As Link exits Jabu-Jabu’s belly, we cut to Twinrova in their ritual room, where they gloat over the fact that the Black Tower has been completed. In the tower, Verambi uses the power gained by the Tower to affect the timeline in similar ways to what Veran did with Nayru’s power. The Maku Tree can’t sense where the final essence is, but once again, there are only a few areas left for Link to explore. As he leaves the zora city, a zora presents him with a scale as a token of appreciation for all he’s done. The scale allows Link to access a walled-off area in the ocean called the Sea of Storms, where the pirates from Holodrum have come now that they’ve got their sea legs back. The captain trades the eyeball from a tokay statue for Link’s zora scale, which will give him access to the last area of the map in the past.
With the long hook, Link now has everything he needs to explore the Hero’s Cave. It’s a long series of the trickiest puzzles in the game. An early one that sets the tone for the experience is a standard puzzle of matching a set of statues to a reference set, only the movable ones seem to be one statue short. As it turns out, one of the reference set can be stolen and needs to be brought over to the puzzle solution. It only gets worse from there. A later puzzle requires pushing against a block to create a Cane of Somaria block on the other side of it and bending a jump in ways that my thumb does not appreciate. There’s a room where Link needs to walk over all the tiles in a single path, only he can’t; no matter what he does, he’ll leave one square untouched, which needs to be covered with a Cane of Somaria block. To get one reward, Link needs to create a Cane of Somaria block under himself while he’s jumping.
All of that pales before the worst puzzle. It combines two simple puzzles, each quite familiar by now, to devious effect. The first puzzle type involves rolling a color cube onto three color tiles. The second has link pull a lever which temporarily halts a lava flow, allowing the cube to be rolled over the lava bed. However, if the cube falls into the lava, Link has to exit the room to reset the puzzle. And, because it’s not already mean enough, Link entered the room through a portal, not a door, so if he falls into the lava, he doesn’t just return to the entrance, he’s warped back to the last room, and the puzzle completely resets. As you might guess, this puzzle is completely unforgiving and took a whole bunch of tries to get past.
Then the penultimate room has a tricky series of bent jumps, and the final room has a bunch of enemies to kill before getting the reward, including a couple wallmasters because Nintendo hates us. The reward for all this is the Armor Ring L3, which greatly reduces incoming damage but also greatly reduces sword damage. For enemies that are immune to the sword, that’s not a bad tradeoff, so at least all those tricky puzzles have a good payoff.
Getting back to the quest, the past version of the entrance to Moonlit Grotto on Crescent Island only has one of its two eyes. Putting the tokay eyeball Link got from the pirate captain in the missing eye’s slot opens an entrance. The entrance does not lead to a past version of Moonlit Grotto but a secret path to a walled-off section of the sea. The secret path has several tests for Link before he makes it through: fighting enemies, navigating traps, finding a hidden path, and once he’s through the cave, there’s a simple puzzle for lining up statues to open the way forward. The grounds for the dungeon are another maze crawling with darknuts and lynels, and Link finally comes to the entrance to the last dungeon.
Next: The final exam.
Wednesday, October 31, 2018
Monday, October 29, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Zora Village
Cleansing the Sea
Before Link sets out for the next dungeon, he can explore the seas better with the mermaid suit allowing better swimming and the ability to dive to see how things are different on the ocean floor. Near Crescent Island in the past, he can find a tokay in a cave with a shield he found that he was holding for the owner. He’s been waiting a long time, and while he was waiting he polished it into being an upgrade for Link’s shield, which since he’s gotten the iron shield via secrets, it becomes the mirror shield. I’m inclined to think that this is not Link’s original shield, but, heck, it could be. Also, after an underwater maze, Link can find the final heart piece.
The Zoras in Labrynna live in the southwest corner of the map, and getting there, even with the mermaid suit is difficult because Veran’s dark magic has poisoned that area of the sea. The path requires switching between surface and underwater and traveling between past and future, and fortunately there’s a gale seed tree near the entrance of the village in both eras, so once Link makes it once, he can quicktravel back. The poisoned water has made the zora king ill, so Link gives him a potion he picked up from an encounter with Maple, which cures him. He tells Link the “fish” he’s looking for is Jabu-Jabu, but as long as the water is poisoned, entrance is denied. He gives Link a key to the zora library, in case he wants to try to cleanse the seas.
Also in the zora village, Link gets the final secret from a former pupil of Holodrum’s Sunken City’s master diver. The message is for their shared mentor, who challenges Link to a new test: swim through a maze and recover the item in 30 seconds or less. This one’s almost as tough as the boomerang lawn mowing, and the reward’s even sillier. It’s a ring that grants increased swimming speed, which would have been nice to have while trying to complete the trial.
En route to the library, Link finds a great fairy in the past, who’s been transformed into an octorok by Veran’s magic. She asks Link to find fairy dust to cure her condition. In the future library, Link finds a book that was once a part of a set. He takes it to the past library, where the book and the rest of the set give directions for navigating a room with invisible floors over a giant pit. Once Link has successfully navigated the whole path, the old man at the end gives him the fairy dust he needs. Once cured, the great fairy gets to work cleansing the seas, which affects both past and future, and convinces the zora king to allow Link to enter Jabu-Jabu.
Jabu-Jabu’s Belly
Being a water dungeon is already a strike against Jabu-Jabu’s Belly, and the mermaid suit controls do nothing to help with that. One additional frustration that comes up during the dungeon is that while Link’s underwater in top-down areas, the B button is hard-set to “surface,” meaning he can’t use whatever item is set to that slot, leaving him with only one. The dungeon’s layout doesn’t do it any favors, with the standard water dungeon trick of raising and lowering the water level to progress; the floor that needs to be flooded/drained most is the bottom floor, while the buttons that control the water level are on the top floor, so a lot of backtracking between the two extreme floors is required, even if you know what you’re doing – far from a guarantee the first time you visit.
The dungeon’s bosses are easy, seemingly in apology for the dungeon’s difficulty. The miniboss is another Angler Fish; it’s actually a little harder than the one in Link’s Awakening, but that’s not saying much. The room where Link fights it doesn’t have water, so the Angler Fish bounces around the room; if Link hits it with a scent seed, it flops to the ground, giving Link several free shots at it. The Angler Fish guards the dungeon’s treasure, the long hook, an extended switch hook. The final boss, Plasmarine, has red and blue forms, and shoots energy attacks in the color of its current form. Link uses the switch hook to simultaneously change its color, making it vulnerable to its own attack, and drag it into the path of its attack. After a short fight, Link claims the seventh essence, the Rolling Sea.
Next: The bonus dungeon.
Before Link sets out for the next dungeon, he can explore the seas better with the mermaid suit allowing better swimming and the ability to dive to see how things are different on the ocean floor. Near Crescent Island in the past, he can find a tokay in a cave with a shield he found that he was holding for the owner. He’s been waiting a long time, and while he was waiting he polished it into being an upgrade for Link’s shield, which since he’s gotten the iron shield via secrets, it becomes the mirror shield. I’m inclined to think that this is not Link’s original shield, but, heck, it could be. Also, after an underwater maze, Link can find the final heart piece.
The Zoras in Labrynna live in the southwest corner of the map, and getting there, even with the mermaid suit is difficult because Veran’s dark magic has poisoned that area of the sea. The path requires switching between surface and underwater and traveling between past and future, and fortunately there’s a gale seed tree near the entrance of the village in both eras, so once Link makes it once, he can quicktravel back. The poisoned water has made the zora king ill, so Link gives him a potion he picked up from an encounter with Maple, which cures him. He tells Link the “fish” he’s looking for is Jabu-Jabu, but as long as the water is poisoned, entrance is denied. He gives Link a key to the zora library, in case he wants to try to cleanse the seas.
Also in the zora village, Link gets the final secret from a former pupil of Holodrum’s Sunken City’s master diver. The message is for their shared mentor, who challenges Link to a new test: swim through a maze and recover the item in 30 seconds or less. This one’s almost as tough as the boomerang lawn mowing, and the reward’s even sillier. It’s a ring that grants increased swimming speed, which would have been nice to have while trying to complete the trial.
En route to the library, Link finds a great fairy in the past, who’s been transformed into an octorok by Veran’s magic. She asks Link to find fairy dust to cure her condition. In the future library, Link finds a book that was once a part of a set. He takes it to the past library, where the book and the rest of the set give directions for navigating a room with invisible floors over a giant pit. Once Link has successfully navigated the whole path, the old man at the end gives him the fairy dust he needs. Once cured, the great fairy gets to work cleansing the seas, which affects both past and future, and convinces the zora king to allow Link to enter Jabu-Jabu.
Jabu-Jabu’s Belly
Being a water dungeon is already a strike against Jabu-Jabu’s Belly, and the mermaid suit controls do nothing to help with that. One additional frustration that comes up during the dungeon is that while Link’s underwater in top-down areas, the B button is hard-set to “surface,” meaning he can’t use whatever item is set to that slot, leaving him with only one. The dungeon’s layout doesn’t do it any favors, with the standard water dungeon trick of raising and lowering the water level to progress; the floor that needs to be flooded/drained most is the bottom floor, while the buttons that control the water level are on the top floor, so a lot of backtracking between the two extreme floors is required, even if you know what you’re doing – far from a guarantee the first time you visit.
The dungeon’s bosses are easy, seemingly in apology for the dungeon’s difficulty. The miniboss is another Angler Fish; it’s actually a little harder than the one in Link’s Awakening, but that’s not saying much. The room where Link fights it doesn’t have water, so the Angler Fish bounces around the room; if Link hits it with a scent seed, it flops to the ground, giving Link several free shots at it. The Angler Fish guards the dungeon’s treasure, the long hook, an extended switch hook. The final boss, Plasmarine, has red and blue forms, and shoots energy attacks in the color of its current form. Link uses the switch hook to simultaneously change its color, making it vulnerable to its own attack, and drag it into the path of its attack. After a short fight, Link claims the seventh essence, the Rolling Sea.
Next: The bonus dungeon.
Friday, October 26, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Mermaid's Cave
Goron Games
The goron minigames on Rolling Ridge form a little trading sequence that Link needs to complete to get access to the next dungeon.
The main purpose of the future dungeon is for Link to fight the miniboss – Vire, repeating the fight from Oracle of Seasons in his final appearance – and get the treasure, the mermaid suit, which lets Link swim faster and deeper. It also completely rearranges the swimming controls, and while swimming is much faster with the suit, it also requires constantly mashing the D-pad to even move. It’s not a good tradeoff. Anyway, with the mermaid suit, Link returns to the past, and confronts the dungeon boss, Octogon. Octogon fights above and below the water in the room, requiring Link to dive underwater periodically to shoot it and force it back to the surface. Link claims the sixth essence, the Lonely Peak. The Maku Tree, instead of pointing Link to the next one, says that Ambi has left her tower, so now might be a good chance to rescue Nayru.
Link vs. Veran, Round 1
When Link shows up at the tower to begin the rescue attempt, Ralph’s there, saying he’ll be the one to do it. He mentions a secret passage before charging off. The guards on the palace grounds will throw Link out if they catch him, and so begins the forced stealth section. Opening the passage requires hitting buttons in the four corners of the palace grounds and then swimming through deep water. Once inside, Link can fight off the guards rather than sneak by them, and ultimately comes to confront Veranayru. Mystery seeds temporarily can knock Veran out of Nayru’s body, and then Link can use the switch hook to separate the two so he can attack Veran without harming Nayru. After enough of this, Nayru is free. Unfortunately, Ambi returns to the tower at just the wrong moment and Veran possesses her instead. Ralph charges in, and Nayru brings him, Link, and herself back to the future.
Everything Veran did while possessing Nayru is undone, but everyone knows she’s still out there, so there’s still work to do. Nayru teaches Link the Tune of Ages (AKA Tune of Time), which lets him freely travel between the two eras and makes the other two tunes irrelevant. Twinrova swoops in to taunt Link about how little he’s actually done to thwart them, and how their plan to resurrect Ganon is still on pace. Ralph goes back to the past and Nayru back to her house, and the Maku Tree tells Link that the next essence seems to be inside a fish.
Next: Oh, boy, a water dungeon, made extra fun by the wonderful mermaid suit controls.
The goron minigames on Rolling Ridge form a little trading sequence that Link needs to complete to get access to the next dungeon.
- Target Carts (Future): Link shoots the targets from a moving cart to acquire a rock brisket, which he’ll trade to the hungry goron for his heirloom vase. He then takes the vase to the goron’s ancestor in the past and trades it for Goronade.
- Shooting Gallery (Past): Link deflects a ball shot from a cannon to destroy statues (there’s a similar game in Lynna Village). He can win lava juice on the first try. On a second try, with a high enough score, Link can get a boomerang.
- Big Bang Game (Future): Link needs to give the game operator the Goronade to be able to play here. The game involves riding on currents and dodging bombs; much easier with Pegasus seeds and the roc’s feather. Link wins one of the keys he needs, the Old Mermaid Key.
- Dancing (Past): A goron in the past will recognize the key as the same one the past’s Graceful Goron (the goron running the dancing game) has. Link needs the key, so he trades the lava juice for a letter. After receiving the letter, the Graceful Goron challenges Link to show mastery of the dancing game before he hands over the key.
The main purpose of the future dungeon is for Link to fight the miniboss – Vire, repeating the fight from Oracle of Seasons in his final appearance – and get the treasure, the mermaid suit, which lets Link swim faster and deeper. It also completely rearranges the swimming controls, and while swimming is much faster with the suit, it also requires constantly mashing the D-pad to even move. It’s not a good tradeoff. Anyway, with the mermaid suit, Link returns to the past, and confronts the dungeon boss, Octogon. Octogon fights above and below the water in the room, requiring Link to dive underwater periodically to shoot it and force it back to the surface. Link claims the sixth essence, the Lonely Peak. The Maku Tree, instead of pointing Link to the next one, says that Ambi has left her tower, so now might be a good chance to rescue Nayru.
Link vs. Veran, Round 1
When Link shows up at the tower to begin the rescue attempt, Ralph’s there, saying he’ll be the one to do it. He mentions a secret passage before charging off. The guards on the palace grounds will throw Link out if they catch him, and so begins the forced stealth section. Opening the passage requires hitting buttons in the four corners of the palace grounds and then swimming through deep water. Once inside, Link can fight off the guards rather than sneak by them, and ultimately comes to confront Veranayru. Mystery seeds temporarily can knock Veran out of Nayru’s body, and then Link can use the switch hook to separate the two so he can attack Veran without harming Nayru. After enough of this, Nayru is free. Unfortunately, Ambi returns to the tower at just the wrong moment and Veran possesses her instead. Ralph charges in, and Nayru brings him, Link, and herself back to the future.
Everything Veran did while possessing Nayru is undone, but everyone knows she’s still out there, so there’s still work to do. Nayru teaches Link the Tune of Ages (AKA Tune of Time), which lets him freely travel between the two eras and makes the other two tunes irrelevant. Twinrova swoops in to taunt Link about how little he’s actually done to thwart them, and how their plan to resurrect Ganon is still on pace. Ralph goes back to the past and Nayru back to her house, and the Maku Tree tells Link that the next essence seems to be inside a fish.
Next: Oh, boy, a water dungeon, made extra fun by the wonderful mermaid suit controls.
Wednesday, October 24, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Rolling Ridge
Crown Dungeon
Rolling Ridge, the mountain area where the next dungeon is, is the home to Labrynna’s gorons. They seem to be having a rough time, both in the past and future. In the past, their elder has been buried alive, and they don’t have the bomb flowers they need to dig him out. In the future, the moblins Link fought off in Holodrum have set up shop there and are keeping the gorons from growing bomb flowers. Link drives the moblins out, and the future gorons thank him by giving him a bomb flower, and noting his resemblance to the guy who helped the elder out all those years ago. In case it’s not obvious what needs to be done next, the Maku Tree contacts Link to tell him his name’s in the goron histories. So Link heads back to the past, gives the bomb flower to the gorons trying to dig the elder out of his rubble prison, and gets the key to the next dungeon as a reward. Also on this part of Rolling Ridge, Link can find another heart piece, and a tree with Pegasus seeds, completing the seed type collection.
The next dungeon, Crown Dungeon, has two common types of puzzles. First, there are a lot of switch blocks. Second, the treasure is the Cane of Somaria, and there are a lot of new tricks for the simple utility of creating a block to solve. The standard use of setting a created block to hold down a switch when there’s nothing to push or switch hook onto it remains the most common one, but there are a couple extra wrinkles added. In the side-scrolling areas, Link sometimes needs to use the Cane to create a step to reach higher than he can normally jump. Also, there are linked sets of statues, where pushing one moves all of them. With the Cane’s block, Link can block off movement in one direction so he can move the statues individually. Finally, there’s a dark room, where Link can create blocks and push them around to see where it’s safe to walk. The puzzles in this game continually impress me, even if (especially if!) they sometimes frustrate me in figuring out what the heck I need to do.
The dungeon’s miniboss is Smasher, back from Link’s Awakening. There’s an added twist to this fight: every so often, the ball Link and Smasher throw at each other disappears and reappears in a different spot. This makes things a little bit easier if Link’s fast enough to grab the ball when it poofs before Smasher can. The final boss, Smog, is almost a pure puzzle boss. Smog creates walls and splits into smaller versions of itself that move around the walls, and Link needs to use the Cane of Somaria’s blocks to bring the pieces of Smog back together so he can stab them. This starts off easy but grows more complicated as it goes on. After four rounds, Smog is defeated, and Link gets the fifth Essence of Time, Sacred Soil.
Eastern Rolling Ridge
The Maku Tree still senses an essence on Rolling Ridge, so we’re not done here yet. She also says that someone’s come, which as far as I can tell refers to the goron who finds Link and tells him he’s completed a tunnel from the other area of Rolling Ridge where there are minigames to play. There’s no visitor to the Maku Tree, and so Link should continue his quest on the Ridge. First, Link needs to prove himself a goron brother by succeeding at the dance game in the future; the sequences are longer than the ones in the Subrosian dance, but there’s only two moves, and Link stays more or less in place, so the difficulty’s not so bad. Actually, I found it easier to navigate this one by sound, closing my eyes and playing along. When Link gets his brother emblem and the goron who’d been blocking the way moves, the goron requests Link bring him food.
Now that Link can fully explore the Ridge, there’s another heart piece to be had, and a tree with mystery seeds allowing quick travel in the past. There are also three secrets available in the area. One Subrosian gives Link a secret to tell the Subrosian smith, which will earn him a shield upgrade (the Mirror Shield in Holodrum, the Iron Shield in Labrynna). Another Subrosian has a secret for his brother, who challenges Link to cut the grass in his home with the magic boomerang in three throws. Controlling the magic boomerang enough to manage this is not terribly easy, and the reward is barely worth it: bombchus, which, given that they’re only available in a linked game, will only be required for the true final fight, and maybe not even then. Finally, a goron gives Link the secret that will let Holodrum’s Biggoron make Biggoron’s Sword, which unlike the big swords from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask has enough drawbacks (it’s slow and requires both item slots) that it’s not really worth using.
Next: Saving Nayru.
Rolling Ridge, the mountain area where the next dungeon is, is the home to Labrynna’s gorons. They seem to be having a rough time, both in the past and future. In the past, their elder has been buried alive, and they don’t have the bomb flowers they need to dig him out. In the future, the moblins Link fought off in Holodrum have set up shop there and are keeping the gorons from growing bomb flowers. Link drives the moblins out, and the future gorons thank him by giving him a bomb flower, and noting his resemblance to the guy who helped the elder out all those years ago. In case it’s not obvious what needs to be done next, the Maku Tree contacts Link to tell him his name’s in the goron histories. So Link heads back to the past, gives the bomb flower to the gorons trying to dig the elder out of his rubble prison, and gets the key to the next dungeon as a reward. Also on this part of Rolling Ridge, Link can find another heart piece, and a tree with Pegasus seeds, completing the seed type collection.
The next dungeon, Crown Dungeon, has two common types of puzzles. First, there are a lot of switch blocks. Second, the treasure is the Cane of Somaria, and there are a lot of new tricks for the simple utility of creating a block to solve. The standard use of setting a created block to hold down a switch when there’s nothing to push or switch hook onto it remains the most common one, but there are a couple extra wrinkles added. In the side-scrolling areas, Link sometimes needs to use the Cane to create a step to reach higher than he can normally jump. Also, there are linked sets of statues, where pushing one moves all of them. With the Cane’s block, Link can block off movement in one direction so he can move the statues individually. Finally, there’s a dark room, where Link can create blocks and push them around to see where it’s safe to walk. The puzzles in this game continually impress me, even if (especially if!) they sometimes frustrate me in figuring out what the heck I need to do.
The dungeon’s miniboss is Smasher, back from Link’s Awakening. There’s an added twist to this fight: every so often, the ball Link and Smasher throw at each other disappears and reappears in a different spot. This makes things a little bit easier if Link’s fast enough to grab the ball when it poofs before Smasher can. The final boss, Smog, is almost a pure puzzle boss. Smog creates walls and splits into smaller versions of itself that move around the walls, and Link needs to use the Cane of Somaria’s blocks to bring the pieces of Smog back together so he can stab them. This starts off easy but grows more complicated as it goes on. After four rounds, Smog is defeated, and Link gets the fifth Essence of Time, Sacred Soil.
Eastern Rolling Ridge
The Maku Tree still senses an essence on Rolling Ridge, so we’re not done here yet. She also says that someone’s come, which as far as I can tell refers to the goron who finds Link and tells him he’s completed a tunnel from the other area of Rolling Ridge where there are minigames to play. There’s no visitor to the Maku Tree, and so Link should continue his quest on the Ridge. First, Link needs to prove himself a goron brother by succeeding at the dance game in the future; the sequences are longer than the ones in the Subrosian dance, but there’s only two moves, and Link stays more or less in place, so the difficulty’s not so bad. Actually, I found it easier to navigate this one by sound, closing my eyes and playing along. When Link gets his brother emblem and the goron who’d been blocking the way moves, the goron requests Link bring him food.
Now that Link can fully explore the Ridge, there’s another heart piece to be had, and a tree with mystery seeds allowing quick travel in the past. There are also three secrets available in the area. One Subrosian gives Link a secret to tell the Subrosian smith, which will earn him a shield upgrade (the Mirror Shield in Holodrum, the Iron Shield in Labrynna). Another Subrosian has a secret for his brother, who challenges Link to cut the grass in his home with the magic boomerang in three throws. Controlling the magic boomerang enough to manage this is not terribly easy, and the reward is barely worth it: bombchus, which, given that they’re only available in a linked game, will only be required for the true final fight, and maybe not even then. Finally, a goron gives Link the secret that will let Holodrum’s Biggoron make Biggoron’s Sword, which unlike the big swords from Ocarina of Time and Majora’s Mask has enough drawbacks (it’s slow and requires both item slots) that it’s not really worth using.
Next: Saving Nayru.
Monday, October 22, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Skull Dungeon
Back in the future, Symmetry City is restored, including the entrance to the next dungeon. But now that Link has access to the gale seeds, he can warp around and be right back to run the next dungeon. Back on Crescent Island in the past, the raft has washed ashore, giving Link a chance to explore the island and its surrounding areas a little better without the threat of a storm. South of where the entrance to Moonlit Grotto will be is a great Gasha soil location, one of the locations where a Gasha nut can contain a heart piece. In Lynna Village/City, Link can use the Tune of Currents to warp into a fenced-in area by the village shop, which gives access to the shop’s secret basement. There’s another heart piece for sale here, as well as the second ring box upgrade, a couple Gasha seeds, and a ring. Just like in Horon City, when Link buys out their inventory, he gains access to a treasure chest game that gives him a chance to win rings.
Back in the house with the Tuni Nut in the past, Link can find a guy working out with only one dumbbell, who trades his cheesy mustache for Link’s sole dumbbell. The cheesy mustache goes to the guy in Lynna City who tells jokes, who teaches Link the funniest joke he knows. In past Lynna Village, there’s a kid going through a gloomy phase; Link tries to tell him the joke to cheer him up, but botches it, and the kid decides he can be as depressed (his word, not mine) as he wants and lets Link take one of his books. The book goes to Maple next time Link runs into her; in the meantime, she’s upgraded to riding a flying saucer. She leaves Link an oar she made, which goes to Rafton so he can enter raft races in return for a sea ukulele.
Skull Dungeon
Skull Dungeon is the game’s fire/lava dungeon. In addition to the obvious addition of lava as a hazard for jumping puzzles, there are sequences where Link pulls down on a switch to halt lava flows, giving him a brief moment to run over the lava bed to the next safe spot. The dungeon’s treasure is the hookshot variant, the switch hook, which switches Link’s place with whatever he hooks onto, adding a couple extra elements of strategy to its use: positioning is important, and once something is switched, it can’t be used again until it’s switched back. (Also, pots can be hooked, but they break rather than appear in Link’s old position.) The game also adds a new type of color puzzle: floors that start entirely one color, except one square Link’s standing on, that changes as Link walks over. The goal is to change the entire floor of the room in a single path, looping around stationary elements like statues.
The dungeon miniboss is a giant armos knight who boasts that his sword and shield make him unbeatable. He throws the sword, which follows Link around the room, and the trick is to have it attack the knight until both sword and shield are destroyed. With them gone, it’s a simple matter of beating on the boss till it dies. The end boss is Eyesoar, a standard big eye surrounded by little eyes enemy, only this time the little eyes are just a distraction. Link needs to use the switch hook to pull the big eye out of position, disorienting it and leaving it vulnerable to sword attacks. After Eyesoar goes down, Link claims the next Essence, Burning Flame, and the Maku Tree directs him to the ridge north of Nayru’s home.
Link can wrap up the trading sequence now. East of Lynna Village in the past, across a series of gaps that requires the switch hook to cross, there’s an old zora who misses the sound of the sea. He trades the sea ukulele for a sword – a broken sword. Without any blacksmiths of repute around, Link takes the sword up Restoration Wall to Patch, whose ritual now has two rounds and is even more annoying but fixes the sword into the Noble Sword. In the future, there’s an old woman who tells Link of a hidden cave behind Holodrum’s Clock Shop, and gives him a secret to pass to the man there. The man tests Link by having him fight a series of enemies, and after Link’s successful, upgrades his Noble Sword to the Master Sword and gives him a code to do the same back in Labrynna. This is, presumably, not the real Master Sword which is still back in Hyrule, but its approximate equivalent in power.
Next: Moblins and gorons.
Back in the house with the Tuni Nut in the past, Link can find a guy working out with only one dumbbell, who trades his cheesy mustache for Link’s sole dumbbell. The cheesy mustache goes to the guy in Lynna City who tells jokes, who teaches Link the funniest joke he knows. In past Lynna Village, there’s a kid going through a gloomy phase; Link tries to tell him the joke to cheer him up, but botches it, and the kid decides he can be as depressed (his word, not mine) as he wants and lets Link take one of his books. The book goes to Maple next time Link runs into her; in the meantime, she’s upgraded to riding a flying saucer. She leaves Link an oar she made, which goes to Rafton so he can enter raft races in return for a sea ukulele.
Skull Dungeon
Skull Dungeon is the game’s fire/lava dungeon. In addition to the obvious addition of lava as a hazard for jumping puzzles, there are sequences where Link pulls down on a switch to halt lava flows, giving him a brief moment to run over the lava bed to the next safe spot. The dungeon’s treasure is the hookshot variant, the switch hook, which switches Link’s place with whatever he hooks onto, adding a couple extra elements of strategy to its use: positioning is important, and once something is switched, it can’t be used again until it’s switched back. (Also, pots can be hooked, but they break rather than appear in Link’s old position.) The game also adds a new type of color puzzle: floors that start entirely one color, except one square Link’s standing on, that changes as Link walks over. The goal is to change the entire floor of the room in a single path, looping around stationary elements like statues.
The dungeon miniboss is a giant armos knight who boasts that his sword and shield make him unbeatable. He throws the sword, which follows Link around the room, and the trick is to have it attack the knight until both sword and shield are destroyed. With them gone, it’s a simple matter of beating on the boss till it dies. The end boss is Eyesoar, a standard big eye surrounded by little eyes enemy, only this time the little eyes are just a distraction. Link needs to use the switch hook to pull the big eye out of position, disorienting it and leaving it vulnerable to sword attacks. After Eyesoar goes down, Link claims the next Essence, Burning Flame, and the Maku Tree directs him to the ridge north of Nayru’s home.
Link can wrap up the trading sequence now. East of Lynna Village in the past, across a series of gaps that requires the switch hook to cross, there’s an old zora who misses the sound of the sea. He trades the sea ukulele for a sword – a broken sword. Without any blacksmiths of repute around, Link takes the sword up Restoration Wall to Patch, whose ritual now has two rounds and is even more annoying but fixes the sword into the Noble Sword. In the future, there’s an old woman who tells Link of a hidden cave behind Holodrum’s Clock Shop, and gives him a secret to pass to the man there. The man tests Link by having him fight a series of enemies, and after Link’s successful, upgrades his Noble Sword to the Master Sword and gives him a code to do the same back in Labrynna. This is, presumably, not the real Master Sword which is still back in Hyrule, but its approximate equivalent in power.
Next: Moblins and gorons.
Friday, October 19, 2018
Oracle of Ages: The Great Tuni Nut Quest
The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Ages – The Great Tuni Nut Quest
Building a Bridge
When Link returns to Lynna City, he sees Impa with a bird. Impa has bad news: Zelda came to Labrynna, and promptly got herself kidnapped by Vire, who headed to the Black Tower. Link goes to the tower to rescue her, and Vire takes her to the top of the tower, challenging Link to come rescue the princess while he rolls fireballs down at him. The whole sequence is a homage to Donkey Kong, with Link as Jumpman/Mario, Vire as Donkey Kong, and Zelda as Pauline. It’s only the first stage, though; when Link reaches the top, Vire takes off, leaving Zelda to be freed. After a brief conversation outside, Impa and Zelda leave to hide at Nayru’s house while Link continues his quest.
A couple more steps on the trading sequence can be done now: A version of the mask salesman lives in a house just outside of the city and is hungry. He eagerly takes the tasty meat, and when Link seems to expect something in return for it, gives him a dog mask. The dog mask in turn goes to the city’s resident dog lover, who wants it for her shy dog, and give Link the single dumbbell the dog had been playing with. Also, with the seed shooter, Link can make his own way to Tingle, and now that Link has another type of seeds, Tingle gives Link the second seed bag upgrade to match his bag from Holodrum.
North of town, there’s a lever that can be hit with the seed shooter to extend a bridge to the Nuun Highlands, but that’s as far as Link can go right now because the carpenters who were supposed to be building the bridge to Symmetry City went on break and never came back. As Link turns back, the fairies from the woods come to him. They warped the woods on Moosh, and he can’t find his way out. So they’re just mischievous enough to mess with travelers but if things go bad they’ll try to make it right. Link heads to the woods and finds Moosh and gets him out. In return, Moosh sets Link up with a flute so he can call him as needed. The area where the carpenters is this game’s area that adapts to Link’s animal companion, so Link and Moosh round up the breaking carpenters, who super-efficiently build the Symmetry City bridge.
Symmetry City
Symmetry City is ruined, with giant fireball towers throughout. About the only surviving feature left is a tree with gale seeds and a portal to the past. Link claims the seeds and activates the portal. In the past, Symmetry Village is still standing, but the evil pouring from the Black Tower is causing earthquakes that will ultimately wreck it. In one of the houses, Link learns that the city’s core, a Tuni Nut, is broken, and that’s the direct cause of the city’s troubles. A pair of brothers tried to take the nut to Restoration Wall to get it fixed, but one of them was injured and can’t continue the quest, and they both have to stay in the village to maintain the symmetry, so it falls to Link.
Link takes the broken Tuni Nut and sets out to get it fixed. Along the way, he finds Tokkey, a researcher who’s trying to come up with a tune that will return time travelers to their own time. With Link’s aid, he finds it and teaches it to Link. It’s called the Tune of Currents, and when Link plays it on the Harp of Ages, it works as advertised, with Link returning to the future. Like the Magic Mirror in A Link to the Past, it also leaves an activated temporary portal Link can use to return to the past in the same spot. With the Tune of Currents, Link is able to explore the Talus Peaks. One of the things he finds is a small pool with a sign requesting that nobody throw anything in. He can’t resist that kind of temptation, and if he drops a bomb in, he gets a chance to say whether he dropped a gold or silver bomb. If he’s honest, he gets the second bomb bag upgrade. There’s also a heart piece in the area.
The way to Restoration Wall is blocked by a waterfall, but Link’s able to redirect the water’s flow so he can get there. The wall itself is covered in vines and rocks fall down while Link climbs and there are dead ends, but it’s not overly hard. Patch, the man who can fix the nut, has devised a ceremony that’s frankly ridiculous: Link needs to push a bunch of hardhat beetles into holes while making sure that a cart looping around the cave doesn’t crash into the nut and make things worse. Judging by Patch’s dialogue, it’s meant to annoy the participant for his amusement, and… well, Link seems to bear the weirdos he encounters in stoic silence, but it certainly managed to annoy me. Anyway, the nut gets fixed, Link brings it back to the village, restores it to its place of honor, and the earthquakes stop.
Next: The Master Sword?
Building a Bridge
When Link returns to Lynna City, he sees Impa with a bird. Impa has bad news: Zelda came to Labrynna, and promptly got herself kidnapped by Vire, who headed to the Black Tower. Link goes to the tower to rescue her, and Vire takes her to the top of the tower, challenging Link to come rescue the princess while he rolls fireballs down at him. The whole sequence is a homage to Donkey Kong, with Link as Jumpman/Mario, Vire as Donkey Kong, and Zelda as Pauline. It’s only the first stage, though; when Link reaches the top, Vire takes off, leaving Zelda to be freed. After a brief conversation outside, Impa and Zelda leave to hide at Nayru’s house while Link continues his quest.
A couple more steps on the trading sequence can be done now: A version of the mask salesman lives in a house just outside of the city and is hungry. He eagerly takes the tasty meat, and when Link seems to expect something in return for it, gives him a dog mask. The dog mask in turn goes to the city’s resident dog lover, who wants it for her shy dog, and give Link the single dumbbell the dog had been playing with. Also, with the seed shooter, Link can make his own way to Tingle, and now that Link has another type of seeds, Tingle gives Link the second seed bag upgrade to match his bag from Holodrum.
North of town, there’s a lever that can be hit with the seed shooter to extend a bridge to the Nuun Highlands, but that’s as far as Link can go right now because the carpenters who were supposed to be building the bridge to Symmetry City went on break and never came back. As Link turns back, the fairies from the woods come to him. They warped the woods on Moosh, and he can’t find his way out. So they’re just mischievous enough to mess with travelers but if things go bad they’ll try to make it right. Link heads to the woods and finds Moosh and gets him out. In return, Moosh sets Link up with a flute so he can call him as needed. The area where the carpenters is this game’s area that adapts to Link’s animal companion, so Link and Moosh round up the breaking carpenters, who super-efficiently build the Symmetry City bridge.
Symmetry City
Symmetry City is ruined, with giant fireball towers throughout. About the only surviving feature left is a tree with gale seeds and a portal to the past. Link claims the seeds and activates the portal. In the past, Symmetry Village is still standing, but the evil pouring from the Black Tower is causing earthquakes that will ultimately wreck it. In one of the houses, Link learns that the city’s core, a Tuni Nut, is broken, and that’s the direct cause of the city’s troubles. A pair of brothers tried to take the nut to Restoration Wall to get it fixed, but one of them was injured and can’t continue the quest, and they both have to stay in the village to maintain the symmetry, so it falls to Link.
Link takes the broken Tuni Nut and sets out to get it fixed. Along the way, he finds Tokkey, a researcher who’s trying to come up with a tune that will return time travelers to their own time. With Link’s aid, he finds it and teaches it to Link. It’s called the Tune of Currents, and when Link plays it on the Harp of Ages, it works as advertised, with Link returning to the future. Like the Magic Mirror in A Link to the Past, it also leaves an activated temporary portal Link can use to return to the past in the same spot. With the Tune of Currents, Link is able to explore the Talus Peaks. One of the things he finds is a small pool with a sign requesting that nobody throw anything in. He can’t resist that kind of temptation, and if he drops a bomb in, he gets a chance to say whether he dropped a gold or silver bomb. If he’s honest, he gets the second bomb bag upgrade. There’s also a heart piece in the area.
The way to Restoration Wall is blocked by a waterfall, but Link’s able to redirect the water’s flow so he can get there. The wall itself is covered in vines and rocks fall down while Link climbs and there are dead ends, but it’s not overly hard. Patch, the man who can fix the nut, has devised a ceremony that’s frankly ridiculous: Link needs to push a bunch of hardhat beetles into holes while making sure that a cart looping around the cave doesn’t crash into the nut and make things worse. Judging by Patch’s dialogue, it’s meant to annoy the participant for his amusement, and… well, Link seems to bear the weirdos he encounters in stoic silence, but it certainly managed to annoy me. Anyway, the nut gets fixed, Link brings it back to the village, restores it to its place of honor, and the earthquakes stop.
Next: The Master Sword?
Wednesday, October 17, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Crescent Island
Lizard Looters
There’s a man named Rafton southeast of Lynna Village in the past who’s embraced his destiny by working on a raft, and Cheval’s rope is exactly the key thing he needs to finish it. He says he’ll let Link use the raft when it’s done, but he’ll want a chart if he’s headed out to sea. Ralph shows up and mentions a “weird guy” who might help, then runs off again. Back in the future, Ricky’s hanging around outside the city, having lost his gloves yet again. They’re not hard to find with the shovel, and after that, Ricky helps Link navigate to visit a familiar mapmaker in a fairy costume riding around on a balloon. Link pops Tingle’s balloon, and agrees to be his friend, so Tingle gives Link the chart he needs. Ricky finds Tingle annoying and hops off, leaving Link to find his own way back down.
Link goes back to the past and back to Rafton. The raft’s ready to set sail, so Link heads out. It works quite well, except as Link approaches Crescent Island, he gets caught in a storm and washes ashore, unconscious. While he’s out, the tokay, the island’s lizardfolk inhabitants, steal a bunch of his stuff: His sword, shield, flippers, power bracelet, roc’s feather, shovel, seed bag, and the Harp of Ages. The bombs were also either stolen or washed away. Rosa from Subrosia is here, and takes Link’s shovel back from the tokay who stole it and gives it back to him, but Link has to run down the rest of the items.
Most of the tokay are sufficiently abashed when confronted about stealing Link’s stuff and give it back with no issue, but one of the Tokay has decided they’re his and sells them back to Link for various types of seeds, including scent seeds, which he doesn’t have any of yet. Fortunately, there’s a minigame on the island where Link has to throw meat to columns of tokay that parade down the sides of the room (and are too lazy to pick it up as they pass, so the timing has to be exact), and he can win a tree sapling of the type he needs. It gets planted in the past, and Link finds a portal to go to the future to harvest the seeds, and then back to the past to finish buying his stuff back [1]. While exploring the island, Link finds a tokay chef whose nose is stopped up and is actually grateful to the stink bag because it opens his sinuses and gives him back his sense of smell, and he gives Link tasty meat in return.
Moonlit Grotto
With all his stuff back, Link can now go to the third dungeon, Moonlit Grotto, which is located in the future on the island. The dungeon has a central mechanic where Link needs to smash four crystals; at this point I’m so used to the idea of “see thing, interact with thing, cause necessary effect” that I never stopped to question why he’s doing it or what it accomplishes. I did notice after smashing the crystals that there was a treasure chest with a Gasha seed in a room in a clearly accessible place, but I didn’t connect it to smashing the crystals. It turns out what happened is that there was a rotating door tile in that room, and smashing the crystals caused it to fall through to the floor below, and that chest to appear. The dungeon’s miniboss, Subterror, is a burrowing creature who’s immune while underground, so Link needs to use the shovel to dig him out and then beat him with the sword before he submerges again.
The dungeon’s treasure is the game’s ranged weapon, the seed shooter. The shooter can be fired at an angle and the seeds it shoots can bounce of walls a couple times, leading to a number of new puzzle tricks, perhaps best exemplified by a pair of rotating walls that Link has to set up properly, then stand in the right place and shoot at the right angle so his seed passes through the two walls to hit a switch. Shadow Hag, the dungeon’s boss, is also tricky: she disappears if Link turns to face her, so he needs to reflect seed shots off the wall to hit her behind him. Once she’s down, Link claims the next Essence, the Echoing Howl.
The Maku Tree says the next essence is to the northwest of Lynna City, but first, Link needs to find a way off the island. Fortunately, Dimitri is there, with some tokay debating how to eat him. Link convinces them to eat ember seeds instead, and in thanks, Dimitri gives him a ride back to the mainland.
Next: How high can you get?
[1] The timeline placement for these games has been inconsistent, even from official sources. One of them, the one in Hyrule Historia, has the Oracle games taking place between A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening, with the same Link in all four games. In that case, given Link’s experience with the tokay here, it explains why he wrote his name on his sword and shield, which served him quite well when he was shipwrecked and washed up on Koholint Island.
There’s a man named Rafton southeast of Lynna Village in the past who’s embraced his destiny by working on a raft, and Cheval’s rope is exactly the key thing he needs to finish it. He says he’ll let Link use the raft when it’s done, but he’ll want a chart if he’s headed out to sea. Ralph shows up and mentions a “weird guy” who might help, then runs off again. Back in the future, Ricky’s hanging around outside the city, having lost his gloves yet again. They’re not hard to find with the shovel, and after that, Ricky helps Link navigate to visit a familiar mapmaker in a fairy costume riding around on a balloon. Link pops Tingle’s balloon, and agrees to be his friend, so Tingle gives Link the chart he needs. Ricky finds Tingle annoying and hops off, leaving Link to find his own way back down.
Link goes back to the past and back to Rafton. The raft’s ready to set sail, so Link heads out. It works quite well, except as Link approaches Crescent Island, he gets caught in a storm and washes ashore, unconscious. While he’s out, the tokay, the island’s lizardfolk inhabitants, steal a bunch of his stuff: His sword, shield, flippers, power bracelet, roc’s feather, shovel, seed bag, and the Harp of Ages. The bombs were also either stolen or washed away. Rosa from Subrosia is here, and takes Link’s shovel back from the tokay who stole it and gives it back to him, but Link has to run down the rest of the items.
Most of the tokay are sufficiently abashed when confronted about stealing Link’s stuff and give it back with no issue, but one of the Tokay has decided they’re his and sells them back to Link for various types of seeds, including scent seeds, which he doesn’t have any of yet. Fortunately, there’s a minigame on the island where Link has to throw meat to columns of tokay that parade down the sides of the room (and are too lazy to pick it up as they pass, so the timing has to be exact), and he can win a tree sapling of the type he needs. It gets planted in the past, and Link finds a portal to go to the future to harvest the seeds, and then back to the past to finish buying his stuff back [1]. While exploring the island, Link finds a tokay chef whose nose is stopped up and is actually grateful to the stink bag because it opens his sinuses and gives him back his sense of smell, and he gives Link tasty meat in return.
Moonlit Grotto
With all his stuff back, Link can now go to the third dungeon, Moonlit Grotto, which is located in the future on the island. The dungeon has a central mechanic where Link needs to smash four crystals; at this point I’m so used to the idea of “see thing, interact with thing, cause necessary effect” that I never stopped to question why he’s doing it or what it accomplishes. I did notice after smashing the crystals that there was a treasure chest with a Gasha seed in a room in a clearly accessible place, but I didn’t connect it to smashing the crystals. It turns out what happened is that there was a rotating door tile in that room, and smashing the crystals caused it to fall through to the floor below, and that chest to appear. The dungeon’s miniboss, Subterror, is a burrowing creature who’s immune while underground, so Link needs to use the shovel to dig him out and then beat him with the sword before he submerges again.
The dungeon’s treasure is the game’s ranged weapon, the seed shooter. The shooter can be fired at an angle and the seeds it shoots can bounce of walls a couple times, leading to a number of new puzzle tricks, perhaps best exemplified by a pair of rotating walls that Link has to set up properly, then stand in the right place and shoot at the right angle so his seed passes through the two walls to hit a switch. Shadow Hag, the dungeon’s boss, is also tricky: she disappears if Link turns to face her, so he needs to reflect seed shots off the wall to hit her behind him. Once she’s down, Link claims the next Essence, the Echoing Howl.
The Maku Tree says the next essence is to the northwest of Lynna City, but first, Link needs to find a way off the island. Fortunately, Dimitri is there, with some tokay debating how to eat him. Link convinces them to eat ember seeds instead, and in thanks, Dimitri gives him a ride back to the mainland.
Next: How high can you get?
[1] The timeline placement for these games has been inconsistent, even from official sources. One of them, the one in Hyrule Historia, has the Oracle games taking place between A Link to the Past and Link’s Awakening, with the same Link in all four games. In that case, given Link’s experience with the tokay here, it explains why he wrote his name on his sword and shield, which served him quite well when he was shipwrecked and washed up on Koholint Island.
Monday, October 15, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Wing Dungeon
Now that the seed business with Ambi is concluded, Link can go back to the forest and use a bomb to blast open the entrance to the next dungeon. (It’s a lot less fragile in the past.) The dungeon has a lot of color-themed puzzles: the color cube returns from the last dungeon, and both in this dungeon need to be adjusted so the direct path leaves the right color up. The minecarts from Seasons show up here, with gates that need a color puzzle solved to lift before the cart can carry Link to his proper destination. There are tiles on the floor that Link can change the color of by jumping over once he gets the roc’s feather; sometimes this is the puzzle itself, sometimes it has other effects, like dictating what color statues can be pushed to resemble the pattern of the other set of statues in the room. And there’s a room where the whole room changes color at once, revealing some camouflaged enemies who all need to be killed before they can change again.
Lost in all this is the miniboss, Swoop, who is a straightforward boss that hovers over Link and tries to smash him, becoming vulnerable after making its crash landings but ripping holes in the floor. The end boss, Head Thwomp, may well be the most annoying boss I’ve faced in any Zelda game yet. The mechanic is simple to explain: it sits in the center of the room, spinning between four colors. Link has to throw a bomb into it; if it goes in while the face is red, the boss takes damage. If it goes in on any of the other colors, it uses an attack (always the same attack per color). There have been puzzles involving throwing bombs into containers. Sometimes they’ve even required good timing with which way the container has faced. But they’ve never made a whole boss fight out of it (until now, I mean), and there’s a reason for that. IT’S NOT FUN. This fight is terrible.
Past Inventor, Future Inventions
Link gets the Ancient Wood, the next Essence. The leaf graphics for when the Maku Tree makes contact change from past to present, which is a nice touch. This time, she says the next Essence is on Crescent Island to the south. Before Link does anything else, there’s a heart piece in a cave along a road branching north from the return road across holes he can cross now with the roc’s feather. Southeast of the city, Link can now find his way to Cheval, who’s working on two things: flippers and a rope that won’t decay in water. As Link leaves Cheval’s house, Ralph shows up to tell him that the name appears on a tomb back in the future [1] and gets back to whatever it is he thinks he’s doing. Before heading back, there’s a girl south of the Black Tower who has a secret to being lucky she meant to tell someone headed to Holodrum. Her description makes it sound like it’s one of the pirates.
Link returns to the city and goes through a portal to the future. Bob’s fully grown to an adult; in my games, he became an arborist just like Bipin. In the graveyard, Moosh is being tormented by some ghosts, who Link drives off. In return, Moosh helps Link navigate a section of the graveyard to the northwest, where Cheval’s tomb lies. In navigating the tomb, Link finds Cheval’s inventions, so he can swim and use the rope for whatever it’s going to be used for. There are two more secrets to be found now: First, the mayor’s mother has a secret for Horon City’s Mayor Ruul. Second, a fairy has set up camp over the wreckage of Wing Dungeon, and she has a secret for a fairy hiding in the Temple of Seasons in Subrosia.
With three secrets, now’s a good time to switch games to cash them in. Passing the secret to the mayor upgrades Link’s ring box to one that’ll hold five. The fairy in the Temple of Seasons awards Link with a ring, a lesser version of the Heart Ring, but hey, it’s another box ticked off. Finally, when Link finds the right skeletal pirate, who was left behind when the ship set sail again, the pirate challenges Link to get his ore chunk total to a lucky 777 before giving the rewards. Once that’s taken care of, he increases Link’s bomb capacity to 50. Switching back to Labrynna, Link cashes in the return secrets to be able to carry 3 rings and 30 bombs, and add the ring to his list.
Next: Link loses his stuff.
[1] It feels wrong to me to refer to the two eras as “past” and “present,” so I’m going with “future” for Link (and Ralph)’s native time.
Lost in all this is the miniboss, Swoop, who is a straightforward boss that hovers over Link and tries to smash him, becoming vulnerable after making its crash landings but ripping holes in the floor. The end boss, Head Thwomp, may well be the most annoying boss I’ve faced in any Zelda game yet. The mechanic is simple to explain: it sits in the center of the room, spinning between four colors. Link has to throw a bomb into it; if it goes in while the face is red, the boss takes damage. If it goes in on any of the other colors, it uses an attack (always the same attack per color). There have been puzzles involving throwing bombs into containers. Sometimes they’ve even required good timing with which way the container has faced. But they’ve never made a whole boss fight out of it (until now, I mean), and there’s a reason for that. IT’S NOT FUN. This fight is terrible.
Past Inventor, Future Inventions
Link gets the Ancient Wood, the next Essence. The leaf graphics for when the Maku Tree makes contact change from past to present, which is a nice touch. This time, she says the next Essence is on Crescent Island to the south. Before Link does anything else, there’s a heart piece in a cave along a road branching north from the return road across holes he can cross now with the roc’s feather. Southeast of the city, Link can now find his way to Cheval, who’s working on two things: flippers and a rope that won’t decay in water. As Link leaves Cheval’s house, Ralph shows up to tell him that the name appears on a tomb back in the future [1] and gets back to whatever it is he thinks he’s doing. Before heading back, there’s a girl south of the Black Tower who has a secret to being lucky she meant to tell someone headed to Holodrum. Her description makes it sound like it’s one of the pirates.
Link returns to the city and goes through a portal to the future. Bob’s fully grown to an adult; in my games, he became an arborist just like Bipin. In the graveyard, Moosh is being tormented by some ghosts, who Link drives off. In return, Moosh helps Link navigate a section of the graveyard to the northwest, where Cheval’s tomb lies. In navigating the tomb, Link finds Cheval’s inventions, so he can swim and use the rope for whatever it’s going to be used for. There are two more secrets to be found now: First, the mayor’s mother has a secret for Horon City’s Mayor Ruul. Second, a fairy has set up camp over the wreckage of Wing Dungeon, and she has a secret for a fairy hiding in the Temple of Seasons in Subrosia.
With three secrets, now’s a good time to switch games to cash them in. Passing the secret to the mayor upgrades Link’s ring box to one that’ll hold five. The fairy in the Temple of Seasons awards Link with a ring, a lesser version of the Heart Ring, but hey, it’s another box ticked off. Finally, when Link finds the right skeletal pirate, who was left behind when the ship set sail again, the pirate challenges Link to get his ore chunk total to a lucky 777 before giving the rewards. Once that’s taken care of, he increases Link’s bomb capacity to 50. Switching back to Labrynna, Link cashes in the return secrets to be able to carry 3 rings and 30 bombs, and add the ring to his list.
Next: Link loses his stuff.
[1] It feels wrong to me to refer to the two eras as “past” and “present,” so I’m going with “future” for Link (and Ralph)’s native time.
Friday, October 12, 2018
Oracle of Ages: The Harp of Ages
The Key to Time Travel
Shortly after coming out of the dungeon, Link has his first encounter with Maple in Labrynna. It’s basically the same as in Holodrum; there’s a heart piece to be won here just like there. Before Link leaves the graveyard, there’s a few things to collect. First, there’s a ghost who’s trapped from moving on to the afterlife by its tombstone. Link pushes the stone out of the way for the ghost, and the ghost gives Link its poe clock before leaving. Another ghost asks if Link believes what he sees, and teaches him a secret code to pass along to the inhabitant of a grave in Holodrum. Finally, there’s another heart piece that he can get to now that he has the power bracelet.
As Link explores the woods for the next dungeon, navigation starts getting screwy. After he makes it far enough into the forest, he finds three fairies, who have messed it all up, and challenge Link to a game of hide and seek. They scatter to the screens Link hasn’t been able to make it to, and hide under rocks and bushes and wait for Link to find the right paths to their hiding locations. Once the fairies are all found, they fix the forest paths, so Link can finally go to the dungeon. There’s just a rock in the way, which is no match for his power bracelet, so he lifts it, and…
Uh…
Well…
There was a sign near the dungeon entrance that warned that it would crumble easily. So, when Link lifted the rock, the whole thing kinda collapsed. Fortunately, the game involves time travel, so maybe the essence will also be there in the past. However, Link can’t just freely travel through time, he needs portals and a way to activate them. On the Maku Tree’s suggestion, he goes back to Nayru’s house and discovers Impa investigating drafts coming from the basement. He heads down and finds the Harp of Ages, with a pre-recorded message from Nayru saying that something must have happened to her and teaching him a song to use the harp to activate portals. Link returns to the city and uses the harp to activate the portal near the Maku Tree.
Mystery Seeds for the Queen
In the past, Link returns to Lynna Village. He’s got enough money now to buy out the Advance Shop’s inventory. The postman in town needs help knowing what time it is for his scheduled deliveries, so he trades some stationery for the poe clock. Near the edge of the village, there’s an outhouse with… okay, apparently in the Zelda world it’s common for people to get trapped down toilets and stick their hands out in desperate need of paper. The stationery from the postman is good enough for this purpose, and the hand gives Link a “stink bag.” There have been some one-sided deals since Link’s Awakening introduced this type of sidequest to the game, but I think I can pretty surely say that this is the crappiest one. On the plus side, Link can have some fun throwing other things down the toilet, like ember seeds or the pot that’s sitting next to it.
The forest is all abuzz with activity, with lots of people looking for mystery seeds that Ambi desperately wants. It’s not an easy path to get to the tree with the seeds, and along the way Link can find another heart piece and a Deku scrub who knows a secret part of a song, which he wants Link to relay to the scrub in the Natzu Wasteland, the one who’ll refill Link’s seed satchel for stopping by. Once Link has the mystery seeds, one of Ambi’s soldiers recognizes him and brings him to Ambi to present them as tribute. Ambi rewards Link with bombs, and Nayru is pleased to have the seeds.
Switching back over to Seasons for a moment, Link finds a ghost in the graveyard who, after learning the first secret, plays a game with him, asking him to tell whether there are more red or blue ghosts in a given set. The first set is very one-sided, while the latter two are closer. When Link gets it right, he gets an extra heart container. The Deku scrub further increases Link’s seed satchel capacity, to hold 99 of each type of seed. They each give return codes, which in Ages Link can tell to Farore, the third Oracle who makes a home inside the Maku Tree, and get the rewards for the secrets transferred over. (His seed capacity is still limited to 50 until he finds an upgrade in Labrynna, but on the plus side he gets a full complement of mystery seeds after Ambi stole all he found.)
Next: A colorful boss, minus the colorful language I directed at it.
Shortly after coming out of the dungeon, Link has his first encounter with Maple in Labrynna. It’s basically the same as in Holodrum; there’s a heart piece to be won here just like there. Before Link leaves the graveyard, there’s a few things to collect. First, there’s a ghost who’s trapped from moving on to the afterlife by its tombstone. Link pushes the stone out of the way for the ghost, and the ghost gives Link its poe clock before leaving. Another ghost asks if Link believes what he sees, and teaches him a secret code to pass along to the inhabitant of a grave in Holodrum. Finally, there’s another heart piece that he can get to now that he has the power bracelet.
As Link explores the woods for the next dungeon, navigation starts getting screwy. After he makes it far enough into the forest, he finds three fairies, who have messed it all up, and challenge Link to a game of hide and seek. They scatter to the screens Link hasn’t been able to make it to, and hide under rocks and bushes and wait for Link to find the right paths to their hiding locations. Once the fairies are all found, they fix the forest paths, so Link can finally go to the dungeon. There’s just a rock in the way, which is no match for his power bracelet, so he lifts it, and…
Uh…
Well…
There was a sign near the dungeon entrance that warned that it would crumble easily. So, when Link lifted the rock, the whole thing kinda collapsed. Fortunately, the game involves time travel, so maybe the essence will also be there in the past. However, Link can’t just freely travel through time, he needs portals and a way to activate them. On the Maku Tree’s suggestion, he goes back to Nayru’s house and discovers Impa investigating drafts coming from the basement. He heads down and finds the Harp of Ages, with a pre-recorded message from Nayru saying that something must have happened to her and teaching him a song to use the harp to activate portals. Link returns to the city and uses the harp to activate the portal near the Maku Tree.
Mystery Seeds for the Queen
In the past, Link returns to Lynna Village. He’s got enough money now to buy out the Advance Shop’s inventory. The postman in town needs help knowing what time it is for his scheduled deliveries, so he trades some stationery for the poe clock. Near the edge of the village, there’s an outhouse with… okay, apparently in the Zelda world it’s common for people to get trapped down toilets and stick their hands out in desperate need of paper. The stationery from the postman is good enough for this purpose, and the hand gives Link a “stink bag.” There have been some one-sided deals since Link’s Awakening introduced this type of sidequest to the game, but I think I can pretty surely say that this is the crappiest one. On the plus side, Link can have some fun throwing other things down the toilet, like ember seeds or the pot that’s sitting next to it.
The forest is all abuzz with activity, with lots of people looking for mystery seeds that Ambi desperately wants. It’s not an easy path to get to the tree with the seeds, and along the way Link can find another heart piece and a Deku scrub who knows a secret part of a song, which he wants Link to relay to the scrub in the Natzu Wasteland, the one who’ll refill Link’s seed satchel for stopping by. Once Link has the mystery seeds, one of Ambi’s soldiers recognizes him and brings him to Ambi to present them as tribute. Ambi rewards Link with bombs, and Nayru is pleased to have the seeds.
Switching back over to Seasons for a moment, Link finds a ghost in the graveyard who, after learning the first secret, plays a game with him, asking him to tell whether there are more red or blue ghosts in a given set. The first set is very one-sided, while the latter two are closer. When Link gets it right, he gets an extra heart container. The Deku scrub further increases Link’s seed satchel capacity, to hold 99 of each type of seed. They each give return codes, which in Ages Link can tell to Farore, the third Oracle who makes a home inside the Maku Tree, and get the rewards for the secrets transferred over. (His seed capacity is still limited to 50 until he finds an upgrade in Labrynna, but on the plus side he gets a full complement of mystery seeds after Ambi stole all he found.)
Next: A colorful boss, minus the colorful language I directed at it.
Wednesday, October 10, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Time Travel
North of the village, there’s a pair of caves. One of these is the Hero’s Cave, which only appears in a linked game and requires most of the available items to complete. It requires the power bracelet (or sword upgrade, both of which come later) to even start, so let’s leave it alone for now and head over to the other cave, which is a straight path that leads to the Lynna City Maku Tree. This Maku Tree is female, a fact that’s emphasized heavily by the few facial features it has. I hate this design; looking at it makes me cringe. The Tree starts by recapping what we already know about Veran, and then disappears as something horrible happens in the past. Link heads over a screen from where the Maku Tree was, and finds Ralph waiting by the portal that Veranayru dove into earlier. Ralph goes through the portal to save Nayru, and Link follows.
Lynna Village, 400 Years Earlier
Four hundred years in the past, Lynna City was just Lynna Village. Some of the equivalents of the key NPCs from Horon Village are here: Pippin, Bipin’s ancestor, who gives Link his first Gasha nut, and the Advance Shop, which sells another Gasha Nut and two rings. The city’s all abuzz because of the tower the queen is constructing. Apparently, she has a missing lover she wants to lead home, and so she’s building a tall tower and has everyone in the city working on it. All was well for a while, but then Nayru came and they started working harder and the day never ends so they don’t get breaks for nighttime, so the village is being overworked and is full of piles of dirt, including blocking the way to the Maku Tree. Fortunately, the need for workers is so intense that if Link goes into the castle, they hand him a shovel without thinking anything of it. It immediately proves useful to him, because there’s a piece of heart in the tower area he can get with the shovel.
In the past, the Maku Road cave is a bit more like a minidungeon, with some simple enemies to fight and puzzles to solve. There’s a heart piece along the way, and then Link finally comes to the Maku Tree’s clearing. The Maku Tree at this time is a lot smaller – barely bigger than Link – and she’s under attack by pig moblins. Once rescued, there’s some nonsense about her wanting to marry Link, and she opens up the way back to the village, where Link can now return to his time.
The Quest Begins
The Maku Tree is back to her normal spot, and she remembers her plan to marry Link, only she remembers it as a promise Link made. Her memory’s generally fuzzy because of Veran’s interference in the timeline, so she asks Link to gather the eight Essences of Time [1]. The first Essence of Time is in Yoll Graveyard to the east, and she gives Link a seed satchel with ember seeds to start his way. The ember seeds are needed to clear a few trees out of the path to the graveyard, and then in the graveyard to light the torches to summon the key to the first dungeon, Spirit’s Grave.
Oracle of Ages is a lot more puzzle-oriented than its sibling, and while this dungeon eases into it, there are hints of how things are going to get. One new element is a block with different-colored faces that rolls at it’s pushed. So, it not only needs to be pushed into place but rolled so that the right color is on top when it reaches its destination. The only one of these blocks in this dungeon starts perfectly placed and oriented so that if you just push it directly at its slot, a face with the correct color is up when it gets there. But it’s the first dungeon, so there’s lots of time for puzzles involving that kind of block to get tougher.
The miniboss, a giant ghini, is a fairly direct fight, although it has little ghosts that will swarm Link and limit his movement, leaving him vulnerable to the boss. The final boss is more of a puzzle. It’s a ghost in a jack-o-lantern that creates a body for itself. When the body is hit enough, Link can access the jack-o-lantern, picking it up (the power bracelet is the dungeon’s treasure) and tossing it aside, revealing the ghost. The ghost is now vulnerable so it tries to get back into the jack-o-lantern, but it dies after a few hits, allowing Link to claim the first Essence of Time, Eternal Spirit. The Maku Tree contacts Link to say that the next spirit is echoing from the Western Woods.
Next: Dungeon crashing.
[1] Or in short: World in peril, damsel in distress, eight plot coupons, big bad evil… gal, I guess?
Lynna Village, 400 Years Earlier
Four hundred years in the past, Lynna City was just Lynna Village. Some of the equivalents of the key NPCs from Horon Village are here: Pippin, Bipin’s ancestor, who gives Link his first Gasha nut, and the Advance Shop, which sells another Gasha Nut and two rings. The city’s all abuzz because of the tower the queen is constructing. Apparently, she has a missing lover she wants to lead home, and so she’s building a tall tower and has everyone in the city working on it. All was well for a while, but then Nayru came and they started working harder and the day never ends so they don’t get breaks for nighttime, so the village is being overworked and is full of piles of dirt, including blocking the way to the Maku Tree. Fortunately, the need for workers is so intense that if Link goes into the castle, they hand him a shovel without thinking anything of it. It immediately proves useful to him, because there’s a piece of heart in the tower area he can get with the shovel.
In the past, the Maku Road cave is a bit more like a minidungeon, with some simple enemies to fight and puzzles to solve. There’s a heart piece along the way, and then Link finally comes to the Maku Tree’s clearing. The Maku Tree at this time is a lot smaller – barely bigger than Link – and she’s under attack by pig moblins. Once rescued, there’s some nonsense about her wanting to marry Link, and she opens up the way back to the village, where Link can now return to his time.
The Quest Begins
The Maku Tree is back to her normal spot, and she remembers her plan to marry Link, only she remembers it as a promise Link made. Her memory’s generally fuzzy because of Veran’s interference in the timeline, so she asks Link to gather the eight Essences of Time [1]. The first Essence of Time is in Yoll Graveyard to the east, and she gives Link a seed satchel with ember seeds to start his way. The ember seeds are needed to clear a few trees out of the path to the graveyard, and then in the graveyard to light the torches to summon the key to the first dungeon, Spirit’s Grave.
Oracle of Ages is a lot more puzzle-oriented than its sibling, and while this dungeon eases into it, there are hints of how things are going to get. One new element is a block with different-colored faces that rolls at it’s pushed. So, it not only needs to be pushed into place but rolled so that the right color is on top when it reaches its destination. The only one of these blocks in this dungeon starts perfectly placed and oriented so that if you just push it directly at its slot, a face with the correct color is up when it gets there. But it’s the first dungeon, so there’s lots of time for puzzles involving that kind of block to get tougher.
The miniboss, a giant ghini, is a fairly direct fight, although it has little ghosts that will swarm Link and limit his movement, leaving him vulnerable to the boss. The final boss is more of a puzzle. It’s a ghost in a jack-o-lantern that creates a body for itself. When the body is hit enough, Link can access the jack-o-lantern, picking it up (the power bracelet is the dungeon’s treasure) and tossing it aside, revealing the ghost. The ghost is now vulnerable so it tries to get back into the jack-o-lantern, but it dies after a few hits, allowing Link to claim the first Essence of Time, Eternal Spirit. The Maku Tree contacts Link to say that the next spirit is echoing from the Western Woods.
Next: Dungeon crashing.
[1] Or in short: World in peril, damsel in distress, eight plot coupons, big bad evil… gal, I guess?
Monday, October 8, 2018
Oracle of Ages: Introduction and Story
So, here’s where I’d usually write about the game’s background and what I know going in, except I covered most of that with its sibling game, so it’s straight into…
Previously on The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons…
The opening cutscene for Ages is similar to the one for Seasons: Link’s riding a horse in answer to the Triforce’s call. Choosing “Secret” when starting the game and entering the code given at the end of Seasons starts Ages with Link having already completed the other game. He doesn’t get to keep most of the stuff he got, but does start with an extra heart container and a basic sword. (Unfortunately, that basic sword is hidden in his inventory rather than equipped, and the start button’s disabled at first, so I assumed the inventory was empty, and spent like five minutes trying to figure out how to get out of the opening area without a sword.)
And, since Seasons revealed Twinrova to be the mastermind behind Onox, Ages shows them from the start. Though Onox was defeated, the destruction caused by his actions have lit the Flame of Destruction in Twinrova’s lair. Now they just need the Flames of Sorrow and Despair to join it, and they’ll be able to sacrifice some poor sap to bring Ganon back.
The Oracle of Ages
The Triforce has refined its method of sending Link places, because he arrives in Labrynna completely okay. Good thing, too, because he hears a cry for help, and it’s Impa, surrounded by monsters. The monsters scatter as Link approaches, and Impa thanks him. (Given the other callbacks to the original game in Seasons, this event – evocative of the original Link’s meeting with Impa that kicked off that adventure – might have been a better fit there.) She doesn’t seem to recognize him, despite them working together back in Holodrum, which should be a clue things are not okay, but Link doesn’t pick up on it. She takes him to a rock blocking a path and asks him to move it for her so they can find Nayru, and Link obliges.
Nayru is singing to a circle (mostly animals, one person), and once Link’s bothered all of them, one moves out of his way so Link can watch her sing. A guy standing inside the circle recognizes the symbol on Link’s hand and introduces himself as Ralph, Nayru’s friend. Nayru welcomes his help to stop whatever troubles Labrynna is about to face, but Ralph says he thinks he can handle it. Just then, Impa starts laughing, and the sorceress who had been possessing her reveals herself. She introduces herself as Veran, thanks Link for getting her past the barrier rock, and possesses Nayru. Ralph pulls his sword on her, but relents when he realizes he can’t hurt Veran without hurting Nayru. Veranayru uses her powers to open a portal to the past and go through, mucking with the past to make bad things happen in the present. A man rapidly ages in front of his girlfriend, a bunch of monkeys are petrified and disappear, and a kid is petrified.
The Adventure Begins
Ralph has a bit of a meltdown over not being able to protect Nayru, and ends up running off, screaming her name. That’s going to end well. Meanwhile, Impa is back to herself, and she recognizes Link now, and gives him a shield that Zelda entrusted to her. Impa heads to Nayru’s house, while Link sets out on his adventure.
The main village this time is Lynna City, and it’s got a lot of the same things we remember from Horon City: a shop with a secret basement, a ring shop, and even some people have moved across the world: Bipin and Blossom, and their son Bob, who seems to have contracted that condition children get that make them grow up to being a teenager while their parents gain maybe a year or two. Bob and Blossom have questions for Link so he can continue influencing Bob’s growth. The ring shop is also run by Vasu and his snakes, and after getting reacquainted with the basics of ring ownership, Link can use the ring secret to repopulate his ring list with his rings from Seasons. The ring box stays at the basic box that can hold a single ring, but that’s okay, it’s early enough that just slipping on the double rupee ring is fine.
Next: A Link to the past.
Previously on The Legend of Zelda: Oracle of Seasons…
The opening cutscene for Ages is similar to the one for Seasons: Link’s riding a horse in answer to the Triforce’s call. Choosing “Secret” when starting the game and entering the code given at the end of Seasons starts Ages with Link having already completed the other game. He doesn’t get to keep most of the stuff he got, but does start with an extra heart container and a basic sword. (Unfortunately, that basic sword is hidden in his inventory rather than equipped, and the start button’s disabled at first, so I assumed the inventory was empty, and spent like five minutes trying to figure out how to get out of the opening area without a sword.)
And, since Seasons revealed Twinrova to be the mastermind behind Onox, Ages shows them from the start. Though Onox was defeated, the destruction caused by his actions have lit the Flame of Destruction in Twinrova’s lair. Now they just need the Flames of Sorrow and Despair to join it, and they’ll be able to sacrifice some poor sap to bring Ganon back.
The Oracle of Ages
The Triforce has refined its method of sending Link places, because he arrives in Labrynna completely okay. Good thing, too, because he hears a cry for help, and it’s Impa, surrounded by monsters. The monsters scatter as Link approaches, and Impa thanks him. (Given the other callbacks to the original game in Seasons, this event – evocative of the original Link’s meeting with Impa that kicked off that adventure – might have been a better fit there.) She doesn’t seem to recognize him, despite them working together back in Holodrum, which should be a clue things are not okay, but Link doesn’t pick up on it. She takes him to a rock blocking a path and asks him to move it for her so they can find Nayru, and Link obliges.
Nayru is singing to a circle (mostly animals, one person), and once Link’s bothered all of them, one moves out of his way so Link can watch her sing. A guy standing inside the circle recognizes the symbol on Link’s hand and introduces himself as Ralph, Nayru’s friend. Nayru welcomes his help to stop whatever troubles Labrynna is about to face, but Ralph says he thinks he can handle it. Just then, Impa starts laughing, and the sorceress who had been possessing her reveals herself. She introduces herself as Veran, thanks Link for getting her past the barrier rock, and possesses Nayru. Ralph pulls his sword on her, but relents when he realizes he can’t hurt Veran without hurting Nayru. Veranayru uses her powers to open a portal to the past and go through, mucking with the past to make bad things happen in the present. A man rapidly ages in front of his girlfriend, a bunch of monkeys are petrified and disappear, and a kid is petrified.
The Adventure Begins
Ralph has a bit of a meltdown over not being able to protect Nayru, and ends up running off, screaming her name. That’s going to end well. Meanwhile, Impa is back to herself, and she recognizes Link now, and gives him a shield that Zelda entrusted to her. Impa heads to Nayru’s house, while Link sets out on his adventure.
The main village this time is Lynna City, and it’s got a lot of the same things we remember from Horon City: a shop with a secret basement, a ring shop, and even some people have moved across the world: Bipin and Blossom, and their son Bob, who seems to have contracted that condition children get that make them grow up to being a teenager while their parents gain maybe a year or two. Bob and Blossom have questions for Link so he can continue influencing Bob’s growth. The ring shop is also run by Vasu and his snakes, and after getting reacquainted with the basics of ring ownership, Link can use the ring secret to repopulate his ring list with his rings from Seasons. The ring box stays at the basic box that can hold a single ring, but that’s okay, it’s early enough that just slipping on the double rupee ring is fine.
Next: A Link to the past.
Friday, October 5, 2018
Oracle of Seasons: The End
Onox’s Castle
As Link approaches Onox’s Castle for the final showdown, the hooded figure from before confronts him to laugh at the futility of his efforts. Then the figure transforms into two witches – Koume and Kotake – Twinrova. They say the Flame of Destruction will soon be lit, and then they’ll perform a ritual to bring “the Evil King” back to “spread darkness across the land.” With some evil laughter, they fly off, and Link’s contacted by the Maku Tree, who’s worried about what Twinrova’s threats mean, but there’s nothing to do about that just yet. Link decides to focus on the threat at hand, Onox, and deal with Twinrova afterward.
Onox’s Castle is a fairly short dungeon: there are three rooms in a row to the north where he has to defeat all the enemies for the northern exit to lead to the next room. The first is filled with wizzrobes, the second darknuts and floormasters, and the third features another appearance by Facade. If he ever goes left or right, he finds himself in a room with a spinning tiles floor trap. There’s a chance to get fairies in these rooms, but entering resets his forward progress, so it’s basically only worth it if he does really badly at one of the fights and desperately needs a little extra health. After one final room, he comes to the final confrontation with Onox.
Onox is a giant soldier in golden armor, who attacks with the second biggest flail I’ve ever seen. He also sometimes jumps causing rocks to fall from the ceiling. After a few hits, he brings out Din in crystal to protect him; if Link hits the crystal with his sword, he’s electrocuted. Now, one of Link’s rings makes him immune to electricity damage, so he can hack away with impunity… but I didn’t bring it [1], so I have to do it the hard way. And this adds a pretty fun twist to the fight: Link has to bat the Din crystal away from Onox with the Rod of Seasons (not an obvious trick!) and then quickly hit Onox before she floats back over. After enough hits, Onox is seemingly defeated, but then the floor starts collapsing and Link eventually falls through.
Onox returns to confront Link, before assuming his true form of a dark dragon, whose weak spot is a crystal on his forehead. The crystal is immune to ranged attacks, so Link needs to dodge his attacks, jump on the hands (feet? paws?) when he has a chance, and hit the crystal with his sword. (Yes, just like the Wolf Sigma fight from Mega Man X. Capcom’s influence, I see you.) Once defeated again, Onox says that he accomplished enough for Twinrova’s aims, even if he lost in the end, and he dies. Din is freed from her crystal prison, and the seasons return to normal across Holodrum. The two set out to return to Horon Village, but Twinrova’s watching and says basically the same thing Onox did.
One World Saved, One to Go
As the credits roll, scenes from Horon Village play: Link and Din’s return, Maple crashing into the Maku Tree, Link and Din going to tell Impa the good news, and the Triforce mark appearing on Link’s hand. After they finish, a code appears… more on that in a minute. Returning to the game after the credits and talking to Din again, she says that Impa received a letter from Labrynna saying things weren’t well there, and left, setting the sequel hook for Oracle of Ages. The code that appeared after the credits can be used to start a “linked game” which starts with Twinrova already known as the mastermind and will resolve the story of their plot to revive Ganon. There’s one more code available right now from the red snake in Vasu’s (the ring merchant) shop, which lets all the unlocked rings transfer over by talking to same NPC in Ages. Farore, the Oracle of Secrets whose own game got cancelled because the logistics of linking three games was too complicated, has set up a little area in the Maku Tree where both codes are stored in a book, along with some blank spots. Hrm.
So, Oracle of Seasons was pretty fun. Hard, in a way thing’s haven’t been for a while, but fun. The reworkings of all the original game’s dungeon bosses were fun to see, and Twinrova as the mastermind was a cool and unexpected twist. Looking forward to seeing how this all plays out in part 2.
[1] I will when I come back on a linked game from Ages.
As Link approaches Onox’s Castle for the final showdown, the hooded figure from before confronts him to laugh at the futility of his efforts. Then the figure transforms into two witches – Koume and Kotake – Twinrova. They say the Flame of Destruction will soon be lit, and then they’ll perform a ritual to bring “the Evil King” back to “spread darkness across the land.” With some evil laughter, they fly off, and Link’s contacted by the Maku Tree, who’s worried about what Twinrova’s threats mean, but there’s nothing to do about that just yet. Link decides to focus on the threat at hand, Onox, and deal with Twinrova afterward.
Onox’s Castle is a fairly short dungeon: there are three rooms in a row to the north where he has to defeat all the enemies for the northern exit to lead to the next room. The first is filled with wizzrobes, the second darknuts and floormasters, and the third features another appearance by Facade. If he ever goes left or right, he finds himself in a room with a spinning tiles floor trap. There’s a chance to get fairies in these rooms, but entering resets his forward progress, so it’s basically only worth it if he does really badly at one of the fights and desperately needs a little extra health. After one final room, he comes to the final confrontation with Onox.
Onox is a giant soldier in golden armor, who attacks with the second biggest flail I’ve ever seen. He also sometimes jumps causing rocks to fall from the ceiling. After a few hits, he brings out Din in crystal to protect him; if Link hits the crystal with his sword, he’s electrocuted. Now, one of Link’s rings makes him immune to electricity damage, so he can hack away with impunity… but I didn’t bring it [1], so I have to do it the hard way. And this adds a pretty fun twist to the fight: Link has to bat the Din crystal away from Onox with the Rod of Seasons (not an obvious trick!) and then quickly hit Onox before she floats back over. After enough hits, Onox is seemingly defeated, but then the floor starts collapsing and Link eventually falls through.
Onox returns to confront Link, before assuming his true form of a dark dragon, whose weak spot is a crystal on his forehead. The crystal is immune to ranged attacks, so Link needs to dodge his attacks, jump on the hands (feet? paws?) when he has a chance, and hit the crystal with his sword. (Yes, just like the Wolf Sigma fight from Mega Man X. Capcom’s influence, I see you.) Once defeated again, Onox says that he accomplished enough for Twinrova’s aims, even if he lost in the end, and he dies. Din is freed from her crystal prison, and the seasons return to normal across Holodrum. The two set out to return to Horon Village, but Twinrova’s watching and says basically the same thing Onox did.
One World Saved, One to Go
As the credits roll, scenes from Horon Village play: Link and Din’s return, Maple crashing into the Maku Tree, Link and Din going to tell Impa the good news, and the Triforce mark appearing on Link’s hand. After they finish, a code appears… more on that in a minute. Returning to the game after the credits and talking to Din again, she says that Impa received a letter from Labrynna saying things weren’t well there, and left, setting the sequel hook for Oracle of Ages. The code that appeared after the credits can be used to start a “linked game” which starts with Twinrova already known as the mastermind and will resolve the story of their plot to revive Ganon. There’s one more code available right now from the red snake in Vasu’s (the ring merchant) shop, which lets all the unlocked rings transfer over by talking to same NPC in Ages. Farore, the Oracle of Secrets whose own game got cancelled because the logistics of linking three games was too complicated, has set up a little area in the Maku Tree where both codes are stored in a book, along with some blank spots. Hrm.
So, Oracle of Seasons was pretty fun. Hard, in a way thing’s haven’t been for a while, but fun. The reworkings of all the original game’s dungeon bosses were fun to see, and Twinrova as the mastermind was a cool and unexpected twist. Looking forward to seeing how this all plays out in part 2.
[1] I will when I come back on a linked game from Ages.
Wednesday, October 3, 2018
Oracle of Seasons: Explorer's Crypt and Sword & Shield Maze
Explorer’s Crypt
En route to the graveyard dungeon, Link can find the last of the golden beasts in spring, a golden darknut. With that victory, Link returns to the old man who gave him the quest in the first place for his reward: a ring, which appraises to the red ring, which doubles sword damage. At this point my ring box was pretty well set: the red joy ring for double rupees, the L2 heart ring for emergency health recovery, and the green ring which increases sword damage and decreases enemy damage for boss fights.
The dungeon in the graveyard is the Explorer’s Crypt, and has some challenging puzzles. Notably, there are rooms where if all the lights go out, Link is taken back to the start of the dungeon. He can stop the trap by defeating a poe in a nearby room. The two poes turn out to be the dungeon’s miniboss, where in addition to attacking Link, they try to blow out the torches around the room. Link has to avoid the attacks, keep the torches lit, and fight back against them. It’s a lot to deal with, at least until one of the two is defeated and Link can focus on the remaining one. The treasure is the roc’s cape, an upgraded jumping item that lets Link glide short distances. Of course, the jumping puzzles make the holes Link needs to cross correspondingly bigger.
The dungeon boss is Gleeok, completing the reimaginings of the original game’s dungeon bosses. It’s only got two heads, but the heads will try to reattach themselves once Link’s knocked them off, only failing if Link’s hacked off the other head first. Once both heads are gone, Gleeok starts hopping around the room, so Link needs to use the roc’s cape to float to avoid being stunned when it lands. All in all, it’s a lot simpler than the dungeon’s miniboss. The seventh essence is the Seed of Life, and the Maku Tree can’t tell where the final essence is.
Before leaving the graveyard area, there’s a heart piece Link can get now that he has the roc’s cape. Now, despite the Maku Tree’s lack of helpful information, the last essence is probably in that large unexplored area in the north where the Temple of Seasons used to be. There are a couple portals to Subrosia in the area. At the first, Link finds a cave where a Subrosian is tossing things into a volcano trying to get it to erupt. Always the helpful one, Link tosses in a bomb, which does the trick, altering the terrain back on Holodrum’s surface. En route to the second portal, Link can find the final heart piece. Going back to Subrosia through the second portal, Link finds the final dungeon hidden in a volcano.
Sword & Shield Maze
The dungeon’s called the Sword & Shield Maze after its map design, but it could just as easily be the Fire & Ice Maze for its terrain. Link has to walk over ice, jump over lava, fight fire keese, and memorably, near the end of the dungeon, toss ice crystals through holes to the basement to freeze the lava to give him a path to the final boss. The miniboss, called Frypolar, also ties into the fire and ice theme, transforming between a giant fireball and a giant snowball. The snowball is vulnerable to ember seeds, although each time it’s hit by one it transforms back to the fireball, making for a long fight.
The treasure is an upgrade for the slingshot, allowing it to split its shot into three, with some puzzles requiring the triple shot to activate groups of statues or light groups of torches quickly. The final boss is the only unique dungeon boss in the game, Medusa Head (AKA Medelock). Medusa Head has a petrification attack derived from its namesake, plus fireballs and optic laser beams. It’s vulnerable to being stunned with Pegasus seeds (heh), then whacked with the sword. After it’s down, Link can claim the final Essence of Nature, Changing Seasons. That’s an odd one, given how much the seasons have been fluctuating already. But anyway, he now has the full set, and the Maku Tree summons him to give him a huge Maku Seed, which will let him breach the magical barrier around Onox’s Castle.
Onox calls Link out from a distance, saying that even with the huge Maku Seed, he’s still no match for him. He invites Link to a final confrontation, should Link wish to prove him wrong.
Next: The mastermind revealed.
En route to the graveyard dungeon, Link can find the last of the golden beasts in spring, a golden darknut. With that victory, Link returns to the old man who gave him the quest in the first place for his reward: a ring, which appraises to the red ring, which doubles sword damage. At this point my ring box was pretty well set: the red joy ring for double rupees, the L2 heart ring for emergency health recovery, and the green ring which increases sword damage and decreases enemy damage for boss fights.
The dungeon in the graveyard is the Explorer’s Crypt, and has some challenging puzzles. Notably, there are rooms where if all the lights go out, Link is taken back to the start of the dungeon. He can stop the trap by defeating a poe in a nearby room. The two poes turn out to be the dungeon’s miniboss, where in addition to attacking Link, they try to blow out the torches around the room. Link has to avoid the attacks, keep the torches lit, and fight back against them. It’s a lot to deal with, at least until one of the two is defeated and Link can focus on the remaining one. The treasure is the roc’s cape, an upgraded jumping item that lets Link glide short distances. Of course, the jumping puzzles make the holes Link needs to cross correspondingly bigger.
The dungeon boss is Gleeok, completing the reimaginings of the original game’s dungeon bosses. It’s only got two heads, but the heads will try to reattach themselves once Link’s knocked them off, only failing if Link’s hacked off the other head first. Once both heads are gone, Gleeok starts hopping around the room, so Link needs to use the roc’s cape to float to avoid being stunned when it lands. All in all, it’s a lot simpler than the dungeon’s miniboss. The seventh essence is the Seed of Life, and the Maku Tree can’t tell where the final essence is.
Before leaving the graveyard area, there’s a heart piece Link can get now that he has the roc’s cape. Now, despite the Maku Tree’s lack of helpful information, the last essence is probably in that large unexplored area in the north where the Temple of Seasons used to be. There are a couple portals to Subrosia in the area. At the first, Link finds a cave where a Subrosian is tossing things into a volcano trying to get it to erupt. Always the helpful one, Link tosses in a bomb, which does the trick, altering the terrain back on Holodrum’s surface. En route to the second portal, Link can find the final heart piece. Going back to Subrosia through the second portal, Link finds the final dungeon hidden in a volcano.
Sword & Shield Maze
The dungeon’s called the Sword & Shield Maze after its map design, but it could just as easily be the Fire & Ice Maze for its terrain. Link has to walk over ice, jump over lava, fight fire keese, and memorably, near the end of the dungeon, toss ice crystals through holes to the basement to freeze the lava to give him a path to the final boss. The miniboss, called Frypolar, also ties into the fire and ice theme, transforming between a giant fireball and a giant snowball. The snowball is vulnerable to ember seeds, although each time it’s hit by one it transforms back to the fireball, making for a long fight.
The treasure is an upgrade for the slingshot, allowing it to split its shot into three, with some puzzles requiring the triple shot to activate groups of statues or light groups of torches quickly. The final boss is the only unique dungeon boss in the game, Medusa Head (AKA Medelock). Medusa Head has a petrification attack derived from its namesake, plus fireballs and optic laser beams. It’s vulnerable to being stunned with Pegasus seeds (heh), then whacked with the sword. After it’s down, Link can claim the final Essence of Nature, Changing Seasons. That’s an odd one, given how much the seasons have been fluctuating already. But anyway, he now has the full set, and the Maku Tree summons him to give him a huge Maku Seed, which will let him breach the magical barrier around Onox’s Castle.
Onox calls Link out from a distance, saying that even with the huge Maku Seed, he’s still no match for him. He invites Link to a final confrontation, should Link wish to prove him wrong.
Next: The mastermind revealed.
Monday, October 1, 2018
Oracle of Seasons: Ancient Ruins
Upgrading Sword and Shield
Just because Link has the power to summon all four seasons doesn’t mean he’s done with Subrosia just yet. There are two special ores he can get to now with the magnetic gloves, which he can then take to the Great Furnace. There, the workers melt and fuse the two into hard ore, using a process that apparently calls for the three of them to line up and dance. Then, Link goes to the Smithy, where the master smith takes interest in upgrading Link’s shield to the iron shield. Back on the surface, Link can find an old man who, now that Link has five Essences, will give him the round jewel, completing the set. The jewels can be placed into sockets of a wall, allowing Link access to the Tarm Ruins.
As Link progresses through the ruins, he’ll find the third golden beast, a lynel. There are a couple of Deku scrubs in the area, too; one fights Link, the other wants to hear a melody on the phonograph. Both give Link directions through the Lost Woods area that’s just ahead. Passing through the Woods requires going in a proper set of directions, while manipulating the seasons between each move. The phonograph scrub’s directions lead Link to a grove where the second sword, the Noble Sword, rests. The second set leads him through the Woods. Along the path through the rest of the ruins is another gale seed tree, so Link can warp here freely should he need to.
Ancient Ruins
As Link approaches the ruins, a hooded figure appears and taunts him that stopping Onox won’t be enough. They also mention a plan to revive the Evil King. So there it is, some mastermind has concocted a plan to bring Ganon back after his defeat in A Link to the Past, and what Onox is doing in Holodrum and whatever’s going on in Oracle of Seasons are a part of it. There’s more to uncover, like who the hooded figure is and how to stop Ganon’s resurrection, but for now, it’s a big piece of the puzzle.
The tower requires a lot of travel between floors, with hidden staircases, pits to fall down, and trampolines to bounce up on. The most memorable puzzle is a trap that causes the walls to close in on Link; if he doesn't navigate the rest of the hallway's spikes and bats in time, he'll be crushed, resulting in an instant game over. The treasure is a boomerang upgrade, which travels farther and faster and gives the player more control over its arc; Zelda boomerangs have already pretty well established they’re immune to real physics, so this one just pushes it a little further. (Hey, it’s magic.) The miniboss is Vire, which is a boss version of the already annoying Link’s Awakening version. It’s very good at staying out of Link’s reach, and unusually for any boss, complains each time it’s hit. When it’s hit enough, it retreats, leaving a couple bats behind for Link to kill.
The final boss is Manhandla, whose reimagining here seems to be the basis for the Hyrule Warriors version. Its four mouths need to be killed with the boomerang, which reveals the core to be a giant buzz blob. So the core needs to be attacked with the boomerang as well, and after a few hits, it opens up to reveal the heart of the monster, which is vulnerable to the sword. Victory lets Link claim the sixth Essence of Nature, Blowing Wind. According to the Maku Tree, the next Essence is in a graveyard to the west. [1]
A Pirate’s Undeath for Me
The way to the graveyard is blocked by a broken bridge, so Link needs to find a way to repair it. Off to the east of Horon Village, there’s a desert side area with a skeleton pirate hanging out at the gate, talking about his quest to find the captain’s bell. The rest of the pirates are down in Subrosia – Link’s come across the house near their sunken ship during his travels there. Now that Link’s collected six of the Essences of Nature, the captain decides he’s a competent adventurer and asks him to help find the bell. On the upper floor, one of the pirates is working on remembering a sequence, which turns out to be the order Link needs to press the buttons on the desert gates.
Inside the desert, Link finds the other half of the pirates’ ship, with the ghost of one of the pirates who died looking for the bell. His skull’s out in the desert, and once Link finds it, will help him find the bell (if Link can put aside nonconstructive urges like tormenting the skull by throwing it into water or quicksand pits). The two find the bell, the skull departs for the afterlife, and Link takes it back to the captain, who isn’t satisfied because the bell’s all rusty. Fortunately, the Subrosian smith takes an interest in the bell and restores it. Once that’s done, the captain’s ready to set sail, although his crew’s gotten a bit too used to being on land after so long and get seasick. He yells at them for it, only for the sickness to hit him, so they park the ship while they get used to sailing. Conveniently, they park right where Link needs a bridge to reach the graveyard.
Next: The last two essences.
[1] I rewrote the intro to this section after replaying the dungeon and discovering the original opening was inaccurate and I left out one of the most memorable bits. The sentence I removed was "There’s not much to talk about in the dungeon, which is a straight climb up the tower."
Just because Link has the power to summon all four seasons doesn’t mean he’s done with Subrosia just yet. There are two special ores he can get to now with the magnetic gloves, which he can then take to the Great Furnace. There, the workers melt and fuse the two into hard ore, using a process that apparently calls for the three of them to line up and dance. Then, Link goes to the Smithy, where the master smith takes interest in upgrading Link’s shield to the iron shield. Back on the surface, Link can find an old man who, now that Link has five Essences, will give him the round jewel, completing the set. The jewels can be placed into sockets of a wall, allowing Link access to the Tarm Ruins.
As Link progresses through the ruins, he’ll find the third golden beast, a lynel. There are a couple of Deku scrubs in the area, too; one fights Link, the other wants to hear a melody on the phonograph. Both give Link directions through the Lost Woods area that’s just ahead. Passing through the Woods requires going in a proper set of directions, while manipulating the seasons between each move. The phonograph scrub’s directions lead Link to a grove where the second sword, the Noble Sword, rests. The second set leads him through the Woods. Along the path through the rest of the ruins is another gale seed tree, so Link can warp here freely should he need to.
Ancient Ruins
As Link approaches the ruins, a hooded figure appears and taunts him that stopping Onox won’t be enough. They also mention a plan to revive the Evil King. So there it is, some mastermind has concocted a plan to bring Ganon back after his defeat in A Link to the Past, and what Onox is doing in Holodrum and whatever’s going on in Oracle of Seasons are a part of it. There’s more to uncover, like who the hooded figure is and how to stop Ganon’s resurrection, but for now, it’s a big piece of the puzzle.
The tower requires a lot of travel between floors, with hidden staircases, pits to fall down, and trampolines to bounce up on. The most memorable puzzle is a trap that causes the walls to close in on Link; if he doesn't navigate the rest of the hallway's spikes and bats in time, he'll be crushed, resulting in an instant game over. The treasure is a boomerang upgrade, which travels farther and faster and gives the player more control over its arc; Zelda boomerangs have already pretty well established they’re immune to real physics, so this one just pushes it a little further. (Hey, it’s magic.) The miniboss is Vire, which is a boss version of the already annoying Link’s Awakening version. It’s very good at staying out of Link’s reach, and unusually for any boss, complains each time it’s hit. When it’s hit enough, it retreats, leaving a couple bats behind for Link to kill.
The final boss is Manhandla, whose reimagining here seems to be the basis for the Hyrule Warriors version. Its four mouths need to be killed with the boomerang, which reveals the core to be a giant buzz blob. So the core needs to be attacked with the boomerang as well, and after a few hits, it opens up to reveal the heart of the monster, which is vulnerable to the sword. Victory lets Link claim the sixth Essence of Nature, Blowing Wind. According to the Maku Tree, the next Essence is in a graveyard to the west. [1]
A Pirate’s Undeath for Me
The way to the graveyard is blocked by a broken bridge, so Link needs to find a way to repair it. Off to the east of Horon Village, there’s a desert side area with a skeleton pirate hanging out at the gate, talking about his quest to find the captain’s bell. The rest of the pirates are down in Subrosia – Link’s come across the house near their sunken ship during his travels there. Now that Link’s collected six of the Essences of Nature, the captain decides he’s a competent adventurer and asks him to help find the bell. On the upper floor, one of the pirates is working on remembering a sequence, which turns out to be the order Link needs to press the buttons on the desert gates.
Inside the desert, Link finds the other half of the pirates’ ship, with the ghost of one of the pirates who died looking for the bell. His skull’s out in the desert, and once Link finds it, will help him find the bell (if Link can put aside nonconstructive urges like tormenting the skull by throwing it into water or quicksand pits). The two find the bell, the skull departs for the afterlife, and Link takes it back to the captain, who isn’t satisfied because the bell’s all rusty. Fortunately, the Subrosian smith takes an interest in the bell and restores it. Once that’s done, the captain’s ready to set sail, although his crew’s gotten a bit too used to being on land after so long and get seasick. He yells at them for it, only for the sickness to hit him, so they park the ship while they get used to sailing. Conveniently, they park right where Link needs a bridge to reach the graveyard.
Next: The last two essences.
[1] I rewrote the intro to this section after replaying the dungeon and discovering the original opening was inaccurate and I left out one of the most memorable bits. The sentence I removed was "There’s not much to talk about in the dungeon, which is a straight climb up the tower."
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