Trying to head directly north to the northwestern part of the sea doesn’t work; a giant cyclone scoops up the ship and drops it back south. There’s a line of rocks in the southwestern part, but what appears to be a gap is actually blocked by some really big rocks. There’s no way through there, either, although Linebeck suggests that if they had a cannon, they could blast their way through. Back on Mercay Island, there was a guy on the docks who asked Link if the ship had a cannon, but they didn’t. He said there was a place to get one to the south, and since it’s not the Isle of Ember, it’s got to be the other island in the area… called Cannon Island. Well, that’s promising.
On Cannon Island, Link meets the postman for the first time, and this version’s a cherub. After he flies off, Link proceeds to the one building he can access, Eddo’s Garage. They don’t have any cannons for sale at the moment, so Eddo’s locked himself in his workshop so he can finish one. Eddo’s apprentice, Fuzo, suggests that if Link really wants to talk to Eddo, he can go around the long way, but warns him it’s not a safe path. Still, he opens the gate and lets Link go. The monsters aren’t particularly tough – most annoying are bees which are tiny and easiest to kill with a spin attack. The true challenge of the path is, starting with the cave Link needs to pass through, there are a bunch of bomb flowers; Link needs to pick up bombs and run them to where he can throw them to explode what needs exploding. The timing can get tough.
Eventually, Link makes his way through to Eddo, who’s impressed Link’s come this far. He hypes up the cost of the cannon, making it sound terribly expensive, but then names the exorbitant price of 50 rupees. Once again, I wonder how the economy of this world works, but whatever, Link found more than that getting through Cannon Island, and surely he’s not going to come all this way to get something he needs to progress and decide, eh, too expensive. Now that that’s done, Eddo is going to get to work on a salvage arm so Link can get treasures. Before leaving the island, Link meets the postman again, delivering a letter from his boss asking Link to be nice to the postman. (Afterward, he says it was a little weird to read.) And, once again, the DS features show up with Link signing that he got the delivery really meaning that the player signs for it.
Now that Link has a cannon, sailing becomes dangerous. I know that the sailing in Wind Waker was not the most beloved feature of that game, and it kind of feels like Nintendo took those fan complaints, printed them out, and rolled them up and smoked them while laughing at them. Some things are better: Linebeck’s boat is steam-powered, so Link doesn’t have to mess with the winds. Also, firing the cannon – my big dislike from Wind Waker – is a lot more user-friendly than with the King of Red Lions – ammo is unlimited, and aiming and firing is all one motion controlled, of course, by poking the screen where you want the ship to fire – and items dropped by aquatic enemies are automatically picked up. I might even find Seahats tolerable under these conditions, but they’re not around. On the other hand, combat’s more dangerous; rather than working off Link’s health, the ship has its own meter, and every hit drains one heart. As for navigation, drawing the path you want the ship to take is fine if you’re not going to change your mind about where you want to go, but rerouting means opening the chart again and drawing a new path.
The cannon blasts through the rocks Link and Linebeck saw earlier, and almost immediately afterward, the sky turns cloudy and the ghost ship appears. Linebeck’s desire for treasure overwhelms his cowardice, so he’s cheering for Link to chase after it, and here’s where the repathing starts to become annoying. As the ship crosses into the northwestern quadrant, the fog picks up, and eventually becomes impenetrably thick. It lifts a little bit, but the ship’s back near the quadrant boundary, and the ghost ship is nowhere to be seen. Linebeck (or maybe Ciela) says the fog that leads sailors astray is a feature of the ghost ship, and we’ve only had catching it as our end goal since the end of the intro; why did no one think that might be important to mention before now? Anyway, going forward is no longer an option, so Link heads back to look for clues that will lead the ship through the fog.
Next: X marks the spot.
