The last stage before the Tower of Winds is the Temple of Ice. The floors are often slippery, a complication compounded by bumpers that appear in several rooms that further punish Links who can’t keep their momentum under control on the ice. An early puzzle has the Links challenged to free the souls of the dead trapped in the ice by throwing bombs across a gap, and since the bombs are landing on ice they tend to skid until they hit something or fall off the platform. It’s tricky to be sure to hit the target you want, and destroying extra tiles only makes it even harder. A later puzzle has a similar idea, only without the exploding ice tiles, so it simply becomes a matter of timing when to throw the bombs to hit the switches.
The stage has the game’s most annoying room so far. It’s covered in ice with bumpers sliding around the room, and Bombchus continually pour out of four holes in the floor. The Links need to stand on switches to close the holes and stop the Bombchus. The only good thing I can say about this room is it gets easier as you get closer to finishing it, because each switch stepped on means there are fewer Bombchus zipping around.
The Fire Rod continues to play an important role in this stage. There are numerous ice blobs throughout the stage, which can contain rewards like Force Gems or frozen Pengators that aren’t too happy about being unfrozen. Later in the stage, it gets upgraded at the Fairy Fountain, and it behaves very much like the Cane of Somaria: creates blocks that explode in fireballs in every direction, and can be set on buttons to hold them down or used to create floating platforms. The later rooms of the dungeon make use of all these functions.
While the puzzles can be frustrating, the combat in the Temple isn’t too bad, so naturally, it’s the first level where I found four heart containers, doubling the Links’ life bar. The miniboss is a Shadow Link quartet who trails ice as they walk, and the final boss a pair of flail troopers made easy by the game considerately giving the Links the Roc’s Feather right beforehand and allowing them to form up and smash the troopers with slam attacks. The Links then reunite with the barrier maidens in the Four Sword Sanctuary, and with the Links providing the four gems, the maidens bring the Tower of Winds back for the Links to enter.
The Tower of Winds is mostly a side-scrolling stage, with the Links trying to climb ever higher. There are lots of doors to top-down GBA areas, connected to the main part of the level by a bunch of doors. The main challenge of the level is to find ways between the doors on the main screen, or to get ladders to appear to help further the climb. Once again I’m impressed by how the series is able to remix familiar ideas to create new experiences. Once again, the level has four heart containers, and also two blue bracelets (I’m not sure if they stack are just there in case the player only explores enough to find one of them), so the Links get lots of extra health, on top of the dozens of resurrection fairies they’re sure to have stockpiled by now.
The boss of this stage is Frostare, which starts the stage attached to the ceiling and summons circling/swooping enemies called Frosteyes to surround it. Unlike other bosses of this type, killing the Frosteyes is strictly to make dealing with Frostare easier, not the all-important first stage. At first, neither the Links nor Frostare is able to actually harm the other – Frostare is immobile (and the Frosteyes not much of a threat), but the Link’s attacks bounce off of it. To start the fight proper, the Links need to get into a crawlspace in the ceiling and cut Frostare’s root, allowing it to move about the room. Then it’s a matter of using the Roc’s Feather to jump at it and hit it until it dies.
The music when rescuing Zelda is directly recycled from the crystal cutscenes in A Link to the Past (the other maidens used a different melody because this one’s been associated with Zelda since Ocarina of Time). She says the Links’ efforts are purging the darkness from Hyrule, but it can only last if they go to the Realm of the Heavens and defeat Vaati there. She and the other maidens will remain on the ground to use their powers to prevent the darkness from returning while he’s at it. The Links exit onto the Tower’s roof, and step onto the teleport tiles to go to the final level.
Next: The last shadows.
