Every time Link re-enters Zora’s River, the owl’s there to repeat the same message: Link needs to prove a connection to the royal family to enter Zora’s Domain. It’s informative once, but gets old quickly. I’m not overly fond of the owl – some guilt by association there because of how the one in Link’s Awakening lied to Link – but I have to admit the song that plays while it’s talking to Link is pretty cool.
There’s a skulltula in a tree near the entrance to the area, and then going further upriver requires a cucco glider, which should totally be a new mode in the next Pilotwings. Octoroks seem to have become aquatic at some point and shoot rocks at Link, but they can safely be ignored. The cucco glider helps Link get two more heart pieces along the way, and there’s a second skulltula waiting on a ladder. Then it’s time to enter Zora’s Domain, which of course requires Link to play “Zelda’s Lullaby” at the door to part the waterfall.
Unlike the gorons, the zoras appear to be fairly content before Link’s arrival. The king is worried about his missing daughter, Ruto, but they’re not facing the prospect of starving to death or the death of their guardian spirit, so Ganon didn’t hurt them too bad when he couldn’t get them to give him their Spiritual Stone. One of the zoras will throw rupees into the water for Link to round up by diving, and for a guy who grew up in Kokiri Forest that doesn't have much deep water, Link's a pretty good diver. Once Link masters the game, he gets a silver zora scale which doubles the length of time he can stay underwater. There’s also a heart piece if Link lights five torches, and I played with Din’s fire, which seems to ignite everything near Link on fire. Nifty.
Now that Link can dive longer, there’s an underwater tunnel in Zora’s Domain that he can go through and visit Lake Hylia. The main purpose of this visit is to find a bottle, which is near the entrance, highlighted by Navi, and marked with a trail of rupees, so it’s obviously pretty important. Inside this bottle is a message from Ruto, saying she’s inside Lord Jabu-Jabu’s belly waiting for someone to help her, and encouraging them not to tell her father. Well, ignoring that last bit is probably the best way to get help from King Zora is to show him the letter, but while Link’s here he may as well look around. There’s another patch of soil which has a skulltula that can be lured out with bugs and then Link can plant a magic bean. The building here has some sort of potion researcher, and while I’m sure this will be interesting eventually, I can’t find anything to do here just yet. The six-second dives aren’t even enough to get the red rupees in the water in his lab. Anyway, there’s another
skulltula on an island, bringing the total collected up to 25. The owl’s here, too, and he mentions a Water Temple in the area and offers Link a ride to Hyrule Castle, which is out of the way for now so Link declines.
In a separate area off the Lake is a pond that’s been set up as a fishing minigame, and since there hasn’t been a minigame yet that didn’t have some sort of relevant reward, I guess it’s time to break out the tackle box. This is another thing that was designed to use the Rumble Pak, but at least it’s fairly obvious visually when a fish jumps on the line. I lost the first few fish I caught because I couldn’t get the last step of spinning the rod to fully bring the fish to shore, but overall this was a fun little minigame. Once Link finally catches a big enough fish, the man at the shop awards him with another heart piece.
Even when shown the letter from Princess Ruto, King Zora doesn’t believe Jabu-Jabu would eat her. Then he realizes Jabu-Jabu’s been a bit weird since Ganon came poking around, so he agrees to let Link by to try to rescue Ruto. He moves out of the way, one inch at a time. After twenty-five times [1], he’s finally out of Link’s way. Normally, at this point, I would go to Lon Lon Ranch to fill all the bottles with milk, but I don’t want to risk the owl being at the start of Zora’s river, nor having to watch the King scoot over again, so I’ll have to hope my one bottle of milk is sufficient.
In the fountain behind him is a huge fish, but the fish doesn’t seem interested in eating Link. Returning to Zora’s Domain, one Zora says that Ruto was in charge of feeding Jabu-Jabu, and another suggests offering a fish. Unfortunately, Link had to turn the one he caught at the pond over for his heart piece, but there’s some fish swimming around Zora’s Domain that can be caught and put in bottles. Catching one, then returning to Jabu-Jabu and releasing it, gives Link a chance to show off his Jonah impression as he’s sucked into the giant fish along with his offering.
Next: Princess Ruto turns out to be a handful.
[1] I counted.
