The King of Red Lions may say that time is of the essence in reaching the next destination, but with no timer, the standard rule of “A Link is never late. Nor is he early. He arrives precisely when the story intends for him to” applies. The King of Red Lions will stop Link from sailing off the map into the wide empty sea, but other than that Link is finally free to explore. The mapped portion of the Great Sea is a 7×7 grid, and each square has one main point of interest. Anyway, as Link sails away from the Forest Haven, the local fish tells him about a merchant to the north.
Sailing isn’t entirely peaceful. Every now and then, Link will be attacked by enemies that try to knock him off into the sea. The two most common types of enemies I’ve found are Seahats – aquatic Peahats – and shark-like Gyorgs. Gyorgs aren’t too bad, but the Seahats are difficult to target before they rock the boat and the best way I’ve found to deal with them is to run. There’s also ships that shoot cannons at Link, and without a cannon of his own, the only thing to do is raise the sail, weave around so the attacks miss, and outrun the ship.
The first direction Link heads is east, to the Cliff Plateau Isles. Here, Link meets a third type of ChuChu, a blue one, who electrifies if Link doesn’t thwack it with his boomerang first. It drops a blue jelly when defeated. Also around the island, Link can find a couple treasure chests, one with a Joy Pendant, and the other with another treasure chart. There’s also a Korok whose sapling isn’t growing right; it asks Link to bring some water from the Forest Haven to help it grow. The island’s fish gives Link the hint on how to hit the switch and open the Nintendo Gallery: bait a seagull and have it hit the switch.
Turning to the south, Link arrives at the Five-Star Isles. The fish says that the ghost ship appears here when the moon is a waxing crescent. There’s a submarine in the very far corner of the map with some bokoblins and keese inside, and when they’re all down Link gets another heart piece.
Now turning to the west, the next square over is the Boating Course, named for a minigame run there. There doesn’t seem to be a reward for the game aside from rupees. The other feature of interest is a hidden cave filled with Miniblins with a chart that maps all the squares with submarines marked. Very useful. The fish tells Link he can make the boat jump, and use that to execute quick turns.
Next up is the Angular Isles, which is the first time Link can use one of his treasure charts to find sunken treasure, claiming a heart piece. The islands are blocky, and some of the blocks can be pulled or pushed to help Link work his way to the top, where he finds another piece of heart. The fish tells Link about a special firefly in the Forest Haven.
With two hints about the Forest Haven that we can do now, Link heads back before it becomes too far a journey. He lets one of his fairies loose to capture the forest firefly he finds in the Deku Tree’s cave, then he heads back to the Nintendo Gallery entrance. To take control of a seagull, Link puts a Hyoi Pear on his head. The seagull takes it and now Link controls its flight. When it flies into the distant switch, the Nintendo Gallery entrance opens up and Link heads inside. There, a man offers to make figurines if Link brings him suitable pictographs – which he can’t take yet, because he can only take black-and-white pictographs, and the man wants color ones. So, the Gallery will have to wait for another day.
Returning to the Angular Isles and heading west again, Link comes to the Two-Eye Reef. The fish tells Link that he hasn’t seen the fairy who used to hang around these parts, and now there’s a Big Octo – and he worries that the Octo ate the fairy. Link tracks down the Big Octo and kills it by putting out its eyes with the boomerang, and sure enough, the Great Fairy appears – all new appearance, kind of abstract – and doubles Link’s magic meter.
Continuing on, Link comes to Headstone Island. There’s a heart piece on top of the island Link can get by possessing a seagull, and a submarine in the area that’s overrun by rats carrying bombs that awards a treasure chart when all the rats are killed. The main cave on the island is inaccessible, blocked by a heavy head-shaped stone. The fish tells Link the way to lift it can be found on Fire Mountain.
The next island over is Outset Island, where Link started. Link can refill his bait bag here, and wave to all the people he knows. The fish’s intro dialogue this time is different, because Outset Island was already marked on the map so the game thinks this isn’t the first time Link’s talked to it. Anyway, he says that a chart to “golden Triumph Forks” is buried on the island, and says there’s another name it’s heard for them: Triforce.
Next: A storm is coming.
