There are two main islands in the northeastern sea, both surrounded by rocks. The only way though one circle is blocked by a cyclone, so Link starts on the other island, the Isle of the Dead. In a cave near the dock, Link and Ciela find journals written by an explorer who came to the island looking for the Cobble Kingdom. The important hint here is the shape of the island: a man wearing a crown, seen in profile. He also notes there’s supposed to be a treasure in the cave, which Link finds by bombing a wall and passing through a Rupoor maze: two ship parts, a treasure chart, and a Courage Gem.
Enemies in this part of the world include Rupee Likes (which had me throwing the boomerang at all stray rupees – actual rupees get picked up, Rupee Likes don’t), Stalfos, and rolling boulders that seem to know which way I’m going to dodge. The temple in the northeast has a repeating series of rooms that can only be solved by learning the path from the sages in the graveyard. Getting to the graveyard involves digging in a particular spot, passing through a tunnel (getting a Power Gem along the way), and shooting an arrow at a switch to open the gate. The sages’ gravestones indicate the path through the temple, allowing Link to meet a knight of the Cobble Kingdom, Brant. Along the way, he finds the remains of the explorer whose journals he read in the cave. Brant, sympathetic to Link’s quest, allows Link to take a Regal Necklace, which will get him through the cyclone to the Isle of Ruins.
The Isle of Ruins is a series of mazes, puzzles, traps, and monsters Link has to pass through, meeting the other three Cobble Kingdom knights along the way. Bremeur guards a seal that keeps the island partially flooded, so he sends Link to get the key from Doylan. With the key, Link returns to Bremeur and opens the seal, opening the way to Max, who opens the way to the temple, with a final test: Link needs to learn a sacred crest to draw on the door to enter. This involves going back to the maze at the start, which is different now that it’s no longer flooded, and reading the tablets in the area which Link couldn’t get to before. Having learned the crest (a square with the bottom triangle cut out), Link returns to the final door and opens it. While solving the island’s puzzles, Link finds a Courage Gem, a Power Gem, and the last two Wisdom Gems.
Mutoh’s Temple is more of the same, with puzzles, trap doors, Stalfos, and Rupee Likes. Terrorpins show up here, along with floor switches that have rusted so Link can’t budge them with his weight. These foreshadow the treasure item: the hammer, which is technically wielded by Ciela (so it can hammer anywhere within Link’s line of sight, or around corners if you drag the stylus), and can be charged up for a mega-smash (although I don’t think I found any use for this ability). After finding the hammer, Link finds catapults he can stand on and hit the trigger with the hammer to go flying up to higher levels and/or over obstacles. The hammer can also destroy Stalfos in a single shot. Finally for hammer tricks, there are several puzzles with red/blue floor tiles that flip when an adjacent tile is struck and Link needs to make them all a certain color or match a pattern. The main level of the dungeon has several puzzles involving flooding and draining the floor. The last Courage Gem is in the dungeon.
The boss is Eox, Ancient Stone Soldier, a giant golem. The boss is covered in red spots, which are its weak points. There are four catapults in the room Link can use to fling himself into the air, and while airborne, have Ciela smash the weak points with the hammer. As he does so, the exterior falls away, revealing the wooden skeleton, which has four weak points. Link needs to hit these in rapid succession (basically during one flight) to break down the frame, leaving just the head. In the final phase, Link uses the catapults to fling himself onto Eox’s head, where its final weak point is. Finally, Eox explodes into golden sand, which Link collects in the Phantom Hourglass.
In the lowest level of the temple, Link meets the ghost of King Mutoh. Now that Eox has been destroyed, peace will return to the ruins of the Cobble Kingdom, and Mutoh and his knights can sleep again. He gives Link the Aquanine so that he can help the Ocean King, and Link finally has the materials needed to make a Phantom Sword to destroy Bellum. Before Mutoh returns to sleep, he also sends Link the last Power Gem.
Most of the dungeons in the game have felt kind of uninspired, like they saved all the good stuff for the Temple of the Ocean King. (Also, they’ve all been really easy, like they never took the training wheels off.) But I really liked this one, along with exploring the islands that led to it, and the boss was incredibly fun. (That’s right: They made a dungeon with water level puzzles my favorite in the game.)
Next: Revenge!
