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.
