With most of the five zillion things that could be accomplished on the Great Sea done, it’s time for Link to finally head to the Triangle Islands and deposit the pearls. Each island has a statue that responds to Link’s presence by asking him to deposit the pearl, with each island corresponding to the one counter-clockwise from it in the giant Triforce mark. The last statue begins glowing brightly, and Link finds cover. When nothing else happens, he comes back to investigate, only to be blown away as the statue explodes, revealing a less abstract statue of the goddess inside. Beams emit from the pearls, blowing up the other statues and connecting the three islands, and inside the triangle, a Triforce appears, spiraling down to its center, where the Tower of the Gods rises from the water. Then Link splats face first into the tower, and fortunately, the King of Red Lions is there again to fish him out of the sea. He explains that the tower is a test for someone who wants to wield the power to destroy evil. Before heading into the tower, Link seeks out the area’s fish, who says that Link is destined to return many times, and the Triumph Forks are important here, and Tingle can help with them.
The entry level of the dungeon has a mechanic where the water level periodically rises and falls. Given how much I’ve liked dungeons where Link’s had to raise and lower the water level himself, this should be an improvement, although the fact that he really can’t do anything while waiting for the water level to return to whichever level he needs it at for any given task makes it annoying, too. For instance, sometimes there are yellow ChuChus, and when the water level’s raised above the ground, Link can’t fight them, but they can still swim to him so they can shock him. I guess I should be grateful the game doesn’t go into the realistic consequences of being in water with creatures constantly spouting electricity. Anyway, the point of this level is to get a couple statues and place them into their sockets to stop the waterfall that blocks access to the upper levels of the tower.
The second level is a lot more fun, with Link needing to guide three animated statues to the central room to open the path upward. The first one’s fairly simple, needing to be carried over gaps and through doors but able to make the journey without much assistance. The other two are going to be more complicated, so the first statue teaches Link the Command Melody which will let him possess statues so he can walk them across temporary bridges caused by a button he’s standing on. The other key to progressing is the dungeon’s treasure, the Hero’s Bow, guarded by the miniboss, a Darknut. Up till now, parrying had never really come up, but it turns out to be important when fighting Darknuts because Link’s parries knock off their armor and leave them vulnerable to easier attacks. However, as I learned, you don’t get the parry option while you’ve got the grappling hook out to steal Knight’s Crests from them. With the bow, Link can shoot eye switches to help open paths for him and his statue buddies.
Once all three statues are in place, a portal further up opens. After getting the boss key in the first room, Link has a climb on an outside staircase to the boss room. The way is guarded by lots of Beamos that come in two varieties now: one that continually shoots a beam along a fixed path, and one that tries to shoot Link. The first type can easily be destroyed with arrows, but the second’s lasers move too fast for Link to hit their emitter while they’re vulnerable.
At the top of the tower, Link comes to the boss room, where he’s greeted and challenged to face one final test: Gohdan. Gohdan’s design seems inspired by Bongo Bongo (minus the drumhead to bounce around on, sadly): two disembodied hands with eyes on the palms, and a head with two glowing eyes a giant gaping mouth. Link needs to shoot the hands in the eyes to disable them (for about two seconds longer than the minimum time to disable the other hand, it seems – very frustrating to finally get the second shot on the second hand only to have the first one come back to life), then shoot the head’s eyes, then throw a bomb in the mouth. This takes a lot of arrows, and with no chance for a quiver upgrade beforehand, there’s a very good chance Link will run out during the fight. Fortunately, the gods are merciful in this case and have Gohdan sneeze out a bundle of arrows when it happens, so it’s just a simple matter of getting all the hits in. Once defeated, Gohdan returns to its dormant state and spits out a heart container.
Link takes the portal out, only it leads to the roof, where he has to use the grappling hook to ring a giant bell. That opens another portal in the sea, which he sails into with the King of Red Lions, and the boat begins sinking. Link amusingly tries to hold his breath as long as he can, but once he has to let it go discovers he’s fine as the boat continues to its destination.
Next: Yes, I’m really going to leave it there.
