Breath of the Wild: Great Plateau Shrines

All around the Temple of Time were bizarre statues, and they’re also present in the ruins around the second shrine. As Link approaches, one of those statues comes to life and focuses on Link. If he doesn’t get out of their line of sight, they shoot him with a laser that, with three max hearts, is a one-hit kill. This is where my first run ended. Although I assumed the statues were Beamos at the time, they’re something new called Guardians. There are a total of three active Guardians in the area for Link to avoid as he makes his way to the shrine, which is in a completely walled-off area of the ruins so he has to climb the wall to get there.

The Ja Baij shrine has the Bomb Trial. This adds two new runes to the Sheikahphone, remote bombs in two forms, sphere and cube. Link can have one active bomb at a time, and there’s a cooldown between exploding a bomb and using the next one. They make sure to have one puzzle work better with a cube bomb and one work better with a sphere bomb, but I don’t really think there was anything that couldn’t be done with either. The remote function is a nice new twist (although Remote Bombs first appeared in Minish Cap, and the Cane of Somaria had a similar use), and the last couple puzzles involve waiting for a bomb to get into place before detonating it. Link collects a second Spirit Orb from the monk.

The next two shrines are in the mountains. The path I took up to them leads northwest from the Shrine of Resurrection. As Link gets higher up in the mountains, cold begins to become a factor – if Link keeps going, he’ll take damage from the cold. Right before it starts getting cold, Link comes across a Bokoblin camp with a cooking pot. There are a bunch of Spicy Peppers in the area, which when cooked form a meal that gives Link cold resistance. With that, Link can climb up until he comes to a river. Now, I had a feeling the river was going to be too wide and too fast to swim across, so I saved before trying it, but I forgot one thing: cold water will kill you faster than cold air, and the peppers don’t help. There’s a bridge Link can use to cross the river, but the first section is missing and needs to be replaced by a metal plate using Magnesis.

The next shrine is the Keh Namut Shrine, which houses the Cryonis Trial. The rune for this trial is Cryonis, which creates a pillar from water. (The name and that it’s made from water make me think it’s ice, but it’s not at all slick.) The obvious use is to help Link cross water and climb to higher places than he can get on his own. The trial highlights two other ideas: placing the pillar under things to lift them up (a gate to open it, one end of a board to create a ramp) and to block attacks from the mini-Guardian in the shrine. Once he’s gotten through everything, Link gets the third Spirit Orb.

On the way to the next shrine, Link comes across the old man, who gives Link a Warm Doublet to make cold weather easier to take. Otherwise, there’s not much to note before the Owa Daim Shrine. That shrine is the Stasis Trial, and even though there’s two slots for runes left, there’s only one given here. Stasis can freeze objects in time, stopping a spinning bridge long enough for Link to cross or a ball rolling down a slope so Link can get past. Its effects on stationary objects are even more interesting: If Link whacks them with his weapons, they’ll stay where they are because of the time freeze, but once time starts back up, all that kinetic energy activates at once. Link needs to do this to knock a boulder out of his way to the monk, who gives him the fourth Spirit Orb.

It should be no surprise by now that the old man knows Link’s completed his task and comes paragliding in to talk to him. He’s almost ready to tell Link everything, but has one final task: to find him again. As a guide, he says to look at the map and imagine the shrines as a quadrilateral. He’ll be waiting where the diagonals intersect [1]. At this, he vanishes into blue light – hardly the first sign there’s something supernatural about him, but definitely the most blatant. Looking at the map, the lines cross at the Temple of Time.

Link warps back to the Shrine of Healing to head back down to the Temple of Time. There’s a Goddess Statue there (it was there before, but now it’s glowing), and when Link prays to it, it offers to take the four Spirit Orbs in exchange for a heart container or a stamina upgrade. I don’t know if it was metagaming (there’s no way they’d let me screw up my game by giving the Orbs to the statue instead of the old man) or knowing the old man doesn’t actually want the Spirit Orbs, he just wanted Link to prove himself and/or get the rune abilities, but I took it up on the offer and got a heart container. Once that was done, the old man called down to Link from the roof, asking him to find his way up.

Next: Introduction and story.

[1] These aren’t the exact words; he says to imagine an X between the shrines. I prefer more precision.

Breath of the Wild: The First Shrine

Getting into the shrine the old man pointed out requires tapping in with the Sheikah Slate on a pedestal. This activates a Travel Gate and opens the door to the elevator leading into the shrine. Link is greeted by a voice (titles only, no voiceover; not the woman who’s been speaking to him), “To you who sets foot in this shrine… I am Oman Au. In the name of the Goddess Hylia, I offer this trial.” The name of the trial is the Magnesis Trial, and the shrine is named for the monk who oversees it. There’s another Sheikah Slate pedestal/stalactite combination near the entrance to the shrine, and this distills the Magnesis Rune, which will let Link use magnetism to move metal objects [1].

The rest of the shrine is a basic tutorial on what Link can do with Magnesis: lift a metal plate to reveal a hidden passageway, push a metal block out of a wall to open a way through, position a metal plate as a bridge, and open a metal gate. There’s a single enemy in this shrine, a robot that’s not very tough. At the end of the trial, Link meets the monk, who’s sitting in some kind of forcefield cage, which Link shatters by touching. “You have proven to possess the resolve of a true hero,” the monk says. “I am Oman Au, the creator of this trial. I am a humble monk, blessed with the sight of the Goddess Hylia and dedicated to helping those who seek to defeat Ganon. With your arrival, my duty is fulfilled. In the name of Goddess Hylia, allow me to bestow this gift upon you… Please accept this Spirit Orb.” An blue orb with the Hylian Crest pops out of the monk’s chest and into Link’s, and the monk offers a final blessing before becoming one with the Force or whatever. (It even looked like a mummified Yoda.)

The trial complete, Link pops back out onto the Great Plateau to be greeted by the old man paragliding in. He congratulates Link on getting the Spirit Orb, and is a little evasive and philosophical about how he knows that. He tells Link more about the history of the Sheikah, the ancient tribe that protected Hyrule and built the tower, shrines, and, of course, the Sheikah Slate. Except… in every other game, if the Sheikah showed up at all, they were dying out. I’m pretty sure the most living Sheikah we’ve ever seen in a single game is two, and that’s letting Ocarina of Time count a Hylian disguised as a Sheikah [2]. Whatever. It’s been a while, they always manage to come back and flourish, and this latest time they left their stuff all over the place. Back to the game, the old man says there’s a bunch of shrines like the one Link just cleared – including three more on the Great Plateau – and he wants all four Spirit Orbs in exchange for the paraglider.

The old man’s not totally unhelpful, though. He offers to teach Link a method for spotting shrines. Okay, the first bit of advice is to find a high vantage point to look around for and gosh there’s a giant tower that sprouted not too long ago that should give a good view of everything around it. But the rest of it is helpful, at least the first time playing the game. The Sheikah Slate can be used to quick travel to the top of any activated tower or the entrance of any visited shrine (including the Shrine of Resurrection, where Link woke up at the start of the game) [3].

So Link zips over to the top of the tower and the old man’s already there. (“Leave an old man his secrets,” he says when asked how he got there so fast.) He tells Link about one other feature of the Sheikah Slate: the scope. This lets him look at identifying features and mark their location on his map. The three shrines are easy enough to spot (if you’re not unfortunate enough to look too far afield and mark one not on the Plateau): one in some ruins, one on a cliff, and one way up in the mountains.

Next: I must be looking for something, something sacred I lost / But the river is wide and it’s too hard to cross…

[1] Getting the Magnesis Rune also adds the amiibo Rune, which lets him use amiibo to get stuff. I didn’t mess with this for a while yet, though…
[2] Hyrule Warriors at least implies the existence of other Sheikah when Impa says she’s never heard of this “Sheik” person despite being the leader of the Sheikah; one would think being the last Sheikah would make her even more suspicious.
[3] This is the earliest quick travel I can remember in any Zelda game. Given how huge the world is, it’s going to be used a lot. And it means climbing towers is a one-time prospect, so that’s nice. And it can be used while falling to what would be a fatal landing, so that’s nice, too.

Breath of the Wild: Great Plateau Tower

The camera pans over to a nearby feature, the Temple of Time as seen in Ocarina of Time. A bit down the hill, a hooded man with a Santa Claus beard carrying a lantern on a pole stands looking up at Link before he turns to walk to his campfire. Link follows him to the campfire, gathering tree branches to use as weapons and mushrooms and apples to restore health. An apple has fallen near the old man’s campfire and gotten cooked, and when Link picks it up, the old man scolds him for stealing it before revealing he’s only joking. There’s a torch behind the old man that Link also takes, and the old man is rather concerned when he says he’s going to use it to set things on fire, but gives him a brief tutorial on target-locking (sadly, hold only). There’s a nearby pile of wood Link can set on fire to use to try his hand at baking stuff. There’s also an axe here he can take.

As Link explores more, the voice contacts him again to tell him to look at his Sheikah Slate and go to the marked spot (and FOLLOW THE SHEIKAH SLATE is splashed in a big banner across the screen – this game has actual quests and a quest log), but the Temple of Time is so much more interesting. And I’m probably not supposed to be here right away, judging by the red Bokoblins who take an entire tree branch’s of damage to kill (one weapon breaks, and I take the enemy’s weapon as a replacement; I don’t like weapon breakage, but I don’t like leaving stuff enemies drop, either, and while one should be the solution to the other it doesn’t quite work that way). Anyway, not counting the Boko Clubs, I got a better pair of pants and a bow out of the trip.

Now Link decides to check out the marked spot on the map, and after clearing out some Bokoblins around the area, finds a structure with similar lighting to the room where he woke up, and there’s a pedestal with a slot for the Sheikah Slate. Link places the Slate in the slot, and a message pops up, “Sheikah Tower activated. Please watch for falling rocks.” The earth begins shaking and a giant tower shoots up from the ground under Link’s feet. Once the shaking stops, a title identifies the location as the Great Plateau Tower, and the tower begins “distilling local information.” A stalactite above the Sheikah Slate glows blue with Ghost in the Shell/Matrix-esque glyphs as music similar to the buildup part of the Getting the Master Sword music plays, then a blue drop falls from the stalactite onto the Sheikah Slate, which I hope is insured against water damage. This fills in the map of the nearby area to show geographic features so navigation’s going to be a little less fluky.

As Link takes the Slate and prepares to leave, the voice speaks to him, “Remember… try… try to remember… you have been asleep for the past one hundred years. The beast… when the beast regains its true power, this world will end.” As she’s speaking, Link’s sight is drawn to a castle in the distance, and a shadow rises around the castle, with a figure that appears very much like a boar’s head rising above the shadow and roaring. “Now then… you must hurry, Link. Before it’s too late…” The Follow the Sheikah Slate quest is marked complete.

There’s a gap in the middle of the tower that Link can climb down into, then a series of balcony-like steps Link can use to jump down safely. As Link reaches the bottom, the old man shouts a greeting and rides in on a paraglider, landing in front of Link. He says the tower isn’t the only one of its kind to suddenly erupt, and asks if anything happened when Link was at the top. Link mentions the voice, which doesn’t seem to surprise the old man who finds it unfortunate Link doesn’t recognize it. He points out the shadow around the castle, and names it Calamity Ganon, who’s contained in the castle after reducing Hyrule to the state it’s in now.

He proceeds to ask if Link intends to face Calamity Ganon, and Link says yes. The old man points out the first problem Link’s going to have to overcome: getting off the Great Plateau. The jump would be fatal, and the walls are too high to climb down safely. He offers to give Link his paraglider in exchange for a nearby treasure. (Main Quest: THE ISOLATED PLATEAU.) He guides Link over to point out a shrine (with glowing red lights) and asks Link to recover the treasure in exchange for the paraglider.

Next: “I am altering the deal. Pray I don’t alter it any further.”

Breath of the Wild: Introduction and Story

When I got my Switch, I wanted three games: Ultra Street Fighter II, Mario Kart 8, and Breath of the Wild. But before I started Breath of the Wild, I felt I should make up a 20-year gap in my knowledge of the series, and so this project started. And here at last, I’ve finished every game from the NES original to Tri Force Heroes and can finally start Breath of the Wild and my hope is I can finish it before the next game comes out (and maybe even take another stab at getting the whole “rhythm game” thing going and play Cadence of Hyrule).

What I know (more than usual, but mostly shallow):

• I actually played a little bit back when I got the game. I got a few toys, but never got off Noob Mesa. I got shot by a laser near one of the shrines, decided that was enough for the night, and never got back into it. I’ve watched my sister play a little more; the main takeaway I have from this is who Link’s friend on Noob Mesa is.
• It was originally developed for the Wii U, but by time it was ready to release the Wii U was a dead console so it was held and revamped as a Switch launch title. (Also dual-released on the Wii U, but I’m playing on the Switch. (Even though I’m fairly certain the Sheikah Slate was envisioned as an in-game stand in for the Wii U gamepad. In other words: I played the GameCube version of Twilight Princess so I could delay having to deal with motion controls more than original development intent.))
• Timeline placement: Ha… ha ha ha… BWAHAHAHAHA! It’s in Classic Hyrule, not the Wind Waker branch’s New Hyrule (one of the first features... featured is the Temple of Time, looking straight out of Ocarina; also, no trains), but we’ve got Koroks and (I think, but I know there are Zoras…) Rito, who only ever appeared in that timeline, back, so… yeah. Whatever timeline branch it’s in, it’s long after all the other games. Hyrule is post-apocalyptic.
• Link has a tablet computer called the Sheikah Slate.
• The game’s gone super open and structure-free. Once you get off Noob Mesa, it’s like, “Oh, you want to take on Ganon now? Thataway. Have fun storming the castle.” (“Think it’ll work?” “It would take a miracle.”)
• Instead of proper dungeons, there are a hundred (!) microdungeons that give collectibles that can be redeemed for heart containers or stamina upgrades. The monks at the end of these microdungeons look like mummified… half-Yoda half-Gollum things.
• Koroks are back, and collecting their seeds is a big deal, and there’s a thousand (!!) of them.
• Lynels make their 3D debut and… they’ve never not been able to stomp an unprepared Link, but my understanding is they’re on a whole new level.
• Link can cook food (both good and… not).
• Weapons and items have been completely revamped; the Master Sword’s been somewhat deemphasized and there’s no main weapon to replace it, and weapons (aside from the Master Sword) break.
• amiibo! I’ve got a few Zelda amiibo (Link’s Awakening Link, the Wolf Link/Midna one that came with the Wii U Twilight Princess, and Smash Bros. Link, Zelda, and Sheik) and a few Smash amiibo for non-Zelda characters, although I probably won’t use those so much.
• There’s actual voiced lines, although Link remains silent as always.
• Names I know: Mipha, Paya, Sidon, Urbosa. Oh, and it’s Calamity Ganon now.

Story

Nintendo Presents
The Legend of Zelda
Breath of the Wild

Yeah, that’s all there is, in plain white text on a black background. No logo, not much music, no “enter your name” screen (I guess being able to name your Link would make voiceover a little awkward). The screen remains dark, with a small lit area in the center as a female voice repeatedly calls, “Open your eyes.” As Link starts to come to, the voice becomes clearer and adds, “Wake up, Link.”

Link’s sleeping in some kind of pool or tub that drains as he wakes up. That pool’s in a cave with weird lights, and there’s a pedestal the camera lingers on. Link runs over to check it out, and the thing makes a big display of popping up a small tablet computer, about the size of the Wii U Gamepad or Switch. The voice from earlier chimes in, “That is a Sheikah Slate. Take it. It will help guide you after your long slumber.” As Link holds it (not above his head, sadly), a popup window says “You’ve never seen this device before, and yet… there’s something familiar about it.” In the next room, there are two chests with some basic gear so Link’s not going to have to run around in his underwear. (Also, if Link opens a chest by kicking it with his bare foot, he hops around on his other foot for a moment. Heh.) At the end of the cave, there’s another pedestal, and the voice tells Link to hold the Sheikah Slate to the pedestal, which opens the way outside. As Link shields his eyes, the voice says, “Link… you are the light – our light – that must shine upon Hyrule once again.” I don’t like this voice much, especially if it’s the obvious suspect. I can’t say why, but it just doesn’t feel right. Anyway, Link goes up stairs and climbs a wall on his way out of the cave, and looks out over Hyrule (there’s a volcano in the distance), and now the logo appears. The Master Sword has seen better days.

Next: Here’s where I’d make a “Rip van Linkle” joke, but she’s a different character.

Tri Force Heroes: Den of Trials and Conclusion

At this point, I could go break the curse on Styla, but I’m going to put that on hold to tackle the Den of Trials. The clown who told Link about them in the first place is there to explain some of the rules. There are forty floors, divided into eight zones of five each. Should the Links fail to clear it all in one go, they can come back and start from the farthest zone they’d reached previously. As an incentive to start from the beginning, the Links get a fairy for each zone they clear, but they only start with one. (And no skipping floors, so they’re just extra lives.)

The eight zones roughly correspond to the eight areas of the Drablands. Each zone has its own set of items. There are some new enemies, including dark variants of enemies that curse a Link when they hit so he can’t use his sword or item. The fourth floor of a zone generally ends with a battle against Armos-riding enemies. The fifth floor of each zone is a safe floor with treasure, a fairy, and a Squiddy so the Links can heal up before starting the next zone.

The first four zones – Forest, Flooded, Scorching, and Frozen – are pretty easy. The Fortified Zone is where the challenge starts, with most of the challenge coming from tougher soldiers in close quarters. My first run, I used all of my fairies here, and in my relief to get through it, forgot to grab the one from the safe floor leaving me one life to make it through the Desert Zone, and I didn’t make it past the second floor. That floor is dominated by a Hokkubokku, which are annoying enough to fight when they’re not huge and there are only a few safe places to stand. The other tough fight in the Desert Zone is the last one, against three Armos-mounted Dark Stalfos. Dark Stalfos don’t stay stunned very long and to hit them, you’ve got to be in line for them to hit you, so my best strategy was hit and run and trust Squiddy will make up for my mistakes.

The seventh zone, the Shadow Zone, is mostly easy; the tricky floors are almost more of a danger than the enemies. It even skips the Armos-riding enemies at the end for once. The final zone is the Baneful Zone, and brings back the “choose your items” mechanic from the Sky Temple. The first floor is easy, with various dark enemies on isolated platforms the Links need to Cuccoglide between. The second floor has strong winds and a switch that raises a wall to block them in the center of the platform, but it needs to be periodically reactivated before the other Links are blown to their doom. The third stage has a bunch of soldiers, followed by two Dark Aeralfos, and these guys are a giant pain. They’ve got a pancaketon of hit points and take two hearts each time they hit a Link and tend to swoop in while a Link’s trying to get into position to attack their landed mate’s. This is where my second run ended, and I decided it was finally time to make a new outfit, the Sword Suit, which doubles the Green Link’s attack damage and lets him use sword beams at full health. The Links get a Squiddy and fairy after the Aeralfos are gone, which can only mean there’s something worse ahead…

Three Shadow Links. This might be a fair fight in multiplayer, but in single player, you get fscking swarmed. And these guys have souped-up items – although their bombs can hurt them, and they’re not so diligent at getting out of the blast radius. Oh, and their hits have the curse ability other dark enemies do. The sword beams are a good equalizer; they can interrupt item usage and keep the Shadow Links at bay. It’s cheesy but I don’t care. If you manage to do all eight zones in a single go, there are better treasures available in the last treasure room, and for the first time, Link gets a Fierce Deity Armor, which shoots four sword beams at once.

Oh, and with the Lady’s materials, Madame Couture makes the Lady’s Ensemble, which lets Link break the curse on Styla and get her back into the frilly dresses she prefers. King Tuft and Styla bring Link to show everyone the curse is broken, culminating in Tuft lifting Link in the air, followed by Sir Combsly coming over and lifting them both. The credits depict scenes from the Links’ journey, which amusingly skips from Arrghus to the Lady. The next time the game starts, there’s a message from King Tuft asking Link to come by for a final reward, which turns out to be the Kinda Cursed Tights (double damage but 50% chance to dodge). I hope they washed them first.

And that’s Tri Force Heroes, or as much of it as I’m going to do. It wasn’t much fun to play through normally, and I have little interest in trying to defeat Moldorm one-handed in under ten seconds while balancing a bowling ball on the tip of my nose or whatever. As multiplayer Zeldas go, this was no Four Swords Adventures. Heck, I’m not even sure it’s Four Swords, which has even less story and randomized levels but felt better balanced.

Tri Force Heroes: Sky Realm

Even though our villain’s not Vaati, the final area is the Sky Realm. The first level is the Floating Garden (items: Bow, Bomb, Gripshot), and the first two stages introduce strong winds that hamper the Links’ movement (and will blow them off their platform if they’re careless) and Cuccogliding (a single Cucco is strong enough to carry a full totem!); the second stage’s main fight also introduces Helmasaurs to the game. Stage three brings Cuccogliding and the winds together. Finally, stage four is a fight against two waves of Helmasaurs and Fire Keeleons.

Level two is the Deception Castle, which opens with a fight against Armos-riding soldiers in an area with strong winds. The rest of the stage uses the level’s items, two Gripshots and a Gust Jar, to get the Links into position to stand on three switches. The second stage has the Links ride an updraft to a rotating platform that’s attacked by three soldiers: one with spears, one with a flail, and one with bombs. The bombs are the nice one here, able to be thrown at the other soldiers (and, if you get impatient and don’t kill the bomb-thrower last, there are bomb flowers which can do the trick nicely). Stage three brings back the tilting platforms in strange shapes that don’t lend themselves to easily being balanced, with some Mini-Margomas that need to be bombed at the end. Stage four has a boss fight against Gigaleon, a flying saucer that spits fireballs at the Links. There are inactive fans in the area; the idea is to shoot them with the Gust Jar as Gigaleon hovers over them, stunning it, then throw bombs from the Bomb Flowers into the updraft to cause damage. After enough hits, Gigaleon destroys the Bomb Flowers and flips over, revealing a surface a Link can stand on and a giant eye. So, the fans still stun Gigaleon, and then a Link gets a ride up to do damage with his sword. Eventually, Gigaleon crashes to the platform and can be finished off.

Next up is the Dragon Citadel. The first stage has more puzzles of dealing with winds while using the level’s items (Water Rod, Hammer, Boomerang). Stage two brings back a couple tricky platforms and concludes with a fight against Wizzrobes on a very small area with the winds blowing and the only protection being the switch walls with a switch crystal right in the middle of the area where it can be easily hit, likely sending inactive Links falling. Stage three has Cuccogliding and the color platforms return, culminating in a bit where the Links need to use updrafts to Cuccoglide to a couple color platforms to get across a large gap, and I did it the harder but safer way of doing each Link individually rather than as a totem. The final stage pits the Links against three Aeralfos, who need to be dodged as they swoop in at the Links, and then taken out before they can take back to the air.

The final level, Sky Temple, has a unique mechanic: all eight items are available for the Links to choose from at the start of each stage, so unless you know what you’re going to fight, all you can do is guess and hope you don’t leave something you’d rather have behind. Across the first two stages, there are six fights, each roughly corresponding to one area of the Drablands (Volcano and Fortress are combined). The hardest fight was against Ghinis and a Fire Flail Soldier where the only (reliable) source of light, unless the Links brought Fire Gloves to light torches, is the fire flail. The last stage has two matchups against groups of soldiers, then two Super Aeralfos that breathe fire (I’d think this is where Hyrule Warriors got the idea for Fiery Aeralfos, only it came first).

There’s no need to worry about what items to use fighting the Lady, because one of the first things she does is take away the Links’ unfashionable “accessories.” The first phase of the fight has the Lady standing on a platform surrounded by an energy barrier. Toss two Links over the barrier, then one up on the platform, attack the Lady, repeat as needed. After that, she goes into temper tantrum mode, chasing the Links with her parasol. The trick here is that she’ll chase the nearest Link when she switches, not the active Link, so get her running between two inactive Links and have the third follow and hit her from behind. The third phase is the requisite Dead Man’s Volley match with the obvious complication that only the correct Link can deflect the attack. The first Link targeted is the active Link, then the other two take turns, then it rotates through the three in the same order. The Lady catches the attack on her parasol before sending it back, and when this one is deflected back, it stuns the Lady so she can be attacked. This is the worst phase in single player, but I imagine it’s kind of fun in multiplayer.

The final two phases have a bunch of parasol platforms only the proper-colored Link can stand on (with some white ones anyone can). In the first of these phases, a Link who can attack her needs to be tossed to the highest platforms. In the final phase, the platforms start on the ground and move higher, allowing a full Totem to hit the Lady until she decides Styla and Hytopia aren’t worth her time and teleports out. Link finds the Lady’s Parasol, the last of the items needed to create the Lady’s Ensemble and put an end to this nonsense.

Next: Time to get the princess out of those clothes. (…that’s, ah, less creepy in context.)

Tri Force Heroes: The Ruins

After completing 75% of the (base) game, I was beginning to wonder if there were going to be any puzzles based on the colors of the Links. The Color Dungeon in the Link’s Awakening remake was redesigned to improve accessibility, so I thought that may be in play here. On the first screen of the Illusory Mansion’s first stage, that thought was proven incorrect. There are platforms throughout the stage that only the matching-color Link can stand on, and the challenge is getting all the Links across gaps, aided by each getting a Boomerang as the level’s item. The stages also introduces Poes, and the second stage features colored Poes who can only be damaged by the matching Link. The final two stages feature more complex colored platform puzzles and conclude with a battle against Prankster Poes. These enemies are incorporeal and only become corporeal when a sword attack passes through them or to grab a Link and throw him into a pit. These guys are annoying, but their whole gimmick feels like something a schoolyard bully would come up with, so they’re supposed to be.

Next up is Palace Noir. The first stage is completely dark except for the lanterns the Poes in the area carry, and the key puzzle involves lighting all the torches. One of these torches takes advantage of the multiplayer aspect in a diabolical way: one Link needs to throw a fireball, and the one with the Bow needs to shoot an arrow through it. (Item three, the Gust Jar, is needed to get the Links to where they can light the final torches.) Stage two has the Links working together to transport a key through the whole level [1]. Stage three has yet another Poe variant, Key Bandit Poes. There are three keys, each originally held by the Poes. When defeated, they drop the key, but will respawn, and any Key Bandit Poe without a key chases the Link with the key and steals it back if it can. The final lock requires toteming up to reach, which takes some planning. As a warmup to the boss fight, the Links have to trap three colored Poes who try to run away when a Link gets too close. After they’re dealt with, the boss, Grim Repoe (yes, seriously), comes out. It puts out the lights, so the Link with the Fire Gloves has to relight them. Then he needs to be stunned with the Gust Jar. As he takes damage, he floats higher and higher, requiring a Totem to stun.

Level 3 is the Lone Labyrinth, and its primary feature is temporary platforms. The items are the same as last time, only switching out the Bow for a Gripshot. The first stage has a torch and two switches that need to be hit in rapid order, requiring quick action not only to get them all taken care of, but also not fall into the pit when the platforms disappear. Stage 2 has more of the platforms, including a fight against colored Poes and Chasupas on a rotating set of them. The third stage is a longer set of more of the same, with the additional complication that lighting the torches to start the next set of platforms isn’t always trivial. The final stage features a fight against ReDeads, and here the fact that Doppels don’t take damage from enemies becomes almost gamebreaking; they also don’t get paralyzed. The easiest strategy is to abuse this: when a ReDead screams, switch to a different Link who’s unaffected.

The temple in the Ruins is the Grim Temple. In the first stage, after claiming the items (Boomerang, Gripshot, Fire Gloves), a battle in the dark begins. There are torches that can reduce the “in the dark” portion. The second stage has fights on the disappearing platforms, starting with colored Poes. The third stage has the colored platforms return amidst fights with Prankster Poes and ReDeads.

The boss of the area is Prismantus, a fidget spinner with colored glowing orbs at the ends of its arms and an eye in the center. Two hits to an orb from the appropriately-colored Link turns of the light, and when all three are out, the eye is vulnerable. In the first stage it spins around the area. In the second stage, it turns on its side to roll around the arena before perching on two arms. The ones on the ground are easy enough to hit, the one in the air (which will always be the last one active) requires a full Totem. In the third stage, it perches on a single arm and unleashes a Beamos-like laser attack. Again, hit the lights, Totem up to hit the high ones, pop the eye, finish. Prismantus is probably too easy a boss for the penultimate area, but it’s fun.

Next: It’s a multiplayer Zelda game, so that means the finale is in…

[1] There are Ghinis here, which I think marks the first time we’ve seen both Ghinis and Poes in the same game.

Tri Force Heroes: The Dunes

Madame Couture is happy that Link’s got another piece of the Lady’s Ensemble, but there’s more work to be done, so it’s off to area 6, The Dunes. The first area is the Infinity Dunes, filled with quicksand areas that suck a Link who stays still for more than a second or two. There are piles of sand that need to be blown away with the Gust Jar or washed away with the Water Rod, and rivers of sand that will sweep away anyone who sets foot in them. The second stage is the combat stage, with two Life Likes in the middle, Leevers hidden in the sand, and vultures swooping overhead. Your typical Zelda desert level. The third stage has two sets of gates between the Links and the exit that must be opened, which require scaling the nearby cliffs and activating crystal switches. The boss fight in stage four is against one giant Hokkubokku, then three more. After the lower body segments are gone, the head will try to burrow in the sand and regenerate.

Next up is the Stone Corridors. The first stage gives the Links their items – Boomerang, Gripshot, Gust Jar – then introduces the key new puzzle for the level, bringing a statue to its resting point. The second stage gives a statue near the beginning of the level that must be used to block pointy things that would otherwise hamper the Links’ progress en route to the end. The third stage brings the trickiest part of the game so far: platforms that tilt toward heavy weights. The statue weighs about the same as a single Link, so it’s all about balance as the Link try to take the statue across. There’s one part where the best solution I found is Gripshot Link holds the statue while Gust Jar Link holds Boomerang Link. Then the two Links holding something throw it across a gap, then more or less simultaneously, Boomerang Link throws his Boomerang to bring Gust Jar Link over while Gripshot Link Gripshots over to the statue. In multiplayer, I would imagine the challenge level here would strongly depend on how good the three players are at coordinating. In single player, it’s twitch reflexes and precise placement and just a bloody nightmare to get through.

And the nightmare doesn’t stop there. The boss of the level is the Vulture Vizier, which perches on ledges next to one of those tilting platforms. Over on the left side, it’s manageable because a single Link can handle it while another runs balance on the other side. The right-side perch is higher up, requiring more precarious balance and a Totem to hit. And when the platform becomes unstable and the Links fall off, a heart is lost for each one that falls. And the bird isn’t just sitting there. He tries to push the Links off the platform, whacks it so it wobbles wildly, and eventually drops statues on the platform to affect its balance. When it takes enough damage, it tries to fly over and falls on the platform, thrashing about and wobbling the platform while the Links try to finish it off. I beat it on my last heart on my last fairy and was just glad to be done with it.

Level three is the Gibdo Mausoleum. The items are Gripshot, Gust Jar, and Fire Gloves. The first stage has buried Sand Crabs, one of whom has the key needed to escape. Next up is a fight against waves of Skullropes, Stalfos, and Fire Keeleons. Stalfos have gotten an upgrade; they’re basically impossible to hit unless stunned first. The third stage has invisible floor tiles that are only become visible for a short time when a fireball hits them. The boss fight for the area should be easy to guess: three Gibdos (who turn into Stalfos when burned), then two more.

The final level for the area is the Desert Temple. Items are two Hammers and a Boomerang. The first stage, after the Links get armed, has new enemies called Switch Moles, and… they are not the first Zelda enemy to make me think of Whac-A-Mole, but they might be the purest example (except one whack kills them). Stage two has a bunch of Stalfos. Stage three is a gauntlet with the new element being platforms that need to be tilted by pounding with the Hammer.

The Desert Temple boss is Stalchampion, a giant Stalfos with its left hand turned into a mace. Like many enemies, Stalchampion is immune to attacks from the front, so the trick is to get it to attack one Link and use another to hit it from behind. The first hit makes it hop around on one leg; a second hit before it recovers collapses it into a pile and lets the Links hammer away at its rib cage/heart weak point while dodging the mace head, which rolls around trying to damage the Links during this phase. Stalchampion becomes more aggressive as it takes damage, and ultimately absorbs its weak spot into the skull for the final phase. This is Boomerang Link’s chance to shine, stunning the skull so the Links can whack at it and destroy it.

Next: …it’s taken the game this long to do color puzzles?

Tri Force Heroes: Fortress

Our next area is the Fortress, and the first level is the Sealed Gateway. Items are two Boomerangs and a Gust Jar. The first stage is populated by soldiers, who have upped their game from A Link Between Worlds; there’s basically no opening in their defense unless you make one with an item. The second stage has a flail trooper, followed by two soldiers more with more on higher ground throwing bombs and spears down at the Links. Stage 3 reintroduces the walls raised/lowered by crystals – keeping the wall form from A Link Between Worlds, which even without wall-merging allows for height puzzles. The final stage has a small puzzle with two pendulum-like weights suspended over a bridge that the Link with the Gust Jar needs to swing to allow one to pass, then a boss fight against two flail troopers.

The next level is Bomb Storage, but only one item is Bombs – the other two are Gust Jars. The first stage has a couple crystal switches in windows where the Gust Jar can reach, first from a bomb flower, then working together with the Link with the Bombs. The second stage has a set of parallel walkways the Links need to coordinate to get each other past puzzles (and the Gust Jar can be used to send Links between the walkways). Much of the third stage is an aerial cable car that the Gust Jars can propel with a couple crystal switches that need to be hit with Bombs. There’s also a bunch of rupees suspended on the rope, and it didn’t occur to me to toss a Link up there to get them. The final stage is a rematch with the Hinox Brothers; this one’s considerably easier at first because the walkway’s even bigger, the Hinox Brothers don’t move, and the Gust Jar can propel bombs right back at them. Once their down, their big brother comes in and tosses huge bombs at the Links. They’re not as big as the ones from Four Swords Adventures where the only way to survive was to get off the screen, but they do have a big boom radius so it’s helpful to lure them away from where the Link with Bombs wants to stand to throw Bombs at the Hinox. Further complicating matters, each time the Big Hinox Brother reappears, a couple Hardhat Beetles spawn; this would be fine in multiplayer with one Link handling the Beetles while the other two work on the boss, but frustrating in single player.

The third level is the Training Ground, where the puzzles revolve around Link riding on Armos. (Items: Bow, Gripshot, Gust Jar.) Key to the puzzle in the first stage is that Armos can bounce safely across lava, which took me way too long to figure out and I pretty much only did by accident. Stage two has combat that’s easy because a Link mounted on an Armos smashes anything not mounted on an Armos. The third stage has Beamos eyes; one mounted on the Armos the Links need to use, the other on a nearby pillar. There’s also a puzzle involving using Armos to block fire streams that feels right out of Spirit Tracks’ Tower of Spirits. The fourth stage seems the response to my earlier discovery and pits the mounted Links against mounted enemies for jousting. The Gust Jar can still knock enemies off their mounts, and then the Armos smash strategy is back in play. After the first wave, a second wave spawns with a mounted flail soldier, one with a shield that needs to be stolen with the Gripshot, and a bomb-throwing soldier on a two-high Armos totem.

The Lady’s Lair is the final level. The first stage gives the Links their items: Boomerang, Gripshot, and Gust Jar. The second stage pits them against three soldiers in rotating cable cars, one throwing bombs that can be thrown back. (If he goes before either of the other two, there are bomb flowers that can be used instead.) The third stage is a mostly simple climb to the end, with a couple combat encounters: one with Hardhat Beetles and a Shield Soldier, one with two Hinox and a Fire Flail Soldier. Finally, the Links come face-to-face with Lady Maud, the Lady behind all of Styla’s troubles, and… she’s everything that annoys me about her sister, plus she’s the villain so I’m going to be disinclined to like her anyway. I’m fairly certain she’s my least favorite Zelda villain, unless you count my extreme distaste for fighting the Imprisoned against Demise. (And that game had Ghirahim.)

Anyway, we’re on Area 5, not 8, so we’re only fighting the Tri Furies, the Lady’s Pets right now. These are based on the first three area bosses in order. First up is the Margoma pet that looks like an evil wedding cake. Strategy’s still the same, only difference is the bombs have to come from the flowers on the islands just off the main boss platform. Next up is the Moldorm pet, and this is my favorite Moldorm ever [1]. One of the Links can be tossed over to the bomb island, and sit there out of Moldorm’s grasp and chuck bombs at it. For the last phase when it’s bouncing around the platform with no pattern and its tail up where it takes a full totem to hit, I had to come back to the main platform, but that was no big deal. Finally, there’s Arrghus, protected by two fiery eyes and two icy eyes. They can be stunned and killed safely, or just ignored to hit the main eye with the Gripshot and finish it off when it’s down. Lady Maud throws a tantrum at the defeat of her pets and teleports out. The treasure chest at the end has the second piece of the Lady’s Ensemble, the Lady’s Collar.

Next: I’m starting to think I don’t like this game very much.

[1] Of the version known in Japan as Tail.

Tri Force Heroes: Ice Cavern

There’s nothing new in town, so it’s on to the next area of the Drablands [1], the Ice Cavern. Icy variants of enemies, low traction, maybe some sliding block puzzles. The first level is the Frozen Plateau, and the first stage is different: the Links have to navigate the first level to get to the blocks where the items are kept. The items are three Fire Bracelets [2], which let the Links throw fireballs like they’re a turtle-stomping plumber. Fireballs melt ice, destroy enemies (including icy enemies without risk of damage to Link), and light torches. They can be charged as a frontal shield, and bounce around for a bit before disappearing. The second level takes advantage of the bouncing with puzzles involving throwing fireballs at walls to bounce them around a corner, plus has Freezards spewing icy air. The third level has icy tiles that crack under the Links’ weight (and hitting them with fireballs is less than ideal). The final stage pits the Links against Ice Wizzrobes on the icy tiles.

Next up is Snowball Ravine, with giant snowballs rolling down from… somewhere. Only, instead of snowballs, sometimes it’s giant rocks that are immune to melting. The Links also get a boomerang in this level, to let them cross gaps. The second stage largely consists of finding torches to light, with one guarded by a block that needs to be hit by a bomb that’s hard to do accurately because of the perspective. The third stage is a long gauntlet of snowball dodging. The level’s boss is a giant Freezard. At first it sits in the middle until the Links can melt the ice off its back and arms, and spins around with its breath going. Once reduced to its core, it jumps around the area and uses the breath as a jet to send it flying backward. More fireballs kill it.

The third area is the Silver Shrine, and it features the last of the game’s items: the Hammer. The pedestals with the hammers are surrounded by pegs that need to be hammered, and it took me much longer than it should have to realize that one Link needs to be tossed into the center. The hammer-loaded spring vaults from A Link Between Worlds make their return here. The next stage features Terrorpins (which I had forgotten were coming when I made the Mario joke above); the first fight is relatively easy with one new twist: The Terrorpins stack in a totem of their own. The second takes place on the fragile icy tiles, so in addition to the ground being slippery, there’s also the fact that hammering the ice causes it to break faster. The third stage introduces timing puzzles with the spring vaults. Finally, the final stage has Deadrocks, which turn to stone when they take damage and can be smashed before they revert. This works like the Terrorpin fights, only the icy stage isn’t fragile, just slippery, which is bad enough (it’s easiest to lure the Deadrocks to where Link can stand on non-slippery ground to strike).

The final area is the Ice Temple. The first stage gives two of the Links Hammers and has a series of puzzles to get through before the third Link can get the Fire Gloves needed to get out of the stage. The second stage pits the Link against Deadrocks; the ice is fragile this time, but there’s a lot of solid ground to stand on, so it’s actually easier. Stage three has puzzles involving snowballs rolling past jets of arctic air and timing passage to when the snowball’s blocking the jet to get past safely.

The area boss is Blizzagia, an ice worm dragon. For the first phase of this fight, the perspective changes to focus on five caves at the area’s north end where Blizzagia emerges from, breathing icy and then fully slithering out. Blizzagia has a stone mask that can be damaged with the hammer; after a few hits, the mask cracks, Blizzagia freezes the area, perspective switches back to normal, and Blizzagia remains out of the caves for most of the fight. At this point, I got a little swept up trying to destroy the icy scales on its back and tail with fire, but they’d regrow when Blizzagia went back into the caves. The solution turns out to be keep pounding the mask; the scales exist to give the Fire Gloves Link's player something to keep them entertained. After a few more hits, the mask fully cracks revealing the giant weak point on Blizzagia’s head, and hitting that a bunch finishes it off.

Next: Meeting by appointment only. And remember, dress to impress.

[1] While to me the game’s obsession with fashion ranges from “annoying and overdone” to “please make it stop,” I like the name Drablands for a wilderness area. Maybe not these wilderness areas, which are far too exciting for the name to work, but… say, Twilight Princess. (Too easy?)

Tri Force Heroes: Volcano

A clown has appeared in town, and he tells Link about a new area of the Drablands that’s just been discovered: the Den of Trials. This is apparently a marathon challenge dungeon like we’ve been seeing since Wind Waker’s Savage Labyrinth, and there’s a special outfit reward for those who make it through and prove they don’t need it. (I may have extrapolated that last part.)

The third area is the Volcano, and the first level is Blazing Trail. The first stage introduces the new item, the Boomerang. Like the Water Rod and Gripshot, the Boomerang has a function that serves as an alternate way to get a Link across a barrier: it grabs the Link and brings him to the thrower. The second stage has a puzzle involving volcanic rocks that break apart under the Links’ weight (but regrow if they do sink into the lava) and Boomeranging to get to the combat encounter: Fire Keese and Hinox. The Hinox aren’t as tough as they were in A Link Between Worlds, but the fire in the area adds a bit of challenge, especially with the “Link who takes fire damage runs around uncontrollably with his buns on fire” mechanic from Four Swords making its return. Stage three has falling boulders to avoid while navigating the path. The final stage has rising and falling levels of lava, with a few safe high points for the Links to stand while battling Kodongos and Fire Keese. It’s funny how a little change can affect things; if this were water, I’d have hated it, but with fire/lava it’s actually fun.

Next up is the Hinox Mine, which gives the Links a Bow and two Boomerangs. (In situations like this, I try to give Green Link the item there’s only one of.) The first stage is short and mainly exists to sell the idea that Link can grab bombs from bomb flowers with the boomerang. Then the real fun starts with the second stage, which puts the Link in a minecart and they have to use their items to open the way to the gate. The third level is more of the same, with three crystal switches that must be activated (thankfully, not linked). Then the fourth level has the miniboss: Hinox Brothers. At first, there’s just one, throwing bombs into the Links’ minecart that the Links need to toss back and the timing makes it tricky. Then there’s two of them and it’s easy to fill up the cart; the trick I found to staying alive was keeping active Links toward the edges of the cart and exploiting the fact that Doppels don’t take damage.

Third is the Den of Flames, which has another new item, returning from Minish Cap: the Gust Jar. It can blast Links across gaps, put out flames, and accelerate swinging platforms. The second stage has a bunch of Fire Hardhat Beetles, because if there’s one enemy that had to be made more annoying, this was it. The third stage has swinging platforms to manipulate and firebars to avoid. The boss room is simple but annoying: Fire Keeleons that spit bombs, followed by a couple more with Fire Hardhat Beetles.

Finally, there’s the Fire Temple. For the first time, there’s three separate items: Bow, Boomerang, and Gust Jar. All three are required to get through the first stage’s puzzles. The second stage pits the Links against more minecart-riding Hinox; one at first, then two more once the first one’s defeated. This fight is much easier than the Hinox Brothers for four reasons: First, the Links’ platform is stationary, so they only have to account for the enemy carts’ movement. Second, the platform is bigger, giving more room to get away from bombs. Third, the bombs don’t come as fast. Fourth, there are bomb flowers the Links can use to get their own bombs, so they don’t need the Hinox’ bombs to win the fight. The third stage has puzzles involving a big block and lava geysers that can lift the block.

And we come to the boss of this very tiresome area, and they top it off by bringing back our old friend Moldorm. (It’s wearing armor, so it looks less like a chain of leafy hamburgers.) Fire geysers scattered around the platform add a bit of challenge, but it’s the multiplayer mechanic that makes it really frustrating. Moldorm will focus on the active Link and only reveal its tail weak point periodically. And once the active Link is switched, there’s a fraction of a second before the tail becomes invulnerable again. Also, the reason Moldorm in general is so annoying is its tendency to push Link off of platforms, and Doppels are neither immune to being pushed around nor falling damage. As the fight goes on, Moldorm raises its tail so it requires a Totem to hit. For the final phase, the tail requires a full Totem to hit, but Moldorm loses the ability to focus and bounces erratically around the platform. Also, the tail’s up so high the Totem Link can shoot over Moldorm’s body and hit the tail, which feels like a mercy.

Next: I’d try to keep the song theme going, but if a song’s got a snowflake in it, it automatically becomes a Christmas song.

Tri Force Heroes: Riverside

Madame Couture recognizes the Lady’s Glasses in Link’s possession, and now that Link has proven himself, she tells him the full story of the witch, starting with the fact that she’s her older sister. Their people have powers to create magical outfits. Couture feels bad about helping hunt down her sister, but something has to be done after what she did to Princess Styla. But she’s come up with an alternate plan: create a facsimile of The Lady’s outfit, and whoever wears it will be able to break the curse on Styla, without needing to defeat The Lady herself. Also in town, a street merchant has set up selling random treasure items. The next area is the Riverside, and the first level is the Secret Fortress. The name suggests a watery area, which is borne out not just by the terrain, but by the item in that level: the Water Rod. (I don’t think we’ve had Water Rods before. Fire, ice, sand, and tornado… but not water.) It creates a pillar of water that the Links can ride to reach higher places without Toteming, and the first stage has a bunch of cliffs to navigate, and some enemies near the end on high platforms to fight, to get familiar with its use. The pattern I noted in the Woodlands doesn’t hold here: the second stage is combat-free, with puzzles on chaining pillars together and using the water to extinguish fire. The third stage has a tricky puzzle involving moving fast enough with the pillars and a bomb to break a wall, and the final stage has enemies hovering over water or standing on island pillars that require the Water Rod to get to. Next up is the Abyss of Agony. One Link gets a bow here, the other two stick with their Water Rods. The main new obstacle in this area is rapids which can sweep the Links along, including right off a cliff, if they fall in. The second stage here is the simple combat encounter stage, and – as is typical for these encounters – it won’t activate until all three Links are in the combat area, and it took me forever to figure out what I needed to do. I was constantly exploring with one, and then two Links, but there was nothing that seemed to require the full Totem, so I never felt the need to try bringing all three down… I was stuck for quite a while. Octoroks are among the enemies here, looking more like the terrestrial version but aquatic. The third stage has a long climb up cliffs to the gate, aided by platforms controlled by wheels that can be spun by the Water Rod’s pillar of water. The final stage has another Giant Buzz Blob, with three differences from the first one: it has four stages instead of three, requiring the Links to raise themselves up to hit the weak point for the final stage; it goes underwater between stages and must be forced to surface with the Water Rod; and it has three feet instead of four, so its electric attack goes out in a Y instead of an X. The Cove of Transition has another new item; as is traditional, the water level has a Hookshot variant, this time the Gripshot. As the first Hookshot or variant to appear in a multiplayer Zelda game, the Gripshot embraces that novelty and can pull the Link to another Link/Doppel. The second stage has a combat area with water going up and down. In the third stage, using the Gripshot to guide a raft around returns (with one Link having to stand in as a guidepost). The final stage features Gyorms, shelled enemies that need to be pulled out of their shells to be vulnerable to the sword (and quickly get back in, which is frustrating for a single-player campaign). The Water Temple gives two Gripshots and one Water Rod and reintroduces the familiar element of using the Gripshot to spin wheels to raise/lower the water level. The second stage features combat in an area with few places to stand, and here came the ultimate frustration with the shared life bar and the heads-up messages every time something happens: When the Links get down to three or fewer (out of a base nine) hearts, messages start scrolling across the screen warning you you’re in the danger zone YES I KNOW I can hear it beeping and am keeping a close eye on my life bar I DO NOT WANT OR NEED THESE at least it’s better than Fi at least it’s better than Fi at least it’s better than Fi… Sorry. I’m fine now. The third stage is mostly a puzzle involving getting to a raft, then using that raft to bring the key to the door. Then the final stage has the area boss, Arrghus. The first part of this fight is the same as always: Link pulls the eyes that circle Arrghus off with the Gripshot and whacks them with his sword. When all the eyes are gone, the water drains and the Links go to the bottom of the area. Pulling the second ring of eyes requires a full Totem, which leaves little time for a Link to jump off the Totem so they can attack the eye. It’s easier to wait for Arrghus to send one out to attack, pull it closer with the Gripshot or stun it with the Water Wand, and attack. The last phase is the easiest: Arrghus’ core body has an eye, and Gripshotting it stuns it, allowing many free shots before it recovers. Next: Ground she’s moving under me / Tidal waves out on the sea…

Tri Force Heroes: Woodlands

The second level of the Woodlands is Buzz Blob Cave. In the first stage, the Links start out separate, each needing to claim their bow and use it to pop a balloon to reach the central area. There’s one other new trick to this stage: the gate is locked. The key is in a balloon near the gate; one of the Links needs to pop the balloon, and then the key must be carried to the lock. The second stage has a switch all three Links must stand on to activate, activating two waves of Blobs (mostly buzzless, but it would be weird to have Buzz Blob Cave with no Buzz Blobs) to fight. The first wave comes in a circle, but that one Buzz Blob keeps it from being easy to spin attack and be done.

The third stage has the Links riding a set of platforms and needing to shoot two Totem Dekus and two switches to open the way forward. The boss of the level is a Giant Buzz Blob. It starts mostly unformed with the giant red orb that’s its weak spot at ground level, so a single Link can shoot it. After a couple hits, it forms up a little so that it takes a two-Link Totem to hit the orb. Then, of course, it stands up to full height, and a full Totem is required. In between phases, the Giant Buzz Blob sends out four lines of electricity in an X, rotating around the area. This is tricky to avoid, although less so in single player because inactive Doppels don’t take damage (except from falling.)

The third level is the Moblin Base, and it mixes up the item selection by giving one Link bombs. The first stage has some simple bomb and bow puzzles to show the player(s) know how to use the items. The second stage has a bunch of enemies: Totem Dekus for the bow, Life Likes for the bombs, and Buzz Blobs for either (but easier with bows). The Moblins show up in the third stage as the Links try to enter the actual Moblin Base; the highlight of the stage is a set of six crystal switches, one that needs to be hit with a bomb, then five at varying heights that need arrows. The final stage is a battle against a bunch of Moblins, including three mounted on Armos.

After three levels, a clear pattern is emerging: The first stage has some basic puzzles to solve with the items, the second stage has a stronger combat focus, the third stage is a longer series of puzzles, and then a boss (or boss-like) fight. The next level, the Forest Temple, follows the pattern fairly well. The items are two bombs and one bow. The first stage brings back shooting through torches to light unlit torches, and adds Mini-Margos, spiked enemies that move around in a pattern and can be destroyed by tossing a bomb into their back. The second stage has a bunch of Mini-Margos and some Tektites hopping around between pillars. The third stage has a series of long, narrow pathways with arrow traps continually firing along the paths.

The Forest Temple concludes with a boss fight against Margoma, a cross between the Mini-Margos (themselves based on Margomill from A Link Between Worlds) and Gohma. It spins around the room until it charges. Charging into a wall stuns it, allowing a Link to toss a bomb into its hole, further stunning it and revealing the eye. At this point, a Link needs to toss another on top of Margoma to hit the eye. After the first few hits, Margoma grows a second layer, requiring a Totem to get bombs into the hole and the Link on top to hit the eye. Eventually all that’s left is the eye, which hops erratically around the room; an arrow will stun it, and a few more sword hits kill it. In addition to the normal reward, Link finds the Lady’s Glasses in the chosen treasure chest.

As Link prepares to return to town, Sir Combsly calls him over to tell him he’s got a summons from King Tuft. Tuft tells Link that clearing an area unlocks extra challenges in that area (three per level). For the first level, these are to complete the level within a (very tight!) time limit, to carry an orb from start to finish of each stage (the orb lights a portion of the stage, any active Link outside the lighted portion takes damage), and to play with half as many hearts. Like with outfit collecting, I’m still deciding if this is something I want to bother with. Frankly, I don’t know that I’m enjoying the game enough to play it four times.

Next: Gonna lay down my sword and shield [1]…

[1] Does this Link even have a shield?

Tri Force Heroes: Doppels

At the gate to the castle, the guard stops Link for inspection, and determines he’s got the ear, hair, and sideburns to be a Tri Force Hero, and allows him to enter the castle, to the consternation of another would-be hero (dressed in green, with pink hair like Link’s sprite from A Link to the Past, heh). Inside, Sir Combsly also inspects Link and declares after several who didn’t measure up, he’s finally found someone with the attributes to be a Tri Force Hero. He gives Link the necessary materials for a Hero’s Tunic and sends him to Madame Couture. On the way, Link talks to the pink-haired guy again; something about Friendly Tokens which are earned through multiplayer play and unlock exclusive outfits and wow am I even more likely to not bother.

Link takes the materials to Madame Couture, who agrees if Sir Combsly vouches for Link, she’ll work her magic. She makes the Hero’s Tunic and directs Link to the changing room to put it on. Outside, the Bearded Baron directs Link to give thanks to the Tri Force Hero statue (i.e., save his game). Link returns to Combsly, who welcomes him back and explains the rules: “It’s literally too dangerous to go alone, so you’ll need a team of three.” However, for those who insist on going it alone, there’s another option through a smaller door to the right of the main door. (It doesn’t matter to me, but there doesn’t seem to be an option for two players. Weird.)

Through that door, Link finds a wizard and two wooden dolls. The dolls are Doppels, which can serve as vessels for a lone hero’s spirit, transferring among them so one hero can solve puzzles meant to be solved by three. There’s also a skip button which lets the hero sacrifice a resurrection fairy to empower the Doppels to skip a section of a level, which also means one of the treasure chests at the end of the level will be empty. The other core mechanic is that the Links can carry each other in a stack like the statue in the city, referred to as a totem. (During this, the music mix changes depending on which position Link is in.) Link can use the topmost Doppel’s sword and item from any position in the stack. Finally, Link and the Doppels share a life meter and energy meter. (Doppels can’t wear different outfits, but Link can; Link can wear his original outfit, but it has one less heart and causes him to take double damage. So, for challenge seekers.)

There are eight areas in the game, and each has four levels. The first area is the Woodlands, and its first level is Deku Forest. It’s divided into four stages. In the first stage, each of the Links can take an item – in this case, all three get bows. The objective of each stage is to activate the portal at the end and reach it. There’s no true need to collect rupees, unlike in Four Swords where more rupees means better keys, or Four Swords Adventures where the Force Gems are the required collectible to make it out of the stage, but you can probably spend them on stuff in town. In the first stage, Link and the Doppels must strike orbs on platforms of varying heights, mastering totem tricks to get there. The second stage is full of buzzless Blobs, and the portal appears when they’re all defeated. The third stage has a string of platforms and orbs Link needs to manipulate to make it to the end. Near the end of the third stage is a Squiddy, a creature that Link can juggle with his sword and drops items as long as he keeps juggling.

And then the final stage is another fighting stage, this time against four Totem Dekus, Deku Scrubs that rise to different heights to be attacked by Link in various totem sizes. Overall this is very fast-paced; each stage can be done in a couple minutes; probably even under a minute if rushing. Of course, this is the first level, so they may get longer. One annoyance is that every time Link picks up a heart or rupee or opens a treasure chest, a little banner scrolls across the screen declaring what Link has just done. This is probably useful for multiplayer where the other players need to know what one is doing, but for single player it’s grating. After leaving the final stage, Link returns to the castle, and the Doppels disappear. Link gets to choose one of three chests, each of which has a treasure item.

Back in town, people recognize that Link’s accomplished stuff. More interestingly, two new shops are open. Daily Riches is a chest game with a prize in one of four chests. It’s free to play, and playing each day increases the odds of winning until the fourth day when winning is guaranteed. The other location is the Miiverse gallery, and while the Miiverse is no more, the Photo Bro still gives Link a camera so he can take pictures while exploring the Drablands.

Next: The rest of the first area.