Yeto and his wife Yeta live in a giant crumbling mansion. Link finds Yeta sitting in front of a fire; while Yeto looks like a – well, a yeti – Yeta looks like a large human in an oversized sweater. (She’s bigger than Link, but Yeto dwarfs them both.) She says that ever since Yeto gave her the mirror, things have taken a turn for the worst – she’s gotten sick, and monsters have moved into the mansion. The mirror’s locked in the bedroom to keep it isolated, but Yeta tells Link where she hid the key. Well, she tries to. The first two times, Link finds ingredients for the soup Yeto’s making for her (to Midna’s frustration). Yeto lets Link help himself to the soup, which serves as a healing potion – first a rather worthless one, but once all the ingredients are added it’s up to equivalent of red potion. To compensate for having a free, unlimited source of potions, there are no other healing items in the dungeon until the final boss fight when Link can’t just run back to Yeto for more soup. Well, and there are two heart pieces, which refill Link’s life. And on the subject of collectibles, there are three Poes (the normal kind, not the scary kind).
The mansion’s state of disrepair has allowed the elements to seep in (plus there’s a snow-filled courtyard), so this is very much an ice dungeon, just one with a different feel to it from most of the other ice-themed dungeons. There are slippery floors and sliding block puzzles. Link has to turn into the wolf and dig in the snow to find a couple keys. The new enemies include two varieties of Freezard, one huge and blowing ice, one small that bounces around the ice when Link hits them with sword, and Chilfos, animated ice men. Link’s arsenal isn’t terribly effective against these guys, but that gets better after the miniboss. The miniboss is a giant armored Lizalfos that advances on Link swinging a giant flail in a circle around it. It would be hard for Link to run past it without getting hit by the flail, but there are a bunch of hookshot points on the ceiling Link can use to zip past. Darkhammer then tries to hit Link with the flail, and as he’s reeling it back in, Link can sneak behind him and hit his exposed tail [1]. After Darkhammer is defeated, Link claims the flail [2] as the dungeon’s treasure, and the fun really begins.
Link has never been delicate. Barnes’ storage shed is an extreme example, but… well, let’s just say if pots could talk, they would paint a very different picture of the legendary heroes of Hyrule. And now someone’s gone and given him a wrecking ball. All those icy foes get smashed to bits, and blocks of ice likewise, but Link doesn’t stop there. He uses the flail to whack the chandeliers of the mansion so they can be used as platforms for his jumping, and smashes some suits of armor to get rupees and other goodies. You’re a guest in these nice people’s home! Didn’t your parents… well, okay you don’t seem to have parents… didn’t Rusl and Uli teach you manners? Don’t go smashing their stuff! (Without permission.) There are also several cannons throughout the mansion Link used to spread destruction before he got the flail, and continues to do so afterward to reach where the flail can’t.
After one of Yeta’s tips pays off and Link finally finds the bedroom key, Yeta meets him and leads him to the bedroom. As she looks in the mirror fragment, she starts admiring her reflection, becoming increasingly Gollum-like until she decides she wants to keep the mirrror. At that moment, snow begins pouring into the room, transforming Yeta into a twilit ice mass, Blizzeta. Link needs to whomp her with the flail, each hit destroying a layer of ice; it feels kind of like smashing a matryoshka. After the first ice shell is destroyed, Blizzeta summons an ice gazebo to ride around in, and a bunch of icicles that she tries to drop on Link, first one at a time, then in a circle that she lands in to attack. The strategy here is to smash enough of the icicles to get a hole in the circle, turn around, and hit Blizzeta; repeat three times and the ice gazebo is destroyed and Yeta’s left crumpled on the floor.
As Link and Midna claim the mirror fragment, Midna regrets what it – and they – did to Yeta. Yeto comes in to see how things are going, and when he sees Yeta, he runs to her, knocking Link out of the way in the process. Yeta’s alright, but sad about losing the mirror – but Yeto convinces her it’s fine and she doesn’t need it. As they embrace, a crapton of recovery hearts pour out of them, followed by the dungeon’s heart container. This could have been such a cheesy scene, and the hearts do add a comic touch (just like with Link’s fangirls from the STAR game), but it’s effective, too. And so, with everything working out fine, Link and Midna head off to find the next mirror shard.
Next: Yetis in skiing games: bad news.
[1] Back in Ocarina of Time, there was a gossip stone that said using hold targeting was the intended option rather than locking. (Up until I read that, I didn’t even know there was an option.) I’ve stuck with locking because screw that, but this is one battle where holding might have made it easier.
[2] The game uses the term “ball and chain” – and the series has ever since A Link to the Past, really – but I prefer flail.
