The King of Red Lions continues to approach an underwater bubble with a castle in it. The first thing we see of it is the familiar crest of Hyrule, and the music has echoes of the Overworld theme, so this is apparently Hyrule-That-Was. The King of Red Lions declines to explain where they are and what’s going on, beyond the fast that Link has to retrieve an item from inside the castle. The inside of the castle is overlooked by a huge statue of the Hero of Time, and there are a bunch of Moblins and Darknuts frozen in time. To open the way forward, Link needs to solve a simple puzzle involving pulling triangle blocks onto a Triforce mark on the floor. Once completed, the blocks sink, the Triforce mark glows, and the statue slides out of the way of a staircase leading down.
In the basement, Link finds a shrine with the Master Sword. It’s barely recognizable as such, with the crossguard’s wings folded up, but the King of Red Lions says it’s the Master Sword, so the Master Sword it is. Also, the music as Link goes King Arthur on it is the familiar theme. Speaking of music, after Link has the Master Sword, if there’s any doubt where he is, the music switches to a somber remix of the Hyrule Castle theme from A Link to the Past as all the enemies on the floor above are removed from suspended animation. The castle is sealed, and Link has to defeat all the enemies to break the seal, and with the King of Red Lions, return to the surface, now armed to take on Ganon.
But the bow opens up a new possibility. When Link runs into Cyclos and is being drawn into a cyclone to be sent somewhere random, he can shoot Cyclos down, fulfilling Zephos’ request. Cyclos takes the attack in good spirits, teaching Link to use the cyclones to travel quickly to nine locations around the Great Sea. With that ability, the time has come for Link to start gathering pictures for Nintendo Gallery figurines from all over the Sea. There are seven rooms total: four for figures associated with the major islands (Forest Haven, Dragon Roost Island, Outset Island, and Windfall Island), two for enemies (one for common enemies, one for bosses and minibosses – plus Wizzrobes, for some reason), and the last a catch-all for the rest of the figurines. Link can mostly fill five of the rooms, leaving bosses and miscellaneous each about one-third full. A few notable characters are still missing: Tetra and her crew, Tingle (I could probably get this now if I wanted), Medli, Komali, Gohma, Kalle Demos, and the kidnapping bird.
While teleporting around and gathering pictures of the Koroks, Link took the time to save their withered trees with a bottle of forest water. The water’s only good for twenty minutes, so quick travel may not be strictly necessary, but it relieves a lot of the stress and finding the one perfect route. Adding to the stress, on the other hand, the Korok on the Cliff Plateau Isles, nearest to the Forest Haven so the first one Link should visit, requires passing through a cave with a tricky bit of platforming to get to. This one will burn a couple minutes off the clock at best, and had me wondering if the rest would be so hard. But no, the rest were generally quite easy to get to and I finished the task with minutes to spare, earning a heart piece reward.
Also, across the Great Sea, Goron traveling merchants have set up shop on Bomb Island, Greatfish Isle, and the Child Island (of Mother and Child Islands). These merchants trade a variety of goods, starting with three different types of flowers for the one Link was given by Zunari [1], then going through a number of other decorative items. Every item Link acquires from them is added to Zunari’s shop, and once he’s unlocked all four flowers, Zunari will give him the magic armor, which makes him invincible but drains magic, similar to the Cane of Byrna. Once Link’s unlocked the last item, the Shop Guru Statue, if he gives it to the right merchant, the one on Greatfish Isle, he can get a heart piece for his efforts.
Near the Seven Star Islands, there’s a trio of platforms with a bunch of Wizzrobes where Link can get a treasure chart. Near the Flight Control Platform, there’s a submarine with a couple Wizzrobes and a bunch of Miniblins making it hard to focus on the Wizzrobes. This is where I discovered target locking in this game has some quirks, like when the Wizzrobe’s the only thing on screen and I hit L and lock onto a Miniblin behind Link. Coincidentally, it’s also where I discovered that Link doesn’t actually need to shoot Wizzrobes with arrows; he can get close enough to them and thwack them with the sword. The reward for clearing the Wizzrobes out of the room is that the Miniblins stop spawning with their goddamn chittering, and there’s also a map indicating the locations of platforms across the Sea.
From fighting the Darknuts in Hyrule Castle, Link got enough Knight’s Crests to impress Orca enough to teach him the ultimate sword maneuver: the Hurricane Spin, an advanced spin attack that lets him continually spin until he hits a wall or gets too dizzy. Link can cash in his treasure maps now, including the one pointing to the Forsaken Fortress, for 600 rupees and a piece of heart. Also at the Forsaken Fortress, the last fish – or Fishman, as the Gallery reveals their proper name is – tells Link that someone on Windfall Island collects the Skull Necklaces the Moblins drop.
And now it’s time to rescue Aryll, Maggie, and Mila.
Next: Hail, hail, the gang’s all here. [2]
[1] The best part of the Nintendo Gallery is learning everyone’s names.
[2] And it’s goodbye to all the rest.
