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.
