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.
