Here we are in Level 8-- Turtle Rock. I start by moving to the next room, where a small demon runs away from me. I equip the boomerang and head back to the entrance chamber to try again.
Well! That was easy. I've just noticed in the gif that I killed it before the doors even had a chance to close. If you look back at the first image, the side doors close when you enter this room. Killing the demon opens them, or prevents the closure in this case.
I take the left path, as is my wont, and pass through a few unremarkable rooms. In the first, I clear out the snakes and avoid the laser, and in the second I kill the cyclops midboss (again) to open the doors. The third room has something new. It looks like a book with a ball on top?
Whatever it's supposed to be, pushing it sends it across the room, leaving a path behind it.
I try bombing the wall where the path ends, but find nothing. So I do a long jump south (after falling in the hole a few times trying to time the jump right on the short platform). In the next room I max out my Rupees and get my health back, then I move on to face another early game midboss. This thing killed me the first time I fought it back in Tail Cave. Let's see how I go this time:
Much better! Wow. I did not cut any earlier hits from this gif, that's the whole fight.
The room to the south sees the return of the traction beam, which makes getting around kind of a pain but doesn't seem to present any danger. I get the compass, along with the full message about what it does.
Here are the treasure locations. There's a lot of them! Now I just need the map.
Taking the other exit from the rolling pin boss room gets me a small key. I'm so glad I have the boomerang to deal with the wall crawlers and deal heavy damage to enemies. I started to think in this dungeon that maybe it was overpowered and I was cheating my audience by relying on it so heavily, but then I decided that that was a silly idea and kept using it.
I backtrack to this room and start aiming for the top path. I'm pretty sure I can make the jump from the square just above the lamp over to the top area, but as I push the block I for some reason try to move south, causing the block to pop. So I leave the room to reset it and come back:
It turns out that while the block is moving, Link will freeze in place and I can steer the block instead! Neat.
The next room is dark and full of snakes. I take out the snakes, but no treasure appears. It seems I have to light the lamps somehow, but I can't get close enough to powder them. I spend a while throwing bombs at them and trying everything I can think of, but nothing works. I check the walls for hidden passages but find nothing, so I backtrack to the second room of the dungeon and try the right hand path. It leads to a room full of pots, one of which is of course hiding a button that unlocks the doors. I take the southern exit, which houses two enemies that mirror my moves, I think last seen in the Dream Shrine. Once I remember how to kill them (pegasus boots and the sword), a stairway appears.
I like that they came up with something different for each of these passageways, even if they are just two screens each. This one is unremarkable, but that's ok.
I emerge in a room with laser, several holes, a stone slab, and a button hidden under a bottle. I try to read the slab, but I don't have the fragment so I can't. Instead, I hit the button and go south, for another repeat midboss. I don't think this one killed me the first time I met it, but only because I ran away when I was almost out of health.
The fight goes very well this time.
Fill all the holes with the rock that rolls, this ([d-pad]) is the key!
I go south and find the fragment I need to read the slab, fortunately without having gone down the stairway in the snake room (which would have reset the midboss room and required me to fight it again). The rock that rolls is obviously the moving block that fills in floor defects. I take the eastern exit from the midboss room and find another rolling rock. Let's try out filling the holes:
Success! This nets me a small key. I should go back to the other one of these and try filling that room completely too.
Heading left gets me a chest with a slime in it, which is disappointing. But in a way less disappointing than Rupees, now that I've got 999 of them and can get no more. At least an enemy chest is mildly amusing. Heading further left takes me back to the bottle room. I try to go back to the right, but the floor defect has returned and I can't proceed, forcing me to backtrack to get to the snake room and its stairway. Because that involved taking an underground passage, the miniboss room is reset and I have to fight it again. That happened a lot in this dungeon.
Eventually I make it back to the snake room and take the stairs, leading to a short passage in which I have to jump over sludge. I don't think I've mentioned the sludge yet, but it's visible in several screenshots so far. Moving into it is functionally equivalent to falling down a hole, but grosser. I think we're inside the giant stone turtle, so maybe it's stomach acid? Dunno. Once I get through the passage I emerge in a confined space. I can't push any of the blocks up to reach the upper part of the room, but I can blow a hole in the lower wall. Once through, I'm able to push blocks to get to the chest.
It's got the map! Sure enough, the floor layout resembles a turtle. Minus the head, which is A) outside of the dungeon to the south, and B) destroyed. I make it to be 46 out of 64 potential rooms in this map utilised. That's a pretty big dungeon!
I can't find a way to proceed from here, so I'm forced to backtrack through the underground path again, which means fighting this midboss again. I tried pushing the block directly below Link in the second screenshot here, which didn't work, but in retrospect I should have tried all the ones below him in the first screenshot, one of which might have worked. Alternatively, this would have been a good time to use Manbo's Mambo to teleport back to the start of the dungeon. Oh well.
I return to this room and use the rock that rolls to fill the holes, scoring 20 Rupees. Joy. Ticking off a task is its own reward, really.
Brrrr... This is a block of solid ice! It's very cold!
I take the northern path from the start of the dungeon, reaching the area which I was just unable to escape the northern side of. I use the rock to make a path to the lower, middle, and upper right hand side, then take the lower path up the stairs. This leads to a new obstacle, ice blocks that I don't seem to be able to break yet. Heading back down the stairs, the path I made has been reset. Of course.
I go south, which gets me back to the bottle room. From there I return and take the middle right path, which leads to another stairway blocked by ice. Both of these ice passages have been stairs leading up rather than stairs leading down, which I guess is so it's easier to identify them once you have the ability to get through them. Anyway, from there I can't find a way to proceed, so I head south to reach the room with the enemy chest and from there to the entrance area.
I take the upper right path, which leads to a closed loop that again doesn't seem to allow any progress. I wind up jumping down from the upper level in the room in the third screenshot and going south from there back to the entrance, yet again.
Fourth time lucky, I finally get somewhere out of this room. I use a key to get rid of the key block, and head left past some helicopter flowerpots to reach a dead end. Sure are a lot of those this time. But I still have the right hand path open to me. Let's see where it goes:
I fight another demon and open another locked door. On the other side is a room full of blade traps, a jumping skeleton, bottles, stairs, and a one-way door leading north. Opening the menu to equip the Power Bracelet to deal with the bottles, I happen to notice that there's a room on the map just south of here that I haven't been to, despite having been to all the surrounding rooms. I throw bomb arrows all along the southern wall to try to get in, but it doesn't work. I'll be bombing my way in there later from another direction. For now, I take the stairs.
It's a short jaunt over some bubbling goo and some goombas.
I emerge at the upper edge of the map. I'm able to go down one room and restock on consumables, but I can't reach the chest or cross the goo, so I'm forced to backtrack. Heading north from the blade trap room, I reach a room full of cracked blocks. Blowing them up reveals clearly the arrow shape on the floor pointing left, but I don't need it having already blown a hole in the wall when clearing the cracked blocks.
I decide to ignore the hidden path and go north, which leads to a room full of cracked floors with two mummy enemies. Killing them causes a key to drop. The map shows that there's another room to the right of here, but I'm unable to blow a hole in the wall so I continue left. Killing the cannonball slugs here makes a chest appear, but I have no immediate way to reach it.
The next room doesn't seem to offer a path upwards either. I guess I'll have to find the other side of the stairway on the upper level to get there. For whatever reason I turn back from the room full of goo, perhaps forgetting that I can jump over it with the Roc's Feather, and go back to the hidden passage I blew open earlier. It leads to a dark room. I guess whoever's keeping the lights on in this dungeon hasn't found this passageway. Lighting the lamps reveals a hole across the floor, which I jump over. I use a key to get to the next room, which is similarly dark.
Lighting the lamps reveals no holes this time, though, and killing the snake opens the door. I reach yet another dark room, with another bombable wall that's revealed by turning on the lights. There's also a path to the upper level, but I'm out of keys so I can't take it. Carrying on I reach a room with a statue and some blocks. I try to push the left hand block onto the conspicuous marked floor tile above it, but it doesn't work.
So I shoot the statue, which does work.
I take the southern exit, reaching a dead end with some consumable refills. You can push the blocks into the goo to make a path east, but I've already been in this room from that side, so I head up again and go west. In this room I dodge a laser and push some blocks to get access to a chest with another small key.
The path on the left leads back to the room with inaccessible lamps from earlier. I still have no way to light them, so I head back to the statue room and go north. Killing the enemies here opens the door west, which leads to a room I mostly can't reach but which allows me to Hook Shot over to the chest in the previous room for 50 Rupees which don't fit in my wallet.
From there I head east past the boss door to the room I turned back from earlier. The middle north path leads to a chest I couldn't reach earlier which I am now able to Hook Shot over to for 20 more Rupees to leave out of my overflowing wallet. There's no way to Hook Shot back, so I have to jump down and backtrack to where I was before. On the way I use a key to get to the upper level of the middle dark room, from which I can Hook Shot over towards the stairway down, but I've run out of keys again and can't open the path.
I head back around and take the stairway up in the room in the first picture. It leads me out of the dungeon, to the very top left of the map, where I find another Piece of Heart. I haven't been putting them on my list for whatever reason, but I'm one short of completing another heart container. Add that to the Container I'll get for finishing this dungeon and I'm one Piece of Heart short of getting the maximum possible amount of health. I'll have to add finding that Piece to my list. The next screen is the last one outstanding on the overworld map for me, and contains another teleporter. I use it to go back to Mabe Village and visit Marin, who has returned from the mountains.
Thank you for everything! Link, you are the kindest boy I know. One day I made a wish to the Wind Fish... What was the wish? It was... No, it's secret!
Marin won't tell Link everything. I try talking to her again:
Link, some day you will leave this island... I just know it in my heart... ...Don't ever forget me... If you do, I'll never forgive you!
Poor Marin...
I teleport back to the top of the mountain and take the stairs back into the dungeon. The game reminds me which dungeon this is. Helpfully, I'm at the upper level of the cannonball slug room. If I can kill them from here, I'll be able to collect the chest. Let's give it a go:
I discover that when they're in the little space at the top left it's really easy to get them to eat bombs. This is arguably a cheap exploit, but what am I gonna do? Wait for them to move out of the corner before attacking?
The chest turns out to contain a small key. I take it to the one outstanding lock that I can get to and use it to enter another underground passage. I come up from it in a multilevel room with the first bollards I've seen in this dungeon. I guess there'll be a switch in the next room so I can get past them? I proceed in the only direction I can, south.
Instead of a switch I find a small boxer. Maybe this is another Nintendo reference? Someone from Punch-Out!!? Anyways, we spar a little as I try out different attacks, and then it knocks me down despite my shield and, in what I can only describe as the game trolling me, it uppercuts Link back to the start of the dungeon. This is essentially a one-hit K.O., since aside from getting to keep my revival potion this is not significantly different to what would happen if I lost all my hearts.
It's a fair old hike to get back there for a rematch.
This time I manage to land a few hits. The first time it starts punching I'm able to walk behind for a hit, but the second time it turns back towards me as soon as I get behind. Then I manage to land a hit by taking one in return.
I have a hard time landing any more hits, and eventually it starts throwing big punches. This seems like a good chance to get in an attack!
Oh, come on! Ref! What was that?
I think this is the offending frame. Link must have a pretty good grip on his sword to get thrown by it like that.
I'm not sure what the intended way to beat this guy is, but I don't think it's this. I avoid the big wind-up attack and try to get into position to land hits from above or below, which works some of the time. I also try just walking into the boss and swinging at it, which is what eventually lands the killing blow.
Not content with knocking me back to the entrance twice, the trolling continues when I realise I can't reach the chest past these bollards. I've been almost everywhere in the dungeon, and I haven't even seen a switch! How am I supposed to get through? I call up the map, which reveals a few rooms I haven't made it to yet. The one at the top behind the boss room will be where the instrument is, and the one at the left I'm guessing will be behind a passageway like the two rooms at the right where I am at the moment. That leaves the one at the lower right. I've tried to bomb my way in from above already, but that leaves three angles of approach untested.
The teleport back to the entrance comes in handy, but it's still a bit of a hike. The fifth screenshot here is the room to the right of the unentered room, but I can't get in from there. Instead I head south and fight the ball miniboss again.
I manage to explode my way into the room, and set off the switch with another bomb. This was because I forgot to change back to the sword, but either method works. Then I blow a hole in the left hand wall, which takes me to a room I could have reached from the entrance with way less backtracking. Oh well.
You've got the Magic Rod! Now you can burn things! Burn it! Burn, baby burn!
I triumphantly march across the now lowered bollard and collect the Magic Rod. The narrator comes off a little unhinged here. I bring up the menu and equip it. Let's see what this thing can do:
Seems pretty good.
I head for the room with the lamps I couldn't reach before, which seems like the obvious destination for this item. Along the way I visit the cyclops again. The Magic Rod is pretty good, gang. Note that although I fire four shots, only the first two connect. After that the enemy is already dead and the attack passes through it to hit the wall beyond.
I'm a wizard! Lighting the lamps gets me another small key. I'm sure I'll use that somewhere.
My next targets are the ice blocks in the upper level passageways. Problem is, I can't remember where the stairways to them are. Despite passing by one of those stairways in the second image here, I spend four and a half minutes wandering around almost the entire dungeon looking for them before realising it and going back in the last image. Fortunately, this being a screenshot LP, those minutes are represented by just the above six shots.
Sure enough, this is one of the ice passageways. I waste some time melting all the ice, but it's otherwise easy. Just don't melt the bottom row of ice in the second room, or you won't be able to jump to the ladder.
I emerge in the upper right corner of the map. I've been in the right hand part of this room before, but couldn't reach the left. I use my recently acquired small key to open the door, inside which I find a repeat of the midboss from Angler's Tunnel. The beetle/octopus/crab/whatever. In that dungeon, it was in a room with a solid floor. Here, there's goo everywhere.
Last time I was able to use the Pegasus Boots to outrun the enemy and hit it from behind with the sword. I'm finding that difficult in this environment.
I make an unsuccessful attempt to hit it with the Boomerang and in the process realise that it can be avoided by pressing up against the northern wall.
I get the sword out and finish up pretty quickly. It doesn't seem like this would be the intended approach to the fight, but I'm not sure how else I could do it. Maybe I should have tried out the Magic Rod?
In the room beyond I one again use the rock that rolls to complete the floor and reveal a chest, this one containing the Nightmare's Key. Now I just have to find my way to the Nightmare's Door.
The passageway is up the stairs in the room next to the last passageway's entrance, but I have to go back to the beginning to make a path that lets me get there.
Although it takes me a while, the first room is pretty simple (not shown: my first attempt to get through, where I melted too much ice to make it).
The second room also taxes my mental resources (the futile attempts to make it over from midway up the ladder were me trying to use the Roc's Feather to jump from it), but I get there in the end.
CRACKLE-FWOOOSH! You're finished! I will never let you play the Instruments of the Sirens!!
The tunnel takes me to the entrance to the boss room.
The boss is pretty easy. It's some kind of big flaming face. Luckily, despite being on fire already, it's susceptible to the flames from my Magic Rod. I stand at the base of the screen and throw fire at it. The killing blow is actually the residual fire from a missed shot that the boss jumps into.
C-C-CRACKLE! Why did you come here? If it weren't for you, nothing would have to change! You cannot wake the Wind Fish! Remember, you... too..are in... ...the dream...
The boss seems to be suggesting that as well as destroying the island and everything/everyone on it, Link's mission might be suicidal.
Link gets the last of the Instruments of the Sirens, the Thunder Drum.
Link is a pretty good drummer.
The message this time tells me pretty clearly where to go, and Link is returned to the entrance to the dungeon. Time to wrap it up for today.
Next Time:
All going well, I finish my To-Do list. And the game.
Maps:
Here it is! Complete at last!
To-Do:
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.
-Get past the cracked rock blocking the cave entrance at the peak of the western Tal Tals.
-Get past the cracked rocks just east of the Stone Turtle in the mountains.- Poke suspicious walls with the sword.
Explore Turtle Rock.- Find the last Piece of Heart.
-Check the caves north of Mr Write's place.
-Check the cave with the signpost in the forest.
-Check the Dream Shrine.
-Check the caves in the cliff face east of Mabe Village.
-Check the cave near the Witch's Hut.
-Check the cave near the Face Shrine.
-Try diving in all the water. - Go right four times, then up four times, in the passageways of the Egg.
Find the eight Sirens' Instruments.
-Find the Full Moon Cello.
-Find the Conch Horn.
-Find the Sea Lily's Bell.
-Find the Surf Harp.
-Find the Wind Marimba.
-Find the Coral Triangle.
-Find the Organ of Evening Calm.
-Find the Thunder Drum.
-Find the remaining Sirens' Instrument.- Play the eight Sirens' Instruments in front of the Wind Fish Egg.
-Wake the Wind Fish. - Get off the island, I guess?
The way to get past cracked but non-explodable rocks is to go around them. I've now been to the other side of all of them, or seen that there is nothing to get to on the other side. It's a bit of a cop-out, but I'm counting it. The Piece of Heart is gonna be tricky, though. The ones I've found so far have been in caves, in a well, sitting on the overworld map, behind hidden passages I had to bomb open, and underwater. I've now seen the entire map, so I know the last one isn't out in the open. I can't seem to get in to the only remaining well, so I guess that's out. I don't think any were in dungeons, so I'll leave them out of the search unless I can't find it anywhere else. I'm pretty sure I've swum into every dead end on the map and explored every cave. So that just leaves hidden passages, probably in caves. I'm making the unsafe assumption that I've checked all the walls since getting the tip about using the sword to do so, so I've had a look at the last overworld map I posted before getting that tip and made a list of all the caves on it that I'm not sure I've thoroughly checked. Hopefully I won't be looking for too long.
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