Dancing Dragon Dungeon
With his new member’s card, Link can access the basement backroom of the Horon Village shop. There are a couple Gasha seeds for sale here, but the other two items are more interesting. First, there’s a seed satchel upgrade that lets Link carry up to 50 of each type of seed. Second, there’s a treasure map that marks four squares on the overworld. Before going exploring, though, with the basement’s inventory all sold, the shop owner’s set up a treasure chest game like the one in Ocarina of Time: choose the right chest of two, three times, to receive a ring, with an option to keep guessing for a chance at a better reward. This is a good place to fill in holes in the ring list, and get rings to unlock the “appraised 100 rings” ring.
Two of the treasure map squares can be visited now, where Link can acquire jewels: a square jewel in Spool Swamp in winter, and a pyramid jewel on Mt. Cucco [1]. With the power of autumn, Link can find the second golden beast, a moblin, in the Woods of Winter. Finally, there are two more heart pieces Link can get right now: one on an island surrounded by swirling water in Spool Swamp, and the other on Mt. Cucco near the entrance to the dungeon. Getting to Dancing Dragon Dungeon requires another cucco ride in winter, then changing the season to summer to climb the vines to the dungeon entrance.
It was hard not to notice Capcom’s logo alongside Nintendo’s on the opening screen, and this dungeon features a puzzle type straight out of one of their signature franchises: the Mega Man disappearing block jumping puzzle. Given my shaky mastery of the roc’s feather physics and timing (all too often, I try to jump too late and end up running out of platform), this was not a welcome sight. The mine carts return from the first dungeon, now complicated by having to manipulate switches to alter their paths. The treasure is a slingshot, Link’s ranged weapon for the game, which uses the same seeds Link carries for other uses. The ember seeds let Link light torches from a distance, and the scent seeds finally have a general use as cheep ammo.
The dungeon’s miniboss is Agunima, a wizard reminiscent of Agahnim. He spawns illusory doubles and, echoing Ganon’s final play from A Link to the Past, turns out the lights. Turning back on the lights reveals the real Agunima as the only one to cast a shadow, which, unlike Agahnim, can be attacked directly. With final bosses being recycled from the original game and Link having a ranged weapon now, it’s Gohma’s turn. Gohma’s been completely reimagined, starting with a giant claw that grabs and crushes Link. Once that’s gone, it’s a standard Gohma fight; it summons little enemies and its vulnerable spot is still the eye. Once it’s gone, Link can claim the fourth Essence of Nature, Soothing Rain.
The Maku Tree makes its customary contact, saying that the next dungeon is in Eyeglass Lake. There’s not a whole lot to do before going there, making it more likely I got the autumn upgrade for the Rod of Seasons early. In Horon Village, Bipin and Blossom’s son is having trouble sleeping, and Blossom asks for help. South of the village, there’s a torch Link can hit with an ember seed now that he has a slingshot, which creates a bridge to an island where the third jewel, this one X-shaped, can be claimed. The path to the next dungeon is blocked by the giant mushrooms, so making it autumn to be able to pick them up is needed.
Unicorn’s Cave
The dungeon is called Unicorn’s Cave, which strikes me as a better name for the one with Aquamentus as a boss, but I’m not in charge of naming things. Link gets the dungeon’s treasure, the magnetic gloves, fairly early on, which is important because a lot of puzzles use them. The gloves are basically a hookshot variant, only their polarity reverses so they can also push items away from Link (or Link away from a stationary object, like the big metal slabs I’ve seen in the overworld), and they can do their magic even when there’s an item between Link and what the magnet is pushing/pulling. This does come at the cost of being able to use them as a weapon, but that’s what the boomerang’s for.
The dungeon’s miniboss is Syger, a saber-toothed tiger that rolls around the dungeon and has a weak spot at the tip of its tail. That’s pretty much all there is to say about that, so it’s fittingly paired with a reimagining of the most forgettable boss from the first game, Digdogger. Digdogger’s lost its vulnerability to certain types of sound, but the key is still to use the dungeon’s treasure against him. Namely, there’s a big spiked ball Link needs to ram into the boss with the magnetic gloves (and stop before it hits Link, because it’ll hurt him, too). When Digdogger takes enough damage, it splits into a bunch of little eyeballs, which also need to be run over with the spiked ball. If Link doesn’t kill them all fast enough, the big form comes back, but the little ones stay defeated. After all the little ones are dead, Link claims the fifth Essence, Nurturing Warmth.
For the next Essence, the Maku Tree points Link toward ruins.
Next: Drink up, me hearties, yo ho!
[1] It didn’t occur to me until I saw the four jewels together on a wiki page, but they’re a sphere, a cube, a tetrahedron (pyramid), and an X. Which in two dimensions are circle, square, triangle, and X: the PlayStation symbols.
Friday, September 28, 2018
Wednesday, September 26, 2018
Oracle of Seasons: Spring and Autumn
The Last Two Seasons
There’s a hidden underwater passage in the north part of the Sunken City, and passing through leads Link to the Mt. Cucco area. There, he finds another portal to Subrosia. Shortly after passing through, Link gets run over by a couple Subrosians and drops the roc’s feather. The Subrosians steal the feather and leave Link a worthless bit of ore. That’s not going to do, so Link has to chase the Subrosians to get it back. Of course, they’re perfectly happy with their end of the trade, so while they’re going to bury the feather, they’re not going to be inclined to give it back, which naturally leads to another stealth mission, this time with two people on the lookout. The treasure spot’s obvious, but they actually need to bury the feather and vamoose before Link can dig it up.
The other important thing to get while down here is the power of spring in the Rod of Seasons. That tower was walled off in the temple, so Link needs to finds a hidden passage to inside the walled-off area, where he meets the Spirit of Spring. Spring opens up the flower buds that will give Link a boost to the top of a nearby cliff.
Returning to Mt. Cucco, Link comes across Moosh for the encounter he’s meant to help with. Moosh wants bananas from the mountaintop, but since he and Link are bonded, there’s no actual need for Link to go get them. I did it anyway so I could play with this game’s Flying Cucco, who’s a lot more limited than the one in Link’s Awakening, but still quite fun. After he gets his coveted bananas, Moosh lends his flying abilities to help Link get the key to the next dungeon.
We’re not done with Subrosia yet, however. There’s another portal Link can get to at this point, in Eyeglass Lake near Horon Village, that takes him to eastern Subrosia. Here, Link can meet a Subrosian who collects signs and can somehow tell how many of them Link has destroyed. If Link talks to him after destroying 100 signs, the collector will do a fakeout like he reset the game, give Link a ring to mark him as a sign-destroyer (no powers, just another slot on the list filled), and tell him not to do it anymore. Heh.
Getting the power of Autumn requires another little bit of questing, and in hindsight, it probably was supposed to wait until after the next dungeon. First, Link needs a bomb flower, which he can find after navigating a bunch of lava islands in the southeast corner of the map. The bomb flower’s needed to clear the rocks blocking the way into the Autumn Tower, where Link meets the final spirit. Autumn fills pits with leaves, and turns the giant mushrooms ripe for picking lifted out of Link’s way. At last, the Rod of Seasons can go through the full set.
Wrapping Up the Trading Sequence
While still in Subrosia, Link can get two more things. First, the market is selling member’s cards to the Horon Village shop, which allows access to the backroom with valuable items, and then a treasure chest game that awards random rings. Second, Link can have the iron pot filled with lava soup, which is needed to continue the trading sequence.
Next to Mt. Cucco is Goron Mountain. The seasons have made the winter unusually cold, which is of course making the gorons miserable, especially Biggoron, who’s too big to come inside out of the cold. Biggoron gladly takes the lava soup Link has, which gets him over his cold, and gives him a Goron Vase. Also in the area is a goron who’ll give Link the second ring box, so he can carry three rings at once and swap between them. Finally, there’s a couple Gasha seed soil locations in this area, and one of them’s really good; I got a heart piece and some great rings from it.
Speaking of, a note about rings. A lot of them come from random sources, like Gasha nuts, dropped by Maple, or the treasure chest game. Some come from treasure chests, and others (like the sign ring mentioned earlier) are given almost as a proto-achievement system. I did a really poor job of tracking which rings came from which source; they all got jumbled when I went to appraise them anyway. I ended the game with over 40 rings, and since this is the first game of four, I’m not terribly worried about the holes in the list.
The last few legs of the trading sequence can be handled now. Ingo in the Sunken City collects vases, so he trades a fish for the goron vase. The fish goes to a man who’s been trying to lure his cat out of a tree; Link gets the megaphone the man had be futilely using. The megaphone can wake up Talon, who’s sleeping in a cave on Mt. Cucco and gives Link a mushroom for waking him. Syrup, Maple’s mentor in the Sunken City, needs the mushroom to make potions (so where have the ones Maple’s been dropping come from?), and trades a wooden bird for it. There’s a clockmaker in Horon Village who wants the bird to finish his clock, and trades engine grease for it. Finally, the engine grease goes to the guy playing the Song of Storms near the windmill, who gives Link his phonograph. That’s it for trades, although cashing in on it will have to wait.
Next: The dungeons say dragons and unicorns, but we’ve seen Aquamentus.
There’s a hidden underwater passage in the north part of the Sunken City, and passing through leads Link to the Mt. Cucco area. There, he finds another portal to Subrosia. Shortly after passing through, Link gets run over by a couple Subrosians and drops the roc’s feather. The Subrosians steal the feather and leave Link a worthless bit of ore. That’s not going to do, so Link has to chase the Subrosians to get it back. Of course, they’re perfectly happy with their end of the trade, so while they’re going to bury the feather, they’re not going to be inclined to give it back, which naturally leads to another stealth mission, this time with two people on the lookout. The treasure spot’s obvious, but they actually need to bury the feather and vamoose before Link can dig it up.
The other important thing to get while down here is the power of spring in the Rod of Seasons. That tower was walled off in the temple, so Link needs to finds a hidden passage to inside the walled-off area, where he meets the Spirit of Spring. Spring opens up the flower buds that will give Link a boost to the top of a nearby cliff.
Returning to Mt. Cucco, Link comes across Moosh for the encounter he’s meant to help with. Moosh wants bananas from the mountaintop, but since he and Link are bonded, there’s no actual need for Link to go get them. I did it anyway so I could play with this game’s Flying Cucco, who’s a lot more limited than the one in Link’s Awakening, but still quite fun. After he gets his coveted bananas, Moosh lends his flying abilities to help Link get the key to the next dungeon.
We’re not done with Subrosia yet, however. There’s another portal Link can get to at this point, in Eyeglass Lake near Horon Village, that takes him to eastern Subrosia. Here, Link can meet a Subrosian who collects signs and can somehow tell how many of them Link has destroyed. If Link talks to him after destroying 100 signs, the collector will do a fakeout like he reset the game, give Link a ring to mark him as a sign-destroyer (no powers, just another slot on the list filled), and tell him not to do it anymore. Heh.
Getting the power of Autumn requires another little bit of questing, and in hindsight, it probably was supposed to wait until after the next dungeon. First, Link needs a bomb flower, which he can find after navigating a bunch of lava islands in the southeast corner of the map. The bomb flower’s needed to clear the rocks blocking the way into the Autumn Tower, where Link meets the final spirit. Autumn fills pits with leaves, and turns the giant mushrooms ripe for picking lifted out of Link’s way. At last, the Rod of Seasons can go through the full set.
Wrapping Up the Trading Sequence
While still in Subrosia, Link can get two more things. First, the market is selling member’s cards to the Horon Village shop, which allows access to the backroom with valuable items, and then a treasure chest game that awards random rings. Second, Link can have the iron pot filled with lava soup, which is needed to continue the trading sequence.
Next to Mt. Cucco is Goron Mountain. The seasons have made the winter unusually cold, which is of course making the gorons miserable, especially Biggoron, who’s too big to come inside out of the cold. Biggoron gladly takes the lava soup Link has, which gets him over his cold, and gives him a Goron Vase. Also in the area is a goron who’ll give Link the second ring box, so he can carry three rings at once and swap between them. Finally, there’s a couple Gasha seed soil locations in this area, and one of them’s really good; I got a heart piece and some great rings from it.
Speaking of, a note about rings. A lot of them come from random sources, like Gasha nuts, dropped by Maple, or the treasure chest game. Some come from treasure chests, and others (like the sign ring mentioned earlier) are given almost as a proto-achievement system. I did a really poor job of tracking which rings came from which source; they all got jumbled when I went to appraise them anyway. I ended the game with over 40 rings, and since this is the first game of four, I’m not terribly worried about the holes in the list.
The last few legs of the trading sequence can be handled now. Ingo in the Sunken City collects vases, so he trades a fish for the goron vase. The fish goes to a man who’s been trying to lure his cat out of a tree; Link gets the megaphone the man had be futilely using. The megaphone can wake up Talon, who’s sleeping in a cave on Mt. Cucco and gives Link a mushroom for waking him. Syrup, Maple’s mentor in the Sunken City, needs the mushroom to make potions (so where have the ones Maple’s been dropping come from?), and trades a wooden bird for it. There’s a clockmaker in Horon Village who wants the bird to finish his clock, and trades engine grease for it. Finally, the engine grease goes to the guy playing the Song of Storms near the windmill, who gives Link his phonograph. That’s it for trades, although cashing in on it will have to wait.
Next: The dungeons say dragons and unicorns, but we’ve seen Aquamentus.
Monday, September 24, 2018
Oracle of Seasons: Poison Moth's Lair
Link returns to the surface, and goes back the way he came to find a tree stump to try out his new power. With the vines growing, Link can climb to where a secret is promised, and it seem Vasu has left his best customer a ring. Link digs it up and proceeds to the next dungeon.
Poison Moth’s Lair
Once again, it’s immediately obvious what the treasure’s going to be; this time, there are a lot of short gaps, which point to the roc’s feather. It is the treasure, and there’s a new puzzle component with it: Link can jump onto trampolines to bounce up to a higher level of the dungeon, and push them around so they’re where they need to be. Also, Link can push pots around instead of lifting and smashing them, which is needed for a “switch only stays down with a weight on it” puzzle that was infuriating until I accidentally pushed one of the pots and realized that’s what needs to be done. Shortly before the miniboss, an owl statue hints that it is invincible in water. It turns out to be Omuai/Calamareye, three squids that travel between a set of pools. The strategy is basically Morpha minus the hookshot: pick them up, take them out of their pools, and whack them till they die.
The dungeon’s boss is a returnee, not from the first game, but from A Link to the Past: Mothula. This version lacks the features that made the original frustrating; instead it tries to knock Link off the central platforms of its room into the room below to restart the fight. The strategy I found for the phase where Mothula’s flying around shooting fireballs is to stand on the central platforms and jump between them with each fireball, then repeatedly whack Mothula when it lands to catch its breath. It only takes a couple cycles to win, and then the way opens for Link to claim the third Essence, the Bright Sun.
The Maku Tree says the next goal should be a waterfall to the north.
The Sunken City
With the roc’s feather, Link can jump over some of the holes in the overworld. There’s a cave with a heart piece he can get to, and then it’s time to go exploring some more, eventually covering the northwest area of the map. The first section changes forms based on which animal companion Link got – the options are Ricky, Moosh, and one I’ll get to in a moment here. With Moosh, it becomes the Natzu Wasteland, and I’m starting to regret my choice because the long flying leaps over the big gaps are getting harder and harder to do. Of particular interest in this area is a Deku scrub who’ll refill Link’s entire seed bag just for dropping by, and the Moblin’s Keep to the east, where the Moblin King shoots bombs at a passing Link.
Once through the wasteland, Link and Moosh come to the Sunken City. All the water unnerves Moosh, who leaves Link to explore on his own. There are hints of a master diver who’s hidden his gear somewhere, but first, Link comes to another seed tree, which gives him gale seeds, which will teleport him to any other seed tree he’s visited. Finally, a useful quick travel item. Link also comes across a dodongo being bullied by some kids, and gets the kids to leave it alone. The dodongo, Dimitri, offers to help Link in return. His particular abilities are swimming and climbing waterfalls.
At the top of the Sunken City, Link finds the master diver, who offers Link a chance to become his pupil. First, of course, Link must pass a test: go to another cave and hit four statues in a single stroke. It seems impossible, but the solution is to push the statues together and hit them all with a spin attack. Link gets a plaque, which he takes back to the diver, and gets the flippers, finally gaining the ability to swim. Swimming gives access to the Moblin’s Keep, where Link can finally confront the Moblin King. The King throws bombs at Link, who can throw them back and occasionally catch the King in the blast. The whole thing feels like Wart from Super Mario Bros. 2. Eventually one of the bombs catches the entire bomb stash, defeating the King and wrecking the keep. Link claims his reward, another heart piece.
Near the first dungeon, there’s an old man who challenges Link to defeat four golden beasts throughout Holodrum. The first of these, an octorok in Spool Swamp that only spawns during summer, can be fought now.
Next: The Rod of Seasons reaches its full potential.
Poison Moth’s Lair
Once again, it’s immediately obvious what the treasure’s going to be; this time, there are a lot of short gaps, which point to the roc’s feather. It is the treasure, and there’s a new puzzle component with it: Link can jump onto trampolines to bounce up to a higher level of the dungeon, and push them around so they’re where they need to be. Also, Link can push pots around instead of lifting and smashing them, which is needed for a “switch only stays down with a weight on it” puzzle that was infuriating until I accidentally pushed one of the pots and realized that’s what needs to be done. Shortly before the miniboss, an owl statue hints that it is invincible in water. It turns out to be Omuai/Calamareye, three squids that travel between a set of pools. The strategy is basically Morpha minus the hookshot: pick them up, take them out of their pools, and whack them till they die.
The dungeon’s boss is a returnee, not from the first game, but from A Link to the Past: Mothula. This version lacks the features that made the original frustrating; instead it tries to knock Link off the central platforms of its room into the room below to restart the fight. The strategy I found for the phase where Mothula’s flying around shooting fireballs is to stand on the central platforms and jump between them with each fireball, then repeatedly whack Mothula when it lands to catch its breath. It only takes a couple cycles to win, and then the way opens for Link to claim the third Essence, the Bright Sun.
The Maku Tree says the next goal should be a waterfall to the north.
The Sunken City
With the roc’s feather, Link can jump over some of the holes in the overworld. There’s a cave with a heart piece he can get to, and then it’s time to go exploring some more, eventually covering the northwest area of the map. The first section changes forms based on which animal companion Link got – the options are Ricky, Moosh, and one I’ll get to in a moment here. With Moosh, it becomes the Natzu Wasteland, and I’m starting to regret my choice because the long flying leaps over the big gaps are getting harder and harder to do. Of particular interest in this area is a Deku scrub who’ll refill Link’s entire seed bag just for dropping by, and the Moblin’s Keep to the east, where the Moblin King shoots bombs at a passing Link.
Once through the wasteland, Link and Moosh come to the Sunken City. All the water unnerves Moosh, who leaves Link to explore on his own. There are hints of a master diver who’s hidden his gear somewhere, but first, Link comes to another seed tree, which gives him gale seeds, which will teleport him to any other seed tree he’s visited. Finally, a useful quick travel item. Link also comes across a dodongo being bullied by some kids, and gets the kids to leave it alone. The dodongo, Dimitri, offers to help Link in return. His particular abilities are swimming and climbing waterfalls.
At the top of the Sunken City, Link finds the master diver, who offers Link a chance to become his pupil. First, of course, Link must pass a test: go to another cave and hit four statues in a single stroke. It seems impossible, but the solution is to push the statues together and hit them all with a spin attack. Link gets a plaque, which he takes back to the diver, and gets the flippers, finally gaining the ability to swim. Swimming gives access to the Moblin’s Keep, where Link can finally confront the Moblin King. The King throws bombs at Link, who can throw them back and occasionally catch the King in the blast. The whole thing feels like Wart from Super Mario Bros. 2. Eventually one of the bombs catches the entire bomb stash, defeating the King and wrecking the keep. Link claims his reward, another heart piece.
Near the first dungeon, there’s an old man who challenges Link to defeat four golden beasts throughout Holodrum. The first of these, an octorok in Spool Swamp that only spawns during summer, can be fought now.
Next: The Rod of Seasons reaches its full potential.
Friday, September 21, 2018
Oracle of Seasons: Spool Swamp
In Horon Village, Link returns to Bipin and Blossom, who are worried because Bob is sick. Blossom asks Link for money to help pay for treatment, and Link gives her 150 rupees, which she’s grateful for. The shop’s updated its inventory and now sells a strange flute, which I’m sure will come in handy eventually. The way to the swamp lies to the north, so that’s the next direction.
To Spool Swamp, and Back to Subrosia
As Link travels, he comes across another seed tree with its own flavor of seeds. These are scent seeds, which can be used as bait. Over a bridge, Link finds a kangaroo named Ricky who offers to take Link to the swamp, only he lost his boxing gloves to Blaino. Blaino has a gym back across the bridge, and he challenges Link to a boxing match. Link wins, gets Ricky’s gloves back, and takes them back to Ricky, who gives him a ride. As they go, they come across a house whose inhabitant is struggling to deal with heat and wants the ghastly doll to send a chill down her spine; Link’s reward is an iron pot. Once Link’s past all the obstacles he needed Ricky for, Ricky leaves. Nearby, Link finds yet another seed tree; this one’s Pegasus seeds can be activated to give him a momentary speed boost.
The swamp is currently flooded, and the floodgate keeper has lost the key to the gate. Link hits a switch to drain the water around his house, and wouldn’t you know it, the key’s at the bottom of a pool in the house. Outside, the lowered water level has opened a cave full of puzzles that eventually leads to the other side of the swamp. There, Link finds the lock to open the floodgates, lowering the water level in the area. Sokra shows up and tells Link he needs a new season, so he needs to go back to Subrosia.
Down in the swamp area, Link comes across a bear being harassed by Moblins. Link drives the Moblins off, and the bear introduces itself to him as Moosh. The flute Link bought in Horon Village can be used to call Moosh, who’ll give Link rides. Moosh doesn’t like deep water, but can fly over holes and smash enemies with a jumping attack. Moosh takes Link across pits to another portal to Subrosia, which Link takes.
Dating Rosa
In the area of Subrosia Link finds himself in now, he finds the girl he followed to Subrosia to the first time. She’s lost her ribbon and while she wants to explore the “temple,” she can’t go out without it. The local merchant has a ribbon for sale, wanting to trade it for star-shaped ore. So, it’s time for Link to get out his shovel and start digging and he finds a chunk of star-shaped ore, takes it back to the merchant, and makes the trade. The merchant has some other interesting items: a heart piece, a bomb bag upgrade, rings, and Gasha seeds. I’ll clean him out of these before Link leaves. (Well, not the Gasha seeds, because those seem to restock.)
Rosa’s happy with the ribbon gift, and agrees to go on a date as thanks. She suggests visiting the “temple,” which is just fine with Link. Rosa has a key that can unlock doors in Subrosia, and so she and Link pass through a cave back to the area Link explored on his first visit, and back to the Temple, where she can open the door to the summer tower. Link and Rosa go to meet the Spirit of Summer, who imbues the Rod of Seasons with the power to summon summer, and explains that summer lowers water levels and causes vines to grow that Link can climb.
Before ending the date, Link takes Rosa dancing, only she doesn’t go in with him. Her loss, I guess. The dancing game gets a lot harder, quickly – it should be easy to just watch the guy, note the next three steps, and make those moves, but when Link’s along the bottom part of the circle and pressing right moves him left, mistakes are easy to make. Also, for some reason, I keep moving him one extra step at the end of a move, which means if he moves too soon/too late, he can run into the guy next to him, so an extra layer of precision is required after that mistake. After a long time, I finally got enough ore chunks to buy everything I wanted from the store, and that’s a good place to leave it for now.
Next: Jumping and swimming.
To Spool Swamp, and Back to Subrosia
As Link travels, he comes across another seed tree with its own flavor of seeds. These are scent seeds, which can be used as bait. Over a bridge, Link finds a kangaroo named Ricky who offers to take Link to the swamp, only he lost his boxing gloves to Blaino. Blaino has a gym back across the bridge, and he challenges Link to a boxing match. Link wins, gets Ricky’s gloves back, and takes them back to Ricky, who gives him a ride. As they go, they come across a house whose inhabitant is struggling to deal with heat and wants the ghastly doll to send a chill down her spine; Link’s reward is an iron pot. Once Link’s past all the obstacles he needed Ricky for, Ricky leaves. Nearby, Link finds yet another seed tree; this one’s Pegasus seeds can be activated to give him a momentary speed boost.
The swamp is currently flooded, and the floodgate keeper has lost the key to the gate. Link hits a switch to drain the water around his house, and wouldn’t you know it, the key’s at the bottom of a pool in the house. Outside, the lowered water level has opened a cave full of puzzles that eventually leads to the other side of the swamp. There, Link finds the lock to open the floodgates, lowering the water level in the area. Sokra shows up and tells Link he needs a new season, so he needs to go back to Subrosia.
Down in the swamp area, Link comes across a bear being harassed by Moblins. Link drives the Moblins off, and the bear introduces itself to him as Moosh. The flute Link bought in Horon Village can be used to call Moosh, who’ll give Link rides. Moosh doesn’t like deep water, but can fly over holes and smash enemies with a jumping attack. Moosh takes Link across pits to another portal to Subrosia, which Link takes.
Dating Rosa
In the area of Subrosia Link finds himself in now, he finds the girl he followed to Subrosia to the first time. She’s lost her ribbon and while she wants to explore the “temple,” she can’t go out without it. The local merchant has a ribbon for sale, wanting to trade it for star-shaped ore. So, it’s time for Link to get out his shovel and start digging and he finds a chunk of star-shaped ore, takes it back to the merchant, and makes the trade. The merchant has some other interesting items: a heart piece, a bomb bag upgrade, rings, and Gasha seeds. I’ll clean him out of these before Link leaves. (Well, not the Gasha seeds, because those seem to restock.)
Rosa’s happy with the ribbon gift, and agrees to go on a date as thanks. She suggests visiting the “temple,” which is just fine with Link. Rosa has a key that can unlock doors in Subrosia, and so she and Link pass through a cave back to the area Link explored on his first visit, and back to the Temple, where she can open the door to the summer tower. Link and Rosa go to meet the Spirit of Summer, who imbues the Rod of Seasons with the power to summon summer, and explains that summer lowers water levels and causes vines to grow that Link can climb.
Before ending the date, Link takes Rosa dancing, only she doesn’t go in with him. Her loss, I guess. The dancing game gets a lot harder, quickly – it should be easy to just watch the guy, note the next three steps, and make those moves, but when Link’s along the bottom part of the circle and pressing right moves him left, mistakes are easy to make. Also, for some reason, I keep moving him one extra step at the end of a move, which means if he moves too soon/too late, he can run into the guy next to him, so an extra layer of precision is required after that mistake. After a long time, I finally got enough ore chunks to buy everything I wanted from the store, and that’s a good place to leave it for now.
Next: Jumping and swimming.
Wednesday, September 19, 2018
Oracle of Seasons: The Rod of Seasons
Link finds his way to the Temple of Seasons, which has been buried in Subrosia. The seasons’ spirits greet him, tell him to get the Rod of Seasons from the temple, then visit each of them in their towers. In the main temple, Link gets the Rod of Seasons, which will give him the power to change seasons when it’s blessed by the season spirits. Only one of those spirits’ towers is currently accessible, the Spirit of Winter. As she blesses the rod, the Spirit explains the game mechanics of winter: waters freeze and snows pile up. As Link leaves the spirit’s tower, the Maku Tree contacts him to tell him that his next destination is woods in the east, near where he entered Subrosia.
Sokra’s there to greet Link when he comes back to the surface. The first part of what he says is redundant with what Link was told in Subrosia about the Rod, but he does point Link to a stump where he can use the Rod to summon winter so he can freeze a lake and walk across. He also says there may be other entrances to Subrosia from the surface. Anyway, Link does as suggested, freezes the pond, and starts exploring to the north. There’s a heart piece in a cave in the area.
It doesn’t stay winter; eventually the season will change and Link has to find a new stump to jump on and use the Rod. This leads to one of the oddest encounters in the series thus far: shortly after changing to winter, Link finds a house whose entrance is blocked with snow, but he can go in through the chimney. I was all set to call it a Santa Claus impression, but after the house’s inhabitant, Holly, actually mistakes him for Santa, no sense being repetitive. She gives him a shovel so he can clear a path from her door. (Incidentally, I thought Goron Link from Majora’s Mask kind of looked like what someone with only the barest idea of what Santa looks like might come up with.)
The shovel’s needed further to clear a path through the snow to the next dungeon’s entrance. Along the way, Link finds a tree with mystery seeds and an owl statue nearby. If Link uses a seed on the statue, it tells him to do the same with other statues he may find. Also, at some point during this time, Link had a special encounter with Maple. The only item dropped was the Lon Lon Egg, which she claimed, giving Link a Ghastly Doll in return. And at last, Link comes to the entrance of the second dungeon, Snake’s Remains.
Snake’s Remains
The boss is the same as The Legend of Zelda’s second dungeon, and there are ropes, as the dungeon’s name hints, but otherwise there’s no real similarities between the two dungeons. There are a lot of pots near the entrance to the dungeon, marking this as the place with the lifting item, and sure enough, Link finds the power bracelet. (I understand why he can’t lift pots without an item – four buttons does not allow a whole lot of flexibility – but wow does it feel weird.) There are a couple rooms where Link needs to throw bombs to kill enemies; these rooms have flowers that regenerate quickly and have a good chance just in case he has trouble with accuracy, so that’s nice. The miniboss is Facade from Link’s Awakening, and despite the demotion, he’s tougher now because he constantly spews fireballs into the air.
Shortly before the boss, an owl statue hints that the boss’ weakness is its insides, followed by a feat of strength. Said boss, as I alluded to, is Dodongo. Again reimagined from all the previous versions, this Dodongo moves fairly slowly around the room, occasionally shooting fireballs at Link or charging. There’s a few seconds between it opening its mouth to shoot fireballs and when they actually come, and that’s Link’s chance to throw a bomb in. Like the dodongos from The Legend of Zelda, eating a bomb stuns it, and Link can then use the power bracelet to pick it up and throw it onto the spikes in the center of the room. After repeating this four times, Link is victorious and can claim the second Essence, the Gift of Time.
The Maku Tree again reaches out, strengthened again by the second Essence and now directing Link to the Spool Swamp to the west. As Link returns to Horon Village, he meets Maple again for their customary exchange of items and finds a fourth heart piece he can get now with the power bracelet.
Next: Link goes on a date.
Sokra’s there to greet Link when he comes back to the surface. The first part of what he says is redundant with what Link was told in Subrosia about the Rod, but he does point Link to a stump where he can use the Rod to summon winter so he can freeze a lake and walk across. He also says there may be other entrances to Subrosia from the surface. Anyway, Link does as suggested, freezes the pond, and starts exploring to the north. There’s a heart piece in a cave in the area.
It doesn’t stay winter; eventually the season will change and Link has to find a new stump to jump on and use the Rod. This leads to one of the oddest encounters in the series thus far: shortly after changing to winter, Link finds a house whose entrance is blocked with snow, but he can go in through the chimney. I was all set to call it a Santa Claus impression, but after the house’s inhabitant, Holly, actually mistakes him for Santa, no sense being repetitive. She gives him a shovel so he can clear a path from her door. (Incidentally, I thought Goron Link from Majora’s Mask kind of looked like what someone with only the barest idea of what Santa looks like might come up with.)
The shovel’s needed further to clear a path through the snow to the next dungeon’s entrance. Along the way, Link finds a tree with mystery seeds and an owl statue nearby. If Link uses a seed on the statue, it tells him to do the same with other statues he may find. Also, at some point during this time, Link had a special encounter with Maple. The only item dropped was the Lon Lon Egg, which she claimed, giving Link a Ghastly Doll in return. And at last, Link comes to the entrance of the second dungeon, Snake’s Remains.
Snake’s Remains
The boss is the same as The Legend of Zelda’s second dungeon, and there are ropes, as the dungeon’s name hints, but otherwise there’s no real similarities between the two dungeons. There are a lot of pots near the entrance to the dungeon, marking this as the place with the lifting item, and sure enough, Link finds the power bracelet. (I understand why he can’t lift pots without an item – four buttons does not allow a whole lot of flexibility – but wow does it feel weird.) There are a couple rooms where Link needs to throw bombs to kill enemies; these rooms have flowers that regenerate quickly and have a good chance just in case he has trouble with accuracy, so that’s nice. The miniboss is Facade from Link’s Awakening, and despite the demotion, he’s tougher now because he constantly spews fireballs into the air.
Shortly before the boss, an owl statue hints that the boss’ weakness is its insides, followed by a feat of strength. Said boss, as I alluded to, is Dodongo. Again reimagined from all the previous versions, this Dodongo moves fairly slowly around the room, occasionally shooting fireballs at Link or charging. There’s a few seconds between it opening its mouth to shoot fireballs and when they actually come, and that’s Link’s chance to throw a bomb in. Like the dodongos from The Legend of Zelda, eating a bomb stuns it, and Link can then use the power bracelet to pick it up and throw it onto the spikes in the center of the room. After repeating this four times, Link is victorious and can claim the second Essence, the Gift of Time.
The Maku Tree again reaches out, strengthened again by the second Essence and now directing Link to the Spool Swamp to the west. As Link returns to Horon Village, he meets Maple again for their customary exchange of items and finds a fourth heart piece he can get now with the power bracelet.
Next: Link goes on a date.
Monday, September 17, 2018
Oracle of Seasons: Memory Lane
Gnarled Root Dungeon
To the north of Horon Village, in a tree on an island, lies the first dungeon, Gnarled Root Dungeon. The entrance a more than a little reminiscent of the first dungeon entrance in the first game, and the similarities don’t stop there. The dungeon’s map is kind of eagle-y. Enemies spotted in the dungeon include old favorites like stalfos, keeses, and… well, they’re called floormasters because they come out of the floor, but they’re more like wallmasters. The treasure is under a room with a block diamond surrounded by blade traps, and the treasure room even looks like the ones from the first game. There’s even an old man who’s decided this hole is the perfect place to live who gives Link a hint on how to use the treasure! That treasure is a seed bag filled with ember seeds, which can light things on fire, including lighting torches. The dungeon’s miniboss is a pair of goriyas with linked health, which I was surprised to discover because it’s usually just good tactics to kill one before starting on the other, and whoops they both died. There’s a new feature introduced here: mine carts for Link to ride.
Completing the nod to the very first dungeon of the series, the dungeon’s boss is Aquamentus. It’s been slightly reimagined; it doesn’t just walk back and forth in a small path, it constantly moves forward until it reaches the wall and then returns to start, and sometimes it charges. There are no sword beams yet, and I didn’t test the basic shield against its beam attacks, but the basic strategy remains the same: don’t get hit, attack the head, hit it enough, and win. It’s still not hard, but the redesign makes it an effective first boss – bravo for that. Link moves to the last room, which has the first Essence of Nature, Fertile Soil.
The Maku Tree contacts Link, saying that the Fertile Soil is strengthening it, and pointing Link to visit the Temple of Seasons, where he’ll get a precious item. That’s not a tremendously useful hint, since the Temple of Seasons isn’t where it’s supposed to be and I’m not sure where that is anyway. Unsurprisingly, Link killed enough enemies in the dungeon to run into Maple when he comes out, and she’s apparently doing pretty well for herself because she’s upgraded her broomstick to a vacuum cleaner. Heh.
Finding Subrosia
Link returns to Horon Village, where he gets his rings appraised, including the Discovery Ring which seems to activate around soft soil patches. There’s a heart piece in the village that Link can get to now with the ember seeds. Also around the village, there’s a guy who looks like Mr. Write from Link’s Awakening, and his name is Dr. Left. He’s having trouble reading because his light is out, so Link uses an ember seed to light it, and is rewarded with his cuccodex. Finally, there’s a tree in the village that grows ember seeds. North of the village, Link finds this game’s version of Malon in her house, struggling to look after cuccos while Talon’s off climbing Mt. Cucco, and she gladly trades an egg for Dr. Left’s cuccodex. Aha, we’ve started the trading sequence. Maple said something about wanting a Lon Lon Egg, but there’s probably no hurry there, I’ll run into her before too long.
Now it’s back to the village to burn a trail to the east. Before Link can go, Sokra, a wandering prophet, approaches him to tell him that the spirits of the seasons are still in the Temple of Seasons, and that if Link can find the Temple, he should visit the seasons. As Link explores to the east, he sees a windmill with a guy playing the Song of Storms in front of it. He gets a break on his search for the Temple when a girl (you can tell because she’s got a ribbon on her head) enters the screen, talking about how “a ‘temple,’ like, fell into Subrosia!” Apparently, Subrosia is supposed to be a secret place, so you know what that means: stealth mission. It’s mostly fairly easy, except at one point she seems to exit the screen and then pops right back, so if you think “Oh, she’s gone, I can follow her now,” she’ll see you and you have to start all over.
Eventually, she enters a portal, and Link follows her through to Subrosia. The Subrosians all look like the girl, only wearing different color robes and no ribbons. Looking at character art, they’re apparently supposed to be wearing hoods and those spots on their face are their eyes – sorta like Jawas, if their eyes were huge. Looking at the in-game sprites, all I can see is Kenny from that one episode of South Park where he took a school picture with his parka on upside down so his butt showed through the hood.
Subrosia’s an interesting place, where they use a different currency than Holodrum and the people are apparently immune to fire because they take lava baths. Exploring Subrosia, Link comes across a Subrosian dance game, which he’s invited to join. It took me a while to figure out that the dance caller was calling three dance moves at a time, but once I got the hang of that, the game was pretty easy. The reward for the dancing game is the boomerang, which has come down to normal after its overpowered appearance in Link’s Awakening. It’s still useful, just more in line with its traditional power.
Next: Walking in a winter wonderland.
To the north of Horon Village, in a tree on an island, lies the first dungeon, Gnarled Root Dungeon. The entrance a more than a little reminiscent of the first dungeon entrance in the first game, and the similarities don’t stop there. The dungeon’s map is kind of eagle-y. Enemies spotted in the dungeon include old favorites like stalfos, keeses, and… well, they’re called floormasters because they come out of the floor, but they’re more like wallmasters. The treasure is under a room with a block diamond surrounded by blade traps, and the treasure room even looks like the ones from the first game. There’s even an old man who’s decided this hole is the perfect place to live who gives Link a hint on how to use the treasure! That treasure is a seed bag filled with ember seeds, which can light things on fire, including lighting torches. The dungeon’s miniboss is a pair of goriyas with linked health, which I was surprised to discover because it’s usually just good tactics to kill one before starting on the other, and whoops they both died. There’s a new feature introduced here: mine carts for Link to ride.
Completing the nod to the very first dungeon of the series, the dungeon’s boss is Aquamentus. It’s been slightly reimagined; it doesn’t just walk back and forth in a small path, it constantly moves forward until it reaches the wall and then returns to start, and sometimes it charges. There are no sword beams yet, and I didn’t test the basic shield against its beam attacks, but the basic strategy remains the same: don’t get hit, attack the head, hit it enough, and win. It’s still not hard, but the redesign makes it an effective first boss – bravo for that. Link moves to the last room, which has the first Essence of Nature, Fertile Soil.
The Maku Tree contacts Link, saying that the Fertile Soil is strengthening it, and pointing Link to visit the Temple of Seasons, where he’ll get a precious item. That’s not a tremendously useful hint, since the Temple of Seasons isn’t where it’s supposed to be and I’m not sure where that is anyway. Unsurprisingly, Link killed enough enemies in the dungeon to run into Maple when he comes out, and she’s apparently doing pretty well for herself because she’s upgraded her broomstick to a vacuum cleaner. Heh.
Finding Subrosia
Link returns to Horon Village, where he gets his rings appraised, including the Discovery Ring which seems to activate around soft soil patches. There’s a heart piece in the village that Link can get to now with the ember seeds. Also around the village, there’s a guy who looks like Mr. Write from Link’s Awakening, and his name is Dr. Left. He’s having trouble reading because his light is out, so Link uses an ember seed to light it, and is rewarded with his cuccodex. Finally, there’s a tree in the village that grows ember seeds. North of the village, Link finds this game’s version of Malon in her house, struggling to look after cuccos while Talon’s off climbing Mt. Cucco, and she gladly trades an egg for Dr. Left’s cuccodex. Aha, we’ve started the trading sequence. Maple said something about wanting a Lon Lon Egg, but there’s probably no hurry there, I’ll run into her before too long.
Now it’s back to the village to burn a trail to the east. Before Link can go, Sokra, a wandering prophet, approaches him to tell him that the spirits of the seasons are still in the Temple of Seasons, and that if Link can find the Temple, he should visit the seasons. As Link explores to the east, he sees a windmill with a guy playing the Song of Storms in front of it. He gets a break on his search for the Temple when a girl (you can tell because she’s got a ribbon on her head) enters the screen, talking about how “a ‘temple,’ like, fell into Subrosia!” Apparently, Subrosia is supposed to be a secret place, so you know what that means: stealth mission. It’s mostly fairly easy, except at one point she seems to exit the screen and then pops right back, so if you think “Oh, she’s gone, I can follow her now,” she’ll see you and you have to start all over.
Eventually, she enters a portal, and Link follows her through to Subrosia. The Subrosians all look like the girl, only wearing different color robes and no ribbons. Looking at character art, they’re apparently supposed to be wearing hoods and those spots on their face are their eyes – sorta like Jawas, if their eyes were huge. Looking at the in-game sprites, all I can see is Kenny from that one episode of South Park where he took a school picture with his parka on upside down so his butt showed through the hood.
Subrosia’s an interesting place, where they use a different currency than Holodrum and the people are apparently immune to fire because they take lava baths. Exploring Subrosia, Link comes across a Subrosian dance game, which he’s invited to join. It took me a while to figure out that the dance caller was calling three dance moves at a time, but once I got the hang of that, the game was pretty easy. The reward for the dancing game is the boomerang, which has come down to normal after its overpowered appearance in Link’s Awakening. It’s still useful, just more in line with its traditional power.
Next: Walking in a winter wonderland.
Friday, September 14, 2018
Oracle of Seasons: Introduction and Story
Now I enter the Dark Ages, which I mean in the sense of “I know almost nothing about these next several games,” not “the next several games are bad.” (I mean, they might be.) When Twilight Princess came out, I thought it was the first new Zelda game since Majora’s Mask, although I was somewhat aware of the GBA A Link to the Past remake with Four Swords and I may have heard of Minish Cap.
So here’s what I know about Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages:
Two Games, One Overall Story
Let’s touch on that first point some more. From reading the manual and playing the game some, there a lot of references to sharing things between the two games using codes. Right now I’m kinda ignoring all this and focusing on a straight run through Oracle of Seasons, to be followed by connecting that with Oracle of Ages. Then, quite likely, Oracle of Ages followed by Seasons so I can see how they play out like that and, if necessary, wrap up collecting rings.
The Story, Such As It Is
I’m not going to judge it just yet – Link’s Awakening didn’t seem to have much of a story at first, but a memorable twist turned it into the most haunting story of the series so far, so maybe this will develop as well. Link rides to a chamber where Essence of the Triforce is, and is sent on a quest to Holodrum. He enters the world rather roughly and is nursed back to health by a dancer named Din. Link comes to and starts talking to Din’s friends, and after dancing a bit with Din, a tornado comes, knocks everyone out, and kidnaps Din in the name of someone named Onox. Din is the Oracle of Seasons, so Onox’s master plan is apparently to seal her in crystal, bury the Temple of Seasons, and cause Holodrum’s seasons to go wonky and kill everything.
After being knocked out a second time (by the tornado), Link meets Impa, who was Din’s troupe’s cook, except in a shocking twist, she’s actually Zelda’s nurse and came to Holodrum to bring Din to Hyrule before Onox could do his thing. Well, as we now know, that didn’t work out. So Link needs to go to Horon Village and talk with the Maku Tree. Before Link can do that, he needs a sword, which makes me question the Triforce’s foresight if it sent him here without one. There’s a cave south of the town where Link can get a sword, and that opens the way to meet to Maku Tree. The Tree tells Link where Onox has made his hideout (where the Temple of Seasons used to be, duh), and that he’ll need to gather the eight Essences of Nature, which will be needed to break Onox’s barrier so Link can confront him and save Holodrum. The Maku Tree gives Link the Gnarled Key, the key to the first dungeon.
Or, in short: World in peril, damsel in distress, eight plot coupons, big bad evil guy. It’s basically the first game, only the names and places have been changed.
Fun Around Horon Village
The core collectible in Oracle of Seasons (and Ages too, I think) is rings. Link gets his first ring and a ring box from the town jeweler, and it’s mostly there to introduce the concept of rings. There are a couple other rings for sale at a shop in town for 100 rupees each, which is a little pricy. However, with this game made with color in mind, farming rupees isn’t as tedious as it was in Link’s Awakening where they only ever dropped one at a time (there were more in some chests), and especially when every 30 enemies defeated causes a witch to spawn who’ll drop a lot of rupees (and sometimes other stuff, like rings or a potion or even a heart piece). And there’s one other source of rings: Link can plant Gasha trees, which will eventually grow Gasha nuts, which contain useful items including random rings. I was able to get, without spending too much time, the shield and bombs from the town shop, the two rings from the other shop, and six rings appraised (one was a duplicate, so it got sold for more than the appraisal cost). One of the rings turns out to double the value of rupees Link picks up, so if there’s a bow that requires 980 rupees or something, it’ll only take half as much farming to get.
There was one more interesting thing in town: a couple with a new baby they hadn’t come up with a name for. They ask Link to name it, which of course means it actually falls to the player. After considering all sorts of ridiculous names (“Biscuit” is too long for the field, sadly), I settled on my default name of Bob.
Next: One hell of a nostalgia trip.
So here’s what I know about Oracle of Seasons and Oracle of Ages:
- They’re related games, meant to be played one right after the other with links between the two and a true final boss after the two are completed.
- They don’t take place in Hyrule.
- Even by Zelda timeline discussion standards, their place in the timeline is controversial.
- One game involves manipulating seasons, the other… time travel?
Two Games, One Overall Story
Let’s touch on that first point some more. From reading the manual and playing the game some, there a lot of references to sharing things between the two games using codes. Right now I’m kinda ignoring all this and focusing on a straight run through Oracle of Seasons, to be followed by connecting that with Oracle of Ages. Then, quite likely, Oracle of Ages followed by Seasons so I can see how they play out like that and, if necessary, wrap up collecting rings.
The Story, Such As It Is
I’m not going to judge it just yet – Link’s Awakening didn’t seem to have much of a story at first, but a memorable twist turned it into the most haunting story of the series so far, so maybe this will develop as well. Link rides to a chamber where Essence of the Triforce is, and is sent on a quest to Holodrum. He enters the world rather roughly and is nursed back to health by a dancer named Din. Link comes to and starts talking to Din’s friends, and after dancing a bit with Din, a tornado comes, knocks everyone out, and kidnaps Din in the name of someone named Onox. Din is the Oracle of Seasons, so Onox’s master plan is apparently to seal her in crystal, bury the Temple of Seasons, and cause Holodrum’s seasons to go wonky and kill everything.
After being knocked out a second time (by the tornado), Link meets Impa, who was Din’s troupe’s cook, except in a shocking twist, she’s actually Zelda’s nurse and came to Holodrum to bring Din to Hyrule before Onox could do his thing. Well, as we now know, that didn’t work out. So Link needs to go to Horon Village and talk with the Maku Tree. Before Link can do that, he needs a sword, which makes me question the Triforce’s foresight if it sent him here without one. There’s a cave south of the town where Link can get a sword, and that opens the way to meet to Maku Tree. The Tree tells Link where Onox has made his hideout (where the Temple of Seasons used to be, duh), and that he’ll need to gather the eight Essences of Nature, which will be needed to break Onox’s barrier so Link can confront him and save Holodrum. The Maku Tree gives Link the Gnarled Key, the key to the first dungeon.
Or, in short: World in peril, damsel in distress, eight plot coupons, big bad evil guy. It’s basically the first game, only the names and places have been changed.
Fun Around Horon Village
The core collectible in Oracle of Seasons (and Ages too, I think) is rings. Link gets his first ring and a ring box from the town jeweler, and it’s mostly there to introduce the concept of rings. There are a couple other rings for sale at a shop in town for 100 rupees each, which is a little pricy. However, with this game made with color in mind, farming rupees isn’t as tedious as it was in Link’s Awakening where they only ever dropped one at a time (there were more in some chests), and especially when every 30 enemies defeated causes a witch to spawn who’ll drop a lot of rupees (and sometimes other stuff, like rings or a potion or even a heart piece). And there’s one other source of rings: Link can plant Gasha trees, which will eventually grow Gasha nuts, which contain useful items including random rings. I was able to get, without spending too much time, the shield and bombs from the town shop, the two rings from the other shop, and six rings appraised (one was a duplicate, so it got sold for more than the appraisal cost). One of the rings turns out to double the value of rupees Link picks up, so if there’s a bow that requires 980 rupees or something, it’ll only take half as much farming to get.
There was one more interesting thing in town: a couple with a new baby they hadn’t come up with a name for. They ask Link to name it, which of course means it actually falls to the player. After considering all sorts of ridiculous names (“Biscuit” is too long for the field, sadly), I settled on my default name of Bob.
Next: One hell of a nostalgia trip.
Wednesday, September 12, 2018
Majora's Mask: The Moon
The final confrontation with the Skull Kid starts more or less the same way the previous one did, with Tael telling Link and Tatl what they need, and the Skull Kid bopping him. When the Skull Kid accelerates the moon’s descent, Link plays the Oath to Order on the ocarina, and the giants come and hold up the moon. In the moment of peace, Tael says it wasn’t really the Skull Kid’s fault, illustrated when Majora’s Mask comes to life, abandons the Skull Kid, possesses the moon, and starts pushing against the giants. Tatl wants Link to reset time again, but Link intends to go through the portal to confront the Mask. Tatl is reluctant to join him, but when Tael says he’ll go instead, she agrees to go with him.
On the moon, there are five kids gathered around a tree, four who wear masks based on the game’s four other bosses. These lead to micro-dungeons for Link to solve. Odolwa’s involves Dekucoptering, Goht’s goron rolling, Gyorg’s zora swimming through tunnels, and Twinmold’s a miniboss gauntlet followed by the only bombchu puzzles in the game. Three of these are easy enough at this point – even iron knuckles buckle when Link charges at them, hacking away with the Great Fairy’s Sword – but goron rolling, yeesh. Each micro-dungeon has a piece of heart, which when all four are earned makes the 20th and final heart container.
The kids all demanded masks from Link, one set to start the game, one afterward. I started out giving out things with low usefulness and sentimental value, like the Mask of Scents that I’m pretty sure I never used, but by the end, all but the three transformation masks had to go. The last kid, the one wearing Majora’s Mask, notices Link’s all out of normal masks, and so to prepare him for their final game, gives him the 24th mask: the Fierce Deity’s Mask. It’s aptly named, because this thing puts Link into god mode. There’s no strategy needed for the final fight: put on the mask, and then Z-target the boss, shoot sword beams at it until it triggers a cutscene, rinse, repeat. Eventually, the boss dies.
The moon turns into a rainbow as the people below watch and cheer, and a new day dawns. Link wakes up to see the giants saying goodbye to the Skull Kid before returning to their homes. The Skull Kid asks if Link will be his friend too, then comes over and smells him, and he recognizes Link – it’s the same Skull Kid Link sold the skull mask to in Ocarina. The mask salesman has Majora’s Mask, so he bids Link farewell. As he walks away, he stops to suggest that Link return to Hyrule. And he stops one more time to say, “But, my, you sure have managed to make quite a number of people happy. The masks you have are filled with happiness. This is truly a good happiness.” Then, after a few more steps, he vanishes. Finally, Tatl says goodbye to Link, and as Link gets on Epona and rides away, she calls after him to say thank you.
As the credits roll, we see scenes from around Termina as the festival starts, which highlight just how much Link has made things better. There are sad scenes, like the Deku who said Link reminded him of his son discovering his son’s remains – that was Link’s Deku form. But overall, things are good: the Gorman troupe and zora band get to entertain at the milk bar (with Zora Link standing in for Mikau one last time), Romani continues to practice her archery, Anju and Kafei are married (we don’t get to see Kafei restored to his adult form, though), and in general life goes on in Termina. As Link passes through a forest on his way out of Termina, he stops when he notices a carving of him with some of the friends he’d made: the giants, Tatl and Tael, and the Skull Kid. The first notes of Saria’s Song play as the game comes to an end.
That was… an odd one. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, because of what made it odd. The sidequests feel almost more important than the main quest; I think the best way I can put it is it’s like if BioWare made a Legend of Zelda game. I loved the people and enjoyed making their lives better. The Anju/Kafei story was excellent, and I enjoyed everything about Romani Ranch, too. Despite one of my few complaints about Ocarina being too many minigames and this game having even more (even with a time limit that should really make such frivolities even more jarring), I didn’t mind so much, aside from four separate archery games. All in all, it’s a solid contender for my favorite game in the series.
On the moon, there are five kids gathered around a tree, four who wear masks based on the game’s four other bosses. These lead to micro-dungeons for Link to solve. Odolwa’s involves Dekucoptering, Goht’s goron rolling, Gyorg’s zora swimming through tunnels, and Twinmold’s a miniboss gauntlet followed by the only bombchu puzzles in the game. Three of these are easy enough at this point – even iron knuckles buckle when Link charges at them, hacking away with the Great Fairy’s Sword – but goron rolling, yeesh. Each micro-dungeon has a piece of heart, which when all four are earned makes the 20th and final heart container.
The kids all demanded masks from Link, one set to start the game, one afterward. I started out giving out things with low usefulness and sentimental value, like the Mask of Scents that I’m pretty sure I never used, but by the end, all but the three transformation masks had to go. The last kid, the one wearing Majora’s Mask, notices Link’s all out of normal masks, and so to prepare him for their final game, gives him the 24th mask: the Fierce Deity’s Mask. It’s aptly named, because this thing puts Link into god mode. There’s no strategy needed for the final fight: put on the mask, and then Z-target the boss, shoot sword beams at it until it triggers a cutscene, rinse, repeat. Eventually, the boss dies.
The moon turns into a rainbow as the people below watch and cheer, and a new day dawns. Link wakes up to see the giants saying goodbye to the Skull Kid before returning to their homes. The Skull Kid asks if Link will be his friend too, then comes over and smells him, and he recognizes Link – it’s the same Skull Kid Link sold the skull mask to in Ocarina. The mask salesman has Majora’s Mask, so he bids Link farewell. As he walks away, he stops to suggest that Link return to Hyrule. And he stops one more time to say, “But, my, you sure have managed to make quite a number of people happy. The masks you have are filled with happiness. This is truly a good happiness.” Then, after a few more steps, he vanishes. Finally, Tatl says goodbye to Link, and as Link gets on Epona and rides away, she calls after him to say thank you.
As the credits roll, we see scenes from around Termina as the festival starts, which highlight just how much Link has made things better. There are sad scenes, like the Deku who said Link reminded him of his son discovering his son’s remains – that was Link’s Deku form. But overall, things are good: the Gorman troupe and zora band get to entertain at the milk bar (with Zora Link standing in for Mikau one last time), Romani continues to practice her archery, Anju and Kafei are married (we don’t get to see Kafei restored to his adult form, though), and in general life goes on in Termina. As Link passes through a forest on his way out of Termina, he stops when he notices a carving of him with some of the friends he’d made: the giants, Tatl and Tael, and the Skull Kid. The first notes of Saria’s Song play as the game comes to an end.
That was… an odd one. Don’t get me wrong, I love it, because of what made it odd. The sidequests feel almost more important than the main quest; I think the best way I can put it is it’s like if BioWare made a Legend of Zelda game. I loved the people and enjoyed making their lives better. The Anju/Kafei story was excellent, and I enjoyed everything about Romani Ranch, too. Despite one of my few complaints about Ocarina being too many minigames and this game having even more (even with a time limit that should really make such frivolities even more jarring), I didn’t mind so much, aside from four separate archery games. All in all, it’s a solid contender for my favorite game in the series.
Monday, September 10, 2018
Majora's Mask: The Last Cycle
Okay, so I’ve started one last cycle. Over the next three days – slowed down with the Inverted Song of Time – I’m going to do as much as I can for the people of Termina. Some basic information here: I’m not going to do anything that requires significant dungeon exploration; sorry, great fairies and frog choir, hopefully Link will make sure to get you on his way out of town, or when the Skull Kid is stopped, the goddess of time will get you guys back together because Link did it once. There’s not enough time to worry about things that don’t really help people, so no random minigames (riding around Romani Ranch popping alien balloons, yes, racing the Gorman Asshats, no). I probably should have chased down Keeta again and freed Flat (I’d tell the Dampé one to go pancake itself even if half the time I’d have for it wouldn’t be spent with Kafei), but that didn’t occur to me until just now, and breaking the curse on Ikana Valley by killing Twinmold probably took care of at least some of it. Oh, and some things are mutually exclusive, so: Sorry, bomb lady, but Sakon needs to steal your stuff so Anju and Kafei can have their happy ever after, and sorry, Mr. Handy, I’ll tell Anju to look after you. And finally, Link did a fair bit of shopping and gathering during downtime between quests, but I’m going to skip over that.
Link started with the zora eggs, sneaking around the pirate fortress to steal them again. The great fairy’s sword is a nice upgrade, even if I do have to use a C button slot which were already rather precious. Link finished that in plenty of time to get back to town to wear the couple’s mask to remind the mayor he has a backbone. Then, because it wasn’t going to be that long before Anju needed to be brought in on the Kafei search, he went out to Romani Ranch, popped balloons to convince Romani he was a worthy partner for “ghost”busting, and used the Bremen Mask to age up the chicks for Grog’s enjoyment. After returning to town to wear Kafei’s mask for Anju, Link finally went back to the coast, where the super picky guy in the fisherman’s hut didn’t like the pirate picture he took, so he had to go back out to the fortress, get another picture that was good enough. The whole thing’s ooky enough as it is; I’d have skipped the whole thing except it’s needed to help the seahorses. Speaking of, the sea snakes got dead, the last zora eggs got recovered, and the seahorse couple got reunited. After dropping the eggs off at the lab to be hatched, Link went to Ikana, saved Sharp’s soul, lifted the curse on Pamela’s father, and brought a potion to Shiro.
It’s a busy night in town. Link starts the trading sequence by getting the Moon’s Tear and trading it to the town scrub, hears Guru-Guru’s confession about stealing the Bremen Mask, teaches Kamaro’s dance to the Rosa Sisters, does the “Ballad of the Wind Fish” sound check for the zora band manager and Gorman, gets a bottle of Chateau Romani, and dropped Anju’s letter in a mailbox. He went out to meet Kamaro, but I forgot he needs to play the Song of Healing for him. There was still time left before he was needed at Romani Ranch, so he went out to the swamp, traded deeds with the scrub there, and brought a potion to Koume. Then it was time to save the ranch from the aliens, and that took up the rest of the first night. He made arrangements to protect Cremia’s milk shipment before leaving the ranch.
Now it’s dungeon time. Link defeated Odolwa, who was even easier with the fairy sword. He brought the Princess back home and secured the monkey’s release. Before taking on Goht, he stopped in the goron village, traded deeds, put the elder’s son to sleep, and got the rock steak and brought it down to the stranded goron. Then he took down Goht, Gyorg, and even Twinmold before coming back to Clock Town just in time to witness the mail delivery to Kafei, get his pendant, and take it to Anju. With a little time to kill before Cremia needed him, Link went back to Ikana to try to help the Poe Sisters, but apparently defeating Twinmold blocks off that quest. Oops.
Cremia was grateful for the help delivering the milk, and without anything else to offer Link, gave him a hug… that had his face pressed right into her chest. Heh. (“You feel all warm and fuzzy! inside [sic]! Sigh… You could get used to this!” Double heh.) After that, there wasn’t much left to do: wrap up the Deku trading sequence; clear out the Fearful Spider House, the Secret Shrine (dawn of the last day broke after two of the minibosses), and the Ocean Spider House; visit Kafei’s hideout to get the letter to Madame Aroma; kill the takkuri one last time, for old times’ sake (and to get to blow it up with light arrows); help Kafei get his mask back; give the letter to the postman; and wait with Anju for Kafei to return. I wasn’t too big on seeing things I’d seen before that would inevitably happen, but Anju and Kafei’s reunion is too good, and I worked too hard to make it happen, to miss.
There are a few things I forgot, and some I skipped, but overall, I think I did pretty well. Now it’s time to save the world.
Next: The weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious dawn.
Link started with the zora eggs, sneaking around the pirate fortress to steal them again. The great fairy’s sword is a nice upgrade, even if I do have to use a C button slot which were already rather precious. Link finished that in plenty of time to get back to town to wear the couple’s mask to remind the mayor he has a backbone. Then, because it wasn’t going to be that long before Anju needed to be brought in on the Kafei search, he went out to Romani Ranch, popped balloons to convince Romani he was a worthy partner for “ghost”busting, and used the Bremen Mask to age up the chicks for Grog’s enjoyment. After returning to town to wear Kafei’s mask for Anju, Link finally went back to the coast, where the super picky guy in the fisherman’s hut didn’t like the pirate picture he took, so he had to go back out to the fortress, get another picture that was good enough. The whole thing’s ooky enough as it is; I’d have skipped the whole thing except it’s needed to help the seahorses. Speaking of, the sea snakes got dead, the last zora eggs got recovered, and the seahorse couple got reunited. After dropping the eggs off at the lab to be hatched, Link went to Ikana, saved Sharp’s soul, lifted the curse on Pamela’s father, and brought a potion to Shiro.
It’s a busy night in town. Link starts the trading sequence by getting the Moon’s Tear and trading it to the town scrub, hears Guru-Guru’s confession about stealing the Bremen Mask, teaches Kamaro’s dance to the Rosa Sisters, does the “Ballad of the Wind Fish” sound check for the zora band manager and Gorman, gets a bottle of Chateau Romani, and dropped Anju’s letter in a mailbox. He went out to meet Kamaro, but I forgot he needs to play the Song of Healing for him. There was still time left before he was needed at Romani Ranch, so he went out to the swamp, traded deeds with the scrub there, and brought a potion to Koume. Then it was time to save the ranch from the aliens, and that took up the rest of the first night. He made arrangements to protect Cremia’s milk shipment before leaving the ranch.
Now it’s dungeon time. Link defeated Odolwa, who was even easier with the fairy sword. He brought the Princess back home and secured the monkey’s release. Before taking on Goht, he stopped in the goron village, traded deeds, put the elder’s son to sleep, and got the rock steak and brought it down to the stranded goron. Then he took down Goht, Gyorg, and even Twinmold before coming back to Clock Town just in time to witness the mail delivery to Kafei, get his pendant, and take it to Anju. With a little time to kill before Cremia needed him, Link went back to Ikana to try to help the Poe Sisters, but apparently defeating Twinmold blocks off that quest. Oops.
Cremia was grateful for the help delivering the milk, and without anything else to offer Link, gave him a hug… that had his face pressed right into her chest. Heh. (“You feel all warm and fuzzy! inside [sic]! Sigh… You could get used to this!” Double heh.) After that, there wasn’t much left to do: wrap up the Deku trading sequence; clear out the Fearful Spider House, the Secret Shrine (dawn of the last day broke after two of the minibosses), and the Ocean Spider House; visit Kafei’s hideout to get the letter to Madame Aroma; kill the takkuri one last time, for old times’ sake (and to get to blow it up with light arrows); help Kafei get his mask back; give the letter to the postman; and wait with Anju for Kafei to return. I wasn’t too big on seeing things I’d seen before that would inevitably happen, but Anju and Kafei’s reunion is too good, and I worked too hard to make it happen, to miss.
There are a few things I forgot, and some I skipped, but overall, I think I did pretty well. Now it’s time to save the world.
Next: The weary world rejoices, for yonder breaks a new and glorious dawn.
Friday, September 7, 2018
Majora's Mask: Stone Tower Temple
My first accomplishment happened at the very start of the cycle: I took the last rupees out of Link’s bank account to stock up on arrows, bombs, and other consumables before Soaring to the top of Stone Tower. There’s no new form for Link this time around, unless you count the Giant’s Mask, found in the dungeon, which makes Link huge so he can fight the boss but can only be used in that one room. Each of the three forms is needed to work the way through the dungeon; Zora Link is needed the least, but that’s okay, after Great Bay Temple I’m happy to let it have a break.
There are a lot of those puzzles using the mirror shield to reflect sunlight onto faces or blocks, and I don’t know what’s changed since Ocarina, but they’ve gotten a lot harder for me. Maybe it’s more need to be precise, maybe the shield’s smaller, maybe I’m just out of practice or don’t remember how hard they really were. They did add a new wrinkle that makes it harder: needing to charge up a mirror with sunlight then reflect the mirror’s emitted light, and that’s not how mirrors work but whatever. Needless to say, I was quite thrilled when I got the light arrows and discovered they were a shortcut to solving those problems.
The light arrows also come up in the dungeon’s signature mechanic: after Link goes through once and gets the light arrows, he has to go outside and hit a mark on the temple to flip it upside-down, then explore it again like that. There are a few rooms inside that have to be flipped multiple times to get through, memorably one with a sliding block that can only go so far on each surface so getting it to its puzzle solved spot is basically “push block, flip room, push block, flip room…,” ending with two more flips to make it onto the platform to leave.
There are a lot of minibosses here. First is a leader of the Garo ninjas, who fights with flaming swords and doesn’t leave himself open to counterattacks when blocked. I found it easiest not to Z-target him, just roll out of the way and thwack him when I had an opening. Eyegores return to the series, now with laser beams, so the strategy is to block those, then shoot the eye when it’s vulnerable – kind of like Hyrule Warriors’ interpretation of gohmas. There’s yet another wizzrobe fight here. And finally, Gomess, whose weak spot is protected by bats. They flee if he’s hit with a light arrow, leaving the weak spot vulnerable.
If Link wants to get all the stray fairies, he’s got to flip the dungeon two more times. Once to collect all the ones from chests he spawned while upside-down that can only be gotten rightside-up, and then one more time to be able to get into the boss room. These forced exits gave me a chance to Soar back to Clock Town and buy Chateau Romani so I didn’t have to worry about magic when using light arrows (or later, the giant’s mask), and between finishing fairy collection and fighting the boss, down to Ikana Canyon to get the final fairy reward, the Great Fairy’s Sword. All this was nearly rendered moot for me by one of the fairies, which requires some very precise goron rolling to get from one button to another before fires surround the second button again.
The boss of the temple is Twinmold, giant masked insect. It’s a pair of giant… well, the name makes me think moldorms, but everything about the design echoes A Link to the Past’s lanmolas. I noted back during The Legend of Zelda that it seemed the moldorms and lanmolas in that game were backward, given A Link to the Past’s boss monsters; now it seems like they have two wormy monsters and just randomly assign names. I even like the name “Twinmola” a little better. As for the actual fight, Link puts on the giant’s mask and hacks away until they die, and this seems to be the intended way for the fight to flow. They didn’t even seem to acknowledge the big guy killing them. It’s a weird, easy fight.
The four giants, now freed, agree to come to Link and Tatl’s aid to stop the Skull Kid. They express some reluctance to do so, and send Link and Tatl back to the world with a parting message, “Forgive your friend.” Defeating Twinmold also lifts the curse on Ikana Canyon, so there are no more gibdos around the music box house.
There’s one last thing to do before resetting time. Back down in the river with the octoroks that make convenient ice cubes, there’s a Secret Shrine behind a waterfall where Link can fight minibosses from each of the four dungeons. Dinolfos are easy, dying in one hit to the Great Fairy’s Sword. The challenge with the wizzrobe is there’s no minimap to track him on. Wart, I’ve decided that the easiest way to fight is to just wade in swinging the sword until it dies. It’s amazing how effective that strategy is against a lot of things. Finally, I continue to refine tactics against the Garo Master. With all four dead, Link is awarded a heart piece.
I’m now ready to go to the final confrontation, but time travel and quests resetting means all those people I’ve helped need helping again. I would bet there’s some kind of magical merging of all the best outcomes, even mutually exclusive ones (although it shouldn’t be that hard to stop Sakon from robbing the bomb lady and then tell Kafei where his hideout is thanks to the magic of time travel; on the other hand, it requires saying something so, yeah, it's beyond Link's ability), but I want to do as much of it myself as I can.
Next: A very busy three days.
There are a lot of those puzzles using the mirror shield to reflect sunlight onto faces or blocks, and I don’t know what’s changed since Ocarina, but they’ve gotten a lot harder for me. Maybe it’s more need to be precise, maybe the shield’s smaller, maybe I’m just out of practice or don’t remember how hard they really were. They did add a new wrinkle that makes it harder: needing to charge up a mirror with sunlight then reflect the mirror’s emitted light, and that’s not how mirrors work but whatever. Needless to say, I was quite thrilled when I got the light arrows and discovered they were a shortcut to solving those problems.
The light arrows also come up in the dungeon’s signature mechanic: after Link goes through once and gets the light arrows, he has to go outside and hit a mark on the temple to flip it upside-down, then explore it again like that. There are a few rooms inside that have to be flipped multiple times to get through, memorably one with a sliding block that can only go so far on each surface so getting it to its puzzle solved spot is basically “push block, flip room, push block, flip room…,” ending with two more flips to make it onto the platform to leave.
There are a lot of minibosses here. First is a leader of the Garo ninjas, who fights with flaming swords and doesn’t leave himself open to counterattacks when blocked. I found it easiest not to Z-target him, just roll out of the way and thwack him when I had an opening. Eyegores return to the series, now with laser beams, so the strategy is to block those, then shoot the eye when it’s vulnerable – kind of like Hyrule Warriors’ interpretation of gohmas. There’s yet another wizzrobe fight here. And finally, Gomess, whose weak spot is protected by bats. They flee if he’s hit with a light arrow, leaving the weak spot vulnerable.
If Link wants to get all the stray fairies, he’s got to flip the dungeon two more times. Once to collect all the ones from chests he spawned while upside-down that can only be gotten rightside-up, and then one more time to be able to get into the boss room. These forced exits gave me a chance to Soar back to Clock Town and buy Chateau Romani so I didn’t have to worry about magic when using light arrows (or later, the giant’s mask), and between finishing fairy collection and fighting the boss, down to Ikana Canyon to get the final fairy reward, the Great Fairy’s Sword. All this was nearly rendered moot for me by one of the fairies, which requires some very precise goron rolling to get from one button to another before fires surround the second button again.
The boss of the temple is Twinmold, giant masked insect. It’s a pair of giant… well, the name makes me think moldorms, but everything about the design echoes A Link to the Past’s lanmolas. I noted back during The Legend of Zelda that it seemed the moldorms and lanmolas in that game were backward, given A Link to the Past’s boss monsters; now it seems like they have two wormy monsters and just randomly assign names. I even like the name “Twinmola” a little better. As for the actual fight, Link puts on the giant’s mask and hacks away until they die, and this seems to be the intended way for the fight to flow. They didn’t even seem to acknowledge the big guy killing them. It’s a weird, easy fight.
The four giants, now freed, agree to come to Link and Tatl’s aid to stop the Skull Kid. They express some reluctance to do so, and send Link and Tatl back to the world with a parting message, “Forgive your friend.” Defeating Twinmold also lifts the curse on Ikana Canyon, so there are no more gibdos around the music box house.
There’s one last thing to do before resetting time. Back down in the river with the octoroks that make convenient ice cubes, there’s a Secret Shrine behind a waterfall where Link can fight minibosses from each of the four dungeons. Dinolfos are easy, dying in one hit to the Great Fairy’s Sword. The challenge with the wizzrobe is there’s no minimap to track him on. Wart, I’ve decided that the easiest way to fight is to just wade in swinging the sword until it dies. It’s amazing how effective that strategy is against a lot of things. Finally, I continue to refine tactics against the Garo Master. With all four dead, Link is awarded a heart piece.
I’m now ready to go to the final confrontation, but time travel and quests resetting means all those people I’ve helped need helping again. I would bet there’s some kind of magical merging of all the best outcomes, even mutually exclusive ones (although it shouldn’t be that hard to stop Sakon from robbing the bomb lady and then tell Kafei where his hideout is thanks to the magic of time travel; on the other hand, it requires saying something so, yeah, it's beyond Link's ability), but I want to do as much of it myself as I can.
Next: A very busy three days.
Wednesday, September 5, 2018
Majora's Mask: Ikana Canyon
As Link works his way through the canyon, Tatl will sometimes feel uneasy, sensing a nearby Garo ninja. If Link puts on the Deku Mask, the ninja will attack him, and leave a hint about the surrounding area. I probably did this more than I should have; getting to the next dungeon requires a lot of work and I didn’t think to have the Inverted Song of Time running from the start. On the other hand, some of those tips were lifesavers.
The main part of Ikana Canyon has a house surrounded by gibdos, a castle whose entrance proclaims it can’t be breached, a dry river bed leading to a cave, and the entrances to the fairy fountain and the next area. In the cave, Link finds Sharp, who begins playing a song whose music harms Link. Link fulfills Flat’s request and plays the Song of Storms, easing Sharp’s pain and refilling the river. The river turns a wheel at the house, which causes the pipes on top to begin playing a cheerful carousel music piece that causes the gibdos to turn to dust.
As Link approaches the house, a girl sees him and locks herself inside and refuses to talk to him. Link waits for her to leave again, and sneaks in once she’s gone. In the basement, he finds the girl’s father, who’s about half turned into a gibdo himself. Link plays the Song of Healing for him, breaking the curse, leading to a nice scene between father and daughter. As they hug, Link takes the gibdo mask left behind by curing the man, and heads out for the next objective.
At the top of the canyon is a well Link can go down. Inside is a maze filled with gibdos who want various items. Most of them can be found somewhere in the well, but two have to be brought in: a blue potion to go north, or five magic beans to go east. There’s actually a fairy fountain down here, although given how annoying it is to get to, I’ll stick with gathering the fairies near owl statues. The prize down here is the mirror shield, which has been significantly redesigned from Ocarina of Time to have a rather unhappy-looking face that gets projected on the wall when it reflects sunlight. The sunlight trick is needed to escape the well, into Ikana Castle’s courtyard.
Just inside Ikana Castle is a group of ReDeads. One of the Garo ninjas said they used to be a dance troupe, and if Link wears the gibdo mask around them, they dance harmlessly rather than screaming and hugging the life out of him. There are two paths, north and south. The north path is all pathing puzzles for Deku Link. When he gets on the roof, there’s a heart piece he can grab with some quick Dekucoptering, and a switch to step on to help on the southern path. The southern path is more combat-intensive, with the return of floormasters and another wizzrobe fight.
A powder keg is needed to shine the light in the main room to allow Link to open the way to the final boss fight against the late King of Ikana. The king closes the blinds and sends his guards to fight Link; Link burns the blinds away with a fire arrow, stuns the guards with his sword, and shines the light on them to destroy them. Then the king comes down, and it’s pretty much the same except he hits harder and takes more hits to stun. After Link wins, the guards start squabbling over whose fault their defeat was, but the king is glad to be free, and teaches Link the Elegy of Emptiness, the last song, which he’ll need to enter the dungeon in the area and fully break the curse on Ikana. The song lets Link leave a creepy statue of himself behind, and he can apparently use it in each of his transformed forms to leave up to four statues.
With the Elegy of Emptiness, Link is ready to begin his ascent of Stone Tower. There are falling rocks to avoid and beamos to avoid and blow up, and the main feature is zipping around with the hookshot and stepping on buttons to move blocks to create a path across the pit. The switches require Link’s weight to stay down, so he has to use the Elegy of Emptiness to put a goron, zora, and human statue on each set. (Deku Link is too light to press buttons, and so is its statue.) After two puzzles, Link reaches the top of the tower where there’s an owl statue and one last button/statue/block puzzle. After figuring out the button configuration and jumping across the blocks to make sure I know what to do when I tackle the dungeon for real, Link played the Song of Time.
Next: The world turns upside-down.
The main part of Ikana Canyon has a house surrounded by gibdos, a castle whose entrance proclaims it can’t be breached, a dry river bed leading to a cave, and the entrances to the fairy fountain and the next area. In the cave, Link finds Sharp, who begins playing a song whose music harms Link. Link fulfills Flat’s request and plays the Song of Storms, easing Sharp’s pain and refilling the river. The river turns a wheel at the house, which causes the pipes on top to begin playing a cheerful carousel music piece that causes the gibdos to turn to dust.
As Link approaches the house, a girl sees him and locks herself inside and refuses to talk to him. Link waits for her to leave again, and sneaks in once she’s gone. In the basement, he finds the girl’s father, who’s about half turned into a gibdo himself. Link plays the Song of Healing for him, breaking the curse, leading to a nice scene between father and daughter. As they hug, Link takes the gibdo mask left behind by curing the man, and heads out for the next objective.
At the top of the canyon is a well Link can go down. Inside is a maze filled with gibdos who want various items. Most of them can be found somewhere in the well, but two have to be brought in: a blue potion to go north, or five magic beans to go east. There’s actually a fairy fountain down here, although given how annoying it is to get to, I’ll stick with gathering the fairies near owl statues. The prize down here is the mirror shield, which has been significantly redesigned from Ocarina of Time to have a rather unhappy-looking face that gets projected on the wall when it reflects sunlight. The sunlight trick is needed to escape the well, into Ikana Castle’s courtyard.
Just inside Ikana Castle is a group of ReDeads. One of the Garo ninjas said they used to be a dance troupe, and if Link wears the gibdo mask around them, they dance harmlessly rather than screaming and hugging the life out of him. There are two paths, north and south. The north path is all pathing puzzles for Deku Link. When he gets on the roof, there’s a heart piece he can grab with some quick Dekucoptering, and a switch to step on to help on the southern path. The southern path is more combat-intensive, with the return of floormasters and another wizzrobe fight.
A powder keg is needed to shine the light in the main room to allow Link to open the way to the final boss fight against the late King of Ikana. The king closes the blinds and sends his guards to fight Link; Link burns the blinds away with a fire arrow, stuns the guards with his sword, and shines the light on them to destroy them. Then the king comes down, and it’s pretty much the same except he hits harder and takes more hits to stun. After Link wins, the guards start squabbling over whose fault their defeat was, but the king is glad to be free, and teaches Link the Elegy of Emptiness, the last song, which he’ll need to enter the dungeon in the area and fully break the curse on Ikana. The song lets Link leave a creepy statue of himself behind, and he can apparently use it in each of his transformed forms to leave up to four statues.
With the Elegy of Emptiness, Link is ready to begin his ascent of Stone Tower. There are falling rocks to avoid and beamos to avoid and blow up, and the main feature is zipping around with the hookshot and stepping on buttons to move blocks to create a path across the pit. The switches require Link’s weight to stay down, so he has to use the Elegy of Emptiness to put a goron, zora, and human statue on each set. (Deku Link is too light to press buttons, and so is its statue.) After two puzzles, Link reaches the top of the tower where there’s an owl statue and one last button/statue/block puzzle. After figuring out the button configuration and jumping across the blocks to make sure I know what to do when I tackle the dungeon for real, Link played the Song of Time.
Next: The world turns upside-down.
Monday, September 3, 2018
Majora's Mask: Anju and Kafei
The game’s centerpiece sidequest involves a pair of lovers, one of whom has gone missing days before their scheduled wedding. There are events spread over all three days, ending shortly before moonfall. It’s possible – easy, even – to block off completing the event chain by helping someone else in the Bombers’ Notebook (the woman from the bomb shop; the thief who steals the bomb bags won’t show up for a needed appointment if he’s stopped). There’s a branch late in the sequence, and both versions need to be completed to get all the rewards. I’ve seen bits and pieces of this story, but haven’t been able to put it all together.
Until now.
Link can find Madam Aroma, the mayor’s wife, in her room preparing for a meeting with Gorman to inform him that their performance at the festival is off because of the situation with Lulu’s voice. Aroma mistakes Link for an expert she hired to find her son, Kafei, who’s missing with just days left before his scheduled wedding, and gives him a mask that resembles Kafei to help in his search. Kafei’s fiancée, Anju, is the innkeeper at the Stock Pot Inn. Early that afternoon, the postman delivers a letter to her from Kafei, but won’t say where he got it. While she’s still verklempt, Link can check into the hotel, stealing another person’s reservation due to having the same name. He can also talk to her with the Kafei mask, and she’ll say she has an idea, and asks Link to come back at 11:30.
There’s lots of time before then, so Link calls Epona to try to explore the canyon a little more. As Epona reaches the tall cliff, a man (the poe collector from Ocarina) calls down that the canyon is populated by regretful spirits, and Link needs a mask from the ranch before he can enter. Link puts on the Garo mask he got from the Gorman Brothers, and the man acknowledges it’s the right mask and summons a tree to the clifftop so Link can hookshot up. Inside the canyon, Link meets with the bomb thief, who takes an interest in Link’s sword. If Link foolishly offers to let him see the sword, Tatl drives the thief away, saving Link from his own bad decisions. There’s also a business scrub here. Link can cross the river by freezing a pair of octoroks, and can hookshot up trees to find an owl statue waiting atop a cliff, so Epona doesn’t need to be ridden through creepy roads anymore.
At their arranged meeting, Anju gives Link a letter for Kafei, since the postman knows where he is. Link puts the letter in a mailbox, and waits until the postman collects the mail in the morning, then follows him around the city for the better part of the day. Finally, the postman goes to the laundry pool and delivers the letter to a boy. Link can follow the boy into his hiding spot, the curiosity shop’s back room; the boy recognizes him from the description in Anju’s letter, and after confirming that Link can keep a secret, reveals that he’s Kafei. Kafei was transformed into a child by the Skull Kid, but that’s not why he’s hiding. He had a mask for the wedding, but it was stolen, and he doesn’t want to face Anju without the mask. He’s watching the curiosity shop until the thief tries to fence something there, and will follow him back to his hideout, get the mask, and return to Anju. As a token of his promise, he gives a pendant to Link to give to Anju.
Anju’s grateful for the message, and later that night when her family is planning to flee the city to Romani Ranch in hopes it’ll be safe from the moon, she doesn’t want to go. Also that night, Link can watch the thief sell the bomb bags; the curiosity shop man has all the power in the conversation and knows it, buying the whole shipment for less than Link paid for a single bag.
There’s lots of time to kill before the last few stages of this quest start, so Link can get a couple pieces of heart now. First, help the business scrubs move to new homes, and jump from the flower of the one in the canyon to get one last piece of heart. Also in the canyon, the guy from the cliff is in a house with four poes with lingering regrets. If Link can defeat them all in three minutes, he’ll get a piece of heart. First one of the poes attack, then two at the same time, and then the last has illusory doubles that surround Link. (It’s the Poe Sisters from Ocarina’s Forest Temple.) After Link is successful, the man says their spirits have been healed, and so has his.
The next phase of the quest begins when Link finds the curiosity shop man in the backroom the next afternoon. He says Kafei’s gone to Ikana Canyon to go after Sakon (the thief), and gives Link two things: Kafei’s Keaton mask, and a letter from Kafei to his mother. Link finds Kafei watching Sakon’s hideout, and at dusk, Sakon goes in and Kafei and Link follow. Kafei tries to pick up his mask, triggering a trap instead, and he and Link scramble to save the mask from being destroyed. Link returns to town and gives the letter to the postman. He follows the postman to the milk bar. When the postman comes out, he’s been relieved of duty so he can flee the city, so he gives his hat to Link before leaving.
Finally, an hour and a half before moonfall, Kafei returns to Anju with the mask. Tatl giggles at the age mismatch, but after everything that went into getting them back together, it’s a beautiful reunion. They give Link a couple’s mask and tell him that they’re going to stay together to meet whatever fate awaits them. Link’s not ready for the world to end, so he Groundhog Days it.
There are a few last things to wrap up. The mayor has a daily meeting that devolves into chaos and he can’t find the strength to take control unless Link comes in wearing the couple’s mask. He thanks Link with a heart piece. If Link wears the Keaton Mask and cuts one of the patches of grass that runs away after being cut, an actual keaton comes to him and asks questions about the world, with a heart piece as the reward for correct answers. Wearing the postman’s hat, Link can find a heart piece in a mailbox. And finally, after running most of the Anju/Kafei quest, Link can deliver Kafei’s letter directly to Madame Aroma, who gives him a bottle of Chateau Romani. Since this is it for the cycle, the bottle’s more valuable than the milk, but she doesn’t need to know that.
Saving the world may be the big thing, but it’s usually the smaller things that stick with me, and I doubt this will be any different. Even if moonfall happens, Link’s brought Anju and Kafei together so they can be happy in their final moments, and of course when he does finally save the world, they’ll have a full life together. So let’s get back to that.
Next: The land of the dead.
Until now.
Link can find Madam Aroma, the mayor’s wife, in her room preparing for a meeting with Gorman to inform him that their performance at the festival is off because of the situation with Lulu’s voice. Aroma mistakes Link for an expert she hired to find her son, Kafei, who’s missing with just days left before his scheduled wedding, and gives him a mask that resembles Kafei to help in his search. Kafei’s fiancée, Anju, is the innkeeper at the Stock Pot Inn. Early that afternoon, the postman delivers a letter to her from Kafei, but won’t say where he got it. While she’s still verklempt, Link can check into the hotel, stealing another person’s reservation due to having the same name. He can also talk to her with the Kafei mask, and she’ll say she has an idea, and asks Link to come back at 11:30.
There’s lots of time before then, so Link calls Epona to try to explore the canyon a little more. As Epona reaches the tall cliff, a man (the poe collector from Ocarina) calls down that the canyon is populated by regretful spirits, and Link needs a mask from the ranch before he can enter. Link puts on the Garo mask he got from the Gorman Brothers, and the man acknowledges it’s the right mask and summons a tree to the clifftop so Link can hookshot up. Inside the canyon, Link meets with the bomb thief, who takes an interest in Link’s sword. If Link foolishly offers to let him see the sword, Tatl drives the thief away, saving Link from his own bad decisions. There’s also a business scrub here. Link can cross the river by freezing a pair of octoroks, and can hookshot up trees to find an owl statue waiting atop a cliff, so Epona doesn’t need to be ridden through creepy roads anymore.
At their arranged meeting, Anju gives Link a letter for Kafei, since the postman knows where he is. Link puts the letter in a mailbox, and waits until the postman collects the mail in the morning, then follows him around the city for the better part of the day. Finally, the postman goes to the laundry pool and delivers the letter to a boy. Link can follow the boy into his hiding spot, the curiosity shop’s back room; the boy recognizes him from the description in Anju’s letter, and after confirming that Link can keep a secret, reveals that he’s Kafei. Kafei was transformed into a child by the Skull Kid, but that’s not why he’s hiding. He had a mask for the wedding, but it was stolen, and he doesn’t want to face Anju without the mask. He’s watching the curiosity shop until the thief tries to fence something there, and will follow him back to his hideout, get the mask, and return to Anju. As a token of his promise, he gives a pendant to Link to give to Anju.
Anju’s grateful for the message, and later that night when her family is planning to flee the city to Romani Ranch in hopes it’ll be safe from the moon, she doesn’t want to go. Also that night, Link can watch the thief sell the bomb bags; the curiosity shop man has all the power in the conversation and knows it, buying the whole shipment for less than Link paid for a single bag.
There’s lots of time to kill before the last few stages of this quest start, so Link can get a couple pieces of heart now. First, help the business scrubs move to new homes, and jump from the flower of the one in the canyon to get one last piece of heart. Also in the canyon, the guy from the cliff is in a house with four poes with lingering regrets. If Link can defeat them all in three minutes, he’ll get a piece of heart. First one of the poes attack, then two at the same time, and then the last has illusory doubles that surround Link. (It’s the Poe Sisters from Ocarina’s Forest Temple.) After Link is successful, the man says their spirits have been healed, and so has his.
The next phase of the quest begins when Link finds the curiosity shop man in the backroom the next afternoon. He says Kafei’s gone to Ikana Canyon to go after Sakon (the thief), and gives Link two things: Kafei’s Keaton mask, and a letter from Kafei to his mother. Link finds Kafei watching Sakon’s hideout, and at dusk, Sakon goes in and Kafei and Link follow. Kafei tries to pick up his mask, triggering a trap instead, and he and Link scramble to save the mask from being destroyed. Link returns to town and gives the letter to the postman. He follows the postman to the milk bar. When the postman comes out, he’s been relieved of duty so he can flee the city, so he gives his hat to Link before leaving.
Finally, an hour and a half before moonfall, Kafei returns to Anju with the mask. Tatl giggles at the age mismatch, but after everything that went into getting them back together, it’s a beautiful reunion. They give Link a couple’s mask and tell him that they’re going to stay together to meet whatever fate awaits them. Link’s not ready for the world to end, so he Groundhog Days it.
There are a few last things to wrap up. The mayor has a daily meeting that devolves into chaos and he can’t find the strength to take control unless Link comes in wearing the couple’s mask. He thanks Link with a heart piece. If Link wears the Keaton Mask and cuts one of the patches of grass that runs away after being cut, an actual keaton comes to him and asks questions about the world, with a heart piece as the reward for correct answers. Wearing the postman’s hat, Link can find a heart piece in a mailbox. And finally, after running most of the Anju/Kafei quest, Link can deliver Kafei’s letter directly to Madame Aroma, who gives him a bottle of Chateau Romani. Since this is it for the cycle, the bottle’s more valuable than the milk, but she doesn’t need to know that.
Saving the world may be the big thing, but it’s usually the smaller things that stick with me, and I doubt this will be any different. Even if moonfall happens, Link’s brought Anju and Kafei together so they can be happy in their final moments, and of course when he does finally save the world, they’ll have a full life together. So let’s get back to that.
Next: The land of the dead.
Subscribe to:
Posts (Atom)