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?)
