Let's Play Link's Awakening, part 15: Link's Angle

Hello again. Here we are in Angler's Tunnel. The eyes on these potato guys look like they might be amenable to arrows.



But they are not.



I move on to the next room and encounter spined ones, I think last seen in the first dungeon. They're the same here as they were there: Flip 'em with the shield, then attack. There are more in the room to the right, but this room also has a chest. What's inside?



The compass! That arrived quickly. Let's see where the chests and Nightmare are:



Hmm. What's the layout of this dungeon represent, anyway? I speculated last time that I might find a home for my fishing hook in here (spoiler: nope), since it's a tool of anglers. If you squint, this room layout sort of suggests a hook.



I've got two choices to carry on, but the path right is blocked by a locked door, so I head south and quickly find a key, allowing me to open it.



These water striders have a tendency to move away just as you go to strike them, and their ability to skate over water that's too deep for Link makes them difficult targets.



Unable to pass the locked door, I backtrack and find my way to the chest upstairs. I get the stone slab fragment and a glimpse of the dungeon ahead.



Carrying on north I see the rest of the stone slab and come across a most appealing hole in the floor.



Whee!



If you look closely at the third image where the game is reminding me that I can blow stuff up, you'll see that I'd actually just dropped a bomb when that helpful message popped up. I get a key for my troubles.



These helicopter flowerpots can only be hit when they land, which is often on water where Link can't reach. Luckily, I brought my bow.



Carrying on forwards I get another key.



I backtrack, picking up the map. I guess the dungeon layout is the head of a trident? That's nautical, I suppose. I use one of my keys to get past the locked door I had to turn back from before, revealing a chest I can't get to yet.



The next room is the other side of the cross-shaped hole in the floor. It's quite a clever way to put crossing paths in a single room without allowing movement between them.



In the next room I use my other key and push a block to clear a path forwards. Doing so also blocks the stairs, but by going to the next room and coming back the blocks are reset and the path is cleared.



Not that I take it. I head forwards on the same level. In the next room a key drops when all enemies are killed, but it falls in a hole. I just have to trust that I'll reach the lower level and find it at some point. Eagle-eyed viewers may notice the magic of (lazy) editing in this gif.



The stone slab gives a not particularly helpful clue.



I carry on, skirting the edge of the deep water, and find the Nightmare's door. But not a way to reach it.



Carrying on I find some glinting tiles. This is a pretty standard puzzle: step on all five tiles in the correct order to complete it. I can only reach the upper left tile from the lower left tile, and I spend far too long establishing that the correct sequence does not involve going from the lower left to the upper left, meaning I can't complete it until I can swim.



In the next room I get shot at by potato statues and run over by one of whatever those wall-hugging gear things are, but I manage to get a key from the chest.



Up north is a dead end, so I retrace my steps to the door I've just gotten a key to, but before entering I decide to pursue the fallen key. I can't just drop down the hole, so I head for the stairs leading down one screen to the right.



I can see the key, but I can't swim down to get it. Oh well.



I head through the locked door and encounter the mid-boss, this... thing. Giant beetle? Dunno.



It chases Link, but by using the Pegasus Boots I can turn the hunter into the hunted. Catching up to it allows me to score a hit.



I repeat this process often enough to wonder if I'm doing it wrong, and then:



I win!



As usual, it leaves behind a teleport to the entrance. As is also becoming usual, I fail to collect the fairy left behind when it died.



Carrying on northward, I reach a room whose doors close in on Link. I make it past, but the exits are left sealed. How will I proceed?



Pulling the handle at the top right moves the blocks back, and then I have a brief window to make my escape. I wait for my moment to avoid the enemy, but get it wrong and take a hit. Oh well.



The next room has more potato marksmen, who fortunately lay off once I clear the other enemies, and a conspicuous chest containing an item. What is it?



You've got the Flippers! If you press the B Button while you swim, you can dive underwater!

The flippers! Which incidentally are what I think the map is supposed to be shaped like. The game tells you how to duck underwater, but not that you can press A to swim more quickly. I figure it out before too long.



In the next room is another glinting tile puzzle, though this one is kind enough to show you which tile is next as you step on each one. As befits this very simple puzzle, there is no reward.



Here's Link swimming, including when pressing B to dive underwater.



I head back to the more restrained glinting tile puzzle.



Now that I can swim, I manage to solve it, revealing a passageway downwards. It wasn't until after solving it through trial and error that I realised the tiles are stepped on in the same order as in the other version, whose purpose is revealed to be cluing the player in on how to solve this one. I was not smart enough to pick up on what the stone slab was telling me.



The path down takes me past these falling blocks. The second one gives me some grief, but I make it through.



I get the boss key, and also a glimpse of an area near the start of the dungeon that I didn't explore yet. I start to make my way there, stopping to get a chest that I couldn't reach pre-flippers.



I also stop through to pick up the key that fell underground. On the way I miss the moving platform and land on spikes, a mistake that very nearly kills Link.



I manage to get the key, and discover that in side-view you can still use your items while swimming, unlike in the top down view.



I head back to the entrance to get the flying bombs and lift the pots, and head back up the right side fork of the dungeon for a chest I couldn't reach before.



A fairy in a chest gets me back to full health, and I head for the one path as yet untaken.



Link does some fishing.



Carrying on I reach the Nightmare's Lair. But there's just some stairs here.



I head down, and down some more. On the next screen I find:



The Angler of Angler's Tunnel: a giant angler fish! I'm guessing it's not interested in my fishing hook.



Is that it? It doesn't even land a hit when it charges me, and the fight is over in a matter of seconds.



Heading back up, I find a harp.



The Surf Harp!



Link is a pretty good harp player.



Okay, so when I start exploring where the ability to swim will take me, I should leave the bay for last. Got it. But that'll have to wait for next time.

Next Time:
Swimming.

Map:


To-Do:

• Reach the stairs south of the Mermaid statue.
• Find another way to cross long gaps.
  -Reach the last signpost in the signpost maze.
  -Cross the gap to the left of the Kanalet Castle gates.
  -Cross the river east of the Seashell Mansion.
  -Cross the water east of Angler's Tunnel.
  -Get the chest in the north cave in the Mysterious Forest.
  -Get the chest near the crystals in the cave in the mountain to the east of Mt. Tamaranch.
  -Cross the gap over water to the south-west of the Animal Village.
  -Get the piece of heart in the cave at the north-east of the Animal Village.
• Learn to swim.
  -Explore the waters and caves near Angler's Tunnel.
  -Visit the person swimming in Martha's Bay.
  -Explore the waters of Martha's Bay.
  -Cut the bush on the island southwest of the Mermaid statue.
  -Cut the bush on the island in the lake north of Richard's place.
  -Cross the water to the east of the waterfall in the mountains near where Papahl got lost.
  -Check for secrets under the bridge south-west of the Animal Village.
  -Do something with the statues on the island north of the Animal Village.
  -Reach the cave entrance north of the stone field north of the Animal Village.
  -Continue exploring up above Angler's Tunnel.
• Ram any trees I come across.
  -North of the Witch's hut.
  -East of the dilapidated house.
  -Further south of the Seashell Mansion.
  -West of the Animal Village.
  -South-west of the Animal Village.
  -By the owl statue north-east of the stone field.
• Find a way to get past cracked (but non-explodable) rocks.
  -Get past the cracked rock north of the phone booth near Write's place.
  -Get past the cracked rocks on Mt Tamaranch.
  -Get past the cracked rocks on the mountains east of Mt Tamaranch.
• Do something with the Flying Rooster statue.
• Do something with the Mermaid statue.
• Do something at the grave west of the witch's hut.
• Do something at Manbo's Pond.
• Find a use for the fishing hook.
• Talk to the trees outside the Seashell Mansion
• Poke suspicious walls with the sword.
• Grasp Schule's art.
• Get to the owl statue to the right of the lake above Richard's place.
  -Figure out how to kill the moving skulls and explore the cave under the owl.
• Kill the moving skull in the cave under Richard's house.
• Do something in the cave on the beach.
• Reach the piece of heart in the cave in the mountain to the east of Mt. Tamaranch.
  -Try bombing the eastern wall of the first cave east of Mt Tamaranch.
• Do something in the house east of the beach.
• Get into the closed off area northeast of the house east of the beach.
• Jump down the well in the Animal Village.
• Collect a lot of secret seashells.
  -Have something pretty ordinary happen.
  -Have something good happen.
• Learn to play many songs.
  -Learn to play the "Ballad of the Wind Fish".
• Find a use for the Face Key.
• Get a magnifying glass.
  -Read 'Dark Secrets and Mysteries of Koholint'.
• Explore Angler's Tunnel.
  -Check for a hidden room near the flying heart in Angler’s Tunnel.
• Find the eight instruments.
  -Find the Full Moon Cello.
  -Find the Conch Horn.
  -Find the Sea Lily's Bell.
  -Find the Surf Harp.
  -Find the five four remaining instruments.
• Play the eight instruments in front of the Wind Fish Egg.
  -Wake the Wind Fish.
• Get off the island, I guess?

2020 comment: I added a couple of items to the list at this point based on suggestions in the forum thread where this was originally posted. In particular, the one about poking walls with the sword, which I'd been told would produce a different sound if the wall could be broken with a bomb.