As Link walks into the main chamber of the Forest Temple, four poes steal fire from the torches in the middle and scatter throughout the dungeon. Navi puts on her Captain Obvious uniform and informs Link that the poes stole the fire. I watched the cutscene, too, thanks. This sets the stage for the first main goal of the dungeon: track down and defeat the four poes to get the fire back and open the way forward. Or downward, as the case may be.
In addition to the poes, this dungeon features a bunch of new old enemies. Wallmasters make their return (still falling from the ceiling), along with a new variant call floormasters that split in three which, if not killed quickly, will reform the defeated floormaster and require it to be done all over again. And the stalfos knights show up, behaving much like lizalfos from Dodongo’s Cavern: block their attacks, then return serve. They also do the thing where the one not targeted watches as the other duels Link, and there’s one pair where Link has a short time after defeating one to defeat the other or the downed one reforms [1].
Being in the Lost Woods, you might expect the dungeon to be full of puzzles, and you’d be right. In addition to the familiar block puzzles (direction helpfully indicated by arrows on the floor), the eye switches (one of which is frozen solid and needs an arrow shot through a torch!) twist/untwist hallways which results in viewing the next room from a different orientation. Then there’s a corridor with ceiling with a ceiling that constantly tries to crush Link so he has to run to the few safe squares, some of which are occupied by big skulltulas who aren’t keen on sharing their safe space and are tough to hookshot because of the fixed camera angle. The fire-stealing poes each present a puzzle of their own. Two require smashing mirrors without getting too close, and the hookshot’s range is within “too close,” so Link needs to find the dungeon’s treasure, the bow, to hit the mirrors. The third requires pushing a bunch of cubes together to form a picture of the poe. The fourth appears right out in the open, but splits into four copies, only one of which can actually be harmed.
With the fires restored, Link can access the bottom floor of the dungeon. The main room is a giant circular room that can be spun around, with small rooms that can only be accessed when the main room is aligned a certain way. There’s a skulltula, one of five available, hidden in one of the small rooms, but the main thing Link needs to do is hit a series of switches in order to open the way forward.
Such a puzzling dungeon needs a puzzle boss, and we get it with Phantom Ganon, an evil spirit from beyond. This fight comes in two phases. First, there are six pictures around the room, and Phantom Ganon leaps from one of them, electrifying the room as he passes through. Making it harder, there’s a fake double that rides up at the same time as the real one. I found the easiest way to deal with this is to find a corner where the electricity doesn’t reach, helpfully marked with the Triforce symbol, and shooting Ganon as he charges over the center of the room. Three hits and Ganon dismounts, and he throws spells at Link, and the only way to hit him is, like with Agahnim in the future, to reflect the spells right back at him. Only it’s harder now. The timing has to be precise, and Ganon can hit them back at Link, in which case Link has to send them back again. With three bottled fairies [2], I didn’t think I was in any danger of dying (permanently), but this battle took me about 30 minutes to get enough hits. By the end of it, I had the hang of the timing pretty well.
After the phantom is defeated, the real Ganon makes telepathic contact, praising Link’s skill and saying that he’ll be harder to beat than his phantom, which he calls useless and banishes to the void.
Wrapping up the story, Link and Saria are reunited, and Saria accepts her destiny as a sage. She gives Link her medallion and promises they’ll always be friends. If Link calls her on the ocarinaphone, she tells him she’s happy to be helping save Hyrule. An offshoot of the Deku Tree appears where the old Tree was, and reveals to Link that he’s not actually a Kokiri, but a Hylian who was left in the care of the Deku Tree as an infant. With the Deku Tree Sprout now around, the village is once again peaceful. Mido is sad that Saria won’t return, but understands, and (indirectly) tells Link that Saria never gave up on him and apologizes for being mean to him before.
Link returns to the Temple of Time, and Sheik’s there to tell him he can go back to being a kid by returning the Master Sword to its pedestal, and he teaches Link a new song that will teleport him to the Temple.
Next: When there’s hidden poes in Hyrule Field, who you gonna call?
[1] And I only now thought of landing a couple hits on one and switching targets so the one that’s left is only at half health and it’s easy. Bah.
[2] These seem to be overpowered now. Seriously, if fairies instantly revive you at full health, what’s the point of potions? (At least red potions; maybe there’ll be a point where Link needs to conserve magic so a green potion would be a wise investment.)
