The main objective for this round is to compete Snowhead Temple, so Link plays the Inverted Song of Time to maximize the amount of time he has to complete the dungeon. Then he soars up to Snowhead, where a wind is blowing from the temple making approach impossible. Tatl sees something in the storm, and suggests Link take a look, and the Lens of Truth reveals the wind’s caused by a giant goron blowing down the path. So Link shifts into goron form and plays the Goron’s Lullaby, which puts the goron to sleep and stops the wind. The goron rolls off the walkway, but I’m sure he’ll be alright, and even if he won’t, he’d have frozen to death anyway. Or died when the moon hit.
Given the name, location, and ambient weather, it’s little surprise that Snowhead Temple is an ice dungeon. Goron form is essential here, pushing heavy blocks, rolling over ramps, smashing down switches too heavy to be bothered by human Link, and in the final puzzle, punching out segments of the central elevator pillar that have it raised so high it’s blocking the entrance to the boss room. Deku Link isn’t so important, but gets to come out and play a few times. New enemies include snowball-tossing eenos and rodents with bombs on their tails that are called real bombchus.
The dungeon’s miniboss is a familiar face that I’m surprised to realize weren’t in Ocarina: wizzrobes. They’ve been reimagined yet again, teleporting between various pads around the room. Fortunately, the dot on the minimap shows where they’re going to be, so it’s just a matter of turning to face them and hitting them with an arrow before they can get their shot off. After the first few shots, the wizzrobe starts adding illusory doubles, but only the real one shows up on the minimap, so it’s really just a minor distraction. There are two of them in the dungeon. One guards the dungeon’s treasure, the fire arrows, which I now understand to be the replacement for the fire rod. The second wizzrobe guards the boss key.
The boss of the dungeon is a masked mechanical monster named Goht, a giant robot bull. (Or maybe goat, but aside from the name, bull seems more appropriate.) It starts the battle frozen in ice, which I would think would present an opportunity – Link could hack away enough of the ice to hit its weak spot for an easy kill – but apparently that wouldn’t be “sporting” or “fair” or “fun” or “worth the man-hours the people at Nintendo put in designing this thing,” so we have to do it the hard way. Link melts the ice with a fire arrow, and Goht takes off running around a track around the room. Link puts on the goron mask and rolls after it. This is a fun fight, having to dodge all the obstacles Goht summons and poke at his legs with the goron ball spikes. One time I caught a ramp and landed on his back and was able to get a few free hits in that way, and I’d guess that’s how it’s supposed to be done. After enough hits, Goht loses control, plows into the central pillar, and is buried in rubble.
Link and Tatl return to the foggy realm where the figures they’re looking to recruit live. Tatl asks what they are, and they reply “guardians.” The stray fairy collection award this time is a doubled magic meter. And, getting there, I was glad to see the giant goron was okay, if a bit confused about what happened to it.
Back down the mountain, the Mountain Village smith’s forge has thawed so he can work on Link’s sword. It costs 100 rupees and is only a temporary improvement, but the smith hints that if he gets gold dust, he can make the sword better permanently. There’s one more thing to do: in the Goron Village, the powder keg shop has thawed as well, so Link can take the test to get certified to use the kegs. That test is to run with a keg down to the Mountain Village and open up the Goron Racetrack. Link does this safely, so he can buy kegs now. He can also run the goron races, and receives gold dust if he wins. That lets him get the second sword upgrade.
While waiting for that to finish, I started farming the takkuri again, which is so much easier, quicker, and safer with the fire arrows. This maxed out Link’s bank account at 5,000 rupees and earned another piece of heart. So from now on I’ll be removing more rupees from the bank than I put in, which will let me use the Clock Town shops to restock on ammunition items. Anyway, I’m pretty sure those powder kegs will blow up the boulder leading to Romani Ranch, so it’s time to find out what the deal is there.
Next: First, last, and only line of defense.
