Turtle Rock
At the far edge of the map lies the entrance to Turtle Rock. There’s no key nor quake medallion to open the way forward, so Link has to do what’s been hinted: play the song to make the turtle come to life. The turtle turns hostile, so it’s a miniboss fight to get into the dungeon. Not a particularly tough one, though, so the way opens fairly easily. In addition to having a turtle head creature petrified on top of the entrance, the dungeon’s floorplan resembles a turtle, too.
This is the final real dungeon, so it pulls out all the stops. Five of the old dungeons’ minibosses return here, the exceptions being Master Stalfos, whom Link had to fight four times; the gohmas; and the Grim Creeper, who was also sort of the dungeon’s end boss. Vires show up for the first time since the first game, and they’re considerably more dangerous now, hiding along the edges of the screen and spitting fire at Link. The dodongo snakes are particularly memorable, because to get the chest they drop, Link has to exit and re-enter the dungeon – grabbing the last heart piece along the way – coming back on an elevated walkway, and has to defeat the snakes by throwing bombs at them from above.
The dungeon’s actual miniboss is Blaino, a boxer whose gloves also provide a strong defense against Link’s sword attacks. He’s got a wind-up punch that will send Link flying back to the start of the dungeon if it hits, but if it misses it leaves him vulnerable for a second. Also, his defense doesn’t protect against spin attacks, so that’s the best way to get rid of him. Once Blaino is defeated, a passage opens to the dungeon’s treasure, the magic rod, which since it comes with the magic book capability from the start, also resembles A Link to the Past’s fire rod. This is quite useful against some enemies, such as the vires. It’s also needed to destroy some icy blocks in the side-scrolling areas that block passage to the Nightmare.
The dungeon also has a unique type of puzzle: moving platforms that give some kind of reward if they can be manipulated to cover the entire open area in the room. This finally led to me having a breakdown when my thumb was killing me and the damned D-pad wasn’t responding properly to my commands trying to get the platform to turn. The controller I had been using has been a loyal friend for 13 years, but my poor thumb finally said enough.
The dungeon’s Nightmare is Hot Head, a fireball that hops around the lava pit and throws fire at Link. Counterintuitively, his weakness is the magic rod’s fireballs, which stop him moving for a second, which means if Link can keep a steady stream of fireballs thrown at him, it’s going to be a short and ridiculous fight. Hot Head asks Link why he had to come disrupt the Nightmares’ plan and force everything to change, before falling into the same “you too are in the dream” routine the previous two Nightmares had used.
Finally, Link claims the Thunder Drum, the final Instrument, and the voice tells him it’s time to visit the egg on the mountain.
The Wind Fish’s Egg
Before he can do that, however, Link has to visit Mabe Village’s library. There’s a book there that can only be read with the magnifying glass, which explains the route Link needs to take inside the Egg’s maze. Also, coming down from the mountain, there’s one final owl statue.
“MUSIC, THE FISH STIRS IN THE EGG YOU ARE THERE…”
At last, it’s time to awaken the sleeper. As Link approaches the egg, the owl returns one more time, reminding Link everything we already know; this scene was probably meant for if Link went to the egg before he was ready to open it. Link approaches the egg and plays the Ballad of the Wind Fish on the ocarina, and is soon joined by the eight Instruments for a larger serenade. Instead of waking the Wind Fish, it merely cracks a hole in the egg. With encouragement from the owl, Link enters the egg.
The inside of the egg looks like a dungeon, but Link falls to the lower floor, which is a bunch of identical rooms with passages in all four cardinal directions. If Link follows the directions from the book in the library, he comes to another pit and jumps down to confront the final boss.
Next: Verily, it be the nature of dreams to end.
