The Wind Waker: Triforce of Courage

Before starting the Triforce hunt, Link can cash in the two treasure maps from the dungeon for another piece of heart and 200 rupees. He can mostly finish filling the Nintendo Gallery now. There are seven and a half characters who have only appeared in cutscenes: Laruto, Fado, Ganon, Daphnes, great fairies, the fairy queen, Jabun, plus Tetra post-transformation into Zelda. These are unlocked by buying Lenzo’s legendary pictographs, 50 rupees each, one per night over the course of a week. (Zelda is unlocked with Daphnes.) Along with all the pictographs Link can already get at this point, this leaves seven empty pedestals: four in the boss room, and three in the miscellaneous room. Three of these are for Gohma, Kalle Demos, and Tingle. And the King of Red Lions is not one of them.

One of the maps is on the ghost ship, so Link needs to find the item that makes the ghost ship not disappear when he gets to close, which is located in a cave on Diamond Steppe Island. Inside the cave is a maze of pots, with Floormasters constantly trying to reset Link’s progress. Once Link makes it through, he finds a map showing all the places the ghost ship can be. As my luck had it, Link emerged from the cave at night when the ghost ship was there by Diamond Steppe Island, so it was a simple matter of tracking it down and getting aboard. After fighting off Poes, a Wizzrobe, and a bunch of other enemies, Link claimed the first chart. As soon as he did, there was ghostly laughter, and Link returned to the King of Red Lions, with the ghost ship nowhere to be seen.

The next map is on the Private Oasis. Link shows the deed to the cabin to the door/butler, then enters. He then has to use his grappling hook to put out the fire in the fireplace, allowing him to access the tunnels underneath the island. Exploring them leads to a crawlspace similar to the one in Windfall Island’s jail, and by successfully navigating, he’ll find the map in a chest hidden until he plays the Wind’s Requiem. The Islet of Steel has a cave protected by a bunch of patrolling warships with a Triforce map. At Needle Rock Island, there’s now a golden warship; when Link sinks it, he can salvage a Triforce Map.

Bird’s Peak Rock is probably the most annoying map to get. Link needs to command a seagull with a Hyoi pear, then fly into six switches at the top of the little rock spires in the area. Complicating matters are Kargarocs all over the area; fortunately, they don’t respawn if Link uses the seagull to lure them to where he’s standing and then kills them. It costs an extra pear, but it also means he’s no longer being hounded on future attempts. Stone Watcher Island and Overlook Island have caves with four side rooms filled with enemies, and once they’re all clear, enemies appear in the central room and need to be defeated before Link can access the room with the map.

The final Triforce map is hidden on Outset Island. Link needs the hookshot to reach the entrance to the cave, and the power bracelets to lift the rock blocking it. Inside, Link finds a series of challenges: thirty floors, most filled with enemies that don’t drop anything. Every ten floors, Link gets a bunch of rupees, a few hearts, and a chance to return to the surface. The enemy floors are divided into three sets – one for each of the first three dungeons. After completing all thirty floors, Link finds the last Triforce map. There’s also a statue he can melt with the mirror shield, opening the way to even more levels. The next ten levels have enemies from the Earth and Wind Shrines, and there are no heart drops for the final set, at which point the game throws huge groups of enemies at Link. The final two fights add environmental hazards: bomb flowers with Stalfos (which is fun because the Stalfos blow themselves up a bunch), then fire-spitting statues with four Darknuts. If Link makes it all the way through this, he gets the last piece of heart.

While gathering all the Triforce charts, Link earned enough points from Beedle to unlock the gold membership. The reward for this is a fill-up coupon, which can be redeemed to refill Link’s bombs and arrows. Now seems to be the time for it, since I won’t have many opportunities afterward.

Link can’t read the Triforce charts himself, so he takes them to Tingle, who deciphers them for 398 rupees apiece. He marks the locations of the Triforce shards on the Triforce map, but this is mostly extraneous because they’re the eight squares where Link hasn’t excavated a treasure. (Also, Tingle and the two guys making the tower spin are the three missing figurines in the Gallery’s miscellaneous room.) Once Link has all eight shards, they fuse together into the Triforce of Courage, which he takes to the Tower of the Gods. By holding up the Triforce, Link gets the Gods to accept him as its new bearer, and the King of Red Lions dubs him the Hero of Winds. The portal to Hyrule opens, and Link and the King head down to find what’s going on.

Next: Thank you Link! But our princess is in another castle!

The Wind Waker: Wind Temple

The overworld part leading to the second temple is more or less the same as what it was leading to the first temple: Use a special arrow to get an item (already done), use that item to enter the cave on the island leading to the dungeon, learn a new melody for the Wind Waker to meet the dead sage, find the new sage, and lead them to the dungeon for an escort mission. In this case, the iron boots let Link walk into the wind on Gale Island, where the shrine has the Wind God’s Aria, which summons Fado, the Kokiri sage of winds, and he’s got a fiddle like Makar’s, so that’s who the new sage is going to be.

On Forest Haven, Makar has moved out of the Deku Tree’s area to a secret cave under a waterfall to begin preparing a new song for the next year’s ritual. Fortunately for Link, his music drifts so Link can hear him during his approach, and Link uses the grappling hook to swing into the hidden cave. Link conducts the Wind God’s Aria for Makar, who awakens as the wind sage. Together, they return to Gale Island, where the King of Red Lions notes that Makar will be useful for proceeding in the dungeon like Medli was. Makar’s contributions are harder to guess, since he can’t carry Link, but there’s no doubt the King is right.

Makar is easier to escort than Medli was, probably for three reasons. First, I was more used to it. Second, his key ability isn’t something Link can do in this game, so my memory wasn’t working against me with him. Third, he gets grabbed by Floormasters early in the dungeon and it takes about half the time to get him back. The worst bit was when Link got hit by a blade trap, causing him to drop Makar directly in the path of the trap, making it not easy to get him out while they both got hit by the trap several times. Makar can plant trees that instantly grow, and at first it seems to just be a quirky way to open doors forward. During their time apart, Link fights a Wizzrobe miniboss that summons enemies to its aid, and gets the hookshot – the grappling hook wasn’t a replacement, just another useful item. Then, going back to the rooms where Makar planted the trees, Link can use them as hookshot targets.

The main part of the dungeon is a large cylindrical room. First, Link has to open the floor so he can go to the basement. After getting the hookshot there, he works his way back up to the main floor and rescues Makar. Makar goes to the bottom floor to activate a giant fan, allowing him and Link to reach the top levels of the dungeon. After getting a key there, Link and Makar return to the main floor to get the big key and open the floor under the fan, allowing Link access to the boss.

The room fills with sand as Link enters. At the center of the pit is the boss, Molgera, and if it doesn’t make you think of the sarlacc, you probably haven’t seen Return of the Jedi as many times as I have [1]. Link’s constantly slipping down the slope closer to Molgera, so sometimes he has to flip backward. The hookshot can be used to grab its tongue, pulling Molgera out of its safe place so Link can whap it a few times. After this, Molgera will summon a bunch of spawn while it flies around. I found it easiest to focus on staying out of the boss’ way until it settled down, then killing the spawn, then going back after Molgera. After three times, Molgera dies. It’s a fun, easy fight, set to great music.

After Molgera’s gone, the sand recedes, revealing the seal in the center for the wind sage to pray at. Link conducts Makar and Fado one last time, and the Master Sword begins glowing, its power fully restored. As with Medli, Makar stays behind in the temple to continue praying. When Link returns to the King of Red Lions, the King’s talking to a Fishman, who’s brought tidings that the Forsaken Fortress is… well, forsaken. That’s not a good thing, because there’s really only other one place Ganon could be: Hyrule. And that probably doesn’t mean good things for Tetra.

Next: Go find the “8” units “Link” to save her.

[1] Or maybe insist on the original edition, where the sarlacc didn’t have the beak.

The Wind Waker: Earth Temple

The first of the two temples Link will explore is the Earth Temple, beneath Headstone Island. With the power bracelets, Link can lift the giant stone out of the way of the cave and enter. Inside, he finds a small shrine with notation that indicates how to conduct the wind to activate the shrine. Link conducts the melody, the Earth God’s Lyric, which awakens the spirit of the sage, a Zora named Laruto. As expected, she was killed by Ganon, and now a new sage needs to come to the Earth Temple to repower the Master Sword. The hint she gives is that it’s her descendant, who plays the same harp she played.

During Link’s latest visits to Dragon Roost Island for pictographs, Medli’s been playing that harp. So – the Zoras evolved into the Rito? One would think they would flourish in a flooded Hyrule, but apparently, they had to change to survive. Anyway, Link returns to the island and finds Medli still playing the harp. He takes out the Wind Waker and conducts her in playing the Earth God’s Lyric, causing her to enter a dream state, meet Laruto, and awaken as the new earth sage. With some sadness, she leaves with Link to go to the temple to take up her duties. As they disembark to head into the dungeon, the King of Red Lions speaks to her, telling her how she can help Link through the dungeon – which advises the player on how to use her abilities.

The dungeon is a mix of Ocarina of Time’s Shadow and Spirit Temples. Returning enemies include Floormasters, who grab at Link and send him back to an earlier point in the dungeon; Poes, who are intangible until light shines on them and love to grab Link and make his controls go all wonky; ReDeads, only now Link doesn’t have a song to freeze them or a mask to make them harmlessly dance; and Stalfos, who split into their component bones when they take enough damage and reform unless the skull is destroyed. The first Stalfos is the miniboss, but more appear later. There’s also a new type of ChuChu – this one’s basically invincible, but petrifies in the light and can be smashed, or more usefully, used to hold down a switch (until the ChuChu reanimates, anyway).

The two signature mechanics of the dungeon are escorting Medli (and switching to controlling her via the Command Melody [1]) and reflecting light. Until Link finds the mirror shield, Medli’s the only one who can reflect light, needed to open doors, disperse fog, and reveal treasure chests. Later puzzles require Link to position her to shine light in one place while he shines light in another. She can also help him by flying to places he can’t reach and carrying him when she flies for short distances. The good news is that the basic escort mechanics have improved since Ruto in Jabu-Jabu’s Belly. She’s fine if left alone, there’s no need to worry about her drowning, and… well, she’s interested in being helpful. The bad news is the mechanics of controlling her are frustrating. Worst is that the button to control her light reflection is not the same as the button to control Link’s; trying Link's button while controlling Medli returns control to Link, meaning he probably has to play the Command Melody again. Also, because Medli can fly, she’s incapable of climbing, and if she drops more than six inches she goes into soaring mode. I actually like the dungeon, and Medli’s awesome, but the control mechanisms required to get through get old fast.

Like the dungeon itself, Jalhalla sounds great on paper, but is frustrating to actually fight. Jalhalla is a mask that absorbs the essence of a bunch of Poes in the room and turns into a giant Poe, so Link needs to reflect light onto him, causing him to become solid. Then Link needs to throw him into a spiky section of the wall, breaking him down into the component Poes who can be individually killed. The problem is the light sources are temporary – there’s always at least one, but the locations can move with no notice – and so it’s possible that, as happened during my fight, Link has to run back and forth across the room from light to light, only for it to disappear before doing enough damage to Jalhalla. The time Link has to deal with the Poes seems arbitrary, too – sometimes I got enough time to easily kill a bunch of them, sometimes Jalhalla reformed after I got only one or two hits in. The Hurricane Spin was invented for this fight, though; it’s a lot of fun whirling Link around and cutting down the Poes.

Once all the ghosts are destroyed, the mask realizes it’s vulnerable and tries to escape. It gets caught in a beam of light, falls to the floor, and shatters as the Triforce design on the floor starts to glow. Medli enters the chamber, and Link conducts her one last time, with the Master Sword sitting in the Triforce design. Laruto’s spirit joins in, and I finally connected their melody with the title theme’s melody. As Link lifts the Master Sword again, some of its power returns, and the wings unfold. Medli promises to stay in the temple and pray to continue powering the sword while Link powers up the other temple; as Link starts to teleport out, she asks Link to look after Komali. Link found two treasure charts in the dungeon, and can use them to claim 200 rupees and a piece of heart.

Next: It’s like a Lanmola and a sarlacc had a baby.

[1] For a while, I thought it was the Command Medley, and was quite amused at the thought of using the Command Medley to command Medli.

The Wind Waker: Fairy Magic

Before Link and Daphnes (who has gone back to possessing the boat) return to the surface, Daphnes explains to Link his guess about what’s happened to the Master Sword. There were sages in two temples in Hyrule whose prayers kept the Master Sword powered, so something must have happened to them, and Link has to investigate what’s happened and find a way to restore their power. However, they can’t get to the temples from Hyrule – and staying there would draw attention to where they’ve hidden Tetra anyway – so they’ll have to come from the islands above them. Link hops into the boat and begins his ascent. Back on the surface, Daphnes explains that the Triforce of Courage was split into eight shards that are hidden. Link will have to get the Triforce to return to Hyrule, but the Master Sword is the greater concern right now.

The two marked islands are Headstone Island and Gale Isle. However, those two islands have obstacles that need items from Fire Mountain and Ice Ring Isle to overcome, and those in turn require items from the Mother and Child Isles – specifically, the Mother Isle, which itself can only be accessed by warping. When Link warps to the Mother Isle, he’s greeted by the queen of the fairy world, who looks like a young girl with… well, the design makes it look like she’s got big holes where her eyes are supposed to be. It’s a very creepy effect. She smashes a puppet great fairy she’s holding, which causes two fairies to appear who fly into Link’s chest, giving him the power to shoot fire and ice arrows. Then she says Link’s “just [her] type,” which causes the King of Red Lions to turn to look at him as he looks away, blushing and smiling. The fairy laughs as she disappears.

Fire Mountain is the first stop, and Link uses an ice arrow to freeze the volcano. From the moment he does that, he’s got five minutes to get inside and get the item. The first obstacle is climbing the mountain while hounded by Kargarocs. Inside the mountain there’s lava platforming, Fire Keese, and two Magtails. Once all the enemies are defeated, a treasure chest appears with the power bracelets, which let him lift giant rocks like the one on Headstone Island, or the one blocking the easy way back to the exit.

Next is Ice Ring Isle. Again, once Link shoots it with the fire arrow, he’s got five minutes to get what he needs done. And once again, the first step is working the way to the cave entrance, which requires platforming and walking over icy surfaces with no traction. Inside is more ice platforming, along with an ice slide that reminds me of Lego Star Wars’ Echo Base level. The treasure here is iron boots, which have mercifully been made into a standard inventory item. They let Link walk on ice without slipping, and into gusts of wind, like the one blowing from a side area of the cave. That cave has a hole with a secret cave, filled with various enemies frozen in ice. Also, there’s a treasure map on the island.

There’s more Great Sea adventuring to do:

• The map Link got on Ice Ring Isle leads to a sunken chest with 200 rupees.
• Now that Link has the hammer, he can visit the two Great Fairies on the two remaining fairy islands. They upgrade his quiver from 30 to 60 and then 99 arrows, again the largest capacity any Link has ever had (not counting the NES game, where he didn’t have a quiver and instead turned rupees into arrows).
• Each of the six eye reefs has sprouted cannons and patrolling warships. When all at a location is destroyed, a treasure chest appears on one of the eyes that Link needs to glide to. Each contains a treasure map, each leading to a special map. They’re all checklist maps like the platform map he got earlier; and I’ve completed a couple of them (Big Octos and Great Fairies) already.
• On Windfall Island, Link can light the lighthouse then gain a couple heart pieces. The first comes from talking to Kreeb; the second from a treasure chest that appears on a nearby island Link has to glide to.
• Mila’s father gave his fortune to the pirates as reward for saving Mila, who’s now working for Zunari and intends to rob him. Link puts a stop to that, which makes her see the error of her ways and give him a bottle. (If she hears but doesn’t see Link as he’s following her during her robbery attempt, Link meows to throw her off. It’s funny and cute.)
• As for Maggie’s father, a Moblin gave Maggie a bunch of skull necklaces that he sold to make a fortune and then moved into Mila’s father’s old house. Link can give him more necklaces for a treasure chart that leads to a heart piece, and he apparently doesn’t care if Link smashes the vases. As for Maggie, she fell for the Moblin, and is trying to send him a letter, but her father’s blocking her, to the extent of not allowing postmen to deliver anything. He doesn’t come off very well, but… well, Maggie’s lovestruck. When Link helps her by mailing her letter and delivering the reply, she mistakes the Moblin’s desire to eat her for something romantic and gives link another piece of heart.
• On Outset Island, Abe and Rose are down to only one pig, but that one’s turned giant. With the power bracelets, Link can lift the giant pig and take it to the black dirt; after Link spreads bait around, the pig digs up a piece of heart.
• On Shark Island, there are four switches; if Link can manipulate them fast enough, he opens a secret cave. Inside is a giant fscking horde of enemies: Miniblins, Bokoblins, Moblins, Wizzrobes, and Darknuts. Clearing the horde awards 200 rupees.
• Tingle sends Link a map to all the Triforce maps (for 200 rupees, cash on delivery). One of them’s on the ghost ship, so that’s its purpose.
• Link unlocked Beedle’s silver membership, and Beedle sent Link a Complimentary ID. So, the next time Link visits Beedle, he shows him the ID, and Beedle compliments him. It's beautiful.

Next: There’s a Zora sage, so that means escort mission.

The Wind Waker: Three Kings and a Princess

As they approach the Forsaken Fortress, The King of Red Lions warns Link that Ganon’s probably already aware they’re there. And he’s quickly proven right, with Phantom Ganon showing up in the first courtyard. The game’s art style works very well with him. Anyway, the fight is the familiar second phase of his fight from Ocarina of Time, only without the bizarre timing issues I had with the rounds of whacking energy balls back and forth. Sure, sometimes I’d swing too early or too late and they’d hit Link, but if Link hit the ball, it went back to Ganon rather than off into the wild. After Link gets enough hits on Ganon, the phantom disappears. A treasure chest appears and Link gains the Skull Hammer, which he wields as Bugs Bunny might. It’s a lot of fun to use.

Even with more and tougher enemies than Link faced during his last visit to the Fortress, Link’s armed this time so it’s an easier trip. I got all the exploration out of the way last time, so all there is after grabbing the hammer is Link working his way up the fortress to the room where the girls are being held. Link’s a little more cautious entering the room, not wanting to repeat last time, but the bird’s nowhere to be seen. Still, Link can’t open the cell, but Tetra and her crew show up at that moment, taking credit for drawing the bird off. She notes that Link’s upgraded his sword, but there’s no time for that. The pirates take the girls to return them home, leaving Link to take care of Ganon.

As they leave, the room starts to fill with water as the bird – the Helmaroc King – swoops in for the fight. The first phase of the fight is climbing the stairs and platforms that wind around the room while the Helmaroc King smashes the wooden parts behind Link. Once Link reaches the top of the room, the Helmaroc King sits full in his view. Fortunately, he’s patient while Link pauses the fight to pull out his pictograph box and take a picture. Then Link takes out his hammer and smashes the bird in the face, causing it to fall into the water below. Link finishes his climb to a large flat surface and waits for the Helmaroc King to join him. The rest of the battle consists of waiting for the bird to try to peck at Link, then smashing it with the hammer. After a few shots, the bird’s mask breaks and Link can use his sword. After a few more shots, the Helmaroc King dies, and Link’s free to continue on.

At the top of the tower, Link comes face-to-face with Ganon. Ganon knocks Link around, and reveals to him two things: First, when Link pulled the Master Sword from its pedestal, it released a seal blocking Ganon from returning to his full power. Second, the Master Sword itself has been depowered. So, Link’s kind of hopeless here. Tetra bursts in, and Ganon grabs her, and the Triforce of Power reacts to her presence. Ganon knows what that means – and Tetra’s clueless. Before anything more than dropping the name Zelda can come of it, though, Quill and Komali swoop in to rescue Link and Tetra, and Valoo sets the tower on fire to cover their escape.

Link and Tetra are set on the King of Red Lions, and Link is assured that Tetra and Aryll are both fine. The King thanks Valoo for his help and returns to Hyrule Castle. When Tetra wakes up, she’s confused about where she is, and even more so when someone begins speaking to Link through the stone she gave him. He asks Link to bring Tetra to the basement, where all will be revealed. In the basement, Link and Tetra find a man who reveals that the stone is similar to the Gossip Stones of the Hero of Time’s era, and he made it. They’re in Hyrule, and he was Hyrule’s last king, Daphnes Nohansen Hyrule – the King of Red Lions. He explains that when the Hero failed to appear after Ganon broke his seal, the gods flooded Hyrule to seal it away, but some of its people took refuge on the mountaintops – which become the islands of the Great Sea.

As for Tetra, she has a golden V-shaped heirloom pendant, and when Daphnes adds a golden triangle, the two bond together to form the Triforce of Wisdom, and Tetra is transformed into Princess Zelda. (The music over this bit is a remix of the title screen of A Link to the Past, then Zelda’s theme kicks in.) Then he turns to Link, saying they have to return to the surface to restore the Master Sword, but Tetra should remain in Hyrule Castle, where she’ll be protected. He poofs out, and as Link follows Daphnes, Tetra apologizes for everything that’s happened to him because of her, and tells him to be careful.

That was a great cutscene, to the point where even if it were the only good thing about the game (and it’s not), the game would be worth playing for that moment of revelation.

Next: He is the prince that was promised, and his is the song of ice and fire.

The Wind Waker: Hyrule Castle

The King of Red Lions continues to approach an underwater bubble with a castle in it. The first thing we see of it is the familiar crest of Hyrule, and the music has echoes of the Overworld theme, so this is apparently Hyrule-That-Was. The King of Red Lions declines to explain where they are and what’s going on, beyond the fast that Link has to retrieve an item from inside the castle. The inside of the castle is overlooked by a huge statue of the Hero of Time, and there are a bunch of Moblins and Darknuts frozen in time. To open the way forward, Link needs to solve a simple puzzle involving pulling triangle blocks onto a Triforce mark on the floor. Once completed, the blocks sink, the Triforce mark glows, and the statue slides out of the way of a staircase leading down.

In the basement, Link finds a shrine with the Master Sword. It’s barely recognizable as such, with the crossguard’s wings folded up, but the King of Red Lions says it’s the Master Sword, so the Master Sword it is. Also, the music as Link goes King Arthur on it is the familiar theme. Speaking of music, after Link has the Master Sword, if there’s any doubt where he is, the music switches to a somber remix of the Hyrule Castle theme from A Link to the Past as all the enemies on the floor above are removed from suspended animation. The castle is sealed, and Link has to defeat all the enemies to break the seal, and with the King of Red Lions, return to the surface, now armed to take on Ganon.

But the bow opens up a new possibility. When Link runs into Cyclos and is being drawn into a cyclone to be sent somewhere random, he can shoot Cyclos down, fulfilling Zephos’ request. Cyclos takes the attack in good spirits, teaching Link to use the cyclones to travel quickly to nine locations around the Great Sea. With that ability, the time has come for Link to start gathering pictures for Nintendo Gallery figurines from all over the Sea. There are seven rooms total: four for figures associated with the major islands (Forest Haven, Dragon Roost Island, Outset Island, and Windfall Island), two for enemies (one for common enemies, one for bosses and minibosses – plus Wizzrobes, for some reason), and the last a catch-all for the rest of the figurines. Link can mostly fill five of the rooms, leaving bosses and miscellaneous each about one-third full. A few notable characters are still missing: Tetra and her crew, Tingle (I could probably get this now if I wanted), Medli, Komali, Gohma, Kalle Demos, and the kidnapping bird.

While teleporting around and gathering pictures of the Koroks, Link took the time to save their withered trees with a bottle of forest water. The water’s only good for twenty minutes, so quick travel may not be strictly necessary, but it relieves a lot of the stress and finding the one perfect route. Adding to the stress, on the other hand, the Korok on the Cliff Plateau Isles, nearest to the Forest Haven so the first one Link should visit, requires passing through a cave with a tricky bit of platforming to get to. This one will burn a couple minutes off the clock at best, and had me wondering if the rest would be so hard. But no, the rest were generally quite easy to get to and I finished the task with minutes to spare, earning a heart piece reward.

Also, across the Great Sea, Goron traveling merchants have set up shop on Bomb Island, Greatfish Isle, and the Child Island (of Mother and Child Islands). These merchants trade a variety of goods, starting with three different types of flowers for the one Link was given by Zunari [1], then going through a number of other decorative items. Every item Link acquires from them is added to Zunari’s shop, and once he’s unlocked all four flowers, Zunari will give him the magic armor, which makes him invincible but drains magic, similar to the Cane of Byrna. Once Link’s unlocked the last item, the Shop Guru Statue, if he gives it to the right merchant, the one on Greatfish Isle, he can get a heart piece for his efforts.

Near the Seven Star Islands, there’s a trio of platforms with a bunch of Wizzrobes where Link can get a treasure chart. Near the Flight Control Platform, there’s a submarine with a couple Wizzrobes and a bunch of Miniblins making it hard to focus on the Wizzrobes. This is where I discovered target locking in this game has some quirks, like when the Wizzrobe’s the only thing on screen and I hit L and lock onto a Miniblin behind Link. Coincidentally, it’s also where I discovered that Link doesn’t actually need to shoot Wizzrobes with arrows; he can get close enough to them and thwack them with the sword. The reward for clearing the Wizzrobes out of the room is that the Miniblins stop spawning with their goddamn chittering, and there’s also a map indicating the locations of platforms across the Sea.

From fighting the Darknuts in Hyrule Castle, Link got enough Knight’s Crests to impress Orca enough to teach him the ultimate sword maneuver: the Hurricane Spin, an advanced spin attack that lets him continually spin until he hits a wall or gets too dizzy. Link can cash in his treasure maps now, including the one pointing to the Forsaken Fortress, for 600 rupees and a piece of heart. Also at the Forsaken Fortress, the last fish – or Fishman, as the Gallery reveals their proper name is – tells Link that someone on Windfall Island collects the Skull Necklaces the Moblins drop.

And now it’s time to rescue Aryll, Maggie, and Mila.

Next: Hail, hail, the gang’s all here. [2]

[1] The best part of the Nintendo Gallery is learning everyone’s names.
[2] And it’s goodbye to all the rest.

The Wind Waker: Tower of the Gods

With most of the five zillion things that could be accomplished on the Great Sea done, it’s time for Link to finally head to the Triangle Islands and deposit the pearls. Each island has a statue that responds to Link’s presence by asking him to deposit the pearl, with each island corresponding to the one counter-clockwise from it in the giant Triforce mark. The last statue begins glowing brightly, and Link finds cover. When nothing else happens, he comes back to investigate, only to be blown away as the statue explodes, revealing a less abstract statue of the goddess inside. Beams emit from the pearls, blowing up the other statues and connecting the three islands, and inside the triangle, a Triforce appears, spiraling down to its center, where the Tower of the Gods rises from the water. Then Link splats face first into the tower, and fortunately, the King of Red Lions is there again to fish him out of the sea. He explains that the tower is a test for someone who wants to wield the power to destroy evil. Before heading into the tower, Link seeks out the area’s fish, who says that Link is destined to return many times, and the Triumph Forks are important here, and Tingle can help with them.

The entry level of the dungeon has a mechanic where the water level periodically rises and falls. Given how much I’ve liked dungeons where Link’s had to raise and lower the water level himself, this should be an improvement, although the fact that he really can’t do anything while waiting for the water level to return to whichever level he needs it at for any given task makes it annoying, too. For instance, sometimes there are yellow ChuChus, and when the water level’s raised above the ground, Link can’t fight them, but they can still swim to him so they can shock him. I guess I should be grateful the game doesn’t go into the realistic consequences of being in water with creatures constantly spouting electricity. Anyway, the point of this level is to get a couple statues and place them into their sockets to stop the waterfall that blocks access to the upper levels of the tower.

The second level is a lot more fun, with Link needing to guide three animated statues to the central room to open the path upward. The first one’s fairly simple, needing to be carried over gaps and through doors but able to make the journey without much assistance. The other two are going to be more complicated, so the first statue teaches Link the Command Melody which will let him possess statues so he can walk them across temporary bridges caused by a button he’s standing on. The other key to progressing is the dungeon’s treasure, the Hero’s Bow, guarded by the miniboss, a Darknut. Up till now, parrying had never really come up, but it turns out to be important when fighting Darknuts because Link’s parries knock off their armor and leave them vulnerable to easier attacks. However, as I learned, you don’t get the parry option while you’ve got the grappling hook out to steal Knight’s Crests from them. With the bow, Link can shoot eye switches to help open paths for him and his statue buddies.

Once all three statues are in place, a portal further up opens. After getting the boss key in the first room, Link has a climb on an outside staircase to the boss room. The way is guarded by lots of Beamos that come in two varieties now: one that continually shoots a beam along a fixed path, and one that tries to shoot Link. The first type can easily be destroyed with arrows, but the second’s lasers move too fast for Link to hit their emitter while they’re vulnerable.

At the top of the tower, Link comes to the boss room, where he’s greeted and challenged to face one final test: Gohdan. Gohdan’s design seems inspired by Bongo Bongo (minus the drumhead to bounce around on, sadly): two disembodied hands with eyes on the palms, and a head with two glowing eyes a giant gaping mouth. Link needs to shoot the hands in the eyes to disable them (for about two seconds longer than the minimum time to disable the other hand, it seems – very frustrating to finally get the second shot on the second hand only to have the first one come back to life), then shoot the head’s eyes, then throw a bomb in the mouth. This takes a lot of arrows, and with no chance for a quiver upgrade beforehand, there’s a very good chance Link will run out during the fight. Fortunately, the gods are merciful in this case and have Gohdan sneeze out a bundle of arrows when it happens, so it’s just a simple matter of getting all the hits in. Once defeated, Gohdan returns to its dormant state and spits out a heart container.

Link takes the portal out, only it leads to the roof, where he has to use the grappling hook to ring a giant bell. That opens another portal in the sea, which he sails into with the King of Red Lions, and the boat begins sinking. Link amusingly tries to hold his breath as long as he can, but once he has to let it go discovers he’s fine as the boat continues to its destination.

Next: Yes, I’m really going to leave it there.

The Wind Waker: Nintendo Gallery

Since Link’s in the area, he takes the King of Red Lions back to the Forest Haven now that he can take color pictographs. Showing the first one to Carlov at the Nintendo Gallery unlocks the sidequest, in which Carlov will create figurines of pictures of NPCs Link brings him. There are seven rooms around the gallery to house these figurines, and well over a hundred vacant bases. So… this quest is going to take a while. Additional complications include that if the picture isn’t just perfect, Carlov won’t accept it and Link has to go back and take it again. The list of possible figurine subjects includes monsters and bosses, whose parents apparently didn’t teach them basic etiquette for having their picture taken, for example, “Do not try to eat the photographer.” Oh, and two of those bosses are dead so I’ll have to wait until they maybe come back later to get their pictures. And speaking of starting the quest too late, the Koroks have spread to the four winds. And the pictograph box only has room for three pictures, so it’s not like he can get a bunch of pictures at once, and the Forest Haven is not exactly what I’d call “centrally located.” Oh, and it takes a day to make a pictograph; not a big deal if you’re dropping off the last one and heading out to get three more, but in between Link has to step out of the gallery, play the Song of Passing twice, and head back in. Carlov doesn’t want Link watching him make the figurines, saying something about trade secrets, only I would guess the real reason is hinted at on his own figurine (who wrote the caption?): he does it in his underwear.

I hunted the Gold Skulltulas. I got every ring in the Oracle games. I can do this. I won’t like it, but I will do this.

Okay, now there’s still a lot of high-seas adventuring that can be done before the next dungeon, and rather than try to organize it into some kind of cohesive narrative, I’ll just summarize.

• There are five Big Octos left, and each can be fought now. They’re a bit tougher than the one Link’s already killed, with more eyes. Bombs can put out the eyes with a single shot, but are tricky to aim, so I went back to the old standby boomerang. The rewards for killing them are 600 rupees and two pieces of heart.
• Link can visit three of the five Fairy Island fairies, who give him the last wallet upgrade (to 5,000 rupees) and two bomb bag upgrades (from 30 to 60 to 99) – both his largest capacity for their respective items thus far.
• On Dragon Roost Island, a Rito guard wants Golden Feathers for his girlfriend. Link sells him a bunch of them, and the girlfriend sends Link a piece of heart via the mail as a reward.
• At Needle Rock Isle, Link can now sink the warships as the fish hinted, one of which is protecting a piece of heart.
• Salvatore has set up another game on Spectacle Island, where Link gets to sink ships (that look suspiciously like barrels) to win a heart piece and treasure map. When he gives Link the rewards for playing, he roleplays as a very flirtatious Tetra.
• At the Flight Control Platform, a couple Rito have set up a game to see who can fly furthest. Link, by setting the wind in a favorable direction and hitting some cyclones as he flies, can break the record for a heart piece.
• On Bomb Island, by blowing up a boulder Link can enter a cave with several Magtail switch puzzles that lead to a heart piece.
• On Star Island, Link blow up a rock to find a cave with an enemy gauntlet that gives a heart piece as a reward.
• There are platforms across the Great Sea that shoot bombs at Link. He can take out their cannons and explore the platforms, collecting items like a piece of heart, a treasure chart, and assorted spoils.
• Link can get treasure charts from the Private Oasis, a submarine with a bunch of Moblins near Northern Fairy Island, Crescent Moon Island and a Miniblin-infested submarine nearby, and a Keese-infested cave on Rock Spire Isle.
• I tried taking the forest water to a nearby Korok with a wilted tree, but when the water said it lasted for 20 minutes but could be used multiple times, I realized why exactly that was and decided it could wait until I unlocked quick travel.
• The main thing to do right now is sail around and collect the treasures from the charts. By the end of this section, Link had a total of 26 charts, and was able to claim 25 of their treasures (the last one is near the Forsaken Fortress, where he can’t go right now). In addition to the two heart pieces he’d already recovered, he adds 5 more pieces of heart and lots of rupees – usually 200 a pop, but one map (that he won at auction) led to a treasure of a single rupee.
• All of that money let Link visit the special items shop near Rock Spire Isle. It’s on a ship that looks exactly like Beedle’s, and the proprietor has all of Beedle’s mannerisms, but you can tell it’s not Beedle because he’s wearing a mask and doesn’t increment Link’s loyalty card. The three things I Can’t Believe It’s Not Beedle has for sale are a treasure chart (included above), a heart piece, and the third bottle.

Next: Fshew. I think I’m quite ready for another dungeon.

The Wind Waker: Filling in the Map

When Link returns to Windfall Island, the long stormy night has lifted, and the people are back to their regular business. Link finds the dancing man he was told about, who's struggling to remember a tune. When Link takes out the Wind Waker, he remembers and teaches Link the Song of Passing, which lets him turn day into night or vice versa (cf. Sun’s Song, Song of Double Time). Armed now with a crapton of Joy Pendants, Link visits the schoolteacher, who gives him the deed to the cabana on the Private Oasis for 20 of them, and a Hero’s Charm in exchange for the rest. The Hero’s Charm has the useful effect of displaying the health of enemies Link fights, at the cost of blocking his facial expressions and ruining cutscenes. Finally, the shopkeeper asks Link to help him find suppliers, and gives him a Town Flower to trade. He also starts selling Town Flowers, which can be planted in pots around the island. Once Link’s done that, a man on the island will give him a piece of heart in appreciation.

At night, the shopkeeper rents the main floor of the rich father’s house to host auctions. These are well-attended, with various townsfolk bidding on items that seem useless to them, like a heart piece and two treasure charts. The fish’s hint suggested being both patient and bold, and the key strategy is to wait until the closing seconds of the auction, then make a bid large enough to leave the other bidders stunned so they can’t top it. While stars circle everyone else’s heads, Link does his happy dance until the shopkeeper calls time and awards Link whatever it was up for auction. After four times, Link’s cleaned the place out, the last time for a rather worthless Joy Pendant.

Now that Link has the color picto box, there are a few things he can do on the island with it. First, there’s a lady who appreciates being shown a pictograph of herself. A rather surly guy challenges Link to take a picture of his favorite object, with the hint being it’s pale and round – the full moon. The two gossipy ladies are interested in the pictographer’s love life, so Link sneaks in to get a picture of him with the woman he’s spending time with and brings it to them. All three of these events earn Link a treasure chart. Finally, the pictographer helped nudge the prospective couple he was interested in helping get together toward each other, and now it’s up to Link to finish the job by taking a picture of the woman and showing it to the man, who gets the courage to ask her out. When Link later finds them at the cafe, the woman gives him a heart piece as thanks.

Now, there’s about a third of the map left to visit, so let’s get to it. Heading west, Link comes to Spectacle Island, which seems to be where the ghost ship docks during the waning crescent moon. Turning south, he finds Tingle’s home, and apparently Tingle can help decipher maps for a hefty fee. To the west, the fish at Rock Spire Isle laments the lighthouse on Windfall going dark. At the far west, the fish at Western Fairy Island talks about using the grappling hook to pickpocket enemies. Four-Eye Reef is to the north, and the fish there says that some of the treasure-marking rings of light only appear at night. The King of Red Lions stops Link from going to the Forsaken Fortress, so he turns east to the Mother and Child Isles, the location he’s been pointed to from Fire Mountain and Ice Ring Isle, where a fairy lives but is inaccessible.

Going to the top row of the map and heading east, the first square to visit is Star Island, whose fish suggests freezing a monster and smashing it with a hammer. At Northern Fairy Island, the fish says that the shopkeeper on Windfall has a set of magic armor. To navigate the winds on Gale Island, the fish suggests visiting Ice Ring Isle for a useful item. Crescent Moon Island seems to host the ghost ship when the moon is full. The fish at Seven-Star Isles says that flocking seagulls indicates a spot where Big Octos spawn. Finally, there’s Overlook Island, which has a Triumph Fork map.

Now turning to the south for the last few squares, Link comes to the Flight Control Platform, where the fish talks about treasure hidden inside rocks on Dragon Roost Island. Star Belt Archipelago is where the ghost ship is during the first (waxing) quarter moon. Thorned Fairy Island’s fish says that the use for the golden feathers Link’s been collecting is to give to Rito women, who love them. And finally, Link comes to Bird’s Peak Rock, home to another Triumph Fork map.

Next: In your belly, you hold the treasures few have ever seen…

The Wind Waker: Jabun

Before returning to the King of Red Lions, Link heads back into the forest to see what he can do about the fairy there. The way is infested with monsters – Miniblins along the road, Moblins, Mothulas, and Morths in the forest itself. It turns out the fairy fountain is blocked by a large boulder, but now that Link has bombs, he can open the way. The Great Fairy rewards Link for finding her by upgrading his wallet, allowing him to hold 1,000 rupees. Back on the beach, there’s another letter, offering exclusive items for sale on Rock Spire Island.

And there’s one more thing to do on the island before finding Jabun. Link visits Orca, who invites him to show the skill with the sword he’s learned by demonstrating how many times Link can hit Orca before taking three hits in return. The game is in that frustrating area of not being hard to get a rhythm going, but it requires so many successes with little margin for failure that it becomes hard to get a truly good score. The main prize here is a heart piece, awarded when Link scores 500 hits.

When Link returns to the King of Red Lions, the King points out that the storm has caused the night to last an unnaturally long time. In other words, it’s not just game convention that has Link arriving at Outset Island in time no matter how long it actually took him to get there. (I wonder if Tetra knew about the cursed night.) They sail over to where a giant stone slab is blocking the way to Jabun’s new lair, and there’s one other obstacle: they’re sucked into a giant whirlpool which makes for a timed encounter. Link has to shoot bombs to blow up the slab; once it’s gone, the whirlpool disperses and Link can sail in to meet Jabun.

Jabun, like the other keepers of the pearls, speaks in Hylian, which the King of Red Lions can understand. Link’s only privy to the King’s side of the conversation, in which he says that despite appearances, Link is not actually related to the Hero of Time, just the latest Hero to try to save the world. Jabun give Lsink Nayru’s pearl, completing the set. The King of Red Lions states the next step is to deposit the pearls in statues on three islands, and marks the spots on Link’s map: the three Triangle Islands. Interestingly, these three islands all sit at the midpoint squares between the islands where the pearls originated (Greatfish, Dragon Roost, and Forest Haven), so when lines are drawn between the six islands, the result is a giant Triforce mark on the map.

Now that Link has the third pearl, the cursed stormy night has lifted and the sky is clear again. With that, it’s time to head back to Windfall Island, to wrap up some stuff there. And that means taking a long route to fill in map squares and chat with fish. At Shark Island, northwest of Outset, the fish speculates that Link may be able to harness the power of Cyclos’ cyclones to quick travel across the sea. Heading east, the fish near Southern Fairy Island hints that there’s treasure buried beneath black soil on Outset Island. Ice Ring Isle’s fish says melting the ice requires an item – and the directions he gives place the location at the same place as the item that will cool the volcano of Fire Mountain.

Turning to the north, Link comes to a Private Oasis, which the local fish says has a map to the Triumph Forks. The next square doesn’t have an island, and without that, finding the fish in the square, if it’s even there, is impossible. This square is located at the center of the Triforce mark suggested by the pearl islands, so it’ll be worth revisiting once the pearls are placed in the statues. Continuing on, the fish by the Eastern Fairy Island talks about auctions on Windfall Island, giving Link a hint of strategy for them and suggesting one of the items up for auction is a piece of heart. Finally, Link comes to Pawprint Isle between Windfall and Dragon Roost; Link stopped here before, but didn’t look for the fish, who talks about ChuChus and notes that he’s seen Windfall’s potion maker visiting the island.

Next: Going once, going twice…

The Wind Waker: Homecoming

Before Link checks in with the pirates, there are a few things he can clear up on Windfall Island, even with the stormy weather driving everyone indoors. The mailbox is hopping with a letter from Orca, the sword master on Outset Island. Link’s collected a lot of green Chu Jelly by now, and by giving them to the potion maker, he develops green potions for sale. If Link takes the special firefly he got from Forest Haven to the pictograph guy, his pictograph box will be upgraded to a deluxe pictograph box that can take color pictographs. Link can also use the Wind Waker to cause a windmill to turn, then ride it like a Ferris wheel and, from there, jump onto a balcony allowing him to sneak in to the pictograph shop and loot a couple treasure chests, gaining some rupees and a treasure map. Downstairs, the guy is having a conversation with a woman, and is startled when Link comes up on them from inside the shop.

The town’s Bomb Shop is locked up tight, and the owner refuses to open the door. Link, undeterred, sneaks around the back, climbs up some vines to a ledge, and crawls in to see what’s going on. During Link’s first visit to the island, he visited the shop only to basically be kicked out because there’s no way he could possibly afford the prices. Well, apparently the pirates didn’t like his prices very much, because they’ve got the shop owner tied up while they loot his inventory. They mock his prices and where they’ve landed him, and brag about how they got the information about Jabun’s location out of Quill.

They’re not very excited about the prospect of heading back to Outset Island immediately, but Tetra’s concerned that what happened to Greatfish Isle could happen to it. As the other pirates wonder if her concern is for the island or just the treasure, she stammers that it’s the treasure – as she looks up to where Link’s watching the whole sequence and winks at him, so she clearly knows he’s there. She relents and says they’ll set sail in the morning, and leaves them to finish up. As they do, one of the pirates asks another to remind him what the password is, noting that Niko’s a stickler for that. Link overhears the password and waits until they leave before jumping down and leaving himself. There’s no option to help the shop owner, so Link just leaves him tied up. (I know the game wants Link to go steal the bombs from the pirate ship, but, seriously, he could just say they stole everything he had, but he’ll offer Link a discount on future sales or something.)

After Niko lets Link onto the ship, he challenges Link to a harder variation of the test from last time. This time, there are no platforms, so Link has to make like Tarzan and swing from rope to rope, still with a time limit that feels stricter because Link needs to take time to line up the swings. Once he successfully makes it across, Niko gives him the bombs, and Tetra contacts him via the pirate gem. She commends him for having the nerve to steal from them, and says that she’ll give him a head start in the quest to get Nayru’s pearl, but her crew’s sailing first thing in the morning, and has more bombs, so he’d better not dawdle.

There’s not much to do on the journey to Outset Island aside from track down the fish to fill in the map. At Windfall, the fish talks about a dancing man on the island and how he’d like to learn the dance. Three squares to the south at Southern Triangle Island, it’s a hint about the pictographer on Windfall who has a collection of legendary pictographs. Turning to the east, Link comes to Stone Watcher Island and the Islet of Steel, each of which are said to have a map to the “Triumph Forks.” Finally, just north of Outset at Five-Eye Reef, the fish says the “abandoned” fairy fountain on Outset isn’t actually abandoned and the fairy’s still there.

As Link arrives at Outset Island, the King of Red Lions understands that Link may miss his home and tells him the quest can wait a bit while he visits his grandmother. First, though, the mailbox has a letter from Beedle, the merchant ship owner, who now has bombs in stock. When Link returns home, Grandma is not faring too well. Link uses the fairy he has bottled to heal her, and that plus seeing Link again lifts her spirits. She’s determined to be strong again, and fills the fairy bottle with her special soup, which acts like a blue potion plus doubles Link’s attack strength until he gets hit and the bottle has two servings. And she offers to make more if/when he runs out. I haven’t bothered with potions in the 3D games because it’s hard to run out of magic (Ocarina final fight against Ganon aside) and fairies offer full health refills from dying, but this one’s tempting.

Next: The long night ends.

The Wind Waker: Stormy Weather

Heading west to the southwestern corner of the grid map, Link comes to Horseshoe Island. There’s a puzzle here that resembles mini-golf, rolling Deku Nuts into holes to open the way forward. Once the puzzle’s clear, Link can claim two treasure charts: one from a hidden cave with Mothulas, one from the tall island in the center of the horseshoe. The fish tells Link that the swordsman on Outset Island has a Knight’s Crest, which is a spoil Link got in the last dungeon, so that’s who they go to.

Turning to the north now, Link comes to Diamond Steppe Island. There’s not much to do with the island itself, but it corresponds to one of Link’s treasure charts, so he can grab that now and get another heart piece. The fish’s hint seems to be about the ghost ship, which appears near Diamond Steppe Island during a waning gibbous moon. However, it seems that if Link gets close to the ghost ship without an item on the island, the ship disappears.

Next up is Needle Rock Island. There’s a treasure chest protected by flames generated by a switch on top of the tall island, which is in turn protected by a bunch of Kangarocs. So, Link needs to charm a seagull, fly it to the top, and hit the switch without getting hit too many times. It’s doable, but it’s not easy. Once that’s done, Link can claim the treasure, another heart piece for a third complete heart container. The fish says that sinking the warships Link sees around the area is likely to be a good source for treasure. One more square to the north, Link comes to Three-Eye Reef. There’s nothing of interest here, except the fish who says there’s a big treasure hunter on the island to the east.

Now it’s time to turn that way and visit the destination marked on the map, Greatfish Isle, which is easily spotted from a distance because of the large clouds around it. Arriving at the island, the King of Red Lions expresses dismay at the state of the island, and especially the fact that there’s no sign of Jabun, the water spirit he hoped to visit. Quill happens to be visiting the island at the time, sent by Valoo to look for Link. He confirms that Jabun did escape – to Outset Island. There are two complications: First, Jabun is protected and no one can get in to see him. Second, Quill told the pirates about Jabun, and after they couldn’t get past his protection, they went to Windfall Island. Before leaving the island, Link can get a piece of heart from a cave. As Link sails away, he finds the fish, who says something (the ghost ship, presumably) appears nearby during a waxing gibbous moon.

After Link’s visit to Greatfish Isle, the skies are locked in a perpetual storm and the music takes on a darker sound [1], with Ganon’s theme mixed in. This makes exploration a little more difficult because sailing is kinda choppy, but it’s still doable. So, Link heads off to the east, finding two more eye reefs. The fish at Cyclops Reef explains that the rings of light Link sees sometimes in the ocean mark buried treasure, and the really shiny ones correspond to his open treasure maps. Six-Eye Reef has a submarine with three moblins guarding another heart piece, then before Link turns to the north, the fish tells Link that the outdoors shop (the guy Link bought the sail from) on Windfall Island is an enticing target for thieves. Hrm.

At Northern Triangle Island, the last stop before Link arrives back at Windfall Island, the most prominent feature is a giant cylcone. Inside the cyclone is Cyclos, and if Link can’t keep the King of Red Lions from being sucked up into it, they’re sent flying in a random direction. There isn’t anything Link can do about Cyclos right now, so he just avoids the whirlwind and looks for the fish. The fish talks about the teacher on Windfall Island and the Killer Bees – well, we’ve already dealt with that.

Link and the King of Red Lions approach Windfall Island, where the pirate ship is docked. The King advises Link not to ask the pirates directly what they’re up to, and to not let them know what he’s up to. Link nods and runs off to begin the next quest.

Next: Stealing stolen goods.

[1] I’m not musically adept enough to say for sure it switched to a minor key, but that’s what it feels like.

The Wind Waker: Down to the Seas Again

The King of Red Lions may say that time is of the essence in reaching the next destination, but with no timer, the standard rule of “A Link is never late. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when the story intends for him to” applies. The King of Red Lions will stop Link from sailing off the map into the wide empty sea, but other than that Link is finally free to explore. The mapped portion of the Great Sea is a 7×7 grid, and each square has one main point of interest. Anyway, as Link sails away from the Forest Haven, the local fish tells him about a merchant to the north.

Sailing isn’t entirely peaceful. Every now and then, Link will be attacked by enemies that try to knock him off into the sea. The two most common types of enemies I’ve found are Seahats – aquatic Peahats – and shark-like Gyorgs. Gyorgs aren’t too bad, but the Seahats are difficult to target before they rock the boat and the best way I’ve found to deal with them is to run. There’s also ships that shoot cannons at Link, and without a cannon of his own, the only thing to do is raise the sail, weave around so the attacks miss, and outrun the ship.

The first direction Link heads is east, to the Cliff Plateau Isles. Here, Link meets a third type of ChuChu, a blue one, who electrifies if Link doesn’t thwack it with his boomerang first. It drops a blue jelly when defeated. Also around the island, Link can find a couple treasure chests, one with a Joy Pendant, and the other with another treasure chart. There’s also a Korok whose sapling isn’t growing right; it asks Link to bring some water from the Forest Haven to help it grow. The island’s fish gives Link the hint on how to hit the switch and open the Nintendo Gallery: bait a seagull and have it hit the switch.

Turning to the south, Link arrives at the Five-Star Isles. The fish says that the ghost ship appears here when the moon is a waxing crescent. There’s a submarine in the very far corner of the map with some bokoblins and keese inside, and when they’re all down Link gets another heart piece.

Now turning to the west, the next square over is the Boating Course, named for a minigame run there. There doesn’t seem to be a reward for the game aside from rupees. The other feature of interest is a hidden cave filled with Miniblins with a chart that maps all the squares with submarines marked. Very useful. The fish tells Link he can make the boat jump, and use that to execute quick turns.

Next up is the Angular Isles, which is the first time Link can use one of his treasure charts to find sunken treasure, claiming a heart piece. The islands are blocky, and some of the blocks can be pulled or pushed to help Link work his way to the top, where he finds another piece of heart. The fish tells Link about a special firefly in the Forest Haven.

With two hints about the Forest Haven that we can do now, Link heads back before it becomes too far a journey. He lets one of his fairies loose to capture the forest firefly he finds in the Deku Tree’s cave, then he heads back to the Nintendo Gallery entrance. To take control of a seagull, Link puts a Hyoi Pear on his head. The seagull takes it and now Link controls its flight. When it flies into the distant switch, the Nintendo Gallery entrance opens up and Link heads inside. There, a man offers to make figurines if Link brings him suitable pictographs – which he can’t take yet, because he can only take black-and-white pictographs, and the man wants color ones. So, the Gallery will have to wait for another day.

Returning to the Angular Isles and heading west again, Link comes to the Two-Eye Reef. The fish tells Link that he hasn’t seen the fairy who used to hang around these parts, and now there’s a Big Octo – and he worries that the Octo ate the fairy. Link tracks down the Big Octo and kills it by putting out its eyes with the boomerang, and sure enough, the Great Fairy appears – all new appearance, kind of abstract – and doubles Link’s magic meter.

Continuing on, Link comes to Headstone Island. There’s a heart piece on top of the island Link can get by possessing a seagull, and a submarine in the area that’s overrun by rats carrying bombs that awards a treasure chart when all the rats are killed. The main cave on the island is inaccessible, blocked by a heavy head-shaped stone. The fish tells Link the way to lift it can be found on Fire Mountain.

The next island over is Outset Island, where Link started. Link can refill his bait bag here, and wave to all the people he knows. The fish’s intro dialogue this time is different, because Outset Island was already marked on the map so the game thinks this isn’t the first time Link’s talked to it. Anyway, he says that a chart to “golden Triumph Forks” is buried on the island, and says there’s another name it’s heard for them: Triforce.

Next: A storm is coming.

The Wind Waker: Forbidden Woods

After demonstrating proficiency with the Deku Leaf glider, Link heads out of the Deku Tree’s cave to the sea, facing the Forbidden Woods. To get there, he’ll need to make two glides, one to an intermediate island, and then the rest of the way, catching a updraft to lift him. Also, when he’s outside, the wind can help or hinder him on the Deku Leaf glider, so he needs to use the Wind Waker to adjust the wind to a favorable one before each jump. Finally, because there’s not enough to worry about already, there are three Peahats hovering around the entrance to the Forbidden Woods, and if they hit Link, it doesn’t end well for him. On the other hand, once Link finally does make the jump, he can use the grappling hook to steal golden feathers from them.
There are Peahats inside, too, along with a bunch of other plant enemies: Boko Babas, Dexivines (similar to the dexihands from Majora’s Mask), huge vines that are mostly meant to signal to the player that Link can’t progress a certain way (sometimes popping out of the ground en masse to create a maze, sometimes singly poking out from walls in case Link tries a forbidden jump), and Morths, entirely new critters that stick to Link and slow his movement but get dizzy if he does a spin attack and let go (and usually get caught in the spin attack and die). A key feature of navigation is plant critters that block doors with a bunch of vines; cutting the vines does no good since they grow right back, but there’s always something nearby that can kill the critter and open the door. Other navigation tricks involve Boko Bud jumping and soaring with the Deku Leaf, and using the Leaf on the ground to create wind to manipulate carts.

The dungeon’s treasure is guarded by a bunch of Mothulas, which have two variants, one with wings and one without. Like the bosses with the same name, they’re annoying to fight – this time because they summon a bunch of Morths, who are not dangerous but a nuisance. Link needs to knock the winged mothulas’ wings off with the Deku Leaf before he can kill them. The treasure is the boomerang, which is a lot easier to use than Ocarina of Time’s attempt to bring it into 3D. It’ll lock onto targets, and can even lock onto multiple targets and bounce between them before returning to Link.

At the end of the dungeon, Link finally finds Makar, just before Makar is eaten by the boss, Kalle Demos. Kalle Demos then attaches itself to the ceiling with vines, which Link needs to knock down, then charge its exposed weak point and whack it a couple times and get back away before it closes on him. I didn’t do very well at this part (although unlike getting away from Gyorg in Majora’s Mask, I’m pretty sure I could have if I weren’t so focused on getting every last hit I could in), but thankfully there are a bunch of hearts hidden under grass throughout the boss room. After enough hits, Kalle Demos dies and Makar is free, and the portal takes him and Link back to the Deku Tree.

Makar is apologetic when he returns, but the Deku Tree is just happy that he’s safe. The Tree thanks Link and gives him Farore’s Pearl, as promised, and asks Makar to play his music for the ritual. Makar plays a fiddle while the other Koroks sing, and the Tree sprouts a bunch of seeds that the Koroks fly up to collect. Most of the Koroks take the seeds and leave to spread them across the Great Sea. Two stay behind: Makar, still playing his fiddle, and Hollo, who runs a potion shop and would sell Link a potion in exchange for Boko Baba seeds, except that both of Link’s bottles are filled with fairies (the graphic for which has changed from “little ball of light in the bottle” to “little fairy looking sad at being imprisoned”), so no deal there.

Before Link heads back to sea, there are a couple other islands off Forest Haven that need exploring. One has a treasure map in a chest. The other has the Nintendo Gallery, but to access it, Link needs to hit a switch that’s beyond boomerang range. I’ll come back here for this. Link heads back to the King of Red Lions; the mailbox is bouncing around again, this time with a letter from the Rito chieftain thanking Link for everything he did for his people, explaining how the mailboxes work, and including another heart piece. The King of Red Lions is concerned that the Forest Haven was also attacked, and marks the spot for Nayru’s Pearl on the map. Since there’s no one direct path there, the Great Sea has finally opened up, and Link can do some exploring on his way.

Next: And all I ask is a windy day with the white clouds flying, / And the flung spray and the blown spume, and the sea-gulls crying.

The Wind Waker: Deku Tree

Link visits the Wind Shrine, which has two statues. One is destroyed, but the other is intact and has markings that look suspiciously like a tune to conduct with the Wind Waker. Link takes out the wand and waves it around to learn the Wind’s Requiem, a song that lets him change the wind’s direction. Given the name of the wand and the game, I would guess this will be one of the most important songs he can learn. Zephos, the wind god, comes by on a cloud to explain the mechanics to Link. He also mentions his brother, Cyclos, whose monument is the destroyed one at the shrine, and is annoyed about that and uses the wind to torment people. He leaves Link with a request: chastise his brother if he sees cyclones while sailing.

The King of Red Lions says the next destination is to the south, so Link changes the wind to a north wind, and they set sail. Before they can get too far away from the island, they’re interrupted by a fish. The fish can somehow see Link’s chart, and notes that it’s pretty sparsely filled in. Link opens up the chart, and the fish fills in Dragon Roost Island on it. He further tells Link there’s a peculiar cave on the island that can only be accessed by flying. That’s all he can do for Link, but he offers to spread word to his fellows who hang out by islands in the sea. If Link lures them with bait, they’ll also fill in locations on the chart, and give hints about other things to do on the sea. He tells the King of Red Lions that his debt is filled, and takes off.

The next island’s way to the south, giving Link a chance to explore the islands along the way, bait the fish, get his map updated, and learn some hints. The first island he passes is Fire Mountain, another volcano that’s rumored to have treasure inside. The fish says to get the treasure, he’ll have to go west of Windfall Island and get something that will let him freeze the flames. The next island is Eastern Triangle Island, where the fish talks about the power of fairies, and tells Link he can get a bottle on a submarine to the south. The final island to pass on the way south is Bomb Island, where the fish hints about something happening at sea on nights with a third (waning) quarter moon. The submarine the last fish hinted at is here, and Link finds a few Bokoblins and, indeed, a second bottle. Also, there’s one other feature of the grappling hook I didn’t document: it can be used to steal treasure from enemies, turning a random drop (Joy Pendants from the Bokoblins) into a guaranteed get.

Finally, Link arrives at his destination: Forest Haven. Here, he’s charged with getting Farore’s Pearl from the Great Deku Tree. First, the mailbox is bouncing around with a response from the mail helper’s mother with a heart piece. Also, the bait shop boat has made its way here as well, and Link can fill up his bait bag now that he knows how useful baiting fish is. Then, to get to the Deku Tree, Link has a long climb ahead of him. It’s filled with enemies, primarily Boko Babas, but there are a couple octoroks Link can kill by batting their rocks back at them. Finally, Link comes to the Deku Tree’s home, and when he finally gets close to the Tree, he finds it covered in chuchus. Link knocks them loose and kills them all, freeing the Deku Tree to speak.

First the Tree speaks in Hylian, to Link’s bewilderment. He lifts Link up, and apologizes; seeing Link dressed like the Hero of Time momentarily confused him. He already suspects that Link was brought to the island by the King of Red Lions, and Link confirms his suspicion. This also confirms what the Tree believes: that the monsters congregating around the island are doing so because Ganon has returned. He calls to the Koroks, a group of plant creatures who are hiding in his branches, to show themselves because Link is not their enemy. He says the Koroks used to have human forms – seemingly implying they were the Kokiri before. (The music in the area samples both the Kokiri Village and Lost Woods themes from Ocarina of Time.)

Link arrived at an important time – the Koroks are due to perform an annual ritual. The Tree promises to give the pearl to Link after the ritual, but before they can begin, Linder, one of the Koroks, comes in saying that another, Makar, fell into the Forbidden Woods. The Tree asks Link if he’d be willing to go rescue Makar. Before Link can answer, Linder reminds the Tree that Link can’t get to the Woods because he can’t fly. The Deku Tree comes up with a solution, creating an item high in its branches. Link needs to go up to get it, requiring a fun series of being tossed around by Baba Buds, with the occasional grappling hook swing thrown in for variety. Eventually, Link gets to the top and claims the Deku Leaf, allowing him to create gusts of wind on the ground, and can be used as a glider.

Link’s ready to enter the next dungeon – which, by the way, used to be the Kokiri Village, and is now a place of evil. This game just wants to break my heart into a billion pieces, doesn’t it?

Next: I’m a leaf on the wind. Watch how I soar.

The Wind Waker: Dragon Roost Cavern

On the upper level of the Rito village, Link finds Medli, an attendant-in-training to Valoo. She gives Link the letter from the chieftain to Komali and tells him where his room is, then asks him to meet her at the entrance to Dragon Roost Cavern afterward. Link leaves and finds Komali lying in bed, holding a red ball. He wants nothing to do with Link, and giving him the letter doesn’t change his attitude any. Komali says Link’s in the letter, which just raises all sorts of questions. The chieftain wrote the letter and gave it to Medli before either of them met Link, but Link’s mentioned in the letter, and Medli decided to hold on to the letter until Link showed up and the whole sequence makes no sense. Anyway, Komali doesn’t think going to see Valoo in his current mood is a good idea, and he doubts Link can calm him down.

Getting through to Komali wasn’t going to happen, so Link leaves to meet Medli as promised. The area they meet used to be a small spring, but Valoo’s tantrum knocked a boulder to block the source of the spring, causing it to dry up. Medli wants to go to a shrine near the top of the mountain, but with the bridge out and the spring gone, needs Link to toss her into the wind to make it across. With his help, she flies to the far ledge, and gives Link a bottle before making her journey up. Link uses the bottle to gather some of the remaining spring water, which he uses to refresh a nearby withered bomb flower. Then the bomb from the flower blows up the rock blocking the spring (which takes good timing to have the bomb blow up when it’s close enough to the rock, but before it goes into the water), allowing Link to cross the chasm. Once across, he needs to use bombs knock down two statues to form platforms to cross a lava pit, allowing him access to Dragon Roost Cavern.

Being the first real dungeon, Dragon Roost Cavern takes the time to teach the player some of the basics of dungeoneering. Some, like lighting torches and pulling blocks, are familiar to people who’ve played other games in the series (particularly the games on the N64 for the 3D versions), but there are some new wrinkles. Some pots contain water that cause lava to temporarily cool into walkable platforms, and there are a couple times Link needs to cut ropes to cause a platform to fall. Wooden panels over doors can be broken with the sword, or if they’re too thick for that, burned away. Enemies hide in pots and have to be lured out. And even the familiar puzzle elements have new twists: there’s an enemy that curls into a ball when it takes damage that, at one point, Link needs to hold down a switch to open the chest with the boss key. The rats are back, and King of Red Lions contacts him somehow to tell him they’ll sell him stuff if he attracts them with bait. Finally, there are pots that Link can jump in to quick travel between points in the dungeon. The one near the beginning is open, but later ones have to be cleared.

The path through the dungeon manages to be obvious even as it loops around itself, punctuated by sequences where Link goes outside to walk on the mountain to the next entrance to the dungeon. During one of the outside paths, Link comes close to Valoo’s roost. Nearby, Medli’s been captured by Bokoblins. Once they’re gone – plus a Moblin that gets dropped in to join the fray – he lets her out of her cell. She tells him that Valoo’s tail reaches into the mountain, and there’s a monster in there bothering it, and that’s why he’s so upset. She leaves to tell her people what’s causing Valoo’s bad mood, and gives Link a grappling hook to help navigate the rest of the dungeon. For the most part, at least for this dungeon, it’s not really a hookshot, but instead lets him wrap a rope around something to swing across pits below.

The grappling hook gets a workout during the boss fight against Gohma, who’s been reimagined with a longer body: more like a scorpion than a crab. Gohma’s apparently been the one annoying Valoo, but the first phase of the fight involves Link using the grappling hook to pull Valoo’s tail, making Valoo drop a giant rock that crushes Gohma and cracks its armor, so Gohma’s apparently been hiding after tormenting Valoo. Once Gohma’s armor is completely destroyed, Link can use the grappling hook on its eye directly – its most hookshottish use – and pull Gohma closer and hit the eye with his sword. It doesn’t take long before Gohma dies, dropping a heart container and causing the lava pit it was crawling out of to cool off.

Valoo is pleased no one’s bothering its tail anymore, and the cloud around the mountain clears up. Medli brings Komali to meet Link on the beach, and Komali’s apologetic for how he treated Link before, and gives Link the red ball – Din’s Pearl, which was what Link needed from the island. Valoo says “Use the wind god’s wind” in Hylian, and Medli or Komali thinks it might mean for Link to visit the nearby wind shrine. Komali runs off to meet with Valoo, and after thanking Link, Medli follows.

Next: They’re all talking about a feeling, of a taste that’s in the air…

The Wind Waker: The Wind Awakens

Link’s got everything he needs to set sail for his next destination, but there’s still stuff he can do here on Windfall Island. The Killer Bees’ teacher is concerned about their lack of devotion to their studies, so she asks him to speak to them for her. Well, they’re not exactly thrilled for Link to be butting into their business, but they challenge him to a game of hide-and-seek. Unlike with the Bombers in Majora’s Mask, Link doesn't have Deku Scrub stun bubbles to keep them from running away, so he has to chase them, and this is where the guy pestering Link about his daughter starts to get old. Anyway, they all get caught, Link gets a heart piece, there’s peace between the kids and the teacher, and they even get Link to find a Joy Pendant and give it to her for them. She loves the Joy Pendants, and asks Link to bring more to her if he finds them.

Finally, there’s Salvatore. I’m not sure what his deal is, exactly, but he hangs around a shop running a Battleship minigame for kids, including Link. When he’s not running the game, he looks and acts terminally bored. When he starts introducing the game, he has a little skit he does, complete with wooden face cutouts for the admiral who puts Link in charge of defending the island from the attacking squids, and after the game’s done, the children thanking Link for saving the island. His announcements of hits and misses during the game are entertaining, too: “Spliiish…” and “Ka-BOOOM!” Rewards for the game include a heart piece and two treasure maps.

Now it’s time to hoist the sail and explore the seas. Only Link can’t do too much exploring; if he tries to go any direction but east, the King of Red Lions takes control and says, “No, we can’t go that way yet.” So, fine, east it is. A little bit of rebellion is possible; there’s an island between Windfall and the one Link’s being led to that Link can explore. There’s a heart piece on the island, giving Link a full heart container. Near the island there’s a little boat with a bunch of people in diving helmets who give Link a treasure map and tell him to find a grappling hook so he can search for treasure.

Finally, Link arrives at his destination, Dragon Roost Island, so named because there’s a giant dragon, Valoo, roosting on top of the island. Valoo has an item Link needs for his quest, Din’s Pearl, so Link needs to find a way to get him to give it to him. He suggests asking the locals, the Rito, for help. Before Link goes, he’s given one last item, a conductor’s baton called the Wind Waker. This lets him get the wind to play songs, although he doesn’t actually learn any of those songs so right now it’s just a fancy stick he can’t even poke people with. Sailing around the island is a merchant who sells bait and bags to keep it in. I’m not sure if I’ll need it, but rupees seem to flow pretty freely in this game, so why not.

Getting to the Rito village requires a bit of climbing, including blowing up rocks with bomb flowers. Once he enters, he’s greeted by the postman – the Rito are his people. He offers to talk to his chieftain about helping Link, but of course it isn’t so easy. Something has made Valoo angry, which threatens his coexistence with the Rito – it’s by his grace that they grow wings. Komali, the chieftain’s son has reached the age where he’s supposed to meet with Valoo and get a dragon scale, but given the situation, it’s not going to happen any time soon and the chieftain worries about his son sinking into despair, and asks Link to talk to him. He also asks Link to bring something to Komali that he’d already entrusted to another Rito, Medli. The postman – whose name is Quill, by the way – gives Link a third bag, a Delivery Bag.

Exploring the village, Link comes to the letter sorting station. This opens a minigame where he can toss letters into cubicles, getting paid for each one he does, with the goal of making 25 in a single try. It’s frustrating, because the time limit’s strict, and it comes down to which comes up more: being able to toss multiple letters into the same cubicle in a row, or having to alternate between opposite corners. When Link finally does it, he gets a nice prize, but the guy brings on a new helper to sort the mail. If Link returns, the helper asks to see Link’s legendary 25-letter sort, which means he has to do it all over again. The reward for this time is a getting to drop a letter in the mailbox for the helper.

Next: Valoo might want to reconsider its seating arrangement.

Oracle of Seasons: Holodrum Secrets and Ending

As with Ages, playing a Linked Game of Seasons has ten secrets to deliver to characters in Ages for rewards. The assorted rewards are mostly the same as going the other way, except for the two rings which are different.

The first secret comes early, after Link first meets the Maku Tree. The secret is for one of the mischievous fairies in Labrynna, who reward Link with a heart container – which would be great to have early in Seasons, but it takes a while before the Hall of Secrets opens up and Link can talk to Farore to get his rewards transferred over.

After completing the second dungeon, a fairy appears in a cave nearby with a secret for Tingle. The reward for this secret is a seed satchel upgrade. Also, Holly’s house has a visitor, who wants to pass a secret to the authors of her favorite book, who live in Symmetry Village. The reward for this one is the ring box upgrade.

After completing the third dungeon, a boy appears near the guy playing the Song of Storms with a secret for his mentor on Rolling Ridge. To get the reward for this secret, Link has to complete a game of Target Carts, and for some reason I had to do it twice because the first time didn’t take. The reward is bombchus. Also, a woman appears in the home of the floodgate keeper with a secret for her daughter, Mamamu Yan. Her daughter’s lost her dog, so Link has to chase it down and bring it back to her for the Snowshoe Ring, which lets Link walk over ice without slipping.

A moblin who remains at the ruined keep after Link chases the Great Moblin out has a secret for the tokay. The secret lets the tokay who runs the museum where the “throw meat to the passing tokay” game was in the past start running the game in the present, and to earn the reward – a bomb bag upgrade – Link has to master the game once again.

After Link cures Biggoron’s cold, Link meets a goron with a secret for the gorons on Rolling Ridge. The reward, of course, is Biggoron’s Sword, but before Link can be trusted with it, he’s got to demonstrate proficiency with it by scoring high enough at the Goron Shooting Gallery. This game was already something of a headache, and having to play it again with the slow-swinging Biggoron’s Sword was not great.

After fully unlocking the power of the Rod of Seasons, a Subrosian appears near where Link got a Bomb Flower with a secret for Mayor Plen of Lynna City. The reward for passing this secret is the Spin Ring, allowing Link to do a double spin attack.

After Link helps the pirates and their ship is anchored allowing access to the cemetery, a ghost sets up living in the house north of the ship. He used to work for the library in Labrynna, and has a secret to tell to a librarian there. The reward for this secret is the shield upgrade.

The final secret comes from a zora in the Hero’s Cave to pass along to the King Zora. It doesn’t require anything acquired later than the third dungeon to get to that zora, but if you’re expecting “Hero’s Cave = late game content,” you’ll miss him until much later in the game. The reward for the secret is the sword upgrade, which of course is nice to have as soon as possible.

Returning the the main game, after Onox is defeated, the ending sequence kicks in as Twinrova kidnaps Zelda to kick off the final battle. From this point forward, it’s the same as the final portion of Linked Ages, except Holodrum’s Maku Tree doesn’t get jealous when Zelda kisses Link. The scenes and images that play over the closing credits are identical, with the only credit difference being there’s no Hero’s Secret given this time; this time, it’s truly over.

Overall, I think I did well to start with Seasons rather than Ages; about the only thing that’s truly missed doing Seasons first is the revelation about Ambi’s relationship with the pirate captain, and that’s fairly minor. Either way, they’re good games, and a very satisfying experience.

The Wind Waker: Windfall Island

The King of Red Lions and the Sail

Link floats in the sea, after his attempt to rescue Aryll and the other girls failed. A boat pulls up alongside him, and then Link wakes to a voice calling his name. After coming to his feet, Link looks around for the source of the voice, which turns out to be the boat itself. The boat says it’s the only one that can speak human language and introduces itself as the King of Red Lions. He commends Link on his courage, but says his rescue attempt was foolhardy. He also confirms that the mysterious figure Link saw give the order to the bird to throw him into the sea is indeed Ganon – the same Ganon the Hero of Time fought before disappearing back to his own time all those years ago.

The King of Red Lions asks if Link intends to continue his quest, and offers to help him along. He says the key to defeating Ganon is locked away and will require significant effort to get. But before they can set off on their quest, the King of Red Lions needs something else – a sail so they can travel the seas. To that end, he’s brought Link to Windfall Island, where Link should be able to acquire a sail from somebody. Despite the King of Red Lions’ assertion that Link has no time to waste here, I’m sure there will be other distractions that keep Link from his true quest.

Actually getting a sail is simply a matter of finding the right guy, and realizing his odd behavior keeping Link from traveling through a certain opening is his way of directing Link to the front of his stall. There, he tells his story: he came to Windfall Island hoping to make his fortune, but lost everything but his ship’s sail in a shipwreck. No one on the island seems interested in buying the sail, so he sells it to Link for 80 rupees to help him start his business. Also, there are two parents here who have lost their daughters to Ganon and the bird: one very rich, one very not. The poor father hangs out by the docks and bothers Link about saving his daughter every time he sees him, and it gets old fast, especially when he distracts Link’s attention from other things. It’s like, dude, I sympathize, but if rescuing your daughter was easy, I’d have done it already – and assuming she’s one of the other girls in the cell with Aryll, I mean that literally.

Introductory Pictography

Most of the people on the Island greet Link kindly when he enters their homes, but there’s one who’s a little skeptical, remembering another stranger who stole his pictograph box. The Killer Bees, a group of kids who hang out in the area, tell Link that the stranger got arrested, and didn’t have the box when he left the jail. Link visits the jail, and Tingle is there. Link lets him out, and Tingle promises to be Link’s friend, giving him a sea chart with directions to his home island. He also gives Link a Tingle Tuner, which seems to be some sort of multiplayer thing that I’m glad is in my inventory because otherwise there would be a blank spot there. With Tingle gone, Link is able to explore the cell, discovering a hole in the back that leads to a series of tunnels. Eventually, Link finds his way to the room where the prisoner hid the pictograph box and claims it.

When Link takes the box back to its creator, the creator doesn’t seem to recognize it as the same box that was stolen from him, and instead assumes Link shares his love of pictography. He takes Link to see his gallery, which probably foreshadows things Link will find on his adventure – that ghost ship definitely sounds like the kind of thing that wouldn’t get mentioned if it weren’t going to come up again. He invites Link to be his apprentice, but first challenges Link to get three pictographs.

The first is of a man who’s incessantly sending love notes to his crush; the man is the one who’s very interested in the workings of the mailbox and whose default dialogue is wondering if the mail has been collected. Link needs to stand back to get a picture, because otherwise the man will enter his path and glare at him until he moves. The second is of the island’s most cowardly inhabitant, who hangs out in the cafe. Link needs to startle him and quickly take a picture while he’s still shaken up, which isn’t easy. Finally, there’s two people on the island who are interested in each other but afraid to say it, and the man wants a picture of the two of them looking at one another. One of them is the man running circles around the island, who stops to look at a woman near his path. Link gets the picture, and is awarded a Joy Pendant for his efforts.

Next: Conducting the wind.

Oracle of Seasons: Linked Game Diffferences

In an unlinked game, there was no reason to suspect that Din’s troupe was anything but what they said they were, except that the troupe’s cook was named Impa, a familiar name for anyone familiar with the backstory of the NES games and/or Ocarina of Time [1]. With Link’s heroics in Labrynna known to them, however, they reveal to him that they’re all undercover Knights of Hyrule, which only further confirms that Link should have been a lot more suspicious when he met Impa in Labrynna and she didn’t recognize him (because Veran was in the driver’s seat). Oh, well, just by showing up in Holodrum and getting knocked out on entry, he’s borked their plan to spirit Din to safety, and gives Onox time to act, so he messed up both places before getting to fix the problems he caused [2].

Ambi makes a number of appearances, having been sent to the future to explore Holodrum. The most significant of these comes after Link helps the pirates get their ship back, and Ambi comes in to reveal that the lover she wanted to lead back to her was the pirate captain. They have a bittersweet reunion, acknowledging their feelings for one another, but that the captain won’t be content to stay with her if it means giving up sailing. Of course, the pirates still get seasick and park their ship to make a convenient bridge for Link, so he’s got some time to spend with her while getting ready to truly set sail again.

After two dungeons, Impa comes to Link as he heads north from Horon Village, saying that Zelda has come to Holodrum without any guards. They split up to look for her, and Link’s the one to find her, and of course she’s managed to land herself in trouble. She’s being accosted by the moblins; as they’re demanding her valuables, the Great Moblin will recognize Link and have the moblins attack him. He doesn’t stick around for actual confrontation, and four moblins vs. Link just isn’t a very fair fight. The Great Moblin comes back to express his annoyance, then flees for his keep, and Zelda thanks Link for rescuing her. Impa, having apparently given up her search so quickly, shows up to express her relief that Zelda’s safe now. Overall, this sequence is a lot less memorable and fun than playing Donkey Kong with Vire.

Although Vire doesn’t get to participate in the Zelda-in-distress sequence, he does make an appearance before his dungeon. He’s apparently moved the first two of the gems Link will eventually need to reach the sixth dungeon; it’s not a big deal with the map, but it adds a little extra flavor to the hunt for the gems.

The Hero’s Cave has been reworked from the place for Link to get his sword in the early game to, like in linked Ages, a series of puzzles. The puzzles don’t get as tricky as they did in Ages – there’s nothing as frustrating as the lava bed/rolling block puzzle, or as completely out of left field as using the Cane of Somaria to cover the one space Link can’t walk over. In exchange, combat plays a larger role. The combat ranges from trivial to tricky (fighting a bunch of waterborne enemies with only a few places to stand in the room – WTB bombos medallion) to challenging to a gauntlet of enemies covering the full spectrum of challenge (eight different enemies, summoned in groups of four).

That’s not to say there aren’t any puzzles, or the ones that are there are all easy. There’s a group of six switch blocks moving back and forth, and Link needs to turn all of them red at the same time, which is much harder than it sounds. One puzzle, which is intended to involve threading a tight path with the magic boomerang controls, is only saved from being hair-pulling by a couple of alternate solutions the developers either overlooked or decided would be unfair to take out – the boomerang can be thrown above the path but hit the switch block on the return arc, or Link can chuck a bombchu at it and let that take care of it, which is as far as I’ve been able to determine, the only use for bombchus in either game. (Unless you want to drop one on Toilet Hand Guy for fun.)

The final puzzle is rather inspired: there are eight treasure chests in a room and Link needs to open them in the correct order. Rather than guessing, the trick is to imagine the room as a miniature map of Holodrum and the chests as the eight dungeon entrances, and opening the chests in the order of the dungeons. Link’s reward is the opposite of the reward for the Ages Hero’s Cave: a ring that greatly boosts his sword damage, but also increases the damage he takes. Not as useful, although possibly interesting for challenge runs. And, hey, it’s the sixty-fourth ring (after ticking off the secrets, which I’ll cover in the next post), so I’m not going to complain too much.

Next: Why do they call them secrets if they want you to tell them to someone else?

[1] Or Hyrule Warriors, but that wouldn’t come out for another few years.
[2] Mostly? There’s never any indication that the Temple of Seasons gets to return to the surface from Subrosia.

The Wind Waker: Forsaken Fortress

If Link tries to talk to Tetra or any of the other pirates, he’s told not to hang around on deck and interfere with their duties and go below deck with the scrubbie, Niko, whom Link will answer to while he’s on the ship. Niko starts by issuing a challenge to Link, jumping across a series of platforms to the far end of the room. The platforms after the first are too far to simply jump across, so Link has to swing on ropes dangling from the ceiling to make the jump. In other words, it’s a tutorial for another new feature of the game. Once I got the hang of jumping and swinging, it wasn’t difficult at all, despite Niko’s belief it would take him a full year to master. Once Link makes it across, Niko realizes he promised Link a reward for doing it so quickly and tells him to open the chest in the room behind him. Link finds a spoils bag, which will let him hold items dropped by enemies.

Tetra calls down to Link that they’ve arrived, so Link gets back up above deck to see the Forsaken Fortress. She points out the bird, and a lit window that has several seagulls swarming around it. Tetra suspects that’s where Aryll and the other missing girls are. The fortress is swarming with spotlights, so there’s no way for the pirates’ ship to approach safely, so they have to figure out another way. Tetra considers for a moment, then gets a mischievous look, and we cut to Link in a barrel on a catapult. It takes Link a second to realize what’s about to happen, and he starts struggling to get free as Tetra explains this is the only way to get him there. As the countdown goes, Link gradually gets himself mentally ready to go flying, and fly he does as the pirates wave goodbye. He crashes into the wall and is separated from his sword as he falls into the water surrounding the fortress. This whole sequence is hysterical; I love that they’ve given Link a little bit of personality – entirely communicated by expressions and grunts.

With all the spotlights, this can only mean one thing: a stealth section! Only, this seems to run by the Scooby-Doo rules of if you don’t see the barrel walking, and it stops when you turn toward it/shine a light on it, it’s not moving at all, so Link gets to hide in barrels to sneak around, which adds a great detail of absurdity and makes the stealth aspect tolerable. To turn off the spotlights, Link needs to go to the towers where Bokoblins are operating them and defeat the Bokoblins. Except, Link doesn’t have his sword. Before the first watchtower, Tetra contacts Link via a stone she slipped into his pocket. She suggests Link block the Bokoblins’ attacks, then steal their weapons when they drop them, and whack them with it, and it’s a good plan, except there’s a better option. Each of the watchtowers has a pot with a couple more sticks in them, and Link can grab them without waiting for the Bokoblins to drop theirs. So there’s no need to race the Bokoblin to the stick, just roll away from the Bokoblin as it attacks, grab a stick, chuck it at the Bokoblin, and repeat until it dies. Shutting off the spotlights makes walking around outside a bit easier.

Then there’s the inside. The dungeon map and compass are here, along with a heart piece on the first floor that’s not hard to get but getting back to the second floor, where Link needs to be, requires a lot of sneaking past Moblins and running from Miniblins and Keeses and trying to avoid rats who can steal rupees and destroy barrels.

Back outside, after sneaking past another moblin, Link comes to a gap he can’t jump across. There’s a narrow ledge along the wall he can just barely walk across using the wall to maintain his balance, though. After successfully crossing the first gap, there’s another one, this one with a couple hearts in case Link’s taken damage. Finally, Link finds his sword, just in time to use it on another Bokoblin. That Bokoblin blocks the way into a large room where Aryll and a couple other girls are being held in a cage. Link and Aryll are happy to see one another, but before Link can act, he’s grabbed by the bird and taken to its master. We don’t see the bird’s master clearly, but even without my suspicions about who the bird was working for, we see he has olive skin and red hair, so it’s either Ganon or some serious misdirection. Ganon tells the bird to throw Link into the sea, and the bird obliges.

Next: Well, he's obviously not going to drown.