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.
