In an unlinked game, there was no reason to suspect that Din’s troupe was anything but what they said they were, except that the troupe’s cook was named Impa, a familiar name for anyone familiar with the backstory of the NES games and/or Ocarina of Time [1]. With Link’s heroics in Labrynna known to them, however, they reveal to him that they’re all undercover Knights of Hyrule, which only further confirms that Link should have been a lot more suspicious when he met Impa in Labrynna and she didn’t recognize him (because Veran was in the driver’s seat). Oh, well, just by showing up in Holodrum and getting knocked out on entry, he’s borked their plan to spirit Din to safety, and gives Onox time to act, so he messed up both places before getting to fix the problems he caused [2].
Ambi makes a number of appearances, having been sent to the future to explore Holodrum. The most significant of these comes after Link helps the pirates get their ship back, and Ambi comes in to reveal that the lover she wanted to lead back to her was the pirate captain. They have a bittersweet reunion, acknowledging their feelings for one another, but that the captain won’t be content to stay with her if it means giving up sailing. Of course, the pirates still get seasick and park their ship to make a convenient bridge for Link, so he’s got some time to spend with her while getting ready to truly set sail again.
After two dungeons, Impa comes to Link as he heads north from Horon Village, saying that Zelda has come to Holodrum without any guards. They split up to look for her, and Link’s the one to find her, and of course she’s managed to land herself in trouble. She’s being accosted by the moblins; as they’re demanding her valuables, the Great Moblin will recognize Link and have the moblins attack him. He doesn’t stick around for actual confrontation, and four moblins vs. Link just isn’t a very fair fight. The Great Moblin comes back to express his annoyance, then flees for his keep, and Zelda thanks Link for rescuing her. Impa, having apparently given up her search so quickly, shows up to express her relief that Zelda’s safe now. Overall, this sequence is a lot less memorable and fun than playing Donkey Kong with Vire.
Although Vire doesn’t get to participate in the Zelda-in-distress sequence, he does make an appearance before his dungeon. He’s apparently moved the first two of the gems Link will eventually need to reach the sixth dungeon; it’s not a big deal with the map, but it adds a little extra flavor to the hunt for the gems.
The Hero’s Cave has been reworked from the place for Link to get his sword in the early game to, like in linked Ages, a series of puzzles. The puzzles don’t get as tricky as they did in Ages – there’s nothing as frustrating as the lava bed/rolling block puzzle, or as completely out of left field as using the Cane of Somaria to cover the one space Link can’t walk over. In exchange, combat plays a larger role. The combat ranges from trivial to tricky (fighting a bunch of waterborne enemies with only a few places to stand in the room – WTB bombos medallion) to challenging to a gauntlet of enemies covering the full spectrum of challenge (eight different enemies, summoned in groups of four).
That’s not to say there aren’t any puzzles, or the ones that are there are all easy. There’s a group of six switch blocks moving back and forth, and Link needs to turn all of them red at the same time, which is much harder than it sounds. One puzzle, which is intended to involve threading a tight path with the magic boomerang controls, is only saved from being hair-pulling by a couple of alternate solutions the developers either overlooked or decided would be unfair to take out – the boomerang can be thrown above the path but hit the switch block on the return arc, or Link can chuck a bombchu at it and let that take care of it, which is as far as I’ve been able to determine, the only use for bombchus in either game. (Unless you want to drop one on Toilet Hand Guy for fun.)
The final puzzle is rather inspired: there are eight treasure chests in a room and Link needs to open them in the correct order. Rather than guessing, the trick is to imagine the room as a miniature map of Holodrum and the chests as the eight dungeon entrances, and opening the chests in the order of the dungeons. Link’s reward is the opposite of the reward for the Ages Hero’s Cave: a ring that greatly boosts his sword damage, but also increases the damage he takes. Not as useful, although possibly interesting for challenge runs. And, hey, it’s the sixty-fourth ring (after ticking off the secrets, which I’ll cover in the next post), so I’m not going to complain too much.
Next: Why do they call them secrets if they want you to tell them to someone else?
[1] Or Hyrule Warriors, but that wouldn’t come out for another few years.
[2] Mostly? There’s never any indication that the Temple of Seasons gets to return to the surface from Subrosia.
