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.
