You know, if I had been that committed to sparkle motion, I could have posted Part 1 seven years ago and Part 2 today, and have both parts interact in some ways with each other. ….Unfortunately, I would have had to have thought of that back in 2016. Too late!
The next medallions
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Darunia called his own Goron kid the same name you called
Link on the main menu. |
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| Time to drop the hammer. |
Much like the Forest Temple, the first dungeons in the Hyrule visited by adult Link have elements similar to the ones he visited as a child. We visit the Gorons again in order to enter Death Mountain. Most of them have been captured and taken to the Fire Temple within the volcano’s crater, to be eaten by the mountain’s resident fire dragon Volvagia. In order to navigate the temple without burning to death, Link needs a fire-resistant tunic, which is given to him by Darunia’s son. (How the tunic protects him when his legs are still bare, that’s never explained.) Darunia himself is in the dungeon as well, trying to rescue his people.
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C'm'ere, Volvagia. I have a hammer and your head looks
like a nail right now. |
In this rescue mission, Link frees the Gorons one at a time, always getting a new key with each. Great concept. This eventually takes him to the high point, where he gets a special tool, the Megaton Hammer, which lets him smash down rusty switches and, of course, beat the boss. Link has to play whack-a-mole against the fire dragon Volvagia, smack its head real good with the Megaton Hammer in order to slash at it with the sword. It was a tough fight for me, until I figured out the pattern eventually.
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The fire, then the ice... Man, all these temperature changes
are gonna give Link a nasty cold. |
Next up is the Water Temple, hidden underneath Lake Hylia. We need a special song taught by Sheik to teleport to it, as one path is blocked by a fence and the other path, accessible from the Zoras’ domain, is frozen solid. So are most Zoras themselves, really. In fact, before we can access this major dungeon, we have to go through an ice-themed dungeon in order to obtain Iron Boots, which allow Link to walk underwater. The place has a gimmick that involves burning away mysterious red ice using blue fire that can be kept into bottles. The blue fire is also needed in the Zoras’ domain to free the King, also encased in that ice; and the King, as thanks, gives Link a blue tunic allowing him to breathe underwater.
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Good thing these heavy boots let me walk underwater.
Good thing this blue suit apparently gives me gills. |
The Water Temple is famously confusing. In my case it wasn’t as bad, tmaybe because I kept using a guide every time I got stuck. (Speeding through the game for this review, this was kinda necessary.) It didn’t take long to meet an adult Ruto here as well, with the Zora princess still believing Link is her husband… Lady, I don’t have time for this, Hyrule needs savin’! Ruto is nice enough to explain the temple’s concept of raising and lowering the water using Zelda’s Lullaby near Triforce pictures. Works fine once we finally get the hang of the place.
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Every playthrough I found makes sure to find Biggoron's
Sword relatively early on. I can see why. Even against
yourself, this sword slays. |
The Temple isn’t famous solely for its layout, but also for its mini-boss, Dark Link. Imagine walking into a large watery room, and after passing an island, the shadow beneath you is gone. Then it shows up for a fight, and has as much health as you do. It gets increasingly aggressive as its health depletes. Makes for a very unique boss battle, which I ended up cheesing through with the Megaton Hammer. This leads to the dungeon’s treasure, the Longshot, an improvement to the Hookshot. It is necessary against the boss, Morpha, which is technically just a little spherical thing that controls a body made of water. After defeating that thing (which I thought to be pretty easy), we rescue Ruto, the third Sage, and get one more medallion.
Fight across time
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| STRANGER DANGER! |
Past this point, progress has to be made by traveling between eras; some zones can only be visited as Young Link, others as Adult Link. The hero and Sheik meet at Kakariko Village and it’s on fire. A mysterious shadow escapes the well and hunts down Impa, who is hiding at the Shadow Temple. We can return as Young Link to drain the well (with a song learned as an adult, and playing it to the man who teaches it to us, creating a neat paradox) and explore the secret dungeon underneath. No big boss here, aside from an inexplicably creepy… thing, with an unhinged jaw and noodle arms coming out of the ground. What the flying Hell is that? Telling me it’s called a Dead Hand is not helping! From this venture we get the Lens of Truth, an item that can reveal things that are hidden, like secret pathways or invisible walls or platforms.
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You're not imagining things, the enemy's center is invisible
outside of the Lens' screen. I wonder how they coded that. |
The Lens are necessary in the next dungeon, the Shadow Temple, located above the Kakariko Graveyard. Several puzzles involve seeing things that are hidden. However, its layout is less confusing than the Forest and Water Temples’, so I had an easier time exploring it. Made it to the end relatively easily as a result. The new tool here is a set of winged boots allowing Link to, believe it nor not, be walking on air for a short moment. Talk about leaps of faith. The Lens are also needed to see the dungeon’s boss and its weak point.The boots let Link keep his balance, as the fight takes place over a giant bongo that the boss’s giant hands keep drumming on.
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Sneak around and slash at these women with your
Biggoron's Sword, won't hurt them at all, promise! |
Our next stop is at the end of Gerudo Desert – the Spirit Temple, where the last sage, Nabooru, is hidden. Getting there is a trek. First we need to go through a lengthy stealth mission to free construction workers from the Gerudo, a tribe of thieving women, with Ganondorf being the only male born in 100 years. I learned I’m not good at stealth. For freeing the workers, the Gerudo acknowledge they’ve been bested and let Link through to the desert, which is another segment involving puzzle-solving. We get to the Spirit Temple, split in two paths: One is blocked by a giant stone, and only Young Link can enter the other. Outside, Sheik teaches this temple’s song.
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As adult Link, Iron Knuckles are manageable.
As a kid, they're a credible threat. |
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Good thing these twin witches use elements that are
directly harmful to each other, right? |
This dungeon feels the most complete with the game’s themes so far – you have to explore half of it as Young Link in order to find the magical Silver Gauntlets, which the older Link needs to explore the other half of it. I'm disappointed there isn't another dungeon like it. At least, it’s well-designed; one go in as Young Link, one go in as Adult Link, that’s all you need. Young, after getting the gauntlet, we see Nabooru captured by the witches Koume and Kotake, who live in the dungeon. As an adult, we find a mirror shield that can deflect light rays and other blasts of magic, and then defeat an Iron Knuckle (a knightlike monster in steel armor) that turns out to contain a possessed Nabooru, which the witches take away again. We fight the witches and their combined form using their fire and ice spells against them thanks to the new shield. With the freed Gerudo as the last sage, we now have everything we need!
Against Ganondorf
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You bet your ass I'm coming, Ganondorf! Your castle
is my last stop on this tour of Crapsack Future Hyrule! |
Back at the Temple of Time, we are approached by Sheik again. The ninja is revealed to have been Zelda in disguise all along. (Notice my absense of shocked gasp.) She spends a moment explaining how the Triforce was split, how Link was trapped in the Sacred Realm for seven years, how everything happened… She also gives him the Light Arrows to defeat Ganondorf. And of course, in order to exposit, she lowered her guard long enough to be captured by him. Damnit, always at the worst moment.
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Imagine, had Zelda been captured two minutes earlier (read:
before she gave us the Light Arrows) we'd be utterly
screwed in this dungeon. |
On the plus side, Ganondorf’s place is where Hyrule Castle used to be, so it's next door. The dungeon is made of six doors leading to spheres that Link must break with the light arrows so he can access the central tower. Each door reflects one of the six sages and their respective dungeon (Impa's door requires extensive use of the Lens, as an example). Link also finds golden gloves, an upgrade to the gloves from the previous dungeon allowing him to lift even heavier stuff. If this keeps up, he’s gonna suplex Ganondorf’s entire freaking castle to get to the evil wizard. Hey,
some heroes suplex trains, just saying.
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| Return to sender. |
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Hey, Ganon ! For your ugly pig face, the doctors recommend
a daily application of Light Arrow to the head!
You're lucky, I give extra shots today! |
Ganondorf’s tower is as simple as it gets, just some fights against higher-grade enemies. Then we fight Ganondorf. I enjoy these little tennis matches with the Lord of Evil. The first round was easy. Following this, Zelda is freed, and she and Link race down the tower as it is crumbling. Surely Ganondorf couldn’t survive that, right? Well, he did, and transforms into the hog monster Ganon, easily knocking Link’s Master Sword away with a slash. In the second phase, Link can use Light arrows to stun Ganon then smack at his tail with the Megaton Hammer. Between that and the fights against Bowser in Mario 64, someone at Nintendo had a thing against tails on final bosses.
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Even if you wield something stronger, you still need the
Master Sword to finish him. Too bad, Biggoron's Sword. |
When Link retrieves his sword, Ganon doubles down on attacking during this third(?) phase. Previously, you could run circles around him to get to the damn tail; no such luck this time, he’s too quick. You need to stun him first. Good luck, those damn arrows use up a lot of magic. With a final slash of the Master Sword, Ganon goes down and Ganondorf gets sealed in the Evil Realm by the Sages. With this adventure over, Zelda takes the magical ocarina back and uses it to send Link back to the past, where everyone celebrates.
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Good thing this Goron is a good guy, or
we'd be in danger. |
Obviously that’s the end of the story, but before I go with my final words, just a quick list of side-quests since I want to at least be fair to the game: The long fetch quest that leads to the powerful Biggoron’s Sword; killing the 100 Golden Skulltulas and gathering their emblems, which lets Link get a larger wallet for his Rupees; taming Epona, then rescuing her from the ranch; more Zelda staples, finding all Heart Pieces and Fairy Fountains; a whole bunch of mini-games to play as both young or adult Link; finishing the Gerudo training grounds; getting the scarecrow’s song; selling stuff from the happy mask salesman; finding all the big Poes… And I’m sure I forgot a few. Most notably, beating the game once unlocks a harder version of it known as the Master Quest. Good luck!
Final words
What a trip that was. What a challenge, too. No, I won’t go against the flow, this is a really damn good game. It says a lot that I was disappointed that I had to rush through it in order to report on it, and it still took me several weeks… for just a two-part article! (It being a long game to finish on the 3DS may have played a part.)
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Riding Epona is great, but she doesn't see much
use outside of the gigantic Plains. |
You can look at the N64 era as being all about franchises updating themselves for the third dimension, in ways no previous consoles could do. Each hero had to prove their worth in 3D. Mario did it, masterfully. The Legend of Zelda had to, as well, and we can call this another smashing success. Discontent with just presenting a new Hyrule for this generation of consoles, we have a story that features two versions of the same world and a lot of timey-wimey shenanigans. Topped by a very unique mechanic of playing music for specific effects. Everything put together makes for an excellent package.
Despite the sheer size of the Hyrule Plains, the world itself doesn’t feel that huge, if only because all of the areas around the Plains are pretty cleanly separate and finite, which does take away somewhat from the sensation of open world I would otherwise get from, say, the first Zelda game or A Link to the Past. Oh, this doesn’t detract from the fun, it’s just something I noticed.
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You ruin some dude's life with a song, and seven
years later, he teaches you that song. |
Obviously, since it’s a core element of this game, the interactions between eras is really interesting. The paradox involving the Song of Storms, but also any instance of you changing the world as a kid, with the repercussions seen as an adult. Really great. I would probably like if there were more plot-based instances of that since it is such a great concept. I was a little disappointed that Link got less dungeons as a child, as it means that several items in the inventory cannot be used for a large chunk of the plot. Adult Link won’t use those kiddie toys like the slingshot! He won’t even use sticks to carry fire around to light torches! While not all, there ARE some items found as a kid that Adult Link could still use, but doesn’t. Only a handful can be used by both, like the Lens of Truth.
The two sore points for players involve core NPCs: Rauru, in his owl form, who talks a long time, and who ends his spiel by asking if you want him to repeat, making it too easy to wind up going through all of the text over. Second is Navi, memetically annoying if the Internet is to be believed. Well… She is useful gameplay-wise seeing as she is the targeting system allowing you to attack enemies, sure. However, most of the time, when she asks for your attention, all she’ll do is remind you where the next dungeon or plot-relevant scene is. “Hey, listen!” As if I didn’t already know. And she does that even if you’re focusing on side-quests. I didn’t feel it was as big an issue as the Internet makes it to be, but still a notable annoyance.
It’s a really good game, no doubt there – and I probably would have enjoyed it even more if I hadn’t tried to rush through it for this review. I am looking forward to picking it up again soon and exploring Hyrule even more as both Links. These games are amazing when it comes to offering a world to explore, and I feel like that passed me by in my hurry. But that I still loved this game by the time I finished it speaks volumes to its quality. If you’ve never tried this Titan of gaming, by all means, do, it’s worth it!
Next review… hopefully won’t take as long to be published. I should also start thinking about what I’ll do for the blog’s 10th anniversary, coming up in about a month…
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