, but when Tael says he’ll go instead, she agrees to go with him.
On the moon, there are five kids gathered around a tree, four who wear masks based on the game’s four other bosses. These lead to micro-dungeons for Link to solve. Odolwa’s involves Dekucoptering, Goht’s goron rolling, Gyorg’s zora swimming through tunnels, and Twinmold’s a miniboss gauntlet followed by the only bombchu puzzles in the game. Three of these are easy enough at this point – even iron knuckles buckle when Link charges at them, hacking away with the Great Fairy’s Sword – but goron rolling, yeesh. Each micro-dungeon has a piece of heart, which when all four are earned makes the 20th and final heart container.
The kids all demanded masks from Link, one set to start the game, one afterward. I started out giving out things with low usefulness and sentimental value, like the Mask of Scents that I’m pretty sure I never used, but by the end, all but the three transformation masks had to go. The last kid, the one wearing Majora’s Mask, notices Link’s all out of normal masks, and so to prepare him for their final game, gives him the 24th mask: the Fierce Deity’s Mask. It’s aptly named, because this thing puts Link into god mode. There’s no strategy needed for the final fight: put on the mask, and then Z-target the boss, shoot sword beams at it until it triggers a cutscene, rinse, repeat. Eventually, the boss dies.
The moon turns into a rainbow as the people below watch and cheer, and a new day dawns. Link wakes up to see the giants saying goodbye to the Skull Kid before returning to their homes. The Skull Kid asks if Link will be his friend too, then comes over and smells him, and he recognizes Link – it’s the same Skull Kid Link sold the skull mask to in Ocarina. The mask salesman has Majora’s Mask, so he bids Link farewell. As he walks away, he stops to suggest that Link return to Hyrule. And he stops one more time to say, “But, my, you sure have managed to make quite a number of people happy. The masks you have are filled with happiness. This is truly a good happiness.” Then, after a few more steps, he vanishes. Finally, Tatl says goodbye to Link, and as Link gets on Epona and rides away, she calls after him to say thank you.
As the credits roll, we see scenes from around Termina as the festival starts, which highlight just how much Link has made things better. There are sad scenes, like the Deku who said Link reminded him of his son discovering his son’s remains – that was Link’s Deku form. But overall, things are good: the Gorman troupe and zora band get to entertain at the milk bar (with Zora Link standing in for Mikau one last time), Romani continues to practice her archery, Anju and Kafei are married (we don’t get to see Kafei restored to his adult form, though), and in general life goes on in Termina. As Link passes through a forest on his way out of Termina, he stops when he notices a carving of him with some of the friends he’d made: the giants, Tatl and Tael, and the Skull Kid. The first notes of Saria’s Song play as the game comes to an end.
That was… an odd one. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, because of what made it odd. The sidequests feel almost more important than the main quest; I think the best way I can put it is it’s like if BioWare made a Legend of Zelda game. I loved the people and enjoyed making their lives better. The Anju/Kafei story was excellent, and I enjoyed everything about Romani Ranch, too. Despite one of my few complaints about Ocarina being too many minigames and this game having even more (even with a time limit that should really make such frivolities even more jarring), I didn’t mind so much, aside from four separate archery games. All in all, it’s a solid contender for my favorite game in the series.
On the moon, there are five kids gathered around a tree, four who wear masks based on the game’s four other bosses. These lead to micro-dungeons for Link to solve. Odolwa’s involves Dekucoptering, Goht’s goron rolling, Gyorg’s zora swimming through tunnels, and Twinmold’s a miniboss gauntlet followed by the only bombchu puzzles in the game. Three of these are easy enough at this point – even iron knuckles buckle when Link charges at them, hacking away with the Great Fairy’s Sword – but goron rolling, yeesh. Each micro-dungeon has a piece of heart, which when all four are earned makes the 20th and final heart container.
The kids all demanded masks from Link, one set to start the game, one afterward. I started out giving out things with low usefulness and sentimental value, like the Mask of Scents that I’m pretty sure I never used, but by the end, all but the three transformation masks had to go. The last kid, the one wearing Majora’s Mask, notices Link’s all out of normal masks, and so to prepare him for their final game, gives him the 24th mask: the Fierce Deity’s Mask. It’s aptly named, because this thing puts Link into god mode. There’s no strategy needed for the final fight: put on the mask, and then Z-target the boss, shoot sword beams at it until it triggers a cutscene, rinse, repeat. Eventually, the boss dies.
The moon turns into a rainbow as the people below watch and cheer, and a new day dawns. Link wakes up to see the giants saying goodbye to the Skull Kid before returning to their homes. The Skull Kid asks if Link will be his friend too, then comes over and smells him, and he recognizes Link – it’s the same Skull Kid Link sold the skull mask to in Ocarina. The mask salesman has Majora’s Mask, so he bids Link farewell. As he walks away, he stops to suggest that Link return to Hyrule. And he stops one more time to say, “But, my, you sure have managed to make quite a number of people happy. The masks you have are filled with happiness. This is truly a good happiness.” Then, after a few more steps, he vanishes. Finally, Tatl says goodbye to Link, and as Link gets on Epona and rides away, she calls after him to say thank you.
As the credits roll, we see scenes from around Termina as the festival starts, which highlight just how much Link has made things better. There are sad scenes, like the Deku who said Link reminded him of his son discovering his son’s remains – that was Link’s Deku form. But overall, things are good: the Gorman troupe and zora band get to entertain at the milk bar (with Zora Link standing in for Mikau one last time), Romani continues to practice her archery, Anju and Kafei are married (we don’t get to see Kafei restored to his adult form, though), and in general life goes on in Termina. As Link passes through a forest on his way out of Termina, he stops when he notices a carving of him with some of the friends he’d made: the giants, Tatl and Tael, and the Skull Kid. The first notes of Saria’s Song play as the game comes to an end.
That was… an odd one. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, because of what made it odd. The sidequests feel almost more important than the main quest; I think the best way I can put it is it’s like if BioWare made a Legend of Zelda game. I loved the people and enjoyed making their lives better. The Anju/Kafei story was excellent, and I enjoyed everything about Romani Ranch, too. Despite one of my few complaints about Ocarina being too many minigames and this game having even more (even with a time limit that should really make such frivolities even more jarring), I didn’t mind so much, aside from four separate archery games. All in all, it’s a solid contender for my favorite game in the series.
Monday, September 10, 2018
Majora's Mask: The Last Cycle
Okay, so I’ve started one last cycle. Over the next three days – slowed down with the Inverted Song of Time – I’m going to do as much as I can for the people of Termina. Some basic information here: I’m not going to do anything that requires significant dungeon exploration; sorry, great fairies and frog choir, hopefully Link will make sure to get you on his way out of town, or when the Skull Kid is stopped, the goddess of time will get you guys back together because Link did it once. There’s not enough time to worry about things that don’t really help people, so no random minigames (riding around Romani Ranch popping alien balloons, yes, racing the Gorman Asshats, no). I probably should have chased down Keeta again and freed Flat (I’d tell the Dampé one to go pancake itself even if half the time I’d have for it wouldn’t be spent with Kafei), but that didn’t occur to me until just now, and breaking the curse on Ikana Valley by killing Twinmold probably took care of at least some of it. Oh, and some things are mutually exclusive, so: Sorry, bomb lady, but Sakon needs to steal your stuff so Anju and Kafei can have their happy ever after, and sorry, Mr. Handy, I’ll tell Anju to look after you. And finally, Link did a fair bit of shopping and gathering during downtime between quests, but I’m going to skip over that.
Link started with the zora eggs, sneaking around the pirate fortress to steal them again. The great fairy’s sword is a nice upgrade, even if I do have to use a C button slot which were already rather precious. Link finished that in plenty of time to get back to town to wear the couple’s mask to remind the mayor he has a backbone. Then, because it wasn’t going to be that long before Anju needed to be brought in on the Kafei search, he went out to Romani Ranch, popped balloons to convince Romani he was a worthy partner for “ghost”busting, and used the Bremen Mask to age up the chicks for Grog’s enjoyment. After returning to town to wear Kafei’s mask for Anju, Link finally went back to the coast, where the super picky guy in the fisherman’s hut didn’t like the pirate picture he took, so he had to go back out to the fortress, get another picture that was good enough. The whole thing’s ooky enough as it is; I’d have skipped the whole thing except it’s needed to help the seahorses. Speaking of, the sea snakes got dead, the last zora eggs got recovered, and the seahorse couple got reunited. After dropping the eggs off at the lab to be hatched, Link went to Ikana, saved Sharp’s soul, lifted the curse on Pamela’s father, and brought a potion to Shiro.
It’s a busy night in town. Link starts the trading sequence by getting the Moon’s Tear and trading it to the town scrub, hears Guru-Guru’s confession about stealing the Bremen Mask, teaches Kamaro’s dance to the Rosa Sisters, does the “Ballad of the Wind Fish” sound check for the zora band manager and Gorman, gets a bottle of Chateau Romani, and dropped Anju’s letter in a mailbox. He went out to meet Kamaro, but I forgot he needs to play the Song of Healing for him. There was still time left before he was needed at Romani Ranch, so he went out to the swamp, traded deeds with the scrub there, and brought a potion to Koume. Then it was time to save the ranch from the aliens, and that took up the rest of the first night. He made arrangements to protect Cremia’s milk shipment before leaving the ranch.
Now it’s dungeon time. Link defeated Odolwa, who was even easier with the fairy sword. He brought the Princess back home and secured the monkey’s release. Before taking on Goht, he stopped in the goron village, traded deeds, put the elder’s son to sleep, and got the rock steak and brought it down to the stranded goron. Then he took down Goht, Gyorg, and even Twinmold before coming back to Clock Town just in time to witness the mail delivery to Kafei, get his pendant, and take it to Anju. With a little time to kill before Cremia needed him, Link went back to Ikana to try to help the Poe Sisters, but apparently defeating Twinmold blocks off that quest. Oops.
Cremia was grateful for the help delivering the milk, and without anything else to offer Link, gave him a hug… that had his face pressed right into her chest. Heh. (“You feel all warm and fuzzy! inside [sic]! Sigh… You could get used to this!” Double heh.) After that, there wasn’t much left to do: wrap up the Deku trading sequence; clear out the Fearful Spider House, the Secret Shrine (dawn of the last day broke after two of the minibosses), and the Ocean Spider House; visit Kafei’s hideout to get the letter to Madame Aroma; kill the takkuri one last time, for old times’ sake (and to get to blow it up with light arrows); help Kafei get his mask back; give the letter to the postman; and wait with Anju for Kafei to return. I wasn’t too big on seeing things I’d seen before that would inevitably happen, but Anju and Kafei’s reunion is too good, and I worked too hard to make it happen, to miss.
There are a few things I forgot, and some I skipped, but overall, I think I did pretty well. Now it’s time to save the world.
Next: The weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious dawn.
Link started with the zora eggs, sneaking around the pirate fortress to steal them again. The great fairy’s sword is a nice upgrade, even if I do have to use a C button slot which were already rather precious. Link finished that in plenty of time to get back to town to wear the couple’s mask to remind the mayor he has a backbone. Then, because it wasn’t going to be that long before Anju needed to be brought in on the Kafei search, he went out to Romani Ranch, popped balloons to convince Romani he was a worthy partner for “ghost”busting, and used the Bremen Mask to age up the chicks for Grog’s enjoyment. After returning to town to wear Kafei’s mask for Anju, Link finally went back to the coast, where the super picky guy in the fisherman’s hut didn’t like the pirate picture he took, so he had to go back out to the fortress, get another picture that was good enough. The whole thing’s ooky enough as it is; I’d have skipped the whole thing except it’s needed to help the seahorses. Speaking of, the sea snakes got dead, the last zora eggs got recovered, and the seahorse couple got reunited. After dropping the eggs off at the lab to be hatched, Link went to Ikana, saved Sharp’s soul, lifted the curse on Pamela’s father, and brought a potion to Shiro.
It’s a busy night in town. Link starts the trading sequence by getting the Moon’s Tear and trading it to the town scrub, hears Guru-Guru’s confession about stealing the Bremen Mask, teaches Kamaro’s dance to the Rosa Sisters, does the “Ballad of the Wind Fish” sound check for the zora band manager and Gorman, gets a bottle of Chateau Romani, and dropped Anju’s letter in a mailbox. He went out to meet Kamaro, but I forgot he needs to play the Song of Healing for him. There was still time left before he was needed at Romani Ranch, so he went out to the swamp, traded deeds with the scrub there, and brought a potion to Koume. Then it was time to save the ranch from the aliens, and that took up the rest of the first night. He made arrangements to protect Cremia’s milk shipment before leaving the ranch.
Now it’s dungeon time. Link defeated Odolwa, who was even easier with the fairy sword. He brought the Princess back home and secured the monkey’s release. Before taking on Goht, he stopped in the goron village, traded deeds, put the elder’s son to sleep, and got the rock steak and brought it down to the stranded goron. Then he took down Goht, Gyorg, and even Twinmold before coming back to Clock Town just in time to witness the mail delivery to Kafei, get his pendant, and take it to Anju. With a little time to kill before Cremia needed him, Link went back to Ikana to try to help the Poe Sisters, but apparently defeating Twinmold blocks off that quest. Oops.
Cremia was grateful for the help delivering the milk, and without anything else to offer Link, gave him a hug… that had his face pressed right into her chest. Heh. (“You feel all warm and fuzzy! inside [sic]! Sigh… You could get used to this!” Double heh.) After that, there wasn’t much left to do: wrap up the Deku trading sequence; clear out the Fearful Spider House, the Secret Shrine (dawn of the last day broke after two of the minibosses), and the Ocean Spider House; visit Kafei’s hideout to get the letter to Madame Aroma; kill the takkuri one last time, for old times’ sake (and to get to blow it up with light arrows); help Kafei get his mask back; give the letter to the postman; and wait with Anju for Kafei to return. I wasn’t too big on seeing things I’d seen before that would inevitably happen, but Anju and Kafei’s reunion is too good, and I worked too hard to make it happen, to miss.
There are a few things I forgot, and some I skipped, but overall, I think I did pretty well. Now it’s time to save the world.
Next: The weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious dawn.
Friday, September 7, 2018
Majora's Mask: Stone Tower Temple
My first accomplishment happened at the very start of the cycle: I took the last rupees out of Link’s bank account to stock up on arrows, bombs, and other consumables before Soaring to the top of Stone Tower. There’s no new form for Link this time around, unless you count the Giant’s Mask, found in the dungeon, which makes Link huge so he can fight the boss but can only be used in that one room. Each of the three forms is needed to work the way through the dungeon; Zora Link is needed the least, but that’s okay, after Great Bay Temple I’m happy to let it have a break.
There are a lot of those puzzles using the mirror shield to reflect sunlight onto faces or blocks, and I don’t know what’s changed since Ocarina, but they’ve gotten a lot harder for me. Maybe it’s more need to be precise, maybe the shield’s smaller, maybe I’m just out of practice or don’t remember how hard they really were. They did add a new wrinkle that makes it harder: needing to charge up a mirror with sunlight then reflect the mirror’s emitted light, and that’s not how mirrors work but whatever. Needless to say, I was quite thrilled when I got the light arrows and discovered they were a shortcut to solving those problems.
The light arrows also come up in the dungeon’s signature mechanic: after Link goes through once and gets the light arrows, he has to go outside and hit a mark on the temple to flip it upside-down, then explore it again like that. There are a few rooms inside that have to be flipped multiple times to get through, memorably one with a sliding block that can only go so far on each surface so getting it to its puzzle solved spot is basically “push block, flip room, push block, flip room…,” ending with two more flips to make it onto the platform to leave.
There are a lot of minibosses here. First is a leader of the Garo ninjas, who fights with flaming swords and doesn’t leave himself open to counterattacks when blocked. I found it easiest not to Z-target him, just roll out of the way and thwack him when I had an opening. Eyegores return to the series, now with laser beams, so the strategy is to block those, then shoot the eye when it’s vulnerable – kind of like Hyrule Warriors’ interpretation of gohmas. There’s yet another wizzrobe fight here. And finally, Gomess, whose weak spot is protected by bats. They flee if he’s hit with a light arrow, leaving the weak spot vulnerable.
If Link wants to get all the stray fairies, he’s got to flip the dungeon two more times. Once to collect all the ones from chests he spawned while upside-down that can only be gotten rightside-up, and then one more time to be able to get into the boss room. These forced exits gave me a chance to Soar back to Clock Town and buy Chateau Romani so I didn’t have to worry about magic when using light arrows (or later, the giant’s mask), and between finishing fairy collection and fighting the boss, down to Ikana Canyon to get the final fairy reward, the Great Fairy’s Sword. All this was nearly rendered moot for me by one of the fairies, which requires some very precise goron rolling to get from one button to another before fires surround the second button again.
The boss of the temple is Twinmold, giant masked insect. It’s a pair of giant… well, the name makes me think moldorms, but everything about the design echoes A Link to the Past’s lanmolas. I noted back during The Legend of Zelda that it seemed the moldorms and lanmolas in that game were backward, given A Link to the Past’s boss monsters; now it seems like they have two wormy monsters and just randomly assign names. I even like the name “Twinmola” a little better. As for the actual fight, Link puts on the giant’s mask and hacks away until they die, and this seems to be the intended way for the fight to flow. They didn’t even seem to acknowledge the big guy killing them. It’s a weird, easy fight.
The four giants, now freed, agree to come to Link and Tatl’s aid to stop the Skull Kid. They express some reluctance to do so, and send Link and Tatl back to the world with a parting message, “Forgive your friend.” Defeating Twinmold also lifts the curse on Ikana Canyon, so there are no more gibdos around the music box house.
There’s one last thing to do before resetting time. Back down in the river with the octoroks that make convenient ice cubes, there’s a Secret Shrine behind a waterfall where Link can fight minibosses from each of the four dungeons. Dinolfos are easy, dying in one hit to the Great Fairy’s Sword. The challenge with the wizzrobe is there’s no minimap to track him on. Wart, I’ve decided that the easiest way to fight is to just wade in swinging the sword until it dies. It’s amazing how effective that strategy is against a lot of things. Finally, I continue to refine tactics against the Garo Master. With all four dead, Link is awarded a heart piece.
I’m now ready to go to the final confrontation, but time travel and quests resetting means all those people I’ve helped need helping again. I would bet there’s some kind of magical merging of all the best outcomes, even mutually exclusive ones (although it shouldn’t be that hard to stop Sakon from robbing the bomb lady and then tell Kafei where his hideout is thanks to the magic of time travel; on the other hand, it requires saying something so, yeah, it's beyond Link's ability), but I want to do as much of it myself as I can.
Next: A very busy three days.
There are a lot of those puzzles using the mirror shield to reflect sunlight onto faces or blocks, and I don’t know what’s changed since Ocarina, but they’ve gotten a lot harder for me. Maybe it’s more need to be precise, maybe the shield’s smaller, maybe I’m just out of practice or don’t remember how hard they really were. They did add a new wrinkle that makes it harder: needing to charge up a mirror with sunlight then reflect the mirror’s emitted light, and that’s not how mirrors work but whatever. Needless to say, I was quite thrilled when I got the light arrows and discovered they were a shortcut to solving those problems.
The light arrows also come up in the dungeon’s signature mechanic: after Link goes through once and gets the light arrows, he has to go outside and hit a mark on the temple to flip it upside-down, then explore it again like that. There are a few rooms inside that have to be flipped multiple times to get through, memorably one with a sliding block that can only go so far on each surface so getting it to its puzzle solved spot is basically “push block, flip room, push block, flip room…,” ending with two more flips to make it onto the platform to leave.
There are a lot of minibosses here. First is a leader of the Garo ninjas, who fights with flaming swords and doesn’t leave himself open to counterattacks when blocked. I found it easiest not to Z-target him, just roll out of the way and thwack him when I had an opening. Eyegores return to the series, now with laser beams, so the strategy is to block those, then shoot the eye when it’s vulnerable – kind of like Hyrule Warriors’ interpretation of gohmas. There’s yet another wizzrobe fight here. And finally, Gomess, whose weak spot is protected by bats. They flee if he’s hit with a light arrow, leaving the weak spot vulnerable.
If Link wants to get all the stray fairies, he’s got to flip the dungeon two more times. Once to collect all the ones from chests he spawned while upside-down that can only be gotten rightside-up, and then one more time to be able to get into the boss room. These forced exits gave me a chance to Soar back to Clock Town and buy Chateau Romani so I didn’t have to worry about magic when using light arrows (or later, the giant’s mask), and between finishing fairy collection and fighting the boss, down to Ikana Canyon to get the final fairy reward, the Great Fairy’s Sword. All this was nearly rendered moot for me by one of the fairies, which requires some very precise goron rolling to get from one button to another before fires surround the second button again.
The boss of the temple is Twinmold, giant masked insect. It’s a pair of giant… well, the name makes me think moldorms, but everything about the design echoes A Link to the Past’s lanmolas. I noted back during The Legend of Zelda that it seemed the moldorms and lanmolas in that game were backward, given A Link to the Past’s boss monsters; now it seems like they have two wormy monsters and just randomly assign names. I even like the name “Twinmola” a little better. As for the actual fight, Link puts on the giant’s mask and hacks away until they die, and this seems to be the intended way for the fight to flow. They didn’t even seem to acknowledge the big guy killing them. It’s a weird, easy fight.
The four giants, now freed, agree to come to Link and Tatl’s aid to stop the Skull Kid. They express some reluctance to do so, and send Link and Tatl back to the world with a parting message, “Forgive your friend.” Defeating Twinmold also lifts the curse on Ikana Canyon, so there are no more gibdos around the music box house.
There’s one last thing to do before resetting time. Back down in the river with the octoroks that make convenient ice cubes, there’s a Secret Shrine behind a waterfall where Link can fight minibosses from each of the four dungeons. Dinolfos are easy, dying in one hit to the Great Fairy’s Sword. The challenge with the wizzrobe is there’s no minimap to track him on. Wart, I’ve decided that the easiest way to fight is to just wade in swinging the sword until it dies. It’s amazing how effective that strategy is against a lot of things. Finally, I continue to refine tactics against the Garo Master. With all four dead, Link is awarded a heart piece.
I’m now ready to go to the final confrontation, but time travel and quests resetting means all those people I’ve helped need helping again. I would bet there’s some kind of magical merging of all the best outcomes, even mutually exclusive ones (although it shouldn’t be that hard to stop Sakon from robbing the bomb lady and then tell Kafei where his hideout is thanks to the magic of time travel; on the other hand, it requires saying something so, yeah, it's beyond Link's ability), but I want to do as much of it myself as I can.
Next: A very busy three days.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Majora's Mask: Ikana Canyon
As Link works his way through the canyon, Tatl will sometimes feel uneasy, sensing a nearby Garo ninja. If Link puts on the Deku Mask, the ninja will attack him, and leave a hint about the surrounding area. I probably did this more than I should have; getting to the next dungeon requires a lot of work and I didn’t think to have the Inverted Song of Time running from the start. On the other hand, some of those tips were lifesavers.
The main part of Ikana Canyon has a house surrounded by gibdos, a castle whose entrance proclaims it can’t be breached, a dry river bed leading to a cave, and the entrances to the fairy fountain and the next area. In the cave, Link finds Sharp, who begins playing a song whose music harms Link. Link fulfills Flat’s request and plays the Song of Storms, easing Sharp’s pain and refilling the river. The river turns a wheel at the house, which causes the pipes on top to begin playing a cheerful carousel music piece that causes the gibdos to turn to dust.
As Link approaches the house, a girl sees him and locks herself inside and refuses to talk to him. Link waits for her to leave again, and sneaks in once she’s gone. In the basement, he finds the girl’s father, who’s about half turned into a gibdo himself. Link plays the Song of Healing for him, breaking the curse, leading to a nice scene between father and daughter. As they hug, Link takes the gibdo mask left behind by curing the man, and heads out for the next objective.
At the top of the canyon is a well Link can go down. Inside is a maze filled with gibdos who want various items. Most of them can be found somewhere in the well, but two have to be brought in: a blue potion to go north, or five magic beans to go east. There’s actually a fairy fountain down here, although given how annoying it is to get to, I’ll stick with gathering the fairies near owl statues. The prize down here is the mirror shield, which has been significantly redesigned from Ocarina of Time to have a rather unhappy-looking face that gets projected on the wall when it reflects sunlight. The sunlight trick is needed to escape the well, into Ikana Castle’s courtyard.
Just inside Ikana Castle is a group of ReDeads. One of the Garo ninjas said they used to be a dance troupe, and if Link wears the gibdo mask around them, they dance harmlessly rather than screaming and hugging the life out of him. There are two paths, north and south. The north path is all pathing puzzles for Deku Link. When he gets on the roof, there’s a heart piece he can grab with some quick Dekucoptering, and a switch to step on to help on the southern path. The southern path is more combat-intensive, with the return of floormasters and another wizzrobe fight.
A powder keg is needed to shine the light in the main room to allow Link to open the way to the final boss fight against the late King of Ikana. The king closes the blinds and sends his guards to fight Link; Link burns the blinds away with a fire arrow, stuns the guards with his sword, and shines the light on them to destroy them. Then the king comes down, and it’s pretty much the same except he hits harder and takes more hits to stun. After Link wins, the guards start squabbling over whose fault their defeat was, but the king is glad to be free, and teaches Link the Elegy of Emptiness, the last song, which he’ll need to enter the dungeon in the area and fully break the curse on Ikana. The song lets Link leave a creepy statue of himself behind, and he can apparently use it in each of his transformed forms to leave up to four statues.
With the Elegy of Emptiness, Link is ready to begin his ascent of Stone Tower. There are falling rocks to avoid and beamos to avoid and blow up, and the main feature is zipping around with the hookshot and stepping on buttons to move blocks to create a path across the pit. The switches require Link’s weight to stay down, so he has to use the Elegy of Emptiness to put a goron, zora, and human statue on each set. (Deku Link is too light to press buttons, and so is its statue.) After two puzzles, Link reaches the top of the tower where there’s an owl statue and one last button/statue/block puzzle. After figuring out the button configuration and jumping across the blocks to make sure I know what to do when I tackle the dungeon for real, Link played the Song of Time.
Next: The world turns upside-down.
The main part of Ikana Canyon has a house surrounded by gibdos, a castle whose entrance proclaims it can’t be breached, a dry river bed leading to a cave, and the entrances to the fairy fountain and the next area. In the cave, Link finds Sharp, who begins playing a song whose music harms Link. Link fulfills Flat’s request and plays the Song of Storms, easing Sharp’s pain and refilling the river. The river turns a wheel at the house, which causes the pipes on top to begin playing a cheerful carousel music piece that causes the gibdos to turn to dust.
As Link approaches the house, a girl sees him and locks herself inside and refuses to talk to him. Link waits for her to leave again, and sneaks in once she’s gone. In the basement, he finds the girl’s father, who’s about half turned into a gibdo himself. Link plays the Song of Healing for him, breaking the curse, leading to a nice scene between father and daughter. As they hug, Link takes the gibdo mask left behind by curing the man, and heads out for the next objective.
At the top of the canyon is a well Link can go down. Inside is a maze filled with gibdos who want various items. Most of them can be found somewhere in the well, but two have to be brought in: a blue potion to go north, or five magic beans to go east. There’s actually a fairy fountain down here, although given how annoying it is to get to, I’ll stick with gathering the fairies near owl statues. The prize down here is the mirror shield, which has been significantly redesigned from Ocarina of Time to have a rather unhappy-looking face that gets projected on the wall when it reflects sunlight. The sunlight trick is needed to escape the well, into Ikana Castle’s courtyard.
Just inside Ikana Castle is a group of ReDeads. One of the Garo ninjas said they used to be a dance troupe, and if Link wears the gibdo mask around them, they dance harmlessly rather than screaming and hugging the life out of him. There are two paths, north and south. The north path is all pathing puzzles for Deku Link. When he gets on the roof, there’s a heart piece he can grab with some quick Dekucoptering, and a switch to step on to help on the southern path. The southern path is more combat-intensive, with the return of floormasters and another wizzrobe fight.
A powder keg is needed to shine the light in the main room to allow Link to open the way to the final boss fight against the late King of Ikana. The king closes the blinds and sends his guards to fight Link; Link burns the blinds away with a fire arrow, stuns the guards with his sword, and shines the light on them to destroy them. Then the king comes down, and it’s pretty much the same except he hits harder and takes more hits to stun. After Link wins, the guards start squabbling over whose fault their defeat was, but the king is glad to be free, and teaches Link the Elegy of Emptiness, the last song, which he’ll need to enter the dungeon in the area and fully break the curse on Ikana. The song lets Link leave a creepy statue of himself behind, and he can apparently use it in each of his transformed forms to leave up to four statues.
With the Elegy of Emptiness, Link is ready to begin his ascent of Stone Tower. There are falling rocks to avoid and beamos to avoid and blow up, and the main feature is zipping around with the hookshot and stepping on buttons to move blocks to create a path across the pit. The switches require Link’s weight to stay down, so he has to use the Elegy of Emptiness to put a goron, zora, and human statue on each set. (Deku Link is too light to press buttons, and so is its statue.) After two puzzles, Link reaches the top of the tower where there’s an owl statue and one last button/statue/block puzzle. After figuring out the button configuration and jumping across the blocks to make sure I know what to do when I tackle the dungeon for real, Link played the Song of Time.
Next: The world turns upside-down.
Monday, September 3, 2018
Majora's Mask: Anju and Kafei
The game’s centerpiece sidequest involves a pair of lovers, one of whom has gone missing days before their scheduled wedding. There are events spread over all three days, ending shortly before moonfall. It’s possible – easy, even – to block off completing the event chain by helping someone else in the Bombers’ Notebook (the woman from the bomb shop; the thief who steals the bomb bags won’t show up for a needed appointment if he’s stopped). There’s a branch late in the sequence, and both versions need to be completed to get all the rewards. I’ve seen bits and pieces of this story, but haven’t been able to put it all together.
Until now.
Link can find Madam Aroma, the mayor’s wife, in her room preparing for a meeting with Gorman to inform him that their performance at the festival is off because of the situation with Lulu’s voice. Aroma mistakes Link for an expert she hired to find her son, Kafei, who’s missing with just days left before his scheduled wedding, and gives him a mask that resembles Kafei to help in his search. Kafei’s fiancée, Anju, is the innkeeper at the Stock Pot Inn. Early that afternoon, the postman delivers a letter to her from Kafei, but won’t say where he got it. While she’s still verklempt, Link can check into the hotel, stealing another person’s reservation due to having the same name. He can also talk to her with the Kafei mask, and she’ll say she has an idea, and asks Link to come back at 11:30.
There’s lots of time before then, so Link calls Epona to try to explore the canyon a little more. As Epona reaches the tall cliff, a man (the poe collector from Ocarina) calls down that the canyon is populated by regretful spirits, and Link needs a mask from the ranch before he can enter. Link puts on the Garo mask he got from the Gorman Brothers, and the man acknowledges it’s the right mask and summons a tree to the clifftop so Link can hookshot up. Inside the canyon, Link meets with the bomb thief, who takes an interest in Link’s sword. If Link foolishly offers to let him see the sword, Tatl drives the thief away, saving Link from his own bad decisions. There’s also a business scrub here. Link can cross the river by freezing a pair of octoroks, and can hookshot up trees to find an owl statue waiting atop a cliff, so Epona doesn’t need to be ridden through creepy roads anymore.
At their arranged meeting, Anju gives Link a letter for Kafei, since the postman knows where he is. Link puts the letter in a mailbox, and waits until the postman collects the mail in the morning, then follows him around the city for the better part of the day. Finally, the postman goes to the laundry pool and delivers the letter to a boy. Link can follow the boy into his hiding spot, the curiosity shop’s back room; the boy recognizes him from the description in Anju’s letter, and after confirming that Link can keep a secret, reveals that he’s Kafei. Kafei was transformed into a child by the Skull Kid, but that’s not why he’s hiding. He had a mask for the wedding, but it was stolen, and he doesn’t want to face Anju without the mask. He’s watching the curiosity shop until the thief tries to fence something there, and will follow him back to his hideout, get the mask, and return to Anju. As a token of his promise, he gives a pendant to Link to give to Anju.
Anju’s grateful for the message, and later that night when her family is planning to flee the city to Romani Ranch in hopes it’ll be safe from the moon, she doesn’t want to go. Also that night, Link can watch the thief sell the bomb bags; the curiosity shop man has all the power in the conversation and knows it, buying the whole shipment for less than Link paid for a single bag.
There’s lots of time to kill before the last few stages of this quest start, so Link can get a couple pieces of heart now. First, help the business scrubs move to new homes, and jump from the flower of the one in the canyon to get one last piece of heart. Also in the canyon, the guy from the cliff is in a house with four poes with lingering regrets. If Link can defeat them all in three minutes, he’ll get a piece of heart. First one of the poes attack, then two at the same time, and then the last has illusory doubles that surround Link. (It’s the Poe Sisters from Ocarina’s Forest Temple.) After Link is successful, the man says their spirits have been healed, and so has his.
The next phase of the quest begins when Link finds the curiosity shop man in the backroom the next afternoon. He says Kafei’s gone to Ikana Canyon to go after Sakon (the thief), and gives Link two things: Kafei’s Keaton mask, and a letter from Kafei to his mother. Link finds Kafei watching Sakon’s hideout, and at dusk, Sakon goes in and Kafei and Link follow. Kafei tries to pick up his mask, triggering a trap instead, and he and Link scramble to save the mask from being destroyed. Link returns to town and gives the letter to the postman. He follows the postman to the milk bar. When the postman comes out, he’s been relieved of duty so he can flee the city, so he gives his hat to Link before leaving.
Finally, an hour and a half before moonfall, Kafei returns to Anju with the mask. Tatl giggles at the age mismatch, but after everything that went into getting them back together, it’s a beautiful reunion. They give Link a couple’s mask and tell him that they’re going to stay together to meet whatever fate awaits them. Link’s not ready for the world to end, so he Groundhog Days it.
There are a few last things to wrap up. The mayor has a daily meeting that devolves into chaos and he can’t find the strength to take control unless Link comes in wearing the couple’s mask. He thanks Link with a heart piece. If Link wears the Keaton Mask and cuts one of the patches of grass that runs away after being cut, an actual keaton comes to him and asks questions about the world, with a heart piece as the reward for correct answers. Wearing the postman’s hat, Link can find a heart piece in a mailbox. And finally, after running most of the Anju/Kafei quest, Link can deliver Kafei’s letter directly to Madame Aroma, who gives him a bottle of Chateau Romani. Since this is it for the cycle, the bottle’s more valuable than the milk, but she doesn’t need to know that.
Saving the world may be the big thing, but it’s usually the smaller things that stick with me, and I doubt this will be any different. Even if moonfall happens, Link’s brought Anju and Kafei together so they can be happy in their final moments, and of course when he does finally save the world, they’ll have a full life together. So let’s get back to that.
Next: The land of the dead.
Until now.
Link can find Madam Aroma, the mayor’s wife, in her room preparing for a meeting with Gorman to inform him that their performance at the festival is off because of the situation with Lulu’s voice. Aroma mistakes Link for an expert she hired to find her son, Kafei, who’s missing with just days left before his scheduled wedding, and gives him a mask that resembles Kafei to help in his search. Kafei’s fiancée, Anju, is the innkeeper at the Stock Pot Inn. Early that afternoon, the postman delivers a letter to her from Kafei, but won’t say where he got it. While she’s still verklempt, Link can check into the hotel, stealing another person’s reservation due to having the same name. He can also talk to her with the Kafei mask, and she’ll say she has an idea, and asks Link to come back at 11:30.
There’s lots of time before then, so Link calls Epona to try to explore the canyon a little more. As Epona reaches the tall cliff, a man (the poe collector from Ocarina) calls down that the canyon is populated by regretful spirits, and Link needs a mask from the ranch before he can enter. Link puts on the Garo mask he got from the Gorman Brothers, and the man acknowledges it’s the right mask and summons a tree to the clifftop so Link can hookshot up. Inside the canyon, Link meets with the bomb thief, who takes an interest in Link’s sword. If Link foolishly offers to let him see the sword, Tatl drives the thief away, saving Link from his own bad decisions. There’s also a business scrub here. Link can cross the river by freezing a pair of octoroks, and can hookshot up trees to find an owl statue waiting atop a cliff, so Epona doesn’t need to be ridden through creepy roads anymore.
At their arranged meeting, Anju gives Link a letter for Kafei, since the postman knows where he is. Link puts the letter in a mailbox, and waits until the postman collects the mail in the morning, then follows him around the city for the better part of the day. Finally, the postman goes to the laundry pool and delivers the letter to a boy. Link can follow the boy into his hiding spot, the curiosity shop’s back room; the boy recognizes him from the description in Anju’s letter, and after confirming that Link can keep a secret, reveals that he’s Kafei. Kafei was transformed into a child by the Skull Kid, but that’s not why he’s hiding. He had a mask for the wedding, but it was stolen, and he doesn’t want to face Anju without the mask. He’s watching the curiosity shop until the thief tries to fence something there, and will follow him back to his hideout, get the mask, and return to Anju. As a token of his promise, he gives a pendant to Link to give to Anju.
Anju’s grateful for the message, and later that night when her family is planning to flee the city to Romani Ranch in hopes it’ll be safe from the moon, she doesn’t want to go. Also that night, Link can watch the thief sell the bomb bags; the curiosity shop man has all the power in the conversation and knows it, buying the whole shipment for less than Link paid for a single bag.
There’s lots of time to kill before the last few stages of this quest start, so Link can get a couple pieces of heart now. First, help the business scrubs move to new homes, and jump from the flower of the one in the canyon to get one last piece of heart. Also in the canyon, the guy from the cliff is in a house with four poes with lingering regrets. If Link can defeat them all in three minutes, he’ll get a piece of heart. First one of the poes attack, then two at the same time, and then the last has illusory doubles that surround Link. (It’s the Poe Sisters from Ocarina’s Forest Temple.) After Link is successful, the man says their spirits have been healed, and so has his.
The next phase of the quest begins when Link finds the curiosity shop man in the backroom the next afternoon. He says Kafei’s gone to Ikana Canyon to go after Sakon (the thief), and gives Link two things: Kafei’s Keaton mask, and a letter from Kafei to his mother. Link finds Kafei watching Sakon’s hideout, and at dusk, Sakon goes in and Kafei and Link follow. Kafei tries to pick up his mask, triggering a trap instead, and he and Link scramble to save the mask from being destroyed. Link returns to town and gives the letter to the postman. He follows the postman to the milk bar. When the postman comes out, he’s been relieved of duty so he can flee the city, so he gives his hat to Link before leaving.
Finally, an hour and a half before moonfall, Kafei returns to Anju with the mask. Tatl giggles at the age mismatch, but after everything that went into getting them back together, it’s a beautiful reunion. They give Link a couple’s mask and tell him that they’re going to stay together to meet whatever fate awaits them. Link’s not ready for the world to end, so he Groundhog Days it.
There are a few last things to wrap up. The mayor has a daily meeting that devolves into chaos and he can’t find the strength to take control unless Link comes in wearing the couple’s mask. He thanks Link with a heart piece. If Link wears the Keaton Mask and cuts one of the patches of grass that runs away after being cut, an actual keaton comes to him and asks questions about the world, with a heart piece as the reward for correct answers. Wearing the postman’s hat, Link can find a heart piece in a mailbox. And finally, after running most of the Anju/Kafei quest, Link can deliver Kafei’s letter directly to Madame Aroma, who gives him a bottle of Chateau Romani. Since this is it for the cycle, the bottle’s more valuable than the milk, but she doesn’t need to know that.
Saving the world may be the big thing, but it’s usually the smaller things that stick with me, and I doubt this will be any different. Even if moonfall happens, Link’s brought Anju and Kafei together so they can be happy in their final moments, and of course when he does finally save the world, they’ll have a full life together. So let’s get back to that.
Next: The land of the dead.
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