Getting down from the sky involves getting shot out of a cannon again. I’m not sure about the physics here, but Link and Midna were okay jumping off the bridge into Lake Hylia when it was more like Puddle Hylia, so, whatever. (Also, think of the catgirls.) The postman has two letters for Link. The first is from Ooccoo and Jr.; Jr.’ s excited, while Ooccoo thanks Link for everything he’s done for them. The second letter is from Purlo, challenging Link to a new version of the STAR game.
Link finds this version of the game has a lot more balls of light to collect, and no platforms to help. Of course, he’s got the Double Clawshots now to zip around the room; it’s a matter of finding the lines of lights to zip along while the fangirls squee. Beaten again, Purlo gives Link the second quiver upgrade and seems to have lost his desire to challenge him further. Out in Hyrule, there are a couple Clawshot targets that Link couldn’t properly explore until he got the second Clawshot. Now he has both and can get to the chests: one has rupees, the other a heart piece.
Back when Link repaired the Bridge of Eldin, he opened the way into the Cave of Ordeals, a gauntlet challenge similar to Wind Waker’s Savage Labyrinth. It’s fifty levels divided into five sets: nine levels of enemies followed by a visit from the Great Fairy. The Great Fairy doesn’t heal Link; in fact, there’s almost no healing available in the Cave aside from what Link brings with him. There are a couple groups of ChuChus, and Link has to be quick if he doesn’t want to take his chances with purple jelly which has a random effect because they spawn in huge groups with only a few blues/reds (and sometimes a yellow, which is probably standing in for a rare one) that quickly combine. And there are a few places where Wolf Link can dig to find rupees (to further power the magic armor) or hearts.
For the most part, the combat in the Cave is simply a matter of keeping everything in front of Link and hacking away until everything’s dead. Complications include the ghoul rats which are only visible to Wolf Link using his senses and slow his movements and hordes of small enemies that can slip through Link’s defense. There doesn’t seem to be any theme to the levels, unlike in the Savage Labyrinth where each the first four set’s foes appeared in collections based on the same dungeon. Each set of levels after the first requires using the items from the dungeons to access: Arbiter’s Grounds (spinner), Snowpeak Ruins (flail), Temple of Time (dominion rod), and City in the Sky (double clawhots).
The last level of the fourth set pits Link against a pair of Darknuts. Three of the final four groups of enemies are worse: a bunch of Chilfos (the enemy that gave me the worst trouble out of anything in the whole gauntlet) backed by a couple Freezards with the ghoul rats hanging around, a Darknut with a pair of Aeralfos, and finally three Darknuts. The good news is, I quickly got the hang of the second phase of the Darknut fight. (Dodge their attack and counterattack. Seems obvious in hindsight, really.)
The rewards for making it through the Cave of Ordeals: For the first four visits with the Great Fairy, fairies appear in a spirit’s spring. With the final one, Link gets a bottle of Great Fairy’s Tears, and they become available at the springs. (This is the source Jovani spoke of.) Link can only get them from the spring if he doesn’t already have a bottle of them, but I guess the game figures since I didn’t use them getting through the Cave of Ordeals, it’s not going to break the game for me to have two bottles of them (plus a rare ChuChu jelly) at once.
Oh, and speaking of Jovani: the final three Poe souls are in the Cave of Ordeals. Cured of his condition, he runs off to find his girlfriend, giving Link 200 rupees. Link can find him at Telma’s Bar, and things didn’t go so well – his girlfriend apparently prefers guys who haven’t been touched by Midas, and moved on in the meantime. (Shad, meanwhile, seems happy that his project got completed, not minding that he wasn’t there to see it through.) If Link returns to Jovani’s home, Jovani’s cat will give Link another 200 rupees.
With the missing shards of the Mirror of Twilight, Link and Midna head back to the Mirror Chamber. With the Mirror reassembled, Midna talks about how the Twilight Realm isn’t so bad, or wasn’t until Ganon showed up. The sages take the blame for that, and ask her forgiveness, calling her Twilight Princess. A couple flashbacks play, showing Zant turning Midna from her true form (only vaguely seen) to the familiar one she’s occupied the full game, Midna discovering her helmet (is this a piece of the Fused Shadow? I don’t remember if that got confirmed), and Midna watching as Link becomes the prophesied Divine Beast. She admits that at first she didn’t care about saving the Light World, but Link’s heroism and Zelda’s sacrifices have made her realize she has to save both. She’s sure once Zant is dealt with, she’ll be back to her true form and they can resurrect Zelda, and she and Link head into the Twilight Realm to confront him.
Next: Lighting up the twilight.
