Never thought I’d be so happy to play the triangle

July 5, 2009 at 10:08 pm (A Link to the Past)
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I finished the sixth palace today. I had been stumped on this one, which is probably why I haven’t been playing much. Oh, and the fact that I couldn’t find my GBA SP had some bearing as well. I found it this weekend, so I resumed my quest.

In about 30 minutes I had completed the palace. It’s interesting to let a game sit for a while and come back to it with a fresh perspective. So many times that has been all I needed to overcome a roadblock. In this palace I got some “red medicine,” but it’s not in my item area so I can’t equip and use it directly. I’m not quite sure what it does.

I have already located the seventh palace, Eagle Tower, and the key to gain entrance, but I can’t figure out how to get the key. As odd as this sounds, I think it involves flying chickens. Several characters have dropped hints about the Weathercock statue and flying chickens, but I haven’t been able to figure out what I should be doing. The key is on the other side of a chasm that can be jumped over and I can’t use the hookshot. My only hope is a flying chicken.

Time played: 1 hour

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Epilogue and confession

February 14, 2009 at 12:33 pm (A Link to the Past)
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I came very close to losing my determination on this quest. I was stagnating toward the end of the game and kept putting off beating the game. Here is where the confession comes in. I knew I was missing some items and I may have consulted a map showing the location of these few items. The items in question are the silver arrows, golden shield, and magic meter (1/2). Once I had these items it renewed my interest in the game, and I was able to finish Ganon off in less than 2 hours.

In hindsight, I’m sorry it had to come to that, but I’m also glad I continued on. Overall, I truly enjoyed A Link to the Past.

Time played: 3 hours

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Progress, finally

December 12, 2008 at 11:44 pm (A Link to the Past)
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I’ll keep this short because I’m tired. I finally found the entrance to the sixth palace. As I suspected, it involved the third medallion I did not yet have. I decided to do a systematic search of both the light and dark world until I found it. I started in the light world because of the easy navigation using the flute. Interestingly, I found the medallion quickly by warping to spot #1 on the map. There was a bridge I didn’t remember ever exploring and sure enough the medallion was there.

I went back to the evil swamp in the dark world and sure enough this medallion did the trick. Once inside, I quickly located the map and compass, but I still don’t have the big key. I made it into all but two rooms on B1. I’ll keep trying tomorrow.

That is all for now.

Time played over the last few days: 90 minutes

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Evil swamp is truly evil

November 29, 2008 at 2:50 pm (A Link to the Past)
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Well, I’m stuck again. I can clearly see where the sixth palace is on the map, but I just can’t get into the Evil Swamp. In the process of trying to get in, I have made some other advances though.

Using the mirror, I was able to navigate to a previously inaccessible ledge in the Light World. Here I got a medallion that lets you detonate the entire visible screen with bombs. I haven’t found a specific use for this yet, but it could be good if you were swarmed with enemies.

I also found a shop selling a big red shield for 500 rupees. I bought it and this raised by defense level.

I discovered a guy trapped in the Dark World who was a blacksmith. I took him back to the Light World and when I reunited him with his partner, they forged a stronger sword for me raising my attack level.

I found a guy in the walled off forest in the Dark World. He gave me a shovel and told me where to find a flute he buried in the Light World. This quest gave me both the shovel and the flute. The shovel is nice for getting hearts and magic containers in random areas. The flute doesn’t appear to do much. I blew it near the giant weather vane in the Light World and a bird flew away, but I’m not sure what that accomplished.

I also found a locksmith who opened a locked chest though I don’t remember what that gave me. Probably a heart container or something. I’ve also found a few more pieces of heart. One more and I have another full container. I found another empty bottle too, bringing my total to three.

I’m not sure what else to try, but I’ll keep exploring later and see if I can get into that Evil Swamp.

Time played: 2 hours

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Fifth palace done!

November 27, 2008 at 2:49 pm (A Link to the Past)
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This was by far the most challenging palace I have encountered in the game. There was a good mix of puzzles with action and reflex. There was also an element of strategy when it came to managing your magic level. Since entering the palace required using the fire rod, if you died with an empty magic meter you lost a lot of time going back out into the world to replenish.

While exploring the palace I found the “large treasure” which was a suit of armor. It reduces the level of damage you take per hit, which is much appreciated in the boss battle.

Getting to the boss room took some serious navigation. You had to navigate down several floors and through many rooms to trip a switch that toggled the blue/red barricades. After doing this you had to navigate back up a floor or two to find a hole in the floor that puts you on the other side of the barricades. From there it’s not too hard to get to the boss room.

The tricky part of this boss is managing your magic. I’m not sure if I was doing something wrong, but it took a full depletion of my magic using the fire rod to get the boss out of his block of ice. Then you have to collect the little magic containers that get dropped while avoiding the falling ice and shards. Of course, there are three roving snow/eyeballs to defeat.

After dying during the battle two or three times, it gets very frustrating. I could find no way to short circuit the complex navigation and backtracking to get back to the boss battle. Then, I remembered I had two empty bottles. I went back to the fairy room I found in this palace and netted and bottled two fairies. This makes the final boss extremely easy. You basically get three lives for the single battle. I like that approach.

This palace was fairly exhausting, though fun. I didn’t have the motivation to navigate to the sixth palace, but perhaps I will later today or tomorrow.

Time played: 2 hours

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Ice palace

November 24, 2008 at 8:48 am (A Link to the Past)
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I have explored 5 of the 7 floors in this palace. It is certainly large, but each floor is only 4 – 5 rooms on average. This palace is challenging and fun. For one thing, you cannot enter without magic. The first room has a single enemy that can only be defeated with the fire rod, which requires some magic in your meter. Unfortunately, at one point I ran out and died. So I had to leave the palace and replenish my magic.

I had to use the mirror to bounce to the light world to explore. In the process, I found a cave where you can toss rupees in a pool of water. When you hit 100 rupees in the water this large fairy appears and offers to increase the amount of bombs or arrows you can hold. I’ve been maxed out at 999 rupees for a while, so I increased both of them twice before heading back to the Ice palace.

Back at the ice palace, I obtained the map, compass and big key. I also did some exploration. I like this palace because of the variations in floor material. Some rooms are icy requiring a little more precision and timing for moving around (think of the ice levels in Super Mario 2). Other rooms have moving floors. One in particular has a floor that periodically changes direction. This is tricky, but it makes it very entertaining.

Hopefully I can get back to the game tonight and finish up this palace.

Time played: 60 minutes

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Past the halfway mark

November 23, 2008 at 10:57 am (A Link to the Past)
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I approached the fourth palace with a night’s sleep under my belt in hopes of finding a path forward. I went down and got the princess and proceeded to take her to every single room with no avail. I was about to give up, but then recalled a room on the second floor that seemed to have no purpose. I ditched the princess and headed up to the second floor to investigate.

This floor had puzzled me because each room had patches that were clearly cracked. Normally this is an indication of a weak spot which can be opened with a bomb. However, dropping a bomb, or even two bombs, on these spots had no effect. I kept heading to the right though to take another look at that final room. Another reason this room intrigued me is that it is directly above the boss room. I figured there might be a connection.

In this room, there was another section of floor with cracks, but it was behind a wall so I couldn’t get to it. In addition, there was light shining in from a window onto this section of the floor. Suddenly it occured what to do. If you plant a bomb, you can quickly pick it up again and throw it. After a few tries to get the distance right, I landed a bomb on the cracked region and it revealed a hole in the floor. Now I had to go check out the room below.

I first went there by myself, but nothing happened. Now there was a light shining onto the boss room floor, but no boss. So now I decided to go get the princess again and bring her here. This was the trick. As soon as I brought her into the light in this room, she morphed into the boss and began attacking.

The boss was pretty easy. He floats around the room shooting lasers which are very easy to dodge. One hit with the sword and he moves to the bottom of the room, so you can now attack his head. Each hit to the head causes him to spit fireballs (also easy to dodge). Three hits causes his head to detatch and fly around the room continuously spitting fireballs (a little harder to dodge). After a moment of this the main boss reappears and you repeat the process. Now you have two heads flying around. Since Nintendo likes the number three, you do this one last time and the boss is vanquished.

I like how each rescued princess in the Dark World takes a few minutes to add to the story of the game. It’s nice to get the backstory in these small doses. Sure beats “Our princess is in another castle”.

Since I was on a roll, I immediately made my way to the fifth palace. I realized that despite referring to 8 palaces throughout this blog, there are only 7 crystals identified on the map. I have to assume that number 8 will appear when all 7 are obtained and this will be Ganon. Nintendo loves three and eight.

Gaining access to the fifth palace required a little bit of puzzle solving, but not much. Basically you get to the walled palace and use the mirror to move to the light world. From here you climb onto an island which corresponds to a location inside the walls of the fifth palace in the dark world. Lifting up a rock reveals a warp square which takes you back to the Dark World, but now inside the fifth palace. I entered the first room, defeated the first creature (requires the fire rod) and left it at that.

I will return tonight, because this palace has like 7 or 8 levels. I’m curious to see if each level has a lot of rooms (making it a huge palace) or if it’s just a tower configuration.

Time played: 30 minutes

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Where’s the boss?

November 21, 2008 at 11:55 pm (A Link to the Past)
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I’ve explored every room in the fourth palace. I found some princess who thanks me for rescuing her, then asks me to take her outside. Of course, I headed for the entrance of the castle. As I approach the entrance, she says “No don’t go that way”. So then I tried going upstairs where there were some windows, but got the same response. Finally I took her to the room with the boss icon but there was no boss and she didn’t say anything further. I guess I’ll take her to every room in the palace or keep trying tomorrow. That is all for now.

Time played: 30 minutes

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3 down, 5 to go

November 19, 2008 at 9:55 pm (A Link to the Past)
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Finished the boss in the third palace relatively easily. I think it only took maybe 3 or 4 tries. After that, I had to navigate out of the forest to the south and make my way toward the fourth palace. With the struggle of finding the third palace fresh in mind, it was a delight to find the fourth palace. I explored the Town of Thieves a bit, but then quickly located the palace. The entrance is in the base of a statue. You can’t move the statue, but if you pull on the front of it, the entrance is revealed.

Inside the fourth palace, I located the map, compass and big key. I’ve explored probably 30% of this palace, but I will leave the rest for another day.

Time played: 45 minutes

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The hiatus is over

October 25, 2008 at 1:06 pm (A Link to the Past)
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I finally got the itch to return to the game. This time, instead of playing it in my DS, I popped it in the Game Boy Player on my GameCube. I think I enjoy it more on the TV than on the DS screen. It’s nice to have the option to play either though, since I’ll soon be hitting the road for Florida and can take it along (and hopefully wrap it up) on vacation.

Part of the reason I think I was putting the game off was that I was kind of stuck. I just finished the 2nd castle in the Dark World, but I couldn’t find a way to get to the 3rd castle. I either ran into cliffs, trees, fences or rivers. I remain determined to not view hints or walkthroughs though, so I forged on.

After wandering around for a while, I came across a destroyed bridge on the main river. I used the mirror and switched back to the Light World to see if I could somehow repair it from there. Instead, I found the bridge was fine in the Light World and nothing I did there seemed to affect it in the Dark World. Then, I got the bright idea to use the hookshot. There were two or three places where there was a partial bridge platform out onto the river. I tried them all, and that was the trick! I think the last one I tried brought me safely across the river. I now had a clear path to the 3rd castle in the forest.

Upon arriving in the forest, I found several holes in the ground. I initially avoided them, but then accidentally fell into one. Instead of dying or losing life, this brought me into a dungeon. I believe this is the dungeon of the 3rd castle. I got the map, compass and skeleton key, so I have a fairly good idea of the layout. Based on the map and the location of the 3rd castle on the Dark World overview map, I think this is it. I need to explore it more, and get to the boss to know for sure. It is neat how you navigate seamlessly between the dungeon and the forest. In fact, I have found at least one “secret” entrance to the dungeon by cutting down bushes in the forest overworld.

If all goes as planned, I should return to the game this evening and hopefully beat the 3rd level. That will leave only 5 left, then a final confronation (I presume).

Time played: 30 minutes

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