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?
