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.)
