As Link exits Jabu-Jabu’s belly, we cut to Twinrova in their ritual room, where they gloat over the fact that the Black Tower has been completed. In the tower, Verambi uses the power gained by the Tower to affect the timeline in similar ways to what Veran did with Nayru’s power. The Maku Tree can’t sense where the final essence is, but once again, there are only a few areas left for Link to explore. As he leaves the zora city, a zora presents him with a scale as a token of appreciation for all he’s done. The scale allows Link to access a walled-off area in the ocean called the Sea of Storms, where the pirates from Holodrum have come now that they’ve got their sea legs back. The captain trades the eyeball from a tokay statue for Link’s zora scale, which will give him access to the last area of the map in the past.
With the long hook, Link now has everything he needs to explore the Hero’s Cave. It’s a long series of the trickiest puzzles in the game. An early one that sets the tone for the experience is a standard puzzle of matching a set of statues to a reference set, only the movable ones seem to be one statue short. As it turns out, one of the reference set can be stolen and needs to be brought over to the puzzle solution. It only gets worse from there. A later puzzle requires pushing against a block to create a Cane of Somaria block on the other side of it and bending a jump in ways that my thumb does not appreciate. There’s a room where Link needs to walk over all the tiles in a single path, only he can’t; no matter what he does, he’ll leave one square untouched, which needs to be covered with a Cane of Somaria block. To get one reward, Link needs to create a Cane of Somaria block under himself while he’s jumping.
All of that pales before the worst puzzle. It combines two simple puzzles, each quite familiar by now, to devious effect. The first puzzle type involves rolling a color cube onto three color tiles. The second has link pull a lever which temporarily halts a lava flow, allowing the cube to be rolled over the lava bed. However, if the cube falls into the lava, Link has to exit the room to reset the puzzle. And, because it’s not already mean enough, Link entered the room through a portal, not a door, so if he falls into the lava, he doesn’t just return to the entrance, he’s warped back to the last room, and the puzzle completely resets. As you might guess, this puzzle is completely unforgiving and took a whole bunch of tries to get past.
Then the penultimate room has a tricky series of bent jumps, and the final room has a bunch of enemies to kill before getting the reward, including a couple wallmasters because Nintendo hates us. The reward for all this is the Armor Ring L3, which greatly reduces incoming damage but also greatly reduces sword damage. For enemies that are immune to the sword, that’s not a bad tradeoff, so at least all those tricky puzzles have a good payoff.
Getting back to the quest, the past version of the entrance to Moonlit Grotto on Crescent Island only has one of its two eyes. Putting the tokay eyeball Link got from the pirate captain in the missing eye’s slot opens an entrance. The entrance does not lead to a past version of Moonlit Grotto but a secret path to a walled-off section of the sea. The secret path has several tests for Link before he makes it through: fighting enemies, navigating traps, finding a hidden path, and once he’s through the cave, there’s a simple puzzle for lining up statues to open the way forward. The grounds for the dungeon are another maze crawling with darknuts and lynels, and Link finally comes to the entrance to the last dungeon.
Next: The final exam.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Monday, October 29, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Zora Village
Cleansing the Sea
Before Link sets out for the next dungeon, he can explore the seas better with the mermaid suit allowing better swimming and the ability to dive to see how things are different on the ocean floor. Near Crescent Island in the past, he can find a tokay in a cave with a shield he found that he was holding for the owner. He’s been waiting a long time, and while he was waiting he polished it into being an upgrade for Link’s shield, which since he’s gotten the iron shield via secrets, it becomes the mirror shield. I’m inclined to think that this is not Link’s original shield, but, heck, it could be. Also, after an underwater maze, Link can find the final heart piece.
The Zoras in Labrynna live in the southwest corner of the map, and getting there, even with the mermaid suit is difficult because Veran’s dark magic has poisoned that area of the sea. The path requires switching between surface and underwater and traveling between past and future, and fortunately there’s a gale seed tree near the entrance of the village in both eras, so once Link makes it once, he can quicktravel back. The poisoned water has made the zora king ill, so Link gives him a potion he picked up from an encounter with Maple, which cures him. He tells Link the “fish” he’s looking for is Jabu-Jabu, but as long as the water is poisoned, entrance is denied. He gives Link a key to the zora library, in case he wants to try to cleanse the seas.
Also in the zora village, Link gets the final secret from a former pupil of Holodrum’s Sunken City’s master diver. The message is for their shared mentor, who challenges Link to a new test: swim through a maze and recover the item in 30 seconds or less. This one’s almost as tough as the boomerang lawn mowing, and the reward’s even sillier. It’s a ring that grants increased swimming speed, which would have been nice to have while trying to complete the trial.
En route to the library, Link finds a great fairy in the past, who’s been transformed into an octorok by Veran’s magic. She asks Link to find fairy dust to cure her condition. In the future library, Link finds a book that was once a part of a set. He takes it to the past library, where the book and the rest of the set give directions for navigating a room with invisible floors over a giant pit. Once Link has successfully navigated the whole path, the old man at the end gives him the fairy dust he needs. Once cured, the great fairy gets to work cleansing the seas, which affects both past and future, and convinces the zora king to allow Link to enter Jabu-Jabu.
Jabu-Jabu’s Belly
Being a water dungeon is already a strike against Jabu-Jabu’s Belly, and the mermaid suit controls do nothing to help with that. One additional frustration that comes up during the dungeon is that while Link’s underwater in top-down areas, the B button is hard-set to “surface,” meaning he can’t use whatever item is set to that slot, leaving him with only one. The dungeon’s layout doesn’t do it any favors, with the standard water dungeon trick of raising and lowering the water level to progress; the floor that needs to be flooded/drained most is the bottom floor, while the buttons that control the water level are on the top floor, so a lot of backtracking between the two extreme floors is required, even if you know what you’re doing – far from a guarantee the first time you visit.
The dungeon’s bosses are easy, seemingly in apology for the dungeon’s difficulty. The miniboss is another Angler Fish; it’s actually a little harder than the one in Link’s Awakening, but that’s not saying much. The room where Link fights it doesn’t have water, so the Angler Fish bounces around the room; if Link hits it with a scent seed, it flops to the ground, giving Link several free shots at it. The Angler Fish guards the dungeon’s treasure, the long hook, an extended switch hook. The final boss, Plasmarine, has red and blue forms, and shoots energy attacks in the color of its current form. Link uses the switch hook to simultaneously change its color, making it vulnerable to its own attack, and drag it into the path of its attack. After a short fight, Link claims the seventh essence, the Rolling Sea.
Next: The bonus dungeon.
Before Link sets out for the next dungeon, he can explore the seas better with the mermaid suit allowing better swimming and the ability to dive to see how things are different on the ocean floor. Near Crescent Island in the past, he can find a tokay in a cave with a shield he found that he was holding for the owner. He’s been waiting a long time, and while he was waiting he polished it into being an upgrade for Link’s shield, which since he’s gotten the iron shield via secrets, it becomes the mirror shield. I’m inclined to think that this is not Link’s original shield, but, heck, it could be. Also, after an underwater maze, Link can find the final heart piece.
The Zoras in Labrynna live in the southwest corner of the map, and getting there, even with the mermaid suit is difficult because Veran’s dark magic has poisoned that area of the sea. The path requires switching between surface and underwater and traveling between past and future, and fortunately there’s a gale seed tree near the entrance of the village in both eras, so once Link makes it once, he can quicktravel back. The poisoned water has made the zora king ill, so Link gives him a potion he picked up from an encounter with Maple, which cures him. He tells Link the “fish” he’s looking for is Jabu-Jabu, but as long as the water is poisoned, entrance is denied. He gives Link a key to the zora library, in case he wants to try to cleanse the seas.
Also in the zora village, Link gets the final secret from a former pupil of Holodrum’s Sunken City’s master diver. The message is for their shared mentor, who challenges Link to a new test: swim through a maze and recover the item in 30 seconds or less. This one’s almost as tough as the boomerang lawn mowing, and the reward’s even sillier. It’s a ring that grants increased swimming speed, which would have been nice to have while trying to complete the trial.
En route to the library, Link finds a great fairy in the past, who’s been transformed into an octorok by Veran’s magic. She asks Link to find fairy dust to cure her condition. In the future library, Link finds a book that was once a part of a set. He takes it to the past library, where the book and the rest of the set give directions for navigating a room with invisible floors over a giant pit. Once Link has successfully navigated the whole path, the old man at the end gives him the fairy dust he needs. Once cured, the great fairy gets to work cleansing the seas, which affects both past and future, and convinces the zora king to allow Link to enter Jabu-Jabu.
Jabu-Jabu’s Belly
Being a water dungeon is already a strike against Jabu-Jabu’s Belly, and the mermaid suit controls do nothing to help with that. One additional frustration that comes up during the dungeon is that while Link’s underwater in top-down areas, the B button is hard-set to “surface,” meaning he can’t use whatever item is set to that slot, leaving him with only one. The dungeon’s layout doesn’t do it any favors, with the standard water dungeon trick of raising and lowering the water level to progress; the floor that needs to be flooded/drained most is the bottom floor, while the buttons that control the water level are on the top floor, so a lot of backtracking between the two extreme floors is required, even if you know what you’re doing – far from a guarantee the first time you visit.
The dungeon’s bosses are easy, seemingly in apology for the dungeon’s difficulty. The miniboss is another Angler Fish; it’s actually a little harder than the one in Link’s Awakening, but that’s not saying much. The room where Link fights it doesn’t have water, so the Angler Fish bounces around the room; if Link hits it with a scent seed, it flops to the ground, giving Link several free shots at it. The Angler Fish guards the dungeon’s treasure, the long hook, an extended switch hook. The final boss, Plasmarine, has red and blue forms, and shoots energy attacks in the color of its current form. Link uses the switch hook to simultaneously change its color, making it vulnerable to its own attack, and drag it into the path of its attack. After a short fight, Link claims the seventh essence, the Rolling Sea.
Next: The bonus dungeon.
Friday, October 26, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Mermaid's Cave
Goron Games
The goron minigames on Rolling Ridge form a little trading sequence that Link needs to complete to get access to the next dungeon.
The main purpose of the future dungeon is for Link to fight the miniboss – Vire, repeating the fight from Oracle of Seasons in his final appearance – and get the treasure, the mermaid suit, which lets Link swim faster and deeper. It also completely rearranges the swimming controls, and while swimming is much faster with the suit, it also requires constantly mashing the D-pad to even move. It’s not a good tradeoff. Anyway, with the mermaid suit, Link returns to the past, and confronts the dungeon boss, Octogon. Octogon fights above and below the water in the room, requiring Link to dive underwater periodically to shoot it and force it back to the surface. Link claims the sixth essence, the Lonely Peak. The Maku Tree, instead of pointing Link to the next one, says that Ambi has left her tower, so now might be a good chance to rescue Nayru.
Link vs. Veran, Round 1
When Link shows up at the tower to begin the rescue attempt, Ralph’s there, saying he’ll be the one to do it. He mentions a secret passage before charging off. The guards on the palace grounds will throw Link out if they catch him, and so begins the forced stealth section. Opening the passage requires hitting buttons in the four corners of the palace grounds and then swimming through deep water. Once inside, Link can fight off the guards rather than sneak by them, and ultimately comes to confront Veranayru. Mystery seeds temporarily can knock Veran out of Nayru’s body, and then Link can use the switch hook to separate the two so he can attack Veran without harming Nayru. After enough of this, Nayru is free. Unfortunately, Ambi returns to the tower at just the wrong moment and Veran possesses her instead. Ralph charges in, and Nayru brings him, Link, and herself back to the future.
Everything Veran did while possessing Nayru is undone, but everyone knows she’s still out there, so there’s still work to do. Nayru teaches Link the Tune of Ages (AKA Tune of Time), which lets him freely travel between the two eras and makes the other two tunes irrelevant. Twinrova swoops in to taunt Link about how little he’s actually done to thwart them, and how their plan to resurrect Ganon is still on pace. Ralph goes back to the past and Nayru back to her house, and the Maku Tree tells Link that the next essence seems to be inside a fish.
Next: Oh, boy, a water dungeon, made extra fun by the wonderful mermaid suit controls.
The goron minigames on Rolling Ridge form a little trading sequence that Link needs to complete to get access to the next dungeon.
- Target Carts (Future): Link shoots the targets from a moving cart to acquire a rock brisket, which he’ll trade to the hungry goron for his heirloom vase. He then takes the vase to the goron’s ancestor in the past and trades it for Goronade.
- Shooting Gallery (Past): Link deflects a ball shot from a cannon to destroy statues (there’s a similar game in Lynna Village). He can win lava juice on the first try. On a second try, with a high enough score, Link can get a boomerang.
- Big Bang Game (Future): Link needs to give the game operator the Goronade to be able to play here. The game involves riding on currents and dodging bombs; much easier with Pegasus seeds and the roc’s feather. Link wins one of the keys he needs, the Old Mermaid Key.
- Dancing (Past): A goron in the past will recognize the key as the same one the past’s Graceful Goron (the goron running the dancing game) has. Link needs the key, so he trades the lava juice for a letter. After receiving the letter, the Graceful Goron challenges Link to show mastery of the dancing game before he hands over the key.
The main purpose of the future dungeon is for Link to fight the miniboss – Vire, repeating the fight from Oracle of Seasons in his final appearance – and get the treasure, the mermaid suit, which lets Link swim faster and deeper. It also completely rearranges the swimming controls, and while swimming is much faster with the suit, it also requires constantly mashing the D-pad to even move. It’s not a good tradeoff. Anyway, with the mermaid suit, Link returns to the past, and confronts the dungeon boss, Octogon. Octogon fights above and below the water in the room, requiring Link to dive underwater periodically to shoot it and force it back to the surface. Link claims the sixth essence, the Lonely Peak. The Maku Tree, instead of pointing Link to the next one, says that Ambi has left her tower, so now might be a good chance to rescue Nayru.
Link vs. Veran, Round 1
When Link shows up at the tower to begin the rescue attempt, Ralph’s there, saying he’ll be the one to do it. He mentions a secret passage before charging off. The guards on the palace grounds will throw Link out if they catch him, and so begins the forced stealth section. Opening the passage requires hitting buttons in the four corners of the palace grounds and then swimming through deep water. Once inside, Link can fight off the guards rather than sneak by them, and ultimately comes to confront Veranayru. Mystery seeds temporarily can knock Veran out of Nayru’s body, and then Link can use the switch hook to separate the two so he can attack Veran without harming Nayru. After enough of this, Nayru is free. Unfortunately, Ambi returns to the tower at just the wrong moment and Veran possesses her instead. Ralph charges in, and Nayru brings him, Link, and herself back to the future.
Everything Veran did while possessing Nayru is undone, but everyone knows she’s still out there, so there’s still work to do. Nayru teaches Link the Tune of Ages (AKA Tune of Time), which lets him freely travel between the two eras and makes the other two tunes irrelevant. Twinrova swoops in to taunt Link about how little he’s actually done to thwart them, and how their plan to resurrect Ganon is still on pace. Ralph goes back to the past and Nayru back to her house, and the Maku Tree tells Link that the next essence seems to be inside a fish.
Next: Oh, boy, a water dungeon, made extra fun by the wonderful mermaid suit controls.
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Rolling Ridge
Crown Dungeon
Rolling Ridge, the mountain area where the next dungeon is, is the home to Labrynna’s gorons. They seem to be having a rough time, both in the past and future. In the past, their elder has been buried alive, and they don’t have the bomb flowers they need to dig him out. In the future, the moblins Link fought off in Holodrum have set up shop there and are keeping the gorons from growing bomb flowers. Link drives the moblins out, and the future gorons thank him by giving him a bomb flower, and noting his resemblance to the guy who helped the elder out all those years ago. In case it’s not obvious what needs to be done next, the Maku Tree contacts Link to tell him his name’s in the goron histories. So Link heads back to the past, gives the bomb flower to the gorons trying to dig the elder out of his rubble prison, and gets the key to the next dungeon as a reward. Also on this part of Rolling Ridge, Link can find another heart piece, and a tree with Pegasus seeds, completing the seed type collection.
The next dungeon, Crown Dungeon, has two common types of puzzles. First, there are a lot of switch blocks. Second, the treasure is the Cane of Somaria, and there are a lot of new tricks for the simple utility of creating a block to solve. The standard use of setting a created block to hold down a switch when there’s nothing to push or switch hook onto it remains the most common one, but there are a couple extra wrinkles added. In the side-scrolling areas, Link sometimes needs to use the Cane to create a step to reach higher than he can normally jump. Also, there are linked sets of statues, where pushing one moves all of them. With the Cane’s block, Link can block off movement in one direction so he can move the statues individually. Finally, there’s a dark room, where Link can create blocks and push them around to see where it’s safe to walk. The puzzles in this game continually impress me, even if (especially if!) they sometimes frustrate me in figuring out what the heck I need to do.
The dungeon’s miniboss is Smasher, back from Link’s Awakening. There’s an added twist to this fight: every so often, the ball Link and Smasher throw at each other disappears and reappears in a different spot. This makes things a little bit easier if Link’s fast enough to grab the ball when it poofs before Smasher can. The final boss, Smog, is almost a pure puzzle boss. Smog creates walls and splits into smaller versions of itself that move around the walls, and Link needs to use the Cane of Somaria’s blocks to bring the pieces of Smog back together so he can stab them. This starts off easy but grows more complicated as it goes on. After four rounds, Smog is defeated, and Link gets the fifth Essence of Time, Sacred Soil.
Eastern Rolling Ridge
The Maku Tree still senses an essence on Rolling Ridge, so we’re not done here yet. She also says that someone’s come, which as far as I can tell refers to the goron who finds Link and tells him he’s completed a tunnel from the other area of Rolling Ridge where there are minigames to play. There’s no visitor to the Maku Tree, and so Link should continue his quest on the Ridge. First, Link needs to prove himself a goron brother by succeeding at the dance game in the future; the sequences are longer than the ones in the Subrosian dance, but there’s only two moves, and Link stays more or less in place, so the difficulty’s not so bad. Actually, I found it easier to navigate this one by sound, closing my eyes and playing along. When Link gets his brother emblem and the goron who’d been blocking the way moves, the goron requests Link bring him food.
Now that Link can fully explore the Ridge, there’s another heart piece to be had, and a tree with mystery seeds allowing quick travel in the past. There are also three secrets available in the area. One Subrosian gives Link a secret to tell the Subrosian smith, which will earn him a shield upgrade (the Mirror Shield in Holodrum, the Iron Shield in Labrynna). Another Subrosian has a secret for his brother, who challenges Link to cut the grass in his home with the magic boomerang in three throws. Controlling the magic boomerang enough to manage this is not terribly easy, and the reward is barely worth it: bombchus, which, given that they’re only available in a linked game, will only be required for the true final fight, and maybe not even then. Finally, a goron gives Link the secret that will let Holodrum’s Biggoron make Biggoron’s Sword, which unlike the big swords from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask has enough drawbacks (it’s slow and requires both item slots) that it’s not really worth using.
Next: Saving Nayru.
Rolling Ridge, the mountain area where the next dungeon is, is the home to Labrynna’s gorons. They seem to be having a rough time, both in the past and future. In the past, their elder has been buried alive, and they don’t have the bomb flowers they need to dig him out. In the future, the moblins Link fought off in Holodrum have set up shop there and are keeping the gorons from growing bomb flowers. Link drives the moblins out, and the future gorons thank him by giving him a bomb flower, and noting his resemblance to the guy who helped the elder out all those years ago. In case it’s not obvious what needs to be done next, the Maku Tree contacts Link to tell him his name’s in the goron histories. So Link heads back to the past, gives the bomb flower to the gorons trying to dig the elder out of his rubble prison, and gets the key to the next dungeon as a reward. Also on this part of Rolling Ridge, Link can find another heart piece, and a tree with Pegasus seeds, completing the seed type collection.
The next dungeon, Crown Dungeon, has two common types of puzzles. First, there are a lot of switch blocks. Second, the treasure is the Cane of Somaria, and there are a lot of new tricks for the simple utility of creating a block to solve. The standard use of setting a created block to hold down a switch when there’s nothing to push or switch hook onto it remains the most common one, but there are a couple extra wrinkles added. In the side-scrolling areas, Link sometimes needs to use the Cane to create a step to reach higher than he can normally jump. Also, there are linked sets of statues, where pushing one moves all of them. With the Cane’s block, Link can block off movement in one direction so he can move the statues individually. Finally, there’s a dark room, where Link can create blocks and push them around to see where it’s safe to walk. The puzzles in this game continually impress me, even if (especially if!) they sometimes frustrate me in figuring out what the heck I need to do.
The dungeon’s miniboss is Smasher, back from Link’s Awakening. There’s an added twist to this fight: every so often, the ball Link and Smasher throw at each other disappears and reappears in a different spot. This makes things a little bit easier if Link’s fast enough to grab the ball when it poofs before Smasher can. The final boss, Smog, is almost a pure puzzle boss. Smog creates walls and splits into smaller versions of itself that move around the walls, and Link needs to use the Cane of Somaria’s blocks to bring the pieces of Smog back together so he can stab them. This starts off easy but grows more complicated as it goes on. After four rounds, Smog is defeated, and Link gets the fifth Essence of Time, Sacred Soil.
Eastern Rolling Ridge
The Maku Tree still senses an essence on Rolling Ridge, so we’re not done here yet. She also says that someone’s come, which as far as I can tell refers to the goron who finds Link and tells him he’s completed a tunnel from the other area of Rolling Ridge where there are minigames to play. There’s no visitor to the Maku Tree, and so Link should continue his quest on the Ridge. First, Link needs to prove himself a goron brother by succeeding at the dance game in the future; the sequences are longer than the ones in the Subrosian dance, but there’s only two moves, and Link stays more or less in place, so the difficulty’s not so bad. Actually, I found it easier to navigate this one by sound, closing my eyes and playing along. When Link gets his brother emblem and the goron who’d been blocking the way moves, the goron requests Link bring him food.
Now that Link can fully explore the Ridge, there’s another heart piece to be had, and a tree with mystery seeds allowing quick travel in the past. There are also three secrets available in the area. One Subrosian gives Link a secret to tell the Subrosian smith, which will earn him a shield upgrade (the Mirror Shield in Holodrum, the Iron Shield in Labrynna). Another Subrosian has a secret for his brother, who challenges Link to cut the grass in his home with the magic boomerang in three throws. Controlling the magic boomerang enough to manage this is not terribly easy, and the reward is barely worth it: bombchus, which, given that they’re only available in a linked game, will only be required for the true final fight, and maybe not even then. Finally, a goron gives Link the secret that will let Holodrum’s Biggoron make Biggoron’s Sword, which unlike the big swords from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask has enough drawbacks (it’s slow and requires both item slots) that it’s not really worth using.
Next: Saving Nayru.
Monday, October 22, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Skull Dungeon
Back in the future, Symmetry City is restored, including the entrance to the next dungeon. But now that Link has access to the gale seeds, he can warp around and be right back to run the next dungeon. Back on Crescent Island in the past, the raft has washed ashore, giving Link a chance to explore the island and its surrounding areas a little better without the threat of a storm. South of where the entrance to Moonlit Grotto will be is a great Gasha soil location, one of the locations where a Gasha nut can contain a heart piece. In Lynna Village/City, Link can use the Tune of Currents to warp into a fenced-in area by the village shop, which gives access to the shop’s secret basement. There’s another heart piece for sale here, as well as the second ring box upgrade, a couple Gasha seeds, and a ring. Just like in Horon City, when Link buys out their inventory, he gains access to a treasure chest game that gives him a chance to win rings.
Back in the house with the Tuni Nut in the past, Link can find a guy working out with only one dumbbell, who trades his cheesy mustache for Link’s sole dumbbell. The cheesy mustache goes to the guy in Lynna City who tells jokes, who teaches Link the funniest joke he knows. In past Lynna Village, there’s a kid going through a gloomy phase; Link tries to tell him the joke to cheer him up, but botches it, and the kid decides he can be as depressed (his word, not mine) as he wants and lets Link take one of his books. The book goes to Maple next time Link runs into her; in the meantime, she’s upgraded to riding a flying saucer. She leaves Link an oar she made, which goes to Rafton so he can enter raft races in return for a sea ukulele.
Skull Dungeon
Skull Dungeon is the game’s fire/lava dungeon. In addition to the obvious addition of lava as a hazard for jumping puzzles, there are sequences where Link pulls down on a switch to halt lava flows, giving him a brief moment to run over the lava bed to the next safe spot. The dungeon’s treasure is the hookshot variant, the switch hook, which switches Link’s place with whatever he hooks onto, adding a couple extra elements of strategy to its use: positioning is important, and once something is switched, it can’t be used again until it’s switched back. (Also, pots can be hooked, but they break rather than appear in Link’s old position.) The game also adds a new type of color puzzle: floors that start entirely one color, except one square Link’s standing on, that changes as Link walks over. The goal is to change the entire floor of the room in a single path, looping around stationary elements like statues.
The dungeon miniboss is a giant armos knight who boasts that his sword and shield make him unbeatable. He throws the sword, which follows Link around the room, and the trick is to have it attack the knight until both sword and shield are destroyed. With them gone, it’s a simple matter of beating on the boss till it dies. The end boss is Eyesoar, a standard big eye surrounded by little eyes enemy, only this time the little eyes are just a distraction. Link needs to use the switch hook to pull the big eye out of position, disorienting it and leaving it vulnerable to sword attacks. After Eyesoar goes down, Link claims the next Essence, Burning Flame, and the Maku Tree directs him to the ridge north of Nayru’s home.
Link can wrap up the trading sequence now. East of Lynna Village in the past, across a series of gaps that requires the switch hook to cross, there’s an old zora who misses the sound of the sea. He trades the sea ukulele for a sword – a broken sword. Without any blacksmiths of repute around, Link takes the sword up Restoration Wall to Patch, whose ritual now has two rounds and is even more annoying but fixes the sword into the Noble Sword. In the future, there’s an old woman who tells Link of a hidden cave behind Holodrum’s Clock Shop, and gives him a secret to pass to the man there. The man tests Link by having him fight a series of enemies, and after Link’s successful, upgrades his Noble Sword to the Master Sword and gives him a code to do the same back in Labrynna. This is, presumably, not the real Master Sword which is still back in Hyrule, but its approximate equivalent in power.
Next: Moblins and gorons.
Back in the house with the Tuni Nut in the past, Link can find a guy working out with only one dumbbell, who trades his cheesy mustache for Link’s sole dumbbell. The cheesy mustache goes to the guy in Lynna City who tells jokes, who teaches Link the funniest joke he knows. In past Lynna Village, there’s a kid going through a gloomy phase; Link tries to tell him the joke to cheer him up, but botches it, and the kid decides he can be as depressed (his word, not mine) as he wants and lets Link take one of his books. The book goes to Maple next time Link runs into her; in the meantime, she’s upgraded to riding a flying saucer. She leaves Link an oar she made, which goes to Rafton so he can enter raft races in return for a sea ukulele.
Skull Dungeon
Skull Dungeon is the game’s fire/lava dungeon. In addition to the obvious addition of lava as a hazard for jumping puzzles, there are sequences where Link pulls down on a switch to halt lava flows, giving him a brief moment to run over the lava bed to the next safe spot. The dungeon’s treasure is the hookshot variant, the switch hook, which switches Link’s place with whatever he hooks onto, adding a couple extra elements of strategy to its use: positioning is important, and once something is switched, it can’t be used again until it’s switched back. (Also, pots can be hooked, but they break rather than appear in Link’s old position.) The game also adds a new type of color puzzle: floors that start entirely one color, except one square Link’s standing on, that changes as Link walks over. The goal is to change the entire floor of the room in a single path, looping around stationary elements like statues.
The dungeon miniboss is a giant armos knight who boasts that his sword and shield make him unbeatable. He throws the sword, which follows Link around the room, and the trick is to have it attack the knight until both sword and shield are destroyed. With them gone, it’s a simple matter of beating on the boss till it dies. The end boss is Eyesoar, a standard big eye surrounded by little eyes enemy, only this time the little eyes are just a distraction. Link needs to use the switch hook to pull the big eye out of position, disorienting it and leaving it vulnerable to sword attacks. After Eyesoar goes down, Link claims the next Essence, Burning Flame, and the Maku Tree directs him to the ridge north of Nayru’s home.
Link can wrap up the trading sequence now. East of Lynna Village in the past, across a series of gaps that requires the switch hook to cross, there’s an old zora who misses the sound of the sea. He trades the sea ukulele for a sword – a broken sword. Without any blacksmiths of repute around, Link takes the sword up Restoration Wall to Patch, whose ritual now has two rounds and is even more annoying but fixes the sword into the Noble Sword. In the future, there’s an old woman who tells Link of a hidden cave behind Holodrum’s Clock Shop, and gives him a secret to pass to the man there. The man tests Link by having him fight a series of enemies, and after Link’s successful, upgrades his Noble Sword to the Master Sword and gives him a code to do the same back in Labrynna. This is, presumably, not the real Master Sword which is still back in Hyrule, but its approximate equivalent in power.
Next: Moblins and gorons.
Friday, October 19, 2018
Oracle of Ages: The Great Tuni Nut Quest
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages – The Great Tuni Nut Quest
Building a Bridge
When Link returns to Lynna City, he sees Impa with a bird. Impa has bad news: Zelda came to Labrynna, and promptly got herself kidnapped by Vire, who headed to the Black Tower. Link goes to the tower to rescue her, and Vire takes her to the top of the tower, challenging Link to come rescue the princess while he rolls fireballs down at him. The whole sequence is a homage to Donkey Kong, with Link as Jumpman/Mario, Vire as Donkey Kong, and Zelda as Pauline. It’s only the first stage, though; when Link reaches the top, Vire takes off, leaving Zelda to be freed. After a brief conversation outside, Impa and Zelda leave to hide at Nayru’s house while Link continues his quest.
A couple more steps on the trading sequence can be done now: A version of the mask salesman lives in a house just outside of the city and is hungry. He eagerly takes the tasty meat, and when Link seems to expect something in return for it, gives him a dog mask. The dog mask in turn goes to the city’s resident dog lover, who wants it for her shy dog, and give Link the single dumbbell the dog had been playing with. Also, with the seed shooter, Link can make his own way to Tingle, and now that Link has another type of seeds, Tingle gives Link the second seed bag upgrade to match his bag from Holodrum.
North of town, there’s a lever that can be hit with the seed shooter to extend a bridge to the Nuun Highlands, but that’s as far as Link can go right now because the carpenters who were supposed to be building the bridge to Symmetry City went on break and never came back. As Link turns back, the fairies from the woods come to him. They warped the woods on Moosh, and he can’t find his way out. So they’re just mischievous enough to mess with travelers but if things go bad they’ll try to make it right. Link heads to the woods and finds Moosh and gets him out. In return, Moosh sets Link up with a flute so he can call him as needed. The area where the carpenters is this game’s area that adapts to Link’s animal companion, so Link and Moosh round up the breaking carpenters, who super-efficiently build the Symmetry City bridge.
Symmetry City
Symmetry City is ruined, with giant fireball towers throughout. About the only surviving feature left is a tree with gale seeds and a portal to the past. Link claims the seeds and activates the portal. In the past, Symmetry Village is still standing, but the evil pouring from the Black Tower is causing earthquakes that will ultimately wreck it. In one of the houses, Link learns that the city’s core, a Tuni Nut, is broken, and that’s the direct cause of the city’s troubles. A pair of brothers tried to take the nut to Restoration Wall to get it fixed, but one of them was injured and can’t continue the quest, and they both have to stay in the village to maintain the symmetry, so it falls to Link.
Link takes the broken Tuni Nut and sets out to get it fixed. Along the way, he finds Tokkey, a researcher who’s trying to come up with a tune that will return time travelers to their own time. With Link’s aid, he finds it and teaches it to Link. It’s called the Tune of Currents, and when Link plays it on the Harp of Ages, it works as advertised, with Link returning to the future. Like the Magic Mirror in A Link to the Past, it also leaves an activated temporary portal Link can use to return to the past in the same spot. With the Tune of Currents, Link is able to explore the Talus Peaks. One of the things he finds is a small pool with a sign requesting that nobody throw anything in. He can’t resist that kind of temptation, and if he drops a bomb in, he gets a chance to say whether he dropped a gold or silver bomb. If he’s honest, he gets the second bomb bag upgrade. There’s also a heart piece in the area.
The way to Restoration Wall is blocked by a waterfall, but Link’s able to redirect the water’s flow so he can get there. The wall itself is covered in vines and rocks fall down while Link climbs and there are dead ends, but it’s not overly hard. Patch, the man who can fix the nut, has devised a ceremony that’s frankly ridiculous: Link needs to push a bunch of hardhat beetles into holes while making sure that a cart looping around the cave doesn’t crash into the nut and make things worse. Judging by Patch’s dialogue, it’s meant to annoy the participant for his amusement, and… well, Link seems to bear the weirdos he encounters in stoic silence, but it certainly managed to annoy me. Anyway, the nut gets fixed, Link brings it back to the village, restores it to its place of honor, and the earthquakes stop.
Next: The Master Sword?
Building a Bridge
When Link returns to Lynna City, he sees Impa with a bird. Impa has bad news: Zelda came to Labrynna, and promptly got herself kidnapped by Vire, who headed to the Black Tower. Link goes to the tower to rescue her, and Vire takes her to the top of the tower, challenging Link to come rescue the princess while he rolls fireballs down at him. The whole sequence is a homage to Donkey Kong, with Link as Jumpman/Mario, Vire as Donkey Kong, and Zelda as Pauline. It’s only the first stage, though; when Link reaches the top, Vire takes off, leaving Zelda to be freed. After a brief conversation outside, Impa and Zelda leave to hide at Nayru’s house while Link continues his quest.
A couple more steps on the trading sequence can be done now: A version of the mask salesman lives in a house just outside of the city and is hungry. He eagerly takes the tasty meat, and when Link seems to expect something in return for it, gives him a dog mask. The dog mask in turn goes to the city’s resident dog lover, who wants it for her shy dog, and give Link the single dumbbell the dog had been playing with. Also, with the seed shooter, Link can make his own way to Tingle, and now that Link has another type of seeds, Tingle gives Link the second seed bag upgrade to match his bag from Holodrum.
North of town, there’s a lever that can be hit with the seed shooter to extend a bridge to the Nuun Highlands, but that’s as far as Link can go right now because the carpenters who were supposed to be building the bridge to Symmetry City went on break and never came back. As Link turns back, the fairies from the woods come to him. They warped the woods on Moosh, and he can’t find his way out. So they’re just mischievous enough to mess with travelers but if things go bad they’ll try to make it right. Link heads to the woods and finds Moosh and gets him out. In return, Moosh sets Link up with a flute so he can call him as needed. The area where the carpenters is this game’s area that adapts to Link’s animal companion, so Link and Moosh round up the breaking carpenters, who super-efficiently build the Symmetry City bridge.
Symmetry City
Symmetry City is ruined, with giant fireball towers throughout. About the only surviving feature left is a tree with gale seeds and a portal to the past. Link claims the seeds and activates the portal. In the past, Symmetry Village is still standing, but the evil pouring from the Black Tower is causing earthquakes that will ultimately wreck it. In one of the houses, Link learns that the city’s core, a Tuni Nut, is broken, and that’s the direct cause of the city’s troubles. A pair of brothers tried to take the nut to Restoration Wall to get it fixed, but one of them was injured and can’t continue the quest, and they both have to stay in the village to maintain the symmetry, so it falls to Link.
Link takes the broken Tuni Nut and sets out to get it fixed. Along the way, he finds Tokkey, a researcher who’s trying to come up with a tune that will return time travelers to their own time. With Link’s aid, he finds it and teaches it to Link. It’s called the Tune of Currents, and when Link plays it on the Harp of Ages, it works as advertised, with Link returning to the future. Like the Magic Mirror in A Link to the Past, it also leaves an activated temporary portal Link can use to return to the past in the same spot. With the Tune of Currents, Link is able to explore the Talus Peaks. One of the things he finds is a small pool with a sign requesting that nobody throw anything in. He can’t resist that kind of temptation, and if he drops a bomb in, he gets a chance to say whether he dropped a gold or silver bomb. If he’s honest, he gets the second bomb bag upgrade. There’s also a heart piece in the area.
The way to Restoration Wall is blocked by a waterfall, but Link’s able to redirect the water’s flow so he can get there. The wall itself is covered in vines and rocks fall down while Link climbs and there are dead ends, but it’s not overly hard. Patch, the man who can fix the nut, has devised a ceremony that’s frankly ridiculous: Link needs to push a bunch of hardhat beetles into holes while making sure that a cart looping around the cave doesn’t crash into the nut and make things worse. Judging by Patch’s dialogue, it’s meant to annoy the participant for his amusement, and… well, Link seems to bear the weirdos he encounters in stoic silence, but it certainly managed to annoy me. Anyway, the nut gets fixed, Link brings it back to the village, restores it to its place of honor, and the earthquakes stop.
Next: The Master Sword?
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Crescent Island
Lizard Looters
There’s a man named Rafton southeast of Lynna Village in the past who’s embraced his destiny by working on a raft, and Cheval’s rope is exactly the key thing he needs to finish it. He says he’ll let Link use the raft when it’s done, but he’ll want a chart if he’s headed out to sea. Ralph shows up and mentions a “weird guy” who might help, then runs off again. Back in the future, Ricky’s hanging around outside the city, having lost his gloves yet again. They’re not hard to find with the shovel, and after that, Ricky helps Link navigate to visit a familiar mapmaker in a fairy costume riding around on a balloon. Link pops Tingle’s balloon, and agrees to be his friend, so Tingle gives Link the chart he needs. Ricky finds Tingle annoying and hops off, leaving Link to find his own way back down.
Link goes back to the past and back to Rafton. The raft’s ready to set sail, so Link heads out. It works quite well, except as Link approaches Crescent Island, he gets caught in a storm and washes ashore, unconscious. While he’s out, the tokay, the island’s lizardfolk inhabitants, steal a bunch of his stuff: His sword, shield, flippers, power bracelet, roc’s feather, shovel, seed bag, and the Harp of Ages. The bombs were also either stolen or washed away. Rosa from Subrosia is here, and takes Link’s shovel back from the tokay who stole it and gives it back to him, but Link has to run down the rest of the items.
Most of the tokay are sufficiently abashed when confronted about stealing Link’s stuff and give it back with no issue, but one of the Tokay has decided they’re his and sells them back to Link for various types of seeds, including scent seeds, which he doesn’t have any of yet. Fortunately, there’s a minigame on the island where Link has to throw meat to columns of tokay that parade down the sides of the room (and are too lazy to pick it up as they pass, so the timing has to be exact), and he can win a tree sapling of the type he needs. It gets planted in the past, and Link finds a portal to go to the future to harvest the seeds, and then back to the past to finish buying his stuff back [1]. While exploring the island, Link finds a tokay chef whose nose is stopped up and is actually grateful to the stink bag because it opens his sinuses and gives him back his sense of smell, and he gives Link tasty meat in return.
Moonlit Grotto
With all his stuff back, Link can now go to the third dungeon, Moonlit Grotto, which is located in the future on the island. The dungeon has a central mechanic where Link needs to smash four crystals; at this point I’m so used to the idea of “see thing, interact with thing, cause necessary effect” that I never stopped to question why he’s doing it or what it accomplishes. I did notice after smashing the crystals that there was a treasure chest with a Gasha seed in a room in a clearly accessible place, but I didn’t connect it to smashing the crystals. It turns out what happened is that there was a rotating door tile in that room, and smashing the crystals caused it to fall through to the floor below, and that chest to appear. The dungeon’s miniboss, Subterror, is a burrowing creature who’s immune while underground, so Link needs to use the shovel to dig him out and then beat him with the sword before he submerges again.
The dungeon’s treasure is the game’s ranged weapon, the seed shooter. The shooter can be fired at an angle and the seeds it shoots can bounce of walls a couple times, leading to a number of new puzzle tricks, perhaps best exemplified by a pair of rotating walls that Link has to set up properly, then stand in the right place and shoot at the right angle so his seed passes through the two walls to hit a switch. Shadow Hag, the dungeon’s boss, is also tricky: she disappears if Link turns to face her, so he needs to reflect seed shots off the wall to hit her behind him. Once she’s down, Link claims the next Essence, the Echoing Howl.
The Maku Tree says the next essence is to the northwest of Lynna City, but first, Link needs to find a way off the island. Fortunately, Dimitri is there, with some tokay debating how to eat him. Link convinces them to eat ember seeds instead, and in thanks, Dimitri gives him a ride back to the mainland.
Next: How high can you get?
[1] The timeline placement for these games has been inconsistent, even from official sources. One of them, the one in Hyrule Historia, has the Oracle games taking place between A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening, with the same Link in all four games. In that case, given Link’s experience with the tokay here, it explains why he wrote his name on his sword and shield, which served him quite well when he was shipwrecked and washed up on Koholint Island.
There’s a man named Rafton southeast of Lynna Village in the past who’s embraced his destiny by working on a raft, and Cheval’s rope is exactly the key thing he needs to finish it. He says he’ll let Link use the raft when it’s done, but he’ll want a chart if he’s headed out to sea. Ralph shows up and mentions a “weird guy” who might help, then runs off again. Back in the future, Ricky’s hanging around outside the city, having lost his gloves yet again. They’re not hard to find with the shovel, and after that, Ricky helps Link navigate to visit a familiar mapmaker in a fairy costume riding around on a balloon. Link pops Tingle’s balloon, and agrees to be his friend, so Tingle gives Link the chart he needs. Ricky finds Tingle annoying and hops off, leaving Link to find his own way back down.
Link goes back to the past and back to Rafton. The raft’s ready to set sail, so Link heads out. It works quite well, except as Link approaches Crescent Island, he gets caught in a storm and washes ashore, unconscious. While he’s out, the tokay, the island’s lizardfolk inhabitants, steal a bunch of his stuff: His sword, shield, flippers, power bracelet, roc’s feather, shovel, seed bag, and the Harp of Ages. The bombs were also either stolen or washed away. Rosa from Subrosia is here, and takes Link’s shovel back from the tokay who stole it and gives it back to him, but Link has to run down the rest of the items.
Most of the tokay are sufficiently abashed when confronted about stealing Link’s stuff and give it back with no issue, but one of the Tokay has decided they’re his and sells them back to Link for various types of seeds, including scent seeds, which he doesn’t have any of yet. Fortunately, there’s a minigame on the island where Link has to throw meat to columns of tokay that parade down the sides of the room (and are too lazy to pick it up as they pass, so the timing has to be exact), and he can win a tree sapling of the type he needs. It gets planted in the past, and Link finds a portal to go to the future to harvest the seeds, and then back to the past to finish buying his stuff back [1]. While exploring the island, Link finds a tokay chef whose nose is stopped up and is actually grateful to the stink bag because it opens his sinuses and gives him back his sense of smell, and he gives Link tasty meat in return.
Moonlit Grotto
With all his stuff back, Link can now go to the third dungeon, Moonlit Grotto, which is located in the future on the island. The dungeon has a central mechanic where Link needs to smash four crystals; at this point I’m so used to the idea of “see thing, interact with thing, cause necessary effect” that I never stopped to question why he’s doing it or what it accomplishes. I did notice after smashing the crystals that there was a treasure chest with a Gasha seed in a room in a clearly accessible place, but I didn’t connect it to smashing the crystals. It turns out what happened is that there was a rotating door tile in that room, and smashing the crystals caused it to fall through to the floor below, and that chest to appear. The dungeon’s miniboss, Subterror, is a burrowing creature who’s immune while underground, so Link needs to use the shovel to dig him out and then beat him with the sword before he submerges again.
The dungeon’s treasure is the game’s ranged weapon, the seed shooter. The shooter can be fired at an angle and the seeds it shoots can bounce of walls a couple times, leading to a number of new puzzle tricks, perhaps best exemplified by a pair of rotating walls that Link has to set up properly, then stand in the right place and shoot at the right angle so his seed passes through the two walls to hit a switch. Shadow Hag, the dungeon’s boss, is also tricky: she disappears if Link turns to face her, so he needs to reflect seed shots off the wall to hit her behind him. Once she’s down, Link claims the next Essence, the Echoing Howl.
The Maku Tree says the next essence is to the northwest of Lynna City, but first, Link needs to find a way off the island. Fortunately, Dimitri is there, with some tokay debating how to eat him. Link convinces them to eat ember seeds instead, and in thanks, Dimitri gives him a ride back to the mainland.
Next: How high can you get?
[1] The timeline placement for these games has been inconsistent, even from official sources. One of them, the one in Hyrule Historia, has the Oracle games taking place between A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening, with the same Link in all four games. In that case, given Link’s experience with the tokay here, it explains why he wrote his name on his sword and shield, which served him quite well when he was shipwrecked and washed up on Koholint Island.
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