Twilight Princess: Midna

The thing that grabbed Link and pulled him through the weird wall turns out to be one of Zant’s minions, as seen in the opening teaser reel. It tries to choke the life out of Link, but this version of Link is the most obvious incarnation of the Hero since the one the Triforce talked to at the beginning of the Oracle games, and that Link may be the one who already defeated Ganon and claimed the Triforce in A Link to the Past [1][2]. The Triforce mark on his hand drives the minion away, but Link’s troubles aren’t over. He rather painfully changes into a wolf, which knocks him out again. One of the minions [3] drags Link off while Midna mysteriously watches.

Link comes to in a prison cell, still a wolf, with his left front paw chained to the center of the cell. Control returns to the player for a few moments to establish that yes, he’s pretty helpless. He tries biting through the chain, but notices Midna watching. She smiles and jumps over the cell bars, and Link starts snarling at her until she says she was planning to help him. She teases him about his situation – maybe a little too much, because Link gets annoyed and bites at her. She takes it in stride and breaks the chain, then teleports outside the cell and offers to explain where he is if he can get out. Link finds a spot in the corner of the cell where he can dig under the bars, and Midna jumps on his back.

The next section has Link and Midna passing through the sewers under the cells, and largely functions as a tutorial for how to play as Wolf Link. As a wolf, Link can jump to pull chains to open grates and dig to find hidden treasures. There are spirits around, and by focusing on his wolf senses, Link can listen to them, although they seem oblivious to his presence. The spirits in this area are soldiers who are terrified of the “black things,” which may either be Zant’s minions or the shadowy things Link fights in this area – I’ve got no idea what they are [4]. After a while, Midna passes through some bars and gives Link a chance to explore on his own for a bit.

Once they’re reunited, Midna again teases Link about where they could possibly be, with so many ghostly soldiers. They come to a large spiral staircase leading out of the sewers. The staircase has several large gaps, and Link’s first attempt at jumping across doesn’t work out so well, so Midna takes the lead, moving to the spots Link needs to jump to, which he can do by targeting her. There’s also a section here where Link needs to run across a rope, and while I’m used to expecting to have to carefully line up Link’s path across the rope, there’s no need for that here: I didn’t try to fall off because maybe it would let me succeed and that would suck, but it wasn’t hard staying on, either. At the top of the staircase, Link fights a few Shadow Keese before one last series of jumps leading to a door at the top of the tower.

Link can’t see it, but the little ledge he steps out of the tower onto has the familiar Triforce-and-winged figure crest, so along with Midna’s teasing that Link should be familiar with his location, means we’re in Hyrule, possibly even Hyrule Castle. Something horrible has clearly happened here, with black skull flags flying [5] from the walls, black birds flying around, and everywhere the little squares of darkness floating up to the sky. Midna teases Link for not knowing – apparently she doesn’t know he’s never left Ordon Village – and says she wants him to meet someone in a nearby tower. Along the way, Link finds another soldier spirit who laments the current condition of Hyrule Castle. So now Link knows.

The good news is, they probably don’t care that the delivery from Ordon Village got delayed.

Next: We learn Midna's name. (It's Midna.)

[1] I mean, obviously Link is going to be the Hero, because if he weren’t, we’d be playing as the person who is, and probably calling them Link instead.
[2] So much of this game feels like it’s going in the opposite direction from Wind Waker: the art style, an older Link, predestined hero…
[3] I need a better name for these guys so I’m not always picturing those minions.
[4] My first instinct was rats, but they’re clearly not. They’re… amorphous tentacley shadow blobs.
[5] And no, I don’t think this is Tetra’s doing.

Twilight Princess: Faron Woods

Beth pulls up shortly after the first screen transition, and Malo not long after, but Talo kept going. Link continues to give chase, jumping over a fence. He eventually stumbles across a guy who gives him a Lantern to help him navigate the caves ahead – he sells lantern oil and figures giving away lanterns is a good way to grow his customer base. As this implies, the Lantern doesn’t run indefinitely; it needs oil to stay lit. I’ll hold off judgment on this mechanic until I have a better idea how easy or hard it is to keep the lantern full enough to use, but bottle space is already a premium, especially in the early game, so I’m not charitably inclined.

At the entrance to a nearby cave, Link finds Talo’s play sword after defeating a Deku Baba. The cave has more Deku Babas and a few Keese to give the player a chance to fight some easy enemies, and then Link emerges in Faron Woods. There, Bokoblins join the ranks of the enemies he fights. To the northeast, there’s a cave with a chest with a key, and two torches that when both are lit reveal a treasure chest containing the first heart piece. Unlike every other game so far, it takes five heart pieces instead of four to fill a heart container. Then to the northwest, two Bokoblins guard a gate that leads on to the next area.

The next area has more Bokoblins and a talking bird named Trill that sells Lantern Oil and Red Potion. The shop seems to run on the honor system, with Link tossing rupees in a box after filling his Lantern and/or Bottle. (If he doesn’t pay the full amount, Trill calls him a cheapskate.) As Link approaches the far end of the area, he sees Talo and the monkey locked up in a small cage guarded by two Bokoblins. After defeating the Bokoblins, he breaks the cage, freeing both prisoners. As Link and Talo return to the village, Talo says that the monkey tried to protect him from the Bokoblins, and asks Link not to tell his dad what happened. As Talo wanders off home, Rusl comes to Link, saying that Colin told him about Talo and apologizing that Link was put in the position of having to rescue him. Rusl says that the woods have become strange lately. Then he tells Link everything’s clear for him to make the trip to Hyrule, and maybe if he’s lucky, he’ll get to meet Zelda.

The next day, Link’s sitting in the grass at Ordon Ranch when Fado says they should close up early so Link can get going on his trip to Hyrule. This starts another round of the goat herding minigame; this time there’s twenty goats and it’s timed, but the only effect the timer has is Fado comments that Link beats his usual time if he can do it in under three minutes (which isn’t hard). Link returns to the village, and Ilia tends to Epona while Link talks to her father, the mayor, about the trip to Hyrule. The gift Link’s supposed to present was specifically requested by the royal family, and of course it’s best to not be late with it. Before Link can set off, Ilia notices an injury on Epona’s leg and blows up at Link. Her father tries to calm her down, but she turns on him too. She leads Epona off to the spring while Link and the mayor share an exasperated look.

The mayor tells Link he’ll need Epona to reach Hyrule on time, so Link follows Ilia to talk her into giving it back. As he approaches his house, Colin’s there saying Talo and Malo are blocking the path to the spring. They’re particularly annoyed at Colin for telling Rusl who told their father who yelled at them for going into the woods. When they ask to borrow Link’s sword, Link agrees and they run off to play with it, clearing the way for Colin and Link to go to the spring. Colin thanks Link and asks him to teach him to ride sometime, then runs off to the spring, and Link follows.

When Link gets to the spring, Ilia’s closed a gate in front of it, and she’s not in a forgiving mood. Colin points out the tunnel he used to get in and offers to try to calm Ilia down while Link sneaks in. By time Link makes it in, Ilia’s starting to calm down, and when Epona reacts to Link’s presence, Ilia agrees to let them go together. She asks Link to make sure to come home safe, and Link nods his acknowledgement.

Heavy hoofbeats outside the spring attract everyone’s attention, and a giant boar ridden by a couple Bulblins crashes the gate. Ilia’s shot by an arrow, Link gets clubbed over the head and knocked out [1], Colin gets scooped up, and Epona spooked and presumably darted off. The Bulblins carry off Ilia and Colin while their leader – or King, I should say; I recognize this guy from Hyrule Warriors – arrives, surveys the scene, and blows a horn, causing a spot of darkness to appear in the sky. After they’re gone, Link recovers to find everyone else gone, and runs off looking for them. He stops short in front of the giant wall from the demo reel, but something reaches through from the other side, grabs him, and pulls him through.

Next: Mouth is alive with juices like wine…

[1] He had the earlier scene where Beth, Talo, and Malo woke him up, and then gets knocked out at the start of the true adventure. I’m counting it.

Twilight Princess: Ordon Village

Link follows the path the person who took Epona went down and finds the barefoot girl, Ilia, with her at a small spring. She says she washed Epona – but left the saddle and tack on? She asks Link to use a piece of grass to play Epona’s song for her, and Link obliges. This has Epona leave Ilia’s side and run to Link’s, and he mounts up and rides back to the village. The man he was talking to, Rusl, stands out in the village, practicing with his sword. He tells Link that his son, Colin, is making a fishing rod for him, and he should be done in time for him to get it the next day.

Link continues on to Ordon Ranch, where Fado apologizes for bringing him out like this, but the goats aren’t listening to him. Link agrees to help, kicking off a minigame where Link rides around on Epona, yelling to drive the goats away from him into the barn. It’s a bit silly, especially with the “Goat in!” popup every time the goat runs in. After Link’s done, Fado sets up fences for Link to practice jumping Epona over, lets him run around as he likes, and tells him that he can have tomorrow off. Once Link’s done, he jumps Epona over the gate leading back to the village and rides back, and a save prompt pops up.

The next morning, three children from the village – Beth, Talo, and Malo – come to wake Link up. Link gets a chance to explore his house for a bit, then goes out to meet them. Talo and Malo are excited about a slingshot Beth’s parents are selling, but don’t have the rupees to buy it. Link heads into the village, where Rusl’s wife lost her baby’s cradle, and Beth’s parents have lost their cat. The cradle quest ends up combining a few tutorials: L-targeting, climbing, and jumping are all familiar, but new to this game is using grass to call a hawk, then sending the hawk flying at a target – in this case, the monkey who pulled the cradle out of the water. With the cradle returned to her, Rusl’s wife leads Link back to her home, where she gives him the fishing rod Colin made. The item get pose in this game is a lot more subdued than pretty much any other game: Link holds his hands palms-up in front of him while the new item floats over them.

Link goes over to where the cat’s been watching the fish in the water to use the rod, and herding the cat back to the shop doesn’t work very well. However, Link can catch fish, and the first one he catches puts a fishing log in his quest items stack, and the second one flops behind him, where’s it’s grabbed by the cat, who runs back to the town shop. Link follows the cat, and Sera, the shopkeeper, gives him a half-bottle of milk. (She thinks the cat caught the fish itself, because you know the cat’s not going to let on that it needed Link’s help.) Of course, the bottle’s the real prize – the milk only restores three hearts, so while it’s useful now, it’s going to be outpaced quickly. The slingshot costs 30 rupees, and she’s surprised Link’s interested, thinking he’s too old for toys. But he needs a ranged weapon, and this is what’s available.

Link goes back to his house to show off the slingshot for the kids, and on the way, he passes Rusl, who dropped something off at Link’s house. The kids set up targets for Link to shoot at – Talo and Malo are excited, but Beth feigns indifference, but even she’s impressed when Link hits all the targets. In the short time between Rusl leaving Link’s house and Link’s arrival, a Skullwalltula has set up on the ladder. (Maybe Rusl just jumped down.) Link hits the Skullwalltula with a slingshot shot, then climbs the ladder, enters his house, opens the treasure chest Rusl left, and claims the Wooden Sword. Bringing the sword down, Talo and Malo ask Link to demonstrate sword moves for them. In contrast to before, Beth’s really into this, but Malo is dismissive (while giving the input commands to the player).

The kids wanted to learn swordplay to fight off the monkeys who have been causing mischief in town, and as soon as the lesson’s over, Talo spots one of them, and all three chase after it, and Link hops on Epona to follow.

Next: Just whose horse is Epona, anyway?

Twilight Princess: Introduction and Story

The Dark Age is over, so now there’s twilight. (No, not crappy vampire romance novels [1].) I heard about Twilight Princess since it was a launch title for the Wii and everyone was excited about the motion controls. My one experience with the Wii’s motion controls was flailing about trying to play Wii Sports that nearly ended with me chucking the Wiimote at the TV in frustration [2], so I’m playing the GameCube version. I know a fair bit about this one:

• It’s set in the timeline created at the end of Ocarina of Time, the same one as Majora’s Mask.
• I’m not quite sure what it means here, but I understand this game follows Ocarina’s template more than, say, Wind Waker?
• This game’s version of Zelda has become her “standard” design, although the latest Smash went with a different look.
• Three characters from this game are playable in Hyrule Warriors.
  • Agitha (“Insect… Princess?” Yes, the ellipsis and question mark are part of her epithet), a (human) girl, roughly ten years old, who is rather fond of insects.
  • Midna (“Twilight Princess” and “Ruler of Twilight”). She’s normally humanoid, but she’s been cursed to look like… well, Agitha called her an angry kitty. She has an affinity with wolves. She’s the rightful ruler of the Twili people, but…
  • Zant (“Usurper King”). Zant is… I think he’s Twili, but I’m not sure. I’m more sure he’s a bad guy; he may even be the bad guy (or, more likely, appear to be the bad guy until the shocking twist that it was Dr. Wily pulling the strings all along). Midna hates him, which along with the epithet strongly suggests he’s responsible for her status (both not being the active leader of the Twili and the angry kitty thing). He’s a truly bizarre fellow. Looking them up, I’m not sure why, but I’ve thought of him as looking like a cross between the mayor from The Nightmare Before Christmas and Morpheus (wearing his helmet) from The Sandman.
  • There's also the giant boss Argorok (“Twilit Dragon”), who I assume is going to be a dungeon boss here.

Story

Well, one way that Twilight Princess takes after Ocarina of Time is that while waiting for the title to pop up the game plays scenes of Link riding Epona. It ends with a wolf howling at the title. Then, the game goes into a teaser reel, starting with Zant and a couple demons approaching a robed and hooded figure, a peaceful village disturbed by a weird wall, Link investigating the wall, turning into a wolf (!), and meeting Midna. Then there’s a gameplay reel, showing off some of the items (the hookshot stands out, and some kind of boots). It ends with shots of the main characters: Zant, Zelda, Midna, and Link (wolf and human, the latter with the Master Sword). So, um. This version of Link’s a werewolf? And I’m guessing what I interpreted as Midna having an affinity for wolves is just Hyrule Warriors’ take on her bond with Link.

Anyway, after creating the save file, there’s the standard “enter your name” bit, only now Link is entered by default [3], and afterward, the player gets to name Link’s horse (Epona by default, of course). There’s no story roll, boo. The manual quickly gets into what I assume is going to be stuff I’ll be playing through soon enough, but it talks about how Ordon Village is a peaceful farming community. Link is highly regarded among the villagers – the unofficial leader of the village’s children, and expected to become the village leader when he’s older.

In the game, we start with Link and an older man sitting by a river. “Tell me… Do you ever feel a strange sadness as dusk falls? They say it’s the only time when our world intersects with theirs… the only time we can feel the lingering regrets of spirits who have left our world. That is why loneliness always pervades the hour of twilight… but enough talk of sadness.” The man is supposed to make a delivery to the royal family of Hyrule in a couple days, but he wants Link to do it, for a chance to see the larger world outside Ordon Village. They return to the village, with the man saying he’ll talk to the mayor about sending Link instead. After a while, Link’s gone inside his home, but left Epona standing out front, and a barefooted person leads her away. Epona’s barely out of sight when someone comes to Link’s house calling for his help herding goats; as Link comes out, the man notices that Epona’s not there.

Next: Herding goats is easy. Herding cats, not so much.

[1] Okay, I haven’t actually read Twilight (although I’ve spent enough time reading Reasoning With Vampires that I feel I have) or seen the movie. At this point I don’t think I could give either a fair shake.
[2] I’m kind of dreading Skyward Sword.
[3] I suppose it’s the most common name players give Link. I wonder what the breakdown is on players who name him Link vs. players who name him after themselves vs. players who name him Zelda vs. etc.

The Minish Cap: Dark Hyrule Castle

The first set of puzzles Link finds upon returning to Hyrule Castle all involve using his ability to split into four. Sometimes, it requires making it through a room with staggered walls that a trap zips around. Others require reflecting cannons’ shots back at them simultaneously; the first one isn’t too hard, but the second has the cannons on either side of the Links, who all have to face the same way. This means Link has to turn around quickly to deflect the shots from both directions. I’m not convinced this puzzle didn’t take pity on me after I failed it a bunch of times. When Link comes to the throne room, there’s a Red Darknut miniboss (same as from the Palace of Winds); afterward, Link can claim the Compass and pass through a passage hidden under the throne that leads to way to the second floor.

On the second floor, Link first makes his way outside, then goes around the edge of the castle to the front. From here, he needs to make his way first to a central room and defeat a Black Knight (super Darknut), causing four other Darknuts – either single Red ones or pairs of the normal ones – to spawn. These Darknuts block off the way to the four corner turrets, where Link can find four keys. These keys unlock blocks that are blocking a giant block Link needs to push out of the way to claim the Big Key, which he needs to access the final area.

As Link heads to the roof, Vaati taunts that his work is almost done: when the castle’s bell chimes three more times, he will have absorbed the Light Force from Zelda, killing her and leaving him unstoppable. The first two chimes happen as Link enters the next two rooms: first a bridge with a bunch of purple Keatons, then a room with a Black Knight and two Red Darknuts. The last one is timed: If Link takes too long, Vaati wins. Assuming Link makes it to the roof in time, Vaati drops Link back down into the room where he fought the Darknuts and comes in and transforms himself for the final battle.

Vaati’s first battle form has his body transformed into a giant eye, orbited by four smaller eyes. Link destroys the eyes and attacks the central eye. Vaati eventually makes the orbiting eyes stronger and protected by darkness that Link needs to drain with the Gust Jar. After enough damage, Vaati changes the arena and transforms again, this time to a large eye surrounded by eight orbs. Four of these are decoys, and the other four are eyes. Once Link reveals the four eyes, he needs to split into four to attack them, leaving the central eye vulnerable. Once the central eye is damaged enough, Vaati disappears, allowing Link to go to the roof and restore Zelda.

Once she’s safe, the castle starts collapsing. Link leads Zelda to the Elemental Sanctuary. Just before they make it, Vaati blocks the path with a lightning bolt and draws Link into the final battle. Vaati’s final form is familiar from the Four Swords games: a large eye with two long arms. There are also four small eyes in front of the big one. The arms try to attack through the floor, when they do, they can be severed by the Cane of Pacci. Then Link can use the nearby portal to shrink, enter the arms, and destroy a bunch of eyeballs, destroying the arm. Then, Link needs to split into four and face the small eyes, and reflect their attacks, then attack the core. Once Vaati is defeated this time, it’s over.

Link returns to the Elemental Sanctuary entrance with the mage’s hat. Zelda is relieved to see him, but Vaati was still able to cause a lot of destruction. We can’t have that, so first Vaati’s defeat means Ezlo is returned to his natural form (but human-sized). He gives Zelda the mage’s hat, and by combining his power with hers, all of Vaati’s destruction is undone. The castle is restored to its natural state, the people unpetrified, and the monsters disappear from Hyrule. It’s very much like the ending of A Link to the Past. But the door to the Minish world is closing, so the time for Ezlo to leave has come. He gives Link a final gift to remember him by – a hat, like the one he was turned into – then shrinks to his normal size and passes through the door before it closes.

After the credits, there’s a final display: a stained glass window with Link, Ezlo, the Four Sword, the elemental stones with a sword colored to match them. “Thus did Link’s quest come to an end. But surely, this is not the end of Zelda and Link’s adventures in Hyrule. The legend will continue… as long as the power of the light force echoes throughout the ages.”

There are two last things to do. Carlov has six extra figurines inspired by the events of Hyrule Castle, and when they’re collected, he gives Link a Carlov Medallion. The guy with the house with the heart piece mentioned that, even though Link didn’t have it at the time. Also, defeating Vaati impressed Biggoron enough that he wants to eat Link’s shield, and he spits out a Mirror Shield when done. Would have been nice to have before, but now it’s… well, there’s no real reason to fight anything anymore.

This game feels like a love letter to the series, with references to just about every other game. And on the flipside, if you take what I love about the series and distill it to a single game, you’d pretty much get this. You’ve got a well-designed central mechanic, some cool dungeons with inventive new items and memorable bosses, and the Minish are entirely too lovable. When I think of my favorites in the series, The Minish Cap is definitely among them.

The Wind Waker: Second Opinion

Thoughts, continued:

• When the Moblins and Darknuts woke up in Hyrule Castle, I had trouble at first getting them isolated enough that I was comfortable fighting. Once the numbers started to thin out a bit it got easier, but those first few were more exciting than I wanted.
• For the trading sequence, this time I sat down with a chart of who gives what to work out a path to get all 12 items unlocked. Most of those deals were with the merchant at Greatfish Isle, who’s always critical of the item Link gives him, even if it’s the same exact item he handed Link seconds beforehand. On the other hand, he’s the one who gives the heart piece reward, so keep him happy. And I don’t think there’s any real call for money afterward aside from paying the extortionist.
• I took the time to explore the Forsaken Fortress the second time around. It’s a lot of fun getting to fight the Moblins who Link had to hide from his first run through. There’s a Floormaster in there, which was a shock.
• The fight with the Helmaroc King may be my favorite boss fight in the series to date. As Tetra, Aryll, and Gonzo were leaving, I was excited about getting to smash a giant bird in the face with a hammer again. Some things are just satisfying.
• The most tedious part of the game is getting the treasure charts from the Eye Reefs. It occupies that annoying position of being less useful the more you know about the game, but still required to get all the treasure charts. (Even the completionist in me says “screw that” looking at the sliding tile puzzle in the cabana.) It’s all naval combat where the boomerang is useless, perhaps the only part of the game I truly dislike.
• Yep, that giant pig will attack Link. And it hurts.
• I liked the Earth Temple so much better on second run. I sometimes hit the release button with Medli because that’s the shield button that Link uses to bounce light in a particular direction, but all my other frustrations that I remembered from before were gone. I could appreciate the puzzles and enemies (Floormasters: supremely annoying, but I don’t think there’s any enemy in the game that makes my heart race as much to fight). As for Jalhalla, now that I have a better understanding of how to fight him, he’s a lot more fun. (The Great Spin Attack makes wiping up the component Poes maybe a little too easy.) And his death scene is second only to Twinrova’s for humor value.
• One annoyance I found in the Wind Temple that didn’t hit me on my first trip: For some reason I left Makar behind when I went in the room in the deep basement with a Wizzrobe, some Stalfos, and a few Bokoblins hiding behind wall fixtures, and per convention, he returned to where I entered the giant central room: way back up at the top.
• The Triforce charts are a nice mix of aspects from the game – minidungeons, tough fights, naval combat, even using Hyoi Pears to fly seagulls where you want them to go. I had to track down the ghost ship this time – not so lucky to have it be near the same island where the map is.
• The Savage Labyrinth: The enemies don’t drop anything, but Link can still steal stuff using the Grappling Hook. ReDeads are particularly nice for this: They sit there and let Link steal all their stuff without waking up to come eat him. I got through the whole thing without needing potions/fairies, getting by entirely on stolen hearts. (I turned on the Magic Armor for the very end – down to the last Darknut with enough hearts left not to worry – just to see what it does.)
• The first time through, I hunted just enough Blue Chu Jellies to unlock Blue Potions on Windfall. This time, even though I got blue potions from Hollo, I decided I was going to hunt down every Blue ChuChu and harvest their jelly. Most of them are easy, but some are pretty well hidden, and some are completely nonintuitive like having to backflip onto a rock on Pawprint Isle to get one to spawn.
• Rematch!Molgera’s music has a different percussion line, meaning no chickachickachicka. This makes me sad.
• Oddly, the Puppet Ganon phase I had the least trouble with the second time around was the one I cursed repeatedly the first time. Now, that’s because I found a strategy that, while unorthodox, works: run into Puppet Moldorm Ganon’s face with a bomb, and it’ll be stunned long enough for Link to run to the tail and shoot it. Link takes some damage this way, but it works, it’s fast, and there are hearts and a fairy available before going against Ganon.
• When Link and Tetra resurface after Ganon’s defeat, not only is Tetra back to herself, but Link’s wearing the green tunic. Hrm.

Ultimately, my second opinion is much like my first. The Wind Waker is a great game. The art is gorgeous. The challenges are fun. It’s probably got the best story of any Zelda game I’ve played so far. It does a great job combining open-world exploration with the series' typical item-based progression. Sailing the sea is fun. But... I admire the game more than love it.

The Minish Cap: The Four Sword

Link has to sneak into the castle again, and it’s the same as last time. Once the Wind Element is restored to its pedestal and the sword infused with all four elements to become the Four Sword (explicitly named as such), the sword can be charged to fire a beam that breaks curses. Link demonstrates this by shattering the tablet that told him how to use the Two Sword to split himself. A hidden doorway opens behind the tablet, leading to a room with the stained glass windows from the story introduction. In the center is a new window that wasn’t part of the original story. The story plays again, with the new window illustrating the ending of the story:
“And the force of the golden light, embodied in Hyrule’s princess, shone forth upon the lands.”

Vaati, still appearing as King Daltus, appears in front of Link and Ezlo, thanking them for helping him understand where the Light Force is. He zaps Link, knocking him out, and leaves to extract it from Zelda. Ezlo wakes Link up and explains the situation to him, and the two head out to stop Vaati. As they leave the Elemental Sanctuary, they find that Hyrule Castle has been transformed by Vaati’s magic, and its inhabitants turned to stone. Link uses the Four Sword’s beam on the first pair of guards and Minister Potho, restoring them to life. They’ve finally cottoned on to Daltus being Vaati in disguise, and one of the guards suggests that the real king must be somewhere in the castle.

Link finds the real king in the dungeon, petrified and stashed in a cell. Once restored to life, he’s shocked by everything that’s happened and wants to help Link fix it, but knows he’d only slow Link down. He gives Link a key that will help him escape from the castle. As he heads out, Link finds the dungeon map. Leaving the castle is strictly optional, but there are a few things that can only be wrapped up now that Link has the Four Sword. The guard at the doorway is gone, but the ones patrolling the west part of the garden are still there and throw Link out if they catch him. With the front entrance open, the only reason to go that way is to get to a fairy fountain, and there are others that are easier to find.

There are three Kinstone fusions Link can do in the outside world. First, fusing with the last Goron in Goron Cave causes Biggoron to wake up. He’s not willing to do anything to help Link just yet – he needs to be impressed, first. Second, in the area of the Minish Village where Link found a heart piece on his first visit, there’s a Minish who will fuse twice with Link. The first time causes a platform to appear in the water of Veil Falls, giving Link access to a Mole Mitts cave where he finds a piece of heart. The second time opens a crack near the Wind Crest in Lake Hylia, giving Link a path to where Librari has taken refuge while the town’s under alert. Librari gives Link a full heart container. There’s one last heart piece in town, in a Minish path in the playground of the school. Also, now that Link’s fused all the Kinstones he can, Tingle will reward him with a trophy.

There’s one more quest I didn’t realize existed until late in the game: Beedle only has the three varieties of Picolyte he started with: White (increases Kinstone drops), Red (increases Heart drops), and Green (increases Mysterious Shell drops). He’s got three empty bottles, waiting for new forms of Picolyte to be discovered. Picolyte is made from Pico Blooms, which are harvested in the barrel in the Minish Village where Link got his Jabber Nut. The Minish researching the Pico Blooms asks Link to bring him the ingredients to grow new types of blooms: Lon Lon Milk (Yellow, increases rupee drops), Mt. Crenel Mineral Water (blue, increases item drops), and a Red Potion (Orange, increases fairy drops). I pretty much entirely did this to have it done; White Picolyte was useful earlier when I was trying to get the initial set of Kinstone Fusions done and often found I didn’t have the right one, but otherwise they’re far too expensive to bother with. The Yellow one in particular seems like a worse gamble than the chest game: 100 rupee buy in, then 200 rupees per potion?

Next: Defeating Vaati again, for the first time.

The Minish Cap: Palace of Winds

I’ve realized for a while now how heavily this game reuses assets from Four Swords – the identical design of Eyegores was a big tipoff – but it’s the Palace of Winds reusing a couple things from that game – heavy fans (not new to Four Swords, they were in Ocarina of Time, too) and suspended chain-link platforms with rotating grates that Link can use to jump between levels – that made me come to appreciate Minish Cap as a single-player, more traditional Zelda take on Four Swords.

Ezlo apparently doesn’t do heights – given that his natural form is minuscule, he may be feeling even higher up than he actually is. And, of course, if Ezlo didn’t complain about a key part of the dungeon as Link set foot in it, I would worry that something serious had happened to him. (I like the character, really, but his two main modes are complaining and telling Link what I already know – he hinted at the function of the grates after I’d already tracked down and used one – so I also like poking fun at him.)

This is a long dungeon – Link basically has to get the Roc’s Cape after fighting three waves of Wizzrobes, work his way up to the top of the outside of the palace, fight a miniboss, then go back down to the bottom level of the palace again and work his way back up the inside (getting a heart piece along the way) to fight the boss. The first of the three dungeon items he gets is the Big Key, and that’s just before the miniboss fight. That miniboss is a Red Darknut, which has an extra attack over the easier versions: a thrust that summons a tornado and can pierce Link’s defense. The Compass comes shortly after (at which point Ezlo wonders just how long the dungeon is), and the Map doesn’t come until he’s nearly done.

At the top of the tower, Link has to ride one final tornado upward to the boss fight against the Gyorg Pair. Despite the name, they don’t resemble either the gargantuan masked fish from Majora’s Mask or the shark-like enemies of Wind Waker; they’re more like giant manta rays. Link starts on the red one, which is larger, and has eight spots for eyes. Three pop out, and Link needs to split himself to hit all three eyes, causing the full set of eyes to come out just asking to get pummeled. After they’ve taken enough damage, a blue Gyorg swoops in, and Link needs to jump to its back – something I didn’t really get the hang of. This one sprouts single eyes on its back, and tries to sweep Link off with its tail. After enough hits, this Gyorg retreats, and Link returns to the red one. The process repeats, with the blue Gyorg harassing Link during the red Gyorg phase, and even smaller green Gyorgs trying to knock Link off during the blue Gyorg phase. Eventually, the blue Gyorg is destroyed, and then the red one. Link returns to where the tornado that sent him to fight the Gyorgs was, and claims the Wind Element at long last.

Before heading to infuse the Three Sword to finally become the Four Sword, there’s a few things Link can do. Now that he has the Roc’s Cape, Swiftblade will teach him the Down Thrust, which isn’t as useful as it was in Four Swords Adventures. Having learned the first seven sword techniques, Link can now learn the Great Spin Attack from the original Swiftblade (who really should have been called Ghostblade, but whatever). And with that attack, he can learn to do it longer from Greatblade. And now his bag of tricks is complete. He can go to buy/read all the Swordsman Newsletters at the post office.

The Roc’s Cape lets Link get a few heart pieces he couldn’t get before. One drops from the bell at the center of town if Link flies into it. One is in a shallow area of Lake Hylia Link couldn’t swim to. One is through a Mole Mitts cave he can reach now – the cave also summons the final Goron to pound through the last wall of that cave, where Link can get a bottle. One piece of heart is up the beanstalk Link created with an earlier fusion but couldn’t get to. Finally, at this point, Link can complete collecting Carlov’s figurines, and then if he talks to a man in town, that man is impressed by the complete collection and gives Link the key to his house, where Link can find a heart piece, lots of rupees, and a sound check.

Next: Three becomes four, and the endgame becomes clear.

The Wind Waker: Second Impressions

Some observations as I play though the game again:

• Link starts with the Deluxe Picto Box (I’m assuming this is only if he had it before finishing). I don’t know if any pictures carry over, because I kept mine empty because of giving them all to the Nintendo Gallery. This lets him take pictures of Tetra and Gohma early, and the Koroks before they scatter to plant their seeds. However, that doesn’t matter if he got them in the first run, because it seems all pictography-related quests carry over their progress. There’s no need to track down the three pictures Lenzo wants on Windfall Island, the Nintendo Gallery is already unlocked, with all the old figurines still in place – and if it was complete, Carlov is gone. Some things can still be done, if they have a reward unrelated to pictography (e.g., giving the woman on Windfall a picto of herself for a treasure chart). And even though he doesn’t need the Picto Box, he still has to let Tingle out because of Triumph Forks.
• (Also, Link can double back to Windfall after getting the firefly, but there’s no reason to since he already has the Deluxe Picto Box.)
• Instead of the green tunic, Link’s grandmother gives him the Hero’s New Clothes, which are extraordinarily light and she says are invisible except to honest people. Link apparently doesn’t count, or decides he doesn’t want to deal with questions of why he’s running around in his underwear, because he keeps his blue crawfish outfit on under them.
• The mail sorting – oof. This was one of the big things I wasn’t looking forward to doing again, and it still sucks.
• I don’t know if they made the boss fights harder or if I’m just out of practice, but I had real trouble getting enough time to grapple Valoo’s tail during the Gohma fight.
• On the other hand: Kalle Demos can be killed by hitting the core with the Boomerang, rather than rushing in and getting gobbled when you don’t get out in time. (I remembered the Forest Water trick a moment too late to use it.) I realized I wasn’t entirely sure it was working, but I killed it with my first sword hit afterward, so apparently it was.
• The Hylian text is translated! This lets the player understand what Valoo, the Deku Tree, and Jabun say. Jabun’s is particularly interesting: he’s got doubts about Link being able to save Hyrule, but trusts the King. He also asks the King if he’s located Zelda, which is what the King says “I believe I have” about. (Presumably he guessed it’s Tetra because of the Pirate’s Charm.)
• They call them Seahats, but they’re more like A-hats.
• As of sparring with Orca, I still had trouble parrying – which was troubling because Darknuts weren’t too far in the future – but I got 566 hits on my first try, and all three hits I took were me being careless and/or trying to parry.
• Okay, this game seriously messes with my understanding of left/right and east/west. Pressing the right thumbstick left moves the camera right, and right moves it left. This does not happen when targeting with the bow or boomerang via the left thumbstick. [1] Also, the compass points north, which is of course how real compasses work, but if you expect it to point the direction you’re traveling, it seems east and west are backward. All of this results in me doing things like recognizing my next destination is to the east, Wind’s Requieming to point the wind in the right direction, and pointing my ship west and wondering why it’s not moving.
• During the “gather all the treasures” part of the game, I started trying to hit the treasure locations at full sail. The first time I managed it, I was being chased by seahats and, because of my success, able to grab the treasure, raise sail, and outrun them.
• Hollo at the Forest Haven makes Blue Potions for 4 Boko Baba Seeds. Considering that Link can get 5 just on the trip up from the landing point, this is so much easier than having to hunt 15 of the Blue ChuChus down to get them stocked in the Potion Shop and a real bargain over buying them afterward. The Elixir Soup’s still better, of course, but Link can only have one of those.
• Playing with the auctions again, I think the way to go is for Link to keep raising the bar and keep everyone else stunlocked. Link has to raise the price by 10% each time he bids, but the crowd will raise it more than that in 15 seconds if allowed to go. I was able to get the three important items (two treasure charts and a heart piece) for under 500 rupees.
• Oh, and if Link smashes the pots in Mila’s father’s house but doesn’t have enough rupees to pay for them, the reaction is well worth the 8 rupees I lost.
• There are no Cuccos in this game. Guess they all drowned with Hyrule. Surprised they didn’t flock to peck the gods to death (or Ganon, to stop the gods from having to drown Hyrule) for doing that. I’ve heard the pigs have the same role, though.

Next: The second half of the game, and a reevaluation of my opinion.

[1] Thinking about it, this one makes sense if you think about the right thumbstick moving the camera (moving it right moves it and its view counterclockwise, but from Link’s perspective, the camera’s moving right, and the view’s moving left) but the left thumbstick moving Link’s head. I don’t like it, and I wish there were an option to make the right thumbstick not inverted, but I at least understand the design – and why some games offer an invert X option. (Invert Y is natural for me, having been raised on flight sims.)

The Minish Cap: Sky Tribe

After entering Veil Falls from North Hyrule Field, Link can cross a bridge to the north and find a giant stone door sitting next to a large waterfall. The door wants to fuse Kinstones, and takes the golden one Link was giving by the late King Gustaf. The Kinstone Fusion screen identified the door as the Source of the Flow, as Gustaf told Link to look for, and Ezlo explains that the waterfall is the source of Hyrule’s water. After passing through a series of caves, Link comes to another mountain to climb. As he climbs, there’s another Wind Crest, and now that Ezlo knows what they are he’s no longer shocked when they explode. Hiding behind the mountain’s top is a Biggoron, but there’s nothing to do with him right now. At the very top of the mountain, Link finds a giant tornado, which Ezlo sees as a dead end, but Link is not so easily deterred and jumps right in.

The tornado takes Link to the Cloud Tops, where Ezlo freaks out over the method of getting there. But, they’re there now, and continue their search for the Wind Element. There are two sisters, presumably of the Wind Tribe, there to greet Link after he arrives. They went to Hyrule for the Picori Festival, and when they came back to the clouds, there were too many monsters in their way to get home. One of the sisters mentions fusing Kinstones as her hope for getting back to her home. He can also fuse Kinstones with both sisters; one of them reveals a cave with a heart piece in Veil Falls.

There are five golden Kinstones hidden throughout the Cloud Tops region. Link needs to find them all, by jumping between levels in the clouds (tornados send him up, and he can drop down on his own), and using the Mole Mitts to dig through… hard-packed snow? Or something. There’s a couple enemies here: Cloud Piranhas that jump out of the clouds to bite, and Lakitus that sit in clouds and throw lightning (not spiny eggs). The places to fuse are also spread throughout the clouds; each one causes a pinwheel near the entrance to the area to start spinning. Once all five are spinning, the clouds around a certain area are dispelled by another big tornado. The sisters jump in to go home, and Link follows them up.

In front of the Sky Tribe’s home, there’s the final Wind Crest. The inside of the home looks familiar – Link visited these people earlier, via a portal that a Kinstone Fusion summoned near Link’s house. However, I would guess that if I went back and tried take that portal to skip the Cloud Tops, it wouldn’t work; there’s probably some flag that gets set when the sisters make their way home that needs to be. Gregal, the man who was haunted before Link’s exorcism, has fully recovered and remembers Link’s help, so he gives him the Light Arrows as a reward.

Siroc, the Sky Tribe’s elder tells Link they’ve been watching his progress, and know that he needs the Wind Element to break the curse on Zelda. She warns that their lore says that once the blade is infused with the four elements, the way to the Light Force will open, and Vaati may know this. While surface people are generally not allowed in the Palace of Winds, Link is special, and she grants him permission to go. As Link heads up to the roof, he receives a hint as to what the Palace’s treasure will be: a device that lets him fly. (I’d guess Roc’s Cape, but the other four treasures have been unique, so maybe not.) A tornado on top of the house sends Link to the Palace of Winds.

I’ll save the Palace of Winds for next time, and bring up something that’s been niggling at my mind for a while now: This is not Vaati’s rampage as described in the backstories of Four Swords and Four Swords Adventures, unless a lot of things start happening soon. In those stories, Vaati was known for kidnapping maidens, and he hasn’t kidnapped a single one yet, unless you count what happened to Zelda (which is a stretch). The Palace of Winds, known as Vaati’s stronghold in the Four Swords games, seems to be unconnected to him and it would be a surprise if he shows up there. Link has a sword that (once infused with the fourth element) can split him into four, but he has to actively do it and it only lasts for a short time. (I’ve been assuming it becomes the Four Sword, but it’s possible I’m wrong.) Ocarina of Time, with Ganon getting the Triforce and being sealed in the Golden Land/Sacred Realm/Dark World by seven sages, felt like it could be a very broad strokes interpretation of the Imprisoning War backstory from A Link to the Past, but this one feels wholly incompatible.

Next: The final element.

The Minish Cap: Royal Crypt

In North Hyrule Field, there’s a passageway with a giant block that two Links can’t move, but now with the Three Sword he can summon an extra duplicate, and three Links can push the block out of the way, clearing the way to make it to the northwest exit from the area to Royal Valley. Royal Valley is a gloomily-lit area; as they enter, Ezlo assumes Link is scared because he is, and puts on his brave face when he learns Link isn’t. The area is populated by Ghinis, who try to glom onto Link and, if successful, start licking him to death. Near the entrance, there’s a Great Fairy fountain, whose fairy asks Link questions about his adventures. They’re all fairly simple, except the last asks about the color of King Daltus’ robe, and I had to cheat and look up a picture of him to decide he didn’t wear white. For answering all the questions correctly, the fairy awards Link with the last quiver upgrade, to 99.

After passing through a maze where the way to go was indicated by signposts, Link comes to the graveyard. The door is locked, but Dampé lives nearby. When Link mentions the ghost of the ancient king, Dampé says he’s seen the ghost too and agrees to let Link into the graveyard. As Link leaves Dampé’s house, a Takkuri knocks him down and steals the key. If Link gets too close to the tree where the Takkuri landed, he’ll fly off to a different tree, but by charging with the Pegasus Boots, Link can knock the key free before the Takkuri can escape. Link has to speak to Dampé to get the gate open, so what was the point of giving Link the key? Anyway, inside the graveyard there’s a grave Link can push out of the way to find a heart piece. Afterwards, Link can clear a bunch of rocks to find the tiles that let him split, and with three Links stand on the button to open the way into the Royal Crypt.

There are a couple nostalgic touches from the first game to the Royal Crypt. First, the music is a remixed version of the dungeon theme. Second, the Gibdos in the first room show the items they’ll drop once defeated, much like Stalfos did. The Gibdos behave like ReDeads, trying to grab link and sap his life, but if Link burns away their wrappings with the Lantern, they turn into Stalfos, so I guess ReDeads aren’t a thing in this game. The rest of the minidungeon is short, with just a couple easy puzzles involving dodging obstacles so duplicate Links aren’t dispelled, a hallway of Ropes, and a miniboss fight against another pair of Gibdos before Link comes face to face with the ghost of King Gustaf. Gustaf gives Link a golden Kinstone half and tells him to seek out the “source of the flow.”

Before setting out to try to follow the Wind Tribe, there are a few interesting Kinstone fusions. Fusing with a ghost in the graveyard inspires Borlov, Carlov’s brother who runs a chest game in town, to add a new level of difficulty [1]. If Link fuses Kinstones with the Minish Village elder, Belari has an inspiration for bombs that only explode when Link remotely detonates them. Link can also fuse with Belari to make the last Bomb Bag upgrade appear in the Wind Ruins. Fusing with the three Oracles causes Joy Butterflies to appear throughout Hyrule. By tracking them down, Link’s swimming speed, Mole Mitts digging speed, and arrow firing speed increase. Finally, Link can fuse with Grimblade and Waveblade to cause waterfalls to part, revealing new dojos; Greatblade (whose dojo is opened by Waveblade) has nothing to teach Link yet, while Splitblade teaches Link to charge up to split faster.

Finally, with the Lantern, Link can finally see one of his earlier Kinstone fusions through to its end. In the Trilby Highlands, Link found Percy, and fusing with him removed a fallen tree in the Western Woods that was blocking Percy from returning home. However, Percy won’t go in his home, because a woman has taken up residence inside. The torches inside are unlit, and the woman asks Link to keep them that way. If he doesn’t, the woman is revealed to be a Moblin in disguise, and she gives Link 50 rupees to keep the secret. The next time Link visits the house, the Moblin is gone, so Percy has gone back inside; he gives Link 100 Mysterious Shells for his help.

Next: To the skies!

[1] Both levels of difficulty cost 10 rupees to play. Easy mode lets Link open one of two chests for a chance to double his money, and hard mode is one of three chests for triple. As long as he keeps winning, he can bet his winnings to keep playing up until hitting his wallet’s limit. If he stops before the final round, Link will break even over a long series of plays, so there’s really no point to the game, although it’s amusing to watch everyone encourage Link not to play.

The Minish Cap: Temple of Droplets

Before entering the Temple of Droplets, there are three heart pieces Link can get in the Lake Hylia area with the flippers. One is hidden in a pond by Stockwell’s house, and another on a patch of land Link can swim to. The third is in a dojo, whose master, Waveblade, teaches Link the next sword attack, the Peril Beam: Link can shoot sword beams when he’s down to a single heart. There’s also a Minish in the area link can fuse Kinstones with, causing a beanstalk to grow in a currently inaccessible part of the area. After that, it’s time to check out the temple entrance. It’s an ice structure with a hole resembling the ones in the portals Link uses to shrink, and sure enough, that’s exactly what Link needs to do to enter the dungeon.

The inside of the Temple of Droplets isn’t any warmer; Ezlo complains about the cold, then warns Link about how slippery the ice is. The way south is locked off to start, so Link heads north, where there’s a couple of puzzles involving opening trap doors to bring sunlight into the dungeon, then push an ice block with a key frozen inside into the light so it melts. The first one’s fairly simple, but the second is considerably more complicated. The second puzzle does reward the Big Key, however, allowing Link to head to the south, where he finds the Water Element, only it’s encased in a huge ice block with no apparent way to get it out. There’s also an Octorok (who appears giant, but that’s only because Link is tiny here) frozen below it, so obviously it’s not going to be a simple matter of unfreeze the element and go home. There’s a door to the southwest, which is the only avenue available to continue exploring.

Most of this path involves riding a lily pad over a waterfall, then using it to explore the watery areas in the basement. Madderpillar shows up again on this path, and while it hasn’t gotten any harder itself, the fact that Link has to fight it on slippery ice, while blocks make it hard for him to move between the boss’ head and tail make the fight longer than the original one. Near the end, there’s a room where Link finds himself in darkness, but he can’t do anything about it just yet. Then, after a fight with three Scissors Beetles, Link comes back to the element room, with a large switch it takes summoning a duplicate to push open. Once opened, the sun shines in on the east half of the element’s ice block and Octorok, and melts the ice block blocking the way to the southeast.

On the second path, Link finds himself up against the dungeon’s actual miniboss, a Large Blue ChuChu. The ChuChu’s electric aura didn’t seem to add anything to the fight, but the hitbox for sucking the jelly out of its base seemed smaller, or harder to hit at any rate, and after a couple rounds of knocking it over, it hopped around practically nonstop for a minute, so it was a harder fight than its green cousin. When it dies, it leaves behind a treasure chest containing a Flame Lantern. It differs from the Lamp from A Link to the Past in that it needs to be equipped to an item slot and activated to give light, and it stays on until deactivated or removed from the item slot. While active, it can melt ice, light torches, and damage certain enemies by proximity. Other notable encounters on this path include an icy room with nine torches which stay lit barely long enough for Link to slide his way across the ice to each of them, and a dark fight against two Madderpillars that is still easier than the fight against just one earlier.

When Link reaches the end and flips the switch to open the other half of the element room’s roof, the ice blocks containing the element and Octorok both melt. The Octorok snarfs up the element and runs off to the south, as everybody but Ezlo saw coming. The fight against the Big Octorok has two alternating phases. In the first, the Octorok spits rocks at Link, tries to snarf him up, and charges into the wall knocking rocks loose from the ceiling. Link needs to bounce the rocks the Octorok spits back at it to start the second phase, which is where the Lantern comes in. The room freezes over, but this brings the Octorok’s tail within reach of the lantern so Link can set it on fire. The rock deflection phase can be frustrating, because it’s generally dangerous to stand in front of the Octorok’s snout, but that’s exactly where Link needs to be to reflect the rocks. The third time the rock phase comes up, the Octorok gains one additional attack: sucking the light out of the room. After it’s hit a few more times, it dies, finally allowing Link to claim the Water Element.

As Link leaves the dungeon, the spirit of an old King of Hyrule contacts him, telling Link to seek him out to open the path. He marks his location on Link’s map and vanishes. Before Link can investigate that, however, he needs to upgrade his sword. The palace guards won’t let him in, so he needs to sneak in through the garden and dungeon, but once inside, he makes his way to the Elemental Sanctuary, sets the third element on its pedestal, and the Two Sword becomes the Three Sword. Also in the garden, Link can visit the dark dojo and light it up so he can learn to shoot sword beams at full health from Grimblade.

Next: Ghosts in the graveyard.

The Minish Cap: Fun With Flippers

With the Flippers, there are six new heart pieces Link can get. One is back in the cave where the Power Bracelets are, so Link needs to go through the whole trip again. Also, even deep water for a human is traversable at Minish size, so Link is able to explore a series of Minish caves near the Minish Village and find a heart piece there. There’s another in a Minish cave in South Hyrule Field. Castor Wilds has two heart pieces in caves, one Minish-sized, and one human-sized. If Link fuses Kinstones with Grayblade, there’s a dojo near the human-sized cave in Castor Wilds where Scarblade will teach Link to charge his spin attack faster. Finally, Link can swim to a heart piece in Veil Falls.

The Flippers also let Link swim across the river to retrieve the Cucco there in a reasonable time, so he can finally finish rounding up Cuccos for Anju. It’s still not an easy task – Link can’t carry a Cucco while swimming, so he’s got to toss the one across the river. Also, the other two Cuccos are golden ones that can only be carried for a short while before running off in the opposite direction, so Link has to throw them and pick them up again, which offers so many opportunities for the little feathery bastards to get lost where the camera can’t see them or NPCs to get in the way or the game to decide Link isn’t in the exact right spot to pick up the Cucco and roll away, losing precious seconds. The reward for all this is a heart piece, so that’s something.

In the Inn in town, there are three women who are based on (and named after) Din, Nayru, and Farore from the Oracle games. They’ve come to Hyrule, but aren’t having any luck finding a home. By fusing Kinstones with Farore, Gorman arrives in town looking to rent out a house near Anju’s Cucco pen. He’s only wanting to rent to a single woman, and Link gets to help one of the three move into the house. Gorman wants to build another house (over a Minish house, although once it’s done the Minish resident is content with his new arrangement), and with a Kinstone fusion with one of the carpenters, it gets built and ready to house another of the women. As far as I can tell, there’s no third house – a reference to the fact that there were only two Oracle games? Anyway, I chose Din and Farore; once they’re moved into their houses, they give Link charms that give him buffs and change the color of his tunic to one of the other colors from Four Swords, according to the corresponding Oracle’s associated color [1].

There are several other Mole Mitts-diggable caves. Three of them (in the Eastern Hills, Trilby Highlands, and Mt. Crenel) have Kinstone fusion walls that spawn additional Gorons to help the ones digging out the cave. However, it looks like the next wall they’re trying to break down will take six, and so far only five are there. One of the caves also has a heart piece. One of the caves leads to Knuckle, the last of Tingle’s family, and sure enough, it opens the fourth tree in the set in North Hyrule Field. Once all four buttons have been pushed, a ladder appears in the middle of the trees leading to a treasure chest containing the Magical Boomerang, which works like the one in Oracle of Seasons.

A few last things before starting the next dungeon. In town, in the house in town immediately south of the shoemaker’s, a man named Simon has started running a hero simulation game, allowing players to fight monsters for prizes. Completing the game earns Link a heart piece. (Also, the whole thing happens in a dream, and when Link wakes up, he shakes Ezlo to wake him up before putting him back on his head. A similar scene happens if Link visits his house and takes a nap.) A few Kinstone fusions lead to more beanstalks growing, and Link can find a quiver upgrade and piece of heart by climbing. There’s another quiver upgrade at the shop in town. One more fusion causes Syrup to start brewing a red potion that fully restores health – useful, because fairies in this game have been nerfed to only restore four hearts.

Next: The water element.

[1] The buffs correspond to the Red, Blue, and Green Rings from the Oracle games: increased sword damage (red/Din), reduced damage taken (blue/Nayru, unavailable to me since she didn’t get a house), and both effects but to a lesser extent (green/Farore). Since base Link is Green Link, Farore’s charm turns him into Purple Link instead, which is also appropriate for a blend between the red and blue charms.

The Minish Cap: Link the Librarian

As Link lands at the Wind Crest in Lake Hylia, he can see the next dungeon entrance, but it’s inaccessible because it’s surrounded by water. There’s a Minish house and a portal nearby, so Link shrinks down and visits the house’s occupant, who says that the only known visitor to the temple is Elder Librari, who has taken up residence at the town library. This Minish also wants to fuse kinstones, opening a tree in the Western Wood, which Link can investigate for a heart piece.

In the town library, Sturgeon on the second floor says that sometimes the books on a particular shelf, which has a bunch of small footprints around, move on their own. Link heads outside and finds a portal, then comes back in through the Minish door and investigates the bookcase. The Minish there use books as ladders to reach the different shelves, and with a few books checked out, they can’t get to Elder Librari. This seems like really short-sighted design; the purpose of a library having books is so people can read them and maybe even check them out. Anyway, the Minish near the bookshelf’s base encourages Link to ask the librarians about the missing books.

The missing books are very overdue, which at least justifies Link tracking them down to return them. The first one on the list is A Hyrulean Bestiary, checked out by a girl who wanted to learn more about cats because she’d just gotten a pet. Link finds the right house, with a cat and the book on top of the shelf, but with no way to get the book down. (Running into the bookshelf doesn’t work.) The girl is next door, and there’s a Minish-sized bridge between the roofs of the two houses. Link gets some water from the town river and uses it to put out the fire in the second house, climb up the chimney, and climb down the chimney of the girl’s house. The cat is aggressive to Minish Link, heh. Anyway, Link climbs up on top of the bookcase and pushes the book off, then grows back to normal and goes back to claim it.

The next book is Legend of the Picori, checked out by an “absentminded scholar.” Link finds the correct house near where the dog was blocking a stairwell on the west side of the river. The man there, Dr. Left, lost the book; he’s sure it’s around somewhere, but can’t find it. There are three Minish holes in the house: one leading outside, another on the ground, and one inaccessible in the rafters. Using a portal in the carpenters’ house, Link returns to check out the lower hole, where a Minish recounts the steps to a treasure that will let even a Minish push heavy objects – like the cabinets near the upper hole. Link follows the directions to a small cave hidden behind a town fountain, where he finds the Power Bracelets. He goes back to Dr. Left’s house, pushes the cabinets to provide a path to the upper hole, where the Minish take books from Left to read. A Minish is trying to return a book by dropping it, but doesn’t have enough weight to make it all the way; Link needs to double himself up and help out. The book turns out to be the one he needs.

The third and final book is A History of Masks, checked out by the town’s mayor, Hagen. Hagen can’t remember if he checked out the book or not, but suggests asking the masks hanging on his wall. The masks don’t have anything to say, but if Link Pegasus Boots into the wall under them to knock them down, a path to a Minish hole is revealed. Inside the hole, the Minish say Hagen took the book to his lake cabin, but didn’t bring it back. Throughout Hyrule, Link has seen odd doors he couldn’t do anything with; now, with the Mole Mitts, he can tear open the doors to dig through tunnels. In addition to getting where he needs to go, this particular tunnel has a spot on the wall Link can fuse Kinstones with; this causes a second Goron to join the tunneling Goron, and together they knock down the wall and move on.

Arriving at the Mayor’s lake house, Link finds the book on top of the fireplace. To get up there, he needs to knock down a tree north of the house, then Gust Jar a lily pad into a Minish entrance, push a cupboard over next to the fireplace, and climb up so he can knock the book onto the floor. When Link brings the book back to the library, Sturgeon comes down to take them to reshelve all the books so Link can finally find Librari. Librari agrees to help Link, although he has a bit of fun dropping him into a cave. After a little exploration and a fight against a couple Scissors Beetles (beetles with detachable pincers), Link claims the Flippers.

Next: Swimming, swimming, swimming, all summer long…

The Minish Cap: Castor Wilds and Wind Ruins

The Pegasus Boots allow Link to run across the muck in the Castor Wilds, so it’s time to go back to make the way to the next dungeon. After a couple swamp crossings, Link comes to a cave with a treasure chest in a room. As Link enters the room, the doors slams shut, the chest disappears, and a Darknut [1] guardian appears for a miniboss fight. This fight is most similar to the Iron Knuckles in the N64 games: defend against the sword attacks and wait for it to leave an opening. After four hits, the Darknut is defeated, allowing Link to claim his reward: a golden Kinstone half.

As Link explores the Wilds, he sees inert Eyegores blocking his path, and comes across a Business Scrub who wants to sell him arrows, but without a bow and quiver, they’d be useless. By finding a nearby portal and shrinking to Minish size, Gust Jarring a lily pad across a river, and dropping into a crack in the ground, Link finds a bow, which lets him fight the Eyegores. (Buying arrows is optional.) It takes one arrow to the eye to wake up an Eyegore, then three more to defeat it. They usually leave a bundle of five arrows behind, so Link comes out ahead on the fight if he doesn’t miss, but more importantly, the Eyegore is out of his way.

There are four more things to find in the swamp. First, under a gravestone, Link finds another dojo run by ghost of the original Swiftblade. Link’s not ready to learn from him just yet, but there’s a heart piece here just like the other two he’s found. There’s another of the exploding statues that freak Ezlo out. Finally, Link finds two more golden Kinstone halves. At the southwest corner of the area, there are three large statues who want to Fuse the golden Kinstones. With each Fusion, the statue jumps, damaging the large rock blocking the exit to the south to shatter; once all three are done, it completely crumbles, allowing Link to exit to the next area.

The main obstacle in the Wind Ruins is Armos blocking the paths forward. A Minish living in a hole in the area explains that they built the statues to help humans – they’ve apparently gone off the rails since, like Reaper weird – and there’s a hidden switch inside each one that someone at Minish size can operate to turn them on or off. Link needs to work them both ways: turn them on so he can destroy them and get them out of the way, or turn them off so they don’t scurry into the nearest gap and sit there and block progress. There’s also a heart piece Link can get by scurrying about the area at Minish size.

The next dungeon is the Fortress of Winds, but I have to imagine at some point it was going to be the earth dungeon [2]. The area is filled with what I think is hard-packed dirt but all I can think looking at it is cheese. Inside the dungeon there’s a whole set of rooms to the front, on all three floors, which don’t show up on the map, which made using the map really confusing until I figured it out. Returning enemies include Stalfos, Wall- and Floormasters, Mini-Moldorms, Wizzrobes, and Sparks (the ones that turn into fairies when hit by the boomerang). The first floor of the dungeon has four small rooms, three of which lead upward. (The fourth is a dead-end with a heart piece.) The two outer rooms lead to fairly linear paths, ending by dropping back down to the first floor to claim an item which similarly fell. (And, if dropping down at Minish size, the heart piece from the dead-end room). The middle path splits into two; the left path leads to a miniboss fight against another Darknut and then to the dungeon item, the Mole Mitts, which let Link dig through the dirty cheese.

The right path eventually leads to the dungeon’s boss, Mazaal, which is similar to Wind Waker’s Gohdan: large head with two disembodied hands. Link shoots the hands with arrows, causing their eyes to pop out, then whacks the eyes with his sword until the hand falls inert. Once both hands are down, the head similarly goes dormant, allowing Link to shrink to Minish size, sneak inside the head, and whack whichever pillar is glowing until he’s dragged outside for the next round. Each round, Mazaal gets new attacks, and the head fills up with dirt that Link has to dig through. After three rounds, Mazaal is destroyed.

With Mazaal gone, Link climbs to the top of the temple. There’s no element, but a stone tablet left behind by the Tribe of the Wind says they took it when they left for the sky. As a test for anyone who would follow them, they left behind a bird with the Ocarina of Wind for the prospective follower to master. When Link plays the ocarina, the bird swoops in, ready to carry him to any of the destroyed exploding statues – they’re called Wind Crests. One that’s marked on the map is one Link hasn’t been to, in Lake Hylia, so that’s where he goes.

Next: Link continues exploring other careers. Next up: Librarian.

[1] Or, as their figurine renders it, “Dark Nut.”
[2] I’m a little surprised it’s taken the series this long to do dungeons themed on the four elements. Majora’s Mask came close with the earthy Woodfall Temple, watery Great Bay Temple, and airy Stone Tower Temple; the fourth dungeon was ice, but gave fire arrows and was in the Goron area of Termina.