Link wakes up in the Lorule Blacksmith’s house; the Blacksmith’s Wife apparently found him lying in the middle of a road and brought him there to recover. And now that she has, she tells him to get lost. As Link leaves the house, Hilda contacts him to tell him a little about Lorule. It’s a dark mirror of Hyrule, and parts of it have crumbled away to nothingness, leaving no way to walk across the gaps. Fortunately, Yuga’s actions have created more fissures like the one Link passed through to get to Lorule in the first place. (And there are weather vanes throughout Lorule, and Irene’s broom answers the bell there, so fast travel works and can cross the gaps.) Finally, Hilda leaves Link with a warning that Lorule is dangerous, which Link immediately learns when he goes down the steps and fights a Hinox that throws bombs faster than the ones in A Link to the Past did.
The starting of Lorule is the largest, covering the equivalents of Kakariko Village, Hyrule Castle, Link’s House/Ravio’s Shop, and the Southern Ruins. There’s a lot to do in this area. Just south of the village, there’s a shop selling access to a Big Bomb Flower; Link can take a big bomb and it’ll follow him around until it takes damage, which sets it off to explode. The big bombs are needed to open the way to the Swamp Palace, open a cave in the Southern Ruins with a heart piece, and open a cave near the flower with a pond for Link to throw rupees into. These rupees make the fairy that lives in the pond stronger, and once Link’s tossed 3,000 rupees in, he gets a bottle. Another bottle can be found by bombing the back wall of the equivalent of Link’s house.
There are three minigames in this area. First is the Lorule version of Rupee Rush, which requires more rupees, but there are also more and better ones to be found. The ultimate reward is a heart piece, and there’s a Maiamai Link can liberate from a wall in the area. The second, located in Lorule’s version of Flute Boy’s grove, is Octoball Derby – an Octorok spits rocks at Link, which he hits to try to break pots scattered around a field. If Link hits three pots in a row, a bird flies overhead that’s worth 20 points, and Link’s going to need to hit at least four of them to have a good chance of getting the 100 points needed to get the Heart Piece reward. On the other hand, if Link hits the rock straight back into the Octorok, it’s worth 0 points and the Octorok immediately spits another rock. I wouldn’t note this except it’s way too fscking easy to do. And the village has a chest minigame, which also has a heart piece. There doesn’t seem to be an equivalent of A Link to the Past’s digging minigame, and good riddance.
In addition to the one in the Rupee Rush, there are 14 Maiamais in this area, and Link can find 12 of them. Six are on walls, spread all over the region (one requires taking fissures to Hyrule and back), two are in trees, one under a skull near the Octoball Derby, one under grass by the Big Bomb Flower, one atop a pillar, and one underwater near the Swamp Palace. The other two appear to be under heavy rocks, so that’s it for this corner of Lorule. Link warps back to Hyrule via a fissure in a building in the village, and finds himself in a locked house in Kakariko, whose inhabitant stops to give him a heart piece.
Back in Hyrule, Ravio has exciting news: he’s decided to start selling all his items! The prices are high, but this game has the most plentiful rupees I’ve ever seen. Also, there are two benefits to buying the items. First, Link gets to keep them if he dies; it would take a lot of dying to make up the difference between multiple rentals and a single purchase, but there’s also the convenience of not having to go back for them. Second, owning the items means Mother Maiamai can upgrade them. Link gets one item upgrade per ten baby Maiamais returned to Mother, so that means he can upgrade five right now. I chose the Bow (shoots three arrows instead of one), Tornado Rod (bigger radius, does minor damage), Hammer (more damage, bigger shockwave), Boomerang (faster, flies farther; basically like Magic Boomerang compared to Boomerang from earlier games), and Bombs (bigger blast, more damage).
Next: The tragedies of hunting the Golden Bee.
Friday, February 21, 2020
Wednesday, February 19, 2020
A Link Between Worlds: Master Sword
As Link leaves the Tower of Hera, Sahasrahla contacts him to say that he’s ready to claim the Master Sword. The Master Sword is where the last Link left it, deep in the Lost Woods. When Link uses Irene’s bell, the broom shows up without a rider. That probably means Yuga’s caught Irene, but… Irene’s been prickly about the whole fast-travel arrangement, so it wouldn’t be too out of character for her not to come.
In the northwest corner of the Lost Woods, there’s a tricky section where Link needs to go the proper way to venture deeper into the woods. There are Poes in the area, and on the first screen, one shows him the way to go after dancing among its mates to confuse the player. On the next two screens, two and three of the Poes go in the way that Link isn’t supposed to go, so the player needs to keep track of the misleading Poes and go the way none of them does. After solving all three puzzles, Link comes to the clearing where the Master Sword sleeps again forever until Nintendo gets an idea for a sequel in the Downfall timeline. Using the pendants, Link draws the Sword from its pedestal, and Sahasrahla contacts him to say it can break the barrier on Hyrule Castle. When Link comes to the castle, Sahasrahla’s there, and he offers to save the game for Link after the barrier is dispelled.
As in A Link to the Past, the main dungeon now takes place in the central tower of the castle. Halfway through the dungeon, Link comes to find that, once again, he’s too late. Zelda and Yuga are confronting one another – Yuga says his acquisition tour is nearly complete, saying that Impa is the last of the seven sages he needed. Zelda asks what he intends to do with them, speculating that he intends to bring Ganon back. Yuga is completely uninterested in what she’s saying, and turns her into a painting as well. He recognizes Link from their earlier meetings and summons soldiers to fight him, while retreating higher up the tower. Link’s got a short gauntlet to get through before setting up a rematch.
Yuga is frustrated that Link refuses to do what he’s supposed to and go away. For this fight, he creates two duplicates and spreads them around the room; he and his duplicates electrify huge areas, so the only way to avoid damage is to find the real Yuga and attack him first so that area remains safe. After a while, the door Yuga was standing by at the start of the fight opens, and Yuga leaves with one final taunt that he does intend to release Ganon, at which point “lowly creatures like [Link] won’t be worth [his] time.” Link follows Yuga to another tower, where he finds a glowing gap in the wall behind a curtain. Link merges with the wall and goes through the gap.
Link is now in an alternate dimension; the Triforce in their crest points down instead of up. Link catches up to Yuga, finding him in a ritual that has him surrounded by the paintings of the Sages and Zelda [1]. (We get a look at the paintings, confirming that Gulley, Oren, and Irene are among the sages. The seventh isn’t seen as clearly, but appears to be Rosso.) He says his goal is to attain true beauty, then uses the sages in the ritual to summon and merge with Ganon. And, to be clear, we’re not talking the Gerudo form that may be good-looking if you’re into that sort of thing, but the pig demon form. Truly, this is the upside-down land.
Seriously, it seems what he’s really after is the Triforce of Power, suggesting he took Zelda to gain the Triforce of Wisdom. The Sages’ paintings scatter to the corners of the map, but Zelda’s remains in the castle. Ganon-Yuga (Yuga-Ganon? Yuganon?) roars, knocking Link over, and then he advances to strike, only to be thwarted by a woman appearing from a portal between them and binding him. The woman introduces herself as Princess Hilda, and welcomes him to her kingdom, Lorule. To stop Yuga, Link will need to awaken his full potential by rescuing the Sages. She sends him away on his quest.
Next: The dark world.
[1] Zelda was a Sage back in Ocarina of Time, and one of the seven descendants of the Sages/Wise Men in A Link to the Past. But apparently not anymore.
In the northwest corner of the Lost Woods, there’s a tricky section where Link needs to go the proper way to venture deeper into the woods. There are Poes in the area, and on the first screen, one shows him the way to go after dancing among its mates to confuse the player. On the next two screens, two and three of the Poes go in the way that Link isn’t supposed to go, so the player needs to keep track of the misleading Poes and go the way none of them does. After solving all three puzzles, Link comes to the clearing where the Master Sword sleeps again forever until Nintendo gets an idea for a sequel in the Downfall timeline. Using the pendants, Link draws the Sword from its pedestal, and Sahasrahla contacts him to say it can break the barrier on Hyrule Castle. When Link comes to the castle, Sahasrahla’s there, and he offers to save the game for Link after the barrier is dispelled.
As in A Link to the Past, the main dungeon now takes place in the central tower of the castle. Halfway through the dungeon, Link comes to find that, once again, he’s too late. Zelda and Yuga are confronting one another – Yuga says his acquisition tour is nearly complete, saying that Impa is the last of the seven sages he needed. Zelda asks what he intends to do with them, speculating that he intends to bring Ganon back. Yuga is completely uninterested in what she’s saying, and turns her into a painting as well. He recognizes Link from their earlier meetings and summons soldiers to fight him, while retreating higher up the tower. Link’s got a short gauntlet to get through before setting up a rematch.
Yuga is frustrated that Link refuses to do what he’s supposed to and go away. For this fight, he creates two duplicates and spreads them around the room; he and his duplicates electrify huge areas, so the only way to avoid damage is to find the real Yuga and attack him first so that area remains safe. After a while, the door Yuga was standing by at the start of the fight opens, and Yuga leaves with one final taunt that he does intend to release Ganon, at which point “lowly creatures like [Link] won’t be worth [his] time.” Link follows Yuga to another tower, where he finds a glowing gap in the wall behind a curtain. Link merges with the wall and goes through the gap.
Link is now in an alternate dimension; the Triforce in their crest points down instead of up. Link catches up to Yuga, finding him in a ritual that has him surrounded by the paintings of the Sages and Zelda [1]. (We get a look at the paintings, confirming that Gulley, Oren, and Irene are among the sages. The seventh isn’t seen as clearly, but appears to be Rosso.) He says his goal is to attain true beauty, then uses the sages in the ritual to summon and merge with Ganon. And, to be clear, we’re not talking the Gerudo form that may be good-looking if you’re into that sort of thing, but the pig demon form. Truly, this is the upside-down land.
Seriously, it seems what he’s really after is the Triforce of Power, suggesting he took Zelda to gain the Triforce of Wisdom. The Sages’ paintings scatter to the corners of the map, but Zelda’s remains in the castle. Ganon-Yuga (Yuga-Ganon? Yuganon?) roars, knocking Link over, and then he advances to strike, only to be thwarted by a woman appearing from a portal between them and binding him. The woman introduces herself as Princess Hilda, and welcomes him to her kingdom, Lorule. To stop Yuga, Link will need to awaken his full potential by rescuing the Sages. She sends him away on his quest.
Next: The dark world.
[1] Zelda was a Sage back in Ocarina of Time, and one of the seven descendants of the Sages/Wise Men in A Link to the Past. But apparently not anymore.
Monday, February 17, 2020
A Link Between Worlds: Pendants of Wisdom and Power
The key item for the House of Gales is the Tornado Rod. As I’ve said previously, the Rod creates a whirlwind, lifting Link and objects/enemies around him into the air. The winds stun most enemies (making the Rod a very powerful combat item), shatter tiles, and extinguish fires (when I first encountered one of these puzzles, I used the Ice Rod – which does work, as it should – but then I realized it’s probably meant to be the Tornado Rod again), including those around Bubbles (resembling the ones from A Link to the Past that I knew as Fire Faeries). Lifting Link is also useful for platforming – he can land on a moving platform while he’s higher up or be blown into a gust of wind that sends him to stable ground – and jumping over rolling spike traps.
This, along with the Tower of Hera, is also the first dungeon where Link can merge with walls, so that also shows up as a featured mechanic. I really like this idea, but it’s novel enough that it is not something I think of quickly. There have been way too many times where I’ve stared across a gap, knowing that even if there was a way to Hookshot across, there’d be an alternate solution for those armed only with the Tornado Rod, and failed to come up with the way for several minutes. In addition to crossing gaps, wall-merging is also used to bypass inconvenient wind gusts.
The miniboss is a pair of Heedles, giant lava salamanders whose fire needs to be put out with the Tornado Rod before Link can safely attack them. Then the dungeon boss is Margomill, a set of stacked spinning plates. The top plate has an eye, so clearly Link needs to use the Tornado Rod to simultaneously stun the boss and land on the top plate so he can strike the eye. After each of the first two rounds, Margomill grows extra plates that Link needs to knock out with his sword while it spins around the room. The third round is the last one, and Margomill leaves behind the Pendant of Wisdom. Unlike the Eastern Palace, Link is instantly teleported outside. A Zora is standing near the entrance, noting that Oren has gone missing – she’s presumably the fourth Sage to be captured in paint after Seres, Osfala, and Gulley.
I probably went a little out of the intended order by getting all the world-opening items available at once and saving the two dungeons for the very last thing I do for this part of the game. After so many games have “had quest to find the next dungeon / do the dungeon / repeat until Ganon” blazed in their cores, it’s refreshing to go back to how it was in the first game and A Link to the Past where, once you find the dungeons, you can do them whenever you want relative to overworld questing, and any order is just a suggestion. Maybe in the second world where the other 50 Maiamais are, it’ll mean the dungeons don’t ramp up in difficulty like they have, or maybe it’ll throw back to the original game where dungeon difficulty was used to help encourage doing them in order. (Mostly.)
As expected, the key item for the Tower of Hera is the Hammer, moving from the Dark World to the Light World. There are more of the springs throughout the dungeon, which usually serve as the way of going up a level. Terrorpins appear in this dungeon, with the standard trick of smashing them to flip them over still working. Other enemies come from the Tower of Hera: Hardhat Beetles, Mini-Moldorms, and Flying Tiles. Color crystal switches that raise/lower sets of tiles show up, and they’re an actual wall now so Link can wall-merge on them. Unlike the Eastern Palace, it doesn’t really feel like the same-named dungeon from A Link to the Past; there are more but smaller floors, and sections of riding platforms outside the tower walls.
Neither boss or miniboss needs the Hammer, although it can be effective against the four Stalfos that are the miniboss. Moldorm’s back as the dungeon boss, and it’s not quite as aggressive about trying to knock Link off the platform as the ones in A Link to the Past, but given the Hammer’s slow attack speed and Moldorm’s fast skittering speed, I can’t imagine using it. I managed to avoid getting knocked off so I don’t know if the fight resets if it happens. Also, I don’t know where I saw someone compare this version of Moldorm (and the Switch Link’s Awakening's, which uses the same model) to a string of hamburgers with a lot of lettuce on sesame seed buns, but now I can’t unsee it. Anyway, Link gets the Pendant of Power for his victory and now has everything he needs to get the Master Sword.
Next: High and low.
This, along with the Tower of Hera, is also the first dungeon where Link can merge with walls, so that also shows up as a featured mechanic. I really like this idea, but it’s novel enough that it is not something I think of quickly. There have been way too many times where I’ve stared across a gap, knowing that even if there was a way to Hookshot across, there’d be an alternate solution for those armed only with the Tornado Rod, and failed to come up with the way for several minutes. In addition to crossing gaps, wall-merging is also used to bypass inconvenient wind gusts.
The miniboss is a pair of Heedles, giant lava salamanders whose fire needs to be put out with the Tornado Rod before Link can safely attack them. Then the dungeon boss is Margomill, a set of stacked spinning plates. The top plate has an eye, so clearly Link needs to use the Tornado Rod to simultaneously stun the boss and land on the top plate so he can strike the eye. After each of the first two rounds, Margomill grows extra plates that Link needs to knock out with his sword while it spins around the room. The third round is the last one, and Margomill leaves behind the Pendant of Wisdom. Unlike the Eastern Palace, Link is instantly teleported outside. A Zora is standing near the entrance, noting that Oren has gone missing – she’s presumably the fourth Sage to be captured in paint after Seres, Osfala, and Gulley.
I probably went a little out of the intended order by getting all the world-opening items available at once and saving the two dungeons for the very last thing I do for this part of the game. After so many games have “had quest to find the next dungeon / do the dungeon / repeat until Ganon” blazed in their cores, it’s refreshing to go back to how it was in the first game and A Link to the Past where, once you find the dungeons, you can do them whenever you want relative to overworld questing, and any order is just a suggestion. Maybe in the second world where the other 50 Maiamais are, it’ll mean the dungeons don’t ramp up in difficulty like they have, or maybe it’ll throw back to the original game where dungeon difficulty was used to help encourage doing them in order. (Mostly.)
As expected, the key item for the Tower of Hera is the Hammer, moving from the Dark World to the Light World. There are more of the springs throughout the dungeon, which usually serve as the way of going up a level. Terrorpins appear in this dungeon, with the standard trick of smashing them to flip them over still working. Other enemies come from the Tower of Hera: Hardhat Beetles, Mini-Moldorms, and Flying Tiles. Color crystal switches that raise/lower sets of tiles show up, and they’re an actual wall now so Link can wall-merge on them. Unlike the Eastern Palace, it doesn’t really feel like the same-named dungeon from A Link to the Past; there are more but smaller floors, and sections of riding platforms outside the tower walls.
Neither boss or miniboss needs the Hammer, although it can be effective against the four Stalfos that are the miniboss. Moldorm’s back as the dungeon boss, and it’s not quite as aggressive about trying to knock Link off the platform as the ones in A Link to the Past, but given the Hammer’s slow attack speed and Moldorm’s fast skittering speed, I can’t imagine using it. I managed to avoid getting knocked off so I don’t know if the fight resets if it happens. Also, I don’t know where I saw someone compare this version of Moldorm (and the Switch Link’s Awakening's, which uses the same model) to a string of hamburgers with a lot of lettuce on sesame seed buns, but now I can’t unsee it. Anyway, Link gets the Pendant of Power for his victory and now has everything he needs to get the Master Sword.
Next: High and low.
Friday, February 14, 2020
A Link Between Worlds: Death Mountain
The final area of Hyrule to be explored is Death Mountain. Before heading up, there’s one last thing to mention: In Lake Hylia, near where the Hyrule Hotfoot race starts, there’s a bottle with a message inside. The message is from a mountain climber who got stuck and wants someone to bring him premium milk from the Milk Bar in Kakariko Village. How his bottle made it all the way to Lake Hylia, I don’t know. Link goes to the Milk Bar and gets the premium milk for the guy, who’s apparently a valued customer, and finally sets out for Death Mountain.
The cave leading to Death Mountain is more straightforward than its equivalent from A Link to the Past, and there’s no lost old man here to give Link a key item. Death Mountain itself is familiar, even if the geography’s changed: boulders rain from above, and the area is populated by Deadrocks, who turn to stone when hit and now can be smashed by the Hammer. There are boulders throughout the area that can also be smashed by the Hammer; some have a bunch of rupees embedded in them that are liberated when smashed (also seen in the Rupee Rush game). Before starting the ascent to the Tower of Hera, there’s a Maiamai under a rock Link can get.
The main part of the ascent to the Tower of Hera requires passing through caves with rolling smashable boulders, and though the caves are just wide enough for the boulder to roll through, Link can squeeze between a boulder and the wall by wall-merging. (Alternately, he can smash the boulders; it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the key item for the Tower of Hera is the Hammer.) Along the way up, Link finds a Maiamai on the wall he can knock off, and a heart piece through a false cave. Fortunately, the Tower has a weather vane outside, so Link doesn’t need to make this ascent more than once unless he missed something along the way.
To continue the treasure hunt, Link needs to continue east and cross a broken bridge with the Hookshot. To discourage players from attempting to explore this area just yet, there are Lynels in the area, and this is the deadliest incarnation of them yet. Rather than shooting fireballs, they shoot a jet of fire, and take roughly a bazillion arrows to kill. But… ammunition is limited only by reload rate, they’re actually not that hard to avoid, and I’m just now realizing that this was meant as “go away, come back later.” There’s a Maiamai on a wall near where the Turtle Rock warp point was.
On the screen with the Lynels, there’s a cave leading to Rosso’s Ore Mine, and here’s where the fun begins. The path to the Ore Mine is actually a series of drops between moving platforms that’s probably a lot easier to manage in 3D. Halfway down, there’s a platform with two Lynels and three walls Link can merge around to continue his journey. The Ore Mine is to the east, so that’s the last way to go. Going west, the challenge Link faces changes to going upward – the platforms have giant springs with laughing faces that Link can smash with the hammer to turn into frowning faces and, after a few seconds, pop up and (assuming Link steps on the spring in the meantime), send Link flying to a higher level and hopefully catch the next platform. After a few rounds of this, Link gets a heart piece.
Back on the Lynel platform, the next two destinations are to the south. This is probably the easiest of the three routes; it splits halfway through, leading to two exits from the platform cave. To the east, Link finds the missing rock climber, who gratefully receives the milk and drinks it, leaving Link to dispose of the “garbage” empty bottle. To the west, Link finds a Maiamai under a rock, then returns to the Lynel platform and heads east to finish the journey. Rosso’s Ore Mine is not a cave, just a collection of rocks on southeast Death Mountain. To the west, there’s a broken bridge Link can Hookshot across, discovering the fifth and final Maiamai in the area hiding under a rock.
Link has forty-one Maiamais, whom Mother Maiamai collects in groups of ten. She offers to make Link’s items stronger, but can only work with items Link owns, and the Lamp and Bug Net are beyond her ability to upgrade, so Link will have to come back when Ravio changes his business model. Back in Kakariko Village, the Milk Bar owner is happy for Link’s help, and gives him a 50% discount on future purchases, which will be nice.
Next: Now it’s time to start the dungeons.
The cave leading to Death Mountain is more straightforward than its equivalent from A Link to the Past, and there’s no lost old man here to give Link a key item. Death Mountain itself is familiar, even if the geography’s changed: boulders rain from above, and the area is populated by Deadrocks, who turn to stone when hit and now can be smashed by the Hammer. There are boulders throughout the area that can also be smashed by the Hammer; some have a bunch of rupees embedded in them that are liberated when smashed (also seen in the Rupee Rush game). Before starting the ascent to the Tower of Hera, there’s a Maiamai under a rock Link can get.
The main part of the ascent to the Tower of Hera requires passing through caves with rolling smashable boulders, and though the caves are just wide enough for the boulder to roll through, Link can squeeze between a boulder and the wall by wall-merging. (Alternately, he can smash the boulders; it’s becoming increasingly obvious that the key item for the Tower of Hera is the Hammer.) Along the way up, Link finds a Maiamai on the wall he can knock off, and a heart piece through a false cave. Fortunately, the Tower has a weather vane outside, so Link doesn’t need to make this ascent more than once unless he missed something along the way.
To continue the treasure hunt, Link needs to continue east and cross a broken bridge with the Hookshot. To discourage players from attempting to explore this area just yet, there are Lynels in the area, and this is the deadliest incarnation of them yet. Rather than shooting fireballs, they shoot a jet of fire, and take roughly a bazillion arrows to kill. But… ammunition is limited only by reload rate, they’re actually not that hard to avoid, and I’m just now realizing that this was meant as “go away, come back later.” There’s a Maiamai on a wall near where the Turtle Rock warp point was.
On the screen with the Lynels, there’s a cave leading to Rosso’s Ore Mine, and here’s where the fun begins. The path to the Ore Mine is actually a series of drops between moving platforms that’s probably a lot easier to manage in 3D. Halfway down, there’s a platform with two Lynels and three walls Link can merge around to continue his journey. The Ore Mine is to the east, so that’s the last way to go. Going west, the challenge Link faces changes to going upward – the platforms have giant springs with laughing faces that Link can smash with the hammer to turn into frowning faces and, after a few seconds, pop up and (assuming Link steps on the spring in the meantime), send Link flying to a higher level and hopefully catch the next platform. After a few rounds of this, Link gets a heart piece.
Back on the Lynel platform, the next two destinations are to the south. This is probably the easiest of the three routes; it splits halfway through, leading to two exits from the platform cave. To the east, Link finds the missing rock climber, who gratefully receives the milk and drinks it, leaving Link to dispose of the “garbage” empty bottle. To the west, Link finds a Maiamai under a rock, then returns to the Lynel platform and heads east to finish the journey. Rosso’s Ore Mine is not a cave, just a collection of rocks on southeast Death Mountain. To the west, there’s a broken bridge Link can Hookshot across, discovering the fifth and final Maiamai in the area hiding under a rock.
Link has forty-one Maiamais, whom Mother Maiamai collects in groups of ten. She offers to make Link’s items stronger, but can only work with items Link owns, and the Lamp and Bug Net are beyond her ability to upgrade, so Link will have to come back when Ravio changes his business model. Back in Kakariko Village, the Milk Bar owner is happy for Link’s help, and gives him a 50% discount on future purchases, which will be nice.
Next: Now it’s time to start the dungeons.
Wednesday, February 12, 2020
A Link Between Worlds: Mother Maiamai
Near the shore of Lake Hylia, there’s a cave with a rock wall blocking the entrance, and a sign warning, “Do Not Enter! Do Not Blow Up Wall! Very Strange Creature Inside!” Of course, Link knows that means something cool is inside, so he blows up the wall and goes in. The very strange creature is Mother Maiamai, who’s lost her babies – 100 of them – and asks Link to find them for her. She gives Link a map with Hyrule divided into regions, and each region indicates the number of Baby Maiamais Link has yet to find in that region. There’s only 50 on the map, so even if I didn’t know there was a second world coming, that would be a big hint. Maiamais chirp when Link’s near, so it’s easy to tell if one’s close.
So now that Link has a mostly-full arsenal and the basic tools of the trade, the world’s opened up, and it’s time to go exploring and collecting. (There are a few Maiamais around the world that seem to be under rocks too big for Link to lift just yet – I can hear them chirping, but they’re nowhere to be seen.) Since Link’s already in the Lake Hylia region, that’s where to begin. There’s a Maiamai on the wall right near Mother Maiamai’s cave; Link can’t pull it off, but can knock it off by merging onto the wall, then unmerging where the Maiamai is. (The Maiamais chirp along with the Item Get! jingle. Cute.) Link can get three of the four other Maiamais in the area: two underwater (Link collects them by diving), and one under a tile Link can lift with the Tornado Rod near the House of Gales.
On a plateau near the cave where the Golden Bee and Ice Rod were in A Link to the Past, there’s a man who challenges Link to run to his brother, behind Rosso’s house in the northwest (i.e., all the fscking way across Hyrule), in 75 seconds or less. (Calling Irene is cheating and disallowed.) I had a lot of trouble with this at first, and of course 75 seconds is the easy run for rupees. The real one requires going in 65 seconds or less for a heart piece. It’s actually easy when you know a good way – through the swamp, by Link’s house and the castle, then mostly due north – I made mistakes that added at least 5 seconds to my time and still made it comfortably. (Fortunately, you can teleport back to the start point by talking to the guy at the end.)
In the Great Swamp, Link can get all three Maiamais. One is underwater near the watergate and another on a pillar that needs to be knocked off by charging. The third is in a cave that’s opened by bombing; the cave has a second exit that leads to a heart piece. The desert is blocked off; at least one in the region seems to be in the way that leads to the desert but under a rock, and any in the actual desert will have to wait until Link can get in. In central Hyrule, Link can find seven of eight Maiamais (four in trees, two under tiles, and one on the north wall of Link’s house) and two heart pieces (one by merging around to the back wall of the Blacksmith’s house, one where the entrance to the passage into Hyrule Castle was in A Link to the Past.
The Eastern Palace and surrounding areas have six Maiamais. One is in the river leading to Lake Hylia, near the bridge where a guy gave Link a bottle in A Link to the Past, and wouldn’t you know it, the same thing happens here. The Pegasus Boots come in handy for three more, hidden in trees and atop a rock. A fifth needs to be knocked off the wall. Near where the sixth is chirping, Link can hammer some pegs to get a heart piece, and there’s another in a cave a little to the north. The next region is Northeast Hyrule (Not Counting Death Mountain), covering Sanctuary, Zora’s Fountain, and points inbetween. Link can get six of seven Maiamais here: four on walls (one in the potion shop) and two underwater. The seventh is on a wall Link can’t get to yet. There are two heart pieces in this area, one in a cave behind the waterfall, the other on a platform in the passage between the Graveyard and Sanctuary Link couldn’t reach before but can now with wall-merging.
Kakariko Village has five Maiamais, and I found four. One was under a bush, one was on a rooftop, and one was in a tree. The fourth is on a wall in a minigame area: Link is given 30 seconds to grab as many rupees as he can, but he has to keep track of the time himself (it’s not displayed on screen) and report in before it runs out; otherwise, he forfeits all the rupees he got. For a high enough score, he can get a heart piece. There’s another heart piece in the well. The fifth Maiamai is frustrating; I can hear it chirping, but there’s no big rocks nearby and nothing else seems to work. The Lost Woods area has eight Maiamais, and Link can get seven: two under a rocks, two on walls, one in a tree, one under a bush, and one in a small pond. I can see the eighth, but can’t get to it. There’s a heart piece in a small secluded area of the woods Link can reach by wall-merging.
Next: That leaves one last region.
So now that Link has a mostly-full arsenal and the basic tools of the trade, the world’s opened up, and it’s time to go exploring and collecting. (There are a few Maiamais around the world that seem to be under rocks too big for Link to lift just yet – I can hear them chirping, but they’re nowhere to be seen.) Since Link’s already in the Lake Hylia region, that’s where to begin. There’s a Maiamai on the wall right near Mother Maiamai’s cave; Link can’t pull it off, but can knock it off by merging onto the wall, then unmerging where the Maiamai is. (The Maiamais chirp along with the Item Get! jingle. Cute.) Link can get three of the four other Maiamais in the area: two underwater (Link collects them by diving), and one under a tile Link can lift with the Tornado Rod near the House of Gales.
On a plateau near the cave where the Golden Bee and Ice Rod were in A Link to the Past, there’s a man who challenges Link to run to his brother, behind Rosso’s house in the northwest (i.e., all the fscking way across Hyrule), in 75 seconds or less. (Calling Irene is cheating and disallowed.) I had a lot of trouble with this at first, and of course 75 seconds is the easy run for rupees. The real one requires going in 65 seconds or less for a heart piece. It’s actually easy when you know a good way – through the swamp, by Link’s house and the castle, then mostly due north – I made mistakes that added at least 5 seconds to my time and still made it comfortably. (Fortunately, you can teleport back to the start point by talking to the guy at the end.)
In the Great Swamp, Link can get all three Maiamais. One is underwater near the watergate and another on a pillar that needs to be knocked off by charging. The third is in a cave that’s opened by bombing; the cave has a second exit that leads to a heart piece. The desert is blocked off; at least one in the region seems to be in the way that leads to the desert but under a rock, and any in the actual desert will have to wait until Link can get in. In central Hyrule, Link can find seven of eight Maiamais (four in trees, two under tiles, and one on the north wall of Link’s house) and two heart pieces (one by merging around to the back wall of the Blacksmith’s house, one where the entrance to the passage into Hyrule Castle was in A Link to the Past.
The Eastern Palace and surrounding areas have six Maiamais. One is in the river leading to Lake Hylia, near the bridge where a guy gave Link a bottle in A Link to the Past, and wouldn’t you know it, the same thing happens here. The Pegasus Boots come in handy for three more, hidden in trees and atop a rock. A fifth needs to be knocked off the wall. Near where the sixth is chirping, Link can hammer some pegs to get a heart piece, and there’s another in a cave a little to the north. The next region is Northeast Hyrule (Not Counting Death Mountain), covering Sanctuary, Zora’s Fountain, and points inbetween. Link can get six of seven Maiamais here: four on walls (one in the potion shop) and two underwater. The seventh is on a wall Link can’t get to yet. There are two heart pieces in this area, one in a cave behind the waterfall, the other on a platform in the passage between the Graveyard and Sanctuary Link couldn’t reach before but can now with wall-merging.
Kakariko Village has five Maiamais, and I found four. One was under a bush, one was on a rooftop, and one was in a tree. The fourth is on a wall in a minigame area: Link is given 30 seconds to grab as many rupees as he can, but he has to keep track of the time himself (it’s not displayed on screen) and report in before it runs out; otherwise, he forfeits all the rupees he got. For a high enough score, he can get a heart piece. There’s another heart piece in the well. The fifth Maiamai is frustrating; I can hear it chirping, but there’s no big rocks nearby and nothing else seems to work. The Lost Woods area has eight Maiamais, and Link can get seven: two under a rocks, two on walls, one in a tree, one under a bush, and one in a small pond. I can see the eighth, but can’t get to it. There’s a heart piece in a small secluded area of the woods Link can reach by wall-merging.
Next: That leaves one last region.
Monday, February 10, 2020
A Link Between Worlds: Accessorizing
Link has two destinations, but there doesn’t seem to be a set order for them. As I said in my first post for this game, I know it’s taken a less linear approach; getting items from Ravio and using them in whatever order you see fit seems to be the approach. This may mean the House of Gales and Tower of Hera can’t assume Link has the other dungeon’s item – and, hell, he could even lose the Bow if he dies – so they’ve got to get all their puzzles for each item out in the respective dungeon. That was the approach Twilight Princess mostly took even with linear dungeon progression and I liked those dungeons just fine.
Ravio’s got his shop fully up and running now, with a grand total of nine items. This includes the Bow that Link rented and the Sand Rod Osfala has, leaving seven items. Six are familiar from A Link to the Past: Boomerang, Bomb, Hammer, Hookshot, Ice Rod, and Fire Rod. The last is another new rod, the Tornado Rod, and this thing is fscking incredible. When Link uses it, he flies into the air, lifting everything around him. Most enemies are stunned by this, making them easy to pick off. About the only thing that keeps it from being completely broken is that it takes half of Link’s Energy Meter to use.
As Link explores Hyrule some more, the witch we saw earlier flies overhead and decides to come talk to Link. Her name’s Irene, and apparently the last time she saw the fortune teller, he told her to “take care of green” to change her disastrous future. Link’s green, so she figures that meant him. She gives him a bell he can use to call her, and she’ll show up to take him to any of the weather vanes he’s unlocked. She’s not fond of being called, but she’s the most helpful fast travel system since Midna in Twilight Princess. She points Link to two locations: her grandmother’s potion shop (only red potions for now, the others require items that drop from monsters) and the Fortune Teller (who gives Link a pair of Hint Glasses that let him see ghosts who sell hints for Play Coins, which I apparently have).
Getting to the House of Gales requires swimming, and climbing Death Mountain to the Tower of Hera takes heavy lifting, so we’ve got a couple more items to get. Lifting is the easy one: A miner named Rosso – he looks kind of like a Goron/Hylian hybrid – lives in what used to be the lumberjack brothers’ house. The disturbance at Hyrule Castle caused an earthquake that knocked a bunch of rocks from the mountain loose and they landed in his yard. He gives Link a Power Glove to help him lift; if Link actually cleans up the rocks, he gets a purple rupee.
The Zora fountain’s in the northeast corner, where the Waterfall of Wishing was in A Link to the Past. Getting there requires a wall merge to cross a gap. As Link approaches the fountain, he meets the Shady Guy he’s seen hanging around Kakariko Village leaving. The Zoras call for help; something’s gone wrong with their queen. As Link comes to investigate, the queen is not doing well – she’s uncontrollably blubbering, and constantly catching fish, eating them, and growing enormous. Apparently the Shady Guy stole a smooth gem that keeps her in check.
Link follows the Shady Guy back to the village. He’s hanging out by Sahasrahla’s house, and runs off when Link approaches. Link can take him by surprise by wall-merging and popping out behind him, and this gives Link a chance to talk. The Shady Guy apologizes for causing trouble, but he no longer has the gem; he sold it to the bottle merchant. He’s had a kleptomania streak ever since he got his fancy Pegasus Boots, which he gives to Link who’ll put them to better use [1]. As for the gem, the merchant sells it to Link for 200 rupees, and Link takes it to the Zoras and chucks it in the queen’s pool. The gem restores the queen, Oren, to her normal size, and she rewards Link with Flippers [2]. She does warn him that the Zoras that live in the lakes and rivers don’t listen to her when she tells them to get along with people.
There’s one last accessory Link can get right now. As he passes by the grove where Gulley was playing, the Blacksmith’s Wife is looking for Gulley. Link goes into the grove to investigate and finds Gulley gone, but he left a pouch sitting on the stump. The Blacksmith’s Wife comes in to investigate, and says she made the pouch for Link, but Gulley wanted to be the one to give it to him. Link explains what he can, and Mrs. Blacksmith goes off to tell her husband what’s happened, but lets Link keep the pouch, which allows him to equip two items since the DS has the second screen for maps so the X button isn’t needed for anything.
Next: Taking the grand tour of Hyrule.
[1] Although Link has never had much problem entering people’s homes, breaking everything and stealing any valuables.
[2] 200 rupees is both absolutely less than the 500 rupees the Flippers cost in A Link to the Past, and not as big a deal as 200 rupees in that game since they’re bountiful in this one.
Ravio’s got his shop fully up and running now, with a grand total of nine items. This includes the Bow that Link rented and the Sand Rod Osfala has, leaving seven items. Six are familiar from A Link to the Past: Boomerang, Bomb, Hammer, Hookshot, Ice Rod, and Fire Rod. The last is another new rod, the Tornado Rod, and this thing is fscking incredible. When Link uses it, he flies into the air, lifting everything around him. Most enemies are stunned by this, making them easy to pick off. About the only thing that keeps it from being completely broken is that it takes half of Link’s Energy Meter to use.
As Link explores Hyrule some more, the witch we saw earlier flies overhead and decides to come talk to Link. Her name’s Irene, and apparently the last time she saw the fortune teller, he told her to “take care of green” to change her disastrous future. Link’s green, so she figures that meant him. She gives him a bell he can use to call her, and she’ll show up to take him to any of the weather vanes he’s unlocked. She’s not fond of being called, but she’s the most helpful fast travel system since Midna in Twilight Princess. She points Link to two locations: her grandmother’s potion shop (only red potions for now, the others require items that drop from monsters) and the Fortune Teller (who gives Link a pair of Hint Glasses that let him see ghosts who sell hints for Play Coins, which I apparently have).
Getting to the House of Gales requires swimming, and climbing Death Mountain to the Tower of Hera takes heavy lifting, so we’ve got a couple more items to get. Lifting is the easy one: A miner named Rosso – he looks kind of like a Goron/Hylian hybrid – lives in what used to be the lumberjack brothers’ house. The disturbance at Hyrule Castle caused an earthquake that knocked a bunch of rocks from the mountain loose and they landed in his yard. He gives Link a Power Glove to help him lift; if Link actually cleans up the rocks, he gets a purple rupee.
The Zora fountain’s in the northeast corner, where the Waterfall of Wishing was in A Link to the Past. Getting there requires a wall merge to cross a gap. As Link approaches the fountain, he meets the Shady Guy he’s seen hanging around Kakariko Village leaving. The Zoras call for help; something’s gone wrong with their queen. As Link comes to investigate, the queen is not doing well – she’s uncontrollably blubbering, and constantly catching fish, eating them, and growing enormous. Apparently the Shady Guy stole a smooth gem that keeps her in check.
Link follows the Shady Guy back to the village. He’s hanging out by Sahasrahla’s house, and runs off when Link approaches. Link can take him by surprise by wall-merging and popping out behind him, and this gives Link a chance to talk. The Shady Guy apologizes for causing trouble, but he no longer has the gem; he sold it to the bottle merchant. He’s had a kleptomania streak ever since he got his fancy Pegasus Boots, which he gives to Link who’ll put them to better use [1]. As for the gem, the merchant sells it to Link for 200 rupees, and Link takes it to the Zoras and chucks it in the queen’s pool. The gem restores the queen, Oren, to her normal size, and she rewards Link with Flippers [2]. She does warn him that the Zoras that live in the lakes and rivers don’t listen to her when she tells them to get along with people.
There’s one last accessory Link can get right now. As he passes by the grove where Gulley was playing, the Blacksmith’s Wife is looking for Gulley. Link goes into the grove to investigate and finds Gulley gone, but he left a pouch sitting on the stump. The Blacksmith’s Wife comes in to investigate, and says she made the pouch for Link, but Gulley wanted to be the one to give it to him. Link explains what he can, and Mrs. Blacksmith goes off to tell her husband what’s happened, but lets Link keep the pouch, which allows him to equip two items since the DS has the second screen for maps so the X button isn’t needed for anything.
Next: Taking the grand tour of Hyrule.
[1] Although Link has never had much problem entering people’s homes, breaking everything and stealing any valuables.
[2] 200 rupees is both absolutely less than the 500 rupees the Flippers cost in A Link to the Past, and not as big a deal as 200 rupees in that game since they’re bountiful in this one.
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